Shane Vegas's Story

Shane

The feeling of furious flames, a heat so strong that it could melt the strongest of metals, Shane was caught in an inferno so insane that it was burning more than just his body, but continued to even burn all that was him. This heat was the only thought, only thing Shane felt as memories flew past in his mind and simply burnt away, adding to his destruction. Finally Shane had given up, letting the very flames that saved him destroy him, leaving absolutely nothing. "Finally, I get a break" Shane thought to himself as the world slipped from his view, his conscience burnt out, leaving a complete emptiness.

"So that's it? What happened to chasing your dreams no matter what?!", a voice emerged from the nothingness, a faint light accompanying it. "Seriously! you really get on my nerves sometimes!", that voice, it's familiarity toying with Shane, as he desperately tried to remember who it belonged to, "Talking about how you'll change the world, keep peoples hearts aflame, and then you let yours go out when one person dies?! What about all those people who've lost everything, those you promised to save?! Geez your such a hypocrite... I'll miss you..." The voice rang loud in Shane's head, the light getting blindingly bright along with it. The tone of the voice no longer seemed angry though... no, it was sad, as if those were its last words, like someone saying goodbye to a loved one. As the light enveloped everything, it became more detailed, appearing to be a world, and Shane started to feel a sensation he had long since forgotten, the feeling of life flowing into him, the feeling of revival.

When the process was complete, Shane was only able to stand there blankly, partly due to the events that he had just gone through, partly probably due to suddenly coming back to life once again, but mostly because he still felt empty, as though a large part of him was missing. He subconsciously took note of the words of the black-haired man and the actions of those around him, none of it was getting processed, Shane too busy desperately trying to figure out what exactly was missing. "So, ya gonna do something, or are ya gonna sit the there trying to remember things you destroyed?", a small black imp-like creature climbed out from Shane and onto his shoulder, The Ashling Shane remembered, although he personally would prefer it if he had forgotten it." Ya'know sitting their wont do ya any good, specially when we could instead be killin' things", the Ashling continued, it's last point reminding Shane that it really is a creature born for destruction."I guess you have a point" Shane replied, forcing the black creature back into him as he walked towards the barricade. Upon reaching it Shane noticed that the battle had already gotten quite intense, and that a fair few had found themselves in the front-lines, however Shane was more interested in those still at the barricades, a strange green creature, a white haired woman, and a white haired man standing out from the crowd, all already fighting in their own way. "Looks like I'm a bit late to the party" Shane noted with a sigh, seemingly launching a burning bullet towards the shadows, flying through several of them like a hot knife through butter, simply by pointing at them, although the inner workings of it were much more complex.

Already so much fighting had taken place. It was all very overwhelming for her as the chaos played out across the field. A number of people had waded into the sea of shadow soldiers to do battle with the armored figure towards the back, putting themselves at severe risk as the rest of the nameless could do little to help them from all the way back where they were.
The defensive line held but only just. By the might of the various beings that stood alongside each other they withstood the initial rush of the shadow soldiers as the forces met steel, flesh and bone. Anima could only stand far to the rear of the line up upon the earthen barricade and pray for each and every nameless's health. She was ripe with utmost terror as she witnessed conflict like she had only known in texts, writings of past battles she thought she might never bear witness to. Blood spilt and all she wanted was to halt the entire war they waged and go over to sooth the pain of the wounded.

She knew better than to assume that she could just demand that the fighting stop for she knew the shadows knew little of the joys of peace. She had to remain resolute and do what she had to in order to keep these brave warriors and casters alive and well. Over the time that the battle waged for she cast Lesser Mass Heal repetitiously, healing the multiple wounds of multiple nameless by whatever little amount she could afford to give them given the time she was allotted. While the tougher entities sustained smaller wounds which were insignificant enough to heal completely from her group healing prayers there were smaller less durable figures among the nameless who's wounds while fewer were more serious in nature. In occasions such as that she shifted her attention to the individual in need, casting the more potent Heal prayer which healed wounds far better than lesser heals did but took up valuable time she needed to continue casting more Lesser Mass Heals.

It was frustrating for her. Every time she managed to bring one section of the line up to fair health another portion would start sustaining injuries at a faster rate than the other healing casters amongst the nameless could handle.
Upon inspecting some of the nameless around him, Shane noticed a rather strange green creature, the likes of which he'd never seen before, casting an impressive amount of healing spells, but something seemed off. From his experience around soldiers and in wars, it just didn't seem to have the same aura, it didn't feel like it was hardened for battle. "How're you holdin' up?" Shane asked, walking up to the green creature, slightly worried about it.

Just as she cast another Lesser Mass Heal over a small group which was sustaining heavy pressure over to the left, the prayer's magic taking effect as a single glowing halo formed over the heads of those within the divine spell's range which shined down upon those who she specified as allies to be targeted for healing before disappearing in a flash, a young man with bright orange hair approached and asked her about how she was holding up. She looked quite confused at first as she had attempted to shut the horrors the battle out from her mind while she focused solely on who needed to be healed. This recent question directed at her left her to initially think that it was someone addressing somebody else within the nameless's ranks.

"U-um y-you mean me? I-I don't, I-I mean-" She barely managed to form a clear sentence as she looked around, wondering if he wasn't in fact talking to someone near her. After all, the battle was quite chaotic and as far as her mind was into trying to see into the thrashing ranks of entities to decide who needed healing most she was only aware of this fellow once he spoke aloud directly next to her, breaking her concentration.

"Oh, sorry" Shane said, seemingly surprising the green creature, "Well, I'm gonna start burning things now, so just hang in there. Oh! and don't worry about me, I can handle myself" he continued, before running up to the barricade and climbing on top of it, giving him a prime position to start charging up a ball of fire in between his hands."I wonder how many I can burn with just one fireball?" he questioned, launching it into the middle of the shadows after a second, exploding into a bright explosion, burning about 15 to 20 shadows.

"Oh, Ah-I uh, alright then. B-be careful please!" She cautioned the man as he ran forth up to where some of the other offense oriented casters and ranged fighters stood. Right about as he left she noticed a man with pointed ears rather far down the line to the right fall onto his back, blood leaking from his side. "Oh no!" She had completely stopped healing the fighters who held the line, resulting in a higher rate of injury amongst their ranks. She felt utterly destroyed by the realization as to how much she had let slip during the distraction. She was scared for them, worried that someone might die because she didn't heal them enough. She couldn't bear the thought of being responsible for someone's death.

Attempting to regain concentration despite the frantic fear that grew as the defending line's collective health started to degrade she placed her noodly tentacles together and started to pray to the sun to bring them health. With a Heal spell she got the warrior that fell back up to fighting condition. As she cast another Lesser Mass Heal over that area however she started to notice the beginnings of fatigue as a result of her rapid casting. While most normal casters would start seeing physical repercussions for casting so much in such little time her latent regenerative quality protected her from the physical cost such magic would exact upon her. The one thing that her use of magic afflicted her with was fatigue. Even though she had no real physique to really tire her whole being started to feel the slightest beginnings of exhaustion.

With the shadows right in front of them beating in and wounding those that stand before him, Ivan saw it as nearly unavoidable for him to not take more drastic measures. He however did prefer if it didn't involve him taking himself out of the fight as a repercussion though. Looking over at the sentient slime that had been healing everyone around her, he knew what he had to do. He didn't like it, but it certainly could give them all at least some breathing room. Fighting against his instincts he walked over to the slime. "I think I can clear enough of these shadows in front of us to give us some breathing room, but I'll need a bit of a helping hand from you for it." He said with equal parts calm and nervousness. What he was about to do, would probably hurt like hell, no sane man could simply shrug that off completely.

As she cast another healing spell into their numbers yet another person spoke to her or at least she that is what she assumed. After listening for a moment to what he had to say she assumed that he meant her, looking over to the person addressing her. See saw that it was one of the casters, the one who was firing off those impressive bolts of light which seemed to pierce through the numbers of the shadow soldiers quite effectively. "If you need I can help you. Please do act with haste though, I mustn't keep my attention from the others for much too long less someone get seriously hurt." She advocated with a sense of urgency as she awaited her instruction from this rather knowledgeable looking man.

Hearing her concern Ivan smiled lightly. "I understand that. All I'll require from you is to try and place as many healing spells on me as you can afford given the condition of the others. What I am about to do is considered quite dangerous, as it requires breaking my own physical limitations. I'll get close to the others so you might be able to spread the healing a bit more efficiently."

She was happy that he took the well being of the others into consideration for his plan but the danger he described involving what he was about to do concerned her. "Do be careful, I wouldn't want for you to injure yourself to such extent. If you must though I will do my best to bring you and the others to good health." She cautioned him of the possibility regarding the danger he might be in. With that said she prepared to get her prayer underway so that she could heal him in sync with the spell he'll be casting so the healing effect would take place not too long after the damage is done.

This much care and kindness on the battlefield, such a rare occurrence at least in his experience. "When you see a wall appearing between our allies and the shadows, that's when the damage will begin to form." Ivan said as he walked forward almost joining the ranks of the melee fighters. He drew in as much energy from the surrounding light as he could turning his visual appearance into a pitch black, instantly turning all the collected energy into clouds of cyan sparkling dust. He moved the dust in front of the nameless who were holding the line in melee, quickly spreading from the center to both the flanks and forming a wall of dust approximately 3 meter in height. "Kinetic void." Ivan mumbled as he became visible again, and where both sides earlier found themselves slashing straight through the dust the now found their weapons and projectiles stopped as soon as it hit the wall.

On the queue Anima started to cast her prayer just as the dust for the wall started to assemble. Just like clockwork she cast Lesser Mass Heal just as the wall formed, a large halo appearing above which encircled him and a number of the other fighters that he stood by. The shining light that descended like rain healed the damage by a small amount all the way through. It wouldn't fully mend great damage but wounds of a light enough nature simply closed and faded as it suffused with light.

She was worried that he might of pushed himself harder than a lone Lesser Heal could cover. It was an impressive arcane spell he had just cast, one that she wasn't yet familiar with. She knew she would still need to part her mind from just worrying about him in particular as there were many who still were in need of her help but she couldn't quell the feeling that she could do more to help this one person out more. Wrestling with her conscience she opted to cast a lone Lesser Heal, the fastest spell of the divine magic she knew, on the arcane caster to help cover what her first spell might of missed. In very short order a small halo appeared directly over his head, encompassing him alone. The light flowed through him in a gentle stream which healed him yet again before the halo vanished in a small flash.

With her side of the task there seen to she immediately had to turn her attention as a large creature down to the rightmost end of the line had apparently sustained numerous cuts which were starting to bleed quite badly. She turned her focus on healing it though she was starting to feel strained by the effort the magic was costing her. She would not let that deter her though, not when lives were at stake.

With the wall raised and in a more or less stable position Ivan could redirect his focus to the final part of this particular piece of magic. Within seconds the wall turned from the cyan of the crystalline T-energy into a bright shining white and collapsed into a thundering avalanche of light, sweeping up the shadows in it's path down the hill. he avalanche spread out as it made it's way down the hill, until the light had dissipated from spreading out. Most of the shadows which got caught up in the avalanche were killed. Only the furthest few rows that got caught up, albeit in a mess from the tumble down the hill, managed to survive the cascade of magic. It had evened the odds by quite a bit, bought them some time and judging by the reactions of the nameless lifted morale.
Ivan dropped to a knee, short on breath, his heart pounding like he had just run a marathon, coughing like a chain smoker and unable to get his left leg to support his weight, but stable. It might not have kept him in a fighting shape, but those heals at the very least managed to stave off more severe damage. He'd be coughing up blood by now, judging by the pain he felt in his lungs, had he done this without some healer support.

Charmeine took in a sharp breath as she held up both of her dual bows and pointed towards the enemy. With another whirl of power, the arrows shot off in the blink of an eye, causing what appeared as a light show of exploding enemies to be admired. The whitette felt a smirk tug at her lips. Sadistic? No, of course not. Just enjoying the overwhelming feeling of power she was so used to. However, the swarm would only replace those who have died in a few moments, though surely decreasing by the minute. The princess cursed to herself, for she had not been paying attention to her surroundings. Surely the other warrior would have her back, right? That was not exactly the case...

Just like Charmeine herself, they were doing their own thing. Though, perhaps not as... skilled. They were blindly stabbing the air with their blades, only to be over-taken by another. It was a cruel sight, and she would not stand for it. She needed to take the lead, and fast. However, she'd have to start small. Her eyes darted across the brutal battle scene, only to find one particular warrior who seemed to have been wounded. His hair was just about as white as hers, and she had almost mistaken him for her own kind. However, there was a way to just... tell. It's just like telling the difference of a husky and a Alaskan Malamute; stature and behavior. He just did not match up.

No matter, Charmeine dashed over towards the warrior and stepped in front of him. "Defense Skill; Distortion." She whispered out, dropping her hand towards the ground and bringing it over her head, only to put up a shield that would protect her from objects of any material, magic, and living being alike. She quickly whirled around towards the wounded warrior and crouched down until eye level. The whitette grabbed his shoulder, only to give him the same shield as her own. As long as she does not let go, he will be blessed with this great ability. Charmeine would notice the blood trickling out of his mouth and fall to the kicked-up soil. Frowning in disapproval, she used her free hand to grab his chin and lift his head, only to lock eyes for a few moments. Good, no sign of blood. She could of mistaken him for dead.

Charmeine's free hand traveled down towards his throat and applied pressure onto it. Her fingers were freezing."With the way you're coughing, you can break small capillaries in the airways, causing blood to sputter out. Oh goodness... all I know to do with that is cold compress on the neck and drinking water... but this is no time to rest, comrade. If you don't get yourself together soon enough, you /will/ start bleeding, to which I cannot help you." The whitette lectured. "You need to get up soon, or I will make you suffer. Surely there is a healer around...?" She asked herself after her commandment. Charmeine picked her head up and looked around frantically, only to find a healer across the field. Yes, she'd be of magnificent use. The three of them would need to take cover, so she could hatch a defense plan. Oh yes, she'd have them follow her and pick up others along the way...

"A cold compress you say. Well I suppose it's fortunate. Cold is among my repertoire." Ivan responded to the caring girl, still coughing severely. Taking slow and deep breaths, or at least as much as his coughing would allow him to, he focused on cooling the air and tissue in his lungs. Soon enough the coughing stopped and he turned his head towards her face. Blowing out a thin cloud of water vapor with each exhalation he spoke: color=navy]"I've never had a time or need to learn medicine, fortunately someone else has some knowledge when we are so awfully low on healing powers. Unfortunately, though, getting up would be rather hard at this time. It would seem that the recoil from my magic has taken most of the strength in my left leg."[/color] Ivan then put up a grin. "Nor would I be particularly afraid of any suffering, had I been then I wouldn't have been in this particular situation in the first place."

Feeling that his lungs were fine now he stopped applying the cooling to his lungs and opened his hand to see how much energy he had acquired from the heat transfer. A small crystal not even the size of a cherry pit lay in his hand. It wasn't much, but considering all he had been doing was remedying his coughing, any energy could be considered a gain.

Charmeine glanced back down towards the stranger with a curious expression as he spoke. Was he talking to her, or was he just talking to himself? The princess would have to ask herself these questions, since she herself would occasionally think out loud. Eventually, she figured out that the warrior was talking directly to her. Although she lifted her gaze from him once more, she listened carefully and slowly nodded to show it. That is, until he had the nerve to question her threat. The whitette shot a glare towards him and felt her fingernails dug into the stranger's shoulder.

"I suggest you watch yourself, comrade..." She warned, her voice hissing like a snake. "I have made many suffer before, and you are no different than any of them. Your life will become like this battlefield... sloppy, dark, and dreadful. Keep your mouth shut and respect royalty..." Charmeine commanded. She slowly got to her feet and grabbed his wrist, attempting to pull him up. "Get up... I'll support you and get you to cover. I can promise you, the middle of the battlefield is no place to rest and regain your strength." The princess insisted, finding herself flinching as a arrow shot her shoulder. However, it'd merely disintegrate before even touching her ivory skin. An effect of the spell, of course. Nevertheless, she knew the two of them were being targeted by an enemy, be it that the challenger was weak or not, it brought attention towards them. Charmeine let out an impatient huff and swung his arm around her shoulder. "See, you're taking too long..!!" She snapped. "I'll drag you across the field if I have to, comrade.."

It seemed Ivan's words had annoyed the girl, evident by the sharp pressure of nails to the flesh, and of course her manner of speech. It seemed that even though they were from other worlds, one thing at the very least was the same. Royalty was arrogant, condescending and an absolute nuisance to deal with.

Having been lifted onto his feet Ivan tried to stand on his left leg without putting to much weight onto it, but it seemed he would have to rely more on this royal figure than he would have wanted. "Dark and dreadful don't exactly sound that bad to me. Sounds better than home anyways." He mumbled as he attempted to decrease his reliance on the girl, by negating some of the gravitational pull. "I decreased the gravitational pull on myself a little bit, I'll admit it's not much, but if I don't want to cause more harm to myself then that's the limit for now." With his free arm he pointed towards the healer that had helped him previously. "That green slime right there, she's a healer. Even if she's too busy healing those in the front lines, it should be far enough away to give time an attempt at healing me."

Charmeine proceeded to slowly, but surely, make her way forward. She scanned the battlefield for any sort of bush, tree, or object that the two could take cover behind. However, she found herself become distracted. Being the hot head she was, Ivan's words would only encourage her more. As he seemed to be considering her punishment, Charmeine rolled her eyes. The comment of his home had made her feel a little empathetic, however, she didn't let up. "You'll surely change your mind after I'm finished with you..." She grumbled, more so to encourage herself than to threaten him.

Suddenly, she found it easier to hold up the warrior, flickering her eyes in confusement. She stopped for merely a few moments as he explained what he had done to help her. Charmeine raised an eyebrow. "The ability to control gravitational pull... impressive..." The whitette commented. "... For a commoner." She added on afterwards. As Ivan pointed the way towards the green slime-like figure, she nodded. "Right... alright, at your own pace." She mumbled, not wanting to go too fast or too slow.

"It's not as much control gravitational pull as much as controlling energy, regardless of where and as what it hides itself." Ivan said unable to resist commenting on her observation. "Anyways we'll have enough time to talk about magical capabilities and anything else later, for now we should get further back before that shield of yours weakens." he said as he carefully made the first few steps towards the green slime. With the added support from the girl and the lowered weight his left leg could support his weight, but just barely. Slowly he made his way towards the healer.

As Anima healed the forces of the nameless she was slowly but surely losing her stamina. Her tentacles took effort to keep held up in prayer and she was secreting a regenerative slime residue from all across her membrane, the residue starting to pool around her as she chanted her prayers.

When she turned she saw the caster she had healed earlier being carried along by what appeared to be some form of angel. It was quite lovely to see really, all she had known of their species was writings from her books and the occasional illustration. She had all the beauty and grace their kind is particularly known for, even past the large armor she wore. Even the armor looked immaculately kept, befitting her image quite nicely. Given her battle attire Anima postulated that the woman might be a Seraphim, one of the angelic guardians tasked with protecting the sun.

Her admiration for the winged warrior could wait however as her immediate concern quickly shifted to the mage who appeared to still be injured despite her healing. "Oh my goodness, You're still hurt! I'm so sorry, I should have known it wasn't enough! Please forgive me, I'll heal you right back to optimum health!" She was extremely apologetic seeing how the man was struggling to even walk on his own. She looked back to the line however and saw all those people who were depending on her to sustain them as they fought back the hordes, diminished by the caster's efforts but not fully abated. She fought within herself a moral struggle as to what she should do.
"I'm very sorry everyone! I'll continue healing you in just a moment!" She apologized to the defending line of nameless before turning back towards the caster as he was carried towards her by his angelic helper. With her focus strained by the drain of her efforts thus far she began to speak aloud the divine prayers, calling forth the divine power awarded to her by the sun in the form of a Heal spell.
As she cast the spell a far brighter halo formed above Ivan's head. It showered down a far brighter cascade of light which suffused his body, mending far better than her lesser variants did. As the spell ran it's course the halo vanished in a gentle flash, the usual way most of her divine healing spells finished. As the spell no longer required her absolute focus the sensation of fatigue hit her quite hard.
She lurched forward and her tentacles just hung in front of her while she drew deep breaths. Her breathing was not from her mouth however, it was all across her body. Her membrane took in air from all around, consuming the hydrogen and breathing out the oxygen byproduct. Her upper torso heaved much like a human's chest would when breathing heavy as a result of the process for breaking down the air taking place close by the nucleus since it was the most important (and only) organ in her body.

It was clear, regardless of one's understanding of slime biology, that her breathing was labored like a runner after a hard sprint around a running track. The fatigue of using so much of her internal energy for this much casting was starting to gain on her. She was determined to continue healing no matter what as she could not fail these bold, noble warriors who looked to her to keep them from falling to the onslaught of the shadow warriors but the task seemed more daunting with every heal she cast. The waves of enemies seemed endless, a truly Sisyphean trial designed to break them no doubt.

The situation was bad, and it seemed to only be getting worse. Even with his allies pushing themselves so hard, the number of shadows still remaining could be exaggerated to being infinite, although that clearly wasn't the case. While Shane had mostly been using simple attacks, which were barely demanding, he could tell that many of his allies were starting to get exhausted, heck, even his hands were starting to feel quite warm after each attack. "I guess it's time to get serious, huh" he muttered under his breath, feeling a sense of agreement, and maybe even excitement, from the Ashling inside him. With that signal, something switched in Shane's head, he was now focusing his attention fully on the enemies, instead of splitting it between them and his allies like he had been doing previously.

Bringing his arm upwards, Shane started to charge up his next attack, gathering an immense amount of heat, so much so that anyone in the area would be able to notice a sudden drop in the temperature. Shane was definitely starting to feel the "Backfire" now, his whole body burning up as though he had a fever, but for the purpose of this attack he had to endure it, show no sign of weakness or instability, otherwise he would cause a catastrophe. "Just a little longer now... You ready to cover for me?" Shane spoke as the Ashling's body manifested, climbing out of Shane onto the ground, now half his height. When it had finished climbing out of Shane he felt a sting around his left shoulder, most likely a burn caused by the Backfire of summoning the Ashling. "Maybe I can't do this" he started to think for a split second, quickly clearing the thought from his mind, he couldn't let the Backfire get out of control.
Having received another heal from the slime Ivan felt the strength return to his leg. Carefully he took his arm of the girls shoulder, testing to see if his leg was strong enough to take his weight when walking. Fortunately, it indeed was, but the slime on the other hand didn't look too good. It seemed the strain of being the only healer had taken it's toll on the slime. "Don't worry so much about me, worry more about yourself." Ivan snarled to the slime like a father to his child.

Looking at the almost featureless slime he sought a way to help the creature, so she could hopefully help the others. Without any muscles or organs it seemed unlikely that she suffered from a physical fatigue like one would expect with a human, like the build-up of lactic acids or general muscle strain. It seemed far more likely that she was suffering from was more a form of exhaustion than anything else, and her breathing an attempt to extract whatever energy she could from the air.

Ivan looked at the crystal in his hand once again. It had grown from the redirected energy that he had taken straight from his own gravitational pull. He could try an energy transfer, there should be no problem using it, but then again he hadn't done it on anyone that wasn't at least humanoid. He walked to the side of the slime and stretched both arms aimed towards the core of the slime. "I'm going to try something, if you feel any unease or pain tell me immediately. Wouldn't want to cause any harm trying to give you a boost of energy. I am going to start with a very low transfer rate and slowly increase it until I reach my stable maximum." Ivan said as he slowly let a small trickle of energy flow into the slime.

A few moments later Shane had decided that for his plans, the large amount of heat orbiting his hand would be enough. "Lets go" He commanded his Ashling, voice full of solemness, As he got down from the barricade. Immediately the Ashling started running through the battlefield, Shane following closely behind. Being for the most part just a body of heat, the Ashling was able to quickly and easily deal with many of the shadows that attempted to attack it and Shane, simply burning or melting through them with it's strikes, but it still wasn't enough to keep Shane entirely safe, and he took a few light wounds, just scratches, which Shane cauterized with his right hand. Every time he did so however, the pain was immense, and if it weren't for the fact that he had experienced death twice then he would likely be howling it out.

Finally he reached a good spot, where what he was about to do wouldn't put his allies in harm. In a swift motion he crouched to the ground, planting his left hand on it, sending the heat orbiting through the ground. The immense amount of heat turned the ground in a large area in front of him into magma. It was only about knee-deep, but It was still a rather large obstacle, and many Shadows were already burning in the pool. Upon getting back up, Shane realized the cost of his actions, as every part of his body, burned and beaten, screamed in agony. Noticing the attention he had gathered, Shane started to make his retreat, every step back, every movement, felt like an attack. After what felt like an eternity of pain, Shane had finally made it to safety. He had several cuts over his back and arms, his whole body was burnt and red, and he could barely walk, but he was alive, and most of these wounds would leave minor scars. "Maybe I overdid it..." He mumbled, as the Ashling climbed back into his body, relieving a bit of the stress on Shane.
Amidst the chaos, the burning, the flying limbs and clang of steel, all would became silent. The metal of the fallen, armor, spears, swords and weapons of all kind would screech through it all, twisting and spinning into wicked barbed spines and bending towards the sky to form a cloud of death, and suddenly the battlefield below would become the focus of the few shadows who lived. Each turning to stop as The Nameless themselves halted their assault in suit, both in apprehension of the reaction and in curiosity when a resounding boom shot through the arena below, a white-steel object flashing across the horizon towards the hill in a shockwave of oranges and yellows, the shadows seemed to sense it, this would make or break their leader's battle.

Below the earth would shatter and pounce at the object, spines, blades, all sorts would batter and change the metal-mans trajectory until a wall of earth, almost a fist, would rise up to catch him with a shattering crash, morphing into a walled platform as a torrent of water slammed to fill the gap, twisting and whirling visibly as it was bent to crush the man below, the display interrupted by the screech of steel as it leaped forward, sailing through the sky in it's cloud until it fell as if by the wrath of god's onto the platform, littering the area with the spines in an endless torrent of destruction. Beneath the onslaught the platform shifted, becoming sharp, spined, claw-like, metal snaking along it's base in small needles to add to the attack until they coated the base entirely in their molten-fury.

As the onslaught continued, the water gained height, forming into a twisting maelstrom, the wrath of the sea incarnate as it formed to it's peak, twisting up once more before crashing down in a torrent meant to leave nothing left, the platform and the earth below cracking and fissuring under the pressure. As within the metal-storm a light began to grow, a glowing orange sun that began at the apex of the cloud and increased in speed and brightness as it drew nearer and nearer to the platform, roaming through the steel as the sun became a blur, a colossal star torn from the sky fading in and out of the steel. Then the star died, and the utter deafening silence returned to the plane of war, until the clang of steel, of shattering earth and crushing tides returned anew only to be silenced by a howling explosion of light, the supernova blooming into a flower of noise and heat, of light as the earth stretching up the hill and into the unforeseen horizon was ran through with cracks and crevices under the pressure, the earth parting way to allow the nova to pass, the shadows that remained quaked for a moment and then simply fell to pieces, no arms or armor left of those who were felled by the impact, no harm befalling those who had fought them, completely cleansed by the light.

Then all was gone, a cloud of dust left behind to settle until it too was blown away by the resounding shockwave, at the base of the hill stood four people, one of them had began in the middle of the explosion and now worked his way towards the three who stood behind a barricade of earth, a man with raven black hair. An orange haired girl, a man of swords and a young naval girl stood before him, they seemed to talk for a moment, and then the orange haired girl lay down to sleep, the man of raven hair began to pick his way past the corpses of the shadows felled before his assault as they slowly floated into the breeze like black wisps of sand. Eventually he made his way to the top and stood before the assembly, The dozen Nameless saluted him in a joking manner and then went about clapping each other on the back, laughing, joking, congratulating, the family love extending to the new-comers dependent on how they'd been shown to be during the fight, restraint and formality shown to Charmeine in respect.

Eventually the congratulations ended and the wide-grinned leader stood before the assembly "What a battle that was! I thank you all for staying and fighting, for being with us in our battle, the majority of your fellows left, but I am proud to welcome you all into the fold of The Nameless. You fought bravely, and without you I fear we may have lost brothers and sisters today, we head for the city of Tel'dra where I can explain more and we can get some rest. This was the welcoming committee, but we're not out of the woods yet, Aisha will heal your wounds and get everyone together along with Thedas, Nero will carry anyone who can't walk, on that note, Nero there's a napping tightly-dressed elf down below, go fetch." The leader spoke, his tone turning friendly and jovial near the end as he pointed below.

Among The Nameless line a woman dressed in full red, hair included, and a woman in all white stepped forward, one wielding a palm of flame who chimed "Aisha, hold still losers." in a playful tone, followed by the other who chimed "Thedas! I'll be gentle...if I feel like it. excitedly, a ball of white-lightning in her hands as behind them stood a shadowy monstrosity, humanoid in shape but featureless aside from empty white circles that adorned his face and flowing black hair, red wisped from him momentarily as the blood that soaked him seemed to reject his very existence to follow the dying shadows, he could only be Nero, an unsettling and alien noise resonated from him at the leaders comments, it might have been a chuckle.

Among the joviality, relief and the congratulations after they had beaten the battle Ivan cheered with mixed feelings. This battle had left a particularly bitter taste in his mouth. Having been shown the spectacle of such grand powers, it felt quite humiliating. He on the other hand had been unable to use his power to the full extent, but still how powerful were those who had shown that grandeur? Would he even be able to match up to them if he had been able to use his powers to the full extent? It certainly had fundamentally shaken him, the eternal mages who were regarded as the apex of magic, users of the power of gods trapped in mortal form, yet now shown magic that pales his own in comparison. Certainly he was aware of the possibility of greater magic existing elsewhere, however that didn't lessen the feeling. He hid this dismay he felt, or at least he tried to, not wanting to dampen the mood with his personal conflict.

At the very least he would have to create an artifact to amplify his magic, Ivan had the aptitude arguably even unrivaled in thaumaturgy, however materials would be a bigger constraint, and portability if they were going to travel a lot. While he had time perhaps he could contemplate some designs and create mental blueprints.

Anima bowed her head in apology when the caster admonished her over worrying for his safety the cost of her fatigue. When he transferred his magic over to her instead of causing any pain or harm like he had warned her body greedily absorbed the energy far easier than most humanoids could. Her mass pulled at the energy directed at her like a vacuum, sucking the magical energy up like an extremely capacious sponge. She felt slightly less exhausted as her body metabolized the magic directed to her from the caster.
Before she could respond to his kind gesture however a bright light erupted behind her. Lugging her tired body around she turned to see the battle that was being waged behind her. The leader of the shadows, the metallic figure, was being assailed by potent magic which stirred up all sorts of elemental damage preceded by a brilliant orange sphere which collided with the foe. The light died down momentarily before erupting into an enormous explosion which kicked up a massive cloud of dust in their direction. Quickly she held her tentacles out to hopefully block any debris coming her way out of reflex as she was immersed in the torrent of dust. She could not see as the storm completely obscured her field of vision.

Her entire front half was caked in a thick layer of dust that clung to the residue that was sweat from her body leaving only her eyes visible underneath the mask of dirt and other particulates which were kicked up in the blast. She missed the speech given by the apparent leader of the nameless as the group seemed to identify themselves as while she dusted herself off, sloughing off the regenerative residue which her membrane constantly coated itself with. When she was done she was almost one hundred percent clean, all the dust pooled back onto the ground stuck in the mint green healing substance which had the physical consistency of syrup.
She looked around as everyone started talking and moving amongst other things. She looked a little confused as she just managed to look up and see what was going on well after everything was said and done. She saw that there was no more fighting and the shadows were gone along with their anonymous warlord. Relief started to set in as she realized there was little need for her healing right now, allowing for her to rest the moment. Above all other sensations that ran through her both physically and emotionally exhausted self was the feeling of confusion. Have we won? Why were we fighting in the first place? Where am I? Where are we going? All those questions and more filled her mind as she looked for familiar faces, anything to offset the sensation of being dropped in a completely alien environment with little to no clue as to what anything was or why this all happened. "H-hello?" She asked aloud hoping to find someone to speak to so they could fill her in as to just what was going on.

Charmeine's expression softened as the stranger started to become less and less reliant on her. Although her mind told her to keep supporting him, her arm slowly became limp and returned to her side. The whitette's feet had came to a halt, and her head turned slowly to follow the man's whereabouts. As expected, he had slowly returned to the gel-like healer's side. It was strange watching him walk away. Despite the fact she threatened to torture him for the rest of his pitiful life, she felt secure around him. Perhaps it was all to do with his hair color. The princess broke her gaze and glanced down towards her long, diamond strands of hair? Yes, that was it. No one else had white hair except for the the stranger and herself. It was the only familiar thing she has seen since she had arrived. Charmeine gulped, only to find a lump in her throat. She wondered why only she, out of all the people in her kingdom, was teleported to this very spot.

The young woman had been so lost in thought, she completely forgot about the battle. Quickly, she shook her head and shot her hand downwards, only to have a wave of light engulf her body, and shatter just as soon. Her shield was now down, and she can attack again. Charmeine took in a deep breath, and pointed her weapon. However, instead of shooting, she'd be left in utter shock,
All the enemies, suddenly just swiped off the land. It all happened in the matter of two minutes. Impossible! Even so, there was not a figure to be seen for miles. Before she could even process the fact the fighting was over, a gigantic wave of dust was making its way towards the group. It had already hit her when she ducked her head into her arms. And no sooner did it hit her, it was over. Like everyone else, her first reaction was to wipe her eyes and spit out the dust that had made its way into her mouth.

The whitette picked up her head cautiously as she heard the leader projecting his speech across the field. Her eyes narrowed. He talked about moving towards a new area. No, no, she wanted to return home immediately! This should have been over, she fought! What else was she left to do? The princess rolled her eyes in annoyance and crossed her arms, only to feel a strange... sensation that was not skin, but at the same time it was. Charmeine glance down to her arms, only to have the real drama begin...

Charmeine finally broke out of her aggravated state, and looked over herself. Her sapphire eyes widened with sheer horror. Her hair, her arms, her legs, her torso, her apparel, just about her whole body but her eyes and mouth was covered in a layer of dust. After only merely a few moments of silence, she let out a high-pitched scream and furiously dusted herself off. She felt herself shudder constantly, squealing and whining helplessly like a child who just burned their hand. However, this may not be too noticeable since everyone now was doing their own thing, whether it be socializing or cleaning themselves off.

She violently scratched at her hair, desperate to get rid of the dust. She'd have to give up eventually, for she had only cleaned up about 80% of herself before realizing the rest will not come off until she bathes. Seeing the situation now, who knows when that'll be.
In the corner of her eye, she caught the sight of the healer that had healed the stranger. Charmeine frowned. It was as if she were not affected by it whatsoever! She just stood there, shiny and green as ever! It amazed the princess, yet pissed her off as well. The whitette slowly stretched her wings to beat the dust out, gathering herself up once more before doing anything else.

Now sitting by the barricade refusing to move thanks to the pain of several burns, Shane wouldn't stop staring at the amazing sights in front of him. He could see the strength of his "allies" as the combo-attack played out before him. It was when a huge amount of water crashed into the "enemy" that Shane found himself truly shocked. This pure liquid, a resource so valuable and rare to him that only the most powerful of creatures on his home could create it. Could it be that these people have a god amongst them? They were surely a god he decided, the only thing he was able to compare them to being children's stories about their worlds mother, whose body was said to be covered in liquid. He sat there, lost in wonder and thought, not even noticing at first the huge wave of dust that for a moment completely blocked his view, which he simply wiped off his face as if it were nothing.

As the celebrations began, and the man, who presumably had a leader sort of role here, started his speech, Shane found himself paying little attention, only hearing small bits here and there. Instead, Shane was looking around trying to find the one who used such amazing powers. But what would they look like? would they have an appearance similar to that of the Mother's? would they look normal? unusual? big? small? would they even be visible? Searching the group with these thoughts in his head, he realized just how unusual and varied they were.

Kira bristled in annoyance, both at herself upon needing to be rescued by the very man she'd so recently shown off her strength too, and at the arrival of a little /girl/ who'd just breezed through the army she'd been cut up by in her panic, arriving simply to order them around. The nerve!, but she had a point...and a plan...she'd have to listen for now, but after this someone was going to get a serious time-out. Kira pulled herself together and kicked a shadow in the ribs that had gotten in her way as she helped make a path back to the fight, bringing up a spike on the floor for it's head to impale upon as it fell and continuing in her run beside the metal-man, and as she suddenly stopped and he continued forward she knew attention would be drawn to her, and she exploited that for her purpose. "Did you just make a PUN, while rescuing me? Is now really the time?!" She complained, a grin spreading to her features as she ran to catch up, sliding to a halt beside what she was sure to be the squad that dragged her into her death.
Wayland chuffs in laughter as Kira comes up beside him. Smoke, and cinders billowing out with every puff of the rough laughter. Grinning cheekily he responds as they come to a halt "You'd prefer if I cut to the chase?" Kira simply rolled her eyes in response and nudged him in the ribs, looking to attention as the nameless leader turned to them, rolling his own eyes after the fact.

He stood attentive for a moment, listening to the girl's proposal with a grin, rushing forward to fend off one of the armoured man's blows, fist colliding with ebony as the two parted ways and the leader slid back beside the group. "You guys've got guts I'll give you that, if you can handle the set-up I'll keep him busy and start gathering some anger to take this guy out in one swing, something tells me metal-man is gunna give me plenty of cause." He said, offering a reassuring smile and rolling his shoulders as he charged back into the fray, Kira putting up a half-wall of rock between them and the fight as the resounding shockwaves battered the defense as the two collided and parted over and over.

"So.." Kira began "If we batter him down, I can't make a hole big enough to land him in, but if we make a platform I can shift it's direction so you and boss-man can smash him in the water, if we can somehow pin him down...we might not die."
"Not really what I was hoping for," Elena shrugged, watching closely as the two fought each other, "but whatever goes will go. As long as it works, it doesn't matter what we do." She continued to eye the elf girl suspiciously in the meanwhile, taking note of her collar. Now that's interesting, she thought. Usually they're the ones to lead others around in chains.

Wayland watches as the leader and the great automaton fight. The strength of their blows almost more than he can fathom. He braces himself against the shockwaves, feet set perfectly shoulder width apart, unconciously he slides in front of the two women blocking some of the force.

Looking upon the leaders weapon is like gazing upon the sun. It's past one of light and fighting eternally for the sake of all existence. The visions race through his very spirit lifting him up with their light. His opponent on the other hand - before he'd been too busy fighting to truly delve into the history of the enemy commander, now, as he gazes upon him ----
White noises drowns out his thoughts, tearing through his mind. Static begins to overtake his vision as he physically sways forward, catching himself by stepping, his perfect balanced interrupted. Molten blood drips onto the ground as what passes for a blood vessel burst in his left eye, letting the molten blood ooze down his face.

A voice rings out in his head as the scenes of slaughter and depravity committed by KH4.Z1X race through his mind, no, not a voice. Hatred, malice, malignity, vengeance, evil, evil, evil... He knows, it's a designation not a name. Ingrained in him now, stamped into his existence. Wayland had looked upon the abyss, and now, the abyss was looking back. He struck back against it, as the blackness roars into the core of his being. The place where all knowledge is stored, black like cancer attempting to overwrite his existense into another hunter, another puppet of its will.

The black was met by a roar of fire and the clashing of a thousand blades, burned by fire forged in existence and quenched in eternity. I am - we are - his identity, his soul, the core of his being rebelled against the black, it was but a shadow of a shadow, moonlight reflected on a lake seen through a mirror, but the strength of the lord - as he knows it, as it made itself known - was so vast, how do you fight hatred, how do you kill malice. His spirit strains under the onslaught, but he does - not - bend, more was at stake than he could comprehend, and with a final strain, a roar, fury and death, a thousand, thousand blades, and something more, something like life - creation - he pushes the presence from his being.

Back in reality the events of his soul took an instance of an instant, and he falls to a knee, twin swords held like canes the only thing keeping him falling, molten blood flowing freely from his eyes. He grits his teeth. I am Wayland Smith, beast, he thinks. Don't forget it.
"I can see it." He grits out, his mind/soul still reeling from brushing up against such utter evil. "I can see the path to victory."

Frowning, Elena planted her anchor into the ground and put one hand on her lip, looking down at the metal man. "Um. . . are you sure? I think the only thing you're seeing right now are your own melting eyeballs. You might want to get that checked out."
"Yeah..I'm with tiny...you alright?" Kira asked in concern, putting a hand on his shoulder and straining for a moment as she tried to as tenderly as she could, reconstitute the metal leaking from his eyes and put them back in the right place.

He stands with no small amount of effort, twin blades digging into the earth as he pushes down on them to aid himself, the sound of his joints straining like nails on a chalkboard, but stand he does, tall and proud, emitting unyielding confidence. [colo=Maroon]" its armor is adaptive, it will change to best suit whatever it is defending against, our best bet is to overwhelm it all at once"[/color]

For a brief moment, the armored man's course changed from the leader to Wayland, his taint screaming to crush the intrusion of the forge-man and his glowing eyes beneath his helm would meet his quarry, before an armoured fist crashed into his helm and he went barreling into the ground, a crack forming in his helm under the surprise attack, and for the first time, a horrific alien roar would tear through the battlefield from the man, and then his silence would return, forced to return to his original target.

"Keep screaming you abomination," Wayland mutters. He'd heard it before. Inside his very soul. It didn't have the same effect out loud. Kira backed off and furrowed her brow, frowning slightly in annoyance, and fear at the horrific screech "What was that...what happened?...I-I guess that'd explain why boss-man can't scratch him...if we can nail him into the water-pocket and barrage him with our elements, then we can set him up for boss-man to enter the barrage for a final hit...if it works..even if you're wrong nothing should survive that." Kira offered, panting in between words and trying to hold herself together under the stress of her overdrive.

Glancing over to Kira, Elena raised a brow. "You don't look too good. Why don't you take a step back and let us wear him down until you're ready to do your part?" Kira shook her head in response and took a step forward, but then upon coughing up a small piece of blood as a particularly violent shock went through her she begrudgingly nodded and sat down, still panting under the strain but looking significantly relieved.
Wayland looks sharply at Kira as she speaks of him possibly being wrong, his head whipping in her direction, his voice a raspy whisper."I'm not wrong, I know him. It will work.", He eyes the two women, both looking at him like he might die at any moment.

"You're almost out of juice." He states plainly to Kira as she sits down on the ground. "Don't move, I'm going to help." With that he starts to reach for the back of her collar. Kira flinches and slides away from him, looking at him with complete confusion and annoyance, before taking deep breaths and closing her eyes, shifting back towards him know they're too short on time for her hatred for touching. "Hurry up......and thanks." She grunted.

He nods though she can't see, "This might pinch," He states, carefully taking a pair of the ragged wires, looking at them carefully. Comparing them to the blueprint in his head he crosses them quickly one after another, sparks dance across and in between his fingers as electricity surges through the device. "That should give you a few more minutes." His work done he slowly steps away.

Around the same time, Elena shifted her attention to the battle between the two leaders, resting her anchor on her shoulder. "Well, I'm not being very useful standing around here, am I?" she muttered to herself. She kept a close eye on their two movements, following their motions to the last detail - when it seemed like the armored warrior was about to parry a powerful looking attack, she used that split-second window to slam her anchor into the ground. As the ground splintered, a geyser of water blasted outward and traveled erratically toward the two combatants, splitting the ground apart as it lined itself to be directly behind the armored man's next step.
Kira grunted at the collar being 'fixed' and felt her energy return somewhat, just in time to look up and see the armored foe enveloped in the geyser, stumbling back and leaving just the right opening for boss-man to rush in, sword flaring as it swings horizontally to meet his foes chest, exploding in a colossal shockwave to send the armored man flying towards the group, apparently now was the time for that plan of theirs. Kira stood in a rush and swept her hand forward a variety of spines and rock ramps appearing to batter and disorient him before bringing up the afore-planned platform, careening it to catch the flying foe with a crash. "Do or die time I guess, go for broke!" She cheered.

Leaving the anchor where it lay, Elena conjured a large torrent of water, sending it rushing into both the indentation in the ground and their target until he was completely submerged. Before he could move further, Elena swiftly changed her hand motions, opening her palms and swinging her arms to opposite sides - the body of water reacted in turn, rapidly increasing in downward pressure to trap the armored warrior at the bottom of the improvised pool.

Wayland Sighs. Smoke whispering out of his nose as he surveys the battle, he tosses the two blades he had made earlier to the ground, they would not avail him now. They'd need to end it soon, he knew that much. Had seen it. The monstrous adaptability the great metal beast held. Wayland reaches into his vest pocket. Growling at the slight tremor running through his hand, angered by his perceived weakness, furious at the dark, hateful of their enemy. His enemy, for he would not rest until the great Lord, the monstrous abomination he had brushed up against was dead, tore apart at his feet, and the pieces burned until not even ashes remained.
"Damn..." He grunts in irritation. His cigarretes cut in twain by one of the errant blades that had impaled him earlier. He crushes the bifurcated package in his hand, willing it to burn, letting drift to the ashes to the ground. He let's his powered flow into the battlefield around him. Heat spreads, as his body temperature rises, the water on the ground near him begins to steam, and his clothes start to smolder. He splays his arms wide, palms up his fingers pointing to the sky, as he reaches for the swords and armor of every fallen shadow a snarl burst from his sneering lips, and his knees bend as if he is lifting a great weight.

The armor of their defeated enemies twist off the fallen bodies into jagged spikes. The tips barbed so they will anchor into whatever they pierce, swords and spike rise into the air together. Arraying themselves in the air around him. He stands among a sea of steel, the sound of the hammer in his head striking so fast it is almost like a single long note.
No words are spoken. No witty repartee uttered. He simply swings his arms forward violently as if to clap them, roaring In fury, in hatred as he does. He knows the one they are trying to kill. Knows what it is, what it serves. It could not be allowed to live, and as his arms move inward the sea of steel screams forward as well.

As the steel warped and twisted its way into spikes to impale their enemy, Kira clenched her fists together and slammed one foot into the ground, the earth re-forming into crushing claws to pin and crush the arms of the metal beast as the floor became a fine carpet of needles, molten metal rising from cracks in the earth to leech in billows of steam across the needles and through the monsters armour. Armour that was desperately trying to adapt to the assault of attacks, the tiny hexagonal plates that constituted the piece changing in colour to blue, then brown, red, then back to white steel, different portions of his armour flickering into each colour as it strained against the assault and it's constraints, smashing through an earthen claw to free his arm just as the first droplets of raining steel pierced him. From within the armoured monsters helm his sensors hopelessly attempted to lock onto a single point, confused and overwhelmed by the vast quantity of separate projectiles as they pierced it's armour and the needle earth below, leaving room for water to flow in along with molten steel to burn and crush it's inner workings as cracks flowed across it's metal shell under the pressure. Within the rain of twisted metal the nameless leader roamed, leaping from the falling projectiles towards his target, slowly growing in speed and ferocity as he neared the trapped monstrosity, burning brighter and brighter until within the floating steel was the blur of what could only be described as a sun all of it's own.

As the enemy leader was barraged with a myriad of attacks, Elena slowly moved her hands in circles in front of her, the water around him gradually wrapping around and coalescing upwards into a pillar. The volume of the column increased seamlessly, growing and growing as she added more and more to the growing tower. As it grew higher, so did the weight that pressed on her armored target, steadily maintaining the heavy pressure manipulation of the water, the current swirling down on him in a tight spiral. When she felt that it had reached its peak, she stopped moving her arms around and suddenly brought her fists down - the water tower did not increase in pressure, but rather directly moved downwards as a single mass with such force that it splintered the earth beneath him, further increasing the depth of the crater and tearing the crack's in his armour into nigh-fissures, pieces of metal forced down to join the molten-steel tendrils.

As the metal man was torn asunder, impaled, burned and crushed, within the hail of steel the flare of a new sun suddenly died out and silence fell upon a field still at war. Within the eyes of the metal beast, spines of metal were overwhelming him until all at once a wild growth of black-hair became focused, framing a grin so wide to be splitting, and then the world went dark. All at once the returning clang of steel, fireballs and crashing earth were drowned out by an explosion of energy, indescribable as anything but a blooming supernova of noise and light, centered on the platform that contained the metal monster. The ground leading up the hill to far stretching in the distance fissuring and cracking under the pressure, whatever remained of the shadows destroyed in it's wake, the water and steel destroyed and sent flying through the skies along with the earth below. Nothing remained of the enemy except for a hole in the ground and a spiraling cloud of dust that dissipated in a single shockwave, revealing a black-haired man with a wide grin, shaking off an orange glow from his metal-encased left arm and kicking his sword up onto his shoulder to stroll back to the rest of the strike team who orchestrated the metal monsters demise, offering a single casual wave and an awkward ruffling of his hair as if to say 'whoops'.

Her anchor still in the ground, Elena leaned on it for support as she braced herself, the resulting wave of energy rippling from the epicenter of the final strike like a bomb had just gone off. As the dust settled, she straightened her back and patted down her rustled clothes, looking up to see the nameless leader approaching them.
"If that blast was any stronger, I'd have started to think that maybe you were trying to kill us, too," Elena said. She set her hands on her hips and surveyed the destruction, the barren hills that stretched on and on around them. "Well. . . what now?"

Wayland is forced to lean far forward to keep from being swept away by the shear force in the leaders attack, the aftershock nearly enough to bowl over the tired Forge. As it passes he stands straight. Letting out a breath of relief as he survey that there is nothing left of their enemy. He allows his core temperature to quickly, and steadily drops to pre-battle temperatures.
He looks down at himself. Surveying the damage to his once fine suit with a sigh as he notes the multiple cuts and rips running across its entirety, grunting in irritation he swats at the still smoking burn marks that could have only been caused by his own power.
"Good riddance." He simply states, nodding in acknowledgement to the leader as he walks back towards them. Snorting at Elena's comment, and nodding at her question. "We should check on those holding the hill, after we've confirmed everyone here is in no danger of dying. So how bout it? Anyone feel like they're going to die?" He asks playfully, eyeing the other members of their little team with a roguish grin, before barking out rough laughs in general good cheer. He personally felt alive, for the first time in a long time.

In cue with the rest Kira brought up her arms in an X to defend herself from the blast and lock her feet into the ground by rock supports, feeling them crumble just at the moment it subsided, panting heavily she dropped onto her butt and sighed, leaning back and looking up at the sky as the others spoke. "Screw that noise, I wish I was dead...aaaw....everything hurts" She complained good-heartedly, grinning widely and stretching out across the ground, flopping her hair over her eyes to protect herself from the glare of the sun.
"Wake me up when we're moving on, if I have to climb that damn hill again you can bet someone's gunna die." She joked heartily, laughing at herself and holding her mouth at an ensuing yawn, closing her eyes in relaxation on the bare earth as the leader decided to ruin it by speaking.

"Sorry for the..well..the boom. Once I get going it's hard to keep in check, but hey, no-one's dead, well except for that guy." He joked pointing behind him to the hole in the ground "and I guess those guys, but nobody important...well maybe they were important, but, not to me!" He cheered with another cheek-splitting grin, cleaning some dirt out of his rough black beard absently as he scratched his chin. "I like you guys, you're my kinda 'key's', I'll pick you up on the way through, gotta hustle if we wanna make Tel'Dra by nightfall. It's not far, and I feel like something's asking us to go there." He mused absently, shrugging and beginning the trek up the long shattered hill, gingerly stepping over shadowy corpses as they began to flow up into the air in a great sea of dark wisps.

Wayland, waried from the battle and finally starting to feel it lets himself relax among his new allies, he checks himself over one last time before calling it good as he could spot no smoldering spots, the pair of women had shown themselves to be reliable allies, he thinks assessing them silently. Going over the battle in his head. Their power was something else, raw manipulation of the elements. That in old times would have had them heralded as goddesses he chuckled at his errant thoughts as the leader approached, waving his apology off as inconsequential. He sits down between Elena and kira, stating loud enough for them both to hear, laying it on thick. "I think drinks are in order. Next town we get to. Would you two lovely ladies do me the honor of escorting me?" He pantomimes a bow, hands held out towards them from his seated position. Money would be an issue he was sure. It always was, and he doubted his home currency would be any use where they were headed, but he'd figure something out. There was probably some gold in his blood if nothing else. Kira lazily bowed her head from her position, not touching his hand at all , though she grinned wide "It'd be a pleasure my good man, drinks are on you!". Elena stared at Wayland's hand, not understanding what the gesture meant. She hesitated for a moment, and then looked up and said, "I'm not paying."

At the peak of the hill, the leader gave his speech. The wounded were healed and the injured carried by some shadowy monstrosity, who promptly closed the gap between the top of the hill and the bottom in seemingly one short step, as if he just shifted between the two places. He looked to the sleeping girl below him and an odd vibration of noise came from his featureless face, like a glitch in a computer system, within it there was a single word "Nero." He gingerly picked her up and draped her carefully over his shoulder, his muscular form surprisingly soft and welcoming under her as she yawned and allowed herself this one time to be touched. "Don't...get used to....fuck it." She yawned out, quickly going back to sleep on the creatures shoulder as he started walking ahead of the assembly at a more normal pace, unhindered by the supplies that suddenly appeared upon him after his first step, nor by his living cargo.

The group walked for what seemed like an eternity, but was merely a few hours, through an endless expanse of wasteland, chatting amongst themselves and joking around, taking a break once or twice to rest up after the draining fight. Kira never left the shoulder of Nero except to eat or change sleeping position on to his other shoulder, conversing with the shadowy figure and anyone who came close enough to hear her. It was a boring journey, and the perfect opportunity for the "Key's" to get to know their summoners.

Tel'Dra, the city on the edge of the world, literally. There were only two entrances, one on either end of the city, each a colossal barrier of intangible magic, returning to the plane only to block intruders. Usually one would have to go through a registration period, but The Nameless parade simply walked through the ethereal barrier to the horror of the guards. Wolfmen, Harpies, Elves and all sorts appeared around the party, fading in as if from nowhere, each holding blade, magic or other deadly combinations at the critical points of all involved. Amongst them a woman in a burgundy combination of samurai armour and a kimono stepped forward, flicking her long black fringe out of her eyes with a grin "You're early this time. Come, Vinn is waiting" she purred to the nameless leader, a finger playfully flicking up his neck and chin as she strode off, hips swaying. The assumed guards dissipated without a trace once more, the parade allowed to continue unabated.

"Next time call ahead, I would have had ale ready instead of blades. I see you've already scrapped with a Lord's vassal...oh interesting...and the shadows. That particular Lord is already active in these parts. They seem to be staying in the background for now, but it's strange for them to be awake so early. Hence the greeting, I figure you've forgotten already so the names Hokyu. This cycle you're not getting any tail, so eyes up front fearless leader." She teased playfully, her golden globes looking directly into the leaders own eyes for a moment. With a chortle she continued to lead on.

If one were to look to the left they'd see an endless abyss of cloud and sky, a slanted earthen barrier leading down to an ethereal wall off the edge of the wide pathway. To the right were buildings of all sorts, and above them past a similar slanted barrier was another pathway much the same. The city seemed to stretch upwards like this into impossibility. "The wall teleports anyone who decides to try and bite it in the abyss to the front gates. It was here before the city, we just bent it to make the city limits too. Each layer of Tel'Dra is the same size as the one before it, they just look smaller or bigger from the other layers, neat huh? Vinn's the kinda guy you can find on any layer, so we'll be going to the first Oasis door, he's been here about as long as there's been a speck of dirt to build on." She answered before anyone could ask, apparently playing tour guide for the group.

She lead them on for another bit, past grand mansions, small shops, all types until she came to a nondescript somewhat battered old building with a neon sign. "Vinn's Oasis!" she chimed, hands on her hips as she waved everyone forward, blowing the leader a kiss before sauntering away. "Vinn's ready for Nero, the newbies and you oh fearless one so you go first. The rest wait 10 seconds and follow. The door will take you where you need to go." She chimed casually, continuing to walk away.

The Nameless Leader blushed and shrugged, heading in through the door which opened to the uproar of a bar, stylish and modern in it's design at first glance, until one crossed the threshold of the door. The reality of the simple everymans bar became obvious as the illusion faded away. Everything was made of wood, and yet oddly enough the waiters and bouncers you'd expect were replaced with small creatures with brown wizard hats and enveloped in over-sized blue robes, their faces nothing more than black-motes with yellow eyes who ran around serving tables, and strange cactus-people who stood stoicly nearby. At the bar itself was one of the small creatures waving enthusiastically. His hat was red instead and sported a stamp on it the shape of a beer mug. The patrons varied from everything one could think of, from all walks of life, making merry or discussing serious matters openly or in private. The bar was really much bigger on the inside, and the various doors around and stairs gave the feel that it could go on forever.

Amongst the waiters and bouncers which were all respectively identical stood out a set of individuals, a deep-red haired man smoking a cigarette behind the bar beside the waving creature, cat ears sticking out of his head and a red tail waving behind his leather-jacket that trailed first an ice-blue trail and then a purple-ish one. A stocky-built cat-eared girl of black hair served tables, her green eyes glowing as soon as she entered a shadowy corner booth. Her stance suggested an air of wildness. Standing opposite one of the Cacti bouncers was a man in all grey bandages aside from his black cargo pants, feet and upper-face. His long black hair reached the back of his knees in a spiky mess and maroon eyes peered out from under the mess to watch the whole room.

The leader sauntered up to the small creature and took a seat on a comfy looking stool, his sword resting on his back vertically, suspended in place by orange rings of energy as it had been the whole journey, the tip touching the floor. Before he could say a word the creature piped in "Welcome to Vinn's Oasis!, I am Vinn, that is also Vinn, and so is he, but not him...much too ugly for one as handsome as I." He introduced, pointing out his identical creatures and then a wolfman in the corner who raised his glass with a chuckle at the comment. "You're early, not that I didn't know you'd be early. I've got your temporary headquarters all set up down the hall. Now I realize that none of your new friends have been properly filled in, nor do you remember enough to be able to fill them in. The resurrection process tends to wipe your memories correct?" He chimed, hopping down off what was apparently a raised platform and pottering behind the counter for a while before popping back up. He laid out 24 coloured cards, each a single solid colour, all of them were stark bare except for a white border.

"Lazul cards, pick one up and they'll tell you everything about yourself that you know and everything you've got, from then on that cards yours. They're made of pure unadulterated mana so breaking one's not a good idea. Fun fact, your name i-" He was abruptly interrupted as he seemed to simply vanish from existence, imploded upon himself. With a shaking head, an identical Vinn came out, struggling to put on his red hat as he clambered up to the bar platform. "Stupid rules...sorry, no spoilers." He grumbled, folding his arms in a huff as he awaited the leader to pick up his card, which he did. Slowly and suspiciously, he lifted the card to his face until a name appeared at the top in orange sharp-edged font "Jecht...It's changing?...Blitz?...what kind of stupid name is Blitz?" The leader grunted, Vinn simply shrugged as if to say 'No spoilers' once more.

The rest of the cards lay on the counter top awaiting to be picked up. 11 disappeared to assuredly finding their way to the rest of The Nameless crew, leaving 12 left. Nero picked up one, his name not appearing for even a moment at the top. At that moment, those who stood out from the rest of the staff stepped forward. The man behind the bar's tail snaked forward to pick one up, skillfully spinning it into his palm and then holding it out for everyone to see. At the top came 'River' in a sandswept yellow, until the sand was overwhelmed by growing ice to turn the letters blue. The bandaged guardsmen appeared as if from nowhere, eyeing up Nero before picking up a card that began to drip blood and then melted away to form a steel-card. The letters of red at the top read 'Lazarus'.

Finally the cat-girl took her place with the rest of the crew. Warily her green eyes flashed over the new faces ,but with a scowl, she too reluctantly spread a black-clawed hand over a card. Jungle plants grew over it revealing the name, Rosa. That left 8 cards for the 7 people that remained, until Vinn ran round the back and shoved out a tall metal-man with his armour buckled in places and scarred: the chest piece had a small orange spot on it that seemed to be shorting out and his helm was cracked. He stepped forward ever so slowly and picked up a card which flashed through each of the four elements that had lead to his downfall: Metal, Water, Earth and an Orange-Energy, until it settled. The card's letters flared in binary and then settled back to a blocky white-steel "KH4.Z1X".

Vinn stepped between the group and the other new crew "I made them all practice that dramatic reveal for daaaays, so worth it...now I know what you're thinking 'Ah!, but random guy we just met, that one guys evil! He tried to eat babies or something. I dunno. I skimmed over the fight if I'm honest," He said casually thumbing towards the metal-man. "But I knew you were coming, so I gathered favours and recruits, and here we are. Forge-guy can do sensy stuff and tell you he's no longer bad news bears. Besides, once you see what I've been setting up for you, you'll owe me enough to take my word for it." He continued, pointing everyone towards the rest of the cards and crossing his arms.

"Come on now, I've got eternity, but you guys haven't quite got that long." He grumped. The one called River waved in a friendly way to Wayland, grinning wide as one would to a friend you'd known for years. Vinn shot him a glare and he looked down embarrassed, and refused to look at Wayland any further. Vinn's Oasis truly was a strange place...and he expected everything to be taken for his word without question.

One hand on the table and one hand in her hair, Elena scratched her head as she looked around and tried to soak in everything that was happening. The first thing she noticed was the abundance of cross-breeds and beast-folk, which caused her to almost instinctively shrink, considering their numbers. She eyed all of them suspiciously, lowering her gaze and hiding a scowl the best that she could. Her eyes swept over to the man who was droning on about something with cards, asking each of them to take one. She nabbed a teal card and flipped it over, revealing a blank face. Water enveloped the card but didn’t spill, covering it in an opaque, murky sea water until it receded back into the card and revealed the name ‘Elena.’ She flipped it back over with her fingers and pocketed the card, observing the various effects that that the others seemed to be having with their own with mild curiosity. She turned away from the table and briefly clasped her hands together. “This is a bar, right? I need a drink here,” Elena said aloud, pointing at the table, “and none of that soft shit.”

Finally they had reached Tel'dra, it made Ivan feel alive. The city buzzed with magic, he could feel it in the air, such a familiar feeling. This place certainly would have the materials he needed to create an artifact with enough potency to be worth carrying. Of course though they had a different destination before they could even think about scouring the marketplace and shops for supplies, to Ivan's annoyance their destination was a bar. The casual and tricksters nature of the owner somewhat made up for it. Much like those who had learned to create multiple existences of themselves at young age back in the college.

Vinn had shown them something called a 'lazul card' An interesting piece of magica if he were to believe his words. Ivan looked carefully as the others picked up these cards and the cards reacted to this. Of course he'd rather avoid contact with such an object and study it with his thaumaturgic tools, looking into what knowledge he could extract from the card, instead of letting the object look into his being. However this didn't seem like the time or the place to start an argument over such things, and so far Vinn had seemed trustworthy enough and so far no accidents had happened.

Ivan stepped forward, ignoring the mention of the girl before him about desiring to flood herself in liquid foolishness. He grabbed an azure card turning it with the blank face upwards in the same motion. Lightning struck the card etching a way over the surface leaving behind black runic characters. 'Ivan' it said, but for those who couldn't read runic it would merely be a set of nice looking characters. Just as he was about to put the card into his pocket the runic characters lit on fire forming a blaze on the card. Equally fast as the blaze had ignited it died down revealing his name 'Ivan', but no longer in runic and in a deep crimson color. He hesitated a second before putting it into his pocket anticipating another surprise, and walking back into the masses.

Wayland marched along like a machine until the group reached Vinn's his mind in a form of turmoil as thoughts spin around and around in his head. He doesn't react to the guards that surround them as they enter the city, doesn't react at all to the numerous warriors that quickly array themselves against them, not batting an eye as he blankly surveys the mass, each of their weapons being catalogued for later, their history stored in the depths of his soul for when he had need of it, it was enlightening. Though he didn't truly realize it, the process was like breathing to him at this point. He learned more about the city they were entering at a glance then most people would in a lifetime. The guards patrols, who's who of their government, who was sleeping with who in the guard, who could fight and who would run, on and on the information tucked itself away and another weapon embedded itself in his being.

A witty reply comes to mind as Hokyu comments to the Leader that he'll get no tail this cycle, -Does that apply to all of us?- the words not quite reaching his lips as he trudges along, a smirk playing briefly across his face before it dies. He'd kick himself later for letting the oppurtunity pass him by, ***** would be dissapointed in him if he found out, he thinks with a fond grin. Before he shakes his head, feeling faint for some reason - who would be dissapointed? The question is like poison, bleeding into his mind, as he can't. Quite. Remember. He gets a faint image of red hair, before static overtakes his thoughts and he has to force himself to remain calm, and that same feeling of loss and shame overtake him again. He ignores it, for now.

Wayland pays the city no mind as they moved along, no to others it might even seem odd that he walked as if he knew where they were going, as if he'd lived in the city his whole life. It was revealed to him through steel. How do you explain that to strangers though? He didn't know, never had figured it out in his home world, and most people just attributed it to natural confidence, and self-assurredness. Soon enough they reached Vinn's Oasis, as the sign proudly declared, the woman - Hokyu - leaving them with some parting words for the leader. The bar was cozy to put it lightly, it was the sort of place Wayland could easily see himself losing hours to, his already relaxed stance loosens further and he finally starts to come back to himself.

His eyes sweep across the occupants of the bar, lingering on the man smoking behind the counter a touch longer than the others. Something about him was familiar, similar in the same way Kira was but he couldn't pin down what that meant. He trusted him immediately, something that was unheard of for him. It bore investigation later on, but he turns away as the static starts up again making him feel sick. Now facing the leader he watches the proceeds as the cards are explained. He watches with a raised brow as one of the Vinn simply ceases to be, and grins as he sees the cards in action, as the leaders name(s) appear on his card they swell in Wayland's mind, he's not surprised he'd known it/them since the first moment he'd lain eyes on his blade, none of that is of note though, simply the way of things, something in him screams however as He looks at the one called River, the one that he trusted without knowing why, red hot vomit rises in his throat as static assaults his mind but he fights it down, forcing himself to move his eyes away, his only sign of discomfort a slight rise in his output of smoke, only those that know him well would know what that meant, and noone here, to his knowledge, knew him like that. Moments later all thoughts of that flee his mind anyway as a not so old enemy is revealed.

KH4.Z1X A name he'd thought them through with, but one glance revealed a curious lack of taint, and he snorts at Vinn's way of speaking, nodding at those that look to him to vet the machine man, it was true he was no longer their enemy, but their was a curious lack of information in him as to why that was. He stares at the red-head - River - As he waves, grinning like he knew him. Unsure, again, why the gesture seems so familiar, he isn't disturbed by the familiarity, in fact something inside him feels as if he has come home as he stands among these people, and yet another part can feel nothings but shame and loss, the odd feelings don't fade. Thankfully the static is lessened, though he doesn't know why. He let's the comforting noise of hammer on anvil soothe him, let's flame consume his mind as he observes the odd byplay between Vinn and River, unsure on how to react for now he resolves himself to get a card, then he'd see about getting some answers.

Swords, of course it was swords. Dozens of them, hundreds clashing together, their points locking together like teeth as he picks up the card, layers upon layers of them make up the card, the background like clashing blades and colored in the fire that forged them. His name flashes across the top of the card, again and again, more times than he can count it appears shatters then reforms, every time in a different script, a different style of writing or a different language entirely, sometimes languages he didn't know, but he knew it was his name. Knew it like he knew the sun would rise, or the moon would set. It was a certainty, and it was unsettling. finally after far too many different itterations and styles to count it settles. The final name burning itself into the swords, written in the glowing embers of molten steel, the style jagged and almost broken. WAYLAND. For some reason it's less than reassuring.

Shane had seen so many new, crazy and weird things in this new world that, to be honest, he felt like a young boy again, only just starting to see the world. It was actually quite exhausting, one surprise after another(It's not every day you see a water god he thought), and all he wanted was a break. Upon arriving at Vin's Oasis Shane started to worry that he may never get a break, but to his surprise, the place had a strange familiarity to him. It reminded him of home. In Utopia there were many bars and taverns, places where war-torn, scarred, and hopeless men could come together and drink their pains away. But even beyond that, Shane felt almost as if he'd been here before, or somewhere very similar. He couldn't tell why, maybe it was the cactus people, a creature very common to utopia, maybe it was something more, All he really knew was that it felt familiar.

Even the way Vin spoke seemed familiar to Shane, however with zero understanding as to why, he simply decided that it must be similar to the way bartenders at home spoke. Once Vin was done speaking, and after seeing the reactions these cards created, Shane was getting eager to grab his own. He casually approached the counter top and looked down at the cards. After looking at them for a short second, he decided on which card he wanted and picked it up. The second Shane touched the card, it's surface was quickly flooded by dry yellow sand. It stayed like that for a split second, and after Shane started to get bored with it, it suddenly changed, the sand transforming into black ash grain by grain, but at a very rapid pace.

As soon as all the sand was transmuted, a swarm of small embers appeared at the top of the card, and danced joyfully down, intricately burning away parts of the ash surface to leave a bright glowing orange, like molten metal. As they moved further down, the glowing orange formed "Shane", and below it what appeared to be the start of a crudely drawn screw, however, upon getting about halfway down the card, without finishing the screw, the embers suddenly and violently withered away into a tiny puff of smoke. "Awww, what a rip-off," He said jokingly, pocketing the card. That symbol really got to Shane, He could remember that it belonged to the army he once lead, and in that sense, it was very important to him, but he couldn't help but feel there was something else he wasn't remembering, something that seemed way more important. In actuality, as he thought about it, he realized that he hardly remembers any of his time spent in the revolutionary army. Scared by this thought Shane subconsciously clutched his scrap-metal necklace in his hand.

It had been akin to a roller coaster ride for her. In what seemed like such a short amount of time she had seen so much, experienced so many things it was staggering. From the fright of their reception to the strange curiosity regarding the enigmatic warrior Hokyu to the marvel of witnessing a city of grand dimensional magic she had little time to even register what she was supposed to be feeling. It all culminated in their arrival at the strange yet oddly humble inn simply known as 'Vinn's Oasis'. Much talking transpired, the various characters around this bar introducing themselves and speaking amongst each other on the matter of their arrival.

Lazul Cards, strange badges of sorts as explained by Vinn, the eccentric entity wearing a rather large hat like the rest of these entities that seemed to go by the same identity. While his mannerisms might of been somewhat unusual, though unusual carried little weight by this stage of her adventure, the fact that him and all the other like-minded him's that attended bar all looked and acted similar if not the same was not all too unusual for her. Slimes frequently resembled the bodies from which they split from and since most slimes were greatly limited in intelligence they all acted pretty close to the same as well.

As Vinn handed out these cards like the good little slime she was she did as she was told and took a card for herself. Now, given as she had no textile grip nor digits to hold the card with she wholly expected the card to slip from her noodly grasp but the magic of the card went into motion. The card went completely limp and it's loose form wrapped around her tentacle before slithering along the length of it up onto her body where it stuck itself right on the upper torso, much akin to a name tag. The ocean blue surface of the card began to shift as though something were disturbing it's shape, images of bubbles stirred from this motion and traveling up the card. She looked down and watched as what appeared to be a golden sun pendant floated up within the water, slowly coming to stop as it reached the top of the card. In a flash the sun expelled a golden light from the pendant which formed into letters written in the form of her creator's handwriting. The light spelled out Anima, Lumen.

Just as the card seemed finished undergoing it's graphical update as the other cards had done a brief shadow passed across the background of the card as though a shapeless form had moved across in the background. That briefest moment, that flash of shadow cast over her fluid card sent a shiver throughout her jelly as a foreboding omen now hung in her mind. It was so brief that one could of blinked and missed it but all it needed was just a moment, a glimpse at something more than she already knew, something unknown yet uncomfortably close or so it felt.

With that done she looked up to the rest of the nameless in the room, especially to those she had familiarized herself with during the trek to the city. She had little reason to fear right now so she cast the doubt from her thoughts, placing her mind back in the present. She looked about at how the other cards formed out, her own card still clinging to her chest like it was glued on. She had many questions on her mind, too many to be asked in one sitting to be sure. She made note to ask about how all these things she's seen so far functioned so that she at some point might be able to study and perform similar feats of magic as the ones she's seen along the way.

Kira held out her palm and the card flew into it, blooming into a vine card, surrounded by a royal gold border before with a glare from her shattering into pieces, reforming with a flick of her wrist from the floor into a card of pure steel. In scrawling red velvet began to snake a name "Ke-" before she shattered it again, her visage cold and expressionless as it reformed, this time bisecting the flowing velvet and forcefully scribed her own name into the metal by will "Kira". She grinned at the name, but the grin was hollow to anyone who saw her, and there was an emptiness in her eyes that had never been. She grimly looked to her left and saw a flitting shadow sprint towards the entrance, with a sigh she flicked her wrist and the card flew through the air, cutting through the air like a knife to stick into the familiar shadow soldiers spine, but it kept running.

She began to run after it only to have Vinn appear before her along with the one called Lazarus and KH4, the latter two were holding blades of steam and blood to her neck and the former was blocking her way with an open palm. "You know how this goes.." The bartender warned, but Kira wasn't listening and the sound of a button clicking signed her ticket. The girl called Rosa stood up, curling her upper lip in a snarl that exposed very sharp teeth including a pair of impressive fangs. After picking up that card, her black claws retracted, but now she extended them again, hunching her upper body, poised to spring on the blade-wielders holding the strange orange-haired girl.The three brought up their defences in response and leaped back, but as they moved they realized their mistake. The clicking did not signal her attack, but her escape. With nary a single piece of dust she was gone and the door of the bar was removed from it's hinges. When the other girl realized no one chased after Kira, she relaxed her shoulders, but remained standing with exposed claws.

She found herself in a forest far outside of Tel'dra in an instant, staring at the shadow soldier in front of her, she flicked her wrist once more and the card shattered, splintering the shadow into a mess of a corpse on the floor as it reformed between her fingers. Her eyes slowly diluted to a crimson red as the white tips of her hair grew like tendrils through her locks, her card flew from her hand and spun around the forest, eventually hitting someone, or rather something, with a clang. From behind a tree came out a human-sized thing in black and red armour, wisps of shadow trailing to him from the splintered corpse, he held the card between two fingers and tossed it back from where he stood, the other end of the forest.

The trees splintered and shattered under the force and Kira caught it on the other side as the woods erupted, and then they stood in a clearing where once stood a forest, the hundreds of mutilated corpses that had hung from their necks from each tree crushed under the debris to form a crimson meeting plane. The two stared at each other for a moment; and then without a word ,the creature threw a card of shadow at her which she then caught in turn. Smiling down at the piece, she nodded and read its contents, opening her palm and tweaking her wrist to face her as her "Broken" collar mended itself. The shadow card melted from her hands and the two departed, Kira to the bar, the creature, to the unknown. Without a word the girl returned and took her place by the assembly, and Vinn said nothing more about her disappearance, and under his roof, none of The Nameless questioned it either. Rosa wasn't so quiet. "What was that about? " she asked both Vinn and Kira.

Kira shrugged and spun her card on her fingertip absently "I found an enemy, I killed it, end of story." She answered nonchalantly, Vinn glowered at her but looked to Rosa with a sigh "It's just as she said...I wasn't sure she could handle it and I was wrong." He grunted out before turning to the rest of the group. "Alright everyone, head through that back door, except for you Kira, River, we have things to discuss, and Elena, free reign behind the bar." He said, a stern tone in his voice until the end as he hopped down from his stand and beckoned to the flimsy wooden door behind the bar. Rosa raised her eyebrows, but decided it best not to argue or comment any further and led the way toward the door.

The door swung open easily, and as the first entered into the adjoining identical room it began to warp like a rubber wall around the group until eventually it seemed to simply break. The wall torn as reality poured in through the illusion and the group were greeted by long grass and dirt underneath their feet. If one were to turn around the door would be gone, and instead there'd be nothing but open air and sky, beneath them would be the flowing earth that marked their location as the top of a grass hill much like the one they'd arrived on, surrounded on all sides by the open plains. Sitting by a strange black box about the size of an average man were the rest of The Nameless, drinking and feasting in a circular camp ground, Hokyu was amongst them surrounded by men offering her food, wine, riches, all obviously quite pickled. On one side of the camp sat a group of more reserved individuals, they partook in the cheers and grinned as madly as the rest, but when it came to drink and meal they were nothing if not insistent on table manners, and their part of the camp was sprawled with books and scrolls. Thedas was among them and Nero followed to sit by her side, she immediately gave him a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek before returning to studying an ancient looking tome, the chuckling noise warbled from him again as he draped his arm over her.

The Nameless leader, Blitz, made his way to Aisha and Hokyu, sneaking quietly around the various tents that had been pitched before picking them both up in a tackle, holding his prizes with a roar that set the entire camp hooting and cheering and left the two girls grinning and flailing in mock-protest. He dropped them both back on the ground, before being knocked off his feet by a snaking lizard tail which created another uproar of laughter. Drink was passed to him and he took his seat amongst his fellows, relaxing and celebrating. Somewhere within the encampment music played, folksy dancing music, and up stepped Hokyu and Blitz to dance, Blitz bowed low and she feigned deep thought before pulling him to her and taking the lead. Nero and Thedas joined soon after, Nero spinning her from him at an impossible distance, she twirled elegantly each time, her white robe flowing as she spun nearly to the other side of the camp as Nero's arm continued to grow and grow and grow before she stopped and he snapped her back in an instant to press tightly against him. The couple laughed and continued their insane dance as others followed Hokyu and Blitz's lead.

Others stood on the sides and clapped in time with the tune, which was revealed to be coming from a regally dressed young man with blonde hair named Reynor, sitting by his pile of scrolls and playing a guitar that made such impossible noises, his hands moving at an equally impossible pace along the magical instrument to create the orchestra of a band. Flutes, lutes and all were played with enchanting duress and joviality. A certain red-headed pyromancer named Aisha stood at his side and bowed low in mock awe at his skills and offered her hand to him in dance, and with a grin he took it, and suddenly there were two of him. One held the hand of the beautiful mage before him and spun together with her in a circle, clapping and trading places with her in a fast-paced jig while the other continued its insane pace to play the night away. His blue coat flapping with each movement and his thick fine boots clicking together as he danced with the red dressed pyromancer.

KH4 immediately jumped in without hesitation, offering his hand to the black-scaled lizardman in mid-drink called Dominic who looked intensely amused by the act before grinning his sharp-toothed grin and getting up to dance side by side with the armoured creature. The mood was celebratory, lively, and everything The Nameless stood for. River slid his way in front of Charmeine and bowed low in proper etiquette, coming up with hand outstretched to her "Princess d'Autriche, I humbly beseech you to allow me a single dance with such a divine and beautiful woman as yourself, it would by an utmost honour." He said with a flourish, his leather jacket mysteriously discarded to leave him in his tight white tee, physically he was an Adonis and his eyes promised everything one would ever need, and more. The armoured creature known as KH4 observed them for a moment before returning to his dance with a quiet whirr of steam that sounded like a chuckle, River the Incubus had activated his charm, not many could withstand the magic of an Incubi.

Suddenly the black box unfolded into a large screen and displayed a runic number "4" and the party cheered, many coming to clap the musician on the back before returning to their celebrations. As they cheered Lazarus turned silently to Elena and bowed low, he removed his bandages from his mouth and offered her his hand with a grin "Care to dance?" He queeried as a black cloaked and masked woman did the same to Ivan, her femininity shown through her voice and small physique from behind the mask "My names Luka, shall we dance?" she offered shyly.

Meanwhile at Vinn's
Vinn stood before River and Kira, well aware River had sent ahead a clone for the celebrations. He sighed heavily and waved them over to the same door after the rest had entered, opening it to a small office with comfy red chairs as he clambered onto his behind the desk. The two took their seats and he hummed in deep thought before speaking "So, the pair of you know the rules so we've got that covered, River I need you to do a job for me. You need to realize they might not just remember on their own, you'll need to do something." He said, River rubbed his hair awkwardly and nodded "I know, I know, got plenty of work to do and all that. Gotta save the Multiverse from destruction etc....I got it." He said stoicly, getting up to leave before Vinn toddled in front of him to stop him at the door. "That's not all, I need you to keep an eye on her" He ordered, pointing towards Kira who was slumped and folding her arms in her seat "I didn't do anything! Why are you singling me out from the rest? I only just met you people after all, so why should I even help?" She complained openly.

Vinn just stared at her until she sighed and got up, standing next to River and holding her card up to her face "Guess you know more than you're allowed to give on huh? I'll stay away from him and help River with his job, if things don't get moving soon it'll be too late for me right?" She mused with a sigh, Vinn and River both nodded sadly and Vinn lead them towards the door before grabbing hold of Kira's wrist, what little emotion his face could show wrought with an internal battle "I know you can't stay away from him...but what if she's not there? If you continue down this road you'l-" He was cut off by her leaning down and hugging him, he hugged her back tightly and then she let him go and brought out a second card, one that was covered in red runes and tattoos and that held the name that had been over-written by her on her own card, and pressed it into his hands. "I know Vinn...but you know how this ends if I don't, just hold onto this card when it happens okay?" She said reassuringly and he nodded slowly, holding the card to his chest and waving them off. River reached down and took hold of her hand and the two stepped through the door together, breaking into a metal corridor and staring through a window at the scene below, the celebrations and dancing going on as Vinn sat silently in his office, staring at a singular name in red and knowing all it would cause him to lose.

River turned to her for a moment and started to open his mouth before she kissed his cheek and smiled sadly "It'll be alright, you're strong, you'll protect me right?" She reassured, stealing the words from his mouth, he squeezed her hand tight and put on his usual wide grin "You're damn right I will. We're not finished yet!" He cheered, which elicited a short laugh from her. The two hugged one more time in silence and then blinked into the celebrations, the clone replaced by his true self and Kira arriving next to Wayland with a grin and a short whistle.

"Look at all this, makes you wanna get drunk and wake up three days from now without pants doesn't it?" She mused, bowing low to him and staring down her upwards facing nose at him as she spoke "Oh dear sir Wayland, wilt though permiteth me this fine jig?" She offered, keeping her hand by her side in case he took it as a sign to grab hold of her, she enjoyed Wayland's company this was true, but physical contact wasn't in the cards today, dancing her thoughts away however was more than welcome as she let the music take her, her eyes settling past Wayland to another newcomer who sat amongst The Nameless, yet another recruit for the cause.

Charmeine

What was supposed to seem like a long trip was surprisingly short as Charmeine dwelt deeper into her thoughts every passing minute. It was nothing new; family, home, destruction. It almost felt like she was wrestling with herself; the past and the present constantly tumbling over eachother, as if they were trying to 'win' her mind. At least, that's how she would explain it. Soon enough though, she was snapped out of her little battle as the scenery changed. Grass rich with life, a calming breeze enveloping her. What just happened? To see this after such a dreadful war scene was incredible to where she could just cry. However, she wouldn't allow herself to do that. The only question she really had was why people were celebrating. Wasn't there more to come? Was this just some way to keep people calm? Alright, she has A LOT more than one question.

The whitette scanned the feast of food, licking her crackled lips. However, in her community, taking food that was not offered directly was seen as rude. However, drinks were always free to go around. Charmeine picked up a glass of alcohol, swirling it in its container with her pointer finger. She brought it up to her lips and took a pitiful sip, only to cringe and jerk the cup away from her. Of course, it ended up splattering across the ground, but at least the container wasn't broken. The Seraph let out a defeated sigh. Although it was such a cheap brand, it'd have to do. She was dehydrated.

The whitette took a seat away from the crowd, watching with a almost concerned expression. The way they danced, sang, laughed... this was nothing like the parties she would celebrate. She almost felt lost. It was obvious there were creatures from other rhelms, yet they knew how to fit in perfectly. Charmeine is used to calm music, detailed ballrooms, flowing gowns, and a formal dance. This... this was like chaos in a nutshell. The princess looked away from the scene and tended to her diamond-like hair.

Not many moments have passed by before a devilishly handsome young man offered her hand in a dance. She looked up to him with a raised eyebrow. How did he know her name? Was he perhaps a friend of Anima or Ivan? Her pale blue gaze slowly fell to his hand. With the way he had asked her, she thought that maybe it would be a little like her home's celebrations. Charmeine's questionable expression faded into a smile, happily taking his hand. Until...

Sssccchhh...

The whitette let out a painful cry and jerked her hand back. She clenched it in agony, only unwrapping her fingers to see what had happened. Her eyes widened in horror. Blite. Blite to Seraphs was like a ticket to death row for humans. If she is touched by any type of demon; phantom, incubus, succubus, etc, a painful 'parasite' will dig into her skin. It left a sickening blueish-purple color, and it'd slowly eat its way across her skin. If she is completely consumed, she'll surely die.

Charmeine watched as the Blite slowly but surely engulfed her fingers in that ugly color. She growled and stood up, wanting to slap him across his face; but that'd only poison her more. "My answer is no. Good day to you..." The seraph snarled, hugging her arms as a means of comfort as she left the scene. Thankfully, Blite was not hard to cure. A douse of holy water from a church or a shrine will heal it. It's just a 'deadly if left untreated' matter.

---

Kira
Kira was impressed to say the least, frost was rare and unwieldy, it wasn't often she saw it in action. Although she hadn't expected such a direct approach she couldn't help but laugh and nod at her question. Perhaps this world wouldn't be so bad after all, good company, good alcohol, and only an unforeseen amount of eldritch horrors and their minions between her and the good life. Sounds easy.

She eventually extracted herself from the maiden of war and drunkenly spun, holding out her hand to the woman and pointing towards the very edge of the camp. "Come on then, we'll want a good spot for the fireworks!" She said with a gleeful grin, she'd spotted River walking off by himself and from what she gathered the box read out strength, so if he was going to be alone to do something the show had to be good.

---

Lazarus
Lazarus grinned and brought his hands up in a boxing style happy with her choice of dance. The Vampire ducked under the blows and sent two quick jabs her way aiming either side of her head before kicking straight up in front of her face and settling again. He settled into the pattern of the dance, dodging punches and blows and following her strikes and then returning his own. Slowly increasing the tempo of the spar dance until it matched the flurry of death he revelled in.

With each round of their dance he grinned wider and before he knew it his fingers were showing the first signs of excitement, glowing red pinpoints of flame that danced and left wispy trails of light as he moved, and so their dance became in his eyes exactly what it should be. Some of the other party goers had even stopped to watch the dance and a few of the more physical Nameless began to copy them, making a sloppy job and accidentally dealing glancing blows or direct hits with jovial laughter.

---

Luka
Luka had to hurry, there wasn't much time until the seals were gone and they came back. She ran out into the plains, trailing decay behind her as she went and pulling her clothes tight to her body trying to contain it for as long as possible. Eventually she reached a point far enough away and pulled off her head, letting the first wisp of green smoke float free as her fur and cat ears were free to enjoy the cool air. She waited for a few seconds and then it began, a column of green light roared forth from the base of her feet into the sky and within moments everything around her withered and died, the ring of destruction extending so far as to reach the edge of Lazarus and Elena's dance. Within the centre of the decay continued to stand Luka, and with a swing of her hand like a conductor green string-like tendrils extended from her finger tips to the ground, she had learned the quickest way to burn the energy was to summon it but each time she did she lost more control.

It seemed however she didn't have a choice, as the strands of energy met the ground and searched through the earth they were suddenly yanked. With a yelp of pain Luka held on, holding her hands in place and refusing to move, she'd changed her mind. It couldn't come out, not now, not ever, but it was too late. With slow painful yanks the first hand tore through the earth and dug into the earth, followed by another. Finally as the decayed ground fell apart what she had feared came to ground, he stood in a purple suit and was immensely tall, an obscenely tall crooked top hat sat atop his head and wild flowing black hair extended from under it. He wore white gloves, unsullied by his nap in the earth and a gasmask like breathing apparatus that he tore away liberally to reveal what marked him the most as something to be feared. No matter how you looked at him there was no face, there was nothing, just glowing orange eyes of some bestial monster and a row of razor sharp yellow teeth that grinned madly.

He took a step toward the terrified Luka and his presence seemed to permeate the very air around him, the sky darkened and without her consent the border of decay began to skirt into the Nameless camp with every move he made. He took in a deep breathe into nothingness and sighed "It's good to be home.".

---

---

River
River could sense he was being followed, but he didn't care. He had decided to exit the party and show Vinn's test how The Nameless fought and for that he'd need to seal himself up anyway, it was Rosa who was on his heels, the cat girl. She may have felt some kinship or curiosity about him and his lineage and he would be happy to indulge her, but first he needed to remind The Nameless of who they were, and that would require more than words.

As he found an empty spot, he noted the beam of light that began from Luka and the ring of decay and knew what it meant. She had run out of time, she'd just burn it off and be back to her normal cute self, it was such a shame to be burdened at such a young age. He had offered to try and fix her soul if it was the issue, but something in her made her say no even though her eyes screamed for help, he had no choice but to accept her choice but had always wondered. As he continued to walk his body became slowly encased in a purple aura that waxed and waned like a candle in the wind, slowly growing and growing, before he could turn and warn Rosa something else caught his attention while his mouth was open. The sky had darkened and Luka's ring had grew and even from this distance he could feel the darkness that penetrated the soul of the creature she had summoned. He shrugged to Rosa and snapped his fingers "Sorry madame, I'll be back, I've got a bone to pick with this terrible lighting, ruins the mood so to speak." he quipped with a click of his tongue, and then he was gone.

Across the plain he landed, encased in his aura as he grabbed Luka, throwing her behind him unceremoniously as a gigantic wall of ice formed in an instant and became a cubed cage. The wall reached beyond the clouds above and was densely packed, without a single expression or even a sarcastic quip he threw a punch packed with his full strength at the man, no, the monster, Luka had brought back and to his surprise his fist stopped centimetres short of a white glove clenched in mid attack itself. Between the two hands was two fingers and an oversized wizards hat pierced by two horns stood out to River as he glanced at the interference, Vinn stood in his full glory, as tall as River was and in a tight black outfit that clung to his lithe body. All at once the power that had been contained fired back from the blockage, behind River an onslaught of unadulterated burning anger flooded the gigantic cube. An explosion of lord level power that cracked and buckled the gigantic ice wall as the purplish-red energy leaked out. Behind the monster was simply the shockwave of air that originated from his punch, air that tore apart the dirt and buckled the ice wall behind it much like Rivers soul-charged attack had. Vinn waited until the two lowered their hands and the ice wall crumbled and before it fell he shrank back into his tiny form, toddling towards Luka and putting a comforting hand on her furry head as he helped her up. He looked to The Nameless camp and then back to River.

"Sorry I'm late!" He chimed happily, waddling off back to the camp with Luka as his escort, comforting the teary eyed girl. The monster chortled and slowly lumbered behind the pair in pursuit, following his "master". River looked back at him in disgust and began to follow his friends before a dark guttural voice whispered through the air from the sickening beast. "You know you'll never find her...." The Incubus bristled bitterly but trudged on all the same, unable to do anything for now he simply walked back to the camp in silence. In turn the creatures smile widened and a horrific chuckle floated through the air. Step by step the returned monster began to clean up, his suit mended, the dirt had been blown away, his mask returned to cover his mouth and a cane found its way into his hands as he walked until he strode forth tall and confident while River tailed bitterly behind.

At the top of the camp, the box buzzed to life in a pentuple feedback of numbers. "8,10,10, 11,7" but this time nobody cheered, the party would have to wait for a moment.

---

More for me, he thinks. Lamenting his inability to get drunk with every drink. It had been nothing but one question after another since coming here. This world, this Garden. The fighting didn't phase him. The death. The killing. Those things were nothing to him. They passed into and through him. One moment to the next, not burdening his soul for even a fraction of an instant. He would drown this world in an ocean of blood if that is what it would take. One world, for the fate of all worlds. Fair trade. He breaths out a long solemn sigh, smoke spilling out of his mouth, and from there escaping under his arms as it hits the table. Weighing the lives of the few against the lives of the many... Yeah, he was good at that.

"Get your head in the game, Smith." He growls at himself. His voice ragged, brittle around the edges like broken glass. He was beginning to doubt he even knew who he was anymore. He was comfortable here. That's what scared him. What set his teeth on edge. He was never comfortable anywhere. Not in a long time. He was a predator. A self wielded sword, poised at the throats of everyone around him. He was irreparably broken. Those were the facts as he knew them.

At least. Before he came here. Now. Now, he felt sluggish. Off kilter, like he wasn't all of himself. The familiar beat of hammer on steel in his head, in his soul. No longer as comforting as it should be. The tempo felt wrong, the echo of the steel tinny too his ears. The fire. Felt cold. Like he was used to the sun, and all he had for warmth was a candle. It had never felt wrong before, now he felt like a stranger in his own skin, he remembered things he couldn't remember and white noise bled into the space where the memories should be. Blackness gnawed at the edges of his soul, oozing like disease into a gaping wound in his soul he was only now seeing. Accompanied by the screams, the plea of his name from a womans voice into his mind. A voice that filled him with such a sense of failure and loss that it was almost a physical thing. And the laughter. Always the laughter. As insane as it was evil. Laughter that made him want nothing more than to set the world ablaze and drown it in a sea of swords. Alien feelings assaulting him in such magnitude that he didn't even know what were his and what were not. He grunts as molten blood dribbles from his nose, only to be reabsorbed a moment later. he shakes the feelings off.

Fishing the card from before out of his breast pocket he idly traces his name with his thumb, the jagged brittle lettering almost seeming to mock him. "Why do you distress me so." He whispers to the world. Barely registering the man who had declined from sharing a drink from him before looming over him. Until he speaks. Wayland's eyes settle heavily onto the man, talking in his features again from closer up. Wayland laughs. The sound as brittle and as sharp as the pieces of a shattered sword. He wanted to ask how he planned to help him, when he(Wayland) could not even help himself, then strange man lay his pipe on the table and Wayland's world came screeching to a halt.

With a sound like crashing steel, hammer glanced off the side of the anvil and the notice of a thousand thousand blades turned towards the source of the discord. It settled into his forge like a thorn but the hammer started again. It was something he could only just grasp, because the pipe that was not a pipe still held the concept of metal, and that put it in his purview, if only just.

A rent opened where it touched, into shadow and nothingness and fire screamed forth to meet it. But, how do you burn chaos. Beasts moved beyond the shadow, stalking along in the wake of the dark. Twisting this way and that. Their movements incomprehensible to a mind built on structure Too many eyes, too many legs, too many arms, too many heads. They peered into the light, eyes curious and amused. Mouths filled with too many teeth smiling far too wide their ruinous hunger clear to all, and still the hammer carried on, the beat slow and heavy as if unsure, but every echo of steel carrying a note as inevitable as the tide, and ever so slowly his world twisted to find a place for them. Somewhere in the dark, away from the others they settled, ever watchful, ever patient and ever hungry.

Wayland came back to himself with a low roar. The sound like someone raking through shattered steel, but there was an undertone now. Something alien and unfathomable. Color and sound come rushing back all at once, it takes him a second to realize the lack of noise and he takes it as an excuse to be away from the disconcerting man, and his pipe that was not a pipe.

As he stands he realizes the feel of the air had changed. A chill seemed to have settled into the world and there was a feeling... Like, something familiar, something that shouldn't be familiar, something that. Could. Not. Be. Familiar. It set his teeth on edge. Made his blood flare in heat, his eyes coming to glow with inner light as his core respond to the sudden unexplainable hatred. He rakes his vision across the assembled people, all the while a constant growl comes from his mouth with every exhale, accompanied by copious amounts of choking ash and smoke, the growl slowly growing louder as his breath comes faster and faster. The sounds like tortured steel, like death, swords piercing flesh and the screams of those dying. The noise in his head almost deafening as the hammer strikes faster and faster.

He stalks forward almost against his own will, the grass curling and turning to ash from the heat being emitted by his body, leaving smoldering footprints in his wake. He moves toward the people coming down the hill with purpose he can't fathom. The box buzzing to life as he passes, flickering between "1-2", but the number are like shadows upon the screen, as if not really there but any looking could see them. His eyes scanning those returning, raking across Vinn and Luka as if not seeing them, glancing across River until they rest upon.

"You!" He roars, voice echoing across the hill like the ringing of blades. A taloned finger pointing at the thing in the suit and top hat, the heat rolling off Wayland's body making portions of his clothes catch fire, and the ground in a circle around him to burn, the air distorting around him. As he Points right between the twin orbs of orange light sitting in the middle of shadow that were its eyes. The shadowy numbers on the box ghost higher, flickering between "3-4".

"I know you." His mind, his very soul rebels against the statement, white noise and static deafening in his mind but it's met by the roar of fire. Fire that burn even him with its brilliance. It makes even the laughter stop, until it starts to howl in anger and for an instant he can hear laughter like the tinkling of bells. A sound that lift him up in ways he can't explain before he's drowned in the roar of the flames.

"I hate you." But I don't know why... The thought is poisonous, bringing the static back to his soul. His anger is like a physical thing, pressing into the back of his eyes. Willing him forward, willing him to shred the grinning monster before him as his voice carries across to those assembled. The heat from his breath so great that it was almost heavy, the shadowy numbers on the box creep ever higher, flickering between "5-6".

Words flee him in a rush of heat, with a clashing of hammer and anvil, a roar of fire, a thousand different battlecries, in a memory of steel. He's confused, terrified of his own mind. He does the only thing he can. He roars long, and he roars loud. Leaning towards the abomination before him, the creature hiding behind a smile. His taloned hands splayed at his sides ready to rip and tear, his feet set to fight, to charge into his enemies. The sound is different than before. Like a monster, a dragon made of swords and steel. Ash spills from his mouth as he howls, settling to the ground before him. Blanketing the grass that isn't already burned, the heat wave that follows after blowing it away from him. And the box ticks up a final time, a shadowy "7" appearing before Wayland simply stops. Toppling backward to stare at the sky, clothes smoking, his body cooling rapidly as the glow leaves his eyes, his soul/mind in turmoil trying to, once again reconcile itself. The numbers disappearing at the same time, the box goes dark.