Prodigal Son

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

Felix pondered for a moment before shaking his head.

"I don't think your rune was a failure at all. In fact, I think the unexpected way that it has functioned is a miracle." Felix replied, "I think the rune should be kept as is. We should, however, focus on an ability to restore ley lines that have been severed, if such a thing is possible. Having a dud paragon works very well for our cause. However, if in an event, for whatever reason, we NEED the paragons, we would need a way to restore the ley lines. And I think that is what your next project should be focused on." Felix finished with a pat on Travis's shoulder.

"Don't beat yourself up, you've done a great job in the little time that you have had."

---

Raiya cocked her right eyebrow in an expression of disbelief.

"Uh, you're not serious are you?" Raiya scoffed, "Combination magic can only be used by people who are close to one another, who synergize with one another. Trying something like that without a real relationship or mutual personal understanding could seriously hurt both of us."

Raiya remembered back to her Vatican days, learning about combination magic and the idea of intertwining two people's aura's for one spell. She had never actually done it, but she understood the concept quite well.

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

Raiya looked skeptically at Nemo. She pursed her lips and then let out a puff of exasperated air.

"Well, if you ever run into any more sacred Japanese swords, let me know." Raiya replied before retrieving her own sword and sending it to back to her manainventory in a burst of purple electricity.

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

@ShiningSector

Going to need you to post soon.

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

Felix placed his hand under his chin as he watched the whole spectacle with critical examination. After the whole thing was finished, Travis commented on the process and the comment seemed rhetorical, but Felix extrapolated upon it regardless.

"The violent nature of the paragon suppression is to be expected actually. I was watching the whole thing with manalysis activated. The rune you expertly crafted didn't just simply suppress the Paragon. It quite literally severed the paragon's ley lines, completely cutting the Paragon off from any ethereal interaction." Felix rubbed his chin for a moment, "That... might be a problem." he mumbled under his breath.

Felix took out a piece of parchment and began scrawling a massive numerical equation upon it, upon finishing his writing he paused a moment.

"I have never seen ley lines severed before. In order for an aura to interact with another aura, ley lines are formed bridging the gap between auras. Before mana becomes an aura, it is simply mana energy. Raw mana energy is filtered through our mana wells and then converts into aura mana energy. Er... I suppose filtered isn't the right word. Quite the opposite actually, pure mana energy is diluted in our mana wells. Exactly why this happens is up for debate, but in the Arcanocracy we came to a consensus that it is our souls or our individual spiritual essence that comes in contact with the pure mana energy and then becomes infused and diluted. Pure mana energy needs no ley lines to interact with itself, because pure mana energy is the same substance as... well... itself! In order for an aura to interact with another aura, however, ley lines are established. This isn't something done consciously, rather it is an automatic reaction between two auras. The reason why the reaction was so violent is because Espial's aura was passively interacting with our auras. Which is fine..." Felix explained, "Aura's in close proximity to each other passively interact, it is natural, mana is attracted to other mana regardless of how many additives are mixed in with it. But if the ley lines are severed, that might mean..." Felix paused. He took his glasses off, closing them and placing them down to the left of the parchment in front of him. He closed his eyes and rubbed them in a gesture of deep thought.

"If the ley lines are severed that means the Paragons will become unusable by another aura. The means in-which to interface with the paragon have also been severed." Felix opened the chest and carefully extracted the paragon. With his manalysis he could tell his aura and the aura of the paragon were not interacting at all, but rather it almost seemed like they were repelling each other.

He placed the paragon back down into the compartment and closed the chest. "On one hand, this means the paragons do not need to stay in the chest to be in close proximity to one another. On the other hand, it also means interfacing with the paragons will be impossible until we figure out a way to fix it." Felix explained, "As I've said before, I've never seen ley lines severed before. A ley line isn't something that I thought would even conceptually be sever-able. Who knows, it might just be time sensitive and the paragon without the rune would just naturally reestablish its ability to create ley lines?"

Felix retrieved his glasses and replaced them upon his face. "But that rune! Imagine the applications! Once we figure out how to reestablish ley lines, that rune could be used on a person to prevent them from being psychically tampered with, it could prevent illusions, and every manner of curse in existence!" Felix raised his hands in a grandiose excited manner, "Although," Felix placed his hand back under his chin resuming a state of deep thinking, "someone with this rune on them wouldn't just be immune to curses, they'd be immune to blessings too. A person with this rune wouldn't be able to be healed by other auras or given bolstered strength or any sort of blessing..." Felix resumed his normal composure and shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, needless to say, I think it would be best if we did not put any other paragons into this box before we have figured out this ley line conundrum." Felix finished.

---

Raiya gasped, she unconsciously reached her right hand up to her mouth in disbelief.

"How in the blazing hellfire of hades did you get your hands an a Muramasa!?" Raiya exclaimed.

Muramasa's work was one of a kind, ancient, and definitely cursed. Regardless of the curse though, it was said that Muramasa's work was some of the best if not the ultimate best work in terms of tachi smithing rivaled only by Masamune. She'd never seen one of these blades in person, but she knew the Yakuza had at least one in their posession, and it was not ever wielded by anyone, but kept sealed in a box locked away in a vault. The fact that Nemo was in possession of one was frightening to say the least.

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

Felix beamed, "I thought you'd never ask!" Felix flicked his wrist and a medium sized wooden chest appeared in his arms in a flurry of blue flame.

"I whipped up a little something over the past few days. Wood working can be a quite soothing break from studying." Felix said.

He set down the lacquered cherry wood box on the table in the center of the room. He opened the perfectly square box to reveal three rows of three column compartments for a total of nine compartments. Each compartment had its own functioning hatch.

Felix retrieved the Paragon of Espiel from its current container and transferred it to the first compartment of the chest and closed the hatch to the compartment. Then he closed the chest and burned a simple encoded seal rune on the face of the chest with his finger.

"The seal rune will keep it the chest locked to anyone other than us two. While I don't necessarily mistrust anyone on the team, taking precautions against unknown variables seems like a good idea to me." Felix scratched the back of his head and gave a smiling glance to Travis, "...And while you are an unknown variable... Not to sound rude or anything... But I think you pose the least amount of a threat." Felix laughed nervously. Being upfront and genuine was a trait that Felix was famous for, but sometimes his honesty was a bit brutal.

"Annnnywayy..." Felix's verbal elongation and inflection seemed to suggest he wanted to change the subject, "The top of the chest is pretty much a flawless surface, so it is primed and ready for your rune."

---

Raiya flicked her wrist and manifested her katana in a burst of purple electricity. She set it on the table in full view of Nemo. The ornate katana had a black scabbard, a blue and yellow cord that wrapped neatly around the scabbard, the hand guard and end cap were both black, a gold metal snake ornament rested on top of white snake skin and underneath blue silk hand grip. The hand guard was a black steel square that was a quarter of an inch thick with a snake coiled in the middle of the square adding the substance needed to connect the square to the handle. A small knife was tucked into the a small wooden lip almost like a pocket on the scabbard, its snake pattern handle was the only part of the small knife that was visible.

"Oh, this old thing?" Raiya commented nonchalantly, "It was custom made for me by the Yakuza as per my own design. Their blacksmith is a great craftsmen, he followed my specifications to the smallest detail." Raiya replied, "Though, I do have quite a large collection of ancient Japanese weaponry back at my loft. I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to ancient Japanese culture."

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

Nemo's overtly cautious nature when it came to Raiya's well being irritated her a bit. She grit her teeth and balled her fists, the tuft of hair on the top of her head stood up angrily as electricity coursed through her body.

"Even if God Himself stood to oppose me, I would strike Him down. I have learned a thing or two about slaying gods. It's really too bad that we were cordoned off during our battle with Thadeus, or you might have caught a glimpse of my god slaying power yourself." Raiya explained in a slightly irritated voice.

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

Felix walked with Travis to the lab, and as they walked Felix said, "Well, what do you propose we do? I suppose creating a container of some sort with the rune inscribed on the container would be the best approach. Though, I'd like to hear your ideas on how to install the rune." Felix finished as the stopped in the middle of the lab.

---

Raiya cocked her eyebrow at the western outlaw reference, and rolled her eyes at the handicap idea. She spent most of her life in the Vatican, and after that she was steeped in eastern culture. She knew next to nothing about western history and historical figures.

"I'll be wearing my standard outfit, I could care less what you wear. And technically wouldn't this mission be more dangerous than your little recon mission? I mean we know next to nothing about the people we are going up against even less about the paragon and what lies beyond that stormwall." Raiya didn't buy for a second that he didn't want her with him on the recon mission because he couldn't, "protect" her. The more she thought about it the more she wondered what he was hiding.

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

Raiya approached Nemo's door, giving it a soft knock before opening it. He was tinkering with his gun, so Raiya strode in and sat down on a comfortable chair in the corner of the room. She crossed her legs and her arms and tapped her right forefinger on her left forearm.

"So, I trust that I am going to be coming on this one?" She sounded a bit annoyed, as if holding onto some resentment of the fact that she wasn't able to assist with the gathering of the initial information.

---

Felix stood nodded to Nemo's no-doubt rhetorical request. After Nemo left the room, Felix looked at Travis and said, "How can I be of assistance?"

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

Felix smiled, "Sounds like you have this all planned out. I'll leave it all up to you then." Felix replied, "You can lead this mission, and I'll leave all of the decisions up to you. I'll, of course, surveil on my end as much as possible, though I'm sure comms will be down as soon as you pass through the storm to the paragon." Felix explained

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

"That's all very well good and all but what do we do about the fact that they are no doubt high level mages and would probably have the ship warded out the ying-yang? Are we supposed to just wing it and hope for the best? Or do we have an actual plan to board this ship undetected and stay undetected?" Raiya explained her legs and arms both crossed.

---

"There are ways to go about getting past ward for sure. A few ways actually. One way involves finding out where exactly the enchantment is cast and defusing the runic spell. Another way involves jumping directly into the warded area, bypassing the wards entirely. The other way would involve finding a few of the members who have been through the wards, and deciphering their enchantment auras that gain them entry through the wards. With the first, though, the mage who cast the ward would know right away his ward was dispelled, so if stealth is the key. I would recommend going with one of the other options." Felix explained.