[IC] Edged Horizon

[Zombehs]

The trip wasn't very long for the two of them, and nary a word between them had passed for the entire journey. It was for all the better, he supposed, seeing as how he had to sort through his thoughts as well as her own. What he had divined was that his host body had lived a poor life in Illiserev, became a rich magician after discovering his talents, had a family... which was murdered by an elf, an elf for whom he could only feel intense hatred towards no matter how known it was to him of the bias his brain must have held. It wasn't much to go on, and none of these besides the last held much meaning to him... and that was disturbing; as if his sole thought in life was the last one; a life dedicated to revenge... Was that who she was to become then? This Eldren who wished for nothing more than to avenge his murdered family? Perhaps... he found himself thinking despite himself. Perhaps if he had appraoched her with his intent, she would have been willing to help him, but the thought remained: Are these thoughts truly my own?

They apprached one of the town's gates, smoke visible and billowing from some distance away. A sort of panic hit him with this, as likely as it was to simply be a fire. What if she had done this with his new body; his new, and her old abilities? What if his first objective was to destroy his new body's former identity with all that he had? It would be... too much for him to handle.
"Halt!" one of the gate's many guards called out. "You are..." he said during his approach, in recognition of the man's strange looking companion. It was then that he screamed and cowered away, alerting those around of the small group's presence. "You there!" Another voice shouted to them, this one firmer and more intoned with authority. " I am the captain of this guard, or so the chain of command now dictates," he announced with a gulp, "You are the boy under Astopol's protection and living with the Seyour family, are you not?" he scoffed with anger. "And this is..." he turned his gaze to the slumped figure of Horace, who was still unconcious. A grin formed on the man's grizzled face. "Well now, good citizen, I am glad you bring this harbinger of criminals to us. I will see that what remains of this town rewards you," he stepped forward to grab the man's uncle. "Now then, what's your name, good sir?"
"Eldren," he responded without thought while taking a step away from the man's grasp, "And may I ask what this 'harbinger of criminals' thing is about? I would hope that you are good enough a man not slander an innocent's noble name?"
A severe frown replaced the former expression of the guard captain as he began to explain. "This man is the 'uncle' of a Miss Riley Thomson, known to the Sidosa Board and the rest of the town as a known witch and practitioner of the summoning arts. Late last night, we were attacked by the same such beasts as she and the rest of her witch kin are known to conjure forth, therefore, we have been ordered to apprehend all witch's, Talze Uterran native, as well as any of their suspected accomplises; with the exception being him," he sneered at Araki. "Any signs of deviance in light of these orders will be treated as an act of terrorism against Dansilla and will result in immediate imprisonment; am I clear?"
"Crystal," the shellshocked man responded, handing the body that drapped his shoulder over to the captain before proceeding to the gate's entrance. "Now may we go?" he asked rhetorically in an imposing tone fo voice. "Yes," the man gulped once more, "you three may go."

Araki supposed it was a good thing that 'Riley' didn't try to strike up conversation during the way back to Cykes. Anything he might have wanted to talk or ask about wasn't exactly the type of chat people had while on the move and in a hurry. It was a brief feeling of relief that faded as the pair got closer to town, and all but vanished when they rushed past the treeline and onto the plains that separated the city's walls and the forest. "Blood..." It was a whisper, just something that slipped out, but the scent of it lingered in the air and judging from the state of the town... well Araki didn't have a doubt about where the source was. There were other questions of course, but he figured he'd get his answers soon enough.

He probably looked a bit confused at the guard's reaction; at least Araki certainly felt that way. He scanned the faces of the other guards at the post before he settled on the man that had stepped forward, the captain, with a scowl. He recognized the looks on these people's faces and he did not like them, not one bit. It reminded him of being back in the village really, unpleasant as that had been. While he guessed their reaction likely had to do with whatever happened in Cykes last night, being a target of their ire for simply what he was irritated Araki. Even if he wasn't great at concealing his emotions, he did hold his tongue and stop himself from saying anything he might have come to regret; 'Riley' could handle the talking just fine.

'Well that's one question down.' He grinned right back at the 'captain', unintimidated by the man in the slightest as he walked pass. The 'grin' didn't last for long though and Araki quickly dropped it once the guards were behind him. Though he had the proper papers still in his bag and that would likely help him with any 'authorities', if the guards were of that attitude towards him he could only imagine what the general populace felt. He caught up with 'Riley' while they were just past the gate and still under the wall. "Just me, but after that I don't think me walking through the streets is going to be the best idea." Moving on the rooftops would likely attract more attention, but that was only if people bothered to look up and people rarely did.

The man responed to the crystala with a brief grunt. He felt dead inside; it was as plain and simple as that. The town had indeed been attacked by summoned creature's, his uncle had been arrested simply for having been associate with him, and the likelihood of it being her body's fault was ever increasing.

The two passed on into the aftermath of the town. Death was a prominent smell, and the fumes from the numerous fires that were just being put out simply mixed with it to create possibly the most vile odor to run across his nose. The survivors wandered about the streets with sullen faces; some few were covered in ash as if they had escaped from a burning building. Their eyes, though, despite having the bags indicating a severe lack of sleep, were all glared at Araki as he passed. "Hm," he started without thought, "Maybe you should take to the roofs now, and leave Fion with me... lest we get mauled before reaching his estate. Sound like a plan, Araki?"

Sighing under his breath, Araki shifted Fion a bit before he followed after 'Riley' into the city past the gates. It hadn't been reduced to rubble, but what he saw reminded him of Bakery Town; Cykes had certainly been the sight of a battle... or maybe massacre was more fitting. There were plenty of signs the dead had left behind; blood stains on the cracked streets, the lingering smell in the air, and the experience in the eyes of those still alive. "Yeah..." He trailed off as more and more citizens caught notice of him, slowly gathering towards the three of them. Holding Fion out for 'Riley' to take, he didn't spare any time and moved as soon as his arms were free.

That wasn't to say the crowd didn't try to stop him, but there wasn't much they could do. The weakened ground cracked even further before he shot up into the air, sailing clean over their heads, and slammed onto a nearby rooftop. He could just barely hear the crowd's outrage catch up with him, but it was all left behind when he pushed off. It wouldn't take him too long to reach the estate in this manner, but Araki wondered. Given the state of the city, would there even be anything left of Fion's home?

[Click This]

Chad’s eye visibly twitched as he eyed the Lorchais butler. The vampire’s insult was not overt but his tone and look of disdain was obvious enough that it was a direct insult to his person. A drunkard? Mundane? He had only 50 milliliters of alcohol in the past three days, his glass included. For a man of connections, a captain and merchant, Chad always dressed the part. He wore clean, crisp clothes and he carried himself with a military straight posture. He always gave a firm handshake when introduced to another individual and did his best to accommodate a person to a reasonable extent. He was probably better composed and better dressed than Rilolia, even aboard this godforsaken airship, and he wore an unmistakable clasp that indicated he was a commissioned captain of Illiserev. A butler that could not judge his position or standing was not a very good one, but Chad decided to humor the man with introduction.

“Well then, Mr. Lenz Blanc, I am pleased to make your acquaintance and I would like to welcome aboard the airship Frelia Star. I am captain Chad Howard of the Illiserev frigate Laurentine Castle. If you have any pertinent questions, please address them to me or acting Captain Moko Windclaw.” Chad extended his hand to give the man a handshake. “Oh, I would like to mention Rilolia is not the only nobility aboard this vessel, so I must ask you to refrain from making crass generalizations about my acquaintances.” Chad didn’t give a damn about Lyra’s noble blood and nor did she, but he certainly wanted to kick the incompetent and arrogant butler down a notch.

--

Down in the mess hall, Lyra stopped her reading mid-turn. She had a felt an unfamiliar charge in the air. She initially thought it was Yazu casting some manner of spell, but the power of the charge was rather large, and she suddenly felt the presence of another entity aboard the airship. As it was with Yazu and Rilolia, any person that boards themselves onto a vessel in the middle of the ocean has some manner of purpose in mind that would warrant Lyra’s attention, especially when she had nothing particularly good to do. And with that in mind, Lyra found herself on deck after grabbing a warmer cloak along the way.

Draping the linen fabric around her neck, she scanned the deck for the presence she had felt below. She didn't have to look long to see where he was as she found Chad and the others engaged with him. The new arrival on deck was an older man that Lyra surmised to be a butler. He was not familiar to her nor was the manner of magic used in the style of the Mauritania family, so Lyra concluded that the butler must be related to Rilolia in some way. Nobody else aboard was wealthy or influential enough besides the two of them. She could see Chad was displeased to some degree with the butler, but he was displeased with a great many things as of late. It wasn’t of paramount importance, so she paid him no mind. Getting within earshot distance of the group huddled near the newcomer, she found that he was indeed related to Rilolia in some way. Now this was of paramount importance; if her family was getting involved, there would be an order of magnitude more information that Lyra could glean about Talze Utera and the vampires, or perhaps even gain some manner of favor. But for the meantime, perhaps she could get a competent butler like him to fix the holed walls preventing her from reading properly…

[ERode]

Lenz Blanc nodded slightly, not towards some captain of a boat, but towards the elf that came down from the mast of the airship. An interesting ability, she possessed. The distortion of a curse, was it? Not a power that was very desirable, but he could see why it was amusing for an immortal witch to follow the antics of something as eccentric and insane as that multiple personality disorder elf. But, while the butler had no intention of speaking or interacting with Yazulayne, it was nevertheless part of the deal, so to say. The price for information didn't have to be in precious metals, after all.

“Greetings, Ms. Yazulayne,” he said with a smile, “Rainbow scaled dragons never existed, and 'normal' dragons only exist in Talze Utera now. If you want to take a look, why not come over some time?”

Turning back to Rilolia then, he brought his hands behind his back, in a motion almost reminiscent of a teacher. He tilted his head upwards slightly, before replying, “Lady Lorerchais, please calm yourself. The Scarlet Court is interested in Vance solely due to the fact that he's a member of Astopol, yet still tolerates the residents of Talze Utera, to the extent of even defying martial law in order to do so. Though I personally don't believe that it is with goodwill that they wish to see him, they ARE interested in what his thought processes are. And your parents may appear to be cold, but they DO care about you, mi'lady.”

“They keep track of your whereabouts on a regular basis with magic.”

“And Captain Howard, I do apologize if you are already aware of this, but I am a vampire. The nobility of something as short-lived as humans is a 'nobility' that I care not of. That being said, apologies for assuming that you're merely a footman of my lady.”

With that said, the butler shook the Captain's hand warmly.

“Shall I presume that you already know the whereabouts of Vance Warren?”

[Skyswimsky]

“Rainbow scaled dragons never existed, and 'normal' dragons only exist in Talze Utera now. If you want to take a look, why not come over some time?” They didn't exist? Well, the elf didn't really care bout their existence in the first place. The only reason she brought those pretty things up was to ease her own burden. "But how would Butler know that? We know that butlers are smart, or at least our butlers were, but they are not ALL-KNOWING...? And Talze Utera has dragons? We wonder if people can tame and ride them..."

There wasn't really anything from Yazulayne's sides to add to the conversation apart from a few conclusion like "Rilolia is nobility? Woah~", "Butler seems to dislike the annoying self-proclaimed captain too!" followed by a small chuckle or "And her parents are stalkers too!". The moments she didn't open her mouth at all she was just humming a song her mother once thaught her when not able to sleep.

[Zombehs]

“Gah!” The cry followed sharp cracks of splintering wood; the damaged building unable to support his weight as he landed on its roof. Without an ounce of grace he fell through the broken rooftop and crashed into the second floor of the small home. Wincing, he brushed off flecks of wood as he tried to stand.
The floor didn’t like that.
“Fu-,” was all he managed to get out before the damaged floor gave a final groan and cracked under him, sending him down to the ground. “Oof.” Hitting the ground wasn’t exactly comfortable and Araki laid there for a few moments to collect himself, ignoring the cloud of dust and whatnot that settled on him. Oddly enough aside from his breathing, there was actually silence for him to think. As he finally sat up, the smell was enough to make it clear as to why there wasn’t a family screaming at him.

He left the house quickly from the back entrance that led into an alley. Last thing he needed was somebody throwing the family’s death on him just because he came out of their home. Taking to the rooftops again with a quick leap, he began to make his way towards the Seyour estate again, albeit at a slower pace. The buildings that made up his path were all relatively small, and after that mishap he didn’t trust them to be very stable. His caution proved to be warranted as he came close to breaking through several more roofs on his way. Thankfully they managed to stay intact long enough for him to ease his way off, though they probably wouldn’t lasted for much longer; hopefully nobody would be home when they gave way.

“Well then…” Araki had come to a halt on one of the buildings just outside the Seyour estate. The mansion wasn’t as visibly damaged as most of the buildings in Cykes, but judging from the torn off front doors it had seen its own share of conflict. He dropped to the street below and glanced around before he made his way over the blood-stained stones. Small trails of red led up from the street to the mansion; he guessed some of the wounded had tried to escape from the house. Heading up the steps and past the ruined doorway, he was greeted with the sight of a completely trashed foyer. Directly from him, the entrance to the ballroom had been completely destroyed as if to accommodate something vastly larger and he could see the room beyond was in a similar state. It was hard to tell, given how the smell practically lingered in the air constantly, but there was certainly the metallic tang of blood here.

Unsure of what to do, he stood around for a few moments before he figured it would be best to explore the mansion further. The damage looked pretty bad, but there was no telling how other parts of the house had fared nor exactly what had happened to the residents. He did bother to leave a sign for ‘Riley’ that he had arrived, as crude as it was. Given the state of the mansion, he doubt anyone would care that he had used one of the still-standing doors as a message board. With a claw he had carved on, ‘Exploring the mansion further. -Araki,’ before leaving it at the front door and making his way deeper into the building.

[Asuras]

As the words spilled out from the butler, Rilolia felt more and more that she was just another cog in the elder's spinning wheels; a tool for the rescuing of Vance Warren, rather than an individual they truly sought to make happy and safe. Realistically, she thought, they'd stress that she turn back for fear of danger and send their own cronies in her place. She'd ignore that, for now. What was all the more interesting was why they looked toward's Vance's "thought processes" of all things. It seemed so petty, but in the end ot was his very nature that drove her into action anyways. It wasn't impossible they were feeling at least slightly similar things as she.

Lenz Blanc's offensive comment surely failed to render Chad complacent, but Rilolia couldn't help but snicker at his misfortune. A hand to her lips gave away her expression despite being a ploy at hiding amusement. At his question, Rilolia butted in.

"We know he's in a prison, and that's pretty much it. Which prison, and where that prison is, I'm not sure. I didn't exactly study up on Astopolian maps when I was young," she chuckled, folding her arms, "though if I had to guess, it's in the biggest and most secure one they got. It seemed like a pretty big deal when they took him away."

[Psyker Landshark]

Walking the streets of Cykes was wrenching the man. The blood that acted as paint. The now homeless wandering about without purpose, without anywhere really to go. The corpses that had obviously tried to fight when they should have run. The dead weight of the man he carried... And it was all because of that man who had somehow stolen his body. He wanted to cry, but the notion seemed impossible with how dry and overused they had already become...

"...Where am I now?"

The unexpected voice shook him from his reverie, and relief took over his expressions. "Fion... You're okay," he said with a smile as he carefully dropped him from his shoulder.

For his part, Fion was still in shock from everything that had happened back at the Burrow, from Riley trying to murder everybody to him losing his arm. Then came the dream. And now some damn hobo he didn't know was smiling at him while he was surrounded by blood and corpses. Speaking of which...the area around here looked awfully familiar...no.

"Alright." He breathed slowly, looking at the man in front of him. "Three things. One, who are you. Two, how do you know my name. Three, please don't tell me this is Cykes."

"Ah," his voice caught with minor surprise at the man's questions. He had forgotten completely in his relief that Fion didn't know "him"; knew her but not him. He looked away and coughed with a faint blush as he began to answer. "The first two can be answered with one word: -- well, name really -- Araki. I found you and your big, um, friend -- shall we say? -- around the edge of the Burrow and began searching for a healer. There was a large release of mana, and thinking it was the feel of a healer, followed it to find him. His appearance was, well, shocking to say the least as I wasn't keen on finding a... monster so far Talze Utera, but as I explained my predicament and I led him back toward the two of you, he said your name...

"And as for your third question, yes, this is Cykes... I believe that it was the doing of the same woman who did... that," he pointed to the stub that replaced Fion's arm.

"Cut the shit." Fion laughed bitterly as he gazed forlornly at his missing arm. "That wasn't her. Her bitch of a mother did something to her, and she's damn well not herself. For one, she sure as hell wasn't good enough to use magics as advanced as she did on me, and she told me outright that she wasn't Riley. Damn witch probably got a demon to possess her daughter or something." Turning back to the man, he narrowed his eyes into a glare. "And stop hiding whatever it is you don't want me to find out. I asked you two simple questions, and you give me a long, rambling explanation that didn't even answer one of them."

His remaining hand went down to the talentium dagger sheathed in his belt. Fion was damned sick of whatever it was that this man was trying to pull, and after the god-awful day he'd had, he was done being nice. "Start over. And this time, stop stalling."

The man scoffed in anger. He saved his life, and yet has the nerve to get indignant with him? Very much in character for Fion, yet infuriating still. "And who the hell are you to be asking me such thing, boy?" he shouted bitterly. "You obviously hold yourself in high regard to ask questions and then accuse me of lying when you have no apparent right to!" He began walking away, grumbling. "Thinking of fighting me, a goddamn mage, with only one arm; what nerve!" he grumbled.

"A name is all I want." Fion scowled, pulling himself back up on his own two feet as wind began to swirl around him. "That's all, friend. Not that hard to give me, unless you're hiding something you don't want me to know."

"It is Eldran, mage of Illiserev," he called back as he continued to walk away in the direction of Fion's house. A sneer crept across his face. "Dare claim that I am lying about and I shall have something much bigger than you take the that other arm of yours."
"I have business yet with that monster friend of yours, and all I have to find him is an address he claims to be yours."

"Feh," Fion spat, sheathing his dagger even as the wind continued to swirl around him. "A male mage? I'd say that's unlikely, but given myself...they slap a dying girl's arm onto you too, or was yours natural?" He snarked, wrapping his cloak around him as the magical wind finally died out.

The man's jaw hinged with the statement. Was he being serious? The man didn't know; they had never really spoken about the source of Fion's magic, and Fion's attitude made discerning reality from such words was difficult, as was the usual. "Natural..." he said flatly. "Although it has only recently began to manifest," he added almost as an afterthought, "so my control is a bit... limited, at the moment."

"Wonderful. Second partner in a row to have issues controlling their magic. Well, at least I might not end up getting clawed in the face by a giant demon bird this time." Fion rolled his eyes as he took the lead, walking ahead of the man. "If you're coming to the Seyour estate, follow along. I've nothing better to do than see how they fared in the attack."

~

Halfway through the walk -- enough for the man to simmer from his previous outrage -- he spoke again. "So, I know it is not my place to ask," he began to rub the back of his neck nervously, "and you have every right to not answer or tell me to shove off, but... was this 'Riley' you mentioned earlier your 'partner' who had demon birds attacking you?"

"No, it was Araki." Fion said blithely, slightly annoyed by the mention of Riley's name and the twinge in what remained of his right arm. "But yeah, it was Riley. Why so curious?"

"Well, it's just that it seems we have very similar abilities then, and um, I'm sort of hoping that my magic doesn't lead me to attacking anybody who would call me their 'partner'." His lies were getting more outrageous... and rambling, he knew as much, but now wasn't exactly the time to stop lying; particularly seeing as how he was the one who had technically (or at least somehow in his mind) caused his loss of arm. "Erm, excuse me. I probably shouldn't be saying such things; I do want you to trust me after all. I'm an agreeable person, and the least likely to hold a metaphorical blade to your throat."

"Right..." Fion narrowed his eyes at one of the things the man had said. "Similar abilities, eh? You mean to say you've got the same demon summoning abilities as a half-witch? Please tell me they grafted a witch's arm onto you or something." As much as he wanted to believe the man just to make things easier, something just seemed off about that whole spiel.

"Ah, um, not actual demons -- heavens, I thought you were being satirical about that seeing as how that's how you've acted since we've started our conversation -- but just... monsters, at least at the moment..." Well, this was quickly going downhill. "That's why I was asking; I don't really know how far my powers stretch, but if I'm just a fledgling, and she was able to do so much, how long is it before my own powers do to me what hers did to her..." All she could think at the moment was 'Save!'.
"Um, sorry again, but are feeling all right about everything? I mean, your partne -- er, ex-partner -- just took your arm and your home is in shambles... I would have expected more sign of emotion from everything that's happening to you all at once."

"I'll break down crying in private, thank you." Fion scoffed as they continued to walk. "And I'll worry about myself when I figure out what to do next. No point in feeling sorry for myself until I know what I can do. And speaking of Riley," He glanced down at his remaining hand, scowling. "Her bitch mother owes me an arm. I don't know what she did to Riley, but I want her dead for it."

Fion would never admit it out loud, but internally, he was lost. In one night, he'd lost his arm to the girl he may or may not have had feelings for after her mother had done something to her mind, and then he came to see his hometown destroyed and his family most likely decimated. All he could think of right now was that Riley's mother was the one at fault for everything. Killing that bitch was the only thing he could think of to even begin to fix this situation at the moment.

"Emotion isn't a weakness, you know. In fact, you're all the more pitiful for keeping it all in..." A silence overcame him as he thought out his next words carefully. "I, um, I have a confession. I was... in the room as that girl from before and she had been talking to a scarred woman who I can only assume was her mother..." he stopped talking and looked at Fion to gauge his reaction.

"Really, now?" Fion raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. You pick up on what they were saying?"

"Um, no," he decided to say, "but I was watching seeing as how they were the most peculiar pair in the bar.
"This 'Riley' had arrived first with that weapon of hers, and only a few moments later did the scarred woman appear. At first, there was yelling, and visible anger, but after, well, she looked happy- they looked happy," he smiled at the memory, "They looked like a happy family... but there had been no mind-altering magics at play, no magic until those things came bursting through that ceiling and roof. I would have known, and I have found such vulgar magics to be almost impossible to hide in the proximity we were in... Are you so sure it was this girl's mother? What was even that girl's purpose of meeting with the woman if she was as vile as to change her own daughter as you say she did?"

Fion rubbed his forehead in frustration, sighing. "Three weeks ago, Riley was chomping at the bit to go murder her mother, even though we were in the middle of Talze Utera, mana depleted, and would've been swarmed by monsters if we'd tried. The first part I can understand. The part where she looks happy? Must've been when her mother did something to her. And hell, I don't know why she decided meeting her mother would've been a good idea. Maybe she had a brief absence of sanity again. Seems to happen quite often when her mother's involved." And the two turned the corner, walking up to the gates of the Seyour estate...which was ruined, but strangely absent of corpses for the most part, aside from a few of the servants. Fion stared at the destruction for a moment, looking over the bodies that remained as he desperately searched for a certain one.

The man clicked his tongue in anger, despite them arriving at the carnage that must have been traumatizing to Fion. "Things change, though. People change. Can you really claim to have known her when you didn't know why she was doing what she was doing? Can you say you even cared for her if you didn't even ask how she was doing; what she was thinking at any given moment? You may think you had an idea of who this girl was, but in reality, what if all you knew about her was an assumption based on how she 'acted'?" His voice was angry, hurt; his voice scratchy from the sore throat that resulted from held back tears. Fion was accusing his mother of doing something to her, and she knew that it couldn't be true, despite there being some sense to his words. They had just made up, he had just reclaimed the mother who he had never really had; how could she believe such things? "You idiot..." his voice finally wavered as he ran past Fion and past the wreckage that was his estate, hoping Araki was somewhere inside.

Fion barely registered the man's speech as he dashed into the ruined estate himself, frantically searching the wreckage room by room until he finally found it. The corpse of an old man in a butler's uniform lay battered and broken in a side courtyard, still clutching his prized greatsword from his time as a soldier. Sinking to his knees, Fion collapsed next to the body, eyes wide in shock.

"Richard..." He whispered hoarsely. And what was left of his control finally snapped. After losing his arm, losing Riley, coming back to a ruined Cykes, and now losing the man who had been more of a father to him than his actual one had ever been, Fion couldn't hold it in any longer. Tears streaked down his face as he cried silently before waving his hand at the wall, sending a burst of wind crashing through it.

"Damn it!" He screamed, letting his Sword Arts loose as he drew his scimitar in his left hand, slashing through what was left of a pillar while razor winds swirled around him, tearing everything in the courtyard apart aside from Richard's body. His little rampage continued on for some time until he'd exhausted himself emotionally, sinking back down next to Richard's body as the last of his tears streaked down his face.

[Click This]

Ignoring Yazulayne’s overtures into their conversation, Chad reciprocated Lenz’s handshake with an equally firm handshake. The nobility of the three sovereign nations would beg to differ, Chad chuckled to himself. To some certain nobles, those would be fighting words. Chad shrugged off the shrewd attack in his best business-like manner; an apology in any manner was enough for him. He quickly moved to address the butler’s inquiry.

“As it stands now,” started Chad, carefully, “We have a general understanding of where he might be, but not an exact location.” Chad quickly recalled the maps and charts he had brought with him from his ship; he had memorized the sea charts but not the continent. Nonetheless, he had managed to remember the better portion of the Astopol political map during the ample amount of time they had in the trip to the Archipelagos. He disagreed with Rilolia.

“Rilolia, the prisons you’re thinking of are large, general security prisons for common folk, murderers, and thieves. They may be secure but I doubt they hold political or religious prisoners. Word would easily get out if a high profile detainee such as Mr. Warren arrived at such a facility.” Chad had earlier concluded that it was more likely that the man was held in a well-defended fort or small prison. “It more likely that he is being detained in something more secure or more obscure. As it is, Lyra and I have compiled a list of possible locations, but it’s not like we can march up to each one and lay siege to it. We need to narrow it down further.”

[ERode]

The Citadel of Koestace, a massive castle-like structure that serves as a town in and of itself, was situated on the sheer face of a mountain, having being carved out of that side of the mountain many years past. Supported by heavy beams that were reinforced both with steel bolts and magical spells, it was both a masterful feat of engineering, as well as a popular tourist destination for those who could not afford to purchase houses within that castle-city. Heavily defended and considered one of the safest places in the world, Koestace houses not two, but three Gods of War, as well as being the headquarters of the Astopolian Grand Masters and the home of Knight Commander Farnor. Whereas the capital of Illiserev is drenched with riches, and the capital of Dansila is filled with knowledge, the capital of Astopol is a fortress that could only be considered impossible to break into after all its defenses are readied. White marble walls and silver ornaments were all around, giving the city a sense of purity that was coloured with mountain side vegetation. Birds made their homes in the tall spires of the citadel, while humans strode about with their daily tasks.

It was in one of those towers that overlooked the city in which the most influential people in Astopol rendevoused. The High Priestess Cairyn and the Knight Commander Farnor, while the second-in-command of the Grand Masters, Savaniel Volduriaz, acted as a mediator and a recorder for the talks that were to ensue.

Standing on the marble balcony, the priestess took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air to quell her thoughts about running out and simply pretending that none of this ever needed to happen. She looked down below at the people who were still going about their lives with no worries about the future. The news of the attack on Cykes would reach their ears by the end of the day, but for now, they could live without worry. There was no undercurrent of fear for now, even if there would never be any cause to fear for their wellbeing regardless. They lived in Koestace, after all.

The Knight Commander, a man reaching his early thirties, leaned against the entrance of the balcony and saw something else. Those that were below were too content, too lax. And while all of Astopol's strongest forces were concentrated in this place, their other towns could be in danger. The witches have already started their attack on Dansila. The vampires, no doubt, will then have two options. They will wait and watch to see their rivals eventually become weakened in a prolonged conflict against Dansila, or they will choose to attack Dansila as well, to get rid of one of Astopol's allies. He had suggested the reallocation of the military forces many times in the past, but ultimately, the consensus remained the same: the public would rebel against such a decision. The High Priestess, though her heart was in the right place, was too kind. Or maybe it was because that was her role that she was so kind to the people.

In the past, the Astopolian army was spread out so that there was a detachment that could guard nearby towns, quickly reacting to any outbreak of the rift-beasts. Now though, they had gone back to the time of heavily fortified capitals, leaving everything to the Monster Hunting Bureau and a collection of what were essentially mercenaries. Garrisons and mandatory military training had also been removed, cutting down on the percentage of the population who could fight when it was needed. Even more problematic was the reports from Sergeant Sarier Soutcrux, that of the birth of the Musphelheim demon. He had reported that it was still in an infantile state, but even then, Dansila would suffer heavy casualties if the Musphelheim demon chose to act on behalf of the witches.

And then, there was the presence of Aiv Recourt, the traitor, who now fought for the witches.

No matter how he thought of it, it would be best for Astopol to immediately attack the witches, wouldn't it? If Dansila and Astopol combined forces, even the Musphelheim demon should become killable. His eyes hardened. All decision-making power lied in the hands of the High Priestess, who had the support of the people. She would not be convincing him. He would have to convince her.

“Well then,” interrupted. Savaniel, bringing out a pen and a scroll, “High Priestess, Knight Commander, shall we begin the discussion to decide the future of our country?”

---

In central Talze Utera, the only true 'neutral' zone in the miasma-filled wilderness, there laid a perfectly circular pit, with a rectangular chasm extending from one side of it. It was above that massive pit that the four witchmothers, respected leaders of the covens that inhabited Talze Utera, chose to meet, every one of them coming with some sort of protection in one way or form. On that day alone, through the sheer presence of the four of them together, the black miasma parted ways, allowing the meeting to occur in bright sunlight.

The Witchmother North was first to arrive, a woman in all black, with one sword strapped to either hip. Wearing practical, simple clothing, she bore the aura of a serious, militaristic leader, and there was good reason for that. Northern Talze Utera was closest to Astopol, as well as the Vampire Courts. It could be said that the most battle-experienced witches came from the North, forsaking the art of summons and mastering the usage of 'living' weapons instead. The bottom of her boots were lined with wood, the wood of her first wand, which she now used to levitate through the air. Below her, standing at the edge of the pit dauntlessly, were three members of the almost extinct werewolf race. They were powerful, savage warriors, and she was a powerful, skilled spell fencer.

Second was the Witchmother West, a demure young lady who rode on a simple broom, dressed in a dress of dark greens that accentuated her tawny hair. Shrouded in a veil of light, it was obvious that she was a healer, less of a witch and more of an apothecary who dealt with enchanted potions and the growth of magical plants. Though she brought no one to protect her, there would be none who would try to do anything. They were in direct sunlight, and she was one who specialized in nature magic. It would be extremely foolhardy to do anything in such situation, against someone who could survive being stabbed through the heart. A healer, a salvemaker, and one who, through magic, attained invincibility.

Soon after, aboard a sea-faring vessel that now flew through the sky, the Witchmother South, attired her in her flamboyantly decorated dresses, appeared at the helm of that galleon. Abroad the ship were a number of other species that had pledged their allegiance to the witches. Sirens, gorgons, lamias, fishmen, goblins, ogres, wyverns, a whole menagerie of different beasts were aboard the ship of the Explorer Witch, who, unbothered by the politics of the world, chose instead to map every inch of it. Her magic glyphs glowed an ember-red with the usage of such quantities of mana, but she showed no sign of exhaustion. Instead, she simply smiled her pirate-like smile at North, a sign of not-all-so friendly greeting.

And finally, the Witchmother East arrived, an impossibly large snake with a dollhouse on its head. With a ripple of muscle, the snake extended its head over the chasm, holding itself there. With a quick turn of the knob, the dark-haired witch and her escort exited the dollhouse, stepping on the soil-covered scales of the snake. From below, the werewolves growled at the scent of a familiar nemesis, but a quick glare from North silenced them. There were hostilities within the group, but for now, there will be nothing but words that shall be exchanged between the four.

“Good day, sisters,” began West, the only one who could say such words without any hidden meanings, “As you've all should know, it appears that one of our own has instigated an attack on the capital of Cykes, and now Dansila has begun quite a harsh persecution of all Talze Uteran students within their boundaries. Is there any among us who could provide any more facts regarding this?”

North coughed once, before replying, “Such an attack will most definitely not be done by one from the North, and I doubt that you would have something to do with it as well, West. While East would be the most suspicious, considering how she currently holds two very dangerous...people in her realm, my council and I find it more suspicious that the attack was done so flawlessly. It appears that it happened while the more prominent members of Dansila's guard were out, and the two Gods of War were on patrol elsewhere. As a matter of fact, it appears that every person who may have minimized casualties from that attack was elsewhere. Perhaps East could shed some light onto this, seeing how you're the to Dansila?”

“My my,” East said, a coy smirk on her lips, “I must say that you should be more courteous when describing my guests, North. But I'll humour you and your paranoia for now, my dear. There was no sign of any magical interference that caused those individuals to leave. Either the attackers were lucky, or they were someone who had significant sway over Dansila.”

“Then, the source is from someone in Dansila? One of the Sidosa Board?”

“I'm more curious as to why you didn't ask a more important question, North. The attack happened simultaneously as two rift-beasts also appeared. Doesn't that remind you...”

“The Bakery Town incident, was it? The one in which two Talze Uterans arrived just as a rift-beast had. It does seem like it's occuring too quickly and too often to merely be a coincidence.”

Adjusting her seat on her broom, West suggested, one hand pressed against her lips in thought, “Then it's a witch that has learned how to control the appearance of rift-beasts?”

“Or maybe not a witch at all. I would imagine that, if they could summon rift-beasts, it would be easy for them to summon normal beings as well. Which...reminds me, North. Weren't you looking into what that Cygna woman was doing?”

“No, from what I've gathered, East, her summons do not relate to the creation of talentium after those summons are slain.”

“Ah, well, a dead end then. And South, why are you so quiet? Mind imparting some knowledge of the great explorer to us ordinary witchmothers?”

“Oh, East, West, North, I like how you're all so...simple. Or perhaps, linear? Nevertheless, it should be simple, shouldn't it?”

The Witchmother South pointed towards the East, towards the ruined city of Cykes.

“We track down the summoned rift-beasts, hunt down the location in which they were summoned, use the magical residue there to get a sense of the person that summoned them, find that person, and then thoroughly slaughter them for ruining that fine land of education.”

“It would also prove our innocence and prevent any losses, now wouldn't it?”

---

Surprise surprise, the cursed elf was crazy enough that Lenz decided that he should actually just ignore her for the time being. It wasn't like she was the main reason for him being here, after all.

“Not a prison, mi'lady. The captain is correct in his assumptions that Vance is in an obscure location. More specifically, he's in the bottom of a hole, on a mountain that no one lives in. Death by existence, they call his punishment. It's not heavily guarded, to keep the actual location unknown, but I would wager that they DO have many spells that function as alarms to warn guards whenever someone gets too close to that 'prison'.”

[Zombehs]

Having just made himself a path, Araki ducked to past under the doorway and stepped into the hall beyond. It seemed that the rest of the house had in fact avoided any signs of the massacre that had happened the previous night; the smell of death followed him rather than being already present. The decor was also mostly intact unlike the foyer that had been utterly trashed with only a few fallen or broken pieces to reflect the proximity of the fight. It was a bit odd he concluded as he walked from room to room and tried the doors. Some were locked, others swung open freely, but none managed to bar his way. If anyone cared about the fact that he was breaking down doors, well they could complain to someone who cared. Each room he entered was as pristine as the others, untouched.

He supposed that whatever monsters had attacked the estate had little reason to go rampaging through the house for the simple sake of destruction if all its residents had fled or clashed with them. Araki didn’t believe he would come to an answer anytime soon so he simply shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes to focus. At first he had been more concerned with the fact that the Seyours had been slaughtered, but after he had begun to explore and think, the sensation had become more noticeable. It was barely more than the ephemeral tug he had felt in the morning, but it was more than anything else he had, and so he closed his eyes to focus.

Ultimately it was futile. He could feel the ‘connections’ but an attempt to grasp and understand them, so to speak, was impossible. They simply existed and there wasn’t anything he could do with or to them. It also didn’t help that when he tried to focus, Araki found his ‘sixth’ or magical sense literally lighting up with all matters of things he didn’t understand. All around him, he could feel odd energies lingering and if he could ignore those then he was hit with unnatural sensations that made him wince or his skin crawl. It was simply impossible for him to make heads or tails of beyond the fact that whatever magics had taken place here were beyond him at the moment. With nothing really solved and only more questions unearthed Araki grumbled a bit in annoyance as he decided to continue exploring the mansion. It was a large building after all and he had only gone down one hall, there might still be much to find.

“Well this is more like it,” he muttered as he turned the corner and saw the signs of battle and destruction appear once more. It began about half way down the hall away from him. What little of the carpet that hadn’t been burnt was completely shredded and the damage was similar all around. Great claw marks had been gouged out of the blackened walls and anything that might have once hung on them were little more than ash in the wind by now. A pungent smell lingered in the air, though Araki barely noticed it as he walked forward to investigate. His eyes scanned about and quickly focused on a gleam amongst the blackened debris. Freeing the piece, he frowned at what he held in his hands. It had a thin blade that was bent ever so slightly, and it was almost completely covered in ash. Araki could tell it wasn’t made of Talentium, but beyond that not much. When he tried to wipe away some of the ash on the blade, it came off as a sticky mess that made the hybrid sigh. He flicked his hand to get the bloody mixture off, and looked at the weapon once more in consideration. It was the only weapon he had found so far, which was a bit odd. The corpses he could chalk up to being devoured, but the Talentium weapons he had seen the Seyours with? Those were all strangely absent. Curious, but not something Araki had time to think about given how the mansion suddenly shook. “What now,” he growled out as he clutched onto the piece and dashed outside.

He noticed ‘Riley’ rather quickly, seeing as he nearly bowled him over as he ran past the burnt out doorway. The building shuddered again and his eyes narrowed before he glanced around and realized, no Fion wasn’t in sight. “So where’s Fion? I’m assuming he has something to do with what’s happening to the house.” He couldn’t be sure since the man in question wasn’t around, but Araki figured it had something to do with a lot of people he knew being dead.

[Asuras]

"Death by existence?" Rilolia pondered, sounding quite perturbed. Such a profound title could only mean one thing, she though. He was forcibly being kept alive and sentenced to an eternity in lonesome in this 'dark hole'. How horrendous. If anything, she thought (and if his rescue were anything but impossible), simply being executed would have put her heart at a greater ease. She put a hand to her chin and thought for a few moments, pacing slightly on the deck.

"So then I suppose we are to procure some information on this place, right? Otherwise we'll be headless chickens running around the butcher's back room." Secrecy in Astopol, given the already monstrous designs of their fortresses, meant an equally if not more impossibly difficult to penetrate location. If they Astopolians couldn't guard it, or felt it was so terrible as to not even deserve the company of prison guards, then it meant it was furthermore desolate. Where in god's name could they possibly have dropped Vance then? Simply asking a common Astopolian for "directions to the nearest abysmal hole meant for the worst of the worst" would probably garner absolutely nothing of value, which meant they'd need to interrogate someone with a wealth of knowledge or power. The mission was becoming less of a castle crash and more of something like espionage, and that meant a prolonged period of time in the country.

That was even worse than a smash and grab to Rilolia.

"So then how do we find this place? I don't suppose you know where this hole or mountain is, Lenz?" Rilolia asked.

[Psyker Landshark]

"Damn him!" He was sad, angry, frustrated at how Fion had accused his mother of the nonsense that he was going through. He had stopped his aimless wandering through the estate in search of the crystala boy to hit the wall next to him with closed fist. Outside of this and simply screaming, he didn't quite know what else to do to vent his frustration.

His relief process was interupted by the shaking of the house, and by the large thing that had nearly toppled him. "Oh, Araki," he had stated blankly as he recovered; slight embarassment showing on his face for having thought of the boy as a "thing".

"Well, I'm going to assume that it was him seeing as how this house is deserted," he had said in tandem with the second vibration, a pace entering his step as he began to lead the way to the source of the shaking. "Have you found anyone? This place is deserted..."

After venting his feelings through an outburst of wind magic, Fion remained silently at Richard's side, studying the old butler's corpse. From what he could tell, the man's death hadn't been from actual battle. The greatsword in his hands meant that he'd been rushing to help the other Seyours, but there were no wounds on his body.

Considering all of the rubble that Fion had found him in, he had probably been crushed under something collapsing. Bowing his head down, it occurred to Fion that Richard deserved at least a decent burial. He wouldn't bury any of the other wastes of space that comprised his family, save for perhaps his mother, but he'd damn well bury one of the only people in this household that treated him decently. Picking Richard's body up with his arm, Fion stepped out of the side courtyard, trying to figure out a good place to bury him. Perhaps out in the gardens? The old man did like to spend his break time out there.

Emerging from the ruins of the house, Fion came across Araki and the mage from earlier, already speaking to each other. Still clutching Richard's corpse in his arm, he walked over to the two of them.

"Either of you seen a shovel lying around?"

"No, no corpses either," Araki replied as he followed after 'Riley' for a moment before he held up the damaged weapon, "only thing of interest was this. Whatever hit the house left little behind." He turned at the sound of someone approaching them, and frowned at the body Fion carried in his arms. He didn't really know what to feel considering he had only known Richard for a brief while, but there was certainly regret mixed in. The man had been polite and even seemingly kind at times to him.

"Shovel?" He wasn't quite familiar with what a shovel was, but nevertheless he hadn't seen anything in his brief comb of the house. "No, only this," he muttered again as he held up the weapon again. Maybe Fion would be more familiar with it.

Fion's eyes widened upon seeing the blade.

"That's...my mother's sword." He said, closing his eyes and sighing. Damn. Perhaps the one Seyour that he'd hoped had lived, and now there was pretty much proof that she was dead. "Did you find a body, or was it gone like the rest?"

The news that Araki had brought was... troubling, to the man. How does one of the most influential houses in Cykes just simply disappear? The sword had been the only thing found, but what exactly did that mean? There was no aura of talentium to it, and its make was unidentifiable to someone like him who was so unversed in the make of weapons. Puzzling, all of it.

The following sight of Fion with the body of his butler was further conflicting to the man's already unsorted emotions. He had been one of the few people who had been nice to the witch -- the even fewer who had treated with a shred of respect -- so to see him as he was now...

"Fion, I'm sorry but," the man started, his place not exactly certain on the matter, but Riley's place rather assured. "We found nothing else besides the sword, attributed to Araki's own snooping. I'm sorry, I'm-I'm just sorry... for this, for all of this..." The man's gaze fell to the ground.

"Don't be." Fion said evenly, all traces of levity gone from his voice as he averted his gaze from his mother's sword, surveying the damage done to the estate and the garden surrounding it. "If you weren't involved, you've got nothing to be sorry for. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go bury Richard." Stepping away, Fion looked around the grounds until he found a section of the gardens that wasn't ruined by the attack and set Richard's body down before drawing his sword. Stabbing it into the ground, he ran mana down the blade, causing wind magic to rotate as he used it to drill a hole in the ground for a grave. When he was satisfied that the hole was large enough, Fion put down his blade and picked Richard back up, setting him down into the grave. Picking his scimitar back up, Fion directed his wind magics to blow dirt into the grave, filling it back up. With that done, he went back into the house and took Richard's greatsword out of the rubble, bringing it back outside and thrusting it into the ground to mark Richard's grave. Drawing his own sword back out, Fion saluted the grave with it, his voice barely rising above a whisper.

"Sorry I couldn't give you a better funeral, old man." Fion mourned, sheathing his sword as he turned to leave. "You deserved better than this." Shaking his head, he moved to rejoin Araki and Eldran, shifting his cloak around.

"So, what now?"

Araki had supposed Fion might have wanted to take the weapon, but apparently not and so was left unsure of what to do with it. Ignoring that, he answered his question with a shake of head, "No sign of it. Certainly put up more of a fight than the others." The signs of battle that had led to the broken blade's resting place were certainly more prominent. Looking between 'Riley' and Fion, he figured it would be best to stay put and let Fion finish his business here.

At the question though, he turned to 'Riley' for suggestions. He had only really returned to Cykes because he had been carrying Fion, but now that he had an inkling of what had happened, 'fleeing' back to Talze Utera hardly felt 'right'. There was also the strange sensations he could still feel. They intrigued him, but Araki barely knew anything about them; not enough to act at the least.

"Well," the 'mage' had started as he suppresed any lingering emotions, "I suppose we should ask about what remains of the town. And by 'we', I mean Fion and I. This place was attacked by monsters... monsters caused by summoning magic, but monsters none the less. That, however, is all we know, and it means most are likely to flee at the sight of you, Araki. There's likely more -- not much, but still -- that we could garner from those who were already here..."

"As long as we don't have to see the Sidosa Board." Fion chimed in, forcing a bit more cheerfulness in his voice. "I'd rather they not interrogate me and waste my time. Hell, a walk on the town would be nice at this point, if it weren't for the corpses and destruction everywhere."

"So I'll just sit and twiddle my fingers inside, maybe see if there's anything else I can find." Araki narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment after having resigned himself to doing nothing while the two tried to gather some information. "Try and find out if there were two unusuals last night would you?"

[Click This]

Oh, so the butler was competent after all.

The bottom of a hole, huh? If Lenz knew the exact location of the ‘prison,’ that removed nearly all the uncertainties of the plan they had conceived. With a definite location, there would be no need to look for Waldo Vance in Astopol, and they could instead focus on creating a siege plan on the described location. Preferably one with Lyra in front in an anti-spell role. Chad grimaced at the thought of sieging a magic-fortified location without ample support.

“Lenz, if you have a name for this place, I might find it in our list or on the military maps. If it’s a location known to the Illiserev military, perhaps Lyra and I could work out a strategy for an angle-of-attack on the place. Can you fight?”

Chad sincerely hoped the butler could fight.

[ERode]

He was hungering.

He had already eaten, but the cooked flesh of animals wasn't enough to sate him. Something inside him wanted Eldren to consume more. Not the consumption of the physical, but the consumption of the spiritual. His hunger was chewing at him from inside-out. Unpleasant memories was once again surfacing, followed by the words of the monster from within, the demon that told him that reprieve could only be found in destruction. His only solace was in the death of others. Tranquility could only be found in the silence brought by the deaths of everything around him. As he warped through the air, darkness constantly collapsing on him as he resummoned himself over and over again, accelerating through the air towards the Archipelago, Eldren gritted his death. Underneath his female body's skin, something was crawling, squirming, a malevolent force.

They were both using each other, weren't they? The demon who knew that Eldren wasn't its true master, and the warlock who knew that the demon only helped him because what he planned to do was 'interesting'. The monster that had become, and the monster that always was.

His power wasn't growing, but it was expanding. What was once a cloak had now become more of a mist, a shroud of the same miasma that surrounded Talze Utera. Against the pleasant sky, a storm of demons approached the Archipelago. The small, otherworldly creatures that once only peered through the surface of his cloak had now risen from it. They swarmed around their summoner, filling the air with the uncomfortable sound of giggles, screeches, and snorts. Cacophonic chaos was what Eldren had surrounded himself with, a storm in which his own monsters cannibalized each other while they waited for the order to attack, to lay waste on the next target.

Soon, they would be trying to eat their fill once more. They could smell it, the scent of more food. The beat of living hearts. The pleasures of consumption, so close.

In a final warp, that man in a girl's body took his first step onto the shores of Frelia, the sand crumbling under his feet. And then, his power expanded once more, the demonic aura rushing outwards. The day turned into night, a primal sense of fear falling over all civilians. They had not yet found themselves inside the artificial night, but they could feel like. The fear of the unknown.

He raised one hand, and with that, the horde rushed outwards, freed from their chains.

And then, they stopped.

“Morning. I'm catching up with one of my students here, so can you go leave this island?”

A casual remark, spoken by a woman with frost-colored hair, a hue that seemed to glow in the demon's night. No, not just any woman. It was Mirelle Keep, former Knight-Commander of the Astopolian Army, Hero of the Talentless Strife, Mother of Sword Styles, Slayer of the World-Eater, and the Six-Winged Knight. He had fought under her before, seen how much of a monster she was in battle.

And now that he was the same level of monstrous, he wanted to see how he would fare against her blade.

Gathering his power and forcibly erasing the survival instincts of his summons, he chopped his hand down. Like a surging wave, the monsters churned and rushed at the woman, a torrent of claws, fangs, and muscle.

“That's pretty small. Wynn, you wouldn't happen to know this girl, would you?”

With those words said, Mirelle disappeared after taking one step forward, reappearing in front of the man. Her clothes were suddenly shredded, hair gaining a divine vibrance, wings of blue light extending from her back.

She smiled, and then, the horde behind her was scattered asunder, a thunderous roar blowing the monsters apart. Blood rained from the skies, evaporating as it touched her skin. The blue-haired woman was burning, a volcano of magical energy.

“Actually, I do know her, Master, but she wasn't quite this strong before.”

Another voice sounded above him, and Eldren warped away the instant he heard it. Teleporting fifty meters above his past location, the man almost allowed himself to breath, before the distance was closed between him and Mirelle once more, followed by another thunderous clap as the sound barrier was broken.

Glancing below, he caught a glimpse of the attack he had just evaded, and at that sight, instinctively recalled all the darkness that he had originally spread outwards, the cloak now becoming armor. It was not a crater that resulted from the downwards strike. It was a penetrating blow that created a fist-sized trench, a strike that would have invariably pierced his defenses, if he were not cautious.

And then, he warped again, teleporting another fifty meters away, this time rightwards.

Yet even though he had three hundred and sixty degrees of movement, Mirelle appeared in front of him. There was never time for him to cast a spell. No, it was more like...if he started to focus on a way to attack her, he'd be dead. That was the amount of pressure that he felt on his shoulders, fighting against her.

It was...frightening.

And then, the demon that squirmed inside him laughed, and, for a brief moment, interrupted its host's flow of mana.

The next instant, the moment he didn't adjust his position relative to Mirelle's, he was blown apart.

Eldren died, a hole where his midriff once was, his corpse skipping across the ocean for five hundred meters, before sinking.

Another kick in the air sent Mirelle back to the island, a final thundering roar signalling the end of the one-sided affair. Her complexion, now, was pure red, in stark contrast with her hair. The scars on her back were vividly white, and with a deep sigh, she plopped onto the ground.

“That hard, Master?” Wynnara sat down beside her, nursing her bruised knuckles.

“I'd wager she could give Farnor a run for his money.” The former knight took another deep breath, before lying down on the cool sand. She veiled the worry in her eyes, and said, with a smile, “Been some time since I had to go all-out like that.”

Wynnara laughed with that, poking Mirelle's stomach. “You do seem out of shape, dontcha,” she teased.

Mirelle simply smiled with that, not answering.

That girl was a witch, but there was something else about her that bothered the knight. If this was what East ACTUALLY wanted her to not interfere with...that witchmother had to answer some big questions.

And under the sea, the demon woke its master up once more, its dark whispers stimulating the soul that was bound to Riley's body. Eldren awoke once more, and slowly, his magic began to reconstruct the body, regenerating lost flesh as a bubble of air was created around him, providing him with the oxygen necessary for him to survive underwater.

Even now, he wasn't the strongest.

But now, he knew his capabilities, as well as his limitations.

So, though he had died and then was resuscitated, it was all worth it.

He was now on a level that forced the Six-Winged Knight to use her full strength against him.

---

They really didn't know anything about what they were planning to do, huh? Well, if nothing else, people who didn't know anything were rather helpful in their own gullible, naive, stupid ways. With a twirl of his fingers and a showman-esque flourish, the butler produced another card, a Seven of Clubs held between his index and middle finger. Flicking it into the air, he clenched his right hand before snapping it outwards and opening it, causing the card itself to grow, becoming not a map, but a picture of a mountain. Or, it appeared, more like half a mountain. One side had a steep, sheer face, while the other side was a much more merciful slope. Almost as if someone had sliced a mountain in half, and took one of the pieces away.

“I do happened to know where Vance is being held, my lady,” Lenz replied, the vampire ever courteous, yet with a biting undertone that made it almost sound like sarcasm. “He's held on the mountain Hanzen, three kilometers east of Koestace, the capital of Astopol. That'll also be where reinforcements would come from if the original guards that were posted were annihilated. And just in case you wished to know, yes, I do also have the general location of Vance Warren's pit.”

“That being said, Captain, I'm a butler, not a soldier or one of those silly Battle Butlers. I would appreciate it if you figured out the combat part of this operation by yourselves. Of course, I'm more than willing to engage in combat if it's your personal request, my lady.”

---

For a month or so, Annette had lived her ideal, happy life. Aiv may have become busier with his job, but she had Neph now, and it was truly a joyous occassion.

But, that morning, when she woke up to see what Neph wanted to eat for breakfast, the witch realized one thing.

Her adopted daughter, the demon child of Musphelheim, was missing.

[Zombehs]

Resigned to do nothing of real value while Fion and ‘Riley’ scrounged for information amidst the rubble, Araki nevertheless got to work with the ruined mansion as he had said he would. His quick glance at the wanton destruction made him doubt there would be anything of further value hidden deep in the mansion, at least in regards to last night’s events. As the two departed, he finally stood to glance over the estate once more before he frowned. Somehow he had missed it, but there was a trail of destruction that lead around the mansion. Heavy footprints lined the ground, while the grass was either torn up or swept flat, along with the occasional patch of scorched earth. What could have escaped the massacre and drawn the creature’s attention or if the signs were made simply on a whim, Araki didn’t know, but it was something at the least.

Turning the corner, it quickly became clear where the creature had left the Seyour grounds; at least if the hole in the far wall behind the mansion was any indication. At least, the mansion had obscured such an obvious sign so Araki didn’t feel completely foolish. To follow the trail or not though? He would no doubt attract attention the moment he left the Seyour grounds, if waiting outside the mansion hadn’t already. That was his primary concern, that he had agreed to stay here was a minor, if one at all. Eh… he figured he would be able to handle himself even if an unruly mob were to form. While it was a bit harsh, any individuals who were strong enough to threaten him were likely not in the city, too exhausted to chase him, or dead.

He might have bothered to leave a message, but it hadn’t seemed to do him much good the last time. The two should be smart enough to realize they wouldn’t have a chance to find him if they somehow returned before he did; hopefully they would wait at the estate. With that settled, he took a deep breath and focused. ‘Just like tracking prey,’ he tried to establish, but given he was in an unfamiliar environment and trying to track who knew what, it failed rather spectacularly. So with an annoyed sigh, he just began to follow the obvious signs.

As he passed through the rubble that was once part of the wall, he remained fairly optimistic. Even with the state of the city, the damage wasn’t so much that the passing of what had to be a fairly large creature was covered. The only real way he figured the cobblestones it had upturned with each step could have been hidden would be the collapse of various buildings, to utterly bury the evidence. And though the loss of life was probably massive he guessed, the buildings seemed to have fared better. With that in mind he found his way to the rooftops as quickly as he could, they would hide him from prying eyes and tracking something that left large signs was easier from above. As he stood up atop the building, Araki finally cracked a small smile. The trail led further on ahead and continued down a turn at the end of the road. Hopefully there would be something at the end of all this.

[Click This]

Hanzen mountain. [i]Shit.[/]

Even without Lenz’s almost condescending speech, Chad knew that the mountain was extraordinarily close to the capital, and troops likely had easy access from the capital. If they were discovered, they would be obliterated by the Astopolan army and the diplomatic row that he’d feared would become reality. They would have to approach the situation very carefully. And of course, the situation would only get worse if the posh butler just sat around doing nothing.

“That is an incredibly risky operation,” started Chad, musing over their options. “Of course, I’ll figure out the “combat part,” or however you put it, but like it or not, you’re fighting. We would need to prioritize getting in and making sure no word gets out to the capital, or we’ll be surrounded before you can say “holy church.””

Of course, that entailed posting sentries on the outside perimeter the place, and perhaps splitting the party in two to find this Mr. Warren. The plan would continue with Lyra spearheading the party going in; if she could stealth the party somehow, then that would be done, but if not, they would be going in with a full assault. The second party, likely consisting of a half-dozen men from the ship, would hold their flank and another six would be posted as sentries.

“I assume you could at least prevent word from getting to the capital, Mr. Lenz? Now that we know the challenge of this operation, we most certainly need all the competent men we have.”

[Psyker Landshark]

As Araki left, Fion sighed tiredly, turning to Eldran.

"Alright, so where do you want to st-"

"Fion Seyour?" A man in formal robes entered the estate, bearing the crest of the Sidosa Board on his shoulder. Turning around, Fion's eyes narrowed at the appearance of the Board's representative.

"Feh. Should've known you'd find me eventually. I suppose the Sidosa Board's calling for me to replace my missing mother's spot on the board, then?" He put on a bored tone, wrapping his cloak around himself to hide the fact that he was missing an arm. After some thinking, Fion had already realized that with the rest of the Seyour family missing and most likely dead, he was probably the only one qualified to take his mother's place on the Sidosa Board. Of course, his standing there probably wouldn't last, given how he had no real political power left with the absence of the entire family. Oh, he had the entire fortune of the Seyour house, to be sure, but while money helped, it didn't change the fact that it was the only kind of political pressure he had.

"Precisely." The messenger nodded, pulling a seal out of his satchel and handing it to Fion. "As of today, you are officially a member of the Sidosa Board, with all of the rights and responsibilities that come with it. The Board has already met today, but you will be informed of all further meetings. Good day." And with that, the man left as swiftly as he arrived, leaving Fion glancing at the seal he held with a contemplative look on his face. His standing as a member of the board probably wouldn't last, so he might as well use what he had available to him for the moment to get some answers.

"Eldran, there's something I've got to go look into. Have fun questioning the townspeople by yourself." He forced a grin before abruptly dashing away with wind magic blazing around him, leaving the mage alone.

_

A short while later, Fion arrived at the city hall of Cykes, where administrative records were kept and the Sidosa Board met. Entering the building, he walked up to the receptionist, wasting no time in pulling out his newly-acquired seal.

"Fion Seyour, Sidosa Board." He said, not even bothering greeting the receptionist with any niceties. "Which way to the census records?"

"Hallway in the back, third door to the left." The receptionist replied, not at all fazed by the newest board member, especially after dealing with the likes of Corinkarus. Nodding, Fion made his way towards the records, brushing past the guards with a quick flash of his seal. Once he was inside, he made a beeline straight towards the "M" section of the records.

That girl in his dream had called herself Meyer. If his hunch was correct, and she was some kind of vision of the girl his arm had originally come from, then she would be listed in the census. Reaching into the files, Fion began flipping through them, searching for any female with the last name of Meyer.

[Voltin]

"Well we co-" the man had started in tandem to Fion's question, knowing almost exactly how he was going to proceed with their little investigation. They had naturally been interrupted by someone who had no bearing on him, except that he brought news for the man's companion. It had been through a line of succession that the man had only been faintly aware of that Fion had been given a seat on the Sidosa Board. It had been shocking to learn that the position was going to Fion of all people would get the position out of everyone in his entire family, but it perhaps only confirmed what the Seyour estate had only hinted at: Fion's entire family was dead. A sobering thought, even if neither of them particularly liked any of the household's members.

Fion left the man's presence without so much as a word from the latter party. He was nonplussed, if only slightly annoyed, that Fion had left in such a hurry; the boy's new title helping with his own investigation.

The man started his investigations with the guard captain who had greeted them earlier. The man was reluctant to speak with someone who had been accompanying one of those "damn monsters" and had the guardian of one of their main suspects in incapacitated tow. The only thing he got out of that short trip was that many of the guards were worrying how they were going to defend Cykes if they were attacked again with the lack of talentium around. Curious, the man had thought as he left the main gate.

His next stop was to the Bureau; the place was likely to be in a fervor with the monsters having attacked and vanished without so much as a trace. His pace was that of a hurried walk, enough to get him there in a hurry, and enough to instill a subtle urgency to those who he passed. However, he was stopped, once. It was from idle chatter on the street, idle mention of unusual sightings even during a monster attack. A wyrm with nary a leg or tail, just wings, and a viscous ooze which absorbed all in its path. He had never heard of such beasts occurring naturally before, so what kind of summoning did this? It did bring one thing to the forefront of his mind though; Bakery Town, and the beast which had appeared there. He could feel a shiver, and with it wrapped his burlap cloak further into himself.

Finally at his destination, he stepped through the main doorway only to find the place empty. The registration hall was barren, the teller desks which you would usually approach to accept a job or receive payment were all shuttered, and the only person there was a man who was cleaning the dust that had been accumulating from the lack of activity, despite the fact that much of the rest of the town was in shambles and still recovering. It seemed in the panic this place had been untouched. "Oi," the man had called to the janitor. "You wouldn't happen to know what happened in this town, would you?" The man figured that if he had come all this way, he better just find out what he can.
"First," the janitor had said back to the man, his voice hoarse with age, "what exactly do you already know, sonny?" He had halted his cleaning.
"There's now a lack of talentium and that there was a strange wyvern and ooze attacking with the rest of the summoned hoard... why?"
"Hm, well I guess there would be no logical way for someone who wasn't there to make the connection..." his voice trailed off, and there was a silence as if both wished for the other to speak first. "Those two creatures... devoured what talentium was used against them, and the wielders who used such weapons against them... both blade and magic proved ineffective... they were invincible against any attack we could muster against them."

[ERode]

Twirling his index finger and making the map disappear once more, the vampire butler smiled in an almost smug manner, before replying, “I would have presumed that a three kilometer headstart would be enough for your crew to go in and find Vance, but of course, I will gladly do so, if Lady Rilolia wishes. Would you desire a distraction then?”

Rilolia looked at Lenz's eyes for a moment. There was something that seemed a bit off about the vampire, about his choice of words, or, perhaps, just something that unnerved her. But for now, she kept quiet of her worries. She had already lost one friend, and if she could help it, she wasn't going to lose another. The amethyst-haired girl clutched the crown jewel of Dead Gear.

There was something underneath his fake smiles, something even deeper than his snark attitude hidden by weak pretenses. But for now, she nodded, “That'll be acceptable, Lenz.”

Her company had become quite eccentric since she first met that Crystala. A foolhardy, kind Astopolian, a witch-vampire, a cursed elf, and now, a vampire butler whom served her, but whom she doesn't remember.

---

As Riley received answers from the janitor in the shut-down Bureau, the doors of the building swung open again, letting in another whiff of the burning and decaying wind that was gracing the town at the moment. With a grimace at the smell, the janitor turned his attention to the newcomer, and said, “Place is closed, and mah...” He stopped then, hacking up a glob of red-flecked phelgm, spat it in the can, coughed once more to clear his throat, before continuing, “...voice isn't as it was. If you're one of those relief soldiers from the other parts, this man has your answers.”

With an easy gait, a middle-aged, well-shaved man stepped up towards the janitor, offering a flask of a strong-smelling alcohol, which the other took a greedy swig of. “That better?” the man asked with a smile, to which the janitor nodded.

Upon further inspection, he bore not the clothing of a soldier, but that of an airship captain, bearing medals of honor and a well-polished hat. His hair was a blue-black, giving it the same color as dark seaweed, and his eyes were light brown, an amber hue. Though his ears were hidden, points could still be seen, poking out from his hair, with the finer lines of his face marking him out as an elf. Placing the flask of alcohol back under his dark coat, the elven man said, turning to Riley, “Sir, shall I presume that you are interested in participating in the hunts for those...abnormal rift-beasts that terrorized the town last night? I'm Captain Escellar, head of the scouting operation, as well as...latest addition to the Sidosa Board. Tasked with bringing up all able-bodied volunteers for the mission of hindering, and perhaps slaying those beasts. Would you be interested in partaking this quest...”

He took another, more questioning glance at Riley's face, eyes narrowing in thought.

The janitor, seeing this, interjected, his voice clearer. “There be something wrong, sir?

Suddenly, the elf's face split into a smile, a smile that seemed so much more genuine than the ones that he had shown previously. “By the Goddess, Eldren, is that you? You damned recluse,” he said, slapping Riley on the shoulder, “Thought I'd never see you after you quit so suddenly! How's your family, my brother? Sarah's still doing fine, right?”

Grasping Riley's hand in a hearty manner, the elf proclaimed, “With you here, this monster hunt will be no problem whatsoever!”

---

“You make it sound so easy, South,” North replied, crossing her arms at the rather bold and simplified solution that the Explorer witch provided, “But are you not underestimating the security forces of a country in a state of emergency?”

Pointing a slim, jade pipe at the military-esque witch with a shark-like grin, South replied, “And you make it sound so hard, North, when all we need to do is send someone that they aren't looking for. They're searching for witches, right? So naturally, all we need to do is send someone that they aren't looking for.”

On top of the great snake, East replied, miffed at what South was implying, “Are you saying that you want my honored guests to do work that relates to our internal affairs? That would be an insult to them, and only stain my reputation as a welcoming hostess!”

West, watching all this, interrupted in the same level-headed tone as always, “Well, if you object to it, I can see if one of the refuges in my lands would be interested in helping out, East.” Apparently, she didn't get the joke.

“Oh no, it's fine, West,” East replied, waving it off while hiding her smile, “I'll just have good ol' Aiv deal with this, as always. I'm sure that, as the person who suggested it, South, you'll be providing my knight with an artifact that will allow him to become our magical proxy?”

Aiv frowned.

There was no point in him going any further, was there? And all things considered, she should be totally aware of the fact that, he too was a fugitive from the other countries. Coming to Frelia to send a message was one thing, but to be actively roaming the lands in search of the perpetrator of a nighttime massacre...that was quite another. He had done enough, and East owed him many favors at this point.

And thus...

“No.”

---

At the end of the road, what Araki, the Tainted One, found, was not any obvious trail, but that of a scent that wafted in the air. The scent of a being similar to himself, yet different. The path of destruction had stopped at that point, and what remained was the simple fact that whatever was there had chosen to fly. The tracks were now irrelevant.

And continuing the hunt became irrelevant as well.

Not because there was no more point in pursuing the rift-beast, but because of the being that appeared before Araki.

The demon of Musphelheim, the pale-skinned girl with red eyes and horns.

For an instant, as she cast her gaze towards Araki, the world seemed to have been set ablaze, the sky turning blood red as geysers of lava burst through the ground, a mist of countless embers sweeping through the landscape as fire rained down from ago.

And then, she blinked, and the world turned back to normal.

“You aren't the one, are you?”

---

“Finally done moping around?” Mirelle asked, taking a sip of some funny tropical concoction.

“Well, I figured that I'll just chase him for once,” replied Wynnara, tying her hair up with a new, black ribbon.

“Gonna tell him about what's going on here?” The former Knight Commander smiled, sitting down slowly.

“Knowing him, he's probably just burying himself in Dansila's archives or something, trying to figure out how that happened to Cykes.”

“Sounds like him, doesn't it? Like aunt, like nephew.”

“Heh, that's about right.”

“Welp, till next time, Wynnara. Keep safe, and work out more. You're getting flabby around the parts that don't need fat.”

“Later, Master Keep. You should worry more about yourself, considering all the food you guzzle down nowadays.”

[Voltin]

The face of Eldren twisted in surprise at the cleaner's words. A-ate talentium?! That must mean at the estate... Damnit, there really must have been no survivors ther-

Any thought he may have had was interrupted by the subtly sound of a door opening, and the pungent smell that rot carried. The man turned to see what brought the assault to his nostrils on, just as the janitor was informing whoever it was of the Bureau's unfortunate state of being closed. The fellow interloper's appearance, however, seemed to make it less noticeable in the mind of the man. The -- what he figured to be -- elf was... uncomfortably attractive. His face, his walk as he strode over to the janitor, even the sound of his voice were all strangely alluring...

"-I'm Captain Escellar, head of the scouting operation, as well as...latest addition to the Sidosa Board..."

Escellar! The mention of that vile man's name was what broke the hazy look in Riley's eye, and clenched the man's formerly slacked jaw. This was the bastard of that former harpy Milsa! It was likely that mother and son thought alike, but Riley couldn't help but think how fortunate the guy was that he didn't inherit his mother's looks.

The elf continued to talk to the man known as Eldren, oblivious to the peeved stare of the one with whom he was speaking to, before halting himself with a distinct look of someone trying to remember something important, like if they had left the water running before leaving the house that morning. The janitor, apparently worried if the elvish captain was ever going to start back up, made his concern known. Not long after did he resume. “By the Goddess, Eldren, is that you? You damned recluse.” Eldren's face froze. God. Dammit.

The captain prattled on, hardly acknowledging his old friend's pained expression at the mention of Yees, and continuing on to "their assured triumph" over monsters which were both impervious to talentium weapon and magic alike. "I'm sorry," the man known as Eldren said with a friendly yet fake smile, "but neither your face nor name ring a bell; who the hell are you?" He stole his hand from the elf before continuing with a smug tone. "Besides, without taking your own credibility into account, what use is my magic when our main targets are are immune to it, and likely to consume whatever weapon I use against them? I've seen the aftermath of their carnage -- the whole Seyour estate has been left to a sole heir, the black sheep of all people! -- I do not believe there is much I can do, if there is anything, against them."