[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 Thursday 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.

[Mari 1]

Addex cursed under his breath, this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. His enchantments should have stopped the burning - but he could tell from the heat and the way it bit at his skin that this was no ordinary flame. He turned to Mari. She was supposed to be his ace in the hole - from the rumours he thought the two were each others weakness. He thought Lancaster wouldn’t have touched her. He was wrong..

 

Mari screamed at Lancaster as she was pinned to the floor, heated hand singed her throat as her maddened cries turned into choked gargles. The only thoughts that screamed at her mind were to kill this man in front of her. Any means necessary. Flailing arms found their way to his face and erupted in flames, an attempt to burn him but all it did was dip her own health from yellow to red. Memories of warmth tried to surface but were replaced with a haze. Bottle in mouth, the crunch of glass and the bitter taste of antidote caused her to still.

The roaring pain of her poison subsided. Thoughts of murder trickled away to nothing. Mari was left staring up at Lancaster, her hands still burning into the flesh of his cheeks.

"Is over now, mia fiamma." 

“Not real…” Came a warbled reply. This wasn’t real…her thumbs danced beneath his tired eyes the flames beneath her palms extinguished. “Not real…not real….not real…” This one looked so much like him. He had those two little freckles of green in his left eye…he had that one particular forehead crease - but this wasn’t real…Maybe…Lancaster wasn’t ever real. Mari blinked back tears as her hands fell away from his face.

That made sense.

Her hands fell with a thud to the glassy ground as her eyes rolled up and away from Lancaster, staring at the ceiling above them. Eyes shifting to focus on all the dancing creatures of shadow skittering just out of her sight. “Lancaster was never real….too perfecto…nothing … is nothing…nothing…notreal…hewastooperfect…” Lancaster was everything she ever wanted, a perfect partner. A perfect lover. Her present, her future, the very essence of what drove her forward. But…if he wasn’t real….

Mari hiccuped, tears rolling down the sides of her face. Her chest rising and falling in quick succession as she began to hyperventilate. The crushing fear of being alone. Her throat constricted as she kept muttering ‘notrealnotreal..” Over and over again, a broken mantra of a broken mind.

She felt herself being lifted up, a pair of warm arms snaking their way beneath her and pulling her into a tight embrace. Silken hair tickled her nose. The scents of fire, of ash…hints of cologne. A beating heart that threatened to burst - it was not her own but his.

“V-Vincent?”

Edited 20 hours ago by Mari

[Lancaster 1]

The constant outbursts from Mari led Lancaster to remember her recount of how this floor screwed with her head. Couple that with all that had likely occurred these last couple of days and its no wonder her world was turned upside down. The man could only imagine based on the little prism snapshot left on her doorstep for him. Snagging her up in a cold chill, the man fishes one of the fireproof he'd pried out of her house and places it into her palm. The pyre dims but keeps its hearth and with that, the large fissure in his torso starts to slowly kindle and cauterize healing up. Through it all she keeps cradling in a weakened record in hysteria and trying to escape his embrace. An outcome that Lancaster knew would be a constant threat, the very reason she was deemed unfit to join the coffin in the past. The difference was he wouldn't settle for it. Not now.

So tight it threatens to choke her out, like clinging to a fleeting future. Selfishly denying the ability to be lost again to such indoctrinated insanity. Ready to chain her up in her own basement and become what she was to him, keeping her from evaporating entirely.

“V-Vincent?”

The ringing tone of a broken voice, one of recount and belief. Faith. The grip in all its suffocating refusal finds a reason to loosen, and scanning her withered face still dreary and blank. A finger traces her jaw, and lifts to remove a shard of glass from her lip and flicking it still coated in blood. "In the flesh, mi amore. Amari, you are quite a tough cookie to find when you want to be. I forgot the flowers, this will have to do..." The second given item flops from his pocket, not really sure what the hell it was or how this was supposed to help. A glass like rock in white, he snaps it and a wave of white light sprays the area in a brief and blinding flash.

Lancaster uses Flash of Rejuvenation | Mass Heal 3

His wounds close and Mari's bar jumps a hefty portion in the same. Seeing spots, he locks lips with hers in a feverish denial of the circumstances. Rough, demanding and yet it allowed his worry and the tension he'd felt for the past few days to bleed through Mari. Relief in the warmth threatened to be snuffed out.

[Mari 1]

His touch was akin to a cure, an antitoxin to all the concoctions that the woman had been forced to down in the near week she was imprisoned. She slowly closed her eyes and her shaking hands lifted to wrap around his shoulders. Voices still screamed at her, claiming this wasn't real. It couldn't be real. No one would love her, tarnished and debased and hysterically, irrevocably mad. Yet, in spite of this whispers a man held her so tight as though she would slip though his fingers like grains of sand. "V-Vincent...you're..." A deep inhale as he pressed his lips to hers. His taste, the small flick of a tongue denoting his tongue ring. His rough and calloused hands...this was Vincent. And he was real. After but a moment of pause Mari reciprocated - feverishly returning his affections - she desperately wanted the world to melt away in that moment and claim in then and there - not out of lust but desperation. Even now, sitting firmly in his lap with each of them entwined in another it didn't feel like she was close enough. She missed him. Mari pulled away from their kiss. Her hands found the skin on the back of his neck and linked fingers rested there. Her forehead against his so she could stare into his tired crimson gaze.

"Everything screams....you're not real..." her voice shaken, she had been mentally and physically tortured for days, and was still recovering. The slight clarity she had now a testament to her mental fortitude and strength. Mari of the past could never...but Mari of the past didn't have what she had now. She'd close her eyes. "You're perfect. Too perfect. But...you're real...and you're mine" Her hands released and found their way to dance over his skin, where she had burnt him moments before. There was so much she wanted to say. But in the clarity of her relief, one emotion persisted. Nigh above all but the love she had for Vincent.

"I want to make him suffer. I want him teetering between life and death. Begging for a release that won't come." There was a coldness behind her gaze. One that was once snuffed out years ago, but the ordeal of the past week had hardened. "He wanted to claim your position...your life...but that is mine and mine alone.." She broke his gaze and rested her head into the crook of his neck. Mari wouldn't admit it, but talking was incredibly hard right now, so was concentrating. Anything to keep herself steady, it felt like she was all too ready to slip again. This unforgiving world wasn't letting Mari forget her past. Despite her efforts.. it never seemed to truly let her be at peace. 

"so maybe the world...should see why I was so feared..." A mumble into Lancasters neck as her grip around him tightened.

[Lancaster 1]

The shutter within Mari's body said it all, the fear the anguish. "I am glad you think so, mi gemella anima. Aim to be perfect, but if I were so perfect I would not have been a bumbling fool for the past four days." Tracing the lines of her jaw, still brushing of slivers of glass of a broken bottle. "I am yours as much as you are mine." Entangled in a moment of weakness, wounds in both body and spirit that exposed their hearts and left them alone amongst the dark. Tangling his fingers in her hair, that had since grown just that much longer. Drinking the sweat and smell of the place she'd been trapped but beneath it still held that familiar nectar that was hers. Troubled breaths and a nightmare finally came to close, the man cups the back of her head and gives her the warmth she was robbed. "He was foolish. Odd that I choose to take a vacation and somehow the idiot thought I had gone soft." Lancaster cannot help but chuckle at the notion. "Men like that are usually the ones I end up killing, eager to please and desperate to gain a reward. But stupid and overstep their boundaries." Their very first meeting and little encounter with farmers, the one player in his detachment that had failed to follow orders. Addex was that kid, who didn't know their place. A lacky, a dog unfit for the crown they sought. Brash, and weak.

"Maybe you should, mi amore. You know I will not mind. I am no peach without sin, and if you don't kill him I will." A drag of a cigarette before he tucks it in her hair, smiling as he cradles her face. An stone cold truth conveyed, that Lancaster wasn't one to adhere to some sense of right and wrong. He'd support her, as she had supported him. No matter the flavor that took.

[Mari 1]

Why? 

Why did it feel like the world was always against them? Against her? She had tried hadn't she? Another hiccup. She had denied herself even the most barest of necessities. A sniffle. She never had real food, her stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn't eaten in 4 days.  She had never been able to properly bathe herself. Denied even the simple comfort of warm water. For so many years...and now she had those things. Now she was living the world was trying to take it away from her? Her fire, her everything - the sweet succor in a world of dark had spoken, but truth be told Mari barely registered the words. Shaking fingers twisted into his clothes, his flesh. Desperate to stay close. To cling to her all for a moment longer. The whispers in her mind threatened to tear her from her clarity. The exhaustion she felt threaten to send her into unconsciousness. "Vincent..." A rumble, his name spoken like a pur as her bloodied and dried lips would dance upon the skin of his neck.
 

A deep breath as she stood, hand curling over the small stone in her hand, mind barely registering what it was. What it meant. She felt the absence of her rings. Her gifts. Addex had them. "He took them..." Mari lifted her eyes to the still burning hole where Lancaster had come from. Beautiful... A hand reached out to brush through his hair as she stepped past him. Two, three, then four faltered steps as Mari moved away from her prison. A single glance over her shoulder to see if Lancaster was still there, if he was following then - 

"Let it all burn down..." Fire erupted from her back springing forth like phoenix wings, with it came an intense heat - with every step forward she took the ground would crumble around her. Air became difficult to breathe. Her special skill...adapting not only herself but the environment around her...to her whims...as it should be. 

Her bare feet padded against a surface that if it wasn't glass before, would be rendered into it now. The flames that rolled off her back catching light to anything they touched. The area of heat followed her, as though it was fueled by her anger. Addex had dared to impersonate Lancaster. Had dared to take what was hers, death wasn't an option for him. What he had coming...was far worse. Mari barely managed to focus on where she was going - her body twitched, her movements sluggish - but determined. Steadfast.

A glance to the side as a hand traced the stone walls; noticing the carnage her beloved left behind. "Stunning..." She'd say with another glance over at him. "Let the shadows devour all..." 

Darkness billowed out from her mouth with an exhale - and if one did not have Night Vision they'd instantly be plummeted into darkness - another activation of her skill. Let them  fear. Let them experience the cold harsh reality of their future. Quiet steps took Mari outside, a single figure of burning rage and hatred as her eyes scanned the area looking for the man who dared threaten her dream.

Edited 13 hours ago by Mari

[Lancaster 1]

Dried lips drag across his skin, as the man cannot help but cling to his beloved. A rough and languished stroll through exhaustion, as both had burned the candle at both ends. Mari was much more worse for wear, but Vincent wasn't entirely top of the morning. A draining excursion that left them both beaten and bruised. Interlocked fingers as her head nestled in the space on his shoulder, causing him to lean into her to make it easier. The drag of a cigarette as they moved through chaos, destruction as if it was their world crumbling to pieces. Even still their love stood through such a trial, and their strength refused to let them fall. "Mi fiamma. We will find him. Together." A blooming heat that would suffocate the dead, but in that sweltering heat they had found comfort. A reciprocated need for revenge, for thefts and aggression held thick on their tongues. A match made in heaven as they would both nurse the details of how to extract the pain they felt from the person that had fled. That had done this.

A comment from her lips and that same heat stemmed from her, one that most would find unwelcoming but for Vincent it was a mirror. A kinship. A conjoined pyre that sparked the molten metal and stone and blazed a path toward freedom. "Funny bella donna, I could say the same." That tired look mixed with his cocky grin, the tyrant with his corny shows of affection. His appreciation to her tenacity, her fire and her passions. As the world moved to black, he'd stare back at her in honest interest. Something had awakened in her, but instead of regret or fear the man found pride and attraction. Proving once again how versatile and alluring her strength was. "Positively glowing, little fire bug. Cannot wait to see what you become."

The sunlight was swallowed and yet the ground felt uneven and coarse, proving they were finally free from the confines of where she had been imprisoned with a taste for blood still fresh on their lips.

[Mari 1]

"Positively glowing, little fire bug. Cannot wait to see what you become."

"Arbiter of death." 

Came Mari's cold reply, her tone void of emotion, the warmth it usually held when she addressed the man. It had been replaced with something far more stronger, far more insidious. A blanket of darkness followed Mari, its own tiny little bubble of shadows, their playful dance buoyant on the evertides of her footsteps. The two would have been completely swallowed if not for the flutter of flamed wings, feathered pyres drifting off her form and setting the ground alight behind her. A trail of molten lava. Mari wanted her mark. Her prize, and she'd die before she stopped.

Addex was close, she could see him in the distance, panicked as he struggled to navigate his HUD. He was pressed up against a large boulder, thinking himself well hidden. Shame. Mari thought he'd be a more entertaining chase. "Found you." her voice echoed, and the man's head shot up, looking to and fro for the source of the sound. His sword drawn. 

Another forward - but something interrupted her.

Mari paused; seeing a familiar figure appearing in front of them - a flash denoting a gate which was instantly swallowed by darkness. Raidou..... Mari extended her hand out, to block Lancaster from moving forward. With a small snort and a wave of her hand the darkness that surrounded them began to scurry back up her arms. Tendrils of cold spiraling up and disappearing beneath her skin. The faint glow of the floor bathed the area in a dim light. 

Before the two of them stood the ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ.  A clawed hand raised high, ready to attack. Mari felt Lancaster shift closer to her.   "Why am I not surprised." If Mari were fully in her right mind, she'd perhaps play the part of being scared - to allow the illusion that she was not close to the malignant beast before her. But Mari was not. She barely held it together. Staggered breathing and eyes that had to continue to blink away a blurriness that would not relent. "He's mine." Mari said to the faceless lord, approaching him. No fear. No mercy. Not an ounce of hesitation in her tone. Mari would reach out to the  ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ and place a hand upon the apex of his chest, then pointed to Addex who had now finally set his eyes upon Mari. Then to the ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ. The red smoke that billowed from his nostrils tore at Mari's HP - it constantly flickered back and forth but the pain was negligible compared to what she had experienced the last near week. There was a familiar sensation dancing upon her palm. Her fingertips, the desire to hve Juiblex swallow her whole and become that beast again. 

"W-What the fuck is that?"

Mari laughed, a broken discordant laughter as she covered her face, her own nails digging into her skin, breaking it. Trickles of blood dripped down her fingers and onto the floor. 

"That...would have been your repentance. But today.... you're mine."

Edited 11 hours ago by Mari

[Raidou 1]

Then there was nothing, the fields had been washed of all that would oppose. Alarms blared on to no aggressor, as fleeting attempts at aid had been crushed under a cast iron fist. There would be more names on the wall, in the dozens to join others. But such was the price to pay for insurrection, for an utter lack of human decency. For betrayal of all the joy and futures that were stolen. Husbands, Sons, Daughters and wives, yet in here they had donned the masks of monsters and had forgotten how to feel. In that way, they were nothing more then the monsters of the game they feared. A hollow rasp in twinned tones, inhaling the lifeforce that swam through the air. The glossed succor of ink reforms and sharpens, as all manner of wounds close without even the slightest effort. Eternal. A sharp tear of the black star from the earth, the chest it had impaled all but gone.

Another ping sends the mans attention to his right, a feral hiss and a clicking as it honed in. A blink of cerulean sees him slam into the stone, an ungainly and gruesome black edge breathing in a color with jolts of red diving down its length and back. A pair of piercing hot coals that raged ever on in their unceasing hunger, setting upon a man not running in but away. It spoke leagues to the state of affairs, it seems the hound of LC had played his part well enough. It meant that most inside had met untimely ends, and justice had been served despite its source.

"Why am I not surprised."

A jerk toward the pair as serrated sharp fingers raise like teeth, as glowing rings around icons littered his view and he was raring to hunt. The draining trails of red denoted life beyond just the one. An unfold of its back, standing stalwart under the blackened void that had permeated the place. A hand curls into the mans chest, and scanning her features exhales in an alien and unnatural breath. "Yours?" It remarks to her running the thinnest point of a single sharp nail to remove a wayward strand of hair from her eye, a pair of voices rough like sandpaper and spoken in chorus.

"W-What the fuck is that?"

The thing pivots and stares through Addex's being, trails of pure hatred echoing from its eyes dialed to extremes that had the cardinal shutter. It singes the soul, and the blade in his hand wobbles limply trying to keep it upright. The ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ tilts his head, curious like a canine. Blood in the water, a hunger bred from a thick vitriol that held his blood to a boil. A surge of red that laps at Mari's health that fights itself to remain full, mending the things wounds all its own. It wanted Addex, but the mind beneath wanted what he knew. That blackened creature would turn to Lancaster, struck still and a memory remembered fondly. One of warning, and of consequence. He was looking at his own death, square in the face and had since turned pale. He can see the man swallow hard, the beads of sweat escaping his flesh. All the subtle queues to convey his fear.

"That...would have been your repentance. But today.... you're mine."

A valiant decree, one of bravery but more one of resolve. "A far cry from tears. Mari" that rough meld of voices remarks, where her compassion had finally run out. Raidou would not fault her, any more then he would Setsuna. There were men and there were monsters, and treating them the same without recourse was to fail. If they ever wished to succeed, knowing how to tell the difference was a must. "On two conditions. If he has allies, I would know them. If there are any more, he will reveal them. There will be none left to continue, only tombstones to tell their story." He reaches for her hand, and slides it free. From that black skin he cuts in and removes not one but two items.

A pair of glasses, given she could finally see through his eyes.
A dagger, far older and left abandoned from a time where blood fell like rain. Where kin had been driven low.

"And you keep your composure and keep that mind in check, Pink PKer. Keep them on." The glasses thrust onto her face triggering their attuned <<concentration>>, he drops her old dagger into her hands. The one that had slain her daughter, and was long since buried. With that he side steps Amari, allowing her past and her present to mix into something greater. Just like a potion. His attentions shift to Lancaster, and with a heavy slam of his sword into the space next to his right foot its planted firmly upright. "Its time we had a little chat. Lancaster, The Consuming Tyrant, First Finger of Laughing Coffin."

[Mari 1]

Mari tilted her head up toward the  ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ, closing her eyes at the oddly intimate gesture from the creature that towered over her. Whose mere presence tore through her HP. It questioned her claim and she simply opened her eyes as she stared back at him. Unyielding in her resolve. She wanted to reiterate that Addex was hers, for what he had done to her. To Lancaster. But those steeled eyes of blue told the man all that and more, so much  unspoken between the two. Their pasts were so entwined that there was no need for words. The ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ turned to Addex, Mari could practically taste the abhorrent feelings of hatred as red continued to cascade around them. Her fingers curled into the material of his chest. As if to say I know…Let me share this burden…  Red miasma rolled forth in thick waves. Mari knew…she knew how hard it must be for him to control himself. How much anger he must have for the man Still, he accepted her request.

"A far cry from tears. Mari"

Mari snorted, turning her gaze from Addex back to the ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ. “What was it you said? Shed no tears for wolves in sheep's clothing?” A hint of amusement in her tone, before it dropped. “He tortured me. Got me drunk and under the effect of madness…I’m still..” A hand would rise to her head, it was still a struggle but she couldn’t falter now. Deep breath. Focus. Relay the information. Short and concise. Details could come later. “He had me kill others... I haven’t eaten in days. Nor seen the light. Bound with all manner of poison in my body so-”

Her breath hitched as he reached for her hand - placing in it an old and worn dagger, the blade made of ice. “H-How…” Clawed hands pressed glasses to her face. Mari blinked. The voices subsided. And with it Mari allowed herself to exhale, rolling her shoulders. How odd…to be so deathly calm in this situation with nothing more than a pair of glasses. Mari glanced over at Lancaster who seemed frozen in place. His eyes wide as they kept flicking between her and the shadowed creature, right his boss.. The boss he evidenty said ‘fuck you’ to after said boss threatened to carve out her hide. Oh… How would she explain this later?

“Conditions…” Mari looked down at her dagger - something she thought she had thrown away forever ago, she imagined a man wearing dorky black rimmed glasses and a red coat aimlessly digging through piles of snow. For hours, perhaps days. Fucking idiot. Why he was so intent on her, Marik still never fully comprehended. Perhaps, she never would.

“As you wish.” Mari said, turning her back on him. She paused. Lowering her voice, a whisper she knew he’d be able to hear - “You know what it’d do to me…if he’s hurt.”  Mari couldn’t - wouldn’t threaten him - not in this state. Mari wasn’t sure what control he had over his urges, nor what internal battles he’d face. All she could offer was a soft spoken plea.

Keep your mind in check…

Mari licked her dry lips; cerulean eyes landing on Addex. “Cold Rises…” The flames on her back extinguished with a hiss - the final activation of her skill tore through the land. Shards of ice all grew in sharp jagged motions, surrounding Addex as though he were being swallowed whole - shivering and cowering in the maw of an apex predator. And that predator..was Mari. How fitting it was for the ice to form a figurative cage of teeth to surround him. She'd shove the dagger in her belt loop as she moved toward the man.

Addex cried out in a panicked rage and on the attack as he thrust his sword into Mari’s chest - the attempt was there, the madness tried to infiltrate her mind, but it failed. Mari’s hand landed on the blade and the metal’s temperature dropped then began to crack before shattering. Just as useless against the subzero temperatures as it was against the molten heat. Mari held out her hand expectantly. “Give me back my rings.”

“F-Fuck you!” Addex swore, pulling a large needle and aiming it at her. Lashing out like prey did, a final bid of desperation.  Mari lets him strike her, another attempt to inflict her, another failure. The glasses she wore flashing with the <<Concentration>> skill. Keeping the more insidious effects at bay. Wrong answer. Her hand gripped his wrist - her thumb pressed into the small of flesh just below his wrist, his nerve endings fired and he screamed as he fell to his knees. The woman didn’t need Aincrad to inflict pain, she didn’t need enchantments or toxins. She knew the human body. She knew what would hurt. It felt good to be able to make him writhe with nothing more than a simple gesture.  How weak he truly was, now he no longer had the element of surprise. “You should know Addex…if you had fought me on equal ground in the first place…I’d have won.”

The ice continued to surround him, curling up his legs, binding him in place. Mari wrenched his hand into hers and just as he had done to her - she started to go through his inventory till she found all that he had taken from her as it clattered to the ground around her. 

“Your first mistake…was threatening Lancaster.” Mari said as she calmly put her rings on. She could feel and hear her heart pump hard against her chest. “Your second…was underestimating me. Ohh I don’t want to but…” A deep inhale as she shifted her grip to a pinky, it instantly froze and she tore it off. “I am going to enjoy this.” An admission that both scared and thrilled her. She knew she shouldn’t feel this way. She knew she should abhor what she was doing. But she had been given conditions by the ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ itself and even for her, his law was absolute - and as she had always said, she’d become a monster for those she cared about.  Addex screamed, and a roll of satisfaction ran up her back and through her shoulders. That scared her. 

“Now. What the fuck was all this for?” Mari asked, wrapping her hand around another finger and waiting.

“W-We wanted to kill him! He abandoned them! Betrayed them and for what? A filthy frontliner! It was supposed ‘ta be our in!”

So…Lancaster had been his target all along just as Mari suspected. “So you were acting as a White Knight? For what?”  She already knew the answer but wanted to confirm it. Addex squirmed.

“The Laughing Coffin!” Addex spat, “Y-You’re going to be k-k-killed when they find out y-ARGHH!”  Another of his fingers had been snapped off. Mari threw it behind her and the frozen appendage clattered to the ground, rolling down the slight incline toward Lancaster, it would stop as it hit his shoe. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. There was a sick and twisted feeling of satisfaction…hearing his screams. Hearing him suffer like he had made her. Mari exhaled and moved to sit; a pillar of ice shifted to move up underneath her - creating a stool.

“Funny. You’re the one operating on their turf. Getting involved in their matters. Did you carve that whole area out yourself?” Mari leaned closer, a soft hand pressing against his cheek. “Or are you just a small subset of a bigger group?”

“Why the fuck would I tell you!?”

Mari hummed softly to herself as she picked up her medical case; she opened it up and showed the man. “Lets see…I have - a paralyzing agent. I have this…” She tapped the black filled needle and he visibly flinched. “Or I have this blue one here. Consider it your salvation.” Mari picked up her poison. “An eye for an eye.”

“N-No! Look man! I-I’m the boss!” Mari paused, needle hovering just over his eye. She gave it a wave to urge him to continue. “I-This is my troupe! But w-we have two sects! Ours was called The Severed Song!”

Mari couldn’t help but offer a short laugh. Severed song. How apt. The man sang like a bird. Crumbled at the first sign of pressure. Even she held out longer than he did. Mari pressed on the syringe and a single dollop of black pooled on its tip.

“N-No fuck! I - I fucking told ARFH FUCK No!”  He screamed as a single drop fell into his eye. His body contorted with pain. Mari pulled away and watched him writhe. She felt disappointed that he hadn’t lasted longer. That she had allowed someone as weak as him to get the best of her. She supposed that’s what her bleeding heart got her. That’s what happeend when she chose mercy over swift judgement. If Mari hadn’t hesitated, if she hadn’t 

“That’s not enough to do any permanent damage. You’ll be fine.” Mari offered him a small grin as she reached out and patted his head. “That is…if you keep singing like the little birdie you are. Just in case..”  Mari would shift behind him. Addex tried to wrench himself free from his prison. With a wrench of his neck the same serum that had addled Lancaster was administered to Addex.

“W-What did you do to me?”

“Nothing too bad…what is this other group? What was the purpose for the both of you?” Mari asked, this time choosing to sit in the mans lap, her fingers dancing along his chest. The sudden sentimental action caught Addex off guard. He seemed more unnerved now than he did when she was being cruel.

“The Gilded Veil i-is the other…they’re working to infiltrate the frontlines. The goal is to have them take over completely- have people pay  for for-” He gulped back. Trying to stop himself from talking, but it didn’t work. “For the privilege to attempt to leave this place… I took a group of us and made a s-s-secondary goal….w-we were going to infiltrate the Laughing Coffin, and take it over.” His teeth chattered from the cold, his lips turning blue.

Mari snorted. “Lofty goals.” She stood and pulled out a cloth from her inventory, then a flask of water. She drenched the cloth in water and threw it over his face. Letting the man suffer as he spluttered and struggled to breathe. Mari would take a seat back on the small block of ice. Downing the rest of the liquid herself. She was terribly thirsty after all. Now empty she let the flask clatter uselessly to the floor then she pulled out a honeyed bread roll from her inventory, quietly chewing on it as she hummed.

Mari felt oddly in her element, and wondered just how much Raidou’s glasses were helping her. She could feel the exhaustion threatening to force her into collapse. The anger boiled within her, prickling her skin and causing a feeling of nausea to wash over her. Despite that… there was a strange calm that came with it all…. Mari glanced toward Lancaster, catching sight of his gaze she lifted up a half eaten honey bun toward him, a sign to show she was fine. Mari took her time finishing it off then bought out a notebook. Taking notes in its leather bound surface in her terribly messy handwriting.

Once finished Mari stood and picked up the cloth off his face. “Do you have the names of them all?” She asked. He swore, and spat at her - Mari leaned back and his assault missed her, landing uselessly on the floor. Her bare foot stepped onto it. Mari waved a finger at him, “Ah, ah. How about this.” She pulled out a ‘teleportation crystal’.  At least…that’s what it would look like at first, but anyone who took their time would see It was an explosive - simply fashioned to look like a teleportation crystal.  "Answer me, and this is yours.”

Give him false hope. Let him believe he had salvation.

“I-I don’t know! Not all of them!” Addex spluttered quickly, his eyes focused on the crystal as Mari began to throw and catch it straight up in the air. She stopped and stared at him. Eyes narrowing. “B-But I keep a log of everyone! Just outside of Yomi there is a large flat rock along the W-Western wall. Its got everything! Names, plans….dates…its our dead drop.”

“See…wasn’t that easier, don’t you like being a good boy?” Mari asked as she snapped her fingers and the ice melted away. The air returning to a normal temperature. Mari tossed the crystal to him. “I’m not a fan of murder. But if I see you again I will not hesitate.”

Addex caught the crystal and glared at Mari. He had underestimated her, he didn’t expect her to be able to bring forth ice like that. Wasn’t she obsessed with fire? He glanced down at the Crystal. He’d teleport to Yomi, get there before she could. Grab the information. Tell the others, set up an ambush. Even she couldn’t fight off all 20 of them. “Your days are numbered bitch. Floor 10 - Yomi.” He hissed as he crushed the crystal in his hands.

What met him was not the gates of an abandoned town, but death.

A loud crack, an ear shattering sound echoed across the field as though it was screaming at the universe itself. A well of heat and flames plumed up into a brilliant cloud, flowering into sparks of fire that rained down over Mari, and further behind her…over Lancaster and The Faceless Lord. The explosion seared the earth, turning rock to glass in a way that left devoid of life, right down to the smallest of microbe and bacteria. The finale, absolute. The death. Instant.
 

Another name writes itself on the wall

Addex Killed by: Explosion

Mari turned away and took a few steps back toward the duo, but her knees buckled and she collapsed to the floor. Catching herself on her arms she drew in a shaky breath. She had done it. She managed to hold herself together…she managed to gain the information…she managed to exact an absolute justice. She didn’t go too far right?  Right? Mari forced her eyes shut, exhalling another shivered breath. Was she okay? Was she still human? Did it matter anymore? as long as she could keep those close to her safe.

"D-Done..."

Mari would fumble, grabbing the dagger back from her belt, then she'd toss it toward the ₣₳₵ɆⱠɆ₴₴ ⱠØⱤĐ. It'd clatter uselessly at his feet. "And I'm not the Pink PKer anymore. I'm far more than that now."

Edited 1 hour ago by Mari