The Art of War |Mark's Secondary Magic Training|

It was always odd to Tasuruha, taking over Mark's body. Mark was one of the few incarnations of his Child who willingly let the demon take over with few complaints. It felt... Odd to have that much trust put in him, especially since Mark was fully aware of the generational struggle between himself, the Child, and his own siblings. Perhaps Mark was just trustworthy, or perhaps he believed Tasuruha contained much more power than he actually did; unfortunately, the demon's own power was limited by the power of his vessel, and Mark was not the most potent of vessels, at least not yet. Equally odd was the transformation that Tasuruha went through when he took control. Unlike in previous vessels, or even some of his earlier transformations with Mark, Tasuruha had no real differences from the boy's normal appearance. Instead, his right eye turned red, as opposed to the one red/one green color of eyes that his vessel possessed when they were sharing the body, and the emerald green eyes he possessed when Mark was in full control. It was also weird to have a 5'5" stature, he was used the the broader, taller build of some of his other children. He dusted off Mark's brown vest and adjusted the cuffs of his white dress shirt as he kept walking, his scarlet tie lightly fluttering with the breeze.

Tasuruha was attempting to make Mark a more potent mage, at the moment, in order to better protect them from his siblings. He and his vessel found themselves at the Ancient Ruins, fabled to be the home of many spectacular treasures, most of them lies, all of them perilous to attain. Today, they were seeking a set of fabled jewels. The long-lost crown jewels of the king of Fiore. A ruby, a sapphire, an emerald, a jet, and the most powerful of all, the centerpiece of the crown, a diamond. Each Jewel was said to have mystical powers, making the wielder powerful beyond belief. Supposedly, deep within the ruins, one could find the crown and all of its Jewels, scattered. Tasuruha was attempting to find the diamond, fabled to release the limits of one's magical capacity, though he was having little luck. He had been here for at least 4 hours, judging by the position of the sun, and yet, this corner looked exactly like all the others. This was a crazy labyrinth, and the Devil had absolutely no idea where he was going.

Just when he decided that he was hopelessly lost, he noticed something he had not seen before. He was skeptical that his new finding had even been there at first glance. Was it a... trap door? That seemed to be the best way to describe it, but it was not quite right. If anything, it was a stone slab that seemed to be hiding what Tasuruha assumed were catacombs. Having had no luck at all above ground, he decided that to enter the catacombs was likely his best shot. With that thought, he paced to the corner of the labyrinth, where he had spotted the slab. Lodging Mark's slender fingers between the stone and where it's resting place, he pulled up the stone with relative ease. Mark was quite a bit stronger than he seemed to be for his size. Tasuruha got up, dusting himself off. He sighed, hoping this was not as bad of an idea as it now seemed, and began to climb into the catacombs, finding a hold for his feet in the stone, there was a repeatable pattern of protruding stones, like a ladder.

Word Count: 601

Tasuruha slipped into the opening, still flustered as to why he not seen it in his original examination of the Ancient Ruins. "Damnit." He said with a cough, "It's so damn dusty down here, and I can hardly see a damn thing..." The ray of light coming from the entrance was enough to illuminate a small section of the catacombs, but not enough light for Tasuruha to actually tell what was going on in the catacombs. "There's gotta be something to do to make it easier to... Agh!" He yelled, tripping on something. Tasuruha fumbled, attempting to grab whatever it was that he had tripped on. It was small and round, small enough that Tasuruha was embarrassed that he had tripped on it, but round enough that he felt as though it was justified. He fumbled his way back to the crack of light, where the entrance was. Tasuruha sighed, "Let's see here... What are you, my little round paraphernalia..." He rolled the object around in his palms as he examined it in what light he had. Tasuruha hummed as he attempted to read the inscriptions on the object... "Oh, how nice. And, oddly convinient." He quickly and crudely spoke an incantation, not entirely sure how to speak the language in which it was inscribed.

With those words, the runes on the small marble-like stone lit up, emitting a slight magical glow that was just enough for Tasuruha to see. Not well, but it was certainly better than what he had had just moment earlier. "Oh, how chipper!" Tasuruha chirped, happy that his incantation had worked. "Now, let's get going, shall we?" He said to himself, trying to distract himself from the silence. He whistled as he walked onwards. Thankfully, there was only one path at this point, so it made travelling through the catacombs much easier than it would have otherwise been.

Word Count: 915

As Tasuruha whistled along the catacombs, walking along that twisted path that he had been presented with by whoever had built these catacombs... That is, if someone had actually built these catacombs. He sighed, the long and winding path was getting tiring. Also, it was annoyingly dusty, and Tasuruha was coughing every 15 seconds, which was a pain. Thankfully, it did not take very long for the path to split off into two paths. Left or right? Left. Then three paths. Left, right, or middle? Middle. It was an exhaustive process, hours seemed to pass, though it was impossible to know without any frame of reference. Eventually, Mark's consciousness began to stir from the depths of its sleep, and Tasuruha allowed him to awaken, the demon needed someone to talk to while he aimlessly navigated these catacombs.

Hey, where are we? Mark asked as he consciousness finished awakening. He was clueless; being unconscious for hours while your body does things tends to do that to a person.

If I am being completely honest, I have no idea. I was in search of something to assist us in our endeavors, and I found myself lead here, though I am not quite sure what 'here' entails, or where here is. Tasuruha answered honestly, wanting to establish a relationship of trust between him and Mark. Mark sighed in their shared mind, frustrated that he was no less confused and disoriented than he had been a few seconds ago. Tasuruha shrugged in response, which was strange to Mark. Feeling himself shrug in response to his own dismay was a... Strange feeling, to say the least.

Word Count: 1186