SHAMELESS INTRUSION: Continuation of Excal vs Cyril duel

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Cyril Shinsei
 

SHAMELESS INTRUSION: Continuation of Excal vs Cyril duel

Unread postby Cyril Shinsei » Wed Feb 11, 2004 12:47 am

As some of you may (probably very few!) know, the ADV! forum on which a duel between Excal and I has recently lost its ability to post new posts. Thusly, we are now temporarily stealing forum space upon RPGWW to continue it.

>.>;;

The next post will be the sum total of all posts in the duel so far.


Cyril Shinsei
 

Re: So it begins.

Unread postby Cyril Shinsei » Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:11 am

Link to original thread: advforums.atp.cx/viewtopic.php?t=2377

Mysterious cloaked guy
---------------------------------------------
A vast barren field was all that remained.

Once, here, in the endless plains, life had flourished. A rolling, neverending infinity of green. Back then, creatures of nature had thrived, brought forth into existence, lived their inevitably short lives, and died, ever cycling through the circle of life.

Such a pity, then, that it would abruptly stop so suddenly, so soon.

The figure stepped forward, his tattered gray cloak fluttering slightly in the light breeze, practically all that remained of mother nature's reign here. The ground was dry, cold rock, cracking slightly with every step that the figure took. He glanced forth at the horizon, where the long stretch of deadness continued. Would his adversary come? Had he, himself, been a fool to return here, to fight a long-forgotten duel that had never truly come to an acceptable conclusion?

He shrugged to himself ever so slightly, bits of travel-stained dirt rolling off his garments as he crossed his arms and waited. He knew that, so long as the Juno Knight had learned of the summons sent forth by him, he woud, in all likelihood, come. And so he set imself resolute, ready to finish what should have been completed long ago.

A fight, somewhat pointless to many should they witness it, but one whose outcome would prove a point. Life or death. Existence or destruction. Both children of the driving force of the multiverse, change. Which would it be, truly, that was the dominating force in the game that all of Creation played?

The figure continued to wait, as long as eternity if need be. He would find the answer. He would.

Shuryou Gospel
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The area became disoriented and reality warped, as things began to settle a white sword shrouded in darkness materialized causing the area to darken. The sword stood there and a faded vision of the white knight knelling down there holding the sword to the ground but then vanished. The sword fell down but made no noise as it hit the ground. Other parts of the area were warped, bits and pieces of a walls and ruins, some things from the previous arena began to show up…

Eidolon X
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I thought I was the only one who could appear out of no where in a full-body-covering cloakupo, make a dramatic entrance with some nice scenic prose, and challenge Excal?

Has this place really changed so much?

Excal
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A figure in blue and silver armour marked with the crest of Creation walked up behind the Mayuri Warrior and laid a gauntlet clad hand upon his shoulder. "He may be clad so that his face is shrouded, but he's all but told us his name. And, I think this guy has managed to get as much right to the entrance and challenge as you and Reako have." And then he walked on to face Shuryou.

"Hmm, do we not have a duel of our own, Emperor?" with added accent on the title, letting his disdain come through. "I should hate to think that this diversion should be enough to keep you from defending your throne and your precious future."

And with that said, the Juno Knight turned to face his old and ultimate foe. He unsheathed the blue crystaline blade of his weapon, the Sword of Creation, the Juno Blade. The Eight Elemental Gems shone with their inner light from the golden hilt as he swung it easily while bringing his shield to rest in front of himself.

"Cyril Shinsei," Excal said to the man in shadow. "It has been too long since last we met in battle. I know your cause for being here, but the Void shall not have this land. Do what you may, this land shall survive."

And with that, he stood ready to recieve any attack.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
The figure swung around to face his adversary who had just so spoken, this time the faint light in the sky clearly illuminating his face to reveal, unsurprisingly, that the Juno Knight had spoken true. As he usually did. Cyril Shinsei stood and managed, of all things, a perfectly candid little smile.

"Excal Irius Burned," he said, "you do wound me. Without much thought to it at all you have already come to a conclusion upon the purpose of my arrival and that its goal is to make war upon this minuscale land." He shook his head gravely, as if this had been the last thing from his mind. Perhaps it was. Perhaps not. "If the Void desires to consume Creation, it shall be on a..." he paused slightly, chuckling. "...shall we say, grander scale." He spoke with tone that made it appear that the years of realizing his fate and his role had driven the Emissary of Destruction somewhat mad.

"Nevertheless," he continued, "You do know why I am here, and you are here. We came to meeting once, long ago, to settle a matter, and it has not yet been resolved." He raised his right hand in an almost reluctant gesture, and with a sudden hiss of arcane energies his polearm phased into existence. He grasped it slowly, its enscribed runes humming and throbbing with energy as, for the first time for years, it sprang to life.

"This battle may be of little importance on the cosmic scale," he said, "but its outcome shall reflect all of which will occur. As Creation and Destruction itself sends their designated pawns in the game of fates to wage a meaningless little war." He smirked slightly. "And, besides, Excal, you took all the trouble to come here. I would not deny you the first blow." He leaned back, poised into a defensive fighting position - something Cyril had rarely done - and waited for the Juno Knight to strike.

Reako Somner
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"Hmmm, a battle between Excal and Cyril. THIS is something I haven't seen in quite some time. I suppose I will watch, though I don't concern myself as much with this world as I used to..."

Reako's thoughts began dwelling on the going-ons of a world named Gaera... and also recalled the time he spent here.

"I suppose the most I can do is watch this struggle, and possibly prevent any severe damage to this place which it might cause."

SRGPI
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In a swirl of dust, an old warrior named SRGPI teleported in, donning his blue faran robe.

"I haven't seen the likes of such old warriors in a long time...this shall prove to be an interesting battle."

Shuryou Gospel
---------------------------------------------
The shadow from the sword whispered a sound heard in the minds of those around...

"...Amalgam...Mathais...long ago..."

The emperor was around, but not quite there, as the choas rift left him between realties and time leaving only his sword as his only means of communication.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
The Juno Knight let his eyes wander over the battlefield, and take in the small crowd that seemed to have gathered to watch the fight. Already three old companions had come from the midst of nowhere to offer commentary on what was to be, as well as the child emperor, who was going to continue with his prattling from behind that sword of his. It all made sense, the days where a duel could have gone by as so much white noise having long since passed, but it grated upon him none the less.

"Sigh, it seems as though our longstanding differences are to be the cause of entertainment for the masses, Cyril. I had hoped that one day our differences might have been realised on a different Battleground, but it seems that is never to be. And so, let us bring an end to it."

With that said, he raises his sword in a salute to the Incarnation of the Void, the one who now stood for the opposite of all that is. And then, using his grasp of Time to synchronise himself with Cyril's attunement with its flows, he leapt forward to engage in some opening, tentative, swordplay. Now moving as quickly as his foe, no slower, but also no faster, he began probing for weaknesses, while hoping to show no weakness himself.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
Cyril frowned, clearly detecting Excal's link to the timestream, further evidenced when he suddenly moved faster than he remembered his old adversary being. Not surprisingly, as fast as him. It appeared that past knowledge would reveal little of what the Juno Knight had prepared for him now.

Ah, well, Cyril thought, can't let years pass and not expect change in the world. Reflexively, while he mused upon this, his polearm and Excal's sword clashed and exchanged blows, the singing of steel vibrating throughout the arena - a sort of opening flare to the commencing battle. With now equal agility and reflexes, Excal gained the offensive hand, but Cyril was surprisingly adept at parrying and deflecting off his attacks. After all, ungodly speed had been his tactic for a long time, and while the Juno Knight may now be equally quick, he did not have the decades of training that Cyril had to effectively utilize his newfound advantage. One that would be stripped bereft soon, rendering the point moot.

Reaching back into the depths of the Void, Cyril silently, with an almost invisible flick of his hand in the midst of fierce swordplay, sent a torrent of destruction energies focused on Excal's aura. Fortunately, the effect desired was simple, and thus produced results almost instantaneously. With that, the void energies quickly lashed away at the ties from Excal and the timestream, effectively dispelling the effect. At the same time, he focused the remaining energies he had drawn into a buffer upon himself, rendering future attempts to attune or probe his aura difficult - at least for a while.

Timing this with a clang of their weapons, Cyril suddenly went on to the offensive with his speed advantage regained, unleashing a flurry of blows to overwhelm his opponent.

Shuryou Gospel
---------------------------------------------
As Cyril sensed out Excal's aura, another force with the same pattern aura yet slightly twisted came into his mind. As the timestream came apart the emperor who had been trapped become visible again.

"Life... This place is filled with the light of hope, my powers are diminishing... I need to recooperate..."

The emperor took his sword and walked wearly away and seemed to fade into a nearby shadow.

"I will continue to watch, wait, plan, and ultimalty conquer this land. Knowledge is power, and I will choose when the next battle for the world will take. For now, Excal's soul seems to be an intriguing part to explore while I have it."

Excal
---------------------------------------------
Excal could feel his resonance with Cyril fading away as his Void energies washed over the Juno Knight, but he held back in a defensive pose and concentrated on the link, managing to hold it together. He repressed a smile as he saw Shinsei charge towards him, expecting a rather sluggish foe now, and Excal saw no reason not to oblige. Trying to hold down his reaction time, he relied on his shield to hold back the brunt of the assault, trusting to his blade and his scrambling dodges to avoid the worst of it, allowing a fair number of minor blows to land until he saw an opening. Then, taking advantage of his speed, he lashed at Cyril's torso as quickly as he could, hoping to catch him off guard, and score a telling blow.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
Cyril continued to press on the offensive, attacking rapidly with his polearm. As expected, Excal slowed down, changing to the defensive, but even as he struck he felt something was wrong... subtly, he felt Excal's aura shift, and realized that despite his buffer the Juno Knight had managed to reachieve the previous affect. This realization came a bit too late as Excal suddenly thrust up with a burst of speed, aiming at his waist. Cyril, unbalanced from in the middle of a fighting stance, was only barely able to deflect off the blow with the lower tip of his polearm, barely warding off the sword plunging deeply into him. As it was, it hit his mithril mesh and pierced in, albeit in a non-vital area.

Annoyed at having been caught off-guard at his own game, Cyril quickly dropped his polearm for greater momentum and struck out with his free hand, armed with the cestus, directly at Excal's chest. The movement would be quick, a simple counter, and with luck would tip the odds in his favor. He noted to fall back and recall his polearm after striking, while beginning to draw the beginning eddies of a spell into his mind.

Excal
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The Juno Knight saw the cestus heading towards his chest, but wearing plate mail makes such attacks not really worth guarding against. And so, he halfheartedly tried to knock the blow aside with his shield while he attempted to take advantage of Cyril's having dropped his weapon by raising his left arm and trying to smash Cyril's face in witht he pommel of the Juno Blade.

The attempt done, he leapt back, allowing space to warp around and behind him to carry him much further than usual, though the passage was choppier than it usually was. Once he was settled down, several yards away from his opponent, Excal decided to see what his situation was, and sit on the defensive for a bit. And it was in that quick check that he realised the true purpose of Cyril's attack. He could feel the tain of the Void upon him, and realised that he had been hit with a Dimention Lock, an odious skill Cyril had used on him before which would prevent him from teleporting in any way, shape or form. And now he'd have to figure out a way to dissolve it, or lose a valuable option in the fight.

Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril allowed himself a small smirk as his attack hit home. As expected, Excal didn't really try to dodge such a simple counter, especially one that would normally be passed off as negligible, but in due time he'd find out his mistake. At the first attempt at teleportation...

And, as such, the Emissary was more aware of Excal's speed this time, and thus narrowly managed to dodge the hilt of the Juno Blade crushing into his face simply by moving his head to the side. As Excal leaped back, Cyril did the same, the polearm phasing back into existence and gripped by his right hand. As his feet hit the ground he finished mentally preparing the spell he had begun drawing before and cast it immediately on his opponent with a thrust of his hand.

Streams of ultrathermal energies quickly lashed into Excal from all sides, encompassing into one solid sphere of plasma which then exploded into a massive internal burst of flames as Flare struck him. Cyril paused only a second after the casting to shield himself with his customary Astralic Shield spell, which would reduce most damage from incoming attacks, and then hyper-drived straight to the hopefully stunned Juno Knight, bereft of his teleportation abilities, and engage him in a fierce melee with the upper hand. With the manueverability advantage, he intended to keep Excal busy defending from his attacks, while always having another attack spell ready in case his adversary managed to get a moment's respite.

Excal
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The waves of pain from the Flare spell washed over the Juno Knight as he stood there. But having been in a defensive position, he managed to keep focus on Cyril through it all, and so managed to spot his protective spell, and realised he'd have to deal with it. Knowing also that Cyril liked to take advantage of his speed by constantly harrassing his foes, Excal was ready for the charge that came afterwards, and he readied a small combo of spells to deal with it.

First, he used a bit of Space magic and, in much the same way he had facilitated his own leap back, he hindered Cyril's leap forward, by having the space between them expand. Cyril was still moving forward, and wasn't even hindered that much, but it was meant to put him off stride, and throw off his timing. Excal then used this for a quick one-two punch. Leading forward with his shield, he sent a fairly powerful Disjunction Spell at Cyril's barrier. Then he followed this up immeadiatly with one of his favourite combinations, Quick Hit and Crimson Blade. Quick Hit used a blend of Time and Space magic to allow Excal to move faster than before, and to allow him to cover distances faster than he ought. And Crimson Blade would allow him to draw health from Cyril to replenish what had been lost from the Flare spell.

After charging past Cyril, and slashed at him in the passing, Excal whirled around to prevent any shots at his back, and resumed his defensive stance.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
Cyril felt the fabrics of reality distort around him again as Excal pulled some more manipulation on space magic. Deciding that it was time to deal with that before it grew more troublesome in every attack he made, he reminded himself to pull out a rarely-used tool he had had for a while but never bothered to utilize too much.

As it was, traveling at several times the speed of sound sort of negated Cyril really being thrown off his target, but the slight pause was enough for Excal to cast a spell. One that Cyril was all too familiar with, because he had employed it commonly enough, as a powerful Disjunction spell slammed directly into him, too quick to absorb into his polearm. It instantly vaporized the astralic shield he had set up earlier. Fortunately, his equipment was well-shielded from the effects as the majority of the spell's power struck the shield, and his polearm continued to function just fine.

Excal apparently had been ready for him, but he'd still miscalculated Cyril's speed by wasting a moment to dispel. His Quick Hit activated just as Cyril simultaneously slammed into the Juno Knight at full force, causing their attacks to bounce off of each another. He then felt Excal beginning to draw upon some kind of draining attack, but he didn't care, as the Genesis Orb would negate most of the effect, and thus he took the moment's respite to again attack. Quickly regaining balance and again assessing his reflexes, he shot out his polearm like a javelin at Excal while simultaneously casting Meltdown, sending a massive ray of radioactive energies directly at his opponent.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
Excal allowed himself a smile as he saw what Cyril was doing, casting a ray spell at him. Raising his shield, the Mirror of Creation, he placed it where it could intercept the spell aimed at him.

A mirror works by having a sheet of glass in front of a reflective surface. This allows everything to be smooth and so enable the reflective bit to do so with purity. The shield has a layer of each of the eight elements to make it a force of Creation, but the first two are the reflective Light, and in front of it, a smoothing layer of Order, to make it a potent magical mirror. This is because it was specifically designed to reflect the spells of the Void away from the champion of Creation. And Excal fortified it, tossing on a quick Reflect spell to ensure it could send this potent spell back at Cyril.

The only real hitch as this happened was Cyril's spear. Excal attempted to parry it, but it struck a glancing blow which left Excal unable to hit Cyril with all of the Meltdown. That done, he started preparing a spell of his own, to deal with the Dimention Lock.

Cyril Shinsei
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With a thought, the polearm immediately flickered back into Cyril's arm as it glanced off of Excal's sword. Fairly good timing, as well, because a fraction of the Meltdown spell he had casted was screaming right back at him. The energy from the spell quickly drew into the runic polearm, promptly absorbed.

Damned barriers, Cyril thought as he mimicked Excal, and similarly casted Disjunction directly on the Juno Knight, bypassing the shield - not that it was likely it would have reflected it anyway. It was a rather simple thing to do, but terribly effective. Even as the spell was finishing Cyril leapt through the air, hyperdriving again to seemingly attack the Juno Knight; but this time, it was a feint. Rather than attacking, he appeared about ten meters behind Excal, grasping the already-drawn Rod of Control in his other hand, and directed a massive surge of telekinetic power coupled with a surprise mind blast against the Juno Knight at his back to send him flying away. It was becoming painstakingly difficult to catch his adversary off-guard, but this Cyril felt fairly certain he had managed to score a solid hit. He readied to counter any Space magics Excal might attempt to utilize with the Rod fully ready to use, while prepping other spells.

Excal
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Excal flipped over and his thoughts locked as though a wrench had been slammed into the gears of his mind as the psionic attack hit him. He had known that Cyril had psionic abilities, but didn't know they'd be so strong. Only Reako had ever been this strong so far as he had known. However, his experiences from battling the psionist had prepared him for this, giving him two instincts for this situation. The first was to continue with what he had been doing, which he gamely did. And, the second, to get the hell away so he could reorganise his thoughts.

Calling energy through his blade, he channelled the power of creation through his armour, dispelling the D-Lock and restoring some of it's strength after the disjunction. Then, he discharged the energy in a pulse, a shockwave which would blind and disrupt Cyril at least a bit. Which he followed up with a simple spell. A quick warp spell, destination, other side of the field.

Cyril Shinsei
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The surge of Creation energies slammed into Cyril, and try as he could to evade it, as a shockwave - and a fast moving one - it was somewhat difficult to get out of the way. The runic polearm couldn't absorb even a single erg of the energy, and he found all his senses blinded as the pulse passed through, although no physical damage done. Quickly regaining his bearings with the same psionic training Reako had given him (and mentally thanking his old friend for it, since it had just given him a fairly large advantage) Cyril immediately scanned the area for Excal.

Nowhere.

It was then he noticed that the D-Lock link to the Juno Knight was gone. Damn! That must have been part of the surge... he immediately traced the areas for auras, and found a faint one nearly on the other side of the field when he detected a recent space disturbance. Teleportation... As it was too far away from him to directly move, Cyril likewise teleported to the locale, preparing to press his hard-earned advantage by casting Haste and several Quick spells before barraging the Juno Knight, possibly attempting to get another solid hit in with D-Lock. And if not, he readied Void Cancel in case Excal began a game of teleportation with him, as he expected him to.

Excal
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Excal's first instinct was to warp out, which he did. The subsequent shock was painful, and he was hurting badly as he dropped into exsistance partway to where he was going. Cyril followed up by attacking once again. He tried to parry, he even used some Haste spells to try and catch up, but it wasn't working, and so he pulled out one of his backups, using a burst of high powered Chaos inbetween them, accepting the pain from it as he blew them both away, and hoping it would hurt Cyril more.

By this time, his mind was finally close to clear, and he began a few surprises to aim at Cyril when he charged back at him.

Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril kept up the melee, even throwing in some nearly instantaneous Dispels into the mix whenever he caught Excal trying to cast something, presumably a hastening spell or the like. He kept up a constant rhythm, and thus was well into a flow when Excal suddenly unleashed a chaos blast upon both of them, and the only saving grace that kept Cyril from flying uncontrollably off was that his adversary calling upon a base element like that gave him a split second's warning. Bracing himself for the blast, he was still knocked back, but managed to regain momentum quickly as he normally did.

He raised the Rod of Control, and began solidifying the air immediately around Excal, keeping the effect centered on him as to sluggish down his movements. He kept void cancelling handy in case Excal broke out of the pin through teleportation, and began a series of hit-and-run strikes, raiding Excal from the air with his polearm and flying off out of reach with now MUCH better speed, all the time preparing more spells to use.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
Excal knew he was in no small amount of trouble as he finally regained his senses. His recent attempts at dealing with Cyril had proven ineffective since he had taken that psionic blast to the head, and the battle was now rapidly turning against him. Strengthening this impression was the fact that now Cyril had regained his old speed advantage, and was now heavily intent upon pushing that advantage. Even worse, Excal found that teleportation of any sort could have drastic consequences in this fight. And now he found himself injured, kneeling on the ground, and Cyril was both actively throwing dispels at him and now hampering his movements. Truly, a bad situation.

However, the Juno Knight wasn't totally unprepared. Calling upon Darkness and Chaos, he prepared a nasty little spell and focused it for a burst right in front of himself. This spell ate away at enchantments such as haste and protection spells. It took them, and it shattered them as if they were glass. And, as if they were glass, those shards of spells sunk into the person they were cast on, hurting them in the process of dispelling their effects.

He then sprung up, leaping back and using an Order burst to push back Cyril without any drawbacks to himself this time, and cast a simple Time spell, foretelling, which would give him instinctual knowledge of the upcoming five seconds, and allow him to know where Cyril will strike and to parry it.

Cyril Shinsei
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As Cyril lunged in for his latest hit, he felt Excal prepare finishing a spell that he had begun before as his adversary had recovered from the mindblast. Unfortunately in the midst of attacking, there was little he could do to dodge it, so he instinctually used his polearm to try to stop the spell. The powers of darkness and chaos struck against him, quickly and, being base elements, only a fraction of it was absorbed into his runic polearm, the others striking home. Thankfully, all he happened to have on him was a hastening spell, and so he felt little feedback, but it was dispelled nonetheless.

A burst of Order struck him to push him back, but the Rod of Control hummed, and countered the effect with an equal push of its own, barely causing him to move more than an inch. As such, he clearly saw Excal casting some other spell - a divination of some sort involving time - and shrugged, weaving a disjunction spell by using the previous charge in his runic polearm, and discharged it at nearly point blank range, thinking it was unlikely Excal could reflect it with his shield in time. No need to let the Juno Knight have support spells on him.

Having not drawn on his own stored spell energies, Cyril hyperdrived away and made the best of them. First, he used an Aero spell to knock Excal into the air, supplanted by another burst of telekinesis from the Rod of Control. Then he unleashed Flare after Flare spell on the Juno Knight, the dark flames converging and tearing his opponent apart with their power. With void cancel handy, the lockdown on Excal would be deadly.

Excal
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Excal flipped through the air, but this time he had foreseen the tactic coming, both with and without his ill fated spell. And, instead of falling, he used a levitation spell and used the momentum Cyril had given him to fly up into the sky, while he quickly tossed what he hoped to be a worthwhile aural decoy down to draw off the first assault Cyril would launch at him.

He then used the seconds gained by this to weave a shell around himself, to weaken the Flare spells being hammered away at him. Then, with nothing better to do while he was getting hammered away, he used three small techniques. He opened with Resosnance, then he recast Foretelling, and finally used a small barrier of Light that would take a disjunction hit for those spells, getting dispelled in their place. And, he got ready to recast it when necessary.

When the barrage finished, he cast Curaga on himself, to recover from the damage he had taken and then floated there, expectantly, ready to counter Cyril once again.

Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril merely raised his polearm as he caught Excal in the middle of furious spellcasting after his Flare barrage had finished. Unfortunately, the motion was too late to absorb any of the previous other spells he had casted - none of which he was able to identify, due to currently blasting him wtih Flare after Flare - but it was enough to catch the Curaga spell, sapping Excal's MP and preventing a nice chunk of damage from being negated.

Again, he shot out with Disjunction, thinking that would dispel whatever the Juno Knight had casted - wouldn't Excal learn? - then re-hasted himself, and struck out at Excal in a repeat of his air raids, this time biding his time in preparation for a larger assault. He would wait to see what Excal tried to pull off and deal with it appropriately.

Excal
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Excal was slightly dissapointed that his curative spell had been partially absorbed, but there was nothing to be done for it. He then parried Cyril as best he could, holding his own now that he was equally quick. And, when he pulled back to cast his spells, Excal siezed his chance. First, he chaged his armour with Creation energy once again. It worked to dispel the Dimension Lock, so hopefully it would now work to protect him from whatever it was that ripped him out of his warping. He then covered that as well as his previous two enchantments with another shield, and waited for the proper moment when Cyril charged again.

This time he was fully prepared, and at the right moment he warped to right behind the fighter of Void, hitting him with another Quick Hit/Crimson Blade combination, and then holding onto the haste, and continuing his assault upon Cyril.


Cyril Shinsei
 

Re: SHAMELESS INTRUSION: Continuation of Excal vs Cyril duel

Unread postby Cyril Shinsei » Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:23 am

Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril, wondering why the hell Excal was suddenly faster again when he'd just dispelled him, took a moment to glance at their auras and realized that that damned resonance thing had been pulled up again... unfortunately for the Juno Knight, Cyril was not one to merely sit around and hover while his opponent casted defensive spells, and he didn't waste time, simply teleporting behind Excal instead of continuing to attack when he knew something was wrong. Energy flared into his hands as his eyes glowed a pale red, and he thrust his hands forth. A card he had never drawn against Excal before, so he hoped that it would catch him by surprise.

"A.T. Field full spread!" and with that, the massive soulshield crackled into existance and rammed directly into the unprotected rear of his foe, hopefully completely disrupting his concentration, as well as leaving one hell of a mark. He used up a portion of the spell energies he had drawn into by now by, yet again, sending another Disjunction spell, this time making careful damned sure that he really was dispelling everything that Excal had. By occupying Excal with his newly formed field, plus rapid teleportation and the threat of void cancel, he would soon be able to unleash something truly telling...

Excal
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Was it luck, chance, or some subconscious urge from his Foretelling letting him know what to do? Either way, the moment the AT Field hit, is the moment Excal warped to strike at Cyril. One moment he's a target, the next he's out of the way, his blade crashing uselessly into the AT Field. Caught offguard by that trick, Excal decides to buy some time with a defensive trick of his own.

Flying back, he begins murmuring "Lady of the Blade, grant me thy divine protection, and shield me from harm... Juno Barrier!" Incantation complete, energies of all eight elements flow through his sword as he lands on the ground. Then, Order becoming most promenant among them, it forms a spherical barrier around Excal. The Juno Barrier, ultimate shield of the Avatar of Creation, Defender of all that is. Confident that he'll be safe from even disjunctions in this place of sanctuary, for the short while it will last, Excal plots what to do.

Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril mentally scanned the new barrier that his opponent had set up, already about to unleash another dispel to wipe it out, but he stopped when he realized what it was. A shield of Creation energies. Knowing it would be futile to destroy it short of unleashing a high-powered Void spell, Cyril called back the A.T. field and hovered similarly in the air. Even as he opened his mouth to speak, however, a plan was already forming in the back of his mind. He set himself in a particularly aware and defensive position, since he expected Excal to use his short break from constant defending by some counterattack.

Excal
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Excal thought furiously while he added a Mighty Guard to his collection of defensive spells and then weaved another protective ward against disjunction about himself, and readied a second one for an instant casting when the first got dispelled. However, his time of sanctuary was running out, and he still had no real idea of what to do. After all, Cyril had that rod that could help with psionics, and there was no way he'd be taking away any toy of Cyril's with that damned polearm with him. However... he could do away with Cyril's psionics in a different method.

He didn't have much time left, but the first part was a simple skill he had used often as a Vigilante, and had only gotten better at. It would be a bit trickier what he was intending to do this time, but it shouldn't be too hard... He gathered up the energies of Darkness and Chaos and Time, and readied himself.

As the Juno Barrier fell, he cast Quick on himself. He followed this up by casting Shadowform on himself. Immeadiatly Excal dissapeared, to be replaced by seven Excals surrounding Cyril. However, these seven Excals all cast Shadowform as well, and soon Cyril was surrounded by 49 Excals. His attack power was split evenly among his shadows, and only Excal could survive a hit, but they all had the same enchantments upon them, and they were all of a single mind. And of a single mind, they all took the same action, quickly drawing something. All about the Incarnation of the Void were 49 Avatars of Creation each pulling out a different jet black instrument at once, and putting these instruments to use.

The silence of the battlefield was shattered as a cacaphony of ear-shattering noise erupted. The sound here being of such awful quality that it made, in comparison, a symphony of fingernails on chalkboards, and cats screeching in the dark of night seem as though they were the notes of master bards. For, all of them had drawn an instrument of Dischord, which Excal had learned how to play while fighting with Valen in the Second Bardic War. This particular piece of music was one designed to muddle the mind, making coherant thought difficult and giving a headache, messing with psionisists. Even worse, any psionisist foolish enough to try and use psionics without dispelling the effects of the song first would suffer through a crushing migrane. A song Excal had long sought after in order to help face his eternal foe, Reako Somner, and its many uses besides that had been a nice boon.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
Suddenly surrounded by fourty-nine different Excals, Cyril instinctly knew what his opponent had pulled off, namely, the Shadowform technique he'd seen far too much already. So out of habit, he prepared a Wind of Destruction, to disperse all of the figures in one fell swoop, knowing that their respective strength had all been split up evenly and would fall quickly to that. Just as he was about to cast though, the dischord hit. Cyril had heard a lot of lousy music in his life, but nothing like this, and the extreme horror of the sound produced was incredible.

Thinking rapidly, he erected an ultradense barrier with the rod right over his ears. For some reason, the normally simple command took far more concentration than it usually did, but since the desired effect was, by all means, very minor, he managed to pull it off. Now effectively deafened, Cyril wasted no time to finish casting his wind spell, and soon the entire battlefield was engulfed in a mighty cyclone, ripping the ground beneath apart.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
Excal smilled as he saw what Cyril was doing. He then did a little trick. As a parting shot, he had several of his images tie to their location an invisibility spell, a protective spell, and an aural mask with a basic Disjuntion barrier that would require some effort to deal with, nothing half so good as the one he had put up on his personal enchantments. Excal then spent the storm doing the same thing, leaving what seemed to be an empty plane with several identical hiding spots for Cyril to deal with. With any luck, Cyril would take a while to find the right one.

Excal then spent the following time storing up for what would be a slightly complicated maneuver, but which ought to be worth it.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
Shortly after the storm had passed, Cyril instinctually scanned around, and found himself bewildered by no less than ten different auras of Excal zigzagged across the battlefield. Giving him a minute's reprieve had been a costly idea, but then again, there was little he could have done with the Juno Barrier up short of unleashing the full power of the Void. And the time for that had not come - not yet.

And so, Cyril drew upon all the stored strength he had prepared previously during Excal's little break, and formed at his fingertips his most potent attack. An arc of nearly solid Void energies, the Crescent, 'materialized' (used loosely) and, his eyes glowing a rather unholy black, the Crescent flew forth and began rhythematically striking every aura of Excal, moving at a speed that put the speed of light to shame, as it ripped through the laws of space and time itself, to eventually strike into the heart of his true adversary, wherever he may be. With that, Cyril prepared to hyperdrive to the Juno Knight's locale and prepare his offensive again.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
"Daaaaaamn..."

The thought rolled through Excal's mind as it cleared of everything else. This is something he hadn't expected, and consequently, it was mildly distracting. However, he had no time. He was almost ready, and....

The crescent shot out, and the Juno Knight was unable to finish his preparations in time, getting hit out of his defenses. Then, suddenly, Cyril was on him attacking with his polearm. Excal was getting buffeted about as he rolled with the first blow and then did his best to hold off Cyril as he felt his armour, and his enchantments?, getting hacked at.

"Lady of the Blade..." Excal muttered under his breath, calling upon the power of Chaos. "Grant the power to break the bonds of Fate... Give unto me... the power of change... to bring forth a new era..." Calling up the powers he had stored Excal finished his prayer. "And shatter the old! Juno Assault!"

With the only warning given by his raising voice, a dozen glowing orbs of Chaos burst into being and homed in on the attacking Cyril with a speed only slightly less of that the Crescent had. Each of these did minimal damage, but with their speed and maneuverability, they hit at least two dozen times a second, and their damage cannot be reduced or blocked in any way, only dodged. Something which became harder to do as each passthrough shoved the target, eventually carrying them off the ground where they're helpless and can do nothing but be hit by it. And, the only defense against them, evasion, was hard come by for Cyril who was pressing his attack against Excal and very close because of it, having little to no chance of dodging it now, and that was if he took it into his head to flee or dodge when Excal chanted.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
It was not so much of Excal's voice raising than it was of the sudden new power drawn up by his adversary that told Cyril something was wrong. After all, his opponent had just been hit dead-on by a Crescent, and something of this magnitude could be damaging... He felt the flow of Chaos energy beginning to peak, and thus abruptly broke off his barrage of Dispel-charged polearm strikes a split-second before Excal unleashed the Juno Assault.

Even with that slight reprieve, and the awareness that he had, the attack was all too fast to evade, even for him. The first orb shot out and struck, stinging like a host of hornets, as did three more that immediately shot into his chest. He managed to duck and evade a few more, but he was in such close range that avoiding the brunt of the attack was simply not possible. His polearm hummed, attempting to absorb the energy from the spell, but the orbs were composed of Chaos energy, and thus nearly impossible to assimilate.

Cyril resisted the urge to simply hyperdrive out, as such, the attack was in a manner that he simply couldn't get away from it that easily. He had witnessed a similar attack in manner before, the Juno Strike, while fighting Halifax, and the best method was to simply bear with it and get back with what you could. And thus, most unexpectedly to Excal, who had been stripped bereft of his damnable enchantments and defensive spells, Cyril wove right through the spheres of energy and using up the last portion of his previously drawn energy, fired his A.T. field at point-blank range straight in Excal, a devastating hit when your target was no more than a meter away from you. Besides leaving one hell of a mark, the force of it should jar his concentration enough as to break off the Assault.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
All thoughts of Cyril were temporarily slammed from Excal's mind as the AT Field slammed into him, filling his world with pain. It didn't take him long to get past the first flash of pain and beging to get his bearings, though it took him a few seconds to adjust to how fast he was flying backwards. By the time he was able to react, there was no point in doing anything but rolling with the landing, and so he did that. Rolling across the field while preparing his defences.

"Oh Sleeping Guardian who preserves all that is, restore unto me the strength of thy endless bounty..." Excal said, calling upon the power of Creation, and letting it channel through his blade, and Evarra's Gem in particular. The green gem sparked into luminescence as Excal finished this spell crying, "Juno Restoration!" Brilliant blue strands of energy formed a delicate weaves around the Juno Knight in a pattern only visible to those who could see it in the seconds it took for the spell to take effect. These strands formed both a healing aura which restored the Juno Knight to full health, and repairing his armour, and, since he was alone, using its left over strength to form a protective barrier similar to the MBarrier of Ivalice, granting him regeneration, haste, protection, shell, and a reraise. (The leftover energy would have been used to heal any companions if he had them.)

Excal then used the remainder of his time to use two more enchantments. First, he replaced his disjunction shield, which would hopefully keep his protective enchantments covered, then he set up around him a speed trap. If Cyril came at him faster than 100kph then he would be stunned, stopped, and hit with a backlash that would get stronger the faster Cyril was going.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
As the Juno Assault subsided to a halt, Cyril lightly gripped his left arm, which had been left rather aching from the attack. It had been the first truly telling blow that his adversary had managed to inflict on him on this duel so far, and he narrowed his eyes. Things were finally beginning to escalate to their true level. Good. Though he could be patient as a rock at times - the mere stature of his role, indeed, required it - he never enjoyed waiting.

A massive surge in the elemental stream caught his attention, and he felt eddies of Life draw into Excal, and simply watched as all the myriad of fighting they had done melted away in one fell swoop. So this was the power of Creation. He turned slowly to the Juno Knight, already beginning to feel the influence of Havoc strengtening upon him, as the final cards were drawn. The Void screamed a soundless, hollow voice of destruction within him.

Enough.

Raw energy crackled around Cyril, red streams of electricity dancing at his fingertips and circulating around his body as he raised his polearm and thrust at Excal with a speed that even the Juno Knight did not expect of his adversary. It was as if he had been thrust forth by the hand of a god, so bold as to begin to bypass space and time itself. Not through magic. But through pure will.

He slammed into the speed trap dead-on, and a incredible recoil rammed into his chest, ripping off shreds of his cloak to reveal the gleaming silver breastplate within, herein holding the Genesis Orb. The impact was so strong that it might have normally snapped bones and smashed through full plate, and yet, although by all properties of physics Cyril should have been thrown back like a rag doll, in this case physics was helpless. The speed trap was torn apart by the vast incoming force that far exceeded its expectations, and Cyril, ignoring the intense pain that it had caused, rammed into the Juno Knight at such a velocity that the impact would rival that of the A.T. field. Now moving at such a speed that Excal could probably not even keep up in his mind, let alone reflexes, the fabric of Creation began to unravel as the Emissary of Destruction struck back and forth, unyielding, with true purpose.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
To be fair, Excal didn't believe that Cyril would be able to simply bust through his speed trap. However, after seeing his foe gathering all of that power, Excal knew enough not to gamble that it would hold, and so he began to do the same. And so, as Cyril called the power of the Void to him, Excal called the power of Creation. He then prepared a little trick of his own.

He knew his foe has the Genesis Orb, and he knew that it shouldn't be possible to use strong Void energies like crescents while having that. So, Excal figured that either it was being sealed off somehow, or it was being suppresed by whatever was within Cyril. And so, he decided to take a gamble. He knew Cyril's polearm was runic in nature, if only from having seen its effects upon his spells. And, while Excal wasn't terribly adept at making his own weapon runic, he was good enough at making magic that would be rapidly absorbed by it, while still retaining its basic nature, and would do its job after being absorbed. In this case, he charged his armour with a spell of Creation energy which would, upon being absorbed, flood to the Genesis Orb, and attempt to awaken its power, hopefully beating down that of the Void. If it failed, then Cyril might well be stronger, and a retreat may be in order. If it suceeded...

Just in case it didn't work, Excal also prepared an extrastrength Spacial Bind. Better to try and still an annoyingly fast enemy if it's so bloody hard to keep up with them. After he got hit, he too kept his wits about him as best he could, and loosed it upon Cyril shortly after the first hit.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
Unfortunately for Excal, he had made a critical miscalculation. Creation magic by itself was, after all, possibly the most potent and powerful form of energy in existence, barring its counterpart, Void. Most runic weapons were not simply built to handle this type of power, and Cyril's polearm, while a masterwork weapon, was no different. Something he should have realized when the polearm proved helpless against the shockwave of Creation energies he used earlier. Similarly, base elements were not easily absorbed, Chaos being the most difficult and Order being the least. Runic weapons were generally used against the much more common secondary elements and the wide array of spells in that category. And thus, the streams of Creation energy simply fizzed past Cyril, being virtually harmless.

Even so, Cyril felt a particularly strong tightening of spacial bonds around him as he manuevered to strike at Excal, but the effect was less so than the Juno Knight had expected, as if his adversary was beginning to operate outside of the normal space-time continuum. And with a hum from the previously dormant Rod of Control, the effects were virtually negated.

The Emissary struck again and again, moving at a speed so fast that Excal could not literally see the light from Cyril's movements before had already attacked, causing him to be surrounded by a virtual storm of his opponent. The Juno Knight was skillful at parrying and deflecting the attacks, but these new hits were with such fervor and strength that the sting of them was becoming stronger with every blow, and one direct hit might very well be lethal. And Excal could now clearly sense the Void's presence growing more formidable with every passing second.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
It's amazing what one notices at the strangest of times. For all that Excal was quite literally holding off death by inches, there were a few other things that were grabbing his attention as well. The first was one that made perfect sense. He was noticing that Cyril was very quickly getting enveloped in Void energy. This explained a lot of what was going on, and why he'd have a hard time holding Cyril still with anything short of Creation binding. And, he also noticed something about the background energies. As the power of the Void was growing, he could feel the creation energies beginning to wane. This was going to make the field of battle act strangely, and... something was going wrong with Time... but what exactly he couldn't afford to tell.

As it was, Cyril was already pressing him beyond his ability to cope. He was mostly treading water, sliding from location to location to avoid hits as best he could, putting on his finest defensive skills and incantations, and still it was barely enough. However, Excal had a trick, one that would allow him to make up his flaws. Under this onslaught, he didn't have time to charge up anything large. But, with the dissolution of the background of this place, there was less holding the here and now together, but it meant there was more energy he could grab in a moment for a spell. He'd just have to accept that he'd greatly accelerate the dissolution. However, if the Void was beaten back, what was broken could be repaired. With that in mind, Excal, quick as he could, gathered in all of the Time energy, as well as a good amount of the other seven elements, and began his spell.

"Oh Sleeping Guardian..." Excal murmured, hoping not to tip his hand too much. "Grant thy rest to all. Juno Freeze!" And with that, he released all of the energy in another Juno Technique. This one sufficiently slowing down time for him that it was a very rare and very fast moving object that he could even see moving. Somehow, it didn't surprise him that Cyril was still moving, albeit slowly.

However, he didn't have time for gawking. He had some buisness to attend to. He went about getting some spells cast. First, he used Resosnance, so that when the spell wore off, he'd be equal speed to Cyril again. Then he cast three spells that would help him, with the benefit that two of them were area affect, so Cyril couldn't disjunction them quite so easily. First was Murphy's Rebuke, which allowed Excal to go forward confident that anything that can possibly go right will go right, at least for him. Second was Find the Path, which would effectively try to persuade the flow of time to follow paths which would be more favourable for the Juno Knight, and less favourable for Cyril. And thirdly, with those two powerful chance altering spells in play, he cast Amund's Aura, which would infuse the area with the power of Chaos, greatly increasing the randomness in their field of battle. Finally, he double layered a Disjunction guard on himself to prevent those spells targetted on him from being easily wiped away, and then moved to well behind Cyril where he was standing, and ready to continue the battle again as the Freeze wore off.

And, around them, time continued to unravel.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
Colors cascaded around Cyril as the Juno Freeze ended its short yet impossibly long trek, traversing through the streams of time which even now were being disrupted.

A multitude of possibilities swarmed around him, the presence of thick Chaos magic at work clearly evident. The Juno Knight had been busy, indeed. He thinks that the laws of the multiverse will help him, does he? Cyril thought with a derisive snort, recognizing it as forms of luck-altering magic. Rather pointless, as soon, it would be all wiped out, purified and cleansed in one fell swoop. Why? Why could they not simply accept their fate - was not that part of the philosophy of the very Elements themselves?

Behind him, the battlefield was clearly changing. An ebbing rift which throbbed and echoed with change, the driving force of existence; previously blackened and otherwise uninteresting portions of the earth were spontaneously phasing into mammoth stone structures, stretching hundreds of feet into the suddenly crystal-blue skies. These flickered, lost in the depths of the past, then disappeared altogether as nothing but empty blackness - the vacuum of space itself - projected from the future, then similarly winked away back into the present. This chaotic, unpredictable changing hurt Cyril's eyes, but he continued looking anyway.

The fabrics of Time were being undone.

Like a painter whose brush had just swept over a large portion of the canvas, the vast, dead field materialized into a sprawling metropolis of fifteen millenia past - an ancient, once lively city filled with hundreds of thousands of people. The city, mostly constructed out of solid granite and stone, had roaming courtyards, graceful archways and pillars of such lofty heights that they shook the very heavens. Truly, an epitome of life and civilization in this existence. Yet it was all gone. And soon to be gone... forever, to a place where time had no meaning itself.

As the time rift began to fluctuate, Cyril felt himself being pulled back into this timestream, also likewise detecting Excal fully phasing into existence. His adversary's spells survived the massive time dilation, but were severely weakened by the shift; and in the long run, they would be irrelevant anyway.

Ignoring the sudden gawks of the local inhabitants who saw the two duelers suddenly appear out of seemingly nowhere, the Emissary of Destruction smiled again. He held his hands together, palms faced outwards, his eyes glowing a most startling crimson red as the wellspring of the Void was fully opened. Directly pointing to Excal, the chants flowed as though spoken from a chorus preaching the apocalypse.

"Oh oblivion and your depths of power, I call upon your might! Undo what has been made, and make it anew - to nothing more!"

Tendrils of red, purple and midnight-black energies crawled incessently and swerved around the Incarnation of the Void, until they all suddenly shot out and winked from sight, to be seen no more.

"Void Thunder!"

Excal
---------------------------------------------
Excal hoped that the tendrils of the spell would avoid him, but all of his spells had been horribly weakened by what had happened when the timestream had... dissolved around them. And, for all that he had the equipment of Creation, he couldn't yet call upon the full power of the Avatar. And so, he did what he could. He gritted his teeth and took the assault, following it up by channeling the Creation energy he had prepared for Cyril's Runic Weapon (and which had weathered the short period inthe Void quite well) in order to strengthen his enchantments back to full power. And, he cast a strong healing spell on himself to make up for the hit.

That done, he took a quick look at their surroundings. The city was of a style he only barely recognised, and it was now only partially there, the dead and dying crying out in the aftermath of Cyril's attack. He felt a slight pang, he was supposed to be protecting these people. But he had long ago reconciled himself to the fact that the city of Bofsk and his family had been condemned to far worse than mere death in order to strengthen him for this role, and to ready his nation for the end of the Age, and so he could easily look past these poor innocents. What he couldn't look past was behind it. The Eight Elements were under assault, Cyril's growing aura of the Void unraveling them, albeit slowly. However, that aura would strengthen Cyril, while weakening all else around him if it was allowed to continue unhindered, even if the Seal was in no danger. With the full power of the Avatar, Excal could counter the Void Aura with one of his own, but he was merely a Juno Knight, chosen of the Eight, but not yet worthy, or capable, of being Avatar.

And so, he did what he had to. He called the Eight into him, and spent some of his strength holding them together. He would be weaker, but they would unravel no further. Now, he'd just need to find a way to weaken Cyril, or strengthen himself, or things may well soon begin turning decisively against him...

ChronoDeus
---------------------------------------------
Cyril had forgotten an important detail, if he'd ever known it, and Excal had forgotten it too. That little detail being that void energies ripping at the fabric of Time, especially ones resulting in distortion would be noticed by those that protect Time. And the cause would then be dealt with with whatever was available to respond. And the first responder was one Excal recognized well.

Behind and above Cyril, the figure of Krono materialized. As the source of the problem was readily apparent, he began his attack without comment or preamble, casting Rift Nova, Land Maw, and Earthen Lightening on Cyril in rapid succession before teleporting next to Excal and silently offering him an Elixir.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
Hope surged within the Juno Knight as he saw the origin of the onslaught upon his unfortunate foe. He didn't know how he could have believed that this fight would be his alone, but he was glad that it wouldn't be. Only a fool turned down help when the outcome was in doubt, or when he didn't lose more by accepting it.

"It seems we fight side by side once more, Krono," Excal said as he used the Elixir.

"Indeed, but now is not the time for idle chatter," replied the black-cloaked figure.

Excal merely nodded at that, then levelled his blade at Cyril, speaking coldly. "As you can see, the forces of Creation are gathering to fight your threat. Surrender while you yet can, Cyril Shinsei!"

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
The first thing that he noticed was the heat.

Krono's sudden appearance behind him being completely unexpected, a detail that he had little chance of knowing but nevertheless grated upon him after future reflection, was a rather unfortunate event that caused Cyril to be completely unprepared for the incoming Rift Nova. The sudden in-teleportation of the guardian of Time was virtually undetectable, and there was little he could do. The force of several fusion bombs blasted him squarely in the back, sending him staggering into the ground. This was made rather worse as the earth literally opened up in front of him, and it was only his lightning-fast reflexes that allowed him to levitate himself to avoid being caught in the entire fissure. Then, as a final touch, the ground crackled with energy, and the fact that he was focusing directly at it managed to give Cyril a split-second to roll away in mid-air, causing the lightning bolt that shot upwards to partially zap his left arm. He flipped ungracefully in the air and landed in a heap on the ground, being more hurt than he had ever been in this duel.

As he slowly rose from the ground, he saw Krono materialize beside Excal, who had weathered his previous Void Thunder spell rather impressively - probably had a moment's respite to heal. The tip of the Juno Blade pointed squarely at him, his adversary spoke. "As you can see, the forces of Creation are gathering to fight your threat. Surrender while you yet can, Cyril Shinsei!"

Cyril staggered painfully to his feet, sensing the strong auras of magic spread all across the battlefield, and in particular the powerful sense of Creation energy which enveloped the area. Despite this new circumstance, which rather severely tipped the scales against him - now clearly able to sense Krono, and barely able to comprehend the power he possessed - he still managed that candid smile, the same one he had offered to Excal at the beginning of this charade. His polearm had disappeared reflexively when the barrage of spells had hit him, and the Juno Knight noticed that his opponent was not bothering to bring it back.

"Surrender?" He waved his hand in the chaos erupting around them, whole parts of the city having been literally wiped out of reality - side effects of stray bolts from Void Thunder. People were still screaming at full volume, running away in every direction. "And what? Await for the Void to claw at my mind once more, and allow me to run rampant where there might not be any stalwart Juno Knights to stop me?" He laughed hollowly, slightly choking back as he continued. "Even so. Kill me? Put me in stasis? You and I both know how the war between creation and destruction functions. You only delay the inevitable. Havoc" - he spoke the word with somewhat bitter distaste - "will not be stopped from these mere concepts of life. I have a raison d'etre, Excal Burned, as much as you do. Both of us thrust into a battle that, as tiny mortal specks in the small island of Creation in the ocean of Void, neither of us can truly ever comprehend. We make do with what we can understand." A sad, somewhat ironic glimmer came into his eyes. "If I deny my purpose, I deny my reason to exist."

He looked at his adversary - well, now adversaries - in the eyes. Saw understanding. That was a slight comfort, at least. There was also stark determination, which surprised him not either. That was quite possibly the strongest force of the children of Creation and their desire to continue existing.

"And so, surrender I will not. For I have no fear of death, no more than I have any fear of life. I will carry out the task that fate" - he smiled slightly again; after all, it was a rather inappropriate idiom - "has set forth for me. And Excal... perhaps I was wrong." He took a sidelong glance at Krono, who had silently been listening to his words, his expression unreadable. "Perhaps... this is the time."

A hiss in the wind caught all of their attention, as the air was suddenly siphoned forth as if sucked into a vacuum, swirling around like a whirlwind around the Emissary of Destruction. As he closed his eyes, a glow surrounded him - of a color, if it could be called that, that was completely undescribable. In fact, the mere look of it would cause severe headaches and perhaps even knock unconscious those who stared at it too long. The true properties of the Void were understood by none, not even the very Eternals themselves.

The shouts and screams of the people in the city died out as, again, the field faded out. And now there was nothing but space itself; an ocean of stars, a normally breathtaking sight. In this sudden shift of timestreams, the local sun had apparently gone supernova eons ago; there was nothing left there but a spinning pool of blackness.

Cyril opened his eyes, the previous glow having faded, but now there was a clear aura that surrounded the incarnation of the Void. It may have been called divine, but obviously was not so - but it radiated... ascension.

A pulse of void erupted, sweeping the immediate area and stretching for light-years beyond in the course of a second swept across. Magic enchantments, area affects, and literally everything that lacked a sentient mind and a strong will was eradicated. Excal was unaffected, as was his armor and the Juno Blade, but what he felt in the depths of his mind was a feeling of total fear. The innate fear instilled in spawns of Creation - not genetic, not even mental, but just there.

Silent in the vacuum, twin blades of energy sprouted forth from Cyril's hands. Brightly lit, each shining as brightly as a neutron star, the Emissary slightly lowered his head. And then his hands moved, absurdly fast and rapid, which might have been caught by his two opponents if they were not suddenly buffered by a rain of astral-projected, defense-ignoring slashes that hit faster than a swords dance on speed.

ChronoDeus
---------------------------------------------
When Excal called out demanding Cyril's surrender, Krono didn't expect they would get it. He was here to remove a threat, and threats didn't just suddenly chose to give up. As such he was unsurprised it was denied, and though he was a bit surprised at the transformation, he was not caught off guard by the sudden attack.

The slashes were deflected off of millenia old defenses meant to hold off attacks from any plane until Krono could respond. With a word, time warped again, and the battle field became a lush forest clearing. As the change occured, Krono teleported to a new location off to Cyril's left and used Reality's Anguish on Cyril before casting Temporal Storm on him. He then made a quick teleport to the right of Cyril and cast Gamma Lance on him before calling out to Excal "Get your true powers in order, fast, it looks like we'll have need of them.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
Excal wasn't surprised when his offer was thrown in his face, but he felt it had to be offered. However, Cyril was quite right, their fight was one that could only be surrendered if death was imminent, and then it would only be to postpone it for another day. And, as such, there was no point in holding back any further. However, there was a small problem with doing as Krono suggested. He couldn't do it. For all that he had a great deal of power with the Juno Blade, it was designed by man, not by the Eight. Only in desperation could he call upon the power of the Avatar through it, and the only situation desperate enough would be if he was facing the full might of the Incarnation of the Void. And, for all that Cyril was getting far too powerful for their own good, Excal knew, somehow, that he wasn't done getting stronger. So, he had one option, to grab the Genesis Orb, which was embedded in Cyril's breastplate. And to do that, he'd need to cut it loose. Easier said than done, given it looked solidly placed, and Excal doubted his ability to get a clean hit on Cyril.

"Wish I could, Krono!" Excal gasped, having gone over the options in his head. "But this is all I got right now! Hold him steady for a bit, though! Then things'll change!"

As he said that, he raised a new barrier, Order binding together a shield of Creation, protecting him from harm as best he could. He then began forming a spell of Time, Order, Space, and Darkness, which he put all of his focus on, in order to ensure that Cyril could not mess with it. Hopefully, Krono would be able to hold Cyril still long enough for this to work.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
Space bended around Cyril as Krono's first spell took ahold of him, but then suddenly halted with the proverbial 'snap' as, with a pulsing glare of his eyes, the effects of Reality's Anguish promptly ceased. Then the torrent of time energies came roaring at him and passed swiftly through; and yet Cyril still stood, seemingly unexhausted from a sudden time acceleration of a week. And as Krono teleported to his right, the Emissary slightly raised his hand and ripped his opponent out in the middle of teleportation with void cancel, effectively stopping whatever next spell he had in mind.

"Pray tell, that's not all you have," Cyril said, his hands radiating extreme thermal energies. Quickly weaving the infinite power of celestial objects and calling them into his hands, he sent two Celestiance bolts roaring at Krono screaming at light speed, each containing the power of a supernova, while teleporting behind him and casting Neo Flare in succession directly in the Guardian of Time's back, readying void cancel again in case he attempted to pull out. As the spells began their course he eyed his former opponent setting up a barrier, decided that it wouldn't be too much trouble to deal with that, and simultaneously shot out his blades at the Juno Knight, one containing an amplified Disjunction affect and the other containing a Dimension Lock, both armed with formidable void energies to disrupt anything else.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
Excal could see the attack coming at him, but as he was on the defensive, and it seemed to merely be a diversion for Cyril, he was able to deal with them. Focusing the power of Entropy upon the blades, he premtively struck, catching them in nets of Creation, and leeching their enchantments from them, before finally enveloping them with nets that wouldn't hold them in place, but would stay with them, and continue to leech spells from them.

ChronoDeus
---------------------------------------------
Krono was throughly suprised at being stopped mid teleport. Such things had happened to him before of course, but it had been easily a thousand years since this particular thing had happened. Still, he reacted quickly and braced himself for a follow up attack. When the Celestiance bolts came towards him he attempted to teleport again through a different means. He was downright shocked when that teleport was blocked as well. Still, this was Krono, his ability to react to something in record time was legendary in some circles. When teleporting failed, he warped the space in front of him. He sensed the Neo Flare coming a second before it hit, which was ample time for him to reinforce his shields against it. As he whethered the blast he reached out with his mind to warp space in a third attempt at teleporting. This time it worked. Space compressed, and for an instant two points were one and then two again, and Krono was a ways in front of Cyril.

He cast his own version of Neo Flare on Cyril, then thought to himself "Hold him steady, right why couldn't he ask for something easy. Well, pinned down and held steady are pretty close to each other, lets try a spell he won't shrug off." He then proceeded to rapidly chant a spell in a language heard only by a few, meant more to be used for communication by telepathy than by speech. Translated into a recognizable language it went "Let all others vanish as Chaos reigns. Wild Space." With the final words, a spell of Chaos meant to destroy minor Voidspawn struck at Cyril.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
The attempt to hold the blades still had failed, but it had slowed them down enough that by the time they hit, the spells within them were easily repelled by the defensive barriers he fed to the disjunction, and by a simple wash of the Creation energies he was already holding together. Excal then saw when Cyril was held still momentarily by Krono's attack, and he was ready. Done with attempting to hold off the blades for a little while, he used the magics of Time to cast a strong version of Quick upon himself, and followed it up by using Space, merging two different points together that he might move from one to the other with a step, leaving him directly infront of Cyril for the last bit of his attack.

He combined the Darkness and the Order, and combined them, using X-Strike, a skill which would allow him to use one of his lesser skills four times in a row. The skill in question this time was Shellbust Stab, a potent attack which excelled at breaking armour. He aimed all four of them directly at the Genesis Orb on Cyril's chest. He knew he could never shatter the Orb, that was well beyond his power, but he was hoping that he could shatter the bindings which held it to Cyril, at which point he could sieze the artifact and take it for his own.

And, with four solid hits landed, his plan suceeded. The Orb broke loose, flying away from Cyril. Excal, knowing it for a necessity, raced after it, his only goal to gain the Orb, and to gain its power to defeat Cyril.

Cyril Shinsei
---------------------------------------------
Cyril blinked, only moments after the torrent of Krono's spells had shot through him with some effect, but the truly significant event wasn't that. No, it wasn't that at all. Something that had been lurking in his soul for the past seven decades awakened.

I am free.

------

The roar of the Beast, screaming, rampaging and killing all those in its path - a bloody path of fallen comrades, friends, loved ones, as the Beast lashed out with its claws...

"No!" he shouted, gagging back on blood as the embedded arrow in his chest pierced deeper. "Go back! Go BACK, DAMMIT!"

The figure stepped towards the abyss, a lurking pool of death, the Beast hungering for more to consume, more lives to take, more souls to feast upon...

With staggered, slowed movements, with the gait of a drunken (or dead) man, he stumbled along, reaching out. "It's... over... stop..."

Deep, piercing, horrifying, hungry eyes. The Beast loomed over, its hideous visage now brought in full sight as it reached out...

...darkness. I should see darkness.

And he screamed, again, and again, and again...

------

Cyril blinked again, and now, all was seen.

The Genesis Orb flying off into the air, he briskly ignored it and focused on the matter on hand. Everything was so simple. What a fool he had been! Now the path was clear.

Such irrelevants.

Time took on one of its irregular trips again, now shifting the scene into a crumbling battlefield, but filled with warriors and fighters of an era he didn't recognize. No matter. They were all ... gone, anyway.

He began teleporting, racing at the speed of his mind, easily encompassing a speed that rendered him totally invisible to sight and to all but the most quickest of reflexes. A pity that the two who stood in his way happened to possess very nearly such skills. But even those would not save them from the inevitable outcome. And that would come. So much sooner now.

Teleport. A blast of light shot forth, containing the heart of a star. Teleport. A half-dozen orbs of singularities flew off. Teleport. A massive internal thermal explosion erupted. Teleport. Twin lances of lightning shot and blazed a path, ripping a hole through reality.

Destroy, destroy, destroy. So simple.

Cyril smiled, continuing the rampant barrage of mindless destructive spells, leaving gaping holes in both the ground and in reality itself, aimlessly transferring around every quarter of a second and leaving a package of death with every step.

ChronoDeus
---------------------------------------------
Krono reacted virtually instantly to Cyril's onslaught. His first action was a couple of random teleports to throw off Cyril a bit, his shields deflecting what he couldn't evade. The second was to cast Vengence followed by Seal Rift on Cyril. Seal Rift only bought him an extra second or two, but that was all that he needed. He concentrated a moment and a gray glow shone from his chest and a gray stone emerged from it, and from the stone emerged a mask. In an instant the mask had been placed on Krono's face and with a flare of light, Krono grew wings and was engulfed in a gray blaze all along his body. Then, summoning the blade Atma Weapon to his hand, he warp to meet and attack Cyril at a speed only one supported by and existing outside of Time could achieve.

Excal
---------------------------------------------
Excal was somewhat disoriented. First he was chasing after the glowing orb through a surreal starscape. Then he felt a sudden surge of Void energy behind him, and felt everything falling apart around him again. And then the Genesis Orb was lost on the ground of a large battle raging around them. Fortunatly, he had a good track on its rather distinctive signature, and it didn't take him long to track it down. Finally, he beheld the orb, filled with the swirling colours of the Eight, as well as a consistant soft blue glow of Creation. With trembling fingers, the awe-filled Juno Knight reached down, and picked up the gem.

The change was sudden and shocking. He could feel the power of Creation surging within him, both from the crisis of the Void power now enveloping him, and from the gem in his hand. He could feel it, threatning to envelope him, and frantically his consciousness struggled to stay afloat, to both survive and attempt to tame tihs rampant power springing forth within him. After what seemed a lifetime, though it was but a few seconds, the struggle was over, and Excal felt an eternal rage, as well as an ancient peace with roots millenia deep smoothing it over. He knew of benevolence beyond the call of duty or reason, and of callous cruelty with no purpose or reason. Filled with sudden whims, and a sudden insight, a clarity of mind that could easily see that which lay far beyond his previously clouded sight. He knew the infinite depth of life, and knew that his past self was dead for this. He had become the Avatar of Creation.

Feeling the new power welling up within him, Excal turned up to look at the battle before him, where Krono, now wearing his Eternal's Mask, was battling Cyril... no, he was battling Havok. Excal knew that now their foe was ignoring the rules which he at least was fully bound by, and he knew what he must do. Perhaps it might also effect Krono, he could not be sure, but he had no recourse.

Calling forth the powers of the Eight, he then spread that power into the very roots of the world. Finally, he moved them all, shifting reality so that the space they occupied was one with a deserted planet, their inhabitants long dead after they lost their battle with the Void in a previous Age. After this was done, he let go of the previous battlefield. Though the loss of innocent life may be inevitable, it was to be avoided if possible. And, the posibility that those there may succumb to the call of Despaire was too likely to be risked. Then, he used his connection to the very binding of reality, the Creation Seal that holds off the Void. He then made the seal stronger, and made a span of a Galaxy around him filled with its power. This was the Creation Bind, a skill used only by the Avatar which forces all within its bounds to abide by the laws of the Eight. It would force Havok, and all the skills he used, even Void skills, to obey the laws of the Eight while he exsisted here.

That done, Excal prepared to join the battle again.

Priam
---------------------------------------------
Something else was happening, as well--its impact subtle but important. As the spells from the two, now three, combatants rent the very essence of reality asunder, it was being repaired, even where Krono's magic was not being exercised. As fast as the combatants were perceiving and acting, they still could only catch fleeting glimpses of a vaguely familiar shape, pulling and reweaving the timestream back together with magics that had been secreted away for aeons.

Priam, the young psionicist, now trained through uncountable spans of subjective time in the ways of Chronomancy, worked with utter concentration and dedication to the preservation of reality within the combat. His work at the rips and seals took nary every bit of concentration he could muster, though he spared himself enough brainpower to keep an eye out for personal danger, and to project a psionic impression to Krono, conveying a feeling of 'You looked like you needed some help with this.'


Excaliburned
 

Re: SHAMELESS INTRUSION: Continuation of Excal vs Cyril duel

Unread postby Excaliburned » Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:40 am

<ooc>Ooooh, imported cheese.</ooc>


Cyril Shinsei
 

Re: SHAMELESS INTRUSION: Continuation of Excal vs Cyril duel

Unread postby Cyril Shinsei » Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:44 am

(And only a few weeks old too.)


Cyril Shinsei
 

Re: SHAMELESS INTRUSION: Continuation of Excal vs Cyril duel

Unread postby Cyril Shinsei » Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:29 am

(My mind is still a bit fuzzy, so pardon me if the below post seems incoherant.)

Even as Krono flew forth, Cyril was already ready for the coming attack, and both met with a flurry of sword blows, against one who knew time from beginning to end and one who simply defied it. Soul blades lashed against the lesser Eternal's Atma Weapon, its glimmering azure blade crashing again and again and sending fierce sparks of raw arcane energy flying in all directions. The mélee was such of ridiculous speed that neither was really attacking with their physical forms, but with the peak capacity of their minds, both weapons being literally extensions of the wielder's soul. As such, Krono moved with the wisdom of eons, battering down on the Emissary, but Cyril matched that with a yet untapped raw power that exceeded his adversary's, making the ordeal a stalemate as the two clashed again and again.

Then, a surge of energy, one so intense that it nearly took his attention off the current fight, blasted through the battlefield, its sheer aura so strong that Cyril had to work to prevent being overwhelmed by its strength. And even as the initial spike of power faded, he already knew what had happened. The accursed Genesis Orb, now free from his unwilling grasp, had been taken by he who wielded the very Elements themselves.

The Avatar of Creation.

With a sudden arc of void energies that shot forth at Krono to distract him - albeit only for a precious second or so - Cyril teleported behind Excal, wasting neither time nor thought to immediately deal with the now greater threat. A dazzling shower of cosmic energy rained forth, each drop containing enough force to ignite the heart of a celestial object; such incredible power that had not been tapped upon for eons, followed up by a very brief pause before an array of Crescents fired forth, all aimed to squarely strike the Avatar before he could react. The binds of Creation began to swirl as Cyril committed his assault, and sensing his powers being sealed in, he countered with a mighty flare of the Void, pushing back against the strength of the Elements, not quite overpowering it, but nor was it completely restricting him either. Time and space were two things he had little taste for. In due process, they would be eliminated, engulfed in the vast maw of nothingness.

Cyril continued the relentless attack on the Avatar, never pausing and unleashing the mightiest spells he could call upon, blowing away whole sections of existence in the process.


ChronoDeus
 

Re: SHAMELESS INTRUSION: Continuation of Excal vs Cyril duel

Unread postby ChronoDeus » Tue Feb 24, 2004 10:00 pm

&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Priam's message went entirely unnoticed by Krono, who was far too busy fighting Cyril to receive such a message. He felt both Excal becoming the Avatar, and casting of the Creation Bind, only avoiding being disoriented by the second due to the Amulet of Infinity, an artifact he wore that most seemed not to notice, a state of affairs he encouraged by not drawing attention to it.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Rapidly deciding on a new course of action, he drew further upon the Amulet and used a technique bequeathed by it called Eight-fold Chain. One after another, in a sequence that occurred so quickly that it was almost simultaneous, eight spells struck at Cyril.

Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Gravira, Flare, Nuke, Holy, Fade.


Excaliburned
 

Re: SHAMELESS INTRUSION: Continuation of Excal vs Cyril duel

Unread postby Excaliburned » Thu Feb 26, 2004 11:22 pm

Excal's euphoria was cut short, first as he took stock of the situation. Cyril was currently a good match for the both of them, but Excal was certain he couldn't prevail now if they both fought with all their might. However, he could also feel the damage their batle had wrought, and knew also that there would be much lost beyond salvage if they were heedless to this damage. Then his attention was grabbed by another distraction, Cyril himself unleashing all of his power against the Avatar.

Excal braced himself, throwing up his most potent barriers, deflecting what he could, softening what he couldn't, and healing when he had the chance. He knew that in the end, Cyril would win any battle of offence vs. defence, but Excal could last for quite a while before he fell. And so, Excal left off his offence, trusting that to Krono for a while, and instead spread his power and his concentration to spare out among the eight threads of Creation, doing nothing more at the moment that infusing his strength among it, and holding it all together against the onslaught.


Cyril Shinsei
 

Re:

Unread postby Cyril Shinsei » Fri Feb 27, 2004 3:45 pm

With unerring accuracy, Krono's rapid barrage of spells detonated upon Cyril, the latter having paid no attention to his other adversary. And, quite frankly, it soon became clear why. The first four spells simply ricochetted off an barrier and blew apart some random portion of space; the others left him almost literally unaffected through nothing but raw innate magic defense. At this point, spells casted within the mortal realm appeared to have little consequence, regardless of how many or how fast they were flung forth. A fact further fortified that Cyril didn't even bother to send a single retaliatory strike back, instead focusing on hammering away at the Avatar of Creation, who, as usual, was pitifully focused on holding together the slippery threads of existence.

Void blades lashed out, testing Excal's defenses again and again as they struck with unerring accuracy, leaving him no time for pause as Cyril relentlessly attacked, occasionally phasing around Excal to test another vantage point, wearing him down as much as he could while simultaneously launching explosive spells at point-blank range. Delivered at such a rate and with such a punch that they would have broken through even Krono's barriers, both excess celestial energy and undoing void blasts landed upon Excal. The land shuddered, whole portions of space were shattered beyond repair, time fluctuations sprouted uncontrollably in every direction, and Creation staggered under such intensive Void strength being focused on a single spot, despite the Avatar's valiant - and ultimately futile - attempts to hold it all together. Even Excal knew that one cannot defend his way to victory, and Cyril knew it all too well - that was the cornerstone of his fighting tactics. Though, it was somewhat inappropriate at this point, as Cyril was no longer truly in control...

His aura of void flared forth again, countering Excal's own energies to piece together Creation, all the more difficult to do as he found himself being hammered upon with strength that far surpassed the normal definition of 'godlike', of a force that ignored all rules of existence itself. Yes. It was only a matter of time - the conclusion was, in itself, inevitable. Even Creation gave heed to that, signified by the mockery they called Fate.

Soon, it would begin. The beginning of the end...


ChronoDeus
 

Re:

Unread postby ChronoDeus » Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:39 pm

&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Frowning at the failure of his strike, Krono considered for a moment then tried again. Holding his left hand in front of him he began to chant at an impossible speed. As he chanted a circular construct of runes began to appear in front of him. Once completed, the disk of runes flew at Cyril. At the last second Krono reached out with his mind and yanked Excal clear, and the disk warped, and formed a sphere around Cyril.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp The runes flared and Cyril was imprisoned in a sphere of Order. They flared again and lances of Darkness and Light stabbed out from the sphere to strike at Cyril, then they flared again, and flames erupted from the lances to fill the sphere with fires born of Chaos.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Again the runes flared and the structure started spinning and collapsing inward as space around it was compressed.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Then Krono cast another spell, and then teleported himself to near the sphere between it and Excal, waiting with a sword of Darkness in his left hand and the Atma Weapon in his right to wait to see the effect the attack had upon Cyril.


Excaliburned
 

Re:

Unread postby Excaliburned » Sat Feb 28, 2004 2:48 am

Excal felt the onslaught against him, and knew precisely what was going on. He could see all of the variations of what Cyril and Krono were going to do, and though he could not know which path they would take, he was able to modify his actions to take advantage of this knowledge, rarely being caught off guard. Even better, his grasp on the elements was growing stronger as he better attuned himself to them, allowing him to better hold all together, and sense the area around himself. His own aura of healing mostly offsetting Cyril's own aura of destruction.

In his defence, he was glad that Cyril was still using Elemental spells against him. As Avatar, he was chanelling the power of all eight Elementals, and while using their power on their chosen representative wasn't as idiotic as using their power on the Eight themselves, it was simply marginally less so. What wasn't absorbded by Excal simply did little to no damage to him. Of far more concern were the Void attacks which he had no innate resistance to, and which he spent most of his effort blocking, or, when unable to defend against them, healing from. This task was somewhat assisted as he sensed Krono moving him about, something which he sensed and he approved of, allowing himself to be thusly shunted about.

And so, he continued on, feeling his defenses slowly being penetrated, but his grasp on the local Creation Seal getting stronger, and it being steadied.



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