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 Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:53 pm
It was dark in the manor where the young girl crept along the wall. She was after one thing... The last thing. The guardian of this house held it somewhere. Mika knew that at this moment, all of the residents of this town were having fun at their little anniversary party. For some reason, Granny had sent her in alone. She had been given the whereabouts of the last item by her grandmother. She reached the door to the library and slipped inside. She looked around, seeing no one. "Perfect." She muttered. She began sneaking to the back of the library. She rounded a corner, which brought her closer to the corridor she wished to find.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:20 pm
The Druid sat in a remote corner of the library, pouring every bit of energy into the book he was reading. His weakness during Easter was intolerable, and would, in his eyes, never happen again. So, here he was, at another day-long study session, trying his hardest to improve.
The boy was sitting on a table, a cushion from a nearby chair under the boy. To his right was a Heal Staff, the one he'd replaced after the end of Easter. To his left, the Fenrir tome, and a textbook detailing how to further manipulate the flow of magickal energies while spellcasting. While the boy hazily remembered bits and pieces of things from that month, he was sure that the Erebus tome lying in front of him was far more than a simple tome, its movements as if it had a mind of its own, linked with the Druid's. This was further supported by evidence showing that, at the moment when he regained control, Rei was able to pull a large, phantasmal scorpion from the depths of the Apocalypse.
The untapped power of this tome, and the rudimentary Dark Tome, could be limitless. Even this possibility compelled Rei to spend days on end in the remote, secluded library. Bringing hands to rub his eyes, Rei let out a small shudder, as if a chill had passed down his spine.
"No. Even if it's just the wind, I can't afford illness..." Taking the Heal Staff in hand, Rei calmed his breathing, letting the energy wash over him as his body was refreshed, like a good night's sleep.
Click. Click.
Rei's muscles tensed, a faint noise breaking the silence of his studies. As he looked down a near corridor, the echoes became louder and louder. They know not to interrupt my studies. And there's a front door, too...
Rei took the Fenrir tome, opening it to an unmarred page. As his fingers slid across the page, a dark energy came around the Druid's hand. As he closed his eyes, he rose his hand above his face, listening closely to his surroundings. At the moment that he pinpointed the direction, he pointed a finger towards the corner.
A small stream of dark flame erupted from his finger, dimly lighting the area as it streamed to the corner. Once it reached its location, it instantly dissipated.
"...Whoever you are, you're not alone."
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:28 pm
As the light had shot off, Mika nearly jumped out of her skin. Impossible! Everyone was supposed to be at the festival, her granny said so! Once she had realized it was a druid, she quietly backed herself against the wall, held up her staff and muttered a word. It lit up with a purple flash of light. She squinted. "Don't attack!" She said. She recognized this boy. Rex... Rodney... Rei! The memories she had consciously suppressed came flooding back to her when she remembered his name. Alihi. Madriana was going to kill her. Her sister had been causing so much havoc. She had been so cruel. They had practically split the city in half between who sided with Madriana, out of fear or whatever, and who still wanted to fight her off. That's why she turned to the citizens of Eyris. That's why she had decided to help this boy save Alihi. She and Rei were friends once.
She held her staff closer to her face. She had to think fast. She did. "Rei, it's me!" She said, hesitantly coming a little closer out of the darkness.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:57 pm
As the Druid head rustling from where the flame has dissipated, he grasped the Fenrir tome tightly, preparing to cast another spell. The pages flipped themselves to an area still brimming with energy, the eldritch words pulsating with purple light.
As another faint purple light emanated in the distance, Rei prepared for a fight. Purple light meant, almost without a doubt, Elder Magic. And, as Rei knew, the only other Shaman, Druid, or similar person was Bramimond, one of the Elibean Heroes. But, not only would he creep up behind Rei, if only for amusement, but he was hardly ever seen anymore. The only explanation in the boy's mind: danger.
The face revealed by the amethyst light was, especially to Rei, a shock. Mika, the bright, happy girl from October, had returned. After disappearing without a trace those months back, Rei found it odd, at least, that she'd randomly appear, and not give anyone so much as a hello.
But, as the boy knew, people can be left to their own devices, and still plan something. Maybe she was just planning to greet everyone, and was looking for them? ...No, the festival is too hard to miss... Maybe she came from The Door again?
"Mika? Is that you? What in heaven's name are you doing here, instead of at the festival?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:16 pm
Mika knew that she couldn't let Rei find out what she was after. Of course, Rei had a hand in killing her sister and her grandmother. He can't be trusted, she thought. I can't let him or anyone else involved get away with it. Mika had once believed Rei and the others to be friends. They had come back from behind the door to tell her that her grandmother killed her sister and then... exploded. They were liars. In Mika's eyes they were all better off dead, and Loki was going to help her make it that way. She was going to just come in, grab what she needed and leave. Now, however, Rei knew she was here. And that meant that he will undoubtedly tell the others and they will make a plot to kill her. I have to stop this. I'll take care of him here.
"Festival?" She inquired innocently. "Rei... I only just got back. I didn't know there was a festival going on. Aren't you supposed to be out at that party too, then?" She walked began walking toward him. "It's really... nice... To see you again. It's been nearly seven months, right? You look a lot stronger. You've been training. I've been training too. I got an amazing teacher who helped me release my inner power... I'm sure if my sister were here, she'd be proud of me. But she's not here. Is she, Rei? And that's not really my poor granny's fault, is it Rei?" She walked right up to him, her face solemn, her voice rising with anger. "Is it... Rei?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:32 pm
There was surely a hint of... of... something in Mika's voice. It wasn't good, for sure. It was almost insinuating that...
No, that couldn't be. She knew what her sister was doing, how wrong it was, and that she was killed by an entirely different entity than what was being implied. Now, some misinformation happens, of course, but the real spark here is that...
She actually seemed to be calling him responsible for Madriana's death.
"Mika, is everything okay with you? Did you hit your head or something?" Rei motioned to a chair, trying to make her sit down, calm down, compose herself. "We both know that Madriana was dead on the floor from your grandmother. If we'd killed her, I'd have told you."
He stretched his arm, collecting his textbooks and tomes from the table, taking them into his robe. Placing them in a pocket inside of the cloak, the boy cautiously pulled out the Erebus tome, concealing it inside the Fenrir tome, making it effectively hidden from the girl's eyes as he held the book's contents towards himself..
"Your grandmother tried to kill us. She turned into a colossal demon and everything! Would all of us lie? Every single one?" Rei looked at Mika again, as she grew ever closer. He flexed his fingers, making sure that his grip would not slip should the need arise. "Including her grandchildren, Ninian and Nils! They were both there, and would have no reason to kill their own grandmother without provocation."
Rei was lost, confounded at Mika's shift in demeanor, her... maturity. She seemed... older, more capable, able to care for herself. Maybe one who traveled through The Door was given some... mental side-effects? It was then that something dawned on him.
"You said you were training with a tutor. Who was it that taught you whatever more you've learned?" Rei skeptically looked at the girl, her clothing a bit... different, especially for an honorable soul like herself. "Did he tell you something about your grandmother? About how she came across that... that... power? The timeless body, the ability to transform into a fearsome demon...
Maybe that being has no blood relation to you, but found something vital about its existence?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:50 pm
Mika glared at him. He was continuing his charade, apparently believing she was still naive enough to believe him. She inched her hand towards her side bag. "Rei, you don't understand. I know what happened. There's no way I'll believe anything you say after your terrible lies. By the way, my teacher had nothing to do with this. My granny told me everything, but that was after I left my teacher. Yes, that's right." While Rei was standing, stunned at what she had dared to say, Mika pulled something out of the side bag. A tome. Flux. Mika smirked. He would underestimate her. She closed the bag, leaving her second tome inside.
"Granny's alive and well. You failed, Rei. You all did. But you'll pay for what you did accomplish. You and everybody else in this pathetic, accursed world of yours. Now if you'll excuse me, I have something to do."
Suddenly, Mika made a mad dash towards the back of the library.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:05 pm
That monstrosity was alive? They didn't kill it back in October? ...what was that thing? The hair on the back of his neck stood on end, as if a winter wind swept down his spine. Before he could ask another question, she ran.
Mika, the girl from before, the meek, shy, upstanding girl, was running from an ally. Or, at least, a severed tie. As her footsteps echoed throughout the library, getting fainter and fainter, Rei's muscles tensed, his hands clenched on his tome.
"...Stop." Magical energy formed around the tome, pouring into rivers that swept into the library. "Flames of Hell, char this girl, and hinder her escape! Fenrir!"
The rivers shot into the air, in each corner of the room, and at both entrances to each row of bookcases. As the liquid hovered into the air, it erupted into flame, slightly charring the wood and books around them.
"I refuse to let you leave here, if you're our enemy."
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:11 pm
Mika whirled around and ripped out her flux tome. "And you plan to stop me? Is that a challenge? Flux!" Rei may have expected the girl to pull a small amount of dark energy from the ground and hurl it in his direction. But what happened instead was this. Darkness enveloped her feet. She pulled a gigantic mass of dark energy from the ground, and energy flew all over the place in what seemed to be an uncontrolled manner. She lifted the mass of energy she had and sent it flying for Rei. The small energies around her began to snuff out the flames from his Fenrir spell one by one.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:25 pm
While it looked like Mika had gotten wittier over these last months, Rei figured that her spells would be no different: an improvement. The magic from the girl had quickly doused the flames, making the escape possible again.
Rei smiled a bit, surprised that she was creative enough to diffuse his attack so simply. But, his marvel was shattered as he barely saw a mass of energy hurtling towards him. Moving quickly, Rei slid the Erebus tome out from the Fenrir, using the Fenrir tome as a makeshift shield from the energy.
At the collision, a small purple energy sparked from the tome as it disappeared into nothingness, the sparks leaving small burns on Rei's hands and face.
"...You've gotten stronger, I see. If you wish to 'challenge' me, then let's see who is the better: a self-taught, or one with the tutelage you've received."
As the Fenrir tome's dust fell to the ground, Rei quickly pointed a hand at Mika, the Erebus tome glowing from cover to cover with energy.
"O benevolent spirit of darkness, crush the threads of this girl's life!" A dark cloud formed around his feet, expanding to fill the immediate area, passing Mika's legs in a blink of an eye. "Erebus!"
Tendrils of darkness shot from the fog, growing large spines as they reached a suitable length. One near Rei began thrashing about, as if with anger, and toppled the nearby bookcase, setting off the stereotypical falling-bookcase-chain-reaction, the path of destruction heading right towards Mika.
"No mercy, deluded girl."
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:36 pm
Mika stared, unbelieving at Rei. She'd never seen that spell before. She had something up her sleeve too. She tumbled out of the way of the bookshelves, but missed something critical... the bottom of her skirt had been caught under the bookshelf. "Aah!" She yelled. "Clever." She reached into her bag again, pulling out a treacherous looking tome. "No mercy from you, no mercy from me. Die!" She began to recite the words from the tome ominously. The darkness spread everywhere, enveloping the entirety of the library. The two of them stood bright against the darkness, which crackled with purple lightening at random.
Mika's entire body began to glow that same purple color. She thrust out her hand. "Rei," She said, her voice echoing. "See if you can counter this!! HELL!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Fire encircled her hand and grew, then shot, swirling, at Rei. As it approached him rapidly, it took the shape of a massive snake, it's jaws wide, ready to consume him whole.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:54 pm
A snake? What?!? Rei braced himself, incredulous at this tome. It didn't seem homemade, so maybe it was just obscure? The snake's maw thrashed through the air as it raced, the mouth snapping and tongue flickering. The pure power put into turning it into a physical shape was tremendous, something that Rei only accomplished through the nature of the tome.
As Rei merely chuckled, tendrils shot from the ground, holding back the serpent's advance. But, the advance persisted, if slowed, regardless of the spines that were sprouting and the firm rooting to the ground.
With a feral roar, the snake pushed forward in a final charge, mouth held closed by the tendrils. Rei's braced stance did little to lessen the impact, the snake's force knocking the boy feet back, his body skidding across the ground.
His vision became hazy, his body went limp. No... I refuse to let myself... go... like this... His eyelids began to flutter as he struggled to keep consciousness. I've failed... again...
His eyes shut, his body lay motionless amongst the debris as the tendrils receded into the floor, their existence unnoticeable.
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 4:11 pm
Mika smiled. The darkness faded and she pulled her skirt from the bookcase. She walked over to Rei and looked down at him. "He can stay here for a while." She pulled him towards the wall, then made her way to the corridor of books her grandmother had told her about. She muttered a spell at a certain wall, which disappeared revealing a long dark staircase. She descended the staircase then she made her way down a long hallway.
When she once again exited the room, she had in her hands an intricate tome... It was called Espinne. "Finally. I have it." She smiled to herself. "And I have him." She came back to where Rei was, and grabbed his cloak. She then warped to the area where the door is, and left through it.
When she came out, Rei in Tow, she was at the mouth of that cave again. "Loki! Loki!" She called as loudly as she could manage. "I did it! I have it! And I need help... I took a prisoner..."
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 4:48 pm
Loki smiled, standing before the great, horrible statue once again. "It's lovely, isn't it, Synra?" he said, turning to face the morph. He had kept her close to him inside the mountain. Idle conversation, general babysitting. She had some food he had provided for her next to her where she sat on the floor.
"And now the time has nearly come. I shall paint it with their blood, I think, to bring strength and good fortune. What do you think? Perhaps I will burn their entrails before it." He smirked.
"Or perhaps it is too good for them." He turned, sweeping toward the young morph, and took her by the chin, lifting her face up to his, squeezing her cheeks and smiling as he stared into her eyes.
"And you," he cooed. "You who avoided me for so long... your part in all this is nearly--" He stood up straight. Someone was at the mouth of the cave. "Mika... Perfect." He turned and called, "Come in, then Mika! Bring the weapons, and the hostage!" He smiled, stepping back. "Indeed... it could not be more perfect..."
He paused after a long moment. Wait, why was he making her walk? That would take so long, and he couldn't bear to wait another second... these were the moments a Dark God lived for. He snapped his fingers and Mika materialized before him with Rei and the sack of assorted weapons.
"Welcome home," he said with a smile, stepping forward to embrace the young Arch-Druidess, kissing each cheek. "You have it all here? We are ready to begin?"
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Mysterious Shadowy Figure
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