Under the Hill - First Circle: Judgement

[Supernovae]

Mr. Taylor sighed, of course it wouldn't be that easy. "What am I doing here? Well, now where to begin? I came here on the request of an old friend of mine, another archeologist, you see I'm retired at this point, however after the initial outburst of this place led to no discoveries he sent me a request to come here. This was to be my last adventure of sorts." Mr. Taylor chuckled, "Though I didn't expect my last adventure to also be my final resting place."

[Chevaleresse]

"Were I in your position, I wouldn't believe me, but I do not plan on killing you," Marcus replied. "That's why I want to talk to you; I want to know why."

[Notus]

Damian

Damian heard Mr.Taylor speak and than decided he'd better do the same. "I want to become stronger. I heard about the Hill and thought that I could do it if II reached the bottom. I... I want to be able to protect people." he said to Minos.

"And there it is, the kind of answer I want." the judge said, pointing to Damian. "I understand that when you first entered here, Mr. Taylor, you were skeptical about the rumours surrounding this place. I can say one thing though: they are all true. What I want to know is, now that you know what the Hill is capable of, did you think of what you'd want from here if you manage to reach the bottom?"

Edited June 1, 2014 by Notus

[Supernovae]

Mr. Taylor froze, he hadn't thought about the rumors at the bottom, even up until now he didn't believe that there was one wish at the bottom.

"I can't say I really have all too much desire to claim the wish," he said to Minos, "But, given the opportunity I believe I would wish to be youthful once more." Mr. Taylor looked down, it was somewhat shameful, but he was being honest, like he had been told. "And the reasons for this I would like to keep private. I'm sure a man of your greatness, can appreciate subtlety, right Minos?"

[Notus]

Damian

"Yes, I think I can understand that" Minos said with a smile. "Than to the next question to you both: what do you consider to be your greatest strenghts and your worse flaws?"

[Supernovae]

"What a strange question ..." Mr. Taylor absentmindedly said aloud, "For a judge such as yourself, you should see past the meaninglessness of strength and weakness. It altogether depends on the situation, when I was a younger man I was rash, but strong. But as I grew my immaturity soon gave way to what some may call wisdom, however as soon as that happened my body also gave way." Mr. Taylor paused, and gulped somewhat forgetting his place, "To put it in other words, what was once a strength of mine soon gave way to a weakness, and what was once a weakness was rectified into a strength. But, that's not all in some situations it was far more advantageous to be rash, just like sometimes not being in peak physical condition causes me to be more cautious in my approach sometimes saving me from troubles I may have found myself in as a younger man. To put it shortly my dear judge, I am who I am, Michael Taylor, a man whose heart yearns for adventure and whose mind never stops moving, take my strengths and weaknesses how you see them."

[Notus]

Damian

Damian heard to the old man's declaration. He was a bit apprehensive about the bold way his companion talked to the judge, and hoped Minos woudn't get mad at him.

The judge stared intensely at Taylor for a second, and than a smile apeared on his face."You speak very well mister, I give you that. That was the most clear minded statement I heard so far. I'll take it as it is."

Than he turned for Damian. "Your turn now, boy."

Damian stood still for a moment, thinking. "My greatest strenght... That I don't know your Honor. My flaws are easier to see though. I have always felt weak too weak, and for more I try to do things, I seem to always be underpowered. That's why I'm here after all. To fix my flaws." he said.

Minos stared at him for a minute, than at mister Taylor. Finally he spoke to both. "Very well, I think that's enough to see what kind of people you are. The last court will study your case and I'll call you again when time comes. Go back to your friends, I think they'll apreciate some help right now."

As the judge said this, Damian felt himself being warped back to the library, and the next he knew he was falling on the ground after bumping on Rose.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Notus

[Ragnar]

Ixidor lets his guard down as he heard Marcus' response. He then drops his pencil and sketchpad without any second thought on the ground leaving him defenseless.

"I suggest you do the same with your weapons. fair enough?" not waiting for Marcus response he then said with a friendly tone. "I guess we could talk mister...why what?"

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Big bad kitty. Big bad wolfy!

Enya fled for dear life with Miss Rose and Miss Ellaria, followed closely by Mister Ethic. She gripped Ace tightly with the other hand.

On the other side of her fear, she was also starting to feel annoyed towards the bad creatures. Not because she didn't like them, but they were bad, bad, badbadbadbad.

And Ace doesn't like them.

The child's eyes flashed an icy blue, the color contrasting her mood, and what appeared to be a wall of static opened up behind them, widening gradually in a semicircular direction, even spanning across the seemingly endless bookshelves.

This time she intended for them to be gone for good.

Monochromatic lava burst forth from the seams of time and space, pouring out rapidly and spreading, consuming all in its path.

[Rosesong]

Rose fell backwards in shock, causing Ellaria and Ethic to fall, as Damian fell out of the sky and onto her. "Damian," she puffed, "we need to go. Look." She pointed back at the she-wolf, who was quickly gaining ground on them. Helping her companions up, she began thinking. "Take Ethic's hand, Damian." Turning back to the wolf, she hollered, "Freeze!" before beginning to run from the wolf once more. She noticed the air rippling with static, and felt significant heat, but paid it no mind.

Calling back, she asked, "Where'd you go? And where's Mr. Taylor?!"

Edited June 2, 2014 by Rosesong

[Chevaleresse]

Marcus started to remove all of his weapons, placing them neatly in a pile. He winced, knowing he would be defenseless, but that seemed to matter a bit less than it had before. The pile of knives was about ankle high when he was finished. After this, he responded bluntly to Ixidor's question. "Why I don't want to kill you."

[Ragnar]

Ixidor widen his eyes after he saw Marcus' weapon stash.. man this guy come in prepared entering this place. as he stare dumbfounded by the killer's awkward answer.. "Why I don't want to kill you."

"Ahmm.. maybe you're not in the mood i guess mister?" as he looks at Marcus with a bad poker face and scratch his head.

"or maybe you are not destined to be a killer...either way its your own decision." as he feels like a hypocrite answering considering he has his own demons. "so what do you feel?"

[Sutoratosu]

Ethic didn't know what was happening as he, Rose and Ellaria fell to the ground, just that the wolf would be upon them if they didn't get up in a few seconds.

he looked around after rose helped the group back on it's feet, seeing that the young man from earlier had somehow appeared out of thin air and fallen on them.

"Take Ethic's hand, Damian."

Ethic took the guy's, Damian presumbly, hand to save him the trouble of doing it himself, seeing as how he probably would have no idea Who Rose was referring to.

the air had grown hot and heavy, He heard Rose call out another spell as the group started running again, at the same time consulting Lucian in his mind

"Isn't there something you can do about them?!"

Lucian answered back, quite annoyed...

"No, Einstein... In case you didn't notice last time, it seems that Fire has no effect on that thing! Now shut up and focus on running away."

Ethic took his advice, and then noticed that the group was missing someone... the little girl that was with Rose...

Damn... Ethic thought to himself as he ran

wish we could go back to get her... but by now... they've probably...

He pushed the thought away and kept running

[Notus]

Damian

Damian looked around completely confused. When he finally processed the situation he answered Rose, accepting Ethic's hand. "Oh, right" he said. "Mr. Taylor... we... we were on the court room with the judge Enya mentioned. And than suddenly I was back here. If Mr.Taylor did not return yet, I'm sure he'll appear soon. And is that freaking magma?!" he added, dumbfounded.

================================================

The She-Wolf ignored Rose's spell, as it was way too weak to affect it. The spell caster probably hadn't reached her full potential, or was just plain weak.

Now, when the field of magma came in it's direction, the beast was forced to a halt. Growling angry, it started to speed up circling the molten mass, trying to find a breach. The Panther was still nowhere to be found.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Notus

[Rosesong]

Rose moaned as she realized something. "Enya!" she screamed out, stopping and looking for the girl. There she was, near a growing pool of lava that separated her from the she-wolf. The creature looked furious at having been stopped from catching her prey yet again.

Letting go of Ellaria's hand, she told her comrades, "I have to get Enya, she won't stand a chance against that thing. If you want to keep going, go ahead. If you want to come with me, and maybe deal with this thing once and for all, that's great too." Having said that, she turned away from them and began sprinting toward the younger girl.

[Supernovae]

Mr. Taylor's body came crashing down, face first, back to the library floor. As he slowly pulled himself up all he could feel was an intense heat. Then he looked up and noticed that he had landed right next to the little girl from earlier. He whizzed his head to the side and couldn't help but see a large pool of lava flowing through the library floor. "Wha ... What in the hell is happening!?" he screamed as he scrambled to pull himself up.

[Rosesong]

Time seemed to slow for Rose. She watched as Mr. Taylor fell from seemingly no where to land right next to Enya, screaming, "Wha ... What in the hell is happening!?" She could feel herself tiring from what she had done before, yet knew she had to keep going. This lava that was keeping them safe wouldn't last forever, and Rose was almost positive that it was Enya's doing.

Upon reaching them, Rose quickly asked, "Are you both alright?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned to stare across the lava at the wolf. The beast seemed frustrated as it looked for a way to get to its prey. I've just been using defensive spells so far, Rose thought to herself. Maybe it's time I tried some sleight of hand with this power. Using a pencil from her bag, she snuck it into her sleeve and began using simple hand movements meant to misdirect a person's attention, and willed the pencil to become something useful. Once she stopped, she drew from her sleeve a long dagger, hissing in pain as she cut her arm while pulling it from her jacket. Taking careful aim, she then hurled the dagger toward the wolf, holding her breath and praying that her throw had been good.

[Sutoratosu]

"I have to get Enya, she won't stand a chance against that thing. If you want to keep going, go ahead. If you want to come with me, and maybe deal with this thing once and for all, that's great too."

Ethic turned to see Rose dashing off in the direction they'd came in... as well as a lot of Lava... and the little Girl, Enya.

Well... he thought to himself, letting go of Ellaria's and Damians hands

Glad to see they didn't get her... but... where the hell did Lava come from in this place? maybe...

Ethic chuckled to himself a little.

Maybe there's been a leak in the Lake of Fire.

He chuckled a little more, it felt good to actually have a laugh after so long. But all joking aside, He wasn't about to just continue running away, not when there were others risking themselves like this.

He sprinted over to them, witnessing as Rose pulled a knife from her sleeve, badly cutting herself in the process, and tossed it at the wolf, though he couldn't see if it actually hit it's mark with the light given off by the lava blocking out the sight.

"Well, how interesting..." Lucian said in his mind "I've got the feeling there's something about how she got that Knife in her sleeve in the first place"

"What are you talking about, Lucian?" Ethic asked, subvocalizing the words, genuinely perplexed by what he meant.

"Nothing..." Lucian replied "It's not important... now, Ethic, we've already discussed why RUNNING WOULD BE THE BEST OPTION HERE, haven't we? so what exactly do you intend to do to try and help?"

Ethic began thinking...

He does have a point... no power or weapons... just a bunch of white colored energy that I've seen coming off me... And I don't think that'll actually be any good to fight using...

"I don't really quite know myself, to tell the truth..." Ethic said... though maybe he was wrong about the energy... he decided that it was better to try than to do nothing at all.

He stepped up beside Rose, and began concentrating his will on calling up the energy, like he'd done subconsciously whenever he got angry before. at first the glow was faint... nothing more but a trickle... then the Glow grew a little stronger as the energy from before began to again radiating off of him.

"Ethic..." Lucian called

"Not now." Ethic responded, focusing on trying to form the energy into a sphere, feeling without even looking as it gathered in his palms and began taking shape.

He tried to take aim at the wolf, but the view was still obstructed by the lava... and Ethic wasn't even sure if the wolf was in the same place as it had been moments ago... Lucian called out again.

"Don't do it. that energy has no use by itself in combat. you'll just be draining yourself needlessly if you lob that sphere you're making into the air"

Ethic stopped trying to take aim and focused on maintaining the sphere as he replied

"Wait... You're kidding right? so this is pretty much useless?"

"Yes," Lucian replied

"by itself, that energy you're giving off is harmless... all Evokers give it off, it's what you've been using when you called out to the Arcana, well, before that little incident..."

Ethic stopped maintaining the sphere in his palms and called the energy back into him.

"Well, thanks for telling me that before I did it... but My hands are pretty much tied now, Lucian..." he said under his breath

"That's what I've been trying to tell you this whole time. the only thing you can do now is grab Enya and Rose and keep running... And I suggest you do it now..."

Knowing there was no wiser course of action now, he turned to rose, his eyes pleading

"Rose... it's pointless trying to fight that thing... Let's just grab Enya and get the hell out of here..."

[Supernovae]

Mr. Taylor got up as quickly as his old body would allow him, and grabbed his cane, he knew he wouldn't be able to run as fast as the others, the only thing he'd do is slow them down. Fortunately for Mr. Taylor though it seemed as though Rose and Ethic were more interested in fighting. Rose lobbed a bloodied knife at the creature and Ethic called upon some sort of white energy. Mr. Taylor couldn't help but think back to the encounter with the lion and the shadow creatures, hadn't he used cards of some sort to fight?

"Rose... it's pointless trying to fight that thing... Let's just grab Enya and get the hell out of here..."

Mr. Taylor sighed, there was no point in continuing to stand still, all he could do was hope that the lava gave him enough time to get away and so, he grabbed his cane and started moving.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

"Just go, I'll kill this bad wolf," snapped the child, with a steely tone to her usually naive-sounding voice.

If Misters Ethic and Taylor wouldn't be able to help then, they should just get out of her way.

The lava spread quicker, spewing and spitting as if personifying the anger Enya felt towards the evil creature. It bubbled furiously and greedily consumed the wooden furniture and shelves as it spread, faster and faster as it became thicker, toward the bad bad wolf.

Over Enya, another tear of static shimmered, as if she were readying another round of God-knew-what to throw at the mad dog, should she pass the lava as well.

[K_H]

Kenny felt nothing for a long time, and then he suddenly started feeling his Aura React to something happening outside of where he was, and seeing it glow turquoise of it's own volition. it then intensified after a little while, and then de-intensified, only to re-intensify again a little later.

What is going on?!

I Don't Know, but there's something strange going on!

Is there anything we can do to help?

Yes, there is, and you know exactly what it is!

Oh yeah. Portal Time!

and with that, Kenny used his Aura to open a Portal in front of him that led to the source of the Disturbance. Kenny then saw Ethic and the rest of the People in the group fending off the She-wolf, and being quite successful at it, too. White-hot Lava was quickly approaching it, and he saw the little Girl from earlier with a ripple of Static over her head, as if readying another attack. He decided to help her out, and Funneled as much Auric Energy as he could into her, making the Static Intensify a whole lot. he then spoke to her.

"You've got this. LET IT HAVE IT!"

he then got a large headache, and the Portal he was holding open collapsed, leaving him in the Dark Area he was sent to by Minos.

[Chevaleresse]

edit: so the forum randomly killed my post. cool.

"What I'm feeling? I don't feel. I am confused, because this is not something I have experienced before." Feeling, that is. He thought for a moment. "You are wrong about my destiny, if I have one. I absorb the life of the people I kill here. That speaks for itself." Marcus stepped closer to Ixidor, examining his face, his mannerisms. "No, it isn't that," he mumbled, mostly to himself.

[Notus]

(ahmn, Kenny, Minos sent you back to the library like the others XD )

Damian

Damian watched in awe to the epic fight going on right before him. "I want to help" he thought. "But how?"

Up to now he hadn't discovered any amazing power like the others, except for his innate talent to find people in trouble - something that he didn't think he would need right now.

He saw as Rose threw a knife at the place the wolf had been, but the shine of the incandescent magma made it hard to see anything beyond the group, so he didn't know if the weapon had hit the target.

Looking around he saw Ellaria, sitting in the floor, completely still. The poor girl should be terrorized, but strangely he didn't... feel it from her. Damian grabbed her hand. "Hey, are you OK? We should go help the others, don't you think?"

Ellaria

"Sssh!" Ellaria answered to Damian. "I'm trying to do that right now!"

Ellaria concentrated again on hearing and feeling. with her palms on the ground she felt the vibrations of everyone walking. She smeled burning wood, molten rock and blood. She heard as Rose's knife flew, whistling through the air. And she heard a soft noise when it penetrated in flesh.

She was tired of being just a burden to everyone tht tried to help her. She had few ways of helping people, but she would use her abilities to her best for these guys.

"Rose, you hit it!" she said loudly. Then she stopped and listened a little more. "It is going left now!"

[Sutoratosu]

Ethic took a step back as Enya spoke up in a surprisingly firm and uncompromising voice for a kid so young...

"Umm... alright... "he said, seeing as Mr.Taylor began trying to move away from the scene

That's not such a bad idea... he thought to himself as he began taking a few steps backwards, knowing that he was pretty much useless right now. then he stopped himself...

"No..." he said to himself "I can't just leave them here..."

Lucian spoke up, this time sighing in annoyance

"Damn it Ethic... Don't you understand? YOU CANT HELP THEM! YOU HAVE NO WAY TO, SO JUST GET OUT OF THEIR AND LET THEM HANDLE IT."

Ethic knew he was right. he turned around as the little girl begn preparing another attack, not seeing or hearing the portal Kenny opened or his shout of encouragement to Enya; he was too busy running. as fast as he could.

He passed by Damian and Ellaria

"Sorry I couldn't really help, guys" he called out as he ran "But if I run..."

He smirked a crooked smile

"I'm pretty sure that thing left to find away around the lava flow... If I run... I might give it a distraction..."

He continued tearing down the aisle as Lucian called out once more in his mind

"You know, Ethic... You're an Idiot sometimes... but damn it if you're not a noble idiot..."

Edited June 3, 2014 by Stratos

[Rosesong]

Hearing Ellaria call out to her, "Rose, you hit it!" she began to fight her exhaustion harder. Someone had opened a rift from somewhere else in the library and seemed to help Enya out, seeing as her power had intensified. Ethic, who had tried to help, ran stating that he was going to keep the wolf away from them in case it had found away around the lava.

"Ellaria, can you tell me where the wolf is? Is it in the same place? I'm going to try to nail it again," Rose called to her companion. She then reached into her jacket and pulled out a deck of cards. Hearing the girl say that the she-wolf had gone left, she began hurling cards in that direction, giving enough force that you could hear them cutting through the air.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Rosesong