Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

"Hmm," I ponder, "I have a few ideas, though I'll go with the first one I guess."

I draw Shadow Katana, watching the robot, "It moves and I move." I say, standing close to Rineth.

 

She seems very shaky and nervous.
"W-where-e am-m I?"
Artemis feels something bony tap her on the shoulder.

"Inside Rineth's mouth, and I'm not making any guesses... yet."

"More like... you move, and I move."
"MORE LIKE... YOU DO ANYTHING, YOU DIE..."
, says Eras in a whispering, hoarse, almost broken voice.
The ground starts shaking. A dark aura surrounds Eras, but unlike his usual dark aura, it crackles with black lightning, which spreads outwards slowly. It takes you a few seconds to realise that the lightning doesn't move like lightning...
The robot/cyborg turns to you.
"You interfered with my plans... you pay the price!"
The robot/cyborg lunges forwards, sword-mace extended towards you, with surprising agility.

 

After a few minutes, you spot it.

It's exactly as you remember it from last time you saw it.
Icicle happily darts out ahead.

A freezing aura slows the robot immensely.
"Don't. Talk. To. Master. Like. That."
She grumbles, tome opening.
Four small portals with glyphs around them start to form behind her.

 

Artemis spins around in surprise, readying her fists.


I simply stand there, smiling. I grab the sword mace with my free hand, holding the robot in the air with surprising strength.

"So, how much do I owe you? Do you accept injuries as a token of payment?" I say, stabbing the robot with Shadow Katana.

 

The robot/cyborg howls in both pain and anger. Mainly anger.
"You little... oh, hehehe... maybe you are about to see your price. Or prize. Depends on your point of view."
Cracks visibly start spreading across the ground around Eras. The strange lightning also spreads.

Behind Artemis is a skeletal hand protruding from the ground.
A skull is suddenly dropped from the ceiling in front of Artemis' face. The skull hangs in the air for a second before falling to the ground next to the hand.

"Interesting portals... I wonder where they lead to. I guess I might be about to find out... see you later! Or rather... I won't be seeing you... or will I? This stuff is starting to confuse even me..."

 

I remove Shadow Katana from the robot before smashing it into the ground with devastating force. It almost looks as if I grow a little larger.


Artemis screams in fear, falling backwards.

"Is that...is that who I think it is?" Abigail says, staring at the skull and hand, completely calm.

Abigail turns on some odd sounding music in her helmet.

OOC: All the references.

 

The skeletal hand on the ground waves at Artemis. The skull's eye sockets start to glow red. They then slowly cycle through all the colours of the rainbow in a hypnotic way.
A pair of legs jump out of the ground and start dancing. They are soon followed by a rib cage covered in blood.
While all of this is happening, another arm, which had dropped the skull from the ceiling, is crawling down a wall and creeping slowly closer to the crystal.

The robot/cyborg gasps as it smashes into the ground. You hear bones breaking. Then you hear... the bones breaking a second time?!
The robot/cyborg then stands up again and looks up and smiles at Aj.

 

"Mistress...
I have failed you in your darkest hour
I have let you fall and ran to hide
I beg you grant one last request
I may have messed up, but for all I've done
All I've sacrificed
All I've been torn from
I will put it all behind..."
The portals flicker shut, then explode with dark energy, glowing brighter than before.
The four start draining energy from Xephyr.

A voice echoes from the portals.
"I forgive you... but to request my power as a commoner?... Foolish..."

The portals close, and Xephyr has troubles standing.
"Worth... worth a shot..."

 

The ground starts shaking violently as the darkness and cracks spread.

 

Abigail claps along to the music, and does a synchronised dance with the skeletal parts.

Artemis tries to avoid the look of the skull; in doing so, she notices the arm and grabs it with a vine, throwing it into the river of magma flowing a short distance away from her.


Except...I'm no longer there.

I phase in an out of visibility around the robot, slicing at it before disappearing incredibly fast. My appearances around the robot seem too random to track into a pattern.

 

"But..." The voice echoes.

Eras is crackling with void energy.

 

"Ok, lets go then!" I walk after him, staring at the amazing view.

 

More skeletons start pulling themselves out of the ground. Some of them dance around with turning rainbow colours, others try to get the crystal.

"Impressive... not even my tracker can pick you up easily."
The wounds seem to heal very quickly.
The robot/cyborg spins the sword-mace around very quickly, occasionally jabbing it in random directions.

Eras ignores the voice entirely.
Suddenly, an area near to where Aj and the cyborg turns dark. A white limb with a wyvern head at its tip appears out of it.
More dark areas start to appear.

 

He's quickly stalled by the view.
"Was it like this last time you came?" He asks, awestruck.

________________________________

"Master, I think I can use another..."
Xephyr falls to the ground before finishing her sentence, exhausted.

 

Abigail starts taking a more offensive approach, kicking the skeletons apart and into the magma stream through her dancing. Artemis runs over and grabs the crystal, trying her best to carry it away as vines whip at the approaching skeletons.


"Heh, looks like I can use a little more power now." I say, appearing a short distance away from the robot.

The dark areas begin to flow into me, before a large beam of darkness erupts around me. The whole area turns black as midnight; as the beam of darkness dissipates, I'm left standing there, triple the size I originally was. My eyes glow blood red.

A smash Shadow Katana into the robot, sending it flying a short distance.

 

Eras still doesn't seem to notice. Instead, he's looking straight at the cyborg.
"YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER THEM."

The cyborg falls to the ground backwards. He shouts, "This isn't the last you have seen of me!". He then disappears in a flash of blue light.
More white limbs appear out of the black areas. Each limb has a different thing attached to its tip. You recognise a Serpent's claw and several Drakonshade heads among them, but most are completely different and are unrecognisable. A few turn to you and hiss or growl. That is, the ones which have heads.

The skeletons start to charge towards Abigail and Artemis, completely stopping the dancing. Even more appear, though the newer ones are armed, mainly with swords and spears. Several climb along the walls or ceiling and try leaping at Artemis to grab the crystal.

 

Artemis and Abigail try their best to fend off the skeletons; Abigail defending Artemis from the attacking skeletons.

"Maybe this was the burial ground Aj mentioned." Abigail says, fighting the skeletons.

"I think they're after this soul crystal." Artemis says, whipping the charging skeletons apart with vines, whilst backing away.


"Well then, if the evil robot is gone, I have some business to attend to." I say, before disappearing the a blast of darkness. The area seems to lighten up quite a bit, though the sky remains somewhat darkened.


I appear next to Artemis and Abigail, and quickly dispatch of the army of skeletons attacking them; darting between skeletons with extreme speed and destroying each one entirely.

"You seem...different." Abigail says, observing my now larger form.

"We need to get rid of that crystal immediately," I say, "It contains the malicious spirit that's been possessing Idala; and it seems to be trying to break out."

I take the crystal from Artemis; she seems rather relieved, dropping her arms in exhaustion.

"How should we destroy it?" Artemis asks.

"I'm not sure," I reply, "The spirit seems tied to Idala, and erasing it might cause problems."

"Maybe we should just seal it away where it can't do anything," Abigail suggests, "The spirit stays out of the way, and Idala doesn't come to harm."

 

The bubbles and is pushed upwards as something very large climbs out of it, just about fitting into the cave.
It seems to be some sort of scaly, hulking creature. You notice a white limb below its tail.
The creature roars loudly.

 

"What the hell is that thing!?" Abigail exclaims.

"M-Maybe we should give the crystal to it!" Artemis says nervously, backing away.

"Or maybe we should get out of here..." I say, looking at the stream of magma.

"How do you know it won't follow us? If we go back to the surface, it might start attacking Ihra and the others." Abigail says, turning to me.

"If we take it back to the surface, we'll have more support. Not only that, but if this thing causes a cave-in, we'll be stuck." I say.

Abigail blasts Artemis and I with blue fireballs, before diving into the stream of magma. I grab Artemis and follow Abigail, my legs combing into a fish-like tail as I swim through the magma.

 

You feel the magma ripple as the creature follows you through it. You also feel as if the magma is becoming more pressurised, as if more is being generated.