Landfall (p)

Sitting within the confines of the cabin left behind by the old hunter, who himself had no more need for the place as he had returned to the comforts of his own home, Solmar was looking out across the rocky terrain that wasn't yet covered by snow. Were he to move further up by only a few hundred meters, the rocks would have been covered under a thick blanket of the cold white stuff already, as such was the difference made by the altitude. But none of that really mattered much to the Slayer, who was just sitting in front of the broken window as the cold mountain breeze touched his face and rustled his hair every time it came back around. It had been over two weeks since he had last been to the Mountain village below in order to deal with a demented Wraith, an encounter that had done quite the number on him in both a physical and a psychological way. In fact, he was still processing the things he had seen, the dead children in various states of decay and their captured spirits lingering to see what was being done to their remains.

Wondering whether he would ever truly be okay with the things he had seen, part of him knew that it had also worked to trigger memories he had been working very hard to forget. Memories of a time when he had left a small village in a similar state, bodies littering the streets up until the moment he got stopped by a local mage. Things like that made him think about Justice, and what it all meant. The way he saw it, while he had murdered the wraith that had killed all of those children and enslaved their spirits, all he could do was set their spirits free. All he could do was to free those that were still alive and make sure they got home safely. But that wasn't justice, justice would have been to make the wraith pay for it through some agonizing form of torture that would last for years, if not eternity. She had gotten off easy by dying, meaning she would not need to atone for all of the bad things she had done in life and in her semi-afterlife. Since Solmar himself did not believe in a heaven or a hell for people, he knew better than to hope that her soul would have been taken down to hell.

With the summer solstice still being in full trek, Solmar had chosen seclusion for a very good reason, something he had uncovered when he had fought against a being calling itself a god, though it looked a lot more like a goat. While it was indeed a powerful adversary, it was not that which worried him, but rather how his magic seemed to respond to the solstice itself. What with it being the longest day of the year, it seemed that his magic was more powerful than it usually was, making it quite a bit harder to control. While trying to fight the goat creature Cernunnos, he had to constantly be weary of how his attacks might rage out of control and could actually hurt the civilians or the village itself by accident. Because of his past, he never wanted to be the cause of a village getting sacked again, so he worked all the more hard at making sure places like that remained safe. While it wasn't his job, he always chose to make it so when he picked up things like these from notice boards or chose to hear the pleas of the people. Aside from that, just seeing bad things unfold in front of him was often enough for him to act on it.

With Cernunnos taken care of, he had come to realize how destructive his magic was when under these conditions, so he had chosen to actively remove himself from the world until the summer solstice was over. From the rather cozy cabin, he got to look out across a small portion of Sakuramori on one side, the mountains on the other side, and even a small portion of the ocean when he peered far enough into the distance from the western side. Looking out into the distance however, he could tell that the water seemed to be a lot more easy to see this time around. And that was exactly when his eyes picked up what they could not perceive before, which was a towering wall of water approaching the shoreline on a clear course of collision. Though the wave would just crash into the high cliffs that made up that portion of the coastline, he figured that there might be people or animals around there that might be in trouble if it hit. Picking up his coat and leaving Fellis to sleep it off in the cabin, Solmar moved outside and started running through the mountains and towards the cliffs with as much as his feet could produce.

Traversing the rocky terrain, the tidal wave became more and more clear, turning out to be a lot higher than he had imagined it to initially be from a distance, and faster to boot. Crashing against the cliffs, the wave also moved over it as it started flooding across the rocky terrain of the mountain. Not having anywhere to go or anything to hold on to, the water swept Solmar off of his feet and forced him along with the cold ocean waters. Being entirely at his mercy, he could barely see a thing due to the salty ocean water stinging in his eyes whenever he tried. Really not enjoying it whenever he was forced into a position where he lost control of what was happening, he summoned his sword and stuck it deep into the ground. Though it took a lot of effort, after a few more meters of being dragged along by the current, he finally managed to anchor himself into the ground and retain a bit of control. Almost half a minute later, it seemed that the water was finally receding back towards the ocean while taking everything that wasn't held down with it.

(1034)

To his surprise, he saw how a bear cub was also being dragged away with it. Knowing that the animal would not be able to survive the fall from the cliff down to the ocean below, he let go of the weapon as it got unsummoned and tried to maneuver himself as well as he could so as to get to the animal as fast as possible. Even though it was but a young animal, he knew that the claws and teeth of a young bear already had the capacity to hurt someone really badly. Regardless, he grabbed unto the young beast with his left hand while using his feet and his free right hand to find something he could grip himself into. Having some success, he suddenly felt that something was gripping onto his leg, though he could only actually see the water and not much else. When he looked closer, he could actually see a figure moving inside the water, though it might have been a safer assumption to say that it was perhaps made up of the water itself and using it to move around. Kicking at it with as much force as he could muster, he came to realize that kicking water only got one so far.

Rapidly approaching the cliffs, Solmar did not succeed in freeing himself from the grip of the watery creature and was sent tumbling over it with the bear cub still pressed tightly against his chest. Whether it was because of the thick fur coat he wore that had been made out of a highly aggressive Grizzly, the animal seemed relatively at peace, maybe even feeling safe. Now that he was in a freefall, the watery creature seemed to dissipate as all of the water fell back towards the ocean below. Getting only one shot at this, he summoned his massive sword yet again. Plowing it into the side of the cliff, the blade hooked itself and stopped Solmar from falling, even though the sudden stop nearly caused his arm to get pulled out of its socket. Releasing a deep growl as the act itself hurt him quite a bit, he remained in that position for a little while longer so as to get his bearings. Once he did, he pulled himself up and swung one of his legs over the blade so as to crawl back up onto it.

Standing up straight on top of the weapon, Solmar rarely felt this happy about the size of his weapon of choice and how he could easily stand on it with his full weight. Looking up to see how far he had fallen, he figured that things were not yet as dire as he had imagined them to be. Bending through his knees, he leaped back up to the top of the cliff in one go, one of the perks of him pushing himself physically almost every day for the past years. Knowing that he could just leave the blade there for the time being as it would just return to wherever it was that the vanishing blade went when not held by Solmar's own hand, he started looking around for a place where he might be able to put the young bear. Walking towards a place where there had been a bunch of trees before, but now only some torn stumps and fallen wood remained, he figured that this might have been where the animal had been dragged from. Listening and watching closely, he heard the sound of an adult bear nearby. Hoping that this was the mother, he placed the cub among the fallen wood and wandered away.

The less time he spent with the cub, the better it would be for the animal as most other people aside from him might try to capture or kill it. Humans were evil that way after all. Trying to figure out exactly what had just happened and what the thing in the water was, he looked out across the cliffs and saw that large amounts of it had been broken off or started crumbling into the sea. Aside from it, the beaches away up along the northern shoreline seemed to have had some boats that had been washed quite far ashore. Hoping no ships had been shamed into the cliff side by the tidal wave, he looked directly down into the ocean beneath him. As he looked down into the dark depths, he felt a strange uneasy feeling creeping down the length of his spine. More importantly, he could feel something that seemed to be like magic, though it was still somehow different. Since Solmar had never been the best at sensing magic to begin with, chances were that he was entirely off on what he believed he felt, though something deep in his gut told him that he was right to be on his guard.

Moving back from the cliffs, he felt it wise to return to the cabin and see how Fellis was doing, even though he doubted the water would have reached that far back to begin with. As there was still quite a bit of water around, he did not see the point in moving around it as he had already been drenched down to his boots. When moving through one of these puddles however, it felt like his foot was sinking down into it. Instantly pulling his foot back and backing up a few meters in the process, it seemed as if the water itself was coming alive. Rising up to take the shape of a slightly humanoid figure made up entirely of water, it appeared as though it was planning to attack Solmar straight away. That was, until the both of them got disturbed by the loud sound of rumbling beneath and around them. As the earth started to move, Solmar made his way back even further at the sight of a large earthen hand rising up and completely smashing the watery apparition to a puddle again. For a moment, it made the young mage wonder as to whether or not he had found an ally during all of this, though he wasn't willing to place any bets on it just yet.


(1036 // 2070)

When more of the oceanic invaders spawned from the water that had been thrown onto the mountains by the tidal wave, more of the earthen arm rose up from the ground, showing itself to be a monstrosity far larger than the man-sized water creatures. Standing at the height of a house, the large earthen being turned out to have a hunched back, trees still attached to it as if it had been here for years. Knowing that this could not possibly have been a thing, Solmar had to make his way back rather quickly as it started swiping its long arms along the floor. Trying to exterminate every last one of the watery creatures that formed, it nearly hit the young mage in the process. When he moved back far enough, he could tell that the large earthen beast had not tried to swat him like a fly because it wanted to, but rather because it either did not care or simply hadn't even seen him. Even now, it was not paying attention to the human at all, only on the rapidly forming creatures of water that just started attacking it moments before getting crushed.

To say that he had no idea as to what was going on would be quite the understatement, though it was at that point that he was slowly started to piece things together. Maybe the tidal wave was actually the tide that had been mentioned by Cernunnos, and that these beings were part of the calamity that was following him. Finding it hard to believe that this was something that just affected him personally as some kind of curse, he also felt it hard to take responsibility for it as the earth and the ocean were fighting one another right in front of him. The way they fought, none of them paid any real attention to him, meaning the only real coincidence was that it happened right in front of him. Continuing to watch as the water creatures got beaten to what he figured was their death, it wasn't long before two large tendrils latched on to the side of the cliff, allowing a far larger creature made up of water to lift itself up upon dry land. From what he could tell, this was the exact same thing that had grabbed him by the leg and tried pulling Solmar and the cub to their deaths.

For the black swordsman, this made things rather personal. Even if the earthen beast had attacked him, which he believed to have been by accident, he had no real beef with it. As for the water creature, that one he did have beef with, about an entire cow's worth of it. Planning on engaging the monster himself, he tried figuring out when to intervene and do just that, though the earthen monster did not seem to let up. Attacking the aquatic being as soon as it came up on land and striking it with a fallen tree, tendrils of water penetrated the side of the earthen being. In response, the beast bit into the liquid, starting to violently shake it like a rabid dog as the surrounding area got showered in a salty rain. As the two humongous beings fought against one another, the smaller ones that formed out of the ground were also starting to get involved. Looking down at the base of the cliffs, smaller earth beings were fighting those coming out of the water, making it look like an actual war had broken out between the earth and the ocean, though such a thing seemed impossible to someone like Solmar.

As the behemoths went at it, Solmar moved up closer, preparing to strike at them and make the fighting stop so that he could go ahead and demand answers, though he was stopped rather abruptly. With a loud burst, a portion of a nearby rock formation got blown to smithereens from the inside out, sending the burning rubble into the water and showering the surrounding area in it. Using his blade to cleave some of the rock that got launched at him, he saw that it was more than just rock being tossed around. Looking back at the point of origin, scalding hot magma had started leaking out of the rocks, showing a relatively small humanoid figure standing in the center of it. Armed with a burning sword. Seemingly being nothing more than flames, the magma rose up in order to form a suit of armor around it that gradually seemed to cool down, covering up the fiery core of the being as it looked down upon Solmar, the earth monster and the watery apparition. Jumping from his position and into the air, a sudden boom resounded between the mountains as it just launched itself at the two fighting giants.

Crashing into the earthen being, the entire thing cracked apart, which momentarily made it seem like that had been the intended target. However, as soon as it got cracked apart, it stuck its blade into the watery being, causing it to rapidly reach a boiling point and dissolve into nothing more than hot vapor that rose up into the sky as it disappeared. Having dispatched the two beings, the fiery figure clad in armor just stood there, seemingly waiting for something to happen. Uncertain if it had even noticed Solmar to begin with, he considered asking it a question. But as soon as he opened his mouth, a low rumbling noise was emitted by the knightly looking being. Without as much as turning its head, the rumbling disappeared and the first actual words were heard originating from the being.

"Mortal… you stand in the presence of the next elemental lord of flame, Interress. I sense within you the an elemental flame… good. The elemental lords of water, wind and earth will soon be upon us. Bend the knee now, aid me in taking out the other lords… and I shall allow you to witness the new world as it is reborn… born of flame."


(1008 // 3078)

Finding it all to be a lot to take in, Solmar was having quite a bit of trouble making sense of what this being said. Before today, he had never seen or heard of an elemental, let alone an elemental lord. Wondering if the earthen being and the watery apparition were just lower elementals that heeded the call of an elemental lord, that meant that the tidal wave had most likely been caused by the elemental lord of water. Whereas the other elementals had barely even noticed him in the first place, they had acted as though he were but a mere gnat before them, yet this elemental lord.. this Interress, he had noticed him and even started up a conversation before Solmar could actually ask it a question. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed as though this being was somehow related to his own magic, or maybe his magic was related to it. Whatever the case, it not straight up attacking him and offering an alliance where Solmar would bend his knee to the lord of flame meant that it was at the very least more intelligent than the other beings he had seen so far, not to mention being a whole lot stronger.

"They will be here soon. If you wish to see the new world with your own eyes, and wish not to die where you stand, you will give me your answer now, fleshling."

And there it was. The hastiness with which it spoke told Solmar that it was not so much looking for an alliance, it just wanted someone to boss around and aid him against the others to ensure its own chances of survival. Knowing little to nothing about these elemental lords or what they were all about, he figured that he would soon get to see the rest of them now that the leader of the fire elementals had shown himself. As he thought about it, the magma itself started taking the shape of various other elemental creatures. Some took on the form of hounds that had been molded out of magma, others were like towering behemoths of molten rock while the vast majority were creatures made up entirely of fire that burned away all living things that got too close to them. Compared to the other elementals he had seen, these beings seemed like they were perhaps the biggest threat to the mountain, the surrounding forests and the villages below as just being near them would cause plants, trees and living things to catch fire, meaning something needed to be done.

"Lord Interress, could you tell me anything else about what you meant when you spoke of this "new world" that was reborn of flame? Does that mean you intend to burn everything there is away?"

"Why of course he does Fleshling, destroying and burning things are all his kind knows. All they do is ruin everything they touch in such a hideous way. A world remade of wind and lightning would be far superior. No more oceans, no more continents, merely islands floating in the sky for the select few. You yourself seem strong enough to be deemed worthy, so if you wish to join Hurricanian, the new lord of wind in striking down this hideous thing, let it be known now."

Before he could actually get his answer out of the elemental lord of fire, the clear skies suddenly got filled with thick black clouds as a creature made up of wind and lighting lowered itself from it. Followed by an army of creatures that seemed like they were made up of clouds or electricity, it was clear to see that this Hurricanian meant business. As was the case before, a world made of floating rock where only a select few worthy people were allowed to live did not seem like it would be much of an improvement over a world reshaped in fire. While some more would undoubtedly survive, it would still mean that thousands of people would die in the re-ordering of the land masses. Watching as Hurricanian summoned forth a halberd of lightning, Interress was holding his burning blade at the ready. It was clear that there was a lot of tension between the two, and that there would be no point in trying to dissuade them from fighting. Whatever reason they had for fighting, whatever reason they had for wanting to reshape the entire world, they would not be talked out of it by a mere mortal such as Solmar.

"You make it sound as if you're that different from the hothead, though your kind is just as destructive as they are. Twisters, hurricanes, thunder and lightning, all you do is destroy, yet you wish to create this utopian place in the sky? A mockery, nothing more. No, the earth is as it should be, though it needs to be freed from your influences. The water from trying to submerge my creations, the sky for eroding my mountains, and the flame for burning my forests. If you wish to keep the world as it is and remove from it these harmful elements, swear fealty to me and we shall destroy them all in the name of Terramok."

This time, a voice seemingly came from below. With a loud rumble, the ground beneath the fire elemental lord broke open, forcing it to back up with a powerful leap. Moments later, more of the earthen behemoths rose up from the sky, followed by more earthen elementals ranging from the size of pebbles to boulders and even small trees. Standing on top of the largest of the earthen behemoths was a creature that seemed made out of rock and trees, carrying itself with a more calm and composed personality. Out of all three, this Terramok seemed to be the least hostile of them all, though it did not escape him that if he wished for a world without fire, water or wind, humanity and all living things would still die out. The more these beings started appearing and speaking to him, the more it dawned upon him that there was really no good option when it came to dealing with these creatures. And as much as he wanted to survive this whole ordeal, it would do him no good if he survived only to die after all of the fighting was done.


(1067 // 4145)

No, something needed to be done about this, that much was certain, though joining any of these beings as they went about their own personal means of conquest was not going to be one of them. As he thought of giving them an answer to their requests, there was one thing that bothered him, which was the fact that the elemental lord of water had yet to show itself. Why this bothered him was simply because it had been the first of the four to toss about a huge tidal wave that got all the way up to some of the higher regions of the Phoenix mountain, showering it with elementals and nearly killing him in the process. Once that final elemental would show up, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that everything would be going to hell in the blink of an eye, though maybe that was why it hadn't shown up yet. Maybe it was trying to get some kind of head start over the others, maybe that was why it had done what it did in an attempt at upsetting Solmar. If he were to fight one of the elemental lords, the water lord could just show up and make use of the chaos.

Not about to let something like that happen, he pretended to think about the question for a while longer as the animosity between the elemental lords grew all the more tangible. With the minions of Hurricanian hovering above the rugged mountain exterior, the followers of Interress streaming in like a wave of hot magma from within the earth and the beings of earth waiting by Solmar's side at the behest of Terramok, all it would take from this point on was the slightest spark to set the whole powder keg off and get the fighting under way. When Interress the fire lord was starting to lose his composure by literally blowing off a large amount of steam from beneath his armor, his blade flared up as it had clearly earned the nickname "hothead" given to it by Terramok. Pointing his large sword at Solmar, all present could see that the blade itself was heating up in preparation to strike something down, that something most likely being the mortal swordsman that was keeping him waiting.

"You've had your time meatbag, you've chosen to become fuel for the fires that will reshape this world. As for you, Terramok, I'll be sure to burn down your forests as I convert these mountains to a hot bed of lava, while you and your people will just feed into the flames Hurricanian.."

"Oh do be quiet, would you darling. Even after all these years, your temper is about as worse as it has always been. I had hoped that the mortal would get a few good swings in at you before I'd show up to finish you off, though Terramok and Hurricanian arrived ahead of schedule. Such a poor turn of events, but one I'll need to live with. After all, before the day is done, every last one of you will be extinguished and drowned beneath the tides of Undine."

With a look of shock, Solmar shifted his vision, turning around to look behind him as the elemental lord, or perhaps it would be safer to say mistress, had snuck up on him by moving her aquatic forces through the forest and up the mountain. Having envisioned them coming up the cliff, that had most likely been what she had wanted for the rest of them to think, meaning the tidal wave was merely a diversion to subvert their expectations to her benefit. Feeling like there was no way out for him as he quite literally stood at the center of the stage, he started thinking about whether or not he should make a temporary alliance with one of the elemental lords so he could aid him in taking out the others before he'd turn on him. However, even if it meant surviving such a gauntlet as this, he did not want to sell himself out by being a turncoat. Feeling like he'd rather die fighting than keep going as a liar and a turncoat, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Now ready to give his answer, he felt a sudden burst of heat originating from the lord of flames as it visibly seethed with anger.

"Enough talk, let it be finished!"

As soon as those words had been spoken, it dashed towards the largest water elemental, buried the blade in it and reduced it to nothing but a mass of boiling water. Sprinting away so as to not get doused by it himself, it seemed that the other elemental lords had been distracted by Interress choosing the fight over the discussion. From the looks of it, the one he was after the most was the mistress of water, Undine. Proving again that the lord of flame was in fact quite the hothead, Solmar figured that this was something he might use to his advantage if it came down to having to fight him personally. For now though, it seemed that the battle of the elements had begun. With Interress boiling and evaporating the lesser elementals he struck with his blade, Undine herself retaliated by dousing the fire elementals that got within range of her watery tendrils. For a moment, Terramok and Hurricanian just watched as things went down, quite pleased that these two went at it with one another as they hated each other the most. This also meant that the lords of earth and sky would be fighting against one another as they too had an axe to grind, which just seemed rather odd to the young swordsman.

Once the fire elementals streaming in from the molten hole in the earth and the water elementals coming in from the ocean had picked their battlefield, Solmar made it to a relatively safe spot, though as was implied, the term "safe" was entirely relative. Being one of the many spectators, Solmar also watched as Undine and Interress were actively taking out one another's henchmen, meaning they would soon have to face one another or risk losing more of their armies. Either way was fine with the young mage, considering the fact that if they had no armies by the end of this, the world would remain safe until they had actually restored a good portion of it. From the looks of it, Hurricanian and Terramok agreed, what with neither of them actually doing anything aside from watching the battle unfold in front of them while they maintained both of their armies. Wanting the two of them to fight against one another so he might actually stand a chance at taking a shot at killing one of them, it was plain to see what was happening.


(1142 // 5287)

The lord of earth and lord of sky were both waiting to see which one of the other two elemental lords would tire or run out of mobs to send out first, at which point they would most likely start attacking the weakest link in the chain. Still trying his best to figure out exactly what it was that was happening here and what the repercussions of it might be for the surrounding landscape, the fact that the surrounding trees had started catching fire due to the heat coming off of the lord of flame and his violent attacks meant that animals were losing their homes. Tightening the grip he had on his sword, he felt that it was increasingly hard to keep himself out of it as he really just wanted to leap into the fray and take care of the most destructive out of the four elemental lords if he could. He knew that Interress was incredibly powerful, though he knew for a fact that he himself had been growing in power quite a lot lately. And due to the summer solstice, his powers had been pushed to even greater levels. That's when he heard something unexpected coming from an even more unexpected corner.

"He's powerful, almost packs as much power as he does fury and anger. Don't take him lightly, and for that matter, don't take her lightly either. The moment she senses weakness, she will try to kill you, just as she will try to kill him. Wait for the right moment, then strike with everything you have."

Looking over his shoulder as Terramok was actually giving him some solid advice, it all came with a hint of trickery. At the end of the day, Terramok was not on Solmar's side as they were both on their own respective sides in this fight, though Interress and Undine were enemies of the both of them. As such, he knew better than to completely disregard the words of the earth elemental lord entirely, though he would not just go in striking out with everything he had. Doing so meant burning through most of his energy in one go, thus making it easier for the lord of the earth to either just disregard him entirely or to destroy him while he was weakened. When dealing with beings such as these, there was no room for mistakes or even remotely believing that they might stick to their word. As he had seen before with the lesser elementals, they hardly even noticed him or cared about stomping him in the process, proving how little they valued human life. And at the end of the day, if he was like an insect to them, it brought up something else to consider; who would keep their promise to an ant?

Instead of actually responding, Solmar narrowed his eyes and just nodded in the direction of Terramok before leaping down to where Undine and Interress were fighting. With watery tentacles slicing through flame elementals and a burning blade evaporating water elementals, trees got burned to cinders or got uprooted entirely. Hoping that the family of bears had managed to escape the place before the fighting started, he could only imagine the horrible death they would have faced otherwise. When a fire elemental spotted him and charged him, an earth elemental rose from the ground, grabbing it with both hands and crushing it entirely. Figuring that while Interress and Undine were his main targets meant that the lord of earth saw fit to aid him, it was not just that. It was almost as if Terramok believed that aiding him would sway him towards his side, even though Solmar really had no intention of doing such a thing in the first place and had made no steps towards it. No, the world was fine the way it was, no elemental lord needed to rule over and reshape it.

With the remaining forces of fire and water trying to keep Solmar from getting any closer, they were soon engaged themselves by the forces of earth, as well as the occasional bolt of lightning coming down from the skies. Hearing some low grumbling noises coming from Terramok as he saw how Hurricanian had also gotten involved, the way had now mostly been cleared for Solmar as he brought his blade down, colliding with Interress's own. The first thing he felt when he clashed against the elemental lord was that he was incredibly strong, perhaps even physically stronger than the goat god Cernunnos they had faced that same morning. Still feeling the pain of his own broken rib and the heat radiating off of the lord of flame, he was having a hard time just keeping his eyes open as he could feel the moisture departing from them. Having to keep his eyes narrowed, he was at quite the disadvantage against the being of fire, who quickly used this to swipe his own blade to the side and brush Solmar off along with it. Sending him back several meters, the young mage braced himself as the ground seemed to stop his backwards momentum.

No doubt being the work of Terramok, earthen spikes rose up left and right to keep Interress from blindly charging at Solmar directly after he had thrown him off. Swiping his sword through the ground to shatter the spikes, they had at the very least given the swordsman the time to get his bearings and return to the fight. Sending a horizontal blow towards Interress, the lord of flame attempted to intercept the attack, only for Solmar's blade to suddenly pick up speed and hit the elemental lord in the side before he could get his blade there. While it had not been a lack of oversight from Interress himself or a feat of strength from Solmar, it was as if a gust of wind had suddenly wrapped itself around his sword and greatly increased the momentum behind it. Digging the greatsword into the side of the flame lord and sending him into a nearby rock formation, Solmar could tell that this blow had dealt quite a bit of damage as it had passed right through the armor it had around him to contain his fiery form.


(1042 // 6329)

Not long after it had been knocked into the rocks, the dust settled to show that the lord of flame was still far from defeated. With fire and magma leaking out of the armor, the mage figured that this was in some way similar to how a human would bleed out if they got carved up in a similar manner. Flowing onto the ground beside it, the magma-like substance started to harden while the flames spouting from the gap in the armor started setting more of the local flora alight. Knowing very well that if he was to save the rest of the place from getting stricken with a similar fate, that things had to end now, he engaged the being again. Continuing as he did before, he relied solely on his own strength, not expecting the lord of earth or water to do him any solids as that might actually have dire consequences for him. Relying on them for their aid and suddenly not getting it might mean that his attack might come up short, his defenses might be less effective or an assault simply would not reach before a counterattack came in from the flame deity.

So while it was appreciated while it lasted, he would not be betting on it all the time. When the greatsword was brought up to defend against one of Solmar's attacks, the lord of flame managed to catch him off-guard by suddenly spewing a large volume of fire out of his open wound. Using the side of the blade to catch most of the flames, the constant stream was forcing him back, keeping him from continuing his attack. Gritting his teeth and burying his heels in the ground, white flames started coming out of his sword, creating a means of holding back the torrent getting launched at him. Seemingly not expecting this, Terramok and Hurricanian shot a glance at one another as if to express some kind of surprise to one another without the use of words. Increasing the volume of the white flames that originated from his blade, Solmar could feel how the summer solstice was still affecting him, increasing the intensity of the flames as they devoured the incoming flames. Realizing that this form of attack would no longer benefit him, Interress stopped bombarding him with his own flames.

"White flames… So you're that kind of mage. Slaughtering you now will be so much mo-"

While gasping out his words as the torrent of flame had obviously weakened it more, Interress was suddenly struck mid sentence by several tendrils of water penetrating his neck and shoulder. Lifting him up into the air and slamming him into the surroundings several times in an attempt at literally beating the life out of him, more of the molten innards of the fire elemental lord got scattered across the area and setting those places on fire too. Following the tendrils of water back to an altogether different formation of stone and rock, it turned out that Undine had in fact been hiding her presence while awaiting the right time to strike at whoever was in a worse shape. It all happened exactly as Terramok told him it would, proving the more calm and contained of the elemental lords was likely the most knowledgeable one of the bunch. In so doing, it proved itself to be quite patient, just as was the case with Hurricanian, while Interress seemed to be the most hotheaded and foolhardy of them and Undine being perhaps the most cunning. These were all good to know.

Knowing that there would come a point when the others would probably turn on him, every bit of information he could gather would be well worth the effort he'd go through to get it. When Undine was finally done tossing Interress around, it seemed that she was very much ready to kill him, but had yet to finish gloating. Not wasting any time, Solmar instead made his way over to her, and for a good reason. Her and her water elementals had been the first to attack him unprovoked, trying to kill him and the bear cub he was trying to save by drowning them both if they didn't fall to their deaths first. With Interress mostly out of commission, Undine's gaze turned towards Solmar as various more watery tendrils shot forth from her body. Swiping his large blade towards the incoming tendrils, Undine winced as she had not expected this outcome. Because the solstice was still going strong, his fire was so much more intense that the watery tendrils lacked the power to extinguish them from around his blade, instead either getting severed or evaporated upon making contact with the massive slab of metal.

Continuing to rush her, she moved further and further back until she was right by the edge of the cliff. Not giving her the time to just escape, he knew that he was also too far away to actually run her through before she could make her way out into the ocean. Sending a large crescent wave of white flames towards her, the blast swallowed her up as she got sent flying off of the cliffs with a loud shriek of pain. Watching as the flames carried her with them into the distance before plummeting into the ocean, he figured that he had at the very least returned the favor by giving her something to think about next time she tried to kill him unprovoked. Having nearly forgotten about the fallen lord of flames that was still groveling on the floor next to him, more of the hot magma was spilled from his neck and shoulder wounds, as well as spat from what he figured was his mouth. No longer expecting a fight from him, Solmar walked closer to him as it seemed that there was something he had left to say to him. Whether it was a nice gesture or something of the other kind, which he more or less expected from him by now, did not really matter now that he was as good as dead.

"Use your sword… finish me…"


(1024 // 7353)
+ Turning in first 7000, leaving 353.

Looking somewhat confused, Solmar stared at the lord of flames as he was drawing closer and closer to his inevitable death. It would not be long before the elemental would kick the bucket, that much was clear enough to see, though what made little to no sense aside from wanting to die a warrior's death was the reason as to why it wanted Solmar to kill it with his sword. Holding his sword at the ready with a single hand, he heard a loud rumbling in the skies above, almost as if the very air had qualms with him doing this thing. Still, he felt as though he somewhat owed it to the being to grant it a quick death instead of letting it suffer, as that was something he was willing to grant anyone who had at the very least fought honorably. Clearly, this was something he would not grant the water elemental lord, Undine, as she had proven time and time again to be nothing more than some underhanded snake in the grass. Raising his sword so that he could puncture the torso of the elemental lord in one go, another crack of lightning resounded, followed by a voice.

"Do not be fooled, he does not wish to be killed, he wishes to be banished. If a mortal kills an elemental, they are banished back to their own realm. If an elemental kills another elemental, they are gone for good. If he dies now, Undine will have dealt the killing blow, meaning he will never be able to return. But please, do allow me to do the honors."

Listening to Hurricanian as he came hovering down from his perched position, the things Interress said were starting to make more sense. It would have been quite the humiliating defeat, to fight against a mortal only to get caught from behind by another conniving elemental lord.  There had been no honor in it, none whatsoever. Someone who had fought as hard as the lord of flame deserved an end that was better than choking upon his own liquids. Besides, he did not feel like Hurricanian had earned the kill as all he had been doing was just watch Solmar fight and give him a gentle nudge here and there. When Hurricanian formed a bunch of electricity in his hand before materializing it into a spear, it became quite clear that the elemental lord of air had something to gain in the war from killing Interress, though none of that mattered to Solmar at all. Regardless of this war between the elements that could end up destroying quite a bit of the land in the process, if not all of it, the young mage refused to sell out his own beliefs, even in the face of beings such as these.

In the blink of an eye, Solmar's greatsword penetrated the elemental lord of flame, as well as the ground beneath him with a lot of force. Doing so before Hurricanian could get his hit in, mixed with the fact that the elemental had not been expecting this outcome, a gurgled laughter came from behind Interress's helmet. Clearly he was laughing at Hurricanian and Undine for having missed their shot at killing him, that much was as clear as day. Once Solmar pulled the blade back, it became clear that Terramok was not exactly pleased with this outcome, but that he could not care a whole lot about it either. At the end of the day, one of the elemental lords had been removed from the playing field, meaning the remaining three were that much closer to their own victory. From the look of things though, Hurricanian did not entirely share this sentiment as it started to crackle with electricity before trying to strong-arm Solmar away. Blocking the strike from the spear with the broad side of his blade, he got pushed back a few meters, but was relatively unhurt by the attack itself.

Holding on to his blade with both hands, he held the blade behind him, ready to swing it as soon as Hurricanian even as much as tried to take a step into his direction. While he had helped him before, him attacking Solmar proved the point he had tried to make for himself when he thought about how the aid he was getting was self-serving and had nothing to do with whether or not they wanted Solmar to win. Clearly, they did not care if he won, they just cared about Interress losing. Watching Hurricanian as he was rapidly building up a large of electricity, the sparks were visibly bouncing across his body as he prepared to attack the human mage. Just as it was about ready to launch his attack, the smoldering hand of Interress wrapped itself around the leg of Hurricanian, searing it as he clenched his fingers together. As both Solmar and the elemental lord of wind had more or less considered Interress as deceased, they were both equally shocked by this turn of events. With Terramok just watching from above, it moved its arms around a bit to form a small rampart of rock around it, likely knowing exactly what was about to happen next.

"You've honored my request… fleshbag… now allow me… to return the favor…"

With that, the material body of the lord of flame erupted in fire and light, exploding apart as a portal got ripped open in space. Showing behind it a world that seemed to be nothing but lava, volcanoes and fire elementals of many more different shapes and sizes than the ones he had seen so far, a vacuum started sucking in all of the fire elementals that yet remained on the material plain of Fiore. Returning them to their rightful place in their own realm of origin, the portal itself being torn open while still attaching his material body to Hurricanian caused the wind lord's entire arm to be entirely destroyed up to his shoulder. Due to the portal just appearing through space itself, Solmar could not tell whether the arm had been disintegrated or torn off and pulled into the dimension of the fire elementals, neither did he really care. All that mattered was that the being was down one arm, thus leveling the playing field when being faced by a mere mortal. Once the last of the fire elementals got sucked back in, all that remained behind of their onslaught had been the forest fire that still raged through the mountains.


(1086 // 1439)

Upon closing, Solmar noticed a small, strange kind of rock on the floor next to Hurricanian, who did not seem to have noticed it as he was far too preoccupied with the fact that his arm had been entirely destroyed. Screaming loudly, the young swordsman could not tell whether this was a scream of pain or a scream of anger, though it reminded him a lot of the noise made by Cernunnos, the goat god of the hunt. Though this very being had helped him in his fight against Interress, allowing him to land a blow that likely ended the fight before it had a proper chance to begin, the fact that it would swat him away and attempt to destroy him simply because Solmar decided that he would rather give someone the death of a warrior and claim the kill for himself meant that Hurricanian was many things, including petty. He had already come to the conclusion before that the lord of wind was a very patient being, though it turned out that his own pettiness and eagerness to claim the defeat of the fire lord for himself had ended up potentially losing him the war. After all, with only one arm left, he would not pose much of a threat to Terramok, who had been going by unscathed this entire time.

With Undine caught up in the wake of his most powerful fire based spell, Solmar liked to believe that she too had taken quite the beating and would need some time to recuperate and lick her wounds, not to mention restore some of the many foot soldiers she had lost in her battle against Interress. This meant that Terramok, the lord of earth, had lost the least soldiers and hadn't really been forced to leave his perch for anything yet. If nothing else, it would seem that he was the only real winner here, and he had managed to do so by doing nothing more than aiding Solmar in his assault and give him some pointers on how to fight against the elemental lords with greater accuracy. In some cases, it was true that knowledge could win wars, Terramok being one of the prime examples of this theory. Preparing his blade yet again, he lowered his stance and prepared to launch an attack towards Hurricanian, though not all was going exactly as planned when the deity was suddenly surrounded by a few smaller but seemingly quite agile elementals that seemed like a hybrid of man and bird.

As they stepped into the fray, Hurricanian lifted himself up off the ground and took to the skies where he was greeted by several other elementals. Setting himself down on another high perch not far from where Terramok was, it became quite clear that the lord of earth was keeping the lord of air locked in his gaze. Perhaps this was the point where the final elemental lord would make a move, though Solmar was too preoccupied to really think about that for much longer as the avian men attacked him. Using strange and light blades mixed with strikes from their own talons, they started attacking the black haired mage as a team, drawing his attacks one way before attacking him from behind, exploiting every gap in his defenses. Because he was not wearing any armor, he focused primarily on deflecting the blows from the swords, though the large talons sinking into his skin and ripping into his flesh seemed like they were almost as painful as getting sliced by one of their swords. While he thought against the trio of birdmen, Hurricanian ordered more of his elementals to leave his side and join in on the attack.

Actively wearing him down after he had already been fighting against the lord of flame and a bunch of water elementals, Solmar was quickly tiring himself out, but kept himself from using his magic as he was trying to conserve enough of it for the moment when he needed it, as well as regenerating as much at as high a pace as possible. Knowing that he would not be able to restore as much of it as fast as he wanted to, all he could really do right now was to just keep fending them off while looking for the right time to strike back. By the time his eyes picked up on the other elementals coming towards him, part of him felt like this might be the point where he'd need to quite literally burn through his remaining energy to kill the attackers, knowing it would just make him an easy kill for the elemental lords themselves. Much to his surprise though, the attacking elementals coming in from a distance were all engaged by the minions of Terramok, including Terramok himself, launching boulders from the earth itself to shoot them out of the air. Once they got shot down, they in turn got torn into by the earth elementals crawling along the floor.

Not knowing why the lord of earth would do such a thing as he really had nothing to gain from this, and actually stood to lose some of his forces in the counter raid, the young man just figured that the reasoning of the elemental lord was beyond what he himself was capable of. Believing that this might just keep him from dying here, he dashed back from the bird men, brought his sword back and started going on the offense. Having blocked enough attacks by now, the blade had been charged plenty, allowing him to release the built up force to crush his enemies before him. Though he would only be able to exert the contained energy in one go, he came in with a horizontal strike, hitting the three bird men in the same strike and releasing the power. Carving his blade straight through them in a storm of feathers and blood, the three attackers fell to the ground in pieces, muscles still twitching as their final breath left their bodies. Right after that, Solmar dug his blade into the ground, using it as a crutch to lean on and catch his breath, which was much needed by now.


(1033 // 2469)

For the time being, Solmar would just watch as the elementals on the floor were fighting one another, how flying beings were shot out of the sky by those that moved along the ground and how Hurricanian seemed to become increasingly more angry with both the mortal swordsman and the elemental lord of earth. It had become abundantly clear that the lord of earth had an axe to grind with the lord of air, for there had been absolutely no reason as to why it would have otherwise tried to help Solmar in dispatching the incoming elemental attackers. In a way, Solmar could understand why it would do so, knowing that if he kept the human alive, more elementals would end up dying before Terramok would need to actually involve himself in any fighting. But with the young mage being weakened due to the amount of magic power he had used up so far, mixed with the talon wounds and broken rib meant that he was quite happy to get a bit of a break here. After all, it gave him some much needed time to assess the situation and regain his cool.

Looking out ahead of him, there were various landmarks that had been altered greatly since the coming of the elemental lords, as well as the passing of the lord of flame. Behind him was the cliff from which he had personally flung Undine, the mistress of water off and into the ocean below. To his sides were large canyon walls standing at a height of about seven meters, with Terramok standing on top of it with a bunch of his earth elementals guarding him and a stone rampart around the lot. Directly in front of him, at what he considered to be ground level, were a large amount of earth and wind elementals fighting against one another. And all the way at the end of the canyon was the tall hill with Hurricanian standing on top of it, watching the battle unfold while switching his gaze between Terramok, his struggling army at the center of the canyon and Solmar standing all the way at the end of it. One could go as far as to say that he was in a bit of a predicament, for if he were to take part in the battle, Terramok and Solmar would just end up jumping him right there and ending him.

If he were to go straight for Terramok, he would also have the earth elementals around him to take care of and potentially needed to worry about Solmar making his way up and getting involved too. Finally, he could go for Solmar, which seemed to be the safest action he could possibly take by now, though that too risked drawing Terramok and his soldiers into the battle. As things were now, the one armed lord of air had been dealt the losing hand, pun not intended. No matter what he'd end up doing, chances were that it would end up being the final blow that ended up killing him and end his crusade upon the material plane. Perhaps the only good thing to come of all this for Solmar was the fact that he was quite rapidly learning the kind of things most mortals would never have to worry about a day in their lives, which was more or less exactly how he summed up the knowledge he had come to possess up until this point. Even as a normal mage who lived out his days in the woods with his flying pet, he had never really known much of anything about modern society, but had come to learn a ton about nature and odd things such as monsters.

Now, he could add a bunch of other stuff to his own personal vault of information, this time regarding elementals. What he had come to figure out so far was that an elemental could only truly be killed by another elemental, and that a human dealing the killing blow would only shatter their material body and banish them back to their own respective dimension. It had also been brought up that the elementals and elemental lords were a lot more powerful in their own dimensions than they were out in the material world in their material forms, which was probably the only reason why Solmar had even stood somewhat of a chance against them and their followers. That, and obviously the fact that the summer solstice was powering his magic helped him immensely too. Finally, the last piece of big information was that these elemental lords could only come back every few decades and that they all had big plans for the material world after they managed to take down their adversaries, which were in turn also elemental lords with plans to reshape the world. In short, they were all power hungry beings from a different plane of existence that were set on dominating Fiore and every kingdom around it.

With what else he had seen and heard, he had also managed to get a bit of personalized information regarding the elemental lords too, things he hoped would actually benefit him in the future as Undine had pretty much escaped from all the fighting and was now free to continue setting up her own dark machinations. Throughout all of the fighting, with wings being torn off of bird like creatures, talons carving in and through the stone exterior of the earthen elementals, the young mage could only do one thing for now, and that was rest. In a little while, he would need to face off against the lord of air, that much seemed clear to him, though there was more to it. Even if he won, he would still need to somehow handle the lord of earth, who had made it perfectly clear that there was a rather big difference between it and the other elemental lords. Not just in terms of power, but in terms of intelligence and cunning as well, possessing a cunning that seemingly rivaled that of Undine. What made the two of them entirely different though was that Terramok did not strike at anyone who had their back turned and seemed to possess a strange sense of valor and justice.

(1047 // 3516)

Having always considered these things to be human features, he felt it rather odd that these beings who did not even come from their world had them too. The sole reason why he had always believed such things was because he never saw such things in animals, mostly because their intelligence was different from that of human beings. The same could be said about these elemental beings, though they seemed like they were a whole lot older than the oldest living man or woman on the planet. Considering how a few decades seemed to be relatively short for these beings, who used this period as a time to structure their forces, gather their power and plot their return to the world of mortals, it made sense to think that these beings had an entirely different concept of time and mortality, as had been shown by Interress already. If he had more time for it, he would probably have taken this time to ponder more on the things that might be lurking in different dimensions, or perhaps in places of the earth nobody had ever seen or heard of before. Shaking his head, he forced himself back into the present and the dangers he faced.

Due to his magical powers and properties, the wounds inflicted upon him by the talons earlier had already stopped bleeding and were gradually closing themselves up, though moving or actually fighting in this state would most likely cause them to just rip back open at this point. Feeling that a good portion of his magic had returned to him, he still had time before he would need to make his move, waiting for Hurricanian or Terramok to make the first move in this oversized game of chess. With the lesser earth and wind elementals fighting to the death and ripping one another to shreds in a gauntlet that had formed at the center of the canyon, there was no way for Solmar to just walk on through to get to where Hurricanian was. Instead, he figured that he might not to go up to get out, and so he started looking for a place where he might start that was rugged enough for him to find grip, but not to the point where it might have become brittle. Before he did so however, he took a couple of steps forward, making his way over to where Hurricanian had lost an arm and Interress had been banished.

Bending over and picking up the colorful stone that had been laying there, he looked it over to see that it was transparent and red, as well as fairly hot to the touch. Though it would not burn his skin or set things on fire, even someone who was as bad at sensing magical power as he was could tell that there was a surprisingly large amount of it locked inside of the small stone. Believing this to be the kind of thing the wealthy people at the top of society put inside of jewelry, he slipped it into his pocket. The way he saw it, there must have been some reason behind it dropping the moment after the elemental lord of flame had been banished from that spot after ripping all of the nearby fire elementals through a portal in space-time. Whatever it was, he figured that he would eventually learn more about it, though now was not that time. With a well timed leap, Solmar jumped into the canyon wall and dug his fingers and the tips of his boots into the stone firmly. Crawling along the wall like a lizard or a monkey, one might forget that he was only human as he quickly got from the bottom to the top of the canyon. Upon reaching the top, he could see Terramok was not that far from where he was.

Making no intentions towards getting closer to his position, he instead walked in a wide arc around him as he had his sights set entirely on Hurricanian. For the time being, the elemental lord of air was the only enemy that was present, at least when not counting his small army of followers. For some reason, it seemed that Terramok himself was quite well aware of this fact as he too made no form of actions towards Solmar, not even moving himself around to defend himself in case the human chose to attack him all of a sudden. That said, the elementals that were still guarding the lord of earth did not share this sentiment as they seemed rather weary and ready to rip off his limbs if he as much as took a step in the direction of their master. Once Solmar passed them however, it seemed that there was something about him that drew the attention of the lord of earth, who looked over his shoulder to get a good look at him before turning his gaze back towards Hurricanian. Shrugging his throat deeply, it sounded like Terramok had something to share with the human mage, albeit reluctant judging by the way he sounded.

"That stone you have on you, do not underestimate it. Though it may look like a mere ruby, it is in fact the compressed material matter of the lord of flame, meaning that the stone you're holding is a fragment of his power. Humans like you have used things like that for a plethora of purposes, though this is not just any elemental shard you're holding. Be wary of that…"

Looking over towards the lord of earth, Solmar reached into his pocket as he tightly held the stone clutched between his fingers. Feeling the heat radiating out of it, it made him wonder if the thing was actually as powerful as he was made to believe. After all, why wouldn't Hurricanian have taken it when Interress got banished. Maybe it had been because he had just lost an arm in the process of banishing the lord of flame, though it still wasn't adding up in Solmar's mind. Nodding at Terramok to state that he had heard what he was saying, he turned his attention back towards Hurricanian as well. While it was nice to know exactly what it was that he was carrying around with him, he could not risk losing sight of the true target and enemy at this time. Removing his hand from his pocket, he put it back on the handle of his blade as he kept on walking closer to the very end of the rock formation. At the very end of it, it would only be a small distance to get to the higher ground where Hurricanian had been waiting, watching the battle between the lesser elementals unfold as he could see his chances at victory growing more slim by the minute.


(1137 // 4653)

Solmar could technically say the same, because with every elemental lord that fled the scene or got banished, chances rose of the remaining one, namely Terramok, being able to just pounce on him with the full brunt of his army. Having barely suffered any losses when compared to the other lords, Terramok was by far the most dangerous entity around, though he wouldn't be so foolish as to underestimate Hurricanian, even though he had lost an arm before he could properly start the battle against the mortal or the lord of earth. Aside from that, there was still Undine, who had escaped to the crushing depths of the ocean by now, meaning she would probably already be back to plotting how best to make her comeback and take as many lives in the process. It was very unfortunate that she was the one that got away, considering how she was the only one he really hated at this point. With Interress, he only really saw the point in fighting because he was actively setting every little bit of nature around him on fire and threatened the bears he had just saved prior to the coming of the other lords.

With Hurricanian, it was simply for the fact that he had tried to kill Solmar first, all because the mortal had finished the job he had started instead of handing the kill over to the lord of wind. That sucker punch tactic it had pulled against him had angered him quite a bit, not to mention sending several of his winged minions after him once Interress basically gave him a last "fuck-you" before being fully banished back to his realm and ripping off his arm. Forming a small grin on his face at the thought of it, Solmar was quite glad that his choice at banishing the elemental lord of fire had rendered such a positive outcome for the human male. Drawing ever closer to the point he had in mind, a place from where he was certain that he could leap from one side to the other without falling short or getting impaled before he could get there, both his attention and that of Hurricanian got pulled towards a low grumbling noise that seemed to resemble some sort of laughing or coughing. Watching Terramok as he was seemingly shaking himself into readiness, it was clear as crystal that another lord was preparing for battle.

Whether it was because the suspense was finally getting to him or because he had just gotten bored of all the waiting and having his troops doing all of the fighting, the elemental lord of earth tossed himself down from his position at the top of the canyon. Crashing into the ground below, spikes of earth rose up as soon as he landed, perforating various of the wind elementals that stood even remotely close to him. Retracting back into the ground not much later, the elementals fell to the ground, trampled by those that were still fighting to their last breath. Standing at the edge of the canyon, Solmar and Hurricanian stared one another down while Terramok and his forces started eviscerating the remaining forces of the lord of wind. By all means, it had already lost the war as it would not be able to win it on his own, that much they all knew by now. And without one of his arms, there was only so much he could do when facing down another elemental lord, meaning Interress was probably laughing out loud back in his own realm of fire. Even though he had been the first to fall, he had ensured that at least one other lord would not be able to take control of the material world.

Now that he would not need to look over his shoulder to see whether or not Terramok might be planning to strike against him, it was time to properly fight against the lord of wind. With his wounds mostly healed to the point where he could go about fighting and much of his magical reserves replenished, the magical flame aura returned to his sword as he prepared it for the battle at hand. With the magical slayer flames running through and around the blade, he could use it as a medium through which his spells could be utilized and strengthened quite a bit. Through it all, he had this blade to thank for a lot of tight situations that he managed to squeeze himself out of in one piece, and if he had anything to say about it, this would be just another one of those times. Clenching the handle of Sunvaar Kriid in his fist, he bent himself through his knees as he prepared himself to either dish out the first hit or counter what Hurricanian might throw at him. No matter what, this elemental lord was not going to get away from here to plot his return like Undine did, that much he swore to himself right then and there.

Dashing off, he leaped from his perch towards where Hurricanian was. Noticing that the elemental lord recalled his spear to his hand, Solmar channeled a torrent of white fire towards it, forcing it back so he could safely land on solid ground. Coming back in with the spear, Solmar angled his sword so as to redirect where it was headed, altering the trajectory of the spear tip straight into the ground. Needing both hands on the handle of his sword to do so, it went to show just how physically powerful the being was, even though it had only one arm to use. Again, he silently thanked Interress for ripping off his arm. Once the tip of the spear got lunged into the rocks, Solmar took one of his hands off of the handle of the blade, channeling fire into his fist while plunging the tip of his blade into the ground as well. Making sure the spear would not be moving from that spot, he let go of Sunvaar Kriid and brought his fist forth. Lacking the amount of limbs needed to properly guard against this attack, Solmar planted his fist into what he figured was the lower abdomen of the elemental lord.


(1042 // 5695)

With a loud roar, flames erupted from his fist as soon as it made contact with the being, doing so in such a violent manner that it sounded almost like an explosive going off. Though it had packed a lot of force, it only served to push the elemental back a little ways, though the mortal was not done yet. Sending a barrage of punches towards the same spot that exploded with the same burning ferocity, Hurricanian was slowly starting to catch fire. Landing various blows upon the body of the elemental being, it eventually got forced to let go of his spear and use the only arm it had left to swipe Solmar away. Diving under the initial swipe, the elemental brought his arm back a second time. Putting up his arms in time to parry the blow, Solmar vented a small amount of white flames from his forearms to somewhat cushion the attack itself and hurt the attacker in the process. That was, if they actually knew what pain was. Knocked away by the sheer force of the blow, it seemed that the cushioning flames were only capable of so much when dealing with such a powerful being.

There was a reason why these beings were considered "Lords" in their own dimensions after all, and that much showed itself quite clearly. Not having the direct backing of one or more elemental lords this time, it wasn't like the earth would rise up to his defense this time, nor would the wind carry his sword towards its destination with greater momentum. Thrusting his sword into the ground, the young swordsman kept himself from getting tossed off and back down into the canyon. As soon as he stopped moving, he let go of his sword as the elemental lord's spear stabbed right into the ground where he stood only a split second earlier. Channeling fire to both of his fists, he bent through his knees before literally shooting himself off of the ground and against Hurricanian's chest. Allowing fire to burst forth from his feet, he increased the force behind the blow as the sheer impact forced the elemental lord back. Upon making contact, Solmar made the flames erupt with a lot of raw force, this time thrusting the elemental lord of air into the wall of solid rock behind them.

He was done, done being pushed around by these beings who believed that they had a right to just pop up and alter a world foreign to their own to their likes and needs. From the looks of it, these elemental lords all had their own realm to rule over, meaning they had no reason to be here other than to expand their own empires, and he wasn't having any of it. Up until now, he had been relatively laid back in dealing with them as they did not all seem inherently evil, at least aside from Undine who just enjoyed drowning mortals. Picking his sword back up with his dominant right hand, he brought it to the side with a lot of force, slicing through the handle of Hurricanian's spear. Making sure that it would not have its go-to weapon once it got back up, Solmar made sure that once the fight continued, he would quite literally have the upper hand. Shortly after destroying the spear, Hurricanian pulled himself free from the surrounding rock and started moving towards him again. By the time it noticed that his spear had been shattered however, it would already be too late for it to come up with a new plan.

Bringing down his blade with a vertical strike, Solmar smashed Sunvaar Kriid down upon Hurricanian's good shoulder with so much devastating force that the ground beneath their feet cracked. Raising his blade again, he instantly brought it down a second time, a third time and a fourth time as the armor around Hurricanian made it look and sound like a hammer repeatedly hitting an anvil. With every blow, he kept channeling more of his magical power into the blow, up to the point where the fiery aura was no longer present at all. Instead flowing through the actual metals making up the blade itself, the blade had turned white hot as Solmar rose it up one last time. Bringing it down diagonally this time, he carved into Hurricanian's neck and kept pushing it further down. Using all of his strength to force it down and cut the whole being in two, it put its remaining hand on the blade, applying force of his own against it. Keeping Solmar from being able to get any deeper in, it would seem that the two of them had reached a stalemate, bringing it down to a show of brawn and a fight of wills. As both were unwilling to give up and admit defeat, something unexpected happened.

As if triggered by the intense heat coming off of Solmar's weapon, the stone in his pocket started humming, vibrating in the pocket of his coat. Feeling his strength returning to him, he could feel that the wounds inflicted upon him by Hurricanian's elemental soldiers were rapidly closing while the pain in his ribs disappeared. More so, it felt as if his magical power was increasing along with the heat radiating off of his blade. Reaching a point where Hurricanian could no longer hold on to the blade, Solmar made every bit of use as he could of this unexplained power, forcing the greatsword all the way from upper right to the lower left. Crashing into the ground where the blade turned the rock it touched into molten lava, the upper portion of Hurricanian's body came sliding down to the ground. Once it hit the ground, Solmar knew that he would not have the time to just stand around and gloat. Dashing two large steps back, he stabbed his blade into the ground and braced himself for what he knew would happen next. Because it was a mortal that did the killing, the elemental lord would be banished back to where it was that he came from.


(1020 // 6715)

As a portal opened at Hurricanian's location, strong and violent winds started tugging at him in an attempt at sucking him down into the world of the wind elementals. Drawing the wind elementals that had not been felled in battle towards the portal, it was as if an extra planar vacuum was sucking up everything that did not belong in this material world, banishing it all back to where it came from. Thanking the fact that his sword was as massive as it was, it being stuck so deep into the ground and being so incredibly heavy kept him from getting pulled into the portal as well. Aside from the fact that his weapon was of great use to him here, it also seemed like the portal exerted a much greater force of suction on those that actually belonged inside of that particular realm, as had also been quite apparent when the fire elementals got pulled back into their home world. As many of these creatures got sucked past him and disappeared into the portal, it only remained open for about a minute before everything had entirely been removed from the material world.

Once the portal had closed itself, another stone fell to the ground, this one being transparent and white in color. Picking it up before it had the chance to actually hit the ground, he again felt a strange kind of humming from inside of the stone, as well as finding it relatively cold to the touch and being even lighter than the ruby like stone. In fact, it felt like if he were to toss the stone into the air, it would be so light that it wouldn't ever come back down at all. When he attempted to put it into his pocket, the other stone seemed to resonate with it, being pulled towards one another in the palm of his hand. As they came together, a few sparks shot off of it and with a slight flash, the two stones had fused together into one, one half red and one half white. Wondering as to what exactly this meant, he pulled his sword out of the ground with his free hand and turned his attention towards Terramok. Now that his forces no longer had anything to fight, they were all gradually crawling and climbing their way back up the canyon towards their master.

Remaining on his side of the high ground, Solmar looked across the flat space between him and the elemental lord of earth, not really knowing what he had to do next. While two of the elemental lords had been banished back to where they had come from, another had chosen to bail and try again another day, the one who had by far made it out on top was still standing about thirty meters away from him. Knowing that he would not be able to win this time, Solmar made it rather clear that he had no intention of fighting at this point, a sentiment Terramok seemingly shared with him as he gestured at his elementals to stand down before gesturing towards Solmar that he should approach him. For a moment, Solmar wondered to himself whether this would be a good idea or not, but figured that if Terramok wanted to kill him, he could just do so already while Solmar would have very little to say about it. Holding up his sword and allowing it to be unsummoned, as the sword was currently the only thing he could summon through his Requip magic, he walked towards the earth elemental lord completely unarmed. With Terramok walking closer to him, they met halfway across the canyon wall.

"So.. you have managed to take down two elemental lords and claimed their material cores… quite a feat for a fleshling. I imagine you would like to know what it means to have those things, because they are more than just a luxurious and expensive mineral."

"I would, yes, though I imagine this information is going to cost me?"

"On the contrary, I imagine giving you this information will end up furthering my goals as well as your own. You see, that stone you hold gets more powerful the more elemental shards it gathers into it. These elemental shards are, in fact, made from materials you fleshlings do not understand, but are still very much from the material plane and our elemental plane at the same time. This means that, as the stone gets stronger, so does it become more useful to you… in more ways than you might be able to imagine with your … limited intellect."

Not really enjoying it when his intellect was being pulled into question, he figured that it was only natural to feel somewhat offended whenever someone did so. But as the thought about the stone and it growing in power, he thought about how the ruby stone had started humming and vibrating before his wounds had started closing and his own magical power grew to the point where he could singlehandedly overpower the elemental lord of wind. Although the being had only one arm and had taken quite a severe punishment up until that point, there was no denying that the fragment left by Interress was to blame for his temporary power-up. Even now, with Terramok standing this close to him, the twin-shard was vibrating rather violently, almost as if warning Solmar about an elemental lord being near his location. While the ruby stone had shown what it was capable of when he fought Hurricanian, he had no idea what Hurricanian's fragment had been capable of, let alone what the stone could do now that the two fragments had been merged together. Putting his hand into his pocket and grabbing the stone in order to hopefully calm the pulsating stone down, Terramok flinched a bit as he took a step back, clearly not liking the fact that the stone was this close to a human who could accidentally use it against him.


(1002 // 7717)
(Turning in up to this point for the Job, 717 words remaining)

"Don't worry, I don't know how to use this thing yet. Besides, I don't intend to start something I know I can't finish. Banishing those two took a lot out of me, and as much as I like finishing things before they can escalate, I have no intention of dying in the process, something I imagine you could understand well enough."

Again, Terramok flinched a bit, this time in surprise to the honesty of the mortal man. It was true though, even if this stone had any unexplained powers that he could unless, with the way his body had been repeatedly getting battered and beaten at every turn, he simply could not run the risk of fighting yet another elemental lord. If he faced Terramok, he would not have anything working in his favor as had been the case with Interress, in which case Solmar had been imbued with the powers from the wind and earth lords, not to mention the fact that the water mistress had used her own magic to literally stab the fire lord in the back and smack him around like a ragdoll after. And with the wind lord having lost most of his soldiers in the battle against the earth lord while losing his whole arm due to the final stand of the fire lord, Solmar had also managed to best Hurricanian with a bit of additional help from the material remnants of Interress. That, and Solmar simply saw no point in lying to or keeping things from the lord of earth, as he had been rather up front and forthcoming with information up until this point.

Though this had all been for the sole purpose of self preservation, which was Solmar was very well aware of as someone who had been doing a lot of self preservation while surviving in the wilderness. Sometimes, one had to make some tough choices and end something else so that they themselves could keep on living, and that was very much something Solmar wished to do. Not entirely for himself, but also for the sake of his flying feline friend Fellis, who was still hidden away in the cabin in the mountains. Once this was all over, he would go there to retrieve the cat and send him somewhere safer, though that would have to wait for the time being, as this did not seem to be over yet. Bringing his hand to his chin, Terramok started pondering on whether he should believing the mortal on his word, and as to whether or not he should be speaking now. Whichever the case might be, Solmar remained somewhat on his guard in case it would try something, which it would only seemingly do if provoked in some way. Making sure this was not the case, a soft rumbling of the earth could be heard as the elemental lord of earth shrugged his throat.

"I see.. well that makes two of us. Though we are bound to meet again under different circumstances, I believe that we have reached an impasse where both of us have gained more than we lost. In the spirit of keeping it that way, I will reward you for ridding me of two of my .. mortal enemies. As there is nothing I can give you that has meaning, I can instead reward you with the knowledge you seek."

"You are probably right about that, so I'll take whatever it is you have on this weird stone. I'd have liked to know more about what it is your kind is doing here to begin with, though I'd rather know more about this thing since I'm carrying it on my person. Truth is, i'd like to know if this thing could hurt the people around me during my travels, which i'd rather it not."

"Understandable, fleshling. As I already told you, those stones are powerful elemental shards that remain once the elemental soul is drawn from the body they use on the material plane. Compressing together until they can't go any further, they take the shape of one of your earthly rocks. But as you've seen, there is a great power to them, a power similar to that of an elemental lord as it is in the material world. I say this due to the fact that we are far stronger within our own realms, powerful beyond the scope of what you can imagine within your simple mortal mind."

Not really sharing anything with Solmar that seemed to be worth the hassle of this discussion, he did manage to pick up that his intellect was being pulled into question, or rather, was being ridiculed yet again. Giving the earth elemental lord a look of disgust, Solmar did not make any attempt at hiding the fact that he was not going to have any more of this talk, or they would actually go down to exchanging blows anyway. Hoping that the elemental lord could understand this much, it turned out that it wasn't entirely done speaking just yet, or maybe he had decided to keep talking so as to keep things from escalating.

"While even I don't fully understand the power of the stones, as they do not respond to any elemental aside from one of their own kind, it seems that they respond to what their wielder needs. If they need healing, they will heal. If they need power, they will grant power. If they need protection, they grant protection. All of this however seems to be limited to the stone, as not all are capable of doing what their wielder might ask of it. However, I have never seen two stones of foreign elemental materials bond together such as this, and I must say that it is a highly… curious development. One that will require further investigation."


(971 // 1688)

For the first time since Solmar had seen the elemental lord of earth, it seemed that Terramok was truly puzzled. It was an odd thing to behold, though it meant that Solmar was not the only one who had no idea as to what had been happening to the elemental remnants in his pockets. All the slayer really cared for was whether it might at some point do something violent like explode or anything of the sort, which he figured it wouldn't. Still, for the time being, he would try to keep himself and the stone away from other people, just in case there were some unforeseen side effects to keeping it around. For someone like him, staying away from human settlements wouldn't have been the hardest thing he had ever done, considering the fact that he had almost kept this up for nearly eleven and a half years. To him, being around people was fun at times, though not something he could not do without. Instead, he much preferred being out in the wilderness, exploring places for himself and figuring out a way for him to live in that new place, alongside the local flora and fauna.

This was more or less how he had stumbled into the mountains as well, considering how the Phoenix mountains and Sakuramori more or less bordered upon one another. At the time, he had not really planned to take on any jobs, but had been confronted by people who believed something was amiss and believed that he was the kind of person to ask to take care of it. Truth be told, part of him did not really want to take on any jobs at all, though the fact that innocent children had become the target of some wicked persons intent had pushed him into it. Because of this, he never really got around to properly scouting out the area and learning as much about the mountains as he had initially planned, nor had he really managed to find a place of his own where he could sleep and work on getting food and the like. On the other hand, it had awarded him with an old hunter's cabin that was no longer in use, simply because it no longer needed to be after Solmar helped solve the job and bring things to a proper end.

When he returned here for a second time, after taking care of Cernunnos, he had imagined that he might get the time to get a better idea of what the land was about and what it provided. Again, he had been wrong, considering how the coming of the elemental lords had more or less conflicted with his schedule. Knowing all too well how that might have sounded and how it came across as selfish, it was probably a good thing he kept thoughts like those in his head while also being in the mountains where no one could possible hear it. Besides, the fact that he had gone around fighting these beings for the sake of others proved that selfish was not exactly something he would use as a word to describe himself. Figuring that he would finally have some time to go about exploring and doing the things he wanted to do, he would first need to see this through and get to the bottom of these strange stones. The more the two talked about the matter, the more something sparked in the back of his mind, something he almost did not want to bring up with the elemental lord because of how it implied him as well, but decided not to skip out on it.

"You know, when I placed both of the stones in my pocket, they synchronized and merged together to become something that … well, it seemed like it had the properties of both stones.. but in one stone instead of two. If what you said is true, that elemental lord shards are different from the regular ones, does that mean those stones might be special? I mean.. maybe it requires all of the elemental lord shards to become what it was meant to be?"

With that, a temporary silence fell over the conversation as various earth elementals started making angry noises, causing the ground to rumble as if a minor earthquake was being set in motion. With a swift motion of his hand, Terramok gestured at them to leave, which was exactly what they all did, albeit reluctantly. Clearing out the surrounding area, it was not long before all that were left there were Solmar and Terramok, though the young mage figured that some of them were probably lingering nearby, just in case they needed to step in if their lord came under attack. Knowing that this would not become a thing unless Solmar was attacked first, he could remain relatively calm as he looked over the currently pondering elemental lord. Whether it was something he had not considered yet himself or because he did not enjoy talking about the idea coming from the head of the very same mortal who was currently holding the combined power of two materialized elemental lords was currently unknown.

What this told Solmar was that he was probably on to something here, otherwise it had probably been shot down as a lack of insight already. Besides, there was no denying what was right in front of him, and the fact that two of these seemingly powerful stones merged right there in the pocket of his coat said more than the elemental lord would be able to talk out of him. While it was true that Solmar did not really know a whole lot about these kinds of things, which was to be expected as he wasn't some kind of scholar that studied these kind of other dimensions and different planes of existence, he did know a thing or two about magic. While all of it was based on the examples he had seen, as well as his own magics, there were always some fundamentals behind how something either worked or didn't work. As for this particular stone that was now in his possession, it seemed that it got stronger the more elemental lord shards it collected. And in his case, whenever something seemed like something, it was often the case, especially with something that might seem as hard to grasp as magic.


(1067 // 2755)

"It is a possibility, yes, though not something I believe has ever been attempted before. Had it been, I would have known about it after my predecessor was felled. Perhaps because he did not get banished back but got murdered by the elemental lord of air, no shard was formed upon his banishment. Regardless, I imagine that it could be possible, though you would need to take down Undine and myself before you could test this possibility and learn the truth. I however can tell you that I will not go down as Interress or Hurricanian did, which is something you should keep in mind for when we next meet. Next time, one of us will not be walking away, that much is a promise I can make to you right here on my honor as the lord of earth."

"Though I have no title to swear on, I can still promise you the very same. Though I don't hold any grudges against you personally, I'm rather content with the way the world is right now, and I don't want it to become a place that is devoid of life. So when we meet again.. if we meet again, I promise that I'll send you and your people back to wherever it is you came from."

With both having made their promises to one another as to how they would both do their very best to murder each other when they met again, a temporary silence fell over the place. While neither of the two really had a reason to hate the other, the fact that one wanted to create a utopia for his own kind while damning all other life on the planet in the process was reason enough for Solmar to do his very best to put a stop to it. After all, in a way, he felt like all of this had been his fault due to the curse Cernunnos had placed upon him that brought about this elemental tide. With a slight nod, Terramok started sinking into the floor, seemingly having had enough of their conversation. It was a good thing, because Solmar would not have been able to bring himself to leave until he was certain that none of them were left where he was. Whether it was simply animalistic nature, which came before most of his human traits, he had trouble leaving behind a place he currently considered his territory to one of his enemies. To him, it felt like weakness, and that was not something he could abide by.

With the elementals now all being banished, on the run or gone in order to continue their machinations and plans, Solmar was left in the Phoenix mountains. As alone as he had been before his eyes first picked up on the tidal wave that was heading towards the shore, this time, he felt probably worse. While one might wonder how one could possibly feel worse than when they saw a tidal wave approaching them from the horizon, there was actually a rather clear and simple explanation for that. A tidal wave was something people would see coming from miles away, though there was no telling what these remaining two elemental lords had in mind for the world. Being considered the two strongest elementals left due to the fact that there was ground and water literally everywhere, there wouldn't be a place where they would not have control over the surroundings. And that was something Solmar actually feared more than a tidal wave, because he knew quite well that one of those two had summoned the first one, and might again try to bring about another in the near future.

Walking back to the cabin, he kept the stone in his hand, wondering why he had to be the one that had to go and cut off Cernunnos's head. It made him wonder if the guy who had been with him at the time, Shane Something, and if he had been cursed with the same thing he had been. After all, they had gone about killing the creature together, so while he was the one that put the final hit in, it might have made sense if they had both been cursed. On the other hand, it seemed that most curses were only inflicted upon one person, which meant that he was going to have to shoulder the burden on his own. But it did raise a fair point, which was the possibility that the other guy had been cursed too, meaning he might also at some point become a target for the elemental lords, or might be the focus point for the next elemental tide a few decades from now. That was, unless the elemental lords were victorious this time around, and considering the fact that the other guy might have died by that time. Shaking the thought, he figured that he might need to try and check up on the guy after he found Fellis and made his way back down the mountain. He had seen quite enough of it for now.


(853 // 3608)
(End of Thread)