[OOC:] So the mantle of leadership falls upon Blyr and Dezil. That answers my question. So, if SS is out of the action for a while, and LWM in the same situation (I think she's on vacation), we'll either have to have their characters in 'stasis' or control them ourselves. I hope they don't mind... [/OOC]

The Scripture of the One-Handed Maiden

Once, there was a maiden...
... who struck an iron wall until it shattered her hand.
She did not stop, though cracks spread throughout her bones.
She did not stop, though blood sprayed her eyes.
She did not stop until she shattered the wall.

"Survival is fury", she said.

******

"Abby? Abby! What's wrong?"

"Abigail! Are you alright?"

"No... I just felt a great disturbance in the ether. Something... big just happened. I have a feeling that life as we know it is not going to be the same again..."

******

At the city gates, the sentries were already training rifles on the man who ignored all their hails and kept walking toward the cities despite their warnings. Then, when the reports from a survivor of the Magitek unit filtered into N'Revat Armored Corps, the order was given - kill the subject on sight.

They fired. The rounds impacted harmlessly off an invisible shield barely inches from Dante's face. Then he looked back up at them, and they died, frozen instantly into statues by sub-zero tempratures, then shattered a split second later by a massive sonic boom that shook the city. He did not walk through the gates, he walked over them, blasting them off their hinges with multiple lances of earth energy and disintegrating the pieces before they could touch the ground. The citizens first stared at him in dumbfounded horror before he tossed a bystander into a nearby wall with casual, brutal ease. That seemed to snap them out of their catatonia, and they ran, screaming bloody murder even as the anti-wizard quick-response force rushed
to counter the insurgent. Instantly, Dante was overlapped by multiple antimagic fields. The riflemen advanced, their mastery of the capturing drill evident in their quick, clipped maneuvers.

Then, they slowed. He wasn't behaving like the others. Normal wizards would have cursed, spluttered, and eventually given in once they realized that they were unable to cast in the field.

Not Dante. He remained upright, fists clenched. In his mind's eye, the Power was distant, blocked, as though something were preventing him from tapping it. Six walls, each a nothingness thick, but enough to block him from touching the Power.

Each one a shield. Like Bandon's.

Break it.

Dante growled, breaking the silence he had kept over the trek from Prisca to the city. It was a low growl, animalistic, and as he did, the men trembled, backing away. He let his will become fingers, and those fingers he clenched into a fist of spirit. He focused on a spot... and he struck. The field strained under his impact, but he struck again, the ethereal blows shaking the invisible prison he was in. He saw the wall breaking, strands unravelling, torn apart by the brutal, relentless assault. And then it collapsed, like burnt gossamer, and he felt himself become stronger.

Harder and faster, he struck, every blow more powerful than the last. Aboard the Magiteks, the field readings redlined, then pressed themselves beyond any known limits. Dante reached for the power again, and the wall was pliable, bending, bending... then suddenly bursting apart like the city gates, the wreckage disappearing into the endless ether, and the Power filled him, burning and radiant, the raw fire of heaven flowing through his veins.

Dante cackled wildly, and the soldiers stumbled back even as the Reflect stones detonated in their housings and the fields fell.

Hungrily, he seized at the Power, drawing it into himself, feeding the frozen fury of his dead-eyed rage with the hurricane of fire and ice that was the Power. More and more the storm of magic raged inside him, becoming a chaotic miasma of raw power begging release. Yet still he endured, the Power singing within him, like a mad crescendo building to a climax, until at last, he reached forth a thousand invisible hands and unleashed elemental fury through every one.

Fire and air were one as a massive pulse of heat and light burst forth from him. In his mind's eye, he saw the soldiers vainly shield their faces as the killing heat reached for them, turning their beige skin a ghastly black even as their flesh burst from within, the vaporized blood forcing its way out. Behind them, the Magiteks stumbled as the ground below the liquefied, then blew away as superheated vapor. The Tek alloy ran and flowed like melted butter as the cockpit glass shattered, riddling the dead bodies of their pilots with molten fragments. A massive sonic boom rang throughout the city as the superheated air broke the sound barrier rushing away from him. Floating serenely above the ground within his own shield, a grin crossed his otherwise emotionless face as he saw the reinforcements for the squad breaking and running in terror. Then he floated forward again, the grin already faded from his face.


******

Bandon's eyes snapped open, alerted more by the sudden outflux of energy than the resultant heat wave and sonic boom. He raised his scrying sphere in front of him, and a figure swam into view.

"You..." he hissed. Then he lifted off the meditation platform and called his battle robes to him.

Time to finish this, Etrigan.

******

Leaving a trail of slain soldiers in his wake, Dante quickly reached the palace. Before they could raise their halberds to block his passage, lances of earth energy were already racing into them. He paid their torn remains no heed as he approached the palace gates and stopped. The door was warded with antimagic.

Not a problem.

He looked at the ground, and immediately, a circular patch turned black before his eyes. Then, he willed the shaft of obsidian to break free of the ground, and it did, a shimmering black pillar floating in the air. The pillar turned parallel to the ground, then flew into the door with frightening speed, causing a resounding crash as it made contact with the enchanted metal. Almost immediately, he pulled it back, then smashed it into the gate again, like he had done with the antimagic fields previously. Cracks spread throughout the gates, and the center began to dent even as the defenders inside tried to hold the line. At last, the ram broke through, flying inside like a massive black coffin. Dante erected a shield, then willed the obsidian pillar to detonate in stages. With each thunderous crack, sprays of razor-sharp obsidian chips flew out through the gap the pillar had made. But as he made it through the gate, it was clear that the paltry amount that had escaped through the opening was nothing compared to what had stayed inside.

All over the courtyard, daggers of obsidian protruded from the walls. Bodies were strewn all over, riddled with shrapnel, pinned to the walls, or decapitated and dismembered by the flying shards. A Magitek stirred in the corner, its pilot struggling impossibly against a shower of fragments that had penetrated his gut. Dante channelled again, sendign a lance of earth forth, and the shattered machine fell silent at last. Ignoring the ground crunching beneath his feet, he continued on, towards the inner palace.

OOC: Wow... I mean just... that isn't good... Well, looks like Dezil is going to have to work on a new and improved A-M Field after this...
Also, are the rest of us going to join in the fight in Preos? I'll post a neutral post now, but it seems like considering we're now flying pretty fast now, we might make it, and the team might have to face Dante again... If we make it, I'll post again in a bit of at least Dezil's cart landing, and Dezil seeing the damage...
Also, on another note, I think Ciaran will have bigger problems then a turncoat Cecil in a second...

Dezil was tinkering with his broken field generator he had made, hoping to replace Safe and Shell and give them some cover going in since Ciaran wouldn't miss an opportunity to blast his enemies out of the sky like sitting ducks. One of the bandits saw him and said, "Hey, are you an engineer?"

Dezil nodded and said, "Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Not everyone liked engineers since their technology was sometimes recognized as even less normal than magic, and some really didn't like magic either.

"No, I'm actually working at being an engineer as well. What are you working on?" The bandit asked.

"Ah, a new field generator, my last one broke when you all overloaded it..." Dezil mumbled loudly.

"Heh, sorry about that, it was all buisness, ey'? Anyway, now that you saved us, or at least this group here, we owe you one." One of the bandits began to grumble and the first one kicked him, saying, "Yo, we always repay our debts, and we owe these guys for pulling our fat out of the friar. So, need any help with your gizmo?"

"Nah, I just about have the main part ready. I just need to build the second generator onto it to stabalize the first, and it will be ready. You all just sit back and relax, we're on the way to Preos now." Dezil replied. He flicked the device on experimentally, and the green and yellow field surrounded the cart again, but stronger this time and with less noise from the device. He turned it back off, and rooted around for the last parts he would need to get it up to the level he wanted.

(OOC: Trust me... the group wants to be NOWHERE near preos. After Dante is gone a-whole-nother set of shit is going to open up that'll be even worse than him... but only for a few minutes...)

Ciaran stood straight up in his chair as he heard the news. A wizard of unimaginable power was attacking, and he was able to destroy the antimagic auras. His mind moved quickly as he went over the report... then he noticed something. The mage stopped for a minute and overloaded the generators. That signified an opening of attack, and Ciaran formed a plan. It would be risky, but it was his only chance, with the unstoppable magic juggernaut headed his way.

"Call all the troops back. Make him a path to the throne room... and call the white mages here as well as all the guards. We'll need them" Ciaran stated, his tone grim. This, for once, wasn't a game... not even to him. The guard who had brought him the information just looked at the emperor as though he was insane forcing Ciaran to repeat himself. "Clear him a path... NOW!"

The emperor's enraged tone sent the man running off, and soon the route to Ciaran's throne room was devoid of guards, magitek, or anything else that the powerful wizard may have to destroy. Ciaran sat on his throne, with his sword in one hand, and his other on a secret control hidden inside of his armrest, normally. This was the first time he had any doubt in his plans.

Post wiped out, I'll wait for the start of the next chapter.

(OOC: we should probably get a new chapter soon... And are we all together again or can Kairi run into you guys in a bit? Since I would imagine it would be hard not to get seperated during the mass confusion.)

(Ripel is going to start one today, I think Dante should finish up with his duel with Bandon and then come after Ciaran and yada yada... as we talked it out before the next chapter starts though... seeming as he started it here. I'm gonna have to go in like ten minutes, and be gone for a few hours at least though, so if he wants he can use my character if I'm already gone

Edit: And FZ, I REALLY think it'd be best if you just not arrive at the city until the beginning of the next chapter... just... tru... actually I'll send you a PM on the reason.)

[OOC:] according to Ecurt (from what he's told me), the hero group might not be reaching Preos until 2 chapters from now (9, I believe) for plot purposes.

And yes, I do think the band will be scattered about (bound to happen in a scene like that), which would probably be the focus of the next chapter: finding people. Dante, Daemon, and Cieran wil have their own business, but that's what I predict the bulk of us will be doing. [/OOC]

OOC: I think krylo, Dante, Viewtiful, and myself should tell eachother what we know about the story that is going to happen... We all seem to know random parts of it...

OOC: I've been told what Krylo is doing, and given a hint at what will happen with Dante, but I'm only supposed to tell Dante anything new for plot purposes. Regardless, does anyone really know what is happening?