The Crypts were cold, just like everything else. A low fog shrouded them. Obscuring everything, yet hiding nothing. I walked among the silent crypts my hat a cloak hiding the face of the body I had possessed. I didn't know what I was looking for exactly. Except that there were people here who specialized in stolen property. Of course the odds were just as high that I would find someone from this vampires house. It didn't matter though. I could always kill the body and find another.

I was nearing the center of the Crypts when I noticed an odd light. Not something natural, yet not entirely unnatural. I approached it with caution. It was a small fire golem, burning a bright blue in the cold air. Above him stood a sign. The Symbol on it marked it as the 'House of the strayed'. I had to laugh a little at it. It felt like I had found the right place after all.

I moved closer to the fire golem with caution. After all this body was fragile, and fire golems took a long time to paralyze. Not to mention they were painful. "Hello guardian, is the master of this crypt in?"

The golem regarded me with one flaming eyeball. "Home." It said then pointing to me. "Name." It stated.

I had to think about that one for a moment. Deciding to use my most common name I answered the Golem. "Red." At this a fire imp, which had been perched inside the Fire golem, invisible due to the mending of color and temperature. Scampered inside. It game out shortly and hopped up onto the Golems back. Whispering Impishly into its ear.

"Enter." It said, moving aside to allow me to move into the crypt.

I walked past it calmly. As I got inside the Crypt I noticed the temperature was quite high. Much higher then my body or myself was normally comfortable with. I made my way down the stone steps and into the large stone chamber at the bottom. Seated in a stone throne, as though a king. Was a large Daemon. His body alight, his tail twitching and his horns reaching far backward. I waved at the Daemon. "Hello, I am sorry to disturb you, but I am looking for something."

"Of course you are." It seemed to bellow. "Those who find me are always looking for something lost. What is it you seek?"

I smiled, it seemed like fate had indeed led me to the correct place. "A Child, a Human child." The Daemon stood up straighter, his eyes widening.

"ooOOOOHHH!? Human child, very strange thing to be looking for out here"

I smiled again. "Yes it is. This Child is property of the Izarraras house. It is very important that I find it."

The Daemon laughed in a belly sort of way. "Finding things is easy. Searching is what is hard but Finding...Finding happens naturally. Are you sure you are trying to find this child. Or are you meerly searching?"

"I am searching, but I do want to find it."

"You hope to find this child yes? But you do not even know who YOU are. You have lost something, and searching for that I think is what you are doing." The Daemon laughed some more. "If you want the child then follow this." The damon gestured and the stone before Me silently parted away like cloth showing a dark hole. It smelled of rot and death.

"The sewers?" I asked confused. "The human resistance?"

"No, What is lost can only be searched for in the most difficult of places. Search there and finding will be more likely."

I looked at the Daemon. He had no reason to lie or mislead me, and I had no reason not to go in. "Alright then." I said as I jumped in.

"Search well." The daemon said as he closed the hole.

Chris stood his ground against several of the Hollows, holding them off... though with great difficulty. He was starting to become genuinely worried. As soon as Taiki did her Shadow Leaf Dance, the Hollows lost intrest in him, floating over to the two shades. The scarf began to scream at him. "Not my fault, I control inanimate objects, not these... things!" The shades close in on Ishimaru and Taiki, and Chris moves in between the Hollows coming and them, turning to them. "I would appreciate some help..." The floating chairs, still under his control, collide with several of the Hollows in the back, the legs of the chairs going through three of them, making them dissapear. The shadow-like black scarf around Chris' neck waves nonchalantly at the two shades. Tears continue to stream down Chris' face.

Taryth didn't even look away from his book as the hollows approached him.

"You are dead souls. Do you really wish to throw away what little shred of existance you have left?" He asked the hollows.

At first they paused, but then a few approached. However, the closer they got to the Dread Knight, the more they felt his natural aura of undeath cold. It was that, or the winged nightmare screeching at them, that caused the hollows to change targets.

Va did not move from her seat. Nor did she budge when two Hollows confronted her with leering grins, thinking her easy prey.

In fact, they should've backed away the first moment they heard the low, warning hum coming from the vampiress' waist. Like a viper, Va uncoiled and stood, relaxed, before the two creatures of the dark. One of them advanced... lunged, more likely, at its seemingly vulnerable prey.

There was a sudden arc of silver as Va's humming sword hissed out of its sheath. The Hollow reacted by becoming intangible as the blur of steel screamed through the air. Va's lush lips curled at the edges into a cold smile.

The enchanted blade, humming and bleeding black light, slashed into the spirit world, the tip of its blade becoming as intangible as a ghost. Va's sword sang, drawing a midnight gash across the Hollow's spiritual body. As the sword exited the spirit world, the Hollow uttered an inhuman, terrifying howl of pain, clutching at its chest.

And that was why she had survived so long, despite the oncoming threat of other predators vying for the same rarifying prey. The blade protected her, bound to her wishes. Yet it strikes nothing but deep into the spirit, scarring the soul rather than the flesh.

The other hollow snarled and lunged forward, only to lurch back as the enchanted blade drew pain, not on a physical level, but slashed deep into the spiritual realm. No wound opened on the Hollow's chest, but blood welled nevertheless.
"Best leave me be, Hollows," Va's voice had lost its pleasant, rich tone. The voice that issued from the vampiress' mouth held deadly venom, hissed out through stiff lips held in a rictus snarl, "I mind my own business, and tolerate nobody's accursed meddling, let alone become the pawn of an increasing army!" the last word left in an inhumanised roar. The two wounded Hollows stepped back hastily, apprehensive. Yet Va did not change. She held her deadly calm, her right hand holding the thin, humming sword as if it were but a feather in her fingers.

Then, in a blur of movement that would've stunned onlookers - had there been any left to watch - she snaked forward, feet flying across the ground. The sword sang through the air, playing the melody of eternal oblivion.
Both Hollows went intangible, attempting in vain to escape their deaths by this fearsome sword. They fell and dissipated, screaming, as the sword cleaved both of them in two, bleeding darkness into the already tainted air.

((OOC: just for counts, the sword can be stopped with normal steel or metal weapons. Up against another armed adversary, she'll have to get past their defences before the sword will be able to use it's spirit-injuring power... If that's not OK, then I edit :)))

Was this the intention of this arena fighting the entire time? Lord Scoth wondered when the hordes of Hollows materialized and began attacking everyone in sight. The Death Knight wasn't equipped for fighting Hollows, not for once thinking he would have to, and ignorant to the fact that only spiritual weapons hurt them. Drawing out his longsword, which radiated with an aura of evil, he slashed at an incoming Hollow, only for the blade to pass through it unharmed. Scoth glowered at the creature, leaping back to avoid the bum rush of another two.

"I see where this is going fast," he grumbled, stepping back into the shadows and sheathing his sword. Like a fleeting shadow, the Death Knight vanished.

* * *

Valas sat in his study still, ignorant of the Hollow's attack on the arena, reading from several more entries he had found about Hollows in a couple of other tomes. They all had more or less the same information, however, and he had learned nothing new since reading the first entry he had found in Libris Mortis.

A cold draft wafted through his studdy, ruffling pages and making the candles flutter, much to the lich's annoyance. "Welcome back, Lord Scoth," Valas said, "Have you any news to report?"

The Death Knight appeared out of the shadows of the study, eyes burning brightly from beneath his helm. His hand was clenched around the hilt of his sword. Lord Scoth was brief in his explanation, cutting to the chase immediately.

"The Hollows are attacking everyone in sight. Most of the lesser undead have probably been devoured by now, while some others fight them off. My weapon didn't seem to have any effect on them, so I departed."

"A wise move, Death Knight," the lich replied, "Only weapons imbued with spiritual energy can harm these creatures. Otherwise, it's as useless as trying to strike a spectre."

"I take it that you know where to find such weapons."

"I may." If the lich still had lips, they would curl up into a sly grin. "I may, indeed. I will open a dimension door to the arena. You step through and get whoever hasn't been devoured yet through the door, while I hurl some spells from this side. Come."

Valas grabbed one of the books on his desk and stepped out of his study, with Lord Scoth in tow. They went down to the first floor foiyer, where the lich then cast a spell, opening a shimmering portal in the shape of a door, the arena on the other side. Likewise, the dimension door would appear at the arena area, shimmering from the street that led to Valas' tower.

Lord Scoth stepped through to appear at the arena once more, as Valas flipped through some pages in his book to look for the appropriate spell. Once he found it, he chanted some ancient words and held out his bony hand, adding an extra bit so he could cast it through the portal. Meanwhile, the Death Knight was doing what he could to fend off the Hollows that became attracted to his undead presence - what little he could do, anyway, with an evil sword that couldn't harm them. He managed to turn away some of the weaker ones.

"Get to the portal," his raspy voice called out to the other undead fighting off the Hollows. "Do it now, unless you wish to become one of them."

Valas cast his spell (Undeath to Death), sending it through the portal. An explosion of necromantic energy would burst around the Lord Scoth, destroying a number of Hollows swarming around the Death Knight - the weak ones, anyway - and clearing away a path around him, for the time being.

"Tell them to hurry their carcasses. There aren't many spells like this."

Va was not a vampire who distrusted those that stood a better chance at fending the relentless scourge of Hollows that soon quickly surrounded her in answer to their fallen companions’ cries before they vanished into oblivion. She counted at least a dozen. The odds were not good. Yet, Va held fast for a brief moment.

Holding her thin, long sword like a fencer, her eyes flaring dangerous gold, she menaced those around her with the humming, dark-silver blade. Some dared to assault her from behind, only to belatedly realize the vampiress’ sharp senses left nothing out of hindsight. She was like a barbed thorn dividing the savage waters of oblivion, her pointed blade jabbing threateningly outwards, keeping the Hollows at a distance. Every now and then, a Hollow would accidentally step within the circumference of an invisible line, and stagger back shrieking in agony as Va’s enchanted blade tore into its spiritual hide.

A second one stepped past the invisible line, testing the vampiress’ reflexes. It suffered a severe gash across the cheek that exposed the soul to its bleeding bone.

A third, then a fourth, tried to cross that line.

Abruptly, Va changed the grip on her sword, her fist closing firmly on the hilt of the humming blade. Even as the Hollows reacted to the change in stance and style, Va flew forward like a hungry falcon that had just targeted its prey. Surprised at the sudden lunge, the Hollows parted before her.
Her right foot tapped lightly on the ground. She pivoted gracefully in the space she had just cleared, sword swung in a deadly, black-silver arc that hissed through the air and clove two more Hollows in twain, sending them back to oblivion. Her dress didn’t get the chance to cease their belated swirling in the abrupt change of torque, before Va struck again, this time sweeping low. A Hollow’s lunge missed as he sailed clean past her bent body. Va’s humming blade shrieked upwards, its tip becoming ghostly in appearance as it matched the Hollow’s attempt to escape into the spirit realm. It carved a deep, straight wound into the Hollow’s back.

She was about to almost literally unleash hell upon the damned souls when a good two-thirds of them vanished in a blast of necromantic magic. She noticed the Death Knight who had been there earlier talking with the translucent poltergeist. He stood ominously at the entrance of a shimmering portal, temporarily cleared of maddened Hollows. Hearing the Death Knight’s word of warning, she bared her teeth in what she remembered to resemble a cold smile.
“I will take your word, Knight of Darkness. The day draws nigh, and I fear I am too far from my abode,” she added quietly, before slipping past the undead warrior and entering the portal, her sword dripping ghostly spirit blood.

"Apethetic as usual, Lord Menos and the other Menos Grandes feel it is too much work and not worth the effort to enter the living world" Mortis said as the large being stopped its movements in the distance. "Though if they were given incentive for their effort, or atleast an easy way to get in to the living world they would come through. They are rather simple beings Menos Grande, they often lose most of the intelligence of the individual hollows that make them" Mortis said flapping his wing and lifting himself ito the air while stirring up clouds of dust "Though you already know that correct?" he finished.

"One of my other experiments has been succesfull" Mortis said in a pleased tone of voice and with another flap of his wing to accentuate his gladness. Pointing to the hole in his mask on the right side where human skin and a mass of brown hair showed through. "My power has already grown and my body is starting to become more humanlike" Mortis said as he remembered how mere days ago before he had taken off part of his mask he had not even had legs. Finishing this current line of speach he said "I am still conducting research on this, if I ever am able to take off my mask completely I will be able to pass the power of a menos grande easily. However I need an artifact of extreme power to do so, and I have already sent my minions to search for it"

With a strong sweep down with his feathered wing he launched himself up into the air far above the General and his army. Raising an arm he pointed off in the distance and yelled down to the hollows below "Speaking of menos, my other experiment is coming to fruitation and I am interested to see if it will work." It could be barely seen from the ground but in the distance was a gathering of dozens upon dozens of enormous white masks "I have left Lord Menos out of this, as I know you want to use him." Mortis Penna called down again as he motioned to the solitary menos that was left out. "I have gathered willing Menos Grandes from all over Hueco Mundo, most of them have answered my call since they have nothing better to do and being vaguely interested in a primitive sort of way" Mortis furled his wing around his body and dropped down to the ground finishing "If all goes well they will combine into a Hollow greater then any before. It will have more intelligence then a Menos Grande and more power the same. It may not be at our intelligence but at least it will be able to reason and think with more then instinct.

General grabbed his mask and removed it with ease. "Our arrangement is a good one. I aid you in your studies and your studies improve me and my minions. Of course I do not know why you want to remove your mask," he places his mask back on, "it is a sign of our annonimity. Please me, and I will remove yours if you like."

He turned to Lord Menos. "Soon him and his kind will be released upon the ciry." One of the hollows interupted, "sir I have something to show you." The hollow then placed a small tendril behind Generals neck. It then began showing him what has been happening in the arena. "I see, that knight is helping them escape. What a shame."

Crimson had already taken out five or six hollows in the last ten minutes, but the odds weren't looking good as many more kept flying, scuttling, and charging in. His armor had a few more spots where blood was seeping through, and the Axe of Fate was beginning to take on a red hue, as was prone to happening whenever it was used much. That was the risky thing about making a weapon out of the bones of saints...it may do well against the undead, but it would start to be weighed down with the blood of the innocent...just spontaniously appearing along the edges. A shimmering blue light appeared in the arena and a fellow Death Knight stepped out. "EVERYONE IN!"
Crimson was no fool, he stepped in immediately and found himself in a lich's abode, still on horseback. His helm nearly scraped the low ceiling, and he dismounted carefully. "Err...sorry about the horse?"

Mortis unfurled his wing and flapped it in extreme irration and surpsie. Jumping forward he stopped himself just in front of General with his mask inches from General's. Flapping his wing again and again he stirred up dust as he moved up and across examining the generals face while saying "How, How I must know!". Mortis dropped to the floor and stopped hovering in an effort to calm himself down "Alright I shall aid you General I need to remove my mask!" Mortis said calmly.

Raising one of his white hands that seemed covered in robes he snapped his finger. Immediatly at his side a crack eleven feet in height emerged in Hueco Mundo. Emerging from the rip in the world came a hollow. The hollow stood about ten feet tall and appeared like a giant ameoba made up of every shifting black goo. Plumes of dark grey smoke surrounded its body and its mask seems to be constantly shifting inside its form.

Mortis dove one of his arms through the mass of black goo that makes up the hollow that had just appeared. Closing it around something he pulled his hand out of it. Snapping the fingers on his other hand the hollow dissapeared back into the rift. Raising his hand he held it in front of the General and slowly openend it inside rested a gem. The gem shifted in color and reflected a different thing at every second, it seemed to be a representation of chaos "This gem shall help you, if you harness its power it shall augment any hollow that you desire granting them much greater power and strength. Though I do not suggest you use it on yourself, it will completely eliminate the intelligence of the subject in repsonse to their heightening of their power. You shall still be able to control any hollow under its influence as long as you have this device. This is merely the least of my devices, do you like it" Mortis Penna said.