The Golem frowned as its efforts proved ineffective. It changed tactics, instead focusing on absorbing the energy from everything around it. The area of decaying life grew larger and larger, encroaching on her position. It seemed that if nothing changed the whole forest would be drained of life, and her along with it.
watching the scene before her, she started to get angry. "Why must you kill everything, don't you know the rules for absorbing mana?" asking, knowing full well that the golem wouldn't answer. still draining the power from the golem and holding up the platform shield, she decided to increase the power level she was taking from the golem.
The door opened and an overwhelming floodhehe of water came crashing in, sending Chen backwards from the force. From the door came a swarm of electrical eels, each of them as large as a great dane, chomping wildly and sparking with electricity as they swam straight for Chen.
As soon as the axe bounced off of the shield the lich let go of it and it was sent flying away into the distance. The lich turned and frowned at the massive array of power behind him. "Fool." he muttered and just like that, his head ejected from his body like a rocket, nigh instantly appearing out of the blast range. When the explosion finally faded away the lich's head slowly floated over the the hole that Apollo's body now lay in as a shimmer force field vanished. "Is that all human?" The lich asked mockingly and its eyes glew with malevolent light. A single bone rose out of the ground with a sharpened tip and hovered over Apollo menacingly for a few seconds, then hurtled down at his heart with a frightening amount of speed.
The golem seemed to grow even more rooted in the ground, focusing on holding onto its mana as much as possible. The draining effect had now spread to her, draining her own power even as she drained the golem's. But now the golem was taking energy from her stopping any lose of his mana, and he was still draining the environment of mana, causing the platfrom she was on to begin to crumble. She couldn't match his pace and the more mana he got the stronger he pulled on hers, at this rate she'd be sucked dry within a minute.
You did Good Apollo, Ephilates said so as well, You have alot of potential, and you only used Ascalon for the first time yet you are able to access Elemental Mode, Good job.
The man looked at his watch.
My it's about time. Go back to sleep Apollo I shall return.
Apollo felt his eyes getting heavy. He felt "asleep".
As the bone neared Apollo's body, A light shone from Ascalon. In a flash a spirit appeared in front of Apollo. This spirit summoned a small wall to block the attack. He then looked at the lich.
"Hello My good man. I must ask you to not attack this young fellow anymore. As you can see he is "Dead" already. So I do not see the need to attack him any longer. So I plead of you to not attack him any longer. Oh and for gour information. This young man is not entirely human. Maybe you can Destroy him another time when he's stronger, wouldn't that be good? This way you can also rest, and set up your defenses against these Humans stronger." The man then looked at his watch again. "It appears duty calls, So I bif you fare morrow, dear sir." With that the man's body glowed a heavenly glow and disapeared leaving Apollo's unconcious body behind.
((So this might not stop the Lich but hey, it's worth a try isnt it?))
Kenny bit his lip knowing he had no clue on how to defeat her. "As much as I hate to say I failed my test I surrender it seems I'm not advanced enough to figure out your weakness by myself." With that he bowed and awaited Belle's next course of action.
Chen activated The Empress and froze the eels whenever they tried to touch him. He was holding his breath to try and wait out the torrent if water, but he had a strange feeling that it wouldn't end. He pushed towards the door he had opened and closed it to stop the water. He then activated The Magician to nullify his air problem. "When is this stupid test going to end?" He walked towards the broken door and opened it.
Mr. Man didn't like the lich, at least when it was used during exams. It wasn't commanded, so much as it participated. Mostly in killing, or attempting to. It was only considered a C-class monster, as it was weak to anything that was bright and had holy in the name. It gave him the creeps, and for Mr. Man that was considered a feat, regardless of whether he let it show or not. The particular lich he was watching had a way with axes, and hardly gave advice.
The fight between said lich and the student attempting the entrance exams was going as expected, at least in the way that it was almost killing (Man had to check the name of the student, as most he didn't memorize. After all why memorize the name of what would probably be a corpse soon?). . . "Apollo" at every turn. Then Apollo decided to try what seemed like a last resort, and manifest some elements and create a shield. The boy seemed suicidal, which wasn't too new in these tests, atleast when lichs were involved.
Man sighed with all the exasperation that could be contained in a parent who was tired of his children being dumbasses. Once the Lich returned to the same height as most of the battle, Man pulled out a small stone. The stone was smooth, white, and almost perfectly shaped for skipping. Light blue lines traced kanji across it's surface, glowing gently in the faint light of Man's classroom. He held it in his palm for a few more seconds, before crushing it. It wasn't a hard task, though it did give him a flash of pain and dizziness. As the stone broke blue light erupted around him, and teleported him to the battlegrounds.
"No more fighting." Man said with finality, and stoney resolve.The lich glanced at him angrily, before widening its eyes in a mix of disgust and surprise. Man paid him no mind, and instead took out a black stone with the same blue kanji as before. He broke it over the boys head, teleporting him to the infirmary. Man's gaze turned back to the lich which he smiled at.
"We need you, don't we?" He said mindlessly, while pulling out a red stone, this one with a white cross on it. He crushed it, restoring the lich to full strength, new body and all. "Goodbye," Man said respectfully, before taking out a white kanji engraved stone and crushing it.
"Well dang kid about time you figured it out." Belle said seemingly annoyed. "I thought it was obvious from the get go but I guess you proved me wrong huh? Eh doesn't matter, your exam is finished so get out of here. Belle said dismissively and started walking away. Kenny's bracelet flashed and his vision was briefly obscured and then he found himself in a room with the other finished students. EXAM COMPLETE
As soon as Chen's magic touched the eels in an attempt to freeze them they simply grew in size, nearly doubling in fact after just one touch of magic. Did they just absorb his magic? Now they were around the size of horses, each of them wildly discharging electricity through the water and chomping in a mad frenzy at Chen. The door he attempted to open seemed jammed or something and stayed shut.
Chen activated The Tower so he could at least tolerate the electricity, but they were still chomping like nobody's business. Chen gave up on the jammed door and focused on the other door instead. He used The Magician to try and keep the eels away from him, but he didn't have much time left until he either drowned or was eaten.
@Eklispe "Damn you old man.." he muttered under his breath. He'd expected they'd do something to force him to use magic. He had to act quickly before he got impaled. Luckily he remembered a spell to make you run faster..chanting a few words the space below his feet started glowing and he started running faster, with a pace matching and slowly exceeding that of the drill. He chanted as he ran, keeing the spell active. In a matter of minutes he finished the rest of his laps and the drill slowly lurched to a stop.
Breaking the spell he plopped down on the bench where he had his things, exhausted as hell both physically and mentally. He needed to rest, he didn't even have the energy to conjur up a potion to refresh himself, hopefully there wasn't a combat portion...
"There..I ran..the entire thing...happy now, Coach?" He said inbetween breaths. In truth he knew the drill would do nothing in reality, but he still hated losing regardless.
The eels pushed on through the magic effortlessly, merely growing with size once more. As countless teeth closed in on him his gauntlet flared up and forced the water and eels away from him. Apparently the eels couldn't absorb or eat whatever it was the gauntlet did. "Exam over, goodbye." A mechanical voice emitted dully from his gauntlet and he was whisked away to the same room as all the other finished contestants, at least those that weren't in the infirmary.
The coach looked at Arcadius's panting form skeptically and looked at his stopwatch. "Well I suppose you weren't that slow... Alright kid you get off easy, all I want you to do is hit me with your most powerful attack and we're done here. Take however much time you want, course keep in mind you're timed." The coach didn't change his expression with his change merely sat there still looking bored and waiting for Arcadius to finish being tired.
Chen closed his eyes as he waited to be consumed. He felt a sudden pulse of magic and he was suddenly in a with a bunch of other students. "Haha! I live! Screw you eels!" He jumped up in the air and deactivated all of his spells with a quick pulse of The Fool. "Damn I did well. I'm practically a shoe in for Student Council." He whispered to himself with a smile.
@Eklispe Arcadius inhaled deeply, before slowly exhaling, regaining his composure. "So. You want my best attack huh? Sure you can take it? Alright." He spoke, stood up, grabbed his staff and summoned his Grimorie.
He flipped through the pages quickly and began drawing runes in the dirt which faintly glowed upon completion. Arcadius stepped back a good yard from the runes and started chanting lowly.
If he had drawn the runes perfectly, which was nigh impossible to do in dirt.., he could obliterate a small building with this attack. Though, the runes were imperfect and he lacked a good portion of his strength.
The runes quickly started glowing brighter, as Arcadius read he started drawing more runes in the air with his staff that clung to the air and started glowing. "Infernum Ragnarok, Annihilation." He spoke at the end of his chant. The runes on the ground started cracking, lava shot forth towards the Coach.
A bright beam of light formed on the end of his staff and on the runes in the air, the beams merged into one massive beam and shot forth merging with the lava and absorbing it's attributes.
The beam was as big as the Coachs midsection in size, it would've been bigger but timed and all.. The beam fired for around 10 seconds before stopping, the lava ceasing, and the runes dissapearing.
With a huff Arcadius returned his grimorie to its place and crossed hid arms in triumph, he had now fully exhausted all of his magic except for a small inkling and it was taking all he could do to stand.
He waited for the dust to clear to gauge how succesful he was. He really hoped he did well, that was one of the strongest attacks he had.
Meruin grit her teeth, and her heart hammered. This was the first time she had ever been pressured into fighting at this pace. Duels with her master had always been an exchange of spells - in fact, the amount of power that the puppet launched against her was nothing compared to even her masters most childish techniques, however, Meruin had been caught of guard, and consequently had no time to prepare and had let the puppet and its master get too close.
Meruin went through a series of strategies in her head. Her body was already tiring from that exchange, and she could feel her legs shaking. Physical activity was not her strong point, but this was an opponent that demanded such from her. She had to overcome this somehow!
With a swipe of her hand, Meruin intercepted the bow launched at her, however, there was no spark of magic or rune that came to life to shield her. Instead, the bow pierced her hand, getting stuck inside her palms.
She let out a cry of pain and bit back tears as she altered her chant. The opponent was drawing runes faster than she could, and his own puppet had her trapped. Her options were limited, and she needed to act fast - if that was the case, then there was only one solution available to her. Remembering the words of Lady Chase, Meruin let the blood from her palms flow into her dress and drip into the floor. With every line across her arm, the blood arranged into a straight line, forming a circuit-like pattern across the limb. On the floor, her blood sunk into the ground, glowing for a fraction for a second, before disappearing.
"C-come on then," she challenged the man, not moving from her spot, "and see what Meruneika Arcana Obsura has in store for you!"
Din shook his head. His glinting steel eyes stared at her piercingly, yet with no sign of impatience. The copper man stepped forward, ignoring the hail and the ice as it crusted over his form. His hollow shell of a body groaned audibly as empty joints. The ground he stepped on, however, turned dark, with the already brown grass wilting into black dust under his feet.
"This world is dead, but this is a fate that visits all worlds. Earlier, you said that the world is a circle; if you want to learn, then listen - that is not so. The world is a spiral. Events interlocking with each other in events so similar it looks repetitive, but make no mistake. Each and every experience is individual, different, and each action dives into each other, resulting in another link until the spiral deepens . . ."
Din crouched low, sharp hands brushing the frozen grass. "But unlike a circle, which has no beginning or end, a spiral must end at some point - and similarly, must begin somewhere. Your ability is that, Miss Pendragon. You are capable of starting that spiral, if you will let it. The problem is that your ability is what is in control, not you. Emotion is such a fickle that would it be tied to your emotion, then would not the earth die from its erratic behavior. That is one of the keys to passing this trial, Miss Pendragon - the other, as I've said, is simply a matter of logic. Weather follows a pattern - I'm sure you're familiar with it, we experience it with annual with the passage of time. Simply emulate that pattern, beginning with death, and ending with life."
As he spoke, the gears began slowing down and stopping in accordance with change in temprature.
The airy narrowed its eyes at him, before playfully sticking out its tongue. "Don't be so familiar, Eldritch. I'm not attracted much to your kind."
Still, the fairy hovered a bit closer to Kieran, staring inquisitvely at him. "Still, I must say you are a first. Despite my life, I've yet to meet one such as you. Perhaps, with time . . ." With a chuckle, she let the words die and spun away from Kieran, back to her perch on the doorknob. "In any case, you still have an exam to finish!"
Garrooth simply gave Azrael an acknowledging nod, before watching him move through the doors of flame. "The Labyrinth of Hope is open to all students, so long as they are courageous enough to enter again, though some spirits loath your presence here . . ."
The voice of the spirit faded as Azrael passed through the doors, and with his entrance, it closed behind him, and at once the temperature dropped. Despite the intensity of the flames, they were cold and chilled to the bone. Azrael's breath came out in fogs of cold, and he was surrounded by nothing but darkness. A voice echoing around him called out:
"Please wait here, until your opponent finishes their initial exam, Mr. Arcana. Oh, and congratulations on a job well done. It's a pleasure to have you at our Academy."
The voice was warm, in sharp contrast to his freezing surroundings, with a tone that would be familiar to everyone - it was a voice that everyone kept within them, a voice that they would instinctively recognize even if they had never experienced it before. A voice that cared, and a voice that soothed you, and lulled you to sleep, that protected you from the nightmares of the dark, and assured you when you needed it the most. A voice that all living things craved for, no matter the passage of time.
The Lady stared at Aleksandra, eyes wide open and mouth slack-jawed. Her beautiful face stared in disbelief as she processed the words that just came from the girls mouth. She shook her head a little, as if she were trying to wake from a dream, and when she did not, she sighed. Unbelievably, Aleksandra just came up with the worst possible solution she could think of for her exam. The two beings in front of her were Titans - powerful, old, and, much to her misfortune, proud. A pride that had kept them fighting for hundreds of years, and that had made them loathe the idea of receiving help against each other. And now, she had slapped that pride without nary a thought to what that might mean.
There was a silence in the air, a silence so thick and pervasive that a knife would chip itself trying to cut it. The Silver Titan turned slowly towards Aleksandra. It's face gave away nothing of how it felt, however, a foreboding pressure erupted into the air, radiating from its very being.
The Lady grimaced, for even she who adored violence and carnage, could tell that this was not going to be pretty.
"HRGRGRGRGROOOAAAGH!"
With an inhuman, gurgling cry, the Silver Titan lifted its foot and sent it crashing towards Aleksandra, its face contorted in apopletic rage. Its rival and nemesis, the Golden Titan, stared on in surprise, unknowing of what had happened.
The golem seemed to grow even more rooted in the ground, focusing on holding onto its mana as much as possible. The draining effect had now spread to her, draining her own power even as she drained the golem's. But now the golem was taking energy from her stopping any lose of his mana, and he was still draining the environment of mana, causing the platfrom she was on to begin to crumble. She couldn't match his pace and the more mana he got the stronger he pulled on hers, at this rate she'd be sucked dry within a minute.
she noticed that the power she was getting from the golem, started to disappear each second she tried to hold the platform, deciding that it was better to save the last of her power, she stopped taking mana from the golem, making the platform shield to disappear, making her land on the ground. more like her butt landing on the ground with a loud 'thud' sound.
The coach burped and let out a trickle of flame from his mouth and looked at Arcaduis contemplatively. "Well I guess that'll do for now. You exam is over, get out of here." The coach said dismissvly and waved his hand at Arcaduis. A sudden jerk of movement and Arcaduis found himself in the same classroom as the others who had finished. EXAM COMPLETE.
Though she stopped attempted to drain power the golem did not. She was easily within his range and she could feel the tug on her mana getting stronger every second. It seemed the golem was intent on draining her dry, if she ran out of mana the golem would start draining her life force instead, then she'd truly be doomed.
The man remained impassive merely counting relentlessly preparing spells. The puppet charged forward wildly swinging its blades limbs as its head automatically reloaded via some sort of mechanism. The ground around her slowly began rising up her body, ensnaring her feet and slowly traveling upwards. Mean while the grass around her was ripped out of the ground and floated into the air around her in a intimidating circle. Each blade straightened until it was spear-like. Another gesture and half of them lit on fire, then were sent hurtling towards Meruin. They were un-naturally hardened and getting hit by one would surely hurt, enough could prove fatal, especially when combined with the searing flame. As this happened another pair of hands left the mans robe and began enscribing runes around their owner.
“I have been told wrong all my life? The world is not a circle but a spiral. That means that everything that I have learned must be adjusted accordingly.” Agatha whispered sadly as the dark cloud began to lighten up to a grey colored cloud. A light wind began to blow around her body as ash thought about what din said. “I just don’t see the solution at this moment but I am not a simpleton. I can learn how to change my thinking……” she spoke then left her mind drift about looking for the solution for the problem. The first thing was to snip the circle of life thoughts so that it would hang. As the thoughts of the circle becoming a spiral, it became a clearer picture in Agatha’s mind. Her mind went to the genetics where the DNA and RNA were paired up in a spiral line then when it met an egg, it spilt in half. It stays as a half until the sperm finds the egg and then the spiral of a new life forms as the male half joins up with the female half. She just had to figure how to spiral this death spiral works…. As she allowed her mind wander, a bit of the world split off, the rust decays may, the world splits a bit more making a bit more of a spiral…… Is this the solution? Agatha wondered as vision each piece of the dying world fall into decay with hope of a new world emerging at the end of the spiral.
@TheHangedMan "Crap!" Aleksa said under her breath as the silence hung in the air until it was shattered by the silver titan's roar. As the titan raised its leg Aleksa activated her fire Magic though this time it was more intense than even the first time, her eyes were wide with adrenaline even when Aleksa knew she would not actually die if hit. "This may work out..." Aleksa thought to herself though the logical side of her brain had all but receded allowing for the more combat oriented side of her to take control. The ground around her lit itself on fire as a test image or her magic before Aleksa jumped out of the way of the falling foot, when the foot landed Aleksa took a running start and threw a punch as hard as she could in an attempt to break the titan's leg.
@TheHangedMan Kieran walked up infront of the door and leaned down so his face was level with the fairy on the doorknob. "perhaps you could open this door and we could spend that time in a more...comfortable place than this" he inched his face just a small bit closer. Honestly he'd rather try to convince her than force her to open the door.
Meruin sucked in a breath as she prepared for the inevitable pain. The blades of grass sunk into her skin, and Meruin grit her teeth to prevent a cry of pain. Somehow, though, the blades sank no deeper than a few centimeters - painful, certainly, but not life threatening. Meruin nearly passed out from the shock, but remained firm. More blood dripped from where she was stabbed, and Meruin gave a small, meaningful smile.
In terms of spell casting, she would be hard pressed to match the man before her - that much was true - but there other ways to enact a spell, for example, sacrificial blood. Blood has always been a powerful catalyst for spell casting, even more so for the blood of mages. Still, there was one kind of blood that held the most power in human history:
The blood of a female virgin. The blood of one who had yet to taste the desires of another. Throughout the ages, Mages and Demons used the blood of virgins to fuel their strength; through this blood, miracles could be achieved. Still, that was not to say it was all-powerful. Indeed, only a skilled mage could make practical use of the blood of a virgin, and even then, most mages were hard pressed to find the right kind of virgin, one who fulfilled the necessary requirement that was purity of the soul, in order to truly process the power their blood held.
It just so happened that Meruin was both a mage and a virgin. More than that, she had very little idea of what sex or lust was. It wasn't even too far of a stretch to say that she had never experienced lust either. Reina hammered the point home very early on in Meruin's teachings: Meruin's blood, her sacrifice, would be a very powerful tool.
And it would be even more so when given willingly.
Meruin's released a cool breath. In the span of a second, the ground beneath her crumbled to dust, as the spell that shaped them died out. Meruin stared at the puppet approaching her and flung her arm, splattering blood all over it.
Her blood glowed, and moved across the puppets body to form a three-pointed sigil. Meruin clapped her hands together, and the puppet froze.
Repent
The body of the puppet crumbled to dust at her words, leaving nothing but a pile of dirt. Meruin faced the mage in front of her, bleeding heavily. Still, in contrast to her injured body, the amount of magic gathering in the air was climbing at a blindingly fast rate. With every drop of blood, Meruin's spells grew stronger and stronger as her presence asserted itself into the world.
Narrowing her eyes, Meruin pointed a finger at the figure in front of her, and whispered:
Fire
A spell made for novices, that any beginner mage could cast. It only took one word to activate, making it one of the quickest spells to cast. In contrast to its speed, however, it was a weak spell that did little more that light a fire.
Empowered by her blood, however, the spell took the form of a large ball of flame that hurtled towards her opponent, scorching the grass beneath it.
Din looked on, watching as Agatha began reaching for an answer. The Copper Man wondered what the girl was thinking right now. The test was ultimately designed to warp the way she thought about the world, but there were only one of two ways to go about this and, more than that, this was still a test that would determine where she stood among her peers.
As it was, she had hit a few rough patches, but she was steadily improving. Din wondered if he should help her out; strictly speaking, the examiners weren't forbidden to assist their charges, however doing so too much would cull their chances of reaching out for answers themselves.
"Come now, Miss Pendragon. Surely you must have realized what to do next, correct?"
The answer to what pattern of weather she should follow was simple: The four seasons of Spring, Fall, Summer and Winter, however, Din meant it when he said that she must start with death - the death of all things as life hid beneath a blanket of white, and prepared for its rebirth into the spiral that was this world.
The Golden Titan looked on in confusion as the Silver Titan raged against Alkesandra, unsure of what to do. The Siler Titan, meanwhile, threw a kick towards Aleksandra with its other leg, going at speeds that should have been impossible with its size and weight. As its foot collided with her fist, Aleksandra was sent flying into the side of the arena with tremendous force, and while the Silver Titan acted unaffected, its leg had warped from the heat of her punch. Still, it pressed on, stomping towards Aleksanrda with nothing but the intent to grind her into the ground.
Fo leaned a little away from Kieran, flustered and confused look on her face. "Okay, noooooo thank you. You're not my type," she said, raising her palms up to keep some space between them. "In any case, no I won't be opening this door for you, but since you asked somewhat politely, even if it was in a very disturbing manner, I'll give a hint: There is a secret, arcane word that I was cursed with during the start of this exam. If you can figure it out, then I'll open the door for you. Understand?"
Apollo awoke with a jolt. His head hurting, he began to look around himself. A Doctor's office, more like an infirmary. He knew why he was here. He had done that blast and had failed the test most likely. He punched the bed, cursing himself from not trying the most obvious thing, of course, his mind was being occupied by two other people at the time so it did not allow him to think straight. The answer was so obvious. Apollo then felt something missing...
The Sword?!?! Where did it go?
Apollo flew to his feet, his knees and head hurting. He began to limp around the room, looking for the sword. It had become a very important part of him. Extremely important. Once he walked for a bit, he sat down, not even noticing the person that had carried him there. He then looked at him. He took out his sketchbook, and began to write on it.
'Hello, uh, Sir, Have you seen a sword like this?' Apollo drew a quick sketch of the sword. Of course if he had seen it he wouldn't be able to touch it since it was bounded to Apollo, and if anyone else touched it, then yeah, they would kind of be disintegrated They could only touch the Sword of Apollo allowed them to.
