Yes it worked! I mentally celebrated as Rani fell hard and made a person sized hole on the ground. He slowly got up as the light from his legs spread over his new wounds. Rani stared at me once again as he seemed to be talking to someone that I couldn't see. A mental link perhaps? Either way it looked like Rani was about to take action.
Suddenly the light that enveloped his legs appeared on his arms and like before he charged at me. This time I was expecting it and as soon as he appeared in front of me I tried to side jump to avoid his attack. However because I had just used some power to create the shock waves the strength of my jump was weaker than I expected. My eyes widened as the fist had just grazed my side, but even then the force of it caused me to get a small bit of air time as I landed on my back. Looking down I saw that whatever his power was burned a lot because with just a graze it had burned through my shirt and tore off a bit of my synthetic skin, revealing a small part of my metal endoskeleton.
"Crap he almost took me out with that one punch." I said to myself as I took out my grenade launcher. I had to try and slow him down or else I wouldn't stand a chance against him. Raising my grenade launcher at Rani I fired three grenades at him before I put my grenade launcher back into it's holster and bringing my robot arm back up again. Typing in another command I felt a familiar surge of power flow through my arm as I raised it in front of me defensively. The next time Rani would charge at me I wouldn't try to avoid his attack. I was going to meet him head on and hope that with the added power my arm could withstand his attack.
------------------------------
[Lucy]
So I was facing off against Ivan huh? Man it's gonna suck when I have to mess up his beautiful face. But wait why did it say Bloodhound too? Wait did I have to face off against both of them at the same time? Man that was going to suck. Scowling I made my way to a seat and began to think of possible plans to combat Ivan and Bloodhound while watching the fight between Ordis and his opponent.
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1 Year ago the military was on the losing side of the war. All seemed bleak until one soldier brought a penguin in to training. They had trained that penguin in the use of explosives and sent him out into the field. They had thought that they had won but the agent went rouge. Now he only lives on as a legend, the legend of ShotgunPenguin.
(( "The fight had captured my attention in such a way that I never noticed Myron's crew while they snuck up on me. A similar barrier to what was being used down near the arena, this one made using a fusion of affinities rather than one specific magic, formed around where I was standing." ))
So, I'm facing somebody named "Zicka". I don't know what he looks like, what his powers are, or even where he is! But I'm still supposed to rupture his organs like I was stuffing a turkey. Entering our personal arena, I took a seat on the ground and prepared to harness my energy. I didn't know how strong my opponent was, but it's better to be prepared.
((Apologies for the shortness. I'm letting Scarf have the illiterate cake on this one.))
I had snapped. "No,no no no no no. It's all a trick, isn't it?" I asked, undergoing a bit of hysteria. I could feel my head spinning and with it was my ability to stabilize my magic energy. I needed to get everything under control or my plan would get screwed up. However, I wasn't really in the right mind at the time, so focusing on calming down was nowhere near the top of my priorities. "That's right, a trick. You killed her but can fix it, right? Fix her! Bring her back to life!"
Demi stood silently nearby, along with the five other Sinners who were holding up the barrier. They had to be in on this too, weren't they? They could heal my sister. It was just a plan, after all, to get to me. They probably wanted me freaking out, and so here I was, freaking out. "Tobes, she's gone. There's nothing we can do it about. Just calm down and pray to whatever God will still lis—"
"NO, YOU CAN REVERSE IT! I KNOW YOU CAN!" I shouted, losing control over my power. Their two barricades shattered the instant my aura suppressing technique was deactivated. The five Sinners were pushed back like straw figures in a hurricane, the force of my resented too potent for their feeble bodies to handle. "I DEMAND THAT YOU BRING MY SISTER BACK, YOU THIEF!" I screamed at Myron, my confusion slowly converting into fury. Even if it wasn't back to normal, my mind focused and I could at least figure out what on earth to think about. I stretched out my arm and began weaving energy between my fingers, thinking of the perfect spell. "Oblivion Pane." A dark circle appeared around Myron's abdomen, precisely were the Arcolia was located. Expanding the height of the circle was a cinch between my regular energy as well as the anger that burned like the strongest fuel. Technically, Myron killing Fiora was completely inside the rules, but no crime goes unpunished. He would never be able to use magic again. His swordsmanship, while appearing to be pure skill, was also due to a wide variety of buffs, all of which now being destroyed. The Son of Dimitri, killer of Fiora and likely Quincy, no longer had any right to call himself a Fallen Angel.
"The next match," I announced, clearing my mind, "is between Zicka and Alice."
It all happened extremely fast, and it had me breathing embers in no time. Myron stabbed Fiora. Two ethereal barriers were erected in an attempt to distract and entrap Tobes. It didn't work, and Tobes flipped out. Demi tried to calm him down, but Tobes got extremely angry, and probably locked down Myron's arcolia. As I watched the events unfold, I realized something.
They were terrible people.
Not the spectators, not the gods and goddesses, not the tainted, not the people who erected the barrier, not my companions, no large group of people.
But Tobias and Myron.
They were self-absorbed, self-righteous, power-hungry jerks who couldn't get over their personal feud. It cost Tobias his illusion of total control, it cost Myron his magic, and it cost Fiora her life. And I would never, ever forgive either of them for letting an innocent girl die because they wanted to prove themselves better the each other.
I remained in my seat, though it was starting to melt from the heat my rage generated. It took everything I had to stay still and not give the both of them a piece of my mind. Considering the enormous amount of heat I was generating and the spike the anger caused in my aura's potency, however, I'm certain they got the message.
((Illiterate cake? Whats that supposed to mean? Also im not gonna bother summarizing what happened.))
Zicka stood after a few moments of stillness when his name was called. Tobias had always been in control, but he just let go there. He had no idea what Oblivion Pane was, but but from the look on the victim's face, it seemed to be a fate worse than death. Zicka came down to the arena and met his opponent. She seemed very powerful. Zicka extended his hand. "Lets not let our fight descend into death, shall we?" Zicka asked. Though his forte was death magic, he had a few other spells up his sleeve that would work in this situation.
((Short post... cant really help it. Also, Mad, are PMs working for you? I sent you one but you didnt respond.))
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Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
I left a clone at the Fallen Angel arena, along with remaking the others since the connection they had to me broke when I... Lost control. The library in the lodging was in tact, all of the books I had Quincy read open to the last page he had been on. Several coffee cups had been lying around, littering the floor with their scented waste. Until the tournament neared it's end, I had no reason to stick around and watch.
"I heard what happened from your mother." Someone said from behind me, the rasp, dry voice having the nature of if a ghost were talking to you. When they moved around, there was the rattling of bones that gave away the identity of the speaker. Zona, the Goddess of death, had sent an illusion of herself to speak with me. "A'thery told us what you're planning. I've come to make a deal and I can only pray you'll accept. If you, call this off, I'll show you how to open the gateway to Tha'um, or Hell, as people down here call it. I don't know if it will help; maybe you'll get to speak with your sister and grieve, perhaps you'll meet your apprentice once more."
"Tha'um is one of the dimensions of Sin." I replied, not turning toward Zona, but rather clearing some space on a drafting table. "You know that I, while still being a full-fledged god, cannot enter. You suggesting this is the same as planting the seed of giving up my immortality in order to speak to the dead." I pulled out some parchment and a Mana Quill, a rather old fashioned way to plan out spells. Racking my brain for the correct symbol language, I began to write out different sigils. A spell to bring back the dead was impossible, although I had a contact who was usually able to do the impossible. "When you head back to Aer, tell my mom to visit instead of sending a messenger. I want to talk to her about my optical issues."
(( Sorry for not posting in a while, I ran low on inspiration for some reason. ))
Relic grunged. Apparently, there was someone else around here; someone whose existence the rock solid golem failed to acknowledge earlier. His manners, well they seemed friendly. But had that man been hostile, Relic would have been caught off guard. That was a mistake he couldn't forgive for himself.
"Relic is the name." The voice came from a surprising depth of his neck that Relic had almost forgotten about its existence. "Identify yourself first, human." The giant said. Having not spared a word within a century, talking felt challenging. Engaging in any basic social function felt challenging. Relic had to dust off his consciousness before he procceeded into this new world.
But there was no need to drag things out of context. Those two served perhaps a common purpose, for they have met before this maze of no known origin, to him at least. Though, the stranger didn't have any more knowledge about this place than what he had. They could stick around for a little more, perhaps. Form a tag team of sort, just to bear through the maze.
Relic needed no protection. It was the human that would need his iron body to fend off the possible dangers lurking inside the maze.
Relic swung his fearsome but rusted blade, and impaled it to the ground. It was a signal; 'hey look, I am friendly' he said without a single vocal chord moving inside his artificial neck. If the human was capable of understanding basic sign language, he would easily recognize such a move.
(( Mad Man, your turn's up. ))
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" Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. " - Bertolt Brecht
"I'll take that as a yes." I said, my brain whirring with activity. "Well, magic has certainly advanced enormously. When I was around, protosynthetic sentient artificial constructs weren't advanced enough to respond and react independently of a biological conscious guiding their every step. You're a marvel, to say the least. Also, I might add that human isn't the proper term to describe me. I was once known as Scelus the Sanguine, prior to my sealing. I believe I have propagated a species. As I recall, they are known as vampires? They were called Erebine, or Visanox when I first started out. Ugh, I'm rambling. It's just nice to talk to somebody after a few millennia of isolation. Hello Relic, nice to meet you."
In my peripheral vision, a blur of movement alarmed my senses. Turning my head in the opposition's direction, I analyzed the possible threat. It was fast, much faster than I had anticipated. My thoughts couldn't fully prepare me as it closed in and swiped. I couldn't even block it. Skidding backwards, I shattered my mind.
The first focused on diverting its attention. It would handle the body for now. The second started preparing to lash out magically. The third was trying to identify the creature, while the fourth was trying to pinpoint it's weaknesses. A solid blow to the chest knocked the air out of me. Twisting my feet around its own, I forced it to the ground. The fourth mind quipped in, pointing out that it has two points of excessive nerve tissue. Essentially, pressure points. With my claws I tore half-way through its forearm. With a screech it retreated. Doesn't matter, the third mind reminded me. This is a modified ghoul resurrected via necromancy. But it was part-ghoul, which meant one thing. I OWN IT. I clenched my palm together before yanking back. It was sent tumbling forward. The second mind completed its task, and a complex four-layered trigram expanded under said-being. Hellish chains reached out of the ground and bound it to the floor.
"Well it seems the Labyrinth is getting more personalized. Care to finish the job?"
(( So, just in case you guys weren't aware, there are few times were I'm reading a post without Google Translate open in a different tab. Some words I just haven't had the pleasure of learning yet, so it's quite fun to get to see vocabulary that is foreign to me. Mad Man, your post was at the point where I just copy/pasted the whole thing in, and even then it didn't make much sense. Your upgraded vocabulary is fine and all, but using it at every chance possibly is both excessive in general and frustrating for people without a background in English. ))
[Demi]
Watching Myron fight Fiora made my stomach twist, accompanied by a wave of nausea when the latter of the two was maimed. I knew that most children of Dimitri went overboard in terms of combat, but unnecessarily killing an opponent was too much. Sure, I knew that Myron'd be pulling something that would catch Tobes' attention, but doing that was just too much. It was for nothing anyways; Tobias was too strong for any form of magic we could produce. Maybe it,d be best for me to just focus on the competition and my own matches. Zicka and Alice were the two up next. Alice, if I recall, some sort of Mutant-Taint-Thing that humanity's least favorite god created. Zicka, on the other hand, wasn't a name often spoken in Aer, so I had very little information on him.
[Fiora?]
So what happens to the dead when they die? Nobody has ever really looked into it. Sages young and old have tried to contact the spirits of the deceased, but it was usually just a bunch of hoaxes. 'Hauntings' were merely fluctuations of energy caused by strong emotions, which could be linked to people who died there or previously held strong attachment. On the other hand, Philospher's have theorized for ages what would happen when you died. Would you become a spectator, cast away to oblivion to watch from afar? Or were you sent to boil in a lake of sulphr for eternity? Nothing could prepare me for the truth behind Hell.
From what I could tell, the Underworld was broken up into three sections. One was for those who lived righteous, relatively sinless lives. It'd be easy enough to call it the Afterlife, since it gave it's residents a chance to live peacefully. The second was for those who experienced a more neutral existence. They wondered around forever, hoping to find meaning in their now worthless time. The third, obviously, was the home of those who had sinned against the world. Fallen Angels, as the prime example of sinning against the gods, got a one way ticket right to the bottom. Judging me took no time; I was sent to be tortured for every moment for eternity. Lovely. I saw people who had been so disfigured, they hardly looked human anymore. One man was having to try and sow their skin back together while a demon ripped away at his flesh, which almost made me lose my spectral stomach. My punishment seemed light, but I could still tell that I'd go insane soon enough.
Isolation has been proved to be an efficient torture and interrogation technique. Cutting someone off from the world can make them lose their grip on reality, questioning their very existence. I was forced into a small chamber, smaller in each measurement than I was tall, forcing me into a ball. The walls, however, displayed scenes of my failures, of my death, and of the day I lost my brother to his hunger for knowledge. This would be a looong eternity.
Relic couldn't help but cringe to what this riddling creature mumbled before him. Highly scientific terms that he couldn't comprehend, but among all of his talk, Relic did pick up a couple of words that sounded insulting, or perhaps intimidating. "First of all, I am not a 'protosynthetic' creature" he said, without trying to think too much about the meaning of that word which he hadn't heard of before. "And I've been around for a while. Two centuries, to be precise" He added with his deep-pitched voice, but not long before some new excessive mumbling blasted in the conversation. "You don't need to talk big words, Scelus." Relic said, finally, "I'm not good at proccessing big words."
Then something changed. More specifically, Scelus got distracted by Relic and focused his mind on something else. Within the split of a second, a third, secret bystander rammed at the vampire at full force. Scelus acted fast, and the creature that took the opportunity attack against them was already lying to the ground, bound by chains. Was this magic the doing of the vampire? If it was, that meant that the capabilities of Scelus were... quite fearsome.
Relic wondered what would happen if for some unexpected turn of event, Scelus decided to turn against him and unleash his hellish magic on his rock body. Perhaps he couldn't accomplish much. Relic was immune to death by physical damage. If Scelus wanted him dead, he would have to ripple through his steel skull and destroy a piece of magic that was designed to be indestructible. But until he got there, Relic would have enough time to deliver hard hitting punches into the vampire's body. Though, Scelus was a vampire - his physical body was equally invulnerable as his.
The invitation to finish off the job came pleasantly. "Step aside." Relic said, whilst plugging his broadsword out of the ground below him. His hands handled the blade with care. He drew the sword high enough to the level of his forehead. From this distance, Relic could observe how damaged his weapon was. It was tragical, but sharpness didn't have a factor here. All he needed was a solid blow to the head to decapitate the creature.
Before he lowered his hands, Relic gazed at his target for one last time - it was definetely not a tainted. It was around two metres tall, matching perhaps Relic's height. It had a very lean body that featured no fat but only thin muscles. Its hands and legs matched the same pattern, differentiating only in being unnaturally longer than any average human being's. The head was round, with two horns in deep green colour escaping from its skull and stretched out for about twenty centimetres. A pair of large black eyes stared souless back at Relic's own eyes. The creature was ready to receive the death that came at it, and Relic was more than happy to offer it to it.
The next stroke found a head crumbling to the ground and rolling aside on the rocks, painting the soil of the maze in red blood.
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" Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. " - Bertolt Brecht
I grimaced as Rani had effortlessly kicked 2 of my grenades away from him before dodging the blast from the third grenade. He breathed a sigh as he looked over to me. He seemed wary to attack me seeing as how I went from playing keep away to standing my ground in a short period of time. Rani then pulled out his broken claymore and appeared to be preparing something.
Suddenly Rani bolted towards me like I had hoped. But instead of charging at me head on like I had planned he suddenly darted around me as a curved wave of white light shot out from his sword. My eyes widened as time seemed to slow down to a crawl. I could see the energy wave coming closer and closer as I raised my arms to try and block the attack out of reflex. As the attack made contact with my non-charged arm I could feel it burning through the arm as I tried to move it away from the attack. However I wasn't fast enough and I watched with horror as my arm had become separated from the elbow down as the energy wave continued it's path. As it hit my charged arm the attack slowed as it slowly cut into my other arm.
Becoming desperate I panicked and sent a surge of energy to my arm, the sudden boost allowing me to redirect the attack just enough that it would barely miss me. Still though the damage was done as I collapsed onto my knees while letting out a pained yell. Grunting in pain a sudden warning sign flashed through my vision warning me of my severed arm and a dangerously low amount of power. "It's over......" I thought as I sat there staring at the ground. I stared at the ground for a few seconds before I looked up at Rani with a pained look. "Well then I guess you've disarmed me." I said while chuckling at my own joke. "Alright I concede, you win." Looking over to my severed arm I looked at Rani and asked "Hey do you think you could lend me a hand with that?" I asked while slowly rising to my feet.
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1 Year ago the military was on the losing side of the war. All seemed bleak until one soldier brought a penguin in to training. They had trained that penguin in the use of explosives and sent him out into the field. They had thought that they had won but the agent went rouge. Now he only lives on as a legend, the legend of ShotgunPenguin.
"Yeah it was a good fight" I said as I accepted Rani's handshake. After that I walked over to my severed arm and picked it up while saying "Man getting this thing fixed is going to cost me an arm and a leg." Oh wow that joke was so corny I think that I have some of it stuck in my teeth. Walking back to Rani I say "Sorry about the jokes but it's pretty much the only thing keeping me from yelling a string of obscenities so bad that even the tainted would cover their ears." Taking my severed arm I clap Rani on the back and said "Well good luck in the next round, and after the tournament lets have a chat. I have some questions about that magic that you used." I said as I exited the arena and went into the viewing area.
As soon as I walked into the viewing area I felt a slap on my cheek as Lucy stood there looking absolutely furious. "That's for almost getting yourself killed" She then proceeded to pull me into a bear hug "And this is for surviving." Man Lucy and her mood swings, annoying most of the time but right now it was totally justified. "Come on Lucy I'm fine, see?" As I said that Lucy took my arm from me and waved it in front of me. "Alright I get your point but seriously it's nothing serious." Lucy sighed as we walked towards our seats. "Well as long as your here you can help me talk strategy." She said as she went on and on about different strategies of what she could do during her fight. "Great now I kind of wish that I had died back there, because this is so boring!" I thought as I slid down in my chair while doing my best to bloc out Lucy.
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1 Year ago the military was on the losing side of the war. All seemed bleak until one soldier brought a penguin in to training. They had trained that penguin in the use of explosives and sent him out into the field. They had thought that they had won but the agent went rouge. Now he only lives on as a legend, the legend of ShotgunPenguin.
I blinked. "Oh sorry, did you say something. That thing really derailed my train of thought. Apologies for utilizing an advanced grammar, it's been a while since I talked to somebody. Also, I'm sure you'll find that you ARE protosynthetic. You are a golem, after all. And while they're rarely created these days, the study of magical constructs has evolved well past your current design. Henceforth, you are protosynthetic, or an artificial prototype. Not to say you aren't impressive. I mean, to sustain yourself? That's practically unheard of! Well, dabbling back on what I just said. From the knowledge I absorbed from one of my kin, I got the gist that making life via magic was considered taboo these days. So my terminology might be wrong. But anyway, nice kill!"
A trail of drool slipped through my lips, and I tentatively dipped my finger in the blood splattered on the pavement. As my tongue found it's way to said-substance, a pulse of magic informed me of the qualities of this beast. "Hm.... It's a mixed breed, that's surprising. It's of Damoclean lineage, yet has a tinge of Diablerie soiling itself. That indicates it was either too weak to complete the metamorphosis, or wasn't a pure-blood. Judging by the way it's cells were responding to his magic, I'd guess he was a dhampire, or possibly a powerful legacy. Regardless, the taint of a Diableria indicates he didn't fully evolve into a vampire. Well no, it indicates he had the thirst for power generally exhibited by lower-ranking coven members. But due to his heritage, it indicates otherwise. He attempted to consume the magic of his fellow vampire, and it failed. But the toxin of ghoul degeneration is quite coarse and thick. By my estimation, this means it occurred within the last 18 hours."
I paused, raptly observing his reaction to my tirade. He wasn't listening. I didn't wish to seem like a patrician, so I quickly added a few parting words. "Basically, he was a contestant. He transformed during the tournament." The impact of my words was left in the air, hanging limply like my mother. Ah-ah-ah, no reminiscing your past, Vlad. You had time to do that in your prison. Reigning my whimsical nature, I returned my thoughts to the world around me. 'How queer that was...'
Could the answer be as simple as Golemancy? For millennia, sages have been animating objects in order to serve simple purposes, such as maintaining gardens, fighting off intruders, and aiding in arcane studies. However, due to the magic inside them acting as little more than an artificial soul, it wasn't unreasonable to think that using a more complex variant or perhaps an actual soul would create an advanced version. Resurrecting my sister as a puppet was by no means my intention, but if I could get a sort of anchor on where her spirit was, it wasn't a stretch to think that I'd be able to locate where in Hell she was. I was, admittedly, completely unfamiliar with the inner workings of forbidden magic such as reincarnation, but such bridges would be crossed when I get there. Visiting Fiora was step one, but bringing her back to life in her entire glory would be more difficult.
"You're completely insane." A familiar voice rang with a tone of admiration for my psychotic actions, as well as a bit of spite. "Stop trying to play with the spirits of the dead, it's completely unethical." I could feel the presence of someone standing in the corner of the messy library, watching my every move.
"You should know, seeing as you're dead." I said. The person was none other than Quincy, my deceased apprentice.
"Well, since you're slowly losing your mind you have unconsciously created a sort of entity to act as your rational brain. It's similar to what that Whistler guy does." He explained, sitting down on a nearby table. "Your subconscious brain decided that I'd be the perfect figure to host your rational thought. Don't consider me separate from yourself. I am merely a medium for you to access that side of yourself without having to question your sanity."
This delusion made even my most insane moment sound like bliss. I worked a few things over in my head, thinking about every possible benefit. "In a nutshell, you're saying that you are a terminal to my brain. I can simply seek advice from you to figure out what I need to do..." Without any time wasted, I scrapped my former spell project. I'd need to rework everything anyways, plus I'd be able to do it in a more efficient manner now that Quincy was here. Since he was nothing more than a figment of my imagination, I wouldn't be able to seek his council in front of other people, for risk of actually being considered to be insane. Anyways, the spell parchment was fairly large due to the need for a more complex format. "I am going to, as you know, make a spell that will replicate this scenario whenever I need it. Being able to think clearly is something that would aid my research."
"Just so you know, I can't answer any questions that you don't or shouldn't know the answer to. My cache is the same one that you pull from, so just think of me as a second you. Twice the brain power only at the cost of being insane." He said, sweetening the deal even further. To test out how useful he was, I activated a wide range detection spell and returned to drafting. Knowing what I wanted, Quincy began reading off various results from my sonar. "The Vampire and the Robot are going to be fighting. Zicka and Alice have yet to begin. Garrett's emotions are raging. I could go on, but I, no, we've proved the point."
((I'm sorry for not posting recently. I'm simply waiting until one of my characters enters the ring.))
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"We must call for aid! Executor, bring out the Reavers! ... What? What do you mean we don't have reavers anymore? Then... send the Dragoons! ... Ugh, then what do you suggest? ... What's a Void Ray?!" -Tassadar, Savior of the Templar
((null))
[Ordis]
Yes it worked! I mentally celebrated as Rani fell hard and made a person sized hole on the ground. He slowly got up as the light from his legs spread over his new wounds. Rani stared at me once again as he seemed to be talking to someone that I couldn't see. A mental link perhaps? Either way it looked like Rani was about to take action.
Suddenly the light that enveloped his legs appeared on his arms and like before he charged at me. This time I was expecting it and as soon as he appeared in front of me I tried to side jump to avoid his attack. However because I had just used some power to create the shock waves the strength of my jump was weaker than I expected. My eyes widened as the fist had just grazed my side, but even then the force of it caused me to get a small bit of air time as I landed on my back. Looking down I saw that whatever his power was burned a lot because with just a graze it had burned through my shirt and tore off a bit of my synthetic skin, revealing a small part of my metal endoskeleton.
"Crap he almost took me out with that one punch." I said to myself as I took out my grenade launcher. I had to try and slow him down or else I wouldn't stand a chance against him. Raising my grenade launcher at Rani I fired three grenades at him before I put my grenade launcher back into it's holster and bringing my robot arm back up again. Typing in another command I felt a familiar surge of power flow through my arm as I raised it in front of me defensively. The next time Rani would charge at me I wouldn't try to avoid his attack. I was going to meet him head on and hope that with the added power my arm could withstand his attack.
------------------------------
[Lucy]
So I was facing off against Ivan huh? Man it's gonna suck when I have to mess up his beautiful face. But wait why did it say Bloodhound too? Wait did I have to face off against both of them at the same time? Man that was going to suck. Scowling I made my way to a seat and began to think of possible plans to combat Ivan and Bloodhound while watching the fight between Ordis and his opponent.
(( Scarf, Tobias was actually trapped inside of a second barrier by the remaining members of the Sins. That is where Demi intended to torch him. ))
((You mean its all in his head? Sorry i didnt pick up on that.))
(( "The fight had captured my attention in such a way that I never noticed Myron's crew while they snuck up on me. A similar barrier to what was being used down near the arena, this one made using a fusion of affinities rather than one specific magic, formed around where I was standing." ))
((A "Yes" or "No" would have been better. Just ignore that last post, i guess.))
[Alice]
So, I'm facing somebody named "Zicka". I don't know what he looks like, what his powers are, or even where he is! But I'm still supposed to rupture his organs like I was stuffing a turkey. Entering our personal arena, I took a seat on the ground and prepared to harness my energy. I didn't know how strong my opponent was, but it's better to be prepared.
((Apologies for the shortness. I'm letting Scarf have the illiterate cake on this one.))
[Tobias]
I had snapped. "No,no no no no no. It's all a trick, isn't it?" I asked, undergoing a bit of hysteria. I could feel my head spinning and with it was my ability to stabilize my magic energy. I needed to get everything under control or my plan would get screwed up. However, I wasn't really in the right mind at the time, so focusing on calming down was nowhere near the top of my priorities. "That's right, a trick. You killed her but can fix it, right? Fix her! Bring her back to life!"
Demi stood silently nearby, along with the five other Sinners who were holding up the barrier. They had to be in on this too, weren't they? They could heal my sister. It was just a plan, after all, to get to me. They probably wanted me freaking out, and so here I was, freaking out. "Tobes, she's gone. There's nothing we can do it about. Just calm down and pray to whatever God will still lis—"
"NO, YOU CAN REVERSE IT! I KNOW YOU CAN!" I shouted, losing control over my power. Their two barricades shattered the instant my aura suppressing technique was deactivated. The five Sinners were pushed back like straw figures in a hurricane, the force of my resented too potent for their feeble bodies to handle. "I DEMAND THAT YOU BRING MY SISTER BACK, YOU THIEF!" I screamed at Myron, my confusion slowly converting into fury. Even if it wasn't back to normal, my mind focused and I could at least figure out what on earth to think about. I stretched out my arm and began weaving energy between my fingers, thinking of the perfect spell. "Oblivion Pane." A dark circle appeared around Myron's abdomen, precisely were the Arcolia was located. Expanding the height of the circle was a cinch between my regular energy as well as the anger that burned like the strongest fuel. Technically, Myron killing Fiora was completely inside the rules, but no crime goes unpunished. He would never be able to use magic again. His swordsmanship, while appearing to be pure skill, was also due to a wide variety of buffs, all of which now being destroyed. The Son of Dimitri, killer of Fiora and likely Quincy, no longer had any right to call himself a Fallen Angel.
"The next match," I announced, clearing my mind, "is between Zicka and Alice."
[Garrett]
It all happened extremely fast, and it had me breathing embers in no time. Myron stabbed Fiora. Two ethereal barriers were erected in an attempt to distract and entrap Tobes. It didn't work, and Tobes flipped out. Demi tried to calm him down, but Tobes got extremely angry, and probably locked down Myron's arcolia. As I watched the events unfold, I realized something.
They were terrible people.
Not the spectators, not the gods and goddesses, not the tainted, not the people who erected the barrier, not my companions, no large group of people.
But Tobias and Myron.
They were self-absorbed, self-righteous, power-hungry jerks who couldn't get over their personal feud. It cost Tobias his illusion of total control, it cost Myron his magic, and it cost Fiora her life. And I would never, ever forgive either of them for letting an innocent girl die because they wanted to prove themselves better the each other.
I remained in my seat, though it was starting to melt from the heat my rage generated. It took everything I had to stay still and not give the both of them a piece of my mind. Considering the enormous amount of heat I was generating and the spike the anger caused in my aura's potency, however, I'm certain they got the message.
There's no kill like overkill.
((Illiterate cake? Whats that supposed to mean? Also im not gonna bother summarizing what happened.))
Zicka stood after a few moments of stillness when his name was called. Tobias had always been in control, but he just let go there. He had no idea what Oblivion Pane was, but but from the look on the victim's face, it seemed to be a fate worse than death. Zicka came down to the arena and met his opponent. She seemed very powerful. Zicka extended his hand. "Lets not let our fight descend into death, shall we?" Zicka asked. Though his forte was death magic, he had a few other spells up his sleeve that would work in this situation.
((Short post... cant really help it. Also, Mad, are PMs working for you? I sent you one but you didnt respond.))
[Tobias]
I left a clone at the Fallen Angel arena, along with remaking the others since the connection they had to me broke when I... Lost control. The library in the lodging was in tact, all of the books I had Quincy read open to the last page he had been on. Several coffee cups had been lying around, littering the floor with their scented waste. Until the tournament neared it's end, I had no reason to stick around and watch.
"I heard what happened from your mother." Someone said from behind me, the rasp, dry voice having the nature of if a ghost were talking to you. When they moved around, there was the rattling of bones that gave away the identity of the speaker. Zona, the Goddess of death, had sent an illusion of herself to speak with me. "A'thery told us what you're planning. I've come to make a deal and I can only pray you'll accept. If you, call this off, I'll show you how to open the gateway to Tha'um, or Hell, as people down here call it. I don't know if it will help; maybe you'll get to speak with your sister and grieve, perhaps you'll meet your apprentice once more."
"Tha'um is one of the dimensions of Sin." I replied, not turning toward Zona, but rather clearing some space on a drafting table. "You know that I, while still being a full-fledged god, cannot enter. You suggesting this is the same as planting the seed of giving up my immortality in order to speak to the dead." I pulled out some parchment and a Mana Quill, a rather old fashioned way to plan out spells. Racking my brain for the correct symbol language, I began to write out different sigils. A spell to bring back the dead was impossible, although I had a contact who was usually able to do the impossible. "When you head back to Aer, tell my mom to visit instead of sending a messenger. I want to talk to her about my optical issues."
(( Sorry for not posting in a while, I ran low on inspiration for some reason. ))
Relic grunged. Apparently, there was someone else around here; someone whose existence the rock solid golem failed to acknowledge earlier. His manners, well they seemed friendly. But had that man been hostile, Relic would have been caught off guard. That was a mistake he couldn't forgive for himself.
"Relic is the name." The voice came from a surprising depth of his neck that Relic had almost forgotten about its existence. "Identify yourself first, human." The giant said. Having not spared a word within a century, talking felt challenging. Engaging in any basic social function felt challenging. Relic had to dust off his consciousness before he procceeded into this new world.
But there was no need to drag things out of context. Those two served perhaps a common purpose, for they have met before this maze of no known origin, to him at least. Though, the stranger didn't have any more knowledge about this place than what he had. They could stick around for a little more, perhaps. Form a tag team of sort, just to bear through the maze.
Relic needed no protection. It was the human that would need his iron body to fend off the possible dangers lurking inside the maze.
Relic swung his fearsome but rusted blade, and impaled it to the ground. It was a signal; 'hey look, I am friendly' he said without a single vocal chord moving inside his artificial neck. If the human was capable of understanding basic sign language, he would easily recognize such a move.
(( Mad Man, your turn's up. ))
[Vlad]
"I'll take that as a yes." I said, my brain whirring with activity. "Well, magic has certainly advanced enormously. When I was around, protosynthetic sentient artificial constructs weren't advanced enough to respond and react independently of a biological conscious guiding their every step. You're a marvel, to say the least. Also, I might add that human isn't the proper term to describe me. I was once known as Scelus the Sanguine, prior to my sealing. I believe I have propagated a species. As I recall, they are known as vampires? They were called Erebine, or Visanox when I first started out. Ugh, I'm rambling. It's just nice to talk to somebody after a few millennia of isolation. Hello Relic, nice to meet you."
In my peripheral vision, a blur of movement alarmed my senses. Turning my head in the opposition's direction, I analyzed the possible threat. It was fast, much faster than I had anticipated. My thoughts couldn't fully prepare me as it closed in and swiped. I couldn't even block it. Skidding backwards, I shattered my mind.
The first focused on diverting its attention. It would handle the body for now. The second started preparing to lash out magically. The third was trying to identify the creature, while the fourth was trying to pinpoint it's weaknesses. A solid blow to the chest knocked the air out of me. Twisting my feet around its own, I forced it to the ground. The fourth mind quipped in, pointing out that it has two points of excessive nerve tissue. Essentially, pressure points. With my claws I tore half-way through its forearm. With a screech it retreated. Doesn't matter, the third mind reminded me. This is a modified ghoul resurrected via necromancy. But it was part-ghoul, which meant one thing. I OWN IT. I clenched my palm together before yanking back. It was sent tumbling forward. The second mind completed its task, and a complex four-layered trigram expanded under said-being. Hellish chains reached out of the ground and bound it to the floor.
"Well it seems the Labyrinth is getting more personalized. Care to finish the job?"
(( So, just in case you guys weren't aware, there are few times were I'm reading a post without Google Translate open in a different tab. Some words I just haven't had the pleasure of learning yet, so it's quite fun to get to see vocabulary that is foreign to me. Mad Man, your post was at the point where I just copy/pasted the whole thing in, and even then it didn't make much sense. Your upgraded vocabulary is fine and all, but using it at every chance possibly is both excessive in general and frustrating for people without a background in English. ))
[Demi]
Watching Myron fight Fiora made my stomach twist, accompanied by a wave of nausea when the latter of the two was maimed. I knew that most children of Dimitri went overboard in terms of combat, but unnecessarily killing an opponent was too much. Sure, I knew that Myron'd be pulling something that would catch Tobes' attention, but doing that was just too much. It was for nothing anyways; Tobias was too strong for any form of magic we could produce. Maybe it,d be best for me to just focus on the competition and my own matches. Zicka and Alice were the two up next. Alice, if I recall, some sort of Mutant-Taint-Thing that humanity's least favorite god created. Zicka, on the other hand, wasn't a name often spoken in Aer, so I had very little information on him.
[Fiora?]
So what happens to the dead when they die? Nobody has ever really looked into it. Sages young and old have tried to contact the spirits of the deceased, but it was usually just a bunch of hoaxes. 'Hauntings' were merely fluctuations of energy caused by strong emotions, which could be linked to people who died there or previously held strong attachment. On the other hand, Philospher's have theorized for ages what would happen when you died. Would you become a spectator, cast away to oblivion to watch from afar? Or were you sent to boil in a lake of sulphr for eternity? Nothing could prepare me for the truth behind Hell.
From what I could tell, the Underworld was broken up into three sections. One was for those who lived righteous, relatively sinless lives. It'd be easy enough to call it the Afterlife, since it gave it's residents a chance to live peacefully. The second was for those who experienced a more neutral existence. They wondered around forever, hoping to find meaning in their now worthless time. The third, obviously, was the home of those who had sinned against the world. Fallen Angels, as the prime example of sinning against the gods, got a one way ticket right to the bottom. Judging me took no time; I was sent to be tortured for every moment for eternity. Lovely. I saw people who had been so disfigured, they hardly looked human anymore. One man was having to try and sow their skin back together while a demon ripped away at his flesh, which almost made me lose my spectral stomach. My punishment seemed light, but I could still tell that I'd go insane soon enough.
Isolation has been proved to be an efficient torture and interrogation technique. Cutting someone off from the world can make them lose their grip on reality, questioning their very existence. I was forced into a small chamber, smaller in each measurement than I was tall, forcing me into a ball. The walls, however, displayed scenes of my failures, of my death, and of the day I lost my brother to his hunger for knowledge. This would be a looong eternity.
Relic couldn't help but cringe to what this riddling creature mumbled before him. Highly scientific terms that he couldn't comprehend, but among all of his talk, Relic did pick up a couple of words that sounded insulting, or perhaps intimidating. "First of all, I am not a 'protosynthetic' creature" he said, without trying to think too much about the meaning of that word which he hadn't heard of before. "And I've been around for a while. Two centuries, to be precise" He added with his deep-pitched voice, but not long before some new excessive mumbling blasted in the conversation. "You don't need to talk big words, Scelus." Relic said, finally, "I'm not good at proccessing big words."
Then something changed. More specifically, Scelus got distracted by Relic and focused his mind on something else. Within the split of a second, a third, secret bystander rammed at the vampire at full force. Scelus acted fast, and the creature that took the opportunity attack against them was already lying to the ground, bound by chains. Was this magic the doing of the vampire? If it was, that meant that the capabilities of Scelus were... quite fearsome.
Relic wondered what would happen if for some unexpected turn of event, Scelus decided to turn against him and unleash his hellish magic on his rock body. Perhaps he couldn't accomplish much. Relic was immune to death by physical damage. If Scelus wanted him dead, he would have to ripple through his steel skull and destroy a piece of magic that was designed to be indestructible. But until he got there, Relic would have enough time to deliver hard hitting punches into the vampire's body. Though, Scelus was a vampire - his physical body was equally invulnerable as his.
The invitation to finish off the job came pleasantly. "Step aside." Relic said, whilst plugging his broadsword out of the ground below him. His hands handled the blade with care. He drew the sword high enough to the level of his forehead. From this distance, Relic could observe how damaged his weapon was. It was tragical, but sharpness didn't have a factor here. All he needed was a solid blow to the head to decapitate the creature.
Before he lowered his hands, Relic gazed at his target for one last time - it was definetely not a tainted. It was around two metres tall, matching perhaps Relic's height. It had a very lean body that featured no fat but only thin muscles. Its hands and legs matched the same pattern, differentiating only in being unnaturally longer than any average human being's. The head was round, with two horns in deep green colour escaping from its skull and stretched out for about twenty centimetres. A pair of large black eyes stared souless back at Relic's own eyes. The creature was ready to receive the death that came at it, and Relic was more than happy to offer it to it.
The next stroke found a head crumbling to the ground and rolling aside on the rocks, painting the soil of the maze in red blood.
[Ordis]
I grimaced as Rani had effortlessly kicked 2 of my grenades away from him before dodging the blast from the third grenade. He breathed a sigh as he looked over to me. He seemed wary to attack me seeing as how I went from playing keep away to standing my ground in a short period of time. Rani then pulled out his broken claymore and appeared to be preparing something.
Suddenly Rani bolted towards me like I had hoped. But instead of charging at me head on like I had planned he suddenly darted around me as a curved wave of white light shot out from his sword. My eyes widened as time seemed to slow down to a crawl. I could see the energy wave coming closer and closer as I raised my arms to try and block the attack out of reflex. As the attack made contact with my non-charged arm I could feel it burning through the arm as I tried to move it away from the attack. However I wasn't fast enough and I watched with horror as my arm had become separated from the elbow down as the energy wave continued it's path. As it hit my charged arm the attack slowed as it slowly cut into my other arm.
Becoming desperate I panicked and sent a surge of energy to my arm, the sudden boost allowing me to redirect the attack just enough that it would barely miss me. Still though the damage was done as I collapsed onto my knees while letting out a pained yell. Grunting in pain a sudden warning sign flashed through my vision warning me of my severed arm and a dangerously low amount of power. "It's over......" I thought as I sat there staring at the ground. I stared at the ground for a few seconds before I looked up at Rani with a pained look. "Well then I guess you've disarmed me." I said while chuckling at my own joke. "Alright I concede, you win." Looking over to my severed arm I looked at Rani and asked "Hey do you think you could lend me a hand with that?" I asked while slowly rising to my feet.
[Ordis]
"Yeah it was a good fight" I said as I accepted Rani's handshake. After that I walked over to my severed arm and picked it up while saying "Man getting this thing fixed is going to cost me an arm and a leg." Oh wow that joke was so corny I think that I have some of it stuck in my teeth. Walking back to Rani I say "Sorry about the jokes but it's pretty much the only thing keeping me from yelling a string of obscenities so bad that even the tainted would cover their ears." Taking my severed arm I clap Rani on the back and said "Well good luck in the next round, and after the tournament lets have a chat. I have some questions about that magic that you used." I said as I exited the arena and went into the viewing area.
As soon as I walked into the viewing area I felt a slap on my cheek as Lucy stood there looking absolutely furious. "That's for almost getting yourself killed" She then proceeded to pull me into a bear hug "And this is for surviving." Man Lucy and her mood swings, annoying most of the time but right now it was totally justified. "Come on Lucy I'm fine, see?" As I said that Lucy took my arm from me and waved it in front of me. "Alright I get your point but seriously it's nothing serious." Lucy sighed as we walked towards our seats. "Well as long as your here you can help me talk strategy." She said as she went on and on about different strategies of what she could do during her fight. "Great now I kind of wish that I had died back there, because this is so boring!" I thought as I slid down in my chair while doing my best to bloc out Lucy.
[Vlad{
I blinked. "Oh sorry, did you say something. That thing really derailed my train of thought. Apologies for utilizing an advanced grammar, it's been a while since I talked to somebody. Also, I'm sure you'll find that you ARE protosynthetic. You are a golem, after all. And while they're rarely created these days, the study of magical constructs has evolved well past your current design. Henceforth, you are protosynthetic, or an artificial prototype. Not to say you aren't impressive. I mean, to sustain yourself? That's practically unheard of! Well, dabbling back on what I just said. From the knowledge I absorbed from one of my kin, I got the gist that making life via magic was considered taboo these days. So my terminology might be wrong. But anyway, nice kill!"
A trail of drool slipped through my lips, and I tentatively dipped my finger in the blood splattered on the pavement. As my tongue found it's way to said-substance, a pulse of magic informed me of the qualities of this beast. "Hm.... It's a mixed breed, that's surprising. It's of Damoclean lineage, yet has a tinge of Diablerie soiling itself. That indicates it was either too weak to complete the metamorphosis, or wasn't a pure-blood. Judging by the way it's cells were responding to his magic, I'd guess he was a dhampire, or possibly a powerful legacy. Regardless, the taint of a Diableria indicates he didn't fully evolve into a vampire. Well no, it indicates he had the thirst for power generally exhibited by lower-ranking coven members. But due to his heritage, it indicates otherwise. He attempted to consume the magic of his fellow vampire, and it failed. But the toxin of ghoul degeneration is quite coarse and thick. By my estimation, this means it occurred within the last 18 hours."
I paused, raptly observing his reaction to my tirade. He wasn't listening. I didn't wish to seem like a patrician, so I quickly added a few parting words. "Basically, he was a contestant. He transformed during the tournament." The impact of my words was left in the air, hanging limply like my mother. Ah-ah-ah, no reminiscing your past, Vlad. You had time to do that in your prison. Reigning my whimsical nature, I returned my thoughts to the world around me. 'How queer that was...'
[Tobias]
Could the answer be as simple as Golemancy? For millennia, sages have been animating objects in order to serve simple purposes, such as maintaining gardens, fighting off intruders, and aiding in arcane studies. However, due to the magic inside them acting as little more than an artificial soul, it wasn't unreasonable to think that using a more complex variant or perhaps an actual soul would create an advanced version. Resurrecting my sister as a puppet was by no means my intention, but if I could get a sort of anchor on where her spirit was, it wasn't a stretch to think that I'd be able to locate where in Hell she was. I was, admittedly, completely unfamiliar with the inner workings of forbidden magic such as reincarnation, but such bridges would be crossed when I get there. Visiting Fiora was step one, but bringing her back to life in her entire glory would be more difficult.
"You're completely insane." A familiar voice rang with a tone of admiration for my psychotic actions, as well as a bit of spite. "Stop trying to play with the spirits of the dead, it's completely unethical." I could feel the presence of someone standing in the corner of the messy library, watching my every move.
"You should know, seeing as you're dead." I said. The person was none other than Quincy, my deceased apprentice.
"Well, since you're slowly losing your mind you have unconsciously created a sort of entity to act as your rational brain. It's similar to what that Whistler guy does." He explained, sitting down on a nearby table. "Your subconscious brain decided that I'd be the perfect figure to host your rational thought. Don't consider me separate from yourself. I am merely a medium for you to access that side of yourself without having to question your sanity."
This delusion made even my most insane moment sound like bliss. I worked a few things over in my head, thinking about every possible benefit. "In a nutshell, you're saying that you are a terminal to my brain. I can simply seek advice from you to figure out what I need to do..." Without any time wasted, I scrapped my former spell project. I'd need to rework everything anyways, plus I'd be able to do it in a more efficient manner now that Quincy was here. Since he was nothing more than a figment of my imagination, I wouldn't be able to seek his council in front of other people, for risk of actually being considered to be insane. Anyways, the spell parchment was fairly large due to the need for a more complex format. "I am going to, as you know, make a spell that will replicate this scenario whenever I need it. Being able to think clearly is something that would aid my research."
"Just so you know, I can't answer any questions that you don't or shouldn't know the answer to. My cache is the same one that you pull from, so just think of me as a second you. Twice the brain power only at the cost of being insane." He said, sweetening the deal even further. To test out how useful he was, I activated a wide range detection spell and returned to drafting. Knowing what I wanted, Quincy began reading off various results from my sonar. "The Vampire and the Robot are going to be fighting. Zicka and Alice have yet to begin. Garrett's emotions are raging. I could go on, but I, no, we've proved the point."
((I'm sorry for not posting recently. I'm simply waiting until one of my characters enters the ring.))
"We must call for aid! Executor, bring out the Reavers! ... What? What do you mean we don't have reavers anymore? Then... send the Dragoons! ... Ugh, then what do you suggest? ... What's a Void Ray?!" -Tassadar, Savior of the Templar