[OPEN - RP] And Them That Take It

[Shoichi Kobayashi]

Shoi sat down, legs crossed, and assumed a meditative position. Noticing Vyt fall to his knees, Shoi swept his gaze over the catboy, silver light gleaming from his eyes as he did so. "Vyt, there is no longer any connection between you and the Oni, but many impurities remain in your spiritual pattern. These should not be allowed to persist. You also appear to be wounded - I will heal you." Extending his hands towards Vyt, Shoi closed his eyes and focused deeply. Glimmering silver tendrils extended from his fingers and reached over to Vyt, gliding lightly over the catboy's body, occasionally causing small sparks of silver lightning as they touched upon physical wounds; when the sparks faded, the wounds had disappeared. After a few moments the tendrils retreated back into Shoi's hands.

"There. You may remain somewhat weakened for a brief period but you should recover fully now." Shoi then glanced over at Vincent's henchman. "That one has been badly corrupted. He will need a great amount of help, but we should take care of that after you have spoken to him."

Shoi then relaxed, closed his eyes, and began meditating.

[Vyt: Down, but Not Out]

Shoi placed his hands into Vyt's direction and the catboy immediately saw what he was going for. Some kind of silvery threads pulled out of his hands, surrounding his injured body and looking for any signs of physical pain. The wounds around him closed up even faster than his metabolism would.

"Thanks," Vyt nodded his head, still in a kneeling position. He glanced back at the man, who seemed to be confused and puzzled.

"You're near the Mage Manor, the establishment and headquarters for the mages of NTWF," he briefly let out. The catboy realized what he should say first to the man for the interrogation.

"Tell me the last thing you were doing."

The man was still grunting in pain, but he knew better to be polite. He tried to explain his point of view, albeit with few gasps of agony.

"I... I was by the Munitalp mines near the place where the mercenaries stay in... Vincent! He was the chief of our mining crew..."

"... Keep diggin', boys!" The phrase echoed loudly inside the Munitalp mines with a tone that seemed to be more of a command rather than encouragement. Nonetheless, it entered the ears of the miners despite the constant banging of steel being pounded into solid rock. Every crack was a painful one, bringing metallic shrieks around the miners.

Their leader, or so it seemed by his distinct position, wiped off the black stain from his goggles. "We've hit oil earlier, but we're not looking for that. We're here for any gems, and we're not leaving without any of them!" his empowering voice rang inside the minds of the miners. They had been hammering their way inside nonstop for a week, and only experienced few hours of rest. Their fatigue, coupled with the dangerous and potentially fatal atmosphere they were working on, was constantly trying to let their will down. Two of the miners already collapsed during the operation, but their leader would not let them stop.

Suddenly, a cracking bang sounded off. It was much different from what they were used to hear. That caught the leader's utmost attention.

"What was that?" he promptly asked.

"... Sir!" screamed one of the miners in absolute shock. "I hit something. Real hard. And metallic!"

The miners quickly surrounded the guy as he pointed out to where he was working on. They looked at the direction of his dirty gloves and saw something shining from the rocks with white glow. It was hard to tell from their point of view what it was, but experience told them that anything shiny was of utmost value.

Their leader kicked himself out of laziness and grabbed one of his finest pickaxe. The others were amazed by how the discovery made their leader stand up; whatever they found was obviously enough for him to examine further.

"Concentrate on that wall! We've found ourselves something magnificent!"

However, when he swung his pickaxe at his target, the glow began to shine powerfully, almost blinding everyone at the mines.

"... After that, I'm here. I don't know what happened after that, or even how I got here."

[Deleted]

Hunter was relieved when the smoke went back into the mysterious bag, not having to test his powers. He was dumbstruck at the loss of Mage Manor's power. It had become his home here. It made him angry, and afraid. The man was certainly powerful to drain the Manor itself! Omni and Sarn had already gone in pursuit of him, but Hunter could not move, nor did he know exactly where Castle Kestral was located.
"Guys! This man's still alive!"
It was the catboy ninja shouting, captured an ally of Vincent. Hunter walked over to listen to what they had to say, as it might make taking down his leader that much easier.

((I'll have Dr. Lupe jump back in when PFA and Cat Assassin go back to the tavern.))

[PFA]

((Ninja Dojo, Training Room))

PFA nodded in agreement with her Uncle. "I really don't think he should be taking this long... we should probably go check to make sure he's okay." To herself, she silently added, He could just be unconscious from too much alcohol, but still...

With that, she gathered up the kunai she had embedded in targets, placing them back in her pouch. She then headed for the doors, telling her Uncle, "You're going to have to lead the way, if that's alright. I, uh... don't really know where the tavern is."

((Shall we timeskip PFA and C.A. to the tavern then, Vytvyt?))

[Shoichi Kobayashi]

Still meditating, Shoi muttered "Do tell me when you are done questioning this man. Until then, I will be recovering my stamina. I am quite sure I will need it what with how things have been recently."

[Vyt: Down, but Not Out]

"So... This is the Castle Kestrel?"

Vincent looked from the outside of the walls, just near the gigantic gate of Castle Kestrel. His voice had somehow returned to normal, as his remaining men watched on with blank eyes. "I... I don't get it. Why do we have to go here?"

The sack began to shine its red glow, sending messages that only Vincent could hear.

"I know the Mage Manor had that wonderful aura, but why the King?"

It shone once more.

"Oh, I see... You needed power so you can give out more luck for me?"

Vincent smiled.

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((Way ahead of you, PFA. You can't call it a timeskip, though... I've taken too much time waiting.))

After a minute of fast-tracking, Cat Assassin led PFA to the Tavern By The Cliff. This brought back memories for the cat, leading to the second Guild Wars. He shook his head to subdue those horrible painful moments.

He went towards the door when he recognized the girl that guarded the entrance. She brought her arm across the door, inhibiting him from entering. It was obvious that he was about to be questioned about his age when the girl immediately realized who he was.

"Vyt..." she worriedly said. "He chased a group of guys... I overheard someone else saying they were going to the Mage Manor..."

Without any hesitation, Cat Assassin turned towards PFA. "I don't like what's happening here. Let's go."

He started running towards the direction of the Mage Manor.

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Vyt wanted to believe the man's side of the story, but he had yet to test out whether he was telling the truth or not. "How can we know you're not under Vincent's spell anymore?" he immediately asked.

"Vincent's... spell?" the man responded, puzzled.

"I felt it too," Vyt admitted. "Something strong was messing with my head, or rather my soul. It forced me to do what I didn't want to do."

The man pondered for a moment. "To be honest, I felt like I was there, yet I'm unconscious... Sorry, but you only have my word."

"Please save Vincent and my friends..."

[Deleted]

((On the coast between Castle Kestrel and Mage Manor (closer to the former)))
((Short chracter description: Aly in primarily a fire mage and archer with a number of extra things on her belt (smelling salts, small bone knives for throwing, two daggers, and flash powder). She generally wears a tunic and pants or a red robe over those. She can draw extra stored power from her familiar Lika (who can manipulate a little bit of fire magic herself).

I may join in with my knight Ro later.))

"Geez, it's been a while since I've seen the Mages." Taking a thick mass of darkened auburn hair in hand, the girl started wringing seawater from it. "And I still can't sail a boat..."
That's to be expected. You aren't quite the water type.
"Well, yeah, but she can sail a boat with no problem." Allianne stopped mid-walk and dug out a fold bundle of red cloth, hints of silver showing through the folds.She squeezed it between her palms and watched the water begin streaming out. "Dang, my flash powder's wet. Think Ro would mind us meeting her?"
Of course. For one, you did leave the Mages in the middle of a battle.
"Oh well." She pressed a flaming hand to the fabric and watched the steam rise off of it, suddenly jumping up and slapping the same hand onto her hand as a distinctly nose-burning smell rose from the robe. "Sra, forgot the salt!"
There's a small creek nearby. You can go there. The voice had a hint of a smirk in it. Though you'll have to stand being drenched for a while.
"Ugh." She sighed and shook out the robe, donning it with a wrinkle of her nose. "Whatever. Let's go."
For most, it would have looked like a normal conversation, excluding the fact that only one person was talking and that her sole companion was an oversized housecat. Both were pretty used the odd stares and whispers they got...outside of this world, in any case. Here, it seemed that a mage and her familiar were pretty 'normal' compared to other characters.
They continued walking away from the water, hiking silently and steadily, when a cold chill passed over the young mage. A heavy force seemed to press down on her, and she swayed and collapsed onto both knees, one hand clutching her robe and the other shakily supporting her weight.
Aly?
The girl panted for a moment before the cold passed and her breathing began to calm. "L...Lika..." A swallow. "You felt that?"
I believe so. But it was very faint. The cat glanced over, emerald eyes unblinking in a rare show of concern from the Felyr Mystic. You must have gotten better at sensing magic.
"That's a skill...I could do...without," she muttered, as wry as a weakened person could manage. I still can't handle dark energy, she thought, irritated. "That...what was that?"
I don't know. The cat's eyes were serious. But I don't like it. The presence is huge...Where is it going?
"It's..." Aly had to struggle to remember the geography of this place. "The...the--" She stumbled to her feet, pulling out her bow and stringing it in a practiced motion. "The Castle. Castle Kestrel."
Ro?
"Yeah," she said, flame washing over her body and fading in an instant. Ignoring the scent, she began walking, then breaking into a run. "Lika, get ready. Looks like we're coming in fighting."
I'm always ready.

[PFA]

((Tavern By The Cliff))

Before long, Uncle had taken PFA to the tavern, where they were immediately greeted by a woman in a low-cut dress. She gave them a stern look, as if questioning their presence there, before recognizing Cat Assassin as a friend of Vyt's.

"Vyt..." she said, obviously aware of Uncle's purpose there. "He chased a group of guys... I overheard someone else saying they were going to the Mage Manor..."

Mage Manor? PFA thought with a frown. It seemed like lately, whenever she heard about Mage Manor, there was something big going on. What was it about that place that attracted so many world-ending conflicts?

Regardless, she was not hesitant to follow when her Uncle started running off toward Mage Manor. If her suspicions were right, and there was indeed something big going on, then she had to find Father before something terrible happened to him all over again.

((I'm just going to go ahead and timeskip to Mage Manor I guess?))

As she approached the Manor, PFA couldn't help but get that odd feeling of something being wrong. Like there was some kind of unusual aura... or perhaps it was a lack thereof. What exactly had gone on here?

She noticed some people standing outside the Manor, and immediately PFA scanned the group for anyone particularly notable or suspicious. She recognized most of them as other guild members, and one of them as her Father... but there was also another person--a miner, from the looks of it--who she didn't recognize at all.

"Father?" she called out as she started to get close. "What's going on?"

[Vyt: Down, but Not Out]

"Father? What's going on?"

Vyt knew that voice better than anyone else around him, but he hissed in dismay. He turned around to meet PFA along with Cat Assassin. As a father, he would normally worry about his daughter tagging along with him. Now they were about to face a challenging foe, and he would not like the result.

The catboy did not want to show that in front of his daughter, and tried to present a stern, unreadable face. "The Mage Manor had been sapped off its energy... and the group responsible for this is... on the loose," Vyt told her. His eyes were avoiding her presence for some reason, looking more at Cat Assassin instead.

A few moments of gazing from Vyt and Cat Assassin ensued. Those few seconds felt like minutes for both of them.

"... Spill it out, Vyt. Everything we must know."

Vyt hissed once more in return. How could he have forgotten that the cat was the only friend he had who could read his questionable line of emotions?

Another voice interrupted Vyt as he looked towards Rayce. He had just questioned the trust of the four beings he had briefly encountered back in the tavern, giving him a reason to avoid contact with Cat Assassin for awhile. The cat just frowned in return.

"Go to the castle by yourself, Rayce." He glanced at the four. "The last thing we need are more people interfering with this matter."

Without looking back to Cat Assassin and PFA, Vyt continued. "That goes for you two as well. Sorry, but I just can't let you two endanger your own lives."

Cat Assassin was grumbling to himself when he heard Vyt say that. His hands clenched in anger as he tried to maintain his composure. As a soul bracer, he had been given the trust of the two souls to look after Vyt, and being rejected of his help would really irritate his sense of judgment.

Instead of retaining his usual silent composure, Cat Assassin exploded like an emotional dynamite.

"We are able to look after ourselves, Vyt!" he shouted. "Don't you reject us down and think we're weak!"

[Shoichi Kobayashi]

Opening his eyes suddenly, Shoi looked at PFA and Cat Assassin impassively. "Mage Manor has been drained by an unclean spirit - an Oni. This Oni appears to reside in a sack and this sack is held by a man named Vincent, who is clearly possessed by the Oni. They are currently on their way to Castle Kestrel to cause some kind of havoc, although I am not sure of their exact goal there." He took a breath and then continued. "This man here is one of Vincent's henchmen, apparently a miner, and while it looks like the Oni's hold over him is broken he is still badly corrupted in spirit".

Shoi rose to his feet and brushed off his tattered garb. "I should have said this earlier, but you - all of you - need to know exactly what an Oni is. PFA and Vyt, you have both seen the spirit plane. You know that it is entirely a place of flowing silver essence that roughly matches its material twin here on the physical plane. The presence of an Oni shows a stark deviation from that: where there should be silver, there is glittering dark grey; it is a very particular kind of evil. The presence of an Oni is the presence of corruption, pure and simple; they are spirits of the Yomi realms - hells - the souls of the evil dead who managed to avoid simply being enslaved by the native demonkind to those places. Over time they grow in power, feeding off the weaker souls around them, and should they manage to break out of the Yomi they are trapped in, usually by binding themselves to some object that was meaningful to them in life, they do exactly what this one is doing here. Those miners must have found such an object, something that is now in that sack that Vincent holds."

Shoi grows thoughtful for a moment. "Dealing with an Oni is very complicated; we could kill Vincent but that would not affect the Oni at all. Destroying the object it is bound to *could* force it back to Yomi but if it is strong enough - which it may now be, having drained the manor - it could instead become free-roaming, which would be terrible as it could and almost surely would try to possess anyone near it. Those of us that cannot deal with the realm of the Spirit directly are at a huge disadvantage, and I have not the time to train you in how to deal with that yourselves. I *can* bring you over myself, but that will require most of my focus and I would be able to do little else. Vyt has been given basic training so could act independently, so that may help, but he is still recovering from his recent... encounter."

"One last thing - there is a chance that this Oni is actually a demon who is mimicing the power of an Oni. That would be... incredibly dire, but we won't know if this is the case until we engage the thing directly."

"Does that answer your question, PFA? We will need to finish with this miner soon and move on, I think."

[PFA]

((Mage Manor))

PFA was surprised upon hearing what Father and Shoichi had told her. Mage Manor... drained of its magic? I... I didn't realize that was possible...

As Shoi went into detail about the Spirit Realm, Father proceeded to insist that he didn't want too many people involved in this. He even specifically told her and Uncle that he didn't want them risking their lives. PFA's eyes narrowed, but she tried to keep her composure at the suggestion. It was after Uncle's outburst that PFA decided to speak.

"I'm not the same untrained ninja girl you used to know, Father..." she said, a hint of irritation in her tone, but otherwise she remained calm. "I've gotten a lot stronger over the past few years. I think I am more ready to fend off this dark spirit than you think I am."

Turning to Shoi, she added, "A complicated process, perhaps... but if it's as dangerous as you are making it out to be, then we will have to find a way regardless."

[Shoichi Kobayashi]

Turning to Shoi, she added, "A complicated process, perhaps... but if it's as dangerous as you are making it out to be, then we will have to find a way regardless."

Shoi turned to PFA once more. "Perhaps not so complicated as you may think. You never really took me up on my offer to train regarding the way of Seirei-Mahou, but at least you've seen the plane so you will know what I am speaking of. Souls of the dead, dark or otherwise, are always vulnerable in that they do not belong in the mortal plane or even its spiritual counterpart. They can only be here at all either by binding themselves to something that related to them in life - when did they did belong here - or by altering the environment around them to match what is now their native Realm. Right now that Oni has whatever object is in the sack to bind it and can also corrupt the local spiritual plane to match the Yomi it now belongs in. Destroying the object is done on the physical plane, and cleansing its corruption is done on the spiritual plane. We may need to address both at once here, but I think we need to rein in its corruption first."

Shoi tilted his head slightly, pondering further. "We also need to protect the inhabitants of Castle Kestrel from corruption... which makes this time sensitive. Perhaps... some kind of barrier approach. First contain, then control."

"Are there any mages yet here who can deal with aetheric or spiritual magic? I fear elemental magics may not help on the spiritual plane, but skill at manipulating raw mana does translate well to dealing with raw spiritual essence."

[Vyt: Down, but Not Out]

Vyt was appalled by Shoi's sudden actions, revealing everything to PFA and Cat Assassin. They were going against everything he had been planning. However, Shoi seemed to have grasped quite a big part of knowledge about the sack. That was more terrifying than his own intention of keeping PFA and Cat Assassin away.

Of course, that only intensified his fear. The catboy's body began to shake, afraid about the potential involvement of his longtime friend and his daughter.

Both of them cried out their disagreement to his rejection.

"I..." Vyt said, his eyes starting to get watery.

His head shook briefly for a moment, afterwards revealing a grinning Vyt. "... I don't even mind! Hop along, subordinates! We're gonna have a blast from capping this 'Oni'!"

Calming down, Cat Assassin noticed Vyt's sudden change and patted PFA on the shoulders. "At least we got him convinced."

[Draco]

((And that just reminded me of a shirt I recently purchased. "Ninja Please! Don't make me bust a shuriken in you butt*" (*it doesn't say butt on the shirt) Yeah... Just wanted to mention that))

Draco quit his shadow passing since he knew he was well past Dragus. He was nearly to the castle, but he has yet to pass or meet up with the others who ran ahead of him. A few minutes of running and Dragus catches up to him.

Draco turns his head to him, "I didn't think you could catch up with me like that." Dragus laughs and comments, "I know the forest around the castle really well."

They continue their run to the castle.

[Cyborg]

" Okay Vyt. I will attempt to distract the group until you arrive." Rayce stated, running off towards the forest near the castle.

" Vyt, we should hurry if we want to get to the castle and stop him. Will you be much longer?" Midknight asked.

" Midknight I'll take Cyborg and Esme to the castle now." Rose stated.

" Okay, go now." Midknight replied.

Esme, Cyborg and Rose ran the same way as Rayce.