The Hell's First (WAR and TRUTH 2.4)

[Kazan]

Kazan slapped Enizo upside the head lightly.

"Oi..." He grumbled, his hands casually moving behind his head. "The guy's offering to help, no point just throwing it back in his face! I'm not going to have to throw you through more walls am I..?" It was pretty obvious that Kazan was joking, but the tired intonation of his voice showed that he'd had a pretty long day, and didn't fancy extending it any further.

"Being a leader means you have to put up with people, right? Being childish will only prove him right... Right..?"

[Enizo]

Enizo narrowed his eyes towards Vincent, "Excuse me if I'm wrong, are you actually holding out intel that could help in the defeat of Duo's forces? Not sure if your Queen will like the fact you're risking not only your own men but mine as well. Hell, nobody here will like the fact you're holding out information that could result in more bodies to bury, so why don't we cut this shit and just get on with this."

Enizo pointed in four different directions, "Duo's forces struck at four sides before forcing their way past the wall, causing our forces to retreat to the mansion and training center. The enemy numbers were in the upper hundreds at least, with many 'Hunter' creatures and other assortments of evil helping them. Your turn."

[vincent]

Vincent's stare didn't change as Enizo chastised him, though once he was done the older man couldn't help but throw back his head and let out a loud "HAH!"

"'Aight, let's set one thing straight first of all, ya little shit: I'm not withholding anything. My orders from my queen weren't to tell you anything, they were to investigate an attack and move on. It's my call whether or not I bother to include you in our plans."

His chuckling didn't cease for another couple of moments as he eyed Enizo, as if he were searching for something in the younger man's fierce gaze. Vincent's chuckles finally subsided into nothing more than a large grin.

"You're funny, kiddo. Got a good set of balls on you to talk down to the Ignian military in the middle of the damn forest. I like it," he fished around in his pocket and retrieved two smokes from a small metal case and shoved one into Enizo's hand, "stupid and bold. Throws your enemies for a loop, for sure. Nah, I hear they're headed north."

He lit up and took a slow puff as he seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, then nodded again to Enizo and said, "For sure, I hear. North. Talk of beasts with 'em but I'm not sure how big."

[Enizo]

Enizo held the smoke before casually handing it back to Kazan, Enizo never smoked and the idea of him hacking up a lung while trying to act like he was in charge was not ideal. "I've learned fear is a overrated sentiment..." overrated it was, but immune to it Enizo is not.

"Was this from a reliable source?" Enizo questioned, "And how long ago did you learn of this?"

[vincent]

"As reliable as that thing is broken," Vincent answered as he pointed to the mansion, "give or take a couple of days. I got all those yahoos packed up a matter of hours and we were on our way. Looks like we missed this dance but here's to us out to get the next, eh?"

He wasn't going to share exactly who his 'reliable source' was, because in all honesty it had been in a rundown sleazy pub he'd learned this from, on a night when he was supposed to be in a meeting with Queen Incendia but decided he couldn't stand to listen to her. Women, really. It'd been some soldier falling asleep at a table that mumbled something about 'Duo' and 'Alberisato' that Vincent had decided to drunkenly follow the fella out the door and beat him into telling him everything he knew.

And really? He'd only been told gibberish with key words like 'Alberisato' and 'Lunatopia' specifically with Duo randomly thrown in there, but it was enough for Vincent to sew together what logically could have been happening, and at least was enough for him to go back to the castle to share and pretend like he was actually working the whole time so that Incendia wouldn't fire his ass. Ha. Fire.

So sweet, they go there and nothing's there and Vincent avoided the queen successfully. Or they go there and they find something! Either way, Vincent Loque was a winner! And Yeligar tried to tell him he had a drinking problem, pssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh.

[The Other]

"So, we don't get to leave until all the dead Guardians are put under the big tree. That can be arranged..." The Other snickered to himself before moving away from the boring conversation.

He moved about 15 paces before finding the first Guardian body prostrated before him. He grabbed him by one leg and inspected the body for a brief moment before giving the tree in the distance a good long look. Then, with a series of movements like a expert horseshoes player he wound the body back and gave it an underarm throw towards the massive tree. A few seconds later and a distinctive thump indicated the body had landed.

"Bah, way off to the right. I know I can do better than that. Now where's another one..." His neck cranked back and forth as he scoured the field for another corpse, not wanting to move an inch from his throwing spot.

[Sahir Masbrati]

"You let a thing like that just travel with you?" Jasmine's explanation had done nothing to placate Sahir's worries. With her fears of battle only slightly faded from the forefront of her mind the presence of the Other in their midst caused her to wonder if she'd have to travel with him. "What in the world is wrong with you people?" Though said aloud, the question was rhetorical. She wondered if the people that travelled with it were merely strong enough to deal with him, or if the monster really was that intent on stopping Duo.

Evil fighting evil? What terrible joke is this? One thing was for sure, Jasmine's last bit of advice was one Sahir intended to follow to the tee. Were it not for the very thing at stake in all of this she'd likely have followed it by turning tail and running all the way back to Nerezza to escape all this madness. Yet here she stayed, near a monster and a woman who claimed she was a mage extending a hand towards her, and all of a sudden her discomfort shot up a little as she took an awkward step back.

"Ah, a mage you say? Well Jasmine, you may call me God Slayer, if you should wish." She looked at that hanging hand with a strained look in her eyes as both of her hands remained firmly planted on the shaft of Umbravox. She supposed it shouldn't have been that surprising that the girl was anything but a mage. No weapon, no muscles, and yet here amongst all the carnage and warriors without so much as a drop of sweat on her. No mistake about it, the girl before her was a spell caster, and if there was one thing Sahir had taken to heart, it was that agents of the Gods weren't to be trusted. She finally looked up into Jasmine's eyes, unsure of what to say or do, and more or less leaving the uncomfortable silence hanging, unless she either resumed talking, or more hopefully, left.

[Enizo]

"Thank you very much," Enizo nodded towards Vincent before stepping away. He needed time to consider their next move, so he retreated to mansion. Stepping back into the council room where Kazan and Enizo fought, he scanned the entire room for something to go on... something to help explain everything.

The Mentor always kept a note book by his chair, it was a thick book filled with knowledge he had gathered from the many years he had lived. Enizo shifted through the destruction, moving aside countless irrelevant objects until he came on one book he recognized. The book had a thick brown cover, engraved with a language long forgotten - it was the Mentor's note book.

Giving a sigh of relief, Enizo grabbed the book. Sadly, his sigh of relief quickly turned to disappointed as he noticed that all the pages seemed to be ripped out. Opening the book there was one simple page there that read: "The key is at the beginning. Not the end."

"...What?" Enizo said, falling onto the Mentor's chair as he closely examined the words. After a couple minutes Enizo closed the book and tossed it to his side in defeat, leaning back in the chair and giving a great sigh. That's when he saw it, the painting of the final battle between the Saints and Duo.

The dramatized version of the fight, with Kain and Duo clashing on the field of Crepusculum, hung nearly untouched by the fighting that occurred around the area. Enizo got up from the chair and moved over to the painting, he remembered when the Mentor pointed it out to him...

...Was it a message? Did they have to go to Crepusculum next?

No, that's not right. Start at the beginning, not the end...

So what was the beginning? It didn't take long for him to remember where it all began - Unda. Both of the brothers were from Unda, it had to be the place where they needed to go. If things were going to start, it was going to start there.

Enizo stepped outside, overlooking the mass burial that was occurring, hundreds and hundreds of bodies were put in holes all around the tree. It was a painful sight for sure. Enizo stepped up behind Kazan and lightly touched his shoulder, "I know where Duo is." He began, "It's time for us to finally end this war."

[glitters]

Jasmine wasn't sure how to really respond to Sahir as she suddenly weirded out on the blonde girl, first insisting that something was very wrong with them to allow The Other to even be around them but Jasmine had really concluded that was because he was...a very...ugly and scary creature and probably at first glance was really startling Sahir.

...Especially with his throwing dead bodies across the field at a tree now.

As the tanned girl backed away and left her kind gesture not returned Jasmine felt like something was really...wrong. Or odd, as the other girl seemed to be very shaky, scared, and in need of a friend but so timid and startled by even Jasmine. And Jasmine didn't think she was that scary!

...Was she?

'...This is Grandmother's fault!' she mentally cursed, knowing that somewhere somehow spending as much time as she did with the old woman would only cause troubles and here they were now!

Her hand dropped and Jasmine folded both of her hands together in front of her, giving Sahir not the same warm smile she had earlier but a highly concerned one.

"Ah...Miss God Slayer. That's a common name you go by?" she was curious enough to want to ask why this little frail girl was called the 'God Slayer' when she looked nothing built for such a job but somehow Jasmine felt like she'd been put back several steps and the awkwardness made her want to leave and take it as a loss. But Jasmine wasn't going to give up quite yet.

"I'm sorry, I'm not meaning to intrude or anything. I really would like to offer my help and kindness to you. Going through battlefields like this is hard if you have to do it alone, I feel like it's good to know you're going into it with friends, and..." she frowned, remembering the last war they had she'd lost her mother specifically, "well, hoping you all come out of it together, I guess."