The gem was indeed a great find. Reaching out his gauntlet like hand he picked up the gem. "This is an excellent start. However not enough for me to remove your mask. I must be sure of your loyalty before I can risk increasing your power to such a great level. Do not worry, as long as you don't betray me I will remove your mask when the time comes." A moment he stood insilence before turning his attention back to the menos. "Besides lord menos, how many of his kind can we cox into entering the mortal realm?"

Carter remained on his perch, even as the undead streamed past him in the attempt to escape. The stronger types of undead leapt from the top of the arena to the ground below, landing as though they hopped off the curb. The lesser undead who attempted such a feat broken upon the pavement below.

Carter noticed none of this. He only watched the battle. Memories flooded his mind. Battles waged in the wastelands of Hell. Hordes of screaming creatures charging towards each other on the blood red landscape.

Deep down, Carter felt a longing. A longing to join the battle. He was born a soldier. His every purpose was to fight and die at the whim of his lord. And even though he had cast off the bonds of his lord centuries ago, the desire to do battle still burned in him.

Carter stood. Almost without thinking, he shed his human disguise. The dark demonic aura surrounded him. He drew his long sword, now serving as the vessel for his demonic blade. The runes on the blade radiated a dark energy.

Carter spread his wings and descended into the midst of the melee. Regret, it’s shadowy form overtaking that of Carter’s long sword, proved to be enough to harm the hollows. Skills that had been honed by centuries of battles in Hell came back to Carter easily, despite the fact he hadn’t truly fought a battle since he came to the city. For long minutes, Carter fought, an veritable avatar of death against the hollows. Carter himself felt something akin to joy while he fought. He was fulfilling the purpose to which he had been born: combat.

“Get to the portal!”

This command cut through Carter’s haze. The joy of combat faded as Carter regained control over himself. With a movement of his wings, Carter was airborne. Hovering over the crowd, the demon landed near the portal. Dispatching one more hollow, Carter threw himself threw the portal.

Upon reaching the other side, Carter closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The battlelust was already fading from him. With a thought, he dismissed the essence of his sword back to it’s home plane, and returned to his human guise. Putting away his sword, he look up at this rescuer. Great. A lich. Carter thought to himself. Needless to say, he’ll want something in return for this.

Looking over towards lord menos and then beyond to the gathering of menos Mortis said "If you wish me to continue my experiment with the menos, theoretically each group of three or so should combine into a much greater being that has intelligence enough for us to coax them into coming into our world without expending as much effort as we would have to before." Mortis stop talking for a second as he collected his thoughts.

" Beyond that I was hoping I could accomplish that again with the newly formed creatures, combining the greater beings into a single being with our level of intelligence and a power we can only dream of. It would be harder to coax into the living world, it would develop its own agenda but I think we would be able to get it if we approached it as a new born. Dusting the floor with his wing Mortis continued "However the item I wish to accomplish this with is still experimental, it is unstable and I need more time to study and perfect it. If you I shall focus my time on it instead of having it as a peripheral" Mortis said to General

"But to your original question, at the moment I could" Mortis stopped his talk for a second as he thought then continued "Bring three or so menos into the world. However this would delay the other experiment I was talking about even more". Mortis addressed General with a question "I have some more devices that I shall give you, my minions are working on getting them right now, but what do you want me to do. Bring the menos in now and delay the other experiments to create the 'Menos Ajuukasu' I shall call the second form, and the eventual 'Menos Vastoorode' I shall name the third form, or work on creating those hollows.

"Neither, I merely want one of the weaker menos at the moment. It shouldn't be too hard to find a single replacement. If need be I can make another. As for what you should focus on, well first I want duplicates of this gem. I am aware you cannot create an exact copy, but you may be able to create a gem of weaker abilities. One that doesn't completely degrade their intellegence but doesn't enhance them as much."

Again he took notice of his army. "But what makes a strong hollow? Obviously being spiritually strong does, but what else? It also seems that hollows that willingly became what they are, are stronger. Through a ritual I was able to become a hollow while still keeping all of my old powers. For now only worry about making your 'Menos Ajuukasu'. After that we will talk about our next focus."

Grabbing his sword he stabbed it into the air and turned it like a key. Thus a door to the soul society was opened. "As for me, well I have some hunting to do." Before he entered he snapped his fingers and turned back. "Oh, find another way to enter the soul society. It won't be long before they can begin blocking my access."

It felt like someone was trying to jerk out the breath in him, yet Razma held strong. He gave it to the holy blood to why he was still standing, but didn't ponder on it long. He had his crossbow loaded, and even if it didn't have its enchantment, it's bolts still could peirce that things heart. He aimed the best he could in his state and let the bolt fly.

There was just one problem though, and he wasn't picking it up in this state. His senses would normally be telling him to get the hell out of there, for all around them the sound of fleeing undead was being heard. Whatever the hell was in the arena could start showing its ugly head any second.

"Yes General I shall do as you command" Mortis said with a bow as General exited into soul society. Turning away from the portal to soul society Mortis opened his own, this one leading into his laboratory and the place where he conducted most of his experiments. As he stepped through Mortis reached under his wing and when the portal closed behind him pulled out a Katana. Cradling it in his hands he thought to himself "The fool doesn't realize what a hollow taking of its mask means, he shall learn it when he takes off my mask. He shall pay for withholding it from me. But for now I will work for him since his goals are not completely adverse to mine."

With that thought in mind he called together he hollow minions. One by one that ripped through the fabirc of the universe to arrive next to him. Each one brought something in their hands, or bodies, mouths, and apendages and Mortis was pleased at what he saw "Good, good my minions this shall help us immensly"

Charon tried to dodge the bolt causing it to lodge in his upper arm. The bolt hurt alot and left an itching feeling as he pulled it out. Charon threw his dagger toward the human and pulled out his newest dagger and an evil looking steel dagger. He chanted and the dagger arced upward towards his head, cutting his cheek as it narrowly missed his eye. The dagger turned quickly and turned in it's flight. Charon kept up his chant.

OOC: ok this is my "first" post.

Not OOC: Bruenor floated slightly above the ground. As he passed by an unfamiliar area of town, he noticed a commotion. "What's all this?" he asked a nearby zombie. "Hollows," it said. Bruenor knew that’s all the information it would get out of this. "Zombies are so stupid," he thought. As he floated over to see the commotion, he noticed that hollows were everywhere. "This cannot be normal." Two hollows confronted him. "All right," he said, "Let’s do this." He began to create a bone wall, but when he did, the hollows disappeared. All of the hollows disappeared. "This is weird," thought Bruenor, "I believe its time to get to the bottom of this."

Razma just managed to sidestep the dagger. It wasn't no bolt, but that thing threw it faster than he was used to dodging. He tucked the crossbow back to his side and drew out his sword, almost preparing to charge when he saw another dagger come flying at him. He got his blade in the way and caused it to fly past his head instead of through it. He looked back on his enemy, who was still chanting. He ducked instinctivly, seeing the same dagger come flying back over him. "Why do you fight me. Do you think you going to get a meal after this fight?" He yelled at the thing, trying to distract it as he played defense.

Eff was angry. This was not in the least a new developement - a widely traveled lich of exceptional power, he had been constantly enraged, to a greater or lesser degree, for the past four centuries - but this was unusual, even for him. It was that kind of rage that excludes all else, lending the world a sense of perfect clarity.
Someone had stolen his experimental soul-gems- all four of them.
Now he stood in the summoning chamber of his part-time residence, barely able to utter the words to the series of highly volatile spell matrix he was preparing because of the blood red haze in his mind.
Power began to arch through the room, bolts of raw magic testing the limits of the re-enforced chamber, illuminating the words sown into the back of Eff's robe in a dull orange and chartreuse glow :

"'cause I'm a gods-damned LICH, thats why!"

someone was going to end up smeared across the planes like a single goblin across the walls of a dwarven garrison. then Eff would return to his normal state of 'really ticked off' and have some tea - it would end up on the floor, but it was the thought that counted.