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[GotN] EP9: Beneath the Ruins; Gates of the Netherworld - Kell, Jen, Seo, Shad and Suzume
Topic Started: Mar 9 2014, 01:41 PM (1,766 Views)
Sota
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A portal opened in the main road of the border city of Dis. Enlightened by a fair number of lamp posts, the city had seen better days. Most of the buildings showed damages of a previous battle.

Many houses had no lights inside, a clear sign that most of the population left.

A group of people came out of the portal, led by a floating green haired demon.
Culsu, pirouetting with a distracted behaviour was strangely silent as she took a look around, to study the city enveloped by the night curtain.

The ruined building that was once the Library of Dis stood not too far in front of the Hyakujian students that followed Culsu along.

Shad, Suzume, Kell, Jen and Seo could easily see the its walls.
And Seo could also notice the horribly happy Naamah clinging to his arm like an unwanted girlfriend.

While Culsu still had the same green dress she had earlier, the blonde Naamah ditched the maid dress she had in Sheol, and was now wearing a somewhat tight and revealing leather armor.
"Oh dear, adventuring together, isn't it romantic?" she whispered into Seo's ear.

"Hey you!" a voice called for them, as a green skinned, and kinda orc-like demon approached them "Oh!" He did seem surprised at the sight of Culsu and stopped in its track, lowering the large Axe he had with him.
"L-Lady Culsu!" he shouted in surprise.
"Culsu and her cohort are going to investigate the ruined Library!" she stated with her stupidly cheery tone as she looked toward Kell "Culsu and her cohort are trying to find some traces that could lead us to Paimon!"

"Lady Culsu" he seemed to object "The inner part of the Library crumbled with Lord Paimon still inside. He was trying to save the books with an enchantment but he probably didn't make it on time. Some of us are still searching the ruins, but so far we didn't find anything..."

"Culsu will check anyway!" she chirped as she floated forward.
The green demon seemed slighty irritated by her carefree attitude, but didn't reply. It was obvious Culsu was of a higher rank, so her eccentricity had to be tolerated somehow.
"I will continue my guard duty then..." he said as he began to walk down the road.
Edited by Sota, Mar 16 2015, 11:01 AM.
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Super Hurricane
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The Middleman (stubborn, yet relaxed)
"Ah, it's a good thing that the people at the castle were able to clean all that blood and mud off my robes. It's like a second skin after all and not easy to replace." Shad chirped happily as he bounded out of the portal and landed safely on some debris, back in his custom-made mage robes. On his back was the reassembled Mazikin rifle strapped to the side of his large backpack, now fully stocked with measured-up hollow-point bullets as well as a bunch of fresh ammo magazines inside after the trip to the armory. After all, unlike the others, he had plenty of short-range gear but nothing partially long-range to take out hordes or heavily armored demons. So it should be fair to be armed with a rifle.

"Still, given the looks of this place, I wonder what could have caused such destruction and if they are still around." He muttered, noting the ruins of the city and reminding himself to pillage any fresh, dead corpses for loot and weaponry if he should come across them. After all, it's not like a demon will come back to life a 2nd time to claim what is theirs.

"Oh right, the library. Almost forgot...I wonder if this Paimon fellow would let me borrow a few tomes for me to show to Hiro-sensei." Shad smirked at the idea of his favorite teacher jaw-dropping at the towering stack of demonic books he would bring back from the Netherworld. With hands in pockets ready to bring out his tools, he waved over to the green orc-demon, "Don't worry about a thing. Handling rubble and debris is easy as pie for us." He said calmly, following Culsu over into the damaged building, hoping they weren't too late to save Paimon's life (but at least he wasn't captured by the enemy, which was somewhat good).
Edited by Super Hurricane, Mar 10 2014, 02:08 AM.
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Lawman
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Chosen of Ares
"Looks like I'll be needing Culsu-san or one of you guys who hadn't activated their Abraxas Stones yet to make the trip back home after this," Jen mused as she stepped out of a portal, having initially headed back home to gear up for the task at hand, having traded in her red and black silk for a set of MultiCam fatigues and combat boots, along with a load-bearing vest and backpack to hold her various supplies and tools she felt would be needed for the current mission.

"Would anyone happen to have the architectural blueprints of Paimon's library?" Jen asked as she followed the rest as they made their way towards the ruined library. "If I could study the way the structure was designed, I might be able to determine how - certain parts of it may survive the event of a collapse, and assuming that Paimon is intelligent enough to figure this out, it might be good places to start our search," the purple-haired girl proposed, wondering if Paimon might've made his way to the more structurally-sound parts of the building when it collapsed, which could conceivably remain intact while the rest of his library collapsed around him, leaving him trapped but otherwise unharmed.

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Phantom Raguna
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Let me play this song for you. So you'll know exactly who to love.
''(Why the hell is she so damn close to me)''

In contrast to the happy succubi next to him. Seo had a cloud of despair, desperation and anguish floating over him perpetually as soon as he figured out who his guide would have been. He couldn't back out now since he didn't know where the heck Derweze was even located. If only he could do so, he would his Shadow Drainer circle again and leave her behind, but it ended way to weirdly last time and he wasn't going for round two unless she got pushy.

And then there was the matter of her attire, that was equally provocative and frightening. The man feared woman, but he loved woman just like most other men did. This irony had defined him during situations like these and he wasn't sure if he should be repulsed by her or take a step forward somewhere. Nah, he wasn't trusting a lust demon like a succubi to get confident about when he had been scared of normal shy girls in the library two times already. Good thing he was usually hard to read.

As to his attire, he equipped himself with a handgun in his pocket and had a halberd strapped to his back. He had no knowledge on how to use either weapon, and wasn't that gun-ho about the gun in the first place, but he would probably need it if the situation demanded. He still had his reliable mental abilities so he didn't need to fret.

''Ah, Naamah, I think Jen over there needs your help.''

He had tried several times to break free from her grip, but she grabbed hims arm again the next second. He still remembered Jen from the tourney so maybe she'd help, but of course he was much more formal back then. Also in the attempt to shut up Culsu, he gave her an instant death glare the minute she ever tried to answer Jen. If he wasn't constantly smiling or calm, most people would find his face scary by default, so he did have some chance of shutting her up.
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Flambe
ZEHAHAHA!!
"After we dig him out and get what we need, I'm putting him in an even deeper hole." Kell grumbled. "Damned vermin of the planes."

Racism aside, she suspected she had legitimate reasons to be mad. No, not just because of her situation. A big name demon would have a rap sheet longer than the Bible itself. Being soft on them was a stupid idea, because they'd turn on their allies when the time was right. Fuck, they'd probably make sure the opportunity happened on schedule. Damned rules bound scum.

She gave Naamah and Culsu a dirty look, clearly wanting to strangle them to death. She really was a terrible person, overflowing with bitter hate and anger. Still, Kell was still on the right team. Right?
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Sota
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OOC


Culsu was about to say something to Jen, with her cheery smile already on her face, when she noticed Seo's glare.
Her mouth was pretty much already open an ready to say something, to the point a long, shambled vocal sound exited from it.
"Aaaaaaoooooow..." that suddenly turned into some form of understanding "...oooh!"

What she understood is left to the reader's imagination, as the demon expectantly turned her floating body toward Seo and Naamah.

At any rate, Naamah seemed perplexed. In a cartoon world, the succubus would probably have a large question mark above her head.
Then, with something close to a cat smile, the succubus simply renewed her grip on Seo's arm, dismissing the whole thing with a "Naamah is a maid in love, not an architect!"
That said she let her head lean on Seo's shoulder.

Was the 'in love' thing really necessary?

"Aww, so cute!" was Culsu's comment as she warped next to Naamah and pet her head "Culsu thinks she's so horribly happy with you on her side!" she observed, much to Seo's possible irritation.

The green haired demon then suddenly moved her attention on Jen.
"Culsu has no blueprint of the place, but Culsu is fairly sure someone at work in the ruins has them."

---

The remains of the library were a desolated show surrounded by ruined buildings, but none of those around it were as destroyed.
Ecluding a wall, and a piece of a marble stair heading for the now missing first floor, everything was pretty much leveled to the ground in a mess of rubbles and debris.

A dozen artificial lights shed light on the area, drawing stark and sharp shadows behind the rocks. The search party, composed of five demons, was at work with pikes and other tools.
A female one, a bit far from the others, was emitting a light from her left hand, as she was kneeled down and checking inside a crack into the debris.
All the others were digging at a specific point, probably the place where the main passageway to the lower floors used to be.
None of them seemed to pay attention to the newcomers, busy with their activities.

Between the rubbles, pieces of paper occasionally emerged here and there.
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Chizu
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OOC
 
Sorry for making you wait forever. Been traveling! Just assume Suzume has been quiet this whole time and following along behind the group, as she tends to do.


Suzume stepped into the ruined library behind the rest of the group, looking around her. The whole way through the city of Dis, she had seen the signs that a battle had been fought here and was gone, but nowhere was it more clear than at the library. The place was a mess. It would be surprising to her if any sort of information managed to survive this. But then again, things had a habit of surviving when they were least expected to.

Why attack the library in the first place? Had they been looking for something specific? Or had they been trying to destroy information of a sort, something that could be damaging to them? As a ninja, she knew how damaging information could be. She walked around, moving away from the others and examining the rubble. Suzume nudged some of the rocks with her foot, exposing a pile of papers. She bent down, picking up some of the papers and smoothing them out against her leg. The ninja squinted at it, trying to make out some of the words. After a while, she moved onto another stray sheet of paper, picking it up and looking over it. She didn't really think she'd find anything useful doing that, but it gave her something to do, and there was always the chance she might turn up something interesting.

She pocketed the sheet she was holding, her fingers brushing against the stone she had taken from Mastema. That gave her pause. She still hadn't used it. Some of the others already had, making her wonder what she was so afraid of. Was she afraid of changing, despite all her claims that it was just another identity to take on?

Well, she didn't need it now. Her sword had been restored to her. With any luck, she wouldn't need it, until this business was done. Unfortunately, that wasn't looking likely. A being that could do all of this wouldn't have any trouble with a girl with a sword.

She walked back towards the others, wiping the soot from her fingers off on her skirt. Her other hand rested on the guard of the sword she wore at her side, her thumb over the tsuba to keep it in place. "Where do we start?" she asked, unsure where to go from here.
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Super Hurricane
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The Middleman (stubborn, yet relaxed)
"I suppose we'll start with the spot where all those demons are digging ever so slowly. Or...I could always put my pipe between a narrow crack and widen the hole with size magic for us to drop in one at a time with a rope tied to a heavy object, then shrink it back so we can go to the lower levels." Shad offered, no doubt a little bit bothered that the library was damaged so much. Walking over to the female demon with hands in pockets, he calmly stood a few feet from her, bending down to examine the crack she found with the light shining on it. "Um, hello. We came from Mastema's castle to provide assistance in finding a librarian who might be trapped down below, as well as help any demons who might have been injured in the building's collapse. Would it be possible to inquire as to where that crack in the debris leads to?"
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Flambe
ZEHAHAHA!!
"Okay, so we're trying to save it." Kell waved her hand dismissively over the rubble. Yeah, she was referring to Paimon as it. "Remember, rubble is usually propped with stuff. Knock the wrong thing over and we'll be getting demon jelly."

She paused, then shook her head.

"That's for later. Right now, we need him alive. So dig carefully."

Right. Alive. Not a stain on the floor like she wanted. One of her lavender eyebrows twitched in anger. Yep.
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Lawman
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Chosen of Ares
Jen certainly wasn't surprised in the least when the Succubus Naamah remarked that being a simple maid she had nothing on her that would resemble the architectural blueprints of Paimon's library, and unfortunately, neither would Culsu. "Seeing how you're one of Mastema-sama's most trusted cohorts, wouldn't Culsu-san have considerable pull amongst the city officials here in Dis? At least here's hoping that perhaps the city hall might have such documents in their possession in their archives..." the purple-haired girl wondered as the group approached the ruins of Paimon's library, which appeared to be the worst off compared to the other dilapidated buildings that surrounded it, a search party of five demons currently sifting through the debris under artificial lighting.

"I wonder what could be in the library that made the Mazikin target this place?" Jen mused as she noticed stray pieces of paper being turned up every now and then by the digging, and out of curiosity decided to collect them to inspect their contents, in hopes that perhaps these stray documents might shed some light on their current situation.
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Sota
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OOC


The female demon frowned at the sight of Shad approaching, as the sight of that group of strangers seemed to put her on the defensive. Still, when she saw (and heard) Culsu in the background, she seemed to relax a little.
Shad's introduction was enough to have her quell any doubt she could have
"You're looking for Lord Paimon, human, just like we are" the woman spoke. Apparently she was able to discern the Size Mage's nature with ease, in a similar fashion Astaroth already displayed.
"It's quite an unusual sight to see humans here" she observed, before kneeling down toward the crack and put her glowing hand inside.

The light from her limb enlightened a small crevice.
"It seems an opening that may lead toward a room below. I can feel a fair wind current coming out, a sign the room below isn't completely crumbled. It may be quicker than digging for the main entrance, but its space isn't too wide, and to enlarge this crack may cause a collapse somewhere else."
She removed her hand from the hole and stood up.
"I'd wait and see if this area can be accessed from the main entrance first, before attempting to dig here"

----

"We need lots of people alive. Culsu mainly needs Culsu alive, but Culsu can't be alive alone. That would be boring for Culsu. Culsu needs people to define herself."
That lively, somewhat philosophical yet confused statement came from the green dressed demon slowly spinning on herself as an answer to Kell's comment.

The demon of the gates was lying horizontally, and listened calmly to Jen's statements.
"As Culsu already said, Culsu is fairly sure someone at work in the ruins has them." that said she disappeared in a portal, leaving Jen to wonder what was the purpose of the Mazikin's attack.
Culsu simply materialized near the four busy with the excavations.
"Report!" she exclamed, a tad too cheery.

It was enough to have at least two of the four jerk in surprise.
"L-l-l-lady Culsu!?" the closest to her waved his hands as he tried to regain some composure.
It was so blatant that she was having her share of fun of abusing of her position like that.
"Culsu and her cohort demand a report!" she chirped
"W-we're at work to reach the main entrance to the lower rooms of the library in an attempt to reach and find Lord Paimon. We almost completed the clearing activity. It might be possible to enter inside in the next few hours."
"Culsu thinks this is good" she observed "Can Culsu peek inside already?"
The demon passed a hand under his chin, and touched his short beard.
"There's enough space to look inside. From what we see the first hall is mostly intact, but there's no trace of Lord Paimon inside"
"Culsu just had a flawlessly brilliant idea, but first Culsu and her cohort need a map of the structure!"
The demon simply pointed at a large piece of paper, held still by some rocks on its edges on a large piece of wall lying on the ground.
"We brought it as soon as the search began, it's been useful to find the main entrance"

Culsu blinked once or twice, before warping away without warning. She popped exactly where she was earlier, in pretty much the same pose too.
"You can check the lower layers map on a rock over there!" she pointed in the direction where the four demons were, with the map hidden by the rubbles from their position.

OOC
Edited by Sota, Apr 23 2014, 09:26 AM.
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Lawman
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Chosen of Ares
"A floor plan exists? Brilliant! Thanks a million, Culsu-san!" Jen remarked as the green-clad demoness pointed to a large sheet of paper resting on a chunk of a collapsed wall, with some stones placed on its corners to stop it from being blown away by the wind. "Now this is gonna save us a good deal of time searching!" the purple-haired girl remarked as she picked up the map to examine it. "While there may be complications from trying to access the lower levels of the building by digging into the ruins from topside, I wonder... what if we were to try and access the basement levels of the Paimon's library from underground, like say through the sewers?" the purple-haired girl asked as she showed the map to the rest of the group.

"From the looks of things, the room that was supposedly still intact should be over here," Jen commented as she circled a room located in the west wing of the building's lower level. "Assuming the Mazikin attack hadn't collapsed any of the subterranean passageways such as sewers, metro tunnels or emergency escape tunnels, from the looks of thing the lower levels of the building appear to be connected to Dis' underworks, so my proposed plan of action is rather than try to dig our way in from topside, we could try and see if we could creep in from underground. So what do you say?" the purple-haired girl asked, waiting for the others' feedback.
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Flambe
ZEHAHAHA!!
Damn it, Kell did not want to engage Culsu in amateur philosophy hour. As long as she could maintain emotional distance there, she could try and at least make an attempt at some facade of professionalism. Otherwise, she'd go and... Well, never mind that.

"Where the fuck are you, Cariot?" She growled quietly to herself. For all her harshness, Kell was starting to get worried. It seemed so damned silly for her to be worrying about an imaginary friend, but now she was seriously feeling lost in her own bitterness without the blob around.

Once Jen spoke up with her own observations, the luchadora stroked her braid as she began to talk.

"It's sound if we want to risk our lives for Paimon." She said simply.

The above-ground approach would be agonizingly slow, but she didn't want to risk getting flattened like a pancake just so some demon could get freed. Fuck it, she'd love it if he went a little crazy waiting for rescue.
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Super Hurricane
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The Middleman (stubborn, yet relaxed)
"I suppose that would work, though I hope someone brought a torch or flashlight. A lot better than my plan of simply shrinking the debris over the main entrance to the size of quarters and making me winded afterward due to mana shortage for a short time. Which sadly I can't do anyways since my measuring tape is back at the dorms." Shad remarked over to Jen, getting out a highlight marker and a toothpick from his backpack. With a few swipes, he completely covered the toothpick a bright yellow sheen and then with careful aim, dropped it down through the crack.

"Just testing how far down it goes as well as leaving a way to track our progress should we come across this room. Makes one heck of a glow-in-the-dark battering ram as well." Shad explained to the female demon in case she was curious as to why he did something like that, then turned to face Jen with a calm expression on his face, "So where's the nearest sewer manhole cover? I'll shrink it down so no one has to strain their back lifting it."
Edited by Super Hurricane, Apr 18 2014, 01:27 AM.
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Sota
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"Culsu thinks this is a smart idea. Culsu approves!"
The green haired demon twirled once in the air.
"Now culsu too wonders where's the closest manhole cover!" she disappeared, popping near the area where the main entrance to the library was. She seemed to look around, even under her shoes.
"Not here, Culsu guesses"

"The closest entrance to the sewers is on the eastern road headed to the library" the bearded demon of the support group spoke "There's a shaft that links both the subway and the sewers for maintenance purposes"

Culsu's hands hugged the demon from behind, as her head emerged from a ripple and whispered in his ear "Culsu thanks you for your support!"
The demon blushed, causing the others to giggle around him.

In a blink, the demon of the gates was now sitting on the remains of the wall closer to the eastern road. With her eyes closed, the demon stated:
"Culsu doesn't want to lead the way, because Culsu is a very incompetent fighter"

Her observations often had an irritating side. Every time she spoke it was never too clear if she was telling the truth or blatant lies.

"Lady Culsu" Naamah let her grip on Seo and headed her way. When she was close enough, she kneeled down "I suggest me and Seo to remain here, to help the support party"
Strangely enough, she appeared quite serious and determined.
Culsu stared briefly at the kneeled succubus. A frown appeared on the green haired demon as her eyes wandered around nervously. It was a brief instant where the usual cheery Culsu looked far too serious. What did she know everyone was ignoring?
The green eyes stared at Naamah. They had an unusual depth.

After a blink of her eyes, any image of seriousness disappeared. She floated away from the wall, and with a cheery "Culsu agrees" she warped next to Suzume, patting her shoulder "But Suzume will remain here too! Culsu thinks this will be the best outcome"
Naamah raised her head and turned toward Suzume, like she wanted to object, but Culsu left already: she teleported upside down next to Jen.
"Culsu says you should trust Culsu's suggestion and leave Suzume and Naamah's plaything here. Culsu thinks that Culsu knows there's no better outcome. Please listen to Culsu and don't argue: Culsu can't guarantee your survival otherwise"

Cryptic, wasn't it?

OOC (click)
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