rob'll see this in 2 years when he finally posts, lol

[Heaven's Enforcer]

"Do you really have to come with me?" Varimathras asked, his voice full of despair, not masking his disappointment when Din glared at him, a sign that he should not attempt to argue any further. But Varimathras knew that even if he didn't, she would.

"It's my tower, damn it. You're the one that doesn't need to come along!" she argued back, sounding as though she were the one that didn't want to be with him.

After hearing that, he gave a sigh similar to that of a tree trunk snapping during a vicious hurricane. Varimathras decided against arguing with her any further, even if it was a valid point. Such as the fact that the tower they spoke of was not named the Dinspire, as Din herself read the sign at first, but the Gemspear. Her fluency in the ancient language of the high elves was far from fluent at all.

After misreading the name of the tower, she decided to claim it as her own. Varimathras had wished that first night in the tower that Din and himself would be eaten by the spirits of her ancestors for intruding. Alas, that night the ghosts deemed living with her a more suitable punishment than dying with her.

The very center of the island of Icy Skull is where this tower lay, hidden amongst trees older than a millennium. The tower was in sight now; the red-brown vines like veins bursting with blood weaved around the smokey gray bricks of adamantine that were harder than steel and heavier than cast iron. As the couple rode hard on the road that tore through the ancient forest, trees thicker than ten men on either side, the ornate black marble around the teak wood doors, although gleaming rather weakly in the sunlight, was still able to look as if it were lit up by a nearby bonfire.

Above the marble crest, carved into the adamantine was lavish silver vunrae text, embellished with gold and precious gems. It read "Dinspire.". Giving a soft chuckle and pulling Din into a tight one-armed embrace, they walked.

As the doors swung open, Varimathras began to feel a change in the air that Din did not. His mind wandered back centuries to a certain man in that instant...

And as he stepped in, the ground vanished for a tenth of a second, causing Varimathras to stumble. Once more, Din had not noticed; she merely looked at him confusedly as to how someone so graceful would stumble so idiotically. It was probably because her ability to levitate would automatically activate in such situations that she herself did not. And once more, oddly enough, he thought of his old friend.

He looked around; it was the same old interior...but he refused to let go of Din until he was absolutely sure that he was merely being a complete tool.

Alright, maybe he was being a complete tool. Because what he saw now, sitting across from him, was his greatest fear in the world.

Rein Aeria.

And he was completely naked.

"Shiiiit..."

[Ihite Itsuya]

“So, it seems the time has come.”

The clanging of metal greaves could be heard echoing interminably through the shadowed hallways of Shadow’s Veil, followed by those words spoken in a voice so sinister that the echo dared not carry it. The ruler of Inscarem came to an abrupt halt at the hallway terminal. The man’s eyes scoured the ancient walls carved by his ancestors; the lavish silver and ebony ornamentation in particular pleasing his eyes.

“It is time once again to meet up with an old friend…” he spoke again, the vocal effects now carrying on in all directions, as there were four hallways linked to the terminal. “It has been a while, but I finally sense his presence once again.”

With that, the silver-haired demon lord raised his arm up and clenched his fingers into a fist, his cape rippling violently from the sheer shock of each powerful movement. Rein Aeria, the king of Inscarem, closed his eyes and stepped into the center of the hallway nexus, the ground beneath him beginning to shine brilliantly as an elaborate array of twisting and turning designs began to distinguish themselves from the remaining areas of the ashen slabs beneath his feet. A howl of sinister laughter broke free from his chest as the luminance swallowed him, leaving naught but a swelling shadow projected on the ceiling above, which itself faded away along with the presence of the figure that cast it.

“Here I come, my old friend. Don’t disappear on me again, now…Varimathras!”

[Heaven's Enforcer]

As the colossal delusion of Rein Aeria cackled violently, it rose from its seat. Its fingertips elongated to at least three times the length and began to waver unstably. Din screamed and nocked an arrow.

Varimathras had not seen the bizarre tentaclization of his fingertips; his vision was set on Dunkar, on the day him and his greatest ally, as well as the possibility of his greatest enemy, met. In fact, that's what Din's vision was set on, too, because as Varimathras's mind traveled back to that day, so did the bottom floor of the Dinspire. The walls were pushed back further than the human eye could see; the ceiling was raised to heights greater than his eye could see. The great houses of Kragheim shot out of the ground miles away, and other massive structures and statues could be seen sprouting aboveground.

As Varimathras saw what was happening, he whispered to himself, "Oh no..."

Din looked at him, stricken with awe at what had just taken place around them.

"Where are we?" she asked, her voice softer than she intended.

"Kragheim. I only know the date in vunrae, and you don't know that much yet. This is where I met Rein. And that must mean..."

The whistle of a blade cutting through the air at rapid speeds broke the speech. The black elf pushed Din out of the way and put up a wall of chitin in one blinding movement. The bony, hooked spikes that were a hook horror's hands met the wall full-force; its attack was completely absorbed.

With its head, beak and talons similar to that of a half-decomposed crow, protective armor like a tortoise, and of course its own hooks for hands, this was one of the most terrible creatures that Dunkar had to offer.

The chitin liquefied and swept itself inside the cracks of the hook horror's bone armor, and began to squeeze the life from the creature. it died in five seconds.

"Well, I wasn't expecting a clacker. I was expecting Rein. But whatever, let's get moving."

Din nodded, and clung to Varimathras, fear taking her senses away.

[Ihite Itsuya]

Limbo: a world where coherence is a scarcity seldom witnessed. A twisted dimension in which unwitting travelers fail to sense the danger until salvation is naught but a fruitless entreaty. A tangible reverie where the landmark you passed an hour ago could be coming up around the next turn. In such an undefined reality, one does not have the wit and forbearance to overcome the deceit of the jesters in the sky to which their lives become mere trinkets. No man in his right mind would set foot inside such a place knowing what devilry awaited him within. Well…Itsuya Dayrose thought otherwise.

The white-haired youth was perched up on his own personal acropolis. His youthful cerulean eyes scanned the surroundings, which were thus far stable. The landscape was carved out like a field of colossal stone teeth, each one draped with various natural accents such as moss or flora. Seemingly bottomless rivers cut through the space at the foot of each stone spire and divided the entire series of valleys into a waterlogged labyrinth. Although it was nearly silent, it was apparent that the white-haired boy had not come alone.

“I-Itsuuuu!” called a mewling voice from behind.

Itsuya turned around with a half-grin and knelt down at the edge of the cliff, staring down at two hands sporting a pair of oversized viridian gloves. It was apparent that they were struggling to hold onto a jutting rock on the summit, as a torrent of incessant grunting could be heard coming from beneath. The Dayrose boy snickered and spun around to return to his previous position.

“You’re mean!” the voice called again. As Itsuya turned to face it again, a blurry figured launched up into the air above where his follower had been a moment ago. It was the body of a young boy, and due to the laws of gravity, it plummeted rear-end first onto the rocky surface with a grunt.

“Sorry, Oki. I offered to carry you up in the first place, but you said you could handle it,” Itsuya chuckled.

“I’m only nine! You shouldn’t be listening to me!” the younger boy piped in reply.

“Oh calm down,” Itsu shrugged. “I respect what people say, no matter their age.”

The boy fumbled for words as he climbed to his feet, but couldn’t think of a witty response. He was rather tall for his age, standing at just over 5’0”, and his voice made him sound Itsuya’s age. On top of his head rested a feather-stuck Tyrolean hat the shade of healthy grass. Tousled locks of neon green hair protruded sharply from beneath the hat, obscuring the pair of gleaming orange eyes that looked out eagerly from beneath. A velvety jade scarf cocooned his neck, twining numerous times around itself and concealing everything up to his eyes. He donned a crimson tunic sheathed in a cloak of green. A pair of deep red slacks sheltered his legs, and moccasin boots of the same shade loosely contained his feet. A leaf-green sash blanketed everything above his knees.

“Gee-whiz! Look at all those spires,” Oki exclaimed, waltzing over to the cliff’s edge and looking downward.

Itsu smiled at the boy’s excitement and put an arm on his shoulder, “We’ve gotta make it all the way to the horizon out there. You up for it?”

Oki looked up at him and nodded, “I’ll race ya!” And with that, they kicked off towards the sunset.

OoC: Mm, romantic.

[Heaven's Enforcer]

Interesting.

Kragheim stood before him.

Untouched.

With vunrae everywhere.

The blood in Varimathras's body was churning inside of him so quickly that his veins almost burned through his skin before he regained his visage of sanity.

But he could still feel the irate for this disgusting spit of hell. And he wanted to level it piece by piece, to savor every brain that would explode from inside these vile effigies of sentient beings, to snap every single bone, and make them bleed from every single pore, to decorate the entire abominable city, every single spider-topped building, with the virulent sanguine that both fuels and feeds those disgusting creatures, to-

"Vari!"

He ruefully tore away from his lovely little daydream, unable to resist that velvety voice, and looked down to his beloved Din, with worry plainly struck across her face. Odd, for her to worry over him staring blankly for a couple seconds. Normally she'd leave him to his thoughts in such instances...

"Your eyes...They were blazing silver..."

And? They aren't now, are they? So what's the problem? Varimathras started fuming. He sneered, but only for a second. Din flinched back.

"And you were drooling..."

----------
"Where have you led our poor little band to now, Shax?" Hawkeyes groaned after mumbling further complaints.

"Shut up...This was the Dinspire place. We needed to see Varimathras Valin right? Well that god guy told us to meet him there. And I got you there."

"This," Selene yelled aloud, beckoning to the black earth around her, the caves and crooks and crevices and the ceiling unbearably high above her head. "Is not a tower you pissant err!"

"But, he didn't...umm...mean to bring us here, Selene. He thought it...was...umm...the right way, and..." Witch spoke off softly, not connecting eyes with the more outlandish female of the party.

"Take his side, all of you! Honestly, he's forsook us all and now we're dead! We won't ever find the exit to this godawful cave! We're going to die, because of this half-blood mutt!"

Shax laughed at the newest insult. "You're a half-blood mutt too, stupid bitch."

"Do you want me to skewer you? Hawkeye inquired grimly. "Steel skin won't protect you from a diamond lance..."

If there was one thing that annoyed Finger at all it was his companions, for they would bicker amongst themselves like unsupervised children even amidst danger.

"If anyone's skewering any of you, it's going to be that thing," he stated. A giant bird-turtle hybrid was barreling toward them at insane momentum, hooked claws pumping forward and backward menacingly.
----------

"I was kind of scared, Varimathras...You looked like you were starving to death."

Varimathras pulled his love close, nuzzling the top of her head while muttering his apologies.

"I had no idea what I was doing, actually. But I felt true hatred toward you in that moment. We should leave this place, now."

Din shuddered as his body tore away from her, striding now in the direction opposite of Kragheim.

"Hmm...How do we do that, I wonder?"

[Ihite Itsuya]

Tangible swirling darkness, pretty and not sinister at all, emerged from the even darker depths of a chasm within the innards of Dunkar. Long silver hair swished out from the nexus of the shadowy coagulation, followed by a slender face dominated by a pompous grin. The grotesque laugh of Rein Aeria bellowed out into the cavern city before him as he lowered himself to the ground.

His body was adorned with a beautifully carved chest plate of black alloy outlined with gold. The armor was arrayed with a gratuitous amount of slit-like apertures that gave it the appearance of scale mail. Large shoulder guards of the same appearance rested on his shoulders, being the limits of his protection, leaving his powerful arms open to the chilling breeze of the cavern city. On his right hand was a silver-plated gauntlet with several inflexible katana-shaped tails sprouting from the dorsal side of his wrist, some following the entire length of his arm, and some stopping short at his forearm or elbow. They each ended at razor-sharp points where vortices of dark energy danced ominously with fleeting streaks of jet-black electricity. Around his waist was a gold-plated belt with seven octagonal star-shaped plates of black alloy arranged around the circumference. This gave rise to a pair of full-leg greaves and, finally, two jet-black boots of regal appearance.

“It is time for what was cut short to begin anew,” the lord of Inscarem uttered, his fingers running menacingly over the hilt of Boraku, his blade, which rested securely in its beauteous scabbard. The sheath was fastened to one of the octagonal plates on his belt; the dark aura of the blade within seeped out and veiled the golden ornamentation on the skin of its residence.

* * *

“Well whaddaya know…”

Itsuya stopped short, bracing his foot against the edge of the cliff in front of him and levitating the rest of his body over the fissure below.

“What is it?” his little partner inquired, stopping himself in a similar manner, but noticeably less stable.

“It looks like I’ll finally be able to settle my score with my father’s lifelong foe,” the white-haired boy nearly laughed, his fists tightening up. “To think he would show up here…he must know I’m coming! He must be waiting for me!”

Oki stared blankly at him, observing the maniacal grin on his face and his fingers, which were twitching in a manner reminiscent of strangling a man. It was going to be one hell of a trip; that was for sure.

[Heaven's Enforcer]

"This fuckin' place is annoying," breathed Finger the druid as Dusty Moon's personal power wrapped around the neck of one of the vunrae, promptly killing him with a flex.

"Chill out," grinned back his half-druid companion Shackles as his icebound fingers ripped through a different vunrae.

Surrounded in every way possible by the black elves of Kragheim, the two fought off the army of whatever vunrae house they stumbled into. Sometimes they fought in absolute darkness, and Shackles had to rely on Finger's command due to his lack of ability to use the infrared spectrum.

When the last of the vunrae of the current hallway was killed, the pair rushed into the next room without so much as a pause.

===

It wasn't too hard to 'liberate' the house. Now sitting in the matron mother's throne was Geron Shackles. His wolfish grin told all remaining vunrae to back off lest they want to be frozen into eternity as their matron mother was.

Finger sighed at his childish companion, and turned to the barred window further away from him.

Peeking out, he saw a mass of black on the ground below.

"Too dark to see anyth-WOOAH..." He broke from his mumblings into a shout and stumbled backwards, feeling his head hit the cold obsidian floor. He heard the roaring laughter of Shackles which played over a far greater rumbling below, but began looking around for him too soon; Shackles slammed into the druid, sending them both flying directly through the wall and out of the great fortress.

Finger landed rather painfully but instantly snapped back into action as soon as he did so, shaking off any protest his body may have given.

Shackles was in his wolf form, and sprinting away...as were the thousand vunrae surrounding them. For a second he gawked at the sight, but only for a second, then spun around to see the vunrae tower tumbling down, about to hit him full force.

He gawked for another second before spinning around and sprinting across the ground so hard he thought his feet were going to flatten, screaming profanities at his werewolf companion as he went.

However, he could not outrun the adamantite horror looming overhead, and had no choice but to send it back the other way.

Spinning on his heel and ripping Dusty Moon and Abyss out of their feylahk, he called up their personal power. He then continued to shape it into a wall of force as steep as the tower, and threw it full-forcedly into it.

It met the wall, but the wall did not stop there; it forced backwards so abruptly that it slammed down onto the opposite side.

Releasing an exasperated sigh, he turned slowly, to meet the horrified stares of a thousand black elves.

All was still, save one roaring laugh in the background.

===

"Hahahaha, it was terribly easy. You see, my companion and I are druids...well, I'm only half druid, but I can still easily kick his ass..." Shackles retold the story for the third time. Although both of them thought it odd that the telling of their brethren being slaughtered to bits and such a great structure being destroyed actually excited them, they'd rather not question the hierarchy of these people.

Now being worshiped as harbingers of Lloth the spider goddess, the two were in the care of the most powerful house in all of Kragheim, House Valin. They'd sleep there, and when they woke they would be taken to some priestess of Lloth to get marked, or something...but they would be long gone before that.