Glayp'neir (Arc 1)

Sharpe frowns and puts a hand on Jian's shoulder.

"I'm not asking you to accept it, but the thing is, we can't do anything currently. We can try to find a way to save them. And I hate to say it, but if we can't save them, you can't get mad now. You have to keep going. Because if you keep going, you can do something later to make up for it."

He looks back down towards the hole in the floor from one of the vats and back to Jian. He takes out his pistol and offers it.

"If you need to, go ahead and shoot one. Just back away from it, get to a safe distance. I think whatever is in the container is acidic." He says, nodding down to corroded hole.

He may not know what it's like to be hunted down as a fugitive, but he knows what it's like to want to help someone, prevent something terrible but be unable to do anything. He's been there, and so he can identify here. Perhaps this might rekindle some trust with Jian as well.

"I'll stay here until you're ready to go. We got the guy."

He keeps the pistol offered out to him and winks, with a small smile forming upon his face.

Jian stops for a moment, listening to sharpe in midst of his desperation. He looks at the pistol then back up to sharpe. His heart drops as he notices the gloomy light of the tubes reflect the surface of a kitchen knife, the bored expressionless face of a servant behind sharpe as it is ready to stab its prey.


Marcus smirks at the woman threatening him. "Afraid of death? You have no idea who you're dealing with do you, huh?" He relaxes, letting his head bump against the floor. "My profession, you see... Is death. Therefore I am neither afraid nor will I ever embrace it. I simply give." He closes his eyes, taking a few shallow breaths as Jack still has him pinned down.
Air notices before anyone else, something zipping past her into one of the dark corners of the room, followed by something else.

Out of the corners and shadows of the room, a total of six servants with kitchen knives and cleavers and various other casual weaponry cautiously make their way into the room. One of them snarls as it charges the three. Within seconds a fight breaks out. Faster than humanly possible marcus has used his training as an assassin to slip away from Jack, leaving him with a slightly bruised rib, though not to bad of an injury. The servants move in with speed as Marcus laughs whole heartedly and steps backwards into the shdaows, dissapearing from sight.

"Oh no you don't you little shit!" She yells and she cycles to the incendiary bolt and fires into his general direction, hoping it'll shoo away the shadows. She'd be ludicrously lucky if it ends up nailing him.

She cycles a normal bolt into the chamber and takes aim at one of the servants. She fires and it goes straight into it's head, the head being sent straight into the skull, and poking out at the other side. It falls and she spies another rushing her with a knife. She reacts at the last moment and brings up her left arm, which while it should be going for her knife, her instinct was simply to raise an arm. It strikes, pointed end forward, but it completely bends backward and she feels a numbness, like she was hit hard and bruised, but not cut nor anything seemingly broken. She looks down at her arm in awe.

"I can do that?" she says, and then gets back to being serious, taking that very arm and ramming it into the servant's solar plexus, then retracts the arm and jams her hand straight in the thing's face. she hears the sound of bones snapping and blood runs down her knuckles. She pulls back and looks back at the arm. Nothing stained, nothing broken, nothing bleeding. No damage at all. She stows her crossbow and brings out her knife from her hip holster, looking at Doc and Jack to see if they are having a hard time with their fights. You'd think they'd at least arm them more with kitchen tools or something, she thinks to herself.

Sharpe furrows his brow a bit and ponders why Jian is looking so worried. Has he never seen a gun? Is he afraid of firearms? It becomes apparent however that he is not looking at the pistol, but at something behind Sharpe.

"Something's behind me, isn't there..." He pulls his sword from his scabbard and looks about-face, and finds a Servant with a kitchen knife. He feels a sharp pain in his shoulder as he moves out of the way and his tricep is slashed open. It's bleeding a bit, but he ignores it, he's been through worse.

"Try harder." He says and brings his sword down one-handed through the servant's head, cleanly cutting it from the nose up, and the body falls to the ground, blood leaking out of the half-stump. It quickly rots and the blood darkens and solidifies, leaving a dark brown stain on the floor, and it withers away to bones.

He looks at Jian and finds him alright at least.

"Are you ok, Jian? Nothing try to kill you yet? We need to get going, find the rest of the group, they're probably seeing heavier than us and we're likely to see more of them. Keep the gun for now, I can keep them off with my sword. You lead for now, be the point man with the firearm."

He silently nods, looking at the gun in a shock, but surprisingly enough, he shortly after calms down.

"I have no idea where you all ran off to, so I can't lead on. I don't know where to go. But..."

He shoves Sharpe away, then turning around, aiming the pistol against the tube like he knows how to actually handle a gun, shooting it. Due to his right arm being injured the recoil is hardly compensated, making his shot turn from looking professional into just some stranger using the gun. The tank starts leaking a bit and he backs off.

"People from the West brought over guns once, I read about them and I recall one of the people living close having one back then. I saw him use it, though, I never had to get a feel for it myself. I... just hope that shooting this actually helps..."

He steps around the liquid, starting to smash the glass with the metal bar that he set down temporarily before, in hope to not get in contact with any of the liquid.

"Well... like... said... I... have... no... idea... where... you... went..."

His words are paused by every smash against the tube. He then pauses shortly

"You can go ahead, I'll try to open as many tubes as I can, with or without help. I am sure three people can handle him, hm?"

His eyes, serious about this as never before, looking right into sharpe's.

"Do you want your gun back? Otherwise I'll use it to try open more of them tubes.", he adds thereafter.

Dr. Atrium is shocked about how fast Marus is. He throws one scalpel trying to stop him but it misses. He sees the servants rushing at him and he turns and uses his teachings for the fight. As the servant tries to slash at him, he ducks under it and stabs the dagger into her torso then slashes, blood and some organs spilling out onto his hands. The moment she lands back, she starts to rapidly decay. He then turns but he isn't fast enough and the servant stabs him in the back. He lets out a yell of pain but it doesn't last long. He sweeps his legs and tripping the servant. He walks over to the servant on the ground and stomps on his neck as hard as he can, killing him. Doc watches the man decay also, he then rushes over to help Jack

"grr, I'm fine don't worry"

"Everyone, stop saying they're dying. They're not dying. I saved them. I just need to find Marcus and release them. I just need to make things right."

Jack runs as fast as he can. The pain of his injury vanish as heated blood rushes through his veins in his pursuit of Marcus. Looking for a trail of Marcus' blood, he stumbles back into the room filled with the glass chambers completely horrified as he watches the people wake up to freedom only to immediately drown in death. Jack collapses to his knees. A single tear ran across his face.

"They're all dead. I did this to them. i-i-I killed them all....no....dammit no...no,no, NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Jack let out an ear piercing cry. The ancients would've described it as a suffering fax machine; a modern Glayp'neiran would mistake it for the cry of a demon out for blood. Fueled by grief, his body transformed. His eyes that were normally lavender were replaced by one red and one gold. The mighty wing of an angel sprouted out from his back. A lonely semi-circle that might have once been a halo rested above his head. With the speed of ten horses, he leaped sporadically across the room, smashing anything resembling the glass chambers with the strength of ten men. By miracle a girl crawled out of her tube, close to death but still alive. Seeing movement, Jack lunged towards her. A fist that would've shattered her skull landed an inch from her face. Warmth filled his heart.

"I-i...saved you..."

That warmth instantly fled when Jack looked down. His skin was ivory white. His legs were barely able to hold him up. He was standing in a pool of crimson. The event that had transpired gave him only one wing. He was bleeding where the other was supposed to be. Jack fainted. His wing vanished and so did the wound he bled from.

Sharpe and Jian watch in awe as Jack goes on a seemingly mad rampage, breaking glass and tubes. As he finally breaks down, coughs and chokes fill up the room. At random parts of the room, several survivers emerge from the broken glass, with cuts and coughs, though their bodies are unscathed and fine despite the liquid. Only a good 15 or so people have been freed, wandering around in confusion and wonder. A terrified yell comes from the far corner of the room as a man gets stabbed by a lone servant, seeming to be the only one in the room.



Doc sees Jack sprint down the room but his attention is caught by the fight. Several more servants appear from out of no where but are quickly struck down by him and Airgetlam. Ignoring the loud shatter of glass emitting from the other rooms they finish off the last bit of servants, leaving them in a room full of decaying corpses. Airgetlam remains unharmed though the doc took a few blows, none of which fatal.

She puts a hand on Doc's shoulder.

"Are you ok, friend? You took a real beating there. I'm fine myself, but I think for now, we need to retreat out of here, and get everyone else. Unless we find Marcus, who we'll have to kill first. He'll be scrambling an alarm or something. That, or he'll play cat and mouse with us, toying with our heads."

She goes into a jog and periodically checks to make sure Doc isn't going to die on her, and she walks into the room with the vats... and Jack on the floor in a pool of blood, out cold for some reason or other.

"Well, I guess it really did go to his head then!" She says. She looks up to Sharpe and yells.

"Are you and Jian ok? How many got sent after you? Why is Jack out like a log?"

Sharpe stares onward at the mess of what became of Jack.

"Y-yeah, go ahead and give the gun back to me, I got all the ammo for it anyway... Oh, one sec actually..."

He runs off toward the origin of the yell and stabs the servant from behind, it too becoming a decayed husk, and he runs back over the pooling blood, with Jack out like a blown-out candle.

"Sacred Feth, I've never seen anything quite like that..." he swears to himself. He looks up to find Airgetlam asking of him about Jian and himself.

"I've just got a small cut, Jian's ok too, but he's having his little heroic moment. Jack though... I don't even know what I saw, if it was real... He turned into a one-winged angel... completely white... but his other wing... he had no other wing... it was just a spray of crimson... Fething hell Air, I've never seen anything like it."

He scratches the back of his head, and wanders around a little, pacing.

"Two. Only two in the room. We were charged by one... Also, avoid the goo."

He feels very disoriented. He won't faint, but everything just went to hell so fast, it's one of those times when you don't quite know what to do next.

He spots Doc walking in, a bit bruised and cut.

"Doc, you alright, man? Holding up ok?"

All this action kind of throws him out of his tracks, trying to avoid all the shatters he just leaps away and hides behind whatever he can find.

"What the hell?! What is this all about?"

Being hidden, he sees... Jack. At least he thinks it's him because of the voice sounding familiar. But... his appearance is way off. He turned into some kind of creature now. A wing, the other half red. He sees Jack saving one of the people inside the tube, and he leaves out a relieving sigh. Jack then collapses shortly after, and he looks around, seeing all the people looking around and being alive. As one of them got stabbed.

"Oh g-", his voice being interrupted by seeing the servant getting killed thereafter.

"Shit... Another one of these innocent people lost...", he simply adds, looking at the man that got stabbed with huge sadness filling him. Looking around afterwards he still sees that some tubes aren't broken yet, and then hearing Sharpe talking about him having "his heoric moment".

"You always know how to say something unfitting, Sharpe... Here, just take your damn gun, and I'll carry on without it", he gives it to him, then walking over to one of the tubes, banging the heck out of it with the biggest bar he could find in all this mess. Some hits are followed by a powerful yell, the pain in his arm... so far ignored.

Dr. Atrium fallows Airgetlam to join up with the others. He is angry that he let Marcus get the jump on him. He should of known that he would be the Necromancer. He looks up at Sharpe and Air.

"Yeah I am find, I have been through worse."

He sees Jack on the ground but he guesses that one of the servants knocked him out and he walks over to Jian who is using a bar to hit one of the tubes with all he has. He grabs his shoulder and pulls him a way a bit.

"That bar isn't going to do anything, even if this tube is a bit broken and even if it could, you don't want to be so close that this stuff will get on you. What ever this liquid is, it eats through anything...including steel. So lets try something else"

He walks to one of the servants with a cleaver and walks back to the tube. He then slashes right on the part of the glass that has been cracked a bit. It takes a few slashes but he finally brakes the glass and jumps out of the way before any of the liquid gets on him. He sees the body in the tube fall to the ground and at first he is sad because the woman looks dead. He starts to say sorry when the woman starts to move and sits up to find out what happened. He then smiles and looks at Jian.

"There you go, tell her that you saved her. I am sure she will thank you for risking your life for her. When you are done, come join us. We need your help if we are going to hunt down Marcus."

He walks over to Sharpe and Air.

"We should hurry up and try to stop Marcus for alerting everyone in this castle about what has just happened. By the way, what happened to Jack? Is he ok? I hope that isn't his blood he is laying in."

"Grr, where am I. What the bloody hell happened"

Jack stood up to find himself in what appeared to be a blank canvas of nothingness. It did not feel hot nor cold. It was not bright or dark; soft or hard; new or old; simply pure nothingness.

"Where you are is the infinite plains of your mind and what has happened is the unexpected"

In surprise, Jack turned around to find a mysterious man somehow cloaked in shadow. The man's voice was hard to describe except that it sounded trustworthy. With no other options, Jack chose to listen to what the man had to say

"I've been watching over you for quite a bit of time, Jack, as you choose to call yourself. I can only assume you didn't wake up this morning expecting to hear what I'm about to say, but you will believe it because of the lack of evidence you have against it. You were once a mighty archangel. You were of such great power that the weakest of gods looked upon you as their equal. You were tasked with guiding a group of warriors. Your soul was crippled by a evil and wicked force which cut off the memory of your many past lives. Few of them come to you in what you say are 'visions'. Now your task remains the same, but now the heavens have appointed me to serve as your guide in your weakened state. As such, you will listen and follow everything I say and never question it

"b-but...."

"No exceptions. Now go. Protect the heroes and please do not worry for your sister"

Jack closed is eyes to blink, and as his lids opened, the man was gone. All he could do was wait to regain consciousness.

"My sister..." he murmured, still asleep

Suddenly in the confusion, all the lights in the room flicker and come back to life, illuminating the huge mess. With loud screetches the sheeted metals on the glasses of the individual rooms sink into the floor revealing Maigoyume in the control room. He simply stares into the room, witnessing the rest of the group who'se attention he managed to capture by playing around with the console and restoring the system from its initial lockdown. While nobody can get a clear view of his face his pose and aura seems dark and angry somehow, as if he had found out something he didnt like, or missed out on it. He lifts his hand, thereafter smashing the console.

Sparks emmit from it and suddenly all the tubes that weren't damaged are drained from their liquid, the glasses sliding around making an opening for the bodies to fall out. Their attention turns back to the control room as Maigoyume has already turned and walked away.

The survivors awake from their slumber, getting up and staring around in confusion. Each of them with their own level of being scared and unknowing what happened or what to do. Only a few remain still on the ground, to never move again.

Airgetlam looks about the room, and watches as Mai releases everyone. She puts a hand up to signal him, but he walks away from the console before he notices her.

"I think Doc and I should go after Marcus, I'm the least injured of the group, I haven't taken any injuries. Sharpe, you should probably stay here and keep these people safe, you can take up a lot and dish it back out, and help Jian and Jack. I think Jian might be injured again. As for Marcus... We'll see if we can catch him."

She turns to Doc.

"Can you lead on? I saw him go somewhere and fired a bolt, but it didn't hit him. I have a rough map of the place though, maybe he went to the eastern wing."

She looks down at Jack, wondering what could have transpired.

"No way he got hit, something in him came out, and it wasn't going to kill him."

"He didn't," Sharpe says, "He turned into a fething one-winged angel and burst some of the vats."

He looks around, and sees everyone being released from the tubes, trying to make sense of their surroundings. They may have released these people from death's grip, but now where will they go? surely the servants will go about hacking them up. He honestly doesn't know how they'll smuggle out all these people. For all he knows, the husks will descend upon them in a bloodbath, or maybe let them go freely but at the last second tear him, Jack, and Jian apart.

"If that's the case, Air, may I have a map? I don't honestly know how to get all these people out. I think for now we should just stay in this room and wait. Especially with injured party members."  He looks at each of them, and finally to Jian, who actually has a large gash in his arm.

"Where'd you get that? Did one of them slash you when I wasn't looking?"

Mai releasing all the people like that surely is a relief, and seeing how many people actually managed to survive adds up to that. Jian checks up with one person after another, explaining a bit what is going on and that he's willing to help them out of this place, if they remain patient. The people surely are not in the green yet, so he can't completely calm down yet. He'll help them, regardless of the time consumed by that.

He's being interrupted by Sharpe, asking about his arm.
"Well, that was more my fault... Nobody slashed me, so no worries.", he refuses to add much detail to it, it was a rather embarrasing thing to happen. He sets the metal bar aside and keeps checking with the people, minding his own business, thinking about how to get the people out.

"These people need proper food and drink... They look very slim. They also will need something to wear... I will accompany them during the time. I can cook, I know about food. I am able to cut down to servings that are enough to pull them through. I just need ingridients to work with, and a place. This turns out to be more a survivalist and scavenging thing, including a necromancer pulling the strings. But yeah... I refuse to step away from them, I'll help them to get through, regardless of how much time and effort it will take. Even if it's the last thing I will do."

He says this, leaving it the room for the group to think about it. He then continues to add more.

"I don't expect you to help me, with that maniac being out there, but I'll try to ensure saftey, with or without help. I will need to find a place for them to hide, a way to cook, food and drink in general aswell. Many lives are at stake, and I won't agree with losing any of them on my own hands. I shall try first before dropping it."

He faces the group of the freed people, explaining them that he'll try to help them get out, trying to provide them with what they need, he tells them about him not going to leave thier side, being there whenever they need to talk about things.

He turns around towards the others once again.

"Once we find our way out, I will need to find the kitchen, if anybody has an idea where it is, I'll try to find my way there. These people need food over everything else. I might encounter resistance, but who knows, maybe I can work something out..."

Dr. Atrium nods at Airgetlam.

"Sounds like a plan." He turns to Jian. "Best of luck to you boy, these people are in good hands. While you are up and about you should check up on my sister and Hitomi. It would make me happy."

He then turns looks at Air.

"With the hits he took, he has to be leaving a trail of blood. We should be able to find it and figure out where he is going. I am sure the trail isn't going to be there for long so lets get going."

He turns and heads out back to the training room and fallows the trail of blood that Marcus left.

Jack woke like a jolt was sent through him

"GAH!!! SISTER!!!"

The pale white of his skin from the blood loss, the pool of his own blood he rested in, his heavy breathing, the confusion in his eyes, no detail about him at that moment could inspire anything but concern. His visions was blurry, but it was clear enough to make out the group.

His voice was weak and his speech was constantly interrupted by gasps for oxygen
"There was a man. He acted like he knew so much about what I wish to know, and yet, he chose only to divulge the bare minimum. I doubt you could answer the questions I wished I could've asked him, but would anyone be so kind as to tell me what I did and where this blood came from."

A salty mixture of laughs and coughs escaped his throat as he vaguely remembered that it was his blood.

"... and what about that...t-that crystal. You have to make sure Marcus doesn't get it."

Airgetlam just has a completely dumbfounded look upon her face.

"Uh..." She starts.

"Well, how nice of you to come back to us, Jack. And I didn't know you had a sister... Actually I don't know pretty much anything about you at all... Especially not after... something like that..." She chuckles a small bit, and looks up to Jian.

"Before I go, you should know that the attic down the hall from the guest rooms has ample space. Also, the two towers outside if you look from Sharpe's room have alchemy labs and libraries, you should be able to find some stuff there. As for the kitchen, I am unsure. You could probably ask Ayame if you find her, she'd be more than happy to help. If you mention me ever, she'll oblige. Take care, please don't get into any more trouble, nor incur any more injuries." She says with a hurriedness to her voice, and turns around to face Doc, loading in two normal bolts as well as an incendiary, replacing the caustic one.

"Ready when you are, I'm right behind you. Take it easy, too."

Sharpe nods at Air before she leaves. He turns back to Jian and Jack.

"Welp, I think we should just escort these people out in small groups maybe wrapped in cloth. As well, we'll have to worry about Janette." He crosses his arms, looking about. So many people kept in stasis, he wonders if they'll ever have normal lives again.

"We should decide on who goes out, and who stays or if we switch. Either way, I'd like two people with the majority at all times, and one person guiding a group. As for food, yeah, Ayama is the best bet. The ingredients you could get in the garden. If the attic is as Air says it is, it should work, just might need to clear it out first. As such, maybe I should go and make sure it's clear." He veers his sight to Jack, whose outburst has left him in a complete daze. His eyes meet with Jian's once more.

"That, and I think Jack should stay here until he comes to grips with what happened."

"Whatever works. As long as I get access to food, material for clothing and such, I should be good. Ingredients from the garden can be risky, I have not confirmed the safety of them being edible yet. The fauna here is different, same goes for the plants, so I can't really tell if it's a way to go. I will get in touch with Ayame, but first I need access to the kitchen to actually cook something up. Even more important is.. that we get all of these people out of here. This place really is not the best to discuss all of this. Let's get a move on."

He puts off his sweatjacket, giving it to one of the people that seem the youngest of them all which freezing a bit. This leaves him there without wearing anything at the top, uncovering his full scar and the bandage on his arm and some blood running down from it. He then picks up one of the metal bars again, he seems to feel more comfortable with using one of these as a weapon, rather than a sharp dagger.

"I would lead the way, but I have not much of a clue where to head to, so I would prefer somebody guiding me and some of these people out...", he says, scratching the back of his head, looking a bit lost.

"Everyone seems to preoccupied. Chasing that psychotic shadow is almost pointless. At least I know where your going. You don't fear death under the misguided belief that you'll never have to embrace it. HAH, COWARD!!! If I have not gone insane, and everything I've heard is true, that must mean I am kin with the angel of death. In that case, I will inform you that he does not require your services anymore once I destroy your precious crystal. hmph"

Jack struggles as he stands on his feet and limps towards the room where he last saw the crystal. His gun drops out of his coat pocket. The act of picking it up and placing it back in its holster is an excruciating task on its own. After that, Jack came to 2 sudden realizations. The first was that there was a giant hole in the back of his now blood coated suit. He was going to need to tailor to fix that if not buy a new suit all together. The other realization was how to destroy the crystal.

"Oh big brother, other than that sled you gave me on my 6th birthday this protraction weave is becoming the best present you've given me. I'll break that damn crystal by draining its power and using that power against it."

Airgetlam stops before she proceeds further down the hallway. Was she missing something? A feeling of missing a part of yourself, or that events haven't gone as they should swept over her. She looked down at herself, digging through her pockets. At last, she came to a piece of parchment and took it out. It was the map she had made and she remembers what she had forgotten to do. She runs back into the tube room and taps Sharpe's shoulder. She begins etching a map onto another piece of paper and hands it to him, almost as detailed as hers.

"I'm sorry, I completely forgot to give you a map!" She says, pointing out the distinct parts of the castle that have been explored.

"I'm going to have to put this place in later."

She leans in close to Sharpe's ear and whispers her thoughts.

"You should tell Jack about the Demon thing, I'll tell Doc." She says and walks back out to follow Doc, then jogs to catch up with him in the training room.

He takes the map from Airgetlam and studies it. He beckons Jian over to him.

"Here we are, somewhere," He says, pointing to the blank part of the map beyond the dining hall. "We should be somewhere further from the tip of the dining hall. Now, if this map is indeed accurate, there appears to be... the attic as mentioned, the towers with the labs, and apparently another lab here... and a barracks and dungeon. That must have been how she got back here and where she found Mai." He looks at the huge unexplored area that would be the east wing.

"I find the lack of content regarding this area disturbing. We should go and look about it sometime. I had brought it up in the room, but it was swept aside when more pressing matters showed their face.  Once we get everyone situated in the attic, we can work on investigating that area."

He puts his hand to his forehead.

"To be honest with you, Jian, I hadn't planned on these guys going and making an effort to shut down the power, save these people, take out Marcus... I don't think we were ready. We didn't have a plan of attack. It's ok to follow your heart, but you need your head too. Your heart is what you should ultimately listen to the most, but the thing is, your mind is what filters your desires into something realistic and coherent. Right now, the Mind has had it's mouth taped over. Saving these people should not have happened now, it should have happened right before the end of all of this, whenever and whatever that might be."

He puts his hands in his pockets and feels for the radar. He had forgotten it was there even. He takes it out and holds it up.

"This. We should have remembered this. We should have used it. So now, I'm going to see if I can rig it into my attire so I can check it like a pocket watch."

"Speaking of watches, where's Jack gotten off to?" He asks, looking around.

"We need to tell him about the Demon merging with the Necromancer. He and Doc both need a more detailed summation than any small briefing."

He looks behind himself and steps into the hall. He finds Jack limping off, somehow stricken with purpose.

"Jack, you alright? What's over there? We need to talk about some stuff, and also maybe about what happened with you." He calls out.