Vivere Militare Est

[Fate]

Well thanks for bringing us into another battle.
--

Orpheus Headquarters. Got it. They were going to take a ship and leave. Finally, they'd leave this hellhole behind. She didn't even care where they went after this-- as long as it was far, far away from here. Right now, she followed Elrick into the Hangar and looked around. Daaaaamn. These were impressive as hell. She almost thought of telling Elrick to pick whatever one he wanted and stealing one herself-- it'd been way too long since she actually flew something that wasn't made out of... whatever the hell Gummi Ships were made out of.

But they weren't going to get a ship now because that son of a bitch led them right into another battle. It wasn't Ellie's fault --the nickname was too funny-- but it pissed her off all the same. And this, judging by the resemblance, was his sister. That was the one he warned her about the first day they met. Lovely. Just. Fucking. Lovely. And the two cronies that were with her were for her and Raen. The guy was a foot taller than Lillian at least and the girl was shorter than her.

Pfft, she'd go for the taller one; more fun that way. She was about to take her gun and start shooting at him, but as she did, she looked over to Raen. He had no weapon except for the other gun of hers. Sighing, she threw the other one to him. Dammit why did she have to be nice? "No keepsies," she told him, "I get those back. Both of them. Or shit. Goes. Down." That may or may not have been an empty threat, but she would be livid if she didn't get those things back.

Her Keyblade was summoned again, held firmly in her right hand. "Let's see what this thing can do," she said to herself. She put herself into an offensive position, glowing a soft blue color. The guy she had picked out to fight gave her a funny look, probably wondering why the hell she hadn't made a move yet. Then, five light columns came straight from her and spread themselves out. The guy didn't expect that, but didn't let himself get hit. She used the light column as a cover and went to attack, getting one hit in so far.

This was going to be fun

[Lillian used Saving Grace. Four posts until next use, four uses remaining]

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[Nothingness]

Ya know, this seems really familiar

Raen couldn't keep his jaw from dropping, and that was for two reasons. The first, was that Elrick had lead them straight into the heart of enemy territory. Yeah, keeping friends close and all that crap was nice, but generally "enemies" didn't refer to an entire world! The second was that the ships here were utterly magnificent. He was never a ship kind of guy, and the ships made back in the Shield R&D were pretty impressive, but these were in a completely different league. What he wouldn't give to get behind the wheel of something like that.

Of course, things couldn't be as easy as just getting onto a ship and batting out of hell. Nope. There was a family dispute, complete with two goons that he and Lillian had to handle. Luckily, Lillian was nice enough to give him her other gun, relying on her Keyblade for this fight. "Thanks--you'll get this back. How hard can she be?" Raen looked at the girl he had to fight and smirked.

Of course, that was a bit of a mistake, since the girl's earth spirit thing immediately made to remove his head from his body in a single punch. Ducking and rolling out of the way, the girl laughed at his surprise. "Oh, I was hoping for a challenge. I heard you guys did a real number outside the cathedral." Raen began firing bullets imbued with darkness from one gun, and ice with the other. "Please--my boss' is bigger than your little pebble."

The girl didn't bother replying, or even moving. She just let Raen dodge all of her ally's attacks while also letting it block the bullets. If only she knew what she had gotten herself in to...

[Lagunamov]

Let's test the field.
Heaven's Warriors

The battles had started, but remained completely blocked out of Elrick’s mind. All he could concentrate on was on his current target. The last person he ever thought would betray him, and now he had to deal with it. “This was your plan all along, wasn’t it? Bring me back home, have me and my friends cause mayhem into the world, give me the tools to escape execution and feeding me information knowing I’d use it to plan my escape,” he had started to walk around his sister, who simply stood by and let her wind spirit keep track of the enemy.

“All this, for what? To stop me personally and be proclaimed the hero of Eurydice? The slayer of the Shadow Summoner!?” he yelled infuriated. His blood was boiling like never before, taking him a lot of effort to remain focused. “Yes. That’s exactly it. If I slay you myself after everyone else has proved incompetent to do so, I will rise through ranks so quickly I would become His Excellency’s right hand within the month,” she turned to him, pointing her saber forward, light reflecting on it. “Only then can true change come forth!”

Both Emma and her wind spirit dashed forward faster than Elrick could have ever conceived, his sibling almost gliding through the air. The spirit stroke first with the bladed wings of its arms, blocked by Elrick’s sword but causing him to stumble backwards from the sheer force behind the strike. Immediately after came Emma herself in a piercing attack, appearing from beneath her spirit. Her brother barely managed to dodge the strike aimed directly to his head, the blade grazing the left side of his face.

Falling backwards, Elrick kicked his sister on the right side of her torso, sending her flying to the side a couple of meters back, yelling not from the pain, but from the air she lost in the blow. Both siblings regained their battle stances quickly enough, now Elrick caught in between Emma and her partner creature. Using their speed, both launched themselves forward at him, with him proceeding to jump to the side to avoid the clash.

The wind spirit was faster than that, however, catching Elrick in the air right after he jumped and hitting him from behind, sending him rolling through the ground in pain. He knelt on the ground, spitting blood from his mouth, and then stood up slowly, taking a firm hold of his blade. “Is that the best you’ve got sis?”

[Fate]

This was definitely not one of my better decisions.
Planet Hell
--

Okay, so maybe she was too nice in giving Mr. I-Left-My-Stolen-Sword-Out-There her other gun; she felt sort of handicapped without at least one of them. And maybe she should have taken on the one that didn't have a sword that was longer than she was tall. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how one saw things, he was letting his fire demon from hell do the fighting for him. Said fire demon from hell was shooting fireballs at her every chance it got right now, large ones. She got hit by two of them before she forced herself to keep dodging instead of go in for attacks.

"You really think you're going to win this? I expected better," the guy said to her, watching her dodge. "Oh I'm going easy on you right now," was her only response, which they both knew was a lie. Ugh, if she was going to get any closer to this thing and not get covered in more burns, she was going to need to be faster.

And that's just what she would do. She sped up and ran straight for the demon with that speed. With her Keyblade still light infused, she got in close before another fireball could hit her, jumping up and going for a horizontal attack. It blocked that one, making her go back to the ground. She went for the legs this time, since that was about all she could reach right now. Her speed was the only reason why she actually got hits in and wasn't getting hit by fire pillars that it decided to summon. That didn't make it falter much of course since it was so huge, but any hit was better than none.

"If this is you going easy on me, I'd hate to see what happens when you actually put an effort into this," the guy told her, only infuriating her. "Says the one who's not even fighting," she replied, dodging another fire pillar. "Why do I need to when you'll just be killed anyway?" Okay, no more fighting demon from hell. If she could just get rid of guy controlling said demon, then maybe both would disappear. That logic worked, right? Hopefully.

She ran as fast as possible toward the swordsman, who blocked her first vertical attack with ease. Side attack? Blocked. Next side attack? Blocked. But it wasn't as easy as before for him. She made a forceful slash, this one making it through and hitting. Directly after that, another two attacks from the sides. Both hits.

"Better, but not by much." Then there were only sounds of metal against metal.

[Lillian used Speed Demon and Guard Break. Three posts until next use, three uses remaining. No uses remaining]

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[Nothingness]

Alright, let's take care of the pet

If the two fighters could read each other's mind, they'd find that they were thinking the exact same thing: "This is the most boring fight ever." Raen was doing nothing but dodging, and the woman was doing nothing but standing there while her golem did all the work. "I hear exercise is good for you." Raen called out between dodges. "Already got my work out done this morning." The woman replied, looking half-asleep.

"Okay, enough of this crap." Raen stopped, letting the golem attack him straight on. But the blow never came. Instead, the golem found its fist stuck in a large hunk of ice, vainly trying to remove it. The woman's eyes widened in surprise, letting a frost-covered Raen get a mocking laugh out. "What? You didn't seriously think that was all I had?"

The woman's eye twitched, having her golem step forward and bring a fist down directly over Raen. He just jumped backwards, letting the golem find its other hand glued to the ground. Walking around the stone statue, Raen crossed his arms and looked smugly at the woman. But before he could say anything, she ran towards him, and struck him across the face with a spinning kick, quickly hopping backwards. "Son of a bitch!" Raen yelled, rubbing his cheek. Even though he had his defense increased, getting hit across the face still hurt.

He returned his gaze to her, his eyes gaining their cold quality from before. "You asked for it." He started shooting--darkness first, then ice--creating small patches of black ice. Putting the woman on the defensive was his best option right now. He could always just refreeze the golem's hands or feet later.

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

[Lagunamov]

This is NOT gonna stop me!
Arcana

It appeared this battle may take longer than originally expected. Both Emma and her wind spirit had started glowing with a faint green light, channeling power. An orb of razor sharp wind circling relentlessly had formed, while the creature’s bladed feathers had started to emit a high pitched sound, vibrating at high speed. “Ok, this is bad…” Elrick stood frozen, pretty sure already of what his sister was planning. After all, she was his younger sister.

Of course, knowing what would come meant knowing how to counter that. Elrick smirked, holding his blade tight with his right hand as he dashed to his left, Emma’s creature immediately flying after him in a trajectory to intersect him. It attacked with the blades in its arms, Elrick jumping above it while blocking them with his blade… and there it was. Emma had thrown the orb and already had a second ready to go after him. Using the spirit as platform, he jumped further up, avoiding the first orb, which ended up deviating itself upwards and blasting a hole into the ceiling, debris caught and being cut to dust in an even larger spiraling orb of about three meters of radius.

Dodging that first one, however, put Elrick in a place where he wouldn’t be able to dodge the following one, which was now coming towards him. In those few seconds, which felt like minutes in a battle of who was faster, he channeled energy into his sword out of sheer instinct, but in a different way than he had ever done before. He saw his blade morph, the hilt growing longer and the shape of the light blue tinted blade changing entirely, forming a spear much larger than him.

In the few fractions of a second he had left, he took the lance into both his hands and brought it down on the incoming orb, blasting it away from existence, its energy dissipating into the air from whence it came. Elrick then proceeded to land by impaling the tip of his new weapon into the ground and then sliding down the pole part of it, quickly picking it up and adopting a battle stance consisting of him pointing the blade at his sister while standing sideways.

The spirit tried to attack him once more, Elrick having given his back to it, but ended up getting hit by the rear end of the spear thanks to a sudden defensive movement from its wielder. Turning quickly around, he spun the weapon vertically, accidentally cutting through the ground, and hit the creature from behind with the pole section. “Take your trash back!” he yelled, throwing the creature towards Emma by swinging the spear at her, the spirit regaining its composure midair right before its master.


[Gungnir activated. Two more posts of use.]

[Nothingness]

Well, that was fun

The woman glared at him as she kept running away from his shots. That cocky bastard would probably just keep binding her golem to the ground, then put her on the defensive until he actually landed a hit. "You know what? Screw this." She called away her golem, which surprised Raen. "I'm going to take you down myself. I'll enjoy it a hell of a lot more!"

Quickly jumping to the side she threw Raen's aim off, and before he could react she was on him with a flurry of punches to his face and chest. Raen tried his best to block, but only helped her in relieving him of Lillian's guns, and taking hits all along his arms. He tried to get away, but she kept pressuring him until she finally managed to back him up against a wall, two crates on either side of him.

Raen tried to get out of the corner as best he could, but that didn't change the outcome. She grabbed his throat and held him up against one of the boxes, cruelty in her smile and eyes. Raen kicked and fought, trying to knock her arms down, but the most he could do was give himself maybe an extra second of air. "Not so tough after all, huh?" The woman taunted, tightening her grip.

As the edges of his vision began to darken, an idea came to mind. Raising a hand, he fired off two spears of ice, freezing the woman's legs to the ground. She just laughed. "Trying to give me frostbite or something? Please. Just give up and I'll make it quick." Raen forced out a smile and grabbed her arms, draining the cold from her body, though the woman didn't notice at the time. "Yeah, something like that."

Using the last of his energy, Raen raised a hand to her face and released a pulse of freezing air. The woman didn't have any time to react to what came next. The resulting explosion of cold air off to her side forced her to release her grip, but because she was stuck to the ground, she couldn't move with the blast. As Raen hit the ground, gasping for breath, he could hear the sickening sound of her knees breaking under the pressure, and her upper torso bending so that her head struck the concrete wall, and she collapsed against the other crate.

Landing on his hands and knees, Raen coughed and hacked, gasping for breath. He looked at the unconscious woman and let out a short laugh, wheezing out, "Gotcha, bitch."

[Raen used Dark Blizzara, Arctic Grasp, and Winter's Lament. Two, four, and three posts until next use.]

[Fate]

Time of my fucking life right now.
--

The swordsman and Lillian fought like this for another couple minutes, blocking each other's attacks. Her speed didn't last forever and she could feel herself slowing down. He got a good hit in across her stomach, creating a gash and making her falter. "Not so good anymore. Running out of ideas yet?" "Yes. Shut up," she thought to herself, going in for another side attack but getting blocked and set back. She didn't have any other tricks up her sleeve and it was obvious this guy had an extreme advantage in melee combat.

She looked away from her fight for a second, the first time she did. Thank goodness Raen dropped her guns. Not so good that he was getting choked, but he could handle that right? She blocked another incoming attack from the swordsman, then ran in the other direction. He raised both eyebrows. "Running away when you know you can't win? Hmph. Coward." He didn't move, sending his spirit demon thing to fight her instead.

"Shit," she muttered to herself, a giant fireball shot to her left. That word pretty summed up everything didn't it. Her guns weren't that much farther. There they were on the floor. She just had to-- shit fuck damn fireball to the back. She fell forward, her back now searing in pain. Her Keyblade disappeared as soon as she made contact with the ground. Fucking demon from fucking hell was going to fucking get it now.

Pushing herself up again, she ran as fast as possible to her guns. As soon as they were in her hands, she spun around and shot at the spirit. Even with the thing trying to block, the explosions weren't helping it. It was quickly blinded and had no idea where to shoot its fireballs or where to block from. Lillian was shooting as fast as humanly possible as she gradually got closer to it. It'd be done soon, and then she could shoot the face off the guy controlling it.

The swordsman shook his head to this. With the spirit blinded, it would be useless. But, he couldn't just call it back. While she was shooting at it and distracted, he could take her down and deal with this nuisance. Then, since his partner lost her fight to the other one, he'd take him down as well. Emma could handle her brother; she wouldn't go soft on him.

With that in mind, he started running straight for her, his sword brandished and ready to perform a diagonal attack-- she was already weak and it would take her down the fastest. However, by the time he got close enough to her, he couldn't get the sword to cut clean through her. She shoved one of her guns into his stomach and pulled the trigger. The explosion from that alone blinded him and sent him flying, landing on his back. The fire spirit vanished. Both it and its master done.

"Hey look, I won. Imagine that," she said bitterly, breathing hard. This gash was the first thing she'd have to get tended to later. And the burns. But for now: Mission. Fucking. Accomplished.

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

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[Lagunamov]

I... hate this.
Armed by Faith

The younger sibling smiled at the sight of his brother’s progress. She had definitely underestimated him, and that was worth the praise. Emma, however, still remained the strongest one of the two. Her two partners had been overwhelmed, leaving it up to her to death with the invaders. “You seem to have picked up good companions, Ellie. They may be weaker that us, but they sure make up for it in originality when fighting,” energy started flowing through her saber, Elrick’s eyes widening as he realized he wasn’t the only the only one who had developed a skill to morph a weapon into another.

Before his eyes, his sister’s saber had changed into a double edged naginata, almost as large as his own spear. It appeared certain things ran in the family. “You, however, I can read like a book!” a blast of wind beneath her feet sent her dashing through the air like a bullet, her attack barely blocked by Elrick. The wind spirit followed suit, both attacking relentlessly at him, moving in and out, the clash of steel not stopping except for a couple of landed hits on his arms.

Taking advantage of the wind spirit keeping Elrick busy blocking its frenzied attacks, involving relentless slashes of from its bladed weapons and air blasts that could blow off a head if they connected, Emma started spinning her weapon on her side, gaining impulse for an attack. She glided towards him in a blinding flash, rising into the air and falling as she prepared the final slash at him. “Crap, can’t block that!” he thought, his blade stuck in a clash with the spirit. He saw the edge of the naginata getting closer to him… and then vanish in a flash of light of light.

The flash was accompanied by a small blast and a scream of shock from Emma, who landed on the ground several meters back. The little smoke that had come from the encounter dissipated, revealing Elrick’s demonic warrior standing behind him in fully corporeal form, sword draw and pointing to the sky. “Time to even out the odds!” Running forward, both Elrick and his partner went for their enemies, the wind spirit blocking their way. The demon took the lead, attacking the spirit with its sword, but getting blocked. The spirit, however, didn’t see Elrick sliding under the demon’s legs, prompting it to lose its legs in a quick slash from his spear, losing its balance instantly and getting impaled on the head soon after by the demon’s blade.

The shock from the strike on the creature became evident instantly, Emma reacting almost as if she had received a blow to her mind itself. She managed to remain in her full senses, her brother coming at her and striking at her with his spear. The sibling were locked in combat again, the demon holding back the animated remains of the wind spirit, which were trying to return to its master. After only a couple of minutes, which felt like hours, of clashing blades non stop with his sister, Elrick finally managed to disarm her, throwing her weapon into the air as she stumbled backwards.

The spear returned to its original form as he plunged it forward, Emma… smiling and opening her arms at the strike. It all hit Elrick at that moment, but unable to stop himself in such a short time, he had to see as his blade went straight through his sister’s gut. He pulled the blade out, still in shock, and held his baby sister as she fell forward. Storing his weapon in his sheath, he turned her around and found relief upon finding he didn’t hit any major organs. Emma simply looked at him, smiling. “You bitch! You lied again, didn’t you!? This is what you wanted!?” he yelled out in frustration, his eyes watering.


[Gungnir deactivated. Two post cooldown.
The Other Self activated and deactivated. One post cooldown.]

[Fate]

We've been in hell for too long. We need to leave.
Liberty Shield
--

Lillian stood back a ways, watching Elrick and his sister Emma fight. Both of them fought magnificently against each other, but it was obvious who had the upper hand most of the time. They clashed for what seemed like hours, in reality minutes. It was... she wasn't sure about the word to describe the feeling, but all Lillian could say was that she didn't like watching this fight between brother and sister. Things shouldn't have had to go this way.

Then the unexpected happened. Emma was disarmed and Elrick's katana went through her. And that was it. He didn't mean to do that-- she could tell. But now it was over. Lillian walked over to him, standing a couple feet behind him lost for words. After searching for half a minute at least, she finally said something. "Take as long as you need El. Raen and I will get on the ship."

She started walking toward the big brown one that he had taken an interest in earlier, getting inside. The temptation to start up the ship for him was there, but she didn't touch it. She just sat down in the nearest seat, relaxing for the one second she had left to do so.

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[Nothingness]

Let's not go back. Ever.

It took Raen a few minutes to finally catch his breath and get back enough strength to stand. When at last he could, he immediately looked over to see how well the others were handling their respective fights. Good--Lillian won her's, but Elrick was still locked in battle with his sister. It wasn't something particularly pleasant to watch, but he couldn't turn away from it either.

Elrick managed land the final attack, but in doing so nearly killed his sister. Raen heard Lillian say something and walk away. He followed suit, taking one last look at the siblings before boarding the ship with her.

As soon as he stepped on the ship he could feel all the energy being drained from his body. He didn't even make it to a seat before his legs gave way and he collapsed against a wall, slowly sliding down until his legs were stretched out in front of him. "I'm okay." He said calmly to Lillian, just in case she thought something was wrong. "The darkness keeps me going longer, but it really takes a toll once you're done with it." He let out a deep breath and rested his head against the cold steel. If it wasn't for their location, he'd have probably fallen asleep by now.

[Lagunamov]

...
Farewell to the King

Kneeling down while still keeping his sister in his arms, Elrick remained speechless. He barely even acknowledged Lillian and Raen boarding the ship. He just wanted a minute alone. He just wanted the truth. “Why?” he asked bluntly, a tear rolling down the right side of his face and through his new scar. Emma was still fully conscious, and ironically, appeared happier than he had seen her in years.

“I needed… I needed to strike Orpheus…” she started to explain, closing her eyes from the pain. “That ship you are taking… was the first of many to come. But I couldn’t strike myself… I needed to remain here, to slow them down from within…” she opened her eyes again, bringing her hand to Elrick’s for a couple of seconds before pulling it away. “… And that’s where I came in. I was already hated, so I was the perfect subject to strike and set back their plans.”

She nodded at that, seeing her two parents vanish through Corridors of Darkness out of the corner of her eye. It appeared they had regained consciousness for a couple of seconds, enough to leave. “I’m sorry I had to put you through this…” Elrick shook his head, smiling at his sister. “Don’t... I hate that you lied till the very end… But I would have done the same,” the experience had been a living hell, but now everything made sense. Why he had been summoned back, why off-world Corridors had been neutralized soon after he arrived, why Emma had given him the ring that amplified his powers, and why she bothered to mention that the ship had been finished.

Elrick embraced his sister one last time, probably the last time he would ever be able to do that, and laid her on the ground. He stood up slowly, not looking back as he walked towards the large brown ship. “Your new things…” he stopped dead on his tracks, looking back at his sister on the ground. She had managed to bring herself up, kneeling and breathing heavily. “They are on the ship. I promised you new equipment, didn’t I?” it took Elrick by surprise, leaving him with no words. “This place and the ship are rigged… As soon as you leave… Well, you’ll see,” she tried to bring herself to her feet, failing miserably. She held her stomach around the wound, clearly in pain.

“Goodbye Ellie,” she said smiling, disappearing into a Corridor herself before her brother could even summon one for her, leaving him alone in the hangar. He sighed, turning around and heading for the ship. ”Goodbye Emma.”

Once inside the cockpit, Elrick headed straight for the pilot’s seat, collapsing on it. Raen was on the ground, and Lillian on the seat next to him. Both of them were clearly just as tired as him. Of course, at this point in time Elrick was on the verge of passing out every single second, only remaining conscious… because of them, actually. The only reason he managed to pull through all that was because he had people to get out of that hellhole. No, that wasn’t right. It was because he had people to return to.

The roar of the engine deafened everyone as the ship slowly lifted of, breaking through the ceiling of the hangar. Takeoff was slow, but as the ship put distance between itself and Orpheus’ Headquarters, the sound of something opening behind them could be heard. Seconds later, as the ship gained speed, the deafening sound of a large explosion could be heard, debris catching up with the ship and flying past it. Emma had rigged the ship to drop explosives after taking off, obliterating half of the fortress, particularly the Hangars and R&D sections.

It took only a couple more minutes for the ship to leave the world and get out of Orpheus’ reach once and for all. Its new pilot sighed, putting the ship in auto-pilot and switching to the seat on his left. “Lil, could you please take the wheel? I need some…” Elrick never managed to finish that sentence. Now that they were finally away from Eurydice, all the events from those two days caught up with him, falling asleep almost immediately after changing seats.