Light Vs. Darkness: The Hero's Return

Keeping himself as best out of sight as possible, the black haired man had sat back, waiting for their meeting to get underway. While normally he wouldn't mind mingling amongst the others of this rebellion, there were a few of them who would rather see him dead. And seeing as he still wanted to see this hero thing through, he couldn't just die now. However, there was another among the group that caught his eye. Someone who the man recognized, though just barely. It was a man who seemed to be of the same nature as he was. Things seemed to be picking up in interest as more and more people funneled into the room. Sitting back, the man seemed to just wait for whatever was going to be spoken about.

Meanwhile the green haired boy was suddenly ripped from Blanc's grip, though he did nothing about it and just sort of looked at the ongoing scene. Beuce had started to yell right in his face, though, the unconscious boy seemed to be completely unfazed by just about everything he was saying. It wasn't until that he said something about Hikaru helping that he was jostled awake. Though still groggy and half conscious, in his stupor he had decided to reanact something from deep within his memory. Due to Hikaru's help taking place during the climatic battle that he had with Metal Heart MOTH, the boy grabbed Beuce, spun him around, and tossed him straight into the wall while this loud background noise could be heard screaming "RULES OF NATURE!" After that antic had happened, Stratos looked around the group and clutched his head. He was still very much in pain from getting crashed into, twice, and so he started to let loose a healing light that made the pain subside gradually. He then looked at Beuce and immediately wondered why he was there, but it was Beuce so it didn't seem to out of the ordinary. Waving to him he said, "hey there Beuce. Long time no see. How ya been?" He thought about it for a bit and then realized that the time the last two saw each other was some three hundred years and so he followed up with, "how are you still alive?"

It was then that Jackie, who had been rather excited for this whole thing, was tapping her foot impatiently. She also seemed to bear an annoyed expression on her face as the armored red head spoke up. Jackie then said, "figuring out what to do next is easy. First off, we are going to be adventuring in a party, so the first thing to do, which you have so rudely neglected to do," she pointed to the aforementioned red haired man, "is introduce ourselves. My name is Jackie, and so what is all of yours?" It was then that the others began to introduce themselves. The white haired boy said, "Blanc," the blue haired one said "Lucien," the green haired one "Stratos," and finally the blonde haired girl who seemed to be annoyed about something herself said, "Ein."

After everyone had introduced themselves Jackie's attention was turned to three other people who were standing at the entrance, just sort of not doing anything and said, "and you three," she pointed to them, "where the hell do you people get off being so standoffish to the rest of us. I'll have you know I won't tolerate any anti-social people in this adventuring party whatsoever, so get yourselves in here this instant!" After that she turned to the rest of the group and said, "now our next step is going over what we know about the hero. So what we have to go off of the legend is that our hero is located in a cave...somewhere in the universe." She then started to look to the sky and then looked back and said, "so, anyone else know anything else about the legend?"

 

Spoiler: Breakout

​

Drip drip drip, the sounds of water dripping had become all but a common sounds to Xross as he sat in his cell. How long had be been in here? Days? Months? Years? He'd stopped count quite some time ago. The dark dreary color of the cells could easily drive a man insane, but for Xross it had little effect on him. The sanity of his mind had become in a varied state at this point.

You going to stay in this place any longer?

The one voice that he could hear rang out in his mind. It was the demon or the sole reason that he hadn't died in this hell hole. Why? Not liking the decor? I thought dark and dreary places were your favorites.

I see you haven't changed all that much over the years.

A light chuckle was hear along with the sounds of cell door opening behind him. The usual two guards had enter to do what they usual did when they arrived. Pick on what they thought to be a powerless man, asserting the false manliness that they had. Unknown to them, they just gave Xross the golden opportunity to escape.

He'd gotten so used to their insults that it was easy for Xross to tone them out completely. However what they didn't know was that the man that they constantly used as a way to boost their ego was preparing to end their worthless lives. From the shadows of the chair Xross was sitting on, two shadowy hands took form and slowly made their approach towards the guards.

The hands were almost big enough to completely crush the bodies of the foolish guards. Their vision suddenly went black and all that they could feel was themselves being lifted off of the ground and a growing pressure on their heads. Panic was the first thing to set in as they failed while in hopes of escaping from whatever had gripped them. The shadowy hands had a firm grip on their faces that only got tighter and tighter with each passing seconds. First the bones had started way which lead to an eerie crack and meaty squish. The two guards bodies had gone limp with in his graps and Xross had dropped their bodied ont the ground. Where their heads used to be was nothing but a ever growing puddle of blood.

There was quite a sadistic smirk on Xross's face as he broke the bindings holding him to the chair with barely any effort on his part. Now the he was free, the first thing that he did was to stretch his limbs. "2000 plus years will give you such a crick in the neck." After the neck, came his arms, the legs and finally his back. That served to take care of all the cricks and stiffness that he'd gotten from barely moving at all over the years. Now for the fun part, seeing if his skills had gone rusty over the years.

~

In the span of 30 minutes all hell had broken loose within the Asylum, all cause my one man. Numerous personnel were sent to face him under the 'Shoot first, ask questions later' orders. That only lead to the pained and horrific screams being heard over the radio of the commander. Xross was definately doing a good job at showing them just how powerless they actaully were against him. Sending more men after him was only condeming them to suffer the same fate as the bloodied and mutilated bodies that were strew out across the the ground behind him. The deceaseed who's faces were still reconizeable had a look of sheer terror on their face.

As for the guards who weren't dead, they were busy shitting themselves and making a break for the elevator. After seeing such a horrendous display of darkness and how little he cared for their lives, they chose the smart options and wanted to gtfo. They ran as fast as their terrified legs could take them towards the nearest elevator, but the elevator took its sweet time getting there. Each second the elevator took to get closer to the floor they were on Xross got closer and closer to them. The rapid pressing of the button had finally gotten the ding that signaled the elevator to open. As soon as it did, they piled in and repeated to rapid button pressing in order close. This time the doors closed much faster until right as it was about to close, a massive hand grabbed the door and forcefully opened it. "Open Sesame." The demonic tone in his voice boomed loud and clear as the elevator door close on the sounds of screaming and laughter.

The elevator had reached the top floor and the screaming had long since ended. When the door opened the reason behind that was revealed by the piles of bloodied corpses behind Xross as he stepped out. "Should've held the door open for me." That wouldn't have made any different what so ever, but they were dead now so it didn't matter in the slightest.

Xross was now standing on the top floor oppose to being a couple feet underground and the only thing standing in his way was what appeared to be the head honcho or rather the most recently appointed head. It took a lot of guts to stand against Xross after everything that he just did alone, but he probably didn't have much choice. All of the others probably ran with their tails between their legs. Even at this distance it was clear that the man was shaking with fear. Xross sighed, at this point he was bored with killing already fearful people. It was much more fun to instill them with fear then kill them. So he opened a portal next to him and stuck his hand through it. Over the years he'd learned to precisely control where his portals went and one appeared within he man's body, specifically behind his heart. Xross's hand then appeared from the other end of the portal and firmly gripped his heart, then he lit it on fire, giving a whole knew meaning to heartburn.

The man had started to role around on the ground in pain while his breath burned to ashes, while Xross just walked right past him and left.

So why didn't you just portal your way out?

Where's the fun in that.

Still, he was going to need to find some better non torn clothes for him to wear seeing as how his current attire was covered in blood quite old. It shouldn't take too long to find a change of clothes. All he would need to be in a little bit persuasive.

​

People seemed to showing up out of nowhere now that Zephyr had opened the door. After about most of them had gotten inside, he went ahead and closed the door and headed towards the library. The door wasn't locked, not like he had to power to lock it in the first place, so it wouldn't take much if they wanted to open it. The first thing that was going on was everyone or rather five people introducing themselves. "I'm Zephyr a-"

"Xross and could you fill me in on some of the detail regarding the 'hero' I've seen to forgotten about it" Before Zephyr could continue speaking, someone else had beaten him to the punch. He'd seemed to have come out of complete nowhere , which was true for the most part since none of them had seen the portal that he'd used to get here.

"As I was saying, there isn't a whole much more about this legend that I actually know. You'd think this place would have some kind of information regarding something like that." Not that he'd gone ahead and check every single book in the library, he was way to busy looking around the castle to be bothered to do something like that. However as for the places that he did check, there definitely wasn't any information of use.

 

Disney Castle Dungeon

Prompted by the sound of flute, the book made a slight tremor on its stand that steadily grew into a full out shake. It raised in velocity so quickly that nothing could be done before the shaking began to crumble the age old stone flooring to rubble beneath feet and stand that plunged. Smoke erupted from the book in a foggy mess that preceded all in the room falling into a dark abyss a few feet down with a great splash as the floor gave out. Not a sight could be seen, but a snake's hiss could be heard.

“Whoooo hasssssss releasssssssssed meeeeeeeeeee...?” Called the voice. The voice did not wait for an answer to repeat itself angrily. “WHO HAS RELEASED ME!” Just as the tension threatened to break dangerously, the sound of fingers snapping accompanied the soft glow of softly vibrating orbs in the palm of a lit hand that was not Anadi's. The fingers were long and thick, with thick hair on the back of the hand and even across the knuckles; the knuckles of someone who'd had them broken many times before. The hand raised itself to illuminate a face. “Because I really would just like to say thanks.” It was a stern, solemn face with a humorless stare from two heavily-lidded hazel eyes on a face cloaked mostly in a thick, black beard underneath neatly cut black hair on his Noble head. He cast out the small orbs to light up the room and revealed an even deeper, watery prison coated in pieces of what was previously the ceiling. The man rolled back the sleeves of his fine suit jacket, despite the fact he was ankle deep in the murky water and his suit pants seemed to be of the same fine make as the rest of his sharp attire. “I'm assuming you had no idea what you were doing when you did it. I doubt anyone will hold you accountable... not like anything read “Dare not play, ye who wish to stay, safely kept inside this tome, a danger known to all worlds and home. Time and Measure keep the pace, to save the people of every race. Careful ye who play the notes, for inside it's he who gloats: No use of sword nor use of axe, may keep you safe from the No One, Sebax.” He picked up the book he'd been referring to, and the one Anadi had released him from, and showed her the exact passage in the book that gave the very same warning on the page before the musical composition. He gave her time enough only to see it briefly and closed the book before lowering his hands to his side, giving a nod, and dissipating with the sound of bats fluttering and screeching as he vanished.

Concerns the character(s):
Anadi
Sebax

 

Hiryuu was bored out of his mind.

Granted, it did not take a lot to bore him but waiting around for people to show up and be checked out was about as exciting to him as a math exam. He was only doing this because of Kiza and she wasn't even sticking around to wait. She had "more important things to handle". Which Hiryuu found odd. Here he was, checking to make sure people were committed to the cause, when he himself was not all that committed.

Hiryuu played with his watch, messaging Kiza repeatedly all of his complains about the situation. Then he heard someone across the room as a question, which made his eyes glance up from the watch. He kicked his legs off the table and waited to see if this person who was asking questions was going to walk over. Hiryuu waited until he saw a man approaching, and he looked around before he spoke in a quiet, but decipherable voice, "Are you the one who's feeling like change is needed?"



The two troublemakers were in Radiant Garden. Although, Kiza aimed to leave today to head for their destination. She had been waiting for two days for someone to join them. If they did not join today, they were not joining them at all.

Kiza was fixing up their ship and getting it ready for travel, but she kept getting interrupted by Hiryuu and his bored comments. He should know how much it annoyed her, but she had a feeling this time he was doing it on purpose. She began backing things back up and spoke to the watch, "Alright Hiryuu, if you're so bored we're leaving right now."

"Shh I have someone here."

Of course. When I'm all done and ready for action.

Kiza kicked the wall of the ship and moved a chair over to the entrance way. Even if this man was cleared, she was going to see him at least before the ship took off. Kiza began to whistle a tune, it was now her time to be bored and wait for Hiryuu.

​

 

"Woah!" she exclaimed, wobbling as the floor began to give out. Screaming as she began to fall with the floor, Anadi landed on the rubble pile and rolled off, sliding into the wetness beneath. Groaning and grunting, she sat up on her knees. A snake could be heard, wondering who had released him. Anadi looked around, wondering where the snake could be heard before she looked to see orbs floating in the palms of...an ape? The hands certainly looked like an animals' hands. The hands moved to reveal the face of a guy that had seen some ****. Or at least, had seen many things that one would not want to ever see. The man gave Anadi his thanks for freeing him from the paper, but he certainly wanted to point out that she didn't read the book. "Well, I was mesmerized by the glowing paper so..." she began, standing up and carefully walking towards the man, watching out for the rubble. She didn't want to fall again, certainly, but once she got up close to the man she froze. He was pretty ugly.

Of course, he disappeared right after as well, leaving Anadi in this hole. Locating the book, Anadi grabbed it and stuffed it back into her backpack. She also found her flute, in one piece, and placed it back in it's case as well as her backpack. At least the fall wasn't too much and by now, her clothes were a tiny bit dry as well. Looking up, Anadi jumped and managed to grab onto the littlest bit of floor that was under the door. Next, she hopped up and held the door handle. Her foot managed to find a small spot on the floor that remained for her to stand carefully on. The door opened moments later and Anadi left the room.

There was an entire castle to explore. Anadi was really excited to do so as well. "First, I want to find the library..." she said to herself, walking up the stairs and emerging on the second floor. "This is a new world! Imagine what the library holds." she said getting excited. "Although...Crystallis had a great library too...it was just missing some things and...mom..." she started, feeling tears prick at her eyes. Shaking her head, she kept walking, hearing voices echo in these old halls. Where were the voices coming from? Why was Anadi drawn to the voices? She couldn't understand, but it was better than being all alone for sure.

As she reached the door, Anadi froze. What if there were ghosts? That'd be creepy. Shivering, Anadi opened the door and stepped inside, keeping her mouth shut. She knew better than to sit around and start talking when there were strangers...so, she stood there by the door for now, hoping nobody would notice her for the time being.

 

Gexln was visibly shocked. He'd been swinging Darkness' Sorrow, practicing, trying to get used to its weight once more. It was a lot easier than he had thought it would be, the muscle memory miraculously remaining there after three hundred years of not using the blade. The last thing he had expected was for his wife to follow him, as was shown by his body tensing up and his movements stopping the second he heard her voice. Slowly, he lowered the blade so that it was pointing at the ground, and he turned around to face Xero.

At first, Gexln was impressed that she'd come despite him demanding she stay behind. It reminded him exactly of how she would have reacted back then. Unfortunately, because of that very memory he immediately felt anger coursing through his body. "I told you to stay there" he said, taking a few steps forward. "Do you think I said it for fun? Xero, what do you think it would do to me if you got hurt because of me? You think this is some kind of game? This is dangerous Xero! Go back and stay with Sapphire until it's over" he said simply, irritation easily heard in his voice.​

 

He had tracked his sister here, a huge castle..a huge fricken CASTLE. If his headache wasn't bad before, this was a real ringer. This was going to be troublesome if she was not in here and he would yell to the heavens if she wasn't. His blue eyes focused forward and saw the lowered bridge. He walked along the bridge and entered the castle.

Maybe he would find his sister here and somehow bring her home. He heard some commotion going on upstairs and trekked his way up the stairs. He soon reached the double doors to the library. His eyes focused on a particular girl. Green hair..even if he didn't take in her features from the front, he recognized the green hair."Ah!" He called out, running over to Anadi, standing there and smiled to her smally and looked at the other strangers in the room."...Mm?"He gave a questioning look.​

 

Anadi heard the door open and turned her head to see who it was. Her stomach lurched when she saw it was her stupid brother, Ohm. What's worse is that he even called out to her, although not by name, and was now standing next to her. Crossing her arms, she closed her eyes and frowned. She certainly wasn't expecting him to stand right there and start being an annoyance almost instantly. Opening her eyes, she glared at him, piercing his soul with her deep emerald eyes. While Anadi looked like her mother, Ohm looked like their father. He certainly acted like him too, sometimes, which was comforting. But for now, Anadi was not going to simply let him coddle her into going home. She left for a reason, after all.

The questioning look on his face, signaled for Anadi to explain herself. "P'tak..." she cursed under her breath. "What do you want?" she asked him, venom in her voice. Not only did she unleash some unspeakable evil onto this world, NOW she has to sit here and deal with Ohm. Her day got so much worse in a matter of minutes, it surprised her. It almost made her sick, to be honest. "I'm not going home...that's all I have to say." she said, walking towards a book case and grabbed a book. It was just fairy tales, but at least she'd get her mind off of what was going on currently. She might even find a nice fairy tale about the events surrounding the meeting of her parents. Nah...

While the book was interesting, Anadi couldn't help but keep thinking about home. She left on a pretty sour note. Her parents were probably very worried about her. However, it was their fault that she left in the first place. Slamming the book shut, she put it back on the shelf and kept walking towards the group of people that were in the room. She was trying to keep herself away from Ohm to try and not get yanked away back home.

Stopping in her tracks, Anadi began to wonder if maybe running away was a bad idea. She was just a kid and she had never left home before...heck, she was still a student by the law of Crystallis, so technically, she would be in big trouble for not being at school. Then again, she was always home schooled, so there was nothing to worry about on that part. But still, her parents would probably get angry at her if she returned. They'd keep her locked up and never let her out again...maybe even force her to become a Sage...

That was something she couldn't bear.

 

"I told you to stay there" Xero only stood there with a stern look on her face and looked Gexln dead in the eyes as he walked towards her "Do you think I said it for fun? Xero, what do you think it would do to me if you got hurt because of me? You think this is some kind of game? This is dangerous Xero! Go back and stay with Sapphire until it's over" Xero stomped a foot on the ground after Gexln finished, clearly angry with him now, "Stop treating me like I can't fight on my own! Ever since the last war you've been making me stay back and sit around like I'm some helpless dog!" Xero was now shouting and then began to walk towards Gexln until she was a foot away from him, "I'm tired of it! You've seen me fight Gexln, you know what I can do! So why do you keep acting like I can't do anything?"​

 

• Emotional ties - Gexln
• Introductions and stuff - Hunter, Dane, and Caleb

• 
  
  
  Gexln couldn't believe what he was hearing. Of all times Xero was choosing to bring that up, she'd chosen then? It fit with the topic, but what gave her the bright idea that as her husband was preparing to go to war it was a brilliant idea to start yelling at him and making a huge fuss over everything? "You can fight on your own, but you can't do it safely! How many injuries did I get last time because I had to step in and take the hit for you? How many near-death experiences did I have because of you? You're a skilled fighter, Xero, but that's not enough! You can't just run in swinging your scythe and expecting people to drop dead near you, you have to be careful about it!" he said, raising his voice as he progressively got more and more annoyed.
  
  If he kept going, he took a huge risk. If it worked like he planned, it would hurt Xero but she'd pull out and go back to Sapphire. She could hate him all she wanted, but so long as she was safe that was all that mattered. If it didn't go to plan, she might even be more motivated to follow him and prove him wrong, but he couldn't allow that. He took a deep breath. "You're extremely reckless. If you keep following me, you're going to end up picking a fight with the wrong guy and getting yourself killed, don't you see that, Xero? I'm trying to protect you because you need protecting! Have you forgotten how you became a Nobody? Roe was just as reckless as you're being now, and look at how that ended up! Are you going to find some other seeker of darkness and get possessed by them too? Listen to me, and go back!" the Wanderer of the Dark yelled out, saying whatever he could to get her to actually listen and leave. ​
• 
  
  
  Hunter sat in a chair. His pride was hurting, but not as much as his nether-region was. He wondered why they called it that. Was it because people 'nether' went there? He was a comedic genius, everyone laughed at that joke, right? Regardless, if it was called it because of that, then it was inaccurate. Gwen went there all the time. Unfortunately it wasn't in the way he would like, but rather her constantly insulting it and, as he had newly discovered, twisting it like some demonic siren that loved destroying any chance at having a family. Hunter wanted kids, too. How else was he going to raise his dwarven army against the world?
  
  "My name is Hunter. Nothing else, I swear I don't have a first or last name. Just Hunter. As for what we do...well, I have an idea. How about we take all the ginger women in this library, and push them somewhere else?" Hunter suggested, eager to get Gwen back to her own RP as soon as possible. His dwarven army depended on it.
  
  
  Dane was also sitting in a chair. Damn they were conveniently placed, almost as though some otherworldly power had put them in the perfect place for a meeting. He had barely listened to people talking, hadn't paid much attention to what was going on, but when they asked what was to be done next, Dane felt the need to have some kind of input. "Here's an idea" he said, looking at Hunter. "First of all, we should completely ignore your suggestion. It's a stupid one, from a stupid person" Dane insulted. He could see the look of rage on Hunter's face, but he very much doubted he'd get up and attack him with the injury to his crotch. It was a shame, there hadn't been nearly enough killing lately.
  
  "Alright, secondly, you losers want to find this hero, right? Do any of you actually know this legend? Or are we just going to assume this hero is going to magically show up? It doesn't look like he's in here does it? Damn, how did I get stuck with you guys? Let's go find some rich and powerful guy, they always know things. We can beat it out of him, use his family as hostages or something until he tells us what he wants, then we can get rid of them all in one swoop. Genius idea, right? Right" he said, answering his own question before anybody had the chance to.
  
  
  At that comment, Caleb stood up from where he'd been seated. "My name's Caleb Stitem. This is Juliet, and our daughter Audrey" he said, motioning to the two as he spoke. "And we will not be taking hostages. If you even try, you're going to be cut down before you can blink. We're trying to save the worlds, we're trying to get peace again, we're not trying to start a war or get innocent people killed" he growled at Dane. He gestured towards the shelves around them. "Look where we are, we're in a library. Surely there has to be some kind of text here that could tell us more about this legend. I say we look for it" he suggested.​

 

Xero was beginning to lose her patience and her fists clenched so tightly that her nails began digging into the skin, "You can't just run in swinging your scythe and expecting people to drop dead near you, you have to be careful about it!"
"What the hell do you think you're doing then?!" Xero poked Gexln's chest rather hard as she spoke, "You're doing the exact same thing that you're telling me not to do! You're being a hypocrite!" Xero had just about had it. She knew all Gexln wanted was for her to be safe, but it was getting to the point of where he was being too over protective. He never let Xero help him with anything and she would always just sit at home.

Gexln began speaking again and it only made her even more irritated, "I'm trying to protect you because you need protecting!"
"I don't need to be protected! I can take care of myself!"
"Have you forgotten how you became a Nobody? Roe was just as reckless as you're being now, and look at how that ended up! Are you going to find some other seeker of darkness and get possessed by them too? Listen to me, and go back!"

A loud slap echoed around them off the canyon walls. That was the last straw. Xero had had slapped Gexln as hard as she could that it even left the palm of her hand stinging. There was nothing but silence between them for a good minute or two before Xero began to speak again, "Don't even go there... You have just as many sins that I can throw back in your face as well..." Her voice was serious and shaking from the sudden adrenaline that shot through her just then. She looked him in the eyes once more, "I'm not going back Gexln. I told you that day that I'd always have your back... You need just as much protection as you say that I need."​

 

Jackie seemed to be pleased with how introductions were going so far. However, she was annoyed with the fact that there people who were...annoyed. That would not do good for an adventuring party at all! Him being a destroyer of worlds was totally cool though. It was then that Jackie had seen that two more faces pile into the library and they seemed to be discussing something in private, but Jackie had absolutely no care as to what that was. She instead just shot them a death glare and said, "you two over there. Mr. Blue and Ms. Green. Get over here and introduce yourselves so I don't have to keep naming you by hair color!" After that she then followed the lead of the rest of the people in searching for some sort of clue for the legend. All that she had remembered about it was a cave or something. She didn't even remember the actual words to it, and neither did the people who had gathered here, strangely enough. However, an echoing voice resounded throughout the entire library as it spoke of the tale of old.

"When the War of the Beasts brings about the hero's end
The goddess descends from the sky
Walls of light and darkness torn apart
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting
There is no hate, only joy
For you are beloved by the goddess
Savior of the dawn, Healer of worlds
Where evil still festers, she turns away her gaze
Pride is lost
Wings stripped away, the end is nigh."

As the voice had finished speaking the legend in question, a loud slam could be heard, as a book labeled Perfect Meals Your Rodent Spouse, was closed. The person who had seemed to speak it was none other than the blue haired man himself, Lucien. As he put the book away back in its shelf, he turned to the group and announced to the group, "that was the first two verses of the legend of the hero. The rest of it was completely illegible in the book, but it at least gives us a good starting point. After all, I think its fairly obvious to which worlds we must go to now." The group looked at him confused, as if what he had said made no sense and said absolutely nothing about a cave whatsoever. Ah, that was right. This group no longer had a Mr. Exposition who could tell them all that needed to be told, because that man seemed to know everything conveniently. As such, Lucien would have to take up that mantle, if only for a moment though.​

Looking to the rest of the group, he spoke calmly and sternly. Almost as if he had known what he was talking about. "The war of the beasts could be referring to any numeral of places. However there are a few that stick out in particular." Walking towards a book shelf, he continued, "the term pride in there may refer to a land where the most prideful denizens in all the universe exist." He then reached into the shelf and pulled out a dvd box set of all the lion king movies, showing it to the others. "Lions. Not to mention, heroes and heroic leaders are often referred to as lion-hearted or lions themselves. The world is also called the Pride Lands, which also has the word Pride in it. That would probably be our best bet in terms of starting points." He then started to ponder on it more and said, "our next place of searching will require us to continue focusing on the first line of the legend."

Lucien had continued his pacing as he said, "our next place of searching can still be found in the lines of 'War of the Beasts.'"Lucien had continued pacing around, going to the next book shelf to pick something else out. "You see, there was once a world where a man was turned into quite the monstrous figure. Then there was also a man who was pretty black hearted himself, who wanted that monstrous figure dead. They were also French. So you could refer to that as the 'War of the Beasts,' taking it to mean more as a 'war between beasts.'"Finding a candle holder lying around, Lucien picked it up."So, if the hero was sealed within the world of beasts, the next place we could search would be, Beast's Castle!" As he exclaimed this, his voice echoed throughout the library as he pretended to make the candle holder dance and hummed a tune about how to be a good guest. As he finished that, he threw the candle holder away and cleared his throat. "Anyway, the next one will require a bit more searching."

Casually tossing the box to the side, he continued saying, "the next to last line refers to a land 'where evil festers.' Now, there's only one place where all evil does is grow in strength. Where it always has. A place that kind of broadens our search from one universe, to two. I'm talking about." The light suddenly blacked out, for no discernible reason, and Lucien said, "the realm of darkness." As the lights suddenly came back, he continued, "almost every major form of evil comes from there or is at least linked to it. The goddess would know this but purposefully pay no attention to the realm of darkness to let it do whatever. Not only that, but the darkness basically produced an 'End of the World' fitting with 'The End is Nigh.'" With that, Lucien had finished completely bullshitting all of the people and there objectives were now clear, if not nonsensical. "With that, there's only one more place I could think of that fits the bill for our searching."

He then turned to the rest of the group and said,"the final place we could look is a place that doesn't exist at all." He was never quite sure how you could go to a non-existant place, but he certainly didn't let the stop him from expositioning. "A place where the old evil mastermind, from like over three hundred and fifty years ago, had made his base of operations." He then found a pencil lying around, ripped a piece of paper from one of the random books, and then drew a heartless insignia on. "That's right, I'm talking about,"he flipped the heartless symbol upside down, "The World That Never Was."He then threw the paper back and said, "this fits as if there were a place for evil to fester, it would certainly be there. Plus, a place that doesn't exist would be a perfect place for you to lock away a person you don't want anyone to find." Nevermind that the hero was supposedly in a cave, and the world in question was like, some sort of major metropolitan area of nothingness. "Now then, if you have any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments section below. But for now, with all these places we have to search, I think we need to do the most important thing people do when they have too many people in one group." He paused for a brief second and said, "we need to split into different parties."

 

Xross hadn't paid much attention to the introduction of most of the people aside from about two people. The first was the man who'd introduced himself as Caleb, who also brought along his wife and daughter. Normally a sane parent wouldn't bring their kid into something like this, but he choose not to say anything on it. If their daughter got killed, then it would be on their head, their bad parenting head.

Next up was the one who'd didn't introduce themselves and probably knew just as much as they did. Listening to the man talk reminded of how long its been since he's he's intentionally started something with someone. Those were some fun times and it was about time that he started something again. "So that makes two ideas that we can ignore. Yours." He paused pointing at Dane "and Hunters." Xross wasn't going to stop there, he then leaned back slightly in his chair and turned his attention back to Dane before continuing. "Your more than welcome to go through with your shitty idea, the doors right there and none of us will stop you. At least I won't. Why waste the effort on someone like you who thinks some random rich guy will know something."

This was all before Lucian had started to speak about the legend and give some insight about it.

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Zephyr had been quiet up until Lucien had finished explaining what they had about the legend. Basically there were three different locations for them to go to and given the size of their group, splitting up was likely the best option. "Well since we know next to little about each other other than names. Least the names of those who were willing to give them. Maybe splitting up by who wants to go to what world will work."

AS far as first ideas go Zephyr's wasn't a bad one, but due to the sheer amount of variables that could happen should they decide to go through with his plan, then it might not be the best idea for them to do, but again it was the first idea that they had. It might jsut turn out ot be the very best idea out of all of them. That was unlikely, but it was possible nonetheless.

 

Gexln's entire body moved with the force of the slap Xero had given, but his feet stayed in the spot they had been in. He made no attempt to get out of the way, or to block it at all. He knew that he deserved the slap, and he had taken it willingly. He wished he didn't have to say things like that, that he didn't have to do things the way he was doing them, but there wasn't much of a choice in his mind. Yet again, he had been dragged into something he didn't want to be a part of, and yet again he was being forced to do things that hurt him deeply. He would have much preferred to be back with Xero at their home, simply living a relatively quiet life, full of the happiness and joy that he found most of the time that he was in her vicinity. That wasn't an option though, not if he truly wanted what was best for her, what would keep her safe.

With a red handprint on the side of his face, Gexln simply stood there for a moment. He did his best to look as though he were exceptionally pissed off, rather than hurting as he was. After a few minutes of nothing but awkward silence, he decided to speak up. "Maybe I do need protection. Maybe going off like this is only going to get me killed. Even if it does, so what? So long as you're safe, nothing else matters. I don't care whether I need it or not, I'm not accepting it" the Nobody said in an incredibly serious yet negative tone.

Turning his back to Xero, he held out his hand and opened a dark corridor. There were a few places he knew of that were possibilities of places that the rebellion could take place. There were many worlds, but there were only so many that were completely deserted. If you were going to start a rebellion, you wouldn't do it where people already lived just in case they opposed the cause, so it only made sense. If he could find out where just one of the rebels were, he could find them all. He couldn't do it with Xero around though, his emotions played with his mind far too much to be able to concentrate.

"Yeah, I've messed up pretty badly. I killed people I cared about, I've caused myself and others more pain than you can possibly imagine, and no matter what I do, I can't forget about it. I chose to do those things, I'm not giving you the chance to make that same mistake. You're too important to me, I won't let you become like this" he said, his voice quiet enough that Xero would be able to hear it easily, but he was by no means speaking loudly. Slowly, he stepped into the dark corridor, not willing to show Xero the tears in his eyes that threatened to reveal what he was feeling on the inside.​

 

As expected, Anadi immediately met Ohm with contempt and anger. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. This was one reason why he was so hesitant to go in the first place, reasons like this. She then went away from him to browse the books on the library shelves. "Mm..."He murmured inaudibly in a slightly frustrated tone. Anadi had changed since she left home, she became a lot more hostile. How on the earth was he going to convince her to come back home? Ohm knew better than anyone that Anadi didn't hate him, did she hate her parents through him? Did he really look so much like their father that she would hold so much contempt? That couldn't be true, he wasn't like Kross. Maybe in appearance but definitely not in personality.

He was about to go after her and try to somehow explain when a new voice interrupted the two, trying to coax them over aggressively. He paused mid-step and glanced, seeing the girl call out to him. He looked over to Anadi, knitting his brows before going over to the group hesitantly. He caught things like 'legend' and 'hero' and 'goddess' He didn't particularly care for it so he cast a glance to his sister, seeing if she would join in.​

 

As Gexln once again left her standing alone after walking off, she stood there for a few moments just staring where the dark corridor was before in disbelief. She dropped to her knees in defeat and stared at the ground, eyes tearing up from the frustration and heartbreak she felt. Soon enough the tears began to fall from her face on to the dirt ground and putting her face in her hands she began to quietly sob. Xero didn't know what else to do; Gexln wouldn't listen to her and not to mention he acted differently than how she remembered and her son was off running around in who knows where in the universe. Things just seemed to get progressively worse around her and she felt lost.

After sitting there in a sobbing mess, Xero wiped her eyes and stood up after opening a dark corridor back on Riel. When she walked through she was standing in front of the local bar and reluctantly walked in and went straight to the bar tender. She sat on one of the stools and stared at nothing until the tender approached her, "What's your order ma'am?"

A couple of hours later, Xero was stumbling around the bar counter with a nearly empty bottle of vodka in one hand. She paid the tender for the whole battle and it wasn't even 5:00 in the evening yet. Nearly every word she said was slurred together with gibberish and/or cursing out anyone who said she was drunk and should leave the bar. Xero then stumbled back to the bar counter and sat down, chugging another bit of the bottle afterwards then slamming it down, "Yew know... Mai huzbund is a hooge *sshole. Hic! He jus leeves me shtanding thare out in thuh open aftur I told him that I woodn't let em leeve to get his stoopid self killed..." Xero squinted at the bottle she held, trying to figure out how much was left in it, "I donno wut hiz prahblem is, but... Hic! It's pissing me off!" If anyone was paying attention to what Xero was doing, they would see that she was talking to a cardboard cut out of the most interesting man in the world.​

 

Jarred from the book she had been reading, Anadi dropped the book when she heard Jackie mention green and blue hair. Obviously she meant Anadi and Ohm. As far as she could tell, they were the only ones here with such hair colors. Correct her if she's wrong. Kneeling down and picking the book up, Anadi grumbled and turned her head to see her brother was already walking over to the group that called out to them. "There he goes..." she thought. Although, he looked a little cautious, considering these people were strangers and all. Standing up, she placed the book on the shelf and turned around, walking to stand next to Ohm.

Ohm was taller than Anadi. She reached to about his shoulders, even in these heeled boots, and she liked it that way. Looking at Jackie, Anadi looked at her weird clothes. They sort of reminded her of her father. Although she dressed a little...promiscuously. It made Anadi uncomfortable, but she was trying to keep her eyes on Jackie's face and not her...other spots. Scratching her head and blushing lightly, she sighed. "My name is Anadi...this is Ohm." she said, pointing to Ohm. Turning to him, she nudged him and whispered to him in their fathers' language. She simply told him to show some respect for people they just met.

"So, why are you guys here? I'm only here because I was exploring and saw this castle. So I decided to jump over the walls...and then I started down in some prison and set some...thing...free from a glowing book. It was weird." she said, grumbling. Their stories were certainly interesting, but Anadi didn't really pay too much attention, considering she didn't really care for stories all that much. She'd already heard enough when she was back home. Besides, she didn't want to be reminded of home for the time being anyway. Ohm wasn't helping.

Speaking of Ohm, Anadi turned to him and tugged at his arm. "I wanna talk." she said, motioning for a bit away. "But not right now...maybe later, obviously." she said, frowning and looking at the ground. Tears were pricking at her eyes because seeing Ohm made her happy, but also made her miss her father.

 

As a man of the shadows, there were always something that needed doing. With corruption in the hearts of many in many different worlds, there was always someone who had become too big for his britches and needed to be taken down. With the hints of rebellion against the goddess going around, there was always information that needed gathering as well. These required one to hone and learn any number of skills. Whether it be the art of stealth, any form of combat, or the art of deception, there was always something that needed to be practiced. And then, there were some of the pretty local things that needed to get done. Like when someone has a bad day and they feel the need to get as smashed as possible at a local bar. This was certainly the glamorous life he lead.

The lightish red haired boy walked to the bar, wondering why he was actually tasked with this mission. Sure, he was no super badass lightning samurai ninja (who may be like a darkness cyborg,) but he wasn't exactly public safety either. So why exactly did he have to go and do this? As the boy walked, in broad daylight no less, he finally made his way into the bar in question when he realized how terrible the situation he was in was. Inside there was the drunken woman, who was ranting about her husband or something...to a cardboard cut out. Just how drunk was she?

This was the first time he'd been in this dire of a situation, and so he tried to think of how to handle it. "Alright," he muttered to himself, "what would the old man do?" He briefly went over a series of clips in his head, thinking of any hypothetical situation with Ghost, and all that game to mind was him killing various different people in various different ways. Right. That was probably the wrong way to handle this situation. Thinking about it more, he figured that he should just walk over to her and...okay that was probably going to get him hit by a drunken woman but it was better than standing there contemplating what to do. In the end he just grabbed the cardboard man away from her and said, "so, you gotta stop drinking now because clearly you've drank too much and people kind of want you out of here now. Besides, wouldn't it be better if you ranted at your 'stoopid huzbund' rather than," he looked at the cardboard man questionably and said, "whoever this is?"

 

Xero nearly fell out if her chair as the man standing in front of her was suddenly moved and another man appeared behind her. He was just another person to tell her she was drunk and Xero frowned and threw the bottle of vodka at the man - horribly missing him - and it landed on a wall and smashed into a million pieces. "Fuk yew! Ah'm not dronk!" Xero pointed at the man then nearly fell over, "Yew're dronk!" That was when something quickly crawled up her throat and Xero knelt over and puked in a big pot with a tree in it. She looked back up at the man with annoyance "I can fite on mai own! I dun ned protekting frum yew! Did Gexoln send yew? Tel em tu go fuk his self!" Xero them proceeded to puke in the big pot once more.​

 

Zavion gave Lexcifur a somewhat confused look...What did he mean what would they be doing here? "...Where else would they be? On Riel? What better place to hide from the goddess than somewhere she has no reason to look?" That was when a girl yelled out to them. Well, they'd been spotted. It was just a matter of if they'd been recognized or not. What she said next would determine whether or not they had to fight. "where the hell do you people get off being so standoffish to the rest of us. I'll have you know I won't tolerate any anti-social people in this adventuring party whatsoever, so get yourselves in here this instant!" Zavion nearly let out a sigh of relief, and walked in.

Man, Zavion and though Juliet's heart was going to give him a seizure. The blue haired man who spoke up to read out the legend had a heart which was literally rainbow and flashing like a strobe light. He cringed and covered his eyes from it, making a pained expression. He listened to the explanation as to his interpretations of each line, and where the hero might be while avoiding looking at the man. He had nothing against gay people but that guy hurt his eyes to look at.

Listening to the list of locations, he tried to deduce which was the most likely for the hero to be in. While it was far from impossible that he was in the realm of darkness, they'd been in there for a while and never seen a trace of him. The next most likely place out of those would probably be...the final one. "We'll take the world that never was." Zavion said, hoping no one would join them. After all, if they were going to stop the hero, then they had to make sure they got there first.

Beuce, meanwhile, was talking to Stratos after getting rules of nature'd. Normally the kid was piss weak, but man when there was a reaction command... He might be able to lift a glass off his arm to stop someone from doing something. Stratos, after realizing it was Beuce, greeted him with a fairly casual tone, then asked how he was still alive. "Let me answer your question with another question. How are like 90% of these people, you included, still alive?" Well it was true. Only a small amount of these people were the age they appeared to be.

Then Lucien read the legend. The ****ing legend man. The text was so rainbow he could taste it. He looked away from Lucien's post, unable to finish reading it. So, he'd just guess by the posts of the others what happened. Something about the legend or something. He'd just kinda follow other people to avoid having to read that post. "So Stratos, you a sky behemoth slayer yet?"


What seemed to be a young boy came out to greet him. This was the man who was supposed to decide if he joined the rebellion or not? Going off nothing but his appearance, he didn't seem like much. However, appearances could be misleading. He nodded at the boy's question, asking if he was the one who believed change was needed. "Indeed. I am Satsujin." It felt so strange, giving someone his true name instead of Ghost. He hadn't used that in years, and was unaccustomed to be called by it. However, he wouldn't let it bother him. If he'd introduced himself as Ghost, that would surely raise suspicion. For now, he would have to go by his former name, the one no one knew, and learn what he could about these people. When he found something out, he'd give the information to Phantom and have him carry it on to the goddess.

"I take it you're the person who i'm supposed to see about this change?" He asked. "If so, what would you have me do?" Ghost was very matter-of-fact about his tone. He was here to join the rebellion, and nothing else. His face couldn't be well seen beneath his mask, save his eyes, but one could picture an extremely stoic expression on it. He simply stood there, silent as the grave until the boy in front of him responded to his question.
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