The Coming Darkness

David's eyes wandered to Sasha, and he ran over to her to help her up. "Are you okay? Who is this guy?" His eyes bolted back to the strange boy, and he twirled his other knife around his finger, ready to throw it or block with it depending on this guy's next move. He was willing to try to protect Sasha, considering she was probably more powerful than he was anyways. It wouldn't be as much of a loss if he died.

Faye swayed back and forth, watching Volitaire show off his magic. "Our master is wonderful and fearless, exactly as a leader should be. One to be feared by his people. I suppose some might call him a dictator of sorts. But he's always been good to us, and by us, I mean me and my partner." She scoffed at the thought of Seth and what he was probably doing about now. The orb she had formed in her hand burst into thousands of little pieces, and spread out all around her. They seemed to float there for a moment, as her expression became more and more wicked. Suddenly, her expression changed completely, and the color in her face disappeared. Her sword, all the little shadows she made, everything had vanished. She fell to her knees, and then onto her face, revealing a rather large slash in her back. A tall man stood behind her, a sword out, the tip covered in blood. He sighed and put the sword away, his yellow eyes staring at Volitaire.

He stopped his swipes and watched her fall. He wasn't fazed by it at all, but he didn't feel like this man was his savior. The kind of look the man gave him. "I guess you're here to kill me too? Hmm? If so, lets just get it over with.." He stepped back and recaled his runes he layed down before back to his hand. They surrounded his palm and orbited his hand, waiting for a command.

The chandelier landed ontop of Seth's head, disorientating him for a moment. "Ugh, !@#!#% fucking hurt!" His voice came out distorted and monstrous, but it felt more comical then frightening. He held his head with both hands, and opened an eye towards the one that did it. His head ebbed with pain, but he wouldn't let that happen again. The room was now darker, which allowed for Seth to bring up minions made of pure shadows. They were invisible to the eye, but their shadows on the walls and ground told their location. 2 of them appeared, separating the rest of them from Jacen.

This gave Seth time to focus on the other ring holder, Sasha. "Go away, pest." He unleashed another swarm of moths, this time heading for David. I know of you and your evasive skills.

Sasha snorted, attempting to shove away the pain she was feeling, "S'fine, I'm fine," she said to David, casually waving it off, "T'be honest, I dunno either. But he's gonna get his ass kicked."

Sasha pushed David away as she herself ducked under the swarm of moths, rushing towards Seth once more, the water this time speeding behind her like mini bullets.

David nodded at Sasha before she pushed him away, noting the moths coming at him. There was no way he could dodge all those or cut them down with only one blade, so he started spinning the knife around his finger as fast as he could, and put it out in front of him as sort of a shield. It being a blade, however, would cut anything that touched it. He took his free hand and stuck it out behind him for stability and so that it would be ready if he needed to protect himself. He couldn't avoid them all, no. But he sure as hell could try.

Haimon continued to stare at Volitaire as he assumed he was here to kill him. His expression remained blank as he remained silent. After watching Volitaire and his magic for a bit, he finally spoke. "I don't care whether you live or die. You are simply an ant in this mission. Where's Silver?"

Upon seeing his attack land, Jacen ran out of the hallway.
That...actually fucking worked. When this is over, I'm so calling for my guns... Jacen ran and ducked behind another wall.
No more lighting fixtures...looks like it's time for the sphere. I hate the sphere. He charged together a ball of energy in the palm of his hand and had it set to stick and detonate like a grenade. He ran out towards Seth and tossed it at him. He saw the sphere land on his chest and whine before detonation.
Gotcha.
The sphere whined before dropping off and dissipating at Seth's feet.
Shit.

From down the hall Marcus could here smashing and thumping. Either there was a pretty wicked party going on, or someone was in trouble. He tried to get up, but regardless of the pain medication, his body was in no condition to fight. "Ines..." He spoke lowly, "I think there's something up, go down the hall where the other students are and check on them. I would come with you, but right now, I'd be nothing more than dead weight." As if on cue, one of his bullet wounds began to throb horribly, his face grimaced, "Go now, I'll be fine. I afraid that something is terribly wrong. But please, be safe." There was concern and fear in his eyes, and his goofy smile had faded into something much more solemn. Although he wanted to fight, he knew he couldn't, and this scared him even more. He would be a goner if whatever was going after his students, came after him. Ines was his only hope at this point. "I'm sorry to put so much stress on you, being your first day here in New York...hell if we get through this safely, coffee and dinner are on me."

"Even if I knew the answer. Why would I tell you? I'm on a mission of my own, her location isn't known to me." He began to lose interest and took his leave, before he exited he stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Wait... You're 'him' aren't you? What she called her foster father? It's odd that someone is looking for her directly without having any sort of affiliation with them." His guess made him focus back on the man behind him. He turned around to face him. "If I'm right, I wouldn't dare tell you. And to get to her you'll end up having to go through the guardians. As cocky and sure of your power as you are, you know nothing of what we are. As demonstrated by her..." He lazily pointed at the girls corpse. "Taking insanity and sadistic stereotypical catalyst for a Dark user. It made me sick to look at. If I am an ant, then you'll squash me like one. And if you can't you're just as pitiful as the rest of these lackeys being shit-flung at us." He gripped his sword tighter. Ready for any sudden actions.

Noticing the electric dud first, Seth covered it in black aura, the electricity getting lost inside the small black cloud. In response to Jacen's failed attack, the black cloud moved over to Jacen, and grew larger. The electricity flowed in it like a lightning storm. Once close enough, the black sphere exploded, and sent Jacen back into an elevator with it's doors wide open.

Of course, Seth forgot about Sasha rushing at him.

!

...This time, I haven't had worse.
The elevator door closed and Jacen sat writhing in pain.
So much...for video game shit.

Haimon continued to stare blankly at him. "Oh, you've heard of me? I feel honored. I'm not surprised though, between that human pest and the pathetic trash I raised." He turned his head to the side, almost as if he heard something. "...Ah, there you are." Haimon slowly turned his head back towards Volitaire, nodding at him lightly. "Thank you for wasting my time. I get to kill you now." Before Volitaire could protest, Haimon was behind him, and there was a large vertical gash on his face and the front of his body, as well as a pretty serious stab wound. He reached out with one of his bloody swords that was still in his hand and casually pushed Volitaire from behind, seeing if he would fall. He glanced at the blood over his two swords, and pulled out another small crystal, dropping it in front of him and opening a portal. As he stepped through it, he spoke.

"Farewell, small ant."

With that, he disappeared.

Meanwhile, David had barely dodged most of the moths, and huffed a bit, that having been a greater work out than he thought it would be. He looked up to see Sasha attacking Seth. Get 'im, tiger.

He coughed and shrieked in pain and shock from the attacks. His blood was splattered all around, while he choked on it before coughing it out. He fell over in the puddle. His hair fell over his face as life began to slip away from him, he fought it back as hard as he could, but it was continuously getting harder to keep breathing. His eyes slowly began to close, making on last cough. "Still..not enough to beat the rest of them..I was just weak.." His eyes finally closed and his body relaxed on the blood stained concrete. His sword dispelled and his grip was loosened, his runes disappeared.

Sorry...guys...I couldn't protect you all.

She smirked to herself; it seemed that the man hadn't noticed her. With a slight movement of her leg, Sasha roundhouse kicked Seth in the face, her blow powered up by the water pushing it forward, "Hah!"

Ines too had heard the ruckus downstairs. Noticing Marcus's serious tone, the female nodded, standing up and exiting, "I'll be fine," she replied, heading out into the hall, and finding a group of students fighting, and a mysterious man. "E-excuse me!" Ines exclaimed, frightened and concerned for the students, "What on Earth is happening here?!" Students appeared to be injured, and quite literally, chaos was happening.

"Kuh!" Seth was blown back through the room and out of the window, but he caught himself, and was floating in mid-air. His legs had turned to black mist, making him look like a ghost.
"I'm done playing around..." His voice was starting to distort again. He threw both of his arms infront of himself, and a black ball of teal fire formed into his hands. "Flame of Darkness.." He muttered as his final attack charged up, the black ball sucking light itself into it.

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"..."

She laughed at her successful hit, but immediately felt herself going weaker after.
Tch...still as weak as ever.

It wasn't as bad as last time though. Sasha still had the ability to stand and she felt that she was able to fight for a moment longer...At least unti- Holy shit, what was that black hole that the man was conjuring?! Sasha grimaced; it looked dangerous.

So much commotion was going on outside. She couldn't even go back to her nap, Ugh...What's going on? Getting up from the bed, she made her way to the door. Opening it, she stifled a yawn and stepped outside. Just in time to face yet another fight. There were some people, which on closer inspection, were the students she had seen earlier with Marcus.

"Seriously?" This was rather annoying. Noticing another adult ask the very same question she was just about to voice out. Just, not as nicely. She stepped away from the door, eyes widening in shock at some form of Moths came at her. Apparently having been aiming for one of the students, they'd missed their target and now decided she would be a great substitute.

Cursing at this sudden case of bad luck, she tried to duck down, see if they flew past her. Seeing them just change their flight pattern, she bit back another curse and moved from her position. Maybe if she managed to get to the elevator she'd be safe. Unfortunately, it was right through the whole shit-storm.

Who'd I get involved with?? Should've never helped them out.

David looked over and noticed another innocent being getting involved and sighed. Where did she even come from? He waited for all the moths to line up nicely and threw his knife, managing to hit all of the ones who were chasing after the poor girl. The knife continued flying and hit the wall, so he ran over and grabbed it again, knocking the moths off of it. He looked back to the girl and pushed up his glasses. "Are you alright? You should get out of here, it's not a very good place to be right now."

Well shit. The guy had some serious skill to have pulled that off. She looked herself over, making sure there were no injuries. "I'm good. Thank you for that." Smirking at him in thanks, she glanced back to the room she'd been in. Oh how she wished she could go in there. "I would go back into the room, but.. I don't have the key." She left her things in there too. On closer inspection, her eyes widened. This was the same guy that was fighting with Marcus. Maybe this was a nightmare. Students from a magic school being attacked, random killer moths.

"You guys always surrounded by this?" She asked, unable to resist the question. This was worse than the random raids they got. At least they were fighting normal humans.

David was a bit distracted by the battle that was going on currently, but he looked back to the girl; he couldn't be impolite. "Eh.. Only when someone wants one of us dead..." He glanced back to the fight and decided it would be best for her to be far away, out of harms way. "..Sorry about this, but you really need to go away. I don't want you to get hurt." He twirled his knife around so it was ready, should anything happen, and turned her away from the danger with his free hand, lightly shoving her while walking forward.

Glancing at the others, she nodded. They must have been hated by people. She was about to ask if there was a safer route to get away from the area when she felt herself being turned, urged to start walking in the direction. "Ah, good idea.." A black hole looking thing was appearing, and she really didn't want to linger. Nodding, she moved without hesitation, anywhere to get away from that. "My being injured would be no trouble in a few minutes." It was her dying that was the problem. She would have to return later for her things.

"Yeah.. Sorry.." He glanced back every so often and picked up the speed a bit, reaching the end of the hall where there were some stairs and leading her down them a couple levels. "Okay, I want you to go down the rest of the way and just go out, hang with your friends, whatever. Just stay away from here and us.. Er, them.. And me, because I guarantee it will only mean trouble." He frowned. He didn't like telling people to stay away, but it was for their own good. He didn't want to see more innocent people get hurt. He also felt kind of awkward including himself with the others, considering he wasn't really part of them. David gave her a light pat on the shoulder and turned to go back up the stairs to help again.

JD was enjoying his somewhat post-coital moment with Silver. He smiled as she seemed abundantly happy with her present, and he inevitably accepted her kiss with a blushing pride. No one could figure the loud-mouthed Brit to blush, but yet he did with an extreme ferocity. "Just get something for me when you see something. Girls are just easy to buy for- all that jewelry and what not." He placed another peck on her cheek, slid his arm around her torso, and inevitably under her shirt to toy with her garments there. "You want to go another round?" He questioned with a somewhat blatant lusting curiosity. "Because I think there is skin under here that I failed to kiss the first time around." His hand slowly slid up her shirt, he leaned down and p laced a firm kiss over her belly button. Slowly he began to make his way up when he thought he heard something- what was that noise? JD realized rather shortly that the door was still barred, and he frowned a bit- considering the intruding noise to quite possibly be someone wanting on the roof.

"Bugger- that is fine- I still have an unoccupied bedroom. Let's not come out for a while- eh?" JD mused as he slid away from Silver to check on that noise. "We can still stare at the sky for a bit longer and then head in- just going to make sure that that noise isn't some annoying cad wanting to get on the roof. Don't want to be kicked out of the hotel just yet- haven't abused room service- or found out how bouncy the mattresses are." It was then he chuckled to himself- as he was assured he would definitely find out how the springs handled pressure here shortly.

Enzo kicked Seth in the side, and interrupted whatever dark spell he was conjuring. Seth stumbled back onto the wall of the building, but was still afloat. "Enzo.. I wasn't expecting you to get here so early. We may have fun now." Seth charged towards him at blinding speed, and went for a gut punch. Enzo grabbed his hand, which stopped his momentum completely. Seth's eyes widened at how strong Enzo had become, compared to what he was told. "How are you.. this s-strong?"

Enzo's Minus Fire ignited out of his right eye, making it turn a dark and green color temporarily. "Because I've never fought to kill,"
He slowly began to crush Seth's hand in his fist. Cracking and snapping could be heard. "This is different. You... You killed them. Maya and.. Volitaire.." Seth's pain was starting to show. Blood was coming out of his hand as the bones were slowly breaking.

Spoiler

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"You killed.. my friends.." "Eheh, and you're going to kill me for revenge? Can Sky take the life of another out of hatred?" "No, but I know who can-" Enzo punched Seth in the face with his free hand, and then tossed him up higher into the Sky, into the sights of Kenji's sniper rifle.

Kenji pulled the trigger, a beam of light shot out of it and soared toward Seth, but the boy changed into black mist completely before the shot had reached him. "Tch, he ran.." Kenji muttered. Enzo on the other hand flew into the window of his room, and changed back to his normal form. Luckily, the sounds of fighting were drowned out by city life, and it being on the top floor, not many were able to hear it. Those that did could have mistaken it for construction.

Instantly, Enzo was nearly in tears. He had felt their deaths as he was dreaming. "Where is she? Where is Maya?" He asked them, but didn't stop for an answer, he ran past them and into the hallway, seeing no trace of her. He put his hands up to his face. "Voli too..." He said weakly, not caring for his one blind eye.

Seeing Enzo disappear into his room worried Sasha. She slowly managed to walk after him. Seeing the poor guy in this depressed state made Sasha really sad as well.

"Enzo..." she spoke, "I...it was my fault. If...if Id stayed awake, then...perhaps Maya would still be around..."


Obviously, all this chaos and commotion was too much for Ines, who was new to he job. She felt her legs going weak, and with a small, "Goodness!", the teacher fainted.

I need to get back, she thought. Someone must be looking for her, at least someone must be worried. She didn't want to worry anyone, so it was up to her to find her way back to the hotel. Luckily for her, asking others for directions wasn't the hard part, but following them correctly was.

Misunderstanding most of the directions people gave her, and being in such a frantic state considering her lack of immediate memory - she did her best to navigate... although it seemed to take forever.

As she felt she was getting close, she did her best to try and sense any familiar aura's. It was quite easy by now to tell when JD was near, but she could faintly recall the others, especially Volitaire's. And it just so happened that his was the first one she sensed, as if it was burning with a fierce intensity. But as she cornered in on that familiar feeling, it suddenly dropped in intensity and faded almost completely.

Eos had lost the trail as she came to a large concrete building, which appeared to be a temporarily unused parking garage. As she stepped into the building she called out, hoping that maybe - by chance Volitaire was around. But as she walked deeper into the building, that faint aura echoed a morbid sense in her memory. It was weak, and dim, hanging on by a thread...

Wait.

As the thought dawned on her, she saw a darkened silhouette collapsed on the ground just on the outskirts of her vision. And the painfully familiar smell hit her nose, sending her eyes wide.

Her cautious steps now turned to a run as she made her way toward the body, that with time revealed itself to be Voli. "Voli...?" Her honey eyes fixated on his face and she fell to her knees, her hands hovering out above him as everything began to twist and turn her insides. "Volitaire!" She shouted, pleading with the notion that he would respond.

Shaking eyes began to look over his body, so much blood. At first she was afraid to touch him, her shaking hands reaching down and trying to look over his slashed and bloodied body. Her soon stained hands were grasping his body to slowly roll him onto his back. "You... you can't leave me too.." At this point, she couldn't be sure if she could do anything to save him, or if he could even be saved - but for her own sanity she had to at least try. What could she say to the others if she didn't, what could she say to herself?

But as her hands, now coated in blood hovered over his body began to glow, the golden spark quickly dissipated as fast as it came. "No!" She grit her teeth, but tears still began to pour from her eyes in what seemed like a never ending stream. Eos moaned in heartbreak as she practically choked on her fear of losing Volitaire, her inability to calm down making her attempt to focus her energy near futile.

Gripping her eyes shut, she tried to focus again, picturing the healing force flowing through he veins and pushing through her palms - but the visions were once again interrupted, this time by a shared memory between Volitaire and Eos.

Quote:

---

Their first kiss,

She pushed the hair from his face and leaned her forehead against his, smiling. "I didn't want to waste another second..." He smiled while peering strait into her eyes. He caressed her cheek with his index finger, letting it slide down he side of her cheek to her jaw and back up again. He pressed his body close to her and held her a little tighter, also rubbing his thumb in the palm of her hand. "Why waste a good moment, Eos?"

---

And the image broke her concentration once again, buckling over her knees, her hair fell over her face. "I can't... I can't do it!" She frantically tried again and again, in hopes she could pull herself together in this one final moment. She had to, she simply had to.

Things had gotten too quiet within the few minutes that the other teacher had left. It was making Marcus uneasy, and he couldn't just sit there knowing something could seriously be wrong. He swung his legs out of the bed and used the headboard as balance to stand up. Putting his hand against the wall for stability, he drug himself along and out the door. The silence in the hallway was beginning to hurt his ears, so ever slowly he walked, hand still steadily placed on the wall. Every few steps the pain shot through him like a bunch of tiny blades digging into his flesh. It hurt, it hurt a lot, but he wouldn't let himself live it down if anyone else was..."Oh dear God..." There, laying in a pool of blood at his feet, was the severed head of Maya. He clasped a hand over his mouth, the site of it nearly causing him to drop to his knees. "Just close your eyes and keep walking...keep walking...keep walking" His eyes shut tightly, even as he felt his bare feet drag through the blood, unarguably leaving a trail behind him. There was a strong possibility the others were in severe danger. And he refused to have the blood of any of his other students on him. His foot suddenly tapped something solid and warm, and one of his eyes peeked open ever so slightly. "Oh shit! Ines!" He said in a harsh whisper, instantly kneeling down, checking her for injuries. He put his ear to her mouth, still hearing breathing and feeling her warm breadth on her cheek. "Good, she's alive." Shaking her, he looked around cautiously before pulling her up into his lap. "Hey...wake up..."

Hey, sorry for vanishing. You know I can't get caught again - I'm on warning. Want to meet up?

Harley sent the text from a local diner that served cheap food and good coffee, plus one of the women who worked their always let the girl slide with an extra stack of pancakes. She awaited hearing back from Kira, hoping that she was also safe.

In what little consciousness he had left he could hear Eos' cries, they sounded muffled, but the familiar voice was beginning to bring him back to life. His eyes slowly opened under the locks of his hair that fell over his cut and bloodstained face. He slowly turned his face over to Eos, his hand slowly made it's way to her knee and his bloody lips made a weak grin. "E... There you are..." His voice was breaking and he sounded like he was ready to fall out again. "Don't cry... I'm okay... I just ran into the wrong person. Be strong for me and everyone else... I don't know how much more I can continue to bleed... But luckily, no vitals are harmed... Can you do me one last favor...?" His red eyes glow under the shade cast by his hair. He was using all he could to remain with her, and fight to make sure he could get up, and take her back to the Hotel safely.

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Enzo starting to sink into a pathetic sob in his room. Once again, he had felt as if he were defeated before the fight with Darkness even began. This time it was confirmed. With Maya gone, and Volitaire nearly out of the game, Enzo felt overwhelmed. "I'm.. I'm.. Going to k-kill him..." He uttered in his broken and wobbly voice. "I'll kill him for what he's done!" He continued to silently sob, barely noticing Sasha behind him.

He was determined to end the conflict Darkness had started. Kenji and Enki had entered the room. They were totally unaware of the death of Maya until now, as her blood stained the hallway floors. "That couldn't be.."

She felt herself being shaken awake. Slowly, Ines's eyes blinked open. The view above her was fuzzy for a few moments before she recognized the figure as Marcus.

"I'm okay," Ines said softly, "I was just...overwhelmed by the amount of chaos that happened...I couldn't do anything..."

Hearing Enzo's pain and seeing him sob was too much for Sasha. She felt an immense longing to be with him, to help him get over this terrible tragedy. In a single day, Enzo had lost so much. It broke her heart to see him like that.

Tentatively, Sasha walked up behind Enzo, and slowly wrapped her arms around him, her face in his back, "Don't cry...please.."