Fight against fantasy - IC

Night Lurker stood there.

"... You think I don't know? Well... I won't lie and say I know what it's like... But my father... He-"

All of a sudden, a bright light was glowing from the house.

Reginald was there.

He set the house on fire.

Ljost Lake - 11:39 PM

Azeruk saw the woman from before, the time mage. What was she doing here? Was it a trap? She didn't seem to be hostile, at least not right now. Azeruk slowly approached her and spoke.

"What are you doin-"

All of a sudden, the roaring sound of a fire could be heard as a building burst into flames. Azeruk spun his head around to the fire, then back to Galdura.

"After this, you and me need to talk.", Azeruk said to Galdura as he rushed over to the Night Lurker.

"What's going on?", Azuruk asked in a serious tone as he looked at the flaming building.

Ljost Lake

Wenxuan already exhausted, could only watch as the events unfolded. He had called Madge back and now, she was perched in his lap, she could not have done much against so many opponents anyway. " I need to work on my acting skills, Frank identified me pretty easily. So, he is the night lurker. I suppose these shadow lurkers are under his control." He continued to sit there doing nothing, they seemed to have forgotten him, at least until the woman removed his hand. He almost went into shock, but fortunately another woman stepped up and mended his arm. Just then Frank's house flared up and in the light of the fire, Wenxuan saw a face he recognised. Reginald. That rougue SYSTEM member. He had been involved in the accident that killed Wenxuan's parents. Wenxuan was not sure about the exact details, but that was one factor among many that got his parents killed.

Rage welled up in him. Wenxuan could not do anything, but there were others who could. His physical strength may be drained, but he still had magic. Wenxuan remained unmoving and silent, but he was using his force of will, to begin controlling those shadow lurkers. Once he had the whole pack under his control, he swayed with exhaustion, but still managed to command them to attack the fire user. It helped that it was their master home under attack, but even so they did not give in easily to another's orders. Once, they were off, he released them, and utilised the last of his strength on Madge. He did something similar to what he had done earlier while leaving town, but this time it was not an illusion. He physically changed her, her speed, reflexes, strength all increased. This would allow her to be able to fight off most others. Of course this also increased the predatory aura she gave off again. But Wenxuan could not care about that. The change had sapped too much of his strength, he realised his mistake too late, he had underestimated the demands of the act of magic. The only thing preventing him from dying right now, was the nearby source of memories from which he could draw some strength. But the SYSTEM spy earlier had been right, this source was not strong enough. Wenxuan knew that his body would soon fall under something similar to a coma to repair the damage. But Wenxuan could not bear being helpless with so many potential enemies nearby. So right before his body collapsed, he transferred his consciousness.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Madge perched on Wenxuan's prone form. But her eyes glinted unnaturally, there was a gleam of intelligence in them, human intelligence. Madge was still in command of herself, but in the back of her mind, she could feel the slumbering consciousness of Wenxuan. This allowed him to see what is going on once his consciousness woke up, and Madge would also be able to share in his knowledge. But his body would need a much long period of time before it was ready to wake up again, at the moment Madge would remain in control of the body, but once his consciousness woke, he could for short lengths of time borrow her body. Meanwhile, she watched as the shadow lurkers loped towards the house and kept an eye on the others, in case they tried to attack Wenxuan's body.

Night Lurker looked on in horror. Everything that he was given -- nay, entrusted -- is burning down to the ground by a sadistic rogue knight. Night Lurker was looking at this event unfolding as if he were watching his own father die.

"That... bastard..."

A tear fell. But then... when it landed... the tear had turned to ice, and as it hit the ground, a bunch of icicle spikes rose from the ground. Night Lurker had lost it.

Reginald smiled as he killed off the shadow lurkers.

"Hahahaha! Is that all ya got?! Oh, please! I could take them out in my sleep! Now, let me show you what true power is!!!"

Reginald began charging up a powerful fire vortex, but suddenly, a firm punch landed on his face. Reginald flew. Night Lurker had been the one who landed the punch. On the island, there was an ice trail leading from the island to where he was now. His hands were covered in a thick ice glove, and his boots were now covered in ice skates. After the punch, Night Lurker had taken off in a hit and run tactic. On the path were similar flower-like icicles. It was his ability, flowering perspiration. In time of need, he could turn perspiration into those ice flowers, mainly used to greatly hinder an opponent's movements. However, this time, there were tears in place. Reginald got up.

"YOU LITTLE F*CKER, THAT HURT!!!"

Ljost Lake - 11:41 PM

As the scene unfolded Galdura did nothing to stop it. "I'm sorry, but I can not take him in tonight. If I bring him in tonight they will know that I have been out somewhere. I'll leave this one too you. After you have finished him we might be able to continue. The night does not last forever." She then returned to nearly a static pose while observing what was going on.

At the same time Sidna tried to pull herself together. When she saw the fire she wanted to help somehow. Remove the flames. Immobilize the man. Anything that could help. She couldn't do anything tough. She had removed her own magic to prevent further harm and now she just had to wait for thr magic to wear off. The memories of the boy she had killed her was still haunting her as well so she couldn't really concentrate on something.

Much time had passed, and the two fought violently in front of the burning house. But finally the battle was over. Night Lurker pinned down Reginald's beaten body.

"... It's... It's over..."

"... Is that what you really think?"

Night Lurker's eyes widened. His mask fell off during the battle.

"Hehe... It's true... I escaped imprisonment before... I can do it again... And kill more innocent people."

Night lurker was getting furious. He raised his fist in anger.

"... Hehehe... Go on... You won't..."

Night lurker clenched his fist and teeth.

"... Well maybe you will... But... Face it... That house... I burned it down... Without a second thought... And now... Everything you love... All of your precious memories... It's gone..."

Night lurker tried to resist... But then...

"Including those of your dear father."

Night lurker yelled into the air. Then, it seemed as if there were no noises in the air. Nothing to be heard... But much to be seen. The house now turned to ash, Reginald's smile and eyes growing wider in insanity... And night lurkers fist landing. Then, as the punch landed, a giant cherry blossom made of ice formed. It was stained in blood in some branches. Night lurker looked at his hands, stained in blood. His eyes were wide in shock and trauma. He had just done what he had never done before, nor did he expect to do it. He slowly grabbed his head. Then, he tilt his head back and yelled.

He killed Reginald, his maniacal laugh echoing through the night as his last voice.




Later that night, Night Lurker had calmed down. The night was silent. The cherry blossom ice sculpture now clean of blood, but unmoving. Then, he got up. He walked to the burnt house and looked through the Ashes. Then, he picked up a brass locket in the shape of the crescent moon. He opened it to reveal a drawing of him and his father smiling, standing by the lake. Night Lurker stared at it for a while, then put it in his pocket.

He walked to the island where everyone else was. He stood there in front of Sidna.

"... You see now? Why we need control?"

Night Lurker held his hand out.

"... It's alright. But listen. I'm..."

He looked back at the Ashes, then at the light in lake Ljost. Then, he refocused on Sidna.

"... I'm coming with you. We are going to learn control together. Will you please let me join you?"

Ljost Lake - 12:20 AM 8 june 2146

After witnessing the battle's end most things had calmed down. Sidna was beginning to regain her magic while the others was talking. Galdura had been keeping pretty quiet and had been sitting in a shadow for the time being. When Night Lurker came over to Sidna and asked her to join her team it seemed like Galdura suddenly waked up. "Oh she will. Or I will have to make her. So, now that everyone have calmed down we can finally get down to business. First of all tough I suppose you'll be sleeping out here tonight away from other people." Her hand the glowed bright red. A second later a fireplace materialized in the center.

Galdura then began explaining to the others. "I don't know how many of you know this so I'll start with the basics. As you know there have been a new type of magic that have only set foot about 10 years ago. This was when time mages other than myself came into being. A time mage can alter time as much as he or she like if they are powerful enough. They can look back in time. They can change things. Everything like that. There is one central rule however. You may not go more than 10 years back. It may make sense for the ones born after that, but for someone like me it doesn't make any sense. The fact that time mages began appearing around that time AND that you can't go further back than that doesn't make any sense. Something happened back then. I've tried asking the ones higher up, but I don't have much luck for two reasons. One, they don't want to tell me anything. Two, people like WenXuan here doesn't even know too much of what happened back then because they were to young. I've tried to search my memories back to that, but I can't find anything special. For me it's just the same day for about 250 years now. I expect you to find out the answer to this. If not I'll just have to turn you guys in like I was ordered and continue to search alone. It's not like I don't have time. So any questions?"

Frank nodded.

"As a matter of fact, I do. Every time I sleep, I see these... Weird dreams. Like I'm a different. Then, when I wake up, I get a massive headache. And every time I wake up, my headache gets more and more intense. Thankfully, though, because of it, I'm more resistant tip pain. But since you're mentioning it, do my dreams have anything to with the time spam beyond ten years?"

Ljost Lake - 12:21 AM 8 June 2146

Azeruk stood there and listened to Galdura and gave an unamused frown. Azeruk didn't like the fact that she was essentially threatening them with imprisonment if they didn't do what she said.

"Well that's not very polite.", Azeruk said in a deadpan tone as he crossed his arms.

"I have one problem with that... Actually, I have a couple. One, if you want us to help you, then don't try to intimidate us into doing it. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone likes to be coerced into doing something. Why am I being stubborn about this? I suppose you could say that it's on principle that I defy coercion. Two, let's say we help you. What's stopping you from turning us in anyways? So far, you have given us absolutely no reason to trust you. It certainly doesn't help your case when you're throwing treats of imprisonment around. Before you say that I don't have a choice, yes, I do. All magic has its weaknesses, even yours. I highly doubt you can freeze me before I can escape, or even deal a fatal blow. Even if I don't get you now, there's always when you sleep. The point I'm trying to make is that this whole SYSTEM authority thing is not going to get you anywhere. Perhaps I want answers as well, but I'm not going to work with somebody that treats me like a prisoner or a hostage.", Azeruk calmly said to Galdura.

As Azeruk spoke, he also created a sort of "failsafe" around Galdura. If she froze him, then she couldn't escape either. What Azeruk had done was that he created a solidified light shield around her, while at the same time, bending light so that it would it pass through the shield, making it invisible. If she froze him, then the shield would be frozen as well. The only way to undo it would be to unfreeze him, but by that time, he would already be given enough time to perform a light speed charge.

Ljost Lake 12:33 AM

As Azeruk told her about the problems he had it looked like she was amused by it. When she replied she was smiling widely. "Of course you have problems with that. As for you first problem. How else would I be sure that you would actually do the job? As for your second problem, that's quite easy if you think about it. What was stopping me from just turning you in when we were in Endalausir Forest? The same thing as here of course. I don't want to kill the golden goose. As for the freezing part, how would you like being rooted instead. It's quite comfortable once you get used to it." She then glowed a green color and a few roots began growing out the ground underneath Azeruk and trap his boots.

She then walked over to Night Lurker and took one hand over his head. "That's a interesting dream, or more like a memory. Hmm, Doesn't look like it belongs to you. Oh, here we have something interesting. Very interesting in fact. This memory is 15 years old. That's older than I have ever seen. Let's all watch it and analyze it. We might discover something useful." The view for everyone then shifted, first to black, then to white and then just random colors, sounds, feelings, everything.

When things calmed down everyone was looking trough the eyes of a old man. About 70 years old maybe. The area he was in was a white corridor. In the ceiling there was lamps emitting a strong light. He walked into a door and was greeted by four younger people. He walked past a second door and came into what looked like a room with all sorts of devices. A young woman greeted him as he walked into the room. "Good morning Professor Grav. Got any plans for today?". "Well I was thinking of continuing the experiments with the dragons. I think there is lots of room for improvement." "Do you really think this is the right thing to to. To create creatures like these in a laboratory?" "I understand that you find it difficult to think about it. Spira, I ask you to remember what you do yourself. That you do things that I do not believe should be done. I believe that making yourself immortal is going to far. You're a eternal being. I think that is one step too far. Of course I can't stop you now as you have already been using this method for over 200 years, but do know that creating creatures in a lab is not the only thing you should not do." The vision the began to fade out again until they were in the real world again.

"Well that was interesting. That should give us some idea about what happened 10 years ago, maybe" Galdura said after everyone had seen the vision.