Fantasy [Private] El Stories

[Fume]

Creating a few more structures for their practice and basic needs, Dust had in a way finished building everything that they'd need.

A bath house for resting the body, a place for them to drink water, a small house for when nature calls, a ranged target practice, a training dummy, a bonfire with three benches for them to sit and three separate spaces for the three people to sleep.

Why three? He wasn't planning on sleeping any time soon. If anything, he would prefer to sleep away from them for now. He doesn't necessarily trust them, not Lento and Yullr at least, Phantom barely passes, but that isn't enough to set his mind at ease.

He also wanted to create a few more things, but that would be too much for this world, after all he was a guest, not the owner. Standing in the middle of the field, he looked at his work from afar.

"That'll do." He murmured to himself as he looked at the people from a few ways away. "I probably need to shake the rust away, can't really go and be lazy on my body. Samael." His chains moved under his clothes and peaked out of his sleeve.

"Training chains, please. Highest point." He asked to which his chains burst out of his clothes and wrapped around his body five times in each part, increasing the gravity and blocking half of his magical power. "It's been a while since I've been like this. Takes me back when I first started. You were ruthless back then."

*Clink clank clink*

"Yeah, I know. But we needed it to be tough, or we would still be like slaves meant to bid their rules. Now... This much is nothing." He commented as he cast the spell 'Doppelganger', a shadow copy of himself a few years ago appeared entering a fighting stance on him. "Let's see how different I got from then."

He entered on his own stance and they simply stood there, waiting for one or the other to make the first move. For a moment, they were still until Dust rushed forward, his shadow self mirrored his action and they collided against each other.

Not wanting to lose his momentum against his counterpart, he went forward again and hit him twice with concentrated energy flowing out of his hands an feet. His shadow rushed forward despite him losing the first strike.

Unleashing a plethora of blurry strikes, Dust nimbly dodged them. For every 4 dodges, he would counter attack with a straight punch at his shadow's face. It felt weird, the feeling of seeing those strikes, no matter how fast they looked, he could see them all too well.

His shadow not liking his chance, took a leap backwards and put both of his hands forward, unleashing a blast of energy towards him.

"Is this how weak I was?" He asked himself as he closed his fist and pounded the beam downwards. "Come on! Hit me with your best shot!" As if understanding him, his shadow evolved into what he was before a few months ago. "That's better. Now come on!" He rushed forward, while his shadow coated his arms and legs with the same energy as him.

Mimicking his movements and reaction time. During this new match, both fighters were releasing high amounts of energy for each blow against each other, yet it seemed that Dust was still doing much better than his struggling self.

His shadow let loose a silent roar and blitzed forward towards him. He rushed forward too, catching his own movements and countering them, apparently his shadow self unleashed Broken Limiter, a skill of his own to face him.

But despite having it's limits broken, the best his old self could do was a simple scratch on his face. It's knees then buckled up, Exhaustion had settled in.

"Is that all?" He asked to it, to which it simply looked at him. "An embarrassment is what I was, but perhaps I could've taken another path..." He thought to himself as he pointed his hand towards his practice dummy. "No matter, that was a good light exercise." He announced before he gathered energy from around him, but mostly from within him, creating a condense mana sphere on his hand. "Splittering Cannon! Barrage!" He yelled as twenty mana spears stabbed the shadow version of himself, sending it flying a few meters, before detonating themselves in a massive explosion. A shock wave erupted from where it exploded and a strong gust of wind passed through him, but he didn't even flinch to it.

"I think I'm going to keep being in this state, Samael. There was a few times where I could've moved better there."

*Clink*

"If we want to face Scar later on, it's necessary." He said towards his companion before starting to move again. "Lento did told us not to follow him towards the south right? Must be the resting place he was talking about. He never specifically told us that we can't go there on our own accord though." He thought to himself as he moved towards that zone.

He didn't pay attention to his surroundings as he walked forward, thinking mostly on the training he would do to Phantom and what kind of way he could increase Lento's own combat strength. Until he stumbled across a statue.

"Odd, what's this doing here?" He asked himself as he took a closer look, he saw that a hole was in the chest area. "Something fell off? I don't see it around here. How did it get here even?" His chains then rattled

*Clink*

"A grave? Oh... this is the grave that Lento must've talked about." He sat down in front of it, as if trying to see if he could recognize it. "You do look familiar, but have we met before?" He asked, not receiving any answer. "Do you mind me staying here for a bit? I just... have this feeling that I should at least. Heh, here I am talking to a statue... What would say to that, Lara? Bet you'd say that I'm crazy or stupid for even doing it." He laughed a bit, though it was bittersweet, he still hadn't come to term that she was gone. "Hey, I know this is strange, but..."

With Creation magic, he materialized a single white flower and set it down on next to her.

"I hope you're in a better place than out there."

MementoDei

 

[Phant0m]

Phantom almost started a bit and he nodded. "Yeah....um, I'll make this quick...sorry for interrupting," He said after a bit of difficulty and the priest's eyebrows furrowed as frustration filled him. He hated this struggle to talk, and frankly, he was growing quite impatient that he had to wheeze out the words for a few days. "Dust was just wondering if you'd like to join the training?"

MementoDei

 

[MementoDei]

Yullr
​

He raised an eyebrow at the priest's words. The elf doubted Dust's capacity to teach him anything of interest, from what he knew, their fighting styles were too divergent. Yullr was a master necromancer, while Dust seemed to be more focused on hand-to-hand combat techniques, and creation magic; judging from the commander's ability to create a complex network of mana bombs.

That knowledge already made Dust a very dangerous opponent, yet observing his combat style would certainly prove to be useful later on.

"Joining the training, huh? I'm afraid that I will be far too busy helping Lento for the time being. I will join you if I ever have the chance..." he told the priest to come closer and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I do not know if you can even perceive the spiritual energy emanating from Lento right now, but maybe your goddess can. I suggest you focus a part of your training learning how to communicate with the spirits or even control some of them. If you do, you'd be able to accomplish the true duties of all priests: be the link between the realms above and this one."

Yullr closed his eyes and focused his energy into the weakening mana field he had put around Lento. "Of course, you don't need to worry about a thing now. Only your training. Looking after Lento here is good practice for me, and when he wakes up, he will be on a new level."

'For better or for worse' the elf mentally continued.

Phant0m

****
Lento​

The blacksmith felt his body move and even crumble as his vision was clouded by small glimpses of memories that weren't his. They all passed as fast as the faces of the passengers of a moving train.
He was spectator of a film that played too fast.

Even the feeling of movement soon went away as the last train passed by the stop he was standing on, never stopping. That had been his last chance of leaving, now he had to close his eyes and return.

He looked at his feet and noticed that he had a suitcase in his hand.

His journey wasn't finished yet. There had to be a way to leave and see the light where all those memories went.

****
Darhan​

"Checkmate." he coldly announced as he put the white queen right in front of a lonely and weak black king. His opponent scratched his head, looking for a way to win, despite the sentence that Darhan had given over the game.

"Ah, I can just eat your queen then!" the other angel said as he moved his king forwards and pushed the queen down. Darhan sighed, took his white bishop and moved it swiftly towards the black square where the black king stood, pushing it down. The last member of the black team fell and rolled off the chessboard.

"I suppose you've forgotten the rules of this game, Ren. You can't eat with your king pieces that are protected. That's the whole point of saying 'checkmate'."

Darhan got up and turned his back to the green-haired angel, who had never won against him. "Well, it was a very enjoyable game, Ren. See you around."

"Wait! I wanted to ask you something, Darhan."

The elf glanced at Ren, somewhat curious on what she might like to know. "That necklace you're wearing, where did you get it?"

Darhan looked at the small blue cross-shaped crystal he wore and hid it underneath his shirt. "I made it."

"Oh, is it an amulet of some sort? Or is it a trophy you got from defeating one of Henir's zealots?"

Darhan couldn't help but frown at Ren's incessant questioning. One of her guesses was partially correct, but calling it a trophy was too much. Even in the end, he couldn't keep a fragment of her being. The only person he still cherished turned to nothing in the blink of an eye.

At least, she was at peace. He had erased her last regrets just by being with her. Yet, it still hurt him to know that he had been too late. Always too late to protect her from getting hurt, barely making it in time to heal her wounds. The scars remained.

"You should know very well that nothing containing Henir's energy is allowed here. This is only coloured glass, the same humans use to make orbs. Goodbye, Ren."
His voice grew colder and Ren understood that whatever he had been through in Henir's world, it was enough to dim Darhan's enthusiasm. From the moment he returned, he only seemed interested in training. Talking to him about anything else but alchemy or Ishmael's orders was still impossible.

It took her years to get him to do something else but work. However, she had a more important message to deliver to him today. "Darhan. Our goddess wishes to see you."

"Did she mention a reason why?"

"Between you and me, she trusts you more. You're the second prodigy, after all."

 

[Late]

Eosforos watched how Alec ran off, frowning slightly as he still felt unsure and wary about the nasod's abilities. Besides that, he suddenly spotted one of the archers he allied with and the two stared at each other for a moment. The archer was further away and rather a good distance to avoid any attacks, as an archer should be at. The angel took a deep breath and quickly focused back on his battle, remembering that Alec had said something but he forgot what it was.

"Mind repeating what you said, Alec?" Eosforos asked. He was charging up energy in his sword and swung it forward. A strong wave of El energy was formed and slashed through the demons in front of the angel, traveling to a decent distance before fading away.

At that moment, the archer grabbed out an arrow and lit it up at the head with a fire torch that was close by. The archer shoots it towards the sky, the fire suddenly turning into a different color so it can be more visible through the air. It was an alert signal. Eosforos noticed that other arrows were flown in the air with the same color of fire, responding to the first shot.

"Well, this is bad..." Eosforos muttered with an upset tone. "If only we knew about the archers being close by...this is rather smart as well, better than having a grunt running for help."

The angel sighed and suddenly threw up his sword to block an attack. The sword rattled from the contact and Eosforos swung his sword forward to not give the demon any chance for another attack. The sword glowed for a moment once it returned back the attack damage to the demon, destroying the weapon the demon was trying to use to block with. He finished off the demon with a quick stab and look around for Elesis.

"Commander, I think this operation is about to go sour. I didn't expect the archers to play a role here to signal others for help. If we were to continue onwards, I think we need more allies to help us here," he said to Elesis. "Actually...where is Xavier? I figure he would take care of the archers if he has gotten rid of the demons running away..."

After he said that, there was a sharp cry of a demon behind them. Eosforos turn around to see that a demon's body was impaled and almost all the way through by a familiar tail. Xavier was there with a rather fierce look in his eyes, raising up his tail slightly to test the weight of the body. He looks over to the angel with a strange look. Eosforos wasn't sure on how to respond and glanced at what Xavier was holding in his hand. It was an arrow, coated with green liquid.

"Xavier, you idiot..!" Eosforos found himself shouting out in alarm, and his eyes went wide when Xavier crackled his neck and swung his body around, his tail whipping to get rid of the body and the demon's body went flying straight at Eosforos. "I knew his headache would be an issue, he should've dodged a mere arrow. Damn it, I knew I should've been more persistent to have him stay at the base." The angel's wings sprout out and swiftly dodged away from the flying body. "Looks like we're going to have a lot of issues here," he shouted to alarm Elesis about Xavier's unstable state.

Xavier growled low, his eyes were unfocused and there was a strange hue of red which made his eye color appear purple. Eosforos didn't really want to hurt him, almost wanting to suggest that they should get away from him. Yet with the demons running over to attack, it feels a bit impossible to get away without injuries...

MementoDei NinthSomnus9029


Meanwhile...


With the skies being light up with arrows of fire, Joaquin knew that they were getting attacked. It was time for his plan to unfold.

"Now, if Chloe's plan ever failed here, that's when this girl would be our trump card in this war. Heh, even if it succeeded, I don't want to waste the opportunity to show off my work. The angel's plan here is smart, I'll him give that. Though, I hope those archers got that pet of his," Joaquin sneered, turning around to face a large cage. "He warned me how his boy can detect incoming attacks from several meters away. If those archers actually got the boy, then they'll definitely get a good word from me. Yet, best of luck, angel. Sometimes these chemical reactions can be...unpredictable. Especially with those who are attuned to el energy, eheheh." Joaquin put a hand on the cage, feeling a small rush of wind breathing out. He had a wicked grin on his face as he stared at his creation, an alive dragon staring right back at him with lifeless eyes. "It should be certain though, that he will listen to a friend's call."

 

[Phant0m]

Phantom looked at Lento out of the corner of his eye and he gave a half-shrug. "I can faintly sense the spiritual energy," He said, "Most definitely Xiopetec can feel it, but my goddess keeps her senses away from me for the most part. Having to endure another being's senses as well as my own...you can see that I would constantly be overwhelmed with what she's sensing all the time. Just listening to her in my head is more than enough to throw me out of an equilibrium of sorts." The priest listened to the elf's suggestion and he nodded. "I will focus on the training...this will come across as heartless but spirits don't mean much when it comes to me being a priest. I definitely care when I am helping a dying person peacefully and painlessly pass on, but beyond that, I won't indulge in the 'realms beyond.' I'm still human with a mind that can easily be...compromised. Speaking from experience, spending too much time communicating and controlling spirits blurs the lines between worlds. I don't want to meet that fate, so if that makes me less of a priest then so be it." He goes silent, his gaze seeming to be ten thousand yards away for a moment before he clears his throat and gives a small wave. "I'll let Dust know." Then he walked away.

MementoDei Fume

 

[Fume]

A month has passed since they entered this dimension, the domain that Lento conjured for them to enter.

It took around a week, but Phantom has gotten used to this world's air, still Dust advised to still keep the amulet to be on the safe side. The days went by as follow.

Waking up, eating, training, rest period, training again, bath, eat and sleep. This was the schedule that they found themselves day after day.

Of course, there would be days where Dust would say that it was an off day. Even he knew that the body can take so much and a full days worth of rest was needed for the human body.

He kept a close eye on Phantom's progress. So far, his development has increased quite a bit in the time span of 1 month, but there was just one problem with him. It was his impatience that threw a wrench in his progress.

"Concentrate Phantom. Imagine a sphere of mana on your hand, then imagine all of that power being thrown forward. Feel it as you command your energy to burst in front of you like an arrow or a spear that cuts through everything!" He explained to him, as he was teaching him the next step after Projection, Release, a way to release energy like a beam of concentrated power capable of cutting even demonic steel.

It went in hand with Projection, which could potentially control the strength of the blast.

Not only is Phantom learning this new ability, his mana manipulation developed quite nicely. Able to create whatever figure that he could imagine, not only that his mana reserves increased 3 fold since they entered. Mostly due to him practicing nonstop during his free time.

His relationship with him was starting to grow a bit, but still not enough for him to feel comfortable enough to let down his guard. Lento and Yullr was still to be discussed with himself.

"Try not to become impatient, Phantom. This takes time and if you get infuriated because of that, I'll be sure to give you a punishment, am I clear?" He sat down on a small rock as he saw his student focusing on the task in hand.

They were at this since this afternoon and soon evening would fall in a few hours.

Phant0m MementoDei

 

[Phant0m]

Phantom was standing with his hand out, and he opened his eyes to look at Dust. "Crystal," He said and he closed his eyes again.

You've been doing this same process over and over again, child, Xiopetec sighed in a monotone, He's been saying the same thing, albeit with different wording all day. This is insanity. You're not getting anything done like this, but you keep acting like you'll get a different result. My mana gives you faster results so how about I-

"Shut up Xiopetec, you're not helping," The priest muttered.

I'm just pointing out the obvious. You're just being too stubborn.

The whole point of this is so I can be stronger and use my own mana. Now if you have nothing useful to say, shut. The. Fuck. Up.

The priest took a deep breath and imagined an amber colored mana sphere starting to form in the palm of his outstretched hand. Phantom hummed as the sphere grew to a size that he liked and brought his hand closer to his chest as if to prepare to throw something. He started to imagine an arrow forming between his index and middle finger. He went to throw it forward but the image flickered and dispersed back into shapeless tendrils of mana. He growled and opened his eyes, gripping his hair. "What am I doing wrong?" He yelled and he kicked the sand, "I can't make it follow through with being thrown forward!"

Fume

 

[Fume]

Dust warned him, but he could understand the young kid. He was close, but he still needed that push for himself. He stood up and drew closer to him.

"Easy." He touched his shoulder. "What you're doing so far is right, but you can't take that frustration on yourself, Phantom." The boy looked down, infuriated that he just couldn't do it.

"This is a way that is hard to grasp, after all. Even I had difficulty to master it. It took me around half a year to understand it and I took the same steps as you." He wrapped his left arm around his shoulder and used his right hand to raise his hand right. "Let's go step by step. Just believe in yourself that it'll work, don't just give up because it lost it's shape, you can do it, Phantom. And I'm right here to help you. Create the sphere once more, okay?"

Phantom nodded and he created the sphere like before and hovered on his outstretched hand.

"Now, concentrate your power all over your body and focus it coming out of your hand. Think of all of your frustrations coming in one fell swoop and let it all go through that sphere, every annoyance, every pain, every sadness and every disappointment that you felt. Turn it into power, your power, and strike that dummy ahead! Imagine that dummy just took something precious from you, that he took the lives of your patients, the very same lives that you were protecting. He's a murderer, he's heartless. He. Is. Your. Enemy."

Phant0m

 

[Phant0m]

Phantom stared at the dummy for a second. He imagined dark hair identical to his adorning the dummy's head, elegantly put up in a curly bun and decorated with a white veil trimmed in teal blowing with a ghostly breeze along with the skirts of a priestess's outfit.

He grit his teeth at the figure's back and the mana sphere flickered briefly before the form condensed a bit and starting to point like an arrow's tip. As if listening to every fiber of his being to attack, the pointed sphere launched from his hand, using the momentum to take the full form of the arrow as it whistled and made a loud "thump" as it made its home in the chest of the dummy.

It took a moment to register, but Phantom blinked and he laughed. "Finally!" He cheered. "That was also oddly... therapeutic." He looked to Dust. "...am I still gonna be punished?"

Fume

 

[Fume]

"You got lucky, kid." He ruffled his hair. "For now, practice the art of Release on the dummy. You felt it didn't you? Keep that emotion, that drive to your heart. Mana manipulation is something that is tied to our emotions. As you get used to it, so too will you get more accustomed to your being, to your emotions. Soon, you don't need to rely on your anger to cast that spell.

Of course, imagining an arrow is just an example. You could imagine a beam of light that strikes at the target, but that one costs more than an arrow. Though let me tell you this, as soon as you can cast 100 times this spell with perfection, I'm ramping up the difficulty, think of it as going the next step in training your mana and your body." He warned as he sat back on his rock. "From the top, attack that dummy like before. Also, tell me if your goddess is dragging you down, I'll make sure she gets the message loud and clear. It's been a long time since I made a divine intervention with a divine being."

Phant0m

 

[MementoDei]

Elesis​

She saw a volley of arrows come their way and put a wall of fire between the projectiles and themselves. The fire, however soon spread around them. It was very odd, Elesis couldn't control it anymore, it was growing wild as Xavier's own power. There was no choice but to retreat, as infuriating as it was.

"We have no choice now, they've cornered us and we can't fight. Let's retreat!" She ordered, running back towards Velder and sending fireballs towards the demons so they couldn't follow them. She noticed the change in Xavier's eyes and couldn't help but worry on what might've happened to him.

"Eosforos, is there any way to make him snap out of it?" She said, looking for a way to restrain Xavier as he continued to attack Eosforos. She tried again to control the flames she created and could barely hold them from definitely trapping them between others and demons.

NinthSomnus9029 Late

***
Yullr​

He could hardly sleep while Lento's spiritual combat raged on. Finally, the image of Lento had absorbed the flame of power Lara had left inside his soul. The end of the combat marked the end of the second week inside the white desert. Yullr entered once more the spiritual shell and saw Lento stand, scarred by burns and cuts that were slowly healing.The blacksmith fell to his knees and his breathing began to get heavier. Yullr knew what he had to do; the elf formed a protective field around Lento with his vital mana and began an old incantation in old demonic language. He hated to use it, but Yggdrasil wouldn't let him use its power for this.

"Allow the root of flesh to devour the life of the heavens. Allow the blood of the realm below take over the light above..."

Lento screeched and a pair of black wings grew on his back. Yullr clicked his tongue and focused a little more of his vital mana to help Lento's soul take over. If he couldn't do it by the next three incantations, he'd be forced to take out and seal most of Lento's new power away. Forever.

"...for the heavens have no power in this realm of darkness. Spirits, hear the call of the true root of power, leave your heavenly origins. Strengthen the blood of the warriors below, for they will bring you the vengeance you seek."

The wings slowly began to shrink and Lento stuttered some words in different languages, but he finally ended by saying something in the human language. It was still to early to relax, but it allowed Yullr to take back the extra vital mana he had used before on Lento. After some hours, Lento seemed to be fully conscious again. However, the elf had to confirm it.

"Lento, can you hear me?"
Lento nodded.
"That's a relief. How have you been?"
The blacksmith began to tremble as he looked at his scarred arms. "Yullr...this power is too great. I can feel it burn me, even if these wounds are healing. The moment Lara died, the spirits she absorbed began to run free again and their power went out of control once her soul completely disappeared. They had no boundaries, they all wanted to rise again, but suddenly they simply let themselves be absorbed by me. How could that happen? I'm...powerless compared to the hundreds of others. They all had their own goals, so different from mine...why would they suddenly decide to sacrifice everything for one of the weakest one of them?"

Lento turned towards Yullr and the elf noticed that Lento's eyes had turned completely purple and the mana circuits around them were perfectly visible. It was exactly what Yullr feared; a body of flesh wouldn't be able to sustain the power inside a shell made of Diceon. However, that wasn't what was troubling Yullr, but rather the reminder that his powers crushed other souls.

"Lento...would you have preferred to let them take over you?" the elf timidly asked.

"No, that's not it. I wanted to control this power in the first place, that's why we're here. This is my life, not theirs...It's just that it felt so unnatural when, well, I was chasing all those lives, trying to impose my own with all my strength, pushed by my own selfishness; but they suddenly stopped. They suddenly began to follow me and give me their speed, their power so I could reach...well, wake up."

Yullr clenched his fists and dispelled the spiritual field he had put around Lento. The elf changed the field into one where Lento's power would be sealed away.

"I see. Let's seal that overload of power, then. It'd be dangerous to leave things like that."

Yullr yawned and felt his tiredness creep in his mind, blurring the spells he had in mind a second ago. Lento noticed this and knocked twice on the field, alerting Yullr.

"You seem to have been helping me out a lot, I vaguely remember how I've passed the last...uhh...how long has it been?"
"Two weeks, roughly."
"Two week already?! Have you slept? I'm pretty sure you've been here a long time. Well, not because I remember but...well, others remember."
"I've been sleeping 3 hours a night. More than enough. I had to make sure you were ok. I couldn't let you lose to them, no matter what. I'm ok to go on though. It's just a short sealing spell, I can remember it...it went like..."

"Yullr..." Lento charged his hand with a bit of mana and touched the wall of Yullr's barrier, breaking it in one hit. " you need to rest. Well, we both need it. You can't even maintain this spell for long."

Yullr sighed and followed Lento's advice. They both came back to the white desert and Yullr guided Lento towards the camp Dust had built for them. Lento's body bore no signs of the power that was destroying him, but he was walking way more slowly than before. Yullr headed straight to his bead and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He couldn't be sure if it was a dream or not, but he vaguely remembered Lento whispering a "thank you" before going away.

****
Lento​

The next week following his awakening, he let Yullr have the rest he deserved until the last two days, when the signs of his "power overload" began to be visible to all. After passing four days with most of his power completely sealed away by Yullr, Lento began to learn how to slowly let out a fraction of his power for short periods of time. Maintaining a continuous small flow of mana to empower his own body against injuries was very challenging. One day, after a month of training had passed, he went to see Lara's grave and saw a dried flower next to it.

He used a bit of his mana to revive it. "...How weird. Now, I can barely know what you would've thought of this. I know each of your lives perfectly, but the "you" inside my memories is completely gone now. It's only a guess of mine, but this gesture proves that your selflessness always paid you back. You will never be truly forgotten, so you'll never truly die, Lara. I'll keep my word to you."

Lento walked aimlessly around the desert and saw in the distance Phantom train with Dust. He noticed that Phantom was not using his goddess' power and it made him understand why Phantom had decided to train himself.

Phant0m Fume

 

[NinthSomnus9029]

Alec

Before Alec stood two formidable enemies that he shouldn't take lightly, they had been staring each other off for a while, he was waiting for Elesis's command to exterminate them, but no such thing went through. Before he noticed it a black smoke filled the hallway consuming all the light around it. Alec looked around for the source of this strange phenomenon when he looked back at the two demons before him their eyes glowed a bright yellow, "Commander, I'll be going ahead and exterminating the demons before me, leaving them be will be dangerous in the far future." what Alec didn't know is that none of his messages were getting through thanks to the demons before him. Drawing forth his blade Alec charged the small knights as they also readied their own blades, the clashing of there swords did not resound in the darkness, rather is sounded mute. When Alec would try to dodge their strikes he could feel his movement was being held to the ground. He couldn't jump, he could only barely dodge or even try to fall back.

He had tried to use the fire to ignite the smoke but it was rendered useless as the smoke took a more solid form and tried to tied Alec down. "What is this power, I've found no such data in my records," Alec muttered as he slashed the strands of shadows leaping at him, losing focus on the demons Alec didn't notice when they had moved behind him. His senses were slowly being dulled the longer he stayed in this darkness, his thermal sight was becoming useless in front of these two. When the darkness fully blocked out his thermal sight the demons slashes became faster and faster, Alec could only rely on predictions. When he did land a strike on one of them he had already taking quite a beating himself. A few error messages showed up on his screen as he jabbed his blade into the ground. "Your species is one my master has never seen before...Error...whatever you are...Error...I'll surely find a weakness...Error." Alec opened up a bit of nasod armor to reveal the core on his chest. "Transfer remaining El energy to the core, overdrive not possible....rerouting...[Flash Core] Alternative...Error...[Flash Core] Activated." With only a few seconds, Alec's core shined a bright blue lighting up the darkness around him, he could faintly pick out the silhouettes of the two demons, being in a sort overdrive state Alec rammed his sword into the chest of one of the two demons, a loud shrieking resounded through the muted darkness. All the light returned to the hallway but it wasn't the light of the torches, it was a soft purple glow and inside stood two 10 meter creatures were the two small knights once stood.

"Recording..." he mumbled before his vision vanished, the last thing Alec felt was a gravitational pull and someone mumbling in the darkness. When the signal returned, Alec's last few moments before he entered stasis captured the demons transformation into that large creature and was sent to Elesis and the others.

MementoDei Late ​

 

[Late]

Cornelius
​

He wasn't sure how long or far he wandered off. All around him were broken buildings, debris all over the ground. The dark dragon could easily tell what items were all over the place: books, furniture, broken glass, toys and many more. He leaned down to stare at one item in particular, a doll. Even though the doll was unfamiliar to him, he felt like he knew a doll before.

"Look at this one, Cornelius! Don't you think the children would love these little guys?"

"They are rather plain looking..."

"What? I think they're beautiful."

A headache struck through Cornelius and the dragon let out a heavy sigh, continued to walk forward on the road. He had hoped the headache would go away, but it seems to get stronger for every passing second. Strange memories filled his head, causing the dragon to grow in frustration.

"Damn it...what is this..?" Cornelius growled in frustration, having to stop and lay down in the middle of the broken road. "I never felt this before..." The pain was hard for him to ignore and he eventually rested his head on the ground, grumbling low to himself. "Don't tell me...my time is coming...!"

Eosforos
​

"I am afraid the only possible way is to either knock him out cold or kill him!" Eosforos grunted out as he pushed against Xavier's attack with his sword. "I rather not kill him, but I think we do need to leave Xavier behind. I don't think I can hold out much longer with him at me and the demons from my back!"

Eosforos felt like he was straining a muscle as Xavier doesn't seem to have a limit on how hard he was pushing with his gauntlets. The angel eventually lets out his wings and flew up in attempts to get Xavier off of him. It worked as the dragon tamer lost his grip when the sword was being pulled away from him. He managed to hang on for a few seconds in an attempt to pull Eosforos back down, his tail sprung forward to slice the wings away. He didn't reach his target but he managed to slice Eosforos' leg before falling down.

"..." Eosforos held in an angry yell he felt immense pain on his leg. Xavier's tail tip was like the sharpest sword in the world and being one to get cut by it isn't such a great feeling. Even a slight graze won't tickle one bit.

He watched how Xavier landed on his feet and the man gave an angry look at the angel. Oddly, the look felt controlled from this time around which made Eosforos frown in slight worry. Of course, he backed away when the demons started to go for Xavier as they see him as an enemy. Yet they were being careful, avoiding to get hurt themselves. Eosforos clicked this tongue as he retreated towards Elesis to help her.

"We would have to come back to get Xavier, he is too dangerous at this point for the both of us!" Eosforos said as he sheathed in his sword. He noticed the trouble Elesis was having to control the fire so he swooped down for a moment to pick up Elesis for a quick second. His injured leg gave him issues to lift back up but he needs the strength to go back in the sky. "Hang on," he said to her as he held her tight and his wings flapped forward. He felt stray arrows going past his wings, making him let out a loud sigh of relief and made it beyond the strange firewall that was about to cut their way of escape.

Though as Eosforos never had an experience of having a second weight of body with his wings out and with the duration of his wings shortening, he was losing his balance. He let Elesis down first before skidding across the ground. It was painful but he forces himself to land on his feet before falling to his knees.

"Now...if only he didn't cut my leg like that," Eosforos hissed quietly as he tried to stand back up. The demons would probably go right after them if they were trying to escape yet it may be possible that Xavier got their full attention and would give them a large issue to deal with. The angel used his sword to help him up as strange, almost white liquid was oozing out from his cut. "So strange...this is new to me..." he said as he stared at his leg, eyes furrowed with curiosity of what might be considered to be "blood". He forgot when was the last time he was cut like this.

MementoDei

 

[Phant0m]

Phantom snorted when Dust ruffled his hair. He could see Xiopetec's flabbergasted expression in his mind's eye and he snickered.

The nerve, Xiopetec sputtered, You've only known each other for a month, he has no say in how you and me operate, child. I'm not dragging you down! I'm trying to help and you're not listening!

You're actually not helping, Phantom pointed out as he prepared to practice Release again, I'm doing myself a favor with not listening to your advice.

A favor? Stop thinking you know everything Phantom now that you finally have the gall to be independent.

The priest lowered his hand. I've been independent the entire time, I just relied on you. There's a difference.

You didn't notice that when I started taking care of you. Showed you how to actually survive on your own.

That's the past! I was young when we first met Xiopetec, so you became my crutch. And I let you because I didn't know how to actually handle being on my own and constantly worry about myself. You made it easier for me, but now you don't have to do that anymore.

Back then you were a proper priest-

A clueless priest with a goddess who doesn't know when to stop meddling! You're stuck in the past, constantly nagging at me about relying on you again-YOU POISONED ME- Phantom shot another mana arrow and watched as it landed right in the dummy's head- You are dragging me down. Mentally. If I had known this is what I was going to be dealing with on a daily basis I would have burned your book along with your temple.

Xiopetec fell silent before Phantom flinched in pain, feeling as if white fire was burning in his skull.

Don't forget that I am a goddess. I allowed you to waste your time training so you could feel better about yourself, but you chose to follow me. Your fate is in my hands.

Wow....looks like you and Ishmael do have something in common, Phantom blinked and shot another arrow but sighing when it landed in the ground right in front of the dummy and he glared at it, When you're back to being the Xiopetec I decided to follow, let me know. Until then, I don't want to listen to the same shit I didn't want to associate myself with anymore.

The goddess gave a spitting hiss before going quiet, and the priest closed his eyes as her presence faded in his mind. His shoulders slumped and he rubbed his eyes with a sigh. "I took care of it...but thanks," He said in a quiet voice.

Fume

 

[Fume]

Another month passes and with it comes a new art, but this one was meant for both Lento and Phantom. Only this time it became a bit harder for them.

Since his training chains were wrapped around them, they tire themselves out faster, but that meant faster results. That was three weeks ago and progress was being made. Lento however with his physical build needed a second pair of training chains to increase his physic, the first pair didn't hindered his movement that much or even the mana consumption.

Phantom however was still having some difficulty with the art of Coating, mainly in maintaining a constant flow of mana going through specific parts of his body. Dust did give him a few tips, mainly to not only concentrate on that part alone, but to allow his mana to flow naturally out, as if he's conducting the energy towards his members like pipes that reflect back to himself. Or in case of a full body coating, to let it flow to a certain degree where he could still control it.

Right now, they were in a obstacle course that Dust created for them. This was meant for them to use their coating to move around, while also striking a few dummies along the way. After doing so they would resume practicing with single fights with his shadow. He made sure to command it into practice, to hold back enough to not knock them out.

"Phantom, don't just think of using Coating, let it flow out! Imagine that your hands and feet are being worn by steel gauntlets and boots, giving you power to move around and strike the dummy! You can do it, kid!" He yelled for his student while encouraging him that he could do it.

He noticed Lento falling behind.

"Come on, Lento! Are you going to let him one up you! Pick up the pace!" This was meant to rile the soldier up, but sometimes he misunderstood his intentions.

Phant0m MementoDei

 

[MementoDei]

Lento​

Training with two different teachers was proving to be harder than what he had expected. On one side, Yullr didn't see any problem with the chains that Dust had put on him, but reminded him to use his power in moderation. However, Dust seemed eager to see him fight at full power. Lento didn't want to compete with Phantom in any way, because their training was different and the priest was learning different techniques.

'If I just increased the flow a bit more...'
Lento wondered as he charged his body with a greater chunk of his power. He could now absorb more mana to enhance his every move. Coating wasn't too hard for him, but knowing how much energy he could connect to his body was harder as the weeks passed by.

Lento leapt toward the dummy as easily as if he hadn't a pair of chains tied to his legs. He gave it a strong flying kick before punching it a couple of times. The wooden structure bent over, almost breaking, after the first hit and the two punches left their mark on the wood.

Lento looked at his arms and saw that his mana circuits were glowing faintly. If he didn’t put back Yullr's seal, he'd have to deal with the same pain he woke up with almost two months ago.

Once he did, the sudden weight on his legs made him lose his balance, but he kept himself from falling in front of Dust and Phantom. He could still, however, feel the strain he had put over his mana circuits. The burning sensation that this strain brought was as strong as ever.

"Dust. The problem is not whether I let Phantom catch up to my restrained level of power or not. The problem is that the stronger I get, the harder it is to know how much power I can liberate without going overboard. Yullr has given me a method to efficiently connect mana to my body, but it's getting harder to maintain without hindering my progress. Do you know of an easier method to use mana connection?"

Fume Phant0m

****
Elesis​

"...Alec..? What's this.? Can you hear me?" She said as a blurred image of a shadow flashed briefly before her eyes. The white dot that represented Alec suddenly disappeared from the mini-map that she saw at her right. She didn't expect Eosforos to take her in his arms so suddenly, but she couldn't complain. It was the safest and fastest way for both of them to get out.

Once they were over the demons' heads, she noticed that the angel was growing tired. They managed to get to a safe distance before Eosforos put her down, before falling to his knees. It was then that she noticed a deep cut over his leg. Luckily, she always carried a few healing potions with her in a small bag. She wasn't sure it would be enough to heal him entirely, but he got hurt partially because of her, so she figured it was the least she could do to thank him.

"Eosforos, take this. It's a healing potion." she said as she passed the small flask to him. "It probably won't close it completely, but It'll certainly will stop you from bleeding out."

She took the two remaining potions out of her bag. One to heal the mild burns over her hands and back and the other in case Esforos needed it. She ripped the bag apart to form a long cotton strip. "When you're done drinking the potion, tell me so I can give you another one and cover your wound with this. If we leave it like that, it'll get infected in no time. "

Elesis wrapped the improvised bandage around her left hand and casted a small flame with her right hand. She had back her control over her fire. Whatever hid in the demons' den, it lost its influence over her power now. They were two days away from Velder's refugee camp, even the fastest demons would take at least a day to reach them. She would be able to fight properly if they appeared now, but the best move was probably to cut them off by summoning another fire wall. The demons could easily outnumber her and she had no idea if Xavier would be with them this time around. She created a small campfire next to Eosforos with a fireball, the night was rising and the temperature was falling as the sun hid behind the debris of the village they landed over.

Late

 

[Late]

Cornelius
​

Through his pain from his head, he couldn't help to recall back memories. From a long time ago.

He wasn't always a grumpy old soul, full of trust issues and hate for humankind. He was once a young dragon with a different color of scales, he was full of kindness and wisdom that often times the humankind would ask him for his help. Cornelius was as well a leader of an army that was full of dragons and their own riders. Along with Cornelius was his rider, who was a very close friend. Almost a brother.

"Cornelius! Wanna go for a ride?"

Cornelius was napping in his den until he heard a voice calling out for him. He opened an eye to see a man walking over to him with a smile on his face, the man having blond, white hair that was decently long with a few long strands in a braid. He was wearing his rider armor, having a sheathed sword by his side and a sack over his shoulder.

"Looks like you want to go to your quiet place for today," Cornelius mumbled, lifting up his head to let out a yawn.

"Our quiet place, Cornelius! Plus, I think we need it after what has been going on in the past days," the man said to him with a small chuckle.

Cornelius sighed lightly as he nodded his head in agreement, getting up on his legs. He followed the rider out of the cave, was greeted by the clear skies as the sun was bright. He can feel his scales slightly warming up from the sunlight, making him feel comfortable about the weather. The dragon stretched out his white wings before stretching out his limbs. Once he was done, he leaned over to allow the rider to climb on him before he took off in the air.

"Beautiful day! Right, Cornelius?" The rider asked him with happiness in his tone.

"Yes, I believe this is the finest day I have seen," Cornelius agreed, returning back his own happiness with a chuckle. "If only every day was like this."

"Yeah...if only that was true," the rider sighed softly, his grip on the dragon slightly went tighter.

Cornelius paid no attention to that as he focuses what was before him, avoiding the birds flying at his direction. He can spot a wealthy village from down below and a distant kingdom from up ahead. The dragon felt at peace, smiling through his flight in the sky.

'Yes...it was so peaceful back then...' Cornelius sighed heavily as he remembered, the feeling of flight and his wings that were strong and powerful. Being able to outspeed any other flying species with his rider cheering him on. His rider...who was his rider? His head pounds heavily as another memory entered into his head.

"You...what?" Cornelius stared at his rider with wide eyes as the two were standing on a grassy field. Ahead of them was the kingdom which surrounds and protects the great El Shard. His rider was looking ahead with a calm smile on his face.

"You heard me, Cornelius. I don't want to live in a world that is full of hatred and greed. This world has so many flaws and I found a way that we can redo all of this. I am asking you if you're willing to stay by my side as we watch the world break apart and crumble to a new beginning. We can be gods, Cornelius, we can be gods in the new world. With your wisdom and my views of a perfect world, we can fix this. Of course, we have to do many sacrifices to achieve that goal." His rider turn to him, still smiling as if this was perfectly normal. "You do agree with me, don't you? That this world is flawed?"

Cornelius stared at him hard before he shook his head slowly in agreement. He wasn't sure what caused his rider to think about this and it was hard to believe him. "You must be joking, right? Being a god...that's just a child's dream," Cornelius said to him. "You're just a human...you can't possibly think that you'll be able to achieve that-"

"Just a joke!" The rider suddenly interrupted him with a laugh. Cornelius stopped talking as he was interrupted and watch how his rider was laughing. "My gods, Cornelius, if only you could see your face! Ah man, I can't believe you trust my words just like that! So serious~" His rider teased him, causing Cornelius to look strangely embarrassed and cleared his throat.

"Um...right...a joke," Cornelius said, letting out a slight laugh. He almost believed him. Almost believed that his rider found a way just from the look of his eyes that were so focused and his smile was unwavering.

"You know I would never do that, Cornelius. I am rather happy how our life is..." his rider said, letting out a happy sigh. "Of course, even if that ever happens...you will stay by my side, right?"

Stay by my side...right?

Cornelius was unable to remember if he answered or not, but those words made his heart twist into knots.

Eosforos
​

"Ah...thank you, commander," Eosforos said as he decided it wasn't worth to stand back up.

He sat down on the ground and drank the healing potion, feeling like his energy was returning back to his arms and the pain from his leg was thinning out. It stopped the bleeding at the very least, making him sigh in relief as he asked for the other healing potion. The angel didn't realize how late it was getting and felt a bit more worried about Xavier. He doesn't know how long the poison would affect his mind and it could completely drain out of the man if all he thinks was to keep attacking. The demons would likely keep their distance until he was completely spent before they could even approach him. Eosforos don't think they would kill him but likely capture. Just how he wanted them to do.

"I will have to take the blame for having Xavier with us. I was hoping he could take his mind off the dragons as they were giving him trouble. I hope...he regains back his senses...and I guess we lost Alec too? Did something happen to him?" Eosforos asked Elesis after he drank the second healing potion. He noticed that Alec's dot wasn't on the map from the glasses anymore. Did the demons really get him that easily? The angel had a hard time believing that was the truth.

MementoDei

 

[Fume]

"Hmm... You're asking of the art of Connection. That's something that I wanted to teach Phantom later on, but if it means you practicing without feeling afraid of getting a little pain... Show me this mana connection that Yullr gave you." He asked, to which Lento showed him as his mana slowly flowed on his body. But a few times there were inconsistency in the flow.

"Alright, alright stop." He ordered as the knight's mana dispersed. "You have the basics of the art of Connection, but what you're using is mainly used on necromancy. That technique is meant for you to manipulate and revive dead spirits, not something that's suited for your style.

What you want is this." He let his own mana flow through his body, it was calm and passed through all his limbs in perfect balance, no consistencies or extra mana overflowing on anywhere. "This is the real art of Connection. The mana manipulation of oneself and to others, your mana and your body are one, not a separate being that needs a bridge to cross. You are the land and the mana in you and around you are the sea that connects all." He stopped the flow in an instant.

"I'm going to elevate your training. Pair the art of Coating with Connection together. That should finally get you to not be afraid of overflowing. Now move, soldier." He ordered as he wanted to keep watching them a bit longer.

MementoDei

 

[NinthSomnus9029]

Alec

"Can you hear me?" Alec could faintly hear Elesis voice running through his head. When Alec looked around he could see his body was imprisoned inside this black muck. The faint purple glow still lingered in the area, the two spriggans were still standing right there. Was there no way to defeat them? No there is a way. He began to feel anger at himself. Why wasn't he able to defeat these two on his own, he had the ability to find a way to win but he couldn't pull it off. Alec himself wasn't strong enough and even when he was he overheated from overuse of the el. He needed a solution. Alec examined the purple orb that gave the spriggan it's true form, he results gave him the answer that it was the dark element of an el shard. The dark element was a forbidden study by many existances in the current elrios but not when Alec was made.

Gripping his blade Alec looked at the purple orb. "I will consume it." Rushing forward for the orb Alec slashed at it with Skofnung, the darkness in the area began to diminish while the spriggans returned to their small knight appearance. Alec took a piece of the orb he had shattered he looked at it once more to make sure it wasn't a suicide attempt. When he confirmed the percentage chance of his idea being at least 38% he took it as a reasonable risk. Unbuttoning a bit of his nasod armor to reveal his core Alec slammed the shard of the orb into his core. Instantly error message appeared all over his vision, his body wasn't responding to his commands. The spriggans didn't let this chance slip past them and launched an attack at Alec trying to aim for the core on his chest.

Alec caught sight of this and immediately tried reaching out for his blade but instead his body reached out for the spriggan, gripping the small knights helmet. "Dark element implemented, beginning recovery." When those words leaked out of Alecs mouth the spriggan began to shriek as dark energy flowed into Alec's body, his mana returning to him, the spriggan tried to resist but slowly his attacks weakened. "This is my solution you demon shits." Alec was surprised by the words that came out of his mouth so naturally, was this intentional?

When Alec finished absorbing the spriggans entire lifeforce he through it's corpse at the other spriggan that just stood their and watched in terror. "Heeh, so even you can feel fear?" Alec picked up skofnung. He cleaned the blade off from all the much that was on it, in his hands the blades core changed color into that of the darkness attribute. With each cut he gave the Spriggan the 8th cut would restore Alec a bit of mana and injures. As long as he avoided any major injuries and using too much of his mana Alec could fight at top capacity. When the second spriggan was dealt with he ran back out towards the entrance, when he made it outside he saw Xavier a bit more in the distance looking like he was looking for something.

MementoDei Late

​

 

[MementoDei]

Lento
​

'Connecting as the land and sea, not as a bridge to cross...Hmm.' Lento thought as Dust left. He had never seen the sea, but the image of a stream that connected to a lake and connected two sides of a forest seemed like a fitting replacement. He closed his eyes and began to focus on his own mana, noticing the barrier that held back the water of the lake, making all the streams dry. This image was already easier to create than the bridge Yullr had made him visualize.

That had to be Yullr's seal. If he tried to cross over it, maybe he could learn how to contain the "water" by absorbing the barrier. He imagined the earth get closer to the lake, but as soon as it touched it, the barrier broke in a thousand pieces, making the water overflow all the streams and drowning the forest around it.

He needed to reconstruct the barrier, but there was no way to contain once more all the energy he had liberated in time. The trees around the streams rotted away and he felt the extremely cold water burn his every muscle.

Suddenly, a voice echoed in the chaotic scenery:

"... and return to nothing."

A dark barrier suddenly imprisoned the flood and put it back over the lake's centre, tying it with strong chains that took root within the earth itself.

Lento opened his eyes and saw Yullr extending his hand towards him as a mauve light emanated from it. The elf's hand soon stopped glowing and Yullr let out a sigh.

"That was a close one, Lento." He said. "A few seconds more and your power would've begun to disintegrate your body."

Lento tilted his head in confusion, he wasn't more in pain than before, but judging by the amount of blood that was dripping from his arms, he knew Yullr was right. Mana lacerations could cut flesh from the inside out if a mage used more mana than he could handle, it was extremely painful for any mage not to notice it, but it was harder for Lost Souls or any undead, because their nervous system slowly lost its natural response to pain.

Lento glanced to Yullr and saw Phantom stare at him, it was hard to see the priest's expression because of the blood that clouded his sight, but he knew that Phantom was probably worried. Yullr looked back at the priest and nodded at him as a way of thanking him for calling him.

"How bad was it?"
"Hmm...I don't know if that priest has dealt with suicidal mages, but seeing mana circuits tear someone's skin apart must not be pleasing for the faint of heart."

Lento wanted to get up, but his muscles didn't seem to respond. The Knight sighed and let himself fall over the sand, thinking on a way to slowly tear a hole in the barrier. Yullr sat next to him and, as if he was reading his mind, gave him some advice:

"The art of Connection is harder to use on oneself. Specially in your case. You seem to have tried to combine Coating and Connecting, but you were way too hasty about it. You can't just absorb a barrier on one strike and think it's not going to destabilize the balance between the power it seals away and your body. I put a new barrier in your soul, one that is, in concept, like a tent."

"You mean those chains that you put?"
"So you saw the spell as chains... Interesting. But yes, I can teach you how to create multiple of them and shape the fabric of the shield however you want. Then, you can puncture the fabric and let a small stream of power out."

"That's basically what we've been doing and I'm not progressing much since the past month."
"It's very different Lento. The tougher the chains you make, the more you'll have control over the flow. That is Connecting, and if you make your body as strong as the chains that contain your sealed potential, the less you'll suffer from an overload. That is Coating. We'll start the training in two days."

Phant0m Fume

****
Elesis​

"I received a transmission from Alec. He seemed to have been absorbed inside a portal of some sorts. It wasn't clear." She said as she wrapped the cotton tissue around Eosforos' wound. It wasn't bleeding anymore, but Elesis didn't want to take any chances when they were still so far away from Velder. She walked away from the campfire to make sure the demons were still far away from them.

"...This mission was a total failure." she mumbled before walking back and sitting in front of the angel. She took off the glasses Alec had put on her and let out a deep sigh. What did she do wrong this time? Where was the weakness she needed to deal with? Just thinking about it made her nauseous.

So many things could've been done differently, but she was certain that none of them seemed like the better option. Perhaps some were even worse.

Late

 

[Phant0m]

Phantom clutched the edge of the wall in a white-knuckle grip when his jump wasn't as high as he wanted. He grit his teeth as the chains pinched at his shoulders. "Easier said than done," He muttered as he kicked his feet to try and pulled himself up and shook off his hands. He stared at the moving logs in between him and a dummy, and he groaned. "You have got to be shitting me." The priest stood and circled his shoulder. "Run? Yeah, run," Phantom muttered as he took a deep breath.

Don't just think, just let it happen, Phantom reminded himself, heh, that's a reach for me huh Xio- The priest frowned when the aching loneliness in his head reminded him that his goddess refused to speak with him. He shook his head. Don't get distracted, she's gone longer without talking with me. This isn't any different. He began to imagine his hands and feet covered in a leather-like material, something light that popped into his head when he thought of something that would help him move quickly. "Let's try this again," Phantom sighed and he went for a sprint at the right time. His stomach fluttered as if caging millions of butterflies as his surroundings blurred, then he felt himself slow. "Come on just flow!" He growled a kicked himself up to jump over the last log as it swung towards him.

The priest landed on his feet, clearing the obstacle but his ankles protested greatly. Ignoring the pain and using the momentum, Phantom punched the dummy in the chest. He left a dent in it, but he yelped as he cradled his fist to his chest. "Not enough," He hissed between his teeth, "Fuck." He shook his feet to rid them of the tingling and started to carefully walk until he noticed blood out of the corner of his eye. As if instinctually, Phantom sprinted towards the source of the blood and he skidded to a halt as the liquid washed over him. He barely looked over Lento, he didn't need to because when someone starts to spontaneously bleed it's definitely a dire emergency. The priest didn't hesitate to retrieve Yullr, not paying mind to his speed or how he agilely maneuvered around to get the elf. Half of his focus was concentrated on how he could heal Lento, and he imagined the small pool of Xiopetec's mana that he sort of kept in a mental cup separate from his own mana.

It was small...smaller than the priest was accustomed to.

Phantom blinked and refocused to the present, staring at the bloodied Lento. He felt his stomach turn in nausea. Lento seemed to be ok, but would Phantom have enough of Xiopetec's mana to heal him? The priest returned Yullr's nod and watched as the elf helped Lento away, sparing Phantom from having to decide whether or not the priest should risk it. The priest looked down at his sullied robes. Hey looks like you have a chance to pick a nice new outfit for me, Phantom tried a small, hysterical chuckle bubbling at the end of the thought. When he didn't hear a response, or feel Xiopetec's presence, he put his face in his hands.

Don't do that child. You'll get blood in your eyes and mouth, a quiet voice purred in the back of his mind.

Phantom started laughing as he felt her presence, although faint, start to embrace him again.

"I missed you," He said as his laughter started to die down, "It was...lonely up in there without you."

Shhh. Let's get you washed up, ok? Focus on your training today. I'm not going anywhere, so we can talk later.

The priest nodded and he put his hands down to his sides. He found Dust and stopped, "Um....shower break? I'll run through this course twice as hard when I get back I promise."

Fume MementoDei

 

[Late]

Cornelius
​

“...May I ask who are these people?”

Cornelius stared at a group of people who seem to follow his rider, making the dragon confused at the crowd. It doesn’t look like they wanted to start trouble but they all had an admiration in their eyes on the rider.

“Oh they...are my fans. I made an impression it seems from my speech at a gathering. Don’t worry about it, Cornelius,” the rider responded as he wave at the people behind him.

‘I couldn’t help but to worry...’

Cornelius memories shifted to a different scene, when they were picking out toys for the children during a holiday.

“Look at this one! I think the children would love them!” His rider held up a doll for Cornelius to look at.

The doll was simple: having plain eyes, small smile, not much of anything to define who this doll supposed to be.

“It’s so plain looking, you really think the children would love that?” Cornelius grumbled, giving it a small sniff.

“Oh...I suppose you’re right. Though, that is the beauty of it. I...guess it’s hard to explain,” his rider said and put back the doll down to search for a better one.

‘You seeked for a world with no differences that could cause a war, a world where all race is treated equal, a world where emotions were suppressed...’ Cornelius growled to himself, wishing he seen the danger sooner as he felt memories pooring in. He knows one certain thing, the rider’s name was different than he thought.

Eosfóros
​

Eosfóros stared at his bandages around his leg, glad to get it all patched up. He then looked at Elesis, noticing her depressed look. The angel stared at her, unsure if he should try to cheer her up. It was the truth though, the mission for her was a fail. Maybe it would’ve turn out differently if Eosfóros never made contact with the demons.

“Yeah...it was a failure,” Eosfóros said, taking off his glasses as well. “We didn’t find out who the mage is or save the hostages. We lost a man and a nasod somehow, and I probably will have troubles walking. Total failure.” He sighed, rubbing his hands together. “...at the very least we have a map and a good idea of who we are dealing with, especially with that strange fire wall. We both got out alive since you made the right call to retreat. If Alec is ever still alive, he is probably trying to escape in whatever situation he got himself to because I doubt he is dead. Xavier is strong enough to handle on his own. It may be possible that demons don’t know how to control him properly and will suffer a lot of casualties. Mind me, I’m looking towards the positive things here. As for us, we can try to learn from our mistakes. Failures like this are bound to happen and every good commander should know on how to learn from them so it won’t happen again. A commander can’t lead if they haven’t learn anything at all. You, Elesis, are a commander for a reason. Now, if we were try to go back in again, how would we do this differently?” He wasn’t sure why he was helping, a sad look made him feel upset himself. Though at the same time, he was curious where Elesis stands in her position of a commander. Would she push away her negative emotions and start trying to form a new plan or sit there and do nothing?

MementoDei

​

 

[MementoDei]

Elesis
​

Eosforos' encouragement reminded her of Penensio. He was right, although perhaps mistaken on the reason why she, of all people, was chosen as a commander. Her father had left it as part of his will and she had seen her training go faster than any other trainees. Many saw her as a prodigy for combat and strategy; for the most part, they were right.

It was the feeling of crushing defeat she felt now that made her realize that, just like Eosforos said, even if she was a prodigy, she had much to learn. In a way, she still wanted to live up to her brother's name and not letting a lost battle get the better of her.

"That's right, Eosforos. Like my brother would say, we may have lost the battle, but not the war. There are still so many unknown factors in all this, just wrapping my head around it is a bit hard. I can do nothing more than hope that Alec and Xavier will get out alright. But we shouldn't discard the possibility of a rescue mission, because the demon forces can manipulate people's minds. It may not be the case for all kinds of demons, but the ones that are trying to take over Velder have turned some of their prisoners against us. I don't know if they can do it for a Nasod, but knowing how Xavier acted, it was certainly the product of some spell. Or substance. I can't know for sure."

She took a deep breath and looked at her blade. "If Xavier has truly been brainwashed by the demons, you'd become our best source of information to know how to put him down. Hopefully, we won't have to kill him, but, based on my experience against brainwashed soldiers, that's highly unlikely."

She looked at Eosforos and managed to muster all her courage into her voice to reassure him. "But I swear I'll try everything in my power to bring Xavier back safe and sound. For now, we should rest."

Late

 

[Fume]

"Hmm... He overdid it. Too hasty." He commented in his mind as Lento started to bleed on his own. He was about to stand up and get Yullr, until Phantom passed by from the obstacle course to Lento in an instant.

"Well now..." He sat back down, noticing that he was effectively coating his legs with his mana. He then gathered Yullr in a hurry and made sure if Lento was now safe. He then came towards him.

"Um....shower break? I'll run through this course twice as hard when I get back I promise." He said towards him, to which he chuckled at him.

"I don't think you need to run that much. For now, think how fast you came from over there to Lento." Phantom looked back and back to him again. "As soon as you saw how Lento got hurt, your medic instincts kicked in I bet, making you stop overthinking it at last. You haven't even noticed that your mana is still passing through your feet." He pointed out to him.

"Go take your shower break, kid. But I'm still expecting you to finish the course." He allowed it as he too needed a small break, mainly to release some stress that he gets from these sessions. He lifted his hand and let the mana flow out in a very small amount, containing various symbols that he could recognize.

Phant0m

 

[Late]

Cornelius
​

Cornelius had to force himself to stop thinking about it. All the memories felt too painful and he didn’t want to suffer any more.

“I need...to tell the others. That angel...was to never be trusted in the first place!” Cornelius growled as he tried to recall where he was and how far he gotten. It was getting dark too and being unable to fly puts him at a disadvantage to get to anywhere at all. “I...can’t be out here like this...”

With his head pounding, Cornelius look around a place to hide for the night, repeating the angel’s real name over and over again in his head. He managed to find a broken building with an open to the underground. It was dark enough for him to blend in so he went through that hole, using his purple flames to warm up the flooring under him. He then settled in, having his eye closed as he focused to stop the pain.

Eosfóros
​

The angel smiled and only gave her a small nod of his head. Resting was probably best, especially for him. “I hope you are true to your word, commander. I trained him so much that I will hate for that to go to waste.” He took a moment to look around their surroundings, humming softly. Eosfóros went ahead to move a bit closer to the fire just for some warmth, being careful of his leg. “...You must be looking up to your brother often,” he said as he stared at the flames. “Do you always think about your brother?”

MementoDei