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This field is shrouded in the low light of dusk. The hills form an innocent pattern of four raised hills containing the key chests, with the Beast Temple placed on flat ground in the middle of the field. Each hill is on a single island, all connected by dark wooden bridges strung across with garlands of paper talismans. However, there are no lucky animals in sight, and the monsters seem to resemble small tiki- masked voodoo dolls, living torches and small zombie birds. They seem very agitated. There seem to be no PKers, but then again, it's hard to tell.

Rouge Metrea Habataki Kasumi

The two girls warped into the area together. Rouge Metrea's feeling of unease was suddenly heightened. The current time was 4:04PM. However, unwilling to show her fear, she kept her easy smile on her face, looking around and surveying the terrain.

"Interesting layout. I have to say, this is the creepiest area you've taken me to by far. Even the music seems a bit off, and I've been to a few doppelganger fields before." Metrea commented, shifting her gun into an 'on-guard' position. For some reason, she was feeling far more tense and charged than she should...it was as if she were anticipating something, but she didn't know what exactly yet.

"Ooh, this is seriously interesting," Kasumi said eagerly, raising her staff. The spell signal for Rue Kruz was right at her fingertips. Though she seemed off guard, she was wary- always wary. PKs might be here. Those who lived in the city were far less superstitious than the ones on the outskirts, and she was sure some of them would ignore the warning of 4:44. Somehow, she felt very excited, and was already trotting off towards a treasure chest hill. Why did she have such a feeling of urgency to arrive at the Beast Temple before the fateful time?

Rouge Metrea Habataki Kasumi

"Darn straight," Kasumi growled, sending a brief stare to the hills, before creeping off to the southwestern treasure hill. She stood at a distance, appearing to be like a hunting cat, stalking her prey hungrily. Then, without warning, she fired a blast of water. "Rue Kruz!" she shouted, initiating a surprise attack on the mobs. The blue battle dome popped up.

Metrea only had enough time to send a reply by flash mail. [@Ginko: "Yes, I want to know, I'm curious. You sounded as though you heard something exceptionally unusual back at the Chaos Gate."] As soon as she sent it and glanced about looking for Kasumi, she saw the cleric already initiating a surprise attack on some monsters. She ran off to back her sister up. "For a cleric, you're really violent," she commented, firing off a couple of Plectra Bullets and Thunder Sparks at the monsters.

"So? People have got to stop thinking sooner or later that Harvest Clerics are all nice, harmless types. I'm kinda known for being shot-happy." Kasumi said with a shrug as she defended against a strike from a monster and hit back with a swing of her staff.

Rouge Metrea: "Plectra Bullet!" She fired a few shots, killing a few mobs around her sister, who was relentlessly spamming combinations of Rue Kruz, Repth, Ap Corv and Ap Corma. Then she paused, and popped a Flash Mail to Ginko: [@Ginko: So wait, you're telling me that I'm like, you know, them? Team Haseo? If I weren't already hearing some disembodied woman's voice, I would not believe you.] A stray mook that escaped from Kasumi's attacks was casually dispatched by a stab from Metrea's bayonet. "Kasumi, you're a bit sloppy." she commented, observing as the last monster rushed at Ginko. Habataki Kasumi"Hey, I'm trying here! You try doing anything with two midget-level spells and clobbering your enemies with a stick!" Kasumi yelled back indignantly as she chased a mook while swinging at it with her staff. "FORE!" There was a resounding thud as she sent a possessed lamp monster flying towards Ginko.

Rouge Metrea Habataki Kasumi
[@Ginko: That much I know. And about your Epitaph, I know only in name. My own I cannot ascertain as of yet. I get the feeling that she doesn't think I'm ready yet.] "Is that all of them, Kas?" Metrea called out as her sister delivered a final staff blow to an offending tiki monster, and the blue battle zone dispersed.

"Yes. How much time is left?" Kasumi asked, bending over to open the treasure chest. She'd tried kicking it a few times before, but wasn't fond of the method. It seemed a bit too rough for her tastes.

"Hm, let's see...we took about 7 minutes that battle, so right now is 4:11...that means we have about 33 minutes left to get to the Beast Temple before the phenomenon kicks in," she said to her sister, who nodded and began walking east to the other hill. Then, out of nowhere she had a very brief spell of...something, that made her vision sway. Visible to Ginko, but not to Kasumi, that marks of Macha flashed.

"You really aren't ready, or you would have called my name by now. I've been beside you all this time, and still you think I'm a hallucination or some errant voice from the underworld. You should watch yourself and your friends here- your sister's belief in the duplicity of everything may stir up things here that are better left alone." That familiar, yet foreign voice spoke up again. Metrea definitely heard it, and Ginko might have heard it too, but without knowing what Kasumi was like, he might not know what it meant. For the briefest of moments, the marks of Macha the Temptress flashed across Metrea's body...and then as suddenly as the feeling arrived, it disappeared.

Kasumi walked along the bridge quietly, staring with a calculating eye at the next hill. She badly wanted to at least level at this dungeon, but she was more hurried by her curiosity of what could happen if they got to the Temple on time. She had a feeling it would be worthwhile to see it...or was she in fact, worried? Still, there was no use in backing out now. Whether she or anyone else liked it or not, she was going to find out what all the hype about this area's 4:44 was.

Rouge Metrea
"So it's Macha..." Metrea muttered, careful not to let Kasumi hear her. Somehow, she felt it wouldn't be the best thing if her sister found out about her tenant. She wasn't too worried right now, but still, she had a nagging suspicion that the quiet of the present wasn't going to last for very long. She was aware of the comatose state of the old Epitaph holders, but it was starting to come home to her that if Macha was with her, that meant she might have to deal with whatever catastrophe happened next. Not alone, obviously, but still, it looked daunting and she wasn't even sure WHAT she was dealing with exactly. Back to the present, however, if Macha was getting nervous about something here...and it had something to do with her sister..."I hope this doesn't mean what I think it does." And all of a sudden, she started speaking words that didn't wholly belong to her.

"You make it sound like I'm some kind of car that I can just give her the keys to turn on. It's not that simple, and you know it. She and I need some kind of trigger. I don't have an AIDA sitting on my shoulder to set me off this time, and there hasn't been sufficient emotional trauma to ignite her like Skeith did with Haseo. Speaking of Skeith, that poor baby always had the worst luck when it came to hosts. They always use Skeith's nickname but give the poor thing such a hard time." Metrea/Macha spoke back, still carefully out of Kasumi's hearing range.

Habataki Kasumi
Finding a brief moment where all the monsters' backs were turned, she took a quick glance at her party mates. They were a fair distance back, talking about something she couldn't hear. She got annoyed- some party they were being for her. "Oh well, fine. I guess I'll do this hill alone. I swear, my sister flirts too much for her own good. RUE KRUZ!" she said, launching yet another water spell and initiating a surprise attack. "Huh, two in one day. Good for me!" She charged forwards as the battle zone boundaries went up. She would fight this solo until her two party mates decided to look up and either join her or help her cover more ground. "I might be a harvest cleric," she grunted, defending against multiple strikes, "But be damned if I can't put up a fight! Ap Corma! Zan Rom!" she barked out, launching the wind-based spell at her foes.

Macha/Metrea
Metrea looked at Ginko solemnly, faint outlines of the strange runes still on her person. "You'd best be careful what you wish for, Fidchell. If you get your wish, it may not be for the best."

Rouge Metrea
"...!" Metrea gasped, as though she had been holding her breath for much too long, and coughed, wondering how she was smelling roses in real life when just a moment ago, the room she was in stank of pine air freshener. "Okay," she said between coughs. "That. Was not fun. This is not going to be an enjoyable partnership if I keep having to do this..." she blinked, staring stupidly at the blue battle zone before realizing what it meant. "Kas, I thought I was the impatient one between us."

Habataki Kasumi
"Yeah well, I kind of have a time limit to keep here!" she yelled back, beating another monster into submission. She fired off another Zan Rom before running to a corner, downing two sprite drops before flying back at her foes with a vengeance. "Hey, if you're not going to jump in here can you take one of the other two hills? HAAAAI-YAH!" there was a loud squeal as her staff blow killed a monster.

Metrea rolled her eyes and hopped into the battle, killing the remaining mobs with Kasumi. "You could have waited, you know."

"If I had the time. You and your boyfriend take forever, you know that?" she said, tapping the chest with her staff and retrieving the second Symbol Fragment.

The time was 4:20PM.

Rouge Metrea
"Hey, are you okay? You don't look so good," Metrea commented as she tried to keep up with her sister, who was clearly in a frenzy. She frowned. Her sister must be really desperate to see whatever it was, she didn't even bother with surprise attack this time. "And he's not my boyfriend, he's a friend that happens to be a boy!" Her Thorn Shot and Storm Bullets flew off with loud, resounding bangs, killing the monster she shot at.

Habataki Kasumi
"Tomato tomahto," Kasumi said, rushing to defeat the mobs, spamming Rig Saem, Ap Corma, Repth, Rue Kruz and Zan Rom. She paid special attention to Ginko, who for whatever reason was looking worn out. "Gah, this is taking so LONG!" she exclaimed in frustration, killing another monster and watching her EXP bar rise a little bit.

Habataki Kasumi
"Thank you kindly," Kasumi said, calming as the Symbol Fragments fused. Somewhere in the center of the field, the Beast Temple rumbled, sensing the uniting of the Symbol. She began to walk towards the Beast Temple, quivering in anticipation of what would happen. Would she die? Would a super strong monster come out? Would her PC get deleted? What if she opened the treasure chest JUST as the minutes aligned? Would it be a bad thing, or something good? Was she really a fool for daring to challenge this belief in the game? From a distance, she could see the Beast Statue...and somehow, it looked like it was glaring at her. It already seemed more like one of those demon statues or wrathful war gods she saw in the temples than well, a Judge God statue, really.

Rouge Metrea
In real life there was a faint blush on her face but she was determined not to let it faze her. "Let's not get too ahead of ourselves, hm-...?" She froze abruptly, paling in real life, a chilling feeling running down her spine. A bad sign. She quickly went afk to check her A/C, but it wasn't any colder than before. Besides, it wasn't that kind of cold anyways...she just had a very, VERY bad feeling...and for no reason, she was afraid. "What the...?!" she muttered, crossing her arms, glancing about. Dimly she registered Ginko's words, but was too swamped with that heavy feeling to really pay attention to it. Unlike Ginko, she wasn't used to this. She had only partially Awakened Macha, enough that she could feel and see what was happening, but not understand it. She needed to move, but her feet felt rooted to the spot. Slowly, she forced herself to take one step at a time. Chase Kasumi. I have to do something, anything, before whatever this fear is overwhelms me. So she too walked towards the temple, her heart beating a frantic rhythm as she tried to sort out exactly why she felt like something bad would or already was occurring.

Macha
"She senses him, and rightly fears him, for who doesn't fear death but the phoenix of Corbenik? Join your host in his battle with Skeith, Fidchell, or it won't only be AIDA we need worry about causing Lost Ones to appear. Dear Morganna, he's one of the worst of us when it comes to self control." Macha said with a deceptively offhand tone. Her host, while still woefully unaware of many dangers, was nonetheless at LEAST competent enough to hold her own for a while. Or so she hoped.

The time is 4:34. There are ten minutes left before the time of Triple Death. The area begins to darken into night, and from somewhere deep inside the Temple, something begins to stir, its rest disturbed yet again. But it grows agitated, restless, sensing something that "it" knew, but never met, an old enemy, yet once a friend. In the distance, behind the girls, behind the hills, eyes open. Eyes belonging to so many that dared challenge the time of triple death, locked into the area, reduced to a mass of emotions in their old forms by the parasite that woke up twice a day and took over their minds...