"...Screaming, ever changing, rapid, chaotic, unintelligible noise. No limit, no point, no purpose, no rhythm, no Song. Guttural, pointless, violent, inescapable destruction. They are to Us, the ever consuming entropy: Absorbing them would destroy Us, ignoring them would destroy Us. They outnumber and outpower Us. Therefore Our only choice is to trust the Deaf to hear Us." -Page 7.
Kingdom of Renalta - Heart of Madness
Murderok's aim was true as his bolt impacted the unstable roof. As the bolt came tumbling down, so did a single piece of debris from the ceiling, blowing its way through the large and extravagant throne cleanly and revealing a hallway into a dark, circular room. There was no ability to discern a great deal of detail beyond, but it was clear that anyone could simply bolt down the hallway now--assuming they could bypass the enemies in front of them. Dirge whistled appreciatively, then turned to move in and engage. He hesitates seeing Zin, and for a moment it almost seemed like she had him. However, he reacts to the sounds of the two half-orcs beside him howling, along with the dire wolf.
"I cannot ignore my duty for flesh or coin, woman." Dirge mutters under his breath, though it was clear from the way he gingerly avoided looking at her that he was particularly vulnerable to her influences.
As Abjaar engages a half-orc, throwing his chains. The ugly looking thing manages to block one of his chains, though the other manages to strike its mark around the orc's left leg. A loud snap follows as the cold metal delivers its whiplash, and leaves a rather vicious looking, dark mark behind. The skin around the half-orc's left thigh bursts and froths, the hook on the chain having buried itself a small ways into the cretin's flesh. As a little blood rolls down to his knee, a sanguine look comes into his eyes as he grabs the chain and pulls, sending Abjaar off balance, though he managed to remain on his feet. Dirge and the Dire Wolf take notice, bolting into action as the Dire Wolf remains just behind Dirge. As Dean moves to intercept, the Dire Wolf shifts its attention and weaves around Dirge, leaping up and attacking Dean. Though Dean manages to prevent himself from falling back, the Dire Wolf does manage to clamp its maw firmly around his hammer-wielding arm: The two become locked into a duel.
As Abjaar regains his balance, he would notice Dirge's large warhammer swinging for him. He manages to heft his axe in its way in time and takes a step back, instead feeling the force of the hammer collide with his weapon and nearly rip it straight out of his hands. Still, aside from possibly a wheeze at the feeling of his cracked rib complaining about the movements he was making, he survived. As he recovers, the half-orc had managed to hobble-run over, and was already swinging its mace at him. He stumbles back, the mace only superficially making contact by brushing against his chest. Though the half-orc did finally connect with a final strike with his shield, it only manages to shove Abjaar back a couple feet, as the half-orc had put most of its strength in its mace and the shield blow seemed to be merely a way to get a bit of distance between himself and Abjaar.
Whilst all of this was going on, the last half-orc had charged after Cennick. He howls a second time, then laughs, as his mace connects with Cennick's blade.
"I AM ORAN!" He attempts to shove Cennick with his shield, only for Cennick to ignore the pain of the blow to his chest and remain on his feet. Though he can't overpower the half-orc, his training allowed him to easily shove it back through other means so he could properly pull his weapon out. Oran tilts his head in confusion.
"Last time I fought a Queen's Blade, he ended me with a luck shot. You should go home, human." The half-orc seemed to hesitate in attacking again. The way that he stood, with more caution than his sibling: He knew something, even if he didn't want to admit it.
James chuckles as Dean struggles with the dire wolf on his arm.
"That vampire woman still thinks I can be saved... This amuses me. Dean, you know better... Tell her that my sins are unforgivable! Convince yourself that a life for a life is just! Do it! I know I have!" There was another groan in the background, this time coming from the newly revealed hallway.
"Oh my! Waking up so early..." James' voice could be heard both around them, and coming from the hallway. Mikan had been staring at the revealed hallway the entire time, though she had unsheathed her daggers. There seemed to be a moment where she would have abandoned them all for it, a small look of fury in her eyes before it was drowned and repressed by the cold look from before.
If she was younger, she would have gone for it.
"If only I had the excuse of being sixteen again." Mikan mutters this quietly before slipping past Murderok and Zin.
"Help Dean!" She spits out quickly as she bolts in front of Dirge. He scoffs at the sight, though she does manage to get between him and Abjaar.
"You should let him die." Mikan shrugs and ducks to avoid a back swing from Dirge's warhammer as he gets it back into position.
"Could say the same to you." Dirge's look goes from slight amusement to sorrow, as his grip around his warhammer tightens.
"I know."
Zin could feel something strange in the chamber behind the throne. It felt as though a few souls had left the room, and one soul had entered it, through a cost to magic that far exceeded anything she had ever felt before. Something that she figured should be beyond even the capabilities of James. He would have no magic left to escape them or fight them once they reached him. Assuming, of course, that it wasn't all an elaborate illusion...
Imperium/Amazons - The Dream of Empire
The golem watched as the group plotted and planned aloud. It even seemed irritated as Fahim took to the middle ground with Armerza.
"I have been here so long, I do not remember who I am... Though what I am is a protector and servitor to this place." It continues attempting to move towards them, and it seemed to be gaining speed: Each moment that it moved, it seemed to become more accustomed to its body again.
"To this place, and to the Imperium that General Florence died trying to protect. Died, many ages ago. Must be dead, now... I am no star dreaming fool. I know that time continued to pass... I was alone here, while it passed... Save for the occasional idiot who stumbled blindly into this place." There was a sound, that quickly grew louder as the golem spoke. Fahim glances at the walls and pats Armerza's shoulder to get her attention: Thousands of insects, descending down the walls. Thousands upon thousands. Armerza recognized the cockroach-shaped creatures as being flesh eaters, that would swarm Dwarves in hordes in dark tunnels and eat them alive.
"I really wish I could spare you this fate. However, you would have to prove that Florence is over ten thousand years old, in order for me to believe you." The golem jumps a couple steps ahead and swings out one of its arms, the short chains on it swinging out for Armerza. Fahim raises a limb and blocks it to the best of his abilities, though his arms broke and turned into a liquid underneath the sheer force of it. The golem then tosses him aside like a toy, sending him flying into a wall near Veira and Sonia. He falls down, a couple of the insects on him. Fahim panics and rips them off, crushing them. They seemed content attempting to devour him--even if he wouldn't digest within them.
"As for your Eternal Empress... I know not who this is. I live for the Republic, not for whatever mockery you seem to know in this time." As the golem continues prattling on, Veira glances to Sonia and uses her wind magic to lift and move Sonia rapidly towards the artifacts. She deposits her merely a few feet from both the scrolls and the soul stones.
"Work quickly Sonia!" Veira yells as she looks to Fahim. He was still reforming himself physically, as the impact against the wall was enough to kill most people. Veira starts pulling the still-reforming Fahim away from the wall, towards the artifacts, though the insects were about to reach the floor.
The golem seemed to hesitate to attack Armerza. After all, it had witnessed what Armerza was capable of with her shield.
Still, the Queen's Blades weren't doomed yet. At least that explained why they didn't stumble on any bodies...
Kingdom of Liveria - Ancestral bonds
Goran licks his chops and glances up to Kasim. He responds telepathically, only to Kasim.
"Father's side. I think. I had four children with two different women. One of them ended up in slavery, sacrificing their freedom to spare someone else. You might expect me to call that stupid, but honestly, the Free Holds needed more selfless souls in it. I'm assuming it's ripping itself apart with this demon affair." He sniffs the air and wrinkles his snout in disgust. This time he telepathically speaks to everyone in the room.
"All these chambers and not a single bath house." Zoe chuckled, and aimed down the sights of her crossbow at the third orc. In a single moment, their attacks cleanly come through in synchronization. The three orcs are dropped dead with ease, though the one hit with the bolt of darkness stumbled forward in surprise before he died wordlessly.
Gabriel grabs Goran and descends first, quickly. He lands on the ground without incident and puts the decrepit looking dire wolf down, then looks around the room. There were two entryways into the room, and it was about the same size as the prisoner room from earlier. There was no cover anywhere in the room--no stone slabs this time. As Gabriel summons his weapons and examines his adversaries, the wolf telepathically relays the sounds within the room to those above. The Agent of Wrath was, indeed, here. He claps his hands slowly: He was eight feet tall, like the orcs, but with deep red skin. He was covered head to toe in black plate mail, with a vicious looking chain-whip wrapped around his waist. It appeared to be twenty feet in length, and it had hooks on each side: Allowing it to rip through flesh, presumably. Four orcs surrounded him, keeping him safe from harm, as they were armed with axes and shields.
"I told the orcs that Liveria would attack first." He motions to Gabriel and chuckles.
"Here you are, validating what I've said. Thank you... Thank you, for showing why Liverians can't be trusted." He unsheathes his whip and then pulls a horn off one of the orcs. He brings it to his lips and uses it, a loud sound reverberated throughout the cavern system. Behind Helénē, at the one entryway into the chamber above where most of the group still resided, the sounds of orcs roaring and running through the tunnel network towards them could be heard. A few seconds after that, the sounds of war drums being beaten on, rang throughout the area: The very rhythm going though the ground. Behind the Agent of Wrath, a large, nine foot tall orc steps through one of the entryways. This was, presumably, one of the leaders of their bigger tribes. The Agent laughs, then licks his lips hungrily.
"NOW, THE LAND OF THE PIG BLOODED NOBLES SHALL BATHE THE ORCS IN BLOOD, AND USHER IN A NEW ERA!"
Zoe glances around the room as she reaches into her cape and pulls out a smoke grenade.
"Of course it's a trap." She tosses the smoke grenade down, watching it burst into smoke and making a cloud a few feet in size. It would give the group sufficient cover to get to a position away from the rope safely once they got down, but not much beyond that.
"We've freed fifty slaves to get killed and watch thousands of Liverians become new slaves." Quickly, she gets to reloading his crossbow.
"Brilliant fucking planning." Finishing reloading, she motions down into the hole.
"Go! We can't hold two positions at once, and if we're going to die for your infantile delusions of chivalry, then at least die doing something useful!"
Two could go down at a time, it seemed. Any more than that, and they would risk falling several feet to their deaths instead...
Goblin Holds - Antiqua Scientiam
Unamo walks over to Child, carefully, and gently rests her hands on Child's shoulders.
"Shh... It's okay. It's over." Carefully, she gets Child to sit down.
"Breath slowly. Calm yourself." The shaman was being unusually gentle, much like a mother towards their offspring, in trying to calm her down. She glances towards the imp, and watches as it looks around at them with paranoia and fear. Perhaps it had a right to be scared... Though that was not within Unamo's prerogative at this time.
The voice that spoke to Maeven seemed to confer to her a feeling of joy. Then, in an instant, a flash of white hot, burning pain: A migraine ripping through her mind as blood starts rolling from her nose and ears. The building they were in starts to shake and shudder, the mirrors in the room became blank as they felt the building lift up into the sky. No, wait, not a building...
Aslo would be the first to be able to peer out the front doors. They were now standing an extra twenty feet from the ground, and beneath them, there was a pair of legs, though they had a strange, metallic, cylindrical construction. There was no sign of knees, instead, the entire length of each "leg" was bendable, much like a metallic tentacle. The feet were made out of a solid alloy, which Aslo also couldn't recognize, as it seemed to shift texture and colour to match the environment--the foot molded to the ground, rather than forcing the ground to mold to the foot. Esyllt and Unamo would both momentarily hear an ear splitting screech: Akin to gears grinding against each other, but with a distinctly human intonation. It sounded like dozens of screams, interlaced atop one another, but it faded as quickly as it came.
Still, as the entity they stood within finally stabilized, the mirrors returned from blank nothingness to a view of the world around them: They became one way mirrors. Outside, it was metal. Inside, it was as if they were standing on nothing. Maeven, meanwhile, would be able to discern that she had a pair of thirty feet long "limbs" which could extend out from her "body." They, too, were like the cylindrical limbs underneath her form. The voice from earlier speaks, with a masculine pitch, though it was monotonous tone. This time, everyone inside could hear it.
"Automaton Reconnaissance Golem Mobile Operations Centre online. Systems partially functioning. Objective: Destroy demons." The wall on the left side of the two rooms changes, its vision zooming a mile away in the city. Somehow, it was able to see anywhere within the city, so long as a structure remained standing in that area. There was a small, dark city block, with all the entities that the imp had mentioned earlier.
"ARGMOC under control of entity... Foreign, yet, Mechanist. Entity named, Maeven." It pauses.
"Other entities, foreign. Destruction protocol, advised. Returning function... Other entities, allies of the controller. Protocol advisement, cancelled. Control granted to entity. Secondary functions, enabled."
A staircase forms inside to the other floors. They, took, were made out of the reflective materials, though there was no sign of the 'secondary functions' that it listed.
"No secondary armaments remaining. ARGMOC was stripped and abandoned. Entire city, abandoned. Ground support will be required." It seemed to almost show a hint of remorse, though it equally seemed limited in how it could even express emotion at all.
"Recommended, attacking of demons. One primitive weapon, ancient tribal. Tulerian. Threat level: Zero." It did, however, focus the 'display' on the left walls to one of the last entities in the demonic group: The shape shifter that the imp had mentioned earlier.
"Target, extremely dangerous. Mechanist golem, advanced division, assassin archetype. Abandoned project." It was a human, with pale skin, long black hair, and a strange looking sword from a foreign land.
"Recommend: Entities come up with plan to disable or slow it down. Destroying it is not possible with current weapons. Forced retreat likely possible. Other entities, can be dispatched with efficiency." Maeven would feel herself gain control of the ARGMOC.
"Uplink established. Maeven is in control. Control can only be maintained for a few minutes. Thirty, at the most."
Kingdom of Tuleria - Unto the Breach
Underground, it was clear that they were making good progress. Yet, the group was left feeling unsettled. The underground creature grew closer and closer until it burst through the east side of the tunnel and crashed into Toorg. It tries to use its momentum to push Toorg backward through the sand, but instead of being pushed through the malleable wall, Toorg would feel himself hit some hard roots. Quar's staff lit with a bright green light as he cast his spell to harden one of the walls, illuminating everyone in green. It was a giant scorpion, though this one still had its tail, unlike the other two. One of its pincers had embedded itself deeply into Toorg's side: It chitters in irritation and attempts to sting Toorg, but given the limited space in the area, its slow attack instead hits the sand wall behind Toorg. The venom might not even affect him, but taking that chance was likely not in their best interest.
The buccaneer mages look around at the group in panic.
"DO SOMETHING! We're gonna burst out of here, but not without you lot!" Quar looks between his two comrades.
"TOORG, HUG IT TIGHTLY! Arkos, use your big strong hands and FUCK IT UP!" His staff glows as he prepares another spell, though this one was taking him a little longer. Arkos could feel and recognize that it was a spell to do with nature.
Above, on the surface, the Agent of Lust hesitates and glances back in the direction of the underground group. She abandons the fight and bolts in that direction, pulling out her whip.
As the Imperial Scouts and Aeyr attack, they would find in dismay that only two of the Imperial scouts hit their marks--leaving two of the aerial creatures alive. Those remaining two descend upon the back group with surprising speed, and one grabs one of the Imperial Scouts as the others dive onto the sand to avoid it. It soars up into the skies at over a hundred miles per hour, then tosses the Imperial Scout off into the air. He screams as he plummets, and while he does bounce after hitting the ground, the loud sound of several bones shattering was enough to inform the group that the limp body held no life in it, as it rolled down the sand dune.
The other swoops down for Aeyr, but veers away at the last second as Yuri swings for it. Yuri only manages to hit empty air, but it was enough to cause the creature to second guess its attack and evade instead. The two remaining flying creatures reform and keep moving together, erratically, attempting to evade further ranged attacks by the remaining archers as they got back onto their feet. It was difficult to predict what angle they would attack from next, but it seemed they were being wary of Yuri's protection for the group.
The fighting between the buccaneers & Otto with the demon forces was fierce, though they were losing. Otto and one of the buccaneers managed to cut off one of the doom guard's legs, sending it toppling to the ground, but the remaining doom guard and humanoid demons outnumbered the Tulerians. They were being cut down, and as half of one body sailed overhead of Aeyr and the Imperials, it was quickly clear that their distraction force was not going to win. Still, the remaining Buccaneers didn't flinch: They kept fighting to the last.
