Raid's Tome: Celestial Entry

I've decided to add a bit of a reference section here for the primary spirits, angels, demons, and other beings I feel noteworthy here. Think of it like the glossary. It may include ones that haven't been introduced yet, just because I haven't written that far yet, so there may be spoilers for the reader. I'll also add notes, thoughts, and the like under each of these as I go.

Guardian 01: Lia
Category: Angel
Specialization: Healing
Weapon of choice: None, Staff
Apparent power: Weak, but growing. (still hides during fights)
Appearance: Female red haired angel, approximately 5'8"-5'10", wears a white dress with gold detailing.
(Below, there's a sketch that the tome has taken and refined until it displays this image: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5356aa98e4b0e10db1993391/5984aa12e6f2e1810040a5db/5370e3d6e4b0e5824b32a8a8/1513379713858/Angel+of+Flight+Alabaster.jpg )

Notes:

Guardian 02: Ari
Category: Summoned Guardian, ex-god(?)
Specialization: Defense, front line tank/brawler
Weapon of Choice: Sword/Large Shield
Apparent Power: Definitely stronger than me right now, though still has some trouble handling certain demon types.
Appearance: Female brown haired warrior, Norse aesthetic. ( Armor appearance is similar to this, but is more fur/hide than straps: https://dumielauxepices.net/sites/default/files/fantasy-women-clipart-armor-601880-1676787.jpg )

Notes:


vvvv Not Introduced Yet vvvv

Guardian 03: The Trio:  Patrecia (Cia), Patricia, Patty
3a. Cia
Category: Guardian Spirit
Specialization: Caster, offensive and defensive spells, intelligence gathering
Weapon of choice: Spell tome
Apparent power: Seems like she used to be stronger, but recent events left the trio weakened
Appearance: Female, around 5', wears a deep, velvet blue lab coat, with matching color hair down to her waist
Notes: Brains of the trio. Seems like the primary one of the three, since she's the one usually around. Sometimes all three are around at once.

3b. Patricia
Category: Guardian Spirit
Specialization: Healing/Support
Weapon of choice: Staff
Apparent power: Seems like she used to be stronger, but recent events left the trio weakened
Appearance: Female, around 6'2", wears a velvet blue dress and has matching colored hair down to her shoulders
Notes: More of a maternal personality

3c. Patty
Category: Guardian Spirit
Specialization: Front line brawler
Weapon of choice: Fists/Gauntlets
Apparent power: Seems like she used to be stronger, but recent events left the trio weakened
Appearance: Female, around 5'7", wears more form fitting armor to allow for quick movement, similarly colored as the other 2, with hair kept shorter to just halfway down her neck.
Note: Definitely the energetic one, which shows in her mobile fighting style.



"I'm starting this with the disclaimer that some details or sections may be shorter than others due to my own spotty memory. Names have also been at least slightly changed, for various reasons. I'll start it off with the beginning, back when I was only discovering how close the spirits were..."

Part 1: The Realist

Amongst the group I was part of at the time, I eventually learned that not only were each of them spiritually inclined, but were working together on... something. At this point in time, I'd had no experience with the supernatural, and when I would ask further, I'd get the same warning that parents would give their children. 'It's not safe,' 'You can't take it back if you find out,' 'Are you SURE you want to? You might not be able to protect yourself if we teach you,' or things like that. Now, while I was willing to give something like this a chance, they'd occasionally allude to their own spirits (or in Jay's case, demons) being around, but I could never sense them. They all said it was because I wasn't awakened to them. While I didn't entirely buy that part, it wasn't something I could really deny either. I had no experience at all. But here's the thing: I'm the type who wants to know the truth, no matter how good or bad it may be. Whether a blessing or a curse, I'll take it in stride. Over time, they finally agreed to try to help me awaken to the spirit world. The problems, though, were that I wasn't able to even sense spirits, much less interact with them, and I didn't have one of my own that I knew of. Alicia tried to force my vision open once, but ended up failing, only leaving me stuck recovering from the power shock my system took from the attempt.

Over the next couple months, I'd learned bits and pieces of what was going on behind the scenes. There was a war between Heaven and Hell culminating, faster than anyone knew, and if things were left as is, Heaven wasn't in any position to win. And go figure, the eternal cliche of 'the war's building up where we live' happened to be true. The reason being, there was a Hell Hole (i.e. portal to Hell) in the city, and still is to this day. The night I finally came to sense spirits was unexpected as any. I was out with Alicia and another of her friends grabbing some dinner, when all of the sudden, the air felt just a little bit more thick, heavy, and there was a sense of anxiousness looming that I couldn't place. The two of them noticed it as well, but were visibly panicked, ordering me to get back to the carraige as fast as possible, so I wouldn't be out in the open. Well, I got there quickly enough, but before I could open it, that's when I felt it. I felt SOMETHING, like something had lept straight through me, leaving me staggering for balance even though I wasn't physically touched. After a couple moments trying to get the door open, I flopped in and slammed the door as soon as I could. The instant my ass touched the seat, every bit of that was gone... (due to protections on it, I was later told) well, mostly. There was a weird weight on my arm I couldn't explain, like something was lying on it, weighing it down. It felt... angry? I wasn't quite sure, but while we were all making our escape, one things stuck out: a shut down fur trading post. Shaking my head and thinking something about it being good that it's gone, the weight changed. It was lighter, and felt calm, cool, and peaceful. It felt like there was even a gentle licking at my hand.  Arriving back at Alicia's place, she finally got a chance to check my arm. Apparently a hellhound hitchhiked through there in my arm! It wasn't malicious anymore, so we had that going for us, I guess? Anyway, it decided to tag along with her friend. I wasn't completely sure about what happened, but I knew one thing: I had firsthand proof of spirits that I could believe, and I could sense them now.

Over time, I'd started learning more about spirits and the like. I'd come to find out a coworker of mine, Marsha, was willing to teach me a bit as well. Now, she preached a lot less direct methods than I was used to being around (read: SAFER), but there was one piece that I took hold of. My friends had been trying to brute force my guardian's appearance through a myriad of means, including, but not limited to, approaching the hell hole, to try to get it to come defend me. Long story short, nothing had worked, but I never got attacked. They were pretty uneventful attempts, to be honest. But, the piece I took was that I simply had to ask my guardian to show itself. So, working nights, we had a whooooole lot of nothing to do. During a night that my mind was wandering about, mulling over my likely pointless existence, I closed my eyes, concentrated, and simply... asked. I asked my guardian to come to me, to show me why I'm here, what the point of my life is... And hoooooo boy, did I get that answer and then some. My vision went completely white from the blindingly bright light as she appeared. My guardian angel. Curled up in my lap, I was in awe, and without a second to think about what happened, she leaned in and kissed me.

The kiss, however, sent my mind into a vision. I could hear a song as my vision came back to me... ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwhw6AScE_o ) All around me, battle, bloodshed, death, destruction. The place looked holy, but the sheer volume of angels and demons fighting... It was an invasion, I knew that somehow. Looking around, it was clear who was winning... The holy forces were being decimated. Behind some of the barricades, I saw something... It was me. I was up front, leading the failing forces, cutting down whatever demons came. Slowly, the battle started to even out, until the demons' commander appeared. No, it wasn't Satan, Hades, or any of them. For some reason, it was Death himself. Now, I couldn't say why at the time, though I know why now. (After later explaining the vision to the others, they explained that Death had overthrown Hades after becoming power hungry, and was on a warpath, hence the escalating war) As the vision ended, it'd been well over half an hour that I'd been completely zoned out. The vision and song were gone, but there she was. She didn't talk at the time, or if she did, I couldn't hear her yet. I later found out her name: Lia. Fast forwarding a little, I gradually learned a few things. One, she was the daughter of someone called the 'Celestial Lord,' and APPARENTLY, I'd been chosen to become the next in line, which is why it was me in the vision, stuck with the ENVIOUS position of fighting off a demonic ARMY. Two, the reason she hadn't shown herself earlier... well, she wasn't a fighter. At all. If even a low class demon came out, she hid inside my spirit. The problem was, even I couldn't defend myself either, so I was stuck relying on my group to cover me until I grew. Man, did I have a long way to go before I could even dream of fulfilling anything she saw in me...

Also, to whoever may read this: I know this sounds like a load of crazy shit, but just bare with me. I thought it was insane at this point as well.


Part 2: The Teacher

After a few weeks of getting used to Lia, I decided to finally stop by a spirit healer that stayed a short ways from where I was staying at the time. I hadn't learned about them until just recently, but I'd never had a reason to look for one. The part I was interested in was their classes. They offered things from history lessons on dragons, fairies, and the like, or classes on how to access the knowledge of past lives, summoning spiritual guardians, or how to heal. Most of their classes were around 20-40 gold, but the healing ones were about 200 gold per level! Having left my couple thousand gold back at the old guild, I was kiiiiiinda screwed financially. So, hitting the job board grindstone, I began taking a couple of their cheaper side classes while saving up for the more expensive ones.

One I decided to take was the one on summoning a guardian. Each of their classes had anywhere between 7-10 students on average. This one was no exception. Long story short (mainly because I reaaallllyyyy don't remember the details on the summoning that well, since I haven't had to use it since...), it took me a bit longer than the rest of the class to call one to me, but the guardian I called went by Ari. Her full name was longer, though didn't sound like it fit with her Norse appearance. Who am I to judge, though? She seemed pretty calm and confident, definitely someone I'd be able to spar with for some good training. One of the other students named off their guardian, which I believe was a lesser oriental god, if I recall, while the rest seemed to have more random guides.

Now sure, I could've gone through and tried to call another guardian to me whenever, but seriously, it's taxing enough just to have the two of them active at the same time as is! Since I'm still not too used to them, I can be around one or the other for probably a couple hours before I start to develop a headache, though that gets accelerated if they're both around, and even more if they're having to fight or draw on any of their power. Besides, I didn't really have a need to randomly call more guardians. I was pretty well content with Lia and Ari.

After about a month of saving, I was finally able to afford taking some of the healing classes. The first session was supposed to have had 4 people, according to Laura (the healer), but I was the only one who'd shown up. I wasn't going to complain about it being a private lesson. She taught a more effective variant of Reiki healing. The main distinction in the method she taught didn't draw upon your own energy. The reasons behind this are because you only have so much energy yourself, and if any of the energy that was used to heal your client returned to you, it could carry the energy connected to their sickness or injury back into you, putting you at risk as well. Instead, you call upon light energy from an outside source, using it to extract, purify, or eradicate the tainted energies in the client. There was more to the explanation than that, but I've got that tucked away in another book she gave me. Since I was the only student for the day, the class finished a lot sooner than usual, so she had me practice on a few of her clients. Once they described their pain, I'd do what I could to handle it myself, often with decent results, then she'd go through and finish the job. I'd have Lia help as well, since she was practicing as well.

All in all, it was definitely a beneficial experience meeting her. One perk of taking her classes is that you only have to pay for each one once, and then you can choose to retake them at any time for free. I really should retake the healing class again sometime...












Section 2: Tactics/Stratagems

In this section, there are several pages of post fight analysis descriptions of past fights, including possible ways things could've gone different, tactics that could've been used, as well as likely scenarios that could've happened. Some of the fights that are listed are: The fight on the cruise ship with Ilkay and Zerika against Steiner and the spec ops rabbit, whatever that thing was; The battles in the Arcane College that ultimately led to fighting the avatar of a being trying to overthrow Jubileus, the Time God; and the rescue mission to save Ilkay, Tailwind, and Renchet.