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Post by Nightmare on Nov 8, 2008 21:20:20 GMT -5
I'm making this thread for the sake of new RPers (since there seems to be an increasing interest in the official ZVRP.) This thread will summarize the whole ZVRP more or less (I'll do my best to summarize everything that's happened thus far, and update it as we continue.) Now, it's important to note that the first couple years of our RPing on ZV didn't have a lot of continuity, and as such, weren't really part of a big story. There was a few RPs that affected the current flow of the story though, so in this first post, I'm going to summarize the early RPs. Or rather, just include information that may be important to know prior to the beginning of the main story. List of Story ArcsBeasts of The Old Gods ArcVillage of The Runics ArcMajeh and Ryunen ArcIZV Arc Act I: Depths of The AbyssIZV Arc Act II: Rise of ElysiumSpirit World ArcRescue Luna ArcSearch for Ezkiel ArcDragon Riders ArcBlight ArcCorruption ArcRevelations ArcLinks fix'd. -Ed ~Prologue~The Story mostly focuses around Kiarra "Silver" Silverfang, a dragon/human halfling, and Majeh Kaiser, a retired hunter reploid. Both are more or less drifters, and the two cross paths. Silver is often accompanied by an older dragon who acts as her guardian, Enfurnus. Through their travels, Majeh and Silver seem to form a bond with each other, and begin to travel together and stick by each other at all times. Through their travels, Majeh and Silver meet several interesting characters. Such characters include; Celestrus and Arliam, two mysterious dragons that seem to act as guardian angels for Silver. Nightmare, a strange purple man who crosses paths with them a lot (often oblivious to their tender moments and thus being disruptive to them) Trias Albaine, the Ceannfort of the Imperial Army that serves the Emperor, Razel Corzak. He often is cold to the others, and works with them as an ally, or against them as an enemy, depending on if their motives clash with his objectives or not. Nightshade Moonlight, a strange purple reploid with the ability to control shadow energy and create portals. He masquerades as the dragon, Shadowfang, sometimes when crossing paths with Majeh and Silver, often giving them backup in fights or sharing useful information with them. Kuma, Majeh's brother, whose intentions are largely a mystery to the group, sometimes working with Kuma, other times battling against him. Fusion, a strange being who sometimes appears before the group as a reploid, and other times as a part fox being with many tails. He seems to just want to live in peace, the group sometimes crossing paths with him while passing through his forest, and other nearby regions. Nexus, a boy who wields many weapons and magics, often combating Majeh and Silver, due to his strange drive to kill Silver. When asked about his behavior, he usually responds with "It needs to be done", "She deserves it", "What do you care if I slay this dragon or not" or "That's none of your concern." He's battled Majeh and Silver many times, but has yet to win a single fight. Ryunen, a very old (though he doesn't look it), very wise, and very powerful dragon who wields a massive black sword with runes engraved on it. He takes a human shape most of the time, and has shown the ability to conjure white flames, and cast a variety of magics. After many travels, Majeh and Silver finally parted ways. It'll be almost a year before the two meet again.
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Post by Nightmare on Nov 8, 2008 22:31:33 GMT -5
~Beasts of the Old Gods Arc~Majeh and Silver were reunited once again. Shockingly, Silver didn't seem to be doing so well during their time apart, her personality becoming more secluded, and even sometimes cold, and her body covered in scars from battle. Their reunion was interrupted though when they were forced to battle Trias. They were aided by a hunter reploid named Rion though, and Trias was forced to retreat. Rion parted ways with Majeh and Silver, and as they looked for a safe place to rest, crossed paths with Nightmare, who is happy to see them again, and joins them. Majeh takes Silver and Nightmare to a hidden bunker, which Majeh makes mention of being a base related to Kuma. Their attempt at finding a safe place to stay failed epically though, when they were attacked by a large monster resembling a horrifying lump of flesh. After defeating the beast, the three found a safe room, which they slept in for the night. In the morning, Majeh, Silver, and Nightmare began looking for a way out. Upon locating the teleporter, however, they were attacked by a large, monstrous looking man. The fight wasn't going well at first, but he was finally brought down by a combined attack between Majeh, Silver, and Nightmare. On their way out of the base, they found Rion, who had begun to worry about Majeh and Silver, and had gone looking for them. After leaving the old base, Majeh explained that he doesn't know much about these strange monsters, but they seem to be hunting him lately. All he knew about them was that they were enemies of the dragon, Ryunen. Majeh, Silver, Nightmare, and Rion stopped to rest in a grassy field, when they were faced with Trias and several soldiers. They were here to exterminate any dragons, as they explained that relations between the human and dragon races were getting pretty bad. The fight was interrupted though, then a hunter outpost appeared out of nowhere in the field. Exile, Rion's brother, was in the base, and had previously had it hidden, but uncloaked it and threatened the soldiers. After firing into the crowd of soldiers with one of the cannons, Trias retreated once again, unhappy. Majeh and the others were eventually joined by Ryunen, Shadowfang, and Celestrus, and then before long, a combat reploid called Hyperion. Majeh and Silver took this opportunity to rest, and do some catching up. Their tender moment was disrupted though, when a sword pierced the tree they were laying against, and Majeh was impaled on the blade, which proceeded to change shape and pin him to the tree. Nexus revealed himself and attacked Silver. The others rushed to her aide, but before they could make it, Enfurnus revealed himself, coming to Silver's rescue. Nexus, to even the playing field, trapped Rion, Majeh, Silver, and Shadowfang in a barrier (that began to shrink and crush them!) Nexus battled with Enfurnus and Exile, while Nightmare and Ryunen worked to break Nexus' barrier. Upon finally succeeding, Nexus found that he wouldn't be able to win, so he began to retreat. The others didn't want to let that happen though, but Nexus was rescued by his friend, Crowe. Crowe then, after being threatened by Shadowfang, erected a large barrier around himself and Shadowfang, and the two of them battled. The fight ended in a draw, and Crowe left to rejoin Nexus. Meanwhile, Exile, devastated that his base got wrecked in the fight, began making repairs to it. A friend of Hyperion's, Luna, arrived to pick him up in her ship, which he then offered the group a ride to Central City. Majeh and the others accepted, and boarded Luna's ship bound for Central (save for Enfurnus and Exile.) Ryunen, after being questioned by Nightmare, explained that the beasts attacking Majeh were "Servants of the Old Gods." but said nothing more, and had no explanation as to why they were after Majeh now. While they were on their way to Central, however, something began shaking on the buttom of the ship. Silver and Ryunen (now with his wings) flew out to investigate, and found that one of those monstrous beasts had clung to the bottom of the ship, and was trying to rip it's way in. Hanging from ropes down the side of the ship, Nightmare, Hyperion, and Majeh assisted Silver and Ryunen as they battled the beast mid-air, and eventually killed and dislodged it from the ship. Elsewhere, Nexus, and his friends Crowe, Elna, and Reiko, stood over the body of one of these beasts, and began to draw a conclusion as to what these beasts were related to...
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Post by Nightmare on Nov 8, 2008 23:15:16 GMT -5
~Village of The Runics Arc~
Silver got out of the ship in her dragon form, and touched down in a forest near Central, where she crossed paths with Enfurnus. She was afraid to go into the city, her being half dragon and all, and with the bad relations between the humans and dragons at this point, didn't want to cause the others any trouble.
Meanwhile, Luna landed in Central, and her and Hyperion left the group to attend to business they had in Central, and everyone else split up.
While Majeh was walking through the Park in Central, he crossed paths with Edge, a Maverick Hunter Commander in Central. He's also Majeh's alcoholic friend, who was of course drunk when he ran into him. After seeing a strange light, Majeh and Edge left Central to go meet with Silver, who was on the outskirts of the city.
Upon reaching Silver and Enfurnus, Majeh and Edge witnessed what appeared to be a high speed battle between two strange beings. The battle ended with a strange furry, anthropomorphic creature lying on the ground, and another standing over him, with a scary glowing red eye, and a black cloak. The cloaked figure disappeared, leaving the other creature behind, unconscious.
As the four of them moved in to approach the creature, however, they were ambushed by Nexus, Crowe, and Elna. In a moment, Majeh and Edge were crushed and unable to move (well, anyways) and Enfurnus and Silver were poisoned. Before any more damage could be done, Ryunen appeared and threatened to kill them all, but was unable to attack Nexus and the others, as they had blades to Silver and Enfurnus' throats, and even if he could stop them, killing them would leave Silver and Enfurnus without the antidote.
Nexus proceeded to interrogate the five of them about the strange beasts. He had concluded that they were responsible for the beasts, as everywhere they went, the beasts were later spotted, and thus, Nexus had intended to kill them to put an end to the monsters.
After Ryunen cleared up the misunderstanding, Nexus and the others felt terrible for trying to kill them so many times, and offered to take them to Nexus' village to recover (as it was a safe place, and was nearby.)
Silver still wanted to fight Nexus, having not forgiven him, but after being threatened by Ryunen, she calmed down (though was angry with Ryunen after this, and as such was rather bitchy toward him.) After gathering up the strange creature who fell before they were attacked, they made their way toward Nexus' village.
They walked up a steep mountain pass nearby, and eventually came to a huge rock wall (a supposed dead end.) Nexus though, with the use of a spell, created two massive steel doors, which when opened, led the way into a village protected by the tall mountain walls. It was a beautiful little village that most of them enjoyed staying in.
Majeh and Enfurnus were reluctant to trust Nexus and the others at first, but eventually warmed up, Ryunen and Edge gladly accepted their apology and their following hospitality, whereas Silver still remained bitter and distrustful. After repairing Majeh and Edge, feeding everyone, fixing up their weapons, and getting Edge drunk, everyone was getting along decently.
Meanwhile, Silver, still uneager to mingle with the others, spent her time getting to know the strange creature they picked up, who revealed his name to be Shory. He had on his hand, a mysterious gauntlet that gave him an assortment of cool powers.
After two days of rest in The Runic Village, Majeh and the others decided they'd best be on their way. Nexus saw them off, and they set out down the mountain. They were rejoined by Hyperion, Rion, Nightmare, and now, Nightmare's friend/bodyguard/attendant, Neoforte. The group had come looking for Majeh and Silver, after hearing they had disappeared from Central.
Ryunen explained the situation, then introduced everyone to Shory, as Nightmare introduced Neoforte to everyone. The group reached the foot of the mountain, when they were attacked by two strange reploids. They seemed to be related to Hyperion, but were easily pushed back by the large group. The reploids retreated when Majeh's body started to undergo a strange change...
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Post by Nightmare on Nov 9, 2008 0:18:29 GMT -5
~Majeh and Ryunen Arc~
After the encounter with the two strange reploids, Majeh's body began to change in a horrific way. A destructive green aura appeared around him, energy began to envelop his body and create monstrous claws on him, and he went berserk.
Shory became afraid of Majeh at this point, and created a portal, which he and Silver escaped through, Shory wanting to protect her, as he'd become attached to her (since she's the first person in this world to talk to him.)
After Shory and Silver escaped, Nightmare, Neoforte, Hyperion, Rion, Edge and Ryunen began to try and restrain Majeh. Majeh fought back fiercely, as the others began to worry they wouldn't be able to stop him without killing him. Deciding that at this point, if they didn't take extreme measure to stop him, that Majeh would kill them all, Hyperion and Rion prepared for a powerful team attack; Rion fired his rail gun through a portal Hyperion made, then created several portals around Majeh, which sent the bullet zooming around him at high speeds. Once Majeh was confused enough, and his guard was down, the bullet was sent into his guy, a hole being blown right through him.
As they attempted to treat Majeh's wounds, his body was still in it's strange state, and they began to worry that he would get back up and attack them. Around that time, Kuma, Majeh's brother, appeared. He had apparently responded to Majeh's deformed energy signature, and game to stop him.
The group, now accompanied by Kuma, took Majeh back to Central, where he was placed in a high security prison cell, to stop him from hurting others. Meanwhile, Silver and Shory came out the other side of the portal he created in a strange forest, which turned out to be Fusion's forest. Fusion offered the two of them refuge there. As they spent time there, Silver began to wonder if she should really go back and join the others, her still being angry with Ryunen and starting to be troubled by being reminded of her difficult past.
Back at Central, Kuma revealed that Majeh hears voices in his head, that are a result of the dark energy used to create him. He always hears the voices, but sometimes, they get louder, and more commanding than usual, and Majeh loses control of himself. By now, Majeh has completely lost it, sitting in his cell, screaming for the voices to shut up, unable to do anything but scream in agonizing pain.
Before long, the group is greeted by the strange being in a cloak that Shory was first seen fighting. The being referred to himself as "The End" and proceeded to tell the group that they would have to choose between the lives of two of their friends. After his cryptic message, he was threatened, but disappeared before he could be fought. The group was left confused, but Kuma explained that the only humane thing to do would be to put Majeh to death, to free him from his pain.
At first, everyone was strongly against it, but hearing Majeh's screaming as he suffered put everyone at a crossroad, half of them thinking they should end his pain, the other half wanting to find a way to help him.
Upset, Nightmare took Neoforte and Hyperion with him, and they set out to find where Shory took Silver, so they can take her to Central and allow her to see Majeh one last time. At that time, they crossed paths with Exile, who revealed to have converted the remnants of his base into a ship, which he piloted to Central. Exile took Nightmare, Neoforte, and Hyperion to Fusion's forest, to collect Silver.
Upon reaching Fusion, Silver, and Shory though, things didn't go so well. Silver was unwilling to go, and Shory was making it worse, by trying to keep her from going with Nightmare and the others.
Meanwhile, back at Central, Ryunen encountered a young man who resembled Silver greatly. He revealed himself to be Ezkiel Silverfang, Silver's brother. He had come searching for her when he heard she was spotted in the area, and approached Ryunen, as he recognized him as a fellow dragon.
Back at the forest, the tension between Nightmare, Neoforte, and Hyperion, and Fusion, Shory, and Silver was growing, and it looked like both groups were on the verge of combat. Nightmare drew his weapons to attack, saying that Silver needs to be snapped out of this selfish behavior she'd fallen into, and Shory had no place to keep her from seeing Majeh. Before the fight could start, however, they were interrupted when a blast of fire crashed down in between them all.
From this burst of flame, Ryunen emerged, bringing with him Ezkiel. Silver, at a loss for words, seeing her brother again, listened to him when he asked her to come with them, much to Shory's dismay. Shory agreed to go along though, as he wanted to help protect Silver if need be, whereas Fusion stayed behind in his forest.
Upon returning to Central and filling them in, Shory explained that that strange being, "The End", was a future version of Shory himself, and he has a habit of destroying the universe, then resetting time, so he can destroy it again. Shory was sent to stop The End, hence the powerful gauntlet he was given, which has the ability to create portals, manipulate the flow of time, and even transform matter.
Meanwhile, Silver was brought to Majeh's cell, to see him one last time. The rest of the group went with her, but waited outside. Majeh, though in horrible pain and even on the verge of tears, was happy to see Silver, simply whispering that he wanted them to stop. After tearfully saying their goodbyes, Silver was taken out of the room, and Ryunen went in to do the deed.
Ryunen said his goodbyes to Majeh, but then closed and locked Majeh's cell door, locking himself in with Majeh, and the others outside. While the others watched in horror, Ryunen ripped the DNA Soul from Majeh's body.
Ryunen approached the others, looking at them through the cell door, holding the DNA Soul, Majeh's lifeless body lying on the ground. Ryunen looked at the group and smiled, as he said goodbye to everyone. Alarmed, they tried to get the door open, but Ryunen plunged Majeh's DNA Soul into his body, and in a flash of light, Ryunen's body lay unconscious on the floor.
Several hours and a trip the hospital later, Ryunen awakens, though it wasn't Ryunen, but rather, Majeh. Ryunen had taken Majeh's soul into his body, to save his life and rid him of those horrible voices that plagued him. As everyone began to mourn Ryunen though, a strange ball of flame appeared from Majeh.
This ball of flame turned out to be none other than the physical manifestation of Ryunen's soul. Now, with the group reunited, Majeh cured, and Ryunen returning as a ball of flame that acted as a guide to Majeh and the others, Kuma went his separate way from the group, and everything seemed like all was well in the world.
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Post by Nightmare on Nov 9, 2008 1:13:37 GMT -5
~IZV Arc Act I: Depths of The Abyss~
Unfortunately, all was not well. The group (consisting of Majeh, Silver, Ezkiel, Ryunen, Nightmare, Neoforte, Edge, Rion, Exile, Hyperion, Luna, and Shory) stepped outside the hospital, to find Central to be a ghost town. They knew something was wrong, and just then, a large portal opened up, and several figures appeared, dressed in black cloaks with hoods covering their faces.
A brief battle engaged with the figures (during which, a hospital attendant, Rick, came out to offer assistance), to reveal that many of them had the same faces as others in the group, among them being Nightmare, Rion, Fusion, Hyperion, and Majeh lookalikes. The battle ended though, with a portal opening beneath the group, and drawing in Silver, Ezkiel, Edge, and Shory. The figures soon followed after them into a portal of their own.
The group was left stunned and enraged to see their friends kidnapped like that, most notably Majeh, who decided they'd go on a manhunt to find these people and rescue Silver and the others. Meanwhile, under Nightmare's request, Rick joined their group, as he exhibited skill with making and wielding a variety of weapons.
Meanwhile, Silver, Ezkiel, and Edge awoke in a strange dungeon. It was dark, barely lit, and smelled like dead people. They were greeted by the Nightmare lookalike, who introduced himself as "The Eternal Flame, Marxineght." He then pointed out that the three have shackles around their necks, and are connected through the back of the wall, and if one of them tries to break the chain, it will snap the necks of the other two. He's then called away by the Hyperion lookalike, whom Marxineght referred to as "Epixhryon."
By grabbing a torch on the wall with her tail, Silver melted through her collar, and was able to free Ezkiel and Edge. The three of them began sneaking through the strange place they were in, which appeared to be a dark labyrinth of halls and rooms. By finding a map on a wall, and listening into the conversations of guards, they deduced the location Shory was being held in, and went looking for him.
Their rescue of Shory was interrupted by Marxineght and the Rion lookalike, "Ronix". The three held their own against the two cloaked enemies, but Marxineght and Ronix were joined by the Majeh lookalike, Hajexm, and the Fusion lookalike, Nofxisu. As things started to look bad, Silver and the others ran, and split up. Silver and Edge managed to escape from the dungeon they were in, only to find themselves in a Hellish world.
Upon making it outside, Silver and Edge were mocked by Marxineght, as he pointed out that they weren't in the same world they knew, that they were in a dark realm called "The Abyss" and explained that their dungeon is a lot safer than the outside world. Silver and Edge were then taken by him and Epixhryon, while Nofxisu and Hajexm brought Shory, to the throne room in their dungeon, where they met Xistar, the leader of these strange beings. Xistar brought Ezkiel to the throne room through a portal, and explained that they were an Organization that calls themselves the IZV.
Xistar proceeded to explain why he brought them here. He told them that he had been observing their world for a long time, and had grown to admire it greatly, but was insulted by the way the inhabitants treated it. He saw how people destroy the environment, and constantly fight, spilling blood on their bright and beautiful world, while people like him, who reside in The Abyss, can live a civil existence, despite being born in a hellhole.
Through observation, he decided he needed to dispose of The End, who wanted to destroy the universe. Xistar abducted Shory so that he could take his gauntlet, and use it's power to kill The End and build a new world, a Utopia, where everyone lives a peaceful existence, lest they be punished by Xistar.
He goes on to say that he kidnapped Silver, Ezkiel, and Edge as a means to lure The End out. He was taking advantage of the tension between the humans and dragons. He kidnapped two dragons that are important to a lot of high up dragons in their society, and kidnapped a Maverick Hunter commander, to piss off the humans. He intended to lead each side to believe the other was responsible for their disappearances, and spark a war, which would surely draw The End's attention. Once he appeared, Xistar would go to the world of light, and kill The End, then begin rebuilding the world.
While Shory and Ezkiel didn't know what to think, and Edge was disgusted by Xistar's plan, Silver thought it was a great idea, and willingly offered herself for captivity until their plan could be put into motion. Edge, enraged by Silver's words, began yelling at her, but the four of them were taken out of the throne room. Ezkiel, Edge, and Silver were placed in a living quarters, while Shory was taken back to his cell so they can work on removing his gauntlet.
Meanwhile, Marxineght appeared before Enfurnus, posing as Nightmare, explaining that the human's Imperial Army has kidnapped Silver and her brother, and he's afraid of what might happen to them. Enfurnus acted just how he was expected to, and started to organize dragon soldiers.
Likewise, Hajexm appeared before Emperor Razel Corzak posing as Majeh, speaking on behalf of the hunters. He explained that Edge's disappearance was part of a plot the dragon forces were forming as part of a plan to attack Central. As they expected, Emperor Razel began to mobilize forces.
Despite their best attempts, a war seemed that it could not be averted. Small conflicts started to break out, and Majeh and the others made their way toward Nexus' village, as a safe place to stay while they think of a plan.
Upon arriving though, they were attacked by Epixhryon. Nexus helped them fight him off, and after the battle ended in a draw, Epixhryon explained that the war was part of their leader, Xistar's plot. He went on to explain that he and another IZV member, Nofxisu, didn't agree with Xistar's view, and didn't think it right to take a world from someone else. He went on to say that he and Nofxisu would assist them in any way they could, and would try to free Silver and the others once they got a chance, and in the meantime, will keep them safe. He entrusted the task of avoiding a war to Majeh and company though.
Majeh met with Nexus, and he went with his uncle to the Emperor to stop the Imperial forces from attacking, while Reiko, Nexus's part dragon friend, went to the dragon village to stop the dragon forces from attacking.
Their best efforts were all to no avail though... Before long, war was declared, and most of the central continent became a battlefield...
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Post by Nightmare on Nov 9, 2008 2:15:22 GMT -5
~IZV Arc Act II: Rise of Elysium~
Six months had passed since the war between the humans and dragons broke out. Xistar was starting to get frustrated, as The End still hadn't shown himself. He remained confident in his plan though, and kept watching the human world. Silver, Ezkiel, and Edge were beginning to become exhausted by the horrible living conditions in The Abyss, and Shory was frequently subjected to torture, to try and get the gauntlet off of him.
Meanwhile, Majeh, Nightmare, Neoforte, Rion, and Exile fought in the war, fighting against both sides usually, just trying to defend themselves. They were rejoined by Hyperion and Luna, and eventually Nexus as well, while looking for a lead in a way to track down Silver and the others, or contact Epixhryon.
Before long though, Xistar succeeded in removing Shory's gauntlet. As their leader tried on the gauntlet, and prepared to test out his new powers he got from it, most of the IZV gathered in the throne room. Epixhryon and Nofxisu took this opportunity to escape from The Abyss, taking Shory, Silver, Ezkiel, and Edge with them.
They were caught in the act by Marxineght, however, but before he could stop them, they had already escaped through a portal created by Nofxisu. Upon arriving in the human world again, Epixhryon contacted the others and told them they escaped with Silver and the other prisoners.
The groups met up in Fusion's forest, probably the safest place during the raging war. There, they talked Silver into seeing that Xistar's plan was a bad idea, and though his reasoning may sound noble, he's killing countless people so that he can take over the world. Silver, back to her senses, agrees to help them fix this problem.
The group concludes that the first step would be to stop the war. The next, would be to wait for Xistar to come to the human world, so that they can fight him and take back Shory's gauntlet and defeat him. It was a risky plan, but all they could do.
So, Silver and Ezkiel went with Nightmare and Nexus to see the King of the Dragons, where Silver explained the situation to them, pointed out that her being here is proof that the was was started under false pretenses, and asked that they call a cease fire. The dragon king agrees, and calls back his soldiers.
Meanwhile, Majeh, Edge, Rion, and Exile headed to see the Emperor and explain the situation to him. He had a similar reaction, and pulled back his troops. With the war now at a standstill, everyone regrouped and discussed their next action. They concluded that all they can do is rest, and prepare for Xistar to make his move.
The group spends the next day at Fusion's forest, now joined by Nightshade, Epixhryon, Nofxisu, Elna, Crowe, and Reiko. Here, they train and rest, preparing for what's to come. During this time, Nightmare discovers Shory has developed the ability to suppress the Gauntlet's powers, which helps restore his confidence (Shory being afraid he'd be seen as useless without his gauntlet.) Luna also makes herself a Light Metal, giving herself armor and combat capabilities, as she didn't want to just sit this important fight out.
The next morning, Edge gets a call over his radio; It was from Central, calling back all available hunters, as a strange "energy rift" had appeared over the city. Edge gave orders to have all civilians evacuated, and have all military personnel set up a perimeter around the city. After that, the group heads out toward Central.
Upon arriving, they see a strange black, glowing energy high above the center of the city. While the group makes preparations for battle, the rift lets out a blinding light, then a gigantic pillar of light falls from the energy rift and slams into the city, transforming it into a heavenly looking city with tall white buildings. In the center of the city, was a gigantic white palace, and stretching out of the center of the palace, was a very tall tower.
From atop the tower, Xistar claimed power over the world, and as if on cue, The End showed himself. Xistar challenged him to a fight, and so The End went to the top of Xistar's tower. Afterwords, a large barrier was erected over the tower and palace.
After getting a lay of the land and examining Elysium, Nightmare and Neoforte concluded that there were four structures in four corners of the city that are erecting the barrier around the palace. The group then split up into 5 teams; Team 1: Nightmare and Neoforte, would go destroy the generator at the South Gate. Team 2: Nexus and Elna, would go destroy the generator at the West Gate. Team 3: Crowe and Reiko, would go destroy the generator at the North Gate. Team 4: Exile and Luna, would go destroy the generator at the East Gate. And Team 5: Majeh, Silver, Ezkiel, Edge, Shory, Epixhryon, Nofxisu, Rick, Rion, Hyperion, and Nightshade would go wait outside the palace, and storm it once the barrier went down.
Nightmare and Neoforte easily handled the South Gate, as did Reiko and Crowe handle the North Gate. Exile and Luna handled the East Gate with a little trouble, but came through without getting roughed up too bad. Nexus and Elna had some trouble with the West Gate though, Nexus receiving a nasty stab wound from one of the soldiers there while protecting Elna. All four groups successfully destroyed the barrier generators though, and the fifth group entered the palace.
Once the barrier around the palace was taken down, Neoforte and Exile scouted out the outside of the palace, and noted that there still appeared to be a barrier around the tower in the center of the palace, before joining the group inside. Information they gathered and sent to Nightmare said that like with the first barrier, there appears to be four generators in the palace itself protecting the tower.
From there, the group split up into 5 teams again. Team 1: Edge and Ezkiel, would go to the North Gate of the palace and destroy it's generator. Team 2: Rion and Hyperion, would go to the East Gate. Team 3: Neoforte and Nightshade, would go to the South Gate. Team 4: Exile and Rick, would go to the West Gate. And Team 5: Majeh, Silver, Shory, Epixhryon, and Nofxisu would go to the tower and wait for the barrier to drop.
Edge and Ezkiel, upon reaching the generator, were confronted by Ronix. They fought a rough battle, that ended with Edge being badly damaged, and Ezkiel being poisoned, but they won, and destroyed the generator there.
Rion and Hyperion fought Hajexm at the East Gate, and were almost killed, but overcame his ice powers by infusing Rion's sword with a red aura stone, giving it fire properties. They succeeded and destroyed the Eastern Generator.
Neofore and Nightshade battled Treyplalx and his earth elemental attacks at the South Gate. They fought well, but eventually, their own attacks started to take a toll on them. Neoforte used his strongest attack, and managed to barely defeat Treypalx though, and they destroyed the Southern Generator.
And finally, Exile and Rick were confronted by Xelvix at the West Gate. They fought an evenly matched battle, but Xelvix ended up slipping on some ice and hitting his head, allowing Rick and Exile to destroy the final Generator.
As Majeh, Silver, Shory, Expihryon, and Nofxisu arrived at the entrance to the tower, they were attacked by Marxineght. He was only interested in killing Epixhryon and Nofxisu at the time though, as they were traitors. So the group once again, split up. Epixhryon and Nofxisu staying behind to fight Marxineght, while Majeh, Silver, and Shory went after Xistar. Epixhryon and Nofxisu fought a grueling and bloody battle against Marxineght. Expihryon took one last shot at finishing Marxineght off, and just as it seemed as though he succeeded, Marxineght got up and continued to attack.
Toward the end of the fight, Epixhryon and Nofxisu lost their powers, which Marxineght mocked them for, saying that Xistar could have killed them remotely any time he wanted, but he was just giving him the privilege of killing them. As Marxineght continued to beat the weakened Epixhryon and Nofxisu senseless, he grew bored of the fight. As Marxineght moved in to finish Epixhryon off though, Nofxisu sunk up and impaled Marxineght with Epixhryon's scythe. Marxineght, with his last bit of strength, ran Nofxisu through with the same scythe, while it was still stick in his body. All three IZV in that battle fell that day.
Meanwhile, Majeh, Silver, and Shory arrived at the top of Xistar's tower just in time to see Xistar standing over The End's dead body. Xistar then used the power of the gauntlet to take The End's power into his own body. After exchanging words with Majeh, Silver, and Shory, the fight began.
Xistar proved to be too much for the three, the power of Shory's gauntlet healing him and increasing his own power making him near impossible to beat. Silver attacked Xistar, but was impaled on a stone spike as she charged at him. Horrified, Majeh and Shory moved in to attack. Silver bit down on Xistar, attempting to remove the gauntlet from him, and Majeh held onto Xistar, trying to stop him from attacking Silver.
In the end, Xistar knocked the three away from him, and so Silver, Shory, and Majeh moved in to attack him all at once. Silver's attack was stopped by Xistar's blade, while Shory's was stopped with his hand armed with the gauntlet. As he moved the gauntlet forward to stop Majeh's blade, just as he did many times before, Shory suppressed the power of the gauntlet.
Unable to stop his blade this time, Xistar was run through my Majeh's weapon--Ryunen's God Slaying sword. Xistar spent his last moments admiring the sunset, right before the three of them attacked once again, ending with Majeh's weapon ripping out Xistar's soul and eating it. Afterwords, Silver had succumbed to her injuries, tearfully saying goodbye to Majeh.
As Silver's body faded away into nothing, Elysium began to crumble around them. Majeh and Shory left through a portal (after Shory reclaimed his gauntlet) and returned to the others, to tell them the bad news. As they did to, Elysium fell, just as suddenly as it appeared, returning Central back to normal...
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Post by Nightmare on Nov 9, 2008 4:02:24 GMT -5
~Spirit World Arc~
The group attended Silver's funeral the next day, after saving the world from the IZV. As everyone said their tearful goodbyes, they all went their separate ways. Majeh was heartbroken by Silver's death, and as he and Ryunen wandered through the Dragon Village, where Silver was buried, they came across a strange creature, whom when asked, introduced herself as Shaenah.
Soon after meeting Shaenah, more strange monsters, like the ones they encountered long ago, started emerging from the ground. It was the servants of the Old Gods. Hundreds of them started ripping up from the ground and attacking. Majeh and Shaenah fought off as many as they could, being rejoined by Rick, Rion, Exile, Shory, and Edge.
Edge came by in a hunter ship and picked them up, and they worked on getting away from there. Just then though, their ship began to shake. A large, monstrous looking man came from the guy thingypit, carrying the pilot's head. He was recognized by Ryunen as one of the men that commands these undead beasts. As the ship crashed, everyone moved outside and battled with the man.
After doing everything they could think of to kill him, only to have him regenerate completely, Majeh finally defeats him by ripping his soul out with Ryunen's sword.
Afterwords, Edge leads the others to a nearby Hunter outpost, in hops of finding a new ship to head back to central in. The group finds the outpost in ruins, everyone inside dead. They make their way to the elevator shaft and climb up the latter inside, to get to the area above. As they do so though, a large monster rips through the elevator, and begins chasing them up the shaft.
Shaenah and Rion do their best to hold it off, while everyone else climbs up the shaft, then once they get to the top, Majeh changed into his dragon form and takes on the massive beast. Meanwhile, Edge gets a ship off the ground, and Majeh pushes the monster back, then rushed to the ship. The group manages to escape with their lives, and head toward Central.
On their way back to Central, however, a young woman hunter falls out of the cargo hold in the ship, falling and landing in the middle of the group. At first, she mistakes them for the enemy, but Edge explains that all the rest of the hunters in her base are dead. She explains that when the monsters attacked, she hid in the cargo hold in one of the ships, and must have fallen asleep. She introduces herself as Alice.
Upon returning to Central, Majeh, Shaenah, Edge, Rick, Rion, Exile, Shory, and Alice cross paths with Luna, and they meet with other Maverick Hunter commanders to review the situation and come up with a plan.
There, they find out that the beasts have been popping up in the thousands all over the continent. Over 14 cities have been leveled in a matter of 4 hours, and in another 4, most of the continent be wiped out. Ryunen explains that the man controlling these beasts shouldn't have the power to make the army this big and powerful, and that something must be giving him a lot of spirit energy to be able to accomplish such a feat.
The group is joined by Hyperion and Nexus. Hyperion was called there by Luna, whereas Nexus set out when his village was attacked. The Runic Village is holding it's own, but Nexus came to try and put an end to the attack before his village got destroyed. Nexus joined Hyperion when he crossed paths with him and heard he was going to meet the others and formulate a plan. Nexus was insistent, despite his injuries from his battle in Elysium hadn't healed yet, so Hyperion took him along.
After Nexus sent word of an evacuation to his village, Shaenah explained that she could take the group to the Spirit World, where they might be able to track down the source of the spirit energy that's supplying these beasts with so much strength and numbers. Ryunen agreed that'd be a good idea, and so the group set off through the portal Shaenah made, everyone save for Edge and Rick, who stayed behind to take care of things there.
Upon reaching the cold, dead, Spirit World, the group walked onward, led by Shaenah. With the help of Nexus, by creating a higher vantage point and a shortcut with his sword's special abilities, Majeh, Shaenah, Nexus, Exile, Rion, Hyperion, Luna, Shory, and Alice found themselves at two large metal doors. Once passing through the doors though, the group was locked in a dark void, where they were greeted by a mocking voice.
A man in black armor, with runes engraved on it appeared. They were the same runes engraved on Ryunen's sword. The man was introduced to them as Ryuae by Ryunen. Ryuae revealed to the group that they had entered hell, the void coming to life in a hellish inferno.
Everyone moved in to battle Ryuae, but were one by one badly beaten by him. Just as Ryunen began to wonder how he became so powerful, he got an answer, as the Lord of Hell appeared before them. Through conversation with the Dark Lord and Ryuae, it was revealed that Ryuae had places a curse on the Dark Lord. This curse allowed Ryuae to kill the Dark Lord and take his powers at will. Ryuae however, was letting him live, so long as he served him. It turns out this was the Dark Lord's powers that were responsible for Ryuae's army becoming so powerful.
Ryuae continued to mock the beaten and bloody group. He then offered a challenge to Majeh. He pulled Silver's soul out, and said that if Majeh could defeat the Lord of Hell, then he would let them live, and restore Silver's life. If he refused, or lost, however, he'd destroy Silver's soul, and then kill everyone.
Majeh, though afraid of what may happen, agrees to the challenge, not seeing any other option. And so, Ryuae pits Majeh against the Dark Lord. At first, the match seems rather one sided, Majeh not standing a chance, but after cheers of encouragement from Nexus, Shaenah, and Alice, Majeh finds a new strength and fights with all his might, eventually overcoming the Dark Lord and running him through with his sword.
Ryuae, stunned at the outcome of the fight, then screamed in pain as the Dark Lord's power was ripped from his body, as he died. Ryuae angrily retreated, leaving Silver's soul with Majeh and the others, just as he had promised. As Majeh's blade devoured the Dark Lord's power, new runes were burned onto Majeh's arms, which Ryunen pointed out was a side effect of the sword.
Majeh happily claimed Silver's soul, and the injured group left Hell. Shaenah stayed behind in the Spirit world, saying her goodbyes to the group as they left for the world of the living. Upon returning, Silver's soul reformed into Silver herself, Majeh catching her in his arms. Nexus, Alice, Rion, and Exile watched the heartwarming scene as Majeh and Silver were reunited once again.
All of them were then picked up by Edge, who was drunk celebrating their victory. Alice took the wheel and drove the others toward Central (save for Nexus, who left to return home and recover.) The others are now bound for Central, headed for a hospital to treat their wounds.
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Post by Nightmare on Nov 13, 2008 12:57:57 GMT -5
~Rescue Luna Arc~
Upon arriving at the hospital, the group began recovering and taking the opportunity to finally rest. During this time, Edge's drunken antics brought the attention of another patient that was just released, Suprema, to the group. The group was also payed a brief visit by Kuma, who apparently came to see if his brother, Majeh, was alright.
Their rest was interrupted by three strange reploids running on Dark Energy Cores in their chests. They attacked the lower levels of the hospital, and were engaged by Rion, Hyperion, Majeh, Silver, and Suprema. After defeating the strange Dark Reploids though, Kuma examined them, and it appeared as though they were the reason he came here.
After returning to the hospital lobby, the group was greeted by Nightmare (who was shocked to see Silver, to say the least.) The group began to finally relax. Exile showed Luna some schematics for a new reploid his creator had left behind, and asked Luna to help him build it. She reluctantly accepted, and they began preparing to work on it.
Meanwhile, while Majeh and Silver were resting outside, Silver spotted a white fox in the woods. It quickly ran, and once she got up to see if she could get a better look at it, her and Majeh discovered a dead body in the woods. The body was a dead woman, a nurse at the hospital, who had been killed recently. She strangely enough, had no external injuries, so her death was a complete mystery. Edge and Alice called in hunters to assist in the police investigation of the strange death, but in the end, they found nothing; the coroner simply saying she seemed to just "Stop living."
Sometime in all the commotion, Luna disappeared. The group seemed to think she was just resting someplace, and they couldn't find her, but Hyperion seemed to know better. Once he was alone, he was visited by a woman that told him to meet her later that night at a designated location, alone. Hyperion later suggested to the others that Luna may have gone to the store, so he was gonna go down the street and look for her.
Soon after that, the hunters left the hospital, including Edge and Alice, unable to find anything regarding the mysterious death. The rest of the group split up briefly, to look around for Luna and relax a bit. Nightmare and Shory, while separated from the group, walked through the Central City Park, discussing the mess of events that have been happening as of late. During their walk in the park, however, they discovered another dead woman. This one, like the last, didn't have any external injuries, and was just dead. The only clue nearby being an empty bowl of rice on the park bench her body was discovered next to.
A couple hours later, after answering police questions, Nightmare and Shory regroup with the others, to find that strangely enough, not only has Luna not turned up yet, but Hyperion hasn't come back yet. Upon returning to the lobby, Nightmare and Exile were greeted by the same woman who met with Hyperion earlier...
Meanwhile, at a wrecked, abandoned laboratory, Hyperion met with another reploid. This large, armored reploid, was revealed to be Gale, another reploid made by Skylar Tech, the company that created Hyperion. His partner, the female reploid, Diana, and he were the same two strange reploids that attacked Majeh, Nightmare, Neoforte, Silver, Shory, and Rion on the mountain pass leading to the Runic Village all those months ago.
Gale revealed that he had Luna locked up, and only he had the key to where she was being held. He was willing to let Luna go if Hyperion came with him, as his mission was to bring Hyperion back to Skylar Tech. Gale went on to reveal that Diana was sent to do away with Hyperion's friends, as they might be a problem. When Hyperion refused to surrender, Gale attacked him.
Back at the hospital, Diana engaged Nightmare, Exile, and eventually Suprema in battle. At first, the battle was largely one-sided, as Diana was much faster than the rest of the group, and was rather strong. However, she stopped attacking when Nightmare asked her name, and they began to speak rather casually. Nightmare and the others learned in this short conversation that she wasn't just some evil woman here to kill them, but was just following orders. When she decided the conversation had to end and they needed to continue the fight, Majeh and Shory arrived to help, though she was far too fast for the two of them.
Diana was eventually brought down when Shory distracted her, allowing Nightmare to grab her from behind and restrain her, while Exile fired his rail buster through her and Nightmare. Nightmare, quickly regenerating and healing from the injury, suggested to Exile that they repair Diana and use her as a bargaining chip to help free Luna, as they had gathered from talking to her that there was another reploid that had Luna elsewhere. Diana was grateful that they would help her after she tried to kill them, and allowed them to work on her.
Elsewhere, and some time later, the battle at the lab was still raging on. Hyperion was attacking Gale with everything he had, but was having trouble managing to actually damage him. Rion showed up to help him partway into the battle, however, as he had began tracking Hyperion once he suspected something was wrong.
Hyperion and Rion battled Gale for some time, seemingly unable to get anywhere. The battle was finally brought to a close when Nightmare, Exile, and Majeh showed up, with a repaired (and restrained) Diana. Gale reluctantly decided to trade Luna for Diana, and after giving Hyperion the key to where Luna was being held, left with Diana.
Hyperion went and gathered up the unconscious Luna, and returned to the hospital with Nightmare, Exile, and Majeh.
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Post by Nightmare on Nov 21, 2008 5:01:34 GMT -5
~Search For Ezkiel Arc~
After returning to the hospital and putting Luna to bed so she can recover, the group hoped to get some relaxation. As they had come to expect though, this means they'll have to rush out to do battle again, and as expected, gunshots rang out in the night.
The group found that on the other side of the park down the street from the hospital, the police were at a standoff with more dark reploids, who had hostages. As the group approached though, they were headed off by Edge and Alice, who stated that this was the business of them and the police, so they're not to intervene.
Hyperion, Rick, Nightmare, Exile, and Rion weren't too hot on this idea, but Silver in particular didn't want to listen. While Edge and Alice worked on keeping the group at bay, Majeh helped her sneak around to the other side of the building. Then, due to a distraction from Nightmare, Edge turned his attention away long enough for Silver to sneak up and engage the dark reploids in battle.
Edge, though enraged, was forced to keep the police from opening fire, out of fear of hitting Silver, and he himself kept his distance. Before long, Trias, Ceannfort of the Imperial Army arrived and had a word with Edge, stating that he was on business from the Emperor in Central. Edge, however, told Trias to mind his business and let him take care of the problem at hand.
Despite Edge's best efforts to keep people from interfering with Silver's fight (and further interfering with police and Maverick Hunter business) Trias tricked Edge into a false sense of security, then snuck past him and attempted to assist Silver in battling the dark reploids. Trias was apprehended by Edge and Alice though, and was placed under arrest. Before long, Silver defeated the last of the dark reploids, and Edge had Alice pack up the hunters and head back to HQ, with Trias as a prisoner.
Silver regrouped with the others, who were headed back to the hospital. Majeh, Silver, Nightmare, and Shory however, split up from the others and went to the other side of the dark park to investigate some strange lights they saw in the trees. Though the lights disappeared before they got there, when the group arrived where the lights were spotted, they found yet another dead woman.
After the police arrived, the group eavesdropped on the conversations of a couple officers, and heard that the number of strange deaths like this was much higher than they expected, and could potentially be even higher, as according to that one of the officers said, the MO seems similar to "the East City killings" but further investigation into the possibility of the deaths in East City, and the ones in Central being linked was halted, as Captain Corona, the Commander of the East City Maverick Hunters, refused to turn over case files to the Central City Police Department.
After hearing an earful, Shory disappeared into a portal without saying a word. Though worried about why Shory was off in such a hurry so suddenly, the others were wanting to get some much needed rest, so they returned to the hospital.
The next morning, everyone was well rested and lively. Luna was awake, and her and Exile intended to get some work done on their collaboration project. Before long, a strange man with light blue hair wandered into the hospital, and after eavesdropping on Nightmare and Silver's conversation about how calm the people are despite how hectic things are in Central, interjected pointing out how worried everyone is. After brushing off the comment, Nightmare suggested to Silver that they try to find Ezkiel, as he'd probably be happy to see Silver alive again. After agreeing it was a good idea, Majeh, Silver, Nightmare, Rion, Hyperion, Rick, and Suprema set out to head to Silver's grave by foot, leaving Exile, Shory, and Luna behind.
As the group reached the border of Central, they noticed tightened security. They left the city, where they saw a strange man with long black hair, wearing a black cape and a large glass gourd on his back. The man simply smiled and walked away though. The group went their own way, toward the abandoned dragon colony where they made Silver's grave. After a couple hours of travel though, they found an abandoned car, with most of it's doors open, and a dead woman in the driver's seat. The surroundings suggested there was a passenger, but nobody else was to be seen. Hyperion and Rion stayed behind to take care of it, saying they'll catch up later.
As Majeh, Silver, Nightmare, Rick, and Suprema carried on, they eventually came to the abandoned dragon colony, though upon entering it, Silver seemed to go into some sort of mental breakdown. After arriving at her grave, and seeing that Ezkiel was nowhere to be seen, they quickly left to avoid putting Silver through anymore trauma. Later, Nightmare explained that the only other places he could think for them to look, would be the den where the Dragon King resided, and a large, well known, dragon establishment in the Xelric Canyon. As both locations were too far to walk to, they decided to head to West City, get on an airship to Central, then head to the locations in Exile and Luna's ships.
Upon arriving in West City, however, the group was displeased to learn that under orders from East City's command, all traffic to and from Central was shut down, so there were no ships headed to Central. There, they encountered Nightshade, who after phoning HQ, found out that traffic really was shut down. They then encountered a young woman named Aura, who was asking around showing a picture of Trias, asking about his whereabouts. When Nightmare recognized the picture, and said he was in Central, she was overjoyed and offered them a way to get to Central, so long as they took her along. They agreed, and she told them she just needed a river. Hyperion then showed up, telling them about the river just south of the city.
Nightshade left to go report back to HQ, while the others went to leave the city. Unknown to the group, the same strange blue haired man they saw at the hospital, was following them in West City, seeming to keep tabs on their conversations...
As the others reached the river, Aura revealed she was a river spirit, and also Trias' lover that thought she was dead. She then used her power over the river to forge them a boat, which took them down the river to Central at high speeds. Once arriving at Central, they went straight to Central's Maverick Hunter HQ. After speaking with Edge and Alice, they learned (much to Aura's dismay) that Trias broke out of jail, and eluded Edge's pursuit. From there, they discussed the strange deaths, and Edge told Alice to call the border guards and lift all restrictions put on Central by East City's command. He then arranged plans to meet with East City's commander to discuss turning over those case files.
After their brief encounter with Edge, Aura left, and the others went to the hospital to regroup with Exile and Luna. Upon doing so, they set off for the forest which held the den where the Dragon King resided. After arriving there, and reaching his hidden cave, they asked around, and the dragons there said they had seen no sign of Ezkiel, but one said they saw Enfurnus in the area.
After combing the surrounding area, Silver found Enfurnus, bloody and badly injured atop a high cliff edge. Nightmare filled Enfurnus' wounds with parts of his own body, to help him last long enough to be brought aboard Exile's ship for treatment. After tending to Enfurnus' wounds, he revealed that he didn't know who attacked him, as they came quick while he slept, and ran toward the dragon nesting area after wounding him.
Nightmare, Majeh, and Rion went to the nesting ground to investigate, where they expected to find the dead perpetrators. Instead, they found nothing. Or rather, next to nothing. There were no dragons, no dead people, nothing really. All that was there was a blood splattered egg, and a little blood here and there on some of the nests. After searching the area and finding nothing, Nightmare picked up the egg, and they headed back to the ship and reported to Silver and Enfurnus. There, the concluded that it was most likely criminals who capture dragons and sell them as mounts and for other such services. Though angry, there was nothing else they could do it looked like, so the group headed toward the Xelric Canyon to continue their search for Ezkiel.
Upon arriving at the Xelric Canyon, they found themselves in a very large dragon village. The group split up and asked around, looking for Ezkiel, but in the end, their efforts turned up nothing. They briefly encountered Reiko, but she was unfortunately no help in locating Ezkiel. Though before they left, the egg Nightmare found hatched, and a blue dragon hatchling with gold eyes rose from the egg, and seemed to attach to Silver, thinking she was it's mother.
The group headed back to the ships, and sadly concluded that they've exhausted all their leads, and that they'll have to call of their search for Ezkiel for now. Just then, what appeared to be Trias busted in through the window of the ship, laughing hysterically. After closer inspection and several crazy stunts later, the group concluded that it wasn't exactly Trias, and then the being introduced himself as Trias' lost hilarity, which explained the resemblance, and the hysterics. After a little while, Mr.Hilarity sped off into the sky, leaving the group confused.
After the strange encounter, everyone got in the ships and headed out. Luna and Hyperion went straight to East City, while the others went in Exile's ship toward Central, to meet with Edge. On the way back to Central though, Exile's ship was attacked by an ancient, and demonic-looking dragon.
The large dragon fought off most of the groups attacks, and wrecked Exile's ship to a point where it was barely functional, which Exile landed to get out of the way as most of the weapons were eventually torn off by the dragon. From that point on, the fight was a sky battle with the beast against Majeh and Silver (in their dragon forms) and Nightmare (who was on Enfurnus' back.)
After Majeh and Silver fought it and kept it at bay for the most part, Nightmare unleashed a violent barrage of attacks against the dragon beast, striking it with hundreds of smaller shots, a single large blast, then an explosive slice from his two-handed sword. However, his weapons ran out of energy after that, and Nightmare was left stranded on the beast, which proceeded to grab him and attempt to squeeze the life out of him, causing him to drop his weapon onto Exile's ship down below.
As the beast attempted to squeeze the life out of Nightmare, something snapped, and Nightmare seemed to undergo a shocking change. His eyes shone red, and dark energy ripped up from his back, breaking the dragon's grip on him. Nightmare then defeated the beast by transforming his arm into a large drill-like blade and plunging it into the dragon's chest, piercing it's heart.
As the two fell, Majeh caught Nightmare, and the dark energy only seemed to stop ripping up from Nightmare after Majeh returned his sword to him. After which, Nightmare slowly seemed to recover, brushing off his brief change in behavior as "indigestion."
The group began making repairs to Exile's ship, so that they can continue on to Central and regroup with Edge, and prepare for the trip to East City, to discuss the transfer of those Case Files East was withholding.
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Post by Nightmare on Dec 5, 2008 8:04:32 GMT -5
~Dragon Riders Arc~
Once the group returned to Central, Exile opted to stay behind and make repairs to his ship after the violent battle. The group headed to Central HQ, where they met up with Edge and Alice, and before they left, were rejoined by Hyperion and Luna. From there, they all traveled to East City by airship.
Upon arrival, Edge was unhappy and began searching for the East City Commander. After finding the Commander's desk empty, and talking one of the hunters there, they group was rudely greeted by Hanna Corona, the bitchy East City Commander.
After some discussion that quickly escalated into arguments, Corona agreed to allow Edge and the others to join her investigation, and as such, would share all the information East had collected.
A meeting in the conference room revealed that there were 54 dead women now, and that the information they had gathered suggested that the strange deaths were attributed to a killer, rather than a disease or anything else.
Information they gathered also suggested that the killer was headed West, toward West City. Reluctantly, Edge and Alice joined the group, as did Corona.
Everyone went back to the scene of the latest death, the woman in the car not too far West from Central. From there, the group walked toward the nearest town, keeping an eye open for any bodies between the last and the next town.
Along the way though, Majeh said there was a bunker nearby, and offered to let everyone in to check the security cameras, as it may have seen someone passing by.
Upon reaching the bunker, however, Majeh was horrified to see that someone had already broken into it. As he inspected the inside of the bunker, he found that it had been completely ransacked. He then revealed to the others, that he and Kuma has hidden away lots of very potent Dark Energy that they were unable to dispose of here, as well as Majeh's Devil Kaiser Armor, a deadly suit of armor with five Dark Energy cores in it that has the power to level small armies single-handedly. After determining that there was nothing left for them to do there, they headed to town.
By the time the group reached town though, Corona's rude comments and cruel treatment of the others began to ware thin on their patience, even provoking the normally level-headed Hyperion to attack her.
The group managed to keep itself together long enough for them to reach the police station and look at some case files, which revealed that there were three mysterious deaths in the town recently, bringing up the death toll to 57. Afterwords, as it was getting late, Corona rented out rooms in the Inn for everyone to rest.
The next morning, however, the group was rudely awakened by Corona's yelling. As it turns out, there were two more deaths overnight, meaning that there are now 59 dead women, and that the killer was in town with them the previous evening. Before they set out though, Corona rudely apologized for her behavior, realizing that she shouldn't treat them like soldiers, and that they need to be on a functioning level of communication if they were to work together.
From there, the group set out to the next town, and shortly after they arrived, Alice got a radio transmission from Central. Apparently, a "wolf with a long brown mane" killed the mayor of Central City with a dagger, then fled. Despite wanting to investigate, Edge said to leave it to the hunters he left in charge during his absence.
Afterwords, the group went to the police station, where Corona instructed the police to form a perimeter around the town to keep out and arrest any suspicious figures, and to trap in any that were already in the town.
The group split up momentarily, and ran into their blue-haired stalker, who after brief discussion, introduced himself as Tidus Cain. Though just as suddenly as he appeared, he took his leave. While the group had originally intended on staying in the town and aiding the investigation, another problem arose.
Strange people riding dragons flew over the town toward West City, a few stopping to attack the town. After the men and their dragons attacking the city were defeated, it was revealed that these were the same people who attacked the nests near the Dragon King's den, and almost killed Enfurnus, and most likely abducted the dragons from that area to use as mounts. The group headed to West City next to stop the rest of the dragon riders.
Upon arrival in West City, they found several people with dragon mounts idling over the city, and at the center was a man on a particularly large green dragon. The man introduced himself as the Dragoon of Wind, Xander the Tempest. Xander explained that his leader and the rest of his kind intend to restore the "natural order" and put dragons back on the top of the food chain, by force.
After using a strange amulet to arm himself and his dragon, Aerzial, they attacked Majeh, Silver, and Rion (who was riding Silver's back) who encountered them in the skied above West City. Before long, the others joined the fight from atop the Sypher (Luna's Ship), there they battled Aerzial, which left Majeh to fight Xander, while Silver and Rion battled the other dragon riding soldiers.
After a lengthy battle, Xander and the other dragon riders retreated. The group took the opportunity to rest at the West City hospital, where they encountered Nightshade rushing in a hunter from his platoon. It turned out that she left the platoon for only a few minutes just outside West City's East Gate, where she died of mysterious causes.
Corona, though enraged, determined that the killer had skipped over the town they secured, and is now in West City. After this young woman's death, the body count had reached 60.
The group spent the night in the hospital, and while preparing to investigate the murderer who they suspected was in West City, the city was attacked by more people riding dragons. Once again, airborne and aboard the Sypher, the group encountered another dragoon, this one atop a large red dragon.
After Majeh, Silver, and Rion, the people who defeated Xander, agreed to fight him, he lured the group away from the city, so that innocent people wouldn't be killed in their battle. After which, he introduced himself as the Dragoon of Fire, Bill the Inferno, and he along with his dragon, Flazium, single handedly engaged the entire group in battle.
Bill held his own for a long time, managing to injure Majeh, Silver, Rion, Nightmare, and Nightshade, as well as damage the Sypher, before being defeated. After his defeat, Bill announced that their leader's forces will be unstoppable after they take over the Xelric Canyon, then retreated.
Right after Bill retreated, the group was confronted by a young woman named Catherine, who was angry about her house getting destroyed in the fight back at West City. The others decided to take her along, giving her a ride back to West City. From there, the group saw it best fit to rest up at the hospital and repair the Sypher, then head to the Xelric Canyon.
After returning to West City, the group stayed at the hospital, while Nightshade had a crew of hunters working to help repair the Sypher. The following morning though, Alice went out to look for Silver (who she was told was "outside somewhere") where she encountered and approached a white fox.
Meanwhile, after the others finished treating their wounds, and they got notice that the Sypher was fixed up, Corona ordered everyone to regroup and board the Sypher. While gathering everyone else, Suprema found Alice sleeping with her back to a tree in the hospital courtyard. Unfortunately, he made the horrifying discovery that she was dead.
Once the others found out, there was a massive uproar, the others being between shock, horror, and anger. After Corona went berserk and tore up the courtyard, finding nothing, the group calmed down and made the tough decision that the attack on the Xelric Canyon took priority.
Edge and Nightshade stayed behind to go on a manhunt for the killer who now had taken 61 lives, including Alice, while the rest headed for the Xelric Canyon to warn them of the impending attack and prepare to defend themselves.
Once the group arrived at the Xelric Canyon (along with Catherine, who tagged along), they agreed to defend the dragons there with all their might, then return to West City to help Edge and Nightshade with the investigation there.
Shortly after entering the town there, the group once again encountered Reiko, which, after explaining the situation to her, took them to the town hall where her grandfather, the Chief was. After a brief meeting with the chief, the attack they warned about took place, as men riding dragons swarmed the town attacking and abducting dragons.
The group was quickly joined by Exile, who had flown in attacking the soldiers and their dragon mounts. From there, Corona collected quick intelligence reports from the Chief, and then created a strategy.
There were apparently five Dragoons leading the attack; a Wind one, a Fire one, a Water one, an Earth one, and an Electric one. Based on the groups abilities, Corona ordered them to split up; Silver and Rion to take care of the Water Dragoon, Reiko and Suprema to take care of the Fire Dragoon, Majeh and Hyperion to take care of the Earth Dragoon, Nightmare and Exile to take care of the Electric Dragoon, and finally, her, Catherine and Shory to fight the Wind Dragoon. After the group split up and partnered up, they scattered to neutralize their respective targets.
Silver and Rion encountered the Water Dragoon first, who introduced herself as Yolanda, and her dragon as Aqueza, before attacking the two of them. After a rough battle, Silver sustained a scythe to the neck, where she channeled a powerful electric charge through the weapon into Yolanda and Aqueza, electrocuting them, then Rion took her scythe which could freeze what it cut, and impaled her with it, causing her and Aqueza to freeze over solid and shatter. Rion salvaged from her remains, her amulet which she used to arm herself and her dragon.
Elsewhere, Reiko and Suprema encountered and engaged Bill and Flazium in battle. At first, the match was more or less a stalemate, but Reiko and Suprema were able to gain the upper hand quickly once they separated Bill and Flazium. Before long, the duo were too heavily inhibited from the injuries they sustained from their earlier encounter with the group, and Suprema and Reiko were able to kill Bill and Flazium. Before Bill died, he removed the amulet he wore on his arm and tossed it to Suprema, rewarding him for defeating him.
Majeh and Hyperion went ahead and battled the Earth Dragoon, Richard, and his dragon, Terra. Richard held out for awhile, but the angrier he got, the sloppier he got, and before long, he was killed by a head shot delivered by Hyperion, after which, Majeh salvaged his Amulet.
Meanwhile, Corona, Catherine, and Shory went on to battle Xander and Aerzial. For a long time, the battle wasn't getting anywhere, both sides just defending against the other's attacks and just tiring each other out. As the battle neared it's climax though, Shory, in an attempt to defend himself from a potentially deadly attack from Xander, tapped into the Gauntlet's power, and unleashed a flurry of attacks which almost instantly killed Xander and Aerzial.
Exile and Nightmare went on ahead to the location of the Lightning Dragoon. After a brief encounter with the mysterious Mr.Mysterious, Exile and Nightmare challenged Georgette and Sparky, the Lightning Dragoon duo. The match ended when Nightmare was electrocuted by one of Georgette's attacks while he grabbed her, electrocuting both of them.
Afterwords, everyone regrouped at Exile's ship, where they were confronted by a dragon halfling named Ryuji. Ryuji announced that he was the leader of the dragoons, and wielded the light and shadow amulets.
He also revealed that he served a man named Urufu (a name Silver seemed to recognize) and that together they intended to put dragons at the top of the food chain once again. He then proceeded to sic all the remaining troops on the group. Silver, Rion, and Majeh went on ahead to fight Ryuji, while everyone else dealt with the other dragons and their riders.
After a long battle, Ryuji fired off a powerful attack at Silver and Rion. Rion, saving Silver from the attack, took the full force of the blast, ripping him apart pretty badly. He then removed the Geno Buster, his powerful buster cannon, and threw it at Ryuji, and after Silver and Majeh attacked the weapon, it exploded, badly wounding Ryuji.
Though he claimed he could still fight, Ryuji was put out of commission when Urufu appeared before the group, and killed Ryuji for his failure. Without so much as a cryptic message, Urufu disappeared as suddenly as he appeared. After that, Exile claimed Ryuji's amulets, and Corona gave Exile the amulet she collected from Xander.
From there, the group rushed Rion to Exile's ship, and headed for West City, hoping to repair Rion and rejoin the murder investigation, to avenge Alice's death.
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Post by Nightmare on Dec 13, 2008 9:06:39 GMT -5
~Blight Arc~
After defeating the Dragoons, the group headed back to West City. Along the way, Luna and Exile determined that the only way to save Rion, was to put his DNA Soul into the body of their secret project, a reploid similar to Hyperion the two of them were building together.
Early one morning, on the way to West City, Corona had the ships stop near the small town they set up security in, so that she can order it taken down, as the killer had apparently passed over the town and headed straight for West.
While the ships were stopped and most everyone else was asleep, Silver awoke and headed outside for some fresh air. Before long, she came to a river, where she encountered a large wolf whose paw seemed to be injured. After wrapping the wolf's wound, she encountered a strange man.
This handsome man was very kind to Silver, and was dressed oddly, most notably having a large glass gourd on his back filled with a strange liquid. He introduced himself to Silver as "Inari."
Inari was nice to Silver, and seemed to be coming onto her. After awhile of conversation, his sweet talking seemed to pay off, and he and Silver kissed. However, upon kissing her, Silver was paralyzed, and could feel herself losing consciousness. Meanwhile, Majeh, who came out looking for Silver after waking up and seeing she was gone, came upon the two of them and witnessed the kiss.
Majeh's shock wore off when Silver started to collapse, revealing a strange vapor drifting from her mouth into Inari's. Majeh viciously attacked Inari in an attempt to protect Silver (as did the wolf she rescued) but none of their attacks seemed to work on Inari, as energy attacks seemed to disappear, and he was able to stop Majeh's physical attacks with one finger, as well as inflict devastating damage with the lightest touches.
After Rion, Hyperion, Exile, and Nightmare came out looking for Majeh and Silver, however, Inari fled, just disappearing as he walked away. Once they got Silver (and the wolf she rescued) back to the ship, they found that she was barely conscious, and she seemed to be fading. Under Nightmare's suggestion (and Corona's approval, once she got back) the group used Exile's teleporter to transfer Majeh, Silver, and Nightmare to a location Nightmare specified.
Upon arriving at this location, Nightmare, Majeh, and Silver were greeted by Neoforte and an anthropomorphic cat named Spex. As it turns out, the area they were in was Nightmare's house, and he planned on using some of the advanced machinery at his disposal to examine Silver and find out what's wrong with her and how to fix it.
As Majeh took the barely conscious Silver to a machine that would scan her body for all Chi signals, they were joined by Exile and the others, who arrived via Exile's Ship. After scanning Silver (and noting that she has two dangerous looking Black Chi Chambers) Nightmare determined that the killer doesn't eat souls, like previously speculated. He seems to drain the life force, a Chi produced by the body to make it function properly, and that the victims are likely dying by having it all removed.
Though it was determined that at this rate, Silver will still probably die, she was placed in a machine that among other things, could stimulate the reproduction of the Life Chi. After Silver's treatment was complete, and the group had a nice chat and breakfast, the group (plus Neoforte) boarded Exile's ship and headed back for West City to report the information Silver had on the killer to Edge.
Upon arriving, however, the group ran into a man from Majeh's past who introduced himself as Psi, who was also the man who stole the Devil Kaiser Armor and all that dark energy from the bunker Majeh and Kuma were protecting. The group was joined by Mr.Mysterious, Kuma, Nightshade, and Celestrus, who helped combat Psi, but in the end, Psi left with little damage done to him, and Majeh badly beaten.
After Corona saw to it that Majeh was checked into a hospital, the group went to West City HQ, where met up with Edge and informed him of Inari. During their meeting, however, the group was informed that another woman had been attacked, and survived. It was revealed that this woman was Luna, who has the Sypher parked outside West City awaiting the return of the others when they left for Nightmare's house.
Rion learned a healing spell by using advice from Hyperion, and he used it on Luna to help heal her, they heard the story about how she encountered Inari, and was rescued by Diana. After this, Diana approached the group, and expressed an interest in staying with them to protect Luna until she recovered (as Luna was the sister of Diana's creator, and felt a need to protect her.) After this, Corona said she'd be leaving the group to stay and help Edge in the murder investigation and work toward catching Inari.
From there, Exile had Nightmare transfer over a machine like the one Silver was in at his house (a rejuvenation tank) so that they might use it for healing purposes. After successfully putting one on Exile's ship, they removed Majeh from the hospital and placed him in it, as it would allow him to heal much faster. While Majeh was healing, Nightmare, Silver, Kuma, Suprema, Rion, Neoforte, and Nightshade went to go retrieve the Sypher from where it was left when Luna was attacked.
On their way to the Sypher, however, they spotted a woman following a white fox. After following her, they found Inari with her (though he hadn't killed her yet.) Inari, displeased that his third kill in a row had been interrupted, intended to leave, but the group engaged him in battle. Silver was sent away from the fight with her wolf companion, while the others stayed behind to fight Inari.
After everyone attacked Inari mercilessly, and failed to leave a scratch on him (Suprema and Rion actually getting stabbed and sliced by Inari's fingers) Inari got bored and left, once again mysteriously disappearing.
Meanwhile, Silver was with her wolf friend while hiding, and was approached by Urufu, who threatened Silver. He told her he had someone she cared about, and if she didn't come to face him, alone, then he'd kill this person. Silver, unable to turn him down, went after Urufu, leaving the wolf to return to the others.
After the others couldn't find Silver, they determined something was wrong, and went back to West City to get Exile, Hyperion, and the unconscious Majeh, so they could go look for Silver. There, they were approached by the wolf Silver was with when she left, and there it revealed that it's name was Reinketsueki, and could communicate telepathically. After telling them what happened, Nightmare suggested they head to the abandoned Dragon Colony where they built Silver's grave, as it seems to be the only area that holds any significance to her. Before leaving, however, the group was joined by Tidus Cain, who offered to send a friend with them for additional support.
The group arrived at the colony (along with Tidus' friend, Tau) and it seemed their suspicions were correct, as the area was covered in a thick green fog (a trait that wasn't present the last two times they came there.) After landing and navigating through the colony, they were attacked by undead soldiers. After fighting their way through the zombies, the group came upon a massive green crystal, and near it, Enfurnus and Silver, both of whom were injured badly.
After getting Silver and Enfurnus back to the ship, and Rion healing Silver with his new spell, they learned about Urufu's past connection with Silver (though the specifics were neglected to be mentioned.) They headed back to West City to get Enfurnus treated, and to wait for Majeh's treatment to be completed.
The next day, Majeh woke up, and was released from the rejuvenation tank. The group spent a great deal of time brainstorming what to do about Urufu and what that strange crystal was. After receiving a sample of the crystal from Nightshade, Nightmare determined that the crystal seems to be weak against elemental abilities, and they planned to freeze it and then burn it, to shatter it. Before heading out, however, Kuma gave Majeh a new sword, and Exile passed out the amulets they collected from the Dragoons.
After a brief explanation from Exile, the group learned that the amulets from the Dragoons they posses can be used by them to power up their weapons, armor, and abilities. Exile kept the Wind Amulet, while Majeh used the Earth, Suprema the Fire, Silver the Water, Rion the Lightning, Hyperion the Dark, and Nightmare the Light Amulet. Afterwords, they set out to head back to the dead lands, to destroy that crystal and defeat Urufu.
The group entered the dead lands under similar conditions as before (though learned Silver becomes much stronger because of the fog), and fought their way through the zombies and made it back to the crystal. There, Urufu appeared, and explained that he and Silver were both evil beings born from Blight (presumably a condition caused by the fog being emitted by the crystal.) The group didn't think any less of Silver after the revelation, and engaged Urufu in battle.
The lengthy battle drug on for awhile, Urufu being able to outmatch the entire group rather easily. Silver touched the crystal and transformed into her dark form (revealed to be her Blight form) and attacked Urufu, but with only slightly better luck than the others.
After awhile, the group was strangely enough, joined by Inari, who stayed with Nightmare and the injured Suprema mostly, watching the fight and giving commentary (and through reluctant conversation, seemed to not be that bad a guy, aside from the serial killer thing.) Before long, Inari offered to help, and stepped in, aiding the group in fighting Urufu, his intervention giving Majeh an opening to deal a crippling blow to Urufu (though Majeh was not happy in the least about accepting Inari's help.)
Before long, Rion restrained Urufu, and Silver was able to attack him with an attack using the energy emitting from the large crystal, and killed Urufu with it. However, Silver's Blight form took over afterwords, and she went berserk, attacking first Nightmare, then Majeh, Neoforte, and Rion. They struggled with Silver for some time trying to get her to calm down, but with little success. But then, Inari stepped in, and stopped Silver's thrashing, and with his kind words, seemed to talk her down from her berserker state, and she returned to normal (much to the surprise and jealousy of the others, who worked hard to try and calm her down to no avail.)
But then, shockingly enough, after Silver transformed back to normal, she was in a daze, and stumbled over and into Inari's arms. Majeh, Rion, and Kuma, enraged by Silver going to the enemy like that, attacked Inari, but he held onto Silver and avoided all their attacks. After Inari continued sweet talking Silver, and she made no attempt to flee, he leaned over and kissed her once again. He only took a small portion of her life force (barely weakening her and not affecting her consciousness, unlike the first time, which put her at death's door.)
After storing the life force he stole from her in his gourd, and evading the attacks from the others again, Inari offered to help the group once more, by (strangely enough) drawing Runic Seals from one of his pockets, and casting a spell which froze the crystal. After which, Inari mysteriously disappeared as he's so prone to do.
Majeh, trembling with shock and rage from the events that just unfolded, was lead back to the ship by Neoforte and Kuma, while Rion took the still dazed Silver back with them. Meanwhile, Nightmare, Hyperion, and Suprema worked on shattering that crystal Inari had so kindly frozen for them.
After their business in the dead lands was concluded, everyone headed back to the ship, where Silver refused to say what was wrong with her, and Nightmare, who seemed to know, refused to comment on it (much to everyone else's dismay.) Suprema was placed in the rejuvenation tank to recover, Silver was ordered to get some bed rest, and Majeh stayed at the back of the ship saying he wanted to be alone.
The group, broken and battered physically and emotionally, headed back toward West City for Enfurnus, Luna, and Diana.
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Post by Nightmare on Dec 29, 2008 18:01:06 GMT -5
~Corruption Arc~
The events in the Blight, left Majeh feeling rather depressed, and Silver seemed to be negatively effected by the fight as well, her right eye had turned completely green after the battle. On the way back to West City, however, Exile's ship was clipped on the wing by something, and they had to make an emergency landing.
Nightmare, Suprema, and Hyperion stayed behind to watch after the ship, while Majeh, Silver, Kuma, Rion, Exile, and Neoforte went to investigate and find out what attacked them. With help from Neoforte's eyes, the group came across a large mountain covered in caves.
Inside the mountain, the group was surprised to see a hidden city with an ancient civilization living in it. They found lots of strange crystals, and paintings depicting a familiar warrior. The place seemed to also give off a strange soothing vibe, one so powerful that even the normally perpetually angry and stern Kuma even relaxed upon entering the city.
Once there, the group met an old man who introduced himself as the leader of the village, and stated that they had been expecting them to arrive. They were lead to a large altar, where they were shocked to find Ryunen, in a body of his own!
After some brief chit-chat, Ryunen revealed that this was his home town, and that his body was being generated by the people there for him. He then explained that he had come there to die, as it's part of the tradition there that all inhabitants must return home to die peacefully, so that their bodies would crystallize into the crystals seen around the village, which give off that soothing energy to weaken intruders.
When asked why he's dying, Ryunen explained that he can't sustain his life forever without a body, and that now was his time to go. After saying his goodbyes to the others, he had Majeh return his God Slaying sword, Kami Sureiyaa to him, and in a pillar of light, Ryunen turned into a massive white crystal, forever sealing the deadly sword in the middle.
They said their goodbyes to the old leader there, who gave Majeh a small white crystal before leaving and turning to the ship. Upon arriving back, Silver seemed to be feeling ill, and she took off for awhile to get some air. The others stuck around while Kuma repaired the wing of the ship. During that time, Neoforte took Nightmare aside to talk to him in private out in the nearby woods.
While speaking in private, Neoforte expressed his concerns for Silver, saying that her aura had become twisted after the fight with Urufu, and she's looking increasingly more dangerous, and proceeded to point out that Nightmare's already dangerous aura had begun looking more unstable, saying that he "obviously hadn't been being very careful". Nightmare shrugged off Neoforte's claims of his own aura, saying that he may have overdone it a couple times, but is fine, then proceeded to say that Silver will be alright, and doesn't think she's dangerous. Neoforte reiterated his concerns though, and talked Nightmare into agreeing that Silver could possibly become a danger if something isn't done about whatever's effecting her.
Unfortunately, Silver had overheard this conversation, and interrupted them, carrying an injured Rein in her arms. Despite Nightmare's best efforts to explain, Silver had no interest in talking to him, so he and Neoforte returned to the ship, telling the others that Silver was out there, and Rein was injured. Majeh and Rion went out to help Silver. Silver somehow managed to heal Rein, and after a moment of awkward closeness between Silver and Rion (interrupted by Majeh), they returned to the ship, which Kuma had just finished fixing up, and they all climbed aboard and headed for West City.
Everyone arrived back at West and met back up with Luna, Nightshade, and Enfurnus (as it turns out, Diana left while they were gone, after seeing that Luna was recovering.) While at the hospital, under Nightmare's request, Enfurnus went to speak with Silver to learn more about what's wrong with her. Meanwhile, Nightmare took a look at Nightshade's arm, and found that the cause of the strange sparks flying off of it and causing him pain when he attacks, was being caused by a broken Chi Channel in his arm, which caused his energy to leak out and go out of control when he manipulated his energy; and as such, was asked not to try and fight until he can get it fixed. Then, Enfurnus and Silver came back to the others. Whatever they discussed however, was never shared with the others, and Enfurnus left, but before the issue could be further pondered, a loud crashing noise was heard outside.
Much to the horror of the group, they found Exile's ship roughed up pretty bad, with dents and large holes in it, with a massive gold colored axe sticking out of the top. Exile, not about to let someone do that to his ship and get away with it, quickly boarded it and found an intruder going through the ship. The intruder quickly found what it was looking for by the time Exile arrived, and turned to face him, revealing it to be a tall, green creature, with purple eyes and fearsome horns.
Exile attempted to fight it, but had his arm badly damaged in the fight. Majeh, Neoforte, and Rion attempted to attack it next (with some help from Nightshade), but they failed, as they seemed unable to hit it, as it had moved far too fast for them to keep up. The fight was quickly ended with the introduction of a second creature, who introduced itself as Anemos, and his friend (the one who attacked them) as Aka Manah.
The two were apparently part of a group called "The Druj" and Aka Manah had been sent on a mission to retrieve a book, which was apparently on Exile's ship. A lengthy explanation revealed that the book contained strange secrets and was apparently left on the ship by the manifestation of Trias' Hilarity that boarded the ship the first time the group traveled to the Xelric Canyon.
Anemos deeply apologized for Aka Manah's actions, and helped repair Exile's ship, before the two of them took the book and left. However, Nightshade's arm began to spark uncontrollably again (due to his attempts to assist in the fight), and in the end, he flew himself high into the air and away from the city, where there was a massive explosion, and something crashed into a nearby mountain.
Silver seemed to pass out inexplicably shortly after, however, so she was brought back into the hospital there. Meanwhile, Nightmare, Neoforte, Hyperion, and Luna took the Sypher and flew to the crash site on the mountain, hoping that Nightshade was okay. Once arriving, all they found was a bloody crater, with Nightshade's sword laying in it. Nightmare felt guilty, for not being able to save him, and said his goodbyes, while Neoforte made a makeshift grave, and stuck Nightshade's sword in it like a cross. The four of them then sadly returned to the hospital.
Shortly after the others arrived back, Silver woke up, but seemed to be acting strange; her green eye now glowing ominously. Majeh and Rion then bore witness to Silver losing control of herself and killing a hospital attendant, before regaining her senses, wondering what had happened. Neoforte and Suprema, who had come to check up on Silver, found the body and needless to say, Neoforte wasn't happy in the least, telling Rion to get Silver out of his sight and away from other people. After Surpema returned with some doctors, Neoforte pulled Majeh aside and expressed his concerns that something's wrong with Silver, and that if they can't figure out a way to help her, he may have to "make a very difficult decision."
Elsewhere, Silver confided in Rion that she was starting to grow scared of what's happening to her, and doesn't want to turn into a monster. Rion reassured her that nobody's going to turn their backs on her, and that she's not a monster, and pointed out that Neoforte's just worried about the safety of everyone else, reminding her that Neoforte acted the same way toward Majeh during his issues with Dark Energy before he was moved to Ryunen's body.
After another awkwardly close moment between the two, they headed back to the others, where the group decided that they should contact Edge, and let him know about their encounter with Inari, which suggested that he was heading South. Before they could leave, however, there was another loud commotion down town. Upon arriving to check it out, they found three large trolls robbing a store.
After battling the trolls and managing to kill one, a man dressed in black on a motorcycle arrived and called off the trolls, and took off with what they had stolen, the two remaining trolls following him. Before they could stop to figure out what to make of all that, Tank, a hunter who had briefly assisted the group during the battle with the IZV arrived. He pointed out that they just robbed a low budget magic shop, and can't imagine what trolls were doing running around West City, and decided to report to Edge. Seeing as they had the same destination, Tank joined with the group.
After finding out that Edge had left West City to tend to business in Central, they piled into the ship and headed there. Upon arrival, they spoke to Edge, and reported to him that Inari had been seen heading south from West City. They also briefed him on some of Inari's abilities, and Rion pointed out he noticed him use Runic Seals in their last encounter. After hearing the report about (and mostly ignoring) the troll robbery, he requested that the group go speak to Nexus, as he may know something.
From there, the group decided to head back to West City and drop off Tank, and go pick up Exile (who had stayed behind to do finishing touches on the repairs to his ship.) On the way back to West from Central, however, they made a quick stop, as Silver wasn't feeling well and wanted to get off the ship for a few.
Silver and Rion got off and walked away to talk. Silver revealed to Rion that the cause of her losing control and becoming very strong in battle in the past, was that crystal they destroyed after fighting Urufu. She had previously touched one, and her soul was corrupted by it, giving her that other form. Touching the crystal in the last fight gave her a massive strength increase, but had further corrupted her soul, and feared that nothing could be done about it. She once again began to worry about what she had become, but was once again reassured by Rion that everyone will do everything in their power to help her.
The two were joined by Nightmare, who began to talk with Silver regarding her issue. However, this discussion slowly escalated into an argument, over the way Nightmare and Neoforte talked about her in private, and the way Silver is shutting everyone else out and not letting them help her. Before long, and despite Rion's best efforts to calm the two of them down, both snapped, and Silver changed into her Blighted Dragon form, and Nightmare took donned red eyes and a mysterious black smoke rising from his back, similar to his condition when he defeated the ancient dragon prior to fighting the dragoons.
Majeh, Neoforte, and Rion attempted to intervene and stop the two of them from fighting, but they were easily tossed aside by the berserk Nightmare and Silver. The battle raged on for some time, as Nightmare could heal his wounds and manipulate his body, and Silver was very strong, fast, and agile. After awhile, the two seemed to be wearing out, and once the opportunity arose, Majeh, Neoforte, and Suprema went to distract Nightmare, while Tank and Rion drew Silver's attention off of Nightmare and Rion used his healing spells to help bring Silver back to her senses.
Silver, due to Rion's help, regained her senses enough to move away from the battlefield, so her and Nightmare wouldn't be able to fight anymore. Meanwhile, Nightmare beat the crap out of Majeh, Neoforte, and Suprema for awhile, before he began to wear himself out and started to regain his senses. During Nightmare's confusion in his inner conflict, the others took advantage of that and beat him to the ground, where he seemed to turn back to normal and pass out.
Once Silver regained her senses fully, her and Rion were picked up in the Sypher, where Nightmare was sleeping, and the group headed back to West City.
The next day, Kuma pulled Rion aside to discuss something with him. What they discussed, was Silver's growing closeness to Rion, and how it's negatively effecting Majeh. Rion seemed oblivious to this, but took Kuma's word for it. Kuma asked Rion that he try to find out what's wrong, and if there's a reason for Silver and Majeh growing apart, to which Rion agreed.
Meanwhile, Tank was giving Silver a little speech of his own, explaining that she need not worry so much about everyone being on edge around her. He explained that everyone is scared, but they're not scared OF her, but rather FOR her, and that they're all looking out for her, so she shouldn't think of herself as a burden, as they all care so much about her. He also unfortunately for Kuma, contradicted his speech, telling Silver that she should stick close to Rion, as he risked his life to help her in that fight.
Afterwords, Silver snuck into Nightmare's room to see if he was alright, and the two of them talked, both apologizing for the way they acted. Silver explained to Nightmare about her condition, just as she had Rion, and Nightmare explained his to her. Nightmare's change was attributed to another soul living in his body, which he described as "the True Nightmare" (implying that the name "Nightmare" doesn't actually belong to him.) This other Nightmare was supposedly evil, and craved destruction, but for some reason had trouble seizing control of their body. Nightmare explained that he loses the control he has over his body when he's weakened or angry, and that explained what happened.
Despite Silver's objections, Nightmare saw it best fit if he left, saying that Silver is special to everyone, and they'll so whatever it takes to help her, whereas he's dispensable, and they'd kill him without hesitation if he attacked them like that (and even said that they probably wish he was dead anyways due to him attacking Silver.) He said that though he'd miss them all, at the very least he feels he needs to go because he can't afford to be killed by them before he can reach his goal; to learn about his origins and how he came to be this way, and more importantly, whether or not a crime that earned him a bounty was really committed by him (a crime he implied was murder, of his closest friends at that.)
Nightmare said his goodbyes to Silver, and they promised each other that they wouldn't let their dark sides consume them. And after that, Nightmare and Neoforte snuck off, with the intention of going home. On his way out, however, Shory, who seemed unusually cold, confronted Nightmare about keeping his secret from them, and was angry that Nightmare would run away like this. Nightmare however just shrugged this off as Shory being concerned about him, and thanked him before leaving.
On their way out of the city, however, Neoforte spotted a man with a very strange aura... But before he could get a closer look, the man disappeared...
Meanwhile, the others learned of Nightmare leaving (and didn't seem to care so much, given the previous events) and decided it'd be best to just head to the Runic Village and visit Nexus.
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Post by Nightmare on Dec 29, 2008 19:27:07 GMT -5
~Revelations Arc~
After leaving Nightmare and Neoforte, the group headed to the Runic Village to speak with Nexus, regarding Inari (as Rion had pointed out Inari used Runic Seals, so Nexus might know something.)
Once meeting with Nexus and his Uncle, and questioning them about Inari, Nexus seemed to go white, implying that he knew Inari, but asked them a few questions about him to be sure. After the information provided by the group seemed to confirm Nexus' fears, he showed them a picture of a younger Inari, with an 8 year old Nexus, and another boy wearing Quintessencial (who he revealed to be Nexus' deceased older brother, Len.) This picture confirmed that the Inari who has been killing women by stealing their life force was the same Inari Nexus once knew.
Nexus revealed that Inari was his older brother's comrade and best friend while growing up. Len, Nexus' brother, had went to meet Inari one day when they were 13, but Inari was late, so Len waited. But while he was waiting, a large dragon scaled the walls of the village, and Len battled it, before being crushed by it. Inari blamed himself for not being there, and it being because of him that Len was there in the first place, and he left the village shortly after Len's death, never being heard from again.
Nexus went on to talk about Inari's abilities, saying that he has the ability to absorb kinetic energy through his hands, and release it. Which means he can block a physical attack, stopping it like it was nothing, then release the force he absorbed in his own attacks, making even light touches devastating. He also has the ability to conjure flames (Nexus said two flames, but in previous encounters with Inari, he demonstrated the ability to conjure five) that can absorb energy attacks, and reflect them at Inari's enemies. Said flames could also form into small animals, and cause hallucinations in his enemies. However, Nexus had no clue how Inari learned to steal life force from people, and what he intends to do with it.
Nexus seemed shocked, and found it a little hard to believe that Inari was murdering innocent women, as he recalled Inari being real soft, and unable to kill anything. But he decided that if the others were going to hunt down Inari, he wanted to come with. From there, the group decided to spend the night in the Runic Village, and would move out to search for Inari in the south the next day.
While Nexus arranged to have rooms prepared for the others, they enjoyed the sights of the Runic Village. Majeh, who was sitting alone somewhere was joined by Majeh, who talked to him regarding the increasingly amount of time being spent between her and Rion, and Majeh's depression. After a long discussion, Silver explained to Majeh that she doesn't feel the same way about him that she did before, and that she thinks that she may be in love with Rion. Majeh, though clearly heart broken, seems to take it well, and agrees that he'll always be Silver's friend. After Silver left though, Majeh was taunted by a mysterious voice, telling him that he's just a machine meant for killing, even if he does become organic, and suggests that he kills Rion. Majeh ignores the voice's claims, and heads back to meet with the others.
Elsewhere, Silver spoke to Rion regarding what her and Majeh talked about, and though worried about Majeh, Rion said he did kinda like Silver, and that he's okay with whatever decisions she makes. Before they could further discuss a possible relationship though, they headed back to regroup with everyone else.
The next day, the group set out to head south and begin their search for Inari. There were only two towns in the southern desert, one was a small village in the heart of the desert, which was closer to the dragon colony, and the other was a small oasis town closer to South City. Kuma concluded that Inari probably already hit the first town, so they should head for the oasis and see if there are any signs of him, and to head him off when he arrives if not.
They all decide to take one ship, Exile's, and head to the desert. They had to land the ship a little ways from the oasis, due to the harsh terrain. While walking to the oasis town, they were attacked by Crowe, who said he was itching for a fight. Though the others thought he was crazy, and they knew they had something important to do, Majeh, still upset about losing Silver, agreed to fight Crowe.
During their fight, Crowe broke the sword Kuma made for Majeh, and so he was forced to use a new ability, which utilized the crystal he got from Ryunen's home town to create weapons from energy. The two fought a rough and barbaric battle, and though everyone else let them go at it, figuring they needed to let off that steam, eventually intervened when it got too rough.
Afterwords, Crowe revealed that he was wandering the desert looking for a killer, as someone had killed some women in his village, and he needed an excuse to fight someone, so he set out to find the perpetrator. Taking this knowledge to heart, the group learned that Inari had in fact been through the other desert village, and was most likely heading for the oasis. They parted ways with Crowe, and headed to the oasis from there.
Upon arriving, a strange white dove started following Silver around. The others began to find the bird strange, and Rion and Kuma concluded that it may be a spy created by Inari (they used the basis that white doves don't dwell in the deserts, so it was out of place, and Inari was likely in the area, and could conjure animals, favoring white animals.) Though Silver thwarted the other's attempts to kill the bird, starting to think they'd gone crazy, wanting to kill innocent animals due to their paranoia.
Before long, they noticed an abundance of Hunters in the town, though they seemed to be grouped in one place and were keeping their presence quiet. There were Hunters from Central, East, West, and South Cities there, and upon questioning from Kuma and Majeh, they revealed they were there under orders of Commander Corona to assist in apprehending the serial killer Inari.
After some time of idling in the oasis, and discussing possible strategies, a loud commotion outside revealed that Inari was spotted somewhere in the village. The group traveled with the hunters to a closed off rock formation covered in small caves. Despite what they were expecting (which was to split up and search for him in those caves) Inari approached them behind, casually asking what they were up to.
Nexus confronted Inari, asking why he's killing people, to which Inari responded that it's "No big deal." and that "Their deaths don't mean anything in the long run." Enraged by his nonchalant responses to him killing over 70 women, Nexus urged the others to attack, and as he did so, was easily defeated by Inari.
Majeh, Kuma, Hyperion, and Suprema proceeded to attack Inari as well, and unlike in their previous encounters, Majeh actually managed to hit Inari a couple of times, but in the end, it wasn't enough. Inari conjured three green flames containing the energy he had absorbed from everyone else's attacks in their previous encounters, and unleashed a storm of flaming energy needles from the sky, wounding everyone (save for Luna and Silver) and putting the hunters with them out of commission.
After the fight, Silver asked Inari why he was doing what he was doing, and Inari made a startling proposition; If Silver gave herself to him, then he would tell her what she wanted to know (and promised not to hurt her.) Silver seemed reluctant, and the others were outraged by the mere thought (though they were in no condition to do anything about it) and eventually, Silver agreed.
Rion and Majeh tried to stop her, but Silver felt it was for the best, and eventually, Rion agreed they had no other options, and let her go. Despite everyone else's objections, Silver left with Inari, and an enraged Majeh got into an argument with Rion over it. Rion felt that Silver knew what she was doing, and knew that they couldn't defeat Inari if they tried, so resisting would only endanger their lives. Whereas Majeh felt that keeping Silver away from Inari at all costs was their top priority. Once Hyperion managed to quiet down the others (though getting a little worked up in the process himself), they headed to the Inn to wrap their wounds and devise a plan.
Meanwhile, Inari carried Silver with him out of the desert, and they had a little talk, Inari explaining that Silver probably won't be happy with neither Rion nor Majeh, and told her she should stay with him. Silver wasn't really buying that, but she didn't seem to have any problem with staying with Inari, strangely enough.
The two of them set out together, Silver not scared, but wondering if she'd ever see her friends again.
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