Seven: Looming

Seven: Looming
Date of Scene:	05 February 2014
Location:	Zanarkand Ruins
Synopsis:	Strange happenings are occurring in the Zanarkand Ruins. Our heroes go down there to figure out what is going on!
Thanks to:	Oathkeeper
Cast of Characters:	Avira, Maira, Vespa, Minerva, Angantyr Vespar, Warden Thache, Mir Clarence
Tinyplot:	Seven

---

Oathkeeper has posed:
Zanarkand Ruins. History and folktale tells of an amazing city that once stood here. Buildings higher than those found in Midgar. Structures that bested even a place such as Eden in its prime in both beauty, and perhaps even technology!

Now all that lays here is a dark road into broken buildings, crumbling staircases, and structures that forgo any semblence of imagination on what they might once have been. The curse of Sin. People around the area still fear him. With Luca being so accessible through the portals, many know of the story. People know of the time that is known as the Calm.

Some wonder wether Sin is even on this world anymore.

Will people find out today? Or will they find something far worse?

A group of mighty Ronso stand watch at the edge of the Zanarkand Ruins. Guado are hard at work healing the scouts that had been sent out. Standing amidst all of them stands a chubby man known to some as Maester Wen Kinoc. He's well guarded, and people keep greeting him with a gesture that is clearly Spiran.

"Be careful." A Crusader standing in front of the man tells him. "I don't know what is going on in there... but the Fiends are fleeing the place." Though the fiends are hardly fleeing directly towards the gathered groups, they still are a danger.

Other members of the expedition are readying their Chocobos for the initial scouting expedition on the Zanarkand Ruins. Although with all of these people here... this isn't a scouting party. This looks more like a Campaign! Do some of the higher ups know something others don't?

Mir Clarence has posed:
The telltale squeak of a merchant's cart was clear sign that there were more than just adventurers, crusaders, and other such important figures on this road. Also traveling this road was a young girl, looked to be no older than sixteen, maybe even fifteen. With long green hair tied back into a ponytail by a large blue ribbon to keep it out of her face.

"Did I take a wrong turn?" The girl mumbled warily, looking from side to side as the locale grew more and more ominous. She rode on a large, yellow chocobo. Of the Pulse variety to be specific, if those furry tassels hanging from it's head were any indication. And it was strapped to a large, red merchant's cart. It was mostly closed off and there was a small steam stack rising from an opening above.

The bird let out a 'Kweh?' at the girl's question and she chuckled. "Ehehe, I guess you wouldn't know either, huh?" She pat the bird's head gently as they soon came upon what looked to be people gearing up for...some sort of campaign? "...Yeah, this definitely is /not/ Narshe. Great." The young girl grumbled to herself, running a hand through her hair in frustration.

Not quite sure what to do now, she just slowed down to a stop, surveying the gathering of ronso, crusaders, adventurers, and other strong looking types. "I'm not sure if I even want to know what's happening here." A brief look around revealed what looked to monsters of some sort spilling out of the place. Not in their general direction, but still. It drew a minor bristle of panic out of the girl.

"Oh great, monsters." She sighed, only reassured by the fact that so many strong looking types were around. "...Maybe they're hungry." The green haired fairy mused to herself, smiling in amusement at the thought of trying to open up shop here.

"...Naaaaah."

Maira has posed:
Upon reaching Zanarkand, Maira is pretty stunned. The ruins are beautiful in that sad, desolate way ruins generally are, giving rise to the imagination. What must this have looked like in its prime? How many people had lived here? ...How many had died?

That, for Maira, is easier to tell. There are old ghosts in this place, restless spirits and pyreflies moaning their sad songs. She keeps thinking she hears bare whispers, snippets of sentences from the ghosts of this place.

Maira sits atop her chocobo, Mao, matching the great red bird in her fireproof dress that looks to be made of scales--but it in fact, chains. Skoll is pretty talented with those, it would seem! Her eyes are distant as she waits with all the others, distracted by the haunted nature of their location.

The mention of fiends brings her back. The fiends are /leaving/. That's probably a bad sign, sadly. "This place....its very unsettling isn't it?" she says quietly, looking toward her fellow VALKYRI, eyes on the ruins ahead.

Avira has posed:
That whole 'Sin' thing was the major reason why Avira has long since avoided this particular place. Beyond that, something about the area just felt unpleasant to her. Though the rumors that Sin hadn't been spotted in a while did help in the coaxing of Avira into accompanying Maira on this mission.

This was supposed to be a scouting expedition, right? That's what Avira saw it advertised as and yet it seems like they have a tiny army here for 'scouting.' News that fiends are fleeing was pretty disconcerting. Who knows what Maira was hearing from the ghosts-Avira glances at her best friend curiously every now and then.

"It's very unsettling." Avira agrees, "And I'm not even spirit-sensitive." Though speaking of unsettling, Avira has her unusual mount with her. While Maira and others may ride chocobos, Avira has her own giant beetle to ride. It's slower than a chocobo but pretty fearsome to look at.

Vespa has posed:
The maid arrives with the rest of VALKARI she getting a bit of a bad vibe from this place. She not going to run thought."Feinds are running away from there?", she smiles. "This could be intersting.", Vespa is ready do dive into the ruins. The feinds are a bit of a proble thought. She turns to Avria. "Are we taking care of the feinds or going to see what they are fleeing from?"

Minerva has posed:
Minerva had heard of this place, but she's never gone here before. It was filled with ruins and death. She's heard it matched and out did the Empire of Arcades at one point but now? Tis all ruin, she'd come with her fellow members of VALKRI, and others who have taken on a job here to help check things out. She seems concerned at the very least as she moves along with the rest of the group. She had taken perhaps to looking over at her friend. She rides her own chocobo whose name she's never seen fit to tell anyone it's most odd, and she speaks up at Avira's comment.

"This place is wrong, it's broken I can feel it something's out of balance but as to what I can't say."

She feels her skin crawling as she brings her bird to a slow trot a she keeps in formation.

"If the Fiends are fleeing we should be more concerned about what could make those things, /flee/. They are said to be mostly mindless so something that can make them feel terror is a very gave situation."

Maira has posed:
Maira shudders a little, turning her head to the side and furrowing her brow as is listening to a voice no one else can hear. Likely so! She looks to Minerva, nodding. "Exactly...there was a lot of death here. A lot of restless ghosts and residual energy. I imagine that is what draws the fiends...but if they are fleeing...yeah...everyone be really careful okay?"

Warden Thache has posed:
Ah. Zanarkand. A normally quiet set of ruins set at the top of a mountain. Truly a challenge for a anyone who whishes to 'explore' the area.

Well. Unless you cheat.

Which Warden is very likely to do.

Which is why, as people start to stare at the ruins and the fiends and the mess going on in the ruins of the city? There might be just a flash of movements from the clouds around the city as a small but manuverable Airship skims though the thick cover. Away from the city.

The few figures on the the little boat look a bit dissipointed. Including Warden Thache. His ears and tail drooping in dissipointement and annoyance.

"They lied." He grumps. "There wasn't anything intresting in that spot! Just fiends and not much in the way of anything shin--hellllo...." The movement on the slopes catches his attention. Pulling out his spylgass the captain's tail beings to twitch slightly, his ears perking back up.

"Now /that/ is more intresting...hard a-port fellows!" The suddenly cheerful cat-man calls as he orders a course change and the small airboat(becase its not big enough to be a ship) tilts over towards the mass of 'scouts'.

Who look more like a small army.

Bright green eyes scan the gathering before he smirks. "Stay in the clouds for now! I'll figure out how we should introduce ourselves once we figure out just what's happening."

Oathkeeper has posed:
Somewhere in the World of Ruin, Skoll sits on a bench, lounging, blissfully unaware of the trouble going on at Zanarkand.

He sneezes.

---

Mir ends up halting right next to an old white-bearded man. He is staring at Zanarkand with a faint sadness in his eyes. In a dry voice and slow voice, he asks. "No. These monsters are not hungry. They are fiends... their story is a long one." He really speaks... really slow. His NPC tag calls him Maechen. "Would you like to hear it?"

It would happen to be that he asks this just as Avira and Maira arrive near Mir themselves.

A twosome of the Crusaders form up on Vespa and Minerva, trying to get their attention. "Ay, it's quite bad. Are you the reinforcements?" Reinforcements... they're waiting for more?

From within the Zanarkand Ruins, there suddenly sounds a mighty roar! So mighty, that the area itself /literally/ shakes from the very sound of it! Chocobos let out scared squacks, and some of those who don't have good control of their Chocobos end up falling off and abandoned by their steeds!

The old Maester looks up at the airboat that has shown up, and mumbles something about Machina. But the main part of his attention goes to the sudden oncoming group of Fiends in all shapes and sizes.

Mir Clarence has posed:
"HUH?" Mir jumped in surprise a bit, which starkly contrasted to her chocobo's poker face, keeping his calm as the old man spoke up. "U-Uh..." There was a pause as the girl wondered just where this guy came from. But after a moment of warily staring, she slowly nodded her assent. "I'm not sure if now is....a great time for stories." Considering what the people here seemed to be preparing for and all.

"You say they're...fiends?" The fairy asked, tilting her head a bit in curiosity. She looked off towards said fiends before looking back to Maechen and frowned. "They look like monsters to me." And then she shrugged. "Maybe I can listen to your story later." Smiling sheepishly, she held a hand in front of her face apologetically. "Sorry!"

Avira and Maira are given a look as they come within Mir's vicinity and she stares for a moment. "....." Nope. No idea who those girls are. "Ah, hi. ...Do you have any idea what's going on here? It looks like they're gearing up for a small war." She asked, looking off towards the subjects of her concerns.

Maira has posed:
Maira holds tightly to Mao's reigns when the roar shakes the very ground beneath their feet, feeling her own heart skip a beat in alarm. "Hush hush its alright Mao..." she soothes the bird, keeping it from running or throwing her off. Her and Mao have been through a lot together, that bird is combat hardened!

Maira looks to Mir, smiling gently. "Hey, I'm Maira. Um...its a scouting mission, so they say, but by the sounds of things we may well be fighting whatever just made /that/ noise," she says. "Hope its flammable," she adds with a grumble.

Avira has posed:
"...go on." Avira encourages Maechen. Oh /no/.

She pauses, though, to stare back at Mir for a long moment. Avira slowly squints. ...nope, no idea who this girl is. "Hello. There was a job put out not too long ago for mercenaries to assist with an exploration. Unfortunately, I don't think the job was entirely as advertised. It looks more like they're gearing up for a seige instead of an explorati-"

A ground-shaking ROAR interrupts Avira. The usually pretty chill beetle, named Herbie, gets skittish and whirls in place as if to scuttle off in the other direction. Avira lets out a yelp and tugs on a specialized set of reins encircling the beetle's mandibles. "Whoah! Calm! Calm!" she exclaims, managing the beetle before it tramples off in the other direction.

"Lady, take cover behind us!" she suggests to Mir as she slides the Spine out of the sheath on her back. "This looks bad.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa smiles. "Yup I'm the reinforment! I'm all you will need!", Someone feeling coky today.. Then she hears the roar coming from the cave. "ooh that's a big one! Looks like it got the feinds all riled up. ..and there coming towads us.. Great..", the maids gets into a fighting stance. "Time for us to get to work Al!", she sighs to herself. "What do you mean you don't like the smell of feinds blood Al?"

Minerva has posed:
Minerva brings her bird to a halt as she looks at it patting it on the head. "Easy there."

She looks to Mir for a moment before she replies.

"Yes you could say that there have been heartless problems in this region and with the local monsters fleeing something."

She looks back cringing not able to get the nose out of her mind for the moment. OR there could be more fiends coming right at them? She's going to get off her bird at this point and slams one armoured fist into the other.

"Looks like it it Avira. We are going to have to fight it out I'm thinking. It would be wise to listen to my friend there and take cover. Vespa? Shall we will be the ones wading into this first."

Minerva almost seems excited about wading into an tide of enemies from the look on her face and the pitch of her voice.

Oathkeeper has posed:
"Fiends." Maechen answers Mir Clarence. "Twisted beasts, no longer like what they once were. They are a... strange kind of monster. Tied deeply into the long history of this place, and much of Spira." So he explains, only to continue when his offer to 'more' is rejected.

"Aaaall in good time." Maechen answers Mir, smiling at the odd looking human. He bows his head kindly, and remains standing around for any adventurers who might wish to hear him out.

But Avira then enables the old man. And as such, he goes on to speak about the history of Zanarkand. He begins to speak of the city of old, of the science and the Sin of this science. That is, until one of the Crusaders suddenly grabs him by the midriff and picks him up. "Come on Maechen. We don't have time for this. I'm getting you out of here."

He probably continues talking while the Crusader drags him off.

Another creepy cry comes from the ruins, and then... with that, the fiends get close enough. They are followed by Shadows, many Shadows - Heartless and swarming out of the Ruins. A loud horn sounds, and the Crusaders rush forwards. This is soon followed by the Ronso, rushing in right along.

"Hold the line, men! They are not to set foot upon Mount Gagazet!"

Two walls - monsters and forces - clash. And then there is a small group staying behind, waving the heroes over. "We're the recon party. Are you here about the listing? Please - follow us into Zanarkand. But know this - if we need to flee... flee!"

One of them has a map, that seems to mark a red path that goes 'high' along the ruins, trying to get to the center. The group is mainly comprised of Ronso it would appear. One of them has a huge yellow horn on his head, and is crossing his arms. "You all follow Biran. Am Strong Ronso. Will keep you safe."

Oathkeeper has posed:
BATTLE CONDITIONS: Nobody drops below 0 for 6 rounds.
Battle Mastery: Nobody is in the red on round 4.

Warden Thache has posed:
The roar causes Warden to quirk up an eyebrow as he glances his area and towards the ruins. He raises an eyebrow before sighing a moment and checking to make sure his pistols are in order.

"Do we stay Cap'n?" The piping little voice of Spooks comes to his ears as the cat-captain regards the captain.

"Aye, Mister Spooks! Now I'm curious just what might happen now! And curious just whats making that noise. And curious if that is worth anything."

Spooks smirks as he climbs up on Warden's shoulder. "And /not/ just because that looks like Avira over there?"

Warden's smirks as he fuzzles the racoon.

"You just shut up. And follow that scouting party."

Mir Clarence has posed:
Those cries coming from the ruins did /not/ inspire confidence in the girl. She could barely pay attention to Maechen's nonsense, vaguely intriguing nonsense, but nonsense all the same. And then the fiends came out in full force. Now would be the perfect time to panic. "Oh great! This is /not/ what I signed up for!" The fairy complained, frantically unsure of what to do about her chocobo and cart. Her goods were on that! And her chocobo was a longtime friend!

But if she didn't do anything, those monsters may very well break through and cause even more trouble. "....." Avira is given a look and then she shakes her head. "Uh...Not that I really wwant to do this, but I guess I can't just run away."

That said, she reached over into an open space on her cart, which contained greens for the chocobo, there was also a lance nestled in there, that which she pulled out, still looking incredibly wary about all of this. She was a merchant, not a fighter! "...I'll do my best not to be a burden." And as such, she got off her chocobo, patting it in the side before telling to follow the soldier taking Maechen to safety.

"I'm not really that strong, but I'll try and help." Reiterating that, Mir raised a hand, magic glyphs forming as she cast an empowering spell upon those nearest to her as she moved to join the scouting party. Namely Avira and Maira.

Maira has posed:
Maira winces as Shadows and Heartless rush toward the defenders, but it would seem that is not where their fight is today. The group of Ronso (kitty people! must not...pet...) wave them over. "That's us!" she answers their question, nodding to them quickly. "Alright, Biran! Lead the way," she says.

Maira turns to her friends then, calling up her light (despite the attention this may get from nearby Heartless) and casts it over Minerva, Vespa and Avira. "Be careful!"

Maira hangs back for a moment to dismount, giving Mao a pat. "You stay back here okay? Stay with the other chocobo, look at for him okay?" she says to the bird, who actually nods his understanding.

Maira turns to Mir then, giving her a reassuring smile. "We'll look out for you--we know how to work together, just stick with us and we'll make sure you get out of there okay?" she says. Her smile widens when the buffing spell falls over her. "Do you have healing magic too?" she asks, hopeful, as she begins to follow her friends.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa grips her axe tight taking in a deep breath calming herself and take a step foward slamming her foot into the ground. "Come on then I'll take you all on! I'm not moving from this spot!", your tank in action folks!

Avira has posed:
"Actually if you do run away, I won't blame you." Avira interjects in an absolutely serious voice. Because between the fiends and the sudden enormous onslaught of Heartless, this mission just got RIDICULOUS. This girl (were those light wings?) looked like a merchant and not a mercenary. She clearly shouldn't be caught up in this disaster. "Just don't let a Heartless cut you down or you might become one too."

She doesn't really continue to suggest abandonment after Mir casts that beneficial magic. "Be careful, alright?"

Seeing the group that hasn't joined the absolute chaos, Avira urges the still slightly skittish Herbie over to join the Ronso. She gives the cat-like race a respectful nod. "Yes, the listing. We hear you. What's happened, why is it like this? -hold on."

She turns in her seat and unleashes a wave of air behind them to keep their backs clear with a swipe of the spine. As she does so, she catches a glimpse of an airship overhead. Avira frowns. "...can't be..."

Angantyr Vespar has posed:
Sometimes...

Sometimes help comes a little late.

A corridor opens up, Angantyr actually eschews these most days, but he does still know the ability. He is likely never to be rid of it, and it was useful to getting to places in a hurry. Such as being called about a massive heartless problem in the heart of the ruins of an anchient dead civilization.

The figure that comes through is every typical of the dark knight, though possibly on a budget. He takes only a few seconds to survey the situation. "Fiends, heartless, and we need to go where the heartless are coming from. Fun." Angantyr says with a bit of delight in his voice. He did like long odds...

Angantyr rushes forward, aiming to litterally drive his weapon through the horde of both monsters and shadows, each strike aiming to cut away at either, though heartless that are slain release a heart...different that other means of killing them.

"You rang?" he assides to Maira and Avira.

Minerva has posed:
Minerva has a plan with Vepsa. They are going to head in first, in an attempt to get the attention of the incoming horde. She feels Maira's magic and it should help a lot, a whole lot.

"Come! Meet your second end at my fists!"

Minerva yells as she moves in already getting ready for them to strike upon her and he to strike in kinds. Minerva now is rushing into the ranks. She's already starting to punch her fist freeze over and are covered in lighting as she strikes against the horde yelling wordlessly as she does.

"Vespa keep with me we have to keep these horror's attention."

She ducks and weave as she fight and strikes against them. Minerva clearly is intending to give the Fiends the battle of their lives from the looks of things She's clearly not holding back and given the horde? It would be insanity to not do so.

"Maira and anyone else who can support us from range!"

Fire the source of all humanity's problems and the solution to many.

Oathkeeper has posed:
The group manages to work their way up a small slope of sorts made out of rubble, barely forming what might be considered a 'stairway' up into a massive building that has tumble over further than the tower of Pizza - its main body resting on a building further into the ruins. On the way there, Avira manages to strike out a few Heartless Shadows that have popped up, but it's nothing people can't handle.

Angantyr and Minerva bring up the rear in things, striking at some of the heartless and fiends who have managed to break through the ranks and are leaking through to the scouting party! The Ronso is quick to tell both of them to follow! Biran is loud. "I will leave slow warriors behind!"

Within, the rooms are dark and big. It's hard to move through on foot without some climbing gear. Luckily, some of the Chocobos and those with the capability to fly can make it onto the ledges of the dark inside of the building. Much of it seems calcified by a strange black rock.

Biron is gruff and impatient, but he moves through the ruins the way only a Ronso can. His lion-like tail swishing left and right as he clambers up walls. "Come on!" He calls out, just as a series of Sin Spawn suddenly dart into the room from in front of them. Nowhere in the numbers as those outside, but still a good twenty of them!

"Sin Spawn..." Biron growls. What are those doing here!? Has Sin returned? Or were they just here in the caves already? "Ignore the small ones. Just cut through the middle and move on!" The Ronso calls out, bringing his lance to bear and rushes through the nearest bug-like thing. Around him, a few of them shiver, followed by their wings starting to glow an eery blue color. His tail shows a clear sign of aggitation.

<< CUT YOUR WAY THROUGH! >>

Before them, more of the building awaits. The climb will be harsh. And if the sounds beyond are any indication, there is more waiting for them. More monsters. More... darkness.

"We don't know." Biron then finally answers Avira, cutting down another Fiend. "That's why we're here. Maester Kelk warned us of something going on in the Zanarkand ruins. He was wounded during his exploration here. When the heartless population increased, we knew we had to prepare for the worst. Just like on 'that' day."

That day...

The formation of the World of Ruin.

The fall of so many worlds.

The Sin Spawn attack in the meantime, they are mostly harmless. But they have come in numbers!

Maira has posed:
Maira worries for just a moment when a dark corridor opens nearby. Then, she spots that its Angantyr and emotions shift quite quickly. She straight up throws her arms in the air and goes; "YAY!"

Then she looks to Avira. "Did we ring? Not complaining or anything obviously..." oh well! Yay!

Maira looks toward Mir, grinning. "Don't worry he's on our side," she'll explain before she even asks. Then, Maira gets properly down to business. Maira's hands go up in flame, cluthing the flickering magic as she begins to move forward, providing the front line fighters with a little flaming artillery. The magic is launched from her hand in a wave of scorching flame toward the sin spawn, burn a pathway through.

Any sin spawn that slip past the others, Maira manages to avoid, at least for the time being. She has however, fallen behind with all this climbing around business. She's no Ronso. She's also in a dress. Clearly, she needs a pair of fireproof /pants/.

Mir Clarence has posed:
Mir nodded to Avira, smiling a small smile at her seriousness. "...Thanks. But even if I'm not a fighter, I can at least defend myself." She raised her off arm into a faux-flex. "I'm not like you adventurer types, but I know how to swing a weapon and cast a little magic!" Maira is given her attention then and she shakes her head. "Sorry, I can't heal like that. I didn't study enough." She looked a bit apologetic then, but looked off ahead, following after the group.

Her wings were indeed made of white light, and radiated a faint green glow. "But I can still do what I can. I know other spells too." Nodding in determination, or rather putting on a brave face to avoid giving in to the desire to freak out over the fact that heartless, fiends, and now /sin-spawn/ were after their necks.

Watching the others lay into their enemies, Mir couldn't help but be a bit impressed. She carried a lance, but she'd be the last person to actually swing her weapon. Hanging back, she decided to assist those who seemed like they could use a boost to their monster slaying abilities. hand aimed forward, she cast a strengthening spell on Ang and Minerva. "Good luck, you guys!"

And in the meantime, she took to the air, fairy wings carrying her in flight as she followed after Biran up the walls.

Warden Thache has posed:
Air/boat/. Air/boat/.

Once day Avira, Warden is going to kidnap you just to teach you PROPER NAUTICAL TERMS. Urgh.

"Ugh, wonderful. Lord Idiot showed up to the party." Warden mutters to the rest of his tiny crew as he follows along, peaking slightly out of the cloudcover. Nope. No one here Avira. Its a figment of your imagination.

He frowns slightly though as he notes the huge wave of monsters coming towards them all. He snaps his spyglass shut. "Rifle."

He doesn't even look as he reaches out to take the weapon from a crewman and he braces one foot against the rail as he angles the weapon down towards the mass. A trio of shots ring out towards the mass, aiming to snipe several over the monsters in that mess. If they happen to be ones around Avira and Maira? Well. Totaly not intintional.

"One pass mates, then go back and get the Peral. I think we might need a damn extraction."

"What 'bout you Captain?" Asks Spooks.

The cat smirks widely towards the rest of his crew. "Oh. I'll jus' be havin' a bit o' fun boys. Just hurry your arses back."

The Captain is well. Yes. Crazy.

Avira has posed:
As they move forward, it quickly becomes apparent to Avira that Herbie is too bulky and heavy to agily navigate like a chocobo or an on-foot Ronso. Dismounting from the steelclaw beetle, Avira murmurs to it quickly. The large creature turns and barrels its way back from which they came, cutting down Heartless in its wake.

"Angantyr! Glad you could make it and even the odds a little. Let's go." There's a small bit of relief in her to see the keyblade-wielding dark knight here. Although not a Ronso or chocobo, Avira is notably pretty agile, though she has to put away her weapon to climb efficiently. Though it seems no sooner than she puts it away, she's already drawing the Spine again. Another wave of air is sent out, this to 'soften' the spawn of Sin as everyone charges to cut through them.

"That's a bad sign." Avira shudders. She witnssed Brooklyn crumble...only to see most of Ivalice do the same shortly afterwards.
Rosalie...
As she slides underneath a Sin Spawn, the expression on her face suddenly changes to that of surprise. She looks around the dark chamber frantically. "What the...who said that?"

Angantyr Vespar has posed:
"Nice to meet you too." Angantyr says towards the Ronzo, "But I get the point, you just keep going, I can keep up." He says, almost flippant, but the situation gives him plenty of things to take his annoyance out on.

Like these three shadows. BAMF.

The blade Angantyr holds is a strange silver blade, with strange dark vines that seem to wrap around it. The Tyrant Breaker, isn't exactly a normal keyblade by any sense of the word...but then again, when there are only four...Yeah.

The Sin spawn appear, "These are Sin spawn?" he gapes. These were not small foes, by any means...shaking his head, he levels the weapon, against these things, the blade would be just like any other. However, they were in the way...and Angantyr had a way to make things in the way not be in the way anymore. Cannon fire on high gets him to look up...and he frowns...but he can't refuse the help today. He'll consider it repayment for the beating he had to dole out.

Only the ones in the middle, right? Alright, he can do that...Angantyr dives in, passed the Ronso, "Angantyr leaves behind slow warriors," he quips, and swings the blade upwards aiming to break through the tough hide and armor to tear through it like nothing, Angantyr's strength is nothing short of legendary...and then enhanced by the light winged woman.

"Annoying little things.." he muses.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa nods to Minerva. "Got it. We will hold them here!", She spots Angantyr arrive. "Good to see antoher famiar face. We could use all the help we can get.

The maid swing her massive axe in arc infront of her cutting down any of the feinds that enter into it's arc.

Minerva has posed:
Minerva has to trust in her allies as the fiends rush them all. he continues to run into their ranks but Sin Spawn? That sounds pretty big and she hears the order to cut through, to make a path so that's what she's going to do. She again continues her assault launching into an array of punches an guarding where she can.

Minerva recalls that day, she fought, she fought with wild reckless abandon against the creatures that came for her and her world. For the longest time she thought she was all that had remained of the gods work, a lowly run away noble brat turned sell sword would be the last monument to her world.

This was not to be however, thankfully but now? She is remembering that day, Minerva presses all the harder seeking to focus her energies inward and force her self to go harder and be able to endure more suffering.

Then comes Ang? Wait Ang is here? Ang being here can't help but make her smile as she focuses he's a hell of a bit of backup to have with them.

Oathkeeper has posed:
The darkness reaches out towards Angantyr. There is much of it deeper in the Zanarkand Ruins. Maira and Avira, more than him perhaps, may realize that it is in fact reaching out for him. Him, and someone else in this room. But their connection being far deeper with Angantyr, they know it is trying to reach for him.

It's coming from far deeper within. But one thing is certain.

The deeper Angantyr and those truly aligned with darkness go, the more they will feel it. Perhaps even 'that' part of Avira.

The Fiends that have been charging blue on their wings suddenly release a series of screetches, and rush through the group, striking for Maira. It's certain that her flames will catch up with them. But it's not in time! Their sharp maws and wings aim for her dress. Let's hope those chains hold up! And that someone will help her carry on in this difficult terrain.

Warden doesn't fare much better. Fiends rush for his position as well, as well as his crew. He manages to pick a few of them off before they get to him, but there are enough of them to cut into his crew that they're not going to get away from this without some scrapes before they clear out the ones that got 'close'.

"Just take care of the ones in the middle!" Biron reminds them like the good NPC he is, as he cuts through another Sin Spawn and begins to climb the tower further.

The group manages to move forwards a little as they cut down and blast away the Sin Spawn fiends. There are outcroppings visible in the building that might once have been doors - or maybe even rooms. But so much of this has been lost to time, that it's barely recognizable. Maybe these were once... offices? Offices, to some highly technologically advanced society from millenia past.

The Ronso quickly catches up to Angantyr, grinning at him. "You strong. I like strong warriors." He then looks forwards and lets loose a sudden volley of massive seeds from his lance, carving a sweeping path forwards between the fiends.

Vespa joins in with the other two, trying to hold off some of the Sin Spawn from the others with her massive axe. It's the best way to 'hold the line'. Rending a path!

"You've seen it, haven't you?" The Ronso suddenly comments. A group of Guado forms up on Avira, assisting her by releasing plant-based spells on the Fiends that try to approach her. Maira is joined by a younger Ronso, who offers a hand in order to get her up onto the next ledge - using his lance to keep away any other fiends.

"They way they gathered 'then'?"

Soon enough, the group is leaving behind the Sin Spawn and carry through. A massive hole provides access down a steep slope into what looks like a cave complex of sorts. Beneath them, they can hear the clattering sound of... sword fighting?

As the group drops down to the next level, they might catch sight of a man draped in a black hooded leather trenchcoat, running down the hall. What's more, his oddly misshapen body is teeming with darkness. In his hand is a massive blue lance of sorts.

He's gone before anyone can figure out where he went. But Heartless appear right where he stepped just moments ago, releasing more heartless. They are introduced to a most interesting sight! Heartless - Soldiers, Dark Balls, Wyverns, Guardians. Some of them are Heartless our heroes haven't seen since the fall of their worlds! But what's more, is that they are in a massive battle against the fiends of this place.

Sin Spawn try to ravage the Heartless, and the heartless try to take the beasts' hearts! What is going on here!? Whatever the case, in order to get through this enormous mess, they are going to have to cut through. There's not a lot of room to move -- so they will have to stick close together..

<< STICK TOGETHER AND CUT THROUGH! >>

The Guado form up at the center of the group, while the Ronso take the outside - lances aimed towards the monsters as a series of Wyverns come striking down on the heroes.

Maira has posed:
Maira watches the others all pass her, sighing heavily. "Well sorry for being a slow mage," she grumbles. Lets see how they miss her when healing magic is needed!

Suddenly, an involuntary shudder shakes her almost violently. Maira nearly falls to her knees. A monumental darkness looms ahead, sounding an alarm in her. She looks ahead of herself at where Angantyr has gone, frowning deeply as she watches him, watches--/feels/ the darkness as if its trying to reach out toward him.

She has to catch up to them!

Not too much more time to worry, as suddenly she's attacked by the fiends! Are they...aiming for her dress? Whatever they are doing, fangs pierce flesh, the chains doing their job but not quite stopping all of the aggression. She lets out a yell, then blasts them back from her with a blast of air that hits like a fist.

Maira scrambles to climb upward, gratefully taking the hand of the younger Ronso.

Soon enough she's caught up with the others, moving to Angantyr and Avira. "Something is really wrong here! I feel like its...like the darkness is reaching for you. It's...its..." she says to Angan, looking like she was about to be sick from the dread of it.

Then, wyverns happen. Why does she have to be just in time for the wyvern attacks? She likes wyverns! Like Arista, Faruja's wyvern. These? Not so great! A wyvern swoops in and grabs her by the back, talons raking through her exposed flesh and rending chains from her dress. She gasps in pain, then lets out a short scream as she's dropped again, plunging to the ground. A quick burst of air softens her fall, but bones are still most certainly broken.

Healing magic washes over her, and Avira and Angantyr, the two people she's most accustomed to healing and most desperate to protect.

Angantyr Vespar has posed:
Angantyr jerks oddly for a moment...thankfully, he has been through a lot, done a lot, become a better and stronger person.

He shakes the grip, but he feels the tug, narrowing his eyes. It's not Garland, that's for sure...but it's something dark, something powerful...maybe it even rivals the Lord of Chaos' power...something frightening, even to Angantyr.

"Whatever is down here, we're not going to beat it. Not here, not in it's domain." Angantyr says, matter of factly.

More shadows, and sin spawn. Angantyr growls, cutting through them falling back to the ground, but the combined effort of both takes it's toll...he falls to a knee, armor being shreaded off of him like it was nothing. He dare not open a corridor here...not this close to whatever this thing is.

He looks at the Tyrant Breaker...the urge to blast through with light is strong, but he doesn't have a focus yet. No, he decides to wait, resisting the urge to strike everything. He focuses, steeling his mind and remembering he is not alone here. As Avira is clobbered, he swings, aiming to cut another swath of heartless and Sin Spawn. Even as healing magic moves to restore his armor and put blood back into his body.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa get clawed and cut by the feinds. Other than a few light scratches she doesn't seem phased by there attacks. If they want a path thought the feinds she will make one. If they want a path she will give them one! She lets out a yell and charges foward rushing the incoming fiends like a mad bull.

Mir Clarence has posed:
Done with her supporting, Mir flew up, deciding to keep behind the the more capable fighters. As they moved, she took a look around, taking some time to survey the architecture of the place. "...." Wow, this place was way beyond her. Even if these were ruins from a civilation long past, it looked way more advanced than anything she'd seen from where she came from.

Mir couldn't help but wonder just what happened to the people living here. But the sentiment didn't last very long. After all, they were in the middle of fighting for their own lives right now. The last thing she wanted was for someone to be passing through these ruins in the future, finding her bones, and wondering what happened to her!

Shaking her head and returning to reality, the fairy entered into the next section with the others, squinting as she could swear she just saw some man in a black coat...but the moment she blinked, he was gone...and heartless were appearing en masse. "These things just keep coming...!" The girl complained, watching with a warily frown as the heartless and the fiends proceeded to duke it out.

...She wasn't sure what to think anymore. Fortunately, or unfortunately, a pack of wyvern decided to solve that issue by rushing straight down onto them! "Whoa!" Mir cried, shifting aside in the air. Barely in time to dodge the creature that was aiming to maul her. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous!"

This time, she decided to do something more proactive. Rearing back with her lance, it soon became cloaked in a wind current, as well as taking on a faint white glow. The power radiating from her lance grew and grew, before Mir deemed it enough to release. "Hah!" And with a cry, she swung the weapon outwards, causing a concentrated beam of light and wind to fire outwards from the weapon and trail across the horde of fiends and heartless, aiming to take down whoever was dumb enough to be caught in the path of the spell...attack...it was probably a spell.

Immediately after however, Mir could feel herself growing that much more tired. Panting heavily, she shook her head and brought a hand to her forehead. "...I'm not cut out for this adventuring nonsense." She mumbled mostly to herself, altitude lowering a bit in the process and her wings glowing a bit less brightly.

Minerva has posed:
Minerva is a strange sort her style's master taught her some elements of both the light and the dark, but she knows she'll never go that far with either but it does afford her advantages even with it's short comings. The forces of darkness are coming at them and Minerva can sense it.

"Something's coming."

She's clearly not going to be slowed by the fiends that are before her. She keeps fighting and then she hears something else, it sounds like, a man in a trench-coat, which is black and he's fighting pretty hard.

"It seems we are not the only one engaging the Heartless."

She now keeps with the group and is in the front, Minerva then sees something insane going on here. The local monsters are /attacking/ the Heartless. Even the hell spawn that they are seem to know the threat that is before them!

"Come you mindless spawns of darkness I will strike any who challenge me down!"

She moves in and starts defecting the strikes form the heartless with a notably amount of success, the aura about her limbs would take on a dark tint, Ang would be able to tell Minerva is channelling some degree of darkness but as ever she'll never match even the least of the Dark Knights. Still it's letting her parry the attacks quite well and then she slams her first into the ground sending a shock wave through the ruined city scape towards the oncoming heartless swarm.

"Do not give inch inch of ground to these beasts! ... This is almost like the day that..."

Minerva trails off, could it be about to happen again? Were the Sin spawn acting in some desperate attempt to preserve their own existence or Sin's itself?

Avira has posed:
"Yes." Avira mutters, rolling up to her feet and turning, putting herself back to back with the pair of Ronso that are helping her. "I've seen it happen multiple times. It looks like it...but why now..?" Her brown eyes dart over to Angantyr. She can sense it alright, which is a bad sign in fact. It had to be some extremely strong darkness for her to actually sense it like this.

This was Garland-level stuff, easily.

She climbs quickly, moving on until they find that new chamber with the barest hint of the mysterious figure. Heartless follow, strong Heartless that Avira actually hasn't seen in a while. In fact, maybe not even since they were working to restore Manhattan? Strangely enough, they're fighting...with the fiends?
Rosalie!
Avira looks around again, startled, just as a Wyvern descends upon her and pins her to the ground. She flails and scrambles, frantically trying to claw her way out from underneath the Heartless, Maira's healing helping in this regard until something strikes the Heartless with enough force to dislodge it.

Of the fiends gathered here, one has emerged, notably different from the rest due to his exceptionally human shape. He has pale blonde hair and pale skin to match. His eyes are red with black sclera instead of white which forms the primary 'tell' of his origins. His clothing looks expensive but most importantly, not of Spira at all. Flickers of green fire creep over his calloused hands. "Exactly like...the end of our world." He hisses, lunging at the wyvern again.

Avira gapes a little for a few moments, "/Valeth/? What are you-" she doesn't get much more chance to say much, forced to roll sideways to avoid a swooping darkball. Hissing, Avira pushes a hand to herself to further agument the healing that Maira gave.

Warden Thache has posed:
Oh dear. Lasers.

And heartless.

And Sin Spawn.

Warden's fire damages a few of them but others hammer into his airboat and send him rocking. The man just grins wider however. "Ah." He says, eyes bright and tail lashing. "A challenge."

Just like that he throws himself off the boat and into freefall.

His crew gapes at him before Mister Shale smacks them back into order and the little boat peels off to return to the much larger airship of his.

Spooks clings to Warden's shoulder as the man plumets downward. "You have a plan right?!"

"Eh. I thought I'd wing it."

The answer comes as Warden snaps one hand out to grab on to the leathery wing of a wyvern and pulls himself on the monster's back.

"THIS IS WINGING IT?!" Spooks shouts over the monsters screams.

"Nope!" And suddenly Warden pulls out one of his pistols and shoots the thing though the back of the skull. "THIS is winging it!"

Ropes snap out from Warden's wrists to snag the now dead monsters wings and pull them taunt. Turning it into a glider of sorts. A very poor one, but it flies. Therefor the cat captain can handle it.

He glides the monster down, that maniac's smile plastered on his face. "Uh. Cap'n? That...thats a building."

"Indeed Spooks."

"You're heading towards it."

"I am!"

"You're not going to..."

"Of course I am!"

"Oh." A pause from the racoon. "Permission to scream?"

"Granted!"

So in the middle of the fight in the building and the caverns there is a strange high pitched scream that is muffled by stone walls. It gets closer. Closer. Closer....

Warden and his wyvern crashes right through the roof and into the mass of combat. Pistols fire in rapid succssion as the man rolls off the now /very/ dead monster and into the midst of the melee.

"I hope no one minds if I cut into this dance!" He calls over the heads of the dead and dying creatures he's left in his wake. "I was terrible curious about all the noise!"

Warden Thache has posed:
Spooks? He lands(somehow) across Maira's shoulders. "THAT MAN IS CRAZY!" His fur all fluffed out like a spazzed cat or an angry bird.

Oathkeeper has posed:
This trial is getting more and more difficult as time passes! So many monsters here! So many heartless. The only reason they are not being attacked by both at the moment is the presence of one-another. It appears that somehow, something is 'forcing' them to battle the fiends!

Or is something forcing the fiends to battle the Heartless!?

What is going on here!?

The Ronso, Biran, lets out a loud grunt. He is confused by this as much as the others probably are. And when he hears of the others speak of darkness and that which is out front, he lets out a snarl. "We are just looking to see what lies within. Then we will evacuate. We must know. Maester Kelk demands it."

He continues to join the others in repelling the monsters as they come in. But there is only so much he and the Ronso and Guado can do! Plants slow down the incoming Wyverns here and there, forming walls of thorns. The Ronso use the long reach of their lances to strike for their weakpoints. But their teamwork leaves something to be desired.

This teamup is not well trained. But it does the job thanks to the rest of the heroes.

The Tyrant Breaker certainly does well enough to cut down a Dark Ball that gets too close to Angantyr, right along with a Sin Spawn in the same swoop! Vespa charges away from the group and cuts a big path for them to move through - with Mir clearing out the sides! Their own teamwork is good enough, that the heartless barely have a chance to get at them properly.

Avira gains assistence from a mysterious NPC! Okay, she called his name, so he's not as mysterious as that guy that just ran through the area with ??? over his head. But he certainly does a number on his targets.

Minerva's darkness channeling may get her into trouble though. The darkness in the area is quick to 'rush in' the moment she tries to channel her own. It tries to overwhelm her. To taint her heart. To corrupt her very thoughts and desires! This is _not_ a place to be trying to commit to those kind of deeds!

Still, she does well enough to crush a heartless swarm alongside Vespa, further widening the gap. The group manages to carry on and arrive in what appears to be some kind of underground water system....

<< THE SEWER LEVEL >>

There's a variety of levers left and right. In fact, there are _TWO LEVERS_ that appear to be important somehow. The problem is that both of them are guarded by a swarm of further Sin Spawn! The things all gaze at the group. In order to carry on, they have to pull one of those levers!

<< LEFT OR RIGHT? >>

The reason they are blocking their way, is a massive gate of sorts that looks like it may have served as a floodgate of sorts. The Sin Spawn approach! And with them, a sudden flood of that 'darkness' from within, trying to grasp onto peoples' hearts. And right along with that wave of darkness, from further within, that enormous cry once more! The cave shakes and rocks. Sand and loose rocks fall down from above their heads.

This is getting really bad! And how are they going to escape!? Perhaps that answer comes in the form of Warden riding in on that Wyvern? Or perhaps Angantyr will dare beyond all foolishness, to open a portal of darkness here!?

Whatever the case, Warden makes short work of a few of them - ridding the front lines of their numbers. Just before he gets to have the fun experience of darkness reaching for his heart. Just how well steeled is this Pirate Feline!?

Maira has posed:
Maira follows, against all her instincts, because she can't very well go back alone. She would not. Not without her friends, nor Mir who'd she promised she'd see got out of here!

Suddenly, Warden crashes in and Spooks land on her shoulders. Reflexively she reaches up to protect the fuzzy creature. "I know! But I'm kind of glad to see him honestly!" she replies to Spooks. If Warden is fighting for them, well, alright then!

Then the darkness rears, threatening to drown them all in despair. No, that will NOT be happening! Maira takes a deep breath, places Spooks down, then lights up like a star. Suddenly she's naught but a form of blinding light and white flame, Holy surging through her veins. She moves up beside Angantyr, nodding to him, flashing a smile, then explodes with pearlescent light, blasting out from her in tendrils of dancing flame that lash out to burn the darkness from existence like the sun burns off a morning fog.

Angantyr Vespar has posed:
Sin spawn come down on Angantyr as he blocks. The Tyrant Breaker blocks, holding the Sin Spawn back with nothing but the sword and his own strenght, and swings, aiming to throw it back. He can feel the darkness ahead...no that is dangerous, but they need a way out. They need something...perhaps they need to blind the monster...just a little.

"Maira, with me!" he says, stabbing the keyblade into the ground...for a moment, it draws out the darkness, the ground becoming unholy as it reaches up all around him. Angantyr can not help but channel it, a natural font of the stuff, but he does have one trick...

He waits for it to reach him, and then grins, grabbing the blade again. "That's right, try that <GOOSEHONK> again. You might be stronger...but you're not bright." he says, as the Keyblade...shines with brilliant energy. "TYRANT..." he shouts, as the light explodes, swinging the sword with all his might in a massive arch, aiming to litterally clear a path TO the thing...perhaps even giving it a black eye, and then right towards their way out. The light explodes, it is itself like a force of nature, aiming to tear through everything darkness, trying to obliterate a large area of the heartless.

"BREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKER!" he booms, as the light finally explodes out.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa huff and pants a bit as she keeps pushing her way thought the feinds and other things.. "Okay...", then the darkness evenlops her.. The pain the agony. "No. I'm not going to fall here.."

The maid hears now see light coming out across the battlefield. "Come on Al let not get shown up now Okay?", she heft s her axe up. "Right. Everything dies now.", and the blade of her axe start shine with a black aura. "Go back to <GOOSHOKING> HeELL!", and she bring it down and it strikes the ground with a earth shattering crash and a wave emanties from it striking anything that in it's path.

Mir Clarence has posed:
Nope.

Nope, nope, nope.

Feeling that wave of darkness before she saw it, Mir immediately took to the air and avoided the thing entirely. It wasn't out of any masterful skill or anything. It was out of sheer instinct, and the desire to not wind up heartless, fiend, or sin-spawn food this day.

"Whoa!" She cried, watching the terrible dark energy hurtle onwards and under her. "Do /not/ want to get touched by that stuff..." She didn't have much to offer this time, and having already tired herself out from that one desperate attack, she decided to just hang back. Landing on the ground after the wave passed, Mir raised a hand, casting another supportive spell. This time just on Avira. She needed to rest a bit before she could help the others.

"I can't do much more, but I'm sure you can!" That almost sounded lazy and cowardly...but it was the truth. Warden crashing in on a wyvern corpse after just caused the girl to stare...and blink slowly. "...Really?" Oh well, she couldn't complain. There was already too much happening for her mind to pick apart!

Avira has posed:
It's a WARDEN. Avira should not be surprised at him popping up like this but in THIS particular situation-actually, yes, she is, because this is clearly a very dangerous mission that she wouldn't blame anyone for avoiding. But at this point they might be too far in the ruins. Retreating is going to be a problem and with what Avira is feeling, she doesn't think slipping into one of Angantyr's corridors of darkness to be the best option.

"JUST DON'T DIE OKAY?" Avira calls out to the crazy, crazy wyvern-riding pirate.

They move on. The fiend, named Valeth by Avira, follows along. They seem to be making small talk of some kind as they move.

"Yes, Rosalie, it really is me. I /died/, it was awful. But this world did strange things to me that I don't regret." The fiend says as they move.

"Avira, I go by Avira now. I...a lot has changed, hasn't it? I...really don't know where to start. We haven't spoken since..." Avira's eyes narrow as the memories surface. "...whatever. No time for that now. What's going on here?"

"A swell of darkness. It feels exactly like it did when New York was destroyed."

Support magic surges through Avira and her blade shimmers with light. "Thank you. And excuse me." She abruptly exits from her conversation with Valeth, taking advantage of Mir's enchantment. Her form blurs as she moves and when she strikes, the swing of the Spine produces a light-tinged blast of ice. It isn't just a single beast being formed from the magic, but an entire pack of wolves thanks to Mir's amplifying magic.

Maira has posed:
After exploding with Holy, Maira casually pulls a lever. The right lever. TADAAA

Minerva has posed:
Minerva understands the nature of the mission, the and while her abilities have helped they also caused her issues as more of the thing just pile on to her. She notices that there's backup from the mysterious person. She's got her own problems she staggers for a moment she has been fortunate she had been trained to know when to let go. That might be all that saves her she staggers as the comes under mental assault she hakes her head, she has made a mistake here and she attempts to cause her own use of it. She's clearly actually suffering form this and she's caught in the full out attack from whatever this thing is. There's an actual burn off from Minerva as she tries to keep her self centred. This is the danger her master always warned her about, why he told her to never delve too deep. It was a tool but a dangerous one.

She's then caught by an incoming strike. Minerva reeling she's clearly hurt pretty badly and she calls out.

"AVIRA!" She leaps shoving her out of the way, taking the strike in her place and it's pretty bad with how she's still been reeling from her brush with the darkness. She's pretty messed up now but she's getting back to her feet and rather than the darkness this time she channels the light her hand are covering in burning white flames.

"No...one is claiming any of my friends TODAY CREARTURE YOU HEAR ME!"

She lunches into the heartless ranks trying to continue cleaning a path and set them on holy fire as she goes!

Warden Thache has posed:
Steeled? He's fairly well steeled! He's just not swift enough to get out of the way of the horde. That darkness hammers into the captain and Warden's bravado crumbles more than a bit under that hammering wave of dispair. It envelops him like a wave. The physical force of it staggering the man.

It nearly drops him to his knees.

However he catches himself. He doesn't fall. When he looks back up there is a razor'd smile on his face and his green cat's eyes are bright as paired emeralds in the darkness.

A glance towards Avira. "I wouldn't give you the satisfaction of it, Lady Wolf." He shoots back towards the woman as he tears his pistols from his bandolier. One quick glance around the area before he frowns slowly. This is...too many.

"This isn't something you can win!" He calls out to everyone who can hear him as he fiddles with his gun. "My airship is on its way! Reatreat though the damn hole if you have too, the Bloody Pearl can carry you all." His accent makes his words sharp with suprise and worry. This looks very bad.

Again that rakish grin is tossed towards the group. "If you all trust me that is."

He tosses the pistols into the mass of darkness and mosters. The overloaded power cells blooming with light and as they explode in brilliant miniture suns.

As for who Avira is talking too? Well. He'll file that away for later. Quite intresting what they are talking /about/ though isn't it?

Spooks? He scampers off though the chaos unfolding around, the racoon pulling a pair of miniture pistols from Warden's belt as he goes to stand on the dead Wyvern and the hole to the upper level to try to keep it clear.

He's totally got the escape route guys.

Oathkeeper has posed:
Maira remains strong against the darkness, using her natural light to burn the darkness away. But the darkness is stronger. One can literally see it. Spots of darkness forming into the aura of light, eating away at it, trying to divest her of it. Eat it. To eat the light like a hungering force!

Angantyr's Tyrant Breaker technique provides a second explosion of extreme light, creating a shockwave of light out into the Sin Spawn, obliterating a good halt of them and resurrecting some of Maira's light in that one moment. But it won't be long before it will be eaten into again by the force up ahead.

Biron is clearly having trouble, along with the Guado. There's heavy gasping amongst them. Most of them are starting to get aggitated. Some of the Sin Spawn that get too close manage to get hits in they normally wouldn't as the Ronso stab them without proper care for their own safety! It's not long before there's a casualty or two! Guttoral cries come from some of the Ronso.

"We have to go on!" Biron shouts immediately, refusing to let people get distracted. "We're almost there!" Vespa joins alongside Biron, cutting into a few of the Sin Spawn and taking revenge for the fallen Ronso. Mir supports as well as she can, and she's right - Avira makes good use of the gift given to her.

After the little distraction from Valeth, she brings her icey blasts to bear on the remaining Sin Spawn. They freeze in place right there they stand. For beasts so attuned to water, they are easily frozen! And the pack of wolves continue to play and dive through their targets! Minerva joins into the midsts, and sends out a shockwave of light and kinetic force that literally shatters the Sin Spawn! Warden's exploding powercells further shatter the remaining amount of the Sin Spawn.

As Maira finally pulls that lever, the floodgate begins to open! Such amazing engineering. Even after this many years, the floodgate still manages to pull up a quarter of the ways... half ways... three quarter ways...

AND DROPS STRAIGHT DOWN AND SHATTERS!

Okay... so there's something to be said about time.

What lies beyond is... further darkness. Teeming darkness. Heartless upon heartless upon heartless. Yellow eyes gaze at the lot of them from within. There is no spot on the ceiling, no spot on the walls, no spot on the floor beyond that floodgate that is _NOT_ covered with Heartless.

Some of them might recognize this kind of sight from 'those days'. Or more recently, from places like New Ivalice. The moment that floodgate opens, the Heartless rush out towards them. Filling the walls, filling the ground, filling the ceiling. Rushing towards them. This is too much!

But beyond the gate, they do finally get to see. Something massive looms beyond. Floating inside of an /enormous/ hall. Yet all they get to see is its head. So massive... so enormous...

That of a serpent dragon that stares at them. His mere /sight/ freezes the Ronso and Guado in their path. Despair. SUCH DESPAIR! It opens its mouth, as a dark figure touches a hand to its nose. The both of them gaze upon the group.

<================================> - <X3 - <=================================>

- A FORCE OF DARKNESS HAS ARRIVED -

- SHINRYU -
- ??? -

- YOU ARE NOT PREPARED -

<================================> - <X3 - <=================================>

<< ... RUN! >>>

Maira has posed:
A lever is pulled, hopefully it is the correct lever.

Maira stays by Angantyr, though it looks like she is having a hard time standing. Blood and broken bones abound. Her eyes are on Avira and the strange man she's talking too, her brown creased with obvious worry.

Maira looks over toward Warden (and Spooks, who is /adorable/ with his little pistols!) blinking. Oh, his ship! "That...that sounds like a really reasonable idea," she responds. The Ronso would not go for it, she knows, but really? This is completely insane!

Maira glances around to find Mir, flashing her a smile when she finds that she is more or less alright. More alright than most of them, certainly!

Maira looks back toward the gate that opens, wincing as it falls and shatters. Oh, but what lies beyond...

Maira stands frozen as at the army of Heartless is revealed, fear striking her to the quick. "Oh Light..." she whispers to herself...

Only to have someone respond.

Through the Heartless that rush around them she catches a glimpse of way is beyond--the source of the soul-crushing darkness. It /speaks/ to her, its massive voice filling her mind. She falls to her knees, arms reaching up toward her heart as if to guard it.

She stares out at the dragon, and screams, "NO! I WILL NOT!"

Then the darkness moves in, and Maira falls.

Vespa has posed:
A dragon. A <GOOSHONK> dragon. All those heratless don't help matters much either. Then the darnkess grabs her going right down into her soul. Vepsa cries out in pain almost falling over, she somehow still standing using her axe as a crutch. "..I think.. we need to leave.."

Avira has posed:
"Nrrrghhh..I...Rosalie I can't..." Valeth grips his head, his muscles twitching. "I can't go any farther." He states in a detatched, almost aristocratic tone before the gate is broken. "I will lose myself if I am exposed to this any longer. I'll...find you later." Before Avira can really say anything, the fiend is gone, retreating from where the party came from.

Perhaps that was the wise thing to do. Even before the door is opened, Avira can feel the overwhelming darkness beyond. Upon seeing what is actually behind that door though-"Oh God." She steps backwards, horrified, knowing full well what a mass of heartless of that magnitude meant.

Sickness overcomes her and she collapses to her knees, clutching her head, "No! No no no no no!" she cries out to the voice pounding inside of it. "Shut up! I'm not...I'm not tainted! Shut up shut up shut up!" Tears cling at the corners of her eyes as she writhes.

But after a few seconds she forces herself to stand. "We /have/ to leave. We will leave. Right now. Everyone out! On his ship!" Avira points at Warden, not really caring he's a scoundrel pirate right now. This is serious heart-stealing business right here! Sheathing the Spine, she makes a move towards one of the ropes, but hesitates when she sees Maira fall, immediately running to her. Sure, Angantyr will probably scoop her up with one arm easily but she really wanted to be sure that Maira was alright.

Mir Clarence has posed:
Watching Maira pull the right lever, Mir watched as the floodgates.....broke. Just completely broke. And then the darkness. And the eyes. All of the eyes. So many of them. It was impossible to tell just how many there were. She wanted to say that there was an infinite number of them even. "Uh....uh....t-that's..." Mir mumbled shakily, eyes widening as the darkness then flooded out of the chamber and directly at them.

Without thinking, the fairy took to the air, flitting about too and fro and basically just doing everything in her power to avoid being touched by that corrupting power "No, no, no, no, no!" She cried, somehow miraculously avoiding taking much damage, if any at all. It had to be sheer dumb luck, as this girl wasn't a seasoned fighter, or had any exceptional reflexes.

Wading through the brunt of it all, Mir laid eyes upon the dragon. "....NO THANKS." She called out, immediately turning tail in the air. "Friendly suggestion; GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" The fairy yelled down at everyone before proceeding to book it through the air. It was some kind of god given miracle that she was still alive, seeing as how everyone else was messed up. "......." But then she slowed down, remembering just what happened to the others.

She was sure she saw Maira fall. ...That girl had promised to get her out of there and now she'd taken the fall instead. "....Aghhh!" Deciding not to run, despite every fiber of her being telling her to do just that, Mir turned around, shaking in terror, but lowering her altitude just the same to help anyone who needed it. That pirate fellow looked like he'd taken a beating as well. "...H-Hey, are you okay?" She asked in a shaky voice, landing near Warden and nudging his shoulder a tad. "Can you move? Are you conscious?"

Angantyr Vespar has posed:
Angantyr stares at the eye of the dragon, even as it unleashes the darkness. He braces with his Keyblade, and even after the two clash, Angantyr stands tall, his body battered and bruised, his armor torn assunder, but he stands.

Angantyr slowly walks towards Maira, only breaking his stare of the dragon to look to Avira, as he moves to pull Maira over a shoulder.

And then he turns to stare at the beast again. "I am not afraid of you, dragon. I have seen more horrifying, you are just a beast. Powerful, but still a beast. I will see you dead one day, and I will banish you to where you belong...the void. When you don't have your minions ware us down for you. Remember this, Dragon." He says, and turns away, he dares not pull upon a corridor...but they do have a ship...almost as bad, really.

He moves, hitting the Ronzo with his shoulder, "Now isn't the time to be a slow warrior. Grab your friend and run."

Maira has posed:
Maira is slightly conscious, but she is not moving anymore. She's conscious enough to hold onto Angantyr for dear life though. "You gotta...punk it off...don't you," she mumbles.

Warden Thache has posed:
"Boss," Spooks comments as he fires repeatedly into the flood of heartless. "This was a bad idea."

"I concour." Warden replies as he pulls out his blades. Parrying tooth and claw as he tears into the heartless. "Just why did I come here again?!"

"I think its because you like the way Avira's legs go all th--OOPH!" A pair of heartless tackle Spooks as he gives his own opinions to his Captain.

However beyond hijinks the pair of pirates have more pressing things to worry about. Namely dispair and a dragon and a flood of heatless. The The wave of darkness staggers him again, voices murmur in his head. Press down upon his mind and his heart. He can almost feel it sieze up with the reverbation of the darkness.

"I am." The growl of the Captain is low and angry. his ears pined back in hate. "My own. You and your offer can go to hell."

Before he can back that up with actual /gunfire/ however the man is positivly smothered by heartless. A gleaming energy blade tears apart the pile, ripping apart the heartless but not before they tear into the Captain.

He's coughing up blood, the the smirk he gives Mir is still just as roguish as ever. Even if its smeared with crimson. "I'm not going to /enjoy/ moving very much, but I can. Espicially if the alternitive is staying here with that thing. GO!"

He forces himself to his feet, every moment burning agony. Ropes begin to drop though the hole in the ceiling.

He grabs one before looking back towards the cavern. "CHARGES!" He shouts up though the hole, and explosives are thown in from above. "Get out of here!" He pauses. "Avira are you bloody well insane!" He holds out his hand towards the woman. "Get over here! I know you like to dance like this, but its time to /go/."

Oh god. His everything hurts.

Oathkeeper has posed:
A second roar joins the group from behind. A brown-robed creature that carries a set of gigantic draconic looking wings on his back, carrying an equally enormous double set of flame-enveloped red-golden lances. "GO!" It growls, no, roars at the group. Red braided hair falls visible from one side of the hooded robe that covers its head. But there is no mistake that this creature isn't human.

Forming up on him is a second group of Ronso. One of them calls out to Biron; "They've broken through the second defensive line! They're bringing in the Machina to try and reduce their numbers, but this place is going to blow!"

With some of our heroes wounded, there is no time to further investigate the monster, or get a better look at the area around them, or the second stranger that is with Shinryu.

"We're leaving!" Biron calls out. "We've found what we're looking for!" He slams a lance carefully against one of the Guados' chests. "Wake up and smell the roses!"

The group of lancers form a defensive wall, allowing our heroes to get behind them during their retreat - though the winged individual storms into the midsts of the heartless, bringing enormous high-level fire spells to bear within his a flurry of rapid and unique technique lancing attacks.

The place begins to shake as Shrinyu moves and the walls literally shatter as it tries to dig its head towards them. The individual wielding the blue lance comes running as well, bringing similar darkness with them - as well as blue flames.

"MOVE!" A group of the Ronsos call out, trying to get things moving. They can't take the time to pick up the corpses. There's too much heartless! Like a wave, they swarm over the fallen Ronso!

As the ropes come down from the airship, the wounded are helped up first! But the cave is quickly starting to collapse with Shinryu trying to get to them. It doesn't seem to be too fond of Angantyr deciding to continue to taint it, and is liable to just gobble the youngster up and disintegrate it.

But it's prepended by the person in the dark hood suddenly zooming straight for Angantyr, bringing the massive blue lance down towards Angantyr's blade, with more than enough power to challenge him and bring him to his knees. Even in this situation, all Angantyr can see is that the person within is female... with blue hair. That frame... COULD IT BE!

Still, it would appear that Angantyr was ready enough to divert the main force of the hooded one's blade, and his blade slices through the air, catching her by the chest - just mildly tearing the clothing. They don't speak though, they just ready the massive spear again.

The Ronso quickly move in, in an attempt to assist Angantyr with his new enemy. The Guado try to bring up a screen of vines to stop the tide of Heartless. But the vines soon begin to bend beneath their sheer weight. Like a force of nature, they begin to push through. Pushing through the cracks. Bending it. And soon breaking it and coming through it like a wave wanting to swallow up those that may land beneath it.

Behind them, they hear the chitter of more Sin Spawn coming. Clattering along the ground with their bug-like legs, screetching at them. They're coming for the Heartless, but our heroes are right in the middle! This isn't looking good!

The dragon like beast ends up parked in front of Avira, Maira and Angantyr. "I'll hold her off. I've got wings. GO." The strain in the beast's voice is obvious. This one is having some /serious/ issues holding his own against the mere presence of darkness.

Shinryu's enormous maw opens, ripping apart the floodgate's walls, and begins to charge up what looks like a beam of darkness from deep within its throat!

Avira has posed:
Ah, as expected. Avira gives Angantyr a nod. She knew she could count on him to pick up her best friend like that-she also knows that if Maira was a bit more conscious she'd be loving it so much. She might even tease the fire mage over that later.

Warden shouts at her and Avira makes a face at him. "I am not!" she shouts, making a break for it. There's no further sign of Valeth but...

Who the heck is that dragon guy? He too looked like a fiend of some kind but he was definitely not a transplant from her world. "You don't need to tell me twice!"

Avira grabs onto Warden's hand.

Vespa has posed:
Ow. Ow .ow Vespa in alot of pain as she starts to climb up the ropes. "..I'm going to be feeling this in the morning and in ther afternoon and the evening and next day..", she pauses. "Great I'm rambling.."

Mir Clarence has posed:
Nodding to the captain, Mir stepped back, letting him stand on his own, despite how much pain he seemed to be in. Far be it for her to stand between a man and his pride anyway. "Good, then...I..." She didn't even finish that sentence, turning away, her wings began to glow once more before she took to the air again, flying straight up with the ropes and out of there.

She wasn't going to take up a rope that someone else could have used to get out of there. So she flew, looking back to see just how the others were faring in their escapes. She'd heard that they were going to use machina for something or another...that didn't bode well, even if she had no idea what exactly Machina /was/

"Worst wrong turn ever to be recorded in the history of wrong turns..." The fairy hissed to herself, just thinking on how this all could have been avoided if she'd just taken that right instead of that left...

"Ugh."

Minerva has posed:
Minerva is able to shatter those spawn that remain and it seems they ay have a way out but is there? She's not sure she however had seen beyond the works she' seen something beyond the gate she sees a hall she sees a massive head she /stares at the thing as it looks at the group. She brings up her arms and attempts to protect herself from the onslaught it works but there's no time to do more than be forced to watch as Maira goes down hard.

"Maira...!"

There's little she can do, Ang is there and he's got her right he?s got to focus now on those who are still moving. Also Spooks? At least in her good books, very much in her good books. That little critter is totally getting treats later from Minerva. Warden might find booze, he's not known it yet but Minerva is also a Brew-master who enjoys making all sorts of Alcohol. For now she's trying to keep up with Warden and Avira.

"It's time to go I agree there's naught we can do here!"

Angantyr Vespar has posed:
Angantyr waves the Ronso back. "Take her." He gives them Maira. "Take her and get out, I'll keep our friend busy. GO! If worse comes to worse I can get out on my own! GO!" he says, and turns his weapon towards the figure. His eyes narrow...

"...Aqua?" he asks, carefully, but it doesn't stop him, he swings, aiming to drive her back, put her on the defensive anyway he can. The blade swings, once, aiming to try and knock her back, before he slides in, aiming to slam her back with a fist, darkness trails in each strike.

"What are you doing here, and attacking me in such a way!? Now is not the time for a dual, and I have no time for one."

Warden Thache has posed:
Warden pulls Avira in, one arm wrapping around the woman and the other around the rope. "You are." He adds with a roguish smile towards her. "I supose thats why I like you." That smile is bloody, one eye shut from a cut. The other bright green with adrenaline and pain both.

"And you really should stop following me like this," He adds with a wink towards her. "Not that I'm complaining really." A pause. "And I knew you wouldn't mind being in my arms at some point. I just didn't know it was going to be on the verge of death." A pause. "Again. I'm not complaining." That wicked smile is angled towards the woman for a moment before glancing up towards the escape hole.

"Spooks!" He calls and the racoon scuttles up a rope, as all the ropes being to raise out. "Lord Idiot! Come on or I'm leaving you here with nothing by the explosives for company!"

He hopes everyone is getting out of here. Beause he is not waiting to blow the damn place once people are clear.

If he's lucky he might catch Ang in it!!

And wait? Mir can fly?! ...thats...pretty awesome actually. "Nice wings!" He calls out towards her as he raises out of the hole on the ropes.

Oathkeeper has posed:
The Ronso are quick to help Maira up the ropes. More and more get up those ropes. It won't be long before everyone can leave! Angantyr speeds past the mysterious winged creature and knocks his fist into the blue haired mystery - sending her reeling - just before her lance cuts diagonally down - aimed from his face to his chest.

She answers his question with the proper manner in which mysterious characters are supposed to respond.

"...?"

Shinryu seems to be done charging by this point though. That's when Angantyr suddenly encounters 'bad touch' TM, as the winged one suddenly dives towards him and grabs him around the waist and jumps up like a proper Dragoon, just before the entire building suddenly is vaporized beneath them. The beam lances out a good mile or so, leaving a huge trench across the outsides of Zanarkand.

"Sorry, but there was no more time." The red braided creature tells him and gets Angantyr to a rope before flying off towards the gathered forces.

As the group looks below, they are given a Cutscene! Fiends and Heartless battling on the ground along the edges of Zanarkand. Crusaders are falling back. There's fallen warriors everywhere. They've been pushed back far. Enormous machina have been erected at the edge of Mt Gagazet now. Large towers with blue orb-like spheres attached to them which suddenly crack blue lightning across the land, carving into the holy city.

This is NOT going to get the Al Bhed any friends anytime soon. Zanarkand is a holy city. And to ruin its landscape even further...

Yet still, the building in which they'd found Shinryu soon ends up collapsing under the destructive might of the Machina. Perhaps they also come to learn why the Spirans are so wary of them. Heartless and Fiends are flayed alike... and the process will continue for a while.

But for how long will this temporary stop-measure last?

Angantyr Vespar has posed:
Angantyr is forced to take the carry. Which is odd...because he is litterally a bear of a man.

The woman, the...

It can't be? Can it? The thought worries him...perhaps he should consult someone, but...

Angantyr grabs the rope, and easily pulls himself onto the ship. It seems that Angantyr is no stranger to these things, though he is more for boats on land, than on water.

He looks at the Warden for a long moment.. "I am not paying any fare. And if anybody touches my stuff, I'll throw them overboard." Angantyr says as diplomatically as he can. "Also, I am warning you now, she's a heartbreaker."

Avira has posed:
Warden is quickly introduced to Avira's unamused pouty face at his rambling. At a few points it almost does look like she's about to interrupt and contradict what he's saying, but this environment is rich with distractions. Distractions like giant laser dragon breath and the building they were in seconds before collapsing.

At least the Machina seem to be pretty effective against...burying the source of the Heartless? "...I hope that can hold. This is bad, where'd this huge concentration of Heartless come from..?" She also anxiously watches for Angantyr, knowing he could open a corridor if he was in that much of a pinch...but given all the darkness around already...

Fortunately, Angantyr seems more than capable of hitching rides. "H-hey!! Is that why you're barely talking to me anymore!? Jeeze.."

Mir Clarence has posed:
"Uh...thanks?" Mir responded to Warden's call, blinking a few times in a loss for anything meaningful to say. Flying wasn't a big deal for her. ...Not that she did it much. It wasn't useful for her business, so more often than not, they remained bright hindrances.

More importantly though, the chaos going on below was a bit too much for her. The ruins they were just in were getting blown up. And she could see fallen soldiers spread about the initial defensive line. ...Ah, and those must be machina.

All in all... "This is why I'm not an adventurer." She grumbled to herself, crossing her arms as her wings fluttered, keeping her in flight. And now, she was just wondering if her cart and chocobo were okay...

Yes, excellent priorities.

Warden Thache has posed:
"Don't worry Lord Idiot," Warden tosses towards Ang. "You have to have a heart for it to break! If you listen to her at all I think I'll be safe." He smirks once more, setting the woman down on the deck of the sleek airship. Golden sails billow above them as the crew rushes around trying to pull Ronso up onto the deck before the Machina catch them in the crossfire.

"MISTER SHALE! SHOW THEM HOW MUCH WE ENJOYED THEIR HOSPITALITY!" The captain calls, the bloody man walking and shouting only by shear foce of willpower.

"Aye sir!" The mountain of a man calls, and the airships energy cannon open fire, adding to the carnage wrecked by the Al Bhed. It makes Warden /feel/ better.

Avira? He might just note that Warden? He's bleeding. A lot. He likely /is/ just being propelled by stubborn desire not to pass out infront of 'guests'.

"And if you throw any of my crew off my ship, I'm firing /you/ out of a cannon." He smirks towards Ang as he leans against the ships rails and watches the lightshow.

Hrmmm. Lightning zapper things. He should see if he can get one. They look neet.

Angantyr Vespar has posed:
"Hmm...instead, I will firing whoever touches my stuff out of the cannon. I call that a fair compromise." Angantyr quips. He looks towards the ruins for a long time...he tries to not let things get to him, but there is a furrowed brow.

"No, we don't ever see each other any more because we're both busy adventurers doing adventuring things. Though I suppose I could come back to town once in a while."