Ordo Iuris (open)

[Xos]

This is open to anyone and everyone.

The Citadel, a place where one could go and fight to one's heart's content.
He walked up the steps and entered the Citadel. It was rather bright outside for his tastes. A concept had entered his mind, and he knew of no other way to test it than to come here, to The Citadel.

"Can I help you?" asked one of the older monks.
"I hope so." Xos said.

Quickly he outlined the idea that had enetered his mind to the monk, the old man nodding and asking questions occasionally. The two spoke for several minutes, before Xos was finished talking.

"You still have to battle, but I'm certain we could give you a few hours to yourself first. But you say you actually want to go there? Doesn't that sound dangerous?" the monk asked.
"An illusion, no matter how good, is never good enough compared to the real thing." Xos said.
"Alright." the monk said with a sigh. He hobbled along, leading xos to a spot extrordinarily deep within the citadel.

This door was diffrent from all the rest, it looked practically brand new. The monk touched it in certain spots, tracing symbols unseen accross it's surface.

Suddenly gears whirled into motion, and the door swung open. Xos was greeted by a vortex of energy, he took a deep breath, and leaped in.

------------

As Xos's opponet entered many hours later, they would find themselves standing on a massive gear made of bronze. It was at least ten feet accross, and it was slowly turning. One could see it was niether the smallest, nor certainly the largest. But that was only a small, very small part of the first thing one would notice.

The first thing anyone would notice was The Machine. The Machine was massive, and it spanned the entire length and breadth of this place, wherever it was. The Machine's power was so great, that one's heart beat at the same pace the machine worked, one's blood pulsed in time with the Machine, one's very thoughts went no faster than the Machine's work. The Machine was made of Gears, levers, pulleys, chains, pistons, and advanced things no one could identify. Electronic circuitry seemed embedded in everything.

As the gear turned, one could see a pathway of gears. They lead to a chute over which a multi-colored glowing substance flowed. It flowed into the machine, the fuel that powered it, the product it churned out in a solid crystaline form. The more knowledgable would recognise it as pure Chaos Energy, and the Crystals that came out, perfectly and exactly organised as pure law energy. This then was Ordo Iuris, the great plane of Law, where Chaos was organised, and sent back into the mix of things as pure law energy.

Machines worked here and there, cleaning the machine, polishing the machine, tending to the machine. One was even caressing the machine lovingly.

Near the machines sat Xos, deep in meditation. A machine shook Xos out of his trance gently, and pointed at the arrival of his opponet. Xos nodded and stood up.

"Welcome to the Plane of Law, my name is Xos, I thought this place might exist, It's where all Natural and Physical Law is controlled and carefully regulated." Xos shouted over the constant pounding of the pistons scattered throughout the Machine.
He came over towards his opponet. His movements were not entirely natural. Infact they had become stiff and robotic, he had spent too much time here, all the Chaos had been drained out of him.

He seemed to hold himself in a battle stance, and stumbled onto a nearby conveyor belt holding blocks of pure crystalised raw energy, unbiased in what it was. It was headed for the heart of the machine where it would be transformed into crystalised Law energy, but what purpose the crystalised law energy had, was entirely unclear.

There are many dangers here, and I'll be sure to point them out before we get to them, but the immediate and constant dangers include the following:
The Gears, There are gears here of all kinds, and I promise there is at least one too heavy for you to lift. If you fall into the teeth of the gears, they will grind you to pieces and kill you if you don't get out in time.

The Conveyor belt, while not in and of itself a danger is always moving, and if your not careful, you will get thrown off and into the gears.

The Pistons. Needless to say, a 280 Ton Piston made of Previlida and stronger unknown substances is going to be 100% lethal if you let yourself get caught and don't escape in time. We will encounter them, but I will be sure to note them in my posts as we get to them.

The Robots, the caretakers of The Machine. Break it, and they'll break you, or at least they'll try to. They'll take one or two really good hits depending on your strength and level to defeat, unless you knock them into gears or a piston, or some other as of yet unnamed danger.

The Rotory fans, they keep the machine cool in the right spots, and hot in the right spots. Try not to get your head chopped off.

Any part of the machine, save for a piston, can be destroyed, unless otherwise noted. Pistons cannot be destroyed, unless you destroy it's casing and let it fall into the machine.

Feel free to make up a part of the machine. It's purposes are many and varied, some so obscure and unknown as to be unfathomable. It's technology is from every era, even those that haven't occured yet, both ICly, and OOCly, so let your imagination off it's leash and let it run wild and free.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

It began as it always did. With a dream.

Lorenor was lead to The Citadel by the will of N'Jal. Monks, who were followers of the All-Thayne knew the ghoul's alignment to N'Jal by the distinctive electro magnetic field that clung to the vessel of the ghoul. It was a dark sort of energy, feeding off the surface negativity lurking within the very air itself. All though they kept the ghoul at arm's length, the Monks respected the wishes of their apprentice. The Citadel was an organization that represented the will of the All-Thayne and the Monks of Ai'Bron were followers of the Thayne after all.

No particular Thayne in the organization was favored above another. Even Followers of N'Jal were welcome to practice their dark art in The Citadel's catacombs.

That's where Lorenor found himself. In a chamber dedicated to the belief and following of the Thayne known as N'Jal. Hated by the Inquisition, The Cult of N'Jal was a persecuted religious group deemed fanatics by most. However, The Citadel was a neutral organization. And thusly, members of the Cult of N'Jal could practice their craft without persecution with protected free speech and free religious belief. After all, darkness bred war and The Citadel was a temple to warfare.

The chamber was a quiet place. Several individuals wearing black robes prayed to a statue located before them. They sat on pillows and under the dancing light of the candle. There were many black candles that offered the only sort of lighting in the room. No windows decorated the chamber, no ventilation, and only one door on the far side of the chamber. Opposite the statue. A physical representation of N'Jal in all her cruelty, the spider queen stared menacingly across space and time. This was one of the few statues of N'Jal that were still intact on Althanas to this day. The Inquisition, the Knights of Dawn, nearly eradicated all knowledge of N'Jal from the history books in their persecution days. Many followers of the Cult were executed by fire before they could become fully trained Spider Magi.

Here, in the halls of The Citadel, their religion was protected by the will of the Monks of Ai'Bron. Many of the Monks were followers of N'Jal themselves.

Respecting this place of neutral grounds, Lorenor entered The Citadel in order to pray to his goddess. Reading scripture and text from two handsome volumes placed before him, the ghoul was in a meditative trance. He knelt before the statue of N'Jal and read the scriptures of the book. Some of the cultists also read from similar works in various combinations of numbers, up to three books all together. Some held the complete works of the Necronomicon in their possession.

Before the statue of N'jal was an alter. Upon this alter was a complete collection of the Necromonicon for the followers to observe and take note, the complex rites and rituals that lurked within those unholy pages. An individual dressed in fancy robes, clearly the lad in charged of this division of the cult, lead the dark sermon. The other members, ten heads all together, prayed alongside the High Priest.

This had gone on for hours.

And so, Lorenor prayed within the halls of The Citadel.

As the sermon reached a fever pitch, and the servants of N'Jal were delivered to their goddess, there was a knock upon the lone chamber door.

The sermon was interrupted.

Obviously annoyed, the High Priest left his meditative state and maneuvered through the crowd towards the front door. He opened the door and spoke with an individual standing outside in the immediate hallway. A conversation of whispers took place. "Sir Lorenor?" The High Priest suddenly asked and Lorenor immediately stood up, moving out of his zen-like state. He closed the two volumes before him, still missing the third piece of the Necronomicon.

It was said, each follower of N'Jal needed to find their own copies of the three-volume works and worship daily from them.

By no means, was Lorenor an impressive individual. All though lavishly dressed, wearing the robes and clothing of a Lord, the warrior was small. He stood at only five feet in height, and weighed around one hundred and fifty pounds. With the large hood up over his head, it was difficult to see his face, shrouded in darkness, save for the tell-tale glow of twin purple orbs. Lorenor's clothing danced around him as he moved, staring in the general direction of the High Priest.

"Yes sire?" Lorenor spoke in a deep voice. There was a raspy quality to it that was often unsettling to say the least. The voice was unnatural and not spoken by any tongue, at least that's what the rumors said. The ghoul waited for a response. "You are being called. You may leave your supplies here. The Monks require a handicap on your behalf."

"So I can't use my best equipment?"

"Naye."

Lorenor sighed audibly. His twin damascus long swords were always eager to shed blood. When the Monks called for Lorenor, he was always ready to deliver quality entertainment. "What can I use?" Lorenor wondered out loud. The High Priest answered by tossing a weapon sheathed within a scabbard at the ghoul. Lorenor spotted the masterwork handle right away and identified the matching quality of the scabbard. The throw was a skilled one and the weapon landed at the ghoul's feet. Kneeling down to the sword, the ghoul wrapped his hand around the scabbard, picked the thing up, and unsheathed the blade with his opposite hand. The grip felt solid and well manufactured. Pulling the blade partway out of the scabbard, Lorenor identified the weapon as having a steel composition. Lorenor could see his own reflection in his face. "I am to use this when I have damascus weaponry, is there a particular reason I am being so held back?" The question was relayed from the High Priest to the Monk in the hallway.

A moment later, the Monk entered the chamber. Lorenor recognized the Monk from an earlier visit for training and prayer purposes. The Monk was a follower of the Thayne known as Khal'Jaren. He was a man named Jared. He was a tall fellow standing at about six feet in height, and weighing in approximately one hundred ninety pounds. He had darker skin tone suggesting origin in either Fallien, or Alerar. His eyes were a stark shade of blue, and he had a funny looking nose. It was crooked in two different places, probably from constant fighting. His nostrils were also flared out. He had his eyebrows pierced, and one side of his nostrils pierced as well. He wore long locks that were tied in braids. A gentle frown touched his face when he saw the ghoul once more. The two had developed an uneasy alliance with Lorenor's time in the Citadel in recent months.

"The fellow you are fighting is not of your current rank. The handicap is necessary to keep the combat fair and balanced at all times. We require this because the arena he chose is a particularly dangerous place." This piqued the ghoul's interest. "A dangerous place huh? Tell me all about that."

Taking the weapon with him, he walked proudly towards Jared. He had the demeanor of a nobleman and carried himself with an air that demanded a certain level of respect from his peers. Lorenor sheathed the steel long sword at his side and prepared for the long battle ahead.

"We'll talk on the way."

"Very well Jared." Lorenor bowed deeply to his High Priest. "I shall return to continue the sermons when I am finished my lessons." The High Priest bowed back in return. "May the Dark Goddess guide you."

****

Staring at his opponent was a curious matter. The man was dressed in a funny robe the likes of which Lorenor had never seen before. There was a lot of noise in the chamber making it difficult for the ghoul to focus on what Xos Xilanthe was saying. Approaching the conveyor belt was a task that required quite a bit of concentration. The entire chamber moved as if it was in the depths of some infernal construct. Lorenor had seen complex machinery before thanks to the Golems of Dressed Fished Town.

Thinking back to his stalwart companions, he wondered what the Golems would think of such an advanced place created by an individual such as this one.

Finally hearing everything that Xos has said, the very definition of madness crossed the ghoul's mind. Sparks of energy, and bolts of power crossed the air creating an extreme sensory environment. The gears smelled like rust, oil, and other scents that were difficult for the ghoul to identify. The place was well lit. They were clearly within the belly of some terrifying beast and Lorenor found himself panicking. Plane of Law? Natural and Physical Law controlled? What in the devil's name is he talking about? The confusion was already settling in. But there was no time to ponder the deeper meaning of what Xos had said.

It just made no sense.

"Heresy! You speak terms contradictory to the Will of N'Jal! If you are not one of the Followers of the All-Thayne, then you must be a member of the Knights of Dawn! You are here to persecute the Followers of N'Jal! I cannot allow this!"

Making his dangerous assumption quickly, Lorenor immediately assumed that Xos Xilanthe was a member of the Knights of Dawn. Otherwise, what business would he have asking for him by name? Drawing the steel masterwork sword in his possession, Lorenor stepped carefully to time his movements and allow himself to venture upon the conveyor belt that contained Xos. The ghoul would not listen to any of the man's rants of logic and reasoning. In Lorenor's insane mind, he'd exposed one of his hated enemies. He would take care of Xos before the day the was through. But before that, he knelt down and picked up one of the raw energy crystals, and placed them in his traveling pouches adding it to his rapidly growing collection of strange ores. When the deed was done, he moved quickly towards Xos and took the first swing of the battle.

He was aiming for Xos' shoulder with an attempt at a piercing attack.

With Lorenor's hood down, it was possible to see the grotesque ghoul for what he was; a monster pure and simple. The ghoul had no eyes in his eye socket except for a twin glow of purple energy. His hair was tied in an intricate array of dreadlocks that surrounded his head like a mane. There was no nose, only a few simple slits where nose once was. A terrible scar went cleanly down the abomination's face. This scar touched the top of his throat. There were no ears either. How he spoke remained a mystery since he had no tongue in his mouth. These were the markings of a mad cultist dedicated to the teachings of N'Jal. These were the markings of a future Spider Magi in the making.

And so, with the enemy revealed, the battle began.

[Xos]

"Who, or what are The Knights of Dawn? I follow Omnisource, The God of all Gods, the one who resides beyond all worlds, not some lesser all-thayne or anyone named N'jal, whoever he, or she, is." Xos shouted back.
As his opponet neared him, Xos wondered what he was facing, but with the hood down, it was impossible to see who he was fighting.

Seeing a Piercing strike come at his shoulder, Xos quickly threw up an Energy Shield to block the attack, It worked, but not completly. Xos stepped backwards in surprise, stumbled, and fell onto the teeth of nearby Gearworks. He got up, and leaped off, leading his opponet on. He got back on the Conveyor belt, and started running towards his opponet, effictivly running in place. The Reason was clear, He was right infront of a very large Piston.

It slammed down onto the Conveyor belt, crushing the crystal to sand. Xos racked his brain trying to think of something. Xos picked up the chunk to be crushed next. He set a fireball on it. It flashed and glowed becoming a fire magic crystal, and Xos threw it at his opponet before running past the Piston.

Whatever it struck, whether it be the hooded form of his opponet, or anything else, it would explode with fiery wrath, blasting a good five feet all around it.

Xos looked behind him, The Conveyor belt moved into a large black building that towered into the yellow-orange sky.

Inside this building were more pistons, gears, and robots tending to The Machine, but now there were also elevators, and silos, and Elements of varying nature. Xos grabbed one elevator full of glowing raw crystals going towards the top. At the top Xos was able to fully comprehend the sheer magnitude of The Machine.

The Machine spread out for miles upon miles, larger than most continents, possibly even the entire world of Althanas. In one end was a glowing ever changing area, and Xos realised that this lead to The Plane of Chaos, at the other end of things. From it, chutes piped glowing multicolored liquid that was pure chaos. Pistons beat it, and elements baked it, and cooked it, and broiled it. Robotic magicians even stood there casting spells on it, and slowly it was turned from liquid crystal chaos, into solid pure energy. It went under the piston Xos dodged through only moments ago where it was ground into a fine sand, and occasionally chunks depending on how far down the piston crushed. Xos looked down through the building where he could see the crystals exposed to new elements, and thus turned into crystals of all the diffrent elements and schools of magic there were. Some he recognised easily, such as Earth, Wind, fire, and Water. Others still he did not recognise but knew they had a purpose. The crystals were stored in the towering building until they were needed. Xos looked further on, He saw that this tower was multi-functional, and was also the heart of The Machine. Belts moved away from the tower towards different sections.

He looked at the Fire Crystals, it's section being easiest and closest to make out. The fire crystals were fed from the belt into a fiant furnace, the furnace fueled another machine, Xos thought it must be a computer, but it was so advanced as to be beyond his comrehension. He realised that since this Plane regulated all Natural and Physical Law in the Multi-verse, that the strange advanced machine he was looking at must then control all things fire related, from the meager campfire, all the way up to the burning star. He realised it also controlled Fire magic. It kept fire in balance with all other things, ensuring Fire didn't over-power everything else, unless it was neccessary. He looked at the other sections, and realised the profound complexity with which this machine was built, and with which it performed it's tasks, after all, when a God desires something to be done, do they ever really stop and think about how it is to be done, or how it effects everything else? This machine must have been built by the will of the very being that crafted Althanas originally. Xos realised he could not then control this machine, only the gods could, at least for now.

All of this took only a few minutes though to pass through Xos's mind. as he stood on the top of that tower, with it's empty open rooftop his opponet could've easily gotten in close and stabbed Xos in the back. He turned, expecting to be struck down any second.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

His attack misfired quite literally.

Within a moment, Lorenor was engulfed in the fiery blaze of what some might consider justice. The bursting elemental fire was cruel and uncaring, lifting the ghoul up and off the conveyor belt, and propelling him through the air quickly to another level of the god-machine. Lorenor was slammed hard against a particular platform of the machine that was like a slow moving floor. It rose up and down and connected to several other contraptions that were responsible for moving the elements across the various planes of existence. Lorenor landed nonchalantly in the middle of that platform, fire cascading and licking his already ugly vessel. Wrapping around his person, the endless acted as a protective armor and absorbed most of the damage. Despite the best efforts of his armor, the bastard magus had struck true.

Lorenor was caught completely off guard by that dirty trick. I'll show you. It doesn't matter who and what you serve now. You tried to cook me you son of a bitch. I'll make you pay for that. YOU HEAR ME! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY! Driven by the insanity of this place, Lorenor found the will to stand despite the fires that still scorched his person. This was not the first time someone had attempted to burn him alive. Ready to use all the tricks up his sleeve, he knew he would not pull any punches.

The eyes of the All-Thayne were upon them both now. Lorenor sensed the presence of the Thayne-hood in their truest form within this plane of existence. He wondered just how much of it was his brain playing tricks on him. Preparing his weapon, he road the platform until it reached the top section of the building that Xos currently resided atop. Jumping on a nearby elevator that carried its precious cargo into the building, the ghoul ducked down onto the moving structure for a brief moment. He was moving upward and covered the vast, impossible distance between himself and Xos.

Finally, he made it to the top of the building and quickly leaped off the elevator, landing upon the surface of the black structure. This machine had something to do with the brewing of fire. Keeping his weapon drawn and at the ready, Lorenor decided he was going to try a more casual approach. The surface they were on was a level, steady surface and offered a panoramic of the entire plane of law. Overwhelmed by what the ghoul was seeing, he rapidly felt his faculties slipping from him. Focusing on a single objective was the only way he could deal with the madness of this place.

His single objective was Xos. What was it that he said? He follows the Omnisource, whatever that means. He is not a member of the Knights of Dawn, and he is not a Follower of N'Jal. That makes him something else entirely. All I know is that he tried to cook me alive. This time, when Lorenor saw the wizard before him, he moved much more cautiously opting against making any sudden, dangerous maneuvers. Covering the distance between himself and his opponent, Lorenor stood only a few paces away from the Wizard.

"Omnisource is it? You think you can sit there and ridicule the All-Thayne? Not that I care much for them mind you. Your deities are no better than mine. You just sat there and chewed out everything I believe in. Everything I know to be true. What gives you the right to judge?" Lorenor looked at the infernal machine around him. "This place is a product of the Monks' magics and your twisted imagination! I'm not the one who is insane for believing in N'Jal. It's you! You sick bastard! This whole place is nothing but a twisted nightmare from some monster's imagination. I'll make you pay for showing me this!"

Lorenor had truly lost it. He was forced to see a madman's vision of the universe. Was this all that awaited them? Some perfect machine, a construct where everything was rank and file and organized into a cleanly fit system? Was that really what the universe of Althanas was all about? Lorenor couldn't accept it. He couldn't have it. There had to be more than this madman's vision of things. He would get to the bottom of Omnisource.

Having covered the distance to Xos's position now, Lorenor prepared himself for combat. "That was a dirty trick you pulled back there. Let's see what else you've got up your sleeve, Wizard." And Lorenor waited for the mage to make the next move.

[Xos]

Xos realised that some people couldn't handle seeing only one side of the great balance of all things. Then there were those that weren't comfortable with one side. He wondered what would've happened if he had chosen to fight in the plane of Chaos.

"What's up my sleeve? What is up my sleeve?" Xos asked mocking Lorenor. He looked up his sleeve.
"Honestly, Not much, just the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Oh yeah, and this." Xos said, throwing a steel ball bearing he had just created seconds ago at Lorenor.

He pointed at Lorenor's head and cast Arcane Blast. Though he wasn't strong enough to blow someone's head off yet, five small coin sized holes in one's head usually made fighting difficult. Then he grabbed a security drone that was flying by and threw it at Lorenor before jumping down a chute.

The security drone went into offense mode.
"HALT!" it said in a synthisized male voice, bringing out a steel great-sword. It looked like a flying man with wings made entirely of steel, and held the steel greatsword with both hands.

Xos knew he was outclassed by this opponet. Going toe to toe was not in his favor, but the environment itself seemed to throw him off, perhaps he could use the environment to beat this thing. By the time his opponet could beat the Security Drone, Xos would be in the exact center of Ordo Iuris, in the heart. Energy flickered everywhere, as the machine watched Xos, made decisions completly unrelated to Xos's fight with Lorenor, and even further, watched Lorenor.

This machine had a divine presence about it, even Xos was beginning to feel unnerved by it, and if Xos felt unnerved, how much more than for Lorenor?

OOC:
Security Drone: Resembles a biblical angel, minus the halo. Each carries a weapon of the same substance it's made of. The stronger the metal, the more powerful the drone.
The steel Drones take 2-4 hits to trash, I leave it for Lorenor to dispose of this one as he pleases.

[Mutant_Lorenor]

The only thing that saved Lorenor was the endless and a combination of his supernatural senses. With his quickly moving sensory array, he was able to detect the movement before he actually saw it. And even as he saw it, he was observing the action much too late. His reaction time wasn't up to par as he would have liked it to be so he did the only thing he could think of. He took a swipe at the the thrown object with his sword. Timed in coordination to the magus' attacks, Lorenor flung all the strength he could muster at the steel ball and managed to barely connect with it. His sword connected to the orb at just the right angle. Clang! Another loud sound was added to the rest of the noise in the belly of the infernal machine. Lorenor's weapon struck true and skilled, albeit a small amount of chance was involved as well. The sword struck at a clean swipe which caused the steel orb to flow through the air, with a whistle sound, and move in the general direction of the sentry drone.

Reacting quickly to the perceived threat, the bulky robot was limited by its own reaction time and surface mass. Prior commands took precious seconds to compute. New commands took more seconds to upload. Lorenor couldn't understand what the thing was doing before the ghoul but the steel orb was directly in path with the winged metallic warrior. A moment later, a loud impact sound crashed through the air. With the force of a bullet, the steel ball came crashing into the robot and easily tore through the robot's simple steel body. Added force from Lorenor's skilled swing made the impact of the steel orb against the sentry drone that much more lethal.

Damage was assessed. A gaping hole was visible through the pectoral region of the sentry. Electricity and energy rippled through the injury. Lorenor actually pitied the construct. Moving to quickly dispose of the sentry, something else happened. The whirring of more mobile engines added a dull vibrating noise to the air. With it came the metallic scent provided by machinery. The ghoul was suddenly outnumbered. He stared at Xos as the individual made his escape further ahead and ventured to another area of the grand design.

Surrounded by six of the angelic host, Lorenor understood that these creatures were his enemy. A plan of escape was needed. The hell with the Monks. Feeling that his Plasma Discharge Gun was ready for action, Lorenor felt the power pulse through his arm. He ducked a low swipe meant to take his head cleanly off his body and rose his hand a moment later. The PDG was ready for action. Glowing at the tip, the plasma gun attached to his left hand raised itself up to firing position upon its main mechanism and launched a powerful wave of kinetic force.

Lorenor immediately moved out of the way as he launched the blast of latent energy. Hearing the sounds of chaos, feeling them was the proper way to describe it, Lorenor turned when he'd moved several paces away from the scene of the jam. Several of the robots had crashed into one another from having their primary systems distorted by the kinetic force. Flight paths were disrupted, mechanical cameras were shut down, and the robots had only one place to go.

Down.

And they fell. Hard. Lorenor grinned as he watched the robots go down one by one, the Golems' technology had proven superior to the false god of the Omnisource. Lorenor had a target and an enemy. He would pursue him to the ends of the universe if need be. And so, the chase began.

[Xos]

Xos saw Lorenor coming, he needed a weapon. He racked his brains trying to find something to help him. He threw a fireball at Lorenor to distract him, while he grabbed a loose iron bar that was nearby. It was supposed to be a lever, but time had loosened it, and the robots had not yet come to repair it.

He ran right straight at Lorenor, and swung the ironbar just as hard as he possibly could out of sheer desperation to do some major damage to an enemy that was seemingly unbeatable, to forestall a loss that seemed inevitable.

"GET OUT!"The sentient core of The Machine bellowed at them after Xos's attack finished and Lorenor had responded with an action of his own.

A door opened, and a force of energy grabbed them both, and hurled them out of it.
More Security drones began to come. These ones were made of Damascus. Summoned by the Central Processing Unit that they were just in, these drones looked much fiercer than their steel counterparts. Xos knew the time had come to end this quickly. Ordo Iuris itself thought of their fight as a direct threat to it's own stability, and was prepared to do anything to stop it.

Xos dodged past a Piston that had just completly raised, as a security Drone chased after Xos, the piston slammed down with all it's force and crushed the drone to pieces.

Xos grabbed a chain that linked two entirely diffrent sets of gears, and rode it down below the fight, waiting for Lorenor to leap down and join him. He realised he had made a mistake, for all around him flowed fire crystals on conveyor belts, and the heat was enough to bake anyone to death.


OOC: Damascus security drones, the same as steel, except they take 4-6 hits, or a good smashing by a piston.

The Central Processing Unit: Don't mess with the CPU...

[Mutant_Lorenor]

The building all around them was a mechanized nightmare. Gears moved, pistons crushed things conveyor belts transported raw materials to only Thaynes knew where.

And that's when Xos attacked. Lorenor pondered the audacity of the Magus' actions. A Mage? Engaging me in raw physical combat? Is he out of his bleeding mind? Lorenor prepared himself to finally release all of his stored frustration on the blasted Magus. He would make Xos pay for showing him this infernal contraption, once and for all.

"You have no right showing me this!" Lorenor cried out in agony. His brain hurt at what he was seeing, sensing all around him. The endless were in agony just trying to keep his dendrites in check, and keep the ghoul focused on the immediate task of defeating his opponent. But then what? Lorenor realized one possible immediate consequence of defeating his opponent. What if I was stuck in this place forever? The domain was testing Lorenor's belief in what he thought was real and not real. It was testing his sanity to its very limits and with that came self doubt.

So when the Mage came running at the ghoul, he wasn't expecting anything what so ever. Least of all a melee attack. The swing came in suddenly, the endless reacted much slower than usual thanks to all of the external stimuli, but it did react. The swing from the iron bar came directly to the tormented ghoul's jaw. There was a pop and a snap, but the ghoul's precious endless managed to keep the jaw from getting completely dislocated.

Lorenor fell to the ground. He was rapidly loosing the will too fight. This place was just too much for his senses to comprehend. Plane of Law? Machines? Elemental Conveyor Belts? Was this really all there was? Damn him for showing me...this. Blood trickled down his mouth and unto his chin, tears streamed down his face. Lorenor found himself crying and bleeding.

He was loosing it. Rapidly. And then just when matters couldn't get any worse, a new phenomenon pierced the air. On his knees, praying to N'Jal for his sanity to remain intact, the new tormentor filled the molecular structure of the air itself. Traveling across the entire domain of Ordo Iuris it filled Lorenor's head instantly. Screaming loudly at the sudden action, Lorenor reached his limit of sanity. The phenomenon was a voice that sounded like many voices, and was the voice of a god. For Lorenor, it could've been the voice of the All-Thayne itself. Blood trickled from the eye sockets of the ghoul, his ears, and his mouth. He shook in place as he stared at the nightmare all around him. Make it stop. Make it go away. Lorenor found himself like the child stepping into a nightmare world.

Begging to his goddess for the nightmare to end, Lorenor was suddenly pulled by yet another powerful force of energy. The pull of energy evicted them forcibly from the building and tossed the ghoul onto a gear made out of precious prevaldia. Lorenor spun in circles remaining on all fours.

When the security drones arrived, he never even put up a fight...

"Threat located." Was whispered to the ghoul from the drones. The presences floated downward towards the mutant but were not sure how to proceed. "Threat neutralized." One of the drones whispered and they all began to float away once they saw that Lorenor wasn't even fighting them.

[Xos]

Xos watched through gears at the disheartened form of his opponet. He felt pity for a man that couldn't grasp the fundamental underlying nature of reality. While he never suspected nature might actually look like a massive well-oiled smooth running machine, he was at least able to accept it and move on.

"It's time to end this." Xos said, more to himself than anyone else, especially since due to the noise of The Machine it was impossible to hear his softly spoken words. He turned and ran along the conveyor belts, moving quicker than he normally would. There were no pistons on this belt line, all the fire crystals were headed towards the furnace that powered the section of the machine dealing with the element of fire and all things under fire's dominion. He was glad it was the closest of all the sections to the central core.

He hopped off the belt at the end, running accross the platform to the great crystal computer that the furnace fed.

He looked at it, and suddenly realised he didn't understand anything it said.

Strange characters and symbols danced accross it's surface before his eyes. He put a hand on the surface. He heard screaming coming from somewhere, and assumed it was lorenor. He had a physical connection to the computer, it was speaking directly to his mind, and Xos was in awe, for he saw the entirety of the plane at once.

As the God Machine spoke in his mind, Xos realised he was the one doing the screaming. Blood was coming from his eyes, his ears, his nose, even his mouth. So great was the overriding power of the computer through his body that he was actually sweating his own blood out through his skin.

"Reverse, the flow of crystals from the furnace to the CPU." flashed accross Xos's mind, and into the computer. Xos managed to pry his hand off the computer and stumble on the suddenly halted belt. As he fell, it began to reverse it's movement, going towards the CPU, to the core.

He lay there, weak, drained, and barely concious.

Back at the other end, the Fire Crystals began to pile up all around the cpu, overflowing from it's storage silos as it was. quickly, the crystals fell off the track, piling all around the tower the central core was in. Some got crunched to pieces by the gears, causing explosions, must of which were muffled and shielded by the gears themselves.

It even began to pile up around Lorenor.

If one crystal could cause a five foot explosion, how much more then, for thousands?

[Mutant_Lorenor]

Get up.

I can't. Not after what I've just seen.

I still speak with you. You are not alone. You will never be alone. Now get up.

Why?

Get up you son of a bitch. Get up because N'Jal loves you.

And Lorenor began to stand up from his crazed delusional state. Everything was a blur, even as he saw the manifested crystals clanking onto the gear that he'd been tossed upon. Lorenor stood and faced his fate like a giant, naye, like a titan.

In one brilliant moment, the flow of energy began to disperse across the area around Lorenor. He knew what was coming but did nothing to prevent it, he simply stood there staring up at the sky. Dirty tricks. Nothing but a bunch of dirty tricks. I'll get you one day. I swear. I'll make you pay for showing me...this. It started off as a chain reaction. A perpetual domino effect as each of the crystals began to explode one after the other. Augmented by raw magical force, the energy expanded until it was one hundred fold. Lorenor clenched his fist. Somewhere out there was his enemy, Xos Xilanthe.

A curse on his family.

The ghoul saw a brilliant blinding light.

He closed his eyes after uttering a few words.

************************************************** ***************

"Argh!"

Time passed. Lorenor stood up in a white chamber, one of the many healing rooms within The Citadel. Was I dead? Had I died? Many thoughts passed through the mutant's head. His senses came quickly and he found himself in a hospital room like any other within the halls of The Citadel. He felt the presences of several individuals looking at him. Monks. Lorenor hissed in pain and heard an interesting sound. Clapping. The Monks were clapping in approval for the ghoul.

"You passed the test Lorenor."

"What test?"

"We will explain later. But right now you need your rest. Rest and nourishment in order to regain your strength."

Lorenor nodded.

Strength.

Power.

Lorenor knew he needed more power to beat chumps like Xos in the future, the Monks had done him dirty. He would make them pay for that. But for now, the ghoul could rest in peace. He laid back down on the pillow and closed his eyes.

But even he knew, there was no rest for the wicked.

The End.

************************************************** ***************

Spoils Request:

Dark Crystal. A raw elemental ore crystallized into physical form. The ore is about the size of a basketball and weighs a few pounds. It once represented Fire Energy, but due to contact with Lorenor's darkened state, has become darkness based energy. The ore can be used as a catalyst for forging enhanced equipment down the road. For now though it is a building material for Lorenor's blacksmithing career. It is currently useless to the ghoul for the time being. It is an unrefined ore, and extremely valuable to the nature of the place it was located in. The ore gives off potent darkness based energy and will probably be used to forge great weapons one day in the distant future. Quest Item. Cannot be sold.

[Xos]

Xos was laying on the conveyor belt, he stood, weak, and drained. By sheer luck he saw the most important factor of the entire fight, the last of the fire crystals fall into the gears. It exploded, starting a chain reaction. He leaped off the belt onto the gears beside the belt, and started running away from the mammoth blast as a surge of renewed strength suddenly found it's way into Xos's muscles.

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" Xos was screaming as he ran.

The blast had incinerated Lorenor, and touched Xos, sending him rolling. He landed on a gear barely big enough for him. He turned and saw the most amazing thing happen.

At the core...

The blast over heated the Central Processing Unit, and due to being overheated, it automaticly shut down. As it shut down, the machines within it, the lights, all it's many processes ground to a halt. Like a ripple effect it spread to the rest of the machine. Xos stood up and watched as the entirety of The Machine shut down and ground to a halt. Shortly, he was left in complete darkness.

Then, Light, in the distance. A group of monks grabbed what Xos assumed to be the fallen body of his opponet, or at least what was left of it, and then left.

"Wait, what about me?" Xos asked the silent and still machine. Next to him one of the maintenece drones was sleeping, unable to work without The Machine being in motion.

"What about you?" asked a monk that was standing behind him.

"I thought you guys had forgotten about me." Xos said.
"No, but as the last person standing, you win. Congratulations." the monk said.
"Yeah, I did, didn't I?" Xos asked, a feeling of pride creeping through him.

The monk gestured at the dark portal behind him, and Xos walked through it feeling like a champion.

He found himself in a recovery room, where the monk used his healing magic to restore xos to full health, and even recover his energy.

"I, I'm sorry for my opponet, he couldn't handle the place we were in. It was too much for him." Xos said.
"Don't worry for him, he has his own trials to go through. I wonder though, next time you two meet, for there will be a next time, could you truely defeat him on a level playing field?" the monk asked.

With that question in Xos's mind, and the overwhelming experience of touching the very mind of the god machine, Xos left the temple, head in a daze of confusion and a winner's pride.

OOC: We're finished.


Spoils Request:

Dark Crystal. A raw elemental ore crystallized into physical form. The ore is about the size of a basketball and weighs a few pounds. It once represented Fire Energy, but due to contact with Lorenor's darkened state, has become darkness based energy. The ore can be used as a catalyst for forging enhanced equipment down the road. For now though it is a building material for Lorenor's blacksmithing career. It is currently useless to the ghoul for the time being. It is an unrefined ore, and extremely valuable to the nature of the place it was located in. The ore gives off potent darkness based energy and will probably be used to forge great weapons one day in the distant future. Quest Item. Cannot be sold.


Clarifiacion, it wasn't a fire crystal Lorenor picked up. As is clearly stated by he himself in post two, it was a raw magic crystal. Fire crystals don't taint. only raw crystals do, because their not yet sealed against alignment in a process that was left undescribed because this was a battle, not a tour of Ordo Iuris. His won't change again, it sealed itself, and is a normal average dark magic crystal, of larger than normal size.

I felt it was neccessary to clarify that little point. sorry.

I don't want anything in particular.

[Raelyse]

Xos

Story

Continuity – 2 – Getting a good score here means you have to have a strong introduction which gives us a brief introduction and history of your character. Unfortunately, you didn’t do that here. You barely gave anything with regards to Continuity and I can’t really give you a higher score than this. To make matters worse, you referenced the “Omnisource” a lot without explaining it too much. Try to explain things that aren’t considered “Althanas canon” or you will end up confusing the reader.

Setting – 3 – I commend you for creating a unique, original setting. However, you didn’t describe it awfully well. I got the feeling that you had a good idea for what you wanted the arena to be like in your head but couldn’t translate it so well into words. This didn’t end up turning out that well for you because I was often confused as to what was actually going on because I couldn’t accurately visualize what was going on. I suggest in the future that you either simplify your arena until your description writing is stronger or get a friend to read it over first to get a second opinion.

Pacing – 3 – There are times when your posts are too long and times when they are too short. I feel that you sometimes add information that is redundant, like parts of the Machine that did little to advance the story. This slows down the flow of the thread a lot and really hurts the Pacing. On the other side of the scale, you sometimes write too little, particularly in battle where more detail would make the conflict more exciting.

Character

Dialogue – 3 – For the most part, your dialogue was relevant to your character and didn’t seem out of place. For Xos, the dialogue was solid, but not spectacular. It was the parts with the CPU and the Machine that really hurt you, because I couldn’t get a good grip of what exactly they were. If you want to introduce an NPC, try to make their dialogue and characters in general more interesting or they just waste the reader’s attention.

Action – 3 – The action in this thread on your side fit well with Xos, but I didn’t like how you wrote it. Like I mentioned in Pacing, you rushed the action sequences when a bit more detail would have really beefed it up. Additionally, you seem to do too many things in one post sometimes and this really hurt you because it loses its realism. How can Xos do so many things in such a short period of time in a battle? Despite all of that though, I still remain by my decision that nothing Xos did was out of character. You can do well here with more practice.

Persona – 2 – I never got a good grip on Xos’ character throughout the entirety of the thread. I understood what he was, a wizard, but I never got a chance to see his emotions or motivations because you never fleshed them out. If you don’t do that, I won’t be able to score you higher in this category. Granted, you did describe them but I felt as though you could spend a little more time and do it in greater detail.

Writing Style

Technique – 2 - Almost no advanced writing techniques to speak of. It’s not that hard to score well in this category. Try to implement literary devices like similes, metaphors or allusion. By doing that, you will really spruce up your writing.

Mechanics – 1 – I can’t score you any higher than this. There were multiple spelling and grammatical mistakes. These can be easily corrected with SpellCheck on most word processors.

Clarity – 3 – There were times where I had to read over the post multiple times to try and get a visual on what you were trying to convey. Try to read over your posts before you post them and you’ll be able to spot mistakes like confusing sentences that will really bring down the score here.

Wild Card – 2 – There’s been a slight improvement over the last piece of writing that I judged of your’s but I still think you need to take moderator advice to consideration. When you do that, the improvement in your scores will come.

Total Score – 24

Mutant_Lorenor

Story

Continuity – 6 – Your first post was a bit hefty with a lot of information that I thought was a bit unnecessary. You wrote a lot about N’Jal which really gave me a good glimpse of Lorenor’s devotion to the god and this continued throughout the thread intermittently.

Setting – 6 – You described the setting well and used it with your character at times, even swagging a little booty for yourself in the process. However, I didn’t feel as though you did anything that particularly stood out in my mind with regards to this category. I’m sure you know how to improve here: by describing the area around your character better and making it a part of the story.

Pacing – 5 – Your first post was to be frank, too long with too much information. A few of your following posts were too vague, especially the one with the Plasma Gun. You need to find a good balance that will draw and keep the reader’s attention. You didn’t manage to do that at all during this thread. One particular thing I didn’t like was Lorenor’s descent into madness, which I felt was rushed. You could have done with a more gradual maddening coupled with foreshadowing. In general, there really wasn’t much tension or climax in this thread to keep the reader reading. Perhaps you were let down by the material that Xos gave you, but I felt that you could have done better.

Character

Dialogue – 7 – I thought this was solid, but not spectacular. I liked some of Lorenor’s lines and inner monologues. They gave me a window to look into his character, but I didn’t get enough to give you a higher score here. Try to convey his emotions more through his thoughts and speech.

Action – 5 – Another mediocre showing from you here. The fight sequences were a bit unpolished, confusing and hard to understand at times. There wasn’t anything that I thought was out of character for Lorenor, but you didn’t wow me with anything amazing here, either. The maddening in particular was poorly written, because it pretty much came out of nowhere and could have been slowly built up to, even in a short thread like this.

Persona – 6 – I never got a good grip on Lorenor’s character from this thread. I get that he wants to stand up for the All-Thayne but that was about all that I got. I never got much in the way of his emotions or feelings, at least not enough to get you a higher score here. There were times where I thought that you were did give me something in the way of Persona, but these moments were few and far between.

Writing Style

Technique – 7 – I felt that your writing was over the top and flowery in the beginning while literary techniques became sparser in later posts. If you manage to find some form of consistency here and spread them out evenly, your writing will have a much better flow.

Mechanics – 8 – A few spelling errors here and there but not enough to be problematic.

Clarity – 6 – For the most part, you wrote well and your writing was easy to understand, but there were times when I had to read over to get a better feel for what you were trying to convey. You could do well with a second read or a second opinion on your writing before you post it because sometimes your writing is a bit confusing. However, this could have been partly attributed to the arena that Xos gave you, which was to be frank, bewildering in itself.

Wild Card – 6 – Not your best, but I know that you can do better, because I have seen you write better.

Total Score – 62

Mutant_Lorenor wins 62 to 24

Xos gains 150 EXP and 40 GP!
Mutant_Lorenor gains 1650 EXP and his spoil. It is useless until you give it special properties as a spoil or at a level up.

[Zook Murnig]

EXP/GP ADDED!