Terminus: To Defy Mortyl II

[20:08] Not too far off, a disturbance could be heard -- seems there was someone pleading with some of the guardsmen to let them into the shrine room.

It's strange, but it hardly seems like a matter of importance...
(Etheric Presence)
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[20:12] A gander at Enkus. "To join Acentitus Mundus, you must learn the Oath of our Patron. You must walk the path of devotion.. It is-" His statement cuts off.

Noise capturing heightened senses, namely hearing for the moment, a glance towards the entrance of the room. Erenthius turned, striding towards the door.

"One moment Enkus.." A hand reaches for the door, intention to open it.

If only to hear what is going on, and to get to the botom of the interruption..
(Erenthius C. Meeksworth)
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[20:14] Enkus shivers a little. This aura... It permeated the room before, but now it was thicker, like a humid pall that fell over his form. He pushed back with his aura, lightly, if only to feel through touch. It was Enkus' own technique; he had been nurturing it unknowningly since he lost his eye. In it's place, was this faint way of "seeing".

But, unfortunately, he could not see much, other than whatever "it" was. For vision so rudimentary couldn't be compared to vision itself. It was more like a sixth sense.

All of this resulted in naught more than a look around the room. Though, this time, worry was not branded on his face. Enkus was used to this sort of thing, as unfortunate as it was.

"...An oath? Of course. Anything for the Patron."
His mind was not focusing on Erenthius' words.
(Enkus)
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[20:14] Enkus thinks, "The sword. It's just like the sword, but bigger..."
[20:15] Enkus thinks, "I must look at it more, tonight... I miss the sword already."
[20:23] Into the room, eventually ventured a trio...
Civilians, unbound by a position of authority known across any of Antefinem.

They were not clergymen...
They were not Guards nor Officers...
They weren't even of the Senate...

But amongst the three, one individual was being carried between them both, as ghastly pale as they'd come. His breathing, was more akin to wheezing...
The flesh, covered in red spots...
Their veins, blackened...
They couldn't have been much older than Enkus -- yet, sickness was taking them.

Such was the plight of a non-magi, for their anatomy simply lacked the power to save them.
''See? I told you we could get you to the shrine! You're gonna be alright.''

So, that was it...
It would appear a group had traveled up the spire in hopes of finding out if the rumors were true, in desperate hopes of healing their dying friend. This, would come to a screaming halt, when they would find a guardsman at the door -- but not just any guardsman...
Erenthius C. Meeksworth
They froze in their tracks, gazing at the Ookami with fear.

Would their hopes be squandered, here and now? They were not of those within any inner circles, nor had anything that set them apart. Though, if they could pray to the Patron, or even manage to have just an iota's worth of mercy, then perhaps...

Their friend had a chance to live...
What would Erenthius do, in such a circumstance?
(Etheric Presence)
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[20:23] Etheric Presence's voice (to Erenthius C. Meeksworth): Let them pass... But escort this 'Enkus', alongside yourself -- Out... For the time being.
[20:25] Enkus looks expectantly at Erenthius' decision.
(Enkus)
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[20:30] Etheric Presence's voice (to Erenthius C. Meeksworth): No one is allowed into, nor out of my shrine until further notice...
[20:34] A flat look. The Ookami glances at the trio of non-magi. They t'weren't any of note, not senate, nor guards like himself, or even your average clergyman.

Studying the figure carried. A ghastly visage, pallor oft a sickened guise. A wheezing noise carrying past the sickly non-magi's lips. Flesh covered in red splotches, akin to ink whorls, yet of the colour red akin blood.

Blackened veins, signs of the touch of occultism, yet given these were non-magi..Such.. was highly unlikely to be a result of such. Casting a glance at Enkus, he stepped back. Allowing for the trio of non-magi to enter the shrine.

Voice slipping past lips. "Come Enkus, these non-magi, have need of our Patron.. And it is best I begin teaching you the oaths of the Faith."

He made for the door. Voice carrying to the guards outside the door. "None are allowed into the Shrine, or permitted to leave, until the Patron signals for such.."
(Erenthius C. Meeksworth)
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[21:53] A sickly woman was brought before the pool, covered in disease, and fighting for the last vestiges of life clinging to him. The clergymen took pause in their prayer to gaze upon the sight in shock. The two others that brought their suffering friend, dropped to their knees to plead -- to beg, for even the slightest hope that the Patron would listen despite the lack of pact established with them.

They had nothing to offer...
No power nor tributes to barter...
Nothing at all, and yet -- they cried out.

The Maledictus at the head of the pool looked out for the group, their eyes settled upon the sickly before their body seemingly shifted. Their eyes squinted somewhat, and subtly he waded side to side as he stood upright.
Did the Patron reach out to them?

''Rest him in His blood...''
Perhaps...

The Maledictus was a man adorn in a regal variant of the Acentitus Mundus cloaks and robes, reaching out for the breadth of the room, as though to take it all in. Rather, he was inviting the effort to engage in an act that would behold the numbers to his Patron's glory!

The prayers of the clergymen commenced, this time coming across akin to chanting...

A young clergyman passed by the other two, to pick up the sickly woman, gently risen within one's arms. They were frail -- and fading away, and in a strained motion? They were given a heave, into the alchemical preservatives of vantablack substance.

Deep beneath the depths of such however, lied the husk of the Fallen Patron -- presumed dead by those that had blasphemed his existence, and sought to destroy this proto-settlement not too long ago.

Those that had brought their friend to the shrine looked on in shock, nay -- horror, but before they could do anything? Antefinemite guardsman leaped out from the entrance's mouth, grabbing aholdof them and preventing them from charging into the pool after their friend. One however, had managed to wriggle free, diving in after their friend to prevent them a fate of drowning within such an enigmatic fluid.

Together, the duo would descend into the depths...
As though in aquatic freefall, slowly drifting for the bottom...

For the decrepit? This, was likely where one would typically meet their end...
The burning sensation of the substance sought to peel further at the skin, as though to unmake them. A pulsating energy sought to reverberate throughout their entire being. This, was the power of an ancient, and their essence kneaded through them, cloth, flesh and all...

Their thoughts were no secret to it...
Their dreams, visions and aspirations... As available as an open book.
Where Fate had destined her story to end, this Patron applied an appendum…
For it, was the proclaimed true Harbinger Of The End.

Before one's eyes, before the darkness would take them whole...
Before the fluid would fill their lungs...
Before they would meet the Patron at the bottom...
They would behold a friend in life, rapidly eroded away from the substance -- lacking the magical resilience necessary to survive its corrosive properties.

Such a fate, was nothing that this nameless individual was immune to...

"This story, does not End yet..."

Where one was reduced to oblivion, to join the ambiguous substance of their Patron in a failed attempt to save their friend? The other was consumed, lost of their memories in life save for sparse aspects. The emotions that oft charred one's outlook in life proved strongest, in tandem with random flecks of what one sought to claim to...

They may've been corrupted, but it was far from an unclimbable depth. For their Patron couldspare those, even on the brink of Death. Mortyl would not have her due today...
"A R I S E"
A splash, and a telekinetic aegis sought to launch one of the two back out to the surface, allowing them to collapse upon the outside of the pit.

The sole survivor of the endeavor looked on in absolute horror, before fainting outright, carried away by a guardsman to be properly dealt with, while clergymen immediately put their prayers to an abrupt halt, throwing a cloak and hood over what had stumbled from the shrine's pool.

The Maledictus lowered their arms, gazing upon what he had just condoned... Before managing his first words.
''...Bring them armor... A full suit. The masses must not know.''
(Etheric Presence)
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[22:09] A life barely clinging on, death on the verge, profuse as it was absurd to cling so desperately for so long yet the only hope of salvation in sight dragged with only a drop of strength in...no words fell out for she could not plead with no strength but to live. Yet it seemed that today would not be the end of it all for her internal clinging cries for life were answered.

Ghostly pale eyes on the brink of that merciless oblivion of death stared upon the regalia present, unable to reply yet defiant in the face of this pestilence. Fading yet still...

Thoughts murky as the chants began, the substance swallowing her like the void, yet it felt deafening in mind. There it was. Sudden as the submerging. Faced with an unexplainable truth to it all it seemed.

A fallen god? Mind so gone that in this floating abyss only the stare persisted yet still

The burning relief of skin as if being reborn a new, for all she saw, was it really worth questioning? to be unmade yet live, it was what at the basis what was wished for. A life albeit not the same.

Rebuilt, read and peered into like a wooden doll, This harbinger wished for more it seemed as final thoughts faded

Yet awoken, that brief meeting continued, twisted, briefly glimpsed by a mind unaccustomed and certainly tainted. Another word. Awakened. Arisen as said. A fractured mind filled with much, reduced to mostly silence yet resolve.

sitting once more on the edge of oblivion, on yet another path diverged. The reborn woman simply sat, patiently, understanding yet not in equal measures, and simply letting armored be donned. "I see..."
(Golden Jester)
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[22:20] Not only could the End be induced...
It could be denied...

Reborn, and set upon the world once more...
Their compatriots -- gone. One perished, the other imprisoned...
None beyond Terminus' blood would come to know of the nature of her realized existence.
"Learn of your home, as you did in the past.
Understand it well...

Protect my worshippers...
Antefinem... Until the prophecy is done."

Whether they would patrol the coastline...
Whether they would hunt Antefinem's enemies...
Whether they would build the land from the inside...
It was up to them -- A freedom allotted by the Patron.
(Etheric Presence)
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[22:25] Listened, watching, fitted now with the new granted reverence for that which their patron wished. To protect Antefinem and the worshippers. The glint of golden mask donned, concealing the nature of which had taken place.

The mask as much of a being as she was, a front to all only select may now view the truth, a slow nod is given. "As...thy wishes...watching...until the day commands..." With willow wisp of a voice, ever muffled by mask.

A new life, beckoned by patron, now induced, begins. The end denied.
(Golden Jester)
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