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The Shadow Lord’s smirk broadened slightly as he felt his blade make contact, cleaving through the invisible force. He watched, focused as the entity revealed themselves. The Nightmare wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but it hadn’t been this. An Organization Cloak hid all other clothing. As the hood fell backward he gazed into the glimmering eyes of his enemy. For the briefest of moments he listened to The Broker surmise what had happened that their enemy had been able to see him.

”So much for your seeming omnipotence. You didn’t see that one coming did you…?” The Shadow Lord stated with a chuckle.

However, any sign of amusement completely left as the Broker suddenly became not one but three. They all took a defensive stance, blades held firmly between themselves and the Man turning Demon. His lip curled upward in a snarl at their comment though immediately after it turned into a look of discomfort as he felt the affects of their spell. His network of power recoiling under whatever it was they were doing. This did not dissuade him though, rather it only made him more aggressive. He dashed forward in a blur of motion, separating his sword into two, one in each hand as he did. As he stopped before the middle Broker his right hand struck from the side while his left attempted to strike at the opening that might present itself. He was unsure of what the other Broker’s might do, unsure if they were illusions or actual beings. He would have to wait and see.

Sayrike and Luke took the last few plates back into the main room, though it looked like the population had tripled as Earthlings filed in. Feather's booming voice and liveliness had apparently drawn a fair number of people from their rooms and into this common area. As they bent down to set down the plates, Sayrike could hear Luke's humming. "It's...Luke, right? We haven't gotten much of a chance to talk." She offered a smile. "Sayrike. It's an unusual name I pi-- I know, so I thought I'd mention it again, just in case. What's the song you're humming, by the way?"

Sayrike's stomach quietly grumbled, but she didn't know when people would start eating, or if Feather would give a signal or something.

The small Nobody remained silent as Adam recorded his message for the fellow 'Rebels', as good of a title as anything for the barely formed group. Although Ezra made no noise vocally, they gently swung their feet from their seat atop of the castle's parapet bordering the alter. Their indigo eyes followed Adam's every movement as he recorded, occasionally glancing at the Daj made specifically for the Nobody before refocusing on their liege once again. Once Adam had completed his recording and sent it off to his new allies, the Nobody hopped down from their perch and approached the Freelancer with a flat expression.

"Are we to be expecting guests, sir?" The Nobody asked, giving a small huff of air. They seemed slightly bored, yet slightly intrigued at the possibility of who would be arriving at the castle, if anything.

"More than likely. Don't know if they'll respond, but I'm expecting people to be stopping by, at least." Adam shrugs, looking to Ezra and adds, "Would you be willing to train with them if they did show up?"

Ezra blinked, as if confused by the question. "If that is what you would want, I have no issue training with them." They paused. "Although I have no idea of their appearance or names, so I would need that so I do not accidentally eliminate them on sight when they arrive." Their face remained mostly stoic, but upon closer inspection, one might notice a tiny start of a smirk forming. As soon as it appeared however, it vanished and the Nobody returned to a neutral facial expression.

The Freelancer gave a nonchalant wave of the hand, "Daj will show you projections of them. In the meantime, I'm going to go prepare the datascape for their arrival." Adam began walking, and after a few steps, his body broke down into gold dust and vanished.

Ezra remained still for a long moment, staring at where Adam once stood and scratched the side of their head as if trying to comprehend Adam's vanishing. Is that what it looks like when we teleport? So odd, so very odd... The Nobody thought to themselves before attempting to do the same. One step, two steps, and the Nobody began disappearing from view, shifting into a thick black fog before vanishing entirely from the alter.

[ The Garden :: Front Gate ]

The Nobody reappeared, their form shifting from the black fog to a thick black ichor then finally to their full form. The child glanced around, their personal Ghost floating overhead. Ezra hummed, then looked to the small robot floating over head and stared calmly at it.

"Daj, can I see names and appearances of everyone of the Rebels? And can you keep me notified if there are any responses? I would like to be able to properly welcome our guests when... or if they arrive."

Standing upon the large tower's platform, the young man stared out from the castle's peak. Below him stood an utterly barren world; over the past two days, his machines had dismantled every building, every brick, every piece of constructed material, consuming it into the datascape as raw matter-made-energy. Such matter then quickly went into the formation of new machines to increase the speed of their progress. Growth became exponential; indeed, the utter breaking down of the World That Never Was had been completed even before the end of the previous night. Afterward, they moved on to the next project: reformatting the castle, and increasing the efficiency of the system's use of the world's newly-formed magic ley lines.

In short, by taking advantage of the shattered world boundaries, Adam had put together perhaps the most powerful artificial system he could theorize--or could ask an all-knowing spirit to theorize, for that matter.

His gaze lifted from the desolate landscape to the sky. Above him stood the great monstrosity that was the World Convergence. All worlds made into one in a most chaotic, disorganized fashion. The World That Never Was, having had no heart, had not been included in the grand pull, though its spatial relation had anchored it within the amalgam's umbra all the same. Here the atypical world remained, in the shadow of all others, never seeing sunlight, only ever seeing the dark side of the Convergence.

He ran a hand through his hair, inhaling deeply, before turning around and strolling toward the center of the platform. At his approach, a light hiss filled the air as a small hole opened from the floor, allowing a mechanized pedestal to rise up to his waist's height. The pedestal's facade matched the rest of the castle's smooth, marble-like metallic nature, though many small grooves lined its form--some curved in twisting spirals, some rigid and angular. Resting in a small bowl atop the pedestal was a crystalline sphere, translucent and glowing a prismatic array of hues. From this sphere, light flowed through the grooves like energy through a circuit.

Adam allowed his fingers to lightly caress the sphere and pedestal as he walked around it, gazing into its depths. Hati would hopefully be joining him soon; he had called her to meet him here around this time. They had something important to discuss, though he had not told her what.

He imperceptibly shivered.

The Shadow Lord’s second strike landed, gliding through the form of the Broker Copy that he stuck and then it dissipated. Only for the two remaining to split now totaling four copies. He stood his ground, focused, his eyes scanning and catching the four sets of eyes as they passed. They continued to circle him slowly, keeping their distance. He could continue to strike them all he wanted, he had a feeling as long as one remained they would continue to split again. That was when the idea to hit them all at once came to him. Quickly he recombined his blades into one and began to charge a spell. Channeling the dark energy within him to form the spell. However, right as he was about to unleash it he felt a strange kink in his magical network. The spell did not fire, instead his whole body ceased up, his teeth clenched as he felt an intense burst of pain. However, the pain was not external, his opponent had not stopped circling around him as of yet. It was internal, the magical energy that he had attempted to unleashed burned inside him.

”So that is what you did… to me…,” He stated his breathing escaping in hisses as he glared daggers at his opponents.

{ ATE : Old Acquaintances, New Friends : 7}
{Ashley :~: Paris :~: Hati’s Mansion}

“I think I can handle snacks and juice,” Ashley let out a tiny chuckle.

“As for the Broker…,” Ashley paused, trying to frame her words carefully. “Yes I met the Broker. I had just bought an apartment for myself. Definitely not as great as this mansion of course. I had ordered a ‘pizza’ and there the Broker was. Telling me not to kill them and that they wanted to talk. It was weird if I were honest. They offered to give me what I was looking for which was a password to a computer I long wanted to crack and gain information, power, etc. I took the deal mainly for that and well… I asked about you.”

“I knew that I did something for you but then there was nothing,” Ashley looking perplexed. ”The Broker told me that the… old you never existed? Without as many words obviously. After I took the deal though I did what was asked and was told to come here and try teleportation.”

“As for ‘being part of the living’ and this new life?” Ashley thinks before speaking. “I feel… different. Like someone cleaned my glasses and I can see everything if that makes sense? Like I said. I felt a weird need of companionship. Before… I wanted to do everything on my own after I didn’t hear from you. I went nuts working on this project. Coding in front of my laptop nonstop.”

A small smirk graces the front of Ashley’s lips all of a sudden. “It is also kind of nice thinking about not having to fight hordes of heartless while trying to work on the computer I was trying to use far away.”

{ ATE : Old Acquaintances, New Friends : 9}
{Ashley :~: Paris :~: Hati’s Mansion}

Ashley took note of what Hati was saying and couldn’t help the smirk that fell over her lips. As the snacks arrived, Ashley casually stood from her chair and sat right next to Hati trying to look as innocent as possible. She grabbed a brownie carefully and poured herself a small amount of apple juice.

“What have I been up to?” Ashley spoke, smirking as she took a small sip of the apple juice. “Honestly, I visited Hallow Bastion for a while for that computer if you want me to be really specific. I tried to crack that stupid computer before the heartless showed up. Since then it has just been nonstop planning. Now… I am unsure. I got the password I needed but I am different now. Different person. I don’t have the skills I once had when I had the darkness. That…part of me fell away. I have new powers and a new weapon to boot. I just really don’t know how to use them. So I guess me going back to where I wanted to is out of the question.”

Ashley paused for a second to take a bite out of her brownie. “I did manage to find a place to live however. You should see that part of the world Hati. Technology everywhere. People battling small robots for cash and just…creating. I did need to destroy a lot of heartless there though in order to afford a laptop and an apartment. Kind of broke the bank on that.”