[img]http://i.imgur.com/2uDBgEK.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/8mPMSWF.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/dO6vRyy.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/eeX4Zmf.png[/img] [b][u]Thaum: Group A: Estelle, Marcus, Trixie, Selan[/u][/b] Estelle nodded back to Selan, once she reassured the swordswoman she was okay, and that Trixie was in greater need of aid. The younger child was traumatised and unresponsive. Although Estelle could now touch her, her voice and affection seemed to fall on deaf ears, and it wasn’t for lack of trying or being invisible, like she was before. Trixie was just retreating deeper and deeper into a world that Estelle feared she couldn’t penetrate. Not without the help of Amy, or possibly Don. It didn’t stop her from squeezing Trixie tighter. “We need to go to the tower,” Marcus interrupted, looking to Selan with a fresh new smile and nod, hoping the expression might help to dissuade her fears. “If I’m not mistaken, I believe that that is the centre of all these nightmares. Whatever’s causing them… it’s doing it from there, and it’s the only way to stop it.” “We need to find everyone else as well,” Estelle said, looking briefly over her shoulder. “And then after we do, we’re going to beat the crap out of whoever’s doing this!!” And then, suddenly, before anyone else could reply, the sound of an explosion rocked their ears. From behind them, dust and smoke was thrown into the air, with the purple haze being dislodged and blown to the side. And strangely enough, from over the top of one set of houses roofs… was the sound of an ear piercing scream coming from a body spiralling through the air, crashing down along the ground and tumbling into a crate holding several enlarged pieces of stationary equipment, from pencils to erasers, sharpeners to protractors. [img]http://i.imgur.com/QLodCtj.png[/img] “Fhgngnslablaaaghhhaaaa!!” “Don!” Estelle screamed, wanting to rush to the bowled over man who had landed on his back, his legs flopped over the top of him, but not wanting to leave Trixie’s side. Her eyes met Selan, and she nodded, with an air of unease. Her eyes turned to Marcus, and to the source of Don’s flight. Her thoughts were given to ask what had caused this, when the very next second later… those questions were answered. The houses from where Don had appeared from suddenly imploded outwards, splintering into a thousand pieces and buffeting the fivesome with a terrifying gale of wind. From the clearing smoke and wreckage, they could all see a large, shadowy figure stride towards them, one of its arms crackling with energy. As the dust and smoke cleared away from it, revealing its face within the murky violet fog… their jaws all simultaneously dropped as one. It wasn’t possible. ----- [img]http://i.imgur.com/ylO8F8C.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/AXy5Xzf.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/aBIXoi8.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/eXdw1If.png[/img] [img]http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h461/kathichan1/ariacastshot.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/TiFs5lt.png[/img] [b][u]Group B: Moira, Syed, Lisette, Kapi, Aria, Atlas[/u][/b] The jubilant reunion between Guilders was shortlived, as suddenly the ground around them began to rumble and shake. Turning around in every direction, they each tried to spy the source of the violent quaking, but were unable to find any immediate source… until in the distance, a collection of buildings were thrown into the air, in a tumultuous spiral before raining down to the ground in a thundering heap. Lisette shrieked and hugged Kapi tight, as Moira and Aria gripped onto their weapons, with Syed’s eyes widened and jaw dropping as something… something impossible began to grow before them. Something so large and simply impossible that he simply… he simply couldn’t believe it. This wasn’t happening! His mind screamed. It wasn’t possible! But there in front of his eyes, it was, and his feet took an uneasy step back to slip and fall, almost banging his head against Atlas’ leg. The monstrous figure turned its gigantic face in the Guilders’ direction, and roared, as a whirlwind of bones surrounded it. It lifted up its right hand, to reveal a skeletal sword formed from the bones of thousands, and swung the might blade directly down towards them, whilst behind… another terror suddenly appeared, this one a large and mighty beast, its body blazing a searing, scorching heat beneath its growl. Moira’s head turned sharply back towards the frightening enemy, and her own jaw dropped. “You have got to be shitting me…” ----- [img]http://i.imgur.com/AIt9B3l.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/t9SKBzc.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/J8VStXo.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/ZEQcnsM.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/UPINOf1.png[/img] [b][u]Group C: Dylan, Amy, Lucien, Xandra, Lute[/u][/b] Xandra and Lute rejoined the others in time to see Lucien receive an ill timed slap after his attempts to embrace Amy, the latter recoiling away and keeping her distance in silence, her eyes warily trained upon the summoner. Her eyes flickered back to Dylan, who was rising to his feet, but she said nothing, sending her glare back towards Lucien. How dare he do that to her. How dare her, after all she had been through…! [b]THOOM[/b] A loud, thunderous roar enveloped them from all sides. Just as they were about to ask whether any of them had any injuries, their attention was alarmingly taken by the din of noise that consumed them from all sides. A sound that was growing ever louder… ever closer. “What… was is that?” Asked one of them, and then in the next instant- Buildings were cleaved in half, a massive gaping hole bursting through the one closest to them, a giant, hulking figure overshadowing them rearing its massive arm up into the air, and swiping downwards at them. They had barely the shortest amount of time to react, with Lute grabbing Xandra’s arm, and Lucien pulling Dylan away (Amy’s own distance to the others giving her just enough space to move away as well) to avoid the giant paw slapping the ground where they had been and causing a violent enough quake to topple everyone to their knees. “What…” Lute asked with exasperated breaths. “What is that?!” A giant mutated bear, far larger and more murderous then any the virtuoso could have possibly have encountered, stood up on its hind legs, roaring into the sky. Spikes jagged out from around its jaws, and it raised its gleaming claws into the air again, its eyes scanning the Pride around, its nose twitching as it decided which would be its first meal. “The… Bearon?” Dylan gaped. “How is that even…?” But any thoughts the Matter Artist might have had on the beast, on his memories in Weir when the Pride had fought a futile battle against the immortal beast, only for the Pride to fail and be fortunately saved by their ally Cole whom transformed himself into a monster as well, was drowned out by the arrival of another, unearthly horrifying foe. Gushing through the building in the distance, crashing and rebounding against buildings like a torrential tsunami, was a mass of deep black, the sound of [i]skittering[/i] auditing from it, as the mass began to converge and form, taking shape, into a form recognisable to Amy as… “You have got to be shitting me…” Amy unknowingly echoed Moira’s statement from across the other side of Thaum. ----- [b][u]Group A: Estelle, Marcus, Trixie, Selan, Don[/u][/b] “You… you have to be joking…” Selan’s voice dropped. “This isn’t possible…” Estelle’s hand reached for the hilt of her sword, already in the process of unsheathing it to defend herself and her friends. Of all the things that could possibly appear… the timing of this was…! “Well, well, well…” The evil voice from the approaching figure laughed. “If it isn’t my dear son’s precious little friends. I did promise I would hunt and kill all of you down, didn’t I?” The impossibly tall, muscular man raised his arm into the air, his hand connected to that of his frightening Magitech Cannon. Already the barrel was humming and glowing, charging up its next deadly attack. Memories of Tabul began racing through the Pride’s minds. Their adversary smirked. [b]“Time to die.”[/b] ------ [center][b][u]Group A: Estelle, Marcus, Trixie, Selan, Don[/u][/b] [img] http://i.imgur.com/1WPuGny.png[/img] [b][u]Group B: Moira, Syed, Lisette, Kapi, Atlas, Aria[/u][/b] [img] http://i.imgur.com/efHQ0fT.png[/img] [img] http://i.imgur.com/1drWxHp.png[/img] [b][u]Group C: Dylan, Lucien, Amy, Xandra, Lute[/u][/b] [img] http://i.imgur.com/dB5TIVR.png [/img] [img] http://i.imgur.com/4tUsJ7D.png[/img][/center] [hider=Pach pls]“…at least that giant thing from Vandrell’s not here, yeah?” Lucien tried to laugh, backing away from the Bearon that twisted its head and huffed in his direction. Suddenly, there was a violent quake, a tremor that shook the entire town, far larger then anything they had experienced before. Lucien and Dylan’s eyes widened, as they stared down the open street, past the giant spider to the far wall that enclosed Thaum from all around… and the giant, black, obsidian claw that gripped onto it, pushing down. Stared at the giant, enraged face that belonged to the monstrous, terrifying howling body that followed afterwards, its spiky carapace home to a dozen throbbing, pulsing tentacles slithering about its body, each with its own jaw and jagged set of teeth. Its tail slithering and slamming into the wall behind it, leaving deep cracks and crevices inside of it. [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/WQlw3Hs.png[/img][/center] Dylan’s face snapped back to Lucien. “Oh Aislin!” He wailed. “Lucy, you just had to go and open your big mouth!!”[/hider]