The Cursed Sceptre (Fraag)

The Spooky Forest. An unpleasant place where supposedly wicked creatures were supposed to roam, scaring the life out of anyone who entered before viciously ripping them to shreds. A region of mystery and darkness where only the truly strong or incredibly foolish would go. For Medeia, it was certainly the former and as the raven haired beauty landed at the edge of the vast plant filled area, she would briefly roll her eyes. There were many stories of this place’s inhabitants although she was hardly bothered by them and the eerie atmosphere of the region did not have the slightest effect on her. It was just another monster filled region, she assumed, one that she would gladly destroy if it meant she would aid her in completing her objective. Today, it was not the blood of beasts that she desired but a magical artifact that she had been researching. The sceptre of a deposed king who had been betrayed by his subjects and hacked to pieces by those he had once ruled. A powerful item, that was said to be able to corrupt the minds of all those that it was used upon, as well as the one who wielded it. An intriguing item indeed and one that Medeia deeply desired. It would make a fine addition to her collection and a useful tool for her schemes.

It had taken a great deal of time for the angel to discover the whereabouts of the sceptre and only recently had she finally been able to track down its current location. The weapon had passed from person to person at such a rapid rate due its corruption effects and the witch had to admire its abilities. Its powers were somewhat similar to some of her own spells and that was partly why she was interested in it. It attracted her, a sensation that she found difficult to ignore. Its newest possessor was an elderly mage, who Medeia believed had come to try and turn the forest into his own domain. A foolish notion, she opined, given the creatures who supposedly roamed but with the sceptre, perhaps it was possible? Either way, she was dead set on claiming the sceptre for herself and would settle for nothing less today. If he dared to use the sceptre against her then he would experience the full force of her powers for she had taken no shortcuts and was fully prepared for battle.

Wearing her usual, rather revealing Desiertian outfit, Medeia would be armed to the teeth. Her mythical sickle attached to her back and her pair of tomes hanging from her hips. All that was missing from her was her loyal maid, Armina, who was unfortunately still recovering from their battle against the guildmaster of Fairy Tail. A battle that had angered the dark being beyond belief. To strike her maid in such a way was unforgivable and Medeia was already planning her revenge. That irritating little fool would regret interfering in her plans and she would take the utmost pleasure in hanging his guild mates from the lampposts of Magnolia for the world to see. Her vengeance would be something that the people of Fiore would never forget and the pleasure that she would feel from the sight was enough to cause her heart to beat just a little faster. That, however, was for another day.

As she approached the forest to begin her search, the mage would briefly feel a plume of dark magic from within. A warning perhaps or simply the natural affinity of the place? Regardless of the reason behind it, Medeia would merely draw her sickle from her back and bring it in front of her face for a moment. “Warrior Of The Equinox.” She uttered, resulting in the gems on the sickle to glow brightly and the angel’s magical power to increase greatly. The angel mused that close combat was pretty much going to be a formality within the vast trees and so it only seemed prudent to use one of her more useful spells for such an occasion. Every swing of her sickle would be enough to cut through the stoutest of foes and she fully intended to remove the head of the sceptre’s current owner with such a swing. Her weapon hummed with power, resonating with the formidable magical aura that stemmed from her naturally. She would say that she was a force of nature but that simply was not enough, not any more.

Ready to proceed, the angel would enter the darkness of the forest, her sickle the only real source of light, armed and ready to face whatever foe this region of darkness had for her.

(782 Words)

Bai Suzhen had never been to the Spooky Forest. She had only heard tales about this strange place, and each and every one of these tales, without fail, was one of quite strange and hackle raising occurrences. At best, they had mildly hilarious events or conclusions, and involved ghosts chasing people and otherwise flummoxing the life out of people unfortunate enough to cross into such a strange region. At worst, the stories still involved ghosts (and a host of other much more unpleasant and dangerous things) flummoxing the life out of unfortunate people, literally. Said fatally flummoxing events were often described rather colorfully and graphically, most likely with the intention to instill, as much as possible, a rather great, if not unreasonable amount of dread in whoever was listening to the tales. Just like fireside ghost stories, these were most likely meant to entertain one way or the other, although they did leave the objective thinker to wonder how these events could have so judiciously been detailed, and also by whom these events were documented, if everyone that had entered the Spooky Forest had run afoul of whatever the forest claimed as its denizens, and had suffered the fates of those about whom the stories were told.

It was thus unfortunate that these stories, when told, did not elicit the expected dread, fear, or even at the very least, disgust, that they would in a present-day Ishgaran who was obviously not even up to three decades old. Suzhen had listened to these tales with some degree of mild curiosity, and had expressed either incredulity, or contemplative silence when she heard the stories. While most of the story tellers had attempted to inspire some degree of negative emotion in the apparently stoic Dongxian maiden, they had all eventually been bored by her refusal to be ruffled by the stories. But unknown to most of these discouraged storytellers, their stories had had some level of effect on Suzhen. Her curiosity had been piqued to a sufficient level to warrant her intention to make more research on the place. After all, she was currently studying for a higher degree in the management of strange phenomena and creatures, and this Spooky Forest could most likely give her enough subject matter on which to base her research, findings, and subsequent publications, as well as give her something else to do to improve herself, as far as personal training was concerned.

With all the information the Dongxian had pieced together, she could say without any modicum of uncertainty that the Spooky Forest was a place of fear and danger. But what she could not exactly determine was why. All of this was made more confusing by the stories she was beginning to hear about some mad old codger who had decided to entrench himself somewhere in the dark forest and make it his own personal domain. Of course, that raised the question of whether the old wizard was responsible for the nature of the Spooky Forest, but this was soon quickly resolved; it was very unlikely that someone, whose stories appeared to have originated much later than the reputation of the Spooky Forest, was responsible for its status. Suzhen surmised that the old wizard had most likely come to the Spooky Forest because of its reputation, and now sought to make this place, where all, but the very brave and the very mad, shunned, and make it into his kingdom. This old fellow would probably not have been much of the Dongxian's business, except that she kept hearing of some item this old man had with him: a strange scepter; the jury seemed to be out on what exactly it could do, but it seemed rather powerful, as almost all the stories Suzhen had heard appeared to revolve around some form of reality manipulation or the other. Oh and it was cursed. How, she did not know. All she was sure of was that the stories seemed to agree on the fact that anyone who handled this item had come to some grievous end, or were bound to in a matter of time. Even though Suzhen knew she had no official position which mandated her to ensure that this scepter was not in the hands of one who could be a threat to innocent people, she did believe that it was morally upright to make sure that this item would not endanger the lives of others. Once she was certain that it wouldn’t be used to harm anyone, she could leave it where it was, as sure as she was convinced that it wouldn’t fall into wrong hands. That would be her answer if she was asked why she was going to investigate the Spooky Forest. What she wouldn’t tell people was that she was almost dying to study the scepter, to discover its likely origins, material make up, and the source of its powers. For no other reason that academic interest. Eventually, she had gathered enough information to track the most likely location of the old wizard in the forest, and thus armed, she set out.

Days later, the Dongxian stood at the edge of the Spooky Forest, carrying all her weapons and items. She idly thought about how she really needed a more effective way to carry her paraphernalia. It wasn’t as though the items would weigh her down or anything, it was merely an aesthetic concern. Dressed in a black and gold elegant yet revealing Dongxian dress, which provided ease of movement, with her shield and monk spade on her back, and chain weapon on her belt, the scholar opened her white parasol, which sheathed her long sword, and walked into the forest, the white of the parasol contrasting with the black of her dress. As she walked, Suzhen thought of the beauty of contrasting things, how life was full of such, and how humans seemed to struggle against things that seemed to oppose or contrast their ideals, instead of finding a balance. There seemed to be a light, as Suzhen walked, and it was probably wise to investigate it. It could be a fellow traveler, or even an unnatural entity. Suzhen excitedly decided to investigate. As she rounded a particularly large tree, the scholar froze. For she saw someone she never expected to see. A mix of anger, embarrassment and fear welled up inside her, as she remembered what she had woken to after the fight with the dark mage on Crescent Island. She had awakened many miles away, in Crocus of all places, tied out in the open in a very scandalous position, and wearing nothing but gratuitous jewelry, as well as two strips of cloth and a string, which had been cleverly contrived to just barely cover her naughty bits. Oh, and lipstick marks. All over her body. She shuddered just thinking about it.

And yet, standing in front of her, was none other than Medeia, the same one who had assaulted her dignity so. To be fair to the dark angel, she had not hurt Suzhen further than their battle had gone, and the Dongxian found herself feeling grateful for that. But pride was a thing that needed revenging when crushed, and Suzhen was not the sort who just allowed wrongs to slide, if the offender was not penitent. But Medeia was so strong. How would she go up against her? Bravely resisting the urge to run, Suzhen quickly slipped back behind the tree she had just come around, hoping that her momentary pause on seeing the Errings Rising mage had not made it too late to slip back undetected. Medeia seemed to be holding a glowing sickle as a light source, which meant the dark angel didn’t have night vision. Suzhen didn’t either, but she could navigate without the use of her eyes. Maybe she could try to use the darkness as an advantage….


WC: 1316
PWC: 1316
TWC: 2098

The atmosphere was thick and heavy, enough so that it was noticeable even to the powerful angel. There was a feeling of menace and it was almost as if there were eyes everywhere, trying to flood her mind with fear and terror. An amusing notion and one that Medeia had used many times against her own opponents, which was what made the forest's efforts rather futile in the end. There was no beast or human that could match her here and that powerful thought was what caused her to follow the treacherous paths without so much as a moment of hesitation. If there were any creatures then they would be disposed of, a fate which the mad mage would also experience once the angel found him. There would be no debate or discussion, she would simply remove his head and let the animals feed on his corpse. All that mattered to her was the staff and it would be hers soon enough. She was in no doubt of that.

Her slayer senses were at peak efficiency, giving her as much information on the area around her as possible with her sight, smell and hearing boosted beyond the normal threshold of humans. Of course, sight was rather redundant within the incessant darkness but the other two were incredibly useful. They kept her sharp and aware enough of her surroundings to be fully prepared for whatever might be waiting for her. She doubted that the stories were entirely false and the possibility of some kind of creature dwelling inside the forest was likely. There were many dark beasts who were drawn to such places and if Medeia did not already have a mission, she might have perhaps spent some time seeking such monsters out, for research purposes. The angel had dabbled in creating such things herself and had managed to create life although saying that Lola was evil was simply a lie. Medeia had been aiming to bring to life a monster but in the end, what she had actually created was a rather sweet soul, not that the dark haired was upset. To create life through magic was an enormous achievement and she took great pride in her daughter's growth.

Sweet souls would be thin on the ground today though and as Medeia continued to follow the trail and reached a rather large fork in the forest, she paused and considered her options. There were three paths here, all leading in completely different directions. Which should she take? Pausing and mumbling to herself, the gorgeous dark mage would consider her options for a moment or two, raising her sickle so that she could get a look at each path. There must be a clue to figuring out which way to go, she mused to herself. She would raise her head and sniff the air, hoping to perhaps pick up a human scent for her to trask, hopefully the insane old fool, if she was lucky. Yet, that was not what or, more appropriately, who she sensed and a small smile crossed her features. A familiar scent had reached her and not one that she was overly upset at detecting. She remembered the last time that she had been in the presence of that scent, a memorable encounter indeed. What was her best course of action though? A confrontation now? No. That would not be all that enjoyable and instead, the angel’s smile would become a smirk. She was going to enjoy herself with this new discovery.

Deciding to take the middle path after a few moments more thought, Medeia would resume her search with her sickle raised slightly to allow her to see properly. The atmosphere would continue to become heavier and thicker, while the humidity started to rise, making it feel slightly uncomfortable. It seemed to her that she was on the right track and as her pace quickened just a touch, her slayer senses would suddenly scream out to her of another being, one that was not quite so willing to just sit and watch. The smell was foul and as she came to find her path being blocked, she raised her sickle even further.

Standing before her was an enormous wolf, four times her height and who knew how many times her weight. Its eyes were wild with anger and rage, saliva dripping from its jaws as it growled and barked at the angel. It paced the ground slightly, blocking her path and preventing her from moving onwards. Its territory perhaps or something more insidious? Either way, she grasped her sickle and slowly pressed on towards the beast, unafraid of it. The wolf’s growls would deepen, becoming more feral and just as she was about to enter its melee range, a howl escaped from it.

In moments, the rustling of the thick forest undergrowth could be heard as more wolves started to move in from all directions. Medeia simply sighed and tapped into her magic, waiting for the right second to cast her spell. The smaller wolves would then move forwards, leaping and dashing towards her but just as they went in for the kill, an enormous whirlwind of sand would engulf Medeia from view, while viciously cutting the wolves to shreds mercilessly. The alpha wolf remained still though, simply watching as its pack was annihilated.

The storm would spin and whirl around the mage for about thirty seconds, before it would come to an end. When it was all said and done, only Medeia would be left standing, with little more than the wolves bones remaining of them. A simple demonstration of her power but enough to send a message, one that seemed to have an effect on the alpha wolf. Instead of attacking, it would suddenly appear almost human for a moment, before suddenly taking off and running back into the undergrowth. It was a puzzling turn of events and as the witch started to move again, she wondered if perhaps the old fool had managed to corrupt the beasts after all. It seemed a likely option.

(1011 Words)
(1793 PWC)
(3109 TWC)

Suzhen could not tell particularly whether Medeia had spotted her, or was aware of her presence. There was the feeling at the back of her mind that the dark angel probably knew she was there, but had chosen simply to not respond to her presence. It could not be that Medeia was ignoring her; Suzhen was sure that, seeing how things had gone the last time, the Errings Rising mage would not pass up the chance to get her all hot and bothered, and not in a way that pleased Suzhen. Of course, it was all very entertaining to Medeia. The scholar could not help feeling partially insulted; when they had last met, she had, only momentarily, made Medeia angry, and thus serious, and though she had managed to not get killed, things had not turned out, to sound very optimistic, to create some of Suzhen's fondest memories. So the Dongxian could surmise that either Medeia was not aware of her presence, or the dark mage was simply toying with her, waiting for her to make her move first. Still, in the hopes that Medeia did not know she was there, Suzhen stuck to the shadows, watching the dark angel and following the light of her sickle, a feat which was not so difficult to do.

The air seemed to be getting heavier now, and more humid too. Suzhen grimaced. Coupled with her problem of hyperthermia, she was really beginning to feel quite uncomfortable, as sweat ran down her skin in rivulets. She, on more than one occasion, resisted the urge to strip down to her undergarments, although she would have probably done so if she was not trying to be as stealthy as possible. Besides, if she was going to undress, she would have to leave whatever she removed behind, and that could easily get something or someone on her trail, whose motives did not particularly coincide with her intention of finding the mad old wizard and determining what sort of threat he posed to the general world. There was also the issue of it being very impractical to undress in a hostile forest, thanks to scratches and scrapes that could result from so much exposed skin in so inclement an environment. But that applied to normal people, and Suzhen was anything but normal. She was quite resistant to physical damage, and healed rather quickly, so for her, clothes were merely a thing of modesty, a virtue many did not think her possessing in great quantities. Watching the gorgeous body of the dark mage moving along the natural forest paths made Suzhen realize with some degree of distaste that if people saw her and Medeia, they would probably assume the two women were alike. Suzhen's issue with clothes was situational, though. She wasn't sure she could say the same about Medeia.

The scholar sensed the wolves approaching before she saw them. Her hand moved lower on her parasol's shaft, ready to draw her Dongxian long sword at the shortest notice. But something seemed wrong with these wolves. A few passed just a number of meters away from her, but none seemed to take notice of her, all heading through the undergrowth towards the Errings Rising mage, who was walking calmly towards the biggest of them all, no doubt their alpha. There seemed to be some sort of strange magic involved, as the wolves were not acting as natural animals would. And while a place as notorious as the Spooky Forest would probably have monstrous denizens, Suzhen was sure that wolves, no matter how big, would tend to act like their more natural variants, unless some sort of magic controlled their minds, or they were not actually wolves. Suzhen felt it was the former, even as the large brute standing before the dark angel howled a strange primal command, just before the Errings Rising mage had gotten to within striking range.

As the wolves leaped in to attack, Medeia summoned a sandstorm, which turned the lunging animals into mincemeat in a matter of seconds. Just how much power did this woman have? The largest of them all, which had wisely not bothered to make an attack, now decided to flee for its life, although there was something about it, just before it turned to run away, that made Suzhen wonder whether it wasn't actually some sort of werewolf. Medeia was still apparently unaware of her presence, or was pretending to be, and Suzhen decided to gladly play along with her. Unfortunately for the Luminous Rose mage, the universe did not seem willing to play along. A construct of broken twigs and bark suddenly sprang into being behind the purple haired maiden without warning, its 'body' merely a coalition of floating plant and tree parts, held in place by some sort of unholy magic. Still, Suzhen sensed no life from the thing, even though it seemed animated, and was obviously not friendly. She spun, even as the creature swung at her, placing Chou Shan, her parasol in the way, as she fired a Mushinken: Senkouken through the fabric of the parasol. Since Suzhen had detected no life from this thing, also noticing strange carvings on the plant parts, which suggested some sort of enchantment spell, the scholar had rightly surmised that whatever it was, the tree monster thing was merely the effect of a spell. The shining crescent cut through the being, negating the magical energy used to animate the broken wood, but not before the strike of the creature impacted her parasol, sending her flying out of cover, although otherwise relatively unharmed.

It was becoming clearer and clearer that the old mad wizard must have set traps and defenses to prevent anyone from approaching him. The wolves were probably a line of defense, as was the animated tree thing. Sadly, it had become too late to keep following Medeia under the cover of shadow, as her change of location had proved. Even if she hadn't been forcibly evicted from her hiding place, Medeia would have heard the sounds of her fighting with the magical wood trap. Still airborne, Suzhen did a rather elegant flip, and landed in a graceful crouch, her hands still clutching the shaft of her white parasol, although Chou Shan's shade was positioned behind her, and she held the shaft such that she would be able to draw the sword nestled within its hollow frame.

"Hi...." she said breathlessly, although the frown on her face did little to find concordance with her greeting. It was in times like this that Suzhen wished she was more rude. But it had been ingrained into her via training: you meet someone, you greet someone. She really needed to learn how to be more cheeky without provocation. That side of her only showed when she was responding to another person's unpleasantries.


WC: 1140
PWC: 2456
TWC: 4249

The angel most certainly heard the commotion from behind her, causing the smirk that had already been on her face to grow even more. She did not see just what Suzhen had wandered into but from the sounds of it, whatever it was had done enough to bother the legal mage. There was a large amount of rustling and the feel of a spell or two but there was no death scream which caused Medeia to ponder whether it had been a construction rather than a creature. How interesting. The old fool seemed to be more intelligent than the dark haired woman had taken him for and she would have to take a little more care, or so it would seem. She still doubted that he could truly do any harm to her though and the amount of magical power that he would need to actually do such a thing would have to be monstrous. The sceptre was no doubt a powerful tool but could it grant him that much strength? That was up for debate.

Whatever the trap had been, it did not seem to last long and Suzhen was soon leaping through the air and landing rather elegantly behind the angel. Medeia gracefully turned around to find the legal mage crouched before her, clutching on to a parasol of all things. It seemed a rather inappropriate item to be carrying around amongst the undergrowth to her and was far more fitting for the beach that they had encountered each other at previously. An encounter that was starting to stir the angel’s memories and she was soon recalling the lovely time that they had shared in each other’s company. Well, it had been lovely for Medeia anyway and she fondly remembered every moment that she had spent with the beautiful legal mage. She could still taste the lips of the purple haired woman even now and the dark mage had made sure that she would leave a lasting impression on the scholar. The raven haired woman briefly pondered about just how long the green eyed woman had ended up tied in the capital city for and the visual that created in her mind's eye caused her to chuckle.

“I must say that I was expecting more of a hostile greeting from you than that, Suzhen.”Medeia replied, her tone being the familiar amused one that the scholar was no doubt used to. “I was half expecting you to attack me on sight after our last meeting. Did you come all the way out here just to get your own back?” It was unlikely in her opinion but the question was more a slight jab at the woman than an attempt to gain information. “Or perhaps you just loved being in my arms so much that you wished to experience it again?” Slowly, she would raise her sickle so that she could get a better look at the legal mage, her gaze freely looking over the woman’s attire. “If I did not know better, I would say that you were just asking for me to fly off with you again. Such a beautiful dress.”

The thought was an appealing one and already Medeia’s mind was turning towards the depraved and perverse. The thought of playing with the lovely mage again was incredibly appealing to her although she had no idea where she would leave the gorgeous green eyed woman once she was done this time around. Perhaps she would not let her go and maybe take her back to the guild instead? There she would have access to all of her toys and could take care of Suzhen properly. There would be no issue with that, as her fellow guild members were by now used to her habits and hobbies which was part of the reason why she had remained with the guild for so long. Errings Rising embraced the individuality of its members and inspired rather than restricted.

As they spoke, the angel kept her slayer senses piqued for any further interruptions, now fully expecting the forest to be littered with opponents and traps. The maniac could have taken over the entire forest with the sceptre in hand and Medeia had no doubt that he would gladly direct his minions towards anyone, herself included. Power was not something that could be given up easily and with the corruption that plagued the item, it would most likely have an effect on his mind. From the research she had done, most who had come into contact with the sceptre had developed a god complex and she was under no illusion that he would not believe the same thing. Soon enough, Medeia would prove just how wrong he was, by removing his head from his body and taking the item for herself. It would make a fine addition to her collection and she was already pondering about just how she could experiment upon it, in order to increase its effectiveness.

(829 Words)
(2622 PWC)
(5085 TWC)

When Suzhen had finally revealed herself to Medeia, and not at all according to the Dongxian’s intentions, the dark mage had begun to smile. That beautiful, horrid smile. It was horrid, to Suzhen, because it felt so wrong, that someone this beautiful would be this evil. She appreciated beauty, but it left a rather sour taste in her mouth when she encountered evil hidden beneath a veneer of beauty. A thought occurred to her that Medeia would probably not think of herself as evil, which begged the question, whose right was it to determine who or what was evil or not? In any case, Suzhen was sure she didn’t have the luxury of time to go attempting to arrive at an answer to such a puzzle. Had she been home, she would have probably spent a few hours going over the intricacies and nuances of such a philosophical question. It was at times like this that she missed the Philosophers’ Club of her college back in Dongxia. Such a question would have had them going for days, everyone turning their minds inside out in search of an answer that would never arrive. Then she, being the one who had brought up the question, would end up treating them to dinner, at which someone else would bring up another mind-boggling question for the group to answer. They always all ended up with good grades though, in spite of the apparent wastage of time they enacted while sharpening their intellectual faculties.

Here, in the gloom created by the night and the Spooky Forest, Suzhen was sure elaborate thinking would do her little good. Wisdom, it was said, was better than strength, but when the strength being opposed would so easily blow back any stratagem devised, what was the point of wisdom? Still, discretion was always wise, and that had been why Suzhen did not allow her feelings to get the better of her and attack Medeia as soon as she had seen the dark angel. Suzhen wasn’t like those people who believed that all one had to have was sufficient willpower to win, and victory would come. She had seen people, who were so all sold out on winning, end up going against a much less motivated, but much more powerful foe. No amount of desire for victory was enough to stop the weaker ones from being crushed. While Suzhen knew that Medeia would not physically hurt her if the dark mage could help it, she also knew that if the Errings Rising Ace had her way, the Dongxian scholar would most certainly not appreciate the outcomes of their interactions. Like the last time at Crescent Island. And Suzhen was sure that someone with such a wicked mind as Medeia’s would not be lost for ideas to humiliate her even further. The chuckle which had just emanated from Medeia’s lips seemed to serve to indicate that the dark angel wasn’t certainly thinking innocent thoughts about Suzhen at this very moment.

”While I would have most certainly loved to go the tried and true ‘barbarian screaming obscenities with spittle flying from her mouth’ approach, as I charged recklessly and heedlessly into danger, with the sole aim of hacking off your head, I am not a fool,” the Dongxian maiden replied, refusing to ease up from her battle-ready position. ”Loath as I am to admit it, you are much stronger than I am, and even though my former statement about differences in our power levels may stroke that unhealthily conflated image of self-importance I seem to detect in you, no, I neither initially came here to ‘get my own back’. I had no idea you were out here, and I must admit I’m not pleased to see you.” The matter of wanting to experience being in Medeia’s arms again caused Suzhen’s face to warm up, and she tried to ignore the heat she felt in her cheeks. ”As I said, you seem to place a little too much importance on your person; you are most certainly not the one I want with your….” She paused and bristled, before regaining composure. ”I should very much like you not to fly off with me again, if that’s alright with you. And while I appreciate your complement regarding my dress, I haven’t forgotten the slight you offered me the last time we met. Nice dress, yourself.” Suzhen however did not elucidate on what she intended to do to avenge the slight. And though the Dongxian felt Medeia truly owned that scandalous piece the dark angel had on, she was sure that she herself would be a bit more daring than she normally was, to try such a style.

Meanwhile mentally, the Dongxian was putting two and two together. If Medeia was also here, she had probably heard of the scepter as well, and wanted her hands on it. The suppositions of what the scepter could be put to accomplish in the hands of one as devious as Medeia was disturbed Suzhen to no little extent. There and then, she decided that Medeia could not be allowed to make off with the scepter. Suzhen still had no idea of what exactly the item was capable of, but if Medeia wanted it, it must be very powerful. Of course, there was the possibility (but Suzhen thought this unlikely) that Medeia was here for a different reason than the scepter. But whatever the reason was, Suzhen was sure the dark angel was up to no good. Realizing that Medeia was probably not going to attack her presently, Suzhen straightened up and said, with an imperious tone, ”if you must know, I came here to carry out some research. I am a scholar, and would rather live out my days pursuing knowledge than violence,” (okay, maybe the part about violence was not too accurate) ”and I have heard stories about this forest that piqued my curiosity. Why is this forest the way it is? Why do spooky things have preferences for haunting here than other forests in Fiore? These, mostly, are the questions I want to answer.”  Not exactly the truth, but then, Suzhen, despite her preference for honesty, thought it rather dangerous to tell Medeia what exactly she was doing here. It wasn’t like they were friends, anyway.

There seemed to be figures moving in the mists beyond the light cast by Medeia’s sickle; another ambush being prepared, no doubt. Suzhen acted oblivious to the movement, her gaze on Medeia. ”So, what are you doing here? Don’t tell me you came here to find me and give me more misery than I deserve to have.” She was sure that trying to use Medeia’s tactic against her wouldn’t work, but she supposed it was the effort that counted.


WC: 1127
PWC: 3583
TWC: 6185

There was not a single moment where Medeia’s eyes were not focused upon the beautiful woman although her gaze did tend to drift from Suzhen’s face to her body more than once. To hear the legal mage openly admit that she was weaker than her was a nice boost to her always overwhelming confidence. She already knew that, of course but to hear it from the lips of the purple haired woman was welcome nonetheless. That being said, the angel had learned from their last encounter not to underestimate the scholar and she was more than ready to use her magic against the woman if it was required. The dark haired mage had no real desire to harm Suzhen, especially after their last encounter and if she was being truthful, her reasoning for wanting to incapacitate the beautiful woman would be the same as it had been last time. She was a being of lust rather than hate after all and although Suzhen had briefly angered her on Crescent Island, Medeia had already moved beyond that. She no longer held a grudge against her for interrupting her fun because she had already punished the legal mage for that, both during their fight and what happened afterwards. That was not to say that she felt nothing towards Suzhen though, the memories of their little play session still fresh in her mind.

The fact that the maiden’s cheeks turned red at her mentioning of the subject did not escape the angel either and she was rather swift in her response. “The reddening of your lovely face says otherwise, my dear and even though you might not be happy to see me, I am most delighted to see you again. After what we shared, it would have been such a shame if I had never been able to see your beautiful form again. I told you last time, did I not? That once I take an interest in someone, I tend to become just a little obsessed.” It was by no means a lie and no doubt she would have sought out the legal mage again at some point. Of course, today’s meeting was completely by chance but she was not going to let Suzhen in on that fact. She would simply let the green eyed mage ponder about it. In regards to her reply to Medeia’s musings about flying off with Suzhen again, the angel would simply chuckle a second time. “I must say that the thought of a repeat performance is rather tempting, especially when you attempt to tantalise me with clothing such as that. I thank you for the compliment regarding mine too. I have always been a believer in flaunting what we have been blessed with. Perhaps it is the same with you and your clothing?” Her smile then turned a little more mischievous. “Of course, you will not be wearing it for long if you find yourself in my hands again. Tell me, did the people of Crocus appreciate the gift I left for them after our last encounter?” Suzhen would know exactly what Medeia was referring to there.

As Suzhen went on to speak of her reasons for being in the forest, the dark being would tilt her head. She was not all that surprised that the scholar desired knowledge of the area and Medeia’s reasons were not all that different. Yes, her intentions were far more malicious but the thirst for information was something they both seemed to share. Her obsessive gaze remained locked onto the green eyes of the legal mage, as though she was trying to figure out whether she was being truthful or attempting to deceive and as Medeia pondered further, she was naturally drawn to the conclusion that Suzhen could well be after the sceptre as she was. It was a possibility and considering how noble the scholar tended to act, the Errings Rising mage naturally assumed that she would want it in order to lock it away or destroy it, if that was the case. That seemed to be how those who followed the council’s way of thinking liked to handle things, as pathetic as that was. Why anyone would want to waste a potential source of power was beyond her.

Once the conversation turned towards her own reasons for being there, Medeia would consider her response for a moment, before replying. “Perhaps I am here for the same reason as you are? To discover the secrets of this forest and try to understand why the creatures here behave as they do?” It was not a complete fabrication, with the sceptre being a potential reason for the odd attitudes of the beasts. “I confess that I am intrigued by their behaviour, especially of the large wolf that I am sure you just watched me interact with. It clearly should have attacked and yet instead ran like a scalded dog. It was almost as if it was merely a scout, who dashed off to inform its master that I was coming. That is obviously unnatural and I desire to discover the truth.”

Medeia’s smile did not vanish and she actually took a step towards Suzhen. It was not done in an aggressive way though, simply allowing her to be close enough for her to whisper. “Now why would I want you to suffer? You have already paid for interfering in my affairs the last time we met. So, I ask you this. Are you going to give me another reason to string you up in the middle of a public place? I was rather gentle with you the last time around but if you make the same mistake twice and try to interfere with my task here then I will have to be a touch rougher with you. I have far more than just ropes, Suzhen, materials that leave a far more lasting impression.” Her smile became a smirk at that point. “Of course, that might just be what you want. I admit that I would enjoy nothing more than to introduce you to some of my other toys.”

(1017 Words)
(3639 PWC)
(7202 TWC)

Suzhen wasn't particularly keen on the whole 'person being obsessed with her' thing, especially not when the one doing the obsessing was a dark mage. It seemed that the solution to this unfortunate situation would just have to be Suzhen finding a way to get stronger, right until she could match Medeia in all aspects relating to combat. When this happened, Suzhen would no longer be seen as a toy, a plaything, but as an opponent, one who it would be wise to fear. She knew Medeia did not fear her; she wasn't even sure the dark mage took her seriously at all. But then, it was difficult to really understand Medeia's motivations, unless the overweening desire for more power was all that there was to the dark mage. Suzhen was sure that wasn't the case. But for all intents and purposes, Medeia's primary motivation seemed to be all about power, the ability to subject others to her own whims. And Suzhen never liked power being abused. Despite the strength difference between them, the Dongxian decided that she would do what she could to constantly one-up he dark angel wherever and whenever she could, until she managed to close the power gap between the two. Then she would bring Medeia to book for the dark mage's crimes.

"Will you please stop mentioning the Crocus affair?" Suzhen said with a little more angst than she would have liked to express, quite annoyed about the fact that Medeia seemed to know just how to get under her skin. "And I'd very much like to remain in my clothes, if it's all the same to you, thank you very much. As for why I'm dressed like this, I'd have told you if we were friends. And a repeat performance might just be grand, if our positions were reversed. If not, no thank you once more."

Speaking of friends, Medeia seemed to be the sort of person Suzhen would not have minded befriending, if the dark angel wasn't so Dark Side. The Errings Rising mage did appear to be interested in knowledge acquisition, and it would have probably been fun for Suzhen to have met a friend with whom they would explore the Spooky Forest together and find answers to the strange questions raised by the events that had led the mages to the forest on this dark night. But of all the millions of people in Fiore, it just had to be Medeia. Suzhen was sure she had done something to offend whatever deity supervised the motions and mechanics of luck, or perhaps she was being punished by the universe for something her ancestors did. She was never lucky, it seemed. Maybe it was the World Snake, feeding on her good fortune. It was possible, but a long stretch, and somewhat unlikely. Well, as Suzhen always believed, the best thing to do was make the best of every situation. In this case, she would have to use Medeia as training. Training on dealing with how she expressed emotions.

"Well, I suppose I could think of us settling on an arrangement that would result in me giving you a lot more than just a single reason to string me up in the middle of a public place," the Dongxian replied casually, idly flipping a lock of hair away from her face with her free hand, "but the process of you stringing me up is totally unacceptable. How about you let me string you up this time, you might enjoy it. Whichever the case, while I don't make the same mistake twice if I can help it, you seem to imply that my interfering with you back on Crescent Island was a mistake. It wasn't a mistake, though its conclusion was a little-- ah, unsatisfactory. So here's what I propose: I determine whether your presence and intentions here don't fit verbatim into the behavior outlined in the Guidebook for Evil Yobs, and if it doesn't, you can do whatever you please. If, however, I am not convinced of the integrity of your motives, then we might just have to discuss what you mean by 'far more than just ropes'. Oh, and I thought toys were for children. I suggest more mature and dignified pastimes like chess, or even bird watching, despite the disrepute which that hobby has fallen on. Sad times, really."

As Suzhen spoke, the movements in the shadows beyond the sickle continued; they were drawing closer now. Out of the shadows among the trees came tall giants of stone, each about nine feet tall. They were not remotely human in appearance, though one could say they had arms and legs. But each giant was a unique hodgepodge of stones and boulders of various sizes aggregated to mimic a roughly humanoid form. Each individual stone did not touch another stone. They all floated in close proximity to one another, with purple lightning running up and down among the spaces between the floating rocks. On the stones which were positioned where the head and chest of a normal human would be were strange ancient writings etched into the stones, all glowing an ominous purple. They slowly moved towards the two women, surrounding them. Suzhen had an idea, though she wasn't certain it would work. One of the stone automatons swung at her, and she intercepted with the shade of her parasol, though she did nothing to keep herself from being thrown by the power behind the swing. Suzhen was flung out of sight between the trees, which was her intention. Righting herself in the air, the Dongxian landed and took off at a run without a pause, leaving the stone giants to face Medeia. She was sure Medeia would be able to take care of herself, but the hope was that she could get a headstart in the search for the scepter. Suzhen moved in the direction she had seen the wolf alpha run, suspecting it might have been running back to make a report. If luck was on her side, she would find whoever had the scepter before Medeia did. But luck was not often Bai Suzhen's friend.


WC: 1024
PWC: 4607
TWC: 8226

Considering the fact that she had not only just been insulted but also was currently being circled by a group of stone creatures of some kind, it would only have been natural for the angel to be angered by her situation. Yet, there was not a single iota of rage stemming from the ancient being. She was amused, with the smile on her face giving that well and truly away. Suzhen was simply too polite to truly hurt her through words and the idea that the scholar would actually desire to take the reins of their next private session was enough to tickle the dark mage’s funny bone. If Medeia had learned anything from the Crescent Island incident, it was that the purple haired woman seemed rather naive about such things or at least, was rather new to the angel’s way of handling close encounters. She had also found Suzhen’s suggestions as to new hobbies quite entertaining as Medeia generally thought of those she met as chess pieces already and if she recalled correctly, bird was a mortal slang term for a woman and she certainly watched them enough as it was. No matter what Suzhen seemed to say, it always sounded as though she was asking to have Medeia’s arms around her. That would unfortunately have to wait until the sceptre was in the angel’s grasp.

For the moment, she had the rather bizarre stone giants to deal with. Large automatons that stood almost twice as tall as she did, charged with an unusual purple form of magic that seemed to fuel them. It was clearly a corruption based form of power in her opinion, similar to her own angelic magic and there was little doubt that these creatures were also under the control of the insane mage. She was somewhat curious as to what they were capable of and so rather than simply fly off, the angel decided to simply battle them, the glow of her sickle increasing in brightness. Both it and the dark mage began to thrum with magical power, her aura causing the entire area around her to darken. These stone creatures did not have the slightest hope of defeating her as she was but perhaps they would amuse her enough to satiate her curiosity. A part of her mind argued that she should get rid of them quickly in order to pursue Suzhen but Medeia pushed that aside. If Suzhen was so eager to push onwards then she could clear the path for the dark mage, a thought that caused Medeia’s smile to widen. Perhaps if she was lucky, the beasts of the forest would capture the legal mage and save the angel the trouble of doing so herself. It was unlikely, given Suzhen’s strength but there was always the chance.

The stone giants did not seem to be afraid of her aura and one of the creatures lumbered forward, trying to crush her underneath its massive arm. Gracefully, the angel would briefly turn her body to the right, to avoid the blow, before striking the stony arm with her sickle. She barely even swung her weapon but such was the magical power behind its attack that it carved straight through the arm entirely, causing it to fall limply to the ground. The creature then stamped its feet with apparent anger and jumped into the air, forcing Medeia to leap into the air in order to avoid it. Powerful but clumsy and with that thought in mind, a pair of wings would grow from Medeia’s back, allowing her to rise into the air and hurl a flaming fist into the face or what appeared to be its face, knocking it clean off of its feet. As a finisher, she would swiftly fly down towards the downed creature and slash at the purple corruption that was linking its head to its body. The giant would burst with magical power, before becoming motionless, its stony body returning to its base materials once more.

Her slayer senses were soon to warn her off of another attack though and the angel would deftly rise up again, avoiding the enormous fist of the second giant and returning to the air or as high as she could be within the trees. The giant fought in pretty much the same same way, simply trying to crush her with its enormous bulk. It had little chance to truly hit her though and as she darted and evaded its attacks, her curiosity began to turn to disinterest and so she decided to end this one rather quickly. Summoning her powers of gold, she would cause the ground beneath the creature to turn to a liquid form of it, resulting in the monster starting to sink. In what seemed to be a panic-like state, the giant would desperately try to escape from the pool but the more it fought, the quicker it sank and soon enough, it would vanish completely into the gloopy gold.

There was one more to go and although it seemed to be just a little more hesitant than the other two, it would eventually engage her in combat too, trying to overwhelm her with its mighty attacks. It moved somewhat quicker than the previous two and the purple markings upon it were far brighter. The strongest of them perhaps? It certainly appeared that way and Medeia found herself with rather more to handle with it although she did score a couple of powerful strikes upon it with her sickle. Yet, the giant did not fall and so Medeia clicked her fingers, causing her beloved tentacle to burst from underneath the giant and wrap itself around it, resulting in a power struggle between stone and tentacle. Taking her chance, the dark mage would fly towards the head of the giant and drive her sickle into it, causing magical energy to burst from its head, before crashing to the ground.

Once the giants were defeated, the angel would take a moment or two to recover her energy, before focusing her attention back onto Suzhen and the sceptre. Now she was playing her much preferred role. The hunter rather than the hunted and with a playful smirk crossing her features, she would swiftly follow the path that the scholar had taken, having no intention of allowing the green eyed woman to take her prize.

(1061 Words)
(4700 PWC)
(9287 TWC)

Fortunately, the stony giants did not bother to see whether Suzhen had been taken out or was still capable of being a problem in the future. She took note of that little bit of information. Those things were definitely strong, easily seen how that one had sent her flying. Of course, the strength of those creatures had nothing to do with Suzhen's durability, or that of her parasol either. She was still uninjured and fit, and had left Medeia to deal with those things. How long they were supposed to keep the dark angel, Suzhen was not particularly certain, but if there was one thing she knew, it was that Medeia would not be kept long by them. This meant that Suzhen had very little time to give herself a proper advantage in this race against a superior opponent. She had already assumed that like herself, Medeia was after the scepter, and even if the dark angel wasn't she would want it the moment she saw it. If Suzhen could get to it first, she would be able to appraise it, and deal with it appropriately. If Medeia got her hands on it first, who knew what the Errings Rising mage would do with such an item.

Suzhen had no problems with finding out where to go. The huge wolf thing had fled this way, and she would follow it. As Medeia had said, it had not attacked, instead it had fled. If that wasn't typical animal behavior, then it was probably being controlled, or at the very least, influenced. It would most likely be returning to the source of its strange behavioral patterns, and Suzhen could assume that it was this scepter that was behind the whole thing. Gashes on tree trunks, footprints too large to be normal wolf tracks, and the general smell, or more accurately, taste of the thing in the air made Suzhen's tracking of the monster wolf as easy as pie. She made sure that she used no light source, being easily able to track the wolf using the three previously mentioned cues, and none of them needed sight to be detected, for someone with Suzhen's powers. She could easily sense the air as it traced the scratches of the wolf's claws on the wood of the forest trees, the imprints of its paws on the soft earth. The creature seemed to be very much in a hurry.

Soon, Suzhen reached a place where she sensed that the trees had suddenly stopped, creating a sudden clearing in this part of the woods where the tree growth was thickest. In the middle of this clearing, which was obviously not at all natural, stood a gigantic and tall cylindrical block of stone. Holes etched into the stone probably suggested windows, meaning that the stone was possibly hollow. A strange structure to be living in, but there had been rumors that the scepter drove its owners mad, and mad people usually tended to have.... different ideas about how to do things. If a mad man said that a cylindrical house was the way to go, Suzhen wasn't going to complain. If said mad man possessed a weapon that could probably even manipulate reality, Suzhen was sure she wouldn't need too much persuasion to complain. Suzhen saw the wolf. It was prancing and fidgeting around the base of the cylindrical stone. Then there was the sound of grating, like a heavy stone moving over another. A black rectangular hole appeared in the stone, and out stepped a tall, gaunt man, in robes that redefined the adjective 'voluminous', and with a rather unnatural amount of wrinkles on his face, which was the only part of his skin that showed. He was very bald. His eyes, wide and bloodshot, were crazed, and the irides glowed yellow. That wasn't normal. The wolf began to howl, but the man held up a hand, silencing the creature. "We have an intruder," he said in a horrid rasping voice that made Suzhen feel like scratching her own neck. "Kill it." His yellow eyes were fixed on Suzhen.

The wolf had turned in the direction he was looking, and was now looking in Suzhen's general direction, hackles raised as it began to growl. It still couldn't see her, so how had he been able to do so? Probably one of the effects of the scepter. The old man swept out a hand, obscured by his robes, though Suzhen thought she sensed something within the robes, something he was holding. The trees behind which Suzhen was standing suddenly seemed like they were made of some strange wispy material, and then a great light came on atop the giant stone cylinder, bathing the surroundings with light. Suzhen noticed with surprise that while the trees she was hiding behind still stood, they were clear and transparent now, and the wolf was now looking at her. Slowly, the glassy trees evaporated into nothing, and Suzhen had an idea of how the clearing she now stood in had been made initially. The wizened old thing turned to go, then paused as though in thought. Then he retched and spat out a strange, black, sticky thing, of a much greater size than a normal person should have been able to summon up from his throat, or gut, or wherever this strange black goo came from. Having done this, he returned into the stone cylinder through the rectangular hole, and the hole vanished with the sound of moving stone, revealing the smooth, featureless face of the stone wall of the cylindrical house of the mad wizard with the scepter.

The wolf took a threatening step forward, then made a sound no wolf should normally be able to make from its throat. The strange black goo had attached itself to one of the wolf's hind legs, and was rising up its body, to the obvious consternation of the wolf. With one long last howl, the wolf was totally covered by the goo, and it looked, for all intents and purposes, like a giant wolf made of some black, shiny material. Then the goo contorted in ways a wolf's body was not naturally designed to contort, accompanied by strange cracks and pops, and then the black wolf thing rose on its hind legs and opened what would have been its mouth, except that before the black stuff, its mouth could not swallow Suzhen at one go. This thing, whatever it was, could. Suddenly, Suzhen wondered why she felt that going forward without Medeia, enemy and pervert as the dark angel was, seemed like a really bad idea now.


WC: 1103
PWC: 5710
TWC: 10390

Unable to continue to fly due to the overwhelming amount of trees once she left the clearing, Medeia was forced to return to travelling on foot. It was not all that difficult though and with her sickle to light her way and the scent of both the wolf and Suzhen leading her, the angel was easily able to track down the pair of them. Her slayer senses were always so useful and in a place such as this, even more so. The forest was deathly silent though, a fact that was not lost upon her and the possibility of another ambush was rather likely. Still, she had little time to be stealthy and so moved as quickly as she could. The monsters so far had not exactly been the type to try and kill her from a distance anyway and so she mused that she would detect them before they could strike at her or more accurately, die by her hands. Neither the wolves nor the giants had been all that challenging and Medeia pondered if perhaps the sceptre was not as powerful as her research had led her to believe. That or maybe it depended on how close the minions were to the master. Either or both were possible and she was curious as to discover what the full story was. Yes, she desired the sceptre for her own purposes but that did not mean that she was uninterested in the truth behind the ancient weapon. There was still much that she did not truly know about it, its origins for a start. Had the assassinated king been the first to wield it or had there been others before him?

There were no other obstacles for her to face and the witch had to admit that she was rather disappointed about that fact. Had he believed his minions to be so strong that he did not see the need to create more? An arrogant notion if true but if his mind was as addled as it no doubt was then she supposed she could see that point of view. In his current state, who knew what he thought of anything although she did ponder that if her previous hypothesis regarding the distance between himself and his minions determined their strength then perhaps he was keeping his toughest beasts close to him? A possibility and one that kept the angel’s hopes of seeing more of his twisted creations alive. Oh, she doubted that they would be a match for her but just seeing them would be enough. Polymorphing others was a part of her magic but creating abominations was something that she was still becoming familiar with. This could be just the ticket for her to open the door to that field of magic. It was an opportunity that could not be missed out on and one that she was going to grab with both hands, regardless of the opposition although just what she was going to do with Suzhen was a matter that she was still musing over. Her playful taunts regarding tying the green eyed mage up again were one thing but they were hardly in a great place for that. There was no nearby town or city here, after all.

Her thoughts and footsteps came to a sudden halt at the detection of magic, causing the angel to stop on the edge of what appeared to be a clearing. The area seemed magically created rather than natural, with a large cylindrical building in the centre seeming the most unnatural of all. It reeked of corruption and Medeia had sensed enough of that form of magic to know it in an instant. The insane mage was most definitely here, no doubt hiding with the building that he had conjured for himself. She mused that perhaps she could knock it down with enough magical power and force him out but the chance of there being defences was enough to push that idea to the back of her mind for now. No. A wait and see approach was most likely the best option for the moment. Besides, she had no real idea of just what he was capable of as yet and it would be rather foolish of her to go in all guns blazing, even with her enormous amount of fire power.

As it was, her eyes were then drawn to an incredibly familiar and lovely sight although Suzhen’s beautiful form was somewhat ruined by the abomination that she was staring down. It appeared to be a werewolf of some kind, standing on two feet and oozing with some kind of black liquid. A truly disgusting creature and one that she pondered could well have been the cowardly wolf from before. It certainly was not running away now and it appeared to tower over the legal mage, ready to attack. Medeia made no effort to do anything at this point and simply watched, intrigued to see what would happen. The witch knew that the scholar was strong but the wolf was somewhat of an unknown factor. Just how powerful was the sceptre’s magic when its masters' minions were so close? Now would be the time to find out.

There was a small part of her that desired to actually go out and aid Suzhen with the monster but that did not seem to be the smart move. Oh, she was not going to allow the beast to kill the purple haired beauty and she would step in if things turned nasty but for now, she would simply see what transpired. Medeia was after all rather fond of the legal mage, in her own twisted way and Suzhen’s death was not something that the dark mage wished for. That being said, the green eyed woman had left Medeia to fight off the giants and turn about was fair play, after all. So, she would simply kneel down for the moment, surveying the battlefield from her vantage point, eager to see what would happen next.

(1004 Words)
(5704 PWC)
(11394 TWC)

For a moment, the giant hulking monstrosity that was supposed to have been some overgrown canid stood facing Suzhen, though she could not tell if it was looking at her; it was absolutely featureless, aside having the general structure of some gigantic dog thing standing on its hind legs. And then there was some strange palpitation on the creature’s head region, and on either side of the creature’s head, two ominous red eyes formed. They were all red, except for two black dots that were probably the creature’s pupils; they couldn’t have been its irides. The black dots swiveled to point towards Suzhen.

”Hi,” she said cheerily.

The monster wolf thing’s response was to lift a huge paw and bring it down towards where the Dongxian maiden stood. Unfortunately for it, she was a little too fast to be caught by such an attack, and Suzhen danced out of the way, drawing her long sword, Xu Xian from its scabbard and slicing at the paw, as its claws drew deep grooves in the earth. The sword cut through the strange black matter, not so difficultly, and Suzhen allowed herself a little smile. If it wasn’t so hard, she could cut the thing to ribbons and be on her way. Suzhen could sense Medeia’s presence, but Medeia wasn’t moving, watching her battle. She wondered whether the dark angel would have attempted to help her fight the wolf, if she had stuck around to fight those stone constructs back there. In any case, Suzhen knew that the stone things would not be able to keep the Errings Rising mage from continuing on her way. And just as Suzhen had left her to do her fighting, Medeia was paying her back in her own coin. But unlike Suzhen, who had attempted to use the little time advantage to get ahead, Medeia was confident enough to watch, most likely assured that whatever happened, she would close distance between herself and Suzhen. Such arrogance. Still, Suzhen was mildly surprised that that arrogant streak earned the dark angel some respect points in her eyes, seeing as Medeia was very confident, and wasn’t afraid to show it. That she, the Dongxian maiden, could have made Medeia lose her cool back there at Crescent Island, was a bit flattering, though Suzhen knew she still had a long way to go before she could make Medeia see her as an equal. Not a toy.

The cut area closed up seamlessly, with absolutely no indication that the wolf had been cut. It did not even register that it had been injured. The creature swung again, and Suzhen dodged once more, but this time, something different occurred. From the wolf’s paw, a slimy black tentacle suddenly shot out, wrapped round Suzhen’s left leg, and whipped her back first into a large tree standing at the edge of the clearing. The air was knocked out of the scholar’s lungs, as the tentacle left her ankle, and Suzhen dropped to her hands and knees before shooting off quickly, narrowly missing another swing from the wolf’s paw, this time metamorphosed into what looked like a giant spiky maul. The sudden tentacle sneak attack was tried again, and Suzhen evaded it, and another followed suit, but wasn’t fast enough to catch her. The wolf attempted to snag her with its tentacles, even attempting to attack also with its other paw, which did not do it any good, but Suzhen noticed something. She would have to make sure of what she had seen though. It was not safe to gamble when one was not particularly sure about one’s facts. She ran in and sliced the monster again, and it attempted to counter attack, which she dodged, as well as all the tentacles it created once more to attempt to catch her while she dodged. And then Suzhen was able to verify: this dog-octopus thing could only create ten tentacles at once, five on each paw. On another day, she would have probably attempted to do more brainstorming on the likelihood that the creature’s limit if ten tentacles was probably because most mammalian creatures had ten groups of phalange bones on both front limbs. Today, she didn’t have the time for that. She didn’t know why, but she was trying to impress Medeia. Perhaps to make the dark angel see that she was more than just a toy. But Suzhen was no fool; she would not show everything she was capable of. If she had to fight Medeia again, then Medeia would have the honors of seeing other things which she was capable of.

”Mushinken: Senkoukyaku!”

As Suzhen called out, she kicked, a bright crescent of light forming along the trajectory of her foot and traveling in a straight line towards the dog monster thing, slicing one arm clean off. It shrieked, an otherworldly sound, and began to thrash with reckless abandon, but Suzhen was not going to let herself get caught by the monster’s strikes. The arm turned into some black mushy liquid and sank into the ground, but Suzhen had little time to consider what this meant, as the canine monster launched a flurry of attacks. Suzhen was successful in evading most of them, and warding off the rest with Chou Shan, her parasol-shield. And then she stepped on a patch of ground and stopped short. Looking down, Suzhen saw that the arm that had sunk into the earth had formed a sort of trap that held her feet fast. Before she could do something about it, the wolf thing leaped up, its mouth opened wide, and swallowed her whole, with a good amount of soil as well. Then it turned, its red eyes fixing themselves on Medeia’s kneeling form…

…before exploding in a rain of flying black mush. Suzhen stood where it had been before, breathing heavily, covered in black goo. ”Eww…” she said, a look of irritation crossed with dismay on her face, as she tried wiping herself. ”I need a bath.” She turned and looked at Medeia. ”Thanks for the help,” the Dongxian huffed petulantly. A bit hypocritical, of course, seeing as she had left Medeia to fend for herself back there. ”That kneeling pose looks cute, by the way. But don’t take it as a compliment.”


WC: 1045
PWC: 6755
TWC: 12439

Despite her close proximity, Medeia did not make a single move during the entire fight between Suzhen and the wolf abomination, simply remaining on her knees. The beast was not a threat to her and she reacted to it as such, as in barely giving it any attention at all. Her focus was purely on Suzhen, eyes continually focused on her lovely form, watching every movement. The angel knew that the scholar was capable of defeating this creation and that was partly why she did not intervene, curious to see how the purple haired beauty would respond to it. Their encounter on Crescent Island had shown her that Suzhen was a powerful mage, even more so when she tapped into the unusual power that had emerged at the end of their battle and although she was not at Medeia’s level as it stood, she would no doubt grow stronger with time. Could she reach her own level of strength? That was a question that the angel did not have an answer to. It was possible but the dedication to reach it was something that very few mages seemed to have. Medeia had not simply gained her strength over night, it had been a long and tiring endeavor but had been all so worth it in the end. That being said, her quest for more power was not over and her desire to grow even more formidable was as strong as ever. Stagnation was unacceptable.

She would be lying though if she said where there were not moments where it did seem to her like the scholar was struggling. The beast was an unusual foe and its magic did somewhat remind Medeia of her own. To ensnare and trap was a component of hers and she did feel a tingle of pleasure as she witnessed the green eyed woman become briefly immobilised, reminding her once more of their last encounter. Still, for the most part, the scholar seemed to be in control and although for an instant it seemed like she had been defeated after being supposedly swallowed by the beast, she emerged victorious albeit unfortunately covered in the foul black substance that had covered the creature. An unfortunate turn of events and Medeia could not help but ponder if that goo was more malicious than it appeared to be. If it had been used to corrupt the wolf, who was to say that it was not harmful to humans too? Suzhen’s will was obviously stronger than the wolves had been but the angel was not entirely convinced that it was wise to simply leave her covered in the horrible liquid. Yes, they may not have been friends as such and if anything, they were probably closer to enemies than allies but when had that ever stopped her from making what she believed to be the most prudent move? Having the mage mages saliva corrupting the scholar would only be an added wrinkle in her plans and she had enough of those already for one day.

Before she could make a move though, Suzhen was addressing her and as her eyes looked up at the scholar, a smile crossed her features. “How else would you expect me to take it? I appreciate your kind words but there is no one who looks cuter in this position than you, my dear.” It was both a compliment and another subtle jab at what had taken place before between them. “I knew that you would be able to handle yourself so I saw no reason to intervene in your fight. It is not often that I get to watch a lovely maiden such as yourself perform in front of me, after all. You have been practicing, Suzhen.”

Standing up, her gaze would briefly turn to the black ooze and a frown would cross her features. “I am not 100% certain as to exactly what this gloop is but if I were to take a guess, I would say that it is a form of visible corruption. I have seen something similar before and it should be removed before it starts to have an effect on you. The last thing that I wish to see is for you to turn into an abomination like that wolf and that is precisely what will happen if it remains on you for too long.” Now that she was in such close proximity to the horrible ooze, she was pretty much sold on her hypothesis. She had seen for herself what such a foul substance could do. It could erode the will of the strongest person and turn them into drooling animals. It was all adding up now and as Medeia’s eyes turned to look at the cylindrical building, she put two and two together and pictured what had happened just before her arrival.

Returning her attention back to Suzhen once again, she would then speak once more. “I think the time for deception is over, yes? We have both come here for the staff and leaving it in the hands of that insane old lunatic is simply not an option. I must admit that I am curious that you would be interested in such a deliciously evil item but I suppose you desire it for some sickenly noble reason? Maybe you want to give it to a museum or something like that? Maybe have the council’s scientists study it for the betterment of mankind? After seeing what it has done to the creatures of this forest, I do not think that would be a good idea. It should come home with me, where I can use it properly.” Her eyes twinkled with desire, the cogs inside her mind whirring away with ideas regarding its use. It would be a perfect device for her to use in her own experiments and she was certain that she could create a new curse or two with its powers. To corrupt the minds of others was something that she thoroughly enjoyed and the thought of doing so always caused her to feel a short shiver of pleasure down her spine.

(1019 Words)
(6723 PWC)
(13458 TWC)

Medeia, as Suzhen had expected, replied her sarcasm by pointing out that the dark angel had never for once had any doubts about Suzhen’s ability to defeat the canine monstrosity that had been created by the old wizard somewhere inside the huge block of stone. Though Medeia was, for all intents and purposes, her enemy, there was something good about receiving compliments. And even though she had fought seriously with the dark mage the last time they had met, and was currently bearing a grudge against the Errings Rising Ace, she knew that Medeia was being honest with the compliments, and thus she appreciated them. Begrudgingly. Especially the part about practicing. The Dongxian scholar could not tell whether she had improved visibly since the last time she had fought Medeia, but if Medeia could have taken note that she had been putting effort into training, that was a plus. If she had to fight Medeia again, and she was almost certain that this would only be a matter of time before this happened, Suzhen wanted Medeia to be more impressed than she had been the last time. Winning an all-out victory was still a little too distant, but that would be one of her goals, a goal that Medeia’s encouragement served to bolster. She was sure not to say anything though; her interactions with the dark angel were often to Medeia’s amusement and her befuddlement. Still she could not resist quipping, ”I doubt anyone could be cute in any position whatsoever with this offensive stuff all over them.”

And speaking of the goo, Medeia did not seem so excited about having it smeared all over Suzhen. The Dongxian judiciously beat back with a mental stick the random thought that popped into her mind that Medeia was rather pretty even when she frowned. The thought of visible corruption all over Suzhen’s body was rather disturbing, but there seemed to be this notion that Medeia was probably lying about the nature of the strange disgusting substance. Almost immediately, her mind was drawn to the bejeweled sickle in the dark angel’s hand, and she marveled at the detail wrought into such a fine piece of art. It was most certainly a splendid piece, and Suzhen wondered where Medeia had gotten it from, perhaps from whose dead fingers the dark mage had pried this beauty. It might be worth a thing to possess it too, it seemed, with the way it not only shone, but seemed to pulsate with some hidden energy, power that could be misused by someone as dark and as twisted as Medeia. If Suzhen had it, however, she would use it well, to defend the innocent and fight for truth, justice and all those other wonderful virtues that no one seemed to have the power or will to extol nowadays. With just the right….

Suzhen snapped back to the present, surprised at how her train of thought had been turning so recklessly, as though she was too scatterbrained to focus on important things. Medeia was warning her about the dangers of leaving the… never mind what Medeia was saying. Her eyes trailed from the dark mage’s face, to study the frame of the purple eyed woman. Such an exquisite figure. If Suzhen was much stronger, Medeia could belong to her. And Suzhen WOULD be much stronger, very soon. She could feel the power already; it probably had something to do with the nature of this forest. Yes, she was getting stronger than Medeia. Soon the dark angel would be no match for her. She would first avenge herself on the dark angel by subjecting the dark mage to the same punishment Medeia had inflicted on her, but she would prolong Medeia’s humiliation. Yes, that would be fun. And there were so many other positions into which she could….

Again, Suzhen recovered her thoughts, this time because her thoughts had begun straying to rather racy things, thing Suzhen might have considered with a good deal of shock and outrage if she were actually in charge of her thoughts. And then the Dongxian realized Medeia was right all along. The strange black goo was most definitely trying to affect her thoughts, distract her from the here and now, until it had eroded her mind, overcome her will, and thus destroyed her from within. Then her body would be powerless to resist what her mind did not. The Dongxian maiden realized she was breathing heavily and in short, ragged breaths. It made sense now. As someone who disliked dirt, she had left the slime on her, not because she wanted to, but because as soon as it had touched her, the slime was already affecting her, making her not see any reason to get rid of it, even though she was displeased that she had been covered by that icky substance. But now she was aware, she could sense the goo now more actively trying to attack her will. The feeling was uncomfortable, invasive, and elicited a mix of horror and revulsion. Fortunately, Suzhen had a way to deal with this issue. It had two components: the physical, which was its form and substance, and the magical, which was its effect. The magical component was more dangerous, and needed to be dealt with first. Using her Mushinken: Senkouken, Suzhen negated the magical effect of the goo, and then utilized her Muryudo: Ten’nyo to separate herself from the black substance while taking a step forward, which hung momentarily in the air where she had left it, then spattered to the ground harmlessly, with Suzhen standing as immaculate as she had been when she faced down the wolf.

Suzhen looked at Medeia. ”You… actually saved me…” she began, and then came a stray thought which carried with it a number of the naughty intrusive thoughts that had been swimming in her head when the black goo had been on her body. She could not control the burning of her cheeks, and so she turned away from Medeia, a bothered expression on her face. The dark mage had figured out her true purpose for being here, and had suggested to Suzhen to allow her take the scepter home. Still avoiding her gaze, the Dongxian replied, ”while I’m very grateful to you for looking out for me and warning me appropriately, I would rather that scepter be in some old quaint library where people can look at it and have no idea how important it is. I’m actually scared of what it could be in your hands.” She forced herself to look at Medeia again, hoping that by her sheer force of will, she could push down the color in her face, although that perpetually naughty expression on the dark mage’s face was not helping matters. ”On second thought, I don’t want to think of what it could be in your hands.”


WC: 1145
PWC: 7900
TWC: 14603

The dark mage made no movement and simply watched Suzhen although she most certainly noticed the changes that were beginning to manifest in the scholars' mannerisms. There were moments where Medeia could have sworn that she was being gazed at with the same lust and desire that she was prone to viewing Suzhen with. It was most unlike the purple haired woman and Medeia did not need to spend much time trying to figure out what was happening. The corruption was setting in fast and even though the angel could most likely have cast a spell herself to try and remove the horrible black substance, she instead chose not to do so. If the maiden truly wanted to take the staff, she was going to have to be mentally strong enough to carry it upon her person and that involved not being overwhelmed by the powers of the staff, which were just as likely to erode the wielder's will as its victims. Normally, Medeia would be more than happy to see the legal mage behave in such a perverted way but not like this, not when it was clearly being brought upon by that filthy ooze. She remained on guard though, in case the corruption caused Suzhen to become violent and her sickle briefly glowed with magical energy, a brief warning as to what would happen if things turned sour. Not that she wanted to, of course. Having Suzhen in her life was bringing her no shortage of amusement and pleasure, which she certainly did not want to see end.

Fortunately, it seemed that her previous warning regarding the corruption was enough to help the maiden fight off the foul substance and after some time, the maiden was able to activate a pair of spells and free herself of the ooze. The result caused another smile to cross the witch’s face, her purple eyes once more able to admire the scholar’s lovely form, now that the corruption had been disposed of. Medeia did not have to be a mind reader to tell where Suzhen’s thoughts had been drifting towards during the latter’s struggle and if the uncharacteristic gaze had not been enough proof, the fact that her cheeks turned a deep shade of red did. The angel had not appeared to have been mistaken in her earlier assessment. Suzhen could barely look her in the eye while speaking, an action that caused Medeia to chuckle playfully in response. Opposite ends of the spectrum or not, the dark haired being could not help but think fondly of the scholar. They had shared something special after all during their last encounter and even though she knew that the green eyed mage had not enjoyed it as Medeia herself had, it had forged a bond between them nonetheless. The witch had come to the conclusion that they would no doubt keep running into each other and Medeia would certainly look forward to each occasion. She briefly pondered whether she should try and involve herself more in the lives of legal mages, if such encounters would bring her the same amount of amusement and pleasure.

“You sell yourself short, Suzhen.” Medeia replied with a touch of affection in her tone. “It was you who fought off the corruption, not me. I must say that seeing you look at me in such a way was quite a thrill though and I would not mind if you wished to do so more often, my dear. I never knew you had it in you.” There was nothing malicious in her words and was simply her usual playing around with the rather easily flustered scholar. “I hope that next time though it is not because of the influence of as disgusting a concoction as that horrible black ooze. You are so much lovelier without it.” A part of her wanted to simply continue to tease the scholar and perhaps try and make a move on her but it was overridden by her desire for the sceptre, a task that she was becoming rather more impatient to complete as time passed.

As Suzhen went on to mention her fears over the angel possessing the sceptre, the angel simply chuckled once more.“You believe that I am going to use it for more nefarious reasons than the old decrepit fool who wields it now does? An interesting thought. I wish to know what makes it tick and take it apart before remaking it into something far more useful to me. A sceptre that turns on its mistress is not much of a weapon. I will forge it into something that will serve me perfectly. I always desire obedience, after all.” Medeia truly believed that she could master the corruption effects of the item but her fondness for experimentation was strong and she knew that given enough time, she would find a more effective use of its powers. Of course, there was still the matter of acquiring the artifact to deal with as well as for her to consider how best to handle Suzhen, who would no doubt try to stop her obtaining it.

Turning her gaze to the cylindrical building where the mage had hidden himself, Medeia would speak once more. “Since he does not seem to be coming back out after you killed his overgrown puppy, I think we are going to have to make a doorway so that we can enter.”

Briefly tapping into her powers, the angel would briefly channel her magic, before unleashing a powerful slayer roar at the building. It would be a potent attack given her current strength and it struck the stony structure with such force that it was more than able to create a large enough doorway for the women to enter. That being said, who knew what else the old octogenarian had been creating in his hidey hole and it was with that thought in mind that she turned to Suzhen once more, her armour spell coming to the surface and surrounding the witch. “It looks like we are going to have to go in there and get him.”

(1017 Words)
(7740 PWC)
(15620 TWC)

At Medeia’s statement about not knowing that Suzhen had naughtier than expected tendencies in her, the latter involuntarily inhaled, her eyebrows furrowing while her eyes shot open and saucer-wide in outrage. ”I do not have anything that… improper in me,” she protested heatedly, too late realizing her outburst with some degree of displeasure. While Suzhen didn’t have too many problems with controlling her emotions in a wide range of areas, she was quite inexperienced in more steamy matters, and the impact her affiliation with the World Snake had on her to that effect was not particularly vindicating for her, in her opinion. Thus, she found greater difficulty in responding to Medeia with a more level reaction. Oftentimes, she wished the dark angel would be more serious with her; it was much easier to respond to hostility, because she had been used to such. But having an enemy who did not seem interested in playing out the role of foe was troublesome, especially because it wasn’t as simple a case as one refusing to be the enemy because said person did not wish to fight. What made Medeia’s case especially annoying was the fact that she and Suzhen were on different sides of the morality wheel; Medeia believed in power to keep the world in subjugation beneath her, while Suzhen pursued the same goal, but so that she could protect those who weren’t as strong as she was. So, logically, the two of them were supposed to be bitter enemies. Yet, it was clear, despite their past interactions, that the Errings Rising mage saw her Luminous Rose counterpart as a sort of plaything, rather than a foe. And while Suzhen could easily pick the slight of being regarding as more a thing than a person, and use it as a means to get herself all primed and ready for battle, there was one issue. Medeia seemed to care, to some extent, about her. The extent of that care and how it was expressed, were subjects for academic study, but what remained true was that Medeia appeared interested in Suzhen’s well-being, relatively, and Suzhen was, despite her inclinations to enjoy fighting, not particularly a troublemaker. She was good at ending fights, but she didn’t know how to start them, and most of her fights often involved her responding to an injury offered her or those she cared about. Even though Medeia had embarrassed her the first time they had met, the fact that the dark angel was expressing concern for her made it awkward for the Dongxian to respond to such with hostility. But Suzhen felt that eventually, they would both have to come to blows, or something close, over who got to keep the scepter, and perhaps that could give her all the motivation she needed to go battle-mode.

Perhaps Suzhen’s difficulty in being consistently hostile towards Medeia stemmed from something beyond the latter’s showing concern for her safety. Medeia seemed to be a scholar of sorts, in her own way, interested in studying the scepter and discovering what made it work. So, despite their conflicting morals, they did have some common ground. Suzhen felt she might probably have a lot to benefit if she could have academic discussions with the dark mage, without Medeia bringing up anything to leave her feeling hot and bothered under the collar. Medeia seemed to be tired of waiting for the old geezer to come out, and blasted the large cylindrical structure of stone with a Slayer-like roar. Suzhen valiantly resisted contemplating the sinking feeling that she felt in her stomach at the thought of fighting the dark mage again. It wasn’t that she was scared of fighting Medeia; she had fought battles before in which she knew she wouldn’t win. What worried her was what would probably come after, and going by what had happened to her the last time, she wasn’t eager for a repeat event. She looked over at Medeia, who was wrapping herself in that durable armor that had managed to withstand Suzhen’s strongest attack in their last battle. ”Maybe I’ll just step in and ask him nicely to hand over the scepter. You’ve no idea what good manners can do for someone,” the scholar quipped, stepping towards the large hole Medeia had created. Then she stopped. Something was coming, from deep beneath the earth. It seemed to be a mixture of anguish, and terror, and rage, and something else, power with a will, a dark, twisted and insidious will. Suzhen took a step back, not in fear, but to readjust her step to go into one more suited to make an attack readily. ”Huh, seems like your knock was loud enough.”

Out of the hole shot up a black mass, similar in constituency to what had warped the wolf thing, but here and there alternating between goo and black fire. The form coalesced to form a black burning giant, standing about twelve feet tall. While it had a head, it had no face, and a large sword coalesced from black corruption to form in its right fist. Its chest seemed to ripple strangely, and then a notable face seemed to push through, its mouth contorted into a scream of pain. For a moment, the face seemed to strain against the black mass that made the creature’s chest, like something or someone was trying to break through. Then the face stopped straining, and turned slightly, so that if it had eyes, they would be on the two women. ”What insolence,” came the same grating, rasping voice that Suzhen had heard before. ”I am lord of this realm. Prepare to die.” So saying, the giant raised its sword-wielding arm, but Suzhen was faster. She held her parasol before her, as the sword swung down. A white light sprang from the parasol, and the black sword impacted against it harmlessly, although there was a loud ring like iron striking iron. Before the giant could draw back, Suzhen drew her sword again, slicing the creature’s arm clean off. If it hurt the giant, there was no visible sign of this. The arm flopped to the ground, with the black sword sticking into the earth with its point, while the giant threw a blow with its other arm that Suzhen’s shield absorbed again. Suddenly, the detached arm and sword liquefied and coalesced into sharp long spikes, which darted at the scholar’s back. Light on her feet, she flipped over them, as they stabbed into the giant, who absorbed them slowly, growing its right arm again. Then a pale green light sprang into its hand, which it hurled at the two mages. This time, Suzhen didn’t bother to try blocking with her shield. She dodged the attack clean, but when it struck the earth, it detonated with a powerful shockwave that sent her flying. Suzhen righted herself and landed in a perch on a tree branch.

”This doesn’t look quite as easy as I had hoped….”


WC: 1160
PWC: 9060
TWC: 16780

The giant seemed to be a pretty stout foe and soon enough, its attention turned to Medeia. Unflustered, she would briefly look up at the creatures, before gripping her sickle a little tighter and moving towards the giant, delivering a powerful strike to one of its legs. With a cry of pain, the limb would come off, resulting in the hideous beast to fall to the ground, with enough force that the ground briefly shook. It may have been durable but it seemed to lack grace and as she briefly wondered about just how much it could take, the giant was quickly up again, its leg regenerating as its arm had done. The old leg would explode into a bunch of jet black spikes, sending needles of corruption in all directions. They were fairly strong projectiles but Medeia was easily able to evade them by simply sprouting her wings and rising into the air. She was sure that Suzhen would have her own defence against the attack and did not worry too much about the scholar. The expression of the mage that was etched onto the giant's body would then distort into a rather horrifying look, one of pure rage and desperation. He clearly knew that he was in trouble and with that thought in mind, he would start to have the giant attack with more and more force, with a barrage of punches and swings that the witch had to swiftly dodge. She was certain that her armour could probably defend her but still, she was unwilling to take that risk and instead took the more defensive option. Besides, the creature was so lumbering that being hit by it would be rather insulting, as well as embarrass her in the eyes of Suzhen, which Medeia definitely wanted to avoid. She was showing off to the maiden, as the purple haired woman had to her previously. It almost seemed like a kind of game that they were playing with each other but at least in Medeia’s view, everything was.

With that thought in mind, the witch would delve into her powers and create a golden trophy that would burst forth from the ground. It was a spell that had a rather unique effect and as the eyes of the mage locked on to it, he swiftly ordered the giant to head towards it. That was the genius behind the spell, alluring at the lust and greed that no doubt ruled the mad fool now. The giant would lumber towards the trophy and bend down to touch it and the moment it did, the item exploded, resulting in molten hot gold to coat the giant, which soon spread across the creature's body and turned it completely to gold, a statue as it were. The creature roared and howled as it realised what was happening but there was little it could do and soon enough, the gold solidified, leaving the paralysed giant immobile. One this was done, Medeia would then tap the golden giant with her sickle, resulting in the beast shattering into pieces, covering the ground around her in bits of gold. A fitting fate for it and as she admired her work for a moment, she would then move back to stand beside the maiden.

“That should take care of that.” She uttered with a small smile, pleased with her work and flashing the maiden a flirty look. “I highly doubt that he has run out of tricks but perhaps he might finally use his brain and just end this farce.”

She was cut off rather swiftly as her gold was unexpectedly absorbed by the remains of the giant, before the creature began to reform again. Its corrupted ooze now covered with a tinge of gold, much to the disgust of the angel. To see such a creature actually absorbing her power was quite offensive and the smile on her face quickly faded away. What was worse was that rather than just one giant, the creature was instead reforming into multiple smaller ones, each having the face of the mage plastered across them. They were about eight foot tall, each one growing different weapons from their arms. Surrendering was obviously not an option in the maniac’s mind although the angel had not expected that to be an option anyway. Death was the only way of dealing with him and the sooner she implanted her sickle into his head the better. Who knew how long he could keep summoning creatures otherwise? With that thought in mind, she would briefly shimmer with magical power, before activating her Takeover. Her form would change to that of her original form, her eyes, hair and wings would turn purple and her already fairly risque outfit would become even more so. Her magical aura would increase in intensity as well, the effects enough that her orbs would blaze with power.

Realising that she had not used the form while fighting Suzhen before and her rather ominous appearance, she would briefly turn her gaze towards the scholar again. “Do not worry, my dear. My focus will be entirely on our opponents and not on you. You have my word.” Her expression was neutral but whether she was telling the truth or not would be difficult to tell. The depth of her voice was far deeper now and it was even more difficult for her to keep her attention on Suzhen’s face rather than elsewhere. Oh, it felt so good to take on her natural form again, even if it would only be brief. Her mind and body were charging with magical power and as the giants started to charge towards the two mages, a whip would form in Medeia’s other hand. “It looks like your hope for him surrendering the sceptre to us has now well and truly gone. He has become a slave to the weapon and the only cure for it is death. He will not stop until we are either corrupted too or dead so there is little point pulling any punches.”

(1009 Words)
(8749 PWC)
(17789 TWC)

Although the giant had initially been attacking the Dongxian scholar, as soon as it had forced her to create some reasonable level of distance with it, the creature now turned its attention to face Medeia, apparently abandoning its former opponent. That caused Suzhen to contemplate a possibility: it was very likely that this giant creature was being operated from a distance by the mad wizard. Initially, when Suzhen had had her little share of tangoing against the monstrous giant, she had almost thought the wizard himself had been shrouded in a coat of corruption, and had come to fight by himself, an idea sponsored by the fact that it had spoken in a similar voice to the one she had heard the wizard use when she first set her eyes on him, as well as the weird face on its chest, and its sentient responses to her attacks and taking damage. However, Suzhen began to suspect that despite these things, it seemed to show less intelligence than she expected something with the wizard’s mind in it to exhibit. Someone, or something of average human level intelligence would not abandon an opponent just because the opponent was out of reach, especially seeing as the giant most likely had other means to attack enemies far beyond its physical range, like the strange green fire it had thrown at her.

Medeia had quickly gone on the offensive, taking off the creature’s leg with a single swing. Suzhen, for the umpteenth time, begrudgingly admired the strength of the raven haired woman, as she watched the giant collapse to the earth, from her perch in the tree branches. However, the giant was not down and out, as its severed leg exploded into many spikes, each black spear of doom seeking to shred holes into whatever it impacted. Suzhen opened Chou Shan to the fullest, and crouched behind the parasol shade, and the spikes hurtling towards her were turned harmlessly by the unconventional shield. Normally, Suzhen would have leaped in to assist Medeia, but the movements of the dark angel seemed to suggest to the Dongxian that Medeia wanted her to watch and be impressed. Medeia had unfurled her wings and taken flight to avoid the spikes, and was now using the feathery appendages to impressively avoid the attacks of the giant, whose severed limb had regrown again, even as it tried, and failed, to score a hit against its airborne opponent.

And then a statue of pure gold burst forth from the ground. Suzhen knew Medeia had the ability to control gold, although to what degree the Dongxian scholar could not say, so she knew that this heretofore unseen spell was the doing of the Errings Rising mage. Interestingly, the giant turned towards the trophy and made for it, but as it had just gotten within touching range, the statue exploded into a shower of gold which coated the giant, encasing and entombing it in the molten yellow liquid. The more the creature struggled, the more every square inch of it was covered by the liquid gold, until the giant was a statue of gold itself. Suzhen dropped from her spot in the trees, as Medeia tapped the immobilized giant, and though it was covered in gold, the creature shattered like window glass, every piece of it raining down amidst chunks of solid gold. That was more or less a transmutation spell then, not just a simple immobilization spell. The Dongxian turned to look at Medeia as the dark angel came to stand beside her, trying to make it obvious that she was pretending not to notice Medeia’s naughty look. ”Well, I’m sure I’m not the only person who--” she began, suddenly stopping as she noticed something that should not have been. The solidified gold pieces seemed to be being absorbed by the pieces of the monster, and everything began to liquefy once more, creating a large puddle of some sickening deep brown color, the black having obviously been colored by the gold that had been used to shatter it. Suzhen discovered that her expression mirrored Medeia’s disgusted one. Then she sensed a surge of magic power and noticed that Medeia had transformed, her hair, eyes and wings all being the same purple color now. That Medeia had not tapped into this power to fight Suzhen back then on Crescent Island made the Luminous Rose mage suddenly feel she needed a drink of water. ”Wow, you’re wearing even less now…” was all she could venture, her confidence daunted by the dark angel. But she knew that she couldn’t decide to run away or give up, despite Medeia being much stronger than she was. At all costs, she would still make sure Medeia did not get the scepter. She had to, because who knew what wicked designs the dark angel would put the artifact to, if it was left in Medeia’s grasp?

As the dark corrupted gold coalesced into multiple smaller giants, Medeia assured Suzhen that she would not target the Dongxian as they faced the giants. And sadly, Suzhen had to agree with Medeia that the old mad wizard was most likely beyond any helping. ”I’m relieved that I won’t have to be looking over my shoulder for now,” Suzhen replied, as the giants began running at them, ”and I agree with you that there’s no point now in pulling punches. So, the best thing to do is strike this tree at its roots!” So saying, Suzhen charged at the already running giants, and in a graceful but deadly dance which involved spinning, flipping and slashing flurries of her long sword, she was behind the giants now, three of them missing limbs, although said appendages simply melted back into their bodies, and they seemed to have suffered no particular damage. But Suzhen kept running. Using her psychic sense and whatever little light existed, she found her way into the large hole Medeia had made in the giant stone building in which the wizard was hiding. Her sense told her that three of the giants seemed to be coming after her, but she was faster than they were, and unless she was stopped, she would not fear them catching up to her. Just inside the hole was a flight of stairs which tunneled downwards into the earth, and Suzhen took them as swiftly as she could. The stairs led below ground level, where they expanded into an open space, filled with glowing lights. In the center of the space sat an old form, thin and almost skeletal; the mad wizard. His eyes were black sunken pits in which glowed little flames of unholy green fire, and those manic eyes came to rest on Suzhen. In his lap lay a beautiful golden scepter, a glowing gem affixed to it matching the color of the wizard’s flaming eyes.

She sped towards him, sword drawn, but he did not move. When she was almost striking distance, the Dongxian thrust her sword, aiming for his neck, but she suddenly found herself flung back by an invisible shield, flying back towards the charging giants. Using her knowledge of Yoza Shinken, Suzhen inexplicably changed direction in the air, performing a jump in midair to sail safely over the heads of the creatures which vainly tried to grasp her. She had noticed something. When she had thrust at the wizard, dust moved by her foot passed the range of her sword, which meant that while the sword was blocked, the dust was not. So the wizard’s shield was most likely activated at will. A sneak attack would have to do. Fortunately, her Shinken: Shinryuu Bougai would be able to get her to reach the mad wizard. She charged again, thrusting at the first giant. As her sword touched the creature’s chest, she was gone, reappearing without a sound behind the wizard. Too late did he realize his danger, but he did not turn, before the sharp sound of cracking bone exploded from where Suzhen’s half-opened hand, positioned in a “Leopard Fist”, smashed into the back of his neck. Instantly, the glow radiating from the scepter and from his eyes went off, and the giants charging at her evaporated into nothing.

Remebering that the dissolved giants meant that Medeia would be free, and in her powerful angel form, Suzhen quickly reached out and grabbed the scepter. The power that filled her mind was incredible….


WC: 1400
PWC: 10460
TWC: 19189

“I am starting to think that you want me to chase you, my dear.” Medeia uttered to herself as Suzhen dived down the hole and out of sight. She was not upset that the scholar had pulled a fast one on her and the angel simply smiled. It was all just another twist in the tale that they were writing between them and as she looked up at the three remaining giants, she saw no reason as to not simply go all out at this point. The angel could not allow the legal mage to get too far in front at this point and the thought of Suzhen getting the sceptre first was both curious and just slightly concerning. Oh, the witch backed herself and reckoned that she could shrug off the effects of the sceptre but what about Suzhen? How used was she to battling against forces which sought to dominate her mind? Perhaps their previous fight had given her the experience needed to fight off the sceptre’s corrupting will? These questions needed to be answered and sooner or late, she knew that they would come. One thing was for certain though, it would certainly add an entertaining wrinkle to the encounter.

The giants, however, needed to be dealt with first and as the three came towards her, Medeia’s eyes would briefly flash with magical power and a tornado of purple energy would envelop the three beings. It would increase in both height and width over time and soon enough the entire area was enveloped in her spell. The angel herself would rise into the air, moving out of the way of her spell so that she could watch it from above. It was always lovely to be able to go all out and as she heard the horrible screeching and moaning from the giants as the tornado tore them to pieces, her smile widened slightly. Her magical signature would be felt by every creature in her vicinity, both corrupted and not, enough to instill fear in the hearts of all. The forest would not forget her any time soon and she pondered if perhaps she should change the name of it slightly. Fear was not something that she had felt at all and if she was honest, the forest had been a bit of an anticlimax. It might have been spooky to the weak but to someone with strength? No, it was no worse than any other.

When her spell came to an end, all three of the giants would crash to the ground in a heap, their bodies having been well and truly destroyed. Medeia would say that her tornado was a mid level spell for her and yet even so, it was more than enough to cause severe damage, such was her level of power. The tome attached to her right hip was always fuelling her abilities, amplifying every possible attribute. Without it, she was formidable. With it, she was something else entirely. That was what the giants had just learned and as they faded away, Medeia placed her whip to her hip, her spell attaching to her form at a moment's notice. Yet, she did not relax just yet and waited, fully expecting the giants to once again reform as they had before. She was beginning to assume that they would simply keep doing so until the mage was dead. Right on cue, the remains of the creatures would start to reform, with more corrupted beings starting to emerge. They seemed to be doubling each time and at least a dozen were forming. Smaller than the last but as they began to get their bearings, she began to realise that they seemed to be lighter on their feet than the last. They were mobile, agile and one of them wasted no time in leaping towards her, its disgusting mouth opening to devour her.

Swinging her sickle in order to defend herself, the angel would be slightly surprised as the entity exploded before it even reached her, the disgusting ooze disappearing completely. Glancing down, she would see the same happening to the other creatures and raising an eyebrow, she pondered to herself what that could mean. Had Suzhen already been successful in defeating the mage and claiming the sceptre for herself? It was a fair hypothesis for her to make and without wasting any further time, the angel would descend down the hole that she herself had made and began to search for the scholar and the staff. A large staircase was awaiting her but fortunately she was able to skip them due to her wings and just darted down the centre, her speed increasing swiftly. The further she descended, the greater the pull of the sceptre and it was like a beacon to the dark mage, leading her to her destination. She desired the item, yes but that was not all that she was beginning to lust for. The sceptre was adding to her want for the purple haired scholar and Medeia did owe Suzhen for running from her twice. The thought of wrapping the legal mage up again was becoming more and more tempting, so that she could not flee from her again and as she reached the bottom of the staircase, that thought was becoming more dominant.

The proceeding tunnel would lead into a large open space and the mage’s eyes would soon be drawn to a figure that was lying on the floor. The mad old mage was dead. The only fate for him in Medeia’s opinion and as she turned to see Suzhen with the sceptre in hand, Medeia’s right hand would rest upon her sickle once more. Who knew just what it was doing to the scholar’s mind at that very moment? Slowly, she would approach the green eyed figure, her aura beginning to shine with magical power again, prepared to engage the maiden in combat once more. “You actually beat me to it, congratulations.” Medeia amusingly said before asking. “Now, what are you going to do with it?” The look in her eyes contained just a hint of daring, as well as lust. “Are you going to test it out on me?”

(1033 Words)
(9782 PWC)
(20231 TWC)

Suzhen found the power of the scepter within her grasp to be quite unexpected. She had thought that when she laid hands on the item, it would immediately engage her in a sort of battle of the wills, seeking to subjugate her mind and dominate it, making her nothing but a slave and a puppet, a tool only to be controlled by the will of the scepter, as had probably the old mad wizard who had attempted to use the scepter’s powers before her. She had thus marshalled all her willpower as her fingers wrapped around the handle of the ornate golden item. And instead of encountering a powerful resistance, Suzhen instead felt a liberation like nothing she had ever experienced before. It was as though she had been transformed into a new, different, more powerful being. Her eye sight seemed sharper. She felt like she could tear a hole through the tons of rock that made the subterranean ceiling above her, with just her bare hands, nay just a thought. Nothing seemed impossible. And the best part was that, no matter how hard she checked mentally, there was not the slightest bit of an insidious evil will hiding and waiting to attempt to destroy her mind. This power was hers, and hers alone.

The voice of Medeia caught her attention, and the Dongxian scholar looked up slowly, her eyes glowing with the same light that emanated from the crystal atop the cursed scepter. Idly, she thought of how fitting it was that she had the scepter for her own. Its light was green, a color that matched that of her eyes. It was as though fate itself was trying to imply to her that this thing was hers. And why not so? It was necessary to keep such a thing as this from the hands of someone such as Medeia, someone who would abuse its power, and cause untold misery and damage with it. It was very likely that the mad wizard had been a dark mage, someone of some similar moral fabric as the dark angel who approached her even now. She would not, no, she could not allow Medeia to get her hands on the scepter. It was neutral, something that had no particular affiliation except to the hand that wielded it. There was nothing to fear with power, unless the darkness that would taint it existed in one’s mind. Suzhen smiled softly. She had virtue, so she would not abuse the power she currently wielded.

For a while, she said nothing to the approaching dark angel, her glowing eyes taking note of the scepter held firmly in Medeia’s hand. The dark angel was certainly not going to just give up, allow Suzhen to keep the scepter and walk away. The fact that the Errings Rising mage was still holding the sickle was enough proof. Besides, even though Medeia had seemed so far uninterested in Suzhen’s taking of damage, it was only because she would prefer to execute the injury herself, whether physical or otherwise. So she would not allow the sham concern to deceive her. Medeia was the enemy now. And she would have to deal with the dark mage appropriately. With the amount of power she could feel, Medeia could not harm her in any way. Victory was certain here for Suzhen. The thought of herself walking into the same Crocus in which she had been embarrassed those weeks ago, bringing in chains the very person that had embarrassed her so, and who no doubt was wanted by the Magic Council, if not many other Fiorean and international authorities, was very pleasing to Suzhen. Who knew, she might even end up receiving the recognition she had so long desired to have. The pleasure of such thoughts intensified the glow in her eyes and on the scepter’s gem, although her smile remained demure. Then it grew slowly, to something more intense.

”First, I must thank you for your felicitations,” Suzhen replied, her glowing eyes fixed on Medeia’s similarly luminous ones. ”Even though I think you are not so happy that it isn’t you with the scepter in hand.” She laughed happily. ”As to what I’m going to do with it, well, I don’t plan to test it; I plan to use it to defeat you. And when I’m done dealing with you, I shall take you back to Crocus, where I shall give you a lovely taste of your own medicine. I’m quite sure you’ll enjoy it. But if you came quietly and surrendered yourself to me, I might just be a lot nicer to you. We’re not negotiating the ‘tying you up in a rather humiliating position’ part, though.”

Suzhen held up the scepter, and the illumination of the object brightened, along with the palpable power it exuded, no doubt being charged to fire a blast. Something was worrying Suzhen, however. Didn’t she just sound like Medeia back there? Perhaps not; that was probably how everyone that had power sounded. Yes, that must be it.

”So, what will it be? I actually hope you’ll decide to struggle….”


WC: 852
PWC: 11312
TWC: 21083

The angel could not help but admire the effectiveness of the staff. Already, Suzhen was sounding more like Medeia, a fact that brought a smile to her face. The look in her eyes, the tone in her voice and even the smile that was crossing the maiden’s face. This was not the same scholar that the holy being had met before although that was not necessarily a negative in the eyes of the witch. She somewhat liked this new persona and the lust that had already begun to churn within her was growing by the second. It was rare that anyone spoke to her in such a way, given the vast difference in strength between herself and those she met and to hear such confidence from the beautiful woman was incredibly alluring. Naturally, she put this new found self assuredness down to the sceptre but still, the effect on the angel was considerable. Up until now, she had been fighting her desire for Suzhen, attempting to put it to one side in order to focus on acquiring the magical object but now that the maiden had it? There was no reason for her not to allow her two wants to combine together. She was going to take both of them, the weapon and the purple haired woman.

“As much as I love hearing you speak in such a way, my dear, I am afraid that you have our roles reversed. I am sure that there are many out there who would love to be wrapped up by you but I am not one of them. Submission is not in my nature, Suzhen, as you well know. What will happen here is simple. I will defeat you again, take the sceptre from you and then bind you so tightly that you will not be able to move an inch. I was gentle with you last time but this time? Well, this is the second time that you have gotten in my way, is it not? I am going to have to up the ante a little otherwise your adoring fans in Crocus will be disappointed. They must be gagging to see you make another appearance and I am all too tempted to provide them with that. Maybe this time...I will forget to dress you at all. Perhaps that will shame you enough to not get in my way again.” A chuckle escaped her lips, dark and twisted, the images of Suzhen tied to that pole springing to her mind. “I will not concede to you, my lovely scholar.” There was a rather large emphasis put on the word ‘my’ as she spoke.

Her eyes were drawn to the sceptre as it began to glow with energy, seeming to pulsate with a magic that she was quite familiar with. It reeked of corruption and Medeia was under no illusions of what it could be capable of, most certainly after having battled some of its creations. It belonged with her, a creature of corruption and lust who could truly turn it into something great and that fact was enough for her to do whatever was necessary in order to acquire it, even if that meant harming Suzhen. It had all come down to this and the brief moment of peace between the two mages wilted into nothing. Light vs dark, purity vs depravity, maiden vs angel.

She did not wait long to fire off an attack and opening her mouth, Medeia would start to sing, a harmonious tune that the scholar would recognise started to ring throughout. So beautiful and yet so deadly at the same time, attempting to lure the maiden in. The angel had used this particular attack the last time they had met and she keenly remembered Suzhen’s inspired counter to it the last time, however, Medeia’s physical strength was not as weak as it had been then. All of her attributes were amplified here and she was almost begging for Suzhen to come in close this time. In truth, she was rather intrigued by just how her attempt at influencing the maiden’s mind would work against that of the sceptre’s influence. The angel could not help but wonder just what was happening inside the green eyed woman’s mind at that moment. For now, she would simply try to enforce her own will, tempting the scholar to come towards her.

(731 Words)
(10513 PWC)
(21814 TWC)

Suzhen watched Medeia as the dark angel answered her challenge, and although the answer was what she had expected, she was rather displeased about the way Medeia was speaking to her. How dare Medeia? Did she know just the immense power that Suzhen now controlled at her fingertips? The happy smile on the Dongxian’s face slowly faded into irritation, and then changed to pure anger. ”The insolence!” Suzhen exploded, the glow in her eyes and in the gem of the scepter intensifying. As she glared at Medeia, the dark angel began to sing a song, a melody that Suzhen remembered. Her teeth gritted involuntarily, as she recollected the events on Crescent Island, events that had not been in her favor. Fortunately for all parties involved, excluding Medeia, of course, this story would end so much differently, because Suzhen was so much stronger now. Even her mind was like that of a god. The workings of magic did not seem so strange to her now, and she was sure that with this scepter, she could cast spells with effects solely of her own design. She would do a little bit of experimentation with Medeia. It was going to be so much fun, she thought, as she pointed the staff at the singing angel.

That song, though. With the clashing of wills created by the haunting melody, Suzhen realized something profound. As expected, the song was Medeia’s vehicle with which she imposed her will on the listener, but as Suzhen fought to combat the song’s effects, she realized that she was not alone in the battle of the wills. It had been very fleeting, but as she pushed down the effects of Medeia’s haunting song, she sensed something else, something that had been hiding somewhere in the recesses of her mind. The scepter had a will of its own! Thinking about it, though, Suzhen was not very surprised. She should have known that such a thing as this, with the way it seemed to corrupt whatever it encountered, had its own will. Medeia would most definitely have a field day trying to dominate it, but Suzhen realized, even if the realization was somewhat painful, that such an item as this did not belong in this world. She could feel the will behind the scepter encouraging her to finish Medeia once and for all, or at least ignore the foolish thoughts that seemed to suggest that something was wrong with the scepter. And Suzhen knew what she would do.

Reaching behind her, she drew the scepter downward through the air, calling on the power of the artifact as it tore a large hole in space-time. This wasn’t difficult; the scepter made casting magic so easy. The properties of the portal were even left to Suzhen to determine: the doorway would lead to somewhere far away from this forest and much closer home, and it would stay open by itself for about three seconds before closing. Three seconds was all Suzhen needed.

One. Suzhen drew all the power of the scepter to focus in on itself, on the gem that seemed to be the source of its power. She could feel internal resistance; the scepter had realized what she was trying to do, but the disadvantage which the scepter had was that it could only override someone else’s will. It could not cast on its own, so it could not prevent someone who possessed it from casting, except by taking over the person’s will, and it had not subjugated Suzhen’s will. Two. Suzhen focused all the power she could bring the scepter to muster, which was quite great, and the green gem cracked, before an otherworldly wail filled the room, as the power looping in on the scepter’s focusing gem was too much for the object to handle. As Suzhen left the scepter and stepped backward, the whole object: green gem and golden staff, shattered like glass, into a thousand useless fragments. And Suzhen’s backward step had taken her through the confines of the magical portal behind her. Three. The portal snapped shut, and Suzhen found herself standing in an open field, gazing at the starlit sky above a region which was not at all geographically close to where she had been standing just a second ago. She wondered what the dark angel would be feeling or thinking now, but she was almost certain that when next they met, Medeia would be rather interested in bringing Suzhen to full reckoning for interfering with her, and successfully this time. Well, until that time came, she wouldn’t worry. For now, the thought that she had brought this matter to a conclusion that satisfied her was enough for her.


WC: 782
PWC: 12094
TWC: 22596