Welcome to Gaia! ::

The darkness of the void-like area surrounded Ryugi's form and for a short time, he felt himself rise up, as soft shimmers of falling "rain" fell around his form. The ground beneith his feet had turned into a shimmering disk of white light, and Ryugi felt his body grow lighter, seemingly drawn upwards by a kind and benevolent force. He closed his eyes and placed his hands out at his sides as he rose into the "air" the "ground" falling away from him. It was then that he felt as if he were falling, and yet not moving at all. And then, he felt a soft jerk, and the darkness was ripped away from him by an unseen force. Ryugi could feel wind on his face as he turned around, to then be face to face with a massive cloudbank...

The cool moisture of the cloud caressed his face, and made him smile as the air rushed past him. It was like he was flying, guided by some unforseen force... he couldn't remember the last time he'd been able to stretch his dragon's wings and fly through the skies, and this was surely a great pleasure indeed... And then, he finally broke out of the cloudbank, well over one thousand feet above the landscape, which turned out to be over the glorious blue calm of the ocean. And he was headed towards land from the sea. He could make out the ports, and in the distance... could it be? A stadium rose high above the city, almost overlooking it. Yes, it was. He was SURE of it. Leviathan Stadium...and that city, was Latent... Ryugi smiled, and then his face turned pale as he felt something else...



...Gravity...



Ryugi plummeted towards the open ocean as it seemed gravity had finally caught up with his free-floating form. Panicing, he began to flap his arms as he dropped, not willing to try and bring out his draconic wings for fear they'd get ripped to tatters if he even tried.

What the hell was that technique they tried to teach us in training!? Oh sweet god, I wish I'd have paid more attention!!

Ryugi's mind would fade back to a time when he was in fighting training that all young dragons went through, and back to a lesson about this very type of situation...

Master Hamma walked about the class, lecturing as usual. However, Ryugi was still too off in lala land after thinking about the adventure he'd had with his brother Ryudo just the other day. While he'd felt scared as all hell, those girls at the hot springs sure were cute.....

Now class. Today's question of the day is something we covered earlier this morning. Should you ever find yourself being hurled at a horde of monsters, THIS is what you must -- Oh, forgive me, wrong lecture! If you're ever caught falling towards the ground from an unspeakable height due to some strange circumstances, you must first adopt a propper free-falling position with your arms parrallel to the ground, as opposed to perpendic...

Ryugi! Are you even paying attention?!

Propper tree-mauling condition... Gotcha...



Damn my wasted youth!!

So Ryugi got to deal with more crazed flapping, lots of yelling the words, "Feather-Fall", and got to ponder how gravity works as it continued to pull him towards the open ocean at a rapid rate of speed. Clouds whizzed by, and a couple seagulls were startled as this man fell past them. Ryugi would continue to drop towards the open ocean and shore at a tremendous rate of speed as Ryugi let allows his clothes and scarf to billow outwards, slowing his descent...




It would be then that Ruuvan, D, and his new traveling partner would be forced to look up as a rather loud, yet somewhat familiar voice would be heard. Perhaps it wasn't the jeep's aerodynamic performance that they should be worrying about...

Look out BELOOOOOOOOOW!!!!!!

With a massive THUD and a large cloud of dust, everyone would be forced to close their eyes. And as Ruuvan and the others looked around, they would suddenly be minus one member of their party. After a brief look around, and a small gust of ocean breeze, a large crater would be seen where the black clad man had been standing moments before, and laying over the top of him would be a white-clad man with Silver hair, and red eyes, though red eyes would look QUITE dazed.

There wouldn't be any cause for alarm, both would be fine as Ryugi had managed to slow his descent by falling through several small light shields, and smaller detonations of energy. The black-clad man would only feel as though he'd just been hit by a rather large linebacker from the Latent Leviathans football team...

You can keep your tree-mauling condition...it hurts...

@_@

::You see the train of thought went something like this.

A soul can only be felt or touched by another living soul. Normally with nothing more than a thin shadow shell there was so little space Maximos could manage spirit touch, now with a whole body, he really wouldnt be able to so...if he couldnt pry it out with his bare hands how exactly was he going to --WTF?!

Cue explosion.

The look on Maximos's face was as close to " eek ", as humanly possible. Before he could even feel the fact that the wind had been knocked right out of his lungs, he was busy trying to figure out what the fleeb had just happened?!

Maximos remembered overhearing something about a rain in the forecast, but definately nothing about that rain being made of people! No...and while he was used to thinks being black, he wasnt used to the darkness being caused by something having flopped over his face.

In the end, the only logical responce his mouth could form was.::

WHAT THE FLEEB WAS THAT?!?

:: Meanwhile D, tugged Ruuvans hand and pointed at the crater saying.::

Did dat man wide de boat too?

Ryugi was still a bit dazed, and he wobbled a bit back and forth as he stood up, shaking his head to try and clear it. He heard the elf speak, and did his best to answer him.

Long fall...Ethereal Void... Shadow helped me out.

Ryugi blinked a few more times, then looked around quizzically.

Did I fall on someone?

Long fall? No s**t. Ethreal Void? A little too many of those around today. Shadow? Well that just made no sense, but it fit nicely into their plotted course and it was easy to see how these things would coincide.
"Yes, you did." Ruuvan nodded and pointed to Maximos, who was now up and shouting the same Arian obscenity as before, only this time adding more to his question.

"No, he fell from an Ethreal void." With a mildly sarcastic tone and a smile he replied to Max, shaking his head slightly, "Anything else like that we should know? Or just the whole void and shadow thing?"

::He didnt even realize he was bleeding. But the moment that name was spoken it didnt even matter.::

Ryugi!?

::He pulled back his hood, he had that trademark navy blue hair, and his rather odd set of eyes, the left being black and the right being white. But...it was Maximos none the less. A little worse for wear but Maximos none the less. And he had a somewhat dumbfounded look on his face.::

Ryugi --

::He reached out and grabbed his hand ever so briskly and shook::

Ryugi its been foreve---wait a minute!

::His hand stopped.::

Ryugi you have wings! Why were you falling!?

Max's mouth was moving, but Ryugi didn't hear what he was saying. He was simply dumbfounded... All sentient thought stopped in Ryugi's mind as the hood dropped off the man's head.

It....can't be...

Ryugi spoke quietly, almost lower than most humans could hear. His voice was hushed, awed, almost non-believing. He doubted and yet at the same time he wanted to believe that what he was seeing was truly real. That navy hair...the way he spoke...the mannerisms... But mostly it was...

T-That smile.... Maximos...? Is it...really you...?

Ryugi was silent for a moment before actually jumping over and hugging his friend, jumping up and down with juvenile excitement!!

Its you! It's really you!! You're alive!! I can't believe it!! It's really really you!! I thought I was never going to see you again!! I can't believe it's really you!!

Ruuvan had already stepped onto the boat as Ryugi performed the jumping hug, thus leaving him to watch the others scramble on board as the captain called out. It would most likely be a longer voyage, what with them being in the sea instead of in the air and having the tide possibly turning against them, but it'd be a pleasant journey nonetheless.

As soon as Ryugi stepped onto the ship, Ruu took a moment to introduce himself with a hand extended his way.
"Ruuvan Lassenger." A smile and a quick shake, done.

:: Maximos smiled looking back at his two friends meeting.::

Hey Ruu, Ryu, you two have fun, I have to take care of something really quick, I'll be back.

:: He turned and questioned one of the attendant as to wear his room was, got his key, and he was off. He walked through the doors and the halls with the widest smile on his face, as if he didnt have a care in the world...Nothing could have been farther from the truth. The bigger the smile, the bigger the secret.

He really didnt want his friends to worry...this wasnt their concern. From the moment he woke he could hear the all so familiar voices of the shadows calling his name, like Ryugi or Ruuvan, they had missed an old friend. But he was afraid, in the final moments of his life Nocturne was there...he revealed just how easily it had been for him to infiltrate Maximos through those very shadows...that couldnt happen this time.

The moment, the door to his room closed and locked, the smiled vanished from Maximos' face. He unbuttoned his hood and hung it on the door, leaving his black dress shirt, and black vest. One by one he undid both of those and laid them on the bed, leaving him barechested.

Silently the shadow warrior kneeled on the ground, biting the tip of his finger and using the blood to draw a lunoc circlet in the shadow of the bed. The shadow quivered and darkened before finally swirling around the runic array and activating, from the center of the array rose a brush, a wet black paintbrush.

Maximos took a deep breath, and began. He started by dabbing some of his blood on the end of the brush, mixing it with the shadowy liquid. He started at the center of his chest, and worked his way down his back controlling the brush mentally, followed by his stomach, then his shoulders, and the lower parts of his neck. Then he continued down his left arm, forming one rather large array. He close his eyes as the array began to spark and sting, using his blood as a key to seep into his blood stream, staining his body just slightly beneath the skin. The array, basically looked like a tattoo. A tattoo to keep prying shadows out of his body.

As a test, he swirled the shadow of a lamp around a bit, forming it into a ball, a cup, a plate, and then releasing it back to its home. His work was half done...

With a click he pulled the faux Nameless from his side and drew it placing it beside its sheath, gently on the floor. This was actually a blessing in disguise, the other body was too tightly bound to the soul, like this he could literally make himself one with the blade, but first he needed a way to touch the blades spirit...that would be tricky. He had to think on this one...::