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

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo used his warp spell to consecutively dodge the boulders from side to side. It wasn't his most impressive or efficient way to accomplish it, but it revealed the least amount capabilities. As soon as he finished, Nemo shot off two blasts from his hands, one curving at Thadeus from the left, the other from the right. He immediately clapped his hands together afterwards, firing off a lazer beam burst at Thadeus from the middle. The lazer had the ability to penetrate most shields and physical objects before exploding.

[Prodigal Son]

Thadeus raised up his right hand over head, "The Lord will keep me from all harm, he watches over my life." Thadeus paraphrased Psalm 121 verse 7. He then slammed his right hand down on the ground, a thick golden barrier formed a sphere around him. The blasts all hit the shield but none broke through. The laser diffused around the shield, but was powerful enough to crack the barrier. Thadeus had to expend a massive amount of mana to keep the shield from breaking, but drawing from his well, he had enough to spare to do such a feet.

"My turn!" Thadeus cocked his head to the side smiling widely. He then forced both his hands outwards towards Nemo and began charging up mana into his hands, preparing for a spell.

---

Raiya dodged out of the way of a swing from Ambriel, but this time the dodge was much faster, and not even the wide flames could bruise her. Her God form was the released energy pent up inside her runic tattoos. It made her much more snake-like, exponentially increasing her speed, reflexes, reaction times, strength, senses. It also vastly increased her natural regeneration properties. But most of all, it temporarily changed her aura color, which allowed her to use aether spells much more easily.

Dodging out of the way of Ambriel, she charged her aura around her body, and a split second later, a second image of Raiya was running beside her. This second image shared her aura, as she had to split her mana well up between her and the aura, so with manalysis it was impossible to tell which was the real one. But both were heading towards Dawn and incredibly high speeds. Raiya was just about within striking distance when Ambriel used the last of her given mana by the summoner to extend the reach of her flames, attack the image on the left. The image of Raiya dissipated, and turned to mana which returned back to Raiya. The fallen angel went to swing again, but it was too late. Raiya lunged with her sword, at Dawn's chest where her heart was.

The moment before the sword could pierce Dawn's chest, a distortion between Dawn and Raiya was made in the air, and Dominick materialized. The sword piercing his heart in her stead.

Dominick fell lifeless to the ground. Dawn had expended the rest of her available mana into the summon, and now that the summon had used the given mana all up, the summon dematerialized back to the realm it came from. Dawn knelt down to her now dead brother, placing his head on her lap, and began to sob uncontrollably.

Raiya shook her head, and turned to walk away. Releasing her god form, her white hair returning to normal jet black, her left eye returning to a drab blue, and her aura returning from white to purple.

She managed to walk a few steps before she heard Dawn get to her feet.

"KILL ME!" She yelled, her fists clenched in balls, and her cheeks stained with tears. "DON'T TURN AND WALK AWAY! KILL ME!" She picked up a rock off the ground and threw it about two feet, which didn't even make it close to where Raiya was standing. "W-why won't you kill me!?" Her frantic yelling turned to something more akin to a soft pleading.

Raiya dropped her sword, returning it to her mana inventory. She then placed her hands in her pockets, slightly turned her body towards Dawn, and cocked her head to the side, showing only her drab blue eye to Dawn.

"Why won't I kill you? It's simple, really. You've lost the will to fight. The will to live, even. There's no sense in killing someone like you." Raiya replied with a monotone, halfhearted tone of voice.

Raiya turned forward again, and continued to walk away. Meanwhile, Dawn collapsed back to her kneeling sobbing position, and continued to cry over her precious twin brother.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo seemed visibly excited after Thadeus' words, coupled by seeing the end of Raiya's dramatic battle. "By all means! Take your best shot." He called back to him before cupping his hand over his mouth once more and whispering another incantation. This time it took him longer to finish, his eyeballs twitched in their sockets as he murmured.

As Nemo dropped his hand from his mouth, a feint glow was once again present on the X rune of his glove. "Show me something inspiring!" He finished. Nemo showed no signs of backing down from his fight with Thadeus.

[Dawnpath]

Zoey pushed aside her mask, gazing at the glowing, crystal moon in the cave she had found herself drawn to. It's beautiful, soft gold radiance pulsed gently in the darkness of the cave. She glanced both ways, verifying that there was nothing waiting for her, then stepped to the artifact. Gently lifting it from it's pedestal, she instantly noticed how, in it's glow, her furred body began to take on a more human appearance. Gasping, she nearly dropped the golden crescent, but felt compelled to continue holding it, as if someone had clasped it to her hand as a gift. She turned it over, noticing the chain affixed to top. An amulet... it feels a bit like illusion magic too. Testing it, she gently returned the artifact to it's pedestal. Sure enough, her purple hues returned eagerly. Slowly, she reached again for the amulet to similar effect, holding it to her face to better look at it. Other than it's clear, precise cuts and gentle glow, there seemed to be nothing special about it. In fact, even the glow faded as it lost it's charge, faintly pulsing one last time. Zoey frowned at it in thought, It seems harmless enough, and can get me into towns when it isn't Halloween... But I still know nothing of it. An interesting puzzle, but nothing ever gets done without a spot of risk.

She held the object in her hand and concentrated, gathering her blue mana within herself to charge the crystal. Almost instantly, the amulet flashed blue, requiring next to nothing to charge. Instantly, the magic spread over her body, reverting her appearance to a human look. A look she hadn't had in... years, to say the least. She looked at her hands, trying to get over the fact that they looked like... These are my hands. From... before. This look like me! But, not me... at the same time. She sighed and put the amulet in a pouch around her waist, seemingly enough to stop it's magic at the moment. After a quick look around the small cave, she returned to the mouth with it's crude, scratched art of a moon on the face that had drawn her into the cave in the first place. Pausing at that mouth, she gazed up at the sky, clear of clouds and obstructions and dark with the night.

[Prodigal Son]

Thadeus began to recite scripture in a grandiose fashion, his voice loud and reverent, his smile as wide as it'd ever been. "For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song. Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered," His mana poured into his hands, and a mana circle with the hebrew name for God יְהוָ֥ה(Yahweh) appeared in the center of the golden circle that floated in front of his hands. "And let those who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish before God." The circle was completed and the power was almost charged to completion, but Thadeus wasn't content with only 90 percent of the power. So he recited the scripture and the verse, "Psalm 68 verse-"

One moment Thadeus was charging one of his grandest spells, but within the next moment he was interrupted by a blue comet smashing into him. Driving him back into the wall. His spell was interrupted as he found himself embedded into a crater into the wall behind him. Standing in front of him was Felix in his shining blue manaegis. Felix turned to face Nemo.

"Sorry it took me so long to get here, team. It took me a bit to get through a closed passageway, and I stopped a moment after discovering Artos had died there." Felix explained, "Is everyone else alright?"

Thadeus was winded and drained from the mana he exerted, so he remained in the crater, gathering his bearings for a moment.

Then Thadeus retracted the mana he was using to keep up the arena and the barrier around the arena. The arena fell back down into the ground as if the ground had never been disturbed in the first place.

---

Raiya walked over to her chain daggers that were still charged with the rune she placed. After examining them, she realized that Dominick must have used the last of his willpower to teleport through the the pain and motor-skill overload from the electrical charge. She quickly retracted the chain back to its small base form of 2 feet, and then stored the weapon in her mana inventory.

She stood up and stopped for a moment, realizing through the familiar feeling of the manawaves his manaegis gave off, that Felix had arrived. Then the arena fell around them.

Every square around them looked well battled in, scorch marks and boulders everywhere. In fact, it looked as if Raiya's portion was the cleanest of them all.

Raiya held her arms out in a T and flicked her wrists, her jacket materializing on her from her mana inventory. She reached behind her neck and pulled her hair free from behind her jacket, allowing it to fall behind her jacket. Then she began to walk towards Felix, Nemo, and Thadeus.

---

Thadeus used a warp spell and disappeared from the crater, reappearing next to Dawn. He grabbed her, and disappeared once more, reappearing on top of the balcony he had made and was sitting on earlier with Dawn kneeling next to him with her brother's dead body still on her lap.

"Well, I'd love to stay. But it does indeed appear we have been bested on this day. We shall regroup, revise our plan of attack, and be back for that Paragon." Thadeus licked his lips as if he hungered for that day to come quickly. "Au revior!" He waved, as he wrote a glyph with his other hand opening a rift gate behind them. Both Dawn and Thadeus walked through it at the same time. Dawn cradling her brother's corpse. The rift closing as soon as they were through.

Felix dispersed his manaegis, he was wearing his old robes again. He figured that his robes offered massive amounts of protection against magic, as well as lots of pockets to hold any manner of things they'd need on a mission. So he couldn't bring himself to throw out the robes just yet.

Raiya walked up to the group. Her eyes narrowing a bit when she saw that Nemo was still alive. If Felix would have waited just a second more, I could flee this stupid operation and get back to what's really important. Raiya thought.

"Okay, so we are all accounted for except for Travis." Felix looked around, and saw Travis off far away, still facing an opponent. Felix raised an eyebrow. "Is that one of Thadeus's subordinates?"

Felix ran off over to Travis, Raiya following behind. Felix noticed the exhausted blonde female who was still in a battle stance.

"It's over," Felix said, "There's no need to fight anymore."

[Cottonmouth]

Despite being correct on his statement from earlier, Nemo couldn't help but feel slightly vexed over the exact time Felix had showed up. Nemo shook his gloved hand like he was trying to get water off of it, dispersing the preparations he had made for his next spell. "How very anti-climactic..." He mumbled

After Thadeus and the remains of his crew retreated, Nemo seemed more interested in something other than the still-going skirmish between Travis and Alya. He veered off and slowly walked over to the body of Nevar. Crouching down, Nemo examined his body for a few moments before speaking. "Hope there aren't any hard feelings between us, me cutting you in half and all."

For once Nemo seemed to be showing a sign of genuine remorse, however that sentiment quickly became questionable when Nemo placed his thumb on Nevar's chin and moved his jaw up and down like a puppet. "It's just a flesh wound. How could I holda grudge against you Nemo? We're still pals to the end, friend." Nemo said with a goofy impersonation of Nevar's voice.

"Oh geez, that's mighty kind of you... I'm touched." Nemo replied. "Say, I don't suppose you'd mind if I... took your manadial, huh slick?" He asked.

"Of course not Nemo, take anythin' you want. It's on ma wrist. Not like I'm gonna be usin' em anytime soon." He used his fingers to force Nevar's mouth into a comical smile after the joke. Nemo glanced down and pulled up the sleeve on Nevar's left wrist, only to find a bare wrist. "No Nemo, ma other wrist," He pushed Nevar's head to the side, if his eyes hadn't been closed the entire time it would be looking at his severed forearm, still gripping his rapier off laying on the ground. Nemo used his other hand to hold open his eyes for him. "over there."

"Thanks buddy." Nemo finished, patting him on the cheek before standing back up. Nemo started walking back to Felix and Raiya, picking the arm up on the way.

"Looks like I found my souvenir." Nemo commented, inspecting the edge of the blade as he began to scavenge the arm, absorbing the rings and sword into his inventory first. He then pulled the manadial from his wrist, using his manalysis to check for anything suspicious. Nemo brought the piece up to his mouth and whispered something, initiating a spell to disarm any possibility of tracking it further.

Once finished, Nemo absorbed Nevar's manadial and tossed his severed arm off behind his shoulder, figuring saving the bones probably wasn't worth the effort. By this point Nemo had arrived back by his "partner" Raiya and looked off towards Travis and Alya, not saying anything about what just transpired. As Nemo stared down Alya, he placed his left hand over the damage he suffered earlier in the fight. Suddenly the same manathread he used to defeat Nevar appeared en masse, rapidly sewing up both the wound on his arm and rip in his jacket.

A thought crossed his mind that quickly caused Nemo to turn and look to Raiya. "Are you hurt? I could... help." He asked, recalling her battle earlier. He realized afterwards it was unlikely she would take him up on that offer even if she was injured. If Raiya didn't have anything herself to use, she probably would feel much more at ease with Felix aiding her, coupled with his healing magick likely being much more advanced and comfortable than his own uncanny way of doing it.

As Nemo spoke his sewing finished. Shortly after the manathread seemed to fade with a healing/repairing effect, making the jacket look like it had never been cut at all. Nemo shifted the position of his fingers, causing a change in the spell. The feathers which spilled out from his jacket in the fight were replaced. And finally after one last shift, a very feint hum emanated from his palm, cleaning up any signs of blood and causing the stains to magically recede into nothing.

One could only imagine the countless hours Nemo sunk into developing various repair and restoration spells for his possessions.

[Mal2103]

Travis' questions interrupted Alya's thoughts. She froze expressionless, but before she could reply a lot of things happened at once. She felt another death, Dominick's aura was gone. The earth shook from the battle between Thadeus and Nemo, the walls around them quickly fell and Thadeus made his departure. The mist from Travis' spells now dispersed due to the larger, more open area.

"Thadeus is definitely insane." She mumbled wearing a frown on her face.
'There is no way I will be able to successfully flee from this situation. I cannot believe Thadeus left me. Though maybe I should be thankful that he did.
Alya reverted her aura to her usual soothing passive aura as she retracted her staff, the glowing runes faded to the dull metallic color of the staff as she put it away. Her barrier however remained active. "Very well, I'll stand down. Just let me heal everyone." Alya said calmly as she twirled her hands and cast a spell. Blue whips of magic flew up and towards Travis, Raiya and Nemo. The magical energy quickly sought out any injuries and quickly patched them up.

Alya faced Nemo as he played with Nevar's body, or at least the upper half of it. "It would be nice if you could at least respect the dead." Alya stated with an annoyed tone. "Now am I to be your prisoner?" She said turning to Felix who seemed to be the one in charge.
'He has robes of the Arcanocracy Arch-mages. Interesting...'

[Prodigal Son]

Felix cocked an eyebrow at the sudden change in the demeanor of the blonde woman.

"We don't take prisoners," Felix replied, within a moment he realized what it sounded like he said and added a frantic, "W-we don't kill witnesses or anything like that either. You are free to go wherever you wish."

---

Raiya turned her gaze to Nemo when he spoke to her. Raiya cocked her head to the side in a questioning manner. She then turned her body, and opened her coat revealing her torso. She grabbed the cut on her shirt which was drenched in blood, and lifted her shirt slightly, revealing her belly to Nemo. There was only a thin scar where the cut was made. The cut, which could have easily been a fatal wound had it not been treated properly, was all but gone.

"I had to use that spell, I won't be able to use it for ten more days. So I hope we are not going to get into any situation where I would need to use it." Raiya replied.

[ShiningSector]

Travis was unsure if his query hit home or even provoked a response; the mist that visually concealed both him and Alya from each others' sights still drifted within the arena and thus denied any kind of confirmation to be desired. But in the coming moments, the mattered little. The ground beneath them soon shook violently all of a sudden due to nearby activity. At first Travis believed the engagement Raiya was participating in was still raging but then again, he remembered Thadeus moseying in on a fight with Nemo. Perhaps only for a few short minutes, the new battle would rage and Travis would find that no response from Alya was to be heard. If she was taking advantage of the interruption and maneuvering inward or nullifying his traps, she was doing a good job, especially with the physical racket the next-door fight was causing. Of course, there was also the chance that she too was also startled by the unexpected brawl.

Not a moment later did everything suddenly stop and the great stone walls that divided everyone had then receded back into the earth. The new change in architecture and atmosphere quickly dissipated the mist that had claimed the arena when it first became constructed. Naturally, Travis was puzzled by this and questioned why the spell Thadeus had casted was no longer active. While contemplating the results of Thadeus' mad tourney, he quickly realized that the loss of the arena walls meant that Alya could now maneuver freely past his defenses. With his best advantage had over Alya the entire fight also vanishing, Travis prepared for the worst to come; to expect Alya lunging at him from any of his unguarded flanks. Once he caught the shadow of a figure now upon him from his left side, he reeled back and braced himself.

But instead of Alya coming through the thinned out mist, it was Felix whom greeted him with his presence with Nemo and Raiya well behind him.

Travis stood dumbstruck with a utterly surprised expressed washed onto his face, still frozen in the taken defensive, if not, cowering stance, as if anticipating something far more threatening than this pleasant surprise. Tilting his head around to his right, he found Alya still in her position he had guessed she would be after his first trap went off; almost intriguing that she never left. Apparently, she too also seemed a tad perplexed with the situation but not as deplorable as Travis was unfortunately broadcasting. He eventually let himself loose after tensing up throughout the entire skirmish, nearly falling over on his rear in the process with all the adrenaline now diminishing as he exhaled. As Felix confirmed it in once simple sentence, the fighting has ceased and Thadeus was nowhere to be found. Travis took the random assumption that he had fled upon Felix arriving on the scene.

It was then Alya finally agreed to stand down and took back the more sincere aura she had displayed before the battle had begun earlier. If that was not pleasing enough, Alya had then demonstrated courtesy and sought to heal everyone's injuries. Azure-colored threads that reach out from her spell and reached to every living body including Travis himself. He watched in fascination as the healing thread seemingly stitched his cauterized wound into healthy muscle and skin as if the injury had never occurred.

"T-thank you." Travis almost sheepishly responded to Alya's efforts in healing everyone. It was natural for him to show gratitude whn it was clearly deserved but after having fought hard against the same person, he was still under the cautious mindset and thus effected they way he spoke, even if they were now on even terms.

While he watched and listened to Alya and Felix discuss her fate and nearly glaring at Felix for unintentionally blurting out a rather hostile reply, he then caught a glimpse of the the battlefield Alya and he had fought in. Unlike the damage observed in the other former arenas, the earth was hardly destroyed but it remain littered with scorch marks and un-triggered runes. But one such rune with its lines and characters glistening with a dark flowing pink, caught his eye now that it was visually noticeable. It was Travis' earlier half of his would-be-trump card, a Graviton Seal, still on standby and awaiting his trigger had Alya chose to attack him within the runic circle. Miraculously for Alya, she stood only a couple feet away from the large magic circle that separated the space between them.

"I'm...gonna go ahead and disarm this so nothing bad happens..." he announced. Not wanting a black hole-on-demand still armed beneath their feet, Travis walked forward and began to cite the incantation to neutralize it and the other runes too.

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo let his hand drop away from the repaired rip in his jacket. Things had turned out rather good as of so far, they made it through the cave, found and secured the paragon, and defended themselves well against the attackers. All while only losing one member of their team; Nemo planned to keep good watch for traps on the way out. But on the bright side there was one new person on the playing field now. Letting her walk free for nothing wouldn't exactly be Nemo's own first course of action, but with Felix being a very recent ex-member of the Church, he could understand why he made that choice.

Raiya's response had intrigued him. It was certainly something to keep in mind, considering Raiya was shaping up to possibly be a bigger threat to Nemo than Felix. Despite Felix and Nemo's 'rocky' past interactions, he had been mostly pleasant to deal with so far. Nemo was mostly unsure about what kind of feelings Felix held for him now, but clearly they weren't not nearly as sabotage-y. The golem stunt Raiya had pulled earlier had indicated that Raiya didn't intend to take her bodyguard role too seriously, however this wasn't of much of a disappointment to Nemo. After all, he didn't actually care about having a bodyguard. It was the thought that counted, and the entertainment.

"Hmmm," Nemo sounded as he crouched down a tad to look at her spell's handiwork. "I hope so too, otherwise you might tarnish another delightful ensemble." He commented. "You do have a cute tummy though," Nemo remarked as he suddenly poked her belly with his left pointer finger, careful to not jab her with one of his nails. "boop."

[Prodigal Son]

Raiya raised an eyebrow and shuddered back at Nemo's all-too intimate action towards her navel. It took her a moment to fathom a reaction to what had just transpired. On a normal occasion, she would have reached for one of her sushi knives and made some Filet o' Nemo. But seeing as she was exhausted, and since she was also not sure if even at her best she could even scratch Nemo she just said in a drab and dry tone, "Please for the love of all. Do not ever do that again. Ever."

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo was surprised he still kept the hand. He straightened his posture back out and gave a shrug. "Suit yourself." He commented before resting his hands in his pockets and turning to the rest of the group. "Felix, if you don't know it already yourself, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that despite the little ambush we encountered," Nemo walked away from Raiya and began to stroll idly about, glancing over to Alya when he emphasized the word 'ambush'. He habitually pulled his right hand from his pocket and began to use it expressively. "we still secured the paragon successfully." Nemo explained.

Judging by the still massive manawaves, Nemo sensed Travis still indeed held the paragon on his person and turned his gaze over to him now. "Travis, my dear, would you please show Felix the..." Nemo momentarily paused, shifting his voice down to an almost whisper, but still loud enough for everybody to hear him. "Fruits of out labor."

[ShiningSector]

Travis tried to pay no mind to Nemo and Raiya's brief exchange as he continued to disarm all of the runes he laid down everywhere around him. The process of disabling the activation sequences was a tedious task but a necessary one none the less. He couldn't have anyone be walking around him while giving off enough of a mana signature to trip one of the overly sensitive traps. However compared to the largest of them, the ware comparatively small-fry.

With the last unheard verse of his incantation muttered, all the runes he imprinted into the earth fizzled and went off in a quit poof of burning vapors, signifying their disarmament. Stepping back up after finishing nulling rites, he had then turned to face Nemo who was now reporting to Felix of their success in acquiring the Paragon. It was not a moment later he had then shifted his attention to Travis and beckoned him in to show Felix their sought after bounty. 'My dear'...? Ehh...

With a nod, Travis complied and approached Felix, only stopping just a couple of feet apart from his superior. Pulling on the left lapel of his coat with a native hand, he reached into the apparel with his right hand and gave a light tap upon a patch within the coat. A second later, a faint illumination could be noted as he retracted his hand with the Paragon within its grip. Securing the mana crystal with both hands, Travis then presented it to Felix as if offering it.

"As ordered, one Paragon of Espial."

[Mal2103]

Alya nodded towards Travis' acknowledging his gratitude, then she took a moment to analyze his handiwork. 'The rune he had cast was very impressive, especially coming from someone with a limited mana pool.' Alya couldn't help but smile a bit at how efficient her opponent had been.

Alya thought of her options for a moment as the others passed the Paragon to Felix. She could simply walk away from this whole situation and disappear, she knew going back to the Arcanocracy was out of the question. Thadeus held power there and she definitely would not succeed in getting him excommunicated or even punished for his actions, and most definitely she would not serve someone such as him. "It is what is right. "I must do what is right." She mumbled to herself as she shook her head.

Alya turned to Felix. "If you would have me I wish to join you. Thadeus is a monster and his crimes must be put to an end. I offer my staff and my healing magic to your team if you wish to accept." She said.

[Prodigal Son]

Travis procured a fist sized rough looking gem. Roughly in the shape of a sphere, with many cumbersome edges. The shape was nothing special it looked like a normal rock. But the purple transparency with the shimmering, dynamic, almost alive glow that exuded from within was anything but normal. When Felix analyzed it with manalysis he was overwhelmed. Even against his own manawell, the aura that came from the gem was like a vast ocean, his own manawell like gallon bucket of water comparatively. But something else struck Felix. mana waves exuding from the crystal were unlike a normally charged manacrystal. Instead, the paragon had its own living aura. This was very peculiar and something he'd have to look into further.

Felix grabbed the paragon, and tucked it away in his robes.

"Good job, team. Even though we suffered a loss, you have succeed. You guys will have to debrief me on what happened after you found the paragon. But that can wait."

Alya explained that she wished to join their ranks, which took Felix by surprise. He pursed his lips and placed his hand under his chin to contemplate. It took him about 30 seconds to come up with a response.

"Well, it's a little more intricate than just allowing someone to join. Without giving too much away, these members you see before me were not chosen by me. So it's not really up to me who joins and who doesn't. So, without other confirmation, I unfortunately cannot allow you to join. And since our hideout location is a secret, we can't be taking people who aren't part of the lis-" Felix stopped himself before he spoke anything about the list that he had dreamed. To anyone who was not on the list, it would sound absolutely insane.

"Anyway, I can teleport you out of these ruins if would like. But that's as far as I can take you." Felix suggested.

[Mal2103]

Alya nodded towards Felix. "Very well, if that is your wish. Best of luck to you. I can find my own way out of the ruins; thanks for the offer though." She said taking her leave.

Alya took the passageway towards the exit, the walked down the long corridor and came towards the room with the multiple pathways.
Interestingly enough she felt a faint hint of life down one of the tunnels. "There shouldn't be anyone here..." Alya mumbled to herself as she slowly walked the source projecting a small magical blue ball of light in her palm to illuminate the dark corridor.

[Prodigal Son]

Felix didn't quite understand why Alya didn't wish to be teleported out of the ruins. But he assumed it had to do with personal pride, especially after being rejected.

Felix turned to the group, "In any event, we have much to discuss, and daylight is waning. Let us away." Felix said

And then created a cross glyph portal in the midst of them taking them back to HQ, in particular, the living room/den room. Felix and Raiya stepped through the portal and awaited the others.

[Accurian]

It has been ages since someone has tread these grounds. She could feel it, steps heading towards her crystal. A feint aura radiated from this individual. The warm feeling grew stronger as she approached, her heart starting to unthaw from the frozen curse that was placed on her entire body thousands of years ago. W-Where am- before she could finish her thought, she realized that she was trapped in a crystal. Not only are her memories missing, she couldn't breathe either. After struggling for a few seconds, a sudden pulse of dark energy erupted from the core of her heart as the crystal shattered into a million pieces. She fell down, on her knees with both her palms on the floor, she started gasping for air. A few seconds later, she looked around her, but her vision was still trying to recover from being trapped for such a long time.

(Pulse strong enough to disrupt the portal just a little bit)

[Cottonmouth]

Nemo was about to step through the portal when it suddenly rippled due to a disturbance, causing him to hesitate. Nemo's manalysis made picking up the source an easy task. He twisted his body to look back where it was coming from despite only being able to the wall. He was clearly thinking about investigating, however after letting out a small scoff he turned back.

Those peculiar manawaves sure seem delicious, but I've had enough excitement for tonight. That churchgoer might have her work cut out for her today. Till next time. Nemo thought as he entered the portal, taking him back to the base.

Nemo didn't say anything about the incident, figuring Travis might if he didn't. Nemo removed his down jacket and scarf, returning them to his inventory as he shed them from his body. He then un-tucked his shirt and made his way to the kitchen, passing up Felix and Raiya without a word. By himself Nemo opened the fridge, looking around for a moment before grabbing a glass bottle of soda, not bothering to check at the flavor before opening it and downing the whole thing in one sitting. He tossed the bottle into the trash before grabbing another, this time raiding the kitchen for other items.

Nemo ended up adding a whole apple, chocolate bar, doughnut, bowl of assorted small fruit, and some small pastries or cookies he could find. Nemo's actual hunger was a frequently overlooked aspect of him in lieu of his mana habits. He also had a extreme sweet tooth, anybody who wanted to actually catch Nemo would just have to settle down in a good pastry shop and wait.

Nemo sipped on his second soda bottle and made his way over to a empty table. He sat down with his food, facing out the window but with his back turned to the group. This did however put him back into earshot, placing him into a state of "not bothering but still listening."

Using his left hand to eat, Nemo used his right to remove his pistols from their holsters and place them on the tablecloth and called fourth a black leather case from his inventory. He unfastened the gold latches and opened the case, revealing a home for the revolvers, as well as tools to clean them and extra ammunition. Nemo picked up one of the guns, opened the loading gate and pointed the barrel upwards. He rolled the cylinder, causing the bullets to fall out one by one into the case. Nemo continued to manually turn the cylinder with his finger, holding the gun up to his ear as he carefully examined the clicks it made as it turned.

Nemo then disassembled the firearm entirely, using the tools he had to clean it. By this point Nemo was well into devouring his food. He had eaten the apple whole, core and seeds in all. Nemo continued on, barely humming a soft tune by himself as he adeptly reassembled the gun before moving on to the other one.

[ShiningSector]

Upon presenting the Paragon to Felix, he caught the Arch Magi expecting the mana crystal as if to inspect it and like Travis and the other previously, showed an overwhelmed near-overwhelming but nonetheless controlled expression. This impressed Travis whom as an Untalent, pondered about the well of potential actual Talents could pull from and even to see a formerly high-ranking Church official diminished by such a small mana crystal spoke plenty of how infinitely sized the mana well the Paragon held within its crystalline confines. Felix then took the Paragon as Travis expected which brought a sense of relief to the Untalent. Not that he didn't want to bear it any longer as Travis was still itching to study this fantastic relic when they got back, but as recent events however proved, it was almost having a target on his back.

Alya then voiced a rather unexpected request to join their company after being ditched by Thadeus in which the sentiment was definitely understandable. Then again, was she truly honest in her request though? Travis certainly couldn't say but it was plenty evident from earlier that she was completely out of the loop in how Thadeus had acted throughout the entire engagement. While it may have taken him some time to unwind from his battle with her, Travis and his optimistic thinking was open to the idea welcoming Alya into their fold with Felix's permission...which he had shot down.

Yet there was a reason for this; a skeptical one at that but Travis found it difficult to argue against. It seemed Felix was settling on the mindset that only those whose names were on the list were exclusively eligible to take part in this hunt for the Paragons. In addition, there was that same trust issue as Travis debated too and taking her back to their hideout could no doubt compromise their operation. In the end, he had to keep his opinion in check for the time being and allowed Felix to determine this outcome.

His, hopefully, former adversary didn't argue against their leader and motioned to find her way out. The was no ill will in her tone or any sense of irritation to be had from what Travis could pick up on. It purely seemed that she simply accepted Felix's decline to her request and sought not to be of any further burden where that may have been for apologetic or prideful reasons. At any rate, Felix soon instructed the remaining members to return to the hide out in order to debrief him of the recent ordeal before had and then Raiya passed through the portal he erected. Travis nodded in agreement and made his way to the portal.

Just as Nemo ahead of him could step through the portal, both of them caught an unusual ripple slowing through the fluid motions of the gateway spell. The sudden occurrence stopped the two briefly before they could make their exit. What ever disturbance that caused a the portal to react in such a way appeared to be local and obviously mana-based. Was it because of Alya or something self they missed? Nemo didn't seemed to concerned and only expressed simple scoff before making his way out through the portal. Travis at first maintained his position and looked around, being cautious of whatever was nearby. Aside from the rubble and the destruction of the chamber, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"How strange..." Travis muttered to himself. He would go to investigate but with their goal completed, there was no reason to stay any longer or to pry any further into this place than they already have.

Shaking his head, he pushed himself forward through the portal and soon exiting back to Felix's lucrative residence. It was nice to see a more civilized atmosphere and a safe locale without under threat from traps and hostile entities and individuals. While Nemo had other things in mind such as snaking and disassembling his firearms for what Travis assumed to be for maintenance, he re-focused back to Felix and Raiya, maintaining a firm posture while doing so.

"Well that was..." Travis was about to express optimism of the outcome of this recent adventure but to probably everyone's experiences and opinions, the only thing they met on their expedition was a slew of unfortunate implications and all-time tension, "...lamentably productive."