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Level 10 Sectonia (holding 4 level up) - (85/100)
[b]Location:[/b] The Under - Termite Kingdom Ruins
[b]Word Count:[/b] 1607
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Seeing the opulent spider looking creatures, Sectonia decided to investigate the Holograd residential area. It was still a dump, being a series of ruined buildings, but it was a bit interesting that even then these creatures found bits of opulence about them. [color=92278f]"Hmph. I wonder where these things found those masks of gold. Perhaps there are items of greater power around."[/color] Sectonia said as she floated towards the purple webbed areas to confront and possibly communicate with these creatures.

Of course these creatures were merely beasts, only attracted to their masks due to their shininess, and not due to any real feeling of opulence or anything, and were not much for communication. Much like feral spiders, they climbed up their webs as the large bee queen approached, hissing at her in a threatening manner, but not doing much else but to protect their territory. Not one to be intimidated, Sectonia merely waved these feral beasts away once she found there was no method of communication, and the area she had approached being quite a large collection of webs. 

Ignoring the large group of Ferriclaws and Auriclaws, Sectonia glided down an alternate street to see where they might have found some of their gold, and found herself accosted by a strange clinking lamp with some ghostly voice behind it. Possibly thinking Sectonia was some large beast coming to take its territory, the imp poe attacked the Queen, hitting her with its lantern. This got her attention however, and she was no feral beast unlike the spiders about. While she couldn't see the poe itself except its lantern, being invisible wouldn't save it from a large Ring of Light, which upon hitting the poe knocked it down and dazed it and revealed some red orb above where Sectonia assumed would've been its torso. 

While she wasn't sure exactly what this was, from what she could gather it was some kind of magical artifact not too dissimilar from a spirit, and thus she collected it, ripping it mercilessly from the body of the poe and causing it to disappear. Her Ring of Light however didn't stop when it hit the poe, but instead weaves and continued down the street, cutting a few extra cracks in some buildings until it finally came to a stop as it crashed upon a boarded up building, destroying the barrier and revealing a glint of gold. Interested, Sectonia went to investigate. 

Upon entering the room, she found that there were quite the amount of riches here, alongside some opulent looking, although strange looking, statue. Before she could start to loot the place though, the statue spoke out to her. "Please, please you've got to help me!" Sectonia paused for a moment, but was going to dismiss the strange statue until it said. "I was tricked! I asked for wealth, and those poes not only gave me this cursed gold, but also turned me and my poor kitty into pure gold!" Upon hearing about the curse, Sectonia examined the gold and yes, it was indeed cursed and useless. She then turned to look at the statue, who continued. "Good, I have your attention. My name is Jovani. You see, there are these ghost like things called Poes all around. If you defeat them and take their souls, perhaps it will weaken the curse upon me. If you can help free me from this curse, I'll reward you handsomely!"

There were a few questions Sectonia had, but one of them was answered when the statue projected a picture of what a poe and its soul looked like in her mind. She then pulled out the blackish orb pulsing with red energy much to the statue's surprise and joy. "Yes, just like that! If you can bring me 19 more of their souls, perhaps the curse will lessen. They are about the district here." 

Seeing as this man was a noble of some sort from his culture trying to wriggle his way out of a dark bargin, perhaps there would be something to gain here. If this did weaken the curse upon him and the opulence around him, even if he nagged upon the deal he was making much like many nobles tried to do, there would be something to gain from that as well. [color=92278f]"Hmph, I'll keep an eye out for these beasts."[/color] Sectonia said, not wanting to give him much more than that. Truth be told, this was the only lead she had at the moment, so she decided perhaps it would be an interesting one to follow for now. Often magic that had its curse broken was powerful, so there could even be something here that even this Jovani didn't realize was at play.

With something to look for at least, even if just to kill some time, Sectonia lazily floated around the town looking for those lanterns. They were surprisingly easy to find within the light fog, almost acting as wayward beacons to lure in prey. But that was a double edged sword, as that also made themselves prey to a much larger and dangerous foe. And as if sensing her intent, the next few poes she had hunted down, one under an auning, one in another back alley, and a third near one of the purple webs, all attacked her on sight. This time however, while one still used its lantern, the other two swung their ghostly scythes at the queen. Being unable to really see these attacks, she could do nothing but take them head on, before counterattacking with her own blast of lightning.

While perhaps they could make a powerful curse as a large group, individually these poes were not much to write about. Their attacks were moderately strong, but they couldn't take much of a hit and their souls were easily collected. Opportunistically the poe resting around a purple web that was the home of a pair consisting of a Ferriclaw and Auriclaw. As her bolt of lightning destroyed their web, they descended and began to spit their poisonous webs at the new intruder as the Queen grabbed the 4th poe soul. Her size made their webs not as effective as they could've been, reducing her ability to evade and slowing down her movements a bit as they did their poison damage, but the Queen attacked back by spitting her fire breath at them, knowing full well spider webs burned relatively easy. 

The creatures themselves also seemed to be weak to the fire as well, as they started to burn and even melt a little. Activating her Chaos Shield so that she could deal with their attacks, Sectonia continued to throw her fireball breath at them. Even though they burned and melted, they stood their ground, at least until the fire finally overwhelmed them and they turned into spirits. Even so, they had webbed up the queen a fair amount and much to her annoyance, she had to then burn the webs around her, taking a bit of her own fire damage as the Chaos Shield expired, but cleaning herself of the webs. Poisonous webs, fitting for spiders sure, but annoying. She gathered up their spirits to see what they would give her later, and made her way to the adjacent building.

Upon entering the building, Sectonia saw a sight that threw her for a loop. Inside the building was another poe sure, but this poe was making a deal with someone she knew. Her second in command Taranza. A loyal servant, who seemed to be lying on a bed of webs no doubt made by his own power. He seemed to have some kind of fungal infection about him and kept mentioning something about a "Mora the Spider" Around him were a few of those same spiders Sectonia has just fought, but with a purple haze over their eyes which was no doubt one of his enchantment spells. 

[color=92278f]"Taranza, Rise and assist your Queen."[/color] Sectonia said, but the fancy spider boy only looked up at her weakly, saying. "I serve Mora... Who are you?" It was around this time the poe nearby, who had been talking with Taranza and attempting to make a deal with him, also noticed Sectonia and advanced upon the bee queen. Pulling out her sword as she wanted nothing to do with this creature, having a more important matter, Sectonia slashed it giving it very little mind as she glared at Taranza, saying. [color=92278f]"How dare you forget about your Queen."[/color] As she grabbed the soul of the poe she had slayed, Sectonia calmed down a little bit, noticing the fungal infection about Taranza. Even with her declarations, he could only say. "I didn't forget about queen Mora. In fact, I need some help. Could a beautiful bug such as yourself help me?" He then laid down again, clearly not well as the spiders he had enchanted started to tend him as best as they could.

Sectonia was furious, but even she could see that... something was wrong here. Perhaps this Mora, or this disease was causing him to act this way. Or even the Galeeming... This was the first time she had met someone she recognized so she wasn't sure how that even worked as well. She could cure that with a friend heart, but considering how weak he was, she doubted she could hold back enough to weaken, but not kill him outright. With a sigh, she said. [color=92278f]"I will figure out what has taken your loyalty, yes."[/color] Although there wasn't really all that much she could do at the moment but leave, confused and fuming at the same time. Taranza was a strong minion though, he would survive for quite a while.