Post by Tokrochiru on Mar 31, 2011 19:27:38 GMT -5
In the world of Ankaa, the concept of true sanctuary is but a fantasy.
One hundred years after the Eight Hour War, the world's many societies are still undergoing reconstruction. Several villages and small towns mar the land, populated by people who fight every day to fend off the various leftovers of the demons that invaded but a century ago. A few bastions of civilization still stand, though each of them have their own problems.
JX City, a human-built city, and one of the few cities to even partially survive the Eight Hour War. Life in JX City is about as pleasant as the people who run it can make it. Fairly advanced technology is available to residents and traveling merchants alike for trade, and residents of the city are able to live a fairly comfortable life style. However, even the civilians of this city are wary. JX's armed forces are constantly fighting to keep the larger monsters away from the city. While non-humans are finally starting to obtain equal rights to those of normal humans, their image is constantly tattered by the non-humans who choose to lurk about the city shrouded in shadow, devouring humans for sustenance.
Artura, a secret underground city populated by inventors, engineers and scientists of one form or another, is safe from outside threats for the most part. The city's technology is advanced even beyond the other major cities' standards. The true enemy of Artura comes from within. Corruption and unethical experiments take place in Artura that, if revealed to the general public, would create much civil unrest.
Jardin del Vicio, the well-named Garden of Vice, is a city populated by the world's undesirables; men of chaotic minds. Cutthroats, drug dealers, mobsters, gangsters, clever loan sharks, criminal organizations and terrorists all have power here. The western side of the city is poorly kept, filthy and populated mostly by penniless men and gangsters. The east is oriental. Marred with triangle rooftops and beautiful architecture, the area's beauty contrasts its true nature. The east is populated by many of the city's more clever criminal groups, and secret dealings of death and currency happen there unnoticed by many. The north is a lavish and vain place, filled with casinos, gambling dens, gentlemen's clubs, and people with more money than taste. The south is the least well-off, as it is even more poverty-ridden than the west, and is populated by non-humans who simply have nowhere else to go, be they benevolent ones or not.
It is in this city, this Garden of Vice, that will test the mettle of those who have the potential to change the world.
Many people of great potential have recently made their way to Jardin del Vicio, each one with their own reasons. Vastion, a wild, strange, but kind man with two horns on his head and two large blades in hand, recently arrived there in an attempt to investigate an assassination attempt made upon his life. Zemna, a llizard-like agent of a powerful man named Walther Greyslain, is sent to assist in taking down the criminal organization Xipe Totec. Mosharu Samson, a monster of a man who recently has been released from captivity, reluctantly agrees to help out Zemna in an attempt to return a favor he's owed the lizard-man for ages. And finally, Rean Schmiel, a resident of western Jardin del Vicio, attempts to help the others reach their goals, believing that doing so will somehow free him from the massive debt his family owes to the largest crime organization in JdV.
Regardless of their reasons, they all happen to have one single goal in mind. Take down Xipe Totec, the criminal organization that currently controls Jardin del Vicio.
Aire, Krizno, and Altair all make their way to Jardin del Vicio, each one carrying the intent to free the city from its corruption. Once their, they met Reacn Schmiel, who acted as their guide around the city, and directed them to Xipe Totec's chief rivals, Quetzalcoatl. The group decided to try to gain the attention of Quetzalcoatl by messing with Xipe Totec on their own. Along the way, the four teammates encountered both Lili and Vastion, both of which joined the group. After gaining the attention of Quetzalcoatl, the group offered to help the group of bikers take down Xipe Totec. However, before the group even got a chance to assist Quetzalcoatl with anything, things took a turn for the bizarre.
An object that the group had found earlier had suddenly drawn the group into another dimension. The place they ended up in was an area just outside the Fissure, also known as the afterlife. It seemed that the object allowed the group to bring back one person from the dead. The group tried to use it to bring back Aire's dead sister Lili, and another soul from the fissure challenged against it. The group had to fight the spirit, with a second chance for Lili to live a mortal life on the line.
Vastion was the only one who seemed to be in great pain, being so close to the Fissure. Instead of staying with the others in the Fissure and fighting the spirit, he was summoned back to Realta, where he found himself in an impossibly realistic dream-like place. He wandered through some forest which appeared out of nowhere. The woods eventually seemed to catch fire for no reason, and he happened upon a burning mansion and a screaming woman. The dream-like sequence eventually ended, though the area where the others had been teleported by the object was still covered in the flora from his strange experience.
The main group's battle against the spirit was successful, and the group was returned to Realta. Lili was brought back to life, albeit improperly. After the group remembered why they were in Jardin del Vicio in the first place, they remembered that they had a job to do.
They were sent by Quetzalcoatl's leader, a large orc named Tokromer, to assist a certain 'operative' in breaking two people out of a Xipe Totec-run prison. They did just that, and along the way, they recruited both Zemna (the aformentioned 'operative' the group was sent to assist) and the psychotic former Administrator of Xipe Totec, Mosharu Samson. Their efforts also aided a man named Alen escape from the prison. The group returned to Tokromar, and Alen was recruited by Walther Greyslain to assist him and a mercenary named Byakutora take down a Xipe Totec administrator named Georgia.
While Mosharu led the group to an informant that he KNEW would know the location of Xipe Totec's CEO, Emily Stone, Walther sent his team to attack Georgia.
The informant proved to be a disgusting creature, to say the least. The creature had an unnatural sexual attraction to human feet, and hung them in a cavern under an abandoned house in southern JdV. After learning from the informant that something terrible was heading toward Jardin del Vicio, and that Emily Stone was headed toward the area that the other group planned to attack Georgia at, Mosharu offered the creature a quick death. The rat-man had a miserable, guilty life, and decided that death was a better fate than leaving JdV or staying while the supposed terrible thing was headed for the city. Vastion stood in Mosharu's path, preventing him from reaching the creature, and told the rat-man to seek help for his problem at JX City.
Meanwhile, Walther's group attempted and failed to assassinate Georgia. The whole thing turned out to be a trap. Walther pretty much knew it was a trap from the beginning, but led the group into it because he believed that Georgia wanted to speak with him personally. It turned out that he did, and he warned Walther that something terrible was headed toward Jardin del Vicio. A fight broke out anyway, since Georgia refused to allow Walther and his group to leave the city before the 'terrible thing' could get there. So far, the group has had no luck in fighting Georgia, as he's simply been able to parry or dodge every attack that's been thrown at him.
It seems that both groups will be meeting each other very soon. In the mean time, group one has a choice. Do they allow the rat-man to escape, trusting that he'll follow Vastion's advice and get help? Or will they simply kill the creature before he can cause any more damage? And in the meantime, will Alen, Walther's robot SHARD, and Byakutora be able to fend off Georgia until the other group arrives?
These questions will all be answered very soon.
The Astia Siblings
Peace is never enjoyed until it is too late. Darien and Claire Astia will soon learn this lesson in the peaceful village of Yerir, a remote, quaint village with rolling hills of farmland and little entertainment to be seen. The inhabitants, who scarcely find any alterations in their dull lives, have only one source of excitement, the sole variable in their lives...
Only one mile away from Yerir rests the Ikust Ruins, a massive conglomerate of towers and pillars that once suggested a great civilization. Now, it is rubble, filled both unspeakable treasures and vile creatures... those who wish to break the cycle of their lives need only venture here. The Astia siblings, parent-less after their mother had died in childbirth, and their father left to Ruins when they were only children, learned this the hard way. Despite being total opposites, Darien reserved, calm, and optimistic, and Claire an usually brash and hot-headed person, the two siblings share a tight bond and trust each other with their lives.
Recent events have needed them to do so, their lives in dire risk already.
It started with the man. A mysterious, regal man draped in royal blue and black led Darien to the Ikust Ruins for some reason, where Darien found himself innately drawn to the barren wasteland. Further leading him deeper inside, Darien found himself pinned down as a creature from the Ruins viciously attacked him. Futilely fighting back, the boy found his life to be in the man's hands, willing to or not, and running for his life with the man guiding him wherever he pleased. When Darien found his feet grinding to a halt, he found the one object that would forever change his life to be in front of him. Standing in an grand room filled with pillars, an ornate golden longbow, intricate in its design and deadly in its use, was placed in front of him, almost seeming to be deliberate. With the beast behind him, Darien could waste no time, using the bow's power to fire a bolt of energy at the creature and obliterate it. Shocked and somewhat frightened by his new found powers, Darien ran for his life, desperate to find some stability and reason in what he had just done.
Unfortunately, Claire wasn't fairing much better, if not worse. After her brother had left, she was attacked by a mysterious being, and despite her best efforts, the ordinary human stood no chance against it. The beast bit her neck and fled the scene upon seeing Alen, a passerby, but the man simply sneered at Claire and turned to leave. Darien, racing onto the scene, was shocked to find Claire in a pool of blood, and enraged at Alen's aloof reaction, went in a fit of blind rage for revenge. The two would have their bows clash just once, the sound resonating in the air before Darien, venomously stating him to be a waste of time, left to tend to Claire. Unfortunately, his wounds from before also caught up, and in a pool of mingled blood and tears over his grief to not save his sister, he went unconscious.
When Darien awoke, Eleris Wallen, a girl from Artura, a technologically advanced city had tended to his wounds, along with Claire's. However, Claire was nowhere to be found, and it was discovered that Claire, in desperation to save Darien's life, had gone to a nearby city in order to get medicine. It was unlikely in her condition that she would make it, and so the two went out to find her. They caught up with her in a shocking manner, Claire fell from the top of a skyscraper, and landed perfectly fine on the ground with little problems. Discovering that she was now a vampire, a creature with needs to drain the blood of humans as nourishment, Eleris attempted to hold her back while Darien talked sense into the girl. Although Eleris' brute strength was more then a match for Claire's new reflexes and speed, the match seemed to be a deadlock until Eleris managed to lock Claire into a bear hold. Taken into a blind rage, Claire spewed her hate at the two before Darien's words finally soothed her asleep. Darien and Eleris took her back to Yerir, where Claire finally realized her new identity as a vampire. Deciding that the dull pleasantries of the village were now beyond them, the siblings said their last farewells to the village, and teleported to Artura.
Artura was what they had all expected to be, at least not for Eleris, who took the soaring skyscrapers and floating cars with little shock, compared to the Astia siblings who stared around in awe. It was here that Eleris introduced the two to her friend, Miriam Darksoul, a succubus who found the two quite... interesting, in more ways then one. After a brief, but surprisingly bitter on Darien's part, visit to Eleris' mother, the group found themselves ambushed by mysterious men and an unusual girl with the ability to manipulate her arm into weapons at will. Eleris and Miriam dispatched of the men with relative ease, leaving Darien and Claire with the girl. Although finding themselves outmatched, the two siblings invoked latent abilities to defeat the girl. Darien used the same ability he did in the ruins, firing a powerful bolt of energy, while Claire manipulated water out of thin air to knock the girl unconcious. However, the price of the battle was heavy. The girl had managed to deal a powerful blow to Darien during the fight, and Darien might have bled out if not for somehow sealing the wound. The group headed back to Miriam's Apartment, where they let Darien and the girl rest while trying to make sense of the situation. Inside of his head, Darien was having a nightmare. A nightmare that the man, regal with streaming black hair, was about to kill him. The odd events that had happened recently kept getting odder still, when Darien suddenly coughed up blood as if ill, and his condition started to worsten by the second...
Claire, seeing the blood of her brother, again had a vampiric impulse, the confusion and pain of the situation simply too much for her as Eleris and Miriam desperately attempted to revive Darien, who was for all purposes at the moment, simply put, dead. An injection given by Eleris meant to revive Darien seemingly failed, until a bright white light crashed into the room and rendered them all unconscious... when they awoke, they were in, simply put, darkness. Claire was asleep, Miriam and Eleris finding Darien, who failed to notice the group. Instead, his eyes were dull, as if in a trance, apparitions of Eleris, Miriam, and Claire taunting him as he walked. Thanks to Miriam and Eleris, he quickly snapped out of it, crying in relief and thanks to his friends as he realized the last step of what he needed to do. Rearranging his "dream", Darien found the man from before, who now introduced himself as "Prince" Tael. With Eleris and Miriam behind him, Darien defiantly stated that he would defeat him, but the man proved to be too much for even Miriam, her scythe gleaming through the air and sending ripples of dark energy at Tael. Unfortunately, his power simply crushed any attempt of an attack they had, destroying Miriam's strongest attack and sending Darien crashing to a nearby tree with impudence. Eleris, in the nick of time, arrived to save them by attempting to smash a tree into the prince, but even that was shielded by his strongest attack, Passage to Eternity. Sneering at Darien's willingness to hide behind Miriam and Eleris, Tael offered to switch his aim from the arrow from Darien, to the unconcious Claire. Darien, in blind anger ran for Claire, while the equally enraged Eleris and Miriam ran to cover for Darien. Tael, finding himself unable to hold off both of them at the same time for long, attempted to finish off Darien by firing Passage to Eternity at Darien. The young boy, calmly seeing through everything, stated that they held the same weapon, absorbed the bolt and fired it back at the prince twofold...
The aftermath of that encounter left more questions than answers. Prince Tael could only smile and laugh, stating that Darien Astia was indeed interesting, as was his friends, and that he should be careful... and as they awoke, Claire Astia having little recollection of what had just occurred, only more questions appeared. What would they do with the girl that tried to kill them? Who was that man? And before everything, the ambush that had almost killed them all, who had tried such an act...?
It raised more questions than answers. How we answer them is a matter of time, not how, but when...
One hundred years after the Eight Hour War, the world's many societies are still undergoing reconstruction. Several villages and small towns mar the land, populated by people who fight every day to fend off the various leftovers of the demons that invaded but a century ago. A few bastions of civilization still stand, though each of them have their own problems.
JX City, a human-built city, and one of the few cities to even partially survive the Eight Hour War. Life in JX City is about as pleasant as the people who run it can make it. Fairly advanced technology is available to residents and traveling merchants alike for trade, and residents of the city are able to live a fairly comfortable life style. However, even the civilians of this city are wary. JX's armed forces are constantly fighting to keep the larger monsters away from the city. While non-humans are finally starting to obtain equal rights to those of normal humans, their image is constantly tattered by the non-humans who choose to lurk about the city shrouded in shadow, devouring humans for sustenance.
Artura, a secret underground city populated by inventors, engineers and scientists of one form or another, is safe from outside threats for the most part. The city's technology is advanced even beyond the other major cities' standards. The true enemy of Artura comes from within. Corruption and unethical experiments take place in Artura that, if revealed to the general public, would create much civil unrest.
Jardin del Vicio, the well-named Garden of Vice, is a city populated by the world's undesirables; men of chaotic minds. Cutthroats, drug dealers, mobsters, gangsters, clever loan sharks, criminal organizations and terrorists all have power here. The western side of the city is poorly kept, filthy and populated mostly by penniless men and gangsters. The east is oriental. Marred with triangle rooftops and beautiful architecture, the area's beauty contrasts its true nature. The east is populated by many of the city's more clever criminal groups, and secret dealings of death and currency happen there unnoticed by many. The north is a lavish and vain place, filled with casinos, gambling dens, gentlemen's clubs, and people with more money than taste. The south is the least well-off, as it is even more poverty-ridden than the west, and is populated by non-humans who simply have nowhere else to go, be they benevolent ones or not.
It is in this city, this Garden of Vice, that will test the mettle of those who have the potential to change the world.
Many people of great potential have recently made their way to Jardin del Vicio, each one with their own reasons. Vastion, a wild, strange, but kind man with two horns on his head and two large blades in hand, recently arrived there in an attempt to investigate an assassination attempt made upon his life. Zemna, a llizard-like agent of a powerful man named Walther Greyslain, is sent to assist in taking down the criminal organization Xipe Totec. Mosharu Samson, a monster of a man who recently has been released from captivity, reluctantly agrees to help out Zemna in an attempt to return a favor he's owed the lizard-man for ages. And finally, Rean Schmiel, a resident of western Jardin del Vicio, attempts to help the others reach their goals, believing that doing so will somehow free him from the massive debt his family owes to the largest crime organization in JdV.
Regardless of their reasons, they all happen to have one single goal in mind. Take down Xipe Totec, the criminal organization that currently controls Jardin del Vicio.
Aire, Krizno, and Altair all make their way to Jardin del Vicio, each one carrying the intent to free the city from its corruption. Once their, they met Reacn Schmiel, who acted as their guide around the city, and directed them to Xipe Totec's chief rivals, Quetzalcoatl. The group decided to try to gain the attention of Quetzalcoatl by messing with Xipe Totec on their own. Along the way, the four teammates encountered both Lili and Vastion, both of which joined the group. After gaining the attention of Quetzalcoatl, the group offered to help the group of bikers take down Xipe Totec. However, before the group even got a chance to assist Quetzalcoatl with anything, things took a turn for the bizarre.
An object that the group had found earlier had suddenly drawn the group into another dimension. The place they ended up in was an area just outside the Fissure, also known as the afterlife. It seemed that the object allowed the group to bring back one person from the dead. The group tried to use it to bring back Aire's dead sister Lili, and another soul from the fissure challenged against it. The group had to fight the spirit, with a second chance for Lili to live a mortal life on the line.
Vastion was the only one who seemed to be in great pain, being so close to the Fissure. Instead of staying with the others in the Fissure and fighting the spirit, he was summoned back to Realta, where he found himself in an impossibly realistic dream-like place. He wandered through some forest which appeared out of nowhere. The woods eventually seemed to catch fire for no reason, and he happened upon a burning mansion and a screaming woman. The dream-like sequence eventually ended, though the area where the others had been teleported by the object was still covered in the flora from his strange experience.
The main group's battle against the spirit was successful, and the group was returned to Realta. Lili was brought back to life, albeit improperly. After the group remembered why they were in Jardin del Vicio in the first place, they remembered that they had a job to do.
They were sent by Quetzalcoatl's leader, a large orc named Tokromer, to assist a certain 'operative' in breaking two people out of a Xipe Totec-run prison. They did just that, and along the way, they recruited both Zemna (the aformentioned 'operative' the group was sent to assist) and the psychotic former Administrator of Xipe Totec, Mosharu Samson. Their efforts also aided a man named Alen escape from the prison. The group returned to Tokromar, and Alen was recruited by Walther Greyslain to assist him and a mercenary named Byakutora take down a Xipe Totec administrator named Georgia.
While Mosharu led the group to an informant that he KNEW would know the location of Xipe Totec's CEO, Emily Stone, Walther sent his team to attack Georgia.
The informant proved to be a disgusting creature, to say the least. The creature had an unnatural sexual attraction to human feet, and hung them in a cavern under an abandoned house in southern JdV. After learning from the informant that something terrible was heading toward Jardin del Vicio, and that Emily Stone was headed toward the area that the other group planned to attack Georgia at, Mosharu offered the creature a quick death. The rat-man had a miserable, guilty life, and decided that death was a better fate than leaving JdV or staying while the supposed terrible thing was headed for the city. Vastion stood in Mosharu's path, preventing him from reaching the creature, and told the rat-man to seek help for his problem at JX City.
Meanwhile, Walther's group attempted and failed to assassinate Georgia. The whole thing turned out to be a trap. Walther pretty much knew it was a trap from the beginning, but led the group into it because he believed that Georgia wanted to speak with him personally. It turned out that he did, and he warned Walther that something terrible was headed toward Jardin del Vicio. A fight broke out anyway, since Georgia refused to allow Walther and his group to leave the city before the 'terrible thing' could get there. So far, the group has had no luck in fighting Georgia, as he's simply been able to parry or dodge every attack that's been thrown at him.
It seems that both groups will be meeting each other very soon. In the mean time, group one has a choice. Do they allow the rat-man to escape, trusting that he'll follow Vastion's advice and get help? Or will they simply kill the creature before he can cause any more damage? And in the meantime, will Alen, Walther's robot SHARD, and Byakutora be able to fend off Georgia until the other group arrives?
These questions will all be answered very soon.
The Astia Siblings
Peace is never enjoyed until it is too late. Darien and Claire Astia will soon learn this lesson in the peaceful village of Yerir, a remote, quaint village with rolling hills of farmland and little entertainment to be seen. The inhabitants, who scarcely find any alterations in their dull lives, have only one source of excitement, the sole variable in their lives...
Only one mile away from Yerir rests the Ikust Ruins, a massive conglomerate of towers and pillars that once suggested a great civilization. Now, it is rubble, filled both unspeakable treasures and vile creatures... those who wish to break the cycle of their lives need only venture here. The Astia siblings, parent-less after their mother had died in childbirth, and their father left to Ruins when they were only children, learned this the hard way. Despite being total opposites, Darien reserved, calm, and optimistic, and Claire an usually brash and hot-headed person, the two siblings share a tight bond and trust each other with their lives.
Recent events have needed them to do so, their lives in dire risk already.
It started with the man. A mysterious, regal man draped in royal blue and black led Darien to the Ikust Ruins for some reason, where Darien found himself innately drawn to the barren wasteland. Further leading him deeper inside, Darien found himself pinned down as a creature from the Ruins viciously attacked him. Futilely fighting back, the boy found his life to be in the man's hands, willing to or not, and running for his life with the man guiding him wherever he pleased. When Darien found his feet grinding to a halt, he found the one object that would forever change his life to be in front of him. Standing in an grand room filled with pillars, an ornate golden longbow, intricate in its design and deadly in its use, was placed in front of him, almost seeming to be deliberate. With the beast behind him, Darien could waste no time, using the bow's power to fire a bolt of energy at the creature and obliterate it. Shocked and somewhat frightened by his new found powers, Darien ran for his life, desperate to find some stability and reason in what he had just done.
Unfortunately, Claire wasn't fairing much better, if not worse. After her brother had left, she was attacked by a mysterious being, and despite her best efforts, the ordinary human stood no chance against it. The beast bit her neck and fled the scene upon seeing Alen, a passerby, but the man simply sneered at Claire and turned to leave. Darien, racing onto the scene, was shocked to find Claire in a pool of blood, and enraged at Alen's aloof reaction, went in a fit of blind rage for revenge. The two would have their bows clash just once, the sound resonating in the air before Darien, venomously stating him to be a waste of time, left to tend to Claire. Unfortunately, his wounds from before also caught up, and in a pool of mingled blood and tears over his grief to not save his sister, he went unconscious.
When Darien awoke, Eleris Wallen, a girl from Artura, a technologically advanced city had tended to his wounds, along with Claire's. However, Claire was nowhere to be found, and it was discovered that Claire, in desperation to save Darien's life, had gone to a nearby city in order to get medicine. It was unlikely in her condition that she would make it, and so the two went out to find her. They caught up with her in a shocking manner, Claire fell from the top of a skyscraper, and landed perfectly fine on the ground with little problems. Discovering that she was now a vampire, a creature with needs to drain the blood of humans as nourishment, Eleris attempted to hold her back while Darien talked sense into the girl. Although Eleris' brute strength was more then a match for Claire's new reflexes and speed, the match seemed to be a deadlock until Eleris managed to lock Claire into a bear hold. Taken into a blind rage, Claire spewed her hate at the two before Darien's words finally soothed her asleep. Darien and Eleris took her back to Yerir, where Claire finally realized her new identity as a vampire. Deciding that the dull pleasantries of the village were now beyond them, the siblings said their last farewells to the village, and teleported to Artura.
Artura was what they had all expected to be, at least not for Eleris, who took the soaring skyscrapers and floating cars with little shock, compared to the Astia siblings who stared around in awe. It was here that Eleris introduced the two to her friend, Miriam Darksoul, a succubus who found the two quite... interesting, in more ways then one. After a brief, but surprisingly bitter on Darien's part, visit to Eleris' mother, the group found themselves ambushed by mysterious men and an unusual girl with the ability to manipulate her arm into weapons at will. Eleris and Miriam dispatched of the men with relative ease, leaving Darien and Claire with the girl. Although finding themselves outmatched, the two siblings invoked latent abilities to defeat the girl. Darien used the same ability he did in the ruins, firing a powerful bolt of energy, while Claire manipulated water out of thin air to knock the girl unconcious. However, the price of the battle was heavy. The girl had managed to deal a powerful blow to Darien during the fight, and Darien might have bled out if not for somehow sealing the wound. The group headed back to Miriam's Apartment, where they let Darien and the girl rest while trying to make sense of the situation. Inside of his head, Darien was having a nightmare. A nightmare that the man, regal with streaming black hair, was about to kill him. The odd events that had happened recently kept getting odder still, when Darien suddenly coughed up blood as if ill, and his condition started to worsten by the second...
Claire, seeing the blood of her brother, again had a vampiric impulse, the confusion and pain of the situation simply too much for her as Eleris and Miriam desperately attempted to revive Darien, who was for all purposes at the moment, simply put, dead. An injection given by Eleris meant to revive Darien seemingly failed, until a bright white light crashed into the room and rendered them all unconscious... when they awoke, they were in, simply put, darkness. Claire was asleep, Miriam and Eleris finding Darien, who failed to notice the group. Instead, his eyes were dull, as if in a trance, apparitions of Eleris, Miriam, and Claire taunting him as he walked. Thanks to Miriam and Eleris, he quickly snapped out of it, crying in relief and thanks to his friends as he realized the last step of what he needed to do. Rearranging his "dream", Darien found the man from before, who now introduced himself as "Prince" Tael. With Eleris and Miriam behind him, Darien defiantly stated that he would defeat him, but the man proved to be too much for even Miriam, her scythe gleaming through the air and sending ripples of dark energy at Tael. Unfortunately, his power simply crushed any attempt of an attack they had, destroying Miriam's strongest attack and sending Darien crashing to a nearby tree with impudence. Eleris, in the nick of time, arrived to save them by attempting to smash a tree into the prince, but even that was shielded by his strongest attack, Passage to Eternity. Sneering at Darien's willingness to hide behind Miriam and Eleris, Tael offered to switch his aim from the arrow from Darien, to the unconcious Claire. Darien, in blind anger ran for Claire, while the equally enraged Eleris and Miriam ran to cover for Darien. Tael, finding himself unable to hold off both of them at the same time for long, attempted to finish off Darien by firing Passage to Eternity at Darien. The young boy, calmly seeing through everything, stated that they held the same weapon, absorbed the bolt and fired it back at the prince twofold...
The aftermath of that encounter left more questions than answers. Prince Tael could only smile and laugh, stating that Darien Astia was indeed interesting, as was his friends, and that he should be careful... and as they awoke, Claire Astia having little recollection of what had just occurred, only more questions appeared. What would they do with the girl that tried to kill them? Who was that man? And before everything, the ambush that had almost killed them all, who had tried such an act...?
It raised more questions than answers. How we answer them is a matter of time, not how, but when...