act complete Angelcynn: The Myrcian Conflict - Act 3 Reunion

[Nanami Touko]

"Where is he...?" Adele didn't have an answer? Who did? Did anyone? Her legs were done, collapsing underneath her, hands slipping off of Adele and crumpling weakly against the ground. She didn't have it in her for another scream, staring wide at the ground-- maybe it would open up and swallow her. An insane mage had just taken her brother and her best friend off to who knows where, and no one had a clue, an answer, anything. He was... H-He was right there. I was just talking to him. We'd just made up. I was happy, he was smiling, we'd... Bridged the, gap... I... I can't...

She sat lifelessly, staring lifelessly, not having it in her to move. I want to disappear. I'm not strong. I'm not able to handle this... I almost died. I upset Owen. I've nearly lost Angus too many times and now-- they're both, gone, and I'm... I'm still here... I want to disappear...

Edited September 27, 2016 by Narmaya

[riariadne]

Poof! Vanished. Right from beneath her hands, Owen was gone. And some other people she cared less about.

It took Sidney a few moments to react to the events unfolding. "You... you idiots!" she shouted, mostly directed at a choice few people who weren't even here anymore. "What did you guys think was going to happen?! Let's fuck with the powerful wizard when we could just mostly ignore him and go on our merry way! And now you dragged Owen into this... Engel above, why are people so opposed to simple solutions!? But no, of course let's not listen to Sidney, a voice of logic in this scenario and others. She's a thiiief, her being right most of the time completely doesn't matter when we could be petty assholes!"

She threw her dagger at the ground, resulting in a useless clatter. What did I do to deserve this? was all she could think, pacing back and forth and ripping at her hair. I've repented more than enough. Is there no real repentance? Am I cursed to have Engel ruin all I hold dear forever?

"What do we do?" she asked aloud. "If this is temporary, then our options don't really matter. But otherwise, we have to get everything together. Maybe they'll come back later. Maybe..." She didn't finish the thought. He will come back. "Either way, we... we need to figure everything out. Are we to finish our travel toward Raewald? It seems moot, since the meeting was to be with Prince Owen and he's not here for now. So we are at something of a crossroads. What a stupid situation..."

[SB.]

Claire shoved Emmet off of her arm without looking at him. She was about to form a reply, when the wizard showed his trump card.

Afterwards she had no idea.

She and a few others were falling for hours - at least, that was the closest way she could describe it. Falling normally involved going downwards, but even in her borderline delirious state, the mage was aware of her direction changing every now and then - although she'd lost track of which way "down" was supposed to be a long time ago.

The landing wasn't the smoothest, but at the same time she was glad to have gravity back. Although she was less than enthusiastic about the ruined, blood red landscape. She had no clue what kind of trick Malaphar had pulled on them - or how he'd even been able to cast a spell in the state he was in, and now they were lost. Completely.

She stood up slowly, surveying what little she could see of the landscape and the others who had landed with them nervously, her face slowly draining of colour as she did so. "So this... is Malaphar's world?" she asked, although she hardly expected an answer. In a way it was fitting - a land as sick and twisted as the wizard was, and the fog held perhaps as many secrets as he did. The realisation didn't exactly make her feel better.

Her tome had traveled with her, in case they needed to fight, and Malaphar was completely absent from the scene. But those facts felt meaningless in the grand scheme of things. She rubbed her arms in an attempt to keep them warm as they gained their bearings - although she had little hope of that.

[Vestige]

Alain could barely fathom what had happened just in front of his eyes. Gone, in an instant. No spell was uttered, no tome was brandished. Not even a staff had been cast to the ground. Malaphar simply was, and then he was not. Along with a few select choice individuals, most notably, the crown prince of Wyke. Hearing Cassandra's lamentations brought Alain back down to an earthly realm, but he had more pressing matters to attend to now. He wiped his flushed face with the edge of his sleeve, debating his next course of action.

"I think it's in our best interest to press forward, with the assumption that the Prince will not be returning quite so soon," he replied to the rather livid Lady Charlotte, loud enough for anyone listening to hear. "It's only a matter of time before we will be set upon by a neighboring tribe, and there's no telling whether they will appear as friend or foe. Worse still is that we do not have the rations to wait around here forever. I must report to her majesty, but more importantly, if we are to find out what has happened to Prince Owen and the rest, I think our best source of knowledge would be in Wihtwar. The most brilliant scholars that I've encountered are located there. If anyone would know what sort of sorcery Malaphar has used, or if it can be undone, well..."

[Xinnidy]

His world?

Owen couldn't bring himself to move despite Malaphar's ominous words. What was he trying to do? Did all that bleeding and pain mean nothing to him? Was he even human?

The prince wouldn't be given time to tell, a chill unlike any he knew taking over his heart and gut. A feeling of weightless --was he falling? No, and yes. He felt his weight pushed to many directions, as if the floor was shifting in relation to him. It took him a moment to realize, but only a few were there with him.

Wait, what is this? Owen felt like things were moving too fast, but at the same time, they were lasting an eternity. Where's Sidney? Adele? ...Cass? Where's Cass?! He no longer felt their presence, he wanted to scream, but nothing came out. The blackness muted him.

Before his anger and fear were able to set it, Owen finally felt land beneath his feet. He was breathless, his eyes scanned the surroundings only to find an affront to all human senses. "Where is this?!"

The oldest among them, Baron Nelon, was the first to speak to Owen proper. "Sir Nelon... I'm sorry to have put you through this." Of all people, the most unrelated of them seemed to be dragged there with him --excluding Claire. "We are definitely not safe here... it seems I have my sword." He raised the epee's blade, the one he'd been wielding during the momentous event. "But without any understanding of where we are, it might as well mean nothing."

Malaphar's world... This land held a mystery that enticed the prince's mind for a moment... the moment before the image of his sister's crying smile quickly purged the sensation away. Damn it! He balled a fist, "I need to go back, people are waiting on me --my kingdom, Raewald... my sister." The prince was anxious once again, biting his lip in frustration. Cursed be the day I met this man...

"Claire?" Owen spoke up, "What happened? Is this magic? Do you know what he did?" It felt bad to pelt the mage with questions like that, but Owen needed answers...

Nobody gives me answers. Not Dettard, not Father, not this Engel-forsaken madman. Owen gritted his teeth, tears welled up in his eyes, his frustration more than he could bear. His knees hit the ground, so did a forceful fist, punching the blackened grass. "Damn it!" I hate this, I hate this blindness. I hate this deceit...

I hate them all.

[SB.]

Claire was quiet for a moment after Owen questioned her, racking her mind for an answer she knew wouldn't come. "...I don't know." she answered, "I could tell that Malaphar's magic was abnormal ever since he appeared, but something like this..." She went quiet for a moment, still struggling to take everything in. They were in Malaphar's world, but just what did that even mean?

"I've never seen or heard of anything like it." she continued, no closer to figuring out an answer. The mage had spent years in Wihtwar, studying magic and theory, but there was nothing even remotely similar that came to mind. And creating your own twisted realm wasn't something that she was likely to forget.

Seeing Owen crumble like this made the trembling start again. We've been here minutes, and we're already falling apart... And could you blame them? This space was horrifying, and they had no of knowing where they were - or how to leave. Was this all her fault? Would Malaphar have done the exact same thing, even if she hadn't tried to finish him off? She couldn't know for sure, but once again, that didn't help her mood in the slightest.

But for now, that didn't matter. She knew they couldn't stay here. "Prince Owen..." she began, moving to crouch in front of him - lost for words to begin with. "We'll find a way out of here." Her voice was shaky at first, much like her person, but she carried on regardless. "If-if this really is Malaphar's world, there must be an exit somewhere." She felt herself grow a little more confident as she spoke, but her words were to comfort herself as much as they were for the prince.

She shivered slightly, looking up over to Angus, Nelon - even Emmet, hoping for something out of them. More than silence. Just something.

Edited September 27, 2016 by SB.

[Juliette]

Freya never liked mages very much. She didn't like Malaphar in particular. First was his bossing around the prince, next wandering off how he liked, and now... this.

"Great. Just great," she complained. "I must be the unluckiest knight to receive this sort of assignment. How am I to explain that Prince Owen and several others just vanished..." The guard looked to Cass after too. "And how am I supposed to protect the princess when her greatest danger is herself?"

Freya approached the princess, offering a hand. "Come now, Princess Cassandra. Sitting about is no way to try and help with this."

[Nanami Touko]

Someone's talking to me... Who is it? Cass spent all of her remaining strength glancing at the feet of who it was, figuring the armor meant it was Freya. Her head drooped back to staring at the ground, after, not uttering a word. She couldn't bring herself to talk. It was all lies. Life was just a lie. Owen wished to be beside her and be her brother, finally, after everything, and the world took that away from her despite it all. There was nothing left, not even Adele could say anything to her. Freya didn't matter. Cass moving didn't matter. She sat motionless, not bothering to acknowledge the hand outstretched for her.

[Toogee]

Just like that, Angus, Claire, Emmet, Nelon, and their fearless leader Owen vanished in thin air along with Malaphar. If it weren't for the shock of the situation, Doug would have been more offended that he didn't disappear too. He could have attacked too! Spoons could be painful in the right hands!

Doug had a look at the spots of the vanished. Not even a piece of clothing was left behind. Those who were close to Owen seemed to despair almost immediately. The diplomat Alain was prepared to carry on as normal. Doug offered an alternative.

"Hey, how about we form a search party before we carry on with the journey or plan funerals? For all we know, everyone's around the corner."

Doug motioned towards the stables, where his pegasus was waiting for takeoff.

[Vestige]

Alain nodded, he wasn't so sure they'd actually find anything--call it a gut feeling, but it certainly didn't hurt to at least try. "You're right, forgive me, I'm jumping to conclusions here... Searching the perimeter first might be best. If we're lucky, it was some sort of warp spell. In his condition, he... he can't have taken them all too far," he said, doubting his own words. The potency of Malaphar's aura led him to believe that even if he had commanded some sort of warp spell, the likelihood of them having only warped a short distance was low. He wouldn't have been surprised if Malaphar somehow managed to warp himself and the others to another country entirely. If only Alain knew just how little credit he was giving the sorcerer. Speaking of countries was an order of magnitude too small.

[Jotari]

It was unlike anything Emmet had ever seen or even heard tale of. They seemed to be in another world entirely. Owen took the words right out of his mouth by asking Claire for information but she was as clueless as anyone else. "Where's Malaphar?" Emmet wondered, speaking more to himself than anyone else. Angus was behind the sorcerer yet he got transported here too. We're the others left behind, still fighting Malaphar? Would they be transported here soon too? Emmet walked over to the river and scooped a handful of the red water into his hand. With only a slight bit of hesitance he tasted the blood like liquid.

[Juliette]

Freya frowned at the princess's indifference. "Cassandra. Sitting around won't solve anything, and you know this." She moved a step beyond extending a hand to grabbing Cass's, pulling her up onto her feet- then after a brief moment of thought, grabbing at her shoulders so she wouldn't just fall over immediately. "Forgive my brusqueness, Princess, but it won't do for you to do nothing. Perhaps we can work out something to help your brother, but if not, I'm sure the sand can't help your feelings either."

[Nanami Touko]

Someone had picked her up... Who was it? Freya...? Cass couldn't bring herself to look at her guard, only managing to look through her. Her body's weight fell against the knight's hands; she would clearly collapse of they were taken off of her, and she remained silent, unable to speak or react to what was being said. Just put me down... There's nothing I can do... Or anyone...

Edited September 28, 2016 by Narmaya

[Terrador]

Angus had been too slow by half--before he could even hope to assist Claire, he was assaulted by a fell, black cold. He felt the cloying, smothering emptiness stretch him, wring the heat from his bones. There was nothing. Nobody. Angus closed his eyes. A silent prayer for deliverance was his only defense against the alien void.

The vacuum was not eternal. A sea of black, carrying an ocean of red, met Angus' waking eyes. He was alive. The lost knight starts to his feet violently, quickly discovering who was near... and who was not. There was no sign of Malaphar. This place, though... it screamed of hate. Not raging passion, but a bitter contempt for every living thing. Such things so constant as to be fundamental to Angus' understanding of the universe--the vegetation, the sky, even the water--were dark and strange.

Nelon, Owen, and Claire... their voices, despite their rage and terror, were music to Angus' ears. They understood better than he did: that this world belonged to the wizard. [Even through hellfire, I can trust them. This is no illusion. I am not dead.] The Prince's nominal right hand approaches him with cautious steps, uncertain if the ground could even be trusted to hold him.

"My Prince..." Angus' voice was hardly a whisper. His words came one and two at a time--blind fear battled an animal instinct to observe, to understand even vaguely one's surroundings, and each impulse sapped his focus and ability. "If this is... his... world. We must... be ready." The seconds stretched on as Angus grasped at his own thoughts. He knew there was some nuance to this danger. "He could... come back." That was good. It was a start. Owen's party could not forget the tree for the forest, as it was; if they could breathe, Malaphar was the more immediate threat. Angus kneels for a moment, one hand clawing firmly into the dirt. The grass, like tar, reminded him: there was something else.

"An' he... might not." The boy Kearney was perhaps as far from a wizard as one could be, but some intuition hinted to him: without the wizard's magic, the five might never escape.

Edited September 28, 2016 by Terrador

[Shin]

Vanished

Morganna looked back at the fort curiously, as if she were wondering where a certain bard had gone. There were more serious matters to attend to, however, the Prince was gone and they had no explanations for as to how or where he'd vanished.

Looking over Adele and Cass, Sebastian wasn't entirely certain to proceed. His objective was to keep Adele safe, but for some reason he felt that he hadn't quite mananged it. It wasn't an illusion, it wasn't a trick... he couldn't explain it in the slightest. "Sir Duhamel? You appear to be contemplating something, am I correct?" Sebastian asked, there was something about the man that showed great introspection.

Emily had appeared beside Serge, tugging on his sleeve. "You've got a plan to rescue the Prince, don't you, boss?" Emily asked, her eyes twinkling with admiration. Her commander was a hero, and heroes stopped villains and saved nobles, right? It was just like in her fairy tale stories, there were heroes "You're going to ask the spirits of your elders for guidance, and you'll be able to find him, I know it."

Horsing Around

Nona and Morta were gathered with the pegasi, both looking at Gulliver rather apprehensively. The two appeared to be unsure of how to proceed, their own pegasi were hitched right next to him. Looking up at Doug dreamily, Nona gave him a quick scan... she couldn't quite recall who he was. "If he yours?" Nona asked, keeping their distance from the fabulous beast. "He's... rather lively. You're a very brave girl to ride something like that." Her sister appeared to disagree, her words were a little less kind.

"I think he needs to be tied to a plough and left in a field, your pegasus is a moron." Morta grumbled, looking as if she wanted to give Gulliver a good kick. "It'd be better off if he were old and blind. At least then you could bake him into a pie."

-

Fringe of Reality

"No, my Prince. If anything it gives me some relief that I am at least aware of your well-being." Nelon replied, knowing too well the panic that their disappearance must have caused. "There was a way into this strange realm, there must be a way to leave it also. Lady Claire raises a very valid point. Have faith, Prince Owen, I shall give my life for you if I need to."

Emmet's tongue did not take well to the river's contents. The water was harsh and acidic, much like a nasty vinegar. There was an even more unpleasant aftertaste, a cold metallic flavour that was oddly reminiscent of Malaphar's aura. The world around them was incredibly strange, it was a twisted mockery of that which they were used to. The fog meant that their view was rather limited and other than the river there seemed to be no real differences in any of the directions around them.

A sickening presence filled the air, tainting it even further. A collection of vines burst forth from the ground, untangling themselves to form a crude seat - with Malaphar sitting on top of it. His injuries were still present, but the man seemed far more comfortable than the moments before they vanished. His confidence had fully returned, no doubt due to his new advantage.

"That's a wonderful proposition, Sir Nelon... I do hope that you're not all talk." Malaphar taunted, his seat twisting and writhing beneath him. "I have to say, I am very much surprised that so many of you were able to enter my world... I was only intending on taking Prince Owen with me. You should all be with me long enough to perish though. It was a shame, Owen. I was truly hoping that I would be able to let you live... but you own insolence was your undoing. Perhaps if you beg, I shall grant you one last chance?"

Malaphar gestured around him, showing off his vile world to the group.

"Is my world not beautiful? The tranquil plains, the flowing river, it is mine to rightfully reign over." Malaphar boasted, perhaps unaware of what Owen's group saw of it. "It has been many years since I first entered it, and now I can move freely between this realm and the one you reside in. Have you ever seen such power? Such magnificence? This world is only the beginning, I shall move on to the next when my powers are sufficient."

[SB.]

If the situation were any different, Claire would've been the first to call Emmet an idiot for trying to drink... whatever the liquid was. She didn't need to try it to know it was nothing good - this whole place was a deathtrap. As things were, she didn't have the energy, and they really didn't need the argument.

Before they could even begin their search for an exit however, the dark wizard made his presence known once again. Looking up at him, he did at the very least still appear injured, but the bleeding had slowed - and what little he lost was barely visible after it fell to the landscape. That wasn't a comforting thought.

Overwhelming fear had trapped her once again, and her attempts to regain her footing failed completely. Her courage flickered and vanished - although her tome had followed her, the mage's nerves had failed her. If he could survive those wounds, it's hopeless... Despite his goading of the prince, Malaphar had all the power here. Had they ever stood a chance?

[Ether]

"Search the perimeter for any sign of them, Sebastian. It's a slim chance, but one we have to check... I trust you more than anyone to be agile and thorough." Adeltrudis noted to the butler, her voice cold and mechanical, low and barely escaping her lips. Her palms unclenched, her nails bloodied as they pulled out of her palms, which proceeded to bleed openly with the pressure on them released. Not that it mattered, she didn't even register the pain. She had failed, failed entirely. Owen was gone, she had done nothing to prevent it, could do nothing to help him if he wasn't already dead. She had failed to protect Cass, who now flopped about like a ragdoll, her spirit crushed by the loss of her brother. All she had left to try and weakly cling to and keep as loose a definition of safe as one could spin, was the Princess' physical shell, what was left after Malaphar had snatched away her family and her soul.

Adeltrudis turned around, taking up Cassandra, who had been flopped against Freya, and lifting her into the Herman heiress' arms, Adele's own blood staining Cassandra's dress where she held her, though the darkness of her garb hid it somewhat. She gave Freya the closest she could manage to an affirmative nod, which was barely a movement of her head.

"I've got her, help the others." She noted flatly to the knight, listless in her presentation.

"Hey Cass... sorry, I can't tell you where Owen went. I screwed up... all I can do now is try to keep what's left of you safe. Sorry that it isn't good enough... that i'm not strong enough." She concluded, gently holding Cassandra, drained of any visible emotion or inflection.

[Vestige]

Alain nodded, combing through his hair with his fingers. "Yes, I suppose you could say that. I'm just trying to understand what I saw happen in front of me. The spell itself was completed without so much as even an utterance of an incantation. And that sense of dread, you felt it too, surely? I've felt something similar once," he said, hearkening back to his short rendezvous with the old man in Hull, "but that paled in comparison to what I felt from Malalphar," he said, tensing up under his cloak.

He sighed, obviously tired from the morning ordeal. The fact that all this had happened, and the day had only just begun made his head hurt. "But that aside, there's also the matter of what we should be doing now. especially if the search proves unfruitful. Personally I'd like to continue onward to Raewald, though I've no men to call my own so I am bound here all the same," he said, taking a quick glance around. "Traveling the rest of the way by myself would prove troublesome," he sighed, finally continuing. "Anyway, I'm sorry was there something in particular you needed from me... or?" he questioned, unsure of what else to say to Adele's steward.

[Jotari]

Emmet spat to try and get the taste of the strange water out of his mouth. They wouldn't be drinking that any time soon. Which was a major problem. It didn't look like there was any form of sustenance here for any of them. But it looked like surviving wouldn't be the most pressing issue.

"You're awfully quick to blame Owen" Emmet said. He nodded at Claire. "She's the one that attacked you after all. And while it was pretty reckless I can hardly blame her. Honestly what do you expect when you go around acting like that? You probably think you're justified in your actions Malaphar but consider for a second how you look to the outside world. You should be thankful Owen wanted to associate himself with you in the first place." Emmet stretched his arms in a very casual manner, as if the dark world and powerful sorcerer didn't bother him in the slightest. "Besides if you want to blame anyone, blame me. I was the one who convinced the prince you're someone worth killing."

[Dandragon]

Almost as soon as he had turned to speak to Nelon had he disappeared right in front of his eyes. He looked around. Several people were missing, now, including Prince Owen himself. This was not good. This was not good at all. How the heck were they supposed to find th-

Serge felt a tug on his sleeve, turned and saw Emily with another ludicrous claim to catch Serge off guard. "Right...spirits...ancestors..." Did Serge even know anyone in his family besides his mother and father? He hadn't ever thought about it. Serge shook his head, this was no time to think about that. People were missing, and he had to find out how to find them. He walked over to the group. "So...anybody got any ideas?"

[Nanami Touko]

Her world tilted a bit, Adele picking her up, her eyes still defocused and staring ahead. She would tell it was Adele from her arms, she could see those, feel those. It mattered little, whoever carried her was wasting their time. You should all leave me and carry on to Raewald. There's nothing left for me... Her head fell gently against Adele's chest, body shivering slightly.

[Xinnidy]

His pressuring Claire didn't help her collect her thoughts, but what she said had made sense --this was his world, somehow, for some purpose. The prince couldn't even begin to guess, his strength only returning at the words of his knights and noblemen, "Thank you, Baron Nelon, Sir Angus..." Taking a breath, he retreated that angry fist, standing up to proper form. He wasn't alone, and he wasn't going to let the wizard make a toy out of him.

Speak of the devil --a title perhaps too kind for the wizard at that point--, and he'd appear. Malaphar showed himself, with a newfound confidence that angered the prince's very being. The prince stood silent throughout the wizard's speech, studying his words as if something had snapped within him. So you only wished to bring me, you wished to torture me in this realm, for standing up against you... but something went wrong. The wizard was too confident for his own good.

He had stripped Owen away from everything he held dear, but the prince was done grieving. His face was blank, unamused. "Is this what you think? That I've been insolent?" The prince spoke up, taking a step forward. "Does the thought of leaving me the dark not disturb you?" The question might as well have been rhetoric. The wizard considered himself a god, beyond Engel and Belial. What would he care of a worldly prince? Still, Owen wanted Malaphar to speak, to continue rambling about the world. He was invincible here, he had nothing to lose, or at least, Malaphar acted that way.

And the truth was, Owen had no power to stand up against him physically, his only weapons were his words and fancy footwork.

Would there be another way, if only he kept pressing?

"I can see this world, Malaphar, all around me... But I still can't understand it, was this world always like this?"

[Terrador]

Just as soon as Angus was close to functioning once again, it felt as if the dread presence of Malaphar's world swelled and bit, compelling Angus to fall to one knee. There, he witnessed the wizard himself, perched on a sickening throne, shifting and twisting like so many serpents. Taunts poured like blood from Malaphar's lips, a torrent that claimed dominion over all of their lives.

Owen's life.

Only the stillness of his Prince checked Angus' wrath in that moment. To dangle Owen's life in front of their noses as if a it was a child's toy... to ask the Prince to beg? It was as impossible as the wretched realm they stood in. Angus stood with extreme deliberation and care, eyes buried in the earth beneath him, as if his own errant motion could spark a suicidal charge. In this time, Emmet remarked smartly at Malaphar, pointing out quite truly that his initiative played no small part in the events of the morning. Perhaps he was trying to draw the wizard's ire.

Angus did not care.

Next, Owen spoke. With authority, as he was born and raised to. He interrogated the master of this world, exhorting him to provide some reason, some inkling of method to his madness. Perhaps his words would impress upon Malaphar the terrible, if delayed, consequences of attacking the Prince. Perhaps some secret of this world would be revealed, some hard nugget of truth with which they could dig themselves free.

Angus did not care.

The furious knight finally stares Malaphar down, a dread vacancy in his face. However, the boy merited no real attention from the wizard. This only made sense. With but a thought, the skies, the earth, the inferno that even the damned would do well to fear, would all bear down on the wizard's impotent foe. Perhaps, even beyond those powers, Malaphar simply could not die. Perhaps he was the apotheosis of mankind, a lesser god bound to dominate the entire planet, if free from divine intercession.

Angus did not care.

The only concern Angus could fathom was the death of that wretched man, the worm enthroned by worms. His entire being focused in on Malaphar, waiting for that singular moment. The barest wrong move, the slightest cue from Owen, could free Angus to tear into that vile flesh. Countless ephemeral impulses jolted through him, each one the imagination of a slightly different engagement, each one provoking the tiniest twitch. Angus would flay the flesh from the wizard's bones, split his smug face from that wretched skull, hack through bone and sinew until he could scar the surface of this world, bite into his still-beating heart--

Of course, Angus had no hope. His wrath, the strength he built over the course of grueling years for a day like this very one, were but motes of dust in the eye of a higher form of life. From the moment the boy witnessed Malaphar's world, he knew this.

But Angus did not care.

Edited September 30, 2016 by Terrador

[Shin]

End of the Line

"Owen, I gave you the information you needed to act." Malaphar replied, looking at the prince with an expression beyond smugness - total self-perceived superiority. "Were you not the one that wanted to keep me injured so you could suck as much information out of me as you could? Then what, would have discarded me like an unwanted piece of bread?"

Emmet's words amused the sorcerer, he was very much entertained by his boasting, his futile attempts at proving his superiority. "Oh? You do speak boldly for someone in your position, have you surrendered to death entirely or do you hope to impress me enough to be spared? My world has always been a beautiful one, only I am fit to rule over it... nobody else can comprehend its true magnificence."

Malaphar raised his hand lazily, another tendril errupting forth from the ground in front of him. "And you two... Nelon... Angus, you're both thinking the same thing." Malaphar added, clenching his fist, focusing on Nelon in particular. "Both of you are looking for a suitable opening in which to strike. Perhaps I would be distracted by Owen, Emmet... or even Claire, then you would be able to deal a finishing blow in my weakened state? It would be a suitable plan... if we were not in my world. Here, my powers are at their fullest, my control is as if it were an extension of my own body... but Nelon, you've figured out my world's weakness, haven't you?"

Nelon said nothing, his hand firmly gripped on the hilt of his sheathed sword. Malaphar laughed, his vine twisting menacingly ahead of him. "It would have suited me best if you had perished on that beach, but your existence here is only inconvenient... you are the least potent fighter present. I have no reason to fear your intervention... there will be more than enough time to eliminate you all."

-

Roundabout

"No, it was just my own curiosity." Sebastian replied, moving to carry out Adele's orders. "Perhaps an idea will come to our minds once we have recovered from the shock."

As Sebastian left, an odd twinge occured in Alain's chest. He could feel a familiar presence, a collection of them even. It wasn't the same darkness that Malaphar brought with him, instead it was a distant beacon of hope... it wasn't certain, there was a great deal of doubt within it, but faint words echoed at the back of his head.

"But I still can't understand it, was this world always like this?"

It was a familiar voice, muffled and distorted, but it was certainly a young man he could recognise.

[Jotari]

"I have no doubt that in this place you alone reign as king" Emmet said, holding his arms at length in mock adulation of their enemy. "But I doubt you intend to remain in this world forever. You'll want to return to our world eventually and when you do those injuries will be ready and waiting for you. Don't even try lying and claiming you can heal yourself here. If that were true then you would have done so before returning to us. It's hard to truly fear the absolute power of man you've seen crawling on his knees. But crawl you did Malaphar. You might be able to kill any of us with ease, but what will you actually gain from doing so? The truth of the matter is that you need our help. You wouldn't have sought us in the first place if there was any other reason."

Edited September 30, 2016 by Jotari