Round 2: Champions of Lornius Vs Plane Curiosity

[Silence Sei]

Round 2 will start at midnight Tuesday, CST. Good Luck!

[Mordelain]

“Resolve, can I ask you something?” Mordelain said, in between mouthfuls of thick sliced bread. The smell of poppy seed and mustard was thick on her breath.

The exorcist nodded, unable to speak because she as equally engrossed in her food.

“Why are you here?”

The gentle wind continued to roll down the valley from the south, washing over the pair as they sat at the centre of the shrub land, atop a flat topped rock that was once part of a behemoth glacial flow. Reeds and heather bobbed at its feet, and seagulls, far inland but still close to the island’s shores cried out nautical laments.

Resolve looked up at the clear, breath-taking skies, and contemplated something. The planes walker could only watch and wonder what was swirling around in her companion’s mind. No matter how hard she had tried since they first met, she could just not figure her out. It was time for a blunter approach.

“Why are any of us here?”

Mordelain grunted, in a most undignified manner. She took another bite, tearing into the centre of her slice as if she had discovered the sweet, relish heart of a coconut. She sucked the bread into a ball, and rolled it around on her tongue to let the flavour linger. There was pepper jack and slices of root vegetables laced into the dough, a delicacy she had picked from Bulganin’s jungle to give Resolve a glimpse of what lay beyond the limits of her imagination.

“Ermm…”

“Was that not the answer you wanted, then?” Resolve glanced over her shoulder, looked up at Mordelain, perched higher than she on the edge of their packs, and tried to look as if she were happy to continue. “You should not’ve asked such an open ended, dumb, and pointless question.” She looked away again, and rummaged in her pockets for dessert.

“What I mean, if you’ll flatter me for a moment, is why are you here, competing in this tournament?” This question seemed more watertight, devoid of loopholes, and better suited to prying information from a closed mind. Mordelain tried to look as if she were not interested, but ever since their endeavour against Luned, Resolve’s supposed friend, she had increasingly begun to doubt the woman’s motives.

Anyone who would walk into and out of death so freely, and yet be so afraid of life, was a woman to be wary of in Mordelain’s eyes.

[Resolve]

"Well," the exorcist paused, leaning back as if lifting her face to the warm sun would bring her to bloom in time for the next showdown. "At first I told myself it was for the money, to go to Fallien."

Her companion nodded. After all, it was Resolve's curiosity about the place that had them in such decent terms after their rather gory first meeting in the Citadel. Mordelain hadn't expected a cordial invitation to drinks from her assailant so shortly after the monks put her guts back together, and as Resolve stretched to sun her bare, brown stomach, Mordelain noticed the scar she'd put there, herself. The stark white mark mingled with her similarly bright, ornate tattoos, the girl's appearance striking with her crimson and violet sari. Upon reflection it may have been a bit of an odd way to make friends, but it suited them well enough, and even if only in their similarly eclectic fashion senses, they seemed to suit each other, as well.

"But I think I'm just procrastinating now. It's intimidating, you know? I mean, what do you do when you accomplish your life goal at twenty? I'm not ready for retirement." Resolve glanced up to the older woman, pale eyes wide in a rare moment of youthful stupidity.

"Wait… you're only twenty?" Mordelain raised an eyebrow, revealing a glimmer of cheer beneath her furrowed, well-tanned brow. "Dearie me, I'm nearly seven hundred, and I'm still nowhere near doing what I want to do with my life." She sighed. "You've still got time to work on another dream, surely?"

That was all it took for the meaningful conversation to derail. Resolve spun around to face her partner, brow quirked as she gave her her a rather bold look-over. "Seven hundred?" She whistled, obviously impressed. "Whodathunk? How scandalous it would be if I were to ever act on my ginormous lady crush with a woman who could be my great-great-great-great-great––" the girl finally finished fishing dessert out of her pocket–– "great-great-great grandmother. Chocolate?" She offered up something sweet wrapped in colorful foil, the gesture punctuated with a cheeky little grin.

It was up to Mordelain whether she would take that comment as revenge for such prying questions or as a delightfully awkward truth. Seizing the moment of silent astonishment, Resolve popped her own dessert in her mouth as she took a look around both the wide expanse before them and the cliff-ridden valley that embraced this edge of the plains. The openness of the area made it easy to keep an eye out for their opponents' arrivals, but the ease of sight didn't matter; Resolve's extra sense was keener than her others ever would be. As they rested in wait, she kept steady focus on the intricate tapestry of life around them, threads spreading like a network of nerves through the air around their stone-top perch. Birds and other creatures were barely blips on the radar, gnats that the she-spider ignored in favor of more substantial prey: the formidably-titled Champions of Lornius.

[Silence Sei]

“There’s two of them,” Sei spoke as he looked to his friend, Max Dirks, “Armed women. Their body posture indicates that they don’t know we’re here yet. We can sneak around without engaging them, it appears” The mute breathed a sigh of relief at this. Fighting women was something that went against Sei’s code of ethics. The mute looked towards his partner, who was staring straight at the orange haired cherub.

"And you know that how?" Dirks asked, referring to the Mystic's microscopic vision. "But if you're right, there's a good chance they're coming from the Floating City. Those foothills are the most common way to reach Lyridia from the capital. Now might be our last chance to snag elevator passes before you have to fly me up there in a blaze of glory." Sei turned his full body around, standing up straight and returning the same serious stare given by his friend and partner. The wind blew around them, past the edges of the cliffs they were standing on. They had been situated right above the two women a mile or so behind them, a perfect position for a surprise attack, provided the femme fatales actually turned away the edge of their cliff-like valley.

“To the first question; since the war, I’ve been able to focus my eyes to see things that others could not, be it the bacteria on your skin or two warriors walking off into the distance. And do you mean to steal from them? I refuse. I will not engage women unless they have done something to do earn my ire. We are here to find clues of Thoracis’ whereabouts, and that’s it.” Sei had committed to this tournament in order to help Dirks in his goal to find a way to return his lost love. However, the gunslingers actions in the past few days bordered on atrocious.

First, Dirks had convinced Sei to lie to government officials who were just looking out for their country, then the convict talked his partner into stealing from a couple of innocent people in order to gain a pass to the Floating City. Failing that, Dirks reduced himself to beating a child, and a friend of Sei’s, to the point of near death just to take his pass. Sei shuddered when the thoughts of Dirks fist slamming into Hsa’s face over and over again entered his mind, the sickening sound of the boy’s nose crunching louder and louder with each blow. By the time Sei had been able to pull his partner off, his Chibimon trainer friend had to drop out of the tournament due to his injuries.

It was a sign that Dirks’ obsession with Starlynn bordered on fanatical. Now, Sei was looking into the cold, dead eyes of a man he had called a friend, and saw that same look of resolution. The mute crossed his arms and shook his head, letting the only sound between the two for several minutes become that of the whistling wind as it passed by them. “I brought you here because it was the last place I had seen Thoracis before I lost ties with him; back when Blinke and I had beaten his team in the Championship several years ago. You had even told me yourself that you had seen him since then, but I want to start the search here..”

Dirks did not respond, but simply continued to try and force his will upon the Mystic with his gaze. Sei considered the possibility of swaying Dirks’ line of thinking to his own, but that would make the telepath no better than his amoral friend. “Fine,” Sei finally sighed, “We’ll fight them, but we’re doing it on my terms. And absolutely no random outbursts like what happened with Hsa. Above all else, do not attack the women unless provoked into doing so.”

“Kid had it coming,” Dirks said plainly, obviously not caring that the Mystic had heard him, “but deal.”

[Mordelain]

With a clanger like that, Mordelain was not entirely sure how to react.

“Ermm,” she hesitated.

If she rebuked Resolve’s comment, it might undo their efforts to bolster their friendship. If she led the girl on, broken hearts would abound, and sour their union all the same. If she pretended she misunderstood, perhaps, just perhaps, she could avert disaster.

“I have that effect on people,” she smiled weakly. The sort of effect she was referring to was more focussed on stones being thrown in her direction, and riotous mobs running her off whole worlds, but the intensity of the attention was similar enough to draw comparison. “I am, for the record, more akin to three hundred and seventy by Althanas’ solar calendar.”

She closed her eyes as a gust of wind swept over the rock, dredging away all the tension with a spring jack pasture’s whisper. It was instinctual for the planes walker to take a deep draught through flaring nostrils, to check for signs of life and loam in on the breeze. It smelt of cold, a bitter snap of fresh glacial ice, and a hint of goat dung.

“Can you smell that?” she asked, looking up at the still cloudless skies. Somehow, though, the world seemed darker. Something was afoot. The light danced for a while, before it became dull and lingering.

Resolve took her time before she replied. She gingerly unwrapped another desert, popped it into her mouth in one go, and chewed noisily between words. “All I can smell is horse shit, soil, and whatever that is,” she prodded a finger at the final dish lain out on the blanket between them.

“Calgary,” Mordelain confirmed, as she dropped her gaze down to the remnants of their picnic. “It’s a potato salad thick with cream, garlic, and dried fruits,” she added, when it dawned on her that Resolve had no idea where Calgary came from, what it was for, and why it was so ridiculously expensive.

The exorcist nodded thankfully, and even though she was still mid-way through a treacle chew, she leaned over the empty pots and picked up the dish with the aforementioned curiosity. She stirred the spoon through the mixture, and picked out what appeared to be the more edible parts.

“It is goat shit, by the way,” Mordelain chuckled. She began to put away the dishes she and Resolve had devoured, and stacked them neatly in a pile with a scuttle of cutlery next to them.

“Oh, I am sorry,” Resolve replied, sarcasm dribbling down her chin. “It’s so hard to tell the difference.”

“It is more grass like, with undertones of…” Mordelain paused mid-motion, realising she was perhaps going into a little too much detail. Her eyes widened with surprise. “Actually, forget it. I’m not sure how I even know that.” Apparently, learning to track the camel trails in Fallien had been a little too eye-opening for her own good. She pushed the il’Jhain knowledge she had acquired in the Abdos firmly to the back of her mind.

Resolve continued to chuckle aloud whilst she finished off the dish, her reservation about Calgary’s peculiar curdled scent firmly abandoned. With a pot belly, a contented expression, and a pat of her stomach, she landed the pot atop Mordelain’s carefully stacked pile, and knocked them all eschew. She ignored the planes walker’s glare with a protrusion of her tongue, and leant back on her palms to stare up into the heavens.

“We should break bread, as you put it, more often.” She said firmly. Her lips puckered into a cutesy smile, “next time, though, let’s break bread indoors.”

“What is wrong with this valley?” Mordelain asked, scooting from her perch to sit on the edge of the blanket, legs crossed, and hands cupped together in a lotus position. “The great outdoors are such lofty temples for friendship to blossom, no?”

Resolve mocked a vomiting wretch, and rolled her eyes. “Sure, the valley’s nice, open, and radiant.” She looked over her shoulder, a sudden swell of something catching her attention. “However, I’d much prefer a restaurant; somewhere that serves this rich food where it’s warm,” she bit her lip, keened her gaze, and frowned. “I’d much prefer it if we could eat in better company…”

Mordelain took a moment to realise that her companion’s tone had changed. She looked over the girl’s shoulder, in roughly the same direction that she appeared to be staring. There was nothing on the bleak horizon, save for rock, remnant, and rattlesnake. Over the dancing blades of grass and the distant diamond skein of the northern river she peered.

“Resolve…” She said flatly, raising on to her haunches, and unsheathing her kukri from the black leather sash that kept her waist poised and her peculiar black garb set straight, “what is it?” Settling in a pouncing position, Mordelain felt her heart flutter, her blood boil, and adrenaline, like wildfire, rush through her veins.

[Max Dirks]

Dirks grit his teeth and pulled his hood over his head. His promise to Sei, just like everything else he’d fed the Mystic in order to lure him to this god-forsaken island, was only a half-truth. If these women refused to cooperate or hindered his progress in any way, Dirks would annihilate them with or without the cherub’s consent. He had, after all, nearly killed a fifteen year old boy for delaying his task. Beating two women for their elevator passes certainly wasn’t below him.

Dirks was immensely frustrated with Sei’s stanch adherence to the Ixian Code, but he couldn’t let that anger overwhelm him. Ever since his “outburst,” in Lyridia, Dirks had taken great care to mask his emotions from the highly perceptive and overly sensitive Mystic. Dirks feared that if Sei ever probed his mind and discovered the full extent of his obsession, the do-good angel would refuse to help him and simply leave. Sei might not yet realize it, but he was vital to Dirks’ quest. Without him, Dirks would succumb to his demons. Without him, Dirks would not be able to save Starlynn.

All this did not mean that the criminal had been completely honest with his friend, though. To help control his emotions and draw Sei away from his mounting insanity, Dirks had fabricated an epic tale about the ice mage, Thoracis Rakarth. Sei believed that he and Dirks were in Lornius to find Thoracis’ anti-magic amulet, a long lost relic that could be used to awaken Dirks’ love, Starlynn Sonar, from eternal slumber in the Red Forest. While it was true that the anti-magic relic was needed to save Starlynn, the amulet was actually the crown jewel of Lornius, a gem once owned by Dirks that was stolen when he abdicated from the throne. He used the story of Thoracis to make Sei feel more like a companion rather than a pawn in what could easily be mistaken as a quest for revenge. The jewel was in the Floating City on the crown of the King of Lornius, hence Dirks’ fixation with accessing the capital.

The descent down the rock speckled hills took roughly fifteen minutes. Still struggling to control his anger, Dirks did not look back once to ensure Sei was still behind him. Though their body language became defensive as Dirks approached, surprisingly the women did not attempt to flee. Good, Dirks thought, this will be simple…. As Dirks reached into his robe preparing to hold them up at gunpoint, Sei seemly came out of nowhere and grabbed his shoulder. The cherub moved past him stopped a respectable distance away from the two, forcing Dirks to fall in line behind him. The cherub had clearly heard his thoughts.

Hello ladies, Sei “thought” to the group. Do not be alarmed. My name is Ies Eguolro and I am only able to communicate through thought. When the women seemed to accept this, Sei continued, This is my overzealous bodyguard, Derek Garrett. He may appear gruff an ill-mannered, but I assure you he has a sound heart. Dirks made a fist under the sleeve of his robe. Though Derek would never admit it, we're lost. We were on our way to the Floating City when we took a wrong turn up into the hills. Could you please point us in the right direction?

Dirks did not need play Sei's stupid little game. Their clothes smelled of natural gas, an unmistakable sign that the women had just come from the city suspended in the clouds. They smell like natural gas Dirks thought to Sei. Coal’s too dangerous so they use it to power the Floating City. They’ve just come from there, I'm positive... His right hand slowly disappeared into his robe. Dirks was getting impatient again You know what, fuck it. You have 20 seconds before I start shooting…

[Resolve]

The men came into view as they climbed down the steep wall of the valley, a process which would take some time as cliffs, boulders, and other obstacles impeded their progress. The ladies remained still for a long moment, inspecting them from the great distance.

"I am not quite certain how your sixth sense operates, but what can you feel about them?" Mordelain asked, blue eyes narrowed under the shield of her hand as she spectated the descent.

The exorcist shrugged. "Not much, unfortunately. Should we go out and meet them?"

With a nod, the elder woman stood from her perch, allowing herself a good stretch to loosen up her limbs. Resolve followed suit, taking an extra moment to tuck the loose end of her sari under her belt where her sword hung ready for the confrontation. She cracked her knuckles, amping herself up with glorious visions of Round Three and the bragging rights of slaughtering these self-proclaimed "champions" who were currently crawling like ants to the bottom of the valley. The thought of crushing them under her heavy-soled boot coaxed a mischievous grin to her lips, and she strolled to the end of the rock that faced the plains with her hands clasped coyly at her lower back.

"What are you so cheery about?" Mordelain asked, stepping up next to her and looking down at the shorter girl with a quirked brow.

"Whether we win or not, I'm taking you out in the Floating City. We'll go to the best restaurants and I'll finally get to see you dance," the exorcist winked, then knelt to hop off the shallowest end of the tall, flat rock on which they'd dined.

Mordelain grimaced, having seen enough of her companion's hangovers to have no desire to know what a rampant night out with Resolve was like. "We shall see," she gave her noncommittal reply, then leapt down after her.

The ladies returned to view from their opponents' perspective as they wove through the brush to meet them at the bottom of the incline. The terrain grew rocky underfoot as they approached the cliffs, sandy from sediment washed down in heavy rains with brush growing in clustered bursts of green and fuchsia from the gray earth. Tall grass trembled further out in the expanse, waving in greeting as cool wind continued to roll down the valley.

When the two men halted a comfortable distance away, near enough to parlay but allowing a comfortable thirty feet of breathing space, the telepath spoke to them. This irked Resolve on two levels: it was intrusive, and they were obviously their opponents, as they hadn't seen another soul since arriving at the location specified by the tournament organizers.

These "Ies" and "Derek" fellows had the nerve to insult the exorcist and her team mate by asking for directions in condescendingly polite fashion, as if disregarding the entire situation. What did they think, Resolve and Mordelain would quake in their boots at the sight of two men, as if they hadn't expected to take on the opposite gender when registering? The girl could've dove into fisticuffs right then, fists clenched and posture tense, but the sneer in her lips eased when her wiser counterpart flashed her a knowing little smile. It was enough to rein in her temper and she donned a charismatic grin, herself.

"We wish we could help you, but we haven't made it there yet, ourselves," Resolve said, thumb hooked nonchalantly on her belt next to her sword. "We're here for a tournament, actually. Did you happen to see another pair in your travels? We've been waiting for our opponents, but it appears that they may be a no-show. You don't think they were afraid of two measly girls, do you?" She glanced to "Derek" as she said this, giving him a quick visual shakedown as if insinuating something.

The planeswalker's cold smile broadened a nigh immeasurable amount at the burn, her calm gaze focused on this alleged "Ies".

[Silence Sei]

Sei was no fool. He knew that this woman was trying to provoke them into an attack. His eyes shifted quickly towards Dirks, who had straightened up his posture, his hand already settled inside his robes. Sei’s eyes widened, his mind instantly knowing what it was that the convict held beneath the cloth The mute shook his head, hoping that his partner would see the warning before it was too late. Instead, Dirks revealed his weapon, instantly pointing the gun at the insulting girl, firing a single shot towards her.

The bullet stopped just an inch from this girl, the small piece of metal situated directly between her eyes. If not for the mysterious invisible force, the attack would have ended the young woman’s life right there. Sei grabbed Dirks and fell to the ground as the sound of glass shattering echoed throughout the mountain, an ominous sign of a Mystic birthright. One could hear the birds scattering to the winds, and the larger animals of the mountaintop trying to escape to higher ground, hooves making clopping sounds against stone. All around Resolve’s form, the air itself began to crack with hairline fractures, before finally exploding in a crystalline rain of death.

“What the hell was that?!” Sei slammed a fist into the side of his friend, causing a sharp grunt of pain from Dirks. “I told you to not attack unless provoked!”

“Stupid bitch –did- provoke us,” Dirks slammed a knee into the Mystic, causing the latter to start wheezing as he rolled off of the gunslinger. The two laid there for a minute as the fragments of glass flew over them like clear little shooting stars. Both of them stood at the same time, their eyes showing their stances more than their words ever could. Despite their odds with each other, the two turned in unison back towards where they had last seen the girls, though Sei’s mind had doubts that they had stood still through the ordeal.

“I apologize for the brashness of my…” Before Sei could even finish the sentence, he heard his partner’s he gun go off two more times. “GOD DAMNIT DIRKS!”

[Mordelain]

Mordelain did not flinch, not once, at the sounding of the first, second, or the third shot. Destiny pulled her wits about her as the gun was produced, and before the first bullet threatened her, she held out her hand to Resolve slyly, a start jump bringing them close, who wasted no time at all before she took it with a gasp of air that oft came with fear of death. The planes walker felt a rush of blood to the head, and then a crack up her spine as she extended her stance, and then nothingness. Adrenaline kindled fire in both their hearts. Destiny bade the first bullet farewell, and timing the second; it whistled past her and vanished into the infinite bleakness of the beyond, joined by a third that touched only a void.

She vanished.

Resolve vanished.

The bullet cracked against the boulder the pair had been partaking luncheon upon, sending abrupt shards of granite and moss up into the air. All trace of aggression vanished from the valley in the wake of the gunshot’s rattling echo. On the gentle breeze, crows diverted their path away from the low-lying plains, and rabbits and spring jack foxes pricked their ears at the strange sound, before scuttling and prancing away to their warrens and nests below the heather smothered soil.

Re-appearing a few moments later on a world so far away from Althanas the distance would have put even the strongest of wills to the test; Mordelain immediately took Resolve by one shoulder, and pulled her in so she could grab the other. She locked eyes with the exorcist, her breath baited, her eye wide, and her heart pounding.

“Whatever you do, whatever you say, and whatever you feel – you must not panic.” Her warning was severe, given they had just escaped certain death at the hands of chauvinists, but it was utterly required. “Do you understand me?” she peered into Resolve’s eyes, looking for that familiar spark of intrigue mixed with comprehension.

“Indefinitely,” was all the reply she got, and needed.

Mordelain stepped away, relinquishing the girl from her grasp. Immediately, the sheer overwhelming sense of space washed over them both. Though Mordelain had stood on this exact spot countless times throughout her long life, if it still awed her, she could not imagine what Resolve must be feeling.

“Where the hell are we?” she said, a plucky tone giving her question kick. She adjusted herself, straightened her hair, and tried to take in the horizon.

“This is Zhayou,” Mordelain said, pronouncing the planet’s common tongue name with a thick slur that only managed to annunciate half of the accent the citizens of the world used to conceal their tongue from outsiders. “That,” she pointed over Resolve’s shoulder, “is Zhuhai, the greatest city in the known cosmos.”

The exorcist turned away from the mountainous expanse to the south, its dancing sea surround glistening in the afternoon sun, and was met with something equally as vast, and yet somehow, so infinitely big she could not quantify its true size. Her jaw dropped open, and her arms fell to her sides, her prettification complete.

“Good…lord.” She said slowly. There was not much else she could say.

Zhuhai stood before them, it’s blue walls part glass, part energy, and impregnable to all. It stretched as far left and as far right as their mortal eyes could see, fading into the distance only when the curvature of the city limits went out of their sight’s limitations. At the bottom of the wall there were vast circles, pipes, perhaps, that spewed out torrents of water in great waterfalls as big as any of the grandest structures of Althanas.

“When I walk, it is invariably to a place with connections to the part of the world I walked from.” She said, wondering if she quite needed to ruin the moment with a lurid and scientific explanation. She continued, not sure what else to do whilst the Void reformed and the time came when they could return to their little jaunt on Lornius, “I imagine we were brought her because of that man’s guns.”

Zhuhai was technology advanced to the point of stagnation. Beyond the force field, high about in towers hundreds of floors tall, energy weapons that threw beams of light and sound like rocks and rain were commonplace. People wore clothing that kept them the exact temperature they required, and food and water, here, of all the places of the Kalithrism, was conjured literally out of thin air.

“What are we going to do about those, exactly?” Resolve asked, her eyes not once averting from the spectacle. It had occurred to even her limited experience of fire-arms that they were severely outmatched. Unlike Mordelain, she had not remained quite so calm in the salvo of fire.

Mordelain approached her companion’s side, forgetting their comic awkwardness and the reverence the girl had for her, and rested a hand on her shoulder, to reassure. She looked down from the plateau at the slum villages that clustered the islands all around Zhuhai, and watched the ant-like exiles scuttle about their daily, short, and perilous lives. They, like Mordelain, were cast away from a greater entity, left to drift and wander, and to survive at all costs.

“There is a saying on the planet Braen, where the market place is so big and deep that you can buy anything you can imagine, and then sell it for something more wondrous still, that to live, we must adapt or die.” She pointed to the waterfall closest to them, at the sparkling fragments that fell down with the tumultuous flow, “people here use the rubbish of the city’s inhabitants to live.” She trailed the flow of the detritus down to the nearest island’s shores.

“I think I understand…only,” the girl bounced on her heels. “How about,” she curled her lip, “we adapt, and those two fuckers die?” she looked up at Mordelain, who looked down, and the pair smiled at one another with a glint of plotting and planning in their eyes.

The planes walker nodded, and with their plot at the front of their mind, she gripped Resolve’s shoulder tightly, the coarse fabric of her illuminating attire warm to the touch. Vowing to return to the mega city to fight fire power with fire-power, she prepared to walk once more.

[Max Dirks]

And just as Dirks fired the second shot, the women were gone. “How convenient,” Dirks mumbled. He quickly rushed over to the elevated rock and felt around for something—anything—that resembled a Capital pass. Instead, all he found was bread crumbs mixed with moss. “God damn it, Sei.” Dirks cried out, flailing his arms. He turned to the Mystic. “Why did you stop me? I wasn’t going to kill them.”

“Don’t lie to me, Dirks,” Sei responded, “I saw that same look in your eye when you beat Hsa. You don’t care about anyone or anything if they get in your way.” The Mystic turned away. “I’m done, Dirks. You’re on your own.”

“You’re done?” Dirks repeated. “It’s that simple?” He spit on the ground. “You are the most hypocritical piece of shit I’ve ever met. You pretend to operate under this holier than thou moral code, but when your own flesh and blood is in danger you do ANYTHING in your power to save them.” Dirks made a fist with his free hand. “Well damn it Sei, I fail to see how this is any different…”

Sei turned back to Dirks, his blue eyes piercing into the criminal’s soul. “It is different…” he started, but the angel could not finish his sentence. After a long pause, Sei finally said “Fine, I’ll stay.”

“Good…” Dirks said. “Come on. Let’s go.”

“Not yet” Sei said. He crossed Dirks and then jumped onto the nearby rock. “If you want my help, you need to start being honest. This amulet you want, it’s in the Floating City, isn’t it?” Dirks hesitated but eventually nodded. “And do you truly believe those women could help us get there?” He nodded again. “Well,” Sei closed his eyes, clearly debating whether this was the best idea. “They were here for the tournament. There's a good chance they'll be back.” He coughed, but eventually spit out the words: “If I could, would you…”

Dirks smirked. “Bring those bitches back from the void…”