Kushin Zetsumei's Story

Passing through the door with trails of smoky essence, Kushin glared around the room over his mask. An earthbound spirit, the ghost could almost pass for living, save his habit of ignoring things in his way. Or the hellfires that burned within the eyes of his incorporeal form.

Selecting a seat at random, Kushin strode through it before settling back. Oddly enough, when he leaned backwards the chair tilted with him, bracing its back against the wall. Gaze suddenly narrowing, his hand darted at the air near his head, fingers becoming ghostly claws as he snared a lesser spirit.

The earthbound smiled under his mask as he exerted what he had come to call manifestation of the will. Snared prey squealed before suddenly he held a glass filled with a smoky, luminescent liquid. Kushin tilted the glass to his mouth, shifting its cover to consume.

"Delicious." Voice a rasp, the hacking laugh that followed was chilling.

"We didn't have to do that." A different voice, an echoing whisper came from Kushin. One of his eyes burned brighter with fury, the other changed. Becoming cooler, more aware. The rasp returned.

"Of course we didn't. I simply wanted to, Joshua. Now fuck off, you sentime-" Kushin writhed as the mirrored facets of the spirit warred yet again. Yet again, fury settled over his features as Kushin triumphed over Joshua.

"For that ye soft side, I might kill someone." Skeleton shone through the incorporeal flesh as Kushin eyed the others in the room. "Life is so much sweeter, after all."

Kushin flickered, a moment revealing the twisted apparition that was Joshua's alter-ego manifest. A fanged skull visible through translucent skin, ghostly hair stirring in etherial winds. Claws, shadows flitting throughout his form, and fires raging where eyes should have been.

But once more he writhed, the poltergeist energies hurtling the chair through and away, floating from the floor before sailing out of the room through a wall. For all Kushin's mockery, Joshua still held power within his own twisted psyche.

A figure wandered the ashes of the estate, striding here and there. Tall, he had the appearance of being more well-to do, yet this did not explain his meandering course through grit and grime. Even more curious however, was the lack of dust and soot kicked up in his wake.

Observed from the proper angle, however, one could see the lines of the wreckage through his form, the eerie light that rolled of of his body. This was no man after all, but a ghost.

Slowly hands clapped soundlessly in his motion, coming to a halt. Turning, malice was visible in his etherial eyes, the rest of his visage hidden behind a mask. The voice that answered was a rasp. "Well done, wyrm. You know my name."

He drifted closer, slipping through a snarl of blackened wood. "If you know my name, you know my pain as well. Why come to me, when all I do is take?"

The glint of steel, as a ghostly blade suddenly appeared in his lunging hand. It swept for the draconian woman's throat, the spirit's eyes blazing like malign suns.

Kushin writhed with fury, yet within the spirit there were two. Fury was blind, and so could not comprehend when pain was yanked from control and hurtled into submission. The anger remained, but where Kushin's burned hot, this one's burned...cold.

"That hurt, so I think Kushin made a mistake." Joshua's voice was decidedly clearer. His tone dry, he glanced at the bindings holding him with a raised brow. "You have our attention, drake."

"What do you want with it?" The civil side of the two, Josh was none the less a man of his origins. He could be just as ruthless as his other half, just not taking pleasure in the action.

"I love these choices. Let's go with the one that doesn't have me staring at the ashes of what used to be the house of bloodsuckers." Josh's voice dripped with sarcasm, but the opportunity she spoke of? Redemption, something he coveted indeed. Kushin might abhor his choice, but unlike his other, Joshua did not plan to remain a spirit forever.

He had other things to look forward to. Tiama might not realize it, but she had given the ghost an weapon with which to beat back the darkness. Regaining his feet, Joshua went through the motions of brushing his etherial form off, glancing at the draconian.

"I-we are listening."

"That I have, woman, and I need no reminding from you." Josh's voice turned harsh, for she'd struck a nerve there. Memories of life were a curse to the dead, after all. "So be it. You have your sword in this world, Taima."

Josh cast the name out, for he indeed knew who she was. Did Cotillion even now laugh at the twists? Once an assassin, now a spirit, and twice used by the gods and goddesses on their thrones. Not that his old patron whispered in his ear much anymore. Shadows tended to be...silent.

"Now what, exactly, do you expect a spirit to do for you?"

Joshua narrowed his eyes. It was a risk, but he was damned already. Without this chance, for all the deaths on his own hands, and the burdons of Kushin's murders, they were all his to claim should his peace be found. That the actions of his un-life would decide once and forevermore his fate seemed fitting.

He had one regret, and even if he had been the hand of mercy that night, these throne-sitters would still have him rotting in the pits.

"I, Joshua Moon, master of this form and keeper of Kushin Zetsumi, swear your vow. Cast your mark Taima."

Translucent figure becoming more solid, the dully glowing eyes of Joshua Moon swept to take in Windcrest at the sound of horns. More specifically, at the battle raging at the end of the bridge where spectral monstrosities were attempting to overrun the defenses. He would have kept walking, but for the heating of a mark placed on him by the one who'd given him his charge.

"Bloody hell. And after that journey?"

It seemed he would not be merely ignoring the battle, this time. Changing course, the spirit focused his energies, essence boiling and forming into a ghostly rifle. As he began to glide forward, however, the heavy rounds it fired in chilling silence were anything but intangible. A hollow near the lead had its head virtually blown off, the round dissipating into glowing smoke as it passed through and into the air. Another lost a leg and hand as they aligned at the bullet's impact. And still he fired into the mass, the scarf that covered his face hiding the grim scowl on his face. Shots hammered into the fiends to devastating effect as he continued to advance, then began to drift away from the point of origins to skim out over the chasm, raising himself higher in the air as only a ghost could.

Holy light flared around him, bleeding from the bridge's consecrated ground to assault him. Dark essence writhed in answer, thrusting the aura from him with equal ferocity. A paladin was evidently active, and his dark-tainted spirit was drawing just as much power to him as the damned hollows. The distraction was manifold as he was forced to beat at Kushin's grasping persona, making several shots he fired miss completely.

"Hurry the fuck up and die already, you pale imitations." Josh snarled with the cold fury of the assassin he once had been.

After having arrived in Windcrest via its portals, Achaeos flew through the city streets, startling the few civilians who spotted the translucent wispy form of a fox speeding through their number. Within the spirit realm, where he travelled in truth, activity was at a peak. The sky above twisted and flowed like a tropical storm, spurred into a hurricane of unearthly light and mist by the portal between the realms.

Achaeos bounded in a single leap from the city streets onto the walls, pausing for a moment to gaze across the bridge at the battle beginning in earnest below. The soldiers on the wall stepped back to give the ethereal fox space. To his eyes they were nothing more than hovering wisps of light, their souls given form in the spirit world.

The hollows, as they were called, were visible to him filing towards their portal. When they passed through they took on a more ethereal shape, much as he appeared to the soldiers. Once more the fox leaped. In the air his tail split, becoming nine as he landed on the bridge before Shelby and sped forwards. He passed through the hollows that had already moved into the mortal realm, intangible to them due to his physical form being within the spirit world, until he reached the portal.

The nine-tailed fox darted between the line of hollows and their access portal to the world, flames sparking from his tails and bursting towards them in a nova of bright blue spiritfire, easily enough to incinerate most spirits and harm even more powerful ones. He scored a line before them, cutting them off from their access to the mortal realm and stood proudly, challenging them.

"Return to your rest, spirits." The fox intoned, "The mortal realm is not your place. I will not hesitate to strike you down should you attempt to pass."

As the creatures mouths opened, the knights moved in unison to raise their shields and stand in a protective line. One could almost feel the hum of energy off them as the beams lanced forth to strike against the row of defenders.

The beams that were unleashed upon the knights didn't reach their mark as they instead met an unseen barrier only inches in front of the shields. The beams that passed overhead struck the walls and caused the ground to tremble as bits of stone rained down - but the walls held. Laced with the adamantium that the mountain was rich in and imbued with the protective enchantments of the Patronus - it would take sustained damage to bring them down.

Some of the men along the wall heights were dislodged from their positions though, and others fell beneath the Hollow's attacks. The majority though were well prepared to return fire.

When the Hollow rushed forward to meet the Knights of Le'thorian they would find themselves bottlenecked at the mouth of the bridge as the knights lowered their shields and engaged the front line of Hollow in combat. In the close melee, the Hollow could no longer utilize their beams of focused energy efficiently without doing as much damage to themselves as their enemies which shifted the advantage to the knights who rend their foes with fierce intent. Their purpose though was only to stem the attack so that those upon the wall could thin the numbers choked up on the bridge.

The Hollow that were unable to progress across the bridge past the Knights of Le'thorian were sitting targets as those upon the wall unleashed a torrent of attacks back down into their masses. Gunshots echoed alongside more primitive weaponry, and flashes of light seared into the Hollow as they were engulfed in a volley of fire, ice, and lightning from elementalists.

Unfortunately the new arrivals, Kaen, and the kitsune Achaeos would be equally caught up in this volley as they were not among the line of defenders. Wading into the horde of Hollow alone had left them both right in the line of fire from both sides of the battle - one of the worst places to be when a city is under siege as it left one at a very high risk of being struck by friendly fire.

Shelby was at the heart of the violent combat at the mouth of the bridge, and each blow that the Hollow's struck against her shield was another bone numbing impact. With Le'thorian's light and the consecrated ground to weaken and dull the blows, what should have broken bones served only to momentarily knock her off balance.

Many of the Hollow fell beneath the wide arc of her sword as it left glowing rends in the bodies of the abominations before the light simply engulfed them in their entirety, and her men at either side of her fought with a matching level of grim fierceness.

Adriaan ducked beneath the wild swing of a Hollow before leaping forward with a powerful stroke of his wings to close the distance between him and it. Driven by the force of his momentum he drove a spiked gauntlet into the creature which dissipated even as the Adriaan's momentum carried him past where the abomination had been standing moments before.

It was with inhuman grace and agility that the avorian monk ducked and weaved his way through each new assault that was thrown his way with little restraint behind his retaliatory blows.

As one of the Hollows opened its mouth to unleash a beam at him - he threw his gauntlets up in front of his face and the volarian steel took the blow as he was skidded back several feet across the icy ground.

The gauntlets held up under the assault, but his clothes and feathers were a bit singed for his efforts. As the beam subsided, Adriaan launched forward once more, this time his feet no longer gracing the ground as he drove his spiked gauntlet through the mouth of the Hollow as it attempted to open it once more.

There seemed to be a steady stream of the creatures arriving, but the purpose of those defending the gates was only to hold the line while the men on the walls did the heavy damage.

While the battle was getting underway Rynhart and several others of the Patronus appeared inside of the garrison within the city where the portal room at the Patronus temple linked up with Windcrest.

As they swept out into the streets Rynhart approached Tahlia to get debriefed on the situation.

Kaen's form was a blur as he moved throughout the horde of hollows, cutting down any that dared step into his path. He showed no worry of being caught in the crossfire, his mastery of Shunpo allowing him to bridge the distance between he and his adversaries in a moment's notice. Upon reaching the other end of the bridge, he fixed his gaze on the large portal floating just above the ground.

So that's where there coming from.. Kaen shunpo'd forward, disappearing into the rift in space-time. Once on the other side, he noticed the cat-like male who blocked the Hollows' path. "They're past the point of rest." he objected, "The only option is purification."

As expected, the Hollows had no intention of abiding by the Kitsune's request, and likely didn't understand him. Instead they were met by a volley of small-scale Cero that moved with considerable speed. The former 3rd Division Captain dashed forward, flickering past the minatory beams fired at him. A series of rapid strokes of his blade created several crescent-shaped waves of energy which, upon contact with the hollows, produced a violent explosion. The surrounding scenery was painted with their charred remains.

"Hmph, and I haven't even broken a sweat!" he shouted, looking back to Aecheos with a cheerful grin.

---

Many of the Hollow fell to the defenders' barrage of magic and gunfire, left severely mangled or completely destroyed by the counter-attack. Those that remained however stuck to their original tasks: those in front engaging the ground soldiers while the ones who remained behind bombarded the city wall with cero of varying intensity. Although weakest and least intelligent, these class of Hollow still put up a thrilling fight.

It seemed that they were capable of learning, however. For instead of firing randomly at the fortified wall, they focused on the Knights that lined the tops; the width of their cero capable of engulfing several in its lethal rays. Sieging the city would be a lot easier without the constant assault of pesky protectors.

Located as he was within the spirit realm, the insubstantial barely visible form of Achaeos was unharmed by the crossfire from the soldiers on the wall and the hollows already passed into the mortal realm. The attacks were not even visible or audible to him. Behind him on the bridge the hollows, knights and defenders on the wall were little more than wisps of light representing their souls. Occasionally one dissipated and drifted away towards whatever afterlife they were destined for, or flickered out altogether.

His presence in the alternate realm, of course, made it difficult to communicate with him. The fox did not hear Kaen's words, nor see him as more than another wisp. Leaping and bounding upwards, springing off the air as though it were solid ground, he wove his way out of the path of the attacks launched at him.

Fire again burst from his tails and swept through the crowd, each lick of soulflame incinerating the very essence of the hollows it touched. The line of flame he had scored between the hollows and the portal remained constant, largely cutting the flow of reinforcements to the siege in the mortal realm off until they found a way to circumvent it or dissipate it.

Tahlia looked to Sha Li and then to the walls. The girl's talents with lightning made for good offensive capabilities, but also a high risk of friendly fire in confined spaces.

"Help man the walls," she finally decided.

The girl would be able to do more damage up there in the open with the other elementalists than down here in the streets if the Hollow made it inside the walls.

As Rynhart swept over with a number of patroni in tow Tahlia moved to speak with him, gesturing occasionally to the front gates.

"There wasn't much warning, they just came out of nowhere," she told him. "But the walls are holding, and casualties are minimal. It's unlikely they'll breach the walls. It's almost like running drills," she remarked with a roll of her eyes. "You would think this far north that these things would be less common. What do you suppose it'll be next week?" she asked with amusement.

Rynhart shook his head as he moved past Tahlia, pausing only to clamp a supportive hand on her shoulder. "Good work," he told her before he moved to join the walls where he could survey the battle for himself. He was more inclined towards melee combat, but his presence was good for those manning the walls as he joined them up above the city to watch the events below.

Sha Li could hear the sounds of battle as she waited for Tahlia's orders. She had faith in the knights on the bridge but she started to notice that the hollowed attacks were sweeping at the knights on the walls and not the walls themselves. I guess these things aren't completely mindless drones. She thought.

"Alright I'll head right up there." Sha said as she took off in a sprint up the stairs to the walls. She could see more clearly up here she looked at the hoard fighting the knights but she didn't want to risk the chance of her lightning hitting them. She set her eyes on the Hollows that were bombarding the walls and the defenders ontop of them. Raising her staff to the sky she focused as she called down two bolts of lightning from the clouds above. If successful two of the besiegers would be hit, she opted to call down natural lightning for now to save her staffs power for close range. Plus she knew the natural lightning was much more powerful and easier to call down than generating her own.