Titanomachy (IC)

[RacingeR]

Team Baka
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Field of Ruins (The Stronghold of Defiance)
Time: Day 5 – Noon

The orb of black energy started eating away at the dead flesh around the lance. However, Sarah could perceive that, whatever this Demon was in life, it had been powerful. So powerful, that even after eight centuries of his death, his body hadn’t decayed, and remained incredibly resistant. You were eating at it, yes, but it was so tough that to even make any sort of headway it would take you days, or perhaps weeks of drilling the corpse.

Suddenly, you noticed that Jin, who had remained inexpressive and silent even after your show of thanks, shifted slightly, and crouched on the dusty ground. He traced a few symbols on the dust, and mumbled something inaudible, causing the whole team to feel a faint pulse of spiritual energy. Then, he frowned.

“Sturmritter.” He said in a murmur. Then, he stood up and spoke in a normal tone of voice. “Leave it. We have to go now.” He said laconically and stepped forward towards the exit of the ruined cathedral.

[RacingeR]

Team Incest
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Zeus Approach
Time: Day 4 – Morning

At least, it had ended up being quicker than expected, as the mark had been quite easy to spot once you had unclothed yourself.

At the beginning, Kaitlin had listened to your retelling of your ‘dream’ quite patiently, without adding any comment, although you could tell she was somewhat skeptical about it being real. Midway through, Lizzie wake up, so you had to start explaining the whole thing from the beginning to the sleepy girl, who didn’t quite begin to understand what was going on.

Finally, you had undressed and started bathing, and the two girls, who perhaps still thought you merely had a very realistic dream, couldn’t help but to emit exclamations of surprise. Lizzie even sounded more than a bit scared when she saw your back.

Fortunately, the sleeping twins didn’t wake up, which avoided some awkward explanations, and you were quickly provided with an arrangement of two mirrors that let you see the mark that had appeared on your back. It was quite eye-catching; a long, stylized bundle of lines that represented a big blue flame, which started from just above your ass, and went all the way towards your neck. The blue colored lines in your skin seemed to shine slightly, providing a faint light that illuminated your back, and they combined quite well with your blue hair, providing you with an aura of mystery and mysticism. Of course, that was as long as the crest was in view.

What followed, however, was quite awkward for you, although neither Lizzie nor Kaitlin showed any apprehension as they examined every inch of your body, perhaps due to their different, western cultural backgrounds. The startled girls then concluded that the only mark that had appeared in your body.

Finally, after you had finished cleaning yourself, the three of you had sat around the center of the tent. The twins were still sleeping, and you suspected not even the whole of Legion tapdancing around them would be able to wake them up. You were somewhat uncomfortable, as you were still topless, and the other two girls were still closely examining the mark. You saw them exchange a concerned glance, and you understood that they didn’t seem to quite think this was all good news.

“It could be a good thing…” Kaitlin said, as if convincing herself.

“I don’t know…” Lizzie extended her hand and passed her fingers over the lines on your back. “It feels just like a tattoo… a glowing magical tattoo.” She said, with some envy on her voice, but mostly concern. She seemed genuinely worried about you, and it felt strange to see the girl who used to bully you so cruelly be so fretful about your wellbeing.

“I just think it is too convenient. We need a guide, someone to teach us magic, and she suddenly shows up?” Lizzie questioned. “And we have no way to know if she was telling us the truth or not… about who she is and what intentions she has. For what we know, this could mean she has entered a pact with some unknown and powerful magical being… and then there are the warnings those girls from yesterday gave us.”

Kaitlin frowned. “I don’t know what to say about this… there’s just too much we don’t know.” She pointed at the mark. “I just… don’t like this. Feels like she could do something to Tomomi without us being able to do anything to stop her.”

“I think Taichi should know about this, and so should the rest of the team. But…” The redhead’s frown deepened. “I don’t think he’d take this well.”

[Erlkonig]

Masaki Tomomi
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Zeus Approach
Time: Day 4 – Morning

"You're right..." Tomomi sadly agreed with the girls' judgement. "Today's not the right for telling him, that's for sure."

That said, Tomomi was quick to dress herself as soon as she replied to the Captain and her friend. The last thing she wanted was one of the boys to come into the tent with a question to see her half-naked. The embarrassment would be too much.

"In any case, you don't have to trust her intentions, but I think we can trust what she said. It makes sense given what we know of Juan, and what the girls who we met afterward told us. Since I can piece together the information between everything that happened, it's only logical to assume that what she said was right. In which case..." Tomomi's eyes steered towards her bag.

"Then there should be no problem with us using this!" She excitedly snatched the grimoire from its container, the normally calm girl quivering with excitement. "We're still going to need some time to lift up camp and decide what to do, so it's fine to get started on reading the one good thing we got out of that mess, right?"

Tomomi then grabbed Lizzie's hand, pulling the lithe girl towards her. "I'm sure you're curious too, aren't you?" She held up the book, a smile on her face.

"Let's check it out~"

[RacingeR]

Team Incest
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Zeus Approach
Time: Day 4 – Morning

“Eh, well…” Lizzie’s eyes went towards the book, unable to hide her curiosity, but visibly struggling against the doubts she had regarding its safety. It only took her a few seconds to come to a decision, and nod her hear, before shooting an apologetic look at Kaitlin.

“It’s not like I can stop you. Just be careful, okay? And don’t take too long, we still need to have breakfast and decide on a course of action…” The redhead sighed. “Meanwhile, I guess I’ll wake these two up somehow.”

The two of you left the swordswoman fighting a hard battle against two lazy Japanese schoolgirls, and moved to a corner of the tent, using a handlight to illuminate the contents of the book. The tome itself wasn’t very big, although quite thick and composed of many thin pages of some material that resembled paper but was simply too resistant to be paper. The cover of the book itself was made of some sort of blackish-blue leather of some creature, and likewise, felt flexible but extremely resistant.

Once opened, the book yielded its first obstacle, and with it, the first great disappointment. It was entirely written in an unknown language, in ink that varied in color throughout the whole book. The letters themselves were runes that resulted eerily familiar, and using your memory, you were able to quickly piece together the resemblance. These runes were relatively similar to Celtic runes, although the thin traces looked almost Tolkien-esque, resembling the symbols you had occasionally seen in covers of the Lord Of The Rings books. Of course, you had never learned either language, and either way these runes looked to be their own thing altogether, their own language.

The first sheet of the grimoire had once been completely blank, for some reason, and there, you noticed Juan had left quite a lot of intricate notes in both English and Spanish about the contents of the book, and you suspected about magic in general. Reading the thoughts he had written at the head of the page, it seemed the very first chapter of the book was dedicated to the principles and bases of magic. Below it, there were a few lines that you suspected had once been a few reflections regarding the nature of magic, but they had been overwritten over and over again in both languages until they had become an undecipherable mess.

Below even that, you saw the four principles that Ilse had told you yesterday night: End, Beginning, Boundary and Deviation. Juan had neatly written the four of them, and then circled them twice, as to remind himself of their importance. However, he had appended no explanations whatsoever regarding them, apparently already having some sort of understanding of them already.

Occupying most of the center of the first page was what looked like a list of elements, as well as various notes and reflections regarding them. ‘Basic building blocks’ was scribbled above them, and then they were listed, separated in two groups of six: Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Wind and Earth in one group. Ice, Blood, Metal, Nature, Lightning and Mana in another group.

Juan seemed to have been rather confused regarding the nature of the elements. What you suspected to be one of his older notes said ‘Ice and Water separated?’ and then, below the element list, he had written ‘Conceptualizaciones?’

Then, below this section of the sheet, he had written in Spanish: ‘La Magia es el espejo de la Ciencia.’

The notes regarding elements were quite confusing to read, and a lot of them were downright undecipherable scribbles. You noticed an arrow coming out from Ice which said ‘Stillness’, another coming from Blood which said ‘Internal lifeforce’ and another from Nature that said ‘External lifeforce’. You also noticed that above each element there was a small scribble that looked like a drawing of an animal. There were the typical four beasts of the Chinese Daoist system, which as someone coming from Japan you knew quite well. The Phoenix was drawn above Fire, the Eastern Dragon over Water, the Tiger over Wind and the Turtle over Earth. The one above Dark seemed to be some sort of serpent, and the one over Light looked like a lion. The other six elements also had drawings like that, but they were so small it was almost impossible to distinguish them, especially as the ink seemed to have blurred over time. After some observation, you concluded that the Kirin was drawn over Lightning, but the rest remained a mystery.

You and Lizzie exchanged a glance. Looking over this page and the next, there was enough content in the first sheet to keep you busy for days, and you could now see that Juan had written all over the margins and blank space in the book, apparently starting his own translation of its contents, and what looked like quite a lot of speculation regarding a wide variety of topics.

There was little chance you’d be making fast progress in this, it seemed, at least not without a guiding hand to help you through. And given your limited time currently, you’d have to pick on what you wanted to focus right now.

[Erlkonig]

Team Incest
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Zeus Approach
Time: Day 4 – Morning

Tomomi sighed with disappointment, meeting eyes with Lizzie and offering a shrug with a wry smile. "Well, I guess this wasn't going to be easy after all, right?"

That being said, she couldn't deny that even the first page of the book was pretty interesting. When she understood that it was Nim who had written the original book, and that these were Juan's attempts to decipher what was written in it, she was fairly certain that the gibberish noted by the hispanic boy was far more important than its caligraphy was proper.

While Tomomi already knew about the four aspects, she took a moment to explain to Lizzie how Nim had also spoken to her about those, as if to reinforce their importance. Afterwards, she turned her eyes towards the part of the book that was new to her- The explanation of the elements.

Twelve different elements. Understood by Juan as an attempt to conceptualize a more abstract entity, and given his statement that magic was a mirror of science, Tomomi felt like he was stating that magic manifested in ways that appeared similar to science, but beneath the surface it played by entirely different rules.

She'd expected that, of course. It wouldn't be magic if it had a logical explanation.

"Well, what do you think?" Tomomi raised her eyebrow. "I think we should probably focus on getting the basics figured out right now, probably look up more references to the elements in the book, and then we can move on to another topic later on. There's not much time till breakfast, so I'd say that's what we should focus on."

Tomomi sighed. "Looking at this, I doubt we'll be able to learn a spell until I share another dream with Lady Nim."

[Snax]

Sarah Vale
Team Baka
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Field of Ruins (The Stronghold of Defiance)
Time: Day 5 – Noon

"Jeez, that was a waste of time."

Shrugging, Sarah leaves the weapon be, stepping away from it and following Jordan and the rest, following them through the exit of the cathedral.

[Plue]

Eilian Aubrey
Location: Zeus High School – School Building (6^th Floor – Twisted Hallways)
Time: Day 4 – Morning

A pause before Eilian replies, considering how much to tell. "At the most basic level I can tell any physical dimension, or otherwise measurement merely by observation."

A gesture towards the clock in the classroom, "As an example: Our day no longer twenty four hours long."

Letting her words sink in she waits for any sign of realization in the eyes of Rosalin,

"Further, well."

She frowns, a minute pressing of her lips together.

"If I said that see the linkages of causality, would that be a sufficient description?" Her question as much to herself as to the treasurer.

[RacingeR]

Rika Griffin & Harry Blackfield
Location: Zeus High School – School Building (6^th Floor – Empty Classroom)
Time: Day 4 – Morning

Bryanna opened the book, and started reading its contents. They could be summarized as such:

The first part was the tale of a Survivor named Gil Parish. He had been at a shopping mall with his brother and his best friend, a man named Patrick Wilson and some of his friends, including a girl named Nadia Carver, her little brother, Alan Carver, and some other names, when the shopping mall had been assaulted by a phenomenon that sounded eerily similar to the one you had experienced when you were first pulled into the Warped World. The only difference was that the shopping mall had fallen into a place that later on, Gil had gone back to annotate as Zone: The Spire, Area: Dread Swamp.

Either way, he had described the place a humid, gigantic and endless swamp plagued to the brim with undead and monstrosities. He had described the apocalyptic sight of many buildings falling from the cracked skies and into the swamp, some breaking apart on impact, others resisting. All of them full of humans. Easy prey for the carnage that ensued when monsters fell upon them. Not all were lucky to become Enhanced Humans, or get the chance to. When the undead had breached the mall, the people there had gotten massacred. Gil’s own brother was one of the first few to go. Many of their group of friends died in the fight, but Gil, along with Patrick who had made himself into a sort of leader figure, Nadia, Alan, two friends of Nadia, one named Jacqueline Croix and another named Millia Ellie, a girl named Jennifer Foster and a man named Erik Szah survived. All of them had become Enhanced Humans in the process. No one else survived.

They made common force with the Survivors they found outside, mostly those who had survived their own proving grounds, of which he highlighted a Uruguayan man named Iñaki Gonzalez, an explorer, scholar and survivalist, whose advice was very useful.

The buildings that fell and the people therein were from all over the world. Some joined them in their attempt to get out of the swamp, but many fell prey to the monsters and many dangers they found in their way. Names came and went, some devoured by Weresharks, others drowning in the swamp, one becoming lost after following strange blue fires, others deserting, or going insane. It was a grim tale, recorded laconically but precisely by Gil, who apparently intended to leave the diary behind so others could learn from it.

Finally, they had made contact with older Survivors. The notes here had been confusing, at some point Gil had noted how old these people were, and that they were some sort of Third Generation of Survivors that had begun just a little while ago. If a decade could be counted as a little while.

There had been a girl named Laura Winston who was an old veteran and took the position of party leader, an African man who answered to the name of Charlie, and a Japanese man named Tsukuda Yoshio.

A man who wore a blue jacket.

They had braved the swamp, traversing it not towards its perilous borders, but towards a safe place named the Sunken Ward, apparently a small town made by human Survivors who had secured a safe route in and out of the swamp, and that was taking in the new wave of confused and wounded Survivors who managed to reach all the way in.

Just travelling there took them a week, and they had many losses as they did. Finally, when they were near the town, Yoshio had betrayed them, guiding them into an ambush of more Survivors wearing blue jackets. A gang of humans with superpowers gone completely feral, was how Gil described them. Insane. Sick. They had ambushed them not for their supplies but for the girls in the team.

At the end, Laura had gotten her throat slit by Yoshio, and Charlie had gotten lethally wounded fighting them off. Millia had burned away many of them with her Spiritual Power, but not before many of them had been killed in battle. Alan betrayed them, and backstabbed his own sister. Only Patrick’s timely intervention had saved Nadia’s life. As the blue jackets retreated, Gil had been forced to shoot a girl who he held feelings for, when she had been captured and hauled away by the gang, in only to prevent a fate worse than death for her.

Patrick took charge of the group again, and guided them along all the way to the Sunken Ward, helped along by Charlie before he perished of his wounds. They had made it to the town just in time, with Monsters hounding them, picking them off one by one.

The town was indeed based in the ward of a city, half-sunken in the swamp. By Gil’s investigations, it seemed like at some point in this world’s history, an entire section of the city of Riga, Estonia, had been dropped into the Warped World. He described the small society of humans that lived there, mostly based in barter trade, with scarce resources. He described how, for example, food was abundant, especially monster meat, but other such resources such as bullets, projectiles and weaponry of any kind was extremely valuable and scarce. Even clothing was scarce, and Gil had pawned off an extra gun for a pair of pants at some point.

Then, the blue jackets came once again in the scene, surrounding the city, using methods unknown to somehow crawl between the hordes of ravenous Monsters to siege the town. They put a display with the people they had captured in the Dread Swamp, the people who had weaved through the monsters or hidden in the fallen buildings only to be captured by another kind of monsters. They executed the men, and did things to women that Gil was unable to describe, all to provoke the Survivors huddling within the swamp town. And it had worked. The next pages described a battle in the swamp, where Monsters and Survivors had killed each other in a bloody melee, until the blue jackets, lead by Yoshio, had been forced to retreat. Gil himself had slain the maddened Alan Carver in combat.

At this point, Bryanna stopped reading the diary, and closed it, looking a bit sick. It was hard to say if she had stopped because it was becoming late and the morning was almost gone, or because she couldn’t bear to keep reading.

“Holy shit.” She said after a moment. “I never thought I was going to say this, but I think we got really lucky with the place we fell into. If it was us in that swamp…” She shuddered.

“… We can’t lose any more time here.” Lara said, completely pale. “By god, I am NOT leaving Jane out there with that gang of psychopaths, not with the kind of shit that is outside. No way in hell.”

“I don’t know how accurate this is…” Bryanna pointed out. “This diary seems very old, almost centuries old. Hell, a cursory glance tells me this guy kept it up to date for decades… just how old did he get to be before he bit it? We really are ageless, aren’t we…?”

“I don’t care how old it is! It is talking about a gang of fucking rapists!” Lara said, impatient. “I… I’m not going to wait anymore. I’m going out now. With or without you guys.”


Team Incest
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Zeus Approach
Time: Day 4 – Morning

“Mhm…” Lizzie nodded her head at your words, and passed the page, looking at the beginning of the book proper. The runes there had been written in blue ink… in fact, they were of the same clear blue color that the new mark in your back bore, which lend credence to the fact that Nim had indeed written this spellbook.

The contents there were relatively innocuous, and they spoke of the automatic conversion of spiritual energy into magical energy that took place within the body, and of circulating it within following the formulas of the spell to produce the effect. Or at least that said the translation, in English, that had been written in the page’s margins. The other side of the page had what seemed to be some warnings regarding experimentation without following the formulae inscribed therein (although this part was extremely hard to understand, given Juan had repeatedly replaced the translation and scribbled over it many times). It also contained the specifications of a simple ritual that could be used to discover one’s favored elemental alignment, although it required the usage of a magically charged object to complete said ritual.

However, that was all the introduction the book had. This small prologue did seem oriented to apprentices or people who had just started down the path of magic, but that was all it had. You remembered that at some point, it had been mentioned that this was a mid-grade Grimoire, and thus it was already surprising it had such a prologue. It hadn’t bothered to append explanations of what the formulas present in the spells meant. Juan had supplemented in his own way, but even his notes on the simplest of spells would take a long time of studying to decipher, scribbled as they were in a mix of English and Spanish.

For now, both you and Lizzie followed the instructions in the prologue and reached to the energy stored within your body, much like you did every time you made use of your Spiritual Power. Only that instead of releasing it, you kept it within, and circulated it around your whole body. It was a simple circulation, the most basic of the basics, but the prologue had described as a difficult step to make that would take some time. Not for you or Lizzie, however.

It was evident that Enhanced Humans were made of different stuff.

------------------

The whole team had gathered in front of the tents, sitting as you ate a quick breakfast. Everyone seemed to have healed from their wounds already, although the way the twins stuck to each other, it seemed that the fright they had received hadn’t quite wore out yet. Otherwise, they seemed fine, both physically and mentally.

“So… now what?” Henry asked, looking towards Kaitlin.

“I think we should go to the north.” She answered without hesitation. “If the clue those strange girls gave us can tell us something, anything, that can help us, we can’t afford to let it pass.”

“We’re supposed to explore and see what’s out of the school’s walls, after all.” She continued. “And we haven’t gone far enough to truly say we explored anything.”


Team Baka
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Field of Ruins (The Stronghold of Defiance)
Time: Day 5 – Noon

The group follows Jin outside. The swordsman had, wordlessly, put himself at the head of the party, guiding all of you through a series of ruined hallways full of dust and skeletons strewn here and there, and then finally, to the outside.

It had felt like you had spent years in that dark and ominous cathedral, to the point that seeing the outside and breathing fresh air was refreshing, even if the only light that was there to greet you was the teal, eldritch light of the cracked heavens above.

Less welcoming was the howling of monsters, as a throng of them descended from one side of the… was it a road? That extended from the ruined cathedral to beyond.

Encountered Werewolf x10
Encountered Ashen Werewolf x5
Encountered Werebear x1

The Monsters howled, showing their fangs, snarling as they advanced like a tide. You could see five werewolves that were bigger than the rest, with their mane colored an ash grey. And there was a bigger monster with them, a giant creature that stood at least as tall as Lycao had been, extremely burly and muscular. Its lowed body was like the other werewolves, capable of bipedal movement, only that it was covered in brown fur.

And the upper body was that of a bear. A bear that had been filtered through the nightmare of a badly scarred hunter. You felt its claws could snap any of you, except maybe the still unconscious Adam, with a single swipe. The jaws, from were froth and saliva descended, looked capable of eating even someone as tall as Jordan with a single bite.

A sense of crisis invaded the group. But before anyone else could react Jin moved. No, rather than say he moved, one could say he blurred and disappeared completely. That was the only way to describe how fast he was. He simply wasn’t visible to the human eye, not even to the superhuman eye that you possessed.

It was a single step.

And in a single step, he appeared all the way across the group of monsters. The moment your eyes focused on the Asian man, who had moved in a line through the monsters as if they were air, there was a flash of red.

All of the werewolves that were within that line perished in an instant. Before, they had been there, snarling and about to jump at their prey, and then suddenly, a huge wound opened in each one of them, in some cases spilling away their organs as they fell. Annihilated in a single slash. Only the Werebear was left alive in his wake, although heavily wounded, bleeding through a gash on its belly.

Jin shook his hand aside, the pieces of the blade he had created just now falling from his extended arm. The clanging of the pieces of metal falling on the ground caused the rest of the creatures to react.

They reacted the only way they could: running the hell away as if the devil itself was on their talons. The swordsman shook his head on distaste, muttered something in an unknown language (Korean, perhaps?), then walked towards the wounded Werebear, who tried to lunge pathetically at him.

The man simply stepped aside, created yet another blade with a silent spark of light, and then buried it inside the monster’s forehead, killing it, silently and elegantly. However, when he did that gesture, the sharper eyed in the group noticed Jin clearly making a gesture of pain, as if he was hurt.

“Let’s keep going.” He said to the startled and surprised group.

“It’d be bad if you are seen right now.” He added, as he discarded the sword buried in the monster’s head, turned around, and kept walking through the road.

[Airen]

Rika Griffin
Location: Zeus High School – School Building (6^th Floor – Empty Classroom)
Time: Day 4 – Morning

---In a way, the contents of the journal weren't quite as surprising to me as to the others.

This world was screwed up. That talk with the other 'me' had already ingrained that little fact into my mind, and so the mere idea of a diary had already been something that would end in a worst case scenario, especially because of where Harry had apparently found it, but...

"...Yeah. Delaying too much longer is bad. The people she's with are unstable enough as is, and the further away they get the harder it will be to find them."

Lara want's to leave right now, and I more or less agree.

A gang of rapists...

This place gets worse and worse all the time, especially because the evil ones seem like the ones that survive somehow.

Still...

"We'll do one last check over supplies and head out. Of course, I expect they left someone behind to watch us, or try to stop us from chasing them, so using a less obvious exit might be to our benefit. Don't need stalkers on our group. It'd be better to be able to sneak Jane out then simply fight our way to her."

My blood is boiling too, but I had promised 'me' to be more careful, and was apparently the leader now, thus...

I can't go flying off the handle and charging out of the school full force just yet.

[hero]

Masaki Taichi
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Zeus Approach
Time: Day 4 – Morning


I didn't really want to do it, but I had to.

Kaitlin might not be satisfied with the results of the spar, Henry might not have approved of how selfishly I approached the manner, and I might not be proud of what I did either, but I had no choice but to do it. Pushing past my limits is the only way I have to improve, and this was the safest method available, no doubts about it. The only consolation price I get for playing the role of the villain is the fact that the President has bested me in combat, even though I went all out and used my supernatural gift. The fact that I was so close to beating her might be a bitter pill to swallow for the ego of someone who has always been at the top, but I am sure she'll recover with time, and come back stronger.

But in all honesty, I don't think she realizes just how amazing she is...

-------

After a while, we all meet up to discuss our schedule. Apparently, Kaitlin believes that we should continue our exploration towards North. The reasons behind this are twofold: First, the strangers we had the misfortune of bumping into yesterday have left us with clues that point in that direction. Second, there is a common belief that our findings are not enough to provide the school with any valuable gain. Naturally, my first instinct is to disagree with both of these principles, but I bet that, by now, everyone can see coming that from a mile away.

My reasoning is obvious, straightforward and selfish. But that often makes me the voice of common sense within the team.

It goes without saying that I am not a trusting fellow, and one can be certain that I don't trust the word of strangers, much less now that the situation is a lot more dire. Let's forget about the grimoire for a moment because I have a lot to say about that too... I am not happy it is in the hands of my sister. In any case, assuming we're not walking straight into a trap, the farther we get from the school the more dangerous it gets and that doesn't ring well with me. It's only natural. After all, when push comes to shove, I don't feel like owe anything to Zeus. If I had to choose between dooming the entire school or dooming this group for its sake, I'd bury the school a hundred times out of a hundred. I just want those I brought with me to be safe, so when the risk outweighs the potential gains, I begin to frown.

Then, there is the fact that if we make our way back we'd do so empty handed. That is not true... We've ventured into the wilderness, encountered monsters and other survivors and managed to retrieve this eldritch curse of a book. If that isn't enough, I don't know what is. If it were for me, I'd be all for having someone else be its guinea pig in my sister's place.

Friendly reminder that, if we do not come back at all, our efforts will be worth even less.

Because dead men tell no tales.

However...


"..."

I glance over at each of my teammates.

This is probably the first time I've seen them this roughed up. They might have healed physically, but to say we are in good condition would be wishful thinking. Regardless, we still have what it takes to carry out the crusade we we're given.

"Then, if everyone is fine with it, we should get moving. The sooner we get there, the better..."

We're either one or we are none.

The least thing we need right now is an argument. With that in mind, I am willing to quietly allow Kaitlin's plan to go through.

That is, assuming the rest are willing to follow.

"Shinoko, Rumiko. Tomomi. Jones... Are you okay with this...?"

[Erlkonig]

Masaki Tomomi
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Zeus Approach
Time: Day 4 – Morning

"Actually..." Tomomi shook her head.

"I agree with Taichi and Kaitlin."Tomomi's lips twitched briefly.

The memory of Juan's attack was still bright on her mind, and speaking about the matter didn't make it any easier. Even so, her voice remained firm in spite of her concerns. "

"We simply haven't explored enough. Turning back because things were too dangerous, as safe as it might sound, won't do anything to help us in the long run."

A flash of pain crossed her eyes.

"Sooner or later, we're going to need food and other supplies, and someone will have to venture outside and risk their lives. We need to do as much as we can, so that every trip we make has meaning."

She sighed in resignation.

Though her heart was heavy, Tomomi had known all along that her decision would end up along these lines. Although she wouldn't call herself emotionless, whenever she had to make a choice it was easy for her to rely on her rationality for the sake of making judgements.

That was how she had always dealt with her problems... Even though there are some problems that logic can't solve.

Her eyes briefly glanced at Lizzie, before she spoke up again.

"That said, let's be careful not to venture into any area that looks complex or labyrinthine without proper planning. We should always have a clear escape route, so we can run at the first sight of anything we're sure we can't handle."

[RacingeR]

Team Incest
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Zeus Approach
Time: Day 4 – Morning

There was a small bit of tension in the air once the Masaki siblings stated their opinions. Or rather, it seemed that every person in the party had to take a moment to think to get to their decisions.

Kaitlin herself remained silent, although she nodded in approval to the emphasis Taichi put in the word ‘everyone’. Evidently, she had no intentions of pressuring the group to continue regardless of their will.

The ones who reacted more reluctantly were Lizzie and Henry. The latter had a dissatisfied expression, but remained silent for now. If anyone was going to object to this course of action, it was going to be Taichi, but since he hadn’t, it was doubtful anyone else would say anything.

The twins exchanged a glance with each other, communicating in that weird almost-telepathic way close sisters seemed to do sometimes, before turning towards Kaitlin. “Well, it’s not like we have much of an opinion anyway, but…” Rumiko started.

“If everyone else is also going ahead, we’re going too.” Shinoko concluded.

Lizzie shifted somewhat uneasily, but then nodded her head firmly. “I agree with Tomomi. Either way, chances are we’d be sent again to explore for a source of food or water… I don’t think there’d be that much point in returning with this timing.” She frowned. “Furthermore… I think that seeing what’s beyond this region, even if briefly, has some benefits as well. We have too little grasp of this world, after all…”

In the first place, it was unlikely for Rumiko and Shinoko to disagree with their senpai, Taichi, while it was also very unlikely for Lizzie to disagree with Tomomi, her close friend with who she evidently shared quite a few viewpoints. The decisions those three would take were quite easy to predict.

This left Henry, who had an icy expression, yet to speak his opinion. Apart from Taichi he was the one most likely to disagree, but as things had turned out, it’d be pointless if he were to say anything to the contrary now. All it’d end up doing was creating an unnecessary argument, and he was quite aware it was the last thing they needed now.

“Fine.” He said. “But, we need to be very clear regarding retreating if we run into something too big for us to handle. And no more playing hero, or anything like that, alright?” He asked.

“Alright.” Kaitlin succinctly replied. It was hard to say what she was thinking right now. However, by now to her a bit of a gap between the group was starting to be noticeable. Or rather, the way she saw things, both Henry and Taichi thought the encounter with Juan had been wholly unnecessary, while the rest thought they had gained quite a lot from that fight, despite the damage incurred. Most likely, she’d behave in a way to keep that divide from furthering.

Everyone lost in their own thoughts, the party proceeded to store the tents and sleeping bags, and started making their way towards the northern bridge.

And towards the Abyss.


Team Abyss & Team Incest
Location: Abyss Crossing – Before the Bridge
Time: Day 4 – Afternoon

Both teams had proceeded northwards by different routes, both moving towards the same end point. As they went, the terrain became more complicated and unfriendly. The vegetation was sparse, but here and there strange trees grew, sometimes in groups forming sparse groves of blueish leaves and strange fruits, some of which were picked up by Kaitlin’s team to be analyzed in Zeus later on.

The more annoying aspect was that the terrain, as the groups advanced, kept rising up into rocky outgrowths that formed harsh hills and walls of stones that were practically impossible to climb, even with the clearly inhuman stamina and physical strength their newly changed nature had granted them. The main concern was that these rocky outcroppings served to constantly occlude visibility, but almost by luck, neither group ran into monsters of any kind: only Arthur’s group met a lone Werewolf, who quickly absconded instead of engaging into battle upon seeing the numerical superiority of their enemy.

It was thus, that both groups coincidentally, as if arranged by fate, happened to arrive at the same point at the same time, each walking on their own side of a hill, only to find each other face to face, much to each group’s surprise.

But nobody had much time to be surprised at the coincidence of two groups of Zeus meeting each other in this vast region, as their gaze was attracted towards their destination.

In front of them, the world seemed to come to an end.

The strange, alien blue earth was replaced by inky black nothingness, a darkness so thick, so deep, so impossibly eldritch that it seemed to have its own physical presence, as if staring at a pool of some strange liquid rather than an abyss proper. And it was vast. Even from as far as you were standing, you could see how incredibly and utterly vast this Abyss was. You were nothing but ants in front of it.


And you could feel a pressure in your minds, just from looking at this nothingness that at the same time was something. Not a void, but a wholly different dimension altogether. Something that surpassed your understanding. Or rather, your minds were simply unable to comprehend.

Of course, in front of where the groups stood, you could also see a cyclopean yet dilapidated bridge, a massive construction that extended itself from the blue earth towards what lied beyond, a way to cross without entering in contact with that eldritch abyssal substance. From this distance, you couldn’t see that many details of the Abyss Crossing, but you could see that it was, undoubtedly, of a size that made even the longest bridges of Earth look like miniatures in comparison.


“Well, that’s quite impressive alright.” Nick whistled, then looked towards Kaitlin. “Fancy seeing you here, I guess.”

“It is unexpected.” Kaitlin replied somewhat dryly. “I wouldn’t have guessed another group would’ve decided to come here as well…”

But, the conversation/greeting between both groups was interrupted by a new, wholly unknown voice that spoke out all of a sudden.

“My, how unexpected, for me to meet a group of new people here.” A soft and velvety voice suddenly spoke, causing everyone to be startled. Your attentions had all been taken by the apocalyptic spectacle presented by the Abyss, and the magnificent scale of the bridge, and had ended up neglecting the presence of a person nearby.


Some fifty meters away, a girl had been sitting upon a rock, reading what seemed like a common and ordinary book, if one that lacked a cover. With an elegant gesture, she snapped it closed, and stored it in a bag that didn’t seem big enough to contain the book in the first place, yet was able to do so without problems. She then stood up, and faced the two groups with a slight yet elegant smile.


She was pretty. In your world, she would’ve definitely been able to make a career as a model without any problems. She had blueish black hair, and blue eyes, and although she was not very tall, she had a presence to her that made her look a bit taller than she truly was. Her features suggested that she was half-Asian, but it was surprisingly hard to tell if it was so even with a close look. The clothes she was wearing had once been the uniform of a school, but it had been patched and mended over and over again with various pieces of fabric until the end result resembled anything but, yet in her, it somehow managed to look both elegant and fashionable. All told, she couldn’t have been older than 16, but you had already learned that physical ages were very deceptive here.


“Hi there!” She said with a friendly and approachable smile, even as her eyes analyzed your faces almost mechanically. Her gaze stopped once at Arthur, and then once again at Stella, in both cases her pupils widening in almost imperceptible surprise. “Am I wrong to assume I’m talking with members of the Fourth Generation here?” She asked, with a slight, almost unnoticeable french accent.

[RacingeR]

Team Tacticool
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Broken Earth (Ruinous Jungle)
Time: Day 4 – Night

Alexandra’s plan proved to be the right one to deal with the obstacle that had been presented before her. As she once again charged towards the tree, once again the red oni replied by lifting a massive chunk of earth, and throwing it straight towards her to intercept the arc of her flight.

This time, however, she was prepared.

A single bullet of raspberry-scented acid fell straight towards the incoming missile, immediately starting to corrode it, melting away the clump of concentrated earth and organic matter. It was not enough to destroy the projectile completely, but it was more than enough to reduce its size and let Alexandra easily dodge through it. The red oni’s area denial tactic proved to be a failure.

She approached the girl at a crooked angle, and the little girl actually jumped towards her from her own initiative. Alexandra made sure to control the acid on the parts of her body that are going to come in contact with her, and caught her within her arms.

With a flap of her wings, Alexandra ascended away, like Superman rescuing Lois Lane, if Superman was a winged blonde girl covered in slime and half-rotten, and if Lois Lane was a little girl with a sword.

Below, the battlefield grew even more chaotic. Michael’s taunts were rather effective in keeping the aggression of his opponent on him, and had successfully stolen the surprisingly heavy club of Gwen’s opponent.

Said blue oni looked surprised as his weapon disappeared from his hands, and let out a loud, angry growl as he looked around until he located his weapon in hands of Michael. Letting an angry roar, the oni lifted his enormous arms and moved in pursuit, completely ignoring Gwendoline.

And an expert like her was very unlikely to let this chance go so easily, broken shoulder or not. Gritting her teeth through the horrible pain her movements inflicted on her, she ducked from the side and appeared on the oni’s way. Her right hand moved onwards with a strange motion that caused her whole body to spin slightly, and she executed a surprisingly powerful strike towards the defenseless front of the ogre. To be more precise, she hit it where the mark she had placed had appeared before.

There was a dry sound of an impact of flesh against flesh, followed immediately by the terrifying sound of bones breaking apart like twigs. It was as if the chest of the blue oni had been hit by a gigantic meteor hammer, suddenly sinking in. The mark placed on the monster disappeared at the very same time, the damage inflicted with the hit completely disproportional with the attack power displayed just moments before.

The entire chest area of the blue oni broke apart, and a geyser of thick blood mixed with pieces of organs sprouted from the oni’s mouth as it fell backwards, slamming against the ground of the clearing. It was not dead, but it was critically wounded, and the shock of having all of his ribs broken and its internal organs gravely damaged caused its small brain to shut down.

At the side, Hiyori had given up completely on damaging her enemy, and instead had used her power to create solid constructs of wind to restrain her enemy and win time for her own team. Kyle helped by shooting a hail of black bullets that kept the oni’s position locked down. It kept destroying the constructs of wind, but was unable to reach Hiyori.

Zhenya meanwhile had a very resolved expression as she faced the oni she had seriously damaged before. Despite the crystalline growths that had burst through half of its body, the barbarian hadn’t stopped, and instead it seemed to be rampaging even more, driven completely mad by its pain.

The girl seemed to decide she had to get rid of this enemy as fast as possible, but instead of firing once again, she stored her guns, and decisively threw herself towards her enemy. There was a flash of light and the sound of an impact as both figures met each other in a violent clash.

Nobody was able to see what had happened, but in an instant, Zhenya was behind the blue oni, and a bloody red line had appeared on the ogre’s neck. Blood flowed out in a spurt as the head slid from the neck and fell on the ground. The half-russian girl, however, had fallen in one knee, apparently having paid a big price to defeat her enemy so quickly.

In the other front, two menacing blue giants approached Michael from two sides. However, a black shadow suddenly flitted out from the bushes, and appeared on the back of the oni that had been slowed before. Silently, like a specter, she leaped straight towards the back of its neck, and stabbed with one of her incredibly sharp claws. Sadly, she missed the vital point she had been aiming for, stabbing a bit too low, but managed to inflict a lot of pain to the ogre.

She immediately started tearing its back with her claws, while the oni roared in anger and pain, foaming at the mouth as it tried to reach the little monster currently attempting to rip his spine off.

This left only a single blue oni unoccupied to give Michael some tender massages with his club.

Battle calculation

Blue Oni’s speed:
-24 (Blue Oni’s AGI) > 14 (Michael’s total EVA/2)
Blue Oni’s attack:
-58 (Blue Oni’s total STR) – 17 (Michael’s DEF) = 41 damage.
Michael’s HP: 139 – 41 = 98 HP

The impact was as painful and strong as before, but this time Michael’s body creaked oddly, pain circulating through his whole being, warning him that one more attack, while it wouldn’t kill him, would surely break something important.

Meanwhile, the red oni seemed absolutely furious. It shook its club towards Alexandra who had stolen his prey, and let out another big roar that shook the land. Seeing two of its subordinates on the ground drove it even more mad.

Horrifyingly enough, the group was able to hear yet another roar coming in reply to the noises caused by the leader of the ogres. Behind the enemy lines, beyond the tree, Alexandra was able to see three more blue onis coming, drinking from gourds of some unknown alcoholic substance, and fully ready to join the party.

[Vritra]

Michael Adhikari
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Broken Earth (Ruinous Jungle)
Time: Day 4 – Night

Well, well, well my science experiment has now concluded after its shining success. Hypothesis confirmed and good ol’ gwennie has proved to be a wonderful to be a wonderful lab assistant through her efforts to clean up the mess it left behind. Round of applause and pats on the back for everyone, eh!

Grinning through gritted teeth as impulse dance across my eyes and through my mind.

“Well we got our damsel in distress, eh, I think perhaps we should make like a tree and skeeeeeeedaddle right on out of this square dance. What’cha say girl’s?”

Shifting backward to position myself as the rearguard I momentarily drop the first club I stole so that I can improve my grip on the second. Even with all this fancy magic pumpin’ away both at once is a bit much, eh. So it was nice to meet you but here my new wooden friend is where we must sadly part ways! Goodbye wooden club that Ogre really wants back, hello distraction! With a heave an’ a hoo I send the club I just snatched sailing out to the side as far as I can throw. Just a nice ol’ game of fetch, eh?

Quickly snatching back up the first one I hold it ready to swipe if anythin’ thinks it can get to close.

Bodies ain’t right as rain and its groanin’ something fierce but I ain’t outta this fight yet!

Wiseup:
HP: 126/180 SP: 53
Stats:
Strength – 26 (21*1.25)
Defense – 31 (17*1.25+10)
Spirit – 13 (11*1.25)
Spirit Defense – 12 (10*1.25)
Agility 36 (21*1.25+10)
Evasion 27 (14*1.25+10)

Pawn Piece Ascension available!

Perk:
Analytics
Allows analysis of patterns of movement and action of enemy monsters after three turns of fighting them. Also allows an analysis of the situation and of the current terrain on details visible to the naked eye. May also make it easier to obtain clues during an investigation
One Turn remaining.

[RacingeR]

Crooklyn
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN - Field of Ruins (Skeletal Skyscrapers)
Time: Day 4 – Afternoon
Angel vs Man vs Devil
Turn 2

Johnny:

The Skullhunter doesn’t bother to reply with words. The Devil screams in a hoarse, frothing berserk battle-lust as he swings his axes straight towards you. The fact that he had a hole burnt through his chest thanks to the light currently surrounding your gauntleted fist doesn’t seem to deter him at all.

A devilish roar. Metal forged in the fires of hell bites your arm at the same time your first clad in the light of justice rises towards its ugly face.

Battle Calculation

Skullhunter’s attack:
-38 (Skullhunter’s total STR) – 17 (Johnny’s DEF + 5) = 22 damage.
Johnny’s HP: 84 – 22 = 62

Johnny’s speed:
-25 (Johnny’s AGI + 5) > 16 (Skullhunter’s EVA)
Attack success.
Johnny’s attack:
-67 (Johnny’s total STR x1.9) – 22 (DEF) = 45 damage x2 (DC) = 90 damage.

The axes wielded by the devil traced a twin arc through the air, ending on your braced left arm, which you had readied to cover the vital points of your body. With a sickening sound, they tore through your flesh, crunching and crushing the bone. Your left arm isn’t completely gone just by virtue of you having transformed into an Enhanced Human, a being much tougher than you had ever been in the past. Still, the arm is left barely hanging on the rest of your body, only connected by a thread of flesh.

Johnny’s left arm has been disabled

At the same time, despite the flare of pain so great it almost makes you lose consciousness, your fist connects against the devil’s head, discharging yet another wave of blinding light that burned at the entity’s whole being.

And the Skullhunter’s own skull burst apart as your fist destroyed his jaw, causing a burst of bone, teeth and dark blood. You can feel as the gauntlet mashes through his tongue, hits his upper jaw, and knocks the oversized red spook a few centimeters up the air, the light produced by your spiritual power leaving the lower part of his head transformed into a hunk of burnt gore.

Thus, the devil falls, his body hitting the ground with an enormous thud and another burst of blood both from his former face and the hole on his chest. The Skullhunter struggles a bit. These two attacks, ordinarily, weren’t enough to kill him, but enough to leave him nearly out of combat and with just a sliver of life left. Alas, the ferociousness and nature of your attacks meant its doom. His bulging eyes blank out as another burst of vitality wets the ground, and then the Skulllhunter bleeds to death where it had fallen, all signs of life gone.

Skullhunter has been slain

One only could say that the devil had underestimated you too much. Or perhaps, you were just the enemy a devil would have the worst compatibility with in direct combat. The result, however, cannot be changed.

Two hits, and he is down.

Slightly tougher than most the fights you had back home. At least he hadn’t gone down in a single exchange.

Rosary:

Quickly, you run back, ducking away from the angel soldier being currently choked by Jayden’s chain. The girl couldn’t do anything but grit her teeth and keep the angel she captured contained as the sword made of light was stabbed further into her body.

This situation lasted until you reached your friend and touched her, immediately casting your Spiritual Power to making her intangible to magic. It worked like a charm, the sword of light that had been stabbing at her slipping away through her and leaving the angel soldier very confused about what was going on.

Of course, this application of your power only rendered Jayden immune to magical attacks, and she still could be aggressed physically, which was also why her chain was still able to keep on strangling the other angel. But your enemy didn’t know that.

“Rosary, careful!” Jayden suddenly shouted, and with a herculean effort, she dragged the captured angel in front of you. Said female soldier was hit by a bolt of darkness that came from the furious devil witch.

The witch had spent all this time making strange gestures in the air, accumulating a dark purplish light that was suddenly shot straight towards Rosary. Jayden’s interference had saved her from the attack, as the imprisoned angel was used to shield get and be hit by the curse instead.

At first, the curse didn’t cause any visible physical effects. But suddenly, the angel seemed to be in great pain, and then started to spit blood and to bleed through all of her holes, shuddering as she lost her strength, now unable to struggle against the chain strangling her.

The other angel reacted by getting quite annoyed. Not having discovered Jayden’s current vulnerability to physical attacks, and very much not keen on wasting time to riddle this out in middle of a pitched battle, he decided to change tactics.

His change of tactics consisted of going around Jayden and jumping at you, catching you with one hand on your shoulder before you could move away from him. He started grappling with you, and he was evidently much stronger than you were, physically speaking. The warrior managed to wrestle with you and put his free hand on your neck, starting to strangle you while he tried to maneuver to put his sword against you.

Clearly, he intended to take you hostage and attempt to save his companion from Jayden.

Cyrus:

“Huh? Teamkilling? Bah.” The devil girl spat on the floor. “That coward has more chances to survive down there that here, so if anything, I saved his lily-ass!”

She remained stoic when you approached her with one step, remaining on her position, although her eyes betrayed her wariness as they stared straight at the red jewel in the necklace, then looked elsewhere, as if she wasn’t willing to stare at that thing for long.

“Red Chaos…” She mumbled. “But wasn’t that bitch a goner? How the heck did’ya get that from her anyway? And her legs…?” She seemed more than a bit weirded out by your answer, but evidently the danger you represented was enough to keep her away for now.

It was easy for you see that if you hadn’t been holding into this necklace, any of these three girls would’ve shot you in the head and been done with you a long time ago. But now, they were wary and uneasy, and unwilling to make a move as risky as attacking you: they weren’t exactly afraid, but they knew the consequences, whatever they were, couldn’t be so easily dealt with.

Which had made this into a stalemate: they thought none of their subordinates could handle you, so they had come here to stop you, but they also couldn’t attack. Which meant that right now, neither of them knew what to do… for the moment.

“What’d you say we stop here, human? This fight hadn’t shit to do with you anyway, right?” The devil girl spoke again. “If you back down I can offer you things. A friendly exsanguination? Some torture? Maybe breaking all your ribs one by one? Or deep frying in a pool of lava! Just say the word and I’ll do it!”

[Mormarth]

Alexandra Gray
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Broken Earth (Ruinous Jungle)
Time: Day 4 – Night

Right, girl in hand, objective complete.

Now to peace out in good order.

"Alright, boys and girls, let's dip the fuck outta here, we seem to have out-stayed our little welcome," I bellowed, flapping over head, "We got more bad guys on the way, so let's get while the getting's good!"

I caught sight of more of the pack of horned monsters approaching, a glazed-looking fury in their eyes.

Pity we had to go so soon, I could use a stiff drink.

I blew a lock of my rusty hair out of my face, limp with sweat borne of exertion and stress, heart pumping as I evaluated the situation.

Two blues down, Red's rip roaring pissed, one blue occupied by Sherry, another pinned down by Hiyori and Kyle, and one more fucking up Mike.

Three more incoming.

Right.

My eyes flicked to Zhenya, winded terribly by whatever nonsense bushido bullshit she just pulled off.

Just had to go and make things difficult when no one's in a good position right now...

"Zhenya, you good? If somebody's got a sec, give her a hand! We gotta go, now!"

I sucked at my teeth, then sighed, "I'll be expecting a tip after this..."

I flapped my wings once more, then made out the way I came in.

[arkturus]

Harry Blackfield
Location: Zeus High School – School Building (6th Floor – Empty Classroom)
Time: Day 4 – Morning

Well, that was unexpected. Or rather I didn’t quite know what to expect. This topsy-turvy world seems to enjoy throwing curveballs at us and a gang of rapists that worked in tandem with hoards of monsters purely motivated by lust for females was definitely a curveball. What was this, a hentai anime? To be honest, I prefer more vanil- well that’s beside the point. The point being that these blue jackets seemed like bad news.

The second curveball was how the economy played out. In the absence of cold hard cash and way to print it, it was no surprise that the survivors resorted to a bartering system. But to think you could trade away a fully functional firearm for some shorts! I wonder if this makes my stage magician outfit valuable? But if you think about it, how much resources would it take to be able to supply an entire organization of sufficient manpower with uniforms?

Which leads into the third curveball, the hostage situation. I’m not quite sure of the details but it seems like it has the whole group on edge. Even Rika seems affected. If we’re this shaken up when one person is missing and the threat is a relatively well-known local gang, how are we going to deal with the threats hiding out in the world? Like those blue jackets.

Geez. This wasn’t going to be easy. The conditions are totally not in my favor, the audience is dismissive at best and hostile at worst, and my pet rabbit has turned into an actual bunny girl. But such is the life of a magician, turning the impossible into the possible was just part of the gig. The least I could do was put on a brave place and help my audience feel at ease.

I walked over to Rika and, with a flourish, I produced a single white heather flower which I offered to her. The meaning in the language of flowers meant “wishes will come true.”

“My my Captain. A lady, much less our leader, shouldn’t have such a look on her face. Don’t worry, I’ll get her out. I swear on my reputation as a magician.”

For my next trick, I’ll save Jane Rain perfectly and flawlessly.

[Spinach]

Cyrus Ferdinand
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN - Field of Ruins (Skeletal Skyscrapers)
Time: Day 4 – Afternoon
Angel vs Man vs Devil
Turn 2

“As tempting as that sounds, I think I’ll pass, Devil.” Cyrus tilted his head back slightly, giving all three his signature glare. “I need that blood, keeps me warm, moves oxygen to the brain and other important places. My ribs, those help protect the squishy stuff underneath. Can’t go snapping those. Deep frying in lava… I think that just burns the meat, ruins it completely. I wouldn’t do it. Torture? I’ve been tortured enough recently, so I’m fine without it.”

He put a hand to his chin, the chain of the pendant jingling as he faked deep thought.

“But since we’re negotiating, it’ll be easier if I know what to call you. And don’t give me that ‘what’s the point, you’re gonna be dead soon, hahaha!’ stuff, surely you have enough breath to waste some telling me what to call you.” He rubbed his chin. “That goes for all three of you. Here, I’ll start.”

Cyrus took his hand off his chin, rolled and popped his neck, then stood up straight.

“I’m Cyrus.”

He held himself still for a moment, as if there was more.

“See? Simple.” There was not more. “As for Red, she’s not a goner, unless you mean her mind. That thing’s long gone. Don’t think it was ever there either.”

[Katie]

Rosary Flowers
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN - Field of Ruins (Skeletal Skyscrapers)
Time: Day 4 – Afternoon
Angel vs Man vs Devil
Turn 2

This fucking blows.

Jayden, saving my ass, very grateful, but she’ll probably use this as leverage in the future. Just how the cookie crumbles. Now this situation, where, you know, I’m hauled off like a damsel in distress, this sucks ass. Why am I with these people again? It’s always trouble one way or another and I’d really just want to live in peace and for the love of God I guess I should be used to being pinned down or something because that’s all people ever do to me Jesus fucking Christ

I take a good look at the blade, and pray that whatever I do next, I don’t touch it.

It’s like tapping a switch, using my power. And one second Rosary is being held against her will and the next she’s slipping right through, falling towards the ground, desperately, desperately trying to avoid the only thing that can cut her to pieces.

And if it all works, well, I’ll just run back to them, I guess. Not much I can do otherwise.

[Frantic Author]

Johnny Justice
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN - Field of Ruins (Skeletal Skyscrapers)
Time: Day 4 – Afternoon
Angel vs Man vs Devil
Turn 2

"Bah!" Johnny spat on the ground, a dark look on his face as blood dribbled down the side of his face. "Next time, can'tcha give me something of a challenge!? Isn't there anyone in this fucking reality who can actually fight?!"

Johnny stomped a foot on the ground as he whirled around, teeth filled with blood as he winked at the vampiric girl who had begun to follow around his newest crew, sticking out his tongue as he raised his arm in victory.

A person who has nothing but himself to rely on was a weakling. Johnny knew this as well as he knew himself, and he knew that the people around him were probably the best gang he'd had since his first one. But, in this kind of world, enemies can become allies as swiftly as allies can become enemies. A place where power meant everything, and Johnny had power in spades.

"OOOOOOOOOY! I GOT SOMETHING TO SAY TO ALL OF YOU, SO LISTEN UP!"

His grin turned devilish as he slammed a fist against his chest.

"THERE'S ONLY ENOUGH ROOM IN THIS WORLD FOR ONE KING, AND IT'S GONNA BE ME! NONE OF YOU HAVE EYES IN THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD, SO WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS LOOKING TO THE PAST?!"

It wasn't as if he didn't enjoy the fighting, the rush, or even the blood. It was just a part of who he was. The arrogance was a character trait that he'd never get rid of. Part of what made 'Johnny Justice' into the person that could kill a demon in two blows was the knowledge of how much better he was then others.

'They're weak, so they're worthless.'

'They're weak, so they should die.'

'They're weak, so they shouldn't even exist.'

All three statements were untrue for Johnny. Weakness didn't mean you were irrelevant, it just meant you had to look at things from a different perspective.

"Kings?!? Heiress of Ash!?! Gods!? Who gives a damn about any of that! What matters is that we're all here, right?" He grinned as he said it, clenching his one working hand as his eyes glinted with madness. "Let's have some goddamn fun, right!? Isn't that what you're all here for?! A good fucking fight is worth anything in the world! So come on! Walk behind me and I'll take you to the stars themselves!"

His hand glowed like the sun.

"Angels? Demons? Humans? I don't give a damn."

Two fingers on his gauntlet went up, and he curled them inwards.

"I'll take them all on."