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Post by Alessia on Dec 1, 2012 21:12:14 GMT -5
How long had they been walking for and more importantly, where were they even going? That question had popped into Alessia's mind more than once as they arrived at the old quarry.
Alessia looked back at Nia and wondered how much longer could they go before she'd finally decide to leave Alessia and her quest to a location that Alessia didn't know.
"Why don't we stop for now?" Alessia asked while moving to a nearby rock and sitting down. The holy site was all but empty right now, it was a perfect place for them to catch their breath and maybe find their headwind.
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Post by genericvillain on Dec 2, 2012 9:08:26 GMT -5
After the initial shock and woe over Duo's unfortunate return Nia had, unusually so, settled down for the most part. Even as she and Alessia travelled Nia managed to remain very quiet, save for her occasional twitching and stammering of "fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fuh".
Her walk was noticeably different as well, most of her fellow Saints would have remembered her light shuffling of feet carrying her before but now her stride was a lot more deliberate, every inch of her foot rolling onto and pressing into the ground. She didn't jump and fidget at everything that they passed, and she didn't walk with her head down. Her head stayed up straight, she had a dazed look in her eyes as she gave notice to their surroundings but failed to let it bother her (for the most part). It was almost like she was a different person at times.
Really, she'd been actively practicing meditation while walking. If she could make herself aware of what was going on around her and in herself, she felt calmer and more prepared for whatever came at them as odd as it would seem to her.
"A break would be nice," Nia answered Alessia calmly with a smile, following her towards the rock, "what's going to come of this? This run from the castle?"
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Post by Alessia on Dec 2, 2012 12:15:46 GMT -5
Alessia could help but stare at Nia with a sort of envy, Nia had changed so much sense their time in the Saints... she could control herself and even speak complete sentences without stuttering at times.
And than she looked at herself, she ran from Roxa with the lingering thought that maybe there might have been a better way. However if there was a better way it certainly wasn't making itself apparent to Alessia at all.
Alessia pushed those thoughts away as she brushed her long redish-brown hair away from her eye, "The only plan I have right now is to get as far from Roxa as I can. It's the only way to keep him safe..." She knew that this answered nothing of Nia's questions and probably made more in the process, "You know Allorum better than I do, Nia. Where would you go?"
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Post by genericvillain on Dec 2, 2012 22:27:26 GMT -5
"M-me?"
Nia sighed as she looked around at their earthy surroundings. Roccia was familiar to her fairly so,, she grew up here...a different time but Roccia all the same.
As for where she would go? More like where DID she go? She had one sad thing in common with Alessia, which was she, too had run away from her comfortable home and the man she loved. Fortunately she didn't have kids unlike Alessia.
"I guess....it depends on what you want to look for next," she said sadly, "we were left here in a different Allorum with different lives from what we lived..."
She stammered and twitched again as she argued with herself about whether or not she should share any of this information with Alessia. Finally she spoke.
"I'd go to the mountainside...in Ignis."
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Post by Alessia on Dec 3, 2012 0:16:50 GMT -5
"Ignis...?" it was ironic, really, that they'd return to the very place that'd she had lived before joining the Saints. It was a country she loved and the prospect for returning did make her somewhat happier.
She stood up and dusted the dark cloak off, it was mostly a symbolic move because the dust and dirt had caked the bottom of her cloak so heavy that it'd take days to get out.
"Let's go back to Ignis than, Nia," Alessia nodded, for a moment she was able to push back her fears and replace it with a source of conviction.
She'd be able to breath a sign relief for a moment... it would simply be a moment because a dark force was approached. Out of their range to sense it but they were indeed gathering around them, circling them in secret.
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Post by genericvillain on Dec 3, 2012 8:50:56 GMT -5
Nia smiled widely. She never really gave a real reason why she herself would have gone to Ignis, though she had them. With Alessia willing to travel there, she started pondering the idea of leading her to what had become her home for the past three-quarters of a year. The monastery was nice. It was big, warm, and the people in it would help take care of her as they had for Nia.
"Yes! And then if we have to, or want to, we can keep going further." She was happy, calm, and had control of herself for the first time since she was a little girl. If anything, Nia couldn't wait to tell her master all about this when they returned to Ignis.
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Post by Alessia on Dec 3, 2012 11:58:20 GMT -5
Alessia didn't want to think of a timeline, the idea of having hope that maybe one day she could return would be too much. It was memories of her time in Ignis that kept her hopeful, but even they would eventually scratch open wounds. The first time she met Roxa was in a village in Ignis that she used to protect and it was that very village (which was more of a city at that point) that they confessed their feelings for each other after the seals broke.
Alessia wanted to tell Nia the true reason why she ran, she wanted to go into every little detail and explain it all just to get it off her chest. But to be truthful, none of it made complete sense, which bothered her tremendously.
Eh, screw confusion, she was going to tell Nia anyway, "Nia... there is something I should probably tell you before we move on, I feel that you need to know this..." Alessia held her breath for a moment, gathering up all needed courage before finally beginning to speak again.
What she was about to tell Nia would probably leave the poor girl stuttering with questions, or maybe even a look of disgust. But as Alessia was beginning to speak again she could feel something, a dark energy that was suddenly approaching them very quickly.
And that was when they came. Humanoid looking creatures that had attacked the city, they were human only in shape and they came in outrageous numbers. About a dozen or so of them started approaching the two from the stairs they had just climbed, their movements were abnormal and demonic.
"Oh god..." Alessia gasped as she saw them. How could she not sense them sooner?
"Nia, they've caught up with us!" Alessia said as she her eyes lit up with the solar power she had stored. Alessia raised her hands and shot out to blast of light energy, which was incredibly strong, so much in fact that on contact with one of the creature's head it imploded it.
As the dozen approached the two the area behind the creatures grew darker and darker, with more of the creatures crawling out of the ground to replace those that were lost.
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Post by genericvillain on Dec 4, 2012 12:41:28 GMT -5
Nia was all ears to Alessia for whatever she felt she had to share with the other woman. But then Alessia suddenly turned fearful and Nia looked back, only to see probably the most horrible abominations she had ever seen swarming in multitudes.
"W-w-w-why so many!? I...f-f-f-f-the-the-the-the--BOTHER!" Nia shook wildly as her hands waved out to her sides frantically like she was trying to shake something off of her, "there's only two of us!!"
She snapped her eyes shut and tried to find the voice in her, one that she made up for herself to talk herself through a situation, to regain control. It was calming, it sounded like her master at the monastery, and it told her to breathe.
Breathe, Nia, breathe...
"What do you see, Nia?"
"N-nothing..."
"What do you feel?"
The lavender-haired girl had gone silent sitting by the fire. He saw her progress, how she was reaching not just inside but acknowledging the outside world and what was available to her.
"...i-it's in my hand..."
"What is in your hand?"
"I can make it move. It will make the fire..."
Her hands still waved but as they did so she tuned into her blind surroundings, and suddenly just like that one day in the temple, she could feel the energy around her. Her hands opened, and as she breathed she allowed this energy to pool into her open palms, gathering steadily.
When she was ready, her eyes opened just as she clenched her hands shut, feeling her body redirecting the energies to cause an explosion of fire to appear in both hands which she whirled around and threw in a massive wave into the swarm of ugly creatures.
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Post by Alessia on Dec 4, 2012 13:19:36 GMT -5
The intense flares rolled right into the horde of creatures, the fire so hot and powerful that the ones in the front were turned into ashes. The intense flares destroyed the first three waves that were visible and successfully made Alessia dumbfounded.
"By the gods," Alessia said as she watched the fire destroy the enemies, "I don't remember you having powers on that level." Alessia even wondered if Nia's manipulation of fire could out power her manipulation of solar energy.
Sadly the enemies weren't nearly as impressed as Alessia was (seeing how they probably lacked the ability to fear or be in awe, for that matter) because more of them replaced the ones that were destroyed as well as moving in to both their right and left flank. The only path was to run further up the Holy Grounds or attempt to fight them all off.
Alessia raised her hand into the air and let out a pulse of light energy, the heat and pounding movement forced the enemies to their knees giving Alessia enough time to grab Nia's hand and pull her further into the grounds.
"We'll be killed if we stay here, we'll have a better time fighting on higher ground!" She yelled as they went further up the ground, the creatures were now recovered and quickly following the women's movements.
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Post by genericvillain on Dec 4, 2012 19:24:33 GMT -5
"Long story," was all Nia could reply with as she watched Alessia attack again, impressed for the moment with seeing how she made it look easy to knock enemies to their knees.
She allowed herself to be pulled, running hard to keep up with Alessia and took a glance or two behind them AND THEN TURNED INTO A MOUND OF SALT to gather where the creatures were, how far away, and started trying to focus on another attack.
"H-how high?!" Nia wasn't sure how well she would do fighting higher up than her enemies, but as she she'd remembered hearing in her training to 'always use what you have around you', she didn't have much of a choice. She had to find a way to make it work, and quickly if they wanted to see another day. Yet it just seemed so weird that so many showed up at once, and for only the two of them. She couldn't imagine how many could be attacking the thousands in the city, then.
She let go of another spurt of fire behind her, trying to at least slow down their movements as they found their new post.
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Post by Amphion on Dec 4, 2012 21:07:27 GMT -5
There was a flash of light the suddenly bathed across the entire holy ground, the greenish wave felt harmless at first... until everything behind Alessia and Nia exploded in a fiery of flames so high that it singed everything around it.
There was nothing left of the creatures by the time the smoke cleared and standing at the top of the stairs that Alessia and Nia had been running on was a man who was cloaked from head to toe.
The man took a step toward the two girls before stopping again and pulling off the hood to reveal Amphion, the sage who had traveled with Andy at one point and even helped Roxa on some occasions. None of the two would know him and at the same time he had no idea who they were.
"My gods... are you two alright?" he asked, he seemed somewhat shaken by the entire thing, "I felt such intense evil I wasn't sure what was going on. I do hope I didn't hurt any of you..."
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Post by Alessia on Dec 5, 2012 0:05:39 GMT -5
The explosion was so powerful and wide that the heat singed the edges of her black cloak before the wave sent Alessia onto the ground. She didn't get up at first, the shock from the explosion had stunned her momentarily.
When she finally did get up and notice the man standing just a little bit away from her she swiftly pulled her hood over her head, this probably did little help for her, if anything it gave the idea that she was hiding something.
"Thank you, sir," Alessia nodded to the man, "But we must-"
Once again that dark aura was felt and when Alessia turned around to see the hordes of enemies now at the bottom of the stairs she looked back at Amphion and with one symbolic nod Alessia once again grabbed Nia's hand and they all ran, soon out of sight from the creatures.
It was about a minute until they stopped moving and collapsed onto the ground. Alessia was breathing deeply as Amphion looked over to her, his facial expression said it all, he was confused as to what was going on.
Alessia breathed in one deep breath and looked back at Nia. Alessia's eyes begged Nia to think of something, the truth was out of the option: 'I was the queen to be who ran away and is apparently being chased my a tyrant that took over the world 1000 years ago, it's very nice to meet you'.
That wasn't the best way to start any conversation at all.
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Post by genericvillain on Dec 5, 2012 16:14:04 GMT -5
Nia shook, arms wrapped around herself as she sat up and looked from Amphion to Alessia.
"W-w-w-we thought we were lucky..." she started very slowly, her eyes kept on Alessia for any hints that the story she was concocting was any good. She figured from the girl rapidly pulling the hood over her head and the fact that they were still in Roccia at all was a sign that they needed to keep Alessia's identity secret.
"We had...come here for meditation..." she bit her lip, "and then we heard explosions in the city. W-worried, we came to investigate but were met with these m-m-m-monsters. I don't know why there are so many, w-we don't know what's going on..."
She tried to look a little outraged then as she spat, "We're not coming here again! W-we've gotta go home to Ignis and stay there!"
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Post by Amphion on Dec 5, 2012 18:55:02 GMT -5
Amphion stood up, his cloak lightly flapping with the wind as he looked down at the two women. Amphion was a tactician, his mind worked different from most. He looked over every detail, dissected their words and came to a conclusion in a matter of seconds.
Take for instance the fact that the first girl spoke for the second one, or on another point, the second girl wasn't wearing any clothes under that dark cloak. She was being protected and chased, which made her important. That just perked Amphion interest further.
"To Ignis you say?" Amphion said as he stepped around Nia and back to the stairs they had just ran up. He watched as the wind carried off the dense smoke before looking back at them, "I was planning on going to Ingis, you see, I'm a strategist and I've recently been hired to reorganize Ignis's armed forces. I'll be honest though, this is my first time in the country and I'm lost... perhaps I can accompany you to the ports?"
Amphion didn't know why, he was intrigued by these two women (and it wasn't because one of them was basically naked. Promise) and there was something telling him to follow the two. Amphion gave a small smile and decided to further add to that offer.
"It'll be mutually beneficial, you know the way and if those creatures come back I can fight them off."
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Post by genericvillain on Dec 5, 2012 20:06:25 GMT -5
Now it was Nia's turn to look to Alessia for help. She stared at the other woman as she continued to try to speak for the both of them.
"Oh..." deep breaths, calm and collected, nice and slow, "that would be...wonderful. There's just so many of them that it would be nice to have an escort back...and we wouldn't mind helping you find your way, either. Right, Ellie?!"
Nia then burst into giggles, more at the pretend game she started playing and hoped Alessia would play along. However she kept glancing at Amphion and then quickly away as she did so, hoping to not look immediately suspicious as much as she was probably a ditzy girl.
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