War/driving point

[20:01] The march through the expanding woodland, teeming with fresh life, the extension of mortals' drive to live, a new city just beyond the horizon...

Someone is certain to become prey.

But, as luck would have it, it was the same champion who had eluded their hands the last time.

"Do you think you'll be as lucky again?" He tilts his head, his fingers morphing into tendrils, ripping through the life stream's fibers, the shadows twisting and contorting.

The reiska poison was still coursing through his veins, but it only served to fuel him. Pushing himself further and improving his own toxic substances.

Death's essence is creeping through the air, and the murky depths are rising the tainted whispers entwined with the breeze.

"As for the cambion you worthless mortals are carrying, you'll be returning him to my grasp."

You know the power of the imperfect, so don't be foolish."

Fixed with a deathly glare.
(Wra'gul)
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[20:02] Phoenix Altan says, "......"
[20:04] ".. hm."

The gaze of the Imperfect was fixated upon the group ahead. In truth, he didn't seem all that interested in those that were ahead of him - all of them, except one.

The Cambion that tainted herself with humanity.

"To this day, I do not understand."

"Why that one clings to her humanity so much when she could be far greater than this." It is a mystery to him; a mystery that the Imperfect would likely never truly understand.

In spite of knowing humanity oh so well by now.

"The darkness calls to you still, Zohloh. I can sense it."

Varrach inches closer. Just by the sheer presence of the Cambion, the Kaorblade, Coronacht, already answers in kind by awakening, yet even so Varrach doesn't seem to draw it just yet.

Perhaps he waits for something.

"No magi, not even those that have mastered this dark, can truly shut off my voice for good."

Though she may resist, though she would not succumb, the whispers echo still- perhaps a reminder to all that she is, to all that she would forever be.

".. why do you deny that call?"
(Varrach)
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[20:08] "A spark of thrill, a smidgen of tense, theatrics in the woods with naught one or two, but a group of actors coalescing to one scene-- Where life is supposedly taken..!?"

His words were exaggerated, over the top, as he made his way to the side a hand dropping on top of his mask as if covering his eyes from the sight of it all.

"Fun... fun..."

And so, his scepter poked it's head outside of the cloak as the waves of black parted, it's austereia spires pointing at the group of children that accompanied the former-Cambion.

"Who will dance for me? In a stage with oh-so-many, who would traverse this untrodden path and create blood on this field... With me?"

Underneath the mask was a crooked smile, a monochromatic hue encompassing his very form as he readied himself for the climax of thisscenario.
(The Hare)
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[20:09] Still fired up from his journey with his companions from Aphros, the flaming Kitsune faces down some of the Deep Hold's strongest! Of course, he had tasted their power before. Been granted, a vision of what lie in the future. Bloodshed unchecked, Demons running rampant in an endless slaughter.

Each and every corpse, denied rest and made to rise up to a master's call, they never wanted. The screams of the damned... Was this what truly lie at the end?

If no one stood up to them, it was.

Fire fueled by emotion, the Kitsune's fear causes the small inferno dancing about him to flare up!

"You won't be taking anyone from Aphros back to that lifeless land you call home!" The child calls out, even if he was the weakest he did his best to stand tall.

"Pushing towards this end of the world. There'll be nothing left... Not even for you! No place to live, nothing left to conquer or raise up.All will wither and rot away. I can't let that happen!"

"Even if you're stronger than me. If no one stands against you, the balance of the world will continue to shift in the wrong direction!"
(Kaien)
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[20:09] Took a breath as she contemplated the situation looking back to those behind her. "I was escorting mostly children 'Deep Lord'. Can you let them wander off home while we handle this?"

She said grasping ahold of that maul upon her back looking to Lazuli. "You can run too if you'd like but I'd prefer if you helped. There are quite a few of them." She said looking back to the gathered denizens of darkness before them.

"Fate did owe me a bit of luck after all I think I was exposed by a member of our own party that night. It was a chase though I nearly made it away before the Changer managed to cut me off."

Though as Varrach spoke to her as well she shook her head. "I may have been born half a demon, but when I discovered the nature of my soul and the fact that Athelios and the gods had given me a chance. That I wasn't condemned to Hel and I could choose a different path. That's why I became this, it was funny during the ritual that changed me and I was filled with divine power. I almost had a choice, I think in that moment I could've even embraced my demonic nature and gained the same blasphemous strength you have. But I chose otherwise because I want to save as many as I can from our senseless violent nature."

She said determined looking at those gathered and as she felt the sensation of the imperfect tapping against her mind the tattoo's along her arms and back flared with white crackling energy of nullification.

(Zohloh Altan)
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[20:13] Xena stood by the forest, seemingly watching the altercation at hand.

"..."

Remaining as quiet as ever, Golden-hues gleaming past the blackened film of chitin that covered her head and sprouted about her cloak and getup alike.
(Xena Lorillis)
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[20:18] He disliked the blue cambion so much that it revolted him to his core, "How self-delusional you've become. Every morning must be a nightmare, peering into the mirror and seeing yourself as a devil in the flesh." His words pierced the air.

The black accursed blood spilling from the portals, a trident emerging from the abyss, and the unsettling feeling that a million eyes were looking back...

The hare makes his big entrance, he comes to attend a lovely play, and the ending is poetry... Death.

The Monarch gives a round of applause.

"You've heard The Hare; now, my only hand of salvation, kneel before us, or fear the impending despair that looms over you."

A hand is extended forward, but not towards the blue cambion, but towards the one at the back.

One of their fellow soldiers.
The whispers touching his conscious.

"I feel she has you confused... You kids should get moving since one knows how hazardous the waves might be."

Looking over his shoulder, he notices Xena.

"Pity."
(Wra'gul)
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[20:20] Lazuli exclaims, "....?!"
[20:20] To be a hero.

It is the motivation that many have. It is the motivation that he's heard time and time again, from so many people at once- whether it's the heroes that sought to challenge him in open combat, or those that would seek to bring down the Imperfect as a threat across Meranthe.

Oh.
How little they knew.

As Varrach listens to Zohloh's words, there is a palpable sensation of disappointment that rests upon his features- there is neither anger nor frustration of any kind, but sheer, raw disappointment.

Almost as if one would watch a failed genius,
or watch a self-inflicted slavery.

".. save them?"

The scarlet gaze of the Imperfect remained upon the Cambion. Though she may find conviction in her belief, it is the conviction that he's seen shattered so many times before - and all too often, it wasn't even by his own word.

For Varrach knew just how utterly weak that conviction can be.

"Look upon Meranthe."

He muses, yet begins to approach. In his palm, a reflection of the dark flame- the stinging sensation of Occult, and yet there was something else to it. A sensation more grueling, more powerful than this.

A sensation of Death.

Yet upon this dark flame, there is a reflection of Meranthe itself- almost as if viewed from the bird's eye view from the sky, the landscape presented before them so easily.

"Amisdt the Faeborne, you have those that have fallen prey to their own weakness. Amidst those of Aphros, you have those that have fallen to lethargy and infighting."

"And in the north, the Emperor seeks to claim it all. Perhaps the only one with his head above the water... not drowning like the rest."

"Yet they wait. Fearful of the demonkind, but their enemy remains within, not without."

"Fearful to act, for they only ever react instead."

There, amidst the flaring touch of Death, the cold countenance of the Imperfect turns towards Zohloh- it is almost as if he challenges not only her, but her very being, her very belief.

It was always the war for truth.

"Tell me then, Zohloh."

"Do they look saved to you?"

Of course not. Only a lunatic could say that. But perhaps that is what Cambion is- perhaps she has gone mad and hasn't quite realized it just yet.

Or perhaps it is a new perspective that she's yet to observe.

"When you seek to aid them all, you weaken yourself - and you weaken yourself in turn."

"It is only through struggle, both internal and external, that we can grow; that we can overcome. Otherwise, they will rely on you - and you will doom them."

"You will doom them all to weakness."

Does she understand the point that Varrach makes? Does she understand where the Imperfect is coming from? Perhaps... and perhaps not.

All the same, he remarks.

"-- it is what you were meant to be. A challenge. A way for them to grow stronger."

"But you've failed. Completely, utterly."

"You only made them weaker."
(Varrach)
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[20:20] Looked from Wra'gul to Zoh and then back, her heart beating heavy in her chest as she would look to her sister one last time. "Zoh… Be safe..."

Her words lacking any confidence in this situation as she was not sure what to do. Her body wanting to run as fast as it could away from the area but her worry for her sister keeping her legs firmly planted.
(Phoenix Altan)