Light Vs. Darkness: The Hero's Return

After his little outburst, it seemed that Seafoam had managed to stop trying to nonsensically kill her brother and left, letting peace reign in the room once again. This was something that he could appreciate, though this was merely temporary as some mad with light newcomer had stormed in and asked him about his method of not staying dead. While the answer was probably way more complex, and honestly there was probably no existing way to fully explain it, the simple answer of "respawning" was suffice enough. He then decided that he would just stop hearing everything around him, in order to keep himself from probably throwing more books at people, and thus the entire room was dead silent to him. Perfect.

As he continued to read about the easy way to just have money given to you for killing named people, (though, in Hunter's case he would be next to worthless,) he suddenly resumed hearing as he slammed the book shut."Alright, awesome. Just give me a few seconds here people."He walked outside of the room and started to hunt down people who were now at the castle. First seeing Dane and co he stood there for a bit, not all that surprised that she had finally jumped from the station straight on board to the crazy train, he simply said to them, "yo, you can continue," he made a gesture directed towards them,"whatever this is later. Get your asses into the library with everyone else to hear our next objective, or forever live in ignorance."After that was over and done with, he walked towards an opening in the castle and yelled, "Red hair! White hair! Get in hear now for the next world set and for some oh so important legend telling!"

After he had told everyone who wasn't in the room to get in, he walked over to a bookshelf and took a book out, flipping through the pages, before stopping on a page. He looked to everyone and said,"alrighty let's get this show on the road. Now that we're all here, buckle up and get ready for a long ass explanation that I'm sure will rivet you. If you see anyone not here that missed this big song and dance, you can explain it because I sure as hell am not doing this more than once." He took in a deep breath and looked at the pages before allegedly reading off of them.

"My friend, do you trust her still?
When she abandons you and I?
All she will bring is a somber morrow
Hiding the secrets the hero will know
My friend, your hero
Is the bringer of life, destroyer of the goddess
Even if the morrow is barren of promises
Nothing shall forestall my return"

With that, he closed the picture book on a group of adventurers killing brooms, and looked to the group to provide his grandiose explanation on just what this quote meant."Alright, so as we can dissect from this passage the second and third lines are what's really going to bring us to where we want to go. So, it talks about "her" abandoning someone and leaving nothing but sadness when she does. Now, there's one place that I can think of that fits the bill for this perfectly. That is a place known as The Great Forest. What happened there was a mother to a deer died, it was all very sad and depressing and only really seemed to drag down the mood of the entire world with it. So I can think of no place better to search than there."This was a lie.

He continued to walk alongside the bookcase before pulling out a french dictionary."The next place that lines up with this is the city of gypsies and physically deformed people who are supposed to ring bells or something. And you know what, this piece of the legend rings quite a few bells. Now then, this world in question is none other than La Cite des Cloches."As he said this he made sure that it was said in the most pretentious french accent one could make.

Throwing that book away, he then pulled out a guidebook to rock 'em sock 'em robots."Now the next few lines of this verse make reference to heroes and how they are notably destroyers of a goddess. Now, while I know it goes with the female version, bare with me and lets just make this unisex. Now, there is one area that is legendary for creating heroes, and one such hero even took on some blue flaming haired god of the underworld and put the stomp on him. That place is an area known as Olympus Colosseum." A place that was surprisingly larger than just a Colosseum. That box could hardly even qualify as a Colosseum as well.

Throwing away the book, he then finally pulled out the final book, one on Feng Shui."Another area that has a legendary hero comes from it also fits the bill. While this land has this famous hero, she only was able to ascend to this status due to a long standing lie that allowed her to get to where she was. A place that you could say was, barren of promises. This area is known as none other than, The Land of Dragons."Dragons were also usually associated with heroes, so it seemed like a good place to check as well.

Putting the book away, he then reached into the bookshelf and pulled out a star chart. Opening it up, he spread it across the broken table and continued his explanation."Alright, so here is the map of the universe so you know just where exactly you need to be going. Now you'll notice immediately that we are actually searching through one universe rather than three. Ya know, help narrow down the search. You'll also notice that this entire thing is completely pointless because I think none of you have ever actually know where in the fuck you actually were in the universe so...just split into groups and go on your merry way." And with that, the next mission set was open.

tldr; Great Forest, Cite des Cloches, Olympus Colosseum and Land of Dragons.

 

Cyber have an awkward smile as he listened to Hunter. He was a lunatic. But all the best people were lunatics. He took the advice and grabbed one of the swords from one of the knights, melted the blade so only a hilt remain.

"Let me see. I like your advice. Perhaps I will spare you." He shot out a beam of light from the sword hilt. His gaze turning towards Hunter. He began to imagine the slow cutting and burning of flesh being driven into the man back. "A much better idea indeed!" As he finished with a sadistic laugh.

 

• Zephyr
• Xross

• 
  
  ​
  Despite everything that had transpired with the attempted murder and the apparent other guy appearing out of nowhere. This library sure was a great hiding place. Maybe this guy would be so bad.
  
  *cue sadistic laugh from new guy*
  
  So much for that thought. Moving on Lucien, in all his rainbow glory, went on to reveal the next set of worlds thus answering the question that Zephyr had asked earlier. Now the which of the four world should he go to. Normally he'd be able to narrow his choice down to one world quite easily, but in this case there were told worlds that had mentioned a hero. One world trained future heroes and the other one had a hero ascend- wait if the hero ascended then wouldn't that mean there'd be only like records of what she did?
  
  As he pondered this, he thought back to all the legends and tales on heroes that he read back on Solucia that basically were along the lines of a hero ascending into greatness. With that in mind, maybe he shouldn't head to Land of Dragon despite how cool of a name it had. That left Olympus Coliseum which probably was the better place for him to go, especially considering his reason for seeking the hero. "I'll head to Olympus Coliseum."
• 
  
  ​
  Not going to lie, most of these worlds didn't sound all that appealing to Xross, especially The Great Forest. Though he had to go to some world so why not the one with the foreign sounding name. "I'll take Cite des Cloches"

 

• Samsara
• Ananta

• ​
  "You won't believe how many idiots there are in this group." she said, ruffling her hair to get any stray cut pieces out of it. Looking up at Dane, she grabbed a sandwich and forced it into his hand with a cola. "At least eat the damn food I got for you." she grumbled. Dane was already starting to look like a bad choice, but from what he said, he's probably the best choice that there is. Everyone else seemed to be too busy with their own problems or they seemed too weak. She hated weakness in a person. It just made things harder in the long run. Oh well, it didn't matter anyway. She didn't have to directly talk to any of those people who were in that room anymore. She could finally get out there and actually do something more. Maybe she could even get accustomed to this darkness thing. Hopefully Dane wanted to actually do it and not get bored of her.
  
  From behind, she heard the voice of Skittles. Turning her head to him, she glared. Looks like he was a little off-put by the current situation, so he seemed to go away pretty quickly. But not without asking them to come back and listen to him babble about this hero. "Eh, we may as well. At least then we can blow this popsicle stand, eh Dane?" she smirked. Stepping towards the castle, she stopped and turned back towards Dane. "Oh yeah, my name's Samsara now. And I bet you aren't even listening." she rolled her eyes. Snapping her finger, a dark corridor opened beside them. "Let's just get back to Skittles for now. He's got some news or whatever from what I can tell." she said, stepping through.
  
  On the other side, everyone had gathered around to hear Lucien's little story. Crossing her arms and leaning on a bookcase, Samsara looked over at Ohm and raised an eyebrow. Darting her eyes away before he could notice, she stared at Lucien's face and slowly began to hate his voice more and more. It was as if he ate an entire crayon box and vomited the colors all over the place as he spoke. It was grating, the way his voice sounded. She just wanted to cover her ears and pretend she heard everything he said. But she couldn't do that, so she simply nodded and listened for now. She didn't want to mess with him and cause him to get angry again. Books are dangerous and knowledge is power.
• In the Crystal Vault, Ananta was busy preparing the 6 crystals that Gexln needed. She had a hologram panel up on a wall of a camera that showed Gexln's cell. Looking over, Ananta noticed that Xero had arrived and was talking with Gexln. Turning her head back to the crystals, she closed her eyes and opened them again to reveal her eyes were glowing a pale green. Her entire body turned into a hard substance, only her clothes and hair were not hardened like her skin. It was as if she had turned into a giant emerald covered soldier. Her hands reached forward and wrapped around the first of the 6 crystals. Now, the process of turning each of them into an item that could be used for a burst healing effect was beginning.
  
  As she worked through each crystal, her eyes glanced over the display. Gexln and Xero were not making up at all and it was obvious that what Ananta feared would happen, was about to happen. Reaching her hand up, she pulled down a light tendril from an outlet above her. She pressed it into the crystal in her hand and continued to fill the crystals with light. Time went on and she was finally on the 5th crystal. Looking up once more, she saw that Gexln was gone and that the guards were all grievously injured. Pulling down a small microphone, she spoke in the Crystallian language to a person on the other side. Soon enough, there was a medical team on the scene with the injured guards.
  
  "They'll be healed just fine." she said to herself, listening to Gexln speak to her about this Dane. Even Xero was here, albeit not moving, but she was here. Twirling her fingers, one of the light tendrils whipped at Gexln and slapped his hand that was holding his sword. "Don't hold a sword up to me, Gexln." she said, her voice sounding much more like it was in their heads than from herself in the room. "I agreed to help you, so do not act as if I was lying." she said, carefully placing the 5th crystal in a velvet bag with the others. The 6th and final crystal was going to be the strongest of the bunch. This was only because it was bigger than the rest. As she worked on the crystal, she thought of what to say to Gexln.
  
  "What if you can't defeat Dane? What will you do then? Will you run back here and take more crystals? Or will you simply let yourself die? I understand your intentions Gexln, but throwing yourself at a man and not even making a dent on him will help nobody. You must regroup and create an alliance that will help you fight the man. I'd help you, but I am sworn to not leave my world under no circumstances. As much as I'd like to help my daughter and son in this cursed time, I cannot. So please, Gexln, don't get yourself killed when you know your allies cannot help you." she begged him, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She was crying for the fact he had lost so much because of this man and also because she knew what she did to her children was horrible. However, if she had not done what she did, she'd be subjected to scrutiny. A tear splashed on the final crystal just as it was finished.
  
  Placing it in the bag, she turned to Gexln and returned herself to normal. Holding the bag up, she placed it in Gexln's hand and held it firmly. "Be safe." she said, nodding at him. "Ah..." she said, leaning forward and giving Gexln a hug. "Koot lokk. Good luck." she said, patting his back. "Xero." she called to her. "Follow him no matter what." she nodded, watching them off.

 

Something else caught Kross's eyes, in the corner of them, he could see in the reflection of the water that Gexln had raised his blade against Ananta. He gritted his teeth and closed them again, he needed the concentration for now."Mother Crystal.. Ek'Tok, it is time for you two to ally, protect our children with your light..Mother Crystal, with your grace, watch over Anadi..Ek'Tok, with your raw power, guard Ohm."He said, two lights came out of the crystals as he recited this prayer."Ananta..you said long ago that despite having the powers of the mother crystal..my soul is my own."He said, light flaking off of him as he started to fade, his body glowing bright blue."I hope you have not forgotten."He said. He completely faded, the crystal dropping into the water and completely dissolved.

A light sphere floated down between both Ananta and Gexln, exploding in a flash. Out of the light stepped an ethereal form of Kross, reaching out and gently touched Gexln's arm."Stay your blade from this innocent."He spoke in a gentle voice.

 

Spoiler: Hunter

As Hunter read Crybex's post, he saw that he had imagined burning Hunter's flesh. "You sir, are ridiculously disgusting. Some kind of twisted freak, but in an awesome way. Are you sure we're not related?" the man asked. He then decided that some form of acknowledgement of Lucien's post was in order. "I call dibs on kicking some godly ass in that coliseum place!" he declared, officially signing up for Olympus Coliseum.

Spoiler: Audrey, Juliet, and Dane

Audrey simply nodded as Alissia said she was going to postpone the story. There would be time later, she was sure of it. Or at least she hoped so, she was really interested in what would happen. Once she arrived in the room, she raced forward and hugged Juliet tightly. "Don't leave me with that man, don't do it. He's horrible, don't leave me alone" she said, sobbing against her mother's leg.


"What man?" Juliet asked, hugging her daughter back but wanting to know what happened. She was worried that Audrey was as emotional as she was; if a cheerful and happy kid like her could be brought to tears so easily, something bad had happened, she was sure of it.
With a shaking hand, Audrey raised her little arm and pointed straight at Dane.


Dane wasn't surprised the little girl had ratted him out, kind of. Kids were horrible at keeping secrets, especially the really juicy ones. "You know what, I've had a long day. Beating people up, repelling goddesses, murdering allies, it really takes a toll on a guy. So, I'm just going to avoid this confrontation, can't be bothered to have a verbal argument with a woman. Later" Dane said, clearly not caring for the opinions of others. Opening a dark corridor, he turned to look at the others there. "Hey, Slave, hurry up. We haven't got all day, sad world to see and all. And....okay, I forgot what your actual name is, but if you want to learn how to be evil and yet retain that awesome flair, you know where to find me" he said, talking to Alissia and Samsara respectively, before walking through the dark corridor to The Great Forest.

Juliet wasn't going to let up so easily. "Audrey, maybe you should go with your father on this one" she asked, but Audrey shook her head in refusal. "Fine, but stay close to me. We'll make this man say sorry and mummy will fix things" Juliet said reassuringly. She walked through the dark corridor with Audrey following her, going after Dane. If this man had made Audrey cry, Juliet wanted to know why, and she would beat the ever loving crap out of him if she had to in order to find out.

Spoiler: Caleb

Caleb felt exceptionally uncomfortable as Juliet and Audrey left. He had wanted to say something, but how could he? He owed Dane for getting them out of there, and as much as it tore him up inside he would have to find some way to repay the debt. He'd probably end up regretting it, but he was a man of honour, and though Dane certainly didn't fight with honour, Caleb still needed to repay him. And yet, his only daughter was crying, and because of his honour he couldn't go and hug her, he couldn't go tell her everything would be okay. What kind of father was he? A bad one, that's what. "I'm going to Cite des Cloches" he said simply in a firm voice, making his decision.

Spoiler: Gexln

"You think I'm going to lose to him? Is that it? I took down Chaos, I defeated the trial of the x-blade, and I've fought far more people and creatures than you know, and you think I'm going to be beaten? I'm not going to lose to him, I'm going to watch the life drain out of his body. I don't need help, I can do this alone" Gexln stated, backing away from Ananta. He accepted the bag of crystals, and was about to leave when he heard Sapphire's voice, as well as saw the creature she had created.

"Great, she gave me a bunny. A godamn bunny" he grumbled. "May as well give you a name. I'll call you Liam, I guess. You'd better hope you're as strong as I was told, or else you're going to have to find yourself a new master" Gexln stated, not believing that the rabbit was as powerful as Sapphire claimed. He turned and opened a dark corridor, before turning to address the spirit that had appeared. "Look, I'm not sure if you heard, but she gave me what I needed, I don't need to kill her, so piss off and go back to being dead" he said in a harsh tone. He wasn't in the mood for lectures or being told what to do. He turned and looked at Xero, but said nothing. No amount of words would change her mind, he knew her far too well to believe anything different. He would just have to cope with it. Stepping through the dark corridor he moved on, leaving the world behind as he began searching for Dane once more.

 

Xero could only look away sadly as Gexln looked at her. She knew he was going to leave again and she just gave up. There wasn't anything she could do about it and she was done. The only thing she could do was to not watch him leave again and accept her failure. As he left she could feel the tears well up again, but she quickly wiped them away and turned her back to the room.
"Ananta... I apologize for everything Gexln's done here..." Xero said, every bit of emotion was simply gone when she spoke, "I'll see to it that he doesn't come back here to help with the citizens thinking he is dead..." She inhaled deeply before opening a corridor of her own, "I'll be back on Riel if anyone needs me..." With that, she stepped through into Sapphire's throne room looking at the ground.
"I give up..." She said in almost a whisper.

Lexcifur looked over to Freya as he heard her say where she was going. He walked over and approached her from behind, "I'm going with you." He sternly said, "I..." Lexcifur then looked away, a pout on his face, with the ever so slightest tint of red on his face, "I don't want you going alone. Things are getting bad out there and... Well you get the point." He looked back to her with the usual I'm-irritated-at-everything look.​

 

In the throne room of Sapphire on Riel fanfare could be heard from outside in the street. Trumpets blared, drums pounded, it sounded as though an enormous parade was being held outside. A chorus of men sang out as the commotion grew closer to the room. Eventually the it became apparent what they were saying.

"Make way for Beuce Ali!"

Through the doors burst a horde of servants, headed by a certain wind mage juggling fire and singing to help his friend make an entrance. Honestly, Beuce never understood how he was able to talk Stratos into shit like this, but it earned the guy a ton of awesome points in the Big Book of Beuce. Riding on a large elephant in the center of the servants, Beuce looked very important.

"Hey clear the way in the ol' bazaar
Hey you! Let us through-
it's a bright new star
Oh come be the first on your block to meet his eye!
Make way!
Here he comes!
Ring bells!
Bang the drums!
Ah! You're gonna love this g-"

A record scratch was heard, and all the music stopped as they reached Xero, who looked thoroughly depressed. Well. That was kind of a mood killer. Dismounting the elephant, Beuce shooed away the dancing girls and trumpeters. "Go on! Get out of here we're not doing the musical number!" After the room had cleared of parades, and all that remained of it was Beuce and Stratos, he turned to face Sapphire. "Heeeey~! Sapphire, What up girl? I haven't seen you since my concert! Now, i now that was pretty sweet and i gave you the tickets and you're thinking 'Oh no, he's come to cash in the favor! How can ever repay such a glorious and wonderful gift? Oh no! I'll be in debt forever!' Well, lucky you that's not why i'm here! In fact, quite the reverse! See, that whole resistance thing is kinda not at all sensible. Like, Half of them want to find the hero to kill him, about a quarter of them want to find the hero to stop you for some reason they don't even actually know, like a fifth of them seem kinda neutral about the whole situation, and then there's Lucien. Pretty sure he's just in it for shits and giggles."

Beuce walked closer to the throne and casually leaned on Sapphire's shoulder. "So ya see Morgan, that is why yours truly came to offer my assistance. Yeah, that's right. I'm defecting. Double agent. Side swapping. I'd say i was betraying my fellow fourth wall breakers but we all hate each other anyways. They can't even see that i am best character. I mean, it's so obvious, right? Xero, i'm right, right? See? Depressed giving up on life face means Beuce is best character, as always. So anyways, we're here to help. Give us an ass and we'll kick it. Preferably an enemy one, unless you're into that sort of thing. I dunno. Maybe R had some kinky fetishes no one knew about." A slight tremor shook beneath his feet. "No need to get so defensive. Why? Is it true? Hah! I knew 50 shades of darkness wasn't Ananta's."



As Zavion listened to the options of worlds they could travel to, one of them stood out to him. The land of the deformed, as it had been described. "I'm going to Cite des Cloches" Zavion announced, while trying to ignore the conversation between his two companions. If they actually ended up together, that could get awkward fast. Although, he should probably be used to it by this point.

Ghost listened for Zavion's announcement as to the world he was going to. Whichever it was, he would follow. He had promised the goddess that he would watch over him and his sister. He intended to keep it. He would do this without fail in return for her to watch over Phantom for him. "As will I." However, although he didn't show it, he was somewhat shocked to see the other person going to the world with them. Though the years had changed him in appearance, he still recognized the man. Among those who had fought against the agents in their fight for survival, Caleb had been the only one who he had called friend. If he was part of the resistance...There was a chance he may have to fight him at some point. He stood silent, awaiting their departure.

The horrific man known as Bartholomew stood, listening to the conversations that arose. One peaked his interest rather highly. The girl named Anadi had undergone a complete transformation by the darkness. How...Interesting. He wondered what he could do with someone who's personality changed so easily. What he could do to them. No rapist. Well...maybe a little bit. "I'll be heading for the great forest." One way or another, this would prove to be an entertaining world. ​

 

• Samsara
• Ananta

• ​
  
  Yawning a bit, Samsara turned her head to see that a little girl was pointing at Dane while keeping close to her mother. Why a child small enough to run for mommy's coat tail was doing here, was beyond Samsara. She remembered her mother talked about how her older brother, Anta, had gone off to some war, but at least he was sixteen and not freaking nine years old. Closing her eyes, Samsara heard Dane address her. "It's Samsara, Dane. At least remember my damn name." she frowned. This was getting frustrating, but he'll learn her name soon enough. They were going to be traveling together for quite some time, so he HAD to learn her name, right? Regardless, Samsara followed after him, sniffling her nose. She could smell Bartholomew's fragrance behind her, but he didn't seem that bad of a guy. Sure he came straight out of the realm of darkness, but darkness isn't that bad, is it? It's not like it's done anything to Samsara so far. Everything that's happened so far was the goddess' fault. Well, everything except her world, but Samsara was actually starting to not care and feel no regret or sadness. She felt invigorated now. Unbound by the laws of her world, Samsara was finally free to do as she wished.
  
  Including following a guy through a dark corridor to a forest. Her shoes crunched in the underbrush as she stepped out of the dark corridor into a clearing. Looking up, she saw that the clearing was so big, considering there were tons of trees nearby. In fact, this looked more like an area in a forest that didn't have much trees for a few feet and then a ton more later. Watching Bartholomew step through the corridor and it closing behind him, she looked at Juliet and Audrey. Her eyes wobbled a bit and she closed them quickly. Knees buckling, she fell to the ground and gritted her teeth. A spelled had just been cast on her, but Samsara couldn't figure out the point of origin. Whatever it was, she stood back up and wiped the tears that had formed at her eyes from the pain. Turning back towards Audrey and Juliet, she just had to ask.
  
  "How come you both smell like you use darkness, but still reek of light? Also, why the hell is a nine year old here in the first place? Don't you have someplace to leave her?" Samsara asked, crossing her arms. Sniffing the air, she was right about these two. They sure did smell like they used darkness, but they still had the scent of light on them. It was peculiar, to say the least. Taking a closer look at Audrey, Samsara raised an eyebrow at her. She had Juliet's hair and looks, but she had blue eyes. Guess she got those from her father. Shaking her head, she glared at the nine year old to see her reaction.
• Everything was falling into place and Ananta could finally rest for awhile. That was, until she saw the ghost like figure of Kross appear in front of her and the others. As they left, saying goodbye or thanking her, Ananta was left wide-eyed and confused. "Kross, what are you doing? Why do you look like this?" she asked him, stepping closer and trying to grab him. Her fingers went right through, grasping wisps of his form that soon returned to him. Her fingers were left feeling cold as she stood there and tried to stop herself from crying.
  
  Opening her mouth to try and say something, she was left agape. Hugging herself, she closed her mouth and swallowed hard. Tears pricked at her eyes, threatening to spill, but she was able to stop them. Looking at Kross, she smiled sadly. "So, I guess you are going ahead?" she asked, her body shaking. "I've got so much work to do, I'm afraid I won't be able to join you as soon as you'd like me to." Placing her hands on her cheeks, she covered her eyes as tears starting to stream down her cheeks. Her voice cracked and ached as she continued to talk to him. "I always thought I'd be gone first, you know? Since I'm older and all..." she chuckled. "But I think you did something to help Ohm and Anadi, right? That's why you're leaving?" she shuddered, breathing in sharply. "I'll watch over the twins, they'll cry because you're gone, but they'll never forget you. I promise." she said, finally letting out a strained wail, falling to her knees.

 

• My Condolences Zephyr
• Jackie and Blanc
• Charlotte
• Rinox
• Stratos

• 
  
  
  Lucien looked onward as everyone had decided on their worlds that they were going to. The first thing that was good was that no one needed to go through a second run down as everyone had managed to get their asses back here in time. The other good thing was that they were going to be able to get the show on the road now. Everything seemed to be running swimmingly, and just as last time, there was a few of the worlds that just seemed to get completely neglected whilst others were piling to full capacity with people. The only bad thing he could think of was what the recent defection they had had. Aside from just general information gathering, the fact that those two hadn't come back yet and that they both had really shaky resolves to this cause in the first place told Lucien all he needed to know that they flip flopped. If push came to shove, Stratos would be literally no problem at all. There wasn't anything that kid could do to him. Beuce, on the other hand...well that was a different story. He was a bit of a show boat, but a fight against him would be slightly problematic, though not outside of Lucien's realm of victory. Nevertheless, he had to go decide on where to go, and the over abundance of the people who were connected to the tool that was Dane was slightly pissing him off.
  
  Walking over to Gwen and Hunter he patted them both on the back and said, "Olympus Coliseum, eh? Well. sounds interesting. All I got to say about it is, have fun you two love birds." With a shit eating grin on his face he pointed to Hunter saying, "be sure to be as egotistical as possible to completely woo her and you," he pointed to Gwen, "keep up that all tsun no dere act you got going for you." His face then went to one of sympathy as he looked at Zephyr and said,"godspeed Hyde. That's all I can offer you. Later." He waved to the group before putting his hands in his pockets and walking off. Lucien was now in the Great Forest alongside everyone else and said,"well then, Spoopy, Chalk, Runner Up for Best Mother of the Year, Runner Up's Kid, Poorly Guarded, Mr. Halloween Town and 4th Place for Most Egotistical, what say we get the lead out of all of our asses and get a move on here. We gout ourselves a cave to find, and an ancient forest to search through." With that done, Lucien started walking ahead, to wherever the plot took him.
  
• 
  
  
  Jackie was thoroughly pumped for this next set of worlds. Why? Because it just meant that this quest was far from over. And long quests usually had awesome rewards at the end of them. Granted, she had no idea what to expect from any of them. There was the coliseum which sounded pretty awesome, but if it was just going to be raw arena battles, then there wasn't much fun there. Then there was the Site dess Closh, and that just sounded weird and not fun in general. Then there was the great forest. Boring. Now the Land of Dragons. That was a name. Why? Because dragons were awwweeesome. Jackie turned towards Blanc, who had been taking a brief nap that lasted throughout the entirety of the explanation, and said, "Blanc, let us begin our expedition to the Land of Dragons. Onward hooooo!" She pointed in just the general opposite direction that she was facing, pointing to nothing in particular.
  
  Blanc simply nodded and said, "okay."
  
  Picking himself up, he let out a bit of a yawn, and then walked with Jackie to the rest of the group that had decided to go off to what was clearly the best world. Before leaving, Jackie saw that there was someone completely unfamiliar with white hair who was in the Great Forest group walking off. Wait a second. She wasn't here earlier. And she didn't introduce herself earlier. That bitch! Jackie was going to have to beat her name right out of her when next they met for not following standard questing rules and making sure everyone in the party knew your name. Her brief period of rage was subsided as Blanc opened one of his space tears and with a noise of cheer Jackie hopped through the dimensional rift to find herself in the new world. Turning to the rest of their party, once they arrived, Jackie said, "alright Free and Lecks let's begin our operation!" Having completely forgotten their names, she pointed again, just away from the direction she was facing and at nothing in particular.
  
• 
  
  ​
  After hearing the worlds be announced, Charlotte had looked around to see what everyone else was doing. She wasn't entirely too sure about...well most of the group, though the red-black haired boy and girl along with the man with the strange arm seemed to be trustworthy enough for her not to suspect them of doing any foul play during their mission. However, there were others that would not go unnoticed in this situation. The darkness that radiated from the man with the scythe had a particular sort of malice to it, and the white haired girl didn't seem to be much better in that regard. While she felt like he had to be dealt with, now did not seem like the time. Not to mention there was still the man with white hair going to Cite Des Cloches alongside a man who seemed to be draped in it. She hadn't seen him before, and his sudden arrival seemed suspicious, though no one else seemed to pay any mind to him yet. Just making sure, she decided that she would head off to the City of Bells alongside those people. Walking over to them, she said, "so, shall we embark then?"
  
• 
  
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  Rinox had walked in through the front entrance of the library and had a look of, clearly fake, surprise on his face. "Oh my, how careless of me to have missed everyone departing off." He looked at the remaining people and said, "though I think I was able to hear what the situation was like from out there." Continuing to walk over to the group that was Hunter, Gwen and Zephyr he said, "allow me to make up for my carelessness by granting you all passage to your next world." Opening up a dark corridor to Olympus Coliseum, he started to walk through it before saying, "well met again keyblade wielder."
  
• 
  
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  As the boy had stepped into the throne room, in his long elaborate assistance to Beuce's needlessly large arrival, Stratos had an odd feeling come over him. As he stood there, looking at the goddess, he couldn't help that despite being in front of probably the most important and powerful person in the universe, she didn't really give off much of an impression like that to him. Not to mention she seemed to act like a tired from work mother to Beuce than some almighty deity. But as she handed out the stacks of paper to them, Stratos took them and walked to the room where they were supposed to sort these papers out. Staring at the filing cabinet, Stratos turned to Beuce and said, "so....how do you file?"
  

 

Spoiler: Saint Dane...and obligatory reaction to Samsara

As Dane entered the Great Forest, he was immediately overcome with a feeling of disgust. There were so many woodland creatures around. They were defenceless, and that was appealing, but they were all alive. They didn't seem particularly happy; apparently after 300 years, they still couldn't get over the death of just one deer, and that was just kind of sad. I mean, it was just a single death, it wasn't that much. So, Dane decided to actually be a good guy. He'd do his part to help out the woodland creatures in getting over the death of the prince several hundred years ago.

Walking forward a bit, he'd only just stepped away from the dark corridor when a small bird flew down in front of him. It was a black and white bird, specifically a magpie; a bird that had never before been seen in a forest such as that. Driving something extinct, that should help them get over it, he thought to himself. The bird chirped happily to Dane, and that just wasn't on, so immediately the man's scythe went into action. The scythe hit the bird and grabbed it out of the air, before slamming it into the ground and killing it immediately.

Now he had a new problem though. There was something dead in his way. Usually when something got in his way, he killed it, but if it was already dead what was he to do? He couldn't simply move around it, that would be straying from his original path and everyone knew that ended up getting you lost, and he couldn't walk over it; what if he misjudged the distance and got corpse on his shoe? That would be just disgusting. A smirk came over his face as he remembered Alissia's reaction to Dain's dead body. That was the answer. Immediately, he snapped his fingers. "Meatshield, Samantha, whatever the hell your name is now, I want all these woodland creatures around here dead. Slave, something appears to have died in front of me. Clean it up now!" he demanded.


Juliet had charged after Dane, but she wasn't stupid. She knew that if she tried to attack the man outright, things wouldn't go well. She wasn't sure of his combat capability, but he wouldn't be so outgoing and confident if he wasn't at least a little good. The girl that questioned her mothering ability and well, magical ability, was interesting and yet annoying. "Mother was of light, father was of dark. Best of both worlds, and my daughter here got the same thing as me. Keep your mothering advice to yourself, I'm not in much of a mood to deal with it. If I didn't think it was safe, she wouldn't be here" was all she said, trying to focus on keeping an eye on Dane.

Spoiler: The Hunt for a God

"Your carelessness is forgiven, timelord. Don't make a habit of it though, if you ain't careful in the arena you'll get dragged off to a horrible exercise filled with destroying barrels, ruining urns, and doing jumping jacks on the hydra's back" Hunter said, making it exceptionally clear what they the consequences of going AFK were before walking through the dark corridor.

As Hunter arrived on the steps of Olympus Colosseum, he looked at the area above. This was his chance to prove how awesome he was, to show everyone else he wasn't all talk. If he went there and won in any of the arena battles, he'd get a crapload of crowns, a new job, and bragging rights. He took a step forward, but froze. He didn't have the Umbrella, that was with Beuce. What would he do if he couldn't win with an umbrella? Win regularly? Screw that, he had to defeat them in increments of 1 hp; no more, no less!

Turning around, Hunter walked down the steps and towards the underworld. He made his way over to the entrance to the caverns, and turned around to look at the party. For a group with autofollow turned on, they sure were slow. "Screw finding the hero. Lets become heroes ourselves and beat the shit out of the goddess. All we have to do is beat a god and we become one, pretty sure that's how it works right? So, lets go find....lets find Hercules. Some people have beaten regular Hercules before, but how many do you think have beaten zombie Hercules? If we go find him and throw all our potions at him, he'll die, zombie status is OP. So, hurry the hell up so we can become gods before dinner" Hunter said, explaining in a logic that seldom few could follow. He began to start walking again, but stopped shortly. "GINGER, YOU TAKE POINT. WE NEED...UH...you know what screw it, take point so I have something interesting to look at, I can't be bothered thinkin' of an excuse" he called out.

​

 

• No idea how to feel
• Short post but he's there isn't he
• Might as well

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  Lucien's words had confused Zephyr prior to him going through the corridor that Rinox had made for them. Mainly it was how he told him 'Godspeed' which was pretty much another way of saying good luck. He didn't know anything about the two of the people going to this world with him, but they couldn't be that bad. Next and to a lesser extent was the name he called him. Who the heck is Hyde? Whatever, he decided to worry about all that another time and step through the corridor.
  
  When they arrived at Olympus Colosseum, Zephyr found the place quite empty compared to what he was expecting it to be. It didn't have to be filled with people ready to fight and become a hero, but there had to be someone here other than them in this world. They stood in front of what appeared to be the literal gateway to the underworld. Least there was a cave. Hunter had started to speak and Zephyr tuned most of it out due to him being more preoccupy with looking around from his stationary position. Of course when he mentioned becoming heroes themselves, the boys ears heard that part loud and clear. It was only natural, going ahead and becoming a hero was much faster than learning what it took to become one. "I'll go ahead and go first." Zephyr said, doing just that and walking on ahead.
• 
  
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  With it appearing that everyone who was going to Cite Des Cloches being ready, Xross simply said nothing as he opened up a portal for him and whoever else wanted to go through it to enter into the world. Someone else could actually describe where they ended up at on the other size. That is all.
• 
  
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  One after another more people had entered into the throne room and Sapphire apparently knew all of them. Two of which she sent to do some filing, which Avi didn't even know that she had a room for that kind of thing. I mean, couldn't a goddess just magic well in her case, darkness away any paperwork that they had? Guess not.

 

This was going to be a huge problem, but Ohm's objective was still clear. He had to save his sister and bring her back home. This new resolve brought him to his feet and his eyes went yellow with the lightning rune for his pupils. He stuck his sword in the ground and flashed away in a bright light along with his sword. The next time he appeared, he was in the colisseum. He saw the others ahead of him and he ran to catch up, slowing to a walk and looked around, watching for any signs of danger, ready to spring into action whenever danger reared its ugly head.​

 

Xero just looked at Beuce with not much on an expression other than that it looked like she wanted to break down. Once Sapphire sent him and some other person away, she offered to talk in her office. Xero looked at the corridor briefly before sighing and stepping through. She then slumped down on a couch, looking at the ground with a defeated look, "He... He won't listen." She began, "Gexln won't let me help him and he won't listen to me... So what's the point in even trying to bring him back?"


Lexcifur just looked at Freya for a moment before giving her a small nod. He then turned to Zavion, "I guess we'll meet back with you later." Lexcifur said as he created a corridor that lead to the Land of Dragons. He stepped through and looked around at the mountain they were on top of, "Sigh... This place better have something interesting."​

[/QUOTE]

 

​

Watching Dane, Samsara saw the little bird have no chance against Dane. He then ordered Samsara to kill more and Alisia to clean up the bird he previously killed. First things first, Samsara had to remind Dane once again that her name isn't Samantha or whatever he wanted to make up next. "It's Samsara, Dane. If you're such an intelligent being of darkness, I'd thought maybe you would at least remember that." she rolled her eyes, stepping towards the ditch that Alisia dumped the bird in. "So sad." she said, stepping out from the woods to see all the creatures that gathered were mourning the loss of this one bird. "It's okay, it'll all be over soon..." she said, raising her hand up. If she could use Thundaga, a spell she knows but can't really control, then adding darkness would make it Dark Thundaga, right? Crackling, thunderous darkness gathered in her raised hand. Soon enough, the area was ravaged by a Dark Thundaga. It killed all the animals that had gathered, even causing a tree to fall onto the bird Dane killed.

Once the spell had finished, Samsara gripped her arm. The searing pain caused by the Thundaga mixed with darkness was immense, but Samsara would get over it and soon enough, numb to it. Shaking the hand to get rid of the lingering tingling, she turned around and walked back to everyone. Upon arrival, Juliet replied to her earlier question with much poison in her voice. "Best of both worlds, huh?" she said, scoffing. "Well, at least she isn't stupid enough to follow after Dane of all people." she muttered. Turning to Alisia, she grinned. "Also, you missed a couple dozen animals. Might wanna go clean that up before he gets angry." Samsara wiped her hands, as if cleaning off invisible dirt.

"So when are you going to teach me anything?" she asked Dane.

 

Beuce scowled when she handed him a stack of papers to go and file. He'd seen Bruce Almighty. She could just put these into a computer if she felt like it. God, what a bitch. He briefly considered going back to the rebellion and trying to kill her, but sighed. Stratos had already chosen the route and he didn't have a save file before such time. "Yeah yeah..." Beuce followed Stratos into the room. He wondered why he was staring at some random metal box with handles on it. Walking over to what was clearly the filing cabinet, he dropped the papers into a small plastic bin labeled "trash". "There. Whew, i'm beat. Let's have her magic us up some food. Oi! Magikarp! Can we get like...I dunno some chinese or something? We can't go and get it ourselves! Xero is going there." Beuce sighed. The least she could do to thank them for doing such an awesome job on filing things was conjure them up some food. Such bitch many ungrateful.

Now, if anyone else had stood there yelling to random beings which couldn't be seen, they would've had their sanity questioned. However, this was Beuce. There was no question involved. Beuce sighed and turned to Stratos. "Oi. Wanna see a zombie?" He asked, giving no further explanation. He had a habit of dragging Stratos into all sorts of random crap, so clearly he wouldn't mind something like this. "Come one it doesn't even have infect. Probably..."


A shiver went up Zavion's spine. Why did he just get the feeling that Lexcifur had just said the word sigh rather than actually sighing? Because that was just the right kind of ******y for Lexcifur. That's why. It seemed like something he'd do. Nevertheless, he looked around. They seemed to be in a town square of some sort. Nearby, there was an enormous church of some sort. The building completely dwarfed anything nearby. However, before he could continue to make note of his surroundings, a man who had come with them walked up. Before he said anything, Zavion could tell that he was frantic and desperate. He didn't need to look into his heart to see that. It was obvious from nothing but his face. He told them of a man who had taken a girl as a slave.

He stood silent, seeing what the others would do. It wasn't long before the man with the mask spoke up.

"If it is as you say, and this girl is being held hostage, then I will kill him myself." Ghost announced. He was an undercover agent at the moment, but his purpose was still to destroy corruption where the goddess could not. She was incapable of leaving Riel, so he was her hand in the worlds beyond. There were those that said the goddess did nothing to stop threats outside of Riel, but that was false. The reason no one knew of these were because they died at the hands of Ghost before they had the opportunity to rise into notoriety. There were others who had indeed been threats to the balance of peace, and were known as such. However, no one knew of Ghost's hand in that matter. Dane was the kind of person he was sworn to kill.

"I can't let someone like that just walk around. I'll help you." Zavion could see into the man's heart, and he knew that he told the truth. However, something puzzled him. The other who had offered his service was hopeful. As though he were anticipating something to happen shortly. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, but he wondered what he could be waiting for in this situation.

Bartholomew grinned at the death of the woodland creatures. There would be fear in the hearts of those that survived. This Samsara was interesting. Walking over to her, he looked into her eyes. As their vision met, his smile widened. He knew who she was, and he knew why she turned to darkness. "This will be interesting." He continued to look into her eyes. It wouldn't happen quite yet, but the longer he stared at her, the deeper his curse sank into her mind. She'd fall to it soon enough. ​

 

• Land of Dragons
• Cite
• Coliseum
• Great Forest
• Stratos

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  As they had come into the world Jackie and Blanc were completely ignored by their multi-colored female and freakishly armed (in a literal sense) compatriots. Well that was annoying to deal with, to say the least. Pouting Jackie simply followed the two and continued to examine looking at where they were. A large, snow covered mountain. Hm, thinking more on this, Jackie soon realized that it was actually really cold up here. She looked at the clothing she was wearing, and figured that perhaps this was not the best attire to be wearing right about now for a snow covered area. Except the scarf. This was about the only place she'd ever been where the scarf actually provided much needed warmth. Keeping up the image of a heroic adventurer type, having an accessory of clothing flowing in the wind, was certainly a hard job. Granted, over the years, she had received a rather negative reception for her choice of neck wear, almost as if people were certain it was a sign of bad tidings. Wait what was she thinking about before?
  
  Who cares! As the snow crunched beneath her feet, Jackie decided that they would probably need some form of pastime before getting down to where any magical hero holding cave would be. She then thought of good discussion topics when suddenly she remembered something by looking at both of these people. "You two! I remember now!" She pointed accusingly at the duo. "You're both...the people I yelled at for being anti-social and not giving out your names. So then! The only thing I think we can do here is rectify the situation. Right. Now." Her gaze narrowed at the both of them, before returning to its usual jovial one, saying, "I'm Jackie, and this here is Blanc," she pointed to the white color schemed friend, who seemed to somewhat blend in with the surroundings, who simply waved back to them. "Pleasure to be making your fellow adventuring acquaintance." After introductions were out of the way, she then thought of another discussion question. Backstory! It was always important to familiarize yourself with the backstory of your fellow party members, so that you can gain a sense of trust of them. This trust may or may not be ripped out later by some horrible reveal, but Jackie tended not to think of something like that happening. "So you two, where'd you both come from? I'd assume it's the same place given that you've been chilling with each other this whole time. Unless you both met each other in some sort of romantic fateful encounter in the midst of adventuring?" That would be pretty swell if they did.
  
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  As Charlotte had stepped into the new world, it was something that was quite like the last world they had been in. As in, it was a city, and had a massive building that towered over all else. That was about where the similarities ended. Before the group was able to begin their exploration of the city, it was then that the red haired man, Xander, bolted in front of the rest of the group and quickly pleaded his situation. He spoke of how the man, Dane, had gone and kidnapped the little white haired girl, Alisia, was being held against her will with him. As the other two spoke, she said, "I agree in taking down that cur. I knew I sensed a foul darkness from him," she then looked at Zavion and Ghost and followed up with, "no offense." She then addressed everyone as she said, "I believe now would be the best time to strike at the man, while he is separated from the others. This way we will minimize the amount of people he may convince to be on his side and the faster his presence is erased the better all the worlds will be."
  
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  After stepping through the dark corridor, they were greeted with sight of a large gaping opening into this world's version of hell. Well that was interesting. It had appeared that everyone was willing to start going into here, thinking that this would be where the hero would most likely be. Well, at least they had chosen an actual cave rather than a metropolitan area as opposed to last time. Speaking of which, it had appeared that the silent boy who was with them last time had appeared as well. Lots of familiar faces to be seen here. Then finally there was the matter of Gwen's weapons suddenly becoming...different. How curious, people who had these strange trigger based weaponry seemed to be cropping up all over the place. My how technology changed in 2000+ years...or didn't. Regardless, after the group had all walked into the Underworld, the first thing to note was the giant flaming ring like building that was in the middle of a giant lake. Upon further inspection, there seemed to be a sign up sheet near the edge of the lake, for something called "The Hero Cup." Looking to the rest of the group he said, "well, this looks promising for our goals, now doesn't it?" He personally had no hope for this being the way to find the hero, but if everyone was insistent on becoming one, well then this was perfect for them.
  
• 
  
  
  As Lucien had continued to walk forward, he noticed that...no one else did. Oh for fuck's sake. Looking at the scene before him, he noticed that, surprise surprise, it was all thanks to that classy man of the hour. Dane. Looking at the scene that played out before him and just hearing that man speak, good lord, he had managed to do something Lucien thought was impossible. He managed to annoy him more than Hunter did. As he watched the small genocide of animals take place, he audibly groaned as he looked at the both of the asscats responsible for this and said,"listen, Dane, Chalk, I know you two are both busy being two tools in toolbox, but at least feign interest in our actual overall group objective. I know it's hard, given that you both have zero motivation in the first place, but that's what you get when you decide to join a hero hunting party."He was about to turn around and go on a walk in whatever direction he'd be taken when he looked back and said, "oh, and please keep the genocides down to a minimum. We want something like a phantom bullet or a sword of god to suddenly come out of nowhere and break those pretty little skulls of yours because you decided to be a bit too rowdy."As he said this, his glance shifted to a rustling bush before saying, "anyway, let's get a move on people. Alisia, don't bother burying these things, they're bio degradable anyway. If the time interval between visits to this place are as long as this one to the last, I'm sure they'll be one with nature by the time someone else comes here."
  
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  Stratos was not entirely sure that throwing things into the trash bin was how one filed papers. I mean come on, at least have the decency to throw things out into the recycling bin. Stratos decided to take the time that Beuce was taking up by ranting about Chinese food, by setting down the papers just sort of, on the floor. He wasn't really sure what do with them, but he was sure they'd find their proper place on their own one of these days. It was that Beuce said something about seeing a zombie when Stratos, looking a bit wary, said, "the thought of you causing a zombie apocalypse is a bit unsettling." His expression than reverted to normal as he said, "but you're going to do it anyway, so sure, let's see it."