Infiltrate the Temple (job w/ Mythal)

As soon as Wren left the lab from testing the ingredients with the other members there, she had gone to change her clothes and quickly zipped around her broom in some brown baggy shorts and a long sleeved green and white turtleneck shirt. It so happened as she was leaving the lab, she had also happened to hear that the page she had found in the journal at the cultists hut was decoded. Apparently there was something about the location of where the cult is from and where to get in on the page. Wren had the paper of the deciphered page in one hand, and a steamed bun in the other for her to munch on. She should find General Ragnos and let him know about this. Definitely. Nanny was chilling at the front of her broom again as Wren zipped around the headquarters.

The little redhead pushed her glasses up further on her nose as she brings her broom down to the ground. She didn’t want to be crashing into things down the hall. It was typically outside that she risked that. Quickly, the witch stuffed her face with the bun, slightly regretting it as the bun was still rather warm, and made her way towards the door to the generals office with her broom now in her hand instead of the delicious food. She knocked on it a little before she opened the door a crack and peered her head in, letting her brown eyes wander around for a moment. “Hey General Ragnos. Got a copy of the test results for you.” She says before she slips in, Nanny right at her feet. She then held up the deciphered paper too. “Also got this present for you too! The deciphered page! Woo! Looks like the next stop may be going to the ‘Spooky Forest’.” She giggles as she hands the page to him.

Nanny mewed to her witch, and Wren knelt down to pick up her black cat in her arms. “Have you been to the Spooky Forest before? I’m still learning places around here.” She pouts to him before shaking her head. The short girl takes a deep breath. Part of her wondered if she would be able to join Mythal or not on continuing this investigation. She had fun before. Maybe she could be of more use again! She could probably also attempt to patch things up with Lux… maybe. She knew she was a turd to him before, but he had started it with trying to talk down to her like she was a child. No way was the little witch going to let someone talk to her like she was a kid who didn’t know anything. She just didn’t know about this Earthland. It wasn’t her Sailkia. Her mind had started going back towards the herbs she found at the hut. Of course, with Wren being Wren, she was quietly hoping even more herbs would be at this other hideout these cultists were in. She stopped as she raised an eyebrow while tilting her head slightly. “Have you found out a name for these guys? Like the cultists group name? Or were they quiet about it before? I don’t think I saw a name when I read that journal.”

“I’m just saying; it’s worth a shot.”
Lux was pacing before Mythal’s desk, his thoughts spilling out of his mouth to the Darkness King without pause. The Rune Knight general was busy working on several different documents, scratching out the last details on several different reports. Unfortunately for him, it was still early in the day and that meant there was plenty more documentation that was required to be reviewed and filed. One of the things that Mythal had been seriously considering was getting an assistant. He abhorred the idea of having a person in his business all day but, at the same time, he was pretty sure he despised paperwork more than he did people.

“Give you control of my body for a whole minute? Yeah, I’m just salivatin’ at the idea…” the Darkness King chimed in quickly to cut down Lux’s suggestion.

“Come on, man. What’s the worst I could do with a whole minute?” the Lightbringer asked feigning innocence. Mythal saw through it instantly, glancing up to shoot the Seal a look of derision. After a moment, Lux snorted and chuckled. “Alright, I could do a lot in a minute. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give me the chance any less.”

Mythal would have answered were it not for the quick knock on his door. “Come in,” he called out to the source, turning his gaze away from the Lightbringer and towards the creaking entryway. The face of the young Rune Knight Wren poked in, greeting him and offering the paper of his test results. Mythal had put Wren in charge of experimenting with the herbs they had discovered at the cabin, trusting in the young Knight’s understanding of alchemy enough to give him the charge. It seemed his trust had been rewarded. “That was quick. Good work,” Mythal said as he took the page and looked over the details briefly. Much to his surprise, Wren also had a page from the tome they had found and had it fully deciphered.

As he took that page with a bit more interest, Lux stepped in and bent over in front of Wren, meeting her face to face. “Aw, did little baby finish her homework? I bet mommy and daddy are real proud of you. Maybe tomorrow, if you color within all the lines, they’ll get you an ice cream pop and some soda. Wouldn’t that just be the best day, little Wrenny-poo?” Lux didn’t pretend that he didn’t like Wren – not even a little bit. Her cheery, playful attitude rubbed him the wrong way more than anyone else for some reason. She had very quickly made it to the top of his ‘to kill’ list once he managed to wrestle control from Mythal.

Spooky Forest huh? “I can’t say I have. But everything I’ve heard about it tells me that it is quite the… creepy place,” the Darkness King mused aloud, avoiding the pun as best he could. It seemed a bit on the nose for a mysterious, dark cult to be skulking around Spooky Forest but perhaps that’s what they were counting on? It being too obvious so that no one would possibly suspect it. Wren spoke up again, asking if he’d managed to find out the name of the group. “Not yet. As far as I can tell, it seems they worship… some kind of entity. I ain’t fresh enough in the language to understand it or get its name but based on what we have managed to figure out and see, it ain’t one of the nice ones.” Mostly because it was never one of the nice ones.

Well, there was no point in waiting; paperwork could wait. He put down his pen and stood up from the desk, opening one of the drawers near the bottom and reaching inside. As he stood back up, the two cloaks that they had acquired from before were in his hands. “Here,” he said, tossing one of them to Wren. “I had them take in both so they’ll fit better. Whatever you had planned for the rest of the day will have to be put off. If we know where they’re at, we need to move quickly. Who knows how long they’ll stay camped in the same spot.” He gathered the rest of his equipment and walked over to Wren, stopping before the young Knight. “This might get dangerous. I’ll be able to protect you a bit but… are you prepared for some combat? I don’t want you goin’ into anythin’ that might be over your head.”

“Or you could go and get stabbed. That would make me very happy,” Lux chimed in, smirking down at Wren. Mythal shot him a look and the Lightbringer simply shrugged. “Just a suggestion.” He sighed. “No one ever listens to my brilliance.”

The redheaded had smiled a little as the General let her in his office and complimented on her work. “Well I’ve been doing this for probably twenty years by now so I would feel ashamed if I couldn’t get these things worked on efficiently.” She flicks some hair by her neck back as she was bragging lightly. She looked over to Lux as he came up to her. She looked at him with a bored expression the moment he opened his mouth. There went trying to be nice to him. She kept her lips pressed together as she stood there, slowly moving to cross her arms over her chest. When he finished his little childlike comments, she turned to face him head on, smirking.

“I was gonna apologise for last time for being rude to you and all, but, I think I’ve changed my mind now. As for my mommy and daddy… if you mean my real parents, yes, mommy is very proud of my alchemy, always. Daddy is dead though.” Her voice was obnoxiously cheeky as she swayed her head from side to side. “If you’re calling yourself and the general my ‘mommy and daddy’, I would suppose the general would be daddy, but you, you’d be great, great, great, great grandpa!” She clapped her hands together once and giggled. “Also, Wrenny-poo is a plant on Sailkia that is an aphrodisiac. So I’ll take that as a compliment that you’re calling me sexy.” She wiggles her eyebrows as she giggles to him a bit before she turned her attention back to Mythal without a second thought. She was bluffing on that last bit, but it was worth it as she felt over the top confident in herself now. She was feeling herself on a roll there.

Nanny had made her way up onto Wrens shoulders, and was glaring her green eyes at Lux as she wrapped herself around her witch’s shoulders. She didn’t look the least bit amused and decided looking at Lux wasn’t worth her glare. She rolled her eyes at him and looked back to Mythal as well. After the redhead had asked if her mentor had been to the Spooky Forest, and he answered her, the girl snorted quietly. Despite avoiding the pun, she still found amusement in the word he used regardless. She was a little bummed though that no name for the cult was aware of yet, and Wren put her hands on her hips. “Lets just call them… ‘Flowers’ or something, honestly.” She was just trying to make the group out to be lighter than they apparently were. Would it work for her? Probably not, especially if their lair ended up being dark again. She mentally ‘cheered’ for that possibility.

The little witch gasped as she grabbed hold of the item that was tossed at her, opening it up to see what exactly it was. When she noticed it was the robes they found in the underground chamber, she began laughing a little. “Aw! Didn’t want me to be swimming in it again?” She teased as she moved to wrap it around her shoulders. Her fingers wiggled a little and Nanny was momentarily floating while she adjusted the robes on her shoulders, smoothing it out nicely. “I think it looks rather snazzy on me.” She mused happily. She looked back to Mythal and grinned. “I guess it’s a good thing I had nothing planned. Lets go~!” She cheered, throwing a fist up excitedly before the general was in front of her.

She blinked up to him for a moment, seeming to thing for a moment, then grinned up at him. “Definitely prepared for combat.” She held up an arm to show off her ‘guns’ and then casually threw her broom over her shoulder as well. She then turned back to Lux and held her broom somewhat like a gun towards him after his comment. “You could let yourself get stabbed instead. I could be happy about that since your ‘brilliance’ sounds moronic~” She stuck her tongue out at him before she put the broom over her shoulder once again looked back towards Mythal. She was ready to go whenever he was. She snickers as she gives a rather lazy salute to Mythal. “Don’t worry about me and being able to fight. I have gotten in my fair share of fights before, regardless of magic, and my broom is a pretty handy weapon as well. Now I’m ready to start heading to wherever this Spooky Forest place is!” She tells him while gripping a hand up in a small cheer now.

Twenty years. Now that was surprising.

Wren looked fairly young himself. In fact, he almost looked like a young teenager, just beginning to head towards the ever inevitable puberty. But there was a knowledge there that outweighed how young he looked and he had even explained that things moved a bit different from where he had come originally. Mythal found it easier to just take the base facts as they came and roll with them. It wasn’t like anything else was going to come up that would throw him for a loop, or so he thought.

As he got ready, Lux had stepped in to try and bully the young Knight once more. Practically from the moment that they had met, the Lightbringer and Wren had disliked one another. Or, at the very least, the young Knight didn’t let the Seal get away with his comments without interjecting himself. For a brief moment Lux felt like he had won but then Wren countered, musing aloud over the spirit’s words. At the insinuation that Lux was indicating himself as the mother in the twisted relationship, he sneered and scoffed, only to change it to a small growl as she turned it once more to poke fun at his age. The comment about the plant went completely past him as he stomped forward. “I’d rather be old and smart compared to a young, stupid child that thinks their better than they are. You are so far beneath me that I can’t even smell you from up here. And trust me, there is nothing sexy about you. Of all the humans I’ve met, you are easily the grossest.”

“Charmin’ as always,” Mythal stepped in, quite literally moving through the image of the spirit and putting himself in front of Wren. He had no desire to listen to the Seal whine and insult the young Knight any more than he already had. As he settled himself, Wren decided that the best way to solve the lack of a cult name was to call them flowers, which caused Mythal to chuckle. “Flowers might not run in the same wavelength as them but frankly, it might just rub them the wrong way to be considered so small and meager. Flowers it is.” He was sure that if the topic came up around the cult members – of which they certainly were going to see – it would not go over well. But, at the very least, it would probably be good for a laugh.

Wren opted to put the cloak on immediately, to which the God Slayer followed suit. With his paperwork stowed and the young Knight eager to head out, it seemed they were more than prepared. The last thing Mythal wanted to check on was that the young man was ready for what could very well happen – fighting. But that didn’t stop Lux from making one last comment, to which Wren was quick to turn it back once more. “Stab all you want, kid. It isn’t going to hurt me one bit. But if I were to, say, thrust a blade right through your chest, I think it’ll cause just a teensy bit more damage. How about we try it out?” the Lightbringer offered, taking a step forward and grinning wickedly.

Mythal waved him off and turned his attention back to Wren, who guaranteed the General that he was prepared for a fight. That was a relief; the God Slayer hadn’t truly gathered just how prepared Wren was for being in the Rune Knights but having the young Knight’s own words was enough. With all of that set, Mythal reached up and snapped, creating yet another portal for them to travel through. Anyone that ever went anywhere with Mythal would be used to this form of traveling at this point; it was arguably the quickest means of getting around.

The Darkness King moved through the magic door and stepped out into the darkened woods of ironically named Spooky Forest. He took a moment as he waited for Wren to look around, his eyes scanning the horizon. How long had it been since he had been here, truly been here? Coming through to create darkness junctions didn’t count as truly visiting a place. It must have been when himself and Markus had been hunting the vampires. That felt like a full age ago… and it very well might have been. Once the young Knight was there, he pointed towards the skyline to the west; where shadowy and steep cliffs hung just above the tree line.

“We know that their base is somewhere along that ridge. We just ain’t exactly sure of entrance. Chances are, we’ll spot a door or maybe some guards standing at a cave mouth or somethin’. With any luck, it won’t take much searchin’. But make sure to act as if we’re new recruits; little conversation and try to look as mean as possible, I guess.” What exactly did one do to look like a cultist? Mythal waved Wren onwards and started the trek through the woods.

Lux getting growly about her response to him being a grandpa, made her smile as she leaned over to him. “Just because you’re old, doesn’t mean you’re smart. And good thing you can’t smell me, you reek yourself.” She mocked waving away a smell as she stuck her tongue out and sways from side to side. She could care less if he thought she was sexy or not, all she needed was Nanny and her spells and alchemy. After her nickname for the cult was laughed about, she shrugged her shoulders while cheekily smiling to him. “Flowers it is!” She giggles back to him rather excitedly. Lux had fired back to her again about him stabbing her, and she ooooh sooooo badly wanted to fire back again, but Mythal seemed like he wasn’t in the mood, so she only snickered for now, wanting to save her comment for later. He’ll have more comments later for her to reply to.

She gasped at the portal that her general made and let up a cheer. “I wanna learn how to do this!” She says as she leans her head back, slightly groaning before she righted her head before she hopped on through after Mythal. She peeked out around Mythal and looked around. “Ugh, it’s slightly dark. Spooky wasn’t just for giggles I see.” She sighs as she hangs her head a little. She looked up as her general pointed west, and blinked some. The shadowy, steep cliffs looked… promising. Nanny mewed on her masters shoulders, nuzzling her cheek a bit to try to cheer her up. “We’re going to have to deal with the dark again.” She sighs. It definitely wasn’t a question, she was full on expecting it now.

She quickly flips her broom over and sits herself on it as she makes it lift her up into the air. She crossed her arms over her chest and nods to his information. “Guards would be a plus. But mean?” She snorts as she shrugs. “I can try, but I think the most I can do is look bored. I dunno! We’ll see!” She let her broom take her after Mythal as they traveled. If she knew her broom could hold them both, she’d offer a ride, but she wasn’t sure if it could or not. Well, they did have something they had to do first.

While traveling, the little witch was trying to distract herself from the darkness of the forest by glancing up at the trees to keep track of the cliffs so she had something to look forward to. Before they got too close, Wren slipped off of her broom and stuck her broom in the nook of a tree. “I can call the broom at will if I end up needing it.” She muses to mainly herself aloud. She walked with Mythal while Nanny hid herself within the robes, trying to hide under the hood to be out of the way, but the twitching tail was a bit hard to miss. She looks around as they approach the cliff, and wonders where exactly the entrance was.

Nanny’s head perked up a little as she sensed something. “What?” She murmurs to the cat before Nanny jumped out of the robes and ran off ahead of the two. Wren started jogging ahead a bit before the cat stopped near a bush. Wren sighs as she stops next to her cat, looking over to Mythal for a moment before looking up at the cliffs. It was taller than she was expecting… or she was just short. More than likely the latter, to her unfortunate predicament. “Hey!” She points towards a cave like hole in the lower side of the cliff. She went over towards it and peered in. There was a person in the same robes as her and Mythal, and she felt a little bit of panic set in. “Hey there!” She says, trying to keep her voice even as she did so. Nanny was following behind Wren, not straying too far from her witch. The cultist had his hood up, but he was still visible to them. Was this a good idea for her to do? She honestly wasn’t sure, but she hoped so!

God, this girl was infuriating. Nothing sounded better to Lux than finding a way to pop her dumb little head off and by the idle, wicked smirk on his face, it was clear he was envisioning just that scenario in his head. And while the Lightbringer was more than happy to continue being a pain in the ass, he quietly let himself disperse into nothingness once they had traveled through the portal. Lux had pissed off Mythal one too many times for making missions even more dangerous and decided to not cause an issue this time. It would save himself the headache of both the Rune Knight general yelling at him and the constant annoyance that came from Wren.

The lower ranked Rune Knight remarked about wanting to learn how to make the portal and Mythal chuckled. “That’s kinda a speciality of my magic but I’m sure there are other spells ya can learn to do the same thing.” Serilda could make her own portals via her magic so it wasn’t hard to fathom that plenty of magics had their own variations of the easily-accessible travel spell. Once they had stepped out into the dark and foreboding lands, Wren tensed up, visibly upset at the darkness. Poor kid still didn’t seem to be a fan of the dark, which ironically just made it more amusing that she kept pairing with the Darkness Slayer.

With the cliffs their only option for investigation, they began to walk -- or rather Mythal walked and Wren hopped on his broom. On they went, the general’s eyes scanning over the dips and crevices on the shear wall to see if he could sense any kind of movement in the shadows. After a bit, he picked up on a deep hole within the stone and gave Wren a small gesture to indicate something ahead. As he went and stored his broom, the God Slayer waited for him to return… only to watch as Wren went chasing after Nanny. Silently cursing, the general followed after them quietly, coming right up behind as they approached the bush and, right beyond it on the lower side of the cliff, was a cave. Better yet, a person was standing guard within the confines of the cave, wearing the same garments as them.

Wren greeted them and the guard immediately stiffened. “Who is there?!” they demanded.

“Oh hey, we’re just here for the initiation,” Mythal stated easily, walking into the dimly lit cave and putting his hands up. “I’m Solomon and this is… Grady!”

“Ah,” the man responded, his stance calming a bit as he noticed the matching robes. “Yes, of course… welcome. Please, follow the stairs down. The other initiates will be in the Anointing Room.” He gestured down the stairway, which was well hidden in the shadows of the cave.

Mythal leaned forward to glance down the stairs before nodding. “Sounds good. Let’s go, Grady,” he said, giving Wren a look before venturing down the stairs. The winding steps brought them deeper into the core of the mountain, lit sconces their own means of seeing anything in front of them. “Just stick close to me. With any luck, we can catch them in the middle of the initiation and make some arrests…”

Grady seemed like a perfectly reasonable name to Mythal, for a younger looking man like Wren. It was basic, generic to the land and it didn’t invite too many questions, at least to the Rune Knight General. Though the Darkness Slayer would never admit to being the best improvisational man, he didn’t see a problem with it. But he was so busy selling the lie that he didn’t even notice Wren’s face contorted in disgust before he piped up and reconfirmed their intentions for being there. The guard was easily deceived and allowed them passage within, gesturing down the stairs and continuing his assignment of standing guard. Wren remarked about feeling sick and Mythal took a moment to look down at the young lad. He wondered if perhaps he was afraid of the dark -- that would be put to the test if they were suddenly thrust into any kind of combat. He would be able to morph the darkness so it didn’t impose on the young Rune Knight as badly but it would still be quite dark.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and before them lay several different hallways, leading in different directions. The Rune Knight general frowned as he glanced down the different pathways; the guard hadn’t exactly provided directions to the ‘Anointing room’ and even as Wren asked about it, Mythal gave a small shake of his head. “Not quite… but…” he replied softly, even as he allowed his senses to connect to the darkness around them. Like an invisible web, his magical perception swam through the shadows, infiltrating the structure in a way most, if any, would not be prepared for. He could feel the weight of the stone slabs that made up the walls and floor, sense the pressure of bodies standing among the shadows of the darkened hallways. It was through this perceptive ability that he was able to determine the largest gathering of people; there was a room down the left hallway that was larger than the rest.

“Down the left hallway,” he told Wren softly, nodding in the direction. Once again taking the lead, he and Wren walked around the corner and set down the barely-lit path that was far more narrow than even Mythal would have liked. When they reached the turn, he pivoted to the right and at the end of the hall, he could see a large doorway leading into a far larger room. It would only take them a few moments to cover the distance before they were entering what appeared to be the ritual room. Just to the left was another room, to which Mythal could sense the presences of several initiates. But rather than head into that room, his attention was instead focused on the larger room in front of them.

There was a runic circle carved into the center of the room, the lettering apparently painted with blood. A single pedestal rose out from the stone in the center of the circle and there was a strong, magical pull coming from its core. He frowned and was just about to suggest they leave when the doors behind them slammed shut. His eyes snapped to the doorway, the stone slabs sealed shut from the hallway they had just left. The sconces on the wall flared up, illuminating the room a bit brighter and casting longer, darker shadows.

“It seems we have some intruders,” a voice came from behind and Mythal turned around to see seven figures standing at the other end of the room. They were wearing robes but had the hoods down, revealing their dissimilar features. “The room is enchanted to seal itself, should any with a lack of purpose enter it.”

“Better security than the idiot guardin’ the door,” Mythal replied, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. “We’re Rune Knights and we’re here to put a stop to whatever bullshit yer gettin’ into.”

“It doesn’t matter what organization you work for. The only ‘stop’ that is coming is the end of your lives,” the man in the center of the pack spoke before turning to a smaller, child-sized figure. He still wore his hood over his head but he was roughly the size of Wren. “Take care of them.” With the order delivered, the rest of the cultists disappeared into a puff of black smoke, leaving them alone with the child.

“Listen kid, I dunno what kind of crap they’ve been sellin’ ya but yer not gonna wanna do this,” Mythal tried to bargain with the remaining cultist. The hooded child’s head lifted, just enough to reveal the wicked grin on his face. With a wave of his hand, the air shimmered in front of him and out from the supernatural glimmer emerged a teenager. He held in both hands a sword, his eyes glowing with malicious intent. The shadows in the room seemed to lean towards him, bending to the will of the summoned creature.

“Looks like we ain’t got much of a choice,” Mythal stated as he reached into his own cloak and tore it off of him. In the same motion, his other hand snaked behind his back and pulled Curse from its resting place, unfolding it into its full sword form. “I’ll handle this shadow brat. You try 'n knock out the kid,” he told Wren, giving the young Rune Knight a nod of affirmation.

Wren was up to the task, that much Mythal could tell. He stood his ground and returned the stalwart nod from the Special Operations leader, ready to engage the boy as he’d been asked. As the younger Rune Knight began a small chant, the ground cracked and gave way to brambles, though they looked far less imposing in their size and more of the sheer amount of them. It was enough to keep the boy on edge, though he seemed far more shy than he previously let on. There had been a manic, almost wild grin on his face when the very edge of his hood had lifted but now he refused to look up at Wren, leaving the Rune Knight flummoxed.

But Mythal could only half pay attention to what was happening to Wren. The armed teenager was staring at the Darkness Slayer with a look of ambivalence; as if the very notion that he had to do combat was boring to him. Mythal narrowed his eyes slightly as he reached back and pulled out the handle to Curse. The weapon swiftly unfolded itself fully into its sword form as the God Slayer considered his disinterested foe. “It ain’t too late to just put those away and call it a day, kid,” Mythal stated, his grip on his weapon firm but doing his best to look calm and unguarded. “All we want is answers.”

It almost looked like the teenager considered it for a moment, his eyes widening in thought. But then in the very next instant, he melted down into his own shadow, disappearing from sight. For most other people, that would be alarming and put them even more on guard. Not for Mythal; he could feel the summoned wraith moving through the shadows, swimming in darkness around the room in an attempt to catch Mythal by surprise. It was a cunning move, one that the God Slayer had utilized more times than he could count. And perhaps against Wren, it may have been effective. But it was for that precise reason that he had taken the teenager; he’d felt that deep darkness within him and seen the bits of shadow leaking out from him.

The God Slayer turned the moment that the teenager reappeared from Mythal’s own shadow, popping out like a rabbit in the midst of a wild escape. The two swords swung forward and clashed against the steel of Curse, the vibrating sound echoing out in the room. The God Slayer held his arm firm, keeping the two blades from pushing him back at all. The wraith was strong but he was hardly stronger than Mythal. Doubling down on his strength, the God Slayer pushed back and knocked the teenager back, causing him to bounce and land several feet away. Before he could try another disappearing act, Mythal swiped his free hand across his body and summoned the shadows in the room to him. Each person’s own personal dark image would be ripped from them and quickly pooled around the God Slayer’s feet, creating a circle of shadow.

The teenager looked at Mythal and then at the pool of shadow, seemingly unimpressed. Then in an instant, he was gone again but this time he just completely dematerialized. That was unexpected… now the God Slayer was put on the defensive, bringing his sword close to the chest and putting himself in a defensive stance. “Above you!” came the grating voice of Lux in warning. Mythal had just enough time to glance up and then leap forward, rolling over himself as the teenager reappeared and fell down, swords leading the charge. The weapons slammed into the stone floor, piercing the material with ease.

Growling, Mythal looked up at Lux, who had also materialized into the world once more. He was sitting in the air, leg crossed over the other, with what looked like a bowl of popcorn. “You’ll get ‘em next time, kid. As for you, pipsqueak; Wren isn’t even that strong. Just get on in there and do a little stabby stabby!” the Lightbringer chastised the summoner as he looked over his shoulder at the other battle.

Mythal’s attention was pulled to Wren quickly, giving the teenager a moment of opening. His hand pulled back and then shot forward, transforming into that of a massive shadow. The dark hand rushed towards the God Slayer, its fingers opening and then snapping closed around the Special Ops Ace. Mythal grunted as his arms were pinned to his sides, baring his teeth as the pressure pressed in on him. The teenager didn’t even look happy that he’d trapped the God Slayer; he just continued to look bored. But it meant that Mythal couldn’t defend himself and with that, he zipped forward in the air, swinging the sword he had left forward. In that instant, the Rune Knight flexed his muscles, imbuing them with magic. With a loud yell, he tore the hand into pieces, freeing himself and putting the wraith off guard.

Summoning the shadows that had once made up the hand, Mythal shot his arm out and released a torrent of shadow. It slammed into the wraith, swallowing him up and causing him to crash into the stone wall. The God Slayer continued to funnel the dark magic outward in a jet for several seconds before he finally let it dissipate. As the funnel of shadow dissipated, the wraith was quite literally embedded in the wall, a crater made up of his body imprinted in the stone. His eyes were a bit wider but still, he looked unmoved about the position he was in. But either way, it was clear he was out of the fight.