Making the Push from the Guardian Gate to Applegem - Nadia al-Amin

Looking back as yet another, highly traumatic event occurred, or rather, erupted right out from the earth, Nadia focused on getting the civilians to the now (relatively) safe Applegem. "Keep moving forward; don't look back, just get out of here ASAP!"

Nadia winced as the demon devoured soldiers from both sides, but it did click into place an idea she was contemplating. "Book, where's the nearest stocked butcher shop?! This is actually very important!" She glanced over to Kirsti and gave a rather worried smile. "Hey Kirsti, I have a stupid idea that's probably not gonna work; wanna help me with it?"

Tortoran Inn

Stupid dog! It made him look bad! Thwarting his attempt to pass off the coin was annoying. "Um... M-maybe once we're away from it you can take it? What the dog doesn't know won't hurt it, right?" he suggested, awkwardly chuckling. "I have no use for it, after all." He didn't care at all.

For the meantime, though, it would be better to keep it safe. His shadow closed a fist around the coin again, opening it up to reveal the token's disappearance. Neat trick, that was. "Why are you so theatrical about this?" Simon murmured to his shade. Bit dramatic, having to hide the coin to stash it away... wherever it put it.

Oh gosh, both of these natives wanted to know about them. Maybe if he was completely honest than Luka would stop caring about him and leave him alone, but Simon's ego wouldn't allow that. "I don't think it really matters what I was," the teen deflected the question. "Just a normal student, trying to be the best I could be. A bit unfair that all I needed to do to become important was fall down some steps and wake up on a beach when all my efforts before yielded nothing, but it is what it is." That was a good mix of humble and not explaining anything, right?

"Besides, it's really boring. Y-You wouldn't want to hear about someone like me." And he ruined it.

Guardian Gate

Well, things had gone poorly. A truce had been made but now some demon corpse amalgam was on the field and it was angry. With a moment of absolute silence at this monstrosity Tibalt tried to clear his throat and make a speech to rally the forces.

"S-soldiers! Also the king! And whatever the..."

He looked at the other side, wait hold up those supposed former undead were holding modern rifles. He carefully reached into the pouch and retrieved the warhorn from within.

"W-whatever forces you provide, residents of the Sepulchrum! If you truly... fight with us, let this be your first welcome!..?"

With that he attempted to use a nice big breath blowing into the warhorn!

Tortoran Inn

Question

Eliah had observed. He had kept quiet, saying nothing- he had been until then content to just witness what was going on. As everyone was focused on the mistery of the dog and the coin, he had thought others' eyes would pry not on what he was doing- and so had allowed himself to show more emotions. Perhaps, thinking about it, the friendly atmosphere of that place had begun having some effect on him, too. At the fox girl's antics, he smiled- at the questioning of the person he recognized not, he showed himself attentive, and pensive; and once more, he smiled when looking at the dog. Eventually, he coughed, to direct attention to himself- a declaration of existence in a way, and the perfect prompt for him to voice what had been on his mind.

"So, you say we are... Guardians, I understand."

He nodded.

"But, nobody has yet explained what, exactly, that means. From the word, I assume we are to 'protect' something, yes? However, as you may see..."

With a gesture of his right hand, he drew attention to the other three human beings at that people.

"...We do not really have a clue how to go about such a thing, if it is indeed what we need do. We have neither the power nor the knowledge necessary."

In a few words, he summarized his thoughts. And then, he asked.

"In short, you seem to expect some things of us, and yet, we do not know what that is. So I shall ask. What, exactly, is a Guardian? And, where exactly are we?"

Hogger's Estate

Sometime in the middle of the night, Lynn (arguably) woke up with a mighty headache and accompanying giddiness. The sensation of some sort of gyroscope thing artificially correcting it did not really help things.

"Note to self: alcohol is still dangerouuuffgh-"

A sudden swell of sickness surged from her stomach, and she only had just enough time to snag a nearby spitoon and unload the offending substance, the acidity singing her throat and mouth as it spilled into the clay container. That alone put Lynn out of the mood to go back to sleep. She took the spitoon full of spew and staggered out of the bedroom - hopefully there won't be a hole burned through it by the time she found a proper place for disposal.

Elderless Woods

Skyler hops on the Gargoyle. Sure, he could just follow but a ride's a ride and he's been flying a bit already, best off to give his wings a rest. Besides, if things don't go so well, he'll need the wings to escape...

Tortoran Inn

Yuval just stared at John for a good brief moment before just sliding down his chair and sighing.

"Sheezus. Well I understand not wanting to talk about it… Fucking hell." The man looked to the left vacantly as he tried to comprehend the shitstorm this place piled up on him. Dead people coming here, kids, teenagers. Political rivalries fucking zombie armies? It kind of just tired him by now, before looking at Simon trying to toss the platinum coin and frowned with lowered eyebrows as he nodded in disapproval.

"Hey, the dog gave it to you as token of appreciation, have some respect for that come on." Rosenberg turned to the innkeeper, raising his eyebrow as he groaned, what was this a documentary? The man shrugged as he gestured in dismissal to Luka.

"Well I was a soldier for the regular 3 years, got discharged eventually and became an art student, got here, that's about it, why are you so curious about it?"

Rosen looked to Eliah and, putting his hand through his hair as he spoke with slight anger in his voice.

"Well what I got was… Guardians are miracle workers here and people are gonna expect us to do everything they goddamn want"

Terry - Guardian Gate

"Your Majesty, I must really question the merits of such an alliance..." Terry began to speak up as Artis gave his orders. "There is something wrong about the fact-"

Before Terry could finish his sentence, the ground started to shake. Everyone turned to the woods to see the source, and Terry did the same. His eyes widen as he looked at the thing hunkering toward Stormguard.

"What... the hell is that? Oh my god, that thing looks disgusting."

I knew it. This reeks of Shuria's doing.

"What? Shuria?" Terry looked at his bardiche in surprise. This thing rarely spoke up, but maybe now it finally decided to be helpful.

Shuria holds dominion over the lands of Sepulchrum by means of her magic. That which thou art seeing is her True Demon lapdog.

Interesting... "Okay, so then how do we bring it down?" Terry asked urgently.

I have felt thy magic course through me, young Guardian. Thy magic is similar to Shuria, and thou may be her match at that. Thou may yet be able to bring that monster to heel.

"Wait what?" Terry reeled back. "Are you sure I can do that?"

No. But thou can try. Focus thy magic upon the beast, and will it to heel.

"Okay..." Terry said to himself uneasily. He got of his horse to face the beast. He could feel his legs quiver, but he gathered his breath and steeled his courage. As he gazed upon this demon looming closer and closer, he closed his eyes in concentration. Gather my magic, focus on the beast... Soon, he opened his eyes to face down the True Demon and bellowed out a command, his voice ringing through the air and the trees.

"DEMON, OBEY MY COMMAND! HALT YOUR ADVANCE AND RETURN TO YOUR MASTER! THE LANDS OF STORMGUARD WILL FOREVER BE CLOSED OFF TO YOU! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS GATE!"

Guardian Gate

Well, this has been a clusterfuck of events, Kirsti had realized. She thought that it would be a relatively simple affair of bringing back in the unsavory undead but it has now involved a boi king with powers, several more people that seem to be at the level of power that she had and a huge demon that may or may not be awakened by her earthquaking butt stomp. All of that and the realization that her most powerful spells are quite indiscriminate in how it picks its targets and not exactly the most controllable thing made her feel quite a bit useless. The most she could do was to tell her panther to bite down the undead.

Feeling useless until that is, Nadia asked for Kirsti's help. "Errr, what plan?" Kirsti asked.

Eastern Kingdoms

The True Demon paused as Terry exclaimed his orders. It almost seemed as if it was resonating with the magic in the air that was being produced by him. It just stood there in a heap of itself as Maryland encased the surrounding area in walls of earth. Confusion, then pain overcame the creature as it brought its hands to its own body and shrieked.

Unintelligible noises began to be produced from the True Demon as it tried to figure out what to do from the orders Shuria gave it and those that it received from Terry... until finally it let out a roar of pain as it began to rip itself apart and eat its own flesh.

The True Demon has gone berserk, all reasoning has been lost

The mindless husk then began to attack anything in its vicinity. Though, as Tibalt sounded the horn once more, the towering abomination turned to face him, charging at the Guardian in order to ram him-

-But then, as if on cue, Aileana and her massive pet snake arrived on the scene with Amber and more soldiers in tow.

As the colossal snake and the towering True Demon engaged in combat, Amber ran over to help Tibalt get out of the way. "Let's let the two giants duke it out, we need to regroup!" she exclaimed as she helped Tibalt move quickly.

"Everyone! Assist the Guardians in taking down the beast!" rallied the boy-king Artis as he raised his blade, charging with the paladins in order to try and maim the beast.

"There is a butcher's shop in Stormguard, but I fear it is too far to be of any use," wrote the book to Nadia as it tried to understand the situation and the urgency of it. A moment passed, before the book wrote some words of it own in an attempt to assist its master. "Shall I suggest that we use magic or holy powers to subdue the beast? Physical attacks would only continue to enrage the demon, especially in the state that it is in."

Weakness found for the True Demon: Magic and Holy based abilities. Immune to physical attacks

Erix'aad, Hogger's Estate

As Shannon and Lynn left their rooms, they would soon come across one another. Exploring the palace, the two would hear a scream from... Gum-Gum?

Running towards the dungeons, the duo would find a the guards knocked out, and a mysterious masked man cutting into the flesh of Gum-Gum with his talons.

"I've been waiting a long time for this, Goblin," spoke the man as he began to dig his sharp index finger into the goblin's arm. "Now, tell me, what do you know about the Guardians and Medan?"

"I told you already, I don't know squat other than the fact that Medan summoned a new batch of Guardians!"

"You lie," spoke the man as he snapped one of Gum-Gum's fingers. "Answer truthfully, or it'll be more than just a finger this time."

It would seem that Gum-Gum was in quite the situation... Do you help the goblin, or leave him to his just deserved fate?

Elderless Woods to H'on

The group would find themselves flying on top of Shuria's Gargoyle to H'on, the land of the demons. After what seemed like an hour, the group would arrive in a rather pleasant looking land, despite what the name would imply. There was beautiful flowers, trees in full bloom, and streaming fresh water. Surprisingly, everything was pleasing to the eyes for a land ruled by demons.

Arriving at a palace made out of black stone and marble, Shuria quickly dismounted her gargoyle and waved at the group.

"Come, come! Father awaits!" she exclaimed like a giddy child before scurrying off like a squirrel into the castle interior.

As the group followed Shuria, they would come across many types of demons. They all welcomed the group until they finally came to a throne room of sorts... where a black demon sat waiting.

"Father!" exclaimed Shuria as she ran up to the black demon, who immediately stood up and hugged her.

"Shuria! I never thought I'd see you again!" spoke the demon as he hugged Shuria tight and stroke her hair. "How did you escape the Sepulchrum?"

"These Guardians freed me, and the people of Sepulchrum," she said as she nodded towards Julian and Dimitri.

"I see," the tall demon curved its tail as it walked towards the duo, including Skyler. "I, am Lucifer, and you have my gratitude for returning my daughter to me, Guardians. How may I repay my debt to you?" Smiling, the demon lord seemed genuinely grateful for having his daughter returned to him.

It would seem that the demons weren't as bad as the ones on Earth... or what the tales made them out to be.

Tortoran

"Guardians aren't just meant to carry out menial tasks... Sounds like you met a Goblin on your travels," spoke Shulk as he nodded towards Yuval. "Guardians are essentially protectors of this world, meant to preserve the World Lotus and prevent it from wilting by gathering energy."

"I've heard of that!" spoke Luka as she tried to pet the Wicker Pup again... only to get nipped at. "Damn pup... Anyway, I've heard tales of Guardians as well. That they're capable of great change wherever they go and whatever they do."

"That's only partially true, for there have been lazy Guardians in the past."

Luka then turned from Shulk and towards Eliah, pumping a hand into the air a bit as she spoke up. "You're in Tortoran! The most peaceful place of Lotus- Lotus being the world you're in by the way. I have to say that you're lucky to be here, since there isn't much trouble or anything of the sort."

"Other than those pesky Naga... filthy creatures..." grumbled the tortoise as he poured some tea.

"The Naga aren't that bad-"

"They're serpents! We hate serpents!" interrupted Shulk to Luka as his eyes practically popped out of his skull.

Suddenly, the Wicker pup perked its ears up and stood to attention. Barking at Yuval, the little pup tugged on his pants, as if trying to get his attention.

"Alright, where are the Guardiansss with that damn pup," spoke someone with a serpent-like accent, before barging into the dining area. "Ah, there you are."

"Nagas!" growled Skuld as he promptly raised his staff at them. "What are you doing here?"

"Ssskuld..." The serpent man hissed a bit at the turtle man, before lowering his gaze to the wicker pup. ""Ah, there it isss. Mind handing the pup over?" asked the Serpent as it slid over towards Yuval, pointing towards the Wicker Pup.

'Rawr'ing, the pup growled at the Naga, clearly not wanting to be separated from Yuval.

It would seem that the group of Nagas really, really wanted the pup... Would Yuval and the others hand it over to the Nagas, or refuse?

Refugees of Applegem - Nadia al-Amin

Subdue? Do you mean contain it...? Or kill it...? Nadia knew that the demonic beast was killing and simply continuing to kill, but she also knew it was made this way through no fault of its own, same as the feral undead. What was the best way to minimize loss of life, and even if it could be subdued, would the survivors allow it to continue living, or...?

"...actually, change of plans," Nadia told Kirsti, nervously. "I wanted to prepare some meat for the feral undead to be attracted to, using your wind to spread the scent out to them - since they're feral, their only drives, I imagine, would be to attack or eat. But... I think everyone needs your help more than I do. It's weak to magic and you got plenty of it, and it's also weak to holy stuff, but apparently only totally unfazed by physical stuff except for the fact that it pisses it off. You should go run back and help, and let everyone know, yeah?"

Nadia produced three slices of cassava cake and gave two to Kirsti. "If you need a boost... I'm gonna run over to the castle while I still got this speed boost going, myself, see if I can't whip something up last minute." She took a nibble of the slice she kept. "You've done some great, amazing stuff with what you know you can do, like projecting out your voice with the wind, or creating a tornado just around the village without damaging it; I know you can be creative and smart with how you use them! So keep everyone safe and stay safe yourself, alright...?"

Nadia gave Kirsti a quick hug before disappearing in a flash, a guardian swift as gale making her way away from the village, away from the gate, and towards Stormguard Castle.

Guardian Gate

“WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Well at least someone was enjoying themselves.

Yes, Aileana for whatever reason had decided not to jump off the head of her giant summoned snake and instead was hanging on for dear life—much to its clear irritance. Still, though, it was doing alright considering this—snapping forward and entangling the writhing True Demon as wounds inflicted on it seemed to steam and pull together.

“Don't get near the venom, lads!” Aileana warned—seconds before a bluish green acidic substance splatted from the massive snake's mouth and onto the floor. “And if ye do, find the nearest loch! Be quick about it though! For no reason! Bertie'll stay right here, of course!”

Evidently, the serpentine woman thought this was incredibly funny, as she promptly burst into a fit of high-pitched giggles and rolled about her pet's gigantic skull in her hysteria. It would've been quite charming if she didn't sound so unhinged. In fact, it would've been a perfectly fine thing for her to do (however odd) if she had ever stopped laughing.

But she didn't.

One could only wonder as to what sort of comedy show she was perceiving this all to be.

Edited by Enirboreh on Nov 3rd 2018 at 11:36:28 AM

Guardian Gate

"Alright. Have to aim this right..." Maryland had heard of this trick once, and it all seemed pretty reasonable. Knowing the length of both her arm and her hand she could make a right triangle if she stuck her arm out, then do some quick trig off of about how tall the monster was to grok how far away it was. With Aileana's snake holding it still she could focus on power, not speed here. A huge spike of earth started trying to force its way up through the ground under the demon, twisting from the ground under it and sinking it into a small crater as the spike made progress.

Shannon immediately summoned a whistle and blew on it.

FWEEEEEEEEET!

"Intruder! Intruder in the dungeons! Wake up! Wake up!"

She blew on the whistle again, with all her might.

FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!

Edited by JumpingFruit on Nov 3rd 2018 at 5:20:58 AM

Dimitri, H'on

Well, the demons of this realm seemed... nice? Cordial? This was certainly not what he expected to find when he came here.

"Well," Dimitri said, quickly getting to the heart of the matter. "Truthfully, we did not come here merely to celebrate. We are on a mission to unite the people of this world and make a wish upon the World Lotus for the betterment of us all. But we can't do that while angels and demons are at war with each other. I know many years of fighting cannot end overnight, but I am hoping some sort of agreement can be made in service of the greater good."

Tortoran Inn

"A token I did nothing to earn," Simon retorted to Yuval's criticism. "It means nothing. Maybe if I did anything other than look a the dog for more than second I'd be a bit more keen on keeping it, but that's not what happened." Despite the rather haughty attitude suggested by saying he wouldn't accept anything not earned, the teen sounded quite sincere about it.

Oh gosh, he was meant to be a protector of the world? That sounded entirely fake. If it weren't for the shadow that stood by his side right now, the idea would be dismissed entirely out of hand. Not like he had ever had any skills that could help with protecting anything before, but the shade was proof his skillset couldn't be guaranteed to be as it once was.

Still, it was a very vague job. "So that means we... do what?" he asked, confusion plain on his face. "Gather energy from what? You can't just get energy from nothing, that wouldn't work, so something is expected of us. I don't like it when someone doesn't give a straight..." A sudden serpentine intrusion cut Simon off.

"Hey, we're having a meal here!" Simon interjected, a venomously sharp tone lacing his words. "Don't get us involved. Bother him later if you want a dog so badly." Apparently these guys were bad news, at least if their admittedly kind host could be trusted, but trying to avoid being caught up in this was all that was on his mind. The snake had said guardians. Plural. So they were already involved, huh?

Simon looked at Yuval thoughtfully for a moment. If the Israeli was just going to cede the dog to them... well, there'd be no reason to do anything. But if there was going to be a conflict here, no doubt he'd side with Yuval. "Up to you, I guess..." he said to the older man, trying to mask his concern under a flippant attitude.

No Sympathy for the Devil Here - Julian @ Lucifer's Palace

As Shuria ran up to her father, Julian rubbed his arm. It felt... colder. Annoying.

Looking up at the imposing figure, Julian's mind raced. He knew what he wanted but...

...in reality it is your own desire to be here.

A deep breath helped quench some of the anger building. What a fucking ponce. Julian could only hope that prick got to suffer a bit longer before biting the bullet.

"Lucifer, huh?" The devil itself stood before Julian. His mother and father would've quaked and cried, being good devout Catholics. Or, at least, that's the illusion they put so much effort into maintaining. Not that any gods or devils had done anything for Julian. "Well, we got a few questions. For starters, we are required to acquire some sort of flower that grants wishes. Or so we have been informed by a dying fool."

Guardian's Gate

"A-a-ah, but-!" but Before Kirsti can give a rebuttal to that idea, Nadia hugged Kirsti and dashed off, leaving her with nothing but 2 cakes. Kirsti looked back at the scene and now there are fucking snakes coming in and fucking earth spike starting to come in from underneath. Kirsti know that Nadia said something about the people here need her for her destruction magic since that creature is immune to physical attacks and that Kirsti is smart and creative and...wait, Nadia complimented Kirsti? Kirsti blushed a little bit before shaking it off to recollect her thoughts.

Normally, yeah, she would do something destructive but considering that there's a number of people, some of them being very significant and with a huge snake, this might be the case of too many cooks spoils the broth type of situation. Instead, she decided to utilize her other ability of healing. And make full use of the cakes Nadia had given her, why not.

Kirsti dashed around the battlefield aimlessly, looking for people to heal. The first two people she sees will get free cake. Though she's so anxious right now that she doesn't really give half a thought on how she gave those cakes. For all she knows, she might accidentally splat them on the face like one of those old cartoons with the pies.

The Gate.

...

So, demons, and then chaos, and his allies causing some kind of untold shenanigans that he wasn't exactly sure he could handle. New friends he hadn't met yet and apparently Magic and Religious items?

This was...very very quickly starting to fall apart. Now, in his mind of minds, he knew it was never a good idea to go near the berserker boss. Stay in the back and peg him from a distance.

A weight in his hand, and he knew it was Gungnir. So, this made this easier: Hit any target you want. So...how about we go ahead and peg an eye out?

He reeled back, and he threw his whole body forward, chucking the spear towards the monsters eye, specifically.

Gren'Mere to Gorgond Mountains

"Fine then!" The priestess swirled her sword in the air before making a mighty swipe in the harpies direction unleashing an impressive, regular old gust of wind. A gust from a human sword swing sure, but no twister with shadowy dragon heads or roars. Not even claws raking through the air.

Choeun, even with harpies bearing down on her, took the time to examine her sword as if she'd misplaced a wire.

"Low bridge!" she crouched quickly covering her head when she remembered it might be gone quite quickly, before grabbing at the harpies ankles when they passed. "And high chop." She brought her sword down on the nearest harpy in a refined stroke... for a chef with an overgrown chef knife. It did not quite fit swordplay. But if it worked it worked. "My companion is not always part of my ritual. But we can commune through cutting."

Edited by CenturyEye on Nov 4th 2018 at 10:42:39 AM

Skyler, H'on

Well, this certainly wasn't like the hell Christianity was talking about. No fire, no brimstone. Maybe Skyler should look up information about this world if he's planning on staying here in the long term. Even the demons don't seem to be acting demonic, with how polite they are...

When Skyler was one of the Guardian's focused on, he shook his head at the tall demon's gratitude. "Well, I didn't really do anything, I joined after they freed your daughter.So, I don't really deserve to be paid in anything" With Dimitri talking about negotiation, the dragon added "Anyways, I'm not much of a talker so I think it's best the other Guardians do the negotiating. I mean, I'll help when I can but I feel I'm better off at combat than...non-combat..."

Tortoran Inn

Yuval scowled, glanced at the puppy before he glared at the group of serpents, put the dog on the table and spoke confidently and calmly his reserved and quiet demeanor gone.

"Got your whole gang here? Now that's bold" Rosenberg sighed and stood up, inspecting the crew of snakes that crawled up into the inn, before looking the Naga leader straight in the eye as he cracked his knuckles

"Listen I don't wanna fight, I've had a long day, I'm hotheaded right now…. I am completely not in the mood to talk to someone interrupting my peaceful dinner, plus it's bad behaviour, in a place like this. So tell you what, if you want him that badly why don't you come somewhere in this town tomorrow and we'll negotiate something huh? More chances I'll actually agree and no one will get hurt, doesn't that sound good?"

Terry - Guardian Gate

"What the hell..." Terry looked on in awe as his magic displayed a... unexpected side effect. "What was that? Did it work?" He asked his axe.

Thou hast negated Shuria's control over the demon. That is good news.

"And the bad news?"

It is still trying to kill us.

"What?! I thought it would work!" Terry was shaking as he climbed back onto his horse. "What do I do now?"

I said it might and urged thyself to give it a try. I suppose it is my mistake. At this time, I fear you have little magic that can avail us now. Perhaps it would be a good time to survey the battlefield.

"Goddamn it... what kind of messed up dream is this?"

With that, Terry turned his horse around and rode through the battlefield. There was Maryland and Aileana attempting to work their magic on the demon. Mason chucking spears. And... wait what?

Terry stopped his horse as he ran into something peculiar. A young woman was running around with cakes in her hand. She didn't seem to be one of the villagers but she did seem to be distressed. And why did she have cakes?

"Hey miss!" Terry cried out as he rode up to her. "Do you need some help?"

Guardian's Gate

As the strange man and the horse approached Kirsti, she decided that both of them will get the cake. She frantically tried to feed the horse hastily by splatting it right in the face and then tried to toss the other cake right at the dude's face. After that, she tries to heal Terry of any wounds by jumping up and touching his chest with her hands ready to heal. "Don't worry, mate!" she assured as she jumped. "I'm here to help!"

Guardian Gate

For a moment, Tibalt was face to face with the demon, a moment's breath away from just full on being killed. And then the demon was pulled away by the snake and Tibalt by Amber's assistance.

"Y-yes. We need to regroup and prepare to fight..."

He hid the horn back away in it's pouch as he retreated to allow the proper soldiers through.

"Does anyone want to borrow my sword? It's got a bible passage on it so maybe it's ha- blessed?"

He stumbled on his words and just watched the fight in front of him.