Scene #5407: Towers of the Mighty

Owner	Pose
Miari	Not too long ago, something STRANGE happened to Alucard. Completely without warning a rush of magic came to him and manifested in the form of an ugly-as-sin dinky little winged imp-cherup creature that spoke with Miari's voice. His presence is politely requested at the outskirts of Melekin for a discussion between allies, and transportation has been arranged. The warp gate that leads to the East is guarded by a beauteous, horse-sized wasp. Though every bit as menacing as the smaller version of such insects, this creature's wings gleam in rainbow light, its eyes shimmer like the purest crystal. Its wicked stinger expresses the beauty of a finely polished sword. Its entire body is breathtakingly glamorous, and it bows its head respectfully. It is this creature which can lead Alucard to the meeting place - and provide a ride if he so chooses. This region of the east is lush and covered with plains and forests. But the territory grows hilly and rocky towards the meeting place, a few miles from a farming village visible in the distance. And in that hilly place, the earth is struck bare of covering. Trees are felled and uprooted in great number. The bare soil is stripped away to reveal solid rock which is being quarried... All the activity obscures what is transpiring exactly, but the outlines of huge foundations can be seen through the dust kicked up from time to time. So can the unmistakable forms of strange and bizarre creatures. Tiny globs of SOMETHING that sprout dozens of spindly, many-yard-long legs like great daddy long legs spiders. These shuffle huge stone blocks fallen trees like so many puppets. Short, ogreish, leathery-skinned brutes with mismatched, toothy jaws and great rolls of fat. They carry hammers and axes, and are doing much of the felling and quarrying. Off in the distance there are smaller buildings already erected from stone and wood. Crimson-furred Apes the size of horses, their backs spiny-spiky as can be, haul whole logs and blocks to them. And Miari stands atop a small hill upwind of the ensuing construction, eyes sweeping about to catch every detail of the goings-on...
Alucard Tepes	Definitely a series of strange events, to be sure. The look of the imp isn't a surprising thing -- Castlevania held many strange and equally hideous creatures -- but its appearance is, and he barely manages to get his suppression in place as the creature appears. Melekin? This isn't a name he is familiar with. But there is the imp and, once he reaches it, there at the warpgate is the wasp. If it's saddled or otherwise made clear that it's rideable, he'll do that. Because Creation is still vast, and with his nature hidden, he cannot change forms or move as quickly as he would normally be able to otherwise. And as mentioned, here again, Alucard has his supernatural characteristics suppressed. He does that a lot, since he is aware there are people who would be able to ferret him out based on being able to sense his darker nature. He doesn't want others to clue in to his unnatural origins. Not because he fears being targeted. But because he doesn't want people to BE afraid of being targeted. It's always easier to just pretend he's a normal human, even if he can't ever really be one... He watches the goings-on as he passes by, with a frown. What sort of creatures were these? Nothing natural, that much he could tell. Though the assortment of creatures even strains against the number and type he's seen in Castlevania, and he used to LIVE there. But the wasp guides him on, to a hill overlooking the work of the strange creatures. Where Alucard finds Miari! He offers a polite bow as he approaches. "Greetings. You wished to speak with me?"
Miari	Miari looks over her shoulder, though it's with the ease of someone who's not at all surprised to be aproached. Did she know Alucard was approaching? Whatever the case the pale nobleman's treated to a warm and welcoming smile as she daintily about-faces, hands folded across her lap. "You came. My thanks, Alucard. I trust the messenger or journey were not too shocking. Hospitality is also a bit lacking until at least a few floors are done and the larders stocked... but the situations we're dealing with just will not wait, will they?"
Alucard Tepes	"I have seen such beings before," Alucard assures Miari, of the messenger. And of the journey as well, really. As for the hospitality? "That is quite all right." And then the mention of the situation. This brings a raise of his brow. "I assume you speak of the Golden Bull of the North?" he inquires.
Miari	That news warms Miari's smile even further. She fidgets briefly with her kimono, brushes a few strands of hair over her shoulder... "That would be the most pressing situation. Though I do not expect to sway your heart. That matter seems... out of my hands at this point even if I did. But I do wonder... what do you think of Whitewall and their pact? The Bull and his people? Have you figured out yet what Marama's Fell is? Of the group so far, you struck me as the most educated and alert."
Alucard Tepes	"If there were another way that would not cause the deaths of more people in the long run, I would not support the course of action that was decided upon," Alucard replies. His tone is even and calm as he explains himself further, "But he has stated he intends to use Whitewall to conquer the rest of the North, and from there, all of this world. I do not believe he has the right to take all of this world, due to some perception of divine right to do so. Whether this perception is true or not, a single lord over all cannot but be corrupted." The mention of being 'educated' and 'alert' gets a bit of a smirk. "Ironic. I spoke less because I understood less," he replies. "I know little of this world's powers, whether mundane or Powers-That-Be. I only came to deal with the situation of the Golden Bull, based on information I have on the situation. I do not see a 'right' path, only a 'less wrong' one -- one that will result in the least loss of life."
Miari	"He doesn't have the power to take all of the world either. There are at least a hundred more Solars who, in a decade or two, will carve out their own empires and put him in check... but he could make quite a mess if my read of him is wrong until that happens." Miari notes firmly but with hints of uncertainty in her tone. It's no attempt to persuade apparently, merely inform. Miari's shoulders sag a bit at the further explanation though. "... Really? I thought.. hm. ... Ah, well.. that wasn't quite the question I asked. Whitewall's Thousand Year Pact with the dead and the fae. Every year they stake out 24 captives split evenly between the two dread powers as tribute, in exchange for Whitewall's continued safety... more or less. What do you make of this?"
Alucard Tepes	Alucard nods of Miari's words. "I do not believe he could take all of this world either," he replies. "But he will try. Whether he succeeds or not, he will still kill many in the attempt. Ending him here will prevent that. And as you stated, his powers will not be extinguished, merely passed to another. Perhaps the next to receive his power will be more concerned with the fate of the people of this world who have no chance against him but do not wish to be subjugated." And then the words of the pact. That gets a frown. "I do not like this idea," he states. "This is the reason he wishes to wipe out the dead and the fae in this area, yes?" Pause. "I had intended to assist with at least the desctruction of the dead in the area. I have... some experience with fighting the undead. Perhaps it could be of use."
Miari	"There is no 'wiping them out' but keeping them corralled... THAT much can be done." Miari informs the pale nobleman. Her smile turns a bit bittersweet and regretful. "Really, if anyone knew the consequences that would befall Creation from the Primordial war, one thing that would have been avoided was the Underworld's making. It was never meant to exist. Ghosts are an aberration... and the Fae are quite literally not even of Creation to begin with. They are invaders from outside and few of them show the right... balance of emotions and desires to live in harmony with mortals. Some, but very few. Yet they come from the Wyld, which is infinite, just as how with every war and tragedy that wracks Creation the UNderworld swells further towards bursting and spills back into the world of the living." She breaks off the monologue after a few blinks... then tilts her head, eyes narrowing a little, and confidence showing in her eyes. "Some experience in many matters, I would surmise. To walk around like that but be unfazed by everything... you are no simple nobleman."
Alucard Tepes	Alucard raises an eyebrow. "They cannot be exterminated?" he confirms. "Why is that?" He listens to the words of the Primordial War, tilts his head. "I did hear this mentioned. What is this Primordial War, and how did it 'create' the Underworld?" Pause. "That is, I assume, where the dead infesting this area come from?" Maybe there's a doorway from there to her that can be closed? Though he doesn't voice this yet. And then she turns to him, and the ability denials he'd shown earlier. "Not unphased," he assures her. "I did feel the compulsion to side with Samea and the Golden Bull. I had the compulsion to turn away from Marama's Fell, and to flee from the one they called 'Bloody Revelations'. My home is one with creatures who are capable of such things as well. I have learned to resist sudden and strong urges, to step back and examine why they have suddenly come to be." As for not being a simple nobleman? Alucard almost smiles. Almost. The ghost of a smirk haunts his expression for a moment. "I am... shall we say, older than I look." Which isn't too hard, since he looks like he's about nineteen. But it's not hard to get the feeling that he's not quite talking about a thirty year old looking nineteen.
Miari	"Well, for the Wyld, the answer has already been given. The Wyld is infinite... ah, it will be better if I demonstrate." Miari suddenly smirks a bit herself and leaps backwards with great ease to put about twenty feet between her and Alucard... and spreads her arms wide. "Behold Creation." The air surrounding her glows brilliantly as power flows from her skin and outstretched hands, billowing outwards in a shining golden nimbus. The fringes of it are full of varying shades of red, blue and violet... like the sky at sunset. The energies gain more colors and shape themselves into a sizable rectangular map. The center, tinged an earthy-brown, is a vast island of rather varied geography.. "The Blessed Isle, home of the Scarlet Empire... center of Creation, home of the Elemental Pole of Earth." The map begins to expand and 'zoom out', the seas north of the Isle giving way to mountains and tundra and ice. A dot appears, labeled Whitewall, and a line is shown for the Traveler's road that goes hundreds of miles up the coast. "The North is dominated by the Elemental Pole of Air. Cold and desolate, few live here and those who do are insular and no-nonsense." Miari gestures with one hand and more of the map fills in, a crescent of land filling in for the east - covered in green, and broken up by some very sizable rivers. "The East, dominated by the Elemental Pole of Wood. The second most fertile region. We are..." A dot appears south of the biggest river, and is quickly labeled 'Melekin.' The south fills in next, in vivid red and sandy yellow. "South, the Elemental Pole of Fire. Deserts and, along the coast, savannah. We have no business there right now..." And she completes the gesture, allowing the West to fill in with a vast ocean filled with many archipelago. "The West. Elemental Pole of Water, and home to the Archipelago of Okeanos. It was once an island-continent, but... disasters broke it apart." She gestures further and the whole rectangle shrinks, its borders grow hazy... and vast, seething pearlescent rainbow shimmers and streamers swirl around the tiny dominion that represents Creation. "The Wyld surrounds us, stretching seemingly to infinity, even though the Wyld and Creation within it appears to be fixed in size from the outside perspective of the Multiverse. The Wyld is the domain of Fae and stranger things. Creation was carved from it. Because it is infinite, the threat it poses is similarly infinite. The Raksha cannot be slaughtered because there are always more born from the Chaos, if there is even any end to the Chaos."
Alucard Tepes	At this Alucard raises a brow. "Demonstrate?" he inquires. And then here's a map! A magical one that shows places appearing on it as Miari explains them. Alucard remains silent as the map of Creation is shown, its parts explained. He marks well Whitewall and Melekin. Once Miari gets to the mention of the Wyld, Alucard nods. "That is similar to Castlevania in my world. It is not infinite, but it returns infinitely. A castle that is at its heart a Creature of Chaos, forever returning to blight the land until someone sends it back from whence it came. No one knows where it disappears to when it is sent back." He looks at the map then, and pauses. "And the Underworld?" he asks. "Is it located literally underneath Creation?"
Miari	"Yes... and no, confusingly enough. It helps to think of it as below, but..." Miari brings her arms a bit closer together. The Display of the vast Wyld shrinks down to a thin shimmery border around Creation, which zooms back in... and now turns isometric, though with only crude height-mapping. The sun and moon enter the picture now, slowly rising in the east and setting in the west. The two are never shown in the sky at the same time, unlike Earth... She gestures, and the foundation of Creation just starts to EXTEND and stretch and stretch.. endless black-brown-gray stretches of depicted rock. "As far as anyone knows, all you'll find if you merely DIG is rock and more rock. Though there are THINGS trapped in the far depths best left alone." She raises the arm again and the extended rock view snaps back to normal. then she gestures with her other hand, at the skies. A great emerald-colored... comically-rendered mass of writhing tentacles and eyes is shown falling towards the Western sea! It is easily as big as the Blessed Isle in this rendering.. is the scale even half-accurate? "Primordials were slain in the ancient war. When their decaying bodies struck Creation..." The green tentacle-thing turns a rotten black-blue and impacts theground... yet instead of rendering a crater, a ghostly imprint of Creation is snagged by the tumbling and sinking creature. Now there are TWO Creations shown... though the one rendered 'below' is a rendered in bleak greyscale and lacks details. In the center, rather than a great mountain... is an empty white hole. Several more Strange Beasts hit Creation and fall down with the first... their depicted forms spread out to form the underground 'foundation' of this ghostly Creation. "The Underworld mostly mirrors Creation, and it constantly shifts and recreates itself as new souls drift into it and drag memories of the living lands with them. Geography can get VERY confusing and twisted up from the different layers. Cities built atop each other, each falling into the Underworld at some point, that sort of thing... but at the center is the Mouth of the Void. An empty hole that leads to seemingly... nowhere. It is nothing. Nonexistence. Oblivion. It is that which empowers our macabre messenger 'friend.'" She flicks a finger upwards... and now bleak tendril-whirlwinds waft up from the Underworld. One is zoomed in on... near Whitewall and the Traveler's Road. The underworld-murk touches Creation above and begins to taint the ground with black coloration. If the scaling is accurate, the taint spreads across thousands and thousands of square miles east of Whitewall, and only a tiny bit of overlaps with the Traveler's Road... "Shadowlands are what happens when far too much death stains Creation, drawing it closer to its deathly counterpart. Necrotic Essence poisons the land and unclean things move in to drive out life. Though the tale that created THIS one is particularly sickening..."
Alucard Tepes	It helps Alucard not to think of scale at the moment. However, he does note the falling thing being quite large. And the making of the Underworld as well... that is an extraordinarily tale. "These Primordials... from their name, I would assume they were the beings that once comprised all existence? How then does Creation still exist without them?" Ah yes. Then Miari speaks of Marama's Fell, the bleak landscape of the area they had been when meeting with Bloody Revelations. He frowns. "She is undead, then?" he inquires. "What created this area? I assume it was not merely one death."
Miari	Miari shakes her head quickly. "They don't comprise Creation. Yet their natures do... pervade it. It is thought that killing more of them may have dreadful consequences worse than the Underworld's formation, hence why they were imprisoned instead. But their bodies are not the world itself. The Primordial who at all fits this description would be Gaia, the Emerald Mother, who thankfully sided with the Gods against her fellow Primordials and remains in her original form, now counted amongst the Celestial Incarnae. The Five Elemental Dragons of Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Wood who reside at the Poles sprang from her though, and without them Creation would... if not perish, then become uninhabitable. Without Wood, there would be no life and fertility." Miari lowers her arms now, and the grand map starts to fade away along with her brilliant sunlight-aura. A dark and sorrowful look spreads across her face as it does. "A long time ago, the world was ruled by those Chosen by the Sun and Moon. The map I showed you would look considerably larger if it was of the Age of Glories, for they were even able to force back the Wyld and shape it into more Creation. Yet the Chosen grew corrupt and twisted. The world was much grander then, but the Chosen were so powerful and so insane that a mis-step on their part could bring everything crashing down. So the least of the Exalted, the Dragon-Blooded, rose up in great number and cast down the Sun's Chosen. Somehow, they sealed away their reincarnating souls... and drove the Chosen of Luna, who they could not similarly trap, far from the Blessed Isle. In the wake of that Usurpation, the Dragon-Blooded were left with a conundrum, for the Sun-children had engineered countless new kinds of life and spirits that were loyal only to their creators. From the most innocent babies of the winged People of the Air to the most loyal of automaton servitors, along with those too closely related to the Chosen by blood... anyone and everything that the Dragon-Blooded were not sure could be trusted or resisted their treachery was shipped off to a massive ... extermination camp in there. As the story goes, a rather psychotic Dragon-Blooded officer, Anjei Marama, was in charge of the forsaken place. She had come from a bloodline that had become somewhat... obsolete by all of the created races... it might help if I said Gens Anjei were bred for beauty and passion..." Miari blushes faintly at this admission then rapidly shakes her head to clear her thoughts. "Well... I don't know the specifics, but by all accounts she vented her frustrations on everything that was imprisoned there... however many ten or hundreds of thousands or millions of deaths stained the land."
Alucard Tepes	"I see." This to Miari's explanation of the Primordials, the world itself, and the Elemental Dragons. He looks to the map again as it fades away, and then to Miari again, noting the sad look. She begins to explain more about the history of Creation then, and Alucard quiets to listen, mulling all this over in his head. Oh, to be sure, he can tell what Miari means about the Gens Anjei, if only from the blush on her face. He remains quiet and stoic, listening. "So this 'camp' of sorts, became a place of slaughter and despair, and this tainted the land into the... Shadowland it is today?" he asks in confirmation. "And Marama's Fell in Creation is... something like a doorway to the Underworld?" Aha. Possible source of the problem. Well, one source. "If the land were purified, would it 'close' this doorway?"
Miari	This gets Miari nodding a few times. She's quieted by the disparate thoughts, quite at odds with the morbid subject of the place. Rubbing her cheeks a bit seems to clear her head enough... "That's correct. At night, Shadowlands become more a part of the Underworld than Creation. Ghosts, normally immaterial, are rendered solid and physical. And a Shadowland's borders, at night, lead into the Underworld... so walking into one can be trouble if you are not prepared. And the Underworld is no place for the living. Even the Chosen tread carefully in that dread place. Purifying them IS possible. You noticed the Shrines and the like on the Traveler's road? Whitewall hosts as many marriages and other life-affirming ceremonies there as possible. That does push it back bit by bit. SMALL shadowlands... no bigger than say, a mansion... THOSE may be purified through nothing more than a heaping helping of ritually prepared salt. Something as big as Marama's Fell though... you need the power of multiple Solar Exalted working together, or it's hopeless."
Alucard Tepes	Alucard does have a thoughtful look on his face here. He listens to this, how these Shadowlands work, and what it would take to purify one. Not just any Shadowland, but one the size of Marama's Fell. He doesn't have access to Solar Exalted. But purification rituals should work from most worlds, shouldn't they? He thinks about what may exist in his world that he may be able to access. There's the Belmonts, but they wouldn't be able to do it alone. Maria would probably be invaluable. Richter... might be able to assist; his mere presence is holy. And, as Alucard can attest, so is the whip! Alucard doesn't know if the Belnades family even still exists in his world anymore... "Could it be done over time?" Alucard inquires. "Slowly push back the borders of the Shadowland until it retreats? Or must eradicating it be done in one effort?"
Miari	"In theory. Just as Whitewall does it. However... the problem there is scale. Covering thousands of miles of border and moving inwards. The dead are FOND of Shadowlands, and would... definitely fight back." Miari sighs exasperatedly, giving a bit of a shrug. "It's a long-term problem, I'm afraid. ... I hope that puts into perspective some of what's happening in Creation, though."
Alucard Tepes	Hm. Well. Alucard concedes, "That would indeed require a great deal of effort. More than one world could hope to offer." There are still plans roiling around in his head, mind. But he doesn't discuss them just now. Definitely will need a lot of Multiversal help to even begin fixing it.
Miari	"Start small, that's all I can do. Thousand-mile shadowlands? Empires that span half of Creation? It's a bit much. But here I am, building. Like the Bull of the North, I also have an eye to conquer. Just not with swords and spears. Just bringing back a fraction of the quality of life and industrial efficiency of the First Age will make a power in the East. This place will be one of many manufacturing centers and counting houses of an economic power that can rival the Guild. That effort won't go unopposed, I'm sure. Frightened men will stand against change, and greedy ones will cling to their fortunes even if it stands on slave labor to function. By the time I achieve that, I suspect that most of the existing borders will be redrawn and one Circle of Solar Exalted or another will have overtaken the Scarlet Empire. In my opinion, it's only a matter of time until the Sun's Chosen re-establish world dominance to SOME level of solidity. The only question is how much more Creation will lose in the effort... I do not want to see the Underworld flooded further or lost treasures destroyed or fall into the hands of neonate Chosen who do not understand what they've found." Miari gives yet ANOTHER exasperated sigh and shrugs her shoulders. "You don't need to worry about solving the big problems in Creation. This one or the one we were investigating. But a bit of damage control is reasonable."
Alucard Tepes	"Then the stopping of the Golden Bull should be a thing you would appreciate," Alucard notes. "Particularly since he seems to care little for anything that does not fall under 'his' banner. Stopping the Underworld from being flooded further is one of the reasons this course of action is being taken. Any that are unwilling to let life continue unless it continues under their own thumbs are at issue." He knows she's telling the truth. But... "That will take longer than a human life," he notes. "Have you that much time?" See, he doesn't understand how these 'Exalted' work. As far as he knows, they're just holy people.
Miari	"Indeed, though as I said, he won't be able to do that. If he sieges Whitewall, they'll inevitably surrender before the losses are too great. The Syndics will reluctantly turn over the Temple manse and a great deal of people will flee along the traveler's road before the Thousand-Year Pact is broken. THAT is where the suffering will be concentrated.. or so I'd imagine. The refugees. Not the city itself. Admittedly that does not really make it any less traumatic... at least, not if he has any respect for the holy city he hopes to restore..." The sudden question gets her blinking... and then smiling broadly. "Of course. Did you think me a mortal, Alucard?" She girlishly leans forward, hands migrating to behind her as she lightly kicks at the ground, giving him a playful look.
Alucard Tepes	Alucard nods. "That is exactly the situation I am hoping to prevent," he notes. "I do not like that this pact exists. But once it is broken, the fae and the undead will descend upon this area with a vengeance. They will have victims at the ready as people flee from Whitewall, which would otherwise be safe from both fronts. I do not like it. But if I must choose between a score-and-four to die, or hundreds, perhaps thousands, I will choose a score-and-four." He tilts his head at the words of her apparently not-mortality. "I have little in the way of knowledge of the Sun's Chosen, or their ilk," he admits. "I thought them merely holy men and women, with a closer connection to the god who gives them their powers."
Miari	"It's a fairly good understanding, Alucard." Miari replies, still lightly kicking the ground. Though she quickly catches herself doing this and springs back to standing straight. "The souls of mortals are comprised of two parts... the hun or upper soul, seat of memories, reason, and thought... and the po, or lower soul, the source of beastly instinct and deep passions. At death the two separate, with the po remaining within any corpse left and dissipating over time... unless some terrible matter upsets it enough to rise on its own. The hun either drifts into the cycle of reincarnation to be cleansed of memories and reborn, or falls into the Underworld." Once again Miari stretches her arms.. and the lightshow commences. This time she brings forth a diagram of a human silhouette wrought in orange-red sunfire against white-yellow. Within its belly swirl two rotating flames in a Yin-and-Yang-like formation, twisting around each other. One blue, the other white. Then she points off to the side of the grand display, and a new 'soul' of brilliant gold-white approaches, much bigger than the others. "Exaltation is a miracle. The divine flames wrought by the renegade Primordial Autochthon in combination with the Unconquered Sun, Luna, the five Maidens of Fate, and Gaia. The Essence of the Celestial Exalted can be thought of as a third soul segment. Eternal and intractable, and completely independent of its original patron. To use the Solar Exaltations as an example... these come to people in a time of need, when their souls are ablaze. Only a scant handful of people have what it takes to withstand the power, and that blaze is what attracts the Exaltation." Her roving hand, seemingly controlling the burning Exalt-soul, brings it to the human silhouette... and the third 'soul' joins with the other two, weaving around and through them and turning all of it into a great flame that fills the silhouette and burns out even further beyond. "The Unconquered Sun cannot command his Chosen. He can direct an Exaltation at a mortal who catches his eye, but not stop them from choosing someone of their own volition either. His existence is not even necessary for the Exaltations to continue choosing new hosts. This design was intentional, for if the Gods were capable of halting Exaltation and commanding their Chosen the Primordials could have ordered them to tell the Chosen to lay down their arms and surrender, and taken back their power." She lowers her arms, but the display remains. "Each shard of power falls into one of five categories. The Dawn Castes, Warriors without peer. The Bull of the North is one. The Zenith Caste are priests, preachers, and rulers. I hear Samea is a Zenith. The Twilight Caste are men and women of great intellect and savant talent. Smiths, sorcerers, physicians, scholars, and the sort. I am among their number. The Eclipse Caste are diplomats, merchants, travelers... those skilled in the art of persuasion and working with many diverse cultures. Lastly, the Night Caste. Spies and assassins who bring the light of justice into dark places and ferret out Creation's enemies. The Caste roles are not very limiting however. Samea, though a Zenith, is an expert Sorceress." Once more she raises her arms. "The power brings with it many benefits. Disease and poison find little purchase on the Chosen. Their wounds heal rapidly and do not fester. They live for many millenia unless felled.. though the Dragon-Blooded can only manage a scant few centuries. As they grow in age and experience, the Chosen learn to nurture their fragment of power and master it. In time they can grow to be just as powerful as their power's progenitor... though, inevitably, they perish. The shard leaves them and finds another host." She strikes the air with her hand and the silhouette dissolves. The 'exaltation' glow shrinks back into the original blazing orb and flies off...
Alucard Tepes	Alucard listens to the explanation of how death works in Creation. And frowns. "Souls never rest?" This seems like a pretty horrible thing to him overall, that the same soul should be forced to live again and again, without ever finding their way to an actual rest. He watches the 'diagram' of an Exaltation, listens to Miari's explanation of it all. "I see," he notes. Perhaps a pitifully short response to all of that explanation, but it is nonetheless true. Alucard is generally a man of few words as it is. He's also sensing a theme to all this. "And I take it that, these Exaltations... they do not only choose the just and righteous, but also those who would commit terrible acts?" Alucard and Miari stand atop a hill overlooking a strange construction of a building by a crew of strange and hideous beings. For himself, Alucard has his nature suppressed, and appears as a normal, if slightly pale, human being.
Miari	"The Exaltation cannot really distinguish this. Only find souls worthy of its power. It was said that the Sun's power PREFERS those with noble causes... but one man's liberator is another's warlord." Miari can only shrug a bit, almost apologetically. She adjusts her kimono a bit later. Then... blinks a few times, double-taking at Alucard. "Wait... how would a soul... 'rest'?" The concept seems alien to her. Enough for her expression to shatter into clear bewilderment.
Alucard Tepes	"A 'hero' in the classic sense," Alucard observes. In the Greek sense, of course. Meaning one who does great things, good OR evil. "As you say, one man's idea of 'liberating' is another man's idea of 'destruction'." Though the confusion regarding a soul resting draws a raised eyebrow. "The concept of 'having done enough' does not exist in Creation?" he asks. He thinks about that. "...Then again, if a soul is merely a bit of detritus caught in the gears that turn within your world's inner workings, perhaps that makes sense..." His words aren't rude or contemptuous, but factual and even.
Tomoe	Tomoe has heard a hell of a lot about it, she's still toweringing and she has listen. "So that makes Pavo full of shit. The chosen of the sun are not beholden to him, almost as a check to him and the other gods if you think about it. A way for man to eternally stand it's ground and not be food nor prey. at least i think how that is I'm sorry to barge in but i kinda over heard this." she looks a bit sheepish for the moment and shakes her head. "This world is so different from mine, magic, demons, monsters, gods who actively do things mortals are aware of. It's a lot to take in. "So more like Herculse than say King Arthur then?"
Miari	"Th-that way of describing souls is the bleakest I have ever heard." Miari, oddly enough, gapes slightly at the ease with which souls are described that way. It takes her a moment to regain her composure, though she turns to gently stroking her chin in a manner that does NOT seem very lady-like or youthful... though a few moments later and she again reacts like someone trying to avoid biting her nails and wrenches her hand away from her chin... whilst turning an eye to the newly-arrived Tomoe. "... It's something like that? Champions of humanity, that is. From the perspective of the Gods, humanity rules Creation, with the Exalted standing at the forefront. Such was promised to them as the reward for victory." She purses her lips now, thinking back at Alucard's words... "Rest for... how long? That is... the point of lethe. It cleanses and eases the soul so it can be ready for a new life, without all the burdens and anxieties that came before. I can only equate eternal rest with oblivion... what is the reason we exist if not enjoying it?"
Alucard Tepes	Alucard had been unaware of anyone else being here, and so when Tomoe speaks, he turns quickly, half-drawing his sword. He does NOT like being snuck up on. In fact, should Miari have any supernatural senses, she might actually be able to sense the pulse of dark power as Alucard turns, quickly enough to leave a pale blue afterimage of himself. But once he sees who's there, he calms, the sword is sheathed, and the pulse of dark power disappears again. However, he nods to Tomoe. "In a way," he agrees, of Pavo. "The Sun does give them power, even if it does not give them direction of how to use it. In a way, that makes Pavo all the more right -- the Sun gives no direction to its Chosen, yet this one intends to use the Sun's name for conquest of Whitewall, and of the North. The Sun does not demand the Golden Bull do this, yet he claims divine right to do so nonetheless." Miari's description gets a tilt of his head. "That... was the purpose of resting, I had thought. But your world seems to work a bit differently. Relieving a soul of its memories seems to me a horrible thing to do, for instance."
Tomoe	Tomoe says "It kinda grim yes and honestly creation scares me in a lot of ways Miari. It's a place were all the old tales are true more or les severy stupid backwards thought about how the world works is likely how it works here." She slumsps a bit ofr a moment. "Maybe but this is something hard to wrap around really. I'm mostly a sword arm, really and I just get into things over my head it seems. Six years ago all this would have been fiction to me."
Miari	"Why... would it be so horrible? If you lead a dreadful life as someone's slave, would you want so much baggage weighing on your heart in the next life? It would make for a very disturbing childhood." Miari can only blink profusely at the ramifications of there being reincarnation while keeping memories to THAT extent... "It's bad enough with me. Figuring out where the new me started and the old me ended was an endless barrage of headaches... very strange ones. Especially since I was a male before." She just sort of cants her head sideways. For once, filled with too many thoughts.
Alucard Tepes	Alucard looks between the two of them, not really sure what to say. Since there's no clear answer to it all, he just sort of keeps his mouth shut. Until Miari asks about keeping painful memories. "Bad memories are proof that one has overcome them. Forgetting them is forgetting how far one has come. And, they may be horrible memories... but they are yours. To have them stripped away seems... wrong. Invasive."
Tomoe	Tomoe Says "To be wiped like a hard drive? A person is summ of their memoruies the people they have mat and the books they have read. That's wiping everything away... I'd rather bring the heaebns crashing down than let myself be errased. Being trapped in SAO was a living nightmare. I saw friends die, people lose thir minds and become like beasts. Yet without them? I'd be utterly not worth the time of any elites. Your a chosen of the sun god, your some kind of vampire hunter i was just cupical bait to be some office lady somewhere..."
Miari	"... I don't really understand though... that's while you're alive... not after you're dead." Miari mildly protests, still not quite comprehending this vehemence. "Of course forgetting yourself while alive would be terrible... Iiiii don't get this." For once the Exalt is quite literally stumped.
Alucard Tepes	"Forgetting the life you lived... this is as though you did not live at all," Alucard tries to explain. "If you forget the life you lived, what matters that life? The many years spent learning, struggling, striving to achieve -- what point are those years if a soul forgets them utterly upon death?" Though he does sort of understand Tomoe's concern. "...I will admit, I have never been... typical of anything," he acknowledges. So it seems the dark aura from before DID mean something. "But I do know what it is like, to have one's understanding of the world upset in a sudden turn, as surely as if one had been atop a chessboard upset by an angry hand."
Tomoe	Tomoe says "Every hope, every dream, every thing good and ill you did just /wiped/ away. It makes existance pointless in my view. She looks at Alcuard for a moment. "Before I got traped in in the death game I'd just have been meat for the grinder of so many of the predatory things. My world generally has no powers, no magic no nothing. Someone like Pavo could wander into somewhere and become queen pretty easily. I'm ... ranting I'm sorry..."
Miari	"There's a purpose to being alive? That's news to me. Making my own path is enough for me. If there was one purpose in being alive, why would everyone be different?" Miari finally makes a comeback, the confidence returning to her eyes... Though those eyes swerve to give attention to Tomoe. They narrow a little... the emerald-clad young woman frowns. "Is there something wrong with that? If it's what you want to be, then why not be it?" She then asides to Alucard, "What was that power? Not quite necrotic... not quite demonic... something in-between? No that either... I've never seen such an aura."
Alucard Tepes	Alucard seems to smirk a bit. It's hard to tell, he just has one of those faces that doesn't show emotion well unless it's overwhelming. Tomoe's words get a nod. "It can be difficult to deal with such suddenly changed situations," he says. "But you have adapted. You yourself have changed, in response to these changes. You have not let them defeat you. That is admirable." "...A purpose to life. Such a thing has been sought by the people of my world for generations," Alucard replies. "None has been found. But the knowledge that there IS none... would finish many. And so they continue to search." He seems like he's on the fence about whether there is a purpose to life or not. And then Miari mentions the dark power she'd sensed when Tomoe appeared. All of the emotion disappears from Alucard's face. He doesn't speak for a moment, trying to determine how to answer it. He looks between Tomoe and Miari. Miari has already told him a lot about the world... but not too terribly much about herself. And he doesn't know Tomoe to trust her with the knowledge, even if she seems a good enough sort. "You have no need to worry," he assures her instead. "It will not happen again."
Tomoe	Tomoe says "God was not a blind creatory they creatred my world. Or even if I'mn wrong and it's one of the other faiths that are right their god or gods still have some sort of plan generally. she shrugs. "Our worlds are alien to eacother, yes we were not made ot be little prayer machines for cosmic horrors to feed off." She look to alcuard and nods she understnds not to press about things like that. "Not my business, I can't throw stones given some of the people who helped us escape the death game."
Miari	Miari's gaze sweeps across Alucard. Flickers of concern there... but no real suspicion. She doesn't even seem terribly bothered at the pale flesh of his.... "I care not for the nature of one's power. Only their deeds." Miari eventually exclaims in an attempt to sound dignified. Then.. her gaze turns even warmer and MORE confident. Almost regally. "Though you're right to hide that aura here. Creation's gods would be alarmed by it." Now the Sorceress asides to Tomoe, "Rumor has it there are worlds where humans came about but spirits did not. All supposedly some sort of... colossal... vomiting of unregulated physics. ... the Multiverse is strange. I shall stick to sorcery. It's much easier to understand." ... Sure, sure it is. But Miari brings her hands together, streams of blue-white light now gathering around her fingers. With swift, disciplined movements she carves glyphs into the air that quickly combine. "Thunder Wolf's Howl!" Is the rough translation of the Old Realm she exclaims, the words resonating with the glyphs and-- Hundreds of feet away, there's the cry of a wolf. Fierce enough to make hearts skip a beat and fill veins with an icy chill. And POWERFUl enough that, were one too close, the SOUND might be lethal enough to grind bones to a pulp. Thankfully.. nobody is too close. Instead, the howl serves to BLOW AWAY the huge dust cloud surrounding the construction sight, revealing the dozens of demons below that have briefly paused to gaze up and see what the ruckus was. Three floors of what looks like a great mansion or castle have been laid so far, all in stone. And the demons are quick to get their nerves back and shuffle back to work. "... Going well indeed!"
Alucard Tepes	"I make no admissions of knowing anything about higher powers," Alucard replies to Tomoe's words. "I do not know that it is my place to question." Perhaps odd considering his words from before. But then he has never questioned the Golden Bull's claim to power, just his choice of application. Alucard meets Miari's gaze with a cool, calm one of his own. When she mentions the hiding of his aura, he nods. "It is not my intention to alarm anyone, mortal or greater," he notes. He raises an eyebrow at the formation of the glyph, and then starts a bit at the wolf howl. He tenses a bit, too, as if expecting something to attack. Though at least he doesn't draw his sword, and that aura doesn't flail again. He looks down to the now-cleared site and blinks. "...They work quickly," he observes.
Tomoe	Tomoe says "Fair enough alucard." She then kind stares at what just happens she peers at what's bing built as well and the force of that spell. She just shakes her head though a bit as she seems somewhat overwhelemd by what she's seen.
Miari	"Ah... it'll be nice to have a proper workshop again. And some storage space..." MIari seems ever-so-pleased to be gazing down at the progress. In fact, much like a kid, she clenches both hands into fists and pumps them a little at her side. "Keep it up, keep it up!" Not that any demons can hear her from this distance... "Soon, this complex will be finished... I'll summon more demons and assemble task squads. Hire some locals... there's caravan wagons to build and spells to cast, gods to negotiate with, metal to smelt and meals to cook... eventually a whole new Melekin to fill with industry. Proper roads, proper sewers. Predictable weather. No disease worth mentioning and a much greater life expectancy. Everyone able to read and write... this area has recently been victim to Arczeckhi raids. Proper walls will keep them at bay..."
Alucard Tepes	"Even the largest of empires starts somewhere," Alucard replies. Though he frowns a bit as he looks upon the demons. And he voices. "...It is odd to see these creatures working almost... peacefully. Demons are beasts in my world that have no use other than to corrupt, or to destroy what they cannot corrupt."
Miari	"Oh, it's a similar story here. Demons are wicked, spiteful creatures, the lot of them. And most have no capacity or desire to grow beyond that. What we see here are the least of the Demons. Demons of the First Circle. Mere progeny of the twisted and imprisoned Primordials. Mortals, to them, are slaves, playthings, and food, in no particular order. At best, they'll ignore mortals because they're not worth the attention or maybe play nice on a whim. THANKFULLY, bound with sorcery they are infallibly loyal. They will follow every order with genuine interest to see it done and done right, and will not do anything they think will harm or anger me. The troubling part there is... 'that they think will.' And if my brother was here, I would have to legitimately wonder... would the demons assume that I want him catered to no matter what he does, or humiliated and flayed alive to show him who's boss? If I do not tell the Blood Apes that it is NOT alright to devour a child who wanders into this area, they might just do that. Demons are safe enough, but require exacting supervision!" Miari delivers most of this with a rather confident smile. Almost smug. She does enjoy wielding power a LITTLE at least.
Tomoe	Tomoe listens for a momentand tilts her head. "Generally they come crawling out of the cracks seeking the ruin of man and to traffic in our souls. At least in my experiance in the multivese but i consider dealing in such to brrisky but you seem to know what your doing. Sounds like the unmanned combat drones some militaries on my world make use of... damn what did you brother /do/ to wmk you wnt to do that and ...."
Alucard Tepes	Alucard isn't going to ask if it's 'safe' to enslave demons so. "As such one must very careful with how one words one's orders," he surmises. A look again, out at the masses. It doesn't sit well with him, but for the most part he is not here to tell someone how they should and shouldn't conduct their business, as long as no one's harmed. And it looks like Miari's thought of most of the issues one might encounter in such deals. "The castle I spoke of... it teems with demons and undead," he notes. "They are set loose each time the castle appears, and do little else but spread misery and despair." As for Tomoe's words? He nods. "Most do seek the ruin of all." The mention of Miari having something against her brother gets... a ghost of a smirk. "I can understand bad blood between members of a family."
Miari	"BOTH brothers, really. Twins." Miari's tone gets briefly frustrated, but only hints. "They were lucky enough to show the blessing of Sextes Jylis - ah... they are Dragon-Blooded. They Exalted young, at only fifteen... while nothing happened to me. Though I did not let that stop me. While they partied and cavorted and traveled I studied... and studied and studied some more. Learned enough to uncover some secrets of the family Manse! They... did not like being overshadowed by their younger sister, and mortal at that... I had to flee home and not look back. But they still pursued. It was during a bit of a confrontation with them that the power came to me! When I was at the end of my rope... Power even greater than theirs. But it took everything in me to not rip them apart with the bits of sorcery I'd pieced together from the family treasures. ... It all seems so silly now. But I sacrificed my fury for even greater power. Sorcery demands you look beyond such things." Which brings her gazing sideways at Alucard now. "A lesson that it sounds like some other sorcerer didn't learn. It keeps coming back again and again? How stubbornly persistent..."
Tomoe	Tomoe just kinda gapes for a long moment at the story. "Sounds like something out of Game of Rulers." She shakes her head a little bit.