It's a Bright World

( Afterword )

Amitzul was floating in a white space. It was empty, quiet, and rather warm, and for a moment she nearly forgot what she had been doing only a little bit before. She looked down and found herself to be all there, scarless and woundless however. Her humanoid form felt good. Amitzul heard a familiar voice call her name and suddenly tears sprung to her eyes. She turned to look for it and Wyatt appeared. Amitzul was hugging him before he could say any more, grabbing his shoulders tightly. The boy let out a surprised, "Oh!", took a steadying step, and hugged back. "Um..." he began, "w- why are you here, Amitzul?" Amitzul let go of him to look in his face. "Wyatt, I'm dead." she said, feeling only a little sad and regretful in such a peaceful place. Wyatt looked shocked, though, his indestructible Amitzul suddenly mortal. "Really?" he asked hesitantly, then added with a smile, "So am I." He laughed a little. "But...but I was waiting for you. I just didn't think you would be this soon..."

"I didn't want to leave either, until I did my Great Thing...I guess that was enough, though." "Amitzul," said Wyatt, "I never got to say this to you, but I think that you're a great person...and you do great things every day just by being you." Amitzul smiled through her tears at his honest, beautiful face. "I don't think it's time for you to go yet, I think you have something left to do. I think they still need you." "Can I...go back?" asked Amitzul, disbelieving, but Wyatt replied, "Yep! I'll be waiting for you, Amitzul." "See you there," said Amitzul, and began to fade away again.

A scene appeared around her, that of the room she had just left. She was standing in her true form in front of the altar again, and it seemed to her that she was emanating a light that cut through deep shadows to show a sharp relief of the people and room around her. The light faded, and Serei and Kelt exclaimed, "She's back! Yeah~, Amitzul!" "Well, Amitzul?" asked Chet quietly, and looking down she saw DEO, about his regular size now and looking like a beaten dog that still wants to fight, standing in the center of a huge wet mess, back against a wall. Without a word, she opened her mouth and summoned another powerful celestial beam, which blew across the room, whipping up a wind as it passed, and slammed into DEO. His whole body shuddered back, as if suffering a blow, and he cried out in pain. He began vomiting a bright white substance and fell panting the ground. "Ah, stupid son of mine." sighed Chet. "Why didn't you let the bastard die?" asked Serei. "Because if he died, the world would die. The darkness has been around for so long that if he disappeared, the world would be unbalanced and destroyed." Chet clapped his immaterial hands loudly, "You guys did a good job though!" "Chet. We need to end this." growled Amitzul, looking down and not making eye contact. "Wait, what the," exclaimed Kato, "You knew this was going to happen?! Why didn't you--" "Yes, I've been watching this entire time. I just let him. I knew these guys could stop him, since they have the elements. See, I was just watching him one day, and this interesting group of people came along and started asking me a lot of questions in my house. I figured if I gave them new elements, they'd probably be able to take on DEO and I wouldn't have to actually get up and do anything. Also, when they managed to do it, they did it without actually killing DEO. I couldn't give them the light element, that one's not mine. I figured if one of these guys could go and get it, then if DEO did manage to get it we'd have a way to get it out of him before he exploded, haha!...ah, this is all Taro's fault, dammit. Speaking of which-- TARO! SAREE!" DEO lay on his side, panting, his red eyes dull.

"Can we keep the elements?" asked Serei, not sure what he was calling the other gods for and anxious to get something done. "I don't really wanna give you guys the elements, you're Taro's kids, technically. Even though I despise you though (and I really, really do despise you), me, Taro, and Saree worked our asses off to create this world and there's no point in holding a grudge now." Two more beams of light fell from the ceiling, one white and one gold. Taro and Saree stepped forth from the light. Saree seemed to be an anagram of many different animals--cat, wolf, and lion, with one leathery dragon wing and one birdlike wing. The other god appeared to be human, with white hair and gold and silver clothing wrapped around him. "It's about time you guys showed up," complained Chet. "What the fuck were you thinking?" Taro asked, his beautiful face looking perturbed. "It's DEO's fault!" exclaimed Chet, "And you should be thanking me, because if it weren't for me and my clever plan everything wouldn't have worked out so nicely." Dolf, Kato, and Anais looked rather confused and useless. Amitzul ignored the gods' bickering and stretched her long neck forward to heal some people. She had a light white aura, and her saliva seemed to work instantly, removing all pains and cuts from Paz and Lacra entirely.

"We've come to an agreement," announced Chet. "We've decided to put DEO and his minions in a plane next to yours, where they can't reach you. We will be moving them shortly." "Wonderful." said Oni-ka, "but what about me?" "I guess we'll find out when we create the plane." said Chet carelessly, and Lacra cried out, "No!" The three gods floated over their heads, concentrating hard on something. A ring of glowing runes appeared around them as they began to chant in their own language, and a bright white ring appeared between them. It rose up, all the way up to the top of the tower, and then disappeared. After a few moments, Taro said, "We should have done this before." rather pointedly at Chet. Chet ignored it and instead preached to his favorite group of unworthy people. "We have created a portal that will suck all demons within it in the space of three days. The ones that began attacking the city when DEO took the light element are being pulled towards it as we speak." "Chet, if you can create a new world, can you make someone who is half and half...not half and half anymore?" asked Serei. "I don't feel like it." "But it's partially because of him that there is still a world! You owe it to him!"

"This one's up to you, Taro. Have a nice day, guys." Chet disappeared. Taro scoffed, "Half? How did that happen? Nevermind, I don't want to know. All right, listen. Your soul is half demon. I can remove that part of your soul, but you will die in two weeks with only half of your soul. You'd need someone to sacrifice half of their soul for you, and then you'd have a real chance. You'd both have only ten years left to live, though. Or, you could let your demon form take over and go live in their world, though you probably wouldn't last a day. Or you can stay the way you are and live in horrible pain because your soul is being torn apart. That'll give you exactly one year."

"I'll do it." said Lacra. Oni-ka was absolutely shocked and absolutely against it, but Lacra informed him in whispers, yet while blushing, that without him life would be a lot less fun, and 10 years was more than enough time to pack in some awesome adventures. After that, Oni-ka agreed grudgingly, albeit while crying. The two were surrounded in light for a moment, and then it was over. Oni-ka was a regular human, brown eyes, no fangs, no claws. There was a scraping noise as DEO was dragged across the floor and then up into the air, up the inside of the tower, by an invisible force. Taro laughed, and turned to the group. "I'm actually quite impressed with the lot of you," he said smiling beautifully. "Before I leave....I'll grant you all one wish. I am a god after all." "Immortality!" "100 wishes!" "Ok, let me rephrase that. Is there anything you would like me to do before I leave?" "Eternal protection of the this land and its peoples," said Amitzul.  "Can you make it so that mixed race relationships aren't looked down upon in this world?" asked Serei, and Taro shook his head, hair swishing around beautifully. "I'm sorry," he said, "That is something people must learn to do on their own." Serei looked down, then up again, "I would like a very big house with lots of money so I can take care of my brother and Kelt's kids--ah! I mean!" Taro laughed and nodded. "I don't know if you can do this, but...my sister and I were made in an attempt to let humans have elements, and please, could you give me the power of the elements so that I have meaning in my life and am not a failed experiment?" said Samir excitedly. "Actually," said Taro, "I think Chet actually did leave the elements within you. You will have to find out in time if this holds true with your sister and your people." "Can you retroactively kill those sharks that were after Serei so we wouldn't have to deal with them?" asked Kelt, and Taro promised to look into that. "I wish for...a future of not being prostituted?" "Done! Lai?" ...Lai said nothing. Oni-ka asked for his sword back, and got it instantly. "I wish to be a dragon that can fly," asked Paz, "I wanna be a real dragon." "Sure." Lacra was happy with things the way they were now. "Couldn't we wish people back to life?" suggested Samir to Lacra, but she ignored him. Taro told them to look for him in the future, rounded up his kids, and said goodbye.

Amitzul floated over to check on the prince, who was still unconscious. As she went past it, the huge statue that was once Leah crumbled, and Amitzul regretted no one had thought to ask for the bird back. She knew death was irreversable, at least that's what Chet told them, and there would be no bodies to go back to anymore. Wyatt's was buried in the earth in a peaceful, safe place near her home. Her own body had probably fed many fish by now, and many people and creatures from the fish, though nothing with any reasoning would probably ever locate her body. Then Leah's voice echoed through the room, "Since my powers are no longer needed, my work here is done. I wish you all happiness."

Suddenly, Wyatt appeared in the middle of the room. He waved at his friends and chirped, "Hi guys!" Serei gasped and began to cry, and Oni-ka sputtered in shock. He turned to Amitzul and said softly, "Amitzul, we need to go..." "What?" asked Serei, choking on her tears. "We're sorry we couldn't stay with you longer," said Wyatt, twisting his hands together, "but we really do need to leave now." "Go where?" asked Serei; "What's happening?" asked Jillian. "We did a good job," sighed Amitzul, turning to face Wyatt. "But- but-" spluttered Kelt, but Oni-ka cut him off softly, saying, "They're dead." Wyatt and Amitzul began to fade softly, as if disappearing under deep water, and Serei rushed towards them, trying to embrace them, but passed right through them. "It was a pleasure to work with you," said Oni-ka, looking at his feet. Lai spoke up for the first time in hours, saying loudly, "I'll miss you!" at the same time as Jillian, Serei and Lacra. The others quickly said their goodbyes, Kelt pretending there was something in his eye as he said to take care. Wyatt simply smiled at them, and Amitzul brought her head down to eye level with the others, broke out a grin and said softly, "Smile for me." And with that, they were gone.

The blast hit them with terrible accuracy, doing severe damage and throwing them around like dolls. Lacra passed out again, Lai hit an unseen wall like a wet rag, and the only ones left with their senses were Oni-ka, Kelt, and Samir. DEO laughed as he stalked around the room, clearly wanting to break them before they died. "Now that I've obtained the light, the barrier around the city has fallen." He brought his head closer to the ground as if they couldn't hear him from where they were laying, his rumbling voice carrying across the floor, "Can you imagine the damage my creatures are doing to your people? All the lower creatures are at my mercy, and they will receive absolutely none. I will wipe them off the face of the world, I will kill the last one personally, just as soon as I'm done toying with you defiant little scum."

Two beams of light parted the darkness, humming lightly on either side of DEO. One was blue, the other pure white, and two figures appeared in them. Oni-ka was the only one unable to recognize them as Kato and Anais. "What the fuck were you guys doing?!" yelled Dolf, leaning on his halberd heavily. "Do you have any idea how long I was trying to hold this guy off?" DEO snorted, looking between the two lesser gods as if they were new toys and he couldn't decide which to play with first. "We tried to come sooner, but Saree was drained of her strength. We spent all this time keeping her stable." Kato spoke first, twitching his white ears and tail anxiously. His face was decorated with whisker marks, and his hair was long and white. Anais was obviously a mermaid, with light blue hair and beautiful flowing clothing. They seemed to back away slightly from DEO, obviously intimidated by him.

Oni-ka was crying over Lacra, whose breathing was labored and seemed close to death, but when the gods backed away from DEO, he pulled his resolve together and stood painfully, then marched straight up to DEO. Samir figured he was mad, and he probably was, but he whispered, "Oni-ka, come back!" Oni-ka looked directly into DEO's eyes, which seemed to be wells of malice. "What are you going to do about it, eh inferior being?" He lifted one claw into the air, threatening to crush Oni-ka. "You're a blasphemy on this continent." "Chimeras, twisted creatures like myself, and you do not need to be on this earth." spat Oni-ka. "Ah, but you are wrong..." growled DEO, but his voice sounded somewhat tight. Then the god made a coughing noise in his throat and backed up a little. He began coughing in earnest, his bright eyes looking confused and pained. A familiar laugh echoed around them, the cruel, high pitched laugh that belonged only to one person.

Chet laughed hysterically, louder and louder, and materialized out of the void in his true form. His body was humanoid, and composed of all the lesser elements (meaning, excluding light and dark), shifting around in constant motion. "You fool! You think you can control the elements simply by absorbing them all? Hahaha! I'll just watch as they kill you!" Chet threw back his head and laughed, without so much as a mouth or chest movement to support his voice. DEO's body seemed to be in inner turmoil, cords of thick darkness swirling around inside him as he coughed deeper, as if about to vomit. Serei was angry, angry at losing a friend, angry at Chet showing up so late, and most angry at DEO who had caused all this, and she spitefully threw three throwing stars at DEO. The stars burst into flame as they left her hand and passed through DEO just as before. Only now, DEO seized, choked, and vomited a glob of thick, vicious fluid, bright red and glowing. Serei realized what it was and began to laugh, joining Chet's oddly long and very creepy laugh. DEO's body dry heaved a few times, and he croaked in pain and fear, realizing what was happening. "Try hitting him, Kelt!" said Serei, and Kelt was confused for a few moments before exclaiming, "Oh! I get it!" He slashed his ribbon across DEO's body, and the beast vomited a bright yellow liquid and seemed to be just a little bit shorter than before, when he'd been standing over Oni-ka. Samir was still distrustful of the dark god and summon poison needles to attack from a distance. The needles passed through, embedding themselves in the wall all around Serei's throwing stars, and DEO forcefully heaved a large, lumpy wad of a purplish-green color onto the ground. He was making quite a mess on the floor around them, and if the dark god could cry, he probably would be now. One almost felt sorry for him, shuddering and seizing and in pain as he was. Chet was laughing, and paused only to say, "Just as I had planned. You fell into my trap, DEO! What a stupid child you are."

Oni-ka, Samir, and Serei realized this couldn't be finished until the others could attack, and ran to their friends, trying to shake them awake, as wounded as they were. Lacra was lying on the floor still, semi-conscious, and Samir healed her enough that she could pull herself up. Much of her hair was gone, but the critically burned parts of her body scabbed over and turned red as if they'd only been burned on a pot in the kitchen. She removed the orb from her head and pushed it towards DEO. It flew across the room and passed through DEO's skull before coming back in a full circle to Lacra's hands. DEO spat up green vines of liquid and panted heavily, trying to back away from the group and looking a little like a dumb animal in his shock. Lai and Jillian woke up, Lai bleeding everywhere. Regardless, he ran full speed at DEO and aimed a flying kick at his shoulders. He whiffed right through DEO and skidded across the floor on his back before coming to a rest, missing the piles of vomit and the new addition of sky blue. DEO was several feet smaller now, just taller than Chet at the shoulder, and was groaning wretchedly, obviously unable to move. Samir explained quickly that Jillian needed to do a water attack at DEO, and Jillian did as she was bid; without even playing her instruments to summon it, she called water from the walls. It roared across the floor, forming a tidal wade that would have smashed into DEO if it hadn't passed through like all the other attacks. DEO vomited a thin aqua liquid and stumbled, almost unable to pull himself back up.

Oni-ka readied himself to attack as well, but Chet sharply and condescendingly, "That's not necessary, half demon. He is already the darkness." Chet strode on air towards DEO, walking above the spreading multicolored mess on the ground. "How do you like that, eh? Thought you could show me, didn't you?" DEO coughed raggedly and asked in a small voice, "You knew this would happen all along?" "Yep! You already have the element of darkness, the complete absence of all of the elements. Even the regular creatures have some amount of elements in them, though not enough that anyone would notice. But you, you are total and complete darkness. There is no way that you could ever control all the elements." He laughed. Kato, Dolf and Anais had moved as far away from DEO as they could get when the others had begun attacking haphazardly. Now they looked on with confused expressions, obviously having been out of the loop. "I'm quite tired of you and your kind destroying this land that myself, Saree, and that asshole Taro worked so hard to create. I can't allow that anymore. Fortunately, you still have the light element within you. If it's in there any longer, you just might die. How convenient, eh? But don't worry, Amitzul should be back soon." Serei and Samir dually said, "You know where she is?" as a white, sourceless light filled the room. Wounds began to close, bleeding stopped, aches eased.

When the light faded, Pelgrim's body was pressed up against the far wall, unmoving. Dolf turned and asked Serei if she was ok, and she was like "I kicked a god out of my house D: " Lacra was lying face-down on the floor, covered in burns. The others were picking themselves up and trying to heal themselves, though Lai was unconscious, still. Dolf turned to Pelegrim and swiped at his body with his halberd, telling DEO to get out of the body. Pelegrim shuddered, and a thick, black gas drifted out of his mouth and nose. It collected and massed and solidified, forming the massive shape of DEO. He was a huge beast, a mix between a goat and a wolf, and overall vicious looking. His outline was wispy around the edges, and shuddered when DEO roared. At 10 feet tall, he towered over everyone save Amitzul, who remained wrapped around the orb protectively. Her mouth was open, and light was collecting in it, forming a tiny white sun. Jillian, Paz, and Kelt were trembling on the spot, too frightened to move, and Lacra began quietly healing herself on the floor, trying to not look up at the great beast towering over her and let him know she was awake. DEO growled, and his voice seemed to overlay several times when he spoke. "You cannot stop me, Dolf." DEO rumbled. "Well I sure as hell can try!" Dolf rushed DEO, aiming at his chest with his halberd but DEO sidestepped, going to bit Dolf as he rushed past. Dolf managed to block with the pole of his halberd. After a moment of struggle the pole snapped in DEO's jaws, shattering into shards of light. Serei threw stars at DEO to buy Dolf time, but they passed right through him, only slightly disturbing the smoke-like body. Amitzul covered her, aiming a celestial pillar of light at DEO. DEO dodged and Dolf rolled away to reform his weapon.  The great beast turned quickly and advanced towards Amitzul, who blasted another beam of light, and he dodged yet again.

"Get out of my way," he growled, "Get out...of my way!" He punctuated the last word with a blast of darkness towards Amitzul, missing her only slightly. "You are nothing," continued DEO. "What are you even doing here? You shouldn't even be here." He had Amitzul's attention. "What?" asked Samir, trying to keep him talking. DEO lept at Amitzul and passed right through her, just as before. Amitzul shuddered and then suddenly froze in shock, her eyes going wide. She saw herself, crying by the edge of the lake only a month ago. She watched as she swam down into the depths of the lake and buried herself into the mud. Amitzul waited, waiting for her old self to surface. Her body struggled for a moment, and something bright flew up, out of the lake and onto the beach, where it changed into her own form, panting and gasping. She flew off, shaking her head to get ahold of herself, and never looked back. Amitzul looked down into the lake--her body was still there. Her suicide had been completed. She realized that she truly was dead; she'd torn apart from her body by her sheer will to live and do just one great thing, but what she was was a joke, a fake, a ghost. "That's right." DEO's voice whispered in her mind. "You're dead. Your body is just your soul thinking you're real. It's time for you to fade away...fade away into empty sleep, Amitzul."

DEO hadn't reappeared to the others after passing through Amitzul, and the dragon began fading away like smoke, small white lights escaping her body and disappearing into the air. Only hearing what DEO had said aloud, Serei shouted,"Amitzul!" and began running toward her, shouting her name. Samir and Paz began running towards her too, looking very worried. DEO suddenly lept out of Amitzul's body, spewing the thick, fog-like darkness at them, and they had to dodge backward to avoid being hit. Serei saw Amitzul was fading fast and called, "Live, Amitzul, Live!" Amitzul heard and shook herself a little, the light coming back into her body and making her solid again. Oni-ka was immune to the darkness and rushed DEO, sword held out in front of him, but it went right through him like smoke. DEO turned his huge head and looked at Oni-ka with his bright red eyes, when Dolf jumped out of the smog coating the floor and slashed across DEO's face with his halberd, which glowed brightly with his own power. This too went right through DEO, but it left a trail through his substance that glowed slightly.

Samir called Amitzul's name and she roared, reappearing fully. DEO turned on her, tail swishing angrily, and snarled, "How long will you stand in my way?! Give me the element now!" He advanced on Amitzul, ignoring Dolf entirely. "I won't leave until you are beaten," growled Amitzul, and DEO charged towards her. Everyone besides Oni-ka was coughing and gagging on the fog, which had spread across the floor due to DEO's constant emanation. Only Oni-ka was immune. He jumped between DEO and Amitzul protectively, as Dolf could be heard shouting "Kato, Anais, where are you!?" Amitzul shot a quick beam of light at DEO over Oni-ka's head, but he jumped into the air to avoid it and breathed dark fog directly at Amitzul's head. Moving fast, Oni-ka ran up by Amitzul and jumped towards the fog headed their way, crying "I'm not letting you die!" Concentrating hard, he willed the darkness to be absorbed into his blade, and the fog twisted in midair and seemed to enter his sword. It was too much power for the blade, and it began to quiver dangerously, hairline cracks appearing in it. DEO was still approaching, looking at Amitzul and growling, "Give it to me now!", so Oni-ka tossed his sword at him. The moment the blade hit the ground it shattered, the metal pieces flying through DEO's body without so much as disturbing him.  It did distract him though, and he was hit straight on by a huge blast of light from Amitzul's throat. The light engulfed him fully, roaring around his body, and when it finally faded DEO was still standing there, but looked very shaken up, and his aura of dark smog had disappeared. Dolf let out a low whistle of surprise, "Good job! Wait, why-- aw never mind, you're a dragon after all. Anyways..." he stalked at DEO, the blade of his halberd glowing brightly.

Serei threw a handful of stars, ineffective as Oni-ka's sword, and ran towards Amitzul. DEO's words were still resonating in Amitzul's mind; the distraction hadn't made anything he said less true. Amitzul tried very hard to stay and protect the orb and her friends, but despite her best efforts, began fading away again. Serei, Oni-ka, and Samir called her name, trying to get her attention. Jillian called, "Come back, we need you!" Amitzul appeared not to hear, fading quickly with a look of hopelessness on her face, and DEO looked satisfied, saying, "She's dead anyway, let her go." As soon as that nuisance of a dragon was gone, he'd have the last orb and be unstoppable, and he could dispose of these worthless specks one by one. He laughed to himself, standing bold and untouchable in front of the disappearing image. "What do you mean she's dead!" squeaked Paz, and DEO made a noise like an ugly mix between a laugh and a growl. "What do I mean she's dead, she killed herself! She's just as worthless as the rest of you lot." "She's not dead, she's right here! Quit lying to her." argued Serei bravely, though the wall could clearly be seen behind Amitzul now. "She's a wandering spirit. She's dead, she's dead, she's dead-" DEO began chanting the phrase over and over, delighting in the alarm and fear of the ones that had dared to stand up to him. Amitzul was gone.

Oni-ka howled in anger and clawed at DEO, using his accursed demon side purposely for once, to no effect. Serei and Samir raced towards the orb, and Dolf tried to teleport towards the light, but DEO got there first. He grasped the orb in his mouth, and it grew dark, as did the white room around them. The room was now void, and though they could see each other, even Lai's unconscious body and Leah's stone form, they could barely see DEO and the orb. "I HAVE DONE IT! AH HAHAHAHA!" laughed DEO, triumphantly. His outline glowed brightly in the dark as he turned to face the group, shaking with laughter. "NOW!" he declared, "NOW I WILL KILL YOU ALL!" Dolf let out a low moan of, "Shiiiiiiiit..." as DEO grew two feet taller, and his bright aura extended. Around him, a great swirling mass appeared--lightning and fire flashed from within, water bubbled, rocks and a purple mist and dark and light churned into small bright masses of All. It separated into comets and flew at the party, even those lying on the floor, and they knew in their hearts this was the end.

Amitzul spent a little of her time praying to Saree, hoping for a response of some kind. She received none, but this is what she said:
"Dear Goddess Saree, please hear this prayer from one of your beloved creatures. I am sure you know of this crisis with the demons. The last remaining element that DEO has not stolen is the high element of light, my new found element. My companions and I have been protecting the people of this land from attacks and reviving the elemental towers, with elements we received from Chet....though the price was great, and painful. When all the towers have been activated and the barrier restored, we will meet here at the light time, and make a stand against DEO and his elements with all of our strength. Please, for the sake of the people and creatures of this land, the life of this earth, and for my dear friend Wyatt...please aid us in protecting life so that everyone may live in peace without fear or prejudice. Please hear your humble creature's prayer."

Serei said a prayer to a god as well on her way to the castle:
"Dolf? I hope you can hear this, because we desperately need your help. We're collecting the elements, but when DEO comes for the light element, we'll probably have to fight him. But how do we fight a god? We're mortal, he'd crush us. We're not gods and do not have your strength. We want to protect our families and homes the best we can. Please help us. We may be asking a lot, but we need you. I'll do anything you ask of me in the future, but please, we need your help for there to be a future."

Pair by pair, the rest of the group found their way to the palace and the King, who escorted them to the light tower's portal. They were all down there within three hours, and Amitzul was quite happy to see them, though didn't want to get off of her "perch" to greet them or anything, preferring the soft feathers of Leah's back to the floor. They discussed what had happened to each of them, and whenever someone would mention getting hurt by something, either Lacra or Samir would heal them before they got to the part they'd really wanted to tell, about the elements. Finally they got all their stories out and and the King appeared among them. They started talking to him about what their next move should be, when the demons would be eradicated, and etc. It was clear to them that the barriers were still ineffective because DEO had absorbed those elements, all but the one of light, which was why the barrier could only protect Aliseria and not the areas around it. The only way to get the elements out of DEO that they could think of was to call on the gods. It was either that, or live in this one little town and let the others be destroyed while DEO worked out a way to get the last element.

This was when King Pelegrim said, "I think I rather like that option." Serei and Paz screamed and the others had their hands on their weapons, ready for trouble. "What?" asked Pelegrim, smiling, and Oni-ka said shortly, "Don't do that. We're expecting DEO..." "What do you mean?" asked Amitzul. "You like the idea of us all living in this cramped space?" The King looked down and laughed to himself and Serei let out a low moan of horror. "Well, you won't be living here for long, because the barrier would be coming down." "No it wouldn't be coming down." said Amitzul. "Once I take the light--" "NO YOU WON'T!" Leah started underneath her and said softly, "That's not the king." King Pelegrim looked down and coughed with distaste, then lifted one hand and shot a bold of something grey at the bird. Amitzul lept off of Leah's back just as the bolt connected, and Leah's body solidified into grey stone in a single wave. A wave of darkness rushed over it, turning the bird into onyx. At the same time, Samir cast poison needles at the king, not really caring if the king was possessed or not. Amitzul flew over to the altar and reverted to her dragon form, coiling around the orb protectively.

The King didn't move, and the needles deflected off a barrier in front of him. "Nope." he said simply. Serei nodded to Kelt and got ready to throw her stars at the King while he whipped the ribbon back behind him. Amitzul called, "Wait, elemental attacks won't work against him!" They attacked anyway, a giant flaming star hurtling at Pelegrim and a crackling ribbon to catch him, but they simply bounced off his barrier. "Ah, so much rage!" said Pelegrim's mouth happily, and nearly got hit by a blast of light energy. He jumped out of the way, saying, "Woah woah woah, woah. You can hit me after I get that element." "No. >:C" "But...augh, will you guys just hear me out for a second?" "No, we're done, DEO," said Samir simply. "Ah, a wise one I see. Well, your theories are pretty much on the right track. I wasn't counting on Chet actually giving mere mortals like yourself elements. What was he thinking? Worse, it seems you actually managed to restore all the towers, how troublesome! It isn't a problem for me of course, I have the power of the elements to cancel out the effects of those barriers. It seems you still have them as well. Except for Wyatt, of course, he was taken by me."

"Why aren't the other demons being destroyed, and why aren't I feeling anything," asked Oni-ka after a pause. "Because you're half human and worthless." DEO replied. "But hey, I'm going to kill you just as same as the others. I had been trapped in my temple for a long, long time." Pelegrim's face was contorting with growing rage. "But, I managed to get in touch with one of your "leaders". He helped me collect the elements that I deserved from the very beginning*! Chet is a lot smarter than he looks, even if I had asked him back then for the elements he would have refused me, because I am stronger than he is. He was only able to lock me away because Taro took the elements from me and Saree helped him imprison me on that accursed island. But I escaped, yes I did, thanks to that foolish prince and his apprentice. That apprentice sure came in handy, collecting the elements and bringing them to me. They helped me make this new, delicious world, slowly ridding it of Humans, Kado, Hund, and Merpeople..."

"How did you get in here?" Amitzul demanded. "I've been in here," scoffed DEO. "Then why didn't you take the light element when you had the chance?" "To lure all of you here, of course; you all seemed truly dedicated to stopping me, and I figured you would catch the other gods' attention soon enough, one way or another. The easiest way to end you to betray you, corner you down here. The only way back out has turned to stone, there is no escape from me now." "Why didn't the other gods stop you then?" asked Oni-ka, desperate to buy time and hoping that a god actually would help them.

"They don't care." said DEO flatly. "Chet doesn't, I'm sure you saw how he acted. Taro has taken leave of his responsibilities and isn't responding at all anymore. Saree is using all of her strength against the natural course of my will--did you know she pushed a section of the continent away and made the island to imprison me on? The power of the elements repelled the island, but now I have them, and she's using everything she has to keep that seething land where it can do little harm. Taro's children are not anywhere near as strong as he is, and are fretting over their own races, ignoring the main show--me. Well, I can't blame them, they didn't even know it was me collecting the elements until now, probably. If anyone cared to look, they saw only my spawn, not I." He paused, smugly lost in thought. Suddenly he exclaimed: "Oh yeah! Even if Chet wanted to do anything now, he couldn't. I possess all the elements but for one, and I would thus cancel him out. Giving you all elements to restore the towers with was a bad move--when I kill you, I will grow even stronger! Yes! Sorry, but this is just how it has to be, guys, say goodbye to your world." Amitzul said a quick, "Saree, please help!" before DEO began to kill them.

Oni-ka was suddenly hit by a bolt of lightning, sending him flying against the wall, unconscious. Lacra was pelted fire and rolled on the ground, crying in pain.  A tidal wave surged up from the marble floor and hit Lacra, pushing her back to the wall where her head connected to the stone with a dull thwack, knocking her out. Another one grew and headed towards Samir and Paz--Samir turned his body to protect Paz but the water bowled him over and he struck his head hard on the ground, making him pass out, though Paz was still conscious. A solid darkness rose up from the floor and tripped Jillian's legs out from under her while it went for Lai, who dodged out of the way. Jillian too hit her head on the floor and stopped moving. Kelt and Serei just managed to miss a lightning bolt by shoving eachother out of the way but were still thrown a fair distance.

Amitzul was still wrapped around the altar, shielding the orb with her body, when rocks appeared from the opposite wall and flew across the room. She was able to take out some with her breath but the three largest pieces made it through and bashed her in the face. It hurt incredibly bad, and blood dripped from her panting mouth onto the floor. DEO began to laugh gleefully in the wreckage of the room as some of the party stirred, trying to wake up. DEO in Pelegrim's body was doing terrible things to Pelegrim's face, stretching it so wide it began to bleed. Amitzul took the opportunity to fire a celestial beam of light at his turned back. He jumped away almost in time, but the beam caught one of his legs, throwing him to the ground. He was quickly up, but Lai was already charging at him with his fist ready to throw a punch to the back of his head. Not even bothering to turn, Pelegrim grabbed Lai's fist and used his momentum to swing him over his head and slam Lai into the ground. Something in Lai made a sharp crack noise, and Lai was unable to get  up. Jillian sat up and tried to play her sleep spell, but it had no effect. Samir took that time to dash over to Lai, readjust, and heal his broken leg. Tears were in Lai's eyes. Serei lay on the ground, praying silently: "Dolf Please! DEO has all of the elements but one and he's trying to destroy everything!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!"

Oni-ka tried to slash at the god with only his sword, knowing darkness wouldn't work on DEO, trying to draw his attention away from the others...and he moved incredibly fast. To Oni-ka, it looked as if Pelegrim was moving in slow motion, and he managed to nick him in the neck. Pelegrim laughed, saying, "I don't care, it's not my body anyway. It's the prince--no, king you're killing!" Samir blew another sonic blast his way, and as he stretched out his hand to catch the magic, Amitzul shot a blaze of light at him. DEO half turned, looked at her, and set up a barrier, reflecting both her beam and Samir's attack. He jumped back, and threw a great flaming ball into the air, which burst and rained down on the others. It had no effect on Amitzul at all on Amitzul, but Lacra and pushed Oni-ka to the side and took a direct hit for him. All the others were dealt glancing blows from the fire, except Serei and Kelt. Serei and Kelt were about to be hit by the largest glob of the fire, which definitely would have engulfed them if a fox boy in a  white mask hadn't jumped from nowhere and landed between them and the fire, setting up a barrier as he landed. He turned slightly and said through his mask, "Oh hey Serei, I thought you might need some help." "Oh...shit, are you Dolf? Are you the orange haired guy I kicked out of my house? I'm so, so sorry, just to let you know." Ignoring her, the guy shouted, "DEO! Get out of Pelegrim's body now!" "Fuck you." laughed DEO. The others struggled to get up and put out any remaining fires on their person, and Amitzul shot another blast at DEO, who was quite distracted by Dolf, who had summoned his halberd. The beam of light, by far the strongest Amitzul ever made, engulfed DEO completely, leaving not even a shadow on the surface.

Things began to move fast for the others. Jillian was placed in front of an identical tower, where the door was hidden in the exact same way. When she entered, a Serpent made of water stirred and slithered out from behind the altar. Jillian had to convince it to even let her come in, as it was feeling very distrusting due to its element being stolen. She dodged around it and pressed her hand onto the sphere, which glowed a blinding blue under her hand. The snake hissed at her to get out while she still could, and she ran, barely having time to get out as the tower began to sink. She hopped on her horse, heading west until she found a road heading to Aliseria.

As soon as she began traveling on a main road, trouble found her in the form of great lizard demons, somewhat like wingless black dragons and about the size of ponies. They seemed to be unaffected by her sleep spell, so she tried to play a different song, and a new, fast-paced, beautiful spell practically played itself. Waterspouts erupted from around her, tossing the lizards back and into the air. Jillian took off as fast as she could rather than fight them--luckily, they weren't too quick. She traveled two full days before she encountered other people, but when she did, there were many, around 500 traveling down th road on foot towards Aliseria. They said they had been evacuating from Kaisui and Cyno-ida towards the only town left that offered any protection and was seemingly untouched by the demons. She found Lai among the ground, riding his horse down the side of the path to avoid driving carriages off the road. He looked like he'd been through hell, with cuts and scrapes all over his face and upper body. Bandages were wrapped around his arms, with stains where blood had soaked through. Lai insisted that he was ok, however. They eventually found why the group was so big--the people at the front had stopped. From their hilly vantage point, they could see Aliseria--but a few miles out from it there was a dark, seething ring of what could be nothing other than demons. Jillian and Lai left the group, trying to make a round around the city and see if there was any side unguarded.

Jillian thought, "It was so strange journeying by myself. I'm so thankful I managed to defend myself...with the help of the pendant, of course. I didn't think I'd be able to do it on my own. I mean...I'm pretty much demon food ^^; I hope the others are all right. I hope Amitzul hasn't had to wait too long for us. This line is insane...>_< I'm glad Lai is here for company, though he looks like he had to go through a lot. Poor Lai ;_;"

--

Serei was planted in front of her tower with an unexpected friend--Kelt. They figured since Kelt had already restored his element, he'd just tagged along. Once inside the tower, a fire bird descended from the upper tower and landed behind the orb on the pedestal. Serei was frightened, but the bird was no threat, even speaking comforting words to her. Serei tapped the orb with one finger and skittered away, telling the bird goodbye over her shoulder. She and Kelt hurried towards Aliseria using her map, which was leading her right for once. They were confronted right away by a pack of smoke breathing goat demons, their eyes glowing even during the day. Serei threw her stars at the demons and nearly had a heart attack when they burst into flames and did great damage to the animals. Kelt finished off the rest with his ribbon and was surprised to find he could charge it with electricity and deal devastating blows. Together they finished off the entire herd of demons, who dissipated into the air after death and left the road clear. They continued onward and it was only a few hours before they ran into strange land crabs, an ugly orange and black mass of moving limbs and pincers. They managed to clear a path through the swarm and kept on going, but when they ran into water salamanders a day later, huge and mutated and hideous, Serei began to get exasperated, thinking perhaps these enemies would never stop coming.

They rode a total of two and a half days and bumped into Jillian and Lai before they had even attempted to go in the town. Lai had spotted a clear path to the gate and they managed to make use of it, getting inside the barrier (they couldn't see) none too soon. The wait to get in the city walls was huge, and people were massed outside each gate, eying the demons swarming outside and occasionally getting too close and bouncing off the barrier. Serei used her coin to get herself and her friends through, and told the guards of the others and made sure that they would tell the entire military to keep an eye out for them and to let them in when they come.

--

Samir and Paz were dropped directly in front of the tower's door, luckily enough for them. Samir planned on asking whatever critter was in there if he could keep the element, but it turned out to be a huge purple viper which was rather cranky, though not really dangerous. It also told them, since they couldn't figure it out, that this temple was the poison/chemical element. Samir tapped the orb and left in a hurry, think it could never be too soon to get out of a sinking room with a snake in it. Together, he and Paz traveled for a half a day without running into any monsters, though there were a few close calls--they'd managed to sneak off unnoticed, fortunately. The next morning, however, they ran into giant leopard slugs blocking their way. They were all over the path and into the trees, coating two or three corpses with their bodies. Samir attempted to sonic blast into the middle of them, but instead deadly sharp needles appeared, aimed, and skewered the slugs. Paz picked off the few that were left with his boot knife while Samir marveled at the feeling of using an element---what his parents had been trying to create when they made him.

When they set up for camp that night, Samir asked Paz, "So Paz, do you know what you want to do if we survive this?" "Of course! I will be studying, under your guidance, the skills and knowledge of herbs!" Samir smiled. "Well, with all this that has happened, it's really shown me how...fragile things can be. So...I think I'll do as my sister has asked for a long time and live with her. And well..." Samir paused, looking for the first time vulnerable. "I was wondering if you would like to live with us." "Really!?!" cried Paz, "Yeaaaaah! I didn't have a home before--well, I did like thirty years ago but the old lady died...and yeah..." "Well then, how would you feel about my sister and I adopting you?" "ADOPTION!! TTUTT that would make me so happy!" "I'm glad...it's just, after Chet's temple I realized how important you are to me." "Awww... TTATT thank you, you mean a lot to me too. I will help you with whatever you want." "I'll keep an eye out tonight, you get some rest."

The next day they finally arrived in Aliseria, and the guards recognized them due to Serei's description and let them in.

--

Oni-ka was dropped into quite a different place than the others--far to the north, where the lands were quite desolate. When he finally got inside, the temple guardian turned out to be a demon taking the form of a large, oddly shaped cat--its body seemed to be out of proportion and asymmetrical. They regarded each other quietly, and Oni-ka pressed down the orb, which seemed to suck the light out of the room when it activated. He left and began his way south. He knew these lands--his path took him directly through the ruins of Cyno-ida. There he met five harpoon spiders, who launched their deadly projectiles at him. Oni-ka managed to deflect the harpoons but fell off his horse, and there was scratched and slashed by the spiders, who took his distraction to close the distance between them. Their smaller barbed spines stuck into his flesh, and he collapsed in pain. From the ground, he swung his sword at their legs, trying to keep them away, and without meaning to summoned darkness into his blade, giving him incredible reach that actually took care of the creatures for him. He cleaned his wounds, removed the spikes, and doggedly continued onwards with his tired horse. He passed by a ruined shop, stopped, and went back to look inside it. He salvaged a nice enough outfit with leather armor, though not in the colors he would have chosen. Better protected now he went on his way. He traveled onward for what felt like forever to him--he was lonely, had grown used to people being with him, and he hated himself for it.

When he finally got to Aliseria he saw a girl waiting near the gate, trying to get in, that looked familiar. She had shoulder length black hair, and when she turned around he recognized her--it was Lacra, without her hair coloring illusion. She looked absolutely fine, and very happy to see him. Together they pushed to the front and managed to get in just as Samir and Paz had.

--

Amitzul had suddenly appeared in the courtyard of the castle, wounded tail and wings out, and frightened the bejeebers out of the guards. They tried to throw her out and she resisted, asking them to get the prince, and thankfully he had heard the commotion and came by. He was now King Pelegrin, and asked that she called him such, but he made the guards release her. Amitzul took him inside the castle and explained the situation and their purpose, and the King agreed to show her the tower beneath the palace. He took her down a long stairway, each level  looking older and less used than the last. They finally reached a wide circular room with a raised dais in the center, a large glowing symbol glowing softly on top of that. He explained that portal would take her inside the tower--it would be up to the guardian to let her out. Amitzul agreed and stepped on the portal, which instantly dropped her into a bright, extremely tall room that was much, much larger than the other tower she'd been in, maybe three times its size. It was well lit, and the walls covered with writings, runes, and pictures. Across from her was the altar, with the orb sitting in its depression, shining as Amitzul suspected it had all these past years.

A white crane dropped from above and landed, wings outstretched protectively in front of the altar. "No no no! I'm not an enemy!" Amitzul said, and began to explain the whole situation to the bird, everything from the beginning till the present. It sounded a little far fetched to the guardian, as she believed that the tower system was impossible to breach. She also had lived in the tower her entire life and had spent all the past centuries living in the tower. She introduced herself as Leah, and disappeared after saying she was going to check with the god Taro. She was back in a burst of feathers in half an hour, and said Taro had confirmed everything Amitzul had said. Amitzul got frustrated, asking Leah why the gods weren't doing anything if they knew about what was going on. Leah recognized Amitzul as a dragon and went to ask her respective god, Saree. She quickly returned; Saree was too weak to descend, but this was because the whole of her strength was focused on slowing the approach of the island that the barrier had repelled by sheer strength and proximity--the island of the dark god. She was trying to save her people by keeping away an island that was literally crawling, spawning dark creatures.

Leah gave Amitzul permission to touch the orb, and then helped her train her link with the light element. For two and a half days she trained, and she became proficient at breathing out streams of light and channeling the energy into her teeth and claws. At night, Amitzul crawled up on the great guardian's back and slept in the divot of its neck for lack of a better place to sleep. Leah was friendly towards her, and they got along well enough. The bird guardian was proud one of Saree's creatures, one of her brethren, had received such terrible wounds trying to fight the dark god. There was nothing to be done, really, about food, and Amitzul ate all the rations she had packed in one go. She hoped the others would complete their missions soon. Of course, they would probably be late...

( (Wyatt recap) )

The three brothers were excited, asking if they had gotten the elements. "Glad to see you all in one piece," said one, and Amitzul glared at him. He visibly drooped, regretting his mistake, and told them they could keep the clothing if they wanted. The ride back to the coast was an intensely quiet one. Samir healed himself on the way, and Lacra healed herself as well as Serei as best she could. She discovered that Oni-ka was still hurt, but wasn't strong enough to do more than stop most of the bleeding. The rest she tried to wrap up using pieces of her garments. Amitzul guided the group to the coast, and when they had set down, the party thanked the silver dragons sincerely, and Amitzul began to lead them, still in dragon form, down the beach. It began to rain on them as they walked, and though Amitzul's steps were purposely short to keep pace with the others, it looked as if she was in a funeral march.

Eventually she stopped, and took Wyatt in her front claws carefully. She asked them to stay put, she was going to go get the horses, and the group quickly agreed to wait. Amitzul turned her back on them, saying quietly, "The sky is crying." She took off toward the forest and arrived at her den only a few minutes later. Hiro was inside it, taking shelter from the storm, but there was plenty of room in the warm cave for two, especially as they both transformed into human forms. Amitzul wept into his chest until she could cry no more. Finally and then took Wyatt and dipped him in a pool of rainwater, submerging him enough that he changed automatically back into his true mermaid form, which he had lost after they had left the mountain. She carefully removed a handful of his scales, keeping a few in one of her pouches and putting the others on a ornamental pedestal. She dug his grave under the huge tree that supported part of the roof of her cave, and buried him there. Amitzul decided two things while burying her friend. One was that she wanted to keep Wyatt's two horses. The other she didn't realize she made, but from that point on, Amitzul became much more dangerous and violent in battle, as if her respect for life had been damaged along with Wyatt. When she went back in, Hiro was readying the horses, and offered to come along to help drop them off.

The group was very happy to see their horses again, although they had only been gone around thirty hours. They were exhausted, and pitched their camp at the edge of the nearest forest, in the heavy rain that equalized night and day. No one was hungry until they woke up the day, with its grey sunrise through the rain, and realized it had been about two days since their last meal. They cleaned their clothes and bodies the best they could while they were near the beach, though Amitzul had slept outside as usual, and was consequently clean. Even in the rain, they could see where they needed to go--a large dark tower was hard to miss, especially when it hadn't been there (or at least hadn't been that tall) when they had left. They were forced to cross the desert again, and the rain soon quit, though the clouds never left.

Suddenly Lai shouted a warning and the group was on alert. Things were moving under the sand, leaving long trails behind them. The group was quickly surrounded, and the things showed themselves--giant sand cobras, large enough that their heads came even with a horse's when they reared up. Serei jumped off her horse and transformed, latching onto a snake's head and throat right behind the skull. Amitzul had no patience for these snakes and blasted the closest one away with her white fire. The remaining three cobras seemed to realize they were not going to win and retreated back into the sand.  They finally reached the tower, which seemed to have no door, no windows, just smooth walls of black onyx. Serei sniffed around for a door anyway, and found a hint of something that turned out to be a crack in the wall. Kelt put his fingers in it and pulled, opening a hidden door and revealing a dark room.

Lacra called that she'd stay with Oni-ka (still unconscious) and the horses, and the others all went inside, only to be met with a sudden flash of light that threw everyone backwards but Serei and Kelt. From way up the hollow inside of the tower, a bird made out of lighting descended, crying aloud. Kelt whipped out his hilt and lashed out at the bird, but the ribbon passed through the bird, which disappeared. This left them in an empty room with their unconscious friends. Kelt had better darkvision though, and spotted something gleaming near the wall opposite door. It was an orb, resting in a altar-like pedestal. Kelt touched it hesitantly with two fingers, and it began to glow with such a brilliant light it was almost like the first flash. Behind him, the others woke up with a jump, as if they'd never meant to fall asleep in the first place. The tower began to hum, and then to rumble, and they all made the connection at the same time and scrambled to get out the door. Safely outside, they turned to watch the tower sink into the ground almost as if it were falling. Soon the top passed them and settled at a person's length below ground level. The disheveled ground around the base of the tower seemed to be pulled into the hole, and it filled up quickly with dirt. Grass sprouted on top of it, and then a sapling grew years in only a few moments. The tower was gone as if it had never been.

Taking a deep breath, Amitzul pulled out her map and found their location, putting a little dot by the mark meaning "tower". Turning to the others, she held out the map, saying that they must do whatever Kelt did ("What did you do Kelt?!" "I don't know I just touched it dammit!!") at the other temples as well. However, with the god of darkness after the last element, they had very, very little time to get this done, and going as a group would be far too slow. Thinking fast, Jillian pulled her pendant out of her shirt and called to it. Instead of a voice in her head, a girl projected out of it, floating in the air before them. She introduced herself as Shihori, templar to the the goddess Anais herself. She knew what they had to do, and promised to transport each of them to their respective towers. It would, however, be up to them after that, as they would be nowhere near the pendant or Jillian.

Oni-ka woke up at about this time, just as the group agreed to meet up at Aliseria. With that, a bluish light enveloped them, and each person felt a sharp tug on their elbow.

The elemental head of Chet appeared, floating in the center of the room over its pedestal, but said nothing. Samir dashed over to Serei, pushing Kelt aside and trying to heal her mortal wounds. He did exceptionally well, and though Serei had lost a lot of blood, it looked like it was going to be ok. Samir immediately turned to Paz, who was looking a little dazed, and healed his head.  Lacra neutralized the poison on Oni-ka's face and kept patting his head. Lai started, finally coming out of his shock. Amitzul roared at Chet again, "Was this your test, Chet! We passed!"
"...Can I have one more?" Even though it had no mouth, Chet's voice issued from it.
"No. Now give me my friend."
"Oh-kaaaaay, ok, fun's over...what are you guys here for again?"
"The elements, Chet." When she spoke, her chest hummed with barely-measured anger.
"Um...ok...well, you guys did make it though, and I'm bored of you now. Though it's against my policy to give the elements to creatures that don't belong to Saree, I guess I can make an exception. To be honest, I'm kinda sick of my son rampaging around. Personally I don't give a crap about anyone else, it's just the dragons I feel sorry for. Saree's creatures and being destroyed, and that makes her sad, and what makes her sad makes me sad. So I guess I have to support you guys, and put my son in his place. Oh, and in case you didn't know, he was the one who took all the elements from the temples in the first place, and brought down the barrier. He wants to have all the elements, instead of being the absence of all elements. He wants to be like me, and that bitch Taro made that impossible* for him to be born with them. You should hurry, haha! Once he gets the last element, light, he'll be unstoppable. I guess I could do something about it, but it's really not my problem. And if you don't, your world is pretty much fucked.
"Oh, the elements? Suresuresure, I'll give them to you. Have a nice day, ah hahaha--!"
"GIVE ME MY FRIEND CHET!"
"Oh, you'll see him." The room began to fade, overlayed by a different scene. Those awake felt cold, and saw that they were standing in the snow outside the entrance to the temple. Lacra immediately pulled Oni-ka up off the ground so he wouldn't die of hypothermia, and didn't notice that he was critically injured. The sky was dark and cloudy, but nothing else had changed. No one was holding anything, their packs were the same, and no one felt different. Amitzul immediately began sniffing for Wyatt, and stalked off in one direction without a word. Serei checked Kelt for injuries ("Stop touching me arg, I'm fine!), then rubbed up against Lai, who looked like a broken man. Lai looked at her and said, "Serei." And he smiled. When he smiled, his black collar broke off and crumbled into dust before it hit the snow.

Amitzul found Wyatt a bit down one side of the mountain, and for a moment she thought he was all right, before she saw the bluish tinge to his lips that broke her all over again. He was still in his mermaid form, lying unprotected in the snow. Amitzul reared back her head and roared loudly into the sky, eyes glittering with tears. The roar startled the rest of the group, and they knew she'd found him. A few minutes later she padded back to the group, Wyatt held gently in her mouth. Those who hadn't seen him like this were shocked and surprised, but moments later the silver dragons landed a little way down the mountain, alerted by Amitzul's roar which they had taken for the signal, and the party had to make their way down to meet them.

Suddenly, everyone was back in the dark room again. They were all standing, facing eachother in a circle. Much to Amitzul's alarm, Wyatt was no longer in her arms. Oni-ka turned around and started to walk away, crying. Lacra was on her knees, sobbing. Lai was simply standing, looking down, while Paz was holding himself and weeping. Kelt was on his hands and knees, sobbing, Jillian had knelt and hid her face, Serei balled her fists and pressed them into her face and looked down. Samir seemed unaffected, only a little surprised, while Amitzul was standing with her mouth hanging open, her eyes wide and her pupils small, murmuring, "No, but I did! I wanted to live! I pulled out at the very last second, that's why I'm still here!...wanted to live...wanted to live..."

"So, you had enough yet? You wanna leave?" said Chet, drawing out his words in a teasing tone. "My my, quite a group, aren't you all...well, you can leave whenever you want..." No response. "Any of you..."

Amitzul hung her head. "I can't leave yet Chet," she said, her throat choking up. "Please give us the elements." A long pause passed, then, "Why? I've never given them to anyone before, why should you be the first? What about your friend, the mermaid, or whatever he was..." "We're trying to save everyone," Amitzul was crying now. Chet didn't respond. After a lengthy silence, the god began to giggle to himself, but--

"ANSWER ME CHET!" Amitzul roared, her voice laced with so much fury and pain that the god actually stopped, seemingly surprised for a moment, and around the room the others jumped, snapping out of their dungeons of sorrow. Amitzul's voice was not a cry or scream of desperation, weakness, or fear, it was a roar of power that came from her true body, which echoed around the room. The god began to laugh again, realizing he had forgotten to.

"YOU TOOK MY FRIEND!", Amitzul roared with more force than ever, filling each word with meaning. "GIVE US THE ELEMENTS!" The god quickly spoke this time, "Alright, alright! Geez! One more test. If you pass it....I'll give you the elements." He began to laugh deeply, and suddenly his voice was gone, leaving a void behind. Unnoticed, Oni-ka had doubled over, holding his head. He could feel the demon writhing inside him to get free, it was part of him and not him at the same time. He could feel Chet moving around, trying to get into his head and bring it out.

He dropped to his hands and knees and began to growl, his body turning black and stretching oddly, developing lean muscles and fur where there had been none before. The deformed shape roared and began to grow in height. Serei quickly tried to stop him by hitting him in the back of the head, but the shape raised Oni-ka's sword, blunt side out, and deflected her away. Oni-ka's will depleted, it gasped and fell over, quickly growing to the demon's full size. It was the same one they'd seen in Oni-ka's past--black, oily fur, glowing red eyes, four tails, and great, hooked claws topping off a muscular body. Its mouth opened far too wide for a fox, revealing sharp teeth.

Serei, Amitzul, and Paz were stunned in shock, and couldn't move. Samir tried to get out of his way but the demon lashed out, knocking him across the room, where he hit an invisible wall. With a pop, Samir's shoulder dislocated, and he cried out in pain. Jillian attempted to play her violin and coax him asleep, and Oni-ka paused, seeming to recognize the noise, but snapped out of it when he saw Paz run over to help Samir and pull him up, trying to get him over to Lacra. Amitzul lept at th e demon's side, biting into his shoulder and pinning him to the ground. Where her teeth pierced him, a black fluid sprayed out in a jet, as if it were under high pressure. The stuff disappated into the air before it could come back down, but still, he was hurt and bleeding. He struggled and bit her neck, but wasn't quite strong enough to do much damage, and only drew a little blood. Oni-ka took advantage of her unwillingness to kill him and wriggled out from beneath her, dashing off in search of easier prey and spewing dark smog from his mouth, making him incredibly hard to see. His vision was decreased as well, and he took a moment to sniff around, trying to sense the weakest prey that was close to him. He found Kelt, standing senseless in the smog, and readied to leap at him, but Amitzul wrapped herself around his back end and legs. Oni-ka howled in anger and turned, trying to blow a hole through Amitzul with his foxfire, but the attack was mostly ineffective against her--the fire element of it did no damage, but the darkness left an illusion of burning that made Amitzul release him out of pain. Oni-ka lept at Kelt, fully intending to rip out Kelt's throat. Kelt saw him coming, and tried to restrain or knock aside the beast with his hilt ribbon, but it didn't work. Serei jumped in front of Oni-ka in her wolf form in order to save Kelt's life, and got caught in his jaws. Kelt could only watch in shock as Serei struggled, yelping in pain. By now the fog was fading fast, and Amitzul was rushing his side, attempting to slam him and knock him over, and he quickly tossed Serei's body at Amitzul. Serei bounced off her face and fell to the floor, and Amitzul pinned Oni-ka again, putting her jaws around Oni-ka's shoulders and biting just hard enough to draw blood and keep him from struggling away again.

Oni-ka clawed at her with his back feet and made a gash in her neck, but was distracted by Paz, who had run up and kicked him with his boot blade. Furious at being touched he struggled out of Amitzul's grasp and jumped at Paz. At the right moment Samir stepped in and threw a vial of poison into his face, where it burst and burned his eyes but he kept going, trying to get past Samir to Paz. Serei passed out from blood loss. Oni-ka knocked Samir aside and charged at Paz, too fast for Amitzul to grab Oni-ka again, and he succeeded in pinning Paz to the ground. He could feel that familiar sound again, but it did nothing to soothe his rage and he shrugged it off easily. He was however shaken by a sonic blast from Samir, and took a moment to get his place back. It was about this time Lacra ran up to Oni-ka and grabbed the foreleg that was pinning Paz. She began pleading with him to get ahold of himself, sobbing piteously. Amitzul took this opportunity to get a good grip on his shoulders and began to pull him up, off Paz, but Oni-ka shook his forelimb and sent Lacra and Paz flying into the invisible wall. Amitzul coiled herself to balance her weight better and lifted Oni-ka off the ground, high above where his feet could get purchase, Oni-ka being about 7 or 8 feet tall and Amitzul being 12...at the shoulder. The demon wriggled in her grasp, trying to twist around to attack her, but his head couldn't rotate that far, and he never got close enough with his attacks to hurt her.


Lesser of Two Evils -WIP- by *morowhitewolf on deviantART

Samir and Jillian took this opportunity to attack at the same time. Their sound attacks reverberated with each other and became one powerful attack that knocked Oni-ka out of Amitzul's mouth. He landed harshly on the ground. Paz was slowly trying to get up, clutching his head, but Lacra was already up, weakly stumbling towards Oni-ka, who growled dangerously, deep in his throat. Lacra did not stop. She removed her sash from around her, and when she reached the wounded fox, began dabbing at his wounds with it. The demon shuddered violently, and his eyes lost their glow. He nuzzled Lacra softly while she stroked his head, and from the middle of the room, Jillian played her sleep melody. Oni-ka succumbed, reverting to his human form in his sleep, entirely naked. Samir, in a rare act of kindness, tossed his beautiful white cloak over him.

The room finally began to take shape, becoming a regular stone room, and Chet's visage appeared before them.

"I wonder how much you all really know about each other. Would you feel the same way, I wonder? I think not." The darkness changes to a cloudy, dreamy white.

----
You see a young boy with short, straight black hair. He looks to be about 7 years old, and he is sitting by himself in the street of some dirty town, tossing a ball up into the air and catching it. A little girl with pigtails that looks to be about his age starts to walk by, and he calls to her, asking, "Do you wanna play catch with me?" He holds the ball out to her, and she smiles and says, "Sure!" "Here, catch!" the little boy says, as he tosses her the ball. Another voice calls, a child's voice: "Pressa! What are you doing?!"

A group of other kids, full of the arrogance of being a few years older, comes into view. They surround the little girl and whisper things you can't hear to her. The ball falls from her hand, and she turns and walks away, her eyes downcast. The rest of the kids turn and look at the boy with disgust mingled with fear, then escort the girl away. "Wait, Pressa," the boy says softly, his voice disappointed, "Let's play catch together..." He picks up the ball in his small hands and begins to cry.
-
"Hey, give that back to me!" says the same dark haired boy, just a little bit older now. A kid is tossing his stolen prize, a fruit, from hand to hand and sneering at him. His friends push the boy to the ground and laugh, kicking dirt in his face and even kicking him in the head and stomach. The boy's eyes flash a bright red and he's enveloped in a darkness, reappearing as a four foot tall demon in the twisted shape of a fox. It turns on the children, who try to run away. Pressa is one of the children, and she trips and screams in terror as the beast grabs her foot and begins dragging her away.

Then some adults appear on the scene, shouting angrily. One draws his sword and slashes at the creature, cutting it across the face over its eye. Then another man runs up and puts his arm around the beast's neck, trying to hold it back. "Oni-ka, stop! Stop this right now, get a hold of yourself!"
-
"We should have killed it when it was a child. Why do you bring misfortune on us! That thing nearly killed my daughter!"
"Well, if your children did not taunt him, than maybe he would not be vengeful and full of hate!"
"That is beside the point, because we look to you, Yoshi, for protection in this village; after all these years we owe you some leniency, but if it turns on us again, we'd set it on you, and have it eat you alive!"
"I'd prefer if you did not refer to my son as "it"...or tell him of this incident."
Grunts of grudging agreement.
-
The boy wakes up laying on a futon with half of his face bandaged. A Cato woman takes his hand and looks at him with a worried expression. "Nancy, what happened?" "It's nothing." She smiles.
----
"Look at the monster you've all been traveling with. He could turn on you at any second, this disgusting half beast. Why did you think you could trust him? Because he looked like you?"
----
You hear voices, some loud and boisterous, some in stage whispers, seeming to come from all around you. They are taunting and cruel, saying, "Did you hear about them? Those abominations..." "Their parents should have never had children. Serves them right to die the way they did..." "Haha! He's in love with his sis-ter!" "Really? Awww, how sweeeet! Hahahahaha!"
-
Images of a man in a shop, his clothes bright white with decorative patterns, but covering most of his body. Only his eyes can be seen, and bits of his blond hair. Numerous people come into the store, shady people, obviously those with bad intentions, and some nervous, anxious people. Large amounts of money are passed to the man in the cloak, and small vials from under the counter are passed back in return.
-
You see a man walk into the shop and ask for a "quick acting one" in liquid form. He looks confident, and glances meaningfully at a little girl outside often. The man in the cloak appears not to notice and hands him the vial in exchange for the man's gold. The man takes out a small water skin from his side and pours the vial in it, then walks out to the little girl playing in the street and offers it to her. The man in the cloak watches impassively.
----
"Yeah...do you even give any consideration to what you're doing? And you call me monstrous?"
----
You see a gold dragon lying at the bottom of a large, dry gulch. It is heavily wounded and bleeding everywhere, the blood running in rivulets in the heat-baked cracks of the bed. A smaller, slender white dragon with a bleeding forearm is licking its wounds. You see the white one finish and speak to the gold dragon, but you cannot hear what is said. The gold dragon hefts itself up painfully and follows the white one a ways down the gorge before disappearing into a hidden den.
-
You see a glassy white dragon egg. A white baby dragon emerges, chirping up at its two parents, a while and a gold dragon, happily. As it grows, its wingfeathers grow in red, and its belly scales turn purple. When the little dragon's wings are fully grown, you see two scenes. The first one is in a chilly mountain cavern. The two parents are speaking to the obvious patriarch of a clan of white dragons. They push the baby forward, and the patriarch ruffles his wings in surprise, then looks at the parents with distaste. The second scene takes place in a dry, earthen cavern, with bright holes formed in the ceiling to allow in light. The parents speak to the patriarch of the gold dragons as the others look on. The patriarch nods and looks at the little one sadly, and the parents disappear.

Neither clan violent towards her, but neither do they show her kindness--her kind is unheard of, her parents' relationship taboo. You see a gold dragon speaking slyly, "You don't actually belong here, you're allowed here because your father was one of the strongest fighters ever seen. So you may stay here, but just to let you know, don't expect us to do you any favors". The same thing happens in the white dragon clan: "You're not really one of us, we're just stuck with you because your mother was in touch with the divine and special to us." You watch the little dragon grow up, the settings flashing back and forth. You see up to current day Amitzul, curled up tightly in a ball, crying, "I hate being different, I don't belong anywhere...I wish I had never lived..."
----

----
You see a bronze egg, which hatches and grows up in quick time. Two bronze dragons hover over it. "What's wrong with our child? Why can't he fly?" "I don't know. He can't seem to heal himself either..." "This is no dragon. What kind of dragon doesn't fly?" "This can't be ours. I deny this creature, I will not accept it." "Well, he won't be able to fend for himself for long..."
-
You see a mermaid woman and a human woman with tan feathered wings talking. She says, "Will you please take care of this child? It may be a little odd, to be asking this, but...I want you to raise him as a human. I don't want him struggling to be one of us." The mermaid nods. The baby dragon is escorted into the room. The mermaid chants and places a seed in the tiny dragon's chest which emits a bright light. When the light dies down, you see a human boy, appearing no older than three, with light blond hair and brown eyes.
----

----
You see a little mermaid girl being dragged from her parents' house in the dead of night, crying dreadfully. Her mother is crying into her father's chest, and the father is looking sorrowfully at a small pouch of gold.

You see Jillian engaging in explicit erotic acts in a dark, decadently decorated room. When the other person leaves, she begins crying to herself, hugging her legs and murmuring, "I had no choice..." After a while she composes herself, and begins straightening her clothes and putting on more makeup. When the door slides open again, she greets the person with a smile and offers to play them a tune on her violin.
----
"Ah, a little whore..."
----
You see a Hund boy around the age of 15 collapse in the street. His face is pale, and his chest is heaving rapidly. Not one of the people walking by him stops to help him. You see a younger girl, a Hund, crying, "Lodo, are you ok?! HELP!"

A disinterested voice echoes, "I don't know what's wrong with him. I'm not sure, he looks like he's dying but there's nothing I can do. Maybe this will help, I don't know."

You see a young Serei get pushed against the wall in her kitchen. Two older men, humans, threaten her with harm, telling her to "Pay up." "I don't have it this time! I'm sorry, I-" "We won't wait until next time, we want it now! Your father owes us!" The men began throwing tables and papers, tossing things onto the floor, while Serei cries, "No, stop it! Those belonged to my mother, please stop!" The men take some items, laughing, "Make sure you have the money next time. Have a nice day, hahaha..."

The same little girl picks herself up after a while, going outside into the street. She bumps into people, and you can see she is taking their money and possessions while she does so. You see a much more proficient, current day Serei pickpocketing on the same street.
----
Kelt's voice. "Stop it! Stop it right now! What are you trying to accomplish!" "Ah, nothing. I just thought it would be interesting if everyone knew about everyone else. This is after all, a group that doesn't care about money, I think you should know a bit about eachother...ah? ah?" "What were you planning on showing for me, huh?" "Good question. Your life is boring. Let's see..."
----
You see the ravaged town of Aspid, its buildings reduced to nothing more than bricks and glass. "Where are your siblings, eh?" "What do you know about that?" "A lot has happened, see for yourself." You see the town being destroyed by demons, goatlike in shape. They're attacking, pouncing on people and rending flesh, eating them alive. Children run by, trying to hide. The buildings are on fire and falling down, people running for cover. You see two children running together. One falls down, the other one calls to her, "Come on Annabelle, we have to find the others!" A demon pounces from a roof and tears the girl's neck open and begins rending her flesh savagely. Another demon comes from behind the other girl and takes her down, spitting her on a curved horn and stepping on her at the same time, ripping her apart. You see a Hund boy and another little girl getting attacked. The boy tries to hold the demon off with a chunk of wood, but the demon ducks and mauls him. Instead of eating him, it jumps at the little girl, who was trying to hide under a door.

You hear a voice cry, "STOP IT!"
----
"What, it's true. It's what happened. Thought you'd like to know, so you wouldn't have to look for them..."
----
A young girl around the age of eight with short black hair is jumping in the mud. "Lacra! What are you doing?!" "I'm playing in the mud." "Oh, why do you have to be such a tomboy? Don't you wanna be pretty like all the girls?..."

"Why don't you grow your hair out? You'd be much prettier." "...but I like my hair short."

Little Lacra is admiring a boy from afar, a cute little boy around her age. She blushes and tries offering a piece of chocolate to him. "Here, I made this for you."  He disappears; some girls crowd around Lacra, saying "Who are you to go after Hiyo?" "He doesn't like tomboys, he only like girls with long flowing hair. Smart ones." As they are saying this, Lacra is growing up. Her hair gets longer, and suddenly turns a dark purple color.
"You could never be with someone like that."
Lacra is 14. She thinks, "I'm gonna work hard. I'll show those girls. I love him so much, I don't care what they think. I'm going to be the best. I just want him to look at me. I don't love anyone else." You see Hiyo walking behind her with other girls, kissing them flirtingly.
You see Hiyo and Lacra. Hiyo gives her a ring, and Lacra is ecstatic, putting it on her finger immediately. Hiyo smiles, then has to go out to run an errand. He meets another girl down the block and they continue on, walking together. You hear her say, "So, you don't have anyone special in your life?" "No, of course not babe." They go to his place. Lacra is sitting by herself in her room, tears in her eyes.
----
"You know that every time he goes out to do something he comes back with one of his little mistresses. He doesn't even hide it from you anymore. You're stupid for falling in love with someone like that."
Lacra is sobbing.
----
"Here, we'll let you have him for 500g. We need food, and we can't feed all three of us. This works out well for the both of us." You see a little boy around five years old, standing awkwardly as if not knowing which way to turn.
"Hmmm...I'll take him." "I'm sure he'd be in better hands with you, seeing as you're a templar and all..."

"Stop crying, you insolent brat! Do as I say!" A young Kato woman whips the little boy with a sharp branch. He cries out in pain and misery. "Stop!! Please, leave me alone!" The woman stops, thinking, then says, "I know what will do the trick." She reaches into her bag and pulls out a plain black collar. She kisses it, then places it around the boy's neck roughly. It glows briefly, and all the pain and sadness leaves they boy's face, leaving it blank and slack. "You will forget your parents," she says, pacing back and forth in front of him, " and never feel any emotions. That way, you could never betray me, or think for yourself. You will be obedient to me for as long as you live." She laughs with pleasure, an unpleasant sound from such a beautiful girl.

An older boy, Lai, stands by the side of the road, thoroughly wet in the pouring rain. The Kato is leaning out of her carriage window, speaking to him. "I'll be right back," she says. "Wait here for my return." She urges the coach onward and Lai stands obediently in the rain. Time passes, the rain stops, and still he stands unmoving, until he finally collapses to the ground. He tries to stand up, but can't. He eats nothing, drinks nothing, and falls unconscious, the way Jillian and Kimi had found him.

  

Samir's ground entered a circular room that seemed to be made of entirely white carpet. It coated the walls and the floor, though the ceiling remained a disturbing "void" color. There was no door, and as soon as they were through it, there was no door behind them. Samir had begun to lose all patience with this place, and began walking one way around the the wall, running his hand along it and hoping for a hidden doorknob. Following his lead, the others followed him or went the other way around the large room. After giving himself rugburn and accumulating a decent amount of static electricity, Kelt shouted "This is bullshit!" and started walking towards Samir on the other side of the room, but tripped over something partway. Samir rushed over, pushed Kelt aside, and found a hidden door buried in the carpet with only a handle sticking out.

Unfortunately the door seemed to lead to a dark abyss. Samir contemplated it while Kelt got up and started cursing at Samir for his lack of concern and pushing him aside, and then started cursing the whole damn temple. Samir put his arm out and pushed Kelt into the gaping hole in the floor. Kelt let out a yelp and grabbed Samir's wrist, and Samir landed on the floor with his arm in the hole and began to slide towards it with Kelt's weight (Samir was upset that Kelt had grabbed him and wanted Kelt to let go. Kelt only cursed louder). Paz jumped on Samir's legs just as his upper body slid in, but before he knew it he was sliding toward the hole too, much faster. Jillian grabbed Paz's legs before they could disappear and Lai caught one of her ankles, but there was too much pull with all their weights and Lai fell in as well, forming the last link of a very angry human chain. The door closed behind them, and they began floating instead of falling, each one slowly righting until they were standing, and their surroundings slowly began to fade in. With the view, came the heat--they were standing on a long, broken path of a dark glassy stone, and were edged on both sides by red hot lava. They started to walk down the path, Kelt still angry and the others mumbling to themselves, but they still kindly helped each other down the succession of ridges, heading towards the door. Jillian, being a mermaid, was very susceptible to heat, and had to be carried after a while--Samir gladly took that job. Suddenly, the lava to both sides of them began to boil viciously, and four creatures emerged, spraying hissing embers onto the group The creatures were dark red and brown Sotiks, their eyes glowing with fire. Each had the body of a horse, the head of a reptile or dragon, and thin, multi-jointed legs that ended in long, dangerous sickles. The closest one lunged at Samir, who tossed Jillian backwards and was pinned under the Sotik, which had landed on Samir with the blunt side of its front claws in order to bring its head closer to Samir. It reached down to bite Samir's neck, long, poisonous fangs stretching forward, but jerked and fell sideways as Paz's boot blade severed an arm at the shoulder with a well-aimed kick. The creature retreated, climbing back into the lava. Meanwhile, Kelt was taking care of one with his ribbon blade, taking care to stay well away from the sharp limbs. Lai refused to get close to the creatures, but Samir recovered and cast a sonic wave at the other two, who retreated just in time to miss it, though the surface of the lava rippled backwards, up against the far wall, which was made of the same stuff they were walking on. Everyone made a run for it, but before they could reach the door the two that had been hiding jumped out again, brandishing their claws and hissing. In desperation, Jillian called on the pendant around her neck for help, and it responded by emitting a loud noise that rose in pitch until no one, not even Kelt, could hear it. The Sotiks obviously could though, because they let out a roar of pain and dove back into the lava.  Quickly the group made it to the door and went through it, into the cool air of the next room.

The room was an empty void. Below their feet was a glass floor that faded away about 30 feet in each direction. Confused, they looked around for an enemy, but suddenly each person felt totally exhausted, so tired that they slumped to the ground and passed out without another word or even a struggle.

--- 

Oni-ka led the way to the next room and nearly stumbled on the new flooring. The room was huge, gigantic, and wall-to wall full of incredibly deep water, which in the low lighting of the torches on the far-away walls, looked almost completely black only a few feet down. The floor they were standing on was a platform about ten feet across, which rose and fell gently with the undulations of the water. A door was plainly situated by the end of the platform, and looked to be a very decorated and gold one at that. The party cautiously began down the path, staying in the middle of the platform and spread a little apart to avoid overbalancing the platform and tipping them over.

Without warning three great heads connected to long, sinuous bodies surged out of the water, their long back fins and blunted faces proving them to be dragon eels. They leapt at the group, wide open mouths showing the smaller rows of grinding teeth behind the large fanged jaws. Serei quickly tossed a handful of throwing stars and half blinded one of them, making it miss and retreat. Another was going directly for Oni-ka, its mouth just big enough to swallow him whole, but Oni-ka ducked and lunged forward and up with his blade at just the right second to drive into the top of its head. His hand and arm scraped against the smaller rings of teeth on the inside as he did this, and as a result had rows of deep scratches. He had to withdraw quickly as the eel's momentum carried it forward, then it slumped and fell back into the water.

Amitzul and Wyatt had been walking sideways, hand in hand. Wyatt acted faster, slamming Amitzul out of the way and getting caught in her place with a cry of pain. The eel quickly withdrew into the water and dove, its long body trailing behind it. Blood splashed in a line from where Wyatt had been standing to where he had been pulled under. Amitzul immediately transformed into her dragon form and dove after the eel, swimming as fast as she could after the eel in the darkness. She could only just see Wyatt in the darkness, his tail scales reflecting enough to tell her he'd transformed when he hit the water, which seemed to go on forever. The creature was swimming straight down, a trail of blood puffing out behind it. Amitzul caught up and began to pry the eel's mouth open with her claws, but the dragon eel that had been partially blinded latched onto her tail and began to ravage it, trying to pull the scales out to get at the flesh.

Above, the others could only see a mass of shadows and some blood on top of the water. The waves were beginning to rock the platform, and they had to stay sure footed to avoid falling into the water. Lacra healed Oni-ka 's wounded arm as best she could. Under the water, the dragon eel was whipping back and forth, trying to throw Amitzul off the other one, but she latched her jaws onto the sides of the eel's head that held Wyatt and closed hard, her claws still trying to pull the creature's mouth open. The creature's skull collapsed, and its jaw fell open loosely, letting Wyatt float outward. Blood was billowing out of him, visible even at the surface. He didn't seem to be moving, and Amitzul caught him in her mouth and tried to coat him with her saliva, but the water diluted it too much to do much good. Meanwhile, the other eel had torn off all of her red tail scales, so she was bleeding freely into the water, and it was still going at the rest of the scales on her tail when Amitzul whipped around in the water and tried to make a break for the surface, with Wyatt safely in her mouth. The eel, which was only just over half the size of Amitzul, realized its prey would be getting away, and tore at her tail in earnest with its many rows of teeth, digging deep into the flesh in a large swath down her muscled tail. The pain was just too much to bear, and all the screaming hurt she'd been suppressing while trying to free Wyatt washed over her in a wave. On the surface, Oni-ka, Lacra, and Serei saw only churning water, which was now a deep red. Oni-ka desperately wanted to dive in, but frustratingly knew that there was nothing he could do.  Amitzul lost her grip on Wyatt, who began to sink in the water. She turned as quickly as she could on the dragon eel to keep it from snatching up Wyatt, and a strength fueled by adrenaline, completely flattened the eel's head. She let it fall away from her and went after Wyatt, who was still sinking but not bleeding as much. She caught him in her mouth and laboriously began the journey back up, as fast as she could without using her tail, which hurt even more now that she was in no apparent danger.

Oni-ka and the others saw a long shadow approaching in the sea of blood, and Lacra backed away while Oni-ka readied his sword. To their relief, Amitzul burst out of the water and clawed her way onto the platform, enough to get her entire body out of the water. The first thing Amitzul did was to take Wyatt in one taloned hand and search for his wounds with her tongue, cleaning them. Lacra rushed over to heal Wyatt at Amitzul's insistence, but had to do it from a distance, as Amitzul was holding him high up, close to her face. The wounds began to close up, but then Amitzul noticed...Wyatt wasn't breathing. Upon inspecting him, Amitzul's heart seized in her chest and the world grew cold and dark around her. What she had thought to be the biggest wound, a gash in his side, wasn't at all. A large ragged hole punctuating a row of smaller holes on his back was closing up before her eyes, directly where his heart was. It just hadn't been visible from the front, where she had been looking. Wyatt had probably died a near instant death. Without a word, Amitzul drew Wyatt close to her chest and turned away to clean her tail, which was practically in tatters. It would not heal without deep scars, if she survived this ordeal at all. She cleaned until the bleeding stopped, then transformed into her human form, her ragged tail remaining out. She held the much-shorter Wyatt in her arms, against her chest, and walked towards the next room. The others followed quietly, sensing something was wrong. 

They went through the next door into an empty room, completely void of walls or a ceiling and having only a glass floor. Serei, worried, approached Amitzul and tried to touch Wyatt and see if he was ok, but Amitzul backed up a few steps, her face looking dangerously blank, and Serei backed off. Frustrated and sad, Oni-ka called out to Chet, ordering him to speak and calling him a wretched being. Chet's voice came back, "You call me a wretched being? You are the ones who entered into my domain." "You kill for fun and pleasure..." "I do not kill for fun, I could kill you whenever I please. It's just an unfortunate incident...oh well. What! I could have thrown in much harder trials that would have killed you all on the spot." "How could anything ever have loved you," murmured Oni-ka. Chet chose not to respond to that. Serei said, "You killed our friend." "I didn't kill them, my pets killed them, haha!" "And I wonder who summoned them," said Oni-ka. "Too bad!" laughed Chet, giggling to himself. "Bring him back," growled Serei. "I can't." "I thought you were a god." "I am a god, but I can't. Death is final."

"He was my best friend," whispered Amitzul, standing by herself on one side of the room, tears freely streaming down her face. Chet made a dismissive noise. After a few moments of silence, he continued: "Have you had enough? You can leave whenever you want." "No," moaned Amitzul, and Oni-ka said, "No one is going to leave until we get what we came for." "Well, you're free to stay as long as you want," said Chet, laughing cruelly. No one responded, and his laughter faded away.


They suddenly felt like they couldn't stand, and slumped to the ground. Each person's eyes closed slowly. "Don't fight it..." whispered Chet. "I hate you..." murmured Oni-ka as his eyes rolled back. Amitzul collapsed holding Wyatt tightly, not wanting to let Wyatt go even in unconsciousness.

Amitzul and the others walked into the next room, the door closing and disappearing behind them, leaving them in another hallway with a door at the end. Cautiously they walked towards the door, ready for anything, but soon realized what the trick of this room was, as it was felt more and more as they got closer to the door. They seemed to be pulled down to the ground, as if their bodies were too heavy to hold. It slowed them down terribly, and Serei, the closest to the door, collapsed on the floor, unable to lift her head or arms any more, and seemed to be on the verge of passing out. Lacra was falling behind, the orb on her head slowly rolling down the side of her face. Wyatt tried to make Amitzul go ahead and go through the door without him, but ended up being carried by Amitzul, who was down on her hands and knees and still trying to push forward. Even breathing was difficult for them, especially for Serei, whose chest was being crushed against the floor. Oni-ka, with great effort, managed to push himself up with his sword and thrust the door open, and the moment he did everyone suddenly got sick, feeling like they were going to fly into the ceiling---they didn't, it was just that normal gravity never felt so light. Serei and Lacra managed to get up from where they'd fallen, none the worse for wear, and they all pushed on into the next room. 

A voice began to laugh, echoing around them. The voice just laughed harder when Oni-ka's mutter, "Shut up." "I'm just having a little bit of fun! I didn't expect you to be able to stand up to so much! Are you having fun?" it asked tauntingly. Oni-ka refused to rise to the bait, telling the face that it was being cowardly and immature, putting them through this crap, while Serei threatened to harm him if she found him. "Come try, if you can find me!" The room faded in--it had no walls. It was totally black, but for a wide, ornate pedestal in the center and a head floating above it. The head wasn't human, however--half of it was flame skirting around an indentation that implied an eye, and the other half of the face was a chunk of ice that spiked upward. A wind swirled around the head, tugging at the flames, and when the voice spoke, it had an underlying noise like a river rushing. Lacra bowed to it with a greeting, and Oni-ka scoffed. The face seemed to look over all of them, stopping on Amitzul, "Ah, you're a dragon, aren't you? Well, you did have wings when I made you fall through the void. Ah, you're one of Saree's creatures. How nice to meet you! The rest of you--go to hell." Oni-ka tried to come back with, "I'm the result of your child, actually..." "....I DON'T CARE. |: ....nice to meet you lady dragon~ :D " Amitzul nodded and said, "Lord Chet, we have come to you to beg your help." "My help? I don't do help." Oni-ka muttered, "And you call yourself a god..." "Actually, I call myself Chet. Ah well, you'll probably die before you reach the end of my puzzle." "This isn't the end of the puzzle? :c " "No, only part of the way. I decided to greet you. Maybe if you pass all my tests I'll listen to you." Amitzul seemed to take this very hard, as she wanted to meet a god very badly but when she finally did, it wasn't anything like she'd hoped. Wyatt reached over to comfort Amitzul, who was actually beginning to cry a little. Oni-ka looked like he wanted to break the base, and Chet reminded him that they couldn't have expected to waltz right in and talk to him, and made them answer a riddle before he would let them go on, disappearing and revealing a door behind the base.

Amitzul stopped to pray silently before the pedestal, thinking it better to actually address her thoughts since Chet hadn't seemed to be able to read her mind:
"Lord Chet, please hear my prayer.
Please forgive the rudeness of my friends, they are just very worried and upset because we don't have a lot of time. As you've probably heard, the barrier protecting the people of the continent is very weak, if not entirely gone. Demons are taking out many of the human, Kado, Hund, and Mermaid towns, and the loss of life has been great. My brethren, the gold dragons, a silver dragon, my friends and myself have been helping the people of the towns defend their lives and escape the demons, but the onslaught seems to be endless. There is no safe place left.
So we have come to You, Lord Chet, to plea with you to help us, and bestow upon us the elements so that we may restore the towers and the barrier. The more time passes, the more damage the demons cause to all the life on the continent. Please, I beg your help....
...after this is all over, Chet, if You would like, I will return and keep You company. I did not stop to think of how alone You must be, here in the dark insides of a mountain, nor how rude of us it was to just enter Your home. It must be very lonely...so, after this Great Thing is finished, I would be happy to return and keep You company. Please hear my prayer."

---

The other group entered what seemed to be a huge round room made entirely out of ice, whose walls stretched up into darkness above their heads. They immediately began feeling around the walls for a way out, and Lai was the only one to slip and fall down, though Samir wasn't doing too much better. Thankfully, they found the doorknob quickly enough, and crawled/slid/stepped carefully into the next room, which was stone and entirely empty. They made their way slowly towards the far side, and actually started to believe there was nothing in there when they reached the middle, and then they heard a great rumbling noise. Four huge bricks of stone dropped from the void above them, and they acted quickly--Jillian pulled Paz out of the way, Samir jumped backwards, and Kelt...well, he wasn't fast enough. Lai was though, punching upward dramatically and smashing the rock to protect Kelt. His hand was in pretty bad shape, though, bleeding quite a bit, and they all made a mad rush for the door. Jillian and Paz dodged the bricks and reached the door first, while Kelt and Lai were slow again, and Lai had to bust up another falling brick, smashing his hand quite a bit. They all finally reached the door, and with Paz bleeding from his busted hand and from his shoulder, where a shard of rock had hit him, but Samir managed to clean most of that up, even rebuilding the bones in Lai's hand before they went through the door.

---

Amitzul and the others fell through the doorway onto a very smooth, clear floor. The floor curved into the walls and up over their head, making a sort of fishbowl. "D: SHIT." Water began pouring into the bowl in a thick, solid stream, quickly filling the large bowl. Within thirty seconds the water was up to their knees. Amitzul pulled out her wings and flew upwards to where the opening should be, but hit her face on an invisible wall. Undeterred, she tired going up through the stream of water, but it seemed to be there as well. Below, Wyatt suddenly yelled for everyone to turn around, he had to take his pants off before he ruined them by transforming into his mermaid form. He had just enough time to get them off before the water was up to his chest, and he fell backwards in the water, his legs and hips transformed into a strong swimming tail with shining blue scales. Lacra was beginning to go under and transformed herself into a while seal and helped Oni-ka stay aloft, as he couldn't swim very well, having never really been in water. Serei was just as unhappy as a Hund could be in water, and Amitzul was beginning to freak out, slamming the curved glass wall with her broadsword just above water level. The water kept coming in, and soon was covering the point where Amitzul was hammering. Oni-ka held his breath and started stabbing at the glass too, which had begun to crack, and Lacra rushed it from underwater and bodyslammed it, and the entire bowl shattered. Amitzul quickly transformed into her dragon form and caught the others, one in each claw, while avoiding the falling glass, which disappeared into the darkness below them without hitting bottom.

Then in the void, a room appeared below them, looking strange and isolated but still lit by torchlight and mostly empty, so Amitzul set down in it, releasing her friends so she could land and transform back. Wyatt let out a low grown--he would soon change back and he'd forgotten to hang onto his pants, which had gone wherever all the water and glass had gone. He had to resort to "illusionary pants" that Lacra made for him, promising that no one would be able to see through them and that they were as good as real pants for now. Amitzul got him to tie his shirt around his waist for good measure and admired his physique--Wyatt had transformed from a talkative, naive, vegetable-loving coach-boy in fancy clothing to a well-muscled, confident, and still very talkative man in a matter of weeks.

This room felt safe enough, and they took a breather while examining the room. It had five circular holes in the floor, about an inch deep, scattered around the room. Near the center was what appeared to be a huge clean paintbrush, as tall as Lacra, sitting straight up in a hole in the floor. Lacra heaved it over her head and dropped it, bristles first into one of the holes. When she removed it to see if anything had happened, the hole was filled with ink as if it had been painted there. Catching on quickly, she shuffled to the closest hole and dropped the brush in. Instantly the ink in the other well disappeared, and there was none in the well she had just tried. It apparently had to be done in order, which took a good bit of time and left Lacra very tired. When all the wells were filled a door painted itself onto the wall in front of them, and they went through.

Amitzul transformed back into human form so she would quit blocking up the tunnel, and the group made their way down into the top of the passage, out of the freezing wind. Serei stopped and tried to light a small fire with her flint and tinder, but it wouldn't even strike up a spark. Amitzul attempted to blow a small flame from her mouth, and to her utter dismay, nothing at all came out, and she began to say she wanted to leave when the staircase disappeared from under their feet and everyone began to fall, even Amitzul, who tried to slow herself down with her wings.  A voice came from all round them, asking what did they think they were doing here, in this old temple. Amitzul kept her wits about her enough to explain about the barrier falling and the elements leaving the towers, but when she got to telling the voice about how people were dying, the voice began to laugh at them with a cruel sort of happiness. Oni-ka ventured to ask if it was Chet, and the voice continued laughing as they fell and fell in complete darkness, unable to see each other at all. Amitzul reached out and grabbed Wyatt's hand from the air, still attempting to slow herself down, but to no avail. Wyatt seemed to be unresponsive.

---

Jillian was awoken by Lai, who was nudging her in the shoulder. She could see Paz waking Samir up in much the same manner. Kelt was beginning to stir a few feet away from her, and she saw no one else, just a wooden door across a very, very large stone room. The moment they were all standing, bricks of stone in areas all around the room folded back and opened up passageways through which beasts came. They were about the size of large dogs, but were far more bulky and built, and there were about 10 in all. Samir had just enough time to cast a barrier before they were on top of them, and the creatures clawed and scratched at the invisible wall. Kelt managed to whip his ribbon out of the barrier and kill five of them but couldn't pull it back into the barrier, and Jillian's sleep spell was ineffective from that side. Samir, eyeballing the snarling animals trying to get at them, suggested that they make a break for it, and so they did, running as fast as they could towards the door. Samir was the first one down, a creature's jaws biting his throat. Jillian got pounced on and bit in the shoulder, but she managed to punch it in the nose hard enough to make it let go, leaving Lai free to kick its skull in. Samir was saved by Paz, who severed the beast's spine at the neck with his bladed boots. Kelt had been running with his ribbon shaped like a sickle, and cut one down on his way to the door. Bleeding heavily, Samir managed to close the wound in his throat but still suffered severe blood loss, so Paz had to help support him to the door, which Jillian had already reached. Lai was behind helping Kelt, who had been taken down by two of the dogs, and as soon as Paz put Samir on the ground by the door he was off running back to Kelt. He delivered a flying cut to one of the beasts while Lai snapped the neck of the other, and together they ran back to the door just as Jillian was opening it.

---

Oni-ka shook Lacra awake, and she immediately sat up in that way that people do when they know they shouldn't have been asleep. Amitzul was kneeling, holding Wyatt against her with his head on her shoulder, and was waking him up as well by shaking him lightly. Serei sat up, very confused and wondering why she wasn't dead after all that falling. They were in a stone room, a very old looking one with many cracks, and the only door was only a few strides away, so they all brushed themselves off and walked towards the door. Before they could reach it, a translucent green slime oozed from the cracks in the bricks above the door and dripped down, snotlike, to cover the door. Serei was grossed out by the stuff, and tried tossing some throwing stars to see if it were some kind of living slime, or perhaps there as a creature producing it. In retaliation, five strings of the stuff whipped out from the walls at them, catching Serei around the shoulders. Wyatt threw himself at Amitzul, knocking her over and getting caught by the strings that were aiming for her.The strings withdrew, pulling them up against the wall with the door in it. Amitzul tried to get close enough to pull them away from the wall and got caught in the main mass by the door, and Lacra desperately took her orb from its perch on top of her head and looked for a weakness. She found it--a slightly opaque sphere that nearly blended in it the deep blobs of the stuff. She called Oni-ka's attention to it, and he made a daring leap at the mound of slime by the door, landing knee-deep with a squelch, and managed to crack the orb with his sword. The moment the orb cracked, the slime faded away as if it had never been, and Wyatt and Lacra fell off the wall. Thoroughly unhappy, they cautiously walked towards the door, opening it without another attack.

They stepped into a dark room, which lightened by torchlight the moment they were all through the door, which was gone from behind them. The room was wider than it was long, and Amitzul, seeing the door on the other side, decided to make a run for it. She stopped suddenly when she felt a sharp nick on her face and backed up a little to take a look while wiping at a fresh scratch on her face. A line of her blood was floating in air, coating an amazingly thin wire. She called to the others to be careful, and Serei tried to cut the wire with her dagger, but the blade went right through the wire without so much as vibrating it. Stuck, they had to think for a while about ways to get through the room without cutting their heads off or such similar bad luck, and they all were rather furious with Chet for throwing this crap at them...except for Amitzul, who secretly thought he might be lonely after all this time by himself with no one to visit, and he may be mad because no one visited and be throwing all this stuff at them in an attempt to keep them in the temple. Amitzul resolved to tell Chet if she ever met him that after this was over, she would stay with him and be his friend, but figured he might be reading her thoughts as well and said all this to him in a short prayer. There was no response. Lacra, meanwhile, was getting frustrated with the intangibility of the wires, and Oni-ka was trying very hard to look for them throughout the room and make a path. Amitzul finally removed a few of her vials of anti-toxin and splashed one in front of them. The liquid stuck to the wires in front of them, and with some repetition they managed to get across the room without killing themselves. When they finally got there, though, the door was on the other side of the room, the one they had just come from. Lacra yelled in frustration and found the door right in front of them, hidden in an illusion, and stepped through it.

---

The room Samir and the others stepped into was decidedly plain, and simply had a door on the other side. They walked slowly just in case, but as they crossed the room, they found they were having more and more trouble breathing. Lai and Paz collapsed on the ground, gasping for air three quarters of the way across the room, and Kelt and Jillian turned sluggishly around to help them but both felt extremely dizzy. Samir continued on towards the door while black spots popped in his vision, and behind him Kelt and Jillian were trying to get Lai and Paz up, and neither was responding. Samir fell forward, his vision dimming and his lungs heaving with no air in them, and grabbed onto the door handle to stop falling. The moment he touched it, the air returned to the room, and the five of them lay on the ground, panting heavily to catch their breath. Kelt in particular was extremely angry with Chet and didn't seem to care if Chet knew about it, shouting curses at the ceiling. They finally got up and collected by the door for safety before opening it.

The door opened into a large circular room with a small stone dias in the center. Pieces of stone lay about the room, and upon examination looked like they were broken parts of a once whole object. They managed to assemble the stones to where they made a circular slab depicting a fiery beast. No door appeared and nothing happened, so they placed it on top of the dias. Immediately it began to glow red-hot, and the wall across from them melted and cracked, finally bursting open to reveal a fire fox, its entirely body literally aflame. It spat fire everywhere, and Paz and Samir were injured while Lai managed to pull Jillian and Kelt out of the way. Kelt used his ribbons to make a noose around its neck, tightening it; Jillian nearly fully got it to sleep; and Samir delivered the deathblow, using his sonic blast spell directly into its face resulting in the obvious consequences.  They made haste to leave the mess behind, going through the door that had been uncovered when the fox burst through the wall.

The first two days they traveled the weather was clear, followed by three days of rain, and there were surprisingly no demon attacks at all.

On the third night, when they stopped to make camp in the rain and still had hopes of the weather clearing up, Oni-ka noticed Lacra get up and leave the fire and walk towards the river. He followed her and confronted her, saying that he'd noticed her looking depressed lately, even though she was smiling all the time. She tried to tell him that she was ok, but her tears gave her away, even as she tried to remain smiling. Finally Oni-ka got her to tell him the reason: she'd found another young woman at her fiancee's manor. He had been cheating on her, and this wasn't the first time. Oni-ka was shocked, and asked her why she puts up with it, and she turned away and said that she loves him so much that it doesn't matter. Oni-ka tried to convince her otherwise but she coldly said he wouldn't understand anyways.  Stung, Oni-ka told her that there was no point in being married if she wasn't happy, and Lacra simply replied "Thank you for your concern," and walked away.

Back at the camp, Serei and Kelt were talking privately. Serei asked Kelt what he'd do when everything was over, and he said if everyone didn't die on this quest he'd go to Aspid and rebuild it. Otherwise, he'd probably just hang out in Aliseria a little bit. "Oh." said Serei. They began talking about the Sharks again, and Kelt said she didn't have to worry about them anymore--he'd made a new contract with them so the debt had to be on him instead of her. Serei threw herself at Kelt and started crying, while Kelt said that it was no problem, he was always travelling so it would be a slim to none chance that they'd find him, and on her salary, she'd never finish paying it all off--but he could. He also gave Serei a little Dolf good luck charm that he had bought from one of the merchants who had been setting up for the Harvest Festival that never happened. Serei thanked him through her tears.

Amitzul told Wyatt how much she treasured their friendship, and they took a quiet walk together in the rain.

On the sixth day they finally reached the western coastline and found themselves without a plan. No one had really lent much thought to getting across the strait, except Amitzul, who grudgingly volunteered to be a ferry if they couldn't find a way across. They searched up the coast, hoping that there might be a town or something nearby that hadn't been ravaged by demons, and ran across three humans. They were all men with silver hair and were beachfishing, complaining about having to wait for the fish to bite when there were easier ways to get it, but in such a tone of voice that the group realized they weren't really complaining at all but enjoying themselves. Amitzul sidled up to the fishers, greeting them kindly, then asking if they were interested in giving some travelers a lift.

The three guys all yawned at the same time and said that they were tired, but when Amitzul took out her pouch of gems, they were instantly interested. The rest of the group was like "Wtf are you doing Amitzul D: these guys don't even have a boat!" until Amitzul pointed out that they were silver dragons, playing around in human form. She gave them each one gem, and the men offered to take them right away (pretending that they weren't getting paid, but were being chivalrous). Amitzul then wondered aloud, "What are we going to do with the horses?" The group thought about carrying them, leaving them there ("To be eaten by demons?" said Oni-ka),  taking them to the nearest town...until one of the dragons, named Albert, mentioned that he knew a "guy" nearby who might watch the horses for them. He flew off to get him, and it wasn't fifteen minutes before two spots appeared in the sky heading their way. Amitzul yelled for everyone to get out of the way when she recognized the other dragon, and sure enough, Hiro crash-landed about twenty feet from where they had been standing, disappearing in a puff of sand and then running out of it in human form to fling himself at Amitzul, hugging her tightly and chatting excitedly. He tried to ask her a ton of questions in the same breath, and Amitzul had to resort to speaking just as fast and excitedly to get him to understand what they needed. She dragged him quite a good distance away from the group and whispered to him, asking him if he would mind taking the horses to her lair and taking care of them. Hiro was excited and in awe that she would trust him with the secret of her lair, which dragons rarely share, and especially not to other dragons. He promised to do his very best to take care of them and not take anything and a myriad of other things until Amitzul manually shut him up and gave him careful directions. It wasn't very far away, but was difficult to find.

With that settled, they split up rather evenly, with Amitzul flying with only Wyatt on her back. The silver dragons had shorter bodies, and were far more muscular than she was, and seemed to not feel two to three people on their back at all, so all was well. As they traveled west towards what looked like a snowy mountain peak poking out of the ocean, Samir consulted Forde's Orb, asking him where exactly Chet's temple would be, and found out that it was on the very top, making Samir's mood flatline, but he told Paz, who shouted to the rest of the group. The dragons said they would be cool (pun intended) taking the group up to the top, but everyone would be very cold, as their clothes were very far from warm.  They agreed they did need new clothes, so the silvers, whose names were Albert, Frances, and Dan, stopped at their lair to get new clothes. The silver dragons had a communal cave, very wide and spacious on the inside with an opening angled to keep the heat in, and the matriarch rose from the center of the first great room they came to and greeted them. Her name was Slymera, and she was very kind, allowing them to borrow warm clothes kept for visitors (not that there were many) and for dragons wishing to take human form and still be believable. 

The dragons flew them up and out, higher and higher up the mountain until their ears popped and the air began to seem thinner, and most of all, it became cold. The three silvers let their passengers off and took off, promising Amitzul to pick them up for the way back. Amitzul stayed in her dragon form and Wyatt stayed on her back, his ear fins turning a lighter color in the cold. As soon as the three were out of sight, Jillian's pendant began to vibrate against her chest. She took it out, and a stream of aqua light pointed from it to a spot higher up on the summit. When she walked up to that spot, the light pointed into the snow at her feet. The top layer was powder snow, but after that was hard eyes, and Amitzul took over, digging in the spot until her claws scratched something harder than ice. She cleared the rest of the ice away to reveal a slab of stone with weathered marking on it. Wondering how long it had been since this temple was even visited, Jillian took her pendant off and tapped it against the slab, which moved aside with a rough scraping noise to reveal a staircase leading downward, deep into the darkness.

That night, a few people had strangely vivid dreams.

Jillian dreamed that she heard a voice in her pendant calling to her, telling her that the party must make haste, for time is short. Instead of stopping like the first time, the voice continued: "Jillian, you have done well. Keep Lai close, he will be needing you soon." Samir dreamed about his sister. He could feel her pain but see that she was still smiling, floating in a white void. She looked directly at him, smiling painfully, then faded away.

Amitzul dreamed about the day she had tried to drown herself. She saw herself sinking down; it was water in the dream, and not mud, but still she couldn't breathe as she sunk deeper and deeper, towards the bottom. As she nearly reached the brown mud, Wyatt swam down to her and touched her face, saying "Stop! Go back!!", then put his arms around her and cried, saying, "I don't want you to go!" before Amitzul faded out, and then suddenly woke up, looking around and panting. There was no point in telling herself it was a dream, because a part of it wasn't. Only a week or two before she had met Oni-ka and the others, she had tried to kill herself in the mud of a lake, but had suddenly come to the realization that she wanted to live, and saved herself at the last minute. Wyatt had not been there. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this dream, or why it had to come back and torture her now, but she began to cry nonetheless.

---

Before they set out that evening, Amitzul sent Wyatt for water, not wanting him to break down again, and informed the rest of the group of the Sages' fates. As a whole, the group was uneasy about this, and suspected something very big was going on. A few tears were shed before Wyatt came back with the water, and the rest of the group continued on like nothing had happened.

---

They arrived at Cyno-ida to find the guards weren't sure about letting them in, as a lot of people were leaving and why would they want in? They probably thought the group was here to steal, but let them in anyways, just wanting their people out all the faster. Wyatt left the horses at the first inn they went to, who offered free stabling if they would stay the night. It was a crotchety old man who didn't want to evacuate from his only source of income, because unlike other people, he couldn't take his skills with him and start anew somewhere else. There were only a handful of people left in the streets, and all seemed to be in a hurry to get where they were going.

Lacra bumped into her fiancee, Hiyo, and the two of them went off, Lacra promising to catch up with them later. Oni-ka was very sad about this but said nothing, believing he had no business trying to like someone when he was a half demon. He and the rest of the group went searching for Forde, whom they found at the shrine of Saree. He didn't want to come out to see them, but eventually had to, as they refused to leave. He was rather short for a man, but wore huge shoulder pads to make up for this, and was in his late twenties or so. He seemed to think quite a lot of himself.. Serei showed him the coin the prince had given her to prove their trustworthiness, and the man accepted it. Amitzul asked him about the towers, and he started to give them verbal directions to the places, looking on his own private map that he refused to let them look at. ("I have worked my entire life, I have traveled miles, and I have done years of research. My entire life has been devoted to this work." Kelt: "Really... >:[") Thinking fast, Amitzul pulled out her map and asked him to mark the locations on there, so they'd be easier to remember. Forde frowned and insulted her map as being a terrible map, and marked down six of the seven locations of the towers. He didn't know where the seventh was, but Amitzul remembered that the palace was one of the temples, and marked it down for them, explaining sheepishly that she'd forgotten to tell them, what with the news of the sages and finding Vespera. She insisted that it stay a royal secret. Somewhat miffed at being left out of the loop, Forde continued that each tower served as a base for the barrier, but was also a temple containing an element, which was what was powering the barrier. The elements were things most people had never come in contact with except for the dragons, who were Saree's chosen creatures and were blessed with the elements. Forde's theory was that the elements were no longer in the towers, causing the barrier to falter and the towers to rise to reveal the temple. He thought that if they went to the temple of Chet, the god of the elements, they might get permission to get new elements to put in the towers and restore the barrier. Chet's temple would be found in the mountain islands, home of the silver and white dragons to the west, he said, and marked that on the map as well.

They thanked Forde for his help, and as Amitzul put her map away she warned Forde that danger was coming, and he should probably think about leaving soon. Forde somehow managed to take extreme offense to this and turned from a halfway uppity asshole to a full blown pretentious dickwad: "I should go?" "Probably. :s " "You mean to sug-gest that I need to evacuate? Fah. I'm not going to leave, I'd rather stay instead of hide. I am very well experienced in combat." He then went on to discuss how the temple to Chet had traps in it, and he'd never been very far inside of it, and the group argued "Well why the hell did he build a temple with traps in it? It's a TEMPLE. Why does it have traps?" "Chet never was very fond of us mortals..." "But it's a temple! It's like a mousetrap! D:" "To insure that none would steal from his temple and that only the most worthy would gain his blessing." "Oh...:c well, we don't have a lot of time. Any more information you could give us?" "None that pertain to your quest." Oni-ka and Amitzul were noticeably pissed at this guy (Oni-ka was already upset, though, Forde just aggravated it), who handed Amitzul a scrying orb and asked them to report back to him for further instructions once they'd gotten the elements. It was a rather large object, which she didn't really want to carry, and suggested that she swallow it, and Forde stuttered that that would not be the best idea, the orb was rather fragile and would explode if it broke. More realistically, Serei reasoned that they might need to get it out quickly. Oni-ka began to bicker with Kelt about something, and Forde began monologuing to himself about the trustworthiness of the group and how their behavior was not very reassuring. Wyatt finally got them out of there by thanking Forde again for his help, and as soon as they were outside Amitzul tossed the orb to Samir and asked him to keep it for them, which Samir was more than happy to do. 

Once outside, Serei, Kelt, and Jillian left to find Lacra, who wasn't back yet, while the others went to find an armory to try and upgrade their weapons and get more supplies. Serei was able to follow her scent trail to a fancy manor, which they figured belonged to "that Hiyo guy". Once they knocked on the door, they were invited in by a servant to wait until Lacra could come down and meet them. Serei was awed by all the rich decorations, and tried to steal a figurine of the Goddess but clumsily dropped it, and pretending to Kelt that she was just looking at it. Lacra finally came down, looking somewhat happy but guilty, and they got moving back to the inn. Oni-ka looked like he'd been kicked in the stomach the rest of the day, but still it took little time to prepare to leave, and within an hour they were out of town, thankfully before the demons could attack.

When Serei got home, she found Chance from work, her brother, and the fox guy all talking amicably in Lodo's bedroom. Kelt's siblings came running to meet him at the door while Serei stomped further into the house and asked the fox guy what the hell he was doing in her house. According to Lodo, the guy had found one of Kelt's siblings (Nico) wandering by himself in the forest and had brought him back. The fox guy, whose name was Evan, had decided to hang around for a while to make sure everything was ok, but Serei quickly said that it was impossible, because she had seen him in Hortens 3 days ago. Evan did not know what she was talking about, why would he be in Hortens? He also wanted to make tea, but Serei told him to keep the hell out of her kitchen. He ignored her, saying that he had been here for a while, what's the big deal now? As she was arguing with him, she accidentally let it slip that she'd been fighting in Hortens, and Lodo went ballistic, asking her what the heck she was doing. Kelt tried to explain to Lodo and just further upset him, so Serei had to come clean about what had happened, and was so upset she just left to go see the Mage Ayano about her brother. The mage wasn't in, however, so she had to go home and come back later that afternoon. When she got home, Lodo told her about a pattern he'd noticed in her story, and told her to watch her back around Katie, who had a connection with the sharks, and Serei promised to do so.

...

When the others had made it back to the inn that night, Samir had been very concerned about finding his sister, Vespera. Concerned enough that he actually talked about it with everyone, and not just Paz. He didn't want to go running off anywhere when his sister was probably in danger, and insisted that they find her first. The group tried to reason with him, telling him that there were a lot more people than his sister whose lives were at stake because of this barrier, and finding the solution should be their first priority, but eventually they broke down and promised to spend time the next day looking for news on his sister.

Oni-ka thought he was the first to get up the next morning, but found Lacra waiting in the lobby, reading a book as if she'd been there a while. They talked until Amitzul and Wyatt came downstairs, and they went out for breakfast. Amitzul and Wyatt wanted to start searching early and didn't wait for the others, instead going, you guessed it, straight to the tavern. Lacra and Oni-ka looked at each other with a "might as well" face and went off searching themselves.

Amitzul and Wyatt's tavern was half busy, even this early in the morning, and for the first time Amitzul didn't quite know what to ask, so Wyatt did it for her, asking the small crowd in a shouting voice if anyone knew of a girl from Ket called Vespera. Immediately a woman approached them, saying who from Ket doesn't know Vespera? She knew that she had been fighting off demons in Ket to protect the civilians, and that she may have been poisoned, because she was one of the last to leave Ket and had to be taken directly to a temple for treatment. Wyatt thanked her, and they decided to go back to the inn to wait for the others to get up, especially since they needed to relay the message. However...no one showed up, and it was still quite early in the morning, so Wyatt suggested they go to the castle for a little while.

They got there easily enough, walking past the guards with very little trouble at all, as Amitzul was so damn recognizable, and found the Prince walking through his castle in a determined but absent kind of way. Amitzul remembered her promise to the Duke in the mermaid village and asked about what had happened to the Sages and Dukes that had visited for the great meeting under the prince. Pellegrin spoke like it pained him to do so, saying that the sages had been poisoned, and their bodies found in a room deep in the palace, whose illusion had been broken yesterday when Bane had died. Wyatt fell to his knees and began to sob for his fallen Baroness Colette. Amitzul could only hold his hand to comfort him, as she still had to listen to the Prince, who said that their group would have to depart to Cyno-ida as soon as possible, and that he'd have horses for each individual person ready by that evening to allow for faster travel. Reports and refugees had been pouring in from all over the kingdom because of the demon attacks. When Amitzul asked him how he expected to say safe in this town, the Prince drew her almost uncomfortably close to him and whispered to her, "This is something we as the royal family kept secret...but there is actually a tower beneath the palace, containing the temple of light. As it remains unrisen, it has been untouched, and its barrier will hold the demons at bay." Amitzul thanked him, then went back to Wyatt and supported him all the way back to the palace courtyard, where Wyatt sat on a bench next to Amitzul and cried for fifteen minutes into her shoulder. His sobs started to abate  after a while, and Amitzul insisted that she take him to lunch. They returned to the inn later in the evening to await the others.

Oni-ka and Lacra, meanwhile, found no clues as to Vespera's whereabouts and cruised the town most of the day, returning to the inn later that afternoon.

Samir and Paz left the inn just after Oni-ka and Lacra had left, setting out to find Samir's sister. Samir went directly to the temple, guessing that his sister would probably be there if she were helping people, and indeed she was, but she was very ill and semi-conscious. When Samir knelt down beside her, Vespera said, "I saw the Goddess and God...Saree and Taro, they spoke to me. They said they were watching you and that you are the one...you and the others you travel with are to help save us from the demons...please...go...forth...your des...tiny..." Samir waved Paz away and told him he'd be back later, he wanted to stay with his sister. Paz left him alone, and went outside, bumping into Serei and Lodo who were just going towards the temple. Paz filled them in on what had happened and told them Vespera had been found. Serei nodded and told him their errand, and Paz decided to wait for them.

Once inside, Serei had to keep her brother, sick as he was, from hitting on all the Priestesses. When they finally found Ayano, she insisted that Lodo spend a few days with her, and Lodo had no problem with that. Serei sighed and went and met up with Paz outside, then went to pick up Kelt. Chance agreed to watch the kids while the children was out in Lodo's place, so the three returned to the Inn, stopping and collecting Jillian and Lai on the way, who had been cruising town and talking about the pendant that the chancellor had given her, which had talked to her in a dream that morning, telling her that time was short and she needed to get going. She kept this between herself and Lai.

Oni-ka and Lacra were half an hour late meeting Amitzul and Wyatt back at the inn and were the last ones back there. Once everyone was assembled, Amitzul told the group about the horses and the person named Forde they'd have to find, then herded everyone to the castle gates to pick up the horses. It wasn't that Samir was forgotten, Amitzul just figured they could pick him up on their way out.  He was busy speaking to his sister about a "someone" that he might love, but who didn't know how he felt, and his sister insisted that he talk to her and live with no regrets. It was all too soon before Paz came in and told him it was time to go. Paz had been especially thoughtful and saved one of the king's white horses for Samir, knowing how Samir liked to match colors of things. Wyatt and Amitzul were on Wyatt's horses, while the others rode the king's horses, which they had traded for the duke's tired horses.

They made much better time when they were only one to a horse, and traveled during the night again, sleeping during the day. The next afternoon they encountered a group of people migrating from Cyno-ida to Aliseria in fear of getting caught in another demon attack. Their town had been attacked by only a few demons, but the people strongly believed there were more, and were headed to the safest place they knew. Lacra stopped to ask a few people if the knew anything about what became of the Wright family, and was told they had stayed in town. Oni-ka asked Lacra later who the Wright family was, and she responded, "The Wrights are the family of my fiancée. c: " AND ONI-KA'S WORLD GOT A LOT DARKER THAT DAY.  

They arrived at the gates of Aliseria by midday the third day, and the guards immediately stepped forward to stop the group from entering and put them through the procedure again, but were frozen on the spot when the prince flashed his amulet, a bright red stone embedded with the family crest. They apologized profusely to the prince and let them in.

In the streets, people gasped in shock and made way for his horse, pushing back against buildings to give them all room. They reached the palace gates, and the guards there respectfully tried to get Pellegrin's permission to arrest Amitzul's group and got a verbal smack down. He barely paused when he reached the palace steps, hopping off his horse and striding up them quickly, and the party quickly followed suit. He walked quickly all the way to the throne room, where he drew his sword and threw open the doors and shouted, "SHADWELL! What is the meaning of this!"

The throne room was unusually dark, dimly lit only by the light that made it through the cracks in the curtains. Shadwell stepped out from behind the throne, and suddenly the walls and ceiling became a black void, leaving only the richly decorated floor as it was. Shadwell drew his sword and lunged at his brother, and Amitzul immediately stepped in front of Pellegrin, sword at the ready, but Pellegrin walked past her, patting her shoulder and saying, "Thank you, but this is between my brother and I." The brothers began a fierce battle, and some of the group stepped forward to help anyway when a voice from behind them chuckled, "Ah hahaha, I would stay out of this if I were you."

The party turned quickly to look behind them and saw the speaker a fraction of a second before he disappeared. They frantically searched for him, and Amitzul asked Lacra if there was any way she could cancel the darkness illusion. There was not, she said, because that person was much stronger at illusionary skills, and it would be impossible for her to break such a complex and high leveled illusion. Serei suddenly shouted, her ears picking up the subtle whistling noise before the attack could happen, and Oni-ka dodged a second too late--the large shards of glass falling from the ceiling struck the area around him, and one of them cleanly sliced his left arm. The mysterious person was dangling from the ceiling, his bottom half seemingly stuck in the dark void, and now they could see it was a young man with short hair and deep purple and crimson robes, smiling like a maniac. Samir attempted to cast a sleep spell at him, but the mysterious person was too fast, summoning ribbons that made large cracks as they emerged from the floor and wrapped around Samir's arm. The man jerked his hands and Samir's staff was thrown from his grasp. Jillian attempted to follow up with a sleep spell but was likewise caught in ribbons, which were multiplying, and managed to catch Wyatt and Paz as well, who had been looking for a way out. Serei tried to slice at Jillian's bonds, but her stars bounced off, and Samir's hunting dagger had the same about of luck.

Lacra's head-orb began to glow a purple color as she focused sharply, and the ribbons faded away, leaving the others free to grab their weapons. The man began to appear near them or behind them, laughing and then backing away and appearing somewhere else, continuously taunting them until everyone was thorougly paranoid and confused. There was no way to get past him, and they could see Pellegrin and Shadwell fighting fercoiously near the throne. Pellegrin was beginning to look tired, and was blocking more than attacking.

Amitzul threw Oni-ka a look, then dashed at Shadwell;s back, her sword held out to her side. Shadwell saw her coming though, and kicked Pellegrin out of the way and turned to block Amitzul's swing. Amitzul feinted away, and Oni-ka attacked from the opposite direction to take him by surprise. Shadwell turned around and blocked with his blade, and Samir tried to follow up by attacking his exposed back with a sonic blast. Before he could, Shadwell cried out, "Bane!", and the mysterious boy appeared instantly at Shadwell's side and cast a barrier, reflecting Samir's attack and bouncing Oni-ka backward, then disappeared to another part of the room. Pellegrin was up by now and took advantage of Shadwell's momentary distraction to attack, locking swords with his brother and pushing him backwards, when they both suddenly disappeared.

Bane appeared where they had been, his hands behind his back and a mischevious smile on his face, and said they were somewhere they would not be distrubed now. They could all see now that he was actually a young Cato boy, one of the black tailed and black eared ones, like Kelt. He began to float up towards the ceiling and Amitzul jumped after him, her wings sprouting from her back and flapping in the same movement to help her catch up to him. She swung her blade at his legs, but he disappeared, and the blade passed through empty air. Serei, frustrated with his disappearing illusion, tossed her stars around randomly, and was satisfied by a grunt of pain from a dark corner of the room. Bane yelled moments later from somewhere above them, summoning daggers, short and long swords, needles, throwing stars into existance above them and sending them flying down at the group. Amitzul was too close to the weapons and couldn't dodge fast enough, and was wounded by two wide daggers, one in each wing. She gave a cry and began to fall to the ground. Samir in desperation manifested a shielding spell, keeping Jillian and Paz safe from harm, and everyone else somehow managed to dodge. The weapons disappeared after a moment, and Amitzul landed a moment later on her knees, then hauled herself up just as Bane appeared behind Jillian and dragged her backwards into the void.

A few seconds later a door appeared in the void, the same one that Pellegrin had had thrown open, and Bane's disembodied voice called out for them to enter the door or he would kill Jillian. "Go to hell!" snarled Kelt, and suddenly there was a cry of pain from nearby and Jillian reappeared, scowling angrily but looking somewhat pleased with herself; she had kicked Bane in the crotch, something that he had definitely not been expecting, and thus his location was revealed. Amitzul opened her mouth and took a deep breath, but Oni-ka ran straight forward and decapitated the crippled boy, then jumped out of the way as Amitzul's flames turned him to ash. Samir waited a beat, then blew the pile of remains up spitefully as punishment for touching his crush, and the others backed away to avoid getting the stuff on them as the void began to recede and the walls started to reappear. The illusion dissolved entirely just in time for them to witness Shadwell and Pellegrin's battle be decided by a straight stab to the chest by Pellegrin.

As Shadwell fell to the floor, he blinked rapidly and his eyes seemed to refocus, and seeing Pellegrin over him, Shadwell whispered "Brother,  I am sorry..." before the life left his body. Pellegrin grieved over his brother's fallen body, not noticing a dark aura rise from Shadwell and form the shape of a huge, wolf-like animal until the thing laughed cruelly and said, "He had outlived his usefullness." It ran towards the doors, right through the group and giving everyone in it goosebumps, except for Amitzul who I don't think gets the creeps like that. Pellegrin stared after it for a moment, then took off his own cloak and covered his brother's body with it and said that this was no time to grieve, though his face told quite a different story.  Lacra had time to heal up Amitzul's wings before Pellegrin adressed them, saying that he greatly needed their help to fix the towers.

He explained that the towers were the keys to the barrier, each one corresponding to a single element resonating with the others. He did not, however, know where the towers were, and suggested they go find a cleric named Forde in Cyno-ida who may know of the location of the towers and how the barrier may be fixed. He took out his money pouch and offered them 200g each, which some of them took and some didn't, feeling it was their duty to do all they could for their kingdom. Serei asked him if, instead of gold, he would get her the best doctor in town that she could take her sick brother to see, and the prince gave her a strange gold coin and directions to the Mage Ayano's office.

After that he simply stood, staring at his cloak on the ground with a pained expression, and they all bid him goodbye and left for the inn, stepping around the ashes on the floor on their way out. Serei and Kelt split off from the group after they cleared the palace gates towards Serei's house, and no one felt much like making plans to meet back somewhere at all.

Samir directed Amitzul back to the square, and thankfully everyone was still waiting where he had left them. Samir, Paz, and Wyatt insisted on getting down, so Amitzul did a quick once over of her own wounds and licked them where she could find them, but still had to walk in her true form until the wounds had closed up a bit. Kelt gave Serei a less embarrassing piggy back ride to the inn, and Oni-ka carried Lacra in his arms, carefully not looking down at her in case he saw something indecent. By the time they got back to the inn, Amitzul had transformed into her humanoid form with some effort, but still looked rather battered. Everyone was practically dragging, but had been informed of their new plans and had agreed to go along with it, at least by silent agreement (though Samir quite wanted to go off his own way, he really didn't want to give that huge emerald back, and could think of no way to get out of his commitment. After all, his house had no foundations.)

When they got there, Wyatt went straight to check on his horses, who were traumatized but otherwise fine inside the covered stables. He got them ready to travel, then went and retrieved that unused rations from the carriage...went outside, gave Amitzul the rations, went back inside, and hugged the carriage goodbye. It was a fine carriage, and he was going to miss it. After a minute or two Amitzul came in and helped him bring the horses outside where the others were still waiting, tending to their wounds or watching others tend to their wounds with emo clouds over their heads (ONI-KA). The prince walked outside through the inn's front door and said that he had gone to check on his wife and son, Shou, both of which were ok in the warrens. He led them back to the stables, where there were three extra horses stabled--the prince explained that he had received them from the Duke to aid with his journey. With his own horse, this made the total six, so the five horses were left to Amitzul's group. The three newer horses were white and spotted, and after successfully separating into pairs (Jillian/Lai, Serei/Kelt, Oni-ka/Lacra, Samir/Paz, and Amitzul/Wyatt) everyone pretty much bickered over which horse they wanted and which was prettiest and what the weight capacity was until Amitzul, who had taken Golddust's reins to begin with, gave a palpable glare of LET'SGETGOING and everyone else was forced to tag a horse and just get on it already.

The trip was long, and was made longer because the group was all so tired from staying up all night and fighting, and the adrenaline soon left their bodies. By the time daylight broke, Amitzul was asleep, leaning over Wyatt's back, and the others looked like they wanted to do the same, so they were forced to sleep during the day and ride at night, so they could be more prepared for ambushes by demons and the like, which they knew they could expect at any time now that the barrier was probably down everywhere. Amitzul did not wake up when the stopped the first morning, and slept all the way until they simply had to leave that afternoon. When she woke up, however, her wounds had mostly disappeared, and she seemed as bright as ever, though she insisted the group hurry on and she'd catch up later, and with a little coaxing they left, leaving her free to find a lake and fill herself full of water, fish, and game, all of which she had dearly been lacking in for a while. She caught up and transformed back before the horses could spot her, dropping gently onto the horse's back behind Wyatt.

Jillian and Lai talked privately almost as soon as they left the town behind. "I'm glad we both made it through last night. I'd never really experienced battle before...I think I underestimated it a bit. I saw this one boy who wasn't as fortunate as us. It was sickening...I'm so thankful we're all alive, Lai." "I...I...you are alive that is good." "It's good that you're alive, too." "Why is it that...I feel...if they got hurt...I protected them." "You did a great job last night. Thank you Lai." proving that Lai does indeed have ADD. Serei and Kelt alternately complimented each other on their fighting skills and made sure the other was ok, while Lacra and Oni-ka traveled in increasingly comfortable silence.

Amitzul managed to get Wyatt to keep pace with the prince, and said to Pelegrin, "I hope you are up to date on our current situation? Also, what's your plan? I'd like to help you any way I can -- my wish is to resolve this business and fix the barrier as soon as possible. Also, the guards may recognize some of us, chiefly because...well, a few were falsely arrested and we made a jailbreak." "Yes, I have heard much of the news from the townsfolk," replied the Prince. "Also, once the guards see my presence at the castle and I show them my coat of arms, they'd know I am who I am and they must pardon you." 
"...that's very good. Please, do not hesitate to call on us."

Soon only a few demons were left, and those were retreating back the way they had come, taking cover in the clouds and the forested areas further away from town. On the ground it had turned into more of a cleanup procedure, with those not too heavily wounded to fight executing the birds where they fell, frozen or burnt, and fighting off the last of the more determined of the birds. Lacra made her way over to Oni-ka and healed his wounds before even saying anything, and he quickly directed her attention to Lai, who was bleeding into a rain puddle he'd slipped into. She managed to stop his bleeding and scab over some of his wounds, but couldn't fix him fully.

On the rooftop, Serei began walking toward Kelt with a weak smile on her face, beginning to say "We did it," before collapsing into his arms and passing out. Samir turned around and picked Jillian up off the stairwell and carried her outside with Kelt following close behind. Samir made a beeline to Lacra and forced Jillian at her when he got there, and Lacra quickly healed Jillian and Serei first, but with great difficulty and not fully. She weakly healed Kelt and Samir, then took strips of her sash and wrapped Jillian's wounds, as she was by far the most hurt of all of them as she had been unable to fight. Samir asked her how Paz was doing, and she responded that she, Paz, and Wyatt had been fighting the demons near the warren entrances. Samir suddenly sped off towards the eastern warren entrance to look for Paz, handing Jillian to Oni-ka as he passed. Jillian eventually woke up and was able to stand, which was good because she was making Oni-ka uncomfortable, what with her torn clothes and all. Serei was unable to stand on her own, as much as she was embarrassed by being carried. Lacra held her orb out to Serei's legs and tried to heal Serei further, but passed out before anything could be done. It was then that Oni-ka realized that a lot of the blood on Lacra's clothings was her own, and how dangerous healing others had been when she'd neglected to heal herself. Muttering furiously, he wrapped pieces of clothing around any open wounds he could find.

Amitzul descended as soon as she had thanked the silver dragon, who had replied that he only wished he had been here earlier, with more of his brothers, but had in fact been just passing by. Too beaten and bloody to change into her other form, she snaked her way through the town, walking carefully to avoid stepping on the dead or injured. The rain was already beginning to wash away the dark slicks of blood the demons had left, as well as the blood of fallen townspeople. She headed towards the warren entrance where she'd left Wyatt and found both him and Paz leaning against the wall on the side of the entrance, the whole of which was coated in black blood--the demons had found where to hunt, it seemed. Wyatt was very badly hurt, with many gashes and blood running down his face. Still, when he saw Amitzul, he painfully got up and stumbled over to her, hugging her bleeding nose tightly. Amitzul gently licked his wounds without him even having to move, then called Paz over and did the same to him. The dragon saliva did its job well, slowly closing up the wounds from the inside out and stopping the bleeding. Samir, doing something really weird to Paz as he ran up, simply yanked Paz away by the collar of his shirt and scolded him for not taking cover like he had ordered him to. Paz nervously explained that he was able to fight and he had had to protect the remaining civilians who hadn't made it inside before the attack.

Wyatt came to Paz's defense, saying that Paz had done a great job with his boot knives and many of the civilians had been saved. Also, Paz was still alive. Samir had opened his mouth to respond when they heard hoofbeats approaching them, loud in the strange afterbattle quiet as the horse splashed through the sheet of rainwater coating the street. Amitzul looked up and recognized the person riding the horse and whispered to the others, "That is the prince!". He stopped just before them, his horse nervously eying Amitzul, but he seemed to recognize her and addressed her, thanking them for defending the city and asking her if she and her party would be willing to escort him back to Aliseria. He needed to investigate the situation with his younger brother, and he needed strong people to help him get there. He explained that her group had proved trustworthy through combat and seemed to be the only group of people dedicated to helping the situation wholeheartedly, and he would dearly be needing them. Amitzul nodded. The Prince Pelegrin half smiled and asked her to meet him back at the inn within the hour with her whole group, and then turned his horse around and went back the other way.

Feeling a new sense of purpose, Amitzul, Samir, Paz, and Wyatt set off in search of the others. Amitzul let them on her back between her wings, one of the few places on her body left unscathed, and walked through the streets much faster than the three wounded could have done.

All conversations stopped as a man in knight's war armor climbed up onto the base of the square's large stone statue and raised his hands, making his voice echo in the silence. However, he didn't have much to say, only announcing that the fight would be a free for all to defend the town, and the Duke's only recommendation, or plea, would be for the long-ranged fighters to be on the rooftops around the city, mostly on the side that the creatures would be attacking from. Jillian, Kelt, and Serei took their leave and worked their way through houses and across rooftops to a three story building that looked strongly built and had a flat top. Samir soon joined them on the roof, having found Paz and ordered him to stay safe in the warrens until he came back for him. Oni-ka managed to get Lacra to agree to go help at a warren entrance with Wyatt, in order to keep them safe better, and Lacra's healing skills would be put to better use there. Amitzul hopped up the statue and jumped off the top, transformed, and did a low circle around the square hoping that everyone else would remember what she looked like and not try to kill her. She then spiraled into the sky and broke through the dense, ominously dark clouds to the layer of clear sky above to watch for the approaching enemy. She could see them more clearly now, as they were only about three hours away, a huge horizontal slash of black in the sky a few miles wide and very dense.

Amitzul waited until they were about an hour away before diving down and looping around the city in a circle, warning the fighters that their estimated approach was in an hour. She also noticed that there were still some crowds of people who weren't in the warrens yet, and were waiting to get in, looking at her as if she were going to eat them. Feeling bad, she returned to the cloud layer and soared up through the empty space into a still darker cloud above, this one much heavier with water and tingling with static. In a short time she could hear the rustling cacophony of thousands of wings, soon enough could hear the sticky, throaty noise of the creatures growling and calling to each other. They flew just above the lower layer of clouds, and right as they reached her, Amitzul dropped headfirst out of the clouds and roared loudly, blasting the first few rows of the creatures with her white fire, freezing the wings of the front most and burning the ones that were left open as their comrades fell paralyzed to the earth, and the battle was begun. She could see now that the black creatures were massive birds, demons about the size of a full grown man, and as black as the night, with oily looking feathers and blood colored eyes. They cried in surprise and the mass seemed to split, some of the creatures coming towards her and some disappearing down through the clouds. Amitzul flew upward, and they seemed to lose interest in following and hung back as she neared the dark cloud--it became apparent why when a lightning bolt tore through the cloud and into the one below it, and it began to rain heavily.

On the ground, the fighters had heard the roar and knew it was time. The first wave of birds to pass through the clouds were the crippled ones Amitzul had frozen, so Oni-ka and the Kato girl had little trouble finishing off theirs, while Kelt broke the neck of one that had landed on the house next to theirs and was struggling to get up. After a brief space, lighting lit up the dark sky and the black shapes descending from it through the rain, and the battle began in earnest. Oni-ka had the least trouble of all of them fighting the demons; his eyesight was sharp and dark was little trouble for him, even with the rain, as he could hear where they were. More useful than all of that, though, was that Oni-ka could feel where they were, the blood he hated inside him resonating with the other demons. As a result, his blade found the birds before they ever got close enough to do real damage, finding their throats and hearts and eyes as if they weren't moving at all.

Lai fought right next to Oni-ka in the square, far enough away that he was out of sword reach but close enough to assist. He was attacked by less birds than Oni-ka, who seemed to be attracting them by swarms, but he was at a very big disadvantage to the birds, who attacked with stunning wing flaps, sharp talons, and strong beaks, and was badly injured very soon, though he killed every bird that had put a mark on him. He managed to crawl over to Oni-ka, who defended him from the giant scavengers. As the demons died, their bodies turned into a thick black mist and floated away before disappearing into thin air, leaving only slicks of dark blood, so there were no piles of bodies to prop Lai up against for protection. The birds attacked in waves, with groups of birds falling from the sky occasionally, their wings and necks frozen or their feathers burnt and useless. A great number crashed to the ground and perished, while others survived the landing, some with broken wings or legs and many that were only momentarily dazed.

On the rooftops, the rest weren't doing much better than Lai. Serei was at a sharp disadvantage, as her throwing stars were ranged weapons, and useless when the birds swooped down on her. Her daggers were only useful for a little while, until she hurled them at a demon that was going for Kelt's throat. The bird fell backward over the edge of the roof and died in the street, leaving Serei's daggers three stories down in a puddle of dark blood. Kelt had been busy before that snagging birds with his ribbon blade and breaking their necks, or impaling them at a short distance with it like a lance. With Serei now weaponless, he teamed up with her, her snagging demons and flinging them as best she could to him, while Kelt dispatched with them as well as those around him. Jillian took a lot of damage without being able to do too much, as her magic was ineffective with so many demons and so much noise, and had to back up into the stairwell to avoid being killed. Samir helped her get back there, then stood at the top of the stairs, casting sonic waves at the flying targets, knocking quite a few out of the sky. He refused to move from his position in order to protect Jillian, and took quite a bit of damage that way, especially to the arms and shoulders.

Lacra was doing less than okay. She had been able to set up a shield to allow the few remaining people time to get into the east warren entrance, but had left to go check on the others in the square, and was hurt badly by the birds as she dashed between awnings of buildings and across open streets. On the rooftop, Serei was having an internal battle between what was the right thing to do, and what she wanted to do; she was just a thief and part time waitress, what was she doing on the roof of some house she didn't know, fighting demons that terrified and hurt her, and all for the sake of people she didn't know and would never know her. She spotted someone she thought she recognized jump amazingly high over her head and land on the next roof--the fox guy, who had taken her rabbit. He had a long sword gripped in both hands, and in one clean spin, killed twenty birds that had closed in on him with a sonic attack. Serei was distracted by a wing slap to the face and didn't get distracted again.

In the sky, Amitzul was strafing and dive bombing the birds, blowing huge swaths of white fire across the dark mass of birds as they rose to meet her in midair. She killed hundreds of birds with each pass, but there seemed to be no end to them, and each time she dove the birds attacked her with more efficiency and followed her faster, tearing at her scales and pulling her fur out in tufts and trying to peck out her eyes and tear apart her face. Amitzul attempted to fly faster across them at the risk of less accuracy, and the demons crashed in a wave over her, closing around her in a cloud of wings and talons and beaks and trapping her there for a short while while she writhed to get break free. The brief respite from the dragon's attacks allowed the birds to do what they'd been trying to do all along, but would have left them quite open--form a sheet and croak out huge quantities of dark smog above the city. The smoke drifted down and onto the fighters and people all over the town, darkening the senses of any who were unlucky enough to breathe it in or contact it with their eyes.  Many people were affected by it before the rain could condense it all into the rainwater that covered the ground, and all but Serei, Lacra, Oni-ka, and Jillian began to have trouble seeing quite what they were trying to hit.



Up in the sky, Amitzul roared loudly, a strong, defiant roar,  momentarily cowing the birds by the sheer force and volume of it, and many of the birds closest to her squawked  in pain. Through the roar came a rumble as a white fire appeared in the back of Amitzul's throat, then burst out in a grand jet, blowing the birds out of her way and allowing her to escape. The birds were close behind her, but were cut off by a hail of ice shards that pierced and killed more than a score of them. A male silver dragon hovered next to Amitzul for a moment, saying cockily, "Don't worry, I got your back," then took off after the remainder of the cloud, which had dwindled much in size. Amitzul, bleeding and scratched everywhere, nevertheless assisted him in cleaning up the sky.