Chronicles of Gaia (RP)

The brown-haired male turned his attention to Kudret when he started speaking, taking in the words and vaguely smiling. "I have a few friends who are quite a lot like that myself", he paused a moment before speaking again. "That's good to know. My name is Castor, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance", he responded calmly, adjusting his glasses as he looked back to Seyr. "Seems like she can't even hear us right now. Please, do excuse me for this..." Taking a step towards the kitsune while slowly raising his hand, he soon brought it down on her head with a considerable force. That would probably snap her out of it; it usually did the trick for Frau at least. "Now, I do suppose you may be wondering why a complete stranger would suddenly approach you all. I came here with a warning...and at the same time, a plea for help", Castor decided not to waste any time by dancing around the subject of his sudden appearance, though he'd wait until he was certain that the Kitsune had snapped out of her rage properly before explaining further. Rikazu let himself drop onto the ground not too far from Mizuki, his legs barely able to carry his weight at this point. "You could say that", he spoke wearily. Mizuki cocked her head to a side. "Training? That's what you and Rockna were doing?" she asked. "But...why? You're so powerful already...and I felt you Trance, why..?" Rikazu shook his head. "This is nothing compared to the power I had in our world, kiddo. As for why...your sister wanted to see how much my power increases when I enter Trance, and she figured it'd be best to do so while I was already tired." "Because you... can't control it?" Mizuki asked carefully, earning her a surprised look from the older male. "It's nothing for you to worry about." "But it's true...?" Mizuki's gaze shifted between Aislin and Rikazu for a moment, before pulling her knees closer to her face. She wanted to know more, yet she was afraid to ask. If he truly had Tranced that time, then... "Rockna's training session was to try and help me get some control over my Trance back. She must've knocked me out of it at least...six times, if I kept track properly", Rikazu stifled a yawn. "Listen, it's been a long day, it's probably best if all of us get some well deserved rest, alright?" "F...rau..." Iliya's voice was weak as she uttered his name, somehow feeling like the male Ghost was closeby, though she had no energy to move or even open her eyes anymore. Seth narrowed his eyes at the girl. "Your friends aren't here, little Ghost." Despite saying so, the dark-haired male was well aware of Frau's presence in Linareth, and had added several layers of illusion magic to his current cloaking spell to ensure he wouldn't be able to locate Iliya. And yet...it would be interesting to check out this 'friend' of the captive girl. "Stay here, Iliya", he told her, though then gave her a more amused look. "Though it's not like you'll be able to go anywhere anyway." Another illusion knocked the girl out immediately and Seth left the room, placing several more illusions on the room before walking away. It was time to see what this hotheaded friend of hers was really like; it could prove useful to him. Labrador nodded. "I'll ensure he won't try to eat it; it's too important for that." Iliya was never going to trust Toré if not for that flower. At Lorica's request, he thought for a moment. "Bandits, hmm? It would be easiest to send Frau there, of us three he's clearly the most capable fighter, especially in this world, but..." he let out a sigh. "I doubt we can get his focus off Iliya right now, so I will discuss this with Castor when we meet again. I assume that there'll be time before this person arrives?"

Seyr felt two sharp pains that distracted her from the seething rage she held, one on her head, and the other through her tongue, the impact with her cranium had caused her to bite her own tongue, to avoid making a fool of herself by attempting to talk, she merely scowled at the 'intruder', her irritation now aimed at him rather than the KO'd redhead behind her feet, even if her Mana Reserves weren't already critically low, she'd be incapable of casting magic thanks to the silencing she'd inflicted on herself, and the blood welling up in her mouth made it relevant to keep her silence. The sound of the Spearhead jamming against a loose spot in the welds had been quietly escaping the room the Goat was in, and now he finally had the sweet spot where the spearhead wouldn't slip out after Leverage was applied, "Now then, time to see if I can get this junk off of my soul..." small grunts and heavy breathing came from him as the Locket was slowly pried apart, "Damn, whoever sealed this really didn't want it opened again... too bad, it's being opened." creaking, and eventually the breaking of the hinge yielded his prize, his own soul, which floated upwards and expanded slowly for a moment, as if deeply inhaling after it's long confinement before quickly slipping down back in front of his chest, "Now then..." he seated himself more comfortably, "The layout is different to a degree, however... where would Judgement Hall be located around here, the Megalomaniac is no doubt headed in that direction..." "In theory there should be time, about three months if I've got the timing down, however... best to get it done asap, my knowledge and spreading of that knowledge might change the timing of it just so I'm wro-" Lorica's head turned, eyes narrowed, "Times up, now is as good a time as any to get talking to him, I have pest control to do, if Rowan decides he wants to come with, let him, Teradach forbid they'll all find out sooner or later anyway, lessening the impact would be a good thing." several key markers wrapped around her form glowed as she left the room, moving directly to the entrance of the underground chamber, the second it showed up, she'd be ready to Shortcut it somewhere more fitting for the fight ahead.

Kudret responded, "It is a pleasure to meet you as well Castor." He watched as impassively as he could when Castor smacked Seyr, but that did indeed seem to do the trick, or at least turned her attention to him. Kudret inspected her for a moment after Castor's plea, and then realized what had happened. He turned to him and commented, "It seems that worked. We're all listening now." He did wonder what exactly would drive someone to approach a group like this, though.

Castor's stance shifted slightly, unimpressed by Seyr's scowling at him and just looked at her with an apologetic smile. "That's fine, direct your rage at me instead, as long as you're listening to what I have to say", he mentioned calmly before directing his attention to Kudret. "Glad to hear that." The brown-haired male put a hand to his chin. If Lab's information was correct, then most of the people in this group didn't have a clue about what would transpire not too long from now. Being honest would be the way to go about it; it was all he could do, after all. He'd just have to trust that they would believe him. "There is a man targeting your group, an illusionist with an extremely dark and sadistic nature. He seems to have some unfinished business with the two blue-haired mages in your group...though you should probably ask the eldest of the two for more information on him, he'll know more", Castor started explaining, but then clenched his fist. "That man...he's taken someone very dear to me captive, a girl named Iliya. He's been abusing her, and she'll be forced to fight against you all against her will. Please...even though she'll most likely see you as her enemies, will you try and get her out of the mess she's in? At my current strength, I am unable to save her." "Castor and I will take care of it", Labrador had responded to Lorica. The purple-haired male rose from his seat, moving away from the room he'd been in to find Toré. Even though he'd intended to speak to the male goat alone, he wouldn't really mind it if Rowan decided to tag along. Blowing into his hand, a large amount of flower petals appeared in front of him, showing the path to where Toré would be. Not long after Rikazu's suggestion to get some rest, Mizuki had dozed off. The girl once again struggled in her sleep, memories repeating itself in her dreams. Rikazu watched her silently, his worry keeping him awake, increasing further when he saw sparks of magic coming off her body. 'So...she still doesn't handle being away from Kuja well...' he thought to himself before gently pulling the girl closer to him, the action calming her slightly. He'd been feeling increasingly protective of her, knowing Seth was lurking around. The night passed, and Mizuki woke up early in the morning, confusion hitting her as she felt the heavy weight of an arm on her shoulder. Why was there...? "Rikazu...?" The male was still sitting in the same position he had been last night, though he had clearly fallen asleep. How had she ended up leaning against him while sleeping? Had he...? She was so confused, and sitting with him like this felt terribly awkward. "Rikazu?" she repeated, this time speaking a bit louder. Hopefully the male would wake up soon.

Kudret's eyes widened in alarm. Was this what had Kuja and Rikazu so antsy about just before they split up? Hopefully Kuja didn't learn of this visit anytime soon; he wouldn't be pleased to learn the man after the other mages held a captive. Kudret then belatedly realized that Castor was waiting for an answer, and said, "We had our suspicions about something being wrong due to what happened during our stay in Linareth. I hadn't known it had only gotten worse..." he trailed off, and then shook his head. "We will do our best, Castor. He has yet to attack us personally, but I believe it is only a matter of what he is waiting for." The beastman's eyes darkened slightly when he added, "I am certain we will have recovered from our own fights once that happens." Aislin had indeed fallen asleep, ending up curled near Ricardo. The skeleton had apparently fallen asleep as well, since she didn't hear any music upon waking up. Aislin looked around for a bit, now spotting the two mages and grinning in delight. It seemed as though they were really making progress on the 'have Mizuki and Rikazu get along' front. For now... she carefully crawled over and whispered, "Morning," while sitting just within arm's reach. "Ready to get some answers, Mizuki?" Aislin really wanted this to be done before they got to the farm proper. Hmm... perhaps she should go find Rockna? It was unlikely that the Summon would ask not to tell Mizuki about what happened that day, after all. Especially if she tells her that this could be the breakthrough they needed to get Mizuki to let go of her hatred for the blue-haired male.

The snow beneath them turned red as the Kitsune spat the blood in her mouth to the ground, "That explains the snoobim brip-" every few words was punctuated by her spitting to the ground to clear her mouth, "back in Libareff, ber reboofal frob fa inebibal fife wome be bab bifficool." by now along with the snow being stained crimson, it had started to dribble down her fur, she would have been embarrassed by this, but Seyr was still too annoyed at everything to care that much, "Bub, before I gam fame you ferioufly, wofsh ba barfsh you're mof fellim uf?" "I see, honestly I can't fault your distrust, just point in the direction they were last spotted being taken to." a hand through the Window panes pointed in a single direction, and Bora's left eye swivelled to look there, "I see, we'll be leaving now, expect their return in no more than a day." the hand changed to a rather rude gesture at the Saiyan, but... he was used to this a little too much, his back turned to the home as he rounded on Kuja, "Now then, we'll fetch the woman, and then go get these people, you go off on your own and you'll get ya backside destroyed before you even get to land a hit, stick. to. the. orders. Kazoo." He knew Kuja wouldn't listen and instantly disobey the second the opportunity presented itself, but he'd let this one slide... for now, better to learn the hard way than not at all. "And there you are..." the Red... Thing had started to slink into the Cavern, and was immediately by a snake-like tendril, binding it in place while the Shortcut took place, another Cavern materialised, looking exactly like a 'Hall' of sorts, "You know what this place is, so let's just cut to the chase." Toré shuddered with a start, the Deja Vú was real, *I'll wait, see if they can handle it, though I doubt it... That soul feels like it has less than zero experience dealing with a constantly evolving enemy.* not to mention how some of the stuff in this room... felt far too familiar for his liking, aged, real old, but familiar none-the-less, his hands ran along a wardrobe, debating whether he should do any detective work or not.

Despite Seyr's manner of speaking, Castor could understand the Kitsune perfectly fine and nodded at hers and Kudret's words. "Yes, from what Labrador told me he has indeed been 'snooping' as you call it, as well as trying to find out your weak spots." He then adjusted his glasses once more. "It will only continue to get worse, I'm afraid. Right now, he's probably still perfecting his plan, but I can guarantee you it won't be long before he attacks; he'll want to do so before your group gains more power." He glanced away for a moment at Seyr's question. What he wasn't telling them, eh...? "Just...don't underestimate him. He took Iliya for no other reason than as a simple 'toy', he's skilled enough to fight on par with your full group on his own. Though...it's best you know what she's capable of", his glance shifted back to Seyr at this. "She's a kid who absolutely detests fighting, her pacifism is extreme even for a Bishop...and yet that man...is about to break her spirit so far that she'll obey his orders just to escape the pain. Her defensive magic is absolutely impenetrable when she wants it to be, while her main offensive weapon is a scythe. She's also capable of manipulating souls, emotions in particular, as well as plants...that includes plants capable of draining your mana completely." He was well aware how important the latter part would be to the Kitsune. Mizuki was relieved to see that she wasn't the only one awake anymore, though Rikazu still didn't seem to budge. "Good morning", she responded, speaking somewhat quietly herself, though her gaze had soon directed itself to the ground at Aislin's question. "You...want to ask him about what happened that day? But...he won't give us an answer anyway, I'm sure..." He never did give her a straight answer whenever she asked him a question. Though really, part of her was also afraid to learn the truth. If he truly had lost control that day, then...she never truly had a reason to hate him to begin with. And on the other hand, if he hadn't lost control...could she still bring herself to stop hating him? "I also don't understand...w-why he keeps being so...protective of me, I want to know that, too..." While the ones inside the tent were slowly but surely waking up, Rockna had been on guard duty all night, and had eventually been joined by Carbuncle. The smaller Eidolon had already informed her of the conversation between Aislin and Mizuki. Perhaps it was time for the blue-haired girl to learn of what happened that day; though Rikazu would have to be the one to tell her that. Getting to her feet and stretching, Rockna soon walked into the tent, having to stifle a chuckle at the sight of Rikazu and Mizuki sitting together. "Morning." Labrador followed the path of flower petals, eventually finding the room that the male goat was in. He walked in quietly, his steps soon leading him to the wardrobe, silently staring at it for some time and standing not too far from Toré. "I can see why this would've caught your interest", he said eventually. "...I do apologize for the intrusion, but would it be possible for me to have a word with you?" Kuja was truly getting tired of the Saiyan barking orders at him, though for the time being he continued to follow Bora, knowing that it would be the easiest way to get his confrontation with the annoying jester. Although he intensely glared at the Saiyan at first, he soon just shook his head. "Very well, let's move then." In Linareth, Frau had meanwhile asked just about anyone if they'd seen Iliya, going to great lengths to describe her looks and personality, yet nobody had seen her. It was odd; surely someone had to have seen her? She had to be in the port town right now, he was sure of it. It hadn't taken long for Seth to locate the male Ghost, and the dark-haired male was greatly amused by Frau's struggles to locate the girl currently asleep at the inn. There was no way he'd manage to find Iliya, his illusion magic would make sure of it.

Toré made an odd movement, as if he had jumped out of skin from the words, his head did turn towards the 'intruder' ever so slightly before he made any more movements, *No Negative intents in the Soul, just pure desperation and nothing else, calm desperation, but still... shouldn't be my main concern right now.* he was distracted by something, he'd be keeping a close 'eye' on the soul going through hell and back at that moment, but for now... "I got nothing better to do for the time being, I don't see why not I guess?" he parked himself back on the chair, an eye slightly twisted to the side in another direction but wholly focused on this person needing a 'word' with him, a very slight change from the Timeline prior, enough to set a few much larger ones in motion however. "Oh fa fiffs safe, ome momem." The Kitsune did not like having to use Magic when she was already so critically on Mana, but neither did she appreciate speaking like someone about to go full Drunken Paralysis, the curing magic did not close the wound in her tongue fully, but the bleeding had stopped at least, "Plants require Roots and connections to the Earth, keeping her off of the ground and severed from that connection is not something too difficult in the grand scheme of things, but, I'll bear this all in mind, I am assuming someone else will be in charge of keeping her away from the tool long-term, because any of us here to do that long-term is a mistake waiting to happen, I'll deal with the initial separation sure, if I have to, I'll take care of the moron myself." she turned on her heel giving one last weak kick to the unconscious Saiyan below, "We'd best be moving on from here, spent too much time screwing around with a leader that's trying not die." Tracking down Laura and extracting her from where she was hadn't taken very long, neither had tracking down this... "Lovely, it's one of these places, Kazoo, go cause a distraction somewhere in the opposite direction of our quarry, Lu, go searching for the Villagers, remove them by any means necessary Alive I'll handle the production line." and Bora abandoned his charges, the thick-set entryway simply blasted apart without a care in the world.

Kudret just nodded silently, filing away both what Castor said and what Seyr had said into his memories. He'd have to parse the information later, right now they were going to be walking again. Kudret with some effort managed to lift the half-Saiyan into a fireman's carry, face near his own. The beastman chose this way mostly to make sure he could see that she was still breathing while they walked. That done, he waited a bit to see if Seyr actually knew a direction to walk towards for shelter. ...Was Castor going to accompany them, or would that be too risky for him? Aislin looked up to see Rockna entering on her own; well, that was easy. "Morning," she greeted back, "I still have some questions about Summons, but I think I'll save them for later." She turned her gaze to Rikazu once again and... seriously? He was peeking at the exact second she looked at him. They were making this entirely too easy for her chaos-loving side. Aislin was unable to help grinning almost viciously while she sing-songed, "Oh Rikazu... stop pretending~" Really, if anything was logical she should be the one pretending she's alright whle having a meltdown. Then again, she definitely wasn't your average girl anymore. "Seriously though, we do have a couple questions for you to answer Rikazu. If you don't mind."

Laura's fun was interrupted and brought to an abrupt end with the reappearance of Bora and the others. She mentally pouted about this for a moment before accepting the change. She'd decided not to pick anymore fights in this state anyway, and Bora seemed pretty serious. Which was pretty standard affairs really. Before the Door keeper could do more than exclaim at Bora's sudden demolishment of his charge, Laura weaved her body around his, placing her whispering lips an inch from his ear. "Sleep." She commanded, attempting magic once again. To her delight, the man's eyes drooped and in a moment he was asleep on the ground. The siren couldn't help but feel slightly put off however. Her magic had felt... different. As if she'd just put him into a relaxing, restorative sleep rather than directly controlling him. She'd have to look into it later. "Where are we removing these villagers too?" She inquired toward Bora, glancing inward at the crowd of frightened Villagers inside the safe house.

---

Rowan followed silently behind Labrador, fiddling with the string of his bow. He watched Tore's reaction to Labrador's arrival closely. Definitely seemed on edge about something, and Rowan didn't have too far to guess about what. He raised a hand in greeting to let the Goat-monster know the angel was there, then sat down nearby. Still within range to hear and talk, but with the intention of letting Labrador talk with Tore first. Hopefully he'd still get his chance afterward.