Jod

The Penance March

In fearful day and night dire

Our hearts be filled with blight,

When all is lost in darkest fire

When  sorrow be we bedight

In this hour lost

Wolf, Eagle , Shield we Bee

Care we not,  the final cost

For of fear be we free

For in the Darkest hour

Does hope burn bright

For with this brand of power

We stand and fight!

~Premise~

~The Burning War~

~On the Vuha~

 ~The Paragon~

~The Penance Corps~

~The Lands~

~NPC~

RP Mechanics: The System

Character Sheet:

Pretty much done, only some of the NPC's remain...

Also a shout out to Diabolical Raphsody for being a great help !

owo

The Fallen Sword

Azelus Thule

Azelus’ eyes never left the entrance to the tunnel, although he was blind he could still see the sea of small sparks that demarcated the life of all those warriors. For now it was defended by a solid wall of provided by two to three of Iblis summoned skeletons. The narrow entrance to the tunnel meant that they never had to fight more than a few of the fighters at a time, which should greatly provide a boon as the battle would continue

Azelus smiled wickedly, “Why yes” He replied his face defiant in the face of such insurmountable odds “ I would love to, please do summon one of those wonderful skeletons of yours”.  As Iblis complied with his request Azelus brought himself to his center, entering a state of total concentration, rejecting everything of his environment, his thoughts in constant turmoil faded, his shallow breaths became slow and measured, the constant maelstrom of his emotions became a dull ebb, slowly as everything fell away, all that remained was the slow drumming of his heart beat and his objective.

When the skeleton was finally brought to him Azelus was in a state of uber focus, his gaze was so keen that he could pick out the individual strands of magic that held the soul to the body and the ties that provided the energy as the driving force. He clapped his hands together collecting his arcanic energy into the center of his palms, and then with sure hands he dipped his hands into the the thing. He worked slowly yet carefully unraveling the magic that held the entire thing together. This was a necessary step, for it’s nature could not be undone unless it was at least partially unmade, it was the way of things to resist changes to one's nature.

When the magic that drove the skeleton was finally partially unmade, Azelus began with his warding, shaping the strands of its magic with several wards giving the construct, slowly reprogramming it into something more. The Skeleton would appear to become blurry almost insubstantial, fitting and jerking between several states as its existence in our world became weakened. However Azelus would continue with his work, slowly tying the magic back together with his wards. FInally he closed he joined the final thread, with a burst of arcane energy cementing his intent on the creature…

With a brilliant flare the skeleton would suddenly become sharp, from within it flames would erupt, flames so hot that they burned blue. The Skeleton itself would be wreathed in an aura of the brilliant azure flame, heat radiating of its surface, a new intelligence behind glowing behinds its eyes. Azelus pointed to the crows outside with his finger now shaking, with weariness. The skeleton looked outside and saw its opponent, it than let out a grinding cackle as if it had just found new fuel for the fire. Azelus had successfully fueled the skeleton with a flame golem. Generally, Azelus would be loathe to have anything with a flame golem, they were far too unpredictable and unwieldy. However by using the soul contained within the skeleton as a guiding and controlling force the construct could use the powers of flame with ease...  

“Iblis please take over, I feel I do not have the reserves to maintain it for too long..”

[.......]

Radin looked about he could see Azelus was busy doing his magic. Radin would have liked to watch but he knew it he had do things himself. He couldn't always rely on the old man to protect him. Infact it should be the other way round, after all he had his pride. Radin had been on the streets for a long time before Azelus had took him in. So he had a few tricks up his sleeve. It didn’t take him long to arm himself, just a little down the tunnel there was a pile of junk. He picked out a dagger as long his arm, and then ran back to Azelus’ side. Only then did he realize that he was staring at a skeleton which was also burning with an eerie blue flame. Radin quickly bolted like a hare and hid behind Azelus, all previous dregs of bravery had quickly drained out...

Kill la Kill episode 1, and .... sacred seven 12

Azelus Thule - [The Fallen Sword]

After they left the dungeon in which they had encountered the demon and eventually slain it. Azelus continued his discussion with Iblis as the group ascended up the path, disregarding most of his environment, most of the journey. It was simple fact that her rarely got to talk much about magic at anything more than beginner level. Yes Radin, was exceptional student, sharp and diligent, however there's only so much depth he could expect in a conversation with a child. So it was no surprise that Azelus went about the discussion with a manic enthusiasm, deterred by no obstacle small or big.

In his enthusiasm, he did not pay as much attention to Radin. If he had payed attention he would have noticed that the boy was behaving a little strange, he was walking closer to Azelus than usual, and always stealing glances at Talia. It was a side effect of being so much with Azelus. Radin spent most of his time with Azelus this meant, he spent most of his time running around in Azelus’ personal library navigating the messy labyrinth of paper, fetching the man his food and other things. So it was clear that he spent very little time with others his age, almost none in fact, and less so with girls. In this perspective, the sudden appearance of a Talia, was quite the event, Radin simply did not know how to react.

Eventually Radin’s natural curiosity became too much to bear, so mustering what courage he could he edged on towards Talia. Then smiling sheepishly and tugging her robes in an attempt to get her attention..

“Sister, you’re from Yamato right? What is it like? Is it as big as Empyria?I heard that people over there run faster than horses, is that really true?...”

All shyness quickly disappeared, as his inquisitiveness won out. The floodgates had been opened and that left Talia to deal with the tirade of questions literally gushing from the boys mouth. He would continue to question her through the most part of the ascent…

[In the Colosseum]

Azelus could hear the sudden sound of a large number of people, his ears could pick out their voices with a sharpness reserved only for the blind. Still it was an immensly strange experience for, people outside the dusk, how was that even possible! He could see no signs of illusions nor any other kind of trickery. The entire situation was absolutely, illogical, how were there so many people here. How had they not encountered anyone in the their ascent…..

He could hear Valerius the first to past through the doorway mutter in disbelief, this only peaked Azelus’ alarm..
“Radin! Quick! What is happening?” he whispered to the boy in a hushed tone, urgency clear in his voice…

Even the generally adaptable and inquisitive Radin was rather taken aback. It took him a few moments to take note of the entire situation.

“Well it looks like we’re in some sort of arena, much like the Court Duello back home. Still these people, they’re very weird. Yeah the arenas a lot lot bigger than the Court as well…. Um… and its completely packed… this all very very weird. Where their even people outside of the walls?”

Azelus replied with a short “Neither did I, neither did I”

In he expressed his discomfort with the situation by muttering, “I think its better to stay near the door, it is too open in an arena for my liking”

Then in a slightly more worried voice Radin whispered back to Azelus “Umm. there seemed to be strange red marks on the sand… I’m hoping its tomatoes”. Radin’s back was tense, his street urchin senses was telling him to hide.He felt a sense of aggression ahead of him...

Then from somewhere ahead Azelus heard an unfamiliar voice booming across the arena.

“The battle of who is the strongest is about to commence!”

“Whoever is left standing of the fantastic 500-man melee will have the opportunity to challenge me, Eckhart Lyon, the Strongest Swordsman, to a duel. Begin the battle!”

Azelus did not waste time, he grabbed Radin and ran back towards the doorway. He could hear Valerius "You mages better work quick, I'll smash through the center and thin them out so it's easier to defend. Talia was it? Stay here with the rest of them and help fend them off”

“Mages work quick he says, hmph. like it as simple as boiling a damned potato”, grumbled as he labored under the strain. He could hear Iblis and Talia follow, no wonder curious what the hell he was up to.
Azelus yelled at them “We must make haste to the door way, it is our only hope, it will allow only a few men across at a time, essentially reducing the effectiveness of such numbers to nill, remember the Battle of Dragons Pass.” Then he looked to Iblis, “Make time for us, we must make it to the door!!”
Then he to Talia “Keep moving towards the doorway, only attack if they reach close enough to attack us, otherwise full retreat!”.

Finally gasping for breath he reached the doorway they had entered the arena through. He took Radin and pushed him inwards. “Go further back, stay behind me”. With that he turned around , his staff already gathering sparks. “Voltas Tridentus!”, he yelled. Forks of lightning blasted out of his staff providing cover fire for Iblis and Talia, so that they too could make the final rush towards the door way with further ease….

Lightning Strikes

All Azelus could gather from the battle was the cry of the demon as it raged against the warriors on the front lines. Radin standing beside him was describing what was happening in the battlefield. He could already tell that the battle was not going very well. None of their attacks were doing any damage, the demons scales were to hard and the his fat absorbed any blunt force damage.

Neither did it help that a another warrior who had arrived on the scene, got caught in the demons grasp. She, according to Radin, was being crushed slowly in the demons hands.Nevertheless Azelus did not give up, that was something outside of his nature. He carefully went over the the facts he knew about the demon. The groups tactical status was completely abysmal. It was heavily armored, and completely defensive....

As he was mulling over possible routes of action, Iblis made his move, summoning several more creatures. From looking at their internal structures he could somewhat guess their purpose, it would be a kind of binding, risky, but if it worked effective.

The strike was effective, he could hear the thing wail in pain. At this point an plan was simmering in his head. It had a chance of working, but Azelus needed some more time to get it to work.

Iblis continued with his onslaught, following by modifying his clay golems nature, bringing to it a corrosive nature. An interesting magic all over, he didn’t understand why Iblis felt the need to apologize. Following Iblis’ collapse, Azelus finally decided that at this point he no more time to refine his plan, he would have to rely on gut....

He gestured to Radin, his movements quick and hurried “ Radin hand me a pouch of salt, you should still have a few left, and be quick about it”

Radin with practiced ease, picked out a small leather pouch from his pack “ So you gonna make another of those mist golems?”. It was clear that any fear that was in his system had already flew out. Sometimes he was just plain oblivious....
 
Grabbing the pouch, Azelus replied “Yes, now be quiet, and tell me whats going on!”. As usual Azelus had already started carving out a series of wards on the air in front of him, the wards glowing orange, suspended on mid air. He then thrust his fist into their midst charging the wards with an initial burst of magic, and providing it a core of salt.

Mist started to crawl int the air in front of him from no where particular forming int a roughly humanoid shape. As it finished coalescing the mist golem, blasted towards the demon, as if draw towards it. The golem covered the demons head, forcing its way into the demons innards via its mouth and nose. It would be a painful process for the demon as the golem was imbued with the property of purification, and was literal poison to it, an antithesis.....

Azelus smiled, this was only part of the plan. “Radin come with me....”. The boy sighed, but followed nonetheless. He walked over to one of the circles he had prepared, it was nearly filled to the brim, primed to be used.

Azelus stood in the center of the circle, breathing deeply. Then he slowly took in a deep breath, and with it he pulled in the all the magic contained theirin. He pulled and he pulled, drawing as much of the arcanic energy he could draw. The circle slowly dissipated as Azelus pulled in all of its energies.

Radin looked at Azelus and shuddered, his eyes were glowing , flickering with a pale white light, as if a fire was burning within them. Azelus slowly raised his staff, and muttered to himself, Voltas Maxima. Without warning Azelus was lit up, as a thousand small sparks erupted from his body collecting onto the point of his staff, then with a swipe of the staff, an enormous arc of lightning blasted towards the demon, lighting up the inside of the dungeon as if it were day. The Arc of lightinig hit the demons head, catching hold of a wisp of the mist golem. Then through the conductive path provided by the mist golem it snaked its way right past the demons defenses and into his innards. This was Azelus’ solution, one doesn’t brain himself by bashing constantly against a wall, one sneaks into it.....





 

The Dusk Born

…… Azleus fell to the ground with a crash, unfortunately he did not have superior physical skill and fell right on his rump. As if on queue just a moment later Radin fell onto him, rightfully knocking the wind out of him. His mood was completely ruined, and his demeanor reduced to that of a irritable scholar as he got back to his feet, dusting him self off. He slowly mumbled to himself

“I am definitely getting tired of this Dusk born falling, falling in the goddamn airship, falling here, into this godamn whatever”

He slowly took a turned around taking a good look around him, he noticed something wrong with his surroundings, his heart quickly fluttering in panic. Around him he saw a taint in the flows around him like a dark cloud of sorts. He reprimanded himself for not noticing it faster, fear was slowly inching his way down his spine as he remembered his days in the, Abyssal Forest. He yelled to Radin,

“Radin come to me quick!!”, his voice edged with worry…

The earth shook with a sudden force as something walked towards the group, by its footsteps Azelus knew how big the it was. As he felt it, he looked towards it, only to see right into the dusk borns core, burning dark with same energies as the taint around it. Azelus was taken back by the size of the thing.

The prencse of the thing brought back memories of the past ones he would have rather forgotten, and a sudden intense wave of fear passed through. His heart raced, and it felt like a thousand stones were placed on his chest. His hand were numb, sweat glistened on his forehead. Azelus slumped slowly onto his staff, breathing shallowly.

Azelus was in a different place in, in a different time, a time where he had been reduced to a primal creature, hiding and scuttling through the dark, eking out survival by the day. He looked around him, but he could see nothing, for the mist blinded him twicefold, even his third sight could not pierce it. He heard the sounds of branches cracking, as slowly he felt the very trees reach towards him. He slowly tried to walk away from the trees but found that his entrance to the clearing did not exist any more. He could hear a soft rustling that seemed to head towards him from every direction. Panic rushed through him, he was in the grasp of flesh eating pines of the Abyssal Forest, the things had trapped him….

He suddenly felt sudden jerk on his hand, then another. He noticed his hand was warm, unlike the rest of his body. Then a realization struck, this was not real, only a manifestation of his fear. As if responding to his realization the mist melted away, and then the forest leaving, only him crouching on the stone floor.

He could hear a small sniffing sound coming from his right, Radin. Azelus spoke softly..

“It’s okay Radin, I’m fine now”,

The boy broke out and started to cry, hugging Azelus tightly.

“I..I dindnt know what happened, suddenly you started shaking and collapsed…. Y..You couldn’t hear me. I thought …. I thought….. S-so I pulled you away from the demon”

Azelus pulled the boy close and patted his head,

“Its okay, its okay…. I promise ...it wont happen again”. Azelus meant it, he was not one to let his fear get the better of him. He could not, would not leave Radin unguarded in the dusk.

He could see the summons Iblis had brought out to fight the creature. He could not tell their shape, but he could see the small glimmers of magic that were their core. Closer to the demon he saw, Valerius inching slowly towards the Demon.

Moving into action, he slowly drew closer, relying on the masking he had cast earlier to hide him from the demon. He then summoned lighting on his staff making its bottom tip spark with energy. Using this he carved a circle on the floor. He went on to do this in several more places. The circle’s glowed dimly, as each was activated.

A circle was the simplest of all wardings, named the Gate. In its current iteration, the cicles acted as a one way trapdoor, allowing natural magic to flow in yet not out. However they coud only hold som much an would eventually dissipate, when they reached saturation, like bubble that gets too big.

“Radin, stick closely to me, shadow my steps as best you can…”

“Yea yess”

“Describe the ceature, quick”

“umm its really big, fat, lizardly and ugly…. And uh its got a really big sword”

Azelus sighed, sometimes the boy frustrated him to no end.

“Now give me a piece of clay, from the pack”

Azelus was promptly handed a piece of clay, with his other hand he had already began drawing wards in the air five in number, glowing dimly in the air. Then he took the clay and forced it into the warding, giving it the final elements, a core, intent and magic. The Clay suddenly grew in size, slowly drawing on the surrounding energies as well as good portion of Azelus’ own reserves. Taking the shape of a mound, with a distinct humanoid shape. The clay golem was complete, Azelus only hoped that his aquaintances had survived long enough, for it to reach the thing; it had taken him long enough to prepare it.

The Golem slowly turned towards the demon, and then rolled into a ball and speed towards it in a blur of speed. When it finally reached the demon, it exploded into a large puddle of thick gluey clay, restricting the demon with thick sticky bands of the stuff...

On the other side, Azelus was retreating, as he observed the demon carefully…

“Ah, Iblis, a pleasure to finally meet you” , Azelus was pleased to find Iblis amongst the company. Azelus had always wanted to speak with the man; he was interested in the man’s experiences in the Dusk.

He looked at the other; the man as he judged from his voice, did not bother to introduce himself. In fact, he was busy trying to hypothesize their whereabouts. However, his theories were rather far fetched. The man spoke of time travel, which was rather unlikely. Time travel was a dangerous magic requiring tremendous amounts of energy, not feasible for any one person and definitely without considerable preparation.

Radin, had already edged off and began curiously inspecting the dungeon they were trapped. Sometimes the boy’s ability to adapt surprised Azelus. Perhaps it was an feature of the naiveté of the young. Azelus had long since forgotten such notions, yet he did not wish it of Radin.

'Well what do you guys suggest, should we sit here and share our stories or get the hell of here.’

Azelus understood the sense of urgency in Iblis’ voice; this place was of the Dusk after all, he could see tendrils of the foul energy all over the flows in the area. “Yes, it is always a good idea to keep moving in the outside”

Azelus noticed the slight flutter of magic as Iblis went to work on what Azelus assumed was the bars.

Azelus motioned to Radin.“Boy bring me a stone, and a chalk from the pack”

“Already onnit… so what are you casting now, huh?, come on tell me!!”

Radin quickly returned from wherever it was he had gone returning hopping and skipping to close the gap between them. And placed a small fist sized rock, and a piece of chalk on his palm. Azelus smiled at Radin,  the ten year old's enthusiasm rubbing off on him

.

“Radin now watch closely, I’m going to perform a masking, it is a fourth degree warding, try and see if you can decipher he wards”

Holding his staff under his arm, Azelus took the stone and with a deft hand inscribed four wards on four sides of the stone. He did not even look at it, though for Azelus it wouldn’t have made a difference. After which he brought the stone to his mouth, and slowly blew air and magic on the wards, giving them the initial charge of energies as well as intent, the wards began to glow softly with warm orange light as they activated. The warding would hide their presence from creatures of the Dusk, as well as stifle any of the sounds they made…

“Hmm, I didn’t quite catch the point of the fourth wardmark? Why the Arc of Three, instead would not the Ghost be a better choice?” Asked Radin, his brows furrowed and his eyes questioning.

Azelus barked a laugh “ Good question, one you will surely figure out “ Then as he turned to discussion between Iblis and the as of yet unidentified man.

“Aye, there is no trace of time travel here, a strong magic such as that would have heavly disturbed flows, I would have seen hints of it even now, yet I see none.”

The Dark Room

…… He frantically searched for his staff, the constant thrash of the thing growing ever so louder as it tore its way through the forest. Every second it gained on his position, and every second he became ever more frantic.

As hre grabbed around the spoilage, He hands touched upon a familiar surface, the warmth of polished oak. Azelus nearly cried out in joy as he grabbed his staff, scrambling up to his feet. As he stood clutching the staff as if he was hanging from it, he realized that all the noise had died, as if the entire world was waiting with bated breath, for something to happen. It could only mean one thing.

Imeadiately, a shock cold passed through his heart, the thing had found him. He could almost feel the thing, its very presence drawing the very life out of the air. He heard the soft rustle of leaves and brushed as it slowly circled him with almost an languid ease. It knew that it had him and now it wanted a bit of fun. The fear was as much a treat for it as the treat.

Azelus cursed the mist, it was the only thing preventing him from knowing where the beast, however in its presence he was just blind. He heard a slow growl surrounding him, it had a kind of gravelly feature to it and tended to fill the space it cover with a presence. He struck out with all his strength, in the direction of the sound, a great arc of lighting blasting through the brush, lighting much of the brush on fire. However it was long gone. Azelus slowly turned around in a circle, searching for any hint of it…….

Azelus blinked lazily as he slowly came too, he realized that he was alive, a flutter of panic rushed through his chest, which quickly put to ease as he felt Radin clutched in his arms, warm and breathing. He followed the previous though with a grimace as he wanted for a surge of pain to rush through him from his broken ribs and dusk knew what more. It was a mild and gratuitously accepted surprise when he felt none it.

As he slowly sat up he sensed two other energies in close proximity to him, for now he left them alone. Instead he gently shook the boy awake…

“ Told you every thing was going to be fine”

The boy looked up, with sleep misted eyes, which cleared in an instant as awareness came upon him. As he looked around he leapt to his feet, obviously surprised by his surroundings.

“Umm… Sir Where are we? And who are those two men?”

Azelus motioned for the boy to stop, he new that once the boy got started their was no way of stopping him..Azelus himself had been slightly confused by his location, since he could feel the cold stone of the floor and walls, yet how they had reached there was a mystery to him.

Azelus slowly got up, using a nearby wall for supported, his other hand on Radin’s shoulder. He dusted himself and then grabbed for his staff, which leapt off the floor and onto his hands.

“Now boy, describe the place we are at … “

“Well it looks like a dungeon of some sort, the suns shining through a small portal, but I cant see out of it. On the other end  we got set of solid metal bars leading too a hallway…” The boy trailed off the question he meant to ask all too clear.

“I see..  and no I don’t know how we got here”  Azelus then turned to his fellow captives..

“Good morning gentlemen, I am Azelus, do tell me who you are, for I cannot recognize you, I am blind and cannot see you. I was also hoping you might be able to tell me something of how we got here?”

The Dusk Taketh

The final zombie in the hallways was cleared, all that remained for Azelus and Radin was to go on and enter the main corridor where they might have a chance to meet with the other survivors. The mist golem had corroded to a mere fraction of its previous volume, it energies spent on purifying the numerous zombies that now littered the floor inanimate.

Azelus’ brow was furrowed with irritation, the mist golem would soon dissipate, leaving them without any defense from any further attacks form the undead. Nevertheless, as they set foot onto the main pathway, it was clear no more defense was needed. Bodies of the dead lay strewn all over the place their bodies obliterated beyond further use.

The boy began to skip through the hall, jumping over the bodies with the frivolous reserved for the young. Remembering his charge he looked back and warned him.

“Be care full lot of bodies around ere, lets move slower so you don’t trip on something “

“Pft, boy I can handle this much, by Dusk if I’ll let this much slow me”

The blind man shuffled through the hallway with relative ease, using his staff to pick out the correct path through the bodies with practiced ease. Most would think that his demeanor was unnaturally calm, especially for a blind man. However the man had face worse in worse circumstances, he had learned one thing and that was never ever underestimate the Dusk. It was clear to him that this was the very problem of this expedition. The most of the men and women did not take the Dusk seriously, he could easily count on his fingers the number that had even set foot outside the walls and seen the true terror therein. It had been a stupid mistake on his part to accept the princes’ invitation….

The duo was still making its way through the carnage, and Azelus still muttering and grumbling when the lights went out. However, to Azelus it was a completely different phenomena, he instantly witnessed the magic flowing through the vessel die out, snuffed out like a candles flame. In seconds he hocked the boy with the crook of his staff and pulled the boy to him. The boy let out a squawk in surprise, clearly not expecting to be suddenly yanked out of position.  As if on que the entire ship lurched to its side, sending the duo hurtling down the  corridor with the rest of the bodies. Azelus mustering as much of his strength as he could brought Radin in closer and curled around him, trying to protect the boy any way he could.

Azelus slammed into the great doors that lead to the main stairway. The impact blasting the breath out of his lungs and breaking two of his ribs. Luckily the doors had not collapsed under the Impact, Azelus blacked out from the pain for a few seconds...

An explosion reverberated through the entirety of the vessel righting it for a time, allowing Azelus to roll down onto the floor with Radin. The boy looked at Azelus with fear in his eyes, he could see that the man was taking shallow breaths, blood seeping from his left.

It was then that Hadrian’s speech echoed through the hallways. The man merely sighed, he had already gone well past the fear of death, it had no hold over him. He had faced it several times and by now had accepted it. However then the boy spoke too him and an arrow pierced his heart, his resolve broken. Azelus could easily accept his death, but Radin was a son to him, in all the ways that matter. How can a man accept the death of his son.

“Sir, wha..whats happening, an..and your hurt…. W..wait I think there are s..some bandages in the pack” Radin tried to speak bravely, but his voice betrayed his fear.

Azelus turned his head to the boy, his unseeing eyes focused on the boy almost as he was peering into his heart. His expression softened and then with a calm and reassuring tone.

“ Don’t worry Radin, everything’s going to be fine, come here for a moment and help me up”

As the boy came near grabbing Azelus by his hand, Azelus muttered in a small voice, “Voltas Minutae”. A small spark of lighting erupted from his hand and snaked up the boys hand striking his neck. The boy fell to Azelus’ arms unconscious, sleeping soundly. Azelus brought the boy onto his lap, and slumped his back against the wall. He muttered to himself  “ Everything’s going to be all right..” as he caressed the boys hair and waited for the inevitable….

A Darkness Reigns

He lay there on his bed, his face drenched in sweat, his eyes pressed shut, his mouth moving as if trying to say something. He felt it as if it was all too real, the eerie sounds of that cursed jungle. The crush of fallen leaves and old brush under his feet. The rapid thumping in his heart, and the wild and tainted arcane flows blocking his sight, like a thick fog. He was running towards his camp, the wards around it would protect him from it

.
He could feel its fell energies blazing as it neared him, it was slowly gaining on him. His third sight blinded, the only thing guiding him was the warm energies of his wards, a flickering candle in a thick fog. He stumbled over a large root of an old oak. His staff clattered away and his heart tightened in terror. Without his staff he was utterly helpless, in panic he srambled around the brush frantically pawing through it searching for his staff. Then he heard it, that bone chilling roar, it was almost upon him….

Azelus opened his eyes, gray and dead, he felt a hand shaking him. It was none other than Radin, he could hear the boys panicked voice, shrill and tremulous.
“Sir Thule, Sir Thule Please wake up, please, theres trouble aboard the ship, something’s attacked us”

Sitting upright with a sudden jerk, Azelus leapt of the bed his hand clasped on the boys shoulder for guidance. He held out his free hands towards his side and his staff, which lay stoutly against the far wall, leapt straight into his hands.

As he stood in place Azelus slowly opened his minds eye, being carefull not be blinded by the arcanic emissions of the air ship. He imeadeately saw the sources of tainted energy around the ship. He could see the natural flows of wild magic recoiling at the contact with the foul energy. By reading the unique signatures let of by the magic, Azelus quickly came to a conclusion of what form the evil had taken. The ship was currently infested with shamble men.

Azelus frowned, now that he had fully come to his sense he could feel the taint of the foul magic throbbing throughout his surroundings. He could never forget the taste of this magic, after all it was all that surrounded him for that year. It was the residue of Dusk, polluting the very nature of the place.
He looked through his memory, in search for a specific piece of knowledge he felt important. In less than a second he found what he was looking for, the instruction manual. He had Radin read it to him while the rest where busy at their little party. Idiots the lot of them, the outside is not to be likely. To venture outside needs vigilance and discipline…

Muttering to himself, and then to the boy his voice rough and his tone blunt.
“Radin, lead me to the hangar, any survivors should be headed there as well. Hopefully the louts have read the damn manual….” Then remembering something, "Radin you’ve bought that warding pack that I tell you to always wear"..
“Aye aye, you name it” Chriped Radin excitedly, he knew what that meant. No matter the circumstances, the boy always looked forward to Azelus working his magic.
“Good good, pass me a pouch of salt would you”,
Without missing a beat the boy brought out his pack and quickly brought out a small leather pouch plopping it into, Azelus’ outstretched hand.

Azelus quickly grabbed the pouch and then with several sharp movemnts of with the head of the staff, drew out several wards in thin air, their edges glowing green in the edges. As he drew the wards, the a thin mist collected around the runes into the rough shape of a ball, glowing with pale light, from the arcanic energies. Then, Azelus thrust the pouch of salt into the ball, giving the wards the two final elements required to complete this particular warding, intent and a core. Immediately, with a flash of jade light, the ball began to spread out into a rough humanoid shape, consisted entirely of mist. At the center of the creature, if one peered hard enough one could see a glowing crystal of salt with the wards orbiting around it. Azelus had just completed the construction of an Mist Golem, giving it a core of salt so as to impart on it the property of purification.

Grunting contented at his handiwork, he ordered Radin “ Lead on boy”, as he raised his staff muttering a few words and blasted the door of hinges with a blast of lighting. As they walked into the hallway Azelus following the boy, using his staff as a blind mans stick, the mist golem swooped ahead.

As it encountered the Zombies in its path, it purified the tainted energies inside the zombies, by entering into their bodies through the nostrils or the mouth, and even open wounds of the body. Causing the zombie to fall to the ground, the fell magics powering it put out. The golem would then purify the arcane energies of the zombie's, dissipating the power that animated them.  The Golem would be slowly consuming the mists that consisted it as it continued to purify the zombies. Nevertheless it would last for a while yet, as he pumped his own energy into the golem..
The duo walked on towards the hangar, a purifying mist guarding them from the evil that had invaded the ship