Talaz Lagaar, once the center of scientific evolution, the very place where scientists and engineers created things people could only dream of. Once it had been the very place her mortal self had desired to explore at all costs. But now that she was here? It was hard for Esperia to say she truly felt excited. The island was troubled by a dark plague that had stricken its people, and while there were many people desperately trying to help the people of Talaz Lagaar help discover a cure to the disease, some took the opportunity to exploit the vulnerable state of the island for their own nefarious purposes. She was one of these people.

Seated on top of her horse Esperia had been in her human disguise, watching several of her thralls digging around the debris of one of the ruins of Area Zero. To others she might have looked like a noble, maybe a conqueror of some sort overlooking the spoils of war her minions were digging up. However, she was nothing of that sort... She was a Demon Queen.

Quietly she watched one of the thralls scoop up what appeared to be some sort of device from amidst the debris and after receiving a nod of affirmation from her went to place it among the other items they had collected so far.

Of course, she had come here for a reason, after all, she wasn't a treasure hunter or archeologist. No, she had a very personal desire for a particular piece of knowledge that might have been possibly been located here.

Considering the origins of some of the science from Talaz Lagaar, she presumed they had done extensive research in the concept of a soul and how to manipulate it. It was that knowledge she sought. The very same knowledge she hoped to obtain as a means to enhance the influence her Obscura had on others. If she could properly learn to manipulate this energy then not only could she control it better, but the knowledge over one's soul would be a key asset it making her able to control the demons on a larger scale. Right now she was still too weak to truly control all of the abyss, so she needed more power and knowledge at all costs...

Sheathed on her waist was her beloved sword, one that had once belonged to a Caelum king of old and was now in her possession. However, it was during the moment her hand rested on the invisible hilt of the sword that her horse neighed in discomfort, making Esperia's gaze drift around the area. So far she had been able to avoid the usual security measures that were in place, courtesy of some clever bribing but she did get warned that there were some foreigners hired to protect the place as well. These individuals might had possibly been much trickier to deal with than the local guards. But for now it seemed she had nothing yet to worry about.

"It seems we almost finished searching this area, your majesty." One of the Thralls bowed before her, leading to the Demon Queen to smile briefly. "Excellent work, tell the others to take a break, we move on to the next sector afterwards."

background, wc:

What is power? Theoretically, Kishin is powerful and equivalent to a X-rank mage. A purpose to why Kishin is alive isn't because of his power. His power is just an idea, and he recognizes it. The best investments Kishin has made is in his own safety. There's no plot armor here, only a man. Taking things as they come is what's built Kishin's true power step by step: living.

He had emphasized to Judith what seems like long ago that all he wanted with power was a simple thing: for them to stay living. Despite being more bloodthirsty after Seven, Kishin hadn't changed his mind and begun to hate his past guild. All he wants is to create his own guild.

Horse against horse, a haunting back to what seemed like an arrangement of the gods in Seven. Kishin hadn't prepared his new items or shined his jewels, but he's still here. Hungry. Truly hungry. There's no illusions in the fight of equals.

Everything Kishin wants is the result and his opponent maimed. A mirror and offering to his worth. He can make all the preparations, but he wants it now. An enemy that isn't shielding itself and welcomes a battle. No principled distractions. Tasty horse meat. A feeling that isn't delayed.

Gods, demons, angels, they all have no set executioner. There is no steady hand, or there's too many. In this small corner of the world, Kishin seeks a twist in the game. Even if he must wring out every piece of his own flesh, he won't avoid steady confrontation. The risk is finally worthy. Race to race, place to place without meaning. All Kishin needs is a new approach that he can believe in. In this bizarre scientific society, he doesn't care what he must sacrifice. Whatever twist of fate meets his sacrifice is only as just as it's worth.

Is Kishin a guard, or another scavenger? It matters not. The guardship was only an invite. Cornered, Kishin shows no relent. In a situation that can be salvaged, Kishin can change his beliefs. When the corner is tight, it's not tight enough here.

Kishin had decided to survive, and he can only survive by living with the power he seeks. The only path to friendship Kishin will ever offer. The opponent will prove they live and Kishin is just a doorway. If they cannot live truly, he'll drag them in.

Even Ghast seemed restless, his spirit horse shifting and snorting beneath him. Kishin couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed for so long. He had been looking forward to some form of a battle, to test his skills against the best. Time was only an illusion but it seemed less and less likely that anyone would attempt to steal the Zero artifact. In the distance, a faint hum of machinery echoed the static and arranged monotony.

At times, Kishin felt inclined to climb the walls, or against better judgment admire Zero. Now that someone real had come, Kishin's horse walked out of a doorway toward them. Mirroring the opposing, Kishin's difference was sitting similar to side saddle on Ghast. Chivalry to not attack a woman wasn't Kishin's impression, he's just happy it's not a whole squad. Morality and laws don't apply abroad it seems.

"En garde. Follow my path as a worthy corpse to what you were before now." Pressing forward spirited, Kishin found some courtesy he can admire and approve of. Offering his Chaos Claw hand for a handshake, Kishin didn't make any aggressive moves. Prompting himself to speak and get silence in return was similar to how Kishin acts. Kishin hadn't started to brawl until Esperia was ready. He hadn't recognized her yet. When seeing Esperia's face, Kishin had decided he wanted to force Jaqen's Grasp on it. The face wasn't ugly, Kishin just felt such a turn of events will bring more joy than punching it.

It was rather curious that till now there had been no guards trying to stop her. It wasn't exactly like she had been subtle and secretive in her approach. No, the sheer number of her thralls digging around the place and the fact she was seated on her horse should have said enough about her intentions. Sneaking around and avoiding confrontations was something only petty thieves or cowards would do, and she was neither. Upon hearing the voice announce his presence she turned her gaze toward them, watching Kishin approach her. At first she was about to draw her blade, expecting an ambush or the initiative for an attack but neither of these things came. Instead, Kishin offered her a handshake. A peculiar gesture, of courtesy but one she felt inclined to accept. Her gauntleted hand reached for the handshake as she spoke, her voice soft yet carrying the hint of playfulness she was known for. "I believe you aren't here just on patrol duty? Mhmm, your words and mannerisms seem to suggest you came here to seek battle."

Her gaze settled onto Kishin as the World's blessing granted her its power, allowing her to perceive the knowledge that would had otherwise been concealed from her. "A desire to test your strength? Then I hope to be able to be up to the task~ My name is Esperia."

Her horse backpedalled for a few steps, as if to give Kishin the proper distance to prepare himself. She doubted this man would allow her to just walk away, nor did she expect bribery to work on him. There was no choice but to fight!

Drawing her invisible blade, she prepared herself for the battle that awaited her. "I will not slight you then by holding back..."

As she declared these words the demonic energy of her obscura started to stir, her body shifting its form into her demonic appearance as the Demon Queen dug her boots lightly into the flank of her horse to steady herself. "At them Bucaphelas!" Considering she was only roughly ten meters away from where Kishin had been, the sudden sprint of her horse would have brought her rapidly to the flank of the mounted warrior, her invisible sword trailing at her side.

She had no intention yet to take down the rider, no: It was much more logical for her to try to take down the man's ghostly mount and lessen the stranger's mobility. Even then, whether her sword had hit its target or not during her swift dash, her horse would move in an arc as it turned back toward the direction Kishin was at.

"..." Her gaze narrowed, silently contemplating whether she should try to prepare that special attack of hers. No, perhaps it was best left for when she could deliver a decisive blow to her opponent. But even then, the opportunity to test her blade against someone did fill her with some sort of excitement. Could it be that she had become fond of fighting?

----
WEAPON :
EXCALIBUR
BODY :
LILITH'S DRESS
EARRINGS :
SEA DRAGON KING'S EARRINGS
RELIC :
EXPLORER BELT
MODIFICATION :
GALHOULS WHITE EYE (PERMANENT)(BURNED)
FERION'S HAWKEN EYE
COMPANION :
BUCEPHALAS
MOUNT :
BUCEPHALAS

- Used Esperia's True Form: granting her +50% to all base stats and +75% to INT, inflicting a 15% debuff to enemy stats and grants her the ability to fly at the cost of 10% of my base mana a turn. (-517)
- Excalibur's invisible Air spell is active (500 - 30% from Horse & Adventurer): 350 Mana
-Charging toward Kishin, attempting to attack his horse with my invisible sword. Current attack power is 178 Strength, equivalent to S-rank damage if hit.

Kishin ends lives quickly, to move on to the next task and for his own vitality. He recognizes he cannot always be expediate, and in some cases he has to repeatedly hit something. When ensuring his own vitality, Kishin wants to make someone hit him as many times as possible, because that means he is still alive. He doesn't think he is fast, nor does he try to prolong and avoid his next move.

That is to say, Kishin values every moment, and he knows his weaknesses. He doesn't deviate from what he is trained to do. When he finds it suitable, he follows his enemy, like a dance. Only after a single exchange, which is all it takes, will Kishin adjust his habits to be more friendly. A boardgame is about winning. Combat is about killing. There is no dojo here.

Mutual destruction, the whispers of death. Kishin peeks at how he can end his opponent's life and his own. Every succeeding move isn't a test Kishin is willing to take. He has no great magic or senses. Keeping his senses he has active are purely to attack. The greatest possession Kishin has is his skill for the moment. As for his shield, it's snug under the ghostly saddle of Ghast.

Deception is a part of battle and an insight. Feints and poisons are only delaying an inevitable opening. Here, Kishin has already found the opening. He has always looked down upon weapons. On the mage-level, a weapon is only as lethal as it's magical properties. Against defenses that are flat like Talaz robots, weapons cannot pierce, they are imprecise even against medieval armor and merely concussive.

Historically, Kishin is a man of habits rather than preparation. Being mounted had advantages and disadvantages. In this scenario, it is too unidirectional. A horse's momentum can only provide distance against a herculean fighter. The vulnerability in attacking isn't an equal exchange, just to strike from above or to distance for a moment. Historically, it became too quick and too easy to dismount someone.

When Esperia glimpsed at Kishin, she might of found he is closely affiliated with lessons in death. An endless abyss that drowns out the actual Abyss and divinity that looks down upon Bael. Most adventurers and fighters are always at a distance with death. Kishin squashes life without any tools or sparkles.

Kishin sneers at the toys created by humanity. He realized in Seven he will readily be a villain to humanity. Anything that gives defense that can't be pierced makes weapons a waste of moving. Whacking a magical metal pole that moves is a mastery in hilarity. The confident decision is to just grab and feel the innards pour out. Normal people can't stomach it. Kishin doesn't look to or want to nullify spells.

By the time someone can cast, he'll be strangling them while they have to cast multiple spells to whittle him down. Weapons are pedestrian, Kishin is only forced to use his Chaos Claw in this chapter of his life. He only laments that he's not a mage because of his self-confidence. He's not defined by weapon mastery.

After his handshake was accepted, Kishin did not let go. It seemed like he wanted to fondle the hand lovingly. The only fondling that came was muscles beginning to twitch. Holding the hand, he tightened, and he attempts to shatter Esperia's armor if it's on the hand. Snapping the bones through the armor, he attempts to twist. A torturous scream might emerge, but Kishin didn't allow the arm to be ripped off from the body. The steps to grab someone are short when weapons have no lethality. There's an initial feeling of discomfort in gender in grabbing people. What Kishin sees is just a skeleton he wants to rip out of an arm.

"You're mistaken. My horse is a shield, and it's trained not to cast spells. Mythical creatures don't go down easily. If it dies, I'll capture another. I can afford rearing another." Calmly uncaring about his pet seemed off. What Kishin didn't say was that his horse had tried to run him over at the start of it's training. Afterward, he felt lonely and he hit Ghast with Chaos Claw to heal his loneliness. He looked at Esperia's horse. It can run him over too. He'll grab it, one-handed, and slam it down into a pulp after he's done fighting Esperia.

"Shallow. I'm no knight, but I did say on your guard. I possess no mounted weapon, and am in a princess position on my horse. It's so I can get off it easily. How about turning over a new leaf and guarding with me?" That is to say, Kishin doesn't stop Esperia at all, and he only speaks when opportune safely. He will accept all of her. He has heard it is possible to lose memories. He'll imprint himself as many times as it takes. He is just as trapped as her.

Before Esperia could respond hopefully, he'd try to roll her to the ground with him, as if they're children enjoying their childhood. A corpse of it's past life that Kishin likes touches the ground. Once one limb is taken, the melee battle has already ended, and now he enters the playground. After all, Kishin isn't a rabbit, how shall he catch her if she turns into a birdy? Only in this way will Kishin erase her prior experiences.

Intel:

Battle Log:

Perhaps her mortal past was showing itself when she tried to show the courtesy of a handshake. When she felt Kishin's grip on her gauntlet tighten, his attempt to snap her bones would be met with a most peculiar result: namely the fact that the blessing of Avalon, the scabbard of her blade had left a protective layer on her armor. However, even then the sheer strength of Kishin tore through the barrier as its remaining damage started to crack onto the pressure of her armor.

Of course she was quite displeased by this act, an act of trickery that she would have considered cowardly if not for the fact that if she had not forgotten her human past, she would have done the same thing as a demon. With Ghast hit by her attack Esperia seemingly had a idea in mind, one she quickly changed when Kishin abandoned his horse and tried to roll her onto the ground. An opportunity arose as Esperia spread her wings and went airborne, forcefully shoving the hand that was holding onto her gauntlet away.

"If that is how you wish to play it..." Muttering in anger she hovered about 10 meters off the ground in front of Kishin while her horse dashed away, as if anticipating what its master would do next.

Raising her invisible blade high into the air she allowed its mana to surge, the majestic sight of Excalibur revealing itself as the invisible blessing was dispelled. Not just that, but due to the surge of Mana that erupted from the blade it started to radiate an energy her body was not entirely comfortable with, after all the light was a power she was not exactly used to wielding.

"EXCALIBUR!"

A fierce yell followed, her hands swinging the blade in a downwards swipe that soon caused the slash in the air to erupt into a large cone of pure light that came raining down onto both warrior and horse. It was the secret power of her sword, one she had used to decimate enemies in the past while she was still within the abyss. Would it have the same result here? Whether it did or not, the mere consequence of using the light-based attack was having its toll upon her body, draining more mana from her than she had initially anticipated. But for the time being she was still in the fight. For how long however? That was a question that remained yet to be seen.

Bucaphelas meanwhile turned in another arc as it watched the resulting blast, wondering what had happened to the man and his mount. Surely an attack like that would have had some consequences for the two of them? Still, with her blade now visible in hand Esperia looked at her gauntleted hand, the cracks in it making her glare at it. Such a petty mistake... How could she have forgotten that courtesy had no place upon the battlefield? Perhaps too silly of a notion for her human self to have ever thought of...


----
Due to Melee penetration being intercepted by Armorsmith perk of Adventurer, and my physical resistance on my armor the 1.5 S-rank damage is lowered to 1 A-rank damage (B-rank damage got intercepted by Ageless Vitality)

Esperia took the opportunity to take flight, hovering in the air about ten meters away from Kishin after trying to shove him away. Afterwards she attempt to blast both Kishin and Gast with Excalibur's spell:

Name: Excalibur
Rank: S
Mana Cost: 500
Requirements: Excalibur
Type: Offensive
Element: Light
Range: 25 meters
Cooldown: 5 posts
Duration: Sustain
Effect: The user cries out the name of the sword and summons its full power with a devastating swing, firing a powerful beam of light that spreads out in a cone, dealing damage to anybody caught in its path. The cone spreads up to 16 meters width at maximum range and deals S-rank damage. Colliding with objects and other spells doesn't reduce the damage of this spell. This spell cannot be nullified.

Due to Mana Burst being used before the cast my spell's damage is increased to 2 S-rank, and my blade deals Magical Damage. Due to it being a light-based attack Gast and darkness based items take increased damage, and I got to deal with a 20% increase in cost due to being a Demon. (10% due to Adventurer lowering my item cost by 10%), however the cone does not drop in damage, so any armor that is destroyed by the attack will not lower the damage to that limb. (but your magic resistance would~)

550+550+517 in total costs:

Base Mana: 5175-1034= 4141
Item Mana Pool: 2500-1100 = 1400 Mana left

Disappointment wasn't a cause to cease protecting his life. Sometimes new opportunities present themselves and the old ones are discarded haphazardly. Kishin is well-acquainted with having to snuff out a magical barrier. The more unpredictable barriers are of the unlucky nature Kishin had grabbed into. No matter, he'll continue twisting the hand and it's arm of Esperia. Not allowing his opponent to throw him away, Kishin insisted to keep his hold on Esperia tight. Every moment, the armor continued to crank and eventually the arm.

He had wanted to roll his eyes mentally and start to eye poke the beautiful face for his next cowardly move. Maybe, chop at the fair neck. Kishin doesn't have all the answers and doesn't want to try to understand the nature of the defense, even if it had been exhausted. He'll take things steadily without yielding.

Rather than risking how much of the defense covers Esperia and it's nature, Kishin can only act on what is guaranteed to help him. The next step that came into his consideration was muzzling her, a reasonable notion that could remove her ability to speak out certain spells.

Dismissing the considerations, Kishin just kept up what he's doing. From here, Esperia's options are limited, and his influence on what she's indecisive on will only help his cause. The nature of the defense is exactly why he doesn't use weapons and prefers to grab. Esperia's flight presents limited options to Kishin depending on the setting.

Following a target as it flies away blind or cancelling it's flight is all that Kishin expects if only he hadn't taken hold. With Esperia in hand, there's no weapon that's in his way as he'd hitch a ride into the sky. Being in the sky doesn't panic Kishin. Coming off the ground comes with the decision that his opponent will be dragged down with him.

If he didn't build his strength, he'd be hugging a wall, and it's why he needs even more. It's a skill, in a way, to methodically maintain what's important. Grabbing an arm was only the start. Kishin could grab other parts while maintaining his hold. A caster or not, restricting the limbs is a meaningful result. Once Kishin had come so close to Esperia, there became little to predict in what his next moves are. In the big picture, Kishin has only focused on his one move without great sensory backing.

"I'm starting to feel imposing. I permit you to cut off your arm or call me uncle." Reasoning out his focus, Kishin kept things simple. If the spell came, it came, it will be like firing a missile without the hands on the handle.

With the advent of the spell, Kishin shifts Esperia if he can, moving part of her into the path of her attack so she too is hit. Leveraging this, Kishin keeps his body in the pathway of her own without fear. He doesn't expect to be able to block the spell for his horse, and he might be misunderstood as having more chivalry than thought.

Kishin feels like he didn't deserve to get a laser beam shot at him, rather than worrying of his horse. Such subtle conventions of self-righteousness in a fight helps keep up vitality, and Kishin doesn't feel wrong in wanting to kill people. With the motion, Kishin thought to use his Chaos Claw to dodge under the pretense of being melted and lowering Esperia's guard.

Alternatively, things had come to what he'd decided on. If the blow came down to choice, the spell damaged Iron Maiden and then the arm without Chaos Claw. While Kishin's not a spoken devotee to his horse's continued existence, he doesn't want it to be exorcised so easily and directs the potential blast away from it. Matching the spirit of it's master, the horse huddled near Esperia's horse just in case to bring it in the pathway of Excalibur by the time Esperia began to fly.

Kishin has patiently beaten this horse, and Ghast knows it's not allowed to aspire to flying. Neigh, the horse troddles over to Esperia's and it takes the opportunity to begin smashing it too. It will take a long time for Ghast alone to win, but it knows that it's master wants to eat this horse later and will not allow it to escape so easily.

"You're still alive? The last mage that hit me like that had their head explode. I'm called Kishin. Want me to pat it better?" At this time, Esperia's spell had gone off if it did. He actually then went to pat their forehead, with his free hand, while still twisting the arm. At a point, he's pleasantly surprised that the barrier went away. The wind today feels nice. With her own spell hitting her or having no way out of the twist, Kishin didn't mind her twitching. He can't relate to the feeling of the head taking such force. Kishin wants to make her face look funny with Jaqen's as his finishing move on the meeting.

His body sizzled, losing sweat and armor. Skin ripped off his body, everything only surface wounds. As Esperia's pain deepened, Kishin's wounds perhaps began to heal thanks to Chaos Claw, if she hadn't expired. Even with the shared pain and focus on making her arm coil, Kishin couldn't help but think it's a cute demon. He also feels like this battle is going to come bite him later when she grows stronger and wants revenge. He forgot to change his face.

Intel:

Battle Log:

The attempt to twist her arm and the relentless desire to not let go was about to be decisive factor in the moments ahead. For holding onto her arm meant one thing: Kishin was right in front of her, and she was swinging a sword with an immense amount of energy at him. Not only that, but the fact he was persistent in keeping a grip on her arm meant that the attack of Excalibur, a cone-shaped blast that was produced by means of a horizontal swing would hit his entire body. It was a decision he had forced himself into when he refused to let go of her arm. Certainly, the swing would have made her arm get caught in the blast as well but she was confident in the defensive power of her attire. Indeed, even after being caught in her own blast, she felt her armor barely hold on.

Still, with the blast having likely engulfed Kishin's entire body at this rate, Esperia pulled the arm holding her sword and intended to finish off the fight by harshly swinging her blade toward the torso of the man, a diagonal swing which came from the lower left and cleaved upwards toward the upper right.

It might have not been enough to finish the fight, but with his equipment broken from the sheer force of the blast Kishin would be forced to reconsider his options. "Yes Kishin, I had worse agony to deal with in the past..." She muttered while gritting her teeth, attempting to endure the pain she felt earlier. She couldn't lose focus, not right now... her blade pulsed with mana yet this time the corruption of her obscura started to turn it into pure pitch-black color.

Thinking it would be best to finish the battle as soon as possible the Demon Queen tried to steel her resolve, biting through the pain as she prepared for the consequences her attack would have had.


----
Due to swinging Excalibur horizontally while Kishin was holding on to her arm, Esperia's attack would have engulfed him entirely (and hit her arm as well) -2 S-rank to armor, leaving it with 1 A-rank durability.

Proceeded to follow up the swing with a diagonal cleaving motion from the bottom left (the angle the sword was at after the item spell, and swung it diagonally upwards at Kishin's torso)

Current Constitution: 3 S-rank - 2 S-rank = 1 S-rank + 1 B-rank recovery

Base Mana: 4141-517= 3642
Item Mana Pool: 2500 = 1400 Mana left

Until now, Kishin had been using a singular procedure. He could adjust the angles and spacing, but he's only been passively reacting. Pulling himself and controlling his opponent's weight became tiresome, but he continued to do it whenever he had hold. At a point, complacency begins to build in wonder as to what Kishin plans. All Kishin had done was hold her. In the close quarters, the fear of the lethality of a weapon is the greatest danger. Eventually, a weapon will kill a normal person that can only test their luck. A normal person cannot quickly kill someone equal with their bare hands without great luck. Having a strong body, Kishin can kill fast enough to prevent a long weapon from coming into play when he's this close.

At the end of the day, Kishin's going to take the option that will let him sleep soundly. He'd like to avoid having multiple dreams of Excalibur shining in the darkness. He had been unpredictable but he doesn't contend that's always the way. Esperia had committed to her strikes, and so had Kishin. His insurance against mages had bought this moment of a higher pain for Esperia. As the spell had come forth, Kishin had already began to act. Even before the spell dissipated, Kishin had committed to the ending.

Like a relentless demon, from the curtain of light, his former Jaqen's hand came out. With Jaqen's gone, the hand instead moved to Esperia's neck, as if the surgical precision was always meant to be. Having used Iron Maiden to wear down the head already, Kishin didn't need any more tricks as life was already unfair enough to reveal the head.

After having confirmed the limits on his opponent's defense, he has no more qualms at striking the vital spot. A profound sadness is felt for losing his Jaqen's, but he's always had more room to act. The hand in which Jaqen's was placed had already been as close as one could be to Esperia's neck. In a shorter distance than Esperia's blade will travel, Kishin's hand thrusted. In an equivalent capacity to the blade's damage and the most mythical spells, Kishin aimed for her vital spot.

In a single grab, bones will most plausibly be ripped and used as what remained as Kishin's new anchor. In a scene of bellicose beauty, it was like plucking a flower. At the waist, he attempted to shimmie at Esperia's blade arm and now used his hand that was Chaos Claw's to try to claw on to the blade arm. Removing flexibility by simply being too close, Kishin only did these things by instinct. At this range, Esperia would be better off sliding the blade across Kishin rather than a decisive strike. With the consistent force applied, he had already shattered the armor from grabbing the other arm, and had barely been able to enjoy hand-holding too.

Instead of speaking, Kishin merely stared at the eyes of Esperia as her consciousness faded plausibly. With his mask gone, the tone of his words became more apparent. He was expressionless, without emotion, and relentlessly empty. His joking words seemingly from a wind-up doll worn out. Inside, he had different thoughts. Owww Excalibur.

Wondering if the result is acceptable, Kishin wants to go lick his wounds. He doesn't ponder what else he could of done, even his shield being kept in storage would have been inadequate. Respectfully silent, he only looked heroic for a moment in his legendary rags as if he needed no items. Then, he'd drop in a plop to the ground if Esperia's in hand, while wondering if Esperia has anything to say or if they're going to jail.

Intel:

Battle Log:

Despite the fact her blade was attempting to slice back into Kishin's body, the gorilla-like grip of the warrior made it a futile effort. Indeed, not even as she attempted to swipe her demonic tail toward him, her efforts were in vain as Esperia felt the hand tighten around her throat, an attempt for ending the fight there and then, and end it did.

A pained gasp escaped her lips as her consciousness started to fade away, even her struggles to regain freedom of her own body which the man insisted on holding onto at all costs were in vain. Her grip on her sword grew weaker, till she finally felt it slip out of her hand. Even as Avalon attempted to grant her a parting gift by restoring some of her vitality, all she could do with that bit of strength was an attempt to bring her head forward to brutally headbutt the guard.

It was the last act of defiance as she lost consciousness, her body reverting to its human disguise. Her horse had already started fleeing, perhaps in search for aid, or because it knew what was about to happen next.

The sound of footsteps resounded through the air as several guards of Talaz Lagaar appeared, among them being several highly armed Machia. They had come to arrest her. No matter, it was unlikely that any type of punishment they had in mind for her search for secret knowledge, wouldn't be something she couldn't handle it. Still, mentally she carved away the memory of Kishin's face and name, swearing she would get revenge for his actions today. Perhaps not now, but someday... But for now, she would have to deal with the consequences of being arrested. Not exactly something she was looking forward to. The prison was not the most accommodating of places, and if she had to make a guess, the prison and treatment the people of Talaz Lagaar had in mind for one like her would be a lot different compared to that of Fiore. Still... What an idiot she had been... To expect a fair fight, here... in this world? It might as well have been someone asking her not to be perverted, an impossible notion.

Still, Kishin would walk away with a hefty reward, so surely it would be a day he wouldn't forget anytime soon. With that amount of jewels he might even be able to buy himself some new clothes!

Meanwhile, in the shadows, a cloaked figure was observing the ongoing events. He waited until the guards had finished taking the unconscious woman away and Kishin had left the scene after which the figure emerged from its hiding place.

A hand raised for their hooded cloak, a simple tap on the side of his ear causing his voice to whisper softly into the device attached to his earlobe. "It seems we finally got our hands on one. Yes, start making preparations, we'll proceed with our plans as intended."

The man's gaze turned into the direction of the Fractured Sky, a soft hum escaping his lips. "I guess it will be only a matter of time before we can at last see the results of my research. We will find out what the secrets behind the Fractured Sky truly hold. I must succeed... Not just for everyone's sake, but for her as well..."

How long had it been since that fateful day? Way too long if he had anything to say about it. But for now it seemed that events were set into motion. The results of them yet to be seen...

To think he had the lone renegade to thank for it. A desire for victory and greed would soon allow him to obtain that which he desired!

---

Esperia is defeated, into Talaz Lagaar prison we go.

"I respect that, a lot." After her consciousness faded, he simply replied to her struggle. In the world of double meanings, Kishin's exhausted of having to play along with every convenient interpretations. He expands his limits moment to moment rather than being defined by them. Butting heads, he feels like he has met someone who can accept the opposite of what they expect. With blood flowing down his forehead, it comes past his lips.

He doesn't want to be gifted a win, and he doesn't want to be gifted an enlightenment. By any means, he wants to feel a win. For each fight, he just enjoys an unpredictable experience. Afterward, the goosebumps fade. The bloodlust becomes soothed and he stops himself from pleasing a crowd. He looks at the wraiths and the robots.

Next time, the enemy will be fearful to be even close to him. A direct result has occurred and Kishin has found someone excellent to compare his future disappointments to. For now, his solitary back continues to leave to collect what he's owed. Curling his finger back towards Ghast, it came after lazily giving a modicum of effort and keeping an eye on it's master.

[exit~]