Ain Soph Aur (IC thread)

**Snax** · May 31st, 2016, 10:50 PM

Kaiser the Endless Battle
Location: Outskirts of the Province of Rhomadial, Battle of Trisunica Plains
Time: Afternoon
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“That’s how it should be….yes, that is how it should be!”

As the aftershock ran through his body, Kaiser’s eyes flashed with battle fury, his usual impassive, proud face curling into a ferocious grin of a bloodthirsty warrior. The thrill of battle, the clash of arms, the throws of power rocking the very world - this was what it meant to be a God of War. The battlefield was where he belonged, the call of combat throbbing through his veins. He would have it no other way - this was his calling.

His enemy was strong. His might was near unmatchable even by Eternal standards, one who could reach even the level of a 2nd Rank Eternity sword - or even overpower them, with his overwhelming force and power -

Yes, Kaiser knew his opponent was beyond mortal comprehension. His brute strength and the experience made his opponent the fearsome opponent he was, and Kaiser was a mere newcomer from the viewpoint of the other Eternal. However, Kaiser did not falter- his technique was peerless, his will was unmatched, and his power too was beyond comprehension--!!!

“No matter how strong you are, Law Eternal, Warrior of the Black Blade - there is no way I will step back from such a challenge - !!”

Kaiser stood straight, his dual halberds planted firmly in the theoretical ‘ground’ of his domain. With his mind, he called upon his trusty steed, who once again stood by his side -

However, this time, things were different.

With a thunderous neigh, Garos reared upon his hind legs - and suddenly opening from the within. The frame of Garos glowed and whirred - the mechanisms within the Messenger’s bodies twisting and re-adjusting in impossible ways beyond mortal understanding. The parts swiftly enveloped Kaiser’s legs and torso, forming a set of a metallic exoskeleton which clicked and whirred almost like a horse would snort and neigh. Much more compact than its steel form, gilded and sleek -

“Lets do this, partner - ”

A torrent of aura photons erupted all around Kaiser as his power spiked across the dimension, his very might shaking his world. The gears of his armor clicked and whirred, spewing out an impossible amount of photons that wove all across his form and the area around him -

“Swift as the wind - destroy all in thy path - “

Kaiser’s body sped up to the point of breaking through Space itself, not unlike Takios -

“Charging Crusher---!!!!!”

A shooting star of power and speed unmatched unleashed itself upon the Law Eternal-!!

Used-
Aura Photon Crusher+Aura Photon Charge = Charging Crusher
Aura Photon Armor
Garos Equip - Rider’s Authority

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Stats and Info

Spoiler:

**arkturus** · June 1st, 2016, 06:17 AM

Houjuu of the Unknown
Location: Atmosphere of Zinesta, over the skies of Ainus
Time: Sometime
Mission: Protect the Sword Raisers from the Holy Eternals! (Vs. Riezalyn)]

Originally Posted by Alice

Hey, sorry about all of that... But I can't say you weren't asking for it. You shouldn't do things like that to a girl, you know?'
'Still, I do feel a bit bad... My name's Alice. For now, if you want to talk, just think like this and I'll hear you, alright? It'll work out, but try to take things a bit more seriously, okay?'

'Are you my Conscience? I thought you dried up and withered away a long time ago. Besides, I'm always serious.'

Frozen in place and slightly singed from taking the full brunt of that sword laser, all I could really do was force a bit of a half-smile and snort while I mentally replied to the girl--Alice was her name?

Another busybody trying to stick her nose in everyone's business and make sure we were all playing nice. What a drag.

Still, I guess it was nice of her to be concerned and talk to me using her telepathic friendship powers. I suppose I can play nice for now. Her very presence is kind of...comforting, in a way.

Geez what's wrong with me? I'm acting like a insecure, lonely schoolgirl. My character's falling apart.

"⎕⎕⎕⎕ ⎕⎕⎕ ⎕⎕⎕⎕⎕⎕ ⎕⎕ ⎕⎕⎕?" The now scaly head of Outsider's dragon form swiveled towards me and tilted to the side inquisitively.

"Put a sock in it you."

Still I couldn't help but feel some semblance of camaraderie with that girl. The more the merrier right?

Remembering that I was still paralyzed I simply undefined my own existence, emptying myself of that annoying magic and hopped on Outsider's back, gripping his torso with my knees. With another flick, the fan-that-was-previously-a-sword became the long shaft of a monstrous lance that crackled with energy, crafted from some ancient and noble creature.

"If we're going to fight knights then don't you think that dragon jousting is pretty fitting?" I grinned and Outsider gave a roar of approval before charging forward as Alice clashed with the other of the knights.

"Let's dance!"

Outsider launched off the ground and attacked first, the claws on his front legs lashing out for a powerful slash with the strength of the mystical beast who's form he took.

Leveling the lance at our intended target, I felt the ebb and flow of the unknown wash over me, empowering me with greater strength, filling my sword-lance with aural photons.

"Denizens of the Night, light the path! Let the festivities begin!"

Hyakki Yagyou - Neverwere Parade

As I thrust my weapon before me, the knight was showered in a rain of lance-shaped aural photons from every directions, projections of attacks across space-time and possibility.

Wise up?

**Erlkonig** · June 1st, 2016, 06:37 PM

Naziba the Million Life Soul
Location: En-route to the City of Rhomadyne, Battle of Trisunica Plains
Time: Afternoon

"-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!"

Your attack was successful, the omnidirectional strike impossible to dodge even by an Eternal's godlike physical abilities. Several phantoms fell upon the owner of 'Torment', shearing her body apart with their steel and opening up wounds that started leaking mana around her body. Your own blade struck her across the stomach, even as she moved back to try and avoid it.

At that moment, though...

"It hurts... It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, IT HURTS-!!!" As Marina's body thrashed around from the damage suffered, you sensed a sudden feeling in the pit of your stomach that screamed 'danger'. "I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT!" You tried to move back, the air around you heating up as your sudden retreat was almost too much for the space around you-

-But, it was useless.

No matter how far you fled... This was not a curse that one could escape from.

The wounds in Marina's body briefly smoked, before a sharp screeched echoed through your ears and the smoke coming from her wounds turned into a deluge of black flames, instantly reducing the phantom soldiers to dust and causing your body to burn as the smoke spontaneously converged around you, even crossing the space that separated you.

"Why...?" Marina said with dead-looking eyes, even as she advanced forwards. "This pain... I hate it so much, yet it never stops hurting..." Tears fell from her eyes, yet the width of her manic smile only grew wider. "In my stomach, my head, my heart... I hunger so much... So let me stop hurting... Please..."

-Marina the Cursed One.

She was one of the Law Eternals, but not by choice. While time has turned her into an insane, psychotic being that is a slave to Torment's whims and can only regains clarity outside of battle or after sating her endless hunger for mana, rumors say that her origin is that of a sweet girl that was seduced and decieved by her Sword, warping her wish for strength to protect into a desire to consume everything and an insufferable hunger that clawed at her soul.

Rogas, the leader of the Chaos Eternals and technically your own boss named that Sword of hers 'a pain in the ass' and commented that 'she looks like so lonely, if nobody does something soon I might have to go and save her myself'. From Tokimi, you had heard that Pontiff Temuorin used Marina as both the carrot and the stick to keep the Empress Ryvia in line, but the nature of that relationship was murky to your own understanding...

A girl that had lost control over her own life, her soul shorn off the Cycle of Life and forced to dance to someone's whims... She was truly an existence to be pitied-

-And due to her madness, she was also to be feared.

...Behind you, two titans clashed. Abizan shared your revulsion for Marina's Guardian Spirit, and quickly forced of his incredible strength upon the body of the formless Nrghlud'läi. Your other soul's blows grinded the surface of the planet like powder, even as his jaws tore through the body of the eldritch abomination and cauzed black ooze to pour from its missing flesh.

However, Abizan looked startled when the monster he'd thought gravely wounded suddenly writhed with new life and threw itself upon his body, tendrils lashing out at the massive's Spirit body. Even though they hardly scratched the surface of Abizan's tough skin, your eyes suddenly widened when you felt a large chunk of mana being siphoned off of you from your connection to your Guardian.

...Not only was the creature able to regenerate from mortal wounds, but its very flesh could also drain the mana out of very existence? Only a damned creation of madness would possess such abilities...!

"...You... You're the one who made me like this..." At that sound,you turned back towards Marina, who was glaring at you with one eye while her grin turned into a wrath-filled expression. "I won't let you... I won't let you make it hurt anymore! I... I... I will make you stop it! Stop the hunger...!"

Uttering those mad words, Marina's body appeared to pull tight in preparation for an attack-

-Before she screamed, and a torrent of dark mana surged out from around her. The binds that dug at her body suddenly exploded from around her, loose belts and restraints turning into sharp blades as her hair turned into a mane of metallic tendrils.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it... I don't want to hunger anymore- HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I'LL STOP IT, I'LL EAT EVERYTHING TO MAKE IT STOP- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

At that moment, much like the cursed being's appearance, around the warped sight of Marina another mass of writhing matter appeared- However, this came from her hair and blade fragments which had buried themselves on the ground and pumped all of the dark mana into it, cauzing to fester as a pool of pitch black rot appeared on the earth.

From it emerged a sea of blades and shadow-clad nightmares, pouring out like a twisting torrent that arced in a spiral right towards your position. The mass of darkness and steel resembled the face of a dragon at the end, even as countless human faces appeared from the writhing darkness within the attack and cried out for a salvation that would never come.

-It fell upon you with all the wrath of an angry god.

Marina the Cursed One

**Erlkonig** · June 2nd, 2016, 08:05 PM

Rem
Location: Royal Palace of Grandlade
Time: Night

"Wh-what!?" Kirika froze in her tracks, her face growing both shocked and appalled as she turned towards the figure that was groping her chest. "Who are you-!?" She tried to struggle out of the grip, even as the man around her sword surged-

But her attention towards the Spirit that had suddenly appeared quickly faded when she felt a deathly presence. Her eyes widened, looking back just in time to glimpse the claws of Solitude closing in on her throat. She closed her eyes by reflex, knowing she was powerless to fend off the attack...

...At that moment, the unthinkable happened.

Syros was repelled instantly. Kirika had not moved, yet he had been hurled back with such force that he shot past the Spirits circling the two girls and was lodged between the hard stone walls of the palace, which were thicker than horse and reinforced with enough steel not to break even under fire from cannons. The stone had quickly cracked and fallen out in chunks under the impact with which he'd been so brazenly cast away.

"What..." Kirika traced back the ghostly limb that had flung the Etranger away, and shuddered when she found that the source had been the strange girl harassing her. She was glaring at the man over some unseen slight, but her stare quickly turned towards her now laced with curiosity.

She firmly tried to pry the girl's hands off, but they were closed in a vice and when she tried to move them it felt like she might as well have been trying to move a mountain from its place.

"Dream of... Y-you mean my-..." Kirka's face slightly flushed, as she realized the meaning of Rem's words. "H-How should I know!? Just let me go already!"

She vainly tried to push at her, even though she could tell it was fruitless.

Meanwhile, Syros pulled himself out of the wall and glowered at the two, spitting out a goblet of blood at the floor that quickly turned into mana. "You... You're the one that was trying to get in my head! ...Shit, am I really going to fail like this?" After muttering that under his breath, he turned towards the feminine creature. "What is it that you want, girl!? If you help us subdue this swordswoman, we will compensate you-!"

It was a desperate plea, but given the strength of the being he felt that perhaps he might be able to convince her to strike at the sword-wielding woman.

...

Actor Ruin
Location: Grandlade City Slums
Time: Night

"..." The girl froze, not budging an inch even when you wrapped your hands over her eyes. She had seen you unmake the man, had felt the effects instinctively in her heart, and that action had made your words lodge themselves deeply into her heart.

Her hands shook, trembling as they gripped at the Eternity Sword in her arms.

"Yes... I hate it..." She said in a soft voice, as the warmth of her tears wetly trickled down your clasped fingers. "This reality... What they took from me, it cuts so deep... Papa..." You could feel it in her, the black rage in her soul still remained, but your comforting words woke emotions that she had long since supressed for the sake of her own sanity.

"I... If I could dream again, I..." Her words trailed off, as if she was unable to parse her thoughts properly. By her side, the Sword grew unsettled by your growing influence on her owner, but it knew its place and chose to remain quiet. "...If I could feel that happiness again..."

-Indeed.

If there was a dream that Irene could have, it certainly would not be to return her father to this world. Why would she? He had been living a life of solitude and stagnation, and reality would just come back to crush him and tear them away once again. She understood now, after learning the truth- Of the cruelty of the universe. Unless she changed everything, her father was better off resting in heaven.

But...

There was no doubt, that Irene's life was hollow. Up until now, all she had been doing was mindlessly rampaging, spreading death without regard for its consequences or truly possessed of any greater goal than base ire. Your words, however, had sneaked into her heart and grasped at her soul, and like the alluring embrace of the snake filled her ears with the sweet whispers of temptation.

-A golden world, where she could have her dream granted. Any dream, no matter its scope or depth...

...A dream of change, of banishing this reality that had caused so many individuals to suffer...

...A dream of peace, making sure that nobody in this world would ever feel the same despair again. Tearing down the foundations of the rotten society that lusted for power and made this cruelty possible, and replacing those grey stone pillars with golden structures of clockwork and dreams, just as she had always envisioned to make the world a better place with her father. Crushing the evil that caused agony to spread, and replacing it with a lush, golden utopia.

-Yes. What she longed for, more than just a dream of fleeing this reality that would surely keep haunting others...

...Was a dream of purpose, and love.

"Hehehe..." A faint laughter escaped her throat, coarse and broken from disuse. "Being swayed this easily... Really... Are you some kind of god or devil?" Her words were laced with disbelief, likely at the fact that her rage had temporarily faded away and she felt as if she was in some sort of trance.

Softly, she stepped forwards and quietly grasped your hands, setting them down as she broke from your embrace. When she turned around and met your eyes, what you saw was no longer an empty husk, but a new being entirely.

It was not the girl who had sat on that workshop- She had been innocent, blind to the depths that the darkness of reality could stoop to. This was a new dreamer, opening her eyes to the plane of fantasy for the first time in far too long. With the deep synchronization that you possessed with your Sword, you could easily see how the light of dreams was enclosing around her soul, placing her firmly into the reach of your powers.

"If this isn't just another betrayal..." Irene said, her eyes slowly regaining her light. "If I really can have this dream, then..." She approached you, the light building up in her eyes until it reflected a burning crescendo...

...And she fell to her knees, offering up her Eternity Sword and shedding tears with closed eyes. "-Then, I am yours to do as you please. I'll crush anything, shoot everything in this cursed reality... So that golden world can really become true."

-At that moment.

Dream spoke.

Much like always, its words were ephemeral and barely comprehensible by the standards of a human. However, from your experience and time spent with the sword, you understood its meaning perfectly.

This girl's dream was just as beautiful as any, but the Sword at her hands opened up a chance that was quite curious as well as amusing. Because this girl now desired with all her soul for a utopia where nobody would meet the same cruel fate as her own, she was prepared to spend her existence by the side of whoever could help her make that dream possible.

-For one rare moment, the domains of your sword and the girl's resolution had combined to allow a stroke of opportunity.

-A Fantasia.

It was an ability that could normally not touch upon the realm where those god-like existences, the Eternals, dwelled. However, it was not uncommon at times for the existence of an Eternal to create several phenomena around them that could be considered on a level similar to his own. Some had learned to harness this force, using their mana to create tools in the guise of humans, beasts and swords to carry out their wield, consuming the worlds as agents of their will. These existences, which could not be called Eternals but approached such levels of divinity...

...Were known as 'Minions', or 'Avatars'.

Of course, you were capable of such a thing as well, but...

-What you had never tried before, was to use your powers to ascend an already powerful existence into such a state.

Granting this girl the ability to destroy reality...

...Perhaps even the greatest of dreams were not so fleeting in the great scope of things, were they?

Eternals' Minions

**Erlkonig** · June 3rd, 2016, 05:28 PM

Alice the Mortal Walker / Houjuu of the Unknown
Location: Atmosphere of Zinesta, over the skies of Ainus
Time: Meaningless
Mission: Protect the Sword Raisers from the Holy Eternals!

Sigismund did not budge even when your attacks pierced through his body, or when the dragon's claws fell upon him. The attacks were so powerful they warped space and caused dents in the almighty Guardian's armor, causing him to ooze mana into the air- However, he did not budge in the slightest, glowing helmet sockets glaring at the Eternal of the Unknown with unbridled determination.

"...Be..gone...!" A deep voice echoed from the suit of armor, right as he struck at the both of you with his glowing halberd of light. Suddenly, you felt the full weight of your attack being turned back to you as a concussive blast of light hurled you away from the spirit, the gust of light striking at the two of you like a hammer. The Guardian's Spirit divine magic retaliated against your offense, by sending you back and counter-attacking with a powerful blow.

-However, even though it was a spell better suited towards stunning the enemy instead of doing damage...

-The Guardian Spirit did not follow in pursuit, but instead turned to look at the situation of its master.

...

Riezalyn held out her lance in a defensive stance, her Aura Photons spread out as they attempted to weather the power of Alice's blow. However, even though those particles could prevent the passage of light, sound and any other force in existence, Dawn's light cleaved easily through her defense and the wave of power went through her, burning her skin and causing her to grit her teeth in pain.

The blast of energy surged past her, ripping open another hole in Houjuu's floating machine and sailing into space, where it dispersed into countless motes of faint light.

"...You two are strong." Rieza stated, looking down at the girl Eternal and at the strange boy that was throwing down against her own Guardian. "However... Do you really believe you can protect that boy in a battle between Eternals?"

As if answering her taunt, the Knight of Fantasia withdrew his sword and stood protectively in front of the huddled group of mortals below. She stared impassively at the entity, but suddenly frowned when she noticed the state of one of the humans- In particular, the one that was her target.

Riezheit was on one knee, clutching at his head as if suffering from a great pain. The Spirits had formed a crowd around him, trying to raise him from his position but he seemed to only grow more and more overwhelmed. For some reason, Riezalyn felt the beginnings of a bad premonition stirring in her heart.

Trusting her gut, she looked more closely at the mortal, reaching out with her grasp over mana to assess the nature of what was ailing him...

-At that moment.

(BGM off)

Rieza's eyes widened.

"No, it can't be- FINELLE, come at once!" Riezalyn suddenly shouted into the heavens, her voice suddenly sounding agitated. It was completely unlike before, where her voice had simply echoed due to her natural presence- Her words had been deliberately amplified with mana, and they caused the entire area to tremble as the reaches of her calls spread towards the heavens themselves.

Immediately, the two of you felt a chilling shiver from the base of your spine.

The way she had suddenly turned desperate, despite clearly being confident in the ability to fight off the two of you... There was no denying that something was wrong.

As if confirming your worries, the space around Riezalyn suddenly distorted.

"Aye, aye, I'm here." From the massive Gate of light that appeared within the rift in space, a figure stepped forth. Just like Riezalyn, she was breath-takingly beautiful and every part of her body appeared to be suffused in some kind of divine radiance.

However, unlike the Warmaiden which had arrived dressed in armor and soaring through the skies, when this girl appeared she did so at the head of a massive creature. It was not a dragon, for its features looked far more elegant and the wings on his back were feathery and luminiscent. Its eyes gleamed with ancient wisdom, and unlike normal creatures the mana around it seemed to ebb and flow, as if it were breathing life itself.

Brushing her hair back, Finelle looked at the gathered Eternals with a hint of curiosity in her blue eyes, before she turned towards her apparent comrade. "What's up, Rieza? You can't just handle two Eternals on your own?" She smirked playfully, even though the situation was hardly proper for such teasing. However, as she was about to retort-

"We don't have time for this!" Riezalyn shouted desperately, grabbing the woman's shoulders and causing her eyes to widen in surprise. "She is trying to break through the Seal right now!"

Who was she talking about? That question raced through both of your minds, when-

"-!? ...I see. I get it." It took only a moment for Finelle's relaxed features to fall into a hard frown. "What do I have to do?"

"Keep them busy!" Riezalyn said as she immediately shot forwards towards Riezheit's location, causing your Guardian Spirit to stand at the ready.

Immediately realizing who she was going for, the both of you turned to intercept her in some way-

"Sorry, but I really can't let you pass." The moment she said that, the temperature in the room heated up by several degrees and you were forced to react when all of your senses screamed out in alert.

From the location of Finelle and her beast, a massive blast of white flames emerged. Blazing through your previous location, it utterly reduced half of Houjuu's UFO to molten slag, advancing onwards towards the planet below and causing an explosion that turned your vision white, even from this distance.

You turned your eyes from the destruction, not even daring to glance at the new Eternal that was glaring at you and instead quickly searching for Riezalyn's location-

...However, Alice's heart caught in her throat when she saw it.

They were going to be too late.

"In the name of all of Heaven! By the will of Creation, O Mana, bless this blade with infinite power! So that its strike might undo all evil, so that it may purge all worlds of sin! Gather upon my weapon, and sanction the Steel of the Almighty! Eradicate all-"

"SACRED END!"

Without even hesitating before the Guardian Spirit, Riezalyn unleashed her trump card with all of her power.

Her entire body turned into divine light, starting from her lance. An impossibly vast amount of Aura Photons gathered about her, centered on the point she had leveled straight towards the prone position of Riezheit. When she had sensed the same presence that Alice had percieved, any notions about holding back had completely escaped her mind.

There was no time for her heart to grow soft, not with what was at that stake at that moment. Because of that...

-She could no longer keep any notions such as holding back out of human weakness.

However, between her and Riezheit, stood one last obstacle.

The Knight advanced, countless magical circles forming around him even as he fearlessly stood in the way of the woman. His mission was set, and there was no way he would let her take the life of someone that Alice had sworn to protect-!

Riezalyn's massive spear of light impacted against the infinite barrier that the Knight of Fantasy held up at the last second. Her weapon heated up the space around her to the point that the air around it immediately reached its critical point of existence and started merging into a miniature star, that quickly swirled as it was absorbed to fuel the power of her attack.

Cosmic forces manifested themselves around the technique, as reality itself appeared to break down under the might of her power. First by one, then by the dozens and soon by the hundreds, each layer of Knight Fantasia's barrier peeled the away. However, when the blade finally pierced through...

-It was stopped.

Gripping the force of almighty destruction with both hands, the Guardian Spirit glared at the Eternal as if shouting 'I won't let you through!' Even as the strenght behind Riezalyn's blow reached its crescendo, the Knight simply stood there and suffered the full brunt of the damage instead of moving away.

However...

"You're really determined to save him. You truly are worthy of respect. However-" Riezalyn's stare, which had been intense, suddenly grew solemn. "This fight... is already over."

The moment the Knight pondered those words, it was already over.

As if overheating, the excess mana around Riezalyn's Eternity Sword suddenly started to go out of control. The Guardian Spirit tried to supress it, but it was too late.

The blast detonated from point blank range, quickly overwhelming the Knight's defenses and passing over him...

-Towards the group behind him, where Riezheit and the others stood defenseless.

Everyone watched in horror as the blast of light approached, reducing all within its grasp to dust---!!!

(BGM off)

"Do you desire power?"

...

Riezheit's eyes opened.

"Nggh..." He stood up, panting as he felt the intense headache from before gradually receding. Ever since the battle between the two Eternals had heated up and they had released more and more mana into the air, it felt as if he had been burning up from the intensity of the fight and the presence of something that had been trying to get into his head, causing him intense pain until he had experienced the sound of breaking glass. And then...

...Then...?

"Riezheit... You've come at last." He felt it spread over his ears, a melodious voice that immediately gripped every inch of his attention. It was not just the beautiful voice of a woman- there was a power to her words, which caused his entire body to stand on alert and made him cautious... As well as curious.

Standing straight, Riezheit looked at his surroundings and almost stumbled on his feet again. All around, nothing but a vast whiteness spread. In the distance, countless lights swirled back and forth, drawing galaxies and countless other curious forms over the landscape, but within that space that felt as large as the world, he felt nobody's presence but his own.

-He turned towards the direction of the voice, intent on questioning her about his circumstances, but- "Who are... Yo..." The words died in his throat. Whatever was on his mind faded from existence for a moment, as he saw the form of the one that had spoken to him.

It wasn't a woman, even though she looked like one. To call her a woman would be a mistake, for this too was an existence that took the form of man, yet represented something much greater.

-Yes.

That girl...

"Riezheit. I've been waiting for so long... For someone like you."

...She emitted the presence of a Goddess.

"Someone like me...?" Riezheit muttered, before he quickly blinked away the mesmerizing effect of the girl over him and glared. "I don't understand what you're talking about. What just happened, where is everyone-!? ...Wait." Riezheit blinked. "Aren't you... Aren't you the girl I saw on that ship?"

"Well..." The girl smiled playfully, her voice ringing like that of musical bells. The entire space he was in seemed to ripple with her words, and for a moment he almost felt as if he too was going to be overwhelmed. "You could say that. It was only a fragment... But in the end, it allowed the 'real me' to reach you." Her smile brightened, and she sighed. "I have those squabbling Eternals to thank for this. Had they not unstabilized the mana and forced you to hold onto that mana shard from shock, this seal would've been too strong to overcome..."

"-!" Riezheit stepped forwards. She knew about those Eternals? "Those Eternals were fighting right over my powerless friends! What happened to them!? Are they...!?" His mind raced back to the final exchange between Riezalyn and the Eternal's mysterious Knight, right before he had blacked out. Having remembered that force of death that had approached them just moments before, he almost stumbled to his knees in despair.

"It's alright," The strange girl chimed, holding him up with one hand resting on his chest. "they are all alive at the moment. I pulled your soul from the timestream, so we can talk to our hearts' content without fear."

Riezheit blanched. She pulled his what? "Just... Who are you? Why am I here?" He gulped.

The girl smiled mysteriously, and pulled away slightly. It was only then that Riezheit realized the extent to which she had been manhandling him with only a single arm. "I am just another girl in need of aid. Isn't it natural for me to summon you then, Riezheit? You do seem to save a lot of women, after all?" Riezheit sputtered out a denial, but at the same time felt worried. Had it just been him, or had there been a hard edge to that snide comment of hers? "Th-that's not true! And that doesn't really answer my question! Just..." He sighed. "Tell me, what do you want? Wait. If you pulled me from that situation...! By any chance, can you save...!?"

"Impossible." The girl denied his hopes flatly, crushing his expectations with a single word. "This seal was made by my own power- It's as much a part of me as this body, unfortunately. Even if I wanted to save them, I could not."

"Then..." Riezheit trembled, clenching his fists even as determation set in. "Then let me go-! I'll figure out a way to save them myself-!"

[BGM - Wind from Continual Sky]

"-Do not reject me just yet, Riezheit Zendia." The girl suddenly whispered from behind him, breathing into his ear even as her pale arms wrapped around his chest and she pressed against him. "I may not be able to save them, but if you wish for it, then they can easily be saved."

Riezheit almost flinched from the sudden contact, but did not break away. There was a dangerous weight to the girl's words. "...Go on." He said quietly.

The girl's smile went from muted to grinning wide, and for a moment he felt a slight shiver. "You are the one I have been waiting for, Riezheit. For thousands- No, ever since the beginning of existence, no mortal has been able to withstand being so close to my presence. My powers are something that human beings cannot simply fathom."

...Almost immediately, Riezheit realized it. "...You... You're an Eternity Sword."

"Yes." The girl- No, the Eternity Sword avatar said, even as one hand reached out for his chest, gripping at his shirt right over his heart. "And you, Riezheit..." Without any further warning, the hand that was over his chest suddenly squeezed.

Riezheit gasped, as he suddenly felt an enormous torrent of mana surging into him. It was completely incomprehensible by his mind- The surge of power that had emerged from the point of contact with the girl's hand was on an entirely different level to anything he had been through before. It was a pressure that surpassed the showdown between the two Eternals, a blazing light that felt as it would overwhelm his very soul.

For what felt like an Eternity, Riezheit's head turned white. Eventually, it ocurred to him that this might be the end, that the mana would burst around him until there was nothing of him left...

-Yet, after a few moments, he regained his vision. He looked at himself, seeing that his skin was faintly glowing, and then turned to look at the space around him. It was positively flowing with mana, an unfathomable amount surging around the two of them. Unlike the pain from before, the massive currents of mana that flowed through him even felt tolerable.

It was gradual, but the pain was growing slightly fainter with every second.

The girl's grip on his chest went lax at the same time as he regained his senses, and after a moment she once again spoke. "...You, Riezheit, are the one who will become my wielder." She said it magnanimously, but nothing could hide the sheer delight that came from her being. "You are the only being in this world who is capable of forming a covenant with me."

"D-Did you learn that from what you did just now? What if it had killed me?" When she didn't answer, Riezheit felt a shiver crawl up the base of his spine. "...So that's it? You want to become my Sword?"

Riezheit was surprised when instead of reacting cooly as always, the girl on his back shivered visibly at the time when he called her 'his Sword'. "Indeed. That is your purpose, Riezheit Zendia. Aeons of machinations have passed by for you to stand before me."

Riezheit fell quiet. The girl's overall attitude disturbed him. Just like when Revolution had first offered him power, he could tell that this grand act was nothing more than a way to get him in awe of her presence- But the magnitude of her power wasn't anything like that of Revolution, it far surpassed it. There was no telling what she might do, if he didn't play along.

Furthermore, if she was telling the truth, then back where his body remained, his friends...

"-If I accept." Riezheit began, and immediately felt the girl's fingers clamp down over his body in reflex. "...Will I be strong enough to save them? To protect them from those Eternals?"

"Our covenant will not be complete until you sunder this Seal from the outside. However..." If it were possible for her smile to get any wider, it would have done so. "For wielders of the 3rd rank, you should be more than a match for them. Even those of the 2nd Rank could be defeated with those allies of yours, even with the fraction of power I can slip through the seal."

Riezheit shook. The girl's words had convinced him there and then, but his knowledge on the nature of Eternity Swords held him back. At the same time, however, a recent memory appeared in his mind.

'You'd better not lose, Brother. If you aren't strong enough to surpass our Master, then you know what will happen to this nation.'

'We'll give it our all, won't we Riezheit? Even if our opponent is the Empire, with all of our strength...!'

'Sometimes, I wish I had been strong enough to save them from that fate... Strong enough to be someone like you, Riezheit...'

'Then... Riez... heit...' The voice of one who should have ceased to exist reached him. 'I entrust this world to you.'

"...Heh. I really am... Destined to fight forever." Riezheit muttered, and resigned himself to his fate. Once more, the days of peace that he dreamt of would have to wait.

Slowly, Riezheit reached out with one of his hands-

-And clasped it over the girl's own.

"...Alright." Riezheit accepted. "I will become your wielder."

Without hesitation, he surrendered himself to this Sword's whims... All for the sake of those he loved.

(BGM off)

"-Then, I shall give you my name, o contractor." In a single breath, she gave him that which she had witheld until the last moment. It was a name that bore so much power in it, that Riezheit almost staggered from its weight.

However, instead, he fearlessly turned and faced the glowing woman directly. Gripping at one of her hands, Riezheit gathered all of his courage-

-And fell on one knee.

[BGM - Glorious Brilliance]

"-I, Riezheit Zendia, hereby seek the power of Arcadia. Accept me as your master."

At that moment...

Reality itself shuddered, as everything in the space was overcome by light.

"The Eternity Sword, Arcadia, accepts Riezheit Zendia. All power and duty passed down since Creation are now thine to claim. May thou shatter the Great Seal, and thereafter shalt we walk together forevermore."

It was more than a vow, or an oath. It was an absolute contract, one whose bases had been set down since the very creation of the cosmos. These words were the sole reason for existence of this universe. All of the wars, all of the lifes birthed to this point, and even those who had been called down from beyond the heavens...

...They had all gathered here, for this moment.

Riezheit grit his teeth, shuddering under the weight of the sheer mana that was revolving around them. Arcadia's former glow had turned into a blinding brilliance, and as they continued to speak the words of the covenant, Riezheit realized that it wasn't just the Avatar that had started to change.

"Source of Arcadia, boundless mana of creation that governs all existence- Become the flesh and blood of my master!"

The mana that had surged into him suddenly seemed to increase by a millionfold, but Riezheit managed not to scream even as atom by atom, piece by piece, his entire body was rebuilt from zero to become a vessel for Arcadia's power. The life force that flowed around him was familiar, but even its very nature felt beyond anything he had ever grasped.

"Finally... Finally!" Arcadia laughed hysterically, and Riezheit realized that he could hear her even in his mind. "How many aeons have I waited in solitude for my efforts to bear fruit!? How many iterations of this universe spent under this seal? I, who was likened to Heaven's Cloud and mocked by Fate and Destiny! Now they shall know my strength!"

Riezheit shrugged off her words, and turned his eyes towards the sky. He could let her cry in victory, the feedback that existed between him allowed him to sympathize with the troubled feelings that were going through her heart.

Turning away from her, he reached out with his arm and seemingly grasped at nothingness.

"Then, I'm going. This time, I'll protect everyone."

"Yes." Arcadia smiled brightly. "Go, my master! Flaunt my power, taste all I can give you in this state! Master it completely and make it yours! And then, once you save me from this prison... None shall threaten us anymore!"

Riezheit nodded, and turning back to the air pushed with his arm. The mindscape warped, and a gate that reflected the frozen reality he had left behind appeared. Having said all that he needed, he threw all hesitation to the wind-

-And charged forwards, limitless power surging around him!

I won't let anyone... Threaten this world!

(BGM off)

...

At that moment.

When you thought everything was over, and the enemy Eternals had triumphed despite your best efforts...

...You felt it.

"-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" The cry that shattered the skies, was almost immediately deafened by the sheer explosion of mana that emerged from the epicenter of Riezheit's group. The overwhelming spiritual force easily disintegrated the vestiges of Riezalyn's attack, reducing it to nothingness and further expanding until it had passed through everyone in the battlefield.

You -both of you- shuddered at the same time from the unfathomable mana that had washed over you. Not just the quantity, but also the quality- It was unlike anything you had ever felt before. It distorted space and time, slipping through your own aura photons and causing a deep sense of awe in both yourself and your swords.

...You intellectually knew of them, of course, but had never seen one. Existences that were so powerful and rare that they were finite in all of creation, to the extent that they could be counted on one hand. Two of them stood at the helm of the Eternal War, ruling over the forces of Chaos and Law both and commanding dozens of Eternals with their awesome power.

Two others were also known- One that led a cult of independent Eternals in the name of a mysterious force called 'Moment', and another that was known as a legendary force of destruction whose Null Mana corrupted everything it touched, leading entire universes to ruin when stuck on them for too long.

...And now... Now, you were in the presence of a fifth. There was no mistake about it. No other presence could have this feeling, this power that could make even a godlike force of nature weak in the knees and staring an awe. This was the mana...

...Of an Eternity Sword, of the First Rank.

-You knew, without a doubt in your mind. Whatever had been going on in this world...

...Was about to get a hell of a lot more complicated.

---

From the weak to the strong, everyone felt the moment that Arcadia's seal relaxed to exert its power over the Universe.

From the center of the gate, the Holy Eternals cursed themselves for their failure, and at the same time knew fear.

Far beyond, in a distant battlefield, two warriors locked in deadly battle temporarily paused when even the space around them shuddered with the presence of that white light.

Similarly, a fellow warrior that had been struggling to fend off a cursed one stopped their battle for a moment when the earth-shaking presence washed over them, and even the maddened fell silent from awe.

Later, the dreamer would eventually feel this power as would the Goddess, and the two would immediately understand the meaning of such strength- Though they would take it different ways.

A wandering swordswoman would pause in her thirst for battle, feeling the incredible presence that even her blade could not sever and her fighting spirit spiking immediately.

A foolish wanderer would pause before doing one of his antics, allowing the mana to blanket him before one half of his sword suggested running away and the other started having a panic attack.

Meanwhile...

"Oh no..." Tokimi said, pausing while she had been walking across a nonassuming alley. "I... Hadn't foreseen this..."

"Well, well, well..." Temuorin whispered, as her smile slowly started to grow wider. "What do we have here?"

"It can't be..." A shrouded figure said fearfully, looking up at the light clad sky. "This world, it will-"

On the realm of the heavens, a single figure clad in armor raised a fist, and slammed it against his throne with earth-shattering force-

-Just as another, darker female figure laughed at him and everything else from the depths of the world, ignoring her wounds to clap with rapturous amusement.

---

Riezheit stepped forwards, reaching out towards the deadly aura photons that had almost robbed him of his friends and comrades.

They would never threaten him again.

"Scatter." He commanded, and the presence of Riezalyn's magic was firmly displaced by his own power. Around him, space itself warped as a long white trench coat appeared over his clothes, the elegant garment made entirely out of mana and clad in golden designs. It flared about him like a cape with the wind, only ceasing when Rieza's magic had been completely repelled.

"Riez... heit?" Silvia whispered, looking up at him in awe. The others found themselves wordless, staring at him with a mixture of shock and awe.

"...Don't worry guys, I'm fine." Riezheit's lips twitched upwards, giving him the humanity that had been missing from his now glowing golden eyes. "I'll meet you guys below after this is over, alright?" He said serenely, even as the meaning of his words sank in.

"Wait, Riezhe-" Lune tried to stop him, but was cut off.

"Hear me, Omnipotent Orb, and get them to safety!" Riezheit spoke into the air, but almost immediately there was another massive surge of mana. Suddenly, where there had been nothing now floated a sphere of light that emanated an oppressive aura.

Yes, my master. The Guardian Spirit boomed. There was a flash of light-

And soon, all of Riezheit's comrades had disappeared from the ship.

"So it's come to pass..." Riezalyn said bitterly. "Arcadia found a candidate, right in the middle of this war..."

"This is bad..." Finelle bit at one of her nails nervously. "This is really, really, bad!"

With the absence of the non-Eternals on the battlefield, suddenly the stakes had been raised. Now neither side needed to care about casualties, and could finally fight with all of their combined strength.

Riezheit once more advanced, determination in his eyes as on his right arm another massive surge of mana manifested. Gripped by his hand was a longsword, with an elaborate hilt of black and gold and a blade that was completely white, and shimmered with power in the air. It was but a shadow of the real one, a fraction of its true power, but even that was enough to warp the reality around it.

"...I apologize." Riezheit said politely, even as he stepped past the Knight which had already recovered from his wounds and joined the side of the Mortal Walker. He gripped the Eternity Sword and thrust it forwards, towards the Holy Eternals in the sky. "But I can't die yet. Until this world is at peace, and nobody has to fight anymore, I-"

His words had to be different. He could no longer claim to be Riezheit Zendia, not after the covenant he had made.

-A new name was engraved into his soul, now.

"I, Reizheit the Breaker of Seals, will never be defeated!"

The moment that he stated his resolve the fight-

-Marked a new beginning to the battle.

"I am the End. At the end of eternity, everything fades into nothingness! Thus, I declare! Earth to Earth! Ashes to Ashes! DUST TO DUST!"

Riezheit hoisted out the Shade of Arcadia as he cried out the chant of a Divine Magic, and immediately a wave of overwhelming mana washed over the battlefield.

It was as if a sudden drought had come for the Holy Eternals. The magic around Riezalyn seemed to sputter and die out, collpasing into deathly looking grey particles that disappeared into the air. At the same time, Finelle's magical beast roared in agony as the skin around it also seemed to flake off and die, the luster of its scales receding as numerous flakes of mana were turned into ashes and destroyed.

In an instant, the two Eternal's fighting abilities had been greatly weakened.

"Now is the time! Alice, Houjuu!" Riezheit clamored. "Attack them with all of your power!"

"Riezheit, you...!" Riezalyn glared at him, struggling to get up from the sudden mana drain.

The battle had entered its final phase.

Riezalyn the Sacrosanct

Finelle the Keeper of Blessings

Riezheit the Breaker of Seals

**Airen** · June 3rd, 2016, 10:03 PM

Alice the Mortal Walker
Location: Atmosphere of Zinesta, over the skies of Ainus
Time: Meaningless
Mission: Protect the Sword Raisers from the Holy Eternals!

Right back to her side.

There had been many reasons why Alice's breath had caught in her chest; the fear that her promise to the humans would be broken, the sheer power of a 1st rank Eternity Sword making itself known to her, even the state of her new ally, the unknown Eternal, had been enough to get an emotional reaction out of the girl who formed bonds easily, but...

"Catching that kind of attack with your hands huh...? You really are way too cool a guy, William."

The thing that had affected her the most, was the show of the knight who had once again given his all for her sake. She was sure he still felt pain, but to guard her mission, to guard the lives that had been entrusted to him, he had flawlessly challenged the heavens... Some would say it had not been enough in the end, but even if his guard had been broken, that time, those few precious seconds...

Even through holding on for just that long, the knight had turned fate aside, even if just by a little bit.

And that had proven to be enough.

Hearing her compliment him, in that odd way he had gotten used to aeons ago, the knight appears to scratch his head in a sheepish way. It's a small moment; standing in his shadow, for a moment, her world flashes back to before all of this, to where the young man had still been human, where she had not yet made the contract for the sake of protecting everything in existence.

It's not that she wishes to go back to those times.

It's simply a powerful memory, filled with nostalgia.

"And you're just walking it off like it didn't hurt...? You know, it's okay to stay down every once in awhile, you don't have to hurt yourself for my sake."

"..."

His response wasn't big, it wasn't flashy, it wasn't even verbal, for the boy had long ago lost the ability to speak, or at least, did not need words in order to communicate with her. Looking past Alice, at those who would see her come to harm, the knight simply fortifies his position, blade in hand, he stands at her side without regret. It is not his back she is seeing, while that was how it had been at the start, back when she had lacked power...

His pose now was screaming he would fight at her side.

He was an idiot who would stand in front of her and accept the blows of fate itself if it came down to it, but...

"Yeah... I know I'm being silly... We'll fight together, just like always... So lend me your strength for a bit, nii-san."

A nod from the knight...

Is met with a small grin from the young woman, whose body disappears into light. It's over in a flash, both Knight and Princess vanishing into a pure light, the being that reemerges, the one standing there in that next moment, is the Alice that has become one with her Guardian Spirit, souls singing the song of their past with a quiet but serene duality. In that knight's hands are blades of opposite feelings, the pure Dawn, the sword of Humanity's Hopes and Well Wishes, and a pulsing red sword, glittering like crystal, a blade parallel to Dawn... A blade that the knight handled with absolute ease, but whose feelings Alice had always found a bit harder to cope with...

Even so...

The situation has deteriorated. Law Eternals will appear if we do not end it soon. This time, we cannot afford to hold back.

Let us strike now, Alice. Do not let your kindness doom you and the others.

Even with different reasonings for it... The two blades, two aspects of the same sword, had both thrown their gaze towards the future and reached the same conclusion. The young woman, who herself had reached this same ending, turns only to face the fallen ones, and in her hands...

That crimson sword, the blade of humanity's harsher feelings...

Begins to gather an impossible amount of Aura Photons, just as it's other self had earlier in the fight. It's a repeat of the same move, the exact same attack that she had used earlier in the fight, and in that sense, it is incredibly easy to read, yet...

*Ba-Dump*

-Something about it is wrong.

The world that flashes red burns with a feeling of cold ice, the weapon that burned with a cold anger, with humanity's ancient rage against the divine that had always trampled over them without remorse.

...It is definitely what one could call a cursed sword.

And yet...

And yet...

That same sword is doing this for the sake of protecting something; it is certainly an angry blade, those that had stood against it's Master must be punished, and with the appearance of a first rank blade, continuing to drag on the fight would only endanger this world even more...

So it had decided to end it before things could reach that point.

An anger turned towards a good cause, it holds the hostility that Alice does not normally show.

Power so dense that the world seems to become a storm of crimson lightning. While it is not comparable to the presence of the 1st rank blade, the amount of power gathered here is still sickening, an absolute force that would certainly equal the one it's sister blade had used, but...

Just as it reaches it's peak, the heights of the old crescendo, an attempt is made at surpassing the limits that could already only be understood in fantasy.

"I know it's rather quick for me to ask this... But please, share your power with me."

A pure emotion that calls out to both Houjuu and Reizheit, traveling across bonds both newly forged and already established, it's a simple call for assistance, a call for power from her new allies, a call to resonate, to bring their souls together to enact an even more impossible miracle.

Defeating the entire enemy team in a single blow.

"The heart sings a lone song, but a miracle is born from the answer of countless voices! At the end of the Sea, allow the radiance of that resonance to embrace you! Edge of the Horizon!"

Wise Up

**Katie** · June 4th, 2016, 02:02 PM

Tsurugi the Arbiter
Location: Imperial Province of Rhomadial, near the frontier between the Republic of Nywell and the Empire, Village of Ilbastica
Time: Afternoon

Ah. Michelle was glowing, because they were surrounded, and it seemed that the situation was somewhat desperate. Tsurugi couldn’t emphasize—there was absolutely nothing dangerous about the situation. In fact, she was distinctly sure that Ravana wanted more time to indulge in trampling upon ants, but if Michelle was going to take this seriously and pull out a so called “trump card,” then it was only necessary that she, Arbiter of Boundaries, to give more than an ounce of effort into this situation.

Yield, Ravana. It ends here.

The hulking monstrosity understands her, and she can feel its disappointment, its frustration. Blood had drizzled upon the battlefield, but surely, surely it was not enough. There needed to be more bloodshed at hand, there needed to be more anguish, more hatred, more suffering. Chaos was yet to be truly created in the battlefield, the hollow pangs of fear and terror not enough.

“No need for the light show, Mika-tan.” With an idle wave and another deflected attack, Tsurugi pointed her blade in the air, channeling Aura Photons through it. A familiar exercise she had honed throughout the years of aimless traveling she had done with the Horizon.

“Slash Emperor.”

And all at once, the azure sky was split in two.

A river of stars streaked across the heavens, parting the clouds. Her blade, a massive collection of aura photons, dared to pierce the heavens in two, dividing them in a dazzling display of light, as if white, sparkling divinity had graced this world.

Even so, extending the range of her assault would not let her clean up the battlefield so quickly. That required much more finesse than blindly swinging it around. She thought back to her youth, where she had heard the tales of a swordsman who could cut a swallow in midflight, and so self-assured in her own talents, she attempted to replicate the feat as her own.

She remembered sneaking out of the house to wander the woods, practicing what would be considered impossible. The aimless toil that came from pushing one’s limits for no other reason than arrogance. How her speed had to be beyond human, how the deftness of her blows needed to surpass physical limitations.

The sword remembered how proud she was when she did catch a bird in midflight, three strikes so fast the bird had no chance of escape. That she was worthy of being someone her siblings admired, her chest puffing up with pride.

…How naïve she was.

“Tsubame Gaeshi.”

And the massive blade crashed upon the earth, twisting and bending and refracting so that in one strike, the entire battlefield was cleared of enemies, leaving only tattered corpses and the smell of blood in the air.

The disconcerting surge of power lingered in the air—but it wasn’t hers. No, this was something else, conveniently timed to mask the mana she had used. The sign of a transcendent blade, something she had to hunt.

Should we get to it, Horizon?

We can wait.

We'll hunt it down, I promise.

There was a sword greater than her in this world—and for her own pride, she could never let such a thing exist.

Wise up!

**Erlkonig** · June 11th, 2016, 03:40 PM

Asteris the Goddess
Location: Border of the Kingdom of Ainus and the Republics of Nywell, St. Rieza Outskirts, 'Secret Hideout'
Time: Night

"Big bro!" The moment the two mortals and the Eternal passed the threshold to the hideout, Ryos was quickly tackled by several different figures, startling you as the human was quickly buried under the presence of more mana-rich girls which you assumed were Spirits such as Fayla.

With Asteris' help, it had been trivially easy to avoid any further pursuit by Nywell's spirits, and the group had quickly made it to the hiding spot Fayla had secured for the girls with the help of her directions. Apparently the hideout was a cabin that was found deep within the forest, hidden by many thick masses of trees that completely obscured its sight from above.

What the three found there...

"It's good that you're okay, Ryos." One of the girls standing around him smiled at the smothered boy. The green-haired girl was no older than 14 years old and clutched a worn book tightly on her arms, but her eyes sparkled with childish happiness at the boy.

"Yay! Big bro beat up the bad guys again!" One of the girls, a 10-year-old redhead said as she sat on Ryos' shoulders and started messing up his hair. "Hahaha! Ryos is invincible!"

"Are you alright!?" Another of the girls, a preteen blonde spirit said in a worried tone as she fussed over the charred clothes of the human, her eyes wide with fear. "They didn't hurt you, Brother!?"

"Ryos... Safe?" The last of the girls, a blue-haired spirit that looked the youngest of them cocked her head adorably, as she tugged at the boy's free arm.

"Hahahahaha..." Ryos chuckled, closing his eyes warmly. "Yup, your brother's fine. It's alright now... I'm not going anywhere." A sad expression crossed his face as he realized he had almost left them. Liene, Miliru, Ryelit and Norn... They were the ones that he'd been watching over ever since Shiela passed away. Fayla shouldn't have to bear the task of keeping them safe by herself... And because of his weakness, that had almost been what had happened.

"Alright, alright!" Fayla said, approaching the girls with a mock glare. "I know you're happy girls, but we've got a guest so you'd better behave!" The girls collectively yelped when the older Spirit pulled out a paper fan out of seemingly nowhere, and fled like headless chickens from Ryos when she gave it a good swipe.

"Um... Sis, who is that person?" Ryelit -the blonde one- said, fiddling with her fingers as she looked at the imposing, yet gentle-looking Eternal by the two's side.

"This is Asteris, she's the one that saved us both from the bad men chasing us. She also was the one that beat them up." Ryos said, which elicited a long 'oooo' from the crowd of girls. "She's really strong, so be polite to her okay?"

You almost bristled at that comment. What did power have to do with this? Like you would somehow lash out to them, like a dirty huma-

"Waaa! So cool!" The red-haired spirit jumped with joy, then completely ignoring Ryos' warnings rushed across the room and grabbed at Asteris' clothes, tugging at them as she jumped up and down. "Hey, hey! If you saved big bro, does that mean you're even stronger than him!? Amazing! Sensei! Please teach me, Sensei!"

"O-oi, Miliru! Didn't you listen to Ryos right now!?" The green haired spirit sighed as she ran over to her, before she looked back at the Eternal and bowed her head. "I'm really sorry, but whenever Miliru gets fighting into her head, she loses control..." She smiled at you with a polite gaze. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Asteris. My name is Liene, and- Thank you for saving our family!"

"M-me too! My name is Ryelit, thank you for saving brother!" The blonde girl blushed, even as she imitated the green-haired girl.

As you were about to answer-

A sudden shock ran through your body, and you yelped.

"...Warm." The blue-haired little Spirit said, her arms tightly wrapped around one of your tails as she shoved her face against it. By reflex the tails twitched, brushing against her face and tapping it softly. "Waaaaa. Fluffy..." The girl continued in her monotone, even as she seemed to attach herself even further to the tale.

"A-AAAAAAAH! N-norn, get away from the lady's tail!" Fayla exclaimed with a distraught expression, as she tried to drag the blue-haired spirit away by her legs, but her arms and face continued stubbornly attached as if begging 'five minutes more'.

W-Were these... The Spirit girls that the human was protecting?

They were quite a noisy bunch, alright...

**palad1n** · June 11th, 2016, 05:42 PM

Asteris the Goddess
Location: Border of the Kingdom of Ainus and the Republics of Nywell, St. Rieza Outskirts, 'Secret Hideout'
Time: Night

".....!!"

She actually yelped when the blue-haired spirit touched her tail, her face reddening a little from the sudden contact with her tails. Fayla tried to drag her away to no avail, and the red-haired spirit is still tugging at her clothes. She looked at them, little spirits brimming with innocence and life; certainly a noisy bunch, but...

It felt nice, to be treated not with fear or worship like this once in a while...

'My, it's certainly been a while since the last time you changed your expression so openly.' Divine commented, seemingly amused by the situation. Asteris, for her part, merely studied the children in silence, although her expression is a gentle one.

'So this is what children are like...' She mused as her tail brushed against Norn's face in quick succession. She had never really seen children other than humans, and even then her knowledge on the subject is minimal, so this is the first time she had really interacted with any kind of children. She then rest her gaze upon Ryos, the human whom the spirits had shown such affection to earlier, and it was certainly no act; they had genuinely loved him.

Why? Because he's kind? Because he takes care of them? Her mind flashes back to Roland and that spirit, Cina, whose eyes were dead as she followed his orders to a T and various other examples of humanity's cruelty and enslavement; that's what humans are like, she had seen it and experienced it firsthand, so why? What made him so different from the others?

She shelved it to the back of her mind for now. She looked at Miliru before ruffling her hair slowly, as if unsure if it's the right gesture or not, before speaking.

"So you want to become strong?" She asked the red-haired spirit, and when she got a nod the Goddess could felt herself giving a small smile before she took action.

"Then try to dodge and catch them."

Two tails immediately shot out at the energetic spirit from her sides, so quick and precise that she didn't have any time to react at all before the fluffiness of the tails assaulted her from various angles. It was only for an instant, but the fluffiness definitely left its mark, making her to want more. Asteris then gently lift Norn up from her tail - "If you want more, then you have to work for it" - before inviting the other two as well. If they managed to catch a tail, then they win and might use it as a pillow for tonight. If not, they lose and have to sleep early.

And thus, a game of war between 4 little spirits and an Eternal began.

...

...

...

Some time later the four children had fallen asleep in their bedrolls, each of their heads resting on one tail each as the Goddess wondered how she could have lost; 'You could be so petty sometimes' was Divine's response when she asked the Eternity Sword, something about underestimating children's determination to get what they want. Still, now that only she, Ryos and Fayla are awake, she could finally ask and discuss some things that she had been wondering for a while. The gentle eyes and small smile disappears as once again Asteris assumed the role of the Goddess.

"There are many to be discussed, but what I need to know are mainly two things." The Eternal began. "The first is about the men that were chasing after you and the children."

"As for the second..." Asteris let the words hang in the air for a while as she looked at Ryos in the eyes. "Why are the children so attached to you? And why are you protecting them, fighting against your own kin to do so?"

The message is clear.

Only the truth is permitted, and lies shall not be forgiven.

**Vritra** · June 12th, 2016, 09:02 PM

Rem
Location: Royal Palace of Grandlade
Time: Night

Dickery in a bit, need to think on a few points.

Actor Ruin
Location: Grandlade City Slums
Time: Night

Kuuu, how truly delightful a child that realises a truth of a rotten world she has cleared her eyes of the putrid murk that once clouded it. A cleansed mind begins to turn itself towards virtue and a bleeding heart begins to beat once more. Wounded, the blood and ichor flows forth freely yet broken limbs are made whole, pain touches all, rot begets rot and corruption eats the foundations.

We all long for happiness, we all dislike misfortunes cold touch, so we chase after it all so and sometimes we even catch it. Yet that is the greatest lie of this putrid world, the world whispers words of promise and places within our hands gold but it is lies, all lies, true gold cannot be found within this rotting gutter. What is given is quickly torn away because it is not meant to bring happiness but to taunt and wound, a taste of gain to make the loss all the more painful. I hate it but no longer am I helpless, a parasite who must feed upon all those stand beside me, I have been power and no matter how hard everything tries to deny me I shall use that power to correct and to save, a true salvation far apart from the superficial fakes parroted by those who wish to forget the pain with self-congratulations and those who blind themselves and play the fool.

Emotions swirl within me beckoned forth by the tides of fate as they twist the world and as I defy them, a white light, a composite existence broken and separated by prismatic mind. I count the fleeting thoughts and the dreams they provoke in the struggle.

It is unexpected, I had thought less of this girl, I had expected her to appease and comfort herself with token offerings that would rot like all in time. Yet she looked upon those trinkets and rejected them to grasp at a greater dream. Uncontent with the transient gold of a world that crushes and devours all within it she rages at its injustice and seeks to overturn it all.

I name joy for someone else has seen the truth.

I name sympathy for the one who has tasted the putrid fruit of promise grown by a twisted world.

I name longing for a desire to fill the ever bleeding emptiness within me.

I name bitterness for the knowledge of the ephemeral pleasures that taunt with their existence and sting with their absence.

I despise it all, and so I name hatred for all that exists I hate this girl who thinks she knows what pain is truly like, I hate this world and all who are born of it, I hate your lies, I hate your dreams, I hate your love, I hate your existence and everything that comprises it. I can only wish for these wretched people to despair for their false hopes, I can only hope for their superficial sympathies to be peeled away to expose the face that lies within, I can only dream of dragging this rotten worm eaten ruins upon which we live into the abyss so that it may be consumed to produce a golden egg from which the true world will be born. What do you know of pain, what do you despair, what do you know of torment, what do you now of hope, what do you know of me. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you one and all.

Burning wrath and screaming hatred spring forth a fill me with determination. Grasping the incarnation of dreams upon this plane of existence I tear apart her wretched existence. My dreams are mine and mine alone, I shall be the one bring them into existence and no one else. To grant another’s dream is to steal it, to tear away all they hold dear and to invalidate their efforts. A dream of a true world and the method of its creation is mine and it shall be forever mine. I refuse, I reject, I refute, I shall never allow another to delude themselves into thinking they created a paradise when it is in reality false, I shall never let anyone create the true arcadia but me.

I shall consume you whole for your presumptions, for I shall leave nothing left and in do so what is born shall never be tainted by the rot that touches all with its foul and twisted tendrils.

I shall.

…I should.

I…

I can’t.

I despise all in this wretched world yet, yet perhaps the most wretched one is me. Fattened for the slaughter I had hopes dangled in front of me because fate is one who rejects me. All I gained were but things meant to be torn away in the end, given no strength of body I was born a parasite that was meant to feed off and consume all that I love to sustain myself, the only thing I had ever sustained were the dreams that danced within my mind. Yet in this existence dreams are pitiful thing, empty and hollow wishes who hold no power over the world, no all that power comes from person themselves and it is that power that I had none.

The scorn child, the wretched soul, bereft of fortune or fate, a sacrifice to an existence that exalts in its profanity. All that lay before me was the door of horn, the gateway of the mind that condemns all that passes through it to delusion However fate was defied and even though it was not by my power I shall not relinquish what was given. In a hellscape created by those who have turned their back upon themselves and killed their own dreams I laid hands the key to the door of ivory, the true door. Once powerless dreams have now been granted perches upon this foul land.

A dream is spoken to me, a vessel laid open, a soul that years for dreams and so dreams would reach back towards her, an agent who was once choked by the cold hand of the fates would now reach for a sword to plunge into their hearts. I truly hate this and I hate the emotions that surge in response yet, yet honor, virtue, principle, these are all the property of the strong and strength is one thing I have always lacked in my wretched existence. Since the moment I grasp Dream and since the moment I forged my desire of its power I felt the full extent of my enemies. My mind and soul writhe in torment at the truth of my existence as it is laid out before me, my soul seeks to defy all but it is but a speck in eternities eye all of existence will become my enemy. Many call us divine beings yet I have felt the difference in power between those who stand above me and I know the falsehood of that statement. There is no resplendent divinity only another forsaken existence, the wall of their superiority are as vast as the world that I once stood upon. Yet still I seek and I shall seek forevermore, I seek to tear out the roots of the world, I seek to usurp their throne of superiority and in that quest I cannot forsake options. Even if I must debase myself, even if I must stain my soul, I shall never stop and I shall never let the one thing that I hold go, from now until the end I shall not let my dreams escape my grasp.

So I shall accept you.

Even though I shall never surrender my dreams to anyone I shall allow you to touch upon them, to fill you, to forge you, to mend you.

“You call me a god or a devil but know that I am neither, I am but a person who has naught but the dreams they nurture in their soul. A dream of a pure world and the better life that would lie within it, no know this. This is not a promise of our inevitable victory; this is not a promise of how we shall consume our enemies without fail. I am too weak to grant you such things so know this even if you might find it lacking I shall still promise you one thing, I promise that so long as I exist I shall not let this world grow fat on its presumed victory, I promise you that so long as I exist I shall never give up upon this dream that both you and I have seen. Our enemies are as numerous as existence itself for rot begets rot and corruption leads to more corruption, so long as one spec remains our dreams shall become stained and rotten, unmade entirely. So I promise you this one thing, that so long as I still exist I shall strive for what we have dreamt of regardless of how many stand before me or regardless of how he world breaks my limbs and tears my legs asunder, cutting them out from under me I shall grasp the dreams within my mind and I shall rise to challenge it once again.

So if you think you can bear the pain of this battle, its despair, all so that it may end in victory then grasp this key and open the door that you once so foolishly defied. Drink from the cup filled in the fountain that lies in the heart of the garden of dreams, it is sweet as nectar but do not mistake this for something easy nor quick. Eternity shall in the end also become our enemy so rid yourself of foolish delusions of a shining and resounding victory for they are dreams and in this world we live dreams becomes tarnished things. Our struggle will be long and fill with evils both uncountable and unrelenting but still I shall struggle on so do not be deceived that lies within the moment only keep in mind what shall challenge eternity.”

She spoke to me of her dream and I speak to her of the pain they bring but I still hope that she can forge a blade of resolution that will never break from her mind and soul. The road is long, the night is dark, the struggle is painful but we must continue on to reach the light because by doing so we might reach an end that we need.

Grasping the simple necklace around my neck at pull it free and show its truth, not a simple trinket but a weapon of power, its form shimmering with the promise and the stuff of what we hope might become true in place of reality and its blackened shell. Throwing it into the air I grasp the blade as it descends so that I can hold out the hilt to her.

“If you would have to world change so that it would be free of all things evil, if you would wish for dreams and are prepared to shoulder the burden of a struggle against existence itself then grasp this key, turn it and unlock the door to the kingdom of your heart and mind, let the division between the real and the unreal be unmade and let your dreams become the arms and armor that you will use to purge the rot with radiance.

If you dream of a better world than stand by me and I shall in turn stand by you.”

No matter how hard everything opposes this dream of salvation I shall continue on, an unbroken heart bears an unyielding spirit and they both in turn are nourished by a dream I shall never let die.

“…I see so that is your choice.”

Looking on the girl as she makes her choice with burning eyes, while apprehension over this course of action still remains I have reminded myself of my place and followed Dreams lead. I don’t know what spurred this suggestion and for that I fear because of that.

Placing my finger in her mouth I direct the influx of power that she grasped, a pale voice shall burden her no longer so I command speak with crystal and honey. Moving my hand I hold her face, it is not the end of a struggle but a beginning and so she has not been free from pain for that lies so far off in the future, she has not been free only burdened but I dream that she might stand it and by doing so bring about its end, I dream so that that hope may become reality.

“Now come let us seek the power to make our dreams become reality for once and ever after.”

Moving I pull her into my arms, I imagine that having just received some that that was previously so far beyond her it make take a short while for true harmony to begin so until then I shall fulfill my promise in this small instance by carrying her burden till she can do it herself. With the one who will serve me held aloft safely in my arms I push off and reduce distance to a meaningless thing before my strength as I move towards my destination, the clock tower where I arrived. Standing once more atop this perch I begin to carry out an idea that came to me as I dreamt of Rem’s rather …independent escapades.

While I had previously intended to simply announce myself and thus bend all to my will I have thought up something that may prove to be more suited to the current situation. Foul assailants stalk the night as they seek to take advantage of a protector’s absence to further their own ends. Although the current assassin is far to lacking to provide a threat to those who seek sweet slumber and a peaceful tomorrow I shall change that. A radiant hero is hailed and perhaps that is what I should be dreaming of instead of monstrous power. A sense of shining light brighter than the sun that shall draw the meaningless like a flame to moths, rather than grasp those who are little more than dolls with an iron fist instead I shall have them gather in the light of my dreams by their own will.

Grasping the hilt of my blade I unleash its powers and break reality in my grasp. Tonight is a night of dreams, golden hopes and now darkest nightmares. Letting my mind encompass the world I draw to myself all the blighted fragments twisted by the world itself, I gather them and wrench them through the gate of dreams. Darkness gathers all around me, let there be horror, let there be blight, let there be nightmares. Come to me all you who fly through the land of dreams with your pitch dark wings. Your lord commands you show your twisted forms before him.

Assassins dream of slaughter yet like all the others their dreams are but empty imagination, the foes they grapple with are beyond their strength and the goal they grasp at it beyond their reach. That is how the world is but that is not how it shall be any longer.

Let nightmares be unchained by my grace. They shall break your limbs with maddened strength, they shall spill out your guts with blackened claw, they shall twist your mind with darkest fear and they shall do so much more. Despair fool who cling to a rotten carcass, tremble wretched things who delude yourselves, face the black truth of the night sky, look upon the children of nyx that were begotten by your own hearts.

DISTORTING DARKNESS, CRAWLING CHAOS, TWISTING TORMENT, KNOW THE FANTASY AND THE REALITY THAT THIS WORLDS BIRTHS.

I shall have you despair at the darkness that is all around you and I shall have you rejoice at the light that I shall bring.

I gathered the dreamt darkness around me and now I dream of radiance for myself. Pure light of hope is what I hold in my hand and it is what I shall use to cut down all before me. A scourging wish for a future that is denied, yet let hope, desire, imagination the fountain of wishes incarnate shall cleave through all the evils of this world to, let it cleave the chains of fate, let it burn away the rot that consumes us. I wield the hope that burns away all and I wear light that is purer than any sun. I dream a dream of gold purer than any other in this world, I show myself as dreams incarnate like before but this is not a dream meant to cloak me so that I may pass by unnoticed I announce myself in full resplendent splendor of the dream I will make reality. Let all who look upon me know the promise that I swore and the beauty of the ideal I dream of. My eyes which shall never hold light see the truths that must be made real.

Stygian darkness.

Purest light.

Dreams are made reality by my hand and reality shall be devoured by my dreams.

**Erlkonig** · June 18th, 2016, 01:51 PM

Tsurugi the Arbiter
Location: Imperial Province of Rhomadial, near the frontier between the Republic of Nywell and the Empire, Village of Ilbastica
Time: Afternoon

-With a single cut, hundreds of lives perished. The spirits which had been marching to battle, all of them were cut down in an instant before the might of an enemy they never got the chance to see- A foe the likes of which they would have never been able to fathom.

There was no guilt over the action, no hesitation at striking down the multitude of spirits which had been nothing but innocent victims of their own swords' bloodlust. With that single swing, there was no way that fact had not been evident to Tsurugi the Arbiter, one who should've been able to see into the heart of any Sword.

-Yes.

Because this was undoubtedly a war, there was no place for a sword to hesitate. A Sword cut because it was made to do so, it spilled the blood of others because that was the reason for existence. Whether it was wielded for justice, or brutality, in the end it was not a tool meant for healing. The difficult things could come when there were no enemies, when it was time for the Sword to be sheathed. Until then...

-Until then, the action Tsurugi would take, would be to cut anything that got in the way of her path. It was not an evil ideal, and so couldn't be called such.

However, such ideal also bears the consequences...

-That sometimes, a sword that cut too much and too many without restraint, would not be seen as mere a tool...
(BGM off)

"What... Did you do?" Michelle said, giving a dull, confused stare to the severed, bleeding bodies on the ground as well as the ones that were in the distance.

-But as a demon.

"...This..." Michelle knelt, the glow of Fulfillment dying down as she tremblingly grasped the face of one of the broken Spirits, watching the dead stare aimed towards the nothing. "...Is this what war is like...?" Her words sounded void of strength as she looked at the bodies that had been struck down, and she wondered to herself if this was what the villagers would have looked like if the Spirits attacked.

She thought she would be angrier at the girl she had called Senpai, unsettled by how easily she had struck down all the Spirits... But she felt nothing.

Just seconds before, they had been trying to kill them... Right? There was... nothing wrong... Nothing unjust about fighting back.

But... Was what was right or wrong really what mattered then?

That desolate silence... The coppery smell that was even now making her sick... Even though no one on her side had been injured, and thanks to Tsurugi this couldn't be called anything but a flawless victory...

Why did it feel like she had lost something?

-Ah.

That's right.

Even though they were the enemy, even though this was war...

"This is... Too sad...!" Michelle's hands buried themselves on the grass, as tears dripped down her cheeks.

As one who served the Empire in the higher echelons, she was one of the few that knew the full details about the ways that the Republic of Nywell trained their Spirits nowadays. The reason she had joined the battlefield was not just to protect the innocent, but in her heart she had also wanted to use the power of Fulfillment to find a way to save the Spirits, to wake them up from the prison of their mind and have them stop this senseless war that only hurt everyone.

But... Could it be, that such a wish was impossible?

Tsurugi was strong. Michelle had learned that just now. She was an amazing swordsman that had in an instant defeated the enemy army, and Michelle knew that within the Empire she would have been named a hero and recieved praise from countless of her peers. If she had wanted to, she could have stopped every single Spirit without killing them... At least, Michelle thought she could have been able to do so.

-But she had not.

With that action, Michelle was made even more aware of her childishness. If even Senpai, who was so strong and was surely the embodiment of virtue herself, accepted that something so silly as saving everyone was impossible by striking down everyone with her blade, then...

-Just what she could do?

"-Mika-tan!" One of the soldiers who had wandered into the scene quickly rushed like a man possessed towards the girl, pulling her off the ground and embracing her when she saw that the girl had started breaking down. "It's alright, Mika! It's alright...!" At the cries of her name, more of the soldiers started to show up, watching sadly as the girl continued to cry.

-None of the soldiers had wanted to see this side of the girl, even though they knew such a thing could have come to pass. They had been determined to give their lives for her, if it meant that she could fulfill her ideal of saving both sides. They had voluntarily chosen to lay down their lives, called forth by Michelle's ideals and swayed by her dream of turning back the Spirits of Nywell into free people.

"I-I'm such a fool! I'm sorry, everyone...! I'm s-sorry, Senpai...!" Michelle cried, causing the soldiers to confort her while glaring at Tsurugi with all-too-familiar, cold glances.

-How many times had she been rejected by those stares? How many timelines had been shown to her by Horizon, where her very same nature and the actions she took caused everyone to depart from her, and just like the foolish sword she was, she ended up striking each of them down, or being struck down in turn?

Even after all the power she had acquired... Nothing about her had changed. Perhaps because of those same recollections...

...She couldn't find it in herself to meet their gazes.

Even now, this Sword was ruled by the lust for battle and the fierceness within her soul that couldn't be tamed, and with the power she wielded, even the most careless of slips could still cause such suffering in those she approached...

-Yes. In Michelle, Tsurugi had glimpsed her sister...

...And had it been her, she didn't doubt that she would have caused her the same terrible pain with her actions.

A strange urge welled up inside her. It was unbefitting of her, a sour bitterness that soaked into her spirit and caused her more damage than any of the Spirits could have been able with her power.

-Just as she had been about to act on that...

"...I found it. You're... The one that smells like death."

(BGM off)

...The already bad situation... Degenerated into an even worse state.

Horizon shouted in alert when it happened. The sky darkened, as the air in front of the group started to shift. A raging wind came, even as the sudden spike of Mana in the air caused clouds to gather overhead, lightning crackling over the sky.

-There was a thunderclap, and the raging tornado in front of the group exploded violently as the falling lightning scattered it to the four winds. The buildings around ground zero were cleaved in half by the blades of wind, yet the destruction touched not a single living being-

-Except Tsurugi, but she easily cut through the phenomenon heading towards her with her sword.

...Standing in the middle of that charred, thunderstruck ground... Was a single person.

-No. Rather than a person... It would be more fitting to call them a God.

"...A blade that gleams with the light of the rainbow... A sword that severs all in its path, wielded by a bloodthirsty demon that seeks nothing but to prove themselves as the strongest warrior... There is no doubt about it. Does the slaughter of weak mortals amuse you, Tsurugi the Arbiter?" The woman spoke calmly, as her glowing green eyes opened slowly to glare at the fellow Eternal.

Viela the Green Saint, of the Chaos Eternals. An idealistic soul that embraced immortality for the sake of protecting all life. She was one of the most zealous followers of the way of Chaos, and just as she held infinite love and patience for the lives of mortals... She burned with hatred for the Law Eternals, and those who had senselessly slaughtered her world of origin.

"I came to comfort the Ancestor, but what's this...?" The strange soldier from before said, gritting his teeth as his scarf raged dramatically with the wind and he shielded Michelle, standing in front of her body with one hand over his giant sword. "...Two beings from beyond Creation facing each other at this time of despair... Could it be... That the time of
End of Times
<<Ragnarök>>
has come?"

"...S-Senpai..." Michelle staggered to her feet, brushing away her followers and looking at Tsurugi with wide, fearful eyes. "This person... Be careful, she's really strong-!"

-Of course, even though Michelle could sense that, she wasn't aware of her opponent's strength like Tsurugi was.

"...Young one." Viela's expression softened as she looked at Michelle, after a brief moment where she seemed to have stared at her down to her soul. "This being is not one who you should admire. Whatever your impression of her, it is not what you think."

Without breaking sight, Viela lifted her arm and materialized her Eternity Sword, the Third Rank Gaea. Twirling the two-meter long spear effortlessly with one hand, she stabbed it into the ground as an incredibly potent green light surged from around her.

Like an explosive wave, it washed over all the Spirits which had been downed in the battlefield, and before everyone's eyes all their wounds became undone. At first the wounds resisted, infused by some kind of lingering power from Horizon- But as the near infinite light of healing hailing from Gaea washed over them, they slowly repaired themselves.

-And the restoration did not stop there. It touched upon their minds, filling the countless scars which had been done into the psyche of the Spirits, and cleansed them of each one by one. It was an absolute healing miracle, one that removed the blights that had been carved upon their soul and left only their pure, pristine selves to embrace the waking world.

Where there had been a sea of dead bodies, now instead only a crowd of girls slumbered.

"No... Way..." Michelle's jaw dropped as she watched the horrible sight she had almost accepted as the bitter truth be washed away in an instant, by the healing light of Gaea that even now worked to mend everyone's wounds.

-Already, she was feeling much better after what she had seen.

"W-wait!" Michelle cried out, however, when the coldness of Viela's words sank in. "Senpai never decieved me! I was the one who asked her to help! She willingly chose to protect the village! Senpai's not a demon! She... She's a hero! A hero of justice!"

Viela laughed, a musical sound that held an all-too-bitter edge.

"...Is that what you thought of her, really? And the way that she callously slaughtered so many living beings whose only crime was being born in the wrong place at the wrong time did not drive you to think otherwise?" When Michelle reeled back as if she'd been slapped, trying to sputter out a denial, Viela simply took a step forwards, towards the still silent Eternal.

"...She doesn't care about other lives." Viela spat, her green eyes narrowing as the ears on her head bristled. "She is no Law Eternal, that's true... But I don't need to see anything more to confirm that the rumors are true. Your 'Senpai' isn't a hero... She serves no cause, but that of strength. A sword that fights for the sake of fighting, seeking to prove itself as their strongest. Tsurugi the Arbiter, certainly, you are not the enemy that our faction seeks..."

The intensity of her aura reached a crescendo, and she finally fell into a stance, holding her spear out over her head with both hands. "...However, given your actions, I cannot consider you as anything but an enemy. Your senseless destruction and fighting is sure to put this very world at stake... So I cannot let you go any further. Still, for the sake of politeness, I shall ask once-"

Gaea glowed, ready to unleash the near-infinite Aura Photons held within its blade, exerting a presence that caused the forces of nature to rage around the Green Saint.

"Leave this world, suppress the demonic bloodlust in your heart, and stay your blade for the sake of this world... Lest your worthless cause drive everything to ruin."

"N-No..." Michelle stepped back, her eyes trembling as Viela's words hit her deeply. "Senpai wouldn't... She isn't like that...!"

...

-This was a difficult situation, but...

...The Green Saint didn't look like she would wait for her answer.

**Katie** · June 18th, 2016, 03:16 PM

Tsurugi the Arbiter
Location: Imperial Province of Rhomadial, near the frontier between the Republic of Nywell and the Empire, Village of Ilbastica
Time: Afternoon

“The only saint I deserve to be called is a sword saint.”

Those were quiet words from the Eternal who was meant to judge, because she did not need to speak loudly to be heard. The silence, the grating, disturbing, uncomfortable silence, hung in the air like fog rolling in from the mountains. In her swift, indiscriminate display of power, she had earned an enemy and the fear of others. Not that she particularly had a preference about what kind of attention she received.

But nevertheless, the crux of this situation was the familiar idolatry she had sought to dispose of when she had become Eternal, trading away her many existences to live without being judged, to be as herself. Viela’s presence and her demands—they held no meaning to her. Altruism was as pathetic as it was meaningless. To create a utopia where all can be saved required ignoring how the world was. To create something, something else had to be deformed. Metals did not ask to be melted to be forged. Trees did not ask to be cut down to provide housing. Deer did not ask to be slaughtered to provide food to the starving.

“Even so, you expect me to play as a god, toying with others as I see fit? What gives me the right to lobotomize their minds, to excise their suffering, and replace it with idealized memories? I cut and shift and circumscribe, but I shall not make choices for others and claim I know better. I do not, and certainly you would be inclined to also agree.”

Her words were almost dispassionate, but the cold fury behind them was there. Never in her life did Tsurugi claim she had known better. Even now, she was uncomfortable, because people expected her to lead by example, Michelle’s ideals betrayed by the actions she, Tsurugi, had just performed. Like her sister, but not quite.

After all, her sister was a blade as well. And much more selfish. Yuzuriha knew what it was to be a weapon, forged to strike down others. The difference in forgiveness and rationalization was a matter of seconds compared to Michelle’s mixed opinion, which was both a blessing and a curse. It’d be much easier if Michelle simply hated her, rather than blindly follow her forever.

“But we take offense to being called an indiscriminate killer. Tell us of any worlds we have razed. We have liberated men from tyrants, crushed foolhardy rebellions, established strict regimes, and supported nations of free people. We may have changed them, but all worlds change, one way or another. We do not run around and tear apart worlds and families because we think it’s merely amusing, lest we be as awful as the Law Eternals you so dearly despise. It is our goal to establish balance, a status quo, to quell chaos with law and to quell law with chaos. We aid but we do not dictate. Is it wrong to support a cause? Is it wrong to defend these soldiers who asked for our help?”

She is ready for the fight. She has devoted too many words to someone who will not listen, but she does not care. Whether she is right or she is wrong, she has her convictions, the steel that makes up the blade.

“Am I supposed to offer some sort of mockery of salvation? That they be thrust into new lives and to forget about the things they have done to others? To absolve them of sin without them ever taking the responsibility shackled on to them? If someone is suffering, yet about to kill those whom you pledged to protect, are you implying it is natural to save them? A lioness does not ally with a hyena when it tries to attack her cubs. The hyena may be starving due to circumstances out of its control, but you cannot fault the lioness for killing. Is it wrong for a soldier to kill to defend his country? Should he try to convince the enemy soldier on the other side that they are wrong? And at worst, force them to believe it is wrong?”

“I may not be a heroine. We may not be a sword of justice. But I will not let you simply imply my desire to protect this girl and her troops was anything less than genuine. I may have gone to extremes, but if all I desired was bloodlust and chaos, we would be at blows, and I would have dragged out that battle and let as many people suffer as possible. You can be angry at me for my choice to end the battle in the way I did, but I will not stand for you to slander me and my blade and imply we are of hopeless causes.”

Finally, she raises her blade into a battle stance, bracing for the blow that would soon come.

“What gives you the right to pass judgment on others? Aren’t you being just as tyrannical upon us as the Laws who decree all should be rent into nothingness?”

**Erlkonig** · June 18th, 2016, 05:14 PM

Tsurugi the Arbiter
Location: Imperial Province of Rhomadial, near the frontier between the Republic of Nywell and the Empire, Village of Ilbastica
Time: Afternoon

"-! You...!" Viela bristled at the insult. "You have no right to reproach my actions over souls you reaped away so casually!" She was mad at the slight, but despite her angry expression did not start the fight just then.

-A tense silence spread over the two Eternals, Viela twitching as the words from Tsurugi soaked in. For a moment, she thought that her words might have swayed her... But the moment that her face hardened, Tsurugi's heart steeled itself for combat and she braced herself for the attack-

"STOP!" Michelle cried out, standing in front of Tsurugi and spreading out her arms.

"-Kh! What are you doing!?" The Chaos Eternal cried. "If you do not wish to die, then step aside! That woman is a threat to this universe! Eternals cannot be allowed to run wild on their own!"

"You don't get to decide that!" Michelle retorted, crying in the defense of the sword-wielding Eternal. "I don't know what an Eternal is, but Senpai hasn't done anything wrong! If anything, it's me who's being selfish!" There was no doubt that she feared the enemy before her, but even though she knew that the enemy before her could obliterate her in a second, Michelle didn't falter.

"...I can't save everyone. From the moment I consigned myself to be a soldier, I knew that something such as being an idol that brought hope to the world was impossible, in a war that caused everyone to suffer one way or another. Even so... When I saw someone as strong as Senpai, I... I thought that with her help, even someone weak like me would be able to do that!"

"..." Viela remained frozen in her stance, but the steel in her eyes was gradually receding. "Power isn't everything, Michelle... For beings like us, it's dangerous enough to shatter this planet like a twig. For her to use it so irresponsibly-"

"You're right. Senpai is incredibly strong, and maybe that makes her dangerous." Michelle admitted it, but her stance remained firm. "But that's not her fault. And I was the one who asked her to fight. I never told her not to kill, or my goal to save the Spirits. It's not natural in the first place, is it? Even for a hero of justice, you wouldn't act like a messiah just because right?"

"She's not a saint!" Viela yelled. "What if the enemy wasn't a hundred Spirits, but a thousand men! Or even a million!? Don't you know, she'd have just carelessly slaughtered them all the same! Don't you see, that monstrous power beyond what any human could wield, the more of it that exists in this world threatens to tear it out of balance!"

"And you aren't one of those too...?" Michelle said, causing the Green Saint to flinch. "Besides, I don't think Senpai is a danger to this world. Do you even know how we met? She was just sleeping in a haystack, dead to the world like some kind of couch potato!" She laughed at that, crying a few humorous tears despite the ongoing tension.

"Anyways... If taking up a blade knowing that you might kill someone is a sin that deserves such punishment... Then you should kill me too." Michelle said, firmly meeting Viela's stare. "I may not have wanted to kill the Spirits, but the reason I fight is to protect everyone I can, and give them hope. If that meant taking lives for the sake of the villagers, for the women and children that were just as innocent but had no means of surviving other than depending on me... I would've destroyed them as well."

Tsurugi wasn't sure about that. The girl was no sword, she doubted that she could ever harden her heart to slay her opponents without feeling for them. The life of a soldier didn't suit her.

But...

"...Perhaps I was too quick to judge." Slowly, Viela let down her guard and took her spear back, holding it by her side as the intense weather started to clear up suddenly. "Tsurugi the Arbiter. I do not trust you, and I believe that your continued existence in this plane will cause only pain. However... Knowing that I might end up causing the same, I cannot yet fault you for an action you haven't committed. Whether or not you had participated in this fight, death would have happened nonetheless."

She then nodded at Michelle. "However, that girl's pure words have swayed me. She would not go to these lengths if your intentions to protect them had not been genuine. Haaaa..." She sighed, her ears drooping as she voiced her decision out. "Every time, I always go too far because of my past..."

"Th-then, you're not going to fight Senpai?" Michelle said, perking up.

"...Perhaps not at this juncture." Viela's eyes narrowed. "Given her stance on this matter, I do not doubt that she will sooner or later become the enemy of the Law Eternals..." Her body shuddered as she uttered that word, but she continued. "When that happens... Michelle, you should use this to call us."

Michelle blinked as the space around her warped, and a glowing, chipped piece of metal appeared in her hands. "This is..." Her eyes widened.

"It is a fragment of Gaea. A good person like you doesn't deserve to be slain by the monsters that will soon descend upon this world." Viela spoke softly, yet with a sad tone, carrying a faint hint of dread.

"-Farewell, Tsurugi the Arbiter. I shall tell my comrades of your stance so they do not bother you... Until then." Viela turned away from the swordswoman, lifting her spear to mass magic power again-

--At that moment.

"-So you're not going to fight, then? That's a shame."

It happened suddenly. Space shuddered as countless blasts of light emerged from over the horizon, shaped like raging snakes as they dived towards Viela's direciton in the dozens- No, the hundreds. Viela started, turning her head towards the attack as she shifted Gaea defensively and deployed a barrier at relativistic speeds, while Michelle's eyes ever-so-slightly widened as the Divine Magic closed in on the ground-

-And then, everything was destroyed by that light. Each of the light snakes held enough power to level a city- No, its power was not something that could be measured in something as simple as numbers. The artillery-like barrage of magic blasts struck at the planet like a hammer striking an anvil, the explosions of light so powerful that they soon hit far more than their target, reducing the battlefield, the recently resurrected spirits, and everything else that their light could reach into nothing but ashes.

A few even strayed from their target, going for the hills near the area and reducing them to smoking, gouging craters on the surface of the planet.

"Wh-what just happened-!?" Michelle, who had just gotten her senses back after Fulfillment had shielded from the sheer noise and light of the spell, opened her eyes- And could not hold back the horrified, yet amazed gasp that escaped her lips.

-Of the grassy fields before the village, there was nothing left. A vast wasteland stretched onwards, all the life in the countryside having been disintegrated and vaporized into mana, deep valley-like craters were there once had been trees.

In the middle of that destruction, standing in front of one of the few patches of life that were left still around the village that hadn't been completely destroyed...

-There was Tsurugi, holding out her glowing sword that gleamed with the power of recently used Aura Photons.

"Sen...pai..." Michelle started, before she broke out a wide smile with an expression that wept with joy. "You... saved us again...!"

"Hmph... You're pretty good..." The weird soldier said, brushing some dirt from his scarf with one gloved hand.

"SHOW YOURSELVES, YOU BASTARDS!" Viela cried out, in a tone completely unlike her earlier refined manners. Her eyes blazed with anger, and the amount of magical energy gathered around her was truly staggering compared to before.

"-Daaaamn!" As the rift in space shuddered and gradually revealed the figures that had laid in wait, one of the two that appeared quickly complained with a high-pitched voice. "Our ambush failed! Even though that was a really good spell..." The young, girl-ish boy with the white hair stomped the ground with one foot, pouting in mock anger even as his eyes burned with a very real maliciousness.

"-A foolish notion. If dirty tricks worked on them so well, there wouldn't be any Chaos Eternals to speak of." The second Law Eternal said, a dissatisfied expression on his face as he stared at the two women.

"Therion the Conqueror, and one of the Avatars of Duality...!? It can't be- This isn't just the work of Temuorin, but Myugi's direct followers are also involved!?" Viela paled when she saw the latter Eternal, and with good reason.

Therion the Conqueror was one of Temuorin's many allies and pawns, and a being whose presence they had expected. Beridealtz and Garvalz, however, were avatars of a 2nd Rank Sword and thus answered directly to Tokuo and Myugi, the chief leaders of the Law Eternals. If what Tokimi had said was right, then the Law Eternals were also fielding a new 'weapon' that the owner of Wisdom had encountered and had failed to subdue, causing an entire world to be destroyed.

If that was true, then this wasn't just a move by Temuorin, but one that involved all of the Law Eternals. With the presence of a 1st Rank Sword added into the mix...

"-Not good..." Viela said, gritting her teeth. "This isn't good-!"

"So! Tsurugi the Arbiter, you will side with the foolish dogs of Chaos after all?" Therion the Conqueror boomed, withdrawing the massive 'Triumph' from his back and holding it out as it pulsed with a sickening number of Aura Photons. "What a pathetic sight you are. You claim to be above Altruism, but your heart remains stained with weakness. The status quo which you seek is nonsense- The only status quo that is true is the one where all that exists are the Eternity Swords! These worlds full of weakness, they are an ugly sight that must be removed by the strong like one excises an illness from the body!"

"I don't really care about that," Garvalz, one of the avatars of the 2nd Rank Sword Duality stated even as he leaned back, grinning at the two enemy Eternals. "But watching humans squirm like ants is pretty funny, and the more I play around, the better the chance I'll have of finding a good wielder!" Laughing impishly, the boy turned towards the other Law Eternal. "Hey, Therion. Who are you taking?"

"-My opponent does not matter. As long as I have the power of 'Triumph', my defeat is an impossibility! Strike as one, strike as both, my blade and my 'Legion' shall crush everything in its path!" Therion arrogantly boasted, throwing his arm out in a challenge towards the two Eternals.

"...I am sorry, Tsurugi the Arbiter." Viela stated, with grit teeth. "My foolish actions appeared to have drawn the attention of some unpleasant beings. As an apology for my actions, please feel free to abandon this battlefield and escort Michelle to safety. I shall hold them back for your sake."

"Are you insane!?" Michelle shouted, pointing desperately at the two Eternals. "Those guys are crazy strong! They just wandered in and exploded everything like POW! You're gonna fight them both at once, that's suicide!" When she said that, Michelle puffed her chest out and stepped forwards. "We'll fight too!"

-What?

"Don't be an idiot!" Viela yelled. "You're the last person that has a chance against these people...!"

"Hmhmhmhm... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Wonderful, Royal Ancestor!" A sudden loud voice interrupted the combatants, and they all watched as the wierd soldier laughed openly, arms held out towards the air. "Such resolve, such will! Yes, that is truly the Idol I have chosen to follow into eternity! That glorious brilliance as you resolve yourself to fight against the very Gods, to struggle endlessly even when faced the futility of your quest! Ahh, what a grand display!"

"-Well then... If that is your wish..." The really uncomfortable soldier whispered, wrapping an arm around Michelle's shoulder and grabbing at the eyepatch on his head. "-Shall I lend you my power this time?"

-Michelle crossed her eyes. "Um... Who are you again...?"

"Garvalz..." Therion's eyes narrowed, the two Eternals forgotten as he looked at the terribly dressed soldier draped around Michelle. "Within that man... I sense a deep darkness raging... -! Could this be, this burning in my right arm-!?"

"Not this shit again..." Garvalz muttered, burying his face in both hands.

**Janx** · June 18th, 2016, 09:21 PM

Naziba the Million-Life Soul
Location: En-route to the City of Rhomadyne, Battle of Trisunica Plains
Time: Afternoon

As pain lanced through her body and soul, Naziba cursed herself for her carelessness. She could blame it on Abizan’s primal restlessness, but in the end, it was her who had charged the wretched girl. It was she who had walk into this trap.

Eternals are not conventional opponents. They were not so simply defeated by a surprise attack or overwhelming force. They were entities that shaped the fate of entire worlds, gifted with immense conceptual power.

An opponent like Marina, lacking in physical strength, was especially reliant on such powers.

And Naziba had just given her…or rather her Eternity Sword, exactly what it wanted.

Naziba didn’t have much time to think. The torrent of nightmares was rushing towards her, eager to devour her body and soul. Abizan was locked in a similar predicament. While physically superior to the shapeless monster, the thing was feeding off his contact.

Somewhere between Tokimi and Marina’s words, a solution took shape. Violence was not the answer. Though negotiation was unlikely to get through to the girl.

So in spite of the hungering tsunami of darkness that surged towards her, Naziba charged.

Before her materialized a gallant knight from a distant world, charging ahead of Naziba to take the brunt of the attack. Agony shot through her body and mind as the dark talons sunk into her flesh. Even with a million lifetimes of pain it was still a struggle to stay focused on what she was going to do. What she had to do.

The knight didn’t last long, though the distance between the two Eternals was not great. Biting back the pain, Naziba leaped forward….

…and used [Hug].

Marina was fueled by pain, hunger, and loneliness. She was fueled by Torment. Attacking her would only give her more power. All the strength and prowess in the universe would be in vein. To defeat Torment, Naziba had to show comfort, compassion, kindness. She had to combat Marina’s Eternity Sword with the antithesis of its existence.

Naziba wasn’t going to defeat Marina. She was going to save her.

“I’m sorry….I’ll stop.”

Naziba the Million Life Soul

**Erlkonig** · June 22nd, 2016, 04:58 PM

Serious Maxim
Location: Nuria's Mindscape, Sea of Gluttony
Time: Eternal

There was no time for Nuria to react or act against your words. The moment you had decided to enter into the depths of her mind, it was as if time itself had stopped. Her awe-struck, slightly fearful expression was completely frozen as your surroundings greyed out, courtesy of all light halting its movement and reality taking shape only by the will of your Eternity Sword.

Without hesitation, your hand lowered itself upon her forehead-

-And overwhelming her body with your mana, you took your own body and materialized within her mind.

...There was a faint sense of disorientation, as you dived between the boundary that was reality and the metaphysical consciousness where the soul resided. While normally it would be difficult even for an Eternal to intrude so brazenly on one's mind, the nigh-omnipresence of your Sword made it trivial for you to deduce that you were, in fact, heading to the right place.

You came to your senses on a large, cold beach. Behind you was an endless sea of red, its contents ever so slowly splashing against the coastline, its viscuousness completely unlike that of water. All over that sea were what looked like black, darkened lumps, floating over the waves and swaying every so often as the liquid rippled.

You watched with distaste as strange creatures, fleshy white masses that looked like octopi stuck to the black lumps, their terrifyingly large beaks biting at the indistiguishable bodies and tearing into them with their sharp, jagged edges.

With nowhere else to go, you walked past the beach and into the forest that lied ahead. It was a landscape completely devoid of life- Dried and withered trees that were little more than trunks with branches, tightly gathered in a mass that once might have been lush with life. It was unsettling, that this blighted space was supposed to reflect the madness that resided within the Sin Spirit's own soul.

-With Space still hyperventilating at the blast of energy you had felt instants before diving into Nuria's mind, Time was free to ignore his partner's ramblings and comment on the twisted land, calmly stating that such a warped scenery was likely being caused not by the girl herself, but by the Eternity Sword that was encroaching upon her existence.

-Despite the great complexity and beauty that any sapient's mind possessed, a mortal's will was frail and easily broken or twisted by the might of an Eternity Sword. With one of such high rank that was also a fragment of a god-like existence, it was a small wonder that there was anything left of the girl's self at all once Gula began to drive her against her sisters.

At some point, after walking for what felt like miles, you noticed it- Creeping along the surface of the earth were what looked like fleshy white veins, digging into the tree husks and draining what looked like a bright, golden sap, judging by the bulging light that swelled inside them and flowed inwards, towards the source of the eldritch appendages.

Knowing that you were close to your goal, you advanced calmly and headed closer and closer to the depths of Nuria's mind. Overhead, the fiery orange that had dyed the sky gradually grew darker and darker, until you were walking under a pitch black heaven whose only light came from the bloody red hue of what looked like a large, distant moon in the sky.

-Bathed under this cursed light that appeared to drain life itself, the trees decreased in number just as the veins grew more prevalent, and after a few moments you no longer walked on the dry earth of a wasteland, but amidst a fleshy sea of tendrils that were so encroached on one another that they made their own surface.

-With nothing to block your sight any longer... You saw it.

In the distance, the large shadow that loomed ahead... The center of Nuria's mind, where her own self likely resided... Together with the Eternity Sword and the source of her madness.

When you approached that mass, running towards it until it loomed above you and there was nowhere else to go...

(BGM off)

"...So you're here." A familiar voice said, yet lacking the playfulness and false joy that had always accompanied it.

-Unlike the rest of the world, this was the once place in Nuria's mind that still displayed any signs of being alive. The white veins that made up the surface pulsed together with glowing bursts of light, the ground itself moving at the rhythm of a beating heart. At the center of the mindscape, they converged into a massive trunk that stretched high into the sky, hanging just below the red moon no matter from where you looked at it.

From that strange tree, countless tendril-like branches stretched, blooming with a sea of golden leaves that shone brilliantly. Unlike the rest of the wasteland, the eldritch creature possessed an eerie, captivating beauty that spoke of its vibrant health and power. Of course...

-Having absorbed all the other lifeforms in the world, it was only natural that it would be so beautiful.

"...See?" Nuria smiled, her appearance normal compared to the form she had taken in the waking world. "This is what Gula really looks like. She's eaten a lot, like the good girl she is... Isn't she beautiful?" Her eyes narrowed warmly, as she smiled up at the gigantic tree that was bound to her by a single large vein that connected with her neck.

-Suddenly, you noticed something strange- Something that didn't belong in the cursed landscape. A few ways off from Nuria, hanging by a mass of tendrils that pierced into her skin through various places... There was the figure of a girl.

Her face was pale and void of life, but her head hung down and her expression looked peaceful, as if sleeping. Every so often, the tendrils around her would pulse, glowing with a green light that was unlike the rest of the essence that flowed from Gula.

"-Sister Enna is pretty, isn't she?" Nuria said quietly, standing a fair distance away from you. You watched as she approached the girl and caressed her face, with a wide smile that didn't reach her eyes. "She was so strong, so beautiful... Even though she thought we were all better than her and constantly competed against us... I thought she was the greatest."

At that moment... A tear fell from her face, so small once could have almost confused it for a trick of the light.

"When I thought I had lost her, I was so sad..." Her hand trembled, as she grasped the girl's clasped hands and squeezed tightly. "So hungry... I was always so hungry, and when I lost control I almost devoured her..." This time more tears fell from her face, when the girl tormented herself with the image of what her sister's fate might have been.

...No, rather, wasn't what she was saying wrong?

-From what Lusifa had told you, Enna hadn't been 'almost' devoured. She-

"But see..." She turned back to him with a wide smile. "...In the end, my sister didn't leave me! Even though I ate her, even though I feasted on her delicious body... She's still inside me. Enna..." She smiled lovingly at the frozen body trapped by the tendrils. "Together, we will be together forever... The two of us, and the other sisters as well."

-Ah.

So that was it.

Like you, Time realized- Faced with the fact that she had gone berserk because of Gula's hunger, which had been triggered by her parent Sword's awakening, and caused the death of her sister in turn... That girl, she had-

"I'll become a beautiful spirit, together with Gula..." Nuria said, in a sweet yet desperate voice. "Stronger than anyone else, even Lusifa... I'll become strong enough that I'll never be hungry again. And then..."

She turned towards you, with a tear-stained face and narrowed eyes full of emotion, even as she smiled bitterly.

"...Then I will make everyone happy again! All of us will be together again-!"-That's right.

Faced with the guilt of her sister's death... Nuria had desperately fooled herself into believing that the mind of her sister still existed, and that once she acquired the power to ascend, there would be no more pain.

Of course, that was only an illusion. Time could easily tell... The only thing that Gula had preserved, was the 'essence' of the Sword that Enna had wielded. A lump of power given flesh... That was all it was.

"Hey... Do you want to be with us as well? Together with Enna and Lusifa, all of us together as one-!" Nuria rambled, eyes wide even as her mind fervently rejected the pain of that day.

As she spoke, the mass of tendrils around you shifted. With a flash, they all shot out, aimed at your vitals-!

(BGM off)

...Hm.

What, so that was the problem? The girl's state of mind was sad, you supposed...

-But.

In the end...

Something like that... It wouldn't be that hard to solve, now would it?

-The moment that the tendrils shot towards you, they crumbled into dust.

...No, that wasn't it.

It was just that because they had to travel through an infinite amount of distance to hit you, they had traveled for an eternity before time itself caused them to decay and be destroyed.

"This power... You... What are you...!?" Nuria stepped back, as the incredible torrent of mana emerged from your spiritual body, suffusing the entire world around you. The pitch black sky was dyed with the distant light of galaxies and infinite celestial bodies, as the universe itself warped to resemble your own soul.

You stepped forwards, even as everywhere from around you a sea of tendrils from Gula hurled themselves at your body, endless in both number and mass. However, just like the rest, the Time Armor that surrounded your body reduced them to dust, as their physical forms were either subjected to the endless decay of time, or their time itself was simply nulled.

As you calmly walked towards Nuria, Time busied himself peering into the world's Log Domain, browsing the universal records and registering the exact time when the incident between her and Enna had broken out. As he started isolating the point of divergence, he expressed worry that the 1st Rank Sword's presence might interfere with his abilities... But apparently, there were no problems modifying just this much.

"No... Are you trying to hurt us? -I won't let you! Gula and Enna... I'll protect them-!" Manifesting a fragment of the sword, Nuria hurled herself at you-

-Only for you to wave your hand, and lock her in place with a cage of frozen space.

Clearly, with nobody to stop her back then, Nuria had gone mad with grief and developed into the monster you had witnessed Lusifa fight against. Unable to deal with the cruely of the present, she had turned her eyes away from it and thought that one day she might have been able to fix the past... But deep down, she had known that was something impossible, completely beyond her reach.

-Except... That it wasn't impossible. Though eternity itself was unbending and existed above time itself, it was an omnipresent existence. One who walked free of time was unconcerned by the limits of the flesh, and with the right power...

...Even something as silly as 'fate'... Could be rewritten.

It opened before you, as Time concentrated his power. A gate through the causality continuum itself, a rift in existence that would take you to your desired destination across all eternity.

You smiled, reaching out to that gap...

(BGM off)

-There was a burst of static, and for a moment both you and your Sword cried out as your knees wavered. Catching yourself to avoid stumbling, you looked up-

...The gate was gone. Somehow, a force other than your own had interrupted your attempt to access the Log Domain, but how...!?

At that moment, Time yelled out a warning and signaled you just as you felt another spike of magical energy. You turned your eyes from the still frozen Nuria, glaring as you looked upwards-

...Beyond the girl, who was still frozen with an expression of anger.

Beyond the tendrils, that had all frozen and crumbled into dust around you.

Beyond the massive tree that was Gula, the Sword that although hungered for all in existence, was no match for yours...

You looked beyond all of these, for your adversary was not rooted upon the earth itself...

-Instead, you looked at the height of the universe, at the red moon with the black flames that surrounded it... And the massive, bloody eye that glared down upon you from eternity itself.

Chasing the Forbidden One, I walk the Path of Eternity
Is it the Temptation of Law, or the Joy of Chaos which I desire?
As the Seven Stars gather, this Question will remain

At the end of time...

...Only Anathema knows thy answer.

At the End of Eternity

Mission Info:
-Save Nuria!

Victory Conditions:
-??? Defeated

Defeat Conditions:
-Maxim Aeternum Defeated

Before you, the landscape of Nuria's mind faded away. Like breaking glass, existence itself shattered around the descending red moon, as its flames enveloped both the Spirit of Gluttony, her Eternity Sword, and the Essence of Jealousy. They consumed them, tongues of black fire retreating with nothing left in their wake, and retreated back into the glaring eye that continued to fall.

-When the flames were fully absorbed, the eye's movements suddenly halted. In a disgusting sight, the celestial body itself trembled, and with the sound of torn flesh, a bloody gap suddenly cleaved the giant eye in half.

From that wound that dripped an ocean of blood that tainted the cosmos, a terrible entity was given birth.

Her naked, blood-stained body resembled that of the monstrous Nuria from the waking world... But if anything, this was even more monstrous. From her back, what looked like glowing red tentacles with membranes were spread out, giving the impression of six crimson wings that pulsed with unholy energy. A similar mass of flesh writhed around her right arm, which was clad in black flames and due to the tendrils appeared gargantuan in proportion to the rest of her limbs.

The three eyes that had been closed on her face slowly opened, and in but an instant they centered themselves upon you, glaring golden pools on a black background.

It was an existence that defied nature, something that should not exist in this world yet did so anyways and flew in the face of logic.

Even though it was still incomplete, and that made it look like a hideous creature not even close to perfection... Such a thing wouldn't change its nature. Yes... Such an existence, was known by only one name. That was...

-The Root of all Evil, Anathema.

Because it was an existence that had been put down by the will of

Arcadia

God

, it yearned for nothing more than to defy that omnipotent being's law and be reincarnated into the universe. It cared not for the lives of the people, or the balance of things. For the sake of its birth, it would stop at nothing...

-And if that meant stopping a single upstart Eternal from protecting a girl's happiness... Then that was a price all too easy to pay.

Staring down at you with no emotions, the Eternal being that had taken Nuria's shape to oppose you held out her arm...

Begone

"किएरु"

...And the universe shuddered as a terrible mass of mana gathered in the heavens, the entire sea of stars turning red as the moon above 'Nuria' turned into a blazing red sun-

-Firing a beam of infinite energy straight towards you, the breadth of it large enough to swallow a planet whole. It crossed the cosmic distance between the two of you in an instant, growing in your vision until it had covered all your sight of the sky. No mortal might could stop it, no creation that man could envision could possibly stop that force of destruction which encroached upon you-!

...And so, it fell. A morningstar dawning on the earth...

-It devoured everything in its path.

False Overlord Nuria, the Hungering One

**Zagrin** · June 23rd, 2016, 04:22 PM

Maxim the Wizard and Maxim the Warrior
Location: Nuria's landscape, Sea of Gluttony
Time: Eternal

"Tsk."

Maxim had expected that he would encounter some form of resistance in Nuria's mind, but nothing that could actually hurt him. After all even if she was one of, if not the, most powerful beings native to Zinesta such power would still pale in comparison to that of an Eternal. Then again perhaps it was wrong to call the being that he now faced Nuria. Though it had her appearance, albeit twisted and malformed, there was still something off about it, something...alien. Was this the will of Nuria's sword or perhaps something far more malignant?

Well not like it mattered whatever it was for it was about to experience the greatest beat down in its existence! That is if the giver of said beat down survived the volatile energies of an exploding star headed his way!

The manly thing to do in this situation would be no take the blast head on and walking out of the smoking crater while quipping at the opponent with a cool one-liner. Unfortunately Maxim was not that kind of man. Not that he didn't want to do it! He just lacked the constitution for it and no doubt if he tried something like that he was liable to be defeated in one blow. No, instead he would need to deal with it in a far more refined manner, preferably in the same way he dealt with the storm of tendrils that had assailed him moments before. Alas though such a power worked on mere mortals, it was unlikely that he himself would be able to achieve the same results on something akin to an Eternals. Still even if he couldn't, there was someone else that could!

"Alright, it's Show Time!"

In answer to his call the space in front of Maxim began to shimmer and a figure, a couple feet larger than Maxim, materialized into being.

"Why are we still here?"

The metallic being glumly asked that question, completely ignoring the dire situation that the two were in or, more likely, completely unaware of it as he had been concerned with far more pressing matters then that of a girl who was pretending to be an eternal. Yes, this mechanical monstrosity was the supreme being known as Space, one of the two wills contained within Maxim's Eternity Sword, and now it was finally time for him to make his grand entrance in this world!

"Alley-oop."

However any thought of such a display evaporated as soon as Maxim jumped on the machine's back, pulling himself up using one of the mecha's sturdy shoulders. The image, suffice to say, was quite a silly was and could be compared to that of a child being given a piggyback ride.

"What are you doing!? Get off of my back, fool!"

The robot began to angrily fidget left and right, trying to shake the unwelcome passenger. Luckily for Maxim however Space's efforts were in vain and he continued to cling onto his back. Time could only laugh as this all played out, no doubt entertained by the spectacle the two were putting on.

"Hey, hey! Stop that! I'll get off as soon as you've dealt with that!"

In order to drive the point home Maxim pointed forward, past Space's head towards the mass of energy racing straight at them. Even Space would have to realize after taking a glimpse at that power that not even his robotic shell would be unable to withstand the damage that such an attack would inflict on him. However...

[BGM On]

"Hmph, is that all?"

Though he had no face to speak of to allow for an expression, it was clear from simply his tone of voice that Space wasn't bothered at all by the ridiculous force headed toward the duo, rather it seemed as though he was amused by it.

"Mana, I command you! Make our enemies know the futility of their actions! Show them the despair that is the infinite and bless our blows with that which is instant!"

Portions of Space's body began to shine a brilliant gold as he recited the chant and aura photons of the same hue radiated from him, saturating the immediate area in their glow.

"Mirage Horizon!"

As the supernova was about to strike the duo the distance between them and the being wearing Nuria's skin began to grow. It was as if someone was forcing in more 'space' into the the area between the two of them resulting in a phenomenon where both Space and 'Nuria' had to be pushed further apart in order to make room for it. The power of the star lessened bit by bit as the two grew further and further apart until, finally, it went out in an inglorious sputter.

Though it was true that the power held within the cursed star's supernova was overwhelming, with it no doubt capable of travelling for millennia if not eons, it would always pale in comparison to that which was infinite. Indeed, for the One whom lorded over space itself dealing with anything less than that was mere child's play, capable of being handled with nothing more than the flick of his wrist.

"Hooray! Good job, Space!"

"Yes, very well done."

"Shut up, the both of you. Still I find it strange, contractor, you should have been able to deal with such an attack easily enough by yourself, so why did you need me?"

Maxim jumped off Space's back and dusted himself off before giving his robotic companion a knowing look.

"Oh, well you see I needed you to handle that so I could call him in."

"Him?"

"Heyoo!"

With that resounding greeting, Space finally noticed that even though Maxim had gotten off him he still felt weighed down by something or, more specifically, someone. Space slowly turned his head towards the sound, hoping beyond hope that he had not heard that voice coming from his other side. However such hopes were for naught as there he saw the face of Maxim.

"Why are there two of you!?"

"Hm? Don't you remember? When he made that magic back on that one world with the..."

"Do not remind me!"

"Don't worry, Space. More me's are never a bad thing. Don't you think so, me?"

"Undoubtedly!"

"Now then Number Two, you strike low, I'll strike high!"

"Roger!"

Satisfied with their plan of attack Maxim, the real one, separated himself from the two and took a few steps towards the makeshift eternal. This was done more to give him a bit of room rather then to cut any sort of distance between himself and 'Nuria.' As he walked forward he cracked his neck before beginning to swing his right arm around in a circular motion.

"It's been a while since I've done this. I hope I remember before my arm gets tired, that would be pretty embarrassing..."

He closed his eyes momentarily and rubbed his chin in thought before opening them once again and glaring at the being that dared to take the smile of a cute girl away. The same flames of rage now burned within them as they had when he had confronted the monstrous Nuria, just this time the difference was that he wasn't joking. Indeed, the heinous crime that the creature had committed was unforgivable in Maxim's eyes and for that he would show no mercy.

Aura photons began to gather around Maxim's arm as he remembered bit by bit the lines he was supposed to recite for the Divine Magic that he had in mind.

"I am the one who governs both Space and Time! The fleeting Fool who journeys ever onward! Mana, do what I say! Tear open the sky and rain down the fury of the cosmos!"

Maxim's swinging arm suddenly stopped, raised to the sky with a finger pointing at the spot directly above 'Nuria.' An intricate set of magic circles appeared in mid-air in front of Maxim's finger, each one larger than the last the further away from Maxim they were situated.

"Burning Heavens!"

Reality itself shuddered as the space above 'Nuria' was torn asunder and from that wormhole came a slew of cosmic objects! Meteors, asteroids, comets and more came hurtling down to crush whatever was in their path into oblivion. Though the power of each individual piece of cosmic debris was a far cry from 'Nuria's' own attack, a continuous barrage of them would be enough to dish out a comparable amount of hurt to the monstrous being. And even if that wasn't enough there was still...

"Maxim Uppercut!"

Though he had shouted the name of a technique clearly meant to be used in close combat the other Maxim had not moved an inch from where he and Space stood. Clearly it seemed as though this new Maxim had even less marbles than the old one, but then why was it...that it seemed as though space itself was being destroyed in order to carry the power of the punch towards its intended target!?

[Warp Banishing activated! Full Mind stat added to Strength stat!]

Maxim was not a physically strong guy, however where he lacked in brawn he more than made up for it in magical power. It is thanks to this magical power that even his weak punches can carry some weight to them in a battle of Eternals, but even more importantly it is also thanks to his incredible magical power that his aura photons are so powerful that not even distance can hinder him from reaching his target. Thus no matter how absurd the amount of space that is between Maxim and his opponent he is always able to strike at them.

Actually it's kind of funny when you think about it, that a simple punch was actually capable of reaching farther than the death throes of a cursed star.

Maxim Aeternum

Space

Maxim No. 2

**Erlkonig** · June 25th, 2016, 11:08 AM

Kaiser the Endless Battle
Location: Outskirts of the Province of Rhomadial, Battle of Trisunica PlainsTime: Afternoon
Mission: Repel the Law Eternals from Trisunica!

-Within the artificial subspace created by an Eternal, a terrible battle neared its end.

"Guh- Hahahahahahahahahaha! A... splendid blow...!" Takios praised the strength of his opponent, having been strongly damaged by the attack of both Eternal and Guardian Spirit at once. His heart beat with joy, as a force strong enough to flatten planets like pancakes hammered down on his body, struggling to reduce him to the size of an atom.

-There was nothing like this.

The battles between Eternals were the greatest entertainment Takios had ever experienced. The warriors he had fought in his world, the enemies he had triumphed against, none of them could compare to the might of his current opponents. The knowledge that such strong people existed, that he would always be pitted against powerful opponents, filled him with indescribable happiness.

-Yes.

He didn't care about mana, or about the wounds that Kaiser's attacks had inflicted on him. Even though he could heal them, he would do no such thing. Not against this opponent- One who yearned for nothing more than to test his strength on the field of battle, a kindred soul that at that moment existed only to compare the burning of his fighting spirit against his own.

Against such an opponent, he wouldn't take a step back for even a moment. No matter the situation, he would leap forwards and strike forward with all of his power!

"Then, Kaiser the Endless Battle! Are you prepared to withstand my own blow!? Let me pay homage to your title, and have you witness a technique with infinite power! UOOOOOOOOOH!"

Takios raised his sword with both hands, and an enormous amount of aura photons gathered around him. Sensing danger, you and Garos pulled back in an instant, moving away by an incalculable distance. Yet...

-No matter where you escaped to, the feeling of dread remained.

"-Behold, an endless power that devours all space with one blow! In this battle, no other words need to be said! Let this blade be testament to its power, and may your body witness this strength with its own existence! Dimension Slayer!"

Altruism fell against the ground, and the universe shattered.

A sea of shockwaves spread instantly from Takios' body, shattering the subspace and breaking it down as the entire universe was swallowed whole by the incredible attack. The broken space turned into a sea of stalagmites, that rose to impale anything that withstood the impact of the shockwave. That impact spread across astronomical distance, and before a human could even blink-

-Was already upon you, warping the universe and threatening to crush you alongside it. You grit your teeth, and...!

...

"...Hmph. As expected... Even such a thing hasn't fazed you, Kaiser the Endless Battle..." Takios muttered, as the subspace finally broke down around them and revealed the outside world of Zinesta, returning the Eternals' powers to that of the ambient mana.

...You slowly rose to your feet, glaring silently at the man even as your body burned with the incredible power that he had displayed. It was an attack that destroyed an entire universe and had enough strength to crush an entire galaxy... Even someone such as you couldn't escape unscathed.

You dismissed Garos, who lied bleeding on the ground and exhausted from battle even though the attack had only partially broken through his defense when he had turned immaterial. Watching it fade into particles of mana and vanish into Kaiser's sword, Takios smiled.

"Altruism. That is enough, I dismiss your warden." Respecting the strength of his opponent, Takios allowed the Shade of the Saint to vanish as well. Even if he used it, Kaiser would have withstood it long enough to bring his Spirit out again... But that wasn't a problem.

-After all...

"Let us end this, Kaiser. Beings like ourselves, our powers are too even, too matched with one another for us to play around for long. This battle can only end with one us exterminated from existence, and erased from this world! For that reason, the conclusion we must reach..."

...He intended to finish the battle with the next blow.

-You smiled.

"UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!"

The two combatants faced each other and yelled with all of their strength, their voices so amplified by their aura photons that those within the entire battlefield heard their cries. A whirlwind of two dinstinctly-coloured aura photons gathered around the two individuals, its scale and magnitude incomparable in proportion to their earlier moves.

"There is no need for a second or third strike, Kaiser! This battle... Will conclude with a single, decisive blow!" Takios fell into a stance, raising the glowing black blade of Altruism with one hand as a pitch black mass of aura photons gathered in the other. Within that hand, was a darkness powerful enough to consume not just matter, but energy and the fabric of reality itself- Even space, time and the laws of physics would be defeated within that sphere.

-Meanwhile, Tousou's two halberds started glowing with a bright golden light as they transformed before your very eyes. The blades warped and shifted, crackling with lightning and power as an unseen force pulled the two together, creating a bladed spear with an extremely long handle. From the end of that spear, an even larger spearhead made out of pure Aura Photons emerged, the blade itself large enough to surpass you in height.

The space around the two Eternals roared, as all around the battlefield countless animals started fleeing in fright, their senses bombarded with a deep sense of fear. The aura photons around them suffused into every aspect of reality, as their nearmost surroundings began to be dyed in the colour of their soul.

There was nothing in existence that did not inherently fear the power of this technique, something that only an Eternal could manifest.

A power that revealed the true divinity of the Eternity Swords, which at its basest level ignored the notion of concepts or other foundations based upon the

Akashic Records

Log Domain

of every world. An attack of such incalculable power that the world could not compute it, and only Eternals were capable of fathoming it.

Even to most Eternals, it was a deadly killing blow not meant to be used lightly. It was the ultimate expression of their power, an attack infused with nothing but willpower which tested the strength of its opponent in all mental, physical and spiritual aspects.

That was the nature of an Eternal's strongest move... The Divine Art.

At that moment, the two Eternals yelled with all their might, and unleashed the power that even the World could not contain due to its might.

"TERMINAL-"

"EXISTENCE-"

(BGM OFF)

"-The two idiots there, just what are you doing...?"

Both Kaiser and Takios staggered as lightning fell from the heavens, descending upon them just before they were going to unleash their Divine Art. The discharge of aura photons dispersed the mana around their bodies, preventing them from completing their move and would have also paralyzed them were it not for their domain abilities.

"Oh my, Takios, didn't I say not to get carried away?" A voice echoed through the battlefield, sweet like the ringing of bells yet laced with a dangerous malice.

-You froze. You knew the owner of that voice. It was impossible not to, given the nature of your opponent-

"...Nnnrgh... My apologies, Temuorin-sama. But this body of mine will always act on its own against powerful opponents." Takios replied easily, as he looked at the magic circle from which a person was emerging.

"Huhu... It's fine. You kept him pressured long enough for him not to investigate around, and we managed to get some really nice intel anyways..." The girl said, hovering over the floor as she smiled down at her fellow Law Eternal. The staff in her hands glowed with incredible power, so much that it even humbled the numberless aura photons both your swords had brought to bear.

"How do you do, Kaiser the Endless Battle? I can't believe that after all this time when Tokimi finally gets a pet, it's a stupidly noisy one..."

She smiled at you, yet there was nothing nice about that sharp grin or the intentions it belied.

"She'd probably never tell a brute like you, but I'll ask for kicks anyways- I wonder where that hag of yours went away to? I've been trying to pin her down with my minions, but she keeps playing the same old tricks..."

Tokimi...? You didn't know where she'd gone off to, but even if you did that didn't matter...!

Because, the bitch in front of you... That inhuman little shit, was the one that had almost destroyed your world...!

-A battle in this situation would almost certainly be suicidal, but you could tell by how Takios was powering down that whatever plan that bitch was up to, this fight's part in it was likely done already.

Even so... You could certainly give her a piece of your mind.

Takios the Black Blade

Race: Eternal
Faction: Law Eternals

Might: 50->80->100
Toughness: 50->60
Agility: 50
Mind: 10
Fate: 10

Eternity Sword: Altruism
Rank: 3

Domain Abilities
Mightiest of Creation
Takios' aura photons are some of the strongest of Creation, capable of matching and even surpassing those of 2nd Rank in some aspects. Despite the fact that 'Altruism' should be a blade meant to spread wellness, Takios has instead used its power to attain ultimate strength that can cleave through the hardiest of defenses, and utterly destroy his opponents.
[Decisive Strike I: There is no need for a second or third strike. Against attacks from Takios the Black Blade, those who do not possess an Eternity Sword of Rank 4 or higher don't have a single chance of surviving. Dodging, blocking or absorbing the power of his blows becomes an impossibility when faced with a single, decisive strike that destroys both space and existence to annihilate its target.]
[Space Severance: Takios' attacks cut through even space, allowing him to use his melee attacks as if they possessed infinite range. In addition, forcing the weight of reality to crash on the target doubles the power of his normal attacks, letting him deal monstrous physical damage with a single strike. Takios can also use this ability to brutally crush offensive Divine Magic aimed against him, if he can match it with a skill of equal power.]
[Decisive Strike II: Pay a moderate mana cost to increase one's Might score by 20 points for the rest of next turn, but cannot be used with Impenetrable Fortress II. A single, decisive strike is enough.]

Absolute Defense
Takios' defensive might is uncomparable. His aura photons can block out all existence, so powerful that even the mana and energy around him is contained and cannot escape from his body. He is an unstoppable force and an immovable object, who can keep fighting even until he is seconds away from becoming a mist of mana.
[Impenetrable Fortress I: Takios is completely immune to any attacks, hostile effects or phenomena or any kind coming from Eternity Swords of Rank 4 or below. He is an opponent that lesser beings cannot ever fathom defeating, for it is an impossible goal.]
[Impenetrable Fortress II: Reduces the duration of all afflictions from Divine Magic by half and nulls the effect of any debuffs that would negatively affect Takios' stats. Can spend a moderate amount of mana to double his Toughness against an enemy attack.]
[Eternal Warrior:Has the ability to remain fighting at full strength even when reduced to the minimum amount of health. Can spend a very high amount of mana to shield himself from the deadliest (Fate-based) effects of an enemy Divine Art, allowing him to continue fighting if he survives through the damage of the attack.]

Cursed Savior
In truth, Altruism is a blade with the power to heal others. It is a Sword of selflessness, of purging the self to grant blessings to the world. Takios indeed holds such power, but only saves it for those he truly respects. The true gift of Altruism is not something he shall hand over easily, but if it will allow him to fight a worthy opponent with all of their strength, he would gladly make use of this amazing ability.
[Selflessness: The power of Altruism has incredible healing abilities, that can restore the energy and vitality of anyone within Takios' sight. Any illness, wound or injury that would cause someone pain or discomfort can be washed away without so much as a trace, even from those who have been dealt terrifying wounds by wielders of an Eternity Sword of Rank 4.]
[Asceticism:Restores a moderate amount of Mana and HP at the start of every turn. Increases Mind by 20 Points when using restorative Divine Magic. Can pay a moderate amount of mana to purge himself of all debuffs and afflictions.]

Divine Magic
Crossing Existence
The distance between two points can be crossed with a single strike. By using this spell, Takios can instantly close the distance between him and his opponent, disorienting them as reality is distorted around them and allowing Takios to punish the foe for his carelessness with a finishing move.
[Divine Magic. Rank 3. Instantly closes the distance between an enemy opponent and Takios through teleportation, disorienting the enemy and lowering their Agility by 20 points and Toughness by 10 points. Takios is free to immediately use another technique in succession to this. Cost: Moderate]

Limit Break
Takios has surpassed the limits of any mortal body. The strength that flows within him is something that mortals are not capable of withstanding, and the Aura Photons around him would kill any lesser man instantly. By drawing even deeper within, he can force even that immortal body to its logical limits, obtaining god-like power.
[Divine Magic. Rank 3. Takios pushes his body to its limits and surpasses them, increasing his Might by 20 points for 3 turns and rendering him immune to any attempts to restrain, bind or immobilize him. Cost: High]

Dimension Slayer
Destroys the space in a large area around the target, crushing everything for a brutal hit that breaks reality and defies all notions of space-time or dimensional laws to crush the enemy with both the might of the attack and space itself.
[Divine Magic. Rank 3. Destroy all space over a large AoE, ignoring distance or techniques meant for evasion of an attack. Deals Mightx3+Mindx2 damage. Cost: High]

Divine Arts
Existence Eraser
Effects unknown.

Shade of the Saint
The Guardian Spirit that represents Altruism. It takes the form of a human shadow clad in a white robe, from which two massive wings of dark feathers spread. While it is a Spirit of Healing, Takios is capable of merging it with his Eternity Sword to enhance his blade's power to incredible levels, which are strong enough to match even Swords of the 2nd Rank.
[The Shade's parameters are as follows: Might (10), Toughness (30), Agility (50), Mind (Takios'), Fate (Takios'). When used on the field, the Shade passively restores the HP of all allied Eternals by a large amount every turn and cancels any debuffs or afflictions caused by an enemy Eternal's Domain Abilities. When merged with Takios' sword, it increases his Might and Toughness by 10 points, makes any damage caused by him harder to heal and allows a portion of his damage to slip through any defense. However, in this state it takes the same damage as Takios would from any attack.]

**Snax** · June 29th, 2016, 03:48 AM

Kaiser the Endless Battle
Location: Outskirts of the Province of Rhomadial, Battle of Trisunica Plains
Time: Afternoon
Mission: Repel the Law Eternals from Trisunica!

“Hmph, I knew you were skulking around somewhere in the shadows, Temuorin. How very much like you to play around as ‘the mastermind’, eh? What say you, destroyer of worlds?”

Scowling, Kaiser lowered his weapons - the bloodlust, tension and fighting spirit that was so apparent in the battlefield for all this time , disappeared as if it had evaporated. The fun had passed, and only an unpleasant aftertaste remained after Temuorin’s appearance.

“If it's about Tokimi, I have no idea where she is. No doubt she is dealing with your plans from beyond the curtains, like she did in the past to foil your plans.”

Shrugging with his lips curled in a mirthless fashion, Kaiser mocked Temuorin - even if he was outmatched as of right now, there was no way Temuorin would have shown up in full power just to jeer at Kaiser. Yes, this was probably another of her clones, as usual, sent to do some of the dirty work or poke fun at the world. Then, Kaiser would return it in fashion - he still hadn’t forgotten what Temuorin had tried to do with his own world, and he did not forgive such misdoings easily.

“Oh, and if you are going to go as far as to call the fair shrine maiden as a hag, you, who is at least several cycles older, would be called a midget hag.”

Chuckling to himself, fully well knowing that Tokimi might give him a rather powerful harisen slap out of nowhere at this rate, Kaiser went on.

“But by all means, go on with your futile planning and digging around. Your intel won’t do you much good when your plans and strategies fail to bear fruit. What good is a great asset such as Takios when the so-called mastermind is but a mere child who plans the downfall of countless worlds for no other reason than self-righteousness?”

Scoffing, Kaiser crossed his arms, indignantly glaring at the mass-murdering psychopath in front of him.

**Erlkonig** · July 25th, 2016, 10:45 PM

Naziba the Million-Life Soul
Location: En-route to the City of Rhomadyne, Battle of Trisunica Plains
Time: Afternoon

-How long had it been... Since her nightmare had begun? How many aeons had gone by since she had started killing...?

Through the haze of her torment... That single question emerged from within Marina's mind.

A long time ago... No, beyond the concept of time itself, in a reality that was different from this same one, there had lived a girl. The girl's world was deep-seated in misery and suffering, its inhabitants tortured by an endless scourge of demons that hailed from the bowels of the planet itself. Many civilizations had crumbled in the wake of these horrors, and the people lived in constant fear of everything, even their own shadows.

The girl knew that same pain all too well, and she detested it with every fiber of her soul. Not just herself, but witnessing the misery that dwelled in everyone's souls, she felt a neverending sadness that she had no way to quell. Her parents lost themselves in that same fear and pain, and the depths of their despair eventually drove them to seek to ultimate release from a life at the mercy of the demons-

...That girl- Marina, had already forgotten the days where she had not been alone in this world.

Overcome by suffering, yet unwilling to leave everyone behind to suffer the same fate as the family she had been denied... Marina entrusted her whole existence- Body, Mind, and Soul, towards ending humanity's pain. She entrusted herself to God and joined a religious order to be trained in all kinds of arts, regardless of how much she liked them.

It hurts... It hurts so much...

Amazingly, the girl that hated fighting and hurting others above all else... Discovered that she was a genius at spilling the blood of other beings. The order of God instilled upon her the discipline which she needed to harden her soft heart and taught her to love others not just by comforting them, but by protecting them as well. They turned her peasant hands into deadly weapons, and taught her how to brandish magic blades against the cursed creatures.

In order to end everyone's pain... Marina allowed herself to become a weapon. Because she loved everyone, because she loved everything that was happy and bright in this world- She sank into the furthest depths of violence, transforming herself into humanity's ultimate instrument for destruction. She passed trial after trial, shocking her teachers with her inhuman willpower and desire to reach greater heights.

-Eventually, she reached the peak of human power. The Order entrusted her with the Divine Sword, a pitch-black weapon wrapped in chains whose power was said to be sealed, yet it was nonetheless more powerful than anything humanity could ever field. With the ability to absorb and manipulate mana like it was a child's toy, it was hailed as a weapon above all others.

Truly... No other Eternity Sword could have suited Marina more.

Stop it... I didn't want this... I just wanted to make everyone happy...

Wielding that sword, Marina threw herself on the battlefield. With strength that could have been compared to a living Saint, she defeated the demons that stood in her path with a single blow, the sealed blade in her arms absorbing their mana and growing stronger and stronger in the process. She led armies to battle, journeyed with holy warriors to end foul beasts, and utterly left behind the quiet life of villages and farms to exchange it for a future drenched in blood.

Eventually, the people grew to fear her. The girl who could fight on the same level as demons and wipe their existences as if they were mere gnats was an existence that was too far beyond them for them to understand. They called her a witch, a mad dog kept chained only by the Order's will.

-And yet, despite the undeserving hatred she received, Marina continued to push on. Because she loved everyone, because she didn't want to feel the pain of accepting that she had become a monster, she soaked her hands with even more blood to save everyone.

At that time, when she was about to lose herself to despair... She met a single person.

His smile was bright, radiant like the light of the sun. His eyes were wide with curiosity, yet they lacked the fear and cautiousness she had always perceived from the people who approached her back then. Marina, who had been awed by his presence, could not dare to address him or push him away when he approached her. She braced herself for suffering another painful remark-

-But nothing could have prepared her for what that man would tell her, back then.

Kneeling down over the Marina who had been edging away from him, that man had reached out towards her and-

'Why is it... That the Saint is always crying so much?'

-Brushed away the tears on her face, touching at the droplets that nobody else had noticed.

Why me... Why did this have to happen to me...

Unlike Marina, the man before her was one loved by the world. Having been born into a cradle of the highest privilege, he was a paragon that everyone in the world followed- A symbol of hope that was so bright that everyone could only look at from a distance. That man...

-At that moment, he too, became Marina's Hero.

Together, the two fought against the armies of demons. Both of them wielded legendary weapons beyond the reach of the common man, and they stood out above any soldier. Marina's heart, which had beat only in tune to the pain of others and the burning hatred for the demons who created it... Began to thrum with a new, different tone. A strange, warm feeling...

"Ah-"

The moment that Naziba hugged her...

-That nostalgic feeling blossomed into the cursed Eternal's mind, once again.

"Wh... at?" Marina's eyes shifted rapidly, not knowing where to look as her body was not covered with pain but with the warmth of another human being. Even though the person hugging her should have felt a crippling pain from the sharp steel thorns on her body, they still firmly held onto her as if they wouldn't let go. "Stop...? You'll... stop...?"

Torment had ceased all movements, as if unable to comprehend the situation that was unveiling before it.

At that same time...

Marina's expression turned anguished.

"No... That's wrong... If I stop... If you stop, I...! I will hurt...! I will hurt so much! That's why... kill... I must... kill?" The girl muttered crazily, her hands flexing and relaxing periodically with each of her gasps.

But... Even as she threatened the girl... Marina had already lost all the will to fight.

No... In the first place, she had never been willing to fight another person in the first place. What drove her insanity, what she constantly fought against day by day was not against others.

-No, there was only one opponent that Marina had. A pathetic, deplorable enemy, a foul creature that would not be satisfied until everything was devoured without mercy. That enemy...

"I don't... want it. I don't... Want to kill anymore... So please, please take the pain away... And let me rest in peace-!"

"...No. You aren't allowed to do that. A release from Torment... Is something you do not deserve."

...Was none other than herself.

At that moment... The memories had Marina always kept bottled up resurfaced once again. Guided by Torment's will, they came in a massive flood to remind her Master of why she bore this weapon... And why she deserved every ounce of suffering that it brought of her.

It was amongst blood-soaked ruins, in a Kingdom that had once existed in the depths of the Earth... In the realm of Hell itself. Within that fiery inferno, the ancient ruins were soaked by the blood of both demons and humans alike. Within that infernal realm, all of the mana had gone dry, absorbed by the titanic forces that had clashed for dominance over it.

At the center of that carnage... Only two bodies remained. And although one of them was standing, and could not be described as dying...

...At the same time, to call them alive would be a mistake.

'Mari... na... You...' The body that was lying on the floor stared up at the girl, their once-warm eyes quivering pools of emptiness. From that body, a constant stream of mana was escaping, mixed in with the blood that poured from the man's body like a fountain. His Sword lay broken at his side, and a gash that ran through his entire body revealed just how far beyond salvation this person was. '...You did... it'
-No.

No... Don't make me see this again-!

'...Ah... I... I...?' The girl was frozen like a statue, staring at the body of her beloved with wide eyes that could not discern what had happened. Her mind could not catch up with what she was seeing... For no human being was capable of withstanding so much despair at once.

After all... She recognized the wound on the man's body.

'You... saved us... But...' The man's glassy stare towards the battlefield, to the huge corpse that remained only a few meters away from them. Once, it had belonged to a nightmarish beast, a Demon King that had sought the end of existence. But... Like everything in this place... It had been defeated by the girl that towered above him. 'I see it, now... Marina... You tru... ly... are...'

-Cutting across his entire body, a perfect slash that was impossibly even and cut even more cleanly that a scalpel... Such a perfect cut, yet one capable of causing such earth-shattering pain... It could only have belonged to something out of this world. Something like-

'...A... monster...'

...An Eternity Sword.

When the man's life slipped away, the girl only remained there in that broken state. Like a doll, she stared with glassy eyes at the love she had slain with her own two hands. Because she had wanted to end the pain, because she had wanted to escape the neverending Torment of this world, she had awakened to her sword's true power-

...And in her desire to defeat that which had caused her pain, she also destroyed everything else.

'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.' Like a broken record, she spoke at the corpse rotting on the floor-

-But it was useless. No matter how much she apologized... The reality wouldn't change.

-At that moment.

To the girl who had been alone...

'Truly, an existence like you... Deserves nothing but Torment.'

-A sinister voice spoke, and marked the beginning of a nightmare.

"A-Ah... Ah..."

-At that moment, all of your senses screamed out in alarm. You drew back, Ouroboros held forwards instinctively as you jumped away from the Eternal in front of you. Despite your reaction, the girl hadn't moved in the slightest.

However, an instant later...

"Ah... I... see." Looking at the ground with a stare that reflected nothing but an empty void, the girl began. "I'm going... to break again...!"

-Right then.

From the girl's body... An infinite amount of darkness emerged.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" An earth-splitting shriek cut through the air. Incomprehensible shadows twisted around her as the spikes attached to her clothes writhed with demonic intent, slashing at everything in their path. They turned even against her own body, spilling blood and mana to the air which was quickly absorbed by the black mist around her.

-Like a sea of death, the vast darkness around her erupted like an explosion over the entire battlefield.

"Oh shit-!?" Eric and the rest of the group doubled back as the darkness erupted like a tidal wave towards them, eclipsing everything they could see. Larger than the two behemoth beasts colliding with each other, it encompassed Heaven and Earth as it washed over everything.

-At that moment, Eric's heart beat with fear.

Within that darkness, the shadows stirred. Whether it was a delusion from the sense of danger he felt or a genuine sight, he witnessed as countless thorns and nightmares danced inside that darkness. It was not a normal absence of light, but rather a cursed miasma that caused his stomach to turn and his knees to go weak even though he hadn't been exposed to it.

-I will be doomed.

If that miasma engulfs them, Eric knows with absolutely certainty that is what will happen. What resided within that mist was nothing less than the universe's own agony and misery crystallized into an entity, despair itself made flesh. To all those touched by it, there is no hope for reincarnation or salvation. Only an endless Torment, and a fate worse than death-

-In an instant, they will be swallowed by it, and suffer such a thing-!

But, as he closed his eyes and shielded his face with his arms in vain, bracing himself for the inevitable end...

-A gentle light shone over the soldiers, and the darkness that was about to swallow them was repelled with a screech.

"Wha...?" Noticing his lack of pain, Eric timidly opened his eyes to look at what prevented their demise... And his eyes widened in shock. "What in the-!?"

"What foul darkness... It is good that we made it in time." Standing in the middle of the group were four robed figures. Their white clothes fluttered by an unseen gust generated by the mana around them, a truly immense quantity that could not be compared to this world's mortal inhabitants.

Together, they used their magic power to hold the darkness at bay. The dome-like barrier of light they had deployed was keeping the shocked soldiers safe, even as countless thorns and evil creatures hammered against the glimmering walls of the shield.

"What the fu- Where did they come from!?" Joseph said, having been unaware of the four's presence until the moment the priest-like beings revealed themselves. Similarly, his subordinates were also gaping at the veiled men.

Eric, however...

-He immediately noticed something suspicious about them. The way they felt... It was too familiar. Almost as if they were-

"-Naziba?" He squinted his eyes, looking at the priests with a confused expression. "Sorry, I know this is a weird question but- Are you guys with her, or something?"

The four of them looked at each other in surprise... Before they smiled wryly. "Well... Yes. You could certainly say that we are 'with' her. You certainly are a perceptive one, Hero."
"-!?" Eric didn't understand why, but the moment the holy men called him that, his heart had skipped a beat. Shaking his head, he looked towards the barrier and at the darkness spreading outside... And spat. "Heh... That's a strange way to call me."

Hero...? As if. Being a dead weight in this kind of situation... Sorry sister, it looks like catching up with you... Is going to take a little longer than I thought-!

As much as it pained him to admit, all Eric Liemens could do right now... Was accept the protection he'd been offered, and pray for his guardian's safety.

Naziba... You're the strongest person I've ever seen. Even compared to my sister, that kind of power... If there's anyone that can get us out of this, it's you!

Staring intensely at the pitch black darkness, Eric believed those words with all of his heart.
I have faith in you... Naziba!

...

"I'm sorry. It hurts. I'm sorry. I broke everything. I'm sorry. I'm a monster that craves blood. I'm sorry. I don't deserve forgiveness. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

On and on, in the middle of the sea of darkness, you watched as Marina the Cursed One continued to recite the horrifying mantra that had been engraved into her body, mind and soul throughout eternity.

Wreathed in an armor of dark mana, Marina's existence had been warped even further than before. The energy that sizzled through her body not only damaged her own flesh, it also clawed at everything around her, reducing anything it touched to an existence of 'Torment'. Even for an Eternal, to approach carelessly would result in an astronomical pain that could linger for an infinite amount of time without any sort of cure.

-For right now, the miasma around her reflected Torment's true existence.

Everything in this world is deserving of hatred and punishment. We are all filthy, incompetent, insignificant beings. No matter how large, our deeds, our joys, our feelings- They are all a clown's play in a stage that has no beginning or end.

To blame others for one's suffering is folly. Suffering is existence itself. The decisions one makes are destined to bring misery to themselves, for everything that can be obtained in this Eternity or in any Moment is worthy of being cursed.

Do not resent it. Do not reject it. This is the universal truth. Yes- In all of Creation, all of its things...

They are truly... Deserving of Torment.

As Marina walked forwards, the world which had been touched by the miasma was pulled into a neverending nightmare. The air turned rotten, lacking in life or energy. It became a poison that would kill any living being that touched it, damning their existence until they perished completely.

At the same time, the grass that covered the plains turned black as the night, every inch of life within the miasma turning putrid- Before they suddenly mutated, and turned into an ocean of abominations. Blades of grass turned into lashing tentacles, eyes and mouths emerging from all around the ground as the trees twisted and turned into shrieking horrors filled with agony.

"I couldn't stop it again... Their pain, their suffering... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Black tears poured from Marina's eyes, caressing the tentacles below her as if trying to give them some form of comfort, but her mere touch was enough to burn them and cause them to vanish into ash. "I hunger so much, for this pain... To make my own stop. And now... I've broken everything again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry-"

Throughout it out, you watched this unfold with an expression of both horror and disgust. The existence that resided within this girl could not be described as anything but evil in its purest form- Sheer, raw hatred for everything that existed, and a desire to turn everything into the same miserable shade. For this reason, the Eternity Sword Torment would rip even life itself from the cycle of reincarnation, and force it into this never-ending nightmare of pain until every soul became a blank, mindless entity of pain, upon which they would wish for nothing but their end.

To wish for all of Creation to become one tormented existence... There was no mistake about it.

The Eternity Sword Torment... Was a weapon that would never deviate from the Path of 'Law'.

But... To drag a thinking, living being and maintain their clarity of mind for so long, when they could have crushed them so easily. To take such sadistic measures, for reasons that brought happiness to no one but itself... Such an existence...

...Was truly revolting.

-You held out your Eternity Sword, both of your wills fully in sync as you stared at your enemy. Whether you could save this girl or not from her curse... Even an existence like you couldn't find such an answer. However, there was one thing you knew.

An abomination like this... Had to be stopped before it defiled reality any more.

Gathering an immense amount of mana into your body, you repelled the darkness that had tried to lash at you. While it might possess the pain of an entire universe, an Eternal like you was like a Universe unto its own. It was child's play to resist it at this level... But you could tell that this wasn't even a fraction of the horrors that resided within Marina's Eternity Sword.

As you prepared to attack, reality was also dyed in your colors. The endless coil of souls that dwelled within you and all living things raged against the assault this being had committed against Creation, and with their rage flowed into you an infinite power.

However.

The moment you were about to pounce...

(BGM off)

"That... Is enough."

-A surge of mana large enough to draw pause from both you and Marina shook the earth.

The next instant, everything was swallowed in the wake of a blast of absolute power. Like a dark star falling upon this earth, flames of azure devoured the entire landscape. The blighted trees, the tentacles on the ground, the black mist- They were all devoured by a tidal wave of mana that demanded that everything in existence would cease its movements and bow before its absolute might.

When the blast of utter destruction descended upon the battlefield, Abizan reacted immediately. It broke away from the abomination attacking it, and jumped straight towards the group of soldiers who were still cowering under the barrier of Naziba's phantoms. Using its body as a shield, it protected them from the blazing attack that could reduce everything in this planet to cinders.

-All around the continent, people witnessed it. Far in the distance, a pillar of azure flames rose into the sky, a glowing scar traced into the very fabric of the world. Though many did not know it, it was but the first of the many calamities that would rock the planet in the following months.

In ground zero of the explosion, however... There were those who were able to witness the full consequences of the blast without any misgivings.

"What... Just happened..." As Abizan moved away from the soldiers, the group stared in abject shock at the scene enveloping before them. For a brief moment, their brains were unable to keep up with what their eyes were trying to communicate, but it only took them a moment to understand.

What they were seeing... Was nothing else than reality.

-And reality itself... Was nothing. Before them, an endless nothingness stretched. The grass had disappeared. The ground around them had disappeared save for the pillar they stood on, a numberless amount of matter annihilated by the blast and leaving only a sea of molten rock and ashes raging below them.

It stretched on... Beyond what they were capable of seeing, the crater that went into the distance had to be several dozen kilometres wide at the very least. Faced with such an incomprehensible destruction, the soldiers were overcome by a deep-seated terror.

"N-no way..." One of them muttered, staring petrified at the wasteland before them. "What kind of monster could do this..."

"Not a monster..." Eric muttered, his eyes narrowed as he followed the trail of something that the other soldiers had missed. "No... This is something much worse."

Like an angel gracing the world with their presence, a figure descended. Her body was beautiful beyond mortality- Wreathed in a dark blue glow that shone around her like a halo, just the mere sight of her was enough to bring the soldiers to their knees. One of them vomited, unable to withstand the sheer pressure that the woman's existence commanded as she made her descent.

"Do forgive my intrusion, Naziba the Million-Life Soul of the Chaos Eternals." A voice like that of ringing bells echoed across the battlefield, as the woman's tall heels touched the burning ground where the two Eternals had fallen after the attack. As if unwilling to defy her, the magma did not even sizzle as the woman used it as a solid foothold to walk towards the two other women. "However, there is a certain issue I must deal with."

"Ry... via...? -!? No!" Marina's eyes widened in shock, before the mana around her sizzled violently. Her body contorted, as within her body Torment started to rage at the woman's interruption.

"That girl did this..." Joseph said, his voice full of horror. Even a fool would not be able to deny such a deed was committed by that woman. Anything she did would be acknowledged by those who witnessed it, for her majesty was something that could not be faked. "It can't be... Is this..."

"There's... No doubt about it." Eric's eyes trembled in horror as he looked at the frowning woman that approached the other two. "This is the power... Of an Eternal."

"You bitch... How dare you interfere with my judgment-!?" The clothes on Marina twisted, the glaring face of a demon appearing for an instant before an endless sea of tentacles lashed out towards the Eternal that had wiped out his miasma.

"Impudent Sword." The Empress Ryvia shifted her stance slightly, raising the gleaming sword of 'Nobility' with one hand- Before without so much as a cry, she stabbed forwards without fear. From within her sword, a blast of incredibly dense mana swallowed the tentacles before they were instantly vaporized, reduced into nothingness by the absolute might of her mana.

Without even wasting a milisecond, Ryvia dashed forwards. Reality screamed as the girl vanished in an azure glow, before she reappeared in front of the writhing Marina. Without hesitating, Ryvia raised her sword-

-And plunged it straight through the girl's heart.

"Ah-" Marina's eyes widened, before her expression softened and relaxed. Even as azure flames covered her body, her only reaction was to slump into Ryvia's waiting arms as 'Nobility's powers worked through her body.

"YOU CAN NOT IMPRISON ME FOREVER! EMPRESS RYVIA, YOUR TORMENT... SHALL BE ENDLESS-" Torment gave one last throe before all of its magical energy seemed to recede back into Marina's body, its 'Authority' superseded by that of 'Nobility', the Sword that enforced the right order of things.

"Ryvia... Thank you..." Marina stirred in Ryvia's arms, looking at her fellow Eternal with a trembling expression as she removed her sword from her body. "It doesn't hurt anymore..."

"Good." Ryvia whispered, as she caressed Marina's cheek. "How many times must I tell you? Giving into that lunatic's bid for power out of fear only spoils your beauty..." With a gentle touch, Ryvia leaned forwards and captured Marina's lips with her own.

"Mmm..." Marina closed her eyes after returning the girl's kiss. "Sorry... I'm tired..."

"Very well... Rest in my arms. I shall handle things here." Smiling as the girl rested her head on her breast with closed eyes, Ryvia's face soon turned into an emotionless, stone-like countenance. Still cradling Marina to her chest, she turned towards the Chaos Eternal that remained standing before them.

"This is an interesting start to this war... I will admit as much." You shivered as the girl's eyes bore into your own. Unlike the warmth she had shown Marina, those eyes were now cold and predatory, completely unlike those of a human being. There was a true Law Eternal, a being whose immediate reaction to another peer was to assess how they could crush them beneath their feet.

"However... I will warn you just this once, Chaos Eternal."

Ryvia's eyes narrowed like ice crystals, as a primal killing intent surged from within that gaze.

"Touch a hair of my pet's body with such filthy intent again... And I shall quarter every piece of your soul throughout the four corners of Creation."

At that same moment, a magical circle appeared below Ryvia, bathing the two Eternals in its azure glow. As their bodies started to dematerialize, you relaxed ever so slightly.

Despite her threat, it appeared you would not have to face against another Law Eternal today.

There was enough time to speak to either of them... Though neither of them appeared to have much interest in discussion.

**Janx** · August 29th, 2016, 10:14 PM

Naziba the Million-Life Soul
Location: En-route to the City of Rhomadyne, Battle of Trisunica Plains
Time: Afternoon

Part of Naziba wanted to call out to Marina. Her heart wept at the unthinkable horror and sorrow that clung so tightly to the girl. In all Naziba’s vast experience, there was no life she had known that equalled the tragedy and darkness of her existence. All her souls wanted to charge forth and slay the Law Eternal for nonchalantly supporting such cruelty, but despite her blazing desire to free the girl, an Eternal of Ryvia’s league was beyond her own. Furthermore, even if she was to meet Ryvia equally, I was possible Marina would still back up her sinister mistress.

So despite all her power. Despite all her lifetimes of experience. All she could do was watch mournfully.

Once they were gone, Naziba gazed on for a long moment before turning back towards the men. There were greater battles to be fought, and more at stake than the happiness of a single girl.

As Naziba approached her companions Abizan, her other self, began to sing. It was a deep, guttering tune. One which someone could feel as much as hear, each syllable like waves crashing upon the shore or tremors breaking the earth. One could say perhaps that was exactly what they were, as the earth devastated by Ryvia’s might began to fill back in.

By the time Naziba had reached Eric and the others, new growth had already begun bursting forth from the earth once more. They were, however, flora this world had not seen in many millennia.

“Now you see the powers that threaten your world,” she said grimly. She gently patted his head and moved back to the vehicle, reclaiming her seat with a small stretch.

“We should get going,” Naziba stated plainly before noticing the mens’ look of bewilderment over what had just transpired. What they had witnessed was probably far beyond what they had imagined possible. “Unless…you need a bit of breather first?”

Naziba the Million Life Soul

Thread: Ain Soph Aur (IC thread)

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