Elfyria! :D

[Gafe]

The last nights had been a living horror, and considering that what once was day was now night, it had been a pretty long horror. Some werebeasts had caught his scent about twenty-four hours back and he'd spent the following five running from them. It wasn't until he found a river that his scent washed off and the werebeasts lost his track. Next, as he'd run out of food, he was determined to find something to eat and thus, spent the following hours looking for nourishment. Eventually, he found a wildberry shurb - or a shurb that held close resemblance to one - and ate several handfuls without bothering to taste them. Oh, had that been a mistake, because of this, his stomach hurt until he found a place to sleep.
He woke up to the sound of bats. He hated bats, disgusting little creatures they were. It was just his luck that said bats were, one, bloodsucking, and two, corrupted by the darke. Doing what he did best, the young man ran away, not before delivering a couple of lethal blows with his dagger to some bats, though. But man, were those bats determined, two hours of running and they still were pursuing him. At some point in the following hour, the bats gave up, but he ran into pawns of Lorde. Some sort of goblins, big eared and noseless goons, they were. To avoid detection, he sunk to the ground, sneeking peeks at the darke creatures through the bushes. It was a rather large troop, and eventually, he dozed off.


"HEY YOU LAYIN ON THE GRASS! IF YOU ARE SOME INFECTED ZOMBIE PERSON GO AHEAD AND ATTACK! IF NOT, THEN WHO THE HELL ARE YA!?!" Was what woke him up.
At first, he thought the person was addressing him. Why not? His day couldn't get any worse.
Yes, indeed, Dareth's day - or night - had been the worst he had yet lived through. But possibly not the worst he would live in his life, or in the near future.
Although the voice had identified itself as non-darke, Dareth did not want to meet its bearer. However, as his senses were greatly disturbed by the sudden waking up, he ran in the opposite direction he intended to, and up to a blue eyed, brown haired, young swordsman.
"Oh, uhm, hello?" Was all he managed to say. In his defense, he hadn't seen a non-corrputed being in a very long time.

[Vale]

Armarant was standing outside the golden gates of Varcadia, and sure it only took him 3 seconds to get there form Lorde's Palace, he felt rather tired from all of his phase shifting.
"Perhaps I'll lay siege to the city tomorrow." He sighed, then thought about it. "I walk through time, who am I trying to fool about tomorrow?" He laughed a bit as he approached the gates and was Immediately stopped by a set of guards.
"Who are you, and what is your business in Varcadia?"
Armarant, for once, took off his hood, showing his dark dark blue hair, blue eyes, and runic tattoos covering his cheeks and a bit in the center of his forehead.
"I'm a Sage from the Southern Water Temple. I've come on a Pilgrimage."
"We were unaware of any Sages coming. Prove it. Where's your documentation?"

Armarant grew weary again, making him unable to merely blink the guards out of existence, and he sighed.
"We Sages are NOT mere sources of entertainment! We're a Holy People, sent to bring Peace and Understanding of Magic! How dare you demean our way of living?!" Armarant shouted, his anger flaring. "I demand you let me in for this ridiculous mistreatment of me!"
"Very well. But we'll be keeping an eye on you, Sage." One of the older, higher up, guards spoke, opening the gate.

Armarant gave a rather abrasive "pfft" then continued to walk into the City of Light, Varcadia.

he had one goal in mind, and it wasn't a Pilgrimage. Unfortunately, being in the City of Light drastically cut his power short. He'd have to actually rely on his wit and physical strength (what little physical strength he had, at least in comparison to his Temporal Magyk.) Simple spells to speed himself up, and slow people down would be just about the extent of his magyk while in the gates of Varcadia.

[Tusk]

Davean looked at the door and with a sigh, he entered. This angel, Meian, not someone he would of thought to be an angel. To send a city into oblivion and act so uncaring was like nothing he had read before. Even the angels he did meet in his travels did not act as such. He was so care free that it nearly bothered the cleric, yet he did not show it. If the Darknesse wanted the Legends, then he would do what he could to stop it.

Tusk saw someone else run up to the first person. Now he was really pissed off. The half giant began walking swiftly to them and thanks to his long legs, he managed to get to them ather quickly. To his suprise, they were both not dead zombie people so he put away his great sword and looked to the tiny people.
" Well I'll be! You two are not freaky little zombie people! Ha, that is great to see! Last town I went to decided to attack me. poor little buggers did not get to far on that idea. Oh yeah! I am Tusk by the way. Half giant warrior from the Nomad lands. Who are you two? "

[Shorik]

Lost in his thoughts, Shorik didn't see the first individual coming. After impact, the young swordsman looked to see that it was another young man who'd bumped into him. Before Shorik could ask who he was, though, a giant ran to them. Shorik was about to draw his sword, when the giant sheathed his.

The giant introduced himself as Tusk, and then asked who Shorik and the other man were.
"The name's Shorik..." he responded," As for this guy.. I don't even know him."

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Shudin merely followed Meian and Daeven into the portal. The theif quickly took out a boomerang, and then threw it. It circled around the room, and then came back with nothing.
"Damn." he said, "Nothing valuable around here....."

[kipponoui]

"Nothing valuable!" the angel scoffed. "I'll have you know I worked for eons to gather this collection!" He pointed to a relatively small pile, towering precariously up to waist-height. "That pile alone would have cost about 2 palaces filled with gold! And I won't have that boomerang or any other item of yours ruining them!"
Meian closed his eyes and breathed deeply. "Don't touch anything unless I tell you to. I've got everything spelled to this place, so you'll most likely die if you try to remove something of mine." His eyes opened slightly, staring at Shudin. A small tendril of black flicked, hardly noticeable but there nonetheless. "That goes for you especially."
He looked back through the doorway to Dahlia. "Coming along?"

[Eva]

Dahlia looked up at Meian with a smile. "Just a second." she called. Dahlia drew her arm back a bit, and a green glow surrounded her palm. She released her draw, causing the green energy to hit one of the smaller piles of books. "De-spell." she said chipperly, picking up the books. "What's the point of having a fortune if you share none of it? There is much to learn from an angel's collection of tomes." she said matter-of-factly. "Don't worry, the thief won't get his paws on any of these." Dahlia added. Another green glow appeared around her palm, and she quickly cast the re-sealing spell. "Carry on, then!"

[Eva]

Priss Vayhew examined the captive, an older man with dark green hair. He was clearly nervous around the group of thieves. She approached him, swaying her hips as she did in her signature walk- learned from her mother. "What is your name?" she demanded, fingers placed on her knife. "Please, madame, I'm only a poor wanderer!" the man begged, instantly breaking down in front of Priss. The blonde bandit cocked her head, clearly annoyed. "I shall ask you only two more times. What is your name?" she asked, fully drawing her knife but leaving it at her side. "I have nothing! Check my bag, my horse's girdles are empty!" the man shouted, backing up. Rennac and Lute were there to impede him, causing the man to break down again. Priss approached him slowly, her dark blue eyes glaring holes in him. "Last chance, little man." she hissed. The man hesitated for a moment. Then he grabbed the dagger on Lute's leg and lunged forward, missing Priss by mere inches. She shot back, drawing her short bow and taking aim. However, like most people who were still alive, the man was apparently talented. He threw a beam of magic out, once again nearly grazing the thief. Of course, she was too graceful to be hit by his messy spellcasting. She ran forward, flanked by Rennac, Lute, and several other thieves. He had already jumped on his horse and was running.

It was several minutes later, and Priss was separated slightly from the group, with only Lute at her side as she combed through the black of the night. "Vayhew!" Lute cried, taking her short sword out of its sheath. It only made half out, and in seconds Lute let out a different cry, this one desperate and low. Priss spun around, barely parrying the blow that the demon had attempted to land. A darknesse-zombie. Priss brought her knee up, knocking the zombie back before she slashed its throat through. She looked down at Lute's body. She was a good woman...Priss heard a sound, the rustling of dead leaves. More damn mindless nuisances, but too many for one person. Priss wrapped her indigo cape around her body, to insure that her scent was masked, and traipsed through the night.

Finally, she spotted a few figures in the distance. Time to make a stand...Priss dove forward, landing on top of one of them, a young human male. Priss shook herself and looked down at the boy. "Evening, handsome. We've got company." she warned, pointing her knife at the direction she had come from. She had recognized the boy immediately; Dallas, Dafeth, something along those lines. Priss was good with faces; names, not so much. But this boy had definetly been in her caravan at least once, and at least for a small span of time. Priss stood up and dusted herself off. "I'm Priss. This is a knife. Those are bad guys. You kids know what to do." she said jovially, drawing her knife once again. She turned to face the incoming fiends. Hopefully, Priss had stumbled across a group of fighters. Otherwise...well, her legs weren't too tired.

[Vale]

Armarant was walking around Varcadia, and thankfully due to the many Light Branding people here, Lorde wouldn't be able to find him specifically, but more and more, it seemed to be a common thing, that Armarant would just phase through planes at will and would always make his way back.

However something was in Varcadia, something not of light, but of light...

He would find it, he must find it.

[kipponoui]

Meian smiled widely. "Dahlia!" He rushed forwards, staring at the book she had just touched. "So you have it too!" Instantly, his smile vanished, to be replaced by a slight scowl. "I have something for you."
Expertly, Meian picked his way down an obscure path through the piles of books, running his fingers across a spine now and again. He muttered on occasion, rejecting the few books he closely examined. He quickly disappeared amongst the piles of books, his voice growing faint.
"Found it!" he shouted, appearing from the other side of the path. "Here ya go." the angel offered out a small book, A Brief Study of the Pathological Element. "Keep it safe, that's a dangerous book."
"And now that that's done and over with," He waved a hand, closing the door. As it closed, a light erupted from the center. When the light had died, the door had changed to a white colour. "Shall we?" he said, opening the door to reveal a large domed room. A circular stone table sat in the center, with a small portion of the center cut away. He walked forward, seating himself at the larges seat. Immediately, a thread of light weaved itself around to draw out a map of Elfyria in the center of the table. Meian stared intently at the map, motioning briefly for the rest of them to sit down.

[Vale]

Armarant was standing in what appeared to be a large shopping center, thousands of stands, mini-markets and vendors were sprawled throughout the metropolis district, the perfect place for cutthroats and thieves, and the perfect way for information to be disbursed.

"It's really a wonder, why these places still exist, I had thought that Lorde had wiped most of these out. Huh...well, leave it to humans and angels to create these last bastions of hope for their races." Armarant spoke as he continued to walk through the city streets, browsing at weaponsmiths, scrolls of spells, and other assorted texts.
If he didn't have the intention of leveling this place after finding the Staff of Legends, he might have actually enjoyed this place.

Still, he was only trying to bide time, and find information on where the Staff was, assuming that it was actually the Staff that was residing in Varcadia.
After all, he knew where one of the Items was, well...when it was, to be more precise. But that didn't matter, he wanted the staff, and would do anything to get to it.

Smiling he gazed up to the Temple in the center of Varcadia, surrounded by the bustling streets and bustling markets.

"There you are..."

[Tusk]

" Well Shorik, it is good to see someone not infected. Maybe there is something left in this land afterall. Anyway, I am headed to Varcadia to stock up and booze up. Wanna join? It would be better to travel in groups and I am also bored and tired of drinking alone. Someone who actually does not want to kill you would make a great travel partner. "
He said with a rather bored expression on his face. He knew the city was only a few dozen miles out, but something caught his attention. His weapons were faintly glowing. He felt them try and pull him in the direction of the city. To Tusk, it was just odd. He never could figure out his weapons.

Davean looked in awe at the place and then sat when Meian motioned for them to sit. He looked at the map and quickly began to figure out just where they were and where they were going. People were looking at other things, so he just waited.

[Shorik]

Shorik's company was growing by the minute. Now, a woman who Shorik took for a some sort of theif bumped into the nameless man. She introduced herself as Priss, and she seemed to assume that the three men were allies of some sort.

A little ways off, Shorik spied some dark zombies. He sighed. They must've been folowing Priss. As much as he would've liked to get some sword training out of those things, he really needed to get moving to Vacardia.

Instead, the young man closed his eyes, and concentrated on a spell he had learned. A semi-large fireball appeared in the air above the zombies. It then broke into smaller fireballs that rained down on the zombies, setting them ablaze. They wouldn't be killed by the flames, but it would hold them off for a while.
"There." he said, "I've bought you some time. If you wanna kill them outright, be my guest. I, on the other hand, will be heading to Vacardia."
Without another word, Shorik acted upon his statement, and headed to Vacardia.

Upon entering the city, Shorik couldn't help but be amazed. Even though the world had been plunged into eternal Darkness, this city almost seemed immune to it. Sure, you couldn't ignore the fact that the sun was absent, but the people hadn't been driven mad by the Darkness. They continued to live as normally as one could.

At the center of the city, there was the Temple of Light. In here, it was said that the artifact was contained. Shorik entered the temple, and took a moment to look at the artwork covering the smooth, dome ceiling. While it was hard to make ou tthe details with only torchlight, There was a warrior standing with his sword held high directly across from Shorik. On the other side, there was a mass of dark figures. Finally, in the very center of the ceiling, there was a white circle with what Shorik assumed were beams of light projecting from it.

Shorik then proceeded up a flight of steps to a hallway which ended with a small, circular room, where a sphere of pure light shielded something. The young man just knew that the artifact was here. It had to be!
Ring Bearer, step forward. Step forward, and further your destiny.
Shorik looked around the room, confused. He heard the voice, but there was nobody there except him.
Be calm. Soon, it will make sense.
Shorik took the voice's advice, and calmed down before stepping closer to the sphere of light. At that moment, the sphere burst outward, and disappeared. All that remained was a white gem floating in front of Shorik. The young man took it in his hand, and was then engulfed in a white light.

In the area surrounding Vacardia, one could see a beam of light shoot out into the sky from the city's center. It was there for a moment, and then it fell and disappeared.
In Vacardia, however, the light wasn't gone. No. It had taken the shape of a large gryphon-like creature with soft, glowing blue eyes. It flew around the town, searching out a servant of the Darkness. It would find the servant, and then destroy it.

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Meanwhile, Shudin had taken a seat at the table with the map of Elfyria. The theif was quite amazed at the map. He could see every corner of Elfyria right here. He recognized places he had been before, and now saw areas he would need to explore.

But then, something on the map took his attention. In the Vacardian region, a beam of light shot out for a mintue before falling back again. Now, any idiot knew that such things were not a normal occurence in Elfyria, especially when the ladn was enveloped in darkness.
"Hey, am I the only one who saw that?" Shudin said to the others.

[kipponoui]

Meian's eyes went wide as a smile crowded his face. "No you aren't!" He lept out of his chair, growing more and more excited by the second. Meian stretched out his arms, and arcs of lightning hit the walls, carving out long marks in an ancient language. The angel laughed loudly as the runes were carved. "He's here! Ah, thought I'd never see the day he showed up again!"
A few short moments later, the walls were covered in scorched wells of text. Meian reached forward towards the table, and the map expanded, zooming in on where the tower of light had been. A large gryphon-type thing was flying around the city of Vacardia. Meian laughed again, bellowing into the large room.
"We're leaving!" He said, casting out a portal and stepping into it.

OOC: Continuing tomorrow. Feel free to do as you want, it's gonna take some time to transport all the way to Vacardia

[Vale]

A Hooded man was clapping his hands behind Shorik.
"Impressive feat, releasing the Guardian of Varcadia like that. And without it destroying you....most impressive." He spoke, walking through the beams of light surrounding the dome, completely unphased by the beams passing through him.

"Like mere parlor tricks and light shows could stop me. You're all such fools," The hooded man spoke as he lifted off his hood to stare at the man who released the Gryphon.

Revealing himself as Armarant he sighed.
"Are you kidding me? Fate has wound up cruel." He sighed again as he remembered the thief from earlier on. "I should have killed you. But I see my good graces went unwelcomed." He sighed as he extended his gauntlet covered hand and materialized a scythe...well to be specific, phased in the scythe to this timeline.
"But first....allow me to introduce myself Thief."

"My name is Armarant Beleren. I am a planeswalker from a different time, and a different place. However I have frequently visited this world several times throughout the past 4 thousand years." He spoke as he turned his head sideways. "Do you understand, Thief."
"I am upset however, that what it is I seek, is not here." He paused again, looking at the Light-Gem in the palm of Shorik's hand. "I would not have wasted my time allowing you to find this room unless I was certain it was here. However, you may enjoy your little trinket for payment. Goodbye, Thief." He spoke, resting the oversized scythe across his shoulders, and walked out of the Dome, once again stepping out into the Dark-lit skies of Elfyria. Hearing the battle cry of the Gryphon above him.

"Well...this will be fun." He smiled, taking a defensive stance

[Shorik]

As Amarant left, Shorik's body disintigrated into light particles which joined with the Gryphon. His mind, however had been long gone before that.

The young man awoke, completely surrounded by light. It was quite a change. Then, the voice that Shorik heard in the Temple spoke.
Young warrior. You have continued your destiny, and took the Road of Light. Light will be your ally. It will be your weapon.
"Cool..." Shorik said, still unsure of what was happening.
However, the Light is also a great force. Without control, it will consume you, and act on it's own. It will seek to destroy every speck of Darkness from the world.
"That can't be good.. right?"
Correct. Now, young warrior, walk the Road of Light, and become Master of Light.

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In the physical world, the Gryphon found it's target. It dove right into Amarant, and then retreated to the skies again. There, it let out a fierce battle cry, and beat it's wings, releasing multple destructive light orbs. The Gryphon did not care what would be destroyed in the process, as long as Lorde's servant was among it.