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Krono's eyes went wide at the feeling of the frst gouge. He stumbled forward out of surprise and because of this the other slashes merely grazed his skin. These cuts were only minor and because of that the almost instantly healed, however the first slash was quite deeper and thus wasn't healed. It would in a short period of time, but in the meantime he could feel his blood flowing out of the wound.

Krono was lucky since all of his equipment and clothing was resistant to his acidic blood, but this shadow which he had not seen yet would find that the blood would be eating at his sword and if any of it had sprayed on his unseen foe, it would be hurting like a b***h. Krono dropped low to the ground as the stabs began, and attempted to sweep the shadow off its feet.

Without looking back he pulled out his dual guns and fired backwards with angelic charged rounds to try and knock it away from him. He didn't check if it worked because it didn't really matter, it would all be just as a bonus if it did work out. Krono then sprinted forward into a portal which opened up beside Chronic. Krono came through with a swift kick aimed for the side of his head, followed by a quick cross slash from Cain and Abel. Once he was passed Chronic, he performed a front flip, sending the blood from the wound on his back spraying. The wound was already starting to heal up but it was still able to produce a decent amount of blood which was already burning through anything it touched, mainly the tree.

Krono landed with his right leg extended to the side and his left leg tucked below him. His left hand with the sword still out was flat against the ground and he was takeing some deep breathes. He calmly jumped up into another tree to wait and see what the results of his attacks were and to try and catch some breathe. His fancy maneuvers earlier had taken some stamina to pull off.

Xypher had been wandering the forest when he heard the call of this so called angel. Her voice called to him, deep within his mind. This unsettled him, he couldn't get her voice from out his head, it was stuck there like a catchy tune. As he walked the forest he began to head towards her unconsciously, he thought he was just moving around without a purpose, but in actuality he was going toward the figure.

He had never been under a magical effect like this before, to be summoned against his own will. His body was simply following the tune, whilst his mind wrestled over the fact he couldn't get the verse out of his head. He was frustrated slightly, tugging at the wraps that covered his skin as he moved, trying to cover himself with more tension on his clothes...

Eru, of course, chose that exact moment to appear in about as dignified a fashion as one could expect from him. He was alone here, as it had been his idea to get the soul catcher in the first place. That, and Sundel and Kyiana were quite irate with him about the constant delays, so he figured this would go more smoothly if he came alone.

"I'm already here, waiting for you. You're the one who's late. And early. And right on time." Erudemasa said, sitting on a nearby tree branch. As was usually the case with him, it was a little hard to tell whether he'd been there all along or had suddenly appeared there or both at once. Eru pushed himself up with his hands and gracefully slid off of the limb. What came after that was...less graceful. His constantly changing scarf snagged on the limb he had been sitting on, which stopped his descent with him hanging in the air with his own scarf choking him. A moment later, the weight became too much for the small knot the scarf had snagged on, freeing Erudemasa to continue his fall in a much less dignified fashion, as his trajectory had been thrown off, and what was once a smooth descent to the ground ended with him hitting several branches, a few large pine cones, and ending up hitting the ground head first. Then his very hevy book landed on him. It took a few moments for Eru to start moving again. After pulling his head out of the soft ground, the avatar of time (now covered in mud), attempted to face Xol as if nothing had happened. "So, did you bring the item that Sundel and I mentioned we needed?"

Erudemasa wiped some of the mud off of his face with his scarf. The mud didn't stick to the scarf itself and slid right off of it onto the ground. "That's a little harsh, isn't it Xol? I'm actually a lot better at things than I might seem. I'm really good at things relating to time, it's just the whole "space" part that throws me off sometimes." Erudemasa reaches out to grab the cube. It held more of a weight than an object its size might appear to. That was to be expected of an object designed to hold powerful souls. He tucked the cube away in a bag that was slung over his shoulder. He then turned back to Xol with a mischevious glint in his eye.

"With this, I think we're about ready to begin. You'll want to get over to the mansion soon if you don't want to miss the fireworks."

How boring. Flora and fauna manipulation. He had seen better parlor tricks from monkies flinging poo at each other. This had better get interesting or he would have to take Eru up on his offer at D's Mansion sooner than anticipated. His mind wandered to how fast he could destroy the whole forest. Childs play though... he needed more of a challenge.

"Whatever. Just make sure you leave some things for me to maim and torture. I'll be sorely disappointed if I get to the party and the all fireworks have gone off..."

Xol's voice trailed as his crimson eyes focused on Kaiori. Her new look was definately intriguing. Gold, fish scales, snakes. Any other day of the week and he'd be turned on. However, at the moment, all he cared about was gutting her and playing around in the blood that spilled out.

*Kaiori smiles, the place between her breasts starts glowing again. Suddenly she freezes as Dom’s voice enters her mind, “Enough witch! Bring them.” She pouts her golden lips and snaps her fingers, the snakes burst into a bloody gory mess, splattering everywhere. Even the one so motherly and sweetly wrapped around her now becomes the bloody slime dripping down her thighs and calves. They hadn’t actually exploded, if someone had a quick enough eye they would have caught the golden scales shooting off her body into random directions to burry deep within the snakes. Sighing with a wave of her hand the gate flips open, one would notice that this gate was full of unmoving water. With a twitch of her fins she walks into the watery world and utters her first words in a long time.* Come along then. *If you enter this gate it shall take you to the water just outside the bastion to start the first challenge.*

The doppelganger quickly became flat and shadow-like again as Krono attempted to knock it to the ground. It would immediately re-gain its form and pull the rocket launcher from its back as Krono disappeared into his portal and await his re-appearance. Chronic, even with his split second precognition, was unable to avoid the kick to his head, which knocked him clear out of the tree and onto the ground. Gravity, and nothing else, would make him avoid the cross slash from the dual katanas.

The doppelganger fired two rockets at Krono after Chronic was out of harm's way, and Chronic would simply pull himself to his feet, bracing himself for another attack and trying to ignore the ringing in his ears.

Hmmm. Stay here and go through a watery gate thing to whereabouts unknown, or go to D's Mansion and watch him be trapped forever. Possibly leaving Phia and Aria open for attack. Not really much of a choice really. He would be back, but the allure of torturing Phia and her daughter was far too great at the moment.

"As fun as this looks to be, I have been invited to watch some fireworks that I don't intend on missing."

Xol dissolved into a whispy black mist and began his travel at uncanny speed towards D's demise.