Elementals: The Black Beast (IC, Sign-ups only)

[Constaniana]

Richard put his hands over his ears for a moment, wincing as the strange white-haired boy shouted at him.

"Ach, quiet down a little. I'm getting a bit older, but my hearing's still fine, kid. At least it should be if I don't have to put up with this shouting stuff all the time..." he grumbled. "You must be pretty naive if you've never heard of politics. It's organized arguing, but in this case between factions within various governments either arguing with other factions of their own government or putting aside their differences to argue with the government of another country's government. And then you get the times where you have factions arguing against other factions of their government and foreign governments.

It's a complex web of people punching and spitting on one another, either trying to gain power, keep it, or use for what they attained it for in the first place. That third things ranges from setting up a cushy throne for themselves and their friends or bringing glory to their nation by conquering other nations to helping poor people and building bridges and that sort of thing. It's a messy, screwed up dance that's hard enough to manage in a small country where a monarch holds firm power, but an even bigger cruopskastoerm in a nation spanning a whole damn continent with income inequality and war damages inflicted by rival lords and the rampaging Daemon army from 15 years ago, and the government is a group of men with their hands tied up by regional loyalties and poorly conceived political structure and general spinelessness," Richard looked over at the old soldier.

"Yeah, Fire Elementals. The kids probably already told you, and if they haven't then they probably would at some point, so I'll just get it out of the way now."

The man held up his right hand, generating a small flame in his palm.

"Swoosh," said Richard.

[Kassaran]

Jonah, whom had been silently following behind the group, now ducked back and behind someone, he didn't really care who, but he knew fire, and this, man, if he even was that, was holding it in his hand, and not burning. He growled, it was a deep, gravelly, and guttural sound, something that no normal human would be capable of making. However, before he could carry his aggressiveness out any further, a spasm of pain from his stomach lashed out across his abdomen and doubled him over. He groaned in pain and sat back onto a gravestone, causing it to crack slightly as a small slab of the bleached stone broke away and hit the ground.

[Ameriganastan]

"...A boy of fires fury! That's what the gypsy meant!"

Eric actually gave Richard a(Rather bone cracking) hug and dropped him.

"I knew I still had a quest or two in me. It's a...what's the word...prophecy! I bet that girl spits wind or something. Yes! I'm supposed to join you whippersnappers on...whatever it is you're doing."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Tristan would've apologized for hurting Richard's ears, but he was too busy trying to make sense of what he was told. A government was something that directed people, but now there were lots of parts of it? That was odd. People just complained about it in general. And it turned out that they argued with each other? What a waste. Things would be smoother if they'd just agree on things, or so he thought, at least. And then Richard said that politics consisted on punching and spitting instead of arguing, and went on a rant afterwards. What was that supposed to mean? Was he pulling his leg? If politicians had to punch and spit on one another, were they drunk? Was that why they also danced? Was it more popular in smaller countries then? What was a furry?

A bit confused (As always), Tristan was about to ask some of those questions (Not all, because he was considerate), but he was distracted from that intention when he saw the man create a flame with his palm. Apparently there were a lot of Elementals, or the group simply ran into a lot of them. There were, what like three or four? He wasn't entirely sure.

Either way, he also noticed that a slightly older boy that was sitting on a nearby gravestone seemed upset by the fire and also in pain, so he walked up to him. "Are you alright?" He asked.

[Constaniana]

"Boy of fire's fury? I'm 32, geezer," Richard replied as he was released from the old soldier's hug and replenished the air supply in his lungs.

"Though you are right about the girl, Eric. Charlie is a wind Elemental," Kroisoto interjected, drawing a slightly irritated glance from Richard as he cleared his throat and continue talking.

"I suppose you lot won't stop badgering me about what the hell I'm doing here. You're as stubborn as a herd of grumpy asses. Look, you lot want to help? Help me find a switch or lever or pressure plate or something. It has to be somewhere in this room, and someone else has already been in here. That pile of weird ash there? That's probably from explosives. Or from a desecrated burial urn of a beloved pet or something. Someone else was in here, trying to get underneath this tomb, just like the rumours in Straston said they were. Probably those grey loonies I was tracking this direction until I got distracted with clearing that bandit's nest out..."

[Ameriganastan]

Eric stuck his finger in the ash. And licked it.

"Hmm...yeah...that's a squirrel. And a bit of housecat...not sure why they're in there together."

He gathered the dust in his hands and started tossing it at random walls and objects.

"If you wanna find where these mysterious fellas went, look for their fingerprints."

[Kassaran]

Jonah looked up, startled. There in front of him stood a younger man, but one that wasn't making fire, and one that made him cold to the bone. Not out of fear, but just, cold. He looked into the curious stranger's eyes, trying to discern the look in them. Pain ripped through Jonah's body again, the small piece of meat he had received earlier was taking its toll on his digestive system, he needed to eat more, or else he might begin to digest himself. More and more pressure built up, yet Jonah couldn't tell why. He had eaten almost nothing, why would he be moving to reject it from his body. He needed the food, yet his stomach wasn't having any of it. Then, almost as if he had been sucker punched in the gut, a smell of death slipped into his nose. It sent him backwards over the edge of the gravestone as the pain in the smells slammed against Jonah's brain.

The ashes, now being scattered against the walls were spreading out, and in doing so, a small waft of wind had caught them and perfectly deposited them inside his nose. Those animals, the ones that had been burnt, had been done so alive, the pheromones they had made in their final moments proved so. Or perhaps they had simply died horrific deaths, one way or another, they were powerful, and picking himself up off of his back (seeing as how he had fallen over backwards over the gravestone) he rolled onto his hands and knees and began to retch once more. A terror was beginning to fill within him, and though nothing came out of his stomach physically, he definitely felt some sort of sickness overwhelming his aching bones.

Opening his eyes, he looked down into the dirt and stopped his wretching as he noted the strange runes in the stone he had begun to desecrate. Something was definitely at work here, something was affecting him powerfully, but he just couldn't name it. The sun began to grow in brightness and intensity, and like a lamp being lit in a dark room, his brain began to link that all the things wrong with him were happening here, in this place, in this strange open area with whitewashed stones instead of trees, and where death held the precedent over the living. The strange fire lady from the night before and the men who could make it from nowhere today. The boy who made Jonah cold to his bones and the girl who moved with the wind, it was all so much.

Looking over his shoulder, Jonah noted he was furthest from the center of the group and began to slowly pick himself up and look towards the forest. Less than a few hundred meters away, in the grass, he could sense the presence of a male rabbit, young, fresh, and juicy. While he had a duty to protect the forest here, he also had the privilege of taking freely from it in moderation. He looked back towards the ramshackle group of younger folk, and then again deep into the forest, at the place the rabbit sat. His mouth hung open and he licked his chops, he often did before he hunted. He needed energy from a fresh kill, the food that had been given to him by the strange boy earlier wasn't doing him any good at all.

[Constaniana]

Richard nodded in understanding, surprised at the old stranger's amount of critical thinking and practical knowledge. He watched as the dust landed on the coffin in the rear of the chamber, revealing numerous fingerprints upon it, indicating that a group of people had most likely been touching it recently. The lid of the sarcophagus seemed slightly out of place, reinforcing the possibility that it had been moved recently.

"Someone, help me move this lid," Richard asked, walking over to it and beginning to push. Aldraniri gave him assistance, revealing a small, opened burial urn lying at the feet of a fairly well-preserved skeleton. The hands were lain across the chest in the usual manner, but they seemed open, as if they were clasping something no longer there. "So why the hell did those tower loonies open this up?..." Richard murmured.

"Wait, did you say tower? Did you mean Watchtower?" Kroisoto said with alarm.

"Yeah, I think that's what they were called. What are you getting so worked up about them for?" Richard responded.

"Long story, you strange person," Kroisoto said back, walking up to the coffin to take a look. "Oh, there's old runes, spelling out something. Keyreig...probably not the dead person's name. What could that mean?"

[Ameriganastan]

"I knew a guy named Keyreig once. Nice fella. Weaved carpets. Shame one of those carpets wound up being the death of him. You wouldn't think a loom could do that to a mans face..."

Eric poked at the ash pile with his sword.

"You know, this place could use a good dusting."

[Agritum]

Richard nodded in understanding, surprised at the old stranger's amount of critical thinking and practical knowledge. He watched as the dust landed on the coffin in the rear of the chamber, revealing numerous fingerprints upon it, indicating that a group of people had most likely been touching it recently. The lid of the sarcophagus seemed slightly out of place, reinforcing the possibility that it had been moved recently.

"Someone, help me move this lid," Richard asked, walking over to it and beginning to push. Aldraniri gave him assistance, revealing a small, opened burial urn lying at the feet of a fairly well-preserved skeleton. The hands were lain across the chest in the usual manner, but they seemed open, as if they were clasping something no longer there. "So why the hell did those tower loonies open this up?..." Richard murmured.

"Wait, did you say tower? Did you mean Watchtower?" Kroisoto said with alarm.

"Yeah, I think that's what they were called. What are you getting so worked up about them for?" Richard responded.

"Long story, you strange person," Kroisoto said back, walking up to the coffin to take a look. "Oh, there's old runes, spelling out something. Keyreig...probably not the dead person's name. What could that mean?"

"The Watchtower are a well known...hate group, to use a new-fangled term which is starting to be used by some Progressive Faction politicians back in the capital. They hate Elementals, magic, and everything else elemental-related. Maybe they ransacked this tomb in search of something that would aid them in their quest to...well, kill every Elemental?" Charlie replied, wondering out loud. "If so, we better try and understand where they ended up, and what they were exactly searching for."

[Constaniana]

"Oh, so that's what they're after? I thought they were secretive masons or something with a name like Watchtower. Killing every Elemental, huh?..." said Richard, scratching his head a bit.

"Yes, it's a horrible ideal," said Kroisoto, before Richard started laughing.

"Killing every Elemental, that's a good joke! I mean, I've heard stupid ideas over the years; training cows as steeds, curing a broken bone by eating radishes, moving pictures on little windows, but that takes the cake! Humans can just shoot a muskets or punch people and other mundane stuff, and we throw can do rubbish like this!" The Elemental spontaneously flung a fireball at the ash pile, blasting it back and revealing a strange hole in the stone floor. Richard's laughing abruptly ceased, and he walked over to the newly-revealed hole, gazing down into the cavity. "It looks like a keyhole, almost. Well, I can't really see that well in there, since some of the ash must have fallen into it and blocked things up...wait, keyhole, Keyreig...damn it, the Keyreig must have been meant to use this thing here somehow, but the cultists must have taken it with them wherever they went. Probably some hidden passageway that opens up."

"I thought secret passageways opened up by pulling old books on shelves or speaking magic words," said Aldraniri.

"Ha! Magic words! That's a good one!" Richard replied, chuckling a bit more. "These things never work like that."

[Kassaran]

Jonah couldn't bear it anymore, he hadn't seen anyone move to stop him, and it seemed they were now all focused on the little hole in the ground. Breaking ranks from the back of the group, he darted into the woods, in hunt of the rabbit that tickled his senses. He had been living in the wild long enough to know how to stay quiet, so as he ran, he parted the leaves quietly in front of him while pulling them back to their original place behind him. Almost as though there was some sort of displacement happening, but he recognized that he was doing it now. Before, when he hadn't realized he could control the forests, he had simply though all forests reacted the same way, but in the past twelve hours, he had managed to learn so much more.

Time seemed to fade into nothingness as he closed on his target and suddenly burst into a large clearing. Not one quite as big as the field with the funny white blocks of stone in them, but still a decently big field. There in the center it sat, raised up on its haunches, a large pufftail rabbit with a little black nose, quivering in the morning air. Dewdrops gathered on the ends of its whiskers, and heart pumping blood throughout its body. It was a living creature, a living, breathing creature. Hundreds of gnats flew about in the middle of the field and like tiny specks of dust, they shone in the beams of sunlight pouring through the gaps in the treetops, how it was so serene, so beautiful. He was glad he had found this place, after so much unjustified death before, in that big stone yard behind him, he was glad to finally have a place in the center of peace and life.

About him he could feel the heartwood of each tree thrumming silently, but majestically. Every blade of grass shone bright green-yellow and some dandelions were shifting into an open position to soak up the sun's rays, but the rabbit. It was what stood out, in the center of all that peace and serene beauty, it sat, panicking, its little mind rushing frantically to collect its thoughts and assess this new being at the edge of its glen. It sat there, panting, and obviously hungry. It knew it was on the menu, and it knew it had to find cover, quickly. However, as it began to move slowly down into a position to get a running start, the beast at th edge of the meadow burst forth and in a flurry of movement, snatched up the pufftail.

The rabbit tried to break free of Jonah's grip, but he had it tight, and nothing was going to keep him from eating his prey. He had caught it fair and square, but his arms ached from a lack of protective coverings and several rivulets of blood appeared on his arm where the rabbit's hind legs had scratched him, but they only managed to do so once. In its panic, it had struck out with full force, which would of been beneficial to it had it been against a smaller predator, but with the grip Jonah had on the rabbit, it had only resulted in a small pop as it broke its back. It now knew it was over, and it slumped down in his hands, and Jonah obligingly looked at it and thanked it for its sacrifice, however non-voluntary it might of been, and then snapped its neck.

Feeling the life drain out of the rabbit, he felt a twinge of sadness, regret, fear. He knew he was about as fragile, and no matter what his strengths were, he would always be a Human, a mortal. He looked down at the now dying rabbit, and realized he needed to eat, the rabbit had to die so he could live, and thanking the forest silently for allowing him to take of its bounty, he used his fingers and ripped open the soft underbelly of the rabbit, shoved his face into it, and squatting down low in the grass to reduce his visibility, he ate and drank. Blood and water quenched his thirst as raw and richly flavored chunks of rabbit slid down his throat, he could feel his strength returning to him, and now he could feel his senses improving. A slight tingling at the back of his head and he felt no more pain from bruising there. He had healed, although it had taken a good five or so minutes to hunt down, kill, and begin to devour this rabbit, Jonah still had yet to feel the exhaustion of it all.

As he ate though, he began to reminisce about why he hated what that woman the night before had been, he realized it was because he couldn't feel anything alive about her. Like she wasn't even there, as though she was a specter, or demon of some sort, but those were only things he had heard mentioned in tales by hunters, and the words demon and specter were simply those that were passed around enough for Jonah to catch on to their general meaning, but then again, the word "wife" seemed to mean the same thing, so perhaps the strange lady had been a "wife". He amused himself with this thought as he ate, his stomach filling itelf, but he stopped himself short, before he could make himself sick. He had meat, and perhaps those behind at the camp would like some too. Making his way back to the camp, he began to think about what the strange group of young people were doing, and why they had been so interested in that particular stone block with the smell of death upon it.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Tristan observed Jonah curiously, after having asked him whether or not he was alright. He certainly didn't seem like it, but he didn't even reply, so maybe he didn't need help? Yes, that was probably it. People who need help ask for help, after all. The alternative simply doesn't make any sense. Thus, instead of trying to offer any help, he merely stood there, observing the older boy as he seemingly felt a burst of pain, then appeared to be about to vomit, then looked off into the distance hungrily, and finally took off running towards the forest for some reason. Tristan reasoned that he really really had to go, though it was a bit rude to just run away like that, and odd as well. But then, he supposed, he found everyone down there odd one way or the other. To him, everything unrelated to the vast white emptiness that was all he had known for a long time and what little life thrived in it was alien, even if not necessarily unwelcome.

Deciding to do something other than just stand there observing someone that was not even present anymore, Tristan looked around. The space around him was relatively open, and he could make it all slippery with a thought, so he did what any mostly sane boy with a mild yearning for a frozen landscape would have done.

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Tristan shouted as he slid on his belly, coincidentally sliding all the way back to the tomb where the others were. Also coincidentally, he happened to end up right next to the strange keyhole on the ground. "Oh, what's this? It looks dirty." He observed.

[Ameriganastan]

"Well, looky here. You found a keyhole! Good job, lad."

Eric did exactly what you'd expect. Namely, he jammed his sword in the hole.

"Belle Lame here not only functions as a good weapon, but she's a remarkably effective lock-pick."

He jingled and jangled it around. Accomplishing absolutely nothing.

"Uh...now that I think about it, I just sliced the doors open."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Seeing the old knight thrust his blade into the strange hole in the ground, and fail in whatever it was that he was trying to accomplish, Tristan wondered if he should attempt to do the same. Perhaps he would have better luck than the man? It was worth a try, even if it didn't work... And even if he didn't really get what was going on.

"Here, let me try." He said as he blew on his index finger, icy mist enveloping it and promptly solidifying into a stick of sorts that he then put into the keyhole and moved around to try to open it, but nothing happened this time either, and when he withdrew his finger the ice stick was covered in grime and dirt.

"Wow... This is too dirty, maybe that's why nothing's working." He suggested.

[Constaniana]

Kroisoto was the next to try picking the keyhole, drawing his rapier and slowly sliding it in.

"This keyhole seems larger than what you'd expect," he commented, as his blade had managed to go in all the way and still possessed a decent amount of lateral wiggling room. But the smooth, slender rapier seemed unable to catch onto any lock mechanism, so Kroie withdrew his weapon before it might get caught the wrong way and snap. The whole length of the blade was coated in ash and dust and dirt. "Charlie, do you think you could clear that muck out?" He asked as he started wiping off his sword.

[Agritum]

Kroisoto was the next to try picking the keyhole, drawing his rapier and slowly sliding it in.

"This keyhole seems larger than what you'd expect," he commented, as his blade had managed to go in all the way and still possessed a decent amount of lateral wiggling room. But the smooth, slender rapier seemed unable to catch onto any lock mechanism, so Kroie withdrew his weapon before it might get caught the wrong way and snap. The whole length of the blade was coated in ash and dust and dirt. "Charlie, do you think you could clear that muck out?" He asked as he started wiping off his sword.

"Sure, Kroie. Why didn't you ask me before?" Charlie replied, extending both of her arms forwards and opening her palms. The winds which blew outside of the room proceeded to quickly gust in it and settle before the Southern girl, blowing her cloak and nearly making her hat fall.

With a swift motion, Charlie pushed her hands forward, directing the winds into the tight keyhole. Then, with another final motion, she moved her hands back, which resulted into a cloud of muck and dust getting instantly blown out of the keyhole, nearly hitting Kroie, before settling down on the ground.

"I guess it's clean enough, now."

[Constaniana]

"Good job Charlie. Now, let's see if this rapier can work with this lock..." said Kroisoto, before the faint rumble of clockwork could be heard rising up from the floor. "I suppose the force of the wind was enough to turn the gears the right way?" He hypothesized as the noise increased, ending with a triad of clicks before abruptly ceasing. The group looked around the room, expecting something to have happened, but the tomb seemed unchanged.

Aldraniri broke the silence. "That didn't really do anyth-" The redhead's sentence was cut off as a final click resounded before the stone floor swiftly swung downward, pulled backward by the concealed ancient mechanisms like a maid throwing back the curtains. The people in the room began falling, quickly descending a few metres before landing on plain dirt. Richard landed gracefully on his feet, evidently having experience with this sort of thing, while Aldraniri landed flat on his rear end. Charlie's fall was broken by Kroisoto, resulting in the young writer and detective laying right on top of the adopted nobleman, looking into Kroie's blue eyes.

"Huh, should have seen that coming..." Richard murmured, looking around the room. There was a tunnel leading outward from one side of the room, which was otherwise devoid of anything noteworthy. A faint red glow could be seen from the far end of the tunnel, which seemed to curve downward. The foreign Elemental began walking towards the tunnel, heading down deeper into the earth.

[Agritum]

"Good job Charlie. Now, let's see if this rapier can work with this lock..." said Kroisoto, before the faint rumble of clockwork could be heard rising up from the floor. "I suppose the force of the wind was enough to turn the gears the right way?" He hypothesized as the noise increased, ending with a triad of clicks before abruptly ceasing. The group looked around the room, expecting something to have happened, but the tomb seemed unchanged.

Aldraniri broke the silence. "That didn't really do anyth-" The redhead's sentence was cut off as a final click resounded before the stone floor swiftly swung downward, pulled backward by the concealed ancient mechanisms like a maid throwing back the curtains. The people in the room began falling, quickly descending a few metres before landing on plain dirt. Richard landed gracefully on his feet, evidently having experience with this sort of thing, while Aldraniri landed flat on his rear end. Charlie's fall was broken by Kroisoto, resulting in the young writer and detective laying right on top of the adopted nobleman, looking into Kroie's blue eyes.

"Huh, should have seen that coming..." Richard murmured, looking around the room. There was a tunnel leading outward from one side of the room, which was otherwise devoid of anything noteworthy. A faint red glow could be seen from the far end of the tunnel, which seemed to curve downward. The foreign Elemental began walking towards the tunnel, heading down deeper into the earth.

"Oh Gods! Are you hurt, Kroisoto?" Charlie commented in a worried tone, gazing down at his face and quickly developing a mellow blush on her cheeks. "Oh...ok, let me stand up. Don't do any sudden movements, though. It can be risky and painful, especially if you have a fractured or, I hope not, broken bone." the girl added, swiftly and gently getting off Kroie.

[Ameriganastan]

"You really should be more careful."

Eric was currently hanging by his sword. Which he wisely stuck in the wall the second he heard the clockwork noises.

"You could hurt yourself opening random trapdoors like that."

He yanked his sword out and landed on his feet.

[Constaniana]

"Oh Gods! Are you hurt, Kroisoto?" Charlie commented in a worried tone, gazing down at his face and quickly developing a mellow blush on her cheeks. "Oh...ok, let me stand up. Don't do any sudden movements, though. It can be risky and painful, especially if you have a fractured or, I hope not, broken bone." the girl added, swiftly and gently getting off Kroie.

Kroisoto was glad for the relative darkness obscuring his blushing and accidental gazing upon the bosom pressed against his chest. He slowly sat up, reaching his arms around to feel the sides of his rib and his back, checking if it felt there were any detectable breaks.

"I think everything's in decent condition, Charlie. But thanks for the concern," He answered, smiling at her and standing up. Aldraniri had already began following Richard down the tunnel, his spirit of adventure stoked by the secret passageway. Richard had already reached the end of it, standing in the doorway to a round room a bit smaller than the one the group had landed in, though the source of light in this chamber was coming from the floor instead of a cavity in the ceiling. Runes and simple lines of red and black glowed in a similar manner to the suits of armour in the abandoned castle, converging around a pedestal at one end of the room with a black door in back of it.

"What's that?" Aldraniri wondered aloud. Richard glanced at him over his shoulder, sighing and pushing his glasses up.

"Bad news, kid," the foreigner replied, his posture sagging as he sighed again. "Damn it, I had hoped I'd never see one of these things again, and certainly not one in this state. We can't even get a twenty-year break from this..."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Waiting for the strange hole to be cleaned, Tristan noticed that Charlie by herself had managed to do... Whatever it was that the group was trying to do with that thing. Either way, he was unprepared for what came next. Confused by the sound, and wondering what was going on, the Ice Elemental didn't bother getting up while trying to make sense of all of this, and as anyone may infer, lying on slippery ground when the ground itself swings away is not very convenient. Thus, Tristan found himself suddenly staring up at the ceiling, while lying down on something that definitely didn't feel like stone.

Getting up, Tristan realized that the ground had parted downwards for some reason, maybe that thing they were doing with the hole. It made sense, after all, messing around with a hole in the ground surely caused some cracks to expand or something. He didn't know the ground could split so cleanly, though, but he gave a mental shrug at the fact, justifying it with the same word he justified everything that he found odd down here on this maculate continent.

"Gallians." He thought, and then looked around. The man with the fire magic was heading down a tunnel which seemed to be the only interesting thing in the whole room, with Aldraniri trailing behind, so he decided to follow them, ignoring the eerie red glow coming from it.

So, moments afterwards, Tristan had finished sliding all the way down the tunnel, likely knocking someone over in the process, as he wasn't particularly in control. The tunnel was curved downwards, after all, and as anyone may infer, sliding on slippery ground when the ground is curved downwards doesn't give you a lot of control.

"Why is it bad news, mister?" Tristan asked, getting up at last and dusting himself off. While he had slid on ice he created himself, it was entirely possible that he'd gotten dirty when he fell on the ground moments ago, and he didn't enjoy being dirty. The white continent was much cleaner than Gallia, that was for sure.

"And what's behind that door?" He inquired, walking next to Richard and looking at the runes. They seemed a bit familiar, though he didn't quite remember where he'd seen something similar. He only knew they evocated a slight feeling of sickness in him.

"...Oh, right."

[Constaniana]

Richard was silent for a few moments, the only sound in the room being the faint humming the runes were giving off. He seemed to have the look of an old soldier who had been asked to talk about his most brutal battle.

"...Demons. This door opens up an Inferno," Richard replied.

"An inferno? What, so Alselia's going to shoot a lot of fire at us if we open the door?" Aldraniri inquired, causing the Halvefori to chuckle.

"I wish it was that simple, kid. No, this is worse. Alselia's a Daemoness, the more human-like servant of Tenaembra. Flesh and bones, emotions, even free will if you listen to a few theories people have had over the years. Daemonnes can walk upon this plane a lot more undetected, though I think Alselia might be one of the last ones here, at least for now. But she's strange, even for a Daemoness, so I wouldn't judge the whole foul race based on her actions. Daemons come through to Gaiaca for the sole purpose of destroying. They're brutish, unthinking animals, but they can't really grasp finer magics like teleporting the way their master's more advanced creations can, so they use these...interdimensional...rooms to travel to our world," Richard explained, pausing to try to determine the best words to use in explaining such concepts.

"A number of Demons gather in Hell, where Daemonnes cast teleport magic on them to push them into these pocket dimensions. Then, thanks to either Daemonnes that managed to sneak past Caelstion's host and teleport directly to Gaiaca or human followers of Tenaembra a teleporting link is established between our world and the pocket dimension, which is referred to as an Inferno. Then the demons are simply herded through to our world and usually set loose to just wreck everything in sight, unless they're under the specific command of a Daemonne or dark Elemental, in which case they go on an organized, merciless rampage, like Kayarost did. The former might have left villages or farms or forests burnt before the humans and Elementals fought the brutes off and sealed the Inferno. The latter is the reason the most populous city in the world was abandoned and Ladsblume went from a trading hub and centre of academia on par with Villdernheim, not to mention a military power to be reckoned with back during the Great Galllian War, to a smoking ruin," Richard sighed again, his fists clenched at his sides.

"You sound like you were there," Kroisoto remarked, standing in the doorway to the strange room.

"I wasn't there when it was attacked, but I saw the ruins not long after Kayarost had attacked. Gods, that was probably the worst day of my life...I had friends there. Two of them had given birth just a few bloody months before. One of them was away from the city when it was attacked, but the other one wasn't, as far as I knew..." Richard stopped, shaking his head. "Enough with my reminiscences."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Tristan merely listened, a bit confused (As always), as Richard began talking about the Inferno that was beyond the door and how it contained a lot of Demons who may or may not try to destroy them or toss them a lot of fire if they crossed the portal, also naming a lot of names that he only vaguely heard and had never bothered to ask about.

He could, however, tell that Richard seemed trouble by the memory that he had shared with the group, and so, he tried to comfort him in the way he thought Gallians comforted each other from what he had seen in his journeys. He gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Um... Here, here. It's okay." He said to the stranger, before directing his attention back to the thing that he now knew was supposedly a portal to an Inferno.

"So, what do we do with this thing? Do we... Block it,, or something like that?" He asked. As far as he knew, a lot of unthinking things that like to destroy being let loose somewhere wasn't a very pleasant thing.

[Ameriganastan]

"Or we could walk in there and give the bastards a right ass-whipping."

Eric strolled up to the two, actually whistling a cheery tune.

"I for one wouldn't mind a little demon slaying. Belle Lame hasn't tasted demon blood since I was a soldier."