Purging the Earth [Ilreg; Chikara]

[Ilreg Douisis Ofu'ul]

As Chikara approached, Ilreg, in preparation to the incoming to attack, placed a thin veil of ice on the bottom his feet, allowing himself more movement on the icy obelisk. With his mobility ensured, he narrowed his postion by assuming a classic fencing stance, making the heels of his feet perpendecular to one another.

Standing upright, he grabbed the levitating sword, and in a sudden movement, gracefully made an arc movement, the circumfrence of the action succesfully guarding his legs and lower extremistis, then Ilreg still tightly holding the rapier, wrenced his arm upward, his wrist and palm close to his face as he narrowly block the attack to his face, the crossing of the two combatants swords forming a horizontaly flipped "H".

"Stop trying to hit me, and hit me!" Ilreg taunted, pushing on his rapier and pushing as if to force her back. Ilreg then resumed his stance, and held out his sword as if to taunt the battle-crazed Chikara further. "You know, you actually wouldn't be that terrible with a blade had you been fighting anyone but me. But this isn't the case here, and your paltry skills won't keep you breathing for much longer."

Meanwhile, within the melting catacombs, Jiishita had managed to locate Cer-dra and open fire with Perseus. Cer-dra attempted to evade the hail of bullets, but was hit by several while trying to turn the corner of one of the obelisks.

Ilreg's face began distorted from a slight twinge of pain, now aware that Cer-dra was injured as well. The sick smile on his face had now transformed into a stern expression. He remained in his fencing stance, drawing his rapier closer.

"Jiishita, when you shoot, shoot to kill; and if you value your worthless life and that of your concubine, you'd best try to end this fight now," Ilreg said, and as he ended the sentence, his breath became visible, denoting that the temperature had begun to plummet below sub-zero. "Let's see how your injuries fare in the frigid cold."

[Yamazaki Chikara]

Chikara's ears were still beyond taking in what her enemy was saying, but when she was pushed back, and he began to drop the temperature, she immediately surrounded herself with an aura of fire, strengthening it with her words, "Flame. Keep me warm and shield against the cold. The cold will not penetrate. The cold will not reach me. YOU will not reach me."

She backed away, giving herself a running start as she lunged towards her opponent, twirling on her heel and spinning in a complete circle as she attacked. This particular approach did two things: as she spun, her swords flung high temperature flames at the enemy's feet to melt the ice holding him there--which also weakened the structure of the obelisk.

After that, she stabbed with her left katana and swiped with her right at this "scaled-one's" rapier, hoping to keep it occupied so that her other attacks would come through.

[Takaishi Jiishita]

Now on top of the obelisk, he could see his breath rising to the air. His wings seemed useless, and he knew that his summoning of them for this fight would not last very long. His magic was weak now because of it, and he knew that he did not have too much time before his injuries took unavoidable damage to his body--whether or not he could feel the pain. He was still bleeding, and he had to do something about it soon.

He snuffed out his wings--he could not afford to use them any more--too much energy.

Holding out Perseus with his right hand, he shot, the bullets feeling the cold and absorbing it, changing it to a shell of ice to coat and protect the bullets. This wasn't Jiishita's intention, but he would work with it anyway; it was impossible to alter now.

The damage sustained by his summoned wings did not go away, and he felt a sharp pain deep inside that could be described as a wound to his soul. He was running out time.

"Daggers of the Mother!" he shouted, sending shards of sharpened earth from the ground in his direction. Without his wings to sap his power any longer, he launched that attack and focused his remaining energies to stopping his flowing wounds.

Turning behind him, he realized suddenly that he should not be quite through with his opponents servants yet.

"Entropy. You are without will. Without freedom, and you cannot be allowed to roam free. Without movement. Without action. Without purpose. [/b]"

Quickly, a cage formed around the one called Cer-dra, one formed of the inpenetrable steel that was produced in Heaven. He looked around, wondering where the other one was. Faf...something. He could not remember the name. Had Chikara killed her? He hoped not. Their opponent didn't seem to appreciate the snuffing out of his servants.

[Ilreg Douisis Ofu'ul]

Ilreg’s opponents attack had put the arrogant Dragon prince on the defensive. Preparing to brace himself of Chikara’s attack he felt the ice at his feet as it began melting, meanwhile the subzero began to condensate as Chikara got closer. Before Ilreg could intercept Chikara’s attack, he could hear something traveling at high speed through the silent, frigid air. Shards of earth flew at Ilreg at a ferocious velocity, prompting him to hastily throw up a wall of ice behind himself, stopping most of Jiishita’s shards, but distracting him momentarily from Chikara’s dual bladed fiery onslaught. The pain from one of the shards that stabbed the back of his thigh caused a sharp pain to shoot up Ilreg’s spine, slowing his reaction time down. Before he could do anything realized Chikara was coming in for blood, his blood, and he steeled himself to put up some type of defense. Parrying the stabbing thrust with an upward wave of the rapier in his hand, Ilreg turned to the other blade and tried to dodge the slash, but was unable to resulting in a burn from the flames on his left arm and sustaining a cut on his face, across his nose. As the blood trickled down his face, Ilreg lashed out his long reptilian tongue, licking the blood and the wound in one swoop, smiling as is his spilling life liquid was a delicacy of sorts.

Ilreg, sensing the structural integrity of the obelisk on which he stood began to fail, Ilreg violently plunged his onyx colored rapier into the obelisk, “Frigid Shrapnel!” Ilreg called out causing the obelisk to explode sending hundreds sharp obsidian sharp directly at Chikara, as Ilreg, still holding his rapier, leapt backwards to a higher obelisk to regain himself, as well as get a better view of the battlefield to prevent further back attacks. From this new vantage point, he saw as Jiishita solemnly erected a barrier around Cer-dra.

“Are you as desperate as your pathetic wife Jiishita, you fool, pity won’t get you anywhere, you wound Cer-dra to imprison him, I don’t know what’s worse, your whore’s bloodlust with out regard to her own life, or your disgusting cowardice in back attacks, and merciful cages around your opponents. Have no gall within you fool; no heart of a warrior beats within in your hollow chest.” Ilreg shouted as he dropped the temperature of the area exponentially. “THIS IS MY REALM AND I MAKE THE RULES, I WILL NOT BE BANISHED BY GARBAGE AS WEAK AS YOU!!!” Ilreg continued angrily. Ilreg then hurled the icy rapier at Jiishita, as it flew toward him Ilreg held out his hand, clenched his fist and caused the sword to explode, sending sharpened icy daggers in Jiishita's direction.

The dropping decrease in temperature caused the icy obelisks to sublimate, becoming a misty haze as the opaque ice began to pass into a gaseous state. Suddenly from the mist surrounding the area, a figure came into Ilreg’s view, charged scaly skin dangling from it’s sides, along with singed fur still smoldering, Faf-ris had survived the lightening from earlier, and the creature ferocious growl grew louder as it slowly limped into view, it’s regeneration slowing healing its wounds. “Faf-ris you are truly a creature of wonder, let us show these dunces why the draconic race isn’t to be trifled with.” Ilreg said as he leapt to where Faf-ris was walking.

Landing and flinching from the pain of his previously injured thigh, Ilreg stood and pulled the shard from this thigh, tossing the bloody shard to Faf-ris, who consumed it as fast as it hit the ground. The minions injures began to heal faster after the shard’s consumption as Ilreg began to stroke its head, as if Ilreg's own blood seemed to aid the beast's healing process.



“Now let the benumbed air chill you to your hollow bones, your fire spells are useless at this temperature.” Ilreg goaded, his breath resembling smoke this freezing air. “Cer-dra, if you can hear this darken the mist on my command, Faf-ris, provide us more mist for the dark clouds as they appear.” Ilreg commanded, watching as the air became thick with mist, which turned obsidian, as if it were polluted by darkness as were the frozen puddles on the ground. “Now, you both will learn to trifle with me again.” Ilreg said, raising his hands to his face, clenching them as they were soaked with the blackend water that filled the air. “HIEMAL DARKNESS!!!” Ilreg roared, as the ashend mist in the frigid air froze, and became razor sharp pitch-dark sleet, hailing from the heavens falling everywhere, the heavier frozen precipatation falling from the sky most hastily. “Now move and be torn to ribbons, or if you wish to salvage the life of you and your wife Jiishita, free my servant now and I will end the sullen blizzard. Ilreg said, sounding most menacing. "So says Ilreg Douisis Ofu'ul, Lord of all Dragons."

[Yamazaki Chikara]

Chikara tried as hard as she could to raise the temperature of her flame so that she could block the pieces of the shattered obelisk that were flying towards her; but she couldn't--the temperature was too cold, and most of the pieces began to pierce her barrier. So she began to move, hoping to dodge them.

Because she had been forced to leap away from the broken obelisk under her feet, she had leapt away from her enemy, and to keep her wings out of the line of attack, she willed them to disappear, something that still came easily for her as a choirless. And the shrapnel hit her hard; Chikara was only missed by a few of them. She still smirked, however; because she could not feel it.

Jiishita was fighting now, and she was no longer concerned about his health now that he was in sight. He was a better fighter than her; he had focused more on tactics while training, even in Heaven. He had been born with this type of conflict. The Dragon fighting them attacked Jiishita by throwing his rapier and breaking it into pieces as well.

Chikara didn't have the time to even watch him, however, because one of the servants of her opponent made its way out of the ground, singed and injured. Chikara was no fool, no matter how many times this Dragon told her she was; clearly this was the one that had been hit by her magic.

Her surroundings turned suddenly hazy and she was hit by something solid.

"What in the seven layer of Hell is that?" she said in wonder.

She tried to step forward, and her vision blurred. This was not normal to her, even in the darkness, and she stretched out her hands in front of her. They were blurred as well. She took another tottering step forward, and her knees wobbled. She couldn’t control her balance, and before she knew it, she blinked, and she had hit the surface of the obelisk, the icy cold sensation penetrating her now weak magic.

She knew exactly what this was; she had lost energy despite not feeling it. She had known that she was approaching her limit, but she had hoped that she had a little longer. She struggled to raise her injured and tortured body from the ground, to try to spark a bit of her magic—neither was working.

[Takaishi Jiishita]

Jiishita could see the shield that was put up to block his attack, and he braced for a defense of his own. He could tell that this Dragon didn't like having to defend himself, and he knew that whatever was thrown back at him would not be good.

And so, like the servant called Cer-dra, he wrapped himself in a case of earth. The shrapnel bounced off of his shield, luckily, and he was glad that the shards hadn't been as big as the obelisk as a whole, or else he would have been in trouble.

Outside of his self-made shield, he could hear the Dragon speaking to his other servant, Faf-ris, the one that had been struck by Chikara's lightning. He could almost not believe that it had survived Chikara's haphazard rage.

It was then that he released his magic, allowing him to see what had passed. Chikara was down, and his eyes narrowed; he had seen this coming when she kept battling despite her wounds. She had cast a charm on herself and she wasn’t paying attention to her limits at all.

It was then that Jiishita heard the Dragon’s onslaught of insults of his character. Jiishita didn’t really care about anything that he said. He was not being self-righteous. He was not claiming that any of this work was different than what his enemy himself had done. He was not raised to lie to himself, and he wasn’t going to bother doing so. They were exactly the same. The only difference was that his was in the name of those who had inhabited the realm, and his opponent’s work was most likely in the name of a personal quest. The damage to both was the same—death, injury, loss—but that would not deter Jiishita from what he had set as his goal.

Jiishita said, “Nevermind your boasting! It won’t work on me!” Holding his hand out in front of him, he made a clenching fist with his hand; in corresponding nature, the cage that Cer-dra was in tightened, became smaller. Perhaps this Ilreg character would realize that his servant was about to be crushed.

“Perhaps you are willing to make a trade?” he said. “I have seen you battle and I am aware that you would probably kill my weakened wife upon your arrival to her position—you can take your time, after all; she isn’t going anywhere—and you would probably sooner kill her than let us go. I am willing to call this a loss on account of my wife’s inability to maneuver. Just know that this isn’t over. I cannot allow you to continually harm Humans who have done nothing to you. I may have attacked you without being personally provoked, but it is in the name of Humans who cannot fend for themselves, and while I may slaughter your minions and attack your servants, they represent you and your foul doing to those who would not have even had the power to attack you even if they wanted.”

His hand clenched more tightly, and the cage that Cer-dra was in shrunk again.

“I am not my wife. I will not allow myself to erupt in rage at personal comments and I will not overeact and misjudge my boundaries. I am not afraid to let my wife perish in the heat of battle. It will be an honorable death, if you choose to be stubborn, but know that if you take her from me you will be suddenly lacking a servant, Dragon or not. I used to hold your kind in esteem, the race that could resist the Shijin’s magic. But I can now see that you, at least, lack the honor that has characterized your race in the past.”

[Ilreg Douisis Ofu'ul]

A cruel smile spread across Ilreg's face as he listened to Jiishita's words, "Your words are true Jiishita, I would tear your wife's throat from her neck, or rend her into pulp with a million pieces of icy shrapnel." Ilreg said as he held up his hand and caused all the snow to stop where it was falling, transforming the powder into sharp icy shards. Now millions of minuscule knives were at his whim, and like a grim, frigid surgeon, the look on his face appeared as if he were ready to use them as they floated over to where the weakened Chikara fell. "You surprise me Jiishita, I must admit, you fight much better without that wretch hindering you, forcing you to protect her miserable existence. I wish to meet an agreement with you, so you can save the wench you cherish so, a dog for a dog as it were." Ilreg said, laughing maniacally as he looked in Chikara's direction.

The floating ice remained suspended as Ilreg walked closer to Jiishita, being followed closely by Faf-ris, he stopped several feet in front of Jiishita. "Don't fool yourself by thinking that you coming here to dispose of me isn't a personal matter, your here now, attempting to do it along with that pathetic specimen over there, you attack me for yourself, the lives of these worms are the means in which you choose to justify your attempt on my life." Ilreg said, looking directly into Jiishita's eyes, his icy stare unwavering.

"Do you watch every step you take upon the ground, in fear of trampling on ants and other insects, I thought not, and that is what these mortal are to me, insects. So who are you to judge my actions?" Ilreg questioned.

"If you are to be so bold to proclaim that the value of the life of your wife is lower than the justice you could bring to these worms, then are more pathetic than I ever imagined, and you don't even deserve to die at my hand, it would be to merciful. Nevertheless if you free Cer-dra, this blizzard will disappear and I will not make another attempt on you or your whore's life this day, and you will leave my citadel and never return, but if you cross me, not even the death's of all those in my thrall will save you, and I promise your death will be excruciating." Ilreg said with a stone, his tone as cold as the air in which his lethal devices remained levitated.

As Ilreg's smile continued to widen, more and more shrapnel accumulated around Chikara, and Ilreg stared in to Jiishita's eyes, awaiting his ultimatum.

[Takaishi Jiishita]

Ilreg had agreed to his exchange. Albeit, with a lot of lecturing and griping about what he believed Jiishita was and the rest, but that meant about as much to the choirless angel as a gargoyle's ass--and he wasn't listening to any of it. Ilreg could say what he wanted about he and his wife, but that didn't change the fact that he didn't have the upper hand at the moment.

Neither did Jiishita, since it was a fairly equal exchange, but still--the point was that he and his wife were still alive, even if it was only barely.

"Fine," he said allowing himself to laugh at Ilreg's earlier metaphor, 'a dog for a dog as it were'. "Though yours looks more like a mangled manticore. At least Chikara could pass for a bitch."

Ah, the exhaustion was getting to him. He had better be quiet before this Dragon's silver tongue tore him to pieces.

To ensure that Chikara's safety wouldn't be compromised, because of Ilreg's seemingly shifty nature, the moment that Cer-dra's cage dissolved another earthy casing wrapped itself around Chikara's own body like a cast, effectively shielding against the frozen daggers dwelling above her.

"To be honest," Jiishita said, "I don't think that letting my wife die for a cause that she believes in is setting her life below anything. it depends on what you think of that cause she deems worthy of her life. You've made it quiet obvious that anything not involving fealty to you is an unjust cause for allowing someone to die--other than upsetting you in some way, of course. You're just a spoiled Prince, that's all. But I will accept defeat from you today, because I have no choice. But we will meet again, so-called Prince of Dragons, and next time, we will actually fight to the death."

[Ilreg Douisis Ofu'ul]

Ilreg smiled as Jiishita conceded, honoring his end of the deal, Ilreg snapped his finger and the icy razors disappeared, and the darkness that surround the area began to dissipate. "Your more humorous than I gave you credit Jiishita, your bitch, speaking in the context of the conversation, is free." Ilreg said as Cer-dra run toward his master. Now sure that both of his minions were safe, Ilreg began to walk away from the battlefield, still smiling. As he walked away he heard Jiishita continue to speak, "Your just a spoiled Prince." rang through his ears, causing him to stop with his back to Jiishita.

Ilreg looked at the sky, pondering his past and Jiishita's insult, turning around now to face Jiishita, just as Jiishita finished his words.

"I look forward to taking your life next time we meet Jiishita, give my regards to your wretched concubine, and be hasty about removing yourself from my grounds..." Ilreg said as he held out his hand, starting to clench his fist. Suddenly an icy statue appeared near where Ilreg previously stood, the statue an accurate depiction of both Jiishita and Chikara impaled on icy obelisks."My parting gift to you..." Ilreg said as he walked away, laughing maniacally, Faf-ris and Cer-dra right behind him as they all approached the tower.

Upon return inside Ilreg saw that his minions were lined up against the walls, standing and watching as he walked down the long corridor to his chamber. The mage draconi minion who provided the viewing crystal ball awaited in front of the door, "Will you be requiring anything else master?" he said.

"To not be disturbed leave me and resume your duties..." Ilreg said motioning the larger brute draconi at the walls to open his chamber doors as he, Faf-ris and Cer-dra made their way inside. Inside, Ilreg sat in his chair, followed by his faithful servant laying at his, Ilreg closed his eyes, as he lowered his head.

"Rest now darling, you have a trip ahead, you will go to Tsubasa Mikage and make her aware of recent events." the voice in Ilreg's head said in a very soothing tone.

"Yes my mistress..." Ilreg said, falling silently into slumber. "Jiishita, you will come to find I am the furthest thing from spoiled, and then I will take you life..."

[This post leads up to Unbridled Rage in Joukai for Ilreg]

[Takaishi Jiishita]

Jiishita waited until Ilreg was out of site, and then pulled out his gun and blasted that icy statue to pieces.

He then ran to Chikara, worried over her health. While he had meant what he said about her dying for her cause, that did not mean that he wouldn't try to salvage herself while she was still alive. He had drained a lot of his magic in the fight, and wouldn't be able to heal her--but she could rest, if he patched up her wounds and took her home.

He did not like defeat. Chikara didn't either, but her battle strategies had been reckless; she had allowed herself to be too damaged by his words to pay attention to how she had been fighting.

And what of Ilreg himself? What was he? The last time Jiishita had heard of Dragons roaming the Mortal realm was not for the purpose of destroying Humans. Chikara had had nightmares about the old man that Ilreg had killed in the Mortal shop--he hadn't deserved it at all. Ilreg said he was a Prince. Was the Dragon race rising to attack all that the Shijin had made? Or was Ilreg a lone wolf, seeking to raise an army here to aid his cause?

All of this was very troubling; Jiishita did not keep in touch with Heaven or Hell enough to know if anything was stirring up there. He would have to go himself, or when Chikara recovered, so that they could warn the realms about this encounter. Tomo would have to be the first to know.

Picking up Chikara in his own two hands and dissolving the earthy casing around her, he made sure that he treated the wounds that would make her suffer from blood loss. He couldn't fly, not his condition, and so, with a sigh, he opened up a passage in the ground for their transportation.