~* Emerald Alcazar *~ Bar and Inn. <A place for Literate Rp>

[Sutoraifu Cloud]

There is a dribble of blood at the corner of Cloud's mouth, but he doesn't bother to reach up and try to wipe the flow away. The wound is pulsing a steady stream of carmine, his blood coursing out. He refuses to curl into the pain. The two males argue back and forth. Mind slipping. Then there is a touch, soft flow of air like something passing too close, but the pain receeds in waves and Cloud sighs, whole body slouching in exhaustion from the relief. He tries to bring back what Wulfgar had said, mere seconds before this, while the flesh at his side reknits itself with the burn of condensed lifestream. Whatever..Cloud thinks, and he grips with boths hands now at the hilt of his sword, steadying his stance before standing straight and hefting the weapon up in ready. The man wasn't going to get off that easy.

But it's too late.

There is a dome now, and Cloud flinches, eyes widening in slight panic as his mind races. Gravity spell?!

No..no weight, no unbearable pressure forcing him into the ground. Just swarming tendrils of darkness, like a miasma becoming liquid. Claws reaching out. The creatures are disgusting, repugnant in the way of death, but they bring to mind no fear. Cloud relinquishes his blade, spinning it deftly before securing it at his back. Holds his hands out infront of himself as he activates the materia he has slotted, always Lightning and Ice and Cure. Energy riding up in spikes across the floor, yellow-green light. A burst of Ice gathers, jagged edges shooting out, spearing many of the creatures, bursting a hole into the side of the dome they are incased within. In a flash, Cloud retrieves his weapon from his back, slashes down two strays that have survived, warmth rushing through him in the form of adrenaline as the Ice3 Spell leaves a residue of chill in the enclosed space. He chances a glance at Kujaku, breathing out heavily as he sees the other is unharmed. Gaze drawn abruptly out the the patch revealing the expanse beyond the dome's walls. Bright slash of light crumbling pillars, cascading boulder-sized debre across the floor in a thunderous cacaphony of wreckage. He feels the vibration, running up through his boots, and Cloud turns Kujaku, voice heavy with urgency.

"We need to get out of here, he's going to bring the place down around our ears."

[Renegade Proxy]

Circling down the staircase, He stops to survey as the pair struggle in their prison. Chilling shrills pierce the air as nightmares are slain, a final crashing explosion punctuating the din as the bars give way, faceted stars spinning away before fading with a hiss. In their place is seft a deep miasma, foul and heavy that spreads in a slow wave of gloom. The silence is sudden as time dilates, the calls of half-seen monsters keening low as they retreat from His approach. From their prison a rustle of gold stands out, revealed in slow motion, the expanse of his weapon a hard and heavy target.
Cloud.
Cold air smelling of ozone envelopes the Being as Nemesis rushes the blonde, closing in with an upward slash, locking blades for an instant, then pushing forward with a cross-cut, knocking his massive weapon away. Pausing with a flourish He presses with a spinning slash and leaping blow, catching the other's sword hand, turning it down and away before turning and sending two elbow-strikes at his torso and one to the face with his mechanical right arm, wheeling toward Kujaku in a viper-flash of silver.

[Sutoraifu Cloud]

Nemesis pauses, and time seems to stop in that instant, frame frozen as Cloud stares at Wulfgar, makou-tainted eyes wide, caught somewhere between surprise and resignation.

Oh..

Pain shoots up his wrist from the sudden cank of his hand, fingers loosening convulsively, the familiar and safe feel of the hilt of his sword vanishing. Sound of it, heavy crash against the floor, blade scraping as it slides away. Out of reach.

Another pain, this time much more intimate, something Cloud, in a different moment, would view as shame. The sing of honed blade, percise, parting his flesh like water. God's hands.. Cloud thinks vaguely, as a spray of crimson splatters the floor from the wound, a large line of carmine appearing across his chest. And somewhere in his head, Zack is screaming.

Cloud crosses his arms infront of himself, belatedly, in a block. Recieves another razour laceration, two long lines, of one long one carried over both forearms, spreading blood that streams down onto his elbows.

The air leaves his lungs next, forced out with a hurl, and it snaps Cloud out of his daze. He reacts, then, even as he gapes, mouth wide and gasping for breath; it feels as if the air has been sucked out of the room, his daiphram spasming. He is feeble, moving to block the second blow to his face with his -now free- sword hand. Winces as the clench of muscle in his tense stance sends a jolt of pain through his body. Midsection weeping blood. He slides back a few inches from the force of the blow, but Cloud's focus is on Wulfgar's own, who's settling once more upon Kujaku. No, Cloud growls, but he can't quite tell if his voice reaches beyond his own ears. Clenches his jaw around the burn of pain as he grabs for whatever he can, before Wulfgar can disappear, out of reach. Ends up with a handful of streaming white tresses.

"You won't hurt him," Cloud says, while he yanks forecfully, aiming a knee into Wulfgar's back.

And the materia glows, blazing as Cloud calls down a short spell of ice that fits, weighted slabs of catching claws, around Wulfgar's feet. Then bolt, the air crackling with the intensity, raising the hairs upon Cloud's own neck. Split of miniature thunder before the streak of jagged blaze strikes down, splaying into three separate tendrils that hit within feet of the main bolt aimed for Wulfgar's snow-white head, and Cloud jumps back at the last second before it hits, boots sliding across smooth black of the floor, doubled over and bracing himself with one splayed hand, his other arm wrapped tight about his midsection. Makou-tainted blue then flit to the sight of his sword, and Cloud rushes to it, on staggering legs that feel too light to carry his body; he fights not to fall to his knees as he grabs the hilt, picking his weapon back up with a grimace, face tight in the rictus of pain as more blood pours steadily from his wounds. He begins to activate his Cure Materia, soft waves of green-yellow energy light washing across the floor, flowing outward in small circles, ripples. Cloud at the epicenter.

[~^xKujaku Silverdragonx^~]

Kujaku moves as if in a mechanical daze, but the strength of his emotions mixed with that of his body is a ferocious cocktail that was nearly impossible to faze. With quick slashes of Ultima's unbreakable blades, the silvette is out of the cage and backing up pace by pace, watching the goings on as fast as they happened, making sure that Cloud was faring, knowing that the youth was a better physical fighter than he, knowing all the right moves from years of training. If the blonde would need curing, Kujaku was happy to be of assistance.

As Wulfgar begins more waves of attack, the Siren takes a quick stock of what is going on around him, the Alcazar was shaking as pillars were destroyed, screams from the beasts locked in the dark crystal formations as they were ripped apart. With a glare on his brow and grit of his teeth, he suddenly burst upward, massive silver feathered wings shoving him towards the ceiling, escaping by a hairsbreadth the scathing swipe the Other had made at him with his sword, though a slim, razors edge cut was slashed through his left shoulder, causing Kujaku to wince lightly, red blood tinged green seeping into his white, button-up shirt.

Above both males now, the Siren makes a swift decision, pulling his magical aura towards himself and, with a deafening discharge of electrical impulse, a Thundaga spell is sent on auto-target towards Wulfgar, grabbing straight to the massive metal weapon he carried, up the length like a lightning rod and straight towards it's wielder with sickening force and alacrity. The fact that Kujaku's emotions were boiling like a sea of blood beneath his aura, the attack was only strengthened frighteningly ten-fold, the auto-target keeping it straight and true just like a well-aimed arrow.

[Renegade Proxy]

So many things could happen in an instant.

Leaping over the first blow, meeting others with armored boot and blade, dashing first one way and then the other. Fending them both off with deft parries and ducks matching force with force in a play of sparks...

But the unthinkable happens as pain lashes from behind, worsened as His momentum is stalled, even reversed by a cruel wrenching. The knee to His spine is blunted by metal plates, the padding beneath deadening its impact. Fingers loosen briefly as His focus wanders, sword spinning away in a flutter of white even as He retakes His footing. He is kept from retrieving His weapon as clawing ice converges, encasing his legs in freezing bonds. Nothing shows in the Being's golden eyes, their sickly fires burning bright as they alight upon Cloud, right arm thrown up in a gesture of protection. One of the green spheres slotted into the surface of its encasement fills with incandescence that radiates outward, a semi-translucent multi-faceted sphere of light that spreads only halfway down the arm before shattering beneath a fist of lightning from above. The force is brutal, ice shattering as He is slammed to His knees, the impact stamping a meter-wide crater around Him.
Silver-black splits, materia cracking as it is overwhelmed and vaporized, the Being's arm comes undone in a spray of searing vapor and heated metal shards. The force of it flings Him from His feet into the statue dais that looms over all, manifestations of darkness exploding into nonexistence as His senses leave Him. Stunned, He leans against the expanse of cool stone, fighting blackness that lurks at the edges of vision, absorbed in examination of the mess of His limb. Fragments hang loose and what crystals had not vaporized clung loosely, nearly half of them scattered about the Cathedral in a deadly cannonade.
As a second salvo of white-hot bolts split the air in hungry pursuit the Being pulls Himself up, braced against the dais, lifting the broken casement of his right arm wherein one of the remaining spheres began to glow. Spheres of orange flame rush from the gem, spitting in a stream that He directs toward Kujaku, disrupting bolts dispersed in explosions of raw energy that converged and shot downward, combining and growing with the heat and fury of a newborn star.

[Sutoraifu Cloud]

Too much.

Thunder of explosion and debre, glass-like shards scattering in a spray through the air, catching no light. Shrapnel peppering past his body with the dull burn of thin cut, not deep enough to severe nerve with shock. Cloud casts away the attempt for his intentional spell, the materia losing its iredescent glow, smouldering before fading to a dimmer light, dormant once more. A slant of efferfescent green twinkling across his body, healing minor cuts, unable to close the larger ones.

Cloud's attention is rapt upon Wulfgar, having tracked where the white-haired man had fallen, thrown across the room onto the dias. The transfer of attacks between Him and Kujaku. Cloud is moving by the time Wulfgar has leveled His beam at the siren, shudder of red light, a dancing flame, growing larger into a sudden burst of energy. Nova. Cloud knows before it happens that it will be aimed at Kujaku, though he isn't sure why. Not enough time to think about it.

"Kujaku-!"

With a rush forward, Cloud twirls his blade deftly through the air, slams it down; arc of white-tinged blue light, beam of energy carving across the floor, churning up brackish rubble as it tracks straight for Wulfgar. Distraction. Then he's leaping, air rushing past with a dull hum of cloth rippling, his blade angled behind, grasped in both hands.

The collision is harder than Cloud anticipates, and momentarily, in the queer half-float of paused motion, momentum holding him in mid air, Cloud hopes he won't hurt the other by the force of it, sending Kujaku into a wall to cripple one of those massive wings. He'd smacked into the firmness of upper torso, with his unarmoured shoulder side. Again.. a wry thought, and Cloud almost laughs aloud. He's going to get himself killed trying so hard to protect the silvette. Then he's bringing his sword up, twisting himself into a tight curl as he tries to hide as much of his body as he can between the width of his blade.

Force like a bullet train. Cloud barely has an instant to recognize the sudden pull, bodily fluids sloshing about, blood pushed up against the anteriour side of his body. The heat is searing, and his hands clench tighter, one about the hilt of his sword, the other braced upon the blade itself.

Sudden shock of wall.

It was enough to deflect, and the roar of overhead devestation is the only testament to let Cloud know it. He's splayed into the wall, slammed there with a loud 'thwack' from the force of it, cracks running out in awry paths from his body. Strayed. And then he peels away, falling forward with eyes closed in a grimace of pain. Hits the floor with clatter of sword and thud of body. It takes him a second to drag himself to his knees, blood dripping steadily with soft pats upon the black beneath his gloved hands. Fingertips dragging over the smooth of obsidian. There's enough..time...Cloud tells himself, as he struggles to get back to his feet. Everything is screaming, his nerves ablaze with pain that laces up and down his spine. Brain a train wreck of fragmented thought and disorientation. Disarray.

The sound of his sword, blade sliding across the floor, sharpness of it, draws him closer to clarity, and Cloud grabs hold of the hilt with both hands again, propping himself up as he gets back to his feet. Staggers once. He is breathing heavy, already suffering from loss of blood. Tries to find Kujaku with dazed eyes. Make sure he's ok, then focus on Wulfgar, Cloud recites in his head as he brings his sword back infront of himself and readies to move.

[~^xKujaku Silverdragonx^~]

After finishing his spell, Kujaku was prepared for the fact that Wulfgar would counter in some way, and when the obvious casting of Nova had taken place, the silvette quickly pulled up a Wall spell to surround himself and the general vicinity, protecting against any serious magical damage. However, as the spell was defused in bright flashes and sparks, the Siren was filled with dismay as Cloud did what he could to block it, once more putting himself in real danger...

...and Kujaku sighed, moving back a bit with heavy beats of wing, conjuring yet another spell, which was this time directed towards the blonde. He could still feel the heat from the Nova spell, as massive as it was in its diffusion, but before too long, a soft golden light surrounded Cloud as the Regen spell took hold, followed by another Curaga to bring him back to full health, or at least close to it. The Regen would keep the steady stream of curing magics doing their job properly.

"Cloud! Its futile to worry about me, just focus on Wulfgar!! I've got you back!" The Siren yelled over the loud explosions and cracking of crystal, the scream of fiends dying.

((Ughghghg... sorry guys, I'm so effing tired, I know my posts suck some serious donkey boner. T^T))

[Sutoraifu Cloud]

[ it's ok...I've been doing nothing but lame posts this whole time ]

[Xuukkaj]

Shizuka Mizu

"Mm," was Almus noise of acknolwedgement while sipping his tea.
Vaguely, he recalled meeting Xuukkaj for the first time. It was a bit of a strange meeting, he supposed, and while he was initially a bit grossed out by the way he had to heal himself (or, rather, the facet that met Xuukkaj for the first time was grossed out by it), Almus found that it wasn't as strange as the other had thought.
There was a bit of a pause, a permeating silence in which Almus did nothing but think about the things Xuukkaj said, pretty oblivious to Xuukkaj's turning away from him for a second. After so long of just thinking, he decided he didn't want to dwell on it any longer. Sipping his tea again, he was almost finished with it at this point. It must've been because of the fact that it was so tasty that it was disappearing so quickly.
Placing the mug back on the table with a soft clink, his two-toned eyes turned to one of the windows in the room. "Would you like to go for a walk?" he asked the other. "I was enjoying exploring the gardens earlier."
As he thought about what he asked, he realized that he didn't know a whole lot about Xuukkaj. No time like the present, he thought. He'd wait to see if his invitation would be accepted before saying anything, however.

Taking a few gulps from his tea cup, Xuukkaj sighed softly afterwards, enjoying the warmth that spread throughout his body from the heated liquid. "Yeah, Almus.. that would be good. I've wandered these halls a lot over the years, but its a lot nicer with someone to come along." A fragment of a smile ghosted the ebony haired youth's pierced lips as he gulped down the rest of his tea and moved to stand, pushing the chair out from behind him with a quiet shove.

As the male stood, he stretched out his limbs with an arching upper body, hands splayed and lifted to the ceiling before coming back down to his sides with a huff of breath, awaiting the Mage to lead the way.

[Shizuka Mizu]

That was all that was necessary. Standing up from the table, Almus didn't particularly have anywhere in mind. In fact, he hoped he'd stumble upon an area he hadn't yet explored.
It didn't take but a moment to find the gardens again, thorugh which his walking became much more of a mowsey. His footfalls hardly making any noise against the grass were quite few and far between with the pace he was walking at, enjoying the night air as he was beforehand. There was a lamp post nearby that they had passed on their way toward what looked like a fountain surrounded by more hedges. This looked like a common area for people to gather to enjoy the outdoors; he noticed benches occasionally placed along the outer area, which seemed to confirm his thoughts. A soft breeze played by the pair of them. "So tell me about yourself," he started, actually really disliking this as a conversation starter himself. "I realize that, despite having been around you for most of the time that I was here previously, I know next to nothing about you. So I'd like to know."
Despite that he hadn't really helped his dislike about the way he initiated this conversation, he didn't bother to elaborate any further.

[Renegade Proxy]

Displaced air created a tempest as the fires faded, great rends tearing through the Cathedral's walls and floor. Enemies distracted by the assault He rushed for His fallen blade glittering across the room. Groans of protest echoed through the sudden silence that fell, many of the supports torn away by the bombardment of cosmic forces. His weapon had landed with its razor expanse embedded in black crystal that cracked like glass as He tore it free.
"Fools."
His battle was no longer with either Cloud or Kujaku. Golden eyes ran along new-made fissures growing ever larger as weight from the Alcazar above became too much for what pillars remained. Of their own volition they had begun to crack, one shattering in an explosion of obsidian shards. Good, only seconds remained. Raising the weapon, pale energy ran down its length, curling upon itself in a phantom flow. Four pillars, the swing of His sword reducing them to three. Groans became shrieks as the ceiling began to crumble.
"I will have My way."
Slow steps carried Him across the expanse, bits of stone kicked clattering away. He walked until He stood framed by the statue's arms, glancing first up at it, an eternal moment, before turning to regard the others. White hair billowed in the wind kicked up by cascading debris, the tails of His tattered coat whipping like raven's wings. Turning His blade in hand the Being thrust it deep into the floor. Freed, His hand ran down the ruined expanse of His right arm, pausing, fingers curling around then ripping free from its socket the brooding black stone that served as its centerpiece. A smirk, a small laugh as He lifted it for show then flung with all His might straight for the blonde.
Then all gave way in a rain of weighted black that buried Him without a trace.

[Sutoraifu Cloud]

"Wait-!"

The word comes unbidden, prying Cloud's mouth apart and leaping out with the abruptness that disquiets the air. Sudden start forward as if to run. But in the next instant, Wulfgar is gone, replaced with a tumble of brackish rock and rising dust, and the small glint of an object flung through the air...

Don't let it-

Motion in the span of a heartbeat, Cloud's makou-tainted eyes wide and focused upon the hurling orb of black, smooth porcelain that he lurches for, one hand opening wide, fingers curving around. Ensnaring. Something rears back, kicks him in the head, and a cacophany of screaming echos and picture flood through his head. I could do most anything to you

"A..Ah.."

Collapsing to one knee, Cloud hits the floor hard, a shock of pain springing up his femur, rocketing up to his brain where the nerves fire their despair. And there is too much, gnarled and tangling, flickering with the blip of conscious shutter. Kujaku somewhere above in the falling not-sky. Rocks of black descending with thunderous clamour to the shattering ground, obsidian churning in a sea of discord. Cloud staggers up to his feet with the sharp slide of blade across the floor, the black orb still clutched tight within the cage of his fingers, white knuckles and shaking tremour of muscle wound too tight. Searches for the glimmer of silver. A rock could cleave Kujaku down, hew him to the ground with the weight of shattered bone and wing, and Cloud tries to think straight, beyond the murmur of something, like yelling beneath water, that is trying to break through.

"..Kujaku..!" Cloud yells, note of panic and desperation, though his voice is low and weak to his ears that are submerged, so that all the sound is muddled and dull. He blinks heavy eyes, backs up with a stumble of footing. A large piece of jagged ceiling falls in his abesnce of place, cracking ground and sending a spray of small pebbles into the air that's already thick with dust and rubble. And for the briefest instant, Cloud's gaze strays to where Wulfgar had vanished, urge licking up in a minute flame of notion. Dig Him out, try to save Him. Why..? ...I can't.

[~^xKujaku Silverdragonx^~]

As Wulfgar cut through pillars, supporting beams keeping the Alcazar, HIS Alcazar together, the screams and wails of beasts and apparitions, it was all the Siren could do to keep focused on the task at hand; being sure the blonde wasn't losing health too fast, and making sure Wulfgar didn't do what Kujaku figured he would.

And that was the last straw.

Hunks and shards of blackened crystal fall all around him, smashing into fragments which, as they were still containing minute amounts of LifeStream, became something of a putrid sludge, smothering and stagnant. He could feel every break.. every crack.. smacked by falling debris, some jagged and sharp enough to bruise.

Kujaku felt a surge of emotion come roiling into his skull like a white hot miasma, the sea of green about his knife's edge pupils slowly drawing out of the center skittering lines of ebony like tendrils of darkness. With a tremendous yell and a massive pulse of energy, the Siren stretched out both arms as his wings followed suit, the perimeter of his body surrounded by a green glow that grew out from him at an exponential rate. "YOU WILL NOT DESTROY THIS PLACE, WULFGAR!! DO YOU HEAR ME!?" The scream that ripped from the silvette's throat was terrifying in its level of cacophony, cutting through all other noise in the room like a supersonic jet. "THIS IS MINE! AND YOU WON'T TAKE IT FROM ME!!"

With a sudden pulse that radiated out from the Siren's body all the way to the edges of the crumbling chasm, each and every piece of broken crystal halted its path to the floor below, along with the shaking and breaking of the walls and ceiling, as if zero gravity had just taken place. Everything glowed with the same color as Kujaku's aura, suspended in thin air with the awesome strength of the Silver Siren's telepathic abilities backed by the sheer force of will and emotions.

And just as quick as it happened, a massive thrust of energies sent all the debris in the room flying in a rush towards the shroud of quickly solidifying crystalline pile that had buried Wulfgar, smashing into it it with extreme force, creating a giant mountain that grew to the cracking ceiling. Flickering white and green lights moved outwards from the Siren and soon attached themselves to the walls and ceiling of the cavern, moving in wave after wave of pure energies, the silvette's hair standing out and around him like a spidery, gossamer curtain suspended, wings fully extended thirty feet wide and pinioned. Before long a complete change took place, what was once black and putrid now flexed upward into the brightest emerald and jade, the LifeStream coming back to the Cathedral of Night, pulsing like new blood in Planet veins.

The look on the Siren's face was rapt, eyes half mast as the strength and aura flowed out of him and into the surrounding areas with Life and Light. The place where Wulfgar was burried swarmed and rose into one massive pillar-shaped mountain dominating the main area before it too was swallowed up and into the walls and bowels of the Alcazar, becoming a part of it's immortal structure as the liquid Life flowed over and down, creating a second Lake for itself, fueled eternally by a waterfall cascading from the pillar's new pinnacle.

Cloud was now currently residing at it's bank, all memories and mementos of darkness completely gone, banished by the power of the Emerald Alcazar's Master. With a sudden inhale of breath, the spell was broken.. and the silvette dropped from above, landing with a resounding splash in the newly formed lake full of the Planet's Life, sending glittering droplets cascading in all directions like green diamonds.

[Sutoraifu Cloud]

The change is a wave that tumbles over him, sweeping the chaos out to some unseen sea. The quiet that follows, broken only by the splash of cascading waterfall, is gentle, and Cloud blinks owlishly, giving a small shake of his head to banish what's left of clotted thought. Clarity blooming in a brilliance as water sloshes about near his feet. Nothing left of the jagged black nightmare that Wulfgar had resided in once before. Flourshing, jaded green, a soothing murmur at the back of his skull.

Cloud shifts, suddenly aware with attention, snapping out of his stupor with a flare of distraught desperation widening his lambent eyes. Thoughts of Wulfgar submerging with the motion of slipping the black stone into a pocket of his pants. He banishes his sword with a sparkle of light and effervescent green. Turns and jumps.

There is a splash, water twinkling in a glitter of crystaline light, as Cloud lands in the water; he sloshes at a slowed run, the new found lake churning up with the turbulence of his legs moving, dragging at his clothes and weighting his boots into sodden blocks of lead. He can't grab much purchase, and soon the wet has crept up to his thighs, drawing out the carmine stains. It bleeds away into the glassy-blue, in snaking tendrils as Cloud continues to move, gaze set on where Kujaku had fallen in.

"Kujaku!"

Cloud's voice is searching, hefting with it an undertone of slight panic. Don't be hurt, don't be dead.. a mantra that rolls about, repeating in his head.

[~^xKujaku Silverdragonx^~]

Somewhere far away, the blonde's voice could be heard... calling his name. Sound was muted... quiet and deep.. resonance. The sounds of Life... of Souls... of Peace.

And Kujaku was at peace.

All around him the LifeStream flowed... and it flowed through him as well, healing the cuts and bruises caused by the falling crystal and Wulfgar's weapon, skin and flesh mending again to smooth perfection. The Being was completely encased in layer upon layer of crystallized LifeStream, no chance of escape... not while Kujaku remained in the Alcazar and the Cycle of Souls continued..

Moments passed which, to the Siren, felt like hours in soft serenity. When Cloud called for him again, emerald glowing orbs softly opened, their pupils back to normal cat's eyes once more, the darkness fully dispersed. Through the rippling jade waters, Kujaku saw the other moving towards him, sloshing about though slightly warm LifeStream to find him, fully submerged in a shallow portion. Wings still out, as of course there had been no time nor instance to draw them back in, the Silver Siren looked like a fallen angel beneath the surface of glittering waters, hair splayed out about him like a halo of silver strands.

He smiled.. and held out a hand towards Cloud, waiting for him to come.