"This is just peachy..."

A heavy bird considers his circumstances as he rests upon the back of a stone gargoyle. The statue is rough on his spine but at least supports his weight above ground level. Its figure casts a shadow that surrounds him and renders him invisible to anyone who passes below. Pounding footsteps cause the stone dungeon walls to tremble slightly as they march underneath his secret alcove. The restless pacing fails to draw his attention; he knows well what has been continually hunting him for the past hour. It's too coincidental that an indestructable Headhunter should appear in the dungeon on this day. The thought of being stuck for a while encourages him to send out a few messages to various players.

To: The_End_Cypher, Sydofh
From: KamiKazeKiwi3

Hacorie asked me for help but I'm kind of stuck where I am. He sent me this about an hour ago.

"Hey, we are in trouble here. I was wondering if you could come and help out soon, or know someone of high level to. We are pit up against a monster made up of crystals. It has already killed a few, but they are revived. One is dead and disappeared. Another left. Our numbers are dwindling down. If you know of anyone who can help please Flashmail them. I believe in this group, but we have little resources and people. I do not know if we can beat it. We could run away, but this place is full of people who live here. Who knows what will happen to them if they die. I cannot risk that.
~Hac"

I already asked my clan to go there. It's strange that they couldn't handle the matter, so I'm calling up extended favors. I can't leave the dungeon I'm in yet. Could you help them out? You'll find them at Theta Bursting Fantasy Fallen Angel.

End of message.

The sun hangs gently over the town as night has turned into morning again. The clock tower indicates the current time with its short arm towards the eight and its long arm somewhere about the three. People have emerged from their homes and can be seen walking about again. Most of the activity is concentrated around the windmill and the center well. A few have taken interest in observing the devastated Clock Shop. Some of them have climbed through the stairs within the windmill to help reassemble the ceiling with new stones and wood. Festival preparations have been paused in response to the damages caused to the town. Slowly, the windmill is being returned to its original state. Albatross watches over two or three others putting together a pair of sails. The sails will be lifted from the ground by ropes and attached to the building again.

Sophie silently flips through the pages of a book in her hands. She sets the book down at the table in front of her and pushes her violet hair back. Nathan approaches her with a cup that exudes slight steam. She signals with her hands that she'd prefer to have it on the table for the moment, their short conversation indistinguishable but apparently uneventful. Nathan returns to the inn's front desk at the next room. The players are presumably resting above him in the second story rooms. While the expense of their stay was covered for that night, six of them were restricted to sharing three rooms with beds for each one.

Asura has a room apart from the other party members. The chamber has a strong wooden floor with a carpet coating its surface. Dark green paints a background for a design bearing golden, crimson, and chocolate leaves on the carpet. The room reaches eighteen feet back from the door so as to comfortably enclose a pair of beds and three nightstands. The stands are set along the bed sides with one shared between the two. A circular metal dish holds a used candle on the middle stand. The sheets on the beds match the leaf mosaic on the floor. The cloth is light because the nights in the town are cool but not cold this season. The rest of the space is rather limited in the room. The beds are sturdy and have enough space to fit a couple. A gap separates the beds from a closet cabinet and a wider stand with a mirror and drawers, pressed against the opposite wall. This pattern repeats throughout the rooms.

Once Asura awakes she'll find that a cold rag was set on her forehead. The rag and accompanying water bucket by the bed were used to control her fever during the night. Her chest presents no marks of where she was struck or what followed. Her clothes possess a dark stain and a precise hole resembling a rapier thrust. She may want to ensure that her green tunic is on properly, however, as the upper half was removed and set nearby with her cloak when she was being treated for her wound. Asura should soon notice that her whips are also impossible to equip now. She has the traits of a Fist Fighter, meaning none of her weapons will work. Two of her levels have disappeared. Short brown hair peeks out quietly from the sheets of the other bed in the room. Rose snoozes there since she spent the night tending to Asura and keeping her temperature down. Her bed is the one closest to the single window.

The rooms connect to a corridor on the second floor. It should be noted that the party is occupying four rooms towards the left of the building. The right side contains two additional rooms that are empty and two that are locked. The locked rooms bear the names Nathan and Mariam upon the doors, across the hall from each other at the right end. The autumn extends along the floor here and down the stairs leading to the first floor. The stairs are set between the four left room and the four right rooms. They come out to the left of the front desk in the first floor. Nathan is waiting behind to counter to tell anyone who comes down to proceed to the breakfast table because Sophie wants to speak to them.

The lobby occupies the width of two rooms. The right door leads to the dining room, while the left door has been locked. The kitchen can be reached through the dining room by a door in the back, though the kitchen is also off limits to the players. Those who choose to check whether they can Gate Out or not will find that they remain unable to leave the field.

As Homer wrote so many times, it was a rosy fingered dawn. The red sunshine crept over the horizon, shedding its brilliant light over the field. FireX thumbed through his gaming preferences and changed his username. He was starting to find his username a bothersome thing. Although he had been using it for a long time, he needed a change of pace. It just so happened that a persian word for 'fire' was just the thing. From then on, FireX had the username Atash, but would still respond to FireX or any other slip ups of his name. Foreign words tended to drive most crazy, but his party would probably be the exception. All of them were intelligent, even moreso than most of the adults around Atash. "They probably won't mind it too much. It's only a username."

Some of the blackened crystals from the other day had been cleared from the streets along with the rubble, but others, crushed and cracked, lay strewn across the walkways and byways. The gigantic menace of a crystal had been blasted by spells of great magnitude. Around Atash lay one of his comrades, the rest in adjacent rooms. All of them had fought with quite a fervor, blasting holes and blowing up random things. He himself, however, had been slammed into the sphere as an engine for the second longest period of time, doing nearly nothing. Regardless, he sat up in his bed trying to figure out what he was doing still playing the game. He would need to gate out so he could leave for some food, but regardless, he was still stuck in. Not wanting to leave his party by simply disconnecting the power and the internet modem, he decided he would stick around for a while longer. The second day had begun.

Scooching out of the bed, the twin blade checked around for his blades. The missing weapons sent Atash into a state of alarm, quickly scanning the room. He found the blades lying on the floor, next to the bed. They were stacked on on top of the other, metal on metal. The cold steel of the phantom blades felt familiar in Atash's hands, even after having been forced to grab a central bar located within the obsidian monstrosity, Chaos Theory. The bed was ruffled during his exit, the folds rumpling on to one another. Taking a brief second or two to straighten it out, he was on his way out to the hallway. Taking a right, he headed for the staircase, quickly opening each of the doors a crack to check if anyone else was awake. It just so seemed that nobody appeared in the slightest as even alive. At the fourth room, Atash quickly shut the door for fear of invading one of their comatose party member's privacy. He blushed slightly and ran down the stairs. The whole building had a homy feeling, and the teller at the front desk, Nathan by his own calling, had an amiable demeanor about him. "Sophie wishes to speak to everyone in the dining room for breakfast. It is through the door down that way, to the right."

Atash felt his avatar's emptiness and quickly thanked Nathan, moving towards the dining room and the breakfast table.

”HHHHHIIIIIYYYYYYAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!” The war cry rang around. The source of the voice was a Heavy Blade engulfed in flames. He was looking towards a giant behemoth of black crystals, trying to figure out his next plan of movement. Suddenly, the giant roared and swept at the Heavy Blade with one of it’s “hands.” And that was when Slicer woke up.

As he sat up, Slicer noticed that his body was covered in sweat. The dream hadn’t really been a dream. It had happened. That was the scariest part. It was hard to believe that he could even sleep after an encounter like that, but then again, Slicer had to sleep. There didn’t seem to be any other way out of it. He couldn’t log out and disconnecting was definitely out of the question. So, here he was, sitting in a digital bed in a digital inn.

Getting out of bed, Slicer noticed how his entire body still ached from yesterday’s little stunt with the Vak Drive. How it didn’t kill him was a mystery, but at least the philosophy of fighting fire with fire worked, even though that should’ve never been taken on a literal level.

As he stretched a bit, Slicer noticed not for the first time just how uncomfortable it was to fight in this uniform. A bit of data altering should be fine... no one’s actually seen the actually Slicer get-up, so it should be safe. With a couple quick clicks of the mouse, the clothes around Slicer changed in a “Magic Girl Anime” fashion. The white blouse was quickly replaced by a white shirt, which was also covered by a black jacket. The skirt changed from the blue color into black, before it grew and formed the pants that went all the way down Slicer’s legs. Testing out the strength of the clothing, Slicer found it to be much better than the school girl’s uniform.

While testing out the clothing, Slicer looked out the window, noticing the devastation that had ensured yesterday. Well... we haven’t exactly done anything to make the townsman look at us like super heros... The Heavy Blade sighed, turning around, about to head out the door, when he noticed the sleeping Long Arm on the other bed. Wait... wha? Oh, right. Yesterday night had been tiring, so, when they couldn’t find a way out, they booked a couple rooms in the Inn. Who was going to pay the bill was anyone’s guess. Due to the fact that the Inn probably didn’t want to use up all their rooms for a party who they probably suspected as having no money, they caused the party to pair up and two people got a single room. And since Slicer was the lucky one with the female appearance and Senna was the only other female, excluding Asura, who was being nursed back to health, Slicer and Senna shared a room together. Slicer didn’t think of it much; only that it would be best if he stayed in this guise for a while...

Trying not to wake Senna, since he wanted the Long Arm to get some more sleep, Slicer crept down the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible. It should probably be noted that when one tried to do something, they usually succeed or fail miserably. The latter happened to Slicer as he tried to slowly walk down the stairs. As he walked down, his foot tripped on the fourth step. A loose nail or something, probably. The result? A tumbling Heavy Blade. Good thing he didn’t have his weapon on...

As he finished his fall, he arrived at the counter, noticing Nathan waiting there. Slicer waved hi as well as he could while his body was in a ball-like form. Nathan returned the greeting, before telling Slicer that Sophie wanted to meet them. Dusting himself off as he got up, Slicer walked towards the dining room, wondering how digital food tasted...

A piercing pain through her chest, as skilled as the rapier strikes that had once been her trademark. Then darkness, followed by a collage of images from various bits of her time spent fully trapped within the World. Parties, events, duels, and searching for rare items. From a grinning face to a stern glare, her mind travelled through the various events that had been her existence in the World so far. With that in mind, Asura resolves not to let a lucky shot kill her off so easily.

Through the night, the fever had ravaged Asura's body, likely attempting to destroy the now present parasite within her body. The fever eventually breaks, leaving Rose to sleep instead of tending over the wounded. In time, the new sun rises upon the town and the party starts to stir, rising from their beds and preparing for a brand new day of attempting to discover the mystery of the town. Among them, albeit a bit later, is Asura. When her eyes shoot up, they immediately dart to attempt to feel where the last shard had pierced her, a surprised gasp escaping her lips as she finds nothing but bare, clean skin. She had expected some sort of wound considering the searing torment. With a sigh, Asura gets up and reaches for her green tunic shirt and cloak, putting them both on in quick, nimble motions.

However, a surprise still waited for Asura. When Asura reached for her whip, she only felt discomfort at trying to wield it. On a whimsy, the ex-Whipmistress makes a quick glance over her character information, a confused look running over her face as she finds that her class had apparantly switched over to Fist Fighter and two levels were missing. The treasure hunter sticks her old weapon into her bag, attaching the bag back to her belt, and slipping out the room quietly, so as not to disturb Rose.

She exits the room just in time to see a Heavy Blade barreling down the staircase before being told to head to the dining room to meet with Sophie. Asura adjusts her cloak a bit, checking to make sure that the clasp is properly connected, then leaps over the railing to gracefully land on the floor below her, only making a light sound with her landing. Whatever the attack that hit her was, it hadn't left any ill effects as far as she could tell. Furthermore, her body seemed more nimble and athletic, likely as a result of now being a Fist Fighter. Perhaps whatever the cause of this change was could have some decent effects; as soon as she got a weapon at least. She briefly tests a quick, snapping front-kick in front of her, making sure nobody is in her way first. She nearly loses her balance and falls over her cloak as she finds that both the cloak and her tunic in general restricted her movement for fighting in this manner. She makes a note to try to see if there are any clothing stores to design a new outfit in before heading towards the dining room after the other two members she notices, wondering what Sophie wants with the party now.

While reconstruction was beginning in The World, a young woman was sitting on her couch, watching her computer as though attempting to win a staring contest with it.

She had no classes, no meetings, no plans for the day. Normally this sort of free time would be spent curled up with a non-required bit of reading, visiting friends or playing on the computer. Currently that last was the most imminent, owing to the fact that she’d left a game on from the night before. Several of them had, or should have. With their characters still unable to log out, they decided to meet back rather than just disconnect and lose both their winnings and the mystery.

But there was something about that place that Liss didn’t like. In all fairness, the most likely reason for this is the fact that she was made a bit of a fool there. She knew she was a fool, but didn’t like to make such a clear showing of it. But also, if things got harder, worse, as they often did in fields, she was worried about becoming just a liability. That would be worse than feeling stupid – feeling as though you were causing more trouble than you were worth. Feeling as though everyone around you would be better off if you weren’t there with them, and that only their tact kept them from saying so.

It occurred to her she wasn’t just thinking of the game anymore.

Lissibith took a deep breath and pulled a mental eraser over her thoughts. This was a quite simple question. She could sit at the computer and re-enter the game, where Senna waited for her… or she could switch off the power and go about her day. Was whatever she would do today worth losing the work she did the previous night?

Liss walked over and stood in front of her computer. One hand strayed towards the power button. Amber was still asleep. Knowing her roommate, the woman would remains so until well past noon. She could get a lot of work done. But the others might be expecting her, useful or not.

Her hand swung over and picked up the headset as she settled into her seat. She could just go back and if she started to get in the way too much, she could disconnect then. That would be good.

She closed her eyes as she pulled the headset on, then opened them once it was in place. At the same moment, her avatar in The World opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling of the room. She was in an Inn, in the town where the previous night they’d done a fair bit of destruction. The room was cute, quaint and homey. The town that could be seen outside the window, surprisingly, was getting back to that state. The townspeople were working hard, and working together.

As she sat up and looked further around, she noticed Cynthia was no longer in the room. Perhaps she didn’t have a dilemma about logging in, Senna thought as she got to her feet and stretched. Moving to the window, she leaned on the sill and watched the work progressing. Much of the damage they’d done had already been repaired, or at least addressed. While it still looked like a war zone, it looked like it had at least held a smaller war. She watched for a few minutes, feeling a twinge of guilt over those people fixing what they’d broken – with provocation, of course.

Having satisfied her curiosity about those goings-on, Senna turned back to the room. She had propped her Lavaman Spear against the wall when she’d gone to bed, and now she retrieved it and headed downstairs.

Senna had "woken up" in a few minutes too late to hear Slicer’s noisy entrance, and made her own a good deal more sedately. Her footsteps and the squeak of the fourth stair announced her arrival as she came down into the common room with the others who had awoken. None of them were within eyeshot at the moment. For a fleeting moment, she thought the group might have left without her, but as she approached the desk, Nathan informed her they were to wait for Sophie and the others who’d come down were in the dining room. She started to follow their lead, then hesitated and turned back to the man behind the desk.

“I was just wondering, after the trouble we caused, if there was any way we… er, I could help.” She amended the phrase quickly, not wanting to rope other team members into her request.

She was expecting a dark look or perhaps a “thanks, you’ve done enough.” Surprisingly, however, his reaction was much more positive. After a brief moment’s hesitation for thought, he said, "I think that'd be great! The monster set back the festival preparations, so if you could find some way to help... You should speak to Sophie first. She has something important on her mind. Albatross is arranging repairs outside, so he'd be your best bet."

She smiled and nodded her thanks. Had he seen her thoughts he would have known the reaction was as much for the pause for thought as the words themselves. So many people spoke without thinking anymore, she thought as she headed towards the dining room. The smile was, oddly, still on her face and all thoughts of powering off had disappeared for the moment.

As she crossed the threshold into the other room, she nodded a greeting and said, “Good morning” to those assembled. Catching sight of Asura among them, she added a second nod to her. She didn’t feel like saying some sappy “glad to see you’re still alive and kicking” thing or taking Asura’s time with said comment, but she was happy the woman was still with them and wanted to acknowledge it as unobtrusively and simply as possible. She also considered telling them her request, but decided to hold that off until more people were there. They should be told though, she thought.

Edit for minor grammar corrections

The brilliant rune disappeared as a gigantic monster appeared in its place. “What have I done....it’s Vulcan...” Hacorie said to himself as he shut out everything that was happening around him. He heard nothing and saw nothing but the monster. Soon though, he was called back into reality as he was literally pushed and dragged through a now broken window. Sophie had followed the Heavy Blade into the room. The only guess was that she did not trust him. She was right on time to save the day, but now the two faced another challenge. They were falling from a second story window and below them was a concrete ground. The Blademaster thought of everything. A gale of winds and leaves violently cushioned their fall. Getting up from the ground after the fall, Hacorie dusted himself off and looked at Sophie who had picked up the book he had snatched.

Molten lava engulfed the building. The immense heat quickly set everything into flames just by a gentle touch. Even the wooden beams that held the building were no match for the extreme heat. The collapsed as well soon after the lava hit them. Falling straight down, the building sent up a cloud of dust as the summoned monster disappeared leaving only the ruined shop behind as proof it was there. The only thing left of the shop were charred remnants of clocks and papers with unreadable print. The only thing left to explain why a Vulcan glyph was inside a house was the book that Sophie now had. Hacorie had to get another look at the book so that he could figure out what the hell was going on. He was lost in the many scenarios that were happening in his mind of why this was all happening.

“Thanks....” Hacorie said to the Blademistress in a low tone.

A glowing object the caught Hacorie’s eye. He slowly sidestepped toward it. This also gave him a reason to get away from Sophie who had eyes of death looking at Hac. Getting closer to the chest, Hacoire kicked the top open. Inside was bounty with nametags. Of course, all were for Hac since it was his box. “I guess these are mine.” He said with a smile as he turned back toward Sophie. There he felt as if he had shrunk since the Blademistress was still staring him down. Hac felt like crying.

While he was thinking on all this, Sophie had tried to give Hac a mini lecture, but she was soon interrupted by a Twin Blade, then commanded by Albatross to do something. A violent pull came upon his arm as Hac was led to the Inn where he was told to stay the night. Stay the night? We are not in the game...I guess I will just leave my computer on until tomorrow then. He thinks to himself as he enters the inn, afraid of the sternness in Sophie’s voice. Scurrying into the inn, Hacorie picked up a set of keys and went toward his room peering over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure Sophie was not following him, ready to chop him into bits. Finding the correct room, Hacorie inserted the key into the hole and turned. A loud click echoed through the silent hallway telling that the door was now unlocked. Jiggling the handle, Hacorie was able to get in the room.

As he took a step forward, he saw a nice, comfy looking bed, Taking no time to look around the room, the Heavy Blade leaped in the air and plopped atop the bed. “Too bad I cannot actually feel this. I bet it would feel nice. Maybe one day I can be trapped in here like Sophie so I can feel everything around me. That would be awesome, but then again.....I like the real world.” Hacorie said aloud, conversing with himself about the pros and cons of actually being inside the game.

Taking off his VR helmet, Nathan(what a coincidence on the names XD) went over to his own bed and fell asleep seconds later. The next thing he knew was that his alarm clock was going crazy trying to get him up. Opening his eyes wide, awakening with stunning speed, Hacorie rushed over to his computer and put back on his VR helmet and picked up the controller he had dropped on the ground last night. He was ready to play again. It was hilarious how games could ensnare people into playing them for hours on end. Not wasting any time, the Heavy Blade rushed out of his room, then regained posture to not make himself look so excited to be back. He did destroy a building after all.


Reaching the top of the stairs, Hacorie paused. Before he would start to walk any further. He wanted to try and straighten a few things out. What was the Chaos Theory? It was crystals. I wonder if there was a certain glyph that used to be in that shop that summoned it. It could have been a summon monster that was sent to do someone’s dirty work. I wonder if we were its targets all along, or if there was a greater target that it never got to go after since we intercepted it. If it was after something or someone else, maybe the person who summoned it, of course saying it is a summon, will try again to get what he or she wants. Maybe the party should all keep an eye out for more happenings.

Flashmail
To: All in the Town
From: Hacorie

I want everyone to stay alert from now on. The crystalline monster may have been a first step to some evil plan. Report anything that has seemed strange so far, or something you find that is strange so we can check it out. Since we are all trapped here. I think we should just make sure the town also stays safe. Though, I have no room to talk since I destroyed a building. Well, yea, that is all.

End Flashmail

“I hope the rest of the party is alright too. I was so afraid of that woman that I never got to see. If anything happened to any one of them I would blame myself for letting my curiosity overtake my judgement. Damn that Pandora. She just had to open that stupid box.” Hac said to himself as he took a deep breath and started to step forward.

After walking down a flight of stairs, Hacorie was met with a character named Nathan who told the Heavy Blade to proceed to the breakfast table where Sophie was waiting to discuss something with the party. Sighing heavily, Hacorie thanked Nathan and started making his way to where he saw everyone was. Once he entered the room, Hacorie saw a few people were already in the room. “Ummm, sorry guys. If am late that is.” Hac said with a smile on his face as he scratched the back of his blond hair. Sitting at the nearest chair, Hacorie sat down in it and waited for Sophie to begin talking.

Since Nathan had said breakfast, Hacorie was wondering if the food had any taste to it. Digital food has to be delicious. Hahaha Hac said in his mind as he continued to wait for Sophie. All eyes must have been on her now. After all, she was the one to call the meeting of the group.

“So, what did you call us here for?” Hacorie asked, breaking the silence that was ensuing.

“Well, this is beginning to seem all too familiar?” Elius mused to himself, turning his green eyes to the horizon. Not even a hint of a barrier existed – at least from within his range of sight. In fact, all the blademaster could see was the blue of the immense sky and the occasional white of a randomly spaced cloud. Could it be possible that he had somehow been taken far up into the sky? The mere thought of such a possibility forbade him to turn his gaze downward for the time being.

“Admiring the view?” a soft voice called out indifferently, bearing a hint of malice in its tone. “Why don’t you just glance down already? The view’s much better from up here?”

As if compelled by an unseen force, the young swordsman obeyed, flinching at the sight of the town, which lay at least a mile beneath him. The inn, the clock shop, and the windmill – every visual aspect of that ensnaring place remained distant yet close from this airborne point. The thought of hovering above such a place seemed rather absurd to Elius, but nothing had made much sense for quite a while.

Turning his eyes to the figure, who had earlier addressed him, the blonde-haired blademaster responded, “I’m guessing that nothing in this place is real, Stella. If I’m not in the town, then where exactly does that leave for me to be?” The swordsman carefully ran his vision over the black-cloaked figure, making sure that he had guessed its identity correctly. Seeing her blonde hair, bluish eyes, and elf-like ears, there was no doubt that this being was the same angel that he had encountered a few times before. “I see you let your hair down from that ponytail you used to have it in, but I highly doubt you came here because of that.”

“Why do you find it wise to ignore those, who outrank you?” the fallen angel spoke coldly as she brushed several strands of her straight hair from her pale face. “My lord commanded that you come to a field, yet you foolishly remain here. Tell me why you choose to defy my lord.” As the girl ended her speech, she locked her uncaring eyes upon the blademaster’s face, patiently awaiting his answer.

“You must be referring to Specter,” Elius laughed in an offhand tone. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of stuck in another field at the moment, and listening to someone, who tried to destroy me before, isn’t at the top of my priorities.” Even before his words hand ended, the swordsman’s trusted blade had leapt into his hand.

“You would dare to defy the will of Lord Specter. You truly are nothing more than a hopeless fool, who has become hopelessly lost in his own delusions.” In a flawless, fluid motion, Stella, too, had drawn her blade, holding her saber at ready as a grin crossed her lips. “Don’t keep me waiting,” the girl, who looked to be about seventeen, mused in an icy tone. “Hopefully, this time you’ll be more of a challenge – last time you failed to even scratch me.”

“Crack Beat,” Elius exclaimed, leaping forward before the young-looking angel could even complete her last sentence. Forcing his silver sword at the angelic figure with a rapid downward slash, the blademaster watched the shimmer of his blade as it flew towards its chosen target. With the lightning-like speed he had forced into the assault, he didn’t see any way that she could avoid it, but an assault like this would most likely leave him open for attack. The only thing he could hope for would be that this tactic would knock his foe off balance. Although, within the time span of a split second, his hope turned into nothing more than a fleeting illusion as his opponent simply vanished, leaving his blade to slice through empty air. With an unbelieving look of awe, Elius stumbled to a halt, not knowing what to expect next.

“You should know that you’ll never beat me in speed alone,” a feminine voice taunted from above him. “Now, prepare yourself for an attack you have never before encountered, fore it is time for my retribution.” Extending her pale, right arm, the fallen angel spoke, “Fallen Grace.” Not wasting a moment, four spheres of light materialized around her image as a fifth sphere manifested before her right hand. Then – as abruptly as it had begun – the specks of light coalesced, releasing a torrent of clear, spinning energy, which rocketed down towards Elius with terrifying speed.

As the twirling stream of agony descended upon him, Elius realized just how defenseless he had become because of his earlier attack. Squinting from anticipation, the blademaster clenched his silver blade, bracing himself as his knuckles took on a paler hue. Just at that moment, the ‘Fallen Grace’ technique struck with the fury of a hurricane, forcing the young blademaster to his knees as he screamed in unparalleled pain. Cautiously opening his green eyes, a red glow, resonating from his form, caught the swordsman’s attention. By some stroke of luck, he had managed to survive the terrifying assault. “Repth,” Elius announced confidently, yet his look of hope soon turned to one of despair. Even with his calling of the spell – there was no greenish glow, no recovery, or not even any audible sign of its activation.

To the blademaster’s dismay, Stella’s attack didn’t only nearly finish him but had also leveled his SP, reducing it to a flat zero. Strangely enough, the swordsman’s SP appeared to have stabilized at that reading – instead of slowly increasing. Having seen his puzzled expression, the fallen angel smiled as she remarked, “Behold the power of the ‘Mark of the Fallen’.” As if to emphasize her words, the blonde-haired girl pointed to the red, cryptic symbol that had become inscribed upon the front of Elius’s green shirt.

Still, Elius could do nothing but stare in total awe at the notion of the previously unheard of status effect. By the time the blademaster had finally snapped back to his senses, it was already far too late to do much else. Turning his face back to Stella, he only managed to notice a glimmer as the fallen angel effortlessly drove her saber through his form with one swift, horizontal slash. As the swordsman’s body began to grey, gravity appeared to reactivate, leaving him freefalling to the ground below.

It was then that the blademaster’s eyes sprung open, but – unlike before – he was safely tucked into a nice, warm bed. “That’s right,” he thought to himself, “I had fallen asleep here, so I must have been having some kind of nightmare. Then again, I wouldn’t doubt it if that was the real Stella in that enigmatic vision.” With a sigh, the swordsman glanced down to the front of his shirt, noticing that that weird symbol wasn’t there. Glad that he still had the potential to use his skills, Elius sprang out of the bed, rushing towards the door at a sprint. Providing a temporary halt to his hasty exit, the distinguishing ping of a flashmail sounded. Instinctively, the young swordsman wasted no time in opening the new message.

Flashmail
To: All in the Town
From: Hacorie

I want everyone to stay alert from now on. The crystalline monster may have been a first step to some evil plan. Report anything that has seemed strange so far, or something you find that is strange so we can check it out. Since we are all trapped here. I think we should just make sure the town also stays safe. Though, I have no room to talk since I destroyed a building. Well, yea, that is all.

End Flashmail

Bearing a puzzled expression, Elius thought of any strange events that he could recall, stopping on the thought of his dream. He doubted that they would try to do anything in this field, since it seemed as if their objective was to get him to another field. Driving the thought from his mind, Elius walked through the door at a casual pace. As he approached the counter, the blademaster turned towards the dining room, thanking Nathan for the information.

It was obvious that the swordsman wasn’t the first to the dining room, since a group had already begun to grow around Sophie. As he entered, the blademaster waved to the others, walking up to the gathered group in anticipation.

(SP: 50/50)

Sophie stands from her chair and quietly greets the players as they enter. She isn't one to remain sitting in front of the crowd. One hand shifts back her violet strands as they attempt to sprout over her face. The other supports the weight of a slightly-tattered tome in her grasp. Certain players should be able to recognize the valuable volume as the book that held notes of spells in the Clock Shop. The very book that Hacorie has had on his mind for a while now. She surveys their faces to determine who has come out of bed. Sophie soon notices that Curia is the only one not here with the group. She mentally shrugs it off as exhaustion and grasps the book with both hands.

"Mornin' again. I won't keep you very long. The inn has breakfast if anyone is hungry. There's also a bakery to the east. Very nice sweets," says the Blademistress. She gives a glance over to Hacorie.

"We rummaged through what is left of the Clock Shop. Most of the contents was incinerated when a heraldic crest was activated. The flames were stopped from spreading into other buildings. I've taken responsibility for the damage to the windmill because I'd given you permission anyways. It was a defense necessity. We investigated what we could.

Nicholas was probably delving into heretic arts in the shop. He wouldn't let people into his room normally so there's no way we could have known. He was very dedicated to whatever he was doing from the looks of the crests on his walls. I can't say for sure whether the crest on the ceiling was set there for experiments or on purpose," explains Sophie. At this point she interrupts her words to rub her eyes.

"Our festival should continue even if we're missing a muse now. The book we salvaged from the shop catalogs the runes and math behind different spell types. It's fairly unreadable as the pages reach the powerful ones. I'll probably end up giving it to Lorelie or Albatross to see if they can decipher some of the chicken scratch. Albatross thinks one of the heretic enchantments used Nick as a catalyst for the creation of the monster we found. I found his body around where the monster shattered... We're not burying just yet in case Ben can do anything about his condition. You're free to walk around while we prepare for the festival. Just be sure not to cause trouble. Common sense and manners, please.

I hope you're staying for the festival. We've got some good shops if you need supplies for your journey though. Enjoy your stay, I guess.

Oh! Forgot something. The hot-water baths aren't working right now. The well is acting strangely since we damaged the windmill. There's no water coming out with the bucket. Stopping the mill is only supposed to keep more water from entering the reserves. The water that was there before should still be there. Sorry, we have no water until that gets fixed."

Sophie then sets her eyes on Asura for a moment. Its quite apparent that her clothes were tainted crimson around her chest wound. Slight relief comes over the Blademistress at noting that Asura is at least alive. She scratches her head a moment. She also eyes the menu on the table near the players. Her instincts urge her not to keep them occupied any longer.

"Seems your clothes are ruined after what happened last night. You can buy something new at the Item Shop. They've prolly got something your size. Not sure if any of my things would suit you. Do you think we could chat a second aside?"

Atash listened to Sophie's words with indifference. Nothing had changed. Interest had only been sparked when she had mentioned that there was no water coming into the well. She had said, "The hot-water baths aren't working right now. The well is acting strangely since we damaged the windmill. There's no water coming out with the bucket. Stopping the mill is only supposed to keep more water from entering the reserves. The water that was there before should still be there. Sorry, we have no water until that gets fixed."

"That's odd. From a conspiracy theorist's point of view, I'd say it was some sort of addition to the plot that had thickened with Chaos Theory's arrival, but from the common sense point of view, it would simply be some sort of coincidence... Ah well." Atash thought. He shifted his weight on to one foot and started on his way out. "Might as well have breakfast after a little morning walk."

The town was still in a damaged state, but the silky rays of sunlight that danced on the debris of splintered wood, smashed stone and mortar, and debased buildings, seemed to make the town look serene. At least it was no longer in a state of turmoil against this Nicholas' creation. The Vulcan and Chaos Theory's reign of destruction over, and Nicholas' almost deceased state assured, it seemed that the town had returned to a normal state of life. Clean up definitely appeared to have begun as piles of debris made their way to some unknown area, carried by a crew dedicated to their work, it seemed. Two girls from the instrument shop and a post office worker were toiling about fixing the timbres and displacing debris. Tyler, whom Atash wasn't exactly familiar with, was busy with the windmill's repairs as well. New sails were being set at the top, which, although it made a more complete picturesque view of the towering structure, didn't help much with the fact that its top was still in a crumbling state. Some ways ahead of Atash and in front of the windmill, the dry well lay observed by a young and rather showy figure. Not willing to disturb the head Librarian, Lorelie, he just walked on by.

A few pieces of obsidian glass still lay around further ahead, nearby the windmill and past the well. Thinking one of them would be a nice souvenir, Atash quickly ran over when no one was looking and picked up a relatively small piece and pocketed it. The glass would be a reminder of what had occured on this extremely odd field. In all senses, it was the most extreme quest that he had ever traversed in. Hopefully, it would be a quest that he would finish.

He took a right when he hit the church and looked at the streets. It was here that the clean-up had been entirely swept up. Little wind-up clock toys and springs that had lay scattered in front of the smithy and instrument shop when the clock shop had been incinerated were gone. The burning smell of flames and the heat convecting from the windows of the smithy and a hammering silhouette in the window showed that life was still going in a continuous, unbroken cycle. Atash almost tripped on a leftover stone in front of the shop while he stared at the next store over. The instrument shop had an entirely cleaned up path in front of it, and the little music-making could be very easily imagined in as such a tidy pattern. No one was inside.

Atash took another right as he approached the door of the publishing office (also quiet and undisturbed), standing face to face with the Globe Library. At the current angle he stood with the building and the early morning sun, its magnificence seemed to wash out the distant church and its clock tower. "This is where I have got to spend my time." His character's stomach growled a bit and caused him to turn away, promising to himself that he'd return... After he fed himself. He ran towards the bakery and glanced through the shop's windows. Sweets of all sorts lay in the window, and two bakers worked in the background. "Candies are for after breakfast!"

Hearing another growl escape his character's stomach, Atash rolled his eyes and dashed past the item shop, putting it on his mental 'To go to' list, right above the library. "Supplies first, gaming knowledge later," he thought. Through the windows, he had seen a generous supply of merchandise and two workers readying the shop.

Although he had been rushing past Sophie's house, two things flashed by Atash's mind; one, that the house was empty, and two, that there was a staircase leading up to a second story balcony. "Odd..." It was a fleeting thought, and he disregarded it as a nice looking feature to a fine piece of real estate.

Once back in the dining room, he sat down at an isolated part of the 12-seater table and picked up a menu. Atash just stared. To put a long story short, the menu was the most direct he had ever seen in his life, and he was thankful for it. Quite simply, it said this:

Guessing that he might as well gobble down a good mix of the virtual sustenance mentioned, he ordered an omelette, bacon, two pancakes, waffle, bagel, and a cup of cool milk. A bit of thinking and he added an ice cold salmon to his order. Something told him that after this quest, he was going to need an extra bit of 'oomph' in the pawn shop, especially with that dastardly penguin, Pendant. The cost of the meal came to a round total of 50 GP, which he payed to Mariam as her dark figure rolled a silvery serving cart around.

The food was absolutely delicious ("Delicious? Virtual food being delicious? Wow, now I think I didn't pay enough for this VR-Helm..." Atash thought), and filling as well. He stuffed the salmon into his inventory, where it was kept in cold storage, and stuffed the rest of the food in his face. At regular intervals, one would see a milk mustache on Atash's face, and every second thereafter, it would disappear with the wipe of a napkin. Butter and jam had been generously provided with the bagel, and he stuffed all of that down his throat too. In a way, his character was swallowing, then chewing.

The omelette was delicious. It had been in the style of something akin to the real world's I.H.O.P.'s omelettes, stuffed with all of the vegetables you could name without barfing. In a supreme twist that showed the programmers of 'The World's true prowess, the pancakes tasted better than the ones at the Silver Diner. "Wow... This is just... odd..." Atash could almost think that 'The World' had just turned into, quite literally, the world. The game was so realistic with its breakfast food, of all things, Atash could have sworn he'd visited the best of all of the restaurants in his area. When the food was gone, he ordered a health drink and left the computer to run downstairs and bring some bread, honey, milk, and butter to a spacious desk nearby. He would be eating some grub while playing the game.

(OOC: That's the real official breakfast menu and area around the town, folks!)

Senna had settled into a seat as she waited. The others came in by ones, until all but Curia of those who had made it through the previous night were there. Just seven, she thought. How many of them had come to this place in the first, eager for adventure and to help out? And what had they really found?

Finally, everyone was there and the meeting began in earnest. The Blademaster who’d helped them out the day before (Senna had no real knowledge of how she’d come to BE in the group, having missed that by being in the library at the time) spoke.

"Mornin' again. I won't keep you very long.” She said. “The inn has breakfast if anyone is hungry. There's also a bakery to the east. Very nice sweets."

She then continued speaking about the town’s exploration of the ruins the team had left behind. Apparently there had been some crests inscribed by some art on the inside of the clock shop. One of these had caused it to be scorched to a smouldering hulk. Senna listened intently, though she could only think of it abstractly, as she hadn’t seen or encountered the glyphs.

Sophie then moved on. “Our festival should continue even if we're missing a muse now. The book we salvaged from the shop catalogs the runes and math behind different spell types. It's fairly unreadable as the pages reach the powerful ones. I'll probably end up giving it to Lorelie or Albatross to see if they can decipher some of the chicken scratch. Albatross thinks one of the heretic enchantments used Nick as a catalyst for the creation of the monster we found. I found his body around where the monster shattered... We're not burying just yet in case Ben can do anything about his condition. You're free to walk around while we prepare for the festival. Just be sure not to cause trouble. Common sense and manners, please. I hope you're staying for the festival. We've got some good shops if you need supplies for your journey though. Enjoy your stay, I guess.”

Senna nodded her understanding , trying not to smile. Common sense and manners. How much of that had the group shown so far? It was arguable, of course, due to circumstances but she guessed that from the townspeople’s perspective, the answer was “not much.”

Sophie concluded with some words about water. Senna, who hadn’t been aware that the water in The World could be manipulated at all like real water, just nodded. Then, taking that as a dismissal, she stood and turned out Sophie’s attention to Asura politely. Speaking to the nearest of the others, she said, “I’m going to look for Albatross to see if I can help clean up for a little while. If anyone’s interested…”

She trailed off with a shrug, indicating that they could join her in her attempt to make it up to the townspeople or not, as they wished. Or, at least, that’s what she intended it to mean. A shrug is a notoriously poor communicator of nuance.

Senna crossed the room and made her way through the ground floor and out the front door. The image of this town that had been burned into her memory was one painted with shades of black, one where crimson lines shone through the dark air and every sound seemed heightened. Now, with people bustling around cleaning up and mending what their group had broken, with sunlight casting its warm glow on the quaint buildings and antiquated cobblestones, it seemed like an entirely different place. She couldn’t align this with the town as it was before the crystals attacked. There had been entirely too little time for that, and then too much with that multi-faceted (no pun intended) enemy.

Sighing and shaking her head, she looked for the largest group of people and started walking towards them, hoping one could point her in the direction of Albatross.

(OOC: Gah! Senna, you stole my thought! XP)

As Slicer watched the people file in, the same thought that had crossed Senna’s mind also crossed Slicer’s. What had happened to all the people that had once been in this town with them; the ones that had first appeared, fighting alongside the group? Rico? Mirelle? Kumori? What had happened to those three? There were even more people than them that had disappeared, yet no trace of them was left... Slicer would have to investigate this.

Well, he seems smart. Slicer would’ve rolled his eyes, had Hac not been in the room. Before he could type up a reply, Sophie began talking.

”Mornin' again. I won't keep you very long. The inn has breakfast if anyone is hungry. There's also a bakery to the east. Very nice sweets.” It was an interesting greeting... what Sophie had used. The team had just blown up the town, more or less, and here she was, saying hi to them as though nothing had happened. Slicer guessed that she would get to it later or something.

”We rummaged through what is left of the Clock Shop. Most of the contents was incinerated when a heraldic crest was activated. The flames were stopped from spreading into other buildings. I've taken responsibility for the damage to the windmill because I'd given you permission anyways. It was a defense necessity. We investigated what we could.” What she said did comfort Slicer a bit. They had broken the clock just so they could take out that large monster that didn’t make any sense in this game... at all. Something like that shouldn’t have existed, yet it did. The question was how...

”Nicholas was probably delving into heretic arts in the shop. He wouldn't let people into his room normally so there's no way we could have known. He was very dedicated to whatever he was doing from the looks of the crests on his walls. I can't say for sure whether the crest on the ceiling was set there for experiments or on purpose.” Slicer didn’t get this part too much. Something about the Clock Shop having weird crests and heretics or something. Stuff Slicer didn’t get since he wasn’t in the Clock Shop at any time. Slicer noticed, just for the slightest second, what seemed to be a teardrop form at Sophie’s eyes as she said this. Of course, it would’ve just been sleepiness.

"Our festival should continue even if we're missing a muse now. The book we salvaged from the shop catalogs the runes and math behind different spell types. It's fairly unreadable as the pages reach the powerful ones. I'll probably end up giving it to Lorelie or Albatross to see if they can decipher some of the chicken scratch. Albatross thinks one of the heretic enchantments used Nick as a catalyst for the creation of the monster we found. I found his body around where the monster shattered... We're not burying just yet in case Ben can do anything about his condition. You're free to walk around while we prepare for the festival. Just be sure not to cause trouble. Common sense and manners, please.” Something about a missing muse, who Slicer guessed was Nicholas, and a book of spells. And the body of Nicholas, which was going to be checked for something by some guy named Ben. Slicer had never been good with names. Slicer did get the part about common sense and manners, though. Of course he would be on his best behavior.

”I hope you're staying for the festival. We've got some good shops if you need supplies for your journey though. Enjoy your stay, I guess.

Oh! Forgot something. The hot-water baths aren't working right now. The well is acting strangely since we damaged the windmill. There's no water coming out with the bucket. Stopping the mill is only supposed to keep more water from entering the reserves. The water that was there before should still be there. Sorry, we have no water until that gets fixed.”

Slicer was, of course, going to stay for the festival. It wasn’t like he could go anywhere else, anyway. The shops... yeah, the Heavy Blade was definitely running out of items. He would have to rush and get some soon(OOC: Already bought).

The part about baths not working did catch Slicer’s ear. As of the moment, he seriously didn’t want to take a bath... two things. One, he wasn’t sure what the game would allow for that and two, he was worried about being found out when he didn’t want to. The time hadn’t came yet, he could feel it.

As the speech was finished, Sophie seemed to go up to Asura, but Slicer ignored it, since it didn’t bother him too much. He decided that it would be best to go and get some food. He never really liked to eat in the morning, but he decided that if the last day was any indicator, today would be... how to put it... exciting.

Slicer headed towards the dining room, but not before he heard Senna say that she was going to go see Albatross. Slicer was about to follow, when he decided against it. He had his own things to do and he would probably just be a burden, but since Senna was heading that way anyway, Slicer asked her a favor. ”Senna, do you think you could ask Albatross if he finds any more bodies? Maybe... the bodies of our other allies?” He didn't wait for an answer. As soon as he finished, he fished into his inventory, taking out a pair of Mountain Boots. "Here, you probably need them more than me." With that, he gave the boots to Senna and went down to the dining hall.

Arriving at the table, Slicer noticed FireX getting some stuff from the menu. Slicer decided to follow suit, though he wasn’t really sure what to buy, but, glancing down the menu, he decided on some easy stuff.

Waffle and Tea. It was an odd combination, but oh well. It was good enough. As Slicer waited for the food to arrive, he went back to wondering how digital food would taste when it was laid infront of him. While waiting, Slicer decided that he would just fix it up himself, so, lifting up the Helmet in the real world, Al went around the house, getting the food. When he arrived back at the computer, he noticed that the food was already set. He combined the motion of his character with himself, so that as Slicer ate, Al ate. It was really quite fun trying it out and quite delicious too. As he ate, the Heavy Blade watched FireX gulf down his food, unsure as to whether he understood the concept of table manners, even if this was a game. Slicer shrugged. As he finished his food, he went outside.

As Slicer walked, his hand moved through his inventory, thinking of what to use, when he found something soft inside. Taking it out, he noticed that it was Flash’s Headband. Flash was a Swordbreaker and Slicer had borrowed this thing a while ago, but never got around to returning it. He shrugged and decided that he would probably need it here. Slicer quickly tied his Time Headband around his long flowing red hair, so it turned into a red ponytail. He put on his new Hands of Earth, feeling the power of the Earth Element inside of them. His Mountain Helm, Plate Armor, and Mountains books were quickly equipped, though they weren’t visible in the slightest. He hadn’t used a weapon yet, thinking that it wouldn’t be needed for a small while, atleast.

Arriving at the item Shop, Slicer got some supplies. He ran through them twice, checking to see if he missed anything, when he remembered Hac’s mail. Guess this is as good a time as any to reply.

Smiling as she finished typing it, Slicer sent the mail, before he looked towards the edge of the town. He noticed a large rise of earth surrounding this place. He wasn’t sure what was on the outside, but now would be as good a time as any to find out. ”Ap Do.” The Time Headband’s spell activated, blessing the Heavy Blade with an almost unnatural amount of speed, which he used to rush towards the wall.

As he arrived, he looked up at it. He was looking for a foothold or something in which he could crawl up it. Deciding that there wasn’t any, he decided to just rush up there. Well, it couldn’t really be called rushing, since Slicer was slowly moving up the wall. Extremely slowly. He was glad he wasn’t wearing the skirt, since a small crowd had gathered underneath him. They were shouting something, but Slicer forced himself to concentrate at the task at hand. Soon enough, the Heavy Blade was at the top of the rise, when he heard what the people below was saying. ”Hey, she got up there without using a ladder! Pretty good, isn’t she?” Slicer could feel himself blushing. He could’ve just asked for a ladder. Just great, but this wasn’t the time to think about that. He still had to swing himself over the edge and explore what laid infront of him...

(OOC: Yeah, just a bunch of random non-sense...)

In the river city Mac Anu, the day was beginning anew. Players logged in for the first time that day and attended to business as usual. Chatter filled the pathways and walkways and byways. Morning could be considered the climb to the proverbial peak of activity in the afternoon. Sydofh, wishing to avoid this peak, logged in earlier than he normally did. The time was in the midst of eight and nine, slowly favoring the nine. Rings spun of shimmering gold surrounded him once again and he faded into view, or in his case everything else faded into his view. He took notice of his black gloves, which reminded him of his new appearance that he had been getting used to as of late.

The story behind this change was quite a simple one. He had noticed days ago that the first Character Editor produced by CC Corp was now being released for free. With as many versions as there were it was to no surprise. So the download commenced and thoughts of change came into play. His costume was simple and unlike a year and a half ago he thought it to be tacky now. As leader of a clan he wanted something that made him look more professional and something that he could grow into personality-wise. Hours later he had designed a new costume that he could mark as a new beginning to his character. Things would not change most likely, but he wanted to be optimistic about something and this would be it.

((OOC: Instead of writing three paragraphs about the outfit and boring you all to death, here's the image. My New Appearance The hair and eyes are still green, however.))

Not a moment after he arrived did he receive a flash mail sent to him hours ago. He opened it curiously to see what he could possibly have been sent at such a time.

KamiKazeKiwi3...it's been a while. Let's see what he wants or doesn't want for that matter.

He continued to read through the message, noting the details and especially the time the message was sent.

So...if this was sent to me a while ago...then this little battle is probably over by now. But then again, if Kiwi has asked his entire clan to go then there must be something of importance so I might as well go for my benefit.

The Twin Blade read over the message again and decided to go, not knowing what to expect or who to expect to be there. Returning a few steps back he requested the Chaos Gate send him to the Theta Server Dun Lorieag. Within seconds he was neither here nor there before arriving at the city in the sky. He had visited it before and now wasn't the time to be doing any sightseeing so as he appeared he opened the menu and entered in the keywords Bursting Fantasy Fallen Angel.

<><><><><>

His vision cleared once in the field, a weald of fruitless trees and a well sitting at its middle next to him. Both the well and he were located in a small clearing that gave view of the sky above. The sun had risen and shined brightly through the clouds that had settled. Glancing at the well he could see a woman standing next to it. Her ivory strands, tied back, blew gently in the breeze as her aureate eyes examined the well through thin spectacle lens. She turned slightly and glanced at him, as if to give notice that she was aware that he was there, before returning to her investigation of the well.

Looking through the clearing he could see a glimpse of the top of a building, one to his west and another to his east. This didn't seem like a dungeon at all. More like a root town hidden away from the masses, or a lost town that had been long forgotten. And that brought up the question as to whether the woman a few feet away from him was real or not. Opening his menu he equipped Hell's Gate. He wasn't sure what this place had in store for him or had already had in store for the others that Hacorie and KamiKazeKiwi3 had summoned. It was then that he noticed the Log Out ability wasn't available.

That's odd.

He wasn't planning on leaving right away and he was in a bit of a careless mood so he'd ignore the obvious warning that something wasn't right. Closing the menu he now had his weapons equipped, but he left them withdrawn and hidden from view. If this person or anyone else for that matter were just lines of code and data, he couldn't be sure what their response to him suddenly drawing blades from under his trench coat would be.

Better safe than sorry.

He casually approached the attractive, although not stunningly beautiful woman and stood next to her at the well's edge. A few seconds passed. Placing a gloved hand on the well he gazed into it. From his view there appeared to be nothing but darkness at the bottom. A bucket hung from a thick rope only a few feet into the well, and although Sydofh ran along the idea of lowering it down farther to see if there was indeed any water, he thought it'd be best to respect the woman's examination and keep his curiosity to himself. More seconds passed and the Twin Blade held his hands behind his back as he turned to the woman.

"Greetings. My name is Sydofh. May I be honored as to have yours?" he asked gently, not wanting to be forceful or intimidating. Once she responded he planned to ask about where exactly he was and where if at all Hacorie and the others were. He would refer to them as visitors, as he again wasn't sure what was really going on.
--------------------
SP 100/100

After the strange events that had taken place, the wavemaster Curia couldn't settle down for sleep. All rest evaded him as thoughts swirled through his mind. Entering the inn, he moved slowly up the stairs, drained more mentally than physically. Reaching the upper landing which presented his bed for the evening, the mage placed his ear to a door. Eyeing asura nervously as he peeked into the room where she slept, the mage moved further up the hall before entering an empty room. Looking at his surroundings, the beds looked quite comfortable, yet he knew his avatar would never find sleep in one. Making his way across the room, the player opened the window and took a breath of the evening air. Hearing approaching footsteps, Curia looked briefly at the door before choosing his escape route. Stepping onto the open window sill, the wavemaster swung his legs out and pulled himself onto the roof of the building. Sliding his wand into the bag on his back, he ran his hands through his spikey hair and closed his eyes as he inhaled the cooling air. Sighing heavily, his golden eyes dull as he opened them, the player looked out on the town below him. there's something wrong.... unable to give a sound reason for his unease, Curia sat with his feet hanging off the tiled roof of the inn till morning crept into the town. The stars overhead were unfamilar in their formations and the homes and shops seemed lifeless and hollow as their lights were slowly snuffed out. Feeling a slight breeze send a chill through his body, the wavemaster drew his cloak about himself as he sat silently in thought.

Stirred by movement down below, the wavemaster overheard instructions to enter the dining hall. Walking silently across the roof, so as to evade detection, Curia stopped over a set of windows which seemed to be filled with the murmers of the players in his group. Positioning himself over the windows in the dining hall, the wavemaster sat in silence as he listened to the voice that drifted out the window. Sophie had given a brief speech before meantioning something being awry with the well. Setting his eyes on the well, the wavemaster found a purpose. His eyes becoming sharp and vibrant for an instant, the wavemaster set a mental note, and with it the glaze returned to his vision. Clasping his hands onto the lip of the roof, the mage swung his lithe frame over the edge and hung from the eaves before dropping to the pavement below. Rising from a knee, he looked warily about the town before approaching the well. Making sure his approach went unnoticed among the workers in the town, he grabbed the flap on the bag fastened to his waist. Looking through his inventory and finding nothing helpful, the wavemaster peered over the stone wall of the well. Met by a sphere of darkness, the player looked around the town for an instant before kicking his legs up over the side of the chasm. Writing a short message, the mage took a deep breath and sent it as he began his decent down the well. Wrapping the rope around his right leg, Curia began lowering himself hand-over-hand down into the darkness.

FLASHMAIL:

TO: HAC

I'm investigating the well. If you hear or see anything strange.............bury it. Don't wait for my return.

END FLASHMAIL

Sighing as the last view of the town slipped from his vision, the wavemaster pulled a fairy's orb from his inventory and held it aloft; it's pale light casting enough light to see. Feeling the hair on his neck stand on end, the wavemaster heard a voice drift down from the town above. The female seemed to be giving instructions for the rebuilding of the town. Gritting his teeth, another familiar sound fell to his ears. The golden rings had deposited a player into the town. Letting his grip loosen, the mage began to slide faster and faster down the well before seeing the bucket come into sight. Unravelling his leg and pushing off the rope, the wavemaster landed several feet below the end of rope. Holding the fairy's orb overhead, the mage cursed silently as the bottom of the bucket drifted slowly, just barely inside the radius of light. Feeling his unease increase, Curia watched in silence as the bucket was steadily pulled from sight. "They're taking the bucket up....." Chewing his lip as he looked upward at what now seemed a pinpoint of light from above, the wavemaster lowered his eyes from the town and began his inspection by drawing his diabolical wand to hand. let's just hope they didn't see me come down......I don't need meddlers.


(Ooc: forgot to refresh the browser before posting. The edit was to fix confliction issues. Kiwi, my apologies, this should keep things running smoothly.)

“The water’s gone,” Elius wordlessly noted to himself as Sophie addressed the group, which was clearly much smaller than it had been when this enigmatic adventure had begun. The shrinking group was actually a relief to the young blademaster, since an overly large party would just add to the chaos. The bit about the missing water proved of much more interest to the swordsman, however. If Hac had not flashmailed him about the battle with the crystal sphere, he would have checked the well earlier, but perhaps this was working in his favor. It would have been difficult to find anything in a flooded well, but – seeing that it seemed to be currently dry – now would be the perfect time for a closer look. There was one thing that he would have to do before looking into such a thing, though.

“I don’t have much of an appetite, so I’ll go take a look around the town,” Elius announced as he turned to leave. Within a minute, the young swordsman found himself in the warm, morning sun, which cascaded down across the strange town as if it were a protective cover. Even with the destruction from the previous day, the time of day seemed to engulf the place with an aura of peace. In truth, the sight proved quite relaxing to the eager blademaster, but now was not the time to admire the scenery. First priority was to restock his failing supply of ‘Health Drinks’, but the debris scattered throughout the town wasn’t much of a help. Instead of walking up to the item shop, the swordsman inadvertently found himself wandering towards the well.

“I guess the remaining ruins do have a disorientating effect,” he sighed, shaking his head in disgust as his careless choice of direction. As the young swordsman locked his green eyes upon the well, a particular figure caught his attention, showing him the luck of this moment as it plunged into the debts. With a blink of surprise, Elius instantly recognized the form to be that of Curia. If he had not had the misfortune of taking the wrong path, he would have had no clue to tell him that the well was already being searched. As he made a mental note to come back once his item supply had been refilled, the blademaster turned away from the well, beginning to walk in the general direction of the item shop.

Unlike before, Elius found that his path had led him to the front of a small, cubic construction. A few inches below the structure’s reddish roof, a large sign hung upon the cream-colored wall, reading, “Item Shop.” The blonde-haired swordsman grinned at the welcoming image, stepping up to the door beneath the sign. Grasping the handle, the eager blademaster twisted his right hand, allowing the solid door to swing open. Apart from the faint creak of the door, the air hung in silence as the interior revealed itself to him. Walking into the room, the swordsman set his intent gaze upon the clerk, who comfortably sat behind a wooden counter. For now, the only thing that concerned the young blademaster was the shopkeeper and the assorted rolls of merchandise behind him.

“Do you have any ‘Health Drinks’?” Elius inquired as he neared the clerk. As he waited for a response, the patient swordsman brushed some dust from the right shoulder of his uniform. Indifferently watching the shopkeeper fumble though several different rolls of items, the green-clad blademaster leaned forward, resting his arms on the countertop as time drug by.

Finally, the clerk’s eyes lit up as he clumsily threw a mass of healing items onto the countertop. “It just so happens that we have a healthy supply of them,” he said with a laugh. “How many of them are you thinking of buying? Please, don’t say more than ten, since that would require me to dig up a few more.”

“In that case, I’ll take five ‘Heath Drinks’,” Elius indifferently replied, digging 500 GP out of his pockets. Carefully watching the shopkeeper count out five of the healing items, the blademaster placed his 500 GP on the tabletop. “Thank you,” he added as he effortlessly swept his five new items into his inventory. With his business at the shop concluded, the eager swordsman exited through the door, casually walking back towards the well.

After the elapsed of a few minutes, the blonde-haired blademaster found that he had returned to an all too familiar place. Once more, his emerald green eyes stared towards the well, which was situated upon the cream-colored ground. Apparently, the main difference this time was the fact that Curia had already descended down into the hidden depths. Considering that he hadn’t been gone for too long, the odds were that the wavemaster was still down below. Apart from that, there were clearly two other figures standing around the well – a male twin blade and a girl. Not wanting to ignore them or interrupt their conversation, Elius merely waved to the two of them as he stepped up to the well. At that moment, the blonde-haired swordsman pulled out his flashmail menu, immediately beginning to type out a message for Curia.

From: Elius
To: Curia

By chance, I happened to notice you entering the well earlier. It is really a lucky thing, since I had the same idea. Please, tell me if you find anything interesting in the well.

Without anything else to do, Elius turned back to the two figures, which stood next to the well, as he patiently waited for a chance to give an introduction and try to get into the conversation. Perhaps one of them could tell him some useful information that may hold a clue to what this field actually is.

(SP: 50/50)

Asura sighs a bit as she takes a seat, listening to Sophie speak about the current situation for the party. She is momentarily saddened and a bit annoyed about the fact that no hot bathes are available and decides to make it her top priority to get the water back so she can take a nice, hot bath to get a bit of relaxation after the battle and what happened during the battle yesterday. Furthermore, sweating through the night from a fever and having to deal with a collapsing windmill likely didn't make her as clean as she intended to be for any major function.

Later through the speech, the hot bathes immediately become her second priority when Sophie comments on her clothes being a bit tattered. Her face immediately turns a bright red as she realizes that blood had tainted the normal green color of her clothing, crossing her arms a bit as much as she can to cover that effect. Her new top priority thusly switches to getting new clothes. She had some ideas on what she wanted, but it was important that she be quick in doing so, that way she wasn't stuck in the tattered outfit from the last battle.

As everyone starts to leave as Sophie finishes talking, Asura gets up from her seat and walks over to her, wondering what she wanted to speak about.

“Umm... what did you want precisely? Oh! And do you happen to know what I can do for a weapon? I kinda lack one now that my class changed for whatever reason.”

There were so many wrong things that were going on in the field. The water was not working since the crystals and clock shop had been destroyed. The crystals themselves were another mystery all on their own. Sophie thought that they were a spell summoned by the one using heraldic arts in the clock shop. She believed he was sacrificed for summoning the gigantic monster. This was confusing since why would anyone let themselves be destroyed to summon a powerful monster? Nothing in the town thus far was adding up. Everything was a blurry dream where only parts made since. It seemed the team had already went and tried to investigate though. There was almost no one left in the room. Everyone had left after Sophie’s speech.

Bowing toward Sophie, Hacorie left the room without a word and made his way to the exit of the building. Waving at the keeper of the Inn, Hac opened the front door and stepped out into the street. Looking about, he saw people working on fixing the windmill, and also he saw the townsfolk still preparing for the festival, all as Sophie had said. Even though bad things were happening the people of the town still continued their works. Across the town, Hac could see a few people looking at the Clock Shop as they passed by and looking at the melted rubble. Few bits of paper with half of a simple or less floated by as the wind blew. This made something click inside Hac’s head.

Heraldic arts....This is what I will investigate..

To: Hacorie
From: Cynthia
Subject: How Very Odd...
Message: Well, you asked me to report if I found something odd right, well here’s a couple things to keep you busy. First off, there’s that large crystal thing that attacked us. What the heck is it and why did it do that? You tell me. Second, what was the thing that blew up the crystals, the Clock Shop included? Yeah, and then there’s the whole, “person dying” thing that Sophie just told us about. Ah, and the well. Yes, the well. You should probably ask about that too. Lastly, there’s the whole “this town’s on a field” thing. I’m checking into that now, since I think you’ve got quite a bit to do already. Bai-bai

End Flashmail

“Well aren’t these questions on everyone’s mind...idiot. She did this just to have a little fun when she could be helping search for the answers herself. Some people these days are just to lazy to get up and look on their own. I bet she would probably find something if she was looking.”

FLASHMAIL:

TO: HAC
From: Curia

I'm investigating the well. If you hear or see anything strange.............bury it. Don't wait for my return.

END FLASHMAIL

Turning around, Hacorie reopened the door of the Mariam Inn and quickly rushed toward the room he was just in. Upon entering he saw Sophie still there. Of course she was since she had not came out the front door or else Hac would have seen her. Looking on at her, Hac began to speak. “Sophie, can I have that book? The one with the Heraldic Spells in it?” The questions were a bit out of the ordinary, but Hac wanted to find out for himself if what the book had in its midst. After all, Hac was the one who kept it pressed against his body as he was flung out of the second story window of the house.

“Whether your answer is no or yes, I want some answers. What exactly are ‘Heraldic Spells’? Why is it such a bad thing to be practicing them? Did something in the past happen here to make them looked down upon, or at least I think you look down upon them. To be done in secret, there must be something about it that we should know instead of going around this town not knowing anything.” Hac said as he stood there waiting for Sophie to reply.

Jade. The shortened jade threads extend as far as the eye can see through the field. Slicer thus comes upon the conclusion that others had already mentioned before: the town is surrounded by a simple plain. Every direction eventually returns to the hole carved into the earth. The expansive horizon remains continuous and unbroken in every direction. A quick breeze dashes through the field and causes the scenery to bow under its progress. Said uniform motion reveals a large figure peeking above the surrounding greenery. Its green appearance renders it hard to spot with the naked eye or even from the top of the windmill. The vague solid rests defiantly against nature at a considerable distance east of the town. Its placement is such that it would take as long to reach the enigma by walking from the windmill's west as walking from its east.

Slicer's journey does not go unnoticed in the field. The few townspeople that were observing his climb have since returned to their duties. The pressure from the upcoming festival keeps them going through the chores. A hissing sonance comes out muffled from beneath the grass. A second hiss joins in as if holding a conversation with the first. He doesn't get very far before two snakes leap to a stand from their cover. The Lamia Fighter hisses again as it swiftly spins a large-blade scimitar, staring at the back of his head.

"I guess there's something I should explain," says Sophie quietly, her voice trailing off slightly. The hushed conversation begins with asking Asura whether she feels anything is wrong with her physically. She continues the flow as she questions her about what occurred to her last night. The crystal that impaled her out of nowhere is still lodged within her body; the situation remains more complicated than a mere shard resting near her heart. Sophie carefully explains that the creature could not be removed from Asura without seriously endangering her life. It spread as a sort of infection during the night she spent being observed. The wound was successfully healed, but the crystal itself attached to her internal organs around the area of her heart. None of those who saw Asura's condition were able to determine exactly what the dark matter residing in her rib cage does. Sophie is vehement in clarifying that it doesn't seem that the creature is causing her harm. However, Rose had told Sophie that it's impossible to dislodge the crystal due to the risks involved.

Only a few moments transpire before Hacorie reenters the room. Sophie ceases her conversation discretely so as to listen to his doubts. The girl can be seen drawing a deep breath and setting back some rogue strands from her vision again. The tome which he desires is pressing somewhat closely to her chest under her left arm.

"I would rather not give you the book. It's a local matter," she says calmly.

"Heraldic arts are techniques that channel the energy in the environment and within oneself to conjure strong manifestations. You should know, I saw you using spells and so did others. Maybe they are called differently in your town. Also, knowledge is far from forbidden. We have a library, you know. The problem is in how that knowledge is used and to what end. Because some of the enchantments can be powerful, practicing the devastating branches is discouraged. Why hide when nothing wrong is being done? Abusing heraldic arts to create things such as what we survived is what heretics do best in secrecy.

My job is general defense. From monsters, heretics, or visitors from other towns. What's happened before doesn't matter. We just have to move on with our lives until we figure out our purpose. That's why everyone lives," answers the girl. Thus she directs her attention back to Asura.

"Any changes you may be experiencing are prolly because of..." says Sophie. She holds the words between Asura and herself to respect her privacy. She soon adds that they can inquire at the Blacksmith about any weapons. The Blademistress gives Hacorie merely a cursory look as she leaves with Asura. The tome from the Clock Shop is steadfastly secure in her arms. The girls step through the town amid the occasional bits of stone along the ground. Most of the garbage has gathered around the windmill. Sophie guides Asura as they circumvent the trees at the center in favor of simply stepping along their perimeter.

The town shops appear to have been cast from a mold. Every one bears a considerable similarity to the others around it. This could be easily attributed to the simplicity of their design and scarce resources available in the region. The Blacksmith edifice distinguishes itself from others both through its quaint sign and the chimney protruding from the roof. Its structure breathes a black thread that fades into the sky. Rhythmic crackling can be heard coming from inside the building. Immediately upon Asura entering, a man draws his gaze away from the bricks cooking in a stone oven. Black soot has smudged his garbs and flesh so as to leave no doubt that he works there.

"We have the latest weapons," slowly announces the man. The walls are indeed lined with armors and weapons for all classes. They are orderly set on shelves with price tags folded before them. Sophie peruses the shelves beside her in silence as she observes weapons she has seen many times before. One gem among the commons swiftly draws her attention. There is an intricate fan that shows great craftsmanship, appearing refined and customized for clockwork performance.

Sophie soon gazes upon a gem among stones that comes to her attention. This particular fan-weapon is new to her and shows superior craftsmanship. Its design has been customized and refined across a multitude of aspects to produce a beautiful and proficient armament. She handles it in awe, stepping towards the counter despite recognizing that such an item is useless to her hands.

"Masamune... I'm short on money. Will this cover the cost of these items," asks Sophie. The light within the shop breaks into colorful glows in her palm, revealing a Crystal Stone that she has been storing in her coat. The uncommon valuable comes from the remains of Chaos Theory.

"Hmm... You've not enough coins for that. No sale," responds the smith. Sophie gives a nod, apparently not surprised, returning her precious weapon back.

"Choose a weapon suitable for yourself. I'll pay for it as I can."

The roof emits soft thuds throughout this exchange. Two Lamia Hunters have found their way into the town and are waiting for someone to strike against. A single serpent peeks over the top of the shop. The others rest in a bundle as they wait for a signal.

"Albatross? He left before to do something," echo twin voices in a snap. The two girls present almost identical appearances towards their questioner. Each has a dark chocolate tan along their skin, with the exception of their palms and soles that are a lighter tone. Both have shortened hair with bangs down to their jaws and a widow's peek concealed beneath a few strands down their foreheads. The vibrant bluebell tone found in their hair and pupils vividly contrasts their flesh. The color continues through their long coats, presumably worn to keep them warm in the autumn climates, with a white shirt and white long pants underneath. Their figures are neither particularly thin nor heavy, with about five feet and a half in height. The girls show off their delicate hands as they gesture and speak in a somewhat coordinated act. There seem to be no weapons on them.

"Greetings. I am Dante," says one with a bow.

"Greetings. I am Beatrice," says the other simultaneously, with an equal bow.

They proceed to observe Senna with the most calculated of stares. Their eyes reflect a subtle excitement and astonishment of her presence. Occasional glances between them communicate brief thoughts or impressions through little more than eye contact. Visits by outsiders are somewhat rare to the town. Its musicians nearly salivate at the prospect of playing for an unfamiliar crowd for the festival. A worker from the Item Shop steps by quietly as he resumes looking over the new mill blades. He had been shortly distracted by the Slicer climbing out of the crater.

A towering man approaches Senna from behind and gently touches her shoulder to get her attention. He does so carefully in the hopes the contact won't startle her. His existence is obvious enough to draw the looks of the musicians away from their visitor. The pearl grin on his face stands out against his dark skin. A seven-foot figure is bound to intimidate some by accident. His hair is black and straight back, forming a needly sort of crest on his head. A weighty axe rests against his back and his waist chimes with the different tools hanging from a belt.

"Shoo! Back to work you two. We're behind schedule. Music comes tomorrow," he says to the musicians. His words are met with double pouts for a moment.

Meanwhile, Sydofh does not go unnoticed. Lorelie glances in his direction for a brief moment before turning her gaze back to the well, somewhat indifferent to him. Even as the librarian listens to his questions, she sets both feet atop the edge of the well. She then sets herself on the wooden frame that holds up the bucket. Her feet dangle precariously near a brick bearing the inscription Pierian Well. She observes him without response for a few seconds.

"Are you here for an informal session too, captain," she says as she takes in every detail of his garbs. In turn, she leans forward slightly to allow him a better look. Her tongue wets her lips slowly before she speaks again.

"Lorelie, at your service," she says. Sydofh begins to question her, feeding her the satisfaction of attention and drawing answers simultaneously.

"You are in the town where I reside. Specifically around the center, where the well has ceased working. I hope that you too can stay for a while so that we can become more familiar with each other. Things have been in need of repairs since the incident last night, when a demon was conjured into the town. The windmill was terribly damaged," explains the librarian. She deviously evades revealing where the other players are for now. She looks into his eyes with her own honey gaze, ignoring Elius approaching from the trees and uttering again.

"Now it's your turn to tell me with all honesty... What does our existence mean?"

Underneath those that traverse the town is a long tunnel reaching through the earth. One would expect to hear the flow of water or sounds of air whistling through this underground structure. Neither sound is actually present in the atmosphere. The exception to the law of muteness is a faint tune emerging from the western depths. The orchestrated caress seems to compel the adventurous wizard towards its source. Its influence is weak enough that it cannot be heard outside of the well. Its confines are dripping with remnant moisture from plants that have grown into the bricks. There are no torches or sources of illumination for the corridor in which Curia has ended. A weak aura originates from a chamber at the west.

The chamber glows with the lights of torches hanging from its wall. Its sole inhabitant sits near the entrance, a cabinet as one would find in an ordinary home. Its compartments are facing in the direction of the upcoming wizard. The design features three doors into the polished dark wood and one wide drawer that encompasses the bottom. Clockwork labors faint within the puzzling box. A chessboard rests atop the cabinet at about four feet from the ground. Its pieces have been placed in their corresponding starting positions. Reposed behind the cabinet is the master of the game, a mannequin garbed in a cloak and topped with a turban. The figure has a faint and featureless face carved into its head. Its torso is the frame for a grandfather clock hidden behind the cloak, giving off a muffled tick-tock tick-tock.

"Greetings. Would you fancy a game of chess," asks a feminine presence. The mannequin appears to be speaking to Curia, even though its composition is missing a mouth. The flute that flooded the tunnels has since ceased. It should be noted that the cabinet is the sole object present in the large room. A wooden door blocks passage to the chamber behind this one.

The Turk
And the mathematicians defer only to God.

Slicer stretches. His digital body had been cooped up in a bed for quite a while. It was necessary for him to get his digital bones to start working again. Well, no, there really wasn’t any need for it, but it just felt good for him to do something while the breeze swept across his face, hitting his hair and letting it float in the wind. Pleasant.

Walking forward a few steps, he decided to check around to see if there was anything worth seeing. What he saw was expected. A vast expanse of green laid before his eyes, like a sea of grass. How often had that term been used? It was unknown to him as he looked, trying to see if there was anything that caught his interest. There wasn’t... at least, not infront of him.

A hissing issued from behind where Slicer stood. If past experience told him anything, it was that anything that snuck up on you is a bad thing. He turned around just in time to watch as a large blade dig into his shoulder. Yes, he saw the attack, but without any real warning as to where the blade was coming from, the Heavy Blade was at a loss of which direction to evade. The end result was a deep slash right between the elbow and shoulder of the swordsman’s left arm. Fortunately, it wasn’t anything vital and the attack didn’t hit his sword arm, though a Heavy Blade did indeed use both arms when wielding their weapon. This would be a bit harder than a fair fight...

Lamia Fighter. A monster of the Theta variety. Not something Slicer wanted to face. It wasn’t something that he wanted to see in a dark alley. Heck, he probably didn’t want to see one in broad day light, like now. It was, after all, two snakes and a large blade. Not something “fun” and definitely not something you wanted to keep as a pet. So Slicer was the pest control. How did he land himself this job?

Slicer tried to move his left arm, but it seemed that the bone had somehow broke. Probably because he didn’t actually have any armor protecting his arms. The gloves helped his hands, but hands weren’t arms, so the limbs took the bulk of the shock and it seemed that the bones just had to join in and get broken. Such a rotten day... this was why Slicer didn’t ever eat breakfast.

The Lamia Fighter went for another strike, this time trying to decapitate the poor Heavy Blade. Good thing the Ap Do was still in place. With agility that is almost impossible in the real world, Slicer ducked underneath the attack and quickly countered by pulling out his Spider Blade from behind him and taking a wild swing horizontally, directing the blade towards the supporting limbs of the monster.

The blade dug deep into the flesh of the creature, but it wasn’t deep enough or at the right place to produce a fatal blow. The only thing that happened was the monster screaming a bit in pain and jumping back, causing the cut to dig in a bit deeper... smart monster. As it backed away, it screeched, or did whatever noise a snake made, towards Slicer, trying to intimidate the Heavy Blade. He probably didn’t look too intimidating, what with the female outer appearance and the dead arm, but Slicer wasn’t here out of dumb luck. He had made a name for himself out of his own power and he wouldn’t be intimidated by a dumb old snake with a huge blade.

The monster, seeing that this fighter wouldn’t be frightened away so easily, charged towards Slicer. Monster AI. Normal Monster AI. Such a wonderful thing to behold. Something that Slicer dearly missed... missed destroying. The Lamia brought back it’s weapon and went for a 20/20 split of Slicer. Psh, like that would work so easily on an Ap Do’d opponent. The Heavy Blade moved to his left, avoiding the blade by what seemed like a hair-width. An unexpected attack came, though. From atop it’s head, The Lamia’s snakes bit into the his right arm. The sudden attack caused a surge of pain to go through is previously uninjured arm, making the Spider Blade to fall limply to the ground as his hold on it slipped.

Quickly switching the Time Headband with his Guard Cap, Slicer shouted out the Repth incantation. As the light healed Slicer, the Heavy Blade began to think for a second, wondering exactly how strong this monster was. Two attacks, both non-vital, had caused quite a bit of damage against him. Of course, both attacks were pretty well aimed at, but that still didn’t change the fact that this thing was strong... probably stronger than Slicer.

As the repth healed the wound on his right arm and a bit on his left, the heavy blade whispered to himself. ”Let’s try this again...” The Heavy Blade changed his armor around again, aiming for the maximum ability of his earth element. ”Ap Ganz! Dek Ganz!” The two spells were said in quick succession. The first one increased Slicer’s earth element affinity, while the other decreased the opponent’s earth element affinity. This was the first time that Slicer was using a “suit of clay,” as he called it for no reason. He pulled out a different weapon, the Spider Blade on the ground disappearing. In it’s place, a Sharp Blade was in Slicer’s hands.

”Gan Smash!” The weapon became covered in an earth-like substance. A brown coat, if you will. Slicer charged towards his opponent. As he reached the Lamia, he drove his blade into the ground. The force of the charge and the sudden stop caused his body to flip over the blade and forward. His body flew forward, but with the blade still in the earth, it wouldn’t be able to do anything, so with the power of momentum pushing it, the blade came out, smashing into the Lamia Hunter. The blade fell down upon the Lamia Hunter in all it's earthened might. It dug deep into the body of the monster, causing a massive scar to appear on the double snake's body.

The attack was extremely powerful, but it wasn’t enough to finish off the monster. The skill had left him in vulnerable position, but that would be corrected soon. As soon as the blade’s skill wore off, Slicer moved his hands upwards, bringing the blade to come the way it came, slashing into the gash that had been made from the Gan Smash before. It made the cut gash with crimson blood. Turning around his body and using the force of momentum, he stuck his blade through the wound made previously. The blade went through, the words, “Critical Hit” appearing above the monster. It was enough to send the monster to it’s trash heap and allow Slicer to move on.

The Heavy Blade dusted off his weapon, switched out his Mountain Helm for the Guard Cap again, used a Repth spell, turned it back into the Mountain Helm, and headed off towards the large green obelisk that seemed oh, so, distant.

(OOC: Long story short, I killed the monster and am headed towards the green thingy bobber)

The day was actually quite pleasant, with a few puffy clouds making shadows chase and run across the ground. The townspeople were dressed for brisk weather, which made her acutely aware that her clothing might well look out of place.

As she asked after the elusive Albatross, whose presence had become a thorn in her side despite her not having met him yet, she was surprised to be answered by not one but two voices, almost matched in tone and inflection.

"Albatross? He left before to do something," they said.

Senna found herself looking at two nearly identical young women, pretty and with hair almost as shocking as Hyanae’s was. They moved in a way that reminded Senna of a loosely practiced dance – they moved in a rough approximation of one another but not an exact mirror. She wasn’t sure what to say to that, so she simply nodded her understanding and smiled a greeting.They each executed a bow and introduced themselves.

"Greetings. I am Dante," said one.

"Greetings. I am Beatrice," said the other.

She did her best to imitate their nearly identical bows. “I’m Senna” she said in reply. They didn’t make answer to this, but studied her in a way that made her feel a little like a vaguely interesting painting. There was obviously some connection between these two beyond the similar looks and likely the same parents. Dante and Beatrice. Where have I heard those names before…

She was about to ask these two if there was anything she could do to help THEM when she saw their attention get drawn somewhere above and behind her. Before she had a chance to glance around, she felt a hand on her shoulder. A voice came from behind and – again – above her.

"Shoo! Back to work you two. We're behind schedule. Music comes tomorrow," he said. She saw disappointed looks register on the pair’s faces before they turned to go and she turned to see who had spoken.

The sheer size of the man startled her at first, but he didn’t seem to be too intentionally threatening. She took a pace back and made another little bow, this time to him.

“Are you someone I could see about helping,” she asked, the start of a smile touching her expression. One hand gestured to indicate that “helping” referred to the efforts under way in the town.

Asura slips into step behind Sophie as she is led towards the weapon store, having listened to the interesting conversation back at the inn. Apparently, Sophie was one of the major members of the town’s defense force. This likely made her one of the most skilled fighters in the area. Eventually, Asura hoped for a chance to see Sophie’s capability in battle, as well as a chance to test her own capabilities in battle now that her class had been changed from Whipmistress to Fist Fighter by whatever unknown force was beyond the Chaos Theory. Now that the blasted thing was embedded in her body, the Fist Fighter simply had to hope that it didn’t do anything TOO destructive to her at the moment. Soon enough, after avoiding the trash around the windmill, Sophie and Asura arrive at the weapon shop to find the apparent smith hard at work at making weapons.

The shelves of the weapon smith are lined with weapons, most of them fairly common weapons. “We have the latest weapons.” The smith slowly announces from his workplace, smudged and dirtied from his forging. Asura’s eyes are instinctively drawn to a finely crafted fan that looks quite like a valuable Fist Fighter weapon she had heard about. She knew it was likely not the weapon that had been designed for normal Fist Fighters, but still, it was quite beautiful and could be used quite well in the hands of a skilled fighter like Asura. Sophie apparently also notices the gem among the rough stone, handling it with care and examining it before stepping up to the counter.

“Masamune... I'm short on money. Will this cover the cost of these items?” Sophie says, showing a single colorful gem from the remains of the Chaos Theory. Asura perked up a bit in interest at the name of the smith. Masamune was the name of one of the most famous smiths in Japanese legend. The name, given to or taken by the smith, gave her a sense of trust in the craftsmanship of even the most common of the weapons that were on the shelves. Asura quickly glances through them until she finds the basic Fist Guards that she would have to use.

"Hmm... You've not enough coins for that. No sale," she hears Masamune clearly say while staring at the Fist Guard, moving her head from side to side in order to get a better view to examine it from. The Fist Guard would most certainly serve her needs as a Fist Fighter for the time being, allowing her to not have to worry so much about hurting her knuckles on the hard skin of monsters such as Valkyries. She hears Sophie speaking to her next, saying, "Choose a weapon suitable for yourself. I'll pay for it as I can." Asura picks up the Fist Guards and shows it to Sophie and Masamune, allowing for Sophie to pay for it before heading outside to look around.

As soon as they leave, two scaled, feminine bodies drop down from the roof of the shop, each carrying a deadly scimitar and with two twined snake heads. After a quick check through her memory, Asura decided that the foes were definitely Lamia Hunters, causing her to quickly slip the Fist Guards she had just recently obtained over her knuckles. They would certainly come in handy once the fight started. She sees Sophie going after one of the two Lamia Hunters with her weapon, leaving the other one to charge over towards Asura with the scimitar. Luckily the monster wasn’t of a higher level, so the fight wouldn’t be too difficult.

Soon enough, the scimitar is being thrust towards her, near where she had been previously wounded by the Chaos Theory. The Fist Fighter had no intention of letting her new agility go to waste or allowing herself to be wounded in that same area a second time. She quickly slips to the side, allowing the blade to slide past her right arm, allowing her to move forward at a dash towards the Lamia Hunter. Pulling her arm back into her chamber, she sends it forward with a spin from palm facing upwards to palm facing downwards; smashing her fist with all the force she could muster into the skull of one of the two snake heads. The head jerks back a bit, taking a bit of damage from the brutal punch, about the amount that Asura had expected from it. With a bit of a grin, she starts to slip back a bit away from the enemy after the successful attack, using the same hit and run tactics she had used as a Blademaster so long ago.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have the same range she had as a Blademaster. While she still had to go into melee to deal her damage in the same fashion, she had to get an entire two to three feet closer in order to make the strike. As such, when she leaps back, she is cut along her midriff by the scimitar, drawing blood as well as slicing another gash into her clothing. With her pride a bit wounded, Asura winces in pain as she notices what she had done wrong. She had been used to having more reach on her weapon and thusly being able to move in and out of her opponent’s range. While she didn’t have her reach now, her weapon was still an extension of herself. However, she couldn’t retreat quite fast enough with her old habits to avoid the scimitar.

With a glare, she resolves not to put herself in that situation again, charging forward at the Lamia Hunter again, she once more shifts herself to the side of the downward slash of the scimitar. This time, she sidesteps a bit in the process of her shift, moving to the right side of the monster. From this position, she quickly activates her Kiwami skill by running some of her energy into the Fist Guards that serve to keep her knuckles safe from damage while punching the scaly monster. With her right hand, she quickly brings both of her fists back to their chambered position at the sides of her waist, punching out with her right fist quickly. The right fist slams into the side of the Lamia’s right head, jolting it a bit to Asura’s left. Her left fist then shoots out and smashes into it almost immediately after the right hand does, both her hands drawing back immediately after their quick strikes. The dazed Lamia Hunter certainly seems to be near death, dazed and yet still fighting on, like any proper monster in a game would. This time, Asura notices the scimitar swinging around to meet her flesh. Rather than making a retreat, she swings around her right arm to smash against the Lamia’s left wrist, blocking the sword from being able to reach around and slice into her back. With a last, frantic and powerful drive, she brings up her left foot in a high front kick to smash into one of the Lamia’s faces and send it down to the ground, where it turns into data and fades away.

“Well… that was fun.” With that situation resolved, she turns to examine how Sophie is doing and prepares to move to help her if needed.

"Oh god... I'm so full..." Atash had both finished his virtual and real meal, finding himself staring into the game screen. He absent-mindedly flipped through his character's menus and sub-menus. "What's this...?" A PM had arrived some odd number of minutes ago, the source being Hacorie. "Odd... Why didn't I notice this earlier?"

"What the...? I don't remem- oh. Yeaahhhhh... He destroyed the windmill... Bah, might as well help out in damage control. Or just go out and explore... Or simply browse the stores... Or try to find people to talk to... Or... or..." Atash flipped through his mental stores and located a small notebook, or at least, the mental equivalent. The library was on his hit list, as was the smithy, church, and a lot of other places. "Half of these things I didn't want to visit originally... Bah, to the library it is!" Atash stopped speaking to himself and strolled across the hardwood floor, but not before having shoved his chair in and tinkering with his belt. The door was already open, and he shifted his hand towrad Nathan as he passed by. He would need to know if he had noticed anyone going by, and where they were going. However, realizing that Nathan had probably been busy and not that aware of other people's positions, he bit the bullet and lunged out the door. The rush of fresh air smelled exactly as it was, virtual. "I can't believe I'm going to be playing this game for until the damned mystery of this place is solved."

He ran towards the windmill, turning out of the way just as a board spun on a rope as it rose into the air. One or two of the party members were helping here. A whole thought process was initiated, one that somehow ended up in something that would look quite familiar to those who had been in a high school comp-sci class: 'while(true) atash.keepThinking'. Once again, Atash was under paralysis by over-analysis. The question was wether to stay, or go somewhere else. He was feeling un-initiated, so he decided to take another walk around the entire town. Who knew? Maybe something would just pop up out of nowhere. Turning sharply and sidling nearby the well, Atash noticed Sydofh was inadvertently finding himself to be a chick magnet. Or at least, to the girls who's attraction was from the northern area... Whatever that meant. "Let's see... that's an update on two or three characters. Now." He turned back around to the people nearby the mill. "Has anyone seen the other people, like Asura and Hacorie, Curia?" Atash didn't wait for an answer, he just didn't feel like doing anything.

Sitting down, he sent a FlashMail to the party to find out where everyone was. He wanted to do something. He also needed someone to suggest it to him that would capture his attention. "Heh... I sound selfish unto myself..." Atash stared through slitted eyes and looked at his surroundings before sitting in the grassy surroundings of the well and composed his FlashMail:

"I'm boooorrrreeeeeedddd..."

(OOC: Okay, in reality, I have writer's block. However, I guess that can be accounted for by writer's block <_<)

Arriving at the bottom of the well, the wavemaster found his only available path to be a moss overgrown tunnel heading in a westerly direction. Looking skyward one last time, he began to move cautiously up the passageway. Feeling his unease grow as he progressed further, Curia scented the air. The moss coating the tunnels dripped with moisture as the air sat stagnant in the passage. Moving catutiously toward the faint music and dim light at the end of the tunnel, the mage held his fairy's orb aloft to illuminate his movements.

Reaching the small room, the wavemaster scanned its contents before entering. Faced with only a cabinet and a wooden mannequin garbed in a long cloak and turban, Curia stepped into the room as the lilting flute stopped playing. Lit brightly by torches hung from the walls, the only exit seemed to be a wooden door placed behind the chest. Examining the mannequin breifly, the wavemaster's eyes lingered on the nearly featureless face. Looking to the top of the cabinet, a faint smile flickered across the player's face as the word "chess" fell from his lips. Feeling his ears pick up a slightly rhythmic sound, Curia tilted his head and located its source. The small stand for the chess board clicked as if containing a clock. Approaching the wooden door and finding it's lock barred any further movement, the wavemaster felt his bloodpressure rise as a feminine voice filled the small chamber. "Greetings. Would you fancy a game of chess,"

Stepping to his side of the board, the mage spoke softly. "I'll play, but after you tell me how to unlock the door and get the water flowing again."

To: The_End_Cypher, Sydofh
From: KamiKazeKiwi3

Hacorie asked me for help but I'm kind of stuck where I am. He sent me this about an hour ago.

"Hey, we are in trouble here. I was wondering if you could come and help out soon, or know someone of high level to. We are pit up against a monster made up of crystals. It has already killed a few, but they are revived. One is dead and disappeared. Another left. Our numbers are dwindling down. If you know of anyone who can help please Flashmail them. I believe in this group, but we have little resources and people. I do not know if we can beat it. We could run away, but this place is full of people who live here. Who knows what will happen to them if they die. I cannot risk that.
~Hac"

I already asked my clan to go there. It's strange that they couldn't handle the matter, so I'm calling up extended favors. I can't leave the dungeon I'm in yet. Could you help them out? You'll find them at Theta Bursting Fantasy Fallen Angel.

End of message.

Just like that was he hit with unexpected anxiety. Like he needed anymore problems, already he was dazed and confused as to who were the evil doers in ‘The World.’ His superiors had him attacking users that had allegedly broken the game’s rules, yet after each task was completed, more and more questions began to appear and more and more answers were needed. Something was wrong somewhere, he knew it, he felt. He was tired of being a puppet.

Yet this message discarded his worries about the current state of ‘The World.’ Two long time friends and clan leaders have just uttered a cry for help, a cry that was not to be ignored. Upon reading the first sentence, he finished the message with great care, making sure no details were spared. From the looks of it, Hacorie is in trouble, Kiwi is far from being able to help, and the rest of the group sent in to deal with the problem have encountered road blocks.

Now, knowing Hacorie for a good while, Cypher knew the situation was more than a mere dungeon sweep, seeing as how Hac himself was having difficulty dealing with the situation. He’s battled along side and against the heavy blade, whose level almost even to Cypher’s, and knows the power he possesses- Cypher had pulled out a tight victory against Hacorie in a duel, one in which victory could’ve fallen either way. The question as to why they are in such need led him to conclude the monster they faced was not of normal creation; somebody had broken the rules in ‘The World,’ somebody was up to no good.

So without further delay, Cypher concluded his business at one of the shops- he was spending some time in the item trade area Mac Anu, selling and bartering items found in stronger servers to the lower leveled players, for a reasonable price of course. One transaction was talking place while another one was pending, yet there couldn’t be another minute wasted on his merchant career. With ease he dropped all his items, requesting the players to give them a small amount of money and asking them to split the loot between the both of them. In reality, one hour of hack and slash at a level thirty field would make his loot re-appear, with a few extras too.

On to the Chaos Gate he went. With two clicks and scroll, a server switch was made to Theta. The transition was smooth, having only a couple of bumps due to server overload. Yet despite the weight in players, his connection, paired with a new computer, gave him to ability to maximize his playing experience without having to deal with minor, irritating issues that latency would often bring.

Once in Theta, he remained in the portal menu, choosing this time to gate into a field.

“Bursting Fantasy Fallen Angel”

The three rings that had cordially gave him a silent goodbye a mere seconds ago had re-appeared to once again serve as his means of transportation. Again, another smooth ride, this time feeling only one bump- there was no bumping of course, just a half-second freeze and a quick skip in the background music, bumping was just an affectionate term given.

The ride was over. The loading bar was at near the end, one second later making it full. Now, the following scenes had grown routine to the seasoned blade master: the field’s terrain, whether it be grass, lava, rock, dirt, sand, whatever the field designers decided for the field’s terrain to be; any structures, such as buildings and rock formations, mountains, trees; the monster portals in the form of three rotating yellow rings, all having the same axis. All this would appear, materialize in front of the user’s eye, stretching far enough for the player to mistaken the field to forever extend. Cypher had grown accustomed to all this.

Which is why a yelp of surprise was emitted by Cypher as the field unfolded itself in front if his own eyes. The loading was done, yet not a muscle except those of his face had moved- he couldn’t help but express his confused and surprised feelings in the form of odd and strange facial expressions. The reason behind his astonishment was simple: the field he had gated to was not a normal field.

Directly in front of him- standing two sword links and no further- was a gray-colored stone well. As with most wells, several wooden bars and a rope attachment to lower a bucker down were built atop it, maximizing the well’s purpose and utility to bring water to whomever needed it. His gaze had not dared to extend itself past the well, and instead dropped down to notice the ground on which he stood on. Clay bricks- all laid intricately and with care, leaving no mistake or gaps between them- had formed a large square, where the well and what seemed to be an invisible warp point would stand. Still without movement from his original gate in, he allowed his gaze to move on, panning left and right. Several elements began to appear, key elements. The square was confirmed not to be the only structure, and the trees that surrounded the square were not actually forever-extending; instead, only a few layers of greenery were present before several structures could be made out in between that cracks that were formed by uneven- and hence, natural- tree growth.

By now the surprise had began to die down, not completely, but enough to bring back reasoning and rationalization. The thinker inside began to formulate ideas and theories as to the existence and purpose of what seemed to be a small town- deemed so by the number of structural buildings, the well, which provider water, a symbol of life, and the absence of monsters. One question had been bolded, italicized, underlined, and enlarged to the biggest font his inner thought processing could produce: Was there life in this place?

Yet not a second after this question had been posed did something odd, peculiar, unexpected occurred: a small boy ran in front of Cypher. He wore shorts and a simple, plain t-shirt, with no footwear. His hair was messy, going along with the rest of his attire- several wrinkles existed in his shirt, and the pants contained a few rips and some loose thread. At first Cypher thought the boy had approached him to question his presence, yet he was mistaken. The boy continued to run past Cypher, not even giving him a second long glance. The boy’s main focused rested on a circular object, entirely round, its color being red, although some of it had faded in some areas, probably due to constant use, containing bouncing properties. Simply put, the boy was after a ball.

“…Hello…uh, what is this place?”

Cypher posed a question to the boy, hoping some the nonsense he was witnessing could somehow be answered by the youth in front of him. Yet he had little hope in the boy responding to him- mainly because he seemed enthralled in his ball bouncing, and his size indicated him to be of a very young age.

Hac…what kind of place have you stumbled upon!?

How could she, how could that insolent girl defy his request like that. She had no idea how pissed off that she made the Heavy Blade. He was tired of her attitude toward him after what had happened. Hacorie had done something wrong which was not uncommon, but for this person who barely knew him to judge him was naive. Hacorie had found the book on his own so he should be able to keep it. As the childish saying goes, “Finders Keepers.” The book was rightfully his to keep and he would not let Sophie go out and deny him the right to what he wanted to know. The only way to increase ones intelligence is to learn. It is a basic right of humanity that this one girl was denying Hac. His temper was already at its end, so to speak, because of the long battle that had just ended a little while ago.

“I have had enough of Sophie. I will not allow her to deny me the right to the book like she did without letting me at least talk to her about it. She just seemed to blow me off. I will not accept no as an answer for this. I am entangled in this plot now. That means that until I log out, whatever happens in this town will be my concern as well.” I barely know anyone here, but these people/friends are all my responsibility. I got them all into this mess and it is my job to make sure all the surviving make it out okay. There are some I have already failed though, the death toll must stop. All the players here will remain here until we can all gate out.” Clenching his fist tightly Hac spoke one more sentence.

“Time to get the book back.” These were the only words that he said before he slammed his fist on the nearby table making a small impression with crooked cracks jetting out from it. Turning around, Hac reached in his pocket and grabbed a GP out and placed it between the two fingers he snaps with, his middle and thumb. Trying to snap, the coin is sent backwards over his shoulder landing on the table. The small sound of it rolling on the table, falling over, and then quaking from side to side followed. “Sorry for the table,” He said as he grabbed the door handle and slowly opened the wood face.

Stepping into the outside once again, Hacorie was taken aback for what he was seeing. Off in the distance it looked like monsters were on a roof. One thing was for sure; they were not that of normal players. Taking no chances, Hacorie decided to meddle in the affairs of the town again, he started to run toward the position of the figures. The two monsters jumped from the roof and ambushed, or thought they did, two people walking out of the shop who happened to be Sophie and Asura. Smiling, Hacorie picked up his pace and clenched the hilt of a weapon that rested in a hilt on his back. It was the dark sword of power, the Moumokuteki. This one item was on lend to Hac by the great Wren. Its power of darkness was unimaginable when used in the right hands, which is why Hac wished his were the right ones.

Nearing in closer to the enemies, the Heavy Blade got to see a masked display of what Asura could now do. About thirty yards away, the Moumo had a great idea, for once. Throw me. I want to test something. Throw me at the monster that is not being attacked by Asura. You better have the strength to get me there, you baboon. Taking heed to its words, hesitantly, Hacorie brought the hilt of the sword to his right shoulder as the blade faced into the sky. The darkness of the sword showed no reflection to the light of the sun above, it was like it had no effect on the black steel. Stomping his right foot hard on the ground, Hacorie thrust the sword forward like it was a baseball on a stick.

With the great force behind it, the sword flew while turning in a circular motion like a shuriken thrown where it turned in a horizontal twist instead of the cliche vertical way. Hac at first smiled as the sword looked like it was going to hit its target, but then something happened. The tip of the blade touched the ground as it was spinning making the sword go into a random leap. Hacorie seemed to forget about the one thing that is the most important when throwing things, gravity. The force that pulls everything toward the center of the earth. This one law of nature was used against him in the most horrible way. There was some good to this though. The random leap actually still hit its target. The Lamia Hunter was skewered by the blade.

What happened was the blade hit at the right spot to send it bouncing straight forward thus still hitting its mark. As the blade pierced its body, the monster was thrust backwards. The dark sword went straight through the feminine body and into the wall of the shop behind it. Blood spewed from the wound and slowly dripped down the blade and then to the ground. Smiling, Hac neared the pinned body and withdrew his sword. “Goodbye...” he said as he sliced beneath where the Moumo was making the lower half of the body fall to the ground and disintegrate while the other slowly turned to ashes leaving only the dark sword in the stone building. Slowly wiping the smile from his face, Hacorie turned to Sophie. Well he tried. The Moumo was in the way. It had hit the wall right in front of her face. Acting as though it was not as close as it looked, Hacorie pulled the blade from the wall and sheathed it.

“I am sorry about my many questions earlier, but I now have more, sorry in advance if I ramble. I must get that book back from you. I will not accept no as an answer unless I also get to come with you and find the answers that it has. I came to this place on accident, in search of adventure, but it seems I have started to come entrapped in a larger plot. You told me that it was a ‘local matter’. As I see it, since I cannot leave, this matter would also concern me and my colleagues. Whether you like it or not, I am also intertwined in this.”

After hesitating a minute, Hacorie spoke what was on his mind some more. “I get the feeling you are not telling me everything you know about what has been going on. I have no reason to distrust you, but I want to know if there is more to this story that we do not know. You seem like a smart lady, and since I am here, I want to know all you are hesitant in sharing. If there is nothing else you know, then could you tell me someone who does. You know more about this place then I do. I now want to help solve the mystery of this place. Why it is a town where a barren field should be. The mystery of why the Chaos Theory attacked when it did. I may be paranoid, but I feel that the monster we survived is just the beginning of the story here.” Finishing with rambled sentences Hac gives a nod to show he is done. He then awaits to see if some answers will unfold to clear things up.

In a small whisper he said one more thing.

“If needed, I could prove myself to you. Prove that I am capable of helping you out in this ‘local matter’.”

((this whole post is ooc. Duh.

I am hereby forbidding Kiwi from posting here until he posts in my quest.

I'm sorry if this sounds selfish or greedy, but honestly, I no longer have a choice. You guys have been hasseling him so much about posting that he's gotten so stressed out he can hardly complete his college applications, which is only slowing him up further, like it or not.

The last time anyone posted in my quest (that person being me) was July 26th. The last time anyone posted in yours (Hacorie) was October 2nd.

The last time Kiwi posted in my quest was July 1. The last time he posted in yours was September 6.

He has posted in your quest 5 times since the last post, period, in mine. He has posted 7 times in yours since the last post he made in mine.

I understand that there are many more of you than there are of me. I also understand that while I've only been trapped in a single quest since February 13th, you all have been trapped in the same quest since September 22nd. But at least you guys got rewarded at some point. I have four-five levels, a rare weapon, and a pair of wings that I currently cannot use, and am honestly begining to doubt I'll ever be able to use.

I know he's let us all down, and I know you've all given up a lot of time to help his visions. I also understand that a lot (though not all) of his problem is that senior year has been rough on him.

I also know that I'm only still on this site because I promised to help him with those visions.

Right now, he's busy with college applications. One of them is due tomorrow, and he's got three essays to do for it. He has three more applications to fill out, still, all before January 1.

Do what you will. Just quit harrassing him (you know who you are.)

I'm crying, but I'm staying put just the same.


P.S. I'll be taking this down once it's no longer needed. Anyone having problems with this declaration should take them up with me, directly, and not post here.

Is this really necessary...? The thought grazed the Heavy Blade's brain as he looked at the things before him. They weren't normal monsters within The World database, or else there'd be something that would've told Slicer what the monster's name was. It didn't, so Slicer could conclude that the giants ants that were before him weren't normal monsters. They didn't act it, either. They just stayed in place, munching on grass; why ants ate grass wasn't the thing in question here.

Against his better judgment, Slicer went towards the ants. They heard the swishing of the grass and looked up, noticing the Heavy Blade heading towards them. It didn't seem to bother them, so they went back to their eating. When Slicer was right next to them, he passed a hand across the back of the monster. Yep, a tough exoskeleton. Ants. He knocked on the thing a couple times. A hollow sound came from within. Being the bored little warrior he was, he pulled out the Spider Blade and made it come crashing down onto the shell. Not a good idea... (WTF?! It was brilliant!)

A moo came from the ants as their attention was finally grabbed by the Heavy Blade. Slicer ignored this for a couple seconds to check his handy-work. On the shell, no real damage was done, but an imprint of sorts could be seen. It said, "Slicer was here, 2013!" It wasn't the brightest idea, but Slicer liked it. It'd be something that would be remember throu--- *Bash*

It seemed that the partner of the ant took offense to the Heavy Blade's grafetti. It slammed itself against the warrior, sending him spralling a couple feet, but he was able to quickly recover and bring himself up right. "Thou has violated the sacred protection of the Ants of Ractle. Now your imputant maneuver will be the downfall of all your kind!" With a giant roar from the ant, the storms turned black. The heavens twist and thunder roars, signally the coming of Slifer the Sky Dragon! Slicer looked up. Yep, in plain site stood the giant serpent-like monster. "Now, suffer!" With that, the Sky Dragon came towards Slicer.

A smirk made it's way across the Heavy Blade's face. In a whisper, he replied to the threat. "You think that lizard stands a chance against me?" Raising his left arm into the sky, a thunderbolt hit it, causing a Duel Disk to materialize on his arm. It wasn't just any duel disk, but the Orichalcos (yes, I know how to spell that) variation. Slicer looked up, revealing the seal upon his head. A green glint could be seen within his sky blue eyes, like a beacon of evil. With one quick motion, the Duelist (I changed classes) drew a card from his deck. "Feel the wrath of Obelisk!"

With a thrust of the card into the sky, The descent of Obelisk was heralded by the burning winds and twisted land. And with his coming those who drew breath knew the true meaning of eternal slumber... Emerging seemingly from the Heavens itself, Obelisk appeared.

Now, who won the battle of these two titans? Of course Obelisk. He's a god card. Yes, Slifer is too, but that's besides the point. Now, on with the story...

"How... how could our god lose?!" The ant asked as it was on the ground. Slicer looked down upon it. "Because it was pathetic. Now your soul belongs to me!" And with that, the ant's soul was sealed within the Orichalcos to feed the great Leviathan. With a whip of his cape (he got one during his class change, cuz all bad guys need a cape) he took a seat on his thrown, which used to belong to the ant. An evil laugh rang through the field. It was quickly answered by the twisting of space and time, which showed the form of Syaoran, holding the unconscious Sakura (Tsubasa, for those who don't know).

"Are... are you the space time-witch?" The boy asked, looking up at Slicer.

"I have been called that."

"Please. Help Sakura."

"One sec. I'm waiting for someone." And at that moment, someone appeared. It was Haru Glory (Ravemaster).

"So, we're about set."

"Wait, I think I'm in the wrong ser--" Before Haru could finish the statement, Haruko appeared, riding her little scooter thing (which I can't remember the name of. Vesper?) and smacked the Ravemaster across the head with her guitar. And what appeared from his forehead? Why, an Evangelion. 01 to be exact. But the moment it appeared, it was diced by the Deathscythe Hell Custom. The hatch opened, revealing Tommy, the original White Ranger! But before he could do a single thing, a flying Mini-van crashed into him, sending him off into the stars, along with Team Rocket, who were at the right place at the right time. Why was driving the van? Keitaro(Love Hina)! "Oops... probably should've taken a left turn at Albakurkie(or however you spell it.)"

The Dragon Balls then fell from the sky and the Eternal Dragon appeared. "What is your wish?" Before Slicer could say it, Yusuke (yu yu hakusho) blasted it with the Spirit Gun, trying to hit Vash the Stampede, but missing, of course, and was headed towards Sasuke(Naruto), who used a Chidori to cut through the attack, but then missing his target, and smacking into the earth, blowing up the Field and creating a Game Over for all the players within "The World."

(OOC: I was bored... this can be deleted when an actual post comes up <.<;; )