Aeterna - IC

[wonderweiss]

Otori gave out a slight sigh. "Alright then. Just one thing..."

Otori closed his eyes and focused.

"Everybody... duck."

[Major Mario]

Everbloom Forest, Near T.Mines

"Stay. Good boy."

Eric chuckled to himself as he left his packmule tied to a hardy stump at the east entrance to the forest. It wasn't that the mule was unwanted, far from it. Like a pig, the mule had a knack for finding wild food. The problem with that was that the food could be picked, stored, and sold by Eric, who could use the money to buy better food for the foolish mule. The words 'long-term investment' didn't even ring a bell in the mule's head. It was better to leave him back at the entrance with a carrot, lest he go off on an eating spree.

The merchant looked around in the forest. As far as he could see, there was greenery. Trees stood tall and proud and full of leaves while wild bushes overflowed with ripe berries. Branches were weighed down with pinecones and exotic fruit of all kinds. Eric strained his ears and heard a small stream nearby, most likely ripe with fat fish just looking for a hook to sink their lips into. It was a strange, wonderful place at first glance, but Eric wasn't looking for the pleasantries just yet. The man sat on his haunches and took a closer look at the roots of a few bushes.

He picked up a red, segmented berry and rolled it around between his fingers. Raspberries; safe to eat. He popped a few into his mouth before catching sight of a small leafy plant hiding under the bush. It looked like a common weed, but the leaves were too frazzled to be mistaken as poison ivy or twistvine. No, this small plant had to be greenwarish, an herb that grew in the most secluded of places. A mage would be able to take it for potions while an alemaster could force it to mature with a bit of cloudwine. Either way, there were many parties looking for the herb, and Eric was prepared to sell to the highest bidder. He grabbed as many leaves as he could before turning to another plant.

Then, he stopped his foraging as he noticed something in the ground next to him. Wheel-tracks from a wooden cart of sort, plus many footprints. Apparently the forest had seen some recent activity, just as he had expected. The merchant stood up and looked out into the forest towards what he thought was a clearing. It sounded like something was happening down there, and from the sound of steel and whirring, it wasn't anything too good. Eric hobbled forward through the brush at a slow pace, not wanting to draw attention. He brushed a few leaves out of his view and looked out to the clearing.

His eyes widened as he saw a group of rag-tag people standing over a bunch of guards. It seemed that they had killed them all for the purpose of reclaiming some kind of safehouse, but as Eric looked on, this was not the case. One member of this group was burning down buildings, most likely shacks. It was then that he noticed carts filled with ore of some sort and that the area had been deforested. Was this an attack on a mine? Why all the fire, he thought to himself. As he looked on, he swore he could recognize a couple people from the group directly north of him.

[bookdragon2000]

Everbloom Forest, Titanium mines

Yomi hesitated, not knowing what to do, he stood at the edge of the mines and watched as the boy argued with some sort of archer or ranger while another man stood next to them concentrating on a small object withing his hands. There were fire pillars raging around, he assumed it was the work of one of the three down there.

He had managed to get there ahead of the soldiers by convincing the two carrying him to rush ahead so that he could hide the approach of the soldiers and also to blind the people attacking the mines. He had barely managed to convince the two of them to stay in the tree line and let him go forward himself. Now he looked back at the soldiers and saw that they were still staring at the ground beneath his feet. This was the reason he had yet to escape, he was about to run away when he noticed that although he had made himself invisible, the soldiers could see the depression his feet made in the ground. Luckily for him, the soldiers probably assumed that he had done it to escape detection.

"curse this grass..."

Yomi felt no antagonism against anyone here, except maybe slightly towards the soldiers, but that was mainly directed towards sidna, the soldiers were just doing their job. As he felt no obligation to both sides, he decided, "why not, after all it is not like i owe either side"

With that he gathered his energy and released it in the form of a ball of light which he sent soaring over the mines, searing away all shadows. It was not as effective as he would like considering it was day and the people around him were attuned to the light already, but at least it drew attention away from him. He limped as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the soldiers.

He was just about to escape into the treeline when he saw a man standing by the mines, but that was not what had caught yomi's attention, it was the leafy herb sticking out of the top of the man's large backpack. Yomi recognised it as one of the rarer herbs that could help his legs, Yomi tried to decide which was better, escaping or getting the herb first, the herb would speed the healing of his legs greatly and thus he could escape further. He finally decided on the second course of action. He sneaked up behind the man and tried to pull the herb out of the pack without alerting the man, thinking

"please keep watching the light, please keep watching. I've never stolen belongings while they are this close to their owners before, this is too much trouble then it should be worth..."

[Major Mario]

Everbloom Forest, Near T.Mines (@Bookdragon)

Although Eric prided himself a Nevada man, he was not much of a ranger in tune with nature. He enjoyed it, hell, he wanted to see more of it, but that was second on his list. Ruins and grand structures from cultures come and gone were what he wanted to see. As a consequence, his perception while outdoors was a little dulled. He did not even notice that someone was sneaking up behind him, given that there were other noises over yonder. Whatever noises from the sneak would be drowned out, even the smallest of cracks and ruffles...

Eric took a step back and raised a hand to cover his eyes upon seeing the bright ball of light over the mines. A flare of some sort, he thought to himself. But what purpose did a flare serve in broad daylight? It was only a nuisance to him.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Everbloom Forest: Titanium Mines

Seki’s ongoing dancing of the large flaming pillars had continued for nearly ten minutes now. Had she been discovered or attacked I would have taken too long to complete the attack and she would have had to of stopped to defend herself. However thanks to all the Chaos the others were causing Seki actually had enough time. She finished carving her hellish sigil into the land, destroying several buildings and killing many soldiers in the process. Anyone who was well versed or at least knowledgeable in the art of fire magic would have known what the sigil was, although granted it was big enough you could only see the whole thing from the sky. Seki was breaking the Taboo among all fire mages, The sigil would create a highly unstable radioactive flame. If Seki failed to control the flame it would end up killing her and everyone in the area from radiation. However if she managed to control it, the flame would turn the mine into a barren wasteland. (well I guess it would do that either way)

“JASON GET OUT! I’M ABOUT TO OPEN THE GATES OF HELL!” Seki screamed out being sure anyone in the mines would be able to hear her. She waited for Jason before she would launch the attack. But could she control it? Even if she could, what state would she be in afterwords?

[wonderweiss]

Otori was going to use a giant wind scythe to cut everything in it's wake, but then he heard Seki. He looked at her and noticed... She was doing something familiar...

The it hit him: she was going to attempt the taboo just as Frank did when he was mortally wounded.

"What?! Wait, stop, you fool! It's called taboo for a reason!"

Under any other circumstance, he would care less. But now... he didn't want Seki -or anyone, for that matter- to reenact the same mistake that Frank did.

[Kristia]

Everbloom Forest: Titanium Mines

Kris heard a girl scraming a warning for the miner boy and searched for the source of the voice in the corners of the whole place. Running and moving everyone she could out of the mines, Kris kept searching for the voice and suddenly saw a girl "Wait.. isnīt she..?") the huntress thought now that she found the girl she saw in the innīs kitchen

The huntress tried to understand why she was there when she noticed the fire pillars around the mines, oh gods.. a taboo sigil"Hey! if you are going to release that magic, jump forward and duck when you do it!" she said preparing to make an ice barrier close to the girl to protect both of them

[bookdragon2000]

Everbloom Forest-titanium mine

Yomi drew in a breath, startled by the man`s step backwards, his hand had nearly brushed the man`s neck. Yomi hurriedly pulled out the herb and was about to leave when he heard a female voice shout out. He looked over the man`s shoulder and saw a vaguely familiar sign burnt into the land. Yomi stood there and thought for a while, until he suddenly remembered, he had seen it on the cover of a book in the regius north library, now he strained to remember the name of the book, forbidden magics

"Oh no,oh no, what the hell are they thinking!? That type of magic is like a nuclear bomb and just as easy to control!"

Yomi descended into a state of near panic, he saw that the sigil looked like it was about to release its magic and he knew that he would probably not survive it, he had to get out of there.fast.

Well, this was considered a last resort moment. Yomi sped off into the distance as light again straight east.

adhibe

Yomi materialised in the middle of what looked like a market, but before he could take in more, he fell unconcious, he had had to maintain the light magic for longer than he had ever done, now even though he was rested, his strength was gone once again.

[S121]

Everbloom Forest: Titanium Mines

“JASON GET OUT! I’M ABOUT TO OPEN THE GATES OF HELL!”

Jason spun his head over to Seki's direction and then to the ground around the mine.
What he saw puzzled him. There was a giant ring with strange markings surrounding the mine. Jason wasn't the most knowledgeable when it came to magic, but even he knew that something was going to happen, something big.

(Oh, this is bad... She's going to turn this place into a smoldering crater, isn't she? I'd better grab some things then...)

Using his speed magic, Jason focused on his body and sped up his neural impulses. Not only did this make everything slow down to a crawl, it also increased the contraction speed of his body, allowing him to move faster. Once he augmented his reaction time and natural movement speed, he then sprinted off towards the refinery.

The refinery was falling apart around him, but thanks to his magic, he saw everything slowly waste away. Jason knew what he was looking for, he was looking for Titanium. He needed to build more metal spikes and tools. He wasn't worried about needing a forge because he could just as easily carve the Titanium Alloy ingots with his magic. Jason grabbed one of the large water buckets and began depositing ingot after ingot, quickly collecting them for later.

(Who knows? I can probably sell these to pay for our trip.)

After gathering as much Titanium as he could possibly fit into the bucket, Jason ran off towards the forest, creating a blur for everyone to see. To Jason, his whole ordeal took a couple of minutes, but for everyone else, it was only a couple of seconds.

[Kristia]

Everbloom Forest: Titanium Mines

"Miner boy! Im making an ice barrier to protect us so get here!" Kris shouted already making a sigil of protection around her and Seki, the magic would cost her quite a big deal of her energy, so she took her berries and ate most of them to prepare the ice barrier

Putting her ice arrows around the circle, the huntress started forming a sort of igloo surrounding her and the flame magician girl, Kris felt how her energy sapped quickly as her msucles tensed and her mind strained ("Come on Kris, you can do it") she thought while forming the ice barrier

[S121]

Everbloom Forest: Titanium Mines

"Miner boy! I'm making an ice barrier to protect us so get here!"

"My name is not 'miner boy', it's Jason!", Jason shouted out to Kris as he picked up the bucket and ran inside of the ice barrier.

Jason saw that Kris was starting to show signs of strain. The tensing of her jaw, the slight rigidness of her body, even the slight squint in her eyes. Jason was familiar with these symptoms, due to him always pushing himself. Jason put the large bucket filled with Titanium Alloy ingots on the floor and began to help her.

"Looks like you need a hand. Hang on."

Jason then began to focus his speed magic on the ice Kris was forming. Instead of speeding up the vibrations of the ice's molecules, he began to slow them down, causing the ice to decrease in temperature and get colder. This also had the added benefit of actually hardening the ice as well, making Kris's efforts much easier.

"How's that?", Jason asked as he continued to focus on the ice.

[Kilelicus]

Everbloom Forest - 8:57 AM

Phenom planted his face in his palm when he realized what the psychotic fire mage was planning to do.

"You know... blowing this place up is far less advantageous to us than anything else... you're just serving to piss them off" he muttered.

He seemed to phase out of reality as he moved to a safer location. Poor Everbloom Forest was effectively being tortured with all of the burning it had suffered this morning. Phenom sat back and watched the show to see what happened.

[wonderweiss]

Otori had no idea what to do. Should he leave her and run the possibility that she could end up like Frank? Or should he try to stop her, running the risk of failing and dying?

Damn it all... what should I do?!

He backed up.

"I'm not leaving... but I am going to stop you if you push yourself! Got that?! I don't care how bad you beat me for this, but I don't want you to end up like him!"

He rushed over to Jason. "Jason, keep an eye out for the girl. If she pushes herself, I'll try to stop her. This has happened before and I noticed a blindspot for stopping a taboo fire spell. It would be risky, but should she fail, then her life isn't the only one at stake, thou she will be most prone to it! She is the center of the spell, if no one dies, then she surely will!"

[Kristia]

Everbloom Forest: Titanium Mines

The huntress made a small chuckle to Jasonīs reaction "Atleast I got your attention, now stay within the circle" she said while finishing to seal the three of them inside the ice-barrier. Almost ready to close the gap, Kris looked at the fire mage, her whole body emitting heat ("Her emotions must be able to go to extreme levels if she can pull up something like this") she thought

"Whenever you want to fire mage, we are ready to endure it, just stay in the circle" Kris told to Seki and kept hardening her barrier going to her physical limits "I havenīt endured this hell just to die in a fire explosion, the ice will prevail!" she said to herself already focusing only in her ice magic

Hearing the other guy made the huntress say "Then help controlling the fire that may get out from her boy"

[Tewi_Inaba]

Everbloom Forest: Titanium Mines

Seki paused for a moment when suddenly the huntress from before appeared beside her again. Seki was still very confused about how to feel towards this person, and every time they spoke Anna stopped talking to Seki. It was as if she cured the voices in Seki’s head whenever she was around or something. At any rate it was very strange.

The moment Jason entered the circle Seki snapped out of her confused trance and refocused on the sigil she had formed. Seki extended her arms as if she were going to stop a moving train, with her hands held in front of her slightly off to the sides. She wasn’t going to wait any longer since Jason was the only friend she was aware of that had entered the fight with her. Seki gritted her teath and burnt two matching sigils into the palms of her hands which linked her magic directly to the sigil she had formed. This way the sigil on her hand would not melt, liquefy and fade away or anything of the sort while she was preforming the spell. “Seki Bomb” she whispered. A strange sort of light began to glow from the sigils in her hands and the one carved into the land. Tempters in the area quickly shot up rising higher and higher. Seki started sweating from the heat and then suddenly!

A massive ball of nuclear fire formed and began rapidly spinning out of control. The fire covered the entire mine from corner to corner in a blaze of heat that caused stone and titanium to melt, burn up or be blown to bits. At any rate nothing from the mine would be usable. Anything in the area would soon fail to exist. Tyruss would never lay eyes on titanium from Jason’s mine, at least not until Jason confronted him.

All was well for a short while, but after about seven seconds after the “Seki Bomb” Seki started screaming. Despite her Stamina and raw power, the forbidden magic was too much even for her to hold for too long. Her body began aching, stinging and burning on the inside. She fell to one knee and closed her, The spinning ball of fire began growing nearer and larger as Seki struggled for control. As much as she wanted to watch the world burn, she knew she couldn’t watch it if she were dead. She was starting to lose consciousness. She had to act quickly. The adrenalin In her brain caused her body to push itself beyond what was normally possible and so with one last effort, Seki pushed back against the fire, causing it to become smaller and smaller. Tears fell from her face either from having very dry eyes or from pain as the sphere of radioactive fire shrank to about the size of a small hut. Seki took one final breath before she could no longer maintain her consciousness. The sphere of fire would ignite in a nuclear explosion. Seki had minimized the damage by making the ball so much smaller. But the explosion would still spread across the majority of what used to be the mine. Seki, Jason and the huntress would have all died if not for the ice barrier around them.

The land where the mine had once been was scorched and replaced with a large crater in the ground. What had been a beautiful forest area was replaced with a wasteland. The forest around there however was still… mostly intact. The only thing damaged more than the land might have been Seki’s body. The spell had drained her manna and her stamina completely. The flesh on her hands had been burnt severely. Her mussels had been strained and torn in some places. If this were real life the girl would have certainly died, however with magic there was a chance she could survive. At any rate her fate was not in the hands of Jason and this huntress.