[IC] Ascension: King of Kings (Open CS)

[Rai]

The door.
It sat at the end of the living quarters within the dark old house. The lack of items within this room gave all focus to the door. Its presence was an enigma. Promising to reveal something secret behind it and only visible under the rays of moonlight through the cracks and holes the house was riddled with.

Then a dust began to creep from under the door. Expanding into the air like mist. Mist that was illuminated by silver dots within the moon beams. The dust grew more visible as the seconds rolled by. Its transparency becoming less so and more thick like a actual cloud. Only vanishing into the dark unlit corners of the room.

The door knob shuddered. It twitched as if on its own. But someone was behind this door. Giving it a push that only opened it in increments. The door was now open. The dust rolled across the floor at twice the pace. Aiming to exit at every nearest hole. The bulk of which headed for the front door, through the peeping doorway Rupal was in.

The figure behind the opened door stepped out. It appeared wary. Like a cat prowling through the shadows. It stepped closer to the door Rupal was in front of. Before stopping in the middle of the room. It lifted something within its arms, a long, wide, but slender object. Then. A melody began to play from him. A easy gentle tune strummed together by strings. His figure was still masked in darkness. But, now slightly visible to the naked eye. Were glints of silver coming down a straight and very narrow path in multiple areas within the room. Like spider webs coming in and out of sight at random.

As the moonlight hit him when he entered the middle of the room it was easy to see this was indeed the Musician. White flowing hair and piercing red eyes. On his head sat a single black horn. He seemed fairly Sol in blood. As this happened a gentle, and clearly male, voice spoke out. It almost echoed in the dark with a inviting yet mysterious tone.

"Do you.. like my song..?"

[Lord of Evil]

Thaddeus watched the house nervously, but nothing much was happening. Silence was normally a good thing but in light of this situation, it was the silence that was bothering him. There was no more movement after the woman was dragged back inside, no effort was made to clean up the blood either. Were the perpetrators confident that they wouldn't be caught?

But before that, why was Thaddeus still here? He didn't know the answer for certain himself, as he usually avoided trouble when he could. Perhaps it had to do with the dream he had while he was sleeping last night, where he saw someone fairly similar to the woman who was just dragged into the house. He couldn't remember the details but he was sure he saw a winged descendant in his dream. He was quite sure that it was a different one, however. Quite frankly, part of him wanted to walk away in the opposite direction. But part of him was also curious as to why the winged woman was assaulted and what his dream was about. Maybe there was a connection, maybe not. But he didn't have much information.

Thaddeus began scanning the area around him. There were a lot of dilapidated-looking wooden buildings around but some seemed solid. Thaddeus glanced back into the house in time to see a new descendant enter. Looking around to check if no one was looking he carefully made his way over the street and disappeared into the gaps between some of the houses. The incident house wasn't the tallest house in the street, fortunately. Thaddeus picked a sturdy looking house and stuck his right hand into the gaps in the wood, using it to haul his body up so he could reach another handhold. What Thaddeus wanted to do was survey the situation, but he didn't want to go inside the house. Who knew what was in there? That's what Thaddeus needed to find out.

He carefully emerged on the roof of a house nearby to the incident house. He stood shakily up on the sloped surface and tried looking into the window of the dilapidated building. As he did, however, he began hearing something odd. He tried to focus his ears on the sound, carefully navigating the rooftops to get to it. He eventually came to the source of the music that he'd heard before it abruptly stopped. Thaddeus stopped too and quietly nudged an arrow out of the quiver on his back. He could barely hear talking and he decided that he would listen to the conversation.

[The 42nd Gecko]

Velvet kicked at the roof of the building, sending a few moldering old boards toppling down on the musician and spreading a haze of dust.

Then Velvet ran away to another corner of the roof, hoping to avoid any retribution for her actions.

[Pineappletumble]

The loud thumping of Rupal's heart almost drowned out the musicians words, the 'bravery' that had lead the blacksmith here seemed to have left him right when he needed it most. He could feel a small bead of sweat rolling down the front of his forehead his breathing becoming labored, to a trained eye there was a clear tremor resonated throughout his body. Rupal found himself unconsciously taking a step back, he wanted to run but the imagery of the woman’s fair came rushing back reminding him that he was probably already in too deep to escape now.

Before either person could act a loud crack could be heard as wooden boarding came crashing down from the roof, the dust that coated the floor scattered into the air slightly obscuring the musician. Rupal leaped back more in terror than to avoid any of the falling planks and landed flat on his back. A brief glance up showed no sign of what caused the damage, perhaps this was more work of the musician?

"W-wwhere’s th-the Seraphim?!" Rupal did his best to sound intimidating however his stammering voice and current position on the floor did not help him in the slightest.

Quickly and clumsily Rupal scrambled to his feet and into a stance that was a little more stable then the one he had been previously held. Seeing that the musician had been mildly stunned Rupal felt his fear loosened its grip on him. Taking a powerful step forward he readied his hammer above his head and brought its weight down on the creepy musician. Before the hammer made contact a thin string caught the light lashing out and coiling around the hammer halting it fall. No matter how he the string held fast against the pressure he forced against them.

His fear came rushing back, coming here was without a doubt the worse idea he had ever had.

[Rai]

After the strings attached themselves around the frame of Rupal's hammer, effectively nullifying his attack. The hammer and the wielder remained midair, rising higher as the Musician commanded. He did this with only a flick of his finger. Like a puppeteer seamlessly in command of the invisible strings.

"Don't worry about the girl.. You won't be seeing anyone again for an eternity." His voice grew more stern as he finished his sentence. Anger boiling within him from the sudden collapsing of the roof.

"Now.. It's MY TURN!" He sang out as he said this. Chuckling at the end. His hands were brought together in a grasp and twisted. The strings came from all ends of the room. Spiraling around Rupal like wind before crossing paths abruptly as the Musician twisted his own arms like a pretzel. The strings darted across Rupal's body attempting to slash him up all over and dozens of times. Rupal was then bound in the strings and lifted up higher. "The sound of your pain.." He lifted his entangled arms up to the air pointing them toward Rupal. Then he brought them down quickly. Commanding the threads to slam Rupal into the wooden floor below. Only a foot in front of him. "Is music to my ears.."

[Lord of Evil]

Thaddeus was startled by the falling of some of the roof boards, almost losing his balance in the process. He managed to stabilize himself with the help of his tail but he didn't feel great on a sloped surface. There was now a hole in the roof of the house, but he was at the wrong angle to look through it. Thaddeus decided to cross the rooftops carefully as 2 rooftops away was a balcony. On reaching the balcony he looked down into the house to watch the scene. The dust had not yet settled but it was clear that the descendant inside was not having a good time.

It seemed that the man inside was the one who had the invisible strings, the unnatural movement of the dust made that clear. The dust twisted and turned around the strange man rather than settling down. It outlined his invisible strings, though not completely. Thaddeus narrowed his eyes at the situation. While he wasn't entirely sure about civilised society he was very familiar with the struggle for survival. And while there were those who thought that "survival of the fittest" was all there is, that wasn't what Thaddeus was brought up thinking. Survival was about co-dependence. The wolf, or basilisk may be higher on the food chain but without rabbits to eat they would starve to death. And this situation was a dance he'd done a few times when he was growing up with the old hunter.

Time seemed to slow down for Thaddeus as he silently drew back his bowstring. The light pressure on his fingers helped him to focus on his target, the mysterious man. The dust was settling now but he had enough to judge the position of the invisible strings. The descendant's hammer, swung weakly as it was, was easily repelled by the mysterious man's strings so Thaddeus would need to be careful. He drew back the bowstring to its full length, using the time to measure the distance and strength of the wind. He adjusted the angle slightly and aimed directly for the man's head, waiting for a gap in the invisible defence. Thaddeus briefly pondered the legality of his actions but tossed that thought aside, putting his sole focus on his bow and arrow. It was a hunter's job to root out potential risks to the ecosystem, and Thaddeus was a hunter. The only law obeyed by hunters was the natural law. Take only what you need. And this man was breaking it.

Thaddeus released his arrow and it flew, quick and noiseless, towards its target. The hunt was on.