<span style='color:red'>((This thread is currently CLOSED to joining. That means do not post here. For reference: <span style='color:blue'>Lady Io</span>, <span style='color:purple'>Lord Rin</span>, <span style='color:orange'>Lord To</span>.)) Palasaj Novox - Interlude Amongst the Radiance. Current Day: 25 Current Quarter/Month: Dyo (Spring) Current Year: Year 81378 Current Time: 0137</span> The perfect midnight blue. Towering waves of sapphire seawater tainted by a thick mackinaw of foam that cruised and crashed the twenty foot swells as a leaf would fall from a tree. Moon light graced sea surface light a bag of lunar beads scattered across a blue satin blanket, flickering with shards of yellow and white in a slow, entrancing dance. unknown shapes of sea-faring beasts large, small, and unearthly flickered amongst their secret haven trapped by nature. Not a ship or beast crossed the top of the ocean, less they be struck and swallowed at the force of the thirty-five foot razor waves. Overcast thunder heads cruised inch by inch, swollen with rain and a quiet storm to be born unto the world within Hrishikesh's restless body. The halcyon tone of the crashing waves and low, chilling wind indulged in a temperate duet with a distant yet apparent rumble of the dominating thunder heads coming together, foreshadowing the storm and the grey events of the near future. Silent, statuesque, and magnificent. If one were to compare its blade dimensions to the crashing waves, or even the anvils thunder heads from their dark, ominous bottoms to the heavenly yet arrogant apex, it would be a horrific yet entrancing sight of its magnitude. A crystal, long and pointed with a slightly larger than quarter-length radius, it moved without any sound to be heard over the crashing sea like an invincible valkyrie. Unwavering in it's course, the crystal stayed at a constant distance of ten feet above the lowest swells among Hrishikesh's quiet fury. She--the crystal--was of a conserved radience no where else emulated in nature. Against her surfaces reflected a late morning storm of rupturing waves, bolts of jagged lightning, and a furious rain among the same setting that she crossed, as if the light was filtered into the future as it passed through. Tons of water slammed her sides and ocean smells engulfed the bottom of the point, but the did not make even the slightest change in direction. It was as if the whole world moved around the crystal as a center of the universe. <span style='color:blue'>"Gypeon will be reached in approximately five hours. We will continue to patrol the fifty mile area of responsibility to gather information on our silent cruise."</span> More wondrous than the outside and unnerving in it's simplicity. The crystal seemed to hold life rather than a living being itself. One of these chambers, most likely the mind of the object or a monitoring section was completely covered in white. A room of milk, ivory, and purity of light. A golden halo about ten feet in diameter rotated slowly over each surface while ancient symbols of some unknown language crossed every wall and traced the halos with a dim, isolated glare. In the very center of this chamber set a small pool of crystal clear water, it's bottom littered with multi colored coins and transparent stones. Around the pool sat three old Pendragons, their shaggy and prominent manes decorated with wooden and ivory beads while golden circlets covered their crowns. Each of the three pendragons were pure white without a single flaw in color and their eyes a large, pitless gold. The tail flames, while nothing out of the ordinary, shared the same hue of gold. Around them in a vast set of towering pedestal seats housed servant pendragons, around twenty of them, neither of them sharing any common train besides appearing physically fit and a vigilant sitting watch over the three elder pendragons. With the side of the outside of the crystal taken into consideration, it was obvious that this room couldn't be the only one, and definitely not the largest. While the population of this crystal was not large by any standards, the occupational capacity could be a city of it's own. <span style='color:purple'>"Indeed. Although we have not been caught upon alert in the eighteen hours of travel, there is still need to pinpoint Gypeon's location. Also, it would seem that this storm has been influenced by a http://shadowlack.com/forums/index.php?showentry=128Lelresian</a> conflict. It is quite possible that we miscalculated Lelres' alignment with Gypeon's center."</span> <span style='color:orange'>"Is an abortion feasible?"</span> <span style='color:blue'>"No. The calculations allowed a five minute margin of error, and initiating Gypeon's influence can be done within half an hour. That means we have anywhere from twenty-five to thirty-five minutes. Is Gypeon's location confirmed?"</span> One of the towering pillar seats lit up with an undertone red glow, illuminating a blonde female Pendragons. She was a fox in appearance, completely yellow of body with white ear tips and a long, white tail that wrapped five feet down her pillar. As she was recognized, her head lowered and the black slits that passed as eyes pointed towards the three elder Pendragons. <span style='color:yellow'>"Visual and audio confirmation has been acquired for Gypeon Lady Io. We will be at a tactical disadvantage because the apex of Radiance must stay in the area for one hour in order to be within the calculated window. Our hired extrication hands show disapproval in being stationary, but are still willing to continue the experiment."</span> <span style='color:blue'>"Very well. Lord Rin and Lord To, have you any objections in the current operation?"</span> The two other Pendragons stayed silent, which obviously passed as approval. There were three voices within the elder tribunal. Two decrepit yet wise old men on the right side of the pool while the one on the left held a prominent, deep and womanly voice, also appearing to be more in charge of the conversation. Their earlier worry was well founded, as a natural or organized threat against their lone vessel would compromise the integrity of the operation, however secret it may be. The threat of conflict was less feared and more expected, as they were in an area infested by larger sea creatures and not exactly camouflage. Gypeon, the nature of the crystal, or the identities of these peculiar and occultic Pendragons remained a mystery.
Palasaj silently stood in the midst of a physical impossibility. The floor was a separation of evenly shaped, 1 foot by 1 foot tiles of milk colored liquid. Cool to the touch and with no solid to surface to speak of. His feet stood on the floor tiles just as any other floor, ripples slightly dancing about his feet as he moved yet not disrupting more than six tiles at a time. He stared at the floor as he walked, also observing his full body cloak dragging across with no soaked cloth to speak of. An interesting and awe inspiring sight indeed. I don't like this situation. It would appear that someone knows I am inside, but why aren't they coming for me? He took a knee and extended his hand from under the cloak, slowly poking the floor. Just like a glass of water, his finger disappeared inside the floor. It felt thick, like milk, and there was definitely a wet feeling. His fur-covered fingers, however, were still as dry as they were before. Peculiar indeed. Thoughts of what sort of technology or lore could have constructed this seemingly endless room of liquid ran through Palasaj's mind as a second query, still keeping his wits about him in this unfamiliar place. He stood up while reaching for the heavy Bastard Sword lying across his shoulders, the slender silver eyes moving to the side slightly. The feeling of Fronima was apparent, different from the strange source that powered the strange Crystal he infiltrated. It was a more malicious sort of tainted Fronima, filled with anger and despair. Both of those emotions pointed a dangerous intent towards something, and Palasaj was the only one around. Silence, not even the sound of breathing in the strange white room. Large ripples of wide spreading liquid surfaced slowly, one beside the other with a gradual ascent towards Palasaj. No sound, no splashing at all, just the rising, untamed Fronima growing within Palasaj's heart. It wasn't any magic of sorts, nor a power supply. The feeling was dead, far passed on and far from believing that the end had come. Dula yv ni Tyol The words echoed in Palasaj's mind and projected in the room, booming as a heavy wind rose from within his body, a low level exertion of a simple Wind spell. The floor reacted, which meant that Fronima affected the room, as the Physical world did not. A mosaic of shatering white liquid became of the floor, stopping the heavy booms that crossed the floor. That may have been a serious mistake. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>"GEREEEEARGHSCHAAAAA!"</span> Source of all movement, the very being that unsettled the room's silence began to slowly appear upon the magical wind's appearance. It was grotesque, almost impossible to fathom with one's eyes. A glaring eye covered in a dead skin of eyelids, pulsing with red, blue, and green veins about the fleshy area and large bands of reddish brown about the iris. The iris itself was hellish, a crimson red paranoid stare, dilated and glaring with ferocious intent towards Palasaj. It was much larger than Palasaj himself, roughly twenty feet in diameter and dragging bloody, muscle covered tentacles behind as if the eye was ripped from something much larger. It had no mouth to speak of, rather the eye dilated as its unearthly wail screeched in Palasaj's ears. The feeling of death was definitely coming from this bastardization of anatomy. "What in the name of--" Palasaj backed up slightly as the iris began to bulge slightly, dozens of veins bursting from underneath the pupil in a disgusting web of red and black. Discharge like blood poured from the eyelids onto the liquid floor, spreading about the tiles like strawberry milk and flowing freely. Palasaj slowly drew the bastard sword from his horizontal scabbard, the blade singling with a low tone as it was withdrawn. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>"Deba na shi tgejes. E pateja sy vauts ogym shi leva."</span> A mess of corpses cycled slowly within the eye, clumped up and mangled Pendragons and wild animals all connected by bloody cord and masses of meat. They were being digested slowly into mucus of red and green paste, which collected about the tentacles of the eye, leaving a stench of fermented, mulched grass and rotting flesh. The eye burst open at a small part of the iris, allowing a blood covered pair of arms to force their way out, pushing out a few severed limbs and dripping guts. That definitely was not something with healthy attentions, and Palasaj had no intentions of standing by for the slaughter. "Dlyjeyot Pavluthaj!" Lowering his blade slightly, Palasaj gripped his hand into a fist and swayed his hand towards the gore filled pupil. From his hands, dozens of golden and pearl bead flew, flashing with a holy light and swirling as they left his hand. The beads soon grew into oblong spheres of lightning Magik imbued with a holy aura, flinging and spiraling aimlessly towards the eye and screaming light powerful fireworks. The exploded against the eye and onto the liquid floor, rising giant golden domes of holy flame and raw lightning after the discharging spell, covering the room in a blinding glow. Palasaj took the chance to distance him, sprinting to the side with both hands grabbing the hilt of his bastard sword. Just as the glow seemed to die, large tentacles came towards Palasaj, teeming with maggots and baring jagged and bloody teeth. The Room of Hell Incarnate, the beginning of something Palasaj should have never gotten in to.
High pressured mist, steaming in concentrated streams blasted around Palasaj's feet as he stepped back from the lashing tentacles. A few of the tentacles lashed out even further, slapping slime and dripping entrails across the room, missing the 'Dragon just when he crouched to one knee. The white, roaring streams of mist ripped around Palasaj's body as if it were a protective whip, one of the Pendragon's more advanced Wind and Water spells. Staring towards the hellish beast, Palasaj waited until the few tentacles that lashed at him began to wither and seize about in the air, the blood vessels inside compressed to stop their blood flow when coming too close to his high pressured mist streams. One by one, their tips flopped onto the ground, just like cleanly severed meat. Whatever was going inside the death-filled eye couldn't be stopped with his short ranged limitations. "Come, feed me elder son of Novox. Your mystical prowess will give us both a weapon fit for oblivion." The crystal, the immense sailing vessel had many mysteries. If there were more problems of such caliber compared to the eye would mean exhaustion to the point of death, not including the fact that those who maintained the vessel would have their eyes on him. Every wall of the white room was completely gone, now stretched out into an endless void, white, yet unending like a dark shadow. He could have been falling the whole time, above the sea, or on the ground. While the arms continued to pry their way out of the eye, Palasaj had to keep himself above the situation, less something take him by surprise. The eye knew his family's name, which meant there could be a reason for the controlling forces to keep him alive. Speaking in commons. Where is Celuvix when I need him? This is his area of work, not mine Palasaj cursed his younger brother, springing from the air almost in an instant with his Dark Fang blade hanging from his hand. The tentacles followed into the air, whipping and lashing just underneath the dark Pendragon's feet. He twisted slightly before losing his momentum, preparing himself to take out the tentacles while falling, but was taken surprise by another fault within reality. Just above his head in front of his face, the white darkened as if Palasaj's face would smack into a ceiling he couldn't see. Out of natural reaction, he snapped his eyes shut just before his head would smack into solid matter. ... A few seconds of silence. A feeling just like riding inside an elevator moving up it's shaft, but no sense of falling. It was a slight tingling feeling of anticipation, not knowing what would happen next and the situation devoid of the impact Palasaj thought would happen. Opening his eyes slowly, the Pendragon saw an unbelievable image of majesty. What is this place...? His body, still turning with the vault while avoiding the tentacles, flew in an uncontrolled upward spiral. Though air bubbles floated past, he didn't feel the cold, clinging feel of water or the pressure of being in any sea. with every flip of his body, a giant bloodshot eye seemed to pierce through a surface in front of him, almost like staring in him from outside a glass of water. Just a quickly as the strange world had been opened, he was once again in the pure, white room. The momentum had--through some bizarre stretch of reality--not ceased, maybe even increased. Before Palasaj could gain his bearings, he fell onto the floor of the white room with ripples scattering all around his body. Tentacles, dropping blood, slopping skulls inside pastes of mean and smashed muscle dripped around him. "Inside, Novox. Inside." <span style='color:blue'>"Djump Toetsjaun!"</span> Almost a reflex, mostly because he couldn't pull together any other spell from his mind that would be adequate for the situation, Palasaj closed both of his hands as the skulls came close to splashing on his body. The room shook along with most of the crystal, it's pitch moving slightly off balance as the room began to bubble, the milk liquid that made the floors and walls boiling with some unknown force. Taken off guard, the Eye halted it's attempt to devour Palasaj, leaving half of a body hanging out of it's iris and startled from the room's instability. Cracks streaked throughout the room, the milky shade of white eventually washed away by the nighttime sea that the crystal was slightly submerged in. The Grand Suistream, PalasajÂ’s answer to gravity with Ramath-Lehi's own natural water, was trying to center it's pressure on the room, trying to crush the small area of the immense crystal and get to it's master. The pressure was not enough, as Palasaj's magical mastery was not as powerful as he hoped. Straining harder, the Pendragon's fingers began to bleed at their tips, water outside of the room from the altered reality he entered trying to cross through time and space. Whipped foam from the rushing water rocked the room slightly, just before an unlucky, quite large sea creature rammed into the port side of the room. Mashed brains from the creature washed away with the high-pressured water, covering the room in a red glow. Unable to withstand the continued pressure, shattering glass came down on the Eye and Palasaj, water rushing through with the force of a tsunami. "I don't know what the hell you are, but there's no way I'm going inside you! <span style='color:blue'>Eka Jabyloseym</span>!" Palasaj got up as the water rushed into the room, taking on the damned eye with his fingers sliding down the side of his Black Fang. The dark blade quickly covered with crystals of ice, his eyes glazing over with a blue hue, and frost blowing from his mouth. Slowly changing from his Humanoid form to that of a bipedal dark wolf, Palasaj covered his blade's handle with the fur covered, clawed fingers and thrust his bastard sword full force into the hanging corpse from the dead eye. A gust of chilling wind blazed past him, his hair changing white and blue and his armor becoming a cerulean hue. Around him, frozen waves of bloody water formed jagged waves of ice, hanging over him like a fang. The frozen eye and the corpse stood in front of him, paused in a scream just as life had entered his body. The Pendragon ripped his blade away, taking a chunk of the eyeÂ’s pupil away. He breathed heavily, a good bit of effort put into his frontal elemental techniques. As Palasaj stared into the ceiling, for a few fleeting seconds he saw the insides of a machina structure before it sealed up into a passageway. Someone was watching, testing, and not yet ready to kill. With the slow reaction, maybe he wasnÂ’t the only one in.
A passageway. Listless, with neither premise of danger nor sanctuary, Celuvix reserved no other choice but to continue, rather than be pulled into the same mind numbing acid trip as before. With a quick, slight slick of his wrist, Celuvix shifted the chunk of frozen pupil from the tip of his Black Fang, the dark blade dripping with slowly melting ice onto the cracked, water and frost covered floor. His blackened maw mumbled slightly, already annoyed with the change of climate and his inability to take over the situation more quickly, but he shook off the old chip on his should to continue on. Sliding the Dark Fang into its vertical sheath, Palasaj crouched just enough to shift most of his weight forward. A heavy sprint, forcing himself up the shattered glass, ice, metal, and tile covered surface into the lighted corridor. Immediately, he was in a space counterpoint of the previous room. More modern in appearance to the white room. Ambient lights, a much larger opening than he had imagined before. Blossoming, gentle mists of water, streaming through the air with a low, soft light of red coming from the bottom of a cobblestone fountain. It was larger, an immense passageway much different from the corridor he perceived earlier. Was this the same, or another mental fallacy by Seaward Radience's strange nature. Palasaj knew not whether to believe and go on, or to be skeptical and take more into consideration. Endless trails of pear doors, glimmering with Pearlescant glitter on their surfaces and crimson door handles, each of the doors left slightly open with the same angle on each left and right door. Brilliant crush carpet rolling against the entire floor, slightly saturated near the fountain with an elegant sparkle. There was an aroma of relaxation. Coffee beans, simmered seafood, a slight alcoholic hint about the entire corridor. A faroff hiss of air came from an unknown direction, rather putting Palasaj at ease than startling him. "...I don't believe I should be as relaxed as this room leads me to be. It may be stereotypical to take this as a threat, but life itself is stereotypical. For all I know, a giant lizard may be waiting in one of the r--" Palasaj's sharp eyes turned to the right slightly as one of the far off doors opened just enough to catch his interest. Answers would come sooner than he thought.
Gently rolling, a cold and bitter frost spilled from the cracking door. It was far off, almost on the percieved end of the hallway, though the frost seemed to be so plentiful as to change the hue of the room. Though, that wasn't right in Palasaj's mind. It felt decently warm considering frigid water had crashed in below, yet the frost was simply multiplying in space and density. From behind the frost, a slender blackened figure stepped gracefully, adjacent the door and closing it just after entering the hallway. As the frost cleared, such as any element cut from its source, the one who had birthed from the door appeared to be walking towards Palasaj. Might I fight my way through this whole ordeal, this may become troublesome yet. This shouldn't prove too cumbersome. The coal and onyx Pendragon loosened his grip on Dark Fang, tip and edge slightly resting on the crush velvet carpet. He lifted his head, beady black eyes adjusting to the distance while his chest relaxed from the previous tension. The figure came into view, but not taking a harmful appearance as he had previously guessed. <span style='color:yellow'>"I welcome you to the telbaj paush, the Seaward Radiance, Royal Administrative ship of Her Holiness Lady Io. I trust that your stay has been pleasant?"</span> She was, to say the least, one of the last things Palasaj had expected. A shining body of padded, silver polished armor covering from head to toe, only a few separate parts of her abdomen and collar exposed. Sleek flanks covered the figure's shoulders, and while the occasional long, brownish hair flared from her barely exposed arms, the woman had an exceptionally upright posture. Even compared to Palasaj's slightly hunched over build, this female Pendragon was a tall mastery of the Upright Discipline. A slender face guard covered her maw and eyes, only showing a dim blue line on the visor where her eyes should be. Both arms swung down at her sides, covered at the back of each hand with scholar's scribe, illegible by Palasaj. Pleasant, she said. Palasaj had to choke back a sarcastic scoff at the suggestion. Almost the meal for an enormous floating eyeball, falling through a hellish trap of time, then almost drowning in the water bi-product of his own spell was not exactly what he would call pleasant. <span style='color:yellow'>"If it were any different, I would simply throw you overboard and hope that a sea creature could take you back to land, but it seems that there are those who are trailing our destination. We simply cannot have someone leak our existence so...close to completion."</span> "Would it be too much for me to ask...what in the hell is this place, and why am I here?" <span style='color:yellow'>"It would be too much to ask. As for how you arrived on our ship...hm. I guess you must've had an unlucky encounter with one of our wizard's transportation runes. It isn't compliant with my morals to kill off a Jandarian student out of a whim, but this isn't my decision. Don't take this too personally."</span> Palasaj's eyes jumped from their nearly closed appearance just slightly. Just as the thought to raise his sword reached his arms from his mind, the woman's out stretched, metal covered fingers rushed through the short distance between them, Just for reaching Palasaj's chest, each finger closed into a fist. <span style='color:yellow'>I'll try not to kill you. Just try not to drown.</span> The woman's other hand gave a sly, invisible to the eye swipe towards Palasaj's long coat, as if to hide something away. In the same instant, her fist broke into his chest, pressurizing the air around them and sucking in what little dirt and dust lay on the floor. The wall behind Palasaj burst open, a pillar of fire crashing from outside the crystal. Thousands of shard fell to the ocean, Palasaj falling out from behind the flames. A hellish punch, inexplicable within such a short amount of time that Palasaj had to observe it. <span style='color:yellow'>“Just Breath."</span> The woman’s arm reared back just slightly, air drawing back with her in a vacuum. Each and every muscle visible seemed to tense up, her body armor rising slightly. "<span style='color:yellow'>Tez Relleym Sym Japangseym!</span>" Her fist returned, covered in bronze flames and whirling with green wind. The impact had such force, such speed, that the pain he felt from the initial hit was masked by the cooling breeze and the intense flames clashing against each other. Palasaj couldn’t feel the distance from the corridor through the enormous opening that the woman opened previously, and finally felt that his whole body was covered in flickering flames. As he fell from the side of the sleek crystal, he could see the reflection of the raging seas below him. Hundreds of Pendragons stared from inside the shard, a network of offices and corridors inside such a frail looking crystal. Large beasts, incredible weapons, and the female Pendragon stood outside the gaping hole blown upon his defeat. Nothing made sense anymore. Only a few hours ago, Palasaj had been returning from his first day at the academy. Now he was falling into a sea. There was no sea to his recollection. What was the Crystal, who were those people, and what was he doing there? What have I gotten myself into this time? Hrishikesh, boiling with a storm long since birthed, swallowed the dark Pendragon without a moment's notice. It was too dark for him to see, even with the burning debris falling into the water. Heavy waves, crashing higher than any building he had even been in, made it almost impossible to surface for air longer than a few seconds. After being tossed around the waves frantically, far too many thoughts and far too much tension, the world became dark and silent. How…can I learn…to fight like that?
