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Angelic Devotion Ch1


Kanami
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A healer, hm. He supposed that made sense - in his mind, healers were either elderly priests, or young women, so it made sense that they'd have to grow up. Still, the idea of a girl, wandering a fort that was riddled with dead and dying... He didn't like that idea, none at all. He turned to his conscious comrade and bit his lip. "... Keep an eye on Andra, you might check on Rakka while he's out. I'm... going to follow her, help her with any survivors, and make sure nothing worse happens while I'm at it." He grinned halfheartedly, shaking his head. "Just think - we were just saying how we wished something interesting would happen. Now that it has... Well, I'm not certain it's much better than sitting in the mess." He turned to gaze at the burning remains of the building he had just spent several hours in - the wood still cracked and popped, and he was certain alcohol was still burning. "... It doesn't smell much better, that's for certain..."

He smiled down, not entirely genuine, but he looked happy, that was what mattered, at the pint-sized healer. "If you don't mind, sister, I think I'll accompany you. There may be wounded underneath rubble or something, something that you would be unable to move off of them, so I think having some dumb muscle like myself would be advantageous." He wasn't going to take no for an answer, which is why he didn't ask her. "Well, lead the way!"

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((Forgive me if I messed up your plans, Yoshimitsu))

Bullet charged the leader, avoiding anyone who got in his way. That man was his. He was coming up behind him quickly, but it looked like the swordsman was going to get him first! Bullet ran even faster. He wasn't going to let another man take his kill.

"Bastard!" He ran up behind the commander with his sword already swinging fully intending to slice the man in half. But the soldier in question had already raised his sword to parry. Bullet was thrown backwards and disarmed by the force of his blade rebounding off of the man's sword. He clenched his fists and crouched over, looking for another weapon. He wasn't going to die like this!

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"You! I thank you for aiding me from before, but this must be settled in single combat. Watch my back while I strike down the leader," Shizunai said, glancing at Bullet while putting his sheath back and clutching his sword in both hands, summoning his chi and awaiting the first strike of the bandit. Duels were a waiting game. If one was patient, victory was certain.

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Beatrice now had the precarious task of getting of the tumbling tower. Every step she made had to be with care, as the very walls, ceiling, and floor were giving way. She dodged with moderate success, having several rock bang into her as she rushed her way down. Sure, it was nice for the general to have a vantage point, but did it really have to be so high up? Just getting around was a workout. Luckily, she was on the way down rather than ascended. But her legs were so tired, her body so fatigued. Having the stuffing beat out of you and having only leftovers to much on as food was not exactly the most healthy lifestyle. Already wiped from her mind was that girl who contracted her, what was her name again? Well, if they ever met again, Beatrice would be sure to take something off of her as a memento.

The door was in sight now, and Beatrice breathed out in relief. As if responding to her, the door supports collapsed, blocking her. Beatrice quickly rushed to the rubble and attempted to move it away, to force a way out. But the debris was too numerous and being what she was, there was a tad bit difficultly in moving the rocks. In desperation, Beatrice speed back up the stairs. A few steps up, a small slit pierced light into the stairwell. A window. Beatrice had no idea how high the drop was, but she had little other choice. She climbed up onto the windowsill and made her way down, slipping immediately. Suddenly she was reminded why she never did have rock climbing listed as a hobby. She scraped and grasped at the wall with her hand, but it was futile. She looked down, just to see how far the fall was, but immediately looked up again. Yep, she was going to be Raider Pancake. But slowly, she drew her eyes back down to the ground, seeing several people doing what looked like helping out survivors. Hey, she was a survivor, wasn't she?

"Hey, hey! Someone down there! Help me! I'm up here, and I'm slippin'! Help!"

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"I don't really care about your stupid 'laws of a swordsman' or whatever. But I'll do as you ask. This time." Bullet was only backing off because he had no weapon, and fighting a trained, armed opponent with only his bare fists was suicide. Bandits were one thing. Soldiers were another. He instead decided to pick up a hunting knife someone had dropped, and use that as a weapon. He returned to the fray, except this time he was furious, and his anger made him strong. They had no chance.

Edited by Camtech075
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Kieru looked sceptically at the brown haired man. He seemed well presented enough, well presented enough for someone who'd just survived the nearby explosion at least anyway. Usually she'd tell anyone that she'd be able to handle herself, but even Kieru was smart enough to know that now wasn't the right time to be clinging to her pride and sense of normality. Normality at the very least seemed to have been thrown right out the window. She nodded at the man, but didn't say anything, she didn't trust this strange man, but more importantly now wasn't the time to be chatting and socializing, she'd do plenty of that later when her nose wasn't filled with the stink of burning flesh and flaming alcohol.

As she ran over to the closest body she looked down and felt sick, she was used to small cuts and bruises, not smoking flesh and dead bodies. Quickly acknowledging that the first body had died in the explosion she moved over to the next one who was missing his head. The next few were hopeless cases as well, the victims being dead for several minutes now. She wasn't sure what the brown haired man was doing but he too seemed to be only finding deceased corpses. Perhaps it'd be better to have others search, so she could conserve her energy for the act of healing. As she turned to leave a corpse nearby emitted a groan.

For a second she thought the dead had come back to life, but that didn't seem to be the case. The man was covered in severe burns, his face no longer recognizable as a humans. Both legs were missing but he was somehow still breathing. She looked over at Laterite who had responded to the sound of an injured man. She raised her hands over the mans legs, uncertain whether healing him was the right choice, healing could cure wounds, but it wasn't able regrow the mans legs, return his eyesight or return his flesh to the state it was once in. Not when they were this severe. She hesitated again, should she?

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"Reaching, breaching, baking, making," Hubert pressed his tome against the wall as he uselessly chanted, "before man, during man, after man, eternal sparking, weeping, flowing," Hubert brought the tome back and punched the wall, "striking, hitting, blasting, blowing!" Fire erupted and splashed across the inadequate fortifications and finally broke free of the hovel that was burning up.

"I am a genius!" Hubert shouted and ran out the back. He glanced the horizon the fort was in and saw the unmissable signs of fire. Ah, whoever set those fires without him would pay! Hubert bounded forward, eager for... whatever someone would call what he was looking to do. Murder, most likely.

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Arias headed toward the soldiers' quarters on the other side of the fort. He got about halfway there when he heard the screams of someone [beatrice] needing help. 'I suppose if we can save one life, it would be worth it'.

'Hey, someone! Come quick! I can hear a survivor in there', pointing toward the remains of the General's quarters.'

'I will save you somehow,' Arias thought to himself. 'Just hang on for a couple more minutes...'

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"Hey mage guy! Man am I glad to see you! Get a tarp or stack of hay, so I can soften the fall!" Beatrice's nails dug into the stone wall, slowly skidding down. At the moment, the only thing holding her up was her left arm, grabbing on that little brick in the wall. To make matters worse, it was getting windy. Great, now she would die cold. Beatrice briefly wondered if it hurt more to die in cold or when hot. That mage had better deliver or she'd rip his heart down and shove it down his throat. Though, she wasn't really sure how she would manage that, being dead.

Man, were near death experiences fun. Beatrice lived for them!

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"Go ahead, dandelion," Laterite said, checking the man's pulse. "Better he live without his legs than die here, it's possible to make it through life with a disability like this." He wasn't even sure if the man was able to be saved - the girl, Kieru, didn't seem to be carrying a staff of any kind, and he had no idea how potent her art was - if she was hesitant, maybe it was because she wasn't sure she could heal him, as opposed to being unsure if it was the right thing to do. "That's my opinion, at least. I'll continue on while you make your decision - I'm not bad with a roll of gauze," he said, producing the item from the bag at his side while he spoke, "so I can at least help with anyone who's not so... 'compromised.'"

She was an interesting girl, probably had a very interesting story as to why she was in this hellhole, helping men who may not live to see the sundown. Ever since his childhood, he had always tried his best to be kind to children - whoever she was, she didn't deserve this, he decided, as he bandaged a man's bleeding stump with a thick layer of the cotton. He had only lost his hand south of the wrist, and had a small head wound - compared to so many others around him, he really was lucky, but he still risked bleeding out if his wounds couldn't be stopped. Laterite handed him a thick rag, instructing him to hold it to his wrist - he wasn't sure at first if the man had heard him, sitting in shock staring at his wound, but after a moment, he did as instructed, gritting his teeth. He wasn't sure who the man was, but he was clearly of a higher caliber of men than several of the crying wounded that surrounded him.

This place... wasn't safe. Whatever happened here, there would surely be a follow-up, from whatever caused it, be it an enemy army, or brigands. He wasn't sure which he would prefer for the survivors that couldn't escape - neither group would be particularly merciful, but a trained force of soldiers would hopefully be less likely to engage in some of the more... indecent acts of raiding.

At the first sign of any trouble, he would gather the others - and the girl - and they would be gone, as quickly as was possible.

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'There's clearly no time for me to get enough hay to soften her fall,' he thought to himself. If Arias had specialized in wind magic, he could have simply had the air make a cushion to gently bring the woman down to the ground. Unfortunately, wind mages are few and far between in Tolmaeus. After all, blowing stuff up was was more fun.

I know just what to do, he thought.

He grabbed a tarp off the pile of rubble and, seeing that she was hanging on to a brick wall (thankfully not wood), Arias took a ball of flame and used it to melt the tarp onto the wall. He pulled the tarp taut, hoping that he had the physical strength to hold it steady. That, and that the melted tarp would hold.

'Alright, I think it's alright. You're going to have to let go now or never!' he said to the woman.

'Spirits, grant me the strength to save her,' he whispered to himself.

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Here goes nothing, Beatrice thought. I hope those aren't my last words.

"Word to your mother!" Beatrice proclaimed. Much better. Wait, ahh shit...

Before Beatrice could think up of anything else to say, she collapsed down onto the giant sheet. The tarp stretched down to its limits, and Beatrice's heart skipped a bit. After a second or so, it snapped back in the other direction, making Beatrice fly back up into the air.

"Ah, hell!" Beatrice complained while she continued to bounce up and down. She was kinda getting nauseous, and just had about enough of this. She stabbed her sword down into the tarp and cut through it, making her land pretty hard on her armguard. Surprisingly, she stood up from the fall, seemingly unaffected by the fall on her right arm. She slapped her left arm on her forehead.

"Oogghh. Remind me to never try that again. N-nice... wait," Beatrice threw up on the ground, then shook her head like a wet dog. "Sorry, my flight in wasn't too smooth. Thanks for the assist, sir. I'm recruit Beatrice, of Crestia."

Beatrice extended out her left arm to shake.

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(Elrest)

The sound of battle quietened down as Bullet returned to the fray, the battle was pretty much over, with Bullet and Shizunai being included in the dozen that still remained active, everyone else lay on the floor, never to awaken again. As the two had charged forward, their entire rear had been wiped out. Several had attempted to surrender casting their pride aside, but it was clear that nobody intended to take prisoners.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Talgusta)

Kieru nodded, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to do anything, after all, the man already looked like a corpse, bar his heartbeat and groaning. She took three deep breaths before focusing and applying pressure what looked like a wound, she wasn't even sure, everything was burnt and horrid looking and the pressure she was putting on the man was undoubtedly causing him pain. A few seconds passed before the mans breath evened out again. Satisfied with her work she moved her hand over to the mans face, applying the same procedure. As she removed her hand the man opened one of his eyes and stared at her, apparently he had managed to save one of his eyes. Though the other had no prospect of seeing daylight ever again.

Kieru looked up at the sky, why was it so bright? The sun had well and truly gone down by now but the flames emitting from the buildings made it seem brighter then it had been all day. Kieru yawned as she removed her hand from the mans chest, she'd done all she could, though how the man would continue living after today she had no idea. He was certainly not going to be any good being a mercenary or soldier anymore. She hesitated again and she pulled away, had she really saved the man? Or just condemned him to a life of suffering? She looked over at Laterite who'd bandaged the wounds Kieru hadn't been able to heal. The man too finished his job and seemed to be thinking about something. Which pushed Kieru into thinking about the thing she'd forgotten. A few second passed before she could hear shouting coming from the gates. Soldiers in crimson red armor were marching in from the far gates in an orderly manner.

Others seemed to have noticed too and were calling for help, she smiled at Laterite "Help is here" she said happily indicating the fully armed men who'd arrived. Things were finally starting to look better.

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Arias tried to move his left arm to return the shake, but it just wasn't going to move.

'Awfully sorry to seem rude, miss Beatrice, but it seems that saving your life took quite a toll on my upper body. I'm afraid that my arms are rather inclined to not be listening to what I want them to do.'

Arias fell flat on his back.

'Ugh. Terribly sorry to be bothering you, but could you reach into my pockets and help me drink one of those potions. Oh, and before you think about trying to pilfer them of some gold, do be aware that I've got almost no money on my person, so it looks like you're out of luck,' he said, surmising that she wasn't necessarily the most honest-handed of people.

'By the way, I suppose that while I'm down here, I should introduce myself. I'm Arias, a traveling mage of sorts. It's nice to meet you.'

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"Heheheehheheh. Look what we have here. A robed foxy idiot who thinks he can take me! I'm Shard! My sword makes the gods tremble!" he shouted, drawing a wickedly curved blade and charging towards Shizunai.

"Those who tread the path of evil will meet their judgment eventually."

"Hah! Defend yourself fool!" Shard shouted, trying to split Shizunai's head down the middle. He blocked the blow and aimed a quick counter back, but was blocked by the curve of the blade. It was quite a good weapon, though Shard wielded it with little skill, no precision. Shizunai stepped to the side, summoning a small bit of chi into his sword and slashed horizontally, but Shard backed up a bit, though he took a light cut to the chest.

"Heh. Not bad for a retard knight. More!" Shard shouted with glee. He waved the sword in all directions, seeking to overwhelm Shizunai with brute force. While he blocked four of the eight blows coming towards him, the sword knocked the mask a bit, stunning Shizunai a bit before being cut in the leg, the arm and when Shizunai dodged to the left, his shoulder. Wincing in pain, Shizunai spun his sword, summoning all his chi into the blow and the blade glowed with a faint white light.

"Hey, what's with yer swor-!" Shard said startled at the glow before Shizunai sent his head flying.

He kneeled down, the attack taking more out of him then he thought. He kept the sword up to defend any incoming men towards him. These were trained soldiers and now, he wasn't sure how long he could last.

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Bullet felt himself growing slower and weaker.

The battle had quieted down, with less than 10 individual duels going on, including the monk and the enemy commander. He shifted his knife in his hand, and struck at his enemy, felling him at the cost of receiving yet another wound. He'd have to stop being so reckless.

--- (30 seconds later) ---

The battle was over. Bullet noticed that there were only a dozen men left alive, including himself and the swordsman- No, Shizunai. He dropped his knife, crouching to the floor to take some weight off his legs.

"Tough battle, eh? Maybe now we'll get a chance to strike back at those religious freaks." And also a chance for me to take my revenge, thought Bullet, keeping it to himself.

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"Why would I steal from ya when I got a steady paycheck? Well, not so steady now that all my superiors are dead. 'sides, you did save my keister back there." Beatrice did what Arias asked of her. She wasn't interested in chump change, either way it went. She wasn't a common thief, after all. It wasn't the way to get ahead in life. With the papers she had in hand, she figured she could work away to the higher ranks, and pull off a nice heist, and grab a nice payout. Or, if she was lazy, the papers could get her out of jail if she was convincing enough.

"Here you go, better be the right one." Beatrice put up the potion up to Arias's mouth and poured a bit of it into his mouth. "You're a traveler, you say? What you be traveling for, huh? With the war and all, I can't see the point in tourism."

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"Likewise." Turning his head, Bullet noticed that their entire rearguard had been destroyed during his reckless charge. He sighed. It was this kind of ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK notion that had got him in trouble last time. Then he remembered that Shizunai had asked a question of him.

"I've no idea whatsoever. I'm not really someone who pays attention to those things." Then Bullet remembered something. "We should go check out that explosion once our strength returns. I fear something happened at the fort."

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'Ah. Thanks a lot,' Arias said to Beatrice as he gently started to sit up, invigorated by the healing concoction. At this point, he drank a little more and put the rest back in his pocket, well aware that potions were going to be a lot harder to come by here than in the Academy. Oh well, he thought. It was to be expected.

"But anyway, I suppose that I really can't expect you to believe that I'm an ordinary traveler. Right now, I'm working for the army as a mercenary of sorts. I left my home a few months back and came here. I knew that tensions were rising between Granford and Crestia, but I was taken aback by the sudden hostilities. Never expected that war of this scale would break out, at least not yet. Figured we'd have a little more... Uhhh..." Arias winced in pain as the potion took effect, gradually restoring feeling to his arms.

"And you? I must say that in this part of the continent, women aren't known for fighting. Are you a mage too?"

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"Hey, not known for fightin'? Talk about rude! If I wasn't such a nice person, I'd cut you up for that remark! Case you haven't noticed, I got me a scimitar. It's a horseback weapon, but I think all the ponies got pasted. Cavalry's a hard job, taking the frontline and all, but there's nothing like flankin' them bogeys and ripping 'em a new one," Beatrice spoke excitedly, having had her share of horse raiding fun back when she was still terrorizing the countryside. "Any way, with the sudden war, you gotta take what you get! And they got me!"

Beatrice unsheathed her sword and stabbed randomly into the air. Unfortunately, a falling burning log reminded her of the situation she was in. "Let's go find the others, or sumthin'."

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'Darn right you are. Especially in this war. It's going to be rather nasty, I feel, and we're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to win this. Sorry for the sexist remark, Beatrice. Now, if you could help me walk over there to where everyone else is gathered, we might be able to figure out just what the heck is going on. I'd walk myself, but my arms and chest are a bit strained, and breathing's tough. Maybe we can find me a healer over there too.'

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Ivan nodded as Laterite moved away with the girl. He would've preferred to forget about the injured (who were pretty much screwed anyways, in his estimation) and just get the fuck out without wasting time on anyone else, but then, Laterite was surely aware of his feelings on the matter. That was probably the reason he'd put himself on survivor duty and Ivan on Andra duty; it was true, at the least, Ivan wasn't going to leave without trying to get the wyvern rider out. Andra had saved his hide more than once in the past, and vice versa as well. Ivan wasn't going to buck the trend now.

The merc kneeled down beside his unconscious friend, determined that his pulse was indeed still there, then turned and began to run towards Rakka's stabling, or at least, to run as fast as he could after recovering from an explosion. His head pounded and his whole body throbbed, but it wasn't hard to keep going in spite of that--all he had to do was consider the fact that when an entire fort explodes, it's almost certainly not an accident. Luckily, Ivan found that the horses hadn't been blown to smithereens along with everything else. No point in targeting the animals if you expected all the soldiers to be dead. He quickly moved over to Rakka's pen, unlatched it, and awkwardly motioned for the wyvern to move out. It seemed unsure at first, but after Ivan gave its reins a yank or two, it got the idea.

A few minutes later, Ivan re-entered the fort's courtyard with Rakka following closely. The wyvern immediately spotted its master and moved over to his immobile form. If Ivan hadn't known better, he would've thought the thing was actually concerned about Andra. In reality, it was probably just a vague positive connection in its mind between Andra and its general livelihood, seeing as how Andra was the one who fed it. Either way, Ivan hoped it could wake the guy up (Celist only knew its breath was strong enough), cause he sure didn't know how to fly that thing, and he wasn't too keen on carrying Andra out of here himself. He might have to just lift Andra onto its back and hope Rakka could take care of the rest, an idea which he then began to make into a reality.

As he was struggling to heave Andra's body up onto the wyvern, Ivan noticed a contingent of red-armored soldiers entering the fort.

"Oh, great. Alright folks, time to go! That includes you Laterite, wherever you are!!" Ivan shouted out.

Edited by CATS
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Laterite's blood chilled when he saw the knights, clad in a deep red armor, every one of them. Something didn't feel right about this - the men in the fort had been armored in a dull gray, not this menacing plate. Kieru seemed to think they were here to help, but, in all of his jobs, Laterite had been one to trust his gut, and he was still alive and well to show for it. So, while this may be the wrong decision to make...

He dropped the roll of bandages he had, running to Kieru and picking her up swiftly. "Forgive me if I'm a bit brusque, Miss Kieru, but I don't think those men are here to help us any. Men armored in the color of blood usually aren't well-trusted, and I'd rather keep my head and seem foolish than welcome an enemy to stand behind me." He kicked a pile of rubble down in front of him and the healer he now carried - hopefully that could buy him some time - and, making sure to carry her so she wouldn't be jostled too much, he ran off through the ruins, careful to avoid the dangerous buildings that hadn't fully collapsed. The last thing he wanted was the girl and himself to be crushed while fleeing. He forgot where he was going for a moment, dead to the world in his thoughts and actions, before remembering something - when they had arrived, put off by the fact that there were no stables within the fort, they had considered leaving - until they had discovered a building, concealed in overgrowth, that would make due. It appeared to have been a barn, long before this land was used for military needs - but, once they had set out supplies for the dragon and horse he had (for status), it made a more than adequate stable, hidden from view as you approached the fort. He could get his horse, they could get out of here... Ivan and Andra would have Rakka, that would be more than sufficient.

"I think it's safe to say we should be leaving now," he said, making his way towards one of the smaller gates that led outside. He was amazed the wall still stood, but, whatever gave him a narrower pathway, to be followed less. The horse was excessively nervous, after the explosion - he was surprised it hadn't bolted - but he managed to calm it down before fitting the gear on it as quickly as he could manage. "I don't think those men were reinforcements, but rather enemies, the men responsible for what happened in the fort, perhaps the panic in the village as well. We had best go, we may be the only riders to leave the area to bear this news." He knelt in front of her. "I'll help you up."

"... Oh, forgive me, both if this is moving somewhat quickly, and for making the most rudimentary mistake - not introducing myself to a lady." He smiled quickly. "My name is Laterite Defaux - son of the Defaux family, of Crestia. Also a bit of a mercenary, to make my time pass a bit more, but that's not important. What is important is that we get an innocent - that's you! - out of here, before anything bad can happen. Is that okay?"

Oh daisies what had he gotten himself into.

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Hubert was grooving to the delicious ringing sound those explosions from earlier had dug into his ears. The sound, the thrill, the very taste of things going boom was an intoxication of greatest proportions even with the inadequate job the lessers had done. Hubert was just dancing away on his way forward, it was such a joy to see that fort and the little ants crawling around their inferior entrance device.

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