Colin's posts

"Okay." Ash said.

Meanwhile, Levi stopped at the 4 of them were heading towards the Council.

"Wait." he said.

"What?" Jack asked.

"Do you see someone standing straight ahead of us" Levi asked.

Ash looked at his sister, and then sighed.

"It's not like I'm going with the intention of dying." he told her.

"I'm going to try my best to make it back alive." he went on.

"But... well... I mean, sometimes sacrifices need to be made." he commented.

"Just... I need to try." he said.

"I'll catch ya later." he then added with a smile and a thumbs-up.

"........................." there was a long silence from Evan, before he coughed slightly.

"Well, that is ONE way." he said.

"Technically, we found two ways to possibly get the Bringers to leave." he told her.

"Yes, if at least one of the Bringers is defeated in hand-to-hand combat, then they have to grant the victor a 'wish' of sorts. And if one Bringer is banished back to where they live, the other 3 must follow." he explained.

"The other is to use... well... a forbidden rune to reverse summon them back to wherever they came from." he then told her.

"Problem is, it only has a 100% chance to work if they're all together for it to affect them." he continued. "And for each missing Bringer, the chance of it working drops by 25% each." he sighed.

"...plus there's a chance it'll take the life of whomever uses it..." he then mumbled.

Ash was silent again, before bringing his hands up, and cracking his knuckles.

"Combat." he said.

"If they can be physically beaten, they might return." he told them.

"Maybe." he then clarified.

"I don't really have any-" he started to say, before Vicki's phone rang. When she looked at it, she saw it was Evan.

"Vicki!" he said when she answered.

"We found a way to make the Bringers leave the surface!" he told her.

"....." Ash was silent as Vicki asked her questions.

"I remember hearing something." he said.

"The Bringers aren't evil. They are residents of evil, they are created by evil, but they themselves are not evil." he told her.

"Which is to say, they will honour challenges." he said further.

"I suppose if they are defeated... then they could be sent back." he reasoned, stepping away from the window and seeming to be in deep thought.

What she saw outside chilled her to the bone.

It seemed that the sky had darkened, and the leaves were wilting off the trees... and she could feel anger in the air.

"...seems it's happening." Ash mumbled, as he walked up beside her.

"Looks like they're done dicking around." he said.

"Seems they're really going to try and bring about a reset here." he went on, before pausing.

"Armageddon."

For a bit, she managed to tell herself she was fine.

The manor was safe.

She was strong.

She'd be JUST fine.

Maybe.

These were the Bringers. Those capable of ending the world. And one of them seemed to have taken a personal interest in her. Yes, he left, but that was on the insistence of another.

Who was to say he wouldn't be back?

And would earthly mana barriers be enough to keep him away?

Again, she was surrounded by silence, other than the running water.

The house was completely empty and still, it seemed.

The water definitely felt nice, and it temporarily helped ease her mind... though setting her bones was something that DID hurt. And quite a bit at that.

But all the while, she kept wondering... was she a mortal now?

Would she stay dead?

Was her regeneration rooted in her mana, or her genetics?

As she sat there, all she heard was the emptiness around her.

It was quiet. Unnervingly so. The manor normally had SOMEONE there. Even if just her father moving about in his gym downstairs.

But there was nothing here right now.

Nobody.

Just herself... giving her time to reflect on what she had gone through.

It hadn't been pleasant. It had been a veritable nightmare for her. And the sheer joy that her tormentor had been getting out of it made it even worse.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get those eyes out of her mind. Like they had been burned into her memory.

Jack just shrugged.

"She could take it." he said.

"It's so rare to study and practice my craft like that." he told her.

"Thank you for the fun." he then said to Sammy, bowing in a mocking way.

"Goodbye." he finished, before turning to the woman that had just arrived.

"Let's go." he said.

"I have dawdled here for long enough, as you have pointed out."

Jack thought for a moment, pondering it.

"Yes." he replied.

"Her regeneration is ingrained into her genetics. But if her mana is targeted, then she will be nothing more than a powerless human... unable to die, and in pain." he said.

"That'd be perfect." he reasoned.

"Well, bye for now, little phoenix chick." he told Sammy.

"............" Jack was silent as the woman said what she did.

He then sighed, shook his head, and the bubble around them disappeared, returning them to the forested area.

"Very well." he said.

"I suppose I DID get too tunnel-vision'ed." he admitted.

"Oh well." he said further, shaking his head and looking at Sammy.

"Guess our playtime is over." he told her.

After about 30 seconds, she saw Jack and Sammy.

Sammy seemed to be held down with mana, while Jack looked like he was about to start digging through her body with long black energy blades. And she did NOT look she was having a good time of it all.

He then looked and saw the woman, a gleeful insanity in his eyes. But it disappeared as soon as he saw her.

"Huh?" he muttered.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

As she walked, she felt the aura getting stronger and stronger... until she happened upon the single source of it. It looked like a black bubble in front of her.

But she knew it would be invisible to mortals.

Which meant that Jack was in there... and odds are the girl was, too.

She could also sense... enjoyment from the bubble.

Intense and disconcerting glee.