[NaNoWriMo] Heroic Amalgamation Tlachtga [minor nsfw buried within]

[trancehime]

I'm caving in and posting what I've got of my NaNoWriMo story. I'm only posting the initial half of it right now. Enjoy!

"No, don't do it!" called forth a voice that seemed to resonate loudly within the large, empty and nondescript room that seemed to cover a large, towering figure. The source of the voice became evident, it was a small child, a girl, who looked grave. In front of her was a teenager who seemed overtaken with some sort of temptation, some sort of evil emotion, one that gripped him with both terror and euphoria... The large figure before the two of them was not alive, it was in fact a construct. A large machine, one might call it. The girl continued to try and stop the teenager, a boy, from getting closer to the machine, but to no avail. He stepped forth to the machine, and tried to climb on it and get on it... However, a large bolt of electricity struck him down.

"I told you not to do it, you dummy!" the girl said, applying her palm to her face. "You're not the one for it." she continued. This girl seemed to know what she was on about, despite her young looks, she was definitely older than she seemed. The teenager struggled to get up, and seemed to shamble upright, looking less evil than he did a few seconds ago. It turned out that the ordeal seemed to be a test to prove one's worthiness to pilot the machine. The boy sighed and dusted himself clean, and looked pouty. "But Etainne, the machine... They said I'd be the one for it..." he sighed and looked back at the machine, before walking past Etainne, the girl who had scolded him earlier. Etainne stifled a laugh and turned away from the machine too, before following the boy outside. "It'll be fine, the machine can't fight everything on its own, anyway. We'll uncover the other machines. You'll be bound to pilot one of those."

The boy smiled. "Thanks, Etainne, even though I know you're saying that just to make me feel better." Etainne looked visibly hurt, but the boy was too dense to tell from her expression. She was thinking to herself about the truth... In fact, nobody Etainne knew except herself could pilot the machine. So, then, why were people being tested to pilot it? Because it was a way to see if they could find potential pilots for the uncovered robots. Now, what the heck are these robots everyone keeps going on about? Etainne and everyone... They lived in a special place, it was rather distant to the world you may be familiar with, it is one similar to the days of yore, except... The people uncovered ancient relics, old artifacts, tools of war made by the ancient civilizations eons and eons ago... And with these artifacts, the people could defend themselves from otherworldly threats that dared to bare their fangs... Ghosts, monsters... These would be a true threat no more.

Etainne lived in the small village of Thelesia. It stood nearby a small range of vales that overlooked a large lake. It was underneath the lake that the machine was concealed, and kept, and maintained for fight against the monsters. Only Etainne was capable of piloting this machine properly, anyone else who dared to do so would find themselves shocked by lightning, and made to look like a fool. Thelesia was quite the sight, even for a small village, it was prosperous. Through the hard work of Etainne, her machine, and her supportive friends, she was able to defend the land from monster threats... And occasionally, machine pilots from other villages would chip in in the case of a larger danger... However, Etainne made the note that recently, there were more and more monster attacks. Etainne decided that it was time to go on a journey in search of new machines, to aid her in the never-ending fight against the monsters, and perhaps find the source somewhere along the way.

She was lost in thought for some time, when another girl approached her, poking her cheek rapidly. Etainne was a little startled, who then looked at the girl, it was infact her friend, Taillte. "Ahhh, Taillte! You startled me..." she said, squealing a little. Taillte smiled and pointed outside. She explained to Etainne that she found the ruins of another machine nearby, right near the location of the vales. Etainne was visibly shocked and soon requested that she be taken to the ruins. Etainne was positively sure that this was the machine Taillte was to pilot. There's a proven legend that whoever discovers an ancient relic is the one destined to pilot it. And so, Taillte and Etainne went to the ruins of this new machine, which was precisely located within the system of vales that overlooked the lake containing Etainne's machine. The new machine that Taillte discovered appeared to be some sort of dragon, it was a wyvern-shaped construct, that seemed to tower over the two children.

"This is it?" Etainne asked.

"Yeah, Madame Etainne." Taillte said plainly, and matter of factly.

"It must be a Morphos."

"What's a Morphos?"

"It is a Construct of Shapeshifting. It seems that this dragonoid could transform into its humanoid form..." Etainne said.

"Isn't your Construct similar?"

"My Construct is one of Attachment, it has the capability to fuse with Constructs of Shapeshifting and Constructs of Armory."

Etainne's knowledge of the ancient relics, which are called Constructs, seemed not to sink in very well to Taillte's mind, who was very much a child as she appeared, unlike Etainne, who was wise beyond her appearances. The draconic construct itself was a deep red, much like Taillte's choice of threads. It did appear to be capable of transforming, but the form it held now was the only way it could fit within the system of small hills, much like a dragon's den. There were piles of fake gold littered around, as if in imitation of a dragon's treasure. Etainne looked in admiration towards the machine. "This must be the Construct Lughnasadh." she said, blankly. Taillte looked towards her friend, and decided not to question her word, she was the most knowledgeable about the Constructs, she was jokingly referred to as the "Construction Wizard," as a name of affection.

Taillte then heard a loud roar in the sky, and the fluttering of wings... Suddenly a loud scream. It was the scream of a woman, that sounded all too familiar to Etainne. "Lady Vivienne is in trouble." she said, and ran outside to see what the fuss was. Above Etainne, was a large demon wielding a trident, and his troupe of lesser goons, charged with balls of flame. The demon scowled and looked down. "Snatch that wench," he said. Etainne ran to the woman, Lady Vivienne, and quickly dragged her away to the cave Taillte was in. "Taillte," Etainne said quickly and pointed to the dragon robot. "Get inside Lughnasadh and Invoke it. We're going to fight the demons!" she said and ran outside to go to her Construct. Taillte repressed the urge to make a joke but decided not to make anything of it, and quickly instructed Lady Vivienne to stay put. She ran to the Construct Lughnasadh and went inside its cockpit, which was located at the head. Inside, she recognized the control panel thanks to her helping Etainne in learning how to operate her Construct many years ago, but now she finally got the opportunity to use one herself.

"Lughnasadh, I call you!" Taillte yelled, causing the lights on the machine to light up brightly and causing the sound of smoke as the Construct began to be lifted up and the vales opened up to make way. Meanwhile, Etienne went to her machine under the lake, got inside, and followed suit. "Tlachtga!! I call you!!!" Etainne yelled in a strangely hotblooded manner, very much unlike how she was a few moments ago, as the towering construct was lifted up, rising out of the water in a strangely dramatic, almost scripted, manner. Etainne's construct, the Tlachtga, seemed to be mostly humanoid, but very feminine in appearance, its armor plating draped around it much like in a manner of robes and garb, though it could not be called such. Lughnasadh rose up and began its transformation sequence, from dragon to man, and soon it stood side by side with the Tlachtga. Within the Constructs, there was a kindred spirit who the pilots could communicate with, and that is how the pilots would communicate with one another. Lughnasadh appeared to be that of a knight in shining red armor, a direct contrast to its previous draconic form. Tlachtga pointed up slowly at the group of demons in the sky.

"Let's take them out," Tlachtga beeped, before whisking out a crystal orb from its chest, and testing the waters by blasting forth seeking lasers that seemed to take out most of the greater demon's goons. The demon with the trident seemed bemused at this lightshow display, and charged at the Tlachtga, weapon at the ready, but just as he was about to strike at the orb, a loud clash and scream was heard.

"DARK SPEAR AREADBHAR!"

Lughnasadh had appeared to save Tlachtga's slow mobility from certain death, and struck the great demon hard with his own spear, and knocked him into the ground far away. The demon growled, and stood up once more. It whinged, but it was far from dead. The demon whistled, calling for reinforcements. Tlachtga looked at Lughnasadh. "Think you can take on the big baddie?" she said, before she started shooting more lasers from her crystal ball at the lesser demons, eliminating them as they come, and disappearing under the sunlight. At last, the demon got tired of calling for weak goons and growled, charging forward. Lughnasadh stood ready, and Tlachtga stood behind him, keeping the orb, and instead procured a large staff. "I can feel your energy." Tlachtga said, looking at her shining staff. "Do you think we could attempt to eliminate him as he comes, with a combination of our energies and killing them?" she asked. Lughnasadh nodded. "At your command, milady." Tlachtga pointed her staff forward, gesturing for Lughnasadh to do the same with his spear. So, he followed, like an obedient knight protecting his princess, and the energy resonated like crazy... It caused a strange vibration.

"ANCIENT HEX! Exorcise this tainted land!!"

From the combination of Lughnasadh's and Tlachtga's energies, a large beam of holy light erupted from the point of their weapons, and aimed it straight at the charging demon, who was instantly vaporized. All that remained... Was nothing. All you could see was the sunlight dripping over the now cleansed land, and Thelesia was safe once more. Lady Vivienne walked outside of the resting ground of Lughnasadh, and looked to see that the demons were completely annihilated. She smiled. "Thank you, Etainne. And Taillte." she said to herself. Lughnasadh and Tlachtga gave each other a very uncharacteristic high five before returning to their resting grounds.

Later, when Etainne and Taillte had left their Constructs, they were having supper with Lady Vivienne, who decided to treat the two kids out for saving her. Etainne smiled and remained quiet, though Taillte was busy describing how she and Lughnasadh became fast friends for their similar personalities. She seemed to be happy that her Construct accepted her as fast as he did, she initially feared that Lughnasadh could not stand Taillte's personality, but in the end, they seemed to get along really well. Lady Vivienne, too, was familiar with the bond of a Construct and their pilot. Etainne looked fondly back through the window behind her, and the lake and vales outside. It was heading to the night, fast.

Etainne really hoped that during this night, she would have a good sleep. She hadn't had a good night's rest in days.

[trancehime]

During the night, Etainne had wondered to herself about that boy who spitefully seemed to scorn her scolding earlier that day. She was in her small little village house, lying down in bed, and wondered how Taillte was responding to her newfound discovery, the ability she had, where she could tap into the power of her very own Construct, the Red Dragon Lughnasadh . Then, Etainne thought of her own Construct, the Armored Druidess Tlachtga, and wondered about their synchronous state. The moon outside shone brightly, and it seemed that this night, Etainne was going to experience another vision. Recently, the young child-like adult had been experiencing many strange visions under a full moon. They seemed to be unusually clairvoyant in nature, as every vision Etainne had led to a demon invasion, or someone discovering a new Construct for their own usage. The last one she had detailed a young girl finding a huge dragon, and today, it turned out that the little girl was Taillte and the dragon was Lughnasadh. The demon invasion seemed to coincide right with the discovery of Lughnasadh, almost as if scripted by a lame television show writer. The thought kind of scared Etainne, but she paid no heed to it. She fell asleep.

Taillte, who lived right next door, was busy writing something in her personal diary. This diary of her's was one that she would never show to anyone, it was for her own usage, it was for her to note down her troubles, what she was proud of, her happiness, all her emotions in one small tiny little book. The diary this time around seemed to contain her experiences with Lughnasadh, and how exciting it was to fight side by side with Etainne, it had always been something she wanted. However, she heard a knock on her door. Yawning, Taillte strolled over to the door opened it. To the surprise of absolutely no one, it was the boy from earlier. "Miss..." he said sleepily. "Why was Lughnasadh yours?" he asked. Taillte looked a little dumbstruck from this question. She had found it, therefore it was her's. The legend was uncreatively "finder's keeper's," it was a rule of the universe, nobody would dare question it except this young, stubborn soul. "Cu Sith, man... Madame Etainne said you would be bound to find yours... Don't be so impatient." she said, yawning in a similar manner. This caused Cu Sith, the boy, to nearly throw a tantrum, but he realized how late at night it was, and refrained from doing so. He calmed down.

"Good night, I'm going to sleep. Don't disturb Madame Etainne or I, okay?" Taillte asked politely, almost in a voice that no one could refuse or deny. Cu Sith merely nodded weakly and returned to his own house, opposite Etainne's. At that time, Taillte hurriedly and sloppily finished the last entry in her diary before taking it with her to her bed, and promptly falling asleep, too, succumbing to the sweet embrace of sleep. Back to Etainne's beauty sleep, she was indeed experiencing another strange and phantasmic vision. In Etainne's vision, she could see several knights rushing over to a village that looked eerily like Thelesia, and within, she could see herself talking with the knights, and seeing an absolutely stunning figure among them, she could not tell if this person was male or female, or even both, it was too blurry and much too stunning for Etainne to make out for real. She could then see a boy that looked like Cu Sith run out, and leave Thelesia, rushing out to a forest not so far to the north, alone... After that, Etainne woke up, as if she had just experienced a nightmare. She muttered something about Cu Sith being in danger, and grumbled before returning to sleep.

The next morning was rather uneventful. Etainne, Taillte and Cu Sith had breakfast together at the nearby tavern, it seemed that the bartender was very familiar with Etainne, handing her a mug of mead despite her not looking the type to down alcohol. Cu Sith was not at all familiar with Etainne's true being, and as such seemed rather shocked that she was able to take alcohol with such gusto. The two girls simply giggled at one another, before she heard the sound of horns in the distance. Taillte immediately recognized the playing of the horn as the tune of address of the Principality of Twatha, eastwards from Thelesia. Twatha was ruled by a benevolent king, but it was strange that envoys from Twatha would have such business with Thelesia. No doubt it has something to do with the Constructs and the recent emergence of the Red Knight Lughnasadh. Lady Vivienne could be seen from the window rushing to welcome the arrival of the new envoys. Etainne stood up and left Taillte and Cu Sith to themselves, rushing to follow Lady Vivienne. Cu Sith merely shrugged. Etainne hoped that what she saw in her vision would not happen, but at the same time, fate would have it be done...

"Lady Vivienne of the Hamletvillage Thelesia," one of the knights said bluntly. "We of the Principality of Twatha wish to speak with the Construct Lady of this village."

To this, Etainne walked forward, presenting forth a strange air of authority that a child would not normally have. Suddenly, a knight, the only knight without a helmet, stepped forth to meet this child. Indeed, it was just like the vision had presented forth, it was a tall, proud figure, with a pretty face, almost a mocking of the prettyboy stereotype you may be so familiar with, is this person truly male? Etainne did not wish to think about it, but she introduced herself merely as "Etainne, the Construct Lady of Thelesia, the pilot of Tlachtga." In turn, the knight bowed and introduced himself, "Elatha, the Construct Knight of the Principality of Twatha, the pilot of Dian Ceth." Etainne had then tilted her head upon hearing the name Dian Ceth, it was an ancient Construct of Shapeshifting, it assumed the form of a regal bird that transformed into a proficient swordfighter. Dian Ceth's sword was able to emit a bright light to blind demons and exorcise ghosts. Etainne curtseyed, humbling herself in Elatha's presence.

"Dearest Etainne," Elatha said softly. "We hear your friend and you are working together to subdue the demon threats, are we correct in assuming this?"

"Yes, sir." she said.

"Let us establish an alliance."

"With all due respect, sir, what would such a grand kingship such as yours want to do with a humble village like this?"

Elatha tilted his head and smiled. "My father is a wise man. He refuses to tell me, but he knows of your origins, and wishes to make merry with your people." Etainne wasn't very sure what to make of this, but Dian Ceth was a very noble Construct, he would only side with those just as noble as himself. Etainne had no choice but to trust Elatha, and accept his offer. Just then, she heard someone break out of the tavern she left. It was Cu Sith, and what she had feared the most had indeed come into fruition. He was running into the Forest of Birogh, to the north. The Forest of Birogh was rumoured to house the Construct Crofh Dearth, but nobody was brave enough to go there... Yet a kid was going to go in there, alone! This move shocked Etainne, and Elatha had no choice but to ask "Ma'am, why is that kid going into that forest?"

"Sir, that kid is a friend of mine... He's going there because he thinks a new Construct may be found there. He always wanted one."

"But... Constructs are not a toy. They choose who they want."

"Exactly."

"You can't force that... Are you going to go after him?"

"I have no choice. I saw this coming."

"Let me come with you, then. You can't go in there alone."

"Alright."

Elatha and Etainne both chased quickly after Cu Sith, who was already a ways within the Forest of Birogh. Fortunately, it was very hard to get lost in the forest. Unfortunately, it was also really easy to get attacked by wild animals. Though Cu Sith was proficient with a dagger, his brashness also impaired his senses... A terrible monster resided within the forest, the Twin-mouthed Partholon, it was a great hulking beast with two mouths on its maw, and it gnashed and ripped asunder the flesh of humans and lesser animals alike. It would be a miracle for Cu Sith not to encounter it, but at this rate... That may not be happening. Cu Sith ended up tripping over a loose branch, and then he heard that blood-curdling roar. Elatha and Etainne heard it too, which led the knight to ask about it. "That's the roar of the terrible Twin-mouthed Partholon, a monster which resides in the forest, and the prime reason why nobody ever comes here, let alone enter alone..." Elatha looked visibly worried, and gripped the sheathed zweihander hung across his back. "Don't bother..." Etainne said. "Fighting it is suicide. If Cu Sith can find the Construct Crofh Dearth in here, he can pilot it and defeat Partholon if he is permitted to do so..."

"Are you suggesting we sit and watch?!"

"Not exactly. Look at him."

They caught Cu Sith in sight, who, while recovering from his fall, realized that him tripping that loose branch moved the tree it was connecting to, revealing a hidden staircase. His eyes gleaming, he rushed down the staircase. Beneath, there was a torch-lit room, and within it, stood a great horse Construct, this was the Steed Construct Crofh Dearth, and as luck would have it, it already turned itself on, as if waiting for Cu Sith's arrival. He smiled. "My... My own Construct...?!" he said. "Now I can defeat that monster!!" he cried out triumphantly and quickly got inside Crofh Dearth, and cried out loudly "Now! I call you, Crofh Dearth!!!" which caused the horse to charge out and burst under the ground, which scared the living bejeesus out of Partholon, which lurched back, roaring. The Crofh Dearth morphed into its humanoid form, a thief-like figure wielding twin daggers. Crofh Dearth smiled, and looked forward at the beast. "At last," he said. "It's time to take you down, now that my little friend is here!" He twirled his twin laser daggers and maneuvered swiftly and deftly behind the Partholon, before stabbing its head with both daggers, causing it to release a terrible and horrendous roar, as if it was getting tortured. From the sidelines, Etainne smiled, while Elatha looked in horror. "That looks dangerous," Elatha said. "I wouldn't wish to make an enemy out of Crofh Dearth." Etainne did not say a thing, expecting this outcome. She knew that Cu Sith would find one some day.

The Partholon had already died, for it no longer was able to cry, and ceased to thrash. Crofh Dearth became a horse once more, whinging triumphantly, and allowing Cu Sith to exit before returning to its stable beneath the grounds of the forest. Cu Sith saw Etainne and Elatha standing there, who had watched him the entire time. "Did you have fun?" Etainne asked.

"You were right!"

"I told you."

Elatha smiled, and the three of them returned to Thelesia, returning to a worried-sick Taillte, who proceeded to hug Etainne tightly. Cu Sith explained to Taillte about his encounter with Crofh Dearth, and how he defeated and slew the fierce and dangerous Partholon, and indeed, celebrations were had. Etainne had forged an alliance with the shining knight Elatha, and merry-making was made.

Meanwhile...

In a dark, covered cave, a voice boomed out rather ominously. "The Lady and her friends... have formed a trio that could prove dangerous to us. The demons are falling one by one, because of the obnoxious magical abilities of the Tlachtga. I don't want to resort to throwing our heavy hitters, but I fear we have no choice." Another voice interrupted, protesting against this move.

"We must throw more, quantity is superior for this fight."

"No, let us strike from within. Make them distrust each other."

"I like the way you think, but don't you think it's too early for a villanous plot?"

"Stop that, you're ruining the atmosphere."

"Sorry."

The three seemed to agree on something in the end... One would wonder what their plan is, but at the same time... Would it affect Thelesia? The Principality of Twatha? The land? The universe? Only time would tell.

[trancehime]

In the darkness of the night, there was a floating castle, somewhere up there, and it was here that the evil plotting was done, in such a cliche manner that it'd make most people throw up from how predictable and boring it was... But this was merely a facade, it seemed, the people inside didn't seem to be at all evil, they seemed to be a bunch of trouble makers out to have some fun. It seemed to be composed of a young girl, and her older sisters. Despite the age differences, the youngest girl happened to be the smartest. The other two were her "slaves," the ones who actuated her devious plans to cause petty chaos for shits and giggles. The young girl smiled as she looked through her telescope. From her telescope, she could see the village of Thelesia, and through that, she could see the house of a poor soul (this would later turn out to be Taillte who was... in the middle of... doing something... very... uh, let's save that information for later) and ended up giggling loudly to herself. She thought to herself who this character liked, and kept her sights to herself. Her two sisters yawned as they fell fast asleep. The girl, who was known to the world as Vallar, was one of Etainne's kind, an ancient race of spirits who took the form of young girls in the corporeal world, but as a spirit, were not always as such. Vallar embodied cunning, and she used that for her own entertainment rather than for the benefit of others. In her lair, she could see everything that happened below the sky, and those that happened within the skies, and she could devise the most crafty of plans. Today, she found out that Etainne, her self-proclaimed rival for a certain person's affections, was residing in Thelesia, so she sought to embarrass her in a strange but funny way.

So, she sat there, and plot, and thought, and devised, and spent parchment after parchment drawing crazy blueprints for strange and inventive contraptions to aid her, and instead decided the best way to settle it was for a climactic bitchfight down on the surface. It was a battle between herself and her enemy, it was a battle of wits, and maybe brawn, but mostly wits. And she wanted to prove that Etainne was weak... But why? It seemed to one that it was only a petty fight over a man, or woman, but merely, Vallar used this as an excuse to exact revenge. Vallar, of an unnamed ancient civilization, along with Etainne, were rivals at some point, because they had similar capabilities to pilot Constructs, except Etainne was the superior one. Vallar's Construct was the castle she lived in itself, the Dagdanos, it seemed to possess a vague amount of sentience, but rarely spoke when Vallar was not alone, for Dagdanos feared to make its presence known to Vallar's less intelligent siblings. In any case, Vallar had finally prepared herself and whispered for Dagdanos to take care of her stupid siblings, she was going to descend on the plane of the living, and face off with Etainne...

Meanwhile, back down in Thelesia, Elatha had already left the humble settlement to report his good news back in the Principality of Twatha, and Etainne, Cu Sith and Taillte decided to celebrate with a small party, just the three of them. Etainne tried to get herself drunk on mead, but ended up failing for the nth time. Cu Sith and Taillte tried to have an arm wrestling match, and to the shock of no one except Cu Sith, Taillte handily won. At this, the girl winked at Etainne, who blushed, but other than that, had no way to figure out the emotion the child wanted to bring across. At this juncture, Etainne decided to ask Taillte a short question. "Young miss, do you recall the Taranis?" and to the name "Taranis," Taillte jolted upright in surprise, as if she indeed knew the name. The Raging Thunder Taranis was Taillte's father's Construct, a great beast robot that ravaged the sky in patrol, keeping it safe from demons. However, in a great battle between good and evil (not to mention horribly cliche and overdone), the Taranis was lost alongside many other mighty constructs in an attempt to seal the Ultimate Evil, which no one is ever allowed to mention now. Taillte frowned, but turned it upside down as she looked outside. "I'm sure father would be proud to see me like this, following in his footsteps?" Etainne smiled, nodding warmly. In fact, her mother was one who fought along there, too, piloting the Mellow Zephyr Kirnunos, a serpent mecha that served as Taranis' companion, it was all too fitting as the pilots were married, and borne Taillte.

"Why do you bring up the Taranis, ma'am?" Taillte asked Etainne curiously. The kindred spirit answered with no words, and instead explained that she had a bad feeling about the next day. She sensed the presence of another of her kind, and it was a bad one. She hoped not to get into any fights with her, if she was right on who this new intruder was. If Elatha were here, she would not have such an issue, but perhaps that might have made the situation worse, it vaguely scared her, but she tried not to make any light of it. Cu Sith remained silent the entire time, and was fairly suspicious of Taillte and Etainne's behavior, and sensed that Taillte harboured some strange attraction towards Etainne, but even if he did not like her, he thought it was wrong. He got up. "Thank you so much, you two," Cu Sith said. "I really appreciate it. However, I must go to my house, for I request the sweet embrace of sleep." he continued, leaving abruptly after bowing. Taillte looked a little disturbed, but decided not to make any note of it and continued chatting with Etainne about little things. She seemed really happy. Etainne tried to make sense of Taillte's behavior, and asked herself in her mind if it was the start of something big, but she tried to save it and wait, perhaps it was just a minor infatuation that would pass. She had a secret she didn't want anyone knowing.

Etainne thanked Taillte for her company and the two of them left the tavern momentarily. Taillte resisted the urge to give Etainne a hug and a kiss on the cheek, but decided that it was wrong, and saved her feelings to be written in her private journal, her locked journal of her emotions, and it served as a well of thoughts, and for her to organize her overly complicated mind. She is only thirteen years old, yet she seemed to be so conflicted inside, she was experiencing all sorts of emotions, she was not so sure what to feel, and that's what necessitated her use of a diary. Like how in the modern world, people write blogs or journals to document their thoughts, or what happened on a day, or their reaction to various current events! However, it was tantamount for Taillte to keep this a secret, if anyone were to find this diary, she was good as dead. She ran back to her house and started furiously writing with her quill pen all her thoughts down, it was much like a certain man writing his story in a strange trance, as if possessed by motivation, to jot down everything falling out of his brain. Taillte was not so sure what to expect if she was not able to keep such a diary like this, would she go mad? In any case, she had quickly noted down about three pages worth of her own thoughts, and quickly fell asleep. She started to fall into slumberland quickly, and ended up having a strange dream.

When Taillte had run off to her house to do her business and then sleep, Etainne sat underneath the large tree that overlooked Thelesia, and the tree stood tall and proud on the largest vale that housed Lughnasadh, and it seemed that looking up at the sky, Etainne saw a dark castle that looked very familiar to her, it was the Floating Fortress Dagdanos, the Construct of the spirit Vallar. Etainne scowled. "That Vallar fellow is overlooking the village, but why? She's only after my... Oh, well, that makes sense. She must be after my butt again." she sighed to herself and resigned herself to her fate. She was to deal with the descending Vallar in the morning. As for Vallar herself, she seemed to be staying in a pile of leaves not so far from Thelesia, and fell asleep. Etainne too, fell asleep, underneath the tree, and the last thing she saw in the sky were the stars. She did not have such a strange vision this time, but let us see what Taillte experienced in her dream, for it bears a good significance in this next telling.

Taillte was dreaming of pleasant things, it seemed that she was acting out her fantasy, it had nothing to do with Constructs or fighting, instead, all she could see was the face of Etainne, it seemed that she was heavily in love with her. Etainne had tried very hard not to make it seem like she liked her back, but Taillte ignored it, and could not break her temptation to give her a huge tight hug, and showered her with kisses. At the same time, she saw several demons around them, and brandished a blade, and quickly dispatched them, as if protecting Etainne, who by now had seemed weak, totally unlike her real self... After all, this was a fantasy, it was what Taillte really wanted, but could not really get. Perhaps, this dream was a manifestation of the things she wrote in her diary, but no one could really say for sure. The dream was short, but it seemed to be very lasting in her mind, Taillte woke up the next morning with her sheets thoroughly drenched. "Oh dear," she said to herself. "I ought to change these later." After this deadpan realization, she heard a loud crash outside.

When Taillte walked outside of her house, still in her night gown, she saw two figures in the distance arguing. One appeared to be Etainne, and the other appeared to be a girl in similar garb, but with different hair color, and it was shorter than Etainne's ground-length hair. Taillte wondered who the other person was (it was Vallar, who had tried to play a prank on Etainne that morning but was discovered), and approached the two of them. Etainne looked relatively calm, but the other girl seemed verily indignant. Etainne turned to Taillte. "Oh, good morn, child," she said nonchalantly. "Do not mind me, this is a mere incident, please do go get dressed." before going back to dismissing the girl's incessant threats to beat her up. The child growled. "Hey, listen to me, Etainne, I, Vallar, am going to get back at you for what you did to me all those years!"

"What? Those were your own incompetence."

"Grr...!"

"Now, please, leave me be. I have things to take care of."

"No! I demand a fight!"

"...What?"

"We shall fight! With fisticuffs! You and me! No weaponry! No below the belt hits!"

"You've got to be kidding me. We're /kids/."

"Shut up, you know that's a lie!"

"Not in front of the kid."

"..."

Taillte tilted her head and ran back to her house, possibly because she now realized that she was still in her night gown, and she had just woken up, and had a strangely arousing dream the previous night. Vallar and Etainne continued to throw words at each other, wearing Etainne's patience further and further, before she finally relented, saying that she would oblige to Vallar's requests to fight like gentlemen, even if they were young women. The two of them stood by the large tree on the vale, and Vallar jumped up and down excitedly. She had the advantage, for she wore clothing that allowed for more mobility. Sadly, it was not enough, Etainne had superior CQC skills, and was able to read all of Vallar's subpar movements and her punches. Not to mention that despite her heavy robes, she could still swing her arm fairly hard, and ended up socking Vallar right in the face, knocking her down, and into unconsciousness. Etainne sighed and looked up back at Dagdanos, and swore that it sighed in disappointment, as if it knew that Vallar was foolish in her decision. "Sir Dagdanos, you know how much the Tlachtga respects you," Etainne said quietly to herself. "Why won't your pilot do the same with me? It's annoying." she then walked away, leaving Vallar's unconscious body under the tree, all she could see were stars flying around her face.

Etainne returned to a worried Taillte, who was dressed more appropriately, and gave her a pat on the back. "That's a former acquaintance of mine, Vallar, who pilots the Floating Fortress Dagdanos, up there," she said, pointing at the giant castle in the sky. "She wanted to beat me up, but I could not understand a thing she said, nor do I get why she came to visit all of a sudden. I admit, for her stupidity, it's a refreshing sight to see one of my kind again." Taillte nodded, and she could not take her eyes off of Etainne's chest, for some reason. Etainne sighed. "My eyes are up here, young miss." Taillte was snapped out of her reverie, and looked back at Etainne, blushing madly and apologizing. Cu Sith suddenly ran in the scene, hefting on his shoulders a large bag of fish that he caught from the lake containing Tlachtga, the lake was called Lake Oizen, it was home to a wide variety of fish. Etainne smiled and thanked Cu Sith, for she loved fish the most of all foods. Taillte offered to cook, and so she took the fish from Cu Sith and set off to cook the fish, in her house, and invited her friends to come in.

At the table, breakfast was Taillte's specialty, it was a grilled form of the fish Cu Sith got from the lake, and it was very appetizing, most of all to Etainne, who loved to eat fish, especially tuna. Nobody spoke, it seemed Etainne was very hungry from her fight with Vallar, and seemed that though she did not seem to want it, perhaps she wanted to at least give the mischievous brat a good punch to the face. A knuckle sandwich, one might say. When everyone was finished, Taillte began to wash the dishes, and Etainne wondered out aloud what would happen today...

Meanwhile, in the Principality of Twatha, Elatha was consulting something with his personal advisors. Elatha was adamant on keeping the alliance between his place and Thelesia, and they all seemed to mostly agree except for one rogue advisor, who mentioned that Etainne was of a shady race, and used that as precedent that this alliance was a bad idea. However, Elatha rebuked him, and mentioned that Etainne, having met her in person, was a very good thing to do, and he learned a lot about the different Constructs that they could discover for their own usage. That said advisor shrugged, and no longer pushed the issue. Elatha sensed that this person had his own agenda, and so forth, dropped the issue. The general consensus was that the alliance was to be forged, anyway. Elatha then dismissed the meeting and went to go see his father.

"Can I go back to Thelesia?"

"Why?"

"I want to stay there."

"What?!"

"Not forever, but for a while. I wish to learn more about this shady race of Madame Etainne's."

"They are a dangerous people, and I respect your meeting with her, but please..."

"Is that a yes?"

"No."

"What will it take?"

"I don't know... Try bringing her here for myself to judge."

"Hnn... If that's what it takes, so I shall."

"There we go."

And so, Elatha knew his next task...

[trancehime]

Etainne looked up at the sky, and noted that Vallar was making her way back to Dagdanos, in huge disappointment, and Etainne had sighed one of relief, it was about time she had learned her lesson in humility. The two of them spent some time talking about why they had to keep such a petty rivalry going, and it was concluded that they should get rid of that sort of mentality, and Etainne had convinced Vallar of the error of her ways, and sent her back to Dagdanos, who welcomed her back by warming itself up. Interestingly, Vallar's sisters were still fast asleep. They were left alone for the meanwhile. Etainne looked at the distance from her vantage point at the vale, under the tree, and saw a single figure accompanied by a guardian-like figure, and noted that it was Elatha. Taillte had seen Elatha from her position down back at Thelesia, and quickly rushed back to Etainne, who mentioned that her knightly friend had arrived to pay a visit. Etainne made her way back to the village to see Elatha, who looked rather worried about something. "What's the matter, friend?" she asked softly. Elatha shook his head and bowed in apology. "I'm sorry, madame, but you must come with me for now. I noticed that as soon as I mentioned your kindness to my father, he became strange, as if possessed, and wished to see you. I think he wanted to use me as a tool to get you, but I don't want to follow that..." Etainne shrugged. "It'd be crazy to go with just the two of us, anyway, if your father were really possessed, we would be outnumbered and killed."

Elatha nodded, agreeing with Etainne's obvious observation. Elatha decided that he would disobey his father's request on the grounds he was convinced his father had gone insane, and indeed, he had. Someone from far away was manipulating some strings, and had possessed numerous people. Elatha's father was one of them, and it seemed tantamount to say that Elatha had a very good foresight to see this. Etainne tilted her head and asked Elatha about his next course of action. "I wanted to stay here, my guardian friend here is a silent type, we call him Clive because he never gave a name himself. Don't ask where the name came from." Elatha said plainly and bluntly, introducing his companion to Etainne. Clive waved at Etainne, and soon at Taillte who was running towards the small group. Elatha tilted his head at Taillte. "This must be your friend." he said. Taillte bowed and introduced herself to Elatha, and soon they shook hands and seemed to get along fairly well. Taillte could tell that Elatha was not interested romantically in Etainne, before the predictions could really fall loose and start some ruckus. Taillte decided she would offer her spare room for Elatha, who gracefully accepted the offer, and soon, Taillte's plan was set into motion, for when she knew Elatha was to come, she took this as an opportunity to see what kind of information she could absorb from the knight.

The sun was about to set at this time, and Clive and Elatha went with Taillte and Etainne once more to the humble abode of Taillte, who brought them in and decided to treat them to supper, she had made some sort of strange new soup, but when everyone tried it, it was good and tasty. Clive made a hand signal of approval, and Elatha applauded Taillte for her surprisingly good culinary ability, mentioning that it was "better than some of the chefs back at the castle." Etainne smiled, and Taillte looked quite proud. This knight was different from the other noble figures she had seen in the past, and Etainne was quick to make certain that Elatha would be a powerful ally to have in the future. She then left the house of Taillte to get ready for the nightly rituals, leaving Clive and Elatha under Taillte's care, and they decided to have some talk about the recent happenings in the land, it seemed that Etainne was not the only one knowledgeable about the world in certain ways, Taillte was quite a gossip. And so, they started sharing things with each other, and Taillte had learned a great deal of things about the Principality of Twatha, and much more, too, about the different Champion Constructs, which were those Constructs similar to that of her parents', and about the history of the land. Elatha then came to the realization that perhaps, the person responsible for brainwashing his father must be the one who is trying to arise from his weakening seal at the center of the Mother Earth.

Etainne, in her house, was reading a series of books that seemed to chronicle the history of the battle revolving around the Mother Earth, and tried to figure out what was happening, the sudden increase in the appearance of monsters in the land, and soon surmised that the seal that held the demon that was the target of heroes all over, this demon called the Wayfarer, was actually weakning! The Wayfarer's influence was so powerful, even in his prison, he was able to allow lesser demons and greater demons alike to arise from their tombs and ravage the land once more. Etainne rubbed her forehead, as if under a tough stress, and decided she would discuss the matter with Elatha in the meanwhile. She took out a scroll of parchment and started inking down in quill pen the necessary details, and decided that she would need to list down the Constructs required to seal the Wayfarer once more, and noting down how the only way to do this was to fuse with the Tlachtga. What was the importance of Tlachtga? Etainne kept it a secret, but in fact, the true reason is that the Tlachtga was given to Etainne by the Heavenly Mother Cethlenna, a deity of sorts, and that the "Druidess Tlachtga" was just a fake title said to conceal its true power... In fact, the Tlachtga was capable of fusing with any other Construct, and enhancing its abilities, including absorbing the capabilities of the Construct it fused or combined with.

Etainne kept this knowledge in mind, and hoped there were pilots capable of taking on these old Constructs of the past, of yore, of the victorious those years ago. She rolled up the scroll of parchment, returned her books and tomes, and took the parchment with her while she prepared to fall to bed once more. Taillte meanwhile had already ushered Elatha and Clive to their quarters, and jotted down some more of her personal reflections and reactions to today's events, before she too, fell asleep. However, this incident did not go by peacefully... Cu Sith, was still outside, because he felt a strange presence. There was nothing nearby, but he felt necessary to ride with Crofh Dearth, and see what was going on. He quickly dashed to the Forest of Birogh, and made his way back to Crofh Dearth's resting place. "Crofh Dearth, awaken! We ride!" he called, but not so loud as to make a ruckus. Crofh Dearth seemed to be a little tired, for his awakening was not so rushed as it usually was, but soon, he was warmed up and ready to go. Crofh Dearth looked up at the sky, and to the surprise of no one who was awake, there was a small demon flying up in the sky. The demon saw Crofh Dearth, in horse form, and flew down to make contact. Crofh Dearth transformed quickly to a humanoid to prepare for combat. The small demon fell to the ground, and this shock caught Crofh off guard, for the shockwave caused a small earthquake that shook the ground.

Etainne felt it, but made no note of it. Taillte and the others were already in a deep sleep, so they didn't feel a thing. Crofh Dearth whinged before growling. "Man, do you have to attack this late at night?!" he said, before taking his daggers and attacking the demon, but strangely, the daggers only barely pierced the skin, as if it was being deflected by soem sort of tough material. Crofh Dearth leapt back, and defended itself from the demon's attack, which was not so strong in contrats. Crofh came to the realization that the demon was not so resistant to punches, but weapons don't touch it. So he took away his weapon and decided to punch it in the face. To his surprise, it actually did a significant amount of damage to the demon, who cursed and covered his face. "My nose, my freaking nose!!" he whinged loudly. Etainne heard the whining and woke up, rubbing her eyes. "Who the heck is screaming this late at night?" she sat up and saw the Crofh Dearth at the forest fighting the small demon, and decided she was hallucinating. She tried to fall asleep once more. The Crofh Dearth smiled and he continued his physical barrage, punching and kicking the demon, whose tough skin was actually cracking, it was like some sort of refined glass! After some more brawling, the demon was literally cracked. "This is the time!" he proclaimed, and then shattered the demon to ashes with his daggers, which now were strong enough to pierce through the defense.

And it was then and there, the sun started to rise. Crofh Dearth smiled and lazily returned to his stable, leaving a very tired and exhausted Cu Sith to return home. Etainne and everyone were still fast asleep, disregarding the sun rising, though Etainne attempted to wake.

...Something was very wrong...

[trancehime]

Cu Sith shambled sleepily along the roads of the village, sensing that something was deathly wrong. He didn't feel tired before he left and took on the demon during the night, but after he pummeled that demon senseless, he could even feel it in Crofh Dearth, but everyone seemed really tired. Cu Sith wondered out aloud to himself about this strange situation, and tried to wake himself up by taking another visit to Lake Oizen and decided to wash his face. Indeed, he was woken up by the freshness of water hitting his face. However, what of the rest of Thelesia? Cu Sith was not a magickal prodigy like Etainne, but he was definitely better with it than Taillte, who was more adept in the physical areas. Cu Sith sensed a disturbance in the area, it seemed there was some sort of dream demon attacking Thelesia, and only Cu Sith was strong enough to resist it, due to his denseness? He was thinking of how Etainne would succumb to it, but realized that Etainne was a special case, she was more susceptible to direct mind attacks, which was the tactics of this particular mind demon. He rushed over to Etainne's house, and found her crawling on the floor, struggling to get up, her inner conscience was fighting against the sleep curse, and it seemed to be that she wanted to tell Cu Sith something. "My child...! The dream demon...! Crofh Dearth... was distracted... So the demon could get here and attack... You're the only one... can save... Hurry..." she fell to the ground and started snoring. Cu Sith tilted her head and wanted to panic, but decided that would be a foolish move to do.

Taillte and Clive were fast asleep, but Elatha was wide awake. It seemed that Cu Sith did not know Elatha existed, and he was shocked to see that someone poked his shoulder. Though it was Elatha, Cu Sith was visibly shocked. "I'm sorry for scaring you. You don't seem to know me. I'm Elatha, a visitor who recently made friends with Madame Etainne and Miss Taillte. The village seems to have fallen under a curse of a certain dream demon, the Hypnotist. We aren't affected because our minds are strong enough to counteract the Hypnotist's piercing mind waves." he explained. Cu Sith nodded. "We should work together to find him. I take it you can sense where he is, but you can't actually see him. I can see these demons, but I cannot sense where they are like you probably can. So let's co-operate to save the village." Cu Sith nodded once more, a little apprehensive towards working with a knight he just met, but he had not much choice. They had to save Thelesia. Cu Sith pointed to the tree at the top of the vale. "I can't see the Hypnotist, but I feel he is there." he said plainly. Elatha hefted Cu Sith and ran to the tree, where he indeed, saw the Hypnotist. He put Cu Sith down and drew his broadsword before looking at the Hypnotist. To Cu Sith, it seemed like Elatha was facing off against the tree. But he knew the demon was there.

"Begone, foul beast!" Elatha said, and struck the Hypnotist down with ease, and that's when the curse should have ended, right? Wrong. The Hypnotist Elatha struck down was an illusion, and the real one reappeared behind Cu Sith. Elatha shouted forth "Hey! Watch out! Behind you!" and to this Cu Sith fell over and allowed Elatha to try and stab the demon. Again, it was an illusion. It seemed to be an endless cycle of illusionary recycling, but soon, a soft, feminine voice made itself apparent amongst the chaos. "The real one is not there. Cu Sith can only sense the illusion. Throw your sword up at the figure in the tree." It was Etainne, who had finally resisted the power of the Hypnotist, and arrived to help in the situation. Etainne pointed out the location of the real Hypnotist, and so, Elatha did as she said, and threw his sword at the demon in the tree. Caught off guard, the Hypnotist was stabbed right through, and he fell to the ground, impaled more so by the blade, and burned to ashes. Elatha reclaimed his blade and swung it, expulsing it of any blood that was on it. From far away, the three could hear the sound of people waking, the curse had been lifted rather handily.

Etainne, Cu Sith and Elatha returned to Thelesia, and soon were greeted with thanks from Taillte, complaining about her sore back from all that sleep. Clive seemed to be preparing something using Taillte's kitchen, it seemed he too was a good chef. A good match for Taillte's culinary skills. The two of them were working on something to celebrate the breaking of the curse so fast, and it sort of shocked Etainne, and it was only lunch time. Wait, how was it already lunch time? Cu Sith questioned the fast passing of time, but made no note of it. Etainne and Elatha, meanwhile, made a strange fuss over it, and the two discussed about the matter of the Wayfarer. Cu Sith and Taillte were quite familiar with the Wayfarer in their own little ways, especially Taillte, whose parents had gone mano-a-mano with it in the long run, and met their sad fate. They decided to discuss about the Wayfarer and learned that indeed, perhaps it is true that the seal on it was weakening. It explained the sudden turn of events with demon invasion. However, what baffled Etainne was that Thelesia was the target of a lot of attacks.

Elatha scratched his head. Taillte theorized on the spot and rather spontaneously that the only way to find out why Thelesia was the target is to find the source of these small-scale attacks. It couldn't have been a direct result of the Wayfarer's influence, because it was still sealed. It must have been a close accomplice of the demon, and Etainne suddenly remembered something Vallar had said to her earlier, something about the Demon Ronin Chelica, who was only a Demon Ronin in title, in fact, Chelica was the closest companion of the Wayfarer, who was still very much alive somewhere, recovering her lost power, and she might be planning something. Etainne whispered something in Elatha's ear, and then Elatha looked visibly shocked and worried. Apparently, he knew Chelica. "That demoness... She... Argh." he looked hurt, as if Etainne had touched a nerve somewhere. She figured out what Elatha meant and gave him a hug, saying she was sorry. Taillte looked a little jealous, but nobody noticed, thankfully. "Why?" she asked, wondering Elatha's story. Elatha shook his head, he did not wish to talk about that. Chelica was quite the looker, but her intentions are malicious, she wanted to scar those she came into contact with.

When Elatha was tainted, he was only saved through the power of Cethlenna, which Etainne figured out, because she knew how Elatha was tainted. Though, to respect his wishes, she made nothing of the issue. "So, I conclude it must be Chelica making these attacks." Etainne said matter-of-factly. Elatha groaned and agreed, gripping his sword tight. "A good opportunity for my revenge." he muttered under his breath. Cu Sith was the only one to hear it, and tilted his head at Elatha. However, he wasn't so sure what he meant by that, and felt it was prudent not to ask why. Everyone at the table finished what they were doing, and concluded that their next plan of action was to try and find more Constructs, and to find the location of the Demon Ronin Chelica, and attempt to banish her from this plane. Elatha said the best place to start would be to find some books. Etainne raised her hand and mentioned that her house was practically a wealth of this knowledge. So everyone made their way to Etainne's house, only Taillte had visited this before, and so she was the only one of the visitors to not be visibly shocked when they saw the towering bookshelves that they saw as soon as they entered her house. Indeed, it was a veritable treasure trove of tomes, books, grimoires, and the works.

Taillte idly wandered to a section about demonology, as did Elatha, who was heavily interested in the subject. Etainne resumed her work on the History of Thelesia and other related literature, while Cu Sith and Clive seemed much more interested in sorcery. Clive was a guardian who could wield a mean battle-axe, but his silence concealed his skill with magic, one could align him to the likes of a paladin, except instead of protective magic, he specialized in blowing up people. Everyone started to read their books and take down notes on scrolls of parchment they nicked from Etainne's pile of empty pieces of parchment, and after a while, they managed to compile the information they had into a mini-folio of things they had learned, and they decided to analyze it. They spent the entire afternoon and night doing this, only taking breaks for supper and perhaps a midnight snack, but everyone seemed to enjoy the experience, having idle chat while reading, it was quite the educational event. They surmised that Chelica must be hiding far away, and that the Principality of Twatha was the best place to start. However, they would not be permitted to leave Thelesia unguarded. However, this was not an issue - they would try to devise a plan to lure Chelica to this particular location, and retaliate in that manner.

Everyone then ended up falling asleep on the floor, exhausted from that scholarly experience.

[trancehime]

The next morning, it seemed to be a rather ordinary and uneventful day. Everyone slowly woke up and found themselves sprawled on the floor, looking up at the ceiling in Etainne's house. Books were strewn all over the place, but soon enough, they could already see Etainne returning the books to their proper places, and wondered how she was able to get up so quickly. They decided not to make a note of it, and instead looked about trying to wake themselves up. Cu Sith ignored the others and ran out to the Lake Oizen, where he tried to wash his face in order to feel the morning freshness once more. Cu Sith smiled to himself as he looked up high to the sky, and felt a strange presence. It was a weird, innocent presence, and felt that this one was not malicious, it seemed to want to talk to someone. Etainne left her house and saw a trio of fairies approaching Cu Sith, unfortunately the boy was too stupid to notice the fairies were there. The fairies were, in fact, the Mormegil Triad, combining their energies, they formed the Astral Construct Mormegil, which, out of some sort of serendipity, happened to be one of the Constructs they needed to combat Chelica and eventually seal the Wayfarer. Etainne ran to Cu Sith, and looked at the space nearby, and asked the fairies she saw there, about Mormegil, and its condition. Cu Sith looked dumbfounded, and attempted to try and visualize what Etainne was talking to. She was met with grave news... The Astral Construct Mormegil had degenerated into a shade of its former self, and could only maintain its massive power by changing into the form of a rod. Etainne wondered if Tlachtga was capable of wielding it. So, she inquired the Fairies of Mormegil about it, and indeed, they could change into the staff and be wielded by the Mother's Gift, Tlachtga. Etainne smiled. Cu Sith scratched his head. "You still can't see?" Etainne asked curiously. "Those were the Blessed Fairies of the Greater God Mormegil. Together, they combined their forces to form the Astral Construct God Mormegil, which was one of the pivotal forces in sealing the Wayfarer." she said. Cu Sith scratched his head. He was not well-versed in the legend as Taillte was.

Taillte, Elatha and Clive left the house too after they had cleaned out the remaining books, and went to Etainne and Cu Sith, inquiring about what had just transpired. They found out about Mormegil, and they learned that they were making a small amount of progress. A small amount, but it was progress nevertheless. They decided to discuss how they would go about finding the new constructs. Some people had to stay here to protect the village, though Cu Sith was eager to defend Thelesia with his Noble Steed Crofh Dearth, and Taillte was also willing if Etainne demanded it so, for she harbored great affection for her, and wanted so much to be her personal slave. Etainne shook her head for a moment and then decided on her next course of action. "Alright, this is how it is going to be. Elatha and Clive will be the ones doing the travelling. The three of us will stay here, because the only reason why Chelica is attacking Thelesia is because of Tlachtga and I." she said. "Elatha's influence in other parts of the land will also help him garner trust and new allies in finding the constructs, aiding us in our battle against the Wayfarer." Taillte and Cu Sith nodded in approval, and Elatha seemed to be fine with Etainne's prudence. She looked a kid, but indeed, she was sagely like an elderly spirit. Cu Sith looked around and noted that there was a man crawling on the ground towards Etainne's group, and seemed to be bleeding profusely, in danger of dying. Etainne tried to stop the wounding through magic. It worked, but only for a bit. The man struggled to talk, but weakly said "You... You must... Alert... Argh... Forest... threat... Ronin...!" and with that cryptic message, he fell to the ground, dead, despite the lesser healing. Etainne sighed. Cu Sith ran off to the Forest of Birogh to inspect the situation, and was soon chased by everyone else.

When the group reached the Forest of Birogh, Cu Sith was met with a great feeling of strangeness, and when he turned around to ask Etainne about what he saw, she was missing from the group who had chased him. Cu Sith scratched his head once more and asked them where Etainne had gone. They had no clue either. Instead, all they could see was a tall, hulking monster standing straight, and roaring many times. It seemed that anyone who got near him got gored by his spiked feet, and this must be how the man died earlier. The claws were laced with deadly poison, fortunately Constructs are hardy enough to withstand it. Cu Sith looked around frantically and wondered where on earth Etainne went, and soon he had his answer. Etainne had decided to engage the beast head on with Tlachtga, but instead of her staff, there was a rod with a blade on it, it was the reduced form of the Astral Construct Mormegil, now the Fairy Demonbane Mormegil, and it seemed to radiate brightness, and blinded everyone, including the demon that stood sleeping in the middle of the forest. However, when the demon roared, it seemed that more flying demons arrived to assist it in its desperate plight to defend itself, and remain in the forest. Cu Sith grit his teeth and ran underneath the forest. "Crofh Dearth, I call you!" he growled, causing the horse construct to arise and burst once more into the fray. It morphed into a man, and stood with Tlachtga. Taillte grumbled too and ran to the vale back at Thelesia, and called Lughnasadh, and soon arrived as well, in the guise of a man. The three of them faced the increasingly large army of demons that faced them, and Elatha and Clive were forced to take refuge somewhere, as their Constructs were all the way back in the Principality of Twatha.

Elatha and Clive hid behind a large bunch of trees and bushes, and watched the fight that was about to unfold. The flying demons seemed to charge forward viciously, striking at the trio of robots. However, Lughnasadh's skills with a sword and Crofh Dearth's dexterity were enough to dispatch the demons. Once more, the large clawed demon roared, and more came to aid it. Tlachtga released laser beams from her crystal ball, and struck them down too. The boss growled, and suddenly started moving. It was now royally PISSED OFF. The demon roared, and soon from its arms protruded two sharp blades. Lughnasadh scowled and Crofh Dearth resisted the temptation to throw a corny phallus joke into the fray. The two of them leapt forward to defend Tlachtga, but then they were met with tough resistance from the beast's arm blades, they were made of some sort of strange biological material, that was hard, extremely tough, and worst of all, it was hot. Lughnasadh and Crofh Dearth's weapons were not doing so much to it. Tlachtga looked concerned. "Have you tried to combine?" she asked. Lughnasadh was too pre-occupied and Crofh Dearth wanted to say something, but was soon smacked down with the beast's counter attack. Lughnasadh tried to see if his friend was okay, but was soon stumbled and pushed down when the beast retaliated. Tlachtga was remaining, and stepped back, holding Mormegil tightly. "Geez, you try too hard to make it seem so easy. Get back up you two." she said, and with that, Lughnasadh and Crofh Dearth stood to attention, and charged back, but Tlachtga impatiently shouted for the two Constructs to cease their assault. She calmly ignored the fact the beast was inching towards her. "It's time to combine." she said.

Lughnasadh scratched his head. He wasn't aware he could combine with Tlachtga, the part didn't seem right. Crofh Dearth had already transformed into a horse, and tried to see if it would pull off right. Tlachtga would force the situation anyway. "Right, you two! Let's begin." she said simply, and jumped into the air, a magical energy possessed Crofh Dearth and Lughnasadh and soon dragged them with her. The Crofh Dearth seemed to split its legs together, and the head folded backwards, forming some sort of strangely misshapen armor, and the Lughnasadh was changed into a dragon, and compressed to form some sort of backpack with wings, with the sword protruding from the back. Lughnasadh attached to Tlachtga's back and the Crofh Dearth wrapped itself around the Tlachtga's chest. After the combination was done, a loud voice could be heard. "Fight, Heroic Amalgamation Tlachtga!!" the voice came out of nowhere, apparently, it seemed to confuse the demon a bit, too. In any case, Tlachtga looked insanely goofy, but it seemed to make her stronger. She was more mobile, and she was able to use the Mormegil to better effect. The demon roared and charged, but soon the Tlachtga held her ground and suddenly, as the demon was about to pounce, the Mormegil was driven through, and the follow through made the Mormegil penetrate its skin, and render its innards inside out, and blood was spayed everywhere. The demon screamed in pain, and Tlachtga threw it down as it released smoke, and it was disintegrating into the air. She looked up to the sun and raised Mormegil up high, as if trying to make some sort of victory pose. Elatha and Clive were quite impressed by the whole thing, and would definitely make time to ask about this phenomenon from Etainne later.

When the battle had concluded, Etainne and the others found themselves dining at the tavern once more, and it seemed that there were some serious discussions to be had. Elatha and Clive expressed their interest about Tlachtga's combining capabilities. It seemed that Lughnasadh and Crofh Dearth bore no similarity to her feminine and magely frame, yet it somehow made the combination possible at all... This phenomenon interested Elatha a lot, Clive even more so. Etainne explained it, somehow, and said that it was because Tlachtga is a blessed Construct, capable of fusing with any other Construct and gaining its powers for as long as it is attached to it. Elatha nodded and said he'd like to try combining with Tlachtga sometime. Etainne said that the time for that would come, sooner or later, but never say never. Clive wanted to ask if there were any locomotive Constructs, but Etainne didn't know what a locomotive was, so she couldn't answer him. Taillte said there might be one around to the ancient ruins north of Twatha's river to the east, the River Neine, but she wasn't so sure of the precise location. Etainne tilted her head at Taillte and asked her to explain what a "locomotive" was later. Cu Sith remained unusually silent, and decided not to talk about anything. Taillte and Etainne continued to discuss serious matters with Elatha and Clive, and decided that they should have the two guys explore the River Neine and the townships that lay along it. Elatha and Clive nodded and decided to get ready immediately and Taillte took them to her house to help them in doing so, leaving Etainne and Cu Sith alone. Etainne asked the boy what was wrong, but he refused to say anything related to his inner conflict, saying "Ma'am, I am fine." before leaving, presumably to return to his own house. Etainne shrugged and went back home, as well.

Etainne was in her house, doing some more reading on the history, and jotting down what she found out about the Mormegil. The Mormegil itself was a grand autonomous construct that seemed to be embodied in the Fairies of Mormegil, a triad of fairies which seemed to think as one united unit, and each individual fairy seemed to think about a certain aspect, with which to form one coherent and educated decision. This seemed to be the only Construct that properly survived the attack, because it technically still held its original power, even if it was in a weapon form. Etainne ticked the name off of her list and sighed as she still needed to find several more constructs. She yawned to herself, for some reason she seemed exhausted, and it was through no devil's influence either, it seemed that battle took a lot out of her. Even if she was a spirit, she still dwelled in the body of a young child, and seemed to expend a lot of energy really easily, even if she ate more than all of her friends combined. Taillte was even dumbfounded by this at first, but then realized that indeed, Etainne was a very busy girl. Etainne yawned and decided to retire early.

Taillte was busy with Elatha and Clive preparing for their long journey ahead, and helping them by making rations for them, it seemed that Taillte was able to use a small dose of magic herself, however this seemed to be purely for cooking purposes only, as these small carrot cakes she made appeared to have the effect of being worth a small banquet, she made these specifically for Elatha and Clive's long journey, she made a dozen for each to ration for themselves. The two thanked her for her amazing cooking as they took one small nibble as a taster and found themselves feeling verily satiated. Elatha and Clive seemed not to need armaments, for they were already armed, it seemed they packed light, for they wielded cleansing enchantments, they would never get truly dirty. So they packed Taillte's delicious cakes and some parchment for maps and other things they would need to write down along the way, and so they thanked her once more for allowing lodging in her humble abode, and spent one last night there for a long time. Taillte smiled and set to writing another entry in her journal.

---

In a strange darkness, there was a singularity, some strange void, where a bunch of strange enigmatic blue goop creatures stared at each other, and felt like discussing some strange matters. The void in question seemed to be similar to the weakening of the Wayfarer's seal, this was a lair of the higher echelon of demons, demons who had worked with the Wayfarer in... well, the "flesh," figuratively speaking. They seemed to be the ones responsible for the weakening of the seal. The first demon growled. They were silent, but they seemed to be reacting to each other in strange ways, almost as if they were contacting each other telepathically, or in some other strange phantasmic manner.

"The Tlachtga is a strange being."

"It's tearing through our forces."

"But it can't stop our plot, anyway. Haha. Cethlenn is just wasting her time."

"The Sire will be reborn."

"Indeed."

The spirits lurched backwards, throwing up their arms in some sort of strange cultish manner, and devilish laughter could be heard, as if they had devised some sort of evil plot, but this evil plot was horribly cliched and boring, yet, the fact of the matter is, it worked. The mere fact that the plot was working meant that it couldn't be too bad in practice, right? The spirits continued to converse between themselves, no mortal could truly comprehend their speech. Suddenly, a sultry-looking demoness carrying a long, bloodied blade walked by and looked at the spirits. Immediately, they addressed her by "Mistress," this was Chelica, who was quite sexy, almost mortal beauty, but yet, she was demon inside, an immortal, one of malicious intent. Chelica smiled and clapped. "Excellent work, my dear friends," she said. "Once the Sire's seal is broken, we can resume our task in cleansing this dreaded universe... We will escape before that final fate is attained, so that we can move to annihilate the next. Do not question where we lie, that is for the Sire to decide and him alone." The spirits moved in unison, in agreement with Chelica, even if they did not agree, they could not stand against her, anyway. She could cut them down in an instant.

---

The next morning, Elatha and Clive woke up early and ate their last breakfast for a long time in Thelesia, it was specially prepared by Taillte, and even Etainne had pitched in and decided to throw in some of her skill, at least what little of it she actually had to her. Everyone then saw Elatha and Clive off, they were going to begin their own personal adventure, it was to find more Constructs, more people to pilot them, or more information on how to seal greater demons, or even some information on how the Wayfarer was actually sealed, and perhaps this would be a good way for them to combat the incoming threat. So, the two men made their merry way out of Thelesia, and they would discover new things, and perhaps face many new challenges. Etainne and Taillte was a little sad to see them go so soon as they were actually an interesting pair, they offered their own personal knowledge and insights on the world, too. Etainne was going to miss that fountain of knowledge about the world she lived in, and Taillte was going to miss cooking for other people. She hoped they wouldn't expend her special carrot cakes so quickly. That would be quite terrible. When Elatha and Clive left, Taillte and Etainne went to the tavern to relax for a bit, the past few days had been a bit hectic, and they needed some time to themselves.

Taillte then had the smart idea to invite Etainne to her house, and so she took the invitation, and then smiled. Etainne asked Taillte why she was taken to her house, and all Taillte said was that she wanted to ask about a number of things. The first thing she asked about was the combination between Lughnasadh, Crofh Dearth and Tlachtga. Would that happen all the time, she asked. Etainne had hoped not, but she felt that it may happen more often in the future until more Constructs are found. The next question, and the last one, was probably the one which shocked Etainne more. Taillte asked if Etainne was really a girl. Etainne didn't have much of a way to answer that, and asked the child why she would ask such a "silly question," and Taillte's response made a good deal of sense. Etainne's race were spirits, and spirits only assumed a gender and sex in name and personality, but not necessarily in form. Etainne said she could not say for sure what she really was, but her kind always appear as females. Taillte's heart fluttered for a moment, she was eager to find out what she was like under those robes. The lovestruck child kept her feelings secret for longer, and then had Etainne leave, thanking her profusely for her answers. Etainne could not respond with anything else but a sigh. All she could ask herself... "What was that child thinking?"

---

Elatha and Clive made their way back to the Principality of Twatha first to check on the condition of their Constructs. It seemed that they were fine. Now, it is not the time to mention what they are just yet. The time for that will come in due time. Now, they were going to start their journey proper. They left the principality and headed to the direction of the great River Neine, it was a long river that seemed to stretch endlessly, and there were many river civilizations that thrived on its richness. However, the pathway to get to the river was a long and arduous one, it was a long slugfest of nothingness, all you could see was the great prairie for miles and miles away, littered with small hills here and there, some which had small tombstones littered on them, until you could see sight of the river in the distance beneath the horizon. Though it was a boring trip, the view could be considered to be verily beautiful. Elatha and Clive used to go hunting here every so often, both for contests and for food alike. Now, though, they were here on a mission, a mission that could very well affect the balance of not only this land, but the entire universe that they lived in. Sadly, nobody even knew how much their universe was in danger of being assimilated by a singularity, a dark void, an encroaching evil. Fortunately, Etainne is unknowingly working to prevent that from happening.

Above the pair, was the castle Dagdanos floating above them, however, Vallar within cared little for them. Vallar was busy mulling over what Etainne had told her after she was violently beaten up, and decided that maybe it would be a good idea after all to work towards doing something to save this land from the Wayfarer. Indeed, the Dagdanos was pivotal in providing support to the heroes who took on the Wayfarer in the years past. As the Dagdanos overlooked Elatha and Clive, it made a great moan, and so, Clive, in his muteness, heard the loud nose and prodded Elatha, who looked up in the sky and smiled. Though he did not know Vallar still lived, he smiled to see the Dagdanos continued to float in the sky, being watchful towards those below. The two continued their merry way along the hilly path, admiring the beautiful view, and the great birds which flew free above them. After several hours of walking, the sun was setting, and they could see a village in the distance. They started running in excitement, and this village was hardly a mirage, it was most certainly the real thing. They reached the village in due time, and were greeted warmly by its inhabitants, who seemed to be very polite and respectful of Elatha's roots. In return, Elatha was also quite polite, he was not pompous like the other nobles who resided in the Principality of Twatha.

In the village, the two quenched their thirst excitedly by taking a swig of the local mead, it was very well-made, and they made merry with the villagers. Everyone seemed happy, until Elatha asked how business was for the village. One of the villagers looked very worried. He explained that a giant sea monster was lurking in the rivers and would terrorise fishing boats that tried to fish. This village wasn't the only one suffering, too. Other places were getting affected by it. "Perhaps this is also the Wayfarer's influence," Elatha muttered to himself. "This is grave." Elatha then explained he would try his best to do something about it. Unfortunately, Construct combat was out of the question as their Constructs were miles away, but if they could find one in the local vicinity and find someone willing to pilot it, perhaps tackling the monster would be much easier. Also, the River Neine would become safe as Constructs could now defend it at will. It was like killing two birds with two stones.

However...

Where are they going to find that Construct?

[trancehime]

Etainne received a letter from Elatha the following day, it seemed that the letter contained some very important information, mainly that they were working on trying to locate a Construct nearby the River Neine in order to face off a giant sea monster terrorizing the local area, it seemed the monster was probably brought there through Chelica's wiles. Though Chelica did not look it, she was very clever, too, and could outsmart many tacticians in her many ways. Etainne read the letter and seemed quite worried, though at the same time relieved that they were making headway. Taillte asked her what the letter was about, but never did get a straight answer, all she'd get were cryptic clues referring to Elatha's journey to find more Constructs. Etainne then shifted her attentions to Cu Sith, who had fallen gravely ill. The cause most likely seemed to be stress, but Taillte's theory scared Etainne even more, and it made even more sense; Cu Sith had been struck by a Ghast of Entropy, that snuck into his mind at night and ruined his body. Etainne had a strong exorcism power, but feared she may ruin Cu Sith completely if she tried it. Taillte tried to think of a way to cure the sick, but was then greeted by the appearance of a strange cloaked figure.

Etainne turned to meet this strange person, and was met with nothing but an empty gaze, she could not see what was beneath the hood that covered this person, and greeted him politely. The cloaked figure said "Hello" back in an equally politely voice, and started explaining softly that Cu Sith was not possessed by a demon, but in fact, a high-ranking demon had placed a hex on him, and that he could help in getting rid of it, for a price. Etainne inquired what the price was, and then the cloaked man said "I will willingly help you if you give me your... You know what, young miss." To that comment, Etainne blushed madly, pointing at Taillte. The cloaked man apologized, but it was too late; Taillte tilted her head and started laughing madly while running away. Etainne asked if there was another price he could say, and instead procured an ingot of a strange, but exotic material that seemed to be rarer than gold. The cloaked figure danced on the spot and gladly accepted, and so, the man would now begin to cure Cu Sith, and he did so through a ritual that Etainne vaguely recognized, but was never so familiar as to be able to perform it herself. Cu Sith convulsed in place, and it scared Etainne a little, but she slugged through it and the ritual concluded with a brilliant flash of light.

Cu Sith woke up from his spell-induced slumber looking a lot healthier, and the cloaked figure put up his hood, and it appeared to be a really young boy who reminded Etainne of herself. The boy bowed and introduced himself as Gilthan, it was a name that Cu Sith seemed to recognize, for he smiled warmly. Gilthan explained that the ritual was done and Cu Sith was cured, though he also warned Etainne to be careful in the future, that this does not happen again. Chelica was a clever and cruel mistress, and she could do the same thing to anyone, and Gilthan said they were lucky he was visiting on a break, as he was on his own personal journey, too. However, Etainne decided to ask him if he knew of any Constructs near the River Neine. Gilthan tilted his head, and said that perhaps the Construct that was located near the Delphin Village was used, there would be a way to use it and do whatever it is that needed to be done. Etainne then thanked Gilthan and allowed him to continue on his way.

"Thanks be to you, Sir Gilthan."

"No problem, Milady. Perhaps our paths may cross again."

And so, Gilthan continued his trip, and Etainne immediately set to pen and paper, writing a letter back to Elatha about her new discovery, and asked Elatha about where he exactly was, that perhaps he was in the Delphin Village, he could easily find the Construct and combat the giant sea monster. Etainne smiled and finished writing the letter, and so had it sent through magical means... Taillte and Cu Sith spent a good deal of time fraternizing with each other, it had been a gruelling number of hours of Taillte worrying about him, and she didn't want to feel that way anymore. Cu Sith apologized and said he let his guard down, but he was rebuked by Etainne who mentioned there was nothing he could have done, the hex of Chelica was a very powerful and potent one, capable of leaving even very tough mortals under massive amounts of pain. In fact, most people like Cu Sith probably would have died already, it's good enough he was magickal in nature, or he would have been lost. Cu Sith acknowledged this and sighed humbly. Taillte tilted her head and went outside, probably to do something she forgot to do in the morning. Etainne wondered how Elatha and Clive were doing, meanwhile...

---

Elatha and Clive received the letter Etainne had written earlier, and so sought to wonder what it said, and it mentioned that a Construct was in the Delphin Village. In a sick twist of fate, they were actually there! So as they suspected, a Construct was here all along. There was a young girl that hung out by a fountain nearby. Ever since the sea monster was terrorizing the area, the fountain stopped working. Elatha asked the girl if there was something special about the fountain. The girl nodded and said she wanted to go and see what was under the fountain, but was too scared to go in there alone. Elatha and Clive offered to accompany her, and so she gladly went inside the fountain, now empty from being drained, and the two men accompanied her. She saw a suspicious button nearby and pushed it, causing the floor they were standing on to become an elevator and take the three down underneath the village.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, they saw a mermaid-like Construct sleeping there. The girl smiled, she had shared stories about a mermaid wielding a trident being able to destroy monsters, it seemed a construct fitting her description existed, it was the Tidal Construct Annalotte. Elatha clapped and Clive smiled, telling the girl to go and awaken the Construct Annalotte. The girl smiled, completely forgetting to introduce herself.

"Awaken, Annalotte! Your eternal slumber ends now!"

[trancehime]

Annalotte was a mermaid who catapulted itself into the River Neine nearby, and swam around to meet its foe in mortal aquatic and underwater combat! The monster itself was now more visible to the girl and Annalotte, and it appeared to be some sort of Loch Ness monster rip off, and it seemed somewhat like a plesiosaur, this monster was disguised as a Lachta Plesioth, but it had much more strength than one, and it was hardly passive, it was extremely aggressive and as soon as it saw Annalotte, it lunged at her from beneath, yet the mermaid deftly evaded its charge, and raised her lance, and grazed the beast with it. The demon growled and raised a claw, attempting to slash Annalotte, but the mermaid once more read its movement and impaled the claw with her lance, laughing maniacally. It seemed that Annalotte was like that sweet little girl you'd see at school, but was actually possessing the mind of a serial killer. She didn't mean any harm to those close, but when she's angry, or protective or something, she goes into a berserker's rage. She screamed happily whilst driving the lance through the demon's other claw, it seemed that if you could watch the battle as it was happening now, you would think Annalotte was the demon, and not the monster getting horribly dismembered and mauled. The demon cried now, and its form shifted from the Plesioth to its original form, a large, black, but bloodstained mass, it drooped as it tried to charge at Annalotte, it protruded spikes from itself, yet the mermaid once again swam to safety, and pulled out her other hand and shot a large harpoon from it. The harpoon was tied to a rope, and it impaled the spiked ball demon, and pulled it towards Annalotte's now-raised lance. The demon could do nothing but resign to its fate as it was completely impaled and skewered through the lance, and it exploded in a bloody light.

Annalotte resurfaced and raised her lance triumphantly. Elatha from the shore was watching, and smiled to himself. He walked away to meet Clive, who had also witnessed the battle from far away, and wondered what was up with Annalotte, he could sense some strange energies during that fight. The girl shortly returned to see Clive and Elatha, and thanked them for their help in allowing her to find the Annalotte. Elatha smiled and asked the girl for her name, then she mentioned that she was Eine, and the name seemed a little familiar to Clive, who tilted his head. Yet, he wasn't so sure why. Eine bowed and said that she would try her best to help the village out now with the assistance of Annalotte, and asked Elatha to visit again, if she was ever needed for something else. Clive and Elatha gracefully accepted, and spent one last night there, to celebrate, before preparing themselves to continue on their long and arduous journey. They inspected their bags, and checked how much of that delectable carrot cake they had left, and soon they found out that there was still much to be consumed in the days to come. They laughed and in the following morning, they bade goodbye to Delphin Village for now... However, it seemed they could be returning quite soon.

---

Etainne and Taillte were lazing around underneath the tree that overlooked the village, and they seemed to have fallen asleep and were napping. Cu Sith was fishing at the Lake Oizen once more, and everyone seemed to be relaxing. There were not so many attacks today. They seemed to be pretty bored. However, Etainne woke up when she heard the sound of a bird flapping in the sky, and a letter fell flat on her face. Etainne opened up the letter to see what was inside it, it was written by Elatha, explaining that they found the Construct in the Delphin Village, the Construct Annalotte, a psychotic mermaid that could tear apart sea monsters with ease. And soon, Etainne began hearing strange music in her head. It was awfully dissonant, and she couldn't seem to recognize a certain tune. She poked Taillte awake, and asked her if she heard any peculiar music going on and about. Taillte shook her head and looked back at Etainne curiously, wondering what was going on in her mind. Etainne sighed and soon the strange music faded away, as if in a snap. She wondered what the heck was going on, and decided to ignore the issue for now. Taillte scratched her head in curiosity and wondered herself what was going on. Cu Sith returned to meet the two, hefting a heavy bag of fish. "You ladies hungry?" he asked. They shook their heads. Even if they spent most of the morning napping, they were not very hungry at all. Cu Sith shrugged and said he was going to keep them for himself, in that case.

Etainne and Taillte took a trip back to their houses, and Etainne settled on doing some more reading. There was one tome she failed to properly read, and it was concering the Domesday of the land, why it was spelled as "Domesday" and not "Doomsday," nobody really knew, but that was the general consensus. Etainne did some reading and learned that the Wayfarer was but a vessel for the ultimate evil, and it seemed to be that this evil force had no discernable name, and it baffled Etainne. Why would such a thing have no name? Was it too scary for people to name? Is it like that strange urban legend about "You-know-who?" Etainne wished not to think of the matter. Instead, she focused on ways to prevent it on happening. She learned that if the Wayfarer were destroyed at the appropriate time, then the crisis is verily averted, however, if the demon has enough time, defeating it alone won't be enough. You must proceed with direct sealing of the encroaching force before it becomes too late. The Mormegil is instrumental in this, as are three other Ancient Constructs, two of which are Blessed. Tlachtga, a Blessed Construct, is not involved, but is instead the agent of which to deliver the Mormegil, making it also quite instrumental in this operation. Etainne wrote all of this down on a scroll of parchment, but then, she heard someone run past her house. She left her house and saw a shadow zoom past her. She snapped her fingers and soon the shadow was stopped in his tracks. It was a young boy.

The young boy looked very scared, and apologized to Etainne about running so fast, but the girl was very observant. This boy was quite innocent on the outside, but was definitely evil on the inside, as if possessed. A boy that young couldn't run that fast. So, she snapped her fingers again and the boy fell to the ground, screaming in agony, but nobody could hear, except Etainne. The boy was not screaming, but rather, the demon possessing him was. It leapt out of the boy and exploded, screaming the name Chelica. Etainne rubbed her forehead and carried the boy to the local clinic, and had the doctor, Madame Seltis, to take care of him for now. The boy had come a long way under this possessed stupor and he may be able to share some small bits of information. Taillte ran to see Etainne, and asked her about the boy she saw now lying on the clinic bed. Etainne shook her head, as if telling Taillte to remain quiet at once. The child stepped outside, and Etainne followed suit. She took Taillte to the tavern. The two were silent as they ate lunch, and it was a strange feeling. The music played in her ears again. Taillte asked what was wrong, and was given a strange response.

"I'm hearing things."

Taillte wondered if this was a characteristic of Etainne's race, or if something strange was happening. In any case, Taillte began to worry, and soon told Etainne to stay. She was going to ask Seltis about it. And so, when Taillte described what Etainne was feeling, Seltis shook her head and said that the only possible way that could happen was from some sort of high-powered demonic curse. Taillte clenched her fist. Was Chelica up to something? She had no idea, though at the same time she was also told the curse was technically harmless, though it could annoy the heck out of the victim and cause them to think irrationally at times. It scared Taillte and she was determined to find the cure to it immediately. Taillte returned to Etainne, though Etainne sighed, she already knew the cause of it. Perhaps Chelica was indeed really up to something, though the two of them were not so sure what. They finished eating lunch and so Etainne wrote a letter back to Elatha explaining their current predicament. She then noticed she hadn't seen Cu Sith in a long while. It was after this realization that Taillte rushed back to see Etainne, screaming that Cu Sith had been kidnapped. Etainne wondered who would kidnap that stupid kid, but was then told that it was no joke, some people are wondering about it too. He was last seen by Lake Oizen, but after some time, he magically disappeared. Etainne clenched her fists, and the music played once more. This time, the sound was more clear and harmonic, almost in an ominous manner. She could hear something about Cu Sith's kidnapping, and learned that they must take to the sky, and stay near the Dagdanos, and there they will see the truth behind Cu Sith's kidnapping.

Etainne knew it could not have been Vallar's doing; that child did not resort to such underhanded manners for her devious tricks. Etainne sighed and immediately ran to Tlachtga, invoking her "Tlachtga! I call forth your Blessed Spirit!" and so forth floated to the sky, leaving Taillte alone down there. Taillte decided not to pursue Etainne, as she knew that this was something Etainne must tackle alone, if she came, the truth would not come. She felt partly responsible for this, as she had harshly treated Cu Sith the other day after a petty accident occurred. When Tlachtga was high in the sky, she searched for Dagdanos, which was not so far from her current location. She glided towards it and soon a strange demon appeared between her and Dagdanos. The demon grinned, it looked like a stereotypical blue demon wielding a trident. It spoke. "Your little friend is being held by a string at that castle." he said, pointing at Cu Sith's dangling figure at a loose rock alongside Dagdanos' concealed face. Tlachtga looked visibly angry. "I know you wanna shoot me down, girl, but you have to get him first. How? Secret." the demon continued, laughing madly before he was indeed shot by Tlachtga, but as he was getting disintegrated, he tossed his trident at the rope holding Cu Sith, causing him to fall from the sky. Tlachtga immediately boosted its speed and rushed to catch Cu Sith, but instead narrowly missed and he fell into Lake Oizen. Tlachtga grumbled and returned to its home, but soon Lughnasadh, as a dragon, appeared and surfaced from Lake Oizen, carrying the unconscious Cu Sith on his back. Etainne disembarked and looked to see Cu Sith's condition. She sighed and took him to the clinic, and he was put into the bed next to the boy from earlier.

Etainne's head cleared up as the possession had gone away, apparently the pain was to alert Etainne of Cu Sith's kidnapping, but still, it confused the girl, as she had no idea why Chelica would act like that. Perhaps she wished to instill some form of paranoia into her victim, but once again, that maneuver confused Etainne, who had yet to figure out the true motive behind Chelica's stunt. Taillte was worried by Etainne's musing, but left her alone, she respected her wishes fully. And so, they returned to their own homes, Etainne was busy in her study trying to put her thoughts down on paper, in such a way that it would allow her to figure out the mystery behind Chelica, where she was, and how she could be subdued and defeated. Taillte was busy preparing some good food for Cu Sith's recovery, and so she worked hard on it. The two girls were busy with their own things, yet they had one common goal, to help each other and to ultimately face off against the evil forces.

---

Elatha and Clive continued on their journey, the sun was still up, and they traveled northwards, and they started seeing railroad tracks along the river, as if a train of some sort traveled past here. Clive scratched his head and Elatha made the observation that "trains" and "locomotives" were similar to Constructs, but not the same. Though they were mechanical in nature, they were man-made and seemed to only move fast on railroad tracks, they could not operate anywhere else. The tracks looked worn and beaten, and Elatha mused about what these tracks could symbolize. Soon, they hit another small town that seemed to have a large structure covering the tracks. When they entered, nobody noticed them, just like in a video game when the main character enters a new city in an RPG. Elatha asked a nearby bystander about the structure, who explained that it was an "unused train station." Elatha inquired further, wanting to know what it was exactly. He learned that a train station was a stop, or a checkpoint for the train to accept more riders. He smiled, having learned something new, and then remembered what Taillte had mentioned about a Locomotive Construct, and perhaps they may find something on that around the village. They found a library nearby and decided to read some books and documents that may talk about the Locomotive Construct. Some of the documents they read were irrelevant, but some had some pertinent information on the construct. It apparently went by the name of The King Loader, and was piloted by someone who was now dead. She died a tragic death at the hands of an all-too-familiar Chelica, which enraged Elatha even more, finding out that such a demoness could be this strong. He wanted desperately to exact revenge on her, and cursed under his breath. This act worried Clive, but he knew how badly Elatha wanted to defeat Chelica.

He had found something interesting too, but kept it to himself and returned the book where he found it. It was something regarding hypnotism. Mostly to defend himself from it, rather than to use it. Some people may wonder what Clive is planning. In any case, Elatha and Clive left the library, filling themselves up with more knowledge, and soon visited the local tavern for some refreshments. They nearly got themselves drunk, but not quite there yet. They were very tired and thirsty, so they lost their inhibitions about themselves. Fortunately, they were still rational. However, there was a lone man sitting at the corner of the bar, he looked oddly like he knew something about The King Loader. So the pair went over and greeted him. The man shrugged and returned the greeting, and asked Elatha what he wanted with a "loser" like him. Elatha shook his head and asked if he knew anything about The King Loader. Suddenly, he looked deathly serious.

"You know it too?"

"We're looking for it."

"Me too. Let's work together!"

"...Who are you?"

The man introduced himself as Maximm, with three m's, and so Elatha and Clive introduced themselves back. Maximm stood up, he was in fact taller than Clive, which seemed to make him a formidable ally to have. He also carried with him a strange object that looked like it released something... different from arrows. Elatha inquired about the thing around Maximm's back. He shrugged, but laughed. "I'm kidding. I call it a 'rifle,' it's an ancient contraption that acts like a crossbow but instead of shooting arrows it shoots a hard projectile called a 'bullet.' It's a lot easier to carry around and it's stronger, as the mechanism launches the bullet at extremely high speeds." Maximm said, trying to compress how much he knew about guns into a small portion. Elatha and Clive nodded, smiling and thanking him for his knowledge. "So, where do we start?" Elatha asked. Maximm pointed north and said that they would continue the hike up north. It was rumoured to be at the last train station, but the last train station was miles away. At least, this time, there were three of them, and three is almost always better than two.

---

Chelica's lair was empty, this time. Only Chelica stood in the middle of it all, plotting her next move, she had sensed her folly in doing what she did earlier, having someone to kidnap Cu Sith, but then her curse had backfired, it seemed to help Etainne in figuring out what was wrong. This infuriated her, and she started screaming about nothing in particular, and ended up starting to pace back and forth, deep in thought, she calmed down and in the end sat back down on her throne, and looked around. "Those fools," she said to herself. "I can't rely on them for anything. I'd better do this myself." she continued, and so she drafted up with her magic the current location of Etainne, she was still in that same accursed town. She smiled evilly and calmly and nonchalantly walked outside of the throne room, and decided to move forth, and make her own move in this chess game of death. Indeed, her plots were not as crafty as the likes of Vallar, but she was very strong when she needed to be.

Chelica herself started out as a lowly demoness, only relying on her blade to solve the situation, but after many assaults by mortals and fellows alike, she wisened up and became more proficient in the killing arts. She wandered the nether worlds across dimensions and mortal planes, and became known as the Demon Ronin, a wandering demoness with a sadistic taste for the hunt, and a near-perpetual bloodlust, that would sometimes lead her to slaughter her own friends in cold blood, and sometimes cause her to wander aimlessly in place, like a berserker misplaced in a field of flowers. It seemed that Chelica's rage and power caught the interest of the Wayfarer, who employed her with the promise of more strength, and so, Chelica was given the status of a demonic lord, and was tasked with being the Wayfarer's guardian as his seal was weakening. And so thus concludes Chelica's short stoy, and her reasoning for being like this.

Chelica left her realm, and found herself in a small clearing in the middle of absolutely nowhere. She looked to the side and saw a long trail of railroad tracks. Scratching her head, she decided to follow them, seeing where it would take her...

[trancehime]

Elatha and Clive, having recently recruited Maximm, continued on their journey, leaving the small town, and passing by the train station, they were to find the Locomotive Construct The King Loader, and it was said in legend that it was stationed at the last train station to the north. The trip was rather uneventful, and it served little actual purpose other than Maximm to share to the others about who he was. He explained that a long time ago, he was a breadwinner father and an amateur inventor, he worked with a bunch of people to invent a bunch of ranged weaponry known as "gun," or at least a replicate of such, based on the ancient civilization's artifacts and remnants. The "gun" worked exactly like how Maximm's rifle worked, except the weapon was usually smaller, and easier to hold, and the recoil hurt less. More dextrous people could wield two at once, much like how some people could wield two swords at the same time. Elatha scratched his head and tried to process this findings of new technology, and decided to see if he could get around having some made for him in the future. However, Maximm did mention that it was hard to use one at first, and you need to practice using it just like you would need to practice archery. The principles of shooting in terms of aim were very similar, if not exactly the same. Only some bullets could pierce through shields, arrows could not, and would tink off them metal.

They passed by another train station, but there was nothing special about it. Maximm decided that it would be best to camp out in the empty train station because the sun was setting and it was getting dark. Elatha agreed with his prudent decision, and so they decided to set up a small camp in the train station. Clive offered to share a piece of his carrot cake with Maximm, but he declined, he procured his own batch of carrot cakes, but these were not magical. He did not know that Elatha and Clive's carrot cakes were blessed, but perhaps that was for the better. Elatha then stood up instantly, having heard a strange sound. "Did you hear that?" he asked. Clive shook his head, and Maximm looked around and saw that in the darkness around them, red eyes could be seen. He poked Clive and mentioned that a fight was going to break out soon. Demons had found them, and they were going to be killed if they didn't fight now. Elatha drew his blade and Clive hefted his battle-axe, finally Maximm drew his rifle and shot at the darkness. Two shots hit the demon right in the head, causing it to explode violently in a fountain of blood, and it disintegrated. This was the first time Elatha saw the rifle in action, and was verily impressed. "That's a deadly weapon." he commented while idly bashing a charging demon in with his broadsword. Clive slammed his magically charged axe, causing a shockwave to drive through a small group of demons, and dispersing them, and they disintegrated from the impact. Maximm grumbled as the rifle's rate of fire was slow, and too many demons were approaching. Though each were getting picked off handily, it was too much for the explorer to handle.

"Hey, let me help!"

Elatha rushed in, and pointed at the large structure that was actually an abandoned ticket station, and said that Maximm would be better off shooting from up there. Agreeing, he ran and jumped up there quickly. Elatha and Clive were on the ground level, warding off the demon rush as they swung their weapons carefully, as they were heavy, they could not compromise their defense too much. Fortunately, Maximm was able to pick off the demons from his vantage point, and quickly, the three of them wiped out the invading force of about fifty to sixty demons. The three were fairly tired, and they returned to their camp, and started another fire once more. Panting, they all fell on their backs and fell asleep.

---

Etainne and Taillte had finished with their personal business, and then they returned to the clinic to check on Cu Sith and the boy's condition. It seemed they recovered fairly fast, though Seltis was one of the best doctors there were, and that actually helped boost Thelesia's renown a bit once Seltis was exposed. Cu Sith was able to properly talk, now, and thanked Seltis for her help, and Etainne for saving him once more. She said nothing but smiled in relief, for how stupid the kid was, at least he was a grateful person. Taillte grinned too, and was far more interested in the boy she did not know. She wondered who he was, and asked Etainne about it. She wasn't sure either, she planned to ask once the boy fully recovered, he must have come from a long way. The demon's possession over him was loose, and so it would be easy to ask him about where he came from, and how the demon came to overcome him. Seltis shooed Etainne and Taillte away, though, mentioning that they were still recovering, though they are significantly better. "Come back later," she said. "They'll be fine by tonight." So Etainne and Taillte walked away, murmuring to themselves that even though Seltis was good and usually kind, she could be irritably pushy when it came to her line of work.

Etainne asked Taillte to go back to her house with her, and the child happily agreed. Etainne had a book she wanted to ask her friend about, it was with regards to a certain Chelica, and so, the two read that book, and so Etainne asked for clarification. What did she need clarification on? It was simple, it was stated that the Wayfarer's top servant was female, and possessed a great blade. This servant of the Wayfarer's sought revenge on the offspring and descendents of Cethlenn, for Cethlenn was the one to stop her from fully growing due to the Wayfarer's power. Etainne asked if the servant in question could possibly be Chelica. If this was the case, it made a hell lot more sense why she was aiming to attack Thelesia, and this made certain that Etainne was a descendent of Cethlenn, which in turn confirmed that she was indeed destined to pilot Tlachtga, through divine heritage. And so, Taillte thought to herself for a moment, that perhaps, this would be the case. They spent the rest of the afternoon analyzing that book, and when they noticed it was already heading to the night, they rushed back to the clinic, but something was wrong.

Seltis looked very worried.

"Where's Cu Sith?" Etainne asked. The boy was still there, but Cu Sith was gone. His bed was very neatly made.

"Madame, Cu Sith was fully recovered, but when I forced him to stay here to see you, he ran away saying he needed to look for something at the Lake Oizen... I think he may have dropped something there. Hurry and go find him."

Taillte had already rushed out to go find Cu Sith, and indeed, saw him swimming, in his clothing, in the Lake Oizen, trying to find something. Taillte called out towards him, but sensed a strange presence under the water. A demon was lurking there, and it could eat Cu Sith easily if he wasn't so careful. Taillte cursed to himself, and explained the situation to Etainne once she arrived. Etainne then applied palm to face.

"That blistering IDIOT!" she yelled.

Etainne ran to the pathway to Tlachtga and invoked it hurriedly, which caught Cu Sith off guard as the Tlachtga was actually within the lake. The water that was being splashed revealed the creature, that screamed and grew to the size of Tlachtga before grabbing her just as Tlachtga was about to invoke Mormegil, and paralyzed her. Tlachtga screamed, and soon Taillte had rushed off to invoke Lughnasadh, and in the dragon, charged to stop the demon. Cu Sith swam back to shore and ended up finding what he was looking for, it was a sword. The sword was stained with blood, but Cu Sith washed off the blood, and ran off. Lughnasadh shot a laser beam at the demon, which screamed and released its hold on Tlachtga, who lurched back and braced herself. Lughnasadh was quick to respond, flying in the air and going to defend Tlachtga. He morphed into his knight form and placed his spear at the ready. Tlachtga spent some time to recover her shields, and thusly held Lughnasadh's shoulders to give him energy.

Lughnasadh cried forth "How dare you touch milady!" and used the energy lending to charge a giant beam of energy forth into the spear, and shot directly at the demon, who could not react at all, and was vaporized instantly. And so, thereafter, Etainne and Taillte returned to a frantic and worried Cu Sith, who apologized and presented the sword to Etainne and Taillte. Cu Sith requested that Etainne write a letter to Elatha about the sword that he found, it was an enchanted blade that possessed magical properties, it could help in the detection of new Constructs. Etainne made a note of it and requested that he pass the sword to her for analysis and study. Cu Sith gladly agreed, giving the sword to her. Taillte grinned, even if the boy was stupid, he could be pretty useful for some things. Seltis walked to the group and sighed, hearing the entire commotion, and that it was another demon attack. But why was that demon lurking there? It seemed apparent that it was guarding that sword, as the sword was left there by some people, and it revealed itself. Cu Sith had found its location, aggravating the monster demon and letting it loose. When he tried to get it, he got attacked, forcing Etainne and Taillte to save him. At least, now, Cu Sith was feeling better, and he did not feel like complete trash.

Etainne, Taillte, Cu Sith, Seltis and the boy went to the tavern to have supper. And so, Etainne asked the boy what his name was. He said he was "Katatonia, the son of Gilthan." Taillte was shocked, that cloaked boy from earlier had a son? Was he married? None were so sure, but Katatonia explained that he was possessed by a demon, and in some sort of demonically granted speed, ran all the way here to transmit a hex to Etainne, which explained Chelica's musical hex. After Katatonia was expulsed of the curse, Etainne's curse also faded away. The story made more sense now. Etainne wondered what was up with that, though, and asked Katatonia where he and Gilthan hailed from. He mentioned he was coming from the Tundra Plaguelands up north, and despite its name, it was actually relatively safe. The Plaguelands, according to Katatonia, did house a certain ruined Construct, but while people want to pilot it, it was pretty bashed up, beyond help, nobody could really use it at all. Etainne wondered what the name of the construct was, but she started yawning. Taillte requested that Katatonia do rest in her house for a bit, and he agreed, mentioning that he would have to return the next day. Etainne asked if he could stay for just one more day for some questions, and Katatonia agreed after some heavy thought. He finally realized what Etainne was, and so took this as an opportunity to learn more as well. This was his motive for accepting.

"I will stay for one more day, then."

"Thank you."

Everyone then retired to bed.

[trancehime]

Etainne woke up the next day, and so with her waking, she found that some of her books were strewn along the ground and noticed that Taillte and the kid, Katatonia, were busy ransacking her library because apparently the kid wanted to learn some stuff from Etainne's armory of books. Etainne sighed and yawned before getting up, she was in her pajamas, and it seemed quite adorable to Taillte, who giggled. "What are you doing in my house when I'm still asleep? How did you even get in?" she asked. Taillte pointed to Katatonia, who whirled his finger, it seemed he could pick locks. Etainne groaned, these two did not really know what "privacy" was, they just barged into someone else's house without permission. However, she did not really have the right to get angry at the two, because Etainne had some questions to ask the boy. So, she sighed and magicked her clothes on her, when Taillte and Katatonia were not looking. The boy then tilted his head as Etainne addressed him, and soon began to bombard him with a series of questions, but he was able to understand them all. He explained that the Plaguelands' broken Construct was the Winter Construct Arktikos, it possessed immense control over the snow and ice, but it was destroyed during the climactic battle with the Wayfarer and the ultimate evil. He said it could be revived with the power of Mormegil, but he was not able to find whoever had it. Etainne smiled and said she wielded the power of Mormegil at present, and the Triad of Mormegil appeared and fluttered around Etainne, giggling. Katatonia saw them, and smiled, and bowed in apology. "I'm sorry, Madame, I did not know you had the power." Etainne said it was alright, and explained that she was trying to conduct research on how to stop the Wayfarer from reviving the Ultimate Evil, and further explained the situation with the Demon Ronin Chelica. Katatonia sighed, he too, was familiar with the Demon Ronin Chelica, and said that he would try to help in as much as he can, but first he must notify Gilthan of the Burning Curses, his father. He mentioned that perhaps he would be interested in helping too. Taillte then mentioned having met him already, which shocked the boy.

"You are familiar?"

"Yes, we did see him at some point."

"Well, he must be willing to help you then, as soon as I tell him of the truth of Mormegil."

"Thank you, and do so with posthaste."

Katatonia smiled, and remembered he promised to stay the day, and said he would stay, and everyone was happy. Etainne said she had some things to ask, and so she spent the rest of the day talking with Katatonia about magickal things, and the History.

---

Elatha, Clive and Maximm woke up the next morning in the train station, and the sky was bright, clear, and beautiful. The sun was shining, and it was time to continue the trek. Maximm made sure to reload his rifle, and Elatha and Clive were just about finished polishing their weapons before continuing to set off. During their trip, Maximm was walking and trying to do some bird-watching at the same time. Elatha had the idea he was going to use the rifle for hunting, but Maximm could read his thoughts and said blatantly he was against using his weapon for such recreational activities like game-hunting and bird-shooting, he liked and enjoyed nature very much, or so he claimed. Clive smiled and Elatha admired Maximm's respect for Mother Nature, and gave him a friendly pat on the back, as bros would usually do. Maximm looked in the distance and saw the figure of a tired looking woman holding a parasol. He pointed towards her and as chivalrous fellows would do, Elatha and Clive ran to her, Maximm lagging behind a little, it seemed the pair were renewed with vigor, and so they went to see the woman. However, Clive then sensed something strange about the woman, but dismissed it as paranoia, given last night's circumstances. They asked her if she was alright. She said she was alright, but needed to take a nap. She said her name was Clarissa, and so, she sat down on the ground and fell asleep.

Elatha and Clive also sat down, with Maximm standing up and saying he wanted to keep watch. Clarissa ended up napping pretty heavily, but it was unknown to the three that "Clarissa" was actually Chelica in disguise, and Clive's strange feeling was not totally unfounded, there was in fact a certain danger in keeping this woman around. She recognized Elatha easily, and thought to herself in her sleep that it would be a good opportunity for her to try and end his adventure prematurely. Meanwhile, she could have her way with Clive and Maximm, perhaps enslave them, she did not know. Clive looked at Clarissa and rubbed his forehead, something was definitely wrong, he thought, and stood up. Elatha asked Clive what was wrong, and he pointed at Clarissa in response. Maximm bluntly said "The big fellow has a strange suspicion about Miss Clarissa. Perhaps we should ask some more information about who she is once she wakes up." he said, and so Elatha agreed. They should make sure Clarissa was a safe person to interact with. If not, they would get rid of her immediately, especially if she was a demon in disguise (which she was, but they did not know that!).

And so, it seemed, that the afternoon passed by idly and without incident. Clarissa awoke properly, and was more than ready to do some more walking. Clarissa said she got lost and found herself here, and was following the tracks to see if she could find civilization. She asked Elatha if she could tag along, but the men answered that they could only do so if they could be convinced Clarissa wasn't dangerous to have around, or that she wouldn't stab their backs at night. That last comment bothered Clarissa a bit, which made Clive tilt his head curiously, his suspicions seemed even heavier now, and Maximm seemed to agree with Clive's worry, but Elatha tried very hard to continue trusting Clarissa. "Hey, you two, she hasn't shown any sign that she's going to stab us in the back yet! Clearly we should bring her along." he said, and Clive resisted the temptation to facepalm. Clarissa, in her mind, was very happy, Elatha was still the gullible fool he was back then. And so, Clarissa smiled and thanked Elatha for being understanding, and she was accepted for now. She decided to travel north ahead and leave the three for a bit, and so Maximm gently punched Elatha's back. "You fool!" he said softly. "Clive and I know she's going to get us in the end, that woman is just bad news!" he continued, and Clive nodded in agreement. Elatha scratched his head and wondered if the woman was anyone he knew before... But he could think of nothing.

He shrugged.

Maximm grumbled. "We're so screwed."

---

Etainne and Katatonia continued their discussion, and so, they learned numerous things, but there was a big issue that came up right then and there, there was a loud roar outside, and Cu Sith ran in, screaming. "It's a demon, and it can cloak!" he said, pointing at the demon flashing in and out of invisibility, such an ability baffled the minds of normal mortals, but Etainne looked gravely serious. She asked Taillte to go with her to invoke Tlachtga and Lughnasadh, and told Katatonia to stay. However, she did not know that he was special, he was a Construct pilot too. In response, the boy smiled and stay put, looking at Cu Sith who was panicking madly and wildly. Katatonia cast a spell and tranquilized him, before running out and seeing the Tlachtga and Lughnasadh do combat with the chameleonic demon, but then, the two Constructs were struggling to deal some significant damage to the foul beast, for it was able to cloak in time to dodge their attacks. Katatonia sighed and wondered that this beast was summoned by Gilthan to look for him, those demons were common invaders of the Tundra Plaguelands, and so he whistled, calling forth his Construct, the Shadowroo, it was an owl, a large one, and it did not change, it flew around, and soon Katatonia embarked, and went to assist Tlachtga and Lughnasadh. Lughnasadh recognized Shadowroo, and said "Hey, old pal! It's nice to see you again." and so, Shadowroo hooted a greeting in response and unfurled his wings, revealing the location of the demon indefinitely, under Shadowroo's nocturnal gaze, it could not cloak. Tlachtga smiled and soon she and Lughnasadh proceeded to rain hell on the demon, which promptly disintegrated.

Etainne learned that Katatonia was a Construct pilot as well, who piloted the Invigilator Shadowroo, it could detect invisible and hidden demons, and was a great Construct for scouting missions. It could not fight very well alone, but made a great partner. Katatonia theorized that Gilthan must have tamed one and sent it here to try and find him, so he must quickly cut short his stay. Taillte and Etainne wished him goodbye and he teleported back to see Gilthan in the Plaguelands, to inform him of why he was late and his new discovery.

---

Katatonia saw Gilthan in his study when he returned, and he was faced with the question of why he was late. Katatonia explained that he was taken under a demonic possession, and ran to the village of Thelesia, where he was saved by a girl called Etainne and her friend Taillte. Gilthan stood up and turned around to face his son, the name Etainne was still fresh in his mind, and learned that perhaps it was fate for them to help the girls in their divine mission to purge the world of the Evil. Gilthan smiled and apologized for summoning that demon, but it seemed they had no problems with fending it off anyway. Katatonia smiled and asked for his assistance. Gilthan agreed that they would have no issue with helping the two girls. They ran off quickly to prepare, the Shadowroo was already awake and ready to follow Katatonia wherever he went, and Gilthan looked at it, wondering if their residence was going to be safe. Then he immediately remembered his daughter, who refused to leave anyway, and thus left it to her to take care of the house in their absence. Gilthan and Katatonia looked at each other, then nodded, before teleporting back to Thelesia.

Etainne and Taillte were a bit shocked to see the two magicians return so fast, and Cu Sith hadn't even recovered from the tranquilizer spell Katatonia had placed on him. Etainne bowed politely, as if in great reverence to Gilthan of the Burning Curse, and so Gilthan said it was not necessary to be so formal, they spoke as equals, as Etainne, for her childly looks, was still very much an ancient being. Etainne nodded. "Sir Gilthan, it's an honor to see you once more," she said. "I suppose you will be helping us?" and to this, Gilthan nodded. Taillte said the two were welcome to stay at her house for lodgings and cooking. Katatonia smiled, having already tasted Taillte's delicious cooking, and so forth bragged about Taillte's magical delicacies to Gilthan, who smiled and wondered if it was as good as his daughter's. Taillte bowed too, and wondered if Cu Sith was going to wake up soon. And so forth, Cu Sith did not wake up again, for the meanwhile. This kind of scared Taillte, but Katatonia mentioned that it was an unfounded fear. Cu Sith needed the rest anyway, he was panicking so much, as if in a terrible ill frenzy. Taillte sighed with relief and Gilthan laughed, having briefly spoken to Cu Sith and learning that he was not the brightest bulb in the box, and reassured Taillte that he would be just fine.

Night was passing through, and it seemed apparent that Etainne's task was getting easier, but there were many challenges to jump through.

---

Late at night, Maximm, Clive, Elatha and Clarissa found themselves at another train station, this was perhaps the penultimate one, for Elatha said that the tracks were getting thinner and they would reach a dead end at some point. Clarissa agreed with Maximm's decision to stay for the night. Elatha already fell asleep, but Clive and Maximm was wide awake, looking intently at Clarissa who was looking at Elatha's sleeping body in a suspicious manner, she seemed to want something from him. Maximm asked what she wanted from Elatha, and Clarissa said nothing, she just wanted to see him, as she found him cute when asleep. Clive looked serious, but tried not to make his feelings known. Soon Maximm drew his rifle. Clarissa grinned and stood up before stepping away from the three men. She stomped on the ground, and her parasol became a sword and she revealed herself as Chelica, the Demon Ronin! Clive grumbled and Maximm pointed his rifle at the girl. Elatha groaned and tried to wake up, but he could not, Chelica had placed a curse on him and he could not wake up even if he tried to do so.

"You demoness!" Maximm said, shooting one round at her, but she deflected it with her sword.

"Why didn't you stop him and rebuke me?" she asked.

"He's stupid."

"Well, you and I agree on something kid!" she continued. "I like how you think! But since you are with him, I must deal with you as well. Etainne is a devilish little girl, like me, but more pure of heart, and she tasked YOU to find King Loader. Only, I'll find it first and then get rid of it!"

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I'm going to kill you! And then I'll go."

"I'd like to see you try!"

And so, Maximm and Clive readied their weapons as Elatha rolled to a safer place, trying to open his eyes, but he could not, he was trapped in a strange nightmare that would be a pain in the ass to describe. He groaned, and Maximm shot rounds at Chelica, who flew up into the air and deflected each round handily. She shot spears of dark energy at Maximm back, but they were blocked by the holy force of Clive's axe. Chelica chuckled. "Good thing it's two of you, or you will already be dead by now." As stinging and insulting as that sounded, Maximm knew it was true. Elatha had told him the story, and so he knew of the Demon Ronin's immense power. However, Maximm shot at her wing, and it hit, causing her to scream and fall down. Even if she was powerful, bullets were stronger, if they hit. She kneeled down, panting for a bit before standing up. Clive suddenly knocked her down with his axe in an instant, Chelica growled and lurched back. "It seemed I underestimated you two! You guys are stronger than that princely loser over there, at least! Well, we'll meet again. And I will eliminate you. Good eve, you pathetic fools!" Chelica screamed before teleporting away in an exploding bloody mass, spaying blood all over Elatha, who woke up as the curse now faded.

"Oh goodness, what is with this blood?" he asked.

Clive facepalmed, explaining that they had just warded away Chelica. Maximm blew smoke off his rifle and stood proud, explaining that even guns could deal a lot of damage to demon lords and ladies. Elatha sighed and thanked Clive and Maximm for saving him, and asking for forgiveness, humbling himself for his lack of better judgment. He was forgiven, however, as they now had an idea of how to stop her. The power of the gun was good at stopping her. Elatha then set to writing a letter to Etainne about Maximm, and their encounter with Chelica, and how they were able to ward her away from doing too much damage. Etainne would be happy to hear the news, indeed, and the letter was magicked away. Everyone fell asleep there, because they needed their energy for the next day.

---

Etainne received the letter from Elatha, and was elated to find that they weakened Chelica significantly. This weakening will put less pressure on their part, as they now knew her weakness. However, what was this "gun?" Gilthan said only the ancient warriors of lore wielded such technology, and that it was very rare to find people who could recreate it. Etainne was wondering where Elatha could have found such a person, and smiled. It was a good change to see that she wasn't the only one doing everything. She had formed alliances with powerful allies, and the battle seemed to be doable.

However, this struggle only just begun.

Etainne, Taillte, Cu Sith, Elatha, Clive, Maximm, Gilthan and his son Katatonia.

These would be the Eight Wayslayers of the Present Time.

Their story begins now.

[trancehime]

Dumping the latter half now

*** HEROIC AMALGAMATION TLACHTGA ***

The true story begins... But first, let's see what our heroes and heroines are up to, as of now. They are split into two groups. Elatha and Clive, who managed to recruit the explorer Maximm, were on their journey to assist Etainne and her group through travelling across the land in search of abandoned Constructs, and more people to help them in their operation to prevent the Wayfarer from reviving. Elatha and Clive's first stop was the Delphin Village, where they met the girl Eine, and helped her to uncover the Construct Annalotte, which was one of raging and immense strength. They helped the village by defeating a ravaging sea monster that was summoned by Chelica, to terrorize the area around the River Neine. But then, the pair emerged victorious, and peace was brought to the area once more. Elatha and Clive then made their way northwards, leaving the Delphin Village, and saw a train station with a town, where they met Maximm, and recruited him after they explained about their search for the King Loader. Maximm did not know what he would eventually get himself into, but after getting attacked by Chelica, he learned about it, and so, decided he would stick around for longer after the King Loader was found. They forged a strong bond, and Etainne would be happy to see the new addition.

Etainne, Taillte and Cu Sith managed to befriend a powerful magician, Gilthan of the Burning Curses, and his son, the Snow Shadow Katatonia. Both of them were young boys, and at some point, Etainne wanted to ask about Gilthan's wife, but he would have none of that, it was a bit too personal for him. She was only merely curious, because Gilthan did look remotely feminine himself, she could not tell his gender at first until he spoke with a certain authority, that made certain of his magical origins. Gilthan and Katatonia served to be knowledgeable in their field of study, and so, Etainne would be tapping on them for assistance in fighting the evil and the demons. What was unique about them was that they could call their Constructs by merely whistling, like how Katatonia whistled to call forth Shadowroo to combat the demon that Gilthan summoned out of worry. In any case, it was made certain that these eight heroes would be the ones to come forth and fight the Wayfarer, and stop the Ultimate Evil from emerging, with the assistance of their friends, of course! And so, we begin this tale.

---

Elatha, Clive and Maximm were continuing on their journey, having recently warded away Chelica, they seemed to be in high spirits, now, and made forth on their merry way past the railroad tracks, until they saw the final train station. However, most of it was boarded up. Clive used his great axe to chop down the wood blocking the doorways and the rest of the blockades, and it revealed a dusty locomotive, and on sight, it suddenly lit up, and there were eyes on the front. It looked and saw Maximm, and Maximm smiled in response. "There's something I need to confess to you guys," he said. "The King Loader is mine." Elatha and Clive were shocked, and asked why. Maximm said he hid the King Loader here, and knew where it was the entire time, but did not want people knowing about it when he was under pursuit from demons. So, he reinvented himself. In fact, he had forgotten his real name, and adopted the moniker of "Maximm," so Elatha and Clive were lied to. In the end, though, they found what they were looking for, and they laughed. King Loader spoke, asking everyone to get on, and so they did. The King Loader sped off at high speed, and eventually found itself in front of the Delphin Village, making a loud sound.

Eine made her way to see the King Loader, and saw Maximm from the front car, and recognized him. "Is that you, dad?" she said. Maximm gasped, and wondered, if that was really his kid, and what the heck she was doing in this backwater village. He disembarked from the King Loader, Elatha and Clive followed, looking a little surprised, too, and so, Maximm did recognize his child, it was actually Eine, the girl who piloted Annalotte from earlier. Elatha laughed, it was a good feeling to see a parent reunite with their child. Maximm and Eine then thanked the two for reuniting them in this circumstance, and wondered what he missed. Eine explained that with Elatha and Clive's help, she was able to find and use the Construct Annalotte, and King Loader made a comment, saying that "Annalotte was a close friend of mine." Elatha laughed, and felt a little scared, mentioning back to King Loader that "Well, it must have been a blast to deal with such a psycho."

"Well, you get used to it!"

Elatha and Clive laughed. Maximm and Eine beckoned towards the two to come forth for a celebration, and so, that night was spent for celebration, that a father reunited with his daughter after so many years of being separated from one another. Eine and Maximm were given the lowdown on the situation by Elatha, who mentioned that the Wayfarer, the demon who was fought in the Epic Clash, that historical event that lead to his sealing, was about to be released. Or rather, someone was working on trying to release him. The demon that attacked them earlier, Chelica, was among them. Maximm and Eine nodded, and wondered what they could do. Elatha said that the more people he could find that could use Constructs, the easier it would be to defend the land from rampant demon attacks. And so, they spent that night strategizing. They would use the King Loader to visit every town along the River Neine and find people capable of using Constructs, such that when the time came, the final fight would occur and the Wayfarer and his demonic forces would be defeated in time.

---

Etainne, Gilthan and Katatonia were spending some time in her house reading books, and conducting some debate and research about the best way to use their resources. Etainne received another letter from Elatha, talking about how they found the King Loader, which was the Locomotive Construct, and were using it to further their heroic pursuit. Gilthan smiled, it seemed he was familiar with Maximm, the one who piloted the King Loader, but under his original name. Out of nowhere, he randomly murmured "Mimus, the Gun-toting Scientist..." which he was namedropping, this was in fact Maximm before he reinvented himself, and hid the King Loader. The King Loader, so said Katatonia, was a long locomotive, or steam-powered train, that spanned several tens of feet long, and could transform into a great robot that could combine with other Loaders, but these Loaders are yet to be found, and perhaps Elatha and his troupe could find them. Furthermore, he explained that Annalotte was mostly a sea dweller, but had the capability to travel quickly down the Neine to follow her pilot's call and beckon, just like Katatonia and Gilthan's ability to whistle their Constructs to battle. Etainne took down notes with quill pen and paper, and smiled, learning a lot from this. She then asked about the ability of Mormegil, and why it was so instrumental.

Gilthan explained that the Mormegil possessed a holy power so strong, it could sometimes surpass Cethlenn's own on a good day, and when it was materialized in the Astral Construct, it possessed world-destroying capability. However, the energy needed to seal the Wayfarer was even more than that, and the Mormegil weakened itself significantly trying to do that. In the aftermath, lesser demons swarmed it and chipped it away into bits, causing the Mormegil Triad to eject and remanifest themselves into a weapon, such that it still retained most of its power, but it could not be misused, as it could only be wielded by pure of heart. Since the Tlachtga was directly descended from Cethlenn, it could use the power of the Mormegil. Etainne took down more notes and asked about a certain cursed Construct, and wondered if it was possible to resurrect it with the power of the Mormegil. Gilthan nodded, that it was very much possible. The Mormegil was typically used to exorcise evil spirits, after all, and as an Astral Construct, the power was used to permanently expulse demons from the universe, and banish it to another dimension where its terrorizing would be useless. Etainne smiled.

Katatonia then added that finding the Mormegil was a huge blessing in itself, and wondered if it was willed by Cethlenn herself. Gilthan wondered about that possibility, and laughed, saying that it might just be the case. Etainne then sat there and thought about it for a bit, before asking a rather random question.

"Is Cethlenn my mother?"

Gilthan and Katatonia looked at each other, and then laughed loudly, it seemed even Taillte from outside could hear the laughter, and the two mages wondered if that was the case, they would need to trace Etainne's genealogy if they wished to confirm the validity of such a claim. Etainne laughed and said she was just kidding, and mentioned that the Tlachtga was given to her and she could easily pilot it, which is why she was questioning her legitimacy as the pilot, as she doesn't recall being directly related to the Divine Mother. Katatonia nodded, understanding where Etainne came from, but ultimately said it would be a bad idea to question it, it's a huge blessing and should not be taken for granted. Etainne agreed and apologized for thinking such a foolish thing. The night was coming, and it seemed that Gilthan was looking exhausted, so he said he would retire at Taillte's for the night. Katatonia nodded and said he would catch up later. Taillte had already prepared their beds, anyway, as she knew the mages were tired.

About half an hour later, Katatonia also went to Taillte's house to sleep.

At this point, Etainne was returning the books and also made it a plan to sleep.

---

Elatha, Clive, Maximm and his daughter Eine were now talking about what they were going to do the next day. Maximm said he would take Elatha and Clive down to visit the rest of the villages in order to find more Construct pilots, but then, Eine stubbornly asked to come with them. Maximm said it would be too dangerous for the child, but Eine said she was capable of doing so, as she could handle the psychotic handling of Annalotte, and her amazing speed and power underwater, so she could clearly handle the same thing on King Roader, and assist with other things. Eine then procured a six-shooter from her pocket, and Elatha asked where the hell someone as young as her got her hands on such a thing. Maximm laughed, and soon understood how serious his kid was. "Well, I suppose I can't stop you," he said. "You can fire that thing, right?" he asked, and Eine demonstrated by shooting a round into the air. It hit nothing, obviously, but she barely felt any recoil, and Maximm made a slow, low whistle and clapped softly. Elatha seemed to approve, too, even though Eine was probably two years younger than him, she seemed oddly attractive to him, in a pure sense, and found it sad someone like her is getting herself involved in something like this. In any case, he silently made a note to try and protect her at all costs.

The night was descending upon them, and soon everyone decided it would be a good idea to sleep and take the day off. Eine and Maximm yawned, and ended up just falling asleep where they were. Elatha also did the same thing, but Clive remained awake. Clive looked up at the sky, and wondered, just exactly, where this was going to take them, and wondered if he could attain his own personal goal, too. He enjoyed being alongside his ward, but at the same time, he felt like he was being torn away from his personal pursuits, too. He wondered when he was going to see Etainne again, all he wanted to do was read her books and be like a bookworm. That's what he really wanted. After his short time of reminiscing, Clive also fell asleep.

The days to come would be long.

[trancehime]

The next day was a little bleak. Elatha, Clive, Maximm and Eine woke up to a loud sound, and there was banging and clanging, it seemed that something was outside. So Eine left where they were and took a peep at what was going on outside. However, it seemed like nothing was there at all, and she saw some pots and pans clanging and banging, but no one was holding them. She scratched her head and poked Clive, who sleepily rubbed his eyes and went outside to see what was up, but then he saw that a demon was there, cloaked, doing the banging and generally being an annoying nuisance. Maximm then shot at nothing particular with a gun he found by the table (this was his daughter's six-shooter, but he was too sleepy to really notice) and then a demon could be heard screaming in pain. The demon that held the pots and pans fell to the ground and disintegrated, you could see the dust flying around everywhere. Eine scratched her head but then understood, that the demon was invisible, but Clive (and presumedly Elatha, too) could see it and then Maximm finished it off. She smiled and it seemed the demon left behind a small tag. Eine went to see it, but Clive stopped her and examined it himself with care, he could resist any curses that flew from it. Alas, the tag was just a regular one, and he picked it up and read what was on it. Eine asked what was written on it, but Clive did not say anything, instead giving it to Maximm. On the note was the name "Gilthan," and on the back of the tag there was a button. He pressed it and a letter replaced the tag in a puff of magical smoke. Clive clapped. Maximm read the letter and it was written by Gilthan. Maximm scratched his head.

When Maximm was still known as Mimus, he was a researcher and scholar who studied on many things, and helped in the invention of the "gun," and made the unique "rifle," of to this day, he was still the only person in the land who owned one. Despite his scholarly roots, he was very powerful physically, and did not possess much talent for the magical arts, unlike Clive. He did, however, have a weapon that might as well have been magical, the rifle. It was very powerful too, one round from it could neutralize most demons already. Gilthan of the Burning Curses was a friend of his, and it was Gilthan's sister who Maximm had a child with, and they got married. However, she was part of the war against the Wayfarer, and so she perished in helping to seal the demon. Maximm got angry, and decided he would hide away King Loader because he was too scared to face the truth. Then, he remembered the sight of Eine, the child they bore, and decided to go and look for it again, leading him to his current situation. Maximm had to remain grateful to Clive and Elatha, but sometimes he felt a little sad because Gilthan still felt bad over his sister's death. Maximm then realized that Clive and Elatha were on a mission to stop him. So there, Maximm solidified his resolve and confirmed he would be staying with them for good. Eine smiled, having read his thoughts thanks to his facial expressions, which Eine would sometimes say "were as easy to read as a book."

Maximm took the letter as a sign that Clive and Elatha's friends met with him, and are currently working together to research on easier ways to combat the beast. Maximm said it would be time to actuate their plan and go out and do some hunting for Constructs. Eine seemed fairly excited, and so she dragged Clive and Elatha to the King Loader, who was waiting patiently for them outside. Maximm went to pilot it, and yelled happily to set forth, and the train made a sound, emitting smoke and it dashed forward on the tracks. Inside the train, Eine looked at Elatha and then asked him curiously how old he was. Elatha nodded and said he was twenty, and asked the same thing back at Eine, who said she was eighteen. Elatha was visibly shocked, how could an eighteen year old look so young? Eine said her mother (Gilthan's sister) looked the same way, and then Clive remembered Gilthan (who was his master at some point) and his very young and feminine features, and so agreed, saying that he wouldn't put past a descendant of Gilthan's family to look so young at such an age. Suddenly, Clive realized he said something and covered his mouth, beginning to whistle. Elatha tilted his head at Clive, he hadn't heard it, but Eine did, smiling. Elatha asked what happened but Eine said nothing, she respected the man's wishes as he fumbled, speaking where he usually did not. Eine looked outside and there saw a large owl Construct (this was Shadowroo) and on it, was a young boy draped in robes (this was Katatonia). Eine pointed at the Construct and asked Elatha what it was. He did not know.

---

Shadowroo looked at King Loader. King Loader bellowed out a greeting, it was shocking to Maximm's ears, but he didn't mind it when he saw Shadowroo, and recognized it as the Construct of Gilthan's son, Katatonia. Shadowroo mentioned he was here to see how everyone here was doing. Shadowroo dropped off Katatonia onto King Loader, and flew away to wait for his next call. Katatonia greeted Maximm, paying him respects, and decided not to call him by his real name. Maximm explained that the others were in the next car, and so Katatonia went to meet Elatha, Clive and Eine. Eine would then be his cousin, because she was his father's sister's child. Katatonia introduced himself, and mentioned that he was Gilthan's son. Eine smiled and looked at Katatonia, he looked very pretty, she thought, just like her. Elatha grinned and Clive smiled, in a manner that one giving respect would. Katatonia mentioned that demons would be pursuing the King Loader soon, and he would go back to Shadowroo shortly as an escort, and suggested that Eine follow him too so she could get on Annalotte in case things ran amok on the sea. Eine agreed and went with Katatonia, soon they left the King Loader, and back on Shadowroo, leaving Elatha and Clive alone in the cart. Suddenly, there were screaming sounds, it seemed they were the death throes of demons getting shot down by Shadowroo. Elatha saw Eine jump from high in the sky into the River Neine, where Annalotte caught her, and so she began her rampage against the demons who started to swarm the river trying to take pot shots at the King Loader. Soon, some Cacodemons made their way to the side of the King Loader. These Cacodemons spat out lesser demons from their maw, and they tried to board the King Loader, but Elatha and Clive prevented them from doing so with their weapons, and Maximm too picked off the cacodemons with his rifle.

The Shadowroo and Annalotte kept eliminating the demons, but the source was directly on top of the King Loader. Elatha and Clive noticed this, and so Clive made his way to the top of the King Loader, and made contact with the demon, who stopped his chanting and drew a blade. Clive's axe ran down and smashed the blade in half, leaving the demon crippled, as the axe also ran down his legs, and chopped them off. The demon screamed, causing more to come to his aid. However, Shadowroo shot them off and killed them quickly. Annalotte, however, was getting tied up as she was now severely outnumbered, forcing Shadowroo to leave the area and go help her out. The demon was dying, but still stayed strong, shooting magical arrows at Clive, who deflected them with his axe. Some flew back at the demon, striking him for a little damage. All of a sudden, it squealed as it was sliced in half. Elatha managed to get behind him and slice him down. Maximm smiled as he shot down more demons and the last of the cacodemons, and so the threat was averted for now. Elatha and Clive returned to the car and wondered what that was all about. Katatonia made his appearance once more, carrying a sleeping Eine. It seemed that Eine was tired from that excursion, the two of them warded off some seafaring demons, and so it seemed they were all fine in the end. The trip continued smoothly, and soon they ended up at another train station, but the village they were at seemed rather eerie...

---

Gilthan had sent Katatonia off to scout for Mimus (now Maximm) and received good news in the form of a letter from Katatonia, mentioning he helped the King Loader fight off some demons most likely summoned by Chelica. Etainne and Taillte were drawing a map on a piece of sheepskin, it seemed to be a map of the land, and they documented Elatha and Clive's hypothetically complete travel along the River Neine, and so predicted that by now, Elatha would have reached the village of Errus. Sadly, Gilthan made a mention that Errus was under a hex by demons, and everyone was under house arrest. A deadly poisonous smoke emanated from the village, and this scared him and Etainne. If what he said was right, his son would also be there. While he can resist the poison, he was not so sure about Mimus, who was the only person there without some sort of innate magickal resistance. And so, it would seem, he received a letter from Maximm, saying that he would stay in the King Loader, and not enter the village, as he would most likely die from the poison, as if Gilthan's silent prayer was spontaneously answered. He sighed in relief. Etainne wondered what was with Errus, and if they would find anything there. However, Taillte looked outside and saw that it was unusually dark around the village. She could sense an evil energy.

Etainne walked outside and suddenly saw her house surrounded by demons. Cu Sith drew a dagger and followed Etainne. Taillte and Gilthan followed suit, and noted the demons ignored everything else but the house they were surrounding. "Another one of Chelica's wily tactics," he mentioned. "The demons only want us, so they ignore everything else and do illusional cloaking. No one will suspect we're fighting demons like this. We're trapped in their terms." he said. Etainne grumbled and brought out a crystal ball, mentioning that they had no choice but to engage. Taillte and Cu Sith had their weapons out at the ready and prepared themselves to defend Etainne and Gilthan, and so a battle broke out. Taillte was able to use her crystal ball to shoot energy lasers at the demons, and Gilthan's weakening hexes were able to keep the demons from far away at bay, where Taillte's spear and Cu Sith's daggers razed through the ranks of demons running through, and at some point Taillte's spear ran through the head of a demon, and she screamed, it was not aware if it was one of disgust or of happiness. Either way, she seemed to have a bit too much fun with this demon killing business. Soon, the demons were all eliminated and the illusionary curse covering the house was broken in a blind flash of radiant light. Etainne was happy to see the sky properly again, it was dark for a long time, and so Gilthan stepped outside and saw Seltis. Seltis reminded Gilthan of his wife, and so he smiled and remembered her in passing. Taillte looked at Gilthan, who looked melancholic now, and asked what was wrong.

"Your doctor reminds me of my wife." he said.

"Oh... I'm sorry." she responded.

Gilthan shook his head and said there was no need to apologize. In assisting, he was providing some sort of avenue to feel better, because he felt this was what his wife truly wanted to do. The story was, his wife was a strong magician, just like he was, and assisted in the fight against the Wayfarer. However, the problem was, Chelica noted the relationship between Gilthan of the Burning Curses and his wife, and figured that a good way to eliminate the threat to her master was to actually make her worry and therefore stop her from assisting. So, Chelica decided to blast Gilthan in the comfort of his own home with a crippling ray, however, Gilthan's wife noticed this and took the blow for him. This enraged both Chelica and Gilthan. Chelica did not want Gilthan's wife to die or be crippled outright, only for Gilthan to be crippled and for the wife to be a depressed mess. Instead, the opposite occurred, and so Gilthan was now angrier than ever, his loving wife was now dead as a result of the blast. He sought revenge, and in this way, he was similar to Elatha, but more noble about it. Gilthan was surprised to see someone as young as Etainne so knowledgeable, but did not complain, and admired the kindred spirit for her willingness to save the land, and have not much concern for her own life. Suddenly, Gilthan felt a strange presence from the center of the Lake Oizen, and so ran to check it out. Cu Sith, Etainne and Taillte followed suit. Something odd DID happen, and that was a giant tree was starting to grow from the middle of Lake Oizen. Fortunately, Tlachtga was well away from the site, so it did not get damaged. However, the fact remained that a giant godfreaking tree was in the middle of a giant godfreaking lake. Gilthan said it was time to investigate.

"Do we HAVE to investigate the insides of a giant tree?" Etainne whined.

"Maybe it has our answers."

"Sigh."

---

Elatha, Clive, Maximm, Eine and Katatonia had entered the village of Errus. It was originally a prosperous fishing village, but the Wayfarer had placed a deadly poisonous curse over the town, it was a mist emanating from a strange statue at the center of the village square. Maximm said he had no magical aptitude, so going in would instantly kill him, and so he opted to stay behind. Eine agreed with her father's prudent choice. Since she inherited most of her mother's magic, being a sister of Gilthan's, she had much more resistance than her father. The four remaining kids then entered the village, covering their noses. It seemed the poisonous fog was rancid in smell, and it disgusted Katatonia, the youngest of the four. He gestured to the statue that was releasing the fog. "How can we destroy that?" he asked. Clive opted to smash it down, but Eine said doing that would release the fog faster. Elatha agreed, and instead said they needed to find a way to STOP the fog directly. Clive thought about it for a moment and noticed that the village houses all had barred doors, and wondered what the fog was doing that was so dangerous. Eine mentioned that the stench of the fog meant that the curse was one of instant death, rendering the residents under permanent house arrest. Unless they wanted to die a horrible death. Since they all had high magical capabilities, they did not have such a worry, but they did need to deal with that horrid stench. Katatonia then noted a small button on the statue. It said "Press this to stop the fog under emergencies." He pressed the button, causing the smoke to go away.

"What?"

"Was it that easy?"

"I guess so."

Katatonia was facing the others, and so did not see what was behind him. Suddenly, a large demon snuck up behind the kid, and so Elatha pointed and called out "Look out behind you!" and so Katatonia turned around to see the demon was about to smash his face flat and squish it, and quickly teleported away to safety. The poisonous fog had stopped, but it formed the large demonic menace. It seemed to reek of death, and it was similar to that stench that overwhelmed the village. Some windows were being opened now, and the villagers saw Elatha and his friends take on the beast, and their eyes were wide, they were scared and worried about what would happen to them. In fact, it would not do so much good to describe the battle in so much detail; it was gruesome, and much blood was shed. Katatonia and Eine suffered many bruises, and Elatha and Clive's armor were shattered to pieces. Suddenly, Eine was in danger, she had tripped over and the demon was about to gore her on its horn, when suddenly a gunshot from far away was heard. BOOM! HEADSHOT. The demons head exploded in a fountain of blood, Maximm from far away had sniped it with his rifle. Elatha tilted his head. "Did he just improve in the span of a day?" he asked out loud and made a note to inquire about it later.

The villagers of Errus then poured out to celebrate, they were trapped in their houses for a very long time, they could only survive through magical means, and they soon realized that Eine was among them, and thanked her. She was the girl who delivered supplies to the Errus village every day from Delphin Village, as she was the only one strong enough to resist the fog. But now, it was gone. Clive then broke the statue that emanated the gas as a remembrance of what happened here. Clive and Elatha's shattered armor and Eine and Katatonia's bruises made the villagers feel bad, and so they offered hospitality, and Maximm soon followed. Maximm pat Eine's head, and the villagers asked them who the man was. Eine said he was her father, and the villagers smiled. Lots of positive comments, like "A good man raised a good daughter," and the like. Maximm wasn't used to this much praise at once, and blushed for the first time in a long time. Katatonia laughed. The night was setting, and it seemed that it was spent celebrating and making merry.

Eine and Katatonia went away from the party alone and looked towards the River Neine. Katatonia tilted his head and looked up at the starlit sky. Eine looked at Katatonia, and could not get past the fact they were distantly related somehow. She didn't want it to be that way, at least. She was the one who brought him out here, and it all started when Katatonia took her on Shadowroo, she was smitten. And plus, he looked like her. She was a little narcissist in the inside, though she made sure it didn't show so much. She stared at Katatonia, almost in a creepy manner, but the boy did not really notice. Also did not help matters that Katatonia was only fourteen, whereas Eine was eighteen. The boy was mostly clueless to her advances, and so asked Eine why he was brought out here. All Eine could answer were the words...

"Stargazing."

Before giving him a tight hug out of nowhere.

[trancehime]

The next morning rolled by, and it seemed that Eine and Katatonia fell asleep on the hill outside the place where everyone was staying. Elatha went out to see the two of them, and smiled, wondering what those two were doing, and so he was pursued by Maximm, who wanted to know where his daughter was, and he saw Eine who fell asleep on top of Katatonia, and he was wondering what was up with that. Elatha looked to face Maximm, and said that perhaps his daughter found someone she liked. Maximm couldn't believe it, but then he laughed, it seemed to her, Katatonia was more of a stuffed toy than anything. Come to think of it, for how magically adept he was, his age was never really mentioned. Maximm made a note to ask Katatonia how old he was later. Eventually, the two kids woke up, and Katatonia found that Eine had fallen asleep on top of him. He kindly prodded her and asked her to get up. Eine apologized profusely, and stood up, and helped Katatonia to get up too. She saw Elatha and Maximm were watching them, and so she ran to them and asked what they were doing. Maximm said they just got up too, and it was time to search the village for a Construct. Eine nodded, and dragged Elatha off to another part of the village to search. Katatonia turned, but Maximm stopped him and asked him how old he was. The boy answered that he was fourteen. Maximm scratched his head, thinking about how such a young boy possessed that much power, and be that knowledgeable. He certainly looked his age, at least, that relieved him a little. Elatha and Eine did some asking around in the village, and wondered where the construct around was. Katatonia pitter-pattered behind them, and pointed to the well. Eine peered down the well and noted that the hole looked bottomless, but then she picked up a rock and dropped it into the well. She could hear a sound at the end of the well. Perhaps, there was indeed someone, or something down there. This thought intrigued Elatha, who wanted to get down there. Maximm smiled and followed the group to the well, and so procured a rope from his backpack, and threw it down the well, holding it. He said he would stay.

Elatha, Katatonia and Eine went down the rope and so suddenly Elatha wondered where Clive was. He surmised he was probably still sleeping (he was). Clive was still in the room, and he was asleep, it seemed he was really tired. The truth of the matter was when everyone else fell asleep he was busy conducting some research around the town, and he was actually the one to open the way to the well, but he was so tired, he could not check on his own. So he went back to the house and slept later than everyone else. Clive seemed to not know what was going on, and continued to sleep through the noise. Outside, Maximm was keeping a hold on the rope, and Elatha, Katatonia and Eine had already went down the well, and saw a man and woman there, looking a giant Construct. Elatha asked who the two people were, and found that the couple had been turned to stone. Wondering how that happened, he asked Katatonia and Eine to find a way to get rid of the petrification. It was magical in nature, and so he was sure Katatonia or Eine could find a way to cure it. Through a quick snap of the finger, magical white energies sparked at the statues and the stone encasing the couple were broken. As that happened, the Construct that towered over them lit up. It was a twin-headed lion, like a strange chimaera. Elatha tilted his head, and Katatonia pointed at the Construct. "Well, you two, this must be yours." The man spoke, and said that he and his wife were trapped down here with the Construct, and a curse turned them to stone. They were stuck there and wondered if no one was ever going to save them. The twin-headed lion was the Construct Balor, and it seemed to lurk underneath Errus, as if waiting for something to call to it. The couple found it, but they were cursed and turned to stone by something. Katatonia freed them, allowing Balor to wake up. Soon, a roar could be heard. Maximm called down from above.

"Hey, hurry up! Demons are coming to attack!"

The couple nodded and embarked on Balor, and everyone else rushed up the rope ladder, and once they re-emerged on the surface, Maximm put away his rope and pointed at the sky. There were two small squad of greater demons flying over Errus, in an attempt to invade the village and strike. It seemed nowadays, demons were attacking with an alarming frequency. Clive woke up to the sound and ran out, seeing the demons flying down and engaging in an invasion. He sighed and looked to his friend. Elatha, Clive and Maximm were once again stuck on the ground level, King Loader was not ready to fight yet. Katatonia called Shadowroo and Eine stopped by the River Neine to go embark on Annalotte, and suddenly, Balor made his appearance, roaring at the sky, and many demons landed on Errus, spinning their spears at Balor. They were just about the same size as him, and Elatha and Clive were wondering how they could help. At least, Maximm had a gun to shoot the enemies with. Elatha and Clive had to make sure they didn't get crushed. Suddenly, the demons on ground slammed their weapons down, causing lesser demons to flood out from them, and the Balor growled, charging forward with twin-heads biting and gnashing teeth. Clive and Elatha were stuck dealing with the smaller lesser demons with their weapons and stopping them from causing too much havoc. Elatha and Clive were keeping themselves busy. Annalotte was dealing with more demons on the sea, and it seemed she was driving forth her lance down the bodies of the demons. The demons on sea were afraid of Annalotte's raging touch, so some of the amphibious once made their way up shore, but were quickly shot down from the sky by Shadowroo, who engaged in a dogfight with the demons that remained in the sky. It was a heated battle, lots of dust could be seen, and Balor and the other Constructs were starting to overpower the enemy. Clive and Elatha continued knocking down the lesser demons, and Maximm assisting from far away with potshots with his rifle.

At the end, the demons were vanquished and everyone was happy. The Balor returned, and now there spawned a lift to go up to the surface. The couple returned to the surface eagerly, and so thanked Elatha and Clive for their deeds. Eine and Katatonia returned too, and noted that the Balor could be a good fighting force to help Etainne and the others get close to the Wayfarer. Katatonia looked up at the sky and decided to write a letter to Etainne about the Balor, and asked her to conduct some research with Gilthan his father about it. He had it sent through magic and asked Eine if she was alright. Eine blushed, and thought to herself that this boy was so gallant enough to ask her concern, and completely forgot that he mentioned he was only fourteen, he did not have such notions over romance as she did, and sighed dreamily, as if she struck jackpot. Furthermore, she did not know she had some sort of bloodly relation with him... If she knew, one would wonder and be curious of her reaction. Eine bowed and said she was fine, resisting the strong urge to carry Katatonia on her back, like a teddy bear. Katatonia smiled and said "That's good." Eine felt like swooning for some weird reason. It seemed that looking at him reminded her of herself, and she felt so aroused by the thought, she wanted to run away and take him with her, and have her way with him. Katatonia saw Eine's face, and wondered if she was really alright, she had a strange grin on her face. Eine said not to mind her, and wandered off to the tavern and asked Maximm to go with her. Maximm was a little worried, Eine did not usually ask to have such a chat with him. Katatonia stood there, clueless. Elatha walked behind him and pat his back.

"I think she likes you," he said. "Is something wrong?"

"Well... She's my cousin..."

"Does she know that?"

"No."

"Do you plan on telling her?"

"I'm afraid of her reaction..."

"Well, do as your heart desires. Just don't do anything you'll regret, no?" Elatha said, smiling and being reminded of his initial encounter with Chelica, all those years ago. He had been a fool.

---

Etainne received a letter from Katatonia, it was detailing the discovery of the Balor, and soon tugged on Gilthan's great robes, to ask him what the Balor was, she had only heard of the Construct in legend. Gilthan explained that the Chimera Construct Balor was a great lion beast with two heads, was winged, and had a serpentine tail. The tree in the middle of Lake Oizen intrigued Cu Sith, who had already dragged Taillte to help him explore it, and they left Etainne and Gilthan outside to conduct more research. The letter detailed that maybe the two should do some research on Balor, but Gilthan said the giant Tree of Oizen should be investigated first, it was said to be a tree that appeared only during a time of catastrophe, and since Cu Sith was so eager to explore it with Taillte, the two of them outside should just do some scholarly research on it. Etainne agreed, she was not so comfortable with the idea of exploring the insides of a giant tree in the middle of a giant lake. So, they entered Etainne's house and started to look for books about the giant Tree of Oizen, and so laid down the books, and started reading and taking down even more notes. Etainne was most wondering about why the tree would make its appearance at a time like this, which was merely apocryphal, the worst had not actually made itself known yet. Gilthan read something, and so, he made the following summary.

*** The Tree of Oizen was one of the great landmarks of history. This blazen, unnamed land, lacking a name, was rumoured to have had a nickname based on this tree, it was sometimes referred to as Oizenheim, because this tree housed a great relic, it was one to be used in times of great peril. The relic in question was one that rivaled the power of Mormegil itself, it was the Endless Gate Blade Claiomh Solais, it was wielded by the Mormegil itself in order to help cut down the chains that protected the Wayfarer in the historical clash that set itself to bring forth peace in the land. The Tree itself was labyrinthine, and it was huge, and would only appear from the Lake of Oizen during times of great need. The Claiomh Solais was at the top, and obtaining it would be a great boon for the cause of stopping the Wayfarer. However, the problem of the present day lay in trying to find an appropriate wielder of the Claiomh Solais, as the Mormegil was no longer a Construct, it became a weapon. The Tlachtga was the one wielding the Mormegil, so there were several candidates for wielding the Claiomh Solais, unfortunately, one could only think of the best one being the Justice Nemesis Construct Cianne, and very few people could actually properly wield his power.

Note; My wife originally used the Cianne ***

Etainne took a gander over the summary and scratched her head. She recognized the name Cianne, and then realized that Gilthan's wife was the Magician Queen Akrona, and then realized that she perished from sickness, but she had no idea Akrona was Gilthan's wife. Truly, he was a powerful and gentle man to gain Akrona's trust. Etainne felt like shedding a tear, and suddenly apologized to Gilthan.

"Why the apology, Madame? Are you alright?"

"I had no idea... Lady..."

"...I... see..."

"I'm so sorry. She was a great person..."

"..."

Gilthan sighed and explained his story to Etainne. Akrona and he were married for many years, and they were the way they were now due to magical means, essentially immortal, though it seemed that immortality could not save Akrona frmo a certain death, Chelica had decided to hatch a nefarious plan to set her out of the picture, and invaded his house alone, and attempted to shoot her deadly fatal curse at him, except Akrona sacrificed herself to save him. Akrona tried valiantly to fight the curse, and Gilthan used all his powers to try and stem it, but it was too powerful, Akrona faded and passed away from the curse. It was too strong, and so the Queen died. Gilthan was taken over by a deadly depression, and only snapped out of it after his son Katatonia, then only seven years old, who spewed wise lines, and it seemed that Katatonia inherited the kindness of his mother, and helped Gilthan get on his two feet again, and he went on a journey of self-discovery, to try and find his place. And so, this journey led him to meet Etainne and learn of her valiant cause. Gilthan smiled and thanked Etainne.

---

Taillte and Cu Sith were inside the Tree of Oizen, expecting monsters, but they saw nothing, it was just a great labyrinthine maze, and they just explored, finding many cute critters along the way. Cu Sith was expecting a challenge, but all he got in response were confusing forks. Fortunately, Taillte was more clever than her male compatriot, and was able to drag Cu Sith along the right way. They found a set of stairs and decided that they would probably be able to find something at the top, so they ascended, and found themselves in more mazes, and this angered Cu Sith and his lack of patience. Taillte sighed and silenced him with a spell, before dragging him once more. She did not need a map, this was strange but for how ditzy she could be, she had a better sense of direction than most males, who some people believe were superior navigators, but this was not true at all, sense of direction is different on a case to case basis. Taillte continued to drag Cu Sith along the way, and his face slammed against the ground, he did not feel much pain at all, though. However, when they kept ascending, they noticed that they were getting higher and higher. Taillte peeped through a hole in one of the branches protruding from outside, and saw that if they fell, they'd plop right down into the lake. She sighed and admired the great view before pressing on. The maze itself was getting simpler and simpler as the tip of the tree got thinner and thinner, until such time when she hit the top, there was no maze to be seen, all that was there was a pedestal with a great glowing sword on it. Cu Sith's spell was quickly broken and he admired the sword in front of him. He immediately recognized it.

"Are you kidding me? It's the Endless Gate Blade Claiomh Solais." he said.

"?"

"It's the legendary sword that grew to an enormous size, the Mormegil used it in the battle against the Wayfarer." he said, in a shocking display of historical knowledge that even made Taillte smile. Cu Sith continued to gawk at the blade, and then Taillte stepped forth.

Taillte looked at the Claiomh Solais, and spoke something in an unintelligable language, as if she were speaking in tongues. She seemed to be hiding something from even Etainne, and the language was one Cu Sith did not recognize. Suddenly, the sword stopped glowing brightly, and it dislodged itself from the stone before floating in mid-air and glowing again. It floated closer to the two, and Taillte smiled, wondering who it planned to choose. Cu Sith stood next to Taillte, wide-eyed, and the Claiomh Solais spun for a moment in place before placing itself in Cu Sith's hands. Taillte looked visibly shocked, she did not expect the sword to choose Cu Sith, but she smiled in the end, perhaps for Cu Sith's lack of intelligence, he did have a very good way to handle weaponry, and Crofh Dearth did seem to be missing something. She wasn't entirely sure if the Crofh Dearth in its current state was fit to wield the Claiomh Solais, but for the meanwhile, Cu Sith kept hold of it. Taillte then saw a giant portal in front of the pedestal, it materialized, and soon went to it along with Cu Sith, and found themselves back on land, and the Tree of Oizen was sinking in a great display of water splashing and fountains. Etainne went outside to see the ruckus and gasped to see Cu Sith holding the Endless Gate Blade Claiomh Solais, and did not want to know why it chose him over anyone else. Perhaps it was better not to know, anyway.

Etainne and Gilthan were now outside, and saw that the Lake Oizen was back to what it originally was, a large pristine lake with lots of fishies swimming around in it. They were then wondering what Cu Sith could do with the Claiomh Solais, and soon they went off to the Forest of Birogh, and Cu Sith called forth Crofh Dearth, and went inside, keeping the Claiomh Solais with him. Crofh Dearth reacted to the sword inside him, and said he felt a strange feeling welling up inside him, and asked Cu Sith to place the sword in the pedestal within the core, and so Cu Sith did so, wondering what would happen. Eventually, Crofh Dearth started growing, and he screamed a hotblooded one, as if proclaiming heroics, and soon felt an energy surge within him. He floated into the air, and soon his form changed, from a horse into a giant robot unicorn, unfortunately, no, it did not fart rainbows from its engines and it wasn't as fruity. Either way, Crofh Dearth was no more, it had absorbed the power of Claiomh Solais in order to become the Almighty Steed Crofh Cruzarch. Cruzarch roared proudly, and said he felt good to be like this. Cruzarch was originally like this until Claiomh Solais within him was taken by Mormegil, to be used in the fight against the Wayfarer, and became weakened, as Crofh Dearth, but the Construct was reunited, and became what it originally was.

Etainne clapped, and the night was starting to make its presence known. Cruzarch said he needed to rest, and so Cu Sith disembarked, and looked really happy, proclaiming that perhaps now he was more useful for things. Everyone laughed and went back to town to have some dinner, and Etainne and Gilthan mentioned needing to do more research. She wrote a quick letter back to Katatonia explaining the situation, and how Crofh Cruzarch was reborn.

---

Katatonia and Eine found themselves alone together again, it was quite late, and Eine forced Katatonia to look at her eye to eye. The boy looked a little embarrassed, he knew the situation since Elatha explained to him earlier. Eine blushed and looked strangely creepy, she started looking deeper into the boy's eyes, and wanted to say something, but soon, a puff of smoke appeared in between them, causing Eine to get startled and Katatonia saw a letter in his hands. Eine cursed herself under her breath as she lost the opportunity to say what she wanted to say, but Katatonia read the letter and smiled, before putting it away. Eine was a little angry, she cared little for that letter, but only for Katatonia, and was about to say something, but the boy mentioned how tired he was and soon Eine twitched, before giving a devilish smile and picking him up, and then carrying him to her room. Inside her room in the inn, Katatonia looked strangely nervous and wondered what he was doing in the room. He was more used to staying in his own. Eine smiled and said it would be alright, she just wanted Katatonia to spend some time with her. The boy felt torn, he wanted to tell her the truth, but he feared for her sanity, and he wasn't so sure if she would allow that to get in the way of things. He was also scared that mentioning such forbidden or taboo things would make her lust for him stronger, as he knew how clingy Gilthan's sister could get, always writing letters for Maximm when he was out, and feared that Eine inherited her clingyness.

Instead, he remained silent and looked very embarrassed. Eine found the sight really cute and felt her legs twitching, before picking the boy up again and placing him sprawled on her bed. Eine grinned and jumped next to him, giving him a great hug.

"What are you doing?" he asked nervously.

"I just wanna do this just for one night, okay?" she asked.

"..."

"Let's relax, take it easy... There, there..."

Eine placed her hands on Katatonia's now exposed arm, as he was not wearing his cluster of robes, and felt his skin, it was very smooth, like a small prepubescent child. Well, he probably was one anyway. Gilthan looked like one even though he was well in his thirties, anyway. Katatonia shivered, he was scared, he had not felt such intimacy before, but he tried his best not to mind it.

Then Eine licked his neck.

NOW he had a reason to be creeped out...

[trancehime]

At the recesses of the midnight lair, Chelica lay down on the ground, looking up at the ceiling, seething inside, she was angry at her failure to deal too much damage, and felt the pain in her wing from when Maximm shot her there. The wound was still there, bullets were a powerful weapon, and she so experienced it. However, she was very strong, too, a mere gunshot wouldn't be enough to totally exterminate her. On the other hand, Chelica now realized that Etainne and the others would be even more determined to try and put her out of the picture, and stop her from summoning the Wayfarer just like Chelica herself put down Akrona the Magician Queen. Chelica continued staring up at the ceiling, and then a demon that looked like a male version of her, emerged from the other side. The Demon Ronin growled and did not sit up to look, instead addressing the new arrival by name. "Chrysaor," she mentioned, looking rather tired and angsty and cranky. "Go take my place for now. I want you to eliminate those childish brats." she continued, and Chrysaor her male double nodded silently, as if he were a robot, and dashed out to pursue his targets, the crew of Etainne. He knew about his Mistress' enemies. And so, Chrysaor went on his merry way, but first he needed to decide who was more important to pursue. He thought about it for a moment and decided Etainne's side would be safer, as they did not possess the dangerous weaponry Maximm had, the mighty Rifle. Chrysaor turned back before leaving the lair, looking a little worried about Chelica, but made sure nobody else saw his brief moment of weakness, and so sped off in the sky.

---

The next morning, Eine found herself holding Katatonia close to her like a teddy bear again, and he was squirming in her arms, but she would not let go. One would wonder what they did that night, but truth to be told, they didn't really do anything naughty or questionable, it was mostly consisting of Eine trying to cuddle with her kid cousin, though she didn't know he was her cousin at the time. Katatonia whinged softly and Eine relented, letting him go, and so the boy stood up and dusted himself before washing his face in the room with the basin nearby and then wore his heavy robes once more. Eine giggled, and did the same thing, and the two left the room to see Maximm sitting on the desk nearby alone. Elatha and Clive were still sleeping, apparently, and so Maximm noted Eine's curious expression, and smiled, wondering if she should know the truth. He looked at Katatonia, who quickly shook his head before Eine noticed. Maximm then decided to refrain from saying anything, but he wondered what would happen if he waited too late. Fortunately for the father, though, Katatonia was a very responsible fourteen year old, and he had the prudency to decide for himself when the right time was to drop the bombshell. Eine scratched her head as she was oblivious, but shrugged and sat down with Maximm. Katatonia remained standing, and so was busy writing a letter to someone, nobody really knew, except probably Gilthan, but his father was not here at the moment.

Elatha and Clive were still sleeping, for some reason, they were very tired, and this worried Maximm a little, they needed to get going fast. Maximm sighed, looking out the window, and thusly, Eine and Katatonia went to the room, the door was unlocked, and noticed that there was a ghostly figure haunting over the pair, and it seemed this was the reason why they were sleeping. A demon was here, but it was ethereal, there needed to be a different way to burst past this threat. And so, Eine sighed and pointed at the ghost, shooting a bolt of electricity at it, and so the demon convulsed madly, and it began to take shape in the world of the living. Elatha and Clive's hypnotism faded, so now they were less lethargic, and were groaning to get up. Katatonia murmured something and made the demon explode right then and there, it seemed that the demon was extremely weak in corporeal form, and its ethereal appearance seemed to be its protection from the harshness of the reality around it. The demon exploded and so Elatha and Clive awoke, as if they got up from a very good dream, and so they left and ignored Eine and Katatonia, who looked clueless as to what just happened, they seemed like nothing happened at all... Katatonia scratched his head and tried to make sense of what just happened, but apparently it was nothing. Eine dragged Katatonia outside and Elatha and Clive greeted the pair "Good morning," and apologized to Maximm about oversleeping. It was as if the demon's influence never affected them. Katatonia figured his exorcism was a bit too strong, and laughed.

---

Etainne and Gilthan continued their research, and Cu Sith and Taillte were outside trying to analyze the map they were given by Gilthan, to try and formulate a plan to get to Chelica's lair, which was now visibly drawn and located on the map. It was high up in the sky, and apparently Etainne mentioned requiring the Dagdanos to get there, but sadly this required Vallar's co-operation, and she was not so sure if Vallar was so willing to have Sir Dagdanos go to that specific part of the land, it was dangerous and required lots of back-up. Taillte suggested waiting for Elatha and the others to come back, but Cu Sith rebuked her, saying it would take far too long and it may be too late when that happens. It seemed with each passing day, the boy became smarter and smarter. Perhaps he was taking secret lessons with Gilthan late at night? It would explain why he looked so tired and deadpan in the next morning. He usually got a lot of sleep, and thus would be wide awake to go fishing the following morning. However, recently, he's been looking more and more tired, though with the benefit of being smarter than usual. Taillte giggled, but then she looked inside, and saw that Gilthan and Etainne seemed to get on really well. She felt a little jealous, she wanted to be there instead of him, but at the same time, she tried to come to terms with the fact Gilthan was doing this on business terms, and his wife had passed away, he was doing this fight for her over anything else. She sighed in relief, and this confused Cu Sith, but the girl said nothing and changed the subject quickly, moving back to the map.

Etainne and Gilthan looked outside and saw the kids discussing the map rather intently, and Etainne smiled. Gilthan's notes seemed to be far more comprehensive than Etainne's, it appeared he was an expert at this. Etainne smiled and continued working on her part, but then Gilthan stood up and said he was going to check something outside. Etainne felt something strange too and wanted to chase, but Gilthan said to stay put. He went outside and told Taillte and Cu Sith to stay put, before looking up and seeing absolutely nothing but the clouds darkening at an alarming pace. Cu Sith asked what was happening, though Gilthan recognized it; it was the coming of Chrysaor, his omen was the darkening of the clouds, and it was dangerous, for it began to rain, bloody rain. It wasn't harmful, but it did not seem very sightly, and so everyone went inside, except for Etainne and her group, who were now gathered outside, the four of them. Gilthan pointed his staff at the sky and shot a laser, and it caused the sky to part, revealing the clear, pure sky behind it, it was a covering, a herald of the danger that was about to come. "Chrysaor." Gilthan mentioned bluntly. Cu Sith asked who Chrysaor was, and Gilthan mentioned that the demon was very similar to Chelica, almost a clone, but was of the demon's unsex, and instead of wielding a blade, Chrysaor wielded a mighty halberd that was rumoured to split entire buildings in half. Chrysaor could now be seen flying, but he ignored Thelesia, only placing his sights on Etainne, and so readed his deadly halberd, and rushed down.

"He's coming." Gilthan said, not showing any sign of panic. He saw that Chrysaor was aiming for Etainne's fragile heart, and if she were stabbed there, her spirit would wither away and she would be lost. So, Gilthan tried to make him go elsewhere. He muttered something quickly and so launched a holy shackles at Chrysaor, whose arms were tied, and he lost his stability, he did not feel pain, but he fell to the ground as his halberd was being tossed about clumsily, and he cursed, he did not realize Gilthan of the Burning Curses was among them, and realized his folly. He underestimated his opponents, and so Cu Sith was above him wildly swinging his blade, as the boy realized the way to catch a demon off guard was to rain chaos right back at the bringer of chaos, and Chrysaor's halberd was knocked out of his hands, he was about to reach for it when Taillte slid and kicked it away, before Chrysaor could reach for it, he cursed, attempting to gore her with his horns, but Cu Sith prevented that, jamming his dagger deep into the muscle of Chrysaor, who roared with pain, and with a renewed vigor, merely punched Taillte a few feet back and ran to pick up his halberd, Cu Sith's dagger still implanted in his arm, and screamed. "I don't care about your pathetic village, girl!" he said. "I only want your will, and even if I have to fight all four of you for it, I will HAVE IT!" he cursed once more, he spun his halberd in the air and so the shackles holding his arms broke, Gilthan was shocked, but knew this would happen sooner or later, so he wasn't actually all THAT shocked. He sighed and attempted to bind Chrysaor's legs, but he was not affected. The demon marched forward, and Etainne stepped back, Chrysaor ignored everyone else but her, he pointed his halberd at her alone, and so Cu Sith and Taillte charged at him, but Chrysaor responded by punching both of them in the face with both of his hands individually. Gilthan grumbled and stepped away, motioning for Etainne to pretend to fall over. Gilthan had an idea. Turned out it wasn't necessary, though, as Etainne tripped over a rock as she walked back and fell over.

Chrysaor laughed and raised his halberd over her, but Gilthan took his staff and smote the demon right at the back of his head with a mighty holy energy, and so the demon fell unconscious. He dropped his halberd and Etainne almost got killed. Gilthan was tempted to shatter the halberd, but figured the weapon would fade on its own. Chrysaor was out of commission for a while, but Cu Sith did something foolish and retrieve his dagger, causing Chrysaor to jolt up awake, but he did not do anything anymore. He growled, said nothing, and retrieved his halberd before Gilthan could stop him. He teleported away, and so Etainne sighed, wondering what had just happened. Taillte and Cu Sith rubbed their heads, it seemed they took a rough beating, especially Taillte who had bruises everywhere. Gilthan sighed and took the two of them to Seltis, and so their wounds were treated there. Taillte looked at Etainne, who looked up at the dark clouds breaking away, and it seemed that Etainne had this oddly melancholic look on her face, as if she saw something in Chrysaor that was wrong. Etainne looked towards the Lake Oizen, but her reverie was snapped as she saw a large dangerous dragon flying in the sky, and it looked down at Thelesia and roared. She ran, and so invoked Tlachtga once more. The dragon in the sky flew around, and it seemed ready to breathe fire at any moment, but it appeared not to do anything except fly. Taillte and Cu Sith were too injured to do anything, and Gilthan was supervising them with Seltis, so Tlachtga decided to take a look at what that thing was. It turns out, the dragon appeared to be friendly, in a way. It wasn't hostile, at least, so that's what relieved Tlachtga the most. The Tlachtga turned to face the dragon, but it flew away and left Thelesia alone. She wondered what was going on, but Etainne helped Tlachtga relieve herself of the thought. Etainne was thinking that the dragon may be an omen for something, but just like that, she could feel some sort of magickal energy surround her, and she fell unconscious for a moment.

*** Etainne felt like she could see only light, and she wondered what it was all about. She stared at whatever was in front of her and could only see the faint gaze of a motherly woman on the other side, it looked eerily reminiscent of Cethlenn, and 'lo and behold, it was her in her radiant splendor, and Etainne wondered what she was doing in this dream, and all she could hear was Cethlenn calling her "her daughter," and explained that their valiant cause would come to an end if they did not do something about Chelica, Chrysaor and the Wayfarer fast. Etainne tried to say something, but her mouth did not move. Cethlenn continued that now was the perfect time to unite the Constructs together and try and reach Chelica's realm, and her spirit embraced Tlachtga, and gave her strange powers. Tlachtga could feel her armored robes shedding, and it became lighter, like a holy armor, and felt small wings unfurl from the back. Tlachtga looked up and around, and became stronger, through Cethlenn's blessing. Etainne wanted to offer thanks, but she was silenced and immobilized, and in an instant, Etainne had woken up from her reverie. ***

Tlachtga looked around and at her own form, it seemed she could fly now, and so looked up at Sir Dagdanos in the sky, and she wanted to fly to him, but decided it would be a good idea to take a short rest. Etainne disembarked, and returned to her house to write a letter to Elatha, about her revelation, and the new empowering of Tlachtga. Meanwhile, Gilthan was helping Seltis take care of Cu Sith and Taillte, and soon he noticed quick recovery within the two kids. Gilthan admired Seltis and her zeal towards tending the wounded, and wondered for a split second what had happened if he had known her prior to Akrona's death, and sighed. Seltis had noticed Gilthan's sudden display of wishful thinking, and said "There's nothing I could have done for her." as if she read his mind. Gilthan was startled for a moment, and nodded off, acknowledging that perhaps it was destined. He felt a little hurt, but at the same time more determined to try and fight Chelica, and stop the Wayfarer's revival. At some point, Taillte and Cu Sith were strong enough to start walking around without experiencing pain, and so Taillte noticed Etainne writing a letter in her house, and ran to her, trying to see what she was up to. Taillte poked Etainne, and almost made her ruin the word she was going to write. Etainne did not say anything for a moment.

"What do you want, Taillte?"

"I just wanted to see how you were..."

"I'm fine."

"If you say so..."

---

Elatha received a letter from Etainne, detailing the events that had transpired revolving the Tlachtga, and he felt relieved. He, along with the others, were on the King Loader making their next trip. Eine and Katatonia were in one of the cars alone playing a game of checkers, and so Elatha and Clive were busy to discuss more important affairs. Elatha looked outside and reflected back on the letter, and asked Clive what he thought about Chrysaor. Clive shook his head in disappointment. Elatha asked if Chrysaor was the one who made Clive like this, and so Clive nodded in response, it was because of that demon Clive did not wish to talk so much. He looked to the other car where Eine and Katatonia where, and remembered when Eine saw him speak the first words in many, many years. Clive sighed and spoke once more. Elatha tilted his head. Clive explained that he decided not to talk so much because Chrysaor, the demonic double of Chelica, had injured his voicebox with his mighty halberd, and it was on the point of rupture, that if Clive spoke, his voicebox would explode and he would die for sure. So he stopped speaking and waited for the voicebox to mend itself over time. So he valiantly resisted the temptation of speech for these years, and now he finally had the time to speak once more. Elatha nodded, he looked very sad, but at the same time, he felt happy that Clive could finally speak once more. Elatha tapped his fingers on the table and said that it was an unusually long way to the next town. Maximm then came and said that there was no next stop. The King Loader was on its way to the last station on the southern side, the Ruins of Lyott. Clive wondered if there was really a Construct there, he had read the books, but he was not sure. Eine and Katatonia finished their game of checkers, the boy had won by a slim margin, and so Eine gave him a noogie. Katatonia went to Maximm and asked where the King Loader was going, Maximm merely (albeit impatiently) mentioned Lyott, and so Katatonia stood there in thought.

Soon, the King Loader grinded to a halt and they were in front of the great Ruins of Lyott, it was one rumoured to house the Dark Amazon Nemain, and when they were there, they saw someone who seemed to have fainted on the ground, it was a young girl shivering, she looked deathly hungry, and so Clive offered a bite of that carrot cake from Taillte, he still had three in stock, and the girl rose up, energized once more. She thanked Clive and introduced herself as Mor'rioghain, and explained she was here to try and solve the giant puzzle on the door. It appeared to be a rather cryptic number game, there was a sequence of numbers etched on the wall, in Roman numerals, I, III, VI, VII and X. Katatonia looked at the series of numbers and wondered what to do with the numbers in order to open the door. It was then she realized, suddenly, that a ton of statues surrounded them, and so started closing in on the group, as if trying to trap them...

[trancehime]

It seemed Elatha and company were in a bit of a rut, the statues surrounding them did not seem to be alive, they seemed to have been activated as a result of a trap being flipped. It appeared to be thanks to the new girl who they rescued, who, when she stood up, accidentally must have flipped the switch. Katatonia looked around frantically, before noticing each statue was labelled with a number. Katatonia then called out to the others to try and blow up each of the statues that come close, and so leave out the statues with the numbers etched on the door, this would be the way to open it, he said. He started blasting at the statues, which were not actually so tough, perhaps this was the way, otherwise the statues would not be so easy to demolish. Clive and Elatha were using their weapons while Maximm used his bare fists (this scared Eine and Elatha a little) to break down the statues, one by one. The girl looked in a frenzy, but soon decided maybe she should contribute. She muttered something and grabbed a giant zweihander out of seemingly nowhere and went in Elatha's way, slicing an entire row of statues on half. "What are you, crazy, woman?!" Elatha said, laughing as the girl looked back a little flustered, but Elatha did not really seem to mind so much. They continued breaking statues, and eventually there were only five left, it was the five statues that they needed. And so, the door was opening as if by magic, and Katatonia smiled, his prediction was correct. And so, the door had opened and revealed a large room, and in it was the Dark Warrior Nemean, and the girl went inside and turned to face Elatha. She bowed in thanks. "Hi, I didn't get to properly introduce myself." she said. "I'm Tellus Mor'rioghain--" she was cut off before further introducing herself, and so Katatonia twitched and poked the girl repeatedly. He asked her if she forgot him. Tellus sighed and looked at the boy, and then remembered. Tellus said that Gilthan sent her here many years ago, but then she fell hungry and fell over, and she got lazy. She thanked Elatha for giving her food to get up once more, and Katatonia applied palm to face.

Nemain was there, waiting patiently, and so Tellus embarked on her, and invoked her. Nemain stood up, for she was kneeling on the ground, and looked down, seeing the others, and laughed. Nemain looked outside and pointed at King Loader before waving. Compared to other Constructs, Nemain was relatively small, she could probably sit on one of the cars of King Loader comfortably. If you compared Nemain to the height of Tlachtga, Nemain was probably about half her size. Which is really freaking small. Her size betrayed her massive strength, as in the past, Nemain was able to beat Lughnasadh in an arm wrestle, and managed to hold Crofh Cruzarch in a headlock for more than ten seconds, which no other Construct has ever done in the history of the land, when Constructs were once autonomous. The autonomous status of the Constructs in the past led them to be more vigilant, but they lost their ability to operate as one when the Wayfarer became strong, and the Ultimate Evil's power was resisted and bested at the cost of the mind of the Constructs themselves, and so only their personalities and ability to communicate remained, they had to rely on pilots they chose to do the moving for them. This kind of made Nemain lament, as she longed for those days where she could do those things. She went off to King Loader and went to have small talk with him, and so Maximm said their job here in Lyott was done. Everyone returned and King Loader complained about Nemain being too close to his head, so Nemain went back and teased him for "growing old," though the train assured her that it was just that he was asleep for far too long. Elatha and Clive discussed the events that had transpired, and wondered where they were headed to next. Clive looked outside of the window and saw the railroad tracks curved, they headed eastward towards Thelesia. Nemain looked ahead and saw Thelesia from miles away, even though nobody else, even King Loader, could see it. Eine looked outside with Katatonia, and wondered where they were headed.

---

Etainne and Taillte looked at one another, and so Etainne sighed. Taillte asked her what was the matter, but the spirit did not want to say anything. Taillte placed her hand on Etainne's shoulder and insisted that she tell her what was wrong. The robed girl sighed, looked up at the ceiling and said that if this was successful, she was probably going to fade away forever. Taillte's eyes widened and wondered if this was really true. Etainne mentioned that the Tlachtga, wielding the Mormegil, at the pivotal moment, had to strike the Mormegil at the core, and this would result in an energy consumption that was so great that Etainne's life force would be drained, and she would fade away along with the Tlachtga. This thought depressed poor Taillte, and wondered if this was really true. As if her mind was read, Etainne nodded and said it was true, and there was only a really marginal chance of her making it out alive. Etainne mentioned that Gilthan was very well aware of this, and he did not want anyone else to know. Taillte started to cry, but Etainne gave her a hug, which made her smile a little. Taillte had always wanted to feel Etainne at a more close level. Taillte then cried harder and dug her face on Etainne's shoulder, and so the robed girl continued to comfort her, saying that she would always live in her heart.

Cu Sith and Gilthan were outside, looking at Etainne who was comforting a crying Taillte, it appeared that she knew. Gilthan sighed, but smiled, trying to forget about that, and looked up, seeing nothing but the clear sky. Then he received a letter from Katatonia, and the letter spoke of the Dark Warrior Nemain, and how the King Loader was making its way to the region around Thelesia. Gilthan smirked, perhaps this would be a good time for him to catch up with Mimus, and so he looked forth at the hills, and saw that railroad tracks had magically appeared where there used to be none. This meant the King Loader was on its way, most likely. He wrote a letter back to his son and said that he would be waiting patiently for his arrival. Etainne looked outside while continuing to pat the sobbing Taillte, and saw the railroad tracks. She wondered what the King Loader looked like, she had never seen it before. And so, in due time, the train was well on its way. Cu Sith ran to the train tracks and wanted to be the first to hail Elatha, and so he sat on the vale near the tracks, and simply watched.

***

In the distance, Cu Sith could see a Construct sitting on a train, this was Nemain sitting on the King Loader. Nemain in response saw Cu Sith, and called out at the boy, and Elatha hearing Nemain made him wonder who she was calling out to. Maximm explained that he saw a boy sitting at the top of a vale near the train tracks, and so Clive recognized that active boy to be Cu Sith, and told Elatha they were nearing Thelesia. The King Loader was soon nearby, approaching, and then it grinded to a halt, calling out for a certain Etainne, and Taillte had snapped out of her sob, so she sat down weakly while Etainne told her to stay put, and she ran out, seeing a long, giant black train, with a female warrior Construct sitting on it. This was the King Loader, the Locomotive Construct, and this was Etainne's first time to see it. She looked in admiration, and saw that King Loader would be a great ally for the cause. Elatha and everyone disembarked, and his group met Etainne's. Everyone took the time to get acquainted with one another while Nemain and King Loader started talking amongst themselves, powerless to do anything with their pilots gone. Gilthan saw Maximm and poked him. Maximm smiled and recognized him immediately. "You of the Burning Curses!" he said, excitedly. "It's been a long time." Gilthan wanted to respond by calling him by his real name, but Maximm rebuked him and told him to call him "Maximm." So, Gilthan obliged. Maximm and Gilthan spent the while catching up with one another and so brought up the issue of children.

Elatha, Clive, Katatonia and Eine went to see Etainne, Cu Sith and Taillte, and so they also began to introduce themselves to one another. Then Cu Sith asked about the girl who came with them, and inquired it that was Tellus Mor'rioghain of the Thousand Swords, and so Tellus nodded, and picked up Cu Sith and shook him out of happiness, he didn't seem to mind at all, though. Katatonia asked her to stop doing so, and then Tellus stopped before spotting Gilthan, and running to him, and asking him how he was. Gilthan was startled, but recognized the presence of the girl, and since he saw Nemain, her task was accomplished. Gilthan gave her a pat on the back and said that they'd discuss matters at the night break. Tellus nodded and ran back to see Cu Sith, who she thought was irresistibly cute. Everyone spent the day catching up, but the celebration was to be cut short...

[trancehime]

It seemed that while everyone was working hard to catch up with each other and discuss the events that happened on in their lives, separate conversations were occurring at once. Maximm and Gilthan were reminiscing their lives in the past, and Gilthan learned his sister (Maximm's wife) bore a child, this was Eine, who was frantically chasing his son around trying to give him a hug. Gilthan kind of laughed and asked Maximm if he talked to Katatonia and Eine about it. Maximm said he agreed with Katatonia not to speak anything of it until the right time, and Gilthan smiled, his son had indeed developed prudence to some degree, though he had hoped his son did not grow to become too much of a prude. Young kids like him were very impressionable, and it was easy to mold him into something undesirable. On the other hand, though, Gilthan was confident that Katatonia would become a fine man, especially if he's trying to deal with Eine's advances in this manner. He didn't look it, but he was definitely far smarter than some people Gilthan met who were twice the kid's age. Gilthan looked around and thought he felt an evil presence, but he made no note of it, and decided just to ignore it and save it for another time, or if it really was there, and if it really was REAL. Katatonia stumbled, but he regained his composure next to Gilthan, and so Eine leapt on him and gave him a tight hug once more. Maximm laughed, and said to Gilthan that Eine was a good girl and shared the same magical powers Katatonia does, but it's slightly weaker, and instead has stronger physical capabilities. Gilthan nodded, saying that it was "evident," a "good and blessed unity." Gilthan seemed happy about the two, and then remembered Akrona, and then looked sad. Maximm wondered if Gilthan was alright, and was about to ask if it was with regards to Akrona, but then he was quickly silenced. Maximm sighed and looked sad, before looking up at the sky, it was quite dark at night, and Maximm started feeling the same ominous thing that Gilthan did earlier. The two looked at each other and then turned to see Elatha's group.

Etainne wondered why Clive was starting to speak. Usually, that man never spoke, only with his hands and his body. Clive explained that it was because of an incident involving Chelica, and her double, Chrysaos. Clive's voicebox was injured badly, threatening rupture if it was used too much, so Clive decided not to speak or say a word until it got better. And then it got better, so he's talking now. Etainne inquired low long ago it was, and the man said it was almost ten years ago. The girl scratched her head out of curiosity, she was wondering how that man could look so young but have lived through so much. Yet, she refused to be so rude as to ask the man how old he REALLY was. Clive had claimed before that he was in his young twenties, but then, with this story, that would mean Clive would have met Chelica and Chrysaos before he was fifteen, and that would be impossible UNLESS he was a child prodigy (which he could very well have been, but unlikely as he was not as skilled as Katatonia and seemed to study under Gilthan at some point). Etainne, the spirit, was very doubtful about this Clive now, and wondered who he really was. She said to herself that she'd find out more about him later. For now, they needed to catch up. Cu Sith looked at Tellus, who towered over him, but yet, Tellus seemed to look back at him in a way that seemed not very intimidating, but more like that kind of look a girl has when they want a new toy. It kind of scared Cu Sith, but he ultimately didn't mind, and let himself get picked up by Tellus' great and wellbuilt arms, she was easily stronger physically than Elatha, and probably just as strong if not stronger than Maximm, though nobody really knew that... And Tellus is too lazy to reveal her true strength anyways. Tellus grinned and said to Etainne that the kid seemed fun, and so Etainne attested but warned her that "For how much fun the boy can be at times, he's still a little of an innocent idiot, so take care of him." This offended Cu Sith a little, but it was true, so it was an attempt in vain.

Maximm and Gilthan approached Elatha's group, and then they asked him if he felt a strange presence. Etainne then noticed that Taillte was missing. She called out for her, but there was no audible response. Then, Cu Sith heard a sound from the distance to the north, in the dark, there was someone screaming while running, and then demons were flying up in the sky. A LOT of demons. This wasn't just a typical demon fleet, it was a whole century-legion of them, and so Elatha and Clive sighed, their Constructs were all the way in the Principality of Twatha, there was little they could do here on their own. Etainne assured Elatha and Clive that things will be fine. Eine eyed the surroundings, it seemed she was too far from the River Neine to really get Annalotte and help fight, so she said she will keep them company. Etainne nodded, and ran off along with Cu Sith and Taillte to invoke their Constructs, and in a flash, Tlachtga, alongside Lughnasadh and Crofh Cruzarch made their appearance. This would be Cruzarch's first fight in a long time, and so Tellus made her way to Nemain, and embarked. Nemain saw Cruzarch, and noted that Cu Sith was the pilot, and she laughed. Nemain and Cruzarch wanted to have small talk, but Lughnasadh stopped them, pointing to the sky and looking at the demons flying above them, there were many, and so Maximm embarked on the King Loader. King Loader saw Tlachtga, and it seemed that it was the first time they met. "First time I seen a young lass like you around!" King Loader bellowed, and in response the druidess mentioned "Pleasure to meet you, Sire." The King Loader said he couldn't fight from below, but he could combine with other Constructs to form a formidable fighting force. And so, Nemain beseeched Cruzarch to join her and combine with King Loader. Cruzarch shrugged and idly agreed, he was bored. So, King Loader floated into the air with magick, and soon changed its shape, the front compartment became the body, and so formed the torso and legs. Cruzarch split part of itself in half, to coat the King Loader's frame, and form the arms. Nemain compressed itself and formed the upper part of the body, and the head. The pilots met up in the center, the front car part with Maximm. This union was the Blazing Night Warrior Demagoge, and he looked up at the sky. Tlachtga tilted her head at Demagoge and noted this strange development. Tlachtga looked at Lughnasadh intently, and the two nodded at each other, and did their own combination, Tlachtga's back neatly opened up to accomodate its new form, and it accepted Lughnasadh's winged backpack shape, and locked into place, giving Tlachtga another pair of wings.

Tlachtga and Demogoge looked at each other, and Demogoge said gently "We will strike at once, the demons will be caught off-guard if we hasten our pace. The demons appear to be lowlifes, there's a lot, but our combined power should be able to get rid of them swiftly." and so, Tlachtga agreed. It was a brute force strategy, but it would work well enough for their purposes. Tlachtga and Demogoge took to the skies post-haste, and Eine, Clive and Elatha were left alone below to see if anyone would come out from the ground. Demogoge and Tlachtga rushed at the heart of the fleet, and so their first charge into the fray knocked some demons right into each other, causing a frenzy. Demogoge was armed with Nemain's great-axe in one hand, and Cruzarch's massive sword in the other. Demogoge was powerful enough to wield both with ease individually, as well as together. His display with the weapons was very great, deflecting the spear attacks of the demons with swiftness and knocking them down in response. Tlachtga's added mobility allowed her to fly faster while shooting at enemies with her laser crystal ball. The demons were still numerous, though, and even with Demogoge and Tlachtga's combined efforts, the battle was still raging. Soon enough, Demogoge became outnumbered, he was soon dealing with six enemies at once, and this was difficult. However, at the speed of screaming sound, several lasers hit the demons and eliminated them. Shadowroo, piloted by Katatonia, appeared, soaring in and assisting Tlachtga and Demogoge with lasers. Eventually, a blazing bird followed, raining fiery retribution back at the demons, it was Gilthan of the Burning Curses in his Construct, the Ancient Flame Wisp, it was one of the uncovered Ancient Constructs of Lore. Though it was not strong enough to confine the Wayfarer, the Ancient Flame Wisp was very powerful, and would be a great ally in the fights to come. The Ancient Flame Wisp and the Shadowroo's lasers and flames helped in quelling the demon forces from the sky. However...

Down below, Elatha, Clive and Eine looked around, and saw that in between the houses, demons armed with swords and shields began to leak out, and so Elatha readied his own sword, Clive hefted his axe, and Eine pulled out a hammer from her tiny bag. Elatha wondered how Eine could do that, but the girl said to ask later, for they had their own fight down here. Elatha and Clive went first, going into individual alleys and swatting and smiting down enemies left and right, these demons were even weaker than the ones up in the sky, leaving Eine to smash into bits the demons that came from the unprotected sides. Even if she seemed small, she inherited a lot of Maximm's physical endurance, and she was able to quickly fend for herself. She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and laughed as she continued to defeat enemies in a frenzy. Elatha and Clive, at the respective ends of their alleys, saw strange contraptions, and so they destroyed them, causing a lightning bolt to strike down at their position. Elatha rolled backwards to evade it, while Clive blocked it with his axe. They ran out to help Eine with the demons down below, and soon after they stopped pouring. Fortunately, not too much damage was done to the village. The demons, oddly enough, seemed only concentrated on eliminating THEM rather than do any chaos to the village itself. Eine scratched her head while Elatha pondered. They were a little tired, despite the weakness of the demons, there were a lot to burn through. Then, they looked up. Demogoge, Tlachtga, Shadowroo and the Ancient Flame Wisp were fighting hard, and it seemed that things looked up for them when they finished with the fleet. However...

Back in the skies, Demogoge was alarmed, even though they defeated the demon fleet, there was still one Great Demon flying towards them. In the alarm, Tlachtga noted that this was a diversion, to exhaust them, to weaken them for the fight to come... It seemed to be Chimaera-like, this new entry to the fight. This new challenger seemed more robotic than normal, too, almost like a Construct, but not quite... But once the figure made its appearance, Demogoge recognized it... It was the Great Demonic Prince, Chalchos! Demogoge explained to Tlachtga that Chalchos used to be a Construct, but fell from grace after it was taken by the Wayfarer, and became corrupted. It was piloted by... A very familiar person... Maximm noted that it was actually Chrysaos!!! Demogoge looked at Chalchos and sighed. He called out to ask what Chalchos' business was here, and so Chalchos said he was here to take the life of Tlachtga, the nemesis of the "Chosen One." Well, the demons' "Chosen One," that is. Chelica seemed to take this very seriously, or so Tlachtga thought, or Chalchos would never have been sent over for this purpose. Chalchos was very powerful, and very arrogant to boot, too. If he felt like it, he would take on an entire army on his own just to get his mission done, and he would boast of his accomplishment. Demogoge punched his fists together and got ready. Tlachtga, Shadowroo and the Ancient Flame Wisp got ready, as well. Elatha and the others from below could just watch. Chalchos laughed and looked at the Constructs in front of him, and in a shocking show of modesty, he said "Well, you must be strong if you could do that without looking even tired. I would take all of you on at once, but that's stupid of me." Demogoge wondered what this demon was trying to do, and Chalchos said he would leave them alone if Demogoge could defeat him in single combat. Demogoge nodded and said he'd rather not want to fight, as he didn't want to involve Chalchos in this affair, and that perhaps when this is all over Chalchos would no longer be corrupted.

Chalchos then immediately charged forth, rushing at Demogoge with fists at the ready, and he was soon met with Demogoge's axe, but fortunately for Chalchos, he dodged swiftly and delivered a punch to Demogoge, causing him to stumble back a bit. The great robot, for the first time in a long time, felt actual pain, and this was evident, for he made a comment about how strong Chalchos had grown since then. In fact, Tlachtga could almost see a smile on Demagoge's face. It was clear now, for her. Before Chalchos was lost to the darkness, he was Demagoge's close friend, and ever since then, Demagoge split to become King Loader, the Dark Warrior Nemain, and Crofh Cruzarch, the vessel of Demagoge's energy source, the Endless Gate Blade Claiomh Solais! It was clear now, Demagoge, the Blazing Night Warrior, was one of the first Constructs of yore! King Loader was the vessel of Demagoge's memories, hence it started the combination sequence. And so, with renewed vigor and energy, Demagoge charged back at Chalchos, both weapons raised, and began slashing and swiping at him in a chaotic frenzy, knowing that systematic attacks would be read and predicted and punished. Chalchos tried desperately to ward away the deadly assault, but to no avail. He was lost, and soon all he could do was grab the arms of Demagoge, and resist his attack. Demagoge laughed and said, "It's over, you have finally lost." and then the demon relented, he had finally been bested. Before, Chalchos would always be the winner, leaving Demagoge to dust. But it seems since the corruption, Demagoge became stronger. The goodness prevailed over the dark. Tlachtga noted the battle, and saw that Chalchos was losing handily, and then realized they both backed off. Chalchos laughed. "This won't be the last you'll see of me, but I'll stick to my word. I'm nothing like the Demon Ronin, I cannot guarantee what she will do to you in response, nor can I guarantee my own safety. Fare thee well." And so, the demon prince flew away into the night.

Demogoge and Tlachtga split before everyone disembarked. The battle was long and hard, and everyone was tired, some were sweating like mad. Taillte was now clinging to Etainne, trying to smother herself on her, for some strange reason. Etainne wondered if her friend was delirious, and had the smart idea of asking! Taillte immediately denied, and just said she felt like it. Etainne sighed and dragged Taillte to her house. The girl smiled when she entered the house of her love, and so decided to drag Etainne into the room where Etainne would usually take a bath, to her protests. Taillte said "Let's relax after a long battle!" and so decided to see what she could get Etainne to do in there. Meanwhile, Elatha, Clive and Eine were asking the others how they were, and Elatha inquired about Etainne. Cu Sith mentioned that Taillte and Etainne went inside Etainne's house, presumably to get cooled off after that heated incident. Elatha nodded, he too was feeling a little heated up, that battle pumped him, and he was sweating. Eine immediately gave Katatonia a hug when she saw him, and asked him if he was injured. He did not say a thing, and merely dusted himself. To her, that meant he was fine, Eine was confident in trying to get Katatonia to warm up more to her. Gilthan saw Maximm's child try her advances again, and he laughed when he saw Katatonia take it a little stiffly. He gave him a pat on the back and assured him that it's okay to lighten up sometimes. Katatonia nodded, smiled and then gave Eine a hug in response, thanking her. Eine blushed madly, and she had a big grin on her face. Maximm tried not to laugh, but he could not resist a small chuckle. Tellus gave Cu Sith a high five and hefted him in her arms again. Cu Sith was tiny for his age, compared to Tellus, who was almost the same height as the great Maximm!

Inside the bathroom, Etainne looked at Taillte. The spirit's robes were gone, and all that remained on her was a thin, semi-transparent gown, and Taillte could only stare in amazement, she had never seen Etainne like this before, and the mere sight only made Taillte writhe in excitement, she herself had already started to bathe, borrowing the bucket that Etainne was about to use for herself, and asked how she was. Etainne responded plainly that she was fine, and in response she asked what was with Taillte recently. Taillte then decided then and there to confess, that she was in fact madly in love with her. To make matters worse, Taillte was crossing her legs the entire time, as if she were hiding something. Etainne already knew. "Sigh... T, Taillte... You don't have to hide it... I, I already know... I can tell." Taillte sighed in response before laughing, mentioning that when she was born, she was already like this. The tool of both, she possessed, and this was a strange sight to behold, at least, for the general populace. But for Etainne, it was perfectly fine, it was a regular occurrence in her kind. Taillte then leapt on Etainne to give her a big hug. Etainne said to save it for later, she wanted to wash up as well. So the two of them ended up bathing each other, for it was a well-deserved break after a long and hard battle. After the shower, Etainne and Taillte went outside to where Etainne slept, and noted that there was only one bed. Well, Taillte did so. Etainne asked what she meant by that. Taillte expressed the desire to room with Etainne, just this once, while the time was still fresh. And so, out of exhaustion, Etainne idly accepted, and so jumped into her bed in a sleepy, drunken stupor. Taillte was very excited, and also went into the bed, keeping Etainne close to her.

Everyone else was peeping through the small crack in Etainne's window, and Elatha laughed, it seemed his suspicions about Taillte liking Etainne were correct after all. Eine looked at Katatonia and made a joke saying that the two looked really cute together, and hinted that they should do the same. Katatonia sighed and said "Maybe another time." Tellus was already trying to give Cu Sith a playful kiss on the forehead, but the kid would have none of that this late. It seemed that everyone was wound up, so it was time for them to get some rest. Maximm said he would board in the King Loader, which had a place to sleep. Katatonia and Gilthan went to their room in Taillte's house while everyone else went to the King Loader to slumber.

This was just the first day of many tough battles to come...

[trancehime]

DAY ONE OF THE SLAYING

Today was the first official day noted by Etainne as this new event was to be born, this was titled "The Slaying," and it would be a event to put down in the record books. The eight of them were going to try and take over the entirety of the demonic forces, and to try to make sense of the mystery behind Chelica, Chrysaos and the Wayfarer, and go about trying to eliminate the Ultimate Evil once and for all. Elatha received a letter, it seemed that it wasn't sent by anybody, however, it bore some good news. The letter said that his father, and many other people, were released of the curse, and that Elatha should check the patch of ground nearby the King Loader, that's where Elatha and Clive's so-called True Constructs lay. Elatha scratched his head and wondered if it was really true. The Constructs they had in the Principality of Twatha was said in the letter to have been lost, and replaced by the True Constructs nearby. Clive was already one-step ahead of him, and found a strange rock formation nearby the King Loader, and tried to make sense of it, when Katatonia approached and tugged on Clive, saying that there was a button on the central rock. Clive eyed the button and pushed it, suddenly, as Elatha was running after Clive, the ground around Clive and Katatonia started getting pushed down, and so Elatha ended up falling on to the patch of grass that was moving down flat on his face. All he could eke out was a small "Ow," to which Clive helped him up. The grass kept shifting downwards, and soon they landed in a large hangar, it stored two Constructs that looked eerily similar to Clive and Elatha's former ones. However, something was different about them, they seemed stronger, and better-armed. To the side, Elatha called out for his Construct, Dis Pater, but it did not respond, instead Elatha heard in his mind the name Cuculainn, and that was what he called out in the end, and the Construct came forth. This was the Construct Purger Cuculainn, a mighty warrior who was the Dark Warrior Nemain's sparring partner, and close friend. Clive looked at his Construct, and called out for Deirdre, for this is what his True Construct was, the Natural Shaman Deirdre, who was one of wiseness, and was unique, for she was the one who foresaw Tlachtga's birth from Cethlenn.

And so, Elatha and Clive nodded in approval, for Cuculainn and Deirdre were powerful, and Elatha had heard of these two in the passing, and he learned a lot about the past, and was surprised about the idea that these two would belong to them. And so, Elatha and Clive returned to the surface world once more and Katatonia came with them, he was silent, but smiling the entire way, he knew from the very start that Deirdre and Cuculainn would go to them, yet he did not want to say, for he wanted them to figure out for themselves. Etainne tilted her head at Elatha, who had an ecstatic look on his face, and mentioned that he would be able to assist from the sidelines now, that they have Constructs nearby. Etainne smiled, and Taillte was behind her, clinging to her arm the entire time. Yet, Etainne didn't seem to mind one bit. Cu Sith wondered why, but before he could ask himself, Tellus swept him up in her arms and started spinning him around like a toy. She was strong enough to do that, and found great entertainment in it, to Cu Sith's expense. Maximm and Gilthan had sufficiently caught up with one another, and Eine was running around frantically trying to find Katatonia, and when she did, she gave him another tight hug. Etainne then looked up into the sky and saw Vallar outside on Dagdanos, and wondered what momentous occasion would have Vallar show herself. Then, Vallar hopped off Dagdanos and flew below to meet Etainne and her friends. The rascal grinned. "I've been thinking very hard on what you told me," she said. "I think maybe I should help you out for this event. If the Ultimate Evil eats us whole, I won't be able to deal the finishing blow! I can't stand for that behavior." she said, and to this effect, Etainne applied palm to face. Etainne mentioned that although Vallar meant well, her reasoning was a bit bogus, but then said she accepted anyway, because they need all the help they could get. Having an aerial fortress would be a powerful ally, and Dagdanos expressed his approval, and saw the King Loader and many of his friends below, and Etainne was relieved she didn't have to do any convincing. The morning was a bit of a dredge, it seemed, and so the day was slow, and Etainne wondered what to do now. Eine whinged a little, saying that she wanted to see Annalotte but was too far away. It was then and there that Annalotte suddenly popped out behind the King Loader, and had legs, and did not need to swim in water anymore, she became amphibious.

Eine wondered if that was really Annalotte, in response, she said she was not Annalotte in body, but Annalotte in mind, she had become Lirr, the Construct of Tidal Might, and wielded a powerful hammer with which to smite foes with. Eine clapped in glee, and saw that Lirr hid back inside one of the compartments of the King Loader, and heard that she would come out to assist at any time. Eine smiled and looked up, and then Maximm placed a hand on her shoulder. Eine asked what they were going to do now, and then Vallar, who had not left, suggested they try to attack Chelica's domain now, as her domain was weakest during the day. Etainne responded briskly. "I want to, but we don't know where it is. It is always moving." and so, Dagdanos responded, for he knew. Yet, he wanted to say, but a portal appeared high in the sky, and demons started pouring out of the gate. Etainne looked up and gasped, why would a Demonic Gate be open this early during the day? The Dagdanos grumbled and flew back a little, calling back Vallar, who flew there, and started shooting lasers from its cannons at the demons, many fell, but they would not stop pouring out of the gate. And these were bigger ones, ones that people on foot wouldn't be able to stand up against. The demons wouldn't stop, and so Etainne, Taillte and Cu Sith continued off to invoke their Constructs. Tlachtga, Lughnasadh and Crofh Cruzarch made their appearance. Soon, the Shadowroo and the Ancient Flame Wisp also appeared, leaving the King Loader and Lirr. Lirr was soon pushed out of the King Loader and invoked, and she flew up to the scene too, for she was capable of flight as well. She spun her hammer quickly and with confidence. The King Loader soon lifted into the air, and combined with Cruzarch and the Nemain once more to form Demagoge, who looked just as confident as Lirr. In fact, Lirr was Demagoge's student in warfare. Lirr looked at Demagoge and said that she thanked him for his wisdom, and asked for a small contest. Demagoge declined, saying this battle was no place for such display of competition. Lirr smirked and respected that decision. Tlachtga mentioned that they must be of haste and eliminate the gate before Dagdanos is overwhelmed. The Constructs flew forth, and so, Deirdre and Cuculainn made their delayed appearance too, saying that it was them. Demagoge was slashing through the enemy forces, and so Tlachtga decided to combine with Lughnasadh once more, and was defended by Deirdre and Cuculainn. Deirdre said that Tlachtga was pretty, she did not foresee THAT one. Cuculainn explained, as he drove his lance through many demons, that Deirdre was the one who foresaw Tlachtga's conception from Cethlenn. Demagoge looked impressed. The Ancient Flame Wisp and the Shadowroo remained quiet as they bombarded the enemy forces from high above, assisting the Dagdanos in its eliminating the enemy.

However, they could keep knocking down demons, but if the gate wasn't destroyed, they could not get close. It was then and there that Lirr took the brave approach, she drove through the demons guarding the way to it, with her mighty hammer of lightning, and smote the demons with the might of Torr, so she said. The gate was right by her reach, and so, she shot a fierce, raging shot of thunder, lightning and plasma at the gate, causing it to react violently with shaking and then explosions, and then the gate closed and exploded AGAIN. The demons screamed, and let themselves get killed by the Constructs, for their portal was gone, they could not return, nor could they get more reinforcements, they were all lost. Lirr smote down more enemies, and Demagoge, Tlachtga, Deirdre and Cuculainn also continued in their assault. The Shadowroo and Ancient Flame Wisp stayed by Dagdanos, making sure no spy demon would get near. When the rest of the monsters were eliminated, Demagoge said he would stay like this to keep watch on any other demonic entries. And soon, the Ancient Flame Wisp detected a strange demon sitting on the cliff of Dagdanos, he wanted to eliminate the demon but the demon said he knew where Chelica went, and would only say if he was spared. The Ancient Flame Wisp, with much sincerity, claimed to be able to spare him, and so the demon was gullible enough to mention the whereabouts of his mistress' lair. Ancient Flame Wisp nodded, and left him alone. But then, Shadowroo eliminated him with a tiny laser. The Wisp said "I wouldn't kill you, of course. Doesn't mean my friends won't." and so scoffed, wondering at the gullible reaction of the demon. Demogoge looked around some more, and noted that there was no demon threat there anymore, and said it was safe for everyone to disembark. Everyone nodded and soon they disembarked after disengaging from their Construct Combinations. Etainne asked Gilthan why he had an unusually smug look on his face. The man of the Burning Curses mentioned that he knew the whereabouts of Chelica's lair. And so Etainne's eyes were opened wide, and she asked where.

Gilthan then took out the map from long ago, which was originally empty, only showing a general location, and then pointed out that Chelica's domain was currently stationed north-east of Thelesia, very close to the Delphin Village, but not quite. To this effect, Eine and Maximm gasped, Chelica was very near their home! They wanted to depart immediately, and so Gilthan said it would be a bad idea. Chelica would invade Delphin Village for sure if she knew they were there, and so he advised they should wait for a good opportunity to strike. Furthermore, leaving now would leave Thelesia vulnerable to attack from Chelica if all of them left now to go there, and leaving some people here to guard the village would cut their offensive capabilities easily. Maximm sighed, and realized that the man was correct. Gilthan knew that Maximm was worried, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Eine sighed as well, and they all decided to discuss the matter over some grub. And so they all went to the tavern to discuss some important matters.

---

Chelica and Chrysaos were in their lair, discussing their own important matters. They had just received word that Etainne's troupe had decimated their weakling forces, and they laughed. Chrysaos was a bit disappointed about his failure against Demagoge when he was inside Chalchos, but he did not say anything about it to Chelica's face. Chrysaos had his own battle against Clive and Elatha, and he did not want Chelica's ambitions to sully that duty or tarnish it. Chelica wondered where the lair should go, and Chrysaos suggested to go towards Thelesia. He said if the entire place could get close, they could swarm it and deal more damage instead of staying far. Chelica scratched her head and thought hard about the wiseness behind that decision. She figured that if they were closer to Thelesia, it would be very easy to deal some good damage, however, she now knew the capability of Etainne's group. The move had a very good chance to backfire some more, especially if Etainne found a way to gain entry and soon she would be gone, as she was only good in combat against a small group, not a troupe of eight. Even with Chrysaos help, the battle will be very hard, and they would most likely lose. Yet, Chelica figured that they had little choice. The Wayfarer's seal was breaking very soon, and even if she were defeated, the heroes were far too late. They are goners if they did not do something about the Wayfarer. Chelica shrugged and said it was fine to do that move, and that they should piss the heroes off some more with small fry while they approached Thelesia.

---

Etainne and Taillte were outside, the sky was getting reasonably dark, and soon they could hear noises from many places. Etainne was a little nervous for once, as it was just the two of them at the time, everyone else was doing their own thing in other places. Cu Sith was fishing by Lake Oizen. Elatha, Clive and Gilthan were doing research in Etainne's house. Tellus, Maximm and Eine were playing a board game in the tavern. Etainne and Taillte moved from the large tree on the large vale and saw that there were gaps on the ground, and they dashed forward, calling out for everyone. But they did not respond. From the alleyways, Etainne could see small eyes, and so she took out her wooden stick. Taillte procured her spear, and so they prepared themselves for the worst to come. The demons started to ooze out of the gates that were near the houses, and Taillte and Etainne gripped their weapons tightly, and saw that they seemed to be vaguely weak. The issue was that there were many of them, they could not win this alone, just the two of them. The two girls defended themselves from the demons with staff whacks and lots of driving spear through bodies, but there were too many of them. Soon, Cu Sith heard a ruckus and ran back to town, and saw Etainne and Taillte defend themselves from the demons. He gasped and drew his daggers, ran in, stabbed the living bejeesus out of a portal he saw, causing it to blow up, and then assisted in the carnage. The demons would not stop until all portals were destroyed. The battle was getting heated, there were still several portals that needed blowing up. The table in the tavern started shaking, and so Maximm was annoyed, he wanted to see what the commotion was all about. He opened the door outside, knocking a demon out. He grumbled and called for Eine and Tellus to ready their blades, there was another bar fight coming. Maximm ran out and jumped up to the rooftops, and from his vantage point, he could see two portals, which he shot out of commission with haste. The portals faded away, and there were still one or two more that remained, possibly more, nobody could really say. Eine and Tellus joined in the carnage in the middle, making the noise unbearable for the researchers inside Etainne's house. Elatha yawned and wondered who was making that ruckus, and opened the door, knocking a demon out. He groaned and motioned for the other three to follow, it was time for another brawl. Gilthan and Katatonia hurled their spells at the demons while Elatha and Clive hunted for the remaining portals, and so they were quickly found with ease, as the rate of demonsmashing was very fast. And so, the portals were eliminated, and the demonic threat was finally rid of.

At the conclusion, Etainne and Taillte sighed and wondered where Chelica's lair was now. If so many demons were coming out at this time, then the lair was getting dangerously close. She was worried, and at the same time relieved. She didn't have to spend so much time finding it, but she did have to steel her will up for another epic battle... And this was only the first day.

What about all the days to come...?

The mere thought of it shocked Etainne, and she tried not to think about it so much. She cleaned up and so everyone else did the same, Cu Sith did his business in the Lake Oizen that he was interrupted from, and so it was a good opportunity for everyone to slumber, and take this time to rest for the next day.

[trancehime]

DAY TWO OF THE SLAYING

The lair of Chelica was in the sky, and it was formed in the shape of a gate in the sky, and within this dimensional maw was the gateway to enter the lair of the Demon Ronin, and it was definitely something that was interesting to see, it was quite the sight, and to those who looked at it, they would want to see where it leads to. For though it was malignant in nature, it looked completely normal and conspicuous, for it was white in color, and not dark like the sex of evil. Chelica was inside the lair, it was deep inside the maw of the dimensional darkness, and she was plotting, for she decided to take Chrysaos' advice of moving forth towards Thelesia. She had with her several elite demons wielding blades of large sizes, and Chrysaos stood in front of her, at the guard, as if she was anticipating entry. She commanded the Greater and Lesser Demons beneath her to swarm forth and prepare for invasion, for she refused to take the offensive this time, the best way to make this approach was to play defensively, because Chelica and Chrysaos both knew of the power that Etainne's group and the other kids held, and Chelica was especially aware of the anger Elatha and Gilthan held in their hearts, they would no doubt be in a frenzy to charge towards her, and maul her right there and then. However, Chelica was not afraid, she wanted to try her best to disable as many of them as she could, for the truth of the matter was, the kids were too late. The Wayfarer was almost revived, and so with his coming, the Ultimate Evil would finally come and the plan would come to fruition, yet, with all this, Chelica could only help but wonder what would really happen once it did come to fruition, and she pondered if she would disappear with the passing of this dimension, or if something else would happen. Chelica didn't want to think about that, so she dismissed the thought, and looked around. The demons were ready to fight what would most likely be their last battle in this torrid little world.

Meanwhile, in the demonic chambers where the seal of the Wayfarer was breaking, it seemed that things were getting a little chaotic, the energy was flowing smoothly, and the spirits that lurked within laughed with glee. The Wayfarer was about to rise soon, and when he did, he would reign in terror, and begin the summoning process of the Ultimate Evil, and when that happened, there was no way of telling what would occur next. The Wayfarer's influence was strong, and the spirits could tell what was up. They were conversing amongst themselves what to do to make their lives fun before the Ultimate Evil arrived to consume this plane, and where they would go next to resume their reign of terror. The spirits looked around their surroundings, and they surmised that the time was coming soon, and when that time came, they would rejoice, for their mission for eons and eons was about to come to a startlingly successful conclusion. Indeed, one could see the looks on their faces, it seemed they were of rather good cheer, in high spirits, and they would enjoy the momentous occasion to come. All the Wayfarer relied on was for Chelica to stall long enough, in the end, though he did have some feelings for her safety, he ultimately only cared for the revival of the Ultimate Evil, and decided that indeed, Chelica would be missed if she were to perish, but that would be a thought to pass, for the Wayfarer too, would fade, for this generation, once the Ultimate Evil became victorious, the universe here would perish, and everything would go with it, and the Ultimate Evil would continue on his merry way.

---

Cu Sith and Tellus were on top of the high vale, sitting under the big tree together. Cu Sith became used to Tellus' advances after he decided to cave in and relent to her constant nagging to be invited to his house. Cu Sith learned a lot of things about the outside world from her, for Tellus was of the Mor'righain Clan, a long-lasting family of female warriors who only married men just as strong as they were, and once they bore children, they were to commit ritualistic suicide. Their rule was strict too, for only female children could be permitted to live, male children were to be killed off. Tellus was lucky, for she was the firstborne, and, as with all Mor'righain custom, she never knew her father. Cu Sith had then been polite to respect Tellus' tribal tendencies, but then he became fearful of himself, and then Tellus laughed, saying that she was only half-serious. The Mor'righain fathers were not actually REQUIRED to commit ritualistic suicide, but there are those who chose to do so, because they wanted to show their devotion from beyond the grave. Though, those who chose to embrace mortality ended up throwing aside their arms and letting their wives do the fighting, for that is what they did best, and gender stereotypes were cleanly reversed. Cu Sith shivered, if Tellus planned on marrying him, he didn't want to have any of that, though in the end, he realized all he ever did was fish in Lake Oizen, take care of his house, and cook. He shrugged. Tellus continued gazing at the blue sky, and then she saw a speck in the distance, it was becoming larger and larger, bit by bit, every single passing moment. Cu Sith yawned and asked Tellus what it was, who was now standing up straight in disbelief, and she could not believe her eyes.

Taillte and Etainne were sitting on a stone bench near the tavern, and they were talking of many things, of life, of life after... About many things that made their minds wander. Etainne sighed with melancholy, wondering if she really would perish after the heroic sacrifice. Taillte sighed, she didn't want to have to see Etainne go, but alas, it seemed that if she was going to perish, Taillte wouldn't have the pleasure of doing what she wanted to do for so long. Taillte suddenly grabbed Etainne by the shoulders, and pushed her into a nearby alleyway, and pinned her against the wall. Taillte was blushing madly and looking apologetic, with sorrow in her eyes. Etainne stammered, asking if she was alright, and Taillte asked her a question gently, but it was with so much power, that Etainne felt like a knife had been driven through her heart.

"D, do you love me?"

"... What... w, where d, d, did that come from?"

"D, do you? Because... I did... I always did."

"Where do these emotions come fr--"

Etainne was trying to protest, but she was interrupted as Taillte embraced Etainne against the wall and pressed her lips against the spirit's, and started to almost devour her tongue, at least, that's what Etainne felt, as her eyes were wide open, and she was shocked, though after a few moments, she could feel Taillte's warmth and sincerity, and reciprocated, relenting, her body becoming weak at the seams, as she embraced Taillte back, and she thought to herself, if she was going to go, she may as well grant her wish, and in the end, she realized that perhaps she might have feelings for the child, too. She could feel that Taillte really kept these feelings inside, because they were so intense, bottled up after so many years, and now, during this time, she would release it. Taillte kept Etainne close and pushed her deeper into the alley, and had her kneel down, and Etainne was curious, she was never really aware of these sorts of acts, but she was about to know, as well. Etainne suddenly remembered when the two of them were bathing, that Taillte was one of both the sex and unsex, and then Etainne blushed at the thought. She wasn't so sure how to feel now that she was at the mercy of her lover, and Taillte pulled up her skirt, to reveal that she was not exactly wearing any underwear. Etainne looked and saw Taillte's member, and blushed, she had never seen it in the flesh, just the allusion, and so wondered what she would do, and Taillte poked it against the spirit's cheeks, and Etainne reacted through giggling, mentioning that it tickled. Taillte grinned and blushed madly, and soon placed her hands gently on Etainne's head, and pushed it towards the tip of her hardening sex, and Etainne blushed, remaining quiet.

The girl's member was throbbing, now, and quite hard, and soon, she had Etainne's mouth embrace the shaft, and soon Taillte started pushing Etainne's head in, while rhythmically pelvic thrusting, and she sighed with relief and pleasure, she noticed Etainne's mouth was tightening, like the grip of a mollusk as it closes its shell tightly. Etainne moaned softly, and the sight of Etainne beneath Taillte made her squeal in joy, but soon she covered her own mouth, she did not want anyone hearing, for others may have found this act quite immoral. Lucky for her, everyone else was very busy with their own preparations. Taillte began to speed up her thrusting, and so Etainne's moaning, though muffled, became progressively louder, eventually Taillte had to place her free hand against the wall, for support, for her legs were twitching madly, from pleasure, and she wanted to spray her seed over her friend's face... She could not have the heart to do it inside, either, for it would be terrible for her. Etainne placed her own hands on her chest, and she moaned, she became malleable, a toy beneath Taillte, for she ended up enjoying the experience too, it was her first time, her innocence was being penetrated, and she was feeling different emotions, she was unsure of what to do. Eventually, Taillte started biting her nails from pleasure, and pulled back, causing Etainne to gasp for air, and soon Taillte stroked her member furiously, and just like that, streams of her essence splayed all over the girl's face, and Etainne blushed, some fell into her mouth. She swallowed as if it were a drink, and gasped, it was a strange taste.

Etainne sighed with relief.

"I need to be cleaned up..."

"You learn fast, dear."

Etainne borrowed Taillte's dress quickly and smothered her face on it, causing the stains to transfer on to her friends dress, and Taillte squealed in surprise, but did not mind it, for she was able to have her wish granted. Taillte smiled and the two of them helped each other up, and soon they hobbled out of the alleyway, Taillte's legs still twitching. The pair then saw Tellus and Cu Sith running down from the vale, and they were proclaiming a message, they saw the lair of Chelica approaching at a fast speed, they needed to prepare for the battle. Tellus batted an eyelash at Taillte's twitching legs, but she decided not to ask, for she already had an idea, and noticed Etainne's silly giddy expression, and just laughed. Cu Sith, fortunately, was oblivious and most likely clueless. Tellus giggled and just gave the boy a pat on the back.

Elatha and Clive were with Gilthan and Maximm, in the tavern, discussing matters over a mug of mead. Only Clive was the person without a drink, he said drinking "that muck" would ruin his throat. Elatha attested, saying that Clive tried to do so exactly once, and ended up with a burnt throat for a very long time. Gilthan of the Burning Curses wondered, what exactly, they would do to stop the Ultimate Evil. Maximm said they had no choice but to do their best in the upcoming fight, that they may be able to do some significant carnage towards the demonic forces. Maximm mentioned that there was absolutely no way their constructs would fit inside the dimension, they had to burst through the enemy forces in person, anyways, and deal with Chrysaos and Chelica in person. Maximm shuddered, they had already battled and crossed swords with Chelica in the past, but this time, she had strong, formidable allies of her own, and the battle would be bloody and difficult. Gilthan sighed and looked outside, seeing Etainne and company converse, and soon he wondered to himself what his kid was doing with Eine, he remembered Katatonia mentioning that he needed to tell Eine something extremely important...

---

Katatonia and Eine were in their room in Taillte's house, and Katatonia sighed, looking at Eine with eyes of melancholy and sadness. Eine tilted her head and asked what the matter was, before Katatonia apologized, saying that he must say this shattering truth. Katatonia then said that he and she were cousins, and the love that Eine had would be forbidden. And from there, Eine tilted her head to the other side, not really reacting in any way that Katatonia expected, this shocked him a little. Then, Eine's expression changed, it looked to be something seductive, as if the idea of forbidden love turned her on even more! Katatonia laughed worryingly and stepped back, falling against the wall, and asked if she was alright. Eine nodded, saying she was feeling very good, and held some rope in her hand. Katatonia smiled sheepishly, saying that he didn't think this was a very good idea, and then Eine silenced him by placing her finger gently on her mouth, and closing his lips, before taking the rope in hand and tying his arms together with it, so he could not do anything. Then, Eine placed him against the wall and started to stroke his face tenderly, scaring Katatonia, but in the end, all Eine did was lock him in an embrace, and kissed him deeply, making the boy blush madly, he had seen Akrona and Gilthan make public displays of affection around the house, and he wondered if this was similar to that. Eventually, he relented, as Eine's touch was much too much for him to resist, and he felt his body turn limp, and he reciprocated, as Eine felt him up everywhere, touching every fiber of his being, and Katatonia could only whimper and moan in response. However, after some time, when Eine was about to pull away Katatonia's robes, Gilthan and Maximm idly walked in the room to see how the two were doing.

"...?!"

"Uhm, err..."

"What are you two doing at this time, anyway?"

"Uah, dad, I can explain."

"Maximm, let her go. She was unable to restrain. Poor Katatonia's bound at the arms, you see. I think this is what happens when you let passion build up too much, no?"

It seemed Eine was saved by Gilthan, and Maximm sighed, realizing that Katatonia told Eine the truth, but the truth seemed to drive her even further instead of repulsing her! He then resigned to the fate that these two cousins would get it on at some point, regardless of how long the boy spends resisting. Gilthan laughed and told the two to get ready, Chelica's lair was nearby and ready for them to attack. Eine nodded and undid the ropes she tied around Katatonia's arms, leaving him there half-unrobed. He blinked and looked up at Gilthan as Maximm and Eine left. The kid fixed his composure and walked past Gilthan, who said these words.

"Sometimes you can't stop love."

Everyone was outside, and soon, Tellus pointed at the sky, it seemed that Chelica's domain was very close, and it seemed with some leverage from the King Loader, they could gain access. However, Etainne noted the eerie strangeness behind the fact no demons were coming out. Etainne questioned this move, wondering if it was deliberate, that they would take the defensive and try an ambush within. Maximm sighed, mentioning to Etainne that it was pointless to worry about why they weren't going on the offensive, they had to stop Chelica here and now.

They were going to enter!

[trancehime]

The King Loader provided the leverage the group needed to make their dynamic entry into Chelica's lair. One by one, each of the Slayers made their entrance, and when they went in, they were surprised with what they saw. Everything was organized neatly, though it was a rather dark atmosphere, with an evil miasma engulfing the area, though it didn't affect Etainne and her friends, Elatha did look around his surroundings carefully, and soon he noticed an evil presence, there were demons abound, and there were a lot of them. Taillte wanted to move forward, but Elatha warned her not to move, for there was a trap abound, and Taillte fell backwards on her bottom, causing a sound from somewhere, it seemed like a laugh. Elatha's suspicions were confirmed, a demon was nearby, laughing at Taillte's clumsiness. Etainne grumbled, putting forward her crystal ball, and causing lasers to shoot forth from it, hitting some demons hiding behind the pillars. Etainne sighed, pointing at the mass of demons ahead of them. The group of demons were many, and it seemed that this would be the beginning of a very rough clash, and this would be the start of one of Etainne's toughest and greatest battles yet. The battle against Chelica, the face off against her enemy, it would seem that after this, they still had to take care of the Wayfarer. Maximm stayed back, taking aim at demons that came charging at the group, and also tried to take out demons who were attacking the others from behind. The demons who were getting picked off by Maximm exploded in a gory display of black blood, unlike their radiant explosions in the outside world, he realized that this must be their true essence, an amalgamation of evil blood and essence. Clive's powerful axe drove through the numbers, accompanied by Tellus' mighty fists and Taillte's quick maneuvers with the spear, as the demons still kept charging at them in droves. The demons were mostly the same in appearance, though in the outside world they seemed to have different visages. This confounded Gilthan, who was constantly lobbing hexes and flame spells at the demons who were entering, to stop reinforcements from overwhelming them. He was assisted by Katatonia's mastery over the icy depths, and the boy magician created walls of ice to prevent passage. The demons were confounded with the icy walls, instead they used their primitive thinking processes to find ways around the walls, only Katatonia had completely sealed them in, so they were stuck there for a while. Elatha and Cu Sith were on their lonesomes, slicing and dicing through the enemy ranks with their blades out and about, and it was a deadly display of force. Eine was also using her hammer to smash groups of demons at a time, and the wave of enemies was slowly diminishing. Eventually, the only enemies that remained were those trapped in the ice walls, which Gilthan quickly disposed of with his mighty spells. The room was completely clean, and all they could hear was the echo of darkness.

Etainne motioned for everyone else to follow her forward, it seemed there was only one way to go, and that was onwards. The lair of Chelica was big and vast, and it seemed that in every room there was a place for a massive battle to occur, and considering that Chelica had asked for a defensive, it was more than likely to occur. Etainne warned everyone to stay alert. The dark miasma intensified around them as the group continued their way forward. Taillte and Cu Sith kept an eye out for any stray demons, and so they realized that there were no demons around them. Tellus looked in the distance and saw the next antechamber, and realized that a circle of demons were there once more, but they weren't the small fry that they faced earlier. These demons were larger. Tellus said they were about five times her own size, and Tellus was a giant herself, she could probably beat Maximm in a fist fight given the right conditions. Etainne sighed and asked the Mor'righain woman how many there were. Tellus hesitated to answer for a moment and gave her very dreadful and mournful answer.

"There are as many of them as there are us."

"Stop beating around the bush."

"8."

Etainne sighed and looked into the distance, and counted the silhouettes she saw. They stood out as there was a lamp in the middle of the antechamber, and then she saw that there were indeed, eight hulking demons standing in a circle. Elatha said there was no use but to outmaneuver the demons and strike all over. Katatonia cleared his throat, he said the best way to dispose of a large group of large demons is to distribute the pain rather than to focus on one, as focusing on one tends to confuse the aggressor and it leaves more of the enemy healthy to act, instead it would be wiser to weaken all of them bit by bit until they lack the energy to fight, and then finish them off with whatever means they have at their disposal. Gilthan nodded, his son had grown very much since they last properly did something like this. Soon, the group entered the chamber to meet their adversary, it was indeed a group of eight large hulking demon minotaur. Each of the minotaur wielded a different weapon to correspond to the group's own. Katatonia's suggestion would be crucial here, as focusing on one of the demons meant the others could use the strengths of their weapons to decimate them. Katatonia grinned to himself, muttering "I told you so." before beginning with the first strike, rolling to the side and casting a spell, it was a field of glacier to cover the arena, making it easier to see, and harder for the enemy to maneuver properly with their large size. Gilthan gave a thumbs up, but Katatonia warned his father not to abuse the spells of flame, lest the glacial tundra give way. Gilthan nodded and restricted himself to debilitating hexes, weaking each and every minotaur with deadly hexes, as everyone else weathered the minotaurs down. Maximm was in the corner, shooting the minotaur with a slingshot. First, he aimed at its arms, causing it to drop the slingshot and yelp in pain, before shooting it once more in the head. Yet, it still lived. Maximm gasped for a moment, this was the first demon that survived a shot to the head! Maximm growled and shot at the minotaur's head again, it lived once more. Soon, the minotaur was close to Maximm, and it roared fiercely, a drop of its saliva fell on the man's head. Maximm remained calm and aimed another shot to the minotaur's head, and pulled the trigger.

BOOM! HEADSHOT!

The demon fell backwards, one had been felled. Maximm gave a thumbs up sign to Katatonia and Gilthan, who smiled. Maximm reloaded and began to distribute his fire to the other minotaurs. Elatha tussled with a minotaur wielding a zweihander. The prince knew that he could not win this fight with brute force alone, he needed to use his wits and his shield in order to counter the minotaur's deadly blows. Elatha maneuvered quickly, passing through beneath the great demon's legs, and jamming his sword into its legs. The minotaur roared, feeling pain, kneeling, but it still could fight, and it swung its sword in front blindly, yet Elatha was already behind him, the prince clung to its back and drove his weapon through the demon's neck, causing him to make a bloodcurdling scream, and it too, joined its fallen ally. Elatha grunted and ran off to help Eine, who was having some trouble. The girl could easily evade the massive maul the demon here held, but her own hammer was having trouble causing damage to the minotaur's tough skin. However, before Elatha could make it, both a gun shot and a dagger hit the minotaur's face. The bullet hit its right eye, the dagger stuck to its left. It screamed horrifically, inciting fear within all, but it fell to the ground, and Eine was empowered, soon she smashed her hammer down on the demon's head with such force and invigoration that it exploded. Eine cheered to herself silently and saw that Katatonia was maintaining his spell, but there was a minotaur holding a giant spiked mace approaching the boy. With anger, the charged at the minotaur, and her hammer suddenly enlarged in size as she ran, and eventually, at some point, it became so huge, her swing caused the giant mace in the demon's hand to get knocked away, and then snap in half. The mace was also made of steel. The demon growled, it was confused, but before it could regain its wits, it was knocked down with the force of Eine's giant hammer. Elatha ran to that demon and stabbed it straight in the heart, and it died instantly. There were four demonic minotaurs remaining. Etainne faced a minotaur with her trusty crystal ball, and suddenly concentrated hard, she soon kept shooting an endless barrage of thin cheeto lasers at the minotaur, each laser hitting the minotaur made it flinch, and it loosened its grip on the  giant flail it wielded, and after some moments, it lost its grip on it, and dropped the weapon it once held. It growled and forced itself to brave the endless barrage of lasers Etainne shot at it, but behind her, another minotaur armed with two giant scimitars was about to behead her, until someone roared fiercely, and a spear flying out of nowhere pierced right between the eyes of the demon. Taillte leapt high into the air to retrieve it, pulling out her spear and driving it like a stake into the demon's heart, like a vampire slayer. Taillte cried forth in a rage before calming down, she looked around, and saw that the demon that Etainne was shooting at had already died from the overdose of light energy. Etainne stashed away her crystal ball and dusted herself. Clive and Cu Sith were stuck facing the two toughest minotaurs, one wielded a huge demonic battle-axe and the other was coated in armor so strong Cu Sith's daggers couldn't pierce through at all!

Clive growled and motioned for Elatha to come close as he leapt back to dodge a great blow. Any attack from this demon would cause its victim's head to split and explode, indeed, it would be wise to evade its attack. Clive motioned to strike at its head, but soon, several gunshots were heard, and the demon fell backwards, it had been head shot to death by Maximm. The glacial tundra generated by Katatonia helped insanely in limiting the demon's movements. The last one was alone, in impregnable armor, and it stood still, defending itself, for it knew that it would die, the best way was to try and take enemies down with it. Gilthan coughed and flicked a hex at the demon, causing its armor to melt in its place. The demon moaned and braced itself, wildly swinging its arms, but it was quickly put down by gunshots from Gilthan and Cu Sith throwing his daggers at it. The demon fell back, and all the minotaurs were defeated. Katatonia stopped his spell, and he panted. Etainne pointed forward at the wide corridor, saying that they had to press on, even if they were tired. Gilthan agreed, saying they had to finish this job very fast. Katatonia shambled forward, he looked feverish. Eine tilted her head curiously and picked the boy up in her arms like he was a damsel in distress. Gilthan laughed, thanking her for caring so much. Gilthan at first was afraid of the relationship going awry, but he realized that Eine was so much stronger physically than Katatonia would ever be, and he would greatly benefit from her love. Maximm laughed too, accepting that love could not be stopped if it was this intense. Etainne motioned for the sappy stuff to stop and move on. Elatha sighed and told Etainne to calm down as they all ventured down the corridor. The miasma became thicker, and it eventually became harder to breathe. The one who suffered from this most was Etainne, being a spirit. She coughed. Taillte sighed worriedly and placed an arm around her, and helped her to go forward. Eventually, the group entered another chamber, this time this chamber seemed to lead to the throne room. However, a familiar face accompanied by two giant archdemons armed with scythes made himself visible. It was Chrysaos, and he was looking royally pissed. He stepped forward and growled at Etainne.

"Let's not sugarcoat this, witch," he said. "I am going to guard Chelica with my life. All of you will perish under my hand!"

"Not if I can help it," Taillte scowled back at the demon.

"Enough! It's time for you to know your place!"

Chrysaos instantly charged at Taillte, armed with a long sword, but the girl blocked his assault with her spear, and kicked the demon back, causing him to spit at her face. Taillte screamed with much anger and hatred, as Etainne calmed her down and told her that was what Chrysaos wanted. He was much better at fighting a disrupted opponent than one who knew what he or she was doing. Taillte grumbled, and soon Maximm shouted forth for Chrysaos, and shot at him. Soon, the demons armed with scythes flew from afar and stepped in, separating Etainne and Taillte from everyone else. Chrysaos laughed, saying that it was high time to even the scales. Chrysaos would fight the two who started it all, while his minions would deal with the rest. The demonic double of Chelica laughed, his sword was shining, a stark contrast to his demonic nature. Taillte growled while Etainne tried to make her friend tame her own emotions. Taillte kept her spear at the ready as Chrysaos walked nonchalantly towards her, his own sword brandished, and soon Taillte charged forth first, causing the first strike, it was by surprise, the demon did not see it coming, and so his face was scarred by Taillte's spear. Chrysaos gasped, and countered, slashing at Taillte, in fact, his blade grazed Taillte's side, and she yelped in pain, stumbling backwards. Etainne called out for Taillte, and she tried to stem the bleeding with a spell, and it worked, but Chrysaos grumbled and did not like healing in that case, he wanted to finish her! And so Chrysaos flew into the air and charged at Etainne. However, the girl was calm and quickly brandished her crystal ball, and shot lasers at Chrysaos. He was forced to maneuver away, disrupting his aim, and even so, he was damaged significantly by the lasers. Chrysaos growled, kneeling a ways away, and soon Taillte looked down on him, and raised her spear, and attempted to drive it down through his head, but he quickly retrived his sword and blocked the tip, barely, by the nick of time, and kicked her aside, knocking her into the wall. Taillte felt the impact and groaned from the pain, and tried to stand, and noticed that Chrysaos was still up and kicking. Etainne grumbled, pelting more lasers, but this time, they didn't seem to be so effective.

Meanwhile, Elatha and the others were tied up trying to deal with the two gate guardians, and their scythes were great weapons, however, there were only two of them. Eine placed the now unconscious Katatonia to the side and procured her hammer, and forcing one of the demons to lock weapons with her. The hammer collided with the scythe, and it stunned a gate guardian, who was then promptly shot to death by Maximm. The first one disappointed Eine, but she was soon almost sliced in half by the gate guardian behind her! However, Gilthan quickly muttered a spell and had her teleported to safety in the nick of time. Maximm was caught by shock for a moment, but shook his head and realized Eine was well and alive, and she was now tending to Katatonia. The second gate guard roared, but Elatha and Clive were quick to respond. Clive kept the great demon's scythe pinned to the ground, while Elatha was in a rage, stabbing the demon wherever he could drive his sword, and the gate guard succumbed to the accumulating pain, it was great, and it could not feel anything anymore, and the gate guard crashed. The rest turned to see Chrysaos braving the assault of Etainne, and soon, Chrysaos was a swordstrike away from Etainne. The spirit instantly stopped, and for the first time in her life, she felt fear. A demon like him had never been this close to her, let alone one who was very intent on driving a sword through her being. He readied his blade, but there was a cry from far away.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Taillte had risen from the rubble and driven her own spear through Chrysaos before he could attack Etainne. Chrysaos turned his head around a bit and saw the burning hatred in Taillte's eyes, he knew that he was gone now, because he felt his energy fading away. He laughed and felt every fiber of Taillte's hate through that spear, and with his last breath, and his remaining power, he uttered some very ominous words.

"Win... or lose... The Wayfarer has awoken... Ahaha..."

Then, Chrysaos faded away, his body became limp, and Taillte expelled the spear from him and looked down at his corpse, now disappearing into dust. Chelica remained in the room ahead, but Etainne couldn't help but wonder if they were too late, for Chrysaos had said that no matter the outcome of this battle, the Wayfarer had already spawned. Etainne grumbled, she definitely had reasons to be afraid now, but she had no choice but to press on, and hope that Chrysaos was just playing a very cruel joke on them. Eine shook Katatonia, but he was barely stirring. For a moment, Eine thought her lover had died, but she was relieved to see that he woke up slowly, but surely. The boy looked around him and saw Etainne and everyone else looking ahead, he opened his mouth to speak, but Eine quietened him down, telling him to conserve his energy for the fight with Chelica ahead. Katatonia nodded and stood up, but Eine stopped him, saying she was much more comfortable with carrying him around. The boy did not protest, and allowed her to carry him effortlessly, and so Eine carried him forward to join Etainne, who was now leading everyone into the last chamber, to face off against the Demon Ronin Chelica at last. It would no doubt be a hard battle, but given their luck, it may not be so hard after all, but they really couldn't say for sure. Tellus looked forward, and saw that Chelica was ahead, sitting on her throne, and accompanying her were four of those gate guards from earlier, but they looked tired. Chelica groaned and soon stood up, she could sense Tellus watching her, and yelled out for Etainne to hurry up. Etainne heard Chelica's loud and powerful voice, and soon she could feel the energy emanating from her, and she warned everyone to stay on their guard. When they entered the throne room, they could see Chelica standing, her wing still had a hole from when Maximm shot her that long time ago, and she laughed when she saw that man with a rifle, and said that she wouldn't fall for that trick anymore! Etainne grumbled and demanded an answer regarding what Chrysaos said before he died, and Chelica said she would only say if she were to be defeated in battle. "Then so be it!" Etainne said, then releasing her crystal ball and concentrating a mass amount of energy, then releasing a spread barrage of lasers, hitting everything in its way, burning through the gate guards, it seemed that this was instantaneous, so strong, so powerful, fuelled by determination, and the gate guards were incinerated. Chelica giggled, not anticipating this turn of events. She looked grim for a split second before pulling her katana from one of the nearby pillars, and pointed it forward.

"So it seemed I DID have to do this on my own. All eight of you, even with that stupid gun user, can't defeat me in my lair! I'd love to see you try!"

Maximm tried to interrupt her with a gun shot, but she saw it coming from miles away this time, and teleported, reappearing behind Maximm, and about to stab his back. Eine called for her father to watch it, but Elatha rushed forward and blocked the blow for him with his shield, and he snarled at the demoness before swiping at her, but she teleported away once more, now appearing next to a pillar which she was now leaning on, and so she laughed, saying she couldn't be defeated in this way. Etainne sighed and cast a spell, and the room became illuminated in a bright light, and so Chelica cursed. Her strength was the room, the darkness gave her power beyond all belief, but now that benefit was forcefully taken from her, she had to fight under the Slayers' terms, and she grumbled, looking at Cu Sith and Tellus, who were now eager to give someone a bruising. Maximm aimed once more at Chelica, and shot her other wing, tearing a hole in it. She squealed, and soon saw Eine carrying Katatonia, she was vulnerable, so Chelica dashed towards them, sword drawn, in an attempt to cleave both of them in two, but Etainne stood nearby, in Chelica's path, stuck a foot out, and tripped her over. Eine laughed, and so Taillte drove her foot on Chelica's back and raised her spear in the air.

"Not so strong now, ARE you, you cur?!" she asked.

Chelica laughed. "Kill me if you want, you're too late! The Wayfarer's seal is already broken. All I was... I was just a meat shield! I was buying time so the seal could be broken! As you waste time here killing my minions and I, the Wayfarer is making his appearance!"

Before Chelica could burst out in maniacal laughter, Taillte silently impaled the demoness under her foot with her spear. Taillte spat on Chelica's corpse, her face was unusually ecstatic, and so Etainne pointed towards the way out, which was the way they came in. All of them rushed out, Katatonia was now asleep in Eine's arms, and when they arrived outside, they landed on the King Loader, who proclaimed that it was as Chelica said, the sky was now darker, the Wayfarer was now alive. Etainne grumbled, indeed, they were too late, but that was where the final showdown came in. Everyone was now ready with their Constructs. Balor, the Chimaera, was also nearby, Elatha and Clive had helped in finding it, and so Elatha asked Balor why he was here, and in response, King Loader mentioned he called his friend to come and assist in the battle. With Mormegil in arms with Tlachtga, it would make the battle with the Wayfarer and the Ultimate Evil trivial mostly. But they still needed to wait for his arrival, though the Wayfarer had resurrected, he could only call his power from the center point of chaos... Which happened to be Thelesia, the entire time. Etainne asked why this was the case. The King Loader explained that this village was the place of all the demon attacks, the place of Chelica's lair's siege, the place where the Claiomh Solais was drawn, this was the place of many events. Chaos breeds from the actions of man, and from this chaos, the Wayfarer and the Ultimate Evil feeds and utilizes this energy to call upon its evil power. The Ultimate Evil was capable of devouring entire dimensions to fuel itself, it endlessly drifts across dimensions, swallowing them whole and with it the negativity of the people and animals who live in it, and from it it grows stronger, until everything that existed in the universe was gone, turned into nothingness. Etainne looked with concern at the King Loader, and wondered what was going to happen now. She wasn't even sure what the Wayfarer looked like.

The King Loader sighed and looked up at the sky. It was now pitch-black, as if under a permanent eclipse. The only light emanated from the Slayers, and it seemed Etainne was capable of putting up a spell of light for a short amount of time to provide vision. Taillte sighed and said it was time to invoke their Constructs and steel their will for what would most likely be their final battle on this land. Taillte sighed, she really didn't want to stay apart from Etainne, and pondered joining her in death, and at the same time, wondered if that was a smart idea as well. Elatha and Clive silently went to Cuculainn and Dierdre, whereas Cu Sith embarked on Crofh Cruzarch and Tellus went with the Dark Warrior Nemain. In fact, everyone except Taillte and Etainne embarked on their Constructs. Etainne looked silently into the distance and then looked down at the grass, shadowed by the darkness that came from the uprising of the Wayfarer. Taillte looked at Etainne, and then gave her a deep kiss from out of the blue. This sudden display of affection took Etainne by surprise, but she knew she was going to perish, so she could only react with a smile. Taillte looked at Etainne silently before going to invoke Lughnasadh. By now, everyone except the key player, Etainne, had invoked their Construct.

Etainne looked forward at the sky, and then sighed one last time.

She gave Thelesia one last look before she went to Tlachtga.

"I CALL YOU!! HEROIC AMALGAMATION TLACHTGA!!!"