A Search in the Gods' Domain (Closed)

It was somewhat amusing to watch Schwartz and Veara together. The two certainly had a chemistry that was hard to ignore. It seemed as though Zienna took note as well, as they both attempted to get the two alone. Zyv didn't really care that much. Romance was of no interest to her. Not yet, at least.

"We could always tear the map up into different pieces and split up to cover more ground," Zyv suggested when the others seemed dissatisfied with how long this would take just aiming with no particular direction. "Of course, there's always the possibility that the magic of the map would disperse if torn." However, Veara said that he sensed something near by, so splitting up may no longer be necessary.

"For the last time, Veara, I'm not doing anything. Accuse me again and I'll really do something..." The woman spoke with a rather deadly tone, showing that she was serious. However, her fingers continued their thing, even going as far as going down to the hem of his pants. She tugged at the waist teasingly, giggling softly to herself as she continued her little assault. While doing her thing, the assassin listened closely to all of the conversations going on, learning how Veara flew by manipulating the space and air around him. The man's abilities were intriguing and it reminded her a bit of her older brother, Three, who was adept at bending space to his will.

Eventually, however, the situation turned a bit more serious than what it was at first, so Schwartz stopped with her teasing. She had focused completely on the map and held it outwards a bit to see if she could gain some sort of reading off of it. The map started to glow faintly (don't know if its cool if I do that, but I'm doing it anyways). Her eyes widened and she angled the map so that everyone else could see this change in lighting.

"You all see this, right? Whatever it is blondy over here is feeling, must be what this piece of paper is picking up... Can you pick up the pace and get us there faster, Veara?" The woman asked, wanting to get to the bottom of the glowing. There was a clearing coming up and hopefully whatever the hell they were looking for, wasn't in the eye of some cyclops or something...

Aqua considered Zienna’s offer. Despite Veara’s insistence that he was fine, she felt that a little less weight on him would be a benefit. The again, if this Nero really could hold her, it would probably mean that she has to change hands midair. The thought made her shiver slightly. Those thoughts were pushed aside, however, when Veara announced that he detected something along with Schwartz noting a change in the map. If they were this close to the goal anyway, then Aqua really could bear with this position a tad bit longer.

“Thanks for the offer,” she said to Zienna, “but I think we’re about to reach our destination anyway.”

Her mind began to wander again. With Veara explaining his abilities and him just sensing the objective and the map responding in kind, perhaps he…

Aqua shook her head, No. This is my burden and mine alone. I can’t drag any of these people into it, no matter how close they may be.

She said nothing more, simply looking down at the map Schwartz held, mentally preparing herself for what may come.

("He thinks I can't carry her. HA!") Nero screeched, flying beside Zienna and Zyv. ("He underestimates me just because of this form.")

"He is right, you know. Your form right now isn't fit to even lift a cat," the succubus said, chuckling.

("Yeah, but... YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!")

"Don't worry, the journey's still young. Still plenty of opportunity for you to wrap your arms around a pretty girl."

The raven looked flustered as he flew higher, then diving ahead towards the clearing. Zienna, seeing that that was going to be their next destination, said, "You might want to shield your eyes, Zyvvy~" After the warning, she stopped flapping her wings and pulled them closer to her body so she and her passenger would be diving towards the clearing. She also made sure to make the necessary adjustment to secure her passenger as they tilted to a headlong trajectory. It wasn't a sudden drop and they weren't going too fast, but the rushing air would have proved to be a nuisance for the naked eye to combat. They sped up as the ground got closer, and when Zienna felt it was the right time, she spread her wings to slow them down to a smooth landing. She lowered Zyv to the ground, but waited a while until she regained her balance. "Sorry if I went too fast."

Veara zipped his lip the moment Schwartz had that deadly tone inside her voice and simply deicided to take it from that point on, trying to not say anything or do anything that would entice Schwartz wrath though truth be told for some strange reason or another of his bodies he's liked it. When she ended up gripping the hem of his pants and Veara felt her finger lightly hit up against his lower abdomen, he groaned and once again couldn't stop himself quickly shutting his mouth. His eyes flocked to pure white orbs due to an intense emotion that he felt for that quick second, however it all that went away the moment he felt something coming from the clearing that was up ahead.

Schwartz asked him if there was anyway he could get them down their quicker and while it was true he could fly them down there in like less then a shake of a dogs tail. He realized at the same time he was risking the possibility of either them falling off of him due to the sudden burst of speed.

So rather then fly them down the next best method form of travel was used in this situation. One second all three of them hovered in the sky, Schwartz just finishing asking Veara to get them down their quicker and the in the blink of eye they were on the ground within what could be considered the front of the clearing the boy deciding to simply teleport them there.

He looked around still holding onto Schwartz for a moment as he began to feel the presence of something more and more and it was clear that whatever he felt so was the map since the faint brightness now grew heavily.

Though Veara finally realizing he was still holding onto Schwartz and was holding her tightly quickly released his grip and set her down onto the ground. For some reason he wasn't too happy about letting her go, though at the same time he was a little happy that she couldn't mess with him and make him feel that weird feeling anymore.

Veara looking down and seeing that hit boot was untied for some reason or another quickly knelt down to one knee and began to fix the error usually it took a while to tie these things just right and ensure that they didn't become undone.

Was Zienna talking to her crow? Was it talking back? Zyv found it interesting but before she could think further on it, Zienna turned her attention to her and they started descending. Zyv closed her eyes and the wind whipped against her face. "Kyaa~" Zyv's stomach flipped and she couldn't help but let yelp of surprise out as she had never felt that feeling before. They landed and Zyv placed her feet on the ground, her legs a little wobbly.

"Not sure if I'll ever take up flying," Zyv said with a sigh.

Zyv noticed that Veara was lagging behind, tying his shoe. "Hey V, hurry up and cat--" Before Zyv could finish, there was a roar from above. Zyv looked up to see a large object falling down towrads them. It smashed into the ground, creating a small crater as well as a shockwave that would blow everybody to the edge of the clearing. However, Zyv hit something hard and solid before she could leave the clearing. Groaning, she got up and looked behind her. There was a semi-transparent barrier around the clearing now. It looked like how a soap bubble, though it seemed impossible to pop. Veara, who had been farther away, actually was knocked outside before the barrier had formed.

There was another roar and Zyv turned her attention towards the center of the clearing. Standing there was a very ugly, very frightening monster with one, large yellow eye on it's head. "I'm gonna smash ya pests up for invadin' mah home!"

"Perfect," she said, dryly. She dropped her bag to the ground and pulled out two orbs from her pocket. They controted and formed into a metal scythe, which she gave a quick twirl.

---

Ability Name: Idealistic Change
Ability Type: Support
Ability Cost: 5MP
Ability Cooldown: N/A
Ability Element: Metal
Ability Description: Zyv is capable of changing the shape and size of any metal she is physically touching to something of equal mass.

160MP remaining.

Schwartz felt rather pleased with herself, teasing the blonde and paying him back for the little harem he tried to wrap her up in. She was just about ready to say something, when she was suddenly teleported, along with Aqua and Veara, to the clearing. Once there, she wiggled a bit in a bid to free herself, but noticed that the man had tightened his hold around her. The petite woman rolled up the map, stuffed it up her poncho, then turned towards Veara. He may not have been able to see her eyes, but he'd be able to feel a death stare.

"Put me down, now." She said simply and once she was gently let down, the assassin huffed and took several steps forward. Schwartz joined Zyv at her side and went a little bit further afterwards, to survey the area. A bit of the map was sticking out of her scarf, so it was visible for everyone to see it glow. Wanting to know where their treasure was, the woman continued farther, but felt something was off. Looking up, she saw an object aiming to crash down upon them. The assassin took several quick back flips, before being blown away by the shockwave of the object. She crashed, upside down, facing the outside of the forcefield. Slowly sliding down and landing on the ground with a small thud, Schwartz hopped back onto her feet and shook out her head.

Growling the woman turned towards their adversary, a large cyclops. The blue-haired woman pulled out her daggers immediately and spun them around on her fingers, before taking an offensive stance with them. She eyed the thing up and down and was thoroughly disgusted with the way how it spoke and look.

"Oh shut up before I rip your fucking eye out, one-eye!" The woman spat, clearly angry from what the thing had did before. Despite this anger, however, Schwartz didn't move on the offensive just yet. She had to gauge what the thing could do physically, before she moved in and started to lay waste to it.

Once Veara touched down, Aqua let herself slip down onto the ground, relieved to finally be on solid land again.

“That was actually quite the experience,” she said, addressing no one in particular.

Honestly, even though it was kind of rough this time, flying may just be something the young woman could get used to. At the moment, however, she needed to readjust herself. Aqua brushed off her clothes and allowed herself to get back used to the ground. She then moved on with the others, noticing that Veara wasn’t with them. She turned back, seeing that he was adjusting his shoe then turned her attention back forward staying slightly behind Zyv. The bluenette knew that he would catch up to them soon enough.

As she finished that thought, a loud roar caught her off guard followed by a crashing object from above that landed straight in front of her. Lucky for her, she wasn’t caught by the worst of it, but the shockwave threw her back, sending her into some sort of barrier. She groaned, rubbing her head before the adrenaline kicked in. She was just thrown by something, into a barrier. That something being a towering cyclopic beast, looking down at the group. It was clearly aggressive toward them, shouting out a threat.

She and her friends were now in danger.

That thought alone made her stand back up and draw her sword, “Is everyone alright?!” She called out, taking a defensive stance toward the giant.

Aqua grit her teeth, keeping her eyes on the giant and listened for any responses. The young woman knew she lacked the strength to take it on alone, but so long as the team could work together, they will be able to overcome this beast.

Zienna chuckled at Zyv's wobbling, and her doubts about being airborne. She let out a cute little yelp when they descended, and it left the succubus wanting to hear it more. She was just thinking about lifting her up back to the sky as well, and see how much it took for the girl to get sick. But alas, as her wings extended to take her and her unwilling passenger to the skies, something suddenly dropped from the sky, roaring furiously.

Its landing sent everyone flying into a somewhat invisible wall. Zienna herself rammed her entire left side on the forcefield before falling to the ground on her right. The smell of iron wafted through her nostrils, her senses disturbed by the rough impact. The girl moaned as she got up. A little bit of blood trailed down the corner of her lips, which was soon licked up in a sultry manner. "That felt nice~" she muttered, holding her left shoulder which seemed to be sprained, but it didn't seem to be the case when she pulled out her daggers and twirled them around her fingers.

There was a tiny cough right below her, where a dizzy raven was trying to get itself upright, but instead looked like it had way too much to drink. ("I'm fine! I'm fine... just a few powdered bones and a dislocated spine is all...") he said before shaking it off. The succubus giggled before both of their attentions were diverted to the one-eyed beast. ("Whoa... big guy...")

"I know, right!?" Zienna said, all too happily. "I'm going to have some fun with him~"

("Of course you are... listen, there's a kid here, and although I know it's not in your nature, could you please keep the adult-rated stuff to a minimum?")

"Hmmm... No~"

("Figured... Well, can't say I didn't try. Let's drop this one-eyed freak.")

While Nero was shaking his head, Zienna had sliced into her own wrist and let the blood form a grotesque orb slightly above the wound. when about a pint of blood was lost, the wound closed perfectly, and the crimson orb floated lazily above Zienna's palm.

("Ah sweet, I get to be part of the action now.")

"Got to put you to use somehow."

("Right...") Nero took off to the sky, hovering above the cyclops. Zienna threw the orb towards the raven, and when it was about half-way there, it turned into a red mist that warped around the bird like a cloak.

"Alright! Let's show this thing how strong this harem is!" she shouted cheekily right before noticing Veara being isolated by the wall that she crashed into before. Looks like the harem girls were the only active offense against the cyclops. Err... with Nero as an addition.[/color]

Veara simply slowly finished tying his shoe up ensuring that he would no longer have to worry about any possiblities of his boot becoming untied when suddenly he was pushed back by something and went tumbling backwards back into the forest. Crushing his head hard against one of the tree's looking upwards ignoring the slight pain on the back of his head he quickly got up and ran towards them just to be stopped by an unforeseen wall. "What the..." The boy mumbled to himself putting his hands on the wall and suddenly it hit him...they were in there and he  was out here...oh no. A grunt of anger left the boy as he made balled his left hand a tight fist being clenched while his veins began to pop out of his hand. A snarl left his mouth and the boy cocked his arm back and sent out his fist as hard as he could it sounded similar to the sound of a thunderclap. Unforunately for him nothing happened. Veara grabbed the top of his hood and did a 'tch' of annoyance. It seemed for this fight it was going to be up to them. For now he was completely useless to the group. Veara simply did the only thing he could do he stood next to the barrier watched he didn't dare try to say a single word lest he distract them. When he heard Zienna say the harem thing he gritted his teeth in frustration angry at that word and the entire situation he currently was within and wishing that word would just go away.

Meanwhile The cyclops simply looked around him after his initial attack throwing his club. The creature after a quick surveillance of his trespassers laughed hard while charging towards the one with the scythe the one who was most close to his club. "I'll be picking your bones out of my teeth for this, I'll kill you all for this!" It said while hearing something in the sky and two voices on the ground. Quickly picking up its club the cyclops raised the club into the air and began to spin with the club heading towards the one with the scythe and the tall blue haired one. The creature laughed while spinning these fools really thought they could get the upper hand on him he had been alive hundreds of years feeding on those that were foolish enough to dare come across this area.

The cyclops charged forward, spinning his club towards Zyv and Aqua. Zyv dived to the side to avoid getting hit. She felt the wind rush above her as the giant club narrowly missed her head. She turned her dive into a somersault, jumping when she got back on her feet and sending to slashes with her scythe towards the cyclopes' side.

Schwartz was just about ready to start fighting, but the words Zienna uttered ground her gears. She wished that the demon woman hadn't joined them, because something told the petite assassin that the succubus was purposely trying to rile her up. Either way, the woman just grunted and watched as the cyclops disregarded both she and Zienna and prepared its club for the other two women. The blue-haired femme fataile saw this as her opening and activated one of her core skills, after performing a rapid sequence of hand signs.

"Queen's World!" The woman yelled out and immediately, all time was stopped and in that same instance, Schwartz's Izayoi became active. She surrounded the gargantuan beast with fifty deadly knives, but really wanting to get the fight over with, she tripled the amount she birthed and created 150 knives, that aimed to skewer the cyclops in that one fell swoop. After the blades were set up, time resumed and they all flew forward, their objective to stab the giant in every single part of its body, barely leaving any of it skin or form visible by the end of the onslaught.

---

Skills Used:
Queen's World: Schwartz stops all time within the area and activates her Izayoi ability. She can triple the amount of daggers, for a +5 on the cool down of this skill. When the knives are in place and time resumes, they will seek out and aim to deal damage to all opponents in their range. All of this is done in the span of one post. 10 post cool down (+5 cool down due to tripling the knives).

Izayoi- Schwartz summons 50 daggers that are suspended in time around the battlfield (50 feet in radius). At her given command, she can unfreeze the daggers and allow them to converge towards many targets or one. This move has a 7 post cooldown.

Aqua grit her teeth as the cyclops began spinning toward them. She [Cartwheeled] out of the way, allowing herself some distance. With her comparative size, she wouldn’t be able to damage it so well alone. Looking around, the bluenette saw that the other girls (and the bird) were all within the barrier, with Veara trapped outside.

Aqua sighed, it seemed they were going to have to fight this one out without him. She readied herself to provide any support the group needed.

Speaking of which…

She noticed Zyv taking initiative, attacking the giant at its ankles. If it would decide to go for a counter attack, then the purple haired girl wouldn’t fare so well.

Raising her rapier above her head, she called out, “Here!”

She cast her power of plant over Zyv, granting her a layer of [Barkskin] over her own skin.

Hopefully that’ll soften whatever may come up.

Listening to her surrounding, she heard Zienna mention that “harem” word again, with the shorter blue haired girl becoming unsubtly peeved about it. Granted, Aqua didn’t like what the word implied, but it seemed it was cutting the short one a little deeper.

Hopefully this little horn clashing doesn’t boil over into anything, she thought.

---

Skills Used:
*Cartwheel

Spoiler:

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Abilities used:
*Barkskin

Spoiler:

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15MP used
55MP remaining in Pool 1 || 70MP remaining in Pool 2
2 Charges of Cartwheel remaining before Cool Down
Barkskin Cool Down: 3 posts

Zienna took off take the beast from behind. Since it seemed like only she herself and Nero were the only ones capable of reaching the higher areas, she took it upon herself to go straight for the neck while Nero would attempt to stab it in the eyes--err, eye. His transformation was already taking effect as his form grew into a much more humanoid framework. Dark clouds covered his entirety and his feathers shed. When he was half-way through his transformation, he dove down. At that moment, the poncho-wearing assassin summoned a ton of knives around the cyclops and sent it all towards him.

It was good cover. For sure those knives were going to put a lot of hurt on him, and Zienna wasn't going to be left out, nor let the opportunity pass. Her flames coiled around her body as she darted towards the back of the cyclops' neck with her daggers ready to dig into that vulnerable area. She could almost taste the blood, and so did the serpentine form spinning around her. As soon as she landed a swift blow to cut the spinal column, she'd unleash it's fury, sending bright flames to further burn the poor soul.

While she closed in on the target, the cloud of darkness dispersed from around Nero, revealing a human armed with a long and slender sword, the blade of which glowing red hot and pointed downwards. As he descended upon the eye, his wings flapped once to fire a dozen sharp projectiles to pepper the course before the main dish arrived. He quickly followed up with a Wind Dash to enhance the force he'd be unleashing.

====
Zienna:
Skills Used: Soul Flames -- Combining Fire and Darkness, she can summon a dark bluish flame anywhere on her body, and can extend these flames to any weapon she has. While active, Zienna steals health every time she does damage.

Abilities used:
Abysmal Contract to Summon Nero: Zienna sacrifices a moderate amount of health and blood to invoke a summon, even when the required DP is lacking. The downside is that the summon is proportionally weaker by the amount of DP missing.

Serpentine Flames: Zienna's signature dark flames take the form of a serpent which forms a ring of fire around her, which then rapidly spins, throwing flames around a large area, dealing moderate damage to enemies caught.

Nero:
Skills Used:
Vaporal Blade -- His blade becomes superheated, allowing it to pierce through armor and burn enemies. While active, the blade leaves a glowing red trail of vapor. Toggled ability.

Feather Duster -- When Take Flight is active, Nero can use his feathers as projectile weapons to attack his enemies with. Using dark magic, the feathers become stiff and sharp.

Wind Dash -- Once per post, Nero can quickly dash a short distance.

The cyclops continued his attack spinning wildly unable to defend, however with his massive size they would be unable to attack him. The creature laughed out loud as it came closer and closer to its target and was getting ready to hear the sweet, melodious and lovely sound of his club impacting against the skulls of the first of the little trespassers that were there. Unfortunately for the cyclops this was far from the case, and even more so he had no idea what was about happen within the next couple of seconds.

Suddenly the cyclops felt a heavy pain in its leg and the creature dropped the club on his right side looking down blood was suddenly spurting out of the creatures leg while soon on his left side blood was now spurting out of his legs heavily. The creature feel down to its knees with a resounding impact, before it could even get back onto it feet despite the heavy gashes on his tree trunk like legs. The creatures one eye widened, as it muttered unrecognizable jumbles out loud. There wouldn't even be time to get its arms up, just how in the world did this possibly happen. It was almost as if time itself stopped before him for just a moment. There wasn't even enough time to blink as suddenly he was assaulted. He suddenly went blind as the assault was carried out and the cyclops felt pain everywhere his arms chest, huge belly, even his underneath his loincloth was assaulted with daggers the gigantic creature wanted to scream, however it couldn't nothing would come out and even before the adrenaline rush could even began suddenly it felt a large strike straight to its neck while at the same time another strike only this time an impalement came straight towards its eye, it was was bad enough there were multiple daggers however now there was also something quite larger, it felt as though it's eye itself was being ripped out, however just before it felt as though he lost it that pain of it being ripped out subsided only for the pain of all his other injuries to become screeching up like crazy. Suddenly on his back he felt a heavy cut and I ally a scream came from the beast as his entire body began to bleed like crazy as if the creature was stuck pig leaking everywhere. His blood began to rain all over the immediate area coming out in clumps and large globs of blood meanwhile soon the exposed flesh on his body began to to show like crazy. While the blood began to leak more and more, the more the Cyclops tried to remove them the more they dug deeper and deeper within his skin and soon into his flesh. The attacks on his back seem to finally be what sent him into a state of shock, one moment the creature was screaming and the next second after attack that was sent to its face the creature suddenly stopped. Suddenly, the cyclops began to fall backwards and it hit the ground with a large resounding thud. Slowly its breath would dissipate into nothing.

Meanwhile Veara on the other side of the barrier was watching and he saw everything, for a moment that cyclops stopped moving and more importantly everything else did too, only Schwartz was moving...did she have the ability to stop time...it was only for moments, but how graceful she was when she attacked...not to mention this wasn't the first time Veara had seen use that attack. She performed it on the Minotaur back in traverse town...only this time the number of daggers was massive it was amazing watching her move.

Veara didn't say anything he just simply stood still unsure why he was so impressed with the way she contributed in helping taking that thing down, but for now he had no other choice but to simply summon foudre with two of him here it'd be easy to fine what the cyclops was guarding.

Raising his arm in front of him and gripping his hand he called it...and nothing happened....so he tried again and nothing happened. He tried a couple more times yet for some reason nothing was happening.

That was until finally he got a result. Suddenly something appeared inside his hand however it wasn't foudre...it was something different.

"A giant key.....no.....a blade...a bladekey..." Veara finished talking and the moment he did the blade now within the grasp of his own left struck him hard as if he had done it himself. "OW! That hurt....wait...that...hurt?" The boy spoke confused a simple blade could hurt him when so many other times very few things really messed with him. Suddenly Veara's eyes grew bright and pure white as he pointed the blade forward. A beam of light fired from the from the tip of weapon and connected with the cyclops now lifeless body slowly the creature began to engulfed by a bright light and soon a red heart shaped item could be seen flying into the air and soon disappearing. Though after the creature disappeared, a simple golden trinket in the shape of half of a beetle fell to the ground at the point where the eye would have been. Meanwhile Veara simply fell to the ground, looking as though he fainted, though in reality his body was apparently simply taking in the power of this new weapon that had just chosen him. Gripping the blade tightly in his hand he slowly got onto his knees while electricity began to surround his body, striking the blade into the ground in front of him while his body began to 'upgrade'.

Zyv's eyes widened in amazement when Schwartz released a barrage of knives upon the cyclops. The one-eyed beast fell. Dead. Suddenly, a beam of light appeared and made the cyclops disappear, leaving only golden trinket behind. She walked forward and grabbed the trinket, examining it. She turned around to the source of the beam to see Veara standing there, with a key-like weapon in front of him and he was crackling with electricity. What was going on?

Gripping the trinket in her hand, she ran over to Veara, but kept her distance. She didn't know what was happening or what to do. She looked at the others to see what they were going to do.

Scwhartz eventually sighed after she witnessed the cyclops's attempt struggle against her Izayoi. There was no use, really, she had used a combination of two moves that usually spelled death for anyone who wasn't immune to time... Or knives for that matter. Once the kill was confirmed, the assassin spun her blades around on her fingers, before she sheathed her weapons beneath her poncho and yawned. Everything settled and it seemed Veara was off to go obtain whatever it was they were looking for. Hopefully it was on the gargantuan, or else she just used up energy that could have been saved for later.

She slowly approached the downed cyclops body, but when doing so, something happened with Veara. He summoned some form of odd weapon and started talking to himself. Without much surprise, he managed to hit himself in the head with it, but performed some sort of light show with the thing. A large key-like weapon was used to destroy the body of the cyclops and reveal unto them, their spoils of the battle. Yet, the blonde was suddenly left lifeless on the ground. Seeing this, she frowned and went over to his body.

"Hey, kid, wake up. Now's not the time to be resting." Though her tone was harsh, it masked the concern that she had for him. While others would have cautiously stayed back, the petite woman didn't. She instead knelt beside him and started to shake him roughly. Even with the violent electricity shooting all over his body, she still had the courage to simply attempt to wake him.

The combination of Zyv’s and Schwartz’s attacks seemed to be too much for the cyclops, as the giant fell. Moments after the beast fell, Aqua gave a sigh of relief. This actually turned out far better than expected. Well, it wasn’t that she expected them to fail, she was just glad the four of them (and the bird) got out unscathed.

The sight of a thin beam of light hitting captured Aqua’s attention, and she turned to the origin.

Her eyes widened when she saw a key shaped weapon in Veara’s hand.

“I...Impossible...”

She walked slowly over to his side. He was lying on the ground, the power he now wielded now more likely than not becoming part of him. she did hold a concern for him, but that was just a drop in the pot of emotions she had. The weapon he held, it was one she’s only seen once but has learned almost everything about.

“Veara,” she said in a low voice, “he’s been chosen by the Keyblade…”

Zienna expected the fight to be quick, but not a-blink-of-an-eye quick. Poor thing didn't even have time to think. And all that pain and confusion was all too delicious. The succubus floated out of the way as the monster fell back, its life stripped away in under twenty seconds. It looked like a pincushion now. All those knives simply appeared out of nowhere. This Schwartz was something~ Deadly as she is adorable.

As the loud thud sounded, Nero was still on the beast, trying to get his blade dislodged from the eye. "This. Is. DISGUSTING!" he screamed, twisting his blade left and right to loosen up the sword. He was currently covered in eye matter and blood. The blood he could live with, he bathed in it plenty of times before. But the eye juices, eww, yuck. It didn't help that the eyeball he was standing on made squishy noises as he struggled.

Suddenly, the dead body glowed, alerting the cursed human. And then, the body just disappeared. Astonished, he didn't react well when gravity pulled him down. The sudden drop made him toss his sword in the air. A smaller thud than before sounded as he hit the ground on his back, knocking the wind out of him. Eyes to the sky, he saw a sparkling object that descended on him. His eyes widened when he realized what it was. His sword.

Shwing!

Was the sound when it landed, blade first, and only a few millimeters from his family jewels. He had made an impressive split to keep himself from getting impaled on his own sword, and the cringe on his face told just how close it was to hurting him so. He was shaking like a leaf.

Zienna landed beside him and removed the sword from the precarious spot, and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He got up, but soon cringed as he felt something getting pulled from his left shoulder. The succubus dangled one of Schwartz' daggers in front of him, and she smiled. "You need to be more careful where you land~" she'd say, teasingly before going over to the others.

The demoness rejoined them, catching the part about something called a keyblade choosing Veara.

"A keyblade, huh? What's that?"

"It's a powerful weapon, that's what it is. Something only a chosen few could ever wield." Nero said as he walked towards them, visibly in pain from the dagger getting lodged in him by accident. At least it wasn't the wing. He looked to the assassin and held the dagger over to her. "I think this belongs to you?"

"Wait, how do you know what a keyblade is?" Zienna asked her once-avian companion.

"I, uh... well, you learn things when you're a fly on the wall."

Zienna could sense he was hiding something from her, but knew that confronting him about it would be fruitless. She'd let that slide for now, but she was going to get answers one way or another. She turned back to the others, not letting her annoyance show. "So, is Veara okay, or does he need mouth-to-mouth?" He was getting to his knees, she saw that, but was it wrong to be concerned?

The moment Veara got to his knee's electricity began to build up greatly over his body and once again he was forced to lay down onto the ground, the blade still stabbed into the ground and Veara grasping it as tight as he could, while he electricity still crackled this way and that all over his body. His sharp eyes that were still pure white began to have lightening literally course in them as if you could see lightening constantly fluxing within his eyes. Every atom within his body was currently screaming at him, the last thing he heard was Schwartz tell him to get up in what seemed to be a harsh voice. Though the rest of the voices around him were starting to meld into one while Veara simply wanted to lie and ensure them he was fine, he couldn't even do that at the moment.

He kept his face looking towards the ground, until he felt someone shaking him. Looking up at the one who was shaking him, currently Veara realized just where exactly he currently was and more importantly who it was shaking him. To the best of his current ability the lightening that was crackling this way and that upon his body he quickly designated to be within his body rather then outside. This being due to the fact that he refused to shock or hurt the woman that currently had her hands on him.

Slowly he once again got to his knee's and began to stand up, pulling the blade key out of the ground. His entire body felt heavy because of the fact his entire body was currently electrocuting itself from within rather then outside. Veara stared down at Schwartz and finally the pure white orbs had gone away. Though his orbs now had lightening fluxing behind his green iris.

Veara simply smiled holding the blade key, though it was clear that he was holding a pain of sorts inside. "....You're right, nows not the time for resting we have a mission and I promised you I wouldn't drag you down. You did...so...amazing...against that cyclops making quick work of it." Veara looked towards the rest of them, taking his hoodie off and one more noticeable thing about him was that his hair was currently slightly longer in the back and now covered to the nape of his neck most of his changes were honestly supernatural, however he had a few aesthetic changes along with that. "You all did really great that creature had no idea what hit him you knocked it out so quick, it was awesome. Veara spoke only unfortunately this time when he spoke though his voice was kind and was meant to be proud, Veara wasn't able to hide his second voice and when he spoke he sounded like a force much greater then what he had shown himself to be so far. Putting a hand over his mouth Veara looked at all of them and then angrily glared at the blade within his hand. The blade that was currently synching with him was making it ten times harder to mask usual things that were extremely easy for him to mask.

Quickly the boy looked at his arm in a slight panic, however it quickly disappeared when he saw that his arms were still normal. Veara stared at the blade key within his hand and he simply sighed. "I'm sorry, I've wasted our time here. Whatever this blade key is..." Veara awaited for the blade to attack him however nothing happened. Unfortunately, he still didn't have control of his voice so everything he said currently sounded like himself along with a demonic force talking with him. Veara tried to take a step, however that one step broke the ground completely in and for a moment Veara had a flashback to the night when he met Zienna and how on a fritz his powers were that night.

Hovering two inches off the ground Veara simply began to hover away from the group. Staring at the blade within his Veara began to swing it, and it felt like second hand nature similar to how it felt when one day foudre appeared within his life. While swinging it and hovering away from the group the boy accidentally swung near a tree and the blade key made a clean slice running through thick tree and soon the sound of a large tree falling could be heard. Veara simply stared at the tree and then at the blade.

Looking back at the group Veara smiled at them and simply held the blade key in front of him and smiled at them. "Let's just head back to the next place shall we?" Veara spoke once again unable to hide his voice and he simply was frustrated turning away from the group and simply crossed his legs, hovering over the ground and holding the blade. Leaning it on his shoulder, waiting for the group to move before he did, obviously enough he wasn't the happiest right now. While currently trying to get his powers back under control.

Holding out the blade key In front of him once again a beam shout out of the blade and the beam hit the air before them, creating a space portal to the next place awaiting them was simply darkness and slowly darkness could be seen seeping out of the portal...this was the next place.

Veara held out his free hand and once again tried to summon foudre...just to end up summoning a second blade key that looked like an exact copy of the first one. An annoyed growl came from Veara, now having to deal with two of these stupid blade keys. Slowly Veara hovered into the space portal, it was pretty obvious that he was annoyed by the situation.

Great, once again looking like a freak.

Though Veara still was able to remember Zienna's words from that night which helped him greatly. He wasn't a monster...he just needed to work these new blade...key...well keys, that were with him. An the power they presented to him...or well the new supernatural powers that were now his own.

The annoying part would be getting any of the others to accept him after this.

Zyv breathed a quiet sigh of relief when Veara regained consciousness. She was worried that something bad had happened, like that they had failed and Veara lost his soul. But, it seems as though instead, Veara gained something. Aqua called it a "Keyblade" and said it was a legendary weapon. "Looks like V claimed the loot even though we took down the boss," Zyv joked.

Veara displayed odd traits, his voice changing into something more grand and demonic sounding, creating small craters with every step, and more. She bit her thumb, thinking. Zyv initially thought it was a power-up from this legendary key-thing, but Veara seemed more inconvenienced by it than surprised. It seemed as though it was throwing him out of whack with his own abilities and he was losing control. Zyv wondered how powerful Veara actually was and how much he hid it.

Veara created a portal, leading to what Zyv assumed was the End of the World. She went to follow Veara into it, but she paused and turned to Zienna.

"Zienna, I do not know if you are aware of this or not, but your bird turned into a human," Zyv said, pointing to the apparent new companion that wasn't really new. She then shrugged and went into the portal.

Scwhartz stared up at the the boy, who suddenly became a man in her eyes. His compliment on how well she performed, caused her to blush beneath the scarf, though it didn't keep her eyes from staring into his face. The young man's features weren't anything new to her. She had seen beasts and gods alike, all of which non-frightening to her. Veara, in that very moment, was quite attractive to the covered woman and she felt her thoughts become a bit jumbled with all of the emotions that swirled inside of her.

"Well, well... Aren't we looking a little bit more mature for our age?" She said softly, just between the two of them. Her voice was laced with a teasing tone behind it. Should he have heard her, before he hovered off to go create his portal, he would have been able to feel that same shivered feeling, that she gave him with her fingers from earlier. Her focus, though it were on Veara at the moment, wasn't ignorant to the others around the petite assassin. For the time being, until they can find an appropriate spot to rest, she simply decided to hold off on the talking.

Giving the blonde some room to breathe, she watched him open a portal to their next destination. From underneath her hair and scarf, she furrowed her brows. Things were liking going to get harder from here on out, but with how prepared the group was to begin with, she had faith in their abilities... Schwartz leaped through the portal, knowing that the rest would show up eventually.