[Team 1] Plagued and Broken (Akeya, 7, Inkormine, Arcadia)

Tsak Ordahic, they had come to call it, "The Plague Area", a rather befitting title for this secluded expanse of land in the North-West of the island nation and continent of Tolgalen, territory belonging to the West Fiore Trading Company. A sight to behold, surely, it was vast, the immense plain of endless, rocky terrain, sparsely covered by grass stretching out before the small group of mages. It was ... rather stomach-turning. As far as the eye can see, dull grey and browns covered the landscape, all plant life even remotely hanging on either rotting or already dying, the foul, sour stench of decay and death hanging in the air all around. In short, it was thoroughly disgusting, Johann's senses already telling him that there would be nothing good coming from this place. On top of that, there was this mystical aura that coursed through the earth where they were standing, the massive, magical barrier before them glowing faintly with a deeply red light, the slowly ever-rotating magic circles that formed it plastered with warnings in all manners of languages. A few Johann knew, a few he had heard of, and some the Vice President of the West Fiore Trading Company had never seen before, but one thing was more than evident: This place was dangerous, and whoever had put these warnings and this magic up possibly centuries ago wanted to make sure nobody would ever dare set foot into this place again.

Even Johann, his eyes swerving over this barrier that stretched to the left and right as far as anyone could see, was unsure what exactly he was getting himself into. The God of Ishgar was dressed more ... functional than he would be normally, the white suit that served as his West Fiore Trading Company uniform disregarded for a more durable and plain white top, a grey coat and a pair of similarly achromatic pants, the material more flexible than the silk used for his uniforms. Of course, for this task ahead, he carried all of his enchanted equipment with him, not including the extra food and water necessary for this scouting mission. In honesty, however, the God of Ishgar, despite being named the "God of Strength", wasn't so sure of his strength. The information they had about this place was dangerous at best, the two pathogens that the West Fiore Trading Company's most capable specialists had been able to isolate were one thing, but ... the effort that had gone into shutting this place off from the rest of the island made the normally somewhat carefree Johann suspicious. What if there were dangers lying on the other side of this that couldn't be dealt with by physical or magical means? Johann's other half certainly had his share to add to that.

"Are you doubting my strength, old man?", the deep voice of Mars promptly echoed through his head, the sarcastic side of the Second Seal not exactly exciting the silver-haired male too much at current. "No, but you doubt ours, Lord of War", putting a particular emphasis on the last part. "You should know better than to underestimate mankind and the horrors it creates", the VP almost able to feel the mental shrug the being gave back in response. It didn't matter. Whether they would all sentence themselves to certain death today, they had to at least try to gather more information about this area and the plagues, no matter the cost, lest the virus would break out and spread. If a pandemic would erupt on Tolgalen, the West Fiore Trading Company, along with undoubtedly countless millions of lives would be lost. It was, quite literally, a national emergency.

Johann turned towards the group, clearing his throat before opening his mouth. The mages that had been assigned to his team were all part of the Alliance of Independent Guilds consisting of the West Fiore Trading Company, Fairy Tail and Silver Wolf, capable, without doubt. He would see if they would be able to be successful in this endeavor, sincerely hoping that they were, the fate of Tolgalen could very well depend on it, after all. "So, here we are", he declared rather unceremoniously, letting his eyes wander over all those present. "I assume you all know why you are here, but just in case, let's refresh some memories. The pathogens found in the intruders to the Winter Ball held a while ago have raised some very disturbing questions, the trail of these diseases leading us, the West Fiore Trading Comapny, right here". The man took a deep breath, giving a quick glance to the barrier before turning his attention back to the group once more. "We assume that these deadly pathogens originate from this area ... which is why the West Fiore Trading Company and the Alliance have put together teams to unveil as much information as possible about the diseases that threaten to infect the populace of Tolgalen. Our mission ..." he continued, nearing the end of his explanation "... will be to act as a group of scouts. We will go in, we will gather information about everything we can. Terrain, topography, flora, fauna, structures, everything that could be useful. As soon as we have what we need, a general understanding of this place, we'll head back and give that information to the other teams. On that note ...", the Vice President couldn't help but feel a little nervous, "... I want us to stick together and stay together. If anyone gets lost out there they will be in deep, deep trouble. This has to go as quick and clean as possible. Are there any questions ?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Word Count: 943

Before the mission began Akeya was facing the important question of whether she'd use her alter ego for this or not. She preferred to not let anyone know that the dragoness was part of the Western Fiore Trading Company, but on the other hand they were dealing with an emergency where she could not afford to slow down the mission because she was wearing a different body than the one she was born with. Then again the only people they'd encounter today were people who were part of the alliance and who should be relatively trustworthy in not revealing her secrets to any government officials...

Moving a finger across the scales on her other arm Akeya let out a small sigh. Utmost secrecy was the best way to ensure survival and success, but it could be tiring at times. Well, best to play it safe. A secret could be revealed, but it could not be unrevealed.

---

Panacea looked at the zone before them which screamed danger through every medium of communication. Smell, sound, sight, magic... The only senses which hadn't confirmed it yet were taste and touch, and she'd refrain from both of those until she absolutely had to. The fact that she might actually have to left a bitter taste in her mouth as she made sure to keep a safe distance from the edge of the danger zone from now. Instead of her everyday uniform she had something which was a little more suited for moving around inside a danger zone. While it was still a sort-of dress tied at the side it was more form-fitting than usual and with more strings tying the lower portion to the hip-portion of her tail so it wouldn't snatch onto anything, and with long gloves and sleeves to minimize contact with anything contagious. She was somewhat nervous about her tail being exposed, but if there was something which could infect her through her scales clothing wouldn't help much either.

While as a lamia she might be a bit biased she had to say that this sealed area compared very unfavourably even with a barren desert. The sand dunes might look devoid of life but that was still better than this state of death and decay. Her attempts at reading the magic seals that walled off the cursed land from the rest of the world had resulted in a minor headache. It wasn't that the magic seals had a spell on them that inflicted such a condition on unwanted outsiders, but seeing so many different languages, alphabets and symbols together made her head spin a little before she shook it to clear the images out of her mind.

"Whoever made this definitely didn't want anyone to enter..." She remarked to herself, wondering if maybe the people of old had a point. There was no denying that the plague was spreading beyond the seal, which meant something had to be done, but on the other hand maybe the better option would be to try and abandon the continent all together? Hearing her own thoughts she had to shake her head. No matter how appealing it may sound, there was no guarantee that they would be safe off of the continent. The epidemic could very easily spread beyond this continent and consume the entire world if left unchecked, a threat formed by ancient magic. No, as unpleasant as it might be they'd have to deal with it the hard way, and she'd have to be part of it no matter how much she wanted to be somewhere else. She didn't think of herself as a coward, but she also didn't think you didn't need to be a coward to not want to walk into what looked like a blatant death trap.

She was pulled away from her thoughts when their leader spoke up. Curling her tail up underneath her Panacea listened carefully as he put the entire situation into a synopsis and explained what their duty would be. Scouting wasn't the safest of options, but at least it suited Panacea's abilities. Although that did lead her to ask two questions once Johann offered the opportunity.

"I have two questions if I may. The first one is, do we have any idea what kind of threats we might be facing on this expedition? The second question, will we be favouring speed or stealth while scouting?" The white lamia was plenty capable of speed should the need arise, but she preferred to rely on stealth when given a say in the matter. Glancing at the sealed area she frowned, thinking about what might possible dwell in such a corrupted place. Most things would be dead or dying, but one should never underestimate the tenacity of living creatures. If they were unlucky they'd find that Tsak Ordahic was infested with creatures which had become part of the plague, attacking any interlopers and spreading the disease in a much more direct and lethal way than waiting for the air or water to rot their body and mind away.

---

While Akeya was no stranger to teamwork on missions it wasn't often that she'd be on an official expedition like this one. Her external alter ego gave the impression of a worried but determined mage while the dragoness's inner self evaluated the situation with a lot more cynicism. She was glad that Johann was taking the situation seriously: if he'd been his usual carefree self she'd be worried that he wouldn't make the right decisions. As for herself, she figured that with her draconic fortitude and elemental affinities she'd be able to keep herself safer than most. And she'd have an easier time escaping should things go south as well, although she'd at the very least have to make a determined attempt to save her allies should they run into the worst possible future.

The only real upside here was that she'd have the opportunity to find out what the allies of the West Fiore Trading Company were capable of. If they pulled their weight in finding a cure while minimizing casualties it'd mean that Akeya's guild would be safer as a whole, which served the dragon just fine.

WC: 1,029
TWC: 1,029/12,500

7 stood with the others, though she might as well been a statue. She'd done little more than blink and breathe since arriving. Her mentor was the leader of this team, and though she was new to the the West Fiore Trading Company, she would follow his decision without question. Her eyes shifted between Johann and the land beyond him, and though she might not be physically moving, her mind was plenty active enough.

She'd never seen languages she didn't know before. It was a curiosity. Her studies had taught her all the languages spoken, but that must have only included active languages she might have to use in her work in this day and age. That meant these were much older than any of the spoken tongues she learned. It was fascinating. The clone woman made a mental note to do some auxiliary studying of ancient languages, since she could encounter seals like this in the future not possessing modern languages to convey messages as well.

The land beyond was apocalyptic. No trepidation crossed her features, despite the blatant implications of what could happen once they stepped into the area. At first glance it was as if she felt nothing at all, but that wasn't the case. 7 had plenty of feelings, she just didn't know how to identify and categorize the more complicated ones. Since she didn't understand them, she didn't show them. However, the small, confusing twinge in her gut was the fear of premature death. It might not be obvious, but the lab created creature suffered crushing amounts of anxiety, mostly centered around her ability to fulfill her purpose for existing. She was a servant. If she wasn't useful, her primary directive would never be met and there would be consequences, like decommissioning. To die unfulfilled was a horror so intense she could hardly grasp it. In the face of such sentiments, the duality of both not being afraid to walk into a plagued land because she was needed to do so, and also being a little scared that something in those lands would kill her before she had proven her value as a tool....it was complicated. All emotions were complicated! Everything she knew about life came from books, yet none of those could teach her the full and messy depth of proper human emotion.

7 wasn't unfriendly, though perhaps it seemed that way at first. As the others arrived, she hardly noticed them. On the flip side she was probably notable right off the bat, since the pink haired girl was standing among the gray zombie dirt in a brilliantly carmine body suit. In her signature odd style, it was open from the below the neck band to the hip area then opened again at the thigh, but rest assured the necessary bits were covered. The fabric turned black for the legs and feet, offering only red accents to tie it to the rest. Her fingers were naked, but otherwise complimentary arm sleeves hid the flesh up to her shoulders. In anticipation of a fight while also soothing her need for style, there were ribbons coming off the suit at the arms and hips, sprouting from large fabric flowers and floating about her as if they were nearly weightless. They were also red, but faded to a sunset orange at the tips. An eccentric getup to be sure, but possibly a visual representation of every bit of individuality 7 possessed. Over-the-top-fashion and loads of yummy food. Other than those things, she was what anyone needed her to be.

Her mentor began speaking, eliciting the very first motion from her. Her weight shifted from one leg to the other subtly, eyes training on Johann with the utmost attention. This was the time to receive her orders, which she would follow to the letter to the best of her ability. Every mission and every job was an opportunity to prove herself a capable and irreplaceable tool or weapon. As her crimson eyes watched their team leader, she hoped perhaps she'd finally found someone she could help.

7, or Sivvy as Johann called her, had no questions. The information had been clear. She trusted he'd provided all that was needed. Still, someone nearby spoke up. Her head turned and she peered at the group around her for the first time. Noting the dress and scales of the voice came from, she deduced she was a lamia. She'd never seen one before. The clone's mind only touched on it for a second before she considered the questions. If they'd known the threats other than the plagues themselves, Johann would have told them already. They were here to deduce that information. As for speed or stealth, that seemed an odd question. Their mission was to scout and gather intel on the area, including any plants or animals that remained. That would take however long it took to do it thoroughly, and without knowing what creatures may or may not lurk within, the need for stealth couldn't be determined. However, 7 didn't voice any of this. It was not her place to speak. Doing so in an attempt to be helpful could confuse things at this point, which would be the opposite of what she was aiming for.


[877/7,000]

Inkormine had found himself outside the area hosting an ancient magical seal around an even older plague, supposedly formed by magic as well as simple biology, which, rather bothersomely, would mean he was likely just as vulnerable to it as any of the others undertaking these joint missions. But with any luck, they would be able to avoid infections while in their, especially if their mission could be completed quickly. But, seeing as they were a forward scout unit for the rest of the team coming into this area, that was unlikely, even with their leaders words. Instead, the warmth floating inside him would have to handle it, the suns piercing energy and the moons purifying light working together to burn out any disease that entered him, hopefully keeping an infection from taking root, since if any of them got infected, they'd need to be quarantined just like this area, or else they'd be just another transmission vector.

Inkormine had brought a new outfit for this trip out, a set of rather constraining layered silken boot-like coverings for his legs, and a shapeless covering over his abdomen, bound to the thick dark green coat-robe over his torso, sleeves under the long red gloves he had over his hands and lower arms, these ones thin enough to easily feel through while still providing some modicum of protection. A somewhat improvised outfit, and rather bothersome to wear, but besides being slowed down some by the leg coverings, it didn't impede Inky's movements enough to interfere with his magic, which also meant they would be just fine for this deep forest hiking.

"No questions here, besides what miss Panacea here already asked." Inkormine said, having gotten the names of his partners on this mission before coming. As he was still in a sort of flux state of his magic, he was just going to have to hope things wouldn't get too intense in there, although knowing recent times, that was probobly a vain hope. But, he'd manage with what he had. The others were presumably capable mages in their own right, even if he wasn't familiar with any of them, they wouldn't send anyone incapable to something like this, it'd be tantamount to murdering someone of that sort. He took another moment to check over himself, soft glows of yellow and silver rippling across various threads throughout his clothing as he went over his and his sisters threads one more time.

WC: 408

OOC: Small post, unfortunatly. Hopefully I'll kick it up quick.

Arcadia Mavis Elaine Fairchilde, yes she does have two middle names that she'll never tell anyone about lest they use actually use them, appeared to be paying more attention to her iLac than her surroundings. Truth was, the young blonde slayer was very much aware of the scents of her team members, the scent of death and decay, though all around, promised multitudes greater putrid strength passed the other side of the great magical barrier with its faint red glow. She was also listening, even with an earbud in her left ear. Arcadia kept her right her free to listen for Johann's instructions, and listen for any strange sounds.  In her left ear, a little tune she pulled off the lacrima-net played to help focus her mind on the mission ahead.

Arcadia's iLac song:

She was glad to have caught up on the latest Fairy Tail guild business and paperwork. Tsak Ordahic left a lot to be desired when it came to iLac reception. She figured the interference had something to do with the powerful magical barrier protecting the island. Arcadia figured of she had to try and send any l-mails (lacrima mail) now, they likely would not get through.  She was sticking to what she had loaded onto her iLac for now, and now  that meant she was was playing a little Jewel Crush.

The pale blonde slayer wore her usual dress, and was grateful that the side effects of her recently overactive Dragon Seed had finally worn off. No longer did she need her Valhallan artifact, the Silver Star of Odin, to appear normal. She was her old teenage self again with or without it.  Today she wore it around her ankle like usual, as it's primary power was never an unwelcome benefit. In her pocket her dimensional scissors were  ready for any emergency evacuation, and worn in her hair behind her left ear was a softly glowing crystal moon rose.

Glancing up from her iLac, Arcadia turned her faerie green gaze to the magical barrier's eerie glow. She quietly paused her game, and brought up the camera app. The young pale blonde slayer holding her iLac up to picture  the barrier and catch a little video of it. Also opening up word processing app, she started a a few observational notes to use in any report her team would be giving.

Technically, she had still been in training to join the ranks of Dragnof's elite warriors when the events of her life tragically put her into magical hibernation of untold centuries or millennia. It was only now that Arcadia felt her training had been complete, and this mission was her first mission as full warrior of Dragnof. Her kingdom may be gone, but she'd make sure Earthland still knew what its warriors were made of.

She glanced up and down the beach, pulling her earbud from her ear once the song had finished playing. She stopped her iLac from playing the next song, and tucked it away in her pocket for now. The young slayer glanced up and down the length of the beach, not entirely sure what she would need to be keeping an eye out for. If the smell was anything to go by, it might be difficult picking out what items of death and decay would be most helpful to pick out among all the death and decay. In other words she hoped the key to ending this plague did not simply blend into the background, easily dismissed as inconsequential amid an overwhelming amount information available to be collected while scouting.

Arcadia focused her faerie green attention on Johann as he began explaining the details of their mission to assure everyone was on the same page. Mahdude certainly could be one serious dude when he needed to, or so the young barefoot slayer thought. Thinking of this more as her first real mission as a fully trained warrior, and less a social or spectator event, Arcadia notably did not use that nickname out loud.  She took out her iLac to get a few more pictures for documentation.

When time for questions came up, she lowered her iLac, ”Aye, Sir. Uhh, if any one of us happens to come down with something here, will we have to stay behind, since we wouldn't wanna risk spreading the plague?”

WC: 719

The Vice President of the West Fiore Trading Company sighed, looking over the small group of mages before him. Certainly, all of them seemed capable to a good standard, and all of them appeared like they had prepared themselves for this mission of arguably unparalleled gravity. His gaze stopped on Sivvy for a second. Would the girl be able to hold her own? It was worrying. If he couldn't be sure of his own safety, how could he assure that of his mentee? He'd rather not drag anyone into this mess, but ... he could hardly enter this area alone and without any support. On top of that, there was the fact that the girl kept insisting on offering her assistance for a reason unbeknown to the silver-haired VP of the Trading Company. His eyes, however, shifted to Akeya, who was, as usual, in the guise of her Trading Company persona, the Lamia named Panacea. The question she asked was justified, of course, he could imagine why she, and shortly after Inkormine as well, an unusual, half-spider mage of Silver Wolf as Johann had learned, would inquire about this specifically. He would answer as truthfully as he could. "In honesty, we have no clue. There have been reports of moving heat signatures and living beings in this area, but we cannot be sure what actually exists or even thrives in this horrible place. Another reason why we will be scouting the place. Until we learn otherwise, though, it's safe to assume everything in there, besides your teammates, will be hostile. As for your second question ...", Johann took a few seconds to think this through, shaking his head before opening his mouth once more "..., I refer to my previous answer. The focus of this mission is neither speed nor stealth, but information. We have to gather as much intel about everything of importance in this area. How you obtain the info is up to you, the only thing I ask that all of you follow my instructions. I would rather not suffer casualties on this mission."

The VP hoped that that would at least serve as an adequate answer for the time being. They couldn't know what creatures, what horrors would lurk in this area plagued by an infestation of monumental proportions until they had personally laid eyes on them. That was one of the main objectives of their mission after all. It seemed though that still, not all question had been answered yet, Arcadia, the Fairy Tail mage Johann had met back on a ... rather embarrassing night around Halloween going ahead and asking her own question. That concern was justified as well, of course, but the answer to that was clearly, Jo speaking up firmly, addressing the group. "We don't know what awaits us in there, but one thing I can guarantee you: Nobody will be left behind. If you experience strange or out of place symptoms let me know. I will be truthful, we might have to quarantine you for a while until we are sure what exactly we are dealing with or we have find a cure, but I will personally make sure nobody remains in this god-forsaken place. On that note ...", the Vice President turned around to face barrier, extending a hand, the extremity phasing through the glowing, red barrier, "... I want us all to stay at least within eyeshot of each other. The group may not and will not split, and that is an order, I hope everyone understands that". He took a deep breath, pulling back his hand. "If that's all, let's go, there will be time for idle chatter another day", the Vice President lost no further word, stepping through the sealed barrier that encircled the entirety of Tsak Ordahic. From this point on, there would be no going back.

The air inside behind the barrier was even worse than that on its other side, the first breath of air Johann took momentarily threatening to throw his senses into disarray. The smell was unbelievable, the fould, sour stench of decay seemingly omnipresent in this dull, grey landscape, the silver-haired male letting his gaze wander. The place was desolate, no doubt, but now, on closer inspection, the Vice President still saw the occasional sliver of green poke through the layers of dusty hues that seemed to dominate the place. Intriguing. He was pretty certain that, after what Ruvel had told him especially, that this place would be ... bristling with life, even in spite of the death and plague, though it would certainly not be of the friendly kind. That didn't matter right now though, they'd deal with that when it came up. For now, they would push ahead, Johann walking ahead, making sure everyone would follow in formation as instructed. So, the group would begin their expedition, making their way into the Plague Area, long dead, rotten husks of trees, hundreds of years old, sun-bleached bones of strange species and the everpresent sensation of demise and rott. It was an unpleasant sight, the God of Strength pulling out a notebook and a pen on the way, noting down important landmarks, features and details about the surrounding area. As much as Johann felt the urge to finish his mission and their goal, though, he was nervous. The place creeped him out a little, and no Apocalyptic Seal or Magic Council title would change that fact.

Following the old dirt road, the group would venture for about 30 minutes, leaving everyone a little time to perhaps get more acquainted or ask further questions, Jo continuing to try and describe identifying features in the little notebook he carried when, after crossing over a hill, a surprising sight would present itself to the mages from the alliance of independent guilds: An old, seemingly abandonded village, if one could even call it that. A couple to a few dozen houses surrounding a town square, functional perhaps, but barely more than a settlement. Still, it was a pretty good start, Johann scribbling down a provisional note down on the lacrima map he carried with him before calling out to rally the group. "Alright everyone, it seems we've found our first major landmark, perhaps this is a good source of information as well. We will scout the village and make sure it's safe. If it's clear we'll make this our first FOB, in any case we'll search the village for anything of value to our objective, anything you deem to be of significance, documents, records, books, anything. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Let's go". Having finished giving the instructions, the silver-haired male took the lead, walking towards the town square with determined steps, paying little mind to the unnaturally high number of graves and the increasingly foul stench of decay and death that mixed in with the slight winter breeze. Of course, he would come to regret this just seconds later when all around them groaning paired with animalistic snarls could be heard, from every corner, from every house bursting forward what appeared like corpses ... living corpses, viciously howling with every move. Whereever the Vice President looked, he saw another rotting, horribly disfigured form approach them, driven by what seemed like only instinct, the group surrounded in mere moments. "Everyone! Fall back, take formation. We need to clear these out-", his sentence cut short when his eyes flickered with crimson energy, the white in his sclera replaced with ink-black colour, Mars taking over. The Lord of War wouldn't miss a fight of course. "Looks like we'll have ourselves some nice f-u-n, tssehehe", cackling with glee before throwing himself forward into the fray.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Word Count: 1.279
Word Count Total: 2.240 / 12.500

Monsters:

- Pathogen Walkers: 0 / 50

Even with a mere glance it was easy to see that they had quite the gathering of mages here. Panacea was pretty sure that none of the people present would count as normal in any civilized group, including herself. Still, in situations like this that was actually more comforting than some kind of standardized collection. Strangers tended to be good at dealing with strange, and they were dealing with the biggest pile of strange here. Strange, and very, very dangerous. The lamia resisted the urge to swallow as she once again thought about what they were doing here. Heading straight into the disaster zone, most likely the most dangerous area, in search of some clue on what they could do to avoid this pandemic from spreading to the entirety of Tolgalen.

It did help that the other members of the group appeared to be calm, so at the very least she didn't suffer from contagious anxiety. Shaking her head the lamia listened carefully as Johann answered her questions, although unfortunately he didn't have a lot of concrete information. Unfortunate, but not entirely surprising.

"I understand. You don't have to worry about us going astray though: I for one have no desire to end up alone in that place." She shot a look towards the barrier separating them from the worst of it. She turned her head towards the mage from Fairy Tail, whose question was somewhat morbid but still entirely reasonable given the circumstances. The white-scaled serpentess shifted somewhat uncomfortably at the thought, although she looked relieved when Johann explained that he didn't plan to leave anyone behind. She nodded in agreement with her guild master. Rolling her shoulders she checked herself over to make sure that she didn't have any exposed skin other than her face, then followed their leader through the barrier into a small portion of hell.

The moment she got in Panacea was very, VERY glad that she didn't have to breathe. She was pretty sure that if she did she would have gagged. It didn't matter how bad the smell was on the outside: in here it was so much worse. The scent of death, not fresh death but old, pungent, decayed death, made her eyes water if the view didn't already do that. This place was... lost. She was honestly surprised when she saw signs of anything still alive in this place, even if it looked like even the healthiest of plants had seen better days. The ground underneath her tail also had an unpleasant sensation, covered with rotting leafs and dried pus. She stuck close to Johann as they made their way forward, glancing around in wariness and some kind of morbid curiosity. She tried to stay a bit to the side so the long tail trailing behind her wouldn't get in the way of the others, glancing over her shoulder to see how they were doing. They'd only just begun the deathmarch, but it would be embarrassing if reach near the start they lost someone due to carelessness.

While she didn't have any writing implements with her she did her best to memorize anything of interest, staring at the disgusting world despite all her desire not to. Her responsibility as a member of this mission outweighed her personal distaste, so she would study what they came across even if it made their stomach turn.

She almost felt better when they reached the village, rundown as it was. While it was definitely not the best of sights it was a change of pace, and stone didn't have as many interesting stages of horrid as biological materials did. During their journey to this place the lamia hadn't felt like holding a conversation or asking any further questions: it had been made clear that they just didn't have a lot of information to work with here, and the mood was way too heavy for small talk. Instead the female snake coiled her tail beneath herself when Johann called for a short halt so he could explain their progress so far. "Let's just hope whatever they wrote down hasn't rotten away already." She muttered as Johann suggested that they use this opportunity to look for clues. Well, either way she didn't have much reason to argue against exploring the village, so she didn't hesitate in following their leader towards the abandoned settlement. Compared with modern standards it was miniscule, which made her wonder just how old it was.

Noticing all the graves she reached out towards one before catching herself, the hand freezing mid-motion before it was quickly retracted. While the stone didn't look the same as the rotting organisms it still wasn't a good idea to touch the head marker of a grave containing a plague victim. That was a good way to make their last will a lot more dangerous than it ought to be. Letting out a short hiss she focused on what was before them, which meant that she had a front row seating when the mangled and mutated near-dead showed themselves with clear hostility. Drawing back in response to Johann's words Panacea brought up her hands in what was clearly a fighting position while she lowered her upper body and the tip of her tail flicked from side to side behind her. She didn't need to be told to fight here.

Seeing the Ace go wild like that was a tad worrisome though. She wasn't too close to him, so she wasn't entirely sure what could have made him snap like that. It wasn't exactly a secret that a lot of strange things could be found in Onyx Moon, but this was new for her.

Not that she had time to wonder about that. Bringing one hand back she thrusted it forward with a shout, releasing a burst of magic which appeared to fly through the air invisibly before smashing into one of the walking dead, sending it flying backwards against the nearest stone wall with enough force that upon contact there was a loud crack, followed by a smear of foul substances on the wall as the corpse slid down.

The white lamia repeated this attack several times, in total launching five of the undead against a wall. One of them survived the impact, forcing Panacea to become a bit more personal. Lowering her humanoid half far enough that she could grab a hold of the ground with her gloved hands the tip of her tail lashed forward like a whip. There was a loud crack upon impact and the surviving walker's head simply fell off as the neck was snapped clean in half.

Five dead didn't mean a lot when there were so many of them though, leaving the lamia with little option but to use something a bit bigger next. Bringing her hands together she recited several words which sounded more like melodious hissing, a brilliant light gathering in her hands and forming several glowing talismans. Throwing the stripes of magically crafted paper they stuck to several undead, who after several seconds were consumed in a heavenly flare in which several more of the living dead were caught.

---

Akeya was extremely glad that she had obtained her light half before this began. It was a lot easier to have her alter-ego pretend to be someone else when she had two different elements to work with, especially when those two elements were light and dark. There weren't a lot of combinations which were as effective in the department of deception and trickery, including making people think the different spells must also come from different people.

That said this fighting style wasn't nearly as effective as the one she used when she wasn't playing a game of pretend, so she hoped that the other mages could pick up the slack for her so she wouldn't have to go all out just yet.

WC: 1,313
TWC: 2,342/12,500

Monsters:

- Pathogen Walkers: 14 / 50

he smell even managed to catch 7 a little off guard. It was rare indeed to see her calm expression falter, but it did. Slayer senses had always been a blessing before, but here it was nearly a curse. The average human would go nose blind in about ten seconds while breathing through the nose, but she doubted that would be true in her case. Her steady walk forward paused and her hand almost lifted to her nose and mouth in an instinctive attempt to shield her senses. Sivvy managed to resist such an act of weakness, powering through it purely so not to show weakness to the man who invited her along. A weak tool was a useless tool, and there was no greater horror to the young woman.

While she would endeavor to prove herself an asset to any one on this team, it was pretty obvious she wasn't used to working in groups in the traditional sense. She still kept to herself, nearing Johann for familiarity's sake but offering no words of question or chatter. If anything she was laser focused on the job at hand-- observation. Talking amongst the group tended to be a distraction if it wasn't a discussion of strategy. Instead, her eyes were roving all about, ears trained for any little sound. The scent of decay annoyingly lingered, erasing that sense from being useful in any way. Her hearing was picking up what she swore was a writhing sound, but she couldn't be sure of its source. Maybe that's just what the land sounded like in this quarantined wasteland. It was truly bizarre not to detect the tweeting of birds or the buzzing of a dragonfly. It wasn't silent, but the surrealism of all the normal sounds one takes for granted was stark and confusing. The foliage sounded dry and crunchy. There was more than once that the clone wondered if she was really in this place, or if it was some twisted dream her mind came up with. She didn't do well with the nonsensical like dreams and nightmares, or anything that defied concrete logic and knowledge. Reality was a rigid thing to her, and anything that tilted it was very alarming, hence why she hated sleeping at all.

Coming to the little settlement frankly had her on edge, which was a new sensation for her. Sivvy was very literal and logical person, so abstract ideas like gut feelings weren't viable, yet here she was experiencing one. None of her senses tipped her off any earlier than anyone else, though she didn't consider that they all might be slayers of some sort. Like the others she wandered off in search of books. 7 liked books. Knowledge in general was always helpful, and the more she learned the more she could use to assist someone else. A book in the ancient language of this quarantined area would help the mission, as well as a of personal interest to her. Learning to read it and discover old knowledge as new again was...exciting. If only the putrid stench, the writhing noises, and the general sense of impending doom would calm themselves and let her look in peace.

On the subject of peace, it was only going to get worse. The strange feeling bothering her fulfilled its own purpose as a horde of reeking bodies piled out of the ruins. Strange that they didn't pop up from the graves. Given the few books of horror fiction that is where they were supposed to sprout from. How curious.

"Hmm..have I fallen asleep?" 7 asked strangely, tilting her head while the shambling animated corpses came for them. Johann was displaying characteristics she'd never seen before, and the enemies in general defied logic that anything could survive here, let alone move once deceased. There'd been a job a while back that had something a little similar, though, so perhaps that's what spurred her to move. If she wasn't asleep, it would be useless of her to just stand here and puzzle over how ridiculous it was. Holding her hand out, black metal oozed from seemingly her pores and coalesced rapidly into a large blade, majestically surreal and black in color. A metal gas mask also appeared on her face, since she didn't want to take a chance on catching airborne contaminants. Becoming a victim would be the exact opposite of her purpose in life.

Without further delay she ran in, slashing at the deformed bodies with excellently trained form. The first two went down in pieces, but this method was inefficient as well as pretty gross due to proximity. The divided maws and evolved claws were rife with infection, and though her flesh was harder than most due to natural metallic dragon armor, the clone didn't want to find out if they possessed the strength to pierce it anyway. That would be unwise. A different strategy was already forming, she just needed some distance. More metal dripped from her, forming a giant metal teddy bear in a flash. She'd let it stomp a few of the cannibalistic fiends while she looked for a better vantage spot. If she could help it, 7 preferred to provide support where absolutely needed. Her lithe form darted a few meters away, leaping onto the top of an intact roof with the help of her fabric ribbons. A pink sniper rifle appeared in her hands, and it seemed the pink haired woman was intent on providing cover fire for the rest of the group. Any Plague Walker that got too close to any of them would be sniped, and she was a pretty reliable shot.

However, despite her own decision making in the heat of combat, if any one else instructed her otherwise she'd obey without question. Some assumed because of her general personality that she'd only act when issued orders, but that wasn't accurate. 7 was preemptive and would act autonomously in the event that she received no instructions, though she really preferred to be explicitly told what to do.


[WC: 1,906/7,000 || Pathogen Walkers 19/50]

Inkormine closed his eyes for a moment, his magic lending a hint of glow to his skin, as the illuminated enchanted threads of his outfit glowed a touch brighter in response to the spiders momentary inner focus. The man had sent his magical senses inwards for a moment, down past the glimmering coverings of the sun and moon's latent energies just beneath his skin, and down to the heart of his own inherent magical power. Looking at it now, he looked very different to his magical senses then when he had first arrived at Silver Wolf's door. Then he'd been a upper mid tier magical artisan, working for what felt like a pittance when he'd been trying to help support an entire orphanage almost singlehandedly. And now, only months later, his magical energy had exploded, over a decade of progress, effortlessly overwhelmed in months to his new state. A quiet girl he'd befreinded in the annals of a library in Magnolia who knew magic said that at this point, he was at the third rank of the standard power rankings of wizards used by the Council. But his magic itself didn't reflect this growth, as, unlike others he knew, he was plotting an uncharted course in a magic used by many others. As far as anything he knew, none of the Celestial Dancers had ever gotten this strong in their magic. It was never necessary, for dedicated basic artisans and artists. Another symptom of the isolated society.

Inkormine opened his eyes again, likely without anyone even realizing there had been that momentary lapse before Johann spoke. He listened as the man spoke, answering others questions, but he couldn't supress the shivering inside him anymore, a small shake going over his form. It was, quite reasonably, fear. Entering a horribly dangerous place to try to stop a plague from killing a continent, it's enough to get anyone a little worried, especially someone relatively new to all this like him. Rather unfortunatly however, Inky had a little more on his plate then most in terms of what they were dealing with. Namely, enough things on him making him wonder. What in the world possessed me to volunteer for a job like this?! A horrible plague in a magically quarantined area, being locked up if our defenses slip for even an instant, I must have been insance!

But, that wasn't quite right. Like many of Silver Wolf's members, he'd seen the bodies from the attack on the ball. While he knew nothing about the ball, he knew what this disease could, and would, do to everyone it came across. Honestly, it was possible that, if they couldn't find a way to stop it, that it could jump to Fiore and the continent there, spreading among everyone he'd ever even seen. Another plague sweeping through Cephiria, one like this, and it's possible he'd be one of the last survivors of his species. While he wasn't part of the strike teams, the information they gathered here would be crucial to having any chance to stop something that, well, apocalyptic.

That was why Inkormine was able to steel himself, quelling the shaking as the last of the others passed through the barrier, making him shake again, but this time just his head as he realized he'd let himself be distracted, and they were already going! He took a deep breath, lacing his fingers together and sliding them over his head almost like he was grroming himself, leaving a soft glowing aura over his head, and buttoning closed the top of his coat, flexing his fingers and legs just once before stepping through the barrier.

...And promptly almost hurling as the stench of rotten death hit him unprepared, bending him over a moment as he staggered, fighting the vomit response and the shaking as he almost thought he could feel the disease crawling over his clothes and aura, trying to burrow into him from the air. In only a couple of seconds he straightened, and hastened to catch up the few meters he'd fallen behind with his little episode, looking back at the barrier behind them receding into the distance as they traveled, shuddering at the entrapment. They were stuck here now, until they were finished. He shook his head, more violently this time, pushing a hair out of his face as he slid a notebook out of the rugged travel pack he'd brought on this mission, not wanting to risk contaminating his little sister's gift to him. Then, he started taking notes. The notes themselves weren't necessarily the best in terms of direct factual information, mostly observations and theories with gaps left to add in more. But one thing from his long time proffession came in possibly very handy, as page after page was filled with rapidly done but accurate sketches of the plantlife around them. He couldn't create from his mind onto paper quickly, but sketching something he could see was a work of seconds for an artisan from his city, leaving images without the use of photographic tech coming from him, since he didn't actually have a camera. It just hadn't ever come up before.

Along with the plantlife was a running guesstimate of a map of their travels based off their entry. Inkormine was no cartographer but, he had some intuition for distance, and at least tried to represent that in the back pages. At the least, it would be a good reference once they returned for others to corrolate a real map for the other groups. Yes, when they returned. It had to be a when, Inky wouldn't accept anything else.

The long walk bothered Inky the same as the others, if for different reasons. The silence was familiar, if not prefered, this was the sound of unending desert rolling away as far as the eye can see, far from the city walls, small wind and nothing more. Instead though, the feeling of something horrible trying to force itself into him just continued getting ever so slightly stronger and stronger as they traveled deeper into this place. Arriving at the tiny village was something of a relief, finally a sign of something besides the endless desolation and a distraction from the encroaching disease. He spent a moment throwing together a quick sketch of the village buildings as Johann gave them their instructions to search the place, sliding his notebook away to free up his hands as he approached one of the structures as they all moved in, before suddenly the doors slammed open and these diseased Things came pouring out of the houses, pushing towards the group, their sickly green fluids and emaciated forms causing Inkormine to beat a hasty retreat.

But instead of meeting with the others, a few of the creatures moved faster then he'd expected, or came from behind or something, causing him to turn around only to be faced with more of the things, suddenly finding himself surrounded, trapped and isolated from the others as their magics began firing off. Inky's eyes darted around, looking for a gap as he began weaving the most powerful spell he had at his disposal. But there was no gap, and the things were closing in, and this spell hit everything, including him, inside its area. An adrenaline shot of fear hit his system, calming his mind in the false-calm of fear induced aggression, as his swaying dance and careful gestures of his magic grew out, massive sweeps of the arms and a near lunging from side to side as he darted away from one of the things, closer then the rest, trying to bite him, as not just one, but three glowing tiny stars formed in his hands, quickly growing to the size of baseballs as the creatures came up. Inkormine let out a heated sighing sound, eyes looking up into the air with light cutting across his pupils like sunbeams before he looked down, spread his hands apart, and clapped the three balls together.

Were the coat not in the way, his muscles swelling at the moment of impact would reveal the effort of crushing these tiny star-constructs between his hands, but suddenly it was like the sunlight around him itself had dimmed, creating an area of darkness around him, but with him still in the light. More specifically, three circles of dimmed light surrounding and overlapping around the spider, covering a number of the creatures but just barely not covering any of his team members. Then, the spider opened his cupped hands and thrust them outwards, sparks and embers flying from his hands before they clapped back together, glowing webs starting to form between them as the trio of explosions went off, filling the dimmed areas with a sudden barrage of fire and light as the areas were engulfed, instantly igniting every enemy in those areas into a walking fireball, the few that were missed being quickly beaten down by flaming whip strikes as Inky threw out more strikes, hands falling and body drooping as the conflagration of death settled around him, leaving a few charred corpses and a lot of missing bodies of the fragile undead infected creatures that he'd struck down. The sheer mana toll helped show his growth, since before he'd have been nearly tapped out, now he wasn't even half empty.

W.C: 1595 + 408 = 2003/8700

Spells used = 3x Nova Blast
6x Sun's Whip

Mana = 250/400

Monsters:
Pathogen Walkers: 35/50

Arcadia brought up the rear guard, the lady to enter the field. The overwhelming stench hit her as hard as any of her fellow slayers here. It took most of her will not too reach on the spot. She coughed and cooked down the acidic bile that has pushed its way up her esophagus. Her large faerie green eye kept on watering after she tried drying then on the back of her hand. She was not happy to taste this morning's breakfast again.

Nevertheless, she pushed on, taking pictures with her iLac of the morbid and diseased surroundings and any flora or fauna she may have spotted in the distance. Occasionally, she would dictate her observations into her iLac's notes. Mostly, she just made sure nothing got the drop on herself or her alliance compatriots from behind.

It was while sweeping her faerie green gaze around the rear guard, that she thought saw something. Something she saw only after a twinge from a sudden pressure headache. A headache that she knew meant no one else would be seeing what she just did. It was a personal visit from the same dream demon that had been haunting her for weeks now. The sight of the dream demon was gone in a flash, but her headache persisted, and she could not help but be reminded of the ruins Dragnof had become upon viewing the abandoned village. She wondered how long the the buildings of birthplace had stupid empty like this before succumbing and crumbling to time too. Sadly, that was the exact line of thought the dream demon had hoped for. It pounced, vividly unleashing the same memory it always did. The abandoned village slowly rebuilding itself into Dragnof to Arcadia's eyes. Ahead of her some stone rubble formed itself into a makeshift combat dummy, reminiscent of a stone snowman. She heard her first mother call out to take out the practice dummy.


Her attention and deep green eyes sharply focused on her target, Arcadia's long pale blonde hair trailed out behind her with her bare feet pounding the ground to charge the waiting stack of rocks. Halfway there, she roared a swirling torrent of super-chilled water and razor-sharp flecks of ice. The water instantly freezing on contact, leaving the rock target coated in a splattering of ice. Arcadia's path to the stacked rocks was not a straight one. Taking Khione Glacier's advice closer to heart, Arcadia did not wish to give even a makeshift training dummy a chance to get a bead on her.

Finally closing the distance, Arcadia spun her left foot around and hard into the icy side of the rocks. On impact, her foot cratered through the ice. Her body carried through on it's twirling momentum, bringing the hard crunch of her right fist. A hard jab from her left struck to the rock doll's midsection. Imagining her foe to be staggered, Arcadia vaulted into a backflip away from the practice doll for a little breathing room.

She inhaled deep before she even landed, unleashing a second swirling maelstrom. The freezing waterspout and razor ice gave the stacked rocks a second coating of ice. Rushing back in, Arcadia noticed cracks in the rock underneath the icy coating after leading back in with a high sideways kick that sent bits of ice and rock in all directions. Arcadia followed up with another flurry of two punches. Both focus in on where the cracks were forming beneath the ice. Her right went high and her left went low, creating twin craters in the rock doll's icy veneer.

Spreading both of of her arms out like wings, Arcadia lurched back a few steps. Swirling razor ice gathered about her outspread arms in vaguely draconic wing-shaped formations. Arcadia stomped forward, swinging her arms together, sending her wings of razor ice flinging past and through the rock doll.

The frigid cold and power of each blow crumbled the rock doll down into a pile of smaller rocks and debris ice. Arcadia bared her cute little fangs in big grin and pumped one fist into the air in victory. Breathing harder from the flurry of exertion, she laughed as she started back to Khione Glacier. She wore a proud grin across her young features. The glimmer of pride in Khione Glacier's crystal ice eyes made it all worth it.

A mentor's critique followed just the same. Khione Glacier bellowed to her mortal daughter, "Very nice, very nice! You were excellent... right up until the point you slowed down at the end, little one. A real wizard or a real dragon will be hitting you back, not just sitting there like that rock doll."

Arcadia was still trying to catch her breath as she reached her foster mother's side. She sighed, "Aww, Mom. That thing woulda been hurting too much to fight back, even of he was real."

The great ice dragon chuckled, "Perhaps there is nothing more I can teach you with lifeless dolls alone. Tomorrow I will ask the queen to lend me one of her marionette wizards, and you will see how much harder it is when the dolls hit back. I-"

Khione Glacier's manner suddenly went completely serious. They had a visitor. Arcadia couldn't see or sense them herself though. She glanced up to her foster mother, "Mom! What.. or who is it?" As soon as she asked Arcadia began to sense then catch sight of the long haired figure in the distance. It was coming their way.

Arcadia jumped and waved in excited greeting once she realized who it was. "Acnologia! Hey Acnologia! Ove-"

Her foster mother silenced Arcadia with one harsh reprimand. Arcadia! Calm down and be silent, little one! Wait back in your hut. Acnologia and I have a couple things to discuss first. I'll call for you when we're ready for you."
Taken aback by her foster mother's sharp tone, Arcadia reluctantly and quietly retreated back to her own little hut. From there she watched as Khione Glacier flew out to meet the figure of Acnologia. Gone was her earlier excitement at seeing one of her heroes. Instead, Arcadia couldn't help a certain sense of foreboding.

Khione Glacier greeted the stone-faced Acnologia. "So... Acnologia, are the rumors true? Have you turned against even those of us who taught you the power to stand up for your people?"

The legendary dragon slayer remained expressionless, coldly responding, "All dragons must perish. There can be no peace as long as even one still lives."

With nothing else to say, Khione Glacier took to the skies and Acnologia followed. Arcadia felt her heart leap up into her throat. She knew she shouldn't call out, but it couldn't be helped. "Acnologia!! What're you doing?! That's my mom!"

Arcadia watched the life and death struggle wheel around the sky above. Either they could not hear her or just ignored her calls. To Arcadia's growing sense of relief, Khione Glacier was slowly gaining the upper hand. Her foster mother finally managed to throw Acnologia off her back. Khione Glacier positioned herself in a steep dive to drive and crush Acnologia into the ground.

On the way down, Acnologia activated the series of magic circles he had placing all along. Khione Glacier's soul was rendered from her ice crystalline body. It would be her limp form that would crash into the ground. Arcadia's deep green eyes watched wide in terror and shock, tears blurring her vision. "Moooom!!!"

Acnologia emerged from the resulting dust cloud in his dreaded dragon form, prepared to finish off the fallen great ice dragon. In her grief, Arcadia rushed out and roared a torrent of freezing water and razor ice straight up at Acnologia's now draconic face. The apocalyptic monster was not fazed one bit. Acnologia just turned his gaze down at Arcadia as if only just now noticing the young dragon slayer's existence.

Arcadia was far too lost in her grief and disillusionment to show any real fear. Too shell shocked to run. She managed to choke out a few tearful sobs, "Ac-Acnoglogia... w-why?"

In the brief moment Acnologia was distracted, Khione Glacier used the last of her strength to flip and pin the future Dragon King, buying just enough time to pour the last everything else she had, life energy and magic power, into a dying act of desperation. Khione Glacier gathered it all to cast one last ancient spell. "Sphere!"

Arcadia's world turned bright gold. She heard her foster mother's last words echo in her mind, before everything went dark. Arcadia was safely sealed away from the predations of the great and terrible Acnologia.


"I love you... Arcadia."

Tears streaming down her cheeks, the barefoot slayer finally shook off the vivid memory, but she heard the dream demon's laughter echo into silence as the pressure headache lifted with the memory.

None of her teammates would have seen any of it, to them Arcadia would have seemed to be standing there staring of at some building. Arcadia rubbed her faerie green eyes, as her rather vivid flashback made her question whether the sight of movement from that building and others was real. It was a rather horrifying sight, Arcadia left paralyzed. She briefly believed the Pathogen Walkers to be her fellow Dragnof citizens come drag her back to history's dustbin with the rest of them.

The notion was quickly pushed aside, her full faculties and senses to returning her swiftly enough to make it only a momentary hesitation. She realized that moment's hesitation was all it took to find herself surrounded. The was a number of Pathogen Walkers on every side but her path to catch up with the others. They weren't so far ahead, but she saw that they all had their own infected villagers to deal with.

To keep them and herself safe, she would have to deal with the ones around her alone. She had presence of mind enough to snap a few photos with her iLac for documentation, while allowing them to close in.

Normally, Arcadia would turn full ice dragon, and smash a surrounding group of adversaries like these. These Pathogen Walkers were not the sort she wanted to touch unless absolutely necessary though, so she willed herself into Dragon Force instead.

Arcadia in Dragon Force:

Arcadia's pale blonde paled completely to white, and her sparkling faerie green eye turned glowing pinkish-crimson. She btw surrounded by a sits of freezing mist to chill and slow down any who got too close. She stomped a foot, spreading ice freezing out over the ground around her. It spidery patterns seeking out the feet of every Pathogen Walker around her. The spreading ice then erupted up to encase their feet, freezing each one momentarily in place. She inhaled deeply, and spun into a pirouette. The barefoot slayer used her pirouette to roar a whirling torrent of freezing mist and glittering razor shards of ice in a full three hundred sixty degrees around her.

Still not wanting to touch these things, she tapped into her pocketed dimensional scissors to open a portal underneath herself and all the frozen in place Pathogen Walkers. Arcadia and the walkers all tumble down through, ice and all. They all emerged from a portal Arcadia opened about one hundred meters straight over head. To avoid the creatures's various outstretched arms, Arcadia dove head first with arms tucked at her sides.

Speeding toward the ground, she put on the brakes by way of spreading dragon-like wings of hoarfrost. She pulled up and gained a little altitude from her momentum. The infected creatures all streaked on by, crashing and busting to pieces on impact.

Arcadia glided back down to the others, taking low altitude aerial pictures of the village on the way down. Landing closer than she had been, she folded her hoarfrost wings away. She dictated a couple observations into her iLac notes. The barefoot slayer tapped into her Silver Star of Odin to shift the focus of her magic's output from ice to crystal, allowing her to draw near to her teammates without slowing them down from her aura's usual bone-chilling cold.

Glancing around the area, she hoped there was no more immediate trouble, especially from the dream demon. That has been a close one. The last thing Arcadia wanted to be was a liability to her team on such a vital mission.

WC: 2064
Arcadia WC: 2783/12,500

Monsters

Pathogen Walkers: 50/50

The Vice President of the West Fiore Trading Company was surprised when, as it was so often the case, Mars violently shoved himself to the forefront of the shared vessel's consciousness, as usual, of course, without uttering as much as a sound of warning. Darkness momentarily overcame Johann, who felt like he was thrust backward before finally, the light would peek through the darkness, the familiar feeling of being stuck in his own body returning swiftly. "How often do I have to tell you to warn me before you get all excited?". The question would obviously remain unanswered. Just like Joh had made it a habit to ignore the Lord of War when it suited him, the other had quickly caught up with the silver-haired male's schemes and now employed the same kind of tactic, a big, toothy grin spreading over the vessel's face when the familiar transformation of his eyes occurred. The prospect of a clash excited the Second Seal more than anything else, and before Joh could do so much as speak a single word, the Lord of War had already broadly proclaimed his intent in his deep, almost distorted voice and thrown himself ahead and into the action, the spot he had just been at exploding into a stream of wind and dust as he was launched forward. Of course, Mars, as opposed to Johann, would have little worry about infection or disease, not shy to, with the full force of his momentum, slam his leg into the side of one of the rotten bodies, the form of the plagued villager lifted off the ground and practically launched into the air, skidding across the boringly monotonous, grey ground before coming to a screeching halt, still, unmoving. "Fall back? Why would I follow such a cowardly command?", the distorted voice spoke out loud once more, reaching to his side, an ink-black, dark scythe appearing within his grasp in a swirl of erratically shifting negative energy. "No, the real party starts now, tssehe".

The Lord of War, much like his teammates, seemed to be surrounded by corpses that had risen back to an unholy second life, not quite dead, yet not quite living either. It was an affront to the creation of his father, really, to misuse the gift that was magic to commit such an atrocious act of sin, but ... these poor creatures would bear no fault. It was upon him to finally rescue them from their plight and bring them salvation ... and perhaps, the Second Seal's grin broadened still, have some fun in the process. Spinning around the weapon in his hands with playful ease, his expression and focus changed, his full attention granted to his adversaries. Forwards was a zombie that snarled, gurgled with a diseased, sickly sound, green and black bile spurting from its mouth as it did before lunging forward, rotten, plagued hands and arms extended in a ferocious attempt at clawing for the figure it perceived as its next meal. Mars, with unparalleled speed, sidestepped around the creature in a 360-degree spin, extending his hand and letting his momentum carry the blade of the weapon into a wide arched swing, the tip of the scythe promptly embedding itself in the creature's back before emerging from its burst open chest. Lazily, Mars tilted the weapon up, the monstrous walker lifted off its feet and into the air, impaled on the ominous weapon of pure negative matter. It struggled for a few seconds, its vital signs not dying down, no, to the contrary, it seemed to only make the pathogen-infested creature more aggressive, the Lord of War shaking his head. "Guess that's no use. Let's see how you enjoy this", without much delay bringing down the weapon, the force of the swing ripping the creature, still very much graced with undead life, from the scythe and launching it into a nearby wall of a ruined building, the structure collapsing in on itself and burying the broken, crushed corpse beneath layers of stone. These ... things would hardly be considered a challenge.

Mars sighed, seemingly in somewhat evident disappointment. "Not as much fun as I had hoped. You can have your body back, old man, tssehe. Let me know when something more ... entertaining comes around ...". With that, Johann's right eye transformed anew, the white in his sclera returning, banishing the charcoal darkness from his ocular, the left, however, remaining in its accursed color, Johann's and Mars' shared vessel still exchanging magical power between the two, yet it would be the Vice President and God of Ishgar who would once more act as the consciousness in control, at least for now. However, for a few seconds, Johann was out of the count, distracted by the shift in personality, not an extensive window of opportunity for any lucky undead, but still enough for one of the walkers to catch him off guard, the monster practically hurling itself towards the team leader from one of his flanks. Johann came to his sentences just in time to realize it would be too late to dodge, whipping around only to see the creature torn apart and thrown to the side by a projectile, the loud bang of the rifle arriving just fractions of a moment later. Turning his head in confusion, he spotted Sivvy on one of the intact roofs, the barrel of the rifle she was holding still smoking. Breathing a sigh of relief, he gestured to thank the girl before centering his attention on the problem at hand once more, the massive scythe still in one hand.

Between Panacea's brilliant light magic, 7's enormous metal-teddybear stampede, Inkormine's impressive use of destructive energy and Arcadia's graceful display of crippling cold, their opponents had almost been eradicated entirely, a few stragglers remaining before the VP and close to one of the ruined buildings, the God of Ishgar moving to eliminate the last danger's without delay. The weapon of pure negative matter, as expected, would make short work of them, and where Mars was playful and rich with almost childlike excitement whenever it came to battle, Johann was stoic, efficient, separating the last group into bits and pieces with a few precise strikes of the weapon, their bodies turning to ash before scattering along the weathered dirt roads connecting the various destroyed domiciles. As soon as the onslaught of opponents had been dealt with, the silver-haired male let go of the weapon which, as soon as it left his grasp, vanished into thin air, gesturing towards all members of the group, who had hopefully heeded his advice and remained within eyeshot, to rally by him, waiting for all to come together before addressing them. "Well, I suppose now we know what really awaits us here ...", his dissimilar eyes wandering over each and every member of the team. "Everyone alright? Anyone injured?". He sincerely hoped everyone would be fine. "Looks like we got ourselves into a nice mess. Alright, from now on we assume all life in this area is hostile. Going forward, I want, I need all of you to be aware of your surroundings. At all times. We can't get jumped like that again".

Of course, he was also at fault for this, noticing the zombies too late. Several of his team members had been surrounded by them before he had had a chance to react, and if they all hadn't been so capable mages ... who knows. "With the area now hopefully clear ...", he put emphasis on that word, "... let's continue with our original goal. I want all of us to check the buildings, rooms, cellars for anything that could be of use. Keep eyes out for anything unnatural. I don't want anyone to be bitten by ... those things, hear me. Let's go". As all of them would hopefully scatter to go for the buildings and look for valuable information on this area, anything that could be of use for a scouting party and the other teams, later on, Johann would pull out his notebook and start scribbling before joining them. "Infected villagers encountered. Coordinates noted below. Weak, though resistant to trauma. Bite and scratch with infected maws and nails. Provisional name ... Pathogen Walkers". Of course, when he had noted this down, he did not know what would lurk inside these buildings. The village was far from cleared out, and hidden within every nook and cranny would wait more infected beasts, eagerly awaiting their next fill, their next prey.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Word Count: 1.459
Word Count Total: 3.699 / 12.500

Monsters:

- Grass Vipers 0 / 10
- Pathogen Walkers 0 / 20
- Pathogen Knights 0/ 10
- Plague Bugs 0 / 10
- Bone Chimera 0 / 1

(Feel free to spawn a few more of the same enemies for this round should they run out or you feel you have too little to work with)

At the beginning of the fight Panacea had been worried about their situation. There had been a lot of these walking dead after all, and given their situation a single scratch could already be fatal. She didn't doubt that the group of mages could repel the assailants but the cost of doing so could end up being lethal.

Fortunately those worries turned out to be unfounded. Each and every mage in the group showed themselves capable of taking care of these mutated corpses without fear, and if any of them had received a hit then the lamia didn't notice it. It was a good thing that these zombies were neither fast nor strong, so it didn't take much effort to evade them and destroy them. In fact compared to the kind of attacks that the others were using to take care of their portion of the group it seemed Panacea's methods had been lighthearted in comparison. Well, as long as it was enough she wouldn't chastise herself for not going all out. Especially since they'd only just begun their exploration and if she overdid it she might end up winded at the moment when it was most crucial.

With most of the undead having been disposed of she looked at their leader. He was still acting recklessly, making her wonder how they were supposed to proceed if he kept behaving like that. While an aggressive fighting style wasn't a problem as long as he didn't allow himself to get infected (an unlikely event given that he was strong enough to destroy the entire village if he really felt like it) they couldn't proceed deeper into the dangerous zone if their decisions were made with haste and carelessness. It was a relief when a change could be sensed in Johann's behaviour and he became more rational again, finishing off the last enemies that had escaped the magic bombardment from the group of explorers.

Once the threat was gone Panacea let herself relax just a bit, although it was impossible to truly be at ease in such a place as this one. Keeping her tail close to herself she inspected herself for any signs of wounds or filth that might act as a source of infection. She hadn't felt anything during the fight but adrenaline could result in such things being ignored until it was too late. Fortunately it looked like she was in the clear: while there was some dirt on her gloved hands and on her tail from moving around it was clear that there were no wounds, and also that the dirt was of the normal kind. The only stuff that might become a problem if left alone was that there was some refuse from rotten plantlife sticking to her tail, but that was easily brushed off and she likely would have been fine even if she didn't do that. With the inspection complete she returned her focus to Johann. The fight had been unexpected but it didn't change anything about what they had to do here: she just needed for the man in charge to reiterate his orders to make sure everyone was on the same page about what would come next.

With her tail curled up around her she stood in front of Johann, her own red eyes studying the odd situation of the man's eyes: he had started out with a normal pair, but now one of them had a black sclera. Related to the rampage that the powerful mage had displayed earlier? She couldn't say for certain. Maybe his use of magic caused the change in sclera without it also having mental effect and the two things were completely unrelated. That also wasn't exactly what was important right now as she instead nodded her head in response to the leader's inquiry. "I've received no injuries and from what I saw none of the others did either. Although I'd suggest that everyone examines themselves thoroughly anyway just to be certain."

She nodded again when it was declared that all unknown lifeforms were now to be treated as hostile. She'd expected as much, although when Johann began to express hope she had to suppress a comment. She didn't try to be a pessimist but she couldn't help but feel like expressing any kind of hope in this kind of place was asking for the world to go out of its way to prove you wrong. The zombies had been easy prey once the element of surprise was lost but they had no idea what other kinds of dangers could be hiding here. Pressing her fingertips together she briefly closed her eyes. "Understood." Saying nothing more she turned around and headed towards one of the buildings, her eyes narrow as she began to tense up again. There was a feeling of safety when they were grouped up, but even if they stayed within shouting distance going into the buildings to search for any clues meant that they would have to be fending for themselves. And a single scratch could spell death.

Entering the building the white lamia slowed down considerably, studying the entrance carefully as she sniffed the air. It smelled like there was something in there, but the retch-inducing plague-stench was making it difficult to figure out what. Flicking out her tongue didn't help either, it just made her eyes water. Blinking repeatedly to get the tears out of her field of vision she approached with the utmost caution.

Which probably was part of why she could evade backwards when a strangely shaped claw shot out and attempted to claw open her face. Her entire upper body swayed backwards. Her eyes were wide and her heart was beating in her chest. With both hands shooting up she formed a glowing barrier in front of herself that reflected several more claws, futily beating on the magical defence. Beyond the barrier she could see a group of... somethings. They looked like snakes or ropes made out of grass. They didn't appear to have anything like a proper head: both ends were adorned by claws dripping with foul-looking ichor. Now that the initial attack had been repelled they moved slowly, but they didn't show any sign of pulling back or giving up.

Thanking the gods that she could maintain this shield with one hand Panacea used her other hand to draw a line in the air above her. Two fingertips left a trail of light which then formed into a series of small orbs. Each orb shone as if a star adorning the night sky. Dismissing the shield the serpentine mage made a motion and the orbs turned into streaks of light. The odd lifeforms reached out with their claws before the lasers ripped through them and they all fell to the ground lifelessly. Sliding forward Panacea then blinked and facepalmed as she remembered that she had been instructed to always double-tap in situations such as these. She almost made a big mistake there.

Tracing a circle in the air in front of her she then placed her hands together. The ring of white light first began to shine brightly, then a beam of sunlight shot forth from the ring and bathed the remains in front of her. With a hissing sound those same rotting remains burned away until the only thing left were some ashes. While it could have been called overkill Panacea would argue that with dealing with a disease like this ashes were the only things you didn't have to worry about.

---

Akeya wondered if she was overdoing her acting. While it was important that nobody compared Panacea to herself she had been playing up the less competent side so much that it might cause trouble in the future. If she had been here acting as herself she'd have erased the fake snakes before they had a chance to strike at her even once. Now she had to pretend to be surprised.

The body of her snake-like alter ego moved into the building to find out whether there were any clues inside. At least she didn't need to pretend to have poor nightvision. There were no lights inside the building aside from some gaps in the roof and walls and she didn't want to act like she was stumbling about blindly.

The building was small enough that it didn't take very long to conclude that there wasn't anything of worth in here. There were two bedrooms, both looking like someone had made an attempt to clear them out after the inhabitants had been killed off by the plague. She supposed that for most people that would be a tragic sight. She just thought it looked dreary and disappointing. There was a side room where someone had been trying to study the plague. At least, she thought that was what had been going on. There were some glass vials which could have been valuable if they hadn't been smashed and the contents were the same as everything else: old, rotting and infected.

Finding clues to this plague was going to be difficult. On one hand, there were plenty of samples. On the other, everything which had been consumed by the plague for so long appeared to be the same mess of rot and pestilence so it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Traditionally you'd use a magnet but what could they use to lure out that one piece of information that they could use to create a cure?

WC: 1,584
TWC: 3,926/12,500

Monsters:

- Grass Vipers 10/10
- Pathogen Walkers 0/20
- Pathogen Knights 0/10
- Plague Bugs 0/10
- Bone Chimera 0/1

Not that she'd acknowledge it, but as 7 laid in wait to assist the others on top of the rare intact roof, she experienced a strange sensation in her gut that wasn't all the pleasant. While she idly wondered if she'd contracted the disease the walkers were afflicted with, in fact she was feeling a twinge of jealousy. Her prime directive was to be as helpful as possible, so seeing others being more useful by taking out more enemies than her made her anxiety spike a little. How could she possibly be needed by people like these? No wonder Sir Johann had yet to ask her to do anything other than accompany this group today...he had far more useful people at his disposal.

Despite her momentary burst of self consideration, her crimson eye lever left the battlefield. The giant metal teddy bear she had left thrashing walkers disappeared in a glittery puff, offering her a better view. She observed both enemy and ally alike. The man with the spider lower half was lashing with hot glowing whips and blasting the infected carcasses into oblivion with melting solar blasts, while the blonde girl who had been listening to music upon arrival changed forms and took the opposite route by freezing them in place and pelting them with shards. Curiously, she also seemed to be able to open portals to jump into, since in an instant she re-emerged in the air to reign destruction upon many foes below. 7 made tedious mental notes of everything she had seen from these mages. Maybe she could learn from them quickly and rise to the new standard set for her.

Movement across the field of view from the other three captured her attention. Johann had stalled for reasons unknown, only becoming aware of walker remnants as one was mid-lunge. At least her time up here hadn't been completely wasted. Without hesitation she gazed down the scope and squeezes the trigger, shredding the enemy with little effort. From there Johann handled himself with unsurprising strength and grace, and thus the current threat was eradicated. He called them all together, so she let her rifle fall away and disappear as she followed his orders.

Once gathered, she listened along with everyone else, though perhaps unlike everyone else she wondered about his curiously different eyes. Again, though, she didn’t speak. She simply inspected herself as instructed and found nothing but dirt on the front of her torso, since she’d been laying on a semi-stable roof that had laid rotting for possibly centuries. As they were instructed to fan out, 7 simply obeyed without a sound, turning and walking in a direction no one else was at the moment. Back to the building she’d sniped from, the clone instead pushed the one-hinged, dilapidated door open with an ominous creak and stepped inside.

Sir Johann was right. It was a failure on her part that she hadn’t noticed the undead residents coming. She had the skill and the faculties, so she should have heard them coming way before any of them came into the average person’s sight. It didn’t cross her mind that the stronger people in the party had access to the same heightened senses she did and also missed it. No, 7 took this as a completely and total failure on her part. It was her fault and she’d shoulder the burden. It meant more training once the mission ended.

Draping even more attention on her surroundings, Sivvy left no stone unturned. It was a small stone home with only four rooms and seemingly lacked a cellar. The kitchen and living area combo was wrecked. She took a couple samples of mold on a plate that might have once been food, raking it with rusted spoon into a vial plucked from her bag. Most everything else in this room, the bathroom, and the bedroom was useless in every sense because the roof over these parts was patchier than the last room she entered. This room seemed to be an office. Since her this spot was a little better protected from the elements by the more intact pieces of roof, many items had survived the many years of quarantine. Wind had pushed some loose papers back into a corner that managed to stay dry, so she collected those and pressed them carefully between blank pages of her record book. Rustling further into her bag, 7 pulled out a fruit bar and started to munch as she continued her investigation. Oh, a book. Books were one of the few things the identity challenged young woman liked other than fashion and snacks. Gently, she placed the book in her bag as well. Poking around the rest of the bookshelf sadly revealed books that crumbled under the slightest touch from age and being made from poor materials. Curiously, the shelf itself seemed wobbly, yet oddly attached to the wall. As it rocked back and forth under her touch, an unexpected echo reached her attentive ears. Hm?

Pushing at the shelf from the side, she felt a mechanism of some sort break and it gave way easily to reveal an opening carved out of the stone. Steps lead down into darkness. So the building had a cellar after all! The clone wasted no time making her way down into darkness, using a flashlight to light the way. Her vision was better than most, but pitch black was pitch black. It seemed like the steps would never end, making her to a mental count of meters. They were way below what was usually acceptable for a cellar. Maybe she stumbled upon something unusual.

Once Sivvy finally stepped on even floor, she noted it was concrete. Shining her light around, it revealed a long hall with many doors on each side, equidistant from each other. The smell was even more unpleasant down here, condensed rot and chemicals long air sealed. At least that meant there should be plenty of things to gather that would be in pristine condition. She systematically worked through the strange rooms, taking samples of fluids, pictures of the rooms themselves, and taking any written material she came across. Most seemed to be more like the office upstairs, only with equipment and cages of skeletons. The morally gray girl didn’t really notice how sinister what she was seeing really was as she documented it. Other than being ancient, it reminded her a little bit of Dr. Raelin’s laboratory. None of the red flags were flying that should be. 7 systematically moved from room to room until she reached the end of the hall, where there was one final door. Opening the door, her light revealed an extensively open area lined in smaller nooks with doors made of thick steel bars. A lot of the barred doors were bent or swing open, and most of the cells were empty except for a couple that held skeletons. It was mostly void of any items worth grabbing, but her senses picked up something. Movement. It came from the back of the room, from near the cell at the far corner. Her flashlight turned to investigate, every fiber of her being hypersensitive.

The small orb of light landed on a lump of putrid flesh. It didn’t move upon being discovered, but 7 knew better than to let her guard down. Nothing quarantined for this long, trapped down here would still have moist, moderately unrottened skin. At best it would be mummified and look a bit like jerky. Carmine eyes narrowed.

It was a good thing she summoned her sword back, because before she had much time to react the mutant was upon her, it’s many teeth luckily snapping at the blade instead of her body. Once it noticed it’s biting wasn’t tearing its prey to shreds, it spun and smacked the blade with its long head-tail. The impact was hard enough to have her sliding back on her feet until she hit the wall beside the door and dropped the flashlight. It went out. With her skin hardening a bit the impact didn’t do much damage, allowing her to easily recover. With an ear splitting shriek from a symphony of human vocal chords, thus began a delicate dance of claws and blades as it was girl versus beast in the complete absence of illumination. Before the light had flickered out, Sivvy had noted the creature was a chimera of multiple people, no doubt those trapped down here somehow. The implications again failed on 7, not that she had time to really think about it. She was doing her best not to die! Her sword disappeared and she flung out her arms while running to the side out of the monster’s charging path. She had to heavily rely on her slayer’s hearing for this fight, shooting geysers of molten gold every time she heard it breathe, growl, or scuff claws on the stone. Thankfully the beast was plenty noisy, and once it was covered in gold, the movements slowed with cooling metal and damage.

While she might be able to hear enough to paint a mental picture to work with, it wasn’t perfect. She had no idea as to her exact location in the opening. The chaos of battle had broken her attempts to keep track, and unfortunately about the time she had the Bone Chimera nearly beaten, she ran into and got tangled in one of the barred doors that hung open. It was just the chance the abomination needed. One of its misshapen hands lashed out and grabbed one leg, yanking her toward its gaping maw. It took just long enough for her arm to into a piston, the hydraulics pulling back just as the teeth sank into the flesh of her left leg. Biting her lip to stifle a cry of pain, she thrust her twisted metal hand forward and aimed it at its head. She completed the attack as the hydraulics pumped forward the pulverizer and forced her metal fist into the thing’s head with such force that it launched across the room. Much to her dismay, it staggered up and started to make its way back to her, but the internal bleeding her last attack had caused proved to be too much. Staggers slowed to a drag, followed by a wet thump back to the stoney floor. A few tense moments of listening followed, but the silence revealed it was, in fact, dead.

Sivvy heaved a small sigh of relief. Her leg took quite a bit of damage, though. Her fingers felt over each and every tooth puncture and tear in her skin. She hissed in pain. Despite her training, she couldn’t help but wish there was some light so she could see. Where was the exit, even? Assuming she could get back to her feet to find it. This could be very problematic indeed.

[3,720/7000

- Grass Vipers 10/10
- Pathogen Walkers 0/20
- Pathogen Knights 0/10
- Plague Bugs 0/10
- Bone Chimera 1/1]

Only out of it for a moment, Inkormine quickly rallied from his exhuastion, pulling his head up and forcing his arms up a bit as he looked hastily around, for any more of the monsters closing in on him. But the area around him was clear, and with the last of the creatures being mopped up by the other mages quite handily, the group seemed to be clear for the moment, leaving Inkormine to watch, impressed, as the rest of the mages with him demonstrated quick and easy elimination of the enemies that attacked them, between magical weapons, ice magic, and even magic-enhanced firearms, leaving him feeling a little inadequate. They might not know but he did, that that magical barrage had been rather taxing on him, far more then anyone else's works. He just wasnt at the same caliber as many of them, even those he was ostensibly on par with, and it was showing.

It was no surprise when Johann signalled for them all to gather back up, leaving Inky to step over a  charred body, not wanting to step in it as he went over to the gathered group, to listen to their next set of orders. It was about as expected, the attack may have been a little more intense then Inkormine had expected at first, but they'd been planning for hostility like this. So they would continue the search. Of course they would. He flexed his fingers, frowning a bit at the stiff gloves, so uncomfortable after walking around in them for over an hour. But they were specifically to keep him from getting sick from touching the wrong thing, so he would deal with them. First things first, before any more exploring, he slid a small tube of toughened glass wrapped in a padding of silk, uncorking it as he went back, the gingerly scrape a bit of charred flesh off one of the walkers he'd incinerated. Others intending to follow them could use all the info they could get, even nasty stuff like this. Inky scrapped the bit of flesh off into the tube, capping it and sliding the tube into a loop on the outside of the pack, while Inky snapped his finger, summoning a tiny flame in his hand which he used to superheat the metal blade, one of several he'd taken along from the Silver Wolf armory for this. He was no weapon fighter, but knives were good for lots of things in dense jungle, and he'd brought a few different types. After purging the blade with fire and sheathing it in a separate sheath he had on one of his boots for 'contaminated' blades, Inkormine went towards one of the houses near the route they'd come in.

This house had disgorged a number of those creatures already, thus why its door was on the ground and one window shattered, letting the sickly light from the barrier over the sun shine in, guiding Inky as he stepped in, eyes sweeping along the floor and ceiling, looking for anything else trying to sneak up on him right now. He breathed a sigh of relief when the place looked deserted, walking further in, to see that this was a living space with various sitting places for bipeds, a table, a couple of bookcases, and, interestingly enough, a scroll rack, holding a number of unopened scroll cases. As the bookcases seemed a little... rotten, and the texts on them not much better, the best place to check seemed to be the scrolls, leading the spider over, to start gently extracting scrollcases. The first two he discarded almost immediately, as they had visible openings in them, one had some dust fall out as he turned it over, the other had a dimly glowing blue mushroom sticking out of it, which Inky carefully cut free and put into a small disposable bag, tying it too his pack and moving on to other scroll cases. Most of these were stories, or documents from an unnamed governmental structure. Intriguing, especially from a historical standpoint, but not directly useful to their current task. He carefully sealed each of these cases up, setting them on the ground until he went through them all. The last tube he pulled out had a gash in it, but a careful opening revealed a scroll coated in some kind of clear lacquer, flexible enough to move with the paper, but apparently impervious to the plague's effects, as the paper inside looked like it had been made mere days ago, pristine. And the text on it was intriguing on its own, chronicling the spread of the disease in a series of short report segments arranged by day, its spread from "The lab zero" to covering the entire country in a manner of days. The eruption of the dead walking again, other beings it named 'Bone Chimera's' tearing through villages like paper, and more besides.

It was too bad this was all written in an ancient language Inkormine didn't know, wasn't it? However, he did see the neatly typed and laid out in chronically style, and Johann might be able to read this. This, at least, seemed like it would be good to take directly. Inkormine pulled one of a few tubes of various sizes from his pack, this one intended for a map if they were here long enough to make or need a full fledged map, but the perfect size to instead put this in, letting him seal it in an airtight, non-contaminated container. After that he used a short length of silk rope to tie the various other scrolls that were still legible together, setting the pyramid of them on the table near the door for later retrieval and examination by someone who could actually read them. Then, Inky went on to the only other door in here, stepping into a bedroom.

As Inkormine started shuffling through assorted drawers and things, his sound covered up the sound of scratching and scraping from the room behind him, and the soft thud of stone falling a short distance onto wood, as a partial brick was dislodged from an ancient wall, and a small buzz came through, followed by a single, chitin-covered leg, the soft red glow of eyes shining through the dark gap...

Inkormine gently opened the book he'd found in one of this dorm-like bedrooms floor chests, flipping through the handwritten pages for a few seconds, then closing it. Seemed like this book was still in good enough shape to actually be handled, which meant it could be useful to them too. He gently slid it into a pocket of his bag, then paused as his ear twitched. Had he just heard something?

Taking the aggressive approach, Inkormine whipped around, hands glowing as magic gathered for a first strike... only to find the room still empty. Inkormine shook his head, hand cooling as he tried to calm his rapid breathing. Clearly the house was empty, he was just being paranoid. "Calm down Inkormine, your just panicking a little. Theres nothing in the creepy house but you. You already looked, your all alone, all -" He was turning around when suddenly he saw something move above him. A surprised shout was almost there when something sickly green and glowing shot out of the darkness as he began to make out an outline, several outlines, up there, a burst heading straight at his face before he could even think about moving. Suddenly his jaw was locked as his face was covered in this sticky stuff, mouth locked open with a strange unpleasent rotten taste in his mouth, barely able to hear, only able to open one eye from the reflexive closing of his eyes at something flying at them. His hands scrabbled at the strange stretchy stuff that reminded him of webbing in only the most sickly ways, trying to get it off but only succeeding in useless tugging, since his own natural abilities kept his gloves from getting stuck. He reacher for the knife at his frontmost right leg, only to hear a very muffled screech. Instinctively, the spider flung his left arm up as he grabbed the hilt of his knife, catching the giant monstrous bug thing in the middle as it smacked into his arm, the strange hybrid of ant and centipede scrabbling at his arm as a mouth opened up to reveal fangs more at home on a predatory cat, that chomped into the panicked spiders arm. He braced for the pain an likely venom as he drew the knife... but there was nothing. The thing chomped again, but again, nothing. It couldn't bite through the toughened leather gloves!

Inkormine would have laughed if he could make a sound through the webbing, but instead flung his arm, hard, to the side, bashing the thing against one of the beds, bending the ancient rusted metal with an audible crack of monster chitin, a spurt of bright green hitting the metal and sizzling right through it in an instant. Bad news, looks like these things have acid for blood! Fan-freaking-TASTIC! Inky thought angrily as he dislodged the bug, and then started seeing more, pulling up the knife as a sort of puny weapon as his arms crossed over him, and he faded into the eclipse night of his hidden spell. The creatures were momentarily confused at the sudden silhouette, but the lash of fire wrapping around one, causing it to screech in pain as it roasted alive, got the rest attacking with a vengeance.

Unfortunatly, it was too late for these things, as Inkormine had regained his footing, and soon glowing magic circles formed at the windows, projecting bolts of heat and cold, sending these insects ragdolling around the room, as they weren't that strong individually, and Inky had managed to calm down enough to not blow up the whole house at least. He was panting as the last of the bugs collapsed, sliding down the wall to land on the floor with a sickly splat, drops of green melting tiny holes through the floor, breath shallow through the sticky fluid cvovering mouth and nose. A quick headcount showed nine of these corpses scattered throughout the two rooms, plenty more then enough for the normally not bothered by insects spider.

Inky brought the knife up to his face to cut the stuff off, fading back to normal, only for a bookcase to fall on him. At least thats what the thing felt like as it slammed into the spiders back, knocking him off his feet and onto his face in a really awkward spider pile. Only a hasty grab stopped the thing from biting him enough to inject whatever they used as venom, the sharp pain on his back amplified as he used those same muscles to throw the probobly eighty pound spider/bee away from him, the sharp pain starting to fade without any burning meaning he seemed to have not been poisoned. but the thing suddenly sprouted a spike from its back as it hopped up onto the wall, bracing to leap again, and Inky only had a moment to act.

The glint of metal flying through the air almost seemed like slow motion to Inkormine as the knife twirled through the air towards the creature... and the hilt slammed into its back, richochetting off. But this did stun it, letting the bolt of cold slam it into the wall hard enough to send cracks along the woodwork, and letting Inky's Sun Whip wrap around it and burn it out, small flames coming from its eye sockets as the whip dissipated and it collapsed, leaving Inky to stand, gasping for air, tugging at the face mask he'd had put on him, hand scrabbling to draw a combat knife and cut open the mouth of it, letting him finally get a real breath of air before he passed out, a desperate gasp turning into a fit of coughing as loose slime-thread got sucked in with the air, before being coughed back out as the spider nearly collapsed again, just... breathing, for a second, trying to get his wind back and his heart rate down below about a billion beats a second, pulling on the mask as he did, tearing off more and more bits of it.


WC: 2053 + 2003 = 4056/8700

- Grass Vipers 10/10
- Pathogen Walkers 0/20
- Pathogen Knights 0/10
- Plague Bugs 10/10
- Bone Chimera 1/1

The morning sun was already well above the horizon in the Kingdom of Dragnof. It's warmth was burning off the morning dew, bringing a blanket of mist to the field young Arcadia now stood in.

The morning sun was already well above the horizon in the Kingdom of Dragnof. It's warmth was burning off the morning dew...

The morning sun was already well above the horizon...

Arcadia shut her eyes tight, and tried to shake her mind clear. She could not feel any shred of the dream demon's presence, a she had no headache. There was no reason that horrid medley should be trying so hard to trigger itself all over again. Yet whenever she looked in the ruins, her mind would find something that lead back to that morning in Dragnof. A small part of her wondered if those poor, wretched things she helped put down were the citizens of Dragnof core hack to drag her into dust with them.

The morning sun was already well above the horizon...

There it was again. Arcadia tried again to shake the memory away again, but for a moment she really did see that deceptively beautiful morning sun sitting in the sky above the ruined village. It caused her to think out loud for a second. "It was such a pretty day."

The barefoot slayer glanced around to her teammates, hoping they did not hear that our at least ignored it. To her relief, the memory seemed to subside again for the moment. With some regained clarity, she pondered how this could be so persistent without the dream demon around. The only thing she could postulate was that maybe it left behind a longer acting curse than usual.

There was no time to think much more on it. She still had a mission to do, so the barefoot slayer focused her currently glowing crimson gaze to the gory remains scattered on the ground around her. Arcadia took a few close ups of the more intact fragments, adding some observations about then and walkers they came from to her notes. All in all, she was glad to have not been bit by one of them. She meant to keep it that way.

Her attention turned back to Johann to listen in on his further instructions. While listening, the white haired slayer glanced quickly at each of her other teammates.  The lamia, Panacea, fellow slayer, 7, and the spider, Inkormine, had all surpassed anything she hoped for in demonstration of their skill. Arcadia had managed to handle the fifteen or so walkers she had found herself surrounded by, but she did not want to think what would have happened without her teammates there to take on all the rest of that first wave. She just hoped she would not fail any of them.

Neither did she wish to fail Mahdude. After her recent struggles with the dream demon, she was wondering if he was not crazy after all. It had not occured to her before, that having some demon or spirit haunt him could explain why he talks himself in doesn't voices sometimes. Then again, maybe she was just starting to lose her mind too, and it was only a matter of time before was talking to herself. Flashing back just a free minutes, Arcadia remembered she kinda already was with the way some of her recurring waking nightmare had leaked out verbally.

Crazy or not, Mahdude was also scarily effective at running down the last of the horde. She knew that much about him already though. All in all, she was feeling pretty confident about their chances of pulling off this mission without one of them falling ill. An abundance of caution and their combined skill could see to that.

That said, when Johann steered them back toward the mission's main objective, Arcadia's optimism sank back down a little. True, they would still be in earshot, but that was not the safety of visual contact her optimism had built itself on. Arcadia picked a set of nearby ruined stores with what looked like had been a house at the end of the compound, heading off toward them.

The morning sun was already well above the horizon in the Kingdom of Dragnof. It's warmth was burning off the morning dew...

Arcadia once more shook away the terrible memory. The advanced state of decay the stores and house she had chosen to investigate did not help keep her mind off Dragnof. The compound had no roof to speak of, and even some the walls had crumbled. Only in a handful of places did any of the ruined old walls still stand close to their original height. Various piles of rubble and dusty detritus lay scattered between what was left of the walls. Her memory triggered itself from there.

That was dangerous enough with the others more close by. Now it had prevented her from noticing a corpse hidden amongst the rubble. Small bits of wood and other rubble cascaded off the corpse as rose to its feet. This wretched plague creature had waited until Arcadia passed by to launch it ambush from behind. Intelligence was not the only thing that was different about this walker from the others they had already faced. It was clad in full plate armor, and armed with a longsword. If not for her dragon trained ears and the vibration of its footsteps, and the dead knight's armor clanging as it moved, Arcadia would not have seen her doom coming. Even with her slayer hearing, she barely had time to spin and face her would-be killer. She threw one arm up in front of her face in reflexive defense. The formation of an ice blade over her arm helped deflect the dead knight's blow harmlessly away. The force behind it was enough to render her conjured blade of ice into useless ice dust, and staggered her backward a step or two.

On the defensive, Arcadia did not have the time nor space to counterattack. Her icy roar would be interrupted by the knight's next swing, punching or kicking would carry her straight into the path of that swing. Instead, she waited for the knight to close in and. swing its blade back for her head.

The barefoot slayer tapped into her dimensional scissors, and opened a small portal in front of her face to intercept the knight's sword. She opened the exit portal directly behind the thing's own head, turning the knight's attack on it exposed skull. The created a small fracture in its skull and staggered it forward a step. It was also bowed forward from the force of the hit. Having done their job, the portals closed.

Arcadia struck would the opportunity was open, driving her left elbow through the back off the knight's fractured skull while it was stooped over. It was forced face first into the ground, and did not rise again. It all happened in a matter of seconds, but each heartbeat had felt like ours own eternity. It was also her second close call because of that stupid dream demon. The demon may have left, but that curse it left behind could get her killed next time.

If there was one saving grace, Arcadia was grateful that adrenaline seemed to keep curse at bay. That meant rooting for herself to be under constant threat of loss threatening danger unto the mission was over. Any calm or restful periods would only allow the curse to trigger at the most inopportune and dangerous time. There could be something lurking in this island that would give her even the slim chance to react the knight did. Since that was something beyond her control, the barefoot slayer could only hope the dream demon's curse wore off soon.

The white haired girl picked the longsword from where it had fallen from the knight's grasp. "This should let me deal with any more surprises without having to risk touching them." She looted the sword's decrepit sheath from the knight, fashioning it over her head to hang on one shoulder and over her opposite side. This way she could carry the sword on her back.

Thankfully, the knight turned out to be the only walker that had been waiting in the ground level ruins of the stores. Sadly, despite carefully picking through stores' rubble, and even the rubble among the ruins of the attached house, the knight was the only thing she found at all. She was about to head back toward the others, but she figured she would walk around the perimeter of the ruined compound once just to be sure. For the most part, she only find more nothing. Beyond the far side of the attached house though, in an adjacent field, she found doors to a storm cellar.

As a precaution, Arcadia had been searching with her refraction spell up. It displaced her image a couple meters away from where she truly was. Any more walkers would stoke at empty air. For the storm cellar, she felt more than one false image of herself would be prudent in such a confined space. The barefoot slayer would remain invisible, and conjure about eleven illusional copies of herself.

The cellar doors were barred shut took the inside, but the wood they were made from was as dead and rotted out as anything else on this island. That mad busting them in easy as one, two, three stomps. Splintering open the doors was sure to attract the attention of anything that might be waiting down there. Arcadia, shifted the output of her magic back to ice from crystal, and slipped into a single file line with her eleven copies. She spaced them out so she fit between the seventh and eighth visible Arcadia. There was certainly something down there, the concentrated stench made the stench of death and decay around the rear of the island feel like fresh air. She was staggered by this magnified stench alone.

Arcadia had to pause, and give herself time to acclimate. It was able could do to keep herself from passing out. She swallowed acidic bile back down her throat, and dried her watering eyes. While she wondered if she would ever be able to smell again after this, Arcadia's ears were still sharp. She could hear several somethings stirring at the bottom of the stairs.

The still invisible slayer froze and unfroze her bare feet and hands to the wall to climb up and crawl along the cellar ceiling. She was expecting the possibility of another ambush, but the she sprung with her images running out from the stairs would have been overwhelming. Arcadia would not have stood a chance against the four dead knights and ten more normal walkers that met her images. None of these knights were in full plate armor, mostly leather or just a chestplate. They swarmed the first image to emerge from the stairs down into the cellar. The white haired slayer lost that first image and three others, before the rest managed to duck or roll around the swarming walkers.

Normally, it would be bad to lose that many copies so soon. Each one lost, was one less diversion later. How the walkers had mostly bunched together to do that, however, gave Arcadia a golden opportunity. From the ceiling, she roared a torrent of freezing mist and deadly shower of glittering razor ice shards. With a simple turn off her head, Arcadia coated the floor around the stairs in ice, and gave three of the knights and six of the normal walkers a frosty end. They fell covered in or broken by ice.

While she remained invisible, her breath shack did give a general direction of where she was. She did not linger in place for the remaining walkers to figure it out. Conjuring an indoor snowstorm, Arcadia scrambled across the ceiling. The conjured blizzard carried some frostbite, but its chill mostly slowed the walkers down.

The seven remaining illusions of Arcadia spread out all over the cellar, running distractions. She had one image come in behind the last remaining knight, while it was focused on studying the ceiling. Drawing the longsword from her back, she transferred herself into the image behind the knight. The image took her place on the ceiling, and Arcadia lopped off the last knight's head before the undead thing knew she was there. The restored chill of her Dragon Force aura combined with the chill of the conjured blizzard kept the knight from moving anyway.

She dismissed her invisibility, because any walker heading her way made it that much easier to finish them off. Like the knight before them, the last walkers were rendered helpless the instant they came close enough to Arcadia to be under the influence of both her chilling aura and the blizzard's cold. Without magical warmth or mobility magic, their joints froze stiff. They were left easy marks for her to cleave through.

When there was no danger left in the cellar, Arcadia dismissed her remaining illusionary copies and the blizzard. Sheathing the longsword, she started her search. There was a light dusting of snow on everything, but not enough to hide things. She wandered around the cellar, searching thoroughly in, around and under everything left behind by the cellar's former occupants. Unlike the adjacent ruined stores above, there was plenty of surviving nick-knacks down here, but  nothing that would be of use. What she did find  started to form a story in her mind though. A story of the walkers she had just put to rest, and their last days alive.  

Arcadia gave the cellar one last look over, taking a closer look at  a few items she had dismissed as incidental before. Under the tatters of an old blanket, she discovered something useful. Her elation to find something to report back with was short lived. It was a leather-bound journal that was barely still held together. Delicately going through the pages, the story  it held proved out the vague story she had pieced together from the rest of their left-behind belongings.  A story that saddened the young slayer the more she read.  From what she could tell, the walkers she had put to rest had survived longer into the plague than most, and had huddled down here in the cellar together to hide from the plague and some of the same creatures she had already faced. Plus a few she had personally seen yet. Arcadia photo documented the entries on the plague creatures the plague survivors had faced before finally succumbing to it themselves with her iLac.  Crude , but useful illustrations accompanied the survivors' accounts of their encounters. She added a few observations on what she had read in the journal, before carefully  slipping it into her knapsack. The journal could be studied more in depth in the safety of one  of the alliance guildhalls.

WC: 2488
Arcadia WC: 5271/12,500


Monsters

- Grass Vipers 10/10
- Pathogen Walkers 10/20
- Pathogen Knights 5/10
- Plague Bugs 10/10
- Bone Chimera 1/1

At least it looked like everyone had made it through the scuffle without having sustained any sort of wound from bites or claws, one large possible source of infection thus eliminated. The silver-haired Vice President breathed a subtle sigh of relief, looking about. The atmosphere here, now more than ever, seemed cold and depressing, the small village centered around the town square surrounded by a despondent chill. It was as if the land itself was withering away, slowly succumbing to whatever curses and misery had been placed upon it by this plague, the smell of rot and decay now more than ever present in the soft breeze. Just what exactly would the group get themselves into? Only time would tell. In any case, everyone scattered about, seeking out their respective targets in hopes of finding something related to their mission within this devastated place, the God of Ishgar doing the same, eyeing a somewhat larger, white stone building at the other side of the town square. The town hall perhaps? He'd have to find out.

With hasted and determined steps, the damp dirt crunching lightly under his feet with each move, the Rune Mage, his left eye still glowing with eerie, charcoal darkness and crimson, made his way towards the building, paying little moments of attention to the fellow members of this scouting party only by passing side glances as they all entered the respective domicile or area they had picked out. Of course, for Mars and his heightened senses, they would remain within earshot, though he hoped that this fact would remain true for each other as well. What purpose, after all, had a team without jolly cooperation. Without giving the matter much more thought, the man simply walked up to the large front entrance of the stone building, a door of admittedly rotten, though once probably solid and sturdy construction blocking his advance. Without paying this circumstance much mind, the Vice President raised one leg and, in a quick sweep without further ado, kicked it in, the door, rusted hinges still attached, sent flying into the building itself, with audible crack crashing into a shelf.

So far, so good. No horde of undead came sprinting at him in their restless fury, and more than that, his ears picked up no movement from inside the house at all, other than a few oversized, mutated flies that seemed startled by the sudden movement, scared away from whatever rotting mucus they had been feasting on. The dust-smeared windows only allowed dim light to enter what appeared like an entrance hall of sorts, the now open doorway the only reliable source of admittedly sparse daylight, illuminating what seemed like a large round table, chairs all around it, a counter vaguely visible in the darkness behind. Joh closed his right eye, the flood of conflicting information reduced to only the visual input from the ocular capable of piercing the omnipresent twilight. "I see ...", he mumbled to himself quietly as if lost in thought, letting his gaze swerve slowly from the left side to the right of the wide room. It seemed like this building had served a very distinct purpose, at least that was what Johann presumed. It appeared like he was standing in the ever-rotting remains of what had once been a guild hall.

The walls were covered in dust-greyed red and gold banners, the simplistic, yet functional symbol of the organization adorning all of them. A half-snapped blackboard in one corner of the room had served as their job board, and the bar and reception area was still somewhat intact, bottles filled with dull liquid neatly arranged on display behind it. It was truly a tragedy. The room, apart from the dust and occasional blackened stain that looked suspiciously like long, long dried blood, appeared as if frozen in time. Glasses were still sitting on the bar counter, ceramic plates and rusty cutlery positioned as if someone just had set them down for a meal. It seemed bizarre, and a part of him wondered what this place had been like a long time ago when laughter would still fill these halls, when friendships were formed here and adventures had. Maybe there had been someone like himself here? It mattered not. Everything had given way to death and decay. The man stepped inside, slowly, cautiously, the floorboards creaking with every gentle step. The leader of the small scouting party looked around. No obvious source of information in sight, aside from ancient flyers which had described jobs that would perhaps never reach a conclusion, or perhaps would never need one, in detail, long since yellowed, the ink on them vanished.

It made sense. They wouldn't keep sensible information, or really any information about the guild for that matter, in the guild hall itself, which would be open to the public. No, there had to be some room in here that had served as this guild's archive, if something like that even existed here. Of course, the man wasn't entirely sure of all the procedures required to run a guild, though ... if there was one thing Johann more than knowledgeable about it would, with certainty, be paperwork. The books and paper they had used as a storage medium for their information, Johann was convinced, would not be found in the cellar. The damp air would ruin the ink and parchment, meaning the objects of his desire would likely be on the second floor, where he assumed the offices had been located. He would still search the basement later ... just in case. With that, the man set his sights on the stairwell that led up to the second floor, proceeding with the same caution from before, his open eye methodically searching through the room, the silver-haired male trying to piece together the events that had occurred here after the plague had broken out. Perhaps the guild members had barricaded themselves within this building? Unlikely, the windows and entrances seemed untouched. From the state of the interior, it seemed like when news of the plague approaching had arrived the members had simply fled. Perhaps their best option.

With now quicker steps, the man had reached the stairs, walking up before turning a corner that would lead to another set of stairs further up to the second floor, stopping just when he did so. His heightened sense of smell had picked up the scent before his eyes had spotted the corpse, a sickly, slumped form sat against the stone walls of the building, emanating an unbearable stench of foulness and death. Johann swallowed hard to stop himself from gagging. Still, a few observations stuck with the VP. The body was dressed in what appeared like decent light armor of metallic origin, a helmet covering most of the head. Seemed like he had stumbled over one of the long-deceased members of this guild. He sighed, moving forward once again, his thoughts going back to the task he had come here for originally. He simply had no time to be held up by insignificant things like this one. Though, this time, he did not get very far, taking two steps when the corpse suddenly sprung to life as if it had waited in ambush for just the right moment, plunging a clawed hand down into the VP's calf as it pulled itself up with a beastly snarl, Johann staring right down into its semi-skeletal eyes. The sharp pain triggered an instant reaction, Mars, more out of instinct than anything, pushing himself to the forefront of consciousness within the vessel, grabbing the creature by the head and hurling it through the air, smashing it into one of the stone walls. The material broke with a loud crack, splinters and dust erupting out in a cloud of grey filling the stairwell, dissipating after just a few moments, the upper half of the undead now a bloody smear spread across a crater in the wall, it's lower half slowly sinking to the ground.

It seemed like this triggered a reaction, the formerly dead silent space beginning to erupt in vicious growls and snarls, bodies beginning to shuffle and doors bursting open. So much for empty and abandoned. Within seconds, the creatures that had been dubbed "Pathogen Walkers" were charging at him from both sides. The God of Strength braced himself, raising his fists in anticipation of the first wave, his right eye now, too, changing color, the two pupils piercing the darkness with intense, carmine glow. A snarling, awkwardly stumbling zombie basically threw itself at him from further up, flying down the stairs, Johann's gloved fist meeting the creature's rotten face mid-jump, it's neck snapping audibly as it the swing launched it back the way it had come, the creature crashing into something out of sight. It did not take long for the second one to follow up. The runes on the man's body slowly began to glow, black scripture digging its way across all visible skin before it was set alight with magical energy. In a sudden burst of speed, the Vice President moved to intercept the monstrosity, grabbing the stretched out, clawed hand and twisted it around its own axis and bending it inward, the creature's radius and ulna crushed in the process, causing the decaying limb to dangle from the extremity without support. The creature would, as presumed, barely notice this circumstance, and instead swing its other arm around for a strike at the man that was now within close distance. Too close, in fact. The God of Ishgar barely had any room to fight, and so, after ducking under the strike and touching the zombie's torn open chest lightly with the tip of his index finger, jumped back, finding his way into the guild hall.

The creature that had been cursed by the man's magic turned to follow the VP with a guttural snarl, but stopped in its tracks just a moment later, a deeply black rune lighting up where the silver-haired scripture mage had touched it, its body, at once, turning brittle before slowly falling apart, leaving behind nothing but ash. Great, that was dealt with, but ... "Shit", the word rushed through the man's head as now more and more of these walkers emerged from the shadows, from all nooks and crannies, the relatively extensive hall quickly getting crowded. "This is all it takes to for you to break into a sweat?", the deep, distorted voice of Mars echoed through the man's head. "No. I-", Johann's attempt at a response was at once interrupted. "Looks like it's time for me to come out and play". The VP did not respond, rolling his eyes before closing and opening them just a moment later, a broad grin spreading across his face. "Now, I won't be as soft with you as the old man, tssehe", the Lord of War extending a hand, with a gesture, beckoning his mindless foes to come closer. Naturally, the foes did so without question and would have done so even without taunt. Mars hesitated not either, closing his fingers, his crimson and ink-black blade appearing in his hand. The first attacker lunged at him, causing Mars' grin to broaden. Without much bother, the Lord of War cut the creature down, a lazy sweep of the weapon separating the already withered monster into two, the lifeless halves sinking to the ground before him. The implication that the VP, his vessel, the vessel of the Second Seal wasn't able to deal with these lowly beasts by himself seemed almost offensive to War, a circumstance which, of course, he had come up with himself, an excuse to take control for a short period.

Naturally, for him, these weaklings were but playthings, however rotten and infected they may have been. It would only be fair, to himself and to the world, to rid this land of these parasites once and for all. With one practiced motion, he twisted the blade around, a set of iridescent, golden runes flaring up all along the blade of the sword, flowing into each other, intertwining, before just a moment later thrusting it upward, the room instantly filled with a blinding light. The creatures would stand no chance. Every corner, every cranny, every tiny bit of this hall would be cleansed by hallowed light, the blessing burning away at all foes until the light would rescind back into the weapon, the runes fading, leaving behind nothing but scattering ash. "And that, old man, is how it is done. You're welcome, Mortal, for I, the great Mars have-", the overdramatic monologue interrupted before Mars could go on again. "Yes, Mars, I know. Thank you so much". The sarcasm was evident. Still, now, finally, the Vice President of the West Fiore Trading Company could finish the job he had come here for in the first place.

Letting go of the blade, the weapon once more vanished into the thin air it had come from, it's wielder taking a deep breath. He had disregarded his own advice, staring down at his leg. Of course, the wound the walker had inflicted had already closed itself back up, but the plague had undoubtedly gotten into his bloodstream. There was no way around it ... he guessed he'd have to wait and see how it would affect him, if it would at all. Mars generally did a good job at keeping all sorts of infections, diseases, and parasites away from him, but ... this plague was different. As if nothing happened, the VP headed for the stairwell once more, this time actually making his way to the second floor.

This area of the building was lit more generously, daylight hitting the side of the hallway and an array of doors to the right from several large windows on the left. The first door on the right was snapped in half, a broken, mangled corpse thrown over what was left of the wooden construction. Johann peeked inside the room, his head swerving from left to right as his eyes wandered. It seemed like he had finally hit the jackpot. In the middle of this room was a wooden desk, the walls covered by shelves, old books, yellowed letters and endless piles of job flyers stacked on them. Seemed like he had found what he had been searching. A good few minutes later, the man exited the building, within his pocket something that had distinguished itself from the rest of the useless pieces of information he had found: A map. Admittedly, it was old and of relatively simple make, and yet, this was more than he had hoped to find, the now rolled up piece of paper he had found in a sealed coffer in one of the desks providing the group with a tangible benefit that would help them in their endeavour.

And it seems like he had found his way outside just in time as well.

It appeared all others had had similar encounters as well, the sounds of combat reaching his ears, his head immediately turning towards a very specific building It seemed like everyone was handling themselves, though ... "Sivvy ...". It was all he managed to produce in the form of a weak whisper before darting off towards the stone structure which, as it seemed, had been a home for someone a long time ago. Bursting into the house, Johann immediately began looking around, with hasted steps making his way from room to room, and still, nothing. There was no trace of the young woman, except for ... her scent. Johann took a deep breath, an endeavour that almost threatened to forcefully expel the contents of his stomach, but it was there, and it was coming from a certain directionleading him into what appeared like a long-abandoned office. The partially uncovered entrance into a dark space that led down behind a bookshelf was a surprising sight, though the mysterious shriek and the girl's scent both had come from down there. The silver-haired male did not need to think twice, rushing down the steps, his eyes once more becoming seemingly dancing orbs of red within deep darkness. Admittedly, however, with the complete absence of light, it was hard to see, Johann consequently lighting up the runes on one of his hands with discoloured fire, the purple glow providing a decent enough light source to see into the hallway before him, his eyes immediately widening when he saw it.

"Sivvy!", he called out, rushing over to the young woman. She was wounded. Only now Johann's intrigued gaze would find the remains of the amalgamation of flesh and bones that lay slumped on the cold concrete ground. "What the hell is this?", the question was wholly redundant. The essentials he could deduce himself, the thing hadn't been friendly, the girl had killed it, she had sustained an injury. She probably wouldn't know much more about it than he. "Are you hurt, Sivvy? Let me see", he kneeled down to inspect her leg. It was a pretty nasty wound. The creatures monstrous teeth had torn into her with ease, it seemed. The God of Ishgar frowned. If only he had been a little faster ...

"Don't move", he instructed his mentee with serious tone before continuing "This might sting a little". Well, perhaps, in truth, more than just a little. He couldn't be sure how her body would react to the negative maledict, but if he wouldn't act now, there was a good chance this wound would be infected, and she would likely lose the leg. A risk the VP wasn't willing to take. Not when it came to the girl. She insisted on being useful, and he figured that it would be within her interest to keep her in a state that allowed for her to be. The skin on his arm turned into an ashen white, turqouis lines running down the extremity before finally coalescing in his hand, gently brushing from one end of the wound to the other. It was probably accompanied by harsh pain, but the wound would close back up, the bone, the tissue, the skin, all would be restored back to their previously undamaged state. Briefly, around the girl's head, a swirling halo of charcoal-black crystals would appear, but vanish as quickly as they had come. Johann breathed a sigh of relief before standing back up. "Let's talk about this outside. Can you walk?". He would ask specifically about that due to the side effects of the maledict. Perhaps she couldn't even feel her leg, let alone move it, in which case he would, wordlessly gesture for the girl to get on his back so he could carry her. If she could, well ... all the better.

Regardless, he would find his way back outside with his mentee, from where he would once more call back the group with a snap of his fingers, his voice amplified by his runic magic. "Everyone, please return at once".

As soon as they all had returned back outside and come back together, Johann would speak once more. "Okay, with certainty, I can say that we are not safe here. This is not a suitable place for a forward operations base". Well, that much was obvious. In honesty, he wouldn't blame these people for thinking him incompetent for putting them through all this trouble. "We'll keep looking for somewhere to rest. Hold on to the things you have discovered for now. We can talk about that later, for now it's important we keep moving". That said, it was time to discuss one finding. "I managed to stumble upon an old map detailing the region, and it seems like there is a larger city about a days march away from here. That is our new destination. I'm certain we will find information about this plague there. That said, we'll have to make camp somewhere along the way". With that, the man took a deep breath. "If there's anything of importance, please let me know now. If there's injuries, I will heal them. Any questions?". He would, using the maledict, heal any injuries that would need treatment, and would, of course, answer all questions the group had.

After that, he would bring out his compass and take a look at the map before poiting the group in a direction and give the marching order. They would have a good few hours on the road ahead of them, and they had to be prepared, though, of course, there would be more than enough time for conversation. Additionally, the man was more than happy to, on the journey, discuss any findings the members of the scouting party had made. Of course, if the girl would so desire or if it was required, he would still carry Sivvy. It truly seemed like this place was a lot more dangerous than he, or anyone involved in the planning of these missions, had anticipated. Well, for now, they'd have to grit their teeth and make the best of what they had with whatever they could. The plague had to be stopped at all costs.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Word Count: 3.649
Word Count Total: 7.348 / 12.500

Searching through the house Panacea was trying to find anything of use at all. So far she wasn't having much success. The broken vials had been a hint that someone had been using this building as a place to study the plague, but whoever it had been they either had left with their findings at some point or they'd never gotten anywhere before the plague consumed them as well. Or the plague had consumed the findings just like it had consumed everything else. While she was loathe to do this she practically crawled across the floor, her clothing nearly brushing against the rot-covered wood that had once been the support of many footsteps. The white scales that clad the bottom of her tail were already covered in dirt, pieces of dried grass and other such things of unfavourable nature. If she stuck around in this quarantined area for much longer she'd smell just as bad as the plague itself. On one hand that would be terrible, since this entire zone was such a horror to the nose that most people would most likely have passed out already, their front covered in vomit as their body tried to expel the disease that had yet to actually enter the body. On the other... well, at least by that point she'd have become used to the stench herself so at the very least she would no longer suffer from the constant urge to gag. Although she'd have to take a shower once they got out... or a bath. Probably better to take a bath. She would need a lot of water and cleansing chemicals to get rid of this kind of stench. And all these clothes would have to be burned and the ashes would have to be set on fire again with something stronger.

But the reason why she was practically crawling through the refuse was because while she had little hopes of finding anything in this building she at the very least had to try. With gloved hands she carefully moved aside what felt like... shattered pieces of bone. No, not shattered. She picked up a piece and looked at it with her red serpentine eyes. It was definitely bone now that she was studying it closely, although she had to clean it with some spit (very reluctantly provided). It was too small a piece to identify what kind of creature it had belonged to, but most likely it had been a human. One of the victims of the plague no doubt. That was in itself nothing new, but how it came to be in such small pieces... she doubted that anything was going around smashing the corpses: anything that wanted to prevent the spreading of the plague wouldn't resort to smashing the corpses, they'd burn them the same way that she was planning to burn all these clothes once this was over. With lots of fire and extreme prejudice. Smashing them wouldn't do anything, it'd just mean that pieces of potential corruption would be lying around where they would be harder to notice and easier to get infected by.

No, this didn't look like it was intentional. Inspecting the sides which had obviously been attached to more bone the surface was too rough, with a highly irregular texture to it. At the same time it also had a somewhat soft sensation to it... What a nasty plague they were dealing with. Not only did it kill pretty much everything that came into contact with it, but it looked like it could even destroy the corpses afterwards depending on the circumstances. If she was understanding the situation correctly what had happened here was that some of that liquid from those vials had ended up in this spot, and over the years it had eaten away at the bodies until finally those had fallen apart into small pieces. The bones were the only things that remained, and even those were barely recognizeable as anything more than the smallest flecks of what had once been a person. Sighing the lamia considered what to do with this. It hadn't been like anything she had been hoping to find, but maybe it was still something. A little sample which showed how the plague could interact with living tissue if distilled and then left to work its magic for a prolonged period of time? Given the fact that outside they had just now suffered an attack from a bunch of near-zombies the plague didn't always do that. Maybe it was useless information. Or maybe it wasn't and if she left this behind she'd end up regretting it as it turned out to be that one piece of vital information which would help them figure out how to get rid of this monstrosity of a plague, which had wreaked havoc on this continent in countless years past, had never been tamed or defeated, and which would now spread to the modern world if not stopped. Could she afford to take the chance of throwing away what could be the key?

Probably. It was just a piece of bone. This entire quarantined zone was filled to the brim by things which had been ravaged, hollowed out, corrupted, twisted and devoured by the plague. This piece of bone wasn't going to act the part of the missing link which would make everything else fall into place. Especially since it didn't actually reveal any information beyond 'knowing that the plague ruins all living tissue, if said living tissue is left exposed to the plague for extended periods of time it can cause the entire body to be consumed over the years, to the point that even bones deteriorate to a state where they fall apart'. If she were to take this with her to the others it would be because she really couldn't find anything else that might provide more useful information. Well, despite her dismissing the thought she would at least try to find something of a container for this piece of bone. And some other shards if she could find them. It wasn't like keeping this with her was going to hurt her later on. If she found something more deserving of storing she'd just throw the bone away.

Although that did set her thinking... she still felt like she was grasping at straws to find something useful, but there might be another body part which had been survived which could be useful in its own way. She slithered over to the table where the broken vials adorned the surface, then moved back to where she found the bone and began to look around, this time with more passion. Cloth-covered hands meticulously picked apart the garbage that littered the floor, making neat piles of all the different materials. Mostly it came down to rotten grass and other plants which had conquered the house once it was abandoned by humans and then themselves suffered the same fate. There were some carcasses of very tiny creatures as well, although any bugs that might have died here had already completely wasted away. A lack of bones would have that kind of effect when faced with this kind of indiscriminate consumer of anything living. But amidst those tiny carcasses and the plants she found some more pieces of bone, but more importantly: she found the teeth. They were spread out across about a square foot of area, most likely one by one rolling out of the rotten maw as the bone began to succumb to the passage of time and the all-devouring disease. But compared to teeth even bones were fragile: it was one of those facts everyone knew that teeth were the strongest part of the human body. While Panacea wasn't sure if that was still true for humans which lived so long ago it did appear to be the case as she actually managed to find the complete set.

While she didn't have time to play forensic she definitely thought it worth to take these teeth with her. They might not say anything about the plague directly, but they served a different use. The fact that teeth could endure where the rest of the body had already crumbled to dust meant that they were the most desired body parts for someone who wanted to learn something about someone who had been dead for a long time. Age, gender, health... an expert could tell you the story of someone's life if you could give them the whole set of teeth. They didn't even need magic for that, just a good eye for detail and a good memory for remembering what detail stood for what kind of event. The teeth were definitely more valuable than the bone in that regard. It might not tell them about the plague, but with the teeth they could see exactly how old this town was, and maybe even what kind of people had lived here. There were different types of human in the same way that there were different types of dogs.

Now that she had something worth storing away the next step was to find a storage. She didn't want to use her pouches for this, given that inside those pouches there were objects which she wanted to preserve after this mission had come to an end. Looking around the lamia went back towards the table, placing the teeth next to the shards of bone before she began to dig around underneath the table. If the people here were human when they were still alive that meant they had traits and habits just like everyone else, and one trait that Panacea was aware of was that when people wanted to keep something close they often kept it in places where it could be easily reached but still out of the way. Under the table, for example.

There was a lot of garbage here just like everywhere else, but with some digging the white-scaled serpentess dug out what looked like a bag. And actually in usable shape. Sure, it was dirty and worn and had a stench like it had been made out of the unwashed hide of a skunk after it had been left to rot for a thousand years, but it would still do the job. Some might find that surprising, but Panacea thought that if there was any piece of clothing/textile product that would survive such an apocalyptic even it would be a bag. It was the kind of thing people used to store valuable objects, so it was the kind of thing they tried their best to make as sturdy as possible. Cleaning out the bag she dug out more rotten plants and carcasses (they were literally everywhere. Just how desperate had everything living in this place been to find some place where it could survive before the plague had claimed it as well?) she put the bone shards and the teeth inside. Bundling the cloth she placed it on the table so she wouldn't forget to grab it once it was time to leave, then resumed her search of the rest of the building.

There wasn't a lot of building to search. She'd already concluded that there had been two bedrooms, but the only thing left of the beds were some pieces of wood. However now that she'd found at least something she thought worth taking back with her she was going to go the full mile, so the bedrooms got the same treatment as the research room. Studying the pieces of wood she eventually decided that they were too large and unwieldy to take back with her in the name of science, so she left those there. Covering the floor like she had done before she found more tiny lifeforms which had died here. She didn't find any bugs though, dead or alive. She'd already noted that bugs weren't going to leave corpses in a places where bodies got turned into skeletons (and not even that sometimes), but the complete lack of living bugs was in a way even worse. Bugs were ridiculously resilient. For there to be no bugs in this house... Well, maybe she'd just found a particularly bad place. Maybe there were other areas were there were still bugs. Which did set her thinking.

Her studying of the floor didn't provide anything else worth taking with her, but now she had another thought as she went back to the room with the vials. This entire building had been absolutely devastated by the plague. It hadn't even left bodies, even though outside there had been those plague zombies. Which in itself was odd. The fact that there was almost nothing at all in this building was also odd. From the outside the village had definitely looked deserted and consumed, but not like it was absolutely nothing more than stone walls covered in filth and nothing else. So why was this building so thoroughly ravaged?

It looked like these vials were too blame. Coming close enough to the glass that her red eye was only an inch away from it the light mage studied it more carefully. Shattered, yes... but now that she was looking more closely she thought she was seeing something important. What was inside of the vials... didn't look exactly like everything else she'd found so far. Very similar, but not quite. It was hard to explain exactly how... she blinked as she realized it. The contents were too uniform. Everything else had been chaos as different generations of lifeforms had been wiped out by the plague, dropping dead wherever and then wasting away together with those that came before them. But the mess inside of the vials was one single substance, even if it was a very, very ugly and smelly substance. And now that she was looking around she also found some shards of glass around the table. All around it. An important clue in itself. These vials hadn't been smashed. They'd blown up from the inside, scattering glass in all directions and spreading a good portion of its contents in the process. Whoever had been studying the plague here had been experimenting on it, possibly hoping that the disease would also serve as the foundation of the cure. But whatever they'd tried had backfired, instead turning the result of their experiment volatile and causing a catastrophical failure. A sad story of someone who tried to save their life and that of their loved ones, but it might be useful to those in the present. The remnants in the vials would differ from everything else they'd find as it had been experimented upon. While they wouldn't want to repeat what happened here the resulting substance appeared completely inert so at the very least it could be transported. Then it could be studied in a safe location with plenty of safeguards so any failures wouldn't spread, which was a lot better than the setup in this place (not that Panacea blamed the experimenter of the past, she was pretty sure they didn't have the luxury of designing the perfect containment system as people were dropping like flies).

Once more digging around underneath the table she managed to find a tiny vial which hadn't been smashed. It was completely empty, which was probably why it had survived where everything else hadn't. Maybe the experimenter had been hoping to store the cure in this vial once their research had borne fruit. For now it would serve as a container for the inert remains of their attempts at saving the world, or at least their world. The shattered glass made it a bit tricky to avoid spilling anything on herself, but with great care and concentration the lamia managed to safely pour some of the sample into the clean vial. Once it had been filled as far as she was confident that it wouldn't spill she quickly sealed it again. Even if it was inert she didn't want to try messing around with this stuff. With a vial of tested upon plague she could add that to her scavenged bag of possibly useful findings, although she had to sacrifice some cloth from her own pouches to serve as padding to ensure that the vial wouldn't break. She had been saving that cloth for bandages, but she had some left and this was more important than bandages. She hoped. She really hoped she wouldn't look back on this moment and end up wishing she hadn't sacrificed the bandage cloth for padding. This vial wouldn't do them any good if they didn't even manage to return safely after all.

With that done she looked around and tried to think of anything else she could take with her. she'd combed over pretty much every square centimeter of this building, picking apart the smallest pieces of garbage in search for anything of use. Her findings so far were some pieces of bone, the teeth (her personal favourite), and the vial of whatever the plague had turned into. Just what had that person from so long ago added to such a dangerous disease to have it become even more dangerous? Did she really want to know?

Looking at the entrance she froze, the lamia staring without moving before suddenly she facepalmed. Cursing to herself she looked at where her light had burned away a good portion of filth... and those strange snake-like things which had attacked her. There wasn't anything left of those things to take back with her: she'd been too thorough in her attempt to exterminate them from this world. At least nobody else had seen it happen so they couldn't berate her for being so reckless. And the only defence she had was that she had been caught off guard by them... and that she didn't know if anything other than utter destruction would have kept them down. While they'd looked and acted a lot like snakes she didn't think they actually were serpents. For one thing she hadn't ever seen anything like a mouth, they'd just lashed out at her with claws.

Pondering that decision of her to purge them with holy light she suddenly felt a burst of holy light from outside. Dashing outside she could feel an awe-inspiring amount of the brilliant element get used in the large white building. That felt like Johann, if only because he seemed like the only person who'd throw around that kind of power. She'd seen how the others fought and while she wasn't the only one of the group who could use the power of the light she doubted that was the spider who was responsible for this burst. Heading towards the white building in case Johann had encountered something which needed exterminating she ended up being too late for that, seeing their leader exit the building. Panacea was about to open her mouth to greet the man when she caught the same sounds that sent Johann on high alert, her head turning to look towards the source. Once the possibly insane powerhouse of a leader began to run the lamia followed, prepared to turn anything they encountered into an imprint on the retina of anyone watching.

Unfortunately the inside of the house was too narrow for the two of them to easily move around, especially with Panacea's long tail getting in the way and risking tripping them up. Waiting in the doorway she watched and listened as Johann stomped about in his attempt to find the one who was in danger, trying to search for them as best as she could while unable to enter the building proper. Once she could hear that Johann was moving with more purpose and direction she rushed after him, slithering down the stairs in time to watch him heal the girl who had decided that the best way to deal with the plague zombies was to sic a giant weaponized teddy bear upon them. An unorthodox move but admittedly quite effective.

She wanted to ask whether Johann had any idea whether Sivvy would be all right, but she could tell that this wasn't the time to bother him with questions he might have no way of answering. She got out of the way so the rune master and his protegé could get out of the room and back outside, then glanced around the room and lingered on the remnants of the fleshy monstrosity before following them. What kind of situation had created that thing? The plague consumed, twisted and devoured. What had been mutated like that? Unlike the plague zombies it didn't look like the decayed version of a living thing, and it wasn't like the grassy not-snakes either.

---

Akeya watched as Johann called for everyone to gather, already standing next to him with folded arms as she looked around wither her outer serpentine alter-ego. She only left for a moment to briefly collect the bag with her findings, having left those inside the building when she rushed outside to find out where all that magic had been coming from. It would have been embarrassing if she'd forgot about the bag. However she didn't think it was time to show the commander what she'd found yet. They were currently in high alert due to being in the middle of a dangerous zone so scientific studies would have to take a backseat until they were safer. Even if safer could end up meaning outside of the quarantined zone.

She nodded in agreement to the statement that this place was too dangerous. While nobody looked as hurt as Sivvy it was clear that there were hostile entities everywhere in the village, hidden away or simply biding their time. It looked like she had actually been lucky when she'd only had to deal with some strange highly aggressive vines. As Johann explained the situation, including the map, the plan of moving to a city and the fact that they'd need to camp outside in the wilderness at least once, Akeya listened attentively, nodding several times. When the question came whether anyone had anything of imprtance the disguised dragoness considered her options before deciding to speak up. "I found some evidence that someone had been experimenting on the plague and had somehow made it even more devastating than in its natural state. I'm worried that we might find even worse in the city." The vial in her bag shouldn't be a threat, but if one person had experimented upon the plague more people had, and in the city there would have been more ways to use methods which could have had horrible results. If the city even existed at this point.

However despite voicing those worries Akeya's alter-ego would obediently follow the rune mage once it was time to move out. Having already stated what she found she didn't ask Johann any further questions, instead keeping a sharp eye out on their surroundings. Now that the danger they were in was steadily rising with their findings she was putting less effort into trying to hide her sensory abilities. From the outside it would look like Panacea was glaring at everything around them as if a serpent searching for prey, ready to strike at any point without warning or mercy. The bag with her findings was now attached to her waist with a string, carefully arranged so it wouldn't be in direct contact with her pouches. Both gloved hands were free and lifted slightly so she could use them the moment any threat showed itself, and she barely showed recognition of the rest of the group as she was entirely turned outwards towards anything that might threaten them.

WC: 3,941
TWC: 7,867/12,500

The clunking around upstairs was alarming at first. The noise hit her before the scents did, since her own blood as well as whatever fluid that dead creature was full of offered smells strong enough to mask everything until the distance was closed. Be it friend or foe, she used the sudden development to find out where the opening to the room was. Now she just had to decide whether she needed to try and position herself offensively or try her luck at escaping. Hiding was even on the table as of now, since she had no idea if what was coming toward her was friend or foe. The injured woman made an attempt to rise to her feet, but it was ultimately a failure. While the injury was grisly, it shouldn't have been incapacitating. Yet even crawling was beyond her ability. The pain was searing. Maybe that creature had had some sort of harmful secretions on its teeth? Or maybe the wound was worse than her fingers had been able to determine in the darkness. Pursing her lips in struggle as well as to stifle any vocalization of pain, the clone slowly dragged herself toward the opening.

Any light in pitch blackness seems bright, so as soon as whatever had been scuffling around above had thunked its way down the stairs into the hall of laboratories and illuminated the area with a purple glow she'd seen it. She'd just reached to draw the sword at her back when she finally caught the scents of two familiar people. 7'd barely had a second to relax when Johann appeared through the opening, calling her name and rushing to her side.

Sivvy took the healing like a champ. The only signs of discomfort were the biting of her bottom lip, one eye closing, and a single sharp inhale that she'd held for a few moments. Her pain tolerance was a bit above average considering all she'd endured, but this had certainly been more than the sting he'd warned about.

As much as she wanted to insist she could walk, she thought she'd better test it first. Much to her chagrin, she'd lost all feeling in the limb. A small jerk of her foot when she'd tried to move it was the only proof it might still function in time. If he hadn't come, she probably would have remained down here to rot with the violent creature she'd ended. Perhaps it was what she deserved, but she very much didn't want that to be the case. "Thank you, Johann...thank you both for coming for me," she spoke honestly, though the normally small smile playing on her lips had been replaced with a frown. Sivvy seemed almost upset. Her gratitude toward her mentor was obvious, but so was her frustration with herself that he'd needed to come to her aid in the first place. And not only him, but the lamia lady as well had followed. That was two people put out to come to check on her, so overall her error in combat had distracted from the mission and inconvenienced others. Making things worse by trying to improve them seemed to be the only thing she was good at these days, and that made her very sad.

With the admittance that she couldn't currently use her healed leg, she was now toted on the God of Ishgar's back. The rosy-haired girl fell quiet. While it wasn't painfully obvious, as was normal for her muted displays of emotion, Sivvy was dejected, possibly even moping. This was all the exact opposite of what she was trying to accomplish. All she did for a stretch of time was listen to Johann's decisive and commanding words, taking comfort in having an even clearer mission presented to her. Now if she could only get back on her feet and stop being a literal burden to him. Hopefully, by the time they made camp, she'd be back to normal.

"I found many things," Sivvy finally spoke up quietly from Johann's back, still rather sulky but still intent on making up for her misstep by hopefully finding useful information. "The building I checked had a secret lab underground. It looked like there'd been a decent sized operation with several rooms tasked with different things. The room at the end where the chimera was had several cages with human bones in them, so I'd say it's safe to assume they were experimenting on humans. The creature I killed appeared to be a strange merging of several of those surviving humans, somehow living down there all this time with no sustenance. Maybe the plague started out as an attempt to scientifically gain immortality, but was either sabotaged or ultimately flawed? I'd like to think it wasn't environmentally spurred evolution that made that thing," postulated the scientific experiment herself, bobbing along on her mentor's back. "Regardless of intent, whatever they were testing was unnatural. Maybe after the failure of whatever its original intention was, it was weaponized instead?" she asked, considering Panacea's words more closely. Why anyone would wish to release such a thing on the world, 7 couldn't fathom. What could be gained by exterminating yourselves along with everyone else with such a horrendous disease?

Mindful of her bag's pressure on her shoulder, she recalled the rest of the things she found. Might as well tell everyone of those while they made their way toward their campsite and ultimately the ruined city. "I also found a book in good shape and some notes that I think contain info on whatever their research was, but I couldn't read much of them. I took samples of old food from the kitchen to test for contaminants in hopes we can figure out how the plague was transmitted amongst everyone. I have samples of fluids from test tubes and pieces of bone, too. My iLac as quite a few pictures of the lab as well..." she trailed off, suddenly a bit self-conscious about how much she was speaking. She zipped her lips, finding she'd said all that was necessary. Now she waited to hear what everyone else had found, her curiosity piqued despite the grim situation.

[4750/7000]

It took Inkormine a moment to recover from his coughing fit, his face starting to glow as the pounding in his chest started to slow, calming down as the heat started flowing through him and onto his face, before a pulse of cool energy slid under the sticky stuff on his face as he finally got his magic fully back under control. Channeling the energy as he moved his arms slowly around the sticky mess, Inky grabbed the mass of green webbing and, with another pulse of the cool energies of the moon, pulled the whole mass off his face, sighing with relief as he could actually open both eyes and hear properly now. Just in time, it seemed, as he heard movement from nearby, as of someone rather heavily trodding through the grass, or at least what was left of the grass like substance that occupied the ground around here. But it didn't have the shambling sound of the Pathogen Walkers, and did sound bipedal, so it was either another new enemy, or just one of their team moving around. As they weren't coming his way, Inkormine decided to leave well enough alone, making that much noise, the rest of them would notice it before it got to them if the noise maker was an enemy.

As it was, Inkormine had a couple of new things to record now, between these insectoid things and the strange webbing that he now had a bunch of. But before any of that, it was a good time to do a self assessment. His chest hurt a bit, probably from the coughing fit after nearly breathing some of the weblike stuff, and, well, his back still hurt quite a bit, and a touch back there revealed blood and holes in his coat in very toothy shapes. He'd need to take care of those in a moment, but there was no evidence of poison in his bloodstream, or at least not any that had survived the cleansing fire warming his insides. So, it seemed he'd gotten through that with minimal injury, and a quick patch of spun silk and alcohol infused with lunar threads kept the bleeding from being an issue, leaving him free to finish up his exploring of the building.

Which he did, while quite consciously NOT considering any chance of being infected between breathing in the infected webbing and being bitten by a creature of the plague, because of course he wasn't infected. He couldn't be infected, with the benevolent protections of the sun holding him. He couldn't collapse in a fit of coughing fit to wake the dead, life slowly leaking away as the days passed and his family watched, unable to help, until dying and signalling a spiral of pain and despair leading into the family collapsing...

Inky hit the table hard enough to rattle the carefully bundled together scroll tubes, banishing the memories he had locked back long ago with the dull pain of the hit and the sound to pull him back to the present. Then he swore as one of the table legs snapped and the bundle fell to the floor, hastily being caught by the spider before they landed in the greyish gooey dust stuff on the floor that his front was already covered in. Inky sighed as he straightened up, before another thud was heard and more swearing as the low roof got the momentarily inattentive spider. "Gah, why does everyone outside my home city build their ceilings so LOW?! Some of us arent two meters tall exactly and like to STAND!" Inkormine grumbled in frustration as he added another bruise to the growing list of random pains he'd acquired in the past five minutes, carefully lowering his body some so he could move around, tying the scrolls to his bag and making his way out of the building with a frustrated sigh, and looking around.

All the other houses in this space, now that he actually took the time to look at them, seemed to barely be able to qualify as buildings anymore, collapsed walls and roofs making most of them really deserve the name of ruins. Walking a little closer to a nice (formerly) house down the way had Inkormine examining some of these ruins a little more closely. This led to him noticing something rather intimidating, as he ran a finger along one stone, pulling it back to reveal a brighter white color under where he had touched, and a look at his finger showing a grayish dusty paste he had just been walking through earlier. Somehow, these very stones seemed to have been... rotted, by the plague. Or was it something the plague had made, something with a type of acid, like those creatures he had just fought? Either thought was intimidating, really, seeing as it had rotted stone, and stone doesnt rot.

Then, a magically amplified voice made Inkormine jump, before he stopped, realizing it was team leader Johann, amplifying his voice so they could hear him throughout the village, calling for them all to return immediatly. Inky pulled out a small cloth as he turned towards the voice, wiping up a little of the gray goo, and wiping off his finger on another part of it as he walked, tearing the cloth carefully to seperate the two samples, before storing them away in their own little sealed glass tubes, to be added to the other samples he'd taken. Unfortunatly, trying to get a sample of the creatures had resulted in a melted pipette that he'd had to leave, as it seemed not long after dying, these creatures blood started saturating their whole bodies, making them highly acidic. Good to know and write down, bad for taking samples quickly.

Inkormine came out to the square where Johann and the others were waiting, frowning at Johann carrying 7 on his back. She didn't seem more then scuffed up, but there was no way anyone here would be needing to be carried from being scuffed up or exhaustion this early into their expedition, so something must have happened to her. But, besides looking a little tired, and a little sad, the woman seemed to be in decent shape, so he wasn't too concerned for the immediate time, he'd have to check on her after whatever Johann had to say.

Which wasn't too much, although considering the latent hostility of this area that made a certain amount of sense. Although there was a certain amount of 'Duh' running through Inky's mind at saying the town wasn't safe. Although, to be fair, nowhere in this infected hellscape was safe. If they could find somewhere a bit less not safe that would help. After the man was done talking to them, he did ask for some help with the back injury, that could slow him down if it was left, and what he didn't need was more injuries. Although he had to try not to swear a bit at the pain of that particular healing magic, that was not pleasant, even though it was effective. "Thanks. I did find something which might be of use to us, looks like some kind of official archived document, but I don't know the language they used here."

After that and sharing the scroll if Johann wanted it now, Inky went with the rest out of the town, weaving together a patch for his coat with the downtime while he kept his ears out for something else looking to jump them as they travelled.

WC: 5312/8700

Arcadia was headed up the short stairway that led in and out of the storm cellar. From the slightly elevated angle she noted signs of excavation hidden in one corner of the cellar.  She guessed it was easy enough to miss when you are concentrating on other things like not being caught in an ambush. Turning around, she slipped back into the depths of the storm cellar. It took some of her dragon-gifted strength, but she shifted the fallen shelving that had hidden excavation from floor-level view out of the way. It was a well. She could hear and smell the water running down below.

By the echoic nature of the sound below and the light of her iLac, Arcadia believed the well down into a small cavern with an underground stream. Something glinted in her iLac's light, only she leaned a little too far over the edge to see better.  She bounced off the rocky wall and splashed down into the pool below. There was not much light down here, her faerie green eyes slowly adjusting to the deep gloom. What light filters from the cellar above and her iLac were the only notable sources of illumination.

She rose to her feet in the shallow side of the pool. Water sloshed off the soaked blonde slayer, dripping from her dress and skin. Thankfully, her iLac was none the worse for wear. Arcadia had taken the bruising against the rock wall, while her iLac fell straight into the pool. She shook the excess water off of it, and used its light to get her bearings.

The light of her iLac revealed a small cavern smaller than the basement above.  Though it looked to go on in either direction of the underground stream, it seemed only the pocket she had fallen into was big enough to stand and walk around in.  Both the upstream and downstream ends of the cavern were pinched to where Arcadia would not fit even if the cavern floor were dry so she could crawl.  The only way back out was backup through the well. That was annoying, but not a real problem.

Even more annoying, it looked like the glint that had gotten her down here was only a mineral deposit in the rock. Sweeping her iLac's light around the cavern she could occasionally sea glint and glittering  scattered here and there along the walls and cavern roof.  Wincing a little, she slipped a a hand to her back. She would be feeling that bounce off the well wall for awhile, if she left the bruising alone. There was still a mission to complete, being slowed for any reason could be dangerous, if there any more surprises in the quarantine area had in store.

She let magic power flow through her hand, pouring the regenerative power of a refreezing glacier into the bruise. Her magic's natural chill helping to soothe and numb the ache. By the time her spell finished bestowing its restorative properties, the bruising would no longer trouble her. Though it seemed that accursed dream demon had decided to trouble her again. Arcadia felt the pained pressure back in her temples.  The barefoot slayer hoped that maybe ignoring the headache could help her ignore the demon.

Before heading up the well, Arcadia had one more look around the cavern. The sweep of her iLac's light found a small shore to the pool she stood in, and on the rocky bank she saw three skeletons huddled against the wall, along with what appeared left of their personal affects scattered here and there. Unlike the creatures she had put down in the basement above, these skeletons had the decency to have stayed dead. Compared to all she had seen since arriving on the quarantined island,  they had not preserved in a prolonged state of decay. They and what was left of their affects were in pristine condition relatively speaking.

Come to think of it, the air down in the cavern, while stale, certainly lacked the stomach turning stench.  Even the few roots that poked down here and there through cracks and fissures in rock wall looked... normal and alive. Arcadia found another small journal among their things. Opening it, she learned from its first couple pages, that the three skeletons had been part of the group of plague survivors up in the basement. All of them had been among the last to ever show signs of being infected, and these three claimed to have never developed any symptoms.  Even as their fellow basement survivors succumbed one by one, they never fell ill. It was pure desperation that driven them down here when they awoke one morning to find former friends and family turned into plague monstrosities out for their blood.

Arcadia's faerie green gaze fell back down on the skeletons, filled with tears of sympathy and compassion for what their last days must have been like. ”I'm so sorry it came to this for you. But... if this means what I think it does, then your days down, here just might save millions of people. If we can just figure out what made this place down here and you so much more resistant to this plague when everything else wasn't. Was it you? These rocks? This water? The roots of these plants? Was it something that could be replicated? Or just a fluke?”

She knew it would take some long hard work to get any answers out of the dead.  It could be the mineral composition of the cavern's walls that filter the water. Unlike anything on the surface, the water down here was potable and crystal clear. It was not befouled by any sign death or decay. It could be the roots growing from and clinging to the cavern wall absorbed any trace of the plague out of the water as it trickled down through the ground or a combination of the cave walls and roots. Or maybe these three had a rare genetic mutation that had made them resistant even to magical plagues.

Reading further in their journal, she found the three had starved or poisoned themselves trying to eat the roots. It wasn't clear which, because the food they'd managed to bring down with them did not last long, and the roots were the only thing available. The journal said eating the roots made them feel sick, so it was unclear if eating too much of the root had fatally poisoned them or if the nausea  from the roots kept them from eating enough of the roots to survive.

Arcadia closed the journal as it grew too difficult to ignore her pressure headache. The dream demon did not like being ignored. There was never a good time for the dream demon to haunt her, but it sure seemed to know when it could make the biggest pest of itself possible. Her legs buckled as she took an unplanned seat on the rocky bank, her faerie green eyes glazing over as she stared up toward the dim light from the well above.

The morning sun was already well above the horizon in the Kingdom of Dragnof. It's warmth was burning off the morning dew, bringing a blanket of mist to the field young Arcadia now stood in. She rubbed sleep from her heavy-lidded deep green eyes, and turned them up to her adopted mother, the great ice dragon, Khione Glacier. Arcadia still wrestling with the demons of sleep, lodged protest, ”Mooom, why can't we just get a few more minutes of sleep?"

The way Khione Glacier's frozen body of living ice sparkled in the morning sun, Arcadia had to be about the only human who could read the disappointment in her mother's icy draconic features. Frosty breath  poured from nostrils in her disapproving snort. Khione Glacier rumbled to her comparatively tiny teenage ward, ”Have I been wasting my time, little one? Are you not the same child who was brought to me in tears after her family and village were destroyed by my more callous brethren? The same child who pleaded with me to teach her the secret of Ice Dragon Slayer magic, so that she could one day fight by my side, and bring Justice to those same callous siblings of mine? Do you think Acnologia complained to his guardian?”

Arcadia shook her head, Acnologia was the past. That is exactly where the cursed dream demon wanted her to focus. It probably made her easier to manipulate. One more time she forcefully drew all her focus to the immediate present. It was an was easy certainty that she was no longer in ear shot of the others down here. With nothing else of note down in the cavern, it was time to find the others quickly as possible. She took a quick few pictures of how clear the water was, how undiseased the roots were, the skeletons and the most important first few pages in the journal. She dictated a few of her observations and slipped the journal into her pack along with the first journal she had found.

Taking out her dimensional scissors, a portal back to the group would be faster than climbing out and looking about for them. Collecting her thoughts on the cavern survivors for her iLac observations let her exclusive focus on the present slip away. That was all the dream demon needed reasserting most tragic memory back to the forefront.

Khione Glacier lowered her massive, icy head toward the ground, so she could be eye to eye with her ward. "First you must get a better handle on never staying in one place. The power of my ice will lend you its strength and durability, true. You should never depend on that power alone. Never leave the enemy time to focus in on you."

Turning her focus back toward the makeshift training target, Arcadia took her mentor's words to heart. Then she noticed Khione Glacier's head lingering closer to the ground, which meant there something more on her foster mother's mind? "What is it, Mom?"

The great ice dragon paused before answering, "Nothing, little one. Nothing but rumors. We may talk about them later." Khione Glacier lifted her great head up high once more with her best approximation of a smile.  Dragon smiles can be scary things, if you don't know them very well. "Right now you've got an adversary who's not just going to wait around for you, little one."

Arcadia nodded, "Right, Mom! That guy doesn't stand a chance!" The young slayer was at once surrounded in a raging magical field of frigid air and tiny glittering ice crystals suspended in the space around her.  Staring down her rocky opponent, Arcadia first took on the strength and then the durability of an ancient glacier. When she was ready, a predatory grin spread across her young face, her magical field of chilled air and ice dissipating.

Her attention and deep green eyes sharply focused on her target, Arcadia's long pale blonde hair trailed out behind her with her bare feet pounding the ground to charge the waiting stack of rocks.  Halfway there, she roared a swirling torrent of super-chilled water and razor-sharp flecks of ice. The water instantly freezing on contact, leaving the rock target coated in a splattering of ice. Arcadia's path to the stacked rocks was not a straight one. Taking Khione Glacier's advice closer to heart, Arcadia did not wish to give even a makeshift training dummy a chance to get a bead on her.

Finally closing the distance, Arcadia spun her left foot around and hard into the icy side of the rocks. On impact, her foot cratered through the ice. Her body carried through on it's twirling momentum, bringing the hard crunch of her right fist. A hard jab from her left struck to the rock doll's midsection. Imagining her foe to be staggered, Arcadia vaulted into a backflip away from the practice doll for a little breathing room.

She inhaled deep before she even landed, unleashing a second swirling maelstrom. The freezing waterspout and razor ice gave the stacked rocks a second coating of ice. Rushing back in, Arcadia noticed cracks in the rock underneath the icy coating after leading back in with a high sideways kick that sent bits of ice and rock in all directions. Arcadia followed up with another flurry of two punches. Both focus in on where the cracks were forming beneath the ice. Her right went high and her left went low, creating twin craters in the rock doll's icy veneer.

Spreading both of of her arms out like wings, Arcadia lurched back a few steps.  Swirling razor ice gathered about her outspread arms in vaguely draconic wing-shaped formations. Arcadia stomped forward, swinging her arms together, sending her wings of razor ice flinging past and through the rock doll.  

The frigid cold and power of each blow crumbled the rock doll down into a pile of smaller rocks and debris ice. Arcadia bared her cute little fangs in big grin and pumped one fist into the air in victory. Breathing harder from the flurry of exertion, she laughed as she started back to Khione Glacier. She wore a proud grin across her young features.  The glimmer of pride in Khione Glacier's crystal ice eyes made it all worth it.

Arcadia hung onto the warmth of that singular moment, letting her mind connect it to musky other times she had basked in her foster mother's pride. When the dream demon failed to instill the despair it aimed for, Arcadia felt her headache alleviate. She knew it would be back. If anything the dream demon was proving it persistence. How many times would she have to push it away before it let her alone for good.

The still damp blonde slayer thought of Mahdude, and snipped open a portal straight back to the group. The portal closed behind her as she stepped out of the cavern. She was still dripping water as she went, offering a short explanation for both the water and what she discovered. "I think I found maybe the one place and here the plague hasn't touched."

Arcadia screwed up her face as the overwhelming stench of death and decay greeted her again. She was sad to see Seven had come up on something, probably more dangerous than she had. The barefoot slayer pally feeling she had failed had teammate. Thankfully, it looked like Johann had her on the mend. After listening in, Arcadia explained a little further what she had found. "I found two journals from what looked like one of the last group of survivors to hold out. I think I put most of them to rest. The first journal gives first hand account of when these creatures first started spreading, and documents quite a few I don't think we've seen yet. They were holed up in some cellar. The second journal I found down a well that lead into a small cavern created by an underground stream. There wasn't any sign of the plague down there. The water was pristine even."

"It was the last refuge for three of the cellar survivors. According to the first could entries in the second journal all the other cellar survivors had finally succumb to the plague and they were forced down into the well. If the second journal can be believed, those three never came down with the plague. With nowhere else to go they just starved down there... Or poisoned themselves on what little there was to try as food."

Arcadia would follow up the rear guard on the way out of town, using her displacement spell as a precaution. She wanted to be ready for anymore ambushes. No more of her teammates would get hurt if she could help it.


WC: 2644
Arcadia WC: 7915/12,500

Soon after the silver-haired Vice President of the West Fiore Trading Company had asked for the most important pieces of information, the first mage of the group would speak up, Panacea, the lamia that belonged to the Trading Company itself taking the lead. The God of Ishgar listened intently, the implication that the version of the plague all of them had gotten to witness over the course of the timespan they had been here not even being the worst of them all admittedly alarming him. "Thank you for sharing with us that information. A disturbing discovery", the man concluded, although it was more than self-evident. "I fear the same. Undoubtedly, we will find worse horrors in the more populated areas of this land, but ... we have to go. We have no choice but to discover the source of this plague. Failure is not an option". What would happen if their mission would remain unsuccessful was clear. Tolgalen, the world perhaps, would be lost, maybe forever, countless millions withering away through sickness, through plague. Johann tried not to think about it. The responsibility certainly would wear heavy on every single one of them, but they couldn't afford missteps. Where surely the man would have preferred a more ... cautious approach, time was of the essence, after all. He gave the lamia an approving nod. "I would like to discuss your finding in greater detail later when we have brought some distance between us and this gods-forsaken place".

The next to speak up would be the rose-haired girl on his back, Johann turning his head over his shoulder to listen with the same attention as before. Details could be the difference between a successful mission and a failed expedition, and as Sivvy would tell of her discoveries, Johann would think back to the space below the house. Why would a place like this be in a remote area like this in the first place? To hide the experiments that had been performed from the rest of the populace? They would probably never be able to tell with absolute certainty, the truth forever lost to time. Just what purpose had this enigmatic place served? The corridor and cells he had seen certainly did not paint a good picture. The girl raised a valid point. The Vice President and the Lamia had had the luck to see the supposed result of this experimentation the Slayer had eliminated for themselves, the mutated, horrific amalgamation a testament to the sheer cruelty of the events which seemed to have occurred down there. When his mentee brought up another valid point, Johann gave her a nod. "It's certainly worth it giving the possibility a thought ...", the prospect of the plague itself being some kind of experiment gone wrong making this entire situation even worse. In the end, would it have been humanity itself that had created this misery, and for what? The selfish wish for and pursuit of eternal youth? His brows narrowed. "Let's take a look at your findings as well when we discuss this. It's certainly worth it. Maybe ...", the Rune Mage took a deep breath, "... maybe this will end up helping us fight whatever else might lurk here. I certainly don't want to end up as a meal for ... for whatever that thing was. Good job, Sivvy".

Before they could move on however there was another small issue. The half-spider-person from Silver Wolf, Johann was admittedly slightly fearful of the 8-legged mage, had taken some damage in a scuffle earlier, Joh extending one hand and touching the wound, the same maledict from before becoming active, the wound closing back up in an instant, taking the scroll the other had found for a second after. At a quick glance over the document, Johann could conclude one thing with certainty: He couldn't read a single word of the scripture before him. It was of no matter. The guild would have people to translate this thing, and if the Company couldn't pay someone to do it, it probably wasn't a language that was decodable. "Marvelous. I'll make sure to get this to our linguists as soon as I can. Let's hope that this helps us. Thank you".

Still, there was one more member of the group who had yet to talk about what they had discovered, the VP's head turning to Arcadia when she spoke up. The prospect of a place inside this rotting mess that had been left untouched by the ever-present decay and death of Tsak Ordahic was ... exciting, to say the least. The environment of that place could be studied, and it could give them insight into what this country had looked like before the plague had spread, potentially giving them an idea of how the plague affected the soil, the air, the water, and living beings within Tsak Ordahic. It was a promising thing, truly. It didn't seem like that was the only thing, however. The girl further described more of her findings, talking about two journals she had discovered on what remained of initial survivors of the plague that had barricaded themselves away in a cellar, and survivors among them when the plague finally started spreading amongst them too. The most interesting thing, however, was perhaps that the second journal detailed that these survivors had not died from the plague itself, even after enough time. If that was true, the value for the researchers could have been immense. "Fascinating", the VP replied after receiving the information. "I'll make sure to get word back to the Company to send in a team that will study the well in greater detail. This whole village, in fact. After another team has cleared it out, that is ... Anyway, thank you, Arcadia", he concluded. All things considered, they had found out more, a lot more than the Vice President had hoped just from this one village. Perhaps, he thought, perhaps the city would give them even more clues towards solving the mysteries of the plague.

Of course, the group had to get there first, the marching order following suit, Johann admittedly content with the fact that they would leave this place behind. If this little village had been a hurdle of some impact ... just what would the rest of this country look like? He tried to avoid thinking about it too much. The scouting party would see what else this place had in store for them one way or another, and so, quickly glancing back at the place one last time, he turned away, pulling from one of his pockets his notebook and writing down everyone's findings as well as more details about the Pathogen Walkers and the other types of creatures. Looking about, the grassy plain, well, what was left of once healthy and green grass, seemed empty, without any immediate danger in sight anywhere, but his teammates did well to stay alert. Anyone or anything could attempt to jump them any moment, it seemed, and the necessity to look out for anything of that sort seemed given. Still, they had a mission to fulfill, their little expedition had an explicit purpose. With meticulous detail, the silver-haired Rune Mage began noting down details about topography, terrain, vegetation, climate and, further into their march, the slow change from plain to woodlands as more and more trees started appearing. Trees, in this case, was used rather generously. The dead and rotting stems, the broken branches reaching upwards to the sky as if trying to escape from the corrupted earth, it was hardly worth being called a forest. Still, a collection of trees it remained.

A good bit into the march Johann stopped, taking a good look around. The sun had gone down quite a bit and the slightest signs of the evening's twilight were already beginning to creep their way across the land. It was about time to make camp. "Everyone, please halt", he spoke so everyone could hear. "I think it's about time to set up our resting place for the night. This spot over there looks adequate", pointing at a clearing off to the side of the path they had taken before making his way over, setting down his mentee, if she was still on his back, that was, and his bags with supplies and other necessities before beginning to collect firewood. It wasn't like dead and dry wood was scarce. "I have no tents in store, but sleeping bags and blankets I can offer", he addressed those who might require such a thing. After all, he figured, it would be a cold night, the VP using his gloved hand to draw a circle of runes into the air with practiced motions, a small portal opening up as soon as he had finished it, the silver-haired male reaching in and, one by one, pulling out the items from his pocket dimension. Tonight, the ground of Tsak Ordahic had to do as their sleeping place. At least they now had time to rest, regain their breath, and, perhaps most importantly, finally discuss the things they had discovered thus far.

With a subtle carmine glow of the runes that lined the God of Strength's body beneath his clothing, he lit a flame inside the stack of dead wood, placing one of the blankets near the fire before sitting down next to one of his bags, opening it and pulling out a can of soup, placing it next to the quietly smoldering flames. "So ...", he began, "... Panacea, Sivvy ...", he addressed the Lamia and the Clone, "... you mentioned that you found evidence for experimentation with the plague? Since you have seen the evidence first hand, what do you believe was the purpose of these experiments, and what was the goal behind them? Do you have any details that you think are of importance for the discovery of a potential cure, or was it simply a failed bio-weapon?". The VP, of course, valued everyone's input and opinion, trying to encourage a bit of discussion. It couldn't hurt. "Of course, that isn't all". He turned his head to the Silver Wolf mage called Inkormine and the Fairy Tail mage called Arcadia. "It seems we have documents detailing the effects of the plague as well, through whatever means it may have come to be. Do you believe that perhaps the key to a cure for this plague could be this environment itself?", he addressed the group as a whole, trying to listen to what everyone had to say. "Or perhaps some beings within this land have developed, over time, immunity to this plague? Does anyone know something about these things?", the VP asked. He was certainly no doctor, and this disease in and of itself appeared strange and otherworldly to him, but maybe his teammates would be able to offer some insight. In any case, he would make sure to detail all of this in his report later in the hopes that the guys back at the Company, or someone from Fairy Tail or Silver Wolf could use any of this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Word Count: 1.849
Word Count Total: 9.197 / 12.500

The knowledge that there had been a facility buried underneath that facility where people had been experimented upon, with as final result some kind of self-sustaining chimaeraa, was one which brought Panacea little comfort. The plague was already bad enough without there being signs that the people who lived here had been clever enough to be able to mess around with life like that, along with a seemingly lack of ethics. While it was possible that they were motivated by noble purposes it was difficult to justify that kind of thing. Of course the same could be said for the carnage she herself had encountered during her exploration, but she thought this just a bit more worrisome. At least their companion had been able to take care of it without there being any sign of there being any more lying in waiting.

But she was in agreement with Johann that they didn't have much of a choice but to continue. The barrier they'd crossed might have contained the plague for a long time, but now the time had come where civilization either found a way to deal with it permanently or be dealt with permanently. The lamia had a serious and somewhat tense look on her face, aware of the stakes they were dealing with even as she steeled herself to make her way even deeper into this failed containment zone together with the rest.

The other discoveries were certainly worth it in their own way though. While nobody here could read the book found by the spiderlike mage the fact that such a thing had survived was valuable knowledge in itself. If it had survived this long it was probably something of great importance, painstakingly protected so it wouldn't be consumed like practically everything else had. This was accentuated by the other story about a place untouched by the plague. While it was mildly traumatizing to imagine a mere handful of people being trapped, waiting for starvation to take them as outside the plague raged, it showed that this disaster they were facing wasn't unstoppable. It couldn't reach everywhere, and it couldn't destroy everything. The next step would be to find the cure.

As they advanced she took note of the fact that the plains they had been moving through so far were becoming dotted with the carcasses of green giants. The lamia eyed them with suspicion, moving steadily but with visible reluctance and wariness. Under normal circumstances she was actually quite fond of forests because they combined well with her serpentine form, allowing her to freely climb and move in three dimensions. Having a long body, the muscular tail of a snake and the upper body and arms of a human was an ideal combination for this kind of place. However in this dead place trees weren't going to be for climbing. If anything they would host more dangers, more ways to be exposed to the fatal plague.

She was actually glad when Johann decided that they would be setting up camp, sighing with relief before finding herself a spot where she could very carefully use concentrated beams of light to burn away any dead material on the ground. While her scales would most likely protect her from infection through the skin she didn't want to take any chances. She'd already have enough trouble falling asleep tonight.

Once she had created a cleaner spot for herself she curled up in it, her tail forming a base for her upper body to rest in. It looked a lot like how someone would lounge, although for a lamia like herself it was a very common way of resting. She shook her head when their leader offered to bring forth camping equipment, quite satisfied with having found a good spot to curlher tail up in already. As she lay there with her head resting on her arms she looked around while her thoughts ran wild. What would they be encountered next? Would all of them make it out of this place alive? Of course she hoped that would be the case, but one had to at least consider that not everything would go perfectly. Otherwise you might end up stunned at the wrong moment because you were too invested in the idea that everyone would live happily ever after.

She was startled when Johann suddenly called her name, looking up from her impromptu nest to first look around before settling her red eyes on the leader. Hearing his questions she quickly began to nod, although despite her desire to answer quickly she patiently let him finish talking before she began to put her own words together. It wouldn't do to create a conflict born from poor interpersonal relationships under these kind of conditions.

"I've found a set of teeth, some shards of bone that were untouched, and I have one vial filled with what I think is organic tissue fully consumed by the plague, but then rendered inert. I noticed the latter because while everything else in the building was a mess this stuff was gathered inside the shattered remains of a bigger vial and for all its stench was too uniform to be a random formation." As she spoke she pulled the vial out of her bag to show it to Johann, if he gave indication of wanting to see it also giving it to him. "As for the purpose and possible importance..."

She fell silent for several seconds, her brow furrowed as she was clearly considering the questions. Eventually she answered slowly, her gaze still that of someone thinking furiously while her mouth shaped the words with delicacy and care. "While it could be that the plague didn't leave any remnants of it I couldn't find any evidence of experiments on people inside the building I visited. I suspect what Sivvy found was largely unrelated to what I found, at least in intention and who was responsible for it. Thinking back on what I found I think that what I had stumbled upon was an attempt at curing the plague. With venoms and poisons the antidote is often found within the toxin itself, or at the very least it can serve as the core for the antidote. Of course this is mostly the case for naturally produced chemicals." With an arm she indicated their surroundings. "I can't say with confidence that this plague wasn't created by someone or something, or as an accident. Even more so when you consider that magic might have been involved. That vial might be important since if it's truly a neutralized version of the substance causing this plague we could use it to develop a cure, but on the other hand I found it in a building which had been nearly consumed whole because of someone's experiments so we'd have to be very careful."

"One of the main reasons why I think whoever had been experimenting in that building had good intentions is the situation. It didn't look like that was a full scale research centre. It looked like something which had been thrown together for lack of opportunity to go to an established laboratorium. Under those circumstances it's easier to imagine that whoever lived there was not in the position to try and figure out how to wipe out their enemies with a magical plague. More likely their experiment just backfired in the worst way."

Johann's suggestion that they might be able to derive a method to cure the plague from this place was an optimistic one, and one that Panacea wanted to share with him. However she was reminded of those strange fake snakes that had been lying in wait inside the building, burned away by beams of light but still fresh in her mind. "During my search I slithered into a group of strange creatures. They looked a lot like snakes, but instead of a normal head they had a claw on both the front and the back of their body. They also appeared to be completely formed out of plague-ridden material, like rotting grass or moss. While I said before that the poison might actually be the base for the cure I fear that in this case anything which has adapted to be able to survive in this climate did so by being consumed and reshapen by the plague. While that might be valuable as a last effort to preserve something of our society if nothing else works I'd rather avoid any solutions which could turn people into plague zombies or... those things we encountered earlier."

---

From Akeya's perspective it wasn't even a question whether someone had tried to weaponize the plague. Whenever people came across something truly dangerous you'd always end up with someone whose first thought was "How can I turn this into a tool for my own purposes." It was practically survival instinct screaming in people's ears that anything they couldn't control was dangerous and had to be tamed or destroyed.

Which simultaneously raised the possibility that someone had created the plague on purpose (if you don't have enough tools at your disposal, why not make another one) but she still doubted that was actually the case here. She wasn't sure how to put it into words, but looking at just how indiscriminately everything that came into contact with the taint either wasted away into nothingness or turned into a mindless misshapen version of their former self... The only logical explanation for that would be that they created something much milder and it immediately evolved out of control. Even those self-centred higher ups sitting in their fortresses had still enough sense to realize that something which would kill all living things would be a problem given their desire to remain living things for the foreseeable future.

She wasn't entirely happy about the idea of taking rest here either, mostly because she herself wasn't in need of sleep yet. She'd have to spend the night either forcing herself to sleep while lacking either need or desire, or she'd stay awake all the time thinking about the possibilities of what they might encounter. Since it didn't take too long to find a village it shouldn't be impossible to find a larger settlement as well. Honestly at this point she still had too many questions that needed to be answered.

WC: 1,720
TWC: 9,587/12,500

His praise of her for her findings was enough to lift some of the gloom she'd been suffering from falling victim. A small, pleased smile appeared on her face, and for the rest of the walk she clung to Johann's back comfortably while quietly humming some sort of song as she listened to the spidery man and Arcadia mention what they found. Sure, the smell and general vision of rot was unpleasant, but it was as if she'd already forgotten where they were. Her environment had never affected her mood to begin with. Sivvy was nothing if not constant and stoic as ever. The level of which nothing bothered her would have made her an excellent embalmer in another life.

Once she was placed down, Sivvy found that her leg was beginning to regain feeling. It had started to tingle, each movement causing some pretty intense pins and needles, but it was better than nothing. She limped to a place near where her mentor would be settling in for the night, placing her bag down and asking for a blanket when he offered such things. Make no mistake, the primrose tressed woman had no intentions of sleeping. That was a rare occurrence in the best of situations while she was completely alone, so here in the middle of a diseased land surrounded by people had put it completely out of the question. She preferred not to broadcast her weaknesses.

Once situated, she listened to Johann inquire further about what everyone had found, wanting theories. Would these become the campfire stories she'd read about? Hands busied themselves pulling her evidence out and organizing it in front of her for all to see that wanted to while she listening to Panacea speak. She had little jars with rotten food samples and various colored fluids, some remaining fresh and clear and others murky with contamination. The surprisingly preserved book she took was also laid out and opened in case someone wanted to leaf through it. The pages she'd stowed in her record book were brought out and peered over in the light of the fire. There were some diagrams drawn on them, some of animals that looked nothing like the creatures crawling the area now, some of humans. Though the symbols were unfamiliar, she thought she recognized mathematical equations in many places, which wasn't surprising for what she assumed were research notes. Being brought up in a laboratory setting made all these things all too familiar to the young woman.

Once it was more properly her turn, she tried to articulate her thoughts considering all she'd heard from her teammates. With Panacea's perspective, it shed some different color lights on her own findings, so she offered alternate possibilities from what she'd voiced on their walk here. "It seems there's only two options for purposes, really, which we'll likely not be able to answer until all these samples are analyzed. Without being able to read the materials, either they were trying to cure an organically manifested plague on their people by any means necessary and failed, or they created it themselves regardless of whether it was intentional or not. Some may have been trying to accelerate it, some may have been trying to destroy it, or both since people are capable of having very opposite thoughts and actions regarding any given thing. Reaching the city will likely tell us if this was an unfortunate homegrown catastrophe by an individual on the outskirts, or if government was involved and it was a large scale operation," the clone offered her stoic assessment, adding no inflection of personal feelings into her words. She spoke as coldly and clinically as Dr. Raelin always had, though moments later she'd at least deviate from his policy on not injecting opinions into hypotheses. "There was definitely some sort of testing on living beings, both animal and human where I was. However, I don't feel that chimera was created on purpose, at least. From what I saw down there-- I have images on my iLac if you'd like to see-- it seemed the scientists disappeared for some reason before they were finished and left everything in the cages behind. Humans left trapped together don't normally form together into mutated creatures, so I have to assume they were already infected and their altered DNA allowed such an evolution to occur. Why would they continue to test on infected individuals if their goal of creating and infecting was already complete? To weaponize or cure, and with either motive I think something went wrong," Sivvy paused here to shift her blanket. Her blood felt like it was running cold, now that some of the familiarities to her old home were starting to sink in. The concepts of good and evil were still too abstract for her to grasp, but it did make her uncomfortable how familiar the subject and the cellar had been to her. Trying to shake it off, she continued "Arcadia found a well where the water was uncontaminated. The most reliable vehicle for mass infection is the water source, so if it wasn't found there, I wonder if the plague was ever purposefully spread at all. Then again, perhaps that well is special in some way and contains material that renders the plague ineffective. Of course, without all the variables, my theories are flawed at best."

Once she said her piece, the iron dragon slayer quieted back down to listen to everyone else chatter. The back and forth in her mind on the widely varying possibilities had actually given her a headache. A pale hand tinted by the flame's flickers raised to absentmindedly rub her forehead, eyes growing distant. She liked answers to be black and white, but so far all this was was a muddy mess they couldn't possibly make sense out of until they left this place. Pulling her blanket tighter with her free hand, she considered how many hours it'd be until first light when they could move on. Should people choose to sleep, she'd take up the night watch and keep a sharp eye out for threats. It wasn't like she had anything better to do.


[5778/11,000]

Well, that was a good sign at least that Inkormine hadn't fallen completly behind the other mages, if even Johann couldn't read it then he had to assume that it wasn't a language that was common. Which, made a certain amount of sense, seeing how old that document had been. Frustrating that something that had been so painstakingly well preserved couldn't be of any use to them, but with luck it would be useful to the next teams that came in at least, if it were to be translated quickly enough. At least one of them had healing magic that seemed to work in this infected wasteland, so that wounds could be closed up without the rough field measures that were sometimes necassary without access to such magic. Inkormine made sure to lower himself down so the man could more easily reach the injury since it was on his upper back, offering the scroll to the mans waiting hand before suddenly hissing and biting back some angry swearing as the man healed his wound by stabbing him in the back with a rusty knife, or about the same feeling, except with magical emanations showing that, no, it was magic. And after Johann removed his hand, Inky's back felt fine, as if he'd never been hurt at all. "Thats a rough healing spell you have there, ow. Thank you though." It might have hurt but it worked, and sometimes that was how healing worked.

The information from one of their number, the serpentine woman Panacea, about an area untouched by the infection in the middle of all this mess, was good news to Inkormine, although he wished he'd been able to look into it himself, look for evidence of celestial magics such as his being used, maybe curl up in there for a bit and bask in not being surrounded and covered by rotting undead plague plants. He missed the nice sterile sand of the desert a lot more now then he'd expected too today. Speaking of which, now that they were heading out into the wilderness outside the ruined town again, that was all that was going to be around for a while yet. While they had to keep an eye out for more nasty surprises like the one that had hit them on entering the town, it wasn't likely to happen. Heading back out into the rolling plains, they had long sight lines, and everyone was on high alert for another ambush. In all practicality, it made another ambush nearly impossible now. Which is why, ultimately, Inkormine got a little time to think as they traveled. The thoughts mostly focused on the mistakes he'd made since coming in here. Letting his guard down and getting surrounded, could have been a very serious mistake if he hadn't had the others drawing some of the attention and helping with the enemy group, although there had been enough that, even seeing them coming, had he been on his own, fighting them or even avoiding them could have proven very difficult.

Then there was everything he'd done on his own. He hadn't been on guard enough at that house, clearly, and had been surprised by the things hidden in the shadows of the roof. Had he been hanging out among the biped and quadrupeds out here too long, to have not checked the ceiling just as thoroughly as the rest of the house? Or had he checked it and missed them? In either case, he'd been lucky enough to avoid being poisoned (And hopefully not be infected by this disease, but you wont catch him acknowledging that part.) Maybe a mistake, maybe bad timing, whichever it was, it had nearly gone very badly indeed. But more then that, he realized, thinking back, that he'd made a bigger one. Not necessarily for him, or even for their group, but for this entire expedition to deal with this plague. He'd taken quite a while searching a single, normal house, poring over their documents and ultimatly not gaining much. This time, he had lucked out, in that there had only really been one building in the area he'd been investigating that still warranted the name of building, but it was still a problem. The others had investigated larger spaces more effectively by following a more rational search protocol, of just grabbing whatever might be useful and stowing it. He'd have to do better next time, or else he could miss something crucial.

Speaking of missing something crucial, once they hit the place where they intended to camp, it looked like there was something else missing, namely, a place to sleep that wasn't on the icky ground. He couldn't even spin so much as a hammock, with how these trees were. They'd probably fall over if he accidentally bumped one too hard. So instead he had to accept a few blankets to make a mat out of large enough for him to sleep on. Sitting down allowed him to finally start destressing from the day, once they had checked the area. Then Johann started posing some questions, about all this.

"I'm not so sure about this environment being a cure for the plague. It seems more like an infection, a mass of plague here that would act like a nest for it to spread in all directions. If the environment held any hope of a cure, it would be in looking at what is within. Just looking at what we have seen so far, there have been many different adaptations, as well as creatures themselves. There could be different strains of this plague, and that would likely play a big part in finding a way to stop it through scientific means."

982 Words
WC: 6294/8700