Raineh Daze

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Gisela

With the fight against the dolls going well, Gisela started to calm down. Of course, it was impossible to ignore that there was an unspeakably powerful mage with reality-warping abilities standing right there, but... she didn't seem too mad about what everyone else was doing. Or interested in exacting immediate violent retribution against the hundi for having the temerity of being an inferior magic user in her presence that was declining to assail her dolls.

And nobody was getting hurt, that was also a bonus.

So, leading her protector further towards the back--best to keep the medic out of danger when she wasn't in a position to cause massive explosions--the mage came across the small merchant on the ground. That was, err...

"Are you well? Injured?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

There was a brief pause where Tyaethe didn't move at all, too busy interpreting that description, before the paladin stabbed her sword into the ground and stood glowering at it, anger barely not verging into the visible. If the now-pacing paladin wasn't a visible enough sign of anger, the swearing probably was, although the rapid "Merde, merde, merde!" gave more away from the language.

Along with the promise to find whoever was stupid enough to conceal this and make sure they never saw daylight again. Not that this was all that helpful, even if one could understand Ithillane fully--or at least hazard a guess based on the similarity to Thaln--for working out what it was that was stolen. Tyaethe seemed to know, but she wasn't exactly explaining.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Akira

The small girl gave the dome-like barrier an aggrieved look. Now she was on the outside--or more importantly, Andrea was on the outside--along with the vehicle. And, notably, the seating. Which meant she couldn't just sit back and wait where it was comfortable and air-conditioned; she had to go in with the rest of them--at least so far as to cross inside herself--and risk being chewed up by anything that might get the drop on them all.

She knew summoners were an uncommon class and all, but they'd been working together for years, couldn't they work out a slightly better procedure than sending someone whose greatest personal asset was her baking skills into a danger zone? She wasn't going to be able to dissuade demons by offering them fresh cookies!

Cookies that were going to remain inside her incongruously militaristic backpack for the time being. No cookies for Ayako and Shiro until she got back.

With a sigh, Akira hopped out of the vehicle and took Andrea's hand, pulling the demon through the barrier and into the construction site. "You heard the instructions. Priority one is protecting anyone still alive for extraction, then occupy the major threat."

Her response was a nod, then sprinting ahead. Right, she would stick with the others, there was no reason for the summoned demon to show such a concern. She'd just heal off anything that happened and, being a summon, could be called back to Akira's position as needed.

After a few steps further into the construction site, the brunette turned and looked back at the new hires. "So, did either of you go to an Academy...? How much do you know about normal procedure?" Or, for that matter, general tactics. If this was their first deployment, then it really was important to not get in over their heads by taking on the potential Devil and letting the weaklings have free reign.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Akira

A potential Devil? Even if it was a weak one, and everyone else--especially with the new recruits to bump up their numbers a bit--was able to take it out as a group, there was no way that she was going to be able to go get lunch. The extra time it would take and the risk one of the Beasts would slip containment whilst they were distracted... Andrea would have to take part for certain. Keep the main threat occupied while everything else was cleaned up, then bring it down together? That would be the best way to handle it, in the small girl's mind, but who knew what the new employees would do. She could just suggest it, but the tall one seemed so angry...

Trailing along to the vehicle bay, the not-at-all-a-schoolgirl hopped into the back of the transport and carefully made sure to tighten her seatbelt. Everyone else here might have some sort of possession contract to reinforce themselves in the event of a collision, but she just had your usual, squishy human body without a hint of padding or protection. Well, the boss didn't have a possession, but the weapon contract was just as good, and the detection doll was probably fine.

The accompanying demon, naturally, had no such safety concerns, casually sitting arms-folded in the next available seat, looking out across the storage space impassively. Potentially starting an unwanted staring contest with whoever sat opposite.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Akira

"Do you know what the threat level is, Kubo?" Akira asked after a few moments to look at everyone filtering in. The redhead probably wouldn't know, she didn't know who that tall one was, and the new hire had literally just come in the front door... no chance that she would get an answer from that direction. "I can go get everyone lunch, if I'm not needed."

It wasn't that she didn't want to take part, although that was true--when it came down to it, Akira was a small girl whose best action in a combat situation was to stay out of the way. It was simply a matter of regulations: if the incursion could be handled safely without pulling in A-ranked contract, then she and Andrea were to stay put. Regardless of the contract, Andrea was a potential enemy who could only be strengthened by an easy time.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Akira

As usual, the office was brightly lit and welcoming, the various desks where work was to be done sporting shiny monitors and well-maintained equipment. Nothing of exceptional quality, but enough evidence that the department's staffing issues didn't extend to funding. If the occasional transfer was to be believed, it was nothing like one of the isolated groups out in Tohoku. Maybe those watching over Sendai got new stuff, but Akita Prefecture? A few years back, they'd finally got around to replacing some old CRT's, the whole prefecture had been quiet enough that their equipment seemed to have just slipped through the cracks.

Equally as usual, Akira wasn't to be found at one of the desks, her work up to date with no reports to fill and no training to be done--although with her specialisation, that mostly meant staying in shape and up-to-date on first aid requirements, nobody was expecting a summoner to get into the thick of things. She'd relocated to a nice set of colourful, cushioned chairs by one of the walls, ostensibly for the purposes of collaborative discussion rather than hanging over shoulders, and rearranged them into a makeshift couch, shoes kicked off and one leg propped on the other.

With headphones on and phone in hand, it gave every appearance that a schoolgirl had decided to play truant and visit, lounging around in the late-morning sunlight streaming through the bank of windows. A look that was only enhanced with the half-eaten stick of pocky hanging out of her mouth as the siren went off.

Not that Akira could hear it, instead sighing and finishing her snack off as the alarm came through to her phone, forcing her to close the game and swing her feet down. Couldn't it have been a bit later...? It was getting close to lunch. If there was one thing that was clear, it was that demons had no respect for the workday. Or for their free time, for what that was worth. At least it wasn't another case of an alarm going off while she was showering, those were the most awkward by far.

Headphones around her neck and once again ready to head out, the small girl ran through the ingrained ritual of the summon. She'd never really spoken much with others about what it was like to do this part, whether their contractee demanded something elaborate, a full magical girl chant, some piece of bespoke poetry, or even a token offering of rice or bread. But her summon was a demon, all too eager to come into the world for her own diabolical ends. Akira just needed to cast her mind back to that afternoon, the feeling of energy crackling on the air and the fabric of space shuddering around, and speak a single word--

"Andrea."

The first part of everyone's summon was always the same, a steady circle of light. Only after did it change, and the brunette had often wondered what determined the effects. Was it a conscious choice on the part of the summon? Was it a reflection of the nature of what they were summoning? Or some interplay between the contractor and the contractee? If the latter, she could only wonder how much that said about her as opposed to Andrea.

The light pulsed. Darkened. Sunk to a deep purple so faded it was almost a shadow on the floor, purplish light overwhelming the surrounding sunlight. The very air within the circle started to visibly crack, going glassy and all too solid--and then it stopped, dropping back to a steady white glow, the demon within appearing with no more fanfare than a slight woosh of displaced air.

The white-haired monstrosity only raised an eyebrow in greeting, then fell silently in behind Akira--easily visible, her summoner didn't even come up to the demon's shoulders--as she led the way to the open atrium on the bottom floor to assemble with the others, and find out if she was even going to be attending to this incident. If it was minor enough, there was no way the DDF would authorise basically giving Andrea a free meal, and so she could go back upstairs and back to her farming, get some lunch and then whittle away the next few hours grinding away unit upgrades--

But, more likely, she would have to go out and watch the carnage, since you couldn't just send a summon out on its own. Help anyone that was still around get to safety, and pretend to not be associated with the looming figure that would surely just as soon eat them as be a protector.

Hm, the redhead was already there. Hopefully this wouldn't turn into small talk...

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

The reinforcements filing out were... interesting. Very interesting. Oh, the one who obviously wasn't in some sort of armour, and carrying a parasol, had to be some sort of mage, but that didn't particularly matter, it wasn't like mages were some exotic rarity. Much more interesting was the pale one, for reasons that nobody else would be able to tell from this distance: she had no pulse. Where everybody else was detectable off that alone, someone walking and talking without it... oh, if they had time, she'd have needed to investigate. A name and mercenary band to go on the list once they were done, see if anybody else could vouch for her; Tyaethe herself was evidence that undeath and its ilk wasn't a death sentence, but some of the methods used were.

She still found the half-giant more interesting, though. Who made a full suit of plate that big? How expensive was it? How could you possibly afford that on a mercenary's pay, no matter how good your group was? Could she sit on his shoulder? How much fun would it be to fight someone like that, with all the size and strength that her speciality was relevant, but the equipment and bearing of a soldier?

Quite an impressive group, all things considered, but not an insurmountable one.

With Lein now moving over conspiratorially--or something of the like, the point was she could hear whispering from up here, if not the details--and nobody having stated what was going on for apparently being self-evident, the vampire jumped off of her perch, landing quietly behind the hundi.

For all of ten seconds.

"We are not framing the mercenaries. Do you know how many oaths to uphold the law and protect the innocent I've sworn? I would be testifying in their defence," Tyaethe drawled, pausing for a second, "Now, can someone tell me what happened?"

With the captain quickly bringing her up to speed--and saving the need for her to go stick her face up against every corpse to make out the details--the vampire fell momentarily silent. No, this didn't speak of some sort of magical spell, somebody would have resisted or reacted unexpectedly. A violent bloodbath like this would have to be something much worse than a caster could conjure up. A grand ritual might be able to do it, but there was again no motive for something like that--if you could drive an entire fortress into a frenzy, you could achieve your aim of stealing something with a lot less difficulty and a lot more subtlety. This seemed like it involved whatever object the mercenary group was after... and whatever that was, it was enormously powerful and got past your defences somehow.

"Before we start looking, you tell us everything you know about this item. If it's still here, we don't need a repeat of this," Tyaethe stated, looking at Alette and gesturing around, "Because you left something out and we set off another massacre."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

The vampire kicked her feet against the stonework, letting out a giggle at the segue into discussing their hair of all things. Not that she had any room to talk, if anyone was ever going to be condemned for fighting with truly impractical hair... although, if she was going to play it safe, it would all be buried beneath armour anyway, so maybe she did have room to speak. Although the hair thing was entirely coincidental as a result of how it worked...

So, this girl was a mercenary of some description? Someone had paid for her to come out here, and she had arrived before them... which meant someone had an idea what was going on before the last guard managed to drag his body over to Aimlenn.

The obvious guess would have been that the mercenaries were responsible for the destruction of the fort garrison but that seemed completely random. Who stood to gain anything by getting one of the fort garrisons violently cleared out? It wouldn't be hard to replace them, just clean up the bodies and wash away the blood; the crown could have it garrisoned again by the end of the week. It wouldn't be any good for smuggling, since that wasn't even the point of the various forts surrounding the city. Nor could it be because a noble wanted to disguise troop movements long enough to siege the city proper--that was the sort of thing that had been done before, but if it was the case, it would already be blatantly apparent, since the window of opportunity was so small.

That would mean whoever hired the mercenary knew why the garrison had been wiped out, before it had ever happened. They knew that something was going to happen to the garrison and... didn't warn them? That didn't make much sense, if you were going to do something to stop all of the slaughter, it should have been easy to send a message ahead so the garrison was at least prepared and didn't leave the gates handily open to welcome their own killer. If the goal was to prevent the garrison from being destroyed by persons unknown, then the mercenaries would have already left as their job was over.

That also still meant that someone would have wanted to kill everyone in this unremarkable fort, and the way the bodies were arranged had none of the hallmarks of the sort of dark magic that would take advantage of a thing like that. You could even rule out something like one of the most monstrous vampires going on a hunger-induced rampage--they or other monsters would have left a lot less blood and discernible corpses strewn around.

But the mercenaries were still hanging around when they got there--and, unless it was a band of one, the rest must be inside the fort. If they were looking around inside, they had to expect to find something, didn't they? So either their employer was simply taking advantage of an expected apparently-pointless massacre to engage in some petty robbery that couldn't possibly cover the cost of employing a mercenary band in the first place or the destruction of the fort's garrison was just some other sign of what they were really here for. Since their employer hadn't seen fit to send a warning or tell anybody else and the band was still looking around, either they really didn't want anybody else to know what was going on and beat them in an unknown race, or... this was an accident? Maybe both, if the mysterious employer had thought the warning an unnecessary compromise of secrecy over a maybe.

"Sharky, what are you looking for?"

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Kind of wondering, what sort of take on Azazel is this meant to be? Like, what is he?

Mahz's Dev Journal

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@LegendBegins

I think that's already been added?