Reincarnation Wars - IC *Still Recruiting*

[3SecondCultist]

Alexander stands near the edge of the chamber, observing the new-born battle.
The gas doesn't bring them back to life, but will likely poison most of us. No matter, my body will keep regenerating. I wonder, though... these demons have proven to be highly resistant to almost all forms of attack. What happens if I try an incomplete alchemical transmutation using the Grand Arcanum? The scarred man from Ishbal, he had a version of it on his arm, did he not? In either case, Alexander did not have time for a full transmutation at the moment. He turns to Sam, a wry smile crossing his features.
"I don't know where he got the word 'depressing' from. I will say this, however. That 'Rob' character does not strike me as particularly sane, considering his Incarnations and his frankly paranoid reaction to meeting me. He is right on some counts, however. The moment I touch you, there is a high probability that I will learn your true Name, thus gaining power over you. It happened earlier, and I have the unfortunate feeling that I will be paying for it." Alexander sighs inwardly. There was hardly any point to all this. Sam seemed like a formidable telepath herself, he had no wish to cross her unduly. Beyond that, though, she was a waste of his time.
Let's just get this damned battle over with, so we can continue our investigation. I'm hungry, and I would love to return home as soon as possible. He leaves the woman by the entrance, following Rob's path and sending out waves of obliteration towards any surviving demons in the vicinity.

[ArlEammon]

Jacob
Noticing that the monsters they had just "killed" were reforming from slime and bloody goo, he realized that as Hawke, with his power over Blood Magic, he would be able to contribute far more to his team-mates effort than as Zeus or the others. Suddenly, Jacob knicked his finger with a dagger, causing the blood to travel through the air into the demons that were struggling to remake themselves, the blood flowed steadly through Jacob's self-inflicted wound, mingling with the blood of the demonic gels and gore throughout the wound. Normally this sort of damage would kill even a very healthy man, since he had lost so much blood, but as Ganon he could lose alot more than that and still be fighting very fiercely. The blood, as it mixed with the coalescing forces of evil in the second floor of the Tharizdun Temple, would parasitically feed on the demon's disgusting blood and return back into the six souled Jacob, feeding Ganon, King of Evil, and strengthening his body. The plan was to practically devour the demons so nothing was left to reform.

[TheAntiplanar]

I wouldn't say that we're heard the last from those two.
It is doubtful, yes. They seem to be more enemies than companions. Then again, I imagine that it has been a strange day for many.
Can you guys focus for a moment? We need to help out here! Fey, what do you have for us?
Hang on a moment, let me just... Sam's vision widens suddenly, her irises turning a bright violet as Fey's vision is superimposed over her own. She can see the Ley lines now, beautiful threads of living magic that permeate existence itself. She also finds, after a moment, that she can feel the earth around her.
Let's start with a nice battle dress, hm? From her pre-existing extra-dimensional pockets appear Sam's armor plates, one at a time, until she is coated from head to toe in green-grey armor. The design is her own: a cross between classic Mandalorian and a style that is unmistakeably Sidhe. Sam can hear Fey's soft sighs of pleasure as the plates of Mithril-Beskar alloy fully materialize.
Stop that, girl! It isn't halfway decent.
You aren't my dad! What gives you the right to -
Silence, you fools! Can you not see the battle unfolding in front of you? We have a moral obligation to aid the Personae combat the spawn of hell.
Well hello to you too Elspeth. I'm glad to see you alive and cheerful as ever.
Given the current scenario, the likelihood of one of us 'seeing' anything is minimal.
Oh, shut it Mancha. Just because you're a robot doesn't give you the right to talk like one.
Sam ignores the bickering, using Fey's magic to reach out towards the Ley lines and begin to absorb the energy. The art seems to be instinctive, the tapping of magic from the environment coming to her as easily as breathing. Hurriedly, she designs a spell to protect from all types of poison or disease, magical or otherwise. It is potent, but will last for less than an hour. Elspeth's knowledge of white magic is of great value: it is, in fact, based off of the planeswalker's original design. After a moment to gather what she feels is the appropriate amount of power, Sam releases it, sending the spell out towards the other Personae and shifting some of the magic to herself.
Whoa, hold on! Be careful with the Ley lines! The mutant girl's warning comes too late, however, as the excess power from the spell manifests itself as a small swarm of minuscule, fluffy squirrel like beings.
What happened?"
Ah, they're only hobgoblins. They won't actually do anything other than get butchered.
I see what you did there...

[AkaiNeko]

"OK, got something. It'll spark up a little, but won't really burn. It's heavy, so we shouldn't be breathing any. Beyond that, I got nothing."

'Great....well, ok. Saber, can we use Invisible Air on ourselves?'

"....yes, actually. It'll hardly be form-fitting, but it can easily prevent contact. Though it may throw off your timing. Keep calm and let your instincts work."

'OK, cool. Back into the fray, I guess.'

Kate focused, and once more invoked the wind barrier. It shimmered up around her, distorting her view. She breathed, and let muscle memory guide her as she jumped the mass of demon gore, sword raised, ready to strike at the butchers.

[Anecronwashere]

Hovering above the mass of goo, the now-1 person breathed in air and breathed out concentrated cold, freezing the jelly-like demons into glacial ice

"You all need to cool off."
'did you really just say that?'
'shut up, I don't use my cold powers much.'

[Sen isSaqqara]

Rob (and, by extension, Eva) was snapped out of his battle-hungry trance by something triggering in the edge of his senses. The only thing powerful enough to do that would have to be a truly terrible pun worked into a post-mortem one-liner...

In his mind, he pulled back from the controls, spinning his chair only to find himself face to face with one of Yuki's silent replicas. Urza stood behind the agent, smiling.
We got it. The next chamber is directly below us.
Perfect. Alright, Elodin! Get over here. We're going to need you in just a second. You know the name of stone, right?
Yes...

Rob turned to face the other personae. He coughed to clear his throat, before starting in a deep, resounding voice: Urza's. It begged respect and authority with all the weight of someone who spent several lifetimes leading the coalition and defense of a world.
"What are we doing here? Several of you are supposed strategic geniuses, and yet we fight these things hand-to-hand? Come on! While I must admit that it could be considered fun, and that it certainly lets some of us burn off a little steam, it simply isn't productive. We're going down, right? Why fight our way to the stairs when we wield the kind of power we do? Come on, let's go."
With that, he let his mind go blank, feeling Elodin take control. His voice screamed out silently, speaking a word beyond comprehensibility and beyond recognition. There was a moment of silence, then the floor below him shattered. A column of stone shards fell away, leaving him floating gently over a hole about 5 meters wide running down into the floor, with a slight light visible at the bottom.
"Shall we, comrades?"

[Anecronwashere]

"That we shall then whoever you are." Danny remarks, dropping through the solid floor near the hole, ignoring such petty things as physics and the inability for two things to occupy the same space.

[3SecondCultist]

Another flick of a finger, another demon utterly obliterated. While amusing at first, Alexander quickly finds himself bored by the proceedings. At Rob's - no, Elodin's shattering of the floor, he blinks twice.
Well then. It seems as though the way has been made for us. Given that the demons here continue to fight, opening up a pathway for more enemies hardly seems tactically sound. However, it might get us to our destination quicker. In the battle between expedience and caution, Alexander finds himself leaning towards the former. He strides towards the hole, destroying any foes in the way. Once there, he gathers up a Name from the back of his mind. It bursts out of him, resounding throughout the chamber. The Name of the wind. Alexander coaxes it, persuading small eddies into existence and directing the remainder of the red gas downwards, in a miniature funnel cloud through the newly made opening.
There we are. They might be immune to it, they might not. Either way, I am only redirecting their own weapon back at them.

[ArlEammon]

Bumping to maintain interest.

[Sen isSaqqara]

Another namer! Unless I'm mistaken, that was the name of the wind...
Interesting. I guess our paranoia about having him in our head was justified.

Rob turned to Idrian, looking him in the eye. "Just who do you have running around in your head?"

[Morcleon]

"Okay, seriously? We go through all that trouble to kill them, and they don't even have the decency to stay dead?" Morcleon mutters under his breath. "How troublesome..."

Still on the ceiling, he hears Kate's advice, and smiles. If its fire and destruction she wanted, it would be fire and destruction she got. Morcleon closes his right eye, letting the sharingan in his left spin rapidly. "Sasuke, can we get a rapid-fire sniper thing going for Amaterasu? We have several friendlies in the midst of those demons, and I would very much prefer to keep our friends alive."

"...for these purposes, your control over the black flames should be sufficient."

"Wonderful. Let's give them a little fire support." Grinning from his upside down perch, Morcleon channels a concentrated bolt of fiery chakra into his left eye. He stares at one particular demon who seems to be in a slightly more advantageous position than its companions, and shoots out a short-lived lance of blazing black fire. He then moves his vision to the next hostile and fires another bolt of Amaterasu. And then the next, targeting each one in turn.

[Conor77]

As the demons rise, the Personae move backwards. The undead can only move about as fast as it takes the gas to spread, so at first there is nothing to strike, per say. Alex throws a green caustic fluid-ball at them, which pops, covering dozens of them in acid. As their flesh pops, sizzles, and dissolves, a smell of unholy proportions washes over the party. Some fall to the floor, their muscles and/or tendons entirely burned away. But others keep going, their faces and bodies horrifying to consider as they shamble forward unheeding, through the seeping biological sludge that covers the floor. Lightning barks from Conor's hands, blasting zombies, and chaining through the electrolytic bio-waste on the floor. But any zombies that it hits are much less affected by lightning than their living counterparts, and they are only stunned for a bit, the slimes not even that. As the red mist creeps forward with the horde, Conor calls upon his genetically enhanced lungs, taking one deep breath that should last him in strenuous activity for about three minutes. Then he charges, kicking aside moving corpses, sliding directly towards the butchers. But he dives between them, snatching the hissing steel cans from the floor, crushing them in his hand, and hurling them away, spinning to block cleavers with his aircraft-grade alloy forearms as he does so. The gas has no apparent effect on him, as long as he remains unbreathing. But it gets harder with time...

Kate, in a similar move, wraps herself in air, charging forward with her sword, cutting already cut fiends, slashing tendons and muscles and goop, having some effect, though it isn't much. They clutch at her, but she beats them back, their efforts completely in vain. Rob walks forward, safe in his bubble of a shield. The slime and entrails on the floor are pushed aside, as is the gaseous undeath in the air. He gets to the middle of the room, being eyed by butchers to either side of him. He creates a ball of ice in his hands, drops his shield, and blasts it in spikes outwards. Butchers fall, and zombies are pinned to the floor. After making sure his enemies would avoid him, he puts a hand to his temple, as if receiving some form of information, and hovered into the air. He chastised the others for their inefficiency, before blowing a hole in the floor. Necron gladly slid through, having blasted the undead with cold, only to find it ineffective against everything but the Manes and Lemures.

Alexander followed Rob, just seizing devils with pure force and ripping them to shreds, uncaring of the gas, even as it was stirred up into the air in Rob's wake. He also had no immediately apparent symptoms from it. Jacob stands back, and slices his finger open, allowing blood to spill forward so he can use it as a weapon. The undead, now unrecognizable from their original forms, fall to its effect, but the butchers seem to absorb its power. With a harrumph, he swiftly cuts open his entire wrist, allowing a fountain of power to engulf the cackling fiends. They could absorb small amounts of blood power, but this was too much. They bloated and burst where the blood-magic hit them, no longer laughing. But even a gestalt soul is housed in a mortal body. Jacob may be able to survive, but he grows pale and it clearly takes its toll on him to use up so much of his blood.

And then, Sam casts some kind of nature spell, summoning a few hundred tiny creatures, but more importantly, warding everyone in the party from any untoward effects of the gas. Conor lets his breath go, Kate releases her air-armor, and Alex goes: "Huh", before calling the name of the wind and funneling the last of the gas into the hole. The only gas now remaining is that in the corner of the room still being emitted by the canisters, useless in an empty stone area. At the gas' dispersal, the demons stop rising again and again, and die for good almost immediately. The remaining butchers look afraid, devoid of their gas and their minions. They move backwards, and start to withdraw towards the corner with the gas. Kate moves to stop them, but Conor puts a hand out. "Wait", he says, drawing the Wand of White Science. "They made the mistake of getting out of friendly-fire range", he explains, as he aims (not much of that needed), and fires. A sound and light like a hundred lightning bolts fills the room, and the butchers are no more.

[Sen isSaqqara]

Rob saw Jacob stagger, and frowned. It wouldn't do to have his allies fall... He moved over to the persona, keeping his shield up and letting Eva continue to unleash volleys of ice at the remaining butchers. He lands next to the man.
"Hey, are you OK?" He sees the slice on Jacob's wrist, and grabs hold of his arm.

Yuki, could you run a quick healing program for this guy? Seal him up and maybe give him a bit more blood?
Yes. She got up from her seat, the agent which was working with Urza taking her place. The air in front of her flickers, and another screen appears. Her fingers dance on the keys, executing a series of commands.

Jacob's wrist was sealed, the entire wrist reverting to its prior state. Blood was also added to his veins, bringing its level back up to human average.
"Tell someone before you try something like that again, eh? I might not have noticed."
Rob looked around, surveying the chamber. His eyes came to rest on the canisters in the corner. Keeping his shield firmly in place, he began to walk over towards them.

Alright, Yuki. I might have something for you to analyze in a second. In the meantime, Elodin, how are we doing with finding out his name?
It's going well enough. Still, it'll take some time. I'd like to know how he knew the name of the wind. It might make this a bit easier if he is partly someone I know.
Fair enough. Bowman, you want something to read back there? I know keeping the shield up is boring, but it's what is keeping us alive.
The boy shook his head, still sitting with legs crossed and back to the wall.
Alright, then. Ah, here we are.

Reaching the canisters in their empty corner, Rob reached down to pick one up, but hesitated.

Yuki, can you seal this so that we can grab it with some of the gas left in it? Or better, can you tell me what it is from here?
Yes. Rob smiled, recognizing the mathematician's answer.
The latter, I take it?
Yes. Yuki tapped a key, and a stream of data flowed onto the screen. Her eyes took it in in the moment before it was replaced by more, and so on.

[ArlEammon]

Jacob
"Thank you, Rob, for your concern. If you would have noticed, though, my blood is further being replaced by the blood of the demons. They are entering me, and I am gaining strength. I mistook my body as being too filled with the power of the souls of Personae, however. Soon, we will all be as I thought I already was." The blood of the demons were pouring into Ganon's form, and he was devouring their life force. As instantly as he became pale, his form became muscular and stronger. Now that the demons are gone, I believe it is time for us to march forward." Jacob nodded a thanks at Rob for his help. "It was good that we are allies."

[Sen isSaqqara]

"Any time. Nice technique, by the way." Rob called back. "I don't think I caught your name..."

[ArlEammon]

"I am Jacob. Possibly the most insane of the lot of us by this point." He responded. "I'm glad all these things have finally died. For now, let us consider leaving back up to the Fountain or going forward."

[Sen isSaqqara]

"I'm Rob, the challenger for the aforementioned title of 'most insane of the lot of us'. Speaking of which, I'd vote for going forward. Saving the world, and whatnot." He grins.

Any progress on the gas?
I am working on it.

[NM020110]

'Mauled by demons, poisoned to death by some kind of gas, re-animated by said gas, and finally dissolved by acid...not a pleasant way to go.'

'I've had worse. There was that time with the giant catfish, or that ice-vampire, or...'

'Can we come back from this?'

'Sure. Just think of it and you'll reincarnate.'

'Really? It's that easy? All I have to do is thi-'

A pyre springs up from where William had fallen, and quickly grows. When the pillar of fire dissipates, William stands resurrected.

"-nk of...oh."

'Try not to get killed again for about...oh, sixteen hours should do it. The integration is imperfect so far.'

"I seem to have missed something, here. What happened since those demons overran me?"

[TheAntiplanar]

Sam walks through the chamber, stepping around the corpses of the demons. Up ahead, she can see a small group gathering around the collapsed section of the chamber. Sam changes course, heading towards them.
Damn. What was that, earlier? Sounded like some kind of magic.
I've never heard anything like it either. My magic doesn't really use verbal components.
No matter. The evils here are in retreat. We will destroy them yet, and send their masters back to the darkened pit where they belong! An awkward silence ensues after Elspeth's outburst, the other Incarnations unsure how to respond.
... knew there was a reason that I preferred her quiet. Sam presses on, reaching the others just in time to avoid an exceedingly tense internal situation.
"Hello again! The name's Sam, and I'm a Persona just like you guys. The Lady of Pain sent me here to help in your investigation. How can I help?"

[mkfuba07]

Tristan panted as the room fell (relatively) silent. The cacophony of shattering stone, cackles of demons and Butchers, and roar of wind died down as he cast his last demi, collapsing the entire body of one of the zombies to a single miniscule point. Corpses sagged in a ring around his defenses, and various body parts were caught in the webbing between his spikes, where they had gotten stuck in their blind approach. With a call to the furies, the ice crystals shattered, and the stone spears sank into the ground. There was enough wind remaining in the chamber to allow for a lighter leap over the pile of gore that had surrounded him. He landed gracefully in front of the rest of the group, wind cushioning his descent.

[Conor77]

Conor carefully resheathed the Wand, and let out a slow breath. Now that there was no more gas, the undead just lay there in piles of organs and flesh on the floor. Disgusting. Ears ringing, Conor steps through and over them, walking to the hole made in the floor by Rob. He peers down, seeing only more of that red gas, that was funneled down and away from the bodies. He shakes hands with his compatriots, and looks around to make sure that the bodies are staying down. They are, so he decides to speak.

"Hello, Sam. My name is Conor. So far we don't know much, except that all the demons here are trying to revive one of their own, a super-powerful Fiend by the name of..err... Tharizdun? Yeah, I think it was Tharizdun. Anyways, I guess instead of taking the stairs, now we're just blasting through the floor. But I can't see anything down there except the mist, so I guess we'll have to wait until Necron, (the ghost-guy) gets back or until it clears".

He looks around at the decay all around them. "Does anyone have, I dunno, a cleaning spell? This is really unnerving me to be standing above all this...", He lifts a foot from the muck, which oozes down like syrup, "...goo".

[3SecondCultist]

Alexander surveys the scene, taking in the Butcher corpses and the distinct lack of living foes in the room.
Well, at the very least we are all one step closer to escaping this forsaken place. I suppose the notion of seeing Tharizdun take form on this plane is fascinating, though. These other Personae seem more than capable of holding their own. It will be an... interesting encounter, I hope. At Conor's predicament, Alexander raises an auburn eyebrow. He kneels down beside the Persona, taking a look at the demonic goo.
"Here, let me help. You should probably stay still for this." Raising his hand, he breaks down the goo into its components and dismisses it from existence. Nothing remains around Conor's feet, the stone floor in the immediate vicinity otherwise empty. Unfortunately, very little of the Persona's outer footwear remains either.
Hmm. I had better be careful with that ability. A little further and I would have obliterated his entire foot. Apologizing to Conor, he gets up and walks over to Rob. He nods at the Persona, looking down the at rift Rob had created.
"Kvothe. You asked me earlier how I knew the Name of the wind. One of my Incarnations is Kvothe the Bloodless. If you want, I could give him temporary control so he could talk to Elodin. It's up to you, I suppose." He shrugs slightly.

[Morcleon]

Morcleon canceled the chakra flow sticking him to the ceiling and fell. Turning in midair, he landed on a relatively clean spot between the remains of the undead. He stood up, and walked towards his companions. "Saturday, do you have a cleaning spell?"

"Of course I do. What, do you think I enjoy messes like this? No!"

A slight crackle in the air signified the start of a spell as Morcleon waved his hand vaguely at the floor around him. The undead slime and slop flowed off away from the Personae, leaving a clean stone floor behind. "How's that? Good? It's a shame I only got here for the end of the battle. It looked quite fun... Does anyone have our next direction?"

[AkaiNeko]

"Hold it." Kate stepped up and raised her voice. "You." She pointed at Rob. "What the hell was that?! Not only did you make the boneheaded decision to blast a goddamned hole in the floor and try to head onwards, thereby leaving a screaming mass of constantly regenerating demonic gore between us and any emergency escapes we may need to make, or just tired slogs back to the exit, mocking our capacity for complex thought as you did so, you then tried to go on without us! When, or if, that Necron guy gets back, I'm....figuring something out to hurt him, since apparently he's part ghost now. I'll find something, I've beaten ghosts before.

"And you!" She pointed to Alexander. "Getting rid of the gas? Great! Awesome! I'd have tried to do it myself if my prana supplies had properly integrated from my past lives by now. But WHY, for God's sake WHY, did you put it where we're about to go?! We just dealt with that, and you want us to do it again?!"

[3SecondCultist]

His expression deadpan, Alexander turns to face Kate. His tone isn't confrontational, his stance is even. He breathes in and out once, composing himself.
"If you must know, I redirected the gas downwards because it would have less tactical value to the demons below. Namely, there are most likely no corpses to regenerate down there. I also waited until we were all protected from the gas, so if we hurry we will not have to deal with it: we will remain immune to any adverse effects. And furthermore, I imagine there is a fair chance that several of Tharizdun's cultists are mortal beings. Therefore, some of them might be susceptible to said effects. I am willing to take that chance." He smiles at her, waiting for some sort of angry retort.

[Sen isSaqqara]

Rob moves over towards Kate, addressing her complaint as best as he can."I apologize for making the hole, but in my (admittedly quite limited) experience, one generally wants to make time a priority when saving the world. Also, I can always seal the hole back up again if you prefer. In fact, now that Alexander dumped all that gas down there, it might be for the best. But Perhaps I should ask your opinion first, neh?'

[Anecronwashere]

"You do realize I can fly through solid objects right? I can carry you lot up to the top whenever you want me too at Mach1 or faster. These demons aren't even challenges, I'm using them as combat practise trying to integrate my different selves."
Necron said, phasing up through the floor.
"Now stop arguing and let's go save the worlds."

[Conor77]

Conor looks at his foot. Clean, it shines much better.

"Thank you. No need to worry about destroying anything, my legs are made of-" He is cut off abruptly by Kate, who stamps over and begins to berate Rob and Alex.

Does this happen often?
I don't know, we haven't been around one another for very long. I suppose arguments will happen.
But, no harm has been done, right?
We have yet to see if that is so. They may have done some harm if they have strengthened the enemies below, or risen any bodies that lay there. Likewise, she thought Rob was going to abandon us to go down one level, and she is also mad about that. In any case, we really should move on, seeing as how we don't know how much time we have.

Conor simply says "I'm going down. Anyone else can come with me, if they want to". Then he winds his gathered spider-silk around his waist, and ties it to a jagged protrusion of the hole. Slowly, he unwinds it, descending down into Rob's hole, leaving the others to argue. He begins to breathe deeply, as the gas gets closer and closer, and makes his eyes glow bright yellow for illumination. As he peers into the red darkness, he takes one last breath...

[Sen isSaqqara]

Turning briefly to watch Conor, Rob turned back to Kate. "Well, it would appear that the option of sealing the hole has just been taken from us by someone acting on their own impulse... I'm starting to see where you're coming from on that, ah.... I don't think I caught your name."

[Erik Vale]

Erik rolls his eyes, letting Eldrad spek. How Eldrad knew to roll Erik's eyes instead of some other minor body language Erik didn't know.
"Fine, just give me a moment."
Closing his eyes, Eldrad calls up the mental storm of images that are the strands of fate, and looks at what would happen not long after jumping down the hole.