The Delve for Divine Might(Onyx, Seigmand)

[Seigmand Dezmar]

"Hmm, looks like this is the right place." Seigmand looked up from his map to see the sloppy water run down the cliffside of several small waterfalls. "I really will have to thank Ingway upon returning to Roccia. To think this would have paid off so well down the road." The map that he held loosely in his hand had been one of many useful papers that Ingway had recovered in the raid of the Ariadelvento ruins.

"Apparently the entrance to this temple was buried when the mountains above became unstable, causing the first landslides to bury the place completely." Seigmand spoke to Onyx as he scanned over the walls, slipping under the muddy waterfalls as he tried to gain his bearings.

[Onyx, Son of Sun]

"So, it was you plotting behind his back, foiling his schemes and endeavors before he even had a chance to enact them. Just how long have you been stifling his effort Dezmar?" Onyx spoke as his eyes scanned the area, his keen gaze looking for faults or deviations in the wall design in hopes of discovering the caves former entrance.

"And don't believe that I oppose your methods or even question them, but moreover that I admire your initiative," he remarks as his hand trails along the smooth and worn down cliffside.

[Seigmand Dezmar]

"A while now. Can't even recall how long it's been. I started small, withheld little bits of info, pretended to get facts wrong. Things to see how all knowing Trucido really was. The plan that landed me this little juicy map was my first step into outright defiance." Seigmand felt beyond the visible wall, stretching out his senses into the deep walls of the cliffside. "To be honest, for the longest time I wondered if I was the only one who had a problem with Trucido and his plan. To have found someone else..." Seigmand stopped immediately, both in speech and action. He could feel it, a zone where his power would not reach.

"Step back." He said as he stepped back, giving himself space to work his art. Focusing the power of his Geomancy in his center he lunged forward with a powerful cry. As his hands struck the muddy covered stone his energy coursed through the earth, pummeling the dense cliff walls into powdered granite. Leaping backwards he threw his hands back in a forceful motion, the powder following his hands as he scooped wave after wave out into the open waters behind him. When he stopped, a long outstretched corridor stood before them, dark and foreboding.

"The entrance lies through here Onyx. Do you trust me enough to enter first?" Seigmand raised a curious eyebrow to the Fire King. It had become almost a ritual since he'd joined with Onyx back in Roccia. It was true the man to this point had aided him in gathering the remaining tribes of his land. They went about their lives for now, waiting for the moment Seigmand would order them to battle. But it didn't stop him from doubting Onyx and his motives. The man had proved himself so far, but paranoia had a funny way of holding on when he'd spent so long with it in his mind.

[Onyx, Son of Sun]

"The real question is do I trust you enough to go into a cave with you. You'd have a massive advantage should you decide to betray me. Perhaps your working for Trucido, and this is just a clever ploy to lure me out of hiding and quash my effort to put and end to you leader," Onyx says as his eyes scan over Seigmand, his icy gaze appearing to almost pass through the Roccian.

With a roll of his shoulders and a few twists of his neck, Onyx briskly walks into the cave entrance, the slight orange hue emanating from his body projecting into the black unforeseen depths. Turning around to face Seigmand, Onyx glare softens a bit as a smirk works it's a way across his commonly chiseled scowl. "But sometimes, you just have to go with you instincts and trust those around you. It may be a world where the strongest survive, but who's to say the strongest can't be a grouping? Now, enough standing around, we've got things that need to be done," Onyx remarks as he begins delving deeper into the cave, the glowing aura lighting the darkness as he prompts Seigmand to follow.

[Seigmand Dezmar]

Seigmand scowled, muttering to himself, "If only it were that simple..." as Onyx disappeared into the darkness of the cave. Yet as he followed him in the words nagged at him. Food for thought I suppose.

After a good 50 feet the dense earth rocks that surrounded them faded into a mouth of sculpted bricks and mortar. Only the dim light of Onyx's flames cut through the pitch black insides. "Come, the ruins are suppose to go down a couple floors. We'd best find the proper path. Me carving my way through could collapse this whole place."

As they entered into a large room the smell of stagnant water reeked from the center. The sound of heavy hissing breaths and splashing water hinted the kings were not alone. Right then from the darkness leapt a scaled dervish of teeth and fangs. The creature struck at Onyx, seeking to rip him apart as the hissing further on hinted more were lurking, waiting to strike.

[Onyx, Son of Sun]

As the barred teeth and claws flew towards Onyx, the meet with the dense steel of his gauntlets; the beast leaving but faint scratch marks in it's visceral attempts. With the beast in full view, Onyx quickly noted the beasts appearance as his hand founds it way around the beasts jowls, clasping them shut. With a vicious flaming burst, the creature flew from his hands and collapsed on the floor but a few feet away, it's slightly smoldered remains giving light to the pack of beasts that laid waiting beyond the shadows.

The creatures before them were uncommon beasts colloquially refereed to as Void Dragons; the spirits of small assorted scaled beasts that would culminate into these ravenous beings, characterized by their ability to shift between the tangible and ephemeral plains.

"We'll have to work together, Dezmar. Wait for them to strike, otherwise we'll just be wasting energy trying to swat at incorporeal forces," Onyx stated as he took as he and Seigmand to to each others back, preventing any of the creatures attempts to catch them flatfooted.

With a harsh wail, the beasts begin to swoop in strike in a flurry claws and teeth, their visages and glowing eyes only visible for the split second when they attempted to rend the flesh from the two intruders.

[Seigmand Dezmar]

Seigmand stood at the ready to unleash the stones beneath them as projectiles, catching himself just shy of unearthing the only supports that were holding the aged ruins upright. As a creature leapt from seemingly nowhere he brought out his staff and bashed it away in a display of brute force. "Onyx, take care of as many as you can. I'll have your flank." He shouted out as he stayed near his ally's back.

Left with only the stoneskin he'd created as armor to manipulate he sent out a portion to his weapon, creating a tri-pointed spear tip on the end. As one of the void dragons feinted and advanced, it's form constantly shifting Seigmand stabbed out only to have creature dodge the edge at the last second.

Appearing from the ephemeral plain behind him it leapt once more, thinking it's clever maneuver had landed it a meal. Had Seigmand not formed the earth around his back into a row of spikes that had impaled it on contact, he very well might have. "You managing on your end?" Seigmand called out as he fended off the creatures as best he could.

[Onyx, Son of Sun]

As the slew of ever-shifting spirits attempted to nip and cut away at Onyx exposed flesh, his gauntlets met with most blows and deflected the creature's strikes. Surreptitiously though, Onyx imparted each of the creature with a dipole as it stuck, eventually trapping them on his gauntlets as they came around for a second attempt, making them an easy target for his pyromancy.

"I suppose you could say that, but we need a better way to manage these things, and I have an idea. If your not to entangled, create a chin-high column and I'll take it from there." Onyx retorted as he continued to immolate the beasts one at a time.

[Seigmand Dezmar]

Seigmand glanced back to him, pausing for a moment before understanding. Slipping past a pair of the void dragons he held firm his staff upright on the ground. Sending all of his elemental shield around the weapon it stayed solid as a stone column. Very well, let's see how this trusting others effort pans out. One of the beasts rushed him from behind, barreling into him and knocking them both to the ground.

No sooner did Seigmand attempt to roll onto his back did one of the creatures warp in from the air and try to attack while he was prone. With only his bare hands usable he struggled to wrestle the creature away, it's claws and teeth delivering glancing blows. Seigmand took the strikes as he focused on channeling a little earth through his body up through his hands. Wrapping his legs around the dragon's waist he rolled on top, taking the brief reprieve to chop at it's throat, his bare hands aided by stone edges. The creature cried out only once in a gurgled gasp before falling.

"Anytime now Onyx!" Seigmand cried as he moved to his feet in time to dodge another's bite.

[Onyx, Son of Sun]

Shaking himself loose from the several creatures that swiped and nipped away at him, Onyx turned around quickly and slammed his hands harshly on the column as his gauntlets brimmed with sparks of electricity.

As the creatures descended in a mad flurry at Onyx turned back, he quickly dodged with a deft roll to the side, landing upright to see the duo's combined effort in motion. As the creatures became tangible, only in time to miss their target, they find themselves diving into the stone column and find it impossible to just fly away as their bodies were now magnetized to the stone pillar by Onyx handiwork. Seeming off-put by the odd turn of events, the creatures struggle to get free, their minds preoccupied with that rather then shifting back into their ghostly forms.

"Siegmand! Skewer this lot and the rest will require little effort!" Onyx shouts as he tries to gain a sense of where the remaining forces reside within the cavern walls.

[Seigmand Dezmar]

"Right!" Seigmand rushed the pillar, skidding past the few still free creatures that antagonized him. With a solid thud he hand slapped the stone holding the creatures captive, and in response it quaked and burst outwards. The end result was like a gruesome miniature tree holding the bodies of several void dragons on each limb.

Seeing each fall silently limp he reached out and pulled his staff free, taking the sands and dirt around it back into his clothes to resume protecting him. He turned to face no more than a couple of the scaled monsters that remained, their teeth remained bared against him and Onyx. They didn't intend to retreat. Taking the offensive position for once Seigmand threw out his staff, the segments separating to crash against one from a distance. A sliver of stone crawled out from the end and ensnared the creature's leg, letting him pull it back and throw out a spike of stone point blank. The attack happened so fast the creature had no time to slip into the other realm before falling dead in his grasp.

[Onyx, Son of Sun]

Seeing Seigmand taking care of the last of his share of the winged beasts, Onyx's eyes narrowed as the last remaining menace dove and weaved it's ways around his pyromancy, and slipped into it's ephemeral state to dodge his close range attacks. Growing tired of the creatures attempted mockery, Onyx's brow furrowed as he focused his minds eyes on the creature.

As the creature dove towards him in it's ghostly form, Onyx's hand suddenly sprung towards the dragon and gripped it harshly around it's elongated neck, his focus giving him the increased perception needed to break through the creature shifting form. With a violent jerk of his hand, a loud cracking noise erupted from the beasts neck, causing it to fall lifelessly out of Onyx hand.

"Well, i suppose that about sums that up. Let's hope that the rest of our venture can remain fairly uneventful."

[Seigmand Dezmar]

"So it would seem. Still, I had not expected to find anything living here." Seigmand dusted off his clothes as he moved past the dead bodies towards the open passage further on. "Still, we'd best be on guard. The ruin is deep, and we haven't got past the main entrance even." Slinking slowly and carefully into a wide corridor they emerged in a partially collapsed chamber. The ceiling had clearly sunk, and the broken clumps of arrows on the far wall had shown they were lucky enough to have the trap in this room already tripped from the landslide.

"This place was well guarded indeed. Looks like this will be worth it after all." He said with a sly grin, already anticipating the power that lurked below them.

[Onyx, Son of Sun]

Looking over the collapsed stone and fragmented sections of flooring, Onyx knew that sure footing would be sparse and that one would either have to be extremely careful or incredibly fleet of foot to traverse the difficult terrain without error. Carefully sifting through the rubble for a clear path, Onyx turned to his cohort, his mind full of questions that he was sure Seigmand could answer.

"So, for what purpose exactly have you brought us to these ruins, Dezmar? I have a vague idea how your mind works and am well aware that you don't do things without good reason, so what is the purpose of this delve?" Onyx inquired as he shifted aside a large boulder to reveal what looked like a previously used path from before the wreckage.

[Seigmand Dezmar]

"Power of course my fellow king. More specifically power from the heavens." Seigmand stared ahead into another corridor. This one was unmarred by any of the landslides effects, and with a touch of it's walls it was apparent why. Everything from the walls to the floor and ceiling were reinforced with metal. The corridor looked long and probed farther then the light of Onyx's flame would go.

"People long ago had a better relationship with the gods, and with the level of worship they received it was not unusual for the gods to bequeath gifts to the faithful. Seems like something happened that made them want to take back the precious gift, and so this place was sealed by the landslide. The gods are such fickle beings aren't they?" Seigmand palmed the nearby floor, and putting a bit too much force on a hidden panel felt the corridor rumble as a column of metal punched out from the ceiling into the floor a mere 10 feet away. Taking his hand off it the column rose back, waiting to be activated again.

"Hmm, it would seem that roles have switched haven't they Onyx? If we wish to continue, I must place my life in your hands." Seigmand pondered, hoping against hope that there was some other path, but looking into the blackness of the hallway he saw his chances of that as dim and bleak as the pathway ahead.