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"So those people in particular don't want us dead. Yet. I wish we could kill them, or at the very least incapacitate them, but there doesn't seem to be any good way to do that without risking our lives unnecessarily. That being the case, let's send two people around on the trap route to scout it out and the other two straight through the danger zone; Sindhlot, I guess, make your own choice; I don't know where you'd prefer to be. We've exhausted the other viable options- the only one left is to let the situation mold itself."


Siber immediately regretted making that particular complaint.

((Veeeeeeenom... is our little party of angry iPod magicians gonna go anywhere?))

((You know what... feh. I don't want to keep you guys waiting. They'll arrive within a real-time hour of this post.))

((Really, I just got tired of nothing happening. It's getting slow.))

After extensive planning and plotting, for all the good it did them... Legion's group rendezvoused successfully just outside the hotel, uneventfully. They began to prepare for their entrance, but Sindhlot was conspicuously absent.

~~

"Almost there," Alan informed them. "Scouts say they beat us there but haven't extracted him yet. Let the professionals lead, and you'll back us up. I'm going to be the primary attacker, mainly because I can Stride."

"What's Striding?" asked Linda, assuming correctly that it was a magical term.

"It's the ability to pass freely through obstacles for an extended period of time, carrying anything with me. It basically allows me to ignore the existence of anything I don't want to have obstructing me. It also makes bullets and the like pass through me." He smiled. "I'm quite proud of it; it took me twenty-seven years to get it to a workable level, and another six to perfect it. I have to regulate my food intake to keep my body mass within a certain level for which my magic works best with it."

((So, I realized recently that unfortunately, I don't have time for this. Therefore, I'm going to kill my character in my next post- unless, Venom, you'd prefer to do it yourself, but I came up with a plan for it, so I'd rather be the instigator.))

((Here's a thought; I'll set something up so if I'm not so pressed for time later, I can come back in- it'll depend on the result of something Siber tries. Here we go- bye all, I've had fun!))

Siber couldn't stand it anymore, and he was quickly winding down. He needed to talk with his dæmons, and he needed to do it alone. Without warning, he quickly copied the magic he had seen Erik using, shimmered, and vanished, to appear about a block away in the deep shadows of an old alley.
"Firage. Razier. Pathelios." The first two, the hound and griffin, shimmered into existence. Siber rolled his eyes, and his gut clenched when black spots appeared before them just because of that. He was losing energy by the second, and that spell hadn't helped the situation. "Leo! I don't have time for this, and I'm trying to do you a favor!" The squirrel, a bit irate, also appeared. Siber quickly made amends with Razier for the nature of the first time he had summoned the creature, and she was willing to forgive.
He explained the situation to them as expediously as possible. Over the past few hours, he had spent far more energy than he had ever suspected he even had to expend, and it had worn on him, body and soul. He was dying, much as Keldan refused to admit it. The backfire from his earlier summoning fiasco, even with Sindhlot's preventative aid, had sent him very close to death and he had had insufficient time to regain any significant amount of vitality.



what?!! No! You can't do it!>

Siber actually did feel a little bad about what he was about to do- his final act was going to be to present both strangers and people he knew with ridiculous moral and ethical dillemas. Hopefully. They might just dismiss it all.

he yelled desperately, but he knew the truth.



Keldan sighed in damnable frustration, scared out of his wits.

He broke, furious. A long and complex string of notes appeared before Siber's mind's eye- Incantatis Infernis 7. This was for Sahasrara, the "thousand-petaled" chakra. It symbolized intellect, electricity, enlightenment, and release.
"You three will need to help me." Siber sat down heavily against a wall, nearly unable to hold his eyes open. It had come on fast, after using the Chameleonic. He had little time. "What this should do is bind me and a seventh-level dæmon to this-" he held up his silver shark-tooth necklace- "and release the three of you." They gasped. He had judged correctly- free travel between Hell and Earth was a prized possession. "Firage, go aid the others after this." Those others would identify him with his summoner. "Razier, I need you to fly this to the Hunters and then stay with them for a while. They'll determine how best to use it. Leo, I want you to keep it safe. Don't let yourself be seen except when it's necessary; just make sure it is not destroyed. If that means helping the Hunters and any Warlocks with them, do it. Let Legion's human minions see you, if you want. Razier, you're not bound to this world like they are- you will have less power, but you won't have to keep anything like these-" he took out the cross and coin- "With you." He tossed them to their respective summons, who swallowed them.
The others nodded in comprehension. It would be easy to see the necklace, if one looked with the inner eye, in the Hunters' hands. But Siber's dæmons would have put it there. And putting both Razier and Firage on Legion's side would just screw up the whole paradigm of what Siber was and where his allegiance lay. He laughed. His only regret was the loss of his potential pupils, teachers, and companions, but that wasn't altogether pressing compared to the situation at hand.
Softly, he began to sing, and Keldan grudgingly accompanied him. By this time, his eyes were completely closed- he couldn't keep them open. The dæmons watched solemnly as he held the tooth tightly in his hand, cutting his own skin deeply. The song accelerated and crescendoed, gaining overtones, rhythmically cutting the youth's throat until finally, bending on his knees, he screamed the words "INFERNUM LIBERATI AD ETERNUM!! The sound echoed across the city, resonating and loudening as it went.
Energy exploded out of him, energy niether he nor Keldan had, energy which would find a source whether it had to use chi, neural impulses, or human flesh. Siber's world detonated in a haze of blood and chaotic images, and then everything faded to an oblivion deeper than Hell itself.

Leo, Razier, and Firage glanced around for a moment, uncoiling after they had flinched away from the maelstrom. They should have rebounded back into the Pit, but they hadn't- so if nothing else, they were free. The rodent hesitantly snatched the bloody necklace, which hummed with the energy of the dæmon tied to it, and climbed on Razier's back. They made awkward farewells, and walked or flew to their destinations.

"No," Sindhlot muttered. His shadowy form twisted from a dark corner in some place or another. He felt a shockwave, a ripple of the Three Realms: Reality, Unreality, and the magic realm known as Crossover. Screams howled in his mind. "What has he gone and...." as he shifted into the source of the blast, he realized what had happened, and howled.

"That idiot!" he roared when he had vented with his howling. This had to be reported to Legion immediately. Away he Shadowstepped...