The Barren Wastes (Side Quest)

[DarkChephros]

Fire against Ice meant that when the ice melted, it would become water. Due to the far below subzero temperature of the ice, thus mimicing the blazing heat of the fire, to melt any ice at all, you'd have to warm it all up to the point of normal ice, as any other temperature and the ice would just refreeze the water instantly. 'Twas the nature of cold and water. The fire would have nothing to continually refuel it though except more mana, and thus would lose to the ice over time. It was like having a nearly unstoppable force meet an immovable object, only, for real. Chephros still stood right where he was, not moving. He didn't need to for now, there hadn't been any melee combat yet. He wasn't surprised at all with how Kazei wielded his giant swords with ease. Keyblades rarely had a problem with their blades regardless of what they looked like, it just happened. Chephros never had a problem with his keystaff either. Since Kazei had relatively disappeared, Chephros would be pulling out layers of his Complete Dark. The fog would fill the area inside the swirling Missile storm, and make it completely black. Chephros could see outside it, and Kazei would easily be able to see inside it, but that was just their attuned senses towards darkness. Thus, that wasn't the point. The point was just to have it.

Towards Tereus and Zarx, the Shadow Assassin wouldn't stop to talk. Tereus smashed his sword into the staff. ((Sorry for puppetting here, but no one specified direction)) The spear tip was held to the right, towards Zarx, so the Shadow Assassin spun clockwise and stepped to it's left. The staff/spear would suddenly remove itself from contact with Tereus' blade, actually aided in the spin momentum due to the counterforce from the blade, and the other half would come swinging around at Tereus' chest. And the thing was fast too, as in, blurring through regular eyesight fast. It was also physically strong, it just had no magic or abilities other than straight combat potential. The staff would come arcing around to slam, and depending on what happened, the Shadow Assassin would continue from there.  

[Kazei Hitari]

One would now start to wonder from watching this battle about how this fool comprehended. The question was it that Chephros's mana being drained, or was it his brain power being sucked into the staff. Water reforming into ice that fast?? Please, this area was far from the arctic circle where something so poorly thought out to take place. Highly intense fire such as beamed arrows meant thorough evaporation, thus not even giving the ice not even the slightest chance in the world to melt and refreeze. Not to mention the scorching temperatures of the desert made sure the ice didn't have enough time to freeze over. The nature of cold and water was almost out of its jurisdiction within this fire hell. An ice barrier in the middle of the blazing desert against fire elemental attacks was child's play, Chephro's would've needed more ice power than that to defeat the heat of the desert itself, therefore it was destroyed completely along with flare arrows that sank into and disposed of it. True, Kazei's skill with giant swords was something, but his weapon itself was not something to be compared with Keyblades. Yes, Keyblades just happened, however the Sana Takana was something else. Formless was his own weapon, and in a theory a keyblade may have been just another one of its many forms as well.

Suddenly the curved broadsword, Sana Takana would jut up from the ground behind Chephros and start circling around Chephros in the manner of the dorsal fin of a man-eating shark when it closed in on its prey. Soon, before the sword could come in melee range of of Chephros, they blade was arced upwards which cause an explosion of sand to rise from beneath Chephros's area . This explosion however was a lot larger than that was caused from Kazei's collision.....and it was coming up from beneath Chephros. The chunks of sand that was sent into the air was almost countless, each of them setting off orbs of the missile storm one after another. Shooting upwards from inside the hole that was blown upwards from the ground, Kazei was now moving in melee range of Chephros. The effect of the spacial distortions had been lost to the many rocky/sandy obstacles from his travel underground. Now on the surface, his form was now blinking in and outward in random areas that surrounded Chephros once again like fading clones. The movement of the through the shadow blink was exponential now that he'd come in melee range. The rising blocks of sand that was sent into the air would now be setting off the orbs of the missile storm. Each of the shadow blinking images would be most likely pass straight through each other as they moved about, along with passing through any oncoming spells that were on the way such as the small explosions from the orbs. They were in melee range of each other now, and the time for the true battle had finally came. By now Kazei had still been toying with the boy. Everything was mere copied versions of the old geezer the Chephros used, yet the boy still tried his best to be a true wielder of power, making it hard for Kazei to take such mockery serious.

[[Further Edit: I had to reedit some errors in this post. Feel free to look over it again. It was late last night when I posted, so I had to correct them]]  

[DarkChephros]

Chephros stood still. He figured what was coming, Kazei would try to close the distance in some obscure way. Before the fin would appear, Chephros would put his left hand over his right, staff parallel to the ground in his right hand. From his hands would leak something different from the Dark, and it came out much, much faster. It was mana, and it was black with red streaks flashing about on the inside. It was his power, mixed with his urge to kill, effectively his mana in a more physical form. As quickly as it formed, in half a second, the sphere of mana would explode outward. It would look like it at least, the mana would expand in size exponentially, covering Chephros and the sand around him, and everything underneath that sand in the sphere. Spacial Distortion would cause everything in the sphere to get heavier, except the caster. Chephros would get lighter except when it aided him not to be. Chephros' Missile Storm orbs would also drift together rapidly into twirling pairs. Fifty pairs of white and black tinged orbs, just circling about each other, and still spinning about him. Fifty bombs waiting to go.

Chephros would stand still even as the fin appeared. A layer of his Dark would siphon to his hand and a small ball would form. A Ball of Fun, or a Darkness Bomb. He'd drop it, quite literally, at his feet and get sent backwards. See, the darkness part wouldn't affect him, he was completely aligned with the darkness. It might or might not affect Kazei, Chephros didn't care, but the impact force of the bomb part would. As it'd sent him backwards about six feet, thanks to be lighter, it would slam the ground and disrupt everything. The sand was already loose, even in clumps, and the spherical shockwave would make everything shake rapidly, thus loosening it all even more. With the added weight, the clumbs would become single grains again, and the pressure would stop 'em from reforming without water. The pairs from Missile Storm would stay where they were, they didn't need to move.

The mage in his enshrouding fog would feel a power from his staff. His right hand was still in front of him, so he didn't need to shift his gaze to see the orb at the top of the staff had the image of a fang glowing through the black energy. He felt a pulse of power through him and his Complete Dark. The Dark Sage had given him the power to summon, but not the know-how to do it. Well, he was learning right now. His Shadow Assassin was a summon in itself. He created it using the Dark as a basic form of matter, and mana gave it a life of it's own. Why not use the Dark to make the form of his summon, and then give it mana to bring the summon to the shell? The body, soul, mind, and heart were to be summoned. Take away the body, and only the rest need to be called. Still a nice hardy job for a mage though. The dark would form the figure of a fire beast, aided by a mental image that came through the Fang to Chephros. His mana would them rapidly deplete as it called to Ifrit from whatever plane he resided on, and brought the Summon to the Sairok Desert. As the beat arrived, there would be a massive flash of fire, and the once black figure would appear as normal. Ifrit had arrived, and was ready to fight.  

[Zihl]

Zarx watched as the arcanic orb of dense magic shifted and melded into an unrecognizable bestial figure. From his distance the image of this thing could not be perceived by Zarx's eyes. But he knew that creature was no other than Ifrit. Zarx had only heard fairy tales of this mythical, yet powerful summon. Zarx eyes were torn away from the sight of Ifrit, as they shifted over his shoulder. "Obvious!" the words shot out of Zarx's mouth as he released his gunblade from his side quickly loading an implosion round in his chamber firing it off hastily. This unique round custom fused by Zarx was meant especially for any and all heartless but effects other targets as well. The multicolored orb flashed violently as it collided with shadow assassin, sinking deep within the heartless as its body frantically jumped and contorted, its figure now unmatchable to its previous state. It reformed itself and the shadow assassin continued to move as if nothing happened, then its molecules began to suck inward, it began sinking within itself, collapsing into its own center; then finally the shadow assassin completed its collapsing from within itself and imploded, there was nothing left where the shadow assassin once stood, just empty space. Zarx gave a slight laughter as the words sprang "Chephros! If you were trying to flatter me, you failed miserably. Sending a shadow assassin after a master of the stealth arts. Foolish indeed." Zark stood high on the same stone pillar as before, the only motion he made was the simply turn of his back to remove a bothersome nuisance. Zarx opened his gunblade chambers and loaded ice rounds into his first and acidic rounds into his second. Zarx left no sign of emotion as his arms flung back locking the two chambers on his gunblades in place, frosted air expanded from one weapon's chambers along with an acidic mist from the other. Zarx only waited patiently for the next coarse of action.  

[DarkChephros]

Except sadly, the Shadow Assassin wasn't slow. Even with it's actions against Tereus, it was able to modify it's movements on the fly to complete what objectives it needed. It's body seemed to spring up slighty as it pushed upward with it's legs. The Assassin's back would also rise in the air as it effectively shoved it's torso higher up to dodge the bullet. Even if it were to hit, the Shadow Assassin wasn't a heartless. At all. So, a bullet specially designed to have a nice effect on Heartless, would be tragically useless against the thing. Oh well right? Now Zarx could try again with those other bullet he's loaded. However, the Assassin's spin slam would still be heading towards Tereus.  

[Zihl]

Zarx's speed was unmatched by any petty summon. Sadly the Shadow Assassin was destroyed, regardless of the bullets main effect, the round was still never the less and implosion round, which still held a great amount of effect on the target. Seeing how the shadow assassin was caught off guard, thus did not not give it enough time to doge the bullet.  

[Kazei Hitari]

Another cloud of dust was shot up from within the area of Chephros and the legendary fire demon. A being of fire who's destruction knows no bounds. The images of Kazei around Chephros had faded away by now. They were merely used as diversions for well thought out strategies for this particular moment. At these particular moments the shadow blink could prove quite useful, as useful as many stamina based abilities. Not just for its mere speed, but the identical images that were left behind to keep the opponent going. The faster he sped up, the longer it'd take for the replica images of him to fade away and lose their form. They weren't harmful, however they could prove annoying to the opponent by throwing them off guard from the real threat.

The real Kazei however had been yards away, watching every second of what had just taken place. His left hand rested on the bottom of Formless's hilt as it's blade lay firmly thrusted into the sand which kept its balance. He had been focusing his mind and body as he allowed the images to rightfully play their roles into the motion of his strategy. By now the outlining glow of orange mana would now be making its way fully around Kazei's body. This mana was fire mana. For what seemed like minutes, he seemed charge his mana into this spell as Chephros stood in that one position. The imaged diversions gave him time. Constantly keeping the boy at bay just before the entrance of the real thing. "Flare Seal!!" With that, a series of runes resurfaced through the skin of Kazei's face and arms. Each of these runes arcing out and streaking into various patterns that crossed each other out into one engraved seal across upon his body.

The seal itself was one of the most powerful fire spells out there. All of these symbols striking outwards across his body. He had become the flare seal itself. Protecting him the caster thoroughly against the most extreme forms of fire, even walking through flames as well. Kazei had been prepared for such heated battles. Fire was one of if not the most destructive elements of all. Overtime in his training, it had also became his favorite one to play with. He'd created many variations of spells that originate from that particular element, even area fields. Knowing their destructive capabilities, he was aware that he'd have to develop a spell to protect himself from their nasty widespread effects.

Standing yards away from the fire demon, Kazei yanked Formless away from the ground with a loud SHING and made his way towards Ifrit and Chephros. He wasn't running towards them and neither was this an image. It was the King himself. Swinging the blade restfully across his shoulder, Kazei stopped dead half way between Chephros and Ifrit. There he stood, scoping the summon from head to toe and finally back at the young Chephros.

"Well ladies. We gonna dance or we gonna just sit here and look at each other all day. Either way I'm ready to piece one of you. Which one's ready to go first." He said cooly. His voice still keeping the same joking tone with it.

The fire demon of fabled legend vs the crimson king who's destruction knows no bounds. Standing tall with the blade cocked over his shoulders, he continued standing and awaiting Ifrit and Chephros's move. Slowly a wry smile started across the sides of his lip. He now was beginning to love this battle. . His dark shaded blue hair was now swaying in the fierce sandy winds picking up around them in response for the great battle to come.  

[Zeke Uchina]

((Say DC man you need to post you should just control Ifrit and get it over with its been to long since you posted to Kazei. I want to see whats going to happen next.))  

[An Illusionary Innocence]

((Mind if I crash the party?))
A Corridor of Light appeared on a hill which faced the battle below but those below wouldn't be able to see who was coming through the portal, although the bright light would give away the fact that someone was coming through. A person that looked like a 17 year old walked out of the portal, who had 10 large gossamer wings on each side of him. A broadsword with a blue rim on the inside of the blade was at the kid's side. But there was a scabbard on the kid's back that was obviously for the sword, and the scabbard was at a hortizontal angle, which would allow for easy unsheathing on the weapon. The kid put his sword into his scabbard and whispered something inaudible, two elegant handguns appearing in his hands. Then the kid whispered something else, also inaudible and the two guns joined into one which joined to his right arm, connected to his armor.

The Kid's name was Takeru Hitashi, and he was known as "The Winged Knight of the Light" and was much older than he looked, having been born before Sora's birth, many years ago. Takeru got a good vantage point on the hill to look over the battle and aim his cannon at the battlers, knowing that they either were part of Void IV or Twilight VI, who were his enemies. Seeing Ifrit, Takeru grunted, knowing he had to destroy the demon first before taking out the other warriors on the battle field below. Takeru aimed his gun at Ifrit and fired a massive pulse beam of holy energy at Ifrit, and then he whispered "Holygra", bombarding the battlefield below with beams of holy energy which manifested themselves as dragons, which would cause confusion to the Heartless and Nobodies below. Then Takeru diffused the gun from his arm, turning it back into the two handguns from before and unsummoned them, unsheathing his sword in case they attack Takeru.
((Fear Takeru Hitashi! WARRIOR OF THE LIGHT! MUAHAH!!! twisted ))

 

[An Illusionary Innocence]

Takeru smirked... they were too busy fighting each other to bother Takeru... and Takeru decided to take his leave, forming a cooridor of light that surrounded him, then the next instant the cooridor disappeared, and with it, Takeru

 

[jdaftpunk]

Kazei Hitari

It was true, there was no real point in keeping these secrets locked up with the rest of the jack skellingtons in the closet. It was no other than someone from the Void who could have informed Kazei on these new series of events. He cared not of what happened to them though. it was all about the King now, and only the King. Attempting to be intimidating? Far from it. It was Kazei's nature, every second and moment of it. If anything was seen as attempts in the opponent's eyes, they'd be in for a rude awakening once the real thing hit them slab dab in the face. Whatever the opponent was feeling by now was the real thing. He was one to puppeteer his entire personality to manipulate his enemies and allies to keep them at bay for his plans to fall in motion. However, this was aspect of his nature that was absolute. Their was no attempting, it was all him. The goal wasn't to intimidate, but to annihilate.

"Intimidating my friend, far from it. I haven't gotten started with you just yet. Intimidating is when your body is in need of sewing from your master once I'm done with you. I'd prefer you be intimidated after I'm done with you rather than before I'm done. Besides, true feelings manifest when people start to cling tightly to that very thin thread they call life at the last minute."

It was true what he said. He cared not for Chephros feelings at the moment. They were mere emotions. Mixed of feelings of the before of the before and nothing of the after. It was the after effects of the battle that mattered most. Once Kazei finished with his opponent, he wanted them to have a new feeling and idea of themselves and what lead them to that point. The hell he would send them to seemed like paradise after he was through with them. There was no holding back once the enemy showed his bad side.

"Enough with the talk, the talk is over. You talk to munch my dear friend. I care not what mage you are or about your origins for the matter. Without any demonstration of potential, you're just another mage to me."

He said, as Formless now shifted into Tsurugi Form The teeth of the keyblade sunk in as its with wickedly grew in length and width. The two devilish curves then jutted and curved out onto the black wraps that binded the handle. The entire Tsurugi itself was binded by white and crimson wraps, including the coal colored black tattered ones. Each one hanging and dwindling outwards .The air around the two became menacing as it was reflected in the picking up of the violent desert winds approaching. No doubt the way the sands picked up that a desert storm was approaching.

"Lets do this."

He said with Tsurugi at hand now dwarting towards Chephros without hesitation. A cloud of sand enveloped the area the minute his feet kicked up from the sandy floors. It was amazing how he moved with such a large weapon. He wasn't one to prolong the inevitable. His mana was now rushing through his body and his blood was now burning greater than any fire spell Chephros had planned for this battle. Suddenly their was a slight flicker of bodily movement closing in on Cheprhos's ranged, however it blinked over to the right side and outlined Kazei's form in a shadowy doppelganger manner. He did this frequently as he closed in on him. Constantly dashing to the side in random areas and leaving shadowy after images behind.