Nightmare Incarnate Alyia and Decayuss

It was mid-afternoon as Alyia entered the guild hall. Her usual mischievous features were not present on the young girl as she seemed to be somewhat tired and frustrated. With a small look around the guild and seeing nothing to fix her out of place personality problems the small blonde mage sat down at the closest table crossed her arms and laid her head on them.


It was last night that she had received a large package addressed to her and upon looking to see who had sent it, she had found nothing other than the letters S and M. Seeing how it was addressed to her Alyia had opened the box only to reveal a hardcover book and a voice recorder lacrima, both of them were covered in a red crust substance. Alyia had picked up the book and looked to see if there was a title. Seeing nothing on the outside the blonde girl flipped to the inside cover to see if there was anything about the book there. To her luck there was writing there. In sloppy handwriting the name Samuel Martin was scribbled down. S and M, the initials of the man were the same as the letters on the outside of the box. Finally, having some knowledge of who this stuff belonged to, Alyia shifted through a couple more pages in the book. Each page had an entry and each page described what had happened in this man’s life. It was a personal diary. But, why would someone send a diary to her? Alyia then looked at the front of the book again and looked at the red substance and upon having previous knowing's she realized that it was blood. Blood covered everything that the box held. For the rest of that night despite her better judgment Alyia had shifted through every page in the book and listened to all of the recordings in the lacrima.

This had taken her all night and had risen more questions than it had answered, resulting in her change in attitude. Alyia grumbled some incoherent words and turned her head so that it faced down towards the table that she was sitting at.

"Hmmmm..." "Hmmmm..." "Hmmmm..." "Hmmmm!" "Hmmmm!" "What's going on, Deniel!?" "I'm bored!" The black haired mage sat on his bed inside of his small room within Eclipse Soul's Headquarters. For the past five minutes or so, all he did was cross his arms and stare at his trusted blade, Nidhogg, which was sheathed inside of its scabbard against his door. All the two did for a bit was just say, "Hmmm" back to each other until Nidhogg had broken the silence. "Why don't you just go on another job, then!?" Deniel grunted and stood up from his bed. He folded his hands behind his back and paced back and fourth. "I probably should...but I don't feel like it right now. Should I? Shouldn't I? Should I-" "Why not try to make some friends?" The black blade interrupted Deniel in his scattered chain of indecisive thoughts. Deniel could almost laugh at his weapon's absurd thoughts, "No. I'm a mystery and that's final." Doing jobs was out of the question, and other than that, there was one other thing Deniel could do. Both him and his blade came up with the idea at the same time: "Get a strawberry sundae!" "Get a strawberry sundae!" "Jinx!"

In just a few moments, Deniel was peaking out the door to his room. He didn't want anyone to see him, that meant the utmost stealth whenever he went outside of his room. He looked up and down the hallway several times before he was finally satisfied no one was there. Slowly and carefully, he stepped outside of his room and closed the door. Going on the very tip of his toes, he started down the hallway. Wearing black combat boots wasn't necessarily the biggest means for stealth, but it was all he had. Deniel didn't say a word or make a sound. The first destination he was going to have to stop at was the guild hall, which always seemed to have people there. He prayed will all of his soul no one was there.

Just like most of his other prayers, it didn't go answered. As he peaked around the corner into the guild hall, there was but one person. He had never seen her before, but then again, he had never seen anyone else before. It was a female, and a blonde one. That's all he could tell. Her back was to him, which meant that he could most likely sneak past her without her noticing. With his pulse racing, Deniel stepped out of the corner and started to make his way down the guild hall towards the kitchen where Kyll always kept his strawberry sundaes in the freezer. Please don't notice me! Pleeeeeease!

Alyia would probably not have noticed the man sneaking into the hall if it wasn’t for the large presence that he carried with him and the fact that seeing how the entire guild was silent and she could hear his feet padding across the guilds floor. Lifting her head off of her arms the short mage turned her upper body around so that she could see just who exactly who was in the guild hall other than herself. Across the hall her blue eyes caught sight of a man  with black hair he seemed to be tall and only a couple more years older than her. Alyia looked the man up and down and spotted his black combat boots. ‘No wonder I could hear him,’ Alyia thought to herself. She watched the man a little more and noticed that he was trying to be sneaky. ‘That’s not working in your combat boots now is it?’ A smirk gradually spread across the blonde mages face and the mischievous glint that she did not have yet that day returned to her eyes. “Are you trying to be sneaky?” Alyia called to the man. “Cause it’s not working working very well.” Alyia took this time to turn around so that he entire body was facing the man that stood across the guild. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees as she leaned forward. Alyia let her head fall into her hand and tilted it so that she looked somewhat innocent. Her blonde hair fell around her shoulders and the small braid that she had on the right side of her head fell in front of her ears. She lifted her hand from under her chin and moved the braid so that it resided behind her ear then returned her hand to where it had been. "Besides if you are going to try to sneak around try to wear shoes that don't make so much noise when you walk, or when you tip toe around, in your case."

Goddamnit... He sighed when she made it clear that she noticed him. Even when he tried as hard as he could, his combat boots had failed him. He placed his heels on the ground and scratched behind his head. His pulse was still racing, but he was trying to not show it.  Come on, Deniel. Think, think, think! Wait a second...a mute." Deniel merely shrugged at her, pretending that he couldn't speak a single word. He then walked away from the guild hall so he could go to his original destination: the kitchen. When he walked inside, he went for the one place that he ever went for: the freezer. Opening up, he saw several strawberry sundaes inside waiting for him to take. He grabbed one from out of the freezer and closed it. A few moments later, he was walking past the guild hall once again with a strawberry sundae in his hand, and a spoon in his mouth. He tried not to make eye contact with the stranger from earlier to make sure she would try to talk to him or say anything more. This was a close enough call, he didn't want to make anything out of it. Once he turned the corner from the guild hall to the hallway that lead to his room, he nearly ran away from the guild hall back to his room. In a huge hurry, he opened his door and slammed it right behind him. Once he was inside and safe from socializing whoever that was, he gave a sigh of relief and slid his back against the door. "Whew...close call..." He sat down on the ground against his door with his strawberry sundae still in his hand. He stood up on his feet once again and walked over to his bed. He sat down on the edge of it and started to eat away at it. "With any luck, she'll be gone by the time I'm done..."



OOC: I got lazy...sorry.

Alyia had watched in humor as the male paused in a panic and then shrugged at her as if he couldn’t talk then went to the kitchen grabbed something then left. As the male mage left she had spotted what he had grabbed from the kitchen. It was a strawberry sundae and it looked all prepared despite the fact that he had only been in the kitchen for only a few moments. Alyia shook her head as she tried to get back on topic resulting in the disappearance of the fun loving glint in her eyes, she had to figure out what the diary meant and what happened to the Rune Knights. With a sigh Alyia  turns around so that she is facing the table again and lets her head fall on the table with a loud thud. “Owww,” Alyia wined childishly as she immediately picked her head up off of the table and rubbed where her head had connected with the table. Crossing her arms this time so that she would not hurt her head again Alyia let her head fall downwards towards the table. “Why me?” She asked herself out loud. “What do I have to do with this?”

Then out of frustration Alyia stood up and kicked the table crushing it beneath her foot. After a few more moments of kicking the poor table Alyia stopped and looked down at what she had done. “Damnit,” she muttered as she moved away from the now decimated table and sat down at a new table this time letting her elbow rest against the table and  her head sitting in her hands. “Why?” She asked again as she closed her eyes.

"Who the Hell was that, anyway?" Deniel asked Nidhogg as he placed the spoon full of ice cream and strawberries inside of his mouth again. The sword that was leaned against his door would have shrugged if he had shoulders. "How should I know? I'm just a sword. I sit here, cut up some things, and that's it." Deniel was tempted to fling his spoon at Nidhogg, but just ate more of his sundae again. "Whatever..." Deniel grumbled and started to enjoy his sundae more. For some reason, he couldn't shake the thought of her in his head. He thought about what she of all people was doing all alone. He remembered a book on the table, so maybe she was just reading along. He shrugged and scooped up more ice cream from his sundae. He opened his mouth and started to put the spoon inside, but as soon as he did, he heard a loud noise from outside. It sounded like something was being hit harshly. "What the Hell?" He put his sundae down, unfinished and walked to his door. He grabbed his katana, Nidhogg, and put it safely inside of his belt slot where he usually kept it.

He opened his door and closed it behind him, not bothering with stealth this time. He walked down the hall to the guild hall, where he found her kicking the table and looking disappointed about something. What is she doing? He asked himself in his head while he peaked around the corner. He thought quickly about whether or not he should just go back to his room or help her. He needed to keep himself hidden from guild mates as his own standard, but she looked like she needed help. It's just one girl, what could she possibly do? He shrugged to himself and stepped out from the corner to the guild hall. He cleared his throat to make his attendance to the room crystal clear to her. "You need help with something?"

Looking up to see just who had spoken to her Alyia was caught by surprise when she saw that the person who had spoken to her was the male who had acted like he was mute when he came and left with his ice-cream. From that point she looked back down at the table and glared at it as if it had been the one to do something wrong. Had it been that obvious that she needed help? ‘You did utterly destroy an innocent table,’ one part of Alyia thought. ‘Shut it,’ she thought back to herself. With a sigh the blonde haired mage turned to look at the table. “I got a mysterious package yesterday, addressed to me, and when I opened it there were two things; a diary and a voice recording lacrama, both by chance were covered in blood. There was no return address only the initials S and M, which by chance are the initials of the diary owner, Samuel Martin,” Alyia told the man. “The diary, the pages that weren’t ripped out, is filled with entries about a girl, Mary, going crazy and running off into the Spooky Forest and the lacrima is recorded by Jacob Lars, a Rune Knight who is trying to find Mary, the girl who escaped to the forest, and he keeps saying that she is possessed by a demon. There are only 4 recordings and on the last one it seems like something bad had happened to the Knights.” The blonde haired girl groaned and let her head fall into her hands.

“I don’t know who sent it and how they knew my name,” Alyia looked back up at the dark haired male that stood away from her. “But I plan to find out.” With a more determined voice Alyia spoke those last few words as a curious gleam sparkled in her eyes. “Besides it might be fun seeing what happened to that girl and those Knights,” Alyia said mostly to herself.

"Mmmhm..." He put his hand on his chin and rested his balance on his hip as he listened to her go on, but the first part didn't particularly interest him. He was almost about ready to just shut her up, until a single word came out of her mouth, a word that changed his entire outlook on the situation. That word was "Demon". Suddenly, his hand went right off of his chin and he ran over to the table she was sitting that in a hurry. "Can it be!?" He asked himself as he flipped through the diary pages. He scanned the words, trying to read it and comprehend it as quickly as possible. Deniel wasn't necessarily a book worm, so he had to read it each page a second time in order to understand what it was saying. After the word demon, everything that she was saying went in one ear and out the other. The last diary entry by the man is what intrigued him the most. The date, the words, the event. Deniel had never been this close to finding another demon, and there was no way in Hell he was going to pass this opportunity up. Even if the package was for her, and even though he always did things alone, he was going to need to tag along with her.

Deniel went past the diary entrances to the voice recordings made by the Rune Knights. He listened for only a few moments of the first recording before he got impatient and skipped straight to the last one.

"Date- 4 March. Time- 666:666 PM.
*The sound of someone's ragged breath mixed with their crazed running could be heard for several minutes. After that the barely audible thud, as if someone being hit against a tree, interrupts the running*
This is Leu*static*nt Jacob *pant* Lars. We *static*eed help! We...we got sep*static*ed and the *static* took us out *pant* one by one. It's b*static*n watching us all along! Tor*static*ring us while studying it's *pant* prey. It's close, *static* the only one left *static* coming f*static* me. *static* *static* *static* the time *static* thre *static* ourty-five.

At the very end of the last recording, Deniel sat there in complete silence. He closed the diary and his eyes, thinking about what just happened. There wasn't much for him to think about honestly. He needed to go. His lips started to curl up into a cocky smirk, and his eyes jolted open. "Let's go, then!"

Alyia’s blue eyes widened, she could not believe what she had just heard from the man standing in front of her. He wanted to come with her. She never said that she needed help with the discovering of what happened she just needed help with the release of her frustration. Besides who was this guy to come over and take her stuff without asking? ‘Oh who am I kidding; I need all of the help I can get. Besides if he is that willing to help might as well let him come, right?’ Alyia thought to herself as she let her face return normal from her pervious shocked facial features. “You want to go?” Alyia started. “Alright I guess you can come seeing how you are all excited.” The blonde mage looked down at the table as she stood up from her seat. She grabbed the diary from the male’s hands and the recording from the table where she was sitting. Alyia turned and stared to head for the doo when she suddenly paused mid-step. Turning on her heel and her hair flying in an arch Alyia looked at the dark haired man. “Before we go anywhere what is your name?” The blonde mage asked, “I’m Alyia.”

"Awesome." He muttered to himself as she turned and started to head towards the door. He followed after her with his arms crossed, and stopped when she did. He frowned at her question harshly, making it clear he wasn't too comfortable with it. The last thing he needed was for her to start asking everything about him. Still, he doubted that she was going to give up so easily. Either she wouldn't let him come along, or she would keep pestering him about it. I'm going to need to trust her more if I say anything. Even my name. Deniel, aren't you being a little too defensive with yourself here? It's just your name! Besides you, my name is all I have, Nidhogg. Deniel walked straight past her to the door without saying anything, and even purposely bumped into her shoulder along the way. "I'll tell you," he began and looked back at her, "When I think you've earned it." Deniel opened the door to the cold temperatures of the outside: Phoenix Mountains. Deniel walked outside of the door, leaving it open for her to follow him. He began to hike down the steps that lead to the base of the mountains. It was going to be a long journey from here. Spooky Forest was all the way across Fiore, but Deniel didn't mind.

Alyia grumbled at the male’s response as she looked at him exit through the door. When she earned it? Who exactly was this guy and why did he think that she had to earn his name? Realizing that she was caught up in her head and that the black haired mage was already pretty far in front of her Alyia ran out of the guild doors closing them as she went. Pausing at the steps leading up to the guild she saw that the male mage was still very far in front of her. Taking a deep breath the blonde girl raced as fast as she could down the steps without falling. Which, with the luck that she had been having that week, wasn’t likely to happen.  Reaching only a few steps away from the guy Alyia’s luck had finally failed her. She had slipped. Clutching the items she had received last night, to her chest Alyia fell forwards. She closed her eyes and waited for the harsh steps to meet her shoulder, ‘Shit.’

Deniel could hear the fast footsteps behind him, which much have meant that she was running down the steps. That, in his opinion, wasn't a wise idea. He kept most of his attention focused on listening to her footsteps, thinking that in any moment they were going to cease. Three...two...one. Deniel anticipated it perfectly. He heard her next footstep land on the stairs, but then the sound of her slipping entered his ears right afterwards. The thought of simply letting her fall to show that he didn't necessarily care entered his mind, but he was too good of a person to do that. He was a mystery, not a bad person. Out of his instincts, he turned around and grabbed on to one of her arms. It would have been easier of she held at her hand, but regardless of whether she had them against her chest or at her side, he still grabbed it. The look he gave her showed her he wasn't necessarily amused or happy, but he pulled her back on her feet anyway and grunted. "Come on..."


____________________________


Some time later, Deniel stood in front of an entrance to the Spooky Forest with Alyia right at his side. He had his arms crossed, and he was looking straight into the seemingly light-less forest. He had been here several times already, and was never scared of it. What he was concerned about was if she was or not. He looked down at her for a second before starting to head forward into the forest. "Let's go." The moment he went under the trees of the Spooky Forest, all sunlight had completely faded. Not even small beams of light were able to get through the place, and it seemed like night had come already. Bushes rustled in the distance, all around him, and owls hooted. No matter what, though, Deniel didn't look scared one bit. He was only hoping she could keep up with him a lot better than she did at Phoenix Mountains.

Alyia followed the tall mage into the lightless woods. She was glad that he had come with her because Alyia didn’t like the fact that she could not see the sky. She felt so enclosed as she kept up with the male mage in front of her. Alyia walked faster so that she was directly behind the man, she didn’t want to lose him in the darkness of the forest. ‘Good thing that I took him with me,’ Alyia thought as the bushes around her rustled. Alyia looked around into the darkness of the forest, where were they going?  The diary nor the recording had told her where to find where the girl had disappeared or where the Rune Knights had had gone.

After a few more minutes of walking Alyia was starting to get worried about where they were in the woods. Though Alyia could not say that she had gotten comfortable with the lack of sky and sunlight, she could definitely say that she had gotten more used to it now that her eyes had adjusted to the dark that surrounded her. The blonde mage swiveled her head around in hopes of being able to catch a glimpse of something that she could use as a marker to tell where they were, that was when she kicked something that sounded like metal. Alyia stopped and looked down to see just what her foot had hit. Right next to her foot was a piece of metal that was shaped much life a Rune Knights helm, ‘But why would a Rune Knights helmet be all the way out here. It’s not possible that we have walked to klicks into the forest to where the Knights had been,’ Alyia thought. Suddenly the thought of the male mage entered her mind; what if he had not noticed her stop and kept walking on without her. Alyia’s head snapped upwards. “Hey!” She called, “I found something!”

Deniel's red eyes had a special feature to them, and it was that the darker his environments got, the brighter they glowed. In other words, without the sunlight giving them anything, it was Deniel's glowing red eyes that gave him the light to move forward. It was almost like having two red flashlights at his disposal. He looked behind himself at the girl following him, and he took note from the fact that she kept herself close. She must have been scared of the dark...Wasn't a problem to him. All he did was keep walking ahead, ignoring all of the rustling bushes, twig cracks, and anything else that the forest might naturally cause to scare him away. He was so uninterested by these sounds, that he actually started getting annoyed by them. Suddenly, he heard the voice of the girl that was following him quite far behind him. He turned around to see that he was about to disappear into the forest and leave her behind. His eyes looked down and gave light to the object that was at her feet: A Rune Knight's Helmet.

Deniel walked over to where she was and rested himself on one knee. He placed his hands around the helmet of the rune knight and picked it up. He took notice to the crack in it, which must have meant some kind of battle was waged here. "That's very interesting..." He slowly said. Then, some rustling came behind Deniel that was much different than the rest: Deniel could tell this one was real. He looked at Alyia and gave her a smirk before standing up and tucking the helmet under his shoulder. He walked over to the nearest tree and leaned against it. "We've got company. Show me what you got!"

The member 'Decayuss' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Alyia snapped into a standing position at the black haired few words. Sure the blonde had expected monsters to appear, but not this early into the forest.  Alyia watched as five monsters moved within the forests over growth but coming out of the woods to come a greet them. That was when Alyia heard laughing; she turned her head to see if it was the man who was leaning against the tree. But, the laughing sounded nothing like his voice if anything it sounded a little higher.  The blue eyed girl shifted her gaze to the monsters lurking just beyond her reach. ‘Are they trying to scare me?’ Alyia thought, ‘If they are it isn’t going to work.’ Alyia had dealt with her entire family being killed along with the rest of the village that she lived in. She was the only one left and had to survive many years by herself I the scary outside world. ‘Strange sounds like this will do nothing to me.’

Alyia started forward into the forest where she had heard the sound come from with a sullen face. She was going to stop that sound before it broke her and make her cry. With another step towards the forest Alyia spotted a small monster move within the bushes. Keeping her eyes on the monster the female pictured the most pain that she could and spoke the words to her pain spell; Pain of the Fallen. Alyia could hear the squealing of the animal as searing pain coursed through its body. A smirk appeared on the blondes face as the she heard the monster charging right at her. Pulling her arm back the short blonde anticipated the arrival of the monster. “I call upon the Punishment of the Father!” Alyia shouted. Her fists started to emit a light glow signaling that her spell had activated. Hearing the absence of noise coming from the monster Alyia swung her fist forward just as the monster was a few inches away from her face. Her fist made contact with the paranoia monster sending it flying towards the direction of the dark haired man. The thud on the ground told her that the monster had not landed on its feet. Stalking over to where the monster had landed Alyia stepped on its neck before it could get up. “Never again,” Alyia whispered with a killing look in her eyes as she killed the monster below, her foot crushing its neck.

I wonder what kind of magic this girl has... Deniel watched her walk into the forest, and just gave a shrug to himself. "Eh...she should be fine. "Isn't she afraid of the forest?" "Face your fears and you'll get stronger." "You should take your own advice more o-" "Shut up." As Deniel was waiting for Alyia to come back, the forest started to get even more desperate to scare him. He closed his eyes and jerked his head to the side just as a branch from the tree fell off and tried to hit him in the head. Next Deniel kicked his foot out to stop a rock from coming straight to him. "Huh...now this is interesting..." Deniel pushed himself off the trunk of the tree just in time to dodge another branch from falling on him, but this one was much bigger. Big enough to severely wound someone or knock someone out. Deniel grabbed Nidhogg by the scabbard and drew it from his belt slot, scabbard and all.

One second Deniel was standing in solitude, and the next he was deflecting and blocking a storm of stones and rocks coming his way. He never stopped moving for one second, doing flips, twists, turns, and lifting his legs up and down. He dodged and deflected every stone that came his way, or used his still sheathed blade to deflect them. In just a few moments, the stones stopped completely. Deniel actually drew Nidhogg this time, showing off the black katana in all of its unholiness and glory. He turned around and stabbed the ground just in time for the monster Alyia was fighting to land right next to him. His blade impaled the chest of the monster to make sure it was dead in addition to her crushing its neck. "Woo! Man that was awesome!" He dug his blade out of the chest from the beast and swung it so all of the blood would fly off of the blade and on to the ground. He sheathed his katana inside of its scabbard and started walking forward again. "Let's go."

Alyia looked up at the dark haired man as he helped kill the monster that had been causing paranoia to spread through their minds. He seemed as if he had been tossed around in a tornado. “Woo! Man that was awesome!” He had said with a little bit of light hearted energy. But moments later he he seemed cold as he once again spoke. The blonde mage watched as he strode ahead farther into the woods. With a quickened pace Alyia followed after him. 'What is with him? One minute he is some what nice and approachable but the next he is cold and heartless?' She thought as she stared at the back of the man's head. Alyia followed the tall mage for a few more minutes before she felt some sort of presence lurking in the foliage. Swiveling her head around to look at where she felt the presence coming from the blue eyed girl saw nothing. Alyia shook her head as if trying the clear it. She swore that she had felt something there. Continuing to follow the dark mage in front of her Alyia could still feel the presence of the creature following them. But it seemed now as if it was staring directly at the back of her head. With a quiet voice spoke to the man in front of her, "You can feel it too? The thing in the forest?"

"How could I not?" Deniel's blowing red eyes stared at her from the very corner, but he didn't sound too cold or harsh about it. In fact, it sounded like he was thrilled about it all. He could feel the voice running up his spine, the tense feeling that he always got whenever he was about to find something. The rustling in the bushes that they encountered earlier had completely vanished. Deniel stood completely still and let the being have its fun with him. A light breeze passed by through the tree branches, and with it carried a voice. "Fear..." the voice seemed to whisper. And fear, most likely to its disappointment, was the last thing that came to Deniel. Instead his glowing red eyes widened, and a smirk appeared on his face. Can it be? Could this actually be him!? This is the closest I've gotten, and I don't want to let it go. His red eyes looked around the area, trying to see any kind of sign of what exactly was there. And that's when his eyes came upon a black, misty figure. It was hidden deep in the trees to his right, and looking straight into his red eyes with complete empty ones. Deniel turned to his right and took one slow step forward. The figure moved back a single step. Deniel took two more steps forward, and then the figure stepped back the same way.

Without a single word of warning, Deniel ran away from Alyia and started to chase back the figure. It was as if he had forgotten she was there. And, he did. He was more focused on what was in front of him right now: the closest thing he had ever gotten to for a demon. Is it really possible?

Alyia reached for the male mage as he took off into the woods after the misty silhouette. What was up with him? Wasn't he at least a little bit frightened? No. Of course he wasn't. The blonde haired mage's fingertips barely touched the clothes that the black haired man had worn; he had literally just slipped through her fingers. It took a few moments to process what had happened and after doing so Alyia plunged into the woods right after the man.  Trees and bushes grabbed at her clothing and scratched her open skin, rock and roots immediately popped out of the ground in attempt to trip her.  None of that bothered her as she tore through the forest after her partner. Sure she didn’t consider him close, but he was close enough that she would put her life out on the line for him. Pushing past the foliage Alyia could she the man only a few yards away from her. With and extra burst of speed Alyia and her short stature caught up with the male mage. She matched him as he raced through the woods after the misty character. Alyia screeches to a halt though as the character turned around and stopped running. She looked into it's hollow eyes and snarled. There was something about this misty silhouette that the female mage hated.

Come on, just stop already! Stop, damn it! Deniel was about to increase his running pace in hopes to catch up for the figure, until it suddenly turned around and came to a stop. Deniel pressed his heels into the ground to come to a screeching stop, his heels tearing into the grass and dirt below him before he finally stopped. He stared into the seemingly lifeless misty eyes of the figure. All he could see was infinite blackness in both its eyes and its body. He looked down at its feet to see that it wasn't touching the ground: it was floating. "You...are you The Black Devil?" It was a safe assumption to him. The figure was black, and in every log about this place, there was a demon. This was the closest he had ever gotten, "Dad?" That was his goal all along from this. Deniel's father was a demon, and because one of his Take Overs was a black devil, it seemed like this was the closest possibility he had to finding a father that he never knew. The figure remained silent, until it let out an echoing laughter. With its very breath the trees shook, and the voice seemed to crawl up his spine and whisper into his very ear. "I know not who you speak of, but there is no way I could ever have a son."

It was all Deniel needed to hear for him to realize that this journey only lead him to a dead end. He lowered his head and clenched his fist. It was a harsh reality to accept, coming so far only to have to turn back. "Tch...very well." Deniel turned away from the figure and walked right past Alyia with his head still lowered, "Let's go, Alyia. The job is finished now."

Alyia froze as she looked at the black haired mage then at the misty silhouette, had her partner just said Dad? The blonde girl looked again at her partner then back at the silhouette. ‘What did he mean by dad? Does it have to do with the Black Devil he asked about?’ Alyia shook her head to clear her thoughts; her blonde white hair moving around her and her small braid slapping each side of her face. Digging her heel into the ground Alyia spun on her heel and started to follow the male mage. Though after a few steps the female stopped; the idea that her partner had asked the misty silhouette if he was his father just could not leave her head and what did he mean by the job was done; she hadn’t figured out anything! With new confusion popping into her head Alyia raced to catch up with her partner, her blonde hair flying behind her. Finally catching up to the male mage Alyia poked his side. “What do you mean that this job is done?” She started, “I haven’t figured anything out about what happened to the girl or the Knights.” Alyia paused for a second thinking about the recordings and the misty silhouette that they had seen for themselves today. “Okay maybe I know what happened to the Rune knights, but I still don’t know what happened to the girl.” The female mage matched step for step as she walked next to the mysterious mage that she had worked with. If he had figured anything out he would tell her, right?

Deniel smirked as he heard her confusion. He was slightly amused from the fact that she was clueless about something so simple. In fact, he figured out what happened to the Rune Knights and the girl before they even got here. All he wanted to do was figure out of this misty figure had any link to him. "It's quite simple, really." Deniel focused on retracing his steps so the two of them could exit the forest. In the meantime, he explained his thought process to her. "It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the Rune Knights have met their end. The helmet, the recordings, everything is there. But then there's the girl. What oh what happened to her? To be honest, we'll never know." Deniel paused for a second and looked around himself. He tried to remember where exactly they were. He closed his eyes and thought back on the way he came. After a few moments, he snapped them wide open and started to head in another direction. "What I mean is that there are several possibilities. Whether or not we figure them out, it doesn't change anything. In the end: the girl cannot be saved. Either she killed them, she died, or she was possessed from the beginning. No matter what, there's nothing to figure out."

In just a few moments, Deniel lead himself and Alyia right out of the Spooky Forest. They stepped into daylight once again, but he wasn't too concerned about it. He turned around to Alyia once they exited the forest. The smirk on his face was still there, "Questions? Comments? Concerns?"

Alyia groaned and let her head fall so that she was looking at the ground her hair covering her face. Was she so stupid not to think of that? But a sudden thought came to her head, “How the heck did they know my name and my address? I mean they did send the package to me.” As Alyia asked the question she spun her head around so that she looked directly up at the dark haired man. She still didn't know who sent it, why they sent it, or how they knew  her name. "And why did they send it to me? It's unlikely that I know them so why send it to me. Also who sent it? There was no return address so I have no clue on who sent it." Alyia continued to look up at the man next to her in hopes that he would have some understanding of what was going on and why. 'I want to hit that smirk right off his face,' Alyia thought as she saw the smirk on the male mages face. She could see better now that she was out of the forest and she saw that the man and she were all dirty and covered in tiny scratches. She also saw that the man looked down at her with a 'I'm smarter than you' look.

Even with her questions the smirk on his face was still there. In fact, it grew wider. He closed his eyes and let out a soft chuckle, which then quickly made its way up to laughter. He rubbed both of his eyes as he thought of the answer to her question. To be honest, even he didn't necessarily know why that would happen. However, given the situation so far, there had to have been some kind of weird explanation to it. He opened his eyes and folded both of his hands behind his back. His red eyes scanned back and fourth while he thought of the answer, "Hmmmm." The smirk on his face disappeared and all he did was frown. This was a sign that he was struggling to know the answer, and she perhaps had beat him when it came to the argument. Then suddenly, the answer hit him. "It's simple, really," he began and smirked at her again. He turned around away from her and started walking forward so they could begin their trip back to Eclipse Soul's Headquarters. "More victims. I don't know why specifically you, maybe because they thought of you as an easy target. Nonetheless, they sent the package knowing that whoever got to it would be sent to investigate it and nonetheless fall into their trap." He stopped suddenly in place as he thought more of the variables in the situation. If she made it through this okay, why send it to her?

His eyes then widened as the answer came to him: himself. "What they didn't expect was for you to be accompanied by me. Admit it, without me that forest would have scared you to death. Nonetheless," he suddenly turned around to her and held out his hand for her to shake, "The name is Deniel Decayuss Thorman! And from here on out, you and I are partners."