Capture the Dark Principle! [TehDMCmaniac, Ene, Leapflight, Erza Loveheart, Riopony]

Sleeping sun, rising moon. A barren village, its square illuminated by a rather out-of-place bonfire. Distant, seemingly alien squeals wafting about, intermingled with the strong evening breeze. A "hollow" atmosphere stagnated within the confines of the wall-like constructions known as houses, or was it, perhaps, that they were the source of this unmistakable eeriness? One thing was for sure...
"This is going to be some adventure..."
Ofcourse, the word "adventure" was all but accurate. Chosen on a sarcastic whim, it was felt as if it pictured the current situation appropriately in its given context. But more so than anything, it was the sign of start, muttered in an exhasperated rush for a faster beginning, since having things start earlier means they get to end earlier as well. Still, oblivious to his words the dread-invoking outskirts of the ghost town forced all forms of enthusiasm to plummet and just like any soldier, Aegis didn't like having low morale.

"Hm, I wonder when the girls are going to get here." - spoke the knight as he stood perched upon the rotting trunk of a tree which seemed like it didn't have much luck, judging by the burn marks.
'It's like they've burned a witch on this thing' were the words which formed in responce to the first sighting of the decaying corpse of the flora common for the area, though the cyan man shook, or more like shuddered them off almost instantly. Dry humor didn't stand on good terms with such spooky places after all, so he chose not to think of such troubling things, especially since they might as well end up being true for all he knew.
"I wonder if they'll be able to cope with this place..."
As he sat on his makeshift vantage point, the expressionless guild master was staring up ahead at what stood at the end of a dusty "street" conveniently located before him. Apparantly it was one of the main paths of the village, so as such it led straight to its square where at that time sat several freelance mages. While their lively voices boomed around the desolate space all around, the gentle aroma of what was supposedly the village's finest beef slowly drifted towards the inamused knight. While it was true that he was a little hungry, the resurfacing memory of why he was there in the first place prevented him from joining the camping men in their feast. Well, there was also the fact that seeing beef in a town that smells of a graveyard was mildly suspicious, but that was a lesser worry.

'I'm so happy to have you here.'
Once more, the strangely troubling words began echoing in Aegis' mind.
'I'm guessing you got our distress call. Well there has been some strange events happening, even stranger than usual.'
'How reassuring.' he thought, a wry smile breaking his emotionless expression.
'We believe that the principle at the school has been dabbling in the dark arts and has been possessed. The children and faculty of the school have been acting strange as well staying over night in the school almost daily. Can you find out what is causing this and capture the principle?'
As if synchronised with his recurring thoughts, the twisted silhouettes of nearby trees began creaking as their dry branches were caressed by the contrastingly pleasant winds.
"Uh huh..."
'aint that reassuring' he wanted to say, but then realised it'd do well to stop chanting those words as if a prayer to some sort of deity. Infact, if one was to observe the situation from afar, it would certainly seem like a scene worthy of notice. A blue cleric, as though enveloped by the benevolence of the moon above facing off against the hazy shapes all around. Indeed, grotesque as they were, the dead, leafless trees resembled the shadows of demons and other foul creatures of the dark. Were the observer imaginative enough, it would be safe to assume it was like a scene from some foreign epic, the one just before the main protagonist's decisive battle. The paragon of righteousness opposed by the ever-molding figures of darkness.
"Indeed, just like a brave knight from some folk tale or myth."

Creak.
Crecreak.
Creak.
Creaaaaaaaak.
"Guh..."
Cre---Hashink!
In tact with the sound of a sword being sheathed, a single branch fell to the ground, its fading existence denied any function it might have still held. With a thud, its edgy surface bore itself halfway into the soft, ash-like soil in 4 pieces. But more so than the twisted wooden rod, it seemed like the knight's composure had started to creak itself.
"A daunting foe indeed..."
It seemed Aegis had enough of standing in in wait within the inhospitable landscape, a fact which was only proven further as he rose up from the fallen trunk. Using the long, arguably too long, one hundred and twenty-eight centimetre long sheath as a pillar of support, the cyan man stood up and dusted his calf-long trench coat.
Ofcourse, it wasn't really the sheath that was long, as its size is defined by the contents it's destined to carry, so one could say that what proved more troubling than the sheath's length was the proportion of the blade it held compared to its hilt. Or perhaps, the difference between the knight's height and that of the weapon.But no matter how one looked at it, one fact remained the same. It was a pretty long sword. In fact, what one should worry about is the difference between the lengthiness of a spear in comparison to that katana. Indeed, the worrying part was that there was no real difference. Regardless, the figure of the abnormally long blade seemed less frightening when sheathed, perhaps mostly due to it seeming less like a sword and more like some kind of foreign staff. Although admittedly its subtle, yet noticable curve does raise suspicion.

"*sigh* Just how long does it take for them to come here, I wonder."
Practically succumbing to the zealous noises and their rather successful attempts to induce restlessness, Aegis looked into the foggy distance where the winding road reached in its path of conquest through the surrounding forest.

Not a single soul breathed, not a single shadow bent against the corners, nothing but ice-cold mist seeping through the material of her clothes, sharp like the edges of a razor. Wing hugged her cloak tighter against her arms as it felt the biting of the chills. It was strange to think that the atmosphere gave an awkward shackle of nostalgia from the corners of her brain, what with an experience of a place with an eerily scarce sense of a lack of 'human' activity and the cold air, that made her cough and wheeze, obviously something similar to the mounds of dust over the corners of Sre's mansion.

However, that aside, the issue of getting lost in a fog-bitten place with absolutely no company at all was a terribly dreadful thought. Her breath came in clouds as she mumbled words of encouragement, full of confidence that she was fallowing the right instinct. Regardless how the faint blanket of white hid the distance past the current trees that was visible to her eyes, she could at least see the floor of dirt beneath her feet, enough to make out a path leading somewhere.

Wing only hoped it had been the right somewhere.

"I'm probably the last one their waiting for." She assumed, numbing her legs to rhythm of her steps as to not fully comprehend the emptiness behind her, a familiar wave of her senseless over-thinking clawing at her thoughts. Though somehow, a piece of candy being murdered beneath her teeth was enough to tie a rope around the wild dogs that threatened to send her running back. Who knew?

She held unto her curiosity for this mission, no less. It was perfect fuel to the soul of the weary, as it came with a sense of obliviousness to the things yet to come. At least it set some ground to the monsters that popped in her brain every two minutes.

Well anyway...

"Ah-! I think I see somebody."

At the far end of the current road she took, Wing could see three shadowy figures against the blur of the mist. The presence of human voices was like music to her ears, and for the love of Andromeda thank goodness she finally found them! The cold shivers that made a home on her spine and hands were starting to warm, shackle from the frost similarity and made a good space for bubbly waves of comfort.

"Sorryforthewait!" She told them, a little bit too fast and a beat out of her breathing. But she was smiling, wide and relieved. Wing planted a thought in her mind, 'enjoy this day' it said. She wanted to make sure the seedling would bloom to its fullest at the rays of a sunset, for a mission with three other people was something she wanted to experience ever since.

She waved a hand, "Wing Talnime, pleased to be in your presence."

Curiously enough, the moment Aegis looked towards the winding path, a friendly silhouette made an appearance. How he knew it was friendly? Well, the answer to that question was pretty simple. It was a feminine one and girls would only come to a place like this if they had some kind of business here, so recalling how all his partners were girls, the knight was pretty sure what was approaching him was the long awaited figure of a friend.

“Aegis! It’s me, Ebony” - she began saying.
"Hi...?"
"Uh..."
What an interesting greeting method. Her introduction was audacious enough to wake the dead, but her greeting was so timid it was like she's scared. 'Make up your mind?' were the words that first came to Aegis' mind, but they were brushed off with a smile.
"What's with the doubtful tone? Haha, I don't think there are many that stand out as much as I do, so no need to worry if it's me or not. If it's a figure dressed in blue from head to toe, it's most likely me!"
As cheerful as ever, the cyan-clad knight began walking towards his friend, Ebony with a typical and possibly completely unsuitable for the location carefree smile. But suddenly...
"Erza Loveheart reporting here!"
As if signalling the beginning of a coordinated assault, everyone started appearing out of nowhere. Erza jumped out of a nearby bush and following hers and Ebony's example...
"Sorryforthewait! Wing Talnime, pleased to be in your presence."
... was Wing, gracefully surpassing the first two in confusing Aegis by exhibiting magnificient tallent for merging both their tactics to reveal the ultimate intro in both unfittingness and unmatching tones.
And then, completely ignoring the commotion was Freya with her entrance of complete composure.
"Seems I'm the last one sorry I'm late." - her signal of appearance, eventually followed by an introduction.

Aegis was simply standing there with a difficult expression, surrounded by girls. It was... about the worst possible situation. Now, him being a healthy young man coupled with his personality made it difficult to keep composed around a girl. And he was standing among four. Not to mention that their completely simultanious but unmatching appearances were quite confusing for the already slightly confused Aegis.

There was silence.
Silence.
And some more silence.
"Ah, um." - he began pronouncing something as he stole a glance at the moon above, since that was the only way he could look without seeing one of his partners.
"*Ahem* Right, it seems we finally gathered. Greetings, girls. My name's Aegis, it's my pleasure to meet you all, be that for the first time or once more."
'Hey, I'm talking normally!' were the completely unmatching thoughts which floated around his head.
"I'm glad to see that you all made it here safely, I was quite worried for a moment that you might lose your way. But enough about that. I know it's lots of fun to be standing around near such a..."
Creak.
Creak.
Hashinshink.
Thud.
Behind the knight, two trees fell down on both of Ebony's sides.
...creaking forest, but let's get to the mission, shall we?
If one was to peer into the blue knight's face at that moment, they might fight quite the array of emotions. There was irritation, feigned composure, tons of embarasment due to his massive lack of experience when it comes to being around girls. Following that thought, it certainly was amazing that he could talk normally in his situation.

Not really waiting for an answer, he flashed a smile and began walking towards the supposedly haunted school, which by the way was on top of a hill in the middle of the forest. Fortunately, Aegis had remembered that fact, so the meeting point he arranged for them all was actually pretty close to it, so it only took a couple of minutes to get there, though apparently that was long enough for storm clouds to amass above the mostly female party of mages.

The winds picked up and crooked streaks of bright white light began flashing on the horizon.
"It seems like there'll be a storm. Judging by the time gap between the lightning and it's thunder, I'd say it's less than a kilometre away." - the words of the blue knight, almost muffled by yet another mighty thunder.
"Well, for better or worse, we at least have this as shelter."
Aegis pointed at the school gate while quickly closing the few metres' worth of distance left. While he did not pay much attention to it, just looking at the building from outside was enough to make people doubt their resolve to go in. It was like the stereotypical abandoned school with ghost stories about it.
Broken windows, cracked walls, eerie atmosphere and located in the middle of a dark forest. It was kind of a miracle that it was possible to make out it's details at that time, perhaps the silver moonlight and the flashes of lightning were to thank for that, though even so there wasn't much to distinguish. Perhaps the only real information one could get just by looking was that the dark school's halls were probably not very well isolated from the wind, considering all the broken or opened windows.

As the cyan-haired magus reached the gate, he tried pushing it open, though to no avail.
"Eh?"
Bewildered, he placed both his hands on the massive door and lowered his stance for better stability, then tried pushing it open.
"...Seriously?"
It did not even budge, not a single milimetre. Staring at the door in blank amazement, the knight felt as drops of water came in touch with his skin.
"This can't be right." - he said, looking at the seemingly impervious barrier before him. Sure enough, thanks to his Origin Perception he could "see" an invisible barrier which coated the entire door along with the wall it's part of. It was clearly of magical origin, pretty strong one too.
"Apparently this door's enchanted with a combination of wind and ice magic to make it indestructible and immovable via lesser means."
Drip drip drip.
In response to his words, the silent drizzle was slowly picking up, soon to become a full-fledged storm, thus making the knight sigh.
"I guess it can't be helped. I can probably break it, but that'd take a while and it might be a little too noisy, so we'll just have to go in through other means."
By "other means" he meant an opened window on the second floor, the "mere" 7 metres above ground. With another self-mocking sigh, Aegis walked to the ground right below the window and kneeled. It was a completely vertical wall with no real way to climb it, so there wasn't much of a choice for him.
"I uh, I'll help launch you up there if it's needed." - he said while entwining his fingers to create a foothold for those who'd take him up on his offer.
Knowing he might very well be the only one capable of getting up there just like that, it seemed to him the only option was to first throw up everyone else and then follow. That wasn't really a problem for him, he doesn't mind, but still he was feeling greatly troubled. While the challenge for the others might be keeping composed in the middle of the seemingly haunted school, his challenge would be to keep composed in the middle of a group composed entire out of girls. An achievement which could easily be considered eternally out of his reach.

It had occurred to her that the last consecutive steps she managed to concur through the wobbling of her senses happened quite some time ago, a fleeting moment after she smiled her way through the introductions, and now she could only consider how on earth was she so calm through all that. Of course, being so happy to begin with was a course of action that became familiar, comparable to bubbles on a fresh morning. Her enthusiasm today had been an effect of the sensations she imagined in her mind, where everyone was equally extravagant on their enjoyment of today. Regardless of the spaces Wing needed to fill in later for the others whom she had yet to get acquainted with directly, she had this imagery of what could, and most likely, happen on a job like this. She smiled silently.


Wing merely nodded, as the words needed have already been exchanged beforehand. Claiming the fabric of her satchel as her finger's play thing, she held unto her grin. It wasn't wise to act on the behalf of her childish thinking, Wing settled on lightly bowing her head to the sights of her comrades, obviously all highly-more experienced in subjects like these.

Yet, even after being acknowledged that she was indeed, a part of a group of extremely capable alliance, something started to rake in her mind. Wing didn't mind, no, not at all, it was okay to be vulnerable, but the thought that bothered her was the possibility of...untimely separation. Sure, Wing didn't get lost often but it scarred her to think of being left alone…much less a job obviously deeming her the under-qualified sore thumb if it wasn't for Aegis and Ebony tagging along. Matching steps with others was a breeze; it was the attitude towards the danger that seemed a bit too much. Ah, right...


...Now she remembers how -how pop went the bubbles. Judging then that the sky was a perfect object to cast her worries against another troublesome matter somehow dealt a significantly nice trimming to the shadows plaguing her composure. Wing muttered something, intently trying to make it barely audible -her voice pleaded for some sort of release, a fraction of a second to surface from the abyss of her throat.



Wing cracked a weary grin at them as she straightens herself a little, feeling insecure at the moment, for reasons...well, another thing to be insecure was her lack of reasons. The entire situation wasn't awkward, but the very setting felt like it was feeding at the edges of her soul. She may have threaded a fine line between fact and fiction when it came to the paranormal six weeks ago, but Wing started to feel the emotions of falling back on her proposals, and more or less she threw herself into a self-made fire for even coming up with such things -might as well start believing since she was starting to doubt that the coldness on her shoulders was an ordinary thing.

She brushed it off, anyways. What were they doing again?

Oh, right, of course. The logical started to untie the ropes that held the irrelevant and reality together. Yes of course, yes of course. Wing nodded, and reminded that a potential matter of destructive purposes on the village's mental and physical standing stood as their adversary, and 'it' was clever enough to put up the logical as the first base of defense.


It was expected, so she merely shrugged and kept silent. Time calls for weak people like her, and now it had no voice.


Wing focused on her Guild Master -perhaps Ebony had good ideas, and she wasn't anywhere close to worried when it came to Miss Ebony, she had great faith in her. Needless to say, gaining her trust was always an easy feat, though Wing wouldn't admit it directly. Course back to a war several months ago and you'll have your proof. It wasn't obvious, but a curve against a frown on her lips was the last reminiscent of those times. At the very least, there had been a few emotions buried under the scars it bore. She subtly tilted her sights to a brush of blue hair, and fleetingly sent a small smile. Well, anyways-

Wing meekly wheezed in glee, and watched the two synchronize over the obstacle. Up, up, and…smack. She blinked, twice, thrice, and laughed for a bit as Atlas accidentally, shall we call it that, hits a window with his master's face. She admires her Guild Master for being calm enough to laugh it off, throwing a hand over her eyes as the Talnime child squints over the thick fog. A stupid thing to do, probably, but it gave the least bit of normality on characteristic enthusiasm.

She heard Miss Ebony calling from the 8th floor. "Ok Atlas will come get you down unless you want to get up yourself?" She inquired, and Wing could make out her Guild master’s red hair flowing past her shoulders through the white sheets of cold, gaseous fluff.

...In between the deep crevices of her brain, a child with white hair and big indigo eyes cries for the first turn, a chapter close to the end of the supernatural presences (though considerably just a work of her weary heart and soul) pulling at the blades of her bones. It was a familiar feeling, again, for the who-knows-how-many-th time of the hour and it made Wing close her eyes for a bit, with a pretense of calming her rushing senses down. No need for the ounces of fear that trickled from every crackle of a branch or swish of winds, and she was determined to put herself to good use without the fear clawing at her abilities.

The mage pondered a bit, "Hmm." called for a thought  of courage and initiative but inevitably failed in doing so. Maybe a polite question was better in regard. "So, who's going fir-"

Then the girl beside her conveniently pointed out, "Uh, where is Freya?", which she wished she could give a proper answer to, yet the eerie thought was one that she didn't want to linger on, so a nice little 'I'm sorry, I don't know.' was uncalled for at that time. Wing settled on shifting her hold on her bag from left to right, sweaty regardless of the drastic lack of heat, and shook her head silently.


Well, yes, the effort in giving a graceful stare of approval was left hanging in the air after which, as she attempted to look back at the pinkette, however was caught agape in the bold emptiness of the space beside her. The girl had run off, and into the building, pursuing her younger male companion who had gone earlier before. Only providence knows why she was fated to be left pet-less at the moment, it was a sobering thought. But Wing knew better than dwelling on the meaningless, so she took the opportunity to fix her own choice of action.

But at some points there were instances where a protest was, in all certainty, unavailable. Wing was left speechless as she felt the sensations of air flowing through her shoes, and the sharp dabs of cold fog against her cheeks at the moment she was being lifted listlessly without falter by her Guild master's pet. And the sights underneath grew to a dim, blurry shadow of where she once stood. She reminded herself to thank Miss Ebony for her generous offer, though the act itself was considered a bit bold on her behalf, where Wing wasn't very acquainted with her Guild master.

Ah, but she'd say thank you, anyway. Her mind had pushed all the distasteful reasons of humiliation and humbleness into a deep, dark part of her mind, and she prompted to be grateful as needed. Wing looks back at the school windows, each a broken part of its history. Passing by the 5th floor, a black figure lightly skims through the broken glass, and it was gone almost as quick as it had appeared. Her resolve was enough to burn a fire against the ice that had started to form in her soul, and it made her slightly better repeating the phrase-


And thus was she thrown into the 8th window with impeccable force, a very 'graceful' ending to her tumble against the floor was a barrel roll that only stopped after her arms gave an unpleasant bang against the wooden boards that creaked open. It hurt, slightly, but nothing a little endurance couldn't bottle up. Blood trickled down from her wrist downward, however she gave nothing but an empty stare. Wing picked herself up, dusting her skirt.

She grins, "Alright, probably not the most elegant landing, but it'll have to do." And waves a hand back at her Guild master, hindering any impromptu worry "...Thanks for the lift, Miss Ebony, Atlas."

Cancelled