[IC] Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya's display of her mana-infused Iaijutsu technique was just a small sample of what she was capable of. And she was about to display another portion of her capabilities. The right side of her mouth curled up in a smirk as she got confirmation from the others that the Ogre was indeed her target.

The giant ogre skeleton lumbered in the midst of the massive army of the undead. It's eyes, unlike the other skeleton's eyes which were glowing blue, emitted a deep red. Whoever originally made these tombs must have had a massive amount of adulation for mana crystals, taking the time to augment all their dead with mana crystals. Raiya was a bit impressed by the dedication.

Raiya extended her right hand in front of her face and clenched her thumb pinky finger and ring finger, extending her bird finger and index finger"BIRI BIRI NO SOKUDO!" Raiya shouted. Immediately she was shrouded in a crackling aura of electricity once more, one of her favorite Shinto spells that she picked up from Japan.

After the spell was cast, she crouched down into a running stance and bolted at 70 miles per hour in the direction of the ogre. There was a large amount of skeletons in her way, but in a display of blinding speed she used Iaijutsu to draw her odachi within a nano second, and infused her sword with mana increasing the size of the slash, immediately slashing an arc of ten feet in front of her. She continued to do this, placing her sword back in the saya each time, every ten feet until she had cut a path all the way to the Ogre, leaving a pile of bisected skeletons in her wake.

Now to deal with you. Raiya said at the foot of the Ogre skeleton.

---

A group of five skeletons rushed at Artos, their eyes glowed brightly as they closed in. Once they got within immediate proximity they froze up like statues, ice crystals formed on their skin from the humidity within the dank crypts.

---

Eventually the skeletons that were being reflected back by Travis's spell, grew wise and backed off from him. One of the skeletons in front of him held out his skeletal palm, his eyes glowing brighter than usual, a ball of mana began to form in its hand. It was clear it was about to release a spell at Travis.

---

The skeletons around the skeleton whose head exploded, seemed to grow angry, and ten of them rushed Nemo.

[Zelosse]

Artos Bane

Both blades whistled through the air like scythes as they cleaved into and through the soft skin and brittle bones of his foes with ease. Anything in his path quickly returned to their grave and littered the floor, to be replaced by yet another such foe. Despite the clearly overwhelming odds against such a swarm of creatures, Artos was managing to keep them contained in small pockets. Though he was all to aware that he could not prevent all of them from flanking him or flowing past to get at his companions. That alone forced him to give ground to the surge. Until someone could guarantee the safety of the group as a whole, he would back up. The circle absolute zero expanded further at his command to swallow and shatter even more of their foes.

Artos caught sight of one skeleton creating a sphere of mana. Suddenly the fight was about to get much worse for their crew if the creatures could command magic as well. The warrior slammed his sword staff into a fleshy corpse as it toppled at his feet and lay motionless with the blade sticking up into the air. In the same practiced motion he brought the bow from his back and retrieved an ice arrow from his right hand sword sheath. Deft with blade or bow, the created missile flew straight to puncture the skull of the skeleton aiming at Travis, its spell wasted with its end.
The immediate threat gone did not mean more wouldn't return.
Artos hung the bow over his chest and retrieved his spear.

"We will not survive the encounter like this. We need to spread them out or funnel the things into a killing field somehow."

His blades spun overhead before cleaving down straight through the brittle body of a half frozen zombie, a second swipe took a head clean off the shoulders. One at a time was meant to be tiring. A skilled foe like the Ogre would be better suited to Artos' style of destruction but the Raiya had other plans. Breathing in a steady rhythm he focused on trying to find a solution. It came to him with the sound of more opening coffins. The coffins!

"Try to toss down their coffins. We can use them to create a wall against their magic."

Whether or not it worked was going to be a gamble. Not to mentioned whether or not they could do it at all with them rushing so hard.
Artos detached both blades once more. He needed to buy time and that meant drawing the attention of the creatures as best as possible. The flasks at his hip oozed out the clear water to flow about his blades and freeze, extending their reach by over a foot without making it unruly to wield. Finally he channeled Absolute zero around him, about 6 feet out it would start the effect until they reached within 2 feet where it would reach below freezing temperatures. From there the only way to go now was out.

In a sprint, Artos slashed left and right with seeming abandon, aiming at legs and heads only to cripple or draw attention, as the proud swordsman waded into the throng of monsters, even jumping from downed monsters to the heads of the crowd and beyond. Raiya would deal with the single colossal threat. Artos would try to deal with the smaller threat.
Hopefully Nemo could rally the others.

[Cottonmouth]

As the ten skeletons began to approach Nemo, he hovered his right hand over the grip of his silver revolver at his side. He abruptly drew the weapon at blinding speed, cocking back the hammer as he did so mid draw. Nemo fired off the first shot, splitting the skull of one of the skeletons, and then fanned the hammed of the revolver for the next five shots. With five more adeptly placed headshots, six of the skeletons had already been felled to the floor of the tomb.

The four skeletons remained continued to charge. Nemo spun his revolver around and dropped it back into it's holster and then unsheathed his dagger from behind with his left hand. He fired off a small X shaped white blast from his glove into one of the skeletons as another reached him and took a swing at Nemo. He blocked the attack with his right forearm and then stabbed the knife into it's head, causing it to go limp.

Nemo removed the knife and let it's corpse fall, leaving the final two. One of them appeared to be charging a spell at him while the other went for a blunt strike. Nemo was able to sidestep the attack and then bring it to the floor with a heavy sweep from his leg. Once on the ground he crushed it's skull with the heel of his boot. By this point the final skeleton had released it's magic blast attack at Nemo. With only one enemy for him to worry about left, it was easy for him to absorb the spell with his right hand, and then fire off his own blast back at it using some of the salvaged mana.

With the final skeleton in pieces Nemo pulled out his revolver and quickly began to reload, expending the spent casing first. He made the often timely reload of the classic firearm seem quick and easy. Nemo began to walk towards Travis. "Need any help?" He called out to him with a calm voice despite the situation.

[ShiningSector]

After a short amount of time, Travis slowly came to the realization that the skeletons had become more hesitant in approaching him. While as first the thought of his repulsion spells influencing a moral sapping effect with preventing his undead adversaries from getting close to him, I was soon more apparent that the skeletons were encompassing a more practice sense of the situation. A surge of mana spiked Travis' attention behind him to which he turned to face. One of the skeletons with its fragile arm raised was in the process of casting what appeared to be large and powerful spell.

"Uh oh," Travis helplessly said aloud, just as he felt the spell's surge of mana reaching its peak; the point of imminent discharge.

The best he could do was frantically bringing his arms up and pool as much mana into a defensive spell in an attempt to safeguard himself from the attack. It was when the skeleton's vanished did Travis brace himself, anticipating the worse kind of pain and damage to occur. Few seconds passed before Travis was curious of his well being and why it was still intact. He peeked ahead of him to see the skeleton that was engaging him had stopped short of casting its spell, likely due to a icey spike lodged in the skeleton's cranium before eventually its entire form crumbled to the ground.

Speechless about the sudden turn of events, and luck for that matter, Travis turned to see Arto lowering the bow within his hand after facing the now dispatched skeleton. Before he could thank his cold rescuer, both turned to the sound of more coffins releasing more skeletons to replace the ones defeated. As Artos voiced, the situation was hopeless at this rate if the skeletons were allowed to overrun them with their immense numbers unless there was a better, more efficient method for dealing with them. He then proposed the idea of using the spent coffins as cover before immediately assuming the role as a distraction, keeping the skeletons attention set on his powerful spell of growing ice.

Travis acknowledged the sound plan and quickly grabbed and pushed down the coffins lined up against the walls. It surprised him how light the coffins actually were as he took them down, especially knowing that they were made from mana crystals. Just as he tossed down a fair number of them, he was about to start forming the downed coffins into a barricade before Nemo came into the scene seeking to provide his assistance.

"Yeah, help me with racking these up as makeshift cover," Travis requested.

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya dodged out of the way of a large fist the size of her body, seemingly the millisecond before the fist came down upon the ground where she once stood. She had jumped backwards a few feet, making sure the fist would whiff past her just enough. She then used her electrically enhanced body to jump in the air ten feet, and used an infused Iaijutsu slash to sever the large ogre's arm at the elbow.

The arm fell down with a crash, crushing a few skeletons as it did. The Ogre's head turned down, as if to look at the severed arm with his red glowing hollow eyes. The arm on the ground seemed to lift itself up, and reattach itself at the elbow.

It can heal? Raiya thought.

Then she looked behind herself to see the path that she had cleared, dismembering the skeletons, had filled back with the same skeletons she dismembered.

That was when she had glanced Nemo firing off some shots of his revolver, popping each skull as if it was amusement park game.

"That's it!" Raiya shouted in a tone of epiphany.

The ogre raised it's skeletal fist to the sky, it's eyes began to glow deeper shade of crimson, and mana began to collect around the fist. It was clear the ogre was looking to wipe everyone out in one go. But Raiya moved swiftly.

She launched herself up ten feet onto its rib bone and up another ten feet until she was level with the skull. She charged her mana inside the odachi, and before releasing the odachi from the scabbard, she shouted, "DENKI NO KENJUTSU: SEN HEBI NO KIBA (Electricity style: thousand snake fangs)"

In an instant, what looked like a flurry of blue crescent shaped lights consumed the area surrounding the skull of the ogre. Immediately the skull fell to pieces, including fragments of a large red mana crystal. Raiya stood on the shoulder of the still standing, but now fully lifeless, set of ogre bones.

"THE SKELETONS ARE BEING ANIMATED AND USING MAGIC THROUGH THE MANA CRYSTALS IN THEIR EYES! TAKE OUT THEIR HEADS!" Raiya exclaimed out to the others who were stacking coffins, probably in an attempt to provide themselves cover from any magic attacks that may come their ways.

---

The legion of skeletons moved towards the group's barricade, a few of them launching themselves at it, and crawling up it. Others walking around it at flanking them from the sides.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo thought about what Felix asked as he began to fire off shots from his revolver into the heads of the skeletons that made it past the barricade. A small grin appeared on his face, signalling that he had come to some sort of conclusion.

"Do you want to see something cool, Travis?" Nemo asked, clearly having something else in mind.

Nemo shot off one more round into the skull of one of the skeletons before he holstered the firearm. He placed his palms out in front of him, and from it a large clear-white manashield sprung fourth. The curved shield wall had more than enough surface area to protect both Travis and Nemo from a danger still uncertain.

Raiya's announcement caught Nemo's attention. He looked to her on top of the bones of the Ogre and called out. "You said I'm just as bad as rumored to be... Well, do you remember some of the things I was rumored to be capable of?" Nemo asked as he covered his right eye with the back of his gloved hand, the X on his palm shown right where his eye would be. He grew a rather malicious looking smile and then answered. "Mass destruction via explosions."

Nemo turned away and then crouched down, placing his palms on the floor. A long white line made of mana sprawled itself out from his hands, across the floor, under the shield, and ended over by below the mana crystal coffin barricade. And from that a giant glowing white X appeared under the crystal blockade. At this point Nemo's intentions seemed to be crystal clear to the rest of the group. It would likely be wise for the remaining two to retreat behind his blast shield.

The magic X began to glow brighter, it etched it's own magic circle out around it, the floor began to noticeably vibrate and hum, and a rather unpleasant but musical screeching noise was emitted from the X as it reached it's apex charge. Nemo figured the buffer time would give the group enough time to prepare

"Eruptio Maximus."

With those final words a chain reaction was set in motion. The magic line trailing from Nemo's palms to the spell began to rapidly fizzle out like a line of gunpowder. Once it reached the giant X a enormous explosion befell the room. The screeching instantaneously stopped and was replaced with a deafening boom and massive amount of glass shattering. Or in this case: crystal.

The mana crystal coffins shattered into countless pieces and fragmented at high velocity throughout the room in a devastating fashion. Even Nemo's blast shield was pelted with crystal shards. As the smoke and dust began to clear Nemo raised back up from his crouched position.

He had a rather pleased expression on his face. The mana shield dropped afterwards allowing Nemo to view his handiwork clearly. The sheer force from the blast was enough to crush the skulls and tear apart any of the skeletons nearby, and the indiscriminate shrapnel would shred the remaining ones. The devastating amount of shards would almost guarantee at least one would rip through their bone craniums.

Nemo calmly stepped a few feet forward and bent over to pick one one of the mana crystal shards. After leaning back up he examined it; about five inches long and one inch wide. He looked up and dangled it over his mouth before dropping it down his gullet and swallowing it whole.

Nemo then placed his hands in his pockets and viewed the carnage left behind. Skeletons, bones, and parts of were strewn about the room everywhere. Accompanied by the remaining shards of crystal, most of whom were stuck into the wall. He figured a few of them might have survived. But trusted the rest of the group could take care of the stragglers.

[ShiningSector]

"Thanks for the tip!" shouted Travis as he acknowledged Raiya's new bit of information

While setting up the coffins as a makeshift barricade had bought them time, the legion of skeletons continued their assault without slowing. After repulsing a bone-walker that attempted to crawl over the barricade by dislodging its skull, Nemo once more queried Travis, this time for his attention to something fascinating.

"As long as it saves us." Travis replied without turning away from repelling another skeleton.

He then observed Nemo cast and projected a mana shield around them before speaking to Raiya regarding his previously discussed infamy and stated that he was liable for his crimes via overly-destructive explosions. Travis gulped as he heard this.

Perhaps to make his point as clear as the architecture around them, Nemo summoned a large X into the ground, encompassing them and the barricade too. Like a jet engine starting up, the X began to make a notable humming sound that slowly grew louder as it became brighter as well. Travis didn't need those symptoms told to tell him that this spell gathering mana as he felt the massive surge of mana spiking all around them.

Upon Nemo saying the trigger word for the spell, everything then erupted outside the mana shield in an explosive blinding light. Though the shield prevented the destruction from including them, Travis could feel the sheer blast shaking and thundering throughout his body. As the resulting haze cleared up for the most part, Nemo had dropped the shield in order to allow its occupants to survey the destruction. The makeshift barricade that served its purpose in dispelling the skeleton's magic was was comply obliterated with pieces of man crystal shredding the skeletons close-by and away from Nemo's powerful spell and those shrapnel that missed anything were practically lodged into the walls and floors with potentially little hope to remove by hand.

While a few, barely moving skeletons still remained, it seemed for the moment that Nemo had wiped the majority of the horde out through his torrent of destruction. Travis could only stare in awe at the ruination before turning to and finding Nemo gulping down a mana crystal with little care. As unusual as that appeared, Travis was willing to let him have the moment for the time being.

"That was cool." Travis openly admitted.

[Prodigal Son]

The hairs on Raiya's neck stood up as she felt the aura of Nemo increase in intensity with the spell he was casting. She knew that if she didn't move she'd be caught up in something that she couldn't use her speed to dodge. So deftly, she released her hold on her sword which disappeared into her mana inventory; starting from the tip of the sword in the scabbard to the hilt which gave the appearance of it disintegrating. Sensing a barrier had been cast around the group, she then used her electrical aura enhancement to run as fast as she could to the side of Nemo. She made it well before the spectacle had reached its climax, which left a mountain of redead corpses in its wake.

Feeling with her mananalysis, she noticed that Nemo's aura returned to the same way it had been before the fight. It felt as if he hadn't even been fazed by the amount of destruction he unleashed with one spell. So this is the power of Nemo the Devourer, huh? A spell of that caliber would have left most tapped for resources. Even I would have felt a bit winded after that, but his aura feels the same as it did before the fight. Nothing more, nothing less. Then a thought occurred to Raiya. Has he been intentionally suppressing his true power from everyone? She shuddered at the thought. If there was one person she didn't want to have a massive mana well, it was Nemo. But it was also possible that he suppressed his mana to a low passive state, and when using the spell he released his suppression allowing him to use his mana freely, immediately to run out back to the amount he was leading people to believe he had before the fight. Which meant that his mana well would not have been all that larger than any other talent. That's got to be it! Or at least that's what she hoped.

While all of this was playing through her head she couldn't help but narrow her eyes and examine Nemo, which was exceedingly obvious to anyone around them. Noticing her blatant inspection and hostile facial expression, she quickly reverted back to a neutral expression. And broke the few seconds of awkward silence with, "Erupto Maximus? I didn't take you for a latin incantation kind of person. Did you learn that from someone in the Church?" She probed, hoping to glean a bit of information on Nemo's backstory from him.

Before he could answer, the large set of double doors began to swing open with a low dull rumble of scraping the ground behind them.

A voice could be heard over everyone's manadials which was Felix breaking radio silence.

"Sorry about the dead air, guys. I just really wanted to see how you could handle this on your own, and you did SPLENDIDLY. I might add. Artos! I loved what you did with that decorative recurve bow I learnt you. And extending your subzero aura? BRILLIANT! Oh, and Travis! Your demeanor in a situation of adversity was stellar! You were able to focus enough to draw from what little power you had and think proactively while doing so. Your reflection spell was almost on par with a Talent's reflection spell. I bet even if that skeleton had succeeded in casting that spell, it would have been blocked anyway! And Raiya! That shinto magic has really made you a formidable opponent! I could hardly follow your moves with my Mananylsis in real time. Every time you stopped momentarily, I had to think back and analyze exactly what it was that you did to arrive where you were. And the Hebi No Kiba was it? THAT ATTACK WAS A SPECTACLE! But not as much of a spectacle as last but DEFINITELY not least NEMO! Your revolver skills are deadly accurate. and WAS THAT A LATIN SPELL!? I don't know if you know this but I am a SUCKER for latin spells. And THAT that was the best use of Erupto Maximus I have ever seen. Bravo." Felix sounded out of breath as he rattled out praise to all of the team members.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo gave a rather theatrical bow in response to Travis, Raiya, Felix. He pulled his revolver out as he did so and spun it idle in his hand for the duration of the bow. "I'm glad my performance was appreciated."

As he rose he began to reload the pistol for later use, ejecting the spent casings and calling fourth new ones from his mana-inventory. "However if it was not for Artos and Travis' quick action on moving the coffins, what I did would not have been possible. I thank you both for enabling me to create." He explained, then looked to Raiya. "And your spell against that, hulking brute of bone, was beautiful to experience as well. I do not think I'll regret our agreement anytime soon with such stunning visual displays. Maybe sometime we can do a duet?" Nemo finished with a slight grin, holstering his revolver and mock-playing a few notes of a piano with his hands in the air.

"As for the Latin, it's one language I'm fairly familiar with. Eruptio is the most common surface channeled explosive spell I know. And much like the language, one of the oldest. The Maximus variation is my personal favorite as well. I of course added my own personal touch, but that base spell has proved very useful over the years." He started. "However I did not learn it from the guide of a church member, nor the Academia. Effectively, all of my magic was self taught." To someone paying attention to his mannerisms, Nemo didn't seem to take much pride in saying this, almost as if it wasn't a choice but a necessity.

[Zelosse]

Artos Bane

Artos had been in the thick of combat, his blades worked like separate beings as he smashed bones to dust. The coffin strategy had been effective to a degree but it wasn't until nemo called out his warning that Artos knew the fight was won.
Though when he saw the glowing X on the ground, the northern combatant realized he was too far out.

The resulting explosion from Nemos detonation spell tore the ground and monsters apart like paper. From the sounds of it, his attack had been powerful enough to destroy not just the skeletons but level the coffins and floors as well.
Artos had only survived by freezing himself below a pile of his undead adversaries. Their lifeless bodies, combined with his frozen water, had provided just enough of a barrier to stop the rending shards from killing the swordsman along with the rest of his foes.

The smoke cleared and Artos rose up from his battered protections, shards sticking out of it like a pincushion. A long thing shard had punched a small hole clean through the makeshift defenses and lodged through his hood, thankfully missing his head by millimeters.
Sheathing both blades and returning the frozen water to a liquid form, returning to the bottles on his hips, he coughed and brushed off his clothing and rejoined the group.

He had not been listening to Felix and missed the compliment but knew in his heart that his participation in that fight had been right. One obstacle down.
Despite the disorder of his leaders, Artos stared and Nemo and Raiya with a newfound bit of respect. Maybe they weren't the best leaders but they were powerful. He could appreciate that.

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya noticed the sort of dejected tone Nemo took towards the end of his explanation of his self taught abilities. She wasn't quite sure what his tone meant, so she filed it away in her memory under, "Odd, and Unexplained Nemo Facts," for good measure. Then Felix offered up some praise to the team, but Raiya wasn't won over.

"Of course my abilities are amazing. Because I'm amazing. But your flattery won't throw me off. I still have a bone to pick with you." Raiya said in an irritated tone, "You know much more about this crypt than you've been leading on, don't you?"

Felix sighed aloud, "Yes, well, it was a theory that until now, I couldn't have been sure of. But the theory has all but been proven."

"Well! Don't leave us hanging. Out with it!." Raiya demanded, sounding even more irritated.

"Well back when I was working in the Vatican, I had stumbled across some 3000 year old documents from a sect of Judaism, that spoke of a pagan tribe the Jews had drove out of the middle east, named the Valakites. The Valakites seemingly praised mana crystals as their gods. They used only mana crystal related magics and weapons. If the Jews had not been there to reign them in, they might have been a force to be reckoned with. But, there was a conflict between them and the Jews over a disruption in a supply chain running from Syria to Israel. The Valakites had been taking land and forcing cities to comply with them in Syria. Of course the Syrians which were under the rule of the Hitites at the time tried to fight back, but were overpowered. This disrupted the supply chain to Israel, and forced the Jews to react. But an odd thing happened. As it seemed like they were about to completely decimate the Valakite forces, they disappeared. In a bright flash of light, the Valakites all collectively vanished, never to be seen again. Of course, the Jews praised this as an act of their God. But, after I disclosed these findings to the scholars at the Vatican, many theories arose as to what might have actually happened. The common thread was that the Valakites used special mana cystals that every Valakite would have, and cast a chain spell teleporting all who were in posession of these special mana crystals. Though, without any leads as to where they might have gone, we were left at a dead end. After learning the possibility of the Paragon of Espial being located in an ancient catacomb near Academia under their jurisdiction. I began to read accounts of the catacombs, all explaining the catacombs as rife with mana crystals. One even went as far as to say that their examination of the crystals in the catacombs found that the crystals were arranged in a, 'religious fashion.' Of course, I was never actually able to see it myself, but now that I can lay my manalysis on it and see it for myself... Well, this is definitely the Valakites final resting place." Felix explained

"I see. That does add up." Raiya murmured, holding her left hand up under her chin and her right arm folded under the left arm in an inquisitive pose.

It does add up as to why he kept quite about this information and when probed, didn't answer me. He wasn't positive about his theory, but something that just happened seemed to confirm his theory. And I'm willing to bet it's about the undead skeletons. It also seems as though Felix is still hiding something, but there's no use in thinking about that now. Raiya thought.

"Anyway... Let's continue forward then." Raiya said, changing the subject.

She made her way across the room and through the double doors. Past the doors was another corridor, but this one was different, no longer did coffins like the walls. Instead, the walls were barren, all except for the occasional mana crystal torch jutting out.

"Up ahead there is a room with a series of passages leading off to different parts of the crypt. Use your heads and pick one route out. You must all go down the same passage, no splitting up. There's no telling what lurks down here, and even the most experienced veteran might fall victim to a trap that they could have been saved from had there been someone else there to help them. This is Relic Hunter 101 information." Felix explained.

Raiya nodded her head in agreement, and began to head down the corridor that lead to the room with the many passages.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo listened to Felix's story, seemingly entertained by the exposition he gave as he looked around the room. He used the scenery to help him imagine the events of the past.

"...Their decor makes me hungry." He stated before moving on and catching up with Raiya. She seemed to try to gather information often, and figured that if he ran his mouth too much she'd get irritated with him. Nemo rested his hands in his jacket pockets and continued to walk beside her a few feet away, doing some thinking of his own. What kind of thoughts ran through his head was something to think about in itself.

[Prodigal Son]

Once Nemo caught up with Raiya, the thought she'd filed away about Nemo's abnormal tone he had when explaining his self taught magicks resurfaced.

The more I can learn about him, the easier it will be to figure a way out of our deal. Though, I don't suppose he'll just tell me if I ask him straight out. But, then again, stranger things have happened. And Nemo seems to be the king of abnormalities...

"So earlier..." Raiya broke the silence, "When talking about how you learned your magic abilities, your tone changed slightly. It almost seemed somber. Why is that?" Raiya asking, trying not to sound too suspicious.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo glanced over to Raiya after she spoke, rather blank at first, as if he was still trying to register her question properly and think of a response. He then let out a small snicker, his face turning to a more amused expression. "Quid pro quo... more Latin, it means something for something. I'll tell you something about myself if you tell me something about yourself." Nemo proposed.

"Does that sound fair?" He asked. "Oh, and the uh, microphone, is gonna have to stay out of it, This is between me and you. That's what makes it fun." Nemo twirled his finger around his ear as he added his last condition.

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya cringed at the thought of having to share any information with the man who duped her. But the price might be worth it, if she was able to obtain a slip up of information leading her to her freedom.

She outwardly sighed a puff of air, and then pulled the mana crystal inlay from her ear and placed it back in the socket on the manadial. She then took out her flask once more and took a large swig before placing it back into her jacket. She was going to need it.

"I'm sure you've been able to gather that I had been raised in the Arcanocracy, but left and became an apostate four years ago. Well, up until then, I really hadn't given much thought as to who my parents were. I didn't really need to, because my identity was solely based upon the Catholic Arcanocracy. Every person I met within that organization was a brother and a sister. We were mostly all orphans, with a few exceptions. Though, regardless of how you join the ranks, you are required to cut ties with your previous family, as your life is carried out solely in the confines of the organization. So, technically we were all orphans. And, really, to deny them, is to deny your family. So once I became an apostate, everything changed. My entire viewpoint of what family was changed. I went from believing family was those in closest proximity to you, to believing that the only true family you could have is a blood family. After I left the Arcanocracy, I decided to try and find out more about my parents. Of course, if you have genuine questions of your origins, the Arcanocracy is very open and ready to tell you everything they know about it. And everyone does become curious at one point in their life within the Church. And I was told about the Japanese heritage I had, and how my parents were killed in a car accident. So, after I left, the first thing I did was look into the reports. All the reports I could find online corroborated what I had been told by the Church. But, of course, with the circumstances that had lead to my apostasy being about a fellow member being corrupt, I learned to be a bit more skeptical. So, I used magic to break into the police station that had filed the report. I found all the evidence that had been sealed away. Which, in and of itself was odd. If the station had ruled it an accident, they would have had no need to keep a box of evidence. What I saw inside were nothing more than blood spattered clothing and the wallet and purse of my mother and father. At first glance, it just looked as though this is what they died in during the crash... But then I used manalysis... Through manalysis I saw protective Shinto runes covering both sets of clothing. Immediately I was in shock. I knew that it would make no sense for someone wearing these runes to die in a car crash. Those runes would have protected the users from any sort of kinetic damage received. Then I read the file. The file said it was ruled as a double homicide, a burglary gone wrong. I realized that all of the articles about this online had been changed to say it was a car crash, so if I had gotten curious and searched it, I would have found what the Arcanocracy had told me. So, not only had the Arcanocracy outright lied to me, but the chances were, they were the ones that killed my parents. That was the only conclusion I could come to. And so, to get better acquainted with my roots, I went to Japan for two, almost three years. I ended up becoming very familiar with the undergound there. It turns out all of the gangs, the yakuza, were all large syndicates of Talents. Once they saw my potential, they taught me Shinto magic, as well as some zen budhist magic as well. I mastered the magics in record time, and within the year at the Yamaguchi-gumi Yakuza organization, I rose to the rank of Wakagashira, (or First Lieutenant roughly in English.) Even though I had rose to such a rank, eventually I felt as though I was still missing something. And I knew if I didn't figure out who killed my parents, I'd never get that thing back. So I told my Oyabun, my boss, that I needed to go back to the United States, and use the Yakuza to get a foothold in the Underground in New York, in order to find exactly what happened. He agreed, and luckily at the time, he was looking to gain a foothold in the underground there as well. So sending me there as United States Yakuza branch leader seemed to be the best option. And there I started up the branch of the Yakuza known as Hebi-kai. I, of course, had duties to perform besides looking for information on my parents. Mostly, I handled all the United States domestic business. Trafficking drugs and prostitutes from the states to Japan. Securing business deals in the states. That kind of stuff. Little by little, I began to get information. That yes my parents were murdered, and it had to be by a powerful mage because they were notoriously powerful themselves. I was right on the cusp of getting a real large piece of evidence indicating who killed them, right before-" Raiya stopped herself. She didn't want to let Nemo know that he had impeded her investigation. If he knew, he would also know how urgently she wanted to leave. And how desperately she would claw at any possible way out. So she fabricated the final part of her story. "... Right before the lead died. I was investigating who killed the informant, by doing some dealings with a few gangsters in New York who might have known something when you showed up. But I know Tsukihi will follow up the leads, and I'll no doubt have a mountain of information when I get back." Raiya finished.

"Now it's your turn." Raiya prodded.

[Zelosse]

@Prodigal Son

Artos walked along at the back of the group as per the usual agreement but had remained close enough to hear the conversation buzzing about. Not buzzing, more like endless. Raiya and Nemo were full of more hot air than anything the northern warrior had ever seen. In his own village people tended to avoid talking when they were off hunting, knowing that the slightest sound could alert prey of their imminent demise. There was only so much idle chatter a person could stand before their sanity began to deteriorate into inevitable chaos. Staying quiet on their incessant prattle was proving a challenge but it wasn't until Raiya poured out her life story that he finally began to lose patience.
Before he realized it she had finished, after what seemed like hours.

"Now it's your turn." Raiya prodded.

@Prodigal Son

Artos couldn't resist and cut right into the conversation.

"He is old and you are both full of hot air. Give it a rest. Quiet now, lest you wake the dead. For the second time."

At the moment it was all he could do not to scream at them himself. The both of them were loud. Flashy. Everything they did drew attention to them somehow. Whatever respect he had about their power was lost on their obvious lack of real discipline.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo listened to Raiya quietly, he seemed to appreciate that she trusted him enough to divulge her story. "Thank you for sharing, Raiya." He replied with a calm tone.

Nemo's gaze turned to the ceiling as he seemed to be taking in everything she said. He closed his eyes for a few moments until his head cocked to the side. He used manalysis to make sure Travis and Artos were still out of earshot. Afterwards he opened them and turned back to Raiya. "Concepts like identity and family are absent to me. It's like this because I've never had any of either." Nemo began.

"I was always like this, the eyes, the pale skin, white hair. And to my parents that must have been displeasing, so I was abandoned as an infant... I never had a name, so I was forced to come up with my own later; Nemo is actually Latin for 'Nobody'."

"Being orphans seems to be one thing you and I have in common. However, my experience was a bit different from yours. I was never shown the camaraderie or companionship by anybody there, not even the adults. They were afraid of me, thought I didn't belong there, and I suppose they were right." He explained. "When I became old enough to speak and feed myself, I was cast off to the streets. From then on I wandered, here to there, the only comfort I had was with books. I learned to love reading during that time. I'd read about anything to pass the time, I found the knowledge it gave and things it taught me to be priceless."

"However I was constantly searching for where I belonged, where there were people like me. I thought I found that in the Arcanocracy. But once I made it to the front door I began to have doubts. A small group came out to evaluate me, and the way they looked at me, it reminded me of the way people looked at me at the orphanage. As if I wasn't a person, like I was a freak. I didn't like it, but not as much as I didn't like what they told me next. The group said I didn't have any magic potential." Nemo paused for a moment.

"Not that I just wasn't a talent, but that I was even less than the non-talents. I had virtually no usable mana pool at all. So they turned me away. I was a bit... upset by the news, but not totally deterred. So I got my hands on as many basic spell books as I could and practiced as much as I could. I gave it my best effort, but after several weeks I began to lose hope. However it's from that desperation I made my greatest discovery."

"I had a bit of a breakdown, but by the end of it when I opened my eyes I was a grasping a rose in my hand. But something was different about it. It had withered, become dull colored and lifeless. This was the first time I ever used my absorption magick. I was ecstatic, I had finally used a spell, I was told it could it could not be done, but there I was, doing it. I dedicated all of my time perfecting the ability until I was confident to go back to the Arcanocracy. However once I went, my euphoria over the discovery ran out. They didn't understand how I gained mana until I showed them my new trick on a vase of flowers they had... They didn't share the same enthusiasm that I did over my gift, in fact they thought I was a demon, and said my power was evil. I was rejected once more, this time knowing I couldn't go back again."

"But there was one thing important that I learned, that I had gained mana. With that I went back to the book of basic spells. And this time I began to make actual progress. I began to learn to harness the mana I had gained. But it wasn't nearly enough, so I consumed more until I could. During this time I traveled to one of the Academia's schools and demonstrated my talents to one of their leaders. I was met with another bad reaction. To a organization built on preserving and studying magic, my ability to destroy it threatened them... So once again I had to leave with my head down."

"As I grew older I even tried a witch hunter group, but even though my abilities aligned with their purpose, they saw me as a magic abomination to be snuffed out all the same..." Nemo added. "They all didn't appreciate my talents, nobody did. I didn't understand what I had done wrong, I did all I could, but they all still hated me, everyone always hated me. It came to peak when an assassin was hired to kill me by one of the organizations I had visited... That's when I began to feel hate too; I absorbed his spells, and then absorbed him as well. It was the first time I killed somebody." He explained.

"It was after that I became numb to it all, I started to feel nothing. But I did feel one thing, purpose. My victory over the assassin made me realize that there was something I was good at: The art of death. And through that I finally found people that appreciated my talents."

"You asked why I sounded upset when I talked about how I learned my spells. It's because I never had a choice. I learned by myself because I was the only person willing to teach me." Nemo finished.

[Prodigal Son]

"I see." Raiya's voice a contemplative whisper.

The mana crystal lamps did little to light the way, which was probably because the charge in them was waning and no one had bothered to charge them in years. But if the way was lit just a little better, Nemo and the others could see that Raiya was visibly shaken, and almost in a state of panic.

It's even worse than I could have ever imagined. Not only has Nemo been suppressing his true power. But he has an innate abiltiy or some form of knowledge of a lost magick that gives him a limitless potential, and makes him by nature the enemy of every Talent. No, every life form.

Raiya shivered as her imagination took the idea of Nemo absorbing the entire world and animated it fully in her mind.

What can I even do? I didn't sign up for this. DAMNIT! At this rate, I'll never be able to get back to the Yakuza

She fumbled in her jacket with her shaky hand to take out the flask, contemplating downing the rest of the entire flask. She loosened the cap, but as she went to bring it to her lips, the shakiness of her hand was so severe that she dropped the flask, spilling the entire contents on the ground.

She was so at a loss that she hesitated in picking it up, letting it lay on the ground for several moments.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo saw the flask spill onto the floor, he had been trying to observe Raiya's reaction beforehand but was distracted by the mishap. Noticing Raiya's hesitation caused Nemo to bend over and pick it up himself. He brushed it off clean from the ground and then extended his hand to give it back to her. "You should be more careful, that's a very collectible piece you've got there." He commented.

Nemo then placed his gloved right hand on her shoulder, even in the dark his pale white eyes were still visible. "You know, I really hope we can get along in the future, Raiya."

[Prodigal Son]

As soon as Nemo placed his hand on her shoulder, she imagined all of her mana rushing out of her through his hand, her becoming a withered husk, dying while being assimilated into Nemo's mana pool. The thought made her flinch momentarily, and when she snapped out of it, she had realized she was still alive, and Nemo had extended his hand out for an abnormally long time to return the flask.

"Y-yeah. I hope so too..." Raiya replied hesitantly as she greedily snatched the flask back and placed it into her pocket.

With an absent mind, still lost in thought, she continued to walk forward, not noticing the corridor had shifted to the room with the multiple passages. As soon as she stepped into the room, her foot touched a plate on the ground triggering a trap.

Two large slabs of granite, one from the bottom and one from the top of the corridor, rushed together in an instant. Everyone except Artos had made it into the room with the multiple passages. Once the slabs came together, that was the end for Artos, and this was readily apparent. The small seem in the middle of the blocked way to the corridor oozed black blood, which dripped into a pool on the ground in front of the blocked path.

Raiya picked up the crystal inlay and placed it back in her ear.

"Uh- Felix-?" Raiya began.

"No- I know. Artos is dead. I felt his manadial blink off. He was the rearguard. The last one in the formation. It could have just as easily been anyone else. But he died doing his duty." Felix sighed.