Remnants of the past

Something was stirring inside the bowels of Savage Skull, something undeniably vile. What it was Harrigan didn't know, but one thing was certain. It was there, a presence which felt so strong that the guild could have trembled if it was physically there.

Unfortunate for Harrigan, most of the guild's key members were out. Some of them on high profile jobs, other just out to cause mayhem. Leaving only a few members beside the guild master himself present in the guild.

Knowing this, Harrigan immediately had set out one and probably the only one that could delve truly deep inside the undercroft. Sinali, an undead that presented herself in the body of a young girl. An ever rotting small corpse. It was because of these aspects that she might be the only one that could go into the catacombs and come out unscathed.

The catacombs were large, and probably spanned an area as large as the forest itself, and the story goes. The deeper you are, the lesser the light shines inside of you. Even Harrigan, guild master of Savage Skull would second guess upon entering those halls. Even though he shared a connection with the Garm. The undead wolf like beings that somehow originated from those empty dark halls.



OOC:
Allright Zack, the story goes as this. Delving deep down into the dark undercroft of Savage Skull, you have to find the source of the ill darkness that seems to irk Savage Skull lately. But you may think, easy peasy. For an undead as yourself. But nothing is less true! Upon your descend there are some certain events that triggers memories of when you are alive! And when finally reaching your goal. You'll will find.... THE REMNANTS OF THE LICHBORNE!!! dun dun dun!!

With that I mean, like fragments left behind of the Lichborne's mortal coil. Like manifestations of himself because he left behind his own memories. And because it is left alone in such a place were true the true emptiness of darkness reigns supreme it is given shape. Just as how the Lichborne was given shape all those era's ago.

So for your requirements:
- 5000 words or more
- post count doesn't matter, can be one big post or several posts
- At least three events, of you remembering the time you were alive. Haunting your very mind. Since the presence of the Lich is also influencing you. It reveals to you what truly happened in the tower, and where you came from.
- Defeat the manifestation, it is an A rank ghastly appearance, that needs at least 6 A rank hits to be defeated. or 12 B rank hits.
- The Garm are useless, in your boss fight so you can't call upon them. Since even they fear the presence.

Merry Christmas, and good luck. Give me a good read

Darkness. A darkness that irked even the members of Savage Skull. Not not just irked. It caused an uneasiness. A fear amongst the guild members. It was a darkness to which the only person available to tackle was the undead child known simple by the name of Sinali. It was at the request of the guildmaster Harrigan that she went to the main entrance to the catacombs. It was sealed shut with magical seals of an ancient design. These were powerful seals carved long before her time. Long before even Harrigan's time or so it seemed by the looks of it. He knew the way to open it, but hadn't told her how to open it. He rarely told her things straight off like that. It wasn't his style. He preferred to let his guild members learn things for themselves. Besides a magic seal shouldn't stop her. It might stop others and in all likelihood it probably had. However, Sinali was a lacrima expert and as such experimented with magic seals all the time. This should be no problem for her. She stood there for a few moments running her hand along the carved seal.

The doorway was made of an ancient and magically created material known as Maginium. It had to be opened in the right way or it would have other effects. Doors made of maginium were never just doors. They could function that way, but they nearly always had some weird other purpose. She'd read about such doors and the one that stuck in her mind was the Eclipse Gate. That was the work of Zeref and whilst it could be opened normally it could also work as a portal between two points in time. That was a simple one compared to some she had heard of, but that one was the most famous. It had almost caused the world's destruction. Shame it had failed really. Her mission to convert the world to undeadhood would of been a lot easier.

She stood there tracing her hand over the magic seal's for a while before she came to a conclusion. If it was opened with pure physical strength then it would open normally. Should even an ounce of magic power then some sort of trap would be triggered. Unfortunately, doors of maginium would notoriously heavy. However fortunately for Sinali she was her incredibly strong. So strong in fact that her strength was far beyond what any normal eight year old, even a mage of her caliber, should be capable of. She braced her legs and began to push against the door. It was slow work, but eventually it slid open.

As the door opened she was greeted with a familiar scent. The smell of rot and decay. The smell of death. Yet there was a trace of magic within it that she didn't recognise. It hit her hard and her eyes were somehow forced shut.

A memory began to stir within her mind...a memory of her past.

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Memory 1

Clap! Snap! the black crack!
Grib, grab! Pinch, nab!
And down, down to Tarot's town
You go, my lads!
Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs!
Pound, pound, deep down underground!
Yo, ho! my lad!
Swish, smack! Whip crack!
Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
Work, work! Nor dare to shirk,
While we quaff, and we laugh,
Round and round far underground
Below, my lad!


That was the song the slavers had taken up singing. It seemed they'd been watching films about a place called Central Terra and a group of elves got captured by hobbits. Whilst the hobbits were forcing them to work they sang a similar song. The slavers had adapted it slightly to suit them. So rather then hobbit town it was Tarot's town. Tarot being the name of the group that owned these slaves. A name that all the slaves cursed.

The song itself had been repeated so many times that on the quiet the slaves were complaining that it was worse than the swish smack of the actual whip crack. Still, they dare not voice that opinion. If anything it would only make it worse. One of the one's who knew this better than any was Sinali. She was one of the 'special cases'. Special cases were blessed somehow and thus highly valued. However, they were also highly guarded and if they shirked work they got punished and so did everyone else. The slaves took every chance they could to hurt her. If she died then there was one less special case to worry about. It was getting to her slowly. It wasn't so much a blessing to her anymore. No it was more of a curse. What she wouldn't give to be normal.

The relentless beatings, the slaves taunts and attacks, the annoying repetitive song. The only thing that made her happy was her work. She had been a miner for a while due to her insane strength that even full grown men could not compete with, but they had seen her playing with some lacrima when she was younger and more naive. This playtime had lead to the discovery that she had an innate talent for crafting magic crystal into functioning lacrima. Unfortunately, it was due to said skill that they now had the lacrima video system and thus had access to Up and Down Again: The Elven Story. So, once more the slaves attacks against her increased. They were clever about it too. An accidental miss swing of a pickaxe almost stabbing her in the head. A few rocks chipped off here causing a landslide. Everyone hated her. Even those that valued her. Then again the slavers hated all the slaves. They treated them like dirt or even worse. Yet special cases like her were treated even worse. They hated the fact that a mere slave had skills they didn't. You'd think special cases would get special treatment and they did. Worse beatings, worse food and a worse lifestyle. For her it was getting all too much.

No friends. No family. No hope. No future. She was beginning to think she'd be better off dead. At least then she could be at peace. She craved any form of relief. Death, freedom, drugs. Anything and everything that she could get to stop the pain and the sorrow and the hatred that burned inside her like a fire.
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Real world
Sinali clutched at her head breathing heavily. Was that a true memory of her past? What had triggered it? It couldn't be the smell of rot and death. She faced that every day. Something down here had caused it. Something that perhaps was what was causing everyone's unease. She hesitated. It was a rare occurence for her. She never hesitated. She charged in and broke anything in her way. However, this time was different. She didn't want to remember. Her mind had locked away those memories for a reason. She was fighting against the memories that had resurfaced. Memories. The past. It was all coming back. She shook her head in irritation.

"I won't be scared of the past." she shouted in a determined tone her voice echoing down the entrance to the catacombs. "And i won't be scared of the future either. " With that she took a step inside and began to walk down the long winding stairway into the catacombs. It was time to hunt down whatever was causing the unease and if it was causing those memories to resurface...well...it would be destroyed. And not in a pleasant way either. She was not in a good mood
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The memory that came into her head still haunted her as she descended the steps down towards the catacombs. Why would the dark force down here make her remember that time of all times? It wasn't like it was one of her worst memories. Sure she'd been sad and potentially suicidal, but the moment of her death was probably more traumatic or even the moments after she became undead. Those had really made her who she was. Unless that was its goal. Could it be trying to question herself and thus make herself uncertain so it had an easier time? That had to be it.

"Well, if that is your plan boogie man you are gonna have to try a lot harder." Sinali said triumphantly and began to walk through the catacombs. THe garm resided down here. They had resided here for a long time. They were here before Harrigan, possibly before Frederik as well. Sure, they had been twisted a bit by her experiments at Harrigan's bequest to make them even more fearsome than before, but their origins were unknown. She'd have to look into it at some time. Perhaps if they knew the origins they could make more or make them even more fearsome.

A garm stalked past her and bristled growling slightly, but she opened her eye revealing the emblem and it stopped growling. "Leave me." It nodded and walked away. It was certainly strange that the Garm would not harm someone if they wore the emblem of Savage Skull and would even obey them if they were strong enough. In fact, they would harm you if you wore the emblem and didn't feel right to them. They knew every member. In order to fool them you'd have to be able to mimic one of the members perfectly and have the emblem. It was tricky. Sinali herself could probably manage to disguise herself well enough, if she wasn't already a member of Savage Skull that is. They truly were odd and it was weird no-one knew anything about them. Perhaps they were from the time of Lichborne. He was the oldest guildmaster that Sinali knew of. He was a lich after all and weren't lich's some sort of necromancer? Perhaps he had created them or summoned them somehow.

"Hmmm, but if they were due to him...wouldn't they have gone with him?" she said out loud as she walked through the dark catacombs. Normally when a mage died any of his works died with him. It was rare for any to survive. Perhaps he had corrupted normal creatures rather than creating them from nothing? Or perhaps like the lichborne they had been born from the darkness itself.  As she walked she considered that point further. What if the Lichborne hadn't died off completely? Was that possible? If so perhaps whatever was causing the uneasiness down here was that the Lichborne's power was slowly returning. Or perhaps some fragment of him anyway.

Speaking of fragments as she took another step she felt the same strange tingling in her head as she did just before the first fragmented memory of her past had surfaced. It didn't occur though. The feeling wasn't quite strong enough to trigger another flashback. She took a step backwards and the feeling faded a bit. So, some kind of magical trap designed to trigger memories? That or some sort of proximity spell that only worked when she was close enough. That was also possible. There was only one way to find out. She decided to take a different turning to get towards that area. That way she'd know if it was proximity or some sort of trap spell. That would be useful knowledge in order to help her analyse how to beat whatever was under here.

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Several paths brought her closer to wherever this dark force was hiding itself away, but every  time she got too close she felt the tingle of whatever was triggering these memories to resurface. That suggested it was a closeness thing or that there was some large magical seal she wasn't seeing. She glanced at the floor and the walls, but there was no sign of any carvings, magical or otherwise. Nor was there mosaic or painting. There was nothing that could constitute a magical seal. She raised an eyebrow to the ceiling and for a moment thought she saw it, but as soon as she focused her gaze it seemed to vanish. She looked down at the ground and saw it there. "A moving magical seal?" Sinali mused to herself. "I didn't think they were possibly." She'd read about such things in her research books, but they all mentioned it as a theory and all her experiments into creating one had failed. A moving magical seal was said to be less powerful than an ordinary one, but that didn't matter because it was impossible to avoid and near impossible to alter properly. This one was even more unique in that it didn't just move randomly it seemed to move as soon as you looked at it. Thus the only way to break it or alter it would be to bring down whatever was the source of the seal. Well, that or have instantaneous reaction time. Unfortunately, she suspected that whatever was the source of this seal was also the cause of the unease that everyone had been feeling. As for reactions times well, speed was definitely not her forte.

"Only one thing to do." she said and took a few steps back before running at full speed hoping that if she moved fast enough that the seal might not have time to activate. Of course, there was no chance of that happening. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the seal the tingle of memory activated and then the memory came at her in full force.

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Memory 2:

She ran as fast as she could. There had to be a way to escape. She had to be free. She couldn't take it any more. All the hatred, all the torment, all the attempted murders. Her only solace was in the lacrima works, but the better she got at that the more work the others had to do and the more they hated her. The less she did the more she got punished and they got punished to try and motivate her. No matter what she did hatred festered against her and within her. It was burning her up and slowly killing her.

"GET BACK HERE 21719" shouted a slaver chasing after her. She glanced back to see several chasing after her. It was then that a slave that had been doing his work cleaning the hall stuck out his leg. She tripped over the leg and fell flat on her face. Instantly the slaver leapt upon her and pinned her down binding her with a collar. As soon as the collar was on an intense shock went through her body and she was paralysed. "Good job 56798" the slaver said to the slave who had returned to industriously cleaning the hall. "Catch." he tossed the slave a small token which he took and stared at like it was some almost priceless treasure. In a way it was. It was a token that functioned as a day off. Slaves could earn them for exceptional circumstances. They were highly coveted. He looked around surreptitiously and pocketed it. Sinali stared at it.

She felt completely loathed. Every slave would let another slave run if only because if they succeeded it gave them hope. Besides, if they failed it was one less mouth to feed and more meat for the cooking pot. And yet, this slave had purposefully tripped her. He had purposefully kept her a prisoner. And now she had been given a collar. If she even tried to run they would activate it and then she'd be paralysed. Any chances of escape had been dashed forever now.


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Sinali gasped as the memory faded. That one was even more vivid then the previous one. She could actually feel the pain of the electricity coursing through her body. She was no stranger to pain. Her entire magic caused her pain whenever it was used. However, to be effected this badly by a memory? It was almost scary. She stood there with her hand against the wall. She could still remember it so clearly. Every emotion, every footstep, every beat of her living heart. Everything as if it had just happened. She took a tentative step forward and hesitated.  Fear gripped her for the first time she could remember in a long time. She was afraid to move on. What if the next memory was worse? The first one had been powerful, the second one even more so. It was probable that the closer she got the more powerful the visions would become. What if the next one showed her the moment she died and her body actually shut down? She could die again down here and to a memory.

She paused her thinking. Wait, a memory? A memory was going to be what brought her down? A bad memory? A nightmare? She was the nightmare. She would not be defeated by thoughts and feelings. She was Sinali, the living nightmare, a monster from the cradle to the grave and she would show whatever was causing these memories and the strange feelings everyone was having what she was made of.

"I'm coming for you." she shouted down the hall and broke into a sprint. She would face the next memory head on and when it was over she would keep going until she found the source of them. That source, whatever it was, would learn why it was a bad idea to mess with the head of Sinali. They would pay with their very existence.

Her feet pounded down the dark halls. The light which had already been dim faded with each step, but still she kept moving. She activated the skull signal spell expanding her eye. Rather than using the offensive version she used the weaker version which projected the savage skull emblem. Normally she used it for summoning members of the guild or signalling where to meet, but it worked quite well as a flash light. Providing she didn't use it offensively it should last a while. It was good preparation. With her eye at the ready she was ready to launch a beam of savage energy at whatever was causing the memories. It would make a good opening move and show them exactly what guild they were messing with.

Not that she cared exactly about the guild. They were mere stepping stones to her gaining power. Some would make useful pawns when she came to power, but the rest would fall like the rest of the world. They would die and become the foundations for her queendom. The eternal empire of the undead queen Sinali.

As she ran she noticed that the garm presence, which had been very strong near the entrance was not highly reduced. She could just about feel their energy down here. Normally she couldn't as they were skilled hiders, but in here she could just notice it. The strange thing was...they were all very far away. She knew the garm were vast in number, but it seemed they were keeping away from this area. Almost as if they were afraid to come near whatever was causing the uneasiness.

The uneasiness, yes, that grew stronger the closer she got to the powerful magic source she was now sensing. Strange how she had not sensed it before. Perhaps the magic seals had also protected it so it couldn't be easily detected. It felt familiar. Sort of like the former guild master Lord Frederik, but on a much darker scale. It also felt a bit like Harrigan. She was beginning to get a sneaking suspicion that it might be a guild master of Savage Skull. A former one. Perhaps her suspicion about the Lichborne being responsible for the garm was incorrect. If what she suspected about the source of unease was true then it had to be incorrect. Otherwise the garm would be guarding it, not staying away.

Ahead of her she saw another magic seal. However, she didn't stop to think. She didn't hesitate. She just ran straight over it. It was time to face the memory head on and hope she came out of ok on the other side.

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Her plan was coming together slowly. It was a painstakingly slow and risky plan, but she saw it as her only hope. She had to escape and with the collar she couldn't just run. They would just shock her and bring her down. There was a way though. She had to disable the collar and then escape without anyone noticing. The only way to disable the collar, other than getting a key off a guard, was via magic. She didn't have magic, but she did have lacrima. Of course, she was not allowed to take the lacrima back to her cell and she was always watched when working with them. However, there were brief moments when the slavers backs were turned. She couldn't take lacrima, but there was always crystal dust left over from the carving and shaping. It was that dust that she collected. Not in her hands or hidden in her clothing, as she was searched, but in her stomach. It was not pleasant in the slightest nor was it very efficient, but it was the only way she could think of.

It was the tenth day of doing so. Her weight had decreased significantly from the throwing up that was required for getting the lacrima dust. As for the extraction of the lacrima dust from the bodily fluid...that was another story. It wasn't efficient at all because even when she was almost certain she had got all the magic dust out from her vomit there was still not as much as she ingested. Nor was it excreted in any other fashion so it seemed the insides of her body were slowly being coated by magical dust. It did not matter though. What mattered was that she had finally built up enough of the magic dust, hidden in various placed about the room, to form a crude magic circle. It wasn't the same as a lacrima, but it should work or so she hoped.

She stood in the circle and etched in the final rune. Instantly, a blast of power shook through her entire body. The lacrima dust within her reacted strangely causing her skin to glow, but the two effects she had hoped for worked. The door was forced open and the collar was removed. Unfortunately, it had been a lot flashier than she had anticipated. She didn't have much time. She ran for it hoping to escape.

She did not get far before she was tackled to the ground by a guard hiding in the shadows. "You thought we wouldn't notice?" the guard spat pulling her up off the ground by her hair. "We let you have your fun because we wanted to see what you were up to. Perhaps you were trying to impress us with some new lacrima, but no...you tried to escape you little bitch. Too bad we were smart enough to set a guard." He carried her down the hall. She struggled, but it was all in vain. Eventually she was taken to a chamber she didn't recognise. All it contained was a strange chair and a man dressed all in white holding a case. She was thrown onto the chair roughly and strapped in. "She's all yours Hierophant. Show her what the lacrima she has worked on is capable of."

"Ah how exquisite. A body such as hers will be excellent for my experiments." the man said with a smile. "Tell the Tower I am most pleased though I hope her death doesn't reduce the lacrima quality." The man smile changed to a frown. "That would make me quite irritated and it would make Emperor quite livid."

The next moments for her were intense pain and then nothingness.
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That was the memory. The memory she had been most afraid of. The memory of the day she died. The intense pain she had felt before her body shut down completely and she died. She slumped down and sat there in the darkness that was only penetrated by the skull signal. Her body felt weak and numb. She remembered the pain. The pain her own lacrima had caused her. The pain she had received for trying to be clever and trying to escape. The pain no-one had tried to stop. Nobody cared about her then. Nobody loved her. They all saw her as a tool or someone to hate or both. Nowadays things were't that different. Harrigan saw her as a tool. The guild probably just saw her as another member. A lot of them she'd heard were scared of her. As for the rest of the world. Well, they had pursued her, tried to kill her and now feared and hated her. They feared and hated her before she even became evil. They feared her because of what she was not who she was. She was not a monster back then, but the world had made her one.

She slowly rose to her feet and extended her arm. The silver bracelet that hung there glowed brightly before forming into a sword in her hand. She extended the other arm and the wolf ring became a chainsaw sword. She could feel the enemy ahead. The enemy she would destroy. It had tried to turn her fear and her memories against her. She would show it the true meaning of fear and make it wish it had no memories of her.

As she walked the final steps a thought came to her mind. Her body had not contained magic before her death. All the slaves were tested to see if they had what the Magician, the man who tested them, called the glore vyrden. It was a place where the body stored eternano. She had not had one before. Perhaps the magical dust she had taken in combined with the seal had actually artificially created one and it was only triggered properly on the moment of death. Was it possible? She wasn't sure. It was certainly an interesting thought though. One she would have to experiment with.

"The tower, the Hierophant, the Emperor and the Magician. I killed the Tower. Once i'm done here i'll bring down the rest of Tarot." she said to herself with a dark smile. "They will all fall."

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"But first thing's first there is you." Sinali said looking at the shadowy creature looming in front of her. It blended so well with the darkness it was barely visible, but she could sense its magic power and what's more she was highlighting it with the skull signal. "Play time." She said and launched off a powerful beam of light from her eye. Against a being made of darkness the effect was quite heavy and it screeched out in pain before beginning to form into an actual being. Before it was an almost incomprehensible mass of shadows. Now it was forming into something. SOmething familiar. It looked like the Hierophant. The man responsible for her death. Or one of them at least. It was a bit wrong though as it was composed of shadows and was more grotesque, but she could tell that's what it was trying to be. She grinned despite the situation and fired off another blast of light. This had the unfortunate effect of causing her eye to return to normal and thus removing her light source. However, the magic aura of the enemy was so strong that she felt she could fight it even in the dark.

It lunged at her suddenly. Much faster than she had expected and slammed her up against the wall trying to choke her. Then it spoke in the same voice as the Hierophant. Well, an echoey version of it anyway. "How about we perform another experiment?" it said and snapped its fingers. Instantly torches lit up the walls. Strange purple torches, but torches nevertheless. Enough to see clearly the opponent. "I see the darkness within you Sinali and it feeds me." The blow had made her drop her weapons and they were out of reach. She had to rely on her own strength to deal with this situation.

"Is it snack time already?" Sinali said and her tongue rapidly extended going into a spiked form and split into three. However, its body split avoiding the tongues. Every way she turned them and tried to strike it dodged them.

"I have seen your memories. I know what spells you have and they will not work on me." it said smugly and let her go standing back away from her and gestured with its arm. "Give it your best shot. It will be fun to watch you fail." She retracted the tongues and allowed her mouth to return to normal. It knew her spells? It could see her memories? So it was the cause of the memories. If it could see her memories then it could read her mind. Thinking of a plan wouldn't work. She had to go on raw instinct.

"BURN!" she roared and suddenly a huge torrent of fire tore from her mouth surprising the enemy and burning him heavily. It did not however bring him down.

"How? You have never used such a spell before?" Sinali herself did not know the answer to this question. She had not even thought of such a spell before. She just wanted this guy to burn for his mental torture of her and had somehow channeled that into a spell. It seemed a rather useful spell though so when she got out of this she'd have to work out how it worked. "It does not matter you will die soon anyway." It said and extended a hand towards her. Tendrils of shadow tore towards her and she activated boneheart in armor mode. Instantly bone armor covered her body protecting her from the damage, but she was still slammed into the wall. She lunged forward and struck out with a punch. It moved back out of the way, but the will of her punch and the desire to hit it was so strong that electricity shot from her hand like a tazer. The electricity hit it and caused it to seize up temporarily.

"Shocked?" she said with a grin. She didn't know where that one had come from either, but it seemed even more useful than the fire spell. She guessed she had somehow channelled the bodies natural electric field into a current and extended it from her body. The temporary freeze allowed her to get in close. Her mouth extended and her teeth sharpened. She bit deeply into the body. As she did so she felt the magic aura it had pass into her. Whatever it was...it was gone now. She was alone in the darkness.

Now she was in a way the Queen of the Garm.

approved, congrats with A rank ^^