The sound of feet hitting the earth could have been heard behind Jin just before he jumped, but he was likely too invested in the quest and would miss the arrival committee before it could start.
A moment later, Erebus comes to the same location and peaks around. The church had taken so much damage in the last few years, the paint on the walls outside was peeling off the wooden panes. The ground by the cemetery was dying, rotting, the entire little area was one to stay away from. Yet, this church was in use every Sunday as normal. Just like today, which meant that the ghosts that needed flushing out should probably be taken care of before the sun could get much higher.
Arriving short noticeably made Erebus feel his dragging slack. "I do hope you'll forgive this one Jin," Erebus sighed, letting the piece of paper he'd stopped by to grab fly away with the morning breeze. He had made a new habit, or perhaps he'd let an old one return, in which he moved 'off the grid' and left everyone wondering where he was opr if he was alive; especially his guildmembers, it didn't show for much leadership on his part. Then again, Erebus wasn't good at politics.
Explanations were better left for describing to Jin in person, but right now. He was guessing the Healer was already cave crawling. So Erebus, followed suit, pushing the tarp binding away and revealing a pit that seemed to descend.
At the bottom Erebus landed planting a knee and a fist to the earth. It was dark and almost indiscernible if not for the occasional flicker of light down stray tunnels and waling echos pitching off the chamber walls, Erebus could see when the lights strobed in, he approached what he assumed to be Jin.
Erebus grabs the Pitchfork which was at his back, in one hand, in his other, he summoned a large .45 caliber revolver, and began taking shots at ghosts coming out of the walls...
"Is that you Jin?" Erebus said towards the man, obviously he could tell Jin apart but with the invaders taking him in, and his waking up to being normal again, Erebus is hesitant and cautious of dopplegangers.
Besides that... There was even more troubling things to be cautious of.
-----------------
The paper that flew away in his hands when he'd arrived, Erebus would've briefly skimmed the page but had absorbed enough information to understand the world affairs. It had revealed a segment of the News from what he guessed was the Newest Wizard Magazine.
A truce between light and dark.
Of course, for the hypervigilant like himself, Erebus knew this was a farce as it had always been. The moment the world cooled off, all those people who wanted that bounty would come at them. But-- that was something better discussed with Jin after all.
What's more-- or perhaps even more unique to Erebus was that since he woke up, after beiung taking by these aliens.
He had lost his arms and his tattoos, yes. However, he took something else when they were done with him. Erebus took back his identity, and his memories as Strategist of Grimoire Heart. One of the Liberators of Fiore... Or at the very least, he was seeing things that he could only assume to be memories come back to him slowly.
It started with the tattoo on his tongue when he asked Arthurias for permission out of the Organization towards the end of the attack on the old monarchy, which took his memories when his mark faded, making him a nameless reputation called Vance. Yumi's contract with Malum affecting Erebus fell onto Vance since they were the same persona. Vance would be in debt to those demons, and so his soul would be taken to hell, but the body wasn't.
Erebus became a Zombie. Someone between life and death, or so the story goes. In that world, whatever happened to him was lost.
In this parallel timeline, for whatever reason.
Erebus is someone else-- or hadn't become infamous in the same way. However, he was toted as a Monster in both worlds. ("...But why?")
When Erebus had lost his memories here, he first took refuge in Phantom Lord, as it dissolved, the next closest regional dark guild to turn up was Eternal Nightmare. Erebus didn't move towards darkness, but it gradually came to him. The Founders sought for Erebus to steal the Nactian Book of Dragons, and looked him up with the promise of rewards. This would be before this Timeline's Erebus even knew himself to be capable of stealing such a piece as that, but someone else remembered it (The Magister's Index)-- Odin... Even when he didn't, or even if he questioned whether they were the same character. Odin still chose to work beside Erebus when no one else would, trusting the job to a newcomer, and everyone else had something to gain by coming for his Bounty. This made Erebus loyal to Odin.
Zagan would send Erebus' soul to the Abyss for ten years in the span of a second.
Erebus' merged with his soul in the Abyss, he could remember why power was important. It meant survival, after the War God was ripped out of his vessel.
Erebus, unmanaged Chaos, would be reborn in it's primary body. Now at the endgame instead of where it had been halted before.
He had no childhood memories before Zagan. Why? Because he was always Wanted, there wasn't a point in time the Rogue wasn't superhuman... Because he was always a Soldier. One of Arthurias' along with Yumi, and Odin...
With his memories of Grimoire Heart slowly returning, Erebus knew more about this rotten government than the rest of society, and he was slowly beginning to learn more... and more.
But he needed to brief Jin. The only confidant Erebus could trust in the entire world. Right now, they had more pressing issues to attend too. Blasting the ghosts away, Erebus dashed off wall to wall spinning his pitchfork through monsters as they viciously struck at him. Every shell that erupted from his glock caused the malicious ghosts to explode with ectoplasm, glowing against the dark stone wallings.
The ghosts hadn't forgotten Jin either.
A handful of spirits would come spiraling towards the Paladin's location and strike at every limb if successful.
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