Prodigal Son

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

"I can't say for sure, but I think that the Paragon's are pretty tough. If they were fragile, they wouldn't be able to survive their own power. So we shouldn't have to worry about physically damaging it. A large aura is protecting the crystal..." Raiya stopped herself and examined the paragon further. "Actually, the Paragon reminds me a lot of manalloy. Like Felix's manaegis. Unlike normal mana crystal which is an actual ore, this feels like its made from purely concentrated mana. It is almost as if it is an aura manifested into a tangible object. Physical attacks will not hurt it, and it would take too much power to destroy it with magic. Don't worry about damaging it." Raiya explained.

While not a large expert on tomes, and ancient magic, Raiya was an expert on mana manipulation and understood mana theory to a great extent. Memories of spending hours plumbing the depths of her mana pool, feeling mana and understanding it flooded through her brain.

Within the minute or so of the exchange of dialogue, the golem shifted its head towards the group, as if to gaze at them. The paragon bean pulsing, as the golem used its power to analyse its opponents. It was obvious that the golem was up to something, but impossible to tell actually what that thing was.

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

As soon as Nemo's hand came in contact with the crystal, a purple burst of mana forced a wave of kinetic energy outwards, sending everyone within the general vicinity off their feet and backwards. The closest, which was Nemo, would be sent further, than the others, of course.

Raiya was forced back four feet, and was swept off her feet, and tumbled through the air but maneuvered her momentum into a flip and landed safely on one knee, her right hand on the ground.

"What massive power." Raiya marveled as her manalysis detected the surge of energy that was just forced out. Her own aura merely a firefly to the supernova that was the Paragon.

After the blast of mana, the rubble began to collectively shake. Then, the rubble arranged itself into a large human-esque effigy. When all was said and done, there stood a towering 30 foot rock monster, with the Paragon in the center of its head as if it was an eye.

Raiya summoned her odachi in an electrical burst of mana, and drew it, taking a defensive stance.

"IT'S A GOLEM!" Raiya shouted, "IT CAN USE THE PARAGON TO CAST SPELLS"

While never having seen undead raised by mana crystals, she had seen a golem animated by a mana crystal before. She was all too familiar with what they were capable of. Casting spells was a steeple of most golem programming. And she assumed this would be no different.

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

Raiya continued down the hallway following every sharp turn until eventually, a dull blue light could be seen from the end of the hallway. As she got closer, she could see the hallway expanded into a large, circular, cave-like room. To an ordinary person, the room would have appeared to be unfinished, as if the rock was removed from the area only enough to make the room a room. But Raiya could tell, just from the smell of the place, that this room left the way it was, a cave-like musky room, was no mistake. The room was more than 50 feet tall at the highest point towards the middle, the walls all jagged and roughly cut. Stalagmites and stalactites had formed over the years as water dripped down from cracks in the room's ceiling. The room was about 300 feet around, but the shape of the room was more oblong than circular. In the middle of the room was a large 50 foot circle of mana crystal torches attached to 6 foot wooden shafts, each one attached to its own shaft. All the torches were charged with the same bit of mana, and even though they weren't fully charged, they were bright enough to illuminate the whole room in a dull blue glow. In the middle of the ring of mana torches was a 30 foot pile of rubble, and at the top of the pile of rubble was a brightly gleaming purple mana crystal.

No, Raiya could tell this room was left unfinished on purpose, this wasn't a room many people spent a lot of time in, and if she had to guess, with the feeling it gave off and the small smell of blood still staining the room, this was a chamber for sacrificial rituals. And by the smell of it, it was not animal sacrifices, but human.

Raiya used manalysis to survey the room, but as soon as she activated it, her senses were overwhelmed. The mana coming from the small fist sized purple mana crystal at the top of the pile was no ordinary mana crystal. It overflowed with a seeming endless supply of mana. It felt as though the crystal was going to push her down with the weight of all the near limitless mana it contained, and crush her. Feeling the aura it exuded, it almost felt like a living being, and the aura humbled Raiya giving her perspective of just how small and feeble her own mana pool was. Then it donned on her, and she couldn't help but whisper out, "So this is a Paragon..."

"Ḑ̥̦̩i͏͙̱̱̪̤d̘͎̦̪̜̻͇͟ ̡̮̫̩̼͈̺̪y̮̗͉̟͖ou̞̣̠̙̤͟ ҉sa͇y̜̠͙͇̝̘͢ ̫͚̼̬̗͟Ṕ̳̰͇͕͔̮a͕͈̮̩͖͝r̖͖̲̤͖̝ͅag̝̘͇̱̫̯̗͟o̮̭͙̟̘̟n? ̳͎̺̀R̭͈a̧͚i̴̪̙̤̘y̝̘̬̼a̹͘, ̲̼̮̻̹ḑ̼̰̥̦̼̟į͚̙ḓ̵̝͉ ̧̰̙̩̺̙y̳̤̥̦̣̺͝o̵̙͓̱̪̜u͈̦͕͝ ̠͕̩̠̞̳g͈̰̰̱̪u͇̩y͞s͕͖̪͚͇̼ ̱̤̳̱̀m̙̝̕a̝̳̜̩̜̗k̷̰͖̠̖e͉̙ͅ ̰͕̞i̩̥̗t̹ ̗̜̼̻t̵̝̤̼͎̭o̝̩͓͍̲͚͖ ͕̜̠̝t̛͈̤̞̙̥̖ͅh̤̞͍̖e̥̘͕̪̦̞ ̱͔̟̜̠͕͕p҉̭̰̭̯̦͕a͜r͇̝̝̟̬ͅa̦go͉͎͝n̴̮͙̘?̩̯ ͙͕̹̬̲̼I̗̺̺̣͞ ̷̥c̛̙a̼̰̗̖̘̫n̸̫̹̥̗̙'̩̹̤̺t̫́ ̵̮̼̰ḥ͖̤͚̮e͙̤ar҉ ̣͓y̛o̪͕̪̤u͇̙ ̻̥̫̬͉͕̭v̗͍̜̖͉͜ȩ̺͚̮r̮͔͚ͅy̠͍̮̯ ̯͔̙͕̩͎͕we̹͚͚̜͘ͅl͔͓̫̙̕ͅl̼̹̼̺͈. Raiya?" Felix said.

"What? Felix? I think the Paragon is causing an interference. Felix?"

There was a moment of what could have sounded like Felix's voice attempting a reply but the static was so great that the voice could not be discerned. And then a steady static overtook the voice comms. Raiya sighed and then removed the earpiece.

Turning back she asked, "Well, who wants to volunteer to go up there and get the Paragon?"

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

Raiya whistled a descending scale of amusement.

"First the slab, and now this? Color me impressed, Bookworm." Raiya headed through the passageway left of the middle passage. The darkness in front of her, made it impossible to see. So she flicked her wrist, turning her palm to face upwards and a blue bright ball of electrical mana danced in the air abover her palm, illuminating the passageway. The passage was a long thin hallway, that was just wide enough for one person to walk through at a time. She could see far enough ahead to know the hallway took a sharp and angular turn to the left.

She turned back to face the group, "Well, let's get going then," Raiya said, before venturing a bit deeper in to the passageway.

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

Really good job. I'm impressed that you took the initiative to progress without being told to. @ShiningSector

Edit: and I was just informed that you were told to by the Co-Gm. Still, good job

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

"Yes." Raiya concurred, "Sensibly, we know that Academia were the ones to place the Paragon in here, and this only happened within the last century. If they had wanted to, they could have used magic to conceal the wear on the ground. But on top of the trodden ground, there is also the mana crystal, which obviously has more power than the others." Raiya stretched her hands up behind her head, and interlocked her fingers as she thought.

"With those things together, we can pretty much so guarantee that the middle passage is a trap, it's much too sloppy to not be on purpose. But what about the one to the right? It's mana crystal has more power than the others. But..." Raiya sighed, "It's pretty likely the one to the right is a trap too. It's easy enough to transfer mana between crystals. To leave any mana in the crystals of any of the passageways would be counter intuitive. Unless you fueled all the crystals with the same amount. So, the one to the right of the middle one has to be a trap as well."

Raiya dropped her arms back down to her side and reached for her flask, but then remembered it was empty, and let out an even larger sigh than her last.

"Let's see... So that just leaves the last passage all the way to the right, and the first two on the left." Raiya explained.

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

"Well... What's important is that we continue on." Raiya said. Though, with the war she was waging in her own mind, the words she spoke had very little weight behind them.

She looked ahead at the multiple passage ways directly in front of her. The room they were in was comprised of the southern passage behind her, that lead into the room and was now closed off, and five passage ways to the north. The two walls to the east and west were completely barren, and everything was made out of the black mana crystal inlaid granite. The ground the ceiling, the walls, all made of the same substance the doors they had opened previously were.

Each passage way was lit with a mana crystal torch. Though, it was easy to see that some of the torches, the middle passageway's and the passageway directly to the right of it, were lit brighter than the others. Also, the ground in front of the middle passageway was sufficiently scuffed up, as if it had been the most popular route. None of the other passageways were as scuffed on the ground as the middle one.

"So, what do you guys think? Which one should we choose?" Raiya asked.

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

@ShiningSector Sorry for all the confusion. Hopefully everything is clarified now though.

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

As soon as Nemo placed his hand on her shoulder, she imagined all of her mana rushing out of her through his hand, her becoming a withered husk, dying while being assimilated into Nemo's mana pool. The thought made her flinch momentarily, and when she snapped out of it, she had realized she was still alive, and Nemo had extended his hand out for an abnormally long time to return the flask.

"Y-yeah. I hope so too..." Raiya replied hesitantly as she greedily snatched the flask back and placed it into her pocket.

With an absent mind, still lost in thought, she continued to walk forward, not noticing the corridor had shifted to the room with the multiple passages. As soon as she stepped into the room, her foot touched a plate on the ground triggering a trap.

Two large slabs of granite, one from the bottom and one from the top of the corridor, rushed together in an instant. Everyone except Artos had made it into the room with the multiple passages. Once the slabs came together, that was the end for Artos, and this was readily apparent. The small seem in the middle of the blocked way to the corridor oozed black blood, which dripped into a pool on the ground in front of the blocked path.

Raiya picked up the crystal inlay and placed it back in her ear.

"Uh- Felix-?" Raiya began.

"No- I know. Artos is dead. I felt his manadial blink off. He was the rearguard. The last one in the formation. It could have just as easily been anyone else. But he died doing his duty." Felix sighed.

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

Ok, well, not appreciative of the ignoring. Good intentions or not.

Weird that you want me to participate and not allow me to participate.

So I'm out. Cheers, guys.

@Zelosse

You don't get to just god mode yourself into a situation you aren't supposed to be a part of. It was clear the conversation was supposed to be between those two only and no one else could hear it, not even Felix. If that's considered ignoring, then sayonara and good riddance.