[00:15]
He would be able to hear her before he could see her. Beauty found within the way the earthen world spirals around her lithe frame. Where marble and crystal join together to create brilliant, beautiful stalagmites....All surrounding her figure in opulence, accentuating the jewels that bedazzle her mocha frame. "Calael." It would be the first thing to spill from her lips, almost uttered within what seemed to be a rather disappointing tone. "Someone who sat by and watched while their own sister willingly put this wedge between our two cities." She pursed her lips, her hand reaching carefully towards the scythe situated at her back.

"I honestly...Don't think that I can blame you for it. Magdalene is...Well...Quite incompetent. Maybe that's why she's not with power in your city." She breathes in and then out...The sin of pride flourishing, bruises and cuts from her earlier battles all seemingly vanishing at once...

"I just need to know why..." She says, her gaze furrowing - the scythe within her hand beginning to twirl as she rocks from side to side. "Why didn't you invite us to the summit? Why did you interfere in our fight with Cruxati? Just...Why?" She adds, her dull gaze moreso...Perplexed than angry. Either way...

"Come, come. I'm sure you can talk while we fight." It'll be interesting, after all...
(Ashalle)
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[00:30] From the air over the burning swamplands and jungles to the south, Calael was without stealth or any traits that would have made him inconspicuous. It was the opposite. It was during the nights of this war that he took flight and became what some would mistaken as a burning meteor crashing through the atmosphere, or a distant, shooting star for those farther away.

With an aura that was near blindingly white with an azure center, the demiangel aimed to support what troops he could and rained down golden swords with deadly accuracy. Entire battalions were diverted due to his presence, and steadily, toward his true target of Dawn, those under his care advanced.

It was when he saw the shimmering stones and the exorcist's earth move that he would finally touch the war torn land with his boots.

"Queen Ashalle." he said as she spoke his name. Despite her disappointing tone, his was one of respect, one that he gave her as if they were meeting in a closed room rather than a savage battleground. "I wasn't exactly expecting to come across you myself... I've been... horribly disappointed in Dusk's participation here. Pushing you to their frontlines..." The demiangel sighed, as if he shouldn't have hoped for anything less.

In regards to his sister, he was silent and allowed Ashalle to say her piece. He knew that Magdalen's outbursts had ruined what bridge Levengard and Briarlocke once held, and it had been for that very reason that Ashalle's assessment was correct; the eldest Elisheva was kept from making any authoritative positions. "My sister's actions were deplorable... and destructive. But I had to defend my son when the fighting broke out that day. If I could have truly stopped it, I would have. I meant what I said when I offered you gratitude for Nasu Ixis, and I still have you to thank for his fate. I wish that day had gone... differently."

With starfire discs that made up the winglike shapes on Calael's back, he frowned when asked about the summit and responded in kind. "It was a mistake not to invite you, another one I wish I could take back. I was... told you had already given in to Akasha's words, that you had already planned to ally yourself with him. The summit was to fight against him, as Agarthans, as humanity unified together."

"We would have never interfered with Cruxati if the Fallen weren't supporting you. Levengard's fight isn't with you, Ashalle. My fight is with Akasha, with Sors Ultovex. Even now you aren't our target... even now I... cling to hope that once the dust settles around Dusk, we will be able to talk once again."

"We want the same things, don't we? A better future for all of us, a future where we are free and capable of being our best selves? Where humans are able to rise up from nothing and become something?"

He looked around as if he had only noticed something, as if there was another mistake he made.

"...Ultovex has diverted Levengard's troops to push through the south. You know Thera's fight is with him. It has been our mistake not to pay the toll you have over this land." The demiangel's golden eyes turned back to the Queen of the south. "What is the toll for all these men crossing? What do we have to pay to reach the darkest part of Agartha and pull the weeds from it without turning you further against us?"

A genuine question, one the Virtue asked in earnest. He had, after all, always paid the toll, even when Crafthold still stood with he as its Peacekeeper.
(Calael E. Kang)
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[00:39] "Then you should imagine my surprise when Laemor came back to me with the report. Of how your people 'expected' that we would kneel so easily to an angel. Of how your people had said that they 'knew' this was going to happen...And I'm certain that your voice was amongst them, wasn't it?" Her voice remains low, calm...Despite the amount of disgust that lingers upon her individual. "You would have interfered regardless...They begged for your help time and time again. And you listened to each of them, didn't you?" Her grip upon her scythe tightens, but she isn't mad. After all, they were right.

"You supporting Cruxati killed Laemor. Someone who hadn't killed a single person in this world. Someone who hadn't even thought of ending a life....You destroyed him. That same person that had tried to diffuse our hatred towards one another - you all pushed away. How can you be your best self when you are nothing more than a tired, drunkard filled with sloth. You 'defended' nothing back then....No, you sat there and you watched and you think that your words- that your actions now can change what you did. But it can't. You can't." She breathes in and then out.

"Do you consider these angels to be supporting us? Where is the angel now...? What blessings have they given us outside of cages and more? What would you know about assistance when you didn't even think to ask..." Shedoesn't yell. Instead, she smiles...Actually, laughing.

"You didn't even ask how we were...Shame. Sad. And you're supposed to be a representative of the light. Tut tut tut." She tuts, shaking her head as she takes a step forward.

"Your people are ruthless. They only burn what they cannot control...And that's why they are the way that they are now. That's why Laemor left. That's why Keitaro left. And that's why the Hirai brothers left as well." She says.

"You might not want to admit it but...You've lost sight of the vision. All of you have. But I can't blame you...I suppose." Regardless...For now, she'd just shake her head. "--Enough talking. I said that we should fight." And so, she launches herself within his direction.


(Ashalle)
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[00:50] As soon as Ashalle leapt forward, Calael's wings truly extended, burning, white feathers as bright as the sun blinded her and allowed him the chance to take flight once again. With fingers drawn together, the demiangel snapped and ignited wreaths of flame bound by azure, cosmic rings to manipulate them around both himself as well as char the grass at his command.

"We have lost sight of our vision!" He cried out, his voice still, somehow, attempting to express his regret and sorrow. There was a leveled pain that only one cursed with Wisdom could know, a grandiose amount of knowledge that spoke of what had, has, and will happen. To call him a drunkard brought about Cal's shame as well, for he knew her words to be true.

"But Laemor! I spoke with him on neutral terms, did he not tell you?" The Kang swooped down close enough to find the Queen's insects attacking his arms and legs, he found the noxious fumes in the air choke him and the earth coiled around his body to keep him in place so that she could force the worst aspects of nature onto her opponent. "We shared a drink, we spoke and talked and... and I tried-- I'm still trying to bring peace to this world. Someone has to care, someone has to try."

With another extension of his wings outward, the earthen tomb shattered and Calael rose into the air. He raised a gloved hand and the great tome upon his back opened wide, blank pages filled themselves with runes of blue and golden light alike while dozens and dozens of golden swords manifested overhead.

"I am acting now. I am acting and fighting for what I must, to defeat who I must." The demiangel waved his hand forward and the artillery fell, slicing and cutting through Ashalle's insects. And though many found their mark on the Queen herself, none were lethal, not one sword so much as left a scratch.

"And that isn't you!"
(Calael E. Kang)
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[00:52]
This is what you wanted. Conversations with Siegfried rush to her mind when she thinks about it. How she had asked him that the one thing that she wanted within this world - is if she couldn't be made whole...Is to die. To find someone that would be able to be strong enough to end the one thing that she couldn't find herself doing. The truth of the matter, however, is that she was too strong to do it herself. To end what she couldn't stop. To douse the flames of her soul that angrily burned at the world.

She was filled with incomprehensible hatred. Perhaps...For all of the right reasons. People betrayed her, spoke down of her being, thought of her as something less when she claimed to be something much...Much more. And now...? Now what more could she possibly say? Bitterness arises upon her bloodied visage...The angelic daggers that pierce her form stay logged deep...revealing grotesque, sickening wounds that showed muscle and sinew cleanly sliced from the bone..

And yet...

A single hand reaches towards it - and rips it out. More blood. More sickness spilling across the prairies herself. "You all think that you're saving people when you're killing them. Don't you think that it's a shame...When your own people come to a land filled with sin to get away from you?" Heaving breathes are spoken...The eye taken by Thalia closing...The pride of her being reminding her of her failures...Pushing her farther. Forcing her to fight harder.

Prove yourself to me again. Stand up. Fight. Bleed. Stand up. Fight. Bleed. It becomes a mantra within her head...Spoken as she grasps onto her scythe once more...Her teeth gritting, her smile widening considerably.

"Fuck you, Calael. Fuck you. Fuck Magdalen. Fuck you every angel for ruining everything. Humanity doesn't NEED you. WE DON'T WANT YOU!" Who says that she wanted a blessing now? Who says that she wanted to do anything with those fallen when in reality, she knows...

"And because of it - I AM your opponent." Her pride flourishes, blossoming in brilliant, decadent arts - heaving, sporadic breathes spilling past her lips. "Me. And I will do what you all couldn't! ME! It's supposed to be ME!"
(Ashalle)
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[01:04] She screams. These hands are filled with so much blood. This future, filled with the deaths of so many. All of their voices. All of their silhouettes. All of their eyes - she can see them! All of those that she has killed say her name in succession - praising her for their untimely deaths, ridiculing her - saying how could someone so great fall so easily at a time like this? It is only then - only then, when she finds herself within absolute abandon, does she gain the upperhand within battle...Opting to simply lose all process of thought and attack as anyone else possibly would.

"If you- haah -lost the vision, then why try to make it seem as if you haven't. Why do you fight when you're no good yourself?!" Her voice rises amongst the crackle and popping of the flames themselves. The sin caught within her throat....Forcing her hands to flex around the scythe as it twirls. "You aren't supposed to be the evil ones but you are..!" Dark, twisted. All of Agartha realizes that these angels are no good. And it's a shame when many of their own children rebuke them for their happenings. It's a shame that they stole her role in this game.

"YOU had the power to make a difference and you failed. Look at how low. How pathetic. How sick you all are...And you feel as if you're in any position to fight." Hands of marble and crystal embrace his form as she closes the distance - stepping forward through the daggers that lodge themselves into her being as a hand raises..

In tandem, the earthen grasp crushes him back down to the earth, where the spikes meet his frame. Seemingly dodging all vital points...But focusing upon his legs and arms. As if she were attempting to disarm him, rather than kill.

"You don't deserve it. You don't deserve what you have when you can't even set your own family right. What good are you, Calael?" She says. "You're just another version of Thera. Someone who wants to genocide people because they don't want to be underneath your thumb. You might be tired...But you're worse than me."

And yet, she prepares herself for yet another round...Still. Mo
(Ashalle)
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[01:09] 'Humanity doesn't NEED you'.

They were words as old as Calael's time on Agartha, though when he had first arrived they were spoken in a different light, one of praise, one of worship, worship he had never wanted. Were they not human? Was he not mortal? The people had often treated them as if the Elishevas were different, and all his life he had attempted to walk with them, to learn from them, to be just another person trying to get by.

It was never enough. Shai had learned to hate the demiangels for what they were, and Ashalle certainly had as well.

The comment took him off guard, and the Virtue made the mistake of flying to close and too low. Despite the volleys and whips of flames and judgement swords, Calael found himself overwhelmed in smoke and smog, the earth once again crushing his armor around his legs and arms. The spikes pierced his body, causing the Kang to cry out in pain.

And all the while he shook his head, trying to fight the vocal battle as well as the real one. "I will never stop trying, I won't give in." Blood spilled from his own lip as a shard cut across his cheek. "You aren't a monster. You aren't what they say you are, you're still a person, still a human like me. I don't aim to kill anyone-- only Ultovex, only the real evil."

Though he knew much of what she said was correct. Thera's Levengard had done so much damage in the wake of this militarized act, that the city would never been seen the same way again. Another extend of his wings and Calael was back in the air, albeit a trail of dark, crimson lifeblood trailing to the ground below him.

A Virtue who could see all stood before the Sin who believed she was exactly that. Their blinding lights of angelic blessings and curses shined out as adversaries, despite what Calael had said about her not being his enemy.

"I'm not anything more than what you are, I'm not above or different I-" Through the burns and blood, Calael held an eye shut as ash flew across his face and he uttered, "All I am... is a man- trying to do what's right."
(Calael E. Kang)
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[01:11] ** Ashalle has inflicted an injury upon Calael E. Kang. ("Temporary Injury", "Temporary Injury", "Temporary", "Duration: Medium (4 days)") **
[01:27] Come here. She braces herself for the clutches of darkness within her being. The moment where she chokes upon the sin. When her grunts of anguish becomes filled with sadistic glee - sincere laughter that hangs upon the wayward winds of the prairies. So many images. So many lives lost. All for the cause of establishing one's self. All for the cause of making certain that this city...That her people can thrive. Admittedly, even she knows that she is no good...And while others might believe it...She can only feel herself choking on the emotion that makes her feel more than just alive. It makes her feel whole again. The void that Laemor once encompassed now flourishing, the words that spill from her lips are streamed in opulence and gold...

Stand up. Fight. Bleed. She sways within these winds, uncertain if she were dancing or preparing herself to embrace unconsciousness. But as the crimson scythe twirls - she can feel nothing more the bliss amidst the moment - the wild arcs swinging, deflecting golden daggers sent her way...Her voice flooding..

"How disrespectful.." After all, within these moments - where the forces of good and evil clash, what more could she possibly say? What more could she possibly do other than play the hand that has been given to her. "Look at yourself...Look at your wings. Look at the things you've done or haven't in this case. How dare you call yourself human." Disgust stays upon her features - her fuchsia gaze emptied...tunneled as she steps forward..

Stand up. Fight. Bleed. The drums within her mind continues, the pulsing going forward as curses and blessings shine. "You aren't man enough to save this world, Calael...Even with your wings, you're beneath us." She winces amidst the battle...Quick upon her feet, insects launched within his direction to shroud his view as she ensnares him with her whip, twisting it around his arm before...

CRACK!

Her arm jerks and the sound echoes. As the whip snaps in half...His arm bends at a horrid angle, breaking from the duress of the sin. "Just give up Calael. You can't play hero anymore when you've failed. Your time is over. It's been over." She states while stepping forward, the earth around him rumbling...

A second attempt at grasping him being made. "So, if you want an example of how things should be...Why rot in the Levengard. Come with me and I'll show you." A smile as hands of marble attempt to forcefully pin him down..."You can make a true difference when you let go of all of the lies and secrets you all have in that city."
(Ashalle)
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[01:44] Still she called him something else, still she pointed out those things that set him apart from the rest of Agartha's people.

Ashalle had learned quick and well. Despite his early advantage, the Sin countered nearly every sword, she had sidestepped every inferno sent her direction, save some lucky few that managed to burn Ashalle, only be wiped clean by the power of her curse.

It was in a moment of silence that he closed his eyes, relying on his blessing to guide him here. A flood of vision came to his mind and instead of moving away, countering, or striking out, the demiangel let her whip coil around his arm and burn. He let her magic infest to the bone, to bleed, to let her see how his wounds didn't heal back, not right away at least.

Blood stained his armor and face, his white cloak soiled by the violence he abhorred so.

"I'm not a hero." He stated, this time without a yell, without anger of malice in his voice. Golden eyes turned to Ashalle, a gaze filled even now with a sad, distant hope. "Levengard is sick, but I am not. Levengard has lost its way, Ashalle, but I cannot be steered away from the job I have to do." Maybe part of him considered it, wanted to follow her and give aid, but he knew a city of Sin wouldn't ever be a place he'd feel comfortable and welcome.

Instead of wincing at the pain, Calael rolled his arm, pulling and tugging at the whip to bring Ashalle closer. Hands grasped and grabbed at his dented armor, and the white feathers that fell around them caused his divine wings to vanish for the moment.

"I am human because I still care, because I still see you as the girl I saw in the swamps beneath her tower. As the girl napping at the wall, unable to claim my toll, but who would surely wake up to it anyway." He was speaking still to her past, to try to show that he did not hate her, that he truly couldn't hate anyone.

"I have to remind people that this place- this war- it's not our natural way. It's not who we are supposed to be... and I can't go with you for that reason..." A third and final time, explosive, blue starfire wings cracked and sundered the earthen tomb of hands that tried to keep him there, and the tome upon Calael's back snapped closed.

His cosmic might took the demiangel back into the air, his arm bent at his side as he didn't try to nurse the maggoty cuts or the broken bone.

"I have no lies. No secrets. I am Calael Elisheva Kang, I am the Firekeeper. I am the demiangel raised upon the philosophies of archon and angel alike. I am a servant. And nothing more.I offer second chances, Ashalle. To everyone..."

With his good hand Calael reached behind his back and pulled something out, but he was too high in an obvious retreat for her to be able to see what it was.

"But you haven't yet done any wrong. You fight for your people, for those you love, for a war you believe is right. That isn't evil."

Coins began to fall across the grass, jingling and shining in the fires.

"...the only lie here is believing you are still my enemy."
(Calael E. Kang)
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[01:44] {Item} Picked up a bag of 500 dropped by Calael E. Kang.
[01:57] Erétria Fengari says, "Uh.."
[02:03] Ahmir Valerius says, "Stinky."
[02:05] gimmie my crop. its mine. ITS MAAHH LINT! COURAGE!

YOU STAY ON YOUR SIDE, I STAY ON MINE.
(Ashalle)