Saga of the Seven Rings - Opening Post - ''Discovery''

Emblem's plan had worked on the female, for now, but he was far from being able to commit to treasure hunting again. One of his most favorite pastimes was placed on hold again as he faced a very dangerous and troublesome foe. He had heard the voice speak to them before, and now it spoke to him. The Reaper was close.

''Emblem Trailblazer, how nice of you to come.''

Emblem turned to face his new opponent. It stepped out with it's scythe clashing with cavestone. Emblem cracked his neck in response, how voice more clear and humane then his foe's.

''You know me. I know you from lore and tomes. Only one name however, I have not, Grim Reaper.''

Emblem observed the crimson and purplish black aura this man had for all to see. Emblem would not for a moment doubt this force, this encounter was truly one to take into consideration. Never mock a possible cause of death. For death was present, and it stood before him. As the Grim Reaper told him he could walk away, another thought crossed Emblem's mind. Was it his time to go? Would he ever walk out on this treasure? His findings? Well, that and the findings of his other-realmed alternate version.

''If you know me so well, you make a grave mistake by even contemplating the option of me leaving. If death is here to collect me, I will fight it as always. You stop me from discovering a treasure with powers unknown, then you know you will have to work for it..''

''So what do you say? Shall we play a game of cat and mouse?''

Instantaneously, runes shot out all around Emblem. In protection, Emblem's tattoo's glowed an eerie blue, only to conjure of red crimson runes of his own, shielding the battlemage with a barrier of heat and magma. However, Death's runes were not harmful in any way. They merely created a battlezone. Emblem observed this time-space breaching wizardry and could only nod his head in acknowledgment of this impressive feat.

''“Come can you not hear the music starting already? Let us dance this gallows’ waltz you and I.” ''

Emblem thought it would be wise to take out his own weaponry. His palm ignited and two rather large one handed axes appeared, set on fire with magic itself.

''I will snap your neck before mine ever reaches such a place Death. You know I am destined to live in Hell. That day however, is not now. And when I do, it will not be a waltz, but the cries of battle filling the air...Hell will consume me, and I will consume earth before that happens.''

Knowing he had to go all out this time, Emblem took one of the axes and made a rather generous cut in his shoulder. His face drawn into an aggravated state, he soon felt the adrenaline racing and the endorphins trying to null the pain. This pain however, and the fact he was facing none other then death, activated his more effective trigger: Hellion.

With a roar, Emblem's arms twisted and morphed, covered in an eerie blue flame as they changed to their more demonic counterparts. Emblem's white hair flew up in the release of power. As it ended, the entire fighting space was covered in a thick layer of silence.

Death faced Demonic Fire. None were to give in to the mere threats of the other side. Emblem stood on one side, satisfied at seeing his more powerful arms back. He would need them to even stand a chance, a mere mortal would not even survive a glimpse of Death's embrace. Emblem however, was never a mere mortal.

''You know Death, this is kinda lovely really. If I have to die, it shall be in mortal combat. If I were to perish against a foe, it shall be none lower then Death. However, we both know the clash is always the most interesting part. Let me see how much you got...And I shall indulge in the pleasure of burning your ageless entity off this world....and take the Alpha and Omega of any collection..the Tome of Life.''

Emblem's axes twirled in his hands, before being thrown towards his foe. Spinning like boomerangs, quickly toiling around their own axes, the Boomerang Blade attack added velocity to the already sharp blades, and it would never be a wise thing to underestimate these feats. Emblem, in the meanwhile, stepped in towards death with his left foot and shot out his right palm, which in turn shot a large torrent of flame straight towards death. The axes from the side, the flame torrent straight through the middle...

The battle has begun, and Emblem relished the feeling of true competition. His semi-demonic grin had formed again..this was going to be fun. Krious' commnication had come through in the meanwhile. It could only be irony for this battle to have a treasure close by. In the midst of battle-rage, Emblem responded.

''Can't be a powerful one them if it's up here. The others will probably be banded together...But one is to wonder why this one would be close by...I expect those four towers surround the vault, if any. They are there to protect, which would be weird if they were not there. Good luck, I'd rather have looked but Death's at my doorstep...Can't let him wait out in the cold now can I?''

The large torrent of flame surged towards Necatii as Emblem knew this was the moment to look forward to an entire life.

It was never a good thing when Death was smiling.

Emblem realised this. All the while looking confident, he had been very aware this is an opponent he could not be met with adrenaline and agression alone. Today, Emblem would have to show his fighting prowess. Truly he did not think he'd have a real chance at obtaining the infamous Tome of Life. That would be his bounty for another time. This time? Well, let's say he hoped Krious would find the objects before this battle was over. That way, he'd be joined in his fright and leave death behind with newfound powers.

That was not a thought for now however, as the reaper dodged his attacks by leaping up into the air. His initial attacks were always dodgeable in a sensible way, but did Death had to jump this high? The hellbound battlemage snickered as his axes turned back to return to him.

''Is jumping not a bit too...mortal for your ways? Did the fates tell you to leap and avoid pain?''

“Oh come now that was hardly worth the effort of dodging…you will be dead in minutes if that is how you plan to fight me insect. Even with your demonic qualities surely you can see you will need much…much more.” 

''You cannot tell me that everyone you fought goes all out from moment one? Where's the fun in that? I thought you liked games of cats and mice?''

“Do try to make this worth the grains of sand from the hour glass of eternity I shall spend. Though I suppose I have more than enough time to waste…the same can’t be said for you or your comrade…time is sifting slowly away from your lives COME QUICKLY GIVE ME PAIN WORTH FEELING AND A CHALLENGE WORTH YOUR LIFE!”

''You wait in turn just like everyone else Death...My flames are not going anywhere anytime soon..

Emblem knew his opponent was not fooling around. He took things serious, even with a few portions of sadistic pleasure. The feeling was mutual. However, in a flash, Emblem saw the scythe being raised up and boom, the Reaper was gone. Well, not gone, but extremely fast. Had Emblem's binary thought pattern not seen the position of the weapon, he had not known how to react. Emblem quickly leaped to the side and rolled over his shoulder to avert the vertical attack made by his foe. With a roll, he got back up and his knees, then feet, and counterattacked without a moment's hesitation.

As his axes were coming back, Emblem was close to the Reaper. The attack had barely missed with Emblem rolling out of harm's way, but the attack itself had sent a wave of magical power across the fighting area. Emblem cursed himself for not planting a magical rune of his own on that one spot...it'd had blown the Reaper's mind..

Yet now he had to do it himself. Emblem stepped in with his right leg and promptly exploded in fiery might. Raw magical power flowed from his veins outward in every direction, and quickly exploded in a sphere of quickly expanding fires. If he had any luck, Death's speed would be small burst, leaving the reaper at the same spot as where Emblem was moments ago.

As the explosive blast was expanding further and further, Emblem prepared his next attack. Normally easily telegraphed, he had a chance to execute it without anyone seeing him properly. Normally given away by his mouth being aflame, he was now schrouded by a completely devastating explosion. As stone debris fell from the stone ceiling, Emblem inhaled deeply, his mouth white hot with might, and unleashed it upon his close vicinity, aimed at where death had struck and he had been standing.

The flaming breath pierced the explosive veil. In the best case scenario, Death was either struck by both the attacks, or unable to see the pyromancer aiming his signature flame-breath at the ageless entity. The flames quickly spread in a cone, lighting up a lot of the entire tunnel. Hot and fast enough to end a mortal's life upon touch, this had to hurt Death itself.

As Emblem performed his demonic-fueled breath attack, the first of four pillars lit up. The defense mechanism had awakened, and a low rumble was heard throughout the cave. It was noticed by all, and Emblem's thoughts wandered. What did that one object do to...And suddenly, he knew.

The emergency teleport object would lead one out in times of need, meaning it'd have to magically teleport one to the safe chambers, the vault, when the defense mechanism was activated. Well, in theory...Krious was a teleporter though, he had better means of transportation. Besides..emergency teleports...could also kind of kill you. Emblem could only hope his partner had his own solid rhetoric on the items..

In there, one would have limited time, and probably some traps to deactivate to recover the objects..

Emblem's split second reasoning sounded well for as much as it did. As his expanding sphere of fire dissipated, his axes returned to his hands. He clenched them tightly, looking and hearing...trying to find his foe as his breath attack ended, with even rocks melting and magically burning with bright flames.

Did he even listen to a thing he said? Of course not, the horns of battle called so Emblem answered. It was the nature of the beast, but it was also foolish to stand in front of the Reaper without backup. He claimed these items were banded together, but all the evidence pointed in another direction. They were spread out, each hidden in their own spot between the pillars. Hidden inside this enormous underground vault, hidden so it would take time to find them one by one, hidden so the easy choice was sending them out onto the world. The entities that had shaped these object wanted that to happen, not have them found in one meager effort. On top of that it was what he would do to hide several powerful artifacts himself. The towering pillars were merely a way out for the objects once the mechanism was triggered and they had gathered in the center. How a second pair of hands would come in handy right now, but, as was becoming usual, to get things done he'd have to do it himself.

Taunts were exchanged and magic flew by as Krious moved overhead. He made his way towards the first objective, moving with great speed, vaulting over obstacles and only teleporting when he knew he could spare the energy. The Titans had gone silent after Emblem’s treatment of their friend, but they were still around here somewhere. He had to be cautious if he wanted the slightest chance of getting out of here with even one of the objects of power. A wave of power almost knocked him down as he passed by near the battle. He could only catch a glimpse of the scene. A magical energy briefly circulated the air before something shot forward with such speed that his reticule enhancers had to recalibrate to even keep up with it. He didn’t have to know what it was, a simple guess pointed at the Reaper. Not that he dwindled on it long, the whole scene had only taken seconds to perform and he had recovered before it played out fully.

It was your choice to do battle with Death, but you will do so alone. I will not follow down the path of ruin when so close to our goal.

He thought to himself while he neared the marked location on his holographic map. He came to a halt on a point overlooking the location. He couldn’t see much of his surroundings but what he did looked clear. Wasting no time he leaped down, letting the kinetic bleeders in his legs take care of the landing. While moving over he quickly inspected the scans of the item. It was in the wall in front of him, not very deep but there was something surrounding it that was not natural to this cave. His blades could pierce almost anything, but at a variable speed. This alone would probably prevent him from getting all of the items, he knew this already, but if he could manage to get his hands on even one of them then it would all be worth it. With that thought in mind he plunged his right darkforce charge sword straight into the wall and began to cut out an opening. The stone was easily penetrated but he met far more resistance the deeper the blade got.

The pillar closest to his position suddenly lit up and the cave trembled at it's activation. Something was starting to move down below, the mechanism had been activated. He had to move fast and finish before there was a chance the other three would lit up. But with all his strength he couldn't get his sword to move any faster through the unknown alloy and was stuck carving a square in the wall.

Useless piece of southern shape-shifting technology.

Fortunately, Scope was more helpful. He set off a bomb that created a huge amount of ice inside the cavern. The two boys helped Grace over to the ice to cool her down.

Grace fell to her hands and knees. The cold ice felt so good under her skin. She vented all the excess heat from the fire directly into the ice, melting it all in a matter of seconds. Grace stood up, at full strength once again. Her powers worked by absorbing heat, but that same heat made her weak. Having expelled all the heat from her body, she was ready to fight again.

"Necati is fighting some fire mage over there," Grace said, not bothering to give a thank you. She didn't thank people for doing their jobs. "There's also a third person down here. His aura feels strong and very evil. He seems to be sneaking around."

Suddenly, the pillar next to Krious lit up. Grace could see him, as well as the fight between Necati and Emblem. These opponents were powerful. She didn't know why they were fighting, but she knew that they were too strong to be defeated by the three Titans.

"I say we see who wins."

While Krious ignored everything apart from his goal Death’s gaze did not. Necati's rune appeared with its glowing lines quickly covering the spot he was cutting through. Had he not been stuck with a sword in the wall he might have been able to evade it entirely. Immediately he pulled back from the wall, releasing his sword from the stone and retracting it back into his arm. Now he could fight back with all his might and only just in time too. The rune came to life, its lines reaching out from the wall and wrapping themselves around his body. Within moments he stood with his back pressed against the same wall he had been eager to destroy. The rune's purpose wasn't just immobilization, it pressed and pulled on him even when he could go no further. Luckily at least half of his body was made out of dense reinforced steel infused with his darkforce that wouldn’t bend or break easily. A smirk formed on his face. Even the Reaper would have known this attack wouldn’t keep him down for long. It even looked like a futile attempt to win some time in his opinion.

His strength was as inhumane as his body and with all his might he started to press forward. The initial inches proved to be the hardest but backed up and fueled by his power he soon was free of the stone surface. The web of magic grew along with him, trying to pull him back to his doom. It was of no use, he had won this test of strength. A charged fist made its way through the web that covered him, tearing through the magical binding as he turned around to face the runed wall. The fist collided in the center, sending in a wave of darkforce that imploded a second after. The first few layers of the wall shattered and crumbled into dust and the rune disappeared into nothingness. That had gotten his blood flowing alright.

Only now did he notice the dark red light that engulfed the entire cavern. It didn’t look like there would be much left after it was done. The ground trembled even more then before and part of the cavern already started to collapse. On the upside it would probably light up the three remaining pillars and activating the release mechanism in doing so. To make matters even worse he noticed a set of green lights moving towards him along the red glow of the cavern. It looked like a Tamaranian, one getting ready to fight him. On top of that he could see the surfuce of the container he was trying to crack open now that the dust cleared. A certain death, a dead alien or a fresh start. Fate was not kind to him today and that wasn’t improving his mood one bit. Slowly he faced the alien that now neared his position, popping out both of his blades and entering a ready stance. He would wait and see what would happen first before getting both himself and Emblem topside. He would be able to deal with the alien’s first attack anyway, now that his focus was set on him, and with teleportation the initiative was always on your side.

“Cineri gloria sera est…Mortis aspectum.”

Emblem's eyes lit up as he heard Death pronounce clean Latin. A language of Ancient Rome, still used in the oldest of spells. Old spells however, tend to be forgotten out of necessity. Were one to use these spells, it would kill the imcompetent user, or demolish all that stood in it's way.

As Emblem heard Necatii speak the words, his eyes lit up in the well-known light blue as he placed his demonic hands in front of him. This was it. Even those with the most basic understanding of Latin would know that any spell with the word Mortis in it would mean trouble.

As the temperature had dropped and Emblem felt rooted to the ground, he did what he always did in such a situation. Pumping himself up to meet this threat, he urged his inner demon to lend him the power he needed to get out of this mess. Whilst he was confident in his abilities and his chances against Death, getting hit by a death laser was never a preferable option.

He moved his hands in front of him and shot forth a rather immense burst of pure energy channeled from his entire body. As it's hos twas attuned to the element of fire, the channeled energies collected and spread heat and changed to fire as it raced towards his foe.

Yet Emblem knew this was not going to be enough. After a short test of speed, he knew he had made a mistake. Were he to channel his power by means of a proper spell, just one out of his collection of incantations, then he might have had better odds. His magic failed him in this case due to improper incantations. As Necatii's beam pierced Emblem's counter-attack, the hellborn battlemage, if only for a second, snickered. Hell, was this truly what waited for him at this very moment?

As the beam collapsed on top of the still resisting mortal body, Emblem could feel darkness taking over. As his human body was picked up by the sheer force and slammed against the nearest rock of sorts, he could feel his grip on reality slip away as he was overwhelmed by ancient magics. His frame was rattled as he resisted the pulse with all he had. Onlookers would almost get the idea he was having a fair chance...before the entire ceiling collapsed on top of the demonic pyromancer.

Lights out for the Emblem, right? Yet as it was, this wasn't the only trouble all heroes and villains faced. As the fire of the pyromancer seemed finally extinct at first glance, the ceiling that came down on top of him showed a hole had opened up...and it showed daylight. Normally a sign of safety, but it seemed that tearing at the foundation of the Jump City Park wasn't a great approach to finding any object of power, or a good place to do battle.

The light however, now aided the four pillars in recharging. Crystals all around the cave started to glow faintly as the towers seemed to charge. Before long, three of the four towers were lit up, and it seemed only logical the defense mechanism and followed spreading of artifacts would happen when the fourth was lit.

However, the towers were not seen by Emblem. Crushed in between rocks, the proud master of flames laid shattered upon stone and covered in dust. Yet for some reason, he was fully awake...

As Emblem looked around, he noticed the entire landscape had changed. He saw fire, yet did not feel the heat. He saw stones, brown and orange, warmed by fires unseen. Blood seemed to cover a large portion of the battlefield. As he turned around, Emblem saw a demon setting on a small throne. It all became very clear. As he stepped towards this demonic entity, a small smirk appeared on Emblem's face, and his eyes seemed to shimmer with hidden plans.

''You lost..''

''We lost.''

''Your human body is frail.''

''Your demonic powers are second to none Hellion...so tell me...how is it you cannot even aid me in my fight against death. Why do you engage him in combat, spark my fires of rage, yet not fulfill your task?''

''I am nobody's servant, mortal.''

''Mortal? Is that how you are going to play it?''

Emblem, as if he had mastered the art of speed, suddenly phased next to the demon. His hand and fingers wrapped around the demon's left horn, a grip tight unlike any other.

''You wouldn't...''

Following suit, Emblem broke off the demon's horn with a large movement of his arm. Ast he horn was torn off, the demon roared, rage and pain filling his cries of anger. Emblem created a makeshift club out of the horn and used it as a projectile against his demonic comrade. He never liked this violence, but it was truly the only way to make sense when facing a legendary demon. Had the ancient Greeks extinguished the first flames that were granted to them by Pandora, then Hellion would not have roamed the world today. He was that cursed fire...yet for now, he was in Emblem's possession.

''Let me be very clear Hellion. You might despise mortality, but there is none more suitable then me. Second, this is my mind, and here, I rule. The Chalice, remember? Your corruption may spread as it is, fueling my rages, strengthening my body far beyond it's limits, duplication this hatred of mortality...but I warn you now and never again. How stupid was it to instill hatred and rage in me at this time? Proper spellcasting had given me much more chances against this ancient foe of mankind. You lend me your power...or you shall be dealt with again. Next time, give me all I need, not just the arms...Got it, demon? And don't get all angry when I'm collecting treasures...We could have had them without your fits of rage.''

With that, Hellion slowly bowed his head unwillingly in the face of Emblem's piercing jade green eyes. The demon's eyes filed with malice, most probably devising several plans to deal with this human conjurer. A change of scenery happened again, and Emblem found himself in total darkness, inbetween rocks...How long had he been gone? Minutes without a heartbeat and a pulse? Slowly, his body was restoring, the demon apparently fixing him up. Emblem smirked at the irony and waiting for his bones to melt together again as they should. The pain was severe, but his mind was clear and not filled with the unrelenting rage of demons.

The fight between Necati and Emblem had become so intense that the cavern itself was collapsing. Grace didn't know what everyone was fighting over and decided it wasn't worth dying for. Grabbing Scope around the waist, she turned around and flew for the exit. Giant rocks were falling, and Grace had to evade them. There was no way her ice shields would be able to block something that massive.

Moments later, they were flying up the tunnel back towards the surface. A few rocks fell right towards them and Grace had to hug the wall to avoid being crushed. Her arm was getting tired from holding Scope, so she just froze him to her side.

"Sorry."

The giant rock passed, and Grace flew all the way up to the surface, where she floated in the air watching Central Park collapse.