Re: Takeback!

[Nisorin]

He chuckles and closes his eyes, shaking his head as she disappears. "If you remember correctly, you destroyed Hell. The Judges will not be gentle on you. You have created a good deal of work for them, miss Hikaru. And waking the Great Beast, there may be spirits who would not allow you to pass on for a crime such as that. As their sword and shield, I have little choice in the matter. If you fall on this battlefield, you will not leave the prison crafted for you." He calls out, his calves twitching to send his feet about half an inch into the air, before stomping back down on the ground. The ground for a twenty mile radius indents, tribal runes and eyes forming in the ground. Small motes of soft light rise from the engravings, floating all the way to the roof of the Outerverse. "Youg nach morrem Irok tseirrum Koriten. Tierrum Peyoned noch Hikaru!"

"Shit!" Celestie shouts, grabbing the kids, dropping her barrier and teleporting out of the engraved area. "Starting with such a move, he's not fucking around. Something's not right, usually he'd at least try elemental magics or geomancy first!" She muses, immediately crouching to one knee and closing her eyes. A feeling of power wafts from her as she starts using the Sierrensa techniques to quicken her spellcasting, flying through words faster than at all possible normally. At the last moment, she arches her back hard, causing it to crack as her eyes shoot open and she screams the final word of the first stage of the incantation. "Kai!" A bubble of sorts forms around the three, raising them up into the air to make room.

"I'm going to make a small pocket dimension wrapped by a larger one, but I'm going to need your help. I'll share the memories of how to make the small one, and I need you two to work together to do it. Understand?" She asks the kids, her eyes very plainly showing her desperation.

[Queen Bright]

The runes and eyes were met with different runes painting the ground with lines and symbols, if he was going to change the area, so would she. Hikaru had far too much expertise in area spells, that she knew if she let this one go, it would turn the battle in his favor. That could not be allowed to happen.

Around the twenty-mile radius, a circle began to engrave the ground, its aim was to encompass the twenty-miles in a larger radius and entrap the area in her own area. If it worked, there would be a battle over control of the 'arena,' so to speak. That is if he decided to play along. With this, Hikaru couldn't be too sure, she hadn't battled many Relorians yet, and though she saw them as no threat. They would still need to be watched.

With the circle drawn, lines within the circle spread from the inner edges and all formed pointing to the center in a radial shape, each line glowed its own color, forming a rainbow spectrum of colors. And along each line, there pulsed a magic signature, but not just one. Each line accompanied its respective color with its own magic signature, and each magic signature spread through the circle flowing into the first area spell.

In the end, there was a web of magic signatures so entangled, that it would confuse the senses of any mage that tried to sense the location of one, and would create the illusion of there being thousands of magic users in the area. Whereas, no one was really there, the opponent would feel otherwise.

Kotah and Ezael both stared nodded to Celestie, but then Ezael spoke up. "But we can't just save ourselves. We have to save everybody."
"Before something bad happens," Kotah went wide-eyed for a moment picking up on a sense.

[Nisorin]

As she hadn't moved from her spot within Iroku's circle, she feels a sudden attraction between her body and the ground, rising in power with each passing moment. Her limbs feel heavier and heavier, as if the weight of her own body threatens to pull her down into a grave. Iroku slowly walks towards her, eyes still closed. He stops with but a couple feet between the two, and his eyes snap open. His eyes, green turned black, reflect the second engraving. Encompassing his own eyes is a single eye-like rune. His pupil turns bright green, the whites a deep purple, oddly similar to her Godfire, while his irises shift to a dangerous orange and sharpen to a diamond-like shape. Similar eye runes appear centered on his palms, extending out from his hands like double-ended daggers. "Youg nach Hikaru idye nord Spridard. Aeyie nach Irokoriten idye noirtent Tierrdach." He chants, causing the small motes of light to come crashing down like meteors, sinking into Hikaru's lines of magic and, quite literally, feeding off of the signatures, making the tribal eyes engraved in the ground open wide. With this, one single, giant eye opens up in the ground beneath them, covering a full thousand miles around Iroku, who's currently standing in the center of the pupil. 

Celestie moves the entirety of the sphere out of the eye's sight, now looking down at the kids. "There's no time! If we don't save ourselves now, we can't help whatever wounded there may be after the battle! It's good that you want to help but you need to understand that there is a time to help others and a time to save yourself so you can help more later!"

[Queen Bright]

But as Hikaru had never been in Iroku's circle to begin with, there was no attraction, and she remained hidden from sight and senses. Hikaru would never leave herself in reach of spells or effects. And anyone that assumed such knew nothing about strategy. With her location unknown, he could not walk towards her as he wouldn't know where she was.

The moment the his spell tried to feed into the signatures of the lines, the signatures blinked out, and in an instant were replaced by others. As it was an illusion, there was no real 'magic,' to feed off of in the first place. Therefore instead of being fed off of, the lines literally peeled themselves off the ground, becoming strings of phantom magic, a magic that appeared to be magic, yet had no magic signature unless given one.

The strings of phantom magic came together and condensed themselves into a sphere, this sphere fell into the center of the eye and 'disappeared'; faded from sight.

[Nisorin]

As the sphere falls into the center of the Eye, Iroku's body lifts from the ground, similar eye runes popping up all over his body as the armor symbiote rushes inside his body for safety. The still falling motes of light now halt, reshaping into floating eyes. Feasting off even the illusional magic, the circle extends yet further, nearly doubling in size as the multitude of eyes open. "Rroho Kupeldeldetza rras youg Hikaru." He shouts, great silver butterfly wings bursting from his back as his skin turns a bright green. The floating eyes take on a silvery teal color, shining bright as the light within the Outerverse dims.

Celestie, not even bothering to move out of the new expanse of circle, simply stares on in disbelief. "He really is the son of Niirrn."

[Queen Bright]

But as the phantom magic was STILL 'not really there,' it was unable to feed off it and couldn't extend. Except this time, the phantom magic set off a failsafe spell, and if he tried to feed off of it again, it would rebound the affect and cause it to feed off of its self and the surrounding magic.

Once the condensed sphere of phantom magic had completely faded from sight, from the sky a wide spectrum of colored mists began to fall upon the ground, everywhere the mist touched, the magic signature disappeared from. The spirit and magical energy completely sapped. Gone from senses. Or so it seemed...

"Infect Ezael and Kotah. Keep your signature gone with phantom magic while doing it. Bring them as well as the two Aralang's here. I have a plan." Hikaru directed the thought to the virus.

[Gaserlake]

With phantom magic, the Virus used the Blood Transfer spell to get to Kotah and Ezael. It then infected the two and took full control of their bodies, yet left the rest alone. It works by transferring the Virus from Hikaru's blood to the Kotah's and Ezael's blood, and it only works because Hikaru is blood-related with Kotah and Ezael. Seemingly out of the blue, Kotah and Ezael were teleported to where Hikaru wanted them to be. Same with Gaserlake and Leserlake.

The spirit guides inevitably attempted to keep out the Virus, so the Virus went to the astral plane to infect them.

[Nisorin]

Half finished as it was, Celestie's crafted wall still serves to keep the Virus out, at least for the time being. "If you don't help me, all three of us are as good as dead, and we can't help anyone! Yeah, some people will get hurt, but that's inevitable. No matter what we do, people are going to get hurt. What matters is how we handle it afterwards, but if we're going to do anything we need to survive damnit!" She shouts at the kids, growling as she starts the second half of the spell, that will actually separate the space inside the sphere from the space outside. I can't wait for them. Nisorin, I'm going to need a hand here. She muses, feeling the attempted intrusion. "I will not let you enter this place! You cannot have them!"

Iroku, his Eyes spotting the viral particles, swings one hand to stare directly at them. The eye in that hand flashes like a strobe blacklight, quite literally stealing the life energy from the virus attempting to invade Celestie's 'world', killing the organic portion. As for the phantom orb, the invasion of the Eye set off the second phase of the spell, albeit quite a bit earlier than hoped. Iroku rocketed into the sky, while Celestie and the kids were forcefully shoved out of the Rroho circle as a second circle, inhabiting the heart of the Eye, was triggered. He stares down at his circle, shaking his head. "Pity."

The circle and eye, as well as absolutely everything within it, including a small bit of the Outerverse's surface, is broken down at an alarming pace, radiating from the center as a second circle reveals itself within the center of the first. This one only spanning 12 meters across, bears the twin insignias of Creation and Destruction, the twin crosses, at the North and South ends. At the East and West, large clusters of tiny runes together form larger, compound runes of Remaking and Refining. That which is broken down is absorbed into the circle and projected to Iroku in the form of his own small sphere, colors of all shades and hues swirling about and within it. He extracts the components of his circle, both magic and spirit. Using the existing circle to recreate it, his Eyes once again appear across the Outerverse. "Seems you wish to be rid of your collar. I shall expedite the process then. This may sting a bit." He calls out, every Eye flashing as they fade, spreading out amongst the other planes, from Astral to Elemental. "I will find you, little bird. I will devour your collar and free you from your cage!"

[Gaserlake]

The Blood Transfer Spell uses blood as a medium. As long as someone around is related, there is always going to be a connection. Therefore, the Virus was able to get through the wall.

Since the Virus infected Kotah and Ezael, the more life energy has been sucked from the Virus, the more has been sucked out of Kotah and Ezael, as the Virus became part of the two. This meant that you can't kill the Virus without killing Kotah and Ezael. In fact, you can't do anything to the Virus without affecting Kotah and Ezael the same way, unless the Virus makes it otherwise. It then summoned itself with the infected kids to the other side of the wall.

[Queen Bright]

Hikaru said nothing in response to Iroku, despite everything he tried, she continued to remain out of sight and out of senses.

Unfortunately for Iroku, he had ignored one fatal point; the colored mists that continued to fall across the Outerverse, sapping magic each time it made contact with something of magic. Spells, people, land, it didn't matter, all had their magic drained away unless stopped. And the Outerverse was made up of nothing but magic.

As for the orb of phantom magic that had fallen into the eye, it had, despite the circle of remaking and refining, had continued to hold its shape as it had ignored and went passed the eye and continued on its path further into the ground. Because the eye and circles were only engraved on the mere surface, they had no power or control over the the orb and it had so far remain untouched and intact.

Now as it fell deeper, the orb began to increase in density, the phantom magic it was made feeding more and more into it until the orb had at last collapsed into its self and had formed a black hole beneath the ground. Within moments, the black hole had doubled in size and began to draw in everything above ground, including the ground its self, ripping through it like a carnivorous beast.

However, any attention left for the Black Hole would have been completely drawn away as in a split second, there sounded a large explosion that was so large it had reverberated through the Outerverse and drawn attention to the sky. There in the sky, floated a large pulsing mass; the collection of magical energy that had been sapped from the mists, this is where it had gathered.

The mass was alight aflame with Holy Fire and around it swirled a cloud of golden smoke; obviously caused by the earlier explosion. By the time the smoke had cleared up, the mass had taken shape into a golden egg.

Out of the golden egg, thousands of birds burst out, each a different size from large to small. Phoenixes. But unlike normal phoenix constructs, these were all ablaze with the familiar white-blue of the one fire that could win Hikaru the battle, Spirit Fire.

Hikaru finally appeared, standing atop the point of the golden egg. She said nothing, but only raised her hand, the spirit-fire-phoenixes following it, and pointed to Iroku. "Attack."

Taking the order, the phoenxes all flew at Iroku in a cloud of thousands, seeking to impale him, and burn his spirit with Spirit Fire.

Kotah and Ezael resisted the Virus's control as much they could, their spirit guides attempting to claw and rip the spirit of the Virus to shreds while on the Astral Plane. But when their life had started to drain, they both fell, and the Spirit Guides started to flicker and dim, their energy to exist in both planes having been drained and in result causing them to be confined to only the Astral; where they would no longer be visible to the Physical Plane.

[Nisorin]

((I was waiting for you to use that.))


Spirit, the absolute most precious energy to any magic-using race, inexplicably and permanently tied to its wielder. Iroku's plenty used to dealing with spirit-based attacks, and so Hikaru's phoenix fleet does not even worry him. He raises his hand to the sky, even as the Forge of Arianos circle reacts to the black hole, producing a directed, focused gravitational field powerful enough to draw the core of the hole in. The Rroho Eyes analyze the spirit fire even as he forms a thin spherical barrier around himself. As the spirit fire hit, it was extinguished, the barrier shredding the spiritual components into their more basic, non-converted forms. And without fuel, there is no fire. Now, however, he had what he needed to seek Hikaru out. The Eyes fall into the Astral,  using a spirit transferrance spell to ride the spirit used in the Fire, right to Hikaru. Her seal lights up like a christmas tree to Iroku, giving him her location as well as the location and nature of her seal. "Careless." He calls out, turning to face her head on as the Rroho starts to shift. "I've found your collar, Ms. Tyris. Shall I remove it, or will you cease this absurd game?" He asks, waving a silver wing as the Outerverse force-teleports the Virus alone, leaving its hosts behind.

[Gaserlake]

As the OV force-teleported the Virus, the hosts went along with it. Since it was pretty much a part of its hosts, and that it had no signature, it adopts the hosts' signature. Gaserlake and Leserlake stayed behind, as there was no signature to force-teleport. Kotah and Ezael, however, were force-teleported to Aralia.

[Queen Bright]

But as Iroku would soon find out, the one fatal flaw he had made, was believing that the Spirit-Fire-Alight phoenxes, were ONLY just Spirit Fire. As the birds made contact with the barrier, sure, the spirit part of the fire was put out, but it was too late for Iroku as the rest of the spells the birds carries had corrupted his barrier. Using the link between the magic of the barrier and caster, one spell corrupted and began to corrode the barrier, as a distraction, while the main spell that was meant to hit had targeted the signature the magic had been cast from and took effect. The Lifeline Spell.

Now connecting Hikaru who stood atop the Golden egg floating within the air, and Iroku, the caster of the barrier, the lifeline spell worked as always before. If one damaged the other, they in turn would get damaged as well, if they damaged themselves, their opponent would be damaged. Thus was the nature of the spell to lock both opponents Spirits together with a single unbreakable thread of magic which could only be cut by the caster of the spell.

As for the eyes that continued to seek within the Astral Plane, they could try for as long as they liked, Hikaru wasn't so stupid as to use her own Spirit Energy. No, that would be a fatal mistake. Instead, what the eyes would find would be one of two things. Either Iroku's own Spirit Energy that had been achieved through illusion that had collected the excess of the battle, or a particularly weak 'borrowed,' Spirit Energy, that Hikaru had obtained through the vial of shrunken down Aralangs that she still pocketed. Not enough for death of course, as Hikaru's plans didn't have that just yet until she had the whole race. But enough that they should have been knocked out or in a severely weakened state.

The black hole born of phantom magic, continued to be fed through the phantom magic, and thus continued to resist the circle. Feeding more gravity into it, the phantom magic caused the black hole's gravity to overcome the circles gravity, and thus overpower it. Tripling in size from the 'food,' the black hole easily ripped the gravitational field a part and continued to draw in the surrounding area.

"It's over," Hikaru simply stated, teleporting from her place atop the Egg, to being right across from Iroku, but still in the air. "Last chance, return the Outerverse or die. With the lifeline spell, you have no way to win."

[Nisorin]

Unfortunately for the Virus, the Outerverse was very capable at changing how it targeted things for teleportation to make sure only the required objects are teleported. Targetting the viral bodies individually allowed the Outerverse to successfully teleport the virus, but not the hosts, leaving Hikaru, Kotah and Ezael in the Outerverse.

Iroku laughs as he hears her words, the Circle bolstering its own strength to compete with the black hole. "I am a master of spirit manipulation, do you honestly think a lifeline spell will hold me back? Mere death will not cut me off from this place. And should you force it to cut off, milady Lertis is here to continue my wish. And make no mistake, I'll be returning from the Judge's Court to fight against you once again. You would be better served with an alliance rather than conquest. All of Reloria will stand behind me if it must. Even one such as you cannot contend against such numbers." He calls out, adding an extra boots to the Circle, completely engulfing the black hole's core, sucking it into the circle where it was disassembled and stored. "You'll not win against me, Milady Tyris, for it is not just me you fight."

Celestie, finally giving up on her tactic, borrows on Nisorin's power and control to start engraving her own circle, using a localized anti-gravity spell tied to her feet to move around faster. The outer ring consisted of the elemental insignias but one: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Arcana. She stands at the northernmost end, a line of fire shooting out to connect Fire with Water. A rushing waterclimb spreads from Water to Earth, where a line of flowers flies to Wind, a brisk breeze carries petals from the flowers to Arcana, and a blue beam shoots forth back to Fire.

[Gaserlake]

However, the Virus was physically a part of the hosts. The DNA even changed to become one another. One would easily think that they were born with it. One would think that the body even naturally produces the Virus. The truth is, it does. The Virus made it so that they are so closely connected, that if something happens to the Virus, the same thing happens to the host, and vice-versa.

Th Aralangs got really weak. Some were knocked to the ground, some were even knocked unconscious. They didn't know what the hell was going on, bringing on fear and panic.

[Queen Bright]

"And that's where you're wrong," Hikaru muttered in response to his statement. "Once you're dead the Outerverse will transfer ownership to me. That's how it works. If you come back? Neither you or Celestie will be able to take it back. Not that I plan on you coming back." With that  Hikaru snapped her fingers and in instant had ignited herself with both God Fire and Spirit Fire.

As both types of fire started at the same time, they began to mix through fire manipulation ability, the violet symbol of destruction and the innocent white-blue of inflamed spirit merging together and becoming a brilliant ambient purple, with the properties of both. Deicide Fire. Fire formed from the unique abilities of both God Fire and Spirit. This gave it the power to destroy utterly and completely anything within the Physical and Astral Plane.

Completely engulfed Hikaru began to burn, hidden from sight by the smoke. Because of the lifeline spell, this would also happen to Iroku. Once cast, there was no way around this spell. That's what made it one of the most dangerous, the only way to defeat it was t not get hit by it.

Though dragged into the circle, the black hole had by no means given up the fight. It was of course still being fed by the phantom magic it was created from, and as long as that sphere of magic existed, the black hole would exist. Despite that, the core of a black hole wasn't just a 'core,' it was a singularity. A point where the density is so great that is hast become infinite. Not only that, time within a singularity would become literally frozen.

Add that to the amplification of phantom magic to expand and spread that singularity, and the whole circle became frozen before it could become  disassembled. With the whole battlefield taken over by the rapidly expanding singularity, everything within its path became frozen in time.

Meanwhile due to being connected to the Virus, when the Outerverse forced teleported it, Kotah and Ezal were forcefully dragged with. Since Aralia was the last place they were before coming to the Outerverse, that's where they were forced teleported to.

[Nisorin]

He smiles as the physical and Astral planes start to warp, due to the distortion of the smaller Circle of Iroku's. This projects the flame that would otherwise burn Hikaru, to rebound at the bindings of the Lifeline spell, burning it into nothingness. A controlled distortion of space, caused by the distortion of another space. "I grant guardianship of this place to Milady Irrelai, my power to her I pass." He calls out, his final breath summoning her there to witness the last embers. She stands there, silent as she feels both his magic and spirit burn into nothing. The Orion bond, small as it may have been, bursts open like a shattered dam, Iroku's power, memories and skill flooding into her as everything quickly becomes too much. She whirls, spotting her prey in the small plume of smoke from what would have been the eruption of the fire. The light illuminating the Outerverse turns to a dark, sage green as screams an almost inhuman screech.

As her magic starts crackling violently around her, a massive, silver butterfly the size of a Frigate rises from the ground behind her. The Outerverse, now tied to Irrelai's spirit at the behest of its previous owner, feels her outrage. The singularity's core itself begins to warp, the Spirit of the Core tearing it apart and flinging the pieces at Hikaru while Celestie finally closes her circle. Now that Hikaru's position is revealed, and her blood traits used in an attack, her circle shifts to center on Hikaru, the sigil of Spirit right underneath her feet. It disappears, and Celestie's voice is implanted into Hikaru's mind like a memory passed from one person to another.

"You, who never even asked the Outerverse her name, do not deserve to tame this place. You, who hide from who you are, do not deserve to take his life! Resulting to such a cowardly spell, stealing him from us, we will ensure you find no rest among the living or the dead! Your love is naught but a lie, and I shall see you ruined by your own creations!"

[Queen Bright]

But due to the nature of the Lifeline spell, just redirecting Hikaru's attacks at it wouldn't sever the connection. It worked through will, and unlike the attack that was programmed and released to do damage. The Lifeline spell held on until the caster willed it to be gone or killed one of them, which would kill them both. Add that to the fact that Hikaru was a phoenix and if the fire was redirected, more was just produced after that, in an ongoing attack upon herself.

That's what made the Lifeline spell so dangerous. It was absolute and put one under complete control of the caster. True, you could opt out and choose to suicide first, and take the caster down with you. But in the end, the only way to beat it was to see it coming and prevent it.

With the ongoing 'attack,' Hikaru would have been burned faster than Iroku would have been able to call out, or at least would have stifled him before he finished.

[Nisorin]

Using the Sierrensa to speed his speech, as one would have to in such a situation, let Iroku finish before he was fully burned, and even if his words hadn't left his mouth, his desires would have been carried over the link between himself and the Outerverse, a link now carried by Irrelai. She turns to face the Phoenix Sage, a familiar look in her eyes as she glares down the murderer of the one she loves. "Give him back." She says, her voice devoid of tone or emotion, as she takes a step towards Hikaru. "Give him back to me. You cannot have him. I want him back." She continues, clearly approaching her limit of the Orion.

Celestie's voice continues to ring through Hikaru's mind, now laden with anger. "You are pathetic. You have thrown yourself away and are worth nothing. You are no heir to royalty. You are just a lost little child with too much power. You're better off dead." Her circle shrinks, centering in on Hikaru and binding her feet to the ground beneath her, preventing escape either by portal, teleportation, or otherwise. "Ausserre and I will shatter you like glass." The large butterfly picks Celestie up with its legs, and hovers over Hikaru. A sort of pollen falls from the sky around her, made not of magic nor spirit.

[Queen Bright]

(Due to a debate and conclusion of the Outerverse never having a spirit, it causes the above parts with the spirit null. But because Nisorin used the whole battle on the spell having to do with the Outerverse having a spirit, and thus wasted the whole attack. My posts are null as well. Because nulling his posts would mean there was never an attack, and thus I would have no reason to attack back, which brings the battle back to the damn start.

Rather than delete all the posts,  I'll just split the topic to right before the battle began and void the rest.)