Saga: Beginning of the End, End of the Beginning

[Ray Hiryuzui]

How in the blue hell did he get here?

The last thing the Jenevan remembered was lounging around in the remnants of his downed space shuttle after dispatching another roaming band of thieves, and now, he's....

Where the hell is he, anyway?

Ray had very little time to remain confused, however. As soon as his eyes started to adjust from the sudden shift into darkness, several figures came into view. The disorientation from the sudden transference in position caused things to be fuzzy for a short period of time. But once things reached clarity, he started to glance around at the architecture of his location. And even after taking the short moment to study everything, he was still completely perplexed as to where exactly he was located. Not all that surprising, considering he hadn't really been on the planet for too long.

It was then he noticed the variety of figures present within the room with him. Considering his means of arrival, he immediately believed these people to be a threat. Instinctively, his hand left hand dropped down, gripping the hilt of his Katana as he unsheathed it about two inches. Ray's eyes narrowed under the cover of his hood as he took a step back, just to give himself some clearance. It took a moment for him to realize it, but eventually, he came to the conclusion that these people seemed to be focused on some others.

Still, that didn't mean that they didn't pose a threat to him. Some lines of dialog were spoken while some kid bounced around and headed to what may or may not be the entrance. He took a defensive stance while toting two blades. The Jenevan was outnumbered, outwitted logistically, and quite possibly, outmatched in power and technique. He was at a severe disadvantage, possibly the most out of all of them. Doing anything hasty without knowing what the hell was going on first would be a grave mistake to make. He didn't plan on dying yet. No, he still had some bastard to kill first.

It wasn't too long before two of the people gathered launched some projectile attacks. Great! Exactly what Ray needed to happen. Such an event would surely lead to everyone getting attacked by someone, especially himself. It was really a crappy thing when you were attacked by someone and you had no idea why. It was precisely why he opted to listen instead of foolishly interjecting and pull in information. Unfortunately, it started to look like he should've proceeded with the former.

It was then all hell seemed to break loose.

Great, it was exactly what he needed.

From his left, he noticed two demonic looking figured rush foward to attack several others. Whatever was going on, these people were surely dealing with a life or death situation. A situation Raykenzu had no knowledge of. Regardless, he was, for whatever reason, dragged into this entire thing by forces unknown to him. Forces unknown took him without his consent. And if appearances were correct, forces unknown probably wanted him dead.

He didn't favor that idea much, if at all.

It was at that moment a single body was struck in the back by an amazing force of energy, which propelled him end over end into a wall, not to far off from Ray's own location. He simply stared at the fallen man for a moment. Most people the Jenevan encountered would not be able to survive such a powerful blast of energy, let alone the sickening impact. Surely enough, the man ended up doing both, and was eventually aided by some other, unknown entity.

And then things started to get cold, really cold and really fast.

His body had very little time to adjust in the rapid change in temperature, so he utilized his own telekinetic powers to stir up molecules around his body through friction to generate heat. By now, the warrior monk was beginning to grow tired of standing back and watching chaos unfold around him. Removing his left hand from the hilt of his Katana and allowing it to slide back fully into its sheath, the hooded Jenevan becan to move forward; his cloak swaying in sync with his choreographed steps.

Only a fool would march headlong into the unknown. No, with each step Ray took, his eyes darted, focusing on all movement within his line of sight.

Energy from the Astral Plane broke into this plane of reality, seemingly seeping through Ray's eyes, producing a very unnerving blue glow beneath his hood. And it was that moment that the Jenevan struck. His left arm rose and the very room began to shake. Frozen water droplets on the ceiling snapped and fell to the stone floor, and puddles of ice snapped and crackled.

"Someone in this room brought me here...." The Jenevan chimed, finally breaking through the shadows to make his appearance. "I want to know why, and I want to know now."

[kihaku]

((Taking brief control of Dramanius and Natas, since Ryan will be back Monday. Since Ryan and Loki are actual characters, I won't be posting as either. Sorry Jimmy ^^; ))

The battle, in a matter of mere moments, had gone from a stunned stillness to utter anarchy and was quickly spiraling further out of control. The three few baddies were proving to be more than a match for those that out-numbered them, and for the heroes who stood against them, the situation couldn't be any more demoralizing.

"You think me mortal Hellion, then you're sadly mistaken."

Rather than respond, Dramanius simply hefted his sword to adjust his grip, all the while staring down his nose at the young warrior with a knowing smirk on his pale face.

"Really? That's too bad. I suppose that means you'll die just a little slower." He raised his fist, about to allow his energy to flow and give it form, when a shout from behind caught his attention.

"DIE!"

Often-times, statemetns such as that would be accompanied by an attack, and such attacks would usually be strong enough to deliver that promise. A fraction of a second later, he noticed that Kaworu was also throwing in an offensive, which gave Dramanius cause to smile just a little wider. The tips of the scythes were milimeters from his chest, the heat from Tidus could be felt on his neck-

Without so much as a flinch, Dramanius was suddenly not there, his body gone faster than one could blink. Tidus and Kaworu were now faced with a trap of their own design: without the Lord of Hell, they were now essentially attacking one another.

Dramanius reappeared just ten feet away, but this time his sword was in its sheath, and his hands were raised about waist-level. The stones beneath his feet gave an audible rumble and a series of cracks, just before he unleashed one of his favorite attacks.

The ground beneath Tidus and Kaworu suddenly gave a dozen small bursts of stone, and from those holes shot thick black chains. The end of each cold metal rope was tipped with a three-pronged claw, and their purpose was to wrap around an opponent's legs, arms, even their waist, and restrict their movement. Being made of both Unholy and Chaos energy, they couldn't be snapped or smashed by regular means, but they were still susceptible to being cut.

"I haven't had this much fun since Kihaku was around."

For the moment, Natas was managing to keep back and gauge the situation before rushing head-long in. Dramanius always seemed to have some trick up his sleeve, the slippery bastard one step ahead of his opponents. However, Natas refused to prance about like his compatriot, as if this battle were some kind of formal gala. What Natas truly wanted was someone to prove his strength against.

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

Perfect.

Aion's vendetta would be his undoing, and Natas knew exactly how to use this to his advantage. At any moment, the Nenian could draw the blade across his neck, but instead he held back, allowing the threat to hover in the air like the executioner's ax, poised to strike.

Without making any sudden moves, Natas turned his head only slightly to allow his bright, perfectly round right eye to catch a glimpse of his enemy. He then smoothly, slowly raised his left fist to point directly towards Aion. For a moment, he stood perfectly still in this pose, like the cat trying not to scare away the mouse.

Flowing blackness welled up behind Aion and solidified into an impenetrable barrier, a little more to either side and flowed up over above him, the only escape left being forwards. At that moment, Natas flared open his fist, and released a sudden burst of smokey darkness from his palm. With any luck, it would brush against Aion's exposed skin, and infect him with Natas' most perfect weapon: the Hell Virus.

Aion was the only intended target for this, it wouldn't do if everyone was infected with the pathogen; it would slowly seep through the warrior's body, systematically shutting down the functions and chakra points that allow him his powers, until it eventually cuts of vital organs and causes lingering, painful death. If everyone became thusly incapacitated, it would become only listless slaughter. No, only the Nenian would receive this concentrated dose.

Once the toxin was free, his cape slid back to the ground and whirled to its natural place behind him. Though he couldn't build any momentum, he brough his right arm up and around to hopefully crack Aion across the face.

==============================================

...

Okay, so they didn't even take notice of me. I was mildly offended, but my common sense won in the end; I didn't try to call any more attention to myself, things clearly way beyond my level of handling.

'This definitely rates a nine-point-o on my weird-shit-o'meter.'

I blinked and let go of my Sight, and the world reverted back to its normal, dull coloration. With a furtive glance around, I made sure no one was attempting to shank me from behind and started to dart back over to where I'd left Jayne, but I was quickly caught up short.

The ground shook beneath my feet, the stones above me rumbled and let free chilly dust to float slowly to the ground. Ice from the ceiling crashed to the stones below, sending shards skittering across the floor and causing me to cover my head somewhat.

"Someone in this room brought me here.... I want to know why, and I want to know now."

I quickly got to my feet and started to rush towards him, a look of incredulity on my face laced with a curious mixture of fear and outrage.

"Seriously though, are you really this stupid, or do you enjoy nearly killing yourself!?" Definitely, not my finest conversation starter, but I was just a little stressed at the time. "We're undergound, in a ruin that looks like it'd come crashing down around us if someone even sneezed wrong, and you're causing earthquakes?" I stared at him with an expression that left little question as to my opinion of his intellectual faculties. "Does that seem like the smartest thing right now?"

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

(Ooc: Here it is, kids - this battle is Pariah's last ride <3))


Pariah had appeared with all the others - her body, mind, and the alien life had all been moved with... but it was still jarring - especially to a machine. She took a long, perceptive moment, as shrapnel whizzed past her, embedded in her body, and knocked her to her hindquarters against a wall some distance away, the projectile sticking her to the wall by the shoulder.

Communications flew, words spoken as if in rapid-fire to the gynoid warrior frozen by confusion. Her programming was not made to handle this kind of transportation. What happened next was somewhat inevitable... it shut down. No, not the entire being - just the Pariah systems. Slowly, the color re-entered the gynoid for the first time in days... and her ears closed up, the protective, furred sheathes sliding over them once more, repaired from their burst before, as they always were when the shift occurred.

-------------

"What the hell happened!" A woman's voice came in the darkness of the tank's cabin - it had shut down with the Pariah system, since it was upon her that it focused and drew power. Damn faulty alien technology.

"Pariah is down, repeat, Pariah is down!" a man's voice replied in the darkness over the commotion of men talking in panicked tones, working to overcome the advantage and get things started again. They did not need to be told what was to be done, they already knew - they had to get the Headhunter back online.

------------

Back in the dark room, Jenny flickered to life as the last of Pariah went internal and dormant. Pain shot through her shoulder, and burning energy sizzled in her shoulder. She tried... tried to get up, to pull it out, to do something, but it held her fast, and tapped into her own body's energy, feeding it... sustaining it. It was stuck, and had hit her... just right. She, who thought herself flesh and blood, was much surprised to not only hear, but feel metal grating as she tried to move the pinned arm to dislodge the energy.

Slowly, the world came into focus for her though, as she relaxed against the moist, cold stone, tears of pain welled in her eyes. Fuck, that should have pierced something vital... she should be bleeding out, but she wasn't. No, there was fluid, but it sure wasn't red like she knew blood to be. Yet...

Something was warm... deep within her. She was... part of it? Was she dying? No... for the first time... she was being shown something deep within her. Images rose to mind... a woman made of light, something deep inside her, chained in chains of grey energy coming from... a hideous metal thing in the back of this woman's neck, glowing, flickering with red light... a dark thing, looked so foreign... And she was in this mindscape... looking at this beauty of this woman. Staring...

Her bowed head, this woman of white... raised, and Jenny recoiled instantly in horror. That face was her own... only... only younger... it was her, damnit, she was the one chained there! With that horrible thing in her neck! It hurt, she realized... and realized again she was not really looking at herself... she was imagining herself looking at herself. No, she really, truly was... chained... she felt the Headhunter... how much it tortured her. The pain... she was feeling it now, even though it was mostly inactive.

------------------------
"Headhunter reactivation, ETA ten seconds, Doctor!" Goon called again from the darkness. His voice was strained with panic. "I'm getting some strange readings from the Unit, Ma'am. The lid program has been triggered - but the headhunter isn't working yet, it wont take effect in time!"

The Lid? Doctor Alkai had to think quickly... oh! She'd been ordered to install... a failsafe - a lock on the lid of Pandora's Box as it were... The program was made about the same time they figured out how to inhibit Pandora... thus Pariah. The Lid! That meant... the... the life was going lucid again.

Doctor Alkai almost gave an order. Almost. Impulse, though... had a funny way of doing things. God... had a funny way of doing things. The aid to the hell-lords... was a strain on the good doctor. She... she didn't feel right about it... and now that she understood... the readings and monitoring on the battle produced the name of Loki... she got just the right nudge. Suddenly, her hand shot from her side, straight to the MP5 at the hip of where she knew it to be on Goon's body.

A little prayer, and some forgiveness begged from god himself... and she steadied herself to take aim at the dimly-glowing control pannel as chaos started to erupt in response in the cabin.

"God... Who art in heaven... hallowed by thy name... Thy kingdom come..." she began to rise, louder, to grow to a yell, as soldiers stood from their spots to stop her... but it was already too late.
-----------------------------

"Get out of there, Kyle!"

A familiar voice called, jarring Jenny some, shaking the self-realizing being from her stupor. Who.. who was that? She barely noticed as she tore herself from the shrapnel in her shoulder, pinning her to the wall, her arm repairing itself.. for no reason at all, it felt like. White light poured a moment from the wound.

"R...Ryan?" she murmured softly. Then... the explosion happened, of white light and deafening noise, shaking her to her core. The light overtook her, standing there meekly. She was... rather close to the White Knight.

-------------------------------

"Active! Headhunter active!" Goon cried triumphantly, barely noticing his missing MP5. He turned to Alkai, eyes wide, realizing then what was happening. She'd talked about this...

"Thy will be done!" Alkai screamed at the top of her lungs, and squoze. Chaos and fire erupted from the weapon, spraying bullets and death into soldiers and control panels. She turned as she fired, shattering man and machine like tissue paper, tears rolling down her cheeks. the room went silent as the clip ran out, and men lied bleeding on the ground, all of them... dead. Except for one.

"Goon!" Alkai cried, scooping up her grunting, wheezing friend... no.. she loved this man, more than anything. In the short time she'd gotten to know him... she'd found her part of a pair... he was the one, this younger man..

"Heh... I didn't think you'd... actually... do it... Doctor..." he said, his voice pained, but... deeply amused. "I'm... I'm not mad..." he murmured in her arms, Alkai's white coat stained with warm, wetness... his blood.

"Forgive me... I.. couldn't let them anymore... man... was never meant to control this... especially not that man..." they both know of whom they referred. Loki. She meant she would not... be a servant of the devil, and they both knew it.

"It... its done..." Alkai said. the broken instruments filled with light, and the sparks, the tank fuel, and the shells inside all met.

"Jenny!" Alkai whispered, burying her face against Goon's punctured chest, and sobbing. "Live... free." she whispered softly, and clenched goon close to her.

Ringing filled their ears, the two budding lovers, as the world filled with light. A moment of pain... then...

----------------

The headhunter ended up switching on... just as the light of White Knight's explosion shook the throne room-cavern. Jenny felt nothing as the light took her, scooped her up like a babe in the arms of her mother. She felt a pleasant tingling then, replacing the pain of the headhunter... a popping tingle... she saw, deep inside... the chains lifting... melting away harmlessly.

Memories came flooding back to her... and a voice... whispered... met her very conciousness. Instantly, she knew who it was - a woman who had dominated her dreams, been present in every one, in one form or another. It was her voice.

"Live... free." she told her, and her eyes went wide. Tears welled there, or would have would they linger in the heat of the explosion for more than a moment. And with that, the last of the headhunter burst asunder, and turned to dust as the white light gently set her into a cradle of stone in the wall in which she had been lodged before, and let her drift slowly to the ground again, to her feet.

She saw the last of White Knight fade away, felt the weight of the world lifted from her shoulders, felt... alive.. and so very, very strong. The body... felt amazing now... she could feel it was a suit... a containment. She felt her chest, felt her face, felt old memories... many, many old memories returning to her.

She saw... Ryan! Ryan was here! She knew him... felt his blade still in her breast, felt his love... from a long time ago. She felt an old friend, too... Rizuk! his heat was a pleasant feeling on her cheeks... like a good fire. It had been years since she'd seen them... or had it? No, she remembered... moving beyond her control... the indignity of the Headhunter device in her, and was satisfied in how very, very dead it was now.

Something that stood, a long time ago, on an even plane with Ryan woke, a sleeping giant, in that chamber. Anyone who knew her would know her again. Her name had changed, and she had gained a body... but Agatha... Agatha had returned, like a whispering god, a roaring calamity.

Time slowed again to normal pace. Before her, she saw a figure... with a faint red aura... was the headhunter really dead? She had no idea... but she knew him. Dramainus - the demon lord! How did she know... it sure wasn't an old memory... no... the.. the Pariah wasn't ended - she'd merged with Agatha just as Jenny had. Three had become one.

Her body ignited for but a moment in that white energy, and she flickered out of existence for a moment, before noticing was even a possibility. Again she flickered into view, flowing tendrils of white light trailing her, radiant white petals of energy floating lazily behind her, like the bits of chain that were still flying in the air from the hell-chaos chains the hell-lord had conjured.

Their freedom was the absolute least of the lord's problems: she was in motion - midswing! She'd, somewhere along the way, grabbed up a bit of a pillar, and was more than happy to use it on the demonlord like a baseball bat. She threw her entire body behind it, all the strength she could muster. And, at that point, with three beings acting in sync, was a LOT.

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Thanks for making that post for me Mike. I’m going to reply to Rizuk as Ryan and Loki and then I’ll wait until everyone has replied to Mike’s post to make my next saga post.)

Rizuk’s sudden outburst had helped qualm some of Ryan’s inner guilt, but it hadn’t destroyed it completely, that was an impossible feat to achieve. Though knowing Rizuk was standing with him in this battle seemed to spur Ryan on more so than he already was, his eyes’ giving off random bursts of a pulsating crimson colour.

‘Oh please.’ Loki said in reply to Rizuk, folding his arms over his body. ‘You pathetic, overgrown salamander.’ he spat. ‘The fact that I’m stuck like this is a blessing, for me at least; you can’t harm me while I am in this form, but with enough energy I can destroy you!’ there was a hint of frustration in Loki’s distant voice, though only for a second. It was apparent, if only by how calm he had remained by everything, that Loki still have a card up his sleeve that he was yet to pull, but what was it?

‘Then why shouldn’t we just kill both Dramanius and Natas and then refuse to do something about you? Leaving you to rot in your current state forever.’ Ryan suddenly piped up with. Though he was angry he was still managing to think straight, or at least straight enough at any rate.

A grin spread across Loki’s face like a wildfire. Ah brother, I see you’ve not lost any of that brainpower over the last seven years. it was said snidely. But I have to point out a few faults in your plan. His tone was now smug. None of you have any way out of this tomb, and even if you did figure a way out of here, sooner of later I will get out from this limbo…and I’ll be the same age and as powerful as I was seven years ago, while all of you will age and grow weaker in the “peace” that plagues the world! He burst out laughing, his laughter maniacal. My return is inevitable!

[Kaworu - Horatio]

Kaworu had unsummoned his weapons seconds before almost hitting the man who was attack the hell lord he was fighting and then he regained his balance but soon had to make sure he kept it after some new comer had been silent for so long he decided to speak up, in a most stupid way for where they were and that was to start playing with the tectonics but they guy who was playing with the energies earlier was already getting up him.

Then due to his observing the room he hadn't noticed the attack and was soon chained in many places and he could feel that they had a mixture of energy in them, so Kaworu twisted his wrist a little so he could grab the chain and pulled on it to loosen it a little just enough for him to summon back his kamas. Which appeared in his hands and with the one loosened he spun his kama around and sliced the chain, severing it from his arm and then proceeded to cut the rest holding him to the ground which took a little more force but they still gave way to the sharpness of his weapons. He walked over to the other guy chained "I'm sure you can get out on your own but I'll save you the trouble" Kaworu said as he cut the man's chains "Now you're welcome to do what you like to this hell lord, he's getting me really annoyed and pissing me off is never a good idea and I'd tell you why but I'm sure you wouldn't believe me" expressed Kaworu as he finished freeing the man.

He'd heard Rizuk's speech and Loki's retort thinking that he obviously doesn't know the extant of some people within this chamber so he walks up beside Ryan and Rizuk because he knew the Hellion would probably shortly be having fun with the other guy, "Hey Loki, you don't know me and I'm glad for that but guess what they may not have a way out of here but I do and if need be I'll take all that deserve it out of here with me. Also I'm not sure about the rest of them but I don't age either and I'm sure there are and will be others to put your arse right back in the ground where it belongs, so whatever you think you know is obsolete now because of your imprisonment for so many years" forcefully expressed Kaworu as his change of tone was apparent.

[Aion]

There were many things you wanted to avoid doing while facing a lord of hell, and revealing even the slightest hesitation in the face of a challenge was one of them. These beings thrived on fear and destruction, it made them stronger; although this battle was between two men of the same ilk, this wouldn't change.

Aion's serene demeanor remained the same, his eyes locked on Natas as the gas rolled toward him; effectively filling the barrier. A chuckle shot out from the smoke, one only loud enough to be heard by Natas; it wasn't meant as a taunt, but an accidental slip that the Nenian was starting to enjoy this a bit too much.

As the smoke retreated it would reveal Aion, who held almost the same posture as before, the smaller of two noticeable changes being a childish grin on his face; the most important of these changes were the dark blotches of a sludge-like substance floating around his skin like they were trapped in pockets of water. Natas had gained only a fraction of what he'd originally hoped for. The Hell Virus had made contact with Aion's body, but upon contact the poison was caught and being purified by Shattered Souls.

"Scary. With the way this your technique is fighting purification, I'd hate to see what it would've done to my body."

Predicting the demon's next action was easy enough: a right hook. Natas might have caused Aion significant problems in other forms of combat, but in terms of close range combat, the Nenian was nearly unmatched. Aion's left arm shot upward at an unbelievable speed, his palm making contact with his opponent's wrist and knocking the lord of hell's arm into the air. Still aware of the barrier, Aion placed his right hand behind his back, the dagger that it held transforming into a basebell sized mixture of spirit energy, water, and ice.

Aion wanted to avoid awakening his Shattered Souls ability this early, but Natas had forced his hand; the Nenian had somewhat of a general grasp on the demon's abilities, but the fact that he could deploy a decent barrier had surprised the young warrior.

Hesitation nonexistent, Aion quickly enclosed the ball in his right hand, emitting a sound similar to glass being shattered. The small, but very visible, shards escaped the Nenian's hand, and fearlessly attached themselves to each barrier; canceling them out almost instantly.

Not wanting to lose his newly found advantage, Aion shot forward while Natas' arm hung in the air, his body crouched down a bit. Using this momentm, Aion's left arm shot upward again, his palm aiming for just sightly under the demon's shoulder, in hopes of at least dislodging it; or maybe even breaking it.

[Jimmy Claymore]

Rizuk was impassive, but internally, his reaction was hysterical demented and mostly MALICIOUS laughter. Externally, the smouldering flames continued to run their course along his body as he stood his ground besides Ryan, a smile tweaked at the corner of his mouth as the new-comer chipped in but rather than unleashing the enormous ego-spew that was building up he instead announced
[glow=red,20,300]"Personally, I'm over a thousand years old already, and I've lived on this constant battle-ground of a planet for that long... you REALLY think your going to out last me in a cave? Have you held a conversation with me? Your confidence would be so badly damaged by the end you'd think you were a goldfish. Even if you did by some miracle last longer, it won't end. Dragonia always has heroes who'll stop you. No matter when it happens, when you come back, you'll lose. Your kind always do"[/glow]Rizuk turned to Ryan and nodded. This was his call. The Dragon was poised, if one of the Lords of Hell decided he'd like to intervene he would find himself in a none too tenable position quite quickly.

Even if he wanted to destroy Loki, get out of there, and get back to being his usual ego-ridden self, now was too important. And it was Ryan's decision. His evil self, his call. If he released him, they'd just have to destroy him now. If not, a later problem.

((OOC: sorry its short, trying to catch up))

[Garoten Reklor]

Garoten barely had time to process Tidus's reaction before things exploded into action again. For some reason, his old friend didn't seem happy to see him - but that wasn't really unlike the younger warrior. Garoten had always been the cooler-headed of the two, so much so that Nishaio sometimes referred to him as Tidus's conscience. So he wasn't surprised to see him leap into action against one of the most powerful warriors Dragonia had ever known. Unfortunately, Tidus had no idea what he was getting into. Garoten himself had only just begun training when Dramanius had made his move on Dragonia, and Nishaio had kept him out of the battle, for the most part. Then had come the battle for their very existence - he'd been a bigger part of that, but as an inexperienced warrior he'd only been able to handle a few Saiyans at the time. In the seven years since, he and Tidus both had been trained by two of the best warriors on the planet, but neither had faced any real combat. The realization gave Garoten pause even before he'd gone after Tidus, but now it was coming home all the more. His friend was going to get himself killed unless he could intervene.

It was then that Tidus launched his attack on Dramanius. Garoten tapped a hidden button in his own staff, causing the ends to fall away and the six-foot weapon to split in the middle. Now he wielded two three foot swords, one a gleaming white and the other a deep blue. Dramanius disappeared, as Garoten expected he would the moment he saw Tidus and the other boy attack. Only Nishaio's speed training allowed Garoten to save his friend: in the blink of an eye, he stood between the two, one blade aimed to block Kamoru's scythe and one against Tidus's staff. A rumbling noise he'd only heard once before caused him to dash away only a heartbeat before the chains erupted from the ground. He was back in an instant however, but the chains had already been cut by the young man opposite Tidus. Good - now Garoten could tell whose side he was on. In a blur of blue and white he was back beside Tidus, facing the Chaos Lord. He whipped the two swords into sheaths on his back.

"Dramanius, I remember you - but I probably wasn't even worth noticing on your first run here. I don't know how you're back, but you've made a big mistake. My name is Garoten Reklor. I'm a guardian, now."

He sincerely doubted he could back up those words, but the last part was true. His master had tasked him with guarding Dragonia's peace, and here it was being torn to shreds all in a matter of days. He shifted his left foot backwards and set his jaw as he prepared to attack, then brought up his left hand, palm up, index and middle finger extended. He took a breath, then extended the same fingers on his right hand. This was a new technique, but a simple one and probably not enough to challenge Dramanius - but with so much going on around him he had to be careful what he used here.

"Wind Spear!""

He flicked his right hand outward once, twice, ten times, and ten invisible blasts of air - each sharpened with ki into a dart - were hurled toward Dramanius in succession as fast as any machine gun could.

"There's no way I'm going to let you hurt anyone else. It's my duty!""

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Sorry for the delay on posting people, but here’s a post that effects everyone it’s long too. Oh yeah, and Kaworu, as Loki is a SAC I’ve used him to auto-hit you, but don’t worry, it shouldn’t do any last damage! Just a show of power )

It was difficult to judge ones actions amidst so much chaos, but then again Dramanius was the prince of chaos, so he felt right at home. He and Natas had pretty much ignited the battle that was insuring all around them, and now they were both completely surrounded with attacking opponents – though Natas, of course, was now focusing only on Aion while Dramanius fended off at least four different opponents; so at least the odds were fair on in all areas.

Though focusing the main bulk of his attention on Tidus and Kaworu Dramanius wasn’t ignorant to the rest of the powerful warriors that were placed around him within the tomb. He expected an attack from at least one of them, as he was the “bad guy” after all, and so when his prediction came to pass he was more than ready for it.

The air to his left began to whistle violently; something heavy was coming, and fast too. Then another, somewhat familiar, warrior decided to enter the fray, saving both Tidus and Kaworu from their own attacks AND releasing them from the chains! This infuriated Dramanius, but he had no time to vent his anger as suddenly the familiar newcomer extended his wrist and flicked it several times, each time almost undetectable waves in the air shooting out towards Dramanius. He was being attacked from both sides. This called for one action; sacrifice.

Dramanius lowered his head and lifted his arms up just above his head, them both stretched out either side of his body. Suddenly his head shot up and looked out in front of him, his eyes having completely turned black. He was grinning maliciously, his face illuminated from a strange purple glow from the ground surrounding him. Unexpectedly the glow around him, within the purple glow, began to crack as hands quickly protruded out from under. Within a matter of moments over a dozen purple and black creatures surrounded Dramanius.

Each creature looked similar but somewhat different from the next, all deep purple in colour with a black energy radiating off of them, horns protruding out from different points upon their heads, and each brandishing a slightly different weapon in place of one of their hands. Dramanius had summoned his lesser demons to do his bidding, or more accurately, to die in his place.

He was unsure as to which attack hit first as it all happened so quick, but his demons were quick to jump into the heat of battle, a handful of them diving towards Pariah’s swing of a rock pillar. The impact was strong enough to destroy the quickly summoned creatures, causing them to explode into a bubbling mess of liquid. As well as this a handful jumped forward against the oncoming attacks from Garoten, the invisible arrows slicing into them, the creatures falling to the arrows instantly.

These creatures had free-will, which made them far more deadlier than your average summoned creatures, and due to their utmost fear they felt from Dramanius, they were willing to risk, or even sacrifice their lives to do his bidding or protect him, for their fate through being disobedient would be far worse than death.

Though Dramanius’ eyes had returned back to normal his grin had not faltered, for although all of the creatures he had summoned had quickly met their end, and the fact that he was now facing off against three separate opponents, he was far from finished. At a moments notice more creatures appeared where the others had been standing just moments ago, though this time numbering at twenty-five in total, five per opponent, as Dramanius had every intention of having some more join the party, specifically Prometheus and Ray.

‘Now…’ Dramanius finally lowered his arms at shoulder length, both still stretched out either side of his body. ‘…it’s MY turn!’

The exact same moment that he finished his sentence the creatures were off, splitting into groups of five as each group targeted a different opponent. They attempted to surround them, though their attempts not solidified as they were all attacking from the front, aiming to slice, beat, and bite their opponents, their sharp claws and teeth as well as their varying weapons instead of one of their hands, whether that a short dagger, sword, or even mace life objects. Suddenly Dramanius shot his hands forward, probably unbeknown to his three opponents as they had to deal with the sudden rush of the creatures, a familiar rumbling sounded out underneath all of them. Chains exploded out from within the ground once more, this time they were not aimed at tying down the three warriors, this time they were aimed to injure and rip holes through their bodies.



Things for Natas hadn’t gone exactly as he had planned; in fact things hadn’t gone anything like he had planned at all. His Hell Virus had made contact with Aion’s body, but the virus hadn’t even been able to work its way through the Nenian’s skin pours, instead the virus has been stopped by what appeared to be a thin level of water surrounding Aion’s skin. On top of this Natas’ next attack had been easily parried by Aion’s skilled hand-to-hand technique, and before he knew it he felt a sharp pain shooting through his right shoulder.

The pain instantly came as a surprise for two reasons those being that Natas instantly knew that his shoulder had been dislocated, and that he couldn’t believe that his onslaught had been so easily pushed aside; though in a second he remembered Aion was well known for his physical attributes in battle, and Natas was certain he wouldn’t make a similar mistake again.

Stumbling backwards from the attack Natas’ cloak return back to it’s normal form, flapping back into it’s material like state behind him, as he quickly threw his left first up towards his shoulder. There was a resounding thud, followed by a brief cry of pain. It had taken a fair amount of brute force because of his thick, outer exoskeleton, though that was something that Natas was in abundance of, but Natas had managed to at least partially pop his shoulder back in – though his exoskeleton had caused his self hit to not hit as hard a she had meant, thus not popping it back in completely; it appeared that his exoskeleton was both a blessing as well as a curse.

Natas now had a small problem; his right arm and shoulder was somewhat hampered and more susceptible to pain, not to mention that he was fore mostly right-handed. With a few steps between himself and Aion Natas had a brief moment to evaluate things, and that was all he needed. Almost instantly an extremely thick cloud, a mixture of yellow and white in colour, began to pour out of Natas’ exoskeleton and into the surrounding area. The cloud was dense, so dense that it was impossible to see your hand if it was moved more than a metre or so away from your eyes; however, because of his eyes Natas could see pretty much perfectly within the cloud, which once again, hopefully, evened the playfield for Natas.

‘You’re a slippery little one, aren’t you Nenian?’ Natas’ voice echoed throughout the cloud of energy, causing Aion to be unable to pinpoint Natas’ location. ‘You cannot win.’ it was a bold statement that was said with such certainty within his voice. ‘You turn away from your inner power like a child who’s scared of the dark…’ everything fell silent within the cloud, the outside noise unable to penetrate its density. ‘And so you’ll die.’ it was no louder than a whisper, but Natas’ next action spoke far louder.

Instantly a sharp, thick, spike came shooting towards Aion from his front, aimed at his left shoulder; it was his cape, transformed to attack. Suddenly two more spike came at Aion, both aimed at different positions upon his chest and his upper stomach, all from his front. Despite the intent of these spikes, they were partially a ruse to grab Aion’s attention, as from behind Natas came from nowhere, attempting to slam his left, spiked fist down upon the back, but to his right side, of Aion’s head.



Before Ryan could reply to either what Rizuk or Loki said a stranger moved forward next to them, directing his words at Loki also. Kaworu had said his piece very forcefully, and it pleased Ryan to know that despite the lull of evil over the past seven years that there were still powerful beings upon the planet, powerful beings that were ready to stand for good at a moments notice, and even powerful beings that would sacrifice themselves for such good, as Kyle Edwards had done.

‘Who is this peasant to think he can stand before ME and dictate what will happen?’ Loki’s voice was full of disgust, as was his facial expression. With each passing second Loki’s image was becoming more and more visible, though at such a slow rate it was unnoticeable. ‘You are nothing next to me!’ Suddenly Loki swung his arm from across his body, sending Kaworu flying backwards against a nearby wall of concrete. ‘Even in this form I am more powerful than you can imagine!’ Loki exclaimed, raising his arms in triumph.

‘His right Rizuk…’ Ryan softly said to the dragon. ‘If we leave him he will return, and when he does it’ll be the next generation, or the generation after that who will suffer because of our indecision to act…’ though his voice was sombre his eyes still burned a violent crimson, as well as his fists shaking in anger. ‘No matter what will happen by pulling out the sword, we have to do whatever it takes to obliterate this monster. Right now.’ Ran turned away from Rizuk and looked up at Loki, hatred burning in his face. ‘I’m going to pull free the sword, and destroy it. If the swords power kept you alive, destroying it will no doubt destroy you.’

Loki’s eyes widened and his mouth opened in shock. ‘I wont allow you to ruin everything I’ve achieved!’ he screamed, his face turning angry and bitter. Loki threw forward both of his hands, one aimed at Ryan and prince Seriyu, the other at Rizuk, as he threw forward two blasts of forceful energy, aiming to send the three flying backwards against the wall much like he had done so with Kaworu.

[Kaworu - Horatio]

Kaworu had obviously gotten to the ghostly man as he insulted him back and threw him against the wall which really didn't even wind him but it did surely annoy him so he shock himself off and got up, he noticed that the hell lord had summoned some demi deamons to enter the fray but the other warriors were having their fun with them unsheathed one of his other swords that had not used yet in this battle.

Mostly due to the fact it wasn't usually used inless needed and it had particular powers mainly spiritual that'd do brilliantly against this egotistical idiot Loki, so jumping through the fray of monsters and warriors Kaworu came up near Loki and jumped then made a nice slice across his chest. Nothing that'd prove fatal but it would sure annoy the self important spirit man and maybe even hinder his progress back to solid form, "Now Loki you can stick your ego where the sun don't shine for all I care, but I ain't no peasant and I also ain't weak so you can rot in here for seven centuries for all I care but one thing for certain is that I for one don't want your sorry arse back in this world. And if that means killing you in either spirit or real form then so be it because no matter who you think you are I'm a power no one in this dimension has every met before and if you wanna push me I can push back twice as hard" expressed Kaworu to the newly sliced Loki.

Near the entrance to the tomb were four other newcomers that seemed to arrive later then the others due to the fact they were shielded and were only teleported once the shield had been taken down for a sec, mostly for a rest of it's power setter but mainly to change it to house power which should keep it shielded indefinitely if need be. Of these four figures two were just above half the size of the other two and most in the main room but that didn't change their abilities, "Where the hell are we" expressed the taller man by the name of Shannon Maraumen who was Kaworu's dimensional equivalent but instead of him being called an angel he was called a deamon but like Kaworu not in the sense most knew and or expected.

"Always with the language Shannon, can't you ever do things nicely" said the taller of the females whose name was Augury and she is a powerful Mage and Soothsayer, "let's just go see whats going on, I'm sure Kaworu is probably around he somewhere, in fact I'm certain he is" expressed Augury as they went walking closer to where the noise was occurring. The two smaller and younger ones were known as the Basilisk twins from a strange fantastic dimension that fell to ruins just before Kaworu's passing through, as they came to the main room they saw themselves quite the spectacle with many warriors fighting numerous beasts and other strange looking men.

The four could instantly guess whose side was good and whose was bad and noticed Kaworu near the middle of the room in front of a partly transparent man, their esteemed friend was brandishing his spirit sword which they hadn't seen him do often and Kaworu didn't seem like he was in a good mood. "Kaworu having fun are we?" sarcastically asked Augury pointing her staff at a monster trying to sneak up on Kaworu and blowing him away with a small blast of energy, Kaworu looked over and noticed his friends standing near the entrance "Augury and Shannon glad to see you joining in, I guess that teleportation spell finally dragged you two into this" yelled Kaworu across the room. The Basilisk twins Cyrene (The boy) and Marien (The girl) had already jumped in the fray of monsters eager to join the fight as it's been awhile since they've been monster slaying, Cyrene was armed with a magnificent spear and a short sword while Marien was armed with halberd and an axe both are in middle weight redish brown armour. And they're fighting and killing monsters like they were born to it because frankly they were but they have more to them then that, "Why are the Basilisk twins here, did they get transported too" questions Kaworu across the room, "Yes they were next to us when we arrived" retorted Shannon.

When the chains begun appearing Kaworu had already put a defensive enchantment upon to repeal the chains from going near him and he threw a look to Shannon to do the same which he did for himself and the twins while Augury was protected by the protection of her staff. As all hell broke loose almost literally stood there and looked around to see what he could do and what everything was attempting to achieve, he could see warriors still trying to fend off the deamons while either avoiding the chains, getting ensnared or attacked by them. Kaworu thought it'd be best to attack the source and knew it was the hell lord from earlier so he motioned for Shannon to follow his lead, the tall dark haired man bounded through the fray and on the way unsheathed a broadsword while Kaworu changed back to his silver dai katana. as they both sliced and diced their way through low rank deamon fodder towards the hell lord or whatever he was himself hiding behind his minions, he could see Ryan going for the sword while the others seemed to be holding their own so then Kaworu side stepped and then disappeared appearing behind the hell lord poised to attack while Shannon did so from the front.

[Ray Hiryuzui]

"Seriously though, are you really this stupid, or do you enjoy nearly killing yourself!?"

Was someone speaking to him?

Wait, scratch that. The Jenevan wanted someone to speak to him. It was the only wayhe would be able to gain insight as to why he was now in this temple. That was not the correct answer to be asking oneself.

But was someone being foolish, and insulting him? That was the question that really needed to be answered. And of course, it was a resounding yes.

"We're undergound, in a ruin that looks like it'd come crashing down around us if someone even sneezed wrong, and you're causing earthquakes?" The gentleman shot Ray a stare that would agitate the mood of most people. Ray, however, was already angry, so it did little to adjust his temperament. He remained as stone faced as he had already been. The only sign that things would end up being worse was the seepage of psionic energy from his eyes and out from under his massive hood.

"Does that seem like the smartest thing right now?" Very few things kept the Jenevan monk from responding to the question with an act of hostility. Sarcasm was one of them.

With minimal effort, he sent out another telekinetic pulse through the area. The place trembled once more, disturbing the foundation ever so slightly. Debris from the ceiling began to crash, and a large piece went straight for Ray's head. The subtle application of telekinetic force on his own body forced the young man into an intangible state, allowing the rubble to pass effortlessly through his person and into the floor.

"Yes. Yes it does."

As much fun as it would have been to further antagonize the man, things quickly took a turn for the violent. Out of seemingly nothing, a multitude of demons appeared out of nowhere, immediately capturing the attention of the Jenevan. these demons simply filled the role of cannon fodder, sacrificing themselves in defense of their master. This simple act seemed to shed some light as to who was responsible for Rayzenku's current situation.

And then, more of the vicious little creatures appeared, going after everyone, including the Jenevan! Eyes narrowing underneath his hood, Ray prepared for his defense, only to notice that the group was trembling. He wasn't the cause this time. Had the annoying man been right? Was this place really that unstable? Had he doomed them all (except for his own person, given his ability to become intangible)?

That question was quickly answered by chains ripping through the stone floor all over the place. His eyes went wide before his mind snapped into gear. At the last moment, he went into a flip, narrowly dodging a chain link as it slashed against his chest, ripping his cloak. Outside of his first layer of clothing, nothing else on his person had been damaged.

His eyes traced back to the source of the demonspawn; the beast he assumed was also responsible for attempting to punch a hole into his body.

Ray peeled his cloak from his body and tossed it to the side as he landed on his feet before removing his Katana from its sheathe. Of course, he was going to stab his prime aggressor in the face. He just had to get through the underlings first. Funneling energy from the astral plane and into his sword, the Jenevan warrior monk let out a battle cry as he preformed an horizontal slash with his sword, releasing an arcing wave of energy at the chains, cannon fodder, and ultimately, his aggressor.

If anyone or anything else happened to be in the way of the powerful wave, that was fine by him.

[Tidus Revok]

(OOC: WOW! it's nice to have so MUCH activity that I BARELY have time to skim through from my last post. Be patient with me by the way guys, this time of year is Extra busy as far as school goes. From tomorrow, to Monday my how day is literally booked! so I'll try to write as much as possible, and I'll also try not to forget anything, or leave anything out. Thanks for your patience!

P.S. I know you all missed me!)

Everything seemed to slow to Tidus Echoes of all the other fighters, arguing and quarreling filled his mind. And the one who had just cut the chains for him said something, but Tidus could not make it out from any of the other echoes. But soon everything became clear. Tidus had summoned all of Dragonia's powerful Warriors, good and evil. Meaning every powerful form of evil rested in this very room. He had the chance to destroy evil in Dragonia for once and for all. Such an accomplishment had its price however. It would mean the death of everyone, good and bad in this room. Tidus thought to himself What would Nishaio... Wait thats a terrible question, he'd kill someone for having bad breathe! he threw a fork at my head for forgetting to knock! Tidus thought some more until the question arose What would happen if I Didn't take matters into my own hands? Surely this scroll came to me for a reason! Nishaio's voice flashed through Tidus mind as if it were a warning from one of their previous conversations Is it within our power to decide who lives and dies? There is a great difference in robbing someone of his life, And finishing off someone who has already chosen the path to death. Trying to Judge as only Alagar can is what made Markis who he is now.

Tidus began to shout as he pulled out the scroll. I don't care! I have the chance to make a peaceful world, I wont let this slip out of my grasp! Even if it cost me my life! I will destroy this place and everyone in it! Tidus eyes scanned the rules of the scroll inscribed across the trimming of the scroll. One of them read 'Equality' This will surely cost me my life! Tidus began writting. And the place where Tidus and the villains fought was destroyed killing everyone in it in exactly five minutes after Tidus had written in the scroll. The section of the scroll began to fade. as Tidus bowed his head Forgive me. He whispered as the scroll continued to fade. He had five minutes to keep anyone from cutting the scroll!

(OOC: Hey just in case you all are freaking out about Gaurdinia being destroyed. No worries, Tidus wrote I made sure to leave it open enough to allow Ryan or whoever to intervene with Tidus plan... Hence the five minutes)

[Kaworu - Horatio]

Just as Kaworu was about to attack the egotistical hell lord he felt a strong surge of emotions run over him from one of the others in the room and he pin pointed to the Tidus fellow he'd freed earlier, the emotion was something close to suicidal "Shannon you can take care of this looser, I think something else needs to be done elsewhere" expressed Kaworu and Shannon nodded in agreement.

The other dimensional man scooted through the fighting and landed near Tidus "What every it is you're planning I'd undo because I can feel how bad you're feeling about this and if that's the case it can't be good" asked Kaworu to the young man, he put away his sword and pulled out his scythe but keeping it away from the man for now "Now you either reverse it I will" add Kaworu but he didn't get a response from him. Then he looked at the man's hands and saw the scroll that had been used earlier to get everyone here and he'd over heard that this thing has immense wish granting ability, so he looked at what was written on the scroll and his eyes widened, but he knew the guy was doing it for a reason so yelling it out would for go that reasoning so he thought another way of getting all those that deserved it out.

He lengthened his scythe as he walked away and headed through the deamon spawn and other such creatures knocking them back with a swing of his weapon and not even having to look at them, he came close to Ryan and thought it best to say what needed to be said quietly. "Hey ryan, it seems Tidus has written something in his scroll that effects everyone, it says within where Tidus and the villains were fighting the place will be destroyed and everyone killed within. I may not have quoted right but that's about the size of it but if that scroll has the power I heard it has then it could finish all this easy but we have to get the innocent out of here, without arousing the suspicion of Loki and his little Hellion cheer squad so I say we get all those out that at doing a whole lot of use here. And keep those of higher power intill just the last inless someone just wants to get rid of the scroll and that may do the trick but I'm leaving it up to you, since you seem to be the sort of leader to these and or known by most of these guys I leave this up to you and don't worry about getting out I have a way" expressed Kaworu to Ryan.

[Aion]

The success of Aion's attack left a smile on the young warriors face. While he was confident in his abilities, he wasn't ever foolish enough to count on a single blow landing, and disabling an enemy; but when it happend, he couldn't help but be a bit overjoyed. The Nenian pulled back, retreating to the defensive stance of the Keres Arts, his eyes watching Natas' every movement...his body ready to counter any attack.

To the young warriors surprise, it had taken little time for the Lord of Hell to react; snapping his arm into place, and once agian, attempting to get back on the offensive side of the battle. This what Aion wanted, his fighting style, though not entirely dependent on his opponent, was symbiotic by creation; it became much easier execute when he was on the defensive, feeding of off his opponent's offensive tactics. And from the look of things, as long as he stayed close, he'd eventually ware the demon down. Common sense told Aion that Natas would attempt to put distance between them, but exactly how the demon would pull this off was a surprise. It took only seconds for Natas to accomplish this; emitting a cloud of smoke from his body that blanketed the aera surrounding both warriors.

"Wh-what is this?" The Nenain wondered. Not only had the smoke left his normal vision useless, thus making it almost impossible to locate his enemy, but he could no longer tell what was going on with his companions. Even worse, who knew the capabilities of the cloud, was it poisonous? Did it strengthen Natas? The possibilities were endless. This left him vulnerable, too vuunerable for his taste.

‘You’re a slippery little one, aren’t you Nenian?’

‘You cannot win.’

‘You turn away from your inner power like a child who’s scared of the dark…’

‘And so you’ll die.’

Aion knew what this was, and he wouldn't fall for it. The Nenian wouldn't begin flailing his arms randomly in an attempt to land a lucky strike on the demon; nor would he be foolish enough to panic, trying to desperately find his way out of the smoke, leaving himself open to the demon's wrath. The young man would stand his ground, taking the lord of hell head on.

A small grunt was all that Aion's pride allowed to escape from his mouth as Natas' cape pierced his shoulder, chest, and stomach. At the speed the spikes traveled, the Nenian couldn't have dodged them he'd wanted to; only shift his body slightly to avoid being hit in any vital organs. However, this had confirmed one thing, the smoke hadn't impaired the demon's vision one bit. Though he seemed in a compromising position, the Nenian still had a few tricks up his sleeve. Aion's right hand swung backward, catching the demon's left hand, completely stopping his strike from making contact. The young man clamped down on the demon's fist, weincing as the spikes piercing his palm sending streams of blood down his wrist; he pulled Natas in closer.

"Peek...a...boo...."

He managed to whisper through his gasps for air. The Nenian, forcing a smile upon his face to rob Natas of the pleasure of seeing him in pain, turned to his head just enough to give the demon a glimpse off his glowing, crimson, eyes.

"I see you..."

Though he couldn't move his left arm much, he would only need a little mobility for his next few actions. The Nenian's left hand attempted to make contact with the demon four times, once on his lower stomach, twice right below his chest, once on the left side of his rib cage; focusing what little spirit energy he could gather into each strike. Natas wouldn't feel much from the strikes themselves, in fact, he'd probably shrug them off; but seconds later, he'd feel strong vibrations within his body, tearing up his insides

(ooc: this was done quckly, so I apologize. I just wanted to get one more post in before everything ended.)

[Ryan - Loki]

(OOC: Right guys sorry if you’ve not posted yet but in the spirit of moving things along I’m going to make the final saga post now. Jimmy, everyone else too, I’m going to be quite a few auto-hits here, but it’s only so I can finish things, and I wont take the piss with it, so don’t worry!)

Though Dramanius now had a clear advantage in number thanks to his summoned chaos demons, as well as the attacks from his chains too, it appeared that he was far too weak without Loki’s power to be able to summon adequately powered creatures, as once by one his Chaos spawn and his chains were cut down. His emotion spilt out into his expression, his expression one of anger and frustration. He despised being weak, and he despised relying on Loki’s power to sustain his own strength even more so, but for the moment he had no choice. He was so close to regaining his lost power, to regaining the stature that he deserved, and he wasn’t about to let a weak group of mortals get in his way.

Something was changing though, changing with each passing second; he was getting stronger, he could feel it inside of him. Dramanius was unsure as to why he was getting stronger, though he could only put it down to Loki becoming stronger as well, either way he didn’t care as long as he found the strength to swat down his enemies. Suddenly he felt a surge of power awaken within him, it was only a fraction of his lost power, but it was enough to work with for the moment.

Dramanius quickly closed his eyes and opened out his sense. There were several opponents rushing towards him with the intent to kill him. This would not do. Suddenly his hands began to glow, a violent purple energy swirling around his open palms and in-between his outstretched fingers. All of a sudden Dramanius fists clenched and as they did all those who were dashing towards him stopped dead in their tracks. Swiftly Dramanius then lifted his arms and then threw them down by his sides and as he did all of his attackers were lifted and then slammed sown upon the ground in the same motion.



Natas’ plan had worked better than he thought it would. The cloud had quite clearly disorientated Aion, and the attacks had been with such speed that the Nenian didn’t stand a chance; all but one of his attacks landing against the Nenian, all but the weakest attack too for an added bonus. In all respects the Nenian was going to die. Surely the spikes from Natas cloak had pieced though several vital organs and Aion was bleeding to death more and more with every second; little did Natas know this was far from the truth.

The punch that Natas had tried to connect against the back of Aion’s head had been caught. This had surprised Natas. It seemed that despite the disorientated environment Aion was still the superior pugilist of the two, which frustrated Natas to no end. Distorting his body Aion managed to turn towards Natas enough to land in several soft blows to the front of his body, blows that Natas hardly even felt through his exoskeleton. It caused him to laugh.

‘Haha. How pathetic.’ He jested. ‘You’re barely even strong enough for me to feel your attacks now Nenian.’ Natas’ smugness was short lived as his eyes suddenly went wide, the cloud around them both vanished and the spikes from his cloak that were piecing through Aion’s body went limp and returned back to their normal state as Natas stumbled backwards. His insides were burning, tearing even, and he found he could do nothing to dampen the pain except to scratch at his own exoskeleton with his clawed hands, as he fell to his knees in pain. He didn’t know what had happened, he couldn’t think straight to even start to comprehend it.

Meanwhile…

Loki had succeeded yet again in sending Ryan flying backwards against the cold, hard rock wall of the chamber. The impact had been with such force that the entire room had shook yet again. It was safe to say that the already hampered integrity of the room had been made worse by the sudden arrival of all of Dragonia’s strongest warriors, and it surely wouldn’t be able to take much more of the bombardment it had been receiving.

Once more Ryan found himself with the very air from his lungs having been forcefully removed, his breathing deep and heavy in an attempt to fill his body with much needed oxygen. Much like Ryan both Rizuk and prince Seriyu had also been tossed against the wall, and as Ryan looked over at Loki from his downed position it was clear that this time he hadn’t been noticeably drained from the display of power; he was gaining in strength at an unnatural speed and something had to be done about it, fast.

Ignoring his down comrades Ryan forced himself to his feet, pushing his entire bodies weight off of his one good arm as he stood. Although Ryan had only been thrown at the wall twice it had sustained a fair amount of punishment, enough to hamper his movement. And so Ryan staggered forward towards Loki’s apparition when suddenly the mysterious swordsman from the cave in the Eben spires blocked his path and began to speak to him. I have to destroy Loki and all this man wants to do is get in my way!? Ryan thought, anger filling his insides even more so than they had been up until this point.

‘Arrgghh! Get out of my way you fool!’ In a moments notice Ryan’s clenched right first swung up from his side and connected with the bottom of Kaworu’s chin. The swordsman feet lifted up off of the group under the force of the punch, but Ryan didn’t care, his mind was only on one thing and one thing alone. Moving past a floored Kaworu Ryan stood in front of Loki, his once azure blue eyes burning violently with a deep crimson.

Ryan’s explosion of anger had been what Loki had been waiting for. ‘That’s it brother! Embrace me again!’ Loki exclaimed, his hands mockingly held out wide for Ryan to hug him.

This confused Ryan. ‘What are you talking about?’ Ryan spat in response.

‘I was right about you Ryan, you have grown senile in your old age.’ Loki smirked. ‘Are you truly yet to understand!?’ he found it hard to believe, yet at the same time his arrogance could understand why Ryan was yet unable to figure out Loki’s plan. ‘We are one in the same brother!’

‘Stop repeating yourself Loki! I know that already.’ Ryan’s frustration was at its peak, it felt as if it couldn’t possible get any higher.

‘Ahhh, but you misunderstand.’ Loki still held the advantage, he knew this, and he was going to enjoy destroying Ryan’s world from all around him. ‘For seven years I’ve not made an appearance, set my fellows upon Dragonia or manipulated any form of evil – until now. Why do you think that is? Why now?’ Loki allowed time for Ryan to answer, but the aging samurai did not. ‘How about those dreams you keep having? The dreams of this place, of me. The dreams that continued to get stronger, and more frequent; why do you think you suffered from them?’ Once again Ryan didn’t answer, instead his mind was rushing over possibilities to what Loki meant. It clicked and Ryan’s eyes widened; Loki knew he knew.

‘That’s right, you’ve got it!’ he confirmed, as if he was reading Ryan’s mind. ‘All this time I’ve been within you, lying dormant, waiting, biding my time, slowly seeping my influence into you until it changed your very attitude, your persona!’ Loki leaned forward, his appearance now almost as if he were real, standing in front of Ryan alive and well. ‘Have you noticed yourself becoming more angry and frustrated over small matters? Even the way you speak changed?’ Loki was becoming more smug by the second, this evident in his expression. ‘Every time you blacked out and had that dream it was because I was making myself known to my followers. Every time something like that happened it was me. Every time something like that happened I grew stronger!’ Loki let out a howling laugh that echoed throughout the entire chamber. He was now shouting rather than merely speaking.

It now all made so much sense to Ryan. He had been Loki’s tool, his pawn. For seven years Loki had sustained himself through Ryan, influencing his nature into causing him to become more like him and then feeding off of his anger, his frustration. Ryan had set out to stop Loki, to stop evil returning back to Dragonia, but after everything that had transpired, the pain, the destruction, the death of Kyle Edwards, all of it had been Ryan’s fault. It was almost too much for the samurai to bare. Even now, after discovering all of this, Ryan found himself fuming with anger towards himself. He couldn’t fight it, even though he knew it was feeding Loki.

‘Like I told you brother, my return is inevitable!’

‘No…’ Ryan suddenly muttered.

Loki tilted his head, a confused look upon his face. ‘What?’

‘I said no!’ Ryan screamed. ‘If you’re inside me, and drawing power from me, then the solution seems obvious.’ Ryan slowly lowered his hand and grasped the hilt of one of his Twin Reavers. ‘With me dead you will no longer exist!’ with that Ryan unsheathed the blade and spun it in front of his chest as he moved to piece his own heart with the sword.

Fear covered Loki’s face. With Ryan did he’d lose all of the power he had been drawing upon. He’d be back at square one; that wasn’t a possibility. With a simple flick of Loki’s wrist Ryan’s blade went flying from his hand onto the nearby floor. The fear vanished from Loki’s face and was replaced with smugness once more. Ryan was unable to stop Loki, or even end his own life as it seemed; Loki had won, and Ryan knew it.

‘And now my brother you are about to witness something that very few ever do in their lifetime…’ Loki turned around and moved over towards his corpse. The cold, lifeless body was in perfect condition, almost as if he was merely sleeping – with a huge sword protruding out from within his chest. A surge of premature triumph filled him as he lowered his hands down either side of the hilt and looked over at Ryan. ‘…the RE-birth of a GOD!’

Loki’s palms clasped around the sword and he ripped it up out of his lifeless body. Instantly the room began to shake violently as Loki’s ghost turned into a blinding white light. Within seconds the light shot downward against Loki’s corpse and the corpse came to life, shooting up into a sitting position and taking in a long, drawn out gasp of air. The light slowly began to fade and the chamber stopped shaking; Loki was alive once more.

Laying his back down against the clod floor once more Loki flicked his legs and flipped up into a standing position. He felt as good as new, no, better, more revitalised, as if he had just awoken from a long rest. His silver hair was once again flowing behind him, though his pale complexion and gaunt face gave the impression that he was still dead. He stretched out his arms and legs, his bones clicking. ‘I’m alive!’ he suddenly exclaimed, his face looking up at the ceiling above; the comment was followed by maniacal laughter.

His laughter coming to an end Loki dropped his head back down to normal level and span around, surveying everyone within the chamber – both those of good and bad. He quickly spotted his two followers, Natas seemingly in immeasurable pain. ‘Ahhhh, Natas, Dramanius!’ Loki exclaimed. ‘I see no need for you both to continue your battles, I can handle everyone here.’ It was a bold statement, but one that wasn’t far from the truth in terms of power. ‘But, what would be the fun in that for you two? Lets give you back your powers!’

In that split second a wave of energy erupted out from within Loki into the general direction of both Natas and Dramanius. It passed through everyone, tough it did not effect them in the slightest, though when it hit the two it was destined for they instantly felt the difference. Dramanius exploded his newly regained power outward into his aura, it exploding out from within him in a display of power, while Natas instantly began to recover from Aion’s attack, an attack that had almost ended him. Though in Loki’s excitement for being alive once more and restoring the lost power to his followers he had made a mistake, a huge mistake. The power that he had sent towards Dramanius and Natas hadn’t stopped with them, some of it had passed them completely, and was now heading directly towards the un-detonated bomb.

‘No!’ but it was too late, the energy collided with the bomb, the rusty metal creaking and moaning under the sheer force. All fell silent within the chamber, everyone’s attention now fully on the bomb. Would it detonate? Or was it too old and rusted? The anticipation was high. Suddenly there was an earth shattering CRACK and a gigantic bubble burst out from within the rust-hardened bomb. The bubble was completely translucent and it quickly grew in size as it took over the entire chamber, moving outward in every direction; there was no escape.

Both Ryan’s and Loki’s eyes widened as the bubble moved towards them. This certainly wasn’t an ordinary bomb. The newly revived Loki let out a scream of anger, about to lose his life when he had only just regained it, while Ryan moved back and grabbed hold of Prince Seriyu, covering him from the explosion with his own back, bracing himself for impact. There was no where to run, there was no escape; no one could escape the blast. However, something extraordinary happened, the blast came and passed through them but they were still there, they were all still alive.

Slowly Ryan opened his eyes and looked around to take count of who was left, but before he could concentrate on doing so several other things caught his eyes. The chamber had changed, significantly. No longer did it look like a forgotten royal chamber, but now an ancient tomb of sorts, the detail carved into the walls having eroded away, the water that covered the floor and tricked down the walls having been replaced with dirt, dust and vines. What had happened? However, all these changes paled in comparison to the most noticeable one; the twelve, mysterious cloaked figures that now stood scattered around the chamber, forming a large circle around the warriors of Dragonia.

Who were they? What did they want? But more importantly, how did they get here?

(OOC2: Don’t worry if you can’t reply, I’m locking the thread! Mike will be starting the next saga in continuation to this one, so look forward to a new thread opening within the next day or two!)