[PP: F4-10] Odiare, l'amore è dolore

[Mari 1]

Somewhere on the 4th floor….

“Fuck you!” Mari spat at the hooded figure, her leg swept underneath theirs in an attempt to knock him over but he stepped back, dodging her. His grip on her wrist tightened. “Such fun games you play…” The sinister tone laced with amusement as the man twisted Mari’s wrist back, forcing her to fall to a single knee. Mari immediately responded by headbutting him in his chest, and following suit with a dagger in his side. The weapon’s blade lit ablaze but fizzled out as it came into contact with his skin.

Mari was met with a low rumble of chuckled laughter. “You think I didn’t come prepared?” He asked, lifting Mari up by her wrist and lifting her body so it dangled just above the floor. “It’d be foolish to step anywhere near the two of you without the proper enchantments.”

Mari clicked the heel of her boots against each other, and the shink of a hidden blade flung out the toe of the shoe; Mari swung her body to gain momentum and let another strike of blade against digital flesh, once across his stomach and the other in the side of his leg. The man finally let her go and Mari rolled backward, wasting no time in quick practised motions she opened up her HUD and flicked Untraceable from active to disabled. If she were to go missing, surely someone would use the skill…Raidou used it consistently, if he saw her that it would set alarm bells right? Just in case…. Then - came the satchel at her side - materializing out of digital air. Mari pulled out her tranquilizer- and slid the needle beneath the glove on her right hand - then she pulled out a glass orb filled with a pale blue smoke. She ditched it at the man who simply tilted his head to the side.

“Again. I came prepared.” 

Shit.

Mari was doing her best to avoid killing but this was getting more and more dire - she pulled out her Halberd and charged - swinging wide to strike the man down - aiming for his exposed neck. Her hit landed, and his health bar dipped down a significant amount. He may be immune to her status ailments but not to pure damage. Good….She could do this. Even without her fire - and her tricks…she could do this. Mari was still one of the strongest in Aincrad. She’d decimate this man. He had the audacity to threaten HER Lancaster, her Vincent. Her world. Another flash and her familiar, appeared behind her - a large Koi fish swimming in the air around her. Kohaku - something that rarely made an appearance but needs must.

“I will fucking eviscerate you!” She hissed between clenched teeth. Suddenly…death felt too kind to him, a hatred broiled within her chest and prickled her skin. She would capture him. Throw him into her cell in her workshop. She’d pump his body with ricin and bacteria and watch him wither and whimper till he begged for death - and even then. She’d not grant it to him. Perhaps….she could take a page out of Freyd’s book and throw him into a random dungeon. Forever trapped somewhere between life and death.

Yes….

That seemed fitting. 

 Mari went to pull the blade out, to strike him down, again and again, but with her large swing came her weakness. She felt it before she saw it. Mari glanced down at her stomach - a single small needle was wedged into it, shimmering with its own enhancements, and unlike the man…she didn’t have any immunity against it. Fuck.

Her weapon clattered to the floor as she lost control of her fingers. Then, she fell to her knees.

Crunch
  Crunch
      Crunch

“I thought you were going to eviscerate me.” He knelt down in front of her, grabbing hold of her face with a firm grip beneath her chin. “Now. Nothing against you, really. But I gotta borrow you for a few days.” He stood and turned his back on her. Opening up his messaging system.

It was this moment that Mari wriggled her wrist, till the tranquilizer fell out, silently landing in the snow. She wasn’t sure it would work. But she had to try. Two fingers wrapped around it and she tried to lift her arm.
“Ah. Now, now. None of that.”

Fuck

He had pried it from her hand and in a quick motion he flipped it around and jammed it into her wrist. “Remind me to go through your inventory later. I’m curious to see what else you got.” He watched, to see what it would do. A grin formed on his face as he realized, seeing her extremities twitch. “Well. That’s more convenient than getting paralyse to work.” He gave her a pat on the head. “Good girl.”

Then, he would throw a tarp over her and pick Mari up. Throwing her limp body over his shoulder. The man slowly trekked through the wet snow to Snowfrost. 

Mari’s eyes were half lidded - she was barely able to move. This was so bad. How did she let this happen? Mari had felled countless others before. She had been able to fight several people at once. So why….was this different? Her finger twitched and with the man distracted she’d open up her HUD-

Mari→ Lancaster: Hrkp

Darkness overtook her, so before she could type any more the woman pressed send.
Her world grew dark, and cold.

Arriving at the teleport gate the man would readjust Mari on his shoulder before calling out a single word.. “ Yomi.”
 

—-------

Two days later, a single recording crystal was sitting on Mari’s front porch. Left there by a smaller hooded figure.

It’s contents;

A blurry and grainy image sprang to life from the crystal. In the center of the frame stood Mari, with her hands high over her head, dangling from the ceiling. Every so often a flash of light would obscure the image and she would scream. Her voice raw and cracked. When the flash died down it’d show Mari. Half burnt. Screaming, crying and swearing at her captors.

Then, a man stepped into view - one who looked almost identical to Lancaster. He’d turn to the camera and give it a wave as he grinned. The image stuttered, then looped. The same scene playing over and over again.

 

 

 

 

Non combat thread; Mari | HP: 1160/1160 | EN: 148/148 | DMG: 21 | MIT:143 | ACC:4 | AA  | FL.AURA: 8 | BH:64 | BRN: 56 | ENV-O: 32 | PARA-V | LD:5 | True Tier 15

Edited yesterday at 09:38 PM by Mari

[Raidou 1]

A tap of his fingers in a stagnant pool, kneeled at one of the many horrid looking puddles in that glow. The burning boil of his own skin as it enters and comes out, confirming his suspicions. The skin begins to regrow at rapid pace. "Vincent!" Raidou barked at the man to get his attention with a twist of irritation on his tone, paying little mind to his broiling temper and desperation at what to aim it at. "The crystal." A flick between the men sees the stone tossed to Raidou, from the tyrant. Tapping it the man begins the playback, which causes Lancaster to swell and catch ablaze. Slowing it down, allowing it to loop the man grows in a visible outrage but Raidou stood stoic and seemed to picking out bits and pieces. A tilt of his screen, and an adjustment. "Tartarus..." The phrase spoken limply, a whisper as the confirmation. "Midday, see the structures?" Raidou checked the shadow cast upon the cell floor, the math checking out as well as the underlying sounds. But knowing the man who was his unwilling travel companion, he knew the best way to deal with the all consuming tyrant. Some this wasn't a point for deep thought for it would fall to deaf ears. Instead, it was time to act.

"Building 3, see the one on the north side. There." A glance toward Lancaster with a point with that fire in his eyes and temperatures rising. "Burn it down, Consuming Tyrant. Don't hold back" lifting a hand to his shoulder, the man would play defense once the siren bell rang. "Because I won't." Raidou rips free his sword and a wave of red starts to meld with the pools of the stygian river, as his own temper quelled in a resolute focus was becoming unchained.

Raidou | HP: 1280/1280 | EN: 166/166 | DMG: 24 | MIT:44 | ACC:4 | AA | F-SPIRIT | EVA:4 | BH:70 | VAMP-D: 141 | LD:6
 

Spoiler

 

Name: Raidou, The Red Wanderer
True Tier: 19
Level: 35
Paragon Level: 146
HP: 1280/1280
EN: 166/166

Stats:
Damage: 24
Mitigation: 44
Accuracy: 4
Evasion: 4
Battle Healing: 70
Loot Die: 6
AA VAMP-D: 141
Equipped Gear:
Weapon/Armor/Trinket: 
  - Auric Sunlight - Finality of Faith [T4/Demonic/2HSS] +3 Damage, AA
Armor/Trinket: 
  - Red Wanderer's Resolve - Sympathy [T1/Demonic/Cloth] 2 Evasion, 2 Vampiric Defensive
Shield/Armor/Trinket: 
  - Tactician's Gaze - Ogma [T1/Perfect/Trinket]: +3 Accuracy

Combat Mastery:
  - Combat Mastery: Mitigation R1

Combat Shift:
  - TECH Shift

Familiar Skill:
  - 

Custom Skill:
  - Ill Omen in Red

Skills:
  - Battle Healing R5
  - Charge
  - Cloth Armor R5
  - Energist
  - Fighting Spirit
  - Howl
  - Quick Change
  - Searching R5
  - Straight Sword R5

Extra Skills:
  - Survival
  - Parry
  - Forgotten King's Authority
  - Concentration
  - 
  - 
  - 

Inactive Extra Skills:
PhotosynthesizeBrawlerFrozen Hide
Addons:
  - Ferocity
  - Focused Howl
  - Nimble
  - Precision
  - Reveal
  - Stamina

Mods:
  - Athletics
  - Detect
  - Justified Riposte
  - Tracking
  - Vengeful Riposte

Inactive Mods:

Battle Ready Inventory:
  - Crippling Composition - Lullaby [Tierless/Rare/Debuff/Instant] Hypnosis 2 | [224055] x1
  - Ebon Star - Vanguard Revenant [T4/Demonic/Straight Sword]: V.O 2, Taunt, Blight 1 x1
  - Flash of Rejuvenation [T1/Perfect/Crystal] Mass Heal [200869-1][200876][200877][200878][200879] x5
  - Random Dungeon Map | [229967b] x5
  - Teleport Crystal x1
  - Vocal Augmentation - Resonation [Tierless/Perfect/Support/Instant] +15% HP [160898][161641][161642][162018][162529] x1

Housing Buffs:
  - Basic Kitchen: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot. This can exceed normal Cook enhancement caps. Ex: A perfect T2 MIT food gives 35 MIT instead of 30.
  - Storage Closet: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
  - Living Room: Increases out of combatHP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
  - Attic (Storage): +5% bonus col from monster kills and treasure chests
  - Basement: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll
  - Guest Room: Players can have one «Amenity» in a «Guest Room» and the «Amenity» cannot be recovered. Players are allowed to change which «Amenity» is in the «Guest Room». Multiple instances of the same «Amenity» do not stack. This buff affects the player and their choice of up to two party members.
  - Master Bedroom: -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat
  - Master Bathroom: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down)
  - Extended Workshop: +2 Crafting EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
  - Greenhouse: +2 Gathering EXP per Attempt and additional +1 LD & CD to gathering attempts.
  - Dining Hall: Turn 3 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Feast. A Feast contains 6 portions of the food items sacrificed. Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread.
  - Mega Slime Farm: +10% EXP to a thread. Limit one use per month. Must be used on a player's first post in a thread. Cooldown begins counting down when used in a post.

Guild Hall Buffs:
  - Trading Hall: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters and Rank 4 merchants/performers receive +1 crafting/identification attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters and Rank 5 merchants/performers receive +2 crafting/identification attempts per day.
  - Treasury: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

Scents of the Wild Totem:
  - Kumatetsu
Wedding Ring:
  - -
Crafting Profession:

Gathering Profession:

 

 

[Lancaster 1]

Minutes to hours to days, Lancaster was more then accustomed to Amari being gone for stints out on her own affairs. The last thing the man ever would be led to believe is she couldn't handle herself, and it wasn't until an odd message and a little recording crystal had really woken him up to the state of affairs. Attempts to try and point himself in the right direction had led him nowhere, any tries to ask about where the woman was last seen only brought about him to be ran out of towns. Aincrad was a big place, and Lancaster couldn't really start using connections he didn't have to locate her. The man only really had one option, the guy that tried to inject him with some mystery serum and fry his brains. That alliance was strained to say the least, but it was his only option.

"Is this necessary?" Lancaster spat as Raidou touched the pools of cyan juice, after what seemed like hours of wanderlust and aimless walking. The consuming tyrant was already dialed up to 11, so this need for patience was condemning him to an ever rising temper. Again the man demands the little stone from him and calls him by his real name, leaving the thought of just leaving to bubble to the surface. "Am this close, mio amico. We are lost, you have no idea what you're doing. What Amari sees in such a 4 eyed ass clown...." Holding his finger and thumb the smallest bit apart, he fishes a out from his pocket and tosses the stone to Raidou and as it begins to play he begins to pace back and forth, lighting up a cigarette and desperately pressing his hands into his ears.

"ENOUGH, COGLIONE!" The consuming tyrant rages with flames sparking in both hands, the cigarette in his mouth immediately bursting to ash and then a puff of smoke. His own health bar appearing as it takes a small tick of damage despite his immunity to flame, refilling on its own in a constant back and forth. A point from Raidou sees his attentions lock in and shift to meet the directions. "There? You're sure? Grazie a Dio! A lead..." The flames rage and begin to flash fry the stone to glass, his own clothing starting to smolder and become pecked with damage. "Finally, Il percorso per il paradiso comincia dall inferno."

Lancaster | HP: 760/760 | EN: 114/114 | DMG: 22 | MIT:56 | ACC:4 | BRN-IM  | FL.AURA: 16 | FL.THORNS: 16/32 | BH:38 | BLI: 32/-20 | BRN: 56

Spoiler

 

Name: Lancaster, The Consuming Tyrant
True Tier: 6
Level: 35
Paragon Level: 16
HP: 760/760
EN: 114/114

Stats:
Damage: 22
Mitigation: 56
Accuracy: 4
Battle Healing: 38
Stealth Rating: -3
BRN-IM
FL.AURA: 16
FL.THORNS: 16/32
BLI: 32/-20 
BRN: 56

Equipped Gear:
Weapon/Armor/Trinket: 
  - All Consuming Pyre - Hades [T4/Demonic/Throwing/200384n] | BRN 2, BLI 2
Armor/Trinket: 
  - Hydra Hide Jacket - Erebus [T4/Demonic/Heavy Armor] Flame Aura 2, Flame Thorns 2
Shield/Armor/Trinket: 
  - Inset Etching Tongue Piercing - Cerberus [Tierless/Demonic/Trinket] Accuracy 3, Fireproof

Combat Mastery:
  - Combat Mastery: Damage R3

Combat Shift:
  - AOE Shift

Familiar Skill:
  - 

Custom Skill:
  - 

Skills:
  - Battle Healing R5
  - Energist
  - Heavy Armor R3
  - Thrown Weaponry R5

Extra Skills:

Inactive Extra Skills:

Addons:
  - Focus
  - Precision
  - Stamina

Mods:
  - Impetus

Inactive Mods:

Battle Ready Inventory:
  - Anthem of Finality - Destruction [Tierless/Perfect/Debuff/Instant] Catalyst | 230758, 230778, 230779, 230780, 230781 x1
  - Anthem of Finality - Destruction [Tierless/Perfect/Debuff/Instant] Catalyst | 230782, 230783, 230784, 230785 x5
  - Resonance of the Grave [Tierless/Perfect/Debuff/Instant] Incarceration | 186790, 191009, 191013, 198351, 181560, x5
  - Teleport Crystal x4

Housing Buffs:
  - Dining Room: Turn 2 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Lesser Feast. A Lesser Feast contains 4 portions of the food items sacrificed. Lesser Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread.
  - Living Room: Increases out of combatHP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.

Guild Hall Buffs:

Scents of the Wild Totem:

Wedding Ring:
  - Strong Will
Crafting Profession:

Gathering Profession:

 

 

[Mari 1]

4 days ago…

Blindfolded and bound in chains Mari knew she was on the 10th floor, she recognized the tingle on her skin - the way her hair always stood tall on her back. The whispers that clawed at the fringes of her subconsciousness. Was this supposed to be their way to control her? That wouldn’t work, Mari was very intimately familiar with this floor - she was used to this floor.  What she wasn’t used to, was being freezing cold. No items, blindfolded. She could feel a large hand guiding hers and Mari loathed to see what they were doing.

“Make sure ya get every weapon and accessory, any vial, tool and armour.”

“Boss! she’s loaded!” A second voice, southern accent. He was the one who was holding her hand. She could feel a scar on the inside of his right palm. Beyond that, his hands were soft. Not a fighter? He also spoke with a slight lisp.  ”Should we-”

“No. Don’t touch nothin’ else. Not yet. He’d notice too quickly.”

Mari perked up at that… he? And they were worried about Lancaster noticing? So they were still targeting her husband. Mari snorted. “Yer all fucked.” She spat. “You think he wouldn’t notice? He’s probably already burning his way right to your pathetic fucking asses.” Her body was still limp, heavy with her own concoctions but she still tilted her head and spat in the direction of the southern man - the one who so firmly, yet feebly held her hand. He dropped it, and her hand landed on the cold hard floor. A twitch of her fingers -stone - an attempt to sprawl them out, anything to get as much information as she could. Tiled stone. Tartarus? There were so few structures on the 10th floor.

“Eugh! She Spat on me!” He’d mutter, the sounds of shuffling as he wiped her spit away.

“That’s the least of your concerns.” Her tone was low, even. Spoken with a steady calculated beat. A hidden hatred. Hatred was all that she had left for these people, anger giving way to something much much darker. Mari wanted to bury them all. She wanted each and every one dead, and she wanted to be the one to do it. Every word, every action like gasoline to the roiling abhorrent storm in the pit of her stomach.

“You’re awfully chatty, for someone in your position - ah. Maybe this would change your tone.”

Another prick, followed by an immediate sensation of burning running through her veins. If Mari’s body could contort, it would. Veins pressed up against her skin. This was her poison. The Ricin. Mari clenched her jaw, doing her best to hold in her scream. Her entire body shook as black tendrils cascaded over her skin.

It felt like hours, but it was only a few seconds - till Mari blacked out. Her health steadily trickling down by the second.

3 Days ago….

“Addex! This’ll cost us a small fortune!” A man dressed in a black coat, messy blonde hair - and a katana at his back was pacing back and forth in front of the cell they were keeping Mari in. “Every 20 minutes! We have to feed her potions and crystals, else she’d be dead! Why waste the resources?”

“Not a waste. Remember our end goal.” Addex placed a firm hand on Darian’s shoulder. “This is our ticket to the Laughing Coffin. Obliterating one of its old members, and curbing a frontliner. It’s a win win.” Addex took a step back from Darian - holding out his gloved hands.

Currently using the <<Disguise>> skill he looked very similar to Lancaster. “Now…are we ready?” 

Addex nodded, adjusting a silver necklace he wore, ensuring the <<Fireproof>> enchantment was actived.

“Showtime.”

 - - - - - - - -

Mari thought she had been found, when her blindfold was ripped off it was difficult to see. Her eyes blurry, burned by the light of the fires that surrounded her. The constant pain pumping through her veins only exasperated the effects of this floor. The voices had gotten louder, and her eyes would dance wildly to the left, then the right - trying to catch the shadows that plagued her vision.

“V-vincent?” A stark contrast from the confident and calculating woman from but a day ago. Her voice barely above a whisper. Mari blinked, and tears streaked down her face. “T-theyre tryin’ to-” A hitch in her breath as she felt his lips lock against hers.

Something wasn’t right.

He hadn’t been talking. He didn't smell right. He smelt stale. Like dust. No tongue ring. Mari jerked her head away. “You’re not -” Strength had returned to her limbs, was this on purpose? An oversight? Mari was able to push him away with her foot. How dare. HOw dare they!

- - - - - - - -

2 Days ago….

Again and again… Mari was subjected to the same thing. She would be bound, moved to a different room. Fires would rage around her. Attempts to ‘rescue’ her. Every time Mari would be burned horribly, her health dipping dangerously low, into the red - screen blinking. Every time another ‘Lancaster’ would come to her aid and every time it was false. It hurt… it hurt so much. Where was the real Lancaster? Where was he? Where was Vincent? How long had she been here for?

Current…

Mari wasn’t bound, her body not afflicted with paralyzing toxins or agents. She had been given her Halberd back but the woman was listless. Lifeless. Eyes void of the passionate light they usually held. The focus, instead they shifted to and fro in the tiny dark room. Every so often she’d twitch - her health still steadily and slowly ticking down.

How…how long had she been here? It felt like months….Why was she here? A glance down to her arm, littered with angry burns. Burn? Burn…she was supposed….t-to burn something right?

Wild eyes shifted to the metal door. Burn…

Burn it….BUrN burN BruN
BuRN BURN BURN

[Raidou 1]

A sharp twist of his body and a lift of his face to his glasses sees them removed, the arms of the lenses folded in a slow and deliberate steeling of his resolve. Like a headsman sharpening an axe, casting judgement and offering a guilty verdict in one subtle motion. "Vincent, before you go." The wanderer spoke, but his voice seemed distorted as lines of black began to trail up his neck his eyes inhuman and monstrous with hatred. "Its likely they hit her with some of her own concoctions or some garbage they cooked up. Catch." The man remarks tossing two items one after another. "The vial first, the crystal second. Be careful. Its more then just your life on the line this time." But that was all the explanation he could choke out as the thick miasma began to grow that much more dense. Juiblex was already priming for the kill hungering for it, knowing full well that the ill omen was ready to pass judgement and feed it.

These odd looking polished stones begin to slide free from his pocket, smooth and jet black. Underhanded tosses as the man started to ring the complex, setting an inverted trap in the shape of a perimeter. This wasn't his first rodeo to these sorts, and it certainly wouldn't be his last. An inhale as black began to consume him, the robe on his back becoming almost organic as its covered in the same thick syrup. Burning red coals for eyes that leave trails in intensity, like columns of smoke from the sides of an almost alien and creature like humanoid. Tartarus becomes drenched in blood, the very pigment that stole its shores was now an overcast thickness tethered to the faceless lord. The black star hums with ravenous delight as its planted into the terrain, used as a prop as he takes to a vigil to prevent all forms of aid from reaching the couple. His living armor hardens as the man inside drinks the life of everything around it could reach, a symbiotic reflection of the fury and wrath that fueled him.

For the Faceless Lord, the Ill Omen in Red was <<Wrath>> and had always been. This was his domain.

[Lancaster 1]

A blazing pyre, the man is caught only a few steps from the dude that shared tea with Mari and ruined their home on at least one occasion. The look he receives feels almost familiar, and Lancaster cannot shake that feeling but unable to make the connection despite it being on the tip of his tongue. Catching the items tossed his way, a little dumbstruck by them and riddled with a difficult to describe feeling regarding the guy that offered them. Was he afraid? A shake of his head, he chops the feeling up to concern for Amari and whatever she'd been through. It allows that sorrow to twist into a vigor, an outrage and the man raises a fist and shaking it twice. "Grazi." The dismissive twist, as his mind was already long traveled beyond his feet. Hastened steps toward the dictated building sees a pair of sentries take aim. Leaning low, the man slides behind a wall and reaches down to pluck up a rock. It turns red hot and from behind the wall he heaves it toward a woman sporting a bow. In the air a click of his fingers the thing detonates like a grenade in a spark, turning it straight into molten earth that coats her left arm causing the bow to burst into flame and her to cry in horror. "I believe you have something that belongs to me..." The man remarks strolling up like he owns the place, the other sentry stands and begins to blow a horn to alert the others.

*tsk, tsk, tsk*

Lancaster clicks his tongue, irritated as the air around him became wavy and the light bends from the heat coming off of him. His hands rip from his jacket pockets, slamming together to sheer a blade of solid flame out in front of him like a tidal wave. "l'inferno cammina sulla terra. muori prima tu, pezzo di merda" The man is charred straight to cinders, as the woman clambers through her inventory for a small gold amulet with a dark red gem set in it. The lava on her arm starts to be shook off, and she stands with pain beginning to subside. "Fireproof, got your number fucker." She goads to Vincent thinking she had discovered some ace, some perfect answer to the man. "That it? My number? Mia cara, how magnificamente!...naive." A ring of flame rips from his hand sending a typhoon of flame to obscure the area like he'd done time and time before. From its expanding blaze, a hand rips clean to clutch her throat tight enough to cause her to gag. Her wind pipe collapses under that grip as a pair of tired eyes stare her down, piercing red and lording like an emperor to a peon.

Her own clasps around his wrist, causing Vincent to tilt his head and look down. Like a father scolding a child, he grips her wrist. The flames grow more and more intense, so much so that his own health bar appears and the jacket on his back begins to smoke and she begins to cough uncontrollably. "My number, remember?" Lancaster goads as the building side begins to melt, the ground starts to turn to glass. Her hand starts to blacken, the little amulet around her neck glowing bright as the enhancement on it tries to fight back. "Is it working?" Lancaster goads as the woman starts to scream in pain, the blackened flesh starting to sear and trace its way up her arm. The amulet shatters sending pieces of etching in a spray, and the consuming tyrant thrusts a scorched lifeless corpse through a softened iron port cullis like a hot knife through butter. The sounding alarms leave nothing to the imagination, no subtly. They were under attack, and they damn well knew it. Whistling as he walks he repeats the same question to each that he finds "Will only ask once, Where is Mari?" a large smile on his face each time someone attempts to stop his advance or does not answer. One has a pair of superheated thumbs shoved through his eye sockets, another is forced to swallow his own scimitar. A blonde woman crawls away with one of her legs removed and turned into a stump. All the while, Vincenzo seemed to be enjoying the violence and chaos to the tune of a horrific tone that echoes off the walls.

[Mari 1]

Mari wasn’t bound, her body not afflicted with paralyzing toxins or agents. She had been given her Halberd back but the woman was listless. Lifeless. Eyes void of the passionate light they usually held. The focus, instead they shifted to and fro in the tiny dark room. Every so often she’d twitch - her health still steadily and slowly ticking down. 

Beside her stood Addex, the ringleader of their group. He could hear the chaos outside. And soon the All Consuming Tyrant would come here. Addex’s brown eyes flicked over to Mari. It took a lot of work, but her mind was practically gone. Addled with all manner of tricks and trinkets. Drunk, wild, and lost. The final nail in the coffin. Madness. It took everything in his arsenal to obtain the required items for it. And right now the woman next to him was heavily afflicted with it. His sword rested against the skin of her bare neck. He’d have her attack him. A fitting end. Frontliner vs Laughing Coffin. Balance restored.
 

- - -
 

How…how long had she been here? It felt like months….Why was she here? A glance down to her arm, littered with angry burns. Burn? Burn…she was supposed….t-to burn something right?

Wild eyes shifted to the metal door. Burn…

Burn it….BUrN burN BruN
BuRN BURN BURN 

A loud thumb, and hiss - as the metal door began to melt away. Before her stood Lancaster, a burning pyre. Looking more like a mob than a man. For a brief moment Mari’s heart skipped a beat. A sense of relief attempting to calm her addled senses.

“Kill him.”
 

But…

This wasn’t real….this wasn’t real. It was another trick. Another fake and this time Mari wouldn’t let it win. A shaking hand picks up her Halberd and Mari stands, slowly. She falls against the wall only to push herself off of it, “pahhhh…..” A low hiss fell from her lips as her wild eyes locked onto the false Lancaster. A spiderweb of black etched across pale and tired features - her very own poisons still coursing though her body. Her lips twisted up into a quirked grin. Heart beat hard and frantic against her chest. One thought reverberated, echoing in her mind.

KiLl kiLl kiLLL KiLl KILL kill KiLL KILL KILL KILL KILL

A trip, and a stumble- and Mari charged toward Lancaster her blade dragging across the floor a fire erupted from it. The flames licked up the glimmering polearm and erupted onto her shoulders. Mari twitched, a cry of pain as she felt the fire burn into her skin, singing her flesh. That didn’t matter…the fire burned her flesh and the pain felt welcoming. “Hahahah…”  warbled laughter of relief as her health began to tick down, quicker now.

Oh! To relish in the sweet sensation of agony. For far too long she had been dulled. Quelled. This? She felt alive. She felt free, she felt….must kill.

How had she forgotten this feeling?

And why wa she crying as her blade dug into the man’s flesh.

[Raidou 1]

The blurt of a horn sends out an alert for more then just their allies. A blade rips clean, the transformation complete and his marker a stark red. The systems gift when he wore a cardinal creature like a second skin was it was nearly impossible to target him. A faint red outline around a darker blackish gray osmium blade, an ungainly weapon that dwarfed even the heaviest armor in weight held taught in one set of serrated and pointed ichor covered fingers. Those stones begin to ping, one after another in small tones, and with it the wanderer begins to pop <<Detection>> sending rings of green across his map. On it, springing up like rats from a cellar the distinguished dots traced and revealed and interpreted to number. A meticulous and war torn veteran charged and primed. A flash of blue from his neck, and within seconds he was airborne. A coordinate as his guide, like a falling star it descends. With an impact that causes the earth to tremble, rock to shatter and life to end in but a single heartbeat.

Hardened cries transition just as quick to pleads for mercy. Those within Yomi could faintly hear what unfolds, its proximity to the river of death as souls are rend in twain and their carcass are given to the depths after harvest. In a racked and empty battlefield, waves of crimson mend a broken leg and stitch together skin. A fall from such height proving destructive, but for more then just the host. Another blip of a small polished stone, an alert that orchestrates another flash of blue. In the blink of an eye, a black blade surges through a ribcage to a spray of red. A shocked epiphany that was but a moment too late, as another player is etched to the wall. Soldier after soldier against a tide of carnage and fury to which most stood no chance. A nightmare of their own making, one that was deserved and justified in its execution. An execution, a pass of judgement to those who had made a mistake.

All that remained, is the trails of life severed into thin vapors of blood. Consumed by the Ill omen in red

[Lancaster 1]

Through the corridors of the stronghold, the path to which he cut still left superheated as sconce melt and the ground itself a bright an uninviting orange. As if someone had turned floor 10 into 9, carrying with them the molten lava. His trail left little to give chase, else they risk becoming submerged and trapped within his bounds. Crashes of thunder from above leave trails of dust to escape the ceiling as he moves. The whistling continues as a younger man rounds the corner carelessly, spotting Vincent and freezing from fear. Drawing a longsword from his right hip, its produced out in front of him. Barely 16, with an entire life left to live. "Stay back!" He yelps hoisting the blades point toward a walking elemental of flame, with its hands shoved dismissively into its coat pockets. "Where is Mari?" That thing groans in a short and sharp demand. Silence as a response, Lancaster starts to approach. "I'll stab you man, Don't you care?" He shrieks, and inside you can hear the break in his voice.

"No, mio amico. I don't....You are beneath me, as were your compagni. Irritating, worthless pretenders. Last chance, il bambino. Where is Mari?" The word like a decree, the heat blooming enough to lick the kids face from a gap of 20 ft. A walking firestorm, and with it the consuming tyrants health continues to jump back and forth as it sustains a hit and then refills. Pressure proves too grand, too much as the kid soils himself causing his pants to darken. The blade drops and clatters to the floor, rolling into the pyre as it turns to liquid. The kid drops in a puddle of his own filth, frenetically pointing down the hall behind him. "3rd cell on the left, I have a...." Searching his pockets in haste, producing a keyring and tossing it toward Lancaster. It melts the same like his attempts to refuse. "Grazi, mi amore." The fire snuffs leaving a dark hallway with brimstone glowing to cast shadows, a running bead of hot metal forming an inconsistent blob. Burning red eyes that sit in contrast to the void. It continues past the kid. "Right, I almost forgot...But I must set an example. You understand?" He points toward the kid, leaning in to inspect his face and can feel him trembling. "An arm? Perhaps a leg... Already been done... lo apprezzo, is only right you join your amico. Riposa in pace, my example...."

Horrified screams fill the caverns of a young teenager that had been swept up in the wrong crowd, making the choice to oppose the consuming tyrant and oppose his desires. What he undergoes is left to the imagination of all that hear it, and yet it carries on for too long to be a polite end.

---

His stroll falls upon the direction, satisfied with the silence that had since fallen upon the place excluding his whistling. The cell bursts open to the reveal Mari in a dazed state {Intelligence Check: 17+4=21 [Success]}, but the markings immediately have him recount Tybalt and Vex's little tricks of distraction. "Madness..." He quips finding a halbard roar to flame and slam into his right shoulder cutting down into his sternum. A gruesome blow, but one Lancaster could sustain. Grabbing the shaft he stabilizes it, and with his other slams his fist square into Amari's jaw with enough force to spin her around and leave an impression of his wedding ring on her face. The halbard still in his chest, he accesses his inventory and beckons into his beloved's and uses the release of its grip to relieve her of the weapon entirely. Claiming ownership, he rips it clean like an arrow and coughs out blood into his left palm. "You'll thank me later, after all. We promised to reciprocate everything in return, no?"

A glance toward Addex sees Lancaster fish out a cigarette lording over his wife still picking herself off the floor, holding her halberd under his left arm. A spark of a flame on his thumb. "Run, flee figlio di puttana. You get a 30 second head start. I want you to think you'll get away. But you won't." A grim look sees the man rush away, and once out of eyesight Lancaster collapses to his knees from the pain. His strength giving out, Vincent looks to Amari in a spiteful and anger driven haze. From his pocket a vial tossed to him, he grabs her throat and pins her to the floor as her bare feet bash against his chest. The bottle cork popped clean, he jams it into her mouth cutting her gums. It wasn't pleasant or gentle but necessary, and he'd expect her to be just as unfeeling in such a moment. The colored mixture empties out as she struggles to breathe, and he clamps his hand over her nose forcing her to swallow.

"Is over now, mia fiamma." spoken to the glow of a limply aloft cigarette.