The Forgotten Zodiac

Obelisk was indeed crushed underneath the Wyrven, but it had little effect. If anything, it restored whatever magic he hadn't used before; the thick scales obstructed the light, engulfing him in darkness. Alas, though, he was unable to keep his grip on Grey, and wound up on the ground. The bandages remained in his hands, however; he was quick to get on his feet again, pulling the Wyrven's head away from Cynyr.

Grey gave a throaty screech, jerking his head back and forth violently.

Cynyr leapt forward, using a burst of wind to knock the dragon over, which got a squeal out of the creature. Cynyr jumped back, trying to get back out of range, then felt something push him from behind. Before he could turn his head to see what that had been, Grey's tail whipped around and slammed into him, sending him crashing to the ground.

In an instant, the wyvern had lunged up and was mercilessly throwing the panther around the courtyard with his tail, slamming him into walls and pillars alike.

Obelisk hissed with rage, but he didn't try to save Cynyr. Not directly. He jumped up onto Grey's back again, wrapping a good number of bandages around the beast's tail. It took quite a few and a good bit of straining before Obelisk even got the thing to stop. With that, he took all four collective lines; one for each wing, one for the head, and one collection for the tail.

He grabbed them all in his two, dusgusting and bony hands, then he started pulling. With any luck, the monster would be detained within a couple minutes.

Grey screamed in rage, fighting every step of the way, until he was finally exhausted from struggling. He was tired from the fly here alone, and then all of the fighting combined with the fact that he was young had wore him down fast. He panted heavily, his breath rasping in and out of his lungs, then hissed out words. "You...will...fall..." he growled, then sank unconscious, but not before his eyes turned from black to green.

Cynyr slowly pulled free of the creature's tail, barely able to drag himself a few inches away. Both legs were broken, along with one arm and his tail. He could feel broken ribs within his body and his vision was terribly askew. He passed out moments later, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

Obelisk released his grip on the bandages, rubbing his now-bleeding hands. He moved several of his trailing bandages, gently picking Cynyr up without jostling the wounds. He wasn't a healer; to stop swelling was a simple matter, but repairing broken bones and internal bleeding...

He headed back into the castle, back into the relief of dim lighting. He carried Cynyr to the infirmary, leaving him with doctor Marr. He then went to fetch Werr, figuring (correctly) that the boy really hadn't moved since Cynyr had ordered him to sit.

((Skip to the others? :T))

((Mmk.))

Seria waited in the shadows of the rafters above Asmodius' throne room, her blue eyes fixed on the ground below.

It was nearing evening now, and with Cern's attack looming, she and the others had taken up defensive positions in the throne room without the king's notice. He had ordered all of his guards out, every last one of them, wishing to be alone as he continued to weep for his lost daughter. Welk was crouching on a beam directly across from Seria, his bright crimson eyes flicking around the room as he scanned for any sign of the crazed Tartaran or Luen. Seria had left Nate in his room with a temporary sleep spell cast over him, forcing his weary body to rest.

Long hours passed, and the sky grew dark. Just as it was seeming like nothing would happen, a guard tromped in, metal armor clinking. "Y-your majesty, we're under attack!" The guard spluttered, staggering and falling to his knees. He was holding his arm, shaking somewhat.

Cern dropped the act pretty quickly. Diana, who was tucked into a corner of the room with Forin, had whimpered. Cern had immediately recognized it, obviously; he tore off the helmet, glaring at the corner. He drew his sword, grinning suddenly. "Come out and play, little Diana! Don't you want to watch me slice this king apart?"

It was a seriously bold, frontal move, coming here like this. And then teasing Diana...that was scary enough, considering how Forin was reacting. He looked ready to kill.

Welk leapt down from his hiding place, fire already lighting up his entire body. "I'd rather play with you, if that's okay," he said, landing with a thud in front of Asmodius. The startled king found that he could only stare, not having the strength or desire to run away. Welk bounced back and forth on his paws, his mane now an inferno of flames. He mentally shot plumes of fire out at Cern while Seria jumped down and landed next to Asmodius' throne, saying "We need to leave, your Majesty!"

He slowly shook his head, murmuring "I don't care..."

"Oh? I didn't know you lot were here. I should have guessed, though; Nate wouldn't have survived that poison without Seria's help." Cern giggled with his usual, high-pitched laugh as he used dark magic to push himself upwards and out of the way. Clearly, he had retained the dark magic that Obelisk had given him. "What about you, Welk? Do you care?" He smirked, turning himself upside down and dropping so that his face was inches from Welk's. "I don't think you do! Nope, you could care less about what I'm saying, even though it has something to do with someone very, very close to you~!"

Forin stepped out of his hiding place, leaving Diana well-hidden in the corner. He marched straight towards the throne, skirting around the fighting with apparent ease. Without warning, he grabbed king Asmodius by the collar and dragging the king down to his eye level. Even with Asmodius sitting, he was still taller than the young-looking Tartaran. "If you want to die, fine! But if I was in your position, I would be doing everything in my power not to die." He snarled. "Your kingdom still needs a king, this castle still needs a master, and Holly still needs you to live on for her!" He pushed Asmodius back and turned towards the fighting, drawing an unusual weapon from its concealed hilt on the side of his pants; it was a strange blade that curved tall over his hands, like a miniature scythe. It was a Tartaran Death Fist, to be precise. Scarier than a normal fist, to be blunt. (Ironic pun intended.)

Asmodius stared at Forin for a moment, then slowly allowed Seria to take his hand and lead him out of the room, though he didn't move very fast at first. He was still in shock, after all, but he finally sped up and ran out of the room with Seria.

Welk flinched back from Cern, growling "What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're talking about and since it's coming from you, I probably don't care." He shot fire out of his mouth in a sweeping blast, trying to catch Cern with it. "Where's Luen? We want our friend back!" he shouted, swiping at Cern with his claws.

Cern skipped back and away from the flames and claws, bumping into Forin. The well-behaved Tartaran aimed a swipe at him, but only managed to get a small cut in. Cern laughed all the more at this. "Oh, you don't want Luen. He's as good as dead, to be honest. Not exactly dead, but certainly getting there! But I really do think you'll want to hear this, Welk, it's wonderfully delicious news! I heard a rumor flicking from shadow to shadow, you see, and--"

"Don't listen to him, Welk, he's trying to manipulate you," Forin warned.

"Oh?" Cern grinned as wide as his torn face would allow. He suddenly flashed forward, his hand landing on Forin's face. Forin froze for a long moment before snapping out of it, aiming a punch for Cern's throat. He skipped back yet again, humming something.

"Wh-what did you do to me?!" Forin demanded, closing his eyes for a moment. He definitely felt strange...Cern had torn into his memory banks for a moment, but Forin wasn't sure if that was all that had happened. Or perhaps Cern just wanted him to be paranoid about that very thing.

"Nothing in particular," Cern giggled. "You still have that bomb, don't you? Yes, you do~! You stole it from the Amnarians before they could destroy it. What are you going to do with it, hmm? Blow someone up, I'd bet!"

"Shut up!" Forin snarled furiously. He still wasn't entire sure why he had kept the thing, but it was tucked into his bag upstairs. He opened his eyes again; only to see Cern pressing Diana up to him, holding her by the neck. He ran his tongue up her cheek, then bit into her ear while his claws went after the other. Forin shrieked with rage, charging forward. Or at least, attempting to. His legs collapsed underneath him, no longer wanting to obey his mind's orders. Cern had planted something in his head after all.

Welk wheeled around, rearing up on his back legs and pivoting in one fluid movement, sending an arch of fire out at Cern. "Let her go!" he shouted, his flames arching towards the Tartaran from behind.

Steel met fire in a ringing clack that seemed to echo, much louder than it naturally should've, into the room.

Welk's eyes widened when he spotted the familiar white wolfing standing back-to-back with Cern. "Luen!" he shouted, a smile breaking out over his face. "There you are! Quick, we need..." He trailed off in horror when Luen stepped out from behind Cern, showing himself fully to them.

If a half-rotten corpse could've been standing, that would've been Luen. The wolfling's body was so thin that it was a miracle that he was standing, like paper-thin skin stretched over taunt muscles and fragile bones. His eyes were sunken and hollow, with a blankness that spoke of a spiritless body. He held a long sword in his left hand, as his ice powers had been taken by Cern.

His right arm was completely gone.

Like the entire limb had just been chopped from his body, the leftover stump bound by red bandages at his shoulder. His clothing was ragged, showing his pale, pale skin. Scars of all sizes were dotted about his body, though not nearly as many as Cynyr's. Three long claw scars were sliced across the wolfling's face, over his forehead, nose and chin, where something had caught him with a good blow. Puncture marks pocked his arms, where needles had been injected over and over. He had lost quite a bit of his soft white hair, either due to malnurishment or burns.

Tears poured down Welk's face at the sight.

Forin froze, his eyes locked on the thing that had once been Luen. Tears welled in his own eyes. Cern giggled hysterically; then the room was flooded with darkness. When light gradually returned, Cern was gone, as was Luen.

As was Diana.

Forin screamed.

The place where they warped to was dark, dreary, and in the middle of a desert, way under the ground. Cern's most-used hideout, of course. Nobody ever found them out here, where the sun beat down and there was little to no food, water or shade. Here, he was safe and his victims had little chance of escape.

When they landed, Luen swayed unsteadily on his feet, dropping his sword to the ground and putting his single hand out to lean against the wall, breathing in slowly. As if it hurt to simply draw breath. Which it did, of course. It was like some unseen thing was forcing him to keep living past when he normally would've expired.

Cern smiled, dropping Diana and licking his lips. She ran immediately to the far side of the cave, covering her ears with her hands while blood dripped from between her fingers. Her ear had been slashed through on one side, and an entire chunk torn from her other; Cern had eaten it. Diana wailed, shaking terribly. It wasn't long before she started moving though, crawling towards Luen. As much as it pained her to look at his agony, she wanted desperately to comfort him and be comforted in return. She was now without Forin; she thought herself lucky to have at least Luen here...

Luen didn't move, not seeming to be...there. His eyes were flatly, emotionlessly blank. Once he seemed to catch his breath, he straightened, a line of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. When he spoke, the usual calm, kind tone of his voice was gone. Instead, his voice was raspy and weak, tinted with sheer, barely-held-back agony.

"Master Cern...I believe it is going to happen again," he said in a monotone voice, holding his hand up over his mouth. Blood gushed from behind his hand a few seconds later, coating the front of his body in a thin sheet of blood as it rush out of his mouth. It happened commonly to him now. He didn't know why, but it was obviously caused by Cern's meddling with the inside of Luen's body and organs. It had caused something inside the wolfling to go wrong and he now threw up pure blood quite often. He completely ignored Diana, not recognizing her in the slightest.

Cern shrugged. "You'll be fine," He rolled his eyes. "I'll start the life support if you suddenly collapse, though. I like messing with you, but...maybe she'll be more fun," He glanced at Diana, licking his lips again. "She actually tastes good, unlike you."

Diana stared at the blood on the floor. Cern reached forward and put a hand on her head; when he pulled away from her memories, he was laughing, as usual. "Oh yes, this will be fun indeed! What do you think I should do, Luen? Destroy her memories of Forin, or alter them to make her think he's evil? Oh, I could make her see her parents' deaths fifty-million times in a row! I could even make that event worse...won't that be fun? Well, what should I do?" Cern questioned eagerly, obviously indecisive.

"Or..." Luen said, his voice flat. "...you could alter her memories to make her see Forin as the one who killed her parents, thus putting that same sense of fear into her while making her see Forin as an enemy." He staggered, nearly falling over as his legs gave out under him. He sank to his knees, breathing heavily. His once-fluffy white tail was now limp and missing a lot of its fur. "Master Cern, do you think it wise to have left King Asmodius alive? Lord Malice had wanted him dead, as I recall," he said, his dull, lifeless green eyes moved over to Diana to stare at her, feeling like he should know who that was.

Oh well.

"Oh! Lovely~! I'll do that, then." Cern grinned, kicking Diana in the gut. She started sobbing, doubling over with her forehead pressed against the cold stone floor and her arms wrapped around her stomach. Cern placed his hand on the back of her neck, starting work immediately. "Asmodius? Oh, yeah...but I'm busy," Cern whined unhappily. "Hmm...well, how about I send you back to kill him while I work here? Yeah, that'll work." He shoved Luen's sword into his hands, then jabbed Luen in the chest with finger, smiling as the wolfling vanished. He would reappear just outside Storaph; Cern wasn't completely mad, after all. He realized that Luen would have a harder time if he was merely thrown straight back into action.

Cern looked back down at Diana, who had fallen unconscious once Cern's first step into his alterations had been made. There she was, like an open canvas...like a series of paintings he could tear down, rearrange, paint over or utterly destroy. It would be beautiful, he could see it now...Cern smiled to himself and started tearing down the first of the 'paintings'.

Luen reappeared outside of Storaph, like Cern had intended. The wolfling panted for a moment, then lurched forward with a pained limp, the tip of his sword dragging the ground. He slipped inside without catching the notice of the guards, heading down the hallways towards the throne room.

The group was there, with Asmodius, explaining to him what had happened and what they needed to do.

"If Cern was crazy enough to come here in the way he did, then we have to assume he's willing to do anything at all to Diana and Luen," Seria was saying. "Well...we've already seen what he's done to Luen. Now we need to think; where in this land could Cern possibly go where nobody could find him? It can't be Tartaran, as King Titus wouldn't let him go back there, and Amnairus...yeah, he wouldn't go there. So where else could he go to hide so well?"

Welk was sitting nearby, rubbing his head as he wearily tried to think. "I have no idea," he finally said. "I failed geology. I don't know that many places. Some of the mountains, the Hadaarac desert, Storaph and Alastor. That's really all I know other than Tartarus, Amnairus, and a few sparse towns." He shrugged, not really knowing what else to say.