The Guardians of Light: Second Edition CHAPTER TWO- CLOSED, ACCEPTING CHARS FOR NEXT CHAPTER

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas swam in unconsciousness before he came groggily back to reality, picked up his gun and blasted it at the Breathdrinker. It didn't hurt it, but dispersed it all to hell, the slug going whizzing past an unperturbed Damien. "Ivan if I cast I'll..." Silas cut himself off as he swayed on his feet "...pass out again..." Silas still felt wobbly, the oxygen deprivation had really did a number on him.

 

[Meta_Trooper]

Ivan, now being free of the breathdrinker's attacks, began to reverse the polarity of the field that held it together, it resisted but was distracted by damien's attacks, the breathdrinker stopped for a moment, making a last, futile effort to resist before breaking apart.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas wavered on his feet before finally gaining balance and looking up. "Almost there." he said.

At the top of the tower was a huge door with a crevice near the middle, diamond in shape, and a blue crystal laying on a pedestal which looked to fit in the door as a key. "This is too simple..." said Silas, touching the crystal. As he ran his fingers over it, the thing began to glow softly illuminating the dark areas near the margins of the door and the ceiling above. There was an ugly mass of purple tentacles and black beetle like eyes writing in the light. It let one tentacle down and gently batted Silas' hand aside.

"Ideas?" asked Silas to the group.

 

[Meta_Trooper]

"cover the crystal, burn or blind the beast, try moving the crystal without physically touching it or just grab the crystal and run to the door, take your pick." replied Ivan calmly, "for the moment the thing's not hostile so we might as well take our time and think about it." he set his staff upright and the rock he'd been using for a blade reshaped itself underneath him like a chair and he sat down, staring at the crystal and thinking of as many possible scenarios as he could for the situation.

 

[Hussmann54]

"Here..." Kin said, taking a gauntlet off. "Lemme see if it cant be... 'persuaded'.."
Just as he reached to touch one of the tentacles, another lashed out, crackling with some dark energy. Like a whip it struck at Kins face, knocking him back and spinning him around at the same time.

As he struggled to get himself up. heat waves emanated from the upper half of his body. When he turned to face the group, they saw that the gold mask now had a large gash, running diagonally from upper left to lower right, that revealed the steel underneath. It stretched the whole of the face

"Ughhh.... damn..." He said shaking his head.
"Well in the brief moment I was in, I figured out it is a very simple entity, but very strong when it needs to be. It only has two prerogatives. Stop intruders and protect itself. It was keen too. The moment it sensed my attack, it struck. Im rather impressed that something that simple could catch on that fast."

He unclipped the mask, his face sweaty underneath. Inspecting it, he shook his head, giving a whistle....

 

[KronosTalon]

"Well I should give it a shot then, I haven't been much of a help as of yet. " Zyphe declared, stretching his arms as he walked closer. He stepped past Kin to get to the crystal. "I am getting too old for this." He mentioned as he stepped up to it, looking at it carefully. He examined it closely, his eye an inch away from the surface. He then looked up at the creature, the tentacles whipping slowly around. He chuckled to himself as he tapped his staff against the floor, and a very light blue, almost white energy started to twirl around his staff, forming a double helix as it went, before charging into the hourglass. It came back out, darker in color and a slight bit of sand was missing from the glass, unnoticeble to most. It enveloped his hand and soon began to cover his arm, slowly sinking in and making it glow, and it seemed that time was slowed in the area, his sleeve slowly twirling about from the force of the magic. When his arm was covered he slowly put his staff on the ground, and got up, and reached toward the crystal, gently tapping it. The tentacles whipped toward him as he did, and his magic covered arm flew to grab it, makin the connection. The creatures tentacle that Zyphe has grabbed immediatley stopped, and as tendrils of his own magic began shooting up his arm the creature began to slow, and eventually stopped, the tentacles inches away from Zyphes face. "I am stuck too, do what you need to." He sad in a calm tone.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas chuckled "Smooth, Zyphe." and he placed the gem in the door. "Any time you feel like unfreezing you can follow us inside." and Silas went into the central chamber.

It was just as the vision the Breathdrinker had given except there was no flame at all as it should be. The Voice of the Obsidian Flame was solid as stone in the center of the room. The air was clear and crisp instead of cloying. The Voice woke as soon as Silas entered, Damien's Athames hot on his heels. The Voice became wreathed in black flames and animated with its inner fire and ash spewed from its skeletal wings.

"The Obsidian Flame congratulates your determination, we know why you are here. Give us the cursed thing and we shall destroy it." said the Voice, making the air tremble with its words, the pyre busting to life as it stepped forward.

 

[Xero Scythe]

Damien motioned to the Athame to follow. Damien bowed before the Obsidian Flame, sweeping his right hand across his chest in the old fashion. Damien licked his lips nervously. He beckoned over Cadre Leader with his first two fingers. The Athame bowed before the Obsidian Flame, removing Heliophias from his shoulder and presented it to the Obsidian Flame, bowing his head as he got down on one knee. "Obsidian Flame. We have brought the fire brand sword before you. Please take it from us so we may rid ourselves of this blight and emerge stronger than before."

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

The Obsidian Flame crackled and hissed with a billion voices speaking at once. Legends know the tale of the million and one souls of the once-living slain by Set when he betrayed the Great Guardians. The Voice said loudly "Bring it fourth[/]" and took the blade in hand before casting it into the Obsidian Flame itself. At once a great change occurred, the flame became first purple, then red then orange as the evil spirit was purged. A great caterwaul came up as the spirit protested its destruction lashing out with great bolts of energy which passed harmlessly through everyone and played over their forms like static. Then the place was silent and the flame became black again. The flame then died as the Voice rumbled out "It is done, now leave this place. Time is against you."

Silas checked the chronometron, all three jewels glowed green. Time was rewinding, which meant....

"TO THE PORTAL! NOW! IT'S REVERSING"


The stairs could not line up fast enough, the creatures thankfully hiding in their alcoves as they ran. But it was too late, the portal was wavering as Silas rushed across. Everyone shouted at him to wait, but as he approached there was a rending tear in the fabric of reality and a bolt of energy struck Silas.

At once he was raised off the ground, arms splayed out. Then images began flashing through his mind, terrible images of war and destruction. He saw a dark tomb where a light flickered, coming towards. Horror struck him as he saw dark creatures half in shadow advancing towards him. He heard his friends calling his name as the energy poured into him. Then he saw them, the great being with great big bodies with bat wings, thin and long necks with small heads with fanged mouths. Two tiny yellow eyes on the head were overshadowed by six other large eyes on its body. It stared into Silas' soul and he felt malicious power running through him as time and space seemed to melt together before finally a great resounding crack was heard and Silas became unconscious.

The portal, though, was stable again. Though Silas' chronometron lay near him, cracked and smoking. It had saved him and the portal...

 

[The Clown]

Deios sprinted down as fast as humanly possible to silas, fire trailing at his feet, he picked silas up in his arms, checking his pulse he looked up at the others, his face creased with worry, "who is a healer? he is alive but someone needs to tend to him, all i can do is keep him warm."

Deios walked over to the others and rested silas down on the floor, cradling his head with an arm, he took off his cloak and bundled it into a ball and placed it under silas' head and sat down onto the floor next to him.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas' mind strayed beyond his body, beyond space, beyond time. He remembered the few times he'd had the pleasure of getting close to death. The comatose fever dreams were always an interesting amalgam of colors, sounds and textures. It was probably his brain attempting to come back to the real world, but it was a little lost on the way.


Meanwhile, twelve shadowy figures watched the Guardians. They were unknown to the Guardians there, they were invisible, but their presence was obvious. The Great Guardians kept Silas' soul from wandering into the Void never to return.


The portal was shrinking, there was little time before it closed and there was no way back.

 

[Xero Scythe]

Damien cursed. "No time for that. We'll find a sanguinemancer on the way back. I'll keep him alive until then. But we have to move!" Damien held his hand over Silas' chest, causing a bright flash of light. It wasn't his best healing, but the patch would hold until they could find a competent healer.

Damien slung Silas over his shoulder, feeling the hairs prick up on the back of his neck as he did so. He also picked up the chronometron and put it in his pocket. He waved towards the constantly shrinking portal. "Hurry up! It's closing!" Damien jumped through. While he didn't care about his own safety, he had made a promise to Sabrina. And he kept his promises.

 

[KronosTalon]

Zyphe quickly ran through the portal, Following Damiens footsteps almost exactley. I wonder if this will all be worth it in the end...He thought as he was being teleported through and ended up on the other side.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

On the other side, the Guardians watched the portal collapse inwards and vanish. Silas was still out, his breathing shallow. Silas was going to be out for a long time if his vitals weren't stabilized.

Spoiler: OOC

I can't kept posting here as reminders to come back and keep the story going. This is a moment where you guys can shine, find a way to help my character.

 

[Meta_Trooper]

Ivan followed the others through the portal, all in all this mission had been easier and shorter than he'd expected but at least it gave him an extra breather before returning to the mainstream stuff, 6 years was far too long to be out of the loop, but at least only 1 of them was wasted on himself, th other 5 had him hunting down any and all rogues that had been indoctrinated by his father, but no one would think of that would they? he frowned slightly, he didn't need to explain his actions when despite his connections and own feelings they chose him to do the job, of all people, they thought they'd play with him, see if he was worth the effort, the council didn't deserve an explanation with the way they thought of him.

on exiting the portal Ivan looked toward damien, "so what now, straight back and report? or do we sort out silas first?" as much as he'd prefer to get back to work he knew silas' health would probably come first.

 

[ThreeWords]

"Magic will do him little good here" said Nana, softly, "We are none of us healers, and we would likely only do him harm. On the other hand, I have few medicines that will keep him stable for a time." reaching into a pocket, she drew out a pouch of soft leather. It bore no runes or sigils, and glowed with no eldritch power, but still it had an air of power.

A pinch of a powered, three leaves of an evil smelling herb, and a drop of yellow liquid that smoked slightly, all added to a small vial of water, and a potion was produced, that changed from a pale yellow to first light green through dark green, then glowed slightly. Nana had spoken no magic words, and no one had felt a spell cast, but it was there.

Bending down, she let a few drops fall into Slias' mouth. He twitched slightly, his eyes flickering behind closed lids, but his breathing gradually slowed and his body grew still. His colour was better, and he looked peaceful rather than strained.

"That will hold him in this world" Nana announced, "But it will not last for ever. Headquarters is too far away; we must find a nearer source of healing. Damien;, these lands are known to you; where might we find a healer strong enough to bring Silas back to us?"

 

[The Clown]

Deios took a running jump through the portal, barely fitting through, he landed heavily on the other side, his hair amiss due to the charged air.
He walked over to damien and silas, still concerned he turned to face the closing portal as the rest of the group leapt through and landed on the ground beside him.
"That was a close call," Deios said to the arriving group as the portal closed behind them.

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin flew out of the portal. His body resonated with steam created from the immense heat. The minute things started going down hill, his armor became like a conductor for chaotic energy, which had upped his body temp considerably. But the biggest difference was made when he lept through the portal, which magnified the heat even further. He landed with a heavy thud and a "UGHH!"

Struggling to get to his feet, he yanked the helmet off his head to reveal a beet red, sweaty face.

"Still too hot..." He thought to himself as he began unstrapping the breastplate.
It fell to the ground with a clunk, and the next thing to come off was the gauntlets. The leather had burned his hands and a few dozen small red dots dotted his palms.

"Shit..." He murmured, shaking his hands. He walked over to Silas. One of the guardians remarked "We are loosing him."

Kin looked around. He couldnt use his powers on the island....

"Get him to the boat and I can bring him back, at least his mind. It will help stabilize him, for now..."

 

[Xero Scythe]

Damien stared for a moment, uncomprehending. He shook his head and responded. "Kin. You're going to have to do that on the go. I give you express permission to use your magic." Somehow those words seemed to ring a little... differently than any other word. The earth gave an almost unnoticable tremor. The Sentries had accepted. Damien lifted Silas up. "C'mon. We're going to the Temple of Avalon. If we can get him to my granddaughter, then Silas will live. She's one of the best damn healers out there." Damien said. The way he said it showed that there wasn't an ounce of bragging there, just simple stated fact.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

The void was strange to Silas, he'd never been here before. This was not the Far Veil, but a different void. It was a lonely and dark place, cold with snow. Though he could not tell, he felt he was on a mountain top. The freezing cold and wind told him that. Either he was blind or there was no sun where he was. Voices chattered around him, discussing things a totally alien language. He heard rumbling tones matched by quick and slithering ones. He heard Kin's voice calling to him, from whatever cold nothingness he was in.

Silas felt a steady hand on his shoulder. "Kin?" asked Silas to the dark. The dark did not answer but spoke close to his ear these words. You are Veiltouched now, an instrument to our will. Make no mistake, you have gained the watch of the Conclave of Shadows. Your time among us grows thin, but remember this. You are one of us now.

Reality wrenched and flexed, the cold and dark place vanished and was replaced by a bright place where the air was warm. Silas' body was numb all over and prickling with a pins and needles feeling. His eyes were blinded by the light, but he could hear.

"He's awake!"

Silas could only mumble and someones ear was near his mouth when he said "What is the Conclave of Shadows?" Silas however heard only "I don't know." Silas could not see, his body was paralyzed and he still seemed to vibrate with the energies of the Far Veil.