Saga: The Eben Spires

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Sorry about the delay people, was waiting for Rizuk to post, but lets keep things moving!)

Three hundred degrees Fahrenheit? Hmm…this is going to be close. Ryan thought. He had never pushed his resistance to heat to such an extent before, so he had no idea if he’d be able to survive such intense heat for very long, though he was hoping he wouldn’t have to. His manipulation specialised in controlling the fire, as he could not create it, so as long as the heat was in the form of fire, which was a likely result, he would be ok – and so would the others.

‘Ok then…Aion, whenever you are ready.’ Ryan’s back legs slipped backwards across the floor as he steadied his stance and slowly raised his arm out in front of him. He was ready for whatever this temple held in store for them all, he just hoped all of the others were as well.

[Jimmy Claymore]

((OOC: Ironically, I was waiting for Ryan since my laptop at uni cant load the site properly))

Rizuk looked completely unconcerned at the prospect of 300 degrees of Fahrenheit rushing at them, that sounded like a comfy prospect to him. He rubbed his neck absent-mindedly with his right hand as he began to draw complex shapes with his left. He finally finished with his fingers held dead straight and a sheet of fire formed in a swirling orb. He flicked his wrist and pointed at the door, the fireball floated in front of it for a moment, the spinning embers held in place by sheer force of will.

Rizuk snapped his fingers and removed the fire from his will, it was sort of like throwing a ball into the air and hoping Ryan caught it in time to use. He didn't want to blast down the door and be unprepared
"This is going to be interesting... if it's too hot get behind me and I'll take the brunt of the heat" Rizuk announced, he breathed in with his mouth and felt a warm feeling circulating around as he puffed out his cheeks.

A single bead of sweat rolled down his face and a faintly orange glow began to emanate from his cheeks as the heat intensified. He kind of hoped that whatever they were going to deal with wasn't immune to fire like he was. That'd just result in what he affectionately called Pissing contests. He wasn't hurt by fire of low magnitudes unless it was filled with spiritual energy, so in these kinds of circumstances he'd have to just stand there and wait until the enemy got bored.

Fortunately, his Fire Boom Breath WASN'T just aimlessly fire. It was intensified. It'd hopefully work...
Presuming Ryan burnt down the door. He didn't really want to control the fire AND attack...

((OOC: Didnt get to read my PMs either, sorry dood))

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Heh, no problem dude! And I'm sorry for the late reply people, had a busy weekend. Lets get this thing moving again.)

Aion had completed his part of the plan, the entirety of the temple entrance now being completely frozen, and Rizuk had created a small ball of fire for Ryan, meaning he had also done his part too; now it was Ryan’s turn. Raising his hand Ryan stretched out his mental capabilities and caught hold of the small ball of flame. For a few moments it merely floated there, hovering gently and gracefully. Then suddenly Ryan thrust his arm forward, and he small ball of fire erupted outward into a beam of burning fire.

The area exploded with a loud hiss of fire on ice, and was followed with ample amounts of steam. Rapid condensation…this may cause problems for vision. It was then that the fire must have completely melted through the ice door as Ryan felt it push forward into nothingness. He stopped controlling the flames, allowing them to finally disperse. Suddenly an intense rush of fire erupted out from within the doorway towards the group. It was hot, too hot for even Ryan to withstand.

‘This is not my doing,’ he quickly warned. ‘Everyone take cover!’ without thought Ryan dashed behind Rizuk, much like the dragon had told them to do if such a situation did arise. The flames blasted into the group, Rizuk taking the majority of the force through choice. After a few seconds the flames subsided and vanished, leaving a dark, severally singed corridor for all to look down. A muffled grumble could be heard deep within the temple, a grumble that varied in deepness and intensity.

Stepping out from behind Rizuk Ryan took a few steps towards the temple entrance. A gust of wind could be felt pushing out from within it, it also varying in intensity, almost in sync with the grumbles that could be heard. ‘Well done team.’ Ryan muttered, trying to keep his voice as quiet as he possibly could, though not completely sure why. He felt uneasy. Something was wrong. ‘Step carefully…we have no idea what sort of traps may be waiting in lay for us inside.’ Slowly Ryan began moving into the temple, sure the others would be directly behind him.

[Aion]

Aion stood silently, his feet planted firmly on the ground about a yard behind the rest of the group. However, this time young man's silence wasn't devoted to taking a moment to assess their current situation; it was more due to what he had just witnessed. "Th-that was was amazing, sir!" He exclaimed in excitement, placing a hand on Rizuk's shoulder. "To brush off a flame that intense as if it were nothing....you must be invincible!"

He then set his sights on Kyle. "And your senses...to be able to tell the exact temperature with such a barrier blocking your path." Aion circled around Kyle, probably a lot quicker than his armor could register, taking a few seconds to study the white knight's armor. "Would it be wrong to assume you can adapt to any situation...?" He asked in total admiration of such an ability existing; somewhat jealous that he didn't posses something similar.

Though Aion wouldn't openly admit it Rizuk had hit the nail on the head earlier; this was Aion's first time on such an adventure. Other than himself or Ryan, a majority of the "gifted" warriors he'd encountered within the kingdom had rather mundane in terms of powers. Being together with these three warriors truly was like living in one of the stories he read as a child; in all the excitement Aion had nearly forgot his current responsibilities. A smile plastered across his face, he took off in a hurry, following Ryan into the ruins. "Once we're finished with this journey we should discuss the possibility of you two joining Lavertia's military."

[Ryan - Loki]

The corner of Ryan’s mouth curled up slightly as he heard Aion speaking to the others, he was like a child at Christmas time after turning the corner of the hallway and taking his first glimpse at the mountain of presents that awaited him. It had been for moments like this, impressing people to such extents with his powers and good deeds, that Ryan had originally wanted to be a hero. Moments like this made everything, all the harsh times, loss and terrible experiences he had suffered through, more than worth it.

The curled mouth quickly turned into a smile as Ryan heard Aion pretty much offer the others a place in Lavertia’s army after everything was sorted, though being at the front of the line, and by tilting his head down somewhat, Ryan managed to hide his smile behind the hair that had dropped down over his face as well as within the shadows of the corridor. ‘Heh…General, somehow I do not think that they will take up that offer, especially Rizuk.’ Ryan spoke, in a hushed voice. He turned his head slightly, allowing him to be able to just glimpse the others behind him, though his headband blocked the top half of his sight, causing him to lift his head upward somewhat. ‘Though master Rizuk has been known to surprise me in the past.’

As they continued to walk through the corridor Ryan didn’t reply to anything else that was said, not because he was ignoring anyone or being rude, but because a light had appeared at the right side of the corridor off in the distance. It was the end of the corridor. The corridor was on a bend? It was obvious now, but Ryan hadn’t realised before now. How long was this corridor? They had been walking for quite some time now, though at quite a reasonable speed. None of this really mattered in the larger scale of things, all that mattered was that they were about to find the first piece of the ancient armour; they had the advantage.

As the small group of four finally reached the end of the corridor everything came into light. The small corridor expanded outward into a gigantic room deep within the mountains, a singular room that was extremely well lit with several hundreds of torches. Still lit, after all this time? it puzzled Ryan greatly. The ceiling was supported by at least ten extremely thick pillars that seemed to become one with the surrounding stone of the mountain; everything was perfectly carved from the mountain. Master stone masons. Ryan thought to himself once again, the spectacular sight before him totally agreeing with his earlier statement of the temple entrance.

However, all this was immediately dwarfed by the thing that laid curled up in the centre of the room, it’s huge yellow slit eyes looking directly towards the group. ‘Impossible!’ Ryan hissed. This seemed to be the catalyst as the creature slowly began to stretch itself to its full length, far bigger than a house. It’s tail whipped against the rock floor, the loud crack of stone echoing immediately afterwards. The light flickered off of it’s pitch-black scales as they shimmered. Completely adorned with spikes, and claws roughly the same length as a persons arm; it was a sight strong enough to send fear down the spine of the bravest of men, even Ryan.

Suddenly it spoke. ‘Who are yooooou to disturb this ancient of placessss? it hissed through a deep growl, fire bursting through the corner of its snout.

‘My name is Ryan Jiaoimasu…who are you?’ Ryan was quite literally shaking. He already held an answer within his head to his question, and he was dreading that he would be correct.

‘Meee? You could not pronouncccce my truuuue name in your tongue,’ it said, the expression on its face almost dismissive. ‘But yoooous may know me as a TRUE Dragonian!’ He roared, fire exploding upwards towards the ceiling in a incinerating blast. It was so hot that even from his distance Ryan felt uncomfortable, and he had a natural resistance to the heat.

A true Dragonian? Ryan had read about them in his fathers books, but they were more bedtime stories, myths rather than facts. This Dragon was everything the books had said it would be, but far worse. Ryan was truly scared. He knew how powerful these dragons were said to be, that they could breath fire and use their wings to not only fly, but even crush solid rock. It was said that Dragonians, as they were today, evolved from what they were looking at, and that all the remaining ones had died out thousands upon thousands of years ago.

‘Rizuk…’ Ryan’s voice was quiet as he talked to Rizuk, who was still behind him. ‘You are supposedly a dragon God, correct? Can you not talk him into letting us live?’ there was no point in sugar-coating the truth, they were unlikely to survive if the ancient Dragonian decided to attack, in fact the only thing playing to their advantage was the size of the temple, it didn’t allow for the dragon to move freely as much as it would obviously like to.

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Guys, seriously, I posted 10 days ago and I know you’ve been on the site, I’ve seen your names! Come on; let’s have some posts!)

From Rizuk’s silence Ryan gathered that he was feeling much of what Ryan was currently feeling. Throughout the years of Ryan’s life he had come across many things he believed to be impossible, and he couldn’t even begin to count the number of myths and legends had been brought into light, shattering all delusions that there was a line, though fine, between reality and the impossible. Nothing is impossible. he heard himself reciting in his head.

‘Havvvvvvve none of you tongues?’ the Dragonian hissed. It’s deep voice growled out from the depths of its throat. It had noticed the silence from the group, but in their silence it had begun looking from right to left. It then clicked in Ryan’s head. The dragonian had been locked within this temple for longer than any of them could hope to live, meaning it was extremely old. Its age, mixed with the fact that it had been looked in a dimly lit temple, brought about an obvious conclusion; the dragonian couldn’t see properly. This was an advantage, but Ryan had been silence long enough.

‘Ancient Dragonian,’ Ryan finally spoke, his voice loud and solid. ‘We apologise for bursting into you temple, but we were sent here by a member of the knights of origin on an urgent quest to gather the pieces of the armour of origins.’

‘Only the knightsssss of origin can enter thisssss sacred temple.’ the dragonian spat in retort. ‘You will all die in here.’

‘You can not kill, what you can not see.’ Ryan defiantly stated.

In an instant the dragonian opened it’s huge jaws and roared, flames exploding outward in a blast towards the group. Ryan’s eyes widened. The fire was easily hot enough to burn flesh directly off of bone, even with Ryan, and though he knew Rizuk could more than likely sustain a level of comfort within the flames, Ryan assumed that would only last so long. Ryan instinctively threw his hands up in front of him as the blast reached the group, and as if slamming against an invisible barrier, the flames curved upwards towards the ceiling.

The blast was powerful, the pressure of it slightly pushing Ryan backwards trough the dirt as he concentrated and used his manipulation powers to control the fire, with great difficulty. The roaring of the fire was loud, almost deafening, though Ryan knew this was also an advantage, as now the dragonian couldn’t hear them either.

‘It has bad eye-sight!’ Ryan exclaimed over the noise of the blast. ‘Rizuk, Kyle Edwards, spread out and find the piece of armour. Hopefully they’ll be more than one piece. Keep as quiet as possible. Go, now!’ Ryan suddenly slid back a few more inches. ‘Aion, stay here and help me keep this beast busy. Your “cold talents” will most certainly come in handy!’

Hopefully they’d be more than one piece of armour present within he temple, it didn’t hurt to hope. Ryan knew as long as he and Aion could keep the dragonians attention focused on them for just a few minutes, Rizuk and Kyle Edwards could have this place completely searched. It was simply a matter of IF .

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Well guys, due to the inactivity of you I’m going to keep pushing the saga along every three days (auto-hit rule). As I explained to you all in the site email, this saga needs to be completed before the new changes come into play and so we can advertise.)

The flames continued to batter against Ryan’s manipulation, his conscious mind rapidly falling into fatigue because of it. Kyle Edwards and Rizuk had moved off, silently, in an attempt to find the armor piece, or at least Ryan had believed they had, and Aion had seemingly frozen in fear, as he had not yet jumped in to help Ryan fight back this ancient beast. Things were looking bleak for Ryan and Aion, as Ryan knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold up this sort of barrier for much longer, he just hoped that Aion would snap out of it and help him, or the Dragonian would run out of fire to breath; the latter he doubted.

When all hoped seemed lost an idea suddenly struck Ryan, so unexpectedly so that it almost caused him to lose his balance. Sparing as much concentration as he could Ryan focused on directing the fire he was pushing away, to a specific location within the chamber. Almost instantly the fire began to turn upwards towards the ceiling above the dragonian. In a matter of moments the intense heat began to melt through the very rock, until suddenly a large piece of it broke off and cascaded down towards the gigantic beast, smashing against its head and neck. It let out a roar of pain, and the fire stopped.

Instantly Ryan ceased his manipulation, falling down onto his right knee in exhaustion. He had outsmarted the beast once, but he doubted if he could again. I hope they find that armor piece soon. but his thoughts were disrupted by the sudden, unexpected arrival of the last people they would all want to see.

As if by magic Dramanius, Natas, Tidus and Pariah all appeared within the temple. Tidus fell to his knees, his breathing heavy, his complexion pale, and sweat dripping off of his brow. The scroll had taken its toll on him, but he had no choice. Both Natas and Dramanius inspected their new surroundings, though the huge creature that resided within the large temple chamber drew both of their attention.

‘An ancient dragonian.’ Natas said coldly, knowing full well what they were looking at. During his time as a lord of hell he had witnessed the rise, and the eventual fall of this dominant race; he did not fear them.

Dramanius looked at the creature, but said nothing. For a moment he contemplated the chances they’d have against it, he believed those chances to be high, and so he moved his eyes sight away from the creature and scanned the area for the remaining pieces of armour. His eyes fell upon Ryan. As if out of instinct Dramanius’ hand moved down to his waist, his fingers wrapping around Deepening Sins hilt.

Ryan had noticed the sudden arrival of Tidus and his new “friends”, especially the presence of Dramanius. Almost instantly he pushed himself up from his knee and rested his hand around the hilt of one of his Twin Reavers. He was ready to end this once and for all if it came to it, but in the corner of his eye he saw the dragonian once more. He hoped that Dramanius wouldn’t be foolish enough to attack him while the dragonian was still alive and present, it would mean certain death to all of them if he did. There are much larger problems than this feud…we must find the armour piece, and quick. he just hoped the others realised this truth too.

[Jimmy Claymore]

((OOC: Sorry dood, my interwebs at University won't let me load the site properly... I got no clue why, but I'm gonna try and do A post now))

Rizuk had slinked around the dragon and avoided Ryan's questions like a scolded child as the full realisation of how correct he had been sprang to mind. The door had been heated by a dragon who had willingly agreed to heat the doors and wait for the Knights of origin to arrive. This implied he was more than a little nuts or soft in the head. The heat didn't bother him in the slightest and just as he could not properly hurt the other dragon with fire, he could not hurt him so... there was that. He wasn't particularily thrilled with the notion of combat and had simply decided to leave Ryan and the others to it.

He couldn't see any sign of the helmet in his initial search, he frowned at the lack of artefact and nonchalently began searching somewhere else. He was interupted by the appearance of their adversaries who simply teleported inside... a small surge of annoyance triggered in his mind as he realised they could have done that followed by deep dread as he recognised the woman android thing. That psycho bitch from before... he sighed as he hopped down to a level near the Dragon and sighed as he picked at his teeth

"Hey" He muttered, glancing at the villains arrayed in front of them and his allies
"So, I'm Chaos' son, from Zolan? Could you do me a solid and take out those guys first? Plus, we're looking for the armour... on behalf of the last Knight of Origin, he's been direly wounded and we're gathering the armour to save his life" Rizuk lied fluidly and with such ease that he'd managed to get people believing he was a deity, so on a Dragon who'd been locked up for so long it'd probably sound like Gospel, not to mention his eye-sight seemed bad enough he might not notice the smirk that flitted across Rizuk's face during his pause. He waved half-heartedly at Ryan and added as a side note
"Could you try to miss him? I mean, try, if its impossible its impossible but ideally I'd like that one not scorched" Rizuk gave Ryan an enormous wink and resumed looking around the chamber for the helm, his back to the new enemies as if they were no threat at all.

((OOC: Posting's gonna be sporadic but I found a WAY to post now at least))

[Aion]

Aion stood still in the ancient beast's presence. Even as it attacked, the young man made no effort to defend himself nor his comrade. What Ryan had thought was half correct, Aion had completely frozen in fear, but this fear wasn't due to the dragon's power or intimidating appearance; it was due to what it represented; a promise. A promise that he made to Laviathan long ago, to protect Dragonia and it's guardians with his life. Through every decision he made, Aion stuck to this promise; even when joining the Lord of Hell. He wanted to help out Ryan, but with the dragon out of control, Aion knew what had to be done. The most disconcerting aspect of this was the punishment he'd face: losing his soul to Leviathan.

"I-I c-can't harm him, sir!"

Aion spat out, but not without a struggle. Clear signs of confusion and stress made their presence known by causing the young Nenian's body shake wildly; it was almost as if the very suggestion of harming this beast caused him great pain. A pain that would only get worse with the sudden appearance of Natas and Dramanius. The Nenian fell to his knees, his already agitated body shaking even more violently than before. If there was one bit of knowledge that would have kept Aion from joining the Lords Of Hell, it was the result that came when the influence of Leviathan and Hell clashed with each other. It was a pain that one felt in his very soul; a pain that accompanied the struggle of two factions who had battled for centuries.

Aion's eyes gave off a crimson glow; the labyrinths that lay hidden within his pupils now revealed to those around his being; his malice now, was more apparent than it had ever been. Aion knew the route he was about to take was the wrong one, but he wanted the two lords gone, and he wanted them gone now. In one swift motion, Aion's left hand shot upward, grasping the necklace that rested around his neck; ripping it off.

"Disappear..."

His first sentence came as a very low whisper. The very energies that held reality together began to react; to those normal vision, a reaction this small would make it appear as if everything around them was giving off a low vibration.

"Disappear.."

His tone began to rise, the vibration becoming more violent.

"Disappear."

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: I’m going to progress things a little, because this saga is starting to drag on and we don’t want to make the same mistakes we’ve made in the past! So don’t worry if things seem to speed up in this post.)

As a sign of good faith Ryan moved his hand away from the hilt of his blade and directed his vision back towards the Dragonian, it had been the only thing he could think of that may have shown Dramanius and Natas that he wasn’t willing to fight them in their present situation. It was a risk, a great risk considering who he was dealing with, but under such short notice and pressure it was the best solution he could come up with, though the entire plan fell on Dramanius’ attention to detail and deductive powers.

Dramanius had noticed this small detail, it was in his nature to notice such things. His original thought coupled with the smirk that briefly crossed his face, that Ryan had surrendered and this was his chance to end his life, but it was also in Dramanius’ nature to question everything, and because of such he quickly figured out what Ryan was doing. With a slow turn of his head Dramanius also looked over towards the raging Dragonian, and though it sickened him Dramanius agreed with Ryan, this wasn’t the time to settle their feud.

‘Look.’ Natas suddenly muttered, tapping Dramanius on the shoulder and nodding over towards Ryan; though it wasn’t Ryan he was nodding at. ‘A Lord of Hell is about to join us.’

Dramanius looked over, and surely enough Natas was right, something was happening to Aion. ‘Natas, you know what to do.’



Meanwhile, Ryan had heard how shaky Aion’s voice had been when he had spoken, though at the time Ryan had been too busy to pay much more attention to his comrade, but now that he had momentarily taken care of the Dragonian, and the threat of Dramanius and Natas had subsided as well, he could now focus more on his friend. Turning his head around Ryan was finally able to realise the full extent of the problem.

Ryan had earlier made the connection between Aion, Natas and Dramanius, their body languages and eye contact having given away more than they had obviously thought, though it hadn’t taken much to make the final connection. Upon Aion joining up with the Lavertian guard his past had been looked into, as was done with all new recruits, but seeing as Aion had been an active warrior upon Dragonian Ryan had paid special attention and delved into Aion’s past himself; his discoveries hadn’t lead to anything conclusive, but assumptions were easily made and the dots joined up.

Ryan scrambled across the dirt on his knees towards Aion and grabbed him on his shoulders. He thought of attempting to shake him back to his senses, though he quickly pushed that though aside. ‘Aion,’ Ryan’s voice was quiet as he was attempting to remain calm, though with everything going on around him it was hard. ‘I know Aion, I know.’ Ryan’s azure blue eyes were only visible due to the intensity of their colour from underneath his hair and headband, though they were peering deep inside Aion’s own eyes. ‘Fight it! There is always another way.’ Ryan didn’t know the process that Aion was going through, or whether or not it was even within his power to stop it once it had already begun, but he had to try.



The Dragonian roared in pain and annoyance as the heavy rubble from the ceiling cascaded down upon its head, neck and back. It wasn’t enough to trap the creature underneath it all, nor was it enough to do it any serious, lasting damage, but nevertheless it had stunned it, stopped its attack and caused several smaller injuries to the ancient beast.

Suddenly the Dragonian heard someone speaking, someone close by, and it sounded as if he was directing his words at the Dragonian. Squinting its reptilian eyes in an attempt to see better, it began to search for whomever was speaking. Quickly a blurred figure came into view, though it was safe to say that dust and rubble in his eyes had not helped his already extremely bad eyesight, so the Dragonian couldn’t make out anything other than a blurred figure.

‘Foooooooolisssssh morsel!’ With that it swung its front left leg towards Rizuk. The attack was fast, but only in terms of the creatures overall size and Rizuk would surely have no trouble in avoiding it. The Dragonians claws slashed through one of the solid rock pillars of the temple, causing rock to go flying in several different directions. Though as soon as the Dragonians claws had been retracted, and its leg brought back, it blasted another dose of fire at the Dragon God, completely unaware that the flames wouldn’t affect Rizuk like they would anyone else.



Natas had now stopped focusing on Aion, and what was happening to him; he now had a much more important task to complete. Turning to face Tidus Natas reached down and took the scroll from within his palm. ‘Excuse me.’ he softly spoke to Tidus. With the scroll and quill now in his hand Natas unravelled a section of the scroll and began to write: “And suddenly the pieces of armour within the temple appeared at Natas’ feet.”

A wave of smugness enveloped him as the final stroke of the quill left the paper, causing him to partially forget about the drained feeling that the scroll have bestowed upon him, and after a few seconds of waiting his smugness was replaced by a tidal wave of triumph as not one piece, but all of remaining pieces of armour, appeared at his feet; they had won. In his excitement Natas dropped the scroll and quill into Tidus’ hands and turned towards Dramanius. Pushing his shoulder to get his attention Natas nodded downwards towards the remaining pieces of armour.

Dramanius had been watching Ryan and Aion when he felt his shoulder suddenly being shoved. Turning around with an expression full of malice Dramanius was faced with Natas, who although had no mouth or nose, was clearly excited by the shape of his eyes. As Dramanius glanced down he could hardly believed that it had worked. All the remaining pieces of armour resided within this temple? it was hard to believe. The knights of origin placed too much faith in their ancient protector.

Dramanius couldn’t help but grin as he began to put on each individual piece of amour, as he had been doing so to keep it all safe. He had slipped on the legs, and tightened up the cuirass, he bent down and grasped the helmet in his hands as he slowly stood up, looking at it all the while. So much power, in such an unimportant set of items. he slowly raised his hands to place the helmet over his head when suddenly there was a loud crash.

Dramanius’ head spun to the side just in time for him to witness the Dragonian’s claws smash through one of the nearby pillars. Unexpectedly, several large pieces of rubble were sent flying in their direction, causing Natas, Tidus and Dramanius to take evasive action to avoid being squashed. However, in another twist of fate a piece of rock flew through the air and collided with Dramanius’ hands, causing the helmet to be sent flying in the opposite direction. ‘No! The helmet!’

Evil hadn’t triumphed yet.

(OOC2: Aion, if I’ve assumed anything wrongly with all this I’ve written about your character then just ignore it I’m writing this at work and can’t really check the site for your characters history without getting in trouble lol)

[Garoten Reklor]

Kyle stood for a moment, stunned by the appearance of the enormous dragon inside the temple. In all of the theories he could have imagined for the temperature inside the cavern, this never would have entered the running. When the creature introduced itself as a TRUE Dragonian, however, the whole of his experience on this strange planet began to make a little more sense.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to dwell on the matter, since the Dragon didn't seem too keen on having any company at the moment. At Ryan's order, the White Knight slipped off to the left and began to skirt along the wall of the cavern in his search. As poetic as it would seem, he was okay with passing on slaying this particular dragon for the time being. The truth was he pitied the creature and would have a difficult time not restraining his blows.

="Rhia, any hope in scanning these walls and making this job easier?"=

There was a pause and the display before Kyle's eyes flickered, overlaying the true appearance of the temple walls with a transparent blue outline of the rooms beyond the walls. It wasn't true 'x-ray vision', rather a rendered image created from the results of sonar and thermal readings.

="It's rudimentary, but this is the best information available. A sample of the material for which you are searching would be invaluable at the moment."=

A sudden spike in heat and a roar that shook the cavern caused Kyle to increase his pace along the wall. Just as he had made his way halfway around the room, the situation took another unexpected turn. There was a bright flash, and even before Rhia could inform him the Knight had spotted the newcomers: Dramanius, his companion from the meeting, the boy Tidus, and the android that he had fought both against and alongside in a matter of days. The alliances on this world were a complex tangle indeed. While Tidus seemed to almost collapse, Dramanius took a moment to survey the situation - and Kyle took note of what was on his legs.

="Rhia, he's got some of the armor! Get a reading, now!"=

Instantly, the AI complied and a stream of information scrolled across the HUD - the physical composition of the armor of origin. Rhia then reswept the cavern and the rooms beyond, searching for any material with a similar structure. In seconds several green squares appeared before his eyes.

="Three matches, sir, in three chambers equidistant from the center of this cavern."=

Kyle turned and faced the wall behind him, focusing on the blue overlay showing a long tunnel that sloped sharply downward and ended in a small room, where the vague outline of a medium-sized object lay inside a box of some sort. Taking a step back from the wall, he raised his arms and, with the next roar of the dragon his only hope to do move unnoticed, unleashed a volley from the cannons now mounted on his wrists and shoulders. The wall, being several times thinner and weaker than the gate, disappeared, leaving a large hole, still molten on the edges. Unable to alert his comanions without also alerting their enemies, the Knight slipped into the passage alone and sped to the end of the hall, triggering a half-dozen ancient traps along the way. Fortunately his assumption held true - the designers of the temple had only accounted for so much, and the spears, nets, and even massive slabs of rock that descened on him proved to be too weak or too slow to damage his armor. In seconds, he was at the door to the side chamber with a trail of wrekcage in his wake, staring at the image of what he could now clearly see to be the chestplate of the Armor of Origin. All that remained was to blast open the door and take it.

He leveled the cannons on his forearms one more time and built a charge, then unleashed a blast far less powerful than one might expect, but he had to be careful not to damage the armor behind the wall. With most of the rock blown out of his way, he hauled back and slammed through the thin layer remaining and into the chamber, where the chestplate lay - for a split second. Suddenly it disappeared instantly. No flash of light, no fading, nothing that would indicate a trap, trick, or illusion. It simply was, then wasn't there. Before he could question, Rhia's voice rang in his ears.

="It's in the main chamber, along with the rest of the armor. Every piece is with Dramanius."=

The AI's voice was its characterisic calm, unconcerned tone. Kyle, on the other hand, fought panic in spite of his training. He turned on his heels, bent forward, and kicked forward with a blast from his jets. In seconds he was hurtling through the main chamber, and not a moment too soon. Rizuk had gained the dragon's attention in the form of a mighty blow. Adjusting his course slightly, the White Knight tore past Rizuk in an attempt to snatch him from harm's way, then rotated mid-air to face Dramanius and prepare an attack. He finished the maneuver just in tim to see the helmet knocked free from Dramanius's grasp...there was always a little luck involved in being a hero - today might be a good day for heroes after all.

He shifted course again and dumped energy into the shaping system. From the hilt of his sword suddenly emerged not a blade, but a long pole wih a box on the end. While others scrambled after the helmet, the Knight snatched it from the air and retracted the unsual contraption back into the sword, catching the helmet as the box disappeared. He planted his feet and shifted the armor into the Defensive configuration. Cannons disappeard, the shield reappeared in a tower form, and the whole of his armor became bulkier, sword included. He grasped the Helmet of Origin in his left hand, behind the shield, and whirled the now massive sword in his right. Dragon or Dramanius, neither was going to get the helmet without a fight.

[Kaworu - Horatio]

Following his senses an other dimensional man named Kaworu Wolfram had landed near a big geological feature in Bedoe's land after feeling a large amount of emotions most of which were highly mixed, thinking it'd be interesting to find out what was making such emotions Kaworu thought he'd leave the house in the capable hands of his dimensional counter part and investigate the feelings. Thankfully he'd rested up before coming here because he used up so much energy keeping up a barrier on his house because of all the commotion found on this planet upon his arrival but now that it has quieten down he thought it'd be good to explore the place, Kaworu had been walking as he was in thought and ended up walking through a long cave like corridor and so not to take too much of his time Kaworu stepped up his pace soon seeing a ending in sight. And he could also feel the emotions more intensely most of which we even more mixed then they were before including more possible beings within the area he first felt the emotions, as he brushed off the heat from within the chamber he came up to the entrance to where all the commotion was coming from at least that's what Kaworu could tell by the noise and emotions.

As he stood there he could see it was quite a stand off with a powerful looking dragons with some rocks on it's back, two humanoid figures who seemed like they came from Hell or at least lived there with what seemed an android of some sorts not far behind them only guessing that was an android as he felt no emotions coming from it, he also noticed four other people all seemed like they were strong warriors of some sought thou one seemed more then he looked may haps a connection to the dragon creature in the middle of the room. Kaworu thought about whose side he should join if the need arise and that even if he didn't he thought it'd be smart to remain armed or ready for battle so he kept at least one of his hands on one of his Dai Katana's at his side, he continued to survey the surroundings and weather to enter in but thought it'd be better if he had his weapon handy so he took it out of its sheath and put it over his shoulder and continued watching the fun seeing who'd wanna move first.

[Jimmy Claymore]

Rizuk... wasn't the most level-headed of people normally. But this old coot had managed to, just about, snap the youthful (comparitively) Dragon's patience like a thin twig.
"Morsel? MORSEL!?!" Rizuk was pulled free of the tail swipe by White Knights flight path but struggled free in time to land on a small outcrop of stone and catapult himself bodily forwards and shooting at the enormous scaled monstrosity with an enraged glean in his eye
"Are you so freakin' senile you don't remember who Chaos is old man!? Chaos Ryujin!? The greatest Dragon to roam this sandball!" Rizuk was being a bit hyperbolic, having never met his old man, but was so angry at the old dragon it seemed worth it. With a twist of his entire body, he struck upwards at the ancient farts jaw with the goal of a) cutting of the fire he was currently flying quite easily through and b) knocking his sodding teeth out for some impudence. Regardless of the effect, his momentum carried him safely to the far-side of the cave and he noticed a few more hangers-on doing what they always did... standing around talking or observing... and no doubt they'd end up revealing themselves as stronger than the current enemy and making life so much harder for the rest of them.

With a snarl filled with fire, Rizuk clenched his leg muscles and sprang at the White Knight, the helm now held in his hand. He took a deep breath in while in mid-air and showing a certain element of vindictiveness, shot two bursts of super hot fire at Dramanius and Natas, showing that it was possible to split the attack and thus educating AND immolating. He landed in a crouch behind the White Knight and watched for signs of attack
"Destroy the helmet, NOW! Whatever they want it for, if we destroy the helmet they'll be stopped" Rizuk was poised and trying to think of a way to transform. He wasn't filled with negative or positive feelings so he was stuck with his Red Dragon form, which would be fine if the room was bigger, but all it would do was make him a target. A thin layer of heat covered his hands as he squatted and the air hissed with the heat as his focused
"If Aion, Jiaomasu and I hold them off... that should give you enough time. I like this planet too much to let it get destroyed" Rizuk grinned and tensed himself to intercept any attacks he saw.

[Aion]

His breathing was becoming more sporadic by the minute; his body felt like it was being stretched in every direction. However, once again Ryan's words found Aion; he was right "there is always another way". There was one possible way to override this, but it would be highly difficult to maintain the concentration necessary to succeed. This plan's premise was simple, if it was simply the outside influence of two other lords on causing his body to react this way; this could be trumped by an even greater force equaling everything out. Of course, he'd still be in pain, but at least he could fight in this state.

Aion gave another violent shake, effectively loosening Ryan's grip, sliding backwards a bit. Immediately afterward, he locked his hands together, and began chanting ancient words to himself; this form was similar to the one he had taken outside of the temple. Surely enough, his body began to illuminate with a white aura, one that only continued to grow with each repetition of the chant. The aura shot upward off of Aion's body, gathering into a crescent shaped mass of energy, lighting up the room even more with it's brilliance.

His breathing still violent, had noticeably calmed down. Aion once again brought his hand upward, allowing the crystal attached to the necklace to make contact with his throat. His crimson eyes on Ryan.

"Whatever you're planning, we have fifteen minutes get it done; otherwise, I'm destroying this cave along with everyone here." Aion warned through gritted teeth.

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Tidus, Aion, I’m going to be PM’ing you both just to clarify some stuff before I take the saga forward. Tidus, don’t post until I PM you, Aion, you can go ahead )

The Dragonian had heard of Chaos Ryujin, many of his kind had done, but he didn’t see how that had anything to do with what was happening, and so he ignored the random outburst, and set upon disintegrating the morsel. However, as the Dragonian continued to shoot out his blast of scorching hot fire something unexpected happened, a sudden bout of pain rushed up one of his front teeth. Instantly the bombardment of fire ceased and the Dragonian roared in pain once more, falling down onto its belly.

It had been thousands upon thousands of years had passed since this Dragonian had agreed to guard the temple, and suddenly he had been attacked and hurt several times in the space of not even twenty minutes; how times change.




Aion suddenly vibrated so intensely that Ryan easily lost his grip, and could only watch as his comrade slid a few meters backwards through the dirt. Perhaps it was already too late, it was certainly a possibility, and Ryan now knew that he had to accept that he might have to battle Aion on top of everything else if things got much worse, which they appeared they might just do. When suddenly Aion began to chant, and then glow brightly, brighter and brighter by the second until Ryan had to raise his hand to shield his eyes somewhat.

‘Aion…?’ The importance of all else had seemingly faded away at this point, especially when Aion announced, through a gritted grin, that he was going to destroy the temple, and everyone in it, inside of fifteen minutes. At this point Ryan was unsure what to do, or think. Through experience he knew that these sorts of situations very rarely resolved themselves inside of fifteen minutes, some often taking days of intense battle, fifteen minutes surely wouldn’t be enough. Many years ago Ryan had come to accept death was inevitable, and he did not fear it, but now things were different, he had people that depended on him, an entire country in some aspects, he couldn’t afford to die –though if it meant stopping Loki from returning then it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

Turn his head Ryan looked back towards Kyle Edwards and Rizuk, who had just landed behind him and told him to destroy the helm. ‘Do it! Destroy the helmet! It is the only way to insure that Loki is never revived!’ His voiced echoed out within the temple as he shouted, though the noise coming off from Aion almost drowned it out. ‘Destroy it and then get out of here! This place will explode in just under fifteen minutes!’ Ryan had purposely neglected to mention that it was Aion who would be destroyed the temple, just in case the others didn’t know.

Ryan turned away from his comrades at this point, reached down to his waist, and unsheathed one of his twin reavers. He always loved the sound of the blades metal sliding against the metal of it’s cover, though only he would be able to hear it with the noise within the temple. ‘I’ll buy you all some time.’ he shouted, extending his arm and pointing the tip of his blade off towards the small group consisting of Natas, Pariah, Tidus and Dramanius.



Now on the floor, Dramanius began to realise the true scope of what had just happened. He had held the final piece of armour within his grasp and was about to place it over his head and it had been snatched away. They had been so close, no, HE had been so close, but there was still hope. The dread quickly faded and was replaced with ambition, with a drive.

Despite wearing armour the explosion had knocked a fair bit of wind out of Dramanius’ lungs, which made it a little bit more of an effort when he pushed himself up off of the ground with a groan. Suddenly the area around him illuminated. Turning his head Dramanius saw a small blast of fire hurtling towards him, with little to no time to evade it. However, moments before impact Natas suddenly appeared in front of him, his long, flowing cape, held outward. This was followed by a thud as the two blasts of fire, the other aimed at Natas, collided with the now solidified cape, saving Dramanius from suffering serious burns across his face.

As Natas removed the cape and both of them stood up fully, they turned towards their opponents only to find that one of them, the one in the huge suit of armour, now had the helm, and the others were discussing destroying it. Dramanius’ eyes flashed with worry, though his lapse in the control of his emotions was only momentarily. For a while Dramanius and Natas remained silent, merely watching as things unravelled themselves. Aion had apparently managed to control himself enough not to reveal his true self, before announcing he was now a self-exploding time bomb, which would explode within fifteen minutes. The fool.

‘The scroll.’ Dramanius whispered to Natas, Tidus and Pariah. ‘The scroll can right these wrongs…’ With Ryan stepping forward and issuing his challenge, a wire thin smirk snuck across Dramanius’ face. Unable to resist he stepped forward and unsheathed his own blade, pointing its tip out towards Ryan. He turned his head to the side, so Ryan couldn’t read his lips, and spoke to Tidus. ‘I am not going to fight Ryan, but instead I am going to buy you the time needed to use the scroll…now listen carefully, after I’ve distracted Ryan enough for him not to notice, I need you to transport us to Loki’s corpse, but Ryan must come with us. Do you understand?’ Dramanius wasn’t about to repeat himself if Tidus didn’t understand, he had bigger problems in the shape of Ryan to worry about.

‘My, my Ryan, you have picked a wonderful tomb for yourself. Pity the remains of your people were only buried in the dirt – though, no more of a fate than what they deserved.’

‘I may die in here Dramanius…’ Ryan was struggling to hold back his anger at this point. Though he knew better than to be fuelled by rage and hatred, he couldn’t help but feel he wanted to decapitate Dramanius again. ‘But I will see your last breath leave your lungs before I do. That, I promise you.’

And with that the two dived at each other, their swords pulled back in preparation, and hope, to strike a fatal blow to the other.