Ghostly Goals

Ghostly Goals
Date of Scene:	05 January 2013
Location:	Phantom Forest
Synopsis:	The Phantom Train is loading people who lost their lives in Manhattan to the Underworld, but a monster is in the Phantom Forest and may try to prey on them. Defeat the monster so these souls can safely pass on! Wait, who posted /this/ job anyway?
Cast of Characters:	Reize Seatlan, Lily, Shiki Misaki, Deelel, Yurita, GHOST (Aka: The Sixth Legion), Brooklyn, Jecht, Luso Clemens, Hades, Skyline, Isaac Hanlon, Gesandte

---

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Welcome to the Phantom Forest

There is no light to come here. It is a spooky, forlorn maze of overgrown twisted trees and shrubbery that seem to move at times. This is a forgotten forest that is eeriely quiet. No one wanders through the area often, likely due to the fear and horror stories that circulate within the Western Continent.

Nevertheless, the eeriely peaceful forest is going to have some visitors.

One of those travelers is the leader of the Shard Seekers, who has take the lead with his torch at hand. He sucks in a breath while moving onward, his eyes sweep around to survey the area.

There has been postings on the board for adventurers to assist with an important matter: Some creature has been off, picking off people that have passed away from entering the train. It was situation that needed to be halted, given that the Phantom Train is scheduled to arrive in a couple of hours.

"...So, this is the place."

Reize frowns. He shudders slightly, already feeling the chills of the forest's dreadful nature. Thankfully, he is not alone. Not only did he have some Shard Seekers around, he also gathered assistance from Clan Gully for the mission.

Luso Clemens has posed:
And of course, Luso was present.

One look at the posting was all he needed to decide that Clan Gully was going to head out and investigate the matter. And so here he was, alongside Reize with his arms folded behind his head in a lazy manner.

"A phantom train, huh? Sounds like this is definitely going to be pretty interesting! I can't wait to see it!" He exclaimed, smiling rather excitedly as he tried to visualize what the train was going to look like in his mind. The fact that this train carried away the dead apparently didn't click with the boy quite yet, the granduer of the moment blocking out that realization for now.

Because it's not like there would actually be ghosts, right?

...R-Right?

C-Come on guys! Stop playing around! This is just a prank! Yeah?

Hades has posed:
There was a flash of fire and brimstone.

And from it, walked Hades, behind him were too small demon like creatures who were looking at a clipboard. "This appears to be the place." Pain says, snivvling, "Ah yes, there are the 'Shard Seekers'." he quips.

"They don't look like a bunch of heros to me." Panic chimes in.

"Eh. We'll take what we can get, all the other heros are busy taking care of that Manhattan problem, and I don't feel like having to owe a favor," Hades waves a hand. "Hey hi, how you all doin'? Hades, Lord of the Dead, nice tameetcha." he says, firing the double pistols at the people who have managed to show up. "Anyway, thanks for coming out and taking care of this small problem for me, and to show how much I appreciate it..." he snaps a finger.

Slowly, a large growling can be head from around the Shard Seekers...and a large head bursts up from behind them. A towering, three headed dog rumbles at them looking at them hungrily.

"HEY! No! Bad dog! Not for eating...today." Hades walks over, hitting Cerberus with a newspaper. "No! You're helping them today!" he says, shuddering at the words he just spoke. He hands the Newspaper to Reize, "Hey you kid, take care of this would ya?" Oddly, it has tomorrow's headline on it.

"As much as I would like to take care of this problem PERSONALLY...I am expecting to handle a job interview very shortly."

Lily has posed:
And here we are on another dangerous, crazy adventure!

Lily's walking alongside Reize opposite Luso, her arms folded too - in a decisively UNHAPPY manner. With how the last few missions turned out, she's in a grumpy and wary mood, keeping her attention every which way but forward for anything that might jump out to accost the group.

She's had enough of the trouble, and pain, and fighting that inevitably result from going out like this! And is intend to fireball the first threat in the face before it almost cuts anyone in half again. D:

"A train for the dead," She murmurs out thoughtfully. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Where would it take anyone and why?"

Brooklyn has posed:
It seems that the responsibility for protecting the denizens of Manhattan will fall to Brooklyn even after their deaths. With the job posting on the board, he has brought himself out here, not long after the Shard Seekers, in order to find whatever threat is keeping them from reaching their final destination and get rid of it, "Well, I suppose it's good that I'm not the only one to come out here to help." Brooklyn seems initially very wary of Hades, and more so Cerberus, but he doesn't make any verbal indication of his distrust. He's a gargoyle, he natural distrusts anything magical. Stupid Grimmorum.

Yurita has posed:
Yurita was following Reize and Luso, for what reason, she isn't entirely sure, but she'd wanted to help in the problem, however she could so she'd tagged along, as she sees Hades she blinks "who in the-" she's cut off as a dog comes out of the ground, jumping slightly "what the?" she moves a little closer to the actual shards seekers "what's that?" is asked quietly.

GHOST has posed:
Taking a job involving protecting ghosts when you don't believe in ghosts? HOW WICKED. And in ghost stories the one that doesn't believe is always the first to die, right? Right Luso? Though once Hades, Lord of the Dead, says 'hey how you doin'?' you can hopefully take these things in stride.

In fact, as soon as Hades appears--as if reacting to the Lord's presence...one can start making out figures in the forest where they could not be made out before. They're all headed towards one direction, as if pulled inexorcably, and that direction is towards the train station. Most of them pay no mind to our heroes, as if their spirits were not even under their own control. Something is calling to them, and they must answer, and they walk--as if they are ignorant of the monster and, indeed, they might very well be--they're in something of a trance.

Well most of them. A shrouded spirit, garbed in white cloak, approaches Luso Clemens. It looks at him for several moments--it's face impossible to see with the shroud up.

It says, "..."

IT SEEMS A GHOST WISHES TO JOIN YOUR PARTY? DO YOU LET IT?

Yes
Hell Yes

Those are the only two options.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
A SHORT TIME AGO

Isaac gets a letter. It looks like something from a funeral home. He has no idea how he got a letter, given that the posting he put up didn't include a mailing address, but he got it anyway. He checks it out, and finds a job offer -- and both a curious method of replying, and an equally curious signature.

RIGHT ABOUT NOW

Of course, Isaac has no idea when this 'Phantom Train' leaves, but he figures he should find it sooner rather than later. The Phantom Forest hasn't been an issue to him; Isaac has had a flashlight and his ever-glowing tablet for light in the spooky place, and has mapped his way through instead of running in circles. Illusions and tricks of the light don't faze him, but walking alone is definitely giving him the creeps.

Isaac stumbles upon the gathered adventurers basically completely by accident. He's pretty sure he figured out where the platform was, but this... is new. He shuffles out of the brush, brushing brambles and leaves off his long coat and shining the light around at the gaggle of would-be heroes.

"Adventurers, I suppose," hazards the wizard. Then, he turns to the left, and spies the dog and the... flaming head guy.

"Hades, I presume," Isaac guesses again. He sticks out a hand. He's wearing gloves. It's chilly, after all. "Isaac Hanlon. Got your letter. Have you got everyone's addresses or just the interesting ones?"

Gesandte has posed:
The ground seems to tremble, as though a far away quake was going on. Dead plants, and living ruffle lightly as the feeling continues to move along. Something large was on the move, and coming towards the torch light, as it was a visible source in the sour darkness that held this land of lost and death. Cracking sounds of trees echo in the otherwise quiet forest, as the sound continues to move along, moving slowly but surely. Well one could only hope it wasn't some huge monster on a hungry rampage to devour anything that it could find, as that would certainly not be fun in the least.

Then from a short ways behind the torch wielder a loud splinter and crushing is heard as a small chunk of forest is removed and a last monster steps onto the path, turning towards the light and those gathered. It begins walking towards them, slowly and lumbering and as it gets closer a voice, deep and thick voice rings out, "I see I am not the only one that has come to save those that are lost." He comes up to them, and stands, towering far above them and looking down. Well he is a monster all right, but not a monster that wants to eat them, that could be a good thing yes? Seemingly wether on purpose or not to be ignoring the Hades being on the far side, who can say.

Lily has posed:
KERBOOOOM.

And there's Hades. Lily backpedals a few steps from the God of the Underworld, and promptly HIDES behind Reize with her hands on his shoulders.

... then peeks out over one of said shoulders, eyes full of nervous curiosity. "Huuuh?"

So much for her 'keeping an eye out,' huh?

And the fireballs. They don't happen either.

The girl eventually tiptoes back into standing on her own, and, rather than responding to the god's big request and explanation, and completely unbothered by his unusual appearance or that of his guard dog... she up and asks in a completely innocent and wondering tone,

"Say! What breed is he?"

Skyline has posed:
It would seem Brooklyn wasn't the only one from Manhattan to show up. Skyline had come along with. Even though she saw the city for about ONE DAY before it imploded, she still felt like she should help out. Unlike Brooklyn, however, she's not to put off by magic or Hades due to an extreme lack of experience. ... That'll change in a hurry. For now she's just gonna keep her trap shut seeing as the red one has more time under his belt then her.

Deelel has posed:
Just what happened here? She had no idea what happend to Users when they died. The concept they could die was a terrfying one to the basic, it really was. First her creators were beings of chaos without inate purpsoe and they were also as derezzable as she was. It was something quite sobering really to think about but here she is tailing up along with Lily and pauses at hades she looks the deity over and at least respons respectful for the moment. "All right...I think we can do something about this. Reize? Luso? Lily?"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
"Yeah.." Reize admits to Luso, "I do want to know what the train is like!" However, his expression turns a little more serious, "However, I am a little concerned over what is haunting this place, if what the rumors that we've heard around here is true."

The flash of fire and brimstone catches Reize off guard, "Whoa!" With Lily behind him, Reize looks back at her with a faint smile, he keeps his stance to help guard of her. He steps back, his stance becoming guarded. When the looming fire with flaming hair manifests before them, Reize squints a hand over to the man and the small imps. So it looks like the Shard Seekers are becoming a little more known. That is a good thing, it means that people are trusting their efforts.

"Buh?" Reize listens to the introduction, and then he blink. Lord of the Dead? "Oooii! Pleased to meet you Hades!" However, its the growl that has him on edge, then the boy turns around to see a massive three-headed dog looming before them.

"...Hi."

But then, Reize looks over towards Hades when the Newspaper is handed over to him, "Thanks!" He looks over to the newspaper, then he squints. Whoa, from the future! Even if it's a day ahead! He looks over to Hades, "A job interview?"

Then, he looks towards Cerberus, "Let's be friends!" The young man extends a hand out to pet the large dog. Hopefully Cerberus lets pettings.

The presence of ghastly figures are not lost on the boy. In fact, the young man looks ahead to see everyone moving in that one path, not minding their presence. That is pretty peculiar.

Hades has posed:
Cerberus growls dangerously towards Reize, as he makes the declaration. When Reize goes to pet it...

It suddenly muzzles him into the ground giving him a single lick. Lifting his head up, the head that licked Cerberus blehs, as if tasting something awful. "HEY! No eating the kid...you'll spoil your dinner," Hades shouts towards Cerberus, "Seriously...I spoil you rotten." he says, patting the back of Cerberus once and turns towards Lily, "That's a very good question." he says, and turns immediately to Isaac.

"Whoa, get a look at this guy." he says, and looks towards Pain, "That's Isaac Hanlon sir," to which Hades looks oddly at Panic for a moment, then suddenly remembers!

"Oh right! The applicant!" he turns, shaking Isaac's hand and giving him a pat on the shoulder. "Right right, nice to meetyou. Thanks for responding, though you're not very much looking like I was expecting.." he pauses, "You sure the card said.."

"Yes sir.."

"Huh, oh well, okay, not judging by appearances, after all that's against the equal oppertunity act of Athens." he says, releasing the grip. "Anyway, the deal is quite simple my friend, I need to set up a network for a soon up and coming television network I am putting together, and I need someone with the technical knowledge...BOTH kinds of technically knowledge.."

Hades is suddenly besides Isaac, instead of standing infront of him, giving him an elbow, "If you know what I mean."

Luso Clemens has posed:
"Whoa, what the--" Luso cried, jumping at Hade's sudden appearance. Who does that!? Apparently Hades does. Must be a god thing. "Lord of...the dead?" He mumbled, calming down and crossing his arms as he listened. "Right, well you're wel..." And at that moment, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Something much more pressing than the giant dog that was apparently going to be helping them.

"....come?"

Right there. A ghost. Pure white cloak, no face. No words. Just a ghost. A GHOST!

"............."

Shakily, Luso began to smile, the shaking soon extending to the rest of his body. "....G....G-G......G-GHOST!" And with that rather loud exclamation, the boy leapt back away from the apparition, deciding to showcase his incredible manliness by...

...By hiding behind Lily. "Ghost! Ghost! GHOST! It's a ghost! DGfbysdhvgdkfjds!!"

Cue unintelligable garbling.

Hades has posed:
"Yes, a Ghost, what did you expect in the PHANTOM FOREST!" Pain and Panic wiggle their fingers behind Hades, "OooooOoOoOoOoOO."

"I mean, seriously. Lord of the dead, what did you think I was bringin' them down here live? That's not how this works."

Brooklyn has posed:
Thankfully not the only gargoyle here, Brooklyn looks over at Skyline as she arrives. He smiles, ever so faintly, as he makes his way over towards her, "So you ready for this? Heh, why am I even asking after that whoopin' you handed me earlier..Just make sure you got the right ammo in your weapons."

Skyline has posed:
Skyline managed to keep her laugh mostly to herself, "I think you just weren't really prepared for everything I had. You didn't know about the daggers and I think I got you with those more then anything else," she points out. "Already swapped clips and stocked up, so I'm good to go." a glimpse around. "Lots of folks... kinda nice not being gawked at for once."

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"What were you expecting? Beard, pointy hat, flowing robes?" Isaac's lips quirk into a little smile. "C'mon, man, it's a new age. Can't be that obvious about the whole 'magic' thing. People point and laugh, and there's only so much vicious smiting to go around, y'know?" He can't help but grin at the apparent shenanigans. He just kind of tilts his head a little and winks. "Gotcha."

Then, he turns his attention to the, uh, ghost, and the Shard Seekers et al. Cerebrus appears to be handled. "So what're you guys all out here for, anyway? Ghost hunting?" He clearly isn't here for the job board post. Of course, he looks like he shouldn't be here at all; he's dressed for city life. Sneakers work pretty well for everything, though, all told.

Isaac is struck by the sudden notion, perhaps because of all the people here, that he should get a melee weapon. Maybe a big stick. Hmmmm.

Gesandte has posed:
Gesandte everts his eyes to the large dog, not so much Hades, but the dog. A large dog, he ponders the point of it, and if it is sinner for the things it clearly must do to be a big multi-headed animal. He brings his left hand up to place it on the book on his chest and stares at it, but not doing anything. Perhaps the dog isn't so bad, and he won't have to punish it, but that has yet to be seen. Gazing away from the animal for moment, to gaze at the others, and the ghost. Well, it's a ghost and ghosts do ghosty things, not the least bit phased by its appearance or the fact it appears to wanna hug someone.

GHOST has posed:
The ghost doesn't stop Luso from flipping out. Nor does it seem to react much. It watches him freak oout and then turns its head towards Isaac, as if feeling his eyes on it. It stares at him for several moments and, after a few moments, it tries to speak again.

"...isaac..."

It doesn't react to Hades's wisdom either. It's like even thinking is something of a struggle or--perhaps more accurately--something it has to remember to do.

"...link terminated..." It whispers, its voice starting to sound fearful. "attempting to reconnect. attempting to reconnect. attempting to reconnect. Reconnect failed...reconnect failed..." It's arms raise up towards its own head and grasps at it, shaking as if in pain or perhaps panic, and surely in some kind of agony. She lets out a pained moaned that echoes throughout the forest before...suddenly...her head turns towards Lily.

"...attempting...to form new network..."

And suddenly it glides forward, reaching out with its hands towards Lily's face. Even if she doesn't manage to touch it, a small flicker of electric power passes between the two of them. The hood falls back from the sudden movement revealing...

A young girl with green hair and deadpan (pun intended) eyes. It's a Legion.

For Lily, even in just tht brief instant of connection--she sees an event, as if she were present for that event. She is running through an alley in Traverse Town, a rifle in her hands. She pauses every so often to fire off the rifle when suddenly, a leg slams into her arm--sending her with incalculable force crashing towards the far wall of the alleyway. She hits it with a thick crack and then goes down, hard, hitting the floor face first. She looks up and sees a young man with black hair and clock-like pupils approaching, a mad smile on his lips as he reaches forward with his hand, touching her ever so lightly and then--

Blood, blood and pain everywhere, and then--the pain is gone, replaced only with anguished longing and loneliness.

The other ghosts continue on their way as normal.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is still not sure what to think about Hades but they got work to do right? She really does have work to do. She doesn't even understand the concept of brimstone she's never heard of it btu it is a very strange situation to the basic. Given how there seems to be layers upon layers of the created and the creators she's got a lot to think about. sher looks over to Lily for a moment not sure what the user ghost data is doing here. This is way out of her element and she's looking more than a little creeped out. "Lily are you... all right?"

Lily has posed:
"Um...uh?" And suddenly there's a Luso behind Lily! The girl in white, a bit perplexed at Hades' unexpected dodge, was still pondering how to continue that line of questioning when suddenly in comes a terrified Luso... leaving her blinking a little between him and the specter. She is completely unphased by its appearance, same as she was with Hades. Same as she's been with Brooklyn... and only SLIGHTLY how she's been with the giant over there!

"Is it supposed to be scar-...y?"

She turns about to face the GHOST and blinks at IT instead, looking a bit awed and confounded as it closes in... and makes contact.

It takes a very short time before she reacts. Both the girl's eyes flash wide... and she PROMPTLY drops into a crouch, hands clapping over her ears and letting loose with a great terrified WAIL. "NO no no no no no no no NOOOoooooooooooooOOOOoooO!"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
 !!!

Reize yelps when the creature muzzles him towards the ground. "ACK!" And when the Cerberus leans over to give him a lick, the young boy is soon covered in dog slobber. "Graaagghhhh!" The boy yelps and gives a cry of annoyance.

But then, couple of presences are noted that he did not note before. In particular, the giant of a man. "Wh--whoaaaaa...!" How did he miss him? By the time he got up, Reize quickly fell flat on the ground once more from the sheer size of the man looming over them. "...That's huge!" He gapes in surprise. As he continues to wipe the dog slobber off of him, he looks back towards Yurita(who likely should have found out who Hades and Cerberus were by now), Deelel, Lily, and Luso. The latter is hiding behind Lily, "Hahahhaa, Luso, what are you hiding for----"

But then, the boy turns to see the ghost.

 !!!!

"Whoa!" His antenna hair flips up, shaking in surprise. As the Lord of the Dead does confirm the situation, Reize realize tht the rumors are tree. Finally getting to his feet, Reize looks over to the bespectacled individual. "There was a rumors post, requesting to deal with a situation." The leader of the Shard Seekers decides to speak out, "Someone, or something has been lurking out here, picking off the ghosts that are supposed to pass on to the Underworld. The Phantom Train is supposed to arrive in a couple of hours and we need to defeat the monster from snatching the ghosts up." For a moment, the feeling sinks in. A lot of people who had died in Manhattan, all of them passing along to the other world.

The leader of the Shard Seekers approaches that ghost who made its way to Luso. "Ooi." However, itlooks liek it is forming a connecton with Lily. However, when the figure revealsa Legion, Reize blinks, "...Buh?! Legion?!" It's forming a connection with Lily. It's hopefully nothing bad, right?

He decides to steeer everyone together, "...So, we have our mission." He holds onto the newspaper, gazing ahead. "There is something lurking out in here..." His eyes drift towards the other ghosts continuing along before he continues, "We need to find the creature and stop it. Yurita, Deelel, do you two have any more information about this place?" He tries to look ahead, but with the mists and the shrubs being larger than usual, he can't make out what's ahead. He looks up towards Gesandte, "Oooooiii! Big guy!" The smaller boy calls out to the large man.

"Are you able to see anything up ahead?! Can't see anything with all of the mist and ----" Lily shrieks.

"Lily?!" Reize snaps his head over towards her when she drops and wails.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Hades is given an embarrased glare. "Gah! I know that! But...I didn't think there'd actually BE any! I thought someone was playing a prank! Y-Yeah!" Luso only began to shake more when he saw the ghost reaching for Lily. "Gah! Watch it! It's going to steal your SOUL!" He exclaimed, still hiding behind the girl. But alas, it is too late.

"Huh? Hey!" And then she dropped into a crouch, beginning to wail rather loudly. "L-Lily! What's going on!" With the loss of his shield, Luso was forced to look at the ghost, and he didn't like it. At least this time it had a face! Or rather, SHE had a face.

"W-Who are you? And what'd you do to Lily!?" Attempting to swallow his fear of ghosts for now, Luso stood his ground, though very tempted to find another shield. But no! He couldn't!

Hades has posed:
The newspaper is back in Hades' hand as he looks towards Isaac, "You know her?" he points at the GHOST. However, the LORD of the dead turns towards GHOST and leans over her. "Yeah, hi. Lord of the dead, and you're dead." he says, and baps her on the head with the news paper. "No. You are dead, no hurting the living." he says, with a after thought, "Unless I tell you too." he says, once more, handing the paper back to Reize, "Hold this." he repeats.

Back on the other side, he turns towards Isaac, "Ha! Listen to you, I like that. Good, alright, a modern man, I like it. Good good." he pulls a arm around Isaac and leads him off to the side.

"Alright, you know what I want, but I wana know what you want." he says, suddenly a scroll appears out of nowhere, rolling out and starting to magically write Hades' part of the contract.

"Money? A magic item? What will it take to get you on Team Hades?"

Jecht has posed:
...why is he here?

It's been bothering Jecht all day. The slow, inexorable tug of something just beyond his reach, just outside his understanding; a quiet, demanding pull at the back of his mind, urging him towards this place, this weird forest lacking in anything resembling.....well, anything he'd be interested in. It's empty. It's creepy, though that didn't really bother Jecht (something about being an eldritch horror of unquestionable power for a good ten years of his life had taken a lot of the fear edge off him these days); it's out of the way, with a dead sort of air hanging about, a strange miasma permeating every inch of the place. Humans probably felt uncomfortable here, their skin crawling on edge; Jecht felt...right. He felt like he should be here - like there was something here he needed to be here for, something he deeply desired hidden in the depths of the Phantom Forest. Something wanted him here - something was demanding he be here, and he...wanted to be here.

And of course that made him uncomfortable and /angry/ besides.

So Jecht walks through the forest, stomping about; he's directed down one very specific path, one that will probably cross the group pretty much immediately. He's also grumbling to himself. /Angrily/.

"Woke me up...was having a nice nap...and then..." His mumbling gets quieter, trailing off as it shifts to somewhat vague grumbling. However...he's talking to himself. In fact, he doesn't even seem to see anyone else; his eyes are sort of glassy, glossed over. To normal people, he probably just sort of looks like he's really determined to go somewhere.

Hades would probably see something *vastly* more interesting.

The ghosts would probably recognize him as a being like themselves...but not quite...right.

Yurita has posed:
Yurita blinks, looking all around a second at the different things, before nudging Reize gently "what's going on? lord of the dead? cerberus? ghost? I'm extremely confused..."

Hades has posed:
Hades looks around, reaches into a tree, and changes the BGM. "Much better." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmM79YadYM

Brooklyn has posed:
"Just do your best to keep your head down if things get too crazy, Skyline." Brooklyn says, "I don't wanna see you get hurt or anything if stuff gets too crazy. Not that I don't think you can handle yourself, but...It's not foolish to retreat if the need arises.."

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"Cool." He nods to Reize, sticking his hands in his coat pockets. "I'll give you guys a hand, if you want it; I'm with the TDA, and we've got a standard policy to not let stuff like this slide." Well, generally they also have a policy to get paid, but if adventurers have anything in common, it's divided shares of the loot. He'll cross that bridge when they come to it.

'...isaac...'

Isaac turns. He stares at the ghost quizzically, as if trying to puzzle something out. The words don't sound like a ghost -- it sounds like a broken computer. Then, the hood falls off, and he recognizes her immediately. Isaac takes a step closer, eyes widening in obvious surprise. "Legion!" he exclaims. "Legion, let go of her, calm down -- I can take you to the others. They're out there, with us. We can get you reconnected and fixed up if it's what you want, I promise. I --"

Suddenly, Hades. Isaac is yanked off to the side. He composes himself, shooting a concerned glance at the girl but then being all business with the Lord of the Dead. "Well, we'd need to talk about specifics," he hedges. "I can do a TV network, single-world, cross-world, both, neither, no problem. We'll need to work out specifics, length of contract and what it entails before I agree to anything. /But/, as for price... well, I'll work hourly, but that's for small jobs, and this isn't a small job -- guy like you doesn't do small jobs, am I right?"

Isaac smiles. It's an enigmatic sort of smile, one that promises cryptic hints and nonsense that does far more than it really should. It's the smile of the professional wizard, and perhaps what Hades was looking for. "But I'll also work for secrets, arcane or otherwise, and for favors. The power or magnitude is dependent entirely upon what you want done, of course."

Gesandte has posed:
Gesandte looks down at Reize as he is spoken too, then looks forward to see if he can see anything. He shakes his head and looks back down at the small man, "I see nothing, unless you wish to know there is more dark, trees, and darkness ahead. IF you do, then that is what there is." Then looks over to the ghost scene, watching what it does to the poor girl and then itself being different. For a moment, he thinks perhaps he should act, but realises no real harm has been done, and the ghost was not actively doing bad, thus he has no reason to act upon it, "I believe that ghost, has business it requires to finish. It should be allowed to finish it." he speaks in Hades direction, but not really at him.

The Sixth Legion has posed:
are you my sisters? The ghost asks, in Lily's mind. This one is lonely. Please hold us, this one asks. It raises its arms in the air and--

bopped with a newspaper. The ghost's arms drop and it stares at Lily for several moments before saying, "...sorry...didn't mean to." It's such a change of dynamic that a lot of the spooky edge comes off the words. Hades has a way with ghosts, not-so-mysteriously.

It continues looking at Lily. Hades bopping it in the head with a newspaper seems to have restored some cogency to the spirit. That newspaper may be a true artifact of power. Isaac's words also seem to have a calming effect, a kind of focus appearing in those eyeyes.

Questions are asked of it. "We connected. She saw a memory. My...death? I am dead?" She pauses, and then looks back towards Lily. "You are not my sister?" She pauses for a few moments. "Sorry...you felt familiar...so I thought..." The presence in Lily's mind starts fading though Lily has a moment to send any messages back if she is so inclined or is capable.

She looks to Isaac. "You can help us?" She corrects herself. "me? But we are..." She messes it up again. She is not paying super attention to possible ghost hazards.

Hades has posed:
"Hi yeah. I am /HADES LORD OF THE DEAD/. Thanks, yeah, I know a ghost when I see one, and I know where they GO. Thanks." he says, dismissing Gesandte.

Lily has posed:
Everywhere, so much talking, so much confusion. Lily's a part of none of it, mostly due to how DISORIENTED she is by, as usual, the large plethora of people that always assembles for these missions. "Ug...h..." But. But but but.

When The Sixth Legion pulls away the hands that had reached out to her, Lily's own lash out to gently grab them... if indeed she can grab a ghost's hands. She tries!

"I know... what you want.... it's okay... I... I just...!" She chokes these words out through sniffling. Looking up, her eyes are full of tears. Erp.

That vision really, really shook her.

"That... happened...?!"

Shutting everythign else out, she simply turns to give Reize the soggiest look ever. Rather like a puppy face, all things considered.

That look says just one thing.
%TI really want to cry now.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel gets the idea that Lily is not doing all right, she seems to be anything but all right the program however seems to be a be not willint ot make a hostile action. The Gargyoles get some notice and she classes them as another species of user more or less. She's quite curious about them but now isn't the time. Yurita says "Ghost data pretty much Yurita." Deelel has had far longer in user space to adapt so she doesn't go insane but it's time to get going she looks over to Lily and moves to set a hand on the user's shoulder.

Jecht has posed:
Jecht steps into the clearing. He's still...hazy. He's not really sure what he's here for, why he's here, or what he's doing, just that he knows whatever it is he wants is THAT WAY and if he can't go THAT WAY right now, he's gonna be really annoyed, nevermind that he's already annoyed that something is tugging him THAT WAY anyway without his permission. Whatever it was that was pulling him was gonna catch some very serious hell.

He's vaguely, dimly aware that there are other people in the area. He's vaguely, dimly aware that people are standing around talking. He is /immediately/ aware of both the dead Legion and Hades - his glazed-over eyes locking onto both of them and frowning. Then he points at both of them in turn.

"HEY! YOU! Are you the ones makin' that <goosehonk> racket?! Cut it the <goosehonk> out, huh?! Gettin' so loud a man can't even get any sleep anymore!"

Skyline has posed:
Too many people to start making new friends. Or enemies. She wasn't sure what to think of Mr. Fire over there with his massive three headed dog, or the guy that got licked for trying to pet it, or the rest of'm. Nah, she'd be sticking close to the only familiar face she knew until she found out better. "I'll be fine, Brooklyn. If you want proof we could have another sparring session."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Reize moves to check up on Lily, "Lily!" Running over towards her, the young adventurer kneels down beside her, "What happened?!" And then, the newspaper disappears from his hand. Buh? That is when the Legion ghost is smacked with the newspaper. And oh hey, it's back in his hand. Reize holds onto the newspaper, blinking.

> Reize Seatlan has wielded a Newspaper in off-hand.
> L. Hand: Boomerang.
> R. Hand: Newspaper.

...Gesandte's answer earns the antenna hair flopping, "I was afraid of that."

A glance is given towards Yurita, frowning slightly. He tries to remember the words that Deelel would use. His head hurts trying to remember the terms! "Yurita, there are a lot of people that are no longer 'Users'. They are people being taken to another place. However, someone is 'derezzing' them. We have to stop them!"

Blink. "Oh! You're with TDA?!" The boy brightens, "Yeah! I am glad to have help from anyone, especially TDA! I'm Reize Seatlan and many of us are the Shard Seekers." A hand is gestured to Luso, "This is Luso, leader of Clan Gully!" He brightens a smile, "Knight's Vow #06: Forge allies whereever you go. The bond is stronger than an empire!"

As for Lily...

Reize just pulls the young girl up for a hug. A sigh exhales from he leader of the Shard Seekers. He places a hand to pat her on the shoulder.

..Until Jecht calls out to them with lots of angry words. Reize looks at Jecht with a surpried look, "Buh?!"

*******

While the giant did not see anything up ahead, there is something lingering. It is a very dark presence that is up ahead. Jecht, Yurita, Lily, Deelel, Hades, Luso will be able to pick up on a presence. It would feel like a wisp of darkness. Here are wavey lines where the darkness picks up, passing by them pretty quickly.

...Whereever those ghosts are heading towards...

... So is whatever that feeling is heading towards. And those who are /really/ magically inclined that sensed it...?

This presence is rather chaotic.

Jecht has posed:
Jecht is, uh, one of those /really/ magically inclined. Because he's sort of not alive anymore. Oh, he's not exactly dead, but he's not alive...look, it's messy and complicated and your name isn't Hades so you probably don't need to know the fine details. Not like you can pick up on them anyway; as far as the world is concerned, Jecht is a perfectly normal, healthy, living shirtless over-muscled adult male with a cool tattoo.

As far as /Jecht/ is concerned, he's never wanted to go anywhere so badly in his life. It's like hearing that song - the Hymn of the Fayth - but a million times worse. Jecht immediately starts moving towards the stream of dead souls.

"HEY! HEY! CUT THAT OUT!" He shouts, but he's still walking towards it, still mvoing swiftly in that direction. "HEY, SERIOUSLY! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? YOU CAN'T SING, YOU KNOW THAT?! YOU'RE *TONE-DEAF* AT THIS SINGING THING! I'M NOT FOLLOWING YOU BECAUSE I WANT TO! I'M JUST GONNA FIND YOU, AND WHEN I DO, I'M GONNA SHOVE MY FIST SO FAR DOWN YOUR THROAT YOU'RE GONNA BE <GOOSEHONKING> YOUR OWN STOMACH! YOU HEAR ME?"

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso smiled and waved towards Isaac in greeting, about to put his on spin on the greeting before...

"......"

Suddenly, Luso has a feeling. Nothing concrete, but...it just feels as if something is terribly wrong. OTHER than the lord of the dead, ghosts milling about all around, and THAT GUY yelling over there. Something much more pressing. "Guys? ...Get ready. Something's...not right." He said carefully, his fear of ghosts being pushed to the wayside in lieu of a sense of...something. Danger? He couldn't tell, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Taking a step away from Reize and Lily for space, the boy reached behind himself, grasping the handle to one of his many swords. Meanwhile, Jecht was given a look. "....Sheesh! That guy's got issues! But I'm serious about that feeling guys!"

Hades has posed:
"Oh ho!" Hades is amused at this...the kid isn't someone to be a sucker...easily. That's good, he needs someone with a head on his shoulder...the rest can come later. "Oh yes...QUITE big. One might say /worlds/ spanning," he says, grinning that shark toothed grin. "Alright so it's secrets you want. Well, I happen to be VERY good at that..." he continues to grin. "So how about this...the network...for ANY secret knowledge you desire." Wait can he...actually...

And Bam, right on the contract, with a pen handy for Isaac. "If the terms aren't to your liking, we can change things. Time isn't a issue here, and I get plenty of man power..." he says, with a grin, "Plenty of things you can use them for off the books in the spare time...perks of the job so to speak." he says, with a wink.

"Anyway give it some time, think it over...when you sign it, it'll come back to me."

And then he pauses, "Alright seriously, you! Yes, you! I don't know who you are, or where you come from, but HERE we have rules! First, no quasi, not dead not alive, whatever the heck you are. You are either DEAD or ALIVE. Second, No shirt, no shoes, no serice!" Hades points a finger at Jecht, and BAM. Shirt. "My most metro attack ever." he says, looking at the shirt that happens to match the rest of the outfit perfectly.

"Great." he says, and then RECORD SCRATCH.

He turns slowly At Reize. "Alright, kid, gona level with you here. That Knight vow crap? Yeah, nobody takes that crap seriously, and we all feel embarrased LISTENING to you speak it. Seriously, that was like ten seconds off my /infinitely long life/ that I can not get back. Never say that again."

However...Cerberus growls...sniffing the air and moving towards the source of the Chaos.

"Cerberus. Fetch!"

Yurita has posed:
Yurita blinks a second, listening to Deelel, and then Reize, before saying "so weird hearing a user use those words... but that does explain it..." she then follows behind Reize as he moves, then hearing Hades, she turns and looks at him, a slight scowl worn "I personally like it when he talks of those vows, so do not say something like that as if everyone shares that exact opinion, lord of death, life, fire, what have you, or not." she then blinks, before shaking her head "sorry... I must have a glitch..."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The Knight's Vow is dissed!!!

Reize stares, just pauses.

"But... but.... but...."

Sadface.
Antenna hair flops.

Brooklyn has posed:
"I am so confused right now." Brooklyn says, more to Skyline than anyone else, as he looks at all the goings on around them. Gods incarnate making shirts appear on strange shirtless hobos, a ghost who doesn't realize, or doesn't want to realize, that she's dead. All in all, Brooklyn kinda misses the simple days of immortal Scottsmen and billionares in battle armor.

Luso Clemens has posed:
And thus, Luso makes a mental note to refrain from mentioning any of the Golden Rules of Clan Gully.

Yep.

A bead of sweat comically rolls down the side of his face. "Ahahaha...;"

Skyline has posed:
"You? I just -got- here." Skyline's quick to point out. Between Jecht's yelling and everything else- wait. This is about the time she takes note of Luso's bad vibe and slowly reaches for her blades. "Eyes up."

Lily has posed:
Oh Lily can feel it alright. She hasn't let go of the ghost's hands even as Reize pulled her in for a hug. It's gonna take a while for her to settle down from the shock of that sudden vision... but she does get out through Reize's shoulder, "I'm not... I'm not... them... I don't know who they are. I'm Lily--- hhhhheeeek?!"

With a start the girl whirls around, coming back to her senses... or so it would seem.

Her face has gone pale, only to be swiftly overcome with a flash of terror. "E-everyone... that way... that way is... something ho--"

Whatever she was GOING to say is drowned out by Jecht's yelling, which makes her flinch and shut up... while still staring in the abhorred direction.

The Sixth Legion has posed:
The ghost looks towards Jecht, who is yelling at them. The Legino, after a moment, shakes her head. She doesn't think so?

"Yes." She tells Lily. Her hands pass through the ghost's hands readily enough but even so, the ghost makes the gesture of holding the hands as if she were holding them. "...Thank you." She says. "It's alright. That is what we were made for."

She goes quiet. She doesn't seem eager to follow after the other ghosts. "Dangerous..." She murmurs.

Gesandte has posed:
Gesandte looks down at HAdes, to say something probably not best said to a diety, but only says a few words, "Be not a sinner.". Then notices a few seem to be spooked, he looks back up to the distance to be ready, even if he cannot feel or sense it, the others seem to be able too. So that is enough for him. Whatever it is, clearly has sinned against life, against the innocent and those that should not be sinned again, and he will ensure that does not make the mistake again. His eyes though, still downcast, watching the ghosts, watching them like insects scurrying to or from something he cannot be sure of.. Though he spares a glance at the yelling shirtless... non-shirtless one, make it up's mind. Obviously a sinner, but of no real importance at the moment.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel pauses at Hades she's listening to the strange being, he's said he was a god. The lord of the dead, so he's a user's user? She kinda stares as her theroy about reality seems to be holding some weight though the comment to Reize gets an eyebrow raised. Reize is only half compiled so she'd never thought one way ot another about the few vows she heard. Still that was pretty damn harsh. She's not about to sass the flaming haired god, "Pardon my friend she's still new to this level of existance."

Then Jecht sharts hollaring for some <goosehonking> reason about the music. She's distracted from replying to Lily and focuses on the sports star for a moment whose now confusing the heck out of her.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
A sucker is born every minute. However, a sucker, he ain't.

"That's a pretty generous offer," Isaac admits. "We'll talk." After this whole nonsense is taken care of, he silently adds. He gracefully extracts himself from Hades' immediate presence, stepping over to the gathered heroes of the moment. He glances at Luso, giving him a quick nod of greeting. He recognizes him, but now's the time for ACTION.

Or, investigation and question-asking. Isaac starts to look ahead, pulling his tablet and flicking it out of sleep mode. He points the camera in that direction, scanning the area for magic and palpable, obviously not-normal darkness. He asides to the lost Legionaire, "So how'd you get out here, anyway?"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Things become serious as the presence of darkness seems to be looming ahead.

Reize shakes off his dispair of the Knight's Vow being /dissed/!! The adventurer sees Cerberus moving towards the source. "Everyone! Follow it!"

Should the group start following the source and Cerberus, it will lead through the trail of the forest. The forest may be confusing, but the feeling of that darkness will make things easier to track it.

Jecht and Cerberus are having a good lead in following the trail.

Tick... Tock.

*DING DONG DING DONG~!*

The call of the hourly clock rings. That is the sound of the time limit left. It is only an hour left until the Phantom Train arrives.

The path is carried over to the forest, however, they will find that they are at the end of the trail. Many of the ghosts are staying where they are at. All of them gaggle together, bunching up in preparation for boarding the train.

However, the trailing end of the forest to the path that leads to the train station.

The Earth shudders with a violent vibration. The forests themselves are rattled by this terrible presence.

This leads to garguantian beast, towering over even Hades and the giant of a man. The massive monster has dark, black scales and it looks similar to a dog. However, when it opens its mouth, it releases a forked tongue with purple flames at the tip. It is a quadpedal beast with spikes all around its body. It's eyes flash open, eyeing the various ghosts gathered. Many of the dead have bene brought here.

The Soul Devourer has a wicked looking grin, eyeing each potential meal.

Yurita has posed:
Yurita blinks a moment, looking at Reize "hey, hey, he's only one person, no matter who he is, one persons opinion of those vows do not matter, personally I liked hearing about them..." at the same time she's watching the 'antenna' with intrigue... then she looks at Deelel "do not apologize for me to this being, if I wanted to apologize for what I said, I would have, I apologized for /how/ I said it..." then she stops, realizing something, she looks around the direction the others are "anyone else feel like something is coming this way?" as the group starts to move, she comes along quietly, but staying closer to Reize than before, shivering slightly.

Jecht has posed:
Jecht has a shirt.

It explodes in a shower of cloth, the stuff littering the ground in a path behind him. No shirt can hold the Sublime Magnificence known as Jecht's abs, that's a well-known fact. That is a body that just will not quite - dead, alive, or otherwise.

He doesn't comment on Hades' statement, though; he'd really rather not talk about that whole not-dead not-alive thing he's got going on. It's not really any of their business. Besideswhich, he's far too focused on whatever this stupid thing is. He picks up into a run, racing alongside Cerberus (he's /extremely/ fast, as befits a sports superhero); when they reach the end of the path and the monster towers above them, Jecht's eyes narrow. He punches his hands together.

"So you're the no-good piece of scum that woke me up, huh?" Jecht asks, well aware that the creature can't possibly hear him. He points up at it, then jerks his thumb at himself. "You look like you wanna eat me. Well, I got news for you."

"I WANT YOU TO EAT ME! YOU HEAR ME?! /EAT ME/! BECAUSE THE GREAT JECHT DOESN'T GET EATEN BY /NOBODY!/" Jecht roars.

For some reason, the dead turns for a brief moment and fill the area with thunderous applause. Jecht takes a moment to wave and grin at the crowd.

Always time to show off for the fans.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso kept his grasp on the handle of one of his swords as he ran off to follow after Cerberus.

The sight that greeted him was not pretty.
5r Ghosts. Ghosts everywhere. That was already terrible, but even worse then was that gigantic monster! But he'd seen similar before... "Hey Reize, you recognize that thing, right? We fought one before. In the Petrified Forest, yeah?"

But this one definitely looked different. Those spikes were telling. "This definitely is not doing be as easy as last time...! I hope you guys ready to go all out!" And with that, the boy wonder drew the Kwigon Blade along with Kotetsu, immediately beginning to radiate an orange aura as he powered himself up.

This was going to fun for the whoooooole family of course.

Skyline has posed:
Okay, whatever that is? Its big, its nasty, and it wants to devour all those people from NYC. .. SCREW THAT. When it first appears she backs off a step or two, glares up at the Soul Devourer... then steels herself. "Big ugly Mutt," a sideglance to Cerberus, "NOT YOU!" Back to Dvourer, with a quick quip to Brooklyn, "Lets see how well we can take this thing down."

The Sixth Legion has posed:
The Sixth Legion is not immune to celebrity and ghost blushes, waving shyly.

"I was killed." She tells Isaac. "I found myself here. Are my sisters okay?"

SUDDENLY... SOUL DEVOURER HOLY GEEZE THOSE THINGS ACTUALLY EXIST.

"...One hour..." She murmurs. "There is one hour..." She reaches for the gun she doesn't have, pauses, and then tries to remember--how did it go?

She's dead, but perhaps the memory of...

She raises her hands, unleashing an electric blast for the creature while, surreptitiously, hiding behind Isaac. He seems like a tank.

Hades has posed:
Hades does not run with the rest of them.

"Good luck, little shorties. I am...rooting for ya." Hades says, and vanishes.

He'll be back later.

Right now, Cerberus runs towards the...

It's eyes might be hearts for a brief moment, before realizing...

Daddy said /murder/. It whines, for a brief moment, and then turns it into three syncronis growls.

Then it rushes, aiming to litterally slam it's head into the large enemy monster. After the head butt, it starts dashing around, causing large disturbance of wind and darkness, before it repeatedly snaps at the Soul Eater.

And then attempts to grab it by the throat and drag it down into the ground.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel does not know the horror of the shirt honestly she's from a world of form fitting body suits that's all she really knows honestly. User clothes are strange things to her. From undergarments to the dreaded terrible shirt. Also jecht has roused the dead it seems. She is considered if Hades is a user's user then it might mean he has system admin access to this crazy chaotic reality and honestly? He's shown he likely does. She does have her train of thought derailed by Yurita as she points something major is coming "I think your right." She looks and sees something coming she follows the Gargyoles lead and her ID disc is already powered up and ready for fight.

She starts to prep her system for combat readying a few ... commands.

"Seems it's time to start the Game. Let's go."

Gesandte has posed:
The giant man, begins walking after the dog, behind the others towards the thing they are heading for. As they get closer he see's the giant monster, and yet only slows to take in all the monster, not really afraid of the thing. His left hand comes up and lays flat against his book, and he utters out a very whispered prayer, for the ghosts, for them, or for the monster who can say but there it is.

He looks up at the beast, very assured the monster cannot understand, or perhaps not even hear, but it matters not to him, "Repent beast, repent of your sins. Seek forgiveness, and I will ensure that you are given a blessing upon your death. Given favoring when you are cast to the pits that you will end up in."

Well, preaching to a monster, why not, isn't that what anyone would do in this situation? Well if not, that's what he's doing, so no one else cares.

Brooklyn has posed:
So this is the thing that wants to hurt all of the already dead Manhattanites. Well, they're still under Brooklyn's protection. The gargoyle is quick to react when it makes it's presence known, as he dives to the side and latches his claws into a tree, scrambling up in order to gain an elevated tactical position on the monster, "I think you've done enough damage, monster! Lets see how well you do against the living!"

Lily has posed:
And thus the group has found their destination. There to meet them, a beast of terrible intent. Lily glares at the Soul Devourer with every erg of hatred her spirit can muster the moment she realizes what it is.

"No. You won't." is her declaration, simple and firm, to the creature.

"You can disappear, just like those things from the darkness!"

Her spirit BURNS furiously, and all around her... well, the temperature soars up a couple dozen degrees until it's stiflingly hot.

The winds join that mix next, causing a bit of a whirling rush around Lily that tugs at her clothes and hair. But she gestures at Reize, and a stream of that burning wind surrounds him. Not quite visible to the naked eye as more than a few glowing ripples, the power of the Elements fills him.

The fury of flame, the fleetness of wind.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
"That explains a bit," Isaac mutters. "Yeah, they're okay. Five of them showed up in Traverse Town. I don't know if that's all of you, or if that's just most of you, but --"

Soul Devourer takes center stage. Isaac looks up at it, frowning and sliding one foot slightly back. He doesn't let any fear he might be experiencing show on his face; he just looks serious. Isaac flips to a different app on his phone, the light shining from his device into the forest finally going out. His face is illuminated by the display, appearing almost spectral in the luminescence of the foreign technology.

Isaac's hair is suddenly blown back by the bloom of heat coming off Lily. He glances her way and sidles a step away, stripping his gloves off and slipping them into an inner pocket. He clears his throat quietly and utters a few words, voice strong with syllables that sound vaguely arcane. Wind whips around him, and a pillar of fire erupts out of the ground around his feet, spinning around and closing off just above him. He mutters something else and steps off the ground, feet standing on air like it was solid ground and leaving dimly illuminated platforms wherever he walks. The flaming barrier seals beneath him, fire flickering like something digitally rendered rather than conjured and alive.

"Okay, pal. Let's just let the ghosts be on their merry way," he says, staring down the Dark Dogupine. "You can turn around and walk away, or we can /really/ throw down."

The Sixth Legion has posed:
"Isaac." The Sixth Legion thinks to mention. "I thought I should mention...."

"...Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Those crimson eyes turn towards the presence of Jecht, its forked tongue licking the air in anticipation. It snarls towards the prescence of the man between life and death, seeking to move into his path. As he cheers himself on, it rears its head back and it gives off a roar.

When the shorter Cerberus rushes to slam its head with the towering beast, it rushes forward to bump heads with the Cerberus. However, when the jas snap out to its neck, it is caught by the disturbance of the wind and it smashes towards the ground.

*****

Reize, arriving with Luso, sees the massive beast out. His eyes widen in shock as it looms over those souls. A glance is given towards Luso with a nod. "Yeah..." It isimilar to the beast in the Petrified Forest, isn't it?"

Oh wait. There are gargoyles?! Whoa! More of them! Zia would likely be happy to hear about those. Concentrate.

"Everyone! We are to defeat the monster!"

Meanwhile, the beast gives off a growl before it rises up to its feet. The Soul Devourer sees the ghosts attempting to gain entry to the train station. However, it soon projects the hexagon barrier to prevent anyone passing it. Then, it releases an ominous howl. As the howl pierces the air, there are zombified looking creatures emerging from the ground. Zombified, they are trudging to the ghosts.

Lily enhances Reize with the power of the elements, "Thanks, Lily!" The boy calls out her way. However, the creature is going after the ghosts. So, the boy runs over and skids across step in front of the ghosts as the lumbering shadow zombies trudge forward. He brings both of his weapons out in his fighting stance. "Everyone! You can do it! I will keep these things from getting the ghosts! "

> Reize Seatlan has been removed from battle.
> Reize Seatlan has passed the control to Luso Clemens.
> Reize Seatlan has empowered the party!

*****

The creature isn't having it. The Soul Devourer is sneering towards the entire group. It lunges itself up and it releases a thunderous howl. As the creature howls, the black mist spreads across the field. But then, its body erupts into flames and it charges straight towards the entire group. The flames light up and it tears along the ground with a trail of the black blaze behind it.

Hades has posed:
Cerberous winces in pain, but isn't that hurt...thankfully. It growls, dangerously, as it suddenly releases a powerful HOWL.

Without warning, the guardian of the underworld's powerful being somehow gets...more powerful, and the howl is strangely mystical. Transfering it's power to those close to it...and who also share it's connection with the dead.

Yes, that means you Jecht.

Cerberus suddenly growls, droping into a lower stance, ready to start MAULING the creature should he try that again.

CERBERUS TOOK A DEFENSIVE STANCE.

Luso Clemens has posed:
"Alright Reize! Leave this thing to us!" Luso called out to the retreating leader of the Shard Seekers. But that lapse in attention would cost him as an unsettling howl echoed through the forest, followed by a flaming charge. "Argh!" Immediately, he pat down the flames before they got any worse and glared at the dark beast.

"You think you're something? Not likely! I've already fought your kind before! I know everything you can do!" The boy exclaimed, pointing up at the massive creature with a wide grin. "Let me show you just what /I/ can do now!" And with that said, Luso dove forward, both swords held at the ready.

As he ran, the blades began to ice over and Luso brought them up and over once he was in range, lashing out with a cross slash. If it made contact, the damaged area would immediately begin to ice over before cracking. He then spun to the beast's side, swords bursting into flame as he swung in an attempt to return the favor.

Following that, Luso leapt into the air, flipping once before coming down with a pair of lightning charged slashes to bear. "And then have some of this!"

Skyline has posed:
Clearly Skyline didn't quite prepare enough. Reize's inspiration rolls over her, steeling her further for the fight to come, but when the Soul Devourer rushes the group she's still not quick enough to get out of the way. HOLY CRAP FIRE, for a moment, but its not all that 'burny' thanks to Reize. So. For now its time to lay into the pup that isn't Cerberus. Guns work on these things right? Sure. Fill anything with enough bullets and it'll fall over.

Yurita has posed:
Yurita blinks, confused by everything happening around her, before realizing its a fight, taking out her data disc she says "great, a fight.... I hope everyone knows, I'm worthless in fair, head to head fights...." she then gets into a fighting stance... a very sloppy, and horrible one "just my day..."

Gesandte has posed:
The giant man, stands firm in his beliefs and the monsters attack is bounced off his convictions. He stares at the monster, "You were given the chance, you ignored it, you will now Atone for your sins, and be cast down into the pits!" He speaks, then hunches doen, growls and lets out a yell, like a dozen or more men screaming a battle cry. He begins running and then jumps into the as though he was as gracefull as a dance or some agile person.

As he flies through the air he chants some more, then lands almost next to the monaster the ground shaking and trembling beneath the might of his landing. Without wasting a moments time, he brings his fists up and begins to just basicaly punch the monster, fists flying to have this monster atone for his sins against those that deserve not to be sinned against.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is about to say something to Reize, b ut there he goes something happens to Reize. Well more he's covering their backs while they go to deal with the big threat. The basic has no issues about drezzing something like this. None what soever. Seriously was this thing related to LEXUS? She has no idea but she intend sot take this thing out.

"You want this virus...fine you got it."

The users might be dead but they are still users. They still are people right? Also it's clear there's some order in this chaotic world about what happens to them and this thing is right in the way. She lunges at it in a high speed run launching her disc at it once before she leaps over it and catches the disc on the pass for another shot at it.

"I'm over here!"

Brooklyn has posed:
Oh good, black mist and fire. Brooklyn isn't sure if this is another type of Heartless he has yet to encounter, or something from one of the worlds he hasn't visited yet, but in truth, it doesn't really matter to him what it is. Because it's a threat, and threats need to be dealt with.
Tossing himself from his tree perch, Brooklyn flips through the air and drops, talons first, to try to rake them across the beast, then push off, turn around in midair, and dives back downwards, shoulder first, to drive himself into the creature, despite all the attacks from the others, he's confident enough in their ability to not hit him.

Lily has posed:
WHOOOOOOOSH!

"Ah-ah--aaaaaah!" Lily isn't the most physically nimble person around. She dodges the charging beast mostly by sheer luck.

In other words, in her panic to whirl around and hightail it away from the creature, she trips over her own feet and skids several feet away with a screech of pained protest, slightly singed.

Up she stands, however, slapping out the smoldering sections of her outfit. "Hurting everything. Always the hurting, every time we go anywhere. I've had enough of it."

The burning aura around her strengthens even FURTHER, the firey wind wipping out and more tendrils extending towards Deelel and Gesandte this time.

This is how she fights.

By giving others the power to do so.

The Sixth Legion has posed:
The Sixth Legion after delivering her warning about hitchhiking ghosts, The Sixth Legion continues. "That is all of...them." It says hesitatingly, as if she's not sure she's using the words right. She seems intent on helping the ghosts get to the train though she might just be reacting to Hades' will--it's hard to say. what isn't hard to say is the effect of Cerberus's howl on her spirit. She opens her mouth faintly n then presses her lips together in a thin line. the electricity rippling across her spirit seems that much more potent--really, before, it was actually rather subpar, like she couldn't get it functioning properly. Lack of other members of the Network, maybe?

She unleashes a burst of electrical power--this time, however, it billows around Lily and Isaac--before fading away. It seems like she was trying to provide some assistance but couldn't quite make it work.

Jecht has posed:
Jecht doesn't do that whole 'dodging' thing. He can, but not right now; he's a little bit too distracted for that. As the creature comes lumbering forward, Jecht just throws himself under its legs; sure, he's lit on fire, burning, and kind of hurting, but that's irrelevant! He's been all those things playing Blitzball! (Don't ask how fire can be lit underwater. Really. Don't.)

Then Jecht is...well, he's not PUT OUT, but he's enchanted by Reize...and then enchanted AGAIN by Hades. Magic flows through him; elsewhere, in the part of him that's still connected to his living torment, he can feel his body stirring. His /body/. His BODY.

No time to focus on that, though. He wasn't sure what would happen if his soul was eaten (he'd probably just respawn inside Sin, because seriously), but he wasn't really interested in finding out.

>MENU
>EQUIP
>BLITZBALL

"Hey, you!" Jecht shouts; he hurls the ball up into the air, following it up as he does so with a mighty leap. As the ball bounds off the creature, he moves to leap off it as well, smashing into it with his hands to springboard away from it and follow the ball up.

Then his foot swings around to start HAMMERING THE BLITZBALL INTO THE THING'S FACE. He will not stop, either. It'll bounce off, and he'll kick it in again, and again, and again, and again, like a sports-based jackhammer.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Reize does the heroic thing and runs off to face down the mook swarm. Isaac shoots him a thumbs-up, the silhouette of the wizard's gesture easily visible through the roiling fire-shield he's conjured around himself.

Then, Dark Dogupine rolls up and attacks. Fire and miasma is left in it's wake, shooting out of the ground and giving him a terrible hot-foot. He jumps up and lands on higher 'ground,' standing on thin air and letting the literal firewall absorb most of the punishment. It's what he designed it for, after all. "Okay! No negotiating! Got it! And I've got just the thing, too --"

The flaming sphere pulses, and visible waves of sound suddenly pound down from the flying mage into the ground. The earth roils and ripples, a wave of disturbed ground washing over the fire and leaping upwards in time with the music to slam into the creature from below while people go right for the face. He circle-strafes it, hovering above the fight and looking for a weakness.

Meanwhile, the leaves in the forest start to shake a little. They've been set abuzz, joining the tune that plays from Isaac's surprisingly high-fidelity tablet speaker.

BGM CHANGE: http://youtu.be/rP2zA3lZk9Y

Reize Seatlan has posed:
As the Soul Devourer faces its enemies, it deals with the presence of Cerberus and the others. Cerberus is growing stronger, which catches the beast's attention. This earns a sneer from the monster, then it places its paw towards the ground.

A hiss spills from its maw, then it turns towards Luso. Luso's blade strikes against the beast, the ice covering aong the wound. Then, the burst of flames erupt from the impact, causing the beast to release a howling growl. Next, lightning sends the beat screeching with rage. Skyline starts pelting it with lots of guns, sending it stepping away and it snaps forward with a roar.

Its eyes light up, ten it turns to the boy with the baleful glare.

Enter Gesandte. When the giant sends the ground shudering near the beast, the boy collapses on its face. The roaring beast rises up only to get punched in the face pretty harshly. Knocked against the snout, it's sent flying across the ground and the dust kicks up.

The disc makes its effect of hacking against it, the eyes soon fall over towards Deelel before it springs off towards her. With Brooklyn comes down at it, the creature whips it head away and slides underneah his dive to keep out of his vicinity.

Suddenly, the snout is smacked with the Blitzball FOREVER! It whines in pain as the impact smacks it all around. That ball is going FOREVER! AND EVER!!!

And then Isaac comes out of nowhere. The head is snapped aross the other side, then it snarls and moves to chomp at his direction before it loses track of him. The music is sending the creature shuddering...

Now, it's going to break the storm down.

First off, the beast glows with a reflective aura. It's aura manifests black flames. Those flames soon explode, releasing a ripple in the hole. This summons forth a gate that shoots a Dark Comet to start exploding towrds the group. And then... the creature rolls itself into a buzzsaw and starts rolling around like a buzzsaw at the entire party.

Hades has posed:
Cerberus yelps in pain as it is smashed into the ground, and then buzzsawed. It looks stunned!

However, slowly, it starts rising to it's feet, growling and making dangerous look. It's jaws snap, as it starts to circle the other monster.

Then it moves in viciously. There isn't anything else restricting it. Without mercy, all three heads snap down, aiming to repeatedly tear into the beast, aiming to rip out bits of whatever it can get it's hands on. The darkness flowing through it's bites, leaving nasty bits behind as it rips out important looking bits and attempts to smash the thing down.

Each head. Each powerful looking head, aims to litteral try and tear a piece off...and starts eating.

Cerberus then howls...it is getting PUMPED up.

Luso Clemens has posed:
"Grrr...!" Luso grumbled, shrugging off the damage from the beast's fierce attack. He managed to avoid taking too much damage by crossing his swords over in defense. "Not bad! Might even be stronger than the last one I faced!" But of course, he ended up grinning in excitement. Nothing like facing down a huge mark to get the blood pumping now!

"Lets cut you down to size then!" Sheathing the Kotetsu, Luso then drew Flametongue. The sword burst into flames the moment it was drawn and the boy raised it upwards, the crimson flames turning an ominous black. "Darkness devours!"

And then he dove forward rearing back with both swords before lashing out with the flaming strike. "Hyah!"

Skyline has posed:
Alright. So this soul devourer is starting to really get worrysome. Its howling, its crashing around, its trying to maul everything that gets close to it, INCLUDING the three headed pup over yonder. Then there's that comet, and on top of that its racing around like a buzzsaw which is only making the situation worse. What's a girl to do? Use the bullets. ALL OF THEM.

Keeping a close eye on the beast, Skyline actually rushes -toward- it rather then away and unleashes a veritable danmaku bullet hell from the two pistols she has, reloading at a lighting pace, just to open up again. Just how much ammo does she -carry-?!

Skyline has posed:
Addenum, what she's doing is unleashing so many bullets that she's trying to change its course.

The Sixth Legion has posed:
The Sixth Legion isn't getting too close to that Soul Devourer for the same reason ants don't snuggle up to anteaters. It is roughly oblivious to the work between Isaac and Hades. She doesn't want to anger Hades. He has a newspaper and--it should be noted--that Hades was able to bop her in the head with a newspaper when trying to grab her hands ended up with the ghost effect.

Likewise the soul Devourer can harm her--but she's ready this time, floating away moments before the comet lands and unleashing a brief electromagnetic pulse to push the wheel away from her body. She looks towards Jecht again.

"Isaac..." She says. "That man....without the shirt."
She pauses and then.
"He is not alive."
A GHOST? No.
"He is not dead."
A ZOMBIE? No.
"Nor is he undead."

However, no answers as to what that MAKE him are forthcoming.

She shoots more zappy.

Brooklyn has posed:
This thing is going crazy. This has to be some kinda Heartless, Brooklyn thinks. They're the only things he's seen that can summon this kind of damage and do that crazy buzzsaw thing. While he manages to weather the storm, the pain is clearly visible on his face after the creature backs away in it's buzzsaw form, Brooklyn's form cut and bleeding in several places. He knows it'll heal. It always does, as soon as he stone sleeps. But that will have to wait until the threat is dealth with.

Brooklyn rapidly re-engages the creature, using his whole body as a weapon. His tail is used to strike at the creature, though this proves to be a feint, as he whips around with his talons to try to sweep it. Either way, he'll finish the engagement with an uppercut designed to launch the creature into the air, figuring it can't buzzsaw around if it's off the ground.

Gesandte has posed:
The giant easily deflects the buzzsawing monster, his belief in his gods so strong they protect him from the sinners and unrighteous. He turns to face the monster again, then charges at it, again faster then smoeone of his size should be able to move, but there he is, going for it like some kind of crazed madman.

"I told you monster, to repent of your sins, to cast down your ways. You have ignored my advice far too long. Do not ask for pity, when I have struck you down, for you have lost that way, and now will only suffer!"

He heads for it, and then in a totaly odd fashion jumps straight up underneath the beast twirling as his fist seems to glow with a shiny light of fury, aiming for the beasts head, with his other fist further down but equally ready to strike his blow against the monster. He will take this beast, and he will show that sinning is evil, showing those who sin they shall repent their mistakes.

Yurita has posed:
Yurita eeps, before getting hit by whatever that 'devourer' just used as an attack, slowly getting back up afterwards, wincing, all that escapes her lips is "ow..." before glancing around at everyone, including Reize, who's still off fighting zombies, before saying "we're all gonna end up derezzed, aren't we..." before throwing her ID disc at the beast...

Yup, that's the best she's got.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
In the midst of fighting off of the zombies, Reize shouts towards Yurita, "No! We are not going be derezzed! We are going to fight! We are fighting for the people of Manhattan that have to pass on! We are fighting for people's SOULS! So rise and fight!"

Argh, Shadowzombie dogpile.

Lots of combo martial arts action in the background.

The creatures are endless.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel land behind the beast successfully she even hits it fairly well but well? Black Flames are coming she knows those are not good and then comes a comet? What in the world? She's not going to bother asking she's goint to leap and doesn't fully escape the dark power of the soul eater but she's mosrly unarhmed and thanks to Lily she seems to have her proformace profile improves for a moment, she's going to make use of this.

"We're not derezzed yet Yuriti! I know what your able to do, your spit in MCP and Sark's face saving us from the game pits!"

She now launches her attack as she actually gets in close and starts puting the disk to use in very close combat it seems she's got an ... idea to get the beast's attention it shouldn't drop an comet on it's self right?

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
BUZZSAW DOG.

"Why do they make Dark Dogupines with buzzsaw features?!" Isaac asks, just before the Dogupine slashes beneath him. Isaac fires a pulse of mana skyward, neatly deflecting the comet into a course that isn't directly aimed at his face, and then scrambles higher and throws himself to the side. The Dogupine lashes through his shield, the cutting force blunted and translated into kinetic energy instead. Dangerous, yes, but /less/ dangerous.

Fire eats away at the flaming(?) shield. The strike sends him flying like a pinball into the trees, hammering into a particularly old oak. His barrier bends and contorts, spinning against it and breaking down as it siphons off the force. Isaac grits his teeth, refocusing -- and then, suddenly, he 'pops' away from it into free air again a moment later.

Isaac produces a scroll from his pocket. He turns it in his hands, examining the contents of the otherworldly (underworldly?) contract Hades passed him. He reads it incredibly fast, keeping his concentration on the barrier at the same time he examines the legalese of the... surprisingly straightforward document. "A secret owed upon the completion of the job, and the other thing right now, huh...?" he murmurs, mostly speaking to himself. He gets to the end of it, staring at the bottom line with his brow furrowed in thought.

Almost offhandedly, Isaac makes a gesture and mutters something under his breath. Rocks tear themselves out of the ground and hurtle at the Dark Dogupine -- er, Soul Devourer. They weave around Luso and Brooklyn, slamming into the monster with a vague purplish aura, followed by the groan of trees bending unnaturally and swinging down like animated staves to lash at the creature.

Isaac glances at the man without the shirt. He eyes Jecht for a minute, and nods a little. Not alive, not dead, not undead. What is he, then? Something to think about later, he thinks. He looks to the ghostly Legionaire for just a second. There's something he's gotta know before he does something like this, something so foolish, so ridiculous --

He's seen the consequences before. He can live with it this time, though, he thinks. Nobody else gets hurt, except by bad cable. But a question on the tip of his tongue...

"Hey, Legion." Isaac rereads the contract. He mutters something and hovers the object in front of him, using his now-free hand to fish around in his pocket as he goes over it one more time. Briefly, he looks back at her again. "What's your name?"

Lily has posed:
BUZZSAW MONSTER.

"H-hwah!"

They ain't cool. Not when it's coming at you after all.

Poor, pissed off Lily, she's right in the way of the thing. And well... she panics, flailing her arms and throwing them up protectively at the last moment. For all the good it does her.

The raging beast's whirling motion shreds into her with ravaging consequences. Strips of clothing are shredded to tatters, and flesh is sawed into. Blood splatters everywhere, staining her pure white robes for the umpteenth time since she awoke. Her scream echoes piercingly every which way--

And the girl goes down with a THUD, whimpering in agony.

Hot, searing pain. It is very unpleasant, and it motivates her to stand back up with grueling effort, hands on her knees and breathing hard through a rush of panic and adrenaline.

She runs a somewhat bloodied hand through her hair to get some of it out of the way... she seems in need of a haircut after this many months without one!

"I... I... I've had it. Everything always wants to hurt everyone... I can't get rid of them... why why why why WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! This time... this time..."

A few hiccups leak from her throat, uncertain and warbling.

But in response to her frustration and desperation, something happens.

Light streams from the jewel embedded in her forehead. It glows and pulses gently... then brilliantly.

At the same time, the forest comes alive. Little motes of light appear from nowhere, tiny wisps of magical energy. They coaelsce and swirl inwards, flattening from a collapsing sphere into a whirling and condensing accretion disk of cerulean starlight. In the blink of an eye, all of that energy's swallowed up into the jewel and blazes into a sparkling aura around the girl that extends thickly outwards. A blaze of primal, heavenly light.

Her jewel's not the only one giving off this light. Over by Reize, the same thing's happened around him...

Reize Seatlan has posed:
It's beast versus beast as the Cerberus steps back into the fight against the Soul Devourer. Its forked tongue flicks out, the flames lighting up as the eyes glow ominously. The theeheads move to tear against it, but the monster seeks to collide with the Cerberus. In that moment of flashing, one of the heads manages to rip out against the monster's ear. It snarls and whines in pain as each of the jaws bite against its form.

..And yet...

It rises to its feet. Luso is drawing his sword forth with the strike, but the beast manages to spring itself towards the air, getting away from the incoming blade that seeks to rend it.

With the beast airborne, it springs over towards one of the trees and it starts hopping along the next.

However, as it moves towards the next set of trees, it is rapidly gunned down by the bullets from Skyline. As it hovers in the ir, it keeps twithing and shuddering as the barrage of bullet hell tears against its darkness-filled body. After a moment, it manages to move to the next set of trees.

Through the darkness, the creature comes down, hanging upside down to turn its head towards the ghastly Legion.

It gives her the most creepy looking smile. A forked tongue stretches out, revealing those baleful flames.

And then Brooklyn dives forward to re-engage with the beast. The monster lunges forward, whipping out its massive tail.

*CLANG!* The two tails collide, guarding against the impact before it sweeps its body low and springs back into the air to get away from the assault. The tail, instead, as it springs up, smack against the talons to keep is intent from striking true.

Its eyes turn towards the giant as he closes the distance. The fist strikes against the beast's face, knocking it upward by the chin.

There is even a fang flying right out of its mouth as it twists about in a slow motion. Then, the other fist strikes a blow to it. The ID disc flies across the air, slicing it against the eye. There is a spillage of the darkness flowing out of it. It releases a dark howl of pain as it turns to face the group. It is now missing an eye. That one good eye glares towards the entire group. With Deelel moving within close range, the beast takes back into the air, trying to get away from the woman as the disc barely slices against its leg. A minor spill of dark fluids stain the forest ground.

As the rocks tear from the ground and hurl towards the Soul Devourer, it lunges its head against the soil to protect its head from the blows. It staves off the worst of it, but it shudders in agony while it keeps getting beaten, one after another. Even the unnatural trees decide to take a swin at the creature. It is knocked on its back, but quickly rolls back up.

The beast finally releases a thunderous howl. The body shuddering violently, the creature springs itself up into the air. This time, it is rolling its body around. It is no longer a buzzsaw, but it is a giant comet itself.

It is a giant ball of comet. It shines with an foreboding darkness. That creature comes crashing down towards the earth, seeking to tear its way through the crowd and explode on contact.

Its impact on the earth will crack the ground.

Everything explodes from the impact.

Hades has posed:
Cerberus runs...

He's fast, moving increadibly fast despite his size around the Soul Devourer. There was only room in the underworld for one of them...and IT was top dog.

It moves at Cerberus, and both jaws snap down into the monster, holding it off as it starts to push backwards. The Three headed dog growls, and then spins, aiming to drag the beast down, and away...effortlessly sending it away from it. And then it growls, a terrible terrible growl as it slowly turns towards the monster.

He moves in, three hands snapping right into the thing's neck, aiming to drag it down once more, aiming to send dark energy into the monsterous thing, before once more aiming to once more bit viciously into it.

Then, without mercy...

Meteors rain down from it's mouth, darkness and fire raining down as it trembles over the monster...and then all three heads, in a single moment of true terror...

All of them aim to clamp down on it's neck.

Skyline has posed:
Unlike the last time, Skyline isn't going to unleash a bullet storm, mostly because they actually aren't going to be able to take much more machine-gunning at just the moment. SO. Instead the gargoyle needs a breather. The last bit winded her, and right now? Well, she's gonna just take a moment behind this nice tree over here, reload, and snap a shot at it from there. Hopefully it won't notice between all the PAIN coming in from everywhere else. Besides, what's one bullet, right?

Luso Clemens has posed:
"Gaaaah!"

Today was not Luso's day. Despite usually being rather speedy, he was getting hit left and right! Chalk it up to the presence of those ghosts most likely. Couldn't focus well enough to stay in the game like he usually did. "...Man, I don't have a lot to throw out here now..." He mumbled, looking rather annoyed with the situation.

Sheathing Flametongue, Luso's hand clutched the handle of Excalibur briefly, but...Nah. He shook his head and instead went for the Ogun Blade, drawing it out and hold it at the ready. "Okay! Let's try this again!" The boy exclaimed, both swords beginning to take on a white glow.

Holy light surged forth to a major degree as Luso then ran forward, leaping into the air an then coming down onto beast with his holy strike! It wasn't Excalibur, but it would have to do! "Take this! Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

The Sixth Legion has posed:
Legion continues to not know what is up between Isaac and Hades. She's kind of busy trying to destroy this thing so she can get to the train. It calls to her. She wants to go. But at the same time she worries for Lily. The network deal between Isaac and Hades doesn't really worry her, and as the time for the train to arrive comes, she is starting to worry less and less about her existence as an individual entity which, frankly, she was never all that worried about to begin with.

"Do not worry, Lily," She says. "This one will protect you--"

She reaches out with her hand and another electrical burst ripples out of her hand, surrounding Lily in a sort of hi voltage armor that crackles around her--she hersefl is not harmed, however.

She then, lets her hand drop. An explosion erupts from the comet, passing through the Legion--and not seeming to damage them. Indeed, she just walks through the dark fire and eruptions to get close to the girl she had connected with.

And once she's close enough, she moves forward suddenly, interposing her body between that of the Soul Devourer, fanning out her arms.

"Leave her alone." She says, wagging her arms up and down. "If you wish to devour me, we were made to be food. Do not touch her."

Isaac asks for her name. Looking back towards Isaac she informs him, "We do not have names." She says bluntly enough. "Still, if you wish for one... I was the sixth remaining. Therefore, call me Shida for the moment."

That's right. She's just giving you the number six in another language. She was unaware of the other naming scheme the others have taken, it seems. "Thank you for trying to help." She adds, trying to lead the beast away from harming Lily any further.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
tThe Shadow Zombies lurk, trying to get closer to the fair ghosts.

The hour is quickly approaching...

As the zombies attempt to grab one of the Manhattan ghosts...

/_\

Reize is dealing with kicking one of them before they get a chance to harm one of the ghosts.

/_\

Reize is going again, kicking each and every single Shadow Zombie around.

/_\

He is hopping on all of their heads, flipping off of one and to the next.

/_\

Reize is abusing the hell out of the button.

Brooklyn has posed:
Oh, a comet huh? That's cool. This is not the type of thing Brooklyn would think. He'd be too concerned with the fact that a goddamn space rock is about to crash on top of him and horribly murder him. Still, he's not going to just run away. He stands his ground, watching the honey bunches of death as they come raining down towards him. He backflips out of the way of the first one as it impacts where he had been standing, and flares his wings in midair to make sure that he can dodge the second one that strikes a moment later. All in all, Brooklyn dodges enough to make it look like he knows what he's doing.

Once all the death rocks are out of his way, he goes back on the attack. This attack is not fancy. It's not pretty. But it will be effective. He lowers his shoulder and rushes head on at the beast. As he reaches the perfect point, he leaps, using his powerful legs to propel him through the air, as he hauls back and unleashes a Superman punch, throwing all of his weight and power behind it. As soon as it lands, he wheels around with one of his feet, throwing a kick in the direction of the monster, which is undoubtedly close to death by now anyway, and then plants both of his talons and flips backwards off of the creature, to clear some space between himself and it, in case it's not going down yet.

Deelel has posed:
The Beast is calling another comet? Oh dear it seems her plan wasn't the best one after all. Still live and learn right? If she live through this the huge thing is coming down towards her and she leaps up into the air as the comet falls, she lands on it and leaps away again before the thing impacts where she was standing a moment ago. While she's in the ir she flips and she's comming dowen at the beast. AS everyone else makes their stikes she throws her disk with enough force it might just core through the creature, rebound of the groun and come back through it again before the basic would catch it on the rebound and she'll leand on the ground afterward recovering her disc with a smirk.

"Game over virus."

Yurita has posed:
Yurita blinks, and says "did I actually hit it?" she catches her ID disc as it flies back to her, before seeing a giant comet coming at her and everyone else "freaking... kidding me..." surprisingly, she immediately gets out of the way of it, rolling around on the ground, before standing up, brushing her clothes off before turning towards the devourer, looking around for her data disc.

Gesandte has posed:
the Giant stands there as the monster does its attack, only moving to cover the book on his chest with his arms, and the attack hits. The rocky death hits the ground and the explosions and rocks explode into him, forcing him back but he remains standing, remains breathing. The Gods surely punishing him for his lack of humility in thinking he was superior to this monster, or perhaps because he did not bring it down as fast as it should have been. After the attack, he breaths, breaths more, and drops his arms..

"Forgive me my Gods. For I have taken your grace, and flaundered it. I will not make that mistake again, grant me your grace one last time."

His muslces begin to flex, his body begins to vibrate, and again the giant begins rushing towards the monster. He raises his left hand again, it begins to light up, to charge, almost as if a spear was forming where his hand should be and he aims it straight for the beasts head..

"FEEL THE WRATH OF THE GODS! FEEL THE GIGASFIST! FOR YOUR TIME IS NOW ENDED!"

And with that, all his energy is consumed in one great final attack, all to end this monster.

Lily has posed:
Lily gives The Sixth Legion a reassuring look, as if to say it's alright, but there's a distant quality in her eyes, which now blaze with an inner light pulsing in tune with that starlight aura... the cerulean blaze which persists most potently around her.

As the beast falls upon her, she crosses her arms again--

And all of that power concentrates inwards, focusing and intensifying towards the predicted point of impact... until it's become a shield.

The moment the beast slams into Lily, picking her up off her feet and sending her flying backwards with tremendous force.

Behind the bloodied girl, however, the winds are there to catch her. An immense gale rushes through the forest, breaking itself upon her back and serving to cushion her plunge... then leaves her hovering there, blown about by small amounts but maintaining altitude and rough position, with her tattered robes whipping each and every way.

She's only slightly more battered from the impact, but the shield has dimmed severely from it. It won't survive another blow like that, and likely neitehr will she.

"You are through."

Those with magical senses, well, suffice it to say, she's like no ordinary mage who'd simply command and weave the elements or tease magic to do their bidding.

This girl IS magic itself. It flows through her and outwards at first like a river, then like a tsunami, incalculable torrents of mana swirling around her and that starlight aura billowing up to strength again.

Drawing a hand up above her head, she then strikes at the air towards the Soul Devourer...

And nature responds.

The ground rumbles and cracks beneath the creature, then grand and proud spires of rock shoot up beneath it, aiming to thoroughly impale then carry the beast dozens and dozens of yards up into the air... before said spires would crumble like a mountain eroding in high speed, simply abraded away by the wind.

For that is what happens. The primordial rock and earth, unconquered and glorious, is torn apart by what comes next. From the skies, clouds form and swirl... and down comes a funnel, an untamed burst of wind. Dark, majestic, and punishing, the twister's bottom tip homes in on the creature like some heavenly drill, threatening to tear apart whatever it touches and drive its prey back to the firmament.

There, however, the last disaster awaits.

The earth cracks open and glows malevolently from within as the raw forces of creation are called upon further. None of these elements have been within Lily's usual display of control, the simple elemental manipulations mages do - an intense, cutting gale? A fireball? Nothing that simple, nothing that base.

It's the primal, raging flames that guide the birth and life of planets which answers the girl's call. A thick plume of white-orange flames erupt straight upwards, reaching to meet the tornado and engulf its victim and instantly incinerates the flurries of leaves and twigs that get in its way.

The raw forces of creation and life have been unleashed to destroy and decimate.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
A comet falls in their midst. He can't deflect this one to minimize the damage; all he can do is wait for it. Isaac drifts to his left and throws himself into a harsh roll.

The comet hits. Isaac briefly blacks out. It's for just a second, but one that seems to stretch on into eternity.

He comes to. Fire and deafening sound all around. He feels the sensation of falling, but pulls himself back to his feet in mid-air without even thinking about it. His left hand holds his tablet in something nearing a death grip; his right is wrapped around the scroll of a contract, and a pen. It's funny what kinds of things you grab onto when you could be going for something tangible, like cover.

Isaac shakes the ringing out of his ears. He turns the music up, over the cacophonous sounds of battle. Music is life. They need life, not death and darkness. It stirs his soul, his heart, something deep and powerful. The aches of the body are nothing. These are poor souls unable to pass on, all because of this creature. Of what consequence is a little fatigue and a few aches and pains? They're just living.

"Heh. Living," Isaac mutters. He looks down at the sixth Legion. Isaac tucks his tablet under his arm for a second. "Alright. Well then, this one's for you, Shida." He unfurls the scroll, passing it over to his left hand. With his right, he signs the bottom line with a quick gesture and a flourish of the pen. He clicks it once more, and drops it into his pocket. The contract vanishes, just like that.

Huh. He expected something... more.

Isaac passes his tablet back into his hand. He rolls his right wrist, fanning out and flexing his fingers. "Alright. Now that that's taken care of --" His bright eyes lock on the still-standing creature. "-- you."

The magus above begins speaking in that pseudo-nonsense language again. He holds one hand out before him, two fingers tracing a tight, intricate pattern in the air. He leaves a vaguely blue outline where his fingertips pass, weaving in and out again, turning at harsh angles and burning a brilliant sigil into the sky above the Soul Devourer. The particularly savvy might recognize it as a circuit board, though a peculiarly-designed one. It grows in intricacy and complexity rapidly, the incantation flowing out of him as fast as he can speak it.

The forest all around brightens with a soft cyan light. Lines trace along the ground and the trees and the ghosts all at once, passing over them like a massive scanner. The light draws a curious outline around the Soul Devourer, leaving it with a luminescent shadow. Isaac takes it's measure, and finds it wanting.

Mana erupts in torrents all around him. Isaac breaks into a sudden cold sweat, perspiration beading his brow. His concentration is tried as his sixth sense makes him keenly aware of the presence of the other mages, and of Lily's power in particular. Impressive, yes; devastating, yes. But incalculable? No, not quite. The tiny gauges on the screen of his tablet, the curious spell-bound computer, light up. His eyes flick downward for a second. Useful...?

Yes.

The vast amounts of power filling the area respond to the curious shadow, still present despite the ruinous magic hurled at the creature of darkness. Isaac focuses it, the opened fonts of mana from the mages pouring into the world. The power isn't raw and barely-tamed but instead honed into a keen edge. Not an iota of energy is wasted, all of it funneled into a perfectly-designed pattern hanging in the air like an apprentice's prestidigitated doodles. The pattern seems simple, but simplicity multiplied endlessly by simplicity has precisely the desired effect. It isn't intended to destroy -- it's meant to unmake.

FOr a moment, the world seems to flicker. Everything feels slightly unreal, as if the planet and all her inhabitants were awakening from a particularly deep slumber. A vague, blueish haze flows outward in a harmless-looking fog, curling in wisps around the Soul Devourer's feet and rising up around it's quills. The odd shadow doubles, and triples, mirrored in itself.

Isaac's fevered chanting stops. He wheezes as he inhales a short breath, and forces out the last word of the incantation, perfectly understandable and clearly audible.

"Anathema."

Suddenly, the mist hardens. It flattens into two dimensions, a perfectly-formed shell of translucent grey with an outline in the same cyan light flickering into sight around the monster. It forces its way into reality, the mage's will imposed on the world to make a mirror of the monster above and around itself, a container, a vessel for what is has done turned inside-out. The weird shell isn't a reflection -- it's what the Soul Devourer /is/. Without it, it would just cease to be, fading away into nothingness.

Isaac promptly looks at it funny, and the mirrored shell shatters like a porcelain vase struck with a sledgehammer.

The effect on the creature should be remarkably similar.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Those three heads moved in.

As the jaws clamped against it neck, the beast releases a howl. The demonic force shudders and thrashes against the ground. It slams itself against the ground, trying to tear the Cerberus off of it. It continues to grow annoyed with the very presence of the Cerberus.

The one bullet manages to strike the ground as he monster rolls away in its struggle against the Cerberus. It tries to whip itself back and over to knock Cerberus to the side. This gives Luso time to drawthe power of the holy strike. As the blade's divine energy lights up, the light strikes through the darkness, sending the creature howling in agonizing pain.

And then, it turns its head towards the ghastly Legion that takes a protective stance near Lily. It's forked tongue flicks out, trudging its way past Cerberus and the wounds inflicted by Luso.

It snarls, leaning forward to have the tongue lash out to the girl---

Suddenly, Brooklyn comes with the Superman punch. This sends the Soul Devourer sprawling back, the impact sending it twisting before the kick smacks it the other direction.

As it snaps its jaws towards Brooklyn, it's immediately intercepted by the flying disc from Deelel as it smacks its jaws. Then, it ricochets and smacks it once more. Each rebound has it spinning around.

It starts to rise to normal, until the giant of a man's glowing hand bashes the creature's face into the earth.

It staggers up to its feet, trying to draw the urge to devour the Legion. However, the ground's rumbling and movement catches its attention. The spires of rocks shoot beneath it, impaling the creature up high from the earth. The funneling wind rips the creature away from the rocks but into its depths.

It falls into the eruption of the primal, raging flames. It's consumed by the pluming fire. As the flames disappear, what appears beneath its feet is the blue wispy mist that passes by. It rises up along the quills.

Until it hardens. The mist hardens into twod imension, the shell of translucent grey with the cyan light flickering in sight. The mage's will is imposed upon it. It's a mirror, it's a container.

....And it shatters.

The creature shatters like glass.

And all of the zombies that it summoned shatter in the same way that it does, given that it is no longer around to sustain them.

As the creature's existence ceases...

*DONG!DONG!DONG!*

...The hexagonal barrier that once appeared disappears, allowin the ghosts to continue their trail. All of the former citizens of Manhattan that passed away are able to move on.

The Phantom Train is arriving just in time....

Yurita has posed:
Yurita runs over to her ID disc, grabbing it and putting it in its socket, before moving over to Reize, and offering to help him up after the dogpile shatters.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso landed in a crouch, blades held outwards at his sides. A couple of seconds pass as he can hear the others getting their attacks in. It was over. They clearly won. "...Heh." And with that, he stood up, sheathing his swords behind himself as the Phantom Train came rolling into the station.

"We did it guys! Awesome work everyone!" Luso spoke out to the others, grinning as he wiped some dirt away from his face. "Looks like those....uh.....g....g-g.....g-ghosts...can move on."

With the battle adrenaline gone, the ghost situation was coming back to the forefront. "A h a h a . . ." A couple steps were taken back, giving the procession of souls a wide berth. God this was creepy!

Skyline has posed:
And in her respite, the soul devourer decides to return to whatever inferno it was spawned from. "... Well, I guess that was enough, then," Skyline muses before trudging out from behind the tree, looking around to see how everyone was doing, but mostly looking for Brooklyn.

Hades has posed:
There is a pillar of flame again.

Hades appears, a hand raising up with a snap of his fingers. The various pieces of the soul devourer are swallowed up by the magic.

"Oh no no no no! Don't think you're getting off THAT easily. Nobody muscles in on MY territory..." he says, the pieces form into a single ball of something.

"Sit!" he says towards Cerberus, who prompty sits. "Lay down!" and he does. "Roll over!" and he does.

"Good boy!" and throws the remains of the monster into the maul of Cerberus. NOM NOM NOM.

"Whooose a good boy!" he pats the monster on the head.

"Alright! Back down you go!" he says, and the large dog starts to sink again, back to his spot in the Underworld.

"Alright, good hussle there guys. And I, Hades, Lord of the Underworld thank you all for your hard work and making sure the train runs on time." Finger snap. Bags of gold appear infront of each person. It's a fair modest share.

Then a scroll appears into his hand. He looks towards Isaac. "Well. Alright, we have a deal then." he says, and turns towards the Ghost of Legion. "Sorry little lady, you don't get to ride the train just yet." he says, pushing her away from it. "You see, your friend here, just made a deal to have you.." his hands move, giving her the double pistols.

"Back to the land of the living! POW!" and with that, a strange magic swirl starts running up her legs, slowly turning her body from a ghostly white, to a actual physical body. Within a few seconds...she can breath again.

"Alright, good." he moves pushing her towards Isaac. "Pleasure doing buisness with you." he shakes the Mages hand. "Alright. Anyway, unless you wana become perminate residents...I suggest you vamooose! Thanks again. But seriously. Go away, this place is not for the living."

Brooklyn has posed:
Once the creature goes down, Brooklyn slumps to the ground, worn out. Though as he spies Skyline on her way towards him, he picks himself up and looks to her, "Nice work.." He says, as he looks back to Hades, and shakes his head slightly, "Well, you heard the man. We should probably get out of here. I'm not to keen on dying so soon."

Skyline has posed:
Skyline gives a nod, but not before tugging up her own, and Brooklyn's share. "Yeah, don't wanna forget this, do you?" she asks, holding it over toward the other gargoyle. "Though, no, I'd rather not have to get aboard that train," she muses, looking at the ghosts with a bit if a sigh. No point in talking about it right now, she figures he'd just get upset. "Lets get out of here."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks to Hades for a moment she lets his pet beast go snack om the remains. User space enities were strange to be sure. She's not going to question it. She nods for a moment "I understand. Hades, I have no desire to be derezzed she almost wonders does her kind end up with him? She won't press it prehaps she's too afraid to know. She gives Hades a bow for a moment before she goes. "I'll be on my way then." She looks over at Brooklyn and says "You seem to get game, we should talk some time!" She gives Skyline a nod and she's getting her rod out forming a light cycle about and she's calling out. "Time to boot this sector! Reize we shouldn't abuse Hades' good graces." With that she's heading off to somewhere tha living or the compiled should be!

The Sixth Legion has posed:
'Alright. well then, this one's for you, Shida.'

The call of the train reaches for her. Shida walks towards it. But that voice, those words--at first they don't even stop her. The beast is dead, she can go now. But she keeps hearing it in her mind. This one's for you, Shida. She opens her mouth, struggling to work a voice. "What..." She looks towards Isaac. "What did you do?" She is about to take another step when...

HADES INTERRUPT!

Shida is pushed back. "What is going on?" She asks of him. "What..."

Back to the land of the living. POW.

"What deal--" She begins but suddenly the magic swirls. She looks at herself with something admist awe and terror as her body reforms as the magic swirls around her. This is not what she expected to happen. Does this mean she is free? does she have to die again? She doesn't know. She looks towards Luso and reaches towards him and, in a way, this moment between death and life is perhaps the creepiest moment of all as life returns to the eyes, warmth to the arms and legs, a cogency that wasn't there before--as if a doll suddenly became embued with spirit.

And it's over, like someone really wanted to get this car off the lot. She lowers her hand again and says, "What deal did he make? I...ngh..." she grabs at her head. "Reconnecting, reconnecting...Connected..."

The memories that weren't hers before but now are hers again hit her like a sludgehammer. woozily she stumbles and hits the ground awkwardly. "nhh...The Network inquires, what did you do? What did you do, The Network inquires. Lily. Why?"

She takes in a few long breaths of air as if remembering that this is something a body needs to do and then, slowly, stands up again, staring at her hands. She opens and closes them, runs her hand across her chest and abdomen.

"The blood is there again." She marvels. "The Network cannot parse. Are you sure?" She looks back to Isaac. "Why? We do not understand. It had already happened. You did not know this one."

She could probably use hugs. Or perhaps taken out of the dead forest for dead people. She don't belong there no more and it's as much as a surprise to her as anyone.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac lands as the creature and all the zombies shatter. He brushes some unseen dust off the shoulder of his coat and straightens his collar absently. Standing straight, he puts the tablet to sleep and slips it into his coat pocket, nodding a little as if satisfied. "Good work everyone." He pockets the gold. He should make a pocket of holding or something.

Then, he turns to Legion -- Shida, if he so desires a name. He walks over, hands back in his pockets. "Welcome back to the land of the living," he greets, smiling. He shrugs a shoulder, and sticks out his hand for her to take. "It doesn't really matter. We can talk about it later, if you want --" He pauses a second. His smile turns a little enigmatic. "I did it because it seemed like the right thing to do," he offers.

Isaac jerks his head towards the path away from the train. "Maybe we should get outta here?" he suggests.

Gesandte has posed:
The giant man lands after landing his attack, with a rumble as his large hits the ground. He stands up and looks around, seeing the monster vanish, he lowers his head and prays for the monster anyways. It may have defied him, but it was still a lost soul that needed to be found ance placed and so he does. He then looks around, spotting Hades again, if he had not spent all his energy destroying that thing, he might have had a few more words for this so called Lord of the Underworld. Instead he shakes his head, and goes to pray for the souls to find their needs in the afterlife.

He then turns and heads to the group to make sure they are all atleast still in one piece, a bag of gold in his hand, being cared with no much care to it's safety or usage. Coming upon them, ensuring they are atleast alive, and offering what he can. But more wanting to ensure they leave this place before it is their time to do really be here.

Brooklyn has posed:
She can press him about it later, if she wants. For now he motions for her to lead the way back to the land of the living. He'll follow suit, although he could really use a stone nap right now.

Lily has posed:
And Lily hits the ground like a sack of potatoes, gasping and panting awkwardly, and still uqite in pain. After that massive display of magic, she's so exhausted that her body's on the verge of collapse-- and quite overheating. She woozily looks up Shida's way just in time to see the resurrection take place.

This gets a bleary peering from the girl, who's not really sure what just happened... but can completely tell SOMETHING did.

"I... I feel... awful inside..." She hugs her stomach with bloodied arms, nausea evident in her unstable and strained expression.

Probably some amount of shock, all things considered, is behind that.

But then plopjingle, there's a bag of gold, a bunch of people.

She gives it a few good looks, then sort of collapses on it. Thump.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
...Guh.

Reize winces, rubbing the back of his head. Unfortunately, he had to deal with the mass of those zombies. When Yurita moves towards the boy, Reize looks up towards the Program. A hand is extended her way, taking it as he gets to his feet.

"Heh, thanks."

He gives a brightened smile, "We did it, everyone!" He gives a thumbs up, then he glanes towards Luso before turning back to the ghosts. He feels for Luso, though at the same tim, Reize is glad that they are able to move on.

And then Hades comes in and takes various pieces of the Soul Devourer. ..And promptly feeds it to Cerberus. "Errr..." Once the Cerberus sinks back into the Underworld, Reize rubs the back of his head nervously.

Prizes! The bag of gold appears. "Thank you." His eyes drift back towards the train as the ghosts continue their passage. However, the Legion gets the best prize: Life. There is something really magical about seeing someone revive before their very eyes.

Of course, they are told to leave. Reize considers it to be a good idea, "Alright, it's time to head back." And then Reize starts to think over about someone, which prompts him to stop. He turns to face Hades.

"...Oooi! Lord of the Dead! Uhh, I have a question for you!"

It seems like a good oppotunity.

"... A friend of mine, who is a Player, is supposed to be playing a Game. But her game halted. ...What would have to be done to bring her back to life?"

....!!!!

"Lily!" THe boy turns to the girl, then he quickly catches her. The boy cradles her up, carrying her in his arms like she's his princess.

"Luso... let's head back, we'll get Lily treated."

Luso Clemens has posed:
Whomp.

A bag of gold dropped in front of Luso and he blinked, looking down to see. "Huh? Oh sweet!" He knelt down then, securing the reward amongst this things before seeing Lily collapse. "Whoa! Hey! Lily!" He approached after Reize at a hurried pace, looking rather worried. "...Yeah, let's get out of here."

A small smile was given then as Luso looked off elsewhere. "A job well done, and we've managed to get a nice reward." He glanced down at Lily in Reize's arms for a second before adding on. "I'd kill to get some rest now too! Ahahaha!"

Yurita has posed:
Yurita smiles at Reize "any time... you're not hurt at all ar-" and she's interrupted by gold, and before she can look at Reize and ask him what it was, he's over at Lily, she blinks a couple of times, watching them a second, before sighing, going quiet as she walks over slowly, crouching down "is... is she okay?" she then looks at Luso a second, listening to him, before looking back at Reize.

The Sixth Legion has posed:
"The right thing to do?" Legion asks.

And then she breathes out and approaches Lily, who has fallen over some gold. She cares nothing for the gold, but she does reach down for her hand and squeezes it gently.

"May this one help her?" She asks. The Network chiefly knows Hades from dead reputation and instinct. She wants to get out very quickly while he's still happy.

Hades has posed:
And we have a new contestant!

Hades turns Slowly to Reize, putting a arm around his shoulder. "A player you say..." he thinks. "Shiki, right? She did't come to a meeting I held recently. Oh well, I can't blame her. It's very hard being out there...alone. With the Reapers wanting ANY escuse to take her life. I can't always control them, and SOME of them even went rogue. I am trying to fix the game, Reize, I really am. But...well...it's going to get worse before it gets better."

"However, what I can do for you...if you are willing to deal. I can turn Shiki back to life...but you will do something for me."

A scroll unfolds, rolling out with the terms of the contract on them.

The Contract Reads:

For the returned life of Shiki Misaki, Reize Seatlan and his Shard Seekers Will owe Hades, Lord of the Dead, one (1) Favor to be named at a later time. Breaking the deal will result in either, A) The signer of the contract becoming a player, B) Or the loss of the signer finds most precious.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac watches what happens as it happens. He doesn't think anything is wrong with the contract, but he can't see it from here. He just figures Hades will give them a straight deal, because he has no reason to believe otherwise.

He stops, pulling a vial of something red out of his pocket and passing it to Shida. It's clearly labeled 'HI-POTION.' He'd normally be loathe to part with it, largely because of the cost, but... well, good deeds and all that. He can get more.

Lily has posed:
"If you can bring people back to life," Lily murmurs, lifting her head and looking pleadingly at Shida before angling her head Hades' way, "Why can't you fix everything...?" She makes another upset hiccup noise--

And, for a few moments, does indeed look liek she's about to vomit. Shida might want to back up.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
There is a frown as the boy looks at Lily. She's badly wounded. He leans his head over towards her forehead. There is affection geared towards his girlfriend, "...Lily. We'll get you treated." He smiles a little more, then he looks over at Yurita. "...She will be, we'll have to---..."

And the Network take Lily's hand and squeezes it.

Then Hades comes in to offer the boy a deal. A deal for Shiki to get her body back. ...To have a second chance. She is willing to fight for that second chance. However, Reizelooks over the scroll ad he reads upon it. He takes that contact, staring at it once more.

Reize is many things. He is naive, he is foolhardy, and he can be an idiot at times. However, he has seen what the powerful being is capable of so far. And it is often, even sometimes beaten in by Riku, it is those types that Reize needs to be careful of.

The game has changed. The Reapers are more chaotic. The Game is in shambles. Shiki is trying to become herself again. Reize wants to help her. She is his Partner, after all. And one of his other girlfriends. The boy thinks things over.

The deal is straight. However.

"... I do ask, regarding the deal before I sign." The eye fall shut, "...I won't take the life of another human being, nor will I do anything that would intentionally put harm on an innocent villager. ...Or what would discredit those within the Shard Seekers." He knows that there are things that should not be trifled with. However, he wants that confidence that whatever the favor would be, it would not discredit the Shard Seekers. He sucks in a breath, as if he is ready to sign it.

...Nope, he is unaware that Lily is going to vomit.

The Sixth Legion has posed:
The Sixth Legion wants to hug Isaac forever. However that will have to wait. She instead tries to feed Lily the hi potion. It's a slightly more efficeint way of healing than sending measured voltage through someone's body. Hades's deal seems pretty blatant. The only question is, is Shiki's life worth the cost to Reize?

She doesn't move out of the way of potential vomit. Chances are, she has forgotten about vomit being a thing. Maybe she'll be lucky and the vomit will hit Reize instead.

Luso Clemens has posed:
A deal to help Shiki come back to life...? He couldn't see the contract, but it sounded too good to be true...

Hey wait a second.

Help Shiki come back to life? Why would se need that? She looked plenty alive when he saw her! What the heck was going on here? "....."

Yeah, he had no comment on the situation. Reize's counter terms sounded good. Best to cover all the bases after all! A cursory glance at Lily and Luso immediately noticed that she looked pretty unwell...

Like she was about to... "Er...Reize, you might want to--"

Yurita has posed:
Yurita looks at Reize's attentions to Lily, and waits for about five seconds, obviously refraining from saying or doing something, before finally looking at the contract, and reads it with Reize "why couldn't I have been a lawyer assistance program..." she then looks at Reize... well, that works "Reize... who is this Shiki?" she then looks down to Lily, backing up a little, just out of range of being puked on.

Hades has posed:
Hades looks towards Lilly, "Two reasons. First, death is the natural end of life. People die. It's sad, it's tragic, but...well, that's life. It makes the struggle that much more meaningful!" Hades is many things, bitter, selfish, but he KNOWS and agrees with Zeus' laws here. Those who are good in life get a good end, heros get a better one...and well... the bad do not get such nice endings.

"Two...if I could. Would you be willing to pay the price? My deals work on equivelent exchange...you give something to get something. What you could give me...yeah, but no, nothing you could ever give me lady would be enough to 'undo everything'." he pats her on the head.

He turns to Reize, "Done." he adds onto the contract, adding in 'Reize or the Shard Seekers won't take the life of another human being, do anything that will put harm on an innocent villager, or that would discredit those within the Shard Seekers.'

"Done. Sign and you'll get what you want."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
That strikes Reize pretty hard. Inwardly, he winces. The smile tightens a bit, feeling the sting of the blow. He raises a good point. However, Shiki has been within the headquarters for a while and Ivo is generally around.

..Reize will have to hope in good faith that the talk can happen prior.

"Thank you."

"We shall leave now..." Then, he pauses, "...How do I contact you when I am ready?"

And when Yurita interjects, Reize blinks in surprise. "Shiki is my Partner. It is complicate." That is all that Reize says regarding the matter. ...There are some things that he promisd not to say.

Especially to someone who he doesn't know that well.

Nevertheless, Reize cannot help but wonder why she was annoyed.

The Sixth Legion has posed:
MEANWHILE:

SECRET CHARACTER UNLOCKED: SIDHA

RANKING: CRITICAL

Is the road to Hades paved with good intentions?1
(yes)

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The young man lowers his head, then he loks up at Hades. "..." The deal is made.

Reize is reaching over to the contract, "Then we have a deal."

And Reize signs that contract.

The Sixth Legion has posed:
The Sixth Legion glances back to Hades possibly to see if he's making the Kyubey face or not.

Hades has posed:
As the signiture hits paper, and Reize' name hits it...

The contact vanishes in a puff of fire and smoke. The pen returns to Hades, and Hades now holds the scroll. He does not make the Kyubey face, Kyubey is a hack.

A bit of magic flies from Hades' fingers.

HI SHIKI. WELCOME TO MAGIC.

Hades gives Reize a handshake. "And pleasure doin' buisness with you, be talkin' with you soon. Enjoy your wish." he says with the shark like grin. And vanishes.

Shiki Misaki has posed:
Somewhere out there in the universe, probably in Fluorgis, Shiki Misaki is going about her usual business when she gets a tremendous, sudden feeling like being kicked in the gut. She drops her needle and thread, which falls through a crack in the floorboards, and coughs, thumping her chest.

Oh wow, she thinks, that was weird. The heck was in that paneer?