Legend Blood [FINISHED, please lock/PG-13/IC] *remake*

[Merci]

[color=magenta]"Hello, elf."[/color] A voice greeted Feredir, out of place in this battlefield. Azami sat peacefully on a piece of debris, watching the battle without expression, uncaringly. [color=magenta]"It's because of you all of this happened."[/color] Then she turned away from him and looked back up at the sky of Elnherjar. [color=magenta]"Now, anomaly, what will you do about that?"[/color]

[color=maroon]"Doctor Yamada!"[/color] Commander Ptonemely called out, running from nearby. [color=maroon]"So it's true you're here. The princess is injured severely, and we need you to help her! Now!"[/color]

Azami sighed.

[color=magenta]"Okay."[/color]

And she got up and went over.

---------

[color=red]"Alexi."[/color] The vampire prince said, slightly stunned when Luis appeared to reveal some newfound power that saved them, but otherwise unhurt. He appeared to have been waiting for Feredir to disappear, as if he didn't want him to hear this. [color=red]"If all else fails...I want you to run your transformation spell through me. While it's true you have a better-suited body, right now I'm the most genetically similar to that tree in the sky, and we have the same elemental affinity, that of the pure royal. Not to mention my ridiculously high amount of mana. If anyone has a chance of surviving it, that would be [i]me[/i]."[/color]

[Asriel Dreemurr]

"Right, I'll get to work on it immediately. I'll be trying to reach the center of the roots." There was hardly time to put much more consideration into this plan of his, and if he were to bother with thinking of the difficulties he'd only end up discouraging himself. The time for the work of the mind had ended, and the time for action had come once more. The same energy which had protected Luis had granted him some level of defense as well, though the majority of his survival had to do with the enchanted armor that this new metal body of his was wrapped in. Just as he was about to take off, Asla suggested channeling the transformation spell into him and all the doctor could do was shake his head.

"My prince, you are far too important to risk losing in such a way as that and even if that were not the case managing to do so would take not only more time than we have but also require getting you up onto that thing. If we should come to that bridge, we will cross it. For now, however, we have a plan that gives us a chance." He said no more words before turning towards the skies once more and putting those wings of his to the use that they had been designed for. Thoughts crossed his mind as he wondered if this was the first time such a machine as that which housed his soul had been used in the history of Lath. When he had found the schematics, there was no trace of any prototype material or otherwise. There weren't even signs that production had ever begin aside from the few bits of machinery which, after his own reconstruction of the process, he had learned were fragments of the arcane mechanisms used to produce the weapons themselves. It was entirely possible he had uncovered the lab of an inventor who had worked tirelessly in an attempt to develop the devices but never succeeded.

Alexi shook the thoughts from his head, so that he wouldn't be distracted, as he began his approach with Elnherjar. Twists and turns from left to right served him well as he swam through the air around those attacks which were directed at him. Those he couldn't dodge were dealt with in varying ways, swarms of those steel-hard leaves were engulfed by flame, frost or acid as much as could be done and strikes performed by branches growing out were handled by the use of those super-heated claws upon his hands and feet. All he needed to do was reach that strange collection of vertical roots stretching up towards the moonlight and he would be clear to begin inscribing the sigil.

[Merci]

[color=magenta]"Unfortunately, that's her heart which was pierced through. How do you expect me to heal that? I'm not a sorcerer."[/color] Azami said, having opened the shirt of the vampire princess to examine the wound. [color=magenta]"The only reason she's made it this far is because she's a [i]Mira[/i], a pureblooded member of the royal family. But right now, she's practically a zombie living upon her own supply of mana."[/color]

Niasa's eyes stared up into the air, dazed and unfocused. The shadow over them was unconcerned with the pitiful vampires at the moment, preferring to target the humans. Nearby, stood Commander Ptonemely and the young Aro-

[color=maroon]"But you can't just let her die!"[/color] The young royal guard yelled at Azami, clenching his fists. [color=red]"If she's living on mana, then [i]give[/i] her more mana!"[/color]

[color=magenta]"I said, and I repeat myself, I'm not a sorcerer."[/color] The doctor replied bluntly, a crude smile on her face. [color=magenta]"Perhaps you desire to change fate, but your actions will never-"[/color]

[color=maroon]"That's a lie and you know it!"[/color]

Then, suddenly the anguished Aro revealed a rifle from behind his back. Before the commander or anyone else could stop him, he shot straight at Azami's heart, a bullet of steel with the potential to pierce through objects. Although the legendary woman could take credit for many of vampiric modern weaponry, the 'gun' itself was invented by someone else, and all she could do was improve upon it into a rapid-firing machine gun. The same could be said for the bullet. But even she, despite not inventing it, and everyone else knew the potential fatality of the bullet. It was so dangerous that even the most trained swordfighters could be taken down within seconds, that death is unavoidable from point-blank range.

But, if the nature of the bullet is so, why did it bounce off of her formal suit?

The illusion surrounding Azami Yamada flickered for a moment at the interference, revealing that her appearance this whole time had in fact been fake. Instead of a suit, what encovered her was a suit of segmented white armor plates, with mysterious crimson runes around it. Her skin was far from natural, a pale grey that appeared almost silver in the moonlight of the full moon. But most of all, her eyes...they were solid globes of green, having apparently been blown from fine glass. After but a flickering moment, the illusion restored itself, and Azami looked normal again. Only this time, she had a twisted expression on her face that couldn't possibly belong to anyone else other than the devil himself.

Hopefully, the elf hadn't seen that.

[color=magenta]"How did you know?"[/color]

[color=maroon]"You walk slow."[/color] Aro replied, while the stunned Ptonemely just stood idly by. [color=maroon]"Now, [i]HEAL OUR PRINCESS!"[/i][/color]

Azami grinned, tilting her head as she turned back to the princess. [color=magenta]"Very well."[/color] She said. [color=magenta]"But this power is incomplete, a counterfeit, and I had to improvise upon the things I didn't have. So don't blame me if your beloved princess explodes."[/color]

Then she knelt down to carve an elvish rune into the skin Niasa's stomach. It wasn't going to be anything as complicated as 'Life', or even 'Heal'. It was only going to be a channeling rune, one that would gather expelled mana from the air and channel it into Niasa's mana storage, giving her enough power to - hopefully - let her body heal by itself.

-----------------

Some of the stray red leaves from Elnherjar were already beginning to target several vampires scattered about, not necessarily stray shots to the humans, who were rushing around to protect themselves from the abomination. Or, ya'know, just run like cowards. Most of the surviving humans, numbering only at twenty-ish, had gathered together to cast a forcefield that could potentially protect them from the red leaves. Only about five had been struck down by it so far. However, while they were still building it up, a wave of red leaves were coming too fast for anyone to deflect them-

A mysterious being appeared out of nowhere and came to their rescue, halting the red leaves in midair. Nearby, some female vampire called him an 'elf' before walking away, and indeed he did look like one. A fabled elf, with pointy ears and even a foresty outfit. A living legend. A good omen...hopefully, that is.

Protected, the humans succeeded in building up the invisible forcefield, and they continued to add up to it with more and more spells. However, it was still only enough to last about ten minutes before being penetrated through, and [i]that[/i] was only if the abnormal tree didn't decide to focus all its power upon them.

-----------

Alsa nodded. Although the scientist warmonger was reluctant to try such a thing, at least he had considered it. But of course, the Death Sigil was their first and best bet. It had to work, or otherwise all life on Lath would be eradicated. Tons of vampires and several humans tried to fight against the three, firing bullets and spells into the air, but they barely affected it. If anything, they only forced it to expand its attention, and red leaves tore down through the air and killed them. This destruction would only grow, and Elnherjar had to be stopped immediately.

Noticing Alexi was having difficulty with getting to the top, the vampire prince began to charge up mana. More mana than he'd ever used before, huge mana that exceeded the capacity of a normal human sorcerer. An energy ball formed below his two hands, and he thrusted his arms forward.

Then, like a cannon, a huge energy blast - stronger and larger than the one Lord Elnaer used to blast through five floors - fired up into the air and crashed through the many leaves and branches and twigs of Elnherjar, piercing through them all and coming out the other side, firing higher and higher into the air and space with no sign of stopping, narrowly avoiding the scientist himself...on purpose. A gap had been paved in the forest of leaves, though Alsa had no doubt it would recover within less than fifteen seconds. But that was enough time for Alexi to enter the gap and arrive at the other side, to the roots.

Kneeling down to regain his energy, he looked up at the full moon. Now there was nothing obscuring it, no ceiling cloud in the sky. Also, curiously enough, all the stars in the sky were visible, when this city's light should've been enough to drown them out. The sight might have been visually appealing to an artist, eldritch abomination in the air above a ruined castle in a starry sky, but it may be the last thing they ever see.

[b]11:42[/b]

[Reinforce]

Lyon looked across as he saw a blinding light through the branches obscuring his vision, before the light cleared to reveal a tempory path straight through the branches up to the roots. Cursing that he wasn't close to it, Lyon continued up through the path he was following, jumping up branches and ripping those attacking him apart with his water lines as he went. Arriving at the top of the tight branches, he could see the gap slowly closing, before turning his own attention to the roots he could now see above him and the trunk he was next to. Leaping up once more off the branch supporting him, he brought some of the water he had brought with him and turned it into an ice platform, which he embedded into the trunk of the tree before landing on it, so as to avoid having to rely on the tree itself to support him, before looking at the section around him.[i] If what I remember about trees is correct, they should contain water inside them, and if this abomination is anything like a normal tree, it should still contain some water inside itself. If I can get into that water, I could try and force it out of the tree to weaken him.[/i] Laying both hands on the trunk in front of him, he focussed his attention on the trunk, attempting to look inside for any water contained within.

[Merci]

The gigantic tree monster right above the thick branches and leaves...Elnherjar truly was a masterpiece of artwork, the very-nearly-almost-full moon and the stars shining down upon it, and unnatural roots magnificently reaching up vertically into the air to absorb the moonlight, completely defying gravity in the process. But that didn't necessarily mean one was home free on top of it, as the branches below - while preferring to focus on devastating the land - shook in annoyance at the intruder(s). But they couldn't reach Lyon, who was positioned at the top.

[size=8][color=darkred]DIE HUMAN[/color][/size]

Not so much a telepathic thought as something so pure it embedded itself directly into their mind, those two words echoed in the mercenary's head. And when he checked for water, he found no water. Of course, why would such a malevolent entity rely on water? That was stupid. Water was unreliable when it came to the lost Lord Elnaer's master plan of human extinction.

[i]But[/i], there was in fact a liquid. Not water, but iron, and organic cells that were not plant cells of red and purple and white, and platelets, and plasma...yes. Blood, human AND vampire. Although it wasn't replenishing itself with blood any longer, having found a better source, it was a fact that this 'blood' that replaced the role of water played a small part in Elnherjar's functions (possibly the dangerousness of the red leaves?). Maybe, if Lyon knew how to manipulate blood...but could he?

It wasn't the blood itself the tree abomination lived upon. It was the mana stored within, the life-force of those poor souls. Of humans who were executed and had their blood drained long ago, and of the various vampire scientists and surgeons that were caught within his first transformation. And these souls could never depart to the afterlife, not until either the tree burned through all their essence, or if Elnherjar itself died. Not only that, but the souls of those killed below would float upward and also be absorbed instead of going to the afterlife. And the moon, most of all, it lived upon the moonlight.

If anyone had ever heard an ancient story that only Alsa and Elnaer knew, of the tragic hybrid who replaced the moon, then they would realize that the cause of this tree's...monstrousness...was because it was most of all taking the life-force of that very moon.

This was why Lord Elnaer had waited for the full moon. Because ultimate power came from it.

[Reinforce]

Lyon felt the words almost embed upon his brain, like searing fire straight into his mind, before he managed to touch some trace of what could almost be called water. It wasn't of course, what he could feel was the plasma inside the blood that was floating around the veins of the giant tree. When he stretched his conciousness out further to try and touch it, he could sense more presences, dozens, or even hundreds of dead souls floating around, trapped by this huge abomination and condemmed to suffer until they were consumed. At that point of understanding, he drew back, as fast as he could, to escape back out of the magical properties that were trapping those souls in there, and with a backwards lunge, his hands left the tree, and his mind returned to itself. Collapsing down on his platform after seeing that, he took a moment to sort through the infomation he had gleamed about it, and stood back up. The temperature around him was dropping rapidly now, as his rage and anger, usually kept well in check, started to rise up, and with pure fury overwhelming any logical thoughts he may have, he reached forward, and once again connected with the tree. This time with a more specific purpose, and a starting location picked, he sent his magic, like a cold fury, flooding through the veins of blood, reaching out to all the molecules that made the blood what it was, and started to freeze them, even as the air and the piece of trunk directly in front of him started to frost over.

[Gαr]

After their short, yet bloody confrontation and the intervention of flying tree, Ed and Adrian retreated back into the castle. Almost as soon as they get inside, they quickly started fighting. They traded blow for blow, cut for cut. Despite having been beaten senseless, it wasn't anything Ed couldn't deal with. After getting out of that awkward situation, Ed continued to fight with the same, if not more, vigor than he started. When he went for a downward slash, something snapped, or awakened, inside of him. The slash suddenly gained extra speed and power, the likes of which surprised Adrian. He dodged, but just barely, as the sword zoomed past him and left a small crater where it landed. Instinctively, Ed darted forward with new found speed and delivered an elbow strike to the center of Adrian's chest. The force behind the blow was enough to push Adrian back several feet. The look on Adrian's face was one of confusion which quickly changed to one of satisfaction, while the look on Ed's face was one of enjoyment and bloodlust. [color=#800000]"Does that answer your question? Or do you need another example?"[/color]

Ed closed the gap between them in a flash and stopped right in front of Adrian. Ed punched Adrian in the face in same fashion Adrian did to him and finished with a an uppercut to the chin that lifted Adrian several inches off the ground. With an over an confident snicker and in a mocking fashion, Ed shrugged and said [color=#800000]"See what I mean?"[/color] Even after Ed's brutal assault, Adrian fought like they had been earlier except he was a lot more bloody. Now, they were in a deadlock. With Ed's new found abilities, they were just about equals. Neither could outclass each other, no matter what they did. Then, a thought crossed that could win him this stalemate of a fight.

He retreated back a few meters and relaxed his stance, which surprised Adrian a bit. [color=#800000]"How about another story? Anyway, have you ever wondered how I got this tattoo on my arm? Well, it was a gift from the ice mages that I trained with in the north for completing my training. Now, you get to see what it actually does. But enough talk, have at you!" [/color]Ed grasped his sword with both hands and took up a stance. His right arm began to glow and raised his sword above his head. He brought down the sword and following in the wake of the slash, the black dragon was released. The concept behind the technique was to be the complete opposite of white flames. The black fire is one of the coldest things known to Lath and is considered very dangerous to control and use. The dragon freezes everything it touches and then it proceeds to obliterate whatever was frozen. There are ways to destroy it, but Ed hasn't trained with it long enough to figure all of them out. Now, Ed is gonna let Adrian deal with it.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

It was true, between the branches and the occasional barrage of leaves which this abomination was so keen to throw in the way of the doctor he was almost getting nowhere. Even as powerful as his frame was, he was being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of wood being put in his way. It seemed that every time he cut through one obstacle there were another ten right in his path again, and he knew full well that if he couldn't get more room to work with he'd soon be in danger of stalling out and falling a good ways. It was quite possible that he would fall to his death, he'd never attempted to pull out of a stall before and did not want to try now.

That was when he felt the surge of mana. A quick glance towards the ground showed the eruption of energy which Asla had brought forth, and he smiled at the Prince's prowess. He could tell even from that distance how well the trajectory had been determined, and in the time it took him to prepare to resume his upward flight all that was in his way had been incinerated. His powerful wings began to beat, and he began gaining altitude again. It only took him a few more moments to reach the level of the roots, and he was very fortunate to have something onto which he could grasp.

The sudden force of Elnherjar's mental assault shook him to his very core...and at the same time this attack left an impression upon the doctor. He sensed souls bound to the tree. No, bound wasn't the correct word. Imprisoned. In a fashion which he could not avoid noticing as being similar to the process by which he had created this construct and unintentionally housed his consciousness, nay his entire soul, these poor men and women had been forcibly imprisoned within the wood of the tree. This gave only more reason for him to begin the destruction of this monstrosity as quickly as he could. Quickly he pinpointed the center of the root cluster and sent himself hurtling along towards it. These roots could not be used to harm in the same way as the branches...at least he hoped they could not.

Upon reaching the center of the cluster, he immediately set about creating the sigil only on a much grander scale than he had in the throne room. Rather than inscribe the rune for plant, he was much more specific this time and did still more by using the ancient writings of the wood elves instead of the more recently developed hybrid language. He inscribed the rune for "tree" at one point of what was to become a triangle within the massive circle. At another point, set to form it perfectly into an equilateral shape, he inscribed the High-Elven rune for "prosperity" or rather the concept of coming into ones full power. To complete the triangle, the Dark-Elven rune which most closely translates to "Dominion." To any on-looker unaware of Alexi's intention, there might be the idea that he was planning to empower what Elnaer had become but were Feredir to arrive he would likely become horrified at what was to be set in motion. The doctor began inscribing the runes about the exterior of the circle meant to empower the sigil upon its completion, and soon a ring of elvish text had surrounded the exterior of the sigil in process. It was then that he began the involved process of drawing out the diagram, cutting circles around the primary runes and linking them together with lines, as well as drawing lines into the center before cutting out the circle where the final rune was to be drawn. This process took a great deal of time, and there was ample opportunity to interrupt it. Alexi only hoped that the others were keeping this monstrosity's attention to give him sufficient time to finish his work. With the diagram done, there was but a single thing left to do.

It should be noted that, before the development of the common elvish language, there were only three characters shared by all the races of elves; meanings and all. It was one of these which Alexi inscribed, and made the sigil one which would have been unsettling for any elf to behold and perhaps only slightly less of an abomination, when compared to Elnherjar, in the eyes of a wood elf. The rune inscribed translates most nearly as "End" but it means so much more than that. To the elves, this character conveys the idea of something coming to a complete and absolute stop never to resume again. Were this same sigil instead placed upon the world of lath it could obliterate an entire forest and leave it in a state where no tree would ever grow from that ground again. As it was, it spelled the complete and total end of this abomination if only sufficient mana could be poured into it. Thus, Alexi stood over the sigil and stretched his hands to the sky where the energies contained within his own body began to gather.

[Merci]

The thing known as Elnherjar knew of the presence of two intruders atop it, two harmful non-vampires that wanted to destroy it. So that meant it had to destroy them first, before they destroyed it. Its branches shaking, red leaves flew upward, but their vermillion color suddenly turned into a cold greyish one and fell back down, the blood empowering the abomination suddenly being frozen by some mysterious force. The upside-down tree shook for a moment, almost as if it were going to drop out from the sky, its leaves all turning greyer and greyer as the icy force threatened to destroy it.

But no. There was the full moon. Elnherjar kept itself stabilized as it absorbed more and more of the full moon's rays, its leaves adopting a mixed reddish-silver color that then flew back upward to penetrate Lyon and rip him into shreds. The other one thus far wasn't doing anything to destroy it. It did have some slight semblance to a vampire, so perhaps it wasn't threatening at all. But it would still have to die nevertheless.

A single huge branch separated from the top, and began to grow vertically at a rapid rate, higher and higher until the branch was close to its own roots. That way, although it couldn't control its own roots, it could still knock the other lifeform off of it.

[Reinforce]

Lyon, cursing at the suddenly reinvigorated branches that flew up to try and destroy him, brought a sphere of water together, before making a slight modification to the core of the sphere, adding in a group of ice shards. With the ice shards in the middle of the sphere, when the sphere exploded on contact, instead of just dealing the damage from the explosion there would also be the added damage from the shrapnel of the ice. Bringing the sphere around, he shot it towards the branches to hit underneath the platform he was standing on, to also prevent the ice from flinging back up and hitting him. Noticing the large branch growing up towards the roots where he had seen Alexi fly, Lyon turned on the ice platform to face it, and brought his hands up with three such spheres as he had used against the last attack on him, launching these three in short succession towards the large branch, to try and disrupt it and give Alexi some time to finish the death sigil.

[Damiano Tosē]

A shadow moved in the night. It hungers and lust for blood of both human and vampires linger within his system, waiting - watching. The figure moved in the outskirts of Nuevida as the shadows were his guidance - his destination was close at hand. He had kept a black robe on to hide his appearance as well as keeping on black mask as well, shielding his face as only his crimson, blood - red eyes peaked through the lonely night of god-making mask. He wanted no one to learn of him and his relation to King Elnaer, for he would be a huge question mark, but it mattered to him not, his life was far from an end. But having no friends and no one to fight with, it put him in a state of depression, more-so Melancholy. Getting back to town from his long trip, he had heard of his cousin, Elnaer, destroying life as it is now. A devilish smirk came about the figure's facial features as he shifted hi dark gaze upon the moon, seeing a tree-like monster hovering in the atmosphere, absorbing the moonlight rays, supplying the monster with more and more energy and transferring it into mana. That was Elnaer alright; always having a trick up his sleeve, as he would say. "Cousin... is this what really came to?" He patiently walked to the castle as it was not far from him. He took one small step, and with a swift dash - he appeared on the very doorstep of the castle in less than a second flat. He granted himself his natural vampiric abilities along with the T-virus syrum flowing in his veins and circulating the blood, traveling into all courses, enhancing his body once more.

One look above the castle grounds and many forces were in the ruins of the castle, some in the air as well, fighting his cousin with all of their might in both physical strength and spiritual strength (magic). But, yet as it seems, Elnaer was winning once again and he proved himself to be an even more powerful foe while still keeping the roots planted on the moon. Best case, break the moon. Crush it. Destroy it. If that's where his source of power was coming from, kill it. That was the plan: The first, and hopefully the last, plan for Tavair. He shifted his gaze to the moon, then slowly back at the battlefield and kept his eyes on Elnaer. Make use of Tavair and use him as a distraction so others can target the moon. The world may be with one less moon, but at least it'll weaken Elnaer greatly enough to kill him. He would have to think of a sneak attack to lay Elnaer off the others with no attention, having Elnaer focus mainly on Tavair for the time-being for the to destroy the moon. Time to initiate the plan and put into motion. Viewing the castle, size in height was humongous. Elnaer in that form would be very slow in speed, but very strong in both physical and spiritual prowess both. Attack with nothing but speed and don't get hit. Vampires don't tire out like humans; Actually kind of glad Tavair was a vampire at times. The castle was in ruins, and Elnaer was above it; on the very top floor. Tavair stepped onto the ruins of the castle and saw people fighting Elnaer, and each other. He sighed.

He took a look at Elnaer and also saw two people physically trying to tear the roots apart, but somehow getting to no avail. He sprung himself in the air and gently landed on the upper building of the castle. He was a few feet below Elnaer. He let his left foot rest behind his foot as his left foot lightly tapped the surface he was standing on. He kept his hands in his pockets as the black robe and mask still stayed within his body and face. All he needed was one good push; one good shot; one good kick, and everyone long range-wise can concentrate on the moon; Elnaer's source of power so far. He crouched to the ground, and with an immensive push from his legs, the force greeted him with a boost of speed as he then pushed off his legs and soared to Elnaer within high speed. The wind following his trails. As he got close, he visualized his next plan and proceeded to twist his body according to his plan.[list]
[*]If Tavair got close enough to Elnaer, Tavair would twist his body in a 360º manner with his right leg kicking out in front of him. As he twists his body, he lashes out a powerful airborne roundhouse kick to Elnaer's tree-like body. If the connected, depending on the force and strength of the kick, Elnaer would feel a sharp pain, and quickly stumble backwards, but since the tree being sturdy, he would quickly regain his balance, paying his attention only to Tavair.
[/list]
If that succeeds or it does not succeeds, Tavair would tell the rest of the people, "Target the moon. You see he absorbs more and more of the rays to regain his strength. Destroy the moon, and there will be no more rays." After saying that, Tavair would leaped a few feet away from Elnaer, back onto the surface of the top ruins of the castle, but still in front, indicating a nice little stare off with his older cousin. Royalty to royalty; von Mira, to von Mira.

"Nice to see you, Elnaer."

[Merci]

First off, the Elnherjar creature didn't manage to knock off the iron non-vampire lifeform with its branches - Alexi - due to interference from the intruding vampire Lyon. Second, it could sense that a rune of the end, a universal Elven rune that cut off one's own existence, was being carved on top of it, which only made removing Alexi even more vital. And finally, some sort of unidentified undead vampire appeared out of nowhere, and kicked its bark with remarkable, [i]unbelievable[/i] strength-

It was moved a couple of feet away, slightly further away from the full moon, but otherwise not enough to make a difference. At all. But it was still an incredibly amazing feat, considering its size.

[size=8][color=darkred]DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE[/color][/size]

Words implanted themselves directly into Tavair's mind, screeching out, threatening to tear out his mind. This was technically a reply. Those were the only words what was left of Lord Elnaer could say now, at this point. The creature was too far lost to ever reply intelligently.

And then right afterwards, a hurricane of red leaves were focused upon the newcomer, having identified him as perhaps the biggest threat currently around in this place. After all, no ordinary -anything- could kick Elnherjar and move it. That sort of strength was unnatural. Vampires did not have that strength, so there was only one conclusion; it was not a vampire, and must be exterminated immediately.

-----

Alsa von Mira, younger brother of the former Elnaer, stared up as his vaguely familiar cousin appeared out of nowhere, jumping up to improbable heights and landing a ridiculous blow onto the eldritch abomination. [color=red]"So...you're alive too?"[/color] He muttered, but unable to do anything yet since he was still recovering from his last attack.

[Love of Ghibli]

With swords clashing the psychotic swordsmen that was known as Adrian was clearly being paralleled. It was natural for him to be taken aback by the boys miraculous upgrades. Due to his life or death struggle with the savage black demon disguised as a human female he forgot about this other creature that was waiting in the reserve. But was this strength and where did it come from he wondered. Then he actually remembered their first clash of blades. It was rather boring and uneventful though he did managed to learn that this Ed person was a half breed. That's right he was half vampire and half human. Or something like that. Though it didn't seem to matter now though. The boy may have increased his speed to a level that mirror Adrian's own speed but it didn't come close to the speed his eyes had become accustomed to. This was interesting though It surely did make the fight almost memorable.

The boy continued talking as if he was gaining the upper hand...insulting in its thought formation. Adrian rubbed his chest slightly almost impressed that he could even feel pain at this level. Wouldn't want this to be too easy now would we. The next thing he saw was this youngster attacked with a frozen dragon thing. "Of course, why would a sword fight only have swords?" He rolled his eyes and jumped to the side and dodged the dragon's first assault. It wasn't the slowest creature ever but that didn't matter he witnessed what happened when it grazed the wall. Instant freezing. Curious on how to destroy it Adrian gathered his floating swords with his mind and was just going to cause the ceiling to collapse in.

But why do that? The dragon provided extra entertainment, this youngster didn't have the bloodlust or blatant insanity of his previous opponent so this battle needed some more spicing up. As the dragon came around to attack Adrian he simply ran. While that may appear to be a cowardly tactic he clearly had a more devious plan. He made a beeline to Ed's position and jumped in the air to deliver a downward slash, but before the young swordsmen would block this attack Adrian landed on one the floating swords in midair. He used it as a platform to flip over Ed and the dragon would naturally follow in a straight beeline formation. It was a classic tactic, hit the user with his own move, but this was more fun. Both of the combatants would escape and dodge the incoming dragon but then regain each other in close range combat. The only difference was. Adrian was quite taken with his sword surfing trick.

He essentially turned his two floating swords into feet blades showing off the marvels of his swordsmanship. He was able to do flips and tricks all while slashing down his opponent and dodging and death defying ice dragon. "So tell me.."Adrian mused "...if I put you blood through a strainer would I be able to separate the human from the vampire? Or are you just completely useless as a mut?" He laughed as he did a front flip which doubled as a dense dual downward slash on Ed which the samurai of ice naturally blocked but then had to do a quick barrel roll to the side to dodge the giant incoming ice dragon of destruction. Adrian simply laughed because thanks to his new sword trick he essentially achieved flight.

"Wonder why I've never thought of this before?"

[Reinforce]

Lyon gave a grim smile as his newly improved water spheres managed to rip the smaller branches that had been coming at him to shreds, and do enough damage to prevent the huge one from hitting Alexi and preventing him from activating the rune. Turning back to the tree, he nearly fell off his platform as it rocked again because a newcomer kicked the tree with a considerable amount of force. Regaining his balance as he saw the branches turning towards the newcomer, Lyon brought both his palms back onto the tree, and reached once more into the ice that was what now comprised the veins of this hideous version of a tree, taking advantage of the distraction. To that ice that was spread throughout the tree, he sent a single command with the full strength of his willpower to enforce it, to shatter and thus break apart explosively to rip apart the tree from the inside. At the very least, even if the main body of the tree didn't take too much damage, the icy veins were spread out through nearly all the branches as well, so if he could get those to rip to shreds, he could potentially bring down the primary attacking ability of the tree.

[ListenToLife]

He had saved the group of humans. Which was a sucess in Feredir's books. However, it seemed that the group themselves were severely weakened; the mages had little strength left and the soldiers would be useless about now. Feredir had no choice but to escort them to a nearby building, taking shelter from the rain of destruction that Elnaer wrought upon the land. It probably wouldn't keep them safe for long, but for long enough to destroy Elnaer...maybe.

However, after seeing that they were safe, he was distracted by a vampire woman walking past. One of obvious intellect and power, instantly recognising him as an Elf. And recognising that it was indeed his fault that all this was happening; his very existance allowed Elnaer the ability to harness the powers of nature, to draw upon elven blood.
Feredir sighed before turning to the woman, intrigued. Not as much by what she had said or done, but by something he could sense about her. Or, in fact, not sense. He couldn't sense a life-force; or atleast, not a natural one. It was strange; he felt a similar thing from Alexi, albeit stronger due to extreme amount of mana.

And, from following her, he did catch a glimpse of a body similar to Alexi's; a shell of Iron, housing her spirit. He would've interacted, but this woman seemed caught up in healing some girl on the floor. It was none of his business, and Feredir had other, more important stuff to do. Like take down the giant tree that threatened to destroy the world.

His attack had seemed to have left no damage, and the tree itself was more distracted by the many fighters that assaulted it. Watching a large beams of energy erupt from the former throne room, Feredir felt a pang of pride at his student; being able to muster such a blast as that after only a day's practise was unheard of. He would truely make a great king, if they ever got out of this.

And so Feredir turned his attention back towards the tree. He could sense Alexi creating a Death Sigil on the roots of the abomination, one that felt awfully familiar in its making, if Feredir sensed it correctly. He didn't fully recognise it though, and had no time to concentrate on deciphering it. A good thing too, for had he recognised it, he might've interfered and stopped such a spell; it was a cursed thing to do, evil to its very core.

Instead, Feredir needed to aid in the distraction of this beast before them. And he knew just how to do it.
He leapt up onto the top of a stone statue in the middle of an open area in the town, and proceeded to speak in the elven tongue. It was quite a long spell, it seemed, and he spoke many sentences in the elven tongue, but by the end of his sorcery, the very town seemed to come alive. Or, at least, the stone in it. The Statue that he stood on leapt into the air; a griffin of great majesty that Feredir rode. The rest of the town was littered with small golems and gargoyles, and soon an entire air force of stone beasts burst forth from the town, aiming their way towards the great tree in the sky. Feredir himself at the helm, firing enchanted arrow after enchanted arrow, each one covered in an aura of fire.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

The force that suddenly rocked this abomination of a tree which Elnaer had become nearly threw Alexi from his feet, though thankfully he was quite firmly anchored through the claws upon his feet and thus his channeling of mana was not interrupted. The mana he was able to draw upon from his body, or more accurately the elven power source contained within, was certainly immense and the greater conductivity of his body brought concentrations of mana he'd only seen while doing theoretical calculations to his clawed hands. And yet...he didn't think it was enough. The amount of mana it would take to cast the spell with sufficient force to destroy the whole of Elnherjar was monstrous, even with a sigil as powerful as the one he had created. He needed another source of mana...but he couldn't think of where to get it.

Then, express delivered to him through a well-known psychotic relative of the von Miras, inspiration struck him. Reminded as he was by the comment that Elnherjar was drawing mana from the moonlight, an idea which might very well be suicidal came to him in a spark of brilliance. His hands weren't free to work, but he knew very well what he needed to carve for this to work.

Located as he was at the heart of the root cluster, there were several large roots within easy reach of him. One at a time, he freed his feet from the wood beneath them and reached out towards a root on either of his side. Using the claw upon the largest of his toes, he cut a new seal into the wood at the base of each root and then dug the claws into the wood bounded by the exterior of the shape. This was not a complex seal, the only thing it did was draw in mana from whatever it happened to be placed upon and allow it to pass through something magically conductive to a new location. In many cases such a thing would be used to help fledgling mages who had yet to learn how to channel their own inner energies into spells. It would be drawn upon a surface which had been charged with mana, and the prospective mage would stand upon the seal. From there, the energies involved would flow into their bodies and in many cases give them the kick start they needed to really become skilled in the art of channeling. The good thing about this spell was that it simply connected two surfaces, and as such the maximum amount of mana that could pass through it was dependent upon the conductivity of the two materials.

As soon as Alexi had finished his attempt at connecting himself to Elnherjar in this manner, he could immediately feel amounts of mana hundreds of times greater than that which his own body contained hurtling through himself. The mana drawn from the moonlight by the roots was now being diverted, if only slightly, into his form. Of course that was all the mana he needed, and mere seconds after he had connected the energies gathered within his hands were sparking back and forth between the two points of collection whilst producing such a light that it was as if a great beacon had been lit. This also taught Alexi something about his new body. It could feel pain. This was far more mana than he'd ever intended to pass through the construct, and it was an excruciating constant sensation akin to white hot needles being driven into ones every pore. And he now knew he had to channel it into the sigil before it overloaded.

He began bringing the gathered mana down towards the sigil, though because of the energies interfering with the normal functions of this body the slowness with which he moved was incredible. As long as he could energize the sigil before his body exploded due to the sheer levels of charge, this was almost certain to spell the death-blow for the abomination.

[Piercer of the Heavens]

Once Luis safely left Arael at her home he left without saying a word. On his way back the words DIE echoed in his head, almost making him crash into building. "We really need to stop this thing." he mumbled to himself. Once he was about halfway back to the tree some stone creatures began to make their way to it as well. Luis instinctively destroyed one that was flying, but stopped when he realized that they weren't dangerous. "What the hell." He said at loud. Still he decided to ignore them for now since he was going much faster then they were. Only a few yards away he saw something shining in the distance, more specifically his lance. Of course he went to retrieve it and with that he had his armor, shield, and weapon.

Once Luis finally approached he saw someone kick the tree with tremendous force, actually moving it a little. Still the amount it moved was some what unnoticeable due to the tree's size. Before Luis managed to attack the golems, who were previously behind him, were already attacking the tree. Luis felt ashamed a little,but he did go back a little to retrieve his lance. Luis landed next to Alsa, only to say "I'm back" then flew up to the tree. Once high above, after fighting of a few branches he arrived at the roots. He began to stab to roots, but they where though. Even his lance that can penetrate all evil was doing barely any damage. "Crap, what the heck do I ne-" Luis was cut short form his rant as he herd something among the roots. He looked around only to see Alexi, but he was suffering.

"Alexi?" Luis said landing next to him. "What wrong!" He then saw saw marking all over the roots, but Luis isn't an expert at magic so he wouldn't know what was happening. Before more could be said branches arrived at their location. Alexi seemed unable to fight so Luis took it upon himself to defend him. Any branches that came would be destroyed by Luis' attacks. "Now tell me what you're doing, maybe I can help." Luis told Alexi while fighting of branches.

[Merci]

The tree creature was getting more and more desperate, and decided to simply wipe out all life below it. It didn't matter whether they were humans or vampires or something else anymore, they just had to [color=darkred][i]die[/i][/color], and all would be alright! However, before it could, ice penetrated its branches from the inside, puncturing it from within and attempting to rupture it as they broke apart like an explosion. To an extent, it succeeded, and shards of ice as well as huge branches of silvery-red leaves suddenly went motionless before breaking apart into smaller chunks that rained upon the castle. For about half a minute, the tree was left open and exposed, the rain of red leaves having been halted.

[i]Various souls were also freed with this act, and scrambled words thanked Lyon as they rose up to the afterlife.[/i]

However, along with the exposed Elnherjar, something else was also revealed. A black, bat-shaped object made of some organic material, hanging in the middle of all the red leaves of branches...[i]its fruit.[/i] And within this unique fruit was a single seed, that would grow into...[i]something[/i], if left alone. It was impossible to tell what at this current time, and it detached from the main tree before landing into the ruined castle below.

This half-minute of exposure didn't last long. Tons of new branches shot out of the tree abomination, rebuilding the destruction caused by Lyon, all of them now with [b]silver leaves[/b] derived entirely from the moonlight. Unidentified stone creatures surrounded it in the air having come from the ground, none of them appearing to be alive but instead fueled by mana. The source was the elf from earlier (Feredir), which was firing enchanted arrows of flame at it foolishly. Though slightly weaker from the loss of souls, it fired silver leaves at this gathered stone army, intending to take out each one from the air.

But then something even more unexpected occurred. The iron lifeform (Alexi) had tapped into its own gigantic amount of mana, stealing from it like a parasite, and he channeled this mana into the sigil he had carved, the sigil that may very well spell out its own death. Growing more desperate, it had more and more branches - each one larger and thicker than the last - grow out of it upwards to try and smash Alexi, to stop it from whatever it was doing...but the human Luis stood in its way, protecting him.

At the moment, Elnherjar was too preoccupied with destroying the stone creatures and stopping Alexi, so those below were currently safe.

-------

[b]11:53 PM[/b]

Alsa protected himself as various huge branches and leaves fell from Elnherjar, dodging them as they crashed into the unstable floor of the throne room. Although he had done his best, helping Alexi and that royal mercenary in reaching the top, he still hadn't been able to do much. His own power wasn't enough, being too inexperienced, and he didn't even know how to get up there onto the abomination like everyone else. Everyone else was playing their part in smashing it; his mentor, two of his 'accomplices', and two of his cousins, all of them already up there in the sky, while he was stuck below for support.

Then a bat-shaped fruit dropped to his feet, coming from Elnherjar. Of course, leaving it alone was too dangerous, so he quickly charged up an energy ball and obliterated it before it could do any further damage, not hesitating for a moment.

But despite that, the tiny, black seed within had endured his blast. The young vampire prince picked it up, staring at it with a strange expression, before looking up to continue watching the battle against his former brother. Would they succeed?

[Damiano Tosē]

[background=rgb(242, 242, 248)]The intimidation that was given to Tavair by Elnaer's words of saying Die 5 times was amusing to him, but when the bastard tree-like titan created a red leaf storm and aimed the damned thing at Tavair, it was something he did not expect; at all. He was sure the kick did a good amount of damage to even move the damn thing - being Elnaer was very sturdy and reluctantly very difficult to even budge - but, he was still absorbing the moon rays while hovering one hundred meters in the air. [i]s***... he's still powerful[/i]. Tavair was thinking in his head as he crossed his arms and looked downward to see his cousin, Alsa, muttering words but still recovering. Tavair then bend down to Alsa's level to pick him up and also remembered the hurricane of red leaves aiming for him by his cousin. He had to think fast and careful. Picking Alsa up, Tavair jumped from the top ruins to the bottom of the castle grounds before he looked upward. As he looked upward, he still saw the hurricane of red leaves focusing solely on him as the hurricane followed him wherever he go. [i]"Yes, I am. Glad you're still saying a few words[/i]." He said to Alsa while still holding him. It was his way of saying what Alsa had asked him, but instead of asking a question, Tavair told a statement. Seems legit. Now, if only Tavair and put his cousin in a safe place.[/background]

[color=#000000][font=calibri, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][background=rgb(242, 242, 248)]
[color=#222222][i]"I only came back because I was on vacation and wanted to see the family, not engage myself in a battle against your brother Alsa. Mind filling me in on what made him change into that thing?" [/i]He said to his cousin. As the battle raged on, he noticed something very different and odd about the red leaf hurricane as it was dispersed because of multiple attacks landed on the monster. As Elnaer absorbed more power from the moon light, the red leaves changed into the color of silver. In Tavair's mind, those silver leaves would possibly be sharper and more durable than the red leaves. To make matters much worse, Tavair even saw a stone army surrounded the tree in the air. Tavair didn't have a much closer look to know if they were either alive or dead, but didn't care nonetheless, but had hope that the stone army was on the good side. When he saw the tree firing silver leaves at the army, Tavair gave out a sigh of relief. Finally, Elnaer was preoccupied. He then saw a light that dispersed quickly and looked at his cousin holding up a strange, yet tiny black seed in his hands. He turned his back on his cousin, but gave him a side look from behind, saying [i]"I'm going to fight on the front line. If you need anything, just yell." [/i]With that being said, Tavair leaped from the castle grounds to the ruins in order to help the others. Apparently this stone army kept Elnaer busy for a while.[/color][/background][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=calibri, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif][size=4][background=rgb(242, 242, 248)]
[color=#222222]Then Elnaer had another target as he grew more thick branches and aimed at someone else. This gave Tavair an idea, but it somehow still involved the moon. And even that was impossible to even think of. Tavair decided to stay where he was and try to at least think of something. The kick was lucky enough, but it didn't help much when Elnaer regained his balance. This battle might be hardy than he thought it would be. It seemed as if Elnaer was unbeatable as long as that moon is still in one piece, giving out moonlight for Elnaer to regain his mana and possibly gain more abilities at that. What to do, what to do. Only thing to do was fight, but Tavair would only have leap at different directions since flying was not really his strong point. It was worth a shot. [/color][/background][/size][/font][/color]

[Asriel Dreemurr]

"Get...out of here...Luis!" There was quite literally no hiding it, Alexi was in the worst pain of his life. All the same, there was some level of relief in knowing that his body was capable of sensation even if this one was making his progress in bringing the charge of mana that he had gathered into then sigil slower than molasses. It was almost like the pain was a sign of some deeper level of interference with his body's systems, given how long it was taking him to move such a small distance. All the same, he was making the necessary progress.

The light cast by the sparking, violent masses of magical energy gathered in his hands was growing by the second as was the actual charge of mana located there. He was certain that this would kill Elnherjar, at least he was 95% certain. Of course there was not an acceptable alternative, they had to completely destroy this monstrosity once and for all. If he failed, well there probably wouldn't be anyone around to mock him for it at least. All there was left to do was move just a few more inches and he could see if this worked.

As the distance closed, mana began to spark out of Alexi's hands and into the sigil which he had been standing over the whole time. It quickly came alight, and the preliminary results were promising. Each spark of mana which entered into the sigil began the process of rotting away at the wood immediately surrounding it. Of course this was only the smallest hinting of what was to come, and were he able to bring the full force of this magical charge upon the sigil he would do so. Its effect, however, could only be guessed at; no one had ever channeled this much mana into any sigil even remotely resembling this.

[Merci]

[color=red]"His grand plan, cousin."[/color] Alsa replied silently, watching as the spectacle in the sky turned silver and only continued to cause havoc. [color=red]"He declared war against the humans, and this thing...was supposed to end it."[/color]

Tavair placed him onto the castle grounds, before leaping up again, seemingly without any effort. That kind of power was almost godlike, just what did he do in those nine years he had disappeared? It was hard to imagine that any kind of magic at all could allow someone to hop around tall heights without putting a strain on the body. The two of them used to be similar, and Alsa had once looked up to him as an idol while he was still a child...but Tavair seemed different now, somehow. Changed. Almost as if the rumors of him injecting the missing T-virus into himself were true.

Unsure what to think, the vampire prince continued to hold the black seed in his hand.

-------

The violent masses of energy Alexi was channeling was so powerful that the branches could no longer get even close to him.

A forbidden yet simple sigil, signifying the concept of an 'end' of something and never to resume. Something so dangerous, it annihilated energy entirely, never to convert back into matter, or into another form that may escape such a scary concept. Surely, even something as powerful as Elnherjar was nothing more than a gigantic, concentrated mass of growing energy and matter. It was illogical to ever assume that even a tree abomination could survive the concept that Alexi was about to apply upon it.

A huge wave of destruction tore through Elnherjar, all the wood and silver leaves rotting away into nothing within seconds, as if being consumed by a much greater force that threatened the very existence of the creature. Gigantic amounts of mana faded away into nothing, and for a moment there was almost nothing beneath Alexi's feet. For a moment, there wasn't any cheering, only an ominous silence as everyone anxiously looked up.

It was an impossible feat, surely, to escape that fate. In this world, there were only two states of existence, which was energy and matter (as e=mc[sup]2[/sup]). It couldn't be defied... But then again, the 'end' is only the end of what currently exists. However, Elnherjar is continually gaining mass and energy from the energy gathered from moonlight.

[b]12:00 AM - the full moon at its most intense[/b]

Several cells that had survived by being newly-grown after the spell had been cast began to combine and multiply, rapidly growing underneath the moonlight, regenerating itself. Within a mere few minutes, a brand-new Elnherjar had appeared, only 1/4th of its original size for now, but still with silver leaves, still with its roots in the air, and unfortunately still powered by Elnaer's will. Having been given a taste of death, it was now 'angry', but only in the loosest of terms since the tree had no real emotions or consciousness.

It was hopeless. This thing simply couldn't be destroyed, because it would keep regenerating from the moonlight. And the full moon wasn't due to disappear for another six hours...which was more than enough time for Elnherjar to exterminate every single lifeform on the entire world of Lath. Even grass, flowers, trees, bacteria, extremophiles, even they wouldn't be safe eventually.

Absolutely nothing would be left in its destruction, and then Lath will have turned into a ghost planet; just as the former world of Earth had once speculated it was. The situation was hopeless.

Silver leaves began raining continuously in greater waves than before, focused upon all the ones that had dared threaten its existence; Lyon, Tavair, Luis, Feredir, and Alexi...[i]especially[/i] Alexi.

[Reinforce]

Lyon smiled slightly, as his magic managed to destroy the red branches and free the souls trapped inside. With that power source gone though, the only one left was the moon that the Elnherjar was currently relying on for power. Looking up, he could see a wave of death racing through the tree, the result of the sigil cast by Alexi, and quickly broke his ice platform off from the tree, to avoid the spell reaching him too. As the magic worked though, Lyon could notice the tree taking in an increased amount of the moon's energy to avoid total destruction, and instead reform itself as a smaller version of the original. Then, a whole group of branches, this time completely silver rather than red, started to move to attack those around it. With the moon radiating magic energy down to the tree at full strength, Lyon remembered one of the things the newcomer vampire had mentioned, that destroying the moon would stop the tree. That in itself would be just about impossible, but what if instead of destroying the moon, one was to just block it from the tree, to sever the connection between the two.

With an idea slowly forming, Lyon sent a couple of blades of water to block the newly resumed assault on him by the silver branches, before commanding his now portable platform to fly him up above the area of the roots, and sending a couple of spikes of ice down to tether it in place there. Then, reaching his hands up the the sky, he threw his magic out to the small wispy clouds that were currently across the sky, as well as the large amounts of water existing down below in the palace, and used his magic to bring it together. From the castle, water started to rush up past him, meeting with the small clouds that had also converged above him, and with the torrents of water joining the clouds, Lyon pushed as much of his magic in. Above him, a large cloud started to emerge from the masses of water he was manipulating, slowly growing and covering the sky, and imposing itself as a huge, dark stormcloud between the moon and the Elnherjar abomination.

[Merci]

During the assault while it continued to grow bigger and bigger -it would take about an hour to return to its previous size, the Elnherjar monster suddenly found its roots struck by tiny blades of water. Annoyed by this, it sent flurries of silver leaves at Lyon, but they all missed as he continued his ascent above. Finally, the royal vampire paused, taking the time to gather magic and form clouds...leaving himself wide open for an attack that would rip him apart. Silver leaves rushed upwards, accelerating and picking up speed as they ascended higher and higher, too fast for Lyon to dodge-

Suddenly, a extremely tall yet thin energy pole shot up from the ground at a speed surpassing that of the leaves, extending all the way into the sky, with a humanoid figure clinging to the top of it. It dissolved quickly afterwards, before being replaced by a gigantic shield of energy that the vampire princess projected, which the leaves all bounced off of. It was a tremendous amount of mana Niasa had to use to project things so large, and he [i]had[/i] almost killed her after all, but this was their only chance to defeat Elnherjar.

So this was what he had become; some sort of tree monster, living off the full moon.

[color=#ee82ee]"Was I right?!" [/color]Niasa yelled up to Lyon, referring to Alsa and hoping he could hear her, before plummeting to the ground.

Falling down tons of feet, she flew down past Elnherjar and down parallel to the castle walls, but managed to project a huge, thick energy cushion for her to land on instead of getting herself killed, as she wouldn't ever forgive herself for it. She considered projecting a shadow avatar near her beloved little brother, but was too fatigued after all the mana she had used and the still-not-completely-healed wound on her body. Tired, she fell into a light sleep.

-----------

Suddenly, the moon was blocked out; the very same moon that had caused it to defy its own chosen fate. Elnherjar found itself cut from all that mana it had been taking from the moonlight. For a moment, it shook, and its roots dropped several feet down before halting again in the air, slightly closer to the ground. Its exponential growth had been halted at a third (1/3) of its original size, and its trunk turned slightly greyer.

[size=8][color=darkred]DDDIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE[/color][/size]

It screamed out, causing a painful headache to all nearby forms of life, and an extremely severe one for the humans. This was the decision and the very will of Elnaer von Mira, Lord of the Vampires. With blood on its hands, the bat hated all. With blood...? with blood, with blood, with blood, with blood, with blood on its hands, with blood, with blood, yes, yes, with blood, the bat - the bat - the bat, with blood, the bat hates all. That was it, wasn't it? The bat hates all.

Despite being cut off from its only source of power, Elnherjar appeared determined to fulfill its goal. Its roots tightened, as if gripping harder onto the thinning mana in the air. All its silver leaves detached from it, and this time they didn't grow back. They began to encircle the tree abomination in a flurry, eventually creating a ring around it. This acted as its permanent defense, which it was going to use to prevent anyone or anything from getting close and attacking it until the cloud disappeared.

In the air, it looked like a miniature planet all on its own.

------

Having stayed [i]far[/i] too long - she even had her secondary ultimate secret revealed - Azami began to make her leave, heading for the ruined west gate. By the looks of it, Elnherjar had almost been defeated. She didn't doubt for a second that it was going to be killed, seeing as how it was in the middle of a battleground with tons and tons of powerful warriors. She [i]had[/i] been surprised when it regenerated from that ultimate sigil Alexi had carved, which should've been enough to disintegrate it, but perhaps she had underestimated the power of the full moon.

[color=magenta]"Alsa von Mira."[/color] Azami said, stopping for a moment by the red-haired prince.

[color=red]"You...you're-"[/color]

Cutting him off with a blink, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

[i][color=magenta]"With blood, a bat hates all
A mere legend to rise or fall
From fire, the blessed to disperse
And in the aftermath, be cursed."[/i][/color]

And then she walked away, exiting the castle gate and continuing onward calmly, already assured of Elnherjar's defeat, and not really minding either way. The vampire prince just stared after her, confused, before glancing at the bat-shaped seed in his hand.

[Love of Ghibli]

What was this pain? What was this malice? What was this thing that wanted her dead? Roaming around a piece of the castle slowly taking out what other mortals dare get in her way was Clarice. She was hunting. She was hunting to get revenge on this vampire that she had not killed yet. There weren't many living beings left to even contend with yet if she found something it was dead. But every so often she would get this sensation. This mind-ripping sensation that kept telling her to die! Something wanted her life to end and it was getting to be much more for any human to handle. She was in a seemingly random hallway when one of those strikes hit her and it immediately brought her to her knee. She couldn't take this malice for once. There was this wall of power that she was imagining and she wasn't capable of overcoming it. But what was this it? To her these were just random instances that were getting in the way of her hunt, but one does not randomly incite death. Well she does, but that is different.

She looked up as tears began to form in her eyes and that is when she saw the image of her two mothers staring back at her. They didn't say a word but she clearly understood what this vision was about. How would this look for women kind? How would this look for all mankind? The world is saved and not one human gave a decent contribution to the story. How would she be able to look her children (if that'll ever happen) in the eyes and tell them that she got her face pounded in by something she didn't even know about. With that her vision of her parents faded and in their stead was a window that clearly revealed the treepocalypse. She did not know about Elnear and his wood elf plans, she did not know that John died (nor cared really), she didn't know who that random person was riding stone gargoyles and shooting fire arrows at the creature was. What she did know was that the tree seemed like a good place to start. Chop down the tree then, kill this mystery vampire, then find and kill this Adrian.

With her amazing speed she was able to run from one end of the massive castle to the other. Though she still ended up getting somewhat lost on simply how to get to the top without simply destroying everything. By the time she had reached the top of see the massive creature. It appeared as if there were a lot more "people" fighting this thing than she thought. First there was the would be king Lyon, then what could only be the female named dragon...thing named Alexi, some other vampire, some armored thing, and an...elf? An elf maybe. Clarice didn't know those were actual things seeing as she never encountered one. Nonetheless someone must have done something good because the tree was drastically smaller, silver, ad cast overhead was a massive cloud of some sort. But that didn't matter, it was time for the voice of women everywhere to be heard.

She approached the tree but it was already on the offensive. It let out a massive shriek telling everything to die, but not this time she would endure this mental assault she would endure this pain, and she WILL return it in kind. Admittedly her slow march into what could be described as the face of oblivion was halted for a second but she pushed forward with bloody tears of pain coming from her eyes she would not be deterred. It didn't take a genius to realize that this was clearly some kind of magic battle and that as a strictly close range combat character she wouldn't be of much use. But you know what they say. "If violence isn't solving all your problems, then you just aren't using enough." The tree beast was surrounded by floating deadly leaves of silver. To Clarice that sounded like a bunch of small swords.

[color=#ff8c00]Leave it to a bunch of men to not be able to cut down a tree.[/color] She said making light of the situation she was in. Standing her scythe up straight she closed her eyes and took in a deep inhale. With her energy restored by some vampire women she was ready to do something a tad foolhardy. It was time to empty that closet of hers. With that ripples opened everywhere surrounding the tree and its barrier and blades started to peek out from the ripples. But not just any blades these were all kinds of blades. Blades of every shape and size. Even those that could only be handled by the hands of giants were peeking through. This was Clarice's one trick. She didn't have a lot magical attacks in her arsenal, but she had a big arsenal she could attack with. She waved her hand and the blades rained down on the transformed Vampire lord hopefully fast and dense enough to pierce his protective barrier.

[Merci]

Elnherjar, the treepocalypse, a monster so powerful that even the combined might of the royal force brigade and resistance could barely hurt it at all, that even the best efforts of the very best had failed to destroy it, that it honestly threatened the very existence of life on Lath. It couldn't, and shouldn't ever be underestimated. Yet when a not-really-threatening human climbed up and began brutally attacking it with an array of blades that seemed to surpass the normal physics of magic, this posed as a surprisingly large threat.

The ring of silver leaves reacted instantaneously, bouncing back and forth as they deflected each and every single piece of incoming weaponry, several of them constantly getting pierced through only to be replaced with several more. Not having a consciousness was very useful, as this meant it could react to all of them at once. As the ring continued to protect it, almost every last blade fell to the ground, most of them slightly dented. Almost.

Some of of the largest weapons, those that could normally be held only in the hands of a giant, had pierced through the silver leaves altogether and lodged themselves into Elnherjar's bark. It screamed inaudibly before apparently 'ejecting' them out with a minor form of telekinesis. That human, would pay. On the bright side, its silver ring had thinned.

Once the hurricane was over, several of the silver leaves gathered together to create a hollow blade of silver - an exact replica of one of her own - before suddenly firing it at Clarice like a cannonball, intending to pierce right through her body in retaliation.