[h3][sup][sup]Visions assaulted his senses, dancing around his mental sanctum sanctorum. Ash, acrid and pungent, burnt his nostrils as woeful memories took on intangible personifications. Blood, bodies, and cries of slain enemies filled the space of his mind’s eye. Force and willpower kept his eyelids closed; training and perseverance allowed his center to remain intact. Realities of present and past merged in a push pull battle of entanglement for superiority. The memories were long past yet their vices haunted him throughout his present. Nasiru understood his circumstances though even if he didn’t agree with them. 

He allowed the memories to consume him in that moment. He watched with particular disdain as events played out before him in void space. Wispy lines flitted and coiled into three dimensional actors playing the parts of all those involved. He watched himself, a collection of translucent lining, dance around the void swinging dual short-swords with technique and precision. He bore witness to lined demons he slew and evaded in tandem. This memory was yet another reminder of his failures disguised as triumphs. An Archangel was supposed to relish in the throes of battle. The windfalls of combat. Yet he despised the translucent lining that mocked his ethereal form. It served only to remind him of how far he’d fallen in the thousands of years that had passed. How far he’d been distanced from the things that were truly important. Hazy and blurred, but just beyond the void space, just beyond the amalgamation of faintly glowing lines, he thought he could see [i]them[/i]… 

Ru’s eyelids flew open, but his body did not move. He sat against dilapidated, angled shingling of a rooftop. His arm rested on a raised leg while the other gave balance behind him. It wasn’t the ideal positioning for meditation, but he had long since given up formal traditions. Formal traditions had stolen his livelihood and brought about his current circumstances, after all. His wonderment shifted to the haze. Thousands of years passed yet [i]they[/i] were still at the forefront. Almost. Just. So close. A darkened hickory arm slowly ascended from its resting place on his leg and extended out towards the waning sun. Long, thin digits gripped at the orb in the sky, but made no purchase. Ru exhaled and pushed himself to standing. Yellow pupils stared directly at the setting sun and took in its imagery. He thought for a moment he could see [i]them[/i] again, but their forms had completely disappeared.

Lemon irises shifted from the sky to the layout before and below them. Rotting, abandoned homes lined the broken asphalt like husks who had lost their spirits long ago. Flora curled and claimed halves of the old buildings, cracks and crevasses in the road, and created a tree line on either side behind the houses as if someone from the old times had built a neighborhood running straight through the middle of a forest. There were trees taller than the houses just to their rear and they stood like watchful guards of the new era. Ru took it all in before exhaling again. The visions, the memories, and the haze didn’t matter all that much. Not in the face of his current circumstances. He took steps towards the edge of the roof until he walked into the air and dropped straight down to the ground, landing right in front of the door of the home he had been perched atop of. He saw Ana in the distance with Enzo. He smiled. Enzo was a beautiful horse and had he remained mortal, he would have found himself slightly jealous of his owner.

Ru began a slow stride towards the pair. They had agreed to search the neighborhood upon their arrival and, even though he’d taken a break to meditate, he had done his part. There was nothing to be found here, not in the way of supplies or anything indicating where the demon hellspawn decided to go upon leaving. That was a disappointment, but only the latest in a very long line of them. Ru had been searching an entirely different corner of the Earth for millennia and had found nothing to say his task had been worth it. It was only upon meeting Anaïs and Enzo that he had begun to finally make any sort of progress at all. Warrior he was, but tracker he was not. As Ru neared the pair, Ana’s voice echoed into the still air.

“So. What do you think? It’s likely been four or five days since anyone’s been here. Means we’re not too far behind…” she said.

Ru approached the shire and its owner and sighed heavily. He looked back and forth between searched houses and then back to Ana. She was taller than average at 5’9 for a mortal, but Ru stood heads and shoulders above at 6’6. His eyes met hers. “I share your assessment,” he said in deep baritone. “Five days have certainly passed since our quarry settled here. And I know not where they intend to run to.” He tried to temper the inflection in his voice, but he couldn’t quite his frustration. He never thought this would be the area where he would find the object of all of his ire, but he did think this would be where they would be able to make a significant advancement in their search.  His frustration only lasted a few minutes. 

It was faint, but the sound was distinct. Ru noticed Ana’s acknowledgement and nodded to her when she turned back to face him. “Five days have passed… But we may have good fortune yet,” Ru said, a smile creeping across his face. His hands instinctively reached behind himself near the small of his back at the waist. His dual short-swords rested in their curved sheaths, sleeping giants in miniature form waiting to be awoken for their next meal. Ru slowly unsheathed each and brandished them at his sides, briefly creating an x-formation as he did so. The blades bore a matching shape to their sheathes, silver metal etched in crimson runes from bottom to top. Each hilt was ornate and bore a panther’s roaring head on the butts of them. 

At that moment, the figures rushed from the tree lines on both sides of the neighborhood. They resembled humans but their complexions were reddish hued, single or dual horns sprouting from their foreheads, and claws replacing nails on their hands. They moved quickly and each wore the remnants of what looked to be some sort of body armor, similar to what Ana wore though Ana’s was in much better condition. None of them had weapons which suggested they were the mindless variety. The very bottom of the barrel in terms of demon hierarchy. That was a disappointment. Another in a long line of them. It meant they would be getting no information from these types as they did little else but roar and scream. But it gave Ru one point of singular hope. As he rushed past Ana and towards the fast approaching group, he thought on this point in the void space of his mental sanctum sanctorum. 

At least he could take out his frustrations in the proper manner.

He slid to a halt in the middle of the broken road. As part of the group rushed past him heading towards Ana and Enzo and another part stopped to snarl at him, challenging him to take them on, a final figure emerged from the tree lines and sauntered over to the group that had now surrounded Ru. The way he moved, the way his body language displayed, there was no mistaking it. This was a superior demon. One step above the mindless, but one who was intelligent enough to speak like a human and understand logic and reason. They weren’t the top of the food chain so he was undoubtedly not the one both Ana and Ru searched for, but fortunes had turned in their favor. He would be the one to show them the path forward.

Ru gripped the hilts of his dual blades and bent at the knees. Brought his center of gravity lower and spread his feet shoulder width apart. The basic tenets of combat as taught to him by the angels. 

“Do you heed me, demon? You will tell me of the one called J’zir,” Ru said menacingly. 

The superior demon broke out into a wide, toothy grin and almost laughed. “Come. Come and find out,” it answered.[/sup][/sup][/h3]