Dana’s magic illuminates the cabin again as composures are regained and the passengers find their feet again. Little remains wholly intact in the wake of those few violent seconds of turbulence, and at least one chair has to be shoved aside to reach the cabin door. There’s another round of staccato gunfire as the girls emerge into the hall.

The hall itself runs through the center of the ship, rows of cabins on either side. Toward the fore of the vessel are stairways to the deck, now shut tight. Toward the aft the hallway widens out into a circular common area, more stairways leading down to both the lower decks and up to the control rooms. 

It’s a quick matter to determine that Vanna’s instincts were correct. In the sphere of Dana’s light they can see tendrils of dark fog creeping along the floor, slowly rolling down the wooden corridor. The cloud-bank outside isn’t an occurrence of nature—it’s a cluster of Nox. A deadly fog that’s begun to leak into the Laurus, both strengthening their magic and poisoning the air around them.  

The expanse of the hallway is darkened, marked only by a few dots of slowly dying light-bulbs. As the girls step further out of the cabin they see two cones of light heading their way, hurried footsteps attached to them. Two shapes appear shortly at the perimeter of Dana’s ring of light, soldiers in NOI inform wearing protective masks and carrying magitech rifles.

“There’s been an emergency.” The voice is distorted slightly through the filter. “You need to come—”

The request is cut off abruptly as one of the approaching flashlights and the man attached to it vanishes into the darkness behind. The other crewman turns to fire after, and the crack of his weapon sounds painfully loud down the hall. 

The arc of lightning-like magic fired from the weapon finds its home in [url=https://i.imgur.com/pRzs1Od.jpg]a monster[/url]. It looms up out of the dark, humanoid shaped but recognizable instantly as something alien. It must be somewhere around seven feet tall, its entire body made of inky black substance. Crimson lines trace across it in strange geometric patterns, glowingly with sinister energy in the darkness. Nox seems to roll off it as it moves, black smoke that blurs and shifts the void’s outline, and a throbbing crown of crimson light hovers above its head.

The impact from the rifle spears through it’s chest, an arc of blue electricity rippling across the creature. It’s response is violent and near-instant: One long black arm rises, the pointed claws at its end driving into the remaining crewman’s chest with enough force to lift the man from his feet and pin him to the nearby wall. There’s a strangled cry that follows, along with a clatter as the soldier’s weapon falls from his hands to the carpeted floor.

Though the guard struggles, it seems unlikely the conflict will last much longer. The void’s other arm rises, preparing to deal a quick and fatal finish to its dangling prey.

[hider=VOID – D-CLASS]
The most common class of Voids, D-Class manifestations typically appear humanoid in shape. They are, however, entirely inhuman in all other aspects. Like their higher class counterparts their bodies are almost entirely resistant to non-magical assault, but magitech weaponry has seen limited success-—with Ars Magi being the optimal solution.

D-Class Voids notably lack many of the aberrant abilities that seem to manifest in their more powerful cousins. While some are able to alter themselves and reality in strange ways, most rely on their alien strength, speed, and resilience. Of all Voids they also display the least of what researchers consider human intelligence; they appear to have some basic animal instinct and threat recognition but little in the way of high-level decision making.
[/hider]