Vivere Militare Est

[Lagunamov]

I think you'll bore me to death before you even order to have that dropped on my neck.
Epicon

The old geezer in charge of Orpheus above raised his hands, the general population growing silent. Elrick was growing impatient, the suspense killing him. Just, not as literally as the guillotine was about to. Even though people were starting to calm down to hear the man talk, they were still giving him looks that could easily destroy a world out of the sheer hatred and sadistic satisfaction they showed. “Now I remember why I didn’t want to come back.”

Elrick’s eyes widened, however, as soon as he noticed two familiar faces moving along the crowd towards him, eventually reaching the front row. He tried to keep his cool, even though inside he wanted to yell at them to run the fuck away from there. He knew they were about to do something stupid and get in trouble. Plus, he certainly didn’t want them to see him meet his end.

“Citizens of Eurydice,” it had begun. The man’s voice was echoing loud through the area, more than you would expect from someone that old. “We are gathered here today to impart justice,” His Excellency continued, his voice resonating with that tint of wisdom that had evidently captivated the people. “Today, we punish the harbinger of Shadows. The wolf in sheep’s clothing that devoured us from within for years, sinking us into the deepest darkness,” he was really getting into it. Elrick just rolled his eyes as he continued.

“However, we as people have grown stronger and wiser. Now, we can see into the darkness, pierce it with out sight and point out the source of the corruption,” and there he went on rambling. Typical for a leader deceiving people. They really needed to come up with new tricks. “Now, the final preparations shall commence. Let us pray.”

”Pray? You’ve really gone all the way brainwashing people, haven’t you, you old fart,” Elrick cursed under his breath, the soldiers pushing him forward and turning him around. They forced him to lie on his back on the guillotine. That was… certainly unusual.

“My honored brethren,” the man started, an echo of people reciting after him following. “We come together… To unite as one… Against those that are damned…” Elrick’s leg had been tied to the table now. “We show no mercy,” a rope binded his chest to the table. “For we have none,” his head was locked in place, only the sight of the sharp blade above, the sky, and a bare glimpse of His Excellency within Elrick’s sight. “Our enemy shall fall… As we apprise… To claim our fate… Now and forever… We’ll be together… In love, and in hate.”

”What a sick way to end a prayer,” Elrick thought to himself, his face clear with disgust. Orpheus’ leader looked down upon him from above, a small smirk on his face… and a flash of a translucent creature behind him, probably impossible to see without the clouds as backdrop.

[Fate]

All Hell Breaks Loose
--

The crowd quieted, the man in charge starting to speak. Lillian was trying not to listen to what he was saying, already knowing it was wrong. She just stood there and tried to think of what to do, how the hell they were going to stop this. What if she started shooting at the guards? Would that even do anything? There weren't exactly a small amount of them either. And it would bring attention to herself and just her face the same fate. What if she tried using the Keyblade? Hell, like she knew how the fuck to do that. Shit.

She bowed her head as the prayer started, not closing her eyes like the rest. Instead, she slowly slid her hand down to where her gun was, grabbing a hold of it and holding it with both hands. This was her only plan and she didn't expect it to succeed. At all. But if Elrick was going to die, he might as well get a show before he did. As the prayer was ending, she looked back up at Raen and gave him the look of 'I'm about to do something really fucking stupid that's going to get me killed'. He could choose whatever he wanted, but she said she wasn't going to leave here without her friend and she meant it.

Once the prayer ended, she found one guard as her temporary target. With quick reflexes, she raised her gun up and shot at him. Not expecting it, the guard got hit and the shot exploded upon impact, causing the couple of guards near him to catch the recoil. Grinning, she jumped over the barrier that was blocking the public from getting any closer and continued shooting. It didn't look like any archers were here today.

Perfect.

[Lillian used Demolition and will stay activated for this post and the following. Four posts until next use, three uses remaining]

[/font]

[Nothingness]

Go down fighting

Raen's mind wouldn't shut off--it was on fire as it ran through plans. There was no safe option for them to save Elrick. Trying anything would alert the guards and get all three of them killed, not trying anything would get Elrick killed, and any other remotely intelligent plan ended the same: they all died.

He didn't hear a single word said by the man said, and only barely noticed Lillian's look. When their eyes met, he reached for the gun she gave him. Before she acted on her own crazy plan, Raen was already walking up to a guard whose head was bowed, just like the rest. The guard didn't even know what happened until he pulled the trigger.

Be it because of the current state of anxiety in his heart, the blast of darkness was powerful enough to pierce through the man's head, getting the attention of the others. Lillian's attack soon came, and the crowd was in a panic while the guards hurried to take them down. "Come on!" Raen shouted, madness in his eyes. He looked over his shoulder, watching Lillian run passed the guards. "I'll cover you!"

Five guards came at him as he ran backwards, each bearing a longsword. He waited until they raised their weapons before a massive floe of ice appeared beneath him, binding the guards to it. Tearing the sword out of a surprised guard's hand, he quickly spun in a circle, cutting clean through all five of them.

He waited on the hunk of black ice, just daring the soldiers to come near him. Raen didn't even notice that the fog coming off of himself was black, not the usual white.

[Raen used Frost's Damnation, three posts until next use]

[Fate]

Good, you figured out my plan.
--

And now there was chaos. She'd have to thank Raen later-- wait that wasn't going to happen, never mind. He was covering for her, good. Now she just had to keep her distance as she kept her aim steady, shooting at the guards that were quickly approaching her. She had to say that it was really weird to just be using one gun compared to her usual two, but the plus side was that her accuracy improved. And it was helping to keep her alive for longer.

Oh yeah, there were soldiers behind her too. Two men armed with spears were running to attack. Before either of them could try and get her, she whipped around and shot between them, sending them both flying backward. Unfortunately, that caused a swordsman to get a hit on her while her back was turned. "Fucking coward," she muttered, abruptly turning around to shoot said soldier in the face. The explosion sent him to the ground.

Things looked good right for the moment. Whoever knew how long this was going to last. There were a lot more soldiers closing in on both of the-- wait was that black fog coming from Raen instead of white? That was... different. She thought it was supposed to be white. It was being effective, so she couldn't complain.

[/font]

[Nothingness]

C'mon, I dare you

The guards weren't sure what to do, faced with something like this. A few brave ones tried to attack him, but the moment they touched the ice their fate was sealed. A quick downward swing of the stolen blade finished them off quickly. Still, Raen knew that the actual effects of the black ice were wearing off, as the large hunk was quickly melting.

Walking over to a fallen guard, he absorbed the cold from his body, and found the black fog around himself grow. Raen's mind was completely lost in the thrill of battle, now. And the guards foolish enough to mistake his pause to empower himself as an opening met a swift end.

Slashing his new blade along the ground, he cut down eight separate guards with blades of black ice, freezing others to the ground with the trails left behind. For a brief second, his face was contorted into a display that could only be described as demonic. And then, raising his arm up, he slammed it into the ground, letting a corridor of darkness consume it, creating a large mirror of it beneath some of the frozen guards. "Consume them."

Yellow eyes glinted in the portal which soon expanded upwards in the form of a massive wolf's head, coated in ice. It snapped its jaws on the guards, quickly dragging them along with itself into the corridor. As the tip of its nose vanished, the corridor burst in a spectacular display of ice shards being thrown everywhere. All of the guards that had once thought of attacking Raen began to take a few steps back.

Raen laughed softly to himself, reveling in their fear. But somewhere in his heart, he was trying to get back control. The darkness only had a small foothold on him right now, but it was trying its damnedest to get more, and he wasn't going to allow that.

[Raen used Arctic Grasp and Ice Beast, four posts until next use, three posts until next use]

[Lagunamov]

A bit too on the knick of time, don't you think?
With Great Power

The prayer had ended… and from what Elrick could hear, everything had gone to hell. He couldn’t see anything other than the sky and the smartass above them all, so the most he could tell was that Lillian and Raen were apparently fighting the soldiers behind him. Those shots were certainly easy to recognize. “Goddamnit, I say run, they run in the opposite direction,” he was cursing under his breath, moving around as much as he could, trying to loosen the bindings and free himself, to no avail.

Screams from people running away could be heard, evidently wanting to get away and avoid getting caught in any possible crossfire. ”Come on, I need to get out of this crap,” Elrick kept trying to release himself, but it appeared it was something he wouldn’t be able to do on his own. “Come on, come on… I just need this shit to loosen up a little bit…” he kept going, unaware that a faint aura was starting to surrounding him.

High above and overlooking the mayhem, the leader of the Orpheus Order had noticed Elrick’s attempts at freedom, the sight pitiful in his eyes. “People may no longer get to see your head fall in person, but they will see it impaled on a stake,” he taunted, pointing his arm at him. The creature Elrick had managed to catch a glimpse of fully materialized, a humanoid clad in dark armor dashing down towards the guillotine and destroying the level and releasing the chain that held the blade of the decapitation device to fall on its victim.

“Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck…” the fall of the blade seemed to take ages from Elrick’s perspective, the adrenaline surging through his veins hitting an all time high. His free eyes was twitching, seeing the sunlight reflected from the blade as it approached slowly. But no, it wasn’t the guillotine’s blade that moved slowly. Everything seemed to had started to move at inhumanly slow speed.

The blade was close, less than a meter away and starting to speed up slightly. Elrick closed his eye, almost resigned. “ I never managed to get those two out of this hell…” he thought as he exhaled slowly, his mind resigned to his fate. But his heart still beat with a desire to fight onwards.

He heard a crashing sound, wood turn asunder and steel falling flat on the platform. Elrick’s eye opened up in shock, a large creature standing above him, its left arm having destroyed the guillotine sideways and sent flying the blade across the platform. The creature was looking down on him now. Deep down, it was like looking into a mirror.

The creature lowered itself on a knee, unfolding its wings and covering Elrick in a circle with them as it started to destroy his bindings. Soldiers had jumped onto the platform and started to attack the beast, but it paid no attention to them. They were nothing but flies in its eyes. Once it had released its master, it flicked its wings outwards, causing the attacking soldiers to fall back.

Elrick stood next to the demonic warrior that towered over him, turning his head towards His Excellency and smirking. His armored monster was floating clear in the light of day behind him, evidently awaiting commands. Elrick ripped the bandage off the right side of his face, revealing the three scars caused by Hammond's own summoned creature. "Not so tough anymore, not that I have one of my own!?" he mocked at him, picking up the severed chain from the guillotine. It wasn't a sword, but it would suffice.


[The Other Self activated. Will remain active for up to two more posts.]

[Fate]

Hell. Fucking. YES.
--

Her shots weren't powerful anymore, which meant she had two options. One, continue fighting with one gun and hope that it worked-- maybe she'd get her other back from Raen, but with that beast he summoned, she wasn't going anywhere near him. Two, attempt fighting with the Keyblade. Well, she'd like to at least see what it's like to wield one before she dies since that was probably going to happen soon. Fine.

Gun went away and the Keyblade was summoned in her hand. The soldiers that were coming to fight her gave her a confused look for about a millisecond before continuing to attack. She ran at one of the swordsmen, bringing down the Keyblade. The swordsman blocked her, holding that position before she moved back and tried to go for a horizontal blow. He blocked that too. Dammit.

She tried again, this time with a little more strength behind it. His guard was broken, allowing her to get a few hits and move onto the next. She glowed for a brief second, moving quicker in her attacks on the guard. He went down fast, Lillian going to the next. It was different, but she sort of liked it. There was definitely no other weapon like it. She'd use it for as long as possible until the fighting was done and her and Raen either surrendered or were killed. That was what was going to happen to Elrick any--

Fuck. Yes. She didn't know what the hell he summoned or how, but the point was that this summon just freed him and he was on his feet again. She couldn't help but grin. "Nice to see you again! she yelled to him, jumping at the guard in front of her and attacking with a hit to the side. They might actually have a fucking chance now.

[Lillian used Guard Break and Speed Demon. Three posts until next use with one use remaining, three posts until next use with four uses remaining]

[/font]

[Nothingness]

Initiating plan: "HOLY SHIT AWESOME!"

Some guards had plucked up the courage to try and get closer to Raen and attack him with their spears. With a little smirk, he fired two spears of ice at the ground just inches away from them. One gutsy soldier laughed and made to run passed them, but soon found his legs and side riddled with sharp shards of ice, while the others backed off again, some finding the ice stuck in their armor or having actually dug into their skin.

Walking towards the wounded solider, Raen brought his sword into him, quickly ending his life. He could feel a powerful surge of darkness through him as he did this, and staggered backwards, thinking frantically. "No, no, no! Not now. But, wait." He remembered something from when the Champion helped him control it. "Fighting it would only make it worse. The darkness is mine--it won't control me if I don't let it."

Relaxing, he closed his eyes, letting the darkness come over him, and suddenly felt much better both physically and mentally. When he opened his eyes, he saw another guard going to attack him, but stopped and looked up, sheer terror in his eyes. Raen followed his gaze, and saw Elrick standing, alive and well, with a completely badass looking demon-thing next to him. "Hell yeah, man!" He cheered, punching the air.

Looking back at the soldier, Raen brought his blade alongside the man's stomach before stepping forward and kicking him backwards. If any of these guys still wanted to mess with them, he had to give them credit.

[Raen used Dark Blizzara, two posts until next use]

[Lagunamov]

Ok... time to think of an exit plan.

The tables had now been turned, for with Elrick’s freedom, the other two would be able to focus on beating the crap out of the current soldiers in the area. Of course, every reinforcement in the world was probably on its way to the location, for with so many officials and even their leader there, suppressing the insurgence was a top priority. “Insolent little boy! You will die here today even if I have to rip your heart out myself!” His Excellency yelled, his dark creature dashing down towards Elrick.

The demonic warrior, however, had different plans. It took its place in front of its master, locking fists with the armored creature in a power struggle. The one in dark armor appeared to be slightly stronger, slowly pushing the demon back, but this tried its best to stay fixed in place. “Fight as much as you want, Thanatos will destroy you!” the man yelled from above with a cocky smirk that would fade only instants later.

Using his summoned creature as a platform, Elrick jumped from its back into the air and towards the leader of the Order, the almost three meters chain he had picked up glowing with green energy on his hands. Elrick gave him an evil grin, spinning the chain on his side a couple of times to gain impulse, and then violently whipping down on His Excellency with it. The older man managed to avoid it, just barely, jumping off his platform and landing on the ground below, taking cover from the debris created from his now destroyed floating platform.

Not giving him even a chance to catch his breath, Elrick flung the chain towards him once more as soon as he landed on the ground, sending an energy slash at him and knocking him off his feet. At the same time, the demonic warrior had changed his balance backwards, taking a hold of the armored creature by the neck and slamming it against the ground, cracking its armor.

Cracking the chain between his hands, Elrick walked slowly towards his Excellency, looking down on him. “Using others for so long, you’ve lost how to fight yourself!” he yelled as he brought the chain up again and attacked him… only for him to vanish into a dark portal a fraction of a second before he was struck. The armored creature remained locked to the ground by Elrick's, which could only mean one thing...

"Did you really think that would be even remotely enough to defeat me!?" the man's voice echoed high above them, almost fifty meters into the air and glowing darkness oozing out of him, his aura increasing every passing second. The dampness of darkness was stronger than anything Elrick had ever sensed before, meaning only one thing.

He was about to crush them all in one blow, and anyone caught in between.


[TheOther Self active. One more post of use.
Garudyne Blade activated. Two more posts of use, three more ranged attacks available.]

[Fate]

And we were doing so good too.
--

She was slowing down now. The amount of soldiers that were in that area alone was frightening-- where the hell were they all coming from?! The thing was that now that Elrick was free and not about to have his head cut off, they needed to get the hell out. But with all of the soldiers and the main guy in charge being there, that made things a little more difficult. Lillian was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to be able to get out of here.

With the Keyblade, she blocked an incoming spear attack and held her position. She then pushed back and sent him back a couple feet, creating an opening and allowing her to get a couple side-hits in. And then, just then, the main guy started floating in midair. Darkness was pouring out of him and it was only getting stronger. Well shit, that wasn't good at all. She could just feel it. And whatever he was planning to do next, it wasn't going to result in any good for the trio.

Yeah, they needed to get out of here. Now. She started to fight with another spearman, deflecting his attacks. "Look I know kicking ass is great, but we're about to get our asses handed to us if we stick around." The problem with trying to find a way to escape? Too. Many. People. A lot of the townspeople had left once chaos started breaking loose, but they were still there. While Lillian was pretty sure they could clear a path, there was no way she wanted innocent lives on the line.

[/font]

[Nothingness]

And it all goes pear-shaped

For every soldier he cut down it seemed that two more appeared. Worse, his darkness was quickly weakening, and that meant so was he. The soldiers were still keeping their distance, though a lot of them had started to use spears on him, seeing as how Raen was using a sword against them.

To make matters worse, Raen looked up and saw the old man that was planning on executing Elrick was talking, and was literally overflowing with darkness. His body almost seized up from the sheer amount clogging his senses, as well as the immense amount of hatred coming from him. "Yeah, escape plan would be good right about now!" He said, batting away a soldier's spear.

They didn't have much longer to get away, and he had even less in him to keep fighting right now. Time was definitely running short.

[Lagunamov]

Yeah... Not gonna stay for the light show.
Ultimatum

Time was of the essence. The Darkness manifesting out of His Excellency was growing strong to the point it suffocated the senses. He had raised his arms into the air, a ball of energy starting to form and grow. It wasn’t good. “If he concentrates his power into that, he can easily flatten the entire central island,” Elrick was starting to grow frantic. He dashed towards the edge of the platform, hitting a couple of soldiers away with the chain and sending them away.

“We are taking a ship from the warehouses!” he yelled at his friends as he jumped off the platform, at the same time as his demonic partner mustered the strength to throw the armored creature away, crashing against the cathedral. The struggle with that creature had not just tired the creature slightly, but caused it several cuts and even missing parts of its scale armor. Regardless, both of them dashed forward, fighting against the soldiers separately.

Kicking one last soldier in the head from behind before it could attack Lillian, while the demon crushed another’s torso that was heading towards Raen, Elrick summoned a Corridor of Darkness in the spot right between both pairs. “We go, NOW!” Elrick grabbed Lillian and ran for the corridor as fast as he could, while the demon picked Raen by the neck of his coat and threw him into it before fading himself. With all three of them gone, the Corridor closed before anyone else could pass through it.

Infuriated at the sight, the Order’s leader’s face became distorted with rage. “Launch an assault party on the Industrial District immediately! Get every ship in the air if it’s necessary! They are not leaving this place alive!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, the armored creature he had dubbed Thanatos returning to his side, the cracks on its armor fixing themselves on their own. His Excellency stared at the orb of energy on his hand now, its purpose removed. He cringed, launching it into the air high above, exploding into a dark ball of fire almost the size of a block.

“Ok, I lied. This isn’t a warehouse,” on the other side of the Corridor stood Elrick. He had opened the dark portal into Orpheus’ base. Particularly, somewhere close to the Hangar. It was easy to tell from the large dark bricked corridor they were in… and from the corpses of soldiers standing at the hangar’s door, now that he started to pay attention. Half a dozen guards killed… by what appeared to be his sword, which remained impaled on the back of one.

“Now that’s something you don’t see every day. Someone beat us to the punch?” he wondered aloud, his voice clearly exhausted. “Raen… think you can make an icicle or something? I’m thirsty as hell.”


[The Other Self over. Three posts till next use.
Garudyne Blade over. Two posts till next use.]

[Nothingness]

Oh hey, we're alive. That's good.

The entire series of events that got them all into the hangar was so blurry to him that Raen figured it better to just assume they got really lucky and awesome shit happened. It was just better that way in the end.

Still utterly confused, Raen replied to Elrick's request pretty distractedly, "Uh, yeah, sure. Just a sec." He held out his hand and focused all of the cold air around him into the palm of his hand, condensing and rapidly freezing the water molecules present. In a few seconds, an icicle, around a foot long, appeared in his hand. Tossing it to Elrick, he started to look around the hangar.

"So, if we're not in the Industrial District, then where are we exactly?" Yeah, figuring out where they were was the first thing on his mind right now. He didn't even notice that he was still holding onto the sword he stole from a soldier until just then. He promptly tossed it aside.

[Fate]

What the hell just happened?! Never mind.
--

Before she realized it, Lillian was pulled into one of the Corridors by Elrick and they ended up somewhere else. Epic shit had gone down right before that-- that was all she remembered. And when they stepped out of the Corridor, he told them that he didn't bring them to a warehouse. Oh goody he brought them to a place with a bunch of dead people. That was just fantastic. Though, this was a step-up from live people trying to kill them all. She let her Keyblade disappear, looking around.

"What he said," she said after Raen asked his question, "Where the hell are we?" He must've had a reason to bring them to a place where there were a bunch of corpses. Hopefully. Or Elrick was just crazier than she thought he was.

[/font]

[Lagunamov]

Figured it wouldn't be that easy.

Somehow, his reflexes were still intact after all the shit that had happened, letting Elrick grab the icicle that Raen produced. Which he promptly put in his mouth to let it melt there and supply him with some needed water. The feeling of ingesting something that cold was certainly making him feel better. ”That’s it, once we are out, I’m eating ten buckets of ice cream,”[/i] he thought, slightly losing track of himself, and where he was.

“Orpheus Headquarters. Hangar is through that door with the dead people in front of it. We are taking a ship from there and leaving,” he commented as if it was nothing, walking over to the one guard that had the sword impaled on his back. Now that he was close to it, it was very clear that the katana he was staring at was his. But, it was slightly different. The blade now had a light blue tint to it, and several words in some language he couldn’t recognize had been engraved on them.

He shrugged at it, removing the sword from the corpses’ back and picking up the sheath on the ground. His demonic warrior had appeared floating behind him, only his upper torso, in a translucent form. Elrick looked at it, the hilt of a sword materializing at the tip of the organic sheath on its left arm. Once it had fully formed, the demon drew it out a couple of inches before fading into invisibility again. “Showoff.”

Taking a few steps forward, stepping over the dead bodies, Elrick pushed the large doors open, revealing the proper hangar. The place was enormous, with crates piled in several places, and fifty meters from the door stood the largest ship pretty much anyone there had ever seen. The brown vessel appeared large enough to actually hold five or six smaller ships inside. “Ok, I want that one.”

“I’m sorry Ellie, but you are not getting it,” a familiar female voice echoed in the hangar, Emma stepping from behind a pile of boxes in front of the group, revealing herself. She had switched back to her Orpheus’ uniform, equipped even with extra metal plates on her shoulders and boots. She was holding a sharp thin saber on her right hand, moving it around almost as if it were a toy. “You may have taken care of the guards outside, but you are not going through us.”

And with that, another two people came out from behind the crates. A large man, two meters told and wielding a sword as long as he was tall, and a girl half a head shorter than Emma herself. Both were wearing dark colored uniforms with armor plates and red and brown details respectively, the man even topping it off with a helmet. And behind all three of them had appeared creatures to fight alongside them. The man was accompanied by a vicious red creature, with thin limbs except for its large arms and claws, the smaller girl by a hulking dark brown monster, and Emma by a slender green creature with long feathers on its waist and arms.

“Emma is mine. You two take whichever crony you feel like,” Elrick stepped forward, drawing his blade out and getting ready for battle. A battle against the one person he never thought he’d have to strike against.