As Duriel reached the land of the dwarves, the wind left him and he began to walk, at a normal pace again. He began to think about what he was to do... He was supposed to find out where the armor was being sent, so he would need information... Well, Duriel was a simple man, and he knew a place where knowledge would be thrown around more and more as people lost their intelligence... A tavern. Before dusk consumed the surface's light fully, he found something quite rare... A tavern above ground, and not within the depths bellow. He would have hoped to receive lodging within the building, but it seemed they had closed before he had arrived, and further more, wasn't sure if he had any coin on him.

As he grew more and more tired, he found a rather large tree, or at least, a tree that was rather large in comparison to him. It wasn't the best place to sleep, but it would work. He placed his sack under his head, as if to use it as a pillow, and began to lie on his back, trying to sleep as the night grew older and older. Eventually, he did find rest, but it seemed short lived as he woke up... Not under the tree, but in his home, in the other world.. His word. He began to rush, as he didn't hear the roosters crow from above ground, and assumed that he was rather late. When he began to run out the door, having skipped breakfast, he heard something... He heard the roosters. He had awoken earlier than they, and it was just now a proper morning time... Rather than staying back and waiting, he made his way to the Tavern, to start getting the place ready.

As he arrived at the tavern, he began to think to himself, about all that had happened... More and more thoughts began to cloud his mind, and he even began to wish that he was back there, with a clean slate, and something else to do, other than this day in day out routine. As he thought about it, he cleaned the bar, and set everything up as he did normally, as if he could do his job absentmindedly. His face held a look of unhappiness, however, he began to shake his head as he left the building, turning the sign from closed to open... He began to smile, as he walked back to his place at the bar, a grin on his face... What more did he need, than this?

Duriel watched as everyone got most of their items, however, there was one that... Perplexed him, it was one of the human's, a sword at that. He slung his knapsack up over his shoulder, and walked closer as the human asked what type of metal it was. He walked over to the weapon, and began to feel of it with his hands, and began to look at the metal with a bit of intensity, a bit of a confused look on his face as he answered. "Well, what ya' have here... Appears, to be dwarven steel, mixed with some sort of obsidian... There's very few blacksmiths who could do something like this, and it was done with great care and talent... It's going to be a rather trusty blade, I can assure ya' that.

Duriel eventually walked back to where he had been standing, and began to nod as the giant and the elf spoke, agreeing with what they were saying... He began to think of all that had gone on, his mind throwing everything about, examining all that had gone on in his small, dwarven mind... If this was true... If this was as urgent as she had made it out to be, it would be best to follow the other's lead, wouldn't it? Further more, the elf seemed smart enough to outwit him, and the giant struck fear into his heart as he spoke. Do to this, he decided that it would be best to leave while he still could. "Aye, I agree with the elf and human. If it's as urgent as you make it out to be, I don't think standing around here and sleeping is going to help anyone, your godliness."

I sat in the crowd, biting my lip as I watched them tie the girl to the stake... How many of us would they kill, before they realized they are the true monsters...? That they, are the ones causing endless death, that we... Have done nothing wrong... Even now, they were going to burn this one for using magic to heal someone who was  very ill... I couldn't stand it... I felt my heart begin to pound harder, and harder as the fire began to creep up her legs... I watched as the fire began to touch her... And then, she bean to cackle... I felt my heart nearly jump out of place... I recognized the laugh... It was Hason's, the witch of chaos...

As the fire reached her, I noticed something, and so did the crowd. The fire wasn't crawling up her stake, it was flying towards her hands, which had come free of the bindings. I watched in fear as the fire was gathered into a ball... I would be immune to the fire, due to myself being a witch of fire... But... There were innocent people here, weren't there...? They didn't all deserve it... No... None of them deserved it, not a death this painful, no one, deserves it... Not even her. She began to yell, the voice ringing out along the area... Saying of how much they had wronged our kind, saying how much these humans didn't deserve to live, and to watch as she would exterminate them, one town at a time... I watched as she threw the ball of flame, which was at a massive size now, into the air, and as it began to come back down, hurtling towards the crowd. I did something I shouldn't have, something that almost cost me my life... I saved them. My voice echoed out, and my hands began to glow with a white color, as I yelled the incantation... "CONTEGO!"

As the words left my mouth, a barrier seemed to glass over the entire village, the ball of flame smashing into the shield of light, and dissipating as the shield began to die out... I began to sway, a shield of that size was no easy feat... I assumed that maybe the people would be grateful that I saved them, that I had stopped their death... But it was the opposite... When I came to, I was in her place, and she was gone... When I came to, I was... Well, where I am now. I've been tied here for over a day, and today is the day I die... I don't even have enough energy to save them, and I only know protection spells... I couldn't save myself if I wanted to...

I began to silently begin to cry as they read off my charges, of being a witch... Emotions began to well up inside me as the crowd I had saved... The crowd who I had kept from burning, came to watch my death, came to watch, as they set me up to die. I watched as they began to chant... Penitence for my crimes, penitence...And my life... I watched as they lit the fire, however, a paper seemed to fall out of their pocket, and they seemed to... Smile at me... The paper had three things written on it... Englace, Enblaze, and Luse... I recognized all of them, and I knew what they wanted me to do... But I can't, as much as I want to, I can't do it... I don't have the ability, I don't have the energy... As much as the anger in me wanted them dead, I couldn't do anything... I began to do something that was rare for me, something I would never do, as I knew exactly who I was praying to... I began to pray, to the Gaia's... And, I guess they granted my wish... Not to be delivered... But they would grant my wish, that the crowd would have judgement passed upon them... By my hands.

I felt energy rush into me as the fires began to press against my legs, and I knew what I had to do. I muttered the word 'englace', and shards of ice began to spring fourth from the stake, crushing the fire in it's place, smiting it... I then began to say something as the ropes around me loosened, as I cut them off with the ice itself... I spoke about how I had given them a second chance, about how I had saved them from the witch of chaos... Yet they failed to repent, and become a better people... I did the very thing I had vowed not to do, the very thing, I stopped the other witch from doing... I yelled an incantation, much more powerful than hers, one that would bring them to a quick, and swift death... "ENBLAZE!"

As the words left my mouth, runic symbols across the entire town began to light up, to make one, giant red mark. Fire began to spring fourth, a little at first, but it sprung into a large, wave of flame, anything caught in the blast being turned blackened and crisp in a matter of mere seconds... At least, that's what the spell should have done... Using the last of my energy, before I could even see what I had done, I used a spell to transport myself into a random place, a... Safe place... I used the final spell on the paper the one had dropped... "Luse."

Then, as I saw my surroundings... Green, a forest... But as soon as I was there, and had oriented myself, it all went black, and I could see nothing, for I had lost consciousness...

Basically, I write little tidbits and odd things like this, and I'm just gonna slowly post them here as I rewrite them or whatever. I'd like some criticism, but, I'd also like it known I'm doing my best, and sometimes things just come out awkward. That being said, go ahead and say whatever.

Duriel stumbled off into his home, it hadn't been a long day all things considered, but it was a hard one. He had gotten many more customers than he was expecting today, and it had been a real test of his talent at this point, but he felt good about it. He stretched as he walked towards his bed, he had eaten his meals whilst on his shift, so for now, he just had to get to sleep... For tomorrow wasn't going to be any easier. He slumped into his bed, and began to lay down, staring off into the only sky he knew-- The ceiling above. He began to think about what life on the surface was like... What was going on up there, how the other races lived up there... How they could live up there, without the safety of their walls... He slowly dazed off, smiling, as he was content with where he lived...

When he awoke, he wasn't in the safety of his walls... He was on the very surface that he had been thinking about, a forest, with tree's... With the warm embrace of the sun touching his skin... He slowly got up, thousands of questions entering his small, dwarven mind. He looked around, hearing a sound. He looked around until he saw them, but what he saw was odd. He saw what looked like a boy, and the boy motioned for him to follow, before running off, at oddly large speeds. He followed the boy without even thinking, chasing after as fast as his little dwarven legs could carry him. "Oi! Where am I?! Why'd you bring me here?!" The dwarf shouted, his voice echoing through as he ran after the person.

When he finally heard the tracks stop, and caught up, he was in a clearing, where he saw what looked to be a pond and a waterfall, with a tall woman, and a few other people in the clearing. "I don't supposed any of ya'd be willin' to give me some answers?"

Jade had been itching to get into the game store, and look the the wears. However, much to her dismay, the line wasn't just long. It was absurdly long, to get in. Now, one might ask themselves. "Why is this store in particular packed so full?" And the answer, is not only is it opening up today, but they had been taking orders before hand, and most people, including Jade, were able to now pick theirs up.

Jade got to the front of the line, and provided her receipt for the order. Just as the store worker had gone off to get her worker, what she would have described as a 'tragedy' struck. Her collection, or assigned guard showed up. The clock had struck six, and it was time for her to go. She would normally have put up a fight, or objected, but she DID sign those forms, after all. There's probably something about this in there...

She seemed to turn her head down, and turned to walk with the guard who had come to get her, following them to the tournament grounds, where they took her to the First Arena, with all the other participants. As soon as she got there and the match ups were announced, she walked to her station, allowing the guard's to check her bags and whatnot for weapons, however, once she got to her station, she began to scan through the information, trying to find out the most she could about her Astral before the first battle began, looking through her stats. From what she could gather, she had low health and armor ratings, with neutral attack, and neutral speed. However, looking through her abilities, she seemed to have very high utility due to her drones, and would have to remember that.

Then, the first battle started... Oh did the battle start. She watched both sides, watching as the drunken slurs that seemed to give her a headache, rang out against a scratchy, villain-ish voice... The odd thing, however, was that the Astral fighting the 'Gragas'... Wasn't who she had expected. It wasn't the 'Yugi Moto' that had been shown, it was an odd... Monster. Her stomach began to turn, and she became nauseous as she watched the monster eat through the other's flesh, however, as soon as she began to reach her limit at watching, the power seemed to... Go out. She seemed to stand there, frozen at her spot, before the power came back on a few seconds later, the battle having seemingly ended, as the two fighters had been ejected from the sync station.

Now, normally, Jade wouldn't have been worried about a little gore, or even something as graphic as she had just watched... But... Something about that fight got to her, and it was something very simple, but legitimate. She was going to have to fight something like that, and she wasn't sure she wanted too. It wasn't like she could back down now, but she did make a choice. As she stood at her station, she began to flip through her sketchbook, as if trying to distract herself from all that was going on, including the next few Astral battles, as if trying to avert her eye's from any other death's...


Steven hadn't really... Done much, that day. He had been reading some books from his country, when the collection guards had come to get him. They led him to the tournament grounds, and the first arena, where the guard's seemed to check him for weapons, a bit more... Thoroughly, than some of the other's, but they found nothing.

As he got to his station, he began to check out what they had written for his Astral, a bit glad that they had a language setting. When he got to the station, he seemed to eye Discord's profile a bit... Confused, but it might have been due to the fact that the image seemed to flash between three different Astrals, as if glitching. He noted that his speed rating seemed to be rather high, but his strength, Armor, and health, seemed to be rather low.

 One thing that seemed a bit interesting, is as it flashed between the Astrals, only one ability changed, however, they switched too fast to read. Eventually, as it reached his turn to fight, the image seemed to stop, on a man with a TV for a head, wearing a bit of an odd  suit with it. The ability that was changing now stable, he began to read it, smiling at what it did.

"Come back" was the name of the ability, which, was a rather literal title. The ability seemed to give him the ability to snap his fingers, calling the cane back to him, or, if the cane couldn't move, it would literally bring him to the cane. One thing he noticed, however, was this cane seemed a bit different than the one's the other had, as this one resembled one that you would often see in a old play, as it resembled a Shepard's crook...

As he finished reading the stats, he began to watch the battle that was going on at the time, watching as a being was tearing into what he would assume was a drunken man. He felt confused by the fact that the other wasn't the one the display had shown, but yet a creature of darkness, plunging the arena in to darkness at it's will. He felt slightly angered by the deception, but most of all, he became to feel nauseous, as he watched the Drunkard be eaten alive, appalled at  the cruelty of the being... It was then, right before the beast began to feast on the drunkard, that the power went out, forcing an unsync between the two...  When the power came back up, his Astral's picture seemed to switch, to a man in a brown suit, with an old phone for a head. Steven stood at his post, a bit...Confused with the stuff going on, but most of all, he began to wait, ignoring the battles to come. This was a different league than he was used too, and positively more ruthless...



At the right most machine, two very peculiar opponents stood, prepared to fight, both of standing at their spot, a but uneasy. On one side of the machine stood "Steven Williams", and on the other side, stood Jade Johnson. They didn't speak before synching, one because they couldn't, and one because they didn't have the courage to. Before long, the announcer bellowed out that the third battle of the night would begin, and it was going to be an interesting one. As soon as the sentence ended, the referee raised both arms, and yelled for them to sync, so they did. Steven touching his mark on his chest, and Jade touching her's on her ankle.

Discord opened his eye's, looking around as his mind began to meld. He noticed he was now in the 'correct' body, and had a bit of a clunky head, since it was a Phone, and moved a bit stiff, as he was now in a fully brown suit. He held his cane tightly, looking around as he walked through the forest.

XNFE slowly opened her eye's, a bit...Disoriented as she looked around. She was...Confused. She was in the same position she had been in from her last memories, sitting on her drones as she awaited her death, waiting for the oxygen to leave... She...Felt out of place, and it only got worse when her mind began to meld with Jade's. The drones seemed to jerk around wildly in response to the mind's melding, which caused her to be knocked off of them, to where she hit the ground in the forest. The three drones began to come down, circling her as she looked around, pondering where she was. She began to walk through the forest, a single purpose in the back of her mind; Part of her, the part she didn't know, was telling her to start moving, quickly. It was telling her to fight her opponent, kill the one here so she could leave... And so, she did just that, she began to break out in to a jog, the drones trailing behind her, until she found her opponent.

Discord noticed his opponent, stopping in place as he began to stare his opponent down and examine them, or more accurately, watching as three drones began to circle him... Or at least, he was staring her down from his perspective. His opponent, however, saw him as an old phone, upon a man's body. The girl began to chuckle, drones surrounding him, she began to speak. "I don't understand why you're here, but I could have at least been given something more than ancient technology to fight..."

That's when she got her wish, and the dice stopped rolling. That's when she got something more. Discord began to whip around at each drone, a minigun constructed out of flames materializing in his hands, firing out fireballs that slammed into two of the drones before pointing at the girl. She had one drone left, and he had two shots left. He quickly fired both shots, at her and the drone, to which the drone, and her, narrowly dodged them, a low powered energy beam firing from the drone into his leg, however, he seemed to shrug it off. The girl rushed him, to which Discord attempted to block the child's claws with his cane, but to his dismay, the cane merely snapped from the force, the claws leaving large indents in his chest, and knocking him back. He began to slowly begin stepping backwards, staggering as he did so, moving one of his hands to cover the wound on his chest, blood seeping around his hands.

 As the being of chaos backed away, the same thing happened over, and over again. The drones would appear after she went to their corpses, he would destroy them in a over the top fashion, and then remember to jump back, as to dodge the claws. Eventually, however, he got a certain roll. A special roll, where all four dice, rolled Sevens. This, was the mark of something special, as the dice turned black, and seemed to multiply, eight dice appearing in Discord's hands now, however, they weren't all that was growing in numbers. Another Discord, appeared. The second Discord seemed to have a TV for a head, and was wearing several different colors, rather than just the brown. The two Discord's even began to converse between themselves, the one with the phone for a head speaking first. "Ah, it's you! Glad it wasn't that wretched mask."

"Indeed,I'm glad it's only you, and not the rubbish one."

"I hear he caused his last user to go mad, I wonder if he'll do the same to ours?"

"I think ours will turn him mad firs-"

The TV was cut off as a low powered blast struck his antenna, static appearing across his screen. Their opponent seemed a bit... annoyed with how the two were acting, before doing she began to do something strange, speaking as she did so. "Tch, there's two of you now? I'm not dealing with this... I want my answers too, so, time to end this.

The drones began to make a soft beeping noise, before surrounding the two at high speeds, and exploding immediately, giving no logical way of escape for the two beings of chaos. ...But, they don't abide by logic very often, because, as the smoke cleared, then, a voice rang out, almost literally, as the TV had taken the phone off of the receiver of the other Discord, and had began talking into it. "Hello, yes, I DID order the wall of stone, glad you delivered on time!" Around the time the sentence, the smoke had completely cleared, showing that there had been a large wall around them, most of it being reduced to rubble.

And then, from the phone itself, another voice rang out, speaking as the original discord's hands began to glow. "Yes, and thank you for delivering the pillar of flames on time too, dear, that cut I was given earlier getting very annoying."

As he finished his statement, a pillar of flames shot down from the sky above his opponent, burning them to ashes, their futile attempt to dodge failing. The two fighters unsynced as the other was reduced to ash, a green sign that said "WINNER" appearing on Steven's side.
As they unsynced, Jade seemed to almost stand there, shifting in place as if uncomfortable. Her mind was trying to explain to herself, everything she had seen... But further more, not even just the contents of the battle. She was trying to comprehend all the memories she gained, all the memories, from her astral, that she now had... The worst part was, however, she seemed... Scared. She was trying to explain to herself, how she had watched herself die, felt the pain and agony of being incinerated, but was standing there. She seemed... Disturbed, as she had felt death, but there were no consequences. She had no harm done to her, but she had felt life drain from her body moments ago...

Steven however, didn't even notice the other's look of horror, but stood there as the Referee came over and raised one of his arms, yelling out that he had won the fight. However, instead of a look of glee, instead of the expected expression, there was somewhat of a monotone look on his face, as if something was off about the entire fight...

Yo
[2:52:36 PM] Chrys: To everyoen else
[2:52:41 PM] Chrys: Other than the three I just messaged and Blades
[2:53:00 PM] Chrys: Don't post until everyone has arrived at the tournament grounds
[2:53:02 PM] Chrys: ANd then
[2:53:04 PM] Chrys: Once they have
[2:53:16 PM] Chrys: Lubbies and Yuki finish your battle
[2:53:18 PM] Chrys: Then
[2:53:25 PM] Chrys: Let's have Scarlet vs Humen
[2:53:26 PM] Chrys: ER
[2:53:28 PM] Chrys: Scarlet vs Clark
[2:53:32 PM] Chrys: Then Crab vs Lulu
[2:53:47 PM] Chrys: and We'll finish up with a NPC/My character battle

As the the day went on, the clock hit six PM, and the guards seemed to rather abruptly come to collect the participants, with, or without their consent, and no matter what the other was doing. The guards would then, walk them to the fighters to the Arena, or Coliseum, or stadium, etc. Where they would lead them to the grounds within the stadium. Within the grounds, there were several machines set up, enough that all the participants would be able to sync up against one opponent, and duke it out for the fights. The crowd roared as the guards took the fighters to the openings, and would allow them to walk out. On each machine, there were two name cards for each fighter, and the announcer began to call out names as the doors opened, announcing what was going on, and the match ups.

"HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE GALACTIC TOURNAMENT! The announcer bellowed, the crowd giving a resounding yell of excitement, to which you could barely hear the announcer over. Today marks the first day of the fated tournament, and boy, is it a good one! I'd announce all our fighters in, but first I'll have to go over some rules. Nothing big, but it's for legal purposes. The first part of this tournament, will be single battles, one on one. The winner is awarded two points for each win. At the end of the week, the points will be tallied up, and based on your points, you will be given a gift certificate to use at the Galactic  Tournament gift shop at the end of the week, However, the winner of the tournament, will be given the title of Champion, and, as I'm sure you know, will be given a handsome sum of money. Now then, one last thing before we get started- The announcer's voice seemed to get quieter, as he began to speak, his speech pattern speeding up. "We here at the Galactic tournament, are in no way or form liable for injuries sustained due to the tournament, and in no way take responsibility for any loss of item. You are not guaranteed to win any sum of money, and money will be given to you within 4-6 business weeks after winning." 

The announcers voice, or rather microphone, seemed to get louder as he finished the sentence, beginning to announce the match ups, which then began to be shown up on the large screens above each machine.

"And the Match ups are:
Steven vs. Jade, And Discord vs ...Er...How do you pronounce this? Nafe? That's how you pronounce it? Aright. NAFE!

Yui vs. Angelo, and Akumu vs Susanoo!

Ag-Agh-Aw come on... The seven year old Vs.  Alexa, and Lulu vs Crab!

Rika vs. Aaron, and Newstein Vs. Sun Wukong!

Gatillo vs. Raithen, and Gragas Vs. Yugi Moto!

And last, and possibly least, but most likely not least, is Clark vs. Scarlet, and Yugo vs. Rainbow Dash!



The crowd erupted with screams and yells of excitement, the entire atmosphere was a very hyped experience, and this was no exception. The machines began to light up, the names of the fighters appearing on the different screams above the arena, giving the crowd knowledge as to which machine to watch for which fighter... And then, it was left to them. The guards began to inform the fighters to walk to the machines, and let the referee's sync them in.

Jade Johnson

Jade seemed a bit... Calm, considering the events that had just transpired. She didn't even know why she felt calm, but something about the atmosphere was a bit nice. She even began to smile a bit at the other's joke, before looking to the other's hand before she could put the glove on, trying to get a better look at the mark... But, she couldn't make heads, nor tails about it, assuming it to be an astral mark of sorts.  She began to answer the other's question, before posing one of her own, a bit of a joking tone to hers. "Yeah, I'm fine. You alright too? Your hand still attached?"  

 

She began to think a bit, before rummaging through her sketchbook. This person she had just met seemed trustworthy, so why not let them in on the reason she was here? She pulled what seemed to be a poster for a shop, or an ad, with the day's date on it, and the time '3:00 PM', and the words "Grand Opening" on it. She began to speak, posing yet another question to the other. "There's a new game shop opening here soon, I was about to go get some lunch while I waited on it to open. Want to come with?"