[IC] Reincarnation Wars : Fighting Again (Recruiting)

[Thunder999999]

Neither Albert, nor any of the voices in his head had ever heard of a Rift, let alone a way to not make one not explode.
He briefly considers asking whether anyone else does, but discards the idea as unlikely to get a response in time, he's not sure they even heard him speak before.
Still, there's one thing he can do, he's felt it within him since he realised time was stopped, just didn't think a panicking crowd would make life easier. Once he's decided what to do, a simple gesture of his hand sends a faint ripple outward, time resuming its normal flow, at least as far as he can see.

[Dimentio]

Eventually, the dark wizard's physical body was destroyed. He felt no pain or suffering, other than frustration, as he was thus overwhelmed with great violence. Finally, Lucian vanished, seemingly without a trace. However, he unleashed a psychic blast, no physical force was expended on the protagonists, but the psychic scream was intense, leaving a message as he made himself loud and clear. "I cannot be destroyed! You are all damned!"
Meanwhile the portal grew with intensity. More people were unleashed from the Hell dimension to devour the protagonists. These people were all strong enough to rip cars to shreds, at least. Even those who were being destroyed could recorporate, eventually.

@ActRaiserTheReturned

"Yeah like I'm scared of damnation" Fei thought internally. "I've seen worse." She fired a magical blast into a crowd of some demonic folk.

[ActRaiserTheReturned]

Finally, the Rift exploded. Oddly enough, a brilliant blue/white flash exploded, destroying the entire army of demon invaders. . . transmuting them all into ash. At the same moment, it seemed as if the protagonists could feel a mysterious presence watching over them, but could not contact with, not telepathically or with any means. He, she or maybe it didn't want to talk, not right now, at least. At this same moment, the Balrog also transmuted into ash. Finally, the temporal distortion of the building reset. The whole party could feel themselves being transported back into time, and now the protagonists could see they were in the same location, around an hour and a half before the battle. Lucian was not yet present there.

[Thunder999999]

"What just happened?" Asks a somewhat dazed Albert, giving voice to his thoughts before really considering them.
Definitely didn't imagine it, not with these other people also suddenly here, I guess time travel isn't the most outlandish thing No answers are forthcoming within his mind, just a general sense of shared confusion.

[Sanity43217]

“Time travel.” Rhyder said rather matter of factly. Oddly enough an hour ago he didn’t even believe any of this was real, but now he could feel a wealth of experience that wasn’t his and had witnessed some pretty wild things. “Which probably doesn’t bode well for us.” He was trying to take stock of the situation. “So now he have a time limit, because we still don’t know how to stop those rifts from exploding, if we even can.” He took his sunglasses off. “We don’t even know how this time travel will affect things? Will things still turn out the same because this had already happened?”

[Thunder999999]

"What caused all those rifts in the first place? I assume it was tied to the sore loser in the black robes?" after a short pause to think he adds "If it is time travel then things should play out the same until one of us changes something, I think? Unless that guy also remembers what happened?"

[ActRaiserTheReturned]

The powerful presence could now be felt again, however, it seemed silent. It also seemed to give a wordless, mental communication it did not want to be bothered. However, Stregobor spoke up. "Okay, um that was bad. I don't know what to do. The presence I felt seems to be as strong as a Light entity's. It saved us and sent us back to the past, but now it doesn't seem as if it wants to communicate."
"We have at least an hour to figure out what's going on, or at least how to stop what happened the first time."

[Sanity43217]

"What caused all those rifts in the first place? I assume it was tied to the sore loser in the black robes?" after a short pause to think he adds "If it is time travel then things should play out the same until one of us changes something, I think? Unless that guy also remembers what happened?"

@Thunder999999

“Or we already have…” Rhyder chimed in. “What if time is predetermined. Set in stone. He came back in time because we were always going to, because we already had.” With the existence of time travel now very much confirmed, it didn’t help to think in linear time. “These beings with the power to send us through time might not even perceive time as linear like us. All of this could have already happened, and we were sent back so we would survive. We can’t change what has already happened. Maybe we are just meant to run.”

[Thunder999999]

And this is why is Albert never liked thinking too much about time travel, distracting himself from the disturbing thought that is predestination he voices some further thought, "Well it really comes down to what caused those rifts, I missed the start, but they seemed to be targeting us, in which case running would just move them with us."

[The World]

Nyx Nebula

---

Great. Time travel, again.
Again? You've dealt with it before?
Unfortunately. I don't know that the rules from then will apply now, though.
Then we're in a similar situation. I doubt my solution from last time will work here, either.
As Rhyder gave his input, the voices in Nyx's head agreed.
That's right. We need more information at the very least.
And running away isn't a bad idea. We should probably do that.

"There have been superheroes on the news, right? Maybe we can escape and find one of them?"

[Sanity43217]

“If the rifts follow us, the least we can do is get them to follow us into an unpopulated area.” Ryder said. “If the rifts are destined to happen where they are, and we escape.” Ryder considered his options. Summoning Ebony and Ivory. “I suppose there’s only one way to tell, and it would help get civilians out of here.” He paused. “Does anyone remember an active shooter situation before everything kicked off?” He said before firing his gun into the roof a couple times.

[Thunder999999]

Albert lets out a short laugh, this is a little crazy, "Pretty sure I'd have noticed that! I take it we're trying to run?"

[ActRaiserTheReturned]

The mysterious presence seemed to strengthen, somehow, as Rider fired into the air. What he, she or it was doing, no one knew. Somewhere Lucian seemed to be making his way towards Rider's position. At the same moment, Stregobor flinched, not sure that what Rider was doing was the correct course of action. Meanwhile, Lucian was already making his way towards Rider. "YOU! WHAT AM I DOING HERE!?" He demanded to know, conjuring a two handed scythe from out of nowhere.

[Thunder999999]

"No need to shout, and I think we could ask you the same question."

[Sanity43217]

Ryder looked at the others then to Lucian with a confused expression. “Why does everyone assume I know what’s going on?” He turned to the others who were displaced in time with him. “Do I look like I know what’s going on?” He said gesturing to himself.

[Thunder999999]

"Well you have been making sense, and acting pretty confident, which is more than the rest of us can say, so kind of."

[The World]

Nyx found herself rushing between Lucian and Ryder at the behest of "Archer's" taking control of her body, whilst simultaneously chanting something under her breath that was too quiet for even her to hear. In an instant, two swords appeared in her hands, and she was between them, ready to fight.

"Hey, less talking, more running away!" came from her mouth without her meaning to say it.

[Thunder999999]

Thoughts Should I be getting a weapon, everyone else is conjuring them
Probably not, we can draw one of yours fast enough it doesn't matter, maybe he'll be foolish enough to think you unarmed

[Sanity43217]

"Well you have been making sense, and acting pretty confident, which is more than the rest of us can say, so kind of."

@Thunder999999

“That my dear friend…” He did finger guns towards Albert. “Is called acting.” Ryder said with a smirk. It was easy to say things and sound confident. Plus if you say anything confidently with enough confidence people will believe it.

[Olive Fontaine]

Scarlet Thorne

Scarlett took a few steps closer to the newly appeared Lucian and confidently crossed her arms. It seemed that the former mastermind was now confused about his own presence. Maybe the time magic they'd all just been through had thrown him for a loop. "You're here to kill Rider, aren't you?" she asked him, looking sideways at his perplexed face. "Or would you rather change your mind about that? Because I already beat you to a pulp once, but I wouldn't mind a rerun."

She moved her hands to her hips and turned to face him. Not everything had been reset - this guy was a known element now. "While you're here - tell us what you know about portals to hell and red-eyed demons. If you help us close them when they appear, maybe we can let you walk away this time."