The Forgotten Zodiac

There was silence for a few moments on Verolen's end. 'Father is trying to bring back mother...so he has to have some sort of contraption that might help...'

"Thus, his reason for stealing Manny again. That dark matter can power a flying machine, he can certainly power a soul-transfer device. He used Aries' body, that's why her soul was removed." Rush frowned. "We should plan our attack carefully...we have to get Aries back in her body, and Verolen back in his, all while avoiding attacks from the Phantom and the imposter. This is crazy..."

"Yes, yes. Fun, fun, fun." Verolen chuckled, pulling Gabe a good distance away from the Phantom and Cicila before transmuting his cloak into a knife. "Most fun, indeed." He grinned evilly, pulling Gabe closer to him and letting the tip of the knife drop onto the boy's forehead, starting to cut a letter into the skin.

"It seems so," Eve sighed softly. "But I'm sure we can do it. Any warnings for us, Adahre?" she turned to the spirit, who shrugged. "I told Bermuda not to come. But by ignoring my, he made it explicately clear that you all are more important to him than he is. So I suppose I have to help you," he said. Eve sighed. "That wasn't what I asked to hear," she said.

Gabe started to squirm. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Rush paused for a moment, listening to the Library for a short moment. "Right. We can't forget about that metal-controlling guard that the Phantom has. If I hold him off, do you think you guys can take care of the rest?" He asked, looking at the others.

"Well, if you take him out, I can shoot the Phantom in the head...will that buy us time?" Sylas asked.

"I'm making my mark on my victim. I'll write my name, then cut out your intenstines and strangle you with them." Verolen said happily, finishing writing 'Saeo' on Gabe's forehead.

"I'd say so, If you get him in the head," Eve said.

Gabe whimpered. "What?" he asked.

"I can get him in the head," Sylas nodded. "I never miss."

"We should hurry," Rush said, his hand starting to glow. "VCF already activated an attack."

'Sorry!' VCF said frantically. 'I don't know how to shut it off!'

"I'm not Verolen, stupid," He laughed, transmuting the knife into a hook-like object. "Are you ready, little victim of mine? I want to hear some excellent screams..."

Eve nodded. She shoved the pendant back into her pocket and ran off towards the throne room. "Follow me!" she called.

Gabe shrieked. "Mommy!"

Sylas and Rush followed, Rush pulling ahead as smaller versions of the Library's absorbtion tentacles started forming at his palm.

"Bye-bye, Gabe," Cicila called sweetly, waving slightly.

The doors were suddenly thrown open, our heroes charging inside. As promised, Sylas didn't hesitate to fire; the arrow thudded into the Phantom's forehead, the demon king falling backwards. Talos approached quickly from the corner, raising a rune-covered hand, but the tentacles from Rush's hand wrapped around his arm and threw him backwards.

"You guys!" Verolen looked up suddenly, transmuting the hook back into his cloak, pulling Gabe closer to him. "Just in the nick of time...good shot, Sylas!" He grinned, looking at where the Phantom's body now lay.

"Don't think that that works," Eve hissed at Verolen. "We know who you are. Let go of Gabe!" she said. As she spoke, the features of her face started to shift and change, and soon, in place of where she had been, was a large, hissing snake.

((Just thought I'd let her do something scary for once.))

Adahre got out the Cryllidad tome, preparing to use it. L'arc drew his sword, but seemed unsure of what to do. Couldn't attack Talos, his sword would betray him if he tried that. What to do... was that Aries?

"...Oh? So the game is up. Wonderful! My name is Saeo, good to meet you for real." He grinned, watching her transformation. "That's no good, how am I supposed to strangle you with your own intestines if you look like that? Not pretty at all. Somewhat disgusting, in fact." He threw Gabe aside, transmuting his cloak into twin swords.

"Welcome, young ones," Cicila smiled, stepping forward. "Come to play? I was getting bored, after all. What should we play? Poker? Chess? Russian roulette?" She smiled wider, shadows swarming at her feet, taking the shape of rats with tiny red eyes. "I do love games..."

Eve hissed, revealing sharp, pointed black fangs dripping with purple venom. "Come at me, then," she said. "Just try and best me."

L'arc was a bit taken aback. He lifted his sword. "Who are you?" he asked the Aries-person that obviously wasn't Aries because she was in the crown but looked like her and everything. He was a little confused.

"Try and best a snake? I'll squish you like a bug!" Saeo charged, blades swinging at Eve's head.

"Cicila Krow," She said plainly, smiling curtly. "Nice to meet you. You must be L'arc, prince of the forest realm. Since you didn't choose a game, let's play a card game. Here, here, find the queen," She waved her hand. Three of the rats ran forward and suddenly transformed in front of L'arc, changing into cards. They turned over, revealing two kings and one queen. They flipped over again and started switching places, rather quickly at that. They stopped again. "Go on, have a pick! It's not that hard, I love this game, too."

Eve dodged away, hissing and snapping at Verolen's back.

L'arc blinked, dully aware that he should be fighting right now, but.... He pointed at the rat in the middle. "That one?" he asked.

Saeo rolled forward, but then rolled back, one of his swords cutting at her jaw again. "Come on then, fight me for real!" He laughed. "What, afraid you might hurt your little friend's body? It is his, after all...and such a powerful body it is, at that."

"What about you, boy, which do you think it is?" Cicila asked, looking towards Sylas.

"U-uh...that one?" Sylas shrugged, pointing to the one in the middle, same as L'arc.

"Oh, too bad...two incorrect guesses." Cicila tutted. The cards flipped over, revealing three kings. "Oops, silly me, I forgot to put the Queen in there. Oh well!" The cards suddenly shifted into lances, driving towards the two boys; two for L'arc, one for Sylas. Sylas screamed in pain as the lance slammed into and dug straight through his shoulder before digging into the floor as well, pinning him in place.

L'arc shrieked as well as the lances got him in both of his wrists, causing him to drop his sword and pinning him to the wall nearby. He cried out again; with the spears driven the way the were, it was impossible that his arms weren't broken.

Eve hissed again, luncing foreward in another strike.

Cicila smiled almost happily, picking up one of the shadow mice and transforming it into a knife. A few of the others followed suit, floating lazily over to Sylas before dropping into various places on his body. Sylas screamed as he was riddled with holes, feeling his blood spread steadily around him. Cicila advanced on L'arc, smiling still. "Let's play a new game. I'm going to stab you in all the same places as Sylas, then you two will take turns being stabbed again in new places. First person to drop dead loses!"

"L'arc! Sylas!" Rush cried out, noticing their predicament. It was kind of hard to ignore the screaming. He was too busy fighting off Talos, though, he couldn't do anything.

Verolen side-stepped the lunge, running forward and jumping onto Eve's scaled head. He stabbed downwards, but her scales deflected his attack. He raised his blade to try again, grinning horribly in light of the screaming. Such a wonderful sound it was.

"Sleep!" Adahre waved his staff in the air at Cicila, aiming the spell at her. Gabe ran over next to him. "Bolganone!" he commanded. Searing hot fire burst from his hands, creating a wall between Cicila and L'arc and Sylas. Gabe turned and uttered the spell again, flames licking up towards Saeo.

Eve threw Saeo up, into the flames Gabe created.

Cicila collapsed at once, the lances and knifes dissolving into nothing. Sylas rolled over and coughed up a large mouthful of blood before collapsing again, shivering and bleeding profusely.

Saeo let out a screech as he was engulfed in the flames. He transmuted his dragon-scale cloak, making a shield to help defend himself a little better as he crawled out of the inferno, but he crawled out badly burnt and his shirt sleeve still very much on fire. He yelped and scrambled to try and put it out.

The Phantom, in the meantime, reached up and pried the arrow out of his forehead, pulling himself to his feet. What a mess...

Adahre rushed over to L'arc and Sylas, hurrying to heal them before their enemies could regroup.

Eve lunged for Saeo again, sinking a foot-long fang into his arm. She did not release any venom, though, remembering that this was, yes, Verolen's body. And he'd need it back later.

Talos, however, couldn't have that. Rush had been defeated; he was slumped against a wall nearby, held there by a large metal band that was secured around his neck. He was bleeding a little from several scratches, but none of them were too serious.

Several razor-thin needles went flying through the air at Adahre, aimed at various points on his body that would make him incapable of movement for a short while.

Saeo screamed, though he turned and attempted to punch Eve in the eye. He didn't particularly care if there was venom or not; he would just come back if he was killed, anyways.

They hit just as Adahre closed a few wounds on Sylas. He fell to the ground, wincing.

Eve drew back before Saeo could hit her, then, lightning quick, lunged again.