And just like that, it was time to get back to work. For the first time in a while, he could feel a small grip on his new powers. He tucked the quest slip in his pocket. It read that someone else was supposed to be joining him today but it wasn't anyone that he had been in contact with recently so he decided to press on without waiting.

The Paladin approached the church grounds, finding it odd that they were still so close and helping them out. but it all made the guild look better in the end. He pulled the small covering off a back entryway tunnel. A waft of dust blew forth from the pits below him. He waved a hand across his face to cast it away and coughed.

"Dark and dingy huh?" He spoked and dropped into the covering without a second thought. As soon as his feet hit the ground. Dust rustled. A small cracked echoes from the old bones of a long-forgotten traveler. The narrow tunnel sprang to life with unholy screams. ethereal lights flickered. Spectres rushed down the tunnel and oozed from the walls, surrounding the paladin.

"crap...already."

WC 180

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.

1065/1750

The spirits whirled around and bounced from one dark corner to the next. They were ever vigilant in their assault and the paladin had never been one for agile moves. He guarded himself, by crossing his arms over his face as they came in. Their blows glanced off his armor for now. The weight of the whip at his side called to him.

A ghost hammered down with a fierce punch and Jin slammed his helmet against the fist. The blow battered the helmet but it remained in good condition. For a brief second, the helmet glowed and the ghost that had launched the attack was holding its own head in pain. A sneaky tactic that the Paladin kept up his sleeve.

His hand fell to his side. Fingers grazed the leather wrapping of the whip. It unraveled and touched the ground. The thin tip licked the ground like a dragon's tongue. With a flick of the wrist, the whip cracked and struck down one ghost rushing forward.

It was then that he heard his name called out. The ethereal creature's remnants wafted across the face and body of the paladin. Through the obscuring mist, he could see th reform of a man, laying waste to the ghosts. A flicker of steel and the echos of gunfire. Bullets so expertly placed that Jin didn't feel the need to take cover.

The voice held a familiar tone. One that had been lost to the guild for some time. A remnant of the chaos that surrounded this land they lived in. Jin squinted and recognized the intricate twists in the air and spirals. "Well I'll be," he said with a lopsided smile pulling at the muscles of his face. "Been awhile, pal," he yelled back and ducked under a ghost. It was certainly a wild time to run into him. Hopefully, it wasn't because the church had him trapped down here the whole time.

Jin stepped closer and absorbed another blow from a ghost against the armor. Since the man had gone, Jin had reluctantly taken up the title of the guild master, even though things were a shadow of the power they once held. It had seemed they were all falling one by one, but perhaps now things could get back on track. At least for a time.

More Ghost poured through and a group raged toward the paladin. He pushed toward them with his head down, as the unleashed a barrage of punches. His body morphed into something more liquid than flesh and the blows dissipated with the impact of the water. His body reformed and stabilized as the stepped onto the other side of the attackers. "How'd you get down here," Jin asked and cast a rush of healing light behind him that wiped out the few ghosts that had begun the assault.

After Erebus would answer the question, the tunnel would shake and seemingly rock back and forth. Stones cracked and tumbled from the walls and ceilings. A horde of ghosts flew down the tunnel.

WC 515

Exit