[IC] Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

[ShiningSector]

Travis could feel the Paragon within his clutches coming free from the skeleton's non-existent hold. For a moment, he thought that his plundering would go without any hidden obstructions. However, he was quickly proven wrong; just as he was about to pry Fantasia free did the skeletal hands of Samuel Croft suddenly re-secured the Paragon and yanked it back against Travis' grip.

The sudden and unexpected movement by the skeleton caught the Untalent completely by surprise but before he could vocalize his astonishment, the decayed anatomy of what was once Samuel leaned forward and spoke. Travis froze with dread while his widened eyes peered back at the skeleton's now-illuminated eye sockets. What he assumed was Samuel's simulated voice demanded he release the Paragon; a request Travis himself was trying to comprehend still as he struggled to make sense of what was happening. However, Samuel's demand was ultimately rhetorical as the skeleton quickly produced an old flintlock firearm and aimed at Travis' face. Travis only had the split-second moment to switch his focus from the skeleton to the weapon pointed at him before its trigger was pulled.

Travis' sight was then consumed by darkness along with the immediate ceasing of his heartbeat. He was dead and he was sure of it; what else could have the pistol's discharging resulted in? The small ball-bearing would have struck him between his eyes and through his head and as such his brain, instantly killing him. That was however what he believed and since he could still come to a methodical and analytic conclusion moments after the rather quiet gunshot...wait a minute.

Before a full minute could elapse, Travis cautiously opened his eyes and found the flintlock pistol still pointed at him with black transparent fumes slowly escaping the mouth of the barrel. He blinked one, and then twice, and before a third time, the small metal ball that could have actually killed him rolled out of barrel and fell to the ground. Travis silently eyed the harmless round empty out of the pistol before returning his still-stunned gaze back to the skeleton. Despite failing to kill Travis with an unkempt weapon, the skeleton trumpeted its 'success', whatever it was. Travis, still shaken by the unusual ordeal, tried to make sense of the situation, contemplating if the skeleton of Samuel Croft really tried to kill him and only replied in such a confusing manner as a pre-determined response. He even accepted the belief that this was all indented as some sort of complex prank. Neither of the conclusions were appreciated by him but whatever the actual reasoning was had then vanished as the skeleton fell back within its throne, its purpose supposedly fulfilled as the life that seemed to possess it faded away.

Travis stared at the collapsed remains of Samuel, still in disbelief and dumbfound a what had transpired. Without uttering a justified remark, Travis tugged at the Paragon again, this time pulling it out of the skeleton’s unresponsive grasps. Just as he knew it was only in his hands did he quickly step back and secured it within his arms in anticipation of another unexpected and undesired response. Thankfully, no more surprises manifested from his successful burglary.

He retreated with a few more steps before turning to this team, displaying the Paragon of Fantasia in his hands and an incredibly unamused expression painting his blackened face, "...I wish to leave now," he growled.

[Cottonmouth]

When Travis turned back to the group, Nemo had a notable goofy smirk on his face, signaling that he was holding back a laugh. Apparently Samuel's final stand had tickled him. However his pleased expression suddenly dissipated when he heard a stir coming from the corpse.

"What have ye done? Without that... we're all doomed... Witho-" The skeleton uttered before suddenly being cut off. It's blue life-essence in it's eye sockets flushed out, instead replaced by a darker glow from within it's chest cavity. Sammy's clothes seemed to suddenly get torn and sucked in, revealing a solid ball of navy energy. Next his ribs cracked and collapsed in on themselves, dissipating into the void. Soon his entire body had imploded into the energy ball, slowly increasing it's size until it started to devour the surrounding wall and throne.

Nemo himself began to feel the pull of the magic anomaly, causing him to begin to backpedal away from it. "The trees out there, did anyone else notice something strange about them?" He asked. "They weren't real. Not a single speck of mana lurking within. It's why he's the only thing that's aged here." He elaborated. "The Paragon has been generating this whole island. It must be one giant fake construct imagined by Samuel in his dying breath, and now that he's gone... the whole thing is collapsing in on itself." By the time he finished Nemo had a hard time still backing up, feeling like he was fighting against a heavy hurricane. He nearly tripped on the body of Rutger sliding by before being devoured by the bonafide black hole. "Watch out." He muttered.

At this rate it seemed like the only way out was in.

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya watched as the event unfolded. Travis was obviously shaken by the dud gunshot, and justifiably so. But a moment after he came to his senses, Travis had retrieved the paragon from the grasp of the weak skeleton husk. The skeleton let out an objection that sounded more like scolding. It was then Raiya realized that they knew next to nothing about where they were or what they were up against. Instantly, the skeleton folded into a singularity that threatened to pull the whole group in with it. After Nemo's explanation, it all clicked. The cleanliness of the temple rooms, the gold that smelled right but with no dust or signs that it had been sitting there for hundreds of years. It was all because they were inside a projection, some sort of advanced stasis field projected by the paragon itself. And without the original user interfacing with the paragon, the advanced construct began to fold in on itself.

"Guys... if the paragon constructed all of this inside a dimensional pocket, then what is going to happen when this all collapses without the original user? What's going to happen to us?" Raiya asked as the gale force winds whipped around her, pulling her closer to the center of the room. "Is this whole island a construct of the paragon? Are we going to get tossed back into the ocean?" Raiya asked frantically. Not knowing how to swim herself, Raiya did not like the thought of being plopped in the middle of a raging sea again. And, without someone like Felix to open a portal for them, she wasn't sure how long even an experienced swimmer could last in the middle of even a calm sea. Raiya's mana was still mostly drained, and fatigue had already set in from her battle. Dying in the middle of an ocean did not sound pleasant, but Raiya wasn't even sure if there was any option at this point.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo shuffled back after losing traction on the ground and sliding forward. "Well... the last thing Samuel Croft was doing before using the Paragon was sinking. If an lush island was his fantasy land, one would expect land was something he was surely lacking in his final moments." Nemo replied. By this point the dark navy orb had grown twice as tall as Nemo himself, and with width to match. Parts of the stone wall began to tear off and get sucked inside from the sheer pulling force it had gained.

"But, I suppose there's only one way to find out, huh?" He asked, looking at no one in particular. Nemo glanced over to Travis. "Whatever happens, please keep a good grip on the paragon... and my shotgun as well." He said, before letting out a laugh and sliding forward. The pull of the orb caught him even more the closer he got, causing Nemo to slide-skate even faster with his boots across the floor and right into the waiting magic orb. He disappeared immediately inside.

The black hole soon increased in size more rapidly now that it was feeding off from the walls. Within seconds it would become too much to bare anymore. Fighting the pull was futile.

[Accurian]

Zuri watched as Travis took the paragon out of the skeleton's hand. What followed was the feeling of dispair when the small ball of energy formed and started sucking everything, starting from the skeleton's ribs getting torn right off into the void. The force of the void was growing stronger and larger, even though she was constantly backing off, running was not an option as the power soon became way too strong to fight, and even if she could use her powers, it seemed futile as she would rather die with her teammates than to be a lone survivor.

Zuri watches as Nemo gets taken in, and since she was clueless on what it does, the safest bet was to assume he's gone. "It was nice knowing all of you.." she mumbles to herself before she creates a large kiteshield using the same technique that was used for her armour before she runs towards the void and jumps into it before disappearing right into it, holding the shield closely with her to soften the impact if there was anything beyond this point of no return.

[ShiningSector]

Travis glanced at Nemo with a scowling look, having caught his teammate emanating amusement at his unpleasant tribulation. He had a few unprofessional words in mind for the white haired Talent but as fate would have it, his attention would be drawn back to unwelcomed presence of Samuel Croft, apparently still filled life; whatever was left of it. Travis felt the instinctive urge to spin around and blast the skeleton away the moment he registered Samuel's voice. That desire however dissipated upon him registering Samuel decrying his action as a damning consequence.

Before Samuel could follow-up any further, his skeletal remains were suddenly engulfed by a rapidly growing sphere of darkness. Travis could immediately feel the vacuum-like effect of the unexpected anomaly and scrambled away from in before joining the rest of his team. As the sphere expanded and consumed more of its surrounding's like a micronized black hole, it was Nemo who had figured out its uncanny arrival. Just as he pointed out, the vegetation of the island was devoid of mana despite their normal and natural appearance. While Travis himself didn't notice that fact, it nevertheless seemed relevant given the structures on the island they ventured through were unnaturally untouched by time. And now that the Paragon removed from Samuel's influence, the spell that projected the entire island was now deconstructing and it was becoming harder to resist its pull.

However, it seemed the developing void before them may not be as life-threatening as was previously perceived. Raiya and Nemo concluded that the island was summoned out of the desires of the late Samuel Croft as an attempt to save himself from ultimately drowning. Drowning being the keyword, meaning that there would have been a body of water present for such a fate to occur. As evident by Raiya's worried deduction, the moment they or the island become overtaken by the ever-expanding void, whichever came first, they would be ejected back into ocean. It wasn't a thrilling thought given what they had endured hours ago but there was no alternative present and Travis could very much feel that the pull of the degrading spell was becoming too much to resist.

With that said, Nemo, unsurprisingly, volunteered to fall into the rift, but not after advising Travis to ensure the Paragon and his gun were fastened, alluding to the inevitable and fast approaching circumstance were the Untalent himself would need to succumb to the spell’s pull as well. For a moment, Travis was half-expecting a visually violent outro for Nemo being overtaken by the expending sphere though as with Rutger’s unsecured corpse, he un-climatically phased out of existence. After Nemo came Zuri taking her own plunge as well, leaving only Travis and Raiya remaining.

Per Nemo’s suggestion, Travis slid the Paragon into a secured compartment within his trench coat and held onto the shotgun tightly while wrapping its holder band around his upper body. As soon as he figured he was ready, he glanced back at Raiya with an unsure expression, “See ya on the side I suppose,” he said, giving the phrase, a duel meaning before forfeiting his balance and jumping into the collapsing spell.

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya wanted to resist, but ultimately, she decided it was an effort in futility. If indeed the entire island was a construct of the paragon, that meant that even if she were to successfully run away from the singularity, it would eventually grow to consume everything within the constructed parameter. This also meant that the only way out was in. This concept was very unfortunate for Raiya, she knew what awaited them was a unforgiving body of salt water at the other end of that singularity. Unable to swim Raiya, and the salt water also sapping her mana and energy, she would be completely limp and useless. Unless one of her teammates did something, the end result would be her demise at the hands of a cruel sea.

Still feeling drained from her encounter with Father Stockton, she didn't have the energy to fight the singularity even if she wanted to. After about 30 seconds, Raiya relented and folded her arms in surrender, letting her body go slack and allowing the singularity to draw her in. The suction force eventually swept her up through the air, she tumbled for about five seconds before being consumed by the singularity.

[Cottonmouth]

What awaited Nemo and the group once they crossed into the sphere was both visions of pitch black and a tingling cold feeling as they floated weightlessly through the void. Nemo began to wonder if he was still alive as the dark drew on past the twenty second mark. Suddenly, out nowhere, he was hit by the abrupt audio of the sea and the feeling of wind on his pale skin, followed by blurry vision slowly returning. However before it could, the weightlessness was ended when he crashed into the cold sea. Although for Nemo the cold wasn't much of a drawback, it was a much more welcome feeling compared to the jungle from before.

Nemo swam back up and breached the surface of the water. By this point his vision had returned, and he was graced with the sight of water in every direction. It was getting dark now as well, he could no longer spot the sun in the horizon.

Nemo looked back, seeing a distorted space in the air about twenty feet up. Seconds later Zuri popped out of it and landed in the sea, followed by Travis, and finally Raiya. Nemo remembered their earlier encounter with water and quickly began to swim over. By the time he reached her position, she clearly wasn't above water anymore. Nemo submerged himself and found her sinking. He quickly swam further down and hooked an arm around her midsection and paddled back up to breech them both above water.

Nemo remained silent, only breathing steadily to calm his body and paddling to keep them afloat as he plotted his next move. "Is everyone alright?" He asked, breaking the silence as he thought. "...Is my shotgun alright too?" He added after a few moments, sounding genuinely worried.

[ShiningSector]

For a short while, Travis only saw darkness and heard the faint resonating echoes of unfamiliar sounds all around him. He tried looking around, searching for Nemo and Zuri ahead of him and Rayia to his rear. Unfortunately, he had very little to go by and even questioned if he was being flung forwards or backwards as he felt the spell's tidal forces sent him hurdling through the empty space he was consumed by.

Eventually, a light penetrated the blackness, followed by a loud and abrupt noise that filled Travis' ears. The momentarily weightlessness he experienced soon faded back to the just control of gravity as he sensed his body taking a steep uncontrolled drop. His sight would quickly return seconds later, allowing him to see a wall of water fast approaching. Travis's couldn't help but let out a yelp as he frantically placed his hands in front of his face. Once more, the roar of the ocean died down into a muffled distortion as he involuntarily broke through the exterior of the water. He sank below the waves briefly but Travis soon regained control of his body and frantically swam back to the surface and gasped for air upon breaching the surface.

It didn't take long for Nemo, keeping Raiya afloat, along with Zuri to group back with him. Per Nemo's query, Travis looked over to him all the while ensuring he was able to keep himself suspended at the oceans surface, "I-I'm okay..."

After that, Nemo followed up by asking the condition of his weapon he trusted Travis with.

"Um," Travis began as he look over his shoulder and eyed the firearm, "drenched? Other than that, it looks fine."

[Prodigal Son]

After the singularity pulled her in, Raiya's fatigue overwhelmed her, causing her to fall into a state of deep unconsciousness. Because of her unconscious state, she did not inhale any water when she crashed through the surface of the ocean. She came to completely groggy, her head pounding from a mixture of exhaustion and lack of oxygen. It was only after a few minutes that she recognized Nemo's arm was what was keeping her aloft. In her angry state she would have much rather drown than had Nemo touching any part of her, but without the necessary energy to resist, she just remained quite and floated uselessly like driftwood.

"Great, so we've prolonged the inevitable," Raiya groaned, "but what's the point? We're still going to die in the middle of this god-forsaken ocean. I mean, unless someone has any idea other than swimming hundreds of miles." Raiya bemoaned. "I mean, Felix can't locate us and we can't use our manadials thanks to the paragon. So, unless someone is hiding a life raft in their pocket, we are pretty much so doomed." Raiya finished.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo let out a deep sigh of relief when he heard Travis' status update on his firearm. "It'll survive the bath, but I might have to tend to the wood-grain at a later date." Nemo replied. Before he could plan on the matter any further, Raiya brought him back to the more pressing matter.

"We might die, but I doubt the ocean is going to be what claims us. Well, seeing how you do with water, maybe it will get you... but not me." Nemo replied, raising one hand out of the water and speaking a single work incantation. "Mutatio." Immediately the water a few feet away began to stir. It rose up from the sea and began to form into the shape of a basic boat before solidifying into a black unidentifiable substance. After finishing, the makeshift boat plopped down into the water, revealing it was indeed buoyant.

Nemo swam over and heaved himself on board first before pulling the exhausted Raiya in next. Thankfully there was just enough room for everybody. He waited for his other team members to climb in before addressing the group. "Before anybody asks, no, I don't intend to row us back to shore." He announced before turning to Travis. "Felix would have a hard time locating us with this paragon, but Travis here is more than capable of taking care of that problem already, aren't you?" He asked.

[ShiningSector]

It was after Raiya having preached her gloomy take on the situation did Nemo respond by at least lightening it up. With a single word, a small portion of seawater near them rose the ocean they inhabited and shifted its shape and substance until it resembled a small raft. A transmutation spell? thought Travis as he followed Nemo along Raiya into the ebony-hued boat.

Travis eventually pulled himself from the ocean and nearly collapsed within their artificial watercraft, showing a brief sign of exhaustion afterwards. While tending to himself, Travis nearly became oblivious to Nemo's following statement, more of a request unto to Untalent, in addressing the issue with their Paragon hindering them from contacting Felix, "W-what? Oh, right. Gimme a minute," he replied, sounding somewhat dazed.

Once he had received his small crystalline case containing his experimental rune back from Zuri after she had used it against Rutger, he pulled the Paragon of Fantasia out from the confines of his trench coat. Unlike the rune's initial use on Espial in a more controlled environment, Travis figured that the application process was essentially the same without the need of a compartment of sorts to store the powerful mana crystal. Additionally, the blinding of this Paragon was temporary and a necessary means to an end. Travis took aim with his rune and pointed it at Fantasia, away from his teammate less they get caught within its aura-ripping influence.

"Heads up, this is gonna be loud. Better cover your ears," he warned as he began channeling his mana through the rune,

Such as the case with their battle with Rutger, his rune once more ejected a screaming pule upon its activation. The projected wave quickly collided with Fantasia's aura, causing an extremely high-pitched sound to resonate as if two large metallic objects grinded their durable surfaced against one another. As a result to this collision, the Paragon's emanating mana and aura were violently discharged through a surging ray of light that exited into the dying horizon. From what Travis could gather, the brilliance shown here was certainly more active than observed with Espial thought he difference was that this Paragon was not being visually hidden away. The processed eventually subsided immediately after a minute after the rune had successfully disabled the Paragon.

"Ow," Travis stated before trying to pop his jaw in a futile attempt to null the ringing in his ears, "yeah, that was loud."

After getting over the screeching results of the spell blinding their Paragon, Travis summoned up his manalysis and observed the now passive Fantasia. Just as how Espial was effected, Travis could certainly see that Fantasia's beaming aura had faded tremendously despite the still present signs of mana coursing through it. Just as Felix had noted with the same-effected Espial, Travis could also confirm that this Paragon was not even responding or attempting to interact with his own aura at all now, signaling to him that its ley-lines have been rendered useless. However, because the Paragon was no longer operable in its new blinded and restrained state, the effect of peering into it as he found no longer gave the typical overwhelming experience everyone would have usually felt, almost degrading the sensation of how one would look at a usually charged mana crystal.

"Well, Fantasia here seems pretty dormant now. I'm not seeing or sensing an aura," Travis replied while his focus still remained on the Paragon, "try your manadials; I don't think we should be bothered by that interference anymore."

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya flopped out onto the deck of the newly conjured spell-boat. Raiya let out a huge sigh, "Well, it looks like someone did have a life raft in their back pocket. I stand corrected... Er, rather, lay uselessly corrected." Raiya's voice was monotone and weak, which made her attempt at levity sound more like a bit of nihilistic sarcasm. After a moment Nemo suggested Travis utilize the same spell that was used on the enemy earlier on the paragon. After a huge display of mana feedback from what ever that runic spell Travis had been using was, Raiya realized that there were no latent mana waves exuding from the condensed stone of mana. Raiya raised an eyebrow in an uncontrolled instinctual expression. She couldn't stop her outward appearance from displaying her impressed state. The expression only lasted a brief moment, and in her current state of being uselessly slumped on the deck of the magical raft, it would have been fairly hard to catch her facial expression.

Afterward, Travis suggested to the others that someone should attempt to contact Felix to which Raiya responded with, "I would, but I sort of can't feel or move my limbs."

[Cottonmouth]

"Allow me." Nemo replied, lifting his arm up and checking his gold manadial. "Everything seems to be in order now... lovely job, Travis." He complimented. Nemo tapped the dial to bring up a holographic interface. He maneuvered through a couple screens before poking his finger in the air to press one of the incorporeal buttons. A slight beep was made before the device sent a call to Felix back at their base.

[Prodigal Son]

Mana resuscitation and Rehabilitation, the dusty old tome Felix was pouring over was nearly a century old. Felix had hoped the contents of the book would help shed light on his recent problem. But, as Felix continued to skim through the pages more rapidly, it was becoming increasingly clear that the book did not contain any knowledge that Felix was not already privy to. Felix let out a sigh and dropped his legs down from their resting place up on his desk, closing the book and placing it on top of another recently skimmed tome Blood Oaths and Aura Contracts: A Guide to Contractual Thaumaturgy.

Felix placed his elbows on his desk and removed his reading glasses with his left hand, using his right hand to massage the corners of his eyes with his thumb and index finger. 'If only I had more time, I'm sure I could think of another way...' Felix thought as he continued to massage his tear ducts. 'Perhaps severing the ley-lines is the only way' Felix considered briefly before he was interrupted by the flashing of his manadial. Felix opened his eyes and twisted his wrist to check the alert the manadial was responding to. His eyes widened as he realized exactly what it was: a distress beacon, coming from the middle of the pacific ocean.

Felix hopped to his feet and conjured his robes onto his body, before executing a cross-glyph portal spell, and slipping through it. Felix had opened the portal to just a few feet away and slightly above where the distress signal went up. Falling down towards the ocean, a bit too gracefully, Felix conjured up manaegis greaves, dropping onto the water with a reverberate clunk. His manaegis repelled physical matter, which meant that he wasn't necessarily walking on water, but rather gliding on it. Looking around after making his landing, Felix spotted a magically constructed boat a few yards off and began to glide towards it, moving his feat as if he were ice skating. As he picked up speed and distance, he eventually abruptly angled his body to stop just before reaching the makeshift watercraft.

"Well, I was expecting to walk into a battle, but it appears your distress signal was of a natural nature rather than an adversarial one." Felix let out a sigh of relief, "Well, regardless lets get you home." Felix lifted his right hand etching out a rune in the air, opening his trademark cross-glyph portal at the front of the boat.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo lifted himself up from his seated position. "Sorry Felix, you missed the battle. Shame, Travis had quite the impressive skirmish with a skeleton too." Nemo commented, hiding his sarcasm the best he could. Nemo flipped his fingers upwards towards Raiya, using a light telekinesis to levitate her up. He caught her just as she reached the apex of the spell and started to fall.

After walking through the portal, Nemo was greeted with the sight of their cabin's living room. However, for Nemo the well illuminated space wasn't all that favorable over the view of the dark seascape. He initially squinted as his eyes slowly adjusted to the light, the brightness truly irritated him to the core. Nemo walked over to the couch and abruptly dropped Raiya onto it's cushy confines, an action entirely lacking the tenderness he had shown to her in the past. It was likely that her harsh words against him earlier had at least temporarily extinguished his camaraderie towards her. "I trust you can take care of yourself from here."

Nemo looked down, seeing his soaked boots. He let out a sigh, pulling them off and returning them to his mana-inventory. Nemo went to work on his body next, smelling awfully like salt-water still. This wasn't the first time he had gotten himself unintentionally soaked, and over the years he had perfected small spells to clean himself in a jiffy. Nemo walked over to the bathroom and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. Within a couple minutes he returned, fully clean and dry, now wearing his plush pink robe, pajamas, slippers, and usual accessories. He sat down on a chair and waited silently.

[ShiningSector]

Per Travis' suggestion, Nemo checked his manadial and confirmed that it was now usable. With a few finger presses and a minute later, Felix's signature portal materialized just above them, followed by Felix himself exiting the fabricated rift and gracefully approaching the group, "You're a sight for sore eyes!" Travis openly commented, feeling the stress he had gradually accrued during the entirety of this mission beginning to evaporate.

After Felix constructed a new portal for them to evacuate through, Travis caught Nemo passing a remark in a reply to Felix that ultimately poked hinted amusement toward his unfortunate interaction with the now fully-deceased Samuel, "'Skirmish' wouldn't be my choice of words," he retorted, not even bothering to hold back his distain for the comment before he himself passed through the portal.

Stepping back into Felix's mansion was certainly a warm and welcoming sensation due in part with its homely comforts and safety that it brought. Travis was to rushing upstairs and collapsing in his quarters for a well deserved respite. However duty reminded him that he still had Fantasia to be presented to Felix first, in addition with any debriefing that would follow suit as well. With a relaxing sigh, Travis stayed close by to the portal while awaiting for Zuri and Felix to come through. In the mean time, he summoned up a spell that could visually be described as a miniature sun and held it in his right hand while the Paragon rested in his left. The radiating orb illuminated a wave of localized heat and helped with drying his still damp clothes as seen with the evaporated steam seeping away from his coat and being absorbed into the spell.

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya was plopped down on the leather couch, which Raiya was pretty certain was definitely not good for the leather. She was still soaked to the bone, and having no mana to use an instant evaporation spell, nor the stamina to move from her spot, meant that she just had to lay uncomfortably in her drenched state. When Nemo, obviously irritated, suggested she could take care of herself, she realized that Nemo probably knew she was not in such a state, but did not care if she experienced some discomfort. Being as angry as she still was with Nemo, she honestly preferred him being cold and distant. Just as well, Raiya felt as if she deserved to baste in seawater and regret.

Felix walked up to the couch that Raiya was slumped on, drips of seawater plopped onto the hardwood floor from the couch, causing Felix to pause. The portal he had opened before closed behind him with Zuri coming in last. Felix tilted his head and gave Raiya a puzzled look. "Go away, Felix. I am not in the mood to be lectured right now," Raiya moaned. "It certainly would be an oddity if you were in the mood to be lectured... But, seeing as how you are completely out of mana, I can see why you did not really have a choice other than to desecrate a good leather couch, so I won't be lecturing you," Felix explained. Then he snapped his fingers, casting a evaporation spell that covered the immediate room, causing all materials to dry instantly, and making it very humid within the living space. He then opened a window and flicked his wrist causing a large breeze to blow through, evacuating the humid air outside nad replacing it with normal dry air. "Much better," Felix said with a smile.

Felix took stock of the room, "Well, it looks like our team is a little smaller now," Felix said, referencing Zoe's absence. Felix surveyed the room a little closer and realized Travis was holding a blue stone. "Well, I didn't feel irregular mana waves, so I just assumed you failed in retrieving the paragon. But if I am to assume that this stone right here is the paragon, then... That means you used the spell to cut the ley-lines again?" Felix surmised, "I suppose it makes sense that you would have to get rid of manawave interference to contact me since you were in the middle of the ocean and all," Felix let out a long sigh, "Oh well, what is done is done. I suppose that just means we will have to double our efforts on figuring a way to reestablish ley-line connections. Anyway, I am anxious to hear how this all happened. Does anybody want to give a quick recap?" Felix finished.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo raised his hand. "I've got you covered there, buster." He spoke, breaking his standing silence. He got up and positioned himself so that Felix was standing on the opposite side of a big table out in the middle of the room. "Good thing I planned for this in advance." He whispered, likely to himself. Nemo then began to pull various items out from his inventory. He placed what appeared to be some sort of title card on the table made out of folded cardboard with sharpie marker writings. The card read The Big Paragon Adventure by Nemo and Pals.

Nemo removed the card and then pulled up a cardboard backdrop with a crude painting of the docks they begun their mission at drawn on. From behind that he then used his magic to telekinetically raise up five small doofy looking wood marionette replicas of their team, fitted with small scale clothing and faux fur hair. All in all, they were pretty well made.

"Alright, so first we were at the docks, trying to sneak into Seidon's ship." Nemo started, jiggling the string marionettes to make them look like they were doing a sloppy walking animation. "But then, two guys from the dock showed up and were all like. Hey I'm walkin here! You're not gettin' on this ship, badabing." Nemo pulled up two more marionettes, replicas of Logan and Boslan from the docks. He exaggerated Logan's accent greatly.

"So we were all like. We're gettin' on that ship, badaboom. And got into a big fight." Nemo caused the two groups of puppets to collide into a ridiculous looking slap-fight. Eventually the two adversary puppets puppets went limp when he dropped their control sticks, and were dragged "off screen", signalling they had been defeated. A much cleaner representation compared to their actual grisly deaths.

Nemo took the puppets off the table and changed the backdrop to a large cardboard cutout of Seidon's ship. "Afterwards we all snuck onto the ship by hiding out in a shipping container. But apparently our hiding skills weren't as good as we originally thought, and we jumped out of the box and were all like. 'Surprise!'" On cue, Nemo pulled their puppet group out from behind the display. The only change being that Nemo and Raiya were now brandishing small scale katanas. Afterwards he pulled out an apposing group of puppet Seidon, Caspian, Lori, Roy, and the Tao Twins.

"Seidon was all like, Arrrrrgh, get off me ship you scallywag! You're not getting me treasure me hearties, yo ho!." Nemo once again greatly exaggerated Seidon's accent. "And we were like, yeah, we're totally getting that treasure, and you talk with a stupid accent too." The two groups of puppets then got into another slap fight, this one even grander in scale then the one that came before. Nemo began to add comical punching and sword fighting sound effects as the marionettes fought.

First puppet Nemo and Raiya defeated the Tao Twin puppets, and they were dragged off stage. Followed by Roy being slapped into submission by Zuri, Travis, and Zoey. Puppet Travis delivered the death-slap before marionette Roy was removed from the stage. Then puppet Nemo and Raiya defeated Caspian when Nemo swung his replica sword to pop off puppet Caspian's wooden head from his body. It rolled off the table and landed by the couch Raiya was laying on.

Nemo leaned over the cardboard cutout and replaced his small scale sword with a tiny replica of his rifle. "Then I was like, hey Travis, watch this sick ass shot. Bang!" Nemo recited, jerking his puppet to make it look like his rifle had fired when he made the crude sound effect. This apparently killed the puppet Lori, as her puppet body fell limp before being removed from the stage.

"So then only Seidon was left, and he was like, oh no, my crew and stuff, is like super dead, Arrr!" Nemo continued, forgetting to use the fake pirate accent until the end. "Blackbeard used a big magic attack on us, and we all dodged it besides Zoey, and she was like. Ow!" Nemo then flicked his wrist, causing the controlled marionette stick to violently swing around and overhead smash the Zoey puppet onto the table. The force of the impact caused the wooden puppet to explode into pieces that abruptly shrapneled throughout the room, possibly hitting some of the members of the group. "...and then died." Nemo added, confirming her fate if the display wasn't good enough.

"We fought Captain Morgan for a while, but then-" Nemo paused the slap fight, moving in to replace his rifle with a miniature revolver. "I shot him a bunch of times." One would of thought that Nemo would just do some more sound effects, but apparently he had some room for more production value in this performance. The small pistol was actually functional and rigged with blank rounds. He fired five off, causing small blood filled squib explosives placed in the Seidon puppet to go off, making it look as if his body was being riddled with bullets like in an action movie. The whole scene was a surprisingly ridiculous recreation of the act.

Nemo had the puppet Seidon fall to it's wooden knees. "It looked like Captain Kidd was down for the count, but it would be foolish to think it's that easy." The puppet Seidon looked up from his kneeling position. "I may die, but I'll make sure you all die too, so I can kill you all again in the afterlife or whatever too... arrr." Puppet Nemo fired off one more shot from his mini revolver, causing puppet Seidon's head to suddenly explode into a bloody mess. Thankfully most of the fake blood was caught by the cardboard backdrop. Nemo then drug the headless Seidon off the table, causing a morbid blood trail in the process.

Nemo took all the puppets off the table and replaced the backdrop with cardboard ocean waves. Followed by a cardboard cutout of the ship with the group on it. Nemo moved the cardboard ship to make it look like it was floating on the waves, as well as shifting the backdrop to make it look more animated. "Unfortunately, before we sent Davy Jones back to his locker, he unleashed his pet fish against us." Nemo made a few wacky sounding groans to signal the arrival of the kraken. A far cry from the terrifying real deal they had experienced earlier in the day. Suddenly, large cardboard cutouts of the monster's tentacles emerged before behind the waves. They began to repeatedly smack the ship.

"We tried our best, which was basically doing nothing, but the sea was all like, whoosh, whoosh! Whip a whip a doo!" Nemo started, making sound effects for the immense storm they were facing at the time. He whipped the boat all around, even upside down to display their struggle. "And the monsters was all like, bang, bang, BANG!" Nemo added, making sounds every time the tentacles hit the ship. "And sadly, we sunk like a rock." He finished, pulling the boat under the waves and out of view.

Nemo discarded the current props and changed the background to the sandy beach they awoke on. He laid their puppets bodies limply on the table. "Thankfully, we washed up on a beach, and were not eaten whole by the sea-beast." Nemo rose the marionette's controllers up, causing them to spring back to life. The only change in the group was that the Raiya puppet was now missing it's jacket. "We walked into the heart of the jungle, sure that this was the island the paragon rested upon." As the puppets comically jingle walked across the backdrop, Nemo switched the beach out for the jungle with the temple's entrance.

"Finally we reached our destination, which required us to operate an ancient device to open the doors and gain entrance to the paragon's resting place. But, in a wild turn of events, it was revealed that the doors were actually working for the Arcanocracy, and it was one huge ambush." Nemo then revealed puppet Father Galvadon. It was a spitting image of the church member, except for the part where he had replaced his gold mace with an old timey walking cane and gave him a long black curly mustache and top hat. "Myah-hah-hah! It is I, Father Galvadon. I've come to stop you rabble rousers before you give us any more trouble, see?" Nemo perverted his voice so that he sounded like a vintage vaudeville villain.

"I was all like, you guys go on without me and I'll deal with this guy, even though he might kill me because he's super tough and specializes in both my weaknesses. And Raiya was like Yeah, don't care at all, loser-kun."

Nemo paused for a moment, sniffling sadly from his position before continuing. "So I was like... Okay... and then got into a big fight with Galvadon." Nemo explained, sounding audibly depressed. Nemo had the two puppets charge each other slowly and engage into a downtempo low-energy slap fight.

Nemo's "fight" with Galvadon faded off to the side as the remaining group entered the temple. He replaced the backdrop with the inside of the temple. "Travis, Zuri, and Raiya went deep into the catacombs, finding none other than Father Stockton waiting for them inside." Nemo explained, dropping his sad voice. He then revealed puppet Stockton and placed him on the table. For the most part, Stockton looked like his real life counterpart, but with a giant oversized cranium to house his clearly massive brain.

"I wasn't there to hear how the battle started, but I'm pretty sure it went something like this." Nemo coughed slightly to adjust his voice. "Hey guys, it's me, Father Megamind. My brain is the biggest in this whole room, so every move you can make I've already planned for in five different ways. Bow before me, or I'll be forced to use my mind magic against you!" Nemo said in a nasally nerdy voice.

The puppets then collided in another slap fight. But instead of slapping back, the Stockton puppet raised it's hands up to the sides of it's temples. Nemo began to emit humorous electric buzzing sound effects. Apparently this was what "mind magic" sounded like.

"Eventually, thanks to Travis and Zuri, Stockton's mystifying mind magic was disabled. He collapsed to his knees, unable to fight back now that his only offense was taken from him. But before Raiya could deliver the death blow, I returned from my battle with Galvadon, victorious." The Nemo puppet walked back into frame, beaten up and bloodied, clothes ragged and waving his revolver wildly. After reaching Stockton, the marionette Nemo exclaimed "Die!" and point blank shot the church puppet in it's massive head. After the blank round went off, the large head of puppet Stockton sprung a leak, steadily squirting fake blood all over the table. It fell forward and face planted on the stage, continuing the leak until the head had shrunk down to a normal size.

"Apparently this made Raiya-" Nemo moved in, placing stickers on puppet Raiya's face to give her angry eyebrows and an unhappy mouth. "-really mad."

Nemo switched the background to the final throne room of the temple. With puppet skeleton Croft and a mini paragon on the other side. The group approached the artifact, with puppet Travis splitting off and getting closer. "Finally we were met with the object we had come all this way for, but the paragon was in a precarious predicament, so Travis stepped up to nab the artifact." The puppet Travis creeped closer and closer to the gem, finally getting into arms reach. He extended his wooden arm out to grasp the paragon, and as soon as he touched it the skeleton spoke.

"Don-"

Before it could say any more, puppet Travis quickly removed the paragon, causing the skeleton to wheeze and explode into fine dust before it could speak any further. The grey bone powder coated puppet Travis thoroughly.

"And so there we were, standing with our second paragon, victorious in our search. But this victory was short lived, as it turned out that the entire island was actually a fake island generated by the paragon at the request of Captain Croft in his dying moments. And now that Captain Croft, barely alive through the paragon, had perished without his lifeline. The island would perish with him."

Nemo switched the background to include the black hole they had encountered before. "A big scary void hole opened up, slowly sucking us all up as well as the island." Nemo moved the marionettes and jingled them in front of the cardboard anomaly. Nemo began to emit various goofy wails as they were pulled into it.

After changing the background back to the moving waves, Nemo plopped their puppet doubles down into them. "After that ordeal, we returned to the ocean. Thankfully with no sea monster still in sight. Raiya, of course, was panicking. Oh no, we're all going to drown out here in the sea! Ahhhhhh! We're doomed!" Nemo jiggled her puppet rapidly as they cried out in fear.

"Thankfully, I was able to create a raft for us to float on, and then Travis disabled the paragon's manawaves so we could send out a distress signal. That's when you came in Felix." After placing all the puppets into a plastic boat, Nemo brought out "Puppet Felix."

Puppet Felix, in reality, was a fat clown marionette with a small nametag that said "Felix" on it. Either Nemo had ran out of marionettes to use in his performance, or still held some form of grudge against the arch-magi for locking him up in Mamertine for so long. Puppet Felix waddled across the waves slowly, accompanied by bass low tuba noises every step. "Hey guys, it's me, Felix. I've come to rescue you. Step inside my fun portal to return to my magical castle." Nemo supplemented Felix's actual voice with a Barney the Dinosaur like impression. He then honked his clown nose at the end.

Nemo dropped the wood controllers to all the puppets, letting them rest limply on the table. He stepped back and rested down on his comfy chair, satisfied. "And so yeah..." Nemo crossed his arms confidently. "That's pretty much how it happened."

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya watched as Nemo began to use a crude marionette show to tell Felix the story of what happened during the mission. As Nemo unfolded what he saw were the accurate rendition of events, Raiya realized many disturbing inaccuracies. Now that she was dry and warming up, she was able to pull together the strength to lift herself up a bit and prop her back up on the arm of the sofa. Raiya was wearing a bigger scowl than she had when she was initially angry with Nemo for taking her kill. "It's quite interesting that your version of events neglected to mention that your bullet failed to kill the sniper, and I was the one to take her down," Raiya spat angrily. "And I just love how you glance over the fact that I utilized some of my biggest and best spellcraft to hold off Stockton, saving the lives of Travis and Zuri many times in the process, which allowed Zuri and Travis the chance to use that spell that sealed up Stockton's mana, Raiya growled. "But you didn't see any of that, did you? How could you when you're just off on your own doing whatever Nemo's do? It was ME who whittled down Stockton, ME who kept him preoccupied long enough to be tricked, AND ME WHO WAS BETRAYED BY THE ARCANOCRACY!" Raiya shouted the last part of her explanation in a flustered manner. "But could you let me take that kill? No!" Raiya grabbed the Nemo puppet and began moving it around in an arrogant manner, with its chest pushed forward and its head looking upward, "Oh hey! Look at me! I'm Nemo, the chief of the Morality Police! Raiya said in a silly sounding deeper voice from her normally feminine voice. She made the puppet cross its arms, "Little girl Raiya, did you know that killing is bad? Sorry but only me, Nemo, chief morality can kill people. Don't you know you're just a little girl and killing hurts people? Let me swoop in and take this MASSIVE BURDEN off your hands." Raiya inflected 'massive burden' so that it sounded extremely facetious and condescending. "I will protect you little Raiya, after all, you're just a little girl who can't handle herself and isn't capable of being responsible for her own actions." After her angry display, having gathered enough mana for a simple flame spell, Raiya snapped her fingers, the puppet burst into a controlled flame that only burned the puppet to nothing but black dust.

---

Felix watched all of this unfold, the initial puppet show and the angry reaction from Raiya. Felix folded his arm and furrowed his brow. "So, another member has fallen. Unfortunate to say the least. I wish I could say something to console you all and reassure you that things will get better. Alas, I am at a lack of words. I know I did not tell you all before you were recruited, the true dangers of this mission. With that said, I would like to extend to you the option of leaving now and never looking back." Felix's rather calming appearance was now altered with an abnormally stern and serious expression. "Before you make your decision, I want to make a move in complete honesty. I have not told you everything."

Felix began pacing, clasping his hands behind his back, and walking back and forth with his gaze facing down. "The catholic arcanocracy is very clandestine. There are many things that even high ranking members within the magi organization do not know. One of those such things is such a closely guarded secret, that disclosing it is not just grounds for excommunication but execution. What I am about to tell you is something even Raiya, a grand-magi before her own excommunication could not have known," Felix continued to explain. "Ranking up in the arcanocracy is normally a simple procedure, a council of magi appoint nominees for receiving a promotion, and then the council convenes to vote on if they do or do not receive said promotion. Once the voting is over and the majority votes in favor of promotion, the individual who has been nominated receives their new mantle both figuratively and literally." Felix paused in both his speech and his pacing and turned to face the group, "What I have just told you is true for all of the ranks except two," Felix held out his index and middle finger to signify, 'two.' "The arch-magi, and the papal-magi. The explanation of the papal magi isn't pertinent to what I am about to tell you, though. In order to become an arch-magi, the nomination process occurs, but then the nominee who has recieved the majority 'ye' votes is referred to the papal-magi, who then decides himself if the candidate is suited to being an arch-magi. After the papal-magi confirms the candidate, the then candidate does not simply place on a new cloak." Felix shook his head, "No, the candidate then has to undergo a process called a blood oath, or better known as an aura contract. The candidate has to place a drop of his blood into an enchanted artifact known as the Holy Grail. Placing your blood into this object is akin to writing your name on a contract that binds your soul to the artifact for eternity. It forges an aura-contract creating a permanent ley-line between it and the contractee, which allows whomever controls the device to activate a high-thaumaturgical spell that can instantly end the life of the contractee." Felix folded his arms once more, "It essentially forces a life of servitude to the church, to anyone stupid enough to place their blood into it. I, like every other arch-mage before me, had to undergo this ritual. For this reason, I was not able to stand by Raiya when she was excommunicated, and for this reason I was not able to immediately oppose the arcanocracy when they began to head down the path of claiming the paragons for themselves."

Felix sat down in an empty leather recliner, and reclined the chair to prop his feet up. "Obviously, I figured out a way to subvert this artifice. Or I would not be here talking with you now. I uncovered an ancient spell that was designed to sever ley-lines specifically. Unfortunately that was not enough. The ley-line that connected me to the Grail was so deeply embedded in my aura that simply severing it would take the power of a paragon to achieve. In fact, the grail IS a paragon in and of itself. Its power holds true to the other paragons for certain. In order for me to sever the ley-line, I had to go deeper. Modifying the spell that severed ley-lines, I created a spell that could actually remove a portion of my mana-well. This spell's new variant that I created was untested. And, in order for me to achieve this spell, I had to be touching the grail to ascertain the portion of my mana-well the ley-line was attached to. I stole in, in the dead of night, and placed my hand on the grail, reciting the modified spell. It was a success, in as far as it did sever my connection with the grail, but at a great cost. Not only did I lose a large portion of my mana-well, but I also inadvertently started a chain reaction, a curse within my mana-well that has been gnawing at me ever since. This curse will continuously eat away at my natural mana reserves until I am dead. I set up this manor along of the largest natural earthly ley-lines, and constructed a massive runic circle that has been keeping the curse in stasis, and regenerating a small fraction of my lost mana. As long as I am within the bounds of the constructed spacial field, I will not die. For this reason, I have not accompanied you all on your missions, for this reason, I have not been able to lend my aid, for this reason I was not able to protect the ones who believed in this mission. It is because of my foolishness that I have to ask others to accomplish this impossibly dangerous task to prevent the destruction of the world at large." Felix finished his exposition leaning back in his chair, the seriousness of his expression still fresh upon his face.