Swish swish.
Flap and crackle.
The turning of crinkly paper in a bound book. The flap of each page echoing around a vast room stacked to the brim with shelves and books; though many a book were scattered across the floor or piled right up. Dust clung to everything, cobwebs dancing in the breeze with the spiders wrapping their silk around the flies. Old tables, old shelves, old dirty covers, a library well and truly left to rot for years on end.
A few lamps lit aflame sat around on windowsills and on the tables cleared of books, and around the room walked the duo and several others of both town and guardsmen. Elise moved from one aisle with a book cradled in hand, looking down upon its text with a finger surfing along each word. She scrolled, whilst around her three towns people dressed in stitched up ragged clothes hobbled around pouring through the books.
Two guards scrolled through the books on the shelves, while another set with their captain moved about the piles. Several aisles down the mayor moved with the magistrate’s assistant, a few others collected with them. Dante leaned against the wall a short bit behind them, a window to his right, his expression that of a dullard that was sleep deprived. A yawn slipped him as Elise stepped into the main aisle, again flipping pages.
“So waz it that you’re lookin for again darlin? Gotta say, for as much as I dislike Hell I think I’d prefer it to this place,” he blabbed out aloud, catching a few glances of some of the townsfolk as he did so.
“This is a library Dante. You should be a little more considerate,” Elise spoke back calmly as she began scrolling another page, “One of these journals that have been left behind might hold the clue to these immortal cultists. It’s worth looking over.”
“Right but like, ain’t it just a little more practical to go find ‘em and beat them into the ground? Immortal or not it ain’t like they’re invulnerable… right? No one said they’re that right?”
Elise flipped another page, scanning the next that she turned to- and then again flipping to the next, eyes darting across, “{If even one of these were to have info on what we’re up against proper, it would even the odds more than charging right in blindly hoping to learn. But so far no luck. I wonder if-}”
“Well well, look at you being oh so book smart. Have you learned nothing young one?” a voice questioned with an echo that came from nowhere.
Her eyes shifted up briefly. Sat before her atop the table was a lone figure, dressed in half-black and half-white clothes, his hair in spiky strands with a reddish orange coloration. The figure, certainly older, drew a smug grin. No one else in the room stirred, continuing at their own pace despite the sudden appearance.
“Jeez, you again? What is it now, Sephiroth,” Elise murmured before looking back down at the book in her arms.
“Nice to see you too Bakuuva, I’m really feeling the love you brat,” the figure growled, looking to the right as someone backed into the table.
The table shook and the individual swiftly spun round and continued to walk, “Yeah well, I’m busy here. So why don’t you go ahead and take a hike?”
“Heh heh heh, ah come on now. Is that any way to talk to an old friend?”
“You’re not my friend,” she grumbled.
“Oi Elise, you talking to yourself over there? What happened to respecting a library?” came a shout from Dante.
“Yeah just trying to think aloud, sorry-”
Sephiroth chuckled visibly, the snicker heard echoing around the room though not a single individual raised their heads in response.
“Look I don’t need this right now. Come back and bother me later,” she muttered.
“Heh, fine fine. I only wanted to see how you were doing my dear, and you seem so truly lost in thought. Ah but here’s a thought for you-”
“If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.”
“Heh… what if that old Vampire from Galahan knows something that you don’t? Wouldn’t it be convenient to see if one Vampire knows about another or supernatural knowing the supernatural? After all, it wouldn’t be the first time you missed something from shrugging someone off~”
“Wait what?!” she spat looking dead ahead.
Her focus broke. Before her was only the table, the man sat upon it now gone completely without a trace. Her head shifted left and then to the right, a few heads turned looking at her. A pause, a brief one before the book slammed shut and was placed upon the table.
“Dante, ready up. We’re going to go find Fen Rao,” she called out, beginning to walk down the main aisle.
“That Old Vampire Guy? Why would we-”
“Call it a hunch from an unwelcoming voice in my head,” she spoke, interrupting, breezing right by her companion, “Everyone else should keep researching until you find something we can use!”
“Hey wait up!”
Dante shot right after her as she sped from the room, the doors rattling open as she pressed against them.
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“Blake, what exactly IS the plan here? Are you expecting to waltz right into the enemy stronghold and take them all out?” came the call of Roxanne.
The group moved at a casual pace down an old overrun trail, a few of the townsfolk with them and a few of the guards. A couple of horses were within their ranks just the same as they pressed ahead, relatively quiet with handlers around them. Guards were armed and ready, crossbows and melee weapons primed.
“I’m not expecting anything,” came the male’s reply, “I wish only to see what we are up against. Immortal cultists, a rather obscure thing wouldn’t you say?”
The clocking of the hooves upon the ground and rock. The shuffling of metal and fabrics from pouches. The shimmer of light from up above without any indication as to its source due to the dense cover of tree tops.
“So we’re walking in and hoping to find out what we’re up against? Doesn’t seem very thought out,” came the voice of a young girl, certainly young.
“What other choice have we? It will be fine Andi. We get in, scope it out, take care of whatever if we need to- and then get back and prepare for the full assault.”
Branches crackled beneath them as they shuffled along through the forest, critters skiddling off and away from the group. They moved through the crush, following what was laid before them. The canopy above moved along with them and stretched on eternal. Passing beneath another intersection of changing branches, a shimmering dark above, shifting ever so slightly.
They continued on, Roxanne not saying a word even as she glanced over towards Blake, “I know,” the male spoke.
Hands upon his twin guns, daggers appearing from Roxanne’s sleeves, Andi glancing up. Three masses of black, three sets of glowing red eyes staring right back at the trio.
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The branches creaked as weight came down upon them, many many meters off of the ground. Step and crunch, the whoosh of air as two figures soared through the tree line under the cover of darkness. The dome of color once present completely obscured with only the slightest of illumination lighting up the blue-dyed trees and grass. Birds squawked away, startled by each step taken and the vibration caused.
Dante trailed slightly behind Elise, only slightly. His stomp echoed each time he hopped from tree to tree, clearing at least twenty meters with each launch of himself. Elise held her own pace at about the same; though with far less of a thump. Her look was obscured with a flapping hood once again over her face, aside from that serious frown of hers. All the while Dante continued on as normal, if not a bit mixed from a good shake.
Bit by bit Dante was moving up closer and closer, some minutes in finally being on her tail. His tired expression stared at the back of her head as they hopped along. A low grunt escaped him as his bland expression synced with his dead brain, not a thought rendering out as he looked back ahead, bouncing a little harder to match pace yet again.
“So what’re we even lookin’ for ‘ere? You wanna capture Rao?”
“Rao and the other two might know exactly what we are dealing with. Tracking them down could be important.”
“Aoright but what if we don’t find ‘em, ever consider that?”
“If this is an Eternal Hollow they can’t leave. Besides they won’t abandon their prey, they want that last convoy. If anything they’re around here somewhere preparing more of those mud things to get through the town’s barrier.”
“Mmph, right. Hm? Hold on a minute-”
Dante slammed down atop a branch near the main trunk, Elise dropping down at the next just ahead. As she turned back round to look at him, he placed his right hand upon the tree and cast his gaze to the left.
“Dante, what is… it?”
“Is that what I think it is over there?”
“What do you… ??? There’s no way- is that?”
“Dunno but lets have a look at ‘et.”
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Both hunters approached on foot, stopping meters away from the fallen vessel. Cracked and splintered, not a sail to be seen nor a mast, instead the fabric of a massive balloon itself. No growth aside from moss on the sides near the ground. A ship relatively the size of a three story barn, smashed dividing the front and the back.
“This isn’t an Altivolus, is it? No- nothing like what the Tribe or Association use.”
“Likely not one of ‘em but it is a flying ship. Can’t have been here for but more than a few weeks most. Custom build maybe.”
“Large enough for a decent sized crew. What do you think happened? And- where do you think the owners are now?”61Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgOTryxG3Vr
SNAP
The snap of a branch just behind both and subtle jumps following, Dante spinning around right then moving to draw his sword, “I think we’re about to find out-”
All at once there were well over a dozen figures bolting from the tree line surrounding the vessel, all rushing at the duo. They were humans, armed with rifles and sabers, all quickly moving in.
“You are surrounded. Put your weapons down and put your hands up!” came a bold, deep shout.
Both Elise and Dante stood shoulder to shoulder angled, Dante with his sword already drawn and Elise with a hand on her own weapon, both glaring out at the surrounding forces.
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