The Hell's First (WAR and TRUTH 2.4)

[Kazan]

Slap.

Kazan's hand bit hard into Enizo's cheek as his eyes narrowed, all traces of enjoyment gone from the larger Guardian's face, as he threw his heavy sword to the ground. The blade clattered against the floor as Kazan straightened himself up, staring darkly at Enizo. Slowly, and with all of the authority that he could muster, Kazan spoke, his voice coming through gritted teeth.

"Pull yourself together." He snarled. "Or more people will die."

[Enizo]

The slap seemed to awaken something deep inside Enizo, it was a realization of sorts and suddenly everything seemed to be clear...

Enizo hated Kazan. The rage in Enizo's eyes were clear. In mere moments before Kazan could even react Enizo punched Kazan so hard that he went flying back into the wall, leaving a clear imprint in it.

"You know what, Kazan?" Enizo growled, "I'm going to crush the 'destructive Guardian' down to dust!" Enizo suddenly ran from his position with intentions of hitting the larger man once again.

[King Roxa Hiaten]

Roxa simply held The Other's gaze. Was this some childish attempt at intimidating him? Or did he genuinely have something interesting to say? Either way, Roxa was not interested, he had far more important things to be worrying about than this creatures mind games.

"I care not for your secrets, Beast, and I care not for you, either." He cocked his head to the side, almost out of curiosity. "You seem to think so much of yourself... Were it not so pathetic I would almost find you amusing, Other. Alas, I have things oh so much darker than you locked away within me, and unlike you, I do not relish in their unleashing. Now, if you have nothing better to do than spout poison, please take your stink as far away from me as possible, even through this armour I can still manage to pick up your stench." Roxa's head finally straightened up, as he turned his back on The Other with a flourish of his cape, heading away from his fellow King, he paused at the last moment. Looking over his shoulder, he chuckled once.

"One day, someone's going to knock you down to the ground."

[Kazan]

Play - Back for More

Kazan grinned from within his imprint of the wall, pulling himself free, he took a ready stance as Enizo charged straight towards him. Whilst the younger Guardian's fist came towards him, Kazan ducked low and underneath the punch, before pulling his own fist back and driving it directly into Enizo's gut. Cocking his left fist as well, he drove it upwards into Enizo's jaw, sending the younger Guardian reeling back. Kazan raised his fists in a defensive stance.

"You still can't defend yourself in a fight."

He reached out, slipping his right leg behind Enizo's right, he pushed the young boy forwards, sending him falling backwards, before grabbing his collar with his left hand, halting him mid-fall. Drawing back his right fist, he drove it into Enizo's face, letting go with his left hand, slamming the younger boy into the floor, cracking it clean open.

[Enizo]

Enizo didn't know what it was, but it was like all the rage and sadness Enizo was unleashing was blunting all forms of series pain...

Enizo grinned as he grabbed Kazan fist that had slammed into him, "Same to you." Suddenly Enizo's hands burst with energy, unleashing a force of magic onto Kazan that forced him away.

Enizo flipped back from Kazan before jumping into the air, putting him at the perfect length to kick his ally in the head, hard.

[Kazan]

Kazan snickered as he was forced away from Enizo, his arms coming back up into a traditional boxer's stance, defending his head and upper body. He saw Enizo coming in with the kick, and responded with a vicious counter-attack. Swinging his right hand around, he wrapped his arm around Enizo's leg and twisted his upper body, swinging Enizo down to the ground. Sliding his left foot forwards, he trapped Enizo's right hand beneath it, before gripping his right leg in both hands, and forcing himself backwards onto the floor, making sure to pull on Enizo's leg as he went, stretching out his entire right side.

Kazan was deadly when it came to raw strikes, he knew that much. If he wanted to get his message across, he'd need to be more subtle. If he just went about punching his comrade in the face, then nothing was going to happen except scramble his brain. It would be holds like this that he'd learned through his travelling that would do the most damage.

"I can handle the bullies, Enizo. I always have."

[Enizo]

"I..." Enizo struggled against Kazan as he seemly could break free, "I COULD HAVE TAKEN THEM!" with both hands bound, Enizo did something really, really stupid...

He exploded the area around him, making such a violent force that it sent both of them flying. Using the smoke that resulted from strike, it gave Enizo perfect time to vanish up into the rafters.

[Andy Jammer]

Andy looked at his hand, the one that was imprinted from the orb in Ghiaccio...so many things ran through his head right now...Trisha, why Trisha...why her of all people? Why is she even alive? What could Duo gain by bringing her back...if he even did bring her back, this was just a guess. What did she mean by the first traitorous Saint?

When he had turned his head he saw Jasmine off to his side, his memory drifted off to a year ago...when he saw that expression quite often on her face. He walked to her, holding his hand out like it was wounded.

"I know what you're thinking...this is not like before, its not like that mask, its not like that inner me. This, whatever it is, is not as sentient...and I sure as hell don't want to strike deals with it." he said, "I don't want power anymore Jasmine, not like this."

He held out the hand for her to inspect herself, "I think it came from the orb in Ghiaccio...when I touched it I remember blacking out and hearing a voice saying 'you carry the spirit of Kain and Duo'."

[Sahir Masbrati]

Anger at Dios and self-pity mixed and churned inside Sahir. It made her feel queasy, and crying seemed to be the only way to make it hurt less. She wanted to yell at the man, curse at him because it would have been so easy to vent on him. It would have been easy that is if he wasn't so damn quick to back off, to try and console her of all things.

"I-don't know what to do. I, I'm scared to die. Natis. Natis I need you." He'd been there for her the last time she was this afraid. The last thing that she'd remembered before everyone vanished was the feeling of his hand holding hers. Gods she shook like a leaf in his grasp before her eyelids had grown too heavy to stay open that night. As Sahir held onto her blade she'd wished those hands could be there to steady hers once more.

Wiping her eyes to give a brief, clear glimpse out towards the gates of Heaven's Last she saw that most of the bodies out there had been stilled by death, and what few were alive seemed to all belong on the side of her companions.

She'd missed it all, paralyzed by her own fear she was able to do nothing. Everything in her burst, and with Dios gone she hatefully cursed out loud as she hacked the scythe into the earth again and again, the blade gouging into the ground deeper each time. By the most childlike of logic, it felt good to hit something, even something as impotent as the ground, as it made her feel like she could do something.

It was only when all of the weight of her weapon seemed to vanish from notice and she fell to the ground from over-exerting herself that she bothered to see that the mana from the earth had gone away from Umbravox. She took her eyes away from the hole she'd dug in the ground, past the length of the now transparent, familiar blade and saw destruction in her wake. Trees wide as her waist were split from branch to root and all around her fissures were torn into the grassy fields, each one marking a path Umbravox had travelled during her outburst.

Sahir gasped, and her hands stopped shaking as she took in the sight. Her eyes were drawn back to the shimmering weapon, the tool that the Mistress of Ages had imparted her with, and for the first time since it's reception she began to grasp what it was she really held in her hands.

[The Other]

Something darker?

The thought tickled the Other just right, unable to help himself from giggling at first, his chuckling grew louder till at last he broke out into full, uncontrollable, howling laughter. Almost ironically it was in that moment the Other was knocked to the ground by Roxa, albeit not in the way he likely intended.

"Ah, darker he says. Pathetic he says. Ahahahaha!" At last quieting long after the young king had so defiantly passed him by the Other finally regained his composure. Taking only a moment to see if anyone had noticed his outburst he stood once more and quietly assumed his usual intimidating demeanour.

Well boy, arrogant to the end I suppose. A shame, I was looking forward to watching you try and save her right before I did the deed. Or maybe a him? Hmm, haven't quite decided yet I suppose. Oh well, more than enough time for me to figure it out. A fiendish grin cracked across his face as he contemplated the coming events, and the fun to come.

[Kazan]

A pink glow bloomed from within the smoke caused by Enizo's explosion, it faded away before burning up again, fading and burning, fading and burning. It continued for a few short moments before Kazan burst up and out from the smoke, a pink aura covering his body. He cracked a grin as he soared upwards towards the rafters in which Enizo was hidden.

"Funny..." He muttered as he flew upwards, his feet planting firmly onto the rafters, he looked up and around for Enizo holding his right hand close to his body, the palm facing up to the ceiling, his left arm held out to block any incoming strikes. "When I saw you, it looked more like you were eating dirt." His eyes continued their search for the younger guardian.

[Enizo]

"I was just gaining my strength for a proper strike!" Enizo's voice echoed around the area, making it damn near impossible to pinpoint where he was. There was some creaking, sounds of sheering wood before suddenly a wooden post came flying right at Kazan, followed by Enizo behind it.

"Dirt has plenty of vitamins and I think it's delicious!" Enizo roared as his fist flew towards Kazan's face.

[glitters]

It was upsetting to Jasmine to see that there was one big difference between what she saw, and what she heard from Andy. Back then when he had the 'evil self within' he was easily tempted by it as she recalled, his desire to defeat Trucido convincing him that making a deal with that mask thing was a good idea because he'd only 'use it when he had to.' She never did like it.

She didn't like this either, regardless of what Andy said. Right now he could tell her all she wanted that he didn't like it, that he didn't want the power. Yet it left a burning question on Jasmine's mind of when was that going to change? She wasn't sure if she could deal with it again, with all the frustration and worry, not to mention how incredibly dangerous for everyone it had been. The more worrying part right now was being told that a voice told him he carried the spirit of 'Kain and Duo'...

And Kain, at least not for most of the time she'd known him (and even that wasn't very long) wasn't a good guy. Duo definitely wasn't, either.

She blinked, bit her lip, and her stare stayed on him for a long moment before she finally nodded, forcing a smile though doubt weighed heavily on her mind as she took Andy's hand and gave it a look herself. She had no clue what to make of it, this was something that was different to her, though it made her glance over at her own hand and remember the scar that she'd put in to make a pact with her own gods. Yet that was a choice of her own, it didn't just happen.

"I understand. I just...I hope that it--you--will be okay," she finally answered him, pulling him into a hug and resisting tears that fought to make an appearance. There was so much more important going on around them that they needed to worry about, this was no time to cry.

From Andy's shoulder Jasmine saw around her allies gathering, people getting to work healing, and in the distance off the field an angry little dark-skinned girl who looked just as worn out as the rest of them. She frowned, tempted by going over to her as it seemed their allies all needed a morale boosting at the moment.

Screw it, she pulled away from Andy, giving his hand a soft squeeze and gesturing towards Sahir so he'd hopefully understand she wasn't running away on him, she felt concern for someone and moved in her direction.

What was she supposed to say now? Um...

"D-did...Do you need help?" she blurted, first thought going to 'maybe she's hurt'.

[Kazan]

Kazan's left arm swung around in an arc, his wrist knocking the wooden post aside as he drew Enizo out and into his trap. His head swayed to the right, allowing the younger fighter's fist to breeze past, leaving Kazan the perfect opening. The open palm of his right hand which had been clenched in to his body suddenly thrust upwards, twisting his waist as he did so to apply more pressure behind the strike. The heel of his hand was aiming for the crook inside of the elbow joint, or more specifically, the F2 Pressure Point. If he caught that with this blow, Enizo's whole arm would be left completely numb and useless, but it could easily be dodged, so he'd set out his second trap.

His left fist came back around from where it had knocked the wooden post aside. He deliberately brought the hand as close to Enizo's face as possible without actually punching him in the jaw, the hope here being that his fist would block almost all of his opponent's sight line, preventing him from seeing the strike on his Pressure Point, as well as hopefully draw his attention away from what Kazan was actually doing. It was a quick, well-thought out strategy that Kazan had used whilst fighting within the vault in this very location, and he nearly cracked a smile at the prospect of using it again.

"Until you can control your powers you are no use to us."

"Your powers are incredible but destructive."

Kazan's teeth gritted tighter.

"How's this for control, old man?"

[Andy Jammer]

A million things ran through Andy's mind, first was noting how familiar his own words sounded; he was an echo of himself, a year ago. He thought he matured from that point, that he was content with who he was and didn't want power anymore...yet why does power keep following him everywhere he goes? Some incident or the other great power wells up within him, half of the time its as good as the other half is evil...the last evil was his own self. This evil wasn't even him, it was someone else's will, pressed upon him and claimed that we are similar.

That was something that kept Andy awake at nights; when will he one day become like Kain? The Saints were no different than him, each and every one of them became corrupt in their belief they barely resembled themselves. He wanted to say the traitor Saints escaped that fate...that Roxa escaped it, but that would be lying to himself. He saw how Roxa was now...how he acted...how he spoke...he was just a STEP away from becoming Kain; not in the good way. Or...perhaps he was closer to Duo? He read a bit about him...something that concerned him after they fought the Saints, the history was terribly scattered...but they painted Duo as the greatest leader Unda has ever seen - and he took great measures to ensure peace: any measure. Was that who Roxa was becoming? He's already a king now...it would be so easy for him to follow down Duo's path, hell he was already on his way. He was not the boy who defied Kain in the tower, no he was something worse...something dark, something he didn't like.

But back to Andy, he worried how easy it would be for him to become like them...being told you carry the spirit of Kain and Duo wasn't encouraging either. Jasmine...god as great as she was, it was easier for her to lie to him before when they didn't know each other well. But like how she sees though him, he saw through her...he saw her worry, her eyes glisten, this was no different than before. If he wasn't careful it could be like the Inner Evil all over again...and he let that be for too long. He needed answers, real answers...about the orbs, about the war with Duo, everything.

There was one who could tell him...and one who should tell him, he moved away as Jasmine left to check Sahir, moving through he saw Roxa and steeled himself.

"Roxa." he said, walking over to him. "In the war with Duo did he use orbs? Orbs of his own magic and will?"