ORIGIN

@Vargas (The Sentinel, Nidhogg) @Aurelia @Cain (V-Zoisite-One) @Draconua (Orthoclase-Alpha, V-Selenite-One) @Equinox (V-Chaos-Eight) @Garnet-Epsilon @Khavur @Ruby-Beta @Rue @Vander @V-Hiddenite-One @V-Labradorite-One @Mirac

Like the good dog that it was, V-Hiddenite-One was quick to answer the summons of Master Vargas. He was Chaos Forge, after all. It didn’t matter that the fluffy pup had never been in a fight in his life. He would figure it out, he had to. This was important.

The deep growling voice challenged it and told it to prove itself. V-Hiddenite-One would prove itself. It was determined. It growled back, a pitiful sound in comparison coming from a puppy, but it was trying. It wanted to protect its new home, from whatever danger this might be.

It hadn’t seen any crystals crack from the Spire before during its stay in Draco so far, and Master Vargas’s reaction made it clear that this was not normal. Truth be told, it had been avoiding the Spire. But this was important, and Chaos Forge had been summoned, and it was Chaos Forge. So it was here.

It observed Master Vargas, bracing himself, but Hiddenite was small. So- instead, the pup tried something else. It tried to block in preparation for a physical attack. That likely wouldn’t do much, even if it succeeded, but it was likely all they could do.

His head snapped back, eyes searching the darkness of Draco at the quaking, the smoke, and the booming voice. I know that voice, he thought, dim surprise flaring in his mind. Do I leave the gate-? he wondered--but yes. Master Vargas was summoning them all.

And it sounds urgent.

He began to tug on his magic, to summon up his wings.

Then he stumbled, interrupted. For the briefest moment the world around him was black--empty--and he had to pause, glancing around him. The void--it was there; the bare bones of the rock, and nothing more. Empty. Cold. It was always a chilling sensation, even for the hound--but it had passed a moment later, and he finished the summoning of his magic that he had briefly paused.

Shimmering blue spread from his shoulderblades, arching out into great wings; his feet gently lifted from the ground, and the Sentinel--ignoring the quaking earth below--simply soared through the air toward the Black Spire, his halberd tight in one hand.

Upon arrival he hovered there, spectral wings beating a slow pace and keeping him airborne.

"What is this?" he asked, of no one in particular.

Garnet-Epsilon

The small hybrid had been... sulking high up in Draco for the day. A few loops between Ursa to speak with the bird that's taken up watch at one cave mouth, they'd come back a week or so ago after not being able to find him and had decided to wait and pout-nap.

Or were trying, until the very cave began to convulse and writhe much more than it usually does.

A summon from Master Vargas has them drop like a stone from their perch, opening wings before hitting the ground to catch themselves and circle the Spire at a small distance- they can't fight face to face but sneak attacks at high speed, they can do.

One loop around the main group to indicate their presence over the noise, and back to circling, ready to draw this being's ire if required. Part of them... questions the random puppy. But, for now- focus on whatevertheheck that is.

@V-Hiddenite-One (for visability)

Inane wandering aside, Relic hadn’t been up to much lately.
That was the case most of these days, without company and without entertainment. After Lacerta, after Bayo had gone, things seemed to become somehow monotonous and unscheduled both. Their travels had only been briefly punctuated with meeting Lior, but meetings of interest seemed to becoming fewer and fewer.

They found themselves in a bit of the caves they had yet to explore, a humid tunnel that stunk of oil. One couldn’t help compare the wetness of it all to a kind of orifice, whether it be a mouth or wound. The caves had gotten hotter, inescapably so, and it seemed that this area was not an exception.

What pushed her through the oil and moisture and heat, was the smell of the familiar. She may not have gotten names, or maybe she had simply forgotten them in the cycle past, but she could recognise the scent of the beasts that had accompanied her to Lacerta. She didn’t know enough about any of them to call them friends, brief acquaintances would be more accurate, but they did intrigue her. Not many looked as they did, clusters of eyes and the distorted forms of the reptilian.

But what really drove her, turned her trot to a gallop, was the rumbling. All exciting things come forth from an earthquake, right? The poison of the dart had long left her system, but the enthusiasm for adventure had not.

Thoroughly out of their element, Relic reached the clearing, surrounded by strange creatures again, lacking context and quite a bit of common sense. Standing further back from the spire, at the edge of the cluster, they too would brace themselves for what would come next.