Light Vs. Darkness: The Hero's Return

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Dane instructed Samsara to go and fight Phantom. Turning towards the Phantom, Samsara watched him get attacked by both Bartholomew and Sherridan. It looks like this kid is down for the count, seeing as he has a freaking arrow in his arm. Still holding her keyblade in a defensive position, Samsara awaited to see what Phantom did next. From the looks of things, Phantom forced his arm into position so he could shoot them. First bullet headed into the forest, second towards Bartholomew, and the last one was headed straight for Samsara. Watched the bullet, it shot at the ground. Tilting her head, Samsara stared at the ground until she felt it rumbling a little. Readying a dark reflect, she wasn't fast enough and some of the spike came through. It poked through and managed to scrape at her leg, leaving behind a rather nasty gash.

Hopping back, Samsara put a hand over her wound and looked down at it. Blood was flowing out slowly, dripping to the forest floor and plopping on the ground. Holding her hand up, she felt a sting in her hand as she summoned Cure magic. Pushing the hand on her wound, she sat and waited for the wound to heal up. Although she wanted to use darkness, Samsara couldn't figure out if she could heal up with a dark spell or would she just suffer? Confused about things, she just waited for the spell to finish. Looking down, the wound was healed and she couldn't feel a bad pain anymore, but she still could feel some soreness. Standing up, Samsara moved a bit to test it and found she was able to move normally. Snapping her finger, her clothes were magically repaired and weren't torn anymore, something that happens in every video game and roleplay ever.

Looking forward at Phantom, Samsara began rushing over towards him. Once she got close enough, she held her keyblade at his neck and glared. "Send a message to your goddess. Tell her I hope she chokes and dies." Samsara smirked. "She's a lot better off just dying now than waiting for us to find the Hero and all." Moving her keyblade away, she looked up at the Griffon. It was now a screaming ice griffon. "Oh my god." she said, turning around and shaking her head. "I'll leave that to whoever..." she grumbled, running towards Dane. Standing beside him, she held her keyblade ready. "That other kid is down for the count, all that's left is this kid and that griffon. Others got the griffon, I'll help you with this kid." Samsara said, eyes focused on Avi.

 

He listened to the Goddess as she proclaimed him as wrong, a man of evil. He chuckled. "They call you a Goddess, a user of darkness? I see no Goddess. It is no wonder they want to release the hero to kill you, the devil they all fear. You know nothing of a true goddess, you sit on a thrown of thorns and lies." He was then sealed away by the goddess into a chamber of pitch black darkness that he could not use magic in. He screamed again while being plunged through the corridor of darkness.

Within his dark prison, his skin began to glow. It wasn't magic, but a blessing given to him by the light. She said only magic was blocked in this cage, not holy energy. If she truly wanted to contain him, she'd have to use the methods of Crystalis. "No devil can contain a saint of heaven. I don't need magic to free myself!" Crybex began to rapidly punch then box and lightning speeds. He would do this until he was tired, rest, and then repeat. His first set gave a small crack. It wasn't impressive, but it was a step forward.

Now that he was tired after his set, which took him a a while to complete, he sat in the center of the box and created an illusion onto himself. "Arise, heaven's disciples." 6 figures appear in a circle with him being the 7th. All of them looked at him and cut off the connection. "I will be part of your union. Like my somebody before me, I will bestow light upon the universe! All I need is to destroy the realm of darkness, all I need is the X blade.

 

• Zephyr
• Xross
• Avi

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  Feeling in his left arm had returned and Zephyr readied himself to go on the counter attack. The black shield of his had vanish and the gem turned a brilliant white color as bolts of lighting started to surge around it. Since lighting attacks had appeared to work, if they were back by his gauntlet, then he just might be able to do some damage. Unfortunately he didn't account for what his opponent would be doing while he was making these preparations.
  
  By the time he'd looked up, he saw that Stratos was already charging towards him at high speeds with the aid of the wind that was behind him. He saw the initial direction that the attack was going and attempted to counter it from that direction, leaving his other side completely unguarded. That would prove to be his downfall as Stratos's keyblade switched sides and the attack struck him on his other side. The attack had brought him down onto his knees, but not out. Out as in unconscious, he was definitely out of the fight between the two that was for certain.
• 
  
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  The phoenix was defeated and had dissipated moments after being cleaved in two. There were no signs of it reviving which meant less for them to potentially deal with. In fact all that was left for them to do was find any cave that may or may not be here. Asking around would've help, if not for the fact that whoever was left still alive on this world would not be so willing to help them. In the end nothing was found. Guess it was back to Disney Castle for the lot of them.
• 
  
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  Avi had gotten quite lucky during Dane's attempts to burn the bush that he'd landed in. He'd managed to just roll out of the way and manage to completely avoid being burned. As for an explanation to his vanishing trick, I got nothing. What I do have is how whatever magic that had cause Avi to disappear those two times had worn off and he was about to be struck by Dane's scythe. That was until a small mirror had blocked the attack. I'm not going to let your inability to fight screw me over. Lucrix had taken control over Avi's body for this fight and thus would actually be able to do more than just defend. Speaking of which the mirror that blocked Dane's attack flew back to Lucrix once he'd gain some more space between him. It was a good thing that he did take control over his body for the one on one fight had turned into a 2 v 1. So what Lucrix did to start was move the mirror to the palm of his hand and send a stream of fire towards the two.

 

Caleb walked through the town with the others, trying to find some sort of cave. He wasn't just after a cave though, he would have accepted anything that would help them find the hero at that point. However, as much as they wanted to find the hero, they just simply could not find anything that would help them. As Xander said he was going to the castle, he became very eager to assist him. He'd made the decision earlier that he would stop Dane, and knowing how dangerous he is he had allowed Juliet and Audrey to go with the madman. He had put them in danger. If anything were to happen to them he would never be able to forgive himself. "The sooner he is dealt with, the better" he said. The warrior would follow Xander back to the gummi ship and go back to Disney Castle, and then he would confront Dane.


"Please, you still think I need your help?" Dane scoffed. As if to demonstrate his point, he held his scythe in front of himself, placing it firmly on the ground and leaning on it slightly. "You know what they say, fight fire with fire" he stated with a slight smirk on his face. Now lifting it up, he swung it in an arc as he used a little bit of magic. As he did so, a small gust of wind appeared and began spinning rapidly, working its way towards a complete tornado. Not finished, Dane then unleashed a dark firaga and fired it straight into the centre of the tornado. The pillar of wind would have normally been unaffected, or so he presumed, but this wasn't the first time Dane had manipulated his own magic to give it other properties. The pillar, with all the debris and twigs and branches in it, caught alight, becoming a flaming pillar of wind. Avi's attack hit this pillar and only added to it, increasing the intensity of the flames that were now going towards him.


As Gwen's post rudely made false accusations of her and Hunter's rpers coming to a decision on who was going to win (it was all Gwen's rpers idea, Hunter's had left the decision to her), he allowed himself a smirk. He had won. He knew he'd won. Upon dealing, he had rigged it so he would get the better hand. Yes he'd cheated, but hey it was either he cheated or he lost, and Hunter was a very sore loser. That being said, he still didn't think she would actually go through with it. He watched as the censor bars got smaller and smaller and then finally disappeared, and Hunter figured that was probably what had just happened to any dignity that Gwen may or may not have had.

Well, the sight was certainly unexpected. He didn't mind what he saw, in fact he wouldn't mind it if it happened a lot more, but there was no way he was going to admit that. Stroking her ego? Since when did he do that? However, as she asked if she could put her clothes on once again, Hunter gave her a pat on the back. "Nah, not yet. Skimpier the outfit, the higher the tankiness on women, everybody knows that. You're legitimately invincible right now" Hunter said. However, he had cheated and felt just the tiniest shred of guilt. More importantly, if he did something nice maybe she'd be more likely to get naked in the future. One could always hope. He bent down and took off the remainder of his clothing, before standing there proudly. He even removed his censor bar, he was just that confident in himself. "Y'know Ginger, you don't look half bad naked. I've seen worse. Hell, if you weren't standing next to someone as perfect as me I might even find it attractive" he stated. Wait a minute, that was sort of a compliment. Why did he give a compliment? DAMNIT RPER!

His ally had been KO'd though, so all attempts to get into the pants of Gwen would have to wait. His enemy had been left open, or at least in Hunter's eyes he had been, so there was no time to spare. Stark naked, he simply ran at Stratos. "The power of nudity compels you!" he cried out, jumping up into the air and latching onto Stratos' back without any clothing on whatsoever. If he was going to take down his enemy, he would have to do it with style, awesomeness, and above all else; a complete lack of defence.​

 

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Hitting him straight on, Stratos had managed to successfully beat out Zephyr, and quite soundly. While the boy didn't seem to be out cold, he really didn't seem to be in any sort of fighting condition, and so Stratos gave him a bit of a quick two fingered salute as he said, "nice fight there Zephyr. You got good potential, and I'd be alright to spar with you anytime. Well, that is when we're not on opposite sides. Then that's just fighting." While his attention was about to be turned towards Rinox, his fated duel was then interrupted then once again by a sight that put him into a brief state of shock. It was one of the opponents Beuce had been fighting...only he was missing something. That being his clothes. He was soon landed on and was down on the ground with a pale look on his face as the realization of what was happening was slowly setting in. It was then that Stratos yelled, "get off of me, get off of me, for the love all that is good and holy get off of me and get some clothes!" It was at that point that Stratos pounded the ground with his fist, and when he did, he let out a large burst of wind. That being his usage of the spell Aeroza, only in the form that pushed enemies away from you. It was used in an attempt to get the naked man off of him and clear away.

 

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"Hmph." Samsara said, holding her keyblade up to block the fire that Avi had sent towards her and Dane. It was hot and burnt both of her hands. Stepping back, she looked at Dane and grumbled. "Yeah sure, do whatever, sorry I tried to help you..." she sighed. Her hands hurt far too much right now for her to care about what Dane said. Although, he was right in saying he didn't need help. "I just want to help you is all, Dane. I don't want you to always think you have to deal with everything is all. Even if you're way more experienced than me, I want to prove that I'm worth a damn." Samsara looked up at Dane, watching him create the huge flaming tornado. It was true, she didn't want to seem like a burden after all. She had to deal with being a burden to her brother for a good 19 years, so now was as good a time as any to start trying to defend herself.

There was still the issue with her hands, however. They were hurting like hell and she couldn't really think of what to do. Looking around the immediate area, Samsara tried to see if there were any plants left that could help her. In all her training, she always remembered how her father liked to use natural remedies to fix their burns from the fire spells. Samsara really liked fire spells, so she always managed to burn herself from excitement. Spotting a plant, she grabbed it and cut off a leaf. Then, she rubbed the cut part on her hands and felt the burning sensation soothe slowly. When it was well enough, Samsara looked up to see the swirling fire tornado was rather large and rather dangerous.

"Dane, I think you need to calm it down, I'd hate if you killed yourself ya know." Samsara called out to Dane, trying to get his attention. "Besides, what good is it to burn an entire for- oh who am I kidding." she stopped herself, realizing how dumb she sounded. Of course Dane wouldn't care if a forest was burnt down. He wanted to destroy all the worlds, so why not cause havoc upon this one by burning it down? Stepping closer to Dane, Samsara watched his scythe and tilted her head. "Where'd you get your weapon anyway?" she asked, awaiting Avi to counter this attack. The tornado was pretty big and made it hard to see, so Samsara wasn't paying much attention to anything around her.

 

• Zephyr
• Avi

• 
  
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  Upon hearing Stratos's words of praise, Zephyr smiled a bit, giving his once opponent a thumbs up as well as responding with, "Thanks. I'll gladly take you up on that offer." He said, though his words started to trail of by the end of that statement. First off Zephyr had completely forgotten that Hunter and Gwen were even here so seeing him appear out of nowhere was a surprise. It was even more surprising to briefly, thank you, see him nudely leap on Stratos back. Since he still wasn't in any condition to do anything, all he could do was sit there and feel sorry for Stratos. When the gun shots came, Zephyr looked and saw Gwen, who was also nude, shooting at Stratos. Meh was the only thing that came to mind.
• 
  
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  Well the flame attack had now been turned into a flaming tornado that was now heading towards him. Definitely not good. There weren't many ways that he could deal with this either. Sure he could try to distance himself from it and focus on the two on the other side of it, but it wold still be there and could quite possibly catch him if he wasn't paying attention. So he would much prefer to get rid of it now. The question was, how? Well he could try to use ice and see how that works. The mirror that floated by his side moved in front of his hand again, this time releasing a few pillars of ice in the path of the flaming cyclone as well as send some towards Dane and Samsara.

 

Sherridan watched as his arrow stuck neatly into Phantom's arm from his cover. He smiled. A good shot, and one that crippled the enemy. Apparently he needed both arms to wield that weapon of his and it looked painful to use with an injured arm. That meant that they had an advantage. Wounded prey was far, far easier than healthy prey. He prepared to make his next strike but then he saw something. Something was heading straight for him, fired by the man he had just shot in the arm. He couldn't do an awful lot to evade the oncoming projectile other than dive to the ground. Mercifully, his well honed reflexes won out and he was able to get to the ground on time for the shot to sail right into the ground next to him. He wasn't quick enough to dodge the entirety of the shot, as it clipped his side and immediately began to produce blood. He looked down at it. Could be worse. It didn't hit anything important, I'll deal with that later. For now, the prey is injured and it doesn't look like he has all that much fight left in him! Sherridan stood up again and took his bow in hand. He looked towards Phantom. The Griffon was still firing the Ice Spikes so he had to be quick. Fortunately, he had been training with his weapon and was used to hitting things moving much quicker, and even smaller than Phantom. He lined up his shot quickly and loosed off an explosive arrow. First it would pierce, then it would explode putting his enemy into a world of hurt. He stepped back into cover quickly, the structural integrity of this tree getting even more questionable. Sherridan pulled out one of his containment traps and rushed out, activating it creating a bubble of protection around him which the spikes bounced off. He'd never used it under these circumstances before, so he had no idea how long this was going to last. Hopefully, long enough to reach more cover and line up the next shot.​

 

Beuce was watching Ohm's fighting closely. It seemed like he was using magic rivaling Beuce's own, but that wasn't quite right. It was originating from the sword. Ohm himself wasn't doing anything. An obvious solution to this would be to disarm him, but he doubted that would be as easy done as it was said. Beuce thought back to when he'd countered his deep freeze. A rune of fire had enveloped his body, canceling the two out. A thunder rune had performed similarly at the beginning of the fight. If that sword were changing the form of the magic it output, then maybe the secret to beating it was to be out and out better at it than its own game. It was a gamble. If it didn't work, there would be consequences. Hell, there would be even if it did. He'd be throwing everything he had at the kid. But you know what?

Yolo.

Beuce's arm began to glow furiously at the massive amount of mana being pumped through it. "Chaos blade!" cloaked in darkness, Beuce dashed forward with frightening speed. As he passed Ohm, he gave a slash of his weapon, empowered by the darkness propelling him forward. Ordinarily, this would've been followed up by a series of similar dashes, but he cut out in mid-command, chaining directly into a different one. "Geo Impact!" Crashing his fist into the ground, a linear line of spikes shot upward from the earth at Ohm. Once again, the command had hardly finished before he was directly going into another one. "Zantetsuken!" In an instant, he was behind Ohm. "Mega Flare!" The enormous flaming sphere hadn't appeared but a second before he was on the move again. "Time splicer!" A halting time magic began to flow over Ohm, and Beuce teleported elsewhere. "Salvation!" Jabbing his fist toward Ohm, pillars of light shot up from the ground. This time, he had simply cut out of the command, he'd modified it. Used another one right in the middle of it.

Again, he was gone from time splicer. He was getting faster and faster with his commands. The lines between where one began and the other ended began to blur even more. "Ice Barrage!" "Triple Firaga!" "Tornado!" "Seeker mine!" "Glacier!" "Raging Storm!" "Shadowbreaker!" "Voltage Stack!" "Transcendence!" Finally, he leaped above Ohm, kicking off his wall of wind to gain height. "METEOR!" From above, a massive chunk of earth crashed down into the ground below. Beuce landed. His breathing was beyond heavy. He'd just spent more mana all at once than most people spend in a month. The fact we was even still standing was a miracle. The wind wall around them faded. One way or another, the fight between those two was over. It wasn't unlikely they could've heard the battle from the other side. Beuce coughed furiously, grimacing in pain as he did so. The light in his arm faded and it began to hang limp. He'd overloaded it. For the moment at least, it was completely unusable, even as a regular arm. Well, he hoped Stratos had things covered. From the looks of things, Hunter and Gwen sure didn't.

"Gwen! Cover up! Your lady boner is showing! No one needs to see that."

Spoiler: LvD Abridged: Loving husband

"Sapphire, I know I should be concerned, but I've had a rough day. You ever seen what it's like in this core? PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS....itty bitty living space. Now, take off your shirt and show me your boobs, then I'll care. If you would rather not, then piss off, Xero smells like **** so I'm sure she'll do it. While you're at it, get me some more booze. How am i supposed to drink away my planet troubles? You think you have problems, just sitting there running the entire universe? It's tough being a space rock you know. I have to sit here and give exposition and plotmodding powers once in a while and all i get in return is spiritual sex with some hot chick. Wears a guy down. Now. Tits. I don't see 'em. Fix it. "

R stood silent for a bit as his wife was crying and delivered the news of Gexln's death. He had a feeling. He'd felt Xero call upon his power, forming a blade of darkness. So, in the end, it was by his power that his friend met his end. No...Gexln had stopped seeing R as a friend long ago. R had few words. What could be said? Xero then walked in, her head hanging and tears running down her face. R turned to face the two of them. Something had to be said. But...what? He walked over to her and began to comfort her. "You're doing a better job than you think you are."

As if on cue, the other man present in the cave spoke up. "It's an awful thing, to lose someone you care about." I said, standing up and walking over to Xero. The blonde man placed his hand on her shoulder. Outside of the colors being brighter, he bore a striking resemblance to R. Of course he did. They were two parts to the same person. "Although, the thing you have to remember is that they'll never be truly gone. Keep them in your heart, and you'll never walk alone."


Zavion looked up to the sky as the phoenix was defeated. Their job here was done. Although, he did wonder what happened to Crybex. That guy was dangerous, no matter how you looked at it. In any case, he and Ghost exited back to Disney Castle. He looked around, it didn't seem like Dane or Crybex had returned. He wasn't sure if this was good or bad. In any case, they didn't have to deal with them quite yet. Looking around, he saw Freya and Lexcifur, but something was different about him. Something had changed in their hearts. Did something happen? If so...What exactly was it? He approached the two of them. Maybe he was interrupting something. He usually was.


Bartholomew was surprised when a bullet of fire struck him, lighting him ablaze. He let out a cry of pain. Fire was the most effective thing against him. He couldn't heal properly under it. Phantom had backed off, so he immediately turned to Samsara and started retaking his reserve HP. He continued to burn as he was healed, but he was healing nonetheless. Finally, the flames died down and he was once again restored. Bartholomew looked annoyed, glaring at the assassin. He would pay for that. He'd be made to fear. Summoning up his power, Bartholomew ran at Phantom. Crows began encircling him, becoming more an more numerous. These were fear made real. Physical manifestations of the raw emotion. As they clawed away at a person, they tore away at their sanity directly, as well as their body. ​

 

As Hunter was knocked off of Stratos, he chuckled a little bit at his reaction. He stood up proudly, before turning to look at Gwen. "Dante's right, it is showing. I don't think that's meant to be there, you should see a doctor about that" the man stated. He made his way over to Beuce before high fiving him.

o/

However, Beuce was still his enemy for this round, as was Stratos. Between himself and Gwen, they could probably beat them given how heavy Beuce was breathing, but where was the fun in that? You want to turn people against each other. "Stratos, look at your party member, then back at me. Back to him again, now look at me once more. Unfortunately, your party member is not me, but it could be. All you have to do is remove your clothing and listen to my words. Let me get inside you...of your head. Allow me to come...over there and tempt you to the dark side. Let me show you my meat...that won the prize for best-cooked steak four years in a row. Look at my penis...Okay that one was actually dirty. Sue me. Wait what this is a children's site? You can actually do that...? Uh..." he said, coughing, "please don't actually sue me" Hunter said, the nudity beginning to influence his speech patterns.

He then decided against recruiting Stratos. Not only was it probably not going to work, but even if it did there was a good chance they couldn't move on without beating him, and last time he checked friendly fire was on. Or at least he hoped it was on. He'd never admit it, but Gwen wasn't too bad of a shot with that cannon, and the thought of being beaten by a girl wasn't a nice one. "Welp, I tried" he said simply. He stepped towards Beuce and equipped his sword once more, before swinging it aimed at the man's torso, attempting to finish off the exhausted warrior.


As the tornado continued increasing in size and power, Avi tried to stop it by unleashing ice pillars at it. As the ice shot towards the tornado, Dane turned to Samsara. "Can't remember. You can't seriously expect me to remember something from six hundred years ago can you?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders before he took off. He opened a dark corridor and stepped through it, appearing to the side of the tornado as he released a few firagas. The firagas hit the ice but didn't stop it completely, simply reducing it in power as it hit the tornado. The tornado slowed down ever so slightly, but it was still quite threatening. However, it did cause an eruption of steam to appear, and amidst the steam Dane dove through the tornado, flames burning his skin as he appeared on the other side and, with a wicked grin, swung his scythe in a wide arc once again at Avi. He had to be quick. If he didn't take down Avi or get out of the way in the next minute, he would collide with the flames once more, and that was something he wasn't eager to experience.


Caleb had followed Xander and had simply stood nearby him as he waited for the others to return. If they'd been back, it would have been a relief to see Juliet and Audrey safe, but at the same time it would bring drama and probably put them in danger with confronting Dane, so to an extent he was glad they weren't back.

Xander warned him about Dane and the confrontation that was coming. Did he really think Caleb didn't know how dangerous he was? "I saw him in the castle too, Xander. We will take him down, don't worry about that. I have fought more threatening things in my life, so together we will overcome him. As for Alisia..well, she'll be safe, but i'm not going to make sure she's okay. That one's for you, because you're not going to die this battle. Nobody is, except for Dane, you'll see" Caleb responded simply.​

 

​

"You don't remember?" she mimicked his words with a puzzled look on her face. While it isn't completely out of the ordinary to forget something, Samsara realized just how old Dane was. Over six hundred years, according to what he just told her. Whether or not he mentioned this before, she didn't quite remember. But that was shocking, knowing he'd been around for a good six hundred years. It must have been terribly lonely for him to go around and be the way he is. Especially from what she learned shortly before she regained her memories. Dane had a hard life and Samsara felt bad for him. Unfortunately, if she tried to be a good friend for him, he'd most likely try and keep her away. He didn't seem the type to keep friends close, after all.

Watching as he jumped through his tornado of flying, flaming debris, Samsara almost followed him through before she felt a sting. Looking around, she saw a green light was stretched out from her body towards Bartholomew. Grunting and falling to her knees, Samsara could feel how tired she was now. She couldn't give up, though, she had to help Dane in any way that she could. So she did the next best thing, she decided to run over and attack Avi with Dane. Perhaps if they worked together, Avi could be defeated and Dane could get rid of this tornado. Standing up, she began to make her way over towards Avi. She held her keyblade out soon was behind Avi, swinging her keyblade at him in an attempt to help Dane.

"I'm sorry Dane." she said, beginning her apology. "I mean, now's not the time I'm sure...but I'm sorry for my actions earlier." she said, her keyblade finally closing in on Avi.

 

\o
Beuce indeed high fived Hunter back, then handed Gwen a burn heal, for she surely would need it. However, hunter then tried to Xindai Stratos over to the side of evil in a very dirty and come on-y fashion. It was honestly pretty creepy. Soon enough, Hunter realized it wasn't going to work. Turning from Stratos, the man ran at Beuce, swinging his sword full force. Ordinarily, Beuce would have been godmodded enough to counter the blow with ease but...he just couldn't. Shitfacing Ohm had just taken too much out of him. The sword struck him straight in the chest. Beuce was sent flying backwards. Not even just normally, either. In like a slow motion hair covering his eyes drops of blood floating in the air around him anime kind of way. He was done for. His HP...It had hit zero. After what seemed like an eternity of milking the dramatic fall back, Beuce landed on the ground.

He coughed, blood covering his mouth. Weakly looking over to his young padawan, Beuce motioned for Stratos to come closer, then powerplayed him closer because fuck the police. He took his hand, ready to give a dramatic dying speech. "Stratos...I leave it up to you now...You can do it. I know you can. You're a man now, Stratos. There is only one thing you need to do..." Beuce coughed again, causing more blood to come up out of his mouth. "Speak to them." With his final words of wisdom spoken, Beuce let go of his hand and closed his eyes. He'd know what to do... His task was at an end. His body began fading away into dust, as a breeze blew his ashes away. Beuce was gone...

Spoiler: A moment of silence

As the spirit of Beuce floated along in the endless space of nothingness, he could feel himself slipping. The colors were gone from his post. He was fading away. This would be the end for him, wouldn't it?

"no."

He'd lived a good life...He'd had good friends. Maybe it was alright if he just faded away now.

"No."

There were other Beuces. There would be other RPs they could be put in. He was no longer needed. He could rest in peace.

"NO!"

The voice boomed against Beuce's ears, causing him to open his eyes to the emptiness surrounding him. He was immediately met with a blinding radiance. It wasn't so much a light, but the very existence of what he was looking at was something beyond mortal comprehension. He steeled himself and looked at it directly. He knew immediately what it was he had encountered.

"You..."

He said, awestruck as he stared at the figure and the glowing clouds surrounding it. The figure stood before him, clouds blowing in the wind, just as their white hair did, all brimming with radiance.

"Beuce, you have forgotten me."

"No! Never!"

"You have forgotten yourself and so you have forgotten me. Look inside yourself Beuce. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the circle of life."

"How can I?! You...You said you'd always be there for me! When i called, they all came. Every one of them...Except for you..." Beuce said, dropping to his knees as tears streamed down his face. "You said you would...But...you didn't." He felt a hand on his shoulder, a gentle touch as he looked up. He saw the face of the one who stood before him in plain view. A kind smile on their face.

"You know that's not true. I have always been with you. Think back. Look inside yourself, at the banner of us all. I was there. I have always been there." ​

Beuce thought back to the banner of Unlimited Beuce Works, He could only stare at him, tears pouring out of his eyes. He was right. He'd been there the whole time, and he'd never even known. The man took his hand from Beuce's shoulder and walked away, turning his back to him.

"It is not yet your time. Return to the Role-play. Take your place in the circle of life."

"How can i go back?!"

"Remember who you are. I live in you. You are me, and the one true Beuce."

He began to fade as light enveloped Beuce from him.

"No! Don't leave me!"

"Remember...Who you are...."

Finally, he faded from view entirely.

Beuce opened his eyes, back on Riel. He could only lay silent, taking a moment to take in what had just happened to him. He was sent back. He couldn't leave the RP yet. He still had tasks at hand. He rose to his feet, new determination to further the plot awakened from deep within him.​

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• Avi
• Zephyr

• 
  
  ​
  The ice attack had almost worked, if not Dane's interference. At least the flaming tornado had been slowed down a bit. That gave him more time to figure out how to deal with the duo that were moving to attack him. His time would be limited which meant that he had to act fast. First thing that he did was to quickly take a step back to further distance himself from Dane. With the reach that they scythe had, it would still be possible for him to get hit so as an added measure of protection, Lucrix moved the mirror in the path of the attack once more. This time however when the blade connected with the mirror, a gust of wind was released around him. Hopefully pushing back anything that was around him.
• 
  
  ​
  Zephyr wasn't even sure if he knew what was going on anymore. He'd started to lose track of things around when Hunter started trying to convince Stratos to join them. Okay, let's try and recap over here. After being defeated by Stratos, the nude squad had arrived and joined in. Hunter attempted to convince Stratos to join them, Gwen pretty much telling him to let her blast him with her cannon (take that anyway you want to) and then Beuce died. Huh, maybe it wasn't so hard to keep track of after all. Well they sure made it seem like it that was for certain. Now that recapping was out of the way, the wait to see how this all plays out begins.

 

Caleb listened to Xander as he spoke. An entire homeworld destroyed..how was that even possible? The only way Caleb knew of that that was attainable was through Chaos and Omega, but they had been taken out centuries ago. He would know, he was there. "He could have the power to destroy several worlds at one time, and could have several hundred people fighting alongside him, but it won't matter. I've seen some horrific things, and I'm not going to let them happen again. He can throw whatever he likes at us, but I'll keep people safe. I'll keep them alive, I'm not going to let any more people die to him. Just relax and prepare yourself for the battle ahead, because the one thing we know is that it's going to be a hard fought one" the guardian responded.


Dane gritted his teeth as he felt the heat gaining ground on him and his attack was blocked by Avi's mirror. "Save it for someone that cares" the shadow reaper responded to Samsara, before being blown back by Avi. Straight into the tornado. He didn't have much of a choice. After building up the threat, after making the attack stronger, he had no choice but to dispel the magic or be burned alive. He did just that, the energy required to dispel it equal to that required to cast it in the first place. He looked up at his opponent now, eyeing him carefully. Avi didn't seem to have much offence, but his defence was nothing to laugh at. Those mirrors were a huge problem. This battle seemed to be dragging on for an unnecessary amount of time, and Dane didn't like it. He cracked his knuckles and then lifted his scythe behind his neck once more, just resting on his shoulder. "You're not half bad. Course, that means you're not half good either. I've got a deal for you, mirror boy. If you're willing to concede and leave here, I won't chase you. You can go back to whatever loved ones you have and tell them you succeeded or some crap, I don't know. That's the first option. Second option is this; you can stay here and try to stop a man who has single handedly destroyed entire worlds on his own, and if you win then that's lovely and you can tell your goddess everything's saved, but if you lose...well, lets just say you'll be wishing you were on one of the destroyed worlds rather than being captured here" Dane offered.


As Hunter's blade connected with Beuce, he could see it in his opponent's eyes; he'd won. Beuce was actually quiet, something that was very unusual for him, until he called Stratos over. Hunter allowed Stratos to pass by him and say goodbye to Beuce. There was no point in trying to dog shot him or take him by surprise; for one thing Hunter couldn't attack during a cutscene, and for another Stratos was probably surprised enough by the fact Hunter wasn't wearing any clothing. Beuce faded to ashes, and as he did so Hunter allowed himself a cocky smirk. If there was going to be some absolutely bs move or stat increase his enemy was going to use, it would come now after his ally had died. And if he did, Hunter would be ready to avoid and counter it. Hell yeah, bring on the plotmod!​

 

Eigo was walking around Riel, enjoying the peace and quiet that was given to him. After a long battle, he was glad to get some time. Only one thing bothered him, the many he fought had power beyond most. There was a time that his father spoke of another with such extraordinary power. He was the closest thing to a god before Sapphire came around. So why did Crybex feel so easy to him? Maybe there was a plan behind it all. Regardless, he was on Riel now. There was no way he could overcome the goddess and R.

After a nice nature trail, he headed back to Sapphire's domain. He heard glass break and rushed over to check on the situation. He found Sapphire and a broken picture on the ground. "My lady. I must ask what is going on. You look to be in a great deal of emotional sorrow. Perhaps rest is in order?" Eigo grabbed the picture frame and put it back. He used his gravity to pick the pieces of glass up and back onto the frame.

"I am uncertain to what your past with the others you find dear, so I cannot help. What I can do is say that as the goddess, you know what is best for the universe. Isn't every decision made by you for the greater good of the future?" He wasn't very good at comforting people. He always wore armor, never wanting to let other's in.

 

​

That kid with the mirror jumped away pretty dang easily. Samsara grumbled and stayed at Dane's side, not sure what to do next. This kid was pretty slippery, so they had to focus, but what can they do when he's got this stupid mirror? Standing ready to fight, Samsara was pretty surprised that Dane wanted to end the fight. Letting her keyblade down, Samsara eyed Dane and then Avi to see what they were going to do. Returning her gaze to Dane, Samsara noticed a nasty burn mark on his right forearm. Not sure what to do, Samsara moved in front of him and grabbed Dane's arm. "This looks bad...I should try something." she said, pressing a healing spell into the wound with her right hand and holding his arm with her left. As soon as she had done that, she saw the pain that it caused and immediately stopped. Freaking out a little, Samsara tried to think about what to do next. Gathering darkness into her palm, she pressed it into his wound and tried to see if that would help him any.

Samsara moved her hand away to see the wound was healed a little bit more from her attempt with darkness than with the Cure spell. Sighing in relief, she put her hand back and looked up at Dane. "I know you don't want to hear it, but I really am sorry for earlier. You know, for grabbing your collar and getting angry? That memory spell my mom put on me...it made my head all funny and I wasn't really sure what I was doing. Especially when I got angry at you. That was the worst of it, I think." she said, looking at his face directly. "I mean, I better apologize sooner rather than later, ya know?" She wasn't sure if her words were getting to Dane at all, considering he already told her to save them for somebody who cares. "Also, does this help? Sorry about the Cure, I kind of forgot that that was a bad idea...." she chuckled awkwardly. Removing her hand, the burn was now almost gone. "Just a bit longer and the burn will be gone." she said. "Get angry at me if you want for using Cure on your...I don't mind it, honestly. I'm used to people getting angry at me." she sighed deeply.

"I hope he forgives me..." she thought, swallowing hard. She really didn't want to be on Dane's bad side, she wanted to be a comrade he could count on. One he didn't feel threatened by. Especially after seeing everything and hearing his story from earlier. That left a major impact on her view of him...

 

• Lucien
• Phantom
• Stratos

• 
  
  
  "So not even he can stay down when he dies either huh?" Lucien said to no one in particular. It was obvious what he was talking about, though. It was obvious to all with the connection. The powers that be had seen fit to not let his life end just yet, and instead had kept him. A smirk spread across his face with this realization. "Well, that's alright then. That means I can just take you on later myself." While the thought of that sort of confrontation was getting him a bit pumped up, there the was matter of the current enemy. The ice griffon that was sent to defeat them. Lucien had to pummel this thing into the ground, after all, you needed to deal with the enemy in front of you before going to the enemy above. As the spikes were coming at him, Lucien's face seemed more focused than usual as he started bobbing and weaving through them, only letting them graze him at the very best. When a delay had come in between the spike shots, Lucien bolted away from the griffon. He could most likely take it on with just his fists, in fact he definitely could, but there was a much less risky way of dealing with this beast. Running over to where Sherridan was, without looking at him, he said,
  "borrowing this for a bit."
  
  His hand shot out and grabbed something that Sherridan had been using this entire time. It was the tree he had used for cover. With the tree basically weak in foundation right now, it was easy enough for Lucien tear it in half and toss the tree half at the griffon. Before the griffon time to respond, Lucien was already running back to its location, as it tried to valiantly get away from the thrown tree. Lifting itself that only its legs were caught by the tree, a cracking and shattering noise could be heard as the griffon no longer hand legs to stand on. Trying to fly higher so that it would get time to reform new ones, when it looked up there was a shadow being cast on it. From above, it saw an airborne Lucien, fists clenched and poised to attack. Yelling, "it's over!" Lucien brought his fist to the griffons face in one punch, the force of it causing the iced griffon to shatter, and fade away.
  
• 
  
  
  After Phantom had fired his bullets at the respective targets, he was glad to see that, for the most part, they had hit their mark. Sure, the ranger got off probably the easiest of them, and the girl had managed to just cure her wounds off anyway, but at least the scarecrow was on fire, so one good thing came out of it. However, as the white haired girl came over to, seemingly attack Phantom, he tried to actually bring out his blade, Kaminari. There was only one problem. It was sheathed. And it was really difficult to get out a sword and then place it in your hand properly with one hand. However, she just seemed to be spewing more hatefulness towards the goddess and walked away from him without doing much else. He didn't really get what everyone's problem with the goddess was, after all, she seemed like an alright person. She didn't even really have that much of a ruler type vibe to her, let alone tyrant of the universe that people seemed to get in her heads. Nevertheless, he was thankful for her walking away as that just left him one less opponent to deal with, granted, it gave Avi one more.
  
  Sherridan seemed poised to attack Phantom again, however, being alert of the rangers presence, he was able to dodge the arrow this time, avoiding it digging into skin and giving him another useless body part. However, he was not expecting the explosion to appear from the arrow that had lodged itself behind him, and thus he was forced forward and onto the ground. As he used his one good arm to pick himself up, he saw that Bartholomew was already healed up completely and no longer on fire. Phantom could only think that he found another source to feed off of, and so he was going to be a problem once more. Though Phantom was starting to think of pulling out regardless, as there was no way he could deal with these people in three versus five...Phantom then saw Lucien break the griffon and realized it was now a two versus five. At that moment, Bartholomew was upon him with a flock of crows swarming at him, tearing at him with their talons every which way. While the flock was tearing at him, his eyes widened, his breathing hastened and sweat started to come out more profusely, as he realized that the opponents he was against right now were absolutely terrifying. In a scared panic, Phantom turned away from the group and ran as fast as he could, going into the shadows of the forest and disappearing from the world completely.
  
  Back at Riel, he stood in the palace of the goddess. He had absolutely no idea what that was about, or why he suddenly felt absolutely terrified that he had to leave in a panic. Regardless, as things stood, he hadn't just been beaten. He had been absolutely destroyed. He thought back to everyone there, and realized that even if it were just a one on one, he would have most likely lost. Which just meant that he was weak. And so he had to go and get stronger. Walking out of the palace, Phantom decided to go to the one place where he would figure out how to get stronger. That place, being something called, his workshop.
  
• 
  
  ​
  After Stratos had managed to use his magic to knock Hunter off of himself, he sprung back up onto his feet. Stratos then saw that Gwen had begun firing bullets at him, to which Stratos could only started spinning his keyblade around to creating a wind current along it to deflect any sort of bullet that came at him. Of course, this only partially worked, as someone were still able to get through and hit him, though their course was significantly altered due to the current they passed through, so only one of them had actually managed to score a direct hit on his torso, while the others had grazed his shoulder. Quickly reaching into the wound, Stratos managed to pull the bullet out while casting a cure spell at the same time. The would had closed, for the most part, though it would be a bit before it was fully back to normal...and it still hurt really bad.
  
  As Hunter tried to convince Stratos to join them, in a conversation Stratos could barely keep up with and was only getting more and more confused at, Hunter went to go attack Beuce, who had seemingly finished his duel, as Gwen fired more shots from her cannon at Stratos himself. With the first shot being wind, Stratos was able to simply hit it away with hand, essentially dispelling the wind strike, however the ice one took him by surprise as it hit him in the gut. Getting ready to launch a counter assault, it was then that Beuce had seemingly been struck down by Hunter. With Stratos somehow suddenly right beside him, he listened intently to Beuce's last message to him. How a real man talks? Stratos thought about it, until a wave of recollections had hit him in just what the words behind that meant. He nodded and said softly, "yeah, I will." And then Beuce had been gone. Disappeared from the world and nothing more than dust in the wind. He turned to face his two opponents now. There was no sorrow on his face, only a strange concentration and focus that seemed to come alongside the man's death. This was not the time to be mourning or being depressed over a lost one, not when he had their last request to fulfill first.
  
  
  
  
  Stratos seemed to have a wind flowing out from him, a mighty dramatic wind, as his hair and jacket seemed to flow effortlessly in them. With the wind gathering towards him, he went into cast a spell, one that was already seen in this fight. "Tornado!" Moving his hands in a circular formation, wind started flow around the two opponents as it seemingly started to create a wall around them. Where as Beuce's tornado wall had formed around both him and his opponent in a sort of arena type fashion, Stratos's variation on it had formed walls above and to the side of the opponents, making it more of a tunnel with the only entrance and exit to this tunnel being right where Stratos was standing. Stratos then swiped his hand in the air again, once to the left, once to the right, one away from himself, and once towards himself. This created wind around the two opponents that pushed them in all directions, essentially greatly in inhibiting any of their movements and trying to keep them in place. Stratos pointed at the two of them and shouted, "you two! Do you know the real way a man verbalizes his words to others?" Without waiting for their response he yelled, "a real man," he then turned around by one hundred eighty degrees, and tearing off his jacket, throwing it into the air so that he was no longer facing them any longer. "Speaks with his back!" Out from Stratos's back a giant laser had fired out of it and had traveled through the entirety of the narrow space that was the tornado wall. When it was over and done with, Stratos had thrust both of his arms through his jacket as it was falling down, properly putting it back, with sunglasses falling from the sky and landing perfectly on his face. Arms crossed, he faced the other two and said, "so deal with it."
  

 

Xero said nothing as R, I and Sapphire spoke; She was almost completely disconnected from everything around her. When Sapphire handed her the crystal, she looked at it for a moment blankly and took it without saying anything. Xero She then followed Sapphire through the corridor and just stood there as she looked at a picture.

Lexcifur cleared his throat as Freya asked her question, "I... I've felt... The same way... For a while..." He couldn't look at her. He felt almost awkward expressing his emotions like this. Not to mention there were other people in the area.​