Hatman1801

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Alvios decided that Bruce had things under control with Zelraine, and he had to; they didn't have to stop Jenso at the foot of the stairs, just cut off his path up them. He created and threw one more sword down between Jenso and Zelraine for good measure, but made more of a motion to kick off of a bit of light and dive towards the stairs--and Shaidra--himself. She was arguably the bigger hindrance here; even if Zelraine got pinned and Jenso got ahead, it made no difference if the little wench just telepoofed Jenso back to the start.

Or, worse, somewhere they wouldn't have the chance to help him.

Vale's blade on its own was mysteriously sharp enough that Alvios didn't have to fold and refine the Ki as much; simply matching the form was enough to make a very potent wave of Ki, the white light lashing out towards Shaidra as he moved to intercept.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Alvios nodded towards Bruce, and entered his Lightforge state, a ring of swords appearing in the air behind him. He had noticed Zelraine actively looking away from the light, meaning whatever power he had beneath the mask didn't shield his vision effectively. Capitalizing on the confusion between the explosion and the newly-installed skylight, he jumped into the air, and threw all eight of the main swords down at Zelraine and Shaidra. He took Vale's sword in his hand, ready in case Zelraine decided to strike.

Shaidra might take a moment to reorient herself under that dome she made. It's Zelraine I have to keep my eyes on for now, to react to his speed.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Irreedeemably impossible? Surely you jest. Jenso's right; you don't even have the muscle here to stop Bruce, and Shaidra couldn't stand up to me when I barely knew I had access to my Ki." Alvios leaped into the air, high enough to see Zelraine and Shaidra over the wall. A highly condensed ball of light formed in his hand as he looked down at them.

"You don't even have the right to look at us!" He threw the ball up above, a quick veil of light covering his own eyes as it exploded. Rather than cause damage, the ball acted as an overwhelming light source, like a miniature sun had entered the room, filling even the shadows with its rays. The veil over his own eyes gave him perfect clarity through the glare, and as the light reached Bruce, a veil appeared over his own eyes as well. It would either force them to stand near the door in blinding light, or go up and try to contain the source, hopefully.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Alvios landed fine, but gave Bruce a glare as he was flung to his new position so abruptly. "A warning would have been nice, Bruce. It's rude to just act without any preamble, you know." As if to purposely contradict his own statement, two swords formed in the air above him and launched themselves towards Zelraine and Shaidra without warning or even physical gesture from Alvios. Not that it had any real chance of being lethal, but hopefully it would divert their attention for the brief period Jenso needed to get by.

Whatever happened, at this point they had committed themselves to the idea of moving Jenso forward. Perhaps it was all an extremely elaborate trap, but they were at their final push, and they couldn't continue doubting and reconsidering their strategy. His grip tightened as Alvios' gaze moved to Shaidra and Zelraine.

It was time to fight.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

It took Alvios a moment to register that Zelriane had even moved, but instinct kicked in once he had, and he jumped away from the green Order member. Annoyingly fortunate, Rajaka had decided to send a shock wave towards the trio, which just blew Alvios even further away once he had left the ground. He tumbled through the air for a moment before halting his momentum with a small discharge of Ki, landing on his feet at the end of it all.

"Bruce, don't go wild. We should fall back and regroup." Alvios looked up at the confused Shaidra, still staring at her hands. An idea crossed him; maybe he could give them something else to worry about.

"Do you have your name back, Alexis?"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Alvios took about half a second to reorient himself. He wanted to ask Jenso what had happened between him and Shaidra, and how she destroyed their prison dimensions.

Little bit less important than the yellow devil and green blur that had been...waiting for them? Guarding them? Who the hell knew why they were here. Didn't matter much; they were here, and that was bad.

He took a short breath through his nose, and forced himself to smirk a little at Rajaka and Zelriane. "Ah, Rajaka and Zelriane. I don't believe we've been properly introduced." As he spoke, he shot Jenso a get the fuck out of here look. From what he knew about the two, Rajaka had overwhelming power and unlimited durability, and Zelriane was extremely fast.

Jenso and Jeff, bigger, badder, and dialed up waaay past 11 on the "You're Fucked" measurement scale. He would worry about how to escape himself later. He just knew Jenso had to progress.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Alvios had his arms folded; he was still uncomfortable with the idea of Shaidra coming back. After all, just a few minutes ago, he had treated her as essentially attack-on-sight. He mulled it over, before relenting. It's not like his idea had garnered any success, after all. He had hoped just trying something new that seemed statistically sound could have been the magic button they needed to push. Oh well. 'What is life, if one has to live it without a name,' right? She's simple, fractured. Maybe just trying to remind her who she is--if she really is some kind of remnant of Alexis--could trigger her assistance. Or at least something helpful. I tried using her for a moment when she showed up in my dimension, but it had...less than stellar results."

Alvios looked between Bruce and Jenso for a moment, then down at the ground, furrowing his brow. "This does leave another problem though. How much Ki will we have to waste to make her show up? Burn too much, we put ourselves in danger."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Alvios crossed his arms and paced a bit, glancing to Nexus on occasion as he pondered the situation. Yes, they had a theory now, but how to execute it? None of the trio even knew where to start. Void was the empty energy between worlds and dimensions...

"...Alright, idea. If Void energy is essentially what exists when Ki or Arcane are absent, then maybe in order to tap into Void energy, we have to destroy a portion of our own Ki. It exists to fill the spaces where other energies can't, right? Enough of it would force open part of these prison dimensions, get us through the 'space between dimensions' and hopefully, we pop out on the other side."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Alvios listened intently to Jenso's extremely long and winded story about Yzeira's history in general, having enough time to adjust and get comfortable in the length of the speech. After it was finally over, rather than recite everything, he decided to try and focus on the key points of what he'd been told.

"Glad there's some names now. Seems like you two were given much more direct information than I was. Seems as though Nexus was giving me Alexis' history in particular; others she worked with were 'jealous' about her eyes? She set off on her own eventually to search the mysteries of the universe and the energy between worlds - the Void. She was lost for meaning despite her success... she touched the Void, but wanted more knowledge, to fill the void in herself. She apparently found meaning once, but it was stolen from her."

Alvios cleared his throat, quoting Nexus directly for the last portion. "Sadness, anger, joy... All of it wells endlessly. She seeks now, only to know herself. "What is life, if one has to live it without a name?"

Tapping his chin, he looked between Bruce and Jenso. "So all of our stories focus around Yzeira's history. Bruce learned about Nexus, Jenso learned about Yzeira himself, and I learned about Alexis in some off manner. I can't help but feel mine is the most obscure. Nexus said she was still 'seeking to know herself.' Not sure if that's supposed to be metaphorical or not anymore. More directly important though, is meta energy and it's relation to Ki and the void. Considering void is the energy between worlds, it might be possible to escape by tapping into that. Risks of insanity are a little obsolete in this situation. How we do that, though... damn. It'd be nice if Oswald was here."

Alvios paused, and turned to Jenso. "We'll need to think about this more. If I'm right though, and finding out how to tap into the void with our Ki to somehow manifest meta energy... Jenso, you aren't doing it. The risk of you losing your identity and sanity is probably exactly what Yzeira would want most right now."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Alvios gave Nexus the most Are you fucking serious? stare he had ever managed. Part of him wondered if this was all some kind of hyper-elaborate prank; Look, everyone! Those warriors, strong enough to challenge the lot of you? I convinced them to lay down and then brained them with a rock!

Alvios sighed, and laid down, letting his focus shift back to the rift. "Go ahead. I'm ready." It's not like he had anything else to do at this point.