Fantasy 3 Vertices IC

[Thalia_Neko]

~*~ NOTICE THAT REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION!! ~*~
***​

Everyone knows the Grand Ten. But in case you don't! The Grand Ten are THE STRONGEST of the 3 Continents!!! The absolute TIPPITY TOP! THE PINNACLE OF PERFECTION! Or they were. Until now..!

One of the Grand Ten, Mirror Blade Mijorine passed away recently! Oh no!! How tragic!! Everyone grieves!


Still, the Grand Ten can't be the GRAND TEN if they're missing a member, now can they?!

N o p e ! No way!
Uh-uh! Nyoope!


Exxx~xxactly!


Therefore, Empress Elisztraza Epica is hosting a tournament to discover who the NEXT STRONGEST is! A GRAND TOURNAMENT!!!


Wh~aaat?! No ~~waaay!!

Yep, that's right!


A Grand Tournament to find out just who takes her place! Just who is the next of the GRAND TEN!?

Who will it be?! It could even be YOU!!!

So, sign up today!

Join the

*G*R*A*N*D T*O*U*R*N*A*M*E*N*T*​

And see just where you stack up against the world's strongest!! Are you the next

G|R|A|N|D T|E|N ?

​

Information ~
Register with ~~~~~~
Time and Date ~~~~~~

((All applicants will be accepted after you pass a specific screening test. One's past doesn't matter. If you've committed crimes no one will arrest you when you sign up. Unless you lose. If you reach the Grand Stage, then all of your past misdeeds will be wiped clean, guaranteed! This is the pledge of the Epica Empire, the Ver Tetrarchy, the Aezuruna Sultanate, AND the Reysha Kingdom!))


Thank you for your consideration!
Sincerely,
Joint Grand Tournament Committee
~*~|||~*~

​

"Teh, who wrote this?" said the one known as Sirindra, after reading the whole thing, tapping her chin. It was rather goofy. Especially considering the content and who was behind it. It was as if they were trying far too hard. Really, the different styled font for some of the questions was a nice touch. With red eyes, she stared at the pledge at the bottom of the paper. Her lips spread into a toothy grin. Sirindra gripped the page, then closed her hand, crumbling and ripping it right off the notice board. Leaving behind an obvious five-fingered scratch mark on the wood. "Well, ain't that somethin', Ajuu? How generous."

She said, as a weird creature that you could say magenta, or well more like light-magenta, or perhaps dark-magenta-- ball of fluff bounced on the ground in front of her, then up onto her shoulder. Transforming into a weird fuzzy creature with a snout, long, fuzzy bunny-like ears sticking straight up, and two black feet that clutched to her shoulder.

Mrmrmr!

Ajuu cooed, snout wriggling. It nuzzled into her cheek and Sirindra responded in kind by scritching its chin.

With that, she moved away, pulling her hood up over her head. A hood that gave her long black 'ears' just like her small little companion's. Sirindra hunched a bit, and shoved her hands into her pockets, just before she left the area, grinning a bit wickedly. Walking in the opposite direction on the street, a girl holding her mother's hand noticed the scary lady, and screamed, yanking away and running to the other side of her mother as Sirindra passed by her. To which her mother was left rather confused by her daughter's actions, having not noticed as the hooded person was already off down the dirt path.

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Today the entire Great Cauldron Spire was abuzz with commotion. The Grand Tournament had just been officially announced. And although those of the Cauldron's upper brass already knew this announcement was coming, the rest of the spire had been left blissfully unaware, to be blindsided with the announcement. Just like the rest of the world. Certain individuals of the top magic brass within the tower were dreading this day. The announcement, they just knew, would cause untold chaos within the spire.

And sure enough, right on cue, it had.

For the Cauldron spire, and its mages, had a very important job to do. Their job was of utmost important in regards to the GT. They had been contacted by the Epica Empress, Elisztraza Epica, herself, and her Imperial Advisor, Trudüün. At their behest they were to help with the construction of the greatest arena in the entire world. The Grand Stage.

It was to be completed in time for the GT proper. Which was speculated to begin in just 6 -SIX- months! Repeat: SIX MONTHS!

AHHHHHH!!

"Who's the crazy idiot who asked for this to be completed in just six months?!?!" A mage holding her face screamed her head off. As mages of all sorts frantically raced around her, up and down the hallways, dipping in and out of room after room, all clearly as delirious as she was.

"This is going to take ALL of our magic stones and monster cores!!! It's going to take even the upper layer of magic from the Cradle Cauldron! The cauldron's upper layer will be without magic for a month!!"

"I reckon it'll be without magic for another 6 months, actually," chimed in another nearby mage.

"AHHHHH!!" she screamed, clutching her head, pulling her hair. The Cauldron without magic for 6 months?! That was unheard of!!!

"Quit it, Peaceroot!" Chided Head Mage Dewward. "Spire Director Craxisys is good friends with the Empire's Empress. And since she ordered it, we do it," he said, as he worked out some formulas for their current job.

"Yeah, shut it!" said another mage by the name of Keendust. "I can't focus at all with your racket! Tch, we have the Spire Director to thank for this."

Dewward smacked Keendust upside the head. "Don't speak of our director like that, how many times have I told you? -And you! Don't talk about the Empress like that!"

"Why do we have to do what that Empress ordered? We're not even in the same nation! Or continent for that matter!" Peaceroot whined. "Plus, we're supposed to be neutral!"

Keendust, busy with work, just scoffed at that notion.

"Yes, but if an empress asks you to do something of this magnitude, then as mages, we must comply. Or refuse outright, but that would be rude to a country's empress..."

"I still don't -"

"Peaceroot. Instead of complaining, go join the magic stone gatherers. Give them a pep talk from me." Dewward ordered.

Peaceroot stiffened, then sighed. "Yes, sir..." She quickly left the room, with Keendust's eyes flicking up to watch her go.

"A total ditz, that one."

Dewward whacked Keendust's head again. "Focus."

"Nhng.. yessir..."

~~

"Sir Craxisys. You are the Head Magic Seat of the Great Cauldron Spire, it's director, and the Commanding Sage of the Cauldron's Magic Force! And the Seat of Protection! You're probably already one of the Grand Ten! You should participate and be officially inducted into the Grand Ten!" shouted the Pixie Seat bouncing on top of the table, instead of her actual chair, in her shrill voice that most would've winced at, but the gathered group were all quite used to. Actually, there were a couple who still winced. Though it was terribly rude to do so.

"Me? Ohoho.. Well, that is an interesting thought... But no. I also don't think I'll hold onto this seat for long..." He mumbled, stroking his beard, thinking of his niece.

Gathered there, at the top of the Great Cauldron Spire, sitting around a circular table, were the Seats. A group of impressive mages. Renowned for all being the pinnacle of specialists in one particular magic school. Thus they were given the 'Seat' of that school.

"HUH?!" the gathered mages all gasped in unison, completely confused by his response. It was clear to them that this man was the strongest mage of the 3 continents. Even if it was disputed, he could simply put those disputes to rest by winning the tournament. "But you're the strongest mage! Why wouldn't you compete for the title?!" one of the Seats asked in disbelief.

"Strongest? Who? Me? But as you know, Myrdin, I'm only a Sage, I haven't even written an 8th ring at my age, hoho~" He stroked his beard, and in a lighthearted tone, chuckled. "How could *I* be the strongest?"

"Yeah, but your Cage Sphere formation is revolutionary!" Myrdin argued, hands lifting up and shaking as he 'talked with his hands'. "Sphere formations are already rare, even amongst Seats! To cage a Blue Heart Core is an idea no mage would ever have thought up!"

"Or accomplished," the softspoken Stormroar, the Evocation Seat, chimed in with her gentle voice, eyes blinking lazily. Ever since learning about the Head Seat's formation, she had been hard at work rewriting her entire formation, which she had been doing for 15 years. That was why she was only a 3 ring mage at the moment. Weaker than most High Mages, on paper, despite her position as Seat. It really sucked starting from scratch, but such was the path for power. Plus, she had more experience rewriting than most. She was infamously known as a Crashing Mage before. Not to mention, she shattered a few rings, attempting to both ascend to higher strength, and use spells WAYYYY out of her league before she realistically could. Despite her timid nature, and softspoken voice, Stormroar was one of the Seats who was most known for her crazy lust for power and battle.

"Right," Myrdin, the Enchanting Seat, said with a nod over to her.

"Ho~ho..? Don't be so self-deprecating, Myrdin," Spire Director Craxisys began. "You Seats have all accomplished unfathomable feats, as well... And my Ring Formation is hardly anything noteworthy. I've heard some interesting rumors about some noteworthy mages out there... Their ring formations have even me interested.. Ho ho ho~" he chuckled, stroking his beard.

The Seats glanced around, some mumbling to each other, surprised and confused by what the old man had just said. What?? There were mages out there with formations they hadn't even heard of? Just who..?

"No no no," The Head Seat went on. All eyes flicking over to him, snapping them back to the topic at hand. "This is nothing more than 'some trifling event'; a festival for the masses. Epica's reputation has been in the gutter since the war. Not even their new colosseum garnered them the attention they wanted. They're trying to gain back some of their lost power, clawing for scraps, if they have to.. Though, hoho~ I admit, this is quite the daring project.. hoho.. I am the Head Magic Seat of the famous and distinguished Great Cauldron Spire, I would lose face if I were to participate in some meager tournament. I was offered a position of judge, so I will take that. This is an event for the youth. Let them fight it out and claim their glory. Let them take the place of Grand Ten, this old man has plenty of titles and accolades."

Quite the speech. "B-but sir, the youth can't possibly be strong enough..." Myrdin continued. But even his voice was weak and faltering.

"It doesn't matter. Their strength now does not matter, Myrdin, my boy. What matters is what they accomplish in the future. One with the position of Grand Ten will surely go on to grow even stronger, and go on to do great things. The Grand Ten is a mythic position after all. The one who earns it will experience exponential growth. I already possess a couple mythic positions, and have reached my peak. I do not need anymore. I'm quite content playing Head Seat here. Let someone else have their fun as the new Grand Ten."

Myrdin deflated. He sank back into his seat. He couldn't find anymore words to argue. If he was so caught up with it, then he might as well just compete. Yet none of the Seats were planning on doing so. At least, none of the Seats at this spire.

"Now. Onto the next topic," came a woman's voice. This topic seemed to have come to a conclusion. She, after all, never expected the Head to compete. So, this was the natural conclusion. All heads turned toward her. "The case of Mirror Blade Mijorine."

All faces darkened, and silence fell.

Ylleth, the Seat of Sealing, continued gravely, "Who killed her?"

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"Yes, thank you Ms. Haliliel. You're officially registered! We'll send word for you when your official match is. Until then! Thank you, and have a nice day~!" chimed the cheery lady at the counter. Not missing one beat even talking to a criminal like the woman in front of her. The clerk's closed-eye smile was as sweet as it was sickening.

Sirindra turned away from the counter with the lady waving goodbye behind her. The next entrant stepped up immediately to fill the missing space, and began to speak with her.

"Hello there, sir. This is Juya's stand to register for the Grand Tournament. What brings you here today?..."

Came her welcoming voice behind Sirindra. A statement repeated for the umpteenth time that day. The other windows with their own clerks speaking similar lines or talking about the same subject with their own entrants. Each window with a mile-long line. A line that had begun the date the official Grand Tournament notice stated, and ever since then for 5 days straight those lines hadn't emptied of potential applicants. The register process was to be a week long. Then another week would pass, giving the Joint Grand Tournament Committee enough time to set up the tournament across the 3 Continents. Then exactly 1 week later it would begin.

The biggest tournament that the world had ever seen.

To discover the NEXT Grand Ten.

A truly incredible venture. An event unlike any other across the 3 Continents. Something never before seen or attempted.

That was why the register process was so long. There were stands, stalls, even entire buildings were assembled in every major city, capital, and noteworthy town the world over. A truly monumental undertaking. Funded in large part by the Epica Empire, with the Joint GT Committee funding the rest. Anyone could apply. It didn't matter who you were, where you were from, or your past. Just like the notice had said. Even if you were a notorious criminal with many terrible crimes, you were eligible to apply. For the duration of the tournament, you wouldn't be arrested. So notorious criminals were able to walk about freely for that entire length of time. But if you lost... then you'd be arrested right away. And if you committed a crime during the tournament process, your application would be revoked, and you'd be arrested.

If you won the Preliminary Tournament in your current city, well then that meant you could go on to the Grand Stage. Which was the Grand Tournament proper. It would have far less contestants (or fighters) but the scale of it would be far grander. The Grand Tournament proper would be held 3 months after all other Preliminary Tournaments were over. If you made it to the Grand Stage (and showed up), all you had to do was win one fight. Then your entire criminal past would be erased.

It was that promise that was bringing out all the criminals who have been in hiding their whole lives. That promise that gave them hope to fix their sorry existences. It was that promise that brought out Sirindra too. It was that promise that Sirindra, too, was placing her hope in.

The next entrant began chatting with the clerk, giving his info.

"To register."
"Okay. Name?"
"I'm Nevro."
"Age?"
"16."
"Preferred style of fighting..?"
"Swordsmanship..."
"Trained Vertex..?"
"shhnfh.."

Sirindra walked away, the constant chatter drowning out their conversation. The conversations around were all melding together into one blob of noise. Everyone was busy chatting away. The excitement for the tournament was palpable, and hadn't even died down for an instant since being announced. Although they all were to be mortal enemies, they couldn't help themselves. People were busy talking about their preferred Vertex. Or what they used in combat. What spells they knew. Etc etc.

"Kehk. Fools." Sirindra sneered. "Want to go check out the competition?" She asked Ajuu, once again nuzzling the creature's chin with her finger that stood on her shoulder. Earning a few titters. With a grin she headed in the direction of the training grounds.

The training grounds.

Set up alongside the stalls. These were the Grand Tournament special training grounds. In some of the major cities they had more facilities. And even helped you train more efficiently, with better equipment, Magictech items or gadgets, sometimes there were even Grand Tournament Advisers and Coaches you could get advice from.

Here in Juya, though, in the Au'Oshos territory, the facilities weren't great. Juya wasn't a big town. It was just a humble one. Au'Oshos' territory, in general, was considered a bit underdeveloped compared to other places. Since this territory was ran by the Au'Oshos family, who primarily kept to themselves, doing their weird Astral meditations, they hadn't really focused much on developing their territory. In general, outside of some items from the North that the Au'Oshos helped distribute, and some unique items that were created with spiritual energy, the Au'Oshos didn't bring much to the table. But many who lived in the territory preferred it that way. They liked the simple, quiet life of an Au'Oshos territory citizen.

Until the Grand Tournament was announced that is. Now that kinda bit them in the foot. The excitement couldn't be curbed even here. Still, it wasn't like it bothered Sirindra, or the others. If what she was seeing was anything to go by.

Making her way to the training grounds, Sirindra casually strolled around the fence. Within the fence, out on the dirt, there was a bunch of contestants hard at work training. They were doing all sorts of various things. Some were running around the dirt, having carved out a track from their running alone. Some were swinging weapons of all sorts: swords, axes, spears, etc. Some were casting spells at dummies. Some were even meditating on mats, or just on the ground. Then there were even people who were sparring. Juya was a smallish town. It now had a backyard called the training grounds, nearly as big as it was.

"Hmm~..?" The redhead considered, gently stroking her chin.

It was all.. as to be expected.

"Well, Ajuu. We have a bit of time. Shall we also get to it?" The redhead said, her voice calm, with an alluring lilt. Sirindra was confident in her skills, and nothing she had seen in Juya had impressed her so far. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She was disappointed in the skill of the people here. Regardless, that was no reason to be lazy herself. And there was still a week till the tournament. Might as well get in some quick training.

Thrrirrirr!

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A week ago, a girl burst into the head office of the Robicc HQ. The guards grabbing for her, and failing splendidly. This much was very obvious from the doorway, only exasperating the man who witnessed it. This was the headquarters of the Robicc family, where all sorts of personnel worked. Countless knights marched around the premises, and many guards who were all trained in the Robicc signature martial arts style were stationed to keep what could be called, perfect security.

"Father! What is happening! I deserve to know!" The chestnut-color-haired girl immediately blurted out, cute face unnaturally contorted with anger. She had heard some rumors that were sparking more than just a passing interest in her. But the rumors were vague. And it felt she was being intentionally kept in the dark. That's what annoyed her the most.

"Hush child, your impatience irks me. You'll find out when everyone else does. I appreciate your zeal, and recognize your passion, which is why I allowed you to take this path. But never forget who you are. You're a Robicc. That means you embody honor and nobility! Don't forget that!"

His daughter jolted. It seemed she might've forgot her place for a brief moment.

Seeing this, he commanded, "Straighten up!"

She did. Quickly. Straightening her back. Head angled slightly up, hand left hand resting on her sword.

He nodded. "Don't worry, Pronoia. There will be an announcement in 7 days."

"7 days?!"

"Let me give you a hint, daughter. You may want to get training."

She stared. "Then..." Her father remained stoic. Training? An announcement of something important in 7 days, that required her to train? It was like a lightbulb went off in her head, and her attitude did a complete flip. "I understand! Thank you Lord father!" She gave him a bow, then quickly spun on her heel and dashed back out of the door, silk hair whipping like lightning. The guards could barely handle the force of the Robicc daughter departing. They gathered themselves, both embarrassed. Sir Robicc sighed and rubbed his forehead. What had gotten into his daughter? Vequanial wasn't like that.

Thinking about what she came to ask about, a grin crept over his firm features. He opened his eyes and lazily blinked down at the paperwork on his desk. "Pronoia... You have your work cut out for you with this one. Sivier, my daughter." Sivier was a small prayer that the Robicc's said. It was similar to wishing good luck, but also mixed a bit of 'fight well' in there.

"Call Vequanial in," Sir Robicc ordered the guards at the door.

 

[Silver Wolf]

Sophia Yurel

Spoiler: Appearance

Location: Sordrinn (Robicc Family City), Four Family's Colloseum
Interactions: N/A (Aside from possibly Thalia_Neko as the GM)

​

"Thank you, enjoy!" the baker said as they held out a bag of treats with one hand and had payment dropped in the other. Sophia simply turned on her heels and walked away, leaving the baker to happily count their coins. Not long into her walk, she untied the bag and pulled out a small cookie which she popped in her mouth. Baked dough melted with her saliva into a sweet and savory paste as she chewed and she soon found the mass sliding down her throat, giving a sense of euphoria she had craved since that morning. Sophia closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards while holding one side of her face, a look of pure, calm bliss on it as she savored each flavor.
"Not bad..." she muttered to herself before popping another in her mouth, this time taking time to chew it thoroughly so she could somehow tease that finally pleasure before inevitably taking another. As she did so she passed a sign she hadn't seen before. The large flashy wording of GRAND TOURNAMENT in its strange font caught her attention and she tilted her head and stopped to turn and look at it. As she did so she popped the third cookie into her mouth and read. It didn't take long for her to scoff lightly, spraying a few crumbs out before quietly saying to herself, "Seriously, who wrote this? So damn corny...though I might just check it out. Never know..."
Following the flyer's directions she made her way over towards the Four Family's colloseum where she naturally wandered around through to the training grounds, which was to her expectations, packed. She decided to simply watch the sparring sessions, taking in how the famed warriors and knights of the Robicc family fought. As the session she was watching ended, she moved to take another cookie, only to be shouldered by someone and dropping her bag. Without missing a beat she turned her head to the offender and gave a nasty glare.

"Oi! Watch it! You made me drop my cookies!" she practically yelled. This did the effect of catching the man's attention, who turned to look at her with furrowed eyebrows. He looked at the way she was dressed then met her gaze before narrowing his gaze further. She did the same, she took in his uniform, which held the sigil of Robicc on it, the particular sigil for soldiers, warriors, and lesser knights and then to his face. While he looked alright, the way he stared at her with contempt as though he were looking down on her overrode any inclination of pretty privilege the man may have otherwise had, not that she would care anyways.

"So? Not my problem a kid like you is clearly where they shouldn't be."

Sophia narrowed her gaze as red seeped to the corners of her vision, "Take. That. Back."

The man scoffed then gave a small smirk before saying, "Yeah? How are you going to make me?"

"By making you eat dirt, here, in front of everyone to show them how pathetic you really are."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Yeah, right here, right now, real weapons. First one incapacitated loses."
"This should be fun. Fine, don't blame me if your fancy clothes get torn up," he said before walking towards an empty spot in the yard. Sophia reached for her cookies and picked them up before making eye contact with some random bystander before shoving them into their body.

"Hold this, eat any and you'll regret it."
Sophia walked over to where her opponent was standing and drew her sword before stepping into the ring. Her opponent was leaning on his great sword giving mock boredom as he yawned to her entrance. When she took stance he stood up and clumsily held his sword before saying, "It's not too late to back down. If you forfeit I'll let you off eas-"
Sophia didn't wait for him to finish and began charging. Thrown aback, he opponent made a clumsy guard, but he used his weight and qi to prevent him from his posture being broken. For that moment their eyes met and he saw a wild unhinged look in her eyes that sent a cold tingle through his spine. His look of surprise soon gave way as he gritted his teeth and pushed. Sophia saw this coming as he would attempt to make distance to properly align his posture, but she calmed her qi and angled her sword before sliding against it and then concentrated and threaded it into her shoulder before slamming into him. This staggered him, but he gave out a strike which she had to avoid. She pulled herself back and reprepared her stance with her blade in front of her, held tightly with both hands as she watched his next move. Surprisingly he pulled himself into a proper stance before charging with his blade held high. She dodged, but he slammed it into the ground, kicking up dust before he turned it and angled it after her, but he aimed at an angle and she dodged again in the same direction while ducking her head. She released a quick strike which barely connected as he rolled away. She tried to catch him during this, but he managed to use the momentum to make a jab at her. She managed to pull a hand to the end of her sword and pushed the stab away. This threw him off balance and she attempted to slide along the blade to close the distance. He pushed back and she soon found herself thrown to the ground, to some people's shock he brought his sword down anyways towards her, forcing Sophia to roll out of the way before pushing herself to her feet. She could tell from his furious gaze that he was already starting to see red. Good, both of them were done fooling around.
Her opponent charged, but she moved and threaded her qi to her legs, focusing on waiting for an opening in his swings as he tried to split her. Meanwhile she focused on keeping her cool as she continued to dance around his strikes, at least until she finally decided to do something unexpected. During the next horizontal slash she slid under the strike and slashed at his legs, forcing him to his knees. Before her opponent could pick his sword up she kicked him down further and then moved her sword to the edge of his neck, carefully touching the cold silver alloy to his skin so he knew just how screwed he was if he tried anything funny.
"I told you, I would make you eat dirt. Now yield!"
Her opponent slammed his fist while he grit his teeth until they hurt before taking a strangely calm breath and said loud enough for everyone to hear, "Fine, it's my loss."

Sophia didn't say anything as she gently removed the blade and sheathed it before pulling her boot off his center of mass. She simply walked away as some in the audience who were watching the fight gave their applause of varying degrees. As she did so she walked up to the man she had given her cookies to and took her bag back before opening it and sighed in disappointment before taking a piece of a broken one out, not caring about the glare his opponent was giving her from behind that she could somewhat feel. Logically she believed she was safe, only an idiot would attack her out of the blue after what just happened, and there would be too many witnesses too. So, she ignored the sense of pressure even as it moved around. As to where, she couldn't quite tell, but again, he'd have to be an exceptional idiot to act on his emotions now, and she was confident she could kick his ass again if needed. She nodded to the holder of her cookies before turning to walk somewhere else in the training grounds, pondering whether she should sign up to the tournament if this was what Robicc had to offer her so far.

 

[Thalia_Neko]

Location: Robicc HQ
Characters: Lord Sheperd Robicc, Vequanial Robicc
~~~~~

"Lord Father. I am here." Vequanial said, announcing his presence dutifully as he entered the head office. The boy immediately saluted, stepping his foot forcefully in towards the other, while he placed a fist over his heart, across his chest. The perfect picture of a Robicc knight.

"Good. At ease." Came the gruff voice, approving of the action before him.

Vequanial dropped his arms, but only just relaxed his posture. For a young teen boy, it was already well refined. Sheperd looked over his son's posture approvingly.

"Vequanial, soon a tournament will be announced. I want you to compete."

Vequanial's stoic, expressionless face twitched ever so slightly. Him? Compete? In a tournament? This was a surprise.

An easy thing, naturally, of course, for him. But still. He never would've expected such an order.

"Alright, father..."

Lord Robicc could tell that this slightly perturbed Vequanial. His acknowledgement was rather unspirited, after all. By now, Sheperd was used to the boy's peculiarities, and could tell what his son was thinking, even if it looked like he was as firm and unmoving as a rock.

"Your sister will likely compete as well. I don't see her being able to resist."

Vequanial had multiple sisters. But just 'his sister' told the red-haired boy everything. His father only used such phrasing when it meant a specific sibling. He answered with nothing, but he also agreed, knowing 'his sister'.

"Vequanial. I want you to defeat her. Utterly crush her."

Even Vequanial couldn't keep a straight face. His brow creased in thought. "You want me to utterly crush my sister in the tournament? Why?"

This was unusual. Vequanial didn't usually question anything. The question wasn't even hesitant; it came out immediately. Hmm.

"Yes. Utterly crush her. Do not give her any leeway. Do everything within your power to dismantle her."

"No mercy?"

"No mercy."

Vequanial barely looked down, then he looked back up. "I understand father." When Lord Robicc didn't say anything, he turned to leave.

As he stepped to go, his father spoke up. "But before that, I want you to utterly crush the competition."

Vequanial paused and looked back at him.

"Destroy every one of your opponents. No mercy for anyone. Do so in front of your sister. Make sure Pronoia witnesses every defeat. Instill utter despair into her."

Vequanial was stuck for a moment again. "You want me to bring sister to despair?"

"Yes."

Vequanial considered, then said. "As your Lord commands," saluting him once more. Then the boy turned and marched out of the room, long red locks swaying like the departing sun, Lord Robicc staring into his back.

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

For a few weeks after the announcement of the Grand Tournament, there was another hot topic of discussion that began to make the rounds and monopolize discourse. The death of one of the 3 continent's beloved Grand Ten, Mirror Blade Mijorine. News that shook the world. The Joint CT Committee basically leaked it themselves. For it had to be out in the open for the GT could even happen. After all, a tournament like this one -to find her replacement- couldn't actually happen, if Ms. Mijorine wasn't, in fact, dead, now could it?

Could it?

Up until the announcement, people began to realize that they hadn't seen Mijorine. The most recent sightings of her were from a few months ago. So people accepted that she was, in fact, missing. But.. dead? That wasn't so easily accepted. The notion of her death was not just questioned, it was viciously rejected; not many wanted to believe such a thing. Most people generally accepted that the death of a Grant Ten member simply wasn't possible. They were existences that had simply transcended what most people considered "normal". And while she didn't have organ rings, nor was she a spiritual being, it was largely accepted Mijorine was one of the Grand Ten that was the hardest to kill.

So where was she?

A tournament like this couldn't actually happen, if she wasn't dead, right? So where was the confirmation? Or was the tournament, itself, confirmation enough?

There were quite a few things Pronoia thought and, better yet, felt when she heard the news. But one thing was at the top of her head. Mirror Blade Mijorine's death. Her face was pale. Mirror Blade Mijorine was at the pinnacle of Martial arts! And her personal favorite Grand Ten member!! Her literal idol. Someone that Pronoia based all of her own martial training on! She.. She was dead?!?! W-who..? Just who? Who could kill her?

"Is it even possible to kill Mijorine?" she wondered aloud, utterly dumbfounded. The late Grand Ten member was so named for her famous Mirror Blade technique. An "almighty Martial technique", called as such because it was just that -almighty. It was purportedly to only use Qi and her own martial skill, making it even more impressive. Mirror Blade Mijorine's technique was the ability to reflect all attacks back at their sender. It's not just what gave her her name, but it was such an impossible technique, that Mijorine became S class the moment she unveiled it. And after that, never lost a fight again. She was so strong, you literally defeated yourself; your own strength was used against you. Everyone defeated themselves if they challenged the swordswoman! The stronger you were, the easier you were to defeat, as you were essentially harming yourself with your own power. As stated, an almighty technique.

No way.. No, just no. It was impossible.

It had to be asked again. Was it even possible to defeat Mirror Blade Mijorine? Could she even be killed?

Pronoia couldn't believe her ears. One would've assumed she would've been through the moon to hear the news about the tournament. But it was the opposite. The girl was at a loss, a total loss. All of her energy was sapped away from her. She didn't feel like even drawing her sword, much less training. What could she even do now? What chance did she have of being a Grand Ten if someone like Mijorine was defeated?? What was the point anymore?

Unable to even think, a defeated Pronoia dragged her feet, shoulders slumped, walking off to who knows where.



----------------------------------------------
Location: Four Families Colosseum
Characters: Vequanial, Uncle Uzziel
interacting: Silver Wolf
----------------------------------------------


A tall man calmly strolled up to the boy that the girl had just taken the bag of cookies from. His fiery red beard his most prominent feature. With a hefty chuckle he said, "Hohhoh, we just got to watch something quite interesting, didn't we, nephew!" With his words, he clapped the much shorter redheaded boy on the back. He was the Commander of the Firebrand Order and acting Guard Captain of the Arena for the upcoming tournament. He was here on official business, learning the lay of the place. Well, he was familiar with it, but still, he was being thorough, making sure to have all the guard patrol routes laid out before the tournament began.

The short redhead's eyes trailed after the girl who just took the bag of cookies from him, staring into her back, watching her intently. He only turned to the big man beside him when he was clapped on the back. "Indeed."

"I wonder if there will be more interesting things like that to watch when the tournament officially commences!" Uncle Uzziel began, only to shout over at the defeated knight. "Pravul, you'll never make the Elite Knight Order with shameful showings like that! HohhHohhHohh Hoh!!" the big man laughed. Other knights around joining him in racuous laughter.

Vequanial had been caught off guard when the girl suddenly handed him something. Unable to react, the boy had simply held it where she had handed to him, for the entire length of her duel. He had come to the colosseum searching for his sister, but, to his 'surprise', she wasn't there. In fact, she wasn't really to be found anywhere. Unusual, highly unusual. She was known to do anything and everything to train. This was one of the primary places to do that before the tournament, not finding her here was beyond his expectations.

And instead, he had been met with a silver-haired girl, nearly around his height, handing him a bag of cookies out of nowhere.

"Now which of you louts are entering in the tournament?! Gather 'round!" Shouted Uncle Uzziel. Knights immediately complied, running to line up before him and the shorter man beside him. "If you can't even match up against Vequanial, then you might as well give up!"

Upon hearing that Vequanial would be participating, many of the knights immediately pulled away from the line, murmuring and deflating in despair.

"However, if you still intend to enter the tournament, then we'll begin spartan training right now!!! We'll train from now up till the tournament! I can promise you, if you stick to the training, you'll be at least at the level of that girl just now!" More murmuring of a hopeful nature began around the knights, and most of the ones that had left returned to the line. The prospect of getting trained by the great Lord Uzziel was too much to pass up. "Very good! Lets begin!"

Of course, that wouldn't be nearly enough to win. There would be utter beasts in this tournament. Vequanial would only be one of those. No Grand Ten member was nearly this weak. This tournament sounded like a festival on paper, but it was going to be a hellish gauntlet of battles with nothing but total monsters, watched by ravenous beasts cheering at all of that carnage, chomping at the bit to see hell and despair in the ring. Could these knights even keep up, Uzziel wondered?

 

[Gaius Danius Griinia]

Gaizer
Location: Field

An injured young man felt a stinging pain in his side where fresh claw marks had been cut into him. Crimson blood dripped from the wound and onto the ground. The youth could only blame himself for this injury in addition to the cuts and bruises that preceded it. His eyes were currently locked on a bipedal creature covered in grey fur that was stained with both dried and fresh blood. Although the beast looked like a monster straight out of a cautionary fairy tale. Gaizer knew all too well that this beast and the wound it had inflicted on him were all too real. A beastkin who had lost themselves to the animal within during their Severing. All that was left could only be looked at with pity. Hands gripping tightly to the handle of his sword. Gaizer could see himself in the form in front of him. No doubt this person had hit their limitations, losing something to the Severing. However unlike Gaizer, they hadn't come out as anything resembling their former selves. Wanting to help this poor soul find some peace in this world. Gaizer had chosen to do it the honor of a final duel. He thought it was better it fell in a clash of wills and sinew rather than dying to some hunting party. Yet Gaizer knew that someone of his meager skills would face great difficulties in battling this raging beast.

Accepting the pain as a necessary cost for what he wanted to do. Gaizer chose to make a final attack. A practitioner of the Martial, Mage and Astral paths but lacking any talent for each of them. There was only so much a third rate like Gaizer could do. Sheathing his sword and steadying his breath. Gaizer silently incanted a spell from the Elemental School. The wolfman noticed this and leapt at Gaizer with surprising speed. Digging his heels into the ground and triggering his Meteor Dash. Gaizer disappeared from his spot as a blur wreathed in lightning sped past the wolfman, a flicker of steel appearing for but the briefest of seconds. Blood splattered on the ground as the severed head of a beastkin fell with a thud. Gaizer coughed up blood, his wounds finally overcoming his adrenaline. Not having a single technique capable of killing his foe. He was forced to combine the Lightning Element of the Mage, the Meteoric speed of the Astral and the Autumn Leaf Cutter technique of his teacher. Gaizer lay on the ground and used the single healing spell he knew to close his wounds.

 

[Femboy]

Vivi Finii
Location: Great Cauldron Spire

The little pixie's usually somewhat peaceful morning was abruptly ruined by the sudden awakening of commotion within the interior of the spire as people within were so bothered and panicked about something. Considering that the stability of the spire walls were still fine and there were no obvious sounds of anything monstrous or dangerous about that had potentially been around or gotten in should have implied there was no real danger or anything to worry about. Sighing as she got up since the intruded peace wasn't going to settle anytime soon, she dressed and settled her hat on her head until she felt it rested comfortably as she grabbed her grimoire in order to go and take a look at what was getting everyone so riled up in hopes that such issues wouldn't interrupt her studying later on in the day. So many were giving their thoughts over some sort of tournament in which its details felt like they had sprung up overnight, Vivi couldn't recall of hearing of any tournament that the Spire was holding the day before in which any silly little events as such woulf have probably been rumoured or spoiled by at least one person.

Still somewhat tired from being struck awake by the sudden noise, she had left through a small gap in the wall of the Spire where she alongside other pixies made their safe and out-of-sight home as she used magic to readjust her size to a more comfortable height for trying to interact with normal people-sized things as she sat at a table in the corner in order to look and peer at some studying material she had yet to get through although the chatter of everyone else over the same topic was getting rather distracting. Mumbling softly to herself as she ended up having to be victim to having to overhear detail-spilling information that told her what she needed to know, she levitated a sheet of paper towards her that she noticed was essentially advertisement for this all-important tournament that was getting in the way of a completely normal and productive day as she scanned it over with an annoyed glare to understand if there was any reason to even care that wasn't them being made to work on some stage for the rest of the world to gloat and ogle over overly proud contestants.

"Don't all of these people have something better to do? It's six months to prepare some place for a lousy violent sport, just make a circle and a few accompanying seats to watch, it's not that difficult. Why waste the resources of a place of magic importance and progress just to fulfill some pointless tradition that only power hungry fools should care about? The most of them that'll sign up will just be publicly humiliated anyway" Vivi shook her head as she grumbled about the fact such setup was going to be an evergrowing frustration for her own matters. If they were to be so underhanded with their resources and even made busy for such trivial matters, how was she supposed to get anything actually useful done in that time? Who cared about some dumb tournament, just have them decide a winner rather than wasting valuable time and stuff of others to end up ruining half of someone's year for something that didn't seem important at all.​

 

[Silver Wolf]

Sophia Yurel

Spoiler: Appearance

Location: Sordrinn (Robicc Family City), Four Family's Colloseum
Interactions: Thalia_Neko (NPCs)


​

Sophia found a bench in the shade before sitting down. As she did so she was listening and had picked up on the man who had held her cookies. Speaking of she picked out a piece and looked towards them while taking out a bite. "So that's Lord Robicc's son eh...that man next to him called him his nephew...so...Uzziel Robicc...maybe. The way Uzziel acts reminds me of some of the Knights of the Lake. Vequanniel on the other hand...hard to get a read on. Stared at me for a while...wonder what that's about.

Sophia thought all this while meeting his gaze at points, her eyes refusing to give clues to her thoughts, "Oh, some of the knights stepped away...not all of them seem like slouches either...is he really that impressive?" While she observed the events she continued to eat her cookies and haphazardly kicked her feet. That's when one of the knights took a seat on the bench.

Without wasting any time she started chatting, "Impressive work putting Parzul in the dirt, especially at your age."

"That so..." Sophia haphazardly said while taking a bite of her cookie, finishing it. She reached in for another, not caring to elaborate further or introduce herself as she kicked her feet and watched the aforementioned 'Spartan Training' given by who she presumed to be a brother of the Rodricc's current patriarch.

The knight seemed confused at this, but she continued to build her bridge and asked, "I don't think I've seen you around. Are you new around Sordrinn?"

"Sophie..." she said while locking his gaze. She seemed dissatisfied, but Sophia didn't have any qualms about giving her full identity. "Otherwise my name is Sophia Yurel, niece of Count Frederick Yurel. My mother is Ellen Yurel. If you know about her, I don't need to explain further to you who my father is."

"Oh really..." she said before finally meeting Sophia's gaze. He looked her up and down, seemingly judging her. "So...are you participating in the tournament?"

"Maybe...I'm here to see...which one of the Rodriccs are they?" Sophia pointed towards Uzziel.

"Ah, that's my Uncle Sir Uzziel, and over there is my brother Vequanial."

"Ok, so my first guess was Uzziel, go figure..." She looked to her visitor and tilted her head a little before asking, "And you are...?"

"My name is Alina, Robicc, nice to meet you Sophie."

Spoiler: Alina

Sophia just gave a brief 'hm' with an affirmative nod as she popped a cookie in her mouth. Her default expression not bothering to meet Alina's, which clearly bothered the princess she just met as she just looked at Sophia with an odd and confused gaze before switching her attention back to the training grounds. After a few rounds of simply watching, Sophia tied up her baggy and stood up before picking up her blade.

"Where are you going?"

Sophia shrugs then says, "Maybe job board at the guild, that or wander around more."

"Where might you be staying, if I may ask?"

"For now, some inn named Raeschid's Rest. Gives a guild discount since those are its primary patrons, somewhere around the city's primary branch office."

"Well maybe I'll see you around again, and good luck if you enter the tournament."

Sophia just decided to nod before making her way to the door.

 

[Stern LuLuLu]

Rollo Tauriel
Location: Meqir

The Gand Tournament was all that the people of the guild were talking about since it was announced. But even then some people were still not aware of how important it was. As Rollo sat down at a small cafe table after just returning from a long job. He had already made an order not wanting to have to wait longer than he needs to. After dispatching a group of D-list monsters and a couple of C-tier ones he did not want to get back home as soon as could. He would have stayed to celebrate with the party he went with but that would have been an all-day affair and he had other things to do. After his meal of five sandwiches and a drink. He started making his way through the city to his home.

Even at the return home, all, the guards talking about was the Grand Tournament. but he was not too concerned about it as he was busy greeting everyone. As he met with them most of the people told him he should have said word he was coming back. He simply waved it off, saying .“I didn’t know if I was gonna come back, so that’s why I didn’t send anything.”The people who he told it to didn't seem to think it was funny. Talking to the head guard Venter who is in charge for the time being.”Well, if the lady of the house was here she would be happy to see you back.” He let out a sigh thinking that it would be back. He lives, thinking that it is kind of a relief that he wouldn’t have to deal with the spectacle that she would make of him returning.

Being handed the poster for the grand tournament from Venter. “Hey, have you thought about participating in that tournament? I’m sure you do great in it and it is a fantastic experience for you and your training would it not.” Rollo sat there quietly for a couple of moments reading it. Laughing at the poster then saying it in a joking way. “ What are you a spokesperson for the guys? But I hear what you’re saying it’s mainly all people talk about lately. I might as well join in if anything it will be nice to watch maybe even entertaining even if I don't make it far.” Being brought a drink by one of the maids of the house he grabs it and started drinking it. “But for now, I just want to relax and catch up with everyone.“ taking another drink.

After he finished registering for the Grand tournament. He took a glance around to see if saw anyone of interest. He was able to spot some people who could go to the end. Hoping for a good time in the tournament before walking away.

He thought it would be best to get back to training so he can be ready for it. Heading back to his home. He went to a heading back to his home. He went to a small forested area behind the mansion. seeing the training ground that was made for him with nothing but a bunch of heavy objects looking around. “I doubt I will be able to replace one of the grand 10 but there’s no harm in getting as closest possible.”As he starts back up with training.

 

[Maverick Six]

Aezunura desert​

---

The creature had learned to count.

The sun had risen four times. The moon had descended thrice. That was about how long he had been here. With no rest -- the being known as Simurgh hauled the cart through the desert at a Lethargic pace. He would stop for no sleep. Only to feed and otherwise feed and provide for the one who rest quietly in the carriage. At no point did he sleep. His body craved to explode forward. And yet that would prove too disturbing for the master. She was ill. And to travel too roughly could make her quite ill -- aggravating an already dire condition. A creature who could cross the continents singlehandedly, found itself limited to an urgent march. Day and Night. Hot or cold. Storm or not. The creature walk without rest or sleep at the same exact pace. It's glowing eyes gazing only upon a vast sea of wavey sand dune.

Until over the horizon, it spotted a distant blip straight ahead.

It knew well what it was. The so called "Holy City" of Emersity Theota.

"Master." Sim speaks. "We are almost there."

A voice from the carriage.

"Then won't you hurry up already?" A voice comes from within. Oddly playful. "I'm sick. Not a baby." Those were the words of the master herself.

Emersity Theota​

---

At the vast gates of the grand city -- the guards stare at a large plume of dust which seems to rapidly approach.

At it's head. A fairly large creature is spotted, moving on all fours as it rapidly marches -- it's limbs moving in an odd, almost insect like gait. Stable and quick, yet powerful. One could almost compare it to such at this distance. Soon, several city guards and a few adventurers on duty surrounded mage. And then ordered them all to assemble. A sigil of light appeared beneath the small troupe. And in a flash of light -- they disappeared.

Not even a moment later, the group reappeared outside the city.

The sound of it's movements and the cart behind it stopped. It relinquished the cart's reigns from it's teeth -- and walked forward to meet the guards. Most of the guards, the mage and adventurers were relaxed -- recognizing the creature after a single glance, as it walked out. Weapons were lowered. Sim looked to the carriage for her to come out and address them. But he could only hear her faint breathing.

In this matter, he felt alone.

But there was one who made a mistake. A lone adventurer mage who was quite unfamiliar -- formed a barrier squarely in front of himself as he began to level a blast towards Merkava. Many did not believe the rumors of Simurgh and few saw the desert dweller in person. After all Sim notoriously hated cities.

"Wait!" Said one of the more experienced adventurers. But it was already far too late.

A low growl had begun to build up from the bowls. And the ground had begun to rumble faintly as something tunneled through it.

​

From the ground, a hand erupted beneath the young mage's foot and wrapped talon clad fingers around his ankle. The mage hit the ground as it felt a pull, sending the blast off into the air, as he found himself being dragged forecefully through the sand. The rest of the creature's arm revealing itself as it retracted back to it's point of origin. The mage's mind frantically thought to conjure up another spell but soon found himself flung up over the creature's head....

And then into the ground.

"YEARGH!" The creature shrieked as it lifted the freshly slammed boy of the ground. And swung him in a half circle -- letting go. One of the guards stepped out of the way, as the mage boy flew by in a blur --

FWOOSH!

And flew right by the troupe as though he were a pebble. And much like a pebble, the boy seemed to skip across the sandy sea. He bounced along the ground, creating ripples as he did. Opening up more and more, until he became a dot. And then eventually the sand erupted into the air, as the force. The sound manifested, distantly.

Poof. A plume of sand erupted into the air. As though a bomb went off where he landed.

The guards turn their attention back. But the more senior mage motions their hands to go down. The creature scowls at them, but makes no further move.

"You'll have to forgive him. Most have not seen you among their midst, Simurgh. Not all believe the rumors."

The creature stops growling. And the man continues.

"What brings you here?"

The creature holds up it's hand. Claws turn seamlessly into fingers. And it gently motions behind it, stepping aside to reveal a quaint cart.

"My Master." Simurgh begins. "She is very ill. She has been attacked, btu her wounds do not heal well. Her flesh turns purple. Dark like mine. Humans are not supposed to be that color, no?"

The carriage is opened. And indeed, they see a woman who is sick within. Resting. Kouma not even addressing. Though in spite of the previous speed of the creature's approached, she seemed to be peacefully asleep. With a small smile on her face even.

"Very well Simurgh. Allow me to bring you inside." He motions for the creature to appear. "A word of advice. Try going a little slower. Drag the cart like a horse hmmm?"

"Fine."

With that, the man prepared a teleportation spell. But this time, he would take Simurgh, his Master and the Cart with him. The troupe looked off in the distance as they disappeared in a flash of light.

They heard a groan.

Inside the City

---

The Cart would appear in an area open enough to house them. Looking left and right -- Sim seemed to ascertain that they were in an alleyway. They seemed to be not far from the city's entrance. People could be seen walking through the streets in front of him.

"Okay. Here we are. You talk, right? Use your words. I gotta go but I'll see you around." The man turns, preparing to teleport away on his own. But he leaves the creature. "Don't cause any more trouble. I can't guarentee you'll get off like you just did. I did you a favor. It'll do well to keep the lady out of trouble eh? I'll see if I can't get you some help. Maybe from the guild. But no promises." The man said.

The creature nodded. Satisfied, the more senior guild member gave a thumbs up...before abruptly disappearing, leaving quicker on his own than he did in a group.

Took a look back at the cart, opening the curtain to gaze upon his master. "You did all that on purpose, didn't you?" His master, named Kouma, rested peacefully in the cart. Yet with her gentle eyes closed, she grinned ever so slightly wider. And then she coughed.

That was answer enough.

Sim took the reigns attached to the cart and bit down. Then he put the rest of the straps around himself and pulled the cart onto the street, soon joining the foot traffic that awaited him.

A paper blew through the air as the creature walked on all fours. It hand moved faster than most ordinary people could see -- as the hand outpaced the wind.

The paper held upon details of the "GRAND TOURNAMENT". But the Simurgh, he may as well have been looking at the scribbles of a child.

I can't read this.

The creature allowed the paper to leave it's hand. And blow away into the wind. "Bah." He said. It knew letters. Yet it could make little of the paper out. And what little it could make was not of relevance. It knew it's alphabet. And it's memory stretched far enough that perhaps it would understand the meaning of the paper later. Perhaps he should have paid more attention during master's lessons. But none of the words really struck a cord with the creatures current desires and goals.

"Healer." "Inn." "Map." "Magic" These were the words which would hold the most relevance to it. The paper slapped against the carriage's window. Though the door opened ever so slightly. And Kouma's hand would reach out quietly to grab it.

The creature would then wander the street for a time, searching for anything written or conceptually similar to those concepts. Wandering about the streets with a carriage that held no rider, strangely going around in circles and through familiar places. Much to the creature's frustration.

It did not like cities. There were crowds everywhere. Everyone was always moving. And everyone except him seemed to know exactly where to go. For now, only faint words existed to guide it.

 

[TreasureSniper]

Location: Four Families Colosseum
Interaction: Raheet Ainhart

The hustle and bustle of the loud arena was a nice change of pace for Talio. As an individual who is always looking to test the mettle of his invention, he saw this as an opportune chance to showcase the progress of his Steel Strider armor, his supposed"magnum opus". What better way to test out his battle suit than among the rabble this bloodsport attracts? And if he was lucky, he might even last long enough to actually fight an opponent with a proper title.

As with many tournaments, the earlier rounds are designed to weed out the weaker, less competent bunch, something the merchant/ mercenary had no problem doing. While he was a novice swordsman at best, the sheer strength and speed his armor afforded them allowed him to run circles around the competition, defeating many of his opponents with a single well-placed strike. With his outstanding performance in their earlier rounds, he quickly became a crowd favorite, with a few dozen observers willing to place bets on his fights. Eventually, the preliminaries reach their final around, with Talio fighting against a rather familiar-looking opponent.

Even just watching this individual from afar, finishing off his match, Talio would easily recognize this man or rather elf. There was no doubt in his mind, fate had just given him a golden opportunity to right that which has been wronged, a chance to finally rid himself of the taste of the bitter defeat that had been with him for so long. While his thoughts linger on his previous encounter with his person, the announcer's loud and energetic announcement would end this brief respite as it told both opponents to step into the ring.

"And now we have the final round for our preliminaries of Block F! This is shaping up to be our best round yet!"

"On the left side, we have the mysterious... the elusive...the ever-infamous, Raheet Ainhart! Bounty hunter extraordinaire! With over 1,000 successful bounties to his name, he always comes to collect!" While the bounty himself had little to no reaction toward the titles given to him, the crowd on the other hand roared and cheered with joy, absolutely thrilled to the well-known bounty hunter face a formidable opponent.

"His opponent....a newcomer, a merchant, a mercenary, and a ringer! He sells good wares, and he's more than happy to give you all LIVE demonstration. His name is Talio Ferromanus, but today.. he is the STEEL STRIDER!" While not as popular as the bounty hunter from before, Talio still had built up a decent-size following over the course of the first few preliminary rounds. While their positive cheers were exceptionally strong at first, the crowd would eventually begin to jeer as they noticed Talio walking toward the center of the arena with nothing but his usual attire and his trusty sword. Even the announcer seemed perplexed by this decision.

"Whats this!? Talio has just entered the ring...WITHOUT HIS ARMOR!" Some members of the crowd began to panic, realizing that they may have just backed the wrong fighter in this fight with their hard-earned savings. And then there were some to began laughing out of amusement and bewilderment at this strange stunt. What exactly was this young man trying to achieve by doing this?

The bounty hunter stood his ground, with a noticeable scowl on his face, he was clearly annoyed by this outright disrespectful gesture from his opponent. "I don't know what you're thinking, but its best if you put that armor back on." The elf spoke, with a hostile tone while his crimson eyes were dagger starring the young man. However, his gaze was met with a look of indifference from the young merchant. "Wait...I remember you.." with that statement, a small grin began to form around Talio's lips. Destiny has a strange way of reuniting people. While the encounter at the foreign warehouse was almost two years, to Talio it might as well have been yesterday. "Listen here. What happened back then, was just business. There's no reason for you to take it personally. So please, put on your armor, and let's have a fair fight." The elf gave a thoughtful bow to his opponent, hoping that he would reciprocate the gesture.

"You're right." The merchant responded almost immediately with a neutral tone. However much to the surprise of the elf, he in fact did not have any intention of retrieving his armor, at least not for this fight. "That's why I took off my armor. To have a "fair" fight." Talio gave Raheet a sly smile, showing his opponent that there was indeed no respect between them at all. "Tch, suit yourself" The elf was well ticked off by this blatant display of arrogance and bravado from a crippled merchant.

Having no more words to say until the fight begins, each fighter would walk towards their designated area waiting for the bell to ring. Raheet towards the North and Talio on the South. With both fighters in place, the announcer would finally officialize the fight. "ALL RIGHT FOLKS! One way or the other this is looking to be a quick fight! Are you ready? FIGHT!" The bell is rung with full fervor, prompting both fights to slowly walk towards one another. The merchant fastened one of the earlier iterations of his gas mask and prepared for what was to come.


Unsheathing his blade, Raheet chanted a few words of power, engulfing his blade with a powerful aura of wind while also increasing his overall potential agility. The elf bolted forward, quickly stopping right in front of Talio, with a sword above his head, he appeared to deliver an overheard strike only to pull back at the last second, carefully watching Talio's reaction. As expected, he saw him towards his own sheathed blade with a "strong" arm. From this action, as well as his observations of him during his earlier matches, Raheet could easily see that Talio was very much just a novice swordsman at best.

Seeing no reason to hold back, the elf used his superior speed to outmaneuver the merchant with another false charge and a simple side step, narrowly avoiding Talio's signature upwards strike. The only damage inflicted on Raheet was a few strands of hair. With a flick of the sword, the elf, slashes a massive gash onto the exterior shell of Talio's prosthetic arm, forcing him to take a few steps back. "Still using the same old trick?" Raheet flourishes his sword while giving Talio a small smile before taunting him further. "Go on then. What other tricks do you have?" And thus begun Raheet's relentless onslaught, attacking Talio from multiple angles forcing him not only to be on the defensive but also to take a few hits to his body.

While the cuts were deep, little to no blood seemed to flow from the merchant's wounds. While he was mostly on the defensive, every so often, he would counterattack with his strong arm, only to have it easily dodged by the more experienced swordsman. Eventually, the damage sustained by the strong arm causes it to become jittery and unstable. Feeling that this fight had overstayed its welcome, Raheet spoke again, hoping to appeal to the man's self-preservation. "This is your last chance merchant. You're not gonna beat me, so just walk away while you can." The crowd themselves were beginning to worry about Talio, it really was a one-sided match. So much so that, people were beginning to tell me to outright just give up.

All this only prompted a muffled chuckle from the masked merchant. "Walk away now? While I am just about to win? I think not." Talio laugh a bit with batted breath, steeling himself for what is likely the final few seconds. Having no longer any reason to spare this foolish merchant's life, Raheet, began striking him with much greater force, tearing through the surface of the outfit, revealing that he had been wearing weaved armor under his clothing this entire time. As if things weren't bad enough, one of the elf's strikes managed to forcefully disarm his opponent, causing his sword to fly a good distance behind him. Taking a quick step backward, Raheet thrust his sword forward with great speed and force aiming to end this fight once and for all.

Clenching the prosthetic's fist, Talio would also surge forward to match his opponent's strike. While the punch did not connect, this final attempt at a strike would violently overload the outdated arm. At first, the "hand" of the arm would explode, a cloud of black smoke. While the wind aura around his blade would disperse most of its effects, a small part of the black smoke would be inhaled by Raheet, prompting him to cough, momentarily stunning him. Shortly after the rest of the arm would explode, sending them both flying backward, showering them both with shrapnel.

Thankfully, most of the shrapnel was blocked out by his body armor. However the same could not be said about Raheet. His right arm, took the brunt of the force, with being mangled by the sharp metal and explosive force. Despite numerous puncture wounds throughout his body, the bounty hunter stood back up, eager to claim his victory over the merchant. On Talio's side, the forearm of his prosthetic was practically non-existent leaving only a long rod that's used as a skeletal base in its place. And finally, now was the time the young man went on the offensive, throwing another choke grenade toward Raheet, prompting him to step back as it exploded, once again saturating the area in front of him with thick black smoke.

Not wanting to repeat his mistake from before, the elf muttered a few words to quickly wind spell to blow away the harmful gas while he swapped the sword grip to his only good arm. However, what he found lying in wait for him within the abyss was truly unexpected. It was Talio, wielding the disconnected prosthetic as a club. The merchant would wildly swing the severed arm at the injured and tired elf. While the bounty hunter had been throwing out multiple attacks throughout the length of the fight, Talio had been saving up his stamina for an exact moment like this. And so, he swung and he swung until eventually, he too would land a clean hit onto the elf's good arm, breaking a few fingers before forcing him to release his own sword. While the elf screamed at first in pain, his screech would forcefully be silenced by an immediate hit to the face from an arm "club". The elf took one step backward trying to stabilize himself from the blow onto struck in the face again one final time, prompting him to fall to the ground, heavily injured and exhausted, but still very much breathing. His eyes wandered to Talio, and although he could not speak, the eyes of the elf alone conveyed the disbelief he was in. He was beaten...by a crippled merchant.

"Business?" Talio finally broke the silence, speaking with a calm tone, as he watched the once proud bounty hunter reduce to nothing but a defenseless body. "What would a bandit like you know of business?" Talio spoke, with a strong sense of discussion in his voice. He seemed almost insulted that the elf would even dare imply that he had "business" or the right to get in his way. Seeing no reason to hold onto the antique arm, Talio would toss his broken and mangled prototype of an arm, a piece of himself that he once cherished, towards the defeated "bandit", a sign of his finally being able to move on from his past defeat. "For your sake, I hope we never cross paths again. Farewell, Bandit."

"And the winner is....TALIO FERROMANUS!" the announcer spoke, sounding almost confused at first, as like many other members of the crowd, they were not expecting the merchant to win without the use of his trump card. The crowd had a variety of responses, while some cheered, others couldn't help but sympathize with the poor bounty hunter as he was just beaten by a crippled merchant.

 

[Thalia_Neko]

​

location: Four Families Colosseum
characters: Alina, Vequanial, Poronia
interacting: Silver Wolf TreasureSniper
---------------------------------------------------------

"So, are you ready for the tournament?" Alina asked Sophia, walking beside her towards the arena. She was the same age as her half-sister Pronoia, and 2 years older than Vequanial. She had a bit of a complex about losing out to her younger brother -and even some of her other siblings. But instead of letting it keep her down, she decided if she couldn't succeed her father, then she would succeed her uncle, and eventually lead the Firebrand Order of knights.

Since this was Robicc territory, they were giving this the proper respect it deserved. Even if it was just a preliminary tournament they were fighting within the Four Families Colosseum! Which was an honor Alina couldn't help but be proudful for. She was practically beaming. All other tournaments or fights were suspended for the duration of the preliminaries. That's just how big of a deal this was to the Robicc family. Due to that fact, Alina had decided to enter the tournament, despite not really believing she could win it. She knew just how much of a monster her younger brother was. He was a prodigy of prodigies. Actually, she had heard a rumor that all four families of the Tetrarchy had a prodigy in the same age range in this era... But she wasn't aware of who they were. She wondered if they were all entering the tournament. Even if they were slated to become their family's heads, they'd still receive great honor for winning this tournament, and earning the Grand Ten sobriquet.

"Let's see how our training fares us," she said as they walked through an archway; she had spent the week training with Sophia in preparation. A week wasn't long, but every little bit helped! Her eyes glittered with awe. Participants were walking around every which way, going to their fight, heading to watch another. Even if it was just the preliminaries the stands were FILLED with onlookers. People cheering and shouting and screaming for their favorite fighters. The Four Families Colosseum was world-renowned, with people came from all over to watch the fights within, but this was an even bigger deal! Frankly, Alina was getting super excited, and it showed in her voice.

Many fights were already underway. There were hundreds of contestants! It would take a long time to get through all these fights. Especially in the Robicc territory, which boasted a swathe of well-trained fighters seeking to prove their glory. So many fights were being hosted at once in their own smaller arenas. The grass in the center of the Colosseum was plenty big enough to host 10 fights at once, in 2 rows.

Oh! It was Vequanial! He already had a fight! "Hey look," she said to Sophia. By now Sophia knew who that young man was, since Alina had already explained who he was over the week. "Oh, it's Pronoia," the redhead commented, noticing her sister's odd chestnut-colored hair. She was standing outside of the fenced off area, watching Vequanial's fight too. Which they all seemed to get there just as it was beginning.

"Remember, have an honorable duel," the ref said. Once both men gave their confirmation, the ref crossed his hands. "Fight!"

It was over in an instant. Vequanial's opponent took one strike from a sheathed sword, and fell over, smashing through his bulky armor. The ref was stunned briefly, unable to truly discern what happened. Vequanial's opponent wasn't a Robicc knight, but he was still pretty famous around here. He was a mercenary with a good reputation: leader of the Noble Bears mercenary corps. He had done his due diligence in having his mercenary group fulfill requests with honor and valor, bringing up his corps' respect level. He was known to be a Martial Master.

"U~uhh.. W~winner! As expected of the prodigy of the Robiccs! Lord Vequanial Robicc!!" The ref shouted, holding his hand up towards the bright redhead. People cheered who were spectating that specific fight, equally confused by what happened, but that didn't matter, all that mattered was the outcome. Her brother had many fans already.

Pronoia's response was hard not to notice for the redheaded sister. The brunette stared with alarm, her face creased in a daunting shadow.

"Uhhh~.. W-well, that's my brother for ya'!" Alina tried to joke, making light of what they just saw. "See you later, Sophie. Sivier." With that the redhead walked away, preparing for her own fight. She was equally shaken. It wasn't often one saw a Martial Master lose so one-sidedly. That's when she noticed another fight nearby, who was getting quite the fanfare from the announcer. She decided she had some time before her own fight, so she called over to the other girl, waving to her to join her at the other fight. Which seemed to be between an elf and a merchant of all things! No wonder it was getting some attention. "Actually, Sophie, check this one out!"

----------------------------------------------------
location: Cauldron Spire
characters: Pimixya, Dewward, Peaceroot
interacting: Femboy
----------------------------------------------------

Spoiler

Pimixya

Maxwun Dewward

Beawenna Peaceroot

A green pixie was flying around the spire, buzzing her little head off, stressing out more than most -- and that was saying something! All the mages were running around like headless chickens.

The green bug flew into a room then dipped, then spun back around.

"Ah, there you are Miss Fini!!" Squeaked the pixie in a loud, exasperated voice, her voice still surprisingly loud enough to overpower the entire room. Dashing over through the air she continued in a squeaky and overbearing tone, "What are you doing? Haven't you heard the news?!" Her big eyes spied the notice discarded on the desk in front of her. So of course she had. Then..? Ah. Of course. She hadn't been told her duties yet!

"Vivi," spoke the elder Pixie, "since you are skilled at Size Change magic and Manipulation magic you're needed!! Come with me!" Pimixya grabbed Vivi's arm and pulled. Despite her size, her strength was impressive, yanking the bigger pixie, Vivi, out of her chair and towards the door. "You're going to be helping the Building Team. We need you to run point on compressing the mana stones together to form the base. You'll also be working with the enchanting team to enchant the Grand Stage with manipulation magic and floating magic."

She was telling Vivi all this while pulling her towards their destination, which was out on the spire's grounds beside the Cradle Cauldron. Once outside in the arid gray flats, there it was, a yawning circular opening that was the black-gray cup that was the giant magic cauldron. Magic radiated out of it like cooled rainbow steam. It was so big that it's rim nearly encompassed the entire horizon in front of the spire. It was awe-inspiring, but for the mages who had seen it everyday, it was just a common fixture. As common as the flowers grown on one's windowsill.

Beside it, there were a group of mages hard at work, with one mage in particular issuing orders. There were green, red, blue, and golden mana stones in various barrels. Most of which had been brought up from the spire's basement. The basement which served as the spire's treasury, locked and sealed with powerful magics to protect the fantastical treasures within. Some of the mana stones were in containers, delivered from the sultanate, and all the way from the Epica empire itself. They glittered like gemstones in the sunlight.

There was a mass of mana stones already melted together, and beginning to look like a singular shape. Well, it was just the beginning. It was quite obvious it was, since it looked like a mess. Most of the mages were using magic to manipulate the stones, some where using magic to weld them together, and other such things. The mages working hard wiped their brows; as usual, it was another hot day in Meqir.

"This is Dewward," Pimixya told Vivi, in case she didn't know, the man in question bowing in introduction. The spire was massive, with many mages, it was unlikely to know everyone. "He's the High Mage overseeing this group. You'll be working under him from now on. Okay, I got other things to do, he'll explain your duties in further details -- I'll see you later, sweety!" The Pixie Seat fluttered over and gave Vivi a cute little pixie kiss on the cheek, before zipping away back into the tower. Pimixya may look like that, but she was a couple hundred years old, so she acted like most pixies were children to her.

The man sighed. "I wish she wouldn't act like that.. Okay, let's redo the introductions. My name is Maxwun Dewward. You may know Myrdin Dewward, the Enchanting Seat in the tower, he's my uncle." Although not every mage knew each other, it was rare to find a mage who didn't know the Magic Seats in the tower. "We'll be using his Enchanting technique to graft the spells into these mana stones. Don't worry, I'll show you how. It's not a hard spell. It'll become second nature.. We've got a long way to go," he said, sighing, looking over the amassed mana stones.

"Ah, you know what.. Peaceroot!" Dewward called. A woman heard the call, turning her head. She immediately dashed over. Though, it looked more like she tiptoed gracefully over like a maiden frolicking in a field of flowers.

"Yes, Dewward?"

"This is Vivi Finii. She'll be your partner. Beawenna Peaceroot, Vivi Finii. Vivi Finii, Beawenna Peaceroot," the man got through introducing them to one another. "Show her the ropes, will ya' Peaceroot?"

"Um." The mage in a witch's hat looked over at the other mage in a witch's hat. "Okay! Sure thing, 'Ward!"

"I told you not to call me that!" He sighed again, and pinched his bridge nose. "Good. I gotta go discipline some other unruly mages.." He grumbled, side-eyeing some nearby mages who were shirking their duties, using magic to throw the mana stones around. "Gosh, what are they, children?" With that, he stormed over, grumbling angrily.

"Come this way, hunny," Peaceroot said in a lovely, airy tone, taking Vivi's hand and leading her to their own work station, surrounded by glittering, jewel-like mana stones. The mana-rich air around the stones felt like a dream to mages. She would teach Vivi the enchanting method in due time.

Though, Vivi was needed for her own expertise, so they would use some of her own manipulation magic to great effect to build the Grand Stage. It was a grand project that would take a long time, so practically the entirety of the tower was involved in its construction, including knights, soldiers, adventurers, and mercenaries commissioned for the job. All coming together to pitch in in its construction. A lot of coin was moving to make this happen, and the sultanate, and the Spire were all too happy to oblige for the chance to make untold bank over this project.

-----------------------------------------------------
location: Holy City of Emersity Theota
characters: Assa, Jewena
interacting: Maverick Six

Spoiler

Assa

Jewena

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

"Uhh.. You there! C-creature! Halt!"

"I -I said, halt!"

Came the voice belonging to a dark-haired woman in a hood. Her complexion was fair, unlike the other common Theottians walking the streets around them. Many in the Holy City's ranks had learned to alter their appearance. It was easier dealing with the outside world, adventurers, tourists, and other guests if one resembled them. That was something the higher ups in the Holy City had learned a long time ago. Underneath the glamor, they were Theottians, undoubtedly.

This woman planted herself firmly in front of the monster, staring at him -er- it with a sharp look.

"I have a few questions for you." She was well aware of this thing's reputation, but this was the first time she had seen it herself. The adventurers spoke well of it, but they were technically outsiders themselves. The Holy City was open to all; it was Emersity Theota's decree to not discriminate based on race, sex, preferences, or other immutable characteristics. And they tried to uphold that as best as possible. Still, Emersity Theota was notoriously at opposition with monsters. After all, a place called 'Holy' couldn't associate with those things so close to the 'unholy' very well, now could it? So it was obvious why this situation required delicacy.

"I said I have some questions for you." She went on. It didn't seem like the beast would speak, so she continued. "Very well. How did you get in the city?" It likely didn't know Theottin. The woman had the wherewithal to consider that from the beginning, she had been speaking in Aezurnan from the beginning. The language of the greater Aezunura Sultanate.

She narrowed her eyes coldly. "Look, this is for your own good and safety. While we are a hospitable people, even in the Holy City, it is unclear what could happen. There are those that do not like walking alongside or seeing a monster within our Holy City. Now that you understand, could you answer my questions? Why are you here? What is your objective? If you could accomplish it quickly and depart, that would be preferable. I won't repeat myself... What are -"

A dainty, gentle hand fell upon the woman's shoulders. She turned to look at the one who interrupted her with a sharp edge of anger in her eyes. Then when she saw who it was, immediately turned to face the other woman, and dropped to a knee.

Reverently she quickly spat out, "Holy Sovereign!" Jewena! The Authority of Divine! What was she doing here? "Your disciple is ready to serve!"

"Hm. Yes. Raise your head, High Inquisitor Assa." The new woman, who was at least 6'5'' said in a very light voice. Almost so light, that her voice would be carried away on the wind. Her visage was lanky and slender, nothing out of place. Like a well-crafted statue that glided across the ground. Two knights accompanied her, both of equal height, hoods covering their faces, large heavy, scary polearms in their hands. Even under the covering, their heads were bent, and they said nothing.

"Yes! Thank you, Your Holiness." Her curiosity was burning up, she couldn't help but ask, despite it being incredibly disrespectful! "B-but what is the leader of the Holy Clerics, and the Authority of Divine doing here?" she asked. Her heart stopped. Oh, no, she shouldn'tve asked that! Would she be killed?!

Assa readily accepted whatever punishment she would receive.

"Ahp.."

But all that came was a slight chuckle. It was a lovely thing. Melodious. Like candy to the ears. Assa froze, blinked, and smiled. She couldn't help but relax a bit hearing that.

"Do not fret, my dear. It does not concern you." With eyes still closed, Jewena turned towards the monster. "So, youre that 'being' everyone's been talking about? The adventurers seem particularly familiar with you." She turned slightly to Assa, and waved her hand. "You may go High Inquisitor of the Mage corps. Thank you for performing your duty here. However, I think you have other duties, hm? Shouldn't be late."

"Wha..? Oh.. Yes! Of course, Your Holiness!" Assa once more bowed to the tall, enchanting woman. Then turned and quickly left. While she was curious, she was dismissed. If Jewena told you to go, then you left, no questions asked. She was lucky enough to have gotten off that easily.

Jewena turned once more to Simurgh. "To reiterate, not everyone is thrilled that there is a monster roaming our beloved Holy City. However, we make tolerance one of our virtues. Will you join me at a place more suited to talk? The middle of the street.." she made a show of 'looking around'. Many people had stopped and stared before moving on. All of them muttering. While it wasn't unusual to see things like this in the Holy City -they happened all the time, it was unusual to see a monster roaming about. And even more so to see extremely important figures like the Authority of Divine down here on the streets talking to them. "Isn't an appropriate place for our talk, now is it?"

Truthfully, she did not want to make any more of a scene. Not to mention, this was a private matter. Involving the citizens was out of the question.

The woman led the monster pulling his cart away. She moved like she glided over the cobblestones rather than walked. Not a motion out of place. The knights on each side of her moved exactly in an opposite way. They marched heavily, showing off power, daring anyone to mess with them.

They entered the Holy Knights barracks, which wasn't exactly Jewena's dominion, but it would work for now for an impromptu meeting with a monster of all things. A monster couldn't be brought into the Grand Holy Cathedral, after all, no matter how tolerant they were.

She led the monster through the tall gates of the Holy Knights order's small castle, passing under the tall archway. Within was an expansive place made of concrete. Knights were doing drills, or training around the grounds. Guards stood protecting every entrance. Gliding along, she led the monster to a wooden door. No one stopped Jewena to question her too long, her authority was just that absolute, even when it wasn't her dominion.

Eventually they entered the castle, walking atop red carpet, surrounded by beautiful candles, armored suits, tapestries depicting the nation's emblem and beautiful artworks, and other such arts like vases and sculptures. Walking down a hall with paintings depicting various Holy Knight captains, Jewena finally led him into a room. This room would suffice.

Once inside, she conjured a barrier that kept the sounds within from getting out, and stopped anyone from listening in. The barrier was so powerful, no one could break it, or thwart it. She was very satisfied with it.

Settling down on a plush couch with velvet upholstery, she took the tea offered to her by a maid. The maid had been made aware of her coming, and had already brewed a fresh cup of tea. Very prompt. Jewena took a sip of the still steaming tea and savored the taste, before gently setting the cup in its saucer upon the glass table between them.

"Please, sit," the woman said a melodious voice, gesturing with her hand to the couch across from her. "Now. I know why you're here. It appears your friend -hm- 'master' is ailed?" Jewena tilted her head. Then frowned. It was a slight frown. The slightest of frowns. As if her lips, pert nose, and thin eyebrows couldn't even crease in such an unfavorable way. "Yes, I'd say so. That's what appears to be wrong. Hm, tch, a terrible ailment, that. I can sense it. Very nasty. It pollutes our very city just being in here -Ah! Do not misunderstand me, I do not mean that in a disrespectful way. Oh, no, not that. Simply. It is very regretful such a thing has befallen your master."

She held up her hand, pointing one finger to be exact. "But, there is good news. You came here to heal her, yes? Well, you will find many talented healers in our Holy City, no doubt about that." It was practically humorous. Emersity Theota's blessing granted her race a proclivity towards healing in particular.

"However, this particular malady may prove too much even for our healers, I suspect. You may not get what you desire. Or worse, this particular ailment may spread. Curses of this nature are known to rebound. Attacking any healer not capable of healing them. Should that happen.. Then it very well could spread here, and infect our very Holy City. At that point, it would become a bigger issue. Forgive me," Ha, it was a joke of the Authority of Divine asking a monster for forgiveness, "but I cannot allow that. Here's what I can allow, though. You see, I am capable of healing your master. Or rather, I would be, and I will. But only if you do 2 things for me."

She leaned forward, and this time, her eyebrows creased much more aggressively. "Two conditions, that is what you must fulfill for me to heal your master. One. This one's simple. In the middle of the Aezunura desert, there lies a temple. A Dungeon, to be exact. Yes. One that still exists. It is beneath the sands. Within its deepest depths, there is a tablet. This tablet was left by Emersity Theota and her companions. I need this tablet. On it, will be the spell to cure your master. See? Simple."

She raised a second finger. "Two. You must prove yourself to me, and to our Holy City. As it's been said. You are a monster. Monsters are notoriously the enemy of Emersity Theota and her subjects. Even I helping you -a monster- will cause others to look on disapprovingly. They'll question even me. So, you must prove yourself. There is one -just one- way you can do this." Jewena leaned back, this time with a quaint little smile on her face. "You must win the Grand Tournament. And do it without killing a single opponent. If you do that. Then no one in the Holy City will question you again, mister monster."

Before they were through, she thought of one last thing. "Oh, and one more thing... Would you like my blessing?" she asked with a sickeningly sweet smile.

After everything was said and done, Jewena had a contented look upon her face, sitting there with her hands upon her lap. The conditions were set. Now it was up to the monster. She lifted the barrier, allowing it to go free.

------------------------------------------------------
location: ???
characters: Mijorine, ???
-----------------------------------------------------

A girl woke up and looked around. The ground beneath her feet was gray, chalky dust. Around her, she was surrounded by darkness. Or rather, she could see immediately around her, as if she had a spotlight upon her. The girl was naked, not a thing with her, other than just a sole, simple blanket. She pulled it around her as she stood up, to protect her nakedness. Or perhaps, just to 'protect' her, in that cold world. Holding it tight about her, she began walking forward. Where was she? Who was she?

Mijorine. Where are you?
Are you there, Mijorine? Miss, are you there?
Where are you? Where could she be?
Ah! There she is! Oh yes, there she is!
Oh, of course, you're right, there she is!
Of course she's there. Where else would she be?

The sudden voices forced her to halt, turning her head about, looking around. She didn't know who those voices were, but the way they spoke, they made her skin crawl. By their tone, she felt as if they were not on friendly terms. Oh no, they way they spoke.. it was like someone toying with its prey.

It was unpleasant.

Mijorine, as she seemed to be called, didn't like it one bit. She hugged the blanket closer, then began walking again, her pale feet stirring up the chalky dust as she increased her speed.

Where'd you go?? Mijorine!
Where are you?! Where'd you go??
Oh, there you are! There she is!
Oh, yes, there she is! Mijorine, there you are!
Why'd you go off like that? Where were you going?

As the voices continued to speak to her, in that condescending tone, she felt her anger bubbling. Suddenly, in her hand a sword made of raw Qi took shape in one smooth fashion. It was like a bolt of silver in that bleak world. Glowing and radiating warmth.

She stared down at it. She couldn't fathom what this was. Why was it her first reaction to their voices to bring this out?

Whoa, would you look at that! A sword made out of pure Qi. Impressive as ever, Mijorine.
Oh, yeah! Wow! You're right! Holy cow! Look at that! Incredible. I'm scared of it, aren't you?
Oh yes. Truly remarkable power. Who wouldn't be? Wow. I'm in awe.
Same.

"..." Mijorine gripped the Qi sword, looking around again for the sources of the voices.

Still, that won't help you here.

Mijorine froze. She felt something sink inside of her. Then something began to well up within her, gripping her tight.

Think she'll ever make it out?
Hm? Oh no. No way. Even for Mijorine, that's impossible.
Heh. Yeah, you're right. No way. Sorry, Mijorine.
Mheh mheh heh heh... Escape..
Ghek ghek ghek. Yeah, what a foolish notion...
Mhehh mhhe mheh heh heheh heh!
Ghekk ghekk ghek ghek gheh ghehee!

Their laughs echoed around that gloomy place, growing dimmer and diminishing, but ever persisting. The echo bounced around, never leaving her alone, unceasing.

Mijorine slid down to rest on her knees. One hand still clutched her Qi sword as she sobbed.

 

[Thalia_Neko]

Sirindra Halileil

---------------------------------------------------
location: Juya
characters: Sirindra
---------------------------------------------------
Sirindra was making the rounds at the prelims, checking out the competition. Out here in Juya, the set up wasn't nearly as nice as it was in the Robicc's territory. Juya was some backwater village, so the arenas matched that. They were spread out haphazardly, and all the arenas were just dirt surrounded by makeshift fences. None of them had barriers. So the prelims could get messy and dangerous. There was a warning against spectating the fights. It was a risk the watchers would take to get their fix.

There were a lot of healers nearby. Mostly mages. Though, some Astral agents were in the mix to heal certain spiritual wounds. Although, in a town like this, those were quite rare. But physical wounds were not. It seemed like a lot of people out here fought like this place looked. Fighters left the arena on stretchers, with grievous injuries. Sirindra passed by groaning contestants that were nursing savage wounds. She scoffed, glancing beside her as some poor sod wailed in agony, bleeding from a particularly nasty wound -he had a hole in his abdomen that looked like a beast bit him clean through. On her other side, was another, writhing in pain, a majority of his body burned by some magic spell. The healers were stressed. They were low ring mages, with low tier heal spells; they weren't qualified for this. But, such was the way of the tournament. You got what you paid for, and Juya wasn't rich enough to afford higher quality healers.

Speaking of fighters who matched the scummy little town. A particularly repulsive man was squaring off against a rugged, battle-worn knight. Sirindra stopped to watch.

It was Aruf Boldwin, a knight with a bit of renown around these parts. His opponent was Jirvr, the 100 man slaughterer. A terrible criminal who had murdered everyone in a small village. Which is where he got his name from.

"You arrested my partner! He was executed!" The crazed Jirvr shouted angrily. "Isn't this great?! Thanks to that Empress, I can walk around freely! I can even kill without retribution!! Today, I'll avenge my partner!"

"You two are like peas in a pod. I arrested that fool, and I'll put you down, too," Aruf grunted, lifting his big axe. Those around cheered for the big man, utterly despising the detestable Jirvr.

"Oh shut it, you societal leeches!" He spat at the onlookers. "I'll kill you!"

"You won't get the chance, little man. You're right, thank you Empress. I don't have to wait for the slow justice system. I can put this worm down here and now!" Aruf boasted, with a hearty chuckle.

"Grrharharrrrr!!" Jirvr hissed, launching forward, two serrated swords in his hands.

They clashed, but it wasn't impressive. More like two untrained cats, clawing and ripping at one another. Nothing classy about it. And it was over after just 30 seconds. Aruf's head rolled, and his body and his axe hit the ground with hefty thuds. Jirvr laughed maniacally up to the sky, licking the blood off of his swords, savoring the taste and satisfaction. He cackled. "See!? Told you, I'd kill you! Knight bastard! Aiehehyalhalahalhalaha!!"

Many around were astounded, looking on in disgust and shock. That mountain of a man lost to this scrawny bastard? Many of the people fled, remembering how Jirvr promised to kill them. They didn't want to stick around to give him that chance. Aruf's knight friends stuck around, fuming at the scene, gripping the wooden fence, or their weapons. They looked ready to run into the ring and avenge their fallen knight.

"Hey!!" One of Aruf's friends, a redheaded man who looked up to Boldwin, shouted to some armored security standing nearby. "He just murdered our friend!! Arrest him!"

The security guard glanced over at the redhead, then back at the arena, watching as Jirvr showboated and relished in his kill. The security man turned back to the frothing knights. "He hasn't done anything wrong. There's nothing to be done."

"WHA~T?!" The redhead gasped.

"If Aruf didn't want to die, he should've just won."

"Are you saying this is his fault?!?!" The redhead shouted, clearly growing angrier at blasphemy considering his friend. The knights around couldn't believe their ears.

The security guard nodded. "Killing your opponent isn't against the rules. The only answer is for that man to be defeated. Then he will answer for his crimes."

The redhead's face was as red as his hair. With a vein bulging on his face he roared, "That's UTTER BULLSHIT! Screw you! You're an asshole! Inhuman! Screw you and that murderer, AND this tournament! SCREW OFF!" The redhead raged, turning around and storming off. Many others murmured in agreement, and joined him, walking away. The security guard closed his eyes and turned his head down.

Sirindra watched the interaction, then scoffed. Fools. The security guard was right. As was this tournament. Power was what held meaning. If you didn't have power, then that was no one's fault but yours.

"Ah, I suppose it's about time," she murmured to herself. Ajuu appeared out of nowhere, tittering in agreement, nuzzling under her chin. With that, she walked towards her Block for her designated fight.

~~

It was Block A. The maroon-haired woman stood apart from her opponent. The ref was stating the usual things, including her opponent's name. A mage named Kikja. A half-elf. Strong mana, deep mana pool, but otherwise, nothing remarkable. Sirindra's eyes gleamed their pinkred.

"Fighters, are you ready?" the ref asked.

With a hand firmly placed on her hip, Sirindra displayed a bit more than confidence. "Absolutely. Won't even take me 5 seconds."

The half-elf clearly took that to heart, face scrunching up with anger. "Oh yea?! Hell ya, I'm ready, ref! Let me at her! Wipe that smug grin off her face!" He held up his hands, mana swirling around them.

"Uh.. ri-right..! Fight!"

"So the Earth - Huh?!"

Sirindra was already in his face, swinging her sword.

"Bha-baarrier!" he called, holding up his hands.

Her blade cut straight through his haphazardly-thrown-up barrier. Her blade struck across his chest, knocking him over and knocking the wind from him. He had another self-barrier molded to his body, so she didn't cut him, but it was enough. He was down for the count.

"Winner!"

"Hmp." She sheathed her sword at her waist, staring down at the defeated mage. "That incantation is too long. Did you really expect to win this tournament with those skills?" The mage who had been looking at her, frowned, then passed out.

She turned, grinning towards the astounded crowd.

~~

"You defeated my brother, Kikja!" shouted the half-elf female. "I'll avenge him in this fight!"

Sirindra stood on one side of the dusty ring, and on the other end, Kikku, Kikja's younger sister.

Wow, brother and sister were in the same Block? Heh, that was some bad luck for them, wasn't it? She had to at least have a bit more skill, to make it this far, right? She won a couple fights at least.

"Fight!" the ref called.

"I know that incantation is too long -so how bout this!!" She held up her hands, and vines erupted out of the ground.

It was plant element magic. That wasn't too common. Though elves tended to be better at it, hence her no-incant spell. That was probably why she used it, in fact.

Sirindra cut straight through the vines.

"Huh?!" Kikku gasped in shock. Her vines were tough enough to restrain grown men! No one had managed to cut them up to this point.

"Incantation or not, you're no match for me." Sirindra said, dashing forward, cutting through the vines in the way, and bringing up her blade at the half-elf mage.

Kikku screamed, holding up her hands. A barrier quickly formed as she winced, closing her eyes and pulling back.

Sirindra's blade came down, cleaving that barrier away, and striking Kikku, knocking her down just like her brother. "Relying on spells that are easy for you to use doesn't make you a better combatant, it just reveals you're not dedicated enough to overcoming your limits."

"Winner!"

~~

Sirindra knocked down another opponent. A knight. He and his armor crashed to the dust. Shattering into pieces.

"Winner!"

Sirindra double-slashed a serial murderer with a large bounty on his head who had made it this far. The onlookers were quivering, consumed by fear. Witnessing a murderer like this proceeding through the tournament was horrifying. Her cuts were deep enough to splash blood everywhere. He hit the dirt on his back. And the onlookers cheered.

"Winner!"

Impressive spells shook the smallish arena. Explosions, thrown rocks, buffeting winds. The maroon-haired woman burst through it all, knocking down the mage, straight through his meager barrier. Louder cheers erupted, impressed by that showing.

"W-Winner!" the female ref shouted, a bit taken aback. Her face beginning to smile, looking over at Sirindra.

A Wildman down from the north. She was so large, she was over 7 feet. Rippling muscle. Dark-skinned. Brown hair in several long braids down her back. Fuzzy-spiked ears. Tatted to hell. Piercings all over. Intricate facial markings that looked like a beast's claws had worked over her face. With a fierce look in her bloodshot eyes, glaring down her opponent. If looks could kill... Sirindra thought with her usual, casual smirk displayed on her face.

Bij'jhkirunn cracked her trunk-sized neck, and cracked her fingers together, holding up her hands.

"I like to break my opponents with my bare hands. I'll snap your body like a twig, girly."

"Oh, yeah? I'll win without touching you at all."

"Huh? HA! PFHHUAHAHAHAHA! WHAT A FOOLISH GIRL!! HOW STUPID! HOW COULD YOU WIN WITHOUT TOUCHING ME?! SHE'S LOST HER MIND AT THE SIGHT OF ME! DON'T WORRY GIRL, YOU WON'T BE SCARED FOR LONG, IT'LL BE OVER IN AN INSTANT!"

The onlookers all winced at the power of that loud voice. Even the ref seemed bothered. Sirindra frowned, one eye closing. She rubbed out her ear. "Damn, your loud. But there's one thing you're right about.."

"FIGHT!"

"RAAAHHHAAAAAAA!!!" Bij'jhkirunn roared, storming forward.

Sirindra didn't move from her spot. She held up her hand, then waved it.

"It will be over in an instant."

Well, the large woman only took a step. She paused for a moment, eyes wide. A moment later she collapsed backward. Many knives sticking out of her body all over, like a pincushion.

Sirindra turned and posed, smirking.

"YAHHHHHHH!!" The crowd cheered. Their loudest cheers in the prelims.

"WINNER!!!" The girl ref shouted, overenthusiastic about it.

An Astral agent. He focused, and Sirindra saw a world forming around her. She then looked forward eyes gleaming, and something pulsed out from her. The world suddenly dissipating.

"What?!" the agent gasped.

Sirindra waved her hand and a single sword brought the agent down.

More cheers erupted. Block A was beginning to get extremely noisy. Many people had gravitated to it to watch the "supernova" that had arisen in the block.

"WINNER!!" The girl ref was now apart of this legacy. She was enjoying it immensely. Enjoying watching the rise of this supernova up close! Being her ref was like a dream come true!

A martial woman's sword snapped and she collapsed.

"WINNER!!"

Cheers erupted.

A mage collapsed, dropping his A-rank staff bought with his life's savings from the Marketplace, shattering the mystic orb at it's top.

"WINNER!"

"YYRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

A "spellblade" was taken away on a stretcher. Beaten bloody, squarely defeated in both martial arts and magic.

"WINNER!!!"

"YYRRAAAAAAAYYYYYY!! SI-RIN-DRA! SI-RIN-DRA! SI-RIN-DRA!" Their chants were like a song.

"WINNER!"
"WINNERR!"
"WINNERRR!"
"WINNNNNNNERRRRRRRRR!!!!"

"SI-RIN-DRA! SI-RIN-DRA!!! SI-RIN-DRA!!!! SI-RIN-DRA!!!!!"

Popularity was through the roof. Heh. Was that it? Did this tournament boast no worthwhile fighters? Really? Seriously? No one?
Over the past couple weeks Sirindra had demolished every contestant that had stepped up in front of her. Not a single one had posed any threat.

Actually, thinking on it, had she beaten every opponent in one hit? "Hmm..." She thought hard about it, tapping her lip. Well, some took multiple hits from her.. but they took those hits at the same time... so did that count as 'one hit'? Hm...

Well, anyway!

Sirindra just discarded that thought. She had just won her latest fight. Looking down at the beaten noble. He had an impressively deep amount of mana. Monstrously so. He had managed 3 rings, too. Thus, he had been allowed into the Inolore Institute. There he learned a particular spell that was decently powerful for 3 rings. Using Empowerment and Double-cast spells, he had managed to easily overpower his opponents thus far. Like basically a cheat to win his fights. Not bad. And it could've given even Sirindra a bit of trouble.. if his defenses weren't paper thin. Again, overfocusing on one single thing was never good, and wouldn't get you far. He had gone down before he had even gotten to "cheat".

"There oughta be at least one -ONE worthwhile fighter around here, right? Right?" Sirindra murmured aloud to herself, as the onlookers cheered and her win was called.

Sirindra walked out of the ring, heading to the other fights. The prelims here in Juya were almost over after a couple of weeks. Surely those that had made it this far were decent, right?

Once again, she was making the rounds. Then she paused, something touching her senses. Something captivating her. She turned, narrowing in on what she was sensing. Walking up to the fight, she watched, pinkred eyes glittering.

Her lips curled into a smile. "I knew there had to be one!"

The male had poise and presence of mind on the battlefield. Plus she could feel his Qi. It was buttery smooth, and felt like she was standing in a gentle breeze.

His opponent was nothing. Someone who had made it this far mostly due to lucking out on having even weaker opponents than himself.

"Fight!" The ref called, lowering his hand.

"I'll get you, pretty boy!" The other man grunted, running forward, raising up his club, which had been used to bludgeon many of his foes so far. It was honestly nothing to write home about. Her eyes glanced over at the long haired male.

He turned gently, placing his hand upon his sword. There was nothing but a bored look on his face.

"I'll kill you!!!!" the man screamed as he ran forward. His club raised, he dropped it on his opponent as he neared him.

Her eyes saw it. That clean swing.

The long-haired male's form was near perfect, showing off just how skilled he was. Then that Qi. It engulfed his entire body in an instant. But what was noteworthy, was the Qi on his sword. Clear and refined. It laid atop his sword like a thin outer covering. If it was anyone around here other than her they never would've even seen his Qi. What strange clear Qi.

He stepped and slashed all in one motion. A powerful wind cut through the air. Then the man jerked back, as if he was struck by a boulder in his chest. The man twitched. His arms shaking. The club dropped from his grip, and he fell backwards with enough force to cause a loud boom, stirring up the dust. None of which got upon the long-haired male.

"WINNER!!" The ref called, raising his hand and pointing towards the man.

"Congratulations Moonhu! Another clean win!"

"Thank you," Moonhu stated flatly, not a chance in his disposition or face.

"Geh.. Damn. He's boring," Sirindra grumbled, frowning. She rubbed her chin. "Hm... Moonhu..." The smile returned. "Hey, Moonhu!!" She called as he was walking away. He turned to look. "You're next. We fight next! And I'll defeat you!"

Moonhu stood there, staring at her. "You can try." He stated simply, in the same monotone. Then he turned and walked away, beautiful long hair swaying on the light breeze.

Sirindra stood there watching. "Geh, really?" Was her provocation successful?

Their fight was scheduled in two days time. Sirindra could hardly wait.

~~

So many were gathered around for the Block A semifinals. This fight in particular they felt was the penultimate fight! Block A had been the most exciting block in Juya, no question! Practically everyone involved or interested was here for this fight! The other Blocks were having their semifinals, too, but they didn't garner nearly as much attention. Some of those fighters were actually feeling a bit left out..

Anyway, back to the fight at hand. The penultimate fight in Block A.

Supernova vs. Super-rookie
Wild card vs. Stoic sword

Sirindra, the devil woman vs. Moonhu, the smooth swordsman...

 

[Silver Wolf]

Sophia Yurel

Spoiler: Appearance

Location: Sordrinn (Robicc Family City), Four Family's Colosseum
Interactions: Thalia_Neko (NPCs) TreasureSniper (Talio)


​

The last week had been rather interesting by Sophia's standards. She had more or less expected to fall off of Alina's radar, as was usually the case with her noble peers, but was surprised when every time she made her way to the Colosseum's training grounds, she seemed to have noticed Sophia and made an effort to greet her. While Sophia usually gave a nod or a passive greeting, this didn't seem to deter the young Robicc in any way, which was rather new for the young Yurel. Back in Reysha she had developed, a reputation, to say the least. It wasn't that she was hated, just misunderstood. Most nobles put too much headspace into etiquette, and she has had a number of people distance themselves when she broke that expectation of etiquette. It wasn't that she disliked Alina, but she was confused and just a tad unnerved that someone with rank wanted to spend time around her, well at least one that wasn't family.

She did have a feeling this would come back to bite her in the ankle though as she was more or less dragged into signing up at Alina's behest, but she didn't really see the harm in it. It wasn't like she would be aiming to win in her heart of hearts. No, she knew the actually likelihood she would actually have so much as seeing victory in the tournament, especially later on, was effectively null. That didn't mean she wasn't going to try or that it wasn't worth it, she just didn't see any reason to put actual emotional stock in it, so when Alina came asking about her training she responded with, "Fine. Low ranking monsters make for great practice sometimes, especially for testing stuff out. Plus I get coin out of it."

As they continued walking, Sophia made use of the time to continue munching on a doughnut she bought on her way. As they entered the Colosseum proper. Due to the fact she was chewing, she didn't bother to answer the comment about their training bearing fruit. After they walked through a bit, she noticed attention being brought to Vequanial, and then to Pronoia, who she hadn't seen before. It didn't take long for Sophia to deduce that the girl likely came from the other wife, considering the lack of shared features and flaming red hair. At the very least she got to see Vequanial's fight and gauge whether or not she should even bother with him-

"And it's over..." Sophia said after the first strike landed. Her words carried a little bit of gloom and disappointment. After all, one couldn't really gauge how to fight or counter an opponent from one blow. Her gaze briefly wandered to the brunette sister, making note of her expression and departure. Before she could comment on it though, Alina spoke and tried to laugh off the incredibly lame 'duel' that had taken place before them. After that she said goodbye and for a moment the aloof teenager thought about how she would finally be able to eat her doughnut in peace, well, at least until she was called over. Not really with a reason to turn it down, Sophia obeyed the call. She took another bite and started chewing as she took in what she was seeing: An elf and a dude with a mechanical arm trash talking each other on a pause in their fight. The only thing of curiosity she had for the fight was, what was the plan of the cripple? She watched as manaweave armor was shown and the elf disarmed their opponent, yet said opponent didn't seem shocked at all. She moved to take another bite, only for her to stop halfway as the hand literally exploded into a smokescreen. A second explosion went off and shrapnel went flying, she had forgotten about the treat entirely and just watched as the elf was forced back by a smoke bomb, beaten with the remains of a prosthetic, and then finally forced to admit defeat on account that they could no longer wield their weapon.

"The banter here is so fucking cheesy I might puke...not a half bad fight to watch though," she said before continuing with her doughnut. After she swallowed she spoke again. "Father always did say creativity and commitment are core to any fight. Guess that's what we saw here, given how sloppy Talio's swordsmanship was compared to his opponent's."

Without saying much more she put the final piece of her pastry in her mouth and began walking away so she could go check when her match was. After all, she should at least know who her opponent is before fighting.

 

[Maverick Six]

Interaction: Thalia_Neko (High Inquisitor Assa) (Jewena)

Emersity Theota​

---

I am surrounded.

The city wall full of people. And they would cast their stares at the creature. This much was obvious. But what reason would a predator care for being surrounded by prey. And yet the creature could sense it. He was being watched by things which did not classify neatly as mere prey. Humans were complex. One moment you would be ripping one apart. Another moment and you would find a sword jutting out through your back. But this felt odd. As though he were being followed. Or surveyed. Some were closer than others. The creature's instincts in a way alerted to ambushes.

Some posit that the reason as to why mankind had two legs was to stand taller over most animals. And this allowed them to better survey the landscape on two legs. It made it easier to survey the landscape for sure. The creature would thus mimic man. And it would stand two legs.

Who approaches?

Simurgh stood up towering over most forms of man present. At eight feet tall -- he towered over the crowd. And it certainly made it easier to see. It's slender lanky arms, nearly touched the ground. It's snow white hair did the same. And it's faintly glowing eyes left trails as it looked about skeptically to take in it's environment. A crowded -- bustling city. A place ill suited to his kind it seemed. Not like the places out in the wild, with life spread out. Everything was all in one place. His mind moved rapidly, plucking out the details of anything suspicious. Many in the crowd feared him, their whispers filling up the creatures ears. But those were not the ones which the creature was concerned with. The ones to truly gather it's ire were those who approached.

"Hrrrrrrrrrgh....." A low growl began to well up from within the creature's abyssal throat. The reigns which it used to pull the cart containing precious cargo was dropped to the ground. The one who was nearest to him would block his path. And then she would reveal herself to be not a normal citizen, but a mage.

"Trickery!" It's growl grew, as it was told to halt. But it did not attack. At least not yet. It merely mirrored her aggression. Unaware of her intentions, the creature was prepared for the worst. To fight here would be a losing battle. And the creature knew this well. It held a fearsome reputation amongst the adventurers but it could not match the might of an entire city equaling out to an empire.

Yet still -- the creature would not go quietly. Nor would it fight idly. It would determined to be mobile in the case of such an event. They could overpower it to be certain. But how much havoc would it wreak before it was properly restrained. How many innocent people would die, before it was killed?

But this did not occur. While agitated, the woman had shown no sign of raising a hand towards it. So it would only keep that low tone growl. One that made the citizenry backup during the confrontation. The whispers turned to murmurs.

"It's a monster..."
"Here, why?"
"It's arms are so long."
"I can't see it's fangs."
"It looks angry."
"High Inquisitor Assa will handle this..."
"Maybe we should leave."


Questioned by the mage known as Assa, the creature spoke. It's voice drowning out the murmurs

<" Ask your questions. Speak plainly."> It said, speaking in the language of the Aezunura Sultanate. One could only wonder if it might know more languages. The creature apparently had enough interaction with the locals to know this language, among others. It's tone was unruly, agitated and disrespectful. It's volume was loud -- yet the mannerisms in achieving this were effortless. It was less like being yelled at more as though one were talking to a loudspeaker. It cut through the crowd's gossip like a knife through butter. And "Assa the Mage" would hear Simurgh quite easily.

The creature stared on with an air of expectation. As though the one trying to maintain order was the one who had to answer it's questions.

Boy, did the questions come.

"Look, this is for your own good and safety. While we are a hospitable people, even in the Holy City, it is unclear what could happen. There are those that do not like walking alongside or seeing a monster within our Holy City. Now that you understand, could you answer my questions? Why are you here? What is your objective? If you could accomplish it quickly and depart, that would be preferable. I won't repeat myself... What are -"

The creature took a deep breath, exhaling through it's nostrils like a bull. The act of it breathing in such a way...potentially blowing the prattling mage's hair back as sand kicked up. It listened well as the woman's delivered excessive context. And then rapidly shot off an array of questions.

The creature's gaze wandered wistfully to the cart. The master was often the one who handled situations as this. Master had defended him when the people would pile onto him like this. And knew well how to diffuse such tensions. Always telling him how to act and what to do. She was very good at it. But it seemed he had learned little from her. But he could not abandon her now. Nor did it want to go on a rampage. Such a thing could get her hurt.

It's gaze returned to the one lecturing it. But then suddenly, someone else interjected.

It was strange. The creature gazed upon the figure ignorant as to who she was. But it could understand well the this one exuded power. "Assa" dropped to her knees before her. Yet in the face of her, the creature felt it's breathing slow. All manner of tenseness practically evaporated from it too as she simply...chuckled. She radiated power. But she did not appear to be threatening. Thus the creature found itself becoming calm as well. Even the crowd itself soon began to disperse and go on about their day.

Simurgh's reaction to Assa and Jewena may as well have been night and day.

She spoke to it now explaining this situation calmly. And then the mysterious woman of great power spoke to him. She asked him to come with her. And the creature's reply was a simple. "Yes." The creature said. "I would prefer to speak elsewhere. I do not like it here."

And so they would. The creature picked up the reigns of the cart. And it would follow the one who'd gently approached without fuss or fanfare.

The Castle ​

---

The structure was perhaps the largest structure the creature had seen so far. To say nothing of the largest structure it had actually been inside.

It held little understanding concerning intricate designs and art. But it could understand well the deliberateness of a the structure and the cleanliness of it. It was much different from the world around it. Eventually it would have to leave the cart. But before it did -- it stuck it's head inside of it. And would speak inside. It's glowing eyes lighting the inside of the carriage up.

"Kouma. How are you?" The creature said, speaking the master's name.

"I am fine Simurgh." She spoke, for the first time in quite some time. "Don't you have somewhere to be? You're talking to someone quite important you know. Try to be on your best behavior, will you?" The master spoke. The woman wearing the veil would put her hand atop his head. And the creature would purr for a moment...before Kouma pushed him out.

The creature's head left the cart. And it would follow Jewena now. It's eyes wandering about as the knightly escort filled it's ears.

Soon it was lead down a hall and into a room that would be just them. It's enhanced senses soon detecting a barrier spawning around it. The creature looked around suspiciously. This feeling was familiar. As though it were in a cage. Like it had been surrounded by this phenomena before. Though, if this was a cage -- it seemed less likely that she would be in here with him. So Simurgh cooperated for now. And sat down as she politely motioned it to sit.

The creature sank into soft, luxurious pillows by nature of it's sheer weight. It didn't quite help that the creature sat on the couch as if it were a dog, with both hands and feet curled up in front of it. Almost dutifully however, the creature would listen to her, not interrupting. It's breathing at this moment quite calm compared to when it was on the crowded street, surrounded by judgemental and scornful stares. And paranoid, speculative whispers. Jewena in particular had approached the creature and demanded nothing of it. She made no commands. Only coerced it. And this was inspite of the power she contained. Simurgh was ignorant of the fact that it was speaking to one of the grand ten. But it knew power when it saw it -- making the interaction all the stranger to it.

He listened, tilting his head curiously as she began to explain to him the nature of the situation. Questions ran through his mind. But it waited until it was it's turn to speak.

"Tablet. Grand Tournament. No killing." The creature said, regurgitating and summarize the tasks set before it. "All for the acceptance of your city. I cannot say I care for their opinion greatly. I have little desire as it stands. However, I do value the health and opinion of one person. That being my Master, Kouma. If you cannot cure her due to other's perception, very well. However...."

The Bloodthirsty known as Simurgh would rise from the couch for a moment. Standing at his full height, he would tower over her for a moment. However, what followed next was something it had never done. It got on all fours. But then sank lower.

And lower.

And lower.

Until it's head touched the ground. And now it could be clearly seen Jewena that he was bowing down to her. It's eyes were no longer visible as the crown of it's head touched the immaculately maintained and yet dirty floor. For all intents and purposes, Simurgh was practically groveling.

"A great task is set before me. If I cannot have her healed, I would ask to have preserved. I would ask that you keep her alive. She cannot work. So I will provide the funds. So that she may be fed and provided her medicine. Please." Simurgh asked.

The creatured cared less for it's own social status. In truth, it would wish nothing but prosperity for it's master. Many of the things. The people's acceptance? A fearsome status as one of the greatest and most powerful creatures? It all paled in truth to well being of the person who practically raised him. Thus the thought of her passing away while he grew in power terrified Simurgh more than any monster or god-like being possibly could. Not only this, but the prospect of finally making a home for his master and allowing her to complete her dreams. Goals which aligned with this would push the monster forward. He would not stop at healing her wounds -- but seeking to bring her into prosperity. To pull her from the dirt she'd tried to climb from for so long. First, she would need to be healed. And it would have to be here. If they made another journey, she would surely die by then.

Some part of him wondered as to whether or not to take the blessing. Jewena held all the cards. So he may as well.

"I will accept your blessing, regardless."

 

[Thalia_Neko]

------------------------------------------------------
location: Four Families Colosseum
characters: Pronoia, Eshard, Vequanial

Spoiler

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

He was Eshard, captain of the capital's city guard. He had no pretenses that he was anywhere near Grand Ten level, nor that he would have even a hope of winning this tournament, but that didn't matter. He had entered for a couple simple reasons. One, for fun, and for the fact that simply entering a tournament of this caliber came with it some prestige. Especially if you managed to grab some wins. And two, he wanted to test himself against the esteemed Robiccs. Just how did he measure up?

He figured with a bit of luck, he'd match up against one. Sure enough, he had. Across from him on the ring top, was Pronoia, Lord Robicc's daughter from his second wife. Eshard was familiar with her; he had seen the girl many times as a guard in the capital city. He essentially had made sure she was safe during his career until he managed to make captain. His devotion to the protection of the Robicc kids had earned him quite a bit of praise. Though, he had always considered it unearned; he had simply been doing his duty.

Even though he hadn't heard much about her skill, he was sure she was a worthy opponent. She was a Robicc after all. Second wife, but all the same. He would not let down his guard here! This was his chance! Eshard was holding on well. While he did not have the same instruction in Robicc's secret martial arts training, he was still a decently trained individual. Eshard more than most, in fact, really paid attention when being taught martial techniques by instructors. He was not a flashy man, nor flashy fighter. He stuck to the fundamentals, and performed them well.

This was what was causing the young Pronoia a bit of an issue. In fact, you could even dare to say, the young Robicc was struggling. It was clear she surpassed him in outright skill, and probably had better core refinement, but just the way this man stuck so firmly to what the trueness of a swordsman was -she was not prepared for that level of commitment from an opponent. Each of her swings were parried to the best of the opponent's ability. And with each feint she made, he didn't bite. His defense, while typically on the mediocre side, was just sturdy enough to stop her assault. Actually, she had gone at him hard, reading a rather easy win -that had blown up in her face. Now she was feeling fatigue set in. If she only had the outright power her father had! Or rather, even the power Vequanial had, this would've been over in an instant!

Urghh, why was this annoying gnat persisting so long?! What was his deal?! Just go down already! It's clear who was actually stronger! She made another attempt at him, compelling strength to come up from within her, and forcing the fact. Powerful blows rained down upon the man. She struck from above, then swiped from his left side, then took a step and did a double-grip diagonal strike from his right side. She stepped and stabbed. Not even that one got him! He parried each hit perfectly, with enough effort to deflect her blows harmlessly, but not enough effort to tire himself out. He was supplementing his own lack of power with gentle Qi, and worse, used her own strength against her. He had infuriatingly been doing this the entire fight! That last stab, he had parried so well, it threw her off entirely.

There!

"Huh?!"

She felt his Qi flare up. A burst of bright white that almost appeared gold. This was the first time since their fight that Eshard's Qi had done that. And they had been going at it for 15 minutes already! She hadn't expected anything of the sort from this cautious man! Crap, her defense was all over the place!

With Qi bursting out, engulfing his sword, he knew this was his one chance at a solid attack! So he had to make it count! Unfortunately for Eshard, he did not possess a boundless Qi reserve which is why he had been forced to fight like this. Some might think he was a weak man. Or think he was a coward by adopting this defensive style. Even Pronoia, he could tell, had begun to get annoyed by it -- and he had viewed the girl as one of the more levelheaded of his opponents. But anyway, he did not care. It was this style that had helped him this far. He was not a genius. He was not gifted, nor talented even. He was just a simple man, with a simple dream.

He wanted to become a Martial Master. He wanted to prove himself to the lord that ruled this territory. He wanted to serve the noble Robiccs. And he wanted to do his job well, protecting the citizens of lord Robicc's domain. That's all.

And sure enough, with enough patience, he had done all that. Well, except for the first, obviously, due to his overall lack of talent; that one was still out of reach, but he didn't sweat it. Eshard figured with enough persistence, he would eventually get there. With enough patience, Eshard knew he could accomplish anything. Just like right now! With enough patience, even facing off against a Robicc, he would get his chance!

With Aura flaring up along his sword, and Pronoia's body stabbing to his left, her form was thrown off right in front of him. Taking this chance, he aimed for her open side. Aura sword flashed, and he struck true.

Pronoia yelped out, as the heavy blow hit her squarely. The man could've killed her with a cut like that! If she hadn't been protecting her body with a strong foundation of protective Qi. Still, it was a strong hit, and she tumbled.

Gasps erupted in the crowd. So far the Robicc kids that had entered the tournament had swept through the competition. Furthermore, even in this fight, no one had expected the Robicc daughter to take a hit like that. Not from someone as lowly as a city's guard captain! On one hand, it made them feel even more reassured someone that strong was protecting them from criminals, on the other hand, this was a Robicc! It was just astounding.

Pronoia punched the white granite platform, frowning fiercely. C'mon! You shouldn't be having so much trouble with that man!

Feeling embarrassed, she pushed herself up to her feet, gripping her sword between her and him. It was nice of him to allow her back to her feet, rather than finish her off. "That was your chance!" she shouted to him. Even so, she was feeling the effect of her wound. She had protected herself from most of the damage. But not all. Blood soaked through the blue of her cloth top, dripping onto the arena.

"That would not be a very chivalrous way to win, Miss Pronoia. You're a Robicc. Someone of my status has to afford you the proper respect," came his gallant response. The crowed all murmured their admiration for the honorable man. To her, it sounded rehearsed. To them, the man standing there was the type of fighter that emulated what this colosseum was all about.

"How courteous," Pronoia grumbled under her breath. Tsk, even her provocation failed. She felt stupid. This wasn't like her.

If it continued like this.. Could.. Would she lose??! Her?! That was a sobering thought. No, she had joined this tournament for a reason! Father had expected her to be interested in the tournament, and of course she was, but when she heard the news about Mijorine, all that died. She felt empty, like she couldn't find anything to be interested in anymore. And she had almost given up on her martial arts. She wanted nothing more than to sink into that eternal blackness. But that's not who Mijorine was. Or what she would've done! Thinking about it that way, Pronoia realized her folly. So she pushed through it, entering the tournament with a couple goals. One, this tournament had something to do with Mijorine, so she was going to use this opportunity to investigate what happened to her beloved idol. And two, she would use this tournament for herself, to better herself -- she would use this tournament to get stronger. Even before the terrible news of madam Mijorine's death, she had felt stagnation in her martial arts. Pronoia wanted to use this tournament to surpass her limits.

Calm down. Her side stung, and was still dripping. She couldn't last long with an injury like this, she would have to wrap this up quick. Closing her eyes, she focused. Feeling a droplet drip into a puddle within her. Wait. Had this been her Qi the entire fight? She felt her Qi. It was uneven. Wild. It was squirming about like untamed flames. Her face scrunched up. Really? This is how she had been fighting? Was her Qi like this in only this fight? -It was true, Eshard had been irritating her. Or had her Qi been like this the entire tournament?

"..." That was unacceptable. C'mon, Pronoia, you're better than this! Father would be disappointed... Mijorine would be disappointed. This isn't what she would've wanted. Nor is it what I want for myself. Fixing her grip on her sword, she breathed deeply. In just a few moments, her Qi settled down, smoothing out around her.

While this was happening, Eshard noticed. "!! Nm?" Her Qi changed. It's much smoother now. The blonde man narrowed his eyes. Crap. He gripped his sword and took up a defensive stance. This is an issue. I knew it was too good to be true. He didn't like where this was leading. His attack was seemingly having the opposite effect of what he had intended. After taking that hit, Pronoia was getting back into her groove. It really had been stupid of him to let her get back to her feet. But he hadn't wanted to win by kicking her while she was down. Worse yet, he could tell, he was at his limit. He had made it this far on pure refined swordsmanship alone. But it seemed having very small Qi reserves was too big of a drawback after all.

Pronoia's eyes opened. "Here I come, Sir Eshard!"

Announcing her attack now? Heh, she was back to the old Pronoia he knew. It seemed she wanted to make this an honorable duel after all.

"Have at thee, Lady Pronoia."

Pronoia shot forward, taking a swing.

Damn! It was faster and more precise than before! Eshard brought up his blade, coating his muscles in Qi. Their blades clashed, and he felt the jolt, but he was managing to match power for power. He was physically stronger than her after all. Pronoia's blade swung again, a different strike this time. His eyes followed it, and at the perfect moment, just as he had learned in his training, he blocked it again, once again using Qi on his muscles.

She struck again, and he blocked it the same way. She swiped again, and again he blocked it. And yet again. Their clash like this went on for for 5 minutes straight, and the audience fell silent watching their impeccable display of swordsmanship. In total, they swung their swords a total of 150 times each.

Damn. He glanced at his sword. A fine blade on its own; it had served him well. It hadn't been cheap either. But after that exchange, this was the result; it had many many knicks and scratches, and was practically jagged. Through their clash, he hadn't had enough Qi to coat his sword anymore, only his muscles. Whereas she was doing a full-body shroud of Qi, which included her sword. Was this the power of a Robicc? Eshard was physically stronger, but that's all he was. He had only managed to manifest two cores, with only one up to the muddled stage. He knew she had 3 cores, and matched him at least in that much. Her Qi control was more refined, too. So, this is as far as I go, huh?

"This is it," Pronoia said. That had been the only thing she had said since the last time she spoke. Her voice was more elegant. Refined. Like a proper Robicc. Not like the irritated voice she had mocked him with earlier.

His eyes were sharp, she knew this, so when she gripped her sword with both hands, bringing it up to strike down at him, she knew he would respond.

Eshard grabbed his own blade with both hands, bringing up his block at just the right moment to perfectly deflect her blow, just as he had done hundreds of times this fight.

His sword shattered, gleaming like shooting stars in front of his face, falling in slow motion. The metal from his elegant blade ringing against the ground all around him. Her blade an inch from his head. The Qi was cool on his forehead. Then it dissipated.

He chuckled, lowering his hand to his side. His sword handle still in hand. He was completely spent. His Qi reserves all depleted. His muscles ached. "It is my defeat."

Sheathing her sword fluidly, she spoke. "Yes. It was a good match, Sir Eshard."

"Indeed, miss Robicc." They stepped towards one another both fighters breathing heavily, and sweating hard. And in Pronoia's case, still dripping blood. They shook each other's hand.

"Winner! Pronoia Robicc!" The announcer shouted, while they shook hands. He had waited for their exchange to end before announcing the outcome. The crowd's cheers flared up. Both contestants had warm, charming smiles.

Vequanial, who had been silently watching with folded arms, blinked at the interaction. Once it was over, he turned and walked away without a word.

 

[TreasureSniper]

Location: Four families coliseum.
Interaction: Pronoia mainly

Having just finished his fight Talio returned to his assigned booth, where his loyal golems awaited for their masters return. As expected is unexpected victory against a better trained swordsman had raised many questions among tabloid writers of the town.

While his golems were busy attaching a more updated model of his prosthetic, the tabloid writers bombarded the young man with slew of questions. Did he know he was going to win the fight? How did he lose his arm? Does he believe he has what it takes to win the tournament. What was his previous relationship with his opponent? While he remained silent at first, in a moment later he would answer these questions all at the same time. "Maybe. I blew it up. Only one way to find out. Just business." While his answers did lead to more questions, his golem guards stood between him and the group of writers, preventing them from getting any closer.

He wasn't interested in answering questions anymore. There was something much more interesting to look out for at that moment. A match involving a Robicc was always one worth spectating. While the golems continued to service his arm, one of them carried a bowl of grapes to the mercenary, acting as a makeshift stand that allowed him to eat the grapes at his leisure. "This one will be an interesting one." Talio spoke, gesturing another golem to come forward and place the headpiece of his suit on his head.

As soon as the battle began, the visor would close up, allowing him to view the fight from a much more interesting point of view. While their movements look slower than real time, the sheer movement of the strikes between the two opponents was still a chore to properly track. But more than that, his qi vision gave him some valuable insight on what invisible forces were at play.

From there, he started writing notes about his observations, describing the movement of their bodies as well as their qi with each strike and counterstrike. He could feel it in his bones. The Robiccs and their superior skill and power would make a fine case study to limit test his new armor. The way he saw it, it was a win win. If he loses, he would have valuable data to use to further improve his armor. And if by some miracle he won, he would no doubt increase the value of his franchise and brand as a whole.

As the fight reach its conclusion, Talio visor would separate and retract, revealing the face of a very perplexed young man. Snapping his fingers, he commanded all his golems to clap in appreciation for the Lady's well earned victory. He himself would eventually join in with a much slower clap. "Bravo, Lady Pronoia. Bravo indeed." Perhaps someday a lowly merchant mercenary like him would have a chance to be noticed such an impressive fighter. The opportunities to capitalize on such things would be endless.

 

[Thalia_Neko]

​

-------------------------------------------
location: Juya
characters: Sirindra, Moonhu

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

It kicked off with a bang. Moonhu's slashes sent deadly, glowing crescent-moon shaped cuts flying through the air. Sirindra avoided them deftly, with a couple of showboaty flips, as those cuts hit the ground, exploding into dust upon impact. Causing the crowd to gasp.

"Eh~h? Are those pure Qi waves? Teh, not bad!" So far not one of her opponents in this tournament had showcased anything like that. Mastering Qi to the point of managing to send out your Qi afar from your body was an impressive level for one to reach. It made her heart flutter. That was the one thing this tournament was missing! Strong opponents. And, of course, excitement!

Sirindra flipped through the air as she barely avoided two more crescent moon waves, crashing into the ground where she had just been. Twirling through the air, she landed gracefully on the ground, two feet together.

Moonhu glared her down. Thus far, none of his opponents had managed to deal with his Crescent Moon Cuts. Actually, none of them had even required that attack. This woman was a far more dangerous opponent. Well, that made sense, she was the penultimate fight of this Block. And he had heard people calling her a "supernova", whatever that meant. Which it had to mean something.

"SI-RIN-DRA! SI-RIN-DRA! SI-RIN-DRA!"

His sharp eyes scanned the gathered audience. Hearing them chant her name and call her supernova was intimidating.

"MOoOoOn-HU! MooOoooOoon-HU!"

But some were cheering for him, too, which meant he was doing well, right? Their cheers filled him with what you could call courage, and, even more than that, gratitude. He raised his sword to his eyelevel, lowering his stance. He wouldn't disappoint those people who believed in him; he intended to give them a showing worthy of their admiration.

Sirindra smirked and held her hand up, long black nails threatening to scratch the sky. Blackened knives appeared in the air out of plums of purple smoke. They fired at Moonhu, who was forced to respond. Shink shink shink shink shink! He expertly handled them by deflecting every dagger with his blade, the daggers striking the dirt and disappearing.

Still grinning, she held her hand up, then lowered it, creating a line of daggers. Waving her hand, the line of daggers swiped at Moonhu like a whip, which he blocked, shhiiink! She swung her hand and the line of daggers continued to whip at her opponent.

Shhiink shiink shiiink shhhhink!!

Sirindra increased the pace of her whip.

Shink shink shink shhiiinkshhhiiiink!Shiinhkkkk!!!

Moonhu matched the pace, blocking every slash, grinding his sword against a whip of knives that wanted to cut him to ribbons. Shhhhiiiiiiihhhihhh!

Gritting his teeth, the boy igniting his Qi. "Nnmmyaa!" Then before Sirindra could respond, he pushed back against her faux whip, slicing it with a cut in the shape of a crescent moon, severing the energy in the 'whip', sending the knives exploding out and raining down uselessly, once again disappearing as they hit the ground.

Sirindra frowned, then held one hand above the other, which was in a grip formation. A longsword materialized and she double-gripped it.

Moonhu's Qi coated his sword in a cool blue.

The crowd cheered as the two shot towards each other, clashing their blades, the hair from the woman billowing in maroon clouds behind her. The boy's hair a streak of copper. Their swords clashing together ignited sparks, with Moonhu's Qi changing to a vibrant yellow.

Their clash lasted a short time, bouncing back both fighters, skidding in the dust. As Moonhu regained his balance, Sirindra was already attacking. Her fist glowed blue, swirling with energy. The Comet Punch connected into the man's side. His typically bored face contorted with pain. Her Comet Punch sent him skidding even further away.

Moonhu grit his teeth, then held the spot where he got hit, bearing the pain. His purple eyes shot up to the maroon-haired woman, who was still in punching-form, just in time to see her astral energy dissipate, and her form relax. He had never been struck like that before! What he surmised happened was that she wasn't thrown off by their clash as much as he was, then she had used the opportunity to strike him with a fast, yet decisive attack. Moonhu had always viewed attacks on Comet Punch's caliber too low level for him to actively acknowledge as threats. Yet, even with its semi-low damage, she had still managed to get a hit in. She had used the speed of the attack to hit him, rather than the power of it. Hm, so you can use attacks like Comet Punch in that way, huh?

He furrowed his brow. Perhaps he should look at combat in a smarter way, rather than how he had been before. None of his prior opponents had given him any sort of difficulty. Thus, he hadn't needed to consider techniques or styles, or much of anything. Yet when he looked over at the grinning woman, he couldn't tell what she was thinking. To him, it seemed like she wasn't putting much thought in either, so what gives? Maybe... she was just that experienced? Moonhu considered that. If so, then he shouldn't draw this out any longer. Fighting with someone of better experience only let the fight skew in their favor over time. He had to strike fast, and hard.

Moonhu held his sword out in front of him, perpendicular to his body. He placed his other hand on the flat of his blade and focused. "Hhhyyaaa!! Moon Dragon Stance! Rhiayukyomi!"

Sirindra had let a lull happen in the action, curious as to what he'd do after her surprise hit. Her mouth dropped a bit, and her eyes gleamed as she saw his stance change, and as his Qi spike. Her glowing eyes watched as bright yellow Qi rose off of Moonhu, and began to form in the shape of countless crescent moons. Her eyes widened when those crescent shapes took the form of a long, limbless dragon. Behind Moonhu was a dragon made out of countless crescent moons.

The audience watching all gasped in shock and awe. A technique like this hadn't been used in the entirety of the Juya tournament! They were staring at a glowing golden dragon, with waves of energy and wind billowing off of it. It was like looking at a god!

But for the woman, she was trying to figure out what that was. Was it Qi?! Pure Qi? Or.. Her eyes narrowed briefly. Was that the shape of Moonhu's soul? So, that was an Astral technique? She sensed no magic, so it had to be one or the other, but Moonhu had struck her as a Qi-based fighter. Heh, the surprises this kid had.

Sirindra had her same signature 'this is alright' grin plastered upon her face. She whistled. "Fancy beast you got there. Who would've guessed someone as cool as you had a soul like that monster."

"Since this arena has no protective barrier, I wanted to refrain from using this technique because it would endanger the people. However, I decided against you, it was necessary."

"Oh~? Lucky me, then." Sirindra's grin spread to show her sharp teeth.

On the fence around the ring was Ajuu. The little pink puffball was bouncing and chirping in fear, trying to warn Sirindra.

With a glance over at her little companion she said, "Don't worry bud, 'mama' will be okay."

"Tyuu..." Ajuu whined, slumping into its own pink fur.

"Hmp. As brazen as always, even in the face of ruin. Don't die on me, warrior," Moonhu said.

"Teh, punk. Who do you take me for?"

"YYYAAA-HH! Rhiayukyomi!"

Moonhu's moon dragon rose above him, then snaked down, traveling along the dusty earth towards Sirindra, maw agape with jagged fangs. Typically, one would want to avoid an attack like this one, but she had realized early on, there was no avoiding this. So she had prepared to defend against it.

Sirindra's Qi spiked, nasty purple energy rising off of her like heat waves. "Gloomring..." she murmured underneath her breath, forming two blades in her hands crossing in front of her in a defensive stance . She had cast a couple of lower-tier magic barriers, since that was all she could manage. If it was Astral energy, then even low tier magic would provide some defense. "Initialize!" She shouted, at just the moment the dragon technique struck her. Sirindra's teeth were gritting hard as she endured the attack, which struck her like a bolt of lightning, lighting her up like moonlight. The ferocity of the attack shook the area, whipping winds and dust everywhere.

Wooden stakes from the fence ripped from the ground and flew back into the crowd, causing people to scream and flee in terror. "Juuuuuu~~!!" Ajuu squealed, flying away in the wind.

A blackened spot appeared on Sirindra's face. It began to spread across her face. Her eyes changed to black, irises glowing red when the spot passed over her eyes. Tiny horns sprouted up in her maroon hair which was whipping around violently. "HA HA HA!" Purple energy engulfed her swords, and she began to move at increasing speeds, slicing through the remaining length of the dragon, cutting every little fabric of it she could.

Eventually the roar of the technique died down. As did the wind. The dragon dissipated off in the air behind Sirindra, cut to shreds. Leaving the woman there, breathing heavily, sporting many new tiny cuts all over, leaking blood from every cut.

Her face had returned to normal, and no horns were visible, covered by her hair. "Teh! Is that all?" she taunted.

Moonhu blinked. He knew his foe was strong, but he hadn't expected this! He had been worried she would die. But not only did she not die, she was still standing! No, she was mostly fine! Just who was this woman?!

"That was the best attack I've seen in a long, long time, so congrats, boy. Now, it's my turn." She held up her hand. Several daggers wrapped with purple energy appeared and shot out.

Moonhu was still recovering from overexerting himself after that technique. He raised up his arms defensively by instinct. The knives passed him, stabbing into the ground around him. He felt the strange purple threads around him, holding him in place. "Huh? No. Wha~? Wait!"

Sirindra held up a sword, purple Qi appeared around it, then condensed and became a reddish hue. It almost looked like a her blade glowed a wicked ruby color. Moonhu recognized that as what you'd call 'marvelous Qi', leaving even him briefly stunned. She raised her blade up above her head, charging energy. Then she leapt at him. "Heaven's... "

"Wait!! Sirindraaaaa-!"

"STRIKE!!"

Her blade ignited with Astral energy surrounding the Qi. Then she brought it down, slashing hard at him. Moonhu's sword came up to defend, but the Astral energy of the technique couldn't be blocked by his Qi. With his block completely ineffective, Moonhu was completely blasted straight through by her attack.

Moonhu's mouth fell open, and his eyes rolled. "-uah!" A large swath of ruby-like energy cutting up and down his body, coating him, and billowing over his body, slashing the earth behind him, leaving a giant scar across the ground. The force of the technique shook the area. The audience that had re-gathered around after Moonhu's technique was now speechless because of Sirindra.

Moonhu hit the ground on his back, his blade flying from his hand. He laid there, unconsious.

"WINNER!" called the announcer, pointing towards Sirindra, who stood there like 'no big deal', though she was still dripping blood from countless scratches, and her breath was obviously heavy.

The crowd, that had almost been demolished in this fight, were still speechless for a moment. Then energy rose up in them and they all cheered. They began chanting "Supernova." There were some across the audience who were disappointed in the outcome; Moonhu had been their favored contestant to win. So even though the fight had been impressive from both fighters, they were still a bit disappointed when Moonhu lost. But on the whole, the audience was excited for the victor of Block A.

Moonhu groaned, sitting up, a hand going up to his head. "Ughh.." He opened his eyes, then looked up at the woman standing above him. Her same stupid grin on her face. "I lost then."

Frankly, he hadn't expected to lose. Or at least, not this early in the tournament. To think.. he couldn't even make it through the preliminaries. With his skills, Qi control, and unusual techniques? Not even that was enough? Moonhu finally smiled, closing his eyes. To think, there were opponents out there of this caliber. For reasons he couldn't understand, it made him.. happy.

"It was a good fight.. master," Moonhu said, taking her hand, as she helped him up.

"Huh? What?!?" Sirindra paused, hand still in his, staring at him. "What did you just say?"

"Master. I called you my master. I acknowledge you as such. You defe-"

"No. No, nope!" Sirindra cut him off, spinning around, whipping him with her hair. She didn't feel like being followed around by some puppy dog boy. "Nope!! Nu-uh! None of that nonsense!" With that, Sirindra walked off, leaving Moonhu standing there staring at her back, utterly flabbergasted. Though, you couldn't read it on his face. The crowd mostly ignored their exchange, still chanting and cheering in praise.

"Wa -wait!"

~~~

Sirindra walked through the area once more, using the walk to cool off, relax, and take a breather. She pushed the weird words from Moonhu out of her head. Ugh, what was that about?

A swordsman rushed a mage. The mage responded with nothing flashy. A simple spell, striking the swordsman's leg. Which caused him to lock up in place. "Huh?" he grumbled, glancing down at his leg -which was already a mistake. If Sirindra had been his opponent, she would've taken advantage of that moment, but anyway. "What the?.." He tried to move his leg, only to grimace. "Numb? My leg is numb?!"

Sirindra's eyes stared at his leg. It was over.

Numbing Bolt. It was a deceptively simple spell. Numbing spells were typically 2 ring and above. But this one was only 1 ring, since it was a spell that targeted only one specific body part. When his leg was hit, the spell numbed his leg. It was simple, yet effective. A numbed leg threw off the swordsman who was typically used to moving his body how he wanted. That's how he trained. Now that one leg felt odd and moved awkwardly, he had no chance.

"Grrrhrrr! I'll get you for that!!" the swordsman shouted. Sword Qi! A blue aura lit up his weapon. To your normal person it probably looked dangerous and scary. But to those who had just witnessed the fight between Juya's Supernova and super-rookie, it would look pathetic. The swordsman's anger was bubbling out, overcompensating for his confusion in the fight. Even with a numb leg, he began charging for the mage, powering through his confusion with anger.

Another numbing spell hit his sword arm, immediately causing him to stumble and nearly drop his sword. He was again confused. Another spell hit his other arm, and his other leg. Then his torso. And the swordsman just stood there, blinking, with a dumb look on his face. Utterly confused about what was happening. The mage hadn't been scared; the mage had maintained his composure, unlike this swordsman.

Sirindra turned away, looking towards another fight happening nearby. A large hammer plowed straight through the haphazard defense of another swordsman.

At another ring, this swordsman was faring better. With his sword qi aura, he cut right through the spearman's spear, chopping it in half. Two mages were fighting in another ring. Three ring spells were easily overpowering the 2 ring mage. Pfft, how could you be a Grand Ten with only 2 rings? Much less 3 rings...

Well, at any rate, it appeared the fights in Juya were finally wrapping up. Final battles were happening, and whether the contestants got there with skill or luck, those fights would end with victors. Time for her final fight...

~~~

Brushing her hair, Sirindra stepped out onto the dust of the Block A ring. It was the final.

Across from her stood a tall, bulky man. His chest was totally bare, and his muscles were on full display. His skin was a rustic brown, like brick, or rust. He had different patterns tattooed on his body, and a skull mask tattooed across his face. "I'm Orkön! The Blacksmith Smasher!"

She recognized the man from underground criminal rings. And from bounty boards. An Earthborn blacksmith turned criminal. Like her, he was a man with a bounty. He once had been a Blacksmith, but with dwindling business, he turned towards criminal means to make up for his lack of income. That was just his excuse, really he was a blowhard with a temper, who had gotten into altercations with his clients on many occasions. Due to that, he drove away all his business. He just took the 'opportunity' to do what he really wanted. Which was bash peoples' heads in and steal. And, for real, what was that name? Blacksmith Smasher? Did he smash blacksmiths?

She shook her head. It was kind of catchy, but ultimately, what a dumb name.

He effortlessly raised up his huge hammer, pointing it at her. "I HEAR THEY'RE ALL CALLING YOU 'SUPERNOVA'. GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE, WENCH! I'LL BREAK YOU, AND WITH THAT, YOUR STUPID 'SUPERNOVA' TITLE! I'LL SHOW THEM WHO THE REAL SUPERNOVA IS! ME! ORKÖN!"

She used inner sight on him, eye glowing briefly. Scanning around in him, she closed her eyes, and sighed inwardly. Man, it was really a shame she was meeting him here, and not Moonhu. "That would've been a more climactic fight..." she grumbled.

"HWHAT WHASS THAT?!" Orkön bellowed.

"Nothing. Nothing. Don't worry. Okay! Okay," she stepped forward, punching her hand into her other hand. "Lets do this!"

"Crashing BL~eeohh?!!!" The Earthborn squealed, as a Qi strike sliced up him, the reddish energy raging across his broad, bare chest.

With a scream the big man that had wanted to 'break the Supernova' collapsed within moments, and without much fanfare, hitting the ground pathetically with a loud thud, sprawled eagle, completely out. For all his bluster, he hadn't been worth much of a damn. Sirindra had been right, it had ended quite anticlimactically. The cheers from the crowd signified that, rising up at first, then dying down when that appeared to be the end of it. "Huh? W-was that it?.." the crowd questioned, looking around at each other, clapping sporadically. This was the final fight, right?

"And with that, we have OUR WINNER OF BLOCK A!! SI-RIN-DRA HALILEIL! THE DEVIL WOMAN! JUYA'S SUPERNOVA! EVERYONE GIVE HER A ROUND OF APPLAUSE!"

The crowd's cheering escalated to new heights, and all of Juya could hear it. Sirindra hadn't just 'won' the preliminaries, she had thoroughly trounced the competition the entire way through, with only Moonhu posing as a noteworthy roadblock.

While the raucous crowd continued on, Sirindra departed. And just after leaving the arena, was met by that very man, who had seemed to be waiting for her. He wore the same bored expression, but seemed far more earnest about what he was speaking than that face let on. Holding up his hand to stop her from going he said.

"Hold on. Just listen to me."
When Sirindra stopped, looking at him with her annoyed look, he took that to mean he could continue.
"You defeated me. So I accept you as my master."
"Look, kid, I don't do the whole 'master-student' thing. Just because I beat you, doesn't mean I want to be your master. Go pester -I mean, find someone else."
"No. It must be you. I only acknowledge you."
His stoic expression gave her little to work with, but his earnest energy was throwing her off. Sirindra wanted nothing more than to tell him to stuff it and go away, but he was staring so intently at her. "Ahhhhhhhhgghh!" she growled, scratching the back of her head.
"I don't want a student."
"Do not worry, it is not like that." He lifted up his sword, holding it out to her.
She blinked, then looked down at it, and up at him.
"Tihh tihh!" Ajuu tittered on her shoulder.
"Are you giving me this? Ehhh.. this isn't really my style of sword."
That seemed to perturb him. It was only slight, but for a brief moment, Moonhu frowned. He didn't seem to like the sword being insulted. "I will explain. This sword isn't just any sword. It is me. I am the sword. This sword's name is Moonhu."
She looked up from the sword, puzzled. Then it occurred to her. "A Soul weapon! The sword is -You are a Soul weapon!"
"Jii jii!" Ajuu squeaked, flapping the wings it now possessed.
"That is correct."

Her eyes widened. "A Soul weapon, that can manifest its soul?.." She had never heard of such a thing. Soul weapons were known for their innate power. No wonder that last technique he showed had such potent astral energy. He was a literal spirit! And this weapon must've been a strong soul to manifest its soul outside of the weapon. Just how far along in the Astral path was he? With inner sight, she couldn't see. Actually, she couldn't see much. That must've been because of his Soul weapon status. This Soul weapon could manifest its spirit outside of the sword, and manifest Qi. It was truly an incredible sword!

In hindsight, that's probably why her last technique had been so effective. She had won because she had used an Astral technique to strike his spirit. As a spirit, he likely hadn't been expecting anything of the sort to happen to him in the tournament. He probably hadn't even taken any real damage the entire tournament -then again, neither had she. Heh, seemed like she lucked out a bit, choosing to end it with that technique.

It took her just a brief moment to decide. Ugh. How could she deny it now, after knowing this?
"Gr.. okay, look, I'll carry you... Until I can find you a proper master. But only until then! How's that sound?"

He stared at her. Then nodded. "That is acceptable." He took a knee, offering the sword out to her, head bent. "For you, Master. Moonhu, the Dragon Lord's Moonscale."

She took the sword from him, feeling sudden power well up under her hand, where it gripped the blade. That power was like a light. And it entered her being, warming her. It was remarkable to find a Soul weapon like this! A Soul weapon with the ability to learn, train, get stronger. Well, thinking about it now, all Soul weapons were quite unique. Maybe this wasn't all that unusual for them.

Regardless, she now possessed Moonhu, the Dragon Lord's Moonscale.

Sirindra bore a wicked toothy grin; she felt great about this.
"Jii jii!"

 

[Thalia_Neko]

------------------------------------------
location: Holy City of Emersity Theota
characters: Jewena, Intevar, Veil
interacting: Maverick Six

Spoiler

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

"Hm." She hummed. It seemed the creature wasn't happy with leaving it at that, and desired to converse a bit more. That was unusual. To think a monster had desires outside of slaughter and filling its belly. Since she had said what she wanted to, she didn't feel an immediate need to reestablish the barrier.

Jewena held up a finger and wagged it. "No no no, that won't do, mister monster. You may not desire to be accepted, but you should. See now, it is beneficial to be accepted. If you leave people around you who would question your existence, or worse, mistrust you, then terrible things may happen, even if they are misunderstandings. You see? We may not care deep down what others think, but we still want them to accept a favorable impression of us. I am sure your master has attempted to teach you this lesson. It can be very difficult to earn another's acceptance -painful, even, but it is often a good course of action to pursue. You see, if I already knew you, I would likely heal your master on the spot, rather than force you into these annoying conditions. Wouldn't you prefer the former? See why having others accept you is important?"

As she lectured, the monster stood. For a brief moment, the woman felt a need to defend herself, but she sensed no hostility. If a monster didn't exhibit any killing intent, then there was likely no need to be wary, so she forced herself to remain calm. Plus, she was curious as to what it was doing. Then she appeared to be shocked, with her plain face shifting. The creature was bowing to her! To think she would witness a monster bow to her! Something welled up deep within Jewena, but she suppressed it.

It said it cared about its master's health.

As the creature beseeched her, she listened with intent. The holy woman sat on the edge of the sofa, poised and proper, delicate hands upon each other in her lap. "Hm.. So you have such care for your master..?" Jewena considered that. To think, a monster had such caring within it. Well, monsters were living things, so there was no reason to believe they couldn't be as different and varied as any other living thing. Still, it made the holy woman think and wonder... She wondered if this monster was just what it seemed... In fact, if one thought about it for more than a minute, it was hard to believe this monster was nothing but a common monster. It was easier to accept it was something else entirely. Jewena continued to wonder about it, thinking up scenarios within her head.

"I have considered your request. But I will still argue nothing as changed. You have devotion towards your master, and it reminds me of my own devotion towards mine. It is an inspiring thing, however, without that thing you didn't care for -'acceptance', you are nothing more than a groveling fool. I recognize my position is of great importance and esteem, but must I answer every poor fool that grovels at my feet?" Jewena posed the question to the monster. Perhaps it did not understand. She leaned forward. "Lift your head." She helped him raise back up, with delicate hands upon him.

"Listen well, beast. If I were to answer everyone who bowed their head to me, then I wouldn't have any of my own freedom. My time would be monopolized with the sick and poor and feeble. I would be answering as many sick like your master as their are stars in the sky. My heart grieves for them, it does, but I am but one woman. I am no god. I cannot answer everyone's prayers, it simply cannot be done. Furthermore, I cannot show favoritism to any one person over another. To me, they all are children. I cannot favorite another child over another, lest another problem arise from jealous, envy, and those that covet others. Do you see, my child?"

Jewena heard that he asked for her blessing. Interesting, very interesting. A monster wanted the blessing from the great Authority of Divine. The Great Cleric. The one closest to Emersity Theota. Her prophet and mouthpiece. How very interesting.

"Still. It is my unreasonable request that will send you away from your master. I am undoubtedly involved now, and the responsibility would fall upon me." Jewena dipped her head slightly. "I shall do as you request. No funds required," she said, holding up her hand, thin fingers together, thumb folded towards her palm, to stop him there. "I will see to it that your master is looked after. I will call the best clerics so that she is kept well."

"Is that satisfactory? Good. Now..." Her ten fingers pressed together at fingertip. Light glowed there. Then light spread out from her in lines, circles, and other shapes and patterns, brightening up the entire room, with light even beaming out from the room and into the hallway. It appeared as if a sun itself ignited behind her, but it wasn't fire, nor did it glow orange, 'twas just pure light.

"From our Godmother, Emersity Theota, she grants you this grace. Blessing of Divine."

Jewena etched golden lines through the air that could only be described as sacred geometry. Then with a light wave of her hand, the golden lines flew through the air and to the creature. There, upon its chest, etched the symbol. The divine blessing was granted.



With it came increased resistances, divine defenses, and magical defenses. If the monster could learn how to tap into it, it would even be able to call forth divine energies for attacks and other such abilities. But that was a big IF, this was a monster after all.

While the blessing would always be there, with a wave of Jewena's hand, it faded. "To keep prying eyes away," she explained. There was no reason to announce to the world the monster had received such a blessing.

Jewena stood up, and showed the monster the door. "That is all I shall discuss with you, creature. You may leave now. Be assured your master will be taken care of. Just focus on your task at hand."

~~~

A short moment later, after the monster had departed, Jewena was casually walking through the hall -or rather, gliding through it as she did.

"Interacting so closely with a monster, Jewena?" Came a gruff voice from a tough man clad in dark armor. "Could be considered sacrilegious you know. People see, and they talk."

"Authority of the Dark Sun." Jewena's voice came coldly. "Yes. But if I did nothing, it was liable to become a much worse situation. Those adventurers.. they are a well-meaning bunch, aren't they? They trust the monster, but they've probably been given too much hospitality in our fair city. Perhaps they should be warned about exercising such freedoms in the future, lest terrible misunderstandings could arise."

The man, who was at her side huffed. "Hmph. I'll send some knights to have a chat with them."

"It is interesting, though, isn't it? A sentient monster, in the Holy City."

"Why did you give it that mission? Do you really think it can win the tournament?" Intevar Oncinth questioned. He was talking to a fellow Authority, but they were not the same. He was well aware the difference in their strength, she was one of the Grand Ten. Jewena was the Authority of Divine. You couldn't get much stronger than that. While the Crown Cardinal was the true leader of the Holy City, it was said Jewena was the closest being to Emersity Theota.

"Of course not, but it would be interesting to see, wouldn't it? Imagine if it managed to do so!" A chilling grin spread across her simple, pale face. Her eyes opened as she grinned, glimmering like diamonds containing nebulas. "A monster! A member of the Grand Ten! Winning the tournament in front of the whole world!! Truly would be a day to behold!" Jewena exclaimed, raising her hands up to the air, gripping it, and pulling her hands in. "I wonder what our beloved Emersity would think of that? Emsihahaha!"

His face fell, paling. He sighed inwardly. Only the Authorities knew of this woman's true personality. One she hid well behind her pale poker face that revealed nothing. It was rotten. That personality of hers. Not to mention calling the Divine One just 'Emersity'. He closed his eyes. That was truly sacrilegious.

He opened his eyes, and looked back at her, a frown upon his face. He had asked himself this before -- just how could someone like her be the Authority of Divine? What was Emersity Theota thinking?

Ack, he mentally punished himself. It was not his place to question their god!

Jewena was still laughing, her cackling echoing in the vacant halls.

..

That was her cue to leave. A hooded woman was hiding in the shadows up in the rafters. Her name was a secret, but her codename, which doubled as her name, was Elegant Veil, or just Veil. She had been curious about the monster that entered the Holy City, and had shadowed it since it had entered the city. Veil had been shocked when she saw the Authority of Divine, Jewena, begin to speak to the monster. And even more so, when Jewena lead the monster away.

Her curiosity got the better of her. She had to follow! Even if it was increasingly dangerous.

She had used all the shadow magics and hidden spells she knew to mask her presence as she infiltrated the castle. She was dealing with some bigwigs here! Including a Grand Ten!

Unfortunately, Jewena had cast up a barrier that not even she had the means to penetrate. Damn that shrewd witch!

Fortunately, though, a short while later, the barrier dropped for whatever reason, and using magics to enhance her listening, Veil had managed to overhear some of the conversation. What she heard was astounding. She couldn't believe what she had heard!

Veil's eyes watched as the monster left the premises, then watched as Jewena left the room, and saw as the Authority of the Dark Sun met up with her. Somehow he seemed to know what had been discussed, though Veil did not know how he had managed that. That alone was concerning. Their conversation, too, was equally interesting. When the woman began cackling Veil's neck hair stood on end. That crazy woman's cackling told her "leave." As an Information Guild Agent, it made her blood run cold, and her flight instincts kicked in.

In an instant, the shadow streaked away in a flash of black.

With senses telling her "danger everywhere around her," Veil didn't stop until she left the city through enigmatic means.

Skidding in the sand far beyond the Holy City, she finally stopped to catch her breath, pulling off her hood and mask. Glancing to the side, she saw a small cave obscured by sand and rocks. A common place for guild agents to hide out. Head swirling with everything she had heard, she dipped inside to rest. She was a long way from the Information Guild proper. There was other agents she could pass the information through, but something about this information in particular told her she should deliver it directly. And although she was beyond the city now, she did not feel safe. She wouldn't feel safe until she left the Aezunura Desert. Veil knew she would have a long journey ahead of her. Sighing, she leaned back in the cave to get some rest before that very journey.

-----------------------------------------
location: ???
characters: Mijorine
----------------------------------------

The girl Mijorine walked along at a consistent pace. Bare footfalls softly landing on the strange gray dusty ground, only gently disturbing that dust. She had been walking for quite some time now. Or it felt as such. It was impossible to know the passage of time in this dark, black, cold place. Outside of the strange spotlight that followed her, the occasional 'dead' tree, and the dust, there was nothing of note. Nothing. Nada. Nothing anywhere. It was all completely empty. Even in the sky -if you could call it that- there was nothing. No stars. Clouds. Or whatever else may be in the sky. Just eternal blackness. The girl had found herself questioning if it was sky at all.

And while, to her, it felt as time had passed, it was hard to say that even truly occurred. A strange thought struck her, though she wasn't sure when. But Mijorine wondered if even time existed there. Or time as she knew it, anyway. A part of her felt as empty as the place she found herself. That sense of loss and idleness within her made her question if she was even alive. Perhaps she wasn't? Perhaps she was dead.

All through her walk, she was forced to ignore the laughing and the occasional voices. They had periodically bothered her, saying and rambling the same nonsense as before. Nothing she responded with seemed to get through, or, perhaps, matter at all. For that reason, the girl had decided there was simply no point in responding. Or even reacting at all. For awhile it was hard, but gradually, it became much easier to ignore them. Until it became nothing but background noise. This is why it seemed like time passed to her. Since Mijorine had been ignoring them, the voices came less and less frequently now. Obviously, for whoever those voices belonged to, it was boring to interact with her and get no reaction. But honestly? Mijorine no longer cared. Even if the voices had continued, she would likely not have noticed.

Her walk had continued and continued, passing by a dead 'tree'. Or what she thought was a tree. It was more like a stick, sticking up out of the ground, with only a few branches. It was whitish-grayish, with some blackened streaks through it. Was it a tree? Touching it... it was nothing but cold, hard, and smooth, with only the aforementioned blackened grooves. She couldn't tell.

Sighing, taking her hand away, she continued onward. Why was she walking? Well, there was no real answer. What could she say? That she expected to find something? No. Hope had long since left Mijorine. If she even had any in the first place. The poor girl barely knew what the 'self' was. A thing like 'hope' simply didn't even exist to her.

Hm. To answer why. Perhaps the answer was nothing more than "because she could". Walk that is. If she could walk, might as well. Even if this place was endless nothing. She might as well walk. Even if it went on for forever. Might as well walk for forever. That was the reason.

Suddenly, though, Mijorine found herself bumping into something! Momentarily stunned, she blinked, finding herself unable to continue -um- 'forward.' Unable to take another step forward, she raised her hand. Blinking, her hand was touching something! Looking closely, she noticed something odd. Glowing fine white lines were spreading out from her hand. These lines were so thin they were barely noticeable at all. The white glow from them traveled along in intervals, looking like inch-long worms inching along the strange metaphysical lines.

Spreading her hands around, she saw those strange lines woven all together, covering the entirety in front of her. No where could her hand break through. If she pressed on them with some force, the lines lit up for a longer distance. Looking up and around, she saw as the lines spread out over a vast area to the left and right of her. Stretching on up into the sky. There was no way she could bypass this..

Even Mijorine knew what this was. A barrier. Blinking, she leaned closer, pressing herself close, lighting up the barrier like the sun. Peering into the area beyond the barrier, all she could see was what she was already familiar with. Endless blackness, and nothingness.

Mijorine sighed, backing away from the barrier, hands slipping off of it, the white lines disappearing. This made even her feel quite dispirited. Just where was she? And could she ever leave this place?

 

[Femboy]

Vivi Finii​

Vivi was just trying to enjoy her own peace and quiet while it somewhat lasted as others hurried around trying to get their own business under control, hearing a present buzzing sound approach her and softly sighing as she received the impression any chance she was hoping to obtain for the silent study she desired was about to be robbed from her.
"Ah, there you are Miss Fini!!" Pimixya's surprisingly loud squeaky voice for such a tiny body had invaded Vivi's presence without a care for whatever the studying pixie was doing at the time.
"What are you doing? Haven't you heard the news?!" Vivi heard the other ask, to which she just slowly looked up from the book she was reading as the evidence was already on the desk.
"Yes" she bluntly answered before showing her full concern for the matter at hand by returning her eyesight back to the words on the pages in front of her. There was no need that she should have to care about such a matter since it wasn't like the tournament had anything to do with her in the first place.

"Vivi, since you are skilled at Size Change magic and Manipulation magic you're needed!! Come with me!" Pimixya had spoken, which going with her wasn't one of the things on her mind at all until she was forcefully pulled away from her own reading to be involuntary support to the tournament affairs.
"There goes thinking I could have an ordinary day... " Vivi sighed in discontent as she was brought to where she needed to be in order to receive explanation.
"You're going to be helping the Building Team. We need you to run point on compressing the mana stones together to form the base. You'll also be working with the enchanting team to enchant the Grand Stage with manipulation magic and floating magic" Pimixya spoke as Vivi rather spaced out within her concentration as the other pixie spoke. Granted with the site of just a part of the countless resources that were going to waste on such a pointless tournament, she was also expected to waste her own time too putting together building bricks and using magic for pointless architecture? It sounded like today was the day everyone truly lost it, but to expect her to follow suit with such unreasonable demands which didn't matter at all was just stupid.

Vivi was pulled along to meet Maxwun Dewward as Pimixya told of that she had other things to attend to and gave Vivi a little peck before she left.
"You don't need to do that, I'm not a baby" Vivi mumbled as the other pixie had went off, holding and readjusting her hat on her head so it appropriately tried to hide any facial reaction she may have had to the treatment as she held annoyance in her own mind that she too had more important things she could be attending to rather than what she had been dragged away to help with. She reluctantly stood and listened to what Maxwun was telling her of himself and what she was going to end up doing since there was no real way to ditch without some likely consequence and punishment coming her way. It then wouldn't have been long before he moved his own responsibility of talking to Vivi off to yet another person who visibly just looked way too bright and cheerful for how Vivi was currently feeling over it all. Plus, she didn't like that she was being stuck with a partner. Randomly assigned partners have never known to go well in any sort of educational or productive manner ever and she wasn't entirely looking forward to it, especially since Peaceroot was also donning a witch hat in which Vivi was not interested in any sort of idea of encouraged friendship or relation to her just because their attire is slightly similar.

"Come this way, hunny," Peaceroot said in a lovely, airy tone, although Vivi wasn't taking much comfort in her words at all. Such tutelage from Peaceroot was disrespectful and diminutive of Vivi's self that she didn't like the idea she was being treated lower than everyone else just because they were so needlessly thrilled to work on a place for blood sport for greed and fleeting entertainment that simply numbs the brain of any intelligent thoughts. The sense in the air of being surrounded by such quality magic materials that could be used for so much research and development was such a great sense of potential and study to be taken, only shattered by the reminder it was to all go to something that did nothing helpful in the world's progression of anything other than guarantee that she'll have to bare witness to an eyesore that others will call an arena.

Mentions: Thalia_Neko

 

[Silver Wolf]

Sophia Yurel

Spoiler: Appearance

Location: Sordrinn (Robicc Family City), Four Family's Colosseum
Interactions: Thalia_Neko (NPCs) TreasureSniper (Talio)


​

With her usual absent-minded stare, Sophia observed as the Robicc daughter, Pronoia finished her match. Now being partially raised by knights herself, she could see the difference in skill and qi. The fact Pronoia had failed to control her qi until later in the fight piqued her curiosity a little. An unsteady mind was something Sophia had to come to terms with to refine her cores, but in reality she never had much trouble controlling her qi. She had assumed the Robiccs were somewhat similar, so it implied to her that whatever Pronoia was going through really shook her to her core. Of course, she was really just waiting for her turn. After the fight ended and a weird number of claps came from Talio's golems for some strange reason that led her to giving the merchant a mild side-eye, she moved to replace Pronoia on the arena field. Not missing this chance, her soon to be opponent would follow.

"For our next match we have an unusual pair of fighters. On one side we have the adventurer Sophia Yurel. On the other, we have Knight Izalia Spara."

A break was given as the two took their respective sides of the arena. Sophia groaned internally at the weapon Izalia was favoring, a cross spear. She always had problems with spearmen, always keeping her at a safe distance away while they poked and prodded, hoping to catch you slipping up. It also didn't help that this woman was already raising her eyebrows eying up the young swordswoman, most likely already questioning why she was facing who she likely saw as a child.

Spoiler: Izalia

"I want a clean duel. Begin."

She would have to prove this assumption wrong.

Unlike with most opponents, Sophia didn't begin with the first move. Instead, she and Izalia circled each other, each waiting for the other to make the first move, which was unusual for Sophia, but even she had to practice patience and planning in a fight. After all, with that cross spear leveled in her direction, she couldn't risk getting her blade caught and leveraged against her. Instead, they took a look at each other, slowly circling each other. Whoever made the first move in a matchup like this was at a disadvantage, not because it showed skill, but simply due to the fact that if the strike didn't connect, and it wouldn't, the one reacting would have an opportunity to counter. Halting momentum is always easy in a fight, maintaining it is another matter. After one full revolution, Sophia decided that she may as well get this over with, regardless of who moved first she would need to find a way to close the distance.

Patience was a virtue though, and as soon as she began to move, her opponent made a jab which was easily dodged. It was a simple slide thrust, which meant it was easily pulled back and repeated. Deciding it was best to retreat, Sophia began backpedaling, forcing Izalia to make her first step forward and actually extend her arms. That's when Sophia parried the strike and used the cross-guard to push on it. She failed to get a favorable angle and was forced to once again retreat, in the end Sophia was back where she started dodging quick jab after quick jab as her opponent matched her steps, making sure she had no moment to rest. Soon, Sophia began increasing her qi to her lower body and began dodging swifter and more precise, her footwork clearly picking up. Getting a little desperate herself, Izalia began swinging her spear, which finally forced Sophia to block and parry.

Rings of clashing steel sounded as the two traded blows, but Sophia getting no closer to her opponent. Soon, she felt more power behind each strike and jab, feeling the whistling grow stronger as the speed picked up. Sophia was forced to dump more qi into counteracting the strikes, and her eyes began to widen as a sudden realization crossed her mind: Her opponent was toying with her. No, she could feel it, from the fact her opponent had been carefully trickling their qi into their strikes over the fight didn't escape Sophia, but she had more than a few close calls due to the fact a strike would have more or less power than she expected.

Fury began to build in her eyes as she tried to advance but got no closer, instead being punished and pushed back each time she attempted to. Each strike was to test her patience, to give her a reason to try something and slip up. "Wait a minute..."

Sophia gripped her sword and then pretended to trip. Seeing an opportunity, Izalia took it and made for a decisive posture-breaking blow which Sophia expected. She grinned before righting her stance and digging her foot in. Then she focused her qi and pushed as she used her sword to meet the strike and send the spear away. For the first time in the duel, Izalia was forced to step back, and that's when Sophia charged, threading her qi back into her legs before charging. In an attempt to keep her at bay Izalia made a careless jab which Sophia dodged easily. She then pushed and flew for her opponent, and a clean strike was made. In desperation, Izalia drew her sword and met the next blow with a block, but Sophia kept going, strike after strike was paid back in full as she continued to push her opponent back. That was until Izalia finally lost her patience and actually showed Sophia her own qi reserves. She got distance and made a jab with her spear, still in her right hand. Sophia dodged, only to be met with a strike from the sword. She took a step back and then saw her opponent's right side real back for another jab.

Sophia disengaged and tried to dodge, only to have to parry then dodge again as a jab was prepared. This continued a few more times before Sophia got another idea. She channeled qi into her knees and when the next jab came she propelled herself upward. Izalia looked in shock as she watched the girl fly up before coming down and forcing her to try and guard. A foolish mistake as Izalia's sword was knocked away and Sophia wound up for another strike. Izalia began backpedaling away, but her opponent was no longer play defensive and charged. Each strike that landed left a deepening dent in the armor though it failed to knock the knight off balance. Eventually, however, a split formed and blood finally coated Sophia's sword, causing a gasp of pain from the knight. Shortly after Sophia's sword stabbed forward towards her head and for a brief moment, a look of fear could be seen on Izalia's face as she met the cold yellow eyes of Sophia's gaze. The wind whistled and the blade was poised to her throat. Both froze. Seconds passed by as Izalia calculated her moves, only to finally see she would have none in a realistic scenario and declared, "I yield. Victory is yours."

Cheers erupted and Sophia withdrew her blade, her expression failed to change and she walked out of the ring. Sophia simply left, focused on getting to supplies so she could clean her sword. That hadn't been an all out fight, no, it was far from that for Sophia, regardless of how much trouble her opponent gave her. No, she hadn't gotten much out of that save for a confirmation to her bias against spearmen. She knew she could have lost that easily, but thankfully she had used a few clever tricks to surprise her opponent.

"Ah hopefully the next fight will be more exciting. That was just frustrating..." she grumbled as she walked. "Well whatever, a win's a win."

 

[Thalia_Neko]

​

-----------------------------------------
location: Four Families Colosseum
characters: Siebolt Faepierre, Pronoia, Vequanial, Alina, Ghast
interacting: TreasureSniper Silver Wolf

Spoiler

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

"It was an honor my lady," said the blonde man as his hand crossed his chest and he bowed to the winner of their match. It was concluded, so the two stepped away, leaving the ring. Eshard was speaking to himself as he departed, "I have to refocus myself, and double down on my training." He left, having resolved to do that and get stronger.

Pronoia heard Eshard, even if he was talking to himself. She dipped her head to the departing man, feeling gratitude to his honor, and having reminded her of the path she had chosen. Then, she heard another's voice -this one was to her specifically. Spinning to locate the owner, she saw a unique individual with a strange visor that seemed to retract. Considering the contraptions he possessed... He was a notable fighter in another Block. "Ah! I recognize you! The merchant fighter, right?" She gave him a bow as well, "Thank you sir merchant."

Unfortunately she didn't know his name, as she hadn't really bothered to catch it, much to an inner embarrassment. They hadn't been in the same Block tournament, so she hadn't bothered. Still, seeing as how he was slated to go towards the Grand Stage after he won his Block tournament, and she hoped to as well... It would behoove her to begin making mental notes of particular fighters going forward. The Grand Stage would not be like the preliminaries, everyone would fight each other, eventually anyway, if they kept winning. It was bound to be a much more cruel and agonizing experience than this. "Congratulations on winning the Block!" she said politely to the merchant.

After she sorted herself out in her fight with Eshard, the rest of Pronoia's fights went much smoother. They were not as easy or effortless as her brother Vequanial's fights. That she had to stop watching. Every fight -if they could be called that- her brother calmly dispatched his opponents. Calmly, but mercilessly.

Vequanial raised his sword, which glowed bright red. With one swift slice, his latest opponent's block didn't just fall apart, his weapon and armor shattered, and he hit the ground unconscious. People rushed out to carry the defeated away on a stretcher. Vequanial's only response bein to sheathe his sword and quietly walk away, seemingly completely uncaring.

As she watched, Pronoia noticed that Vequanial was striking his opponents with more power than he needed to. He wasn't just winning, he was crushing them. When she noticed that, her heart sunk. Their weapons, their armor, their Qi or magical defenses. Every little aspect was completely ineffective against her brother, and completely crushed. If there weren't strong healers on standby, he'd leave his foes with significant injuries. Most likely wouldn't be able to swing their weapon correctly again after their 'fight'. Pronoia was glad the healers employed in the Four Families Colosseum were so skilled, otherwise she wasn't sure how she would move on; her pity for the defeated likely would've paralyzed her to inaction. Still, every fight left her shuddering. How could her quiet brother be so ruthless?

Could she even properly defend against his Qi? That question alone made her stiff in her fights. But ultimately she still managed to win her bouts with little difficulty.

It seemed Vequanial wrapped up Block G solidly with a win. There was no fanfare to his fights, even the finale. Which, left the audience a bit put-out and disappointed. There were simply no opponents that could match up to his strength, even in the Four Families Colosseum. For the most part, the audience thought Vequanial was not just a powerful fighter, but he was someone impressive, even amongst the Robiccs. But they had still wanted to see a fun and entertaining fight! It was the finale after all! There were even some boos and groans when he took out Block G's runner up with as little expended effort as possible. No matter his overall strength, they would not call him "Supernova" due to the lack of showmanship that could rile up the audience.

On the other hand, Pronoia's last fight drew more attention than Vequanial's. In her last fight, Pronoia found herself against Siebolt Faepierre, much to her chagrin. His family were nobles in the Robicc region. They were essentially a vassal family to the Robiccs. And one thing in particular was quite well known about them: the Faepierre family were known to be incredibly jealous of the Robiccs. They were constantly attempting to one-up and compete against the Robiccs, despite that being a fruitless endevour. At festivals and smaller tournaments in the territory, they made a huge show of it. Always promising, "We'll defeat you Robiccs this time!" It would've been admirable how dedicated and committed they were to overcoming their 'rivals'. However, in reality it was just pathetic how pigheaded and stubborn they were. Siebolt was no different.

"Don't think just because you're a Robbic that that means anything!! Watch as I, Siebolt Faepierre, will be the one to bring down this notorious Robicc this day! You will not leave this ring with your head held high! I will prove the House Faepierre is not just a match for them, but superior to the Robiccs in every way! You won't be able to match up to my 3 Sanctified Beast Blades technique!!" He shouted at some point in their fight. He even made a show of it, pressing up his glasses with one hand, and flexing his rapier with the other, stabbing the air in a flourish, going, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" with each embarrassing stab.

The only reason he wasn't arrested for such slander was because no one took him seriously. How could they? The Faepierres were known for this behavior, as if they didn't feel shame. The crowd was laughing, thoroughly entertained by the man who they viewed as nothing more than a fool. Pronoia wasn't quite that impolite, but not even she was taking what he said all too seriously.

Still, with inner sight, she saw how skilled her opponent was. He was in the finale for a reason. With all 3 Cores, she noticed how well his cores were polished. He may have been a fool, but Siebolt was a decent swordsman.

Pronoia wasn't concerned though, she was familiar with Siebolt. How could she not? She had faced many Faepierres through her life. As a vassal family, they often sparred.

"Lady Pronoia! Today, this day, I shall defeat you! Engarde!" He dashed forward in his signature pose, yellow-white aura encircling his rapier. The roar of a beast punctuated his thrust. "First Sanctified Beast! Majestic Griffin Swoop!" A transparent yellow-white visage of a griffin appeared, carrying his blade forward on majestic wings. Was it made out of Qi? Or just an illusion? Well, anyway..

Pronoia took up a defensive stance, watching his technique and his Qi closely. Her own blade ignited with aura. "Eternal Style of Fire, Fire Lord's Scarlet Menace." A bending beam of bright red flowed through the arena, right at the winged beast...

Minutes later, Siebolt fell to his knee. He was breathing heavily, and his Qi was in chaos. Unable to quiet his Qi, he huffed and huffed, finally dropping his rapier with a clang. He hung his head. He said all that, and look at him? He lost.

"Would you look at that, everyone!!! Winner of Block B! None other than the young Robicc! Another Robicc wins a Block final, are they unstoppable?! Everyone give it up for Pronoia Robicc!!!" The ref announced, his voice carrying using magic. The crowd immediately erupted in cheers.

As Pronoia was forced to bask in the glory of her win in front of the crowd, Siebolt recovered, snatched his sword, and bitterly exited the arena with his head down.

Siebolt entered the opening at the side of the arena that lead back into the interior of the colosseum. He paused in the gloom, and began speaking to the shadows. "I must know the Robicc's developing and improvement technique. Tell me how they cultivate their cores!"

"All I've learned is its called the Fire Lord's 9 Bodies of Eternal Flames." Came a menacing voice out of the darkness, as two glowing eyes lit up the dark.

"Just the name?! How will that help me?! That's not good enough! I cant win with that! Find out exactly how their technique is performed! Isn't that what you Information Guild rats are good for?! What am I even paying you for?!"

The masked individual bowed. "I shall do as you say."

"Hmph, you better! I tire of being a laughingstock to those Robiccs!" Siebolt spat, then stormed away.

The masked man's eyes followed the departing Faepierre. In the darkness, the white eyes narrowed. Dastard. You better continue to pay me. Scum like you can only exist by the 'grace of gold'.

It was pure luck that the Robiccs put up with the foolishness of the Faepierres. As a vassal family, the Robiccs were within their right to quiet them for good. Their hubris had grown too much, everyone knew this. Really, it was Robicc gold that he was being paid with.

Hmph. As if knowing the Robicc's secret technique would even help him. How long did he think they cultivated that technique? Knowing it wouldn't do a damn good. Don't you know, picking an improvement technique is only worthwhile, when it is a technique that best matches you? That was the best way to develop the most from improvement techniques. How long did he think the Robiccs acclimated their bodies to their own technique? Even the Faepierres had their own cultivation technique: Physique of Sanctified Beasts. Didn't he know this already? Fool.

Well, it was no sweat off Ghast's back, as long as he was paid.

Spoiler

After she could get away from the frenzied crowd, Pronoia saw another fight happening nearby. She recognized her sister Alina. The brunette felt bad; she knew Alina had also entered the tournament, but had avoided her due to her own tumultuous inner feelings. She felt she owed Alina an apology.

"Hello, Sister Alina," Pronoia said, as she walked over. "I've come to apologize."

Alina put a finger up to her lips, indicating silence. "Not now." She pointed towards the fight. "My friend is fighting. I do not want to disrespect her. We can converse later."

Pronoia glanced over at the fight. Well, it was true, they could talk later. "'Friend'? Who is she?"

"Her name is Sophie -er- Sophia Yurel."

"Yurel?" Pronoia repeated in surprise. Wasn't that the name of a Count in Reysha that governed the great city overlooking Reysha's Great Lake? There were two people in the ring. Pronoia's eyes focused on the smaller of the two as the girl fought. What was a Yurel doing all the way over here in Ver territory?

Alina could infer Pronoia's inquiring gaze. As she guessed it, Sophia didn't want to really be recognized. Or at the very least, she wasn't the type to care about her upbringing and use her family's name for things. That was most likely why she was just going by the 'Adventurer Sophia.'

"Hm! She's pretty good," Pronoia commented.

"Yes," Alina agreed with a curt nod.

Pronoia frowned. "But she's struggling with that spear woman."

Yes.

"She tripped." As she studied the fight, Pronoia couldn't help but think how she would act in the fight. If her opponent tripped, then she would undoubtedly take advantage of that mistake. Her eyes widened, watching as Sophia used that trip to her advantage, taking initiative against Izalia, having used it to draw the spearwoman in. Now she was pressuring!

"A feint?"

"Yes..." Alina saw it, too.

"I would've fallen for that like her opponent."

"Yes..." Alina murmured. As would she.

"She has a unique fighting style," she said to Pronoia.

"Is that why you're so interested in her?" Pronoia asked, looking into Alina's face.

Alina didn't answer, but it was clear that that was the case.

Even if the fight didn't go perfectly, Sophia pulled out a win. "Yeah! Go, Sophie!" Alina cheered, with Pronoia staring in shock. She hadn't ever seen Alina like that.

"Uhh.. good job, Sophi..a!" Pronoia followed suit. Though likely their voices were drowned out by the crowd.

Though Alina went to go meet up with her friend. "Nonsense," she responded out of nowhere, "it was a good fight, congratulations."

Pronoia had nothing really to do, so she had followed her sister, now finding herself face to face with Sophia. "Uh, yes. A good fight. I agree," the brunette said with a nod. "Oh, uh, nice to meet you. My name is Pronoia Robicc." She extended her hand. "Alina's half-sister."

-------------------------------------------
location: Cauldron Spire, Meqir
characters: Peaceroot
interacting: Femboy

-------------------------------------------
Seeing the Pixie kiss Vivi's cheek, and then the tall pixie complain about it made Peaceroot giggle. It was more than cute. To her, she just saw this cute granny doting on her granddaughter, and the granddaughter being stubborn and resisting it. Her tail flicked. "Aww~ What's the issue? Your gramma just loves you~ I think it's sweet!"

"Come, come!" Beawenna waved her hand, over to their particular workstation, surrounded by barrels of mana stones and crates of other materials and magical artifacts that whirred, glittered, gleamed, and sparkled. With one glance she could tell Vivi was not thrilled about this at all. Not the work, not what was going on, and not being forced into doing it. She clicked her tongue sympathetically, cocking her head. Her hat balanced precariously, threatening to fall. "Oh~ I can tell, sweety, how you do not want to be here. True, 6 months of work is annoying~ But in the lifespan of a witch, it's nothing. Especially a pixie witch's lifespan!"

She reached into a barrel, running her hand through the mana stones. The mana stones all moved like one, looking like rippling waves of rainbow as her hand drew through them. She lifted her hand, letting the mana stones fall through her fingers. Now it was 'waterfalls' of rainbows as the stones fell back into the barrel. "Just look at these mana stones~ Their purity is through the roof! Working with these is like a dream, don't you agree, hun? Rarely do we get to see mana stones of this quality!" She may need a bit more convincing. "I know this isn't what you want to be doing, but it's our duty as mages. This is why we become mages! To solve things like this! If not us, then who? Martial artists cannot do what we can, and Astral agents' spiritual powers rarely affect the real world. So c'mon! Let's get to work!" She clapped her hands, with a big grin on her face, eyes closed, "The faster we get our work done, the faster you can go back to studying what you want!"

"Now, I heard you were excellent with Size Manipulation magics. Here's the Enchantment spells we must infuse into these mana stones.. And the Enchantment technique the Seat showed us... " She proceeded to show Vivi the exact magics and how to perform them. The mana stones lifted in the air, and began molding together, forming a bigger cluster. Spell formula passed through the crystals like light, with enchantments inscribing onto the stones. With her skills Vivi should've been able to perform them flawlessly. She likely had her own way of performing the magic, as well, which would make it even easier and more convenient for herself. As they worked, a mage nearby wistfully mumbled to themselves, "I wonder what the tournament's going to be like.. Maybe I should join it?"

"See? Not so hard! Lets go, sweety~! Go, go!!" Peaceroot cheered, pumping a fist into the air. Nearby mages joined in. Then magic filled the air, and the current held the mesmerizing allure of mana stones.

With Peaceroot's encouragement, Dewward's supervision, and the overseeing by the Seats, the mages of the Cauldron Spire worked tirelessly the six allotted months, and finally finished the Grand Stage, just on time. In the aftermath of it, the mages all threw a party to celebrate their work being finished.

-------------------------------------------
location: Holy City
characters: Jewena, Intevar
-------------------------------------------

"It seems we have ourselves a stinkin' rat scurrying away." Intevar grunted, glancing up at the rafters, as a dark shadow passed overhead.

Jewena's eyes opened to slits, gleaming ice blue. "It seems so. Hunt the putrid thing down. No vermin shall defile our Holy City."

The big man in black snorted, then bowed. "At once, Revered Sister." Intevar quickly left with heavily footfalls, his big voice booming, calling for nearby guards. In the distance, in an angered tone, he was ordering them to go after the departing shadow. The guards seemed confused, unable to follow such a shadow. Their discussion grew heated, with the Authority growing impatient at the insubordinate guards.

A chill left her, as Jewena's crystal blue eyes gleamed dangerously. Her hands squeezed tight. Her sharpened, manicured nails piercing her fine skin in her palms, red droplets welling up and leaking out.

She managed to regain herself after a mere moment of thought. She was at Intevar's side in a moment, chilling the air around the big man. Hand softly placed upon his shoulder. Once more her eyes were closed, and she spoke in a gentle tone, "Do not fret, Intevar. Do not be too hard on them. I will aid the guards. Together, we will be sure to capture our rat."

Intevar looked to his side at her. He was chilled to his bone, but refused to shiver, stubbornly keeping his body firm. Meanwhile, the guards were staring at Jewena like she was a goddess. They began to fawn over her, singing her praises and thanking her for understanding. Jewena simply smiled at their newfound enthusiasm and devotion. That made Intevar even more nervous.

 

[TreasureSniper]

Location: Arena
Interaction: Thalia_Neko Silver Wolf

To think, a lowly merchant such as Talio would earn the praise of a renowned fighter and political figurehead such as Pronoia Robric was most unexpected but not unwelcome. "Thank you, Lady Pronoia. It is an honor to receive a compliment from such an esteemed individual. I look forward to seeing your future fights...and perhaps even take part in them." Talio spoke the last couple of words with a noticeable grin. Was he being a bit cheeky? Perhaps, but he couldn't help himself to be drawn towards an opportunity to push his creations to their limits. Build, break, and build again. A process that he loved and lived by.

And now, a new fighter has emerged, no doubt another formidable opponent worthy of being used as a case study. The announcer had introduced her as Sophia. Her match started off slow and quickly ramped as both fighters clashed with each other at great speeds. Once again, Talio made us of his visor, allowing him to enjoy the full splendor of the duel. Similar to his own fight, Sophia also uses some level of misdirection and subterfuge to her advantage, appearing to misstep only to perform a devastating counterstrike. Throughout the entire fight, he could see her ingenuity with her qi reserves, channeling it into different parts of her body for a momentary advantage. Eventually, her efforts would pay off, drawing blood from her opponent. He was impressed by how much restraint and control this fighter had it reminded him of his first few trial runs of his own armor whereby he would accidentally cleave unfortunate bandits in two as opposed to giving them superficial cuts. Like the political figurehead who came before, this individual was also one he looked forward to facing in the later matches, assuming he lasted that long.

The next fight was once again Pronoia's, causing the merchant to grin in excitement and anticipation. Perhaps if he was lucky, he would be able to see the shortcomings that can be taken advantage of during his own fight. Unfortunately for him, he would not get such a chance since the fight was largely one-sided. While visually spectacular, it gave Talio little to work with as the only thing he knew for sure at this moment was she was definitely holding back. But how much stronger was she really compared to himself? Was she just a formidable obstacle or and inscallable wall? He needed these answers, and one way or the other he will get them.

 

[Femboy]

Vivi Finii
3
​

Vivi was still disappointed by having to participate in the endeavour even by Peaceroot's encouragement. Even if her lifespan far expanded past the time the construction would take, that was still lifespan she would rather spend doing anything else. As well as using such resources to do anything else, they could have been building anything practical or to help business and prospering of others. It was just clear evidence how much people could have pulled together to do anything useful for those who needed it but they were only willing to do so for some meaningless entertainment.

"I know this isn't what you want to be doing, but it's our duty as mages. This is why we become mages! To solve things like this! If not us, then who?-" she heard Peaceroot say, mumbling a quiet "Architects?" under her breath at her own unamusement to the situation. There were people whose jobs were to be paid for construction efforts. She was not one of them, and wasn't being directly recompensated in any way whatsoever to do so.
"Those with martial can just use the hands for something productive rather than hitting things and build it themselves, and those who want to be spiritual and transcend themselves can start by transcending into some common sense" she huffed, rolling her eyes as she knew she wasn't going to be let go.
"Fine, but this is the most ridiculous thing I'm ever going to do. I hope whoever planned this is happy at how much they've wasted for something that costs them nothing, inconsiderate higher-up cretin nlaakiis... " Vivi muttered with such vulgar pixie slur under her breath, frustrated as she gave Peaceroot a brief moment of her patience to hear out what she needed to do, forming clusters with the mana stones as she tried to ignore the sound of others in hopes that she could bare with the mundane experience for the time being until it was all over.

The months would quickly grow repetitive and sickening, Vivi waiting for the moment when it would all be over and done with whereas she wouldn't need to do it any longer. She would need so much catch-up within her studies that she hoped she could smoothly move back to the life she was happy living before the entire tournament ordeal lit up and needed attending to. Overtime, the experience of such pure manastones degraded to the point where they didn't even arouse her care anymore to the interest of handling them, the resources being dumped into the process just came and went as they all did.

Eventually, it was all over and they were finished. Vivi didn't care for taking much look at the Grand Stage, taking a small glimpse at the finished product before heading back so she could rest and prepare for returning back to the peaceful life she longed for the entire six months she had to endure.
"Finally, this is the day I've been waiting for. No more manastones, or repeating the same technique, or people panicking or talking about blood sport. Things can go back to the way they were, especially after the whole tournament is over and done with... " she mumbled with a small smile, believing nobody was around to see it as she shrunk back to little pixie size and rested herself by the tiny doorway into the walls where she made her home.
"I'm kind of hungry, but I'd rather just get some rest so I'm awake for everything I want to do... " she grumbled to herself, yawning as she went to take a nap albeit being struck awake by the partying that went on throughout the Spire over being finished. She simply quietly sat watching the party with groggy eyes as a little pixie, holding a thimble of juice as she was left with the disappointment of her own thoughts.

"Considering we just finished, I thought my torture would have been over... " Vivi muttered as she sipped. "Apparently this Grand Stage's tormenting preparation phase still taunts me even now... ".

 

[Maverick Six]

Interaction: Thalia_Neko (High Inquisitor Assa) (Jewena)

Gazing into the floor -- there was little to distract the creature's own thoughts.

The words stung admittedly. The creatures jaw clenched in his mouth as his eyes gazed into nothing. And it would remember those people who rejected and spurned him. But ultimately she was one of those people. For all of Simurg's might, power and freedom -- it only mattered so much when it came to his master. It was a strange concept for a creature who, by his very deliberate design, was made to carry out tasks on it's own. And to be able to live in the wild indefinitely.

Yet for whatever reason, a few humans had their draw. And their kind dominated the earth.

"You're right." Simurgh admitted begrudgingly. Admittedly, it absorbed her words wholly. His mind practically opened by his own fear for one dear to him.

The woman asked if the monster cared for it's master. "Yes." It said without hesitation. The very same master whom it spent days dragging through the desert and caring for. Despite his own being able to reach the city in like under an hour on his own. The one who sat before him did not seem to.

As she gently reached for the creature's face, it would begin to rise without resistance. As though its strength had left it. With her command, the creature would stand now. And then it would look down at the woman with blank eyes. The creature tilted it's head curiously. In a strange way, her approach reminded him of the one whom it was trying to save. Gentle in touch but stern in words. Though this one was stern with the creature much sooner. And lacked any trace of fear.

The creature listened in relative silence to her words. It's gaze lockedupon the woman who informed him of the workings of life and society. And indeed it was true. In spite of her power, she could only be in one place and at one time. Yet the creature could not help but wonder, is this not the city of healers? Was there not someone to be paid? Perhaps by proxy. The mind would scramble for solutions. A last ditch effort was thrown out.

"If you wish gold-" But then the creature was cut off.

As it requested -- his master would not be cured. But she would be "preserved". And without the need for any funds. It's head tilted curiously again. And it's head leaned closer, wondering if he'd heard that right. Yet it knew it's hearing was well. And the rest of her sentences indicated so.

She asked if it was satisfactory.

"Yes. It is. Thank you." The creature said -- before it would receive it's blessing.

A crest appeared on it's chest. It looked down as a marking appeared. The creature oddly enough had some throughout it's body. And now it would have another marking of a wholly different nature. A marking of the divine for the beast. Despite the fact that the woman didn't seem to heal her, she still yet sought to offer enough to aide him on his journey.

The woman emphasizes the nature of their agreement. "Very well then. I will accept this blessing. And I will tell no one of your involvement. Once again, I thank you." It said. It seemed a simple enough task. To not speak was in the creature's nature. There were very few people whom it liked. The difficulty appeared to be earning their favor. But the means was one familiar. Through battle it would seek acceptance. And this would allow for better coexistence with humanity at large. Something which appeared to be becoming increasingly necessary

"I will participate in your tournament and seek to win it all. I will not kill those within. And I will seek out tablet" The creature said -- repeating the instructions. When dismissed, the creature would immediately turn and walk away. It lacked the formality in saying good-bye, often simply forgetting to do so. In truth, the creature had not yet grasped who it was it had spoken. At least not in name. She exuded an aura of dominance and power that one might have mistaken for a monarch. Perhaps even...a god. And Simurgh understood her strength. In a way however, it identified Jewena without name. As beasts did. It would remember her face, her scent and the power that she exuded. It seemed something difficult for the creature to even grasp.

Simurgh walked through the halls of the palace. And seeking out the one person whom.

"You shall be in the care of these....people. I will be gone a long time. I must go and perform tasks for them. Should I complete them, you will be healed." Simurgh explained.

"I thank you Simurgh." She began. "But this is not only for my sake. You should do so of your own sake." She raised up her finger. And playfully poked his nose. "Make sure to make a few friends, won't you?" The mastered asked. In that moment, the beast realized Jewena had been completely and utterly correct in regards to the master's wishes. Yet Simurgh did not like the way the master spoke. Almost as if to find someone to replace her.

The beast stared at her silently as it conjured up an answer. "We'll see. Stay alive and I will go as far as I can." It said. It would reach out, taking a few of it's essentials. Namely the license the guild tended to ask for. And gold for the purchasing of services and otherwise necessary items. All of it stored in a bag the creature would wear around it's neck.

And those were the last words it would speak to it's master, before the wandering devourer had struck out on a goal.

At this point in time -- it cared little for being strongest. It sought only to be strong enough to save it's friend. And if that meant to be become one of the most powerful beings in the world...then so be it.

It walked outside, standing at the gates to the grand castle. And then it abruptly stopped as it stared out into the court yard. It would raise it's arms upward. Soon however, it's hands would no longer become hands. Slowly, the began to malleable change and warm. The limber, whip like arms began to grow bone and manifest membranes not unlike those of a bat. Arms began a giant set of wings.

And soon, those wings would be brought down.

FWOOSH!​

The beast shot straight up into the air like an arrow shot into the sky -- his form becoming a blur.

Below him, a great gust of kicked up dust from the beating of it's mighty wings. Robes would push up against skin. And many of those who were of lesser constitution would find themselves pushed back slightly. As though they'd momentarily found themselves in a hurricane. Simurgh meanwhile, would ascend. His giant body going so high in the sky that his features were less and less visible. Until it was hard to tell it apart from an ordinary bird.

Meanwhile, the creature's predatory eyes would gaze upon the denizens below just fine. It's ears even would cut through the noise, and listen to their conversations from afar. It would gather information in way it felt most comfortable -- far away from people.

Flap Flap.

The creature maintained it's altitude with a few swift motions. But otherwise it found itself content to glide against the air currents for a time. It's eyes surveyed the cityscape for a time, until it found what it discerned as an arena. It's ears would listen as it heard people registering for the tournament locally. And thus the creature had found it's first objective. It craved to find the tablet. But the Dungeon was in a location unknown.

There had been a gathering. Chatter in a district where people carried more weapons than normally. And indeed, it had seemed to be where the knights inhabited and where the adventurer's were. A time of extended listening revealed to Simurgh that they seemed to be gathering in an area where they trained. Soft sand lined the bottom of it. And he could spot what appeared to be several mages -- generating barriers over the arena as combatants fought, sparred and warmed up.

Another gust of air accompanied the creature. The beating of it's wings...causing notable disruptions in the clouds leading some to question that. With but a single flap of his wings, he was propelled forward. And quickly would leave the city. The creature would soon return. But for now, it would prepare.

Simurgh ventured off into the desert for a time. For it had grown very, very hungry.

 

[Thalia_Neko]

--------------------------------------------------
location: Cauldron Spire, Meqir
characters: Empress Elisztraza Epica, Craxisys, Azhuir, Elusadimus Hephamedes, Razial, and (other Seats and mages mentioned)
interacting: Femboy

Spoiler

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

Right on cue, magical particles began amassing. The mana in the air sizzled with energy, sparking, and igniting winds that blew the fabrics and hair of all who was present. Any witches present were forced to quickly hold onto their hats, lest they lose them. Then, the magic drew together and folded inward, until a swirling portal of raw blue magic appeared, swiftly dispersing any loose sand or dust at its opening.

The gathered mages whispered amongst themselves. This was what was known as a "Self-portal", or portal magic used by an individual. Typically speaking, to travel long distances using magic, one would have to take one of the 'Way Gates'. Which was just a fancy name for portals that were set up at specific locations across the world's map. And used for convenience's sake to travel. Though, they could be expensive to take. Especially if one wanted to go somewhere more extravagant or more exclusive. Usually, those Way Gates were so expensive, they were only used by fancy nobles or high-ranked officials on business. For the common man, many Way Gates were too expensive to be used freely. To conjure a portal like the one before them on one's own, one had to be a terrifying master of the Teleportation school of magic. Not many who knew simple teleportation magic could create a portal like this. The mage in question was likely at the level of a Seat, or possibly even higher when it came to teleportation magic.

Stepping out from the magical portal was a small entourage of very important people.

Amongst them was a very thin, svelte woman who was as fair as she was delicate. She appeared much too frail to even walk atop her own legs. Like she'd break and topple if you even sneezed in her direction. In spite of her appearance, this frail woman had a dignified aura about her. The others, they looked much stronger. Perhaps they were as worried about the woman breaking as she appeared, for they all surrounded her, walking in tandem with her at their center, basking in her dignity at their center. Like their sun. Two others were with them, walking beside the group, outside of the woman's ring of guards.

Together they walked forward atop the blackened craggy earth that stretched before the spire and around the cauldron. To those observing, it appeared as if that woman did not belong. Surrounded by her Royal Retainers, the Chromatic Knights, clad in monster scale armors, she was like a small snow flower. An unrivaled, pristine white bloom amongst a sea of black. A flower, growing all by its lonesome, through its own sheer willpower. Many of the gathered mages were awestruck.

Some attempted to be friendly and cordial, attempting to greet the knights. They were met with stony silence.

On the other side, to greet the Empire's entourage, were the gathered Seats of the Great Cauldron Spire: the 7 Seats, to be exact. As well as, a group of specifically chosen mages who were justified in being there for this meeting.

"Your Highness," Craxisys began, stepping up.

The 'Blue Knight' grunted his disapproval, stepping quickly between the sage and his Empress.

"Oh, my mistake! This old man still remembers when you were but a babe. You were so cute back then," Craxisys cooed, reminiscing with old memories when he played with the young Elisztraza. Just as she began to show her aptitude in magic.

The Blue Knight growled again in warning. This time in an angrier tone.

"Ah! Aha~ I did not mean any disrespect. Forgive this old man, my mind wanders sometimes, I cannot control what my mouth rambles off~" Craxisys said, eyes closed, and grinning, his beard swaying in the breeze of the portal just behind the group he was addressing. A Seat behind him -a woman- placed a hand over her face and shook her head.

"Azhuir," came a soft, feminine voice.

At her voice, the knight in blue stepped aside.

After that interaction, the mages really didn't attempt to bother the knights again.

Craxisys stepped up, and Elisztraza stepped to meet him, raising her hand. Which he took the delicate thing and placed a kiss upon it. "Your Majesty," he corrected himself.

"Sir Craxisys. It's nice to see you again." In her red eyes, she seemed lost in wonder. This was the face of the old man she remembered when she was just a child. "You haven't aged a day. I regret that we have not seen each other since then."

He stepped back, and chuckled. "A day beyond 50 you mean! Ho ho ho~ And, Ellie, it should be I, saying that." It was true. In his eyes this woman was the one who had not aged. She appeared in her teens, maybe early 20s, but he knew she was older than that.

"Ghrr.. How d-"

It was the nickname that set him off. There were some that referred to Her Majesty simply as 'Elis', but no one dared call her Ellie anymore. All except for this bumbling oaf.

Elisztraza's hand came up in front of the knight. "Azhuir," she repeated, this time with a bit more force behind her voice, which sounded out of place from the girl. It didn't seem to fit. Her voice up until that point had been as gentle as a feather. Even raising it a bit seemed to ruin her voice. Like beautiful lace being dropped in mud and ripped apart.

Azhuir stepped back instantly, bowing his head.

"I too, regret it. Time gets away from us." Craxisys went on. And he meant that. He hadn't seen this young woman in years, and in all that time she grew up into this wonderful monarch before him. What had changed her so? If even to direct her in magic, he should've visited at least once! Even for him, he couldn't fully see her magical level with his inner sight. He wondered if that was due to her royal Empyrean magic.

"There is one I do not see among you," Elisztraza noted, as her eyes swept the Seats.

"Ah, yes.." Craxisys mumbled, scratching the back of his head. Seeing as how she was looking for an explanation, he carried on. "The Fiend Seat has been vacate... ever since -er- the Fiend Seat went down in the cauldron... 5 years ago."

Elisztraza ever so slightly frowned. She saw how this line of conversation was paining the others. "I see.. That is.. tragic. I am sorry for my negligent question. And sorry to hear that. I hear Izyamaldyr was a fine mage." If she had been more diligent, and had kept in touch with Unc- Sir Craxisys, she likely would've met Izyamaldyr personally. And all the other Seats, as well. She likely would've had a personal relationship with all of them. And grieved Izyamaldyr like they had. Perhaps she should rectify that? Sow the seeds now to start building those relationships? She was familiar with doing so; it was what she had done to ascend to the throne back home, after all.

"Anyway, Sir Craxisys, Head Magic Seat of the Great Spire Cauldron, and its Director," she addressed him formally now, and with respect for his titles, "I'd like to move along. Shall we move onto the reason we came here."

"Oh, yes! Of course!" Craxisys agreed. "Right this way!"

Truthfully, it was not far. Within viewing distance, actually. How could anyone miss it?

Up until now, the entire group had stolen glances at it, but all had kept to themselves about it, waiting for their Empress to proceed forward with their business for being here.

But now that they were collectively focusing on the matter at hand, it simply wasn't possible to ignore, or even downplay this particular matter. All present from the Epica Empire now had their complete focus on the current subject. Though, there was one amongst them, who especially was struggling with reigning himself in. He danced like there were ants in his pants.

He was another in the group. One of the three who was not one of the Chromatic Knights.

He was the Great Architect, otherwise known as the greatest Magic Structure Architect of the time, Elusadimus Hephamedes.

Before him, floating about two stories off the ground, casting the ground in a massive shadow, was none other than his life's work. The Grand Stage.

"Before we begin lets acknowledge the efforts of the mages of the Great Cauldron Spire," Empress Elisztraza began, quieting the entire group with her absolute presence. Even Craxisys, the Spire's Director. All were focused on her. There was just something about her that captivated. "As we can all see, the Grand Stage is truly a magnificent sight to behold. I came to you, with an absurd request, I know. I apologize for that. And yet, look at what you've all managed to accomplish! It is truly incredible! A world wonder has been created today! You all should be proud of yourselves. A round of applause for the mages of the Great Cauldron Spire!" She began it off, clapping her small, dainty hands, barely making any noise at all. Everyone else followed suit, clapping in congratulations. Even the Chromatic Knights. Their metal armors ringing with the effort. The mages clapped, as well. As did the Seats who were periodically involved with some of the stricter and harsher spells used to bind the whole Grand Stage together. "Now, one final thing. I will be hosting a grand party before the Grand Tournament proper for everyone who deserves it. That includes you all. So, the Great Cauldron Spire's Seats are invited to Epica. And as are you mages who worked on the Grand Stage. Do not worry, all your expenses will be paid by the Empire. I just want to acknowledge your efforts for this marvel on a grander scale, so the whole world can see! Again, I invite you to the Grand Stage Unveiling Event as honored guests. I would be extremely pleased if you were to attend. I hope you do!"

"That's all I wanted to say. Now, let us go marvel at the Grand Stage together!" Elisztraza said, lowering her hands, granting them all freedom once more.

Finally unable to stop himself any longer, Elusadimus yelped for joy when the Empress' speech ended. With his eyes glittering, he rushed over. Hands extended up to it. He looked it all over. This way, and that. And this way and back again. And then again, and again. And even again, for good measure.

Spoiler

"AHHHHHHH!!!" The man gasped, barely unable to maintain any semblance of composure. "It is my life's work, before my very eyes!!!" He cried out.

His antics was already annoying some mage. But his words were the final straw. "Hey, what do you mean? If it's anyone's life's work, it's ours! You just arrived, you didn't do a thing! Don't take credit for our work, buffoon!"

"AH!" He seemed taken aback, as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard, with hand over his chest and everything. "Who are you calling a buffoon, simpleton? I am the wonderful Elusadimus Hephamedes! The designer of this masterwork! The architect of this magnificent creation! Puh! I don't actually build, I'm not an iron worker or bricklayer or worse, some lackey! I look into the inner workings of Magical Structures. I study them. Then, I design. So, this work is as much mine as it is yours! Mine, more so, in fact! You were only going off of my schematics when building it, after all!"

"What?!" the mage angrily questioned. Actually, he had remembered seeing the name Elusadimus written on the schematics of the Grand Stage, but didn't want to say that to this assclown. This guy didn't seem like much, could he really be what he claimed to be?

But Elusadimus had already moved passed that, he was already back to fawning over the Grand Stage, having already disregarded the petulant mage trying to take ownership over HIS life's work! He wanted to do more than gawk at every little thing. He wanted to touch it! To hug it. To lay claim and ownership over it! But he was but a speck compared to the colossal landmass floating above him.

"Hm.. yes.. yes..! Oh, yes! Well, now! Would you look at this.. and that..! Flawless, just flawless!" The spectacled man babbled on, fretting over 'his work'. "Yes! Just as I designed it! I'm a true visionary!! You mages did impeccable work!" He exclaimed, turning to them and clapping his hands, a pleased look on his face. "I thoroughly commend you mages! Bravo! Bravo!" He turned towards Elisztraza, hand crossing his chest as he bowed to her. "Your Highness, I think this Grand Stage will do wonderfully!"

Elisztraza had been watching the man's antics with exasperation. Why was he like this? She would never understand. She was familiar with Elusadimus' work. Very much so. And he never ceased his embarrassing actions. "Yes, Great Architect. Very good. I th-"

"Hm. Your Highness."

"Majesty." Elis grumbled through gritted teeth under her breath, irritated at being interrupted.

"After this, I think I'd rather be called Grand Architect, don't you?"

He went there, huh? She understood what he was getting at. Sighing inwardly, she said, "Very well. Yes, with this achievement, I agree. As the Empress of Epica, I grant you this title. From henceforth you shall be known as the Grand Architect of Magical Structures, Elusadimus Hephamedes."

"Yes! Yes..! Yes!!" Elusadimus showboated a bit, pumping a fist, then catching his glasses as they nearly fell off his face with the overenthusiastic motion.

Everyone in the Epica Entourage was exasperated by his actions, though the Chromatic Knights did not show it. Who could tell behind their helmets, anyway?

Elis now addressed Craxisys, grapsing her hands together before her. "It seems you managed to fulfill my outrageous request in the allotted time." She had a smile on her face. "Impressive. Very impressive. Even I struggle to maintain my composure when staring up at that. You and your mages have outdone themselves."

The bearded man grinned, then stroked his beard. "Ah.. It was nothing, Empress.. Just another day as an All-powerful mage. Hohoho~"

Elis chuckled.

"But thank you, Elisztraza. It was a pleasure working for you."

She dipped her head, then waved a hand. "Now, about our agreed payment. Bring it forth, knights." Out of magical space, appeared chest after chest. Which the knights grabbed and one by one set them in front of Craxisys. Until there was a great number of chests. He kicked one open, and gold glittered before them all. Craxisys looked stunned in wonder for a moment.

"From the Empire's treasury. As promised. The other chests are equally full."

"And magic stones?"

"Yes, some of the chests are filled with more mana stones mined from our mana mines."

A smile drew itself across the old man's face. "Well! Then, as Director, and on behalf of the Cauldron Spire, it seems our transaction is concluded."

She nodded. "It seems so. Nice working with you," she said, sticking her hand out. Craxisys took her hand to shake, and Azhuir tensed up. But he knew better than to annoy his lady 3 times in one day.

"Razial," Elis called. The Grand Court Magician of Epica stepped up. He was the third and final person in their entourage to be addressed, and who was not a Chromatic Knight. He was also a dark individual, giving off a strange air.

"As we discussed," she said to him.

Spoiler

Just to be sure, he asked, "Is this what Your Majesty wants?"

She nodded. "Yes it is, get it done Razial."

"Very well, Your Majesty," he complied, hand coming up to his chest as he dipped his head to her. "Then we shall meet again in the Empire."

"I'll see you there."

Magic engulfed him, swirling about, and kicking up air.

"Oh, take me with you! Pleasee~eeee! Take me with you!!!" Cried the man in the glasses, rushing over and clinging onto the taller man.

Razial sighed. "Very well."

"Yes!"

With Elusadimus still clinging to him, his magic lifted him up, and he shot through the air, towards the Grand Stage, disappearing over the edge, out of sight. Elisztraza watched, feeling a bit bummed. She kinda wanted to be the first to set foot on the Grand Stage.

Just then, magic spread across the massive structure, and the entirety of the Grand Stage began to vanish from sight.

"Wha?!? What is that spell?!" Craxisys gasped, stepping forward and staring up. Everyone was staring up in awe. (Well, except for Elis and her entourage. This was what they discussed after all.)

The mana stones coating its base all glowed as the magic took hold over the structure. The Grand Stage lifted up into the air, moving off towards the West. It faded completely from view, turning completely invisible. The spell that did that was nothing short of incredible. Even for the mages of the Cauldron Spire who dealt with incredible spells daily. Just who was this Razial, the Grand Court Magician of Epica? Craxisys did not recognize him.

Anyway, that was that. And the business with the Grand Stage was over with. Well, for now, anyway. Some of the mages were staring off to where it had disappeared, feeling strange. They had been working on that for 6 months! And to just see it.. taken away like that... It left them with a profound longing and sadness. Such was the way for mages who worked on incredible feats of magic for extended periods of time.

Having got over being in awe of that strange manipulation and invisibility spell, Craxisys looked over to Elis and asked her in somewhat of a fearful and whispered tone. He had to be sure. Even for him, this was a burning question in his mind. The tower had its own ways of gathering information, but this particular question had seemingly not been answered by anyone after it was revealed by the woman beside him. "So, is.. Mirror Blade really dead?"

She turned to him, and once again, he found himself thinking she was but fresh snow. Too pure to be out here in this desert climate.

"I would not have put all this in motion if it were not, would I have, Sir Craxisys?"

A good answer. As noncommittal about it as possible. Possibly out of respect for the late Grand Ten. Yet, still very much final. The old bearded man sighed, and shook his head, "No, I suppose not. How unfortunate. Mijorine, I hope you find warmth under Emersity Theota's sun," the Director solemnly said, lowering his head.

Elis looked up at him, a question on her face. "That's a prayer of the religion of Emersity Theota. You practice it?"

It was true, the Theocracy of Emersity Theota was not too far from here, so some of its practitioners could be expected to be found even out here. Even in the Sultanate nearby, no doubt. She just didn't expect Craxisys to be one. None of her memories of the old man would indicate so.

The old man chuckled. "Eh. I'm not so sure. But my mother did, bless her soul. So, I dunno, in times like these, I'm reminded of her, and just sort of fall back into practice."

Elis hummed. "That's.. rather sweet.. Unc... Well, anyway.. I think we should be going. Or Razial will beat us back -teehee. Goodbye, Director. And fellow Seats. Mages. Remember, you're invited as honored guests to the Grand Stage Unveiling Event! I'll send you details on it later. Again, goodbye."

She dipped her head to them, which some there felt awkward at. This wonderful woman, and Empress, dipping her head at them! Then she turned, and gently walked away, once again, protected on all sides by her Chromatic Knights. Like snow, disappearing, ever fleeting. Only this time, with the two extras not accompanying her, as they had already left on the Grand Stage. Together with the knights, Elisztraza Epica reentered the portal (that was still there, mind you -truly powerful magic) and disappeared within. Once the last foot of her knights disappeared through the portal, it closed, as if it knew to not remain open any longer; not allowing any other to go through.

And with that, the eventful meeting between The Great Cauldron Spire and Empress Epica's entourage came to an end.

 

[Thalia_Neko]

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location: Aezunura Desert
characters: Veil (Nyasi), Jutte, Jewena, Intevar, Hebii (Hyss)
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Agent Veil, whose real name was Nyasi, had just left the small Information Guild cave. It was supposed to operate as a "safe house" of sorts! And was supposed to be a place an agent could relax and get some rest, protecting the agent from outside dangers. But when she got there and looked within, the masked agent couldn't believe her eyes. The cave's entrance was tossed open, which was already a red flag. Stepping inside, she passed the entrance, glimpsing a small inconspicuous symbol carved into the wood. A simple eye, which signified Information Guild. It was nearly invisible, and wouldn't be noticeable to anyone who didn't know to look for it.

But once inside, Nyasi removed her mask and hood, letting her long grey hair fall. The place was totally trashed. Supplies were either missing, or strewn about the cavern's floor, smashed and ruined. Hidden compartments were wide open, their contents tossed about. Papers were gone or ripped up. Someone had done a number on this place! Looking for something. Someone. No doubt. Her, probably.

While she had no way of knowing that for sure -anyone could technically have found this place, she supposed, the timing of it was highly suspicious. Her trained senses were telling her staying there was dangerous. So, Nyasi fit her mask and hood back in place and bolted out of there.

This wasn't good! That place was meant as a rest stop for agents traveling this long, hot desert. But there had been no supplies left at all. Undoubtedly, that had been on purpose. She had to make it to the next safe house, hoping that one hadn't been discovered. But.. what if it had? No, she couldn't think like that! If she was going to survive this, she needed the supplies from that place. But...

...Could she even make it there, though? She was already breathing heavily, and was weighed down by heavy sweat under the savage, sweltering sun.

Tsk, if only she had grabbed some supplies before leaving the Holy City! She had fled in a hurry. But even if it had been dangerous.. she should've. Thinking she could rely on the safe houses was foolish.

Even though Nyasi was one of the agents trained to operate in this part of the world, she was fleeing, rather than doing her usual work. Thus, running atop these wild shifting sands wasn't easy.. The stress of what was happening was making it harder than usual on her.

Fighting back exhaustion, Nyasi found it easier to reminisce about old times, and why she had even become an agent in the first place.

~~

"Jutte!" A little girl's voice cried out, followed by laughter as she was tackled by a wolf-like creature.

The wolf-like creature was Jutte. She was a beastman.

Jutte was an unfortunate girl. As a Beastman, there were those that thought her "exoticness" was enticing. So she was stolen by 'brave' slavers straight out of Beastman territory. Then, she was sold off to rich people who had made their own home in a dry land of caked earth in Aezunura, right on the edge of an oasis, leveraging it to prosper. However, Jutte didn't perform up to the standards that the ones who bought her wanted, and they punished her heavily. Their beatings were so bad, they left the girl crippled. Only when she was in a "dog form" could Jutte actually run around and play. When she was in her humanoid form, she was wheelchair bound.

"Hahahaha!! Jutte!! C'mon! Stop it! Ewww!" a young Nyasi laughed, play-fighting with the dog-girl. As Jutte licked all over her face, blonde tail flicking happily. That's why she often was seen playing with the blonde dog; Jutte preferred her dog-form.

At some point, Jutte escaped her slavers. The only special trait from Jutte, could be said that she had the natural ability to change between a humanoid form and an animal form. Her escape came, when she realized this unique ability, bravely running away in dog form.

Usually slaves could not disobey or run away from their masters. A magical binding literally stopped that from happening. But as slavery was being rooted out across the world, slavers had stopped using it, since its magic was traceable. This allowed Jutte to escape.

Which led to further tragedy.

Jutte was Nyasi's adopted sister. Nyasi was a native to the Sultanate. She eked out a meager existence with her mother, in that harsh environment on the edges of the desert were many random savage tribes managed to make their home. And were not regulated by the sultanate proper. One day, Jutte, in dog form, ran into the village, and collapsed right before a young Nyasi. She observed how the dog was emaciated and panting. The young girl was slightly confused, but intrigued! Not many things happened there in that village, and Nyasi had never seen a dog before.

She brought the small pooch into her small hut and gave her some water, and then some desert lizard meat to eat. Which angered her mother enough to get an earful later in the day. But Nyasi made a good argument, and they kept the pup, officially making her the third member of their small family. It was a short while later that they found out the truth about Jutte. Since she didn't have the strength to transform when they first met. Jutte went from pet to adopted sister. They lived there for a time, all three becoming much happier, due to the new presence in their lives.

However, Jutte's masters were not happy. They had been pursuing the mutt.

They followed her to the village. But instead of wanting their slave back. They wanted something else. Some of the slaves were not as lucky as Jutte, and had been slaves before slavery was on its way to being outlawed. They were branded with slave magic, so the brand remained. But they were used to terrible treatment, and worse, used to performing terrible orders by now. Their broken spirits didn't even question or fight back when they were given their next orders. Their masters ordered the eradication of the village. And the bound slaves fulfilled that order, like zombies.

They went about, tearing through the village, slaying all the weak villagers, and burning the small huts. It was a bloodbath. The blood from that village hydrated the desert that day.

Nyasi had been out to the small, remote oasis by happenstance, retrieving water from the oasis that was on the verge of drying up. When she got close to the village, she saw smoke rising in the air, and heard screams of terror. Dropping her pail, spilling the precious resource into the sand, the young girl ran through the burning village, smoke stuffing her nose, making her cough and bawl. "Mommy! Mommy!! Jutte!! Jutte!" She called.

That's when she came to a stop in front of her house, staring in horror. Falling to her knees, she screamed and wailed. Jutte, in dog form, was draped over her mother. A single thick stab wound through the both of them. Jutte had been stabbed straight through as she tried to protect her adoptive mother.

Seeing the scene before her broke Nyasi's psyche. And just as she was about to be slain, someone rescued her, cutting down her would-be killer.

"Girl. You're the only one I've managed to save. Would you like to live? Come with me." The voice was from another woman. Nyasi turned to look at her, and the woman's outstretched hand.

Truthfully, Nyasi couldn't remember what happened next. But she supposed that woman had saved her. Her next memory was training to work in the Information Guild. It had helped her. Gave her a purpose. While it didn't translate exactly, Nyasi grew to understand that that tragic event happened because of ignorance and intolerance. She wanted to stop such tragedies from occurring again. And the greatest weapon in that fight was information.

"Jutte..."

Nyasi's eyes opened. A few tears managing to leak down her face, in spite of being dehydrated. Why had she remembered that? It only made her feel worse.

Even if that memory was terrible, it had done its job. She was dragging her feet through the orange sands, on her last legs. But she had managed to trudge forward, body working on autopilot.

Blinking, Nyasi thought she saw something in the distance. Good thing too, she was on the verge of collapse. There was a strange glimmer on the sand. She had just barely managed to make it this far and see it. It appeared as if it was on the horizon. Like a heat wave, or some sort of heat-induced illusion.

But Nyasi knew better.

This was common for Information Guild agents. They used this particular magic to find other agents out in the desert. Others would ignore them, thinking it was nothing more than a mirage. What a stroke of luck.

Drawing up some final inner strength, Nyasi forced herself over. She stepped forward, entering into the illusionary glimmer.

When she stepped inside, she found she was surrounded by some craggy rocks sticking out of the sand. There was a bigger brown rock in front of her, which she sat down on, taking a heavy gasp of air.

"You look like hell, Veil." Came a slightly sinister feminine voice.

Veil's attention was drawn towards that voice. There, sitting perched on another rock, was a masked individual. Another guild member. She was known as the Silent Walk, or the Silent Slither --amongst other various monikers and labels. Codename, Hebii. That was "snake language" for, well, snake.

Spoiler

But she knew Hebii personally. Meaning they were agents that actually knew each others' names. Which was usually against the rules, but...

"Hyss. You were here? Gosh, I'm saved." Nyasi managed, closing her eyes, and relaxing.

"I wass invesstigating the coasst," Hyss explained. Hissing in 'human language', indicating it was not her primary language.

"Huh? Were you? Good.."

"You're in bad shhape. Here." Hyss handed her a pouch of water. It was quite full. Well, when the woman didn't take it, the short girl pressed it against Nyasi's cheek, startling her with the sudden chill.

Nyasi's eyes flew open. A second later, she took the pouch, and began downing the water in earnest. Water haphazardly leaked all over her mouth and down her front. Then, she took a moment to raise up the pouch and gave it a squeeze, dowsing herself with the cool water. "Ahhhhhhhhh..!!" She gasped out, relishing in the feeling. The feeling of life returning to her. She had felt like she was on death's door.

"Thank you, Hyss."

"Shh, don't mention my name!" She hissed, eyes darting around.

Even here, in this space covered with glamor magic, in the middle of the desert, she was thorough. And paranoid.

But one had to be thorough in this profession.

Heh. Hyss was so dedicated. It made Nyasi feel stupid and pathetic.

"Oh! Hyss!"

"I ssaid -"

"I've got something to tell you!" Nyasi exclaimed, suddenly remembering what was happening on her end. "It's urgent news!"

Hyss shut up. Nyasi sounded perturbed, and this sounded as urgent as she was making it. Actually, this was highly unusual. Agents only met with each other if they needed to pass on information, or if they needed to intervene in each others' work. It seemed this was what was happening, though it had been total coincidence. Plus, using her observational skills, Nyasi's situation was dire. She lacked supplies, was dehydrated and exhausted. She must've fled. That meant she definitely had important info to relay. So Hyss shut up and listened. A second later, her eyes widened, hearing what Nyasi had to say.

Nyasi told her exactly what had happened, and what she had heard, verbatim. Beginning with her assignment, and each of her movements until she came upon what she had. Then she explained how someone had noticed her and how she had found the cave in disarray. But what was most surprising was what she had to say...

Hyss looked down. "Huh... An Authority under Emersiiiity Theota izz working withh a monsster? That'ss.. very sstrange." She repeated, nearly unable to believe her ears. That.. was unheard of. For what reason would someone under Emersity Theota work with a monster? "Yesss. Thiss izz good information! Good work, Agent Veil!"

Nyasi took a deep breath. She felt a weight lift off of her shoulders. She had managed to pass on the information. Though the 'why' of it was still unknown, this was good enough for now.

"Where did that monsster go? What wass it?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to that, I lost track of it as I stayed to listen. It's likely still in the city. The tournament is taking place in the Dominion of Campaign and Conflict. So that's likely where it is."

Hm. That made sense based on what Nyasi had told her. "Alright. I'll go ahead. You take your time to recover, here'ss ssome suppliez. I'll deliver thiss news to the guild."

"That sounds good, thanks again, Hyss." Nyasi agreed. Hyss was already faster than her. Plus she needed to recuperate some strength like the other agent had said. This information was valuable enough to rush it to the guild.

Hyss paused to correct her once again, but then didn't, and just said. "You're welcome.. Nyassi."

With that, the agent slipped gracefully out of the glamor magic, disappearing into the desert.

Nyasi leaned back, resting her back against the rock wall. The meeting with Hebii had gone well. She hadn't expected to meet another agent so soon! Hyss gave her some water and food, and now that she had removed the burden of info off her shoulders, she was feeling much lighter. She had effectively done her duty. But still, with this heightened sense of danger, she knew she had to leave the area. She couldn't remain there if the Holy City's officials were actively hunting her.

Something spiked her anxiety. Huh??! Nyasi glanced back, and saw a rolling cloud of dust on the horizon. The dust cloud was barreling towards her at unnatural speed. Speaking of which, shit!

Nyasi's time to relax was over too soon. The glamor was wearing off since its caster had left. How did they know where she was in this vast desert?! How could they have already picked up on her trail?! Shit, shit! Time to go.

She had recovered enough. She bolted out of her hiding spot.

Qi aura flooded her feet, to strengthen them and quicken her pace. Her feet pelted the sand. Now she was actively fleeing for her life!

Hyss' presence was long gone. So, the little snake was that much faster, huh? Heh heh.. what a joke.

Nyasi was satisfied with her speed, but the cloud on the horizon seemed to be getting bigger. Were they really gaining on her? Holy knights from the Holy City? They could keep up with an Info Guild agent? No way..

!!!

Suddenly a large beam of radiant light struck the area just in front of her, forcing the masked woman to slide to a stop. The beam of light was like a large pillar that had fallen from the sky. It struck the earth with a powerful impact, and continued to batter the ground. Eventually it ended, with the beam of light dissipating. Leaving the area where it struck glowing like crystal, the sand turned to glass.

Atop the new platform of glass stood a woman at its center.

The woman glowed like the light that had just disappeared. She towered there regally, standing at 6 foot 5. Her garb was pure and pristine.

Jewena!!!

A fear unlike any she had felt before and that she couldn't describe, gripped her soul.

Shit!

Crap crap crap crap, but how?!?!

You're telling me I couldn't escape her?! Is this the power of a Grand Ten?!

Somehow this woman found her! That was the only explanation. No one else could manage it.

Nyasi glanced back behind her, hearing the pounding of feet and clinking of armor and weapons. Now that her escape had been cut off, the pursuers behind her had caught up! A squadron of Holy Knights appeared at Veil's back, boxing her in. Inquisitors! They had a nasty reputation. Their armor gave off a more dangerous vibe. With a sun motif that ended in nasty metallic spikes, and black and red colors over their uniforms. Even Inquisitors were mobilized.. for her? Stepping towards them caused them to whip out their weapons, either swords, or spears, or maces, and place them crossing each others' to block off her path.

Gritting her teeth beneath her mask, she looked back Jewena. Even though the Inquisitors were scary, the woman standing before her was the more imminent threat!

For an Information Guild agent, she was especially trained to escape pursuers. Even a group of them. But Jewena.. could she escape her?! Seeing as how Jewena was standing before her right now.. likely not! Shit. What bad timing! Hebii had just been here a moment ago! If Hebii were still here...

"You Information Guild rats have an exceptional sense of smell for detail. Time and time again you appear like an infestation," Jewena began in a dominant tone of voice. Beside her, the Authority of Dark Sun joined her up on her glass platform.

"But some scripture is sacred, and is not meant for the masses." Her eyes peeled open. Glinting blue slits.

She raised up her hand.

"Take a hint and disappear. No one wants you sniffing around."

Intevar interjected. "Jewena?"

"Do not fret, Intevar. I shall handle this myself."

"But this was not what we discussed..." He said, glancing over at the troops. Why bring the Inquisitors here if she was just going to handle it herself? He noticed her blue eyes looking in his direction. That made the man close his mouth. He gave in. If this was what she wanted, well, of course it would be so.

Nyasi took up a sudden defensive stance, reaching for a hidden pair of daggers, as magical energies spiked. Golden circles of written formulae appeared around her. Numerous magic circles, all golden appeared, with her at their center. Some rose up, like a pillar towards the sky. Three balls of flame appeared in the sky, growing in size.

"Three Suns," the woman began, power behind her voice.

"With Emersity Theota as our witness, I command three suns to rise. Our quarry stands before you unobscured. Under your guidance, ready to be judged by your brilliance! Find her wanting, and unleash your blazing fury!"

!! Nyasi knew it. That was a dangerous spell! She couldn't let its incantation be finished!

She didn't have the luxury to be precise, nor did she have the wherewithal to control herself in this moment. Blue aura erupted from Nyasi, then it swarmed around her daggers, and quickly melded to it, changing to a bright silvery color as her Qi condensed and purified in real time. In one swift motion, she threw her dagger with force, her Qi empowering the muscles in her arm to turn her throw deadly. Her dagger aimed straight at the woman's face.

Suddenly a big black blade casually came up and blocked the dagger with a plink that sounded out, echoing and ringing like a bell. Her dagger lost all momentum, the Qi dissipating, falling uselessly to the glass platform with more pitiful plinks.

Nyasi's mouth fell. How had her attack been so ineffective?! Her eyes glanced to the side, taking in the image of the man. She had been so focused on Jewena, that she had forgotten Intevar was there!

"Tsk tsk tsk," the big man waved a finger. "Just wait, transgressor."

NO, she couldn't do that!

"-Lumina Tria Soltea Emersitysin Juniamente!"

!! Nyasi's attention was drawn back to Jewena.

The three suns aligned and before Nyasi could do anything else, she was transfixed by the light now crashing down from them.

"Vanish in the light, vermin."

"Hyyyaaaaaaaaaa!!!" Nyasi screamed out as the vast beam of light struck down on her, burning away her mask and hood, revealing a pretty face contorted in agony. It barraged her under its resplendent weight. A magical and divine attack unable to be thoroughly described. The Inquisitors behind her stared in wonder at the magic Jewena displayed. They dropped their weapons and fell to their knees, clasping their hands, bending their heads in prayer.

Nyasi felt silly, a moment ago she had been wishing Hyss were here, but perhaps it was good that her fellow agent wasn't. She had managed to pass on the information, and Hyss was long gone with it. Jewena didn't even know. Nyasi had wanted to do more. She had bigger dreams. But, as the light overtook her, she found herself smiling.

"Jutte..."

The light eradicated the area. Leaving a hollowed impression in the ground as it finally dissipated. Only a blackened mark that smoked was at the center of that crater.

Intevar and the Inquisitors all gazed upon the scene, stiff in awe and fear. While Jewena recited a prayer, clasping her hands together as her spell dissolved and the 3 suns that had cast the land in an otherworldly light all disappeared from the sky.

"You have departed under Emersity Theota's sun. Let it be the will of the Preeminence to grant you mercy when you meet her in the realm of gods."

With that, the company's mission had come to a close.