Chapter 6 - The River Styx

[Jack]

(Onizuka)
A winding black river, thick with the dead, slow as mortar and dark as dreams, passed below Onizuka's feet. One tower now stood in the river, the diligent guard Scathai atop, ever ready to play his horn. Onizuka looked up at the black cloaked wraith from where he sat on what remained of a bridge.

"Quiet times, Scathai.."

The river Styx, where Onizuka had sought to build his empire in Hell, was in ruins. The second tower had been obliterated, his half-completed fortress empty and desolate. The dark sand at the banks of the Styx had been melted into glass by the intensity of his battle with Kurai, shards catching on the feet of the malicious dead as they tore at each other.

The ferry of the Dead had been lost, and the dead workers he had raised through fear and pain incinerated, as new dead pushed their way down the Styx as it eternally flowed.

Onizuka had regained his Hell from Kurai - but at no small cost. New scars lined his back from being thrown into the catacombs of rock, and his leg had just healed from being impaled on Kurai's blade - the flesh was still pink and raw. Moreover he had lost his God Warrior summon scroll, which was not easy to come by.

Still, his two creatures Scathai and Blood Carver were at his command, though he had sent the Blood Carver on her way to the Fourth Level of Hell to look for a certain something. Scathai stood unmoving at the top of his spire set in the river, watching the banks of the river under his dark hood.

"A bit too quiet. Some Hell this is," Onizuka muttered as he picked his way among the broken stone of the bridge to the edge of the river.

[Jack]

(Cynric)
A bubbly sigh, under the depths. Not like I need oxygen, he noted. Comfortable here.

Sound. Moaning and, above all, annoying. Not so comfortable. The man known as Cynric winced as the cries of sinfully depressed people flooded his auditory nerves. Lamentations that only made sense to them...

Must... get the hell out. So were his thoughts. Luckily, he was quite the persistent moron. Clutching at the edge, or whatever seemed like an edge to him, the walking contradiction pooled his current energy into one solid yank. He was free, more easily that he'd expected. Doleful people rarely try to get out, he supposed. That's why they're here. Wait, where is here?

Paranormal talons of an ethereal green glow spiraled about Cynric, playing the role of rinse cycle. Whatever this sludge was didn't matter. It was icky. He glanced around, and realized that the pool of muck he thought he'd inhabited was far more than a pool. It was a sea with no end. Disturbing.

"Wh--" He didn't vocalize much before he was traumatized for life. A mob of angry naked people tore in front of his field of vision, beating each other. He paused with horror a few moments before shuddering a shudder that rocked his innards.

They noticed him. A few did, anyway. Sadistic hisses with little coherent meaning were the kickoff for these wrathful individuals to lunge at him. A few more than half a dozen. Cynric stepped to the side a little. They dove at nothing and landed in the black sea. Spastically, they swam back, quite distressed by the cries of the needlessly mournful. Cynric shrugged and began walking.

"Okay, man, let's talk this out with ourselves. You were sitting on your bed, playing video games. You finally got a subjob in Final Fantasy XI. And then you started drifting off... wait, did I? I don't remember falling asleep. I thought I was very alert. Yea, it was only five o' clock. So I played games, and then I was here. In black mud. With sad people. And angry naked people. There has to be some reasonable transition here..."

More angry naked people interrupted his thought processes. He saw in their eyes something he'd not seen in a while. Malevolence of a kind he was familiar with. It brought back bad memories. "If you are innocent, forgive me." Cynric spoke the words as he drew his bokken. They were disorganized and maniacal. He had little trouble batting them away and running. There was no need to get involved in whatever was going on around here before he understood things.

Then, a beacon of possible civilization came over the horizon. A large, somewhat empty looking building stood... more of a fortress really. Maybe there were clues there as to where he was or how he'd gotten here... heck, maybe there was someone who wasn't playing Mortal Kombat in the nude, even. If he could find a competent person, he might get... directions or something. He continued running, making sure his power was brimming near the surface at a controlled level. You know, just in case.

[Jack]

(Onizuka)
The naked cannibals were still heeling Cynric as he sprinted towards the distant building. He was sure he'd outrun them when a second group of malicious dead skirted around the fortress and cut him off. The tallest one, bleeding from dozens of wounds, with large patches of flesh completely missing, stopped in front of Cynric, who was bringing his energy to bear.

The zombie bowed to Cynric and gestured towards the entryway. "tHiss wayy pleasse.." His lips were flayed back from his teeth, which were gnarled and black.

Cynric froze. "Um..what?"

The corpse gestured politely again. "thhe lorrd of thhiss Hhell wisshess to meet you.." The tall man's milky cataracts looked calmly at Cynric.

"Right. Of course. Um..where am I?" Cynric looked around the Hell, from the fortress to the black river. Rows of dead men marched Cynric along in a neat fashion, escorting him to the entrance of the fallen fortress.

What appeared to be a living man stood just inside the entrance. He wore worn pants and a black cape. His chest was crisscrossed with dozens of scars and burn marks, as was his face, which was framed by dark hair that fell down to his eyes. Behind him a collapsed pile of stone blocks may have once been a stairway.

"Hello." The man regarded Cynric quizically. "My name is Onizuka, welcome to Hell."

Cynric seemed a little perturbed by the last. "Uh..Hi. I'm Cynric. Is this really Hell?"

"Of course," Onizuka replied, "Well, this is a level of Hell. Mine, to be more specific. It appears there is some sort of problem, however."

Onizuka stepped up to Cynric and poked him. Cynric flinched, bringing his energy back to bear, not sure what to expect.

Onizuka frowned. "Yep. You're still alive."

"You could tell that from poking me?"

"Scientific, no?" Onizuka waved his hand dismissively at the rows of dead behind Cynric, and they fell upon each other, clawing and beating and bleeding.

Cynric jumped away from them, although they now seemed to ignore them. "You can make them do stuff?"

"Yeah. Nothing too complicated or interesting." Onizuka gestured inside. "I guess we should talk about what to do with you. You're welcome to stay, of course, but I'd have to kill you. So you fit in, you know."

[Jack]

(Cynric)
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up... stay? In Hell? I didn't even intend on coming here. I don't quite remember what happened, but I woke up here."

Oni nodded. "You probably arrived here through sleep or something. Maybe you were mistakenly brought in, such as if someone who reaps souls thought you died in your sleep or something and was off a little. Mistakes like this don't happen very often, but it would be a lot easier to just kill you here."

"But I don't belong in Hell!"

"None of them think so, either. Most of them, anyway." He motioned to the suffering masses. "Now, are you planning on going down fighting, or what?"

Cynric felt a tad desperate at this point. He knew he didn't belong here... well, he hoped that his life hadn't lead him here. 'I'm a pretty good guy... aren't I?' His face showed the desperation. "Look, man, I saved the earth once. I took a nutsload of torture already to do that. How the Hell does one end up here?"

"Saved the earth...?" Oni pondered for a moment. He hadn't heard anything of the kind. "Are you a religious person?"

"Not a zealot, but I'm no anti-christ."

"Any history of... mental illness?"

"ADHD is the worst I might have." Cynric remained as cooperative as possible.

Oni was silent for a moment. Something waded through the air as they stood there for a moment, the lord of this circle assessing the situation and this individual that stood before him. Whatever it was that touched the air was familiar, but distant. "You want out, then? No death or dying or whathaveyou?"

Cynric nodded spastically. "Yes!" He was moments from begging on his knees up until those hopeful words.

[Jack]

(EvelynXandii)
After given a false trial by the powers of heaven, Evelyn was damned to hell. She was not condemned for what she was, or for her sins. Evelyn was merely an infant at the time, and was clear of such things. She was instead tried for what she may become, for what she did become: a demon.

Evelyn was left to be in this hell for eternity, left as a half soul, and completed by the demon that consumes her. She was left to wander in this fifth circle. She bathes in the sorrow of The River Styx, and the unsung hymn rings in her mind. She was left alone by the other denizens, untortured and unnoticed; the least that heaven could do for her.

Then it happened. The moment she had been waiting for, planning for, formulating, and counting on had arrived. The mortal coils were loosened on the other half of her soul. A fateful suicide, a terrible tragedy, and a well-executed plan. Evelyn had trumped heaven, and will soon get her revenge. She felt the soul get closer, and then, finally entering hell.

Evelyn wasted no time contacting her counterpart. The other soul had not awoke from it's journey yet, though the body was already in purgatory, and Evelyn took advantage of this. She crept into the other Xandii's subconcious and whispered.

When you wake, you will find things are different. You are in hell. You have been judged, and you will remain her for all eternity...

Evelyn could not venture out from this circle of hell. She was far too weak by herself, being a demon with only half of the complaete goal soul. She had to lure the other down to her level...

There is no escape, but, there may be a way out; a way to right the wrongs before you. You may even get your humanity back...You were wrongly judged, as I was, and we have much more than that in common. I will lead you to me, and together we can overturn our injustice.

Evelyn stood by the River Styx, leading the other half of her soul to her.

[Jack]

(Onizuka)
The Lord of the Styx sighs and looks across the river. "Well, killing you would be easier, but," Onizuka slaps Cynric on the back, "I guess you should go home and finish out your mortal life the normal way."

Cynric's eyes light up. "Really? I can go home? Thanks man, I don't know how I got here, or why, and- no offense- I hope I never come back." With that Cynric put his arms at his sides and squinted his eyes shut.

After several moments of awkward silence, Onizuka poked him again. "You gonna stand there all day, we got a long walk ahead of us."

The boy blinked in disbelief. "You can't- just- teleport me out of here or something?!"

"What do you think this is," Onizuka laughed, "A video game?"

Cynric groaned and hung his head. "There were teleporters in Doom 2," he grumbled. Onizuka raised an eyebrow. "You could always stay here.."

"Walking..eternal damnation and suffering. Walking..eternal damnation and suffering.." Cynric weighed his options. "I'll take the walking."

And so the two started picking their way across the shattered bridge to the fourth level of Hell. Packs of malicious cannibal dead followed them, snapping and snarling but keeping their distance. When the reached the bank of the Styx opposite Onizuka's crumbled fortress, the Lord of Hell turned and saluted Scathai, who perched in his cloak atop a tower set in the Styx.

The former ferryman of the Styx bowed his hooded head low and raised the curved horn into the shadow of the ancient black cloth. The bassy sound of the horn being blown silenced the crowd of naked dead that followed them, causing them fall to their knees and cower. Cynric stepped back as a deep reverberation was felt below them, and with sudden screams the gloomy dead churned to the surface as the water began to rise and boil.

Bursts of steam and hissing sprays of black water bellowed from the Styx as it roiled and superheated, consuming and sweeping away the stone bridge and scalding the shores of the Styx back into glass. The sky above spun and darkened with cloud, swirling with an intensity that mirrored the river. Scathai, atop his tower in the middle of the Styx, was completely unaffected, still blowing the curved and bloody horn.

"Wha- What the hell was all that about?" Cynric demanded. Onizuka turned his back on his Hell and began to walk away. "The levels of Hell below the fifth are places of considerably dangerous people. The Styx is the greatest barrier in Hell, completely unpassable as long as Scathai continues sound his horn."

As he spoke unholy cyclones rose from the raging river and met the angry sky, spouting blue fire and shards of melting glass. Cynric's view of the other side was completely obscured by the maelstrom of pressure, fire, and burning tar. "Geez.."

The two walked on, leaving the Styx behind them and entering what had once been a forest, ashen tree trunks rose from the ground, stripped of leaves and branches, and cinders and charred flesh could be felt underfoot. The space between the Fourth and Fifth levels of Hell was a bleak ashy wasteland, the pillars of long dead trees stretching as far as could be seen in the distance.

The crunching of their footsteps on the dry ground was interrupted by a nearby howl. Cynric turned and drew his bokken, and Onizuka stepped into the shadow of a tree. "Those wolves- they wouldn't attack us, would they? You're one of the boss dudes of Hell, right?"

Onizuka grimaced. "If they're being sent by who I think they are, they've come to kill me. I'm not at my full power outside of my own Hell, so begin the assassination attempts."

At that cheerful note a shaggy black wolf broke out of the treeline ahead and raced forward, followed by three more. It's eyes beamed red, and it's black fur was matted with blood.

Onizuka drew his own sword and unsnapped his cape, leaving it in the ash behind as he ran forward to meet the Hellhounds..

[Jack]

(EvelynXandii)
Evelyn sat at the bank of the river, when she was struck. A large man bearing a cross struck Xandii, which in turn struck Evelyn. It wasn't the energy of the blow that hit though, it was the power of his faith, his purity. Evelyn shook off the headache and rose to her feet. She could tell that Xandii was in trouble, but from here there was little that she could do to help. Evelyn forced herself to to cross the river, now with a new goal : Meet Xandii half way.

Evelyn walked toward the gate of this hell, still unnoticed by the rest. However, this luck was not long-lived. The gate would not open. She looked for someone to challenge her, but no one approached. It was locked not by physical means, but by someone's will. She traced the thread of this will, and it strangely went through the gate and to the other side. Despite her commands, still no one appeared. Then, an idea came upon her. She grabbed the thread and started to pull the will though the gate. The being whom the will belonged to shortly noticed this and opened the gate. Evelyn passed into the gate and was dropped in the fourth circle of hell. She regained her footing before Plutus.

(continued in fourth circle)

[Jack]

(Cynric)
"Bad Spike! Bad, bad Sp..." The rabid, dead-eyed creature snagged onto Cynric's left arm. "BAD DOG!" He beat it across the skull with his bokken. "Do NOT mess up this suit! It's friggin' expensive!"

Onizuka fended off a few other hounds while at the same time fending off confusion at how lightly Cynric was taking this battle. "I think we're about in the next circle, in case you wanted to know."

Cyn perked up as he jammed his heel into his current victim's neck, severing the spinal cord. "That was a lot faster than I expected. I was expecting, like, weeks of travellieeheyheyheyHEY! Not the pants leg, pal!" Yet another canine nuisance. And Cynric's brain went over the situation. They hadn't killed all that many of these beasties, assuming they were honestly killable. The two had just held them at bay and kept moving. He wasn't sure about this Oni-whatsit fellow, but he'd been doing this to conserve energy for what he believed would be a long trip. Since they were so close... that didn't really matter anymore.

"Okay, Fido, you wanna play fetch?" Cynric's body suddenly jutted up. He was big. Professional wrestler big. He was also a pale purple color, and his hair was rather spiky. Who knew what this could mean?

Onizuka soon found out. Grabbing the mongrel currently latched to his left ankle by the scruff of the neck, Cyn lifted the beast, got a good arm lock over its neck, and used his free hand to tear off one of its back legs. He threw the leg off carelessly, then chucked the dog in the same direction. "Fetch!" The mock cheerfulness did little to add humor to the rather gruesome move. "Oh, come on, lil' Tripod, you can do it!" It was a rather amazing event to actually see hesitance and shock in the blank eyes of the predators. "I thought you wanted to PLAY."

The scene now cuts to one of those humorous events where the camera pans to Onizuka. Off screen, we hear the sounds of the hell hounds crying out in pain, brutal and gut-wrenching blows being delivered, and Cynric continuing his sarcastically playful rant with the puppies. Meanwhile, Oni winces occasionally at what he's seeing.

Moments later, camera pans back. The only dog still standing is the one with three legs. It then begins playing dead. There isn't another mutt either moving or in less than three pieces. You can commence the visualizing and crying if you're a dog lover at this point.

Cynric reformed to his normal state, and with a huff of relief and satisfaction, he glanced over to his current partner in travel. "Well, we can head in undisturbed now. Anything I should know about the next destination before we waltz on in?"

Mentally, Cynric winces at himself. He seemed to enjoy that slaughter a bit much. Probably just stress.

[Jack]

(EvelynXandii)
Evelyn rose to her feet and stood before the wolf-beast. It was majestic, yet hideous; a perfect symbol of the circle of hell it inhabited. The demon was obviously nothing to triffle with, and Evelyn had no desire to measure its power. She backed away, as though it might let her escape. He wouldn't though. His piercing leer caused Evelyn to stop. The Beast did not move toward her though. Plutus just stared at the spirit, letting her continue backward, even though his vexed and irked gaze seemed to mean otherwise. She continued back, then she dared to turn.

Still leaving her alone, Plutus diverted his attention back to the hoards of people. Evelyn waded through the ocean of tormented souls. Each and every one shifting cumbersome weights about for some ever-changing purpose. Some were stacking gold blocks, some were moving drums of petrolium, some were dragging safes, but everyone had something laborous to keep them busy. Evelyn also noticed something else: everyone here had strong wills. They must to keep manuvering their loads. Then she also noticed that she still had the thread that belonged to Plutus. Evelyn decided to try something...She rolled the thread into a ball, then closed her hands over it. The will dissappeared!

Evelyn decided to try it again, this time with the strong wills of the sufferers. She pulled several threads and balled them all up together. Then the white ball of light faded and dissappeared, exactly like the last time.

It made perfect sense, that Evelyn and Xandii were connected on the spiritual level, even though they were so far apart. The will was going to Xandii, just as the blow of faith transfered in the reverse direction back to Evelyn. Evelyn knew that she must be able to use this somehow, so she continued pulling threads and wisking them away. It was all she could do, and she hoped that it would help Xandii reach her. She continued, and then noticed that she could start to form vague images of what Xandii saw. The savage man, a minotaur, a gate, another girl...all the images flashed quickly. It told Evelyn what she wanted to know, and what she hoped wasn't happening: Xandii was comming toward her, and she was also in big trouble. She also noticed something else. There were two figures in the distance. Plutus also noticed, and he sent a few wolves after them.

[Jack]

(Onizuka)
Speckles of blood adorned the grey ash that covered the ground, here and there a larger pile of wet entrails had been flung, angry blotches of crimson among the barren trees. Onizuka frowned at Cynric, sheathing his sword and shaking pale cinders from his cape before clasping it about his shoulders again. Something was terribly wrong. For a moment there, the boy had taken on the appearance of a Gourein. The Gourein hadn't graced Hell with their prescence in several hundred years. Stretching back his memory, the last one he could recall had been in the Seventh Level of Hell, whose name was...

He couldn't remember. Eternity was unforgiving, and his memories found chance to betray him yet again.

"Hey. You listenin'?" Cynric said, his hair dark and stature normal once again. The boy sheathed his bokken and was attempting to wipe the blood on his hands off on one of the tree trunks. "Asked if there's anything coming up that I should know about. I'm all for the random battles, but geez, man, give me a break."

"I'm not sure. I don't know how long it's been since I was last here. Days, years, it all seems the same to me. Time doesn't pass so normally down here."

Cynric looked none to reassured. "How many more levels 'till I'm back?"

"We've just barely left the Styx."

The boy groaned and beat his fist against the bare tree, which trembled violently. "I can't believe it," he muttered. "It'll be forever 'till I see my next game console.."

"We'd better keep moving."

The two continued on through the bleak forest, kicking up flakes of ash and dry powder. The collumns of dead tree trunks thinned and eventually faded behind them, the terrain growing darker and more solid, almost rocky. Onizuka turned and regarded Cynric. "Are you part Gourein?"

Cynric blinked awkwardly. "Yeah, sort of."

"Your mother's or your father's side?"

"Uh..neither, I guess. I'm more like a descendant of the Goureins."

"Descendant? What, did they die out or something?"

"I think so."

They trudged for a few minutes in silence, Onizuka trying to recall the features of the Gourein he had met. "Well, that sucks. Sure gave you an edge against those Hell hounds, though."

"Hell hounds..?" Cynric's eyes took on a distant look. "Right..The Hell hounds. I killed them, didn't I?" He struggled to recall specific visuals of the fight, but all he could remember was that he had killed the things.

They finally cleared the last bit of upwardly sloping land, where the ground leveled off in the wide basin of the Fourth Level of Hell. An incredibly majestic palace stood therein, towers and walkways and balconies strewn elegantly across the structure. There was a rift of some sort, however, what appeared to be an unfinished gap that bisected the palace raggedly. Dozens of suffering dead milled about the rift, picking up the palace on the left side block by block and reconstructing it in exact, some twenty feet to the right. Onizuka knew that once they had finished moving the entire palace one piece at a time, they would begin again, moving the whole thing back to the original location. It was one of Plutus' amusements.

Elsewhere the dead performed other unproductive tasks, rolling stones back and forth, digging holes and filling them back in, sowing seeds and tearing them from the ground again. In life these sad creatures had been driven by success to gain everything, to collect and miserly hoard every penny. In death they eternally worked, but accomplished nothing, a grave but exacting punishment that was overseen by the epitome of greed, the Lord Plutus himself. His palace was filled room after room with various valuable gems and rubies, ancient and powerful artifacts, several small mountains of gold coins, cups, crowns, amulets, rings, and an occasional sceptor.

Cynric whistled at the luxurious palace. "We stoppin' by there or just passin' through?" His voice had a hopeful tint to it.

Onizuka frowned and closed his eyes. "I sent my subbordinate here not too long ago to recover something for me."

Cynric stared at the palace thoughtfully. "Looks like it'll have a boss dude of some kind."

Slipping in the rift in the palace wasn't difficult, as the stiffly moving zombies ignored them, going about their tasks gravely. The interior of the palace was brightly lit and clean, tastefully decorated and, oddly, vacant. As soon as they were inside, Cynric turned a shade paler and began sweating.

"I have an, um, allergy to precious gems. We gonna be here long?" Cynric looked around uneasily and twitched slightly.

"Not to long. There's something important here I've been looking for, though." Onizuka began peering in the rooms of treasure, giving the small hills of valuables a cursory glance before continuing on to the next room. He was on his third room when Cynric yelped.

Onizuka turned back to find a fiery-haired woman dressed in chain mail and a metal bust was assaulting the boy with a staff. Cynric had grown paler, and the shaky way he was defending with his bokken didn't look good. The woman's face was twisted in fury, and had been branded on the cheek with a cross-shaped burn. She slammed her staff down heavily at Cynric, whose parry weakly collapsed and brought the boy to the floor. The fierce Evelyn twisted the staff in her hands, bringing it apart at the middle to reveal the halves were in fact hilts of short blades, incredibly sharp, which sheathed in one another. She was about to swing the pair of blades into the prone Cynric, but suddenly and surprisingly stopped.

Evelyn struggled against an invisible force which held her against her will, unable to bring the blades against Cynric. Surprised, the boy threw a glance back at Onizuka. Onizuka was breathing heavily, his brow furrowed in concentration as he held a hand towards Evelyn, as if motioning her to stop. "The Dead of the Styx...are mine to control.."

Cynric regained his feet and stepped away from the still immobile Evelyn, who glared at him with unbridled loathing. A madness had crept into her eyes, as if she didn't fully recognize the two standing before her as sentient beings. Cynric sheathed his bokken and backed away, twitching again. "I thought you could only control your dead in your own level."

Onizuka grunted, feeling the force of holding her in place was physically weighing him down. "Well..it's a hell of a lot easier in my own level.."

[Jack]

(Cynric)
"So, uh... what's up with you, lady? Did I offend you or something?" Cynric was sweating a little, not realizing how precariously close he had stepped back towards a rather large ruby. He still managed to keep his totally cool facade up, however.

"I would rather you get to the point quickly," Onizuka broke in. "I'm not exactly the god of paralysis or anything. This isn't going to last forever." He forced a short laugh. "And if I could control her like I wanted, she'd have impaled herself by now."

"Okay, quick then. Name, brief personal description and reasons for trying to kill me. Let's move it along, honey." The gamer moved in real close to the prone Evelyn. "I'll kill you if his hold starts to waver and you're still swinging, so you haven't got all day, got it?" The guttural roar behind his words was more felt than heard.

Evelyn's eyes were shocked, but not by his words. Rather, she was attempting to comprehend a lack of something she'd felt before. This Cynric person had... no will to speak of. No willpower at all. Surely she had noticed his weakness and trouble in battle, something many beings tend to have when their willpower was weak or drained, but to have none would surely mean that he, the enigma that stood before her, should be on the ground, completely lost to everything in the world. He should be pleading for hope that he didn't believe existed. Either that or crying uncontrollably at his own lack of sanity.

And then she shuddered as Oni released the hold. He wasn't out of power, but to waste so much energy on one person would be unwise. Evelyn's shudder was not from the sudden ability to move, however. She saw that Cynric had no soul.

"What... what are you?" Her voice was as shaky as an ethereal demon's voice could get.

"Answer my questions first, sweety. You're lucky you're still standing, seeing as I'm quite ready to jam my blunt sword here through one temple and out the other in that petite skull of yours."

The demoness considered her options. To her right was a man who seemed quite powerful, to the point of exerting will upon her without it being sucked away instantly. Before her was the most confident and least respectful teenager she could remember ever knowing, with a wooden sword at his hip, a steady hand on its hilt, and a glow in his eyes belying a power she wasn't sure she wanted to chance going up against. He could be weak, but he could be strong. To her supernatural senses, he didn't even exist, which could prove bad news.

However, to keep some manner of dignity, she scowled while answering. "I'm Evelyn, the demonic half of a broken soul. I didn't see your life any more important than any other life, so I was going to kill you because I could."

The demi-gourein's face looked genuinely hurt. "That is horribly sad! Tragic! Honestly!" He placed his right hand on her shoulder. "You couldn't have come up with a better reason for hating me than that?"

A moment of confusion, and then confusion coupled with some unexplainable rage. She'd half expected him to have some heroic aversion to her murderous nature, and he goes and insults her reasoning. Before either of them thought to react, her left knee was heading for his gut. Luckily, Cynric didn't have to think in order to react, and that knee met his right shin, brought up to block. Cyn's face, however, was a little miffed. Apparently, she had stolen some sturdy plate mail and was semi-possessing it, seeing as she didn't have much of a tangible form. He did not, however, wear shin guards as a practical part of his attire. There was probably a fracture accompanying that block of his. Lower, frontal leg fractures are no fun. It feels like your leg is attempting to bend the other way against your will. That would have attested to Cynric's cry of pain. He leapt back on his good leg to open up some space. "Come on, I was just joshing you!"

Apologize in the circle you belong in, she thought as her weapon came up. It took a lot from Oni to hold her again, lancing out his power and freezing her again, this time in an unbalanced dash. Her "frozen" form fell to the ground, trapped in mid-stride. Her unfrozen vocal chords let out a yelp as her shoulder found the floor. The momentum carried her enough to trip the retreating Cynric back, again towards the ruby. He somehow missed it and landed on a heap of gold boolean. His hand landed on a gem, but it didn't burn his skin. He didn't realize it yet. That comes later. Don't worry.

Oni released the hold yet again, still trying to conserve what energy he had left. "This is a rather pathetic series of events here. Attack, react, freeze. Rinse. Repeat."

Cynric stood up as best he could with his bad leg. "Indeed, it is," he managed to say between huffs. The weight of the colorful gems around him was beginning to take its toll even on his confident facade. "I'll try and beat some sense--or death, if required--into this one while you go find whatever you're looking for. It's gettin' hot in here for me."

Oni glanced at him with that 'are-you-sure-you'll-be-alright?' look. "Don't worry," Cynric responded. "I can always go crazy-go-nuts Gourein if it comes to that." Trusting his situational companion against his better judgement, he trudged off in search of whatever he was looking for. "Now, as for you, is all this necessary?"

Evelyn lifted herself, cursing more at her neglect of the threat Onizuka posed moments earlier than at any damage that might have been done. "This will be the end of the line for one of us. I'm already half way there, and I plan on at least making it a bit farther."

"Why don't we call a truce and really analyze things. I mean, whatever you've gone through to be only half a soul might be horrendous, but... well, we're in Hell. A lot of people around here know what horrendous means better than us. You're obviously not completely dead yet, if my senses are correct, so... whadya say we talk for a minute?"

~continued in following post

[Jack]

~continuation

Actually, he didn't get to say all of that. Around the word "obviously", he received an elbow to the jaw, not only knocking him on his ass, but causing him to bite his tongue. What is it with the little things like that hurting so much? "Cripes, woman, you're really starting to piss me off now!" His skin began to pale, moreso than it was due to his own personal kryptonite surrounding him. His muscle mass also began to increase. Twice in the same short set of hours I have to open up my gourein self, he thought. This could be bad if things keep going at this rate.

"What are you?" Evelyn held up her weapon to Cynric's neck before he had a chance to recover. It turned out that the staff was actually a halberd, with a ruby blade on the end. Cyn was really starting to get pissed off at rubies. No, it couldn't have been jade. It couldn't have been tiger's eye. It had to be ruby. Was there a sale on the damn things at a nearby jewelry store or what? "Why can't I feel a soul, much less a will, within you?"

Cynric's eyes widened. "Oh, is that what this is about? Okay, femme fatale, here's the deal. My soul is in an alternate dimension. This body is just here as a place-holder, kind of a puppeteer thing going on. Body and soul are connected by a fine line called 'mind'. You know 'mind, body, spirit' and all that BS."

Evelyn suddenly took it in and made sense of it all. "And if I kill you here?"

"Is that really necessary? I mean, you can't use me for anything. I could feel that will-drain thing you were going for, and it doesn't work on this end." He pushed the weapon away from it's point-blank position at his jugular vein, careful not to touch the razor-sharp red death at the end. "We could probably get a lot more done working together. I mean... what's the deal with you?"

She stood for a moment, not comprehending her acquiescence to him moving her weapon. She let it be moved. Was he that persuasive? Or did she see some truth to his words? Evelyn wasn't sure what to make of it. There was definitely a tug towards trust that she began feeling towards him. Either he was as sincere as they come, or he was a politician. Killing either wouldn't make any progress, really, and she had been hunting and killing for will to siphon off for a while now. He had none she could take. "What would possibly give me a reason to work with you?"

Again, Cynric responded without missing a beat, as if he had planned what he was going to say in advance. The words just rolled out. "Not sure, but I'm heading up, likely out of Hell. If we're headed in the same direction, things would be easier as a team."

Up. That meant towards where this shard of a woman had last felt her other half. While looking into the eyes of her current opponent, still quite on the losing end, her mind wandered. A fanciful thought came. Perhaps some answers would lie within Xandii's corpse. Perhaps she could find some way to at least make herself a whole, even without her other half. At the very least, she could get some closure to the fact that part of her was dead. There wasn't much motivation to do anything else, and her willpower hunt was fruitless, seeing as it was being sent to a corpse. It was something to follow, gave her a temporary purpose, and if there is any one thing that just about everyone would prefer having, it's a purpose.

"Let me ask you this. Would you be begging for a truce were you not inches from being slaughtered at my hand?" Evelyn's confidence rose from metaphoric ashes.

As did Cynric's, though his honestly had never died. "Would you believe me if I told you I haven't been threatened for a moment?" It was only now that the half-soul noticed the thin, condensed layer of nearly invisible bioelectric energy tracing every inch of his visible skin, and likely the skin covered by clothing. The time he'd had to build it up had been plentiful, his persuasive attitude buying him lots of it. The compressed field no doubt had enough force to repel the weapon in Evelyn's hand should she have at any time chosen to attempt to extricate his Adam's apple.

Also, his other hand held a ball of soft, sparking light, which was only now coming into view. He'd had it behind him the whole time. It was at least as potent as the field, but forged into a sphere. Looked dangerous enough. "See? I'm asking you to come along even when you've got the knife to your throat. Convinced yet? Honestly, it's your call." As she scoffed, pondering her thoughts, Oni's approaching footsteps were heard. Whether he'd found what he was here for or not was unimportant. However, Evelyn deciding what she would do right now was very important. Onizuka coming back to find his friend of sorts in what looked like an 'I'm-about-to-friggin'-die' position might not be well taken too.

[Jack]

(EvelynXandii)
"Alright. I suppose that a truce would be mutually benificial at this point, especially considering that I need the other half of my soul to progress and you are going that way anyway. You and your friend seem like you could be helpful, maybe even useful. For now, I'll consider you an ally, and I promise to not betray you without fair warning..."

"Um, sounds good to me but about the fair warning part...."

Don't worry, I was just 'joshing' you. I thought you had a better sense of humor than that. You aren't my target anyway, so if you are fine with me tagging along, then I'll try to be of use to you.

Onizuka returned to the squabble, after hearing from afar that a truce was called. He didn't go far, for fear that this demon would prove vicious. He saw the two standing and being civilized, and so he joined in.

Evelyn started by describing her self : a half soul that had been completed with dark energies from hell, makeing her substantial, but not alive. She then described her short history, her living counterpart, and that she wished to have an audience with the entities responsible for her judgement. She learned a bit about Cynric, and a bit less about Onizuka, but it would suffice for now. Cynric seemed to have an aversion to the room they were in.

[Jack]

(Onizuka)
With great distraction he listened to the demon woman and the Gourein boy describe themselves, and he in turn stated his basest position, but his mind was elsewhere, racing with excitement and a newfound sense of hope. Onizuka felt the curl of a smile tug at his lips, but he managed to stifle it. His eyes, however, were beaming.

In Plutus' great chamber, deceptively placed among great golden chests and the piles of valuable trinkets and precious gems, tucked behind other legendary weapons of incredible power, swords and daggers and arrows, was a small, crusted box, seeping blood and adorned only by a few withered old feathers. Onizuka had immediately pocketed it, mind racing with fear and adrenaline. Deep down inside, he hadn't really expected to find it. Certainly not with such ease.. He'd waited for too long for this moment. Sitting around watching the corpses in a river claw at the banks for who knows how many eternities. What a waste.

Onizuka's eyes regained focus and he stared at Evelyn. "Would you like to become Lord of the Styx?"

[Jack]

(Cynric)
It's very simple. Just keep going.

"Will it make sense?"

Don't worry about it. No sense stopping or anything.

"I'm not so sure. This place is pretty tense. Puts me on edge."

You've always enjoyed that, though.

"I know I shouldn't."

Being rough around the edges never stopped any heroes from being heroes.

"True. At the very least, can I have sometime when I can expect to understand?"

It'll make sense pretty soon, actually. Again, no worries. I've brought friends here for you, even.

"So I'm not in this alone. I've already met some people--"

--and you'll see some familiar faces and new ones soon, as well.

"No worries."

Exactly. Things are going to be alright so long as you stay the course.

"That's logical enough."

Of course it is.