Sutoratosu

"...An empire... now there's something I know all too well. The one ruling my world is all too alive and well though..." She took a seat on a nearby peice of rubble- oddly familiar to her...infact, this was probably the same one she'd spoken to Vora on earlier. How ironic... "I can't recall a lick of where I'm from, honestly. Was born just another slave I guess, probably sold off by my master as soon as they realized what I was and how much the State was willing to pay for a child with The Voice. That's the only way I can think as to how I ended up in the Imperial Training Complex, at least; the others who were with me probably all had the same story. They raised us to be soldiers, special agents, bodyguards, whatever the empire needed most, we were molded into." She leaned back against the cold and jagged stone, her face darkening as she recalled the details of all those years. The recline wasn't in the least bit comfortable, but compared to how many nights she'd spent on either the barren ground among the dust and dirt, or a cold stone floor, Ghost found she really didn't care. "I lost a lot of friends, during those years. The instructors always said it was because they were too weak, too soft, weren't worth the space to begin with. Said that it was good to thin the herd, gave em more opportunity to focus on those who had actual potential. There was... what, 500, a thousand of us? back when we were youngsters... not very much older than her actually" She nodded to the child who hid behind Friendhold "By the time we were... 16 or so? and ready to graduate, there were barely 50 of us left. Or maybe more like 40. It's hard to remember, but a few... tried to dismantle their collars and escape in the middle of the night, not too long before then. Guess they just got tired of living like dogs, decided they were going to get away and take the reigns of fate into their own hands. Blew their pretty little heads off, in the blink of an eye. Bastards had always told us that if we set a single foot outside the approved perimeter, we'd be just another mess on the ground. Never said anything against poking around the collars though. Guess they figured it would be more interesting to see which ones really had the strongest wills in the end, still resisted and tried to defy them even when we were so close to the very end. Sometimes, I wish I had been one of them, that night. That I had defied them one last time and tried to pry it off. The world might've been just a little bit better off in the long run, if I'd never lent myself to the State...died before I ever got a chance to serve the emperor."

"Good, good. Now then...Heeey, Merc Boi, what's happening?" He turned around to the Mercenary, absorbing the lance with what seemed to be a black flame, much like the one he'd summoned his current weapon with, "Yeeeah, see you and your buddies here have caused quite the disturbance, soooo... if you could just go ahead and fuck off, yeeeah that would be greaaat, M'kay?" He accentuated the final drawn out syllable with a sudden hack of his halberd, bringing it down with harrowing force towards the man's skull... Channel his inner Lumbergh, End the Mercenary with Iron Halberd

"oi, you there! Archer!" The rider's voice called from the heavens as his Wyvern dropped down in front of Rokan, sizing up the wounded Mercenary. "So you're the one who killed Captain Wandrought then, seeing as how you're toting his lance. Why don't ya pass it on over though; It'll be put to much better use in my hands than yours." "Hehe, plus I bet it would annoy the poor bastard to no end if a few of his men died to his own weapon. Who knows, he really might see us in hell someday, but I'll be sending a few of his boys his way first." N10, Trade with Rokan

Cadence spun on her heels when the new voice called out to them. Hand on her blade, she looked the figure up and down, eye's scrutinizing as she answered "It depends. You gonna start any trouble? What, do you have something to do with that Illegal storefront?"

"And... I suppose you all live among each other in relative peace then, from what you mentioned about your master?" It may have been a bit rude, but Ghost was unable but to help letting some of her skepticism show in her eyes. "without everyone trying to slit the other's throats for one reason or another, or raid other people for whatever they've earned through their own hard work? Do your people just... really let each other be, for the most part? No one trying to subjugate another culture, or wipe those who resist off the face of the world? If so, it must be wonderful... I can hardly imagine what such a place would look like..." Her eyes turned to Tama, as she spoke the last part. It was... difficult to tell for certain, but the expression she wore was... accusatory "Don't look at me. I may have set into the motion what the world became, but I didn't make humans so desperate and bloodthirsty. You lot were already like that back when you were all mere servants to us. If anything, we simply kept it in check until those traits suited our goals most." At his response, Ghost sighed in disgust, turning back to Masaru "...Where did you used to live, in your home world? A city, some small town in the middle of nowhere? All alone?"

Shanks-Many-Men 9/9; 2 Omen Counters; +2DR=7DR Total A high pitched, raspy chuckle came from the vent. Yes, yes, just as he had hoped, they seemed too big to follow him through- excellent... and even better, it seemed that their armor was strong, but not impregnable. All he needed was one more step, maybe two, and then he could begin the terror... and so he took another step into the ventilation shaft, keeping his eyes on the machines as they clamoured outside. His chuckling continued all the while... Shanks makes one more Ominous Advance, bringing his Omen Counter Total up to 3 and gaining +1DR

Shanks 9/9; 1 Omen Counter; +1DR= 6DR total The Tonberry peered pensively as the brigade of other machines joined their foe. Even worse, it seemed the human had been assimilated by the wall- god lord, he could've at least bought the thing dinner before trying to get so intimate... regardless, things were no longer.... looking as great for his shanking plans in the long run. One Automaton in a darkened corridor was nothing for him, but 4? He'd rolled up on and murdered parties of exactly this size before, yes, but the key difference here was that humans cut easily, bleed alot when you struck the right arteries and severed enough veins. They were easy to bring down, and most of the time their panicked states hindered their fighting ability. Machines... not so much. Stroking his chin in thought, Shanks looked around. And then, He took another, unholy step that seemed to make black aura flare all around him... and then he ducked into the very same vent he had emerged from earlier. Shanks continues making his Ominous Advance... right back into the Vents

Execute Rail-Fire on Kracko

Shanks looks around from the strange knight creature to the greedy human who is apparently busy pissing himself in fear. The way he pressed himself up against that wall, the Tonberry was near certain he was about to take it back to his room or something. It didn't matter though. He'd get shanked either way, if the little lizard had anything to say... and that automaton thing could get shanked too, in due time. Eyes glowing an ominous orange, he took a single, powerful step forward, and there was a flash of black aura around his body, hard to notice among the dimly light space... Shanks makes an Ominous Advance, gaining 1 Omen Counter and increasing his DR by 1

As he tried, and quite hilariously failed to pry the grate open, Azurian may have noticed the pair of beady amber eyes in the dark, if he weren't so preoccupied with greed. Shanks watched and chuckled as the man gave up and instead focused on the door, and the moment he had his back turned and the sounds of something pissed off filled the corridor, the little lizard man made his move. A few bangs and shuffling sounds as he quickly scrambled to the end of the ventilation shaft, and while the rogue was busy with whatever he'd disturbed, the Tonberry busied himself trying to remove the Grate himself. Yes, yes, this bloke looked the type he shanked all the time back home, before that voice had come and left him sitting here in this metal shaft... probably some greedy treasure hunter- and where he came from, there was only one real way to deal with dirty treasure hunters...

Marek will remember that... sort of... Marek had looked around after he landed on the roof, searching the area yet coming up with nothing. It was a difficult sensation to describe, but just a moment or two ago, he could've sworn he'd heard something extremely faint on the winds... he just couldn't put his finger on who had said it, or where they were... "Hey erce, did you hear that too? my ears are burning, almost like... someone was trying to talk shit about us...hmmm... perhaps it was my imagination. Probably just one of these poor wandroughts who thought they could start something with us." The wyvern only snorted in response. She'd heard the entire thing a thousand times better than the rider probably ever would, but she didn't really care. There was still rabble to clean up. Not long after though, the captain went down, a fresh new arrow lodged in him. "Well damn, I was hoping to finish the fucker myself. Oh well, not like he was the only one around here who has something coming to him...so long as he's dead, I don't suppose it matters either way." With that said though, there came the tune of a familiar bard "heh, don't have to tell us twice. C'mon Erce, that Mercenary over yonder is a bit too alive and well for my taste. Let's change that, shall we?" P8, Hold

Begin charging Rail-Fire, execute on Kracko Next Turn

"The only beings in my world who live forever are the old gods themselves, the Deva" Ghost answered "and even they are nothing compared to what they once were. When they became unfit to continue holding dominion over our world, tore it apart with their battle for supremacy, men are the ones who wrested it away from them... well, a man. I've never heard nor encountered any sister race to my kind, at least not any that weren't created through some sort of curse as punishment for any number of heinous crimes during the time of The King... criminals and exiles of the highest order, basically. By now though, most of them exist on as mere legend and myth, wiped out over the years for one reason or another. If there was ever another race on my world that was inherently separate from my own, yet walked and talked as we do, my kind would've seen them long, long ago... even if for no other reason than we'd have probably fought them over what little can be salvaged of my world. Just like how we eventually fought and killed off The Cursed."

"I see then... I'm afraid I'm not quite familiar with what an 'Elf' is though," Ghost had remained largely silent when the man in the white coat had appeared, and a girl trailing close behind him. She could not put her finger on it, but... something about both of them felt... off. Perhaps it was the myriad of dried blood stains covering the attire of both, or the fact that for whatever reason, it seemed a mere child had been dragged to this place too... in which case, was it even really a child at all? She doubted whatever force, be it some automatic mechanism of this 'multiverse' or the intelligent design of some individual, would have selected a candidate that was not able to adequately hold it's on in combat... and surely, as frail and timid as the girl looked... "You're staring at them like a wolf after a lamb..." She had not even noticed how intensely she'd been scrutinizing the two until Tama pointed out. Coughing as if to clear her throat, she turned her gaze back to Masaru. "Regardless... it sounds like he was a great teacher, if he had a reputation that drew so many to seek him out..."

"Hm. Liches, is that what your world calls them? Either way, it seems a bit odd to me, that anyone would actually choose to take on such a decrepit form... where I come from, those who even remotely resemble the state he was in are always the victims of some sort of sloppily preformed resurrection rites, or malicious rituals... souls improperly roused from death and forced into a body that rejects and decays around them more with every passing second. The whole experience causes most people to lose themselves, deteriorate into little more than animals who destroy every living thing before them until someone comes along and gives them peace again. Or if they're lucky, only part of their soul actually makes the journey back from death, and they won't even feel most of the hell they're existence is. Like broken shells of themselves almost, just wandering about mindlessly and feeding off the lifeforce of anyone they come across, all to try and recover what was stolen from them... but, regardless, either fate is hardly something most would relish." "...Speaking of which, an interesting thought just came to mind-" Tama interrupted her train of thought "does our current situation mean that you are effectively the living equivalent of a Husk? You may not be mindlessly wandering and sucking the life out of people, but... well... you certainly fit the bill of a broken shell. And if you're a living husk, with most of your soul gone, how much longer might you have before the binds between your body and spirit grow feeble, and you wither and slip away-and this time farther than even the spider can reach into oblivion..." "Shut. The fuck. Up." There was a pang of panic in her, even as she bid the Deva silence. But she swallowed it for now- she had no desire to think of such a thing, had no stomach to think of such things... or rather, the utter futility that they implied. Her voice quavered for just a breath moment, before she took control of it again. "N...Never mind about that though... you said you spent a long while refining your skills; Did you develop those techniques yourself, or did you have someone to actually teach you?"

With the... incident at the restop behind them all, Ghost and Tama made their way to the Ballroom. The suites at the moment didn't really have any amenities besides a few broken beds, and even if the ballroom was even worse, at least the rubble dotting it's space made semi-decent seats. As she pushed the door open though, she noticed a few others already gathered there. The swordfighter from earlier being the closest. "He was an annoying waste of space, wasn't he?" she remarked as she walked past the half-dragon, "That skeleton you wasted. His were probably some of the worst lyrics I've heard in years. How long have you been fighting, by the way- those stances of yours were impressive, to say the least."

Aurora With a sizable chunk carved from her to go meal, and the rest saved somewhere for later, Aurora settles into her usual place in the rafters of the entrance hall. Silver eyes are clearly visible in the darkness, along with the sound of ravenous feasting.

"No, I think that's it... seeing as how there's apparently no act of treason about to be committed, we've just about lost any reason we had to get involved further. Sorry to bother you." In her head though, she could not help but think how much of a waste of time this whole lead had been. They had run all over the god damn city, only to find out that at best, the crime they were after was little more than a case of some drifter setting up a shop without going through the proper channels first. Whatever, it was a problem for the local authorities now, if anything came out of it. Besides, she hadn't really felt like fighting yet another nobleman and his hired thugs anyway.

"I see then," Cadence sighed "Well, at least this whole thing wasn't a total bust. seems in the end, we had similar suspicions- my father dabbled in a bit of alchemy in his free time, so I decided to ask the clerk what common ingredients he used. The guy could barely answer me, kept giving the excuse that he just 'bought from whoever was the cheapest' and didn't really know what formulas were used. He was also pretty quick to kick me and my acquaintance out, when the simple questions became too heavy for him... speaking of which-" She paused for a moment, looking around the roof tops to try and spot the thief. The anima followed her gaze, and soon enough the air around Belros filled with whispered warnings in an arcane tongue. Though he probably wouldn't understand a lick of what the spirits were trying to say, he'd more than likely still get an ominous feeling that he'd be better off aborting his little sneak operation and coming back down... "I'm curious as to why someone would go to the trouble of badmouthing your husband though," she continued, once they'd delivered the message "you have any bad blood with someone, or something of the sort?"

"Hmmmm... asked him to check it out, eh?" she thought it over for a moment. As she did though, the anima brought up their previous words from the depths of her mind. "Well I suppose that does explain your discussion a few moments ago. Still raises a few questions though- just what were you hoping to find out about the shop, pray tell? If your friend here isn't really involved with anything nefarious and was just investigating on your behalf...does that store have a particular history? No one we interviewed seemed to know terribly much about it, and the shopkeep seemed like an... evasive man, at best"

Hold Position, Barrier Meredith

"Oh come on, there's no use trying to hide it; it's pretty obvious, man. You walk into a poisoner's den nestled away in a back alley and the door locks behind you with some pretty heavy security. Folks all over town recall you as being shady, and there's even been numerous allegations of you trying to plot a few deaths before. And regardless of if they're true or not, you certainly seem to have quite the past either way, to have earned your reputation- so it's only natural that someone would get curious as to what you were doing in that particular shop, in that particular dark alley..."

"Goddess... fucking...damnit..." Cadence muttered to herself when Myrd had, of course, blurted everything out at the volume of a town crier. Thankfully however, it seemed there targets weren't the ones who actually heard it, and the captain had managed to play it off as just the ramblings of a drunk for those nearby. And surprisingly, they'd... bought it? Well, technically she was drunk off her ass so... "Yes..." she answered in a low rumble, teeth grinding against themselves "Thats... the gist of it, myrd. Please be a bit... quieter, okay? Just let me and the captain handle all the talking and be ready to lend us some muscle if they try to run or fight." With that said, she turned to the captain, nodding "and after that near save, I suppose now is as good a time as any. Thankfully, those two didn't seem to have noticed anything..." And then with the drunk rider and the captain in tow, she set the distraction in motion, as she approached the nobleman and his... acquaintance. "Well, here we met again, what a surprise..." she began, "I certainly hope that you had better luck with whatever you sought in the shop than I did; The clerk seemed a bit quick to throw us out after I asked just a few questions about his wares- have to make sure we were getting the best quality, afterall. Quite an interesting bit of defenses he has on the door though- stuck his shop in a back alley and still felt the need to enchant the thing... but I guess when he was busying himself discussing potential assassination plots and other bits of intrigue with you, it was just in his best interest that the door it's done behind ought to be... quite sturdy."

"Just make sure you don't screw up and instantly get spotted like some idiot" Cadence sighed, before turning to Madante and Myrd. "Anyways, you guys ready for this? I don't know what that woman has to do with all this, but either way we can probably take them both just fine."