Once Together, Always Together Story Ealaga is a parallel dimension to Earth. It is much like our world (with cars, cell phones, the internet, etc.), except that magic is real. There are three types of spellcasters: Alchemists, Witches, Sorcerers, and Magicians. The most powerful spellcasters are Magicians, who draw their power from shape-shifting Daemons that they summon from the Other Place (a dimension composed of fluid, ever-changing energy). Magicians live by the Principle of Contagion, that goes: 'Once together, always together.' Once a Magician summons a Daemon, it is bound to them for eternity. A Daemon cannot disobey a direct order from its master, but will often try to find ways to circumvent their orders to rebel. In rare cases, a Daemon and Magician are friends, but most Magicians treat their Daemons as slaves. Daemons have been known to destroy their masters if the Magician gives them a loosely worded order. Magicians are the upper class and occupy the highest offices in government. They have enjoyed their lofty positions since civilization began and have gone unchallenged for centuries. The lower classes of spellcasters and the regular non-magical folk are complacent (for the most part) because the Magicians protect them and keep the peace. The trouble began a month ago when the Empress of Asia ordered every country to name her their supreme overlord, or she would declare war. The countries were baffled and sent diplomats to figure out why the Empress suddenly desired world domination. The diplomats never came back. As war looms on the horizon, the Magician King in England declared that under-aged Magician apprentices were to summon Daemons immediately to inflate their military forces. This was unheard of: apprentices usually didn't summon Daemons until they were seventeen. But times were changing, and extreme transitions were necessary. And so begins our story... Plot You are the apprentices that, by order of Solomon the Magician King, must prematurely summon your Daemons. As apprentices, your families sent you to the Academy of Magicians when you showed signs of being a Magician. At the beginning of the story, you are gathered in the Great Library at the heart of the Academy, preparing to summon your Daemon. Once your Daemon is summoned, you will play that character as well. Do not post until after the GM (me) has posted. Gameplay Each Daemon begins with three Powers and three Guises that their Daemon possesses. Powers can be simple (Stone Gaze, Freezing Breath, Fireballs, etc), or more complex and conceptual. A guise is a shape that the Daemon can assume, and can be anything from a mouse to a human-sized wolf. Nothing bigger than a horse, though. Other than that, the Daemon still has its inherent strength, speed and intelligence, and must obey its master's orders. Without their Daemons, Magicians are powerless; with them, they are nearly indestructible. Any further information will be revealed as the story unfolds. Spellcasters (Strongest to Weakest) Magicians: With the aide of Daemons, these Spellcasters can accomplish major feats of magic. A Daemon can look like anything, from a small child to a monstrous winged lion with snake hair and a scorpion tail. They are incredibly fast, inhumanly strong, devilishly clever and possess enhanced senses (taste, smell, sight, etc). Powers vary from Daemon to Daemon depending on their nature, anything from conjuring fireballs to manipulating the weather. A Daemon is incapable of disobeying a direct order from their master, but can find holes in their commands to rebel in small (or large) ways. They follow the Principle of Commitment: 'Once together, always together.' Sorcerers: Sorcery is the control of one mind by another, ranging from glamours and illusions to control and destruction. Their effects last as long as the mind of their victims exists, and only another Sorcerer can lift the spell. The reason Sorcerers are less powerful than Magicians is because they must make eye contact to use magic on their victims. Many Sorcerers are very attractive and use their fair looks to trick people into looking them in the eye. They follow the Principle of Seduction: 'You are mine, when I look into your eyes.' Witches: For witchcraft to create an effect, the Witch must look for things in nature that resemble or produce that effect and use them. For example: a feather can be used to lighten the weight of an object, a piece of iron can strengthen, a drop of honey can sweeten, etc. With something belonging to their victims, they can cause harm to their enemies. Most Witches use fire to strengthen their spells, but any form of heat (lava, lightning, their own body heat, etc.) can also be used. If a witch uses too much of their own body heat to cast a spell, they can expire instantly. For this reason, a witch always has a fire lit in their abode. Witchcraft is simultaneously called the weakest and most powerful form of magic, because the bigger the fire, the more powerful the Witch is. If a Witch has to build a fire they are vulnerable to getting attacked, but if there is a raging forest fire somewhere nearby...they can be virtually unstoppable. They live by the Principle of Ubiquity: 'Flame permeates all.' Alchemist: Alchemy consists of combining the signatures of available materials to produce a finished product that creates the desired effects. Products of Alchemy tend to be potions or powders. They cannot create long-lasting effects with their magic, and their tinctures only retain their power for a couple weeks or so. Potions can produce invisibility and change the shape or abilities of the drinker, along with altering their mind or hearts when consumed, but only for a short period of time. Powders can transport the user vast distances or blast with explosions. The more powerful the potion or powder, the more complicated the ingredients. Alchemits are known to be hermits and never travel without copious amounts of supplies. They live by the Principle of Persistence: 'Perfection is eternal.' Character Templates: (Post In Discussion Thread) Magician's Name: Age (13-16): Gender: Personality: Appearance: Daemon's Name: Age (100+): Gender: Personality: Powers: 1) 2) 3) Guises: 1) 2) 3) Rules: The usual, just behave yourselves, have fun and follow the guidelines, and everything should be fine!
Part One: Friends and Foes Headmistress Niamala had prepared the Great Library for the students: the long tables and lounging chairs had been pushed against the wall to clear a wide open space. The carpets had also been rolled up, exposing the scuffed floorboards underneath. A row of a hundred or so pentagrams had been drawn in chalk on the ground with intricate runes around edges. Incense censors smoldered in each corner, as well, their bittersweet aroma wafting through the air. Everything was ready. Niamala motioned for her Daemon to open the large oak doors and welcomed in the Magician apprentices. "Line up! Line up!" Niamala shrilled. She struck an imposing figure as she stood on a raised dais at the far end of the room. Decked out in a ruby purple pantsuit and stiletto heels, her wild curls splayed around her head, and her dark ebony skin glowing in the dim light, she looked like an African queen rather than a headmistress. Pax, her loyal Daemon, joined her on the dais; he was presently in the Guise of a tall albino man wearing in all-black garb. His crimson eyes shone menacingly as he surveyed the apprentices filing inside. Once everyone was lined up, each one standing by a different pentagram, Niamala clapped her hands to get their attention. The handclap echoed in the huge chamber, making a sound like a gunshot. "Now," the Headmistress began, "you will summon your Daemons." She paused and let the gravity of what she was saying sink in. "The Magician King has decreed that you must all prematurely bond with a Daemon and, if necessary, fight alongside the British Army to defeat Empress Xhu-Li. The Empress has not made a move as of yet, but it is inevitable. We must be prepared." Niamala nodded at her Daemon. Pax spread his arms wide and the pentagrams drawn on the floor became swirling pools of liquid multicolored energy. Iridescent green, furious red, dazzling blue, all these colors and more swam together in the portals to the Other Place. "You have spent the last few years studying for this very moment," Niamala said as she paced on the dais. "You have looked through the ancient scrolls and chosen which Daemon you wish to bond with for your entire lifetime and beyond. Speak the name of your Daemon and it will appear!" At that, the Headmistress stopped pacing and crossed her arms. She waited, her dark mahogany eyes burning with intensity...
Yeven shuffled into the Great Library, pushed by the tide of other more eager students. He found himself on the fourth row back of pentagrams and knelt down carefully inspecting the outline making sure there were no imperfections and that the mass of people hadn't scuffed away any of the key details. Around him some of the younger students were laughing and joking, bragging about how they were going to summon a more powerful daemon than the others. Idiots, the whole lot of them. They weren't prepared for this, the 13 year olds didn't realise the seriousness of the situation. A bit of time spent at the school meant he'd seen the darker sides of summoning, he knew that not everyone chose the right daemon and that there were fair odds they might even see some bloodshed in this very hall before the hour was over. The thought didn't reassure him as he looked down at his scroll and the notes he'd scribbled along with it. Despite his fear or perhaps because of it he'd chosen a particularly malicious daemon. He was tired of been bullied at the school, fed up of others thinking they were better than him just because they were stronger. Perhaps this could change all that, give him the confidence he so desperately needed to stick up for himself. To earn some respect from more students, allow his father to be proud of him since his grades didn't seem to be enough to satisfy the man. He took a deep breath and steadied his hands making a conscious effort to control his breathing. If he looked assertive he would be assertive. He had to look in control when the daemon first saw him otherwise his life would be that much harder. A couple of other students had already began summoning and he decided it was best for him to do the same before he got distracted or distressed by some of the forms the other daemons had taken. He turned his head away in embarrassment as one daemon appeared as an attractive women completely naked, different daemons tried different tactics to compromise you but that was generally what their aim was. "Azrael I summon you." Yeven stared into the portal waiting expectantly, his very own daemon. For better or worse whatever appeared now was going to bound to him for the rest of his life.
Taya watched with cool disdain as the other students rushed about to their places, some even just jumping to their place and yelling the names of their Daemons as if they were mere servants. Fools. It is we who should be the servants. They are the ones who provide all the power. Taya's lip curled ever so slightly as she spied a girl run screaming from her snake Daemon. The Daemon swiveled about, locked eyes with her, and immediately turned into a startled deer with a puff of smoke before vanishing. Probably to it's supposed master. Cowards. Just wait until my Goddess arises. Taya just yawned, taking her place beside an odd-looking boy. Her anklet chimed as she stepped up to her own platform and spread her arms wide, exposing the new runes that had been cut into her skin by her own hand and a sharp knife. Her darker-than-night hair flowed back over her shoulders in stark contrast to the white dress that lay draped over her body like milk turned to cloth. Some of the students stared at her, wide-eyed. The younger ones because of her beauty, but the older because they had recognized what the blood meant. A fealty spell. Just as the Daemon would be bound to Taya, so she would be bound to her Daemon. "Rise, Soka, my Queen!" she hissed, then extended one long pale arm and allowed a single bead of crimson to drip from her finger into the portal.
Oliver Bale. Oliver listened carefully to the headmistress as he stared down at the pentagram in front of him. The lines were off. His brows twitched upward. They had to be prepared, yet the lines on his pentagram were off, by at least a quarter of an inch. How could they be prepared if the staff in this circus couldn't even get a pentagram right? Now if they'd let him draw the figures, perhaps less of his fellow students would be quivering like twigs, though admittedly, he could only do so much to alleviate their incompetence. Theatrically, the girl next to him called upon her demon and waved her hands about, and nearly hit him in the process. He gave her one, pitiful look before concentrating on his own spot. The lines are still off, he thought. Suppressing the itch to demand complete silence, Oliver pulled back his sleeves an inch and began to mutter the words he had recited for days. He closed his eyes and, with his hands outstretched over the pentagram, continued his spell in the privacy of his own mind. Summoning Daemons was no mean task, and Oliver was hellbent on proving his superiority by doing it without raising his voice, flailing his arms, or getting scorched by his own creation, like the boy in the back. Dagon, the deceiver, would be his to command! He finished his spell with a mental shout: Dagon, serve me! Nothing. He opened one eye and glanced down at his pentagram. Nothing. When he opened his other eye, there still wasn't the faintest sign of his daemon. His jaw dropped in disbelief. He couldn't fail! Not now, not ever! "Something wrong?" An owl was sitting on his left shoulder. He looked old and frail, as if his wings would break off if he flapped them. Was this the great Dagon? Oliver met the owl's intense, golden gaze with a scowl. "You really should speak the words next time, I could barely hear you," Dagon spoke into his mind. "You're Dagon?" "Yes." Oliver puffed his cheeks and let out a long sigh. That stupid old bird was Dagon the deceiver? Where was the huge shadowy monster? Where were the vicious claws and razor-sharp teeth? "Disappointed?" He rolled his eyes at the misshapen creature, "disillusioned."
Headmistress Niamala remained silent as her charges summoned their Daemons. Her keen gaze didn't miss a single detail as she surveyed them from the raised dias. Her Daemon, Pax, stood behind her like a second shadow, a carved marble statue. His maroon eyes were closed, as if he were dozing, but the truth was that he could see more without his eyes than he could with them. Suddenly, he stepped forward and tapped Niamala's shoulder and pointed a long, chalky-white finger across the room. The Headmistress looked--and gasped. The last student all the way at the other side of the Great Library was having problems. His name was Scofield Borrington, or just "Sco", as his friends called him. A tall, gangly skater dude with long dirty-blond dreadlocks, wearing a baggy oversized uniform, a permanent sleepy expression on his face. He was a notorious slacker, and all his teachers expected him to fail miserably at summoning his Daemon. Quite to the contrary, he succeeded--maybe a bit too well. While everyone was studying the ancient scrolls to find their Daemon's names, Sco had taken naps in the corner. Therefore, he was totally unprepared when the Magician King had ordered them to summon their Daemons out of the blue. So there he was, standing in front of a pentacle without a Daemon name to invoke. He stood there for a second, scratched the side of his head and made up a name hoping that a Daemon would appear. "Tam...uh...mooz?" A huge eruption of black smoke exploded from the center of his pentagram. It stretched to the ceiling and wound itself into the shape of a night-colored giant with hooved feet and massive ram horns growing from its temples. It roared, "I AM TAMMUZ!" and the entire Great Library trembled violently. Sco murmured a feeble, "Whoa," before passing out. As he fell, his foot blurred the barrier around his pentagram. The gigantic Daemon, named Tammuz, smirked and took one step outside of the chalk drawing, its huge hoof barely missing Sco's prone body. Headmistress Niamala jumped down from the dais and wordlessly shoved her students out of the way to get to the Daemon with Pax close behind. Even though she was closing the distance fast, despite the hindrance of her high-heeled shoes, she would never reach it in time. It was up to the students to fend Tammuz off before Niamala could deal with it.
Taya whirled when an explosion rocked the floor several meters away from her. "Oh come on. Figures Sco would do something stupid." she muttered in distaste, then flinched and stood ram-rod straight when she felt something touch her neck. "Looks like Tammuz gets to join in on the fun. But i never liked him -he's too messy." a female voice slithered past Taya's ear and the girl swallowed before looking out of the corner of one eye. "S-Soka..." The snow-white cobra made a rattling hiss that could not be mistaken as anything but laughter. "Yes, it is I, child. Now wipe that look off your face -showing fear is not a wise thing to do." Soka sighed as if exhausted. "My my... and I'd thought that you were one of the better ones..." Taya flushed in anger, but did nothing and instead held her tongue. In response the cobra cracked a fang-filled grin. "Guess i was right." "I should hope so, my Goddess, but what should we do about that thing, if i may ask?" Taya said, nodding distastefully toward the rampaging giant. The cobra tilted her delicate head to one side, contemplating the monster's size and bulk, then abruptly slithered down and off of Taya before shape-shifting into a large tiger. "Get on my back. It will require more than just one of us to defeat Tammuz. Now, i could have sworn i smelled deception..." Soka opened her maw and tasted the air, then turned to face the young boy and the owl a few feet away. "You there. What are your names?"
Azrael growled viciously as he felt a force slam into him sending his muscles into spasms. After all this time it seemed someone was trying to summon him. It was to hard to resist the call, 450 years and he was still powerless to someone simply saying his name. His world blurred around him as he was torn from one place to another. Despite the suddenness of it all he still managed to shift forms as he materialised in the great library. It took a moment for all of his eyes to adjust to the sudden change in lighting and he wasn't impressed by what he saw. A scrawny teenage boy, short in stature standing in front of him. Credit to the kid he didn't seem to panic at Azraels arrival, still was this what he had to work with for god knows how long? He stretched out one of his long spindly legs testing just how secure the confines of his supernatural cell were. He refused to show pain as he hit the edge, instead he stabbed his legs into the ground and raked them back across the floor shredding the floor shallowly and sending splinters into the air. He'd tried many approaches upon been summoned and decided for this one he would remain silent. He often hurled abuse but he was interested to see just how these young magicians coped with receiving a daemon that failed to engage them. Yeven stared down at the creature he had just summoned. Eight dark eyes glared back at him, some of them occasionally breaking off their gaze to assess the room, the way they darted about independently was somewhat disconcerting. The large spider came up to the height of his thighs with each of its crimson legs longer than his Yeven's own arms and ending in vicious barbed claws that stabbed at the floor. It had a bulbous body lightly coated in hair. Yeven was about to engage his daemon when he heard a gasp from behind followed by a shout. He turned to see a Daemon one row back from him towering above them and lumbering out of the protective pentagram with it's incompetent owner unconscious on the floor. He almost blurted out help him to his daemon but bit his tongue before he did so. Vague commands like that, especially starting off were a good way to wind up dead. Not specifying who to help meant it left it up to the daemon to decide which side he wanted to be on and not specifying how... well it could happily tear Scofields arm off in the process of moving him out of harms way and claim that no one said how much delicacy was required in the task. "Azrael this isn't the time for introductions, I command you to never harm me or put me in a situation against my will that would put me in danger. You are not to harm others or put them in dangerous situations unless I command you or they directly threaten my life and I am in a situation where I cannot give express permission quick enough." He didn't have time to cover all the ground rules he needed to or all those that he had planned right now. "I need you to move that unconscious boy out of danger, do so without harming him or any other students in the process. Do so now." Azrael's form blurred shifting into shadows as limbs dissolved and folded in on themselves, new limbs punctured through Azrael's flesh and jet black fur materialised. His head tore down the middle and a snout with a set of glistening teeth burst forth, saliva dripping off the curled lips and dissolving the floor below. It padded across the floor and bit into a large chunk of the unconscious boys dreadlocks before dragging him across the floor towards the back of the hall utilising the space opening up as the younger students panicked and broke ranks running for the exit.
The moment the Headmistress issued her decree, Chase bolted straight for the door. “Excuse me. Pardon me. I’ll be right back!” he said as he shoved through the crowd and into the empty halls, where he broke into a run. This was the day he’d waited for. Just last week, his father had told him that this might happen. But it was only a rumor, something nobles whispered about in secret. He never expected he’d be summoning his daemon today. Either way, he was ready. Chase ran all the way to his dormitory without stopping. His heart was pounding in his chest as he burst through the door and snatched up an oak box under his bed. He’d tracked down this relic months ago, in preparation for his seventeenth birthday. He’d called in family favors and burned through years of allowance to get this. Now, it was finally time to use it. Chase peeked in the box, to make sure it was still there and saw a glint of steel. Yes! With a giddy smile, he charged out of the room and ran all the way back to the Great Library, with the ornately-carved box tucked under his arm. He arrived to find a very different scene than before. There were animals and not-quite-animals, and bizarre creatures and humanoid things with horns and fangs and wings. He quickly found an available pentagram, knelt, and opened the box. Inside was a sword… well, half of a sword. The blade had snapped off just above the cross guard. As Chase held it in his hands, tears of joy nearly welled up in his eyes. This wasn’t just any sword. This weapon had been wielded by the greatest hero of justice and virtue of all time. He could almost feel the awesomeness rolling off of it and could not wait to meet its wielder. His teachers told him students should only summon daemons from the scrolls. But Chase had done his homework. There were ways to summon daemons whose names weren’t on the scrolls. All he needed was a relic to call his daemon forth from the Other Plane and into Ealaga, like a lighthouse guiding a lost soul home. Chase inverted the broken sword and held it over the swirling portal. “I summon thee, Siegnil, legendary hero-knight, defender of virtue, slayer of evil. I summon you forth on this day to aid me in my heroic quest to rid the world of-” A sudden earthquake and a thundering voice nearly toppled him. Chase barely caught himself from falling headfirst into the swirling portal, but the sword was lost. It slipped from his grasp and disappeared into the vortex while Tammuz roared at the other end of the room. Evil was here and he’d lost his only means of summoning his hero. But that was the least of his worries… Chase suddenly found himself unable to breathe. His throat tightened, as if a hand had clamped around his neck. He tried to free himself from its icy grip, but there was nothing there. Soon he was lifted off of the ground. His feet dangled as something began to emerge from the portal. It took the shape of a woman, or what used to be a woman. She was so thin and chalky white, he thought her a skeleton or reanimated corpse, but her piercing red eyes, which seemed to stare into his soul, proved she was very much alive… despite the blade buried in her heart. Skaaldrannas, he thought. Instead of the ultimate good, he’d summoned the ultimate evil. Siegnil’s sword was complete once more and shined as brightly as the day he’d buried it in her cold, black heart. But Siegnil himself was gone. The boy was beginning to turn blue, but Skaaldrannas showed no signs of releasing him. In fact, she showed no signs of doing anything other than standing there and watching him die. Such was her cruelty. She would look him in the eyes as his life left his body. But, to his surprise, she suddenly let him go. Chase collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. “Killing you would be too easy, but breaking you poses an interesting challenge,” Skaaldrannas said and pointed her long, bony finger toward the rampaging giant. “You disgust me, Charles Weiss. We’ll talk later, when you’re not distracted by juvenile fantasies of rescuing these worthless wretches from their well-deserved deaths.” Skaaldrannas vanished in an implosion of black smoke, leaving only the sword, which clattered to the floor at Chase’s feet. He looked at the weapon, then at the giant, and then back at the weapon and knew what he had to do.
"You there. What are your names?" Oliver ignored the girl and her Daemon snake, the marauding giant posed a more imminent threat. "Any ideas?" Oliver asked, his voice shaken both from within and because of the massive feet of Tammuz, who had decided the floor looked better in pieces. "Several," Dagon replied. He cocked his head as if to ask for permission to intervene. "Well, uh, do something!" "Magic comes at a cost." "Just do something!" Dagon gave a slow nod, and in a puff of shadowy smoke leaped of Oliver's shoulder, swooped towards the ground and morphed into a small fox. His trot turned into a jog, then a full sprint, until he was but a red blur. Oliver chased after his daemon, he was going to get trampled under Tammuz's feet! With a swoosh, Dagon slipped just underneath the daemon's feet and bit at its ankle before darting away again. He waited for the daemon to turn its malicious gaze onto him before rocketing sideways. Again and again, the small fox ran circles around the enraged Tammuz, doing just enough damage to agitate the daemon and keeping him from turning Sco into a squished jelly-bean.
Once Azrael removed Sco from the line of danger, Tammuz roared with pure anger as his ankle was bitten by Dagon. The giant Daemon shook its leg to shake the little fox off, sending it flailing through the air. Then Tammuz clapped his massive hands together and a blazing firebolt shot from his fingertips in Dagon's direction. Once it struck, it would incinerate whatever it hit, turning it into a pile of ashes. Headmistress Diamala and Pax were still too far away, shoving panicked students aside to clear a path. They couldn't do anything about the situation until they were nearer.
Chase snatched up the sword and began making his way through the crowd, most of whom were running away from the commotion. He had to protect them. Defending them, even if it cost him his life, was all he could think about. Skaaldrannas must have seen that. Perhaps that is why she was disgusted by him. He was a hero, just like the man who defeated her. And I will defeat her again, Chase thought. She hadn’t killed him on the spot. In his mind, that was proof that there must be some good in her. She could change. Stay focused, he told himself. He couldn’t afford to think about her right now. Maybe that’s why she vanished; in her strange way, she was allowing his heroism to shine… or maybe she was letting him march to his death. Tammuz seemed a lot bigger up close -- a lot bigger. Chase hesitated, but didn’t stop. He had his tennis and fencing classes to fall back on. Sure, this sword was quite a bit heavier than his fencing foil but his mom had always told him he had one hell of a forearm swing. Just think of it as a really sharp racket and a really mean-looking tennis ball. A wide circle had formed around the angry giant, as the students began to disperse. A fox creature was darting between its feet, drawing Tammuz’s attention while a big spider dragged Sco away from the epicenter. Yes, a true hero never works alone, Chase thought and his heart swelled with pride. With so much good in the world, how could evil possibly prevail? He gripped his sword in both hands and searched for an opening, but the situation changed when Tammuz kicked the fox away. The giant clapped its enormous hands together and summoned a blast of fire in the spider’s direction. “Nooooo!” Chase said and his legs propelled him toward the endangered arachnid. He leapt, dove through the air, and narrowly managed to tackle Sco and the spider, as the fire scorched the ground where they’d been a moment ago. He quickly stuffed the sword under his belt, thankful no one had gotten stabbed. “I’ll take care of Scofield,” Chase said to the spider as he hooked his arms under the boy’s and continued hauling him away. “You… ummm… use webs or something, I guess. Buy me some time.” A few words from Sco could end all of this madness, if only he’d wake up.
Soka's ears flattened, and the tiger curled her upper lip to reveal a pair of gleaming fangs, but the boy and his owl had already run into battle. Taya and Soka watched the other kids scatter, and the tiger chuffed as if in amusement when she saw the fireball. "Let's put Tammuz on ice. He needs to cool off for another hundred years anyways before he is worth any good. Too long in the oven." Soka said, glancing back at Taya, who had, albeit hesitantly, gotten onto the tiger's back. "Now, this is how you deal with men, my dear child." Soka padded calmly toward the battle, tail flicking from side to side as if she had no other care in the world. But Taya could feel the massive amount of power welling up beneath the cat's rolling musculature, and grinned. Once they had come to the edge of the battle-ground, Taya slipped off at a nod from her Daemon, then let the tiger do her work. First, Soka padded forward, heedless to the bodies being flung about and the attacks. In fact, many would have hit her, but instead they passed right through. Then when she had come near Chase and the others, the guise of a tiger dropped like a silk cloth and a tall, slender woman in a white dress emerged. Bones clattered around her neck, and bells chimed on her wrists and ankles. Ice-blue eyes locked onto Chase's, and her cherry-red lips quirked in a suggestive smirk. "Really, lad? You think to take down Tammuz the Terrible all on your own? Brave, I will admit, but foolish. This is how you take down a demon-" Darting forward, the woman skipped over the giant's feet and seemed to fly right up onto his shoulder from behind with one well-placed leap. Sliding onto the Daemon's horn and straddling it, Soka leaned forward and waited just long enough for the Daemon to notice her and lock eyes. "Hey Honey, mind if i take a little look-see?" she purred, then her eyes flashed a vivid white. Mind-Control. Taya smirked.
Oliver cursed under his breath, this was why he had hoped that Dagon would've been equipped with more fangs, claws and other sharp things. His cowardly daemon was already being kicked out of the battle, and only narrowly escaped a fireball by leaping skywards and morphing back into an owl. He reprimanded himself for not having been more careful in selecting his daemon. Dagon had sounded cool, and deception was pretty cool too. And pretty useless. "That's that," Dagon said as he swooped down and landed on Oliver's shoulder again. Oliver crouched behind an overturned table. "What do you mean?" "That'll do." "What'll do?" "What I did." Oliver's jaw dropped an inch, his voice reached the pitch of a boiling kettle. "What? You did nothing! You fled!" "I drew the others into the fight," Dagon countered. "You're a coward," Oliver scolded. "Am not!" "Are too!" The urge to swat the frail owl of his shoulder was almost irresistible, but he swallowed it down nevertheless. He had never seen an owl look offended, but the two yellow slits and the tightening of Dagon's claws in his shoulders told him his daemon wasn't amused. "Any other bright ideas?" Dagon cocked his head. "Kill it with fire,"
Tammuz looked Soka in the eyes. He paused for a short time--and then roared, his beady black eyes full of malice. Her Mind-Control might work on him if he was calm, but not while he was as big as a skyscraper and insane with battle madness. Magicians didn't summon Tammuz unless there was some sort of war to win: he was useless with day-to-day activities, unbelievably stupid and enormously powerful. Tammuz threw his head to the side to smash it into the wall, intending to squish Soka flat. About a hundred yards away, Niamala and Pax were making progress. More students were out of their way and they could run flat-out and not worry about any obstacles. The Headmistress was yelling something to the students who were fighting: "The boy! The boy! Wake up the boy!" Then one of her heels flipped off and she fell to one knee. She was down for a mere moment, before Pax ran back to her and helped her up. They were off yet again. Meanwhile, Sco was still dazing...
Quinn was still on top of one of the bookshelves, having put his book down, silently observing the proceedings. A blonde bang fell in front of his eye, and he pushed it out of the way. He had originally planned to stay here, reading his book in order to not succumb to the utter despair that is boredom, until everyone had gone, and he could do it last. Yes, he was a genius, but really, did that make it justified for nearly everything to be boring? Quinn silently gave thanks to the idiot Sco, then he decided that it would be morally necessary for him to help out in some way. He remembered his sister reprimanding him for not helping out the poor man on the street who was asking for money. He winced, as he remembered that the man had died of starvation. Using the empty space on the bookshelves as rungs, he made his way down the tall bookshelves. He got out his potion, which he had stolen from his father. Only a sip would give him 1 hour of invisibility. It was some of the densest stuff on the market, which his dad had planned on selling. Luckily for him, he wouldn't need it for that long. The idiot probably wouldn't even notice the less amount. Plus, his dad didn't even need the money. Completely justified. He sipped the tiniest amount he could, then felt the magic working. Just to test, he looked through his hand. He nodded to himself, then ran outside the cover that the bookshelves afforded him. He wondered when he had gotten so soft... it would've been much better for everyone if Sco was just mauled by the demon. Less idiotic genes infiltrating the gene pools of the future. His sister probably made him stay up last night watching some sappy romance film... then again, he wouldn't be the type of person to get emotional. Ugh, maybe this was one of those hormone-charged things the scientists talk about. Who knew anything in this crazy world that constantly defies logic... However, that makes it all the more interesting. Quinn walked up to Sco, and tapped him on the shoulder. The demon was doing his thing with Soka, trying to crush her. Big Lug vs Sexy Slut 3D, the movie! Of course, Sco was still knocked out. Quinn scowled, then pinched his nose. "Mmph!" Sco screamed into Quinn's hands, flailing about like a fresh fish. Fishing, one of the most boring hobbies in the world. Quinn quickly brought him behind the bookshelves, no one any wiser. He imagined Niamala looking again, after that scream to wake Sco up, to find Sco having disappeared. Quinn chuckled quietly, then informed Sco that he should stay quiet if he wanted to stay alive. When Sco responded with a terrifying look on his face, Quinn chuckled again. Exactly as he had planned... Sco was absolutely terrified. Quinn held his nose just that little bit longer, knocking the idiot out. After that, he ran across the room, right past where Tammuz and Soka were having their little 'disagreement', to the farthest pentagram. Gathering all of his focus, which was not hard to do, he muttered the incantation, then pricked his finger, letting a drop of blood fly through the air. "Cyrus, come to me, and I promise you that your stay will be rewarding. Let me be your master." Quinn felt something small settle on his ear. "Well hello there, Quinn." "I see you've chosen to be a bee. Somewhat ticklish." Quinn said, walking back towards the bookshelves, totally unafraid and uncaring of the battle occuring not 20 feet from him, more caring of the temptation to scratch his ear. "This is what you'd prefer for right now, right?" The voice intoned, smooth and deep. "Of course," Quinn smirked, "I probably told you that 10 minutes in the future, didn't I?" He heard the smallest of laughs. "Indeed."
Taya flinched when Tammuz slammed his head into the wall, but knew that Soka would be fine. The woman had cast her meta-physical state over herself just a millisecond before being turned to mincemeat, but still, it had been close. When Tammuz shook his head free of the rubble, he was still the steed of one very amused cobra. "Now, now, Tammuz -you know you can't win a battle against me when I'm in this form, so why not quiet down before I get mad?" she hissed, and Taya cast a smug glance at the boy with the owl. At least her Daemon was doing something.
A very confused Chase stared at his empty hands. One moment, he was dragging Sco away from the giant. The next, the boy was gone, whisked away by a phantom. Chase concluded it must’ve been one of the other students or a member of the faculty, using an invisibility spell or something. Either way, Sco was probably safer wherever he was. Chase unsheathed his sword and returned his attention to Tammuz. Hopefully, whoever took Sco away would wake him. In the meantime, he’d distract the beast, so no one else would get hurt. He began to walk toward the giant but, unknown to him, a thin stream of black smoke slipped away from the sword and disappeared into the crowd. ----- Skaaldrannas materialized many meters away from her idiotic master. She stood and began making her way toward the bookcases. “These damned children. They think they’re so clever,” she hissed to herself as she walked away. From within the sword, she had watched as the students all conspired against the giant. It was an orgy of invisibility, deception, and seduction, interspersed with spiders, foxes, and serpents, none of which seemed to be doing anything but make Tammuz angrier. With a sigh, Skaaldrannas found Sco, still slumped behind the bookcases. She knelt in front of him and her pointed teeth formed a white smile as her dagger-like fingers traced his face. When he didn’t wake, she slapped him hard across the cheek, leaving vicious red scratches on his flesh. Scofield awoke screaming, and she smiled all the wider.
Scofield awoke to a weird Daemon with blood running down his cheek from scratches and the riotous noise of students battling something. "Whoozawazzit?" he slurred. Then he looked past Skaaaldrannas and saw the giant Daemon tower over everyone. And was that a snake clinging to one of its curly horns? "Oh, yeah...that," Sco murmured. He touched his scratches and winced. "That hurt, dude," he told Skaaldrannas, clearly offended. "Like, spread love not war, dude." Meanwhile, Tammuz was dealing with Soka. He was confused that she was not flattened against the wall. Then, with a thunderous roar that shook the books from the bookshelves, his entire body was engulfed in crimson flames. "I AM TAMMUZ! FEAR ME!" He stomped his foot and a wall of fire emanated from the impact and rushed toward his attackers. "TAKE COVER!" Diamala screamed to the students. At last, she was close enough to attack Tammuz, but the wall of fire slowed her down. Pax jumped in her way and shielded her with his body. When the fire touched him, it divided around his person like a river around a rock; Pax came out unscathed. Many students at the Academy thought Pax was indestructible, and it seemed that they were being proved right.
Azrael grunted as he was hit by a small child pushing him and his quarry out of the way of Tammuzs attempt to incinerate them. He could of moved out of the way in time without been touched by that student, the audacity it expected him to be grateful for "helping". "You… ummm… use webs or something, I guess. Buy me some time.” And he mocked his ability to get involved in the situation because he was still shifting from his spider form into a wolf. He wasn't his master, he could go get himself killed for all Azrael cared, there would be no buying of time. He curled his lips to the boy showing the newly formed wolf head off and spoke in a guttural approximation of the human language as offered in this form. "Try to touch me again and I'll rip out your throat mortal." He snapped towards him to illustrate the point before running off leaving the quarry he was charged to protect, it was their problem now since the kid had decided to interrupt him. He'd moved Scoffield out of immediate danger and hadn't been told he couldn't leave the task to someone else, there were always loopholes in commands. If the boy proved lax like this perhaps he could have some fun in this world after all. "I AM TAMMUZ! FEAR ME!" Azrael turned his attention back to Tammuz and his cheap party trick to try to evoke fear. The daemon tried to hard. Yeven watched in horror as a wall of flames blasted out from Tammuz, he froze unable to act. His mind jumped back to the commands he had given Azrael and he realised he had never told him to intervene in situations where another daemon threatened his life only when humans did. Yeven was saved by luck as another Daemon nearby summoned up a barrier to protect it's master and any lucky person caught in its radius.
Taya yelped and fled for the side of the room when Tammuz sent a wave of fire at them. Spying her predicament, Soka spat in rage and swiveled her head around to glare into one crimson eye. "I said don't get me mad." she grated, then the ground trembled as her ice-blue eyes glowed an eerie white. The ground steamed, then chilled as frost formed over everything within a ten foot radius of Tammuz. There were deafening cracks as the floor split, and then the white cobra's hood flared wide to reveal ornate runes, each one glowing like her eyes. The ground continued to crack -spiraling outward from directly between Tammuz's feet. She was planning to impale him from below. "Ice spear!"
"You useless bird!" A red-faced Oliver stormed out from behind his cover. If his daemon wasn't going to do anything about the rampaging giant narcissist in front of them, then he would! Tammuz's battle cry dealt with Oliver's temporary courage. "I AM TAMMUZ! FEAR ME!" The determined look on Oliver's face faded, and turned into a wide-eyed gaze. Even if he'd spent all his years in the academy on beating people up, he still didn't stand a chance. What harm could his pale fists do against the fiery skin of Tammuz? Perhaps more urgingly a question; what could Oliver's spirits do against the daemonic roar, but shrivel and die? If the massive ram-horns didn't impress anyone, then surely the wave of fire would instill fear into even the most brave-hearted. He spun around and didn't bother to look back. If he had, he would have seen that some of his fellow students had more bravery than him. But he didn't. He leaped over the overturned table, and almost landed on Dagon, who managed to flutter aside just in time. "Seems it's trying to kill us with fire," Dagon remarked as the edges of the table lit up in a hellish light. With their cover reduced to a frail collection of scorched planks, Dagon decided to seize the initiative. "Look at me," he demanded. "What?" The owl flew straight up to Oliver. "Look at me!" Bewildered, Oliver gawked sheepishly at his winged daemon. But he didn't find Dagon's gold-and-yellow iris, instead his sight vanished completely until he was surrounded by a throbbing, rocking black that tried to squish him between it's many invisible walls. He panicked when he realized he had no hands or legs anymore. "What did you do?" "Calm down, we're in Tammuz's mind, just calm down." "Calm down?!" The darkness tightened, a hot wind of anger swept through the darkness. "Calm down?! You bloody cow! How can you expect me to calm down when I-?" There was no air to squeeze out his last few words. There was only the darkness, coming closer and closer, stealing his breath and heart. "Concentrate. Think happy thoughts!" Dagon's voice sounded. It was muffled and distant, as if he was shouting over a storm. Oliver latched onto a memory of his tenth-birthday, and the air (or whatever the darkness was that surrounded him), cleared a bit. He began to see pools of red, either blood or lava. There were jagged mountains too, and there was a sulfuric sting in the air. Was this how Tammuz's mind looked? Or did it just look so to him? Oliver wasn't given the chance to examine his clearing surroundings further. "I deemed you stronger," Dagon sneered. "Let me handle this, and keep me alive." Oliver blinked, confused. The ground underneath him was hard, the light above him bright, and the lump of feathers on top of him was heavy. With a jolt he realized he was laying back-down on the floor, and Dagon seemed to have fainted. Stupid owl, Oliver thought. But a hiccup, ever so slightly, in Tammuz's roaring and stamping told him that Dagon's attempts at penetrating the giant's mind where at least partially succesfull. Besides, casting aside his daemon was no use, they were bound together forever. Already, Oliver was jealous of the other students, but he wasn't cold hearted enough to throw Dagon away, so he kept a low profile and sprinted for another bit of cover, well away from Tammuz.
Tammuz started to cackle at these puny Magicians and their weak Daemons. The sound was like a thousand dolphins chirping, it was incredibly disturbing. Just when Tammuz thought he had won, he felt an icy stab in his right hoof from Soka, right in the fleshy center. His fire-armor extinguished and the giant Daemon howled with pain and hopped on one hoof. And then he felt a giddy sensation spread through him as Oliver and Dagon possessed his consciousness. Tammuz's immense anger, the excruciating pain in his right hoof, and the irresistible urge to be happy warred with each other. He hopped around clutching his injured leg, the entire library trembling with each hop, as he alternated between laughter and howls of pain. "Good...job?" Headmistress Niamala said. She had finally made it to Tammuz, but it seemed that her attention was not needed. Her students had reduced the raging Daemon to an blubbering beast within minutes. The Headmistress turned away from Tammuz and placed her hands firmly on her shapely hips. She was all business now. "Okay, where is Scofield? Only he can make Tammuz calm down." "I AM TAMMUZ!" The next events happened so fast no one could act. Tammuz suddenly stopped acting crazy and shook his head violently. Plumes of fire erupted from his ears and Oliver and Dagon shot out like canon balls. Niamala had barely turned around when Tammuz clapped his humungous hands and shot a firebolt at her. Pax hopped in the way and caught the firebolt in his bare hands. It turned to gray ashes that rained to the ground, but Pax fell to one knee, weakened. And then Sco came stumbling from between the bookshelves and said, "That's my Daemon, right? So, Tammuz, can you like stop, dude?" Tammuz screamed in defiance. He stomped his uninjured foot and another wave of fire appeared, but this time it only headed for Niamala and Pax. Pax still wasn't moving, so Niamala didn't wait on him to defend her. She jumped on a nearby chair and propelled herself straight into the air. Amazingly, she made it over the fire wall and landed on her feet with all the grace of a year-old cat. Before she could do anything else, Tammuz plucked her up between two meaty fingers and tossed her into the same portal he had been summoned from, like trash into a dustbin. Niamala curled herself into a tight ball like an acrobat and flew into the portal. Pax finally regained his strength, leapt to his feet and sprinted after the Headmistress. Pax dived into the portal, just before it closed. "Get in here right now, Tammuz!" Sco was holding a vase he had found on a pedestal. Tammuz howled once again, but this time he couldn't resist a direct order from his rightful master. The giant Daemon poofed into a huge column of smoke that swirled into the vase Sco was holding. When he was all in, Sco slammed the top on and tied his belt around it to keep it closed. "And stay in there!" the dreadlocked boy added. "Is it all over?" The music teacher at the Academy, Mr Warbly, peaked into the Great Library and looked around. "Good, that big beast is gone. But where's Ms Niamala...?"
