Alveron

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He was slightly irritated.

The emotion was a rare one and caused a vague crease in his brows as he progressed towards the small town of Alveron. He was late. He had never been late, at least not intentionally--yet that little side trip to see the Commander had thrown him off-schedule. Absolutely preposterous. He had already anticipated that it would make no difference if he attempted to speed up his pace or not; he wasn't going to make it in time. A few days previously, their group had somehow departed at different paces, Akira having been the first of them to run off first. In some cases, perhaps he would've found this asset almost... useful, but in this situation, it was doing nothing but giving him a headache. He pinched the bridge of his nose and released a sigh as his blank eyes flickered over the scene before him. Why had it been necessary to have his presence there? It had served nothing. He had learned nothing that he couldn't have figured out on his own. Sometimes, he theorized that Treylion had secret intentions to try and find ways to throw him off (even if it was just slightly).

Well, point one in how many millennia? He rolled his eyes; this really wasn't worth his time to be dwelling on. He glanced over his shoulder--hm, still just him. At this rate, they would be one member shy. Still, perhaps it was better this way--it might give him a bit more of an edge in discovering just what had caused the difference this time around. He could not recall one previous instance where he had been grouped with the exorcist, thus this whole situation felt faintly foreign to him. That in itself was an oddity--he didn't like all these curveballs. All these uncertainties. He supposed there was nothing to be done of the matter but that didn't negate how irritating this whole adventure was becoming.

Ah, why did he have to remember that this journey had only just started? Pah.

He caught sight of the entrance sign out of the corner of his eye, arriving in the town in lessened spirits. He paused, tilting his chin up as he focused his attentions to the task at hand. He could dwell on those thoughts later, for now he needed to find Akira. A twitch of one of his eyebrows indicated further annoyance. This had been happening more often than he would like, the surprise. He hadn't been able to see as clearly as he would've preferred or as vastly as he was accustomed to. The impedance was turning into more of a nuisance than he saw necessary to deal with. Yet another problem to compound on top of everything.

He scanned the main road, not finding much signs of activity at all. As he walked a bit deeper into the town, he noticed faint scuff marks on the ground. His eyes narrowed, the archdemon turning on his heel a bit as he followed the markings towards one of the alleyways. That was the one convenient thing about battles and skirmishes. They always left a fairly easy trail to follow.

The marks ended abruptly, jutting out a bit unnaturally at the edges of a wall. Really Akira? Really? You couldn't have taken another alleyway? With another mildly irritated sigh leaving his lips, Lucian hoisted himself over the wall and landed easily on the other side.


A sound down the alleyway caught his attention. Slowly peeling his eyes opened, Akira turned his head to see who it was. Perhaps it was a human wandering around the alleyway, or maybe the demon that he'd ditched back at the front of the town. He couldn't see very well down the dark street either way. Even so, he huffed out a short breath of air and returned to leaning against the wall.

With a frown he closed his eyes trying to figure out if he should get up and actually go report back to the other two on his failure. How would they take it, he wondered? It wasn't like he could sit there all night, wallowing in his own self pity and irritation. Slowly, Akira started to stand, using the wall as a brace. Whoever it was down the alleyway, he didn't much care unless it was one of his group.


A very brief flash of concern came into his eyes before Lucian let it recede. So the exorcist was hurt after all. He restrained himself, keeping his pace even as he approached the injured man. The unsteady way in which Akira was keeping himself balanced was an indicator that the other could possibly pass out with too much over exertion. The archdemon merely raised his hands a bit to show that he wasn't an enemy before lowering them, looking Akira over more closely. He really did look worse for the wear. Tch.


The one who had made the sound in the alleyway was none other than Lucian. Akira's weary gaze shifted over to the man and a brief moment of guilt spread through him like wild fire before burning out just as quickly. Why would Lucian care if he'd run off and nearly gotten himself killed? They'd only known each other for three days, there wasn't much to go on from just that.

"Lucian," Akira stated, his voice barely above a whisper. He looked down then, moving uncomfortably, "The spirit got away from me."


He raised his eyebrows, nodding slowly as he moved a bit closer. The weakness of the voice that reached his ears was troubling. Lucian reached out, gently grasping Akira's shoulder to help adjust the other. He didn't say anything--he only kept his gaze steady on the exorcist to cue him into continuing.


"My bind, did nothing to stop him," Akira continued as Lucian continued to look at him. He wondered if the demon would answer him or not. Or maybe he was just the silent type. The hand on his shoulder was comforting none-the-less, keeping him steady. Damn, he had used a little bit too much energy to try to fight the spirit. With a sigh, he leaned his head against the wall, tired beyond belief. He should probably get the scratches on his chest treated as well, who knew what kind of dirt and other things got into the cuts. However, Akira wasn't going to let on to that fact.

"If we hurry, we might be able to catch it," the exorcist said, turning his head to look down to the left where the creature had gone, "It took off that way."


Lucian kept his expression relatively neutral as he shook his head at the suggestion. "Not yet," Was all he said as he used his free hand to reach up and undo one of the buttons of Akira's shirt. There was a dark, crimson hue, though the color had faded a bit to a dull brown due to the blood's drying. Tsk. As he had suspected. He did not bother to look back up at the other man as he undid a few more buttons to get a better look at the wounds. It probably wasn't as bad as it looked--he hadn't foreseen anything drastically negative coming from the scratches. Hm, what to use to bound it.

He flicked his gaze back up at Akira, faint traces of a smirk turning up the ends of his lips. It was barely noticeable but just amused enough to warrant the attentions of an observant person. Lucian gestured to the cuts, raising one of his eyebrows in inquiry. "I hope you don't plan on pursuing the creature with open wounds like that. You'll turn into a hindrance."


His eyes widened slightly as Lucian undid the top button to his shirt and pulled it away just enough to see the damage underneath. He was shocked that the man would even have the slightest concern for such a trivial wound such as that. Akira had gone through far worse in the past. He bit his lip, a lump welling at the back of his throat. A flash of an image coming to mind, the Wraith striking out at him after the exorcism... He pushed it away and found that his shirt had been undone even further.
It wasn't until Lucian glanced back up at him with a faint smirk on his lips that Akira felt his face heat. What the hell was that for? He stood still like a rock, unmoving as Lucian gestured to the cuts, his words cutting deeper.

"I...We can't let it get away," Akira said, the only thing that came to mind in the situation which had nothing solid to it to begin with. What kind of excuse was that? "This is nothing."

"Mmmmmm...." Was all that left Lucian as he intentionally took his pointer finger and prodded Akira into a particularly deeper cut of his.

Akira winced as Lucian poked the wound, the deeper of the three no less. Pulling his lower lip into his mouth he bit the skin and tried to put his best face forward, though one eye was half closed in response to the burn.


The archdemon didn't even need to say it--they both knew the injuries had to be treated, even in the most minimal of manners, before pursuing the creature. Lucian glanced down at one of the tattered ends of Akira's shirt and quickly tore of a portion of it, paying little heed to the reaction of the other. He deftly used the cloth to tie it once around the man's torso, making sure to cover the large wounds. Well, it wasn't the neatest or most effective of bandage jobs but it would do for now.


The sound of tearing cloth filled the air and Akira was jostled around for a brief moment as the demon wrapped the thin strip around the deeper cut and some of the other ones. With a soft sigh to himself he reluctantly realized that Lucian was not going to let him go anywhere after the spirit. At least not right then. Pushing off the wall, Akira felt the bruising all along his back where he'd hit the corner of the building earlier.

Well, if Lucian gave so much care to a simple scratch, he wondered what the demon would be like over partially broken ribs. Best not to say anything, Akira thought to himself and took a tentative step forward.

"There is an inn nearby. We can stay there," Akira offered. He didn't know if there were any healers in town and he would much rather stay away from them anyway.


Lucian shrugged his shoulders in response. "Fair enough," He commented as he stepped away from Akira and slid his gaze towards the end of the alleyway. An inn would provide recuperation time but also, time to get his head on straight. The archdemon needed time (an absurd statement in itself) to collect his thoughts and a moment to have it all make sense again. Without another word, he moved past Akira, gesturing to the other to follow him towards the building.

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The demoness mulled over the thoughts in her head, trying to grasp the concept of promoting a lesser demon to a higher caste. This seemed almost impossible--to move up in rank like that was an impossibility, they had told her... yet Treylion had told her that she was being considered for this promotion... What was the commander hiding from her, from the other demons, from the other mortals and what it means for them?

...and why was Treylion so interested in her specifically? He had never before deigned to give her the time of day, always staying behind the scenes, manipulating his so-called underlings much better thank Xana herself could ever do... It was something that she admired about the Apokalion, something that she wished to aspire to, but still, she thought it would be impossible to do anything like that...

And then, on the horizon, a wanderer. There was a tug similar to that of the broken gate from before but... different, more hostile and foreign. The figure seemed to turn and stare at the demon even from such a distance away. It sent a shiver down Xana's spine, and she felt suddenly compelled to go out in that direction.

As she made her way across the landscape, she could feel the rage and anger wafting through the air. This was not natural in the slightest--most mortals would never feel this sort of anger in their entire lifetimes, let alone bound to one single body for any length of time. There was no way that this person was normal... unless...

What would a rogue spirit be doing all the way out here?

Regardless of the reason, Xana continued forward, making sure that no one was watching or following her. The last thing she needed was any mortals following her, especially any that would just serve as a hindrance to her and her purpose. Still, she did realize that she could not flat-out kill this vessel, especially without the presence of an exorcist or an angel--which would have been rather convenient had the angel and exorcist that were supposed to have accompanied her were actually with her...

"A bit far to be wandering away from home, now..." the demon purred as she mosied up to the wanderer, noticing the intense waves radiating from the fleshbag next to her.

The vagabond--a female--smirked as she turned and punched the red-haired woman in the face. Taken aback, the demon watched as the traveller's eyes turned pitch-black and turned to her.

"I could say the same for you..." the traveller growled--something unearthly that did not belong to this plane or even in the hellish heat of Inferno. "So far from your prison duties..."

Xana smirked as she rolled out the cracks building up in her neck. "My my... Aren't you a feisty one?" She felt no other presence at this point in time, so with another chuckle and a flash of hellfire, the demon quickly shed her human skin, revealing the serpentine form she was more comfortable in. "Sadly, my job is not to guard filth like you... It's more to hunt you down so I can feed..."

With a cry that could never be uttered by a mere mortal, the possessed human lashed out at the demon, trying to injure and maim her opponent. Xana merely dodged the blows, using her inhuman agility and her preferred form to weave and slither to and fro between the grunts and screeches of the feral spirit. Licks of flame crawled across her skin, and the demon smirked in response.

"Hmm... Your rage is rather filling... Too bad I'm forced to send you back to Inferno--your kind does have some of the most... intense meals..."

***

Having no leads on the location of this mysterious 'Xana,' Liriael had decided to simply head in the direction of the gathering-place of the assembled forces, in hopes that perhaps someone there would either be able to locate the demon or at the very least give her a more certain direction than 'on this plane.'

Her journey was to be temporarily diverted, however, when she sensed the presence of something irregular. She was no empath, and it was difficult to say for sure what it was from this distance, as she'd never been in the presence of a rogue spirit before, but the anomaly was worth invesitgating, anyway. Whatever she found would probably be worth reporting at the very least.

Cresting a hill, the angel surveyed the small town arrayed below, little more than a dot on a map at most times, doubtlessly. The small cluster of homes was hardly remarkable-- the Nightengale still in the back of her consciousness had seen countless settlements like it before, and retained particularly strong memories of none. This one, however, was bound to be a little different, as a large cluster of buildings, including what looked to be the town's inn, were burning.

Without wasting time, Liri tore down the hill at top speed, the rucksack containing all her earthly possessions thumping against her back with every pace. As she got closer, it was possible to make out the screams of humans, as well as some kind of ghastly wailing. Was that... a spirit?

***

Even through the overwhelming anger that threatened to consume the demon, there was something else that Xana felt through her battle--some otherworldly presence that was neither demon nor spirit. Could this mean that an angel was trying to approach? Perhaps an exorcist? It would have been nice for Xana to see just who or what was trying to intervene, although her current predicament was preventing her from doing so. The combat, though, was rather exhilarating for the demon, as the emotions that constantly flooded her were rather succulent. Even through the onslaught of blows, the flames continued to flicker across her skin, and a shiver of pleasure ran down the demon's crimson flesh.

"Are you quite finished? Are you ready to go back to your prison now?" Xana purred as a few drops of blood trickled down her cheek.

"I hope you freeze, fiend!" the spirit retaliated, slamming a fist into the demon's shoulder, causing a small bout of flame to flare up and singe the spirit's hand. Xana only chuckled as she grabbed the spirit's wrists and felt the heat flare up in her hands, causing burns to form on the fleshbag's skin.

"You're lucky I can't just outright kill you..." Xana purred, listening to the skin sizzle in her grasp. The spirit moaned in pain as blisters began to form on her wrists. She needed to stall... If that angel came to examine the situation, it would be able to help, but if not... Xana needed to locate a gate, and quickly...

Perhaps fortunately, the angel in the area was not far off at all, and Liri cast the rucksack off her back and drew her sword with a ring of steel, surging forward to the aid of what appeared to be a serpentine demon-- and the strangeness of this situation could wait to be considered until such time as the spirit was dealt with.

She was in enough time to hear the last statement the demon made, though admittedly that was perhaps only due to her greater-than-human hearing. "I can,"[/color] she replied simply, though in truth she hadn't done so before. Still, it wasn't as though she hadn't learned. But... didn't it need to be out of its vessel first? Maybe if the vessel underwent sufficient pain, the spirit would be forced to retreat, but torturing the creature into the open was not something she desired to do.

Was that the angel that she had been waiting for? If so, it had been taking its damn time in figuring out where the hell to go. Xana, however, wasn't in the mood for playing around at this point, instead choosing to turn back to the approaching angel with a smirk across her face and smoldering embers dancing across her arms and tail.

"About time you showed up... I was starting to think that I would be forced to save the world on my own..." The demon purred at the approaching angel. The woman in her grasp screamed as the sizzling of flesh intensified in the demon's hands. Blisters were beginning to form on the possessed woman's wrists from the heat. "This poor spirit knows that I don't have much patience for idiocy... too bad I can't take it out on the spirit, so I guess I'll go for the next best thing..."

No patience for idiocy? How do you live with yourself? The Nightingale snarked from somewhere in the back of Liri's head, automatically inclined to respond to poorly-veiled insults with the same. Liriael, however, was considerably more patient and tolerant, so she ignored the thought as well as the spirit's vessel, fixing the demon with a flat aquamarine stare. "It would be wisest to expel the being from the body as quickly as possible if I am to dispose of it." Implied: there is no need for extended torture.

Unforunately, she had no other option than to allow the demon to do as she pleased, as she herself had no alternative way of performing the extraction, only the execution. She had no reason to believe that the suggestion would go heeded; though she'd not interacted with demonkind before, she'd been told of them, and that was enough to create an educated guess to this effect.

"Well then, by all means, don't let me stop you from--oh wait..." Another smirk as the demon began to wrap her serpentine tail around her hapless victim. "Unless you can pull an exorcist out of your ass, the best thing we're going to be able to do for this poor woman is to find a gate and toss her through... Of course, it would probably kill the mortal in the process, but at least then I'll be finished with her--"

Before the demon could finish her thought completely, the possessed woman screamed. It was something unearthly and feral, nothing that the human host could produce in her short lifetime. Still, she was getting something out of the spirit--they were not nearly as powerful when trapped inside a human host as they were when they roamed freely, which begged the question: Why was this one in a body at all?

"I'm not going to ask again--shut up while I talk to this... acquaintence of mine..." The demon constricted the possessed woman in her coiled tail, causing her victim to shudder and spasm slightly. In the next moment, she turned and faced the angel, a coy grin across her face as she continued to keep a hold on the spirit.

"So... what kept you? The bureaucratic imbeciles at Resmyrd have been making things rather difficult for us, have they not?" There was a sense of irritability in the demon's voice as she folded her arms across her charred chest, but the smirk never left her face. Time to size up the new meat...

The angel's eyes moved from the demon, to the human vessel of the spirit, and then back to the serpentine woman. A slight frown was evidence enough of her displeasure with the situation, but she made no move to alter it. What was there that she could do? The demon was correct enough-- without an exorcist, there was no good way to force the spirit from the host. Her power was only useful once it was out in the open, and she could do away with it and allow the demon to banish the remains behind one of their infernal gates.

Her sword remained loosely-grasped in one hand, but she was still regardless, save a slight tilt of her head to one side. "I have yet to reach Resmyrd, actually. I was awakened in this host some days ago, and told only to find the demon Xana. If you are she, then perhaps the task was not as impossible as its vagueness might have suggested."

The demon grinned as the angelic figure elaborated on the scenario at hand. "So... suppose you just came across another random demon aside from this... Xana... What then? Do you continue on your merry way in the hopes you miraculously stumble across her at some point? Or do you continue on to the church of exorcists wondering if this demon is there?"

Liri blinked. The hypothetical just made her suspicious, and quite certain that she had found who she was looking for, but she chose to answer the question regardless, moving her shoulders up and back down in a shrug. "I finish what has begun here, and then yes, I make for Resmyrd. If Xana is not to be found, I seek new orders or further clarification."

"Like the mindless drone you are..." the demon smirked. "Yes, I am the one you were asked to seek. Rather... impeccable timing on your end, but then again..." she sighed, placing a hand on her chin as if expressing mock boredom, "you angels always strive for that glorifying moment of entrance, don't you?"

The insult rolled off Liri's back like so much water, and she simply shrugged again. If that was what the demon wished to think, she was free to think it. They didn't have to like each other to work together, and she had rather known that when she volunteered to be reborn this way. The other comment was puzzling-- was she referring to just now? It was true that Liriael had acted with quite a bit of haste to get here, but that was due to the burning settlement and the presence of some kind of spirit.

"If so, my striving has been rather for naught," she replied, glancing over at the vessel. Really, had the spirit not yet decided to leave it? "I entered this body in a tavernroom and fell over promptly afterwards. As entrances go, it was quite inglorious. Will you not cease?" The last was directed at the spirit, and carried the vaguest hint of irritation, so mild it hardly deserved the name. She felt sorry for the host, given the stubbornness of the being occupying it.

Of course the angel had to make sure that she--the voice was much more feminine than masculine--was wound up so tight that she appeared to have absoultely no emotion whatsoever. Perfect--it was almost as if Treylion had specifically requested this particular angel to be paired with her just to see how worked up she could be! And by the hells was she dense! Could this angel really not crack even the faintest of a smile? A chuckle? Anything?

The demon sighed, shaking her head and turning once more to the possessed woman. "Come... the angel has reservations about destroying you completely--you should be rather fortunate that I am also unable to do that, otherwise I would have no need for her in the first place..." Xana gave a violent shove to the woman that was until this moment coiled in her grasp, throwing her to the ground. "We're heading back to Resmyrd... again... and you..." she pointed to the angel as she placed her other hand on the possessed woman's wrists and pulled them behind her back. "You will be the one responsible for getting a damn exorcist so her precious mortal shell won't be utterly destroyed."

Yes, your infernal majesty, the Nightingale sniped, clearly irritated, but Liri ignored the vessel just as much as she ignored Xana's attempts to provoke her, which was to say rather well. Quirking a brow slightly, she shrugged and nodded. "If you feel such a task beyond your capabilities or beneath your notice, I will be more than happy to assist." It was kind of hard to tell which one she figured might be more likely, leaving the tone of the comment as a whole rather vague.

At any rate, she wasn't going to stand around talking about it any more, and Resmyrd was not going to arrive to meet them, so the angel set her feet back on the road. Maybe, if they got lucky, they would meet an exorcist on the way, though frankly, she wasn't counting on it.