Welcome to Gaia! ::

He had his arms around her. Hers, around him. Steam from the bath wove around them, his eyes closed as he breathed in her scent.

He was complete. Changed. Made better. Exactly how he wished to be, for himself and her. The months of sickness was like a bad dream that would be forgotten as easily as an argument over. Indeed, if one was cynical enough, they would think this was a dream come true...

...But they would only be half right.

"Hono'o..." He whispered into her ear, his voice soft and serene and final. "...You have been the best thing...the very best thing that has ever happened to me...my time spent with you has made me feel like the mightiest man in all of Gaia...every morning I woke up beside you, I knew would be a good day, no matter what happened. All throughout my illness, you stood by me and stayed with me...and even before we were together, you were one of my closest friends...Hono'o...you changed me, for the better...and I thank you from the deepest parts of my heart..."

His voice grew tight, as if he was trying to hold back tears. "Say...say goodbye to Sam for me...she's going to grow up to be a truly great woman....and don't be afraid to talk to Bren about anything....he's your son and he loves you...if you see Amelia and Adamus...tell them that I'm sorry they did not get to know their father....and if i was to still be here, that I would have tried very hard to at least be their friend..."

His arms tightened around her as he sucked in a breath, trying hard to compose himself as she would feel his lips brush against her ear. "Hono'o....baby-girl....I'll always love you....always and forever."

Silence, was what Ryugi would see, if indeed such a thing can be seen. There was a large central fountain at least twenty feet in diameter and four bright lamp posts were surrounding it, filling the area with a soft florescent glow. Around that was the pitch dark of night, as could be expected from any small town fast asleep.

The fountain was quiet, so quiet in fact that soft sound of Ryugi's boots landing on the pavement almost seemed thunderous. But no denizens of the small town seemed disturbed. For a moment or so, Ryugi was actually alone.

[Nalepa - Monday (The Glitch Mob Remix)]

And then came footsteps, soft and even as if to some unheard rhythm. A figure emerged from the darkness, dressed as inconspicuously as possible in that way was entirely recognizable. He wore a long black jacket with a hood pulled up over his head casting a shadow that blocked a view of the majority of his face who's right side lacked a certain signature white glow. Instead, small lines of red dotted his nose and cheeks.

It was Maximos as sure as could be, his left hand held a sheathed black katana, but his right hand was clutching his right side and it seemed that though his steps were purposeful he walked with a slight limp that favored his right side.

"I'm sorry to call you here so late." Maximos said, his voice low and firm, as if a certain amount of effort was being put into keeping it even. He smiled a small, strained smile. It should come as no surprise but only a few seconds after Maximos exited the shadows and stepped into the light the shadows themselves began to stir behind him. They writhed like a black mass, and then moved out into the light in tendrils and began to slowly and silently spread outward. Maximos didnt seem to notice or mind as they moved out stretched out around and behind him.

"But, I sure am glad to see you Ryugi." He said, and the shadows peeled up off the ground and swirled directly behind him like one growing mass.

"I'm afraid your the only one I cou --" And then the stately Shadow was cut off mid-sentence as the mass of black forming behind him came crashing down on him in what was most definitely, an attack. He had just enough time to whirl around and begin to draw his sword when the full weight of the shadowy arm crashed onto him, smashing him violently to the ground. Maximos let out a shout of pain, but before he could respond the very same arm was already wrapping itself around his foot and breaking off into smaller snakes to entwine his legs and creep up his torso all while beginning to hoist him off the ground and up into the air again.

It all happened fast, very fast. Too fast even, for the Shadow to defend. The only thing it seemed he had the time to do was reach his right hand out toward the ground and shout out. "Rise!"

As Ryugi could proudly expect the katana-esque blade that was Ankokuko leaped from the nearest natural pocket of black beneath a bench and toward its owner. Maximos snatched it out of the air, even as the massive black mass the width of a few tree trunks began careening downwards again to slam him into the ground again. Using the sword's summoning momentum, Maximos jerked to the side and broke into what could only be described as a whirling dervish. His body spun, then spun again leaving only flashes of steel in his way as he twist like a top in the air, flipping upside down before landing on his feet with a jet black blade in both hands and dashing off straight at Ryugi.

The entire encounter took the amount of time it would have taken Maximos to finish the next word in his previously interrupted sentence. But the violent shadows behind him did not give up so easily. Although cut they were already reforming, already racing after Max as he cried out with no small amount of desperation. "Ryugi light! Lots! NOW!"

It only took a few seconds for Maximos' spirited dash to degrade. His feet were very quickly no longer pounding away at eternity, but shaking, faltering. As Ryugi ripped the whole in the night as think and wide as all that could be seen, Maximos' legs betrayed him. The Shadow tripped, fell shoulder first onto the pavement and skid haphazardly into the pulse of glowing white that was his dear friend, and friend that had beyond a shadow of a doubt just saved his life.

As Maximos slid to a halt, groaning in muted pain, the vicious attacking darkness came to a sudden stop inches from his foot and exactly outside the perimeter of the holy dragon's pulsing light. Maximos in that moment, owed Ryugi so very much. Had he the time he would have lamented greatly that this circumstance would very quickly reveal it was an exceedingly poor repayment for his brotherly love.

Ryugi was a spire of illumination. He was a light so bright it should have awakened the entire town for miles. The meteor-esque falling stars of glow should have fallen on the city streets blaring light into houses, rousing sleeping citizens and more. The betrayal here, was that they did not.

"No no, I never thought they..." Maximos coughed, shuffling his limbs beneath himself. Red splashes and drops fell from his lips staining the concrete with scarlet. "...they, could follow me here."

The stars of pure glow fell, pushing back the darkness. And then like shooting stars streaking across the horizon, by the end of their journey the darkness flushed in seemingly growing thicker as the light grew brighter. Darkness surrounded both men, like a fog, then like a wall. It built itself thick and black around the pulse of light surrounding the fountain. Ryugi would get an immediate feeling that Maximos was entirely unable to warm him of. Without a doubt he had poured his power into many an attack. Energy struck most objects like water strikes a wall, hitting, splashing, damaging. But this feeling was more akin to pouring water into a bottomless well. His light was expanding, or rather his energy was but somehow it wasnt...

Maximos was on his knees now, working his way into a stand. He sheathed the Ayashikage, the thin black katana at his side and heft Ankokuko over his shoulder, laying his right hand softly on Ryugi's shoulder. His face was mostly visible in the effervescent light. Blood covered his right cheek starting around his forehead and streaking down over his right eye which was tightly shut. Beneath his hood, he was frowning.

"I'm sorry Ryugi, I never meant to endanger you like this." He said, squeezing the other man's shoulder. "Pace yourself, if that light falls they will rush in and we will die."

Maximos never spoke of death as a certainty unless it absolutely was. He was beside Ryugi and yet facing opposite him, his open left eye moving from the dragon to the darkness around and behind them both. "That is no darkness my friend, that is a hoard. They live in the shadow, they hunt as an army of the infinitesimally small. And they eat...everything. Especially light."

[Marylin Manson - R.E. Theme Song]

There were sounds now, grumbles, roars, chirps of something wholly inhuman moving in the darkness. Feasting on the light even as Ryugi fed it in order to keep both men alive. "Do not let them touch you. Do not step into the darkness. Do not open any elemental gate ways, lest they rush in and eat the entire plane dry. But most importantly..."

As if the idea of Ryugi only having his own power reserves was not daunting enough. Figures crested the seal of light. Humanoid and yet entirely lacking humanity. They looked like villagers, like citizens of Latent and yet every one of them was deathly pale with jet black eyes, and hair, and spewed with every breath and every step streams of wispy black from their mouths and noses. There were men, women, even little pale children. A whole city block of Latent Square's innocent populace converted and monstrous before them.

The figures held out their hands. The skin of their arms and chest bubbled and puckered before rupturing out thick black substance, like tar or ink that pooled and coalesced in their hands into blades, knives and swords. It took seconds for both men to be entirely surrounded with these possessed and armed monstrosities. Their empty eyes bleeding out hunger and hatred as they crowned the outer edge of Ryugi's glowing pulse of light.

"...do not give up." Maximos said, spitting glob of red blood to the pavement before taking up formation directly behind Ryugi. His feet filling the empty spot in Ryugi's stance, their backs just inches from touching forming a 360 degree defense. The Hero of Angara and the Shadow of Death back to back, Ryugi wielding Ragnarok, Maximos clutching Ankokuko, as the Shadow very softly said. "This is just the beginning."

And then all at once a mob of easily thirty or more bloodthirsty former people rushed in. And for the lone men in the light the fight for survival, began.

There were a few things Ryugi would notice almost immediately.

First off, these figures humanoid and yet inhuman were honestly citizens of Latent. Which is to say specifically that they, were citizens of Latent in the past tense. They were no longer human at all. Ragnarok cut through them as easily as any fleshy creature, their smaller weapons were hardly a match for the large legendary blade or the preternatural strength of its wielder. Quite literally, once sliced open the villagers would deflate, black smoked oozed from them and they fell to the ground as little more than an empty sack of bone, and skin entirely devoid of life.

Once wide cut was enough to "slay" five of these such husks without any difficulty. What Ryugi might then realize was that while these creatures could not truly stand up to him, they werent meant to. The black smoke that escaped their wounds did not vanish, the blood that poured from their skin to summon their weapons, the weapons themselves, even the blackness of their eyes, all of it joined into one slightly transparent black blob and raced at Ragnarok and the glowing aura around it, as well as the Mirror Edge trailing behind. Almost immediately after the black inky cloud touched Ragnarok, the difficult involved in keeping it glowing increased several fold. The Mirror Edge blades however, were snuffed out almost immediately. The terrible fact that became evident here was these creatures were not of darkness at all. They just inhabited it...by the myriads. Thousands on thousands of tiny specs hiding in the darkness. The light surrounding Maximos and Ryugi was not protecting them because it was bright, it was protecting them because it kept the greater portion of their enemy satiated. They were simply being fed well enough to stay back, the rest were not and took more direct infiltration tactics. They must have hollowed out and eaten the poor people in question leaving only their skin and bones to walk around in like a literal meat suit. These things were not repelled by light...they were drawn to it.

The inky cloud released by the slain villagers was enough to attack vibrant magic, but unlike the massive thrashing arm that assaulted Maximos it must not have been enough to eat Ryugi or Maximos alive in the same manner as the townsfolk. Not yet.

As Ryugi attacked, Maximos moved to do the same but in a different sort of way. He swung Ankokuko in a wide arc with a double handed baseball bat motion, lopping a villagers head in half. As the very same black spewed out his eyes opened wide. He jerked his sword violent to the side and hit one villager in the head with a dry crunch. Its skull collapsed and its head lolled to the side and its body jerked along with it but it did not fall. It left enough room of Max to kick out and snap its leg at the shin, then stomp violently on its chest. The creature spasmed, shook, and seemed entirely intent on attempting to move but was unable. And then Max moved to the next one, breaking its outstretched arm with a swift chop from Ankokuko before smacking it in the face with the butt of the weapon unbalancing it off its feet. His motions were fast, but not what one might call 'Maximos fast'. With each sharp enough movement he winced, groaned or took in a sharp pained breath. And yet he seemed suddenly intent on breaking their foes rather than chopping them to bits. With numbers like this, it was a stalling tactic at best.

When Ryugi called out for an explanation, Maximos nodded, tripping a man's legs out from under him then bringing his sword down flat like a large paddle on his spine. The creature shook and jerked, but could not get its legs to co-operate. For a moment, as Max turned to look at the dragon he had that almost telltale look of the Shadow about to embark on a long, fun, and odd explanation. He opened his mouth to speak, then winced squinting his good eye and coughed messily leaving a stream of blood to run down his chin.

"Later." Was the only word he could manage in a wet gutteral sort of voice while shaking his head and wiping his chin on his shoulder. That was, of course, if they could survive this. And then the next wave was upon them, right over the bodies of the first. And Maximos, although holding his own, seemed to be fairing worse and worse.

He let one hand slide from the Caller of Darkness and point at small house just a dozen or so feet from the center fountain, visible now in the new range of Ryugi's glow.

"There...barric - " A few more wet coughs. " - barricade. I think, we can sprint it."

What Ryugi was doing, was like tossing fresh meat in front of a group of frenzied sharks in the hope that would go after it before you.

And it was working. But they were not going to make it easy.

The Shadow offered him no resistance. He was in the middle of an attack when Ryugi grabbed his coat and carried him away. The jolt sent Ankokuko tumbling from his hands, but safely into a shadow beneath him. And then they were flying.

The black nothings held back by Ryugi's glowing aura were suddenly without food. As the light faded the dragon would be able to spot what looked like a million million tiny specs hovering in the air until darkness fell, and in the pale silver light of the moon he would see darkness rise again. It swirled together like a jet black dust storm, an inverted cyclone pouring up from the ground lapping at his heels and roaring with countless voices. Ryugi was a candle in the dark now, and they were coming to snuff it out.

Dozens of feet scattered over, around, and even splashed through the fountain, in mindless pursuit.

Ryugi turned light into vicious fire, the first wave of villagers did not so much burn as pop like corn in a kettle, releasing puffy clouds of black before their skin suits turned to embers. The massive cyclone if pitch opened like a vicious maw attempting to swallow Ragnarok's pulse of flames entirely, but instead found its heads vaporized by the heat. But it didnt stop, the bulk of the black mass flowed through the ruins of its face and continued its pursuit.

Every attack Ryugi swung, found purchase. One hit after another at blurring speed, the creatures did not even attempt defense instead throwing endless numbers at him. Wave after greedy wave, eating at the very flames that burned, scattered and exploded them, enveloping the fireballs and explosions in blackness seconds after their impact. When Ryugi finally was able to clear enough distance to launch himself back, he would find the door already opened waiting for him. And Maximos was there to slam it shut and lock it behind him, just as two lightcraft constructs clamped it down. And then all at once, everything went silence. The creatures did not yawn or roar outside, nothing thumped against the windows or doors. There was silence, filling the air with the awful dread that only a patient predator could.

Inside Ryugi was free to explore. This was a home, much like any other. There were couches, chairs, a television, paintings on the walls and magazines scattered on tables. The main difference here, was that every single light in the living room, and a few adjacent rooms were turned on. One large dresser had been slid in front of a window, a dining room table stood on its end blocking a stairway and blood was smeared in streaks across a few walls, smattered on the floor, and splotching the adjusted pieces of furniture. The villagers outside had not bled, their bodies were uninjured. The dark enemy outside had to have come in during the night and eaten them away. This was Maximos' blood, and the Shadow was leaning against the wall with one arm limp at his side and another draped across his stomach like a belt.

Maximos was breathing heavy labored breaths and trying his best to smile as his dark left eye peeked out from beneath his hood.

"It should...for now." He said, and then nodded. With a grunt of effort and small cry of pain he pushed himself off the wall and took a step toward Ryugi. "Those two little girls, they're still -"

And that was all he got to say before suddenly falling mid-step, like a puppet with its strings cut.

Things were calm, but they were going to get worse before they got better.

It went without saying that Maximos did not resist, his wounds had already soaked through his clothing although the stains were barely visible through the black cloth. One could not say the same for Ryugi's signature white which would come away a bit more soiled with scarlet when he set the Shadow down.

His wounds were...extensive, to say the least, but outwardly he seemed mostly uninjured. There was a gape in his side about 6 inches wide and very deep, the cut was clean as opposed to torn, but the skin immediately around it was bruised purple. As if something very heavy but very sharp had slammed into his side. One would imagine, Maximos would have defended against such an injury and yet clearly he didnt.

Worse still, examination of his right revealed that as Ryugi might have feared, his right eye was missing entirely. There was no obvious single source for the injury but instead it appeared as if many tiny cuts, lines and ragged wounds lined his eyelid. His eyes lid looked a bit the way old leaves look, with tiny uneven holes and cuts in them were little bugs had eaten them away.

As Ryugi had assumed, Maximos' arm was broken. Thankfully it was a comparatively weak break snapping one of the bones in his forearm, but leaving the other in tact. But that alone would never have been enough to take Maximos down. The worst of his injuries lie outside of the range of Ryugi's normal vision.

But then came the actual healing. Ryugi harnessed holy and positive energy through light. Maximos, understandably was oppositely aligned. The initial healing treatment, went rather...energetically. The moment holy light entered his system, the complex design of magical tattoos covering his body ignited like a set of intricate bright blue veins. The Shadowstitching he had used as patchwork for his innards dissolved and Maximos immediately lurched upwards and screamed in raw unfettered agony. The sort of scream that would have had neighbors calling the police for fear someone was being murdered next door. And then all at once the anesthesia kicked in and he fell flat again, breathing hard labored breaths that slowly eased into calm even breathing.

If Ryugi could see what his energy healed and where his energy went he would gain a better picture of Maximos's condition. Simply put, there was an organ inside of Maximos' body that had not been badly deteriorated. Many of them looked dissolved away, or perhaps more aptly, eaten. Ryugi had seen something like this before, out by the fountain. People hollowed out and used as puppets. It seemed Maximos had very nearly been the victim of exactly that sort of attack, and though the creatures were gone...very likely through his eye, the damage remained. Maximos had not fallen unconscious due to exhaustion or pain, instead it seemed more likely his body had gone into system shock as organs began to fail.

If Maximos' medical condition were to be likened to a health bar, it would be bright red with perhaps one or two points remaining. The Shadow was not beyond healing however! But if Ryugi had not gotten to him as soon as he did, the Shadow might very well have been in need of resurrection. Again.

After the second dose of treatment, Maximos' internal system appeared to be slowly rejuvenating themselves. Lungs, heart, circulation, digestion. The Shadow's eyes very slowly opened. His right eye while not complete was an empty white marble in his skull, that while he watched formed a black down which opened into a dark cornea with pupil. Maximos looked around the room very confused at first, before his eyes settled back on the Dragon to which he owed his life.

"Did you say Vargus?" He said, trying very slowly to sit up. "No, Ryugi you musnt! Its bad enough I've forced you into danger like this."

Quickly moving to an upright position, Maximos hand immediately flew to his side where he felt...nothing. He looked down at himself, moving his shirt aside to inspect the now healed injury and then back at Ryugi with surprise. After all, he'd never experienced those abilities from the dragon. "You can heal?!"

Maximos smiled and nodded as Ryugi spoke. It was odd to imagine his overall health and Ryugi's ability to restore it in portions and quarters and such but regardless it was good to know it was there.

He had to chuckle, the idea that even mortal danger would not have been as mortal because of Ryumi's anger was quite hilarious. Not that Ryugi would have simply let him fade off into the night either, but still. As the Dragon spoke, Maximos experimentally moved his left arm, testing its range of motion against where it had broken. He heft the sheathed black katana with his left hand, swinging it softly in the air to feel what strength and or injury he had remaining. He felt exceedingly relaxed, a bit less like a simple regeneration spell and more like being at a sort of day spa of healing. His muscles regained higher functionality, he even felt better rested.

But, as explanation turned to question and the decision was left in Maximos' hands, the Shadow seemed distracted. Just as Ryugi's' vision returned from the door and what lay outside to Maximos, Maximos' eyes seemed to be fixated on something else. He looked at the ceiling, he looked at the floor and then at each of the corners and each of the various light sources. As he did, he replied.

"Not amount of sword work or shadowcrafting is going to combat those creatures. Your the only one with enough raw power to give us an escape." A quizzical expression appeared on Maximos' face, furrowing his brow and pulling his lips down in a confused frown. "There are two little girls out there, far away, and I have to help them. But you need whatever energy you can save up to get back to Vargus and Ryumi, especially if this darkness stays in Latent."

His eyes, strangely just after healing were both a dark shade. No longer mismatched, at least momentarily so. "You have my unending appreciation, but I cant ask you to endanger yourself my friend."

Here Maximos presented something of a quandary. He said Ryugi was the only one who could help as his injuries indicated, but he also said he was going out alone. Which is to say, Maximos was very softly skirting around the topic of a possible suicide mission. And yet, it was not fear on Maximos' face it was curiosity and confusion. He looked Ryugi dead in the blood red eyes and said. "I'm sorry to change subjects. But Ryugi, are you manipulating the lights in this room?"