Saga: Beginning of the End, End of the Beginning

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: The saga is going to continue, and end, in this thread.)

As everything flickered back into existence Ryan was completely caught of guard. What had happened? He didn’t know, but one thing was certain, they were no longer in the temple within the Eben Spires of Bedoe anymore. Dramanius had been expected Tidus to do as such, and so wasn’t surprised when he suddenly materialized within a new temple. Noticing Ryan’s moment of faltering surprise Dramanius capitalized and sliced downwards across Ryan’s face. Ryan only saw the attack at the last moment, and couldn’t get away from it quick enough. He felt the coldness of the blade slice through the warm skin on his cheek, and the following feeling of warm liquid slowly trickling down his cheek.

Ryan quickly recoiled backwards out of harms way, his hand rushing up to his face to put pressure on the cut. The pain was instant, but it was mild in comparison to what he had felt in the past. Stepping backwards Ryan put some space in-between himself and Dramanius, who was currently sporting an extremely smug smirk. It was only then, now that he felt safe that Dramanius couldn’t attack without him having enough time to take the correct measures that Ryan looked upon his new surroundings.

He instantly noticed his fellow comrades, Kyle Edwards, Rizuk and Aion were all there too, so was the stranger who had not long ago arrived at the temple, as were Natas, Pariah, Tidus and obviously Dramanius. Everyone was here, including a few who Ryan had not seen within the temple. The scroll had obviously brought everyone here for a reason, but why? It was then that Ryan recognised where he was.

“At the corridors end it opens up into an extremely large, circular room. The room looks like a throne room in a palace, or at least an extravagant tomb, but either way the entire place is in ruins…as if it had been left t erode for thousands of years, the only light being that which is seeping through the crumbled gaps in the ceiling.” he muttered to himself. He could still remember himself saying exactly those words while talking to Seriyu on the edge of the great lake where the once great valley of his people once resided. He now knew exactly where he was. Turn to his left Ryan saw what he feared the most. Far off within the shadows of the room there was someone lying on the floor, a thick sword protruding from their chest.

‘My dream…’ Ryan was still walking backwards at this point, and was now standing amongst the rest of his comrades. ‘…I dreamt about this place…’ though Ryan had dreamt about this place, it didn’t look exactly the same. There was water dripping from all over the place within this room, and because of it there seemed to be an abundance of moss growing over the majority of the damp walls. There were no entrances or exits to this temple room, at least none that were still accessible, so they were all fundamentally trapped. In his dreams Ryan had never managed to look upon the corpse with the sword through its chest, always waking up before he could break through the shadows, and now that he was here he wanted nothing more than to quench his curiosity and find out who the corpse was, but instead he decided to look at his surroundings a little more and figure out where they all actually were.

Glancing around Ryan’s eyes fell on something within the room that he had never seen within any of his dreams. It was a large, metallic sphere, though greatly rusted. It was old technology, that much was certain, and it had the shape of a bomb. Ryan’s eyes widened. It was the bomb lunched from Esperanza during the Great War, the bomb that lead to the destruction of Guardina, it was the only explanation, which could mean only one thing. ‘We are in Guardina…’ Ryan muttered.

‘That you are, brother.’ Though the voice was echoed and distant, it’s volume showed that it came from within the room. Ryan’s face turned pale, his blood froze, and his eyes became even wider than they already were. He knew who it was without even looking, but his brain wouldn’t believe it until he saw him. So slowly Ryan turned his head in the direction that the voice had seemingly come from; he saw nothing, nothing but the lifeless corpse lying on the floor. Suddenly something began to move within the shadows over the corpse, and then slowly a person stepped out of the shadows and into the little light that the room allowed. There stood a transparent Loki, completely white, like a ghost of shorts.

‘Impossible!’ Ryan exclaimed. ‘You died in the explosion!’

‘The full explosion never happened brother, as you can probably tell by the un-detonated bomb over there.’ he motioned over towards the large metal ball with his ghostlike hand. ‘It was the impact into the seabed that caused Guardina to sink into the seas depths, not the explosion – so in fact the bomb never truly went off.’ he was smirking. ‘And I never truly died, though getting impaled by my own blade caused me to become trapped between life and death, well, lets just say it’s not one of my finest moments.’

Ryan moved his hand away from his face, ignoring the pain from the cut, his face angry and determined. ‘I wont let you be brought back. Not while we hold one of the armour pieces.’ despite how badly everything had been going Ryan felt a small glimmer of hope in the fact that they held at least one piece of the armour, though that glimmer of hope quickly vanished as Loki erupted in laughter that echoed out and filled the entire room.

‘Do you think I would leave my fate in the hands of an ancient relic that might not even be true?! Oh how you’ve slipped over the last seven years brother!’ He continued to laugh for a few more seconds before suddenly stopping, the laughter replaced by a wire thin grin. ‘As far as I am concerned that armour is useless.’ Loki lifted his hand to run it through his hair, his hand passing through the top of his own head. ‘Frankly I’m a little let down you didn’t realise all of this sooner. Oh and Aion, by all means blow yourself up, you worthless lord of hell. Explode and all you’re succeed in doing is killing everyone in his room, setting me free in the process.’

Ryan felt defeated as he looked back at Kyle, who was holding the helmet. There was every chance that Loki was bluffing, though Ryan felt that he wasn’t. However, if Loki wasn’t bluffing then how did he plan to free himself without the armour? It made no sense, though Ryan knew that none of them had the luxury of thinking about everything, they had to act before Loki did complete his plan and get set loose on Dragonia once again. ‘I will stop you Loki…even if I have to take the sword out of your rotting corpse and dismember it!’

Loki’s face suddenly went wide with fear and he turned towards a bewildered Dramanius and Natas. ‘Whatever you do DON’T let Ryan pull the sword out of my body!’ he exclaimed. ‘Don’t fail me again!’

[Kaworu - Horatio]

Kaworu regained his composure from the teleport that occurred seemingly bringing more then those within the temple to this mysterious tomb that looked like it was underground or even worse under water, he looked around and noticed that the two that were fighting each other had started again but finished when a ghostly figure spoke and then appeared thou not knowing who it was Kaworu heard the ghost call himself the other man's brother and in return he mentioned Loki. He walked over closer to the better side of this place which was more towards the good guys and looked again at the ghostly fellow, "So this is Loki, I was expecting something more mythical or God like hell even Giant like would be more accurate but seriously a plan old man ain't really that scary but if it's that much of a problem that these warriors seem so intent on stopping guess I'll join the fun some more" expressed Kaworu as he jumped back as far as he could and then ran backwards till he was in front of the entrance to where the body laid.

Kaworu positioned himself defensively pulling out another sword in the process this one seemed more flamboyant then the other one he had but was of the same style, he held a sword in each hand and then put his arms out with the swords pointing out each of the covering the gaps beside him. "I'll only allow Ryan or his friends to pass here those of you hell spawn can take the difficult path of going through me" informed Kaworu as he stood there hoping he was doing some thing needed cause it seemed like the only thing he could think of besides killing the hell beings and he wasn't even sure that'd work in their dimension so this was the most viable option he could think of. "Well if anyone's going to do something, I'd be doing it shortly" yelled Kaworu as he stood there wondering who'd make the first move, as he was ready for whatever might occur due to his sudden interference.

[Jimmy Claymore]

Rizuk was a little disorientated and rubbed his brow slightly awkwardly as he saw Ryan having a highly emotional confrontation with what appeared to be his evil twin brother. Proving once more that cliches make the world go round, this entire fiasco had been other an evil twin brother. Marvellous. Rizuk sighed as he strolled briskly past Kaworu as he made his stand against the forces of hell. He wanted to say something sarcastic or sardonic to the boy and point out how very bad this idea as a whole was but decided against it, after all, cannon fodder was never a bad thing to have.

He approached the area of Loki's corpse and folded his arms. Now, THAT was interesting. So, being impaled by his own sword had left him stuck midway between life and death... and he was very insistent that Ryan should not remove the sword. But he hadn't mentioned any of the other collected heroes, all with the appropriate things attached to the ends of their arms to remove a sword, about stopping them. He sighed and straightened up, pinching his nose dramatically
"THIS was your plan? Honestly, even if your dead thats no excuse. So, I'm guessing you acually want Ryan to pull the sword out, since it'd presumably free your spirit and then what? Possess him? All you'd need is some hair-dye and you could pass as twins." Rizuk sighed, this gave him one obvious option.

"Let no-one move the sword, but if you want they can kick the corpse in the nuts a bit. Y'know, for shits and giggles" He strolled past Kaworu again and stood besides the sword holding man and, with a superfluous flick, summoned flames to swarm around his hand in a montage of plumes and gouts of fiery doom. He held his hands high and ready to throw the flames when he suddenly dropped them, and launched a sphere of what looked like (or at least ACTED like) Napalm from his mouth, showing a creative use of his Fire Boom Breath. The blazing sphere thundered towards the Lords of Hell as Rizuk absent-mindedly picked his teeth
"I don't really see the point in threats, its just wasted time that could be spent attacking" he confided to Kaworu from his casually relaxed stance.

[Kaworu - Horatio]

"You have a point there, I just wasn't sure if I should waste my time on Hell spawn" retorted Kaworu as he relaxed his position and put one of his swords away leaving the more flamboyant beige looking one in his hand, he then gather some energy in a free hand into a medium sized spiked looking ball then flicked his wrist to add a few more features to it. Kaworu then looked over to the hell spawn and wondered where near him he should throw it because it was in all intensive purposes a shrapnel bomb just in energy form so he'd have to land it well to only hit those from hell, excluding our every jittery exploding man in the corner thou what he was doing didn't seem to matter to anyone at this point as there seemed more important things at hand.

"Dragon fellow I heard someone call you Rizuk before nice to met you and stand beside you in battle, hope you're quick cause this first attack may cause some problems if it hits wrong or is interrupted" quietly says Kaworu to Rizuk, he then raised his arm and aimed towards the middle of the Hell beings and then launched the thing hopefully hitting the right spot as not to hit any of the remaining good guys in the room. Just incase during let off he twitched his wrist a tad to add a little extra to the energy so that he could stop the spikes/shrapnel at his choosing, so as not to kill or damage any needed or innocent people in the process then retained a defensive yet relaxed stance.

[kihaku]

The words out of my mouth had been filled with warmth, but now all I felt was cold and damp. My fire was no longer casting its heat and light across my legs, and it had all of a sudden become difficult to see in the gloom that pressed against my sense of sight. I immediately shifted into a sitting position, and regretted doing so almost instantly; my head pounded as if someone had slid a vice around while I wasn't looking and started tightening it. I wobbled for a second until I put my left hand against the cold stone floor to steady myself, and the contact with something tangible set my jangled nerves a little more at ease.

Soon, my eyes managed to adjust to the lack of light, and I wasn't very impressed by what I saw. To me, it was as if I had been transported (I assumed transported because there wasn't any evidence to suggest travel by conventional means) into what looked like a D&D nerd's wet dream, in an almost literal sense. The ruined stone hallway was moist from water dripping out of every possible crack in the moarter that wasn't stuffed with thick, green moss, light barely managed to filter through the cracks in the ceiling to either pool on the floor or refract across the still puddles on the floor.

Just about to say something, another voice cut me off.

‘We are in Guardina…’

'Holy shit,' I thought to myself, 'that's the voice of one of the guys from that night!' I scrambled to my feet, leaning heavily against the wall, and turned back to Jayne with my index finger pressed against my lips. Despite our mostly-unexplored gap in cultural differences, I hoped that the signal for silence would make it across, considering I wasn't speaking either.

‘That you are, brother.’

That voice, though I had never heard it before, was sonorous, sepuchural, almost like one of the evil undead, and immediately sent goose-bumps along my arms and caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. So far, the both of them had floated to us from somewhere ahead, so I cautiously crept forward with Jayne behind me. I wasn't trying to make up for the previous night's cowardice and weakness, I just sort of felt the need to see what was going on more than anything else.

‘Impossible! You died in the explosion!’

'One would hope...'

‘The full explosion never happened brother, as you can probably tell by the un-detonated bomb over there, it was the impact into the seabed that caused Guardina to sink into the seas depths, not the explosion – so in fact the bomb never truly went off, and I never truly died, though getting impaled by my own blade caused me to become trapped between life and death, well, lets just say it’s not one of my finest moments.’

'Yeah, no shit, Sherlock,' I thought to myself. The fact that there was a bomb somewhere nearby that was still live was causing the muscles between my shoulders to tense, but, having discovered the voices were coming from around a corner of stone, I was comforted by the knowledge that Jayne and I were somewhat protected from minor explosions.

‘I wont let you be brought back. Not while we hold one of the armour pieces.’ A sudden eruption of laughted caused me to jump a little in surprise, but I kept quiet.

‘Do you think I would leave my fate in the hands of an ancient relic that might not even be true?!'

'Well, I certainly wouldn't.'

'Oh how you’ve slipped over the last seven years brother!’ There was a little more laughter before the deep voice continued. ‘As far as I am concerned that armour is useless. Frankly I’m a little let down you didn’t realise all of this sooner. Oh and Aion, by all means blow yourself up, you worthless lord of hell. Explode and all you’re succeed in doing is killing everyone in his room, setting me free in the process.’ My mind rocked when I realized that this was probably the culmination of the meeting I had originally ran from. The man in armor, Archer, the robot-looking thing, those two evil-looking guys, they must all be around that corner!

‘I will stop you Loki…even if I have to take the sword out of your rotting corpse and dismember it!’

‘Whatever you do DON’T let Ryan pull the sword out of my body! Don’t fail me again!’

Even though the concern in the deep voice sounded sincere, something didn't add up. Earlier, the voice had stated that it would be to his benefit if someone nearby were to explode, because it would eliminate the competition and free his spirit. The sword would obviously become dislodged in the process, so logically, it was all a ruse to get Ryan to remove the sword from the mysterious body everyone seemed so concerned with.

My thoughts were interrupted by more voices, these ones, however, were varied, and carried enormous amounts of confidence, hostility, even arrogance. The ground shook and a sudden flash of heat and light came around the corner. Immediately following, I heard a small detonation, followed by the sounds of dozens of projectiles slicing through the air and embedding themselves into the stone walls. One such spike whizzed into sight and lodged in the intersecting wall just a few feet away. I watched in fascination as it glowed for a few moments, then faded from sight.

I turned to Jayne and looked into her calm, brown eyes. All the things I'd said to her, I meant, and I wasn't about to take back a single syllable. "Jayne, another fight is starting. However, these people are like us, they have special abilities that we can't possibly predict. This fight isn't ours. What do you want to do? I'll back you up every step of the way."

[Garoten Reklor]

When the order came to destroy the helmet, The White Knight hesitated for just a moment. The craftsmanship of the object was remarkable - it seemed an awful shame to destroy it. But the moment passed, and he set on a rock in front of him, then blasted it with both cannons. After maintaining the full power of his blasts for several seconds, he cut the power and stooped to examine what would surely be a chunk of useless ore. Instead, he found the helmet gleaming back at him defiantly, no worse for the wear.

="You've got to be kidding. I've leveled buildings with less power than that! This stuff is amazing. Still, it has to have a structural weak point, no matter what it's made of. Rhia, analyze.""=

In the few seconds it took to scan the helmet's integrity, the whole world seemed to change around him. The group, good and bad alike, were suddenly in another cave. It didn't feel as if any of them had moved at all - rather it felt like the environment moved around them. The Dragonian was gone, as were the cold, glimmering walls of the Bedoan Temple. In their place were several newcomers and the damp, moss-covered walls of a regular cave. Before Kyle had too much time to consider the matter, an icon popped up highlighting a crack in the helmet at the central point of its dome.

In the meantime, an apparition that could only be described as a ghost had appeared and was now claiming that the armor and it's destruction was completely irrelevant. The Knight couldn't have cared less. He would accomplish the mission regardless. Once again, he set the helmet down, this time on the ground at his feet. Then he drew his sword and maxed out the power. Everyone present would be able to feel the electricity in the air as the blade reached its limits. He raised the weapon, and thrust the tip into the helmet with all of his might.

Inside the armor, time seemed to stop. Kyle was aware of circuits overloading, alarms flashing, and a strange feeling of immense power washing over him. Light flooded his vision, an ear-splitting shriek resounded, and then there was darkness. The shriek faded, replaced gradually by the familiar voices of old friends...

The moment the Knight's sword made contact with the helmet, the Cavern was flooded with a deafening roar. Knight and helmet alike became awash in brilliant white light. The light and the roar intensified, then in a moment accompanied by a blinding flash and a shockwave that shook the caves to their foundations, they were gone.

One of the newcomers had been unfortunate enough to be transported very close to the Knight in his final act on Dragonia. Just before the explosion, he managed to form a ki shield that prevented him from being harmed, but he was hurled backwards nonetheless, landing in a heap alongisde Tidus. He rolled onto his stomach with a groan and rose to his knees while he looked around.

"Tidus! I've found you!"

Garoten Reklor was overjoyed at first, but as he took in the scene, his expression turned sour.

"Although this isn't exactly what I was expecting. Nishaio filled me in on the situation, but which one of these is Markis? And who are all these other people?"

He dug one end of his staff into the ground and tensed for a fight. When his friend didn't do the same, he eyed Tidus, who was still laying clutching the scroll, warily.

"Most importantly, what are you doing with that? You haven't been using it! Tidus?"

The fact that his younger counterpart hadn't launched into an angry tirade or colorful explanation of the situation was just beginning to sink in with Garoten, as well as the exhausted disposition of the boy. He had been using the scroll. With a sigh, Garoten slung his staff onto his back and picked up Tidus instead, being careful not to let him drop the scroll.

"Come on, kid, at least have the good sense to get out of the line of fire. I need to know what's going on as soon as you can tell me."

He set Tidus down a bit away from the center of things and grabbed his staff again. He didn't understand much about what was going on, but he did recognize Dramanius and a ghostly form of Loki. He'd never encountered either face to face, but he knew enough about them to assume their side was the wrong one. On top of that, he had to assume Markis was present as well, and that meant Tidus and the scroll would have to be defended. Now came the time to fulfill his duty as a Tenju Gaurdian. Whatever came next, no one was getting past him.

[Aion]

In a situation like this, Aion would usually scan his surrounding carefully; looking for any advantage that could be used if a fight broke out. Aside from a few small puddles and an abundance of moss, there wasn't much. This battle would be straight forward, how skillful one was with there own techniques would show here; it was a perfect chance to collect some intelligence on the other warriors around him. The young man moved forward slowly, bringing himself closer to the front lines; slightly sliding his feet along the ground with each step, this wasn't due to laziness or his current condition, but a stealthy attempt to gauge exactly how much water was around them.

His ears perked up as Loki's voice mentioned his name; normally, Aion would have shrugged off Loki's comments, but there was somewhat of a red flag that was raised in one sentence..."Explode and all you’ll succeed in doing is killing everyone in his room, setting me free in the process." Aion thought these words over; and still it didn't add up. Perhaps what Rizuk stated was true, Loki wanted the sword removed. But if the sword was off limits and the armor was as useless as Loki made it out to be...what was the point? Multiple questions raced through his mind, but one stuck out: "Was all of this done with the intention of bringing Ryan here?"

Aion's train of thought was interrupted by the sudden actions of the white knight. His position wavered slightly, his eyes scanning the area for any sign of life; hope for the knights safety quickly fading with each moment, until nothing remained but the horrible feeling of loss. Although they weren't close friends, he was a brother in arms. A heavy sigh escaped from between Aion's lips, he'd be honored once they had returned to the castle.

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: People, the activity in this thread so far has been better than it has been in months! Keep it bloody up! Lol)

As the fire breath and the spiked ball came flying towards both Natas and Dramanius, neither of them attempted to move out of the way. Instead, all it took was a simple look from Dramanius to Natas and what needed to be done was then obvious. Natas grabbed a hold of his cape and flicked it out in front of them both, it seemingly extending to an unnatural length considering it’s size moments beforehand. The very instant the cape was out in front of them it solidified and turned black, much like the same substance that covered Natas’ body. The fire licked at it and the spikes impacted against it, neither doing anything more than making contact.

With little more hesitation both Natas and Dramanius rushed out from behind the solidified cape, the cape quickly returning back to its red, flexible form, as they began to move. With his sword held tightly within his grasp Dramanius quickly moved in towards the young man holding the sword, and attacked with a diagonal swing aimed from his head down to his lower stomach. The attack was meant as a fatal one, and the force behind it testified as such. Natas on the other hand moved off towards Rizuk, though he was holding no weapons. Suddenly countless spikes protruded out from within Natas’ forearms. Intertwining his fingers together Natas came up alongside Rizuk and swung his forearms towards his head.



Rizuk had brought forward a theory that was worth exploring, and though Ryan knew that time in this situation was a luxury that they didn’t really have, he also knew that he couldn’t rush into a decision as the wrong one could cost him more than he was willing to risk. Had Loki meant to play on Ryan’s rage and fears enough for him to pull out the sword and release him? Or had Loki thought that Ryan would devise such a theory, and actually wanted for the sword to remain inside of his corpse? Was it a bluff or a double bluff? Ryan’s head was hurting from the thought. Too much was riding on this small battle for anything to go wrong,

While lost in thought several things were happing around Ryan, but one in particular caught his attention. It was the sudden crackling of electricity. Electricity and damp, water filled environments were a bad combination. Turning his head to look behind him Ryan quickly realised that the electricity was pulsating off of Kyle Edward’s sword, which Ryan had just enough time to see him bring down upon the helmet of the armour. Suddenly everything erupted in a blinding white light. Ryan wanted to raise his arm to shield his eyes from the light, but something told him that this light coming from the helmet and Kyle wasn’t a good thing.

Stumbling forward, towards Kyle and the light, Ryan was finally forced to raise his forearm over his eyes. ‘Kyle! Get out of there!’ the roaring got louder, the shaking became more violent, and then suddenly it all stopped and the light faded. Ryan’s eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness as he lowered his arm, but both the helmet and the brave knight in the white armour were gone.



‘Hah…Aion, don’t you see? If I wanted Ryan here I would have simply transported him here, the same way all of you ended up here together, but I would have brought him on his own. If all Loki was doing for himself was confusing people and buying some time then he’d take it. Currently his options were lessening by the second, especially with Tidus and the scroll now having been taken by one of the newcomers. In his present form his powers were almost useless, and though powered by Loki’s presence, Dramanus and Natas wouldn’t last long against such overwhelming odds.

No, strength and power alone would not win this battle; instead it would have to be wits, cunning, and intelligence. Loki had a lot riding on his plans working exactly how he wanted them to, his return, his revenge on Lucifer, his plans to rule Hell and Dragonia alike, and his plans to kill Ryan all counted on it.



Ryan’s eyes were wide with shock. Though he had not known Kyle Edwards for very long he had been a trustworthy comrade. In battle and war bonds were formed not by the length of a friendship, nor the strength of it, but instead of the experiences and respect between two people; Ryan respected Kyle as an agent of truth, justice, honour, and light, and it saddened Ryan deeply that it had come down to him sacrificing himself to destroy the helmet of the armour, especially since there was a strong chance that the armour was in fact useless. No, Ryan couldn’t believe that the armour was useless, he couldn’t consider that Kyle had given his life in vain.

‘How pitiful.’ Loki whispered, his ghostly figure now standing a mere few metres behind Ryan. ‘Sacrificing his life to destroy a useless piece of armour that held no significance whatsoever…stupid man. He deserved to die.’ It had been said in disgust.

‘…What?’ Ryan muttered. His voice was gruff, like always, yet far lower than usual. What did you say?!’ Ryan turned round to face the ghostly apparition of his so-called “brother”. His eyes were burning with an intensity that had been missing before, deep anger and resentment having exploded to the surface after years of unknown repression. In that instant Ryan had snapped, had lost all control of himself in a blind rage, and had decided that one thing would finally end Loki’s existence, destroying his ghost with his own sword.

There was no reasoning behind the theory besides the fact that the sword was infused with Lucifer’s power, and as such it was evil enough to do what Ryan needed it to do. In a flash Ryan was off, his feet skimming across the thin layer of water that covered the floor as he flew past Loki’s ghost and off towards his corpse and sword. As Loki turned around to follow Ryan’s direction Loki realised what was happening. Instantly his smirk vanishing and his eyes widened.

‘No! Stop him!’ Loki exclaimed, but both Dramanius and Natas were busy. Knowing that there was only one other option available to him Loki gather what little power he had left within him and exploded it outward towards Ryan. It quickly dwarfed the speed of the samurai, colliding against his back. It did little more in terms of pain than being hit with a sledgehammer across the back, which means it hurt a fair amount, and caused Ryan to go flying over the sword and corpse and colliding into the rock wall beyond it. Loki then fell onto one knee, clearly having drained himself exponentially.

Rubble flew into the air and the entire room shook once more, but managed not to cave in on the small group. Ryan had managed to roll over onto his back as he lay against the rubble. His entire body was in pain except for his left arm, which he couldn’t feel anything with anyway.

‘Teach!’ a young voice rung out through the air.

Ryan forced his eyes to open, his eyelids flickering in complaint, and as his blurred vision returned back to normal he saw whom the voice had belonged to, to his great surprise. ‘Prince Seriyu!’

The young prince reached Ryan and placed his arm over his shoulder, helping to lift him up off of the floor. ‘I told you not to call me that. It’s Seth-’

‘And this is…is not the time.’ Ryan muttered in quick response.

[kihaku]

Though I couldn't see it, I knew things were starting to intensify behind that thin layer of stone blocks. Though I had only been on the planet for a relatively short time, my very presence on its surface had changed me in ways that I couldn't even begin to describe in logical terms. With that in mind, I quickly began to realize that if I was anything to go by, any of those in the chamber nearby could very well have enough power to kill us all if it suited them. I realized then that, whatever Jayne and I did, it would have to be decided quickly; though I could probably get the both of us out of here alive, I wasn't sure I could do it if any of them tried to stop us.

Suddenly, an incredibly bright light poured from around our curtain of rock, and though the source was out of sight, the amount of light it was putting off was still enough to force me to shield my eyes from it. I had no idea what could be the cause of it all, but a familiar voice quickly made one thing apparent: it wasn't going to end well.

‘Kyle! Get out of there!’

Of those assembled at the original meeting, Tidus and Archer were the only names I'd come to know, and the voice was that of the man with the black hair and pair of swords. That only left the man in armor, the two evil men, and the robot, and somehow I seriously doubted those last three would have such a normal name. My heart sank when I came to the inevitable conclusion: anything able to put out that much energy was clearly unstable, and Kyle, whatever kind of person he was, was probably too close to survive.

Sure enough, once the light was finally gone and I could see again, things seemed to be at a stand-still for a few seconds. I peeked my head around and almost regretted doing so immediately. The two evil guys were fighting again, but the man with black hair and swords, whom I would later come to learn his name was Ryan, seemed too stunned to move. He simply stared at a point in space, though I couldn't understand why. If Kyle had been at the centroid of the explosion, then that would be where everyone would be looking...

Until I realized that there hadn't been an explosion. There was no charred rock, no smoke, no intense heat, therefore there couldn't have been a sudden outpour of thermal energy. Alternately, there were no sickened corpses, no wilted moss, so it also couldn't have been any kind of lethal radiation. I only had one conclusion left that could put out that much energy: some kind of implosive device, not unlike a sun going super-nova. The Knight had fallen into a gravitational well so intense, there could be no chance of escape. I gleaned some comfort in the knowledge that he wouldn't have experienced pain in the instant he died.

‘How pitiful,' the words were so low, I almost didn't hear them, ‘Sacrificing his life to destroy a useless piece of armour that held no significance whatsoever…stupid man. He deserved to die.’ The words were spoken with such malignancy that I had to grit my teeth against shouting some profanity in response.

‘…What? What did you say?!’

Suddenly, I lost him, my eyes not nearly quick enough to follow his movements. Normally, people get sloppy when they get emotional, but Ryan only seemed to sharpen his focus on a single object: the sword.

The one that Loki actually wanted pulled out!

"Shit!"

‘No! Stop him!’

Though I had no intention of following that bastard's orders, neither could I stand by and let Ryan ruin the only chances we had of stopping him and his evil toadies. 'Sorry Jayne,' I said in my head, and then rose and dashed around the corner as quick as I could. Fortunately for us, Ryan seemed to over-shoot his target, which left the blade untouched.

I ran for the gleaming weapon as fast as I could, and skidded to a halt just next to the corpse. I went down on one knee, closed my eyes, and inhaled deeply. When I opened my eyes again, the had changed once more from brown to bright red, and through my Sight I could see all the energy in the room in all of its perfect forms. Heat given off by bodies, the light blur they left behind them in the wake of their Motion, the Sounds of weapons, the drag of Gravity, all of it was revealed to me, and for a brief second I could only stare in wonderment.

When I snapped back to reality, I looked around to see if anyone was coming at me or not. Satisfied that I wouldn't be disturbed, I stood and raised my hands straight out to my sides, palms up. To prevent the sword from moving, I had to stop work from being applied to it, that is the essence of Kinetic energy. Potential energy for later Kinetic motion stored in objects can only be stored through the application of "work," and in this sense the goal was to lift the sword from the body.

'They mustn't lift the sword.'

All of a sudden, the whole room seemed to become as cold as an icebox as I took all of the Heat within the room and brought it to myself. Water droplets that would normally have fallen from the ceiling instantly froze as I pulled the Heat from them, and the drops in mid-air literally stopped falling. I took their Motion from them, leaving them suspended wherever they were.

With all of this energy, I was having trouble keeping control of it, and I knew that I had to put it somewhere. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed into some other form of energy.

'They mustn't lift the sword.'

I turned slowly around, careful not to burst the bubble of energy around me, and suddenly focused all of the energy into the blade itself. All of it, Heat, Motion, Sound, it was all stored in the weapon in the one form of Energy no one could dance around: Gravity. I continued to focus, constantly feeding any Heat that came within a certain radius of myself into that Gravitational well, and anything that would come flying at me would slowly lose momentum and speed, as I would feed that energy of Motion into the well.

"Listen, ghost-guy and sword-guy. I don't care which of you wants this sword pulled out more," I looked at the both of them carefully, my burning red eyes shining with determination, "but sure as Hell, moving a sword experiencing four-times normal gravity isn't something done easily."

[Kaworu - Horatio]

Kaworu had been too busy making sure innocent people weren't hurt by his spike bomb that when the Hell lord came at him he didn't have enough time to react do he got the almost full brunt of the man's blade, but the second after it hit him an electromagnetic force and light show hit everyone in the room causing himself and the Hell formed man to loose their balance and disconnect from his attack. Kaworu hit the ground hard but was more worried about what his next move should be and didn't bother with the wound that he got cause he knew it didn't matter and would be gone in no time, so he quickly got off his feet and noticed the remaining energies in room some of which behind him felt like they were being drained.

But right now he had a foe to worry about and one that may not just be a weak push over but with all the different and powerful energies flying around Kaworu thought it'd be a good idea to change weapons quickly before the Hellion regained his composure, so he quickly sheathed his sword and pulled out two Kamas then proceeded to place their ends together and the weapon transformed into a large red doubled scythe. Kaworu held the weapon and concentrated to draw in as much of the energy remaining in the room as he could then he spun the weapon in front of his person, then launched off at high speed towards the Hell lord that attack him going for a full top to bottom slice before the Hellion had time to react also.

In the moments of his launch things went quite slowly for him as he briefly took a look around the room to survey his possible options and gather what he may of missed while he was busy, he noticed that the techno White Knight had seemingly disappeared but from Ryan's reaction he may of died which was a shame because he seemed honourable. He had also Ryan's rage at a comment by Loki and speed off himself towards the corpse on to be sent flying into the adjacent wall followed by another mysterious person zoming past and grabbing hold of the blade in the corpse, and preforming some sought of energy transfer then something about four times normal gravity being mentioned which didn't bother him much at the time at least.

[Ryan - Loki]

Dramanius had been taken back by the sudden burst of blinding like that had swallowed the entire room. Dramanius knew that his target was directly in front of him, though being unable to see him made the attack somewhat harder than it should have been, but nevertheless Dramanius thought of the best and swung his blade. It hit nothing. Landing back on his feet, a little unsteadily, Dramanius took a few hurried steps backwards as he looked down at his target. It had to happen when I was making my attack. Dramanius thought angrily.

While Dramanius was looking at Kawora he noticed that it seemed that the young man was ready to take the fight back to him. This was perfect for Dramanius, his sudden smirk showing as much, as he would use his superior abilities and experience to overwhelm the young boy. Almost instantly the boy fashioned his weapons together and sent the double-ended scythe hurtling towards the chaos demon. This didn’t startle Dramanius at all.

As the attack came in towards him Dramanius took a step backwards, placing his sword out behind him. This would have to be perfect, well, at least nearly perfect. The instant that Kawora came within striking distance Dramanius took a quick step forward and swung his sword from behind him, up and over his head. The two swords collided with reasonable force and sparks, causing Dramanius to take that step back once more, but he wasn’t finished there.

Dramanius suddenly removed his grip from the swords handle, but only that of his left hand, before forcing his palm out towards Kawora’s stomach. A black, swirling ball of energy quickly formed, roughly the size of a basketball. ‘Enjoy mortal.’ he muttered. With that the ball erupted into a funnel shape explosion, the blast radiating outward towards Kawora.



Ryan had now taken his eyes away from prince Seriyu and placed them back upon Loki. There was something burning within them, something that had not surfaced in over eight years. Ryan was burning with unprecedented rage. He was hardly in control of his own actions, fighting to keep himself from exploding completely. Using every ounce of power to hold on to the last strains of logic and consciousness that he had left. He had come too far, and gained too much, to lose everything in the evil that Loki would unleash if he were brought back to the realm of the living.

Loki had fallen down onto one knee after his attack on Ryan, the attack severely draining him of what little power he held in his present form. He had greatly underestimated his own power, and how such a stunt would affect him. He had begun to fade, becoming more and more transparent with each passing second that he was fatigued. Slowly Loki began to feel his power replenishing once more, his pale colour returning back to his ghostly image. Though he gave off no energy signal to read from, he knew that in himself he was growing; his plan was working.

Slowly Loki stood up again, standing tall as he looked over at Ryan, who was still being held up by prince Seriyu. ‘Haha oh dear brother, defeated by a ghost? How embarrassing for “the hero of Lavertia”.’ Loki was smirking; his lips pressed together like two thin pieces of wire. ‘You’re not fit to lead anyone, let alone protect an entire country!’ Loki laughed again.

‘I am still one of the most powerful defenders of this planet!’ Ryan spat.

‘You’re the last of a dieing breed Ryan.’ Loki quickly retorted. ‘You’ve aged. You’ve gotten slower and weaker over the last seven years, where I have been kept in a state of perpetual youth, unmarked by time as it ticks away.’ He lifted his hand up to his face and ran his fingers across his jaw line. ‘Even with me in my current state you’re no match for me “last samurai”…and you know it.’ Loki knew that though a samurai thrived on an emotionless state during battle they were also trained to use their emotions to their advantage, so making Ryan angry wasn’t tactical in the slightest, it was just plain fun.

‘Teach…’ Seth had now stopped holding up Ryan, his teacher having seemingly recovered enough to manage to hold up his own weight, but now he was worried, but not about his physical conditions. Ryan’s fist was clenched and shaking by his side. He had NEVER seen Ryan angry, not even in the slightest, and he didn’t like it.

‘Then again you never have been able to protect anyone or anything, have you brother? Look what happened to our people. The trusted you, they trusted your father, and you both let them all down! And what happened? They all died!’ Loki was still grinning as he shouted all of this at Ryan.

‘Shut it!’ Seth shouted in response. ‘Who are you? What do you want with all of us?!’

Loki looked genuinely surprised, though mockingly hurt. ‘You mean your “teach” has never told you about Loki?’ he wasn’t meaning to wait for an answer. ‘Me and your “teach” are one in the same, two halves of a coin, ying and yang. Confused? I was created from the evil emotions and intentions that Ryan was holding inside of him after he failed his people.’ Seeing from Seth’s expression that he was shocked by this news, Loki turned up the theatrics. ‘All the thoughts of revenge, the malice, the negative emotions, he couldn’t take them anymore, so had all of them torn completely from him, rendering him unable to feel such feelings, and I was created from them! Loki, Lord and master of Hell!’ Loki calmed down once more. ‘All of those innocent lives I’ve destroyed, all of the people I’ve murdered in cold blood…all the while enjoying it…all of that happened because of Ryan’s selfishness.’

‘Silence!’ Ryan screamed, his eyes burning a deep red. ‘I’m going to destroy you!’

[Tidus Revok]

Tidus stood slowly, still exhausted from using the scroll, while his old friend readied himself for a defense. He appreciated Garoten's intentions, but there was no way the other Tenju could understand what was happening. In fact, he was way behind, still looking for Markis. Tidus noticed that neither Markis nor Nishaio was there - strange, since in his hurry he had summoned Garoten and others who had not been in the temple. How did Markis and Nishaio not count as powerful warriors? Maybe he hadn't had enough energy to bring everyone - but wouldn't the scroll have killed him?

It didn't really matter. The whole situation was dawning on him with sudden clarity. Voices echoed debating whether they should withdraw the sword from Loki's corpse, or not. Tidus didn't really care. None of that mattered anymore to him. Loki's presence had brought reality crashing down. He had been aiding the side of evil, and if he knew anything, it was that evil couldn't be trusted. This place would be his tomb. Even if his family were revived after all, he would not live to see them. Dramanius had outsmarted him with the way he had written them back, trapping him into helping revive a being of pure evil. Surely the heroes wouldn't just let that slide. But if Dramanius prevailed and Loki was restored, what would stop them from taking the scroll and using it for their own purposes? Loki was the one being who could do more damage than Markis would have, and Tidus understood now that he was in over his head. If Loki was restored and wanted the scroll, even he, Garoten, and the other heroes present wouldn't be enough to stop him. He had been played for a fool, and there was only one path to take now - Revenge.

Get out of my way, Garoten. There's nothing you can do here. Get in my way, and it will be the death of you.

He pushed past his well-meaning friend, extended his staff and eyed Dramanius and Natas as he took in the situation. The Knight in white armor had sacrificed himself. Tidus would not let his death be in vain. He didn't know what to do with Loki, neither did he care. All he wanted was Natas's and Dramanius's heads on a silver plater. He knew little about Natas, and he only knew now that Dramanius was far more powerful than he was. He had been able to use the scroll for something that would have killed Tidus. But he also knew Dramanius had been weakened by using the scroll, and that meant his power wasn't unlimited. And that meant he could be beaten.

Dramanius was aiming a sneak attack at one of the new people when Tidus charged him with a shout and swung his staff at his head. At the last minute, the staff burst into flames, charged with fire by Tidus.

"DIE!"


with his staff in one hand fully extended.

[Kaworu - Horatio]

Kaworu knew the attack probably would work really but the fact of him being under estimated is always a good trick to have up your sleeve because no one thinks you're as powerful but knowing himself and his travels Kaworu knew exactly how strong he was, and a damn Hell creature wasn't going to put him down so bracing for impact Kaworu landed on one knee and retorted the Hellion's comment "You think me mortal Hellion, then you're sadly mistaken"

Kaworu split his scythe into two but they remained their large size and he was about to attack again but noticed someone else attacking his foe with what seemed like a fire based attack, "A fire based attack on someone from Hell ,yeah that's going to work" Kaworu thought so he decided he'd join the fellows fun and enhance the man's attack so he changed the position of his hands on his scythes. Then speed towards the fired the Hellion with his hands just under the large blades of his weapons and went to stab them right through the chest, hoping to hit whatever vital parts this being had that might put him down or at least take him out of this battle so he could go on.

Upon approach Kaworu filled his scythes full as much light energy as he could muster as well as some holy energy he had gathered over time and in his own house by some of those living there, he knew this fight may decide the fate of this world so he had a stake in how this turned out for the sake of those he brought to this world because he thought it maybe safe he then the other dying worlds he's been in.

[Jimmy Claymore]

Rizuk had stood on the spot for quite a long time staring at where the Knight had been. That was it? He was so certain! He was a hero, for christ's sake! He wasn't... he wasn't supposed to die like this! He was meant to last until the end, go home and have kids, reminisce, write all this down for some future generation to salivate over and inspire them. He wasn't supposed to get crushed by a singularity trying to do the right thing! Loki's comments echoed in his ears... it was the kind of stuff he would say. He could feel his eyes starting to dry, he hadn't blinked since the Knight's demise... he'd never even asked him his fucking name! How could he just go and die like that... more people were turning up, the new-comer was fighting one of the Lords of Hell but Ryan and Loki seemed to just be talking.

Suddenly, he noticed that one of the villains had turned sides attacking the Lord of Hell assaulting the new-comer... he knew it was the right thing to do. Just because the Knight who's name he didn't know (even if he had heard it enough times) had died wasn't a sign to give up... they were going to win. He wasn't just a corpse, he was a martyr.

This resolve formed in flames flickering around Rizuk as, for the first time in nearly a century, a pure emotion rose in his chest as he moved to transform. He vanished from his spot and appeared standing near Ryan as Loki finished his mental tormenting of the poor samurai reminded that all the evil Loki had done was because of him
[glow=white,90,300]"Hey, idiot. What are you talking about blaming Jiaomasu for all the crap you pulled... it was you. Just because you came from the same tree doesn't mean the branches are going to be identical. Jiaomasu has heart, he has pride, he stands up for what he believes in, while you just hide in your cave and send underlings to do your work for you, even if you were one once, your so dissimilar now its like comparing the land and the sky"[/glow]
The fire around Rizuk exploded around him in a spiralling inferno, burning away his clothes and features in wisps of floating ash, his eyes were a blazing white fire as he stared forwards at him, the dark of his hair bleaching in the heat (OOC: Reference coming up)[glow=white,90,300]"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE!? You think pieces of shit like your Lords of Hell can stand up to the Heroes of Dragonia!? We're going to send you home with your head in your hands!! DRAGONIA HERSELF REJECTS YOU, NOW GET THE FUCK OUT!!"[/glow]Rizuk's fire flashed brilliantly white and left him floating in the air, Red scales covering his hands and legs in thick gauntlets his eyes blazed red and tracks of orange burning liquid traced down his cheeks, his hair blasted back and bleached white was held in place by the horns sprouting from his skull. His darkened yellow skin radiated heat as he stood slightly behind Ryan, offering his support with his huge increase in power
[glow=white,90,300]"Fight us like a man or don't fight us at all"[/glow]
((OOC: took some creative licenses here... if this screws anything up Ryan tell me and I'll edit... thats probably my favourite rant from the Dragon EVER though))

[Aion]

Through all of this chaos, Aion remained quiet; his body in it's usual relaxed, motionless state. His murderous glare set on one section of the room: Natas' position. Out of the three Lords Of Hell the heroes were battling against, Natas was perhaps ranked the highest on Aion's shit list; he wasn't as skillful as Loki, nor was he as brilliant as Dramanius, but his arrogance managed to, at times, trounce that of his comrades, which was an amazing feat. This attitude was more apparent than ever now, he'd been quiet for this battle, too quiet for comfort; and no matter how Aion felt about Natas' intelligence, he was an experienced warrior, he wouldn't have been this relaxed unless he had some sort of trump card. It was as if he was silently daring someone to take a swing at him; and of course, Aion was ready to take this challenge.

The aura that surrounded Aion's body had changed during the course of the battle, even though he hadn't yet entered the fray; it had become more intense, it's color changing from white to sapphire. He had now entered "First Quarter" mode, and was powerful enough to go toe to toe with his opponents. This technique was a bit misleading, but a majority of abilities Aion had developed could be described that way; it was part of his strategy, and one that worked rather well. "Use your enemy's perception to your advantage..."; it was one of the few memories he still held of the time he spent training with his parents. Aion's intention wasn't to self detonate, that was more of a bluff and clever trickery; his true intention was to bring Loki out of hiding, and though this plan could have worked out better, he wasn't one to complain over such minor details.

"I suppose it's time we settle this little feud."

Natas would hear this whispered in his ear; Aion's tone had grown somewhat darker. He held a dagger entirely composed of ice an inch away from Lord Of Hell's neck in a nonchalant fashion. He knew that Natas had expected this, and thus his cape would more than likely save him from such an attack; However, Aion's quick and undetectable appearance at his side was sure to alarm Natas. This was meant to be more of a message to the Lord Of Hell...a "Take me lightly, and I'll have your head." type thing.