Cave Slickers: The Legend of Holly-Eyes Gold [FINISHED!]

[Swix]

Fade, rather than reply verbally to the metamorphosing HollowEyes raised a blue eyebrow very slightly, dipped her free hand into a pocket of her jacket, withdrew a pair of throwing daggers from it and tossed them expertly at the shapeshifting assailant with a flick of her wrist. She started after them, though the damage caused to her leg from earlier made her marginally slower than normal, but this would have no effect upon her Sapphire Dagger wielding arm when that came into play. The wound caused a fresh bout of pain and a small spurt of blood in protest at the sudden physical exertion, newly formed scabs tearing. She would be upon Goldie and attempting to slice the creature with the jewel blade if it didn't get out of the way quick enough.
----------------
Evil Swix and Furnace certainly did take glee in seeing the fear on the faces of the spiderfolk, as well as the many dead bodies that littered the underground citys floor. "He's outdone himself" the evil woman remarked as they followed the trail of corpses, causing the dragon to snort. There was definitely something strange going on with the Parasitian S-i-C. "You figured that out all by yourself did you?" he remarked back sarcastically as they entered the massive structure.
"Don't test me" Evil Swix retorted, glaring at the reptilian through her darkness "I'm not one of those-" she was interrupted by the nailed down dead king as it explained what HollowEyes had done to the body and with the treasure, stalling what would have turned into an argument.
"Nice artwork" Evil Swix said, admiring the morbid figure "this way then?"
she began to make her way over to the doorway the corpse had indicated.
The dragon however hung back, a little more warily and eyed the dead king suspiciously before following after the biped.

((All done
EDIT: Damn all these mistakes! Everytime I go to read someone elses I see more mistakes in mine))

[Chronos]

((Sorry if I'm late on this. I hope I'm allowed to still see the portal. Also, if I pp'd a little with the portal, please tell me and I'll fix the post.))

Ensichrys affably recognized Buggane from the party. "Ah, Buggane. Not here, is she?" Just then, Ensichrys felt a large shift in the balance of Chaos and Order. It seemed as though a large portion of Chaos and Order both had been sucked up and thrown together. Due to the impurity, Chaos had prevailed. Then came the voice and the portal...

"Well," he said, doing his best to step in front of the portal that had just opened. He fanned his feathers enough to adequately hide it- or so he hoped. "Naturally, I would never impose on something so sacred. I hope the folk here at the temple think better of me than to do something like that."

In truth, Ensichrys had virtually no thought speaking capabilities whatsoever. This message, however, had reached him- although a bit filtered, he had heard all he needed. Protected by an ancient God? Who else could it be but Noten- forseeing his obvious demise if he did nothing as usual; with this knowledge, it wasn't hard to figure out that Buggane would be enforcing his master's will. Either Little Sister was helping Hollow Eyes at the moment (which seemed incredibly unlikely) or she wasn't. Either Noten and/or his followers had killed or imprisoned her, or she was out there somewhere fighting.

Ensichrys thought it but he couldn't believe it. Was his best chance of doing any good right now to find Little Sister? Wait, more importantly, why was Ensichrys being denied entry right now? If Noten wasn't here (as was most likely) then what could be sacred about this place? No, it was an act. Noten was hiding something within the temple. Could it be Little Sister?!

What of the cave? Would it have already fallen? That was hard to believe with Furnace inside and the other EC powerhouses... minus one.

Ensichrys tried piecing together a plan, but he didn't quite have the information he needed. He knew he couldn't- even with his charms and War talons- simply storm the temple of Noten by himself; especially if he didn't want to lose his friendly terms with the followers here.

Perhaps it was finally time.

Ensichrys smiled cheerily and waved his gilded hand. "Well then," He hoped fervently that the portal had gone by now. Some would naturally have gone through it, and what if they failed? Someone needed to be outside to fight against the abomination of Chaos that was Byule. After all, Ensichrys had in his jet the perfect anathema to the insane enemy: his own sanity.

Ensichrys looked around at the jet. "I'll leave you to your worship, dear follower of Nothing." With that, Ensichrys made a wild dash to the jet. He had to reach it quickly. If Noten suspected that the sanity basket would make its way back to the temple, he'd surely have laid a trap.

Ensichrys leapt for the cockpit- hoping to take off immediately.

[Cirrial]

~Your offers are tempting, very tempting indeed (the Council could use it's own corner of the galaxy, you know)...~

501, hands clasped in anticipation, nods dumbly and eagerly at every word HollowEyes plants directly into his synthetic brain, right until the tone changes.

~But unfortunately, whilst you may need it more than the Council, this is my gift to the Council. If you are not a member of the Council...~

501 flings his arms outstretched either side of him, ready to scream bloody murder while throwing a not entirely dignified fit at the thought of such a source of power existing and being so casually lost to him in so short a time span.

~Hrm, but I suppose that you could always join u-HUARGH!~

Goldie, an amorphous blob and blur of black and sharp, pointy edges, with a glowing red trail of wherever its eye ends up in its deranged and rapid movement, strikes at HollowEyes in his metamorphic state.

501, distracted by this mental scream, notices something black hacking at the base of whatever HollowEyes is becoming, and suddenly realises that, cannon aside, whatever's happening is both weird and potentially dangerous to everyone around him. Especially him.

501 is not exactly knowledgable about otherwise commonplace Blackstar phenomenon, such as magic and spirits, and so misidentifies the combination of Goldie and the energy pouring forth from HollowEyes' wound as some kind of etheric malfunction on HollowEyes' part. He starts stepping back. "Uh, you seem a little busy, I'll talk later..."

~Urgh... Energy lost if I do nothing and energy lost if I defend myself... Accursed creature! Do you not understand what you are doing? Who sent you here?!~

Goldie instantaneously halts its mad frenzy upon these words. It stops, shaking slightly, not knowing any of the answers more than its abruptly-chosen target does. Finally, it actually looks at HollowEyes, and despite his transformation actually identifies him as such.

Its thought stream runs erratically, matching its confusion and fear it feels right now. HollowEyes. Evil Council. Someone sent me to stop HollowEyes. Voice. ...Guardians? Guardians. Naine was a Guardian. I'm a Guardian. Therefore I must stop the Evil Council and I must stop HollowEyes. I am fighting HollowEyes to avenge the Guardians that have fallen before me! The destruction of the Evil Council is my new directive!

While Goldie's fractured psyche begins to reform itself into the perfect warrior of the Blackstar Guardians, an organisation Goldie hasn't even seen or contacted for quite some time, Fade's thrown daggers meet their mark. Goldie lets out an unearthly howl, a square wave thrown into a metal blender and mangled into something worse, and all but explodes away from HollowEyes, flying through the air and landing elsewhere in the room.

It swivels towards the oncoming Fade, its antennae waving wildly like weightless whips in the air, its shapeless blackness flowing and forming into conical spikes to make a close encounter less pleasant for its potential assailant.

501, by this point, has stopped slowly backing away and is outright running towards the edge of the room. Five five five five weapons I need weapons what if that thing comes after me I can't risk a third combat override today not after what ended up happening last time

The blades of his wings slide out of his back, with a loud click, and begin to hum loudly and glow blue as he prepares to make drastic evasive manoeuvres if necessary. In retrospect I think I'd have preferred staying in that jail cell to this! At least there I had some idea of the situation! Five, even taking my chances with that EC elite over that secret elevator would have probably been a wiser move than anything else I've done today!

[Swix]

Fade stops her charge towards the creature at just after the amorphous blob screams, the assassin planted her hands over oversensitive ears in an entirely useless attempt to drown out the hideous howl. She had been expecting a scream of some sort should the daggers hit it, but not that kind. It was enough to stop her in her tracks with a usually unreadable face twisted in pain, still cold watery grey eyes trained on the now very spiky shape of Goldie. This creature was too small and too fast for her current state, she needed to reevaluate her strategy.
Once recovered from the scream (though it still rang in her ears) and doing something she normally would not consider, Fade sat down with her legs in a V shape one on top of the other, between the Evil Councils Second-in-Command and his attacker. The assassins arms now resting by her sides, the right still holding the sapphire blade, Fades eyes never left Goldie. "Creature" she told the shapeshifter "cease your attacks" she did not add 'or I'll destroy you' as you might have expected, as that should have been made painfully obvious from earlier. From the S-i-C's demeanour what he needed was more time to complete the metamorphosis that had started. She was also hedging quite a lot that whatever it was he was becoming was still able to distinguish between friend and foe, or that she wasn't too close to the Parasitian, and knew it. 501 was ignored as being a non-threat, at this point.

[3kul]

((No idea what's going to happen to this thread with the move to new Blackstar. Will we be able to keep posting in old.blackstar.org? It's so close to the end I don't really want to have to create a new RP thread for it... I wish my stupid computer wouldn't freeze up so often during big posts

Chronos, it's worth noting that the voice was not using mindspeak, and as such it would have been heard aurally like any normal voice. No problems with how you treated the portal though.))

"I shall gladly return to it then," Buggane replies to Ensichrys, clearly pleased to see him leave without causing a fuss. The portal vanished less than a minute after it appeared, apparently being quite an unstable one, though whether or not Buggane had actually noticed it or not was difficult to say... Not that it really matters to you, as he's letting you leave peacefully.

You hop into your jet and take off without hesitation, something that surprises HollowEyes' sanity a little. "We're going already? Where to now?" The etheral substance asks.

If you take a moment to look back, you might notice Buggane as he falls from the Temple of Nothing. Something beastly stands where he once was, although you're too far away from it already to see much of it in any detail. It looks a bit like some kind of humanoid creature riding atop a great white spider...

Of course, if you don't even consider dwelling on the place that you just left you wouldn't see anything at all.

----------------------------------------------------

Swix and Furnace wander past the dead king, apparently unaffected by it's curse.

As you wander down the dimly lit hallway you can see various portraits of former rulers of the Corrupted Cave's spiderfolk. Most of these are damaged beyond repair or smeared with blood, but a few are somewhat viewable, and those depicted in them look to be quite regal as far as spiders go, and more importantly, they're adorned with all sorts of precious metals and jewels. A promising sight indeed for looters/grave robbers like yourself!

Eventually you come to what seems like some kind of prayer room or church, identifiable by the massive gold statue of the spiderfolk's chosen deity (an even bigger spider, no surprises there) at the front of the room with a pedestal and various tomes positioned a few metres before it.

More relevant to you though is that the room, originally paved with some kind of white stone, now glistens with gold. HollowEyes had basically just heaped all of the treasure that he could find into several big piles here, making for mountains of wealth, and all yours for the taking.

There's countless golden coins, assorted gold and silver kitchenware, various large jewels lying scattered about all over the place... All fairly common fare as far as treasure goes, and clearly there's a lot of it, but unfortunately there is not much order to it at all. It's incredibly difficult to find which is the most valuable of trinkets (although the colossal golden spider is a strong contender), or if there are any kind of magical artifacts that might be worth keeping to yourself.

Take as much as you want, but if you want to find anything really good you might have to dig a little deeper through the treasure heap.

----------------------------------------------------

HollowEyes transformation is drawing close to completion - he is now almost completely faceless, and looks like a massive cannon with four large arms extended straight outwards to each corner of this cavernous room. It looks as though he is using his armblades to steady himself, and they seem to be doing a good job of that.

~Not long now...~ HollowEyes mentally murmurs, his consciousness fading. ~Just a few more minutes...~ As he's intending to transform completely into a weapon, and one formed from at least a hundred other spirits at that, it would be impossible for him to stay in complete control for the entire transformation. Now comes the most crucial part of his plan, and also the point where he is at his most vulnerable - the Parasitian SiC cannot move or defend himself anymore, and Noten is focused entirely upon keeping other immortals from sensing what he was up to. They are both relying entirely upon Fade to protect HollowEyes, and thankfully she only has a single foe, Goldie, to contend with.

Neither of them could do anything about 501 either, who seemed intent upon escaping... But hopefully he would not find a way out of the Cave or a way to warn anybody before the plan could come to fruition.

[Chronos]

((Thank you, 3kul. I've come to the decision that Ensichrys would automatically assume that it was a form of thought speak anyway- knowing no other possibility.))

When Ensichrys lifted off from the Temple, he triggered the rear cameras of the jet in case Buggane might launch a surprise attack on him, but none came.

Ensichrys clicked his beak when Byule's sanity asked its questions. "I believe you are in the Cave. It's really the only place left that no one has explored completely and I can sense a major imbalance coming from that direction." Noten may have been keeping Hollow Eyes off the gods' radar, but he evidently knew nothing of Chaos and Order. It was like walking into a room of onions- it was that obvious to Ensichrys.

"That being said, the cannon must also be within the Cave. If so, and it is powered by what we believe it to be, there are very few options available to us now."

Ensichrys withdrew his communicator as he "parked" the jet temporarily in the air on a low-power hover setting. He dialed channel 65. "My dear Guivre," he said. The Guivre could not actually move his own communicator, he could only listen but not reply. Ensichrys continued. "Remember your tunnel, dear Guivre? There's a fight in the cave. I need you to go there. Do whatever you can to stop Hollow Eyes and provide some damage control. For Chronos' sake, keep yourself alive! Ensichrys ou-" what was that?

Ensichrys caught something out of the corner of his eye on the rear camera monitor. Did something fall from the Temple? What was that there? Something spidery... even... woven...?

Ensichrys gulped. Was that who he thought it was? He paused, then dialed channel 88. "Get to the cave and wait for me." Ensichrys looked at the basket under the cloak. "I'm going to suck the spirits out of Hollow Eyes. You're going to help me with that by making him sane again. We'll both win and Hollow Eyes won't have to die... but just in case..."

Ensichrys flicked on the jet's external speaker system. He cleared his throat. "Did I not give you the gift of music once?" If this was Liyao, she'd reply about the bell he had given her. She shouldn't be hostile.

Ensichrys reached around and looked for something to put Byule's sanity into. He found a coffee mug but curses; it was too small! He threw it in frustration. With no other option, Ensichrys shoved the basket roughly into the first aid box- still wrapped in the cloak.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to need her," he whispered- careful not to say it into the microphone. He stroked his Ultima scroll nervously.

[Swix]

Evil Swix's eyes lit up at the sight of what was in the room, especially the massive golden spider that seemed to dominate the place and hadn't been dragged in here.
Furnace was less impressed with the gold than his current companion-"This junk'll melt" he snorted. For a creature such as he, gold was pretty useless unless he wanted to bathe in it, and that would clog his wounds up. The Dark Fire Dragon set his eyes on the jewels, but before he did anything with them decided to do a little digging. Supporting most of his weight on his muscular hind legs, the dragon began to scrabble through the piles of treasure, looking for anything different to what was currently on show.
Evil Swix meanwhile was slowly circling around the spider statue, wondering just how she'd get it out of there. Oh, of course...
"FURNACE!"
"WHAT?" the dragon practically roared back, moving his tail from side to side in irritation and showing his immaturity "Help me carry this out" the evil woman asked boldly. Furnace bared fangs at the humanoid "Do it yourself" he replied hostilely, how dare she suggest he lower himself to that "unless you want it melted down" he went back to what he was doing.
Evil Swix sighed as the easy route was closed just as easily, and clicked her fingers. There was only one thing to do then... she partially unleashed the writhing darkness that had been covering her, and two tendrils half the width of the womans and twice as long as she was tall extended outwards. Larger versions of the ones she'd used to torment the beetle with, these seemed to require a good deal more control, as they whipped about chaotically in their newfound freedom-managing to knock everything nearby over, including the tomes-whilst Evil Swix concentrated on brìnging them under control

[Cirrial]

Goldie's spikes slowly flow into the shapelessness of its body, its antennae raised in anxious anticipation, completely unsure about its current situation.

As HollowEyes becomes something less and less recognisable, Goldie's broken and fluctuating state of mind flails around as it tries to understand and remember anything beyond the surge of grief and the feeling of loss it's trying to ignore.

It decides to copy Fade, the tendrils passing for legs lowering the general body of Goldie onto the ground, its single red eye dimming in its intensity. It watches intently, ready to leap out of the way of any daggers thrown by its more immediate enemy, trying to quiet the emotional storm through making its thoughts as blank and empty as possible.

This doesn't quite work, and Goldie instead simply falls over onto the ground with a faint splash of darkness, eye dimming a little more, as the whole situation and events of the recent past overwhelm it completely. It passes out on the ground, its tendrils curling around itself.

501, however, takes a few more steps back. "...You are the cannon! Five! Why did Ak-tse think I'd ever stand a chance against you?! Or Ensichrys? I can't take much more of today! Right! As you're so intent on pushing me around today, universe, I might as well start pushing back! Combat override-"

Before he can so much as think of any sort of target or attack plan, his combat override subsystems, for the third time in the recent past, hijack his conscious control of his body, auto-acquiring Fade as the nearest manageable threat. Oh why did I do this after specifically deciding not to do this agggh

The combat override flies 501 directly at Fade, sharp metal claws, sharp wing blades and, if necessary, his sharp beak all surfaces the combat systems attempt to throw at Fade with high velocity.

The end result, due to the damage the combat override subsystems took during the stunt he pulled at the orbital jail previously, is that 501 starts haphazardly tumbling in a weightless somersault towards Fade, like some flying metal bird sphere of death.

[Swix]

Fade watched as the dark blob with legs attempted to copy her, failed miserably and proceeded to keel over in what was probably a fetal position for it's species. The assassin slightly turned her head to observe the almost complete transformation of HollowEyes as he murmurs that it's almost complete.
Previously non-threat 501 then quite literally declares himself to be dangerous, bringing the assassins attention to a slowly tumbling mass of, well, spikes. Fade was less prepared for what looked to be a robot to her, tightly gripping the Sapphre Dagger the assassin got up, pulling out a second blade from her pocket and slashed at anything that she percieved to be exposed as the two bodies collided. Blades, beak, everything else 501 had tearing into her flesh and clothing all the while.
She just had to last a little bit longer...

[3kul]

The white beast roared back at Ensichrys, the air itself quivering as it emanates raw power with it's voice alone from the Temple of Nothing. If this was Little Sister she'd definitely gone through some changes since you'd last seen her.

The beast lunged forward to pursue you... and fell (the obvious outcome of trying to pounce on a jet). Instead of falling to it's gruesome death however, the beast raked it's claws along the air itself, tearing a wide blue warp portal open, which it quickly slipped into before the portal collapsed on itself.

Was this bizarre creature responsible for the portal that had opened near you before? It hadn't attempted to speak to you this time though, and didn't seem nearly so helpful, so perhaps it wasn't... But that would be even more confusing.

Tengu emerged from the Temple of Nothing shortly after this strangeness occured, bleeding profusely from the stump that used to be one of her arms. Apparently the beast had gotten the better of her too, though she'd fared better than Buggane, it would seem. She looks about, then curses loudly.

If you hadn't stuffed it into a box, you might have been able to ask HollowEyes' sanity about all of this.

----------------------------------------------------

The golden spider idol was not magical in nature, but it was incredibly heavy and gargantuan in size, so Evil Swix might find it awkward to maneuvre out of this place.

Something in the pile of treasure stuck surprisingly deep into the scales on Furnace's claw, and would cause a considerable amount of pain in doing so. If you take a moment to look at it, you'll notice that it's a very ornate spear with small pictures of spiders and dragons carved all over it... and that it positively reeks of dragon's blood. This weapon is magical in nature and is specially designed to be used to slay dragons.

There's no telling how many more of these things might be in the pile, or if this is the only one of it's kind, but as you are a dragon it's probably more useful to you destroyed than it is intact... Though given that it's made to deal with dragons specifically it is most likely made from a metal with a high resistance to heat. Perhaps, in the interest of your own safety, it would be wise to ask some of the spiderfolk about this item in particular.

----------------------------------------------------

HollowEyes says nothing as the situation becomes increasingly worse for Fade beneath him, either his transformation is too far along to allow him the thought processes required to comment on it or he simply doesn't see a need to say anything at all.

Regardless of the reason it's definitely not a good sign, it looks like those hoping to stop HollowEyes are running out of time.

((Damn it, I did not mean to make that rhyme! ))

[drlupinmario]

((Ment to post this a long time ago))

Lucifer bends over to examine the broken glass, the dark cloudy sky looming over him. He attempts to pick a peice up and predictably fails. Intangible. Right.

Glancing at the gaurd, he first assumes he is dead, yet upon closer examination he seems to be alive, but knocked out cold. He checks what appears to be a wristwatch on the gaurd. No, Take that back. What kind of time is 8008 anyways? Thats not standerd millitary time! Yet looking up towards the moons, it would be safe to assume it is midnight...

[Cirrial]

(( Apologies if the events seem powerplayish, but, hey, it's basically only 501 trying to stop this cannon, and even then he doesn't really have too strong a motivation for doing so (yet)! Still pretty much doesn't stand a chance, too. ))

Goldie, a shining example of a noble warrior, is still in a state of torpor in a small black ball on the floor.

501, however, suddenly slams into the ground a metre or so away from Fade, and looks up to the ongoing metamorphosis of HollowEyes from creature to cannon.

He is suddenly interrupted, physically and mentally, by an emergency transmission from out of nowhere. Literally nowhere - his communications subsystems cannot decipher the location of the transmission, as if it's somehow coming from everywhere at once.

I'm inside an underground complex of caves! This doesn't make any sense! The only way such a transmission could get in is if it somehow just telepor- teleported. Teleported in.

He stops, the interruption cancelling his combat override. ...It's a Maratix transmission. A MARATIX TRANSMISSION.

Stumbling around as he takes over control from the overrides, he tries to get a safe distance from Fade and the maelstrom of mystical activity going on around HollowEyes. Much to his dismay, most of the message is garbled.

[Chronos]

Ensichrys' look of apprehension turned to one of horror. What the hell was happening here? "Ahhh, damn!" He turned to the back instinctively, but Byule's sanity had obviously not seen a thing. Ensichrys leaned back, then gave up as the seat was too awkward for him to do so comfortably. He was getting frustrated.

He rested a talon on the active speaker button. And wheeled the jet around. "Tengu? Tengu, is that you? What the hell is happening here? Do you need medical attention?" Ensichrys clacked his beak at his own stupid question. "It's me, Council Elite Ensichrys. You need to start talking! Please!" Ensichrys nudged the button that would activate the hideaway guns on the underside of the jet. He didn't show them yet, but he would do what he had to- especially if that vicious beast that may or may not have been Liyao came back. If all else failed, he had the war talons. If even that failed, he had the scroll.

But what if power wasn't the answer? What would he do then?
~~~~~~~~~

The Corrupted Cave had never looked so grim. It was a literal wasteland of bodies, and the Guivre had arrived- slithering furiously through the carnage. If it wasn't for the incredible sense of urgency Ensichrys had conveyed, the Guivre would surely be reflecting on the slaughter of all these humans.

Wherever Hollow Eyes was, he was obviously unable to locate just by looking for him in the cave's tunnels. The Guivre, though, had another method of which most knew nothing. Eventually finding his way to the purification room in the Laboratory, sending the still-living 80000 series grunts running and screaming in untold terror, the Guivre found a spot on the floor among the cement and metal that was made entirely of... plaster.

Plaster. Odd, isn't it? The Guivre, however, knew exactly what to do. Rearing up as best he could, the Guivre brought his vicious horns down hard on the plaster in the corner. As a result, the plaster buckled easily and the Guivre slipped into the rough hole he had made for about the sixth time. He had gained access to the sewer system of the Corrupted Cave- which was a disgusting and horrible-smelling place.

He slithered and snaked his way through the pipes, avoiding the sewer slime at all costs (which actually crawled along the walls instead of just sticking to them). The monstrous serpent was also especially careful to take the long way around the length of pipe that contained the amphibious cephalopod; the Guivre had decided to call him Otis. It usually just slept, but it reminded the Guivre of Mortracta and he didn't want to take the chance that it had a similar personality.

Eventually, the Guivre reached very deep into the sewers. There were obviously hidden rooms down there if the sewers went down this far. Most of them didn't even have entrances- but that was little difficulty for a headmaster that utilized shadow teleportation.

The pipes transferred sound very easily and, eventually, the Guivre heard what he needed to hear. A fast, but powerful explosion echoed through the pipes and back. The Guivre tried as best as he could to pinpoint the location. He could hear faint sounds but he eventually lost his way in the complete darkness.

"My hand! MY HAND! What did you people do?! WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!"

The Guivre heard this loud and clear. And he knew exactly where it was coming from. And there was absolutely no exit from the sewer that he could use to reach this underground room...

What to do? He simply laid there for a few moments, gathering his thoughts before he realized there was only one course of action he could possibly take. Bracing himself, the Guivre rolled on his side and undulated his body in such a way that the spine on his back struck hard against the cheaply built metal in the sewers down here. The rust had done most of the work already. This was an orphan branch of pipes anyway; no harm would be done to the system here.

It was painful and painstaking but, after working at it for a good two minutes, the Guivre's back spine and horns split the sewer pipe's side open like a long, smelly log. Why wasn't there any light on the other side?

Rock.

Damno! he thought. The Guivre just didn't have the energy right now to dig his way through the rocks on the other side. He lay there in a very uncomfortable position veritably panting in his tired state. If he tore through now, he'd be in no condition to fight...

But he could listen!

[Swix]

501 needn't have scrambled away from Fade, the damage that his attack had caused her rendered the assassin almost
useless now. The many wounds he'd inflicted on her made her previously blue clothes red with blood, as well as hanging in tatters from her
body. The keynain in a mechanical shell thankfully hadn't punctured any of her vital organs, but blood loss was still a killer. And Fade was losing a great deal of blood as she struggled just to stand upright, one arm held over the many puncture and slash wounds ineffectually, both hands still gripping both daggers the assassin limped away from the almost complete HollowEyes-cannon towards a wall that seemed further away the more she moved. Battling to stay conscious, the mutant assassin barely registered 501's apparent nervous breakdown or the fact that alternate dimensions seemed to be erupting from his outstretched arm. Vision turning dark, despite Fades fighting it the assassin became a classic example that the mind is willing but the body is weak, she was forced to give in to unconsciousness and collapsed just as she reached the wall. Her last thought was that separating with the symbiot was a remarkably short sighted decision on her part.

Whatever happened now was out of her hands. Fade lay in her own blood, in a crumpled up position by the wall. Not moving bar the shallow breaths she was still taking.
_____________________________________________________________
Evil Swx wasn't one to let things like weight get in her way-or at least, she wasn't gonna try it with her human arms. The larger tendrils continued to thrash around, this was gonna take a bit longer. It was the first tme she'd let them out for a while.

Furnace grunted in pain as the spear sank into his claw, the dragon grimaced as he removes his foreleg from the pile to have a look at what even managed to pierce him. Furnaces eyes narowed in distaste at seeing-and worse, smelling the spear. The mythical reptilian pullied the weapon out, grunting as it slid out, releasing fresh, steaming dragons blood.

Now in a much darker mood, the Dark Fire Dragon sneered and made his way back out, carrying the spear in his injured leg so he could walk on the good one. He was going to ask the first spider creature he saw just what this abomination was doing in this place.

[3kul]

((Sorry that this took so long to post guys, I got side-tracked with the CCSF and then my computer crashed mid-post about half a dozen times... Anyway, as you'll soon see we're fast approaching the end of this RP, and I intend to keep at it over the next few weeks until it's finally done.))

A stray wolf approaches Lucifer, one of the mangy pathetic beasts that prowl the dead forest that surrounds the Corrupted Cave, drawn in by the scent of blood. It quickly laps up the small amount spattered on the floor, but then it's ears prick up and it begins to snarl, looking about in your general direction. It senses that something is amiss, though it's not entirely sure what. As you are now a ghost the wolf cannot see you, but they do say that animals are more in-tuned to the spirit world.

You look at the wolf and get the distinct feeling that something about it seems... off. It takes you a minute or two, but eventually you realize that it's not the wolf that's unusual, but your own way of perceiving it. You were sensing it's very essence, you could tell just by being near it that this particular wolf is weak, hungry, probably not long left for this world...

After staring at it for a while, you feel like you could reach out and touch it. Not touch the wolf itself of course, as you'd have about as much luck with that as you did with the glass, but there was some part of the wolf's essence that you instinctively felt that you could touch, maybe even influence given how weak the creature was.

((In other words, now that you're getting used to your ghostly form, you get the feeling that you might be able to possess the wolf.))

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~F...aaaaaa....dddddeeee...~

HollowEyes' voice was barely audible, even via mindspeak, and not one part of him bore any resemblance to something alive or capable of independant thought, but he seemed aware of what had become of Fade. In his insane state of mind HollowEyes had developed an incredibly unhealthy obsession with furthering the Council's agenda, but letting his fellow Council members die was not a part of that.

"Don't." Noten cut in, sensing that HollowEyes wished to do something. "The spirits who've helped you up until now will not help you a second time if you stop." The God, who currently had himself extended out around the room, quickly slipped around the bizarre energy that was erratically arcing out from 501's arm. "Things are getting too crazy, you don't even know who your friend is fighting. It's now or never."

Noten did not wait for HollowEyes to reply and immediately set about focusing his own powers into the cannon that the Parasitian had formed. He no longer covered the entire room, but was instead concentrated in the small area just above the cannon's opening, allowing his energy to simply fall in. It would take just a little more time, and then the cannon would finally be ready to fire...

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"Ensichrys?" Tengu hesitated for a moment, but was quick to decide that beggars cannot be choosers. She did not want to ask somebody from the Council for help with this, nor did she wish to elaborate on what had conspired within the Temple of Nothing, but unfortunately for her she was out of time and out of options.

"My Lord and Master, the all-encompassing nothingness known as Noten, has been conspiring with your Second-in-Command, HollowEyes, for several months now. They have been hatching a plan that would on the surface appear to be unstoppable, but at it's core it is a very fragile thing."

Tengu was deliberately being vague, for whilst she is willing to explain some things to you she is the kind of devoted person would sooner take her own life than betray her God's intentions.

"There are a select few who we predicted could cause trouble, and so we sought to keep them preoccupied. Liyao... The one you Council folk know as Little Sister, is one of them, and so we kept her here at the Temple. We told her that the Council had given her vacation time, which pleased her greatly, and she was not suspicious in the slightest. Whenever she asked to contact the Council for whatever reason, we simply reminded her that such tasks were beneath her, and insisted that we lowly disciples were better suited to meager duties like relaying messages to the Council... I must say, it is a little embarrassing to see that somebody our Lord holds in such high favour is so unbelievably gullible and susceptible to flattery."

"More troublesome however has been the mirror version of Little Sister and HollowEyes, he has been quite a thorn in our side..." This seems a little odd, as all Council documentation would suggest that HollowEyes' and Little Sister's mirror amalgamation was most definitely a female, but Tengu does not seem to know this. "He, Dox that is, was already en route to Blackstar in his ship when he learnt of the plan, through some kind of mental link that he shares with HollowEyes we suspect. He was surprised to find that HollowEyes was still alive, but more than that he was concerned about what consequences HollowEyes' actions would have for him. Would the Gods spare him, a mirror version of the mortal who sought to kill them? Dox is quite intelligent, and he knows that this is not likely at all. Fearing that his life would end if HollowEyes' plans succeeded, he immediately set about trying to stop it"

"He is very skilled at hiding himself, but he is no match for a God, and Our Lord and Master apprehended him about a month after he had infiltrated the Council's lair. As far as we could tell HollowEyes was not aware of this, and neither were any other members of the Council. Curiously, we did not find his ship or the others that he was supposed to have traveled here with. It is... well, it was a mystery to us how he was able to sneak in so easily, but once he was sealed within the Temple of Nothing there was no escape for him... That is to say there would have been no escape, if not for that idiot Parasitian."

You could only assume that Tengu was referring to Little Sister as she said this, and her tone became more irritated as she continued. "She sensed his presence and mistook him for HollowEyes, so as soon as we left him where we'd sealed him she saw her chance. Moving swiftly and not even pausing to think, she broke the seal and devoured the creature that was released. Dox was many times more powerful than her, but he didn't even see her coming."

"Immediately after this happened we learned that Dox had been breaking many laws of the multiverse. Unbeknownst to us he had already consumed HollowEyes once before (I have no idea how your Second-in-Command managed to survive this, but it did happen), and in doing so had blurred the lines between universes. When Liyao consumed Dox, the fusion that occured erased the lines completely, and has created a beast capable of slipping from one dimension to another. I suspect that Dox was able to do this before however, which would explain how he sneaked his way into the Council's lair so easily, so perhaps the transformation was not as drastic as it seemed."

"I attempted to stop it and... well, you can see where that got me." She waggled the bloody stump that was what remained of her arm, apparently not bothered by it all that much. "It is fine. We disciples of Noten feel Nothing."

"In any case, Liyao and Dox have fused to become an abomination capable of wreaking havoc throughout the multiverse with great ease. The problem is what it plans to do next. If the beast retains any memories or instincts from the two seperate beings that combined to create it, it will almost certainly seek out HollowEyes and kill him. For Dox, this is the easiest way to avoid incurring the wrath of the Gods, and for Liyao, killing and eating her brother to complete herself is what her instincts have always driven her to do. Eating Dox will not have changed that... if anything it will make her feel more unbalanced than before."

You probably did not want to admit it, for HollowEyes was the Second-in-Command of the Council and you yourself served beneath him, but this beast provided you with a solution (of sorts) to your problem. If it succeeds, and given how concerned Tengu appears to be it seems that there is a very good chance that it will, then HollowEyes will die, and his insane plan to turn the divine order of the multiverse into chaos would die along with him.

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As Furnace left the room that all the treasure had been piled up in he found it surprisingly difficult to locate one of the spiderfolk. They were nowhere to be found within the large palace that you were currently in, but more noticeable than that was the curse that HollowEyes had left to guard the treasure room... or more accurately, the complete lack thereof.

The bloody marks on the throne are still there, but the spider king, who had been nailed to the floor, was gone, which did not make very much sense as it was meant to be cursed... wasn't it?

Something tells you that this is not a good sign.

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If Evil Swix is paying close attention to it, she will notice that the golden spider twitched at the sight of her dark tendrils.

Of course, if she's not paying any attention to it at all, she'll notice nothing.