[M]Undying Quest: The Proving Grounds[IC]

[cashpop]

Reina's stomach rumbled irritably. She could feel the annoying hunger gnawing at her innards, begging for some sustenance. The alchemist eyed the stored items with interest, particularly that strange potion. As any adventurer would typically do in any sort of dungeon like area was to simply loot everything in sight, hoping to haul back a hefty load and bask in the spoils. However, you would only do so after all threats had been eliminated or politely asked the owners. This storage room seemed to have belonged to someone, and the last thing Reina needed was to be caught red-handed in this tight, cold space. It could prove dangerous. Also it would be quite rude. Perhaps whoever owned all of this was nearby.

The alchemist had decided to leave the storage room for now, until she could determine if anyone still lived in the area. Or whatever lived in the area.

[Minkasha]

The Aasimar had little desire to respond to Dezeroth, finding the man more and more grating in the dark wood. He was becoming tired of being asked or told how to treat his friend. But the Faceless Ones were far more important. Purity flew back into his hand and he swallowed when the strange noises were turning into audible things. It was such a slow and gradual process, as Purity had defeated the magical component to the voices, but ever so slowly the sound waves still had to reach his ears. The human man was yelling at him and the youth stared at Dezeroth with glazed eyes. His oriental features looked entirely zoned out.

He heard what the mage said, it made sense…

“Alessandro! Save me! Why am I here!?” The soft voice of a woman he knew loved him was screaming in distress in the shadows. She was of such long black silken hair and beautiful features House Aegis had never possessed in its bloodline: his mommy.

“M-mommy?” Alessandro was already stepping to the boundary of the darkness. So many strange and dark things happened in this world after death? Had his father hurt mommy? Maybe the Magistrate brought her because he had a mean and cruel heart to do so. It was entirely possible, too possible, that his mommy needed him.

“Aly, please sweet heart I don’t know where I am and it’s dark…” Her voice was crying, her weeping sounds so passionately alive in his inner ear and connecting directly to every thought his mind could have. The creaks of a plush bed, the cracked light of a nefarious door being opened ajar and the shuddering slaps of body to body. Bright blue eyes were curiously wide open to watch the things that were happening to mommy….mommy…-.

“I’ll be there!” The young warrior of good was shouting and yelling to no voice the others could hear. The Aasimar remembered sharply the promises he made to Emilia and Sol’ora. The youth’s heart was pumping with so much adrenaline as he stared at both of them react in self-defense: Sol’ora shoving away from Karrah and Emilia shaking scarily in the dirt of his strange magic. Alessandro made so many promises, to protect so many, his mommy chief among them and now these two he would defend with his life!

Alessandro’s face was coated in a grimly nostalgic sweat, mommy kept crying endlessly in the distance – her voice enough to entice traumas of death, of murderous eyes belonging to his rapist father, and the bolden glare of Istheriel. It was haunting him and eviscerating his cognition of here versus then. He was going to save them all!

Alessandro ran straight to Karrah who was dastardly putting hands upon someone unwillingly: images of his blonde haired, blue eyed angel-blooded father stampeded to replace Karrah’s being. Mommy wept in the shadows.

“Ahhh!” He roared and sent the mighty and broken-soul blade of Purity out to his side with both hands to turn with the strength of his lower body and twist torso to not only gut, but slice the archer human in half. His heroic cloak flapped in holy glory in his manic panic attack.

[Evening Rain]

Alessandro, Dezeroth and Karrha

Dezeroth's plan worked flawlessly. Emilia floundered for a moment in the sand, before falling to the ground - and being carried backward by the shifting tide of sand.

As Karrha put her hand on Sel'ora, the elf did indeed snap out of the trance she had been in - but the method was not pleasant. She immediately spun to face the human and pushed her off with a hard shove. "Do not ever presume to touch me again, human!" She snarled. Her eyes raised as she saw Alessandro, who had approached her with sudden speed. Before she even had a chance to so much as say a word, Alessandro brought down his blade on Karrha with such suddenness, ferocity and speed that it raised even her eyes in shock.

The shadows surged hungrily forward, as if sensing the weakening minds of those within the torchlight. Still, the light was holding them back - but again it was waning - as if the negative emotion seeping from the assembled heroes was somehow fueling their power to encroach into the light. Dezeroth knew that if he could continue concentrating on the light he should easily be able to hold them off.

----

Samael

Pax whistled a few melancholy notes. "Indeed, I see where you are coming from. That is indeed tragic. Humans are always so unnecessarily ruthless about everything. If they could just get along, I'm sure the world would be a much better place." He winked at Alaana. "I suppose not all of you are such bad people, though." He paused, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"I met somebody with a rather fervent goal up in the mountains", he gestured vaguely westward. "She mentioned a wish. Are you like her? Would it be safe then to assume that your wish is to change the essence of human nature so that all can live peacefully?"

----

Reina

Reina continued to explore the icy haven within the mountain, and uncovered many chambers and rooms - all eerily quiet and abandoned, but sheltered and warm enough all the same. She found another storage room with all manner of blankets, furs and mattresses tucked inside it.

Still, she found no sign of human habitation. There was not as much dust as one would expect if that were the case, though.

Eventually, near the opposite side of the carved out habitation, she found a strong locked door covered in faintly glowing runes. To the left of that was an opening that came back out on the outside of the mountain. Following this she came to the oriental building that she had seen earlier - sitting serenely on the ragged precipice of ice jutting from the mountainside.

Within, she saw that the place was bare - save for a simple mat in the centre of the room, and a number of tapestries on the walls that were covered in script that the alchemist could not decipher. Sitting on the centre of the mat was an old man of oriental descent with a long flowing white beard that reached his waist. His eyes were closed, and legs folded, as if he were deep in meditation.

[cashpop]

Reina believed this must be the Abbot of this temple. She knew better than to interrupt one of spiritual wisdom and experience during his meditation. I could never do that, I always doze off! The alchemist wondered where were the rest of the residents, or rather past residents, of the temple were. It was not like monks to abandon their own temple and leave their Abbot behind unless instructed to. Reina wasn't sure what she could do at this moment. It would be disrespectful to disturb the old man's meditation, but she needed information and of course food. She could return to the storage room and steal, but that would be in very bad taste. Thievery was always a last resort.

While Reina stood there weighing her options, her stomach made a decision of its own, voicing its opinion with a loud, bubbly rumbling that echoed across the silent room. I am so, so sorry.

[Mfable]

Aika ceased her singing and took in the sight of the beast, grinning with pleasure. It had too long since she had gotten into a fight, and even longer since she had fought anything other than another human. ”Tsuyoi-san, take the left. Rihii-san, take the right.” She turned momentarily to her intelligent undead companion. ”Revenants, you are under the control of this creature until I deem otherwise.” She smiled. ”My companions and I will take the beast as best we can. I need you to rally the undead. Make sure to stick the beast with whatever you can, whenever you can, wherever you can. Fill it with so many tools and weapons and anything else sharp just to slow it down.”

She sighed intensely and reached up to grab the top of her kimono, pulling it down to hand loosely from her waist, revealing her entire upper body. Only the most minimal of wrappings kept her breasts in place. Two demonic tattoos fought for control of her back. They were both grotesque, obese demons. One was larger and paler, with the imprints of dying soldiers clawing their way out of its belly. It was called Tsuburu no Oni, the demon lord of gluttony. The other was darker in color, almost copper-like, and had wild silver hair and two large horns. It was called Shikibu no Oni, the stealer of the dead. Both were created using powerful blood magic and were immensely powerful in their own right.

She waited until the creature was close enough, took a deep breath, then let out a large gust of hot, cutting, corrupting winds. It was powerful enough to cut the skin, and filled with the energies of the Realm of Evil. It would even harm the undead. She made sure that none of her undead or either of her followers were in the way, though she made no effort to spare the lives of any unfortunate peasant that was unlucky enough to be in the way of the gust.

[Evening Rain]

Reina

After a few quiet moments, the growl from Reina's stomach caused the monk's eyes to open. There was no anger or irritation in his eyes, just a sage sense of wisdom. "Child. Welcome to my sanctuary." He extended a palm to the door. "No doubt you have come here to learn, but it is impossible to do so on an empty stomach, is that not correct?" His voice was calm but filled with warmth. "No doubt you will wish to eat before returning to speak with me. Go, eat your fill, child. Food exists to be eaten, not to sit forever in frozen chambers, yes?"

----

Aika

As the knot of villagers rushed into combat with the werewolf, the creature opened its dreadful glowing maw and unleashed a torrent of flame that engulfed the peasants who had moved to stop it, incinerating them before they could so much as even attack. With a mighty leap it seized another by the neck and tore her head off as effortlessly as one might pluck an apple from a tree.

Tsuyoi and Rihii had taken advantage of the distraction though, and had gotten into position on either side of the creature. Both were skirting it warily, keeping a brief distance which fortunately allowed Aika to call forth her magic, slicing through and obliterating the last few survivors of the werewolf's brutal and uncompromising slaughter. The winds howled and tore into the monster. Skin and fur sizzled and crackled as dark magic met dark magic, and although the creature was obviously hurt, it was difficult to say how much so.

The beast snarled, even as the revenants closed in to keep it at bay with their reach weapons - pitchforks and clumsy scythes mostly. The werewolf dodged away from a scythe blow, and just out of reach of a pitchfork strike - still agile and fast despite the damage it had received from Aika. It smashed its right arm into one of her revenants, but the undead creature fought on regardless, smashing down with a mattock right onto the werewolf's head. The blow did nothing to hinder its assault, unfortunately, and Aika saw the arm of the creature flare up in a gout of flame - pulsing like a forgefire and igniting her undead minion, who began to wither under the heat.

[Mfable]

Aika smiled and leapt at the beast while it was distracted with the undead creature burning away into nothingness. Her claws slid from her fingers as silently as death, and she aimed to plunge them as deeply into the creatures flesh as possible. She specifically aimed for the locations that seemed to be the most weakened from her initial attack, wishing to tear away flesh and fur as quickly as possible. She had a plan, but in order for it to work she had to make a hole in its chest big enough for a fist.

[cashpop]

Reina couldn't agree more to the monk's wisdom. "Y-yes of course, thank you. I shall return soon!" Reina bowed in respect to the monk before heading back into the hallways and made her back to the storage room. Once there, she stood just shy of the doorway and considered her options. With a sigh, she steeled herself ready for the cold and entered. Quickly, she swiped some meat and fruits, namely berries and plums, as well as a waterskin filled with what she believed was water. She placed the food in the few small pouches along her belt while still holding the waterskin with one hand. She also swiped the strange potion that had her attention awhile ago and placed it in the magical bag. I should ask him what this potion is.

With the items at hand, she headed down the hallway to an empty room. Reina attempted to detach one of the sconces from the walls to use to thaw the food and water. Hopefully, she would able to do so otherwise she may have to figure out how to eat frozen food.

[P.K.]

Karrha didn't have time for this, the elf was clearly back so she could probably fend for herself with that Pride of her's. She wasn't going to say anything, there wasn't a need she didn't need to lecture this princess. But then she noticed Alessandro. Something was wrong. "Hey!" She tried to move back at the sudden swipe for her. The elf's pushed had had made her lose balance for a moment, fortunately she was quick on her feet, shifting her weight back as she brought her bow up using it to block the sword blow. This is exactly what she had it enchanted for. The wood cracked, split and broke in two but it took the brunt of the impact before the sword sliced across her body leaving a long gash from shoulder to hip. It wasn't deep enough to kill, not right away at least, thanks to her shift back from the swing.

She stumbled back and fell to one knee dropping the broken fragments of her bow as one hand shot to her chest, her her bloodline magic springing up in a soft blue glow to try and stop the bleeding. "Damit." She coughed. "Shake one of you lose and the other one bites." This was bad... If they couldn't get the boy to snap out of it he'd keep attacking, He might not know much about battle but she was damn sure he knew how to use that sword. And a second thing, the elf could always make that an excuse to pick them off now with that intense hatred that she seemed to have for them she wouldn't put it past her. Keeping one hand on her bloodied chest she used the other one to sleep a knife free and hold it ready in an attempt to parry another attack, though she doubted she could fend it off very well from this position, Let along with the strength she had after this wound.

[Eddren]

"Damnit," Dezeroth gritted his teeth as Karrha took a hit to her arm. Without lifting himself up from where he had Emilia pinned, he slapped the palm of his hand into the ground again. Another wave of sand erupted from the ground, and again he jerked the sand back to him, pulling Alessandro toward him. "Karrha," He gritted his teeth, "I don't think we're going to be able to make it to safety at this rate. You're going to have to use the arrows. I'd been hoping to save them for the Vampire Queen, but...I don't think we'll get that opportunity."