int necro 2

[10:37:39] A child's eyes, Vivica's, stared at the morning sun rising through the trees near the tree house where her and Max were currently living. He remained asleep at the current moment within whereas Vivica walked around early morning around the house.

This wasn't a sight she particularly watched often. Usually she remained in Loranthis to watch the citizens like Thom had done under his rule, but this was much more relaxing.

Again she was pulled to the city just east from where she stood. Cucco's feather sat in her hair where Max told her not to place it, but without pockets, where was it to go?

The little girl, much cleaner than before, stood up. Eyes lurked throughout the woods from the sunset, staring off occasionally towards the city. It was only a matter of time before Cucco may begin searching for her, or not at all, one couldn't guess.

Pink was all she wore. Caramel locks, braided, hung over her left shoulder loosely. A large scythe was placed on her back much taller than her. A large, white feather was placed in her hair, adorning the pink flower clip that remained on the right side.

Vivica hadn't done anything more for now besides standing... and staring.
(Vivica Takashi)
[10:41:55] Wychwood held many memories for Saulot, in particularly, the brighter days when he still did not submerge himself to the Dark Arts linked to Depravity, and he was not marred with the scars, both physical and mental alike. That place was his home for many years, serving him as a refuge from the problems of the world, and most of all the dangers that lingered out there.

Why not return there? Besides, it's a good place for his practice too.

That thought sparked his mind, and in a few moments after it did, he made his way back to the place via the forged Rift; luckily, with the experience he grew on how to make those, it wasn't such a challenging task, and in a few he appeared behind the forestry next to the treehouse, the act concealed by trees.
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Who was that standing next to his house?

He stepped up closer and walked out. A little girl, here? Either a kid associated with Outlaws or one of those from Loranthis, either option wasn't really promising. Good thing he had concealed appearance, at least.

"And who might you be?"
(Saulot Vykos)
[10:46:11] Huh? A stranger had approached. Plenty of those lately! Not very surpising to the little girl, but his voice had caught her off guard.

Vivica turned to face the man with a jump! She blinked several times, glancing over the man's form and taking in details. Phew!

"Wha-! I'm Vivica. Who are you?" Her head tilted to the side curiously. A faint smile was given to the man, so far he seemed to be without any hostility.
(Vivica Takashi)
[10:51:18] But Saulot came here to practice, not just talk. He could spare no emotion in return to her, not like she'd see it anyway - the mask covered his features well, hiding away any posibility to recognize the man, no matter how much one could try, least they get rid of his garments to reveal his appearance.

Of course, that was the typical, shady appearance of a man in hood, mask and overall dark clothes, but that was the point - Saulot no longer looked like a noble in his clothes, giving up on his roots. He wanted to be unrecognizable for now, and the fact that he looked like just some thug was done on purpose.

"The name is Alan." - of course he wasn't going to tell his true name. What's the point of concealing his appearance if he did, anyway?
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Withdrawing his staff, he pointed it in the mid-air, opening the pocket dimension he crafted previously; three undead stepped out of it, serving as guardsmen - though, unlike that previous kid he ran into, Vivica didn't come off as annoying, and was not blocked off by Saulot's bodyguards. Not yet, at least.

It was... quite a sight, actually. The skeletons that made their way out from quite literally nowhere but a gap in the air were carrying out a set of corpses, placing them all before Saulot. He lowered himself down as if in preparation of the ritual, and briefly spoke to Vivica.

"This place used to mean something to me. Unless you wish to witness this, I'd advise to leave."
(Saulot Vykos)

[11:00:41] Alan was the man's name. Wychwood apparently was a place that meant something to him. His weapon was withdrawn and Vivica took a step back, lifting her right arm to grip the hilt of her own scythe.

Though again, the man remained calm and.. not hostile? There had been plenty of strangers lately, moreso yokai, with few kind to say the least. Vivica watched a rift open and several undead step out.

"Huh..? Alan.. what.. are those?" They were carrying a dead body, but this wasn't the first time she had seen someone's body before. It was unsettling to watch, but she couldn't move her eyes away. Her curiousity grew.

They were set down before him oddly.

"What are you doing?" She supposed she'd witness it!
(Vivica Takashi)
[11:06:40] The act of Symbolic magic wasn't news to any self-respecting magi, and considering that this place mattered to Saulot, it was easier for him to draw upon emotions associated with this place - calm, soothing, aiding with concentration, but all at once bitter, somehow frustrating, infuriating even. It was a large mix of bottled emotions, just waiting to be unleashed as he channels it into his magic.

But Saulot was an experienced magi, and didn't have to express any of it. As a matter of fact, he could easily do the Mixed casting, using own's emotions as 'fuel' for this spell and vast mana pool, and instead directing the process itself with Cognitive magic, performing the spell through sheer willpower. Uneasy feat to accomplish, but worth it.

He knew he didn't have much time until somebody else could possibly come, it always happens in populated areas. Better let Vivica witness it and nobody else, considering that it can't be helped she's already in the place that means a lot to him - besides, his appearance was concealed, so in the end of a day she'll just remember him as a masked stranger.

Things were escalating quick infront of her.
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"You'll see."

Whether she'd feel threatened and ran or stayed to watch is entirely up to her, although as a matter of fact, not even an ounce of his mana was directed at her with any possible spell. He was working upon the corpse that was placed infront of him by his undead servants.
(Saulot Vykos)
[11:11:47] The child's silver eyes kept on Alan before her with a squint. He was working on the body.. for what purpose? A disgusted look came about on her features.

"I'll... see..?" Her somewhat high pitched voice questioned eagerly. She desired to know what it was he was doing.. to work on someone's dead body? Freaky.

The little girl took a step forward to get a better look. The man still had no signs of hostility, so this was good for her.

Her grip in the hilt of her scythe was let go and dropped before her, left hand lifting to fiddle with the ring that sat on her right ring finger. She never took off that very ring and at times if she did, she felt an odd sort of vibration from it. Hm.

What was it that he had been doing? She watched attentively and with interest. A quick glance back towards Loranthis was given. She had feared the yokai around the mysterious sylvan and Cucco in Loranthis.

She desperately hoped that yokai wasn't searching for her.
(Vivica Takashi)
[11:18:36] Though, she was left with no verbal answer as to her last remark. Instead, Saulot focused himself entirely on the ritual that was unfolding before him; with a deep inhale, he drew upon emotion that was most associated with Wychwood, that one time when he survived the attack by another Occultist and Yokai alike... the fight where he actually managed to defeat Yokai.

It was desire to come back at them, desire to fight and desire to live. Those mixed emotions would be used to instill upon the newcoming undead, all while his magic was directed by his sheer willpower - a well made technique of Mixed casting, available to the most honed magi.
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Reaching his hand out to the air, he gripped at something... invisible, as if it appeared there only right after he grasped it. The flow of Lifestream itself, one that he learned to tweak and bend at his will all too well. After all, Saulot was not only a Necromancer, but also an experienced Riftmancer to add to that.

The bodies before him were used as physical links, something that would be used to find their long lost souls.

A sickly blue hue in a form of smoke appeared before Vivica...
(Saulot Vykos)


[11:25:26] No answer. No more words were spoken by the man at the current moment on what it had been he was doing with a corpse, but for her it was concerning and.. disgusting still.

Quietly Vivica watched his hand raise into the air to grip.. the air? A row raised. "Uh.." She spoke questioningly still. Instead of continuing, the little girl pulled out her little pink, leathery book from her side pouch to write what he had been doing.

She liked to document new things. Vivica began to write, but that wasn't until a sickly blue hue of a smoke appeared before her, causing her to drop her notebook.. whatever it was, she backed away from it..
(Vivica Takashi)

[11:35:40] From within the nearby treehouse, the dulled repetitive tapping could be heard steadily approaching the door, growing louder and louder with every passing moment. A few moments would pass, before the rounded door of the strange home was swung open, revealing a large armoured figure, clad in a suit of gilded armour, with a strange ebony beret atop a head filled with golden hair.

The figure turned his gaze to observe the strange ongoings in the clearing, it was Vivi sitting amongst the field, scrawling away in a small journal, whilst another man was performing some inane ritual with no discernable purpose. "...What is this?" the man inquired bluntly, eyes settling upon Saulot's form as he slowly made his way down the steps leading up to the treehouse.

A large black cane remained in the man's grip, a clear means for support, judging from the man's evidently missing leg. He was an unusual sight to be sure, though no more unusual than a pink-clothed child or a spooky necromancer in the woods.
(Maxwell Chengri)
[11:35:40] That was a wise decision to back off.

The Lifestream itself began to scream, as yet another vile manipulation took place; it was a horrible sound, akin to the eerie echo that haunted houses could often possess, though that scream was soon muffled by Saulot's efforts. He was too experienced to let it make a noise for far too long.

The corpses served well as physical links. He could easily track the souls of those unfortunate within the Lifestream, grasping at them and dragging them back into maternal realm; they seemed so... quiet, peaceful, still unaware what's going to happen to them. It's like they were in hibernation, although subconsciously clinging to the bodies, willing to live once more.
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The blue smoke was surrounding Saulot, a clear testimony of Depraved energies in the air. It was also a practice for him to suppress those, disallow them to do much harm upon surroundings, and rather minimize it instead. Of course, he could block out all of it, not by a long shot, and grass beneath Saulot began to wither, creating a patch of rotten weeds amongst the beautiful flowers.

But the ritual was still in progress. Those souls now grasped, they were about to be placed into bodies right infront of Saulot.

A cold wind howled, sending chills to those nearby. Death itself was about to be defied.
(Saulot Vykos)

[11:46:46] Another step back Vivica took from the blue smoke that began to scream horridly. From her standing position, Vivica fell upon the ground, panicking. What was this he was going?!

Her eyes remained locked on the man as she sat scared by the depravity seeping frm his form. The blue smoke from before her now enveloped the man shortly after the screaming had stopped.

Taps were heard. Louder with each passing second to which she watched the rounded door of the tree house swing open with Max exiting, questioning what was going on.

"Max!" She called for him with fear in her tone. This wasn't anything she'd witnessed before, it was new, but yet frightening for the child.

Vivica's sight placed back on the man where rass underneath him began to wither, much like the circular area she was sitting within, withered away by the nature yokai who approached her at some point the day before.

Nature all around lacked quite a bit of color given that a yokai reaped life out of its surroundings, clearly a threat towards the child at the time of the situation, but was Max aware? Nope.

Color was lacked all around, withered grass where she sat was present and now to see more grass wither wasn't the best to watch. A cool wind howled, and chills were sent down her spine the moment she crawled another foot away from the man.

She didn't say or do much to address Max, but whatever his input on what was going might not be the best.
(Vivica Takashi)
[11:58:43] The man stared listlessly at the sight of Saulot conjuring forth what appeared to be the undead. A heinously depraved act that Maxwell knew simply twisted at the Lifestream, tormenting the ethereal creation that was Kraus' greatest gift to humanity. A small grimace creased the man's lips, visible disappointment lay within his gaze as he slowly hobbled to the side, one hand quietly grasping at the top half of his cane.

"Vivi. It's depravity. Take a step back." the man stated in a calm tone as he approached the child, one hand beckoning the young girl to take to his side. The man showed no intentions of stopping Saulot, the Necromancer's strangely grotesque ritual ultimately gave the man no reason to actively disdain him at that moment.

"What are you doing, Necromancer?" the man stated coldly, his free hand slowly moved down the length of his cane, thumb and index finger casually pinched the base of the cane, a mere inch beneath the slit where hilt met sheath.

It was clear as day, the man wasn't going to take any shit, even if it was from some mysterious figure with an unknown agenda.
(Maxwell Chengri)
[12:04:41]

[12:13:13] Oh? Another one?

Saulot's eyes shifted towards Maxwell, though it was not apparent considering the fact that he had a hood and mask on; that sort of appearance gave him an impression of a simple thug, which was actually intended to make sure that he stays unrevealed, but to see that this 'thug' wields Necromancy? Rare sight.

"You see corpses infront of a Necromancer, the energy oozing and you ask what I'm doing? Really?"

The sass was strong in that one.

"Why, watering local flora, of course."

The Necromancer shook his head and continued to work around with the ritual, focusing entirely upon it once more. He couldn't afford spending much time talking, and breaking off the focus at this point could prove to make all of the effort in vain.
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The souls of the deceased ones were at his grasp already, and the Lifestream was torn; although, Saulot let it be to have it repair itself over time, as he already learned how to minimize the damage done to it - but even with that minimal damage, it remained a horrible experience nonetheless.

The souls were placed back into bodies. Much like an engineer inspires life into machine, so did Saulot with making them rise; the dead opened their eyes, awkwardly standing up - their atrophied muscles still getting used to unliving and the second awakening.

Though, it seemed that bodyguard skeletons were tense... they already viewed Maxwell as a threat, assuming that he'll interrupt their master.
(Saulot Vykos)
[12:21:45] Max informed her that this had been depravity as he approached, beckoning Vivi to his side to stand where she knew she'd be safe. He was her caretaker afterall and she trusted this man with her life.

Her right hand reached for the little journal on the ground and quickly she stood, making her way to his side to stand just a bit behind him. Alan, as she knew him to be, was given the title as a.. necromancer?

The stranger man's tone had some sass. Vivica's brows furrowed with a squint in 'Alan's' direction until her eyes widened to see the corpse MOVE.

"How is it moving?!" The little girl was freaking out. She was not aware of what a ritual was nor the process of summoning back a soul from the lifestream to awaken with the current living.

Tension rose about in the air that she could feel as Max had slid his fingers down the base of his cane. Her little journal was placed back within its pouch and she grabbed ahold of Max's attire anxiously, holding a tight grip, but if he were to move from her she would of course let go.

Vivica glanced up to Max with a worried glare before setting her eyes back to the necromancer. "How did you do that?!" She wanted the explanation, she desired to know how he managed to bring back the dead to the 'living.'
(Vivica Takashi)
[12:31:08] The man's grip loosened upon his cane as the Necromancer performed his macabre act, resurrecting the skeletal figures he now manipulated with the unusual skillset that oft was employed by those of his kind. With an elongated sigh, the man took a step back, leaning back into his cane as his formerly tense posture was quickly smoothed into a casual stance.

"Sarcasm, at the very least I can assume you don't intend to do something dumb like attack the kid. So, why're you doing this in this neck of the woods? There are dozens of other locations -far- safer to employ this sort of magic." the man continued, eyes trailing leisurely from skeleton to skeleton, before he allowed his emerald irises to settle upon Saulot himself.

"That is, unless you're intending on using the corpses from the most recent battlefield to be created on Valmasia?"
(Maxwell Chengri)
[12:37:07] There was one big advantage to Saulot in this scenery - his appearance was concealed and voice naturally muffled due to wearing the mask, and whatever he says here will be left in memory as information about shady stranger. That gave it's own level of safety in the long run.

"The child stayed here for long enough on her own. If I wished to attack her, that would've happened much earlier."

Although it sounded a tad grim, Saulot spoke truth. The fact that Vivica was still unharmed and the skeletons did not restrain her was a clear testimony of the fact that he was not after her, nor he ever intended to have her harmed in the first place.

"This place used to mean a lot to me. Besides, the air of Wychwood is filled with blood, death and corpses much more than you probably imagine. I feel such environment better."

It was easier to perform in such locations, after all, and offered him quite a broad array of corpses to work with. Of course, he was in possession of magic that could get him transported far with those corpses, but it's such a bother in the long run, honestly.
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The recently risen dead stood before Saulot, confused expressions portrayed upon their faces. They did not know what's their purpose, or why are they even here, or how any of this happened - all of their memory was gone, a result of Saulot's imperfect Necromancy, something he had to work on.

"Await my word. For now, stay here." - he spoke to recently risen.
(Saulot Vykos)
[12:46:30] It was true she had been there since the man's random appearance from, which Vivica assumes, the woods just right of the house. She hadn't questioned where it was the man particularly came from, but the question never bothered to be thought of.

Still, she stood in awe at the risen undead, confusion to what he had performed, and interest to gain the knowledge of the ritual. Even if she wouldn't use the information, knowledge was knowledge, and that meant more power with each gain.

Vivica's grip upon Max's attire loosened as his posture smoothed to a more content stance. The arms dropped to her side eventually throughout their conversation.

She looked between the skeletons and the newly raised undead with disgust still. Her questions had gone unanswered, which irked her somewhat, but she didn't visibly show.

Should he have attacked, Vivica would have likely attempted to flee or fight, but evenso she was just a child learning the basics of magics, even lately getting into higher tiered ones though they weren't perfected obviously. She was a novice to her magics.

"You can't hurt me, Alan. My friends wouldn't be happy if you did." Just as his tone before was full of sass, SO WAS HERS.
(Vivica Takashi)
[12:55:53] The warrior gave a mild shrug in the Necromancer's direction, his honesty was appreciated when it came to the unusual way he presented himself, up to and including his mention that Vivica could've suffered an unfortunate fate, but he hadn't acted upon it.

"Fair enough, you hold your own reasons for your actions, much like anyone else, I suppose." the man stated calmly as he walked off to the side, motioning for Vivica to follow. His intentions on sticking around the Necromancer seemed to be receding with every passing second as he gradually made his way eastward, hobbling ever so slightly on his gilded cane.

"Vivi, come now. We'll stop bothering the Necromancer. I'd rather we part as strangers in this situation, I don't want to have to go dirtying my blade without a good reason, and I don't want you to try and provide that reason."he continued as he let loose a muffled yawn.

The unusual encounter with Saulot was unique enough to peak the man's interests, but the Necromancer's depraved acts already told him plenty enough for the time being. He didn't need to know who the hooded man was, depravity in and of itself was his cross to bear there was no reason for Maxwell to hasten anything along.
(Maxwell Chengri)
[13:01:00] Saulot wasn't going to comment further on it, under assumption that their conversation was close to being over, and it seems that such was the case after all.

Standing up from his place, he glanced over at the two, awaiting to see what their actions will be; though, as soon as Maxwell spoke of them leaving, Saulot turned around as well and began pacing deeper into the woods.

Just in case they decided to take a hasty action instead, the skeletons were following him, acting as bodyguards for Saulot - if a hit was launched in his direction, they'd gladly take the strike for their master.

At least these weren't feeling hellbent to attack him, unlike that other unfortunate Ookami who sought he could test his might against Saulot. Unsurprisingly, that Ookami was beaten by Saulot, unable to match his power.
(Saulot Vykos)