D.I.C.E(Game Thread/PM to Join)

[MortifiedPenguin]

"I believe we never introduced each other." Said a voice coming from behind him "Well, I'd say the time is ripe..."

The voice was familiar, it was the same one he heard from the man he had briefly met while still imprisoned, when he turned around it was the same sharply dressed greying, elderly man. He made no noise while walking over forests debris, twigs didn't snap nor did the autumnal leaves rustle under foot.

"Time is never ripe, if it was a fruit we would all be rotting right now". He replied solemnly, "Go away, I don't feel like spending any more quality time with D.I.C.E.'s lackeys."

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"So your family is accustomed to demons? That sounds like an interesting kind of family business." Richard asked rhetorically with a smile. "I knew of D.I.C.E. for a good five years before I joined, and I've known about demons for the same amount of time." He briefly paused to check over his tests before continuing "So, what kinds of demons have you seen?"

"I guess you could call it a kind of family business. Its something my family has being doing for generations stretching back centuries; so I guess we know a thing or two about demons and how to slay them." Isabelle said with a slight sarcastic remark. She briefly looked around the area before carrying on.

"Regarding what demons I have seen, there have been few. I have traded blows with the shrieking Harpies, who swoop down to hunt their pray. Done battle with the mighty Dullahan; my advice on that one, don't remove its head, can be quite a handful I'll tell you. My battles with demons have taken me all over the world, places like Japan where I fought against the Yuki-Onna; a demon of the female form who can control blizzards and ice to bring men to their home. There was one time, back home in England, where I thought Vampires. In short I have faced many. Most recently, there was the Sahuagin, a demon who thrives in water."

 

[Terratina.]

Yet another disappointment. Another man with a closed mind, closed to the world and closed to him. In contrast to the soundless steps Eligor took, this man was all shuffles and steps, the leaves crunching as he turned towards Eligor. Maybe he just didn't know who he was, maybe he was being mistaken for another person. It was a possibility, Eligor hadn't seen him at the briefing where all was explained. This got a laugh out of Eligor. Of course it was nothing but a simple oversight on his part. He would correct the man soon enough, after all, Eligor wanted to find out to see if this man was a man at all. The hues of his aura were all mixed together, red, blue and a touch of white. A person who encompassed all the main kingdoms of this world, Heaven, Hell and the poor little thing stuck in the middle - Earth. The only explanation was that this man had both demonic and angelic ancestry, a feast few could boast. He appoarched the raggedy man and began to speak again.

"As a small amendment to that, I would be rusting then." Eligor said, joining with the snark, it was truly infectious. Hopefully the man would pick up on the hints as Eligor decided to throw another out there, "You should know, a weapon has no choice in the matter."

 

[DarkRawen]

"Regarding what demons I have seen, there have been few. I have traded blows with the shrieking Harpies, who swoop down to hunt their pray. Done battle with the mighty Dullahan; my advice on that one, don't remove its head, can be quite a handful I'll tell you. My battles with demons have taken me all over the world, places like Japan where I fought against the Yuki-Onna; a demon of the female form who can control blizzards and ice to bring men to their home. There was one time, back home in England, where I thought Vampires. In short I have faced many. Most recently, there was the Sahuagin, a demon who thrives in water."

Richard listened to her encounters, and each time a new one was mentioned, he wondered what part of their DNA made them capable of doing what they did.
"I'm happy," he smiled, and took a look at another one of the tests, it showing what he had already guessed. Richard showed her the small machine, showing several numbers and letters, though hard to read by anyone apart from him and a few others. "That I found out about demons when I did. I wonder what I would have to do to make a boring life go by, or if I had found out about them later and refused to check further into it. Take for example this, the muscles shows a strong trace of x-145, which is often apparent in bigger, albeit far from this big, lesser demons. Also, interestingly enough, this trace hasn't been seen in a natural demon together with x-340 which there's also traces of, so I doubt it is a natural demon. It seems like someone has corrupted and manipulated the DNA of a lesser demon to make this, but not out of a lesser demon. Out of something different."

He put the machine away, and stored the samples. The other tests was testing the effect of the acid, so they probably wouldn't be as interesting to Isabelle. "It's interesting, in every sense of the word, as is the reason why someone would do that. But yeah, that's about what I can find out now."

 

[Nouw]

"Didn't scare you too much, did I?"

"Haha not this time. I'm ready for anything and I'm on alert." Danny replied, but that was because she wasn't the one to fear. He went down the hallway and was once again greeted by the darkness. A year ago, hell even a few days ago, he would have gone in fearless but joining D.I.C.E. had given him a reason to be afraid. He wasn't dealing with junkies or street-thugs anymore; it was actual life-threatening work. Having someone that could see in the dark, therefore, added to his sense of security; having his flashlight and gun helped too. He switched it on and noticed a door at the end of the hallway. It looked heavily locked but that wouldn't stop them. Every fuckin' door will be opened.

"Our first obstacle. Allow me," Danny said before shooting, what appeared to be, the locks. After emptying his cylinder to no avail, Danny had no choice but to ask Sophia.

"It's all yours," he said.

 

[FinalDream]

Captain Lara Reid, PhD - Sector 14

She nodded. It would be a while before the forest team returned so she decided to look around the building. Lara lowered her P90 and pulled out the tablet computer from her tactical vest, studying the last readouts of the mysterious device. It was like nothing she had seen before. A puzzled expression crossed her face as she wandered into the building. Arriving back at the console she took a moment to re-establish a connection. Lara sighed. Again. She was seeing a lot of corrupted data in the consoles system. This could take a while.

Resting the tablet on the edge of the console she set off a small program to try and piece together a tiny fragment of the data, it could take hours, but it was worth a shot. Leaving the screen she moved closer to the strange metal device.

 

[MortifiedPenguin]

"As a small amendment to that, I would be rusting then." Said the greying man with a hint or snarkiness "You should know, a weapon has no choice in the matter."

Eliezer looked over the man as he spoke, there was some transparency to his form, probably another astral projection, like earlier while he was still at D.I.C.E's headquarters. If he was the sentient blade that he had wielded earlier then it would make sense why he had to project his being astrally. To choose such an ostentatious form obviously represented his rank within hell, so why choose such an elderly appearance? Maybe he wanted people to believe he was a wise old man, but to Eliezer he seemed more like an narcissistic old coot.

"A man always has a choice, so does that make you more a weapon then a man, or a fool of a weapon" He retorted, "I bleed but I am never cut, I sing the song of death but have no lips, I take action but none are my own, what am I, or more to the point, what are you"

 

[Ultraman950]

"It's all yours," he said.

In the light of the flashlight, Aaron could see that, not only is Sophia's camo jacket gone (although her undershirt and kevlar vest are still there)... she's covered in blood. She doesn't seem to mind at all. There's even a bit on her face. At the very least, she's caught her breath.

"Not a problem. Hang on. You're gonna have to cover me," she says as she holsters her bullpup and walks up to the door. She braces one hand against the wall next to the door, balls up her left hand, pulls it back, and punches through the door.

After a brief shudder, she undoes the locks from the other side and pulls her hand free, opening the door.

Then she grips her hand, which is now a bit bloodier. "Sometimes I wish increased strength came with proportionate pain thresholds," she said, pulling out her bullpup again.

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"I'm happy," Richard smiled, and took another look at the test tubes. He showed Isabelle the machine he was using, showing several letters and numbers, which didn't make that much sense to her, but she was happy to learn and understand it.

"That I found out about demons when I did. I wonder what I would have to do to make a boring life go by, or if I had found out about them later and refused to check further into it. Take for example this, the muscles shows a strong trace of x-145, which is often apparent in bigger, albeit far from this big, lesser demons.

Also, interestingly enough, this trace hasn't been seen in a natural demon together with x-340 which there's also traces of, so I doubt it is a natural demon. It seems like someone has corrupted and manipulated the DNA of a lesser demon to make this, but not out of a lesser demon. Out of something different." Richard then put the machine away, and stored the samples he hadn't used. There were also the other tests which were testing the effect of the acid, so they probably wouldn't be as interesting to Isabelle.

"It's interesting, in every sense of the word, as is the reason why someone would do that. But yeah, that's about what I can find out now."

"I see, well I'm glad you managed to find some interesting information about this demon Richard. Although, I have a friend, someone close by actually that can could possibly tell us a little more about it; especially since that it is dead now. You could say she is knowledgeable about the spirit world. Do you wish to meet her?" Isabelle asked, obviously referring to of course Vayle; which not many people here knew about.

 

[wilcoblackflame]

Crow considered briefly joining Danny, Aaron and Sophia. That said, in doing so he would be leaving Lara without back up, something that would surely be frowned upon and so made a point to stay with her while she was making her way back to the console and tinkering with the data and the odd device.

"With any luck Captain, we might be able to find out something when you're done with that computer." He paused, noting her observations of the device and looked over her shoulder to peer at it as well.

"I don't suppose you have any idea what it is? I'm rather at a loss myself, but then, it's not exactly my forte."

 

[DarkRawen]

"I see, well I'm glad you managed to find some interesting information about this demon Richard. Although, I have a friend, someone close by actually that can could possibly tell us a little more about it; especially since that it is dead now. You could say she is knowledgeable about the spirit world. Do you wish to meet her?"

Richard nodded. "Yeah, of course." Considering the way it had been described, it had to be a spirit, right? A spirit didn't have a psychical being, but as Isabelle had said, it had information. "Where is she?" he asked, looking around without spotting any kind of spirit. Was it here now? Or was she going to summon it?

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"Yeah, of course. Where is she?" Richard asked, as he began looking around the area. Isabelle let out a slightly girlish giggle, was which as a bit of rarity for her at times.

"She has been here the whole time Richard, currently, Vayle has been using her powers to examine the spirit of the demon." Isabelle remarked, pointing towards the head of the Kouza Prime. "Vayle, you can show yourself now." She called out politely. Within moments the visage of a young woman began to form. Her tall, slender body was dressed like a fortune teller from days of old; long white hair, a pale red hooded cloak which split into two tails towards the bottom, and a long dark brown dress. Her pink eyes shone in the light of the sun.

Vayle had noticed her master called her; but she sensed that she could be seen by the gentleman that was sitting next to Isabelle; remembering that it was one of the few actual powers that Isabelle had regarding any sort of control over her.

"Um, hello." Vayle said rather nervously to the man.

"Richard, this is Vayle; my loyal assistant, and one of my closet friends for the last couple of years. I saved her as it were from an attack by Ghouls which coincidentally, I was asked to kill. Vayle is a shape shifter spirit, and whilst she can change her form any time she pleases; she much prefers her current one, saying that it has some kind of familiarity to her." Isabelle said as she noticed the crystal ball that Vayle carried with her, was in her hand.

Spoiler: Vayle the Spirit

 

[DarkRawen]

"She has been here the whole time Richard, currently, Vayle has been using her powers to examine the spirit of the demon." Isabelle remarked, pointing towards the head of the Kouza Prime. "Vayle, you can show yourself now."

The spirit appeared out of nowhere when Isabelle called her, and the spirit bore the looks of a fortune-teller. She seemed nervous when she greeted him.

"Um, hello."

"Hi," he said back, forgetting his manners and staring at the crystal ball she was carrying, but he couldn't tell why he did. Something about it drove his eyes to it. He then looked back at the spirit. Isabelle spoke when none of them continued.

"Richard, this is Vayle; my loyal assistant, and one of my closet friends for the last couple of years. I saved her as it were from an attack by Ghouls which coincidentally, I was asked to kill. Vayle is a shape shifter spirit, and whilst she can change her form any time she pleases; she much prefers her current one, saying that it has some kind of familiarity to her."

"Huh. It seems there's all kinds of spirits, both good and bad." He then paused, and cleared his voice. "Nice to meet you, Vayle, I'm Richard Johnson," he politely said. "So, Isabelle said you could tell us something about the demon?"

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"Huh. It seems there's all kinds of spirits, both good and bad." Richard paused, then cleared his throat to speak properly. "Nice to meet you, Vayle, I'm Richard Johnson," He said politely, this made Vayle blush a little. "So, Isabelle said you could tell us something about the demon?" Vayle then shifted over to Richard and Isabelle, sitting opposite them, albeit slightly floating just off the ground.

" Of course, it might not be as useful to you as your scientific tests; but hopefully it should help in some way. From what I could gather; this creature is called a Kouza Prime, and technically speaking it isn't a naturally a recurring demon, rather it is a being called a Golem, which is an inanimate creature given life. It could be that whoever made this, used an amalgamation of lesser demons for it to function properly. That is why its spirit isn't natural, parts of its don't appear to be flowing together properly; making it difficult to read in places." Vayle said, sounding determined about her search.

"I apologise if this means you wasted time on those tests your doing." She then said, sound a little sad.

 

[Nouw]

"Sometimes I wish increased strength came with proportionate pain thresholds."

"Haven't you heard of no pain, no gain Sophia?" Danny asked while going through the battered and bloody door.

It wasn't as dark as the was hallway here; there were some red emergency lights that were still working. At the end of the narrow room was another door, one that appeared to be opened from their side. The only points of entry in this room was a large, man-sized vent, but what was strange was that it appeared to be untouched. How would something get in here? The door they went through was untouched too, so the only possible point of entry was the vent. Danny's pondering was quickly realized moot when Danny thought of the possibility of teleportation. That wasn't any fun! He had just begun to start thinking.

"Say Sophia, could a supernatural 'entity' teleport?" Danny asked.

 

[DarkRawen]

"I apologize if this means you wasted time on those tests your doing."

The spirit sounded sad when she said this, but he shook his head, and said, sounding cheerful; "I'm never wasting time when I test these kinds of things. Every fragment of knowledge is a contribution to real understanding of something. I simply want to know, to be honest, usefulness is not my area of expertise, nor do I really want it to be. I'll do what I can for the common good, of course." He added that last part so that he wouldn't sound like a cold calculating person. Richard wasn't that, and had never been, but people in the past had mistaken it before.
"Also, this proves what I said even more, so why would I be upset? Since you found what kind of being it was, a Kouza Prime, I'll remember to put the name down on paper when this mission is over. That might help me not getting scolded by my boss again, so thank you, Vayle." Richard turned to Isabelle.
"So, you have your information about the demon, or more accurate, golem now, right? Is there anything you can gather from that, in a more... tactical point of view?"

 

[Terratina.]

"A man always has a choice, so does that make you more a weapon then a man, or a fool of a weapon?" He retorted, "I bleed but I am never cut, I sing the song of death but have no lips, I take action but none are my own, what am I, or more to the point, what are you?"

All retorts and riddles this one. Pity the riddle this time was so easy this time, even a child could get the answer. Observant too, as Eligor picked up on the fact that the man picked up on the transparency of his form, a drawback of astral projection. Half of the reason why Eligor had always shown up in person back in the time when he was a Great Duke proper and was summoned by occultist who were happy to risk their immortal souls for material gain. Eligor smiled and made a play of fiddling with the many rings on his fingers, the rings themselves were fitting for one of his high rank with the seals of the Seven Circles of Hell.

"Just an old fool, sadly." He said in mock self-deprecation, "But you are a little wrong there, even swords can sing of other things than death. I am proof."

Eligor then straighted up and began to sing, the song was an old one, harking back to the Middle Ages when king presided over vast kingdom and stood guard in mighty castles. When skalds and jester sang to amuse them at great feasts, with the castle hearth as a backdrop...

"In taberna quando sumus,
non curamus quid sit humus,
sed ad ludum properamus,
cui semper insudamus.
quid agatur in taberna
ubi nummus est pincerna,
hoc est opus ut quaeratur;
si quid loquar, audiatur."​

The song was one with an uplifting tune, one Eligor was fond of, but it was clear, even with Eligor's singing skills, that the song was meant to be sang with someone with a higher voice then his, say someone with an alto voice. The first verse was quickly over and the singing stopped.

"Eligor, Great Duke of Hell, currently imprisoned within the sword Souldrinker, at your service." Eligor concluded.

 

[Ultraman950]

"Say Sophia, could a supernatural 'entity' teleport?" Danny asked.

"It wouldn't surprise me," she replied, looking around. "There's quite a few things even the weaker demons can do, and teleporting at least seems pretty simple. I've never seen one doing it, though. I usually just shoot 'em before they get the chance."

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

A huge ray of light appeared somewhere in the forest, close to the town where the Demons and child had headed. It soon disappeared.

Standing where the light had recently been was a teenage girl, who looked exactly the same as Azkar, however her skin was just pale, not white, she also had blue eyes and black hair. She was Human. Azkar shivered and hugged herself, holding her legs together tightly against the fresh chilly breeze sweeping between the trees.

"All in all not much has changed, everything considered... Guess I'll regroup with the team and continue where I left off." Azkar closed her eyes and smiled as her thoughts were finally clear and her own, but at what price? Azkar shook her head and focused. She had to find clothing and get out of enemy territory, she'd also need a weapon. She began carefully treading away from the town, to remain stealthy, but also to stop her standing on something that might hurt her new vulnerable and mortal feet. Being Human would take some adjusting to.

 

[FinalDream]

Captain Lara Reid, PhD - Sector 14

?Oh, Hey!? Lara turned around to face Crow. She smiled and adopted a thinking pose. ?I?m afraid I don?t know exactly?? She seemed to wish she did though. ?But it made a real mess of the computer to mask whatever it was doing. Could take while to find out. You think the forest team are ok??