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…”

[Resolve]

After several long moments and a very peculiar detour or two, the women reappeared on the battlefield, staggered from one another. Resolve came first.

The exorcist materialized not far from Dirks in particular, hands propped on her hips as she tossed him a sly grin. Sei had clear advantage from his higher position on the rock, herself only twenty feet away from the closer of the men in a flat, rocky patch amongst the vibrant heather. At this point the second man's means of offense remained unrevealed, but this fact didn't seem to disturb Resolve any as she looked to his partner, the initial offender, with his tall figure strongly silhouetted against the clear, azure sky. "I do apologize, how rude of us," she said. "But guns do seem rather anticlimactic in this sort of setting. What else have you got, or are you just a tiny man hiding behind a big weapon?"

Meanwhile, Mordelain reappeared closer to their original position toward the incline of the valley, standing with clear vantage of both of their opponents. These men may not have intended to participate in the tournament, but it was too late to back out of the scuffle at this point; they'd been marked, and by firing the first shot, they'd successfully volunteered themselves as targets.

"Hold on now, Resolve, 'big weapon' is a little generous," Mordelain smirked, holding something in the small of her back that vibrated with the providence of the worlds.

At this point, while the ladies had proven themselves to have quite a bark, their bite was still to be tested. But, from the shit-eating grins on their faces, they seemed not to be too concerned… yet.

[Silence Sei]

At first he believed that Dirks was mad. He believed that his friend had fallen victim to the dark illusions of the Red Forest. But he also knew his friend was no fool. If he truly believed that Starlynn was alive, then perhaps she was. And Dirks was right...if it was his family, Sei would have leapt to action regardless of the consequences.

Though Dirks had not been responsible for bringing the insulting women back from wherever they had gone, they had indeed returned to the Lotho Mountains. The mute smiled as he felt the magical properties of his most unpredictable spell take form. He smiled as the younger of the two girls attempted to stall for time, while the older one kept at a distance, probably preparing some sort of sinister trap. His vision centered more on the elder of the two, a slow smile creeping across his lips as he stared intently.

Only Sei and his microscopic vision could see it, the seals that had formed all over the woman’s skin. His eyes shifted over towards her partner, scanning her body to find that her own flesh had started to form the same markings. There was a blue line that slowly swirled around itself to nothingness. He knew that unless one of these women possessed an ability similar to his, that they would not be able to see this magic, the symbol itself the size of the tiniest bacteria. Sei’s body tensed once the enchantment had finished, as if his muscles were preparing for a similar fate. He could feel the cap now put on the two ladies thanks to his Would spell.

He shifted his gaze towards his partner, Sei’s eyes growing wide when he seen that Dirks was now branded as well. Instead of the tiny whirlpools now gracing the skin of the women, the gunslinger had now been blessed with targets where his pupils were. Sei’s eyes lowered, and the smile remained on his face. The target was a universal sign for accuracy, an attribute that Max Dirks was already proficiently deadly with. Looking at his partner’s features now reminded the mute of a hawk’s eyes, locating a prey and remaining unrelenting until it was caught. Dirks had become a deadly calculator with his aiming abilities.

Any gamblers who had hoped to turn a profit by betting against the friendly duo would soon find themselves penniless. Thanks to Sei, the Champions of Lornius now held every advantage. The mute cracked his knuckles before passing Dirks a single nod, his attention turning towards the teleporting woman. While she had somehow survived a glass explosion right beside her, her luck was about to run out.

Within a fraction of a second, the light of the sun had become blotted out. Dark clouds surrounded the group, tossing around violently as though the Thaynes themselves had been angered. Sei waved his hand into the air, each one of his digits slowly sinking back into his palm until he was pointing upwards. More specifically, the telepath was pointing at the two strangely out-of-place seaweeds that had formed at the top of the mountain. There was more panic coming from the animals that were still around; the goats and rams hurriedly jumped from the stone, landing safely on their feet before dashing off to less dangerous accommodations.

It sounded like lightning when the first boulder slammed against the mountain, the rock sent tumbling down the way straight towards warrior and woman alike. Small stones followed suit quickly, another sound of slamming stones booming from above. Within seconds, dozens of boulders had begun to cascade down from the sky, slamming into the top of the mountain only to roll down. Sei’s focus stayed on the elder woman, his breathing slow and steady, his posture perfect. His hand gesture was not only that of a spell caster signaling for a rock slide, but telling the two teleporting trollops that their foes were top tier fighters; they were number one.

They would continue to the Floating City, and they would revive Starlynn. It was this staunch resolve, and not physical prowess or technological wonders that were truly the mark of Champions of Lornius.

((By returning the Planes have activated Sei’s Would spell. By choosing the number 4 on a 1-8 scale, a random word generator generated the words cap, profit, calculator, and seal. The seal's effect prevents any technology from being used by those with the whirlpool seals. After flipping a coin and having a third party guess the result accurately, the result of this spell allowed it to fall in the 70% range of Sei’s favor, granting a magic seal on his opponents and his ally, deterring the enemy and helping the friend.))

[Mordelain]

Mordelain twisted her wrist and pulled on the mechanism of the generator in her hands. Almost instantly, hubris of power, thunderous and mighty, swirled around her. The wavering lights ensorcelled the air with a technological prowess of a survivalist creed. It gifted her with solidarity and a bulwark against the descending earth.

“Oh please,” she spat, her elocution and riposte clearly thrown out the window. She was growing tired of the endless posturing, the need to fight, and the bravado of men to strike down the weak. Today, Mordelain and Resolve were anything but. “He who casts the first stone,” she began, reciting an old proverb from the deep mangroves of Bulganin, “should always be cast without sin.”

She produced the cube for all to see, its silver bodice keeping the violet and blue prisms intact within the matrix of wires and circuitry. There was no grin on her face anymore, but instead, there was a reluctant reverence for things not entirely understood. Whilst they had walked the war-ravaged surface of another world, she had been stricken with a need to defend herself. ‘What better way?’ she had asked, than with the artifice of the world their opponent’s guns had sent them to.

The first of the boulders to threaten Mordelain crashed into the roiling heather, some hundred feet behind her. The deep, gallant, and reverberating thud of rock against the soft earth bed of the valley pounded in her chest. She heard the all too familiar of earthen rain long before it rattled down over the now fully formed sphere of light that encircled her. The flaps of her attire, loose-fitting black cloth held in place with a thick leather jerkin and deep purple sashes continued to whip and wail – the force field was, or so the artificer had tried to explain, a shield against energy, force, and motion – the wind simply slipped through it unnoticed.

“Resolve,” Mordelain roared, trying as hard as she might to be heard over the continued barrage of the arena’s own horizon down around her. “Look out!” was all she could project between them successfully.

The stubborn girl had flat out refused to receive anything from the artificer, to the point where she had walked out of the workshop, defiant of her partner’s wishes to survive the ordeal against the firearms with their bodies, and their souls intact. She had spoken in great depth about the ills of guns to the exorcist, but she would not be heard. Resolve was wise, by all means, and though she had been accepting of the fact there were planets beyond her own, it would take much more time to become accustomed to the strangeness therein.

When the boulder obliterated Resolve’s outline, Mordelain flinched. Her own spine snapped to attention, at the exact moment Resolve’s crumpled. Limb and life were rent, cracked, and torn, and as the crater spewed grass, moss, and mottled earth into the air, Mordelain spewed tears, outrage, and wrath alike.

“Resolve!” her arms fumbled with the shield, and she dropped to her knees, quite distraught, in time with the mechanism's descent to the ground. The shield wavered, flickered, and crackled with life, but did not falter. Somehow, it’s innate sense of self knew to not falter, not fail, and not fall from grace now – it’s purpose was to protect, and protect it would.

Another boulder landed on the rocky outcrop where the duo had partaken of a light lunch at the end of a long stretch of rural pasture, and castigated the happy memories the planes walker had of their culinary exchange. The memory was replaced only with violent noise, dust, and razor shards of rock as the scene exploded in chaos. Tears rolled down both her cheeks, her hair, matted and furled, covered her left eye like a mourning veil concealing a widow from the world of the living.

[Max Dirks]

Dirks’ smirk turned into a crooked smile as the women reappeared. It was not Sei’s “would” spell that was responsible for bringing them back from the void. They returned of their own volition. However, by re-appearing as Dirks commanded, the spell instantly imbued the Mystic with a set of incredible, albeit random, powers. In the past, Dirks observed that the amount of power granted by the “would” spell had a more than incidental impact on Sei’s mind, often causing him to temporarily disregard his typical “do-gooder” status in favor of a more aggressive approach. Dirks hoped that Sei would use those powers right now to make quick work of these mettlesome LCC participants. He wanted their passes and was growing tired of their arrogance.

“Silence” Sei Orlouge did not disappoint. He was, after all, the most powerful creature on Althanas. Dirks ignored one woman’s catcalls and instead watched as his partner rained fury down upon the mountainside. Even though he could not see the seaweed, he knew that Sei had cast his “octopus rain” spell when rocks began to pelt their opponents. These rocks were not the typical volleyball sized rocks the Mystic used to incapacitate his enemies. They were boulders, indicating to Dirks his gamble with Sei had been a success. The cherub belonged to Dirks, at least for now.

Relishing in his achievement, Dirks laughed and looked to the sky. Above him, boulders were crashing off invisible sheets of glass, indicating to the criminal that Sei had simultaneously activated “Mystic Protection” to shield them from the boulder onslaught. “This is perfect,” he cackled, spinning his gun around on his finger.

Sei’s “would” spell had an unexpected cognitive impact on the criminal as well. Suddenly, the battlefield became an equation to him. Everywhere he looked, Dirks saw a way to annihilate the brash women. A shot here, two shots there; they wouldn’t be able to escape. No, he thought. That would be too easy. Instead of firing at them, the criminal left Sei’s protective sphere and dashed into the fray.

Small rocks pelted Dirks’ face as he ran into the rockslide, but that did not deter him. His target was the woman with the magical shield and he, not Sei, would be the one to inflict the final blow. As he ran, Dirks was able to easily calculate where the larger rocks would land and avoided them. However, this zigzag motion slowed his approach and several things happened simultaneously on the battlefield at this time.

When he finally arrived at his target, the woman was on her knees with her shield above her head. She cried out for her partner, Resolved, and tears ran down her cheeks. Dirks took a second to glance over his shoulder and saw that this Resolve had been flattened by one of the boulders. With a grin, he turned to the woman and said, “Don’t worry. You’ll be joining her soon.” Now directly above her, Dirks reached out and tried to rip the shield away from her. Much to his surprise, though, some invisible force threw his hand away and he was barely able to maintain his footing. At first he thought Sei had intervened until he saw several small rocks being similarly thrown from the shield. Then he realized that the shield wasn’t magic, it was tech. But even tech had its limits. The shield was flickering and Dirks figured it would give way soon.

“You bitch,” he cried out in frustration. Dirks took a small step to his left to avoid potential shrapnel and started firing at the shield. His goal was not to hit the woman, but rather to destroy the tech and leave her vulnerable. This woman was the most annoying of the two and Dirks had already calculated how he would finish her.

[Resolve]

When Sei's eagle eyes met Resolve's figure he'd notice anomalies in the surface of her skin, as if her physical manifestation had been hampered by her disappearing act. Such a thing could easily be attributed to someone apparently capable of vanishing into thin air, the constitution of her form wavering under his excellent vision as raindrops appeared to fall through her. But, whether or not this detail would have concerned him, it didn't matter. His strange ability fell into full swing, along with tons of rocks both minuscule and massive, and it wasn't long before the first casualty.

The exorcist panicked at the extreme change in the atmosphere and, quite suddenly, everything went dark. This was unexpected, as Resolve had never been inside a boulder before. Though it passed directly through her, the sensation was startling enough for her to lose concentration, and her previously convincing astral projection fell into nothingness. Her spiritual presence reduced to mere wisps of shifting air, which Sei's sharp sight may have attributed to the loss of a soul as it fell away solemn and silent toward the sky.



As Mordelain wept in mourning, Resolve's real eyes blinked open a couple hundred feet away. They had argued on Zhayou, alien technology rejected by the girl in favor of her own inherent skills. While the elder, wiser woman returned to Althanas with a shield, Resolve insisted on hinging the plan on her own abilities. To commence her grand plan, she'd had the plane walker drop her off behind an outcrop that grew like a massive stone tumor out of the vast incline of the valley.

The girl gasped into consciousness where she lay hidden from their opponents' view, her body having been left in a precarious position when stones started rattling down from the hilltops. Several smaller ones had hit her while she was gone, she could tell from some sudden aches and scrapes and sediment that dusted her sari, but she was fine, and she eased herself to her feet. Her ability was quite handy –– on a whim, Resolve could separate her psyche from her physical form and manifest a rather convincing astral projection wherever required. As if made of air, such a projection was unaffected by things like bullets. It was tempting to go out again as such, but it was too dangerous in this climate to leave her physical counterpart so vulnerable; she was lucky that boulder hadn't found her there, instead.

Sorely disappointed that the original plan didn't work, the girl crept to the edge of the outcrop and peered cautiously toward the action where Dirks appeared to be going at Mordelain's shield. Resolve didn't know how much they could trust that technology, and she stood in quiet deliberation as she attempted to determine the best course to take. The harsh ring of gunshots stung her ears as her focus drifted to Sei, still standing on the rock where he orchestrated his strange symphony of opposable seaweed and stone.

Shit, Resolve lamented internally, why can't he just punch people like a normal person? It would make things a hell of a lot easier. As an opponent, he had rather a baffling routine. She'd rather have taken a bullet than deal with the ginger at this point, but they would be forced to handle him sooner or later.

Stones continued to thunder and fall from the distant mountain peak and one the size of a football bounced off the incline just so, ricocheting and striking the exorcist in the side. She bit her lip to muffle a fountain of curses and barely caught herself from stumbling out of cover, clinging to the outcrop as she struggled to hold herself up. She allowed herself a short moment to recover, pain raging in the bruised left side of her abdomen where she could only be grateful it didn't knock the wind out of her. Then Resolve glanced up behind her to assess the urgency of her situation. A boulder was headed her way, and it was large enough to kill her –– again.

[Silence Sei]

Sei stood in the same position, his hand still held in the air. The wind blew past him, allowing the long white boa draped over his left shoulder to blow in the breeze. Being a telepath, Sei had known the second that the two girls had reappeared that nothing was what it seemed. Luckily, the mute was fully aware that his Would spell had taken care of any more annoying teleportation tricks. His uncharacteristic cruelty seemed to earn Dirk’s favor once more as well. The fact that the gunslinger honestly thought the mute would allow for the death of somebody spoke volumes about the convict’s faith in his friend’s moral code.

The rocks fell around his form, almost as if the stones were intentionally avoiding the warrior. He closed his eyes, the smile still upon his lips as the clouds above began to dissipate to the winds. The rays of the sun once more basked the Mystic’s form, illuminating his unnaturally pale features again. He looked to his partner and shook his head. It seemed as though Dirks was now waiting around for the older of the two women to become physical. The mute had not needed his microscopic vision to see that Dirks’ target was crying, distraught over the ‘loss’ of the one known as Resolve.

“It might be a trap, Dirks,” Sei cautioned his friend, “Resolve is still alive, and not far from here. Don’t let that witch lull you into a false sense of security.”

“I can handle myself, Cherub.” Dirks spoke loud enough to come off as crazy, but his posture and willingness to open fire proved otherwise.

“I do not doubt your abilities,” Sei spoke, what loose parts of the broken apart mountain behind him tumbled slowly to the ground. The animals that had been so frightened mere seconds ago were no returning to their former sanctuary, one of the rams even showing bravery by inching closer and closer to the Mystic. Sei responded by reaching his hand out once more, stroking the soft fur of the animal as he cooed it with his mental abilities.

The shifted his form to face the direction that Resolve’s mental signature was coming from. With his eyes still closed, Sei located the exact location of the girl pretty easily, but also detected that the exorcist was in danger. Before he could react however, the Mystic began to fade away, his form shifting into several blue lines until finally fading from existence altogether.

Meanwhile, the boulder that had spelled imminent doom for the young lady was hit with a red beam, and shattered into several smaller, less dangerous rocks...

[Mordelain]

Mordelain flinched, every muscle in her body twitching in time with the recoil of Max’s guns. As each shot collided with the centrifugal veil of the shield she felt the energy disperse outwards, and inwards, and ignite every desire she had to flee from the valley. It would have been so easy, to just walk away, and speak nothing more of this whole ordeal.

“Not again…” she said. Her voice, though weakened by false tears and dramatic flourish, was grainy, strong, and determined. The exorcist Resolve, perhaps a little ironically, had given Mordelain the one thing she needed to face up to her past and smite it. She raised, slowly, knees shaking, hair eschew.

The barrage of fire petered out, finally, and the planes walker let out an audible sigh of relief. The shield continued to ripple with shockwaves where the slugs collided with the kinetic energy. She made a mental note to thank the artificer in person; she made a mental note to thank the entire civilisation for having survived the Cataclysm. A grander scaled copy of the device she clung to for dear life had shielded the mega city from the convocation as it ripped through the Nexus.

“This is pointless ,” she roared, eyes flaring, chest pounding. She dropped the shield to her groin, letting it dangle heavily in her palms. It continued to shine with inner malefic, its cold technological heart empowering the woman to speak her mind. “You can kill us a thousand times, but you will never triumph.” This was strictly speaking not true. They could kill a thousand projections of Resolve as much as they liked.

The rock fall began to teeter out, just as the gunfire had done, though the smaller stones bounced off the shield, their momentum not torrential enough to cause them to explode into dust and shrapnel. It sounded like rain. She half wished it would.

“We all want to gain something from this encounter.” She remained entirely suspicious of the pair’s cover story – it was clear that creatures who possessed the power to warp the very fabric of a planet would never stoop so low as to be lost for directions. “Allow me to fulfil your desires.” She pressed a small panel on the shield generator, and it hummed louder in response. “Let me make you,” she wiped the tears from her left eye with her right sleeve, and then her right eye with her left sleeve. “An offer you simply cannot refuse.”

In tandem with the winged man’s vanishing act, the shield imploded. It fizzled out with a rush of cold air, entirely devoid of showmanship or spectacle. As quickly as it had come to life the shield died and the lights of the mechanism twinkled briefly before going out completely. It became nothing more than a heavy, useless, remnant of another world’s legacy.

Mordelain smirked. As much as the Champions of Lornius had under estimated them, she had under estimated the Champions of Lornius. In her long experience of war, deception, and opportunity, however, the gunslinger’s sudden solidarity offered its own reward. She cocked her head seductively, though more with intrigue than sexuality.

“Let me take you to,” she paused as the falling boulder erupted. Her stoic nature, and it’s placement off centre from her location, told her to simply ignore it. It didn’t matter, it wouldn’t matter, and it was of no concern. She shrugged. “Wherever it is you are going.” Her determined features, light brown hair, umbra blue eyes, and earnest smile burnt with passion and honesty. “I will take you to the exact place you want to go, shortening a year, a week, or a lifetime’s journey in the simple blink of an eye.” She extended a palm to Max. “All I ask in return is that you concede this round.”

Pure, simple, plain curiosity could end wars, just as easily as desire and intrigue could start them.

[Max Dirks]

Dirks merely shrugged off the Mystic’s warning. Still enhanced by the “would” spell, he’d already considered at least a dozen different ways that the women could be attempting to fool them, and had determined that none of their tricks would have any immediate impact on him or his assault at that time. Thus he continued firing away at the shield until his entire clip was exhausted.

“What the fuck,” Dirks cried out as he released the empty clip from its chamber. Somehow the otherworldly shield had managed to absorb several thousand joules of energy and was still able to function. Dirks growled, frustrated by its dexterity. Surely it wouldn’t be able to handle another twelve shots. However, the criminal never got the chance to test that theory. While Dirks was reaching into his pocket for another clip, the woman lowered her shield and began to plead with him. Typical woman, the misogynist criminal thought. Instead of reloading, Dirks reached into his robes and holstered his gun.

Dirks flinched slightly when the woman’s shield imploded, but once he realized she had voluntarily turned it off, a cold smirk appeared on his face. As she spoke, Dirks turned and glanced at the battlefield. The rockslide had apparently ended, but Sei was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he’d run off after Resolve or something. Unconcerned, Dirks listened to the woman's offer with deaf ears. There was no way he was going to let this arrogant bitch transport him anywhere, or even allow her to survive for that matter. Besides, the Floating City, the crown jewel, and even Starlynn had become afterthoughts behind his hatred for this annoying woman and her partner.

“I’m sorry.” Dirks replied, pulling the twin prevalida katanas from his back. “But I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline.” Like all of his other recent actions in this battle, Dirks had already thought at length about how he was going to kill the woman. To add insult to injury for everyone involved, the criminal intended to use an execution maneuver that Sei Orlouge himself had taught to him years ago. In the next few seconds Dirks would drop to the ground, twist his body, somersault towards his enemy and decapitate her with two sequential cross-slashes as he sprung back to his feet. Dirks just wished that the Mystic was around to witness the irony.

Wait, he thought. Sei’s gone. Then Dirks realized something was amiss. Unlike his opponents, Sei did not have the ability to teleport and there really wasn’t anywhere close to hide. This could only mean one thing. The Mystic he'd been fighting alongside, the Mystic he watched smother another human being was actually...

“STOP!” the real Sei Orlouge roared, penetrating the minds of everyone within a forty mile radius. There was a blinding flash of light and the silhouette of an angel—butterfly wings fully extended—appeared above them. Wasting no time, the Mystic descended quickly from the heavens, bringing the power of the sun along with him. Superheated by an invisible beam of energy, the handles of Dirks’ katanas suddenly became too hot to hold. “Fuck!” he cried, throwing them to the ground. It seemed, much to Dirks' dismay, that Resolve wasn’t the only one utilizing misdirection that day. Apparently while Sei was up there flying around, Dirks had been manipulating a fake.

Sei landed in a cloud of dirt before them. Only then was Dirks able to make out his friend's orange hair and light features. YOU WlLL NOT ATTACK THIS WOMAN! the Mystic commanded, retracting his wings. Before Dirks could reply, he was hit by a sudden wave of nausea. “Wh…what?” Dirks muttered, taken aback. He lifted his hand to his head, no longer feeling any desire to attack. “Did…did you just...force persuade me?” he asked.

[Resolve]

The exorcist made to dodge the boulder, giving up her cover in the process, when it suddenly shattered a harmless distance away. She knew Mordelain wasn't capable of that; only that blasted ginger and his bizarre medley of abilities explained it. Her already quick temper torched by utter frustration, Resolve cursed and looked around for Sei.

The man seemingly vanished, so she made the quick decision to return to her partner, dashing out from behind the outcrop to witness Dirks drawing his katanas. He stood over Mordelain menacingly as the woman attempted to offer compromise, villainous and finally wielding weapons the girl could respect. "Like fucking hell," Resolve growled. Tearing after him at full speed she drew her own sword, a massive scimitar with a dastardly hooked blade. The weapon forged in her hand from her own inherent energy as she ran and appeared to consist of nothing but ethereal mist. It lacked the ominous glint of steel, but would slash equally lethal all the same.

Resolve charged in a blur of crimson anger, clattering over rocks and dashing through aromatic heather with deadly intent. Not much would have stopped her at that point, but as she raised her blade and prepared for her final descent upon the gunslinger, Sei interrupted in the flashiest way possible.

Skidding to a stop through sediment and stones, Resolve spectated as the man fluttered to the ground on butterfly wings.

This was simply too much.

"Wait, wait, wait," the exorcist shouted, commanding attention from their haphazard gathering. "You've got to be shitting me. What the hell is this shit? I don't know what kind of ridiculous tournaments you've done before, but this is not a real fight. And if you're not our opponents as I now suspect, then fucking say so and quit shooting shit and put away your gods-damned fairy wings."

The girl spit fire, scimitar crackling with raw energy as she white-knuckled its grip.

[Silence Sei]

Sei turned to the girl, his butterfly wings sliding into his back as he did so. Resolve’s rudeness and lack of gratitude caused the Mystic’s eye to twitch a bit, his hands shaking. He maintained his composure for the most part while trying to warn Dirks to do the same. He walked towards Resolve, his shoes silent as he almost glided across the rocky flooring nature had provided.

“Your mouth is the fucking reason I’m going to kill you, bitch!” Dirks shouted. Sei’s arm shot out, his open palm aimed behind him towards his friend. The gunslingers will was strong if it could recover from the Force Persuade technique with such ease. Such an attitude did nothing but show the Mystic that he would have to keep his friend under a constant psychic connection.

“Do not raise your gun” Sei’s ‘words’ only entered Dirks mind, and the fact that the mute did not hear the weapon cocking was enough to tell him that Dirks was once again under his influence. Sei had now understood that these powerful women were vulgar, but apparently not beyond reason. Sei used his free hand (the one not focused on Dirks) to dust his gi off, small clouds of gray rising up from his clothes.

“You are right. I apologize for the deception,” Sei bowed his head, his eyes still focused on Resolve’s form in case treachery was afoot, “My name is Sei Orlouge of the Ixian Knights. I have come at the behest of my friend here to obtain a certain item. The thing is, we came into this country rather illegally, and as such, do not have the passes required to enter the Floating City of Lornius”. `
“My ally here thought it was of our best interests to lie to you and your friend, and engage you in combat if necessary. I was against such a thing not because of your genders, but because we w have no interest in the fight.” Sei left out the part where he thought that his team was on a whole other level than that of Resolves. Such words would just serve to infuriate the girl and start the hostile tensions anew. Sei straightened himself back up, a smile crossing his features as he ‘spoke’ again.

“All we really want is your passes. As you can see, I posses abilities that would allow me to return the passes back to you should you need them immediately. We are not thieves, and we do not wish to fight you. My partner is a little stressed out. He lost somebody very close to him recently and he’s been chomping at the bit for somebody to say something. If we offended either of you, I do sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart, but is there any way possible that you could perhaps loan us your passes. I beseech you, that we will leave you be should you acquiesce to this boon.”

The wind grew more violent as Sei talked. Birds began to ride the gusts off into the distance. Sei had made sure that nothing he had said was a lie. There had been facts that he had left out; they were indeed competitors in the tournament and he kept Max’s name off of his psychic ‘voice’ for a very specific reason. However, there was a conviction in the ‘tone’ to which he spoke, one that would hopefully show Resolve that Sei Orlouge was laying most of his cards on the table at this point.

[Mordelain]

“That was supposed to be a boon?” Mordelain spat. It was a horribly un-lady like thing for her to do, but under the circumstances, she was not feeling particularly lady like. “Oh, I am sorry, I mistook the rocks, and the energy beams, and all the chauvinist rage of an age for aggression, not a prosperous opportunity ,” she would have spoken the word with less content, had she not been riled to her wit’s end.

In a flit of gnat’s wing beat, the planes walker disappeared, and re-appeared by Resolve’s side. She emerged from the Void just ahead of the exorcist, legs parsed, fists clenched, and her nostrils flaring.

“We don’t have passes,” Resolve said, clocking her companion as she re-appeared. “We have never been to the Floating City.” She rather wished she had, the idea alone amazed her, even though not an hour ago, she had stood before a city the size of a continent and wreathed in energy.

“So you will quite understand, gentlemen,” Mordelain nodded curtly to Max, and then to Sei, “why we cannot acknowledge your request.” Instinctively, the pair closed the gap between them. Mordelain reached backwards with her right hand, and Resolve with her left.

They were bound now, unified through war, death, and demeanour.

“You turned down a perfectly good offer,” Resolve continued, feeling Mordelain’s kind hand engulf her own. The contact gave her a new found strength. She was starting to forget the planes walker was quite so old, and starting to see her in a new light. It was a light that thankfully started to abate her seething anger.

“An offer faded and sadly now expired.” Mordelain continued, with a matter-of-tact tone.

As the roiling clouds continued to approach the valley and the beauty of their boulder slew environ became insignificant, Plane Curiosity found their plans at a loss. Mordelain had been quite adamant, on the shores of the Slums of Zhayou, that they could outwit the lug headed duo with rhetoric, surprise, and alabaster promises. She sighed, a long winged epitaph to the affair.

“We should be going,” Mordelain urged, pulling on Resolve’s hand to draw her into the field of her ability’s limit. “It’s getting cold.” Her skin burst out into goose bumps as a flustering breeze rolled down the valley from the east. It brought with it frozen promises, and long forgotten ideologies. Surprised by the jolt, and on the brink of throwing a switch, the exorcist made to swing for her companion as she started seeing red. Her fist stopped inches from Mordelain’s brazen cheek.

“Yes, quite right,” she said, ashamed, and dropped her fist to her side.

Mordelain looked down at the girl, smiled, then gave their adversaries one last solemn stare. “Good luck on your journey, Champions of Lornius.” Her smile turned into a wicked grin, “you’ve no chance of making it there by nightfall.” A prospect the women had hoped for when they had plotted their grand adventure over their breaking of bread. If they could not waylay one of the most ominous and potent men on the face of the world, then they sure as be damned throw a spanner in the works.

“I hear the bears out here are partial to a bit of flaccid meat,” Resolve added, the fires long faded from view, but still burning in her heart.

Mordelain extended her free hand, the shield still clutched tightly in her fingertips, and shook it. She took Resolve into her confidence tightly. “You can walk straight through these, for your information.” She let it drop to her sides. “You let your anger, and your hatred, and your pursuit driven by zeal blind you to the simplest of truths.” She shook her head, mimicking her contraption, and then, quite simply…

They were gone.

[Max Dirks]

Dirks said nothing during the rest of the older woman’s rant. Though he fought it vehemently, he was unable to break free from the cherub’s mind control. When the two finally disappeared, Sei gave a heavy sigh and released Dirks from his influence. The Mystic hunched over and started to breathe heavily. Dirks, on the other hand, felt remarkably refreshed after he was freed. Without wasting any time, the gunslinger withdrew his ‘patented’ weapon and aimed it directly at Sei’s temple.

“Don’t you ever enter my head again you shit-eating cherub,” he screamed. Dirks’ hands were trembling and his finger was brushing against the trigger. The Mystic said nothing in response. Instead, he simply looked up and stared at the criminal with his bright blue eyes. There was no fear in Sei's eyes. They just reflected heart-wrenching disappointment in the criminal and regret for his actions. Unable to look at the Mystic any longer, Dirks shut his eyes. A moment later a gunshot rang through the forest. With no rockslide to muffle the noise, the shot echoed off the mountains for miles.

“What about all that talk of protecting your family, Sei?” Dirks eventually asked as he holstered his weapon. He bend down and felt his katanas. They were cool to the touch, so Dirks picked them up and placed them in their sheaths. “Do you not care about mine?”

“Dirks…”Sei started. “I have extra-sensory perception. Those women did not smell like natural gas. They had no windburn, breathing irregularities, or any other possible sign that they’d ever been to the Floating City either. You’re so obsessed with saving Starlynn that you’re only seeing what you want to see…” Sei stood back up and put his right hand on Dirks’ left shoulder. “Besides, this isn’t you. Not anymore at least. Starlynn changed you, Dirks. She made you a man worthy of my kinship and made you noble enough to wear those robes.” He lowered his hand. “If she ever learned that you had killed in her name, even in death, she would never accept you back.”

Dirks shook his head and turned away from the Mystic. Of course Sei was right, but killing two innocent women was nothing compared to the atrocities he was about to commit in order to save his beloved. It wasn’t compassion that had just spared the Mystic from a bullet. It was something else. Something far more sinister. The anti-magic jewel Dirks sought wasn’t independently enchanted. It was a soul gem and its power was derived from the soul it carried. Thus, a stronger soul meant a stronger anti-magic field. Its current occupant, Thoracis Rakarth, was not powerful enough to dispel the magical barrier protecting Starlynn. Dirks believed that there was only one soul on Althanas strong enough to free her and it belonged to the most powerful creature on Althanas. That's right. In order to save his beloved, Dirks would have to sacrifice his best friend.

“I wouldn’t tell her.” Dirks mumbled. “My sins are my own…”

[Resolve]

Resolve allowed the warmth of the woman's embrace to suppress her anger, the seething red in her vision giving way to the tropical fluorescents of Bulganin's jungles as the pair materialized in the faraway world. She blinked, taking in the sudden wash of humidity, vibrancy, and the peculiar white noise of alien nature, finding herself speechless in the abrupt change. She was sure she'd never get used to it.

Mordelain felt her relent and allowed herself the same luxury, her arms relaxing from the girl's frame. "Next stop: Floating City. When you have composed yourself, of course."

"Those bastards," the exorcist growled, pale eyes unseeing as she glared at nothing. A neon-feathered bird fluttered out of a nearby shrub of flowering vines as if disturbed by her intensity, and she blinked with a frown. "What if that botched the match? What if we're disqualified because of them?"

"In order to be disqualified," Mordelain began, tapping her bottom lip with a scholarly finger, "We have to break the rules." She paused for dramatic effect. "If you can tell me how we achieved that, then by all means, prove me wrong."

With a sigh, Resolve acknowledged that the woman was right. She wasn't thinking straight, thought processes muddled by her temper. Quick anger was her greatest vice –– she was well aware of that fact –– and still she sweltered in the grip of her own wrath. Her fists clenched until her knuckles grew white again, gritted teeth bared. Deprived of her outlet, the exorcist had a very sorry case of violence-induced blue balls.

Her companion saw it, her calm voice soothing as it washed over Resolve like cool rain. "Shall we go?"

The exorcist sparked, sizzled, and, finally, sighed. "I really wanted to hit him," she lamented. "Is that too much to ask?"

"There is one restaurant in the city that serves everything in edible vessels," Mordelain said, redirecting the conversation to something more positive. "Even the glasses are made of ice. You would like it."

Resolve dared to look up to her companion's face at last, still ashamed. It would have been a crime to mar something so pretty and she nearly did so mere moments ago, blinded by her rage. "I'm sorry," the girl whimpered.

The way one might melt under the apologetic gaze of a scolded puppy, Mordelain smiled and offered her arm. "Are you ready now?"

The exorcist nodded sheepishly and wrapped her arms around the taller woman's waist, burying her face in her chest. Surprised, Mordelain simply patted Resolve on the shoulder, smile frozen hesitantly on her lips as she closed her eyes and they vanished together once again.

Mordelain had visited the Floating City many times before, but never in such interesting company. This evening promised to be a good one.

[Silence Sei]

The mute walked several paces ahead of Dirks, his eyes focused upon the giant city in the sky a few miles in front of them. Sei sighed as he thought about the teleporting woman’s words about delaying the Champions of Lornius, and shook his head. What would such a stupid and trivial thing accomplish in the grand scheme? The base of the Lotho mountains, where the majority of their battle took place, was just a few hours away from the Floating City anyways. All their scuffle accomplished was that the veteran warrior was now annoyed and Dirks had taken another step closer to madness.

The Mystic was worried about Dirks. The criminal was plotting something nefarious, and at times Sei was tempted to prod Dirks' mind to find the truth. For now, he hoped it would never come to this. His eyes shifted downward, to the photo he had taken out of his pants pocket. As he heard Dirks approaching, the mute quickly stuffed the picture back into his pants. The quick motion was enough to cause the already irritated Dirks to raise some eyebrows in suspicion.

“What was that?”

“A picture of Anita,” Sei was quick to respond to his friend, as if the answer had been rehearsed, “I miss her more and more the longer I’m away from her.” the Mystic could feel the hand of Dirks upon his shoulders as he talked. He closed his eyes once more and sighed.

~~
The heat from the fires caused sweat to trickle down the mute’s face. He had toiled for hours the night before Dirks was to leave the castle with the telepath in tow. He lifted his head up to the sound of soft knocks upon the redwood door, three heads of long hair peaking through the crack. Sei smiled as he motioned for the girls to enter, straightening himself up to greet his daughters.

“I’m worried, Papa…” The oldest of the three, Anita, spoke first. “There’s something that doesn’t seem right about this. If Max Dirks is so stern about this mission, why doesn’t he want to take me along? I think out of everybody here, I’d be the best choice for a partner.”

“Anita. You don’t fight.”

“She has a point though,” Emma, the middle Orlouge daughter, spoke up, “this whole thing, this tournament… what does Dirks have to gain from choosing you as his partner?”

Sei shook his head, motioning for the smallest of his children, seven-year-old Ella, to climb into his lap. The girl obeyed, and Sei eyed each one of his girls. As he looked to each of them, he began to realize that this was the very thing Dirks was missing in his life. Starlynn was the only girl who would be able to give Max Dirks this same joy.

“One day girls, you’ll understand.” Sei said, as he sat his youngest back on the ground.

~~

“Let’s just go,” Sei looked to his friend, throwing his shoulder off of the gunslingers hand. “Family is the most important thing to me Dirks.”

“I know th—“

Sei spun around before the convict could get another word in. “Let. Me. Finish. Family is the most important thing to me, Max Dirks. I swear to the Thaynes above and demons below that I will help you reclaim yours. But if you even think about tearing me away from mine, you will know fury and pain above anything you could even begin to perceive.”

All of a sudden, fighting vulgar women seemed miniscule in comparison.

[Enigmatic Immortal]

Plane Curiosity Versus Champions of Lornius

Plot:
Storytelling 6/7.5 – The story being told by both parties was equally interesting. I rather enjoyed the romantic angle of PC, and the bloody hunt for Thoracis that has degraded Dirks and Sei’s friendship for CoL. The edge went to CoL due to the aggressive desires of Dirks pushing the “Moral Compass” of Althanas to do harm and break his code was just tastier in my mind.

Setting 5/5 – Surprisingly, nobody really did a good job of setting up the scene’s backdrop when I have seen greatness from all four of you. I am mostly concerned that you, Mord, who’s always blown me away with setting, seemed to take a lax break from it. Push boundaries guys, you are slipping in setting for your actions and dialogue.

Pacing 5/6.5 – The first post set forth by you Mordelain was not the best I have ever seen you do, and I hold you to high expectations because you’re one of the best; So to see that level of quality hurt you guys. Resolve managed to pick up and thankfully, I haven’t seen it fall much after that. However Dirks and Sei’s pacing was nicely in tandem with each other and while there was a few back and forth placements between posts, it was nothing I couldn’t quickly get over.

Character:

Communication 7.5/7 – This was a solid breakthrough for both teams. PC had a great management for keeping up with each other, and never once did the story fumble between the two, and CoL kept the ball firmly in their grips when they had it as well. The edge here goes to PC due to a more natural flow.

Action 5/7 – The action was all focused on PC reacting to CoL actions, which is normally fine but nothing you guys did to retaliate seemed to pop or shine. The action category was really dominated by Dirks. However, I do must point out that Dirks seemed to have more fun with Sei’s abilities than Sei. This score could have been higher if we saw Sei explore the opportunity to go ape-shit.

Persona 7.5/6 – Admittedly, this was a great read for character between all parties. I really, really liked watching Sei and Dirks argue, seeing that fragile knife’s edge friendship teeter back and forth. But the show was really stolen by the unique concepts of Mord and Resolve. Both characters naturally played off each other well and never skipped a beat. They flowed in time and made a great connection that was almost tangible to the reader. This is what gave you guys a boosted edge. All Dirks and Sei need to do is synergize their angst and they’ll give you both a run for your money.

Prose:
Mechanics 5/6 – Mord! First post, second paragraph!
The exorcist nodded, unable to speak because she as equally engrossed in her food.

There were tiny errors like this sprinkled throughout the thread, and you all should know by now what I am about to say…………….PROOFREAD YOUR WORK! This is easily the best area to improve your work.

Clarity 7/6 – Honestly, Sei, your What if spell made me ask myself “what the fu-“ or even better, “What if this spell was simpler to understand.” Even with your clarifying paragraph, I was still kinda confused. Perhaps you should think about using a simplified version of the spell. Outside that little instance, everyone seemed to be succinct and clear. Edge to PC for reasons stated above.

Technique 6/6 – Dead even tie, with above average score for both teams using some advanced literary techniques. I’m not going to point them all out, but you both did a good job. Start replacing some of the more basic obvious ones, and you’ll be on a roll.
Wildcard: 5/6 – This was a nice story, and decent fight. But what really won the day for me was Sei going against his own code. I do just love to see a hero fall…

Team Total: 59/63

Congratulations to Champions of Lornius

Silence Sei receives 4950 EXP and 88 GP
Max Dirks receives 4950 EXP and 63 GP
Resolve receives 1350 EXP and 70 GP
Mordelain receives 1350 EXP and 70 GP

[Mordelain]

Experience and gold added.