The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Sat Oct 10, 2015 12:46 pm

It was quiet around the deserted center square of downtown Karakura, much to the surprise of everyone. It wasn't the kind of quiet that happened from the lack of usual populous, like with what happened when there were big events being held elsewhere. No, it was silent. Completely silent. As in there was literally no one in this section of Karakura. Why you might ask? Why, it was because of a small crisis that had quickly escalated into a massive issue. In the center of what looked like an old fashioned park, one that had probably been there for centuries, was a strange black hole. It wasn't the kind of black hole that pulled in an ate matter. No, it was more like a rift. A black, twisted, eye shaped rift that was about twice the size and width of a normal person. And around this rift? Pitch black matter that crawled along the ground and killed whatever it touched. It had been here for almost a day, and the energy was now stretching out across the park. It was threatening to crawl onto the pavement of the sidewalks at this point.

The Vanguard had let this rift be after examining it for an hour after it initially opened. The energy had only spread so far then, but now it was threatening to stretch even further. The nanomachines that were supposed to record data about why things like this opened only gave video feed on it initially opening before going dark mere moments later. They even looked inside the rift when it opened, but there was nothing there at all. Not any sign of life or energy that could mimic such. It was merely a void of emptiness and isolation. The only thing they could identify coming from this rift was the same black energy that was eating away at anything that stepped foot into the park.

The rift was near impossible to research by lesser members of the Vanguard. Whatever the energy that this rift was leaking was, also ate away at parts of those same members' bodies. They would find that their clothes would start to turn to dust, and the skin and flesh underneath would all waste away until there was nothing left but bone. They should have known, though. There were skeletons in this park strewn here and there, indicating that there were people who either tried to step in to see what was happening or there were people in here that got caught in the initial release of the rift. Regardless, this was an issue that was becoming worse and worse with each passing moment, and would have to be addressed more by anyone in some kind of power higher than just a member sooner or later.

Sat Oct 10, 2015 12:52 pm

Artist: Hanstone - Song: Prince of Partholon (Ch. 3 remix) - Word Count: 464

Rising from the ground in a thick muck of darkness, stood the Vanguard's Lord of Whispers. Despite the other chains of the Vanguard putting off this... thing... James could stand none of it. A black hole appears in downtown Karakura and the vanguard dismisses it? There was absolutely no way such a thing was possible. James zoomed his contacts in as far as they would go. Whatever it was, they were completely in the dark about it. From the distance, several skeletons and otherwise half eroded corpses lay strewn in plain sight, telling James that he would need some type of barrier to even approach it. Of course, with all of his clothing being enhanced by his own mana, it was unlikely that he would be stripped by this thing, unless it eroded mana as well. James would need to approach, but for the moment, he couldn't ignore the fact that this was probably a job for the Arcanists. But, wherever anomalies and relevant intelligence went, the Dimir were sure to be found.

There was no life energy in the immediate area, at least at the moment, so it was unlikely that the anomaly was placed by someone. Although James had seen a similar scene in his lifetime, with the Black World. If this anomaly were related to those, then perhaps the Vanguard hadn't taken as much care of the situation as they should have. Nothing in the reports showed anything out of the ordinary prior, in fact, nothing appeared to be going wrong until the rift appeared... It cut off the Yuudeshi network's nanites, which suggests some form of electromagnetic interference, but that was mere speculation. They could have easily been eradicated just as civilians were. As it stood, the Vanguard was losing hands to this thing. Hmph. James took it upon himself to personally get to the bottom of this thing. The first step, being to figure out it's weaknesses, then formulate a method of closing it. James was allowed a unique freedom when it came to his mana, and he doubted it would stand very well against it. Charging up a blast of pure, unfettered dark energy, James slowly walked towards the rift. He would attempt to fire it directly into the center of this Anomaly, testing it's resilience to his Master level magic ability. Of course, it was unlikely that even this rift into nothingness could hold up very well against it, and by all logical means, the energy orb should not decay in the slightest, given it's attunement with the element of darkness, and of course, it's master level energy.

If this was the case, James would be safe to pass through, but if not, he would need to formulate a barrier spell to ensure that it does not spread.

Sat Oct 10, 2015 1:24 pm

Word Count: 668 -- S_E

"Eh? Off limits? Muu.... Fine, I guess I'll just test this on the outskirts... or how about, I use it to get to the outskirts!!"

Lately, Yuel's inventions were focused on travel. After the encounter with a gillian on the way to her home village, conventionalised travel became a matter of self-interest. While she already created a teleportation device, with the low quality resources at hand to actually make anything of value, at most she could create something that enabled instant travel for inanimate objects. To tell the truth, whether or not it could transport organic and spiritual material was questionable, but the nature of the device might utterly rip her soul and body apart. That being said, the solace of transmigration wasn't a viable fallback, and the risk was a bit more than she could take.

So, for the time being Yuel invented something more pausible with the limited resources at hand: light-speed travel. And as per the usual, quantum engineering was the method of construct, and likely the most effective. Of course, having her actual physical body go up to or past light-speed under normal circumstances would be impossible, and for the most part only spiritual or mystical energies would enable those high levels of speed. Thus, the only alternative Yuel could think of to travel lightspeed, was how anything else would theoretically travel at that velocity without being light: Spacial Compression.

The item Yuel brought to the Town Square was a conventional area for medium bursts of speed. Fuma Park was her primary choice, but the density of trees and obstacles would prove difficult. Of course, there were open spaces scattered about all over as well, but that was quite a long distance away, and even the outskirts were closer to her residence. Of course, the outskirts was also a viable location, but potentially dangerous as there had been instances of hollows and demons getting too close for comfort, with Yuel personally experiencing how "close", close was.

There were other town squares, but most of them were more populated. Downtown Karakura held a decent size, with some but not too many people--at least, few enough that travel through compressed space wouldn't be inhibited, and they wouldn't be injured from a sudden manipulation of a localised change in space fabric. For the most part, it was a fairly optimum location for a test run. Emphasis on "was".

Now that it was closed off--and Yuel wasn't too interested in blatantly breaking any laws--the only viable alternative that could actually work, setting aside less favourable surroundings, was the outskirts. But Yuel had already came quite a distance on foot to get here, and physical exertion wasn't exactly her field of expertise. So, why not just use the light-speed device to travel to the outskirts instead? That was its purpose anyways, right?

Activating the big red button on the surface that screamed "danger", Yuel experienced a wave a nausea, just barely suppressing the need to regurgitate no small amount. In fact, the impact was so sudden, she took a step back as an instant reaction, and as soon as she was reaching her limits, she returned to normal space.

"UUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHH."

Without delay, Yuel keeled over on her hands and knees and released all tension in her abdomen. The result was.... fairly self-explanatory.

"Haa... .haa.... haa.... eh? This is...?"

With a bit of time taken to recover, Yuel raised her head expecting to see the bittersweet surroundings of Karakura's outskirts. Instead, the equally exciting and unnecessary Downtown Karakura Town Square appeared around.

"Was it the back-step? Does that mean compression happens all around me, instead of forward?"

Taking mental notes of her findings, the young girl lifted herself off the ground and took a spin, absorbing all the visual information possible. One bit of news wasn't so pleasing. Before her, 20 metres give or take, a fairly large hole floating in mid-air, pitch black--as if no light emitted from it, and no light bounced off. If anything, all it gave off was the unsettling feeling of a chill running down Yuel's spine.

Sun Oct 11, 2015 12:26 pm

[adm]Reserving post. I should be posting sometime in the next 24-72 hours. If I do not, skip me.[/adm]

Sun Oct 11, 2015 1:54 pm

[adm]Just as a side note, I'll request that the Vanguard is no longer used in ways like this unless its ran by me first. They would not ignore the rift that popped up, so if possible I'd like it edited out. If not, I will simply request for it to not happen again. Thanks. Thread will continue as planned.[/adm]

Mon Oct 12, 2015 4:32 am

Artist: ReSoundWave - Song: Darkness hole - Word Count: 1218

Unwound, unbound and quite so nasty. That was the feeling The Devil of Boundaries perceived as the natural balance of abnormalities came to a shift within the depths of Fuma Park. Indeed, what was suppose to be a simple stroll into the park appeared as if this day seemed set on turning into an incident. Up until this point, Yukuri Iramasha, member of the Royal Devil Iramasha Council, had been lazing off and enjoying quite a bit of leisure time.

On a park bench none too far from the gaping black void, a woman with locks of pure gold sat and was trying her most to unwind under the glum grey skies of Karakura Central. Being in her position of power meant that she was often usually active, working and oh-so busy. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and seemly, decade after decade. It all seemed to turn into a blur of explosive circumstances, infinite paperwork, endless meetings, continuous fights and unending madness.

Even if she was a creature of supernatural origin, it grew tiring to deal with such otherworldly events in such a high volume. Each passing second of every moment seemed to be filling her head more and more with boundless headaches, tiring aches and nauseous disgust with how far of a hole she had worked herself into. Yet, it would be nothing compared to the years to come.

Things were growing dimmer with each passing era and it would only be a matter of time before the age of death consumes all. That is one fear which played at the strings of the devil's mind at night and kept her up. For no matter how strong a being is in this dimension, that is the one true absolute she had feared since her days as a demon within the depths of Demon World.

So as her weary eyes of lavender gazed at the sight of the empty vortex within the park, this tiny tear in the vast cosmos of boundaries served as a trivial reminder that this end was coming. One day, it's absolute force will devour all and they'd be brought to the primordial end of the universe.

But perhaps that was a worry for another day, no?

It was best to avert one's eyes from such a fate and take time day by day and relish what a spirit could before that demise. Hence, on that pensive note, The Devil of Boundaries saw fit to begin diverting her attention to the sights wondering souls coming to assist with the stabilization of this oh-so unstable scene. The first to come was a man adorned entirely white. White pants, white coat, white shirt, white shoes; everything was a bright as the sun on this male. At least, save for his plum eyes and the hints of gold on his outfit. Certainly he was dressed to impressed.

...but his method of coping with the abnormality before him-- wasn't as impressive.

It seemed quite childish, if not, downright absurd to believe that ridding a tear in the universe would work by blasting straight into it. With a grim chuckle emitted from her cherry lips, The Devil of Boundaries could only shake her head at the male's humble attempt to save the day. It is for this reason she stood up from her spot and moved like a gust of wind: here one minute, gone the next.

And akin to sudden rush of cold air, she'd emerge with a frigid aura behind James; but not one filled with malicious or hostile intent. Nay. She believed the male needed better direction. So, she'd whisper ever-so softly into his ear:

"Surely you don't expect to resolve this incident by making it stronger, do you? That's quite frivolous and a waste of energy to boot, human."

With her hands being held over Jame's eyes, The Devil of Boundaries seemed dully amused as her dry, yet whimsical voice gave another chuckle. It was if she was a mixture of sheer fatigue, and pure mischievousness. And, given the embodiment of her powers, perhaps she had every right to be as care free and flippant about events.

None the less, her sense of metaphysical awareness came into play once more as vibrations of energy started to flicker in the area. Given her perception and understanding of teleporation abilities, it seemed another spirit was venturing forth to the incident. So, in an eruption of blinding light, another human stepped forth out of the sunny illumination and Yukuri could only laugh slightly.

It seemed many of these lost souls were simply marching to their death. There was no power which seemed to radiate from this new feminine figure and it seemed only befitting she'd take control of this situation before it turned into something -- bad. Therefore, while her hands were still covering Jame's eyes, The Devil of Boundaries would emit a plum burst of energy from her body. In this release, it would extend away from her and spread into the skies above for roughly a mile. Under her mental command, an orchid barrier formed itself and was meant to tighten the boundaries of this dimension to disallow teleporation in -- and teleportion out -- without proper approvals.

In this way, she, and her lovely ape-skinned comrades, could deal with the incident under a contained dome. With this method, at least the general public wouldn't be too much at risk. As everyone seemed to get the picture and evacuated already. So, having not much else to fear, The Devil Of Boundaries smiled and shifted her lilac gaze towards Yuel. With a blink of the eye, butterflies of violet, maroon, coral and plum energy would scatter around the powerless human and seek to form a protective shield around her. By performing this act, the clueless woman would at least be under her guarded aura and kept in tact if things should turn dangerous.

So, there was nothing left to do but let out another laugh and address the situation:

"Human's are quite the bold creatures, are you not? Always riding into danger without the second most thought of failure or fear. Oh well. I won't waste time in advising you to flee or anything like that."

As a chilling wind blew past them all, the Chinese-styled tabard which adorned The Iramasha's lusty body began to blow ever so calmly against the breeze. Perhaps this was meant to symbolize the calm of the storm, nay?

"I've only come to tell you humorous souls that I am but an ally from the Iramashsa. Fear me not, as the true enemy lays ahead."

Shifting her head back to the void before them, a sly smile eased on to the lips of the Devil Iramasha as she awaited for whatever creature that caused to incident to show its cowardly face.

"Oh, and please be a dear and reveal yourself. You know it's quite rude to keep guest waiting, you know?"

And with that, The Mistress Of The Border would await to see what may occur next. Hopefully it was going to be worth her precious time.

Mon Oct 12, 2015 11:17 am

(reserving post, will get one up in just a bit)

Mon Oct 12, 2015 11:57 am

It was as the devil of boundaries would speak her words that she would suddenly feel something strange happening to the boundary separating the living realm from the infinite void. It would feel as if the boundary was being twisted and bunched, and then, mere centimeters within the barrier she had made, a loud 'Riiiiiiiiip' echoed through the area as the boundary was torn. It looked like the air had been pushed to the side, forming a rift in to the endless blackness of the void, sitting there before them.

Moments after its completion a hand gripped upon its edge from the other side, a being walking forth from the void to the realm of the living, a sigh escaping the lips of the young woman as she looked around. Her purple orbs took in the Iramasha and the human near her before her eyes turned to the very reason she had been called here: the rift which was the cause of this mess. Raven locks of hair fluttering in the breeze, the agent of chaos growled softly. With a wave of her hand, the rift that she had opened to travel to where she was right now closed with a loud 'SNAP'. Turning on her heels, Videl Yuudeshi stalked towards the remaining rift as her body started shifting and changing. Her scelera turned pitch black as the white tee shirt she had been wearing shifted to a pitch black color as well. Stopping just inches from the opening, she peered in to its depths, not at all affected by what it released. She knew she was straining her body, but this form was her best bet in dealing with this thing.

How did she even know about this rift? Simple, through the Yuudeshi clan. Did whoever think that the Yuudeshi would just ignore such an event in Karakura? While it had taken a while to get in contact with her due to her being within the void at the time, this rift seemed similar to the one she had created enough to warrant she be called in on this. After confirming it wasn't her actions, Videl Yuudeshi immediately went off to determine just what was going on, and so here she was.

Raising her voice so it would be heard by all those within the area, she spoke as her aura raged around her, she only hoped this had nothing to do with Chaos.

"Well, since it seems it's not just me that means I can't just do whatever I want about this damn rift. So, here's the question, you want me to try to close this damn thing from this side or the other side?"

Waiting for their response, Videl peered deeply in to the rift, wondering if this was the result of someone's experimentation with the void or if it was a whole new power, one which, by the looks of it, was weaker than the void she drew upon. It did not matter either way, for she knew it could not harm her in the state she was in, for this was definitely not the energy of creation. Shuddering at the thought, she shook her head before returning to listening to what the others may say.

Mon Oct 12, 2015 2:39 pm

EDIT: No more people pls and shank you, this is a good amount.

The rift, nor anything inside it, seemed to react to all of these people showing up. It simply sat there in its entirety, doing nothing. The energy that was fired into it didn't hit anything either. All it did was fade off into the never ending sea of colorless space until it vanished from sight. There was no response either, even as more and more people showed up. A few minutes went by and the group around it was surrounded in a plum colored shield by a certain Iramasha woman. It seemed there would be no way to get in or out now. Except for through the rift, that was. But that's also where the flesh eating energy was coming from, so it wasn't the most practical, nor the smartest idea. If anything, it would more than likely kill whoever went through unless their power was sufficient enough. Closing it would be the best idea, but that would hinder research. One of people here offered to do just that, but it seemed she would be put on hold.

Just after she turned and offered to close it from either the inside or out, Videl would immediately be subjected to an intense otherwordly pressure emanating from the portal. It wasn't spiritual, nor was it anything the girl would recognize. However, it wasn't particularly powerful enough to make anyone (except for Yuel) to fall to their knees from how strong it was. In fact, it was particularly weak. The only thing "intense" about it was the feeling of dread that it released. This dread kept building and building, and no matter where Videl moved, it would follow her and her only. Almost as if this rift was reacting to her offer to close it by stuffing her brain full of these obnoxious emotions. Mere moments later, the sound of water splashing could be heard far in the distance. Something akin to a person splashing in puddles. It slowly got louder and louder as the sound grew from a splash, to a small stream trickling, to the sound of a river flowing gently. From there it started getting more violent. The sounds of the river turned from gentle flowing to powerful rapids rushing, until it sounded like massive tidal waves were crashing against a sandy shore. The sounds didn't change anymore but only grew in volume, indicating that something was growing closer.

And then it struck.

Literally endless amounts of pitch black liquid started flowing forth from this rift in space, even stretching out the black hole a little as it all came pouring out. Neverending amounts of pitch black darkness spewed out onto the streets, coating them in the same corruption that was covering the park. And since they were in a dome of energy which only helped to keep the liquid in with them, it had nowhere to go but around our lovely guests' immediate vicinity. Any bare flesh or clothing it touched? Gone. Decayed.

"Now what will you do~?"

Mon Oct 12, 2015 5:49 pm

Artist: Hanstone - Song: Eternal (Mabinogi Login Theme, Hero ver.) - Word Count: 850-or-so

James closed his eyes as Yuel warped into the same general area as him. Of course, the last person he wanted here had to show up. Still, this would be a good chance at seeing her knowledge of Alchemy in person, and though she would most definitely be in danger of premature death, James supposed that in order to preserve his effort thus far, he would provide her with an assist.

Partitioning away some energy for the master level spell he was about to cast, James turned back to face the rift, which had made no noticeable differences in the size or strength of his blast. His mana could stand up to it. Without warning a pair of hands appeared over his eyes, which were still shut. Because of this, his engrams kicked into computational compensation mode, and her aura could be seen in his mind's eye as a bright shade of lilac. She was also being perceived as an Iramasha. If this was the case, her intent was clearly non-lethal, despite her almost immeasurable power level. How James had been initially unable to detect her was beyond him. Perhaps a malfunction in his receptors. It would not occur again. Despite this, in the instant that she appeared behind him, almost as by reflex, James' Bloodborne Devils decompressed from the gem in his bracelet and materialized in his hands, both blades pointed directly at the ribs of the woman whose hands were breaching his personal space.

"Surely you don't expect to resolve this incident by making it stronger, do you? That's quite frivolous and a waste of energy to boot, human." the woman whispered into his ear. Despite the fact that she was already within his personal space, James recognized that she had the advantage. She could quite easily snap his neck before he could react to bury his blades for revenge.

Replacing the blades in their container, James remained still. Instead releasing the spell he had charged thus far. He had no need to invoke it, as he assumed it to be unnecessary. "Try not to be too alarmed," He started, a slight of condescension in his voice as he opened his eyes behind her fingers. "I'm only here to help." He finished, raising his hands above his head.

After the Iramasha completed her barrier, and was finished placing one over Yuel, James happily pooled his reserves. No use wasting energy on equipping her further. She would only be a waste. She could handle herself, despite his initial thoughts of her.

Splashing could be heard coming from within the abyss, and as the sound grew into a trickling, James deduced that soon, the same ooze that had been killing the lower level humans would soon come from the anomaly. Soul dashing away from Yukari without so much as a warning (He expected her to realize the same thing he did), he quickly would go to grab Yuel. Considering she probably couldn't see anything beyond James flashing out of position in one place, and shortly reappearing near her, she would have a fraction of a second to oppose him before he swooped her up.

Then, jumping into the air, his gravity and propulsion boots forced himself- and potentially Yuel- into the air. Seconds later, the fluid itself would come spewing out of the rift. James looked down at the goo in disgust. It had no form of grace... no elegance about it. Just endless goop as far as the eye could see."Yuel, I certainly hope you have an explanation for just dropping yourself into the middle of an Anomaly site." James chided, looking down at the girl who was registered on his contacts as a Yuudeshi. "The Yuudeshi drive, is it?" James said, chuckling to himself. One of these days it's going to get them all killed.

"Hey you, Yuudeshi!" he called out, assuming that her powers related to the void were far superior to whichever filth opened this rift. "It would probably be smarter to close it from this side! I'm sure you wouldn't like to spend the rest of your increasingly short life trapped within another dimension, would you?" James warned, noting that in this situation, his powers were utterly useless.

In most cases, magic such as this required a caster to be within the immediate area, but as the Iramasha's Barrier stood, it was unlikely the caster was anywhere without it's range, as it was sure to block magical spells off. However, assuming the caster was an immense distance away, it was unlikely that this was a spell, but rather, some type of unique ability. James would definitely need to research it, and for this reason, he asked the Yuudeshi woman to close it. If she were able to, then he would need more information on it. If she weren't however, out of his debt to Shadin Yuudeshi for saving his life from Sou Yuuki, he found himself honor-bound to assist her in any way he could. Even if it meant sacrificing all of his energy to stem the tides of darkness that would undoubtedly be flowing directly at her.

The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)

Re: The Abyss (NOW CLOSED)