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The Great Southern Sea

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Kotomine_Rin:
The Great Southern Sea

A vast expanse of saltwater where man and creature fear to thread. It is thanks to the naval expertise of Albion and its neighboring isles that eyes, hands, and ears have finally begun to search an uncover the mysteries of this aquatic domain. But beyond the shores, beyond all that, the sea expands and deepens, and when miles become leagues, and when even the scantest scrap of land is but a dot in the horizon, even the light of the sun quakes and ceases to be.

Beyond the safety of the city, beyond civilization, even the sea takes a darker color. Strange aquatic creatures become monstrous beasts of the sea. Monstrous serpents, krakens and indescribable creatures roam the skies and seas, and mere relics become forgotten artifacts of old. Even the air turns vile, toxic and impossible to survive for normal living organisms without tools or special abilities to thread these unhospitable waters.

There is a great number of wreckages where man has tried and failed to thread. And yet, there is a promise and a lure of something grand, something greater than what anyone should hope to hold. Wonders from different worlds, different times, have sunk to the bottom of this sea. Great fallen temples and monuments of ancient civilization, now nothing more than nests for dark beasts.

But beware, adventurers. For sometimes, the sea is more than a refuge. It can be a prison. One that keeps the wariest of sailors trapped.

Or one that keeps the ones beneath the depths away.


The Curse Of the Southern Sea - A passage of an old adventurer's memoir:

"And I  saw it... in all it's glory. In all it's terror. Aaaah! [REDACTED] Damn ye! Let Neptune strike ye dead, [REDACTED]!
Hark! Hark, Triton. Hark! Bellow, bid our father, the sea king, rise from the depths, full foul in his fury, black waves teeming with salt-foam, to smother this young mouth with pungent slime, to choke ye,
engorging your organs till ye turn blue and bloated with bilge, and brine, and can scream no more.
Only when, he, crowned in cockle shells, with slithering tentacled tail, and steaming beard, takes up his fell, be-finnèd arm,
his coral-tined trident screeches banshee-like in the tempest, and plunges right through your gullet, bursting ye, a bulging bladder no more,
but a blasted bloody film now, a nothing for the Harpies, and the souls of dead sailors to peck and claw and feed upon, only to be lapped up and swallowed by the infinite waters of the dread emperor himself.
Forgotten to any man, to any time, forgotten to any god, or devil, forgotten even to the sea,
for any stuff, or part of you, even any scantling of your soul, is [REDACTED] no more, but is now itself the sea."

Kotomine_Rin:
? ? ? ? ?

Aruna was flying away from the heavenly palace for some time, traversing the wild seas below with the freedom of her wings. It was a bitter irony, she had come far since that day, and yet she wasn't any closer to her goal than before. The fake demon still sneered cruelly at her struggles, intent to raise her up to the skies to bleed her dry of any value. The Archon of Resistance, Orcus, already had an eye on her - his goals still a mystery. Even the alliances she had built, valuable as they were... had they truly fulfilled Aruna's desire to the brim?

That was a question only Aruna could answer.

However, she'd have little time for that. For a bit, there was a strange aching on her left arm - as if the grace was trying to warn her to something. But even that was for naught. Because suddenly, the seas split open beneath her, revealing a black beast of shadow and metal. A black one-winged knight was riding the helicopter, grabbing onto it like a steed. It rushed across the water like a beastly shark, only to soar into the heavens with a murderous howl.

The voice was almost familiar but impossible to truly recognize.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!"

yinsukin:
Aruna

The demon's mind wandered towards the graces, light and dark itself.  The words of Orcus echoed through her mind.  "Vision comes from light. If the world is a painting, then we may see it only because something shines on it. But is the light monochrome and the canvas where colors rest, bereft of shade or clarity by themselves? No. There is no such thing as black light. It is the eyes with which we see that cast color on the world painted in tiny dots of black and white, constantly at war with one another."

Then... that means that....

"And who gave angels their fire?"

Aruna gave a snappy response before, but that was only thanks to her ability to posture.  As she flew away from the ruins, she finally realized the full implications of this question.  Angels were given "fire" and fire by god.  Maybe it was time to come to terms with one truth to her identity she hadn't quite yet.

The demon was so lost in thought that when the grace on her arm screamed at her, she barely even noticed the feeling of fear creeping up on her until her entire body started shaking. Then, she heard a howl.  It was a voice she remembered, yet one that seemed distant from the memory that the shriek clawed at.

Stopping her flight across the water, she shot into the sky to avoid the splitting waves.  "Impossible....  it couldn't be you....  your dead."

Kotomine_Rin:
- However -

Ah, but if only things were so simple.


--- Quote from: Kotomine_Rin on August 19, 2020, 12:50:57 AM ---ZEKE

And just as Aruna's sword slashed at him a couple of times, he kicked away from the sword despite the gash that it opened up - and unlocked his magic to blast away straight past the demon. He avoided the full combo, but just for a moment, the gaping abyss and Aruna's gaze met.

And the abyss looked back, with something utterly unseen sleeping inside.

Spoiler for Hiden:
And it spoke.

"Mael is alive."

And with a burst of light, the comet boomed to fly away

--- End quote ---

? ? ? ? ?

But the black beast gave Aruna no quarter, it chased her across the waves while clawing at the air, its rage utterly unbridled. Had he survived only to be swallowed up by madness? Or perhaps some monster had laid claim to his body and power. No, it didn't matter.

Right now, the one-winged knight's wing stretched to the skies, soaring above to blot out the sun - and fire a volley of machinegun fire.

yinsukin:
Aruna

"Why... why won't you say anything..."

The bullets flew at the demon, ripping her apart.  The young girl shook as the bullets ripped through her frail feminine body before she fell unceremoniously into the water.  A hand was held out, as if to reach for the creature floating before her.  Aruna's lips moved, as if she was trying to say something, but the bullets had pierced her lunges.  A splash massive enough to match the size of the waves marked her decent into the sea.

Although she wasn't dead.  No, she had never actually been hit.

Gils grew on Aruna's body, allowing her to breathe freely in the depths of the ocean.  Indeed, she had actually created holes in her body slightly larger than the bullets, allowing them to pass right through her.  Chains emerged from the water, threatening to wrap around the mysterious one winged creature.  No portals had been created yet.  There was no time, so the chains had been spawned from Aruna's body.

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