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Post by Reno on Jul 25, 2020 21:17:18 GMT
{ BGM: "Gust of Wind"} Crim stood by and watched with no shortage of glee as his friend showed up in a most spectacular fashion. It was almost like Einst had been taking pointers from him or something! Damn thief! But anyway, that aside, the White Swordsman certainly seemed to be enjoying himself and his new Vega. These things sure were handy in a pinch, that was for damn sure. And he was certain they'd only just barely begun to scratch the surface of what they were capable of, too. The Captain laughed as Haestlmir was made to fall hard on his face for a second time. Then he nodded to Einst. "Yeah, strong enough, anyway," said Crim as he turned his focus towards Straeglmir over yonder. "Well, you look after Stretch here, I'll handle Tiny over there." "Ha, fine by me," Einst replied with just a hint of a smirk creeping up at the corner of his mouth. Now that they'd dispensed with all the fuckin' Oxbridge pleasantries, it was time to get back to it. Crim leaped forth in the direction of Straeglmir, whom he would henceforth be referring to as 'Tiny', because he couldn't be bothered to remember the name of something that was going to be dead inside of the next five minutes. { BGM: "Fight it Out"} Looked like Tiny was plotting something or other, gathering his power and what not...chanting some bullshit gibberish under his breath. "What is that? Yiddish? Speak up, you! Oy vey!" "Silence, clown child!" Tiny roared as flaming runic symbols appeared in a ring before him, surging with blazing magic energy. "Surtr's Wrath!" Suddenly the runes exploded, unleashing numerous rather large fireballs which first soared skyward, only to sharply change direction to descend upon Crim's general area. Crim, being no stranger to attacks of this sort, didn't find it particularly difficult to deal with. He picked one fireball and honed in on it, charging straight up into it with a powerful leap, drawing his Twin Zephyrs at the last possible moment, slashing his way through the attack. There was a pretty big explosion, of course, and he didn't get through it entirely unscathed, but it wasn't enough to stop him, or really even slow him down. He emerged from the blast, still moving forward and upward, stopping in mid air briefly. He looked down upon Tiny, who glared up at him menacingly. "Was that it!?" Crim shouted. "Nay, insect!" "Huh!?" "Hmmph!" Tiny smirked as runes appeared around his hand, which he extended towards the sky. "Ah, fuck!" Crim cursed as he looked at the ground directly below him. The smoldering remnants of the previous attack hadn't fully dissipated, and it appeared as though Tiny retained control over it. Some kind of fail safe in case the first volley didn't hit anything. The runes encircled the ground, swirling about, building up the flames yet again until they erupted straight up in a wide 'beam' of sorts. Crim really didn't have anywhere to go this time... ...well, actually, he did, thanks to an infrequently utilized technique of his. Wasn't anything particularly special, either. In fact, it was pretty much a basic-level thing that any fighter worth their salt probably knew how to use in some capacity. Crim just called it 'Air Step', and it was just what it sounded like: 'stepping' in mid-air by means of precision Ether control. He thus was able to propel himself out of harm's way rather easily. But simply evading wasn't all he had in mind. He angled his trajectory downward, to make a beeline for Tiny, and he came in fast. "Yoink!" Crim said as he soared past Tiny's left side, his blades passing through the bastard's arm. Naturally, this wasn't exactly a welcome development, as evidenced by the agonized howling coming from Tiny as he dropped to his knee clutching the stump where his left arm used to be. Crim, meanwhile, rolled and skidded along the ground, only sticking about 80% of his landing due to the bad angle and overall haphazardness of his hastily forumulated battle plan. Good thing the attack hit home, otherwise he might've been in real trouble! The Captain righted himself and sprung to his feet, spinning his blades in hand a few times before deftly sliding them back into their sheaths. "Ha. Maybe I should call you 'Lefty' now, huh Tiny?" "GRRRGH!" Tiny stood up and spun to face Crim, still clutching his arm stump, from which black icky blood oozed, dripping and pooling on the ground, only to evaporate within seconds. "Go ahead, take your time, heal up. I'll wait." Crim crossed his arms and started absently looking around, tapping his foot like he was waiting in line to get a burrito or something. Infuriated, Tiny unleashed a roar, accompanied by a surge of dark energy wrapped in runic flames. He seemed to grow in size, both in terms of height and his musculature. His missing arm began to reform in a most gruesome manner, with bones cracking outward, assembling themselves until they reached the tips of his fingers, while muscles and tendons and new blood vessels twisted down and around along the length of the new appendage, finally becoming encased in skin and fresh fur, seemingly good as new. While this was all going on, a gnarly set of twisted horns grew out from his skull, along with two of his fangs turning themselves into tusk-like forms that curved upward from his bottom jaw. "You foolish human," Tiny spoke, his voice echoing itself, distorted and surreal, his eyes glowing fierce with fire, specters of runic symbols fluttering about his form among the misty dark aura that surrounded him. "You shall die... in bitter despair..." "What, again? Crim retorted, all told, quite unimpressed. Tiny extended his right arm, and began to gather power within his outstretched hand. Normally, the smart thing to do would be to seize upon this opportunity and just cut him to ribbons from head to toe - and Crim *knew* he could easily do just that - buuuut...he really wanted to see how this was all going to play out. So he stood by and let Tiny do whatever the fuck it was he was doing. Turns out, he was just conjuring some kind of...it looked like a big ol' stone pillar with chains rattling and hanging off it. Thing was covered in the same flaming runic symbols that Tiny had already been showing off, too. "Huh," Crim shrugged. "I was expecting something a bit more impressive. Like maybe a cannon, or some kind of weird mirror. Ah well." Tiny inhaled, then exhaled deeply, black energy and flames seeping out with his breath. "Your quips mean nothing, fool," Tiny spoke evenly, his rage seemingly subsided... No, Crim could still feel it, plain as the moon in the sky. It's just that he was somehow channeling it and turning it into magic, which he was using to increase his physical stats...more or less. Maybe something like that would be impressive to your average swashbuckling adventurer, but this was far from Crim's first rodeo, and this wasn't anything he hadn't seen variants of before. Hell, he himself possessed similar techniques. But still, Tiny had certainly gained a few levels...and that pillar did look *awful* heavy... "Heh...well, I did ask for it, didn't I?" Crim smirked as he readied himself for the next - and likely final - round. <>-<->-<->-<->-<->-<->-<>
Meanwhile, all the way back at the freaking inn...{ BGM: "Princess Army"} Chloe concentrated on casting her spell as she stood in front of Phacia, who was busy maintaining a powerful protective barrier. Next to Chloe stood Viola, who was managing to fire off offensive spells of multiple elements in rather rapid succession, assaulting the incoming hordes of Hellhounds and flying batlike monsters. A large lesser vampire slammed head-first into the barrier, screeching in furious anger and pain as the holy energy started to eat away at its very essence. The impact caused tiny cracks to form along the outside of the barrier, and Phacia winced as though in pain. "Are you all right?" Chloe asked as she turned her head to glance back over her shoulder for a moment. "Y-yes...yes, I'm fine, this is nothing!" Phacia steeled herself, and the cracks in the barrier vanished. "Hold that barrier, or else we're all toast!" Viola scolded as she continued to unleash volley's of various elemental spells into the enemy ranks. They'd attempted to venture out in an effort to follow after Crim and Einst in order to offer them some support, but unfortunately, the three women quickly found themselves in a bit of a predicament, as enemies continued to pour in from seemingly every direction. And since they were lacking in the raw speed and power that Crim and Einst were capable of, they ended up being nearly overwhelmed by the swarm. It was only thanks to their combined efforts that they were able to manage a defense, though it wasn't exactly a sustainable position. They would eventually run out of mana, and when that happened... "Chloe, how much longer until that big spell of yours is ready!?" Viola shouted. "Just...just shut up and let me...concentrate!" Chloe snapped back as she moved her hands in fluid swirling patterns, leaving trails of vivid red flaming magic energy in their wake. She was charging up an advanced spell, which she now had access to thanks to the Conjure Vega that she had procured at the shop earlier. But even with that, it still required adequate time to gather the appropriate amount of mana in order to set it off properly. "God damn it!" Viola yelled in frustration as she redoubled her own efforts in order to keep the monster horde at bay. The violet-haired sorceress could feel her exhaustion building. Even with the Vega's she had acquired in order to supplement and extend her abilities and reserves, she was still drastically limited compared to her normal levels. "Damn this foul luck! I should have never joined up with these morons! I can't believe I'm going to die in a place like this! If only I could use my Grimoires...!" Viola silently cursed, tears forming at the corners of her eyes as hope faded... "There!" Chloe proclaimed suddenly, bringing her hands together and spreading her fingers apart as her mana coalesced and burned bright as a shining star. "Muspel Guardian!" The energy flashed, sending out a shockwave of sorts that dazzled and scattered several of the monsters in the more immediate vicinity. Right then, a sphere of deep orange and red mana surrounded by what appeared to be complex alchemic symbols manifested in the air in front of the barrier. It grew in size and intensity until it burst open in another bright flash, as a massive stone golem construct appeared. It was taller than a house and extremely bulky, with enormous fists that looked like they could grind a tank to dust. Its body was surrounded by searing flames, and the spaces between its joints, along with its eyes, and a sort of 'core' situated within its chest, radiated with intense magical fire. Almost immediately, the tides began to turn as the Muspel Guardian set upon the monster ranks, stomping and crushing the smaller creatures with ease while unleashing its own blasts of concentrated fire, scorching and burning through the creatures as they scrambled and panicked in the face of this new threat. Viola looked on in a mixture of confusion and relief, quickly recovering herself as she let up somewhat on her own onslaught of spells. "Yes! Haha! We got 'em on the run now!" Chloe nearly collapsed from the strain, but managed to keep herself upright. The Muspel Guardian would handle most of the work for the time being, which would hopefully be enough time for them to recover and regroup a bit. But it would all be for naught if the source of these creatures wasn't dealt with soon...but that was out of their hands. Their only hope was that Crim and Einst would be able to sort it out soon. <>-<->-<->-<->-<->-<->-<> Tiny heaved his pillar into the air and brought it down into the ground, resulting in a massive explosion that sent flaming shockwaves through the ground in a wide conical burst. Crim lashed out with his Sacred Chain, wrapping it around a lamp post and yanking himself out of the way just in time to avoid the worst of it, but several sharp bits of smoldering rock managed to pelt him anyway. He swung himself up and around, propelling himself towards Tiny and planting a powerful Ether-charged kick squarely into his face. This staggered the big lunk head, and Crim continued his assault by striking him dead-center in the chest with a dual-fist attack, this time accompanied by crackling bright blue and white bolts of Lightning elemental Ether. Upon contact, the Lightning generated powerful shocks that sent Tiny reeling back further as the electricity arced all over his body. Crim was about to follow-up with a third hit, but he was forced to defend himself instead as Tiny managed to take a big swipe at him with his monstrous free hand, which sent Crim tumbling through the air to slam headlong into one of the few shop stalls that yet remained standing. He crashed through it, causing splinters of wood and other crap to fly all over the place, kicking up dust and debris as his body slid across the ground for several meters before he managed to kick himself upright. The Captain stood up and spat out a bit of blood as he stared down the oversized mutant abomination. As their fight dragged on, Tiny had grown increasingly larger and more powerful, apparently feeding off of his own darkness and rage somehow. Crim cracked his neck from side to side and then flicked his thumb across his nose. "Heh...okay, looks like bare fists aren't quite going to cut it this time..." He reached behind his back and grasped the handle of his Dark Maul axe. "I'll give ya credit for makin' me do this." { BGM: "Concentrate All Firepower!"} He didn't have much time to react to the next attack, though. This time, Tiny hurled his runic pillar directly at him in an attempt to crush him. Crim sidestepped and swung his axe down into it, which sent sparks flying, but the impact was drastically more severe than Tiny expected it to be and it actually knocked him off-balance due to the fact that he was still holding it by the long length of thick chain attached to it. He'd been throwing and pulling it back like an oversized yo-yo for the whole second half of their scuffle, keeping Crim at a distance for most of it. But no more. Crim hopped up onto the downed pillar and from there, ran along the chain before Tiny could pull it back. When he reached the mid-point, he performed a sideways flipping move and sliced his axe clean through the chain. From there, he performed another Air Step and launched himself into the air above Tiny, hurling his axe forth as he went. The axe spun through the air and continued spinning as it reached Tiny, cutting deeply into the flesh of his right arm like a buzzsaw. After a moment of this, Crim extended his hand, and the axe returned to his grasp, and he gripped it with both hands as he descended, infusing the weapon with a hefty amount of blue-white Lightning elemental Ether as he brought it down hard upon his opponent's shoulder, nearly cleaving him in half as the axe parted Tiny's corrupted flesh with apparent ease. "BBwwAAARRGggh!!" Tiny roared in agonized rage, falling to his knees. Crim didn't let up, swinging his axe repeatedly in powerful strokes, cutting deep gashes into the monster's torso before winding up and delivering a final spinning strike that left a trail of green Ether in a horizontal circle around him. This strike was infused with Holy energy from his Rune of Heaven, which allowed him to not only inflict severe damage upon his enemy, but also interrupt (if not outright cancel) his regenerative abilities. Upon finishing, Crim jumped back, distancing himself several meters from his foe. Black blood (or whatever it was, 'essence') gushed forth from the multitude of dire wounds that Crim had inflicted upon Tiny...no, at this point, he'd at least earned the right to be called by his proper name. Straeglmir...a formidable foe indeed. However... "Uuurgh...nngh... gglgh..." Straeglmir struggled...stumbled...but somehow managed to stand up. Some of his wounds were healing up, but not completely, and that final deep cut across his midsection wasn't closing at all, as the power of the Rune of Heaven lingered, its green glow eating away at the darkness and corrupted runic fire that made up Straeglmir's body. "So, still got a bit of fight left in ya, huh? All right then..." Crim hoisted his axe upon his shoulder and extended his left hand, signaling for his opponent to 'bring it'. "Make it count." With one final burst of raw power, Straeglmir surged forward, rushing Crim with all of his might. Along the way, he grabbed his pillar, and it lit up with all the energy he could muster. Straeglmir swung it down with nearly meteoric force, but his movements were slow and easy to follow by Crim's standards. The Captain was able to avoid the crushing blow by dashing past it. From there, he hooked his axe into Straeglmir's left leg and swung himself around, crippling the monster's footing. As Straeglmir crumpled to his knees yet again, Crim leaped up and brought his axe down into the bastard's skull/face, burying it deep, but not quite deep enough to finish him off. In a final act of desperation (death throes, really), Straeglmir heaved himself up and tried to smash Crim in midair with his pillar. Crim was able to anticipate this as well, and deftly utilized his Air Step to avoid it, only to swing his axe down into the pillar itself, yanking down on it with enough strength to overpower Straeglmir, and bring the pillar crashing down upon the beast's head as he fell forward, crushing it like an oversized grape. Crim stood up and pulled Dark Maul from the pillar, whose rage-fueled runic symbols faded away as the broken, lifeless body of Straeglmir began to bubble and boil. It seemed like it was going to explode, but instead, it simply fizzled out and evaporated into ash. The Captain sighed and rested his axe over his shoulder once again, turning towards the direction where Einst had been battling his own opponent, expecting him to be more or less finished as well. If the underlings were this much of a hassle...they might actually need to work together in order to take on their boss. He tilted his head back towards the city, wondering how the women were faring as well...probably fine. But time was running short. They needed to get this shit squared away fast, before they were totally overrun... |
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:32:05 GMT
{BGM: “Expect a Riot”}"Yeah, strong enough, anyway," said Crim as he turned his focus towards Straeglmir over yonder. "Well, you look after Stretch here, I'll handle Tiny over there." “Ha, fine by me,” Einst replied with just a hint of a smirk creeping up at the corner of his mouth. Haestlmir turned his attention to the White Swordsman, visibly scoffing at being “reduced” to dealing with the subordinate instead of continuing battle against the head-honcho. Spitting phlegm and blood, the last remnant of his damage suffered from the Captain, the tall-lanky bastard drew his arms together, forming some kind of sigil. Once more the dark creature was surrounded in dark mana, this time bearing a strong resemblance to a dark purple mist—unnatural to say the least. Einst simply continued to stay right where he was, the massive Valkyrie planted firmly into the cobblestone path before him, his body still radiating visible traces of steam whilst his face wore a plainly confident smirk. “You get one shot to take me down, mutt. Show me what you’ve got…!” With a snarl, Haestlmir sprung into action in quite a big way. First the mist surged over Einst’s position, thoroughly smothering his immediate area in a vision clouding fog. Not the most creative, semi-expected, but it was just enough to give Haestlmir that warm and fuzzy of having an edge over his enemy. Not a second later, the tall monster was within arm’s reach of the White Swordsman, his body coiled tightly and far lower than Einst would’ve thought him capable of. By the time Einst realized it, the beast delivered a powerful punch along an upward swing and put all of his weight in behind it. Needless to say that despite his being smaller than his partner, he was still dreadfully heavy and the move carried with it more than enough power to send the White Swordsman reeling backward and into the air. Einst let out a cough and wheeze, the “wind” clearly knocked out of him in the surprisingly quick strike. “I’m not done YET!”, Haestlmir roared, bringing both his legs together and springing into the air after his downed foe. In another wave of mystical power, the cloud of fog flew up through the sky to once more surround the temporarily stunned swordsman. Just like before, Haestlmir followed suit and sent his knee crashing into Einst’s face, further sending him end over end, ever higher into the skies above the town square. Then the fog found its way around him again, another hit from the beast, and again and again over half a dozen times until finally, the cloud pulled back. Einst had been launched several dozens, hundreds of meters even up through the skies. {BGM: “Magic and Sword”}Haestlmir landed with a loud thud, but firmly upon both feet surrounded by his mysterious fog. Once back on the ground, the fog dissipated entirely and the beast roared to celebrate his attack’s success. Even if the cumulative strikes themselves didn’t finish the warrior off, the fall back to the ground surely would. Rearing his head back and clenching both hands into fists, howling and laughing, Haestlmir was the picture of victory. Right on queue, Einst fell through the air in a whirling mess of blood, his body spinning wildly out of control faster and faster. Approaching the street, Haestlmir followed his victim’s body with his eyes and watched eagerly, so desperately wanting the satisfaction of watching the puny human smash into the street. Then in a sudden display of awareness and grace, Einst flipped counter-clockwise and twisted his legs up and over to land perfectly on the street. His face was drenched in blood and sweat, he landed in a kneeling position, hands firmly planted in front of him as he eyed down the beast. “What?! HOW IS THIS POS—NNGGHHH!!” Turns out Crim wasn’t the only exceptionally fast crew-member the dastardly-duo was facing! Einst, after his body shimmered a faint golden light, lunged at Haestlmir with tremendous swiftness. He stopped just to the beast’s right side and planted his left foot, bent his knee slightly and then sent himself flying up into Haestlmir’s side. His right side turned downward as he spun and threw his left palm forward, connecting with the beast’s ribcage it immediately cracked several times until the full force of the swordsman’s attack was delivered throughout his form. Haestlmir was sent flying directly into Einst’s still standing Valkyrie, hitting the broadside with his face and chest at an angle. The immovable wall that was the Valkyrie forced the beast to flip backward, smacking his head and shoulders into the street whilst he slid along his path. His feet returning to the ground, Einst let out a brief chuckle as he took his turn spitting blood to the pavement. His enemy was still sliding along the ground, his body thoroughly racked with agonizing pain. The steam rising from the swordsman’s body intensified, causing him to reach up with his right hand to sling sweat from his brow before he began walking toward his sword. After a few seconds, the steam suddenly disappeared all at once. In its place, frost could be seen spreading along his hairline, jaw and out over his arms. Haestlmir finally recovered his bearings and flung himself up to his feet mid-slide and stomped his feet to stop himself. Immediately the beast released an explosive cloud of his dark fog once more, which sped along the ground to surround the White Swordsman hopefully one last time. Einst, nearing his sword, could only grin as he watched the encroaching fog… “This trick again huh?” Just as Haestlmir traversed the distance between where he was and where Einst stopped—within arm’s reach of his blade—the surrounding area suffered a tremendous change. The air temperature dropped well below freezing, the ambient light of their location shimmering through what could only be described as airborne crystals. Haestlmir’s form appeared, heavily slowed with one arm extended before him, face a chewed up mess save for his eyes, his target clearly Einst’s throat. Now it was his turn to show off… Grabbing the Valkyrie, clearly unaffected by the extreme environment, Einst flourished the massive Great Sword in his left and swung it forward. Combined with a forward dash, the two-staged assault was completed in the span of a heartbeat. Haestlmir’s body was severed cleanly in half, the flesh where the Valkyrie was sent through immediately crystallizing. Once Einst finished his swing he touched back down to the ground and slid to a stop, at which point the two halves of his now deceased opponent erupted in twin-geysers of solid ice. Like some beautiful black rose, the beasts remains were suspended eternally in the air amid the frozen formation that spanned several meters in every direction. Where he would normally have to clean the black blood of his blade there was none, having executed his strike too quickly for the substance to adhere to the surface. Instead, several concentric circles of diamond-like ice could be seen smothering the Valkyrie’s platinum finish, radiating an ancient mana that was becoming synonymous with Einst’s identity. He looked back to Crim, who had just finished slaying “Tiny”. “Looks like you beat me again, ha ha ha!” The two walked up to one another while looking around, confirming the deaths of all the riff-raff. They both knew where the big-bad boss was, and it seemed now was as good a time as any to head on in. “Lead the way Cap, I’m right behind ya. It’s probably best we work together on this last one, don’t ya think?”
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:33:06 GMT
Posted by Reno:{ BGM: "This is Our Power!"} Crim stroked his chin thoughtfully as he looked off into the distance, up towards the mountains. "Hrrrm...yeah, you might be right..." he replied to Einst. He knew there was a path leading through there, based on what he'd heard from some of the citizenry, as well as Phacia herself. Apparently, that was where the local lord's residence was situated. Some kind of fortified castle from the sounds of it, converted to a manor following the old wars with the Dusk Orcs, or some such. Curious, indeed, that was. Not a single sign of the lord of these lands since they'd arrived. According to the townsfolk, Aigelfern was ruled over by a guy by the name of Zweigraf Aigenleif. By all accounts, he was well-liked, if something of a frivolous dandy. Liked to spend his money, throwing lavish balls and such. Fairly typical nobility in that regard, but unlike most nobles, he didn't exclude commoners from his celebrations, and seemed quite happy to share his wealth to an extent. When Lord Aigenleif threw a party, it was a town-wide event, with no expense spared...or so it was said. Phacia had mentioned attending one of the lord's parties several years prior, and having met him as well. She described a jovial fellow of overall good spirit, but perhaps a little too materialistic. But Zweigraf was honorable in his service to the crown, and reputed as being a highly skilled swordsman and spellcrafter. This was what interested the Captain most. For such an honorable and skilled lord to be absent in a time like this...could that mean...? Well, he didn't have a whole lot of time to ponder this, because outta nowhere, a giant-ass magma golem monstrosity came crashing through a nearby wall, demolishing it, along with yet another poor helpless shop stall. Both Crim and Einst readied themselves for battle immediately, only to almost just as quickly relax, as they realized the seemingly rampaging monster was actually being ridden by the trio of Chloe, Viola and Phacia...though they appeared to be less than in control of the situation. "C-Chloe! Get this thing under control already!" Viola shrieked. "I'm trying! It's...it's not listening!" Chloe screamed back, clearly flustered. "EEEEK!!!" >.< Phacia cried as she clung on for dear life. The golem unleashed a powerful roar, accompanied by a thrashing motion that ultimately sent all three women sprawling through the air, just as it exploded into a fiery mist of ethereal energy. Einst reacted quickly, leaping skyward so as to catch Phacia in a most gallant manner, so as to prevent her from incurring injury. On the other hand, Chloe went flying off and landed face down, ass up in a pile of garbage. { BGM: "Waltz for the Moon"} And as for Viola? Well, she careened straight into Crim's face, crotch first, knocking him over. Dazed and confused, the purple-haired sorceress looked befuddled at first as she looked around. Einst landed nearby shortly, holding a lightly blushing Phacia in his arms. The royal Sky Elf stammered her thanks and an apology for making Einst go out of his way as he set her back to her feet. Crim, meanwhile... "Mmmmnnf!! MMMNFFF!" "What the...?" Viola looked down and realized what - rather who - she was sitting on. Her face turned red as a ripe tomato as she shot up to her feet, backing rapidly away from Crim, who leaned up onto his elbow. "You really like purple, eh missy?" Crim laughed, seemingly no worse for the wear. "D-Don't fucking talk!" Viola stammered, brushing herself off, still beet red. "That wasn't on purpose! Forget! FORGET FORGET FORGET!!!" "Was that a little panda bear pattern? Ha ha ha!" Crim kept laughing as he stood up and dusted himself off. "IT WASN'T!" [actually though, it was] "Hey, I'm not judging. I got chocobos on my boxers, wanna see?" Crim turned around and moved as if to pull his pants down. "NO! MY GOD! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Viola yelled as she covered her eyes. "J-just...ugh!" "Fine, fine, relax...jeez, ha ha ha..." Crim rubbed the back of his head casually, clearly still having himself a grand ol' time with all this. "Anyway...ain't we missin' someone? Where's the loudmouth?" Referring to Chloe, of course, who was still several meters away, still with her ass up in the air in a pile of trash. But she wasn't alone. Next to her, getting awfully handsy with her posterior, was some kind of creature. Looked like a lesser (VERY lesser) demon. Dark green, almost black, with malformed wings and a misshapen body. Barely more than three feet tall, if that. It carried a bent trident. Or maybe it was more of a pitchfork. Long, hooked nose and uneven eyes. And a big mouth with fangs here and there. Seemed almost like a failed alchemical experiment or something like that. Weird. Crim sauntered on up to it. "Hey. Thing. The hell do ya think yer doin' there, huh?" The Captain demanded rather menacingly. "EEEE!! NOO! Don't hurts! PLeeezE don't hurtses DEEGUS!!" The creature responded as it scampered to hide on the other side of Chloe...still groping at her. "Y'know...you should probably let go of her. Just sayin', if she wakes up, and you're still touchin' her...she's gonna eat ya." "E-eat...Deegus?? B-beauty eat Deegus?!?" "Yeah, that's right. Gobble ya right up, ha ha," Crim sneered, leaning in. "Then no more Dingus." "GYAAAAH!" Deegus leaped back, flapping his malformed wings, which allowed him to take limited flight, but not very far. Just then, Chloe woke up and flopped to a sitting position. "Ugh...god, how much did I drink this time..." she muttered as she rubbed her head. "No idea, drunky," Crim chuckled. "Probably the whole minibar, plus whatever else you could find. You lost control of...what was that, a Muspel Guardian?" "Oh...errh, yeah, right," she stood up, a bit unsteady. "Yeah, I was able to summon it but...it kind of went out of control..." "Well, it all turned out fine, anyway." Crim turned his attention back to the small deformed demon. "Hey, Dingus. C'mere a minute." "H-hnngh!" With an oddly compliant grunting reply, Deegus hopped down from his perch and shuffled right up to Crim. "Hah, would ya lookit that..." Crim muttered to himself. "Eew! Gross! What the hell is that thing!?" Chloe cringed away as Deegus approached. This caused Deegus to also recoil back. "EEEEEGH! D-don't eatses DEEGUS!!! PLEeeZE!!! HNNNGH!!!" "Yeah, don't eatses Dingus!" Crim faux-scolded Chloe as he laughed. "Why the...what??" Chloe seemed bewildered, but that wasn't really anything new. "Jeez...whatever...I don't even wanna know. Just keep that...gross thing away from me." She crossed her arms and turned away. As she did, Deegus leered at her, whispering something or other to himself. "Hey, pay attention here, Dingus." Crim snapped his fingers. "You're gonna help us out, or else I'm gonna feed ya to her." He thumbed in the direction of Chloe. By now, the others had all gathered as well. The small demon was now effectively surrounded. He seemed dumb, but not so dumb as to be completely lacking in the way of situational awareness. At the very least, Deegus knew he was outmatched here, and in particular, he seemed to be wary of Crim and Einst. Probably knew on some level that the two of them were the most dire threats to his existence. "Mnn...mhm...y-yes, Deegus helpses!" The creature nodded enthusiastically. "Good. Now, tell us about your master," Crim asked. "M-Master is...Master!" "Right. So where is he? What's his name?" "Uhm...nnngh...Master's name...is Master?" Deegus seemed perplexed. "Does he live in the castle over there?" Crim pointed towards the mountains. "Up?" Deegus nodded. "Zweigraf?" Crim pressed. "YEE! MASTER ZWEEE!" Deegus smiled broadly. Crim turned to face his allies. "Figured as much. Seems like the lord of this town got...turned, somehow." He looked to Phacia. "You know anything about this?" "I...well...I can't really say..." the princess averted her eyes. "I mean...it's not my place." "Best make it your place. We don't have time for guesswork," Crim said, his tone a bit uncharacteristically stern. "I'm...I'm sorry. I don't actually know much...that's why I need to get back to the capital. I... I need to confirm something with Father." "Just tell us what you do know," Einst cut in. "Please. Anything at all will help. We won't judge you or anything like that, promise." "Well...basically, there's been some kind of...demonic malady spreading through the country of late. We're not sure what's causing it...at first, it was just an increase in the presence and activities of monsters. But then newer, more powerful monsters started appearing. And then...we started hearing reports of people being...turned." "Turned? Like...into monsters?" Chloe asked. "No, not exactly. Well, it's difficult to explain. There's no apparent rhyme or reason to it...but they're not just turning into monsters. They're specifically becoming vampires." Crim just nodded, as if he already knew. "Mostly...they seemed to be mindless though...savage. Just rampaging and feeding. But..." "Some of them were different, right?" Crim said. "Yes. Some of them...they retained their minds. Their memories. And they became monstrously powerful as well..." "I see. So you were out investigating all of this..." Einst mused. Phacia clasped her hands together, nodding, before bowing. "I'm so sorry for not telling you this earlier...please forgive me." "Nah, don't worry 'bout it, it's fine," Crim smiled. "Ya had your reasons. We all got ours, too, ain't that right?" Einst and Chloe nodded. Viola just kind of grunted. "...Anyway, I think it's pretty obvious that our Lord Zweigraf is the big bad in charge around here. Either that, or he's been killed, and the big bad has taken up residence in his castle. So that's where we're headed!" Crim spun on his heel and started off in the direction of the path that would lead through the mountains and up to the castle. "And you're comin' with us too, Dingus! Chop-chop!" "EEEEE! D-DEEgus come TOOOO!" The feeble creature hobbled up to Crim's side, seemingly content to do so, much to the apparent disgust of Chloe, whose skin absolutely crawled at the mere sight of the wretched little thing... Some time later...The group arrived at the gates of Castle Aigenleif, and it was a far cry from its former beauty and splendor. What stood before them was a towering vision like something straight out of hell itself, and based on what they'd all been through thus far, that really didn't seem to be outside of the realm of possibility. The castle stretched high into the clouds, far higher than it should have, according to the description that Phacia had given earlier. It was supposed to be a moderately-sized, decently fortified castle, well-maintained and highly decorated due to the extravagant tastes of its master. This place? This place was completely different. Dark and dank, but far from derelict. It emanated a fierce, foreboding energy, manifesting shadows that seemed alive, slipping in and out of existence, merging and separating from the structure and its terrible black aura of sin. Stepping through the gates, the group stared up at the enormous structure that loomed before them. "Well, if that don't beat all..." Crim said to nobody in particular. "What should we do?" Einst inquired. "Bust on in, I guess?" Crim cracked his knuckles as he approached the huge set of what looked to be extra durable super armor reinforced doors...but as he approached, they just...opened. He stopped, his hands dropping to his sides. "Aw." "Oh, of course you'd be disappointed!" Chloe jibed as she walked past Crim, entering first. She was soon followed by Einst, Phacia, and Viola, who glanced briefly at Crim before looking away, face flushing slightly. Crim just shrugged, smirked and entered as well, with Deegus trailing after him. { BGM: "Luxurious Overture"} The interior was just as spectacular a sight as the outside, but in a completely different way. Unlike the exterior, which was dark and sinister as can be, the entrance hall was a bright, grandiose marvel made with light spilling forth through brilliant stained glass windows, all along the sides and ceiling, depicting what appeared to be scenes of angelic splendor and heavenly bliss. A far cry from the hellscape that existed just outside the doors...which, as one might expect, slammed shut all on their own as soon as the party stepped all the way inside. There were pillars made of a smooth, white marble-like substance supporting the cavernous space, and spiraling staircases on either side, leading up to higher levels. A machine-like noise could be heard reverberating throughout the interior, steady, monotonous, like gears. "How unexpected!" Crim said, seemingly pleased with this development? Or maybe he was being sarcastic. It was damn near impossible to tell what the fuck he was thinking most of the time. In truth, he was actually pleased in a way. He was hoping for something outlandish, and this place was firing on a lot more cylinders than he expected, which in turn was really starting to get him riled up! "Right!" The Captain slammed both of his fists together, generating a modest amount of crackling blue-white lightning on impact, which startled Deegus. "Come on out, Zweigraf!" His voice echoed through the building...and nothing else happened. No reply whatsoever. "...eh?" Crim raised an eyebrow, before leaping aside just in time to avoid the floor giving way beneath him. Trap door shenanigans! HA! ...but of course, just because he avoided it, didn't mean everyone else did. Einst managed to evade as well, and took Phacia with him. Viola, too, managed to get herself out of the way, leaping on Crim's heels more or less. Unfortunately, Chloe and Deegus weren't so quick, and they both fell down into the pitch black depths of...wherever the pit led to. "Ah shit!" Crim cursed. But he didn't have time to lament the situation, because just then, one of the stained glass windows above lit up and sent a pillar of light down, which engulfed him and Viola together...and when it was gone, so were they. A similar phenomenon began to manifest itself above Einst and Phacia, however, for whatever reason, it suddenly ceased, leaving the two of them alone in the 'Grand Entrance Hall' to fend for themselves... And it was right around that time that the presence of demons could be felt entering the vicinity as well.
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:34:52 GMT
Einst easily avoided the trap door, whisking Phacia off her feet and landing gently a few feet away. Setting her down, he turned to watch as Chloe and Deegus, their helpful little acquaintance, vanish into the darkness below. Crim and Viola made it just fine—though the four of them were engulfed in brilliant pillars of light from on high. Within moments, Crim and Viola were gone while the pillar over him and Phacia unexpectedly faded. He looked over to the princess and gently lay his free hand on her shoulder. “You alright?” He asked her, looking over her form in search of any signs of harm. “Y-yes, Sir Einst…”, she replied, her cheeks turning a moderate shade of red in embarrassment. “Good, I’m glad.” He removed his hand from her shoulder and looked over their surroundings. The encroaching presence of the demons was unmistakable, which more or less confirmed his suspicion that whoever was expecting them was attempting the old “divide and conquer” approach. Shaking his head, he pulled the Valkyrie in front of him, its point angled slightly upward. “So much for working together…” “They’re coming, what are we going to do, Sir Einst?” Hearing the anxiety in her voice, he knew this next wave was going to be tricky. It would be too easy if he were alone, but he wasn’t alone. As far as he could tell there were dozens of creatures preparing to descend upon them, and while Phacia was pretty skilled with her Vega’s, she wasn’t quite fully recovered from earlier. In any case, Einst had an idea. In fact, he had a couple of ideas. “Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you. If you have some good attack spells, go after the small ones and I’ll take care of the rest.” {BGM: “Daemons”}The Princess nodded, gripping her staff in confidence after Einst’s reassurance. Right as she did the looming threat of a veritable horde of demonic entities of all shapes and sizes descended down the spiral staircases. Naturally, the larger ones moved slowly and took their time while the more agile beasts clamored overtop the others and made a beeline for the White Swordsman and the Princess. To make matters worse there were a good dozen and a half even smaller, flying demons similar to those that were seen in the town proper that flew straight off the staircases and sought to smother the two in a flurry of razor sharp claws and teeth. Suffice to say, there was a lot more of the bastards than Einst thought. Probably was off because of the weird interference with the land still mucking things up. While outwardly the swordsman didn’t appear to be doing anything, he had been trying to stir the Valkyrie to action for several seconds now. Normally, if he wanted to unleash its terrible cry into the world it would take only an instant; a single thought and command to wreak complete havoc upon his enemies. This time? It wasn’t quite silence, no…it was more like the forced silence of a mute trying with all its might to scream but nothing came out. It was frustrating to say the least… “Tch…a single chord would annihilate all of them and what do I get? Nothin’. Guess there’s no way around it…”Einst glanced back to the Princess and smiled, bringing his other hand up to firmly grasp the hilt of the Valkyrie. “Go for the flying ones, then do as I say.” Phacia acknowledged with a nod and Einst sprung forward with his usual incredible speed. His direct approach worked like a charm, attracting the attention of the fast-movers which all began funneling toward him, simplifying the problem of taking out large numbers. As he ran forward, he pulled the Valkyrie back, twisting his upper torso to get just a little more power behind his attack. The first to reach him found itself impaled through the chest, triggering Einst to engage in what could only be described as a graceful dance of death. With precise footwork he stopped himself, twisted the Valkyrie and swung in a horizontal, circular arc to cleave the already slain demon apart whilst seamlessly transitioning into a large area attack. Several more demons were caught in the path of the enormous great sword that carved through arms, torsos and weapons alike. Their innards spewed like miniature geysers into the still approaching demons, though they weren’t entirely mindless… As he continued spinning, hoping to catch as many as would come in the path of his blade, the demons all came to a stop and spread out, surrounding the White Swordsman. Seeing this he planted his feet and also came to a stop, but continued to swing the Valkyrie around his body, transferring the blade from one hand to the next and maintaining what amounted to a wall of ‘steel’—at least, for a second or so. He lunged to his right side and ran another demon through, those nearest scattering to avoid death, but Einst kept going. He increased his speed with each subsequent step until coming to one of the pillars surrounded by the spiraled staircase that the demons were still throwing themselves down. Reaching the pillar, Einst simply continued running, leaping from the ground and running up the pillar whilst discarding the corpse of the unfortunate demon. Meanwhile, Phacia called upon her wind magic to send a flurry of cutting blades into the air before her. It was impressively effective, clipping the wings from those beasts caught in its wake and sending them crashing to the floor in agony. A couple of them even slid over the hole where Chloe and Deegus disappeared through in the floor, while others crashed into the adjacent walls and writhed in pain. The Princess continued forward a short distance, not wanting to be near that hole if she could help it but also not wanting to get in Sir Einst’s way. She fired another “Crescent Cluster” at more of the flying beasts, but this time only managed to catch one of them as they immediately dodged the attack. Like they showed against Sir Einst, they were capable of quickly adapting to the attacks and tactics used against them and would continue to push their attack on the Princess. Needless to say, that complicated matters considerably… “Einst!” Phacia, not nearly as battle hardened as the likes of the White Swordsman, unfortunately lost her resolve after witnessing her attack fail. No doubt the weight of fear bearing down on her from the overwhelming demonic presence surrounding them worsened the sense of hopelessness, too. As such she withdrew to her instincts of support and defense based magic, casting a shield spell to protect herself. The lesser demons descended upon the shield with ravenous fury, but the shield was holding at least for the moment. Whilst running up the pillar, Einst glanced at the Princess and cursed under his breath. He was really hoping the girl would pull through, but it simply couldn’t be helped. He reached the top of the pillar and shoved off while turning counterclockwise and swinging the Valkyrie with both hands. One of the last (for now) larger demons to emerge from the shadows and make its way down the staircase was caught in the Valkyrie’s bite, which effortlessly lopped its head clean from its shoulders. The counterclockwise spin allowed Einst to attack from behind, sending the now headless body tumbling forward. Some of the not-as-large demons were knocked over the side or crushed beneath as it rolled down until one of them turned its attention onto it. With a single outstretched arm, one of the oddly humanoid creatures stopped the tumbling body in its clawed hand, sank said claws into its flesh and hurled it over the side. It stared at Einst with cold, lifeless eyes devoid of any thought or emotion—almost as if it were being controlled. After his attack, Einst forced his body to stop spinning and connected his feet to the adjacent wall, sliding along it for a few meters before shoving off once more. He launched himself through the air directly at Phacia’s location, sword trailing his movement which followed a gradual downward curve toward the floor. Nearing the floor a few meters short of where he needed to be, Einst called upon his newly acquired Vega once more and created a simple magic shield. Oriented horizontally, he twisted his torso and connected with the make-shift platform in a crouched form from which he sprang upwards with even greater speed. This time he swung the Valkyrie in perfect unison to his movements and in one dazzling display, took out all of the flying demons trying to break through Phacia’s defenses. All at once, the threat to her shield was reduced to a shower of black blood, entrails and severed wings, limbs and the like. Einst landed just beyond the girl’s shield, which was almost immediately dropped to conserve energy. Unfortunately for the duo there would be no time to rest—which the White Swordsman had come to know as fact—and so the dropping of her shield caused him to react rather aggressively. “No!” A rookie mistake, coupled with the odd behavior of their attackers adapting to their actions and movements, was about the last thing he needed right now. Reacting purely by instinct, Einst threw his left hand toward the princess and began casting several spells, entirely forsaking his own safety in doing so. Not a second later and the two found themselves thoroughly engulfed in fire from multiple angles, a handful of the larger winged demons opening their maws to spit forth streams of searing hot flames. The first spell cast was yet another shield from his Vega, surrounding the princess in an array of angular golden panes of light. Not entirely trusting of the strength of the Vega, Einst defaulted to his own magic to at least guarantee her safety. Diamond WallAmidst a sea of fire, the princess suddenly became surrounded by a thick sheet of ice, though it was clearly no ordinary ice. Multiple layers were weaved together and forged by Einst’s mind to create a perfect barrier. While there was no way to be certain, it seemed to grow stronger in the presence of the flames, which was exactly how the ice worked. Normally, fire is naturally strong versus ice based elementals, but Einst happened to be skilled in a plethora of schools. This one was, at least long ago, noted for defying typical “elemental wheels”. In the face of its counterpart, the ice simply grew colder, stronger, and sturdier—it really was that simple. This of course left Einst fully exposed to the demons’ combined assault, which he didn’t openly acknowledge until he confirmed the princess’ safety first. Once he did, he simply lowered his arm and turned toward their attackers, positioning the Valkyrie vertically and broad-side outward, eventually jamming the sword into the floor and crouching behind the mammoth blade. It took the brunt of the more direct streams, but didn’t solve the problem of being literally swallowed in fire. Nevertheless, he simply crouched on one knee and…well, tanked the attack. Phacia could only look on in horror, convinced she was about to see the man burnt to a crisp. Slamming her fists helplessly inside both her protection and her prison, despair reared its ugly head as she screamed and cried—all of which went unheard. Einst could no longer be seen, his form thoroughly replaced with a spiraling sphere of magic-fueled fire… {BGM: “Holy Orders III”}The flames finally subsided, and in their wake was Einst, still crouched behind the “cover” of his great sword. His clothing was covered in soot and saw burns in multiple places all along his shirt and trousers. Aside from superficial damage however, the White Swordsman appeared no worse for the wear. Arms crossed over his chest, hands open and relaxed with palms facing towards himself, a faint glimmer of a smile could be seen by Phacia. “Don’t be afraid…” The combined factors of his newly acquired Vega granting him a boon as he received damage, and his extraordinary magic-defense enabled him to simply bide his time. In other words, the aggregate assault from their enemies ultimately caused little damage to the warrior, and in fact was just enough to grant him a small but noticeable boost. More than that, he was pretty freaking pissed off. Dual circles of silver ether manifested around his forearms, spinning rapidly whilst moving up toward his hands until bursting into the desired form. Two short swords formed in his grasp, with Einst immediately leaping into the air in a graceful backflip. With uncanny timing and accuracy, he positioned himself on the exact opposite side of his sword and used it as another platform to propel himself into the heart of the demonic horde. Twisting and swinging his arms to either side, he carved a path through several of the beasts, most of which found themselves disemboweled, quickly reaching the opposite side of the hall. Approaching the far wall, Einst righted himself mid-air and connected his feet with the ground, sliding to a stop. At this point, the nearest monsters tried to close in on his position while the furthest ones tried to once more bombard the swordsman with magic. This time a good portion of the magic used was changed to different elements: Thunder, Wind, Earth as well as Fire again. Instead of taking the assault as he did before, Einst sank his left blade into the chest of a moderately sized beast and dragged it in front of him, using it as a literal meat-shield for the first wave of spells. With the corpse taking the brunt of the magic bombardment, Einst released his hold on the blade and dealt with the more immediate problem of the monsters trying to smother him. “Tch…have it your way then!” A massive, invisible wave of physical energy exploded out from his position, shoving everything back several meters while he reached up with his remaining short sword. Strangely the blade transformed into a ball of silver energy which promptly grew in both size and intensity, reaching a diameter of roughly one and a half meters in the blink of an eye. Helka Nénar!Slamming the large sphere into the ground before him, the entire hall became flooded with the blinding silver light, rendering conventional senses all but useless. With the light came the roar of powerful magic released by the “swordsman”, which smothered every single inch of the hall in a flash, a roar which sounded as if an avalanche had come crashing through all at once. The blinding silver light lingered for several seconds before slowly fading away, revealing the thoroughly frozen landscape the entrance hall had become. In stark contrast was the shimmering, unfazed form of Phacia within her barrier, who had fallen to her knees as she could only watch on in utter silence and…wonder. Then there was Einst himself, kneeling with his right palm flat against the meter-thick ice at his feet. Every demon, and every surface of the hall had been consumed in his spell. Those beasts that were suspended in midair were also frozen in place, as the magic wasn’t bound to any singular plane, their frozen forms connecting with the nearest surface. This created for several pillars to form all throughout the area from each of the walls, the floors and ceiling. Even his sword was frozen in place, partially obscuring the Princess from view and vice versa. Despite the immense outburst and display of power, Einst felt…invigorated. While he could weather the onslaught of fire spells, with the other elements hardly affecting him altogether, he still preferred and was naturally aligned with the Ice Element. It was clear whoever was controlling the demonic army was able to discern this information, but they didn’t account for the immense difference in power and ability he possessed when compared to the normal riff-raff they likely encountered. Einst could only grin in satisfaction, eventually standing up and walking over toward the Princess. The silence was refreshing, the cold rapidly replenishing his strength and returning his temperature to preferable levels. For the time being, they were “alone”, with no threats or distractions. Of course, Einst expected the mastermind to show up any moment, but for now, he would enjoy the brief reprieve… With a wave of his left hand, the Diamond Wall surrounding Phacia was relinquished, the princess gently set down atop the dense, thick ice. It did little to obscure the contents within, as it was almost perfectly clear. This meant all of the scattered remains and the imprisoned bodies of the demons themselves were all on display, none of which appeared to bother Einst in the slightest. Needless to say, Phacia was beginning to feel a little disturbed at it all. When he reached her though, stopping just in front of her, she could feel all of her fear, anxiety and uncertainty fall still… “That was a close one huh?”, Einst joked. He locked eyes with the princess and held out his hand, motioning for her to come to him. “I’m so sorry, Sir Einst!”, the princess shouted, shutting her eyes, and retracting her arms to her chest. The faint shimmer of tears could be seen at each corner of her eyes, which near immediately became frozen. Einst’s spell was long-since over, but the extremely cold temperatures weren’t going away. Well below freezing, he could tell she was shivering but also that it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. “Don’t worry about it, Princess. It’s my job to protect you, not the other way around. Now if you’d like, we can move on from here and see if we can meet up with the others.” She looked up, nodded and took his hand, no doubt wanting to get out of the frozen hell he’d just created. He smiled at her and led her toward the stairwell the demons had been entering from, while he used his other hand to shatter the ice surrounding the Valkyrie with little more than a mental command, allowing him to wrap his hand about the hilt and hoist it up onto his shoulder in stride. He had every confidence that Crim would be clawing his way out of wherever he got beamed to, and that the Captain would meet him for the final battle against whoever was responsible for this giant headache. |
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:36:07 GMT
Posted by Reno:A flash of golden-white light erupted out of the abyss, and from within emerged two figures: a lanky red-headed man, and a voluptuous violet-haired woman. They tumbled rather roughly across the floor of the mostly pitch dark space (save for the dimly-lit immediate area) with the man coming to a halt by slamming upside-down into a bookshelf, cracking it and causing a bunch of musty old grimoires and a sculpture of some sort of horse-man to come crashing down upon him. The woman followed soon after, ass-first onto the pile, crushing the redhead even more. Such was the never-ending misfortune of Crim El Furaga, and apparently anyone who was unlucky enough to be caught up in his aura of chaos and mayhem. { BGM: "Theme of Johannes"} Shortly, the woman, Viola, got up and moved to sit in a nearby chair, dusting herself off while looking in a small compact mirror, fixing her hair. A few seconds later, Crim emerged from under the rubble and ruin with an explosive yell, which sent books and wrecked bits of wood scattering about every which way. "Dammit!" He glanced around, his gaze eventually settling on Viola, who seemed to be pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. "Hey! What the hell're you doin'? This look like a goddamn royal ball to you?" "Hmph, be quiet, I'm thinking," Viola said without even looking at Crim as she continued to examine herself in the little mirror. She let out a slight sigh before snapping it shut. "I suppose this will have to do for now." Finally, she turned her attention to Crim, who was covered in grit and dust, looking all derelict and slovenly. "Now, what were you saying?" "Now listen here, you dumb bitc- huh? Wait a second..." He glanced around, as if he'd been suddenly made aware of some presence. "Hmm..." "Ugh, more of your cryptic nonsense...honestly." He turned his attention back to Viola. "Shut up, if it weren't for me, you'd probably be dead or in some kind of demon brothel by now!" He pointed an accusatory finger at her. "I'm onto you, you know. I can sense your bullshit lies! Whaddaya say to that, huh!?" "Oh, I couldn't care less." She turned her nose up at him, so smugly."Gaaah! Why'd I get stuck with such a fucking...!" He was interrupted again as the darkness surrounding them was abruptly lit up by a series of lantern-like objects that lined along the walls, and through numerous corridors of enormous bookshelves. Higher, the ceiling was illuminated by similar constructs adorning elaborate chandeliers. At this, Viola's face lit up. "Ah! Incredible!" She stood and gazed up at the surrounding shelves filled with rare books and various other display items, clearly of a magical nature. "Look at this place! This...this might be exactly what I was searching for...!" Crim seemed less enthusiastic, his blank expression speaking volumes. "...Eh? The hell're ya on about now?" "I wouldn't expect a dull barbarian like you to appreciate any of this. But believe me, this place...is a treasure trove." The Captain reached into his jacket and pulled out a bent cigarette, lighting it up and taking a calm drag. "Tch. Fuckin' nerd." "Idiot. And put that thing out!" She snapped her fingers and a small burst of Water mana splashed across Crim's face, extinguishing his smoke. "Bllgh!!" Crim spat. "Fuck! What'd ya do that for!? I'm gonna...!" "Oh calm down, you dumb baby. Come on, let's go." She brushed by Crim, bumping him lightly with her hip in passing. { BGM: "Bibliotheca Ex Machina"} Crim and Viola had indeed found themselves in what turned out to be a bit of an unexpectedly boring place. A massive library filled with tomes and other peculiarities and artifacts. Okay, so it was boring to Crim, but Viola was all of a sudden as perky as a teenager in a mall with a new credit card. It actually really of pissed him off, because god dammit, why did it have to be this way? How come this mean-spirited, vindictive harpy gets to have all of her dreams come true? He kicked a nearby chair over as he grumbled while sauntering hunched over, hands jammed in his pockets, several feet behind Viola as she browsed the towering shelves. He watched her hips sway as she walked along. Hell, at least she was pretty good eye candy...even if she had a bitter, nasty center. Black magic evil bitch! Something about this place, though...it didn't feel right. No, it didn't feel right at all. Not a single enemy in sight, for starters. Shit made no fuckin' sense! The air was thick with bad vibes, though. The kind of bad vibes that emanated from demons and their ilk. They were lurking, damn it. Watching...waiting. But why? Fear, perhaps? Normally, this would have almost certainly been the answer, as his passive aura alone was typically enough to send common-level foes fleeing in terror without any need for him to lift a finger. Could be that, he supposed. After all, the longer they were here, the more they 'adjusted' to the strange ethereal lay of the land, as it were. But somehow, Crim didn't think that was it. At least not entirely. There was definitely something else going on. But of course, Little Miss Nice-Ass-Poison-Personality seemed totally oblivious, with her focus on all the books and rarities on display. Who even built this place anyway? And how'd they end up here? Was this inside of that castle, still? If it was, that meant the castle façade was concealing a great deal more than at first glance. Which also meant that this Lord Aigenleif was probably considerably more powerful than he had any right to be. "Shit...this whole thing is fuckin' sideways..." Crim thought as he kept his vigilance up, only being minimally distracted by Viola and her annoying yet alluring feminine wiles as she continued to be enamored with the so-called 'treasure trove' that they found themselves in.
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:36:51 GMT
{BGM: “Prologue”}After what they had just been through, Einst was expecting the tempo to increase with a steady stream of demonic baddies trying to snuff him and the Princess out entirely. As the two wandered through the dark halls leading away from what he’d turned into a frozen wasteland, magical lanterns ignited to light their way. Phacia seemed to be recovering finely, which in some small way helped put Einst’s mind at ease. It had been quite a long time indeed since he had to provide a constant, high degree of protection over another. Fully aware of this, he knew he had his work cut out for him, and these demons were proving to be more ferocious than they had any business being… As the duo rounded the next corner in silence, the moderately narrow passageway expanded into yet another large room not too dissimilar to the first. Smaller, but only just, and this one’s walls were lined in towering shelves of books, antiquated statues, and other artifacts, along with various ceremonial displays. It was brilliantly illuminated by a central chandelier hanging from the center of a vaulted ceiling above, framed by yet more spiraling staircases of rich mahogany in color, polished with meticulous attention to detail. At the center of the large room were three pedestals fashioned of what looked to be marble. Twisted and malformed, the pedestals each featured a large orb of swirling crimson, black and white liquid of some kind. The three of them were placed around a large circular platform adorned with quite a lot of foreign symbols, none of which Einst could read. Phacia on the other hand approached the platform slowly, seemingly awe-struck this place existed. Noticing her apparent recognition of what the hell the two had walked into, the White Swordsman asked her while he continued looking around. “Do you know what it says? Or what this place even is? Just how big is this castle supposed to be…” It’s not like this was his first time in some dark, demonic castle or something. He was a pirate after all, traveling to the far reaches of the Omniverse in search of treasure often took him to unpleasant environments. That in mind however, something about this so-called castle didn’t feel “right” with him. He was beginning to question what a place like this was doing on Ardaxia, or Tizon for that matter. More importantly, he was actually puzzled with Phacia’s seeming familiarity with the language and displays they’d just discovered. Almost as if they were remnants from some lost cult. Whatever was going on, something told him they were going to get some answers in the very near future. For the moment, Phacia had completely fallen silent and couldn’t seem to voice her thoughts just yet. Not wanting to push the girl, Einst simply started walking about the perimeter of the room, seeing if maybe he would recognize something too…
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:37:28 GMT
Posted by Reno: { BGM: "Wood Carving Partita"} Crim had pretty well had it with this entire situation. This place seemed like it was endless, and that feeling he'd been having was only becoming more and more pervasive, like it was trying to piss him off by hiding just around every corner, snickering like a delinquent child. It didn't help that Viola kept on stopping to look at books and other random bullshit. Little thief was pocketing all kinds of stuff without a care in the world, dropping them into some kind of bottomless satchel that she'd produced via her magic. Apparently she was also finding it easier to wield her abilities now as well. The more time spent on this floating land of batshit crazy, the more used to it they all became. Which was certainly a big help, but he knew they were still a fair ways off from being able to cut loose full throttle. Not that it really mattered anyway, at least thus far. The enemies they'd encountered up until this point had all been easy enough to deal with, even without full access to all of their higher-end capabilities. It was actually a pretty fun and welcome experience in Crim's eyes, being that one of his favorite things was a good challenge. Such challenges were always in such short supply though. So this was quite a welcome change of pace! ...Well, aside from the current boredom and banal lurking enemies in the nooks and crannies of this dull library. He glared daggers at Viola's back as she stopped again to leaf through a bunch of dusty old tomes. Who did she think she was, anyway? "Hey, wanna maybe move things along? We gotta get outta here. You've stolen enough crap already," Crim said, his voice tinged with irritation. "..." "Hey. Are you listening? I said let's go. Come on, move your ass," Crim moved to grab her by the arm. But when he stepped forward, he suddenly slipped and fell backwards, tumbling down a short staircase and bonking the back of his head against a desk with a loud crash. This was enough to get Viola's attention, as she looked down upon him with a haughty expression, snapping one of the books shut before placing it in her satchel. "Pfft...honestly, you're so stupid. Buffoon. Why don't you just shut up an-urgh!" Her arrogance was suddenly interrupted by one of her heels breaking, which caused her to lose her balance and fall flat on her ass against the bookshelf, causing a pile of books to fall onto her head. The both of them looked like idiots, sitting there seeing stars. Crim got up first, being the more physically resilient of the two, dusting himself off, essentially no worse for the wear, but still fuming about it on general principles. He stomped back up the steps and saw what had caused him to slip: a goddamned banana peel. He pointed an accusatory finger at Viola. "Aha! I knew it! You're a witch! You put that there! Ha, but you fucked up, didn't you? Now who's the buffoon!?" "Oof...what the hell..." Viola muttered as she stood up unsteadily, rubbing her butt with one hand and her head with the other. "That really hurt..." "Serves ya right for fucking with me!" Crim declared with a smug smirk. "I didn't do anything! Why would I? You're stupid enough on your own!" She retorted as if spitting venom. "Yeah? Well how do ya explain it then? Why would there be a banana peel on the ground in a place like this? Makes no fuckin' sense! You're a liar." Crim stepped towards her almost menacingly. "I...well okay, I am a liar, but I didn't do this! You're just...just..." Viola trailed off as her gaze fell upon something behind Crim. "Haha, nice comeback, stupid. You're so stupid. How'd you even survive this long... eh?" Crim spun around to see what had caught Viola's attention. It was a big blond mustachioed dude in a white suit with a pink floral pattern, unbuttoned with his chest exposed, casually levitating about six feet off the ground. Looked like some kinda 80's weirdo. The guy swept his long luxurious hair aside, and began speaking in a loud, boisterous voice with an accent that even Crim couldn't place. "Ahhh, zee yoong loves, mon dieu! Zo amorous, zo vunderbar! Zo mucho prachtig! Ah so, as so!" "Who the fuck are you? Wait, you the dumbass who's been sneaking around here? 'Bout time you showed yourself." "Si si, ja mon amie! I am deelight to finally be een zee light! Guāng!" He bowed, not in an introductory manner, but rather as if he was accepting accolades after a stunning performance. "What is he even saying?" Viola asked, moving up next to Crim, holding her broken shoe in one hand. "He sounds like a retard." Crim scratched the back of his head. "I dunno. He's mixing in words from all over the damn place. Buncha gibberish is what it is." He turned his attention back to the guy. "Listen, friend, we don't have time for your sideshow. Get the hell outta here if you don't wanna get your face kicked in." "Awwww...zo hurtfool! Sooch crudeltà, mio amico! Come, do not be zee jaban, habibi! For just started vee are!" { BGM: "Danger Draws Near"} The man turned his gaze towards Crim, and as he did, a strange wave of power emanated from him, followed immediately by the appearance of a mysterious being from within. It looked like a Cthulu-humanoid wearing a dapper top hat and tuxedo ensemble. As soon as the entity appeared, Crim suddenly found the floorboards disintegrating beneath him, opening up into the floor below, which happened to be riddled with shards of broken glass and mangled jagged metal constructs. "Nyaaa~! Oooh, zo unfortune! Tres bien misérable returns!" Crim almost instantly reappeared back topside, having lashed out with his light-whip, pulling himself up after attaching it to one of the chandeliers on the ceiling...which promptly dislodged from its fixture and crashed down upon him, causing the Captain to plummet back down into the hazardous hole in the floor. "Ahh shiiiiit...!" *CRASH* "What the...fuck is this?" Viola looked on as the series of unfortunate events befell Crim. Not even Crim was that much of an oaf. Something strange was happening. She looked down at her broken shoe, then back at the strange man. "Who are you?" "Ahaha, fraulein! Introdooktions are een ordair! I am called Aldous Archibald Amadeus! Zee pleasure, eet iz mine!" He flipped his hair back again, descending to the floor as he did so. "Ah...but unfortuunatlee...you zee, I must...delivery yoo to de la mortem! Come hother, Doni Della Terra!!"Once again, the bizarre entity emerged from the man who called himself 'Aldous', and in that moment, Viola found herself feeling extremely woozy, as though she'd been drinking hard liquor all morning. She stumbled, barely able to focus as her balance failed. She grabbed the nearest thing to steady herself, a small side table, but fell forward and nearly flat on her face. She looked up at Aldous and spoke, but what came out was basically unintelligible. "Nnngh...you...take th' fuggin'...how'd ya get...here...your the one got the pillow remember!" On the verge of passing out, Viola wasn't able to sense the other individual approaching cautiously from behind...it was a woman, clad in a form fitting short skirt, with shiny silver hair and tanned skin. Her dark eyes looked apprehensive. She seemed nervous, like she shouldn't be here. "Ah, cherie Cocona! Magnifique! Come come, fiesta with me! Boku ga warui!" "A-Aldous..." The woman, named 'Cocona', spoke with a stutter in her voice. "What...what have you done this time?" "Ah, zee fraulein 'ere? Do not conzern! She is good tiem! Simpley bedwelm, no?" "Drunk? Y-you...did this to her? But where...wasn't there another one? A...a man?" "Ahhh...you vant 'im? He iz...down zere." Aldous pointed down into the hole. "Am zure...he iz fine. Zee man iz how you zay... veerkragtig." "Ah...he's resilient, huh?" A strange flash of...something unspeakable briefly appeared in Cocona's dark eyes before she went back to being apparently meek as can be. "I...I had better go and check on him...s-see you..." With that, Cocona walked towards a nearby staircase, descending to the floor below, presumably where Crim was currently digging himself out from a pile of debris. This left an inexplicably hammered Viola to deal with the mysterious threat of Aldous Archibald Amadeus, whose bizarre powers manifested in the form of a peculiar entity that apparently had the ability to influence the world in strange and dangerous ways...
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:37:45 GMT
{BGM: “The Last Wolf Suite”}Phacia’s heart began to race, pressure building in her chest and throat as her body became riddled with adrenaline every passing moment she stared into the depths of those orbs at the center of the room. Einst continued wandering about the room, examining each and every object he came across. Though he was seemingly preoccupied, he maintained a close watch over the Princess’ state, along with keeping an eye open for would be surprise attacks. Her accelerated heart rate and dry, almost labored breathing were beginning to concern the man, causing him to abandon his casual search and approach her from her left side. “This …shouldn’t exist…F-father, why?”, Phacia whispered, just over her breath. No sooner had the words left her drying lips did the orbs stir to life, filling the room with their respective hues of crimson and white. Each became entwined with tangible darkness that served to guide the light to take form. A moment later the platform Phacia stood upon shifted in several places, many of the symbols rotating in opposing directions before the entire surface broke free of its sealed edge. Seeing the seal break loose, Einst lunged toward the Princess, shoving her clear of the platform before it was too late. She hit the floor and rolled a couple of times, stopping to face Einst just to watch him suffer the fate meant for her. The platform faded away, with a column of light taking its place and trapping Einst in place. Up from the floor rose half a dozen crimson tendrils which ensnared the swordsman’s every limb, yet still he grasped the Valkyrie, the forces set against him incapable of disarming him. Not seconds later, the tendrils became riddled with thorns every few centimeters, each digging into the warrior’s body. Phacia screamed in protest, cursing whoever was responsible, while Einst did not so much as grimace. He had suffered far worse injuries than a few scratches, even as his blood began to leave his body, travelling along the thorny tendrils slowly. He looked at Phacia, ignoring the growing crimson, white and black energies pouring out of the three orbs that now surrounded him, and smiled. Phacia, despite her terror and guilt over Sir Einst’s plight felt all of the tension, concern and panic melt away at the sight of her savior’s smile. “It’s okay, Princess. They cannot hold me long like this…” A few moments later the chamber fell to darkness for but an instant and when it lifted, three gargantuan figures stood around Einst’s position, each standing in front of one of the orbs of the platform. The figures were humanoid in form but appeared to be somewhere between demon and man in nature. Each stood a full head and shoulders taller than the White Swordsman in spite of the crimson ethereal vines raising him off the ground. For each orb of black, white and crimson, their respective creatures bore a likeness in color; organic flesh mingled with ancient steel, with the former bits taking the primary color. The ancient steel of each creature had lost any luster it might once have had, now faded black and gray. Large, muscular limbs held hooked swords in either hand with all three equipped in identical fashion. Their heads appeared mostly normal until the crest of each of their skull where one might expect a head of hair; each of the three possessed instead more ancient steel mixed with their flesh. One carried a wedge shape with a slight diagonal plane, another was a single row of vertical spikes down the center of its skull from front to back, while the last featured a ring of cross-shaped spikes extending from the sides all around. At first the creatures were silent, unmoving. It was difficult to even consider them living beings and not statues, but the air did not remain silent for long as Phacia fell to her knees in disbelief… “The Order of…the Seventh Dawn…” After Phacia spoke their order’s name, each of their eyes came into view from different directions. Orange like fire, they stared at the fallen girl in amusement made evident by their ethereal laughter. “She knows the name.” “Highborn, she is.” “Yes, her blood will do nicely.” Einst, feeling a bit slighted, grunted as he purposely tried to draw his arms inward against the vines’ will. As to be expected this made them constrict even tighter around his limbs, thorns sinking deeper and drawing yet more blood. “Hey…uglies! Aren’t you forgetting someone?” Each of the knights turned and laid eyes upon Einst, the White Knight smirking as he extended his left sword at an angle, lifting Einst’s chin to get a proper look at his eyes. When Einst stared back without the slightest hint of fear, the Knight tilted his head and grinned, exposing his maw of razor-sharp fangs. “I like your spirit, Sir…? What is your name?” “You wouldn’t know it if I told you…now why don’t you let us go?” Again, the Knights laughed, though it soon fell as the sound of Phacia’s cries grew louder. “…Why?! How are you still living?! My Father destroyed your Order and banished you to the lower realms for eternity!” This time it was the Red Knight to move, walking toward the Princess with an unsettling grace about each and every step. When he was but a meter away from the girl, he or it flipped his swords upward and crouched over her, chuckling from the deepest pit of his stomach. “Your Father is the King, is he? That means you’re the one we want…not this servant of yours. Hey Dolgarrion, kill the slave and—” “Ha…hahahaha…you think I’m a slave….”, Einst laughed derisively. His grip on the Valkyrie tightened, his arms pulled inward, and the ethereal vines buckled yet held true. Again, the White Swordsman’s blood fell to the floor, the puddles around him growing respectively. Initially the three Knights laughed, dismissing Einst’s statement for the ramblings of a dead man. The Red Knight appeared to have had enough, signaling to the Black Knight to kill him and be done with it. With a nod, the Black Knight raised both of his hooked swords into the air, face devoid of all emotion, he focused on the task assigned to him. Absent warning or signal, Einst cast the spell he’d been preparing from the moment he’d become ensnared in the trap that was the platform. Dozens of runic glyphs ignited in the pools of blood at his feet, which promptly caused the destruction of the ethereal vines binding Einst in place. With his encumberment gone, Einst fell to the floor, landing on one knee as he braced himself with his opposite hand, the ends of his long blond hair dipping into his own blood. Seconds later his blood vanished without a trace, the warrior’s wounds became frozen scars in time, and from his mouth escaped another taunting laugh. Black Knight: “This one has Kingsblood…!” White Knight: “Perhaps he is her brother?” “…I’m just a pirate, a cutthroat if you will. Speaking of—” The White Swordsman jerked his head upward and locked eyes with the Black Knight’s own and smirked, the look of a madman smeared across his face. The Black Knight swung his hooked swords down and the White Swordsman swung the Valkyrie diagonally to meet them. Stepping inward and twisting his body in harmony with the swing lent him greater power, enough to match the Black Knight in power just enough, but he didn’t stop there. Pulling his sword down and away, Einst jumped into the air and called upon one of his new Vega’s to conjure a blade of ice as hard and sharp as any steel into his open hand. Twisting his body around and sailing across the room, at least a short way, the White Swordsman glided his icy blade through the Black Knight’s neck, separating his head clean from his shoulders in that singular pass. The now headless Knight’s body fell limp to the ground, blood spraying like a fountain from its neck. He landed a few meters away from the Red Knight, sliding backward a few paces until he sank the Valkyrie into the floor to bring him to a stop. “If you want her, you’ll have to kill me first.” That same madman’s stare leered at the Red Knight, meanwhile Einst’s body pulsed faintly with a red aura, signaling the active state of one of his many skills. As these knights were soon to discover, there was nothing the White Swordsman loved more than a good brawl pitting him against multiple foes. He kept the Valkyrie impaled into the floor, hand gripping its handle firmly as the conjured ice-blade disappeared. For now, he would wait and see if the so-called Knight’s would accept his challenge, standing with his body relaxed but ready. As for the Princess, it was all she could do to watch in amazement as somehow the White Swordsman continued to fight enemy after enemy on her behalf. His ferocity was so intense that she was able to forget her helplessness even if only temporarily…
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:38:26 GMT
Posted by Reno:{ BGM: "Coplas de Incienso"} Crim fell once more into the unknown depths, cursing loudly as he vanished into the darkness. This time, without anything to latch onto in order to pull himself back up, his descent was less controlled and considerably less pleasant. He slammed shoulder-first into a stone outcropping that jutted out from a support pillar, with some kind of gargoyle carved into it. The impact shattered the statue, and sent him into a tailspin of sorts as he tumbled downward, crashing into the center of another pillar, and bouncing off it, before finally hitting the ground. Thanks to his naturally high durability, coupled with his legendary agility and equilibrium, he was able to weather the impacts and balance himself in mid-air, which allowed him to just barely spin his body upright so as to land on his feet and avoid crashing into the pile of sharp mangled debris that had apparently fallen from above at some point. Of course, he wasn't quite out of the woods, as the chandelier that he had latched onto earlier was hot on his heels. But he was in no mood for it. So, instead of high-tailing it outta the way, he instead raised his left hand and unleashed a potent burst of green, white and black colored Ether, which shot up in an upward 'dome' of sorts. The energy wave collided with the falling chandelier, and repelled it with extreme prejudice, obliterating most of it outright, and sending the few remaining bits scattering in all directions. After letting out a quick sigh, the Captain stood up and dusted himself off with a nonchalance that only he could muster. He'd experienced far worse than this on multiple consecutive and non-consecutive occasions. Like that time he fell out of the ship and got marooned on that planet full of giant bloodlusted porcupines. Or the time that skyscraper-sized kaiju kicked him into a mountain nine times. Yeah, this was nothin'. Although... "Hmm." He looked up at the hole. It was still crumbling, dropping bits of wood down around him. He crouched and picked some of it up, and it practically disintegrated in his hand. "It's rotten...?" He stood up again and looked around. It was dark, but not pitch black, due to light pouring in from the hole above. He could see numerous stone support pillars, all decorated with the same demonic gargoyle statues as the one that had partially broken his fall earlier. He rotated his shoulder as he thought back to it. Son-of-a-bitch. He looked back up again. Ceiling was higher than he thought. Looked to be at least a solid fifty meters up. He could jump it easily enough, but he didn't like the idea of getting blindsided with whatever that bad mojo was again as soon as he resurfaced. { BGM: "Prohibidos y Cubiertos de Polvo"} Just then, the area became illuminated as torches at the bases of each pillar lit up in sequence all around him. Blue flames. Eerie blue flames. Unnatural. Par for the course for this cursed place. But they provided him with a better lay of the land, and he wasn't one to look a gift torch in the mouth. The space was cavernous, but he'd already deduced that much with his senses. One thing he didn't sense was the presence of anything malicious, though. The whole area was empty, but that emptiness was itself an ominous presence, somehow. He figured it had something to do with whatever force was making this castle tick. It was abnormal, otherworldly, sinister, and powerful, whatever it was. Which wasn't a concept that was unfamiliar to him in the slightest, but in this particular case, he couldn't figure it out. It was incredibly foreign, even to his vast experience, but at the same time, oddly...familiar. He didn't like it. He didn't like not knowing things. Pissed him off. Or maybe what pissed him off about it was that it actually gave him pause. Maybe even anxiety. "God damn it...the hell is going on here anyway?" He said to himself, his voice echoing. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind. Now wasn't the time to be ruminating and theorizing on things. He'd figure it out eventually. Now, he had to focus on getting back topside so he could bail that harlot Viola out of trouble and beat the stuffing out of that weird bastard. The fuck was he, anyway? That was an unfamiliar power, which was a rare thing for Crim to encounter these days. Some kind of summon from the looks of it, but it didn't feel like any summon he'd seen before, and he'd seen plenty. Not that he was an expert on the subject. He probably knew more than most, but being that summons tended to be more in the realm of magic and the like, he didn't really care to study any of it in-depth. He used their power as it suited him, and that was about it. Ah, but Viola was a witch! So she probably knew all kinds of crap about different kinds of summons. She'd be able to shed some light on this situation. About time she pulled her weight! He needed to get back up there, pronto. Figure this shit out and wreck that blabbermouth idiot, then find the lord of this dumb castle and fuck him up too. He looked up at the pillars and charted himself a path that would lead up to a different section of the floor above. The wood wasn't rotten across the entire area, but he was certain he could break through and get the drop on the guy. Once he got himself up a ways, he'd be able to get a good sense of where he was. Then he'd hit him from below. Yeah, surprise motherfucker! But just as he was about to leap up onto one of the gargoyle statues, he felt a strange presence nearby, which was soon accompanied by laughter. Sounded like a woman. Had Viola ended up down here too? No, this was someone - or something - else. Something...not so good. He relaxed his stance, and stood still. The presence lingered in the air. Seemingly all around him, but he knew better. Simple trick. He focused and got a read on her quickly, spinning around and facing her down with a jovial smirk on his face, yet a vicious look burning in his eyes. "Hey there, missy. What are you doin' skulking around down here like that?" "No...I...I mean I...um...yes..." she replied, her voice oddly timid, stammering. "I see," Crim answered. He didn't take his eyes off her. Her appearance and demeanor belied the ill-intent that emanated from her. He figured she employed this act in order to deceive and disarm those that she preyed upon. Probably wasn't used to encountering people who could sense her true intentions. "I...I'm sorry, please, I just want to..." She trailed off, looking unsteady as she muttered something that Crim couldn't make out. He crossed his arms. "Look, you can drop the act, I ain't buyin' it. I know you're here to kill me. Just get on with it already." She seemed taken aback. A pained expression crossed her delicate features. She was really into this whole faint-hearted waif schtick. She took a few steps towards him, inching closer. Crim didn't move. He'd already assessed her physical capabilities. She was nowhere near his level, so he wasn't concerned about her springing any sudden high speed attacks. He didn't sense any particularly powerful Ether from her, but he knew that could be concealed to an extent. She could be a glass cannon, but even if she was, the chances that she'd be strong enough to hit him with something that would actually be able to hurt him were slim to nil. But even so, he opted to err on the side of caution for the time being, of only because she was a woman, and he had a bit of an issue with clocking women. He'd much rather scare her off than have to knock her out. "Please...listen to me...just a little..." She continued towards him, speaking in that same trembling voice. "No. You listen. I know you're out to get me. I can sense it. Drop the act, you're not foolin' anyone here," as he spoke, he unleashed a moderate wave of 'killing intent', aimed to demonstrate to her that he wasn't fucking around. Her eyes widened as the wave hit her, forcing her to, at least for a second, break 'character'. Crim saw it, and she saw that he saw it too. The jig was up, and she knew it. Yet her reaction was...unexpected. { BGM: "Taranto a la Hermana Mía"} She began to laugh. She bowed her head with a hand pressed against her forehead. First a chuckle with an almost childlike quality to it, but soon it erupted into a mad, wide-eyed cackle akin to something you'd hear in the halls of an insane asylum. Crim didn't flinch, but he didn't care for this outcome, because it meant he was dealing with an outright lunatic who wouldn't just give up. Which meant that he would have to hit her. "Welp, I guess that's that." He shrugged and prepped himself for an attack. He decided it would be quickest if he dashed in and punched her in the ovaries. Knock the wind outta her. That usually did the trick. "This is gonna hurt, but it's for your own good." He surged forth, accelerating from a dead stop to a speed just shy of breaking the sound barrier. Normal vision wouldn't be able to track him at all. All they'd see would be the after-effects of his movement. Dust kicking up from his starting position, the ground cracking from the sheer force. Then the impact of his footfalls as he traversed the distance between them. This was a technique known as Shukuchi, which was something he hadn't employed in a while, but given the current circumstances, he was glad for it to be part of his arsenal of abilities. However...something odd happened. He should have reached her within less than a second, easy. But instead, he was suddenly stopped dead at around twenty meters away by several thorny vines that shot up from the ground, wrapping around his wrists and ankles. The thorns dug into his flesh and sent waves of pain through his body. It was...way more painful than it should have been, bordering on being excruciating. He fell to one knee as he pulled against the vines, but they held firm, coiling around and digging in deeper, drawing blood and wracking him with severe pain. "Ggghh!" He grunted as he struggled. The woman glowered at him as she slowly stepped towards him. A shadow loomed over her, twisting and writhing, taking shape as she drew nearer. "The...fuck is this shit...!" He pulled harder. The vines attached to his wrists started to pull apart, but as they did, two more snapped up and yanked him back, along with a third that wrapped around his neck, drawing more blood, surging more pain. "Arrgh...!" She was right in front of him now, a sadistic smile on her face, distorting her beauty into a horrible caricature that would fill an ordinary person with pure terror. Crim glared at her as he continued to resist, perhaps more than she anticipated, as he could feel the vines trying to tighten and choke him, but not quite able to do the deed. The pain didn't subside at all, though. In fact, it seemed to be ramping up, slowly but surely. "Hahaha...HAHAHAHA! You...you foolish boy...how does it feel? The pain...isn't it just...mmmmnn...so incredible?" She cackled again, contorting her body in an overtly sexual way. As she did, the shadowy form that loomed over her manifested into a being of some kind. Another one of those bizarre summon creatures. Should have known she'd be the same as that other buffoon. The creature looked like some kind of monstrous, voluptuous nun with long, powerful-looking demon arms ending in huge clawed hands, and a swirling black-hole looking void in place of her face. It emitted an extremely oppressive aura of pure malevolence, intertwined with the full blown insanity of the woman before him. "Hmmmhmhmhmhahaha!! Yes... Ashes to Ashes...punish this wretched fool for his sins! Send him to the depths of painful pleasure!" The vines tightened and unleashed a torrent of dark energy which coursed through Crim's body, wracking him with unimaginable amounts of agony. At the same time, they hoisted him off the ground and swung him around before hurling him into one of the pillars with the force of a runaway train. The pillar cracked, but held. Her laughter echoed as she directed her vines via her summoned entity, 'Ashes to Ashes', to slam Crim into multiple pillars before finally releasing him after pile-driving him into the ground a few meters from her position. She stepped towards him again, and pressed her heel against the back of his head. "Hahaha...do you feel it? Do you? Isn't it amazing? I feel it. I feel you...mmmnn...it's...it's..." "Shut up." Crim's words came out strong, much stronger than anyone would likely have expected, given what he'd just been put through. The deranged woman had practically no time to react as he pushed himself up with enough strength to crater the ground. He blasted himself up into the air and the woman was sent tumbling head over heels. She probably would have been badly hurt upon landing, if not for the intervention of her creature-thing, which saved her by creating a net of thorny vines. She let out a shriek as the thorns bit into her. Crim, meanwhile, lashed out with his right arm, extending one of his light chain whips out to wrap around one of the gargoyle statues, pulling himself in and perching upon it with a deft somersault. He looked down at the woman and the entity that fought for her. He'd put some distance between them, around sixty meters, which seemed to be enough. He moved his sleeve across his mouth, wiping some blood away. A thin trail of blood ran down the side of his face from an unseen wound on his head. The cuts left on his wrists, ankles and neck from the thorny vines also bled freely, but they weren't actually all that deep. "Huh...so, that's her game..."It seemed he'd already gotten wise to her tricks. But he would still need to figure out a way to deal with her without falling prey to them again, while also not going overboard. Because while she may appear to be some kind of demon, she was still human, and thus, if he killed her, he'd suffer far worse than any pain she could inflict upon him. He waited to see what she'd try next. If his hunch was correct...her ability had a limited range. Just how limited, he wasn't quite sure as yet. But he'd find out soon enough.
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:38:47 GMT
{BGM: “Crisis Point”}The Red and White Knights repositioned, the sudden death of their brother putting the two on alert. Whoever this self-proclaimed pirate was, there was much more to him than they initially thought, especially after killing the Black Knight so swiftly. Their movements were perfectly synchronized, each one a mirror of the other as they spread to either side of the White Swordsman. Naturally, this told the White Swordsman they weren’t as dull as they first appeared, but his reaction was markedly different than theirs… With his unique trait active, Einst’s every attribute saw an extreme spike, denoted only by the crimson aura faintly emanating from his form. In a short few seconds, the two knights stopped on either side of his position, weapons held in a basic defensive stance with the White Knight standing closer to Phacia. If he were dull, he could have simply turned and attacked the girl, hoping to capture her before Einst could intervene. Since the knight made no indication of doing so, he knew that she was safe for the time being. Meanwhile, the Red Knight stood in the opposing direction, with nothing immediately near him to interfere with the pending clash. The two knights settled into their position for a few brief seconds before Einst made the first move. His boots dug into the hard floor as though it were desert sand, until a moment later when the White Swordsman hurled himself directly into the Red Knight’s personal space. His grip never left the Valkyrie, which meant he’d ripped it through the floor just as easily as his boots had displaced its form, leaving in its wake a deep scar several inches wide that led all the way to the knight. Continuing the motion of his sideways lunge by turning his torso, he guided the pommel of the Valkyrie on a horizontal path aimed at the knight’s abdomen. Simply crossing his hooked swords in front of him was enough to counter the White Swordsman's attack; planting his feet and leaning forward, Einst stopped dead in his tracks upon contact. The two warriors stared each other down, the much taller knight's face painted with a confident grin. "Is that all you got, pretty boy?" Einst, whose face was void of any sense of emotion, remained completely silent for several seconds before he suddenly laughed. It was a chuckle at first, before growing in volume and intensity, after which the swordsman slowly pushed the Valkyrie forward a few centimeters... "...You are nothing." The slow, gradual push erupted into a violent thrust, forcing the knight backward a full two meters as Einst fully extended his right arm. The knight slammed his blades down, digging the hooks at the ends into the floor to stop himself. It was clear that he did not expect such strength from the comparatively tiny human, as indicated by the shocked expression on his face. This time however, Einst did not stop to taunt the knight and continued his attack into a perfectly executed chain. Following the thrust of the Valkyrie's pommel, Einst used his free hand to angle the blade down by pushing on the broadside with his palm, before lunging backward and impaling its point into the floor. It pierced dead center in the scar formed from his initial approach, which served to lower the pivot point of his next move. Throwing his body backward and twisting counterclockwise, Einst rotated a full 180-degrees so that he was now facing the White Knight on the opposite side of the room. There was no time to effectively analyze his maneuver as Einst continued his reversed movement, this time gripping the handle with both hands to execute a basic push-pull-swing of the sword. All of this combined facilitated Einst's throwing of the massive great sword at tremendous velocity, aimed just below the throat of the white knight. Now unarmed, Einst landed in a crouched position, placing both hands onto the floor with his right hand placed inside the scar in the floor. At the same time, the White Knight successfully dodged the Valkyrie by hopping to his left, which placed him a few more meters away from Phacia. With nothing to stop it, the greatsword impaled the nearest bookshelf, albeit only half of its length vanished into its contents and the wall beyond. The Red Knight had caught onto Einst's true nature, figuring out that giving the human even a second to spare was not in their best interest, and so charged forward in an attempt to cut him down from behind. The White Knight made ready to do the same, but found himself being yelled at by his comrade. "Get the Princess! I'll handle this one!" Einst couldn't help but shake his head in disbelief as he poured his magic into the space of the room, particularly concentrated in the floor. This caused the floor to become flooded with water, but only on one side of the scar carved by the Valkyrie previously as if some unseen barrier was containing the liquid. As he had planned, the White Knight just so happened to be on that same side, and was subjected to powerful currents ripping his body away from the Princess' vicinity. It was almost as though the water was possessed by spirits, vengeful spirits consumed with hatred and violence. "They" exerted this brutality unto the White Knight who shouted and yelled whenever his head would pop up above the surface. As for the Red Knight, he was on top of Einst's position in less than a second following his order to his partner. He swung one sword downward in a sort of semi-circle fashion on a diagonal plane, with the other plunging forward both behind and beneath it. It was a typical combination for dual-wielding swords, made especially dangerous with the hook on the first blade poised to rip its way through Einst's body. For a brief instant, as the White Knight's head briefly popped up above the water allowing him to watch however helplessly, it looked as though the Red Knight was successful. Before the White Knight's head was once again submerged, though, Einst's body instantly crystalized with white and transparent ice. Then, as the Red Knight's swords connected with the seemingly frozen warrior, it burst violently in every direction except forwards. The Red Knight was impaled in multiple places across his body, including his throat and forehead which killed him instantly. Those shards of ice which did not connect with the Red Knight continued on their paths; some became embedded with the walls, the staircases, ceiling--a portion of them became submerged in the water. The moment they did the water in its entirety "flash-froze", which did not kill the White Knight immediately but it did immobilize him. Then, Einst returned to focus, somehow appearing behind Phacia with his left hand hovering adjacent to the handle of his sword. Now that it came into focus, it was clear that the waterline had run all the way to the blade of the Valkyrie, its width leaving the handle unsubmerged in the water while the guard and exposed blade were now embedded in ice. "Princess, it's time to go." Einst pulled his sword free of its temporary moorings, which completely shattered the massive block of ice containing the White Knight. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't ordinary ice like that of a frozen lake. When it broke, it broke all that was contained within, meaning the White Knight was scattered into thousands of pieces. The floor too was not spared, which caused the entirety of what once was a churning pool to vanish to a lower level. Phacia, still in awe of Einst's unrelenting performance, stood to her feet and approached him, determination in her eyes along with relief. Relief that the battle was won. The intense surge of power from his use of his 'Conflagration' skill waned, and the Princess could tell that he was somehow different than before.. "Is there...anything I can do, Sir Einst?" He smiled at her as he raised his right hand to gently run his fingers along her cheek, before brushing her hair out of her face. "I'll take a big, juicy steak dinner after we're done here. Come on, let's go find the Captain and get this over with already." She nodded, wrapping her hands around his wrist and closing her eyes for just a moment. She hoped, she really hoped, their next encounter would be the last this forsaken place had to offer...
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:53:59 GMT
Posted by Reno:Viola could barely see straight, let alone stand upright. She felt like she was right on the verge of passing out. No, she felt like she was already well past that point, but somehow, something was preventing her body from doing so. She stumbled forward, flailing, trying to grab a nearby railing to pull herself up, but she slipped and tumbled down some steps instead, landing face-first on the floor in a rather unflattering position. Not that she was aware of any of it in this state of induced inebriation. That was, as near as her waking-blackout thoughts could process, what she was dealing with here. She also had deduced that the enemy was indeed a 'Stand User', which was certainly an unexpected thing to be coming across in a place like this. A stupid blunder on her part, being blindsided by something as mundane as this, 'unexpected' or not. She really ought to know better, anyway. Always expect the unexpected, especially in her line of work...well, calling con-artistry 'work' might be a stretch to some. But who really gives a fuck what some people think? She managed to push herself up to her hands and knees, but she was seeing double - no, triple - as well as seeing stars from the bonk to her head, which actually gave her a nice little bruise right above her left eye. Great. Aldous, for his part, seemed to be nothing short of jubilant as he observed the results of his offbeat Stand shenanigans in action. { BGM: "Vamo'alla Flamenco"} "Oh-ho-ho! Madame petooti! Ptooey desu! Souuu~souuu~!" Even if she wasn't drunker than humanly possible under normal circumstances, there's no way she'd be able to understand this freak's ridiculous fucking gibberish language. She felt like she wanted to puke, but her body wouldn't even give her that tiny relief. That Stand's ability must be some sort of effect that goes beyond inducing a feeling of drunkenness. It was more broad than that, like...forcing failures to occur. Yes, that would explain a lot. Fat lot of good that would do her in this predicament though. "Avec!" Aldous suddenly proclaimed as he delivered a swift, surprisingly brutal kick to her abdomen. She went flying, the wind fully knocked out of her, only stopping when her body collided with one of the many bookshelves of the grand library. It splintered on impact, and sent pages scattering every which way. She fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. She was familiar with what cracked ribs felt like, and this was it, all right. And yet, at the same time, she suddenly felt far more lucid. Sure, dazed by the successive injuries she'd already sustained, but all at once, the feeling of being utterly and incomprehensibly wasted outta her damn mind was...less than it had been. Not completely dissipated, but diminished to a noticeable degree. Of course. Yes, she remembered that Stand abilities tended to be impacted by distance. That lunkhead had kicked her a fair distance away, and as a result, the strength of his Stand's ability over her was weakened. But this reprieve wouldn't last long. She needed to act while she could. "Haah!!" Viola shouted as she extended her left hand. A powerful blast of Wind magic unleashed upon her foe, chaotic at first, but it soon coalesced around him, forming into a green-hued twisting sphere that concentrated inward with swirling blades of deadly mana. This forced Aldous to immediately go on the defensive, utilizing his powerful body in addition to his Stand in order to fend off the sudden counter. The spell culminated in a final 'burst' of force, which sent the musclebound oaf reeling back a ways, putting further distance between himself and Viola. Obviously, this was the main objective. With more distance between them, her mind and body began to react and cooperate properly. But she actually wasn't quite finished. While she had used her left hand to gather and release the Wind-Elemental mana, she'd held back with her right hand, within which she focused Fire-Elemental mana. She stood up, albeit unsteadily, and glared across the distance at Aldous, who himself appeared bewildered, though largely unharmed aside from a few superficial cuts. "Mother...fucker! AAAGH!!" Viola shouted furiously as she extended her right hand towards Aldous. { BGM: "Predicament"} An upward torrent of bright orange flames erupted from below Aldous, engulfing his form completely. This time, he actually howled in apparent pain, which was extremely satisfying to Viola's ears. She smirked devilishly, practically reveling in the pain she was causing. Sweet revenge. "Ha! Take that, you fuckin' weird bastard!" She yelled, which caused her to buckle over and wince, clutching at her injured ribs with one hand, coughing into her other hand. When she looked at her palm, specks of blood remained. "Ugh...perfect..." She muttered. When the searing flames of her Fire spell dissipated, Aldous remained standing, though he was motionless. His clothing had been partially torched, and he was definitely suffering from some pretty serious burns all over his body. But in spite of all that...he was still very much alive, and very much in the mood for a fight. "Ma belle peeeeeche...!" He exclaimed, leveling his gaze at Viola. His eyes looked completely psychotic now, bloodshot, with red swirling irises and pinpoint pupils. "ZEES MEENS VARR!!!" He flexed his massive muscles, generating a shockwave that rushed out from his position. This seemed to somehow increase his actual muscle mass, though at the same time, it also seemed to deflate his Stand. It was most likely some sort of secondary ability that enabled him to siphon power from his Stand directly into his physical being. But this was actually good. It meant he was headstrong and stupid. Or perhaps that his Stand's abilities were more limited than she initially thought. Possibly both. Not that it mattered much anyway, because she had pretty well predicted that the initial two spells wouldn't quite be enough to hack it. "God, shut UP and just DIE!!" She shrieked as she extended both arms towards him, just as he began charging towards her. Turns out, the residual magical energies from both prior spells remained fully under her control. This was a special type of spellcraft that few were capable of using, and even fewer to the degree that she was able to muster. The Wind spell regenerated itself, along with the Fire spell, and the two merged into a single, exponentially more potent combination spell. Normally, combinations like this required at least two separate casters. But Viola was both skilled and powerful enough to manage combination magic on her own. "Eat on it! Simoonja!" She shouted the name of the combo-spell for emphasis. A drastically more powerful version of a much more basic Wind/Fire combo spell known as 'Simoon'. Simoonja was similar, manifesting as a flaming dome construct with deadly sharp blades spinning within, shredding and burning anything and everything inside of its confines, and finally culminating in a huge explosion that generally incinerated and obliterated whatever might happen to be left over. ...she might have overdone it just a tad though, as it turned out. The final explosion kind of wrecked the already fragile floor, which caused something of a cascading failure that resulted in her plummeting down into the same dark depths that had claimed Crim earlier. Whoopsie! But at least Aldous was toast...probably. <><><><><><><><><><> Meanwhile...{ BGM: "Entre Bordados"} Crim backflipped, narrowly avoiding a wave of pitch-black energy that surged along the ground, tearing a long and deep gash through it. In the process, he sent out a wave of his own from his feet, less powerful, but faster. A concussive Ether burst. It collided with Cocona's Stand, forcing both of them to slide backwards several meters, but sustaining little to no actual damage. Damage wasn't the point, though, as Crim never stopped moving. He lashed out with one of his light-construct chain whips, wrapping it around one of the pillars and swinging himself around it, letting go at the peak of his momentum to launch himself directly into Cocona and her Stand at a rate of speed that was too quick for her to react to. The impact was devastating to the point of forcing 'Ashes to Ashes' to retreat momentarily, thus leaving Cocona temporarily defenseless. Crim capitalized on this by rushing in, grabbing her by her neck, and choke-slamming her into the ground with just enough force to let her know he meant fucking business. Not enough to kill her, or even cripple her. But definitely something she'd remember for a long time. Her eyes glazed over and her voice cracked as she teetered on the edge of consciousness. Good. Right where Crim needed her to go. "Sleep now, you crazy bitch," he stated flatly as he gathered a moderate amount of yellow-hued Ether in the hand that gripped her neck. His intent was to send a pulse of paralytic Ether into her nervous system in order to incapacitate her for a good, long while. She'd eventually recover, but by the time she woke up, they'd all be way the hell outta Dodge. Well, most likely. In truth, he had no idea how long they were going to be stuck in this goddamn place, but he had an inkling that they were making more progress than he initially thought. Call it intuition or whatever. But then, a certain other crazy bitch took it upon herself to inadvertently interfere, thereby foiling his plans yet again! A massive explosion from a haphazardly cast spell above. And then the ceiling came crashing down. He had mere seconds to react...though for him, multiple seconds was actually a hell of a lot of time to work with. He leaped backward, leaving the barely conscious Cocona to whatever fate befell her at ground zero of the collapse. Not the result he'd originally had in mind, but at the same time, not entirely a bad outcome. This 'Cocona' was an irredeemable psychopath. Allowing her to be crushed to death by falling debris was doing the world a favor, as he saw it. At the very least, it would prevent her from coming back to harass them again later. He could only hope that Viola's overkill spell had fully done away with the other one as well. He looked up and saw Viola falling too, as expected. He briefly considered just leaving her to fend for her damn self, but decided that wouldn't be worth the earfull he'd get from her later. So he positioned himself under her position and caught her. And then in the heat of the moment, rewarded himself by copping just a bit of a feel on her rear. "H-hey!" She exclaimed. "You're welcome," he replied, smirking in his usual manner as he set her on her feet. He was pretty sure she knew he didn't need to do that, and braced himself for some kind of retaliation. But it never came. Instead, she stood there, looking off in the other direction, gripping her side. Seemed to be injured. "Thanks..." She said quietly. "Wow, that was unexpected. Ha ha..." "Shut it," she snapped, glaring at him. "Don't think that I owe you or anything..." "Wouldn't dream of it...huh?" "What?" "Shit...!" It wasn't over yet. The pile of rubble suddenly became engulfed in an ominous field of black and red energy. But it wasn't coming from either of the previous enemies. This was something else entirely. Something that Crim was all-too familiar with. Viola stood next to the Captain, but she had gone completely pale. "What...what is this...?" Her voice quivered. "I...this isn't possible..." "Oh, trust me, it is. You'd best sit this one out though...no way you're gonna be of any use in the state you're in. Take cover somewhere." "But...!" "Now."{ BGM: "The Incomplete Stone"} His sudden shift in tone and demeanor scared her in that moment, in a way that she hadn't felt before in her entire life. It was like he was compelling her to follow his commands, somehow...just through sheer force of will. It actually made her feel kind of violated. She wanted to protest, but she couldn't form the words. All she could do was comply. She left his side, moving as quickly as she could to take cover behind one of the support pillars several meters away. Just what in the hell was going on...? It had been quite some time since this had happened. But he'd been expecting it. Ever since he'd tapped into that forbidden source back on Vestusio, it had been plaguing him. Following him around, lingering just out of view. Scratching at the back of his mind. ...The Strange Ether. It saturated the rubble, contorting it, melting and melding. The bodies of Aldous and Cocona appeared in the air, orbiting around a distorted red and black singularity, becoming increasingly distorted, themselves, as they were dragged beyond the event horizon. The space around the singularity became increasingly unstable. It took on a blood-red hue. Reality itself seemed to warp - folding and unfolding, collapsing and reforming. To call it 'otherworldly' would be an understatement. To look upon it was to look upon a true manifestation of pure, unmitigated chaos. "Hah...picked a hell of a time to show up, though. Ah well...show me what you got for me, then," Crim said as he prepared to face whatever entity was about to will itself into existence. Time itself seemed to freeze as everything took on starkly red and black coloration for what could have been anywhere between a split-second and a full eternity. The singularity vanished and silence permeated throughout, only for it all to burst outwards in all directions in a kaleidoscopic display of visual and auditory mania, which rapidly concentrated and constructed itself into a new, grotesque form. A-Class Unquantifiable Entity: ASHES OF NIGHTMARES[/i][/b] { BGM: "Heteromorphy"} Bipedal, around ten feet tall, humanoid, albeit grotesquely so. It had four arms and an elongated, overly-muscled torso striped in oddly shimmering crimson, metallic black and shining gold colors. The lower arms were smaller, more human-like, but still larger than normal. The upper pair were much longer and thicker, especially in the forearms, ending in huge three-fingered hands tipped with nearly sword-length curved claws. Its head was massive, and mostly mouth, filled with grossly oversized human teeth. No visible eyes to speak of. A pair of long pointy horns tapered a few feet back from its otherwise flat cranium, leaving little to no space for anything resembling a brain, at least in the conventional sense. A set of large wings adorned its back as well. Bladed wings, complete with long dagger-like 'feathers' that in all likelihood, could be flung about as deadly projectiles. It stood upon clawed feet akin to those of a large bird of prey, giving off a distinct sense of power and speed. Finally, a long, thick tail, seemingly prehensile, ending in something of an axe-blade. All in all, this abomination seemed highly tuned for battle, and that was just its sheer physical makeup alone. Beyond that, Crim could sense its power...a cursed fusion of Cocona and Aldous, held together by a Strange Ether glue... Crim assumed a stance leading with his left. His right hand gripped the axe upon his back, and the weapon crackled with sparks of Fire Ether as he primed himself for what he knew was going to be a hell of a fight. The creature stood about twenty or so meters away, still and silent, though radiating with power that seemed to distort and corrupt space itself. Was it cautious? Or perhaps curious? Crim couldn't feel anything from it in the way of emotions. That didn't mean it wasn't sentient, or even sapient. It just meant it was on a completely foreign wavelength, at least for now. He'd eventually be able to figure it out and attune himself to it. The creature began to make an odd clicking sound. It echoed through the cavernous space, generating tangible distortions through the air which manifested strange red formations that almost looked like bubbles of blood, popping in and out of existence with unsettling asymmetry. They extended outward at random intervals, distances, and directions from the creature, with several waves moving well beyond the area between the two of them. Crim didn't sense anything from these odd distortions, but he wasn't about to believe they were just innocuous, either...even though they very well could be. That's just the thing about 'Strange Ether'. There's just no predicting it with any sort of certainty. And that's when a cluster of the 'blood bubbles' up in the air off to his right suddenly started cracking and bursting violently, erupting with a fierce otherworldly energy that Crim most definitely could sense. And a good thing he could, too, because if he couldn't, he might not have been able to react in time to just barely avoid being impaled by the dozens of long, deep red javelin-like constructs that shot out at supersonic speed from within the pestulent, surging distortion. They struck the ground, impaled deep, causing black and red 'veins' to extend out along the ground for some distance surrounding the points of impact. Some kind of corrupted essence. Typical, hardly unexpected, but a problem nonetheless. He flung his axe as he cartwheeled to the side. It spun through the air, leaving a bright orange trail of Fire Ether in its wake. The creature reacted swiftly, taking to the air in order to avoid being struck by the weapon, which soared past it. "Ha! Not so fast!" Crim shouted as he flicked his wrist and recalled the axe via the 'Boomeraxe' Vega that he had acquired earlier for just such an occasion. The axe abruptly altered course in mid-flight and started spinning back towards Crim. He'd figured the creature would likely avoid the first strike, and given that it had wings, he placed a bet that it'd use them. And as usual, he was right on the money. Thus, he positioned himself so the return trajectory of the axe would take it on a path directly into the back of the airborne creature. The weapon collided with it as it ascended, generating a powerful impact accompanied by a large flaming explosion, which caused the creature to howl, though it wasn't clear if it was in pain, or simply due to surprise. Meanwhile, the axe remained lodged in the creature's back, surging with Fire Ether that continued to burn brightly as the creature fell to the ground, gnarling and thrashing about as it tried to reach behind itself to pull out the offending instrument. "Nope!" Crim sneered, raising his right hand, which erupted with flames to match those of his weapon. This generated explosive rings of Fire Ether that shot out from the embedded axe, inflicting further damage upon the Strange Ether Entity, which Crim had decided to name Trans-Fugly. He took a couple of steps towards it, slowly closing his fist, as if to crush something. The flames intensified, burning hot enough to melt steel at this point, and the creature writhed. This was definitely hurting it. Good rule of thumb to live by in battle: if you're not sure, just try fire. And lots of it! Always a pretty safe bet when dealing with monsters and demons and the like. Or pretty well anything, really. Sure, you might end up healing or strengthening some creatures by feeding them fire, but generally speaking, Elemental properties have a tendency to be kind of obvious anyway. Not always, but most of the time. He crept closer, keeping up the pressure by feeding his power into the axe. By this point, Trans-Fugly was entirely engulfed in white hot flames, but as Crim drew closer to it, he started to feel like something was off. This was too easy, right? There's no way it was going down this fast, from something this simple. Sure enough, just as he was thinking it, Trans-Fugly unleashed a mighty roar - more of a blood curdling screech, really - and stood up to its full height. With its lower arms, it reached behind itself at an unnatural angle (at least by human standards), and gripped the axe. The sheer amount of heat radiating from the weapon at this point was incredible, but the creature held fast and, with a single burst of strength, pulled the weapon from its own back and flung it aside, embedding it into a support pillar several meters away. Crim immediately ceased infusing the weapon with Ether, but continued concentrating the power in his fist. The flames faded from the axe and Trans-Fugly both, though the creature's body was noticeably scorched, with charred black chunks of it crumbling off and dusting the ground at its feet. Crim wasn't about to just wait for it to recover though. He took the remaining Fire Ether in his fist, and leaped into the air, flipping forward and driving his fist into the ground. This sent a massive wave of Fire Elemental Ether rushing forward, blowing the ground apart on its way to collide with the monster. The resulting explosion was even bigger than the initial impact that the axe had generated earlier, and far more intense, to the point where it completely obscured the creature inside a swirling sphere of searing flames. Unfortunately, it didn't work as intended. The creature surged forth from within the sphere, the sheer force of its movement blasting the sphere apart. It covered the distance between itself and Crim in an instant, lunging at him with its enormous clawed upper arms extended, intent to kill. Crim countered by drawing his twin short swords, just in the nick of time. He deflected the initial attack, temporarily throwing Trans-Fugly off balance, but it quickly recovered and continued forward with a powerful beat of its wings. It pressed on, slashing at him with surprising speed and agility considering its size and awkward proportions. All he could do was leap back and use his swords to parry the strikes. As the creature pushed him back, Crim sensed an impending attack from behind and to the side. More of those god damned blood-javelins coming in hot. But he had time, just a split-second, as the creature also needed to let up at the last moment in order to avoid being clipped by its own attack. With perfect timing, Crim side-flipped away and even managed to cut pretty deep into one of Trans-Fugly's arms in the process. The bastard shrieked and lashed out with a shockwave attack that collided with Crim in mid-dodge, nearly knocking the wind out of him as it sent him hurtling back through the air and directly into one of the pillars with such force that he crashed straight through it and disappeared into the darkness. But not for long, as he came back swinging. Literally, swinging via his chains once again. This seemed to take the creature by surprise, which Crim capitalized upon in his typical fashion. He threw one of his short swords, and it generated a burst of Wind Elemental Ether as it stabbed into Trans-Fugly's side. He then lashed out with his left whip and latched it around the handle of the embedded blade, yanking on it and pulling himself around behind the creature before the blade slipped out. He then flung the other sword past Trans-Fugly, only to lash out again with his other whip, latching it onto the blade and pulling it back so it slashed across the side of the creature's neck. Black liquid seeped from the inflicted wounds, though it seemed to evaporate upon contact with the air. More Strange Ether shenanigans, no doubt. Crim continued to unleash a barrage of mid-range attacks, swinging his blades with his chains in a devastating storm of whirling slashes that generated additional blades of Wind Ether that created a powerful green-tinted tornado around the creature, inflicting even more damage while locking it down. Enraged, Trans-Fugly attempted to hit Crim with another shockwave attack, but Crim was too fast, and the creature was on the ropes. He dodged it easily and continued his relentless assault, inflicting devastating damage upon the monster, but also further fueling its anger. Finally, it roared and became engulfed in an aura of pure Strange Ether, which gave it a surge of energy that enabled it to break through the binding tornado and take to the air. "Shit!" Crim cursed as he pulled his blades deftly back into their sheaths. "I ain't finished with you yet!" He spun and sent his left arm chain up after the ascending creature, latching around its ankles. He pulled back, trying to yank it down to the ground, but maybe that wasn't quite the best idea at this juncture, as the much larger creature simply beat its powerful wings and pulled Crim up along with it. Trans-Fugly soared through the air at high speed, weaving around and between support pillars with Crim in tow, causing him to collide with several along the way. It then performed an aerial front somersault, whipping forward with extreme speed and flinging Crim into the ground with enough force to actually crater it on impact, which kicked up a lot of dust and debris. Oh, and it hurt like a motherfucker, too. The Captain struggled to his feet, hunched over, coughing up droplets of blood. He didn't have time to rest, though, as Trans-Fugly didn't let up. It spread its wings and slashed them forward from above, unleashing a rain of dagger-like 'feathers' over a wide area below. Crim didn't have enough time to fully escape the area, so he simply drew his short swords in order to parry any that got too close. But there were hundreds of them, and a few managed to tag him in his left arm and shoulder, and his lower right side and thigh, drawing blood and bringing sharp pain, which he fought through. Apparently confident that its 'prey' was suitably weakened, Trans-Fugly spun itself as high into the air as possible, before moving into a swooping nosedive down towards Crim. Obviously, this was meant to be a deathblow. Crim wasn't taking any of that shit, though. As the creature descended, he suddenly flung both of his blades up at it. They spun through the air and whizzed past its head, clipping deep into its wings. But that wasn't enough to stop it, not even close. Which was why Crim had invoked his Rune of Heaven in tandem with his Boomeraxe Vega. Yes, the axe hadn't been destroyed or anything. Just set aside for later. Crim's right hand glowed with a shimmering white/green light, which was transferred into and infused with the axe as he summoned it. The weapon flew through the air, spinning almost like a buzz saw, its blade saturated with the Divine power of the Rune of Heaven as it returned to its 'master'. With a flick of his wrist, Crim guided the axe through the air to meet the neck of the descending creature, and it cleaved right on through it, separating its head from its body. Crim extended his arm, palm open, catching the brightly glowing axe as the fallen Trans-Fugly began to fade away in what appeared to be shards of fractured light that rained down around the Captain, making for an oddly serene moment in spite of everything that led up to it. "...Heh." <><><><><><><><><><> Viola watched the battle from the sidelines, awestruck by it. The creature itself was a marvel, and unlike anything she'd ever seen before. But somehow, she was even more dumbfounded by Crim. His reaction to it, his fighting skills, his power. She'd heard all the same stories and rumors about him as everyone else, but she always assumed they were just tall tales. Exaggerations. But seeing was believing. And what's more, she knew he was holding back. This sent a brief shiver down her spine. To think that someone like him could be so... She shook her head. Not the time to be getting distracted. It was all about to end, after all, and she wanted to be focused when it did. She watched the climactic finale without blinking. It really was a sight to behold. And what's more, Crim came out of it mostly unscathed from the looks of it. Sure, he took a couple of hits, and he looked kinda like shit, but he was still standing, and it was obvious that the injuries weren't enough to put him down, or even slow him down. But so focused was she on the battle between Crim and that horrible creature, that she failed to notice the imminent danger surrounding her. The 'corruption' spread by the Strange Ether, so unfamiliar to her, she wasn't able to sense it encroaching. It seeped through the ground, veins of black and red, creeping, almost stalking. The battle ended, but it wasn't over. { BGM: "Ashes of Dreams" (Music Box)} She stepped out from behind the pillar she'd been hiding behind, and started to call out to Crim. She saw him standing there, looking up into the air, weapon in hand, that unusual Divine energy still emanating from his right hand. That's when his gaze shifted to her. At first, everything seemed normal. Calm. Well, as much as could be, given the circumstances. But then she felt something shift. Crim suddenly looked...dismayed? But it wasn't just that. Something felt weird. In her gut, almost. Yeah, a strange feeling, like a pressure or... Her vision blurred. She felt unsteady on her feet. Almost floaty. She looked down and saw something weird. A red spike coming out of her. She touched it. Her hands felt something sticky and warm. She turned her palms back toward herself and they were red. ("Blood? Haha...that's weird...") She thought as her thoughts became aimless. She looked over and saw Crim rushing towards her, but she couldn't hear if he was saying anything. Everything was muted and kind of dark. ("Getting dark...time for bed...good night...") Viola thought as her eyes fell closed and she slumped over, impaled on a spike that had shot up from the corruption left behind by the Strange Ether Entity. Crim rushed in, leaping high and coming down fast with his right fist, releasing a bright flash of green/white light from the Rune of Heaven that burned away the remnants of the creature. The spike that impaled Viola vanished, and she fell into his arms, bleeding profusely from the wound in her abdomen. Crim held his hand over the wound, the stylized cross-symbol of the Rune of Heaven appearing in the air above his head as he pleaded with the Divine Will to heal the woman. He didn't know why he felt such desperation all of a sudden. It was incredibly strange, but for some reason he felt like he was the one bleeding out here. Like his heart had been pierced. He pushed it aside. This was no time to be sifting through psychological bullshit. There'd be plenty of time for that later. Well... maybe. Jury seemed to be deliberating on that one. That battle had been rough, not only on Crim, but on the whole area. And that corruption seemed to have only made the structure even weaker. The pillars around them started to crumble and fall as the floor gave way under them. Crim clutched Viola tightly as they fell deeper into the unknown depths below, seemingly buried under tons of rubble and ruin...
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:54:45 GMT
{BGM: “Not Alone”}Einst and Phacia continued to move through the building trying to find either the demented asshole running the show or the Captain and Viola. Seconds turned to minutes and minutes felt like hours, every corner they rounded turned up empty and despite the fact Einst’s powers and abilities were coming back to him, to include his enhanced awareness and observational skills, the warrior was struggling to make sense of the damn place. It started to feel like the further they ascended one floor after another, the further detached from the world they became. After a while–he wasn’t quite sure just how long–Einst stopped, turned slightly sideways and looked back at the Princess. He could tell that she was trying her best not to be upset. So much had happened, she was probably still dealing with most, if not all of it. She wasn’t quite all “here”, as she nearly ran face first into his arm. She let out a brief yelp in surprise before she began looking around, tensing up and searching for whatever made him stop without warning. “Is the enemy coming? What is it, Sir Einst?!” He shook his head gently before closing his eyes. “No, that’s just it. There’s nothing, and it just doesn’t make any sense! Wandering around like this isn’t working…” Phacia let out a sigh that sounded oddly relieved, probably thankful there wasn’t an enemy lurking just beyond. Noticing her demeanor, the Princess quickly collected herself and pretended to clear her throat. “O-oh, yes, I agree that this feels wrong…”, she started before once again tensing up. “Not to say any of this feels right!” Einst’s eyes had remained closed the entire time, which caused Phacia to eventually fall silent. She didn’t know if she’d offended him or what. Truth be told, her emotions were all over the place, a fact he could sense despite her best efforts to maintain her composure… Suddenly the warrior opened his eyes, motioning to Phacia with his free hand to move back a little. Flipping the Valkyrie up in front of him, he pushed upwards on the pommel, deftly lifting, and spinning the enormous blade as it moved upward. Due to its sheer size, sheathing the sword was an art all its own, but sheathe it he did, freeing up his concentration. He would never show it but lugging the great sword around all this time was draining his stamina, even if only a little. Thanks to the weird fuckery that was going on concerning the use of his usual abilities and power, he needed to stay mindful of every expense. “Come here Princess, I know how to find the others”, he assured her, waving her to come closer. “Just trust me”. After a brief hesitation, she nodded and stepped closer to him once again. {BGM: “Echoes From The Depths”}Once again Einst shut his eyes, this time raising his right hand up near his face and placing his index and middle fingers against his forehead. Were the circumstances different, he could execute the technique at a moment’s notice even in the heat of battle; but, because they were not, he had to essentially go back to the basics. The interference smothering the entire continent and all within it started to take form in his mind—that of a miasma, of darkness incarnate. The more he focused on it, this miasma was pushed back, allowing light to return. It flooded his mind and soul, penetrating the castle with a tremendous surge of intense, blinding white rays that consumed the darkness from on-high. Moments later, Einst’s mind scoured every floor of the castle in search of his friend and Captain. As the seconds pressed onward, the oppressive force which occupied the castle pushed back. It acted as though it were sentient, the miasmatic power felt…angry. He knew he had to find the captain quickly, which in turn caused Einst to pick up the pace, forcing his search to shift into a series of flashing images. “Where are you…” !Without warning Einst’s left hand lashed out at Phacia, grabbing her arm in a blur of motion she never saw coming. In the next moment their bodies phased out of view in a sudden flash. “Crim!”, Einst shouted, hoping the captain would hear him from beneath the mountain of rubble. The dust was still settling from the collapse of the floor above, thick clouds of the stuff coursing throughout the room and adjacent halls. Having found him using his Instant Transmission technique though, he knew Crim was underneath the mass of debris in front of him. He also knew that he was hurt, badly—along with Viola now that he’d arrived; Einst released Phacia’s arm and approached the pile of rubble, kneeling in front of it to place both hands on a large chunk of stone. A few seconds later, Einst’s hands were encased in transparent ice, ice which spread from his hands and rapidly spread over the debris. It didn’t just cover the surface of the debris, however. It penetrated every piece big and small, moving slowly at first until he pushed harder, driving his newfound power to fully invade the debris in one last flash. “Phacia, please get your healing magic ready.” On the heels of his words, Einst’s arms were engulfed in white tendrils of radiant light, not unlike the dancing waves of flame on the surface of a star. An instant later and what had been transformed into an enormous mound of ethereal ice exploded into a sea of soft, harmless snow. The outer edges of the former pile of debris were wisped into the air, creating a temporary winter inside the room. At the center of it all, Crim was lying on the ground still clutching Viola tightly. It wasn’t that he thought the captain was in mortal danger, although that wasn’t impossible. His rune carried a heavy tax, as it was both a blessing and a curse. As such, Einst didn’t want to take any chances and assume he would just shrug off the cumulative effects from his actions and the battles beforehand. Oh, and he was also sick and fuckin’ tired of this stupid place. It was time to kill the boss, claim their reward, and get the show back on the road. He stood up from his kneeling position; looking at Phacia, he gestured with his head for her to tend to Crim. The after-effects of his …whatever the hell he just did…were short lived, the piles of harmless snow gradually faded into nothingness. Strangely though, his hands remained frozen; in fact, it appeared as though the ice originated from inside his body. Strands of glass-like ice seemed to exit frozen wounds from his forearms and wrists in a grotesque display, though he didn’t appear to be in any pain whatsoever. “You really did it this time, didn’t ya Crim. Sheesh…Phacia, make sure you tend to him first.”
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:55:29 GMT
Posted by Reno:{ BGM: "June Mermaid"} He didn't know why he did it. Risking his own neck for this rude, slutty, thieving witch. All she did was whine and complain and piss him the fuck off, and he knew the feeling was mutual, too. Barely even knew each other, and already seething with such vitriol. But wasn't that how it often started? Especially with guys like him. And girls like her. Hot-blooded, short-tempered. Sarcastic, selfish. Chaotic, conniving. It was a fact that they had more in common than either cared to admit, and as result, they clashed. But when things clashed, sparks would fly... Such strange things always come to mind when facing the abyss. Crim wondered if other people mulled over mundane bullshit like this when staring out over the edge of nothingness. How many times has it been? They should probably give him some sort of frequent-visitor punch card. Get a free sandwich on your thirteenth visit. His right hand glowed with pale green divine light, which enveloped the unconscious body of Viola as he shielded her with his own. He couldn't say how many tons of debris he was holding at bay - probably less than he thought, but more than he should. He looked down at her. Sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware, maybe even comfortable. Fucking hell, what a goddamn bunch of twisted horse shit this was... And then...everything went cold.{ BGM: "Lost Painting"} Crim was still for a brief time, looking like he might actually be injured. Of course, he wasn't. Not really. Something like this couldn't possibly do him in. His eyes shot open and his fierce green gaze locked with Phacia as she knelt down to tend to him. "No," he said flatly. "No need." He got up. "Tend to her... I'll be just fine." He smirked as he spoke. His tone was almost terrifying in its sheer confidence. It was like the injuries that he'd sustained were somehow energizing him, giving him more strength. And he'd definitely suffered some injuries. Cuts, gashes, bruises. There was a pretty long and jagged piece of wood jutting out of his left shoulder. He grabbed it and yanked it out, casually. Didn't even wince. Blood spurted from the wound, spattering the ground, staining his tattered jacket. He looked to Einst. "Thanks. That's a handy trick..." Crim said, brushing some remnants of snow from his jacket sleeves. { [BGM: "Crystal Teardrop"} The Captain looked around, taking in the new surroundings. Looked like a subterranean cavern, but it was obviously still very much a part of the overall 'space' that made up this twisted castle. That was just the feel of it. The ambient Ether gave it away. Same bizarre, off-putting energy as the rest of the place. All connected, all fucked up. He had to admit, it was impressive though. Normally, a cavern like this would be dark and dank as all hell, but this place was lit up by seemingly natural (probably not though) white-blue crystal formations that jutted out from the walls and ground in various places. He wasn't sure what the material was, though. Possibly something valuable and/or useful, but he didn't have the time or the equipment on hand to figure it out. He could hear water flowing as well. An underground river, and a waterfall or two. There was a chance that, if they followed it downstream, it would lead them outside. Tempting thought, but then they'd be right back to square one, and on top of that, there was no guarantee it wouldn't just lead them to an inexplicable dead-end, or in some implausible loop. No, they needed to press on. Besides, it's not like they were in supremely dire straits. Phacia's healing magic was the real deal. He could already sense Viola coming around. Of course, he'd given her a foundation to build upon with his Rune of Heaven. Probably the lion's share of the work, bringing her back from the brink and all. But nobody needed to know about that, aside from Einst. Last thing he wanted right now was a bunch of questions about it. Especially from Viola, with her witching, thieving ways. She'd probably become obsessed with trying to extract it from him, somehow. "Nothin' but trouble..." He sighed. Still, he felt as though something was just slightly off. Like he was forgetting something... Ah, well. It'd come to him eventually. "Right, well, I guess now's as good a time as any to rest and regroup," he said, casting a side glance towards Phacia and the still unconscious Viola, before looking back to Einst. "You guys find anything useful on your end? All we got was a whole lot of fuck all for our troubles." He cracked his neck from side to side and spat out a wad of blood. His injuries weren't the worst he'd ever had, but he looked like hell, and felt like it too. But he wasn't going to rely on healing magic here. That would actually be tactically unwise, seeing as his battle capabilities were 'enhanced' by sustaining injuries and all. Just one of his many hidden talents, as it were. Einst was aware of it, though it would probably be difficult to explain to Phacia and Viola. Phacia, more so, being that she seemed a fair bit less 'worldly' than Viola. Although this adventure was likely proving to be quite the eye-opening experience for her. Well, good. Any princess worth her salt should be dragged through the muck of a dangerous adventure at least once. Or even twice. Y'know, just to be sure.
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:55:51 GMT
{BGM: “Oddness”}As he watched the captain stand up and dust himself off, Einst realized his mistake. He raised his left hand, still frozen, and massaged both of his temples, like he had a headache. “…tend to her, I’ll be just fine.” Einst lowered his hand, shaking his head briefly before looking over to Viola, then back to Crim. “Thanks. That’s a handy trick…” “No problem. I’m getting a feel for whatever it is that’s messing with our abilities. This place just might be connected to it…” His voice trailed off, as both him and the captain surveyed the surrounding area. It wasn’t a room they’d fallen into that they found themselves in, but more of a dead end of a path in an underground cave. They both heard running and rushing water, probably drawing the same conclusions on what their next steps ought to be. Meanwhile, Phacia cast her powerful healing magic over Viola, quickly mending the damage she suffered in whatever the two had been through, including the nasty fall that landed them where they were. After a short while, the woman began to stir, mumbling a back-and-forth conversation that sounded like it was half argument, half flirting…Einst stared at the strange woman with a confused look painted across his features. “…crazy…” “You guys find anything useful on your end? All we got was a whole lot of fuck all for our troubles”, Crim’s voice snapped the White Swordsman’s focus away from the women again. Thinking on what he asked, Einst looked down at his arms. Painted in his own blood, frozen in time, he recalled the bits of conversation with the so-called Knights before he tore them to shreds. Their focus on the Princess was to be expected, after all that’s what Princesses did regardless of the world they came from. That wasn’t quite it though… He turned and looked at Crim. “You could say we learned a lot, actually. The bastards we ran into were looking for the blood of a highborn, and it was like they could smell it. What was weird though, is they didn’t realize Phacia was the Princess until she spoke up. They were part of a group called the Order of the Seventh Dawn, so my guess is they’re either responsible for this annoying ass place, or at the least involved obviously.” Phacia was just about finished healing up Viola’s injuries, her consciousness returning and Phacia helping her to sit up. The woman had a brief coughing fit but seemed like she was going to be just fine. The princess’ healing magic sure was something. Einst continued. “That’s mostly it. I mean, they were pretty surprised to learn that I have ’Kingsblood’…the poor bastards thought I was a slave! Hahaha!”, Einst laughed for a few seconds, even as the memories of his last encounter with the Valkyrion Order flashed through his mind. It was a reminder that he vowed to destroy their incessant dream of taking what was his should they cross paths again. “Whoever these guys are, Phacia said they were supposed to have been dead at her father’s hands already. My guess is this place is meant to harvest the blood and lives of the folk around here. No good, either way.” The White Swordsman’s gaze drifted back to Viola, watching her as Phacia walked up to him, gently placing her hand on his forearm, and staring at the face of a man seemingly lost to time itself… “May I heal your wounds as well, Sir Einst?” Phacia’s voice was as sweet as ever, full of concern and eagerness to help the man. Some part of her expected that he would deny her request, while another wished for him to let her aid him. He looked down at her and smiled, placing his other hand over hers and shook his head. “You’ve done enough for now, Princess. Rest up, the real fight is about to begin.” Einst massaged her hand just for a moment before pulling free, turning around, and making way for the path ahead. Like Crim, he too concluded that it was better they pursue this venture to its end, rather than leave the matter unfinished. Besides, there could be treasure at the end! There damn well better be, at least. Before he started on the way, he came to a stop and turned to face the group, a grin of excitement spread across his face ear to ear. “So who wants to take point?! There’s a stream of some kind up ahead… if we follow it upstream, that ought to lead us deeper inside. I’m getting hungry so let’s get this over with already!”
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:56:40 GMT
Posted by Reno:{ BGM: "A Thick Make-Up Called Lie"} Viola still felt woozy, but all things considered, that was small potatoes compared to how it could have turned out. And while Phacia's healing magic was indeed impressive, it hadn't actually been what saved her. No...what had actually saved her life had been Crim's healing magic. And as strong as Phacia's was, Crim's was on an entirely different level. In fact, Viola wasn't even sure it could properly be classified as 'magic' at all. What was it, then? As her garbled thoughts slowly came back into focus, she fixated upon this. How could a boorish ruffian, who displayed practically no interest or aptitude for spellcrafting of any kind, be capable of producing such potent healing magic? Perhaps it was some kind of advanced medical device that he carried around for emergencies? She had heard of such things, and she knew that his crew likely did have access to extremely advanced technology, being that they were connected to the Dimensional Federation and U-TIC. But, no. This was different. No mere 'device' could do what Crim had done. Not in such a short timeframe, and without any sort of invasive apparatus present. This was... akin to an 'act of God'. A divine power. She thought back to something her mentor had mentioned to her, years ago. The existence of 'divine' beings that attached themselves to chosen bearers. Such 'magic' - if it could even rightly be referred to as such - was among the rarest of the rare. Coveted and feared by mages throughout the multitude of universes. Could this uncouth, punch-happy space pirate be in possession of such a rare and powerful artifact? She glared at his back as they walked along the path, moving in the direction of the flowing water that could be heard echoing throughout the cavern. It grew steadily louder. She frowned deeply, her conflicting feelings gnawing and clawing at one another. She was grateful for having been saved, albeit begrudgingly so. But she was also pissed off that it had to be by him. And the fact that he, somehow, possessed such a tremendously rare magical gift...it was unthinkable. No, it was unacceptable. She needed to know for certain. But now was not the time. She would also need to... thank that fucking bastard at some point, too. Perhaps she could kill two birds with one stone. A devilish smirk formed across her face. Such a rotten expression...it was rather unbecoming of someone as outright beautiful as she was. Fortunately, nobody saw the brief display. She was well-practiced in her deviousness at this point, able to deftly hide her ill-intentions with the best of them. She'd get her way eventually. { BGM: "Into the Fog"} Several minutes after setting out, the group came upon the source of the water. Indeed, there was an underground river, which fed into a decently-sized lake. The water was quite calm, and crystal clear. So clear, in fact, that they could see straight through to the bottom. More of the same glowing rock formations littered the lake floor, along with numerous bioluminescent aquatic creatures. Crim approached the edge of the lake, and looked out over the surface. The path continued around alongside for a few hundred meters, to a point where the lake eventually fed into a river, flowing down a slight incline which narrowed into a tighter part of the cavern. "Hmm. Guess this is the only way..." He said to himself as he eyeballed the far cavern wall, across the lake. He felt like there might be something on the other side, there. Kind of wanted to just punch through it and see. But he decided against it, at least for now. The obvious path was already laid out before them, and he saw no reason to ignore it. And he didn't want to split up again, either. He continued on along the lakeside, towards the river flowing deeper into the cavern. Predictably, along the way, they encountered a number of monsters, but nothing that was much of a threat. Bat-like things that spooked the ladies with their initial appearance, easily dispatched with some swift swordplay courtesy of Einst. Then there were these large rhino-sized horned turtle creatures, which Crim demolished by crushing them with his axe and kicking them into the walls. A few other annoyances popped up as well. Frog-like monsters, about the size of your average goblin, which occasionally leaped up from the water, launching attacks with their tongues, like they wanted to drag the group down into the water. These were pretty weak monsters, though, and even Phacia was able to fend them off without much trouble. After a trek of about an hour or so, the sound of rushing water became louder and louder, until they came to a much larger opening, bigger than even the lake cavern had been. The river cascaded down into a tall waterfall, which fell into a basin that then led into a stream that splintered out into a surprisingly lush, green marshland of sorts. That in and of itself was some pretty surreal scenery, but to top it all off, in the center of it all, sat a large pyramid-style temple, bathed in light that filtered in from large glowing rocks anchored in the cavern ceiling above it. Were it not for the absence of the blue sky and clouds, it would have been indistinguishable from bright, broad daylight. Crim stopped at the edge of the cliff next to the waterfall and surveyed the area. It was huge, all right, with the marshland extending for at least a kilometer in every direction out from the temple, which itself looked to be at least a couple hundred meters tall. He looked down, and though it was pretty much a sheer 400 - 500 meter drop to the ground below, there was also a winding path that they could take. Of course, he really didn't feel like taking the slowpoke route... "All right, down we go then!" He suddenly exclaimed, as he grabbed Viola, hoisted her over his shoulder, and leaped down before she could even curse him out over it. Naturally, he figured Einst would follow suit with Phacia. { BGM: "Everything Seems Suspicious"} "You fucking BASTARD! God, what the hell!?" Viola was already screaming at Crim down on the ground, sitting on her ass in a shallow puddle while Crim just stood there and kind of laughed about the situation. "Haha, hey, sorry, I didn't think you'd mind...!" "Oh, yeeah, sure, no I wouldn't mind suddenly being grabbed by a lunatic jumping off a giant cliff. Yeah, that's totally fine and normal behavior!" She stood up, grabbing the hem of her dress and wringing water from it. "So then what's the problem?" She glared daggers back at him again. "And don't think I didn't notice you copping a feel back there either..." "Ha, what? Don't flatter yourself, sweetheart. You're not that special," he smirked, even though he totally did give her a little grope on the way down. "Ugh, whatever..." She decided not to pursue it. Clearly, he got a kick out of shit like this, and she was in no mood to give him the satisfaction of falling for his antics. "Anyways... ahh...what the hell is that!?" Viola shrieked and fell backwards again as she pointed past Crim at...something. "Eh?" Crim raised an eyebrow and turned around to get a look for himself. Sure enough, there really was something there. No, not some thing, but some one."Ha! Chloe! There you are. I was wondering when you'd show up again." He laughed as the pink-haired Half-Elf stood there, partially obscured in the shadows of some bush-like plants, looking incredibly haggard and filthy, covered in scrapes. That weird little imp-demon thing, Deegus, clung to her leg, cowering behind her, muttering something or other. Odd thing was, Crim couldn't sense either of them, neither Ether nor their physical presence. Normally, he'd have picked up on the both them, especially at this proximity. "..." She stood there, silent. "So, uh...how's tricks with you?" "Don't. Ask," she said, flatly. "Fair enough, fair enough. Well, looks like the gang's all here, anyway..." He decided not to press her. Obviously she'd been through... something. Whatever it was, it seems to have been at least somewhat harrowing. But the fact that she was here meant it couldn't have been all that bad. As usual, she was probably overreacting. Mostly just pissy because she was so filthy, would be his guess. Plus, being stuck with that creepy little thing this entire time. He glanced down at it, then back at Chloe, then back at the thing again. "Ah...I see..." He nodded his head as he figured it out. Seems that Chloe, likely out of desperation, entered into a Pact with little old Deegus, here. Providing her with a magic boost in exchange for...well, something. He was certainly curious what the conditions of this pact might be, but he could get those details later. For now, they had much more pressing issues to consider. For instance... the strong aura that lingered over this area. Unlike any of the others they'd encountered thus far. It seemed they were most definitely on the right track, here. If this specific aura didn't belong to the lord of the castle, then it definitely belonged to the next best thing. They were getting close. Wouldn't be long now at all. They'd stop to rest a minute and get their bearings before continuing on to the temple. At the very least, giving Chloe a chance to clean herself up a bit...yeesh. The group traversed the marsh without much issue. There were paths leading between the streams and bogs. Wildlife was surprisingly abundant, but apparently not of the hostile variety. Although as they drew nearer to the temple, the imposing aura grew stronger and stronger... { BGM: "Inferno"} Finally, they arrived at the foot of the temple. The structure itself seemed to be in pristine condition, albeit also somewhat overgrown with twisting green vines and what appeared to be some sort of moss. Maybe that was all on purpose, though. Not that any of them really cared, or even had time to contemplate on it. Not with the sudden ear-splitting roar that shattered the air.  Surprise, surprise... it was a goddamned dragon! A huge, pitch-black dragon, soaring through the air all of a sudden, like it had just appeared out of nowhere to ruin their sightseeing excursion. The massive creature roared again, sending shockwaves through the air, before spreading its colossal wings and perching itself atop the temple, glowering down at the group on the ground. Crim turned to Einst. "Hey, check it out. A duck." "Haha, yeah," Einst chuckled. Phacia seemed less amused. "Th-that's..." she stammered, clearly overwhelmed by the sheer presence of the dragon. Viola stepped forward, less overwhelmed, but still concerned. "That's Narse, one of the Five Chromatic Dragons...he shouldn't be here." "...Eh?" Crim cast a sideways glance towards Viola. "Ain't never heard of 'em." "I wouldn't have expected you to," she placed a hand on her hip as she appeared to ponder something. "Those Stand-users earlier...now this..." The dragon - Narse - roared again, but didn't move from its perch. It seemed to be waiting for them to advance. Warning them not to... 'or else'. Buddy had no idea who he was dealing with!
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:57:09 GMT
{BGM: “Zephyr Memories”}As the group arrived at the cliffside overlooking the unexpectedly massive underground valley, Einst couldn’t help but feel that they were finally about to be rid of this seemingly endless maze of nonsense. He couldn’t remember the last time he got “stuck” inside a place so chock-full of twists and turns, each one more obnoxious than the last, but if he had his way, he would prefer not to do it again. Most of their adventures were straightforward, albeit considerably more dangerous…truth be told, Crim and Einst’s companions really didn’t know just how capable the two of them really were. That of course made the whole situation just slightly more annoying—between the two of them, they could normally just blast their way through the place in the blink of an eye and it would all be over. Thanks to the mystical fuckery of this continent however, there would be no large-scale annihilation today…at least, not to the usual extent. Both he and Crim were gathering more and more of their strength back in all areas, to include their sensory range and other more subtle abilities. Crim scooped up Viola and hopped down the cliffside, Einst extended his arm out to Phacia for a more graceful offer to which she shyly accepted. Wrapping his arm around her, the White Swordsman simply leapt over the side and slowly floated down after the others, his foot eventually catching the rocky soil again. He would slide for a moment or two before bounding outward again and floating further down, repeating the pattern until landing a little way to the right of the others. They arrived about the same time as Chloe made her presence known, along with the creepy little shit Deegus. Einst really didn’t like the thing following them around, and it was him who led them to this bullshit “mansion” or whatever it was in the first place! Phacia stepped out of Einst’s embrace, adjusted her attire, and ran over to Chloe, happy to see her new friend again. As she drew near, Chloe finally offered a smile, albeit a brief flash of a smile before wincing in pain. She didn’t have any obvious injuries, but it was clear that something was going on—that, and she’d been through hell from the looks of it. Without hesitation, Phacia cast a simple regen spell over her friend, aiming to coax her recovery along sooner rather than later. The princess paid no mind to Deegus, in fact she ignored him entirely and locked arms with Chloe as the troupe made their way through the marsh. The princess stayed by Chloe’s side the whole way, whilst Einst brought up the rear. He didn’t sense any immediate danger in their vicinity—all the animosity and danger appeared to originate from the ominous pyramid at the center, which was of course their destination. Once there, the group was surprised to find the structure in pristine condition with exception to the vines and moss covering it. As if that wasn’t suspicious, but it didn’t matter as the enormous black-dragon descended upon them from thin-fucking-air. A creature that size just randomly crashing the party was about as nonsensical as everything else had been that day, which meant neither Einst nor Crim were really all that surprised. “Hey, check it out. A duck.” “Haha, yeah,” Einst chuckled. The others stammered and exclaimed their disbelief at the sight of the dragon. Einst didn’t really pay much attention to what they said, instead opting to draw the Valkyrie from its scabbard on his back. The dragon’s ear-splitting roars drowned the sound of steel on steel that normally rang through the air when he drew, the shockwaves washing over them as the dragon Narwhal or whatever its name was glared at them. Einst held his massive great sword in a standard grip angled in front of him, stepping in front of the princess instinctively. That’s when Viola squawked at him, probably about to ramble on some kind of mystical warning she read in some dusty old tome somewhere. “Cool it mister, you can’t just whip your sword at a black dragon and think you’re gon—” “Go hide in a bush or something and watch me!”, Einst snapped at her. It wasn’t out of anger or anything, in fact everyone could hear him laughing as he shouted. He just didn’t have any time for what he considered pathetic fear-mongering fairy tales people told to convince themselves of their beliefs. After all, dragons really weren’t all that special in his experience. Just a bunch of overgrown lizards that got bored of crawling around in the dirt as far as he was concerned! {BGM: “Up for the Challenge”}Without delay, Einst literally sprang into action, launching toward the pyramid in a single bound. The moment his boots hit the surface he crouched and leaned forward, putting his body in an upward/forward angle, and shoved off it with considerable power, moving away from the structure. The dragon roared again, only this time the roar had a noticeable reverb to it as it continued for a few seconds—longer than the previous ones no doubt. As the roar dwindled, what was supposed to be the skies became filled with dozens, hundreds of lesser dragons of varying colors and sizes. They were whelps, which were the offspring of a greater dragon. Pathetic little creatures that had almost no mind of their own, Einst knew their kind better than he cared for. It was strange they came in so many colors, and numbers, considering the great Narwhal was a black dragon, but at the end of the day, the White Swordsman really didn’t give a shit. It was time to get the party started! The whelps converged on Einst midair, but the White Swordsman seemed to somehow know they were going to join the fun as he pulled the Valkyrie back and swung it hard to his left. Throwing himself into a counterclockwise spiral that gained speed with every rotation, the White Swordsman’s mighty blade carved a path through the not-sky, right through one whelp after another. Wings, torsos, limbs, and bloody entrails rained down below—fortunately well beyond his friends on the ground. The inexperienced little bastards charged him in droves, foolishly thinking they’d somehow overwhelm the “puny human”. The White Swordsman’s murderous path carried him a couple dozen meters away from the group, downing a handful of whelps every meter traveled with ease; it was at this moment the fledglings wised up to the danger they faced. Likewise, mister or missus Narwhal wasn’t too happy with the death of its kin… When the great Black Dragon inhaled it came with gale-force likeness, pulling leaves, bushes, and branches while forcing the women below to struggle to keep their footing. As to be expected, Crim wasn’t fazed in the slightest, his trademark smirk painted across his features as usual. Meanwhile, sensing the encroaching attack, the White Swordsman changed gears, deciding to try something with the Vega that he hadn’t thought of until now… Chaincast: BulwarkAs the White Swordsman began to descend after traversing the apex of his leap, a brilliant gold barrier of light manifested in front of him. Through his extraordinary agility and grace, he easily positioned his feet to strike the barrier to land him once again in a crouched position in mid-air. The whelps had since learned to approach more carefully and had given him a wide berth as they reassessed how to best attack the flying maniac. This only gave the White Swordsman even more time to determine his next path of attack, not that he needed it. The sorry creatures had no idea just how much time a single second was to the pirates they were facing, let alone several… The second cast of the basic Bulwark spell was placed between the princess and the dragon, the many golden panes of light shimmering in front of her eyes. She recognized the effect and took solace in knowing that “Sir Einst” was once again watching over her, even as he slayed their enemies…As for the rest of the group, if they weren’t completely transfixed on the dragon’s pending attack, they would bear witness to several occurrences of the Bulwark spell scattering through the not-sky, as well as between themselves and the dragon—minus Crim, of course. Since the White Swordsman had been reminded of the captain’s little scheme, he wasn’t about to interfere again. Besides, he knew he’d be cooking something up to answer the dragon’s breath. {BGM: “Through the Night”}Shortly after the seemingly countless Bulwarks manifested across the area above, the White Swordsman launched himself once more through the air, albeit in a different manner than before. This time the warrior took a more forward approach, combining his forward motion with an angled swing of the Valkyrie which was now emitting an ominous diamond blue frost. The results were nearly the same, as remains of whelp after whelp were shredded beyond recognition, only this time the blood, body parts, and guts did not rain down to the ground below. Each whelp the White Swordsman slayed became trapped in a sort of “ice bubble” composed of a potent, condensed ice elemental magic. It wasn’t long before dozens and dozens of the spheres spread across the not-sky, continuing until he came upon one of his many Bulwarks. Just as he neared the shimmering shield, the White Swordsman changed the direction of his swing to first throw his body into a forward somersault before changing direction again. Planting his feet against the shield, the White Swordsman shoved off in a completely different direction, cutting a large swathe through the whelps that had been trying to join the battle. Again and again, the warrior wrought destruction on the lesser dragons, zigzagging across the not-sky and leaving behind the strange ice spheres; it was during his frenzy the great black dragon Narwhal unleashed its fury on his friends. A large cone of dragon fire cascaded down the pyramid structure, its white-hot flames scorching everything in its path. It was worth noting the structure was left unscathed, while its many vines and the growing moss were set ablaze just as the forested swamp was below, for several meters. Once the dragon unleashed its attack, both Einst and Crim made their move—granted the captain had already started—closing in on Narwhal with uncanny synchronization. Einst approached from the dragon’s right flank in a direct line with no wasted movement, while Crim approached from the dragon’s front-right. The White Swordsman, while fast, was moving noticeably slower than Crim overall; the difference in their speed was one the two had learned to manipulate to their advantage over the years, enabling the duo to pull off extremely effective Unite Attacks, such as this. The Unite Attack, simply named Outlaw Star, resulted in Einst crossing the dragon’s right flank just after Crim would have punished the dragon’s face. Like before, Einst’s sword was covered in frost which left a growing sphere of powerful ice elemental magic that quickly smothered the dragon’s backside. Each meter that his blade sliced through its storied “impenetrable hide” caused the sphere to spread and expand until he finally crossed beyond the beast’s back. The dragon reeled back in pain from Crim’s side of the attack and roared in fury as the massive Valkyrie rent its way through dragon scale, hide, and flesh with apparent ease. Ultimately the two pirates’ paths crossed just in front of Narwhal’s skull, each of them landing some 10-15 meters away to their respective sides, both sliding to a stop in incredibly cool fashion. In the aftermath of the attack, the ice magic spread over a massive portion of the dragon’s back and wings, while also infecting the entire wound track left by the Valkyrie. Not even a full second from the time the White Swordsman landed did the enormous mass of ice erupt in a tremendously violent display of diamond blue light, both the spheres smothering Narwhal as well as those littering the not-sky. Debris in the form of frost spread outward from the epicenter of the blast, riddled with shards of ice which further exploded akin to a cluster bomb. As it were, the massive black dragon and its whelps found themselves bombarded with ice elemental magic for several seconds; when it was finally over, Narwhal was thoroughly enveloped in a thick blue fog, and the whelps’ numbers had rapidly dropped to virtually zero. At the end of it all, the White Swordsman stepped out of the tracks left in his wake as he slid to a stop and turned to face his allies. His senses were already far improved over what they were when they first started this journey into the never-ending-mansion. It seemed that the more they (Crim & Einst) used their abilities and pushed the limits of the interference weighing them down, the more overall power they could access. It was a good thing too, since both the pirates had that unshakeable feeling that something big was behind all the nefarious activities occurring throughout the princess’ kingdom. Hell, it probably was true for the whole continent… At any rate, Einst started walking toward Phacia, Viola, and Chloe (and her little dog too!). He kept the Valkyrie unsheathed, hoisting it up to rest on the strap that secured the scabbard to his back, ensuring he could answer the dragon’s next attack to the best of his ability, at a moment’s notice. He could see Crim over by the adjacent corner of the pyramid, having landed roughly equal distance away as himself on his respective side. Einst gave the captain a thumbs up and hollered out to him, his big ol’ smile evidence he was finally starting to enjoy himself. “Hahaha, hey! Was that cool or what?! I think we should call that version Outlaw Starburst or something haha”.
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:57:59 GMT
Posted by Reno:{ BGM: "Drakengard - Chapter IV ~ In the Sky"} The dragon appeared to have been completely overwhelmed by the onslaught of Crim and Einst's combined attack. To be fair, there were exceedingly few beings throughout the Omniverse who would be capable of weathering such a storm unscathed. Narse, for all of his sheer size and power, seemed to have met his match here. However, something was amiss, and Crim wasn't buying it. He stood up, leveling his gaze at the injured dragon as it howled in agony and collapsed atop the massive pyramid structure. "Hmm."The air was still, silent. The few remaining whelps fluttered above, circling over Narse, as though in some sort of ritualistic mourning for their fallen master. But Crim sensed life yet remaining within the massive creature. No, more than that. There was something else, something... foreign. It had been gnawing at him, actually. The feeling of a 'presence' that was familiar, but he couldn't quite figure why. It permeated this entire place, but it had grown increasingly intense with the appearance of this dragon. Like it was being concentrated within. Was Narse the source? No. No, that would be too easy. The influence was coming from elsewhere. Far away, yet also nearby. Lingering just out of view, peering over the edge of perception, just enough to be noticed now. Then, a faint noise. It sounded like...applause? Accompanied by sinister laughter, echoing throughout the area. Narse remained mostly motionless and quiet, aside from labored breathing, but alive. The laughter grew louder, until it sounded like it was being blasted over loudspeakers. Crim's eyes shot up to the space directly above Narse. And nearly in the same instant, he appeared. The Captain knew right away who it was. The lord of this accursed castle... "Aigenleif..." Crim said flatly as he glared up at the vampiric visage of Lord Zweigraf Aigenleif. The Sky Elf struck a noble appearance, with long, shimmering hair, platinum-lavender in color. His eyes were a deep blood red, and his skin a pale grey. He wore a black and crimson cape, fancy, expensive-looking clothes befitting of his status as a wealthy, high born Sky Elf. His wings, formerly white and angelic, now appeared demonic, jagged and bat-like, typical of what a demon would possess. They emitted a dark energy which distorted the surrounding air and seemed to spread shadows where none should exist. His mouth twisted into a sinister sneer, bearing with pride his telltale vampire fangs. At his left side, he wore a sheathed sword, which itself emanated a tremendous and sinister power. "I commend you, weary travelers! Most enjoyable indeed!" He continued his applause, practically oozing contempt for his 'guests'. "How rude of me to have not introduced myself sooner. I am Zweigraf Aigenleif, lord of this castle. Most charmed to make your acquaintance!" He made a mocking bow down towards them. "My my... You lot certainly made short work of my servant...tsk tsk... Perhaps I should have endowed him with more power? Well...that can be arranged." { BGM: "Drakengard - Chapter VIII ~ In the Sky"} Aigenleif raised his right hand, which became engulfed in a swirling pale blue and silver energy for a moment, before a symbol manifested itself in the air above him. Crim frowned deeply at this. The power was unmistakable now. He should have realized it earlier, but he never imagined it as a possibility. It really shouldn't be a possibility at all. And yet, here it was, appearing plain as day before his eyes. Aigenleif, somehow, had come into possession of one of the 27 True Runes. Specifically, the Moon Rune, which was responsible for forces dealing with 'destruction and compassion', and governed vampires and their ilk. Immediately, Crim's thoughts drifted to the Moon Rune's true bearer, Sierra Mikain. He wondered what might have become of her, for the Rune to now be in possession of this bastard. It wasn't unprecedented, after all. Neclord had previously stolen the Rune from her, and had caused all kinds of havoc as a result. But he had been defeated, and the Rune returned to Sierra. Was this a fake? Some sort of extremely accurate copy? Perhaps...but he wasn't inclined to think so. True Runes were, for all intents and purposes, deities themselves. Perfectly replicating such entities along with their powers to this extent would only be possible for beings with powers of the same scale as the likes of Wolfgang or Killiak, and even then... He glanced down at his right hand, and the Rune of Heaven upon it. It was pulsating. Reacting to the presence of one of its brethren. This was the real deal. Aigenleif poured energy from the Rune into Narse, and the effect was instantaneous. Narse's injuries vanished as his body was not only revitalized, but strengthened far beyond what it had been initially. The great dragon rose up and let out an earth-shattering roar that sent visible shockwaves through the air. Strong enough to knock Chloe, Viola and Phaecia off their feet, while practically paralyzing them in fear, if only temporarily. Crim and Einst, of course, were far more resilient, and immune to such effects, but the power increase was undeniable. In fact, by Crim's estimation, Narse was now on equal footing with Aigenleif himself. Which was concerning all on its own. This was a high-level ability for any True Rune bearer, which meant that Aigenleif was in full command of its vast powers. Crim, meanwhile, wasn't certain if his own command over the Rune of Heaven was up to full strength. Hell, even at the best of times, he wasn't exactly fully compatible with it. Naturally, he wasn't about to let any of that slip. Aigenleif was definitely powerful, but Crim could already see gaps in his ability. Bravado, overconfidence, contempt, and most obvious of all, over-reliance on the Rune's power. Borrowed...no, stolen power. It wasn't his own. Though all that being said, there was still an awful lot of it. And it would remain to be seen just how much of it Aigenleif could really make use of. As Aigenleif revived his so-called 'servant', Crim had repositioned himself near to Einst. "This ain't good. That dragon is just as powerful as Aigenleif now. He's got his goddamn grubby mitts on a True Rune, somehow." Einst raised a curious eyebrow. "Ehh? You don't say...yeah, I thought that felt kind of similar to something. It's like yours, but also different." "Yeah. He's got the Moon Rune. Governs vampires and other related bullshit. No fuckin' idea how he got it. All of the True Runes are equal in power, but some bearers are more effective than others. He might have the edge on me in that department to be honest. Even so, I think it's best if I tackle him myself. I'm gonna have to focus on him entirely too. I know it's a fuckin' pain in the ass, but I'm gonna have to ask you to deal with that dragon and keep the women safe, too." A big ask, indeed. Narse was at least as powerful as Aigenleif now. The only difference seemed to be intelligence. Normally, a dragon like Narse would actually be as intelligent as any human, if not more so. Being enslaved in this manner, though, seemed to have dulled his mind. All the power of a great dragon, enhanced by a True Rune, but acting primarily on wild, unfettered instinct. Coupled with the annoying task of also watching over Chloe, Viola and Phaecia. Neither fighter was going to have an easy time of it. { BGM: "Passacaria"} Aigenleif remained in his spot above Narse as Crim began moving forward, raising his right hand and calling upon his own True Rune in order to catch the vampire lord's attention. "Hey, how's about you and I have ourselves a little chat, huh?" Aigenleif looked somewhat surprised for a moment, but quickly returned to his previous expression. Overconfident son-of-a-bitch. "Ahh...yes, I was told that one of you would be in possession of that." He vanished, only to reappear in nearly the same instant at ground level, off to the left side of the pyramid structure, where Crim was headed. "Which means you must be...Crim El Frogger?" "Hahaha...Frogger. Fun game. Yeah, you can call me Frogger if ya want. Gettin' yer ass handed to ya by a goofball named 'Frogger' is gonna make for a hell of an embarrassing legacy." This self-deprecating reversal seemed to irritate Aigenleif. Not quite so much visibly, but Crim sensed a sharp spike in the vampire's emotions, his Ether turning vengeful and angry for time, without fully settling back into its previous state. This meant Crim's initial assessment was spot-on. Aigenleif was indeed unstable, and not in the useful, unpredictable way. Crim would be able to rattle this motherfucker with antics. "Hmph...such banality..." Aigenleif spat, trying to sound superior. "You're as vile as those disgusting low-borns. No...worse. You're a mere human. Simple apes, the lot of you." "Be that as it may, I'm still gonna explode your entire fuckin' head," Crim declared, staring directly into Aigenleif's eyes with zero hesitation, his aura radiating intent. Radiating truth. Aigenleif was taken aback by this. Never before had he been met with such...purity of purpose. The sheer audacity of this worm! And yet, he had been warned about him. The ones who had granted him his power. They had told him to beware of Crim El Furaga. And of the others in his retinue, as well. Aigenleif cast a brief glance in the direction of the blonde-haired swordsman. Blonde hair. That one must be Ludwig von Einst. Apparently an equally dangerous fighter to Crim himself. But, no. Impossible. They were filthy, bottom-feeding humans, after all. He was certain that his benefactors were simply overstating things. "Come then, fool. Entertain me!" Aigenleif beckoned for Crim to attack. One of the all-time classic blunders.
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Post by Killiak on Nov 17, 2023 13:58:52 GMT
{BGM: “Tempest”}This wasn’t the first dragon the deadly duo had fought against. They were well prepared to deal with Narse despite their limitations, the unite attack was evidence of that, and yet both Crim and Einst had felt something was…wrong. Life never completely slipped away from Narse’s body, but before they could deliver the true finishing blow the group was met with the lord apparent of this wretched place. His presence was oppressive, potent…so much so, it just made sense that his weaselly little face was responsible for the mass fuckery that had happened the moment they entered this cursed “castle”… Einst simply stood at his captain’s side, who appeared to be more bothered by the elf’s appearance than himself. Not in a fearful way, it was more like the captain knew something about their malicious host than he did. The White Swordsman on the other hand didn’t recognize anything about the rotten scoundrel apart from the obvious. The stench of death and despair surrounding him was enough for him to know the guy meant business, though there was something vaguely familiar about him, too. That sensation only intensified as this ‘Aigenleif’ began channeling his magic through the dragon Narse to incredible effect. Not only was the beast revived, Aigenleif’s intent was to strengthen the dragon to levels several times over what it had possessed when the duo took him down. Needless to say, this was concerning given their predicament, and downright annoying. Even so, Einst maintained his nonchalant appearance while silently analyzing the situation, ready to move at a moment’s notice. Then Crim leaned in to give him the rundown… "This ain't good. That dragon is just as powerful as Aigenleif now. He's got his goddamn grubby mitts on a True Rune, somehow." Einst raised a curious eyebrow. "Ehh? You don't say...yeah, I thought that felt kind of similar to something. It's like yours, but also different." "Yeah. He's got the Moon Rune. Governs vampires and other related bullshit. No fuckin' idea how he got it. All of the True Runes are equal in power, but some bearers are more effective than others. He might have the edge on me in that department to be honest. Even so, I think it's best if I tackle him myself. I'm gonna have to focus on him entirely too. I know it's a fuckin' pain in the ass, but I'm gonna have to ask you to deal with that dragon and keep the women safe, too." Einst nodded his head to the side as he immediately allowed his focus to zero in on the revived Narse. It had begun to exhale with quickening frequency, powerful gusts bursting from its angry nostrils as the air distorted beneath rapidly increasing temperatures. Meanwhile, Crim and Aigenleif started slinging insults to each other, a classic ruse of the captain’s that had a record of inciting rage in egomaniacs like this asshole made himself out to be. Crim started towards them, and Einst tightened his grip on the Valkyrie, keeping it nestled atop the strap of its scabbard but choosing to stand his ground for the moment. The revitalized dragon clambered to its feet, almost as if its body was struggling to accept the injection of so much power, though this detail was imperceptible to all but the most astute. The White Swordsman had his sights locked on the immense dragon and would see to it the captain’s request was fulfilled, even if he didn’t need to be asked to protect the others. At any rate, Narse spread its great black wings as far as they could go, with Aigenleif moving off toward the captain and out of the way the great beast was free to unleash its full might on the others. On that note, Narse appeared to ignore Einst as it turned its head towards the women, nostrils flaring as twin jets of superheated air burst out either one. Rearing its head back, Narse let loose a powerful roar that seemed to split the air throughout the region. As the dragon inhaled, its chest and abdomen began to glow a deep crimson-orange light. It was at this moment the White Swordsman made his move, taking off toward the women at breakneck speeds. The ground surrounding the dragon’s massive arms and legs began to splinter beneath a building quake emanating from the beast itself—this was not like its previous attack. The White Swordsman tore into the ground every few meters, accelerating his approach with careful timing, and yet it wouldn’t be enough. Narse might have been enslaved to Aigenleif, losing its ability to think for itself with full independence and make use of the legendary intelligence his race was known for, but that didn’t mean this was going to be a cake walk. Whether it was the beast or the master, Einst appeared to play right into their hands as the dragon immediately shifted from building up its attack with slow, steady progression to abruptly releasing a devastatingly powerful breath attack the next moment. “Damn it…!”In a rare display the White Swordsman vanished without a trace one moment, only to reappear some four meters behind Phacia, Chloe, and Viola the next. “Move aside!” With flames barreling down toward them like some fiery avalanche, Einst split the gap between his comrades, carrying with him all his previous momentum. As he charged forward, Einst dove forward and transferred all his strength and speed into an unorthodox maneuver that perfectly positioned his sword for a forward vertical slash while his body glided through the air parallel to the ground. The slash continued endlessly, the massive Valkyrie generating tremendous force which was aimed into the heart of Narse’s breath attack. The two attacks collided in a fantastic display of twisting flames that stretched into the highest reaches of the artificial sky. Whether by some miracle or frightening precision, the White Swordsman thoroughly consumed the dragon’s attack in so far as preventing it from reaching its intended target. By design, the way he intercepted the cascade of fire didn’t quench the flames, but instead threw them back right into the dragon’s face. It was a strange tactic to throw an element back at an opponent that clearly favored it, since all it appeared to do was empower the beast even further, but there was obviously no taking it back. Furthermore, dozens of residual embers were thrown into the trees and vegetation in the surrounding area that unsurprisingly lit the forests ablaze. The end of his counterattack put the White Swordsman airborne, overlooking the great dragon by several dozen meters. Given that he was still struggling to regain full use of his power, being airborne wasn’t exactly an ideal position as it meant he was faced with the typical disadvantage that swordsmen fell victim to. Quite simply, being stuck in the air without the ability to fly reduced his natural maneuverability to zero, which Narse (or perhaps Aigenleif) sought to capitalize on immediately. The dragon raised its head, its massive maw smoldering with blistering flames which it released in a great ball of fire aimed square at the White Swordsman’s freefalling body. Seeing no reason to overthink his options, he took the easiest path forward and simply…repeated his previous attack, just in reverse! Ripping the Valkyrie down into another spiraling slash, the White Swordsman slammed into the great ball of fire and launched it right back into the dragon’s face! The physical impact annoyed the dragon and not much more, as the flames crawled over its scales, its elemental power being absorbed back into itself. It was at this time Aigenleif, in the midst of dealing with the captain, issued a premature warning to the captain about his friend and comrade. “It appears your friend isn’t too smart. At this rate, he’ll be the first of you mutts to die! Hahaha!” Following his reflection of the fireball, Einst continued his downward path, swinging the Valkyrie in a wild manner that seemed to increase his speed with every pass—and it was. Every swing of the massive sword was aimed in such a way that Einst was effectively throwing himself down at Narse’s left side, just above what he calculated to be the extent of its reach with its great wings. In no time flat, Einst was upon the dragon and on one final rotation, he directed the momentum into a powerful thrust. Between the built-up speed, the significant weight and quality/power of the sword itself, and his technique, Einst was confident he could pierce its hide once again. This time, he intended to strike at Narse’s heart from above and finally kill the dra--!! THWACK!Narse twisted his body and slammed its gigantic tail into Einst from above and to the right of his skull, launching the White Swordsman across the sky again—this time into the pyramid structure. Whatever the structure was made of it had no give whatsoever, and if the strike of the tail wasn’t hard enough, Einst really felt it when he smashed into it, which was saying a lot for his stamina and durability! Truth be told, most warriors would have wound up painting the side of the pyramid with their blood and entrails. Even so, he was pretty banged up and not looking too good sliding down the side. “Sir Einst, no!”, Phacia cried out from below. She tried to run toward him but both Chloe and Viola took hold of her from either side, keeping her back. “Trust me, he’ll be fine! As annoying as they are, I’ve never seen either of these two lose…All we can do is stay out of his way”, Chloe assured her. Normally, she would be right there with the princess, desperate to help in any way she could, but the day was obviously weighing on her, nevermind the fact she didn’t think she could do much against a black dragon. Whatever she had been through since parting ways with the group, when she showed up with this goblin practically attached to her hip, Chloe just hadn’t been the same… ”Fuckin’ hell…”, Einst cursed under his breath, his body sore and stinging from the pain of getting his bell rung. Fortunately for him he managed to turn into the impact at the last moment, which allowed for the Valkyrie’s scabbard to take the brunt of it. The scabbard was forged from some ancient material that ensured its durability was infallible, combined with myriad enchantments to guarantee it further and that was great—but it didn’t prevent him from feeling the force of the tail strike, and it didn’t stop him from feeling the impact completely. After hitting the structure, he rolled a few times until he was able to land on his back again, pulling the Valkyrie up to lay across his body at an angle. He was taking a breather, gauging the dragon’s reaction in the meantime. Was it going to close in for the kill? Did it think he was already dead and going to turn back to the others? ”What’s it gonna be you overgrown lizard…”The change in Einst’s body was showing itself again, his right hand appearing to freeze over with several millimeters of frost which extended across the entire length of the Valkyrie. It was still a mystery whether the man knew what it meant or not, but for now there wasn’t any time to think about it… ”So it’s option B then…why is it always B?”
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Post by Reno on Mar 15, 2024 19:23:16 GMT
{ BGM: "Creeping Crisis"} The Captain and the vampiric Sky Elf stared each other down, each sizing the other up, attempting to get a read of some kind. The battle between Einst and the massive dragon was already going practically full blast, charging the air with tumultuous Ether, causing the entire cavern to shake as their tremendous powers clashed. But Crim and Aigenleif were unaffected by this, as they were each focused on one another, at least for the moment. It was clear that neither one could afford to give the other any leeway whatsoever, which meant there was precious little room to maneuver. The first one to blink would seize the advantage here. Crim, for his part, remained nonchalant in both stance and demeanor. Relaxed, yet primed for action. Business as usual for him, really. In his rather vast experience, this has many a time proven an effective way to give opponents a bit of pause. Such a seemingly laid-back approach to serious situations tended to make folks wonder if he was somehow ill-prepared...but then catch themselves with the realization that such a notion was preposterous. There was no way someone like Crim El Furaga would be ill-prepared, which would therefore mean that his overly relaxed outward appearance meant that he was just incredibly at ease? Or maybe overconfident? What? No, that made no sense, either... And so-on, so-forth, second and third and even fourth-guessing themselves, fretting needlessly over something so trivial. And then the less astute (or perhaps just hotheaded) adversaries might take it as an opportunity to launch an offensive straight out of the gate. A foolish and costly error, but usually not a fatal one, considering Crim's tendency towards nonlethal attacks and all. Ah, but! That little stipulation didn't apply in this fight, now did it? Being that our dear Lord Aigenleif was an entity of a decidedly demonic variety and all. Which meant that Crim didn't need to pull his punches. He could go all-out to his heart's content. Certainly a tempting idea, and he was sure that he would eventually need to vaporize this bastard...probably. However, before that, he wanted to at least try to get some information outta him. He was sick of being in the dark about this god damned floating island already. Plus, he definitely needed to find out just how in the absolute fuck Aigenleif got his grubby mitts on the Moon Rune. It was either an impeccable copy, or the genuine article. Either way, the implications weren't what he would call good, although if it was just a copy, that would probably make things at least a little less complicated. Still not a good thing though, since it meant they were dealing with an extremely high-level entity anyway...but at least it would rule out them... ...well maybe fifty-fifty on that one. Ah, screw it anyway. The motherfuckers had their hands in every goddamn thing, so they were likely here too, mucking about and pulling all the strings as usual. Cryptic sons-of-bitches with their endless machinations! "...Like those fucking hip musicians and their complicated shoes!" Crim blurted out all of a sudden, his tone oddly accusatory. "What are you talking about? Have you gone mad with fear?" Aigenleif replied with a smug smirk. "Eh? Oh, yeah, all kinds of mad over here, yup, ain't that the truth. But that's got nothin' to do with you." Crim's aura shifted from lighthearted to something...a bit less so. Not exactly what you'd call dire, or even serious, but definitely not messing around either. He continued. "Anyway, before I bash your brains in, lemme ask you somethin'. Who gave you that Rune? Ain't no way a scrub like you woulda been able to nab it from Sierra on your own. So talk." <><><><><>>+<<><><><><> Aigenleif was, in truth, a fair bit perturbed by this man. This mere mortal, human filth, who dared to stand before him as though they were on equal terms. And with such overt hubris, besides! And what made it all worse was the sense that, in truth, this human was actually much more than he appeared to be. Aigenleif had been warned beforehand, yes, even without said warning, he would have been able to discern this much simply by observation. This uncouth space pirate was no ordinary human, and should not be underestimated. And yet...his own pride demanded that he not demonstrate any outward concern. Yes, this Crim El Furaga was a powerful adversary. A legitimate threat, even. Or at least...he would have been before. Yes, to the earlier, lesser version of Aigenleif, prior to ascension into godhood! Now? Even the most legendary warriors stood no chance before his ultimate power. And that wasn't even considering the additional boons granted unto him by the Moon Rune... "Ah... yes, this trinket. But a mere trifle, really. Hardly worth the effort, ha ha ha..." Aigenleif spoke with confidence, but deep down, it was built on a hollow foundation. In reality, he'd simply been given the Rune with little explanation as to its origins. He'd never even heard the name 'Sierra' until the ruffian had brought it up. He continued. "So the previous owner's name was...Sierra? I hadn't bothered to inquire." { BGM: "Green Vibes"} At this, Crim just smirked. "Heh...so, you didn't actually obtain it on your own, eh? Just like I thought. Well, I'll get to the bottom of this after beating you into a bloody mess." Aigenleif began to scoff. Crim's aura flared up, a pale green, particularly concentrated around his right hand, his True Rune blazing upon it. Practically zero warning, Crim's form flickered for the briefest of moments before appearing to vanish, only to reappear directly in front of his opponent in a flash, striking towards his chest with his right fist. Aigenleif was nearly taken by surprise, but his greatly enhanced vampiric senses and physical capabilities enabled him to react just in time to narrowly dodge the attack. He took to the air, but Crim was hot on his trail, leaping skyward at a rate that defied expectations. However, Aigenleif had the advantage in the sky, being a winged race and all. Or so he thought. He made a deft aerial maneuver in order to attempt to gain the upper hand and attack Crim from a side angle, but Crim was somehow able to anticipate this, and alter his own trajectory in mid-air. This actually did surprise Aigenleif, who then opted to make a hasty tactical retreat in order to regain his composure and reassess the situation. Crim opted to not pursue at this time, instead allowing himself to return to ground level. The two of them stared each other down again, with Crim smirking and Aigenleif wearing an expression of mixed contempt and frustration. He couldn't figure out exactly what had just happened, even playing it back in his mind. His vision should have been able to pick up on every subtle movement. He should have been able to sense changes in the Ether. And yet, none of it had registered. At least, not in any way that made sense. "Ruffian...what are you playing at, exactly?" "Heh. Rackin' yer brain huh." "Hmph... hardly. I simply find the mind of a low-born savage somewhat curious is all." "Haha, yeah, whatever you say, nerd." "Enough!" Anger flashed across Aigenleif's features for an instant, but settled on an expression more akin to annoyance. "I grow weary of your incessant japes, low-born. Time to put an end to this...!" { BGM: "Genuine Devil"} Crim decided to stand by and observe as Aigenleif proceeded to gather some sort of dark, evil-tained energy around him. It swirled and coalesced into a wispy black and pale blue aura, jacking up the vampiric Elf's abilities to a degree, but not to any extent that Crim would consider to be unmanageable. The Captain could also sense the power and influence of the Moon Rune, which wasn't unexpected, but still somewhat of a concern. It seemed that the vampire wasn't entirely clueless when it came to utilizing the power of the Rune after all. "Witness the true power of the High Born, lowly scum!" Aigenleif shouted as bolts of dark-tinted energy shot up around him and gathered over his forearm and clenched fist. "This sure is taking a long time..." Crim yawned. "HUUUUAAAAH!!!" Aigenleaf yelled as he extended his hand towards Crim, blasting out a stream of violent blue and black bolts. Crim was unperturbed, but just at the last instant before moving to evade, his eyes widened as the bolts dispersed and surrounded him in a sphere, forming into a pulsating black hole kind of thing. Aigenleif smirked as his form flickered and vanished, reappearing inside the newly-created space within the black hole. It was apparently some sort of pocket dimension, which amplified demonic powers while subduing other types of power. The landscape was twisted and demonic, a basic visage of 'hell', though to Crim, it just looked dull. Probably because he's seen this (and much worse) dozens and dozens of times already. Aigenleif hovered in the air above Crim, looking down upon the Captain all smug and self-satisfied, like he really thought he'd managed to pull one over on him. "So, ready to beg for your life now, mortal? "Eh? Oh, nah. I was just thinking about what's for dinner." Crim's eyes met the vampire's, and in doing so, the very fabric of this space seemed to shake along with Aigenleif's own resolve. "But I reckon I'm down for a bit of entertainment first." <><><><><>>+<<><><><><> From the outside, the black hole at first appeared smooth, and solid. Almost tranquil in a way. Viola immediately rushed over when she noticed the spike in negative energy, just in time to witness Crim being swallowed up by it. With things as they were currently, she didn't have access to the necessary mana pool to muster up a spell that would be strong enough to dispel the black hole and free Crim from the pocket dimension within...unless... She began to formulate a plan in her head, but it would at the very least require cooperation with that dumpy Half-Elf bitch and her weird little gremlin. Disgusting. But there weren't any other options. "Damn it all...!" She started to turn to meet back up with the others, but stopped as she heard what sounded like glass cracking. "Huh?" As she observed the black hole, it began to show clear signs of instability. Fiercely glowing cracks spread across its surface, first pale blue, but suddenly shifting to a pale green which grew increasingly intense. Then a sudden spike of energy erupted, and the entire thing shattered, its essence burned away entirely in a flash as Aigenleif's body came hurtling outward with tremendous speed and force, skidding and tumbling over the ground, leaving streaks of black blood in his wake. { BGM: "Shadowlord"} A shining ethereal chain lashed out from the still-blazing sphere of light, wrapping around the base of one of Aigenleif's demonic wings, yanking back and stopping the vampiric Sky Elf from going too far. Aigenleif howled in agony as the chain pulled him back, nearly tearing the broken, tattered wing clean off. The light faded and Crim, looking only a bit worse for wear, stepped forward, the chain attached to his right arm bracer. He pulled it again, this time sending a pulse of energy through it, emanating from the Rune of Heaven upon his right hand. The pulse caused the chain to burn through Aigenleif's skin, muscle and bone, completely severing the wing. Aigenleif's shrill screams of pain echoed throughout the area as Crim retracted his chain and walked towards him. The formerly calm and confident 'vampire lord' began to drag himself along the ground, looking back towards Crim with sheer terror upon his face, his legs seemingly useless as they dragged through the dirt, trailing blood. "N-no...! Stay away...! D-demon!" Aigenleif stammered as Crim drew nearer. "Oh...so now you fear 'demons', do ya? Ha ha ha..." There was a subtle change to Crim's aura, now. It was still green, but it also contained flecks of amber, and an outline of deep red with occasional pitch black bolts. Viola caught a glimpse of his eyes. They looked different, somehow... Crim stopped just in front of Aigenleif, stepping on his remaining wing, which caused the Sky Elf to cry out again." "Please...s-spare me... I... I'll serve you...!" Aigenleif begged. "Shut up." Crim replied flatly. He then lashed out with his right arm, extending the chain once more, this time across Aigenleif's right arm, severing it in an instant. Again, the vampire howled, but Crim didn't pay it any mind. He kneeled down and picked up the severed arm. His Rune of Heaven began to shine in unison with the Moon Rune. "Hmph... you need to go back." He turned to Viola, his aura settling somewhat, but his eyes were still possessed by that unsettling quality. "You got any sealing stones or whatever in that magic bag of tricks?" Taken aback for a moment, Viola stammered out a reply. "Ah...u-um, yes I do..." "Good," he tossed the severed arm to her. "Take care of this. But don't get any slick ideas. You're just holding onto it. I ain't givin' it to ya. It belongs to someone else. I'll pay you later." He turned back to Aigenleif. "Yeah... yeah, whatever..." Viola trailed off as she started to rummage through her inventory. Too shocked to really protest anything. "As for you..." Crim looked down upon the broken, bleeding form of Aigenleif. "P-please...I... beg..." "Die.""Die."When he spoke, Crim's voice sounded like two people speaking in unison as he extended his right hand and released a blast of concentrated Ether directly into Aigenleif's face, ruthlessly executing him before the Sky Elf could even finish begging for his life. The sensation of the energy, coupled with the sound of it, made Viola jump, but she didn't look up. She didn't want to. Crim stood over Aigenleif's motionless corpse for a short time. The look on his face seemed conflicted, but after some moments passed, his aura calmed, and his eyes returned to their usual azure green. Just what the hell happened inside that pocket dimension...? |
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Post by Killiak on Sept 1, 2024 15:31:29 GMT
{BGM: “You’re Not Alone”}From the moment the Yggdrasil Crew had crash landed on this damned floating continent, nothing had gone quite the way the group would have liked. For Crim, Chloe, Einst and the princess and their tag-a-long, this was especially true of their time in the depths of the odd, dark Castle. The lord of the castle, this Aigenleif, was falling for every trick the Captain laid out for him while his supercharged pet dragon was trading in violence with the White Swordsman...all of which the princess could only watch from afar with a confused concoction of emotion. The powers on display from the tainted Aigenleif were beyond anything she had seen or read about in the royal libraries, and yet so too were those of these Space Pirates… On the one hand, she was beholden with fear. She felt helpless in the face of such prowess, knowing that any of those in her company could extinguish her light in an instant. It was certainly a humbling thought, but it was accompanied by the knowledge that these were good people, people who never relented in her protection. As she watched Aigenleif, so twisted in darkness, the princess couldn’t help but fear for what was becoming of her father’s kingdom. If such darkness had taken root in the kingdom of the Sky Elves, what had become of the rest of the realm? Chloe could sense her plight even amidst her own ordeal; she was no stranger to that feeling of helplessness in the presence of the Captain and the other more powerful crew members, having spent many years in such a position. Knowing how the princess was feeling, she laid her hand on her shoulder in an attempt to ease her mind. It seemed to snap her out of it right away, the princess turning to look upon Chloe, greeting her with a forced smile—until their moment was swept away by the sound of the dragon’s roar tearing through the underground cavern. They both turned to see Einst tumbling down the seemingly immovable structure, with the dragon Narse turning its gaze upon them. {BGM: “To The Edge”}After countering Einst’s last attack, Narse roared with equal measures of rage and celebration. It was clear the dragon counted the puny human warrior for dead, no longer able to stop it from feeding on the bodies of the women gathered below. Of course, this simply wasn’t true, as Einst regained his posture, sliding down the structure on the scabbard strapped across his back. It was obvious the dragon thought him for dead, and to maintain his brief cover, Einst invoked his natural ability the Divine Shield-EX. For all intents and purposes, the White Swordsman all but vanished from the senses, the skill so effective one couldn’t fully trust what their eyes told them. The visage of the White Swordsman became distorted, appearing as to move in subtle subterfuge even when standing perfectly still, or sliding down an impenetrable pyramid in this case. All of this to say, Narse could no longer sense the warrior’s presence and was given no reason to believe otherwise. “Alright you overgrown flying tadpole, you’re -mine-…!”The White Swordsman’s body coursed with tremendous power, still in complete obscurity, power which the warrior channeled through his legs and feet to stop himself from sliding down the pyramid, immediately standing upright with his left leg taking lead. His right leg bent slightly at the knee, Einst looked as though he was poised to launch himself down the side of the structure in a forward lunge, the massive Valkyrie suspended at roughly chest level, right arm drawn back with his left palm supporting the forend. The thin veil of frost smothering the blade grew with a quickness, transforming into a thick sheet of crystal clear ice. Likewise, the power surging throughout Einst’s body broke through the surface in an enormous burst of sapphire hued ether. Though it couldn’t be felt by even those most sensitive to ether, it was clear that Einst was through with holding his punches against the dragon. Still, it flew through the sky, gathering dragon’s fire in its maw from the depths of its immense body. The princess shrieked in her terror while Viola, Chloe and her goblin companion all braced for their impending baths in fire. A deep, quaking rumble emanated from Narse’s belly as it swept its wings out to stop mid-flight. Head reared back, the quaking rumble broke into the skies in a thunderous crack—Narse opened its cavern of teeth and the fire burst forward in a nightmarish wave. The girls all screamed as the fire barreled down towards them. Just what the hell was taking Einst so long to move?! They couldn’t see beyond the sea of dragon’s fire, but Einst was nowhere to be found for the briefest instant anyway. Once more executing a combination of techniques, Einst launched himself from the pyramid via lunging forward through his tremendous leg strength. If one were privy to his techniques and abilities, they’d know this to be somewhere in the order of his second tier of speed attained presumably through his Heavy Metal Training. The pyramid remained unfazed, and Einst was...well, he was gone! The combination saw the second use of his Instant Transmission technique, transporting him from far behind the dragon to directly between its breath attack and the women he was charged with protecting. Previously, the White Swordsman had relied on purely physical techniques to disperse such an attack, but even before Narse had begun to charge its attack he knew it wouldn’t be enough this time. As he appeared in front of the flaming wave, Einst thrust the Valkyrie forward, only this time he didn’t spin himself about like a maniac. Iron Serpent – HeavenbreakerIn another explosion of light, the White Swordsman revealed his fighting spirit to Narse whilst dropping the veil of his Divine Shield. This amplified the extreme assault on the air as the culmination of techniques was likewise laid bare, and yet there was more...a terrifying shriek the likes of which none of them had heard before in their lives. Like a thunderous wave from beyond the bounds of physical space, the sword Einst chose to trust his life to at the onset of this journey finally tore down the barriers which suppressed its power. The advent of the Valkyrie breaching said barriers was marked by the unmistakable sound of glass shattering, and then the two titans’ powers collided. It was not some thoughtless decision for him to encase his sword in concentrated Elder Frost, though it was a gamble nonetheless. One which paid off in spades… Ice collided with fire, the opposing elements erupting in a furious struggle to overtake the other. The dragon continued to empty its bottomless belly of dragon’s fire, and Einst continued to twist forward in his lethal thrusting technique. When the Valkyrie’s shriek invaded the entire cavern, the tides turned in the White Swordsman’s favor. The tumultuous, rage fueled assault of fire was undone in an instant, its ethereal power erased in the face of a greater force. What was left behind was entirely overcome by the seemingly divine power at Einst’s command—such was its intense power that the Dragon’s Fire was transformed into a wave of ice. That wave continued through Narse’s skull, splitting the dragon’s body from snout to tail. Every fiber of the dragon’s being was frozen through its core, leaving behind a haunting yet beautiful display of frozen fountains of fire and blood. The dragon’s twisted, frozen corpse fell to the ground, and when it impacted the surface the ground quaked furiously, wind and dirt and stone burst out in a cloud that washed over the girls whilst Einst looked on from above. Curiously, when the frozen corpse and wave came to touch the blazing inferno that was overtaking the forest, those flames also transformed into dancing waves of ice. It seemed the breaking down of barriers had returned even more of his abilities to him, as he no longer was restricted from using his ability to fly. All in all, he appeared no worse than before, and in fact looked refreshed to some extent now that more of his power was available. Of course, with his usual powers returning to him, he was forced to activate the Divine Shield-EX once again in order to control it. Almost like a candle slowly dying to the crushing weight of night, Einst’s presence vanished to all but the eyes… He turned toward the Princess and company before descending to the ground, sheathing the Valkyrie at long last in spite of its desperate cries only he could hear. Its return to its scabbard allowed him to recover yet more stamina… The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, of course. The black hole that Crim had been pulled into was dispersed, with Crim and Viola disposing of the cretin Aigenleif. Einst tended to Chloe and the Princess, who ran over to Einst and hugged him with all her strength. Clearly instinctual, Einst could see the realization hit her as she regained her composure, apologizing profusely for acting out of emotion. Even still, it was pretty obvious the girl was fighting back tears. Once Crim was finished executing the twisted Sky Elf, Einst gently rubbed the Princess’s arm in a sort of “It’s ok, cheer up” fashion before he walked over to the Captain. “You owe me a giant fuckin’ bucket of ale for that, asshole.”
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Post by Reno on Sept 7, 2024 23:20:01 GMT
{ BGM: "After the Fact"} "Yeah I'll just steal an ale factory at this point," Crim replied with his usual sardonic smirk and tone as he rummaged inside his jacket for something, sighing as he apparently came up empty-handed. "Damn it, outta smokes. Ah well." He sauntered up behind Viola as the others gathered around. The violet-haired woman was still rummaging through her bag of tricks, but she'd at least managed to dispose of the bloody severed limb, having temporarily suspended the Moon Rune in some sort of magical stasis field. The stylized purple and white crescent moon-shaped symbol floated in the air just off to the side of her face, gently humming and pulsating with power. Crim eyed her up and down, and not just because she was eye candy (although that was part of it), keen on getting a general idea of her intentions. He only just barely halfway trusted this conniving broad, and he wasn't about to let her pull any fast ones, especially not with a True Rune. "So, what you got?" She jumped a little, somehow spooked at the sudden intrusion. "God! Don't do that...! I'm looking..." She kept digging through the bag. One of those 'bottomless' inventory satchels that witches and other such types often utilized. Crim and the Crew had their own version of said, of a sort. The ability to utilize the D-Transfer system in order to access item and equipment stores, whenever the Ygg was within range. He'd been meaning to get himself one of those bottomless witchcraft bags too. Come to think of it, he could have sworn that he'd killed a witch a while back and looted something like that off her...hell if he could remember where he put it though. Eh, it'll turn up sometime. He could always just kill more witches anyway. "Ah, here it is!" Viola exclaimed as she pulled a small, black, jagged stone out of her bag. She immediately held it up to the Rune, and whispered some kind of incantation in what sounded like old English, or maybe Gaelic. Some kinda gobbledeegook anyway. After a few moments, the Rune began shining brightly, before dimming and vanishing from the air as its essence was transferred to the stone, which took on a gentle purple and white glow as the symbol etched itself into it. "There...now..." Crim suddenly snatched it from her, his movement far too quick for her to be able to react. "Maybe I'll just hold onto this, huh?" She leaned forward a bit and glared at him with her hands planted on her hips. "You goddamn motherfucker!" Chloe placed her hands over the Princess's ears as Viola and Crim started cursing each other out. Fortunately the spat barely lasted twenty seconds before cooling off, although Viola was clearly still upset. "Yeesh...it's like it's always that time of the month with her..." Crim muttered to himself as he turned to take stock of the situation at hand. "Well... anyway. We're done here, and I think this place is about done too. Without Aigenleif's support, this space is going to revert back to what it previously was. Although..." He glanced around again, finally looking up. He could hear - and sense - the castle twisting and shifting above. "This place might not have actually been affected by his influence to begin with. Seems like these are bona-fide ruins. But I don't think there's anything much here. Probably. Fuck, I don't care anyway. There's gotta be a path or portal leading outta here." Chloe then chimed in. "Oh, leave that to me. Hey! Thing! C'mere!" She called to Deegus, and the impish little demon crawled over to her obediently. She stomped on it with her heel, smirking devilishly as she started to chant a spell - portal magic, as it so happened. Crim and the others waited patiently as the Half-Elf did her thing, siphoning demonic energy from Deegus in order to bolster her magic power. The Captain wasn't quite sure if he really liked the idea, but it was too late to do anything about it now. If it came back to bite them later, they'd just deal with it then, like usual. Shortly, an oval-shaped portal composed of wavy black and purple energy appeared nearby. Crim could sense the dark power within it, but he could also sense where it led, which was directly outside. Nothing particularly unusual about it, and it wasn't as if Chloe was unfamiliar with portal spells. "Shall we be off, then?" She said. But then with an uncharacteristically evil sneer, she suddenly brought her foot back and violently kicked Deegus, sending the deformed little creature flying through the portal. "You first, you disgusting abomination!" "REEEEEEEEeeeeeeEEEEEE....!!!" Deegus screeched as he flew through the air and vanished into the portal, followed by Chloe who walked through casually as can be. Crim just looked to Einst, offered a 'meh' kind of shrug, and followed after her. { BGM: "The Sibylline Road"} The portal emerged outside, some distance from the castle, which had indeed reverted back to its previous form. Far less grand and ominous than the structure they'd originally been greeted with, but still quite opulent. And seemingly none the worse for the wear. But now without its lord, it'd be hard to say what might become of it in the future. It wasn't any of Crim's business at any rate. His business now was to get the hell to that Sky Elf Capital already, which meant hitting the road. He turned and looked up the path, in the direction that he knew they had to go. A mountain pass, but still a ways off. This lower area was scenic and full of lush green pine-like trees and other such mountainous vegetation, but further up, it became more and more sparse as the rocky terrain took over. The sun was just starting to rise above the peaks off in the distance, tinting the clouds with a bright golden sheen. A gorgeous day ahead, it would seem. Perfect for an adventurous trek! A bestial roar could be heard in the distance, coming from somewhere higher up in the mountains. This would have been the kind of thing that would give most would-be adventurers pause, or at least something resembling a cause for concern. But Crim? Nah, he just smirked. No adventure was ever complete without a little hack-and-slash time. |
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