Hope or Doom

[Gaius]

Devon came back to his senses quickly. It was fair to say Leigh had a hand in this. Or two, given how both seemed dead set on squeezing the life out of him, as though he were some sort of big, gray, not particularly orange-shaped orange. He gave a braying wheeze, and then just tried not to further waste his remaining air supply. Not that he didn't appreciate the hug; a gesture like that gave him a warm feeling. Which he'd appreciate more if he could focus more on it, and less on the neighboring burning sensation in his lungs.

Fortunately, a fallen fellow friend from the female's family got Devon's respiration back on track. It also meant both of his support beams were a little too busy to do the job he needed of them, and so -- at least able to stumble back to keep from crushing the Twins -- he fell to all-fours. "Gluh..." He decided he'd get back up after he'd caught his breath again.

In the meantime, having his head brought a bit closer to the ground made that ground a harder thing to ignore. "... Well, that's no good..." The donkey's head drifted around the area, ears drooping lower and lower as he looked. A blasted bit of land, with currents he wasn't eager to test, bizarre spectral anomalies... and four enormous, winged unicorns. The equines were ringed around a tree that stood in defiance of the 'little slice of hell' theme for the soiree. The few somewhat fiendish-looking (and... corpsey) individuals made for more compliant guests. The others he could see, an irritated, concentrating little girl with crazy eyes and... a part-cat someone wearing a surprisingly advanced-looking getup, seemed about as out of place as... well, a donkey in pants and two part-human cyborg-esque hybrids from the future.

Anyway, Devon didn't know anybody, but Leigh seemed to. This didn't appear to be a good thing. Had he picked up on this in time, he'd have probably not said a thing. Instead... "Uh... Hi? Um... So, what the hEEE-AWW--" There was a familiar perking of ears, widening of eyes, shutting of freshly blushing muzzle, and clearing of throat. "Argh... Sorry. Yay, first impression... Anyway: anyone know what the hell happened here?"

And then he caught onto the Twins' little chat. The fey-touched one followed Leigh's gaze as his ears flicked at the name; they'd mentioned it briefly, not ten minutes before things went to hell, about something horrible he'd done to them. They hadn't gone into details. There was no small amount of hate in Leigh's tone, as when she'd said it before, but the fear dwarfed it. The manifestation of psionic blades just made clear he hadn't misheard. Devon found his own muscles tensing. Still a bit woozy -- if faring better than poor Lev -- he didn't think warping was a good idea, which limited his help if, or when, a fight broke out. Still, ears adjusting to the slightest sound and tail giving a nervous twitch, he kept his eyes locked on the neko. He'd be waiting to find out the threat Juno posed.

... Which, as it turned out, was a threat to Juno. The donkey had to grimace, ears flat, at the head-on collision. A collision that seemed to leave its mark, helmet be damned, as the guy then proceeded to rant and rave about ice cubes at the unconscious mythical creatures. "... What," was all he had.

[Myth]

Grymith was a few feet behind the rather talkative donky, rising up to look down upon the unsuspecting pray.
Yet once again the dogs eyes soon became distracted by the mad dash by Juno, Confusing the hound as he saw the space-suited feline skidding and flailing his arms towards a very comical collision.

A loud and cruel chuckle escaped though the doom dog's jaws from the sight, easily hearable and even feelable to any with a good pair of ears and internal organs that would vibrate from the sound. The Dog Quickly stopped as soon as he realised the mistake he had made, even a invisible dog had many flaws to its rather cleaver party trick. Then again, if it hadn't been the loud chuckle giving his v away, it would have easily been the very light, unmistakable sicky-sweet odour of death wafting to the noses of those a few inches away from him.

Since the game was up anyway he simply appear into the world like mist on the sea, staring down towards the tree newcomers psychotically, drips of red saliva landing on the ground below.

"Boo!" the Dog barked out behind them with his booming voice, eyes wide and alight with the fire of the underworld. "Lets play!"
He made a quick lunge in hope to send a fearful panic into his new found snacks, attempted to take a loud toothy chomp at them in hoping to grab a limb to keep his growing hunger at bay.

[The_Vizir]

Leigh shrugged hopeless in responce to Devon's question. "He's... mad. Insane. Wacko."

"Vindicative." Lev added helpfully

"Also completely immature despite holdin' the power of a god..." Leigh continued.

"Prolly the single most powerful entity in the forest..."

"The source of all those myths about felines on all the planes... harmin' black cats bring bad luck? All him."

"Older than the universe itself, and seemin'ly imortal..."

"Fifth horseman of the apocalypse, acordin' to dad..."

"And he doesn't see AIs as havin' any rights to boot... he done tried to overwrite all our cores here once, apparently..." Lev sighed, before his head twitched suddenly to the side at a rather odd looking angle. Moments later, he shook it and raised a hand to rub at his eyes. "Oh, this is uncomfortable..." he grumbled as he blinked, the faint glow of his eyes restarting, revealing the streaming code behind them.

"If you'd like to go completely offline around him, be my guest. Just remember what happened last time, 'kay?" Lev's hand briefly touched the unlucky seven on his cheek, as Leigh steeled herself. "He's nothin' but trouble and chaos in a neko-shaped package there. An' if we don't want him to gain control over whatever caused this... disaster..." she looked at her brother who nodded solemnly. "Now or never." she smiled sadly at Devon, and proceeded to fall forward into his shadow.

To emerge from Ceriaos', steping out from the darkness behind living corpse. The moment her shoulders broke free, the shadowy psionic echoes around her shoulders flared to life - blood, bone, sinue and feather rapidly forming, creating two massive wings of violet and ebony. A flap of these wings, combined with the momentum caused by her intial fall, launched her into the air. Twisting around, she swung her booted foot at Juno's head. Stealth and surprise were on her side... but this was Juno. It probably wasn't enough...

Meanwhile, Lev took a deep breath in and looked up at Devon, a very faked grin on his face. His sister could very well die from this, but... it was Juno. If they didn't act now, then who knows what he would do? Actually, that's one of the frightening things... nobody did. Juno was chaos, utterly unpredictable, so trying to predict him was like trying to pinpoint an electron's position and vector at the same time. Leigh wouldn't be able to harm him, but... a boot to the head should be enough to cause him to see stars while Lev rebooted and reshielded. Then just hold out as long as possible... and hope help was on it's way.

Unfortuneately, harm was far closer than help at the moment, as a growl from above caused Lev to look upwards. It... wasn't so much the sound, but the feeling, a rumbling that sent jitters through his core programming. Out of the ashen clouds emerged the largest dog Lev had ever seen... and it was no big, friendly dog. It was purely demonic. Bloody saliva dripped from its jaws as it grined down at him and Devon, a baleful glare in its eyes.

"Boo! Lets play!"

And then it lunged for Devon, maw wide, eyes blazing with hunger. Lev didn't really have a choice at this point, stability be damned. "DEVON! DOWN!" he shouted, and raised his hand. Webs of golden light raced down his arm to the glowing emitter in his hand, and with gritted teeth and a forceful push, a golden shield of photonic energy appeared between the demon dog and the donkey, slamming into the canine and throwing him away... though based on the size and agility of the beast, the distance wasn't far and the stun would be seconds. Nowhere near enough time...

Not that time would help him here, Lev thought as he looked down at his arm. His fur was charred, the skin beneath broken, with the circuitry and conduits of his emitters having overclocked themselves due to his fried programming, overheating and frying through flesh and fur. He panted as he looked down at the damage, and realized that once the buzz faded, he was in for a world of pain. Also, he'd just fried their only chance of surviving Juno's inevitable counterattack... literally. He would not be able to use these emitters again... he'd have to get them completely replaced! His dad could do it, but it would take weeks... weeks of pain.

Could things get any worse?

[JunoZXV]

(Got permission to post!)

What is love?

A question, one that reverberated In Juno's mind as he was preoccupied, his train of thought cut short as things seemed to go into slow motion as he noticed a friend. Knocked out and potentially hurt. His gaze turned to her, mouth agape as he flipped up his helmet cover for a better look. Slack jawed he called out to her, surprised that she would be in such a state.

"Naira..."

Definition: 'Love' is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope.

He kneeled down to the unconscious reaver. Trying to find a sign that she was somewhat more alive than he thougth she was. "What the hell happened?" He silently mouthed as he examined and got up. Taking in full scope of the events. A huge crater, orange goop everywhere, floating unicorns, single tree. It was like something dark and twisted but he couldn't put his finger on it and it just didn't sit well.

Not many could make such a shot, and strangely enough, not many would derive love from it

Of course this feeling was soon cut short by a boot to the head right out of nowhere. A solid THUD as foot gear connected with head, knocking the Neko to the ground and having him eat a face full of dirt. Sightly annoyed and still in shock about what he just saw, Juno wasn't exactly in the best of moods right now. So he rolled onto his back and leaped up, his face somewhat angry to talk to his assailant. Not exactly shocked that it was one of the twins from months those many years ago, but more intrigued as he saw the mark on her face. His ruby eyes flashing with familiarity as he recounted the events that had happened and as to what had been explained.

"Look, Kid. I understand you're mad at me and your father might have... extended the truth a bit, but I know what I did now and I'm working to fix it. But if you have this little smack down with me now I might not be to keen on handing over what I know. I'm a little busy here so if you would kindly, and I'm asking this nicely, not mess with me right now I would really appreciate it. Especially with all thi-"

Juno didn't finish his sentence.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticle, and together, achieving a singular purpose against statistically long odds.


Juno was distracted, that was his mistake. Taking off his natural uncanny self defense for a moment of weakness. An attribute of emotion... a flaw. Emotions, unnecessary. Only logic, cold calculation could conceive what had just been done. Zhee had done it. While Juno turned to face his sister he took the shot from his perch on the crater wall.

That is love
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Juno's eyes went with shock as a sharp smack was heard and he fell again, eyes wide in shock as a splatter of red neon sprayed from his chest and fizzled in the air, evaporating to traces of energy. The force as it collided with his side causing him to spin on his heels before as he lay twitching, gasping for air as the red stuff dribbled out of his mouth. His hands fumbled towards his chest to the impact... but he could feel it, the shock taking over as his vision blurred, everything fading. Fading away.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Zhee in this time, nodded. He had loved the hunt, the idea of tracking such a target but to finally achieve a hit as such, to finally take it down was bitter sweet. The journey over, the conclusion reached. No more to tell. As the suited assassin collapsed his gun he recalled the information that his father had shared with him on the subject, which he cross refrenced with the archives in the ship.

Crazy, unpredictable... those echoed in the profile over and over again.

He's crazy nuts, insane, bonzo, no longer in possession of his faculties, three fries short of a Happy Meal, wacko!

Franky, in the droids opinion, he was doing a public service for himself and his family. No more of this running around and worrying anymore. He did what HAD to be done. Take out the enemy. Sure he would have to deal with a long winded speech from father, but probability worked out that there was a 98% chance that it would be because NORAD would have wanted to kill Juno himself.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Juno's choked as the red stuff danced in the air like fireflies, some of it pooling now, making neon puddles on the ground that there was, before hissing in contact with the orange. His eyes still glossy as signs of life faded from them as he heard a familiar voice ring in his head.

SORRY. BUT IT'S TIME.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Zhee turned, bag on back as he heard a rustle. His synthetic fur standing on edge as he could calculate multiple targets but was bewildered at them. There was something there physically, but not giving off heat or visual. In fact the only thing he saw was the result, foot prints in the dirt forming as if something should be there in front of him... but then a voice spoke out, reaching him on the same levels that only his siblings shared. That psychic connection.

OH ZHEE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

[kirchhoff42]

OOC: i am sorry. i am skipping my "turn" this time. i have been too busy lately.

[Voice of Deep Forest]

OOC

Apologies for the ridiculous long wait...and for Zom's gender mix up XD

IC
The air before Lyrial remained empty at first, just a distortion, staying like this as if nothing would appear but if she looked closely, she could see something was happening, her spell was working, but seemed to be fought against by some unknown force at the same time. Then suddenly only to her a semi clear image of a portal in miniature was shown, just like the ones scattered all around them, swirling white. Then, like when Zom had approached it, the portal shown by her spell, branched off several whispy tendril, slowly weaving in Lyrial's direction. As they drew closer the tendrils seemed to grow more solid and changed color, getting darker. Getting browner and thicker, the tendril grew smaller shapes to the sides, which quickly transformed themselves to look like green leaves, similar to the ones growing from the largest of trees in Deep Forest.

As they had almost "reached" Lyrial now, another quick transformation took place, and the tendril-turned-tree branches tips turned into gnarled, wooden hands, reaching out to Lyrial. Another transformation took place as some of the hands seemed to grow stiffer and darker, so dark brown they almost looked black, while the remaining hands seemed to grow smoother, smaller and a lighter brown in color. While they still came closer to Lyrial, their other ends attached to the swirling white portal, they spread out, as if to include unseen others standing next to her. The darker hands seemed to want to grab with force, demanding and threatening, while the lighter ones also seemed to want to grab a hold, but were held in a gesture commonly recognized as one pleading for aid. The only thing in common the two different sort of reaching "hands" had, was that without a doubt they meant to reach out, grab, and pull back, though possibly with different intetions.

Then the portal and it's wooden tendrils faded away, to be replaced with an image that could only be described as the viewer rapidly moving forwards, right to where the portal had been, through the spot it had occupied, and into a tunnel. Speeding along towards the end the spell showed blurry movement at the end of it, but before it could reveal what it was, it all faded away to nothing. It was all the spell could show to Lyrial.

Meanwhile Juno's monologue to the suspended unicorns refused to turn into a conversations, as no response was given by either winged beings, nor even the tree. Not even a twitch of a limb. Silence was the only answer given. Suddenly a single green leaf came floating down, and right before Juno got distracted and turned away, the leaf fell on top of his helmet, only to slide off the side, and finish it's journey to the broken earth. A coincidence? Or a response?

As the situation around the ones present rapidly changed from puzzling to menacing, the lazily swirling white portal had again responded to Zom's approach in the exact same way it had twice before: whispy tendrils reached out to her, weaving through the air, though never making actual contact, not even when she reached the exact spot of the portal. As she stood still the tendril rapidly increased their motions, looking either agitated or exhausted, but even though they still reached and weaved towards Zom, they still made no direct contact, instead moving around her, circling her, turning back, surrounding her with moving whisps of energy. Nothing else happened, though the tendrils did not disappear this time, quite contrary, the longer she stayed still, the more the portal's energy seemed to become disturbed from it's lazy constant spiral, and more waves of energy broke off, either surrounding Zom, or just aimlessly flaying about, reaching outwards from the portal.

If Zom still had any hair on her skin, it would be standing up real soon from the rising tension -not to mention static- being emitted by the portal's energy, building up to something, but not quite reaching that climax no matter how long she stood still.

[Luxon Cobrat]

Rekka's interest in the new arrivals grew as things started to heat up. He wasn't presently willing to risk getting caught up in a fight himself, but he had no objections to watching one. And once one of the newcomers teleport-kicked Juno in the head, it looked like it was on.

And then it wasn't.

One gunshot, and down Juno went. Pretty anticlimactic. But that was the way of it.

Now there was an unknown sniper somewhere around. Hopefully Juno was the only target. Pretty much everyone here was standing out in the open like sitting ducks. Unfortunate circumstance, but the fact that the sniper had taken Juno out with a chest shot at least suggested that he wasn't inclined to show off with headshots. If he tried for Rekka, then hopefully the first shot would go for center mass again. The strength of Rekka's heavily enchanted mail shirt should have kept him perfectly safe in that case, regardless of the strength of the weapon, thereby giving him ample warning.

Given that death for Rekka would only mean failure to satisfy an idle curiosity, he was willing to risk ignoring the danger for now in order to concentrate on the puzzle before him.

He was starting to suspect that he would want to try stepping into one of the energy swirls himself, but would give Zom a few more moments to test it out first.

*****

And back to Zom.

The swirly thing was doing something new, finally. There wasn't much new for Zom to do, though, so she just continued standing there. The gunshot caught her attention, and she glanced at Juno just in time to see the blood spray out of him.

... Neon red? Now, that was a funny color for blood. And it had been such a random thing too. She laughed a bit.

Then she realized that it was actually rather bemusing. She was sure he'd had some entertainment value left in him, and there weren't enough people in the world with the good sense to wear their hair pink. His death was really quite a loss.

Meanwhile, on the subject of hair, she was certain hers was starting to frizz. Just the loose strands for now, but it was building up. At least her helmet would hold it down for the most part, but the ends could get out of hand. If she built up too much static, she would be tempted to run out and shock someone on the ear. But that would interrupt whatever was going on, unfortunately, so she would have to hold still. One often had to make sacrifices for the greater... whatever she was trying to serve here.

[forgerofsouls]

Lyrial watched with satisfaction as her spell rewarded her with info. Though what it should still surprised her, she frowned slightly as showed watched the image, for it was obvious to her that something or someone was interfering with it. But for what purpose? Regardless she watched as the hands formed and then the rush to the white portal and the cave. Than it vanished.

Lyrial closed her eyes in though, not even aware of what was happening around her at the moment. It was obvious to her that the white pleading hands wanted help. But who wanted help and why? The forest was in a state of chaos due to the earthquakes and explosions. Could it be that the white hands represented the will of the forest itself? And that the forest was asking for help? But it has no voice and thus could ask for help, thus it was hoping for a miracle? Than what about the black hands that grabbed violently?

They had to represent the force that was threatening the forest. Lyrial could only conclude that. It made sense, the white hands of the forest asking for help for the black hands that threatened it. Lyrial opened her eyes and stared at the white portal ahead of her, even though the woman was standing in the center of it, it did nothing for her. Was it because it could detect the evil in the woman? That was all Lyrial could figure out, after all, the demon she was with was obviously evil, so the woman was most likely evil to.

So does that mean that only those that are good, or have intentions of helping the forest (and most likely preferably both) could enter the portal? But if that was the case than that would mean the black hands themselves would have opened a black portal of their own near by. And yet as far as Lyrial could tell, there was no black portal. At least, she was to busy being preoccupied to have looked around for one.

Still though, something was missing, Lyrial was sure of it. She had most of the puzzle pieces, but crucial pieces to the puzzle were missing. So, for now Lyrial figured that she should look around. Smiling to herself she aloud, "Eureka I think I figured it out!" Than she started to look around to see if there was any black portal. As she scanned the area she finally got a good look at the newcomers. One was injured, so she will have to help him after she scanned the area...Juno was injured?! What happened while she was busy!? She quickly scanned the rest of the area taking in every little detail before turning her full attention to those injured. Would she be in time to help Juno? She wouldn't know, plus there was the other injured, so she decided that a full healing pulse would be neccessary, a quick healing spell that had the power to even regenerate lost limbs in seconds. Far more powerful than the slow healing rain she used earlier.

"Hold on! I'll heal you two right now!" She said without even realizing that Juno and the Twins were basically enemies. She brought her hands together, but kept three inches of space in between them. She than started her chant in the ancient language. Her hair lit up to a bright white as it started to float behind her. A green sphere of energy formed between her hands. She than raised her hands above her head and with the final chant released the healing energy. Both Juno and Lev (and anyone else in the area that was injured) would find their injuries fully healed. Of course, that would be the case for Juno if it wasn't for the fact that Lyrial did not notice that he was basically laying there dead. Instead, while his injury would heal up (and the bullet removed if there was one), he would still lay there unmoving.

As Lyrial stared at Juno expecting him to jump up and do something outrageous, she heard a noise. It was coming towards them, rapidly it sounded like, and in the sky even. Looking up and around she wondered what was coming. Then she spotted it... Of course, she had no clue that the incoming object contained the reinforcements they would be needing. And she was wanting to try out what she had figured so far on the portal. For that was the only conclusion the vision she saw gave her.

[Gaius]

Devon lifted his head, ears adjusting. But, after a brief bit of looking about, nothing came into view. Perhaps he'd just imagined that growl of a laugh? 'Wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen today.' He kept it in mind, but turned his attention to the Twins. He opened his mouth, planning to ask about the game plan, before Leigh decided to show him. 'Ooch... That'll sting tomorrow...' Not if all was as it seemed, it wouldn't.

The donkey-boy was, put mildly, concerned to watch his friend throw herself into battle against the neko, after just giving half a lengthy list about why that was a terrible idea. Still, there didn't seem to be much choice, as she and her brother saw it. Speaking of Lev, Devon couldn't manage much more than return the false smile to the rebooting experiment, and watch the melee. The both of them felt rather useless, but there didn't seem much else they could do.

"Happily," then, did the donkey's ears prick up at something behind them, all too eager to give them too much else to do. He turned his head quickly and definitely saw something this time. The whites of his eyes grew large at the great beast, at least the size of several of him and in mid-lunge, and he froze. Heart racing, he fully expected his last moment would be his next. His next was instead spent watching Lev's shield flare to life, and launch their aggressor back a ways.

That golden flash snapped Devon out of his 'deer in headlights' routine. The easy 'teleport away!' option wasn't available; he was still too out of it, and he knew how badly things could go under those circumstances. His mind was out of its depth in other solutions to the 'dealing with monstrous canines' problem, but it nonetheless rode into action, wheels greased with adrenaline. Still, this effort was put on hold by the simmering sound his ears detected, and the sight and smell of Lev's flash-fried flesh and heat-warped wires. Even with what he'd observed, he supposed he hadn't really thought of either Twin as anything too dissimilar in structure to himself, but actually seeing some of what lay on the inside... The illusion was gone.

But being slightly weirded out wasn't going to stop Devon from helping a friend in need. Even if he wasn't sure how he was gonna do that. Or, well, he had an effective idea, but was hoping one he liked more would come along. No dice. The donkey sighed, giving a hint of a bray as he did so, and turned to Lev. He was lucky he'd not left his quadrupedal stance. Not happy, as such, but lucky. "Lev! This is, uh, weird, but... Get on my back. We've gotta move! Now!" He positioned his side next to Lev as he spoke, crouching down as much as the partly disabled experiment might need. It was fortunate he hadn't been larger, like a horse; shorter time from loading to fleeing might give them a real chance. Once the experiment was aboard -- if such was going to happen at all -- he was ready to discover his top speed. If Lev wouldn't or couldn't... Well, then he was going to hope that 'mule kills mountain lion' story had some truth to it.

Regardless, Devon's ears, already perked on high-alert, swiveled and twitched. A number of other events played out around him, but one in particular intrigued him. What sounded like a shot had just rung out. With the heavily-fanged monstrosity eating up most of his attention, the former human could give it little more than a post-it note's worth: 'Gunfire. Thank jebus for that. Place just wasn't stupidly chaotic and dangerous enough before.' The snarky bit of Devon's mind that had drafted this leaned back and felt satisfied. It was alone in this feeling, in the torrent of panic and confusion that was the rest of his mindscape.

[Myth]

The Giant black dog was almost blinded by the light of the shield emitted from Lev's device. The force of the blast was enough to fling the heavy beast a few meters back, his limbs and claws scraping along the ground as he roared in anger, eyes shut tighet and head shaking from side to side like a wet dog.

"Bad move!" Grym finely spoke after coughing up form the dust he'd made. Opening his eyes to realise he'd been only a few inches from being burned by the small earthly vain of acid. He growled again irritably and looked back over to the two he chose to play with. Seeing the mule trying to help his friend climb upon his back.

"Going somewhere?!" the doom dog smiled evilly, starting to walk towards them before vanishing from the real world. His eyes glanced quickly to the fallen body of his pink haired woodland acquittance. He could hardly see any sigh of his heart pumping if it was at all. Perhaps there was at least a cleaning job for him to do after he'd finished toying with others. Wasn't any sigh of him going anywhere yet, I'm sure his spiritual masters would enjoy his company in the underworld.

Grymith snapped back to gaze at Devon and Lev, he'd almost made full circle of them as Devon did his best to help Lev. Grym stepped out into the earthly world once more a few meters in front of the donkey this time. Nothing but the scorched earth of his paw prints were any evidence of his movement, his temper had risen slightly as did the pads of his large feet.

"What's the rush?" He snickered mockingly at the two. His wide fiery eyes fixed upon them. He was enjoying this little game, it beat having to look for clues round here like it was a crime scene. His attention span was far to short and the worldeater seamed to have it under control.

Who else could he bring a bit of fun to there lives?

[The_Vizir]

Leigh spun as her boot connected with Juno's head, a flap of her wings bringing her safely to the ground, feet spread, blades raised, as she looked at Juno's fallen body. Did she do it? Did she really knock out th-

Her relief was shattered in the second it took for Juno to roll over and leap to his feet - almost supernatural was his speed, though given his feline nature, it might not be totally unexpected. Leigh took a step back as the neko's ruby eyes locked onto her, his voice tinged with mere annoyance as he began his little rant. Of course, starting off by calling her dad a liar was the wrong way to go, as, heart pounding in her ears, she took a deep breath in and yelled "YOU'RE A LIAR!" into the ageless entity's face.

Leigh never knew if Juno heard her, as he was sent twisting away, crimson fluid leaking from his body and fizzling violently into the air, its primordial power reacting violently with the ordered multiverse. A short scream of surprise left her throat as the young experiment fell backwards to the ground, arms spread wide. Frantically pulling herself back up, she found herself gazing into Juno's dead eyes, his chaotic lifeblood still fizzling in his mouth. Scuttling back horrified, a small whimper escaped her mouth. This... was not supposed to happen!

Horrified eyes still locked on Juno's dead form, ears still ringing, the young Terran completely missed the worldeater's healing wave rushing over the area, something that her twin most certainly did not.

Lev was thankul that his shield was enough to toss the dog away, but he was even more thankful that his synthetic adrenaline still had the pain-dulling effects of its natural cousin. Clenching his fried hand, he winced in pain. This would be... his sister screamed, and Lev looked up. Unfortunately, he couldn't make out anything in the chaos, with everthing that was going on. Swirls of magic and light all around... he was certain that if his heart wasn't pounding as it was, he'd be dealing with a massive headache. Dang it!

And then Devon's worried voice cut through the haze. Lev blinked in confusion at the equine hybrid for a few seconds, before catching sight of the demon dog pulling to its fee. Oh... right. That would be a good idea. Lev grit his teeth and put his good arm around Devon, and tried pulling himself to his feet. Only... no good. The drivers for his legs were still fried. "Devon, this ain't gonna work. I'm still half offline. And the other half ain't doing so swell either..." his voice trembled slightly, but he knew what he had to do. That infernal hound was walking towards them again, his chops dribbling that unholy drool once again as it... vanished into the ether.

It seemed like Lev's sister wasn't the only one with a teleportation ability. As Lev looked around frantically for a sign of the dog, he completely missed Lyrial's healing wave washing over him, repairing the singed and fried flesh of his arm - but not the cybernetics that dwelt beneath - that was beyond the range of an organic healing spell, requiring one that mended things of artificial make to truly heal itself fully. Lev may have noticed that the pain in his arm was gone... had the fiendish hound not appeared out of nowhere, right in Devon's face.

"What's the rush?"

BOOM!

That was not Lev's response, but he'd take it. A grin spread across his face as he looked the demon strait in the eye, as a blast of air rushed over the entire crater. The roar of a plasma engine nearly drowned out Lev's laughter, as above the central tree, a futuristic fighter jet hovered, missile batteries targeted towards downwards, towards the myriad individuals present.

"THIS IS THE UESCS NORAD III! I AM ORDERIN' EVERYONE HERE TO STAND DOWN, OR I WILL BE FORCED TO UNLEASH HOLY HELL ON ALL YOUR ASSES. I DO HOPE OF OF YOU FAILS TO COMPLY, 'CAUSE IT'S BEEN WAY TOO LONG SINCE I BLEW AN IDIOT SKY HIGH."

"That's my dad," Lev announced to the dark wolf, as the ship hovered ominously overhead."Ya sure ya wanna make him angry?"

Though Lev's threat was slightly lessened by the amused muttering over the space-jet's speakers about being a poet and not even knowing it, two similar sonic booms were heard over the edge of the crater just to reinforce this Norad fellow's position. Two additionalcraft circled around the crater's edge, one skimming lower as it came in for a landing. Lev smiled and hauled himself up onto Devon's back. "I'd run now if I were you, doggy. Ya might just make it out alive."

Of course, Lev's threat may have been a bit more impressive had his mount not been slammed into mere moments later by a pile of sentient shadows and fears that had just dislodged itself from the larger of the two newer ships. A cry of "PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT" was all the warning Devon had before he found himself with a mass of unformed shadows stuck down his throat, and shoved up his nostrils. Likely very unpleasant.

Of course, that Grey mass of shadows was a huge germaphobe, so it was even worse for him...

A faint voice sounded from within Devon, demanding to know the licence and registration of that jetliner that hit him... and why it suddenly smelled like the inside of a lawnmower.

[JunoZXV]

Somewhere out there in the great universe spun a little blue planet filled with billions of humans and one sat staring at it's computer screen, rather dumbfounded at how the events played out. Rather perplexed on what to do with a screen that simply read:

Continue: Y/N?

A keystroke was the only response to that question.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Clop clop*

Notice: Odd. No source on that psychic notification, chalk it up as an ananomly and return to my normal duties.

*Clop clop*

Observation: Audio is picking up now but other sensors are not detecting any form of life in the direction. I must go back for repairs. Perhaps a full diagnostic may correct this error.

*Clop clop*

Further Observation: It's getting lou-

Zhee's thinking was cut short by something undetected hitting him, more of brushing him to the side but enough to startle the assassin. The only further thing he noticed as he regained his balance was a pair of fresh hoof prints sunken into the dirt, heading right for the area he just shot in.

Shock: Oh balls.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It wasn't there.

Or rather it was and then it wasn't. In a blink of an eye, a pulse of a heartbeat, the tick of a clock Juno's body was visible and then. Gone. An absence, a vanish, as if it had simply blinked out of existence. The red neon plasma was still sprayed about the scene slowly evaporating, but it was as if as soon as Lyrial had bent over and began her spell the body just disappeared.

And all that could be seen where it was were a few freshly placed hoof-prints.

There by the edge of the crater, were four cloaked figures upon steads of shadow and flame, only viewable to those whom were living or had lived, for to those these figures were very real indeed, and clopping beside them a 5th rider joined upon a matching steed.

One of the riders grinned.

Then again that was the only expression it had, and it seemed to be grinning right at Leigh.

With a tug of the reigns this leader began to gallop on its steed with the other four behind, all of them going into a full sprint in her direction where they continued past and through the twin, towards the tree.

The horsemen were riding.

[kirchhoff42]

A gun shot. Juno fell. There were chaos all around him. Ceriaos could not keep up with everything. So he did the only thing he could...

He ran. He moved as fast as he could to the edge of this madness. He stopped there and looked back wondering “should I leave or should I stay.” “you should stay. This is the most entertaining thing I have seen in a long time.” the shadow said. Ceriaos looked at the tree in the middle, at Juno's body on the ground, at Grimyth as he disappeared, when he looked back at Juno he was gone and only some neon red blood was left. “i think you are right.” He said “and stay out of my head.”
he looked around trying to make sense of everything. It was difficult. It was like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle while other pieces was thrown in.

Suddenly Ceriaos had enough he yelled from the top of his lungs “what is going on here!?” “isn't it obvious that...” Ceriaos interrupted it “no and shut it.” “someone is in a bad mood here” it said as it appeared as a shadow behind him. Ceriaos sat down on the ground and picked up a rock. He sighed and threw the rock into one of the orange streams. Before drawing his dagger from his shoulder if anything should happen.

OOC: sorry the delay and the last post. i have been on holiday and have some unpacking to do.

[Luxon Cobrat]

And now there were ships in the air. That was... different. Probably came from that crashed wreck out in the wasteland, but neither Rekka nor Zom had really paid much attention to that. There wasn't really much for either of them to do about it now, anyway. As long as the voice from the ship didn't demand a surrender or something...

*****

Meanwhile, inside the ship that had landed...

"But how can somebody stand down?" Entropy was asking, quite disoriented at this point. "I thought people only stood up. Don't they just sit down?"

Not much else to do at that point.

[forgerofsouls]

They have arrived eh? But why have they picked up Juno's body? This is not looking good. Lyiral thought to herself as the horseman did what they did. But she soon came back to her senses as the newest arrival started using the crafts speakers to yell out both a greeting and an order and a threat. Lyrial liked this turn of events. And than came the comment about being a poet and Lyrial groaned and shock her head. "Hey doggy, it looks like you are out-matched and out-gunned with ease now. Which is lucky for you, as I was getting ready to unleash the fury of my magic on you. Now I don't have to! I can save my magic power for later. So consider yourself lucky." Lyrial said grinning. Of course that was partly a bluff, but there was no way Grym would know that. Especially with the new arrival.

Lyrial looked at Lev. "Hows your injuries now? My spell should have fixed you up." She asked. Than realized that she forgot something. New people need one thing! A greeting! "Oh! I'm sorry, I have yet to introduce myself. I am Lyrial Eailiolery, granddaughter of the Goddess Slyphianess, and the most powerful mage around!" She finished her not so humble greeting with what could pass as a curtsey, given what she was wearing and all.

Meanwhile, in side the craft, there was not just one, nor two voices, but a third. "Its a figure of speech, basically he was asking them to stop all hostility. You know, to stop fighting. But beyond that, lets open the hatch." If Lyrial was paying attention like she should have been...than she would have known that voice.

[Gaius]

With the hell-hound popping up in front of him, Devon felt his death was near for the second time in as many the same minute. This time, though, he didn't freeze up. Lyrial's healing spell might have had something to do with it: there had been few hurts to soothe, but it was the sort of thing that helped one feel more alive. 'Okay. Might just feel kinda sick, I might miss completely, so this'll probably suck. Still, seems like the best chance here, so...' Much as he trembled, he stared up at the horrific beast with a defiant glint in his eye. The donkey shifted more weight onto his forelegs, prepared to lift up and coil the back ones, and...

Found such plans were unnecessary. Devon jerked his head toward the aircraft, ears still ringing from the burst of its arrival. A snarky part of his mind began a second post-it note about 'jumping up the tech tree today,' to go with the first about firearms. At Lev's reaction, though, the little part scurried off to join the party that had broken out in Devon's cranium. "Oh, thank jebus..." While his heart still suggested he'd just run a relay, the former human smiled a bit. He'd smile a lot more without the big harbinger of death right in front of him, but he was thankful enough for the cavalry's arrival. The donkey-boy might even have tolerated someone saying Lev's dad was "pulling their ass out of the fire."

Speaking of Lev, the experiment had managed to pull himself onto Devon's back. While the former human certainly had a paragraph's worth of introspective blather on this turn of events, it would have to wait. We instead focus on how Devon took a deep breath to calm himself, turned at a strange cry, and got his second snootful of shadow-stuff that day. Being both more invasive and, er, alive, it was safe to call this the worse of the two.

Yes, Grey was right to wonder what he did, and was soon given more to contemplate. What are all those hacking and gurgling noises, for instance, or how much better off am I not knowing that answer. The answer to the first was simply that the fey-touched donkey in whose throat Grey was lodged had begun choking and coughing, throwing his head around, and stumbling about. The answer to the second is left as an exercise to the reader.

Devon was aware that other things were going on around him, but was a bit too focused on "Operation: Don't Choke to Death on a Shadow" to notice. Further, while the equine was staggering around, he at least had enough wits about him to stagger away from the hell-hound. Still, his footing was a bit uneven, despite the fey 'smoothing' influence's best efforts. The ride was probably not the most comfy of Lev's life. With luck, the rider would at least keep the sputtering mount from backing up into an acid pool or something.

Finally, Devon managed to hack up a sizeable chunk of Grey. Between deep breaths, he proceeded to let the world know his opinion of that little episode. "What. The hell. Was that!?"

[The_Vizir]

Fortunately - or unfortunately - for Leigh, her status as a 'living being' was still up for debate thanks to her cybernetic origin. Ergo, while she caught a flicker of something... horribly wrong out of the corner of her eyes, she didn't exactly comprehend that the five horsemen of the apocalypse were riding across the crater. Instead, her senses told her it was some kind of reality flux - a rift, mayhaps, or a magical disturbance. Whatever it was, it was not good - and so she rolled herself out of the way of the swiftly moving disturbance with a started shout, coming out in a semi-crouch, hands spread out warily. Her heart racing at a mile a minute, her first thought was to ask what the heck it was that nearly barreled her over. Of course, that was quickly replaced by a second, more powerful reaction - "DAD!"

---

The Beluga shot up a cloud of ash and dirt as it's plasma jets lowered it to the ground, the roar of the twin engines almost deafening those close to the drop ship's landing site. As it settled on the broken ground, two tank-like treads emerged from the bottom with a metallic grind, locking firmly in place before the vessel's weight was forced down upon them. Then, the roar of the plasma engines and the hum of the antigravs were cut, leaving only eerie silence as the craft just sat there for a few seconds.

And then, the back hissed open, and with the sound of pneumatic pistons extending, the rear hatch of the Beluga rotated down, forming a ramp onto the scorched ground of the blast zone. A voice was heard within; crisp, authoritative, and more than a little annoyed, despite its southern drawl. As the shadowy interior of the Beluga was revealed, there stood a human male, dressed in a blue-and-red military uniform, hands clasped firmly behind his back. His bearded face was set and stern, but thinly-veiled frustration burned behind his strange eyes - green and dully glowing, appearing to shimmer as a stream of data ran through them. Indeed, his eyes looked identical to those of the two experiments who had just recently arrived in the crater. In fact, it was fairly easy to draw parallels between the human's uniform and the jackets worn by the two furred hybrids - there were many parallels stylistically as well as with the badges and logos that festooned both - most prominent being the chest patch which proclaimed UESCS NORAD III - the same logo that was emblazoned on the side of all three ships that had appeared just moments ago.

As the human stepped forward into the light, he seemed to shimmer, and it was possible to see the partially-obscured interior of the Beluga's, as well as the two figures within. His booted feet made the motions of walking, but no prints were left, nor was any dust kicked up by his passing. If not for the glowing orb of light at his core, it would be possible to believe the man to be no more than a spirit or a ghost... a very irate ghost.

"-surprised that folks actually listed to me this time. I mean, that never happens. Normally I have to fire a few dozen rounds through their skulls before they done get the message." the hologram grumbled as he continued forward, his rant clearly meant for the passengers of the ship. "Not that that does no good here... I mean I think all y'all have decided to take 'immunity to bullets' as some kind of bonus feature or ability or somethin'. Got you some dang herb-infused water? Kill zombies, ghosts, and demons with a squirt gun! But a few thousand rounds of depleted uranium in your skull? Eh, you've all had worse hangovers. It's like this damned forest is specifically tryin' to make my life miserable. Anyhow-"

Norad clapped his hands before turning towards were Devon, Lyrial, and his eldest son were confronting the demon dog. "Kligne, that there's my son, riding what looks to be a donkey... I don't have me any idea either. However, it looks like that damn wolf-thing there's done got itself the idea to add 'big bad' to its name there. Break its nose for me, will ya?"

Another turn, to look dead at Rekka. "Entropy, I think we've found an old friend of yours. I still owe him for killing a few people and ruining a perfectly good Beluga. You have free reign here to gut the teleporting bastard and hang his entrails from a tree. And Rekka - don't try to run. I've got a targetin' lock on your biometrics, boy. You try to run, and I'll be shovin' a missile up your ass so far your head'll be the first part to explode when it goes off. 'Course, ya don't run, and Entropy'll be servin' us all Incubus flambe for dinner here. So, I suppose yer done damned if ya do, and right damned if ya don't. Hope ya appreciate the irony there, ya smug bastard." A dark grin crossed the Terran AI's holographic visage, before he turned towards where his daughter crouched. "Now, if y'all don't mind, I think my daughter just called for a fatherly hand."

A deep breath, and a very wry grin appeared on Norad's face. "Yes, I do believe we just saved the day. Damn..." the hologram said as he adjusted the cuffs of his unform's sleeves "I love bein' the hero."

---

Now, Lev really wasn't certain what was going on... his dad arrived, and then he's hanging on for dear life as Devon starts bucking like bronco at a stampede. Lev did try to hold on, but... he never was any good at bareback - having never done it before in his life. Ever. Flung off, he landed on his back with a surprised "OOPH!" - a ringing in his ears dulling out most of the sounds around him as he sought to regain control of what senses he had online.

As Lev looked up, he found himself staring at the strange lady who had been doing something... magic-related earlier. For a few seconds, he could've sworn... "Entropy?" he asked. Well, she did call herself the best mage around. But since that wasn't followed up by a 'kneel before me and offer me your cotton candy as tribute to your new goddess-general-in-chief' or something like that... it didn't fit. There was bravado there, to be certain - and power to. But no crazy. Lev didn't know weather to be relived or worried... so he just stuck a thumbs-up way up in the air and said, goggily, "Big time!"

There we go, should answer everything...

Well, except for the ball of shadow's earlier queries. Now, being shoved down the throat of a magical little donkey is one thing... being hacked back out is something else entirely. A massive gob of spittle, mucus, and shadowstuff flung from Devon's agitated mouth, and that was enough for the shadow to begin recalling the remainder of itself back into one cohesive unit. The shadowy splatter began to drain out of Devon's nose, mouth, eyes, and ears - as well as clean out from his fur - and slide across the ground towards the growing pool. As the shadows coalesced, the shadows began to rise up, taking on a three dimensional form. Strange bulges and shapes rippled among the rising shadow - figures of skulls, screaming faces, hungry maws, glaring eyes, and grasping hands. Slowly, the rippling subsided, and the black shadows faded to a dark blue-grey, the umbral mass gaining the texture of fur. Four limbs connected to the ground - beastial hind-paws, and bat-like fore-wings, each capped with a glistening ebon claw. A long, sinuous tail wrapped itself around the solidifying form, as a mane of thick fur ran down its back. Finally, a head formed - a black skeletal skull emerged, to be swiftly covered by ebon musculature, and then smokey-grey fur. Two eyeballs popped into place - surprisingly human in appearance - while two bat-like ears rose from the top of its head. Finally, a maw full of vicious teeth split its short, beastial muzzle, as the shadowcreature took in a deep breath, and shook its head.

"Worst. Idea. Ever." the little nightmare proclaimed, shaking his head and clearing out a couple of the stars that were circling at. The creature then spun around, and with great indignation announced "And I am no hellspawn, sir! It is from the Pit th-"

The nightmare, who had been jabbing his claw forward at the speaker, found that he was poing a muzzle. He blinked a few times, then grabbed for his eyes. Great... they were in backwards. His claws then dug into his face, ripping out his two white orbs in a rather vicious display of shadowy gore, before he proudly held forth his two eyes. He quickly set about cleaning them off on his fur... which was covered in the innards or a donkey's nasal cavity. That feeling quickly caused him to stop. Holding forth his eyes in his claws, he turned them around so the bright golden-brown irises staired strait at the place from wence he emerged.

And the nightmare caught himself staring strait at the muzzle of a certain donkey. It took Grey a few seconds to piece two and two together... before he turned his eyes to look back at himself - covered in spittle and mucus.

And the germaphobic little guy prompty dropped his eyes onto the ground, dropped to all fours, and started dry heaving.

In between the pained periods of autonomic distress, the closet monster managed to get out a number of frantic sentences such as "I WAS IN THERE?", "EW EW EW EW EW!", "I HATE MORTALS!", "I NEED A THREE MONTH ACID BATH!", "A LIFETIME OF COUNSELING WON'T FIX THIS", and "JUST BECAUSE I LIKE OBAMA DOESN'T MEAN I LIKE DONKIES - BLECK!"

All in all, Grey was extremely miserable. And covered in organic gunk - gunk that should stay inside of organics. At all times.

And that just made him more miserable....

[Myth]

For the first time since he broke free from his chains, did the cold, gut wrenching emotion of fear run through the hellhound body. In all his life he'd never seen anything like it, a huge flying object hunt in mid-air as it spoke to him from the havens.

His hells fire soon dimmed down and turned a shade of neon green and blue, lowering the giant dogs body flat against the ground in a odd form of submission. He kept snarling at the unknown, confused and unaware of what damage it could do to him, if any. True his is technically dead, but there are things that can harm him and pain was never a pleasing experiences.

His Large ears caught he voice of the death eater threatening him too! WTF?! He was just being playfully....

...In a horrifyingly, insane, ghostly kinda way. Come to think of it, it dose often got him a bit of a bad reputation. hummm...maybe he could use a few pointers on manners but what do you expect from a untrained feral hellhound. Especially when his master was no longer giving him commands....too...wait a minuet, what did she call him?!

"Doggy!?" He repeated with a growl, taking it in as a insult. A small flash of red sparked his flames, but soon the blue and green took over once more as he was reminded by the creatures of the sky. Then in the corner of his eye he heard something oddly familiar to his ears, the shrill cries of four very impotent players of his world.

Wait!...Why were they taking him...Grim was just as good at brining the dead to there final resting place, plus he was starting to! True he was often sent to hunt the sinful living down, but there jobs were more or less the same.



The hell hound made a grumbling groan as he reluctantly, "FINE!" He growled loudly, like some child being told off. mumbling and cursing under his breath about how everyone who was spoiling his fun.

Grimyth backed away slowly and slinked away to sulk for a bit into oblivion. Invisible to all who cannot not see into the spirit realm, the hound gave a respectable bow towards the riders.



(sorry for the wait guys, moved house and went on holiday last week so had no internet for a while. Oh and feel free to teach the Dog some manners, im sure with the right leverage he can be forced to be nice (untill he gets hungry). lol.)

[Luxon Cobrat]

Rekka looked back at Norad with narrowed eyes as he spoke. The incubus then promptly blinked directly in front of him and ran his sword through the hologram's stomach - obviously, to no effect. This, however, only elicited an amused smile from the demon.

"I see," he acknowledged. "But can your missile cross the very cleft of reality?"

And then he was gone. Completely gone. Nowhere on the planet, or any region of subspace associated with it. But only long enough to ensure that Norad would realize this. Within another moment, he was inside the Beluga.

"I don't rightly recall running into you," Rekka said. "Who have I killed that you know?"

Then he turned his attention to Entropy, who looked a bit more pale than usual.

"Don't worry yourself," the demon told her. "Wrathmont's done with you for now. I won't be trying to bring you back in for a while."

"Huh?" Entropy asked, a bit distractedly. "Oh, uh... It's not you I'm worried about right now."

"Then why so distraught?"

"I didn't know Norad liked Incubus Flambe," the Overlord answered. "I mean, I guess it's not his species, but if he eats incubus, he probably eats succubus too..."

Rekka scratched his head.

"I..." he started. "I don't think he was being literal."

"Well, I should hope not!" Entropy exclaimed. "If everyone went around being literal, this forest would be a garbage dump within a week!"

"... Right!" Rekka snapped, readying his sword. "En garde!"

[forgerofsouls]

As Klinge stepped out of the Beluga he took on look at the hellhound...and than blinked. For the creature had vanished. "So much for punching him in the nose..." Klinge said aloud. Than suddenly he blinked, and Rekka had appeared near them, and them disappeared, just to reappear inside the Beluga. Great, a teleporter. Klinge gave out a small sigh. This was turning into a bigger headache than anticipated. But...this...Rekka...he thought he heard Norad call him, maybe he knows something about what was happening here? But, at the same time, who was the pink haired woman? She was the only one not mentioned by Norad. But for now he moved to be near the "donkey" and Lev. To sort of be near them in case the now invisible hellhound decided to...return. Otherwise, he decided to ask Lyrial something. "Lyrial! What are you doing here?" Well...maybe he choose the wrong question.

"Eh?" This was Lyrial's confused response. She did not expect him to ask that question, others, yes, maybe even blame her for the mess, yes, but why she was here? "Trying to fix this mess!" She said simply. "Also, since when does a half-angel travel with a demon?" She said eyeing Entropy.

"Never mind who I travel with, as far as I can tell she is also trying to fix this." Klinge replied. "Can you tell us that have just recently arrived what has been going on, at least as far as you can tell?" He said before looking over at the pink haired woman. "Also, what about the pink haired one over there?"

"She came with that incubus that was teleporting all over the place. Beyond that, no clue. As for what has been happening? Well, when I got here the tree was the only thing standing, and the unicorns all knocked out. Others arrived, stuff happened, nothing dangerous mind you. Than another explosion here, and the next thing I know the white swirling energy thing over there appeared and the unicorns started to levitate. Than Juno was shot and killed, and the horsemen took him away." She said at length, pointing to the white swirling energy and the spot were Juno was killed.

"Who's Juno?" Klinge asked out loud. "I'm going to assume that you have some idea as to what that white thing is, I'd ask Entropy, but I think a fight is about to break loose between her and the other demon." Klinge said while looking over in their general direction. "I'd like to have proper introductions with everyone later, after we figure out this mess." He said after eyeing the others, the ones that Norad talked about.

"Juno was the first person I met, he was a strange one. As for what that is? Well, I have a hunch. Before you guys arrived I had did a little divination. As far as I can tell, the white swirling energy over there is supposed to be a portal. I think either the forest itself or the spirit of the forest opened it up. For apparently there is something evil that the forest wants us to stop." Lyrial explained, obviously happy with herself for actually doing something right with her magic for a change. Especially in front of Klinge...who typically had to fix her mistakes caused by her magic.

"Hm...thats actually rather interesting. Sounds like it fits a legend I heard back in the village not to long ago. Apparently there is supposed to be some ancient evil sealed away under the mountains. But...if thats the case, how is it causing these earthquakes and explosions?" He said, now intrigued, it seems like they were getting somewhere...but was it the right direction, and if it was...would they really be able to fight off such a being powerful enough to cause earthquakes and explosions? And if it was the wrong path, than that led them to a dead end...

"I'm going to assume that the earthquakes are the aftermath of whatever is causing this using some powerful magic to....I think attack this location. It was after the unicorns I think. If it is indeed sealed, it has than almost broke the seal completely. And every time it has used its magic, it takes so much, that the release of the energy itself could potentially disrupt the natural energy and magic of the forest, thus causing odd things to happen. But, this is all one big hunch. There is a good chance it is wrong." She told him. She hopped that what she saw was right, and that with the legend in mind, perhaps even the cause.

"I see..." Klinge than turned to Norad. "Norad, what do you think about what she said? What about you Entropy? Fits what we've been seeing?" Though with Rekka...he doubted that Entropy heard.