VitaVitaAR

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Steel flashed. The blessed weapons that had been taken from the tomb of Fleuri's forefathers proved especially destructive, undead crumpling, burning with each strike. Even glancing blows were proven effective, their decrepit flesh burning away, bodies collapsing. Unlike the fires of simply enchanted weapons, the divine solar flames of Reon-blessed weaponry were red-gold in color, and made short work of the undead they fell upon.

The own blade finely-crafted but lacking such enhancements, Fanilly stuck to aiming for the head, hewing it from the shoulders of another undead. The head, the limbs, those were the best targets to strike on an undead without the advantage of a blessed weapon.

And it seemed her knights were well aware of this fact. However, the orders one of her very own knights had issued... had she made a mistake in not being more explicit? She had assumed such enemies, as foul as the were, would be best dealt with by allowing the knights to perform their work swiftly and without much interference. But was that the wrong approach?

The legs cut out from one undead, and then its head slice from its neck.

It was among the last that fell in the entrance chamber to the mausoleum.

Fanilly inhaled deeply, straightening as she regarded the aftermath of the battle. The corpses were dry, those that were not burning away into ash didn't shed any blood.

"There is surely much worse awaiting us below," she began, looking back over her shoulder towards the others as she began to approach the stairs, "Not to mention the conspirators themselves. While they're outnumbered, a necromancer and a lightning witch are-"

The gleam of silver light suddenly exploded from the darkness ahead of her. It was only in the scant seconds that Fanilly found herself even aware of the incoming blow, only notified by the sound of rattling plate armor, that she was able to throw herself just out of the range of the glowing axe as it slammed to the stone floor below.

Hitting the ground a meter away, she stumbled back to her feet just in time to witness the edge of the axe blow brilliantly and explode, obliterating the stone beneath it and leaving behind a smoking crater.

The axe raised from the floor, its handled gripped in two armored hands, alight with runic inscriptions.

The weapon was wielded by a tall, broad figure, clad head to toe in elaborately-carved, rune-inscribed plate armor. The carvings were unlike those Fanilly was familiar with. Some were horned, grimacing faces, others ghoulish beasts.

A long beard hung from a shadowed face beneath the helmet.

So this was one of the conspirators.

"Iron Roses," even as her heart hammered in her chest, the man taking one step forward, Fanilly had to keep their mission in mind, "Keep him preoccupied, prevent him from barring the way forward. I will take the remainder of our forces deeper into the mausoleum."

She had to remain calm. To think clearly. If they wanted to end this, to cut the enemy down here, and to save the hostage, they couldn't allow themselves to be caught up here.

They outnumbered him, but the enchanted nature of his equipment was obvious. Still, he was only one man.

And they had to push deeper!

@Creative Chaos@Rune_Alchemist@Saiyan@Crimson Paladin@Psychic Loser@VahkiDane@HereComesTheSnow

---

Elisandre's voice, when she spoke, was filled with relief. It was clear she was desperate to find something normal, something commonplace, to talk about.

"Ah, well, y-you see," she began, taking a deep breath, "Sir Arsene might not have seemed very important in some ways, but I think he got so much focus because of the hundi reverence for the concept of the Knight Errant. Besides, he did play a big part in helping when Brigitte and Chantilly got attacked by Rozenalt and the Redmarch Knights outside of Hervard's Glen, and I loved his relationship with young Lord Regis!

Her attention shifted to Sir Fionn.

"I'd definitely recommend it!"

While her grip on the book still seemed somewhat tighter then it should have needed to be, at the same time the First Princess was speaking quite freely. It seemed talking about literature was a passionate subject for her, and thus would serve as an effective distraction. Fireheart was a standalone novel, of course, but characters such as Bloody Lord Rozenalt and the Redmarch Knights were popular antagonists who appeared frequently in folklore and myth. The same could be said of the Midnight Hunt, or the mysterious Wyzal.

When what appeared to be another child sat down in front of her, Princess Maletha shifted awkwardly, still holding the plush dragon tightly for a few moments before deciding to speak.

"Um, it's... h-he's... he's Thrinax," she said, after a few moments, nestling her chin against the stuffed dragon's head, "Like the one from the story with P-Prince Erion."

Prince Erion, the Last Prince of Talderia, was another figure often mythologized. Some stories, such as the founding of the Erion Knights and their Fortresses of Caron Lyn and Erhan Lyn outside the Black Pit, were definitely true. Others were less likely to be so. The truth of his friendship with the prideful Thrinax was difficult to verify, but a dragon with that name did once exist, and possibly still did somewhere in the world.

Given the dragon's noble heart beneath his arrogant exterior, perhaps there was no surprise the shy Second Princess would name her plush toy after him.

"U-um, do you have any friends like Thrinax...?"

@Psyker Landshark@Raineh Daze@The Otter

The Storm Cycle: Reclamation

For a few moments, Fio said nothing.

Of course she was a little concerned about the Queen's absence, but given how tired she was and what she'd just experience, the chief emotion she was now experiencing was annoyance above all else.

Well, if she wasn't going to be here, then she could hardly complain when Fio marched over to the bed, grabbed one of her pillows, and say down, angrily hugging it against her chest.

"Hmph," she let out a huff, her feet kicking back and forth irritably, "I go through all that effort and collect information we probably wouldn't have gotten any other way, and she can't even be here to hear it? That's not very royal behavior at all."

Struggling in the mud and dealing with Cethlann's attitude, and now she couldn't even divulge her findings until Sorcha decided she felt like staying around?

The pillow was squeezed tighter, Fio's feet kicking faster with her irritation.

Of course. Of course she had to leave. At this point the Sword Witch was certain that the queen was completely fine, but now of all times, when she was this tired, when she was this annoyed, when she had to finish up dealing with all that, she couldn't even share what she'd worked so hard to earn.

"Hmph."

@Rune_Alchemist

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

The humans were frightened. Not just of the beasts, but of their saviors as well.

Aleksiya sighed heavily, her small shoulders sagging. She supposed that she couldn't entirely blame them, given they'd likely never seen anything like this before.

Still, she was far more suited to praise then fear, even if being feared as still entertaining.

"If you make your way back up the tunnel, your people are waiting for you," she said, addressing the villagers for a moment, "Please do hurry, I'm sure there are many who would be glad to see you safe."

She gave a smile to the youngest of them, though she was sure their eyes were hidden. She enjoyed holding sway over others, certainly, but the moment called for a gentler touch.

With that, the diminutive vampire proceeded down the tunnel after her allies.

Beasts. Gruesome, unpleasant, murderous beasts.

Vile, stinking, uncouth monsters.

From where did they come from? Ideally, they would discover that soon enough and be able to strike a far greater blow then this against the filthy creatures.

For the moment...

The sight of the dead villagers was dismaying, but at least Dragan offered them a chance at posthumous revenge.

"There's far too much garbage here, isn't there?" she commented idly, as the temperature of the air around her dropped, a cold mist forming seemingly spontaneously as she directed her power. Several spheres of ice formed, their shapes perfectly circular, each as big as a grown man's fist. When they were finished, there were four in total.

The beasts wouldn't be able to see this coming, not when they were so distracted.

Smirking, her tongue protruding from her lips in a playful fashion, the small blonde girl pointed as the balls of ice suddenly began to spin rapidly in place, so swiftly that their surfaces became a blur of blue-white.

Then they were unleashed, ripping through the air so swiftly they could barely be seen, targeting heads and torsos of the nearest of their abominable foes.

@Rune_Alchemist@Psyker Landshark@Asuras

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

The moment of utter confusion was briefly derailed when Noctis awakened. In spite of the situation, Anne couldn't deny her sense of relief that the young man who was her friend, regardless of her previous life, looked like he was going to be okay. Still, he hadn't fainted in the game, and nothing had happened to him that could have caused it as far as she could tell. So had something else happened that she didn't know about? Everyone did have lives of their own outside of the game's screentime, after all, so did that have something to do with it?

"Er, are you sure you're okay, Noctis?" she asked, hesitatingly, after a moment, "Suddenly fainting out of no-where isn't really... normal..."

And that wasn't the only thing that wasn't normal.

Anne definitely didn't remember Serrica acting like this, or making any of these offers.

"W-work for? I-eh? Eeeeeeh?"

It was a lot to take in all at once. There definitely wasn't an event like this in the game, no matter what you did! What the hell?

It wasn't enough that she got that close and whispered in her ear, it was everything else too.

"E-er, I d-don't really know what you're talking about, um..." Anne trailed off with weak, nervous bit of laughter, scratching the back of her head.

At this point it was all she could really do.

@MagusDream@Pyromania99@PKMNB0Y

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

The Iron Roses had to move, and they had to move quickly. The cemetary, thankfully, not as far as it could have been had the conspirators choosen a different spot to lurk within. There were two in Aimlenn, the other was further south and typically housed more common folk or those who achieved their status with business, while knights and other nobles were most often interred in this location.

It made it all the more curious that they were able to make their hideout here of all places.

The elaborate gravestones, some depicting Mayon reaching down towards the grave of the dead, a few similarly constructed, but with Reon instead. Others showed family symbols, or conveyed what the dead interred there had done in life. Some were simple, wishing the deceased a good afterlife, and many were adorned with images of Lamplighters and other divine spirits in service of the Goddesses. There were lanterns, flower offerings on many graves, both to help guide the dead to the afterlife and to offer the favored blooms of the goddesses to help ensure the dead made it there.

And then there were the mausoleums. They stood larger then the other graves, and what was visible was only a small component. They stretched underground as well, holding generations of dead. Fanilly admitted, privately, that she found being in a graveyard at night rather disconcerting, but she couldn't show such a thing.

She was Captain of the Iron Rose Knights. Something like this couldn't make her falter.

The Cazt Family's tomb was rather easily-recognized. Above the door was the eight-point star, a symbol of the Cazt family's pride in their martial, magical, and military heritage. As Fanilly knew, each point symbolized something more specific, but she had never learned what. Veilena had refused to allow her father to be interred there, and had stripped him posthumously of his status as a member of their family.

The tomb looked unguarded, from the outside. But gods knew what was going on down there.

Fanilly turned back to the others.

"Our enemies are undead," she began, "They will be less coordinated, but also unable to feel pain. Strike without mercy, cut them down and free them from their wretched enslavement."

The idea of using necromancy to manipulate the bodies of the dead was an abominable thought to Fanilly. Slavery was an abomination, but to reach beyond death and use the bodies of the deceased, disturbing their rest...

The Necromancer would answer for his crimes, one way or another.

But more importantly then that...

"The hostage, if she's still alive, must be rescued," she continued, "Her sister may have attempted an assassination, but she is a victim of a cruel and strange plot. We are the Iron Rose Knights, and we fight for the sake of the crown and for those in need. It is our duty."

Their strategy was admittedly simple. Provided the information still held water, they would cut through the undead, and kill or capture any of the living conspirators that they could.

Now they came to the unguarded doors of the mausoleum.

Next...

It took some effort, but forcing them open did not prove to be impossible.

Immediately a figure clad it tarnished, thin armor lunged for them. It was thin, desiccated, its skin peeling in some places to show bone beneath, its jaw hanging open and gnashing as it raised a jagged blade-

And fell backwards, head taken off in a single swing of Fanilly's blade, the edge cutting through the night air. Its flesh was dry and decayed, but the armor would still be able to put up some resistance if the other walking corpses still possessed any.

Indeed, beyond the doorway, a dozen or so shambling, animated bodies turned to face the knights already. Their empty sockets were alight with an eerie purple glow as they raised swords, spears, axes, and shields.

"Iron Rose Knights! If you can't cut off the head, aim for the arms and legs to disable!" declared Fanilly, "Then cut them all down!"

There was no opportunity to be subtle here.

@Creative Chaos@Rune_Alchemist@Saiyan@Crimson Paladin@Psychic Loser@VahkiDane@HereComesTheSnow

---

As three of the Throne Knights, including Sir Adeforth himself accompanied the Princess and the Roses who had chosen to stay behind to defend her headed into the back halls and up the stairways, it was as if they were taking a stroll into history. Portraits of notable figures, and of course the royal family, lined the walls.

One in particular stood at the end of the hall. It was by far one of the largest paintings, depicting a rather striking sight. The first was a scene that every adherent of the goddesses would know. The towering, black knight, a crown of spines rising from his helmet and clutching an enormous sword . A single, ethereal-seeming young woman in armor, clutching a silvery blade. Both of them on a rock jutting high above a plain. The battle raging below.

The Duel between Saint Lilianna and Orodrunn was the end of the war between all peoples of creation and the forces of the second dark lord. She had in the end miraculously shattered the black blade, Angroron, and pierced his armor to slay him. It was a scene familiar to all those who worshipped the Goddesses.

There was a single blank spot on the wall among the portraits of members of the royal family.

Prince Meren, still clad in his gleaming, royal-seeming armor, had butchered his mother, father, and his brothers by surprise in the night, all save his younger sister, whom he had become obsessed with. Elionne challenged him to battle, In a bout of furious combat after which Meren believed 'he would make his sister his own', Elionne slew the mad Prince by piercing his heart, and the Royal line survived through his younger sister.

The reviled madman's portrait had been removed from the walls and burned long ago.

Elisandre turned to the left, and soon enough they reached her room. Within, it was rather lavish, with a four-poster bed laden with pillows and blankets, a large bookcase full of various volumes, a desk, a body-length mirror, a nightstand, and even access to a balcony. The glass and steel doors leading to the balcony were shut.

Sir Adeforth leaned against a wall, as the other two Crown Knights took positions outside of the Princess's bedroom. He did not need to speak of their failures any longer.

Elisandre, desperate for some form of normal conversation, headed to the bookcase and took a red-bound novel from a shelf.

"S-so, have any of you read Fireheart?"

It was a hundi-written novel, about a young hundi on her coming of age journey. It had become quite popular in recent years.

Maletha, meanwhile, had found her way to the bed and sat down, her arms wrapped around a large plush dragon as she remained staring at the floor.

@Psyker Landshark@Raineh Daze@The Otter

Strange Gospel: A Heavily Persona-Inspired Urban Fantasy RP

@UnWorthy28: Going to be frank and say this simply doesn't work at all. The name is Ancient Greek, which I guess isn't impossible for someone to use but is questionable to say the least, his appearance and personality are completely inadequate. "Convincing people why he shouldn't be sacrificed" isn't a skill and I'm confused why it's even there.

His Echo is described by an excerpt from a poem and its abilities are also not really described. Sure it can fly and has fire, but what can it do with its fire? How powerful are its flames? Does it fire them out? Does it just have a fire aura?

The backstory is not long enough to explain anything and is confusing to say the least. He was in a cult? "Deity of the Earth"? How did he get to Japan? How did he even enroll in a school if he didn't exist legally?

This just doesn't work.

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Tch.

Uncouth, unpleasant beasts. She had assumed as much from the manner in which the townsfolk spoke, but to actually see them right before her eyes was another experience entirely.

Aleksiya could even detect a rather unpleasant odor.

It was best to be rid of the abominable things as quickly as possible, particularly the one that was directly endangering one of her peers. The former paladin wore armor, but the Lady Emeraltide could have suffered a much more unpleasant(though hardly existence-threatening) experience.

The crystalline spear of ice twisted in the air, spinning rapidly as red light surrounded it, Aleksiya suffusing it with power as the beast tried to throw itself down on Lady Emeraltide.

"Unsightly."

With that, the spear was sent hurtling through the air, tearing directly for the creature's head. Without pause, she formed another spear from the air, the glistening ice gleaming before it was sent to join its fellow.

@Psyker Landshark@Asuras@Rune_Alchemist

Strange Gospel: A Heavily Persona-Inspired Urban Fantasy RP

It was a throbbing, unpleasant sound.

The thudding rhythm not unlike that of a heartbeat. It wasn't exactly heard so much as it was felt, reverberating through each of their bodies.

But it wasn't their own. It seemed to come from the very air around the, the ground beneath their feet.

As the sun began to sink lower, drifting further towards the horizon, and the shadows grew longer, something felt strange to them. Unnatural.

It felt as if they were steadily going out of synch with the world around them.

And then they could see it. The entire world froze.

Every single person around them stopped moving.

The breeze died.

Every sound ceased.

They could still move, but they were seemingly alone in their ability to do so.

And then every single person was gone.

The scenery remained, but it was empty. The sun was gone, as well, an enormous moon seeming to dominate the sky, which was otherwise without a single star.

If they were to look down, they would discover the ground beneath them was red. Further observation would lead to a far more unpleasant discovery.

There was blood, everywhere. The concrete beneath their feet was coated in it. Walls, buildings, splatters of what could only be blood adorned most surfaces. It stood out even more against the pitch black of the buildings, who had lost all their identifying features. Even the shadows seemed strange, almost purple on coloration.

The heartbeat sound had only grown louder.

And then it would be hard not to look. Somehow, some way, their eyes would be drawn to it.

A great, looming spire, a jagged shape jutting above all other structures in the city, like a spear thrust towards the moon.

There was a shuffling, wet sound behind them, and-

They were back.

As if nothing had happened, the world was suddenly back to normal. People were still around. There was light and life aside from themselves again.

Even the tower was gone.

@AThousandCurses@Bartimaeus@hatakekuro@Pitsuji@Psyker Landshark@DarckLeon

I Reincarnated into the World of an Otome Game, But———?! (Now Accepting)

"A-ah, er, he fainted, suddenly..."

Of course. Of course this was a situation where one of the game's love interests walked right in immediately after the other walked out. Why wouldn't her?

Through her frustration, Anne couldn't help but note to herself that there really wasn't any reason why he wouldn't. This was, after all, where he volunteered. It stood to reason that he'd walk in at some point. But regardless of that, it was still extremely inconvenient for her! This placed her in far too dangerous of a situation, accidentally triggering a flag of some kind would be way too easy! She already had the Crown Prince wanting to talk to her again, which was a difficult request to turn down in a society like this. The last thing she needed was to immediately trigger another flag...

Which is why she almost audibly sighed in relief when a clear route of escape came. Now that there were people to care for her friend, she didn't have to stick around. And this was Serrica, wasn't she? It was hard not to recognize her given she was usually the heroine's friend in most routes.

"S-since you're here with the nurse, I feel comfortable leaving hi-eh? Cute? Eh?"

Wait, what?

@PKMNB0Y@Pyromania99

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

It didn't make very much sense at all. Why would the note be on the Nem girl in the first place during the assassination? But at the same time, her behavior alone lended credence to the idea she was telling the truth. Certainly, Fanilly wanted to believe it. And if it were true, that meant that they likely didn't have very much time to ensure that they would be able to save the girl's sister.

The expression on the would-be assassin, Tyli's, face was one of resignation. A morose and downcast gaze, as if she hardly expected this to work in the first place. Indeed, she was asking knights who served the crown to help her sister, after she had attempted the assassination of a Princess.

However.

The Iron Rose Knights were knights of justice.

And even in this situation, wickedness could not be allowed to persist as long as they had the ability to do something about it.

The Knight-Captain took a deep breath.

"If we're going to save her, and put an end to this conspiracy, you must tell us everything you know," said Fanilly.

The nem's eyes widened for only a moment, before she immediately set about writing. Her script was somewhat more shaky now, but still legible.

The graveyard. Large tomb with a star heraldry

Fanilly paused for a moment. Was that...?

"They're in the Cazt Mausoleum?" she asked aloud.

Almost immediately a small figure pushed her way to the front of the crowds. When the huge black knight noticed her, they swiftly joined her side.

"What?"

It was Veilena Cazt. She'd lingered past the other nobles, and heard much of the conversation as a result.

"If there's a crowd of traitorous bastards in my family's tomb, I refuse to simply stand by and allow them to defile it with their mere presence," she angrily asserted.

But Tyli wasn't done writing.

Necromancer leads them with many undead. Two warriors, one is very large. A mage woman. There's another man, but I haven't seen his weapons. Fyna is at the bottom

Fanilly didn't need to say any of it out loud this time, as Veilena had already read the message.

"Necromancer!? That's... Knight-Captain, I demand to accompany you to snuff out these criminals. I may not be able to fight, but Haelstadt shall gladly cut them down in the name of my ancestors' rest."

Fanilly hesitated a moment. Of course, she could understand the Cazt girl's anger. More then that, she had to wonder how a conspiracy like this had even gotten there in the first place. But at the same time, endangering her life for such a purpose...

"... Sir Fionn, speak to Sir Adeforth, obtain whatever arms we made need," Fanilly began. Her sword had been brought along with her, but the same could not be said for the others, "We will slay these monsters where they hide."

She hesitated again before addressing the fuming Cazt heir.

"... I'm sorry, Lady Cazt, but for the sake of your safety I believe it's best you remain here, with your bodyguard at your side."

She braced herself for an angry response as Veilena opened her mouth.

"That's-..."

To her surprise, the smaller girl trailed off after a few moments, glancing at Haelstadt before clearing her throat.

"Fine."

The frustration in her voice was evident, but surprisingly it seemed that she accepted.

"If you happen to find a single one of my ancestors among the Necromancer's rabble, then do your best to capture that death witch alive," she continued, "For I should like for them to live to answer for their crimes and suffer the punishment, rather then be released by death."

It wasn't a request Fanilly was sure she could fulfill.

But they had to stop this conspiracy to kill the First Princess. And they had to rescue the nem girl's sister. So many details were strange, so many things didn't add up. And yet Vosahn's behavior seemed genuine.

So they had to try.

"Once you are equipped, I want to leave a few volunteers behind to help ensure the Princesses' safety."

@Creative Chaos@Raineh Daze@Rune_Alchemist@Saiyan@The Otter@Crimson Paladin@Psychic Loser@Richard Horthy@VahkiDane@Psyker Landshark@HereComesTheSnow