Cursed Wood

Robin listened intently, but with the knowledge that Nairi would likely be the one using the same knowledge. He couldn't fight, he couldn't kill, he couldn't even cast a spell to save his life.

Knowledge wasn't power. Power was power.

Despite this, Robin could be chipper. In the very least he could act as a distraction in the worst situations. He wasn't powerful, but he was handy. There was that. Which was good.

"How do we know she doesn't already know?" asked Robin, crossing his arms. "What if she's coming up with some master plan now to use it to backfire on us?"

"Zhat is why I say to treat everyzhing you gain from it as unreliable - be cautious whiz it." Kastner replied.

Nairi nodded. "Noted. We should get moving." he said, nodding to both Kastner and Elaina. "Thanks. For all the help."

Elaina smiled, "It's no trouble. Just you make sure not to die, okay? Robin here might be immortal, but don't make the mistake of thinking you are too." She paused, then turned to Robin, "And you try to avoid dying anyway. The fact you can die and 'get better' doesn't mean you shouldn't be cautious. You might find out one day that it doesn't work."

Kastner nodded, "Vell zhen, best of luck vizh your crusade. If you ever need anyzhing, you know how to contact me."

"Until next time." Nairi said, and with a final wave, started off back into the woods.

Robin gave them a bright, thankful smile before turning and walking after Nairi, throwing back a wave.

A few minutes into the trip and he was already complaining.

"My legs are soooore!" he cried, bending over like an old woman to rub his calves. "All that walking really did the trick... how long did it take for us to get here again? Forever? That's right."

In the middle of twilight wind began to pick up even within almost skyscraper size tree and under dense leafs should seem impossible. In the middle of a clearing of three or more trees, letters and words began to form or more like burn on the lifeless ground as the wind pick up more and more. Time itself began to slow then finally it stop all together, in that moment a black orb manifest itself at the center of the clearing burning the ground even deeper with words of a forgotten language. The orb expands to it's full size turning seven feet tall and five feet wide, at the center of the orb a body from with black flames and a deep blood red core. After the body was fully form the black orb disappeared into the wind like ash leaving a poten smell of brimstone in it's wake.

Time began to move forward again as Rin open his eyes taking in his surrounding after five-thousand years of imprisonment. Rin like being away from his father and if he has anything to say about it he would keep it that way. The air cold as ice around him, if he wasn't and hybrid he would have freeze to death like most humans would. Searching the area with his mind only took less than a minute. In that time he found some sport near by coming his way and it looks like a small squadron of soldiers clad in dark armor. They have must of sense the magic from the teleporting spell. The group seem to have organize because they split up and now they're coming from all direction. Not wanted to move or to waste any effort chasing them down they were willing to come to him, how nice where them to consider his feeling on that matter.

As they move even closer some already taking up positions flanking him trying to cut off Rin escape if he tries. Taking in his opponents Rin can tell that they know what they are doing because only one came walking out the shadow to greed him and find out why he's here and his reason. Their plan would have work if wasn't for the blood lust coming from them, so sensing the attacker coming from behind was child's play compared to Rin skills. The single attacker use his super-human speed to gain ground at the same time the speaker reveal himself, putting all his weight and speed into a horizontal slash ment to cleve Rin in half with a single blow.

The wood may have been cursed, but with her holy energy at work, a small clearing came to be. With a ring of unearthly steel a dire vine was cut back and forced away. the cursed vines were deadly strangelers and with meat eating pods she kept her guard up, her holy light burning brightly to keep the clearly well kept and clean with her at its center

But that was hours ago, since then she had meditated, the sword fading away by her magic

Her eyes snapped open, the black iris ringed in pale blue looked about her clearing, She felt death, lots of it, and heard screaming, even more then that of feeling death.

A soft smile graced her face as the death and darkness turned to snowfall around her, she stood up from where she had sat to meditate. the portal had dropped her there, and now she was merely meditating as it was quiet, and isolated, unlike the Silver Palace. people constntly wanted her or her mtohers attention and at times it drove her nuts.

Like now.

She turned, the Sword of Eden formed in her hand after long meditation made it fade away, with a faint pink gold glow the snow settled as she looked towards the darkness that ringed her clearing, she focused on two red orbs.

She simply stood there, by her power alone she could best him, yet, she stood there in her human likeness, calm and quiet as she held her sword ready for use' though she hoped it wouldnt need be used.

But knowing those eyes, and the owner of them...

It might end up being used.

Not a word was said as those two orbs dropped down to the height of an towering man, and then closed as a body formed around them. Bubbling and swirling the mist and gel-like substance rose from the ground and formed the muscular build of the General of Darkness. No sudden moves were made as the body took form slowly, its arms behind its back and its feet shoulder width apart as the long black military-styled overcoat draped down over the body to the shins, where then the black boots took over. Thick black hair combed to the side at the part graced his head as an angled jaw and a fair face took shape.

Then his eyes opened again, and the sense of holiness around the area diminished to only a small radius around the woman with the sword. He stepped forward out of the shadows, a low, rumbling growl shaking the earth as it gurgled forth from his throat. He stopped ten feet away from the female, his expression stern and unforgiving, but not full of hatred like it would have been a mere month ago. No, there was something else: Confidence. Sheer, unadulterated, confidence.

Bu-bum

The shadows began to dance and quiver to the sound of his heartbeat, and it shook the leaves off of trees. In the distance, birds fled from their nests, leaving eggs and those unable to fly behind lest they perish with them. Finally after five minutes of rumbling silence, he spoke.

"It seems you do go out for fresh air when you're not dirtying your nose." Ah, there it was, the hatred, but in the form of chilling calmness; uncharacteristic of him given the last million years. This sense of confidence around a much older and what would normally be a much more powerful Dragon, could only mean one thing.

He was indeed whole again.

But even when whole in one piece he was still weak due to age and experience, yet. Kanwar was natrually defensive around most other dragon types, notably Black, Red, and Bronze types, Brass, Silver and White she got along with well. After all, she herself was a Light dragon.

She didnt even smile as she spoke, her clear black blue ringed eyes however showed a hint of a smirk however and her tone betrayed the smirk in it as she spoke "You always were one for the flair of things" Kanwar said simply getting right to the point she simply nodded "Her power couild not hold it for long, but it was long enough."

She turned from him and stepped to the side, her holy light cleared a bit more of the shadows nearest her as she still spoke "I hear the banishment has also ended ?" How did she know Kethend had gotten banished to the Aaether ? Able to only watch and observe, but never intervine or even be heard or noticed by anyone or anything. It was as if Kethend was a ghost stuck just outside of the mortal realm. Just outside of time actually.

Thanks to Kanwars light abilties by her mother, there were no shadows of her own that Draco could use, as Kanwar was shadowless. She too was calm, if a fight happened, she could defend herself, after all, a Kaiju sized dragon fighting another much larger Light Dragon was something to be admired, or feared, it wasnt really known how most mortals felt when two dragons fought one another

Huan stepped through the pink portal with no doubt that everything would be fine. However the habits of other creatures here creating standing threads of portal conduits rather than momentary ones made for unforeseen obstacles. Even in the impossible vastness of the space between worlds lines would sometimes cross. In this case a fraction of a moment resulted in the energy that was Huan striking one of the many conduits that formed the Way of the beings that served Myrkul's Vein. The conduit recoiled at that first strike to move out of the way but the damage done flung what was Huan slightly off course to the destination in a riot of pink energy near to where the exit should have been.

A great amount of the skull gone it would have been Huan's last if not for the propensity of the Way to direct ejecta at the nearest familiar object. Namely one Ductu of silver armor and floating black silt named 'Sanctus' traveling between parts of this world. Her light steps barely heard that she barely touched the ground at all most certainly drowned out by shaking plants and falling tree limbs she hurried over to the damaged Mankind. Travelers of such things intrigued her but more so when they weren't bleeding to death. Inside the psistone mask two red eyes surrounded by silver opened in the black sockets. Little more than a second's thought Sanctus whirled in slow motion her back aligned with the woman's prone form the back of her armor flowing free to splatter on top of Huan and her growing pool of blood.

The black silt soaked into Huan's flesh inspecting it as Sanctus' eye bonded with Huan's own. In fact the body grew nearly nine inches to accommodate Sanctus' volume in height as well as muscularity. It was a simple if expensive matter to stitch the slices on her body and armor back together if not replace the missing volume with her own. More problematic was the missing parts of the throne of mankind that were destroyed by the grinding event. Sanctus carefully placed herself upon the throne while the Mankind's soul recovered. The words came with the hosts's mind as to what was broken. The first chakra gate was damaged and the second destroyed. She could replace those with the engine of Jinhai though Sanctus' wondered how well the host would work afterward.

Metal and black poured across the gap in Huan's skull then a lock of long matte-black hair that swept of its own accord to clean up the blood underneath her. Huan's eyes opened as Sanctus sat up flexing to adjust her clothing. The memories flooded in as Sanctus pulled the host's soul back into being from the brink of nonexistence. At the seat of Huan's mind the Ductu sat cross-legged quietly brushing the sparking in her hair away as Sanctus acquired stem cells to regrow the connections of broken nerves. What was Huan mouthed words imperceptibly as Sanctus prodded to hold her cover. Unfortunately for Sanctus she hadn't planned for a compatriot of Huan to be quite so close.

...

The motor cortex deeply unbalanced Huan spun about ungainly to look at Mizuno as Sanctus could only fix the host just so fast. Huan rose to tiptoe her lower half stabilizing like some marionette no longer dangled. Her black eyes locked in place on Mizuno as Huan rose her hand to rub at the pain for a moment, "Hai, Sensei. I went into the portal but there was a bright purple light from above me. I think I hit it. Now my... my head hurts. I feel like I was staring into the sun then smashed headfirst to earth."

She takes some ragged breaths the grabs a tree flat on her heels once more as the dangling stops, "My chakra feels different. It hurts."

Sanctus, far too busy trying to keep the host alive, doesn't notice that difference in chakra. Huan's normal smooth orange aura now a ragged purple with holes rimmed with seared orange. Inside those dark voids are reflections of the prismatic threads of psimass Sanctus uses to triage the destroyed second chakra gate instead regulating it herself. Angular edges of Huan's chakra take on the glimmer of hard silver.

Huan's voice is more sure if accidentally informal as she stops quivering at the knees, "I can go on, Sensei. Though my memory is kinda fuzzy. Were... you always this short?"

...

A quarter of the skull under Mizuko's fingers is an abyssal matte black as Mizuko ran her fingers through rather than than Huan's other shiny black hair. The feel was one silky smooth but thicker and faintly moving. Between her fingers the strands carry Chakra as if living flesh leaving grey shadows behind her fingers. A silver metal plate seemed to follow across the grey scalp with Mizuko's fingers as she brushed between the strands.

Sanctus stuck to her guns carefully editing the host's perception of reality to deny everything. Replacement to the host's flesh feeling like normal hair or compensating her movement for height. She couldn't affect it in large without corrupting the mind but making the changes less important fit her needs. As the Ductu wasn't there to usurp the human's soul anyway Sanctus liking her own body just fine.

Huan lumbered forward behind her Sensei haltingly as Sanctus stopped trying to be unobtrusive. A piece of Sanctus's own intellect then lent to Huan as her mind imposed its former order on that piece of mindscape. Each pace was heavier than it should be but accelerating like a clock ticking up to speed. Huan pushed up her sleeve and pushed at the skin shaking her hand at the tingle it left on dark lines on her arm. Sanctus was dutifully holding the slices together then pushing in more motes as flexing required. There was a chirp in Huan's brain that Sanctus couldn't quite locate to muffle whispering from another Ninja that something was wrong.

Huan's voice was stronger but still had pain in it, "Hai, Sensei! My chakra hurts but it feels well, not drained, but small. What made me so big?"

A Shuriken produced from the belt she ran her thumb over the four pointed star and wondered at it, "I feel light. I know my Kenjutsu but my sword seems wrong somehow."

A spark of the Ductu's memory leaked across the gap though the thought only just beyond her, "We have to explore for humankind. I can see a mountain in the distance with something around it. There must be other people here."

The shuriken hummed in her palm spinning quickly in place above it her chakra charging like someone at wary attention. Huan however was busy between somewhere at the horizon and her Sensei with no such stress in her voice. Sanctus didn't like the idea they they might not be alone. It was bad enough she wasn't ready to integrate the host yet with other humans at least these waited.

...

Nissa wakes up after a surprisingly long but good nap; Not by the familiar yet still breath-taking beach she is so used to but in a disgustingly dark, foggy and ancient forest. From a stone she now lays on her view is obscured by mist but from the limited view she sees several far apart trees all with not a single fruit, flower or even leaf on any of them. The ground is severally mucky and liquidly making it almost impossible to even walk on thus it might as well be a swamp.

Nissa was frozen; She wanted to believe she is still sleeping. This environment alone was unpleasant enough but why would she end up here dream or not?

Kander instantly felt the cold rush of some sort of evil greater than even he. It was either face the ghouls back there, or maybe find an even worse fate. He decided that whatever was in the woods would have to face him. He began to sprint through the forest. The cold climate only got colder and more uncomfortable as he kept pushing through it. Something must have heard all the ruckus he was making throughout the forest, as he wasn't even giving the slightest attention to the placement of his feet, or his hands, or how loud his metallic breathing was. He just hoped some creature didn't attack him.

north

A sealed envelope appeared on the doorstep of every occupant of the Cursed Wood, as well as fastened elegantly to many tree branches. It was a formal invitation to the current occupants to attend the Ball of Chaos.

The Cursed wood always intrigued the Dragon of Shadows. The darkness here was darker and filled with more magic than even he thought would be naturally possible. Quite clearly, there was super natural goings on here, but that much was obvious from the name of the place: Cursed Wood. So it was no surprise that when he appeared, the woods grew darker and more foreboding.

The shadows became a cesspool of bubbling miasma, gurgling and boiling as a figure emerged from it. Genderless and formless, the shadow poured off the figure, back into the darkness. Coal red eyes opened and finally the figure took form. Tall, masculine, and powerful, clad in midnight black armor with a swept back, streamlined design. That armor then morphs, melding and shifting into a freshly pressed, very clean, crisp black Military Uniform. Blood Red details lined the entirety of the uniform, glowing and pulsating softly with malice.

Clawed hands humanized themselves, gloves forming around them as they gripped into fists, and then folded against each other behind his back. Messy black hair slicked back, and blue skin turned pale white, black scales faded in and out of view before he settled, and finally, the bubbling ceased.

"This wood... This Wood would prove to be an excellent staging ground for more expansion of my empire..." he growled, a sickening smile spreading across his face. The shadows around him began to bubble, and more figures began to arise, screeching and laughing as they emerged. "The creatures here likewise.... will prove to be good additions to the Legion..." his smile spread further. Vampires, werewolves, and all other manners of creatures of the night, were known to live within the Cursed Wood.

And Draco wanted them all to bow to him.

A sleek black vehicle hovered to the edge of the crowd that had formed. It remained on the edge, spectating, before carefully maneuvering the circumference of the activity. It appeared that beings were manifesting from shadows in the ground, multiplying, and making all sorts of noises which cut through the soft baroque playing from the state of the art speaker system within the vehicle.

Daemala frowned and shut the music off, partially because it clashed dreadfully and partially to hear better what was going on out there. Nobody seemed to be having a conversation, at least nothing she was interested in. She let out a quick sigh and ordered her driver to slowly penetrate the crowd. Red and purple lights began to pulsate from the underside of the vehicle, red and purple dots appearing in a frenzied pattern across the entirety of the vehicle. The patterns circulated outward, encouraging those outside to avoid collision with the vehicle.

"Excuse," rang a voice through the air, "Who is in charge of all of you?" Daemala asked the crowd that she didn't care to get a good enough look at, "Come forth!" She was trying to be diplomatic and hospitable, but really what was all this ruckus for?

The two Vampyric guards with her shifted defensively in their seats. They had received communication from those above in bat-form that the leader looked much unlike the rest, and seemed to drip powerful energy. The leader was seemingly immune to manipulative sonar as well. Interesting, troubling... The bats highest up noticed the green beam.
"Take your time," Daemala added, in her best attempt to not come across as completely inconsiderate, for once. She sighed and hoped whoever it was had a sliver of respectability about them.

Daemala Tauvyr has arrived, coming from Forbidden Thick.

There was to be no intelligent response from the Shadow Hounds outside the Vehicle, just ungodly screeches as they attempted to charge the thing before suddenly stopping when Daemala asked who was in charge. A cackle of dozens of Demonic hyenas rang out. A sickening, gut-wrenching cackle that was more of a mixture of the most horrid screams imaginable all meshed into one in a laugh-like pattern.

The darkness inside the limo-like vehicle bubbled for a few seconds, the screaming, cackling, hideously deformed head of a Shadow Hound emerging before being shoved back by the Vampyric Magic protecting the inside. The cackles all grew louder when the woman demanded that the leader of the Shadow Legion come forth.

That cackle then turned into an amused, civilized chuckle, a single, unique voice as the car passed under the shadow of a tree, and for a moment the interior was entirely dark. The air shifted, the chuckle emerged, and as the light came back, it revealed Draco, sitting in a seat in the center of the limo directly across from Daemala, looking as intimidating as ever for a ten foot tall Dragon in a Human form. The seat he sat upon was made from the Shadows, bubbling up from the floor as he stared at the Vampire.

"You have a lot of nerve, requesting my presence directly, Hemata." His voice was dignified but powerful. Ancient and wise, punctuating the last word of his sentence sharply, the Draconian Pronunciation strong and fluent. The Draconian word for Vampire.

Draco ignored the guards posted on either side of the vehicle, however if they moved in any way that would be determined hostile, his head would twitch, and the entire car would rumble with his growl, the sickening grin on his face widening. His face was mature but youthful, perhaps mid to late twenties in age, and his teeth were likewise unnaturally white for a creature of darkness. It made his visage all the more intimidating to lesser creatures of the Night.

And here were some of those very creatures, daring to speak to him. Respecting their bravery, he allowed them to live. For now.

Daemala recoiled as the grotesque head of a Shadow Hound appeared, and just as quickly disappeared. Disgusting. She adjusted herself in composure just in time for her to break it again. The cabin was plunged into darkness. The lack of light wasn't the issue.

The issue was the stranger who appeared sitting across from her. Where had he come from, and how had he bypassed literally all of the securities put in place by anyone other than herself? She'd have to investigate that. He grinned at her, Daemala raised her chin in return.

She had a lot of nerve? Daemala swallowed a chuckle and leveled her gaze directly at the admittedly attractive stranger. His teeth were too white. It wasn't comforting. She hadn't seen teeth that white since Casren was around. The old vampiress chose her words very carefully. She didn't think she had a reason to fear, but that uncertainty was enough to be mortally petrified.

"An entrance of importance deserves a greeting of equal measure. Hemata indeed, and this Cursed Wood is entirely the domain of The Vankoryth Detente, of which I am ...in charge," Daemala smiled. She pointedly revealed her fangs, a crown of shadows wisping into existence around her brow.

"Daemala is my name. Who are you, who honors with their presence?"

"The leader of the Detente? This is a surprise." he growled. His coal red eyes narrowed and the Shadow Hounds outside all shook before laughing once more. "Conscripting you into the Legion would prove to be very.... useful, for the expansion of my influence." Draco made no effort to beat around the bush. He was a conqueror and warrior. He was here to invade.

"I am Draco, the Dragon King of Shadows." he said. Tendrils began to descend from the ceiling, aiming to begin to gently caress the Vampire's shoulders and jaw. "And you, Daemala, are about to join my Legion." he said.

All at once the limo began to be attacked. The Shadow Hounds swarmed it and began to claw and tear at it, attempting to tear it apart and gain entry. The tendrils that had began to try and caress the Vampire woman continued their gentle movements. Draco was right there, they needn't do anything. And so they didn't.

There was another lapse in light, and in doing so, Draco held up a gloved hand, and the attack stopped. His eyes narrowed as a revelation came about him. Large military action against the Detente and the Cursed Wood's inhabitants would likely draw the attention of the infuriating Imperium of Man, and annoying Terra Nova Empire. To deal with them would only serve to destroy everything in this region and leave it marred - unusable for an empire. Just like what's left of Ridgecrest.

The Dragon shifted, an amused growl rolling out of his throat. "But... I'm going to give you a choice, at least, the illusion of one." he continued. The Shadow Hounds melted into the darkness around the limo, and the damage repaired itself. He licked his lips slowly and grinned. "You will join my Legion eventually.... but I'm going to let you choose how you join. will you resist, and force my hand now? Or... will you agree now, and let your transition become a slow, painless one, rather than the agonizing process I could put you through now?" he asked.

He held out a hand, the glove vanishing to revealed a clawed, scaled hand which quickly shifted into one more human in shape and texture. To take it would do two things. First off, a ring would slide onto her middle finger, a ring with the figurehead of a dragon upon it, maw open as if trying to eat her hand from the finger down without restricting her movement. It had genuine rubies in the eyes, glowing dimly. The second thing to happen would be more subtle: A seed of corruption would enter her body, and make its way to her mind, where it would work to make Daemala more inclined to listen to, and obey Draco's future commands.

"Do we have a deal, Vampire Queen?" he asked.

King of Shadows.

There was something recently familiar about that title, but it was the last of Daemala's concerns. Outside what sounded to be a hopeless war raged on. A hoard attempted to tear away at the hovercraft. There was no time to wrack centuries of mental storage: there was someone much stronger than she, and he was sitting in her hovercraft. He didn't seem to want a conversation. Troubling. She managed to keep herself collected as what felt to be tendrils danced about her, even going so far as to touch her face.

Such a brazen display of power, she thought, He is truly unafraid! As Draco, King of Shadows held up a hand the hovercraft stopped shaking. Daemala tuned in to a sonar channel for confirmation that they were no longer under direct attack. A pity she couldn't send anything back, and she wasn't about to try anything to put herself at risk. What if he could read minds-even encrypted or protected ones? He could likely listen in to their sonar no problem if he had a way to find the frequency and tune to interpret it. This was a huge problem.

Daemala kept her eyes fixed on Draco, King of Shadows. A few thoughts seemed to cross his mind. Her left eye twitched as he again began to speak. Of choices, of joining his Legion. A pit of dread began to form in her gut. What was coming was obvious. She was to be a pawn, a lowly little pawn. A piece to be used and discarded! Her eyes widened with horror. Her worst nightmare was coming to fruition. She was to be, in the grand scheme, insignificant!

Whatever he was, he certainly was not a vampire. She quickly forgot about the grotesque nature of Draco (and his hand) when she heard the word 'Queen'.

"Queen?" Daemala raised one of her own gloved hands to play across her fangs. She was enchanted by the idea of it. Queen! It was the pinnacle of achievement. To rule, but more so to be respected, even more so to be doted on, oh what it would mean to be Queen! Her eyes began to glitter.

"King of Shadows. You have a deal so long as what you say to be true is true. I am and will be from here now and forever forth, Queen," she extended her hand to take his, "Queen of Shadows."