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[Purg]

"All roads in this city lead to the arch," he said calmly, pulling Fargo off his shoulder. He had no issue with the younger man - if he wanted to join them on their walk, that was certainly fine by him, but he wasn't quite sure that he needed to be carried for it. "You just have to make your way to the center."

The stones were slick from the rain, but the streets were clear, of both other people and carts making their way through the city. Now that the torrent had stopped, it really was pleasant weather, despite the gray skies. It wouldn't be long, though, until mist began to rise from the cobblestone, giving the foreign city an ethereal feel - perhaps that would serve to make their walk a bit more interesting, though. All truths be told, he rather enjoyed the dreary and damp days over the bright sunlight - he found that, the less people he had to push past to do what he liked, the better he thought his experiences were. With virtually no one in between the now-trio on their way to the arch, Dom could honestly say he was enjoying himself. A shadow of a smile was the only sign of it, the only feature out of place.

[Android]

Darrain walked out of the shop grumbling. One decent bowstring and some arrows had cost him the rest of his savings. His equipment had been with everything else that had been confiscated when his owner’s business flopped, so he had to start gathering everything from scratch. These would be a start.



Some group nearby was causing a commotion. He looked over and saw Dom, Fargo, and Yuki walking by. Fargo was piss drunk and leaning on the others for support. Darrian grinned and threw his new purchases in his bag; this would be interesting.



“Hey, what are you guys up to? I was just resupplying, myself.”

[SuperFush]

"Eh? Darrian!" Yuki waved over to the boy. After traveling with him for a while, she'd gotten to know him a bit better and realized that maybe, just maybe, she was being a little unfair with him back in Corthrone. She sure as hell wasn't going to admit that to him, though.

"Dom's showing me and Fargo around the city. I guess he knows the place pretty well. Are you coming along? Great!" She took her cloak off and shoved it into his arms. "Here, carry this for me, thanks. Alright, Dom, let's go!"

[Purg]

She seemed in a better mood now. Fargo and Darrian both had a way of improving the mood around them, something Dom could appreciate for this task. He considered letting them all walk on their own, but had a feeling that they would only get lost, something that had happened enough in Corthrone. While he may not know the city as well as Yuki implied to the others, he at least knew his way around the main parts - so he simply nodded and set off at a brisk pace, careful not to slip on the wet flagstone. He hoped they would keep up.

As the group wound their way up the hill through the twisting streets, Dom found himself enjoying their company more and more. They were beginning to remind him of his family, almost, always trying to act, to do something. He had found himself in a state of lethargy ever since monsters had become more frequent. If war brewed, he could serve his purpose better, but he had found himself unable to even stun the majority of the beasts stalking the wilderness now.

It was undeniably a good thing, then, that he had stayed with this group.

[rn7]

A fully-robed figure walked out of the Holy Arch and appeared in front of the four or so buddies. The four were standing around talking about.... something. Fargo didn't even really remember any more. Complete stranger guy that he should know the name of but didn't at the moment had just appeared, wanting to join the group, then ice lady said something about showing her around the city. Fargo had been around most of the city already, albeit he didn't take that long a look around, considering he was leaping and running all over the place. Now a strange dude who came from the Holy Arch was waltzing up to them and trying to talk them up. He hoped he hadn't cause any unintended trouble.

The figure thrust off his hood, revealing a bald pate covered with an arch tattoo. The tattoo was lined with runic symbols and an ancient form of language. Fargo didn't bother to make an effort to try to read the thing. The baldy grinned, his mouth forming into a toothy, archy grin and extended his hand out to shake.

"Hello, hello, hello! I am Lorenz Archival, one of many monks studying under the influence of the one and only Holy Arch!" The monk went around forcibly shaking hands with the group, a friendly yet frantic gesture, all the while blabbering about the Holy Arch and just what it was that he did as a monk. "Yes, yes, the holy arch! Such a wonderful structure, is it not! HA HA! As my father once said, that is one big, quote unquote, mother hubbard! Haha, what colorful language he had! Yes, well, the holy arch itself was blessed, and created, oh yes, it was created, not descended from the skies as most would want you to believe, by the Great Archfiend of No Form! Some consider the Archfiend a god, but oh my, that is too much! The archfiend is merely a formless entity, originated before silly things like gender or appearance or even this world existed! The archfiend then created this mighty arch, oh yes the Great One did! And with the blessing of the Arched One, it was made so that the Arch would never fall to anything magical in nature, yes, yes indeed! Hoo hoo hoo hee ha! But then the EVIL archenemy of the Arched One appeared, giving form and order to the world! Oh a war raged and lots of destruction happened, ironic, given that the archenemy Lightformus was an entity of order, but any way! Lightformus made it so that the Holy Arch would wear down by normal, unmagical physical means! The gall of Lightformus! And not only that! The devilish Lightform sealed our great originator in the very arch itself! And so to protect the Arched One, us Keeparchists have banded together to reinforce the structure of the Holy Arch, to keep it sacred, and to prepare for the Great One's re-- oh, my!"

Lorenz had just spotted Yuki in the middle of his long winded speel, and came up close to her, grasp her hand softly and kissed it. "Apologizes milady, for boring you with that story. It is not good to praise oneself needlessly in the presence of a pure spirited maiden such as yourself. Well, trouble yourselves no further, come join us inside the arch! The Arched One returnth this day!"

Lorenz held the door open for Yuki and the rest, beckoning them inside the holiest, most sacred place within the city.

[mr_e_s]

Stark

It was almost perfect, how fast he had found her, she was with Dom, Fargo and...Stark really didn't knwo that kid's name. They seemed to all be getting along. Having fun even. It made Stark really happy for some reason he couldn't pin down. He walked up to the group as non chalantly as possible, giving a brief nod to Dom and a few heys and hellos to the others. He let the conversation go on for a bit. He was about to grab Yuki when...Lorenz Archival came and completely railroaded the goings on prior. Stark really didn't have a lot of patience for this, and at the first possible juncture, he pulled Yuki aside and told her he'd found her father.

Some quick apologies and some light ditching of Dom, the kid and Fargo to the certain madness of Lorenz Archival. Stark dealt with enough crazy on a regular basis, he didn't need more. And he didn't want to keep Eltiar waiting. He could at least make a happy family reunion.

Whistler

Here's the thing about our cell. We got two brains, and two guys doing all the gruntwork. Now, in your average cell, Cog, he'd be a brain, but in our cell, he's a grunt like me. You ain't never seen a grunt do so much cool shit with gears and camshafts though. They don't always work, like one time, this machine he made to dispense bird seed over a large area so all the birds could have plenty of food and you wouldn't need feeders all over the damn place, well, it caught fire and started spitting out burning seeds all over this park he put it up in. Damn near burned the whole city down over some bird feed, he did! So you always had to take his inventions with a grain of salt. Drin was a bit more reliable, cause he liked to test things and test them again and give 'em more tests before he'd even really let anyone else use 'em. Cog figured letting people use them was a test.

So you can understand why I was feeling more then a little uncomfortable in his little horseless cart. Damn thing was louder'n horses, for starters. Slower, too. And god damn did it rattle. I figured Doc Beaker was just driving it wrong, didn't know which lever accelerated and which one dispensed after dinner mints. Whether it was the ride itself or the driver, the trip was an unpleasant one. Not just cause we'd lost contact with Cog and Tinker, cause we really didn't know where we was headed. The doc, he wanted to go to Carthica, and I thought that plan was alright. But Carthica, she's pretty far, and I didn't care to spend more'n a day in that deathtrap, soes I figured I'd suggest we check someplace closer, like Highrise.

Truth be told I was getting pretty motion sick too, and between that and those weird creaking noises that made me sure every time I heard them would be the last time, cause some camshaft or rod or joint or something would burst through the floor and impale me on the wall, as some kind of warning to anyone else stupid enough to get on that thing. I didn't complain about it though. Beaker tied to grow me wings once and that was way worse.

[SuperFush]

Yuki was, to put it lightly, rather taken aback by the priest's...boldness. He was charming, and if he was younger and better looking, she'd have no doubt been charmed. Instead, she was somewhat off-put, and very, very grateful when Stark suddenly appeared to pull her away.

"Phew, thanks. Ugh, that guy gave me the creeps!" She shuddered rather theatrically, then threw her arms around Stark. "Much rather stay out here and see the rest of the city than...eh?" Her blue eyes widened. "M-my father? Here?! How? Why? Ah...let's go, then!"

[Purg]

Dom didn't particularly like the way that this Archrival was looking at Yuki, and, as he thought that Stark probably agreed with him, the man led her away. He had seemed to be restraining excitement about something, but it appeared the business was between them. That left him, Fargo, and Darrian with the strange man within the holy arch. He shook his head at the man's zealotry, careful to not allow himself to show his discontent with the place - it could be a dangerous mistake.

[CATS]

Mior stood in place and waited after his challenge to Eltiar echoed out across the town. Everything around him was silent; a few Keeparchists stared at him from far away before hurrying to distance themselves from him, most did the latter without bothering to do the former. Yet still, no Eltiar. He wasn't sure how long he stood and waited, focused only on the task ahead of him, knowing that his opponent would come. It could have been five minutes, it could have been an hour, Mior neither knew nor cared. He only knew that however long, it had certainly been enough time for Eltiar to show himself, and still he had not done so.

"Hmph. I was told that this man is honorable or brave or some other such thing.... I suppose I was misinformed. How bothersome. Then again, he was also supposed to be wise, and he's done something to draw my attention, so I suppose the things I've heard about him are nothing more than trumped-up nonsense," Mior mused.

It didn't take much longer to find Eltiar on his own. With his patience worn down to nearly nothing, Mior began to act more aggressively in order to acquire the information he desired, threatening to use his powers against the Holy Arch itself if someone did not bring a certain ice mage for him to use them upon instead. The Keeparchists complied all too willingly, ready to do almost anything to get this dangerous and unclean man out of their holy city, and almost immediately Mior received word that his man was sitting at one of the city's more popular cafes.

Mior entered the cafe and took a seat across from Eltiar as everyone else in the establishment fled. There was no one else present. Mior had been told that Eltiar was speaking with a younger man, but the man must have left.

"Hello, Eltiar. No doubt you understand who I am, why I am here, and what I am about to do. I will make the situation quite clear to you: You have hindered the cause to which you were once dedicated, betrayed your allies, caused quite a disruption in this town's business simply by coming here, forced me to waste my own personal time hunting you down, and made a general nuisance of yourself. I am going to give you what your actions have earned.

"I ask only that you do not resist. Consider: Your death is inevitable. You may be able to hold me back for a short while, but however considerable your abilities may be, ultimately they will not save you. Even supposing that you could deal with me, that would only postpone your death, rather than prevent it; the organization would hunt you all the more relentlessly for killing me. I repeat, your death is inevitable. Now, if you do resist, and your powers are what I've been told, this town will sustain significant damage in the ensuing battle. Innocent bystanders could easily be injured or killed and I daresay that enough people have died because of you, not to mention that you've already wasted more than enough of my own time. If you wish to cling to whatever dignity you might have left, then do not allow your actions to cause any further harm, go peacefully; however, if you wish to be remembered as a coward who forced destruction onto this city and its residents, then feel free to make a scene. The choice is yours. Between you and me, I do not think it is a particularly difficult one," Mior said.

[rn7]

"Noooooo!" screeched Lorenz in a high-pitched, girly wail as the young ice maiden was wrest from his hands. How close he had been to her, to the final objective, the sacrifice. For the Holy Archfiend required a medium of which to reincarnate, or rather, simply a form to assume as it exited the gate. Now that she was gone, all hope was lost. The archfiend was to sleep for another seven hundred, maybe even a thousand--

WAIT! Wait, wait wait, wait, wait wait wait wait wait wait wait! Lorenz spotted it, a spare strand of hair that must have fell off during the encounter. Lorenz pounced on the little hair like a tiger upon fresh prey, cupping the little precious thing in his hand. He chuckled and snorted gleefully, like an obsessed collector having just received his new action figurine in the mail.

"Well, well, well! Come on in, come on, come on! The arched one's return begins! A feast to this spectacular occasion!" Lorenz said, in a much too excited manner, then ran inside the structure flailing his arms like flags in a tornado.

"Wow, that guy's pretty into his stuff! Seems trustworthy to me! Let's go stuff our faces!" Fargo happily followed the cultist inside.

The Holy Arch chapel was actually built completely around the arch. It was designed to reinforce the place and ensure that it would never fall to old age and simple erosion. The expanse of the chapel was huge, wrapping around the already massive arch and having stairs and walkways connecting paths. It was just as easy to get lost here as it was in the Arch Library, though here, if you found a window, you might be okay with an escape. Unlike the Arch itself, the chapel was completely physical in nature. So, while it was durable physically, magic was quite the issue for it. Or would be, if the opportunity ever presented itself.

"Lorenz! Why have you brought these outsiders here?" A wizened old man with a gray beard extending down to his waist questioned the gleeful cultist.

"Hatseph, do not be too quick to judge! These outsiders have brought the KEY." Lorenz jiggled his fingers, to symbolize magic.

"You don't mean..." The old man raised his bushy eyebrow so high it seemed as if it would fall off, land on the ground, and begin life as a new organism.

"YES. THE KEY." Lorenz brought out the strand of hair and revealed it to the old man. Both men stared at it awestuck, then pranced around in a circle like schoolchildren, chanting, "THE KEY, THE KEY!"

"No time to waste, start the ritual!" The old man and Lorenz pranced off to the center hall, at the point where the sun would strike perfectly when it reached its zenith. It was a clear room, spherical and made of a thick glass. Lorenz immediately began painting some runic symbols and ancient jibberjabber on the glass's surface, and began chanting. He hung the hair strand up on a hook, and waited for the sun to get into place.

"Wow! This is like the weirdest cooking method I've ever seen! I can't wait to eat whatever it is, though!" Fargo commented. In mere moments, the summoning would complete.

[Purg]

"... They're summoning a demon."

It dawned on him, the stories and tales that surrounded demons. Pain, suffering, unrivaled acts of brutality and sadism - and unlike gods and angels, he could believe that demons existed, having seen monsters and worse in his travels. Fargo hadn't seemed to grasp what was about to happen, naivety or perhaps insanity clouding the true nature of this place. Darrian hadn't reacted yet, either - with only the three of them, against the priests inside and the demon they intended to summon... They wouldn't be able to survive, even if all of the others were here.

"We must leave." He turned back to the doorway, then to the others. "Now."

[Android]

Darrian shrugged and grabbed Fargo, running after Dom as he did so.

"Are you sure? The group seemed a bit loopy, yeah, but i doubt they'd be competent enough to bring in a demon. Though they did take Yuki's hair off the ground and freaked out about it, which is creepy enough for me."

[rn7]

Fargo and friends hightailed it out a window, just in time to see the spectacular view displayed in front of them. The sun had reached its peak, and in that moment, the entire little room Lorenz was in lit up in a great, blinding light. The light flickered and flashed, sending long shadows of the Holy Arch every which way. The shadows formed then faded, slowly at first, then quickly until eventually, the entire city was covered in black. Slowly, the sun began being swallowed up by the blackness, like a drop of color spreading in water. Soon, there was but a black circle in the sky, with a crown of fire around it.

A formless blob slowly peered out of the arch. It floated in the air suspended by forces unknown, and seemed to disregard all laws of physics. At last, the pulsating mass centered in front of ritual room, then suddenly lashed out at it, consuming it completely. Slowly, the dark mass dripped off of the orb, revealing that the men inside were unharmed, and all but the hair was present.

The shadow took form. Bit by bit, so slowly from the bottom. At first, there was no telling what the shape was going to be. But quickly, distinct details appeared. A foot, a toe, a arm, a hand, fingers, hairs. It was a person, or more accurately a women. It was also just as tall as the Arch itself.

"O Great Archfiend! We have revived you with the methods that you have designated for you on the ancient holy scriptures!" Lorenz proclaimed to the now-formed Archfield. "We ask of you, O Great One, to vanquish our foes, the nefario--"

The Archfiend interrupted the cultist's yammering with some odd, otherworldly sounds, no doubt a language of some kind. Lorenz just looked dumbfounded at the Archfiend and looked over to the older man to help interpret. The old man too had no idea what was being said. Suddenly, a long black tendril shot out of the Archfiend's finger and pierced the old man in the forehead. After a second, the tendril left the head, leaving a bloodless scar. The old man suddenly felt dizzy.

"Can you understand me now, Keeparchists? Wait, why did I bother asking, I already know. My, has language taken a turn for the worst in the last thousand years." The archfiend responded in a booming voice.

"Ah! Oh blessed Archfiend, your words are but the best offering you can deliver upon us!" Lorenz gleefully sucked up to the archfiend. "Our understanding has been--"

"Quiet, you! What, what is this form I have assumed?" The Archfiend ran a hand down its body, feeling the contours of the odd new form. "This is not what I wrote upon the scriptures!"

"Ah, but, did not it say that you wanted a 'ice maiden, whose cold stare pierced the hearts of men'?" Lorenz asked.

"NO, YOU FOOL! I wanted a 'nice dragon, whose fierce boldness flares the hearts of men'!" The archfiend yelled in response.

"What!? You could have made it more clear, oh great one." Lorenz complained.

"Language truly has taken a turn for the worse. No matter, this form is quite acceptable as well. What does it do?" The archfiend questioned the cultist, which then resulted in Lorenz babbling about the ice magic for several minutes. Rather than listen to the cultist drone on, the Archfiend took matters into its own hands. With an extended arm, the archfiend formed a giant bow completely out of ice, with strings of black shadow. Slowly a long spear of ice formed in between, forming a long arrow. The fiend took aim a random building, and fired the arrow. The giant spear crashed into the building, leaving a scuff mark, and shattering into tiny, sparkling shards.

"Ah, better. Much better than I had expected. Now what did you want of me?" The archfiend asked.

"Yes, yes! Oh great one of the Holy Arch, whose height would be forever unparalleled! We, the humble servants of thou, the Keeparchists, do so request that the great one forever and completely annihilate the ever vile and contemptuous villains that reside in the sacrilegious settlement named Highrise!"

"Oh, is that so? Uh, right then. I will deal with these Highrisians in a method I see fit."

"Oh joy!" Lorenz pranced about in the little ritual room, knocking over dangerous and possibly volatile chemicals, while the Archfiend walked off before he could notice. It noticed a trio of three men running off scared, and forcefully approached them.

"Just so you know, I think those guys are nuts too. I hope you don't mind me joining you-- even if you did, I wouldn't take no for an answer," The archfiend shrunk to the size of a normal human in a few seconds, then fell to the floor, crawling like a snake. It snapped to Darrian's feet, melding with his shadow. "To Highrise or to Hell, anywhere but near these cultists."

Fargo looked at Darrian's new shadow, taking all that had transpired in front of him.

"Gee," he said. "I gotta learn that recipe!"

[CATS]

The tension in the room was shattered by a giant bolt of ice crashing in through the ceiling. Mior raised a hand as the bolt shattered, causing the many shards of ice to fly away from or around him, then looked up quizzically at the hole in the building.

"Oh dear."

Mior used some minor earth magic to form some rocky stairs up onto the roof which he then ascended, motioning for Eltiar to join him in the meantime and commenting that they may need to save their business for a more convenient time. Needless to say he was quite dumbfounded when he stepped onto the roof and caught sight of the massive ice maiden now towering over the city. She--or maybe it, Mior wasn't sure--seemed to be conversing with someone inside the Holy Arch. The mage scratched his head in utter confusion.

".....what the bloody hell?" he mused.

However, the strange creature shrank down and seemed to disappear after a few more remarks, including something about dealing with Highrise.

"Aha, I see! The Keeparchists must have finally succeeded in summoning the Archdemon to destroy the mortal enemies of the Holy Arch! Huh, glad I don't live in Highrise. Anyways, where were we?" Mior said, turning back to Eltiar.

[Android]

Darrian stood awestruck for a second. They were serious. They had summoned some terrible demon out of some great circle of hell to reign terror over all people. He had just stood there and let him do it. Thought it was a joke. And now some giant beast who looked like Yuki (which was just as well, he would be rather die to a beautiful woman than to something that looked like it had crawled from hell itself) speaking in some godawful language was walking the earth because of his negligence. It learned english practically immediately, but then.... started debating with the cultists about the form. They had messed up with the form or something? It had apparently wanted to be a dragon, so Darrian supposed the human race got a lucky break there. But soon enough, the demon had been given it's mission. It was walking towards them. Crap, what could he do? He didn't have shit to defend himself with, but... Would making holy signs work? Or was it silver with demons? Dammit, why hadn't he grabbed silver? The hellspawn stood next to them. It mentioned how it was glad to be away from those freaks of cultists and jumped in his shadow. Wait, what?

Darrian jumped back and stared at his shadow, flustered and looking a bit foolish. "Wait, what are you doing? Are you here to kill us? Am I your slave now? No, you don't understand, I have a family, I can't be killed! What are you going to do to me?"

[Purg]

"Glad to see we agree that they're all insane," Dom muttered silently, unsure of if the woman in the shadow could hear him. It was certainly advantageous to have the archfiend that the Keeparch cultists worshiped, but having a demon with them... He knew better than to voice such objections in front of a being in control of shadow and ice. If she stayed with Darrian... He would have to watch him. Perhaps she had the capable of possessing another form. Perhaps he should find a legitimate priest, instead of these insane practitioners.

"At the risk of ruining the fun, I'd rather find the others than continue our walk. With this new..." He paused, unsure of what to call what had just happened. "This new development," he finally decided, "we shouldn't stay in Keeparch for too much longer. Stark and Yuki just left - they shouldn't have gotten too far, and perhaps our new, ah, friend could have attracted their attention."

He couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom ever since the fiend had been summoned. He hoped that they wouldn't have to deal with it for too much longer - they had already been through so much just to get here.

[rn7]

"Ah, you have a family, do you? All the better! Nothing would satisfy me more than to slaughter them all in front of my slave's eyes!" The shadow proclaimed, while slowly taking the form of an ice maiden. It ran its fingers along Darrian's body, up to his face, leaving a trail of water that froze into icicles in moments. "Yes, slave, your purpose now is to die for me! You don't mind, do you? I wouldn't take no for an answer, any way!"

The shadow swiveled its hand around Darrian's head, and twirled its finger around his hair. Slowly a spiral of ice formed around Darrian's entire head, slowly entrapping it. The spiral got fatter and fatter, until eventually it was a sphere, like a fishbowl over Darrian's head, clear yet with blurred images.

The shadow stared into the fishbowl. It cast multiple reflections upon the clear surface, making it look like a mad magic mirror.

"Die... die... die..." The faces surrounded and warped around Darrian, echoing and being distorted in the fishbowl. The otherworldly language was mixed in as well, as some type of insane subliminal conditioning. "DIE FOR THE MASTER!"

Suddenly, icicles formed on the inside of the fishbowl. The ends were unimaginably sharp, nipping a tiny tip of a strand Darrian's hair off simply by touching it. Slowly, and with each time Darrian took a breath, the spikes neared his face. Closer, closer, closer, until it was just barely out of reach of Darrian's skin. And just as the spikes were to pierce Darrian's face, the entire fishbowl shattered into fine icy powder, running harmlessly down Darrian's face.

The shadow stood in front of Darrian. It looked exactly like Yuki, except it was completely featureless. Everything was a dark, uniform black. The shadow ran a finger across its face, and a smile formed from the ice.

"Please! I've grown out of those type of things, Darrian." The Archfiend spoke plainly and pleasantly now. "You don't know what it's like being isolated for 700 years. I just want to have a little fun before the goody-two-boots come after me! You understand, right?"

The archfiend fell to the ground again, snapping back to Darrian.

"This way, I won't be detected... as easily. Also, DIE DIE DIE DIE!" The Archfield exploded in a rowdy laughter, a joyful sound held back for 700 years.

[eternity chaos]

hey guys can i join