Abysmal Souls Chapter 1: Soul Eater

[Zsword]

Zwool flinched at Scarlet's decision to heat at his wands. He chuckled a little at her tone. "I don't think you heard me..." he said as he gently lifted her up in his arms. She was to weak to really struggle it seemed. He gently took her by one of the trees that didn't have any snow around it from all the fire that was thrown around earlier, and also wasn't still smoldering, and carefully set her down against it. "Rest." He told her in a commanding, but still gentle tone before going back to his grim work of gathering up Spice's bits.

[CT075]

Strength was slowly returning to Ormis's body. Still aching, he rolled up and leaned against a tree, wincing.

"Goddammit..."

Scanning the ground, he located the soldier's saber. It took a sec, as his vision was fairly blurry, and it blended in with the snow fairly well. Crawling over (he still lacked the strength to walk), he lifted the sword wearily. It felt like it weighed a ton, but he somehow managed. Then he started looking for Scarlet. Once he found her, he started slowly dragging himself over to her, ready to turn her into so much rent flesh as Adrian.

[Kanami]

As the Anri lifted Carrion off her feet, the latter struggled as hard as she could, hitting the man and trying to burn him to ashes, but to no avail, he probably didn't even notice that she was struggling as she could barely keep her eyes open. "I'll kill you" she muttered to Zwool as she finally lost consciousness xD

Before she blacked out, she thought she saw someone approaching, but it had to be her imagination right?

[roymbrog]

Booze, yuck. If it would make him leave her alone though, she would get him some after. She slumped down ever farther in her corner and sighed. “So we have to stay here till morning, huh? Someone wake me when it’s time,” she mumbled, and pulled the cloak around her curled up form like a cocoon.

[Nanami Touko]

"Of course, Carrion, not Riya." Adrian obviously didn't believe the little fairy, but, for the sake of not getting hurt in the future by blurting out Riya's name, he'd decided to stick to Carrion. It would suck to get his body back, and just have it destroyed again, because of a slipping tongue.

"I take it she's not that competent at... whatever it is she does, when she blows people up? Yet, she still needs the energy... Problematic." He made a puzzled face, wondering to himself if there would be some way to solve that. There's got to be something... Wait, why should I care? She blew me up! I mean, she wasn't TRYING to, but she still did. "Oh, yeah. Ormis is the other boy down... there... Oh, shit." He had spied something that would probably ruin this whole situation, which was Ormis slowly crawling his way over to Carrion. Ormis, why must you be such an instinctual idiot?

The bird was busy picking the rest of Adrian up, and he hadn't noticed it, yet. "Uh, Faye" he said, nervously, as she finished talking, "That's a problem." He pointed to Ormis as he spoke. "It would really suck if he killed her, wouldn't it? Any way you can stop him? Unless I take corporeal form soon, or the bird notices what's going on, we may have a dilemma." He spoke with a calmer tone, since, getting riled up about it wouldn't help. Maybe Ormis will collapse from lack of energy, and he won't be able to. I mean, I doubt it, but I can hope.

Edited April 10, 2011 by seph1212

[ReformBlade]

Just assume them dead. Like Andy... What a great thought that was for Grant. The very reason he was where and who he was today...

He quickly blocked it out of his mind, visibly shaking his head to do so. To the others he might've looked cold due to it. "Will do." Grant replied to Susan, who seemed to have fallen asleep already. Grant figured he'd try and get some shut eye as well, so he closed his eyes and nodded his head, listening to nothing in particular.

[Kanami]

Greg was rather dismayed be Susan not promising to buy him some ale, and frowned as the girl curled up to sleep, asking to be woken up in the morning. He was going to try and keep the girl awake, after all, he'd get bored standing guard over two sleeping figures, he thought about it for a second before deciding against it, as much as he preferred to be talking to a lady then a man, it'd be all for nothing if Susan collapsed from fatigue during their escape.

He turned to Grant as Grant too opened his mouth to let out two words, words which indicated that he wouldn't be talking to the man either, Great, now he was going to have to watch over two sleeping bodies all throughout the night. "Ah well, suppose it's the least I can do for this young'uns." he sighed before taking a seat on a empty crate nearby, waiting for the sun to rise.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cocking her head to one side, Faye thought about it, "Not sure, always boom happen even when work, but Riya always fail so she failure" she said still upset that Carrion had refused to listen to her."Energy not for her though, energy for... umm" she cut herself uneasy, suddenly realizing that she was about to give away another of Carrions secrets. "herself!" she blurted out, changing the topic so as to not have Adrian dwell on the subject or inconsistency further.

Faye looked over at what Adrian was indicating and nearly toppled out of her tree "Stupid boy!" she yelled angrily, not being clear which boy she was referring to as she quickly turned around to face Adrian "Boy go stop boy or boy body not work and boy die" she said pointing frantically at Ormis and Adrian. "And Faye go boom too if dumb boy breaks book! Stop him!" she yelled demanding Adrian go do something about the situation.

[Nanami Touko]

"You're pretty bad at keeping those secrets, you know. I think I'll stop asking, or you might give them all away." Adrian was still watching Ormis, wondering what was going to be done about him, when Faye told him to do something. "Wait, me? How can I stop him? I have no body...?" Adrian had slowly begun to fall as he spoke to Faye, speeding up before he hit the ground with a loud thud. "Owww, what the hell?!" He said out loud, instead of thinking it. Wait a second. I'm on the ground. I'm back! He smiled, happier than he'd ever been, before realizing what he had to do. "Ormis, stop! I'm fine, really!" he shouted, getting up and running over to kick the saber out of his hand. Falling to the ground, he laughed a bit; it was nice to be able to actually breath once again. "Well... That's one fiasco averted." I just have to get ready to be bombarded with around 50 question as to what just happened. He looked back up at where he had been moments ago, still able to see Faye. Well, that's... odd, to say the least.

[CT075]

The boy in question had been slowly walking towards the witch, sword in hand. Any conscious thought had been replaced with dull anger, a result of the stress of the mission and Ormis' generally unstable state of mind.

At that moment, however, Adrian seemed to appear out of nowhere, kicking the saber out of his hand.

"What the-"

The mercenary blinked.

"What just... Where did- What the f-"

Ormis was bewildered.

"Where the hell did you just come from?"

((Dammit Trent))

Edited April 10, 2011 by Camtech075

[Nanami Touko]

Adrian wasn't surprised by Ormis's reaction, and bewilderment. "What's wrong, buddy? You look like you've seen a ghost. Let's just say that whatever Carrion did worked, and leave it at that, eh? I don't think even I could explain it, at this point." He expected the bird to turn around and freak out as well. He doubted anyone, other than Riya, wouldn't be surprised that he had suddenly shown back up. He noticed that Riya had fallen asleep, or blacked out. Either way, she wasn't awake. Maybe her mood would cheer up if she found out that she hadn't failed.

"So, Ormis, are we still planning to save them in the morning? Even though I just got back, I'm surprisingly tired. Carrion's already out, maybe we should sleep as well? You look like you're going to die, or something." He chuckled, cracking a joke like this after what had happened to him. Hopefully Ormis doesn't take this too harshly.

[Kanami]

Faye, fluttered down, placing herself atop of Adrians head, as she looked down at Ormis "Stupid stupid boy" she said accusingly, forgetting that the only person who could hear her at the moment was Adrian. "Boy is lots of trouble, boy not make same mistake again, kay?"

After pouting for a few seconds, she looked around, the snow had let up, but the cold didn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Tapping Adrians forehead with her heel she started to state the obvious "Should find shelter soon, boy and Riya freeze to death if not find somewhere warmer"

[CT075]

"Yeah, but..."

Ormis was confused beyond belief, but he had to admit that the prospect of a full night's sleep was tempting, even inviting.

"Uh... okay...? I don't... you just..."

The boy sighed.

"Oh well. Let's get some rest, then we'll go bust out the others."

[Nanami Touko]

"Uh... Faye, you know that they can't see you, right? All you're doing is making me look like I'm crazy, talking to myself." Adrian sighed, just deciding to tell Ormis what Faye was saying instead of arguing with her "Ormis, Faye wants you to not kill Carrion, or her book, alright? I'm attached to this book now, apparently, so, you'll probably kill me if you destroy it. I'd rather not die twice, hahaha." I'm going to sound like I'm insane, yay.

Adrian flinched a little as Faye's heel knocked into his forehead, making him give an annoyed look up at the fairy. She was right, though. "Ormis, we've gotta get you and R--" Whoa, too close, "...Carrion into some kind of shack, or something. It's still pretty cold outside, and without her setting something on fire, we're all going to freeze. D'you think you can walk?" He turned to the bird as well "And you'll have to help us. You can carry Carrion, right? If Ormis can't walk, I can help him. I don't trust what Carrion'll do if she wakes up on my back. She seems to be able to stand you, at least." He stood, stretched, and then reached a hand out for Ormis. "Oh, Faye, anything you can do to help?" If she was going to be around, he could at least ask if she really could do anything.

[CT075]

Ormis stooped to grab and sheathe his sword, then slowly followed Adrian out of the forest. He was still completely in the dark as to what the hell was going on, but he figured not to think about it.

If there's one thing I never understood, it was magic.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I can walk. Let's go find somewhere warm to put this witch so she doesn't freeze to death, then."

I swear to god, if this turns out to be some trick or hallucination, that girl is as good as dead.

[Kanami]

Timeskip~

Carrion snapped awake, she couldn't see properly as it was still dark, but her senses told her that she wasn't alone. The first thing she noticed was the cold, frankly it was a miracle that she'd survived in this cold for this long, thought that was probably thanks to her coat she'd wrapped around herself...... she frowned raising her hand to light a small flame, and as expected it wasn't hers, but someone elses. "Tch" she hissed before throwing the coat off herself.

With the newfound light, she looked around to find that there were three others crowded into the room, judging by the rusty axes and logs of rotten wood, it was some sort of shack used by a woodcutter, though it probably hadn't been used in a fair while now. Figuring that either they'd gotten lucky, or the Anri had proved himself useful.

Faye, wake up Carrions mind was blurry, but she didn't want to be around hostile people when she woke up. She didn't know why they'd bother to bring her along, but she doubted their intentions with her were anything short of violent. The little fairy however wouldn't show herself, either still upset, or simply still sleeping.

"Tch" turning to leave, she swerved dangerously as she was still tired and half asleep. Carefully avoiding making any noise, she rebalanced herself, and decided she'd sap a bit of energy before she left. The first person who caught her eye was Ormis, but judging from the amount she'd drained the day before, she doubted he could provide the amount she wanted, the Anri was out of the question, if he woke up during the draining she'd be torn to shreds, and Anri energy was tainted with magic anyway. So her option lied with the last of three members, she couldn't find the figure at first, but after looking over the small room twice found the boy nestled in a corner. For a second Carrion doubted her eyes, wandering if the events of last night had been a dream, but the blood on her clothes cleared that possibility.

Her lower lip trembled for a second, before quickly being replaced with a scowl.

So the boy hadn't died, though, if he's here that means I blew someone else up, or the binding worked.

Crouching over she glared at Adrian for a few second, he seemed alive enough. She poked him in the cheek once to check if he had a solid form, and while it lacked the warmth of a normal person, that was probably more the temperature then the properties of his new body. She started looking over the boy again, trying to discern whether there had been any mutations during the change.

[Nanami Touko]

The group had found a shack to sleep in for the night, thanks to the bird and his eyesight. Adrian had slumped into the corner, curling up as he tried to get as warm as possible, his cloak still with Susan.

What the... Let me sleep, dammit. As Riya poked Adrian, he shuffled a little bit, clearly discomforted by her touching him. He opened an eye to see what was bother him, blinking completely as he saw her looking down at him. "Uhhh... Hi?" He said, a little bit wary of her. She had blown him up earlier. "Could I... ask why you're poking me, Riy--" Oh, shit. Oh, shit. He shot a hand over his mouth, trying to slink further back into the corner than he already was, which in itself was a futile effort. Slowly pulling his hand away, he chuckled, obviously nervous. "I-I m-mean, C-C-Carrion, yeah! C-Could I ask why you're poking me?" I'm dead. Again. He glanced around, looking for Faye to maybe come and try to save him, but he couldn't see her anywhere. He shot his eyes towards the door, hoping he could dive for it if she started flinging fire.

Edited April 11, 2011 by seph1212

[Kanami]

Carrion jumped back as the eyelids she was staring at opened to reveal an eye. The small flame on the tip of her fingertip flaring up to blackening the roof of the shack. "You're alive" she stated monotonously, trying her best to not show any emotion. She though she heard her name, but there was no way the boy would know it, so she passed it off as her imagination, or a similar word. She closed in on the man the strength of the flame dying down a bit, though it was more then enough to badly injure someone. "Carrion?" she hissed as the man called her by her false name, "I don't recall telling you my name" she glared at the man holding the flame between them.

She didn't feel like telling him why she'd poked him, he'd probably just think she was trying to wake up him up anyway. The current issue was how the man knew her name, even if it was a false one. Having thought her real name to be mentioned only seconds before, she was highly suspicious of the man now, it was almost as if he knew her.

[Nanami Touko]

Why does the door have to be over there? Why can't it be right next to me? He wasn't too keen on having a fireball this close to his face, especially after what he'd gone through. He'd had enough pain to last a lifetime. "If you put away the fire ball, I'd be happy to explain, ha, haha!" He exclaimed, laughing nervously, his voice becoming a little louder. Maybe Ormis or the bird would wake up and grab her, since she wasn't letting that flame go. "It was Faye, alright? She kinda explained what had happened, and mentioned your name, Carrion, in the process." He was scratching the back of his head now, trying to form a little half smile. "I'd rather not get blown away again, so... please put the fire away? I promise I won't try anything. I kind of can't, anymore." He'd wondered where she put the book, but, his life was technically in her hands now.

[NagafenOfIlivikitty]

The door opened without hesitation, the person entering seemingly quite assured in the situation within. While it's hard to predict exactly what might happen when you enter a room, the woman who entered at this point in time, head lowered slightly and her armour of dull silver strained with mixtures of caked on brown and dark red, seemed to either not know what was happening. Or truly not care.

It was rare that for a moment, the woman, this particular woman was off guard among a room of strangers. For a moment. Yet with the raising of her head, dark red eyes blinking once or twice at the stance of a woman seemingly cornering a man into a corner, she can only stare for a moment, her face as well slightly scratched and bruised. She had seen combat this day but at present, her face goes suddenly from tired calm to a slightly raised anger, hefting a large, iron toned blade of unusual shape in total, it's tip held between the both of them and the blade moved between each of their heads, literally blocking view of one another’s gaze as the armoured woman stepped forward. Her nerves normally set in at this point, but today, seeing combat against opponents of no purpose other then joyless profit and.. And? What?

She pushed aside meandering thoughts and simply growled out a command. To both the man and the woman and her eyes quiet for a moment.

'Get up. Now.'

Edited April 11, 2011 by NagafenOfIvalice

[Kanami]

She looked at the man, and then at her hand, before scowling again, "Why would I waste the effort in killing you, all I need to do is will you to die and you're gone." That wasn't entirely true, but all she needed to do was rip a page out of the tome and the man would be dead.

She pulled the flame away from the man and closer to herself "You might not realize it since you're body's more resistant to the cold, but it's freezing in here" she brought the flame closer to her own body as if to emphasize that she was using it to keep herself warm.

She was contemplating the mans excuse, it made sense, Faye did have a knack for speaking too much, and the man knowing her as Carrion wasn't a big deal, though, she'd have to ask the purple midget what else she'd told him later.

But her train of though was what prevented her from sensing the woman enter the room, and by the time she had realized she was being held at bladepoint.

"Hmm unwelcome guest? Carrion questioned, obeying the womans command, she didn't quite understand why the woman was allowing them to stand up, they were much more vulnerable crouched on the ground, though perhaps she wanted to make sure she wasn't going to try anything. "Not this shacks owner by any chance?" she questioned again, not sure if she'd get an answer.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Kanami

[CT075]

Ormis awoke as soon as he heard the door open. He'd hardly heard Scarlet (Carrion) and Adrian talking, but someone approaching with a sword is the kind of thing that would wake any self-respecting mercenary immediately. The boy's hand was on his sword in a second, and he was standing in another. He was still feeling rather weak after that draining, but he was certainly battle-worthy.

"Up. Now."

It didn't seem like the newcomer had noticed Ormis yet, so he snuck around to the back of the room, blocking the entrance. Taking a fighting stance, he tensed his muscles, ready for a fight.

"Or what, you'll smash us with that sword of yours? Normally I'd be a little less unfriendly, but I'm in a pretty bad mood right now."

[Nanami Touko]

He sighed, his worry over when she moved the flame away, though, her line about 'willing him to die' was a tad frightening. She probably meant something to do with the book, but, he didn't know how it worked. Her comment on the cold had him surprised, though. "...Really? You're right, I can barely feel it..." He rubbed his hands together, feeling the warmth, and the touch, but the cold wasn't getting to him. Weird. It can't just be because I'm used to living here. Faye did say that this body was stronger, though. Adrian was about to try to fall asleep again, when a daunting figure stepped into the room, holding a massive blade too close to his head.

"Whoa!" He shouted, jumping up against the wall. He was surprised that this person was female, though. He'd never imagined that he'd see such a physically powerful woman. Even Riya had listened to her. Either the girl was tired, or she was intimidated, though she wasn't showing the latter. This new girl was quite beautiful, though, from what he could see of her face. He didn't have much want to stare, though, since her blade was more worrisome than herself. Adrian had seen Ormis sneaking over to the back, mentally smacking himself in the face. He's a good fighter, but he's not very smart. If this girl really did want us dead, then she would have done such when we were on the floor. Adrian gave a look at Ormis that seemed to say 'what are you doing', as he slumped himself back down on the floor.

[ReformBlade]

Early morning

Grant woke with a start, spasming for a second. He looked around the room, glad that Susan was still there, still sound asleep. It also looked like the sun was still down, but the sky was ever so slightly starting to light up. The clock is ticking, when are we gonna get out of here, I can't take all this waiting around! He made sure he still had his weapon, and thankfully it was still there in its sheath, hidden from outside view. Honestly, all he wanted nothing more than to just burst out of this 'cell' and go hunt down that witch, consequences be damned.

[Kanami]

Crap, the blood thirsty brat is awake was the first thing that came to mind, but Carrion quickly shook the idea away, glad that the boy had decided to challenge the woman, the split second that Obelia's attention was all Carrion needed, as she stepped out of reach of the sword, preparing herself to fight the newcomer, and perhaps Ormis as well if the need arose, worst case scenario she'd have to set the shack ablaze to make her escape.

By the reaction Obelia had made, she hadn't been expecting a third person to intervene, and somewhere in the darkness lurked an Anri which was probably the only thing in the room which hadn't tried to kill her as of yet. Though she did faintly recall threatening to kill the Anri, he didn't hold that against her.... right?

Her mind quickly ran through the options, fight or flight, a glance over at Ormis reminded her that the boy still probably would love to stick that blade in her throat, though she wasn't entirely sure if he'd go through with it now since she was still alive.

He'd have had plenty of chance to kill me while I was sleeping, the dead one can't harm me, and the Anri seems peaceful enough, making the woman with a blade my biggest concern.

Judging by the look on her face she wasn't at her best either, and the while the woman hadn't killed them when she had the chance, anyone that pointed their blade at her was a potential "cause of death."

Coming to the conclusion that she didn't need some dangerous woman with a hasty blade after her, she decided she'd stick around for a bit longer, killing the newcomer if she had to, but fleeing if things seemed to even slightly fall out of her favor.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Kanami

[NagafenOfIlivikitty]

The woman, whose name was indeed Obelia, seemed-

'Sit down, little guy. You’re walking on a wooden floor and trying to sneak behind me.'

Annoyed. Annoyed was... to say the least, the beginning of a command issuing with a firm announcement to them all with as much faux confidence as she could muster amid a room full of strangers of different genders, appearances, looks and… temperaments.

'Weapons. Now.'

Her hand moved, the left handed glove with the iron gauntlet holding out in a cupped motion, while her eyes remained focused first on the crimson haired one who seemed to think she was allowed to control the situation somewhat and the boy who appeared to be looking over her as if she was a pretty piece of meat. She may have been overanalysing things, yet at present, to care for her was a moot point.

'If you hand them over, then you may rest the night. And I may not kill you.'

She stood with as much energy she could muster, even with the redness in her eyes seeming dimmed and hazed.