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While backing up Fira tripped on the vines that tried to reach up and grab her, but she quickly stood up and threw the orb of fire towards them. Landing on the ground near her feet, the fire burned the vines. Quickly she turned and ran towards the airship.

"...I think we should go with the other human, it might be safer that way?..."

Kisaragi ran off inthe direction of the airship.

"...Good idea, nice ship by the way..."

Kyan could still not work out what all the commotion had been about but she decided to humour them and besides kisaragi was going too and she thought she should keep him company as he was almost alone now.

"Fine I will go in your airship for now but where are we going?"

Kyana hoped the others would somehow lead her to katrea.

Shinja winced in pain as the vines suddenly wrapped around his entire body, cutting off his vision as they covered his eyes.

Suddenly, he found himself in a place that only Maki had seen before...

"Where...am I?"

Shinja wiped his brow as he quickly jumped onto a nearby cliff to avoid the rising flow of lava. "This place..." He swiftly continued to jump higher and higher. "...this is where Maki was when I made the connection with her...but why am I here now?" With ease, Shinja shattered a large rock that fell from a higher cliff with a single punch.

"I'll tell you what you're doing here."

As he came to an abrupt halt, safe from the rising lava on one of the highest cliffs, Shinja gasped at who, or more importantly, what was talking to him.

"Darktail...so you really are the one causing all of this."

"Aww, looks like the Ancient isn't as dumb as I thought." The large Kitsune snickered as he slowly walked towards Shinja. Though there was no doubt that it was Darktail who appeared before him, it was certain that he was not completely corporeal, as he seemed to blink in-and-out of translucency. "So, Cetra...I see you're still trying to run from the past...and now that i've awoken your brother from his rest, your running will be even harder. You know, if you didn't have such a deathwish, I would kill you right now..."

Not wanting to hear another word, Shinja swung the Kusanagi blade straight at Darktail's neck.

Nothing happened.

"...shut up..."

The kitsune snickered again. "Oh, yes...I'd almost forgotten. You've gotten over your pain, and even your old love...you've even gone straight to a new girl...say, perhaps I should just kill her and watch you suffer? After all, she's got the same affliction as you do. I could do it right now...I could tear out her insides...and make you watch as I--"

"SHUT UP!!!"

Suddenly, the vines around Shinja seemed to be cut into pieces from random angles as they shot outwards in different directions. Shinja panted for air as he ran to the airship, quickly pushing everyone into the entrance room before hitting the emergency take-off switch.

"Hold on, everyone..."

Without warning, the massive airship violent shook for a few seconds before shooting into the air, its massive propellers destroying any other vines that were too close to it.

Shinja appeared fine as he leaned against one of the walls, his eyes set on Maki before he passed out.

After running on the airship, Fira was taken off guard when the ship suddenly jerked up into the air and lost her balance for a moment. She turned and looked outside one of the many windows watching as they flew higher up into the air. Then she looked back at the others, within the room.

Suddenly her mood changed to an uneasy look, there was one thing she feared was a crowded room or a small space. To her she felt caged within such a crowded space. Slowly she backed away and made her way out of the room and into a hallway. The hallway may have been a little smaller than the room the group was in, but it put her more at ease with her fear not being so crowed with so many.

Far from the prying eyes of the world, in an almost forgotten corner of the city...
...Tonnek Dor Mayne was enjoying the company of a young woman, a librarian for the castle and rather inexperienced at her job. Yet she did have an excellent memory for the occult section.

"So tell me once more my dear, how can you be certain that this tome will provide the means to break my chains?"
The gasping whimper that escaped the young womans lips seemed to provide some hidden meaning to the dark-haired man, his ghoulish pallor seemingly glowing in the semi-darkness of the bookshelves of the library.
"Is that so? Well that does pose an interesting question, one worth pondering I suppose, if you will excuse me for a brief moment"

Tonnek walked to the glass cabinet to examine the tome in question, his long, hooded coat awakening long dormant clouds of dust from the floor and shelves. He reached out his bandaged left hand for the engraved contours of the tome, instantly feeling the dark energy the book contained, the familiar stench of dark magic stinging his nostrils as smoke curled from the book where his hand had touched it.
"Oh, so you remember my kind after all do you? Well, that will save us from wasted introductions" He said as the reaction subsided, allowing him to secrete the book in a pocket on the inside of his coat.

Walking back to the librarian, Tonnek allowed himself a wicked grin as he caught sight of his sword embedded in her chest, pinning her to the stone wall behind her. His eyes seemed to flash with infernal delight as he saw the blood soaking her robes, the tears in her eyes as her unfocused gaze seemed to beg for a reason for his cruelty.

"Now, where were we? Ah yes, I was about to remove my sword from your chest, leaving you a few minutes to find a healer before you bleed to death"
A panic-stricken moan escaped the womans lips as he took a step forward.
"What do you mean i'm a monster? You dare question my sanity, you who has never lived beyond these walls?" His harsh voice echoed loudly as he found words that weren't there amidst her terror.
The woman, still unable to speak, could only shake her head as tears began to spill freely from her eyes.

Tonnek frowned as he interpreted her gasps and whimpers once more, running his fingers through his hair as he turned his eyes on the woman "Well I suppose it is a small sign of mental deviancy that i'm projecting my internal monologue onto you, my conscience attempting to stop me before I do anything that can't be forgiven perhaps?"
At this, he stepped towards the woman, reaching out and stroking her hair as he pondered her suddenly hopeful gaze, locking his cold, blue eyes onto hers.
He smiled an irascibly warm smile as she started to cry tears of relief, sobbing into his shoulder as he spoke into her ear "Or perhaps I just really enjoy playing with peoples minds, pulling their strings and pushing their buttons hmmm?"
The womans eyes flew open as his words suddenly registered in her traumatised mind, just as his hand, adorned with shadowy claws, tore out her throat.

As the spray of crimson fluid spattered over the walls and the books, the woman couldn't even scream as her gasping, writhing agony reached it's climax and her head sank, robbed of all signs of animation.
Tonnek inspected the handful of meat and tissue he held in his clawed hand, the shadows receding so his hand was left in it's original state and he felt the warmth of the blood oozing through his fingertips. He tossed it aside with a sniff of disgust as he pulled his sword free from the lifeless husk pinned to the wall, the once pretty form of the young woman falling to the floor with a hollow thud.
Turning his back on the horrific scene, he smiled serenely to himself as he walked to the door, his coat billowing around him as he drew his hood about his face once more, turning once he had reached the doorway to inspect his macabre craftsmanship, he offered his whisper to the lifeless form at the end of the bookshelves.
"Hope really is the ultimate deception, so fleeting, so utterly worthless" he said, a disgusted sneer fading into a cold, cruel smile as he finished his train of thought "But it never ceases to be an excellent form of entertainment".

He turned, walking through the stone arch of the library, his footsteps making no sound as he faded from the castle grounds like the life had faded from the nameless woman, a horrific monument to be discovered by the extra staff in a matter of hours.
They would never know what had transpired to cause such a dark fate to befall one so young...