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Some inspirational music

Team Elixer had began a new quest, one in an unknown world from their own. In Kargoth-Rotar they were given the quest of finding an ancient staff tainted by the Vardant energies that inhabit this land. It was once used by an orc, years ago, to control the Vardent hordes and a bid to take control of the southern realms of Otherearth. Now it is thought to be buried with the orc's remains and together Team Elixer has been sent to retrieve it. It is thought in the time of need it can be used to control or destroy the Vardent, any hope of it not being too powerful can only be from guessing that it's power has dimmed ever since it was locked away. They left the orc capital on a beast drawn vehicle. For the most part it was a large box with no roof, except for some large tusks and leather that were used to create slightly archway walls on either side to give some kind of shade.

It was later on in the day when they got to the Dun Hill midlands. They were now closer to the Archon Ba's seat in the mountains than what they were to Kargoth-Rotar. This was as far as the orc woman would take them, she said. Farther than this is outside of her trading areas and would become a nuisance to trek back. Now, alone, Team Elixer were left to their own devices and began travelling further east. Lucas knew to travel east as long as possible until the ground began turning to black stone with a slightly reflected surface. That would be when they got to their destination.

Here the weather was a little more acceptable, or perhaps that was because of the afternoon coming to a close in a few hours, Lucas was not sure. There was grass here, it was scattered across the ground loosely and was a light shade of green, like it barely survived out here. But it was moist, so there had to be water beneath the ground here. There were even softly rounded cliffs in the far distance too, and even further than that in the other direction Lucas could make out the northern mountains that gave Ba his home. Ba was an ominous entity, he thought, as the warm air blew through his long white hair. Ba was the third of the final three Aether Archons that live in Otherearth along with the other races. Ba's seat, the Acropolis seems to be far more military focused than Wu or Liu, who's seats are calm, magical, resolute. No, it seems as though Ba is the protective one, the one that strides forth with armies. His is the iron curtain that protects these lands from the larger quantities of Vardant coming south from Verderrous. Large beasts roamed this land, mostly grass eaters, it reminded him of The Wilds back home, the warm and Africa-like country that sits just south-east of Skyfall. Lucas wondered why it was that Ba situated himself so far south compared to the other Archons. What was he doing here? Did he like the solitude? Lucas stepped on a dead branch, it broke beneath his boot with a crack and Lucas was brought out of his thoughts.

Nyru and Laxion were at the front, they often stood with each other now. Lucas did notice however how the 'honeymoon' period was over, and the two of them no longer showed many signs of affection to each other in public. They were for the most part professional. He was proud of them, but were excellent fighters, undeterred by the influence of love during battle or missions. What was better however, was just then as he noticed Nyru turned to speak with Claudia, who of coarse was never too far from him. Nyru never forgot about Claudia, he made an effort to always keep her included, and Laxion didn't mind that. She was a handful, Lucas knew that, but she was better now that she had her sister, Ruby back. Ruby often fluttered between Alexis, himself and Claudia. Alexis finished speaking with Ruby and he heard her footsteps come up beside him. He exchanged a glance with her.

Alexis Truesvale. She was a woman like no other. Once upon a time she was a student at Merlin Academy around the age of 20 or so, and when he first met her she was late joining the team. Her magical prowess got here there, even if she was late. Now she lives a life very different than that. She is timeless. And yet - he was almost thankful - her eyes had not changed, not except for that glimmer of life within them. When he peered into her eyes he saw so much potential, so much hope and wonder... he would often get himself lost within them. "You're thinking" she said, crossing her arms as she walked alongside him. "I am always thinking" Lucas replied back to her, "the Dun Hills stretch far from west to east, each side is very different. You would have expected this place to be called something different."
"I think geography is the least of people's problems here, Lucas." She then let out a sigh. Lucas looked at her as she blinked and looked ahead. "You've heard about Professor Magus-bane, right?" the blonde asked, and Lucas swallowed, following her gaze ahead. There were some gazelle-like animals ahead, eating leaves and berries from bushes. "I have, yes. By the time we would have heard, the whole of Occulas would have known. News gets here slowly, even by magic or Injustirian scrolls. Are you worried?"
"Obviously." Alexis kicked a stone with her boot, it rolled through the long grass field. "I don't think he'll make it."
"Alexis" Lucas looked at her. She then said "but that is not what worries me. I know Magus-bane well. He may be old, and if anything a little hard to get along with but he has done things none other could do. He took on the roles of both Grand Magus and Grand Engineer, he governed the Blue Guild as well as the Academy and even the whole of the Blue City. If anything he was a little stupid."
"Then... what is it that bothers you?"
"Who would next be chosen to take his place?"
"Anyone they approve would be chosen by the members of the Soverignty. The people of Entei would choose wisely, I'm sure." Alexis then took his hand mid-stride and he almost stopped, but he tensed and continued on through the grass. She was looking at him, but he found it difficult to look back. He could see from the corner of his eyes the blue glint in hers. "And who do the people like most, hm?" was all she said before she let go carefully. "I'm not sure if they'll choose someone that's prepared. Anyway. We've got bigger problems to worry about at the minute. Does it not bother you that Sha'mor is using us to get an ancient artefact?"
"Sha'mor and the Star Elf both confirmed the rest of the Magic Earth rulers would not agree. So they know that if we are caught, we would be prosecuted and not them."
"Doesn't sound too great, does it?"
"Not very, but I have this." Lucas then pulled out a glowing white orb, images flickered from within the swirling white aura. "What is it?" Alexis asked, and Lucas smiled. "It's an Evidencer. I cast an Injustirian spell when Shar'more first began consultation. Everything can be re-experienced if only I break this. So we're fine."
"How cunning" said Alexis, "always one step ahead, aren't you dear teacher?" Alexis grinned, baring a fang as she put her hands behind her back.

Lucas smiled back, shaking his head as if to shake away the joke. She knew full-well he was no longer their teacher, but their equal. Whatever smile he had on his face, however, was shaken off when the earth beneath their feet began to tremble. The nearby wildlife began to cry and run away, herding together and running as far south or west as possible. The trees and bushes far away could be heard shaking, leaves and dead branches began to fall off, causing more animals to charge away as the trembling got stronger - closer. Then it stopped. Lucas took in a breath as he saw Laxion turn to Nyru and say "what was that?"
"I don't know" he replied, "was it in the air?" Laxion brought up his hand and began to feel the air. After a moment he shook his head, "there's nothing strong enough to shake the ground like that, not on the surface anyway."
"Then... it must be..." Alexis mumbled, looking down at the ground as Lucas got the same idea. Underground he thought, finishing her sentence in his head. Nyru turned to Claudia and said "killer ravens!" Killer ravens was a battle stance he and Claudia had, the two of them would find the nearest high ground and hide as well as they could to avoid any danger on the ground. With a nod he dashed away, passing Laxion a trusting glance before jumping up onto a pair of large rocks that stuck out of the ground like tall, well worn-down boulders. Laxion then knelt down to the ground as quick as he could to feel it with his fingertips. "Ovdrassil, please hear me" Laxion whispered, searching deep within himself to feel the presence of the World Nexus beneath the City of Shard. He was Half Fae, and with Fae blood he could communicate with the World Nexus, the remains of the World Tree Ovdrassil to get a feel for the earth beneath his feet. At the same time he could feel the pull of Steldrassil far, far north in Evermoon. He could feel it's arcane energies guiding him to something beneath the ground. His eyes widened as he looked over to Ruby, who had been left alone after Claudia got into formation with Nyru. In that instant the earth beneath their feet crumbled beneath them, as if it all imploded just as a gigantic, monstrous set of jaws closed around them, swallowing them whole. The others watched in awe as a worm-like creature of tremendous, monolithic size burst from the ground and stood high above the ground, clamping its jaws several times before letting out a mighty, belching roar.

"RUBY, LAXION!" Alexis screamed, pulling out his staff as it spiralled into scythe-mode. Nyru sweated, his felt his stomach churn in a heart-breaking moment as he attempted to disbelief what he saw. Then suddenly the worm monster, in all its dark-green glory let out a cry. It's body pulsated and it's neck burst open, destroying it's head as a tornado or air exploded outwards. Laxion and Ruby worked together from the inside to destroy the monster and both landed nearby together as it's body flopped to the ground. Lucas could have cheered if not for the moment he took to inspect it's body from a distance. It was gigantic, large enough to eat building's whole. It's blood was green, it burnt the ground as it spewed outwards, and its skin was completely armoured by large, rock-like, darkest of dark purple scales. It's eyes were a bright green, just like it's veins that ran beneath the cracks of its stone-like scales. Lucas then noticed how the worm began to drag itself back, submerging half within the ground as the tattered hair stood erect and began to regrow - but worse. From the wound spawned two head, not one, two.

"It's a hydra!!!!!!" Lucas shouted, whipping out the Purevelion Blade as he did so.

Some inspirational music

Ruby was the first one to react to the enormous monster's doubling of heads. Lucas had thought dealing with a monolithic worm with the skin of stone would be hard enough, but now it had two heads he realised decapitating it like most monsters would be a bad choice. Hydras were no easy threat to deal with, they multiplied and continued to do so until they were entirely and utterly destroyed. Ruby was trained for this though, she had some of the best training Hope Academy could have asked for, and more than that she has been a part of Team Elixer since the start, gaining her excellent battle prowess. She has gone from being a battle-born warrior, immune to emotion like a cold robot, into being a curious and ever growing young woman filled with compassion. She's been through a lot, just like everyone has. But Lucas always had a soft spot for little Ruby.

Ruby announced they had to destroy it's vital organs in order to kill it properly. Nyru and Claudia nodded, the latter of the two setting off immediately to follow Ruby up. Ruby used the techniques she had learned from her time being resurrected as a vessel for one of Lucifial's corrupting demons. Her black appendages were as strong as any limb on her body. They lashed out towards the worm's heads whilst also keeping herself tethered to the ground but it was all to no avail. The worm was too gigantic and powerful to be held down and thus it pulled Ruby from the ground and tossed her away. Lucas took in a breath, a gasp even, but Alexis breathed out as she cast a spell. With one flick of her wrist an arcane orb shot into the air and trailed after her, coating her with a bubble of magic to soften her landing. "We'll do the dirty work up-close!" Nyru announced, exchanging a glance with Claudia. As Royal Guard of the Queen Declasia of the Land of Crows, Conqueror of the City of Crows and Liberator of the Jaywalkers, they were trained in excellent close combat, and monsters like this weren't too different to the ones they had found lurking the swamps home, this was just a lot, lot bigger. Nyru's circlet on his head transformed into a full helmet as he dashed off in an attempt to help wound the beast.

The two of them began running towards it, and as they did so they could feel the ground beneath their feet shake, Lucas could feel it too and he judged that there was still the length of the worms body beneath the ground, and as it moved it forced the earth to tremble still. Once they were close enough they jumped high into the air, launching themselves at the beast's body. Nyru brought up his black blade and thrust it down behind one of the worm's giant rocky scales so that he could latch a hold onto it's side. As he did the beast let out a menacing roar that trembling the surface and could have deafened them had they been closer to it's heads. Hanging from the spot as the worm's body began to pulsate, Nyru shouted "we need to start wounding the surface to find a weak spot!" And just as he finished the worm tossed to the side, he had to hold on for dear life as the two of them twisted around. Luckily the momentum allowed him to dislodge his sword and swing up to a higher part of the beasts body where he could stand. He looked up and to his surprise he could see the scales all opening up to reveal sharp, spear-like hairs. His eyes widened in surprise and in an instant he changed his sword into whip form and just as he heard all the hairs shoot out, ready to impale him, he swung his snake-sword around. The blade segments spun around him, swooped down and curved around him in all directions to deflects the spears before they could strike. "Be careful!" Nyru shouted to Claudia, where ever she may be to give her a heads up.

Meanwhile Laxion got to work from the ground. With his Air expertise he ran around the worm as fast as he could in a large circle, using his Air elemental powers he made each stride farther and faster, avoiding the spear hairs as they shot down into the ground behind him. Occasionally he would spins spear and send a blast of wind to batter the side of the worm and force it to keep it's attention on him, or to stop it from moving too much. Lucas ran his finger along his blade and let it glow white-hot before slashing through the air three times, sending three arcs of divine energy through the sky towards the worm's flesh, but alas, it was too tough. "It's strong" he cursed. "Never mind if it's strong" Alexis said, staring up at the sky, "is it resistant however? That's a better question. Buy me time and I can stun it." With that Alexis summoned up an arcane rune beneath her that shot forwards into a fast run. She spun her scythe and it changed into staff mode, the blue crystal core that was channeled to link with the Sapphire Jewel glowed bright and crackled as she sent dozens of arcane missiles from her staff's tip towards the worm. They bombarded one of the heads and forced to backwards a little, causing Nyru to jump from it's neck over to the other neck as he continued to hack and slash at the scales and avoid more spears. Latino came running around and was coming towards Ruby, he then shouted "Red Storm!!!" which was a nickname used to signal that the two of them would combo together for an attack. It usually meant he would combine his air magic with Ruby's attacks to give her a massive boost!

At the time of Alexis dashing off, Lucas pointed his sword down and clung with both hands, he then began to chant under his breath words of Injustice and protection. When he was finished his eyes shot white for a second and a white light coated his body for a moment before fading away. He then released his sword with one hand and tossed his hand aside, throwing out several white orbs of magic that hunted down each member of his team and upon contact the spell protected them with a small boost to defence! Meanwhile, Alexis began charging to the high rock formation or cliff, her plan was to head upwards, at least that was what could be gathered by her continuous gestures and gazes up towards the sky. Latino knew straight away what her plan was when he saw her staff crackling with energy. He remembered when he and Ruby first found her again after they thought they had lost her.

It was in the fields of Occulas and there was a giant storm. Back then she was hooded, completely unknown and only used her scythe to murder members of a dark cult left behind in rips of time from Zoltan's plot years ago. It was shocking, literally, to find out the source of the storm was her. She was going to create a magical storm above the worm, if that didn't work to do something he wasn't sure what would!

((Enjoy, make all the combos you wish! This worm can take one hell of a beating so feel free to damage it as much as you want! Go crazy lmao. This is also the perfect time to re-use some old favourites, like the Mark of Declasia to make giant shadow-magic :3))

Some inspirational music

"Are you serious?!?!?!" Laxion shouted out into the spiralling maelstrom of air, red petals from her blade began to engulf the tornado, turning it red with fury as she replied back to him, telling him to trust her. Gritting his teeth Laxion said "fine!" before turning back to whisper something into the air and wisped it away with one hand. A gust of wind then blew by Alexis, and in Laxion's voice it said "use Ruby's sword as a lightning rod." At first, Alexis stood atop the rocky cliff with hesitation in her crystal blue eyes. But as her long blonde hair swept over her face from the Red Storm she nodded.

Nyru and Claudia were still working together to keep the worm at bay, Nyru was running over the surface of it's body as best as he could, dodging quills and deflecting them with his snake sword whilst Claudia attacked from the ground. Nyru pulled up the shadows to create a shield made of darkness before him to block some quills, then he commanded his snake-sword to break into a dozen shards. Each one then spun out around the worm's gigantic neck and evenly split apart the dagger-like shards bit into it. Whilst defending himself Nyru knelt on the splot, trying to keep his balance whilst tightening his grip on the hilt of his weapon to command the shards to constrict. But the worm wasn't going to let it happen, instead it whipped it's head backwards, tossing Nyru backwards and downwards towards the ground. He hit the ground with a thud and began to roll, but quickly managed to manoeuvre himself to his feet and hands to come to a skidding stop. He watched as Lucas sent more ethereal blades of light through the air, bombarding the worm. Nyru shook his head, it's armour is too strong he thought to himself, looking between Lucas, the worm, Claudia and then the rest of Team Elixer creating the Red Storm. "We need to hold it down!!!" Nyru shouted to Claudia, immediately recalling the shards of his blade and replacing it by his side. He hadn't realised that Ruby had the worm's body under control, but his priority was controlling it's head. He stood up straight and took in a breath before drawing in the air with his middle and forefinger. The mark of Declasia appeared before him, glowing a dark, ghostly purple. The shadows around him, from nearby rocks, bushes, trees, any kind of darkness began to stretch towards him, even his own shadow as he readied the ability. HE brought back his fist and from the ground behind him grew a colossal hand of darkness and as he burst forwards the hand rushed out and grabbed one side of the worm's head to meet with Claudia's. Together they battled with it's strength until finally thrusting it down into the ground. As his real fist touched the ground he could feel it's strength beating against their shadowmancy. Grinding his teeth Nyru thought they better make this work!.

By now the skies above were dark and hazy, clouds were spiralling and small flashes of blue could be seen behind the clouds, crackling and rumbling. Atop the cliff was Alexis, holding up her staff which had mostly collapsed and turned into spiralling and revolving shards, rods and other pieces that make the staff. It was all orbiting the blue crystal, the conduit that she uses to leech the power of the Sapphire Jewel all the way from the Obelisk back in Occulas. This... was but a small part of the Jewel's power... and she was in control of it. With a war cry she commanded the lightning to strike, and a bright, harsh blue lightning bolt struck down in the centre of the Red Storm, engulfing it in electricity as it continued to beat down and strike at Ruby's blade. Laxion hoped that the tornado he had created to protect Ruby would allow her to have enough time to absorb Alexis' energy and finally bring down the enormous beast.

Everyone held their poses and awaited with heavy chests as Ruby unleaded the power of their combined energy. From her blade came two gigantic, ethereal slashes that soared across the ground, bringing up dirt and stone, destroying all in it's path. The bright blue, almost white energy cut through once, and then the second attack followed swiftly after and the gigantic worm let out a colossal cry. Nyru and Claudia's shadowmancy broke instantly and Nyru felt the weight of the worm vanish as he felt his headache vanish. He unclenched his hand and watched as the two-headed worm instantly fell to the ground, shaking the world around them for a few moments until everything grew silent. Just as quickly the tornado around Ruby vanished, blowing all the grass around her outwards, gently caressing everybody else on its way out. The clouds began to clear and Alexis' staff reassembled itself, containing the blue crystal within to control its power.

Alexis' jumped down from the cliff side, landing on the ground on her hand and knee, with her staff upright in her other hand. Lucas and the others joined her as Alexis said "we did it" almost like she couldn't believe it herself. "That's barely the worst thing we've been through" Laxion mentioned, matter-of-factly. Alexis watched as the monster's body began to crumble away, flaking away in the light breeze brushing over it's body. It's green flesh turning to dark purple to match it's blood as it dried. "That's how we kill things back home" Nyru added, putting his weapon away. Laxion turned to him with an odd expression "alright, how many giant worms have you killed before?"
"Two, actually. One at Ravencrest Academy, and one near Therias, right Claudia?" Nyru asked with a grin. Laxion let out a cheap exhale, "show off. We fought off a demon invasion on the Isle of Elixer."
"The very same invasion that us Royal Guard stopped at each of the major cities, remember?" Nyru added again, high-fiving Claudia. Then Alexis crossed her arms and said "weren't you criminals when you did that? The Guildeam wanted you all dead."
"Until they realised that we saved them."
"You corrupted the largest arcane crystal in Entei!"
"That was... temporary."

Before anyone realised, Lucas had walked further towards the quickly vanishing worm corpse, by now it was mostly gone, but Lucas wasn't looking at that. He was peering over it, towards the mountains in the far distance. He didn't reply until someone mentioned they should get moving again.

They travelled for another day before the Barren Mountains finally came closer to them, it felt like they had moved at a snails pace, and all along the way they had encountered small groups of Vardent. The Vardent forces were more sporadic here than anywhere else, more sparse, Lucas thought, because of the existence of the nearby Aether Archon. As they got closer, the grass on the ground were slowly becoming drier and the dirt was gradually turning into shards of black jet black stone. Directly north of them now, there was a gigantic fissure in the mountains, the ground looked like it was gradually more muddy and stony. Lucas had spoken to the rest of the team several times along the journey about the Archon known as Ba. He was the tactician and last of the male Archons alive. The Aether of Aetherpolis look up to him and respect him as much as they do the other two archons, who Team Elixer have yet to meet. In fact, they had not met any of the Archons since being in Otherearth, and have barely met any Aether. Well... they was about to change.

The moment that Team Elixer stepped onto the crunching, grinding black shards of rock the earth trembled. Nyru looked up, his dark blue eyes fearful of another worm. But this shudder was different, the earth shuddered softly, as if something was echoing from far off. The second time everyone felt it for sure, but it was not aggressive. This time however they all heard the sound of something metallic striking rock far, far away, something large, something great and mighty. Lucas looked up and over towards where it was coming from... Ba's domain. "It is the Acropolis of Ba" he said simply, continuing to stair as the earth and air repeated the same knocking sound. "He is calling for us" Lucas added, grabbing the information from somewhere, "we should answer to his call, we do not want to offend our new ally. With me, Team Elixer."

The group ventured for about thirty minutes before they finally got close enough to see the entrance to the Acropolis . Because of it's position in the cliff, the sun barely lit up the crevasse in which it sat, causing it to appear as dark as late evening, when it reality it was late morning. It appeared the acropolis was carved from the mountain, and that once, long ago, there was a walkway raised from the ground of the murky area, large enough for armies to march along no doubt. It wasn't until now that they all realised... this thing was greater than they initially thought. A river ran along not so far from them, it would take a good five or ten minutes to cross at a walking pace, and judging by the width of the river from that estimation, the gigantic staircase leading into the archway to the acropolis had to be... "two or three monorail trains long..." Alexis finished, gawping at the approaching staircase. "And that means... over one hundred steps?" Laxion asked, giving his own thoughts on the subject. Nyru took in a breath, "I'm certainly not climbing that many steps" he said, and without a thought he lifted his hand and pointed his palm towards a great shadow he could see casting down near the top of the steps. Teleportation was something the Prince of Crows had given him back when he had the Prince's mark. Since then however, the Prince took the mark on his skin back, removing many of the otherworldly abilities, but his muscle memory was good, and he was able to replicate the magic of teleportation over visible distances, as long as there was a thick shadow at the other end, thanks to his shadowmancy skills. In a blur, Nyru vanished into a black haze before appearing again at the top of the stairs. Alexis rolled her eyes, "show off" she remarked, pulling out her staff, flicking it back as the tip turned into a scythe, then with another swing the blue crystal within glowed and crackled, ripping open a blue portal beside her. Next to Nryu, another portal opened. "Short distance teleportation is easy for any adept wizard."
"But you've got the Sapphire Jewel's power!" Nyru shouted down the stairs, obviously agitated by her advantage to cast magic. Alexis crossed her arms and walked through, suddenly stepping next to Nyru and quietly stating "it's not really the Saphire Jewel's power, at least not as long as the Guildeam doesn't know I've tapped into it." Alexis was talking about the fact her blue crystal tapped into the Sapphire Jewel's power all the way from the Obelisk near Skyfall. The Guildeam thought the Jewel was safe and untouchable, but Alexis was undoubtedly siphoning small, balanced amounts of power from it. Lucas stepped through the portal next whilst Laxion used some jets of air to jump up the steps in a few swift movements. Once everyone was at the top, the floor vibrated and the air echoed that same sound from earlier.