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

As Emblem tried to see where he had gone, his head shook groggily. His muscles felt warm due to the demon doing his job properly for once, but Emblem, actually...felt really cold. As he tried to wrap his head around all that had happened, he thought it was the aftermath of Necatii's attack. Or was it the fact that he had been on the verge of death? His heartbeat might have gone from proper to almost nill and back again, his muscles feeling death's cold embrace for one of the first times since...well...a long time.

It was one of the reasons Emblem preferred pyromancing mastery. Subconsciously, his body was held at proper temperatures for peak fighting condition. His current predicament has thwarted just that as he was rather preoccupied with facing death and all.

Yet that was a stream of thoughts for another time. As Emblem tried to look around once more, he did not get any wiser. All was dark, he had been surrounded by falling debris, caved in by boulders and stone. His tomb, and one his actions had deserved.

Emblem tried to move his muscles, but to no avail. Some were torn, some were shattered. Bones were broken, and for some reason, the eerie blue light that showed up at times due to Hellion reattaching limbs...it was completely unnoticed by his left eye. A trivial issue compared to the rest of his body, but Emblem had rather enjoyed full eyesight. He could only wonder if it could be fixed by demonic infusion alone. There had to be a limit to what Hellion could do for his human body...even more so, where he would reach his limit.

Slowly but steadily, after minutes and minutes of trying to see if he could hear or see anything, Emblem's breathing seemed to return to normal. Slow but surely, his breath echoed off the close rocks, and back to him again. His breath was warm, a sign his inner flame was rekindling. Not enough for dragon breath attacks, but it was a feeling he was glad to experience again.

His right arm tingled as it got infused with energy. Whilst his arm was completely human again, Emblem tried to feel his surroundings. The rocks were close enough to touch, and most of his body was buried or stuck. His right hand and arm were the only free body parts he had.

In a daze, Emblem let his head sink backwards and closed his eyes. This was going to take some more time. As he entered his own world, his twisted mind, he walked up to what appeared to be a chess board. The pieces however, were Titans and Villains. Lifelike copies of who ever were here, and who ever were close. Some parts were dazed; they were close but Emblem had either not seen them or not recognized their heat signature. Whilst pieces such as Ben 10 were hazy, others like Raith were nothing more then mere silhouettes. Undefinable and unrecognizable.

In the center of the board were the cause of Emblem's troubles and the brim of his concern: Necatii Illuminari. His influence seemed to blacken the entire board, and his location was currently unknown. With the fading of Emblem's life, he might have thought his job was done, but Emblem was not quick to judge. Underestimating his foes, such as Hellion had done a few moments ago, was the key to his defeat. Were Necatii to find him now, Emblem would possibly die a warrior's death, but a death nonetheless.

As the board changed shape and Emblem's ornate ivory throne manifested behind him, the surroundings twisted and warped into what looked like hell. Pools of lava, brimstone and molten rocks everywhere. With a concerned look on the board, Emblem saw that one chess piece that was his partner. Krious. Emblem observed and saw no distinct damage to the piece itself. Whilst his way of communicating with Krious was lost (The In-ear communicator must have fallen out and continue to be crushed) Emblem was quite relieved to see the chess piece did not seem harmed.

It could only mean his partner had taken the wiser decision, and got the hell out of harm's way. Logically, and even somewhat expected, Krious had moved out of the way and did not find defeat at the hands of a Titan, Death or falling rocks.

As Emblem observed all the chess pieces left, he scratched his chin, literally immersed in his own thoughts. His thoughts went out to the objects of power, his next course of action were he to have one. This moment of recollection and insight supported him in solving his ordeals. His own chess piece, off to the side, was broken in numerous places, but it seemed to recollect himself. Fortunately.

As it did however, pain also found it's way to Emblem's head. An effect he knew was coming, as the central nerve system was kicking back into full swing, his pain following suit. As the pyromaniac stood up from his throne, the surroundings warped back until he was looking through his own eyes...or rather...eye.

Emblem tried to wriggle free from the enclosing rocks, but hardly to any avail. It was up to the battlemage to rekindle the fires and melt these rocks. Slowly, green light bathed from the supervillain, heating up his near premise, and slowly melting the rocks. As he was granted more room to move around, Emblem went for a leap and slammed his body against a few large boulders that were stacked as a wall between him and what had been the open space. The boulders moved and Emblem moved with, only to fall down several feet, with other boulders chasing him. As he bounced off the stone ground once again, Emblem coughed up what seemed like ages of dust from his newly-restored lungs.

''Worst idea...ever...''

Emblem slowly, on all fours, looked around. Imminent, pressing darkness, and only the sound of rocks to accompany him. As he sat on his knees, Emblem initiated a few breathing exercises. He inspected is body with a faint shimmer of light from up high, and noticed that whilst he was feeling better slowly, his body did not seem to share this. Skin was peeled off at a lot of places, new cuts were already turning to scars, and his eye had still not regained function. His upper torso was now shirtless, showing demonically infused muscles, rock hard but again scarred and cut. Only a minute ago did his last bone reattach itself with demonic powers.

''Hellion. I know this ain't your thing, but when you're in my mind, visit the library in the abandoned church. You already know all the Demonic tricks, but you might pick up some nice other spells. We will need them. We will need them all...''

As Emblem bathed in dark silence, with little light coming from above, he could not help to contemplate where the onjects of power were that started all this. The defense mechanism towers, if anything, were completely shattered, meaning the objects had assumingly vanished to some other place...or were doing so at any moment. They were out of his grasp at the very least, for now.

Emblem sighed as he knew this was going to take a while. He could only hope his partner was safe, or standing on top of some dead Titans. Preferably both...He himself saw the light faintly coming through layers of rock and earth, through small chasms...but he was nowhere near the top.

Grace expanded her wall of ice as Kyte sent the first wave at them. Ice didn’t conduct electricity, and her ice shield was able to stop Kyte’s electromagnetic waves. Scope and Ben’s weapons would be safe.

However, the second attack was far more threatening.

Grace had never fought Kyte before, although she had been on the lookout for him. There was no mistaking his appearance. This man was a powerful demon, and Grace hated demons. She would kill him if she had the chance.

As the fireballs neared Kyte, Grace didn’t expect him to absorb them with his sword. This was bad. Kyte slashed his sword through the air and sent a massive wave of fire at the Titans. That fire would melt right through her ice. She had to do something.

Grace kneeled and touched her hands to the ground. She froze the ground beneath her and brought it up to form a new shield: one of frozen stone. Kyte’s fire waves melted the ice, but the stone stood firm, and prevented the fire from reaching the Titans.

Grace didn’t catch what Kyte had said. She was too busy blocking his attack to care about what the demon was saying.

“Hurt them now!”

Again Raith was'nt being engaged witch got him even hotter what's more is this new comer had copied his powers. But the thing that made him pissed the most was he realized by the way he looked and sounded he was a demon. Attacking a demon head on was suicied plus he had a partner so if Raith attacked he would have a blind spot ,and he could tell by these two that having a blind spot was not the best thing. Ok you have my powers so what, all you are is second rate to me.He knew this was not true but he wasent just going to admit it. He took to the air and charged the demon. It was unexpected what he did next. His body turned and went to Krious. He threw his foot up and then threw another boot up to Krious in succession...

OOC: That's the miracle of water, Kyte. It conducts when liquid, but not when solid. I don't mean to be rude, but how can Kyte control heat and cold air?

BIC: Kyte took the blades head on and was still standing. Show off, Grace thought, but this might work to their advantage. Kyte was prideful. Even though he could survive those blades cutting into him, they still must have damaged him.

And it was still 4 against 2. Grace would have rather replaced Raith with Will and Ben with JaK, but beggers couldn't be choosers. Wait...had she just complimented JaK? What was wrong with her?

Suddenly, a tornado appeared near the make-shift team. What on earth? Where had this come from? Grace was getting sick and tired of being encircled by things today.

Grace flew into the eye of the tornado with an extra effort and stretched her hands out. The temperature plummeted as she used her powers to absorb all the heat. The tornado faded into nothingness, leaving a very angry Deep Freeze floating in the sky.

"Kyte Uchiha! Who do you think you are?" Out of thin air, Grace would form a giant hammer made of ice. She took an extra few seconds to increase the size of the hammer far beyond her usual. The head of the hammer was the size of a small house, and the handle extended well over 200 feet.

Wow, she thought. Scope's freezing bomb thing had really done the trick for her. She hoped he gave her another one sometime.

"Super...CRUSH!" Grace yelled out her war cry as the gargantuan ice hammer pounded down on Kyte. It weighted several tons, and it was traveling at over 100 miles per hour. Grace was sure that the impact would be able to kill the demon. In the event that he dodged it, she would follow his movements and keep trying to crush him.

This demon, Kyte, looked like he had something to prove. Each and every attempt made by the Titans had been dealt with in a matter of moments. All Krious had to do was simple stand there, observing whatever he could. He took in the display of abilities while at it, forming a mental file on all that were present. A special notice went to the apparent grudge between his new found ally and the boy codenamed Ben10. The only conclusion he could make in the end was that he was getting bored, sick and tired of this cat and mouse game. He didn't come here to watch nor did he actually need all the help that was given to him. The only thing he wanted right now was to vent his anger, get some revenge, and even though these Titans weren't the problem, right now they were his solution.

The winged Raith came at them while Kyte was busy handling the Titans with a tornado of some sort. It looked as if he went for the demon, but at the last possible second he changed direction, moving further back straight at his position. It wasn't as if Krious wasn't ready, but he needed some incentive. A set of kicks aimed at the upper part of his body soon followed. The first coming up from below, striking at his jaw. The second coming in sideways also aimed at his head. The blow to his jaw got the energy flowing again and he had moved his metal arm in the trajectory of the second kick before it could hit. The collision between flesh and metal was a one-sided painful undertaking. Before the angelic man could recover Krious grabbed the arm closest to him and forced the man down to the ground with his inhumane artificial strength.

While still holding the angel on the ground with his superior strength he noticed Kyte was about to get himself into a nasty situation. He didn't particularly care about the man but the girl was quite a bit higher on his list of interest. Her name was Grace and more importantly she was somehow related to that fake Reaper he had fought. Getting to her meant getting to him and he was quite fond of that idea. With that in mind he let Raith go and teleported across the battlefield towards the back of his new target.

“Naming your attacks... Cute.”

He said with a smirk. The shapeshifter still had no juice in his watch, or so Kyte had explained, and the expert thrower looked way more afraid of him then what was the case the other way around. Unlike Kyte he'd much rather deal with these things fast and that was exactly what he was going to do. Krious forcefully grabbed her by the shoulder while she was still controlling that giant hammer and janked her back to the ground with all the force he could muster. He had pulled massive steel doors of their hinges with these arms, pulling a girl off her feet was hardly an effort. This had all transpired in a matter of second and may have even given Kyte a better chance against that massive hammer. He turned to face Grace, now on the ground behind him, popped the blade out of the arm he used to pull her back and started walking towards her. Perhaps he had used a little too much force, then again why would that even matter. The brain or the heart, a tough choice. The heart symbolized the connection between her and the white mage. Hah, how he loved his job sometimes.

OOC: I'll play along and let Krious pull her down this time, mostly because Thr33 already posted and because the hammer would distract her, but please note that unless Krious can fly, or has a rope tethered to the ground that he's pulling on, he has no leverage. Just a note for the future.

BIC:
As Grace's super hammer smashed into the ground, and hopefully on top of Kyte, Grace sensed someone very powerful and very evil right behind her. Where had this person come from. It would be a lot more understandable if she wasn't floating 50 feet above the ground. Could Krious fly? No, she realized in terror. He could teleport.

"Naming your attacks... Cute." Krious said. He grabbed on to her, trying to pull her to the ground. Well, technically, he couldn't pull her to the ground, since he had no leverage in the air. His extra weight, however, threw off Grace's altitude. She could have easily kept both of them in the air, no matter how strong he was, but she wasn't able to adjust how much effort she was putting into flying fast enough (probably because she was trying to smite Kyte with a super giant hammer). As a result, Grace and Krious fell to the ground.

Fortunately, Grace was able to slow her fall, although she had to release her mental grip on the ice hammer. Hopefully, the first blow had been a hit. On the ground, she saw that Krious was on his feet and standing over her with a blade of sorts. If she tried an emergency 'jump' of flight at high-speeds, Krious could just teleport to her location. She needed another way to fend off his attacks.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Grace froze the air around her and created what looked like a solid bubble of ice. The ice bubble continued to grow bigger and bigger as she continued to push it out and freeze more and more air. Soon, her little egg was the size of a car. She was safe, for now.

A sphere of ice encased the girl as soon as she noticed him towering over her. Krious took one step back to avoid getting partially stuck in it himself. Did she think this would stop him? Ice was brittle no matter how thick you made it and it certainly wasn’t a very tough material when compared to his darksteel components. His blade retracted into his arm again as it started to gather enough energy to pierce the bubble in a single blow. The first wooden stick went unnoticed until it hit him in the arm. Even at the speed the stick flew it only managed to bounce of the metal surface underneath his jacket. Glancing towards the origin of the throw revealed another stick flying towards him, its trajectory more dangerous, and the eager dead-eye Titan coming at him with yet another stick in hand.

Quickly he turned to face the still airborne stick and held his hand out directly in its path. The stick was met with a small opening to the dimension his power stemmed from, the velocity of the object making the portal able to swallow the object before it closed. Part of the darkforce energy remained charged in his arm ready to use. Leaving the ice queen for now he quickly turned to the charging Titan.

“Pathetic!”

He taunted his opponent. The Titan certainly didn’t have the brawn but he might have the skill to take a few swings at him. In an effort to counter the now in melee range opponent he swung his darkforce charged arm forward in an uppercut, putting a bit of forward motion behind it to get past the range advantage the staff had. Perhaps this sudden forward attack would surprise or even startle him. He didn’t expect a hit but one thing was certain, if it would connect the kinetic wave it would release would have dire consequences for several of his bones, or at the very least shatter his makeshift weapon.

''Are we there yet?''

Emblem's voice echoed hollow against the harsh stone walls, reverberating against every solid piece of stone. A small snicker followed, but Emblem's laugh wasn't even aimed at his own joke. It was at the irony of all this. How his actions had twisted a few things into quite a weird shape.

Heat signatures above were coming in hazily as Emblem's powers recovered. Slowly, he picked up a few individuals who were apparently moving around energetically – they were doing battle. How he would have loved to join in on the brawl was surpassed by the irony that his lust for battle had already caused him to be in his current predicament. His obviously bad joke had not done much to relieve that.

As Emblem had tried to find a way to the top, he had noticed his feet did not prefer walking. Yet they had to. Slowly, he body had recovered to a reasonable extent, but it still took some time before it would be running at optimal levels – the levels Emblem kept it to when subconsciously keeping his warmth on peak levels. Yet as his powers slowly rekindled, a few of the heat signatures on the battlefield above him felt rather familiar. The first and foremost, was that dark mix of bodily warmth and malicious interference due to Darkforce corrupted metal. Krious Alistair was alive as Emblem had suspected. That...and he was fighting.

It had been some time since the fiery battlemage had watched his partner do battle alone. Not often did it happen, and when it did it was due to a coin toss Emblem would lose. A simple coin toss to decide who would take on the next feeble champion of those conquered humans they had defeated so many times before. And where Emblem would play with them, Krious would skillfully test them and dispose them efficiently were it's results unsatisfiable.

Emblem coughed up some left over dust as his body had given a clear notice it did not like being in a place like this. For a moment he thought some blood flew out of his mouth as well. Yet still the pyromancer slowly felt the walls and ground close by, sligtly illuminaitng it as he walked past, trying to find a way up. Staying here was not an option.

For a moment, the fiery battlemage was surprised at his own mental determination when not using his more apparent spells. It explained a few things he had never thought of before – including how it could have been that at his own dimension, several small cults had formed around worshiping him and Krious, revering either fire, or machine. IF this world would do the same, a few of their plans would come to fruition much easier.

Emblem had found a set of fallen rocks that slowly moved upward. Hesitant to use any direct impact flame spells as he didn't want to give away his position, Emblem slowly climbed the rocks. Slowly but surely, he was going up.

When he reached out for one of the smaller rocks (Still as big as half a regular car) Emblem lost his balance due to shifting rocks, and he fell down this improvised set of stairs. As he fell down and came to a halt with a large thud, the mind of the battlemage wandered for only a moment before returning to the real. Upon returning however, the solemn cave was filled with runes.

Runes of magic, runes of time past. Runes Emblem created himself and runes from which he had yet to find it's origin. One of the runes (Standing for Mage's Guile) glowed an eerie blue, not unlike the glow of his demonic arms, before materializing in a glowing light.

''...What are YOU doing here?''

A female body manifested, not made out of human tissue, but out of pure water, twisting in unending maelstroms and currents, connected with each other in ways unknown. The female's hand was raised up to her mouth as if she was trying to her conceal her mocking laugh poorly.

And she just stood there...

Deep inside Emblem's chest, he could feel his heart pounding...like a drum...like a set of drums...war drums. With a silent scream of intense outrage, the runes all disconnected themselves form the walls and flew straight for Emblem, attaching them to his body, everywhere they could. A little sting of pain at every rune, but Emblem welcomed it.

With a small surge of power, all runes vanished and Emblem charged straight for the watery image of times past. With a swipe of the arm and hand, a whiplash of red flame slashed forward, cracking through the watery magician. Steam erupted from her, but she turned back to her usual self.

And with another mocking chant, she slowly dissipated herself. Disappearing within the ground, leaving only the mark of that one rune on the floor. Emblem's light could only vaguely recognize it before it vanished again.

Blinking twice, Emblem had a feeling as if he had only just woken up from a horrible fall. He was suddenly looking at stone, not more then 3 inch away from him. He was lying on the cold floor as if he had only just now dropped from those stones. He quickly picked himself up and looked around. He was in exactly ther same spot, yet no runes this time. A low grumble however, marked the inside laughter of his inner demon.

''...What's so funny?''

''What was all that about?''

''Not your concern. Your concern is me.''

''We will see about that human. Even if the Chalice holds your firm grip, it does not hold your sanity. I will be here for a long time, you know that..''

''Talking means you're done?'You haven't done a really good job..''

''It is sufficient.''

Emblem shook his head. Demonic efficiency, he should have known. Inspecting his body, he saw how Hellion had fixed his body. Ripped clothes were the least concerning, his chest attire completely destroyed. Yet whilst his flesh was mended, it didn't look really pretty. One would think he had been in a massive link of car crashes. Yet it had to do for now. As Emblem balled his fists, he gazed upward and walked to the nearest wall, ramming his hands in, creating hand and foot holds for him to use, and started to make his way upward again. On his own terms this time.

Grace floated her little ice egg into the air and flew away and met up with Scope. The two of them had made a tactical retreat. Now it was time to counter attack with the time that Ben was buying them.

Scope made a request for some new weapons. Grace looked at him through her ice egg. "Sure." The outer edge of the egg peeled off and transformed into 24 ice razor blades. Grace hoped that they were the right size and shape. She hadn't paid attention to the designs of Scope's weaponry.

That teleporter guy wasn't just fast, he was tough. Short of a super ice hammer, Grace wasn't sure if any of her attacks would hurt him. Wait, she had just been touching him, she could have simply frozen all the water inside his body. The fact that she had turned down such an obvious win frustrated Grace. She vowed not to make that same mistake again.

Separating her ice egg back into standard ice armor, Grace took a defensive position as she pondered a way to fight back against the teleporter.