Rivenwood - Outskirts Plains
Mikoto said as she sidestepped Astrea's blade, deftly sparing her hat from a gruesome fate
"Also, nobody touches the hat."However, when the giant snake thing lunged at her, Mikoto was still out of proper balance and so she was captured in the serpentine grip with easy
"Mmm... ugh..." the peddler moaned as she tried to fight against the repulsive reptilian. In due time, Mikoto plunged her hand on one of her many pockets and with great effort retrieved a flask containing a fine reddish powder.
Mikoto held her breath, as well as she could while her lungs were being crushed, and closed her eyes before she threw the flask on the ground. A cloud of finely ground pepper covered everything around them a couple of seconds later, turning the world red and hot.
Using the momentary advantage of the pepper cloud, Mikoto disengaged from the ominous ophidian and said, between huffs and coughs
"I... cof... hope that your hide is worth something, 'cause you owe me that spice, you damn creep!"Before the snake could react, Mikoto waved her broom in a sweeping motion, releasing a couple of weak magical exploding runes, hoping that they would do the trick without much damage to her soon-to-be merchandise. Anyway, since the runes were supposed just to knock the snake off its senses for a few seconds, Mikoto had already devised what her next move was going to be and so she produced a strange ocarina from another pocket.
However, this wasn't any normal instrument, as the melody that Mikoto began to play would soon have its effects on the reptile, charming it. The real problem was what to do after that?
Rivenwood Mountains - Village of Orello
Well, it looked like that Sedril was willing to prove that his words weren't just meaningless chatter, which truly impressed Aria as she began to see the boy with better eyes. However, he was still guilty of overconfidence as his next action of dropping his guard to to try to show off to Aria ended with Sedril being hurt by the Roc.
"Hey, keep your eyes on the enemy!" Aria yelled just before tackling Sedril out of the path of the Roc's talons (which opened a huge gash on the ground, exactly where he stood), and rolling with him bellow a nearby wooden street stall. The flimsy cover wouldn't last for much, but at least it was enough for the white haired knight to deliver her plan to Sedril.
"I have a plan to defeat this creature, but I'll need your help todo it," Aria said to Sedril, thought her face was strangely red and she averted his eyes just as she continued,
"I'll try to take it down with my most powerful attack, but you need to distract the Roc for long enough for me to prepare it. I'll cast a movement enhancing spell on you, then what you should do is find a way to climb on it and steer it towards the church. I'll be on the tower waiting for you, but you can't miss, because we'll have only one chance."Soon enough, the Roc had completed another turn and was about to dive on them again. If Sedril wished to follow Aria's plan, or had any ideas of his own, there would be no better time to say it. However, as Aria's restless fidgetting would indicate there was something that her should be taken out of the way first.
"Now," Aria said with a half-embarrassed voice,
"Can you please get off?" The red on Aria's face only got more evident when it was clear that they had somehow landed on a pretty compromising position with Sedril on top of Aria and their face no more than five inches away from one another.
Kurenai and Momo penetrated deep in the dusty hallways of the old ruins, walking step by step always aware of the many traps and creatures that sought to end their lives prematurely... or at least Kurenai's life, because Momo was... well... already dead, anyway.
As they followed their path, the adventurous duo soon noticed a low grumble, or was it a growl? However, what it was didn't mattered as much as the fact that it was coming from a chamber that was right in their path, so there was no avoiding what ever was the source of said sound.
"What do you think it is?" Momo asked just to break the silence that had fell between they. Truth be told, Kurenai was never one to indulge in idle chatter, but there was these times when Momo felt that if she didn't spurred the other girl into talking they would go on forever, like this.
"How am I supposed to know? As far as I'm aware it could be anything from a minotaur to a dragon. Not that I care either way..." Kurenai replied to her ghostly companion in a dispassionate monotone. Sincerely, Kurenai didn't cared about Momo's talkative side, actually, she enjoyed the company of the mysterious ghost who was a, self-proclaimed, childhood friend of hers, despite Kurenai not having a single memory of her past before a year ago when she woke up in a bloody pool with her right arm thorn off at the shoulder. However, there was these moments when Kurenai couldn't take some of Momo's more idiotic remarks and felt an urge to facepalm, this was almost one of them.
Nevertheless, Kurenai's attention was soon diverted off Momo towards the walls the encircled the. On them, carvings depicting the time of tribulations that followed the shattering, were now visible. No matter where she looked there were engravings of people bending down in despair and praying to God as well as images of God sitting in his heavenly throne, passing down judgment on men for their collected sins.
"That must have been a hard time. It looks like these people are suffering, but God doesn't even care for them..." Momo said, without a hint of her characteristic upbeat attitude. Looks like even a carefree ghost can be touched by the suffering of the people from the Age of Tribulations, which actually surprised Kurenai a bit and made her look at Momo with slightly more sympathetic eyes.
"It probably was. That's what people gain from placing their fate on the hands of a divine jerk, instead of doing things on their own." Kurenai replied coldly, since she didn't cared for the fate of people that died thousands of years ago. As harsh as it may sound, most of what happened was their own doing, thus these people probably deserved such a fate.
Not long after, they finally arrived at the chamber from which the roaring was coming from. Its large stone doors were engraved with the images of some kind of mystical beast, a kind of wolf, or some other humongous canine that devoured its victims indiscriminately. However, the beast had been shackled and bound, before being taken away from the world of men, presumably to this prison.
Momo held her breath (as if she needed to) as Kurenai picked on of her swords and slashed away at the chains, prompting the chamber's doors to open slowly, with the sound of stone grinding against stone momentarily overcoming even the rumble from within the chamber. Once they swung full open, a ring of blue torches lit themselves under the power of some spell, to reveal the figure of a girl, or what looked like a small girl, chained to a magic circle engraved on the chamber's floor.
"Name yourself!" Kurenai said as she stepped inside the chamber only to have the doors close behind her with an impossible speed
"What, is this a trap?" Kurenai asked, befuddled.
And, as if on cue, Momo replied
"I don't know, but I have a very bad feeling about it..."
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