[h2]Edric[/h2] [hr] Edric had, thankfully, ended up on the right side of the Psi barriers when they went up. He and Azamor had ceased the Duality and he jogged the rest of the way toward the locker. The area was crowded with frightened trying to get their things, but Edric managed to get past them. When he approached the locker, however, his heart fell. It was a key-lock, and he'd totally forgotten where he'd put the key. "Think we can break this one open, Aza?" He frowned as he examined it. The metal didn't look exceptionally thick, but the hinges seemed solid. Even with Azamor's possession-strength, he didn't know if he'd be able to rip it open. [i]Back left pocket.[/i] "What?" [i]The key is in your back left pocket.[/i] "Oh." He patted the pocket and, sure enough, there was the key. He sighed as he heard Azamor snicker. He opened the locker, and there was his satchel and his sword. He donned the satchel and belted the sword to his side. He was, he figured, as ready as he could be. Seven minutes later, the soldiers guarding the barrier had other ideas. "Hell no." Said a grizzled old sergeant. "Absolutely not. I can't allow a civilian to go get themselves killed in there. We have people trained for this sort of thing, let them handle it." "Look, man, I'm not helpless." "I'm sure you aren't, but unless you're a fully equipped crisis response team, I'm not letting you through." "I studied at Athalia!" Edric blurt out, at the last moment. "Did you now?" The soldier looked intrigued, but stomped on it immediately and went right back to grumpy. "That doesn't mean much, these days." "Doesn't it?" Edric cocked an eyebrow. Something clicked. Maybe the soldier had some kind of respect for Athalia, maybe he just wanted Edric to stop bothering him. "Are you a Koran citizen?" "No sir." "Alright, alright, fine." He sighed. "Only because I can't get in too much trouble if you aren't Koran." He turned around and spoke to some of the other soldiers. "Oh, and, uh, don't tell anyone about this. Anyone asks, you were on the other side when the barrier went up, alright." "Gotcha." [hr] It was ten minutes before he saw another non-demonic living person, that being an incredibly well-armed woman with dark hair. As he drew closer, he noticed she was running toward him. He had two thoughts in very quick succession. [i]What luck, the first person I see looks like an extremely competent fighter![/i] and [i]She's being chased by demons.[/i] As they neared each other, Azamor had a thought of his own. [i]Holy fuck that's a lot of demons.[/i] Edric drew his scimitar, and he wondered briefly if he should engage the demons behind her. Could the two of them even kill that many of the fiends? [i]Guess we'll find out.[/i]