The Coming Darkness

Her honey colored eyes watched Enzo as he walked toward the training room. Hm, that does sound rather interesting. JD was on the same page she was, as much as this was going to be an experience in itself, being around kids her age like this - but being able to actually use and perfect her powers - now that would be a treat and a half.

When Voltaire pointed out his little hideaway, he seemed to trail off - causing Eos to grow ever more curious. "I'll gladly accept that invitation..." A giggle escaped her lips as he told her it was nice meeting her. "The pleasure is all mine, Volitaire~." Giving him a light wave she watched in awe as he flew into the sky, her eyes lingering before realizing that Silver was heading toward the training room as well.

"Come on, JD~. Let's go see what this chap is made of!" Grabbing his hand she tugged him along, eager to see the action.

Silver’s small blush made JD smile even more. She was cute, and probably capable considering the fact that she went to school here. That made him curious to find out what the girl could do, and honestly what they say about curiosity killing some sort of cat was false. JD followed his curiosity like a ship follows a lighthouse beacon, and it had given him many an adventure. It was then he was aware that his twin was flirting with another fellow.

JD almost glared at Voltaire and would have burst into volatile indifference at him inviting his sister to a private hideaway had it not been for the fact that he needed the Dark Mage for a favor or few. “Have fun,” he waved his digits in the other’s direction. Those eyes then beamed a glare towards Eos. “I best not catch you at this little hideaway E.” And then the next thing he knew the girl grabbed his hand and hauled him towards the training room- not that he would complain. He wanted to see all these people in action and JD wanted to know more about magic than he did now. What he did know was a paltry sum in comparison to what was offered here. “Look E,” he stated as they were strolling through the hallway. “I don’t trust anyone here- please be careful. You are the only family I have left- and seriously- I need you. Now- I think it might be a good idea for you to bleed whatever information you can get out of Voltaire, but don’t invest your heart just yet.” He smirked.

“Oh training room- I wonder if it can withstand my power.” He jested but decided that this round he would be a spectator. Observation before action had been his motto.

It didn't take long before they reached the training room. Enzo and Kenji were the first ones back. Aleister, Joanne, and Kyoya were still there. "Kyoya's a bit tough, so i'll give you a tip." Kenji said to Enzo, as they entered. "Your flame is alive, just like you are." Enzo stopped once he reached one side of the training room. "Really? How do you know?" He replied. Kenji hopped off his human transport once Enzo started stretching his arms. "I've studied it. You have to make it respect you." He said. Enzo finished stretching his arms, and started with his legs. "Respect?" He finished once he felt his muscles slightly renew themselves. "I'll.. try." He said.

Kyoya unfolded his arms and stood up off of the wall. "Done holding back?" Instead of replying right away, Enzo looked to Kenji, who already at his gun out. Enzo was again, shot by the new Emo-bullet. The force of it nearly knocked him off of his feet. His eyes changed to an orange color, and his flame appeared on his head. The rings on his hands expanded to form armored gloves.


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"Yeah, I'm ready."

Silver leaned against the wall just inside the door, watching Enzo prepare himself. She sighed and looked to Kyoya, who, after really looking at him, didn't really look that tough. She watched as Enzo got shot again, and saw the bright orange flames on his forehead.
She smirked as she sat down to enjoy the show.

Volitarie flew pass the opposite side of the forest, and saw the path continue on towards the side of the waterfall. Volitarie descended and landed in the stream, dispelling his wings and taking a look at the rushing water. He left a relieving sigh, the sound of the water and the quiet atmosphere calmed his nerves. He hung his suit jacket on a branch and pulled some small perfectly spherical stones with markings on them from his pocket. He tossed them into the water and stone-like replicas of men took shape and eyed Volitaire. "Voli-boy? This is odd, usually Einso uses us for practice. He gave you permission to use us?"
"Einso is...gone. No longer with us. But I need you to help me with some practice till I meet two new acquaintances to aid them in something that seems important."
"Oh- I'm sorry, Voli-boy. Are you alright?"
"I'll live..."
"Good...well then boys. Looks like we serve Voli-boy now. Not the big blondie anymore."
Volitaire pulled his Spell Sword from the air as it materialized from dark matter. He held it tight and assumed a combat stance, with a black myst arcing with white electrical surges in his other hand. Giving a small black/white effect on the left side of his body and in some area of the water. His hair blew from the wind the power was blowing. "Lets just get started..." The stone men pulled stone slabs from up out the water, and launched them in Volitaire's direction.

Maria sighed and jumped off the wall she was sitting on. " he's not coming huh... " She said sadly, pouting and tugging on Maya's shirt " Hey Maya lets go okay? It doesn't look like he's coming " She said softly feeling a little disappointed.

Before Eos could enter the training room, she stopped to a sudden hault - causing JD to bump into her. "Oof!" Before he could chastise her for being an airhead she gave him a serious look, "I need to find out where our bags are. I get this... sudden strange feeling about leaving them alone."

As much as she wanted to see the action Enzo was about to begin, all she could think about was that old photo of her mother and father slipped away in her bag. She didn't want anyone to rummage through her things, and she had always been paranoid someone would try and erase the last bit of physical evidence that her parents even existed. J.D. knew how she felt about that faded photograph, and would understand her worry better than anyone.

Volitaire weaved a shadow that blocked the thrown slabs, he then vanished and appeared in one of the familiars shadows, and sliced him in two. The other two watched and ran in to attack Volitaire directly. He spotted them and shot two of his Spell Chains directly at their chests, the fast and sudden impact made them fall over and crumble. "I remember these being stronger when Einso used them..." Volitaire stood up and waited. The familiars took shape again. The one in the middle laughed in amusement. "Look at that. Voli-boy stopped being a boy and turned into a man. We used to toss you around, and give you one hell of a hard time. Now look at cha', took all three of us down pretty easily. Alrighty, we do this like adults? Hear me Voli?"
"I notice you abandoned the suffix." Volitaire chuckled lightly. "I guess we will do this like adults. It's been a while since I last sparred with you three."
"That it has, Voli. Now show us more of that stuff you got going on now!"
The familiars all pick up dust and dirt and they clump together and form some kind of runed stones. The slam into the ground and a volley of stalagmites, also runed, rushed towards Volitaire.

"I'm sorry, let's go." She said, with a hint of annoyance. She had been sitting and sensed the unfamiliar people, and almost felt a little threatened. Once Maya had a group, it was hard for her to let new people in, especially girls. She tried to ignore it, and smiled at Maria. The dragon, still growing quickly, was large enough to carry Maria around for a bit. She was one of the lightest people Maya knew. "Can I see if Ryuu can carry your weight?"

After a while, Silver's mind began to wander. She remembered that Voltaire had run off somewhere and tried to think back to where he went. Once she remembered, she got up and started walking to where he said he'd be, even though she knew that he didn't really invite her. She figured maybe they could talk, or spar a little, anything really.

The stream of water was littered with pebbles and stones. Leftover stalagmites sat, splitting the current and the familiars were again destroyed, though soon taking shape again. "Damn well proud of you boy. You managed to cripple us again. Maybe you need a bigger challenge?"
"I unfortunately don't have anyone who can right now, I'd imagine. Everyone else is giving those newer students the run about of the school." The middle familiar nodded. "That Eos girl you were talking up? Keep that up and you may have somewhere to wrap those arms around. Ahahahaa-" The familiar's chuckle was interrupted by a shadow bullet piercing through his head. Volitaire had a darkened glare. "Don't joke like that..."
"Whoa, whoa!" The second familiar started. "Don't get all super-hostile now!"
"Listen, that boy, JD, looks at that girl like she means a lot to him. I can tell, it reminds me how Einso looked at me. I wouldn't want him thinking I'm after something he holds close. I don't want him to experiencing losing his closest possible sibling in some way. Along with gaining distrust for me. It's best if you leave jokes like that alone before he starts to hate me or grow more suspicious of me than he already does." Volitaire pushed his hair back. "Read- Hmm?" Volitaire turned and saw a silhouette in the distance. Female in figure. As the person walked in it revealed to be Silver. Volitaire was a little confused why she'd turn up here. But he didn't think too much on it and began sparring with the familiars again.

Silver managed to stumble upon Voltaire and some people she didn't recognize fighting, and decided to lean against a nearby tree and wait for him to finish. She didn't feel like he was in serious danger at this point, and she could always jump in later if he was. She remained silent the entire time.

"Silent as always. Vaguely reminding me of myself. only in more monitoring manner. Might as well see what she's here for." Volitaire thought. Volitaire signaled the familiars to return dormant, all traces of their actions were warped away and they compressed back into their spherical shape. Volitaire picked up the spheres and pocketed them, then suddenly vanished and reappeared in the shadow of a tree beside Silver. "Need something, miss?" He leaned on the bark.

"Not at all. Just got bored, decided to come find you and see what you were up to."
She brushed some hair behind her ear and stuck her hand out in front of her, curling her fingers slightly. A soft indigo flame appeared in her hands, but she closed her hand over it, quickly putting it out.
"...Really bored.."

Volitaire narrowed his glare at the flame. "How...unfortunate... You know, I'm out here sparring with my brothers old familiars. They mentioned I could use more of a challenge. And that little magic trick you just showed me makes me think you wanna show something off. Am I right?" Volitaire tilted his head.

"Oh, well, if you insist.." Without hesitation she pulled out one of her swords and stabbed it into the tree next to her, attempting to stab Voltaire. She stood there grinning, waiting for a reply from him.

Volitaire scoffed and in a swift movement he was in Silver's shadow, his sword already drawn and the blade at her neck. "I do insist, Silver." Volitaire kept and eye on her.

"Thought so." With that, Silver turned into mist and dissolved away.
"Hey, by the way, I'm over here," she said, leaning against a different tree not too far away. Her swords weren't even drawn and she appeared to be very calm. "I haven't used my magic like that in a long time.. It sure feels good," she said, her lips curling into an almost evil grin.

Volitaire chucked. "I understand you're little game." Volitaire raised his hand the shadows from the trees rose and human like entities rose. "Illusions alter and confuse the 5 senses, right? I'm helpless against that, I can't just block it off. So, I want to see you handle things that don't necessarily have senses at all." They rose and eyed Silver, but stood still.

Silver stared at the things that rose from the ground. She shivered lightly; their blank stares were giving her a chill. She shrugged and drew her swords, twirling them in her hands a few times while waiting for them to attack. No matter really, I don't need to use my magic right now.

The shade of the tree she was leaning upon rose and a silouhette grew from it, growling and strikes Silver with its hand. "You'll have to get down, dear." The rest of the shadows leaped towards her.

Silver sighed and her face became a bit more irritated. "Don't call me 'dear'."
She regained her composure quickly, and suddenly her swords were engulfed in that same indigo flame she exposed earlier, only they were darker and seemingly denser. They gave off little light, though there was a bit. She sliced at the shadows that jumped at her, clearly quite eager to fight. She got that way a lot when she was outnumbered.

The shadows split in two, drifting off as what looked like some sort of myst, but then regains form after a brief amount of time. They leaped more aggresivley towards Silver, while in the fray, he shot his Spell Chains at her. They split the shadowy beasts as they flew towards Silver.

Noting that simply cutting the creatures wouldn't do too much, Silver jumped out of the way and tried to think of a solution.
Well, I can try that... I hope it works..
She closed her eyes for a brief moment, and appeared to be concentrating very hard on something. After a few seconds, the flames on her sword blazed even bigger and brighter than before. It was almost blinding to look at them, and they appeared to be almost white rather than indigo colored like before. She opened her eyes slowly, revealing that her eyes also looked brighter, though they were the same shade of green as they were before.

Volitarie shaded his eyes, and his shadows began to fade slowly. "Good girl. This means I don't have to use such weak shadows." Volitaire dispelled all the shadows and took his own and made a complete clone of himself. "I hate having t clone everything...but I gotta get past those illusions somehow." The clone ran towards Silver and drew his sword. The real Volitarie stood back and waited patiently.

Silver rolled her eyes. "Do I actually get to fight you, or are you just going to keep sending these things after me?" As she spoke, she slowly moved herself into a different stance, one ready to strike. As soon as the clone got close to her, she crossed her arms and sliced at it horizontally with both swords.
She noticed she was quite a bit slower than she was before.

Volitaire shot a Shadow Bullet volley at Silver the moment she strikes the clone, afterwards quickly moving to a point beside Silver and leaving a seal on the ground. He turned his body and prepared a kick to her side. "Your movement is lacking, it is wise to use so much power on just me?" Volitaire questioned.

Silver, stunned at how quick he was, or maybe at how slow she was, glanced briefly at Voltaire who had appeared next to her. Her swords grew dim again and she quickly rolled to her side, away from him. Once she thought she was safe, she spoke again. "Perhaps not, but how else am I supposed to win this fight?"
Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her head and fell to her knees. Had she really used that much energy for just that? Holy shit.. Am I actually that rusty? She shook her head and stood up again, with a face that said she was ready to continue fighting, though she was a bit wobbly.

Volitiare regains his stance. "You're dizzy it seems. I really hope you're okay over there. After all, it's a sparring." Volitaire decided to end the spar here. A black vibrating orb grew in his hand, and he threw his hand forward and a shockwave blasted and the black sphere stretched, splitting the water in two under it, it made a low screeching and howling sound. It traveled fast, with a ripple effect surrounding it.

"I'm not dizzy!.. I'm.. Just a bit tired is all. That doesn't mean I'm done."
After a moment of standing there, she flopped down to her knees and sat there for a moment. She put her face in her hands and mumbled, "...Just don't tell anyone about this."
It was embarrassing to her, how weak she was, how horrible she had been with her magic. She hadn't realized that she spent too much time on just sword training and not enough time keeping up with her magic. If this had been just a normal sword fight, he would have been dead in seconds. At least I know that much.