[Transcendence] Summon all the courage you require

Sebastian, despite being one who kept to his home, was not cut off from the caves.

He listened. He spoke. He reached out with his plants. And he heard of Emuh.

The magical owl who gave tests. Who gave power. And Sebastian? He sought power. Not for himself, never. But power... power that could protect his family. Finally, he had succeeded, grappled with his fear of his magicks and won, and how best to prove it than to face a test? A dangerous one, if it was to be believed, and so he would go alone, but the prize would be well worth it.

He wanted his brother to come with him... but what if something happened? Sebastian would never forgive himself if Rift watched him collapse, wreathed with flames, and be burned away 'til he was nothing more than blackened bones. Watched him be torn apart, ripped piece by piece until he was nothing. The panther had no idea what the test would be, and he wouldn't risk it.

And he knew that, if Rift knew what he was planning, he'd insist on coming with him. So he'd snuck away, left a message with that odd deer to tell him what he'd done if he never came back, and headed for Polaris.

The door, as he'd been told, was there. So he kneaded his paws in the ground, calling out with his smoker's voice "Hello Emuh, I am Sebastian. I have come to be tested... to prove myself." to prove that he truly had control.

"WHO'S THERE? WHO-? WHO?"

A towering black shape--like an owl, but enormous, with ram's horns and jagged spines and glowing toxic eyes--landed before Sebastian. There was a faint red glow about the beast, its ragged feathers trembling with energy--and then its aura shifted, turning an unpleasant gray. Small black fungus sprouted up, here and there, over the feathers. For a moment it eyed Sebastian up and down; then it seemed to decide that it approved of what it had found."A TEST? HA! THEN WE BEGIN," the owl-beast declared, turning and flapping up with massive beats of its wings into the cave beyond.

The room was perhaps the size of a very large gymnasium, but the moment Emuh shot off into its shadows, it... changed. Rock began to warp and twist, groaning as the room's very terrain altered. A series of chasm-like gaps opened, and thick brambles began to rise, woody and covered in wicked thorns.

After a moment, Sebastian was faced with a room in three large portions, each separated by a broad, deep abyss with a thin, weak rock bridge connecting the two portions. His side was free of thorns, but the others were so thick with them that it would be near-impossible to navigate as-is.

"PROVE YOURSELF!" came Emuh's voice, a crowing bray from the darkness--but it wasn't entirely clear was Sebastian was meant to do.

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Fire is a particularly deadly element. A bad critical fail may return Sebastian to his chrysalis, though he can always try again once he has reawakened.

Sebastian, despite being one who kept to his home, was not cut off from the The creature that appeared - an owl? - looked him over, and he felt as though he were being judged, and found himself standing just that bit prouder, chest puffing out, legs planted.

And then the ground began to change, rock turning to chasm, brambles rising, and he took a long moment to look it over - what was he to do? The other sides... well, was he to destroy the brambles?

He took a breath, not entirely sure what to do, and decided that something simple might be a good start, and reached for his magic, trying to draw it into his paws.

His paws began to smolder, as expected... the stone beneath them, to turn to gradual ash.

Emuh remained silent.

Somewhere in the thicket, a quiet but ominous buzzing sound began...

Ah, the stone turned to ash.

The puma twitched his ears, raising his head as he kneaded his claws, the smell of smoke welcome, though the buzzing alarmed him. He peeled his lips back in a silent snarl, and though he felt he should stick to fire magicks, he wanted to know what might be out there, and so reached out, hoping that the plants might betray what they hid.

He pressed his senses in and was rewarded...

...with Chaos.

A thousand twisted black wasps swarming, buzzing in his skull, stinging, scratching, biting, flailing, covering every surface around him. He might have an instant to react before the swarm burst forth from the brambles and came for Sebastian himself, and were they even truly living beings? Or were they some entropic magic, given form, rushing with the intent only to destroy-?

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A swarm of thousands of black, oily wasps are swarming for Sebastian. If he fails to repel him they will begin to strike him next round...

He snarled, staggered and bellowed, dug in his claws to try and ground himself. Pain, the plants! They were being destroyed, what was Emuh doing to them?! His eyes squinted open, watering of the pain, going wide with horror at the sight of the swarm.

Sebastian was not one who lived to harm, was not one who wanted to hurt. But these would hurt him, would destroy him instead. So he had no choice but to draw upon his magic, to hope it would do as he bid. To try and create a coat of fire, in hopes of incinerating the wasps before they could reach him.

What looked like wasps--sounded like wasps, moved like wasps--flooded the air around Sebastian. But the flames that leapt from his black coat were protection, powerful protection, and instead of bites and stings and corruption, what came instead were the quiet sizzles and drops of oil-on-stone as the creatures were incinerated, falling to the ground around him in a hissing, black rain.

For a long moment there was only blessed silence, past the crackling of fading flames. And then, from beyond one of the thin, narrow rock-bridges, on another island, came a sound.

A deep, low growl. The guttural warning of some massive beast--and the shifting of the thorny brambles as whatever it was began to push toward the narrow span across the crevasse, and toward Sebastian on the other side...

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Even though he'd practiced the spell, the puma tensed, expected to burn, as flames lit up his pelt, danced before his eyes. But instead they burned the wasps, sizzling in the air and dropping them to the ground, and though his claws dug into the stone he stood still, allowing his flames to protect him until, it seemed, all the wasps were gone.

He took a long, deep breath, then began to plod forward - but only for a moment, eyes going wide with alarm at a growl. Oh. Oh, that was loud. Very loud.

The panther's eyes snapped to the crevasse, to the brambles, and maybe? With little grace, he gave a great exhale.

With a roaring crackle, the brambles were ignited. It began with embers, and flickered into blazing flame. Black smoke poured through the cave, rising to the ceiling, and one by one the massive thorned vines smoldered and fell away...

...Revealing a massive beast.

It was no mere living being. It looked made of flame: a huge four-legged creature of writhing yellow and lashing orange, smoldering black-pit eyes fixed on Sebastian. It was clear that fire alone would not kill this creation: perhaps it would not even harm it. For how could fire burn away flame-?

The first paw lifted... rose... swung forward... and settled on the thin and narrow bridge.

It was coming.

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