Aliidan, still distracted by the thoughts of Rose's pactio, never saw the hit coming at her from the side until it was almost too late. Aliidan ducked under a sword swing from what looked like a Lizard Man with wings...
"What the... Aeralfos!? What's a Aeralfos Mercenary doing here???" Aliidan exclaimed before she was forced to dodge another swing of the sword. It was good thing the corridor wasn't bigger or Aliidan would have been in real trouble. 'Aku Zuko San Moestifer Aequora' Aliidan quickly chanted in her mind, feeling the familiar rush of magical energy as the spell charged up for what she hoped would be the only blow she needed to deal in all this...

'William... are you alright over there...? I recommend you not to summon me, Ashraeh or Rie, Rie's injured and we can't leave her behind. We were attacked as well, so watch out...' Rose sends her thoughts to William. She looked over to Rie, hoping she'd be better soon.

"Ah, Ashraeh... speaking of which, when did you get your artifact? I mean, Rie got one before me, so I'm just curious." She ponders aloud, making sure Rie's condition hadn't worsened. She liked to have idle chitchat with her friends.

Rie used her healing technique one last time as her wing fully healed. Flexing her Wing Rie noticed that the conversation had shifted towards pactios...
"Uhm... Why are we discussing pactios? And for the record... I don't really remember when or why I made my pactio... There's... 'Something' there, I just can't grasp it anymore... How curious..." Rie said absently, flexing her wing a few more times before getting up. "Well, now what? Aliidan wen't off to do who knows what and We're here..." Rie said quietly.

"W-what... are you?! Why are you injured? Who is this guy!?" William flurries the guardian girl who just encased the ninja with ice with questions. She stared at him blankly, tending to her wound, freezing it so she doesn't lose anymore blood.

"I... am the guardian of this floor. You have allies, right...?" She asks, looking up onto the roof. William nodded. She clicked her fingers, as a hologram of her very own beautiful face flickers in the air. It was an announcement. William wasn't sure why she was doing this, but much to his surprise, a hologram also appeared in front of Rie's group and Aliidan, too.

"Us guardians, we have been attacked by a group of mages. We have taken a high majority of them out, but our abilities only keep us so far... the others have been stored in a different space, we're they're recuperating from mortal injuries. We are begging you, we've acknolwedged your strength. With those rare artifacts, Shoryoutensei and Garyoutensei, Delinera Blasphemia and Crystallum Harmonia, we beg for your assistance." The hologram is cut off and the woman collapses. With the final flick of her fingers, a staircase is created where William is and another where Rose, Rie and Ashraeh are.

It would seem with her final strength, she gave us entrance to the second and third floor.

"Well, it was a mission with William to defeat a madman terrorizing a village." Ashraeh said, blushing embarrassedly at the thought of kissing William. "I didn't really want to do it...but I had to." Ashraeh looks dejectedly down at the floor. "I...I remember that was the day I died..." was it just her, or did Ashraeh sense malice? No, it was just her imagination.

Jess felt like she was about to have an anyuresem (That's where a blood vessel in your brain breaks) from all that was going on... That holograph... It only helped with some of her confusion. She sighed, putting her hand over her face and hesitating. "Well... Dagnabit, might as well move on."

"Ah! You're... Jess, right?" Rose smiles at the newcomer, greeting her. She gives a courteous bow, as they had worked together to defeat a fake chimera in a mission once. She knew who Jess was, simply because she could sense a curse or something when she fought together against the Chimera. So she asked William about it later. "My name's Rose Amile. Beside me with the beautiful wing is Rie Nakamura, and the last one who's dressed like a princess is Ashraeh Pervisum." She introduces everyone to Jessica, in case she had no clue who they were. It would seem Jess was a big-time friend of Will's.

"I'm guessing you've also made a pactio with Will like the rest of us?" She curiously asks, putting her index finger on her lip.

Ashraeh also bowed shyly, and blushed embarrassedly. "I-it's very nice to meet you!" She looked around. Just how many pactios did one person need...?

As stairs twirled downwards, one where William was and one where Rie's group was. William pondered if he should wait for his allies, or enter the second floor. "I'll just go," He gulps, rushing up the stairs at full pelt. As he enters, the entire second floor was bitch black. He wandered through the area, lighting his arm with fire to give a better view.

Bang. He slammed his head into something, he wasn't sure what, as he brings his arm up, pointing it at what had just slammed against Will. It was a golem. It was shut down, so William brought himself to his feet. He stuttered slightly, but as he looked around, the whole floor was a huge battlefield. The walls were cracked, holes in the floor. There was golems everywhere, all shut down... it seemed more like a torture room than anything else.

Luckily, there were no enemies at all.

"Hi." Jess said nervously, quickly regaining her composure once Rose mentioned a Pactio. "Not yet... Have we met before, you seem familiar."

Rie stared at the seemingly endless stairs in rapt amasement. This all reminded her of something that she had seen once before... But she couldn't put her finger on it. No matter.
"I... Think we're meant to continue onwards down these stairs... Well... I guess I'll take point..." Rie said hesitantly as she took a few steps on the stairs.

As Aliidan blasted the Aeralfos with water she felt that this one must have been a very inexperienced member, it didn't seem to have any magical experience at all... Lucky for Aliidan then.
Soon stairs appeared and Aliidan, being like she was, promptly went down the stairs without a care.

(Everyone is ignoring Ashraeh!)

Ashraeh patiently waited for Jess to acknowledge her existence. Being invisible can be really frustrating at times. A vein on her head swelled, and some rather...inappropriate thoughts flashed in her mind.

Jess turned to Ashraeh... "What's wrong?" She asked, she disliked it when someone was upset on any case but knew one upset member could disrupt the coordination of the whole group in this case.

"Hm? Oh, nothing!" Ashraeh smiled and held her hand out to shake.

Jess gripped Ashraeh's hand perhaps a bit too hard - she was every bit as strong as she looked, though still not 'adept' with her strength in some ways - and shook it. "Now then, whaddaya say we head up those stairs hmm? Not a moment to lose." Though she still eyed Ashraeh it was clear from the way she said that she was saying it to everyone.

"Ow!" Ashraeh whispered to herself. Had she been trying to hurt her? Also, she noticed the way Jess was watching her, like she had done something...What was her problem?

Wandering through the halls, he could hear footsteps coming from below. "Hey, Aliidan? Ashraeh? Rick? Rie? Rose?" William asks, and as he expected, it was Aliidan. Of course, he didn't know about Aliidan meeting up with the group, so he thought she went missing and got lost. "Did you see the hologram thing?" William asks, looking down the stairs at her. The golems were still unresponsive, so the floor seemed safe.

Aliidan, not prepared to hear Wills voice (much less meet him directly) so soon after stepping into the room, stumbled and fell on her face. Again.
"Owie... Oh, Will... You're Okay?? I thought you were lost and I went off to find you and then I fought this Aeralfos and -insert long ramble- And that's that!" Aliidan, having said all that in one breath and under a full minute was panting now.

Jess laugehd a bit at Aliidan, looking to William. "Is she always like this, or just sometimes?" She asked... If it was all the time Jess would admittedly be somewhat annoyed by it... But she'd keep that to herself as much as possible.

JKDragon wrote:

Jess laugehd a bit at Aliidan, looking to William. "Is she always like this, or just sometimes?" She asked... If it was all the time Jess would admittedly be somewhat annoyed by it... But she'd keep that to herself as much as possible.

We are still in a different area. ><

Don't want Jess to see the pactio and all or William would die.

Walking up the stairs, following Jess, Rie and Ashraeh, Rose was wondering what to do. "Hey... these stairs, are they really endless? I still can't see the top..." She continues to climb the stairs slovenly as she was obviously tired, her energetic personality slowly fading away. Seeing the top in the distance, she rushes forward ahead of everyone, only to see complete darkness.

Rather spooky. Using a light-based tarot card, she lit the area up and noticed a whole bunch of golems, just like the one that saved them on the previous floor. This time however, none of them moved or showed signs of once moving. "They most likely had all broken down... tragic..." Rose mutters to herself, inspecting the golems.

To clear a few things up: Rose, Rie, Ashraeh and Jess have just entered the south area of the second floor, Will and Aliidan are in the northeast area, and have been there for a few minutes already. Hope that made sense.




Rie looked upon the rows of golems with a saddened expression on her face... She vaguely heard Rose saying something about broken down and tragic as a lone tear escaped her (Rie's) left eye.
"Yes... Tragic..." Rie mumbled, this place was a mystery to her, first the Levistone in the groundrock itself had spoken to her, reveling what this place was, and now these tragic golems seemed to speak to her...

"Haha, you're so silly." William smiles, giving her a pat on the head as he heads off. He could communicate with the other girls, but he left them to find him and Aliidan as Rose's artifact should be able to track them down fairly easily. Pulling Aliidan forward, he tried to look for the stairs for the third room.

Looking to the east a little, there were jail cells. Strolling over to them casually, he could see a little critter in one of the cells. It was locked to a chain. "Uu..." It sobs. It was nibbling on some bread, that seemed pretty new. Was someone looking after it?

"H-hello...? My name's William, what may you be...?" He looked at it. It was more like a demorphed panda to him. It was tiny, but extremely fluffy. Maybe it was mutated or something?



Either way, he cut the chains off the legs with a little magical power boosting as the panda swallows the bread whole and clings to William's legs. "Thank you for saving me...!!" It cries.

[Wait... Is that Riro? KAWAII!!! *Overwhelmed w/ cuteness, can't make the post*]