|
|
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/EighthMovement|Eighth Movement]]
| + | #REDIRECT ADanceOfAngels |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/DanceOfAngels|A Dance of Angels]]
| |
| − | | |
| − | == Draconis Labyrinthine ==
| |
| − | | |
| − | Spire...
| |
| − | | |
| − | The link between Whiteshield, a country mostly grounded, and Windia, a country in the clouds.
| |
| − | | |
| − | And it did show.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Each and every building on it was at least four stories high. Each and every building on it, even the newer ones, trying to build vertically rather than horizontally, making a place with bridges far up, roads above, and a thousandfold places for the nests for the Windian's distant cousins, the myriad of birds. And of course, many ways for their predators, the myriad of cats, walk. But most of the Birds were gone, and so were the cats. Avia was dead, and Aryan was gone.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Now, only the rain fell, unimpeded, until it stopped, creating gray skies overhead...
| |
| − | | |
| − | Of course, by now, a good third of it was razed, in ruins. A second third had been razed, but among the broken buildings rose bigger buildings of ivory and ice that had not been touched yet, shining ominous as they connected to the others in all-too-familiar, but all-too-alien angles. The remaining thirds scorched by fire, essence, and claws - a destruction that aimed solely at lives. Right now, there were only a few digits more civilians alive in Spire than there were people in the army that liberated it. At least, they were all safe, healed and helped by Solars and Dragons
| |
| − | | |
| − | And under those cold-cast skies, they take their very first steps into the neighborhood... walking over rubble and broken buidings, ground unsteady under their feet... and the scent of death all around them. This used to be Arina's Lake, a lake within Spire, and the community around it... The lake is now half buried to the North of them, with all the buildings fallen in it probably making lake-water-corals. Somewhere to the East are the remains of the church destroyed by one of Calobis' assossiates using one of the eyes of the Cinder That Walks. As rain fell, Selina could see strange shapes of smoke about it still, forming spectral flames, not at all there... unless one looked on the corner of their eyes, now.
| |
| − | | |
| − | It was empty; All of its citzens killed by the Virdynn, hunted or sacrificed for Calobis' insane church before, crumbled and destroyed, avoided as cursed... like many other places of Spire. But perfect for one who does not wish to be seen...
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' Selina looks at the people she managed to drag along. "A perfect place for my little experiment!" She exclaims happily, not having been around when all the things that caused this devastation occured. Instead, she was off causing devastation in Amber Post. Kind of.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''Probably best Gennadi isn't around, he might not like my hypothesis. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Nor Cael. But she doesn't need Cael to know what she's capable of regardless.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Still, both of them are sorcerers...kind of. "Watch me, sister. You might get something to help with a bit of learning the Emerald Circle." Not that what she is doing is sorcery, Selina reflects as she steps over to a little place free of debris, uncracked flagstones that somehow managed to avoid destruction.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''None of the Star-Touched are going to like me for '''this'''. ''
| |
| − |
| |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days: ''' Monkey had been here before, battling the spawn of a dead beast, and then the beast itself... and had done no small amount of damage to the area she (then he) had fought in, destroying a bridge and shattering the road in places. Then, Monkey was a warrior and a terror exerting fearsome might.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Now, Monkey was skittering from shadow to shadow, perfectlty emulating the frightful animal caught in the world of men, trying to ignore the imaginaring dangers that she was certain did or did not exist. Nonetheless, she wasn't far---her bronze markings and what little light found her gave her position away.
| |
| − | | |
| − | As did her occasional sound of muffled worry.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Bronze Butterfly: ''' "This better be good. This place is ''creeeeepy'', you know?" She says, angling her scythe over her shoulders, clicking the fingers of her armored hand. Heavily shaded eyes look half-awake at her teacher, then sigh. "And I already ''know'' Emerald... Air Aspect and all."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Iselsis: ''' Izabella is perched on a mostly crumbled wall, legs and arms crossed and - for once - wings out.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Like I'd ever become a real sorceress.", she snorts.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Elenna: ''' Elena is silent. She certainly got much... better, lately, much less scared of the Dark Angel. She was no Air Aspect like the majority of the girls gathered there, and even as a northerner.... the cold was biting. But there was ''something'' in those cloudy skies that almost made her feel so... at home. And into the rubble... she imagined herself as a snake, prowling into those holes and dark places.... a jungle of rubble breaking in front of her. She held her Familiar, the snake she called affectionately 'Sait', nuzzling it a bit, then letting it slide off her arm, and seek rodents within those places she so wished she could accompany her familiar in... cozy and mysterious paths humans could not thread.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "You may want to keep your familiar close, Elenna." Selina says, shrugging out of the arms of her open greatcoat, letting it stay around her shoulders kind of like an odd cloak as she turns toward them all. "And don't poo-poo becoming a sorceress, sis. You'll find it useful, just like Butterfly probably does."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Iselsis: ''' "I'm not sure if you've noticed but I tend to go for the quick and dirty approach."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days: ''' "... why are we here again?" Monkey calls from a nearby shadow, eyes visibly blinking.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "Who said sorcery ain't quick and dirty sometimes?" Selina replies with a grin, then her anima banner begins to burn about her. It soon reaches its iconic height, the winds trailing about her in a spiral that soon becomes infused with semi-darkness, lit by lightnings. Pebbles and other debris moves in a circle around her, slowly, then quicker.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "You're here to pull my arse out of the frier if something bad happens!" The Windian gleefully responds to Days.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''Though like that maybe she's not so useful. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days: ''' Days tries not to whimper and unknowingly affirm Selina's suspicions.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Elenna: ''' "Alright... um, is it something that will harm me? Some of us are not Chosen and cannot shrug off a brick to the head, you know..." She says, a little unsure. She knew it very well, what with her eyepatch. Sait came back quickly, looking visibly disappointed as only a snake can be, climbing up her arm and letting out her forked tongue as it to taste the air for what is to come...
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Bronze Butterfly: ''' "Silly." Butterfly says to Iselsis, smiling with lips red as sin.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Sorcery makes it so much quicker, when you wish. And much less dirty."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days: ''' ''Void anima. Sorcery. Mng, not Wyld. Want the Wyld---NO, DON'T WANT THE WYLD---yes! I do! ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Days, like a good little girl, doesn't run off screaming, instead waiting to see just what Selina has up her Essence-fueled sleeve. Even in her state, Owl and Serpent unfurls, the owl end cooing at her almost consolingly as she waits for her moment to... hopefully act.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' "You may want to stand behind Butterfly if that's a concern." Selina replies, her voice beginning to sound distorted by what she is doing. She reaches deeper inside herself, and the iconic dragon wraps around her, the ghosts of those she's eaten begin to appear in her anima display, and the flagstones she is standing on begin to show hair-fine cracks as her power beats against them relentlessly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''Come on, Fate! Rip asunder! ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Very likely, a large demon could appear, especially with such a brutish method being used. Or something of that sort. But she can deal with that, especially with people to back her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Further and further into the depths of her being Selina goes, fueling the storm about her to become ever-more violent. The clouds swirl above her, her anima flare reaches into the sky. The air becomes thick and thin at the same time, sound passes through it in an odd fashion. And still she increases her focus.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Bronze Butterfly: ''' Butterfly looks up.... ah, cloudy skies. Oh, storms. So beautiful.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The air trembles around Selina, but such a storm is almost... beckoning to Bronze Butterfly. How she wishes to spread her wings and jump, to be carried by the winds and the lighting around it.... but she would not. Too powerful, the essence... the Butterfly knew enough of self-preservation. But the power, the storm... it reminded her why she idolized the Dark Angel so.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Pretty~"
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Elenna: ''' Elenna moved ''very carefully ''behind the Butterfly. See, she liked overcast days, but crazy storms? She barely liked ''normal'' storms! Whatever a spetacle of dark lights might hold for Butterfly's appreciation was lost to Elenna, who held the snake close to her chest, and hid herself veeery carefully behind the Butterfly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | She even makes hand motions for the Child to come hide with her!
| |
| − | | |
| − | After all, it's always more people to get in the way of shrapnel or to soften a fall...
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Iselsis: ''' Izabella simply remains where she is, looking rather unperturbed by the spectacle.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days: '''The mountain does not move. Or, rather, the monkey doesn't move. She's too spooked to move and too spooked to stay where she is, so indecision keeps her rooted in place. She's seen Charms all the time, but actual Sorcery is another matter entirely.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''So much Essence... is... is that the extent of the Dark One's Will? ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Narrator: ''' Iron and Onyx and Obsidian.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The words of her patrons, out of sight, out of mind, cast down in the catacombs at the end of existence.
| |
| − | | |
| − | She begins to breach the world. It breaks, strands coming apart.... in front of all, it breaks in burning wisps, and figures begin to appear in the shadows, all around.... whispers behind your ear, ruffling your hair, a laugh, a lament. Broken eyes and glass mouths. Tongues of burning knives. Iron and Onyx and Obsidian. Selina pulls out of the world...
| |
| − | | |
| − | And into herself.
| |
| − | | |
| − | She looks at the darkness, and sees only herself... so many of her. Breaking reflections, princess and sister and fighter and assassin and whore and monster... great jaws, and his eyes everywhere. Everything breaks around her, and she understands where she is, what she has seen... forbidden knowledge. Understanding of the Void.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Losing herself in the whispers of destruction...
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' She reached too deep. Suddenly it comes to her, a memory from one of her lives. A time when the Wyld Hunt did not kill her -- she had killed herself with sapphire flames and a roaring that filled her entire being. Her self shatters, the rending of onyx shards filling those rapidly seperating pieces as they begin to seperate, sharp-edged and drawing the soul's blood. Maybe her body screams, but the anima raging about it continues unabated. The white light familiar to those who have seen her call Hyrokkin glimmers inside the cloud of shadow.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Her form grows, distorts. It becomes towering, a mirror image of the dragon-thing Vorpal confronted at Amber Post, though fully substantial. A huge beast, bigger than her anima by far. The ground ripples as her new form digs a crater in it, bucking in places and splintering from her weight.
| |
| − | | |
| − | But that previous incarnation got this far. It was just unable to keep itself, hold onto itself. He, she, it was sexless in the end. There wasn't enough left of it for the Dragon-Blooded or Sidereals to tell when their hunt located the lair.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Selina's mind fractures just as that incarnation's had...except the Onyx is different from the Sapphire. And the Dark Angel has more experience than the other did. Slowly, the pieces of her being congeal, before they have drifted so far apart that it becomes impossible. Just as good as they were before...and who would notice the difference? Certainly not her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | And now Selina looks down at the world from a new height she never had before, through eyes almost wholly alien to the ones she had before. Gigantic wings spread, black as night, and she gets to her feet, dizzy from the experience. Too stunned to speak for the moment, her anima breaking into nothing about her suddenly. She looks down at her friends and blood, almost confused.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Her body is armored her body is strong her body is night made flesh and hard hard bone and scale.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days: ''' She can only watch.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Once, a long time ago, she has beheld the Million. Human once, but one who had become a behemoth-man unlike anything the North had seen. Terrible, deadly, fearless. She had seem him. And he had seen her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | She remembers waypoint-hopping as hard as she can as she dealt with first ice-lances, then Ring shaping. She barely escaped intact.
| |
| − | | |
| − | This was worse. This was far, far worse. It was anathema to everything she was, unwelcoming to everything she wasn't, and the last thing that a timid, scared little monkey needed to see when her Valor was at its most fragile.
| |
| − | | |
| − | A dragon. A terrible, massive, Void-spawned '''thing''' that might or might not be Selina. Maybe it ate her. Maybe it would eat them all. Monkey wasn't going to stay and find out personally.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Her scream pierces ears, delivered from inhumanly powerful lungs, and it does not even begin to fade as she turns and bolts on all fours as fast as inhumanly possible, even going so far as to physically smash through a wall in her unwillingness to deviate from anything other than a straight path '''''AWAY'''''.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Bronze Butterfly: ''' Butterfly looked up.... and up.... and up....
| |
| − | | |
| − | Power. Darkness. Majestic. '''''Wrong'''''.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Dark and Unnatural in every sense of the word.<br>
| |
| − | Wrong. annointed in the blood of existence.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The Bronze Butterfly lets her scythe fall to the ground with a metallic sound. Her eyes, wide, are filled with the sight of the void-born thing. Of that dragon of power and nightmares, burning with the blood ignited from Selina due to the spell. Such a dark creature, meant for destruction and murder, power incarnate, wrong in every level, complete anathema to everything terrestrials and Dragon-Blooded stand for. Everything she should hate. Everything she has wished to be.
| |
| − | | |
| − | It is doubtful the Butterfly has ever been as turned on her whole life.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Iselsis: ''' ''Huh... that's interesting... ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Izabella takes off into the air, reaching behind her and grabbing her two repeater pistols.
| |
| − | | |
| − | After all, it could be her sister. But then, it could also be something that was going to eat her any second now. And chance did favor the prepared.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Um... well now, there's something you don't see every day."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Elenna: ''' Elenna, however, gets almost all the Butterfly does... until the end. She is not turned on, she is not feeling any allure or finding any fascination in that. It is horrible. It is wrong. It is '''scary! ''' She holds her snake so tightly Sait is almost crushed, and she kneels to the ground, closing her eye, not wishing to see.... seeing the Monkey run away a moment before her eye closes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''The monkey-girl's smart'' is the only coehrent thing she can think amidst the fear...
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' Selina looks down at them, sees the small creatures reacting to her form in various ways...and the confusion lessens a bit. "'''What? This wasn't supposed to happen! '''" Her voice is a rumbling boom at the last sentence, the long neck cranes back and looks at her body. "'''This wasn't supposed to happen at all! '''"
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Iselsis: ''' ...
| |
| − | | |
| − | And she puts the repeaters away again. "You know it's really kind of childish of you to beat me to the punch as far as turning into something horrible goes."
| |
| − | | |
| − | She flies over to the ... well, dragon's snout and peers at what's possibly her sister.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "What the hell did you do?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' The reptilian eyes narrow at Ise. "'''Called Hyrokkin accidentally. Only bigger. '''" She swings her head off toward where Days went.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Bronze Butterfly: ''' "She's a dragon..." She whispers, looking up, her lips quivering. Such power. Such might!
| |
| − | | |
| − | An empress of darkness. Dark empress. Obsidian empress.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''I wanna be like that... ''<br>
| |
| − | ''I have to be like that... ''<br>
| |
| − | ''Want... ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | "You are a Dragon..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Iselsis: ''' Izabella just sighs.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Why does everyone in this family always have to upstage me? It's just not fair."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days: ''' Monkey has flattened three... no, four walls now.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Her path of evacuation is plain to follow, and she has yet to stop screeching in abject terror.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Bronze Butterfly: ''' She jumps.... and she lets the storm raging around them take her, her anima beating butterfly-wings as she moves with a sultry smile in the air, admiring the dragon.... the pinnacle of all she wished to be. A Dragon, but not of the elements.... of destruction, of killing. Something she always wished. She lands on the dragon's back, feeling her scales... "So much power..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Elenna: ''' Elenna suddenly feels naked. Without protection. She looks up.... and sees her protection is gone. All gone. Nothing between her and the dragon. She lets Sait go, then, the snake priomptly finding cover beneath the rubble... and then she runs after the monkey! After the very, very smart monkey who likely found a good place to hide from... that.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Iselsis: ''' "Those two are a mite jumpy, aren't they?", she says as she blinks, peering off after the two running away. "Shouldn't we stop them or something?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Selina de Windia: ''' ''Can't stay like this, can't stay like this. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | She can't really tell if she managed to rip fate or not, but now she has another secret weapon! And this one is going to stay secret!
| |
| − | | |
| − | "'''Yes, because we want to scare them more...Butterfly, what are you doing? '''"
| |
| − | | |
| − | Selina looks about, and wonders if it's a good idea to change back. BB might try to rape her or something.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''Or something. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Bronze Butterfly: ''' The Butterfly walks up the Dragon's body, graceful like only an Air-Aspected Dragon-Blooded can be - much like the two around her, too, just without the wings! - and up to her face, caressing, feeling the strength of the Dragon, letting her essence peer at the darkness.... "Feeling it. So powerful. So dark. Such a machine of destruction and authority... so much..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | "... I think I'm in love."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days: ''' Monkey has finally come to a stop. Hidden behind the remnants of a house, the little raksha is huddled in a ball, quivering and sobbing almost uncontrollably. What's most unusual about this is that it doesn't sound like she's so much frightened anymore as she is angry---rage of some sort's written all over her face.
| |
| − |
| |
| − | '''Iselsis: ''' Izabella glares at BB. "Could you please curb your weird impulses and stop stroking my sister until I'm at least not there to see it?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Bronze Butterfly: ''' She looks at the demon girl, face so red with blush...
| |
| − | | |
| − | "But... but it is so... magnificent..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Selina de Windia: '''Selina is a bit too embarassed by this to say anything, even as a big black void dragon thing.
| |
| − | | |
| − | At least her scales aren't sweating.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Elenna: ''' The poisoner walks closer to the Child, getting into the broken house, a hand falling over the monkey... "Are you... are you alright? It... it is alright now. The thing... it doesn't seem like it will hurt anyone... but... but it might be safer if we stay ''here'' and not ''there! ''"
| |
| − |
| |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days: ''' "'''DON'T TOUCH ME! '''"
| |
| − | | |
| − | Faster than the mortal eye can follow, a fist buries itself into the wall a centimeter to the left of Elenna's right eye, up to the wrist.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The blow would've easily maimed her, if not killed her outright. It takes a long moment and a few choked sobs before Days realizes that it's not the Dragon come to devour her... and she withdraws hand and body, pulling away.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Nnnnn..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Elenna: ''' She is lucky she has lost that eye. But it only adds to the shock. The sheer shock of hearing, not seeing, the Monkey's fist dig into the concrete. Her remaining eye, her left one, is open wide... in surprise, in fear. Slowly, she sinks to the ground, sitting down, touching herself as if to make sure she is still alive.... and looking at the monkey in fear.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''Away from one monster, in with another... ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Child of Wyld Days:''' "... sorry..." is all she can offer as an apology before she settles back into her now-muted self-loathing.
| |
| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | ----
| |
| − | | |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/EighthMovement|Eighth Movement]]
| |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/DanceOfAngels|A Dance of Angels]]
| |
