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    Where You Are

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
    Position : None
    Posts : 690
    Cosmic Coins : 0
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 7,124,425

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 18th December 2021, 9:44 pm

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    Mercury was once again panicking.

    It had been only a couple of days since Vandrad had been attacked and the series of events that had stemmed from the incident, including Mercury going rogue from her enslavement, murdering an entire royal line of Midians, confessing the truth of who she was to Vandrad, and subsequently becoming engaged to him. It had been an absolute roller coaster of emotions between rage, fear, sorrow, hope, and joy, and the few days since then had been some of the happiest that Mercury had ever experienced in her life, despite the situation. Vandrad was still without magic and he was definitely struggling to move forward, but he was moving forward bit by bit, refusing to bend the knee to the prognosis the doctors had given him, and so far he had already astonished them tremendously with his progress – despite the insistence of his loved ones that he slow down and take it easy.

    Their engagement had been well received by everyone, nearly all of them giving well wishes somewhere in the realm of “It’s about damn time”. The ring that he’d given her so long ago – Yuna’s ring, as it turned out – had been moved over a finger on her hand to the appropriate place that Earthlanders used to indicate their marital status. Even though Mercury had been wearing it for over a year at this point, she had still caught herself looking at the piece of jewelry and smiling at it softly from time to time. In truth, she didn’t really feel free yet. She had removed her tracking device and pledged to fight against what was coming, no matter what it took, but that didn’t change the fact that Khelben and the Nazru were still out there, and someday they would catch up to her. Vandrad had promised she would never be a slave again, had promised that together they would meet the Nazru head on and liberate what was left of her people, but in order to do that they were going to need help from the others around them.

    Mercury was extremely nervous about having to go over her history from scratch with nearly everyone and reveal her dirty, shocking secrets. A part of her was convinced that someone was bound to be upset with her and unwilling to tolerate the truth. She knew that Vandrad’s family loved her and already considered her family, but there was no way of knowing if that would last after they learned that her entire purpose for being on the planet to begin with was to get all of them killed. Statistically speaking, someone was going to take serious offense to it, and to her, as much as she tried to let herself be reassured by Vandrad that they would understand. But she was still scared, and for that reason, as well as a few more altruistic ones, she had asked that they wait a few days before gathering everyone just so they would all have the chance to calm down from and cope with one crisis before moving on to another. In fact, that meeting was planned for tomorrow night.

    However, something was wrong. The day had started off like any other. Mercury had been staying with Vandrad every night since the start of his recovery, helping him as needed and doing what she could to get him to a point where he could start working out again. Like his family, she had cautioned him not to push himself too hard, but she had not been as firm on the matter as everyone else. She had faith that he knew his limits, even now, and her only request had been that he not push himself to the point of risking reinjury. Today, however, she’d needed to take care of a few things at Silver Wolf so once they were both up and running she’d given him a kiss and teleported over to the Phoenix Mountains, leaving him to his own devices for a time and knowing that she wouldn’t hear from him for at least an hour or two. One of his own proteges, Saffron, had stepped up almost immediately following the news to work out with Vandrad regularly to help get him back in shape. Mercury had only met her a few times, but she was a delightful and sexy young woman whose magic was also tied in with ethernano, so it seemed fitting that she be the one to work with the prince when Mercury wasn’t around.

    Since Saffron was going to be spending some time with Vandrad that morning, Mercury didn’t think anything of it until she got a concerning text from the blonde. Hey, did Vandrad have something to take care of before hitting the training room today?

    Mercury frowned as she read the message in her internal HUD. No, he went straight there this morning after we woke up. He wanted to get an hour or so in by himself before you got there. Is he not there?

    He was at some point. His shirt is here. But I’ve been here for about thirty minutes and there’s no sign of him. I already asked around with Mura and a few others. No one has seen him today, and he didn’t leave a message with anyone.

    That was not like Vandrad. Pulling up his contact information, she dialed his number and gave it a call. It rang twice before it answered, but it was not Vandrad on the other line. “It’s Saff. Looks like he left his phone here, too. It was under his shirt along with his wallet and shit.”

    “I’ll be right there.” Pulling out her translocation ray, she set the coordinates to the Fairy Tail guildhall and moved swiftly toward the training room where Saffron awaited her near Vandrad’s things. Picking up the items and looking through them, a feeling of dread washed over her. “This isn’t right. He would never leave his stuff here like this.”

    “Tell me about it. He’d never be this late, either. He grumbles at me if I’m even two minutes late to training.”

    “And no one has seen or heard from him?”

    Saffron shook her head. “I asked everyone. A couple people saw him enter the training room, but no one saw him leave. And if I’m being honest, this room is a bit cold. Usually it’s a fucking sauna in here from the sweat he works up, but it doesn’t feel like anyone has been in this room for a while.”

    Mercury swapped her eyesight to infrared and did a scan of the room to find that Saffron was right. Once they started working out in there the air became much warmer and a bit more muggy, but the temperature of the room was still pretty cold, and the humidity was low. Her gaze snapped back to Saffron with a concerned expression. “You don’t think anyone could get in here, do you?”

    The blonde frowned. “Like, someone that shouldn’t be in here? I seriously doubt it. Mura’s had this place wrapped up tighter than a hooker on the streets ever since that attack from Elysium. There’s no way anyone’s getting in and out of here unnoticed.” That did sound right. After all, Patty had said that not even the Dread Masters had been able to spy on them inside the guild halls, the magics on the buildings far too impenetrable for espionage. “You’re thinking someone got to him..? Like the ones that attacked him last time?”

    “I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out. Thank you for contacting me, Saff. Can you put his things back in his room, please? And if you find him, let me know right away.”

    “Will do. Same to you.”

    A few hours later, she found herself at the main lobby of the Rune Knights. So far her search had been fruitless, and the more time that passed the more she was convinced that something treacherous was afoot. Her anxiety was overwhelming, yet still overshadowed by the unbridled fury that was simmering within her. After a quick argument with Valorie at the front desk, she finally got permission to go up to the top floor where Serilda’s office was. The Voidwalker was there to greet her, standing to her feet the moment she felt Mercury approach the door. Victoria sat up in her seat on the couch by the window, closing her book and setting it down.

    “Have you found anything?” the voidwalker asked, lines of concerns etched in her face.

    Mercury shook her head. “Not yet. You?”

    “No. Mythal has the Knights mobilized in Magnolia and they are looking everywhere for clues, but so far no witnesses are stepping up about any strange activity in Magnolia.”

    “Tara kambleng..!” Swearing under her breath, Mercury threw herself into one of the armchairs across from Victoria and buried her face in her hands, doing her best to control the torrent of anxiety and rage that was churning within her. Serilda frowned curiously at the odd language that Mercury used but otherwise said nothing as she let her future sister-in-law express herself. “It’s like he just… disappeared into thin air! Maybe if he still had his magic that’d be believable, but..”

    Serilda sat down gently in the other armchair. “You think someone got to him. The Dread Masters..?”

    “Who else would it be? They already tried to kill him once and nearly succeeded. He’s vulnerable right now, and they know it. It’s the perfect opportunity to finish what they started…” Her hands were clenched into tight fists. All she could think was that she shouldn’t have left him alone. The last time she had left him alone was when the Dread Masters had gotten an opportunity to attack him in the first place, and now she was convinced they had struck again. “I just wish I had more to go off. It’s infuriating that I can’t find next to anything on them, even with all the stuff I’ve gathered so far.”

    “Did you tell Themmy..?”

    Mercury nodded. “Yes, I messaged her and Gren the same time I messaged you and Mythal, to see if they’d heard from him. They’re both pulling in their own resources to investigate, but we’ve still got nothing.”

    There was silence for a long, tense moment, the three women each processing the situation differently in their own minds. Ultimately, it was Victoria who shook her head. “The Midian girl that attacked Vandrad. What happened to her?”

    “She became slop for the pigs her family owned.”

    Serilda blinked, looking very much like she was hoping she hadn’t heard that sentence correctly, taken back by the visceral admission to the point that she really didn’t know how to react to it. She had always sensed that Mercury had a bit of a dark, sadistic side to her but she hid her thoughts and emotions so well that it wasn’t something she had ever really been exposed to. The first real evidence of it was when Mercury had shown up in that hospital absolutely coated in the shameless evidence of her act of genocide. Victoria, on the other hand, gave a soft sigh of resignation. “That’s a shame.”

    The Xocili frowned at her curiously. “Why do you say that?”

    “I can do a lot with a person’s blood,” the seal explained. “If there had been anything left of her, I could have used her blood to search through her memories. You said she was taken in and tortured and experimented on by the Dread Masters. Perhaps that could have shown us something, if there had been anything left. But considering the state you were in, I get the feeling it would be nearly impossible to have deciphered her blood from that of the othe–”

    Mercury quickly sat forward as Victoria spoke, cutting the woman off. “How fresh would the blood need to be?”

    Victoria raised a brow. “It need not be fresh at all. It just needs to be blood.”

    “So, theoretically…. If I had, say… kept her head…”

    “Mercury..!” Serilda looked utterly aghast by the thought.

    “Look, there was tech in it. The Engineer hardwired her brain and I wasn’t going to throw away an opportunity to reverse engineer his work to learn potentially critical details about him and his work. “

    The princess shifted uncomfortably in her spot, clearly not a fan of the act but also understanding the logic. “I suppose…” she conceded.

    “If you do have her head and there is blood with it, I can work with that.”

    Mercury wasted no time. With the wave of her hand, she conjured the metal box that she’d stored with her victim’s cranium. Pulling the lid off, she held it out to the Seal. “How much do you need?”

    “Just a drop,” the older woman informed her, dipping her hand inside and swiping a finger’s worth of crimson plasma on the pad of the digit. Serilda grimaced slightly as she watched Victoria put the ichor to her lips and taste it, still very much not a fan of the entire process but unable to deny how handy the ability was. Mercury closed the box back up and dismissed it, watching the Seal eagerly as Victoria closed her eyes and began to search through the dead woman’s most recent memories.

    Serilda was able to read alongside the woman too, the two of them sharing one mind. As a result, both women saw the scene of Sabine’s death from her eyes, the setting of carnage that Mercury had set out for the woman. It was a frightening and disturbing image to behold, but for now it was tucked away and ignored as Victoria went back further. All the while, the Xocili sat and tried to be as patient as possible.

    “Hm. There’s some sort of bunker underground. Similar to where we were with the Order, but more active. There’s guards on patrol. Lots of labs and technology. I see… a man in a mask, fully covered. Most of her memories are of him standing over her and performing experiments on her, so I presume that’s the Engineer.” She was silent for a long moment sifting through the memories back and forth and looking for any bit of a clue. After several long minutes she sighed and opened her eyes. “I’m sorry, there wasn’t anything that could tell me where it was located. There was nothing distinctive inside the base that she saw, and everything the Engineer spoke of just involved his research. There were no clues that might tell us where they were.”

    So she was back to square one. Mercury growled and beat her fist down on the arm of her chair. For a moment she’d had some hope but it had quickly been ripped from her once again and now despair was beginning to settle in. Vandrad needed her, and even with all her skills as a spy she couldn’t even find him! The emotional spiral was quickly gaining speed, her eyes darting frantically around the room as she sought for something, anything.

    Finally she stopped, a curious frown touching her face as her gaze flicked back up to the Seal. “How did you know the bunker was underground?”

    “There was a brief moment when she was brought to the bunker where I could see the entrance. However, it was just set in the base of a mountain range. There are hundreds of such places on Ishgar, and with no distinctive landmarks in the area it would be almost impossible to narrow down a single such range.”

    “I can work with ‘almost’ impossible. What did it look like? Is there anyway you can describe it to me?”

    “Well, I…” The Seal stopped and sighed, earnestly wanting to but there really wasn’t any way to describe a mountain that wouldn’t make it sound like every other mountain in existence, particularly when there wasn’t anything immediately distinctive about it. “There was a lot of snow and ice, but that narrows it down very little. That could still be anywhere in Fiore, or Iceberg, Stella… Seven… even Bosco and Pergrande.”

    “Hang on.” Sitting forward with an idea in her head, Serilda closed her eyes again and drew the shared memory back up, freezing the image of the bunker’s entrance in her mind. Holding out her hands with one on top of the other, palms facing each other with a bit of space between them, two circular runes of black energy materialized between her hands and began to spin. Ice began to take form between them as she utilized her ice and void magics together to form as close of a replica as she could to the view of the mountain range that they had from what Sabine had seen.

    When she finished, Mercury studied the fabrication carefully, analyzing every angle and jut of the mountain’s peaks and throwing out a search through the web, commanding her processors to single out images online that had similar key shapes. It took a minute or two due to how many pictures she had to sift through, but she quickly compiled enough hits on a mountain range in Iceberg that was an exact match. “This actually helped me tremendously,” she told them, the spirit back in her step as the hunt was on once again. “This should point me in the right direction. Thank you so much, both of you.”

    Standing to her feet, she turned to leave. “Mercury!” Serilda’s voice caused the lavender haired woman to pause, turning to look back. “You don’t need to do this alone. Please, let us go with you.”

    Mercury stood there for a moment, giving serious consideration to the offer. If she gathered a small force of even just Serilda, Mythal, Themmy, and Gren alone, that would be more than enough to send the Dread Masters rocking on their heels. She certainly couldn’t deny that every single one of them had a right to put the malevolent order in its place. Ultimately, she sighed. “I want to, but… no. If we strike in force and overwhelm them, they may do something rash in response to being backed in a corner. If I’m going to get any information at all, I need them to feel comfortable and like they are in charge. As far as I am aware, they should not see me as too much of a threat. They know I’m strong – they’ve watched me keep up with Vandrad and they know my skills in engineering run deep… but outside of a few bits of information here and there, they know next to nothing about me. In comparison to you and Mythal and Themmy… I can’t imagine I’m viewed very seriously as a threat. And that will work to my favor.”

    Serilda watched her quietly, clearly unhappy with the situation but ultimately nodding. “I understand. Just…. Please be careful. And don’t go rushing into anything. You won’t help Vandrad that way. Trust me, I know..” The voidwalker hung her head slightly as she referred back to her outburst from when Faera was trying to take over Mythal from the inside, and the way she had tried to jump straight into action without much of a plan. Not one of her finer moments, and while her idea had become a major part of the plan she could have seriously doomed all of them by throwing caution to the wind and not approaching with a level head. She didn’t want Mercury to do the same.

    The Xocili nodded her understanding gently. “Thank you. I’ll be as careful as I can. I promise.” With one last glance at both women, she turned back toward the door and left.

    It was well past nightfall by the time Mercury had set all the pieces in place. Once she knew where she was going, it had not taken long to get there, but scoping the area out had been another matter entirely. Before she could get anywhere near the entrance she’d had to scan the area for magical wards and other devices that might have been able to detect her before she even could make it to the door. Then she had to find a way to get a rough readout of the structure with her drones so she could get an idea of the bunker’s depth and the bodies within. And while the task had been one she could more than accomplish, it was not done with the same ease as she could do with nearly any other facility on Earthland. In fact, if she hadn’t already gathered so much of the Engineer’s tech to study over the last several weeks, she may not have been able to do it at all. Or at the very least, it would have taken her much longer than it did.

    But between her skills in espionage, her stealth suit, her magic and gadgetry, and her insurmountable patience, she had managed to make her way inside the bunker without being detected. Mercury had waited until the end of the day when most of the scientific crew had gone home, leaving only a skeletal group of guards. She had done as thorough a search of the place as she could manage, looking for any clues or signs of Vandrad and finding infuriatingly little about the prince, though there was certainly plenty else around that was worth taking an interest in – particularly things that would give her more insight into the Engineer.

    However, all of that paled in comparison to what she truly wanted, and with little to show regarding Vandrad directly, she decided it was time to start some of her more aggressive steps. And so she set herself up in what appeared to be the head office of the building, sitting in the chair behind the large desk there, her legs propped on the table’s surface comfortably as she leaned back very much like she belonged there. Mercury had purposefully set off the silent alarm in the room only moments ago, knowing that someone was bound to respond sooner rather than later. Until then, she lounged lazily and read from one of the ancient looking tomes she had plucked from a shelf, waiting to see what company would arrive to greet her…

    WORDS: 3724 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Vandrad Ragnos
    Vandrad Ragnos

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Traveller of the Multiverse
    Position : None
    Posts : 791
    Guild : Fairy Tail
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 8,079,192

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Energy Monarch
    Second Skill: Ark of the Dread Masters
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Vandrad Ragnos 19th December 2021, 2:29 pm

    Before there can be creation
    ( There must first be destruction )
    Where You Are CixfMoUa_o
    As it turned out, Mercury was not the only one hunting for answers.

    Scourge had kept a close eye on Vandrad after his near-death experience. Utilizing the more outlier abilities of Energy Monarch, the Dread Master had masterfully disguised himself as hospital staff and visitors to the Fairy Tail guild. He never pushed his luck -- disguised as an actual member was far too risky, considering all that had happened. But it was very easy to pick up one information being haphazardly discussed around a guildhall. After all, when the Ace of a wizard guild is attacked, it attracts a lot of attention.

    But Scourge was far more concerned with any follow up attempts on Vandrad's life. Maker was becoming more bold and more unpredictable with every new scheme. The alien was proving to be a nuisance rather than an aid in recent days and Scourge couldn't discount the scientist circling back to the prince to "clean up a mess". That wouldn't do; despite his objection, Scourge hadn't given up on winning Vandrad to his side. He only saw the dark parts of the Dread Masters without taking a moment to consider the deeper possibilities. More good than bad would occur in the long run and frankly, the prince could help get them back on the right path. With that in mind, he wouldn't allow Maker to succeed where he'd failed prior. At the very least, Mercury Arseneault had guaranteed that the Midian crackpot wouldn't figure into the issues any longer.

    So Scourge kept his ear to the ground, intent on routing out any plots and undermining them immediately. And yet something had happened that had flustered the Dread Master. What Scourge had never explained to Vandrad -- what he hadn't had time to explain -- was that he and the prince were connected. Both Energy Monarch and the Ark were intrinsically linked and that, in turn, connected the two men. Within a certain proximity, Scourge could sense Vandrad’s vital signs and he partially paired to his emotional core. Vandrad wouldn't know about it because, as Scourge had been told himself, it was an aspect that needed explanation. It wasn't like to be discovered through accident, though if anyone were like to accomplish that feat, it would be Vandrad. But it was because of this connection that Scourge was able to keep tabs on the prince without having to be too close to draw suspicion. And it was that link that made the Dread Master aware that something had happened.

    One moment, Vandrad had been in a room within Fairy Tail. He was stressed, exerting more physical strength than his body was like to lend. No doubt he was trying to relight the flame of his magic. But then Scourge had felt something -- a rush of power unlike anything he'd sensed before. And then, in the next instant, Vandrad was gone. The Dread Master felt a rush of panic overwhelm as he suddenly realized that the connection had been severed. Fearing the worst, he locked onto the last place he had picked up Vandrad's presence and then, throwing caution to the wind, teleported himself into the training room.

    He was gone. There was no body nor presence of any kind of weapon that may have vaporized the prince. Good signs but still worrisome. All of his belongings were left without a care, untouched and unbothered. The Dread Master frowned. If this was Maker's doing, then the alien had used some new device that Scourge knew nothing about. Cursing to himself, Scourge fled from the place, so as not to leave evidence and lay false blame on himself. But that did not mean it wouldn't come anyways; after all, who better to be the primary suspect than those that had most recently made an attempt on Vandrad's life?

    He had to get ahead of this as quickly as he could while still hiding his intentions. If Maker had made a play, he wasn't like to come out and reveal it. The alien was far too enamored with his own intellect and cunning to simply brag outright. As such, Scourge returned to his required duties -- checking in and going out his usual responsibilities. He raised no fuss nor alarm, acting as if the day was as usual as any other. And once night had fallen, Scourge departed as he was known to. And yet, a clone made of magic was the only version of himself that departed, the convincing copy even managing to look as if it teleported rather than melting away. The real Scourge lay in wait within the shadows, Watchung quietly as the scientists departed and the guards tended their duties. It wasn't until a poor, unfortunate guard wandered too close to his hiding spot that the Dread Master acted. Within a second, he had trapped the man in shadows and sent him off to another part of the world. In that same instant, the visage of the guard formed itself on top of Scourge and he continued the man's path undeterred. That would, at the very least, allow him to move around fluidly without needing to stick to the shadows.

    He made his way down through the building until he came across a dead end. Once there, he placed his hand against the wall. A magic circle lit up beneath his flesh, analyzing it for security reasons. After a moment, a divide appeared in the solid stone and parted, opening up into a hidden computational laboratory. "Now then, Maker," Scourge spoke softly in his disguise. "Let's see what you've been up to."

    The guard wouldn't have the clearance to look at the sensitive information that Scourge sorely needed to check. Luckily for the Dread Master, he'd watched the alien work for quite some time. He was able to access some of the backdoor routes into secure folders, though not nearly as deeply as he hoped. Still, it provided insight into what Maker had been actively engaging it. What he found was… terrible. Even by standards he'd been raised with and witnessed, the experiments that the alien had been running were inhumane. Yet despite all of that, there was no mention of Vandrad anywhere, other than references back to other projects and operations. Scourge frowned in frustration: perhaps it was something that Maker was hiding behind better firewalls? Or was it possible that he didn't have anything to do with Vandrad's disappearance?

    Just then he felt his early alert system begin to signal him about a silent alarm. But before it even made it through a full vibration, it shut off. Almost as if someone had activated it but it had been intercepted before he was notified. If he'd been farther away from the base, it may not have activated at all. Bringing his wrist up, he glanced at the readout of the location on the wristband. It was in the same base but… a few levels above him? What was going on?

    The room in which Mercury had taken up residence was oddly silent for a few precious seconds, despite her tripping the silent alarm. The clock ticked onwards, each passing swing providing no answer or reaction from the guards that had surely been notified of the intrusion. But after that period of time, the back wall behind her flicked on, revealing that it was a video screen the entire time. And standing in full view of the camera, with his mask on, was the Engineer. “Well, well… if it isn’t Miss Arseneault?” the Engineer asked, his voice light with humor and amusement, despite the voice modulator. “Or would you prefer the future Mrs. du Wolff? I am quite sure those two options are much more preferable over what the Nazru refer to you as. I must admit that I was surprised to learn that someone had so incredibly broken through my encryptions. Not many have the technical expertise that I claim to have. I had considered that my former partner, Doctor Reeves, was far more brilliant that I gave her credit for and went along believing that she, solely, was responsible for breaking into my network. But once I saw you in Midi, so heinously punishing my test subject, I understood.”

    Loud, metallic clanks echoed throughout the room and the walls began to shift ever so slightly. In fact, they seemed to be sliding downwards into the floor, revealing that they had been nothing more than panels protecting a storage area behind them. “I had anticipated that you might find your way to this place. Cross-analyzing your connections on Earthland, along with all the evidence Sabine’s head provided, I wondered if you might eventually bring yourself to ask Serilda Sinclair to assist you in backtracking to the source of the woman’s… enhancements. Fascinating phenomenon, that blood magic. In fact, the whole existence of magic is both confounding and awe-inspiring, isn’t it? For people like you and I, science is everything and yet this phenomenal force can outdo most anything we birth from paper to metal. And yet here you are; the very epitome of flesh and metal formed into a living being. I do wonder, dear survivor, how much the Nazru would pay to know your location? Then again, I would have to hasten my own experiments; no doubt they would see this planet and it's culture and see something they must destroy. But the possibility is still there.”

    The alien shifted slightly as the walls continued to descend around her. Liquid bubbling could be heard just beyond the barrier, as if something was being funneled into something else. “But look at me, talking on and on. I’m sure you came here for your own reasons, with your own questions. I shan’t be the rude host and not allow my guest a few moments to ask her own queries. After all, you came all this way. The floor is yours, Miss Arseneault.”






    Words: 1651 | Tag: @Mercury Arseneault |© marzia at shine & gs.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
    Position : None
    Posts : 690
    Cosmic Coins : 0
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 7,124,425

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 19th December 2021, 6:24 pm

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    While there wasn’t an immediate reaction to the alarm she had tripped, Mercury knew it wouldn’t be long before she had some company. She had activated the alarm and immediately silenced it again, leaving it open just long enough that only the most keen of individuals would have noticed it, while the guards around would not. Afterall, the Xocili was looking for a very specific play date today, and it would be quite the bother to have anyone else interfering.

    And luckily, her patience was rewarded. The lighting the room shifted as the wall behind her revealed itself to be a monitor, the device flicking on to reveal the masked form of the very man she’d been hoping to snag. His voice filled the room and she turned slowly on the swivel of the chair with the most self satisfied grin on her face. “Ah, my favorite engineer! How nice to finally have a two way conversation with you,” she interjected politely after his greeting.

    He wasted no time in revealing that he knew what she was, referencing the Nazru almost right off the bat and drawing a deeper, more knowing smirk from the woman. Frankly, she’d have been disappointed if he hadn’t managed to put her identity together by now, and she’d known that if anyone was going to suss her out and identify her it would be this mysterious other alien who seemed almost as technologically involved as she was. He admitted his surprise in having found someone that was able to filter through his encryptions so thoroughly, having at first assumed that he had simply been discrediting Patty’s own abilities until he got a closer look at Mercury in Midi and realized the truth.

    “Well, to Patty Cake’s credit, she is more brilliant than you gave her credit for. But if it makes you feel any better, I was quite surprised to find that mainframe of yours when I broke into her office. It had been quite some time since I’d been given a real challenge. Took me almost a full twenty minutes to get everything I wanted. You should be proud of yourself.” It was at that moment that the room got a fair bit more noisy, metallic clanks and claps as gears and mechanisms fell into place. Mercury turned her head slightly to observe the room, her sensors indicating that she was travelling downward, as though the room were an elevator.

    He spoke up about how he’d expected that she’d find her way there, given her rather lofty connections in Earthland, particularly with Serilda. It wasn’t his remark about Mercury knowing the field marshal that got a reaction out of her, of course. It was only natural that they were aware of Vandrad’s relationship with Mythal and that the four of them spent quite a bit of time together. What did earnestly surprise her was his admission that he knew about Serilda’s blood magic. Mercury’s smirk faded slightly, her eyes narrowing on the faceless figure in the monitor. Well that was troubling. Seeing as how he was more than happy to continue rambling, however, the Xocili simply sat there and let him speak without interruption as he explained that he knew that Serilda would be able to use her blood magic to read Sabine’s memories and help Mercury find this place.

    As he went on about magic in general and the phenomenon it was to non Earthlander’s such as themselves, Mercury’s mind was busy reading through the cracks in his words. This man certainly was every bit the egoist that Patricia had claimed, arrogant and believing himself smarter than everyone else around him. So much so, in fact, that he liked to flaunt it. He clearly was the type that enjoyed revealing that he knew things he should not, preferring to rub his genius in others’ faces rather than keeping his hand covered. She calculated that there was a seventy-nine percent chance that the Engineer didn’t know about Victoria’s existence or the Seal’s connection with Serilda.

    The alien went on to ponder how interested the Nazru might be in knowing there was a survivor of her race out there, causing Mercury to chuckle lightly. Standing to her feet, she wandered over to one of the walls at a casual gait, rapping on it with the back of her knuckles and giving it a light inspection. “Well, you are more than welcome to try contacting them, if that’s truly how stupid you wish to be. I have no doubts that they would send out a hunting party to locate me. They were rather passionate about destroying Xocil. It wasn’t just our technological affinity that they despised. See, with my people it was personal. Our very existence as beings that were both organic and synthetic was heretical to the point of offense. As soon as they learned about us, they hunted us down with extreme prejudice.”

    Swapping her vision to x-ray, she peered beyond the walls to see quite the surprise. There were bodies all around the perimeter of the room. They were propped up and held perfectly still, seemingly inside some kind of pods or laid up against some vertical gurneys of sorts. Her thermal vision and other sensors informed her that the bodies were completely dead, their temperatures cold with no vital signs to speak of. However, there was some strange liquid being fed to them by tubes that were also running through the walls. There was no way to identify the liquid, of course – not without being able to get her hands on some of it. But she could only assume that it wouldn’t be long before the bodies were mobile.

    Moving along the room, she turned and wandered toward another wall as she continued talking. “However, you and I both know that the Nazru would hardly let you walk free. You would become just as much of a target. Crafty as you may be, you are no match for them… and I highly doubt you want their attention.” She glanced back at him over her shoulder, giving him another little smirk.

    The Engineer spoke up again as though realizing he’d been rambling, acknowledging that she must have come for a reason. He claimed not wanting to be rude to his guest and gave her a moment to ask whatever questions she had. “Ah, intelligent and a gentleman. I am in rare company, indeed.” Clasping her hands behind her back comfortably, she continued to pace leisurely about the room. “So are you ugly, or something? It just seems silly that you persist in wearing that mask of yours at a time like this. It’s not like neither of us don’t know the other isn’t human. You hardly have anything to hide from me, darling. Unless, of course, you’re someone I might recognize.”

    Now, there was an idea. Turning to face him fully with the look of a woman that had just put together a few pieces of a puzzle, she sauntered lightly back toward the monitor. “How interesting. You’re hiding out on this planet just as much as I am, but you don’t blend in with the locals as seamlessly as I do. So what kind of people are out there beyond the stars looking for you, then? I can only imagine the types of enemies you’ve made in your line of work.” Her tone conveyed that she didn’t really expect him to answer such questions, the woman more so just speaking and theorizing out loud. Unfortunately, she would not be able to get a read on his vitals without him being physically in front of her, so there was no way to gain some insight on his reactions, but it was still a strong theory nonetheless.

    “It's a shame, really. If only you had found me a couple years ago when I was fresh to the planet. I don't think it would have taken much at all to convince me to join your little... oh, what's that religious word I'm looking for... cult? Yes, that's the one. I can only imagine the kind of scientific breakthroughs you and I could achieve if we put our heads together." Moving on, she came back around the desk and rolled the chair out of the way so she could lean up against the lip of the table. “I am genuinely curious about my new friends you’ve got for me back here, though,” Mercury said, nodding toward one of the walls. “Are they here to collect me for you? We both know you’re not going to kill me. Sure, I’d still be valuable as a corpse, but you’d learn far more about me by keeping me alive for whatever exciting little experiments I’m sure you’ve got lined up for me. If you’re expecting me to fight, you needn’t bother. This little video session is pleasant and all, but I’d much rather get to  know you more intimately in person. I’d have come willingly, if you asked. Maybe in more ways than one.”

    An impish little smirk spread across her face, the woman truly unable to help herself from being a flirt, even with a man that she very much wanted dead. If anything, that made the banter more fun. “Oh, and I do have one more question…” Mercury informed him, flicking her wrist and conjuring a small knife, twirling it expertly between her fingers as her emerald gaze settled on him with a polite and malicious smile.

    “Where are you keeping Vandrad?”

    WORDS: 1586/5310 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Vandrad Ragnos
    Vandrad Ragnos

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Traveller of the Multiverse
    Position : None
    Posts : 791
    Guild : Fairy Tail
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 8,079,192

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Energy Monarch
    Second Skill: Ark of the Dread Masters
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Vandrad Ragnos 19th December 2021, 7:47 pm

    Before there can be creation
    ( There must first be destruction )
    Where You Are KkN88HJx_o

    “Twenty minutes for a Xocili to break into my mainframe. I am honored. I believed myself working with monkeys swinging wrenches and yet, I continue to be surprised,” The Engineer took the compliments to his design well, his head even bowing a bit respectfully to her words. If he was merely making a mockery of her jabs or was genuinely pleased that he’d flummoxed her for any amount of time was hard to tell and, frankly, irrelevant. These were but the opening words in what was surely going to be a competition of words, knowledge and ego -- a true battle that the Engineer hadn’t truly experienced yet. As he continued to talk about magic and its effectiveness, the thought occurred to him to possibly let the Nazru know of her location. That seemed to peak her curiosity as she went to inspect the walls that had been slowly descending the entire portion of their conversation. She told him he was welcome to do so, though she commented that it would be a stupid strategy. They would send people to find her and went on a bit about how they had focused so hard on Xocil and its people. She gave him a bit of a history lesson -- one he didn’t fully need but was altogether pleased to receive at the same time. After all, it never hurt to hear more from one’s enemies; it could provide a clear answer needed in the future.

    But, she clarified, the Nazru wouldn’t simply scoop her up and go. The Engineer’s presence would call more than enough attention to keep the conquerors focus on the world and she insisted he wouldn’t stand a chance against them. He smiled behind his mask, amused at the notion, even if he didn’t entirely agree with it. It was true, he was sure that by himself, the Nazru would prove more than a challenge but then again, he was hardly alone. If he slipped information to the Dread Masters or even the Order of Souls, they would be up in arms to fight against the oppressive force. That would buy him plenty of time to make his escape, if the battle didn’t seem to swing his way. But he had no intention of informing her of that… after all, he couldn’t be giving her ideas.

    Once he had talked a bit, he offered the floor to her, not wanting to hog all of the attention. After all, they both had been long looking forward to this moment and it would hardly be fair to keep the spotlight completely on himself. She appreciated it but opted to speak plainly about his mask, asking if he was ugly beneath it. To her, it didn’t make sense to keep hiding his features; they both knew the other wasn’t human, there wasn’t much to keep hidden, unless he was someone she would know. That sparked an idea and she turned back to look at him. She puzzled it out, it seemed. She stated that he must be hiding on the planet like her but he couldn’t disguise himself like she could. It made her curious as to who could be looking for him, as his line of work was bound to make him plenty of enemies. And rather than remain silent on the matter or rebuke her insinuations, he chuckled. “Observant and intelligent -- you are truly a beacon of your people’s abilities. I am hiding out on this planet, yes; from several enemies to be sure. And while my looks are not humanoid enough to allow me to walk freely, I’d hardly call myself ugly, though I suppose that is up to the observer. Unfortunately, my dear, I am not some fairy tale villain who assumes I’m going to be victorious and, thereby, monologues and reveals his face. With my intelligence comes experience and I’m not as arrogant as to believe in checkmate until the pieces are rightly in their place. Besides, it’s been so long since I’ve had someone who seems like they can keep up with me. It would be heartbreaking to lose them so early into the game, wouldn’t you agree?”

    Mercury continued, admitting that if they had met up some years prior when she had come to the planet, she may have signed on to work with him within the ‘cult’ as she labeled it. She lamented the lost opportunity to work together on a project. “Indeed. These cultists are a bit wild in their beliefs but they serve their purpose. But you and I would have made, if you’ll excuse the ironic pun, magic together.” She walked back to the table and then nodded over to the walls, inquiring about the friends that he had provided for her. She wondered if they were there to gather her up for his own means, as she couldn’t possibly believe that he wanted her dead. Though valuable as a cold body, there were far more fun things they could learn from one another if she was still alive -- especially if he was interested in experimenting with her. She promised not to fight, as she very much wanted to see him in person and admitted that she would have simply come to him if he’d asked. “These are some new experiments I was hoping to test out on you. I even designed them specifically for you, after your little excursion to Midi. As for what they intend to do… I have no idea. You see, you left a lot of matter for me to work with.” As he spoke of it, the walls finally finished their descent. Behind them were, in fact, tanks but ones that looked more like metal suits for a human body. Though there was only one glass port on the top half of the tank, Mercury would clearly be able to see completely sanitized skulls. “The skeletal remains of the Hotoi family and their guards. Not much to look at, I’ll admit but I did have to spend time stripping the flesh from their bones. The liquid, which you can hear pumping in from the walls, is composed of that material… along with some necromantic and transmutational sigils.” The tanks hissed loudly as the purple liquid filled the entirety of the tubes. The skeletons hidden behind them began to jerk and twist, glowing flesh beginning to materialize over the bone. “As I said, the magic of this world throws the natural circulation of life into delightful chaos. Though one may die, the body can reanimate with a little spark. And though I can’t proclaim that simple necromancy can bring a soul back into a body, transmuting pure rage into the syrup can really help a body focus its aggression.”

    Mercury did have one additional query, bringing forth a knife and twirling it as she stared at him. She requested to know where he’d planted Vandrad. A pause. “And why should I tell you?” But unfortunately for the Engineer, it had been a very pregnant pause -- a mistake he rarely made. Indeed, it had been the addition of the mask that had hidden his surprise from the question but the moment he took to hear it and process it had been telling enough. Mercury would know, very clearly, that the Engineer didn’t have Vandrad and, worse yet, he seemed just as surprised as she was at any mention of him disappearing. More sounds of metal clamps sliding into place, as the room was completely and utterly sealed tight. “If you wouldn’t mind indulging my curiosity -- and if you survive -- I may provide an answer at the end.”

    At that point, his experiments had finished processing. Sneering, snarling humanoid creatures, glowing purple with shining eyes, stepped down from their platforms, still clad in their metal forms. They focused on Mercury, the group surrounding her on either side, their instinctive need to kill the only thing operating in their mind. One hasty monster got impatient and began to charge, its speed somehow enhanced as well and pushing it well past superhuman capacities. But as it leaped into the air and towards her, a figure came rushing out from the dark, already unfolding itself into an attack. A heavy punch slammed into the protective glass, breaking through the barrier before the rest of the hand followed through and sent the experiment sailing into the wall, embedding it into the metal.

    Landing on the ground a few feet from Mercury was Scourge, giving his hand a shake and chuckling. “For a man that claims to have a fair number of harems, you sure don’t know how to treat a lady to a first date,” the Dread Master remarked, flicking his gaze to Mercury and smirking before looking up at Maker.

    “Scourge…” the Engineer’s voice seemed polite enough but it had lost a decent amount of its friendliness that was present when talking to Mercury. “Listening in on a private conversation? Am I that untrustworthy now?”

    “Well once I realized Vandrad had gone missing, the only suspect I had in my book was you. I decided to stick around and see if you were planning any late night experiments with our dear prince. Imagine my surprise to find his fiance here instead. But that presented another opportunity -- one for me to listen in and see if I could pick up on any of your tells. And here you are, revealing that you have no idea where Vandrad is either.” Scourge laughed. “Apparently I gave you more credit than you deserve.”

    “As did I, you. The room is sealed, Scourge. And I have no control over those experiments… not that I would hold them back anyways. It seems you share the same fate as our dear Mercury.” Now his amusement returned.

    “I’m not aiming to get any further on Vandrad’s bad side so I decided to cut in,” Scourge remarked, looking back to Mercury and shooting her a wink. “Besides, I haven’t paid you back for your going behind my back… Maker.”

    The Engineer stiffened, if only slightly. “You best have other tricks up your sleeve than hiding in shadows and making decoys then. Your usual tactics won’t work against these.”

    Scourge hummed. “Hmm. I suppose not. Well then, perhaps something different then?” The Dread Master’s arms tucked in at his sides and the air began to crackle around him. Summoning his magic up from inside, it poured off of him like a gust of fresh wind, growing bolder and more colorful. Golden energy wrapped up around his entire form and overtook his body. As it settled into an ebbing blaze, the Dread Master’s black hair had lifted up into stiff, golden points -- not unlike how Vandrad’s hair changed color. Now with shining teal eyes, Scourge lashed his arm out away from him and formed a long, thin whip of golden magic. “So what do you say, Mercury? I know I’m a bit of a stranger but sometimes the unknown can be so much more fun when it comes to dance partners.” It was his way of offering what appeared to be a temporary truce, if only to cut their way through the experiments and get out of the room.






    Words: 1866/3517 | Tag: @Mercury Arseneault |© marzia at shine & gs.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
    Position : None
    Posts : 690
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    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 20th December 2021, 6:17 pm

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    It seemed that he was just as willing to share a few vague details, the two of them far too entranced by their own budding hatred with one another to do anything but be ironically friendly with the other. She surmised aloud her theory that he was in hiding, much like she was, and he indulged her with the truth after complimenting her own keen sense of observation. He hardly considered himself ugly, though that wasn’t really up to him to determine, however he did inform her that he was not the type to fall into the lines of the villains of fantasy that were wont to reveal themselves and assume victory before it was truly won. “I’d be disappointed if you were,” was her only playful interjection before he admitted how much he was looking forward to battling wits and intelligence with someone on par with him.

    She spoke up to admit how different things might have been if they had met sooner, and to no surprise the Engineer agreed. He – much like Mercury – viewed the Dread Masters as being a bit dramatic, but they served the purpose for which he needed them and he seemed to be of the same mindset that the two of them would have made quite the dangerous pairing had things turned out differently.

    Mercury asked about the bodies behind the walls and he delightfully explained that they were experiments he was hoping she would be willing to lend a hand with. In fact, he’d designed them especially for her, though even he didn’t truly know what they would do or what they were capable of. “Well, those are the best kind of experiments.” The walls dropped to reveal the tanks. They were mostly metal but there was enough glass to show the skeletal frames within that had been picked clean of the muscles and organs that had once clung to their frames. In fact, these particular bodies were the ones belonging to the Hotoi family that Mercury had murdered, along with the guards she had felled. The liquid, he informed her, was made up of their left over flesh and magical sigils of the necromantic and transmutational variety.

    “Oooo, that’s the good shit.” Admittedly, she hadn’t done too much with necromantic work with Silver Wolf. They had a few items worth studying, of course, so she had some knowledge, but even on a planet such as this necromancy was not very common, and not very highly viewed, so it was hard to get their hands on such wares for study. Mercury watched as the liquid filled the tanks, knowing that she was probably not in the best of spots but the scientist in her was unable to help herself from studying the process as she watched new flesh begin to form over the bones. Very pretty,” she admitted, despite herself.

    Still, while this was all well and good, Mercury had come here for a reason and she was only willing to entertain a charade of cordiality for so long. Afterall, Vandrad was still missing and who knew what was happening to him while she played rival, so she elected to ignore the bodies as they completed their animation process to look up at him and ask him outright where he was keeping Vandrad. Mercury had been thoroughly convinced that the Dread Masters had been behind his disappearance, as there was no other logical conclusion, so she was caught completely off guard by the little pause that betrayed how he had not been expecting that question. Her expression did not change, but her heart practically felt like it had stopped. He clearly had no idea until she said something that Vandrad was even missing, and if that were the case…

    …then who had him?

    It was a big red strike on her best running lead, her only running lead, leaving her back in square one. Her mind was racing at a million miles a second and coming up empty. Had she come all this way and willingly sprung a trap for nothing? The Xocili wouldn’t have much time to think about it as she heard the room seal itself tight, trapping her inside. She frowned only slightly, glancing about the room and using her vision settings to note the mechanisms in question, analyzing them from afar to see what it would take to get them open even as the Engineer continued to move forward as if he knew more than he actually did, promising that he’d consider giving her “answers” if she indulged his test. And for now, Mercury was content to let him think he’d pulled a fast one over on her.

    “Very well, I’ll play with your dolls,” she informed him, turning to face the lot as they started stepping down from their tanks. “But once I’ve finished popping the heads off of all your Barbies, I expect you to act like a big boy and come play with me yourself.” Mercury waited patiently for the creatures to move first, locking her sensors onto each one so she could keep track of them even if she wasn’t looking directly at them. She could only assume that he was trying to get her to reveal more of her magic, and perhaps he would earn that kind of reward… but it was going to take some effort. Early warning sensors alerted her to one monster that was priming itself to charge her, the Xocili giving it a dark smirk as she twirled the knife between her fingers and reset the weapon in her grip.

    Just as it was charging her, however, something else happened. Someone seemed to be materializing out of the air nearby and, with no other assumption except that it was some trick on the Engineer’s part, Mercury swapped tactics on a dime, swinging the knife out and around to where the newcomer stopped almost before he’d even finished manifesting. Yet, with just as much control and flabbergasting reaction time, the knife stopped short of Scourge even as he threw his fist through the corpse that had attempted to charge her, sending it flying into the far wall where it practically became one with the decor. While her attack may have stopped, however, she did not back down from the guarded stance, her emerald eyes locked on the other Dread Master that she had yet to meet.

    He chuckled with casual amusement as he chastised the Engineer for not respecting Mercury as a lady, something he claimed his masked buddy should have known how to do given the supposed harems the Engineer had. His own gaze flicked to her with a smirk at the remark, and she only narrowed her own at him slightly, her expression unreadable for the moment. Instead, she listened in as the Engineer spoke up in surprise at Sourge’s appearance, berating him for eavesdropping, to which the Dread Master straight out admitted that the Engineer was also his top suspect as to the one responsible behind Vandrad’s disappearance.

    Which meant that not even Sourge knew where Vandrad was, though it was worth noting that he knew Vandrad was missing and had known before listening in on the conversation. He had supposedly come there that night expecting to find the prince as the unfortunate recipient of the Engineer’s testing, only to be surprised by finding Mercury instead. However, it seemed he had also picked up on the man’s failed lie, calling him on it outright and lamenting that he’d overestimated his associate. Apparently, the feeling was mutual. The Engineer informed Scourge that the room was sealed, the implication being that his ethernano magic would not be enough to allow the Master a way out as he was now supposedly stuck in the room with Mercury.

    However, seemed Scourge’s main concern was not getting any further on Vandrad’s bad side, and as such that meant he was there to help Mercury – at least, for the moment. And as far as Mercury could tell, he was telling the truth. All that did was make the situation all the more concerning. If neither of these halfwits knew where Vandrad was, then the only thing she was doing here was wasting time. She was on the verge of considering a vanishing act that she’d set up as a failsafe for this mission, but before she could commit herself to it Scourge spoke up with a couple things that caught her attention. The first was the knowledge that the Engineer had apparently gone behind his back about something that Scourge had taken offense to, which meant there was a little trouble in paradise, so to speak. And the other was to reveal that the Engineer’s real name was…

    There was only a brief second of processing before Mercury visibly perked up at the sound of Maker’s name, a small smile pulling on her lips as she seemed to reconsider Scourge with her eyes as though suddenly much more receptive to his presence. She even finally lowered the knife a bit. “Oh, now that is just too good!” Looking as pleased as a cat that had just stolen someone’s seat before they’d gotten a chance to sit down, Mercury turned slowly to look at Maker’s masked visage on the monitor with an extremely satisfied expression. “Maker… Yes, I do know that name. You’re a famously wanted man in the black… or at least, you were up until your presumed death. There are outstanding warrants for you on a few dozen planets. Thirty-seven, to be exact.”

    Feeling very much back in her element at this delightful little surprise, Mercury treated Scourge to the Vandrad treatment and leaned against him, moving carefully so he would know that at least for the moment she wasn’t planning on attacking him. He was much taller than Vandrad, so she had to stretch a little more to get her arm up on his shoulder, but the effect resulted in her just looking even more lounged out than she did even with the prince. Waving her knife in Maker’s general direction with the arm that she was leaning with, she tilted her head toward the Dread Master. “So how much of his rap sheet did he actually reveal to you? There’s quite a bit there. Illegal experimentation, illegal substances, possession to distribute… murder, theft, assault… Even a few war crimes. Those ones were particularly fun to read about.”

    “In fact, he spent many years on the top most wanted lists in the universe by several bounty hunting agencies, and they were offering top dollar to anyone willing to make an attempt at bringing him down because his kill rate of would be assassins was one hundred percent. Hunting this man was considered a suicide run up until someone eventually got lucky. Or at least, everyone thinks they did.” Mercury bit her lip lightly, almost sensually, through her delighted grin as the opportunity presented itself for her to turn the tables on him from their prior topic of conversation. “You’ve been covering up your continued existence for a few years, now. Just think of how annoying I could make your life with little more than a quick message to a few intergalactic law enforcement agencies.”

    It seemed that, for now at least, the time for talk was over. Scourge proclaimed his desire to help Mercury, conceding to Maker’s claim that it would take more than the dark haired man’s usual tricks to best these foes. As he made it clear that he was going to shake things up a bit, Mercury detached herself from Scourge and gave him enough space to call upon his own ethernano abilities. Similarly to Vandrad, a golden aura burst to life around him, his hair turning blonde and his eyes teal. It was standard fare to her at that point, and there was no point in acting surprised as they were both likely well aware that she knew about his affinity for Energy Monarch. Though, the whip was a fun new addition. He turned to her and seemed to offer a sort of truce for the moment, admitting to being a stranger but suggesting that their lack of proper interaction with one another would make the tango all the more fun.

    She studied him for a moment with an amused but unreadable expression before a gentle snort escaped her nostrils. “Is this really the best cover the two of you could come up with?” Mercury asked, accusing them in not so many words of some half assed plot to get her to drop her guard and distract her from the fact that they were both very much her enemy. “I don’t know if I should be more disappointed or insulted. But fine, if that’s the game you wish to play. I’m nothing if not… accommodating.” Her eyes roamed the taller man briefly before flicking back up to his with a dangerous smirk that promised all sorts of trouble. Without moving to hurt him in any fashion, she raised her knife and set the tip of it gently against his chest, slowly dragging it down his front as though she were envisioning carving him open from collar to navel. Or maybe it was his clothes she was mock cutting. From the look she was giving him, it could have been either. “But you are on my list just as much as he is… and when this is over, I will get answers about where you two have dragged off my fiance, whether you want to give them willingly or not.”

    Holding the stare for only a second or two longer, and pressing the tip of her dagger into his stomach just enough to confirm that it was quite sharp, she stepped back once more and waved the weapon out of existence. In exchange, she withdrew Mercy from the holster on her hip and immediately started blasting at the animated corpses.

    WORDS: 2324/7634 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Vandrad Ragnos
    Vandrad Ragnos

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Traveller of the Multiverse
    Position : None
    Posts : 791
    Guild : Fairy Tail
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 8,079,192

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Energy Monarch
    Second Skill: Ark of the Dread Masters
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Vandrad Ragnos 21st December 2021, 11:17 am

    Before there can be creation
    ( There must first be destruction )
    Where You Are KkN88HJx_o


    Now Scourge hardly expected Mercury to trust him. In fact, it wasn’t really trust that he was looking for -- he was very well aware there was little to nothing he could do to earn that in such a short amount of time. Adding into the fact that he’d been the last person Vandrad had seen from the organization before Sabine’s unfortunate case of stabbing and it complicated the whole matter. But the Dread Master had wormed his way through the dark and hidden himself cleverly among the shadows of Maker’s office. He’d been more than a little surprised to see Mercury there, though he probably should have given her more credit than that. If he was aware that the prince of Bellum was missing, no doubt his fiance would as well. Her standoff with Maker, if one could call it that, was a back and forth of witty remarks and clever observations from both sides, as they seemed more interested in testing one another’s pressure points more than anything else. It wasn’t until Maker revealed his newest experiments and then accidentally gave up the goose on his lack of knowledge of Vandrad's whereabouts that the Dread Master had gotten his own confirmation. In most usual circumstances, Scourge would have used that opportunity to escape but Maker had already sealed the room and, frankly, he was looking for a bit of an outlet.

    So he made his presence known, appearing out of the darkness and smashing the first experiment back into its home. He’d felt the knife split through the air, meant to impale him before he was able to launch an attack against her. He paid it no mind, opting to milk his moment and showcase his panache for the dramatic. He could practically feel Maker tense up at the sight of him, the self-proclaimed Engineer hardly expecting the Dread Master to be in the room, let alone attacking the experiments. Mercury remained on guard, unsure of what to make of the moment and his presence, staring at him and silently listening to the banter between the two ‘allies’. And she seemed quite content to continue that way until Scourge pulled out his ace up the sleeve - revealing the Engineer’s real name.

    It was a gamble but one that he was truly thankful he attempted. There was no guarantee that Mercury had any idea of who Maker was. Given her place as a hunted, near-extinct race, the Dread Master had theorized that she may have caught on more during her travels than she let on -- after all, that did seem to be how the Silver Wolf Ace liked to operate. All the Dread Masters knew was that Maker was an alien who had a reputation throughout the galaxy but, given that they couldn’t exactly set out and confirm said details, all they had to go on was what Maker provided himself. And oh, he could have danced as he watched the realization form in Mercury’s eyes and a sparkle of mischievous glee tugged at her lips and overcame her features. His gambit had paid off and he had to fight back the malicious, cocky grin that threatened to overwhelm his face as Mercury turned to Maker and confirmed she did, in fact, know who he was. It seemed the Engineer was a wanted man, though he had supposedly died at some point.

    The Dread Master watched as Mercury slipped back into her usual self, sauntering over to Scourge and then taking her time to lean up against him, much like she did Vandrad. He was unbothered by the motion, relaxed and at ease. She looked at him and wondered how much he actually knew about Maker, as there was quite a bit to get through. She rambled off a few of the charges off the top of her head, including war crimes. It seemed the alien was a bit notorious among the bounty hunting world as being a top catch -- every mercenary that had gone after him thus far had failed to bring him down. But eventually someone had lucked out or rather, had seemingly lucked out. Mercury was deeply enticed by the new knowledge, seeming to get a sensual thrill out of the reveal as she wondered aloud just how complicated she could make his life if she were to drop his whereabouts out into the great unknown. Scourge grinned. “Now, now, Maker… here we thought you were here for your own altruistic reasons,” the Dread Master mocked, practically performing the air quotes with his tone. “He didn’t let us in on any of the juicy details, the mute tease. I can only wonder what the rest of the Dread Masters would think about such a high profile target being in their ranks. I can’t imagine they’d be too pleased if authorities beyond the world’s borders came snooping around, making a mess of things. Not the kind of attention they’re looking to attract -- along with the attempted assassination of a Bellum noble.” Mercury had provided plenty of ammo for Scourge to use against Maker and he was slinging it wild and free.

    For his part, Maker remained relatively silent while the two of them boasted and bragged about their knowledge. It was only after they had had their fun that he… chuckled. “You’re more than welcome to send the word out. But proof is the absolute of any undertaking and all you have is the words of a man looking for both a means to upset me and crumbs for his own personal goals. And once the so-called hunters find their hunts fruitless, they will demand recompense for the wasted effort and time. At that point, it falls to the provider of said information to make up the difference. A bold strategy but one that will result in nothing as well.” Whether he was merely talking down their attempts to bait him or not, it didn’t really matter in the end. Maker was quite sure it wouldn’t matter, as he spoke to Scourge and warned him that his usual tactics wouldn’t help him in the fight. The Dread Master countered the claim and powered himself up comparatively to Vandrad. Now with golden locks and a sinister grin, he manifested a whip made of magic and snapped it out as he looked to Mercury, offering his assistance.

    She seemed less than impressed, which frankly just harked back to her not trusting him. She wondered if this really was the best of their combined abilities, accusing them of working to get her to drop her guard. The Dread Master chuckled. “Can’t hardly blame the lady for mistrusting us. But things of this matter are hardly as black and white as they appear.” The Silver Wolf Ace continued, lamenting the possible insult to her intelligence but opting to go along with it anyways. But she then took a moment, looking him up and down and gently pressed the tip of her knife against his chest. The blade slid along the fabric of his clothes as she pulled it along, clearly fantasizing about either cutting him up, open or free of his covers. She told him that he was still on her list as much as Maker and that she fully intended on getting answers on Vandrad’s location, no matter if the information came willingly or otherwise. “Promises, promises, my dear Mercury. Threats like that can make a man quite excited. I brought this whip out for them but here you are, making yourself all sorts of attractive,” he told her, a wicked grin on his face as he didn’t blink or recoil from her knife, even as she pressed it against him just a bit more. He met her stare evenly, deeply amused and even slightly intrigued before she finally stepped back enough to dismiss her blade and bring up her firearm.

    In almost the same instant, Scourge spun around, dragging the whip behind him and lashing it against the closest experiment. The compressed magic ripped through the glass screen of the machine, shattering it and spraying liquid all over the ground, even as the whip wrapped around the magical corpse inside. With another jerk of his arm, Scourge ripped right through the flesh of the creature with the whip, decapitating it while it was still inside the pod. He turned around just in time to deflect a swing at his head, the whip taking the brunt of the hit. It caused the magical weapon to shatter but, as the particles started to dissolve, they instead reformed and took the form of a long, sharp scythe. Scourge grabbed the weapon by its hilt and then swung it vertically, bisecting the pod and creature into two different parts.

    Cackling madly, the Dread Master summoned the scythe into his arm and attached it to the limb. In one fluid motion, he quite literally danced about the room, dodging attacks and swinging his scythe at each creature that missed hitting him. Long, thing needles of magic erupted from the end of the scythe, stabbing into the backs and fronts of the experiments and knocking them off their feet. As Scourge finished his steps, he landed on both of his feet and then posed the blade above his head, while his free hand opened and then closed into a tight fit. The needles flashed and then exploded, swallowing up all the individual experiments that had been impaled and shredding them to pieces.

    With his side completely decimated, Scourge gave a gentle wave of his arm, causing the scythe to dissolve for real. Once Mercury had resolved her creatures, the Dread Master would grin as he looked back up at Maker. “Certainly not your best work, my friend.”






    Words: 1866/3517 | Tag: @Mercury Arseneault |© marzia at shine & gs.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
    Position : None
    Posts : 690
    Cosmic Coins : 0
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 7,124,425

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 21st December 2021, 8:31 pm

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    So that was the play that Maker had done behind Scourge’s back: He was the one who organized the attack against Vandrad, without Scourge’s knowledge. There certainly seemed to be a difference of methodology between the two. While they were part of the same organization, it was starting to become clear that Scourge held himself to a certain standard of operation that Maker did not. Not that such knowledge made Scourge any more trustworthy to her, but there was a chink in the command structure, one that could be a potential weak point to chip away at later down the road.

    For now, however, she was still no closer to finding Vandrad. Maker chuckled and chimed in that Mercury was more than welcome to call a few authorities on him, but stated that she would need proof if she wanted to keep them from turning on her later for a fruitless effort. How sure he was that she didn’t have such proof… or that she couldn’t get it. She only smiled back at him, electing to let him live under the fantasy that he was safe from that particular threat. For the moment he was, at least.

    For now, there were more immediate matters. Despite knowing that the exchange between the two men was genuine, she played it off as though skeptical that neither of them were involved in Vandrad’s disappearance. The last thing she needed was them knowing that she could usually detect with a great deal of accuracy whether someone was telling the truth. Maker may have been aware of what her race was and heard legends and stories of their mastery of science and technology, but he would hardly have any intimate knowledge of their genetic capabilities. So for now she would keep that close to the chest and continue to act as though they were guilty of the crime of which she had accused them.

    Scourge took her chastisement of them in stride, relenting his understanding that she had very good reasons to distrust them while indicating that not everything was as cut and dry as she seemed to be making it. He didn’t pull away as she brandished her dagger upon him, besetting a wicked grin of pleasure in her direction at her words of warning and even voicing that if she wasn’t careful she might get a different reaction out of him than the one she was aiming for. He even teased that he was rethinking his choice of target for the whip he’d conjured, now that she was getting his attention. “It’s a gift,” she remarked with a smirk.

    Then, it was time to kill the Hotois a second time. Ripping Mercy out of its holster, she quickly and expertly loosed one shot after another into the bodies of animated corpses, aiming with computerized precision at vital weak spots. The creatures were fast, of course. They had been genetically modified to be super human in speed and strength. However, Mercury had been spending the last near two years playing punching bag to Vandrad. These creatures were adorable, even curious on a scientific level, but not much to scoff at. Her sensors rather easily kept her aware at all times of when another corpse was closing in on her, the woman gracefully ducking and diving out of the way of attacks even when her visual attention was focused elsewhere. She displayed no obvious use of magic, instead showing off her mastery of her weapon and how she seamlessly wove between the pistol and sword settings. In short, nothing the two of them hadn’t already seen from afar while they spied on Vandrad.

    It did not take long at all for the creatures to go down. Scourge relinquished his energy scythe and quipped about the zombies not being Maker’s finest accomplishment. “Oh, he’s only just warming up, I’m sure,” Mercury informed him casually after she holstered her weapon. Reaching into the pouch on her hip, she withdrew an enchanted syringe and plunged it into one of the felled corpses, withdrawing a bit of the ichor to study later. “One of us will most certainly kill the other eventually, but for now we just want to have a bit of fun. Isn’t that right, darling?” Giving Maker a flirty smirk, she slipped the syringe back into the pouch where it disappeared.

    “Unfortunately, he seems to not want to play with me face to face, if you’ll excuse the pun. So I guess that leaves me with you.” She began to pace the room casually in the slow, circling movement of a predator. With the gentle twist of her wrist, a new weapon materialised itself within her palm, one that both Maker and Scourge would likely recognize as it looked exactly like the sword that Sabine had used to mortally wound Vandrad and cut off his flow of magic. Spinning it slowly in her hand, she turned her gaze over toward him with a calculating expression and a subtle but dark smirk. “You claim to have already known that Vandrad was missing when you came in this room. Which would mean that you’ve found a way to get past the Fairy Tail guild’s defenses without detection. That only incriminates you further, as far as I can tell, since the last place he was seen was inside the guild. Mix that with you also being the last person to speak with him before that Midian waste of space ran him through… Well, you understand why I simply don’t believe that you had nothing to do with this.”

    “So I will ask one more time politely… and if I feel like you’re not being honest with me, then maybe I’ll just have to run a little test of my own with this souvenir I picked up in Midi. Where is Vandrad?”

    WORDS: 972/8606 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Vandrad Ragnos
    Vandrad Ragnos

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Traveller of the Multiverse
    Position : None
    Posts : 791
    Guild : Fairy Tail
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 8,079,192

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Energy Monarch
    Second Skill: Ark of the Dread Masters
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Vandrad Ragnos 22nd December 2021, 11:28 am

    Before there can be creation
    ( There must first be destruction )
    Where You Are U5cjexJZ_o


    Maker watched, quietly, as Mercury and Scourge battled his experiments. Though to call it a ‘battle’ would be disenchanting -- it was more of a one-sided brawl and his newly formed creations were not the ones on the winning side. That was to be expected; this was a measurement gauge, meant to numerically put strength into consideration. The Xocili was intelligent though; she never chose to use her magic, opting instead to utilize the benefit of her weapon. But he did manage to get readings of her strength when she used the sword, though that was hardly anything worth noting. If she was holding herself back from showcasing her magical abilities, no doubt she was doing the same with her physical strength. Scourge, instead, showcased just how flexible his control of Energy Monarch really was, looking more like Vandrad in his execution and utilization. For a man that seemed to primarily use his rare magic to disguise himself and hide in shadows, it was quite the combative overhaul.

    It presented obvious conclusions. Mercury had no desire to let Maker know the extent of her strength and Scourge wanted the alien to know just how strong he could be. Observations that he mentally filed and put into consideration, as he watched the last of his creatures fall the might of the odd pair. Scourge lamented over the fact that these hadn’t been Maker’s best creations, while the Silver Wolf Ace remarked that he must have had something up his sleeve. Her answer came in the way of amused silence, as he smiled behind the mask. She took some time to take out a syringe and collect a sample of his handiwork -- a compliment, if there ever was one. She wanted to see what he had concocted, even as she spoke about the fact that eventually one of them would kill the other and the present was merely for having fun at one another’s expense. “Ms. Arseneault has the right of it. We’re in the thick of a marathon and, as such, there are different events within the range of said marathon. Besides, to assume that this was even remotely my ‘best’ would be perhaps the most insulting remark you’ve made, Scourge.”

    The Dread Master shrugged lightly in amusement, even as Mercury spoke of the unfortunate truth that Maker had no desire to meet the woman face to face. With that realization understood, she turned her attention to Scourge, who was now the only one she could target for additional answers. The Dread Master cocked a brow at her, even as she pulled out a brand new weapon -- an awfully familiar one. Scourge glanced at it then at her in consideration, even as Maker’s chuckle echoed throughout the room. “Well, well… it seems you’ve put yourself in a far more compromising situation than you could have ever expected, Scourge.” Maker, of course, knew that the original weapon had been destroyed; he’d seen to it himself. Of course, he had detected a magical presence around the sword before it annihilated itself. Perhaps Mercury had managed to capture a reading of it? Even then, she was missing a few key components to craft a genuine replica. Still, Scourge didn’t need to know that. He’d put himself in this corner and as far as Maker was concerned, he could reap the consequences of his choice. “I’d say don’t make a mess… but we both know what you’re capable of, don’t we, Ms. Arseneault?” And with that, the Engineer’s screen flicked off, casting the room in a heavier shadow than it had been before. The glow from the fallen experiments and the tubes in the walls provided the most outlet of light beyond that of the magical aura cloaking Scourge.

    Mercury broke down all that she had observed and put together about the Dread Master -- the fact that he was already aware of Vandrad’s disappearance and had been the last one to speak to him before his previous attack. It was because of those reasons that she was unwilling to believe he was innocent of any and all fault involving the prince’s status. With that, she insisted that she was going to ask one final time before she started to get far more violent with her requests. “You’re a deeply distrusting person. And I respect it,” he said, even as he held his hands up. His Empowerment left, fizzling out into golden sparks as his facade returned to normal. His jovial amusement from before faded with it, Scourge now bearing a far more serious demeanor. “I did infiltrate Fairy Tail… but only as far as the main hall. For a guild that protects its secrets so aggressively, there is a lot of information that gets passed around among the public areas. I simply wanted to make sure no other attacks came at Vandrad while he was still healing. Believe it or not, I was the one that orchestrated his rescue; had I not stayed behind after our meeting, there is little doubt the prince would have perished immediately after Sabine ran him through, as you put it. I have no desire to hurt Vandrad; I’ve been trying, from the beginning, to work with him.”

    “But I felt something strange and then I felt nothing. When I rushed to his last location, he was gone. I assumed that Maker had constructed a secret device to transport him, in a bid to finish the experiment he started with Sabine. So I stayed behind and infiltrated my own organization’s base to see what I could find. And it was while I was here that you broke in -- Maker tried to cover up the alarm, most likely because he was expecting you. I decided to listen in on the conversation and see what I could learn.” Finally he lowered his hands. “I have no desire to fight you, Mercury and nothing to gain from lying. Vandrad missing hurts my cause and I want answers just as much as you. Now… before this turns bloody, I suggest we extract ourselves from Maker’s place of influence. We’re losing precious time to try and track Vandrad down and I’d rather not waste it on a fight with no meaning. I’m sure you feel the same way.”






    Words: 1042/4559 | Tag: @Mercury Arseneault |© marzia at shine & gs.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
    Position : None
    Posts : 690
    Cosmic Coins : 0
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 7,124,425

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 22nd December 2021, 5:36 pm

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    It seemed that Maker didn’t intend on sticking around long enough to see how things would play out with Scourge. He confirmed Mercury’s words that this little game between them was going to be lasting much longer than one round, neither of them particularly keen on putting the other out of their misery too quickly. She revealed her copy of the blade that Maker had created, eliciting a delighted chuckle from the other alien and a considerate glance from Scourge. With a final quip toward them both, the Engineer abandoned the remote call, leaving the remaining pair alone, with Mercury gently pacing the area, eyes laser locked on the man before her.

    She brought up her facts and observations, inviting him to give another shot at telling her a truth that she already knew. Scourge acknowledged her penchant for distrust and dropped his empowerment form, even as he raised his hands to concede continuing the temporary truce. Dropping all pretense of teasing and arrogance, he admitted that he had infiltrated the guild, but only the public areas. He knew as well as she did that the main hall was a reliable space to overhear gossip, and claimed that he had simply been trying to make sure nothing further had happened to Vandrad. In fact, he claimed it was him that had been the witness to the attack in the first place, and if he hadn’t stayed behind he would have missed the opportunity to save Vandrad’s life.

    Mercury’s eyes narrowed on him further, conveying skepticism over his words but remaining silent as he continued. Scourge informed her that the only thing he had been trying to do all along was work with Vandrad and win him over as a genuine ally. From there, he explained that he had been in the guild hall when Vandrad disappeared, explaining that he had felt some kind of odd phenomenon and then afterward there was nothing. He had gone to the spot in question where he had sensed the prince – presumably the training room – only to find the room empty. His first assumption was that Maker had tried to finish what he’d started, which was why he had taken the time to infiltrate his own base in the hopes of getting the drop on Maker only to find Mercury there instead. He did not wish to fight her. There was no benefit in it, nor was there a benefit in lying. He wanted the same thing she did: to find the prince, alive and in one piece… but for now, there was nothing they could do from here except continue to expose themselves to Maker’s whims.

    She continued to glare at him evenly for a beat or two longer in consideration before releasing a soft sigh through her nostrils. “Fine.” With a smooth motion, the blade disappeared from her hand as quickly as it had appeared. “I intend on poking my fingers through every single hole in that story, but for now I’ll double back on my other leads to see what’s cropped up. In the meantime…” Her sober expression sweetened to an impish smirk as a digital clock made out of light appeared before her with a timer counting down from ten. It would quickly become apparent that the woman standing before him was not actually Mercury, nor had she been from the start, and a countdown timer could really only mean one thing. “I suggest you put some distance between yourself and your former base.”

    The clone of Mercury blew Scourge a small kiss, and only a couple seconds later her spell detonated. It rocked the entire mountain so hard that the floors of the underground bunker fell in on itself and a large crack split all the way up to the peak of the mountain. A phenomenal sized crater formed where the base had been and beyond for several hundred meters, turning the entire nearby landscape into a pile of rubble. A massive slide of rock and mud slid down from the mountain as it collapsed, permanently marring the profile of the mountain range and leaving a jagged gap between its neighboring peaks to mark the spot where the Dread Masters had once held a base of operations. Anyone that had been left in the bunker had most certainly died before they even realized what was happening, and whatever resources or research had been held there would have been all but atomized by the explosion.

    Mercury – the real Mercury – watched from afar as a cloud of dust and debris rose into the sky and began to spread out for miles, much like one would expect from a volcano. Bandit hopped closer to her face from where he sat on her shoulder, pecking his beak lightly in protest at the grim, stony face the Xocili held. She absentmindedly reached up and ran the back of her fingers along the bird’s breast as she pondered the events of the meeting that had just taken place. Not wanting to waste anymore time, she opened a portal and walked through, intent on checking back in with Seri, Mythal, and the du Wolffs, praying that one of them had found something in her stead.

    A little more than twenty four hours later, Mercury found herself back at the scene of the crime in Iceberg. She sat upon a slab of concrete in the middle of the rubble, hunched forward with her elbows on her knees and her fingers interlaced in front of her face. To say she was brooding would not do her mood justice. She looked like a woman that was one final straw away from losing touch with all sanity and reason, her emerald gaze staring so hard at a fixed point before her that it was a wonder the earth didn’t bend beneath the pressure of her glare. Bandit was roosted on a nearby bit of rebar that was poking through the debris, the crow’s head cocking with each little noise the night made. The dark bags under her eyes suggested that she had not slept since Vandrad had disappeared the prior morning. She had checked in with every single person that was in on the investigation, even reached out to Hosrius to inform him of Maker’s resurgence and to see if he had anything to offer that he knew of his former quarry that could help her crack anything, but each and every endeavor had resulted in a bit fat wad of nothing.

    Desperate had she returned to the place where Scourge had encouraged her to look for him should she desire to swap notes in their search. She waited in complete silence, the air thick with tension and anxiety around her as she waited, waited and hoped that the Dread Master had found something, anything... because if he came to her just as empty handed, she honestly had no idea what she would do.

    WORDS: 1157/9763 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Vandrad Ragnos
    Vandrad Ragnos

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Traveller of the Multiverse
    Position : None
    Posts : 791
    Guild : Fairy Tail
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 8,079,192

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Energy Monarch
    Second Skill: Ark of the Dread Masters
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Vandrad Ragnos 22nd December 2021, 7:51 pm

    Before there can be creation
    ( There must first be destruction )
    Where You Are U5cjexJZ_o


    The time for games was over, at least for the moment. They’d had their fun but the very serious issue of Vandrad’s disappearance was weighing heavily on both Scourge and Mercury’s minds. So rather than continue to play up his mannerisms -- a trait that he was accustomed to doing in most any situation -- the Dread Master leveled with the woman, putting on a serious demeanor and laying out the facts for her. She wanted the truth and he was inclined to give it to her. He had nothing to hide and, frankly, it was going to showcase just how well he was able to weave his network. He held up his hands and laid it out for her, telling her the story right from the beginning. Once he’d wrapped it up, he suggested they leave before Maker decided to unleash any other tricks on them. While he was confident they could more than handle any additional complexities, he’d really rather continue his hunt for Vandrad rather than waste more time. And he imagined she felt the same way.

    She stared back at him for a moment, taking his words into very serious consideration. Then she sighed and dismissed the blade from existence, opting to take his words for fact… if only for the moment. And she made sure he understood that she intended to do her research and find any hole he may or may not have left out. He gave a half-shrug; she was going to do what she wanted and there wasn’t much he could do about that. But then the strangest thing happened. A digital display appeared in front of her, a countdown of some sort. It only took him a second to register that it was clicking down and what that meant. In spite of himself, he couldn’t help the wickedly amused grin from spreading across his face again. “My, my, dear Mercury. What a naughty girl you are,” he said with a cackle as the countdown continued. “Very well. But should you find yourself wanting in results, you’ll find me here… or whatever is left after this little surprise of yours. Best of luck, detective.” He waited until the last blinking second, meeting her gaze evenly and with great amusement. And then his image split apart just as the dial hit zero, disappearing within the tremendous explosion that swallowed up the base and the mountain that sat above it.

    Several miles up in the air Scourge reappeared, his magic catching hold of him and letting him hover there. He watched as the fiery plume ripped into the atmosphere below him, reducing the once tranquil setting into a cavernous, molten wasteland. He chuckled to himself, continuing to observe for precious few moments before he went scorching through the air, away from the scene of the crime and onto, hopefully, more fruitful search results. Unfortunately for the Dread Master, he had just about as much success as Mercury. With plenty of nefarious and underworld connections across the world, Scourge attempted to ascertain some kind of hint or trail to where the prince of Bellum could have disappeared to. And with each query, he was left with nothing to go on. What should have been impossible had seemingly occurred -- Vandrad had vanished from the face of the planet and there was no one that could track him down.

    A day and change had passed since the Dread Master base had been reduced to a memory. Scourge had left a small bit of his magic within the rubble, to let him know if anyone returned. After all, he had told Mercury to find him out if she ran into a deadend. And sure enough, as the night waned and carried on its dark march, he picked up on a presence that was not human. Sighing softly to himself, his hand closed tight around the neck that had been caught in his grip, crushing the throat beneath the flesh. The man choked as his windpipe was crushed, blood blossoming out from his lips as he began to suffocate. Disgusted, the Dread Master tossed the man to the ground, leaving him to die. He removed himself from the picture, instantly teleporting himself back to the ruins. A few rocks would roll down the hillside just past Mercury’s view before Scourge stepped out from the dark, still looking disgusted and frustrated.

    “If you’re here, then I imagine you’ve had just as much luck as I’ve had,” he said soberly, wiping his hand on a pile of snow and dirt before flicking away the grainy remains. He took a moment to look at her, noticing the dark circles under her eyes, the heaviness of her concern and worry pressing down on her shoulders and across her back. She hadn’t taken a single moment of rest since she had left this place a day before, that much was obvious. “I’ve checked with all of my contacts. Even went a bit deeper than I’m usually comfortable doing; there will be quite a mess to clean up in the near future. Nothing. No word, no hint, no clue. It’s as if he’s been plucked right off the planet.”

    Sighing once more, the Dread Master found a sturdy enough piece of concrete, half-buried in the ground, and leaned up against it. “I’ve gone over that moment several times in the last day. The one in which he disappeared. He was exerting stress, his blood pressure raised as if he was in the middle of a strenuous activity. He must have been trying to activate his magic again. And then this strange… power. It didn’t feel like any kind of magic I’ve sensed before. And he was lost in it.” He raised his gaze to her. “Apologies, I don’t mean to pour any further salt into the wound.”






    Words: 970/5529 | Tag: @Mercury Arseneault |© marzia at shine & gs.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
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    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 23rd December 2021, 10:55 am

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    Her sensors alerted her the moment he appeared in the area, even if she couldn't see him. A few pebbles clattered across the ground to announce his approach as he walked out from behind the rubble. Mercury did not lift her head nor turn her eyes to look at him, knowing she wouldn't have to say a word for him to know why she was there and what she wanted. He spoke up to lament that if she was there then both of them had clearly been unsuccessful in their searches, admitting in not so many words that he too had found nothing. Mercury's only response was to close her eyes, and while her exterior demeanor remained even keel there was a torrent of anxiety and sorrow churning within her.

    Maintaining her current posture, she listened in utter silence as Scourge explained how he had checked with all his contacts and pulled out more stops than he usually liked to. He would most certainly have consequences to deal with later as a result but the efforts had been futile in the end. There was absolutely no word to be heard about the lost prince, as though he had quite literally left the planet itself. It was a possibility that Mercury had considered, of course… but the chances of that were so astronomically low that she couldn't fathom a single explanation as to how it could have happened.

    Scourge took a moment to make himself more comfortable before gently launching into his recollection of yesterday's events. Apparently he had been close enough to Vandrad to sense the man exerting himself, confident that the Bellum prince had been attempting to access his magic. It was in that moment that Scourge had sensed a foreign power the likes of which he had never felt before, and then Vandrad was just… gone.

    She could feel the Dread Master's gaze turn toward her, the man apologizing softly for any emotional wounds he may have opened with his words. The woman continued to sit there with her eyes closed for a beat or two longer before silent tears began to trickle their way down her cheeks, the moist streaks glistening against her skin in the moonlight. Mercury hung her head, fingers untwining from one another so she could wrap them around the back of her neck. “Mythal and Serilda have put every available resource of the Rune Knights into a full blown investigation and haven't turned up a single clue. Themmy and the du Wollfs have done the same and found nothing. Same with Gren. I've even checked all of my vast resources both on this planet and beyond, just to be thorough, and there is just no trace of him. All the information of the universe at my fingertips, and it still amounts to absolutely fucking nothing…"

    Mercury had spent her entire life under violent oppression, living as a slave and a tool without a future, and she had never felt more hopeless and helpless than in this moment… and it showed. Even if Scourge wasn't aware of the finer details of her upbringing, he had likely surmised from Maker at that point that she had be forged in the fires of war and genocide, and was thus a woman that had seen harder times than most from a very young age. It had turned her into a strong, calculating, intelligent woman that was constantly in control of everything around her, but that control was gone and she was left grasping at empty straws.

    Drawing in a deep breath through her nostrils in an attempt to steady herself, Mercury raised her head and visibly fought to force herself to keep from succumbing to despair. Though her emerald eyes continued to leak heavily, her voice was even and controlled as she opened up to dialogue with him. “Alright. You said that you sensed his blood pressure, then a weird power and then he was gone. I have questions about how and why you can sense him in such detail, but right now I care more about brainstorming theories. Is the Ark magic capable of this? I know his magic is allegedly gone, but there is no way a self entitled coward like Maker has the power to take that from him permanently. Vandrad will find a way, and maybe he already did. So if he managed to tap back into his magic, could it have been the Ark?"


    She looked him in the eyes, her expression determined in trying to work out some reasonable explanation for the prince's disappearance, even if it meant she had to hash out ideas with one of Vandrad's biggest enemies. No matter Scourge's personal reasons for wanting to locate Marka's progeny, his efforts were genuine and in that he was being afforded some trust, as slight as it was. So she would sit and listen without interruption to whatever Scourge was willing to tell her about the Ark and any other details he felt moved to relay.


    Then, when he finished presenting what he was willing to share, she moved on to the next theory. “What if we aren't thinking high enough?" Mercury offered. “The Ark was created to… to allow humanity to conquer gods and demons, even steal their powers, right? I can't imagine the Sins or Divines would be thrilled to know that magic has returned to the world. So, could one of your gods have done this? It would be the perfect opportunity for them to eliminate a threat while it bore no teeth, especially if they wanted to err on the side of caution and not give him the chance to get his power back."

    WORDS: 948/10,711 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Vandrad Ragnos
    Vandrad Ragnos

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Traveller of the Multiverse
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    Experience : 8,079,192

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Energy Monarch
    Second Skill: Ark of the Dread Masters
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Vandrad Ragnos 23rd December 2021, 12:34 pm

    Before there can be creation
    ( There must first be destruction )
    Where You Are U5cjexJZ_o


    The kind of one and one interaction that was occurring -- especially with someone that Scourge could feel was swallowed up in anxiousness and fear -- was not something the Dread Master was used to. He could argue that he generally wore his heart on his sleeve but that was usually because the emotions he were feeling fit quite well in whatever he was partaking in and it generally was not empathic, caring moments. The society he had been brought up into, the people that had raised him and trained him; they didn’t care about encouragement or healing agony and emotional pain. Unfortunately for Scourge, just like Vandrad, he was an empath through his magical connection and could feel every single fluctuating feeling from the world around him. It had never bothered him before and he was perfectly capable of pushing aside the nagging sensations to complete his duty. But at the moment, it was proving more difficult.

    Of course he had no good news to bring to Mercury. And by extension, her being there, meant she hadn’t discovered anything either. That was probably the most frustrating part for the Dread Master. His entire life, he’d had the resources and the connections to learn most anything. Even if he didn’t get a solid, concrete answer, he could find breadcrumbs that would lead him to a conclusion that would eventually reveal itself. Nothing had ever been beyond his grasp, be it power, influence or knowledge… but the location of one singular man had slipped between the cracks. A man that he rightfully should have been able to sense or at least track down -- Vandrad was well known enough that even a brief sighting would spur talk. But he was gone, vanished into thin air and the two of them were left without any clue on how to track him down. The Silver Wolf Ace’s hope crumbled before him and even in the dim light offered by the moon, he could see the fresh moisture racing down her cheeks. He didn’t say anything about it because… well, what was there to say?

    She gave him an update on what her resources were doing. Mythal and Serilda, the heads of the Rune Knights, had expanded their search everywhere. Vandrad’s family was using whatever they had available to scour the world and the prince’s father, Gren, was most likely knocking down doors himself. Actions that, no doubt, Mercury had taken herself and Scourge had certainly undertaken in the last several hours. The Silver Wolf Ace had even reached beyond the world and used her outer resources to try and find something. Still there was nothing and, much like him, she felt completely useless. The Dread Master nodded softly, crossing his arms over his chest as his gaze drifted upwards towards the stars, lost in his thoughts as he remained silent. He knew a bit about Mercury -- mostly from what he’d observed of her around Vandrad and what little information Maker had offered up. The alien had been quite smug once he’d learned that the Silver Wolf Ace was an intergalactic race called the Xocili and he’d told the Dread Masters a bit of what he knew. From the sounds of it, she’d had a rough go at it… all the more impressive that she was such a strong, confident woman who kept herself in check most of the time. That wasn’t the case at the moment but he could hardly blame her for that.

    When she finally spoke again, she turned her attention to asking more questions rather than giving into despair. She ran over what he’d told her and admitted she had a lot more questions about his capabilities but kept her focus on the task at hand. She asked him if the Ark was capable of the kind of transportation that could whisk a person away. She understood that his magic had been neutralized but she also believed Vandrad could overcome anything, even a grievous injury such as that. Though he didn’t say as much, Scourge was inclined to agree with her. As she saw it, if he had inadvertently found his magic again, he could have activated something in the Ark that could have zapped him away. The Dread Master considered the question for a bit, deciphering how best to answer it without giving too much away. He was on her side in terms of finding Vandrad but there was much about himself and his world that he was unwilling to willingly swing the door open to. If only doing so could provide any more hope than what he had to say. He turned his gaze to her. “Theoretically, yes. Nobody truly understands the number of people that have carried the Ark over the years and the sheer number of demonic and godly beings that have fallen before it and become part of its contents. There’s little doubt that a transportation magic of a sort could be within and if activated without precision, it could send someone quite far away. But this was not the Ark. I would have known if he’d activated it on any level, even on accident.”

    Of course, he left out the part of how he was capable of knowing the Ark’s magical signature but that didn’t matter in the long run. His answer was a genuine one, giving her the full extent of his knowledge, as much as he wished he could believe Vandrad had miraculously made contact with his magic once more. Willful as he was, it was going to take time and recuperation for the prince to get back to that level. With that idea dismissed, she purported another, wondering if they weren’t thinking as far up as possible? As she saw it, the Ark was meant to take the power from gods and demons and, as such, those beings would be greatly miffed to learn that someone was wielding it. What if it was possible that they had snatched up Vandrad while he was weak? Taking advantage of his depowered state to take him off the board and save themselves grief later. Another possible theory that had some weight to it, but… “They would have to know that Vandrad has the Ark. And despite what you might think of us Dread Masters, we aren’t about to out our best weapon to the enemy. So unless people on your side have been spreading the word about his abilities, the Divines and Sins won’t know.” Scourge paused for a moment, trying to find the words to explain it correctly. “The Ark operates against the grain, so to speak. Divine or Sin, they both draw from the natural ethernano of the world. Weaponizing that would, quite obviously, draw their attention. So Marka and his followers sought to find another power -- an antithesis, as it were. So they sought what was hidden behind ethernano, beneath it, buried… a darkness. And so they discovered dreadether. It seeks to draw in ethernano and make it one within itself. A perfect weapon for humans that want to steal the power of gods; undetectable, unforgiving and unquenching.”

    And yet, that brought a thought. Scourge’s brow furrowed as something he’d long forgotten, put to the wayside even, popped up in the middle of his explanation. “But there was a theory. An outlier scholar within the Dread Masters believed that, as there were immortals for ethernano -- the light -- so too were there for the darkness, the dreadether. No proof was ever found, of course but what if…?” It couldn’t be possible. She was still locked away, trapped beyond the realms of all reality. But if anyone was like to draw off the negative energy source. “Ataxia…” he muttered softly, concern rife in his voice as his eyes drifted to the ground. “If she had even the slightest opening for manipulation, it’s possible she could draw Vandrad away. And if there was ever a more perfect weapon for her revenge, it would be him. Or if someone had gotten ahold of one of the shards, they could have used it to transport him for her needs.” He looked up at her. “I’ve no idea how much or little you know of Ataxia but I don’t have time to give the full explanation. Just know if she or anyone that could be following her got their hands on Vandrad, he would become something far worse than anything we’ve considered. The problem is… I wouldn’t know where to start looking. Both Dread Masters and Order of Souls do what they can to stifle any information about her, for fear that someone may be drawn to her. Some even think just saying her name out loud forms cracks in her prison.” It was clear that Scourge didn’t want to believe that theory had any water beneath it… but it was hard denying that, in the absence of any other proof, it was the only viable, albeit terrible, option.






    Words: 1489/7018 | Tag: @Mercury Arseneault |© marzia at shine & gs.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
    Position : None
    Posts : 690
    Cosmic Coins : 0
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 7,124,425

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 23rd December 2021, 7:00 pm

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    Whatever Scourge thought of her current emotional state, he was keeping it to himself for the time being rather than using the moment to mock or needle her. Whether that was out of a genuine sense of concern for her stability or just because he was tucking the information away for another time was anyone’s guess, but for now she just decided to be grateful that he was willing to keep pushing forward with her as much as they could. Mercury asked about the Ark, wondering if it was possible that Vandrad had managed to tap into it and inadvertently caused himself to get teleported somewhere.

    He didn’t answer right away, likely considering his answer and trying to ascertain how much he could reveal to her without showing too much of his own hand and still being helpful. She waited patiently, or at least as patiently as she could, until he was ready to speak. When he was, Scourge explained to her that theoretically it was entirely possible that the Ark could have caused Vandrad’s disappearance. The magic had been passed down between so many people over the millenia and used to fell countless immortals. With each demon or god or angel killed, Marka’s power had grown stronger and taken on more aspects to the point that by now it was impossible to know what all the magic was truly capable of. Transportation of some kind was entirely feasible, particularly if Vandrad had triggered it without meaning to and without any control over it.

    The only problem was that Scourge knew what the magic of the Ark felt like, and what he had sensed from Vandrad that morning was not it. Mercury had more than a number of questions about his claim to be able to sense if Vandrad used the power, no matter if it were on purpose or accident, and no matter how small a spell was cast. However, Mercury knew she would not get those answers out of him. So instead, she moved on to her next theory: That perhaps an immortal was involved somehow. Scourge dismissed the idea at first, stating that the only way that could be a problem was if the beings of the pantheon had somehow found out about his abilities. Given that the Dread Masters only desired to rid the world of the Divines and Sins and to assume their posts, they were very sincere in their efforts to keep their “best weapon” under wraps.

    A slight wave of anger rolled through her at his careless words about the prince, talking of him like he were little more than an object to be used… but she managed to brush it aside from the time being, knowing there was no point in causing a fuss over it at the moment. He was wrong to speak of Vandrad that way, and in time he would learn that, probably the hard way. There were more important things to focus on for the time being, such as the fact that his remark about the Sins and Divines needing to know about the power in order to target Vandrad meant that he didn’t know about the events of the graveyard. A part of her – a very large part, in fact – was relieved by that revelation. However, that was quickly swallowed up by the fact that she was now faced with having to tell him about the events of that night, if only because he might be the only one who could help her explore that lead.

    As she argued with herself over what to do on that front, Mercury continued to listen as Scourge explained a few more things about the Ark and its origins. The Dread Master informed her that the magic was essentially the antithesis of ethernano, to an extent as such that not even the gods would be able to sense its use, allowing them to wield it without detection and gain the upper hand on their immortal foes. It was a phenomenon they called dreadether; a dark energy that sought to absorb its light variant and thus was perfect for stealing the power of divine and demonic forces.

    Yet even as he spoke, a sense of unease seemed to settle about him, his brows furrowing in thought and concern. He told her that there was a theory from a former member of the Dread Masters who had theorized that there were deific paragons of dreadether as much as there was for ethernano. His theory had never been proven, but Scourge couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps a Divine was involved after all. The mention of Ataxia’s name would be more than enough for him to confirm that Mercury knew of whom he spoke, a slight ripple of discomfort and fear forming in the pit of her stomach. He conjectured that if Ataxia had even the slightest opening to impose her influence on the world, it was possible she could have been responsible for Vandrad’s disappearance. After all, she had been betrayed by her brothers and sisters, her kin joining up with their enemies just to seal her away, and the Ark would be the perfect tool for vengeance.

    Not just that, but it was entirely possible that someone who had gained access to a shard could have been responsible as well. The Dread Master informed her that he didn’t really have the time to get into detail over it, but if anyone that worshipped Ataxia had gotten to Vandrad it would spell a horror unlike anything the world had known before. And unfortunately, if that were the case, Scourge wouldn’t even know where to being with searching for clues of that variety as both the Dread Masters and the Order of Souls did their best to bury any evidence of Ataxia for fear that knowledge of her would cause others to be drawn to her and thus give her strength. Many even believed that saying her name invoked power enough to weaken the confines of her cell.

    “Well that’s stupid,” Mercury retorted irritably under her breath. “Erasing knowledge and history does nothing but weaken yourself, and if Ataxia is involved then both you and the Order have left us all woefully unprepared for no other reason than fear.” The look in her eyes would be more than enough to convey how little she thought of that behavior. “And for the record, I have no ‘side.’ Dread Masters, Order of Souls… you’re both the same. Two separate sides of the same coin, just like the gods and demons you claim to want to protect this world against. Your methods may vary, but from where I stand there is no difference, and I hold no trust or allegiance to either side. My loyalty is to Vandrad and his family. Nowhere else.”

    Mercury didn’t give a single shit about either secret organization, and would throw either one under the bus if that was what she needed to do to stand by Vandrad’s side. The only reason she wasn’t revealing things about the Order to Scourge now – aside from not trusting him, either – was because she did not wish to betray Gren, Serilda and Mythal. That being said, she knew she had to tell him at least some of what she knew if they had any hope of finding answers. There was a small pause as she struggled with her own words, much like he had when he had been trying to decide how much was too much to tell her.

    “We fought Faera.”

    Her gaze flicked back up to him, meeting his eyes evenly even as her voice quieted with dejection. “Or at least, an iteration of her. It was almost a year ago. I don’t think she knew what it was… but who knows what she’s managed to work out since then.” If Scourge knew as much about the Ark as he did, then she wouldn’t need to explain how the prince would have had to fight to keep the magic from manifesting itself in the presence of any relatively strong immortal, let alone a Divine. It was entirely probable that the immortals had, in fact, caught wind of the Ark’s resurgence. Just because Faera was stuck in Kingdom Darkness didn’t mean her followers were. Surely if she wanted to speak to other immortals to let them know, she would have found a way.

    She finally looked away from him, her eyes drifting slowly away as sorrow and resignation one more over took her. Mercury was quiet for several long seconds before she found herself talking softly again, so moved by her unrelenting, physical heartache that she didn’t even care that it was Scourge, of all people, that she was speaking to. “Before I met Vandrad, I had nothing. No home, no family, no future. I was nothing but a tool, a byproduct of war and survival… unfeeling and uncaring, reckless about even my own life and health. I can’t count the number of times I’ve thrown myself into trouble, expecting not to make it out the other side… sometimes even hoping I wouldn’t.”

    It was the first time Mercury had ever admitted to anyone that she had spent a large portion of her life contemplating suicide, actively flirting with that line without ever managing to fully cross it. “After all this time of just existing, I finally found something to fight for… someone who makes me want to actually live... and he’s gone, and I have no idea how to find or help him… or what I’ll do if he never comes back.”

    WORDS: 1603/12,314 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Vandrad Ragnos
    Vandrad Ragnos

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Traveller of the Multiverse
    Position : None
    Posts : 791
    Guild : Fairy Tail
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 8,079,192

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Energy Monarch
    Second Skill: Ark of the Dread Masters
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Vandrad Ragnos 23rd December 2021, 8:28 pm

    Before there can be creation
    ( There must first be destruction )
    Where You Are U5cjexJZ_o


    The truth of the matter was, Scourge had been brought up to believe that every person was a weapon. They were fighting a war against gods and demons that saw mortals as nothing more than insects -- cretins to be used or abused or stepped upon for their own humor. To live under the thumb of such powerful creatures, men and women had to harden themselves into tools to fight back. That was the core foundation of the Dread Masters and, to a point, the Order of Souls. He knew she’d taken offense at his words and perhaps, had he better manners, he may have carefully phrased his intentions otherwise. But Scourge had talked and thought in one direction his entire life and he paid very little time on the feelings and offenses others dealt with. And since the Silver Wolf Ace opted not to lash out and make an event of the matter, he too decided to let the chips fall to the wayside. No point in spilling bad blood uselessly after all.

    His revelation that Ataxia could be involved in one manner or another was the true point of concern, at least for the Dread Master. His knowledge was limited on the forgotten Divine because he, too, had been robbed of learning more about her. The upper echelon of his organization, the old guard as it were, fit in the perfect cutout of those that would rather ignore Ataxia’s existence and scratch her name from the record books. And Mercury remarked that the attempts to hide her away was idiotic, the actions of the secret organizations taking what little ammo they had and ripping it from their grip because of fear. Though she seemed inclined to tie him up with the rest of his order in the operation. “I agree with you. Burying the past has never resulted in anything else but repetition of former mistakes. It’s embarrassing that they even consider themselves vanquishers of immortals when they’d rather run and hide from one of them.” The Dread Master scoffed in disgust. She tacked onto her attack, taking a moment to inform him that she had no place within the confines of two competing orders. As far as she saw it, they were of the same ilk and they hadn’t earned her trust or faith with any of their actions. She stood with Vandrad and the du Wolffs alone, separate from the rest.

    He considered her for a long moment. It was a naive way of looking at things, at least from his perspective. Though she may not consider either Order of Souls or Dread Masters allies, she had fought alongside members of both and admittedly taken up more of a combative focus against his own. But then again, who's to say that wasn’t his own naivety clouding his viewpoint? He’d been raised within the Dread Masters and his education had been on one track -- you’re either with us or you’re against us. “Fair enough,” he said, once again dropping the matter. There was no point arguing with her about it; it didn’t gain him any advantage nor did it work to solve the main issue of Vandrad’s disappearance. Squabbling would just make matters worse. As he began to circle back to his thoughts on Ataxia, already wondering where he could begin a new search that would certainly reap all sorts of trouble, Mercury spoke up once more, admitting to the battle with the Absolute Divine of Love, Faera. He froze in his spot, the news of what she was telling him hitting hard and slowly his gaze turned back to her, eyes widened.

    She continued, incredulously, stating that it had been some kind of iteration of the goddess, a year spent since the fateful night. The Silver Wolf Ace didn’t believe that Faera had figured it out at the time but… over time, there was no telling what pieces of the puzzle she may have stuck together. If they had fought her, there was little doubt Vandrad had engaged the Ark. Even now his memory flicked back to when the prince had first accessed it, the power overwhelming him as the divine power suckered him in. Time and time again it happened, as Vandrad encountered both deific and cursed magic, the Ark’s hunger overtaking him. But now that she had mentioned it, he could call back to when he felt the change… to when the prince had taken the reins and assumed control, as minimal as it was at the time. No doubt the timeline would match up if he were to put it to question. He scowled, baring his teeth in annoyance. It wasn’t directed at Mercury -- after all, if they’d had to fight, no doubt it was for one reason or another. Given Mythal Ragnos’ connection to the dark goddess, he was inclined to believe there would be a relation there. But after a moment, he calmed. “Our one advantage is that Faera is incapable of communicating with her siblings. We don’t know a lot but we know that there is some kind of spell or blessing that prevents either side from interacting. Idiotic really -- considering the Goddess of Love wants nothing more than to break into this realm and destroy it. Her brothers and sisters would be overwhelmed before they even had time to consider action.” Once more, history was being covered over for the sake of moving forward without taking it into consideration. As it was in Heaven, as the saying went.

    “But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t figured it out. And that won’t bode well…” Faera had been steeping in the corruption of Kingdom Darkness for eons, bathing in the darkness. Would she seek to make Vandrad a weapon for her purposes as well? A wave of overwhelming sadness hit him and once again his attention turned back to Mercury as she looked away, falling to woe. After several seconds of silence she spoke, admitting that she’d had nothing before meeting the prince. She’d been without stability; free range and without anything to tether her to life. It had made her take reckless action, the Silver Wolf Ace admitting that she’d pushed the limits of survivability several times… and it seemed it had been intentional, if only to find an end. It was a… huge admittance, though the weight of it was slightly lost on Scourge. Still, he understood a little what it was like to go carelessly into situations with nary a concern for one’s own being. He’d never really thought about it before, until she had said something. His own internal consideration was paused when she spoke again, stating that she had finally found someone who made her want to live, whole and full. And just as she found that glimmer of hope, it had been ripped from her and now she was staring at a dark abyss ahead of her, with no answer should that spark be gone for good.

    Scourge was quiet for a long time, or at least what felt like a long time. He didn’t know how to comfort or offer sympathies, at least not fully genuinely. And he doubted she was really looking for that, her words simply coming out because what else could she do? After those brief moments, he sighed. ““Then don’t give up,” he stated, turning to her fully. “Take that same drive that pushed you towards self annihilation and focus it on finding him. You and I… I feel we’re similar. We’ve never come across a problem that we couldn’t crack, until now. But no problem is unsolvable. We just haven’t found the answer yet.” It was a practical way of looking at the situation and even Scourge knew that. After another beat, his stance softened, if only a little, a tiny opening in the fortress that was the Dread Master. “Vandrad wouldn’t give up… neither should we. Not until we have an answer. Not until we know. And if, if the worst has come to pass… well then I fully expect you’ll be right beside me, ripping down the doors to Hell to drag him back up here with the rest of us sorry lot.”







    Words: 1163/9545 | Tag: @Mercury Arseneault |© marzia at shine & gs.


    Last edited by Vandrad Ragnos on 24th December 2021, 11:49 am; edited 2 times in total


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
    Position : None
    Posts : 690
    Cosmic Coins : 0
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 7,124,425

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 23rd December 2021, 10:38 pm

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    Mercury wouldn’t need to be an empath to feel the ire Scourge expressed over the way that the Dread Masters had dealt with knowledge regarding Ataxia. He didn’t hesitate to confirm that he agreed with her whole heartedly, even admitting to being embarrassed over the lack of spine that came from a group of individuals supposedly dedicated to fighting the very beings they tried to cover up. It was an interesting revelation to behold. Scourge didn’t quite seem to be as married to the Dread Masters as his behaviors would otherwise suggest. First his clear problems with Maker, and now this… It was something to ponder, at least.

    She went on to make it clear to him that she held no love for either the Masters or the Order, her only concern being loyalty to the du Wolffs. The two held one another’s gazes for several long seconds in consideration, with Scourge processing her words internally, weighing them as a checks and balances to his own biases. Ultimately, he could only acknowledge her stance for what it was, offering no further comment.

    Her words about Faera hit hard, as she’d thought it might. The master turned to look at her with a shaken expression as she explained only the broader strokes of the encounter. There was quite a deal more that Mercury was keeping from him, but she had no desire to hang the people she cared about out to dry. He didn’t need to know what had happened or how they had reached that point. The only thing he needed to know, the only thing that was important, was that the battle had occurred… and Vandrad had utilized the Ark while fighting her. A grimace covered the man’s face as he took in the knowledge that at least with one Divine the cat was most likely out of the bag. But after a moment he relaxed, shaking off his frustration in light of keeping a cool head.

    As far as he was concerned there was at least one silver lining in that Faera was incapable of conversing with the other Divines, so hopefully that meant that she would be unable to warn the others. A silly curse, as he put it, for it meant that even the other Divines would be caught with their pants down should Faera ever manage to successfully break free from Kingdom Darkness. Of course, Ruzatz also knew… but the last Mercury had heard from Patricia, the Masters were only suspicious of the Lusty Titan guildmaster’s position as a Prime Sin and had not yet confirmed it. Mercury wasn’t about to sell the demon out as he had done more than enough to earn her trust and then some. Plus, she knew that Ruzatz would do everything in his power to keep that secret from his brethren.

    Still, the probability that Faera had pieced the truth together was concerning to say the least, and Scourge admitted as much. Both of them turned toward their own inner thoughts, content to ponder their positions in silence until Mercury found herself needing to get some rather personal feelings off of her chest. She opened up only slightly about what her life had been like growing up and the kind of mindset it had shaped her to have. Her own life had meant very little to her up until very recently, and it was only even more recently that she had learned to take the chance to embrace the opportunity for change. But in the blink of an eye everything had gone to shit, and the one person she loved and cared about so much that she had challenged herself to face every fear and insecurity she had was gone, and so far she had been failing utterly to help him.

    He didn’t say anything for a while. Frankly, Mercury didn’t think he would say anything at all. She really didn’t need him to. All she’d needed, apparently, was to just get the thoughts out of her head and out into the open where they felt more concrete, more clear. She certainly didn’t expect him to care, and it was fair to say that he really didn’t. But to his credit he did speak up, encouraging her not to let go just yet. As he turned to face her fully, her eyes flicked up to look at him with the full extent of the emotional anguish she felt, the green irises still glistening with moisture in the faint glow of the night. Scourge told her to take the energy she’d once felt for testing fate in regard to her own demise and apply it instead toward finding Vandrad.

    The two of them had a great deal in common, or so he seemed to believe. They both were used to getting what they wanted, finding answers, and maintaining a certain level of control. At the moment, neither of them had any of that stability, and it was both infuriating and disorienting. However, he insisted that there was an answer somewhere, they just had to be patient enough to keep looking for it. Yes it was a practical stance, but Mercury was a practical woman, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it it was clear that she and Scourge understood one another on a level that neither of them had expected to.

    Pulling back only slightly into a realm that was more human, so to speak, he reminded her that wherever Vandrad was, the prince was not giving up. As such, that meant that the two of them shouldn’t either, not until they had definitive proof of something, anything, one way or another. And if her worst fears were realized and Vandrad was well and truly gone, then he fully believed that both of them would be united in their efforts to do whatever it took to rob Vandrad of his eternal peace and drag him back to suffering with the rest of the mortals.

    Mercury held her even facade for a beat or two before the tiniest of smirks tugged on her lips. She let out a soft snort at the imagery he’d put in her head. “I’m fairly certain Hell would thank us for the effort,” she managed to tease back gently, not fully rid of the emotional fog but lifted enough for her to do more than just sit there and feel sorry for herself. Once the tension had settled a bit, she once more looked up at him with a sober expression. “I trust you realize that Maker made that sword as a failsafe against you as much as against Vandrad. Whatever steps he has made to further the goals of the Dread Masters, he cares only for himself… and he is dangerous. The kind of dangerous that the Masters should be vanquishing, not enlisting.”

    Maker was a threat to all of Earthland, and while Mercury didn’t personally care about the Masters or anyone within their ranks, if their purpose was as altruistic as Scourge seemed to believe then she could only hope that they would do something about him now that Scourge had more information on who Maker truly was. “I plan on digging up as much more about him as I can. Everything I know about him at the moment is just from basic news outlets. I never really looked into him in detail because I never had a reason to… but whatever it is you are looking to accomplish here, he is not the answer. He will only take the Master’s resources and use it to subjugate and destroy humanity the same way your gods once did.”

    She would give him a moment to speak on that front, should he choose, and then with a small sigh she decided it was probably time to return to Bellum. Reaching into the pouch on her hip, she withdrew a basic burner iLac of her own design and tossed it to him. Though it was simple in structure, there was no denying that it was of advanced alien make, the item glowing briefly with a soft blue light in reaction to his touch. “It will only ever contact me, and I am the only one who can call it. It also will respond to your biological signature alone; no one else will be able to use it.” There was no explanation needed as to why she was giving him the device, trusting him enough to let her handle some of her own technology despite the fact that he was allied to a crazed scientist that would very much love to get his hands on even a small piece of her work for study. As of this moment, the two of them were leading the charge on both fronts to find the prince, and it was going to have to be up to them to pool their resources and stay in communication to get results.

    “Just remember it’s not for booty calls.”

    With a small but deep smirk at the man, Mercury stretched where she sat, her muscles stiff and weary from being in one spot for so long. “I should head back before anyone starts a search party for me, as well. If you find anything at all, or need me to help follow up on any leads, please let me…”

    As Mercury stood to her feet, she felt a very sudden and intense vertigo. With a frown she stumbled slightly to stay on her feet, shaking her head to try and clear it. She felt sluggish and disoriented, the world around her blurred as she struggled to focus on it, much like one might experience while dreaming. Bandit began to shriek from his perch, clearly agitated over something. “Scourge..?” the Xocili managed to slur out, a very real panic and confusion rushing through her as her body slumped, only to find herself caught by someone standing behind her, someone that her sensors had not alerted her to.

    Before she could even attempt to fight it, Mercury found her wrists bound by enchanted cuffs that had cut her off totally and completely from her magic. And while she couldn’t see the woman that held her up, she could hear her voice almost directly in her ear as she spoke. “Unfortunately for you, my pet, your part in all this is over.” Thana smiled darkly at Scourge over Mercury’s shoulder, holding the lavender haired woman up before her with one arm wrapped around her waist from behind, and the other up across Mercury’s chest and shoulders. “Good evening, Dread Master Scourge… Sorry to cut in on this delightful little bonding session of yours, but I’m afraid I need to whisk this exquisite beauty away to another engagement. I do hope you don’t mind…”

    WORDS: 1798/14,112 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Vandrad Ragnos
    Vandrad Ragnos

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Traveller of the Multiverse
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    Posts : 791
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    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Energy Monarch
    Second Skill: Ark of the Dread Masters
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Vandrad Ragnos 24th December 2021, 11:46 am

    Before there can be creation
    ( There must first be destruction )
    Where You Are U5cjexJZ_o


    Scourge was actually a bit proud of himself. Considering he’d never been in this kind of compromising, open-book situation before, he believed he’d handled it fairly well. He wasn’t going to go to the lengths of proclaiming himself the best shoulder to cry upon but without any warning or preparation, he’d confronted the weighted moment and spoke to her as honestly as he could. He wasn’t looking to make a habit of it but it was good to know that, perhaps if he needed to deal with a similar situation in the future, perhaps in the middle of a lie, he could pull it off. Then again, perhaps the success was mostly because of how honest he had to be. It was a triflingly difficult thing to decipher.

    Nonetheless, his words of encouragement took a moment to sink in but after Mercury stared at him silently for several beats, she finally managed to crack a small, hopeful smirk. She insisted, albeit it gently, that Hell would be gracious for them coming to rid them of the prince of Bellum. Scourge smirked back. “You say that like Vandrad wouldn’t have already overthrown its ruler and implemented an entirely new regime.” There was no loss of respect for the missing prince in Scourge’s words. Despite the precariousness of their positions, it seemed the Dread Master did well and truly respect Vandrad. He’d done his part to pull her out from the darkness of misery, if only a bit, and as recompense, she offered him an outside observation. She pointed out that the sword that had been used against Vandrad was not a single target weapon, or rather its design was not only for the sake of stopping the prince. Wielding the same magic, Scourge was also a viable target for the corruption and as she saw it, Maker was more a danger to the Masters than he was an ally. His goals were his own and his actions only aided to serve his purposes, even if they seemingly offered assistance to his organization. He leveled his gaze with hers as she continued, stating that she had every intent of discovering whatever she could about the alien. But as she saw it, he wasn’t the source of salvation for the Dread Masters and could, instead, serve to be their downfall by taking their resources and using it to wipe them out and control the planet akin to the immortals they hated so fiercely.

    Scourge snorted. “The Dread Masters -- or rather the old guard -- believe they are using Maker for their own benefit and have ‘implemented’ failsafes for when his usefulness has run out. But I’m inclined to agree with you; one does not play with fire and not get burned. If you’re still feeling charitable in the future, I would ask that you send whatever you find on our dear Engineer to me as well. I want proof that is definitive enough to undermine him completely and eliminate him once and for all. The last thing I want is to create an even worse world for humanity by allowing a tyrant all the resources he needs.”

    Mercury reached into her pack and pulled out a device that was swiftly tossed to him. Catching it easily, the Dread Master glanced at it, realizing that it was a iLac of far superior design than others he had seen. It was, no doubt, custom made by the Silver Wolf Ace, utilizing whatever superior resources she had from the worlds beyond their own. She explained that it was a direct line to her -- communication that was fixed between the two of them and allowing no one to utilize it themselves. It was even printed to his biological signature. “And here I am, looking the Grinch without a present to provide to you during this giving season,” he remarked with a bit of humor. She then joined in on the teasing, insisting that it was merely for business and not for pleasure. “Well aren’t you the spoil sport. Here I thought you were the fun one,” he returned her smirk, sliding the iLac under his tunic and storing it within a pocket inside. As she stood up and began her preparations to leave, remarking that she should return before even more panic set in, Scourge was already thinking of where to look next. A return to one of the Dread Master’s crypts seemed in order; now that Ataxia was a very real possibility, he’d have to break into some of the sealed vaults and see what he could dig up. Trouble still remained in his future but then again, it rarely left him alone.

    Unfortunately, it seemed to have come for him sooner than he expected. No sooner had Mercury gotten to her feet that she suddenly looked sickly. She barely managed to keep herself standing up and she’d get a very real look of concern from the Dread Master as she barely managed to sound out his name. Before he could move to catch her from falling, someone else interrupted -- someone that had managed to infiltrate the conversation without alerting them. The term ‘impossible’ was rarely tossed around by Scourge, be it outwardly or internally, but the fact that someone had gotten so close to Mercury or even to the area without the Dread Master sensing them defied logic. His body stiffened as he looked past the drugged and now cuffed Mercury to the woman holding her up, his usual ambivalence hardened into a very serious glare. Thana spoke to Mercury first before addressing him, both by title and name, insisting that she was loath to interrupt but she had been asked to take Mercury elsewhere.

    “Warlord Trinity, as I live and breathe. And here I am without my autograph book,” Scourge spoke up, his usual demeanor returning as he smirked. “Normally I wouldn’t mind having a second, beautiful woman cutting in but unfortunately, this is a ‘reservation required’ meeting. A shame truly, as my superiors would love to set up a meeting with you but alas, she is far more important to me than you are at the moment.” His right hand slammed into his left, open palm slapping against fist. As he drew the flat hand back, a construction of magic followed after, the pink energy illuminating the area around him. As both limbs pulled apart, the long manifestation took the shape of the scythe he had used a day prior, the Dread Master gripping the magical grip tight as he brought the weapon up and pointed it at Thana. In that same instant, he once more activated his Empowerment, turning his hair gold once more as he held the dark mage’s stare. “Uncuff her immediately and maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to convince her not to turn you into pigslop. She is quite fond of that tactic but I believe the two of us have a few questions about whoever asked you to ‘whisk’ her away.”






    Words: 1163/9545 | Tag: @Mercury Arseneault |© marzia at shine & gs.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
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    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 24th December 2021, 2:37 pm

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    Against all odds, the two of them had managed to form some kind of alliance, as temporary and narrow focused as it was. They had little to nothing to go on, but if Vandrad was going to be found it would be thanks to them working together, not against one another. Thankfully, both of them were more than used to having to work with enemies from time to time, so it wasn’t like it was going to be new territory for either. Mercury tossed him the phone so that he could have a more direct way of contacting her, Scourge playfully lamenting that he didn’t have any gift to provide in return. She grinned at him lightly as he teased her about spoiling the fun of using the device for more lewd purposes. Then, with a quick comment about needing to leave before anyone started worrying about her, she stood to her feet.

    And in an instant, everything came crashing down. Mercury’s vision had greyed and tunnelled out of nowhere, not just her physical eyesight but even her radars were scrambled and unclear as some kind of intense illness swept her up. Normally she might have been able to fight it off with her magic, but the deliriousness and temporary loss of equilibrium was all the opportunity Thana needed to get the drop on her and slap the magic dampening shackles on before Mercury could find the strength to retaliate in self defense. Mercury couldn’t turn her head enough to see her captor, nor did she recognize the woman’s voice, but she could see the genuine expression of apprehension and recognition on Scourge’s face as he tried to process how this woman had gotten the drop on them both. And then, he spoke her name.

    Thana’s smile grew into something more sweet, though there was no looking past the fact that she was a psychopath. “Well, if you feel that strongly about it, I could always sign on something more permanent…” Her amber eyes drifted up and down his body briefly, eyeing it more like a piece of meat than anything else. His own light demeanor was back in place as he remarked about how normally he would be perfectly fine with having another woman around that was pleasing to the eye, but lamentably this was a closed curtain affair and she had not gotten an invitation. Mix that with the fact that Mercury was of far greater importance to him at the moment, and it supposedly would leave the Warlord in some kind of implied conundrum.

    As Mercury visibly struggled to stay conscious, her body fighting back the effects of the spell even without access to her magic, Scourge summoned forth the energy scythe from his palm and once more cloaked himself in his empowerment. He demanded that Thana uncuff Mercury, and as long as Trinity complied with the request he would consider persuading the Xocili not to treat her captor to the same treatment that Sabine had received. At least, not before they got a few answers.

    The Warlord of Madness giggled, an airy but unnerving sound. “Yes, I was rather impressed with that bit of carnage. She’s got a deliciously spiteful spirit, this one.” She turned her head enough to look down at the woman in her arms with a look of intimate hunger that would give even the most desensitized of people all sorts of red flags and heebie jeebies. Then, her gaze flicked back to Scourge. “But if answers are what you are looking for, you don’t need to fight me to get them. Besides, she already knows who is looking for her… she just thought she would have more time to prepare.”

    A very real sense of dread rippled through every fiber of Mercury’s being, a feeling of fear so intense that it would far overshadow every other emotion she’d felt in the last twenty four hours. How… how had Khelban managed to do this? There was no way he had any connection to someone like Trinity. She would have slaughtered him without lifting a finger, and he would not have had the power to stop her.

    “At… Ata…”

    Mercury grit her teeth and put every ounce of determination and willpower she had into fighting the Warlord’s spell, causing Thana to look down at her in pleasant surprise. “Well, well… even without your magic, you seem to be quite the spirited fighter. I’m impressed you’re still awake.”

    The Xocili ignored the woman, her focus on Scourge and Scourge alone. She had to warn him. “Ataxia…” she managed to eek out, stopping for only a moment to build up enough strength to force out a second word. “...Av… Avatar…”

    Thana’s grin split across her face. “Oh, but you all have been doing your research. So is that what we’re doing, now? Spilling one another’s secrets… little slave?” The words practically purred out of Thana’s throat as she spoke directly into Mercury’s ear, her lips brushing against the woman’s skin, even giving her lobe a slight tug with her teeth. “You poor dear. You’ve overcome so much, run away from your oppressors that isolated you and molded you into the perfect weapon… the perfect spy… all for a chance at freedom and love… but now the fairy tail is over. Your masters have called you home.”

    Another dark chuckle bubbled from her throat as she eyed Scourge once more. “Thirty one billion, six hundred twelve million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, eight hundred thirty-seven,” she told the man slowly, enunciating each number with a careful emphasis. “That’s how many people this one has killed. Not all of them directly, of course… But if we’re going to talk about the kind of people that the Dread Masters and Order of Souls should be hunting for the protection of Earthland, I think it’s only fair that we leave no threat undiscussed. She’s an even bigger danger to humanity than even Maker himself. But she didn’t tell you that part, did she? She’s not hiding from the Nazru. They already know she is here. They’re the ones who sent her, after all.”

    Pain unlike any other turmoil ripped through Mercury’s core as she processed Thana’s words, a palpable guilt and regret and sorrow that was indescribable. Mercury had always assumed that the Nazru had gone back to at least some of the other worlds she’d infiltrated and destroyed them, but she had always been too afraid to check. It was easier to just move forward without knowing, so she could remain the emotionless tool they had crafted her to be. Of course she had no reason to take this woman’s words as fact, but Trinity already knew far more than she should about who Mercury was, and it was highly probable that she was telling the truth… and even just the thought that it could be true was breaking Mercury down from the inside.

    And it didn’t help that Trinity was getting quite physical at the moment. The Warlord’s hands moved slowly as she talked, continuing to hold her captive in front of her to stave off an attack, the digits caressing Mercury almost lovingly in ways and places that she had no consent to do so. “So you see, dear Scourge, I can’t remove those cuffs as you’ve asked. She is simply far too dangerous, and that was before she gained access to an ancient and powerful magic that not even she has been able to identify or fully understand. One that rivals even the Ark.”

    “But the truth is, she’s not the one that’s truly important to you, is she? No, you are only interested in solving the riddle of where your Prince of Bellum has run off to… He is alive, and I could tell you where to find him, how he got there… In fact, I could tell you just about anything you wanted to know: Every sordid detail about Maker’s history and identity… What steps to take that would guarantee your rulership over the Dread Masters, so you could get rid of the cowards that currently run it and mold it how you see fit… All the information about Ataxia that has been lost and buried by each generation over the millenia…”

    Her words were built up in such a way as to suggest that either she – or perhaps, more frighteningly, Ataxia – truly did have something to do with Vandrad’s disappearance. It would be the only explanation as to how she knew so much about things she would otherwise have no right to know. But then, Mercury’s dead weighted form would sink just enough in Trinity’s grip to reveal the necklace dangling around the Warlord’s neck: the small amethyst crystal fixed to a simple chain, a jewel that was otherwise unremarkable except to those who might have knowledge enough to recognize it.

    “If you ask real nicely, maybe... just maybe... I'll give you some of the information you seek. But by the time Vandrad returns, Mercury will be long, long gone."

    WORDS: 1508/15,620 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Vandrad Ragnos
    Vandrad Ragnos

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Traveller of the Multiverse
    Position : None
    Posts : 791
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    Experience : 8,079,192

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Energy Monarch
    Second Skill: Ark of the Dread Masters
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Vandrad Ragnos 24th December 2021, 4:33 pm

    Before there can be creation
    ( There must first be destruction )
    Where You Are U5cjexJZ_o


    “A rather tempting offer, no doubt, but I prefer my body as the scar-less temple that it currently is,” Scourge dismissed the offer courteously, giving the woman an even smile. She made very little effort to hide her eyes from roaming him up and down but that was hardly a surprise. Trinity was well known for her delight in the dark and wicked things of the world and there was never a doubt in the Dread Master’s mind that her whims and interests carried on into a sexual place as well. But he hardly had the time to play games so while he was fine to banter for a brief few moments, he made his intentions and words very clear. With the summoning of his scythe and his engorged magical power, he told Trinity to release Mercury immediately and prepare for quite the interrogation. She’d interrupted the conclusion of their meeting with a very rude self-invitation so there was no mercy to be awaiting her.

    Trinity didn’t even seem to consider it, more tickled by the Dread Master’s words. She turned her attention to Mercury as she mused on the Silver Wolf Ace’s carnage in Midi, a very passionate hunger in her eyes. Even for one such as Scourge, it felt wrong and he had to fight every inclination to lash out immediately. After the uncomfortable moment that lasted far longer than it deserved to, she met his gaze once more, informing him that answers were merely a question away, not needing any kind of conflict at all. As she put it, Mercury was more than aware of who was hunting for her and the rush of fear that ran through the Silver Wolf Ace was enough to confirm to Scourge that it was true. It didn’t offer insight into a name but it was a clue -- someone that Mercury knew. Scourge’s attention flicked to Mercury as she found the strength to sputter out sounds, trying to form a word. Trinity grinned and mocked the woman but the Silver Wolf Ace pushed forward, ignoring the words of her captor and spat out Ataxia’s name. After swallowing hard to regain one final push of strength, she spoke the word ‘Avatar’.

    Scourge was not often confronted with fear but it hit him hard in that moment. The Avatar of Ataxia was something that was deemed impossible, legend and myth based on the hierarchy and pantheon they knew. It was well known that each Divine and Sin could ‘bless’ subjects to become their vassals but there were also ones that became weapons for the immortals. Not many were known to the Dread Masters but one had suggested that, since Ataxia had once been a Divine herself, she inherently had the ability to connect with mortals like her siblings. But she had been locked away, beyond the realm of mortals and robbing her of that opportunity. Or so it was thought. Yet here stood Mercury, telling him in not so many words, that fiction was in fact truth and the nightmare that most of his order and the rival organization hoped was beyond reach had come true. Trinity, for her part, was enjoying the revelations being spoken, even if she did chide the woman for sharing her secret. Once more she imposed her physical will on the Silver Wolf Ace, her hands roaming and her mouth tasting Mercury’s flesh. She called Mercury a spy, a weapon and insisted that her masters had summoned her back.

    The Dread Master’s gaze never wavered as Trinity looked back to him. A frighteningly large number was spoken to him, each syllable of each number caressed with her voice like it was gilded in gold and jewels. It was the number of people that had perished at Mercury’s hands. There was room for indirect responsibility and guilt but it didn’t take away from the true weight of it, as Trinity stated that Mercury was precisely the kind of danger that they should be hunting -- even worse than Maker. Trinity continued to reveal that the Nazru, the race that Maker had talked about only a day ago, were fully aware she was alive and well. In fact, she had been their agent; sent to Earthland for their own reasons and purposes. And if there was even a shred of doubt within Scourge’s mind over the confessions, it was wiped away as he felt Mercury’s emotional center ripple with terrible, negative feelings. The Dread Master’s face remained neutral, considering all of the information through a lens of practicality. But slowly the scythe, which had been poised in his hand and pointed at Thana, slowly dropped down and away. Though it did very little to keep the dark mage from groping the Silver Wolf Ace. It was because of this, Thana insisted, that she couldn’t take off the handcuffs, as Mercury was far too dangerous to be left untethered. And that was on top of the fact that apparently she had gained access to a magic that was beyond the scope of the Silver Wolf Ace’s realm of knowledge -- one that Thana insisted rivaled the Ark.

    Another interesting bit of information but he had barely any time to ponder it as Thana turned her attention to him, stating that Mercury was hardly the person that mattered most to him. No, as she saw it, Vandrad was the only one that he was seeking and even confirmed that he was alive, knowing full well of his whereabouts and how’d he got to wherever that was. She sweetened the pot further, stating that she could tell him literally anything he desired -- information about Maker, what he would have to do to take control of the Dread Masters, even information about Ataxia that had been lost or buried. She possessed the ability, or claimed as much, which was almost too good to be true. He was almost ready to chastise her for selling too hard when Mercury’s body drooped a bit further, whatever was affecting her beginning to take a more solid grip. And in that instant, the reveal of perhaps the most unremarkable necklace presented itself. And Scourge suddenly knew exactly how this woman possessed so much intimate knowledge. She didn’t -- it was stolen.

    Clever girl. He couldn’t even shame her. She’d gotten the keys to the kingdom and used it purposefully to make her mark in the world. Both the Dread Masters and the Order of Souls would sacrifice countless lives just for the chance to take her trinket. Trinity wrapped up her offer in a tiny little bow, stating that she’d be open to giving him some answers if he played nicely. But no matter what, Mercury would be gone by the time that Vandrad returned. She had certainly put him in a bit of a pickle. “Well I have never been very good at asking or even playing very nicely,” he stated simply, letting that hang in the air for a moment. But then slowly his scythe began to dissipate, melting into fluttering fragments of pink magic. At the same time, his Empowerment lifted off of him and returned him to his normal state. “But there’s no denying you make an enticing offer. My apologies, Mercury -- it really is nothing personal.”

    “So about this information you may or may not be willing to share…” he said, crossing his arms in front of him. “Could it possibly pertain to Vandrad’s whereabouts? And, if only to sate my curiosity, who it was that hired you to grab Mercury and where they’re planning on taking her? Threat that she is, the rest of my order will want to know who to keep an eye on and what preparations we should make.” The fact of the matter was, Scourge had to comply. While he was strong enough to take Trinity -- and he was confident in that -- he couldn’t do it with Mercury fading as she was. If she was still alert and capable of moving, she’d be able to read his tells and he could, in turn, get Trinity off guard. Even moving in his fastest form, there was no guaranteeing that he could break the two apart without causing lethal damage to the Silver Wolf Ace. Besides, if he could gain a bit of knowledge in the meantime, it was worth the risk. All he could hope was that Mercury understood he was doing what he could to find Vandrad and guarantee some way of helping the prince find her.






    Words: 1416/10,961 | Tag: @Mercury Arseneault |© marzia at shine & gs.


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    Mercury Arseneault
    Mercury Arseneault

    Quality Badge Level 1- Quality Badge Level 2- Quality Badge Level 3- Player 
    Lineage : Gold Rush
    Position : None
    Posts : 690
    Cosmic Coins : 0
    Dungeon Tokens : 0
    Experience : 7,124,425

    Character Sheet
    First Skill: Gunblade Master
    Second Skill: Mecha Primordial Slayer
    Third Skill:

    Where You Are Empty Re: Where You Are

    Post by Mercury Arseneault 24th December 2021, 6:34 pm

    Mercury Banner
    Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects
    and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
    The Dread Master was utterly silent through what had turned into quite the soliloquy on Thana’s part. He absorbed it all with an even facade, and while many other villains like Thana might be disappointed by not getting a visible rise out of their prey, the Avatar of Ataxia was more than content with the way things were playing out. She didn’t need to see the fear and rage and frustration in the eyes of her enemies to know it was there.

    Scourge lowered his weapon slowly as he considered her words, admitting that he wasn’t very good at playing nice with others. Yet he claimed he couldn’t resist the offer being given to him, apologizing to Mercury even as he dismissed his scythe and dropped his state of empowerment. Whether or not the Xocili actually heard the apology was another matter entirely. She had been fading fast from the start, finding the strength of will to hold on for as long as she could, and oddly enough it was only after it seemed that Scourge was betraying her that she seemed to finally let go, succumbing to the power of the spell that was afflicting her and slipping into a deep coma in Trinity’s arms.

    Meanwhile, the Warlord smiled sweetly at Scourge’s willingness to take her up on her offer of information. He inquired as to where Vandrad was, as well as the identity and plans of the one that had sought Mercury’s capture. His reasons, he claimed, were because the Dread Masters would want to know what to prepare for. Whether or not Trinity believed his reasons were immaterial as she truly didn’t care why he wanted the information he asked for nor what he planned on doing with it afterward.

    “Vandrad is no longer on Earthland. In fact, he isn’t even in our universe. As you surmised, he was attempting to tap into his magic yesterday morning, and what he found certainly belongs to him… but it is something he was unaware that he had. It swallowed him up before he could stop it, and unfortunately the only one who can bring him back is himself. He will return, eventually, but there is nothing you can do except wait.”

    If she knew more details than that she wasn’t offering them, though considering the amulet around her neck and the soul of the founding Dread Master that lived within it, it was entirely reasonable to assume that she was purposefully leaving out a few key bits of information. Still, what she did elect to share was more or less what he needed to know: that the prince was alive, that he had not been kidnapped or attacked by any outside source, and that he would make his own way home once he was able to use his new power again. There was nothing Scourge would be able to do to push that along or help Vandrad from afar.

    Trinity looked down at the unconscious form of Mercury again, the extraterrestrial fully limp in her grasp. “As for this one… the one that hired me was another Xocili by the name of Khelben. The two of them are both slaves to the Nazru, and if they don’t comply with their missions then what little remains of their people will suffer. Khelben came because they suspected that little Mercury here was rebelling, and now he has hired me, not knowing who I truly am, to capture her alive on his behalf because he knows that he does not have the power to take her down himself. He is going to take her home and hope that turning her in will be enough to keep what remains of his loved ones alive.”

    “As far as preparations go…” She paused in thought, clearly debating just how much she wanted to reveal of what she knew. Afterall, what fun would it be to give him everything and lose the mystery of what was to come? “After the two of them are gone, there will be no one left to watch, nothing left to study, and Mercury never got the chance to tell Vandrad or his family what she knew. So I’m afraid you will just have to be surprised.”

    With a self satisfied smirk, she effortlessly scooped Mercury up in her arms. Bandit, who had been fidgeting on his perch anxiously, his black feathers puffed in fear, once more began to shriek and hop around in anger as he watched his companion get manhandled by the Warlord. “Until next time, Dread Master.” And then she was simply gone, as was Mercury. Bandit launched himself into the air where he flew tight circles around the spot that the woman had just stood, as though trying to summon them back. But in the end, it was just him and Scourge that remained, and Mercury wasn’t coming back.

    Elsewhere in the world, Khelben was waiting anxiously at the place where his bounty hunter had agreed to meet him. The nameless woman had reached out to let him know that she had Mercury, and he had wasted no time in beseeching her to transfer the prisoner to him right away so he could get his journey started.

    He was completely caught off guard by the woman when she appeared, however, as she looked completely different from the one he had spoken with. She was much younger, with fire for eyes and a cruel smirk that sent shivers down his spine. His trepidation only grew when he realized he recognized her: Trinity. Thana. The Warlord that Mercury had informed him about when she was going down the list of notable threats in the world. This woman had been up near the top, and he knew that she was dangerous. Standing to his feet, his hand hovered over the hilt of his blade, despite knowing that he would not be able to stand against her. “Let her go,” he demanded, doing his best to sound more confident than he was.

    Thana snorted. “Relax, would you? We had an arrangement, you and I… and I intend on seeing it through.” Walking up to him, she set Mercury down on the ground where she continued to lay unconscious. “Alive and in one piece, as promised. And you need not worry about her magic… the cuffs are preventing her from using it.”

    Khelben gulped slightly, his gaze glancing down at Mercury and checking her vitals. She did seem to be okay, just knocked out. “Well, uh… T-thank you.” Reaching for his tablet, he forwarded her the remainder of the money he owed her. “There. Our business with one another is concluded.”[/color]

    She looked at him with a smile that nearly caused his lungs to stop functioning, the man all but frozen in fear as he wondered if she would turn on him. Instead, she told him, “So it is. For now, at least. You and I will surely see one another again… but for now, you have much bigger problems ahead of you.” Turning, Thana began to saunter away, but not without calling back to him with an ominous farewell. “Enjoy these moments of peace while you still have them, Khelben… because by the time you realize what you have truly done, it will be far, far too late to fix it.”

    Khelben watched her go, completely and utterly spooked by the fact that she knew his name and seemed to have some kind of premonition as to what his actions would cause. It took him several long seconds to find the strength to move after she was gone, and finally he looked back down at Mercury. Steeling himself, he picked her up and made a hasty retreat toward his ship.

    It was time to get as far from Earthland – and Vandrad – as possible.

    WORDS: 1304/16,924 | @Vandrad Ragnos
    Serilda Sinclair



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