At last, the time had come...

The Instructor known for his nebulous and oft negligent manner of handling classes was at it again, not earning himself any marks for studiousness other than for his own academic purposes. This time, however, was a curious one, indeed. He had largely been unsuccessful in apprehending the subject of his continued frustrations for the past few weeks. He'd encountered the dread beast several times over, but it hadn't shown its true colors as of yet, and it was high time he did something about it.

"M'lord...?"

What was that' A dull ringing, perhaps" It was of little importance. His mind remained fixed on how to go about his task, the myriad of passageways and corridors in said recess ablaze whilst he sought to find away out of the conflagration known as a conundrum. Last he'd met the beast, me merely observed for a time before hesitantly engaging it. All it had done was flee from him, evading capture and his various plans for it in the process: a truly infuriating defeat, that had been.

"Lord Zynisch...?"

That noise was beginning to irk him overmuch. Frantically, he'd shove the anomalous sound into the nether reaches of his consciousness whilst he attempted in vain to discover a solution to his dire dilemma. The time prior to that bout, he'd merely stumbled upon it by accident when it started spewing its inky haze all over the Glen. One could say it was an abysmal sight, yet' Nay, such wasn't the time for frivolous flights of fancy and less-than-savory jests. If he were to see this through, the Judicer would have to be at his best: the very pinnacle of his ability. But, no....This 'wyrmling', as his distant mentor, Kaius, had called it, was little more than a nuisance to its surroundings. After all, it had fled at the sight of a seemingly more potent being than itself, right' Surely, there must have been a reason other than fear.

"Instructor Lucis, please get it together, would you?!"

Summarily jolted from his reverie, the man that had until that moment been rapping at his bedroom work desk with his foremost digit, would peer up with his singular working eye to his assistant and well....attendant so to speak. Elle was an unassuming-looking woman with an out-of-the-way vibe that would irritate most of her somewhat modest stature. The girl barely came to the man's chest, tall though he might have been.

"Calm yourself, m'dear. I can hear you quite excellently. I think you'll find I'm not yet deaf," remarked the Judicer in a fit of distress, his palms reacting quickly to spare their auditory companions the fate of being eroded by the still-young lady's impressive tones. It was then that she let loose upon him with a barrage of callous retorts, mocking his lackadaisical and oft repugnant irreverence for the class structure, he himself had volunteered to undergo. Try as he might to humor her, his thoughts were elsewhere and, upon realizing such, would cause her to begin assailing the man with her balled-up and largely benign fists. After a moment of playful swatting between the two, his eye would fix upon her frame with an uncomfortable sort of still calm. "You've still yet to reveal what had you all but up in arms just a little while ago. Tell me. What ails you so, child?"

With great care, she would offer her lord a large envelope sealed somewhat crudely with tape. Hardly the stuff of propriety, but he'd endure it. "This was addressed to you and you alone. It showed up just outside your room. I believe it said something regarding the need for a 'Master Hunter', as it were." Upon his receiving of the parcel, she would step back a short distance and offer a bow to him prior to seeing to the affairs of his continuously growing accommodations. Miranda and Fiona had both been extremely generous in regards to his comfort during his brief stays. The elder Swordmage would no doubt have to repay them for their kindness. To begin with, he'd certainly nab the monstrous entity that had been plaguing both the Glen and his mind. "Now, then....Let's have a look at this."

Perusing the manifold pages of the extended report, he'd find that one sentence in particular served to intrigue him most sufficiently. In layman's terms, it referred to a massive black creature being sighted in the range near Mount Yasuo. It was seen wreaking havoc on the peaceful nature of the surrounding lands as it exuded its potently offensive mist clouds. Pressing his palms firmly against the somewhat beaten desktop space, he would rise and send a curt nod in his charge's direction. "It would appear as though I've another errand to run....This time, I'll be going it with a group. Do have some tea ready for me when I return, please" With the hazard that is my fortune, I'll require a pampering afterward." This would merely instill mixture of displeasure and a begrudging understanding of her master's ways, noting that he would do what he desired regardless of her personal wishes.

"Just please....return. All right' I'll not look for someone else to serve so readily..." she quietly implored him as she revisited her cleaning task, leaving a disquieted Zynisch to mull over the state of things.

"Worry not....I will." And like that, his hand was grasping the knob serving as one of very few means of properly containing the magus and his gargantuan hunger for proper understanding.

Next stop...? The unknown greatwyrm...

'Twas when he'd come to that he'd be met with an ultimately unfortunate revelation. Awakening with a start at the potentiality of losing control over his senses, he took in the stark shift in the landscape around him. Yasuo's hallowed lesser mounts had been overtaken by an obsidian haze that rang all too familiar to him The feeling of abject dread soon coursed through newly reinvigorated veins whilst adrenaline loaded his reaction time with the necessary ammunition to assess the threat, not that he needed much information....What had stirred him from his reverie was a minor nightmare, but what?d he'd awoken to he'd find would be a terror unlike the sensations that any nocturnal fabrication might elicit. Quickly, he darted from point to point on his previously erected pathway back to the camp, observing the intensified concentration of mist in that area.

"No....I've lost too many men to this creature. I'll not hazard another group to this beast..." he recounted, landing in the clearing with such emotionally-charged force that he managed to disperse a layer or two of the pervading essence. His eye peering about anxiously in the hopes of espying at least one of his companions, his faith would be shaken at the sound of a humbling cry overhead. He'd brandish his twin armaments instinctively; however, he would find that even bolstering the weapons' power would not avail him of any mental reprieve as the subject of his continued frustrations touched down, blanketing the immediate space in a thick miasma. His single, luminous hue narrowed in response whilst his perceivable aura seethed about his frame, coating him in a nebulous barrier of sorts.

"My comrades....What have you done with them"! ....Nnh....No matter. Yours is not the kind capable of negotiation....I shall take on full responsibility and deal unto you your due sentence....Prepare yourself!"

The challenge would not go unnoticed by the creature, as its eye had already eased open to greet him. As though intent on observing him with the same desire to destroy that he held for it, the bestial, black wyrm would reel its head backward and begin taking in the enormous amounts of mist it had since exuded to coat its surroundings. It would take some amount of time, but it wasn't as though it were dealing with a very proactive adversary. Given enough intake, the draconian entity would let loose a thunderous howl, the once violet markings on its body gleaming ruby against the resuming darkness that accompanied the transformation. Its onyx scales shot about and embedded themselves in the harsh stone, only serving to add to the thickening mass of darkness once they'd come to know their place. At once, its sizable maw widened and projected a sphere of black energy toward him, the globule of unidentified shade hurtling toward him at a speed he'd not have been able to register were it not for his enhanced vision.

Lucis, nimble as he was, launched himself forward and ducked beneath its impressive girth, avoiding the damage undoubtedly meant for him. Sheathing his knives forthwith, he placed a hand upon the hilt of Yuurei and sent himself ambling for the tyrant of the skies who had, in turn, sent another blast his way. His charge would be warded by the growing density of his aura, the dark pseudo-armor deflecting much of the force meant to strike him. He had to admit that with his hampered ability, he would experience quite the difficulty in maintaining its integrity. Empowering the blade, Zynisch would take to the air, wheeling his sword about in a lavish display of spirit energy before bringing it down on the head of the beast. Much to his honest surprise, the blade that would slice through solid steel seemed to glance off the drake's unforgiving carapace. As a result of his impromptu bewilderment, the beast utilized the time allotted it to viciously rake at his form with its massive talons. The pad-like paws and monstrous digits would collide with Zyn's meager frame and send him into the ground with a mighty thud. The impact had left him in something of a momentary daze: one of such potency that the endeavor to rise left his head in serious anguish. The fun had only just begun, regardless of the circumstance.

A glance in the greatwyrm's direction solidified the reason for his hesitation before, since before his very eyes, the beast had amalgamated not only one, but an incredibly large upgrade of its seemingly standard mist-ball. Hovering around it were three, considerably less imposing versions. What it unleashed as a consequence of his inaction would cost him much more dearly than he'd anticipated, and even then, he was extremely apprehensive about fighting it with the attendants that he'd gathered. With little warning other than another whipping of its neck, the aberration would set free a laser-like stream of its hellish fumes. All Zynisch would be able to muster up in response was his dense aura shield; although, the summary strain on his formerly believed absolute defense would be devastating to his remaining stamina. Soon, he'd feel the unusual weight of Yuurei encumbering and impairing the use of his arm.

"I can't....I can't just wither away here....I have to hold....I have to....persevere!" Without realizing the insistence and authority that his now booming vocals demanded, he would be wreathed in a near-blinding light and ultimately end up discarding his hooded cloak in favor of the presumed change in form from Yuurei to Youkai. What he did not expect to occur would be the complete dissolution of his desired implement and the addition of something novel: Contrasts given new life as armor, an ebony sigil-shield ethereally adorning his right arm, and an ivory blade coalescing in the opposite palm. As if a filter had manifested over his vocals, the proud and calmed timbre of the now brightsteel-plated warrior would echo across the space designated for them...

"I am the servant of infernal chasms....I am the guide of the celestial mounts....With this cursed shield and this hallowed blade shall I take on your malice and administer judgment to your wayward spirit....Izanami....Izanagi, lend unto me your wills that I might purge this blight from my world....For I am the embodiment of Kusanagi, itself!" Sealing his head in an ornate helm devoid of any recognizable human features, his body would illuminate the darkness around him with an increasingly immense discharge of spiritual energy, banishing the shade that had come to constrict his form before. The drake's demeanor could be surmised as intrigue before it was replaced by an immeasurable rage toward its new assailant. With his armor all but rendered complete, whatever Zynisch had become now brought the Shield of Izanami before his frame to defend himself, whilst lowering the Sword of Izanagi aft of his form. The faceless knight would appear to admonish his target, silently condemning its existence in line with his prior proclamation.

"You are a cancer to this world....I shall now excise you from it in the name of the would-be creators that have given me this opportunity....I AM YAKUMO~! THE END HAS ARRIVED FOR YOU!" Thrusting his newly metallic form to the forefront of the conflict anew, he would lunge toward the now furious dragon, more than ready to strike a decisive blow and put an end to the conflict that had cost him his credibility. He would see this finally done....

~~~~~~~

Unbeknownst to the beguiling warrior brandishing justice, another's intrigue would stir from afar within the depths of the Forbidden Land known to be the tundra-scape of Screia. As he observed the boy whom until recently had been inert and floating in a tube of revitalizing fluids, the Mad Magus would raise a brow and peer over his shoulder, the Seer's senses taking in the unforeseen ripples caused by his sudden arrival.

"Oh..." Hnhn....So it was he that awakened it, then" I had figured as much. Now, then....That makes two of the three given shape and purpose. So, little one..." Will you be the third? Hmhmhmhmhm...." As he peered about, he would perceive the advent of his captive's arousal from the realm of dreams. A smirk would all but extend across his features, the occurrence in question prompting him to turn from his reverie and make his way outside again.

"Hnhn....It is just about time now, isn't it' I suppose the Saint has been tempered well enough by the harsh lands to become a worthy enough vessel. Let us see how she fares..."



To be Continued...