Expanding a teams horizons.

Spoiler:

The spooky forest was always, well, spooky. Barely any light made it's way through the thick and deadened tree branches of the forest, the moss grew over absolutely everything, the spirits that haunted these forests prowled about playing their pranks or warding off those who would dare enter. Even the guilds new pets sometimes wandered about the forest, guarding the guild from any that would dare come close.

Only few were able to travel through the forest and keep their sanity (if they had any) and those people were those marked to the guild of Savage Skull.

One of such guild members stood within what looked like it might once have been a river, leaning against the edge of the little cliff as she awaited for those she had summoned to arrive. She had sent word to Za'cha, her fellow member of the Celestial Dragon team to join her here at these co-ordinates. He usually listened to her when she sent out messages like that... however the other two, she was skeptical that they would actually show up. Hiro Villen and Lillith... two other members of Savage Skull that she fully intended to join herself and Za'cha on their mission, even though their interests differed from their own. They were all importnt playing pieces in her game... and unless she brought them together, the game would never reach completion.

Her new demon pet, Kuro, had gone off to fetch both Hiro and Lilith, instructing them through his telepathy to follow him back to his master.

However, as she waited for the others to arrive, she could hear the snarl and breaths of the creatures guarding her. They would need a much more private place to speak. She knew the beasts wouldn't attack the members (unless they betrayed Save Skull) but she didn't trust them in the slightest.

Lilith was sitting in the main 'social' area of the guild, if you could call it social area, it had a bar, so Lilith was satisfied. Sipping on a drink she heard someone speak to her but as she looked around she could only see a cat, a rather... weird looking cat. She ignored it and continued to sip on her drink as the voice echoed in her head again, confirming that it was the cat that spoke and that she was supposed to find Nakiya out in the forest.

Lilith groaned and put down her drink before standing up and walking towards the exit, she stopped and looked at the cat, asking which way to go and once she got the general direction she headed off in that direction.

The forest seemed a bit more alive, well, alive was a rather broad term. There were beasts she hadn't noticed on her first trip through the forest, but they seemed to either ignore her or they knew not to attack her because of her guild mark, either way she was kind of happy that they didn't maul her on sight. As she got to a dried out riverbed she could see Nakiya off in the distance along with more of the Guild's monsters.

Her tattoos glowed briefly as she tore up a temporary gateway into her dimension, coating her vision with a light blue hue as she began walking towards Nakiya, though in her private dimension. She stopped in front of her and tilted her head, wondering if she should just pop out and scare her, nah, she'd wait a while longer before reappearing in front of Nakiya.

Za'cha arrived from the air via his Darkwarp Raiment, dispersing the magical armour as he landed nearby to Nakiya. He rolled his shoulders a little as he found a suitable tree to lie down against, pulling out a small book from within his robes. The human began to read the book whilst he waited. "So Princess, what's with calling us out here? I'll admit though, I do much prefer you using Luna than the twins. She is far more polite. She even let me reach the end of the paragraph I was on before giving the message." he said, holding the book in question aloft for a moment for emphasis.

“Hey…Kuro was it? What does Nakiya want?” Hiro yelled at the small cait sith that was able to communicate telepathically with the two of them. Mephisto sat calmly on his head with the same, unwavering expression on his face. It made him difficult to read. Knowing Mephisto he probably already knew exactly what was going on but didn’t bother to tell him. He also had scratch marks over his face for some unknown reason. As long as he didn’t get annoying like last time Hiro didn’t care though. “She just told me to get you. I don’t know why,” Kuro replied.

Hiro was assuming this was about their planned retreat to hell together. They both had things to do there, and since their goals seemed to align with each other, Hiro and the large breasted red head were now comrades. Knowing this guild though, he shouldn’t get comfortable with any sense of companionship as everyone was essentially out for themselves or mentally unstable and untrustworthy to begin with. What was the point in trusting somebody if they were only going to stab you in the back.


Suddenly, Mephisto jumped off Hiro’s head and ran off into the trees and bramble. Hiro kept walking but watched mephisto scurry off in the corner of his eye. What the hell are you plotting this time? The black haired devil thought, knowing nothing good came of mephisto’s plots and ideas. When he wanted to do something it was for his own amusement, which was the only thing that mattered to the immortal. He was probably less trustworthy then anybody in savage skull yet nonetheless, Hiro seemed to trust mephisto more than most of the others in the long run. Mephisto may be one to destroy the world to sate a sense of boredom, but he wasn’t one to eradicate all life in existence. That would create an eternal boredom. Even if the thought of destroying the world while maintain life on it seems like a paradox.


“We’re here,” Kuro said as he led them to a dead and fallen tree in the spooky forest. Nakiya was there and so was some hooded white haired guy with a scar. Hiro thought he seemed familiar but there was nothing about him that stood out in particular. He was probably another Savage skull member and he just wasn’t worth mentioning in the grand scheme of things.

“Thanks,” Hiro replied to the demon cat as he looked towards Nakiya. “So then what do you want?” Hiro asked. “I was sleeping until this little guy scratched my face up and told me you wanted something.” Hiro pointed at Kuro with a bit of irritation in his eyes as he glared down the weak demon.

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"We're still missing the newbie..."
Nakiya stated with a sigh as she pushed off the ledge so that she was standing straight. Kuro ran right up to Nakiya and in one big leap, leaped up onto her shoulder where he landed gracefully, barely even disturbing the girls clothing before he lied down and began to lick his paws, his twin tails wagging contently.

"As for you Za'cha I apparently have to use a delicate spirit for a delicate man."
She stated with a light eye roll at the mage but couldn't help the slight smirk that played her lips, indicating she was joking around with him.

"Well, I guess if Lilith doesn't show up soon I'll have to start this without her. I want to make a four way alliance, between the four of us. No one person is leader over the others, therefore im not talking about making another pillar within the guild. Many of our goals cross similar paths and so I feel we should walk it together to each obtain what we want.

Za'cha, frankly I needed Pride's knowledge. I have a lead on a new dark key, and i'm wondering if he might know which one we've been tracking. There's a devil we're after that has a dark key in his possession. Has he heard anything about it?

Hiro, do you or Mephisto know anymore about how to get to this island?"

Lilith observed Nakiya as the others began to slowly appear, the person named Za'cha and someone else she didn't recognize at all, though he did seem a bit unique with his horns and all. She remained in her dimension for now as she listened to Nakiya speak to Za'cha and the horned man apparently named Hiro or Mephisto, another split-personality? Deciding that it was time to appear she moved around a bit and stood in the middle of the group and exited her dimension.

"Boo." She said and looked at Nakiya for a reaction. "In fact, I've been waiting on you two, Za'cha and... Hiro?" Lilith turned towards the two she had mentioned. "Lilith's the name, if you didn't already know." Turning back towards Nakiya she smiled slightly. "So, treasure hunting, eh? Not /really/ my style." she said and put emphasis on the Really.

Za'cha raised an eyebrow at the appearance of first the demon man, and then that Lilith girl from seemingly thin air. "Interesting..." he mused, stroking his chin before he checked his place in his book before looking at Nakiya. "First, har har." he said in reply to her tease about his "delicate" nature. "Second... I'll go get him." he said, closing his eyes, grimacing as Pride took the wheel.

His left eye glowed bright red as did his tattoo as the Dark Spirit took control. Pride looked towards Nakiya. "I require more details than that. The Black Keys have changed hands many times over the millennia, including those of demons and devils. Yes, there is a distinction before you ask." informed the Dark Spirit Pride.

Hiro just decided to listen and watch as things went down around him. First Nakiya makes her declaration that the four should work together to get what they wanted from each other. Hiro was fine with it if the other two proved competent. One of them was here while the other, oh well she just appeared out of nowhere just now. A perfectly normal way to surprise everybody and get yourself killed, especially in this guild as Hiro’s eyes slit for a second, getting ready to attack before she spoke. Hiro may be one of the more rational members of the guild but he still was prepared to rip your throat out if you startled him. He was half devil his instincts would kick in.


Fortunately though, Hiro didn’t cut loose and the hooded boy began to talk. Hiro immediately smelled something inhuman as his tattoo or scar glowed and his eye changed color.Was there a demon within him? Hiro questioned in his thoughts. It didn’t matter although it was probably true.


“One of the arch-devils, Baal-Berith,” Hiro intervened the two’s conversation. He wasn’t going to admit that the single most powerful monster aside from Satan himself was his father, nor that he was known as Belial amongst the demons from hell who knew of his existence as Baal-Berith’s son. Fortunately for him, aside from a select few, he wasn’t a face in demon territory that was recognizable since nobody was aware that Baal had a son and if they did, Hiro had never been to hell and nobody knew what he looked like. It was certain to jog the possessing demon’s memory though since nobody would dare take something from hell’s strongest political superpower. If they did they most certainly had a death wish.


Hiro was appreciative that he understood the distinction between devils and demons. It didn’t matter to him, but his instincts made him irritated if somebody called him a demon rather than a devil. Based on how things were conversing the possessed was called Za’cha and the possessor was called Pride.

“Anyway, I told you before, Mephisto won’t tell you anything and I have no clue where it is. I was teleported off the island I didn’t take a boat or anything,” Hiro re-explained to the lovely psychopath.  Hiro thought it ridiculous he had to repeat himself, he had processed everything she had said and he had a hand on her promiscuous chest for a good chunk of it. Heck, she had a promiscuous, seductive, provocative, hell, pick your adjective her entire body was just that. Sexy. Yet despite that distraction he heard everything she said so she should have at least gotten everything he said. He wasn’t stammering.

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Pride blinked at the devil boys declaration of their target. "The Truth Teller?" asked the Dark Celestial Spirit for clarification before he stroked his hosts chin as he went through his own extensive memories. "If so... hmm... then that would be..." he said before immediately grumbling and falling silent.

Za'cha hovered beside him, raising an eyebrow before smirking. "It's her isn't it? Go on... tell them." teased the human, earning him a scolding look from Pride that would normally make men quiver in fear, but only made his host chuckle. Their body shuddered briefly before Za'cha was back in control, the red glow fading away. "It's Lust. Baal-Berith has the Black Key of Lust in his possession." he said with a smirk, enjoying the Dark Celestial inside hims mood.

"From what I understand, Lust and Pride... well, think of Leo and Aries. Except with more fights. She's just behind him in power as well... so, I'd be ready if I were you Princess. This one, may just well give you a run for your money." informed the human mage.

Nakiya was quick to reach for the sword hilt at her side, bringing it up as Lillith appeared before her and channelling her magic into it. however, by the time she realized who had popped in front of her, the celestial blade stopped sort of running her through.

"Is that really smart? Idiot if you die it's your own damned fault..."
the dark Celestial Spirit wizard grumbled as she looked over to Za'cha... well, now Pride. She was about to give him details, at least as many as she had, before Hiro spoke up before her and gave the name of the Devil himself. She nodded in agreement to his words, but rolled her eyes at Pride's statement ofknowing the difference between Demons and Devils. How could she not know the difference? She had both as part of her flesh, and with Kuro and Hiro, it was easy to see the difference.

Speaking of the demon cat, Kuro was now standing on Nakiya's shoulders, hair raised as he growled warningly towards Lillith, his twin tails flicking even faster now that he was angry. Nakiya raised her hand and gave the cat a scratch on the head, continuing this until the beast calmed down and lay back down comfortably on her shoulders. She then turned back to Pride once he was finished talking about which key they would be facing.

"Lust... good. It's about time I find her... now I just need to get to this unknown island of Hiro's. Do you happen to know where it would be Pride? Or where we can find out?"
She asked the spirit, wondering if he would try to hinder her search for this key... for Lust. It seemed they had a more complicated relationship than she even imagined from their last 3 second conversation about the spirit.

"And I haven't forgotten about you Lillith... this isn't just a treasure hunt, it's a power play. Can you imagine the sheer power we can get from a devil? If that is what you are after. If you want infamy, what better way to get it than to slay Baal-Berith himself? Whatever you are after, you can only begin to imagine how this would benefit you."

Hiro raised his hand sarcastically before he spoke as he would have began to speak regardless. “You know we could always just go to hell ourselves. It would probably be better than trying to break my mother’s seal on him and letting him come to us,” Hiro explained. The seal was just keeping him down. Unfortunately, binding a devil to the ground was too difficult for any single mortal to just do, the seal just kept his father out of the living world and in hell and forced him to go through the seal if he ever wanted to leave. The spell was way to advanced for anyone to genuinely comprehend how it worked otherwise Baal would have destroyed it by now.


“Anyway I doubt we’re going to get very far amongst the five of us,” Hiro declared with a scratch of the back of his head, considering the hooded Za'cha as two people. He was really starting to wonder where Mephisto had run off to. He was plotting something and he didn’t like having to wait for the devious little thing to figure it out.


“Hohohohoho,” Hiro’s eyes flattened as he heard the mewing sneer of the thing that was Mephisto. Hiro looked up to see Mephisto starting down upon them with his unwavering face, sitting nicely perched on one of the tree branches that had poked themselves out and into the clearing. “This is your group young lady?” Mephisto questioned with his unchanging face set upon the four. “Let’s see here. We have a possessed human, a half-devil, a siren, and a celestial spirit mage,” Mephisto uttered. Hiro couldn’t begin to guess what he was thinking.

“Perhaps,” Mephisto said silently to himself, Hiro caught it though. His hearing didn’t miss those things. “I’d personally suggest finding one more addition to this little group of yours. Even then, get stronger. Piss ants have no reason to be opposing a true devil,” Mephisto emphasized the word true as he stood himself up on all fours and slipped away back into the forest, with nothing more to say to them, although Hiro heard him mutter one last thing to himself which made him glare with narrowed eyes. "It will be interesting to see if you survive. Oh well, even if you don't, your deaths will make for some good entertainment."


Hiro just stared back with aggression in his eyes. He had no argument and was aware he had to get stronger. The truth teller, the lord of destruction, Satan’s right hand. You didn’t acquire such names by being a run of the mill or even above average. You were called things like that because you strong. Unfathomably strong. A power that rivaled dragons or the dark lord Zeref there was little that could oppose the strongest arch-devil.

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Za'cha was about to check with Pride about the island when Hiro spoke. The mage blinked as he considered the suggestion. "Go to Hell ourselves... Hmm..." he mused, pondering the idea. "What's the area like? I mean, could we go there and actually survive just being there, or is it like the Celestial Realm where we'd need permissions or wind up dead if we don't have them?" he asked of Hiro and that Mephisto creature, wherever it had ran off to.

When the little beast appeared and started to speak to them, he had to resist the urge to coin the phrase, lest it seemed a touch clichéd. "Correction puppy devil cat thing. Nakiya is a Dark Celestial Mage. Sorta like the difference between demon and devil... well not quite but you get the idea." shrugged Za'cha, frowning as he found himself in agreement though with the creature. A thought occured to the Ex-Quip mage as he took a look into his book. "Where did I see it now..." muttered Za'cha as he skimmed through the pages. "No... no that wasn't it... hmm... nope... aha. There you are..." he almost purred at the particular passage he had been looking for.

He looked over towards Hiro. "Quick question, just to clarify something... do demons and devils have souls? No offence to you before you get pissed off, its just... there is something that may give us a little extra boost of a chance against The Truth Teller... assuming demons and devils have souls." suggested the Ex-Quip mage, turning the book around for all to see. "The Weapons of the Apocalypse. As in Riders of. Apparently, the god Yato is putting them up for auction... Assuming we can get into Hell and survive that realm in the first place..." Za'cha said, looking at the other three.

Lilith smirked as she got the kind of reactions she had expected from the people around her, though she had little to say so she decided to just listen to them speak while she moved to sit against one of the sides of the old river. Listening was something that Lilith considered herself good at, though at times she'd just not pay attention at all and think about something completely differently.

Not this time tho, she had been invited by the Nakiya chick to join her group and apparently they shared a common goal between them, which Lilith approved of. However as they began to speak about first some island, which had lead her to assume that they were going treasure hunting at first but then they started to mention some old demon apparently. When the horned guy said that they could go to hell themselves she raised a brow and looked at them.

"Ehm... let me get this straight... We, us four, are going down into hell to kill some demon?" She asked and stood up, looking at the three others. "If that's so, count me out, I ain't goin there." she said and shook her head, folding her arms on her chest. "I've been to places, pretty much all across the world and I've heard stuff, I ain't goin to hell."

If there was one thing Nakiya had learned since becoming a member of Savage Skull was that allies were a necessity... friends not so much, but allies could steer the direction of a battle. When Lilith spoke against the plan to go to hell, the Celestial mage looked over at the young girl, trying to quickly process what she could say to keep Lilith on board with this team idea, even if she didn't follow them into hell... she could easily replace her.

"Lilith. Listen, you don't have to follow us into hell if it goes against your desires, however as it stands this plan is just that, a plan. There are no doubt quite a few things that we are going to need to succeed, quite a bit more power that we don't have, and if anything I know at least that is something you are after."
The young girl offered as she looked back towards Za'cha, finally pulling a small leather bound notebook from her cleavage before passing it off to him.

"I don't think this is going to help us with the weapons of apocalypse but I know it's going to help us find what we need to do this."
She stated plainly, having wanted to give Za'cha this book to decipher long ago, but had instead attempted to learn to read so that she could read it on her own and not depend on someone else.

“It’s hell,” Hiro retorted Za’Cha’s foolish question about hell. “Everything is decided by power. Every issue is settled through violence. If you aren’t strong enough to kill your adversaries you need to be cunning and stealthy enough to avoid being killed by them.” Hiro could have gone off on the guy but decided to just move on to the next question about souls. At least his mother's lessons were useful, even if they seemed irrelevant at the time. Hiro really owed his mother an apology, an apology he'd never be able to give her now.


“Anything with life has a soul, be it demon, human, or angel,” Hiro explained. “Very few beings don’t have souls and almost all of them were beings that sold their soul for one reason or another. Almost always those beings are human, because they don’t understand the value of their soul. Devil’s offer their services for only one soul for a reason.”


Lilith didn’t seem to want any part of their little expedition, which was absolutely reasonable. Who would willingly go to hell without some strong reason? Hiro had his revenge on his father and Nakiya needed to get her keys, which was why it wasn’t a big deal to them. If anything Za’cha was the outcast here for even considering going there for seemingly no reason at all. The very name hell was used when somebody was pissing you off it was obviously an unpleasant place to be. He was discussing how to get there without any reason that Hiro knew of at least. Even Nakiya’s reason was a light considering where they were going. Just a key was enough to get Nakiya to go to the realm of the damned. Hiro really didn’t understand that woman and found her reasons rather trivial. He’d take it though, his odds of surviving hell improved with numbers at least a little.

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Za'cha sighed and shook his head. "I meant, is it firey pits of lava? Is it barren tundra wastes? Pillars and spires of bone, castles of flesh? Dancing flowers singing songs in a high pitched voice that will forever ingrain itself into your mind?" asked the Ex-Quip mage. "Over the millennia thousands of cultures have had their own depictions of what hell would be like. I'd rather know which version we'd be going into before we go into it." he clarified before nodding at the half-breeds words concerning souls.

"Right then... so Conquest would be a good grab then to find. Its blades don't strike the flesh, they pierce and shred souls, ignoring any and all protection. Course, any of them would be ideal, but Conquest would especially be useful against the Truth Teller and his minions." informed the Ex-Quip mage before taking a look through the tome that Nakiya gave him, Pride looking through it as well. "Oooh... ancient Numerian embedded with Mesoterican glyphs..." Za'cha cooed as he read through it.

"You're right... this has nothing to do with the Apocalypse Weapons..." said the human. "It's a roadmap to Hell." he said, pretty sure that that would grab their attention. "Seems the devils and demons liked to frequent the Numerians lands quite a bit, so they adopted certain scripts into their own, and the Numerians learned the demons and devils secrets. Can almost guess that this is where Demon and Devil Slayer magics came from... interesting..." he mused before coughing to get himself back on focus.

"There are three rules to get to Hell. 1st rule: It's only possible to access hell through a designated 'gateway'. A gateway is a loose interpretation for a portal to hell which can be like a literal gate or door or perhaps a cave or pit or even a jar." read out Za'cha, tracing his finger down the pages.

"2nd rule: Devils can come and go through the gateway as they please just by applying enough magical power. Demons require special artifacts or a devils magic to open the gateway." he said, moving his head a little to indicate that that portion made sense to him.

"3rd rule: The only way regular humans with no demon or devil blood can pass into hell is through death. The only known circumstance of normal humans going through a gateway is when the human is possessed in some way." he read out, looking at the group. "Right... well, me and Hiro are sorted then. Him being half-devil, and me being possessed by the Dark Celestial Spirit of Sin Pride." said Za'cha, using the bastards full title for some reason. He looked over at Nakiya and Lilith. "Unless you two got some demon or devils blood in you, or plan on getting possessed... seems it'll just be a guys night out."

"The hell was a Rune Knight doing with that..."
The red head grumbled as she listened to Za'cha go on about the book bein literal instructions on how to get to hell. Well, at least that part had been easy... now they ust had to figure out which items could harness enough power to open this gate to hell... and where would they even find it? Did they create their own by channeling all of this gathered energy into a portal?

She began to ponder everything that Za'cha was telling them, about the gateway, and about the rules listed in the book, making her grow curious about the man or woman hat had written it in the first place... Where were they now? How did they lose something this important? Well, either way... they gained from the situation. What Za'cha said bothered her though, concerning how she was going to get to hell. She raised an eyebrow as she looked over to the posessed man.

"Have you already forgotten what I am, idiot?"
She asked of him, looking next to him where she could sense Pride's spirit, as f blaming him for not knowing as well.

"I think I've got more than enough ways to get into hell. My entire being was created for the purpose of controlling and leading the 7 keys of sin by combining the body of a demon, the heart of a devil and the blood of a fallen angel. I'd say all of those three things should be more than a VIP pass."

"Nakiya, I"ll be going with you as well. I couldn't let you get hurt there any more than here. It'll be tiring... but I"ll do it"
Kuro stated with a yawn, stretching his paws out before nuzzlin into the red heads neck.

Well this was easy, Hiro thought. They had information on how to get to hell, these two knew what they wanted, and for their own reasons they were going to help. Mephisto was right though; they had nothing to offer in the grand scheme of things and would be vaporized upon entering hell. Their lack of man power was also an issue that would need addressing. Mephisto said they needed one more and he wasn’t one to try and get people killed unless that was all they could do to appease his boredom and getting allies was sound logic so Hiro figured he’d keep an eye out for anyone else who might be of use as he turned around and walked away from the conversation.

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Za'cha nodded to Hiro as he left before blinking at Nakiya's outburst. "Umm... I didn't forget." he said slowly as he processed the information. "I didn't forget, because I didn't know. You never told us that before, and when we found the lab that had created you, the place was trashed. And I mean completely trashed." said the Ex-Quip mage before glancing at Pride. "Did you know?" he asked. The Dark Spirit frowned at him. "How am I supposed to know something about this? I've been stuck with you moron. Need I reiterate that a creature like her has never existed before?" The human growled slightly at the Spirits' description of the girl.