The Dream Realm

Carnage floated in an ocean of flame that stretched in all directions. Countless dreamers dwelt here. Where they were killing and murdering for love, for money, for power, for no reason at all. Hateful visions of bygone rulers when their nations warred with one another reflected across booming clouds of flame. It was a crucible of burning desire where psychopathic screams echoed above roaring winds.The hatred here bubbles and burns before bursting. It is always this way in the slumbering world but beyond the wall of sleep as others of his kind had discovered it lays untapped flowing freely. Beyond the wall of sleep is great font of hate, of rage, of greed, of power with none to claim it. A few of his kindred have already crossed the divide hoping to feed on their own portions of the waking psyche but Carnage would do more than merely feed on this place to increase its own power. He would conquer it and change it into a furnace of twisting hate and flame. The blood of the innocent would flow without end to all corners of his new dominion.
To this end Carnage had furiously ravaged his domain for months trying to discover how Nocturne had discovered a way beyond the wall of sleep. He never did discover how his brother accomplished such a feat but when Pandora also left Carnage discovered the secret. The waking world kept prismatic devices that held immense amounts of magical power, enough to even pass into the waking world. Nocturne had discovered this by accident while haunting the fears of his prey. So too did a nexus fragment facilitate Pandora's departure. With this new information Carnage was especially mindful of dreamers that held the location of the waking worlds Nexus shards, eventually discovering one that had been discovered in a dig near a mortal city. Realizing how unguarded this one would prove to be Carnage poured all of his energy into it hoping to subvert its magics for his own purpose.

The effort proved worthwhile as he felt himself being pulled out of the sleeping world and into the waking one as the Nexus shards crystal slowly turned a deep shade of blood red.

Above Krizar City

A flash of light was the only signal given to the besieged before a tiny fireball came hurdling towards the residential part of the city. It streaked across the city leaving a trail of flame in its wake. The falling flame collided with a large building cleaving the structure in two before impacting a city block behind it. The thing crashed into the earth at frightening speed obliterating stone and earth as it left behind a crater in the city square. At the impacts epicenter was a small round orb with intricate markings on its surface. The transit had taken much out of Carnage who was too weak to do anything but slumber hoping that latent thoughts would recharge his powers. Carnage considered the ways of mortals before sleeping and thought that it would not be long.


((updated pic http://summoners.shurelia.com/profiles/1062 Also changed Pandora's and Carnage's lore to better reflect Nocturnes. Nocturne entered Valoran by being bound with a Nexus shard. So too have these two. It is what is keeping them in the waking world.))

The Hex Cannon attached to Logan blasted it right in its side, badly injuring its leg and even breaking scale. The beast toppled over for a brief moment. Before any of the Dark Phoenix soldiers could close the distance and assault the potentially weakened creature, they were intercepted by the mermen and their Threns. The mounted mermen and their beasts immediately committed to charging through their ranks straight to Delmegar and Logan.

A fools task...

Playing right into his strongest hand, Delmegar was masterful at stopping reckless opponents who underestimated him. The charge was not nearly as effective in killing as it was in simply forcing the Order soldiers to splinter slightly. They quickly recovered and defended against the mermens main charge, however As the Thren force fell upon him, his blade again began to glow.

This time, remembering something he had not felt in close to a year... Something that should not be within him anymore, that he had forsaken long ago. Hello, brother... it's been forever it seems. I so loathe what you tried to do to me... Delmegar cringed, and at the wrong time. Where he had been preparing to lure the Thren into his shadow spikes and have his White Order bombard them with arcane energy, he was now focused on one thing, and one thing only... "Nightmare, how are you--"

Before he could call out the fiendish spirit that once posessed him and the rest of his family, a trident took him full in the chest and shoulder. He looked up, just in time to see his men gathering around, locking sword and shielding shouting to get him to safety....

Dream World

Darkness, never ending seas of it. Where you looked forward, to the side, behind or above, or beneath. It was darkness. It engulfed him, driving him to fear and confusion - wondering that if each step waas safety, or if something was lurking in the unknown. And he knew the answer. The moment he woke, he knew the answer.

Brother! Delmegar raised his sword, and gasped. Only empty hands rose to defend himself. He was weaponless, and Nightmare wa here tackling him to the darkness and they were falling in a endless, maddening spiral. The creature that so resembled Nocturne was ripping his body apart, thrashing, choking, doing anything it could to make his visit here torturous. You and I will ever be apart again, beloved brother! I will show you-- Delmegar momentarily saw through the darkness two new shapes. One a bright, radiant red - engulfed in flames, shrouded in an aura of hate and fire. The other, blue - equally malicious, yet in an aura of something else he could not recognize.

"Nightmare...."

Krizar Residential Area

At first, Hilde thought that the citizens of Krizar would be evacuating- until she realized that the population was mostly combatants who needed or wanted little in the way of saving. She was familiar with the brutality of urban combat, and how willing defenders could make any invader pay for every inch of ground taken. More and more she could see the warrior city cohesively repelling the ground forces, spears and crossbows in endless supply among the people, while devious manufactured and improvised traps in narrow alleyways isolated and cut off whatever attack the merefolk were attempting. Every so merefolk who cornered prey, were simply drawn into traps and gunned down by the militia. The people were clearly used to hardship by now- they’d have to be, considering what the city had been through.

Still, the resistances were genuinely isolated; apparently the city’s leadership entangled somewhere else. Streets were being blocked more and more, and Hilde was finding that attempting to navigate them was hazardous, the tight quarters necessitating use of her poignard.

Then she heard an awful scream from a small weapon shop nearby, the sound of death and broken spirits. Armed citizens ran past her, as they muttered a word of fear. “Giant Lobster beast!” Hilde’s moved further to see that the barricades were torn apart, a giant lobster creature cruelly crushing a man in half at the waist with its pincers. Its dull, dark carapace indicated that it recently came out of the water.

Great. Just great. These beasts were serving the role of shock troopers. Hilde drew her spear as she prepared to engage it in single combat. For now it seemed, the monster hunter had a simple job- protect the people from this new threat.

Krizar Inn

Marlena – The young, inexperienced girl had begun to cut her teeth on battle with the merfolk. As they broke through window barricades, she rather clumsily charged it shield first, then smashed its hand with a mace blow. The thing yelped in pain, and fled, before being shot down by marksmen. She and the others breathed sighs of relief... only to be cut short as the impact of a massive fireball nearby sent them sprawling to the floor.

Marlena coughed and slowly stood up, waving away the smoke in her sight. She peeked out the window and saw that there was a crater... Curiosity bid her to investigate, when suddenly a Lobster beast emerged from the nearby wreckage. It skittered down into the crater, coming close to the orb.

((Lobster men are physical powerhouses but may be vulnerable to certain magic. ))

Ten Days Ago

In his bitterly chilling base, Phantom sits on a black throne made of dense shadows. He was thinking about a request sent to him from the powerful entities that live on the Shadow Isles with him. An artifact was needed to be secured and Phantom had been told that he was to secure this by any means necessary and given no time limit. Of course it had been a few days already and the warrior had not moved an inch. His drained magic left him with only a few necessary utilities, but none of his spells were left. Though he could use Executioner's beams, it would still be of limited use due to the fact that the negative energy had to be resupplied via draining or waiting. Who could he take along or even find that he trusted. All of his current allies were not strong enough while others were not even in this world. Few of his elites were still by his side as many others dispersed back to their resting places.

A plopping sound is heard as his poring friend jumped onto the throne's arm rest. The pink blob tried to comfort his friend, but Phantom was not going to relieved easily. It electrocuted the warrior to snap him out of his stupor and got success. After finally making up his mind, he got up and held Pinky in his arm before heading out the small base. At the coastline, three small frigates were built. Crews of shadow guards stood ready while three Elites approached Phantom. "Your ships are ready."

Phantom sighs. "Even after my powers had been weakened you men still stuck with me. Tell the remains of Forgotten to stand by, and by the way, thank you."

One of the constructs laughed. "We may be chained to your command long ago, but now we are free to rest or to labor once more. We chose to stay because your struggles are ones not to be taken alone. The others and I will stay with you until our untimely demise."

They shook hands, got ready, and left.

Present Time-Kaiser City, Offshore

The trip had taken them sailing close to Krizar City where an alarm rang through the three ships. Phantom walked out of his cabin to see in the distance flying beasts and focusing his shadow senses...Mermen. He called to the captains to get closer to the Docks within cannon range."Move the ships closer to the shoreline, we now have another job to do." Something inside told him that these watery creatures were not giving the city a nice greeting nor was the appearance of such creatures making him feel any better. As they got into range, the small frigates fired their cannons onto the shoreline where the Mermen were abundant. Knowing that such actions would cause attention to be drawn to them. Another order was made. "Men should the watery monsters get attention of us, even the slightest gesture, charge into the right flank of the shoreline away from the bulk of their forces. Then we fight up the beach to help out the humans."

The crew on his ship followed every order without question, they knew his sudden actions or change of mind are all with reason. Something still felt uneasy...

Krizar Residential Area

Koroza sat deep in thought within Claude's soul...or at least the part that he owned. He had sensed many things today. First the winged beasts from long ago, now angels, a streaking red orb that represented another demon, and something that felt human but wasn’t. How interesting to see the force of light and darkness gathering around in this place, but that was not all...no. From the sea came undead or damned. They were too far out for him to get an accurate read. It seems today would be interesting not matter what occurred.

Claude, on the other hand did not have time for such thoughts as he cut down another merman. Angels had come to aid the city, but they were cut down by the winged beasts or the merman.

He could hear Koroza laugh at the angel's demise, "Really? This is all the angels could muster? This is depressing to observe, they must feel pathetic to be slain by such weaklings. No matter another angel dead is one less problem for us isn't it?"

Claude had to agree because if Kayle was any example, angels did not handle opposition well. Claude assumed that if they were to discover his resident that they would attack him on sight, but it seems as though that wouldn't be an issue as they were cut down quickly. However, Claude was not about to let them die if he could help it, but merman separated him and the citizens from aiding their friends from above.

Their sacrifice was not in vain however as the citizens and the Black Order seemed to fight harder seeing the angels fall. Perhaps it’s the fact they received divine aid....who knows Claude didn't have time to address such reasons as knocked aside by a merman riding some sort of beast. He looked up to see a merman on foot charging him and he felt something pierce his foot. He grabbed the trident and yanked it forward pulling the unprepared merman right into his blade. He stood slowly using the trident he removed from his foot moments earlier as support.

There was a war cry in another tongue, and Claude turned to see the merman riding the beast from earlier charging him. He couldn't move out of the way, and he had forgotten to reload his revolver. 'Dammit!' he thought as he watched the beast bear down on him, but he looked at the trident and came up with an idea. He kneeled down to the ground and set the trident out in front of him at a forty-five degree angle from the ground with the prongs out ready to bury into the charging beast. The merman tried to pull the beast of course, but it was far too late. The Thren ran right into the trident and stood on its hind legs letting out a cry of pain. The merman fell to the ground, hitting the back of its head against the stone briefly stunning it.

Claude removed the trident from the Thren's body before plunging it into the creature's stomach, and this attack was followed by his blade. He put all of his weight into the blow forcing the Thren further and further off-balance, until.....it collapsed back on the stunned merman.

The citizens and Black Order around him let out a roar of victory as the merman they were fighting began to retreat and attempt to regroup with a larger regiment. Claude took the moment of brief respite to reload his revolver and move around. He could move better now, but he was only hobbling. Suddenly he heard cries of distress and pain coming from a nearby shop, and he ran over to see a giant lobster man. Well that certainly wasn't good, but Claude had never encountered such a creature...and how powerful could it be? Based off the merman, and the evil human encounter...he would be wise not to make assumptions.

Claude decided it would be best to discover how thick skinned this creature was, and aimed his revolver at the creature firing off two rounds. One aimed at the creature's head and the other at the creature's center mass.

This time, Hilde was on guard and was able to defend herself properly from this enemy, avoiding the deadly grip of its pincers with strong parries from her spear; riposting using the blunt weight at the end to strike at its joints, though having four legs on the ground barely destabilized it. Still, Hilde was very experienced at breaking knees, and the limb seemed pained enough to make it hobble awkwardly on three legs. Hilde now also had her mobility; landing a hit on the Four Waves practitioner was a frustrating experience.

Claude’s firearm landed against the large, heavy creature, an easy to hit target. The rounds violently cracked its carapace where they landed, sending pain through the softer muscle inside.

It only caused the Lobster man to become angry, and charge at Claude immediately, two giant pincers snapping about. The creature was a cumbersome thing, a miracle that it moved as quickly as it does on land... however, from the evident wreckage around it was clear being caught by those pincers would result in a very bad day. Hilde could not immediately assist Claude, as she feverently moved to evacuate a man caught beneath the rubble, having escaped the monster’s attention by playing dead.

((http://summoners.shurelia.com/profiles/993 to be edited))

Agares Loxaerion, Residential area of Krizar City.

"Detah is not an excuse to put down your weapons, now push! Are you going to be beat back by a pork chop, or drum stick!? I thought not, then we men and women of Krizar will not fall to these fish men!" The Commander of the Order of Dark Phoenix shouted, his great sword cleaving through the prongs of a mermans trident and into the soft tissue ofits flesh. He jerked the blade free, deflected a spine off his shield and sliced through the open mouth of a Thren, then its rider.

"Dark Phoenix, warriors of the White and Black Order! Rally your brothers and sisters, push these mermaids to the brink! Let them swim in their own blood!" The soldiers banged swords and spears on shields, hitting nearby buildings - anything to make as much noise as they could. The lines of mermen looked at eachother in glances of fear and apprehension, but Agares was unrelenting. "Archers! Rifles!"

The rooftops that still stood came to lif with unseen men and woman with bows, crossbows and other projectiles. Without another word, the sky was filled with deadly bolts and the bands of gun shots. merman after merman fell, pushed back further and further into the city limits where down every alleyway more soldiers and militia were emerging.

The mermen were becoming surrounded and over run. Their cries were all for naught. For each of them that fell to the Dark Order's blade, another replaced it and was just as swiftly cut down. Under the command of Loxaerion, the Dark Commander, the troops were unstoppable. Not even Delmegar inspired the way this courageous, brave, and deadly warrior did.

"Have we had our fill of blood and guts yet lads?" Agares shouted, grinning at a merman who he taunted. Agares let his sword fall to the cold dirt, then threw down his shield. "Come on then. Come on, fish man! Go ahead, skewer me with your little fork! Overcompensating fish that ya are, do something! Make me eat my words"

Agares was steadily walking forward, his arms out to either side to show he was quite unarmed. The merman backed away slowly, his trident in both hands pointed at Agares' abdomen. It was making odd gurgling noises, possibly speaking, but Agares didn't care. he gestured to his chest with a tap of his fnger and the merman lunged forward, eyes suddenly wide and angry.

The trident scratched the thick plate mail of Agares as he nimbly stepped right to dodge. With his right hand he grabbed the shaft of the weapon, turned to his left and snapped the weapon in two with his left elbow. Now in possession of the fork, he was armed and the merman was fumbling for knives on its harness. Agares stepped forward, punching it in the face once, then twice, jobs; then ducking and thrusting the middle prong of the trident through the creatures jawline.

Soldiers behind the dark commander broke into laughter at the display of martial prowess and of bravado. Agares himself even grinned, feeling like these merbeasts were naught but a joke. He'd never let them see it, but the true problem was the beasts above. Those... those instilled a fear in him like no other.

"The rest of you, get to Silver Square. Captain," Agares spoke in a calm tone of supreme authority. "Yes, Commander, how may I serve?" They could vaguely make out the sound of cannon fire nearby, making it known that their allies had successfully launched their vessels. Which meant the forces near the docks were breaking as well. "Get to the harbor, make sure our ships get as far out as they can and open fire on that beast attacking the seawall. It doesn't matter how many we kill, if we lose the that then Krizar will be fooded. Have the ships attack from the side so they do not damage the wall with their cannons."

"Of course, Loxaerion, your word is law." The soldier, clad in black steel put fist to chest and ran off.

Pandora floated above the ensuing chaos below surveying the thoughts she had gathered from the merfolk. All of them seemed to be consumed by the single minded desire to destroy this city but underneath she found a deep seeded fear of an unspeakable something that had driven them to this course of action. Pandora felt that at first they resisted this thing but its power could not be questioned. Whole swaths of ocean boiled in the deep killing merfolk by the thousands. The unspeakable thing forced them into supplication and out of the need to survive they accepted. Steam erupted from the earth as the ground buckled below. They were tasked by their new god to chip away at the ancient prison and slowly they made progress fearful of what may happen if their usefulness ever ended. Pandora was pulled from browsing the memories she had absorbed when a streak of light blared across the sky. The object impacted a building raining fragments on the ground below as it shot straight through. The top portion of the building collapsed falling to the ground. The object continued on impacting the ground and obliterating much of a city block. People ran from the impact and combed through rubble all while battling the relentless merfolk.

Pandora descended from above racing through the embattled city streets. Onlookers would see a cascade of blue smoke darting through alleys moving with obvious intelligence. Rushing towards the crater Pandora formed from the smoke as she saw a bunch of humans and a hideous monster near the lip of the crater. Her nebulous body encircled the crater interested for the moment of how events below her would play out.

At the craters center the orb glowed faintly and emanated a soft hum that if the listener paid attention to sounded more like screaming. A blood haze would befall those closest to the orb. Making those effected fight with recklessness and no thought of self preservation.

((Will gladly edit if part about the memories was not what you wanted))

Fulgriel fought the mermen, and their lines began to thin on his side of the city. For some reason, he still felt uneasy. He sensed that there was something else going on here, other than mermen and winged beasts attacking simultaneously. He detected dark presences, both in the city and by the shoreline. Something was definitely going on, but he decided to investigate later when he heard a cry from the other side of the city about a "Giant Lobster beast". He left the battle on his side and began flying towards the cry.

When he arrived, it was already charging at Claude. He dove down and landed on the back of the beast, attempting to thrust the sword into the beast's back. The beast's shell was too hard and the sword simply glanced it without leaving a scratch. The beast simply shook Fulgriel off its back and turned his attention back to Claude. Fulgriel landed to the right side of the beast and got up immediately. He extended his arm and shot a bolt of lightning out of his hand. The bolt interrupted the beast's charge and staggered it.

((Perfectly fine, Demon. Though my post with Delmegar being pulled into the Dream Realm and seeing the blue and red figure was directed at you. Not sure if you knew or not, but when I first started RPing and made Delemgar, my first person, he was possessed by the creature known as Nightmare, which essentially is Nocturne... And ironically, I actually made long before Nocturne was ever released. Odd. But anyway.))

Nothing made the young Loxaerion warrior feel more alive then when he was inches from death. The thrill of battle was a high that no drug or amount of alcohol could ever rival. This hard truth was what made he and Delmegar such close allies. Not the wife of Delmegar Amaron, Selyse, or the rescue Delmegar made at the Noxian fighting arena, but their desire for battle.

Much of the residential area was gradually returning to the control of Krizar's people. They fought tooth and nail with everything they had to make the merfolk pay a hundred times over for every man or woman dead. Their homefield, and advantage on land was overwhelming now that they were properly led. With each victory, another soon came after. It was a tidal wave of morale that the mermen could not hope to overcome at this point.

Still, Agares was disgusted, and saddened to see that so many of his fellow brethren had been killed. And cruelly so. The merfolk were odd creatures, to say the least - and violent, driven with pointless rage at the people of Krizar and aimed it by sacking homes, slaughtering men to children, everyone and everything was to be killed or destroyed. And for the earlier portion of the day, when the winged beasts first arrived it was. The city street he walked down was ablaze with fragments of stone and debris lining the walkway, and where it did not, there were corpses of both man and merman.

"Lord Agares!" Someone whouted, waking him from his silent rage. He looked up and saw a woman shouting froma doorway to one of their more frequented inns. The building looked to have been blasted by a massive bomb, and perhaps it was at some time. He ran to the woman who simply stood aside and pointed.

"Ha, now I've seen everything!" He snarled, gripping his sword in both hands. There was a stranger battling a giant dark shelled creature with pincers. Another of the beasts seemed to be attracted to a burning rock, or something of the sort down in what was the foundation of the inn. Nearby, Agares spotted some sort of... "what.. is that...?" Referencing the creature in a blue shroud. He wasn't sure what, or who it could be.

Before he could react in anyway shape or form a darkness covered him. The sun was blotted out, smothering him and the rest in a great shadow. He looked up, knowing full well what he might be looking at - and was right. A giant serpent with wings that spanned over the entire structure where the roof once was. It's crocodillian head; green with massive horns poking from all sides, as well as its cranium and jawline. The underbelly was a dark gray, the tail thick and long.

The creature lifted its forehand, bearing three razor sharp claws nearly the size of the man and swiped right through the inn - almost tearing straight through Agares who moved just in time. What remained of the front of the inn was completely demolished under the beasts strength. It screamed at him, shrieking and flourishing its massive wings.

"Oh, for gods sake.. How the hell do I kill you!" Agares sighed, not daring to step forward.