??? Arc - Tome II: Accept

The image of the egg and its internal surroundings drift away and there is a rapping at my door. I look around and a voice speaks, "We're heading out, so hurry up unless you've chickened out already, boy." My image flickers and I lift the man off of the ground by his throat. "My apologies, did you say something?" He struggles against my grip and my eyes start to glow as I look at him. I release him and vanish just as quickly. I would not be taunted by the likes of him. I pack up my things and walk out of the room. Heading out to meet up with the group, they tell me that we're all ready to move out. I was here for one reason and one reason only... to find my Master. He is strong enough to find a way to survive in the Core even if his party abandoned him. I had a dream about him recently. He was alive and in need of help. I would not fail him. I don't give a damn what the giant bird in the egg said about me. I am not weak and I will aid my Master. I will find him and save him from danger just as he saved me. The group was ready to move out and with them, I set upon this path. Leaving the small village, I do not look back at the villagers as I don't know or care to know them. They had seen many groups of travelers and adventurers and fame seekers leave from the safety of their village headed into the Core. Very few ever returned.

274

*Counts for 11-1-2011; time stamp is from original place holder date.

One would say that is the very appeal of the Core District. Since so few seem to make it out alive, proud and adventure seeking members of The Guild venture forth to elevate their legend. Such a foolish reason to travel much of anywhere in my opinion, but then again, I value secrecy and people NOT knowing who I am. For an operative, that is paramount as one cannot harm what one cannot find. As our journeys continues, we find ourselves closing in on gigantic structures the likes of which I have never seen. What are these things? Judging by the height of these structures, I figure them to be some sort of military structure or look out point, but even then, why would someone wish to be that high in the sky for a lookout point. If they needed to evacuate, they would have a very long climb down. Though considering how close it is to the skies, I wonder if it is a joint venture of sorts between the Sky People of old and the humans. Though if it belonged to the Sky People, it would raise far more questions as to why it is often filled and surrounded by darkness. Keeping up with the rest of the group, I would not dwell too much on the nature or origin of the structures around us. A quick double sniff of the air steals my attention anyway as my nose is assaulted.

258

Before Interrupt
The putrid scent of a bottom feeding dark entity steals my attention. "To the left!" The group turns as two goblin like creatures charge at them. They had yet to notice them approaching before my senses caught wind of them. The first to respond is a large battle axe wielding warrior. He spins towards to the demon with a powerful swing of his axe and the goblin is cleaved in half. The second goblin is shot in the chest by the archer in the party and finds a dagger in his torso as well. The knife thrower retrieves his knife while the archer leaves his arrow in its current location. We keep moving and while keeping my senses alert, I find myself scanning and searching around for any sign of my master. I can find him. I know I can. I just have to focus. I will prove that second consciousness wrong. He thinks he knows me or what I have had to endure and how much my Master helped me. He knows nothing! I will not allow him to tell me what to do!

Current
Bringing my attention back to what is around us, my enhanced senses provide little warning for the grasping hands. When they appear, one of the five party members would be grabbed. The experienced leader should be able to evade the grasping hands, but the other two and myself would have to escape somehow. I could see the shadows moving towards me which would cause me to try and dive off to the side. Whether successful or not, I would take note of the approaching figure. He might have information. Still, there is strength in numbers, so I may have use of the other two as well. Releasing spatial energies towards two of the other adventurers with the silent, or soft, chant of "Move", I would attempt to teleport both of them away from the hands' grasp over to stand between the leader's position and my own. The positioning is to prevent the red cloaked figure from knowing which of us performed the spell. That would be important in hopes of keeping the attention off of myself long enough to make a move to subdue this new enemy.

EXP: 410

As the dark spawns of the abyss begin to make their way out of the dark circle, my instinct is simple. Spatial energies release from my body and move towards the circle to gather around the circle and the creatures coming from it. Let's make this hurt. "Purge." The single word would be all that is necessary to cause an eruption of spatial energies centered in a five yard (roughly 5 meters) radius centered on the circle itself. The spatial energy would tear thru the surrounding area, but what I find is that my powers are not dealing damage like I had seen the go before. It is now that I realize that there is in fact a problem... the second consciousness was locking away some of my power somehow. I was strong, but not like I had been before. The axe wielding warrior steps forward, but is told to wait. The archer fires off two arrows at the dark creatures after the magical attack and the 4th member of the group just stands there for a moment. He seems to be chanting, but I am unsure what. It is now that I realize another significant folly for this group... none of us are healers or support magi. Unless that is what this one is doing, which I doubt tho. He has all the makings of a magus that craves power. The fifth member who was caught in the initial bind would be hit by my attack as well as whatever the surviving creatures did to him. The leader of the group looks at the red coat figure and tells the axeman to get ready to engage him since he seems to be the obvious leader on their side.

EXP: 305/1247

NPC Party
Leader - Type Unknown (you can decide tbh)
Axeman - 100% HP & 100% STA
Archer - 100% HP & 100% STA
Magus ?? - 100% HP & 100% STA
Member 5 - soon to be deceased.

The Distortion field triggers around the enemy pool and while it is unfortunate that we would lose one so early on in this journey, it was rather inevitable that some members of our party would die. Better to die quickly than a slow and torturous death. That much is for sure. The creature continued their advance tho. The magus with the group sees the creeper get close to him and his chant stops as he had gathered his energy. "Glacial Rush!" is exclaimed as the creeper unleashes its hellacious howl. An wave of ice rushes forward towards the close range creeper and any others that make it with 10 yards in front of the magus. I chant, "Protect." I clutch my ears and head as the howl still resounds loudly to hurt my ears and cause a ringing effect. I do not move to attack again. I just stand there for a moment trying to regain my bearings and figure out if I should continue my attack or try something else. The leader shrugs off the effects , but finds himself held in place still. The axeman is forced to divert his attack against the leader in order to help deal with the creepers. He didn't mind since he got to dash forward into the fray. The Archer who finds himself paranoid and afraid of what exactly the creepers are. He backs away from them before firing off a few arrows aimed at three of the creepers. It it was moving, he was shooting to keep them far, far away from him. The party leader tells all of us to keep it together and destroy the creepers.

298/1545

NPC Party
Leader - Type Unknown (you can decide tbh)
* No action - Bound
Axeman - 100% HP & 100% STA
* Engaging creepers in melee combat
Archer - 100% HP & 100% STA
* Fired off 3 arrows - Fearful
Magus ?? - 100% HP & 100% STA
* Linear ice attack against all within 10 yards forward of magus

In dealing with creepers, my attention was diverted too long to be able to do anything to help the party leader. The axe knocks him over and claims his life. Anger begins to flow through me as I want to bring forth a great deal of pain to this fiend! The creepers were no longer a threat, so now it was time to remove the primary threat. I harness spatial energy to my hands as I drop the pretense about who used magic as the words, "Rip him apart." accompany the creation of two minor rip orb formed in each of my hands. I had thought to poison him with the void, but it didn't seem like enough. I release the energy orb in my left hand in a manner similar to how a fighter throws a jab at their opponent. After a quick calculation of where he would move to next, I would hurl the second orb at him as well. I want this to hurt and at least slow him down. I do not concern myself with the flames as my shield would protect me against that. Even without the help of the second consciousness, I had my own power that I could rely upon. I did not need his help or his ridicule!

The magus tries to chant, but he is not fast enough at harnessing energy. The flames reach him and he drops to the ground like a sack of potatoes as he tries to escape the flames. The archer leaps back instead of trying to attack. The axeman is far too close since he was engaged in melee combat to escape the power of the flames. He was resilient but the flames still hurt like hell. He drives his axe into the ground in order to support himself on the pommel of the weapon. His clothes are singed and full of holes now while you can see the tenderness and painful burns on his body. There isn't much to be done right now to help him and it is of no concern to me. I cannot fall here. I have to find him... I have to find my master.

366/1911
Leader - Deceased
Axeman - 30% HP & 80% STA
* No action
Archer - 100% HP & 100% STA
* Evasion
Magus ?? - 50% HP & 80% STA
* Partial evasion

OOC: I'll go ahead and push this one thru. I need to get moving on to the next chapters.

The warrior in the red coat lurches forward.He had killed the leader of the party and the axeman is on his last leg. The magus is both injured and still fearful on the ground trying to escape. The archer and I remain unscathed at the moment, but he too is afraid. The first orb of condensed spatial energy hits the demon, but the second just dissipates in front of him as if it was "eaten" by another portal. This is quite peculiar to me since I can't quite explain what happened. The first strike had hurt the red coat a bit, but not enough to do anything to slow or hinder him. He reaches the axeman and without even slowing in his movements, he takes the axe and with little effort, he swings it behind me and cleanly beheads the axeman. I release spatial energy towards him again with explodes into the minor distortion power center on his position. Now that one deals a bit more damage. The archer fires an arrow at him while his attention turns to me and it hits him in his shoulder. The coat actually takes the "damage" from the shot. The red coat discards the axe towards the archer and I dash from him. I tackle him out of the way at the last moment before rolling along the ground.

The magus becomes the next piece of focus so the archer, now breaking fear of his fear in favor of mere survival instinct as he did not wish to die, and myself move to cover the magus and the axe. I stand in the way of the axe knowing that the red coat seems to want that more than killing the magus. Good. "Protect." Spatial energy swarms around me again. He unleashes a dark blast of energy at all three of us. I expected to see death and hard fights, but I did not expect the level of cowardice that is displayed when the attack comes. The magus pushes the archer, who had come to his aid and was firing arrows at the red coated demon to protect him, into the path of the attacks while he turned and ran towards the demon in surrender. The archer could no withstand both attacks and he died as well. So now I found myself alone here. Spatial energies fills my very being as I release myself to my emotions which are fueled and filled with nothing but pure rage and primal instinct. "Into the Abyss!" Spatial energy forms around the magus and darkness surrounds him as he is pulled into the Void. "Die in darkness!" (Void - Blackout activated) He would be dead within moments of being trapped within the Void and if he somehow survived, he would not be a threat any further as he would be rendered unconscious.

Now only the red coat and I remained. He was coming for his axe again. "Take it!" I lower my hand towards the axe and it is teleported into my grasp. This proves to be a mistake as the dark energies of the axe flow into my flesh and sets fire to the insides of my hand and right arm. The weapon is cursed and able to pass the curse along via physical contact with the handle of the weapon. It would make no difference to me. I would not fall here. I cannot fall here. I am not a weakling!! I hurl the axe at the red coat and it vanishes into the Void. Never taking my eyes off of the red coat even as the pain moves to grip me as poison also starts to course thru my veins. "Die!!" The axe appears and cleaves deep into his chest. The red coat looks at me with shock. He begins to chant a spell before a loud sonic crow blasts him and pushes the axe all the wall thru. I fall to a knee. A forceful cough spews forth dark blood-like liquid from my mouth. Everything fades out into darkness as the poison runs its course. This is not possible. I cannot die here. I cannot fall. Not here, not now. I must be close. He has to be alive and be here. I can feel him close to... me. I feel a sharp blow to the back of my head, but I do not know who or what just struck me. It seems I will not know either as I feel myself lose consciousness.

779/2690
Party: Deceased
Magus: KO/Deceased
Red Coat: Deceased

As darkness falls upon him, I take my rise. I would not allow him to destroy us and ruin everything that the Mother sought to bring forth in us. He now sees his weakness and that is what I needed to happen all along. It so happens that he needs me to harness full control over our powers and I believe this was done on purpose. The powers that I possess are blocked off from him and with good reason. His irrational devotion to this master of his childhood puts everything in jeopardy since he can't seem to control his emotions as it pertains to the subject. I, on the other hand, hold no such sentimental attachments and perhaps that is my downside. I see only my mission and its most efficient and effective success. Random humans mean nothing to me, so I can watch them suffer, be executed or tortured and it will not phase me at all. My only concern as it pertains to human falls on the safety of those subservient to my lord. Other than those, they are fair game for their own kind to destroy them if they see fit. I have never claimed or implied that I am a benevolent creature as I am not. I am also not malevolent either. I merely carry out the will of my master, whoever that may be. This body was injured but close to fully energized. That would suffice. Now that I was awake, it would time to get us out of this mess.

As my eyes open in full glowing glare, I vanish in an explosive discharge of spatial energy as I dash forward. Turning around, I look at the demonic being standing before me. I must admit that I honestly cannot believe my eyes as I look upon a VERY familiar visage. The glare of the avian pupils sharpens as spatial energy wraps around me into a force field. My hands draw spatial energy to them as it wraps around them like clawed gauntlets. The winds around me pick up violently as the other figure looks at me with a smile. "So it is finally awakened within you. Good, I have been waiting for this to happen, Dravec." He is met with silence. Suddenly, I vanish from sight. Reappearing right in front of him, I palm strike him in the chest knocking him back a few yards. Two orbs appear in each hand and are hurled at him. The first is blocked but the second one hits him in the right side hip. "Our name is not Dravec. You betrayed him and as such, you are our enemy for as long as you can survive. But know this, you will be destroyed without mercy of any sort." The demon looks at me and reaches into the Void. My image flickers backwards as I palm strike his hand as it emerges from the Void. Shaking my head, I look into his eyes. "Bare witness to MY power, demon." The glow of my eyes turns a deep blood red as tears of blood begin to stream down my cheeks as his body lifts into the air. I hold him there is the raw nature of my true essence begins to "leak" out of his mind and thru his body. His defenses break and if I had full access to the reserve of power that I now figure can only be done by union, I could end this, but I am fading fast. I hurl his body towards the corpse of the red coat and the cowardly traitor magus before stumbling. With a loud crow to the sky, I hear an echo before my body is lifted into the air and carried away. Looking up, I nod. "Thank you, Cinos. It is time to take him home. I must rest." The avian spirit carrying my body crows in obedience and continues out of the Core as quickly as possible. I knew that demon was not dead and for now, I would have to seal this memory off as one of mine and not share it. He cannot handle that right now. Not yet...


720/3410