Maraud looked affronted, then sheepish.
"As a matter of fact, I was hoping you would have left me a few. It has been a while since I have dusted off my fists, so to speak. And I am very much going to need to fight for the trials ahead. We all are. Would have been good to get in some practice first." Then he turned to the group of children, and gave them a thumbs up.
"Well, hopefully that should both stave off their suspicion and pique their curiosity long enough for us to make our move. Sauriel, a bold speech to rally the troops to march forth to the lodestone, if you please."

Cryth grumbled a little, but after some reassurance from Jokan he consented, if temporarily, to trust Semira.
"I don't like this," he fumed. "If she comes after us-"
"We can deal with her. If you were able to fight her one on one, combined we should easily best her."
"And the vampire? And the angel?"
"I have faith."
Cryth looked at Amelia. "Whatever happens, stay close to me, alright? I don't like this Amelia, and my top priority, is keeping you safe."

"Amelia?"
Cryth nearly jumped, then shuffled round to put himself between Amelia and Maraud, who had just spoken. "My dear girl, is your name Amelia?" the vampire asked curiously.

When Semira was beckoned she approached with Sauriel. The boy was staring at her awkwardly he was familiar to her but couldn't quite put her finger on it
"We are here to fin out some information, As much as I hate to say it I am going against Lucifer for this."
she kept studying the boy and then she remembered
"Wait...your the boy with that power, power I've never felt before, what are you doing in a place like this, demons are drawn to it, but why am I unable to sense it?"
she had a confused look on her face but shrugged it off
"Well whatever it is right now I have other priorities to worry about thats far more important then your power."



Amelia looked up at Maruad through her lashes. She slowly nodded
"Yes, my name is Amelia, why do you ask?"
she noticed her brothers reaction to the question
"brother do you know him?"

Tybalt looked closely at the girl who apparently fell from the sky.
"I wish there was more I could do. I feel kind of useless just standing around here."
He looked back at Decoda.
"Is she going to be alright? I think she tried to say something just now, but I couldn't make it out."


Sauriel raised his brow at Maraud's request.
"I must have missed the part where I was elected to be the heroic speech-giver of the group. But...I suppose it can't be helped."
He stood in front of the soldiers and called out to them.
"Soldiers, demon slayers and all who are brave enough to go forth with us, listen well!"
He raised his sword to the sky and prepared to give an Oscar-winning speech.
"Our time has come! As we march forth into the depths of hell, know that the spirit of the warrior marches with you! Whether we live or die, glory awaits. But I do not plan to die this day! Fight with everything you have, take victory by sheer force of will and return to this world victorious!"
Although he wasn't a fan of giving speeches, he did know how to inspire others to ride into glorious battle when he needed to.

Decoda looked up at Tybalt. "She'll be fine soon enough." She replied. "She's starting to regain consciousness." She added, as her hands ceased glowing and she straightened her spine, leaving her hand on her forehead, though she removed her hand from her hip. "I've healed you." Decoda spoke softly. "Do you know why were you falling?"

"Gubu?" Rail asked. She closed her mouth and a baffled expression crossed her face. "Cooniwa?" She tried again. "Suwa!" Panic began to build in her gut. I can't talk! She realized. Eventually she made eye contact with Decoda and shook her head.

Near the edge of the crater a black hole came into being. Stepping from the darkness a girl strode calmly into the crater and stood behind Tybalt and Decoda. Leathery wings sprouted from her shoulders and two small horns poked out from under her hair. Rail noticed her first.
"Tan ia!" She said forcefully pointing.
"I didn't expect you'd to forget how to talk. It wasn't that long was it?" Noise asked her mockingly.
"Mooga!"
"I have no idea what you're trying to say." Noise chuckled. "My poor little sister. This is why you don't go getting lost in a worm hole." Noise put a hand to her forehead and shook her head.
Rail, infuriated, hit Noise with a blast of electricity knocking her down.
"Why you!" Noise swiped her hand and a rift appeared below Rail, sucking her into it. The portal closed as soon as she was consumed. Another one popped into existence several feet into the air and Rail fell head first onto the ground.
"GABBA NAYA!" Rail cried in anger. Noise just laughed.

Cryth shook his head, and Maraud whistled.
"Well, it's a small world. A good friend of mine was called Amelia. She was... very dear to me. She passed away only last night. I owe her a great deal. Perhaps tis fate, or something similar."

The soldiers roared in approval and quickly marched (to be more accurate, stampeded) down the rocky trail towards a huge pit, glowing with sickly purple light ahead of them. More demons started pouring out of it in a great wave.
"Shall we?" Maraud inquired to everyone present.

Tybalt took a few steps towards the demon and glared at her.
"In fairness, I don't know who either of you are or what your history is. In fact, I don't even know your names or where you come from. But what I do know is that right now, you are attacking someone who is clearly in no position to defend herself and I have to say, I've never really approved of an unfair fight."
His eyes started to glow with power and he assumed a fighting stance.
"I will only tell you this once. Leave the angel alone."

Noise looked at Tybalt as though he were an idiot. "An unfair fight, huh. Like a fall from that distance would even hurt her."
"Nu wana!" Rail said from the spot where she was rubbing her head.
"Anyway, I'm Noise, and that's Rail. We're sisters with a bit of a family feud in our past. We usually get along okay. But she still doesn't understand the power of a spacial rift. She fell in one a long time ago, and then I went to find her and fell asleep."
Gaba sana." Rail said and pantomimed falling with her hands.
"Yep, so who are the two of you, anyway?"

Tybalt looked curiously at the two of them.
"So you're telling me that this is just a case of sibling rivalry?"
He put his hand on his chin in thought.
"Well...being an only child, I guess it's hard for me to say for sure...maybe having a sibling is a lot more complicated than I thought."
He looked back at Rail.
"Are you sure this is normal for you two? You can just nod for yes or shake for no."


Sauriel nodded at Maraud.
"This is what we've been preparing for the entire time, right? I'm more than ready."
He spread out his wings and charged ahead with the soldiers.

Decoda looked from Noise to Rail...her heart went out to the young angel. 'Clearly she has some problems with communication. No other discipline will take her into their fold,' she looked back to Noise with a puzzled expression; 'They're siblings?!' She tilted her head slightly. 'One is a demon,' she looked at Rail; 'the other is an angel. How is that possible?' She thought to herself.

MateusseDarkslight wrote:

Cryth shook his head, and Maraud whistled.
"Well, it's a small world. A good friend of mine was called Amelia. She was... very dear to me. She passed away only last night. I owe her a great deal. Perhaps tis fate, or something similar."

The soldiers roared in approval and quickly marched (to be more accurate, stampeded) down the rocky trail towards a huge pit, glowing with sickly purple light ahead of them. More demons started pouring out of it in a great wave.
"Shall we?" Maraud inquired to everyone present.

Amelia gave Maraud a sympathetic look
"I-I'm sorry you lost a close friend, I have lost those I love as well and can understand how you feel"
she held out her hand
"Its nice to meet you, I'm assuming you will be helping us?"
she looked at her brother
"I guess its now or never"

"Yunu." Rail said with a shrug and then nodded.
It was mostly true anyway, except for the sister part. But that was only a detail. The two supernatural beings had been members of The Grey ever since Lucifer's Rebellion. They were affectionately considered the bumbling duo by their comrades, but they got the job done regardless of their personal quirks. Well, they got most of the job done. Sometimes they'd kill the wrong people, or the person they were supposed to protect. If you asked them to get you two items they'd bring two back, but one would always be the wrong thing.
Rail, normally the no nonsense leader and Noise was a loose cannon owing to her demonic nature which made her naturally mischievous.
"See?" Noise said to Tybalt. "I'm nto lying, despite the fact that I'm a demon. So you can stop staring at me like you're going to kill me."

Maraud smoothly kissed it tenderly, resulting in immediate seething from Jokan and Cryth.
"A pleasure to meet you my dear. Alas, perhaps our next meeting will be in less... hmm... hectic settings."
He turned and seemed to gracefully stroll alongside the running soldiers.
"Semira! Sauriel! Lead them in!" The demons at the front were fresh, frenzied, and hungry for blood.

Cryth took Amelia's hand. "Come on sis! Let's go!"
Jokan, not knowing Cryth was already doing it, took her other hand. "We're with you." He raised his voice. "CHARGE!!"

Amelia had blushed when he kissed her hand. Something she always did when someone had kissed her hand.
"and a pleasure to meet you"
she slightly bowed her head, she was taught to reply in such a manor by her parents.
when Amelia felt her brother and Jokan grab her hand she simply squeezed them
"please both of you, be careful"
she said right before they started charging in. Amelia grabbed a hold of Cryths waist as the horse reared and started charging



Semira looked at the demons in the front line
"You know I would be more then happy to help but if I end up revealing myself to the men behind us, I have a feeling they would changed their minds about helping us"
she looked at Sauriel
"Ill leave this to you and do what I can"

Tybalt broke his stance and loosened up, but he still kept an eye on Noise.
"Alright, I suppose I can believe you. But still, don't you think you should be a little nicer to her?"
He looked back at Rail.
"I mean, the poor girl can't even talk right now. Is there anything we can do to help with that?"


Sauriel nodded to Semira before taking off. He soon arrived in front of the demon hordes, but before he started attacking them he called out to Maraud.
"You have a lot of catching up to do if you want to destroy as many of these demons as I have. You are going to try to catch up, aren't you? I wouldn't want you to be completely humiliated in front of everyone."
He summoned his sword and charged in with everyone else.

Maraud couldn't resist a chuckle at Sauriel's taunts, and broke into a run.
In about three seconds he was at the head of the group, in front of Sauriel.
Then he stopped and politely gestured.
"After you Sauriel. I don't want to be rude."

Battle was joined and Jokan got split off from them in the melee.
Cryth's eyes were closed, and demons just fell left and right without being touched, clutching their heads.
"Stay with me Amelia... concentrate, focus on your power," he said in a monotone as the horse neighed and lashed out at the demons with it's clod hooves.

Semira stood in the back of the group trying to think of a way to help.
"Hmm what to do?"
a moment later her staff suddenly appeared. The soldiers would be able to tell that she was a demon if she just used her staff and if they question it she would just have to come up with some reason for it. She held out her hand and her staff suddenly appeared, the crystal flowing a bright red, she aimed it at the demons, a laser appeared and a moment later several demons when flying into the air as the ground below them exploded
"Hmm maybe I overdid it a bit"
she said as she walked up beside Sauriel and Maurad


Amelia nodded
"I'll try my best brother"
she closed her eyes trying to concentrate, but nothing happened. After trying a few times she opened her eyes
"Brother..I-I can't"

Maraud was dispatching his demonic adversaries with what looked like martial arts, extremely co-ordinate and measured punches and kicks that sent his enemies to the ground.
"Somehow, overdoing it was always going to be your problem, I think..."

A demon leaped up from the ground and dragged Amelia from the horse. A second one pounced on Cryth, knocking him off the other side and out of his trance. "Amelia? AMELIA!!" Cryth's yells could be heard above the chaos of battle, as the squalid furry demon that had attacked Amelia threw her to the ground and advanced on her menacingly with a sword, gurgling as it did so.

Semira raised a brow at Maraud
"And what do you mean by that?"
she crossed her arms her staff still in hand



"BROTHER!!"
Amelia screamed when she was grabbed by the demon as she was thrown onto the ground she hit her head causing her vision to blur. After a moment her vision cleared and she saw the demon coming towards her
"BROTHER!! "
she screamed, her instinct to defend herself kicked in and she quickly curled up into a ball covering her ears and clenching her eyes shut
"HELP ....ME!!"
as she screamed it echoed, the ground suddenly began to freeze under her, freezing everything in its path....

Maraud cupped an ear.
"What was that? I didn't..."
A demon the size of a house lumbered out of the gaggle and Maraud darted forwards, sinking his fanged teeth into it's neck and laughing as it staggered away, him riding it, through another group of demons and away from Semira.

Cryth got up, shakily but mostly intact.
"I'm fine, get Amelia, make sure she's ok!"

Noise simply shrugged as Rail slowly got to her feet. She flapped her wings a few times to ensure that they still functioned properly and then climbed up out of the crater to survey the surrounding area.
"We've known each other since the war." Noise said, her eyes seeming to stare into the past. "Such a silly thing, now when I look back at it. But the two of us are sisters. We can be cruel to one another and fight, but we only do that because we know that we'll forgive one another in the end. That's what love is."
"Ku!" Rail said loudly as though to reinforce Noise's point. The demon gave a small smile before continuing on.
"She should learn to talk normal eventually. Just give her time."
"Aki." Rail called down to them. Noise turned her head to see Rail waving her hand and pointing out of the crater. Noise walked up the slope to where her angelic sister stood. The two of them surveyed the scene before them.
"Hey, Mister. Where exactly are we? The Gray don't exactly tell us when they're going to put us into service. These buildings aren't familiar to me, what year is it?"

Decoda tilted her head slightly. "That is a good question." She murmured to herself, then looked at Tybalt. "You know, I haven't really been here for that long...it's also a question that I should have found out when I fell."

Sauriel looked back at Amelia, the first thing he noticed was that the area around her seemed to be frozen.
"A cryomancer...?"
He muttered this to himself, but decided it wasn't important at the moment. He knelt down beside her, examining her for injuries.
"Are you alright? Did the demon hurt you in any way?"


Tybalt hummed as he thought to himself.
"Well, that's kind of a hard question to answer...I don't know what kind of calendar angels and demons use. If you're going by the Gregorian calendar, it's 2014. You could also say the year is Heisei 26 if that helps any. Is any of this ringing a bell for you two?"

Decoda folded her arms. "I've never really ever noticed any passage of time...at least not how other angels viewed the passage of time." She looked at Tybalt. "But I trust your judgement." She added.