The Spirit World

OOC: Long post

Aeron had caught Trixis' glance at the ground. It was the ground below him that she was targetting. He'd never tried this before, but he too focused on the ground and a barrier materialised beneath his feet. He could forget what he said about conserving his energy; he could tell that he'd need it for this fight.

He prepared to strengthen the barrier, to make sure that he'd stay safe, but halted. He was suddenly unconfident that the barrier would work. Trixis would probably just pierce through it and win anyway. It would be better to just surrender than to be badly defeated by her, he thought.

He un-summoned the shield below him and focused only on her eyes, which only further decreased his confidence. His guard was down and he was almost completely open to attack, and he held both hands up as if he was surrendering.
"Trixis, I think it's obvious who's going to win this fight in the end. I surren..." No, he thought. What was he doing? He wasn't going to surrender to her!

"Screw that." was all he said, his willpower becoming his own again as he re-summoned the barrier below him. Then an idea hit him. If it was the ground that Trixis wanted him to be on, then he'd stay above ground. He jumped about a foot into the air and summoned a barrier below his feet, keeping him in the air; and just in time, as the ground raptured below him. Now he'd attack her, but he couldn't just use lightning again; she'd expect that and probably dodge that.
His eyes darted around, searching the room for something he could attack with.

A statue stood eerily close to him. Its hand was raised as if poised to attack, and he was certain it hadn't been there a minute ago. Eckart would have told them if the statues moved of their own accord, he was sure. Meaning that the one controlling the statue was Trixis! He coated his fist with ice and hit the statue, shattering its raised arm, but freezing the rest of it in place.

His hand still on the statue's back, he thrusted the stone sculpture towards her. It hurtled through the air, and as it neared her, he shot a sphere of lightning through its back. Shards of ice exploded near Trixis and the lightning hit the wall behind her, causing stone to join the ice.

Two shards of ice soared towards him as well. He jumped onto the shield below him again, extremely close to the rapture, narrowly avoiding the ice.

Dust rose from the spot where the statue had exploded. Aeron waited to see if Trixis had dodged them or been knocked down, or knocked out, by them.

 

"I know she isn't weak," Zac said as he decided to pull out his Bible to Ephesians and quoted from it, "Breastplate of Righteousness, Belt of Truth, Shield of Faith, Sword of the Spirit," and then a shining, golden breastplate with crimson trimming and a crimson cross on the front, was materialized on his chest. Around his waist, brown leather went through the belt loops of his blue jeans and then a golden buckle formed with a Red Cross on it, and a golden sword sheathe on the right side, and his sword formed in it, and his shield formed on his back.

"Whoa that's awesome!"

 

The corner of Trixis' mouth twitched into a slight smile and as the stone and ice made her way, she enveloped herself into it. She was soon out of sight and all you saw was the commotion of the mixed stone and ice.

Trixis would admit, Aeron was a bit difficult to defeat, although she would never admit to his face. He was strong in some ways, but Trixis had a few tricks of her own. Even if she wasn't physically strong she could be mentally strong, and really, that was all she needed.

When to icy stoned commotion slowly calmed, Trixis was no where to be seen, no footsteps above the ash, not a trace as to where she could be. It was silent and from a hidden distance, Trixis sent images to Aerons head. Images of her being underneath the ash, practically dead. Telling him it was all of his fault and there was no chance of her surviving. Now, if only he has a strong concience. Trixis thought as she hid deeper into the shadows, quietly, as to make sure he didn't find out where she was.

In between the cracks of the cracked stone, Trixis managed to uproot a sturdy root from a tree, not clearly noticeable to Aeron if he was oblivious to his surroundings, which he should be if the images went into his head clearly and he did have a strong concience, he would trip over the root and into the stone pile, thus, Trixis would be able to make her move and manage to defeat him, without entirely killing, to say the least.

 

"Enough!" Eckart stated loud and firm, putting a hand out and stepping forward. "Trixis, please reveal yourself. This duel is over." Eckart paused and turned to Aeron. "You both performed beyond my expectations. Good work, both of you." Eckart was sincere when he said this; he was genuinely impressed by his companions. "I'm sorry to stop the duel early, but I don't want you killing each other. The battle was getting heated and... accidents happen..." Eckart chuckled. "That's all the training for today."

Then, Eckart had a thought. What if the Exorcists came after them? He couldn't sense any auras, but it would certainly catch them by surprise. If the Exorcists were good strategists, the chance of a quick counter-attack was actually quite high. Eckart grew a bit apprehensive, feeling like danger might be closer than he expected.

"On second thought, let's continue with the training, but with a less physical aspect," Eckart instructed. "We will perform a group meditation in order to center ourselves and rejuvenate. We will also use our collective auras to keep an eye out for the Exorcists. Take five if you need to, then meet me in the main room."

Eckart quickly left the courtyard without another word. He re-entered the temple and took some winding corridors until he ended up in a storage room, wherein he grabbed a bag of blood and a sack of skulls. When Eckart entered the main room, he went to work drawing three more magic circles, identical to his own. This pattern specifically was designed to bolster the dark energy of a spirit who meditated on it. He then surrounded the circles with a ring of skulls, the final touch that activated the latent magics. Eckart then sat in his own circle and began to meditate.

 

Zac looked at Dawn and blushed, she was just, beautiful. But he was human, she was an angel...besides Shuraito would possibly slay him! He imediatly looked away and then headed down the stairs, "D-well? Lets get going, the rogues could be planning something evil at this moment,"

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She looked at Trixis and Aeron with interest. Trixis reminded her of a younger version of Sylvia, beautiful yet cunning. Aeron was indeed powerful in physical strength, but was his willpower strong as well? She knew Eckert was in battle but what about them? Better yet, what about the exorcists? She licked her lips at that thought and went to the meditation area.

She entered the room and saw Eckert meditating, "So... Eckert is it? I was thinking I should test the willpower of the exorcists, after a brief meditation of course, that way we can see how easy t is to weaken them and kill them,"

 

"DON'T interrupt my meditation," Eckart snapped, looking at Sylvia with deep anger in his eyes. Then he sighed, his anger dissipating. "My apologies. I should have warned you not to disturb me. Anyway, the name is Eckart, with an "a." Your idea is interesting, to say the least, but how would you locate the Exorcists in the first place? I can't pinpoint them by aura. Though, if you're able to find them, you're more than welcome to perform your experiment. I would be interested in seeing the results."

 

A malicious smile came across her face, "I have my ways Eckart, I have my ways," she said as she sat down across from the scythe wielder and crossed her legs.

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"Even with my tools I got my butt whooped by the scythe wielding dude, was that Death? Because he owned a scythe, controlled the shadows, or is it some poser or something?" Zac asked the archangel, "But either way, I need training, if I want to get better with using the Armor of God, I need to train. I think it depends on the different attributes, I have to have more in in order for them to have full power, like strong faith for the shield, the spirit for the sword, my belief in righteousness for the torso armor... But the other parts? No clue, I'll figure it out on the way I guess,"

"Also, I'm mainly scared about you than the rogue souls,"

 

Aeron took a moment to catch his breath. He'd never admit it, but if the fight had been to the death, he had no idea who would've won. A battle with Trixis was a battle of minds as well as strength, and her mind was stronger.

He left the training room and walked to the main room. He could only hope that the Exorcists would be that powerful; and they probably would be, considering that even Eckart had to flee from them. In the main room, Eckart and Sylvia sat in two of the skull circles, across from each other. Aeron took his own circle near them and crossed his legs inside of it. He closed his eyes, focusing on nothing but the circle.

---

"I suppose we're all gonna have to train. I mean, this is the first time I've ever fought any more than one Rogue Soul. There's probably a group of them now, so we can't just walk in unprepared." Kiran said. "So how should we train? Does heaven have any training dummies or anything like that?" he asked.

 

Trixis hissed under her breath and walked out of the shadowy area between two near by trees. She really wanted Aeron to surrender, to at least prove that she was stronger. Eckart must have sensed something of them possibly going too far, but what was she to do. He said to test their abilities, no? With a deep breath, Trixis walked into the building behind the others. She looked at the mess they had created, it looked as if they were trying to kill each other. Was it really a bad thing? That must mean that they both could be useful, possibly. For once in almost forever, Trixis felt like she was something. Not just an empty soul wandering aimlessly. This time, she needed to prove that she was something, and if that means she needed to risk her life practically to show that she was stronger, then by all means, that was what she was going to do. But then again, these people she was fighting along side with, not against, and she had to keep that in mind, as to not lose all trust and respect from them. At least, if there was trust and respect between them, if not, they were really good and hiding it.

 

"Alright," Eckart began quietly. "Now that we're all here, let us begin. Aeron, Trixis and Sylvia, I want you to picture your aura like a seething mass all around you. The energy ebbs and flows. You can feel its warmth on your skin. Now, picture each other persons aura. Feel the energy, see the undulating mass around them. I want you to reach out with your aura and connect yours with mine."

Eckart waited for the connection before describing the next step.

OOC: Sorry for taking so long, and that the post is short.

 

Sylvia took a deep breath and closed her eyes and felt her aura. She felt it follwing around her. She then imagined the others' auras. They were a different color from her's, her's being a dark reddish color. She thought of how she could take hold of Eckart's, maybe she could control the aura like her sleeves.
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Zac looked at the others, "So are we about to leave or something?" Zac asked, not meaning to be rude. He was getting kinda anncy and anxious to leave already. But then he remembered that they needed to train, especially if they encountered the scythe wielder.

 

Aeron inhaled, focusing on his own aura. He pictured it wrapping around him, cold against his skin. It was golden and thick. Then, he felt Sylvia's aura, dark red.

Trixis and Eckart's auras reached him as well, different colours and textures.

---

Kiran smiled slightly. At least he wasn't the only one who was getting anxious.
"Nope, we'll have to train first. We'll need to be pretty quick, though. The less time the Rogue Souls have, the better, right?"

OOC: Short post. Sorry.

 

Trixis took her turn and closed her eyes. the first thing she felt was her aura. It felt cool and silky, maybe. It was a bright red with black specks. Obviously how she got her shaded eyes. It had to be related.

Shrugging that off, she felt the other auras. They felt weird and she wasn't used to feeling anyone elses besides hers. This was something she probably had to get used to and she awkwardly shifted to shrug off her discomfort.

 

Eckart could feel all of their auras connect. The individual colors mixed into each other and formed ribbons of bright luminescence. When they were connected like this, their ability to sense other auras was multiplied four fold; they could sense the entire city from their temple.

Can you all hear me? Eckart asked telepathically. By being connected, they were also able to communicate by thought. If all of you are ready, I would like to progress to the next step. I want each of you to draw upon your power, as if you were about to make an attack. Charge your aura. Feel the waves that this creates in our combined energies. However, if you feel like the power is getting out of control, you must immediately stop charging. This is going to be an intense exercise and you could accidentally fire off an overcharged attack if you're not careful.

Eckart began to charge his own aura. He began slowly. He could feel his aura start to undulate.

 

Trixis heard a soft faint voice, it was staticy but it started to become less hazy and actually started to sound crystal clear. It was Eckart, telling them to charge their powers or something like that. Trixis pushed herself into charging her aura and in her mind she saw the black specks over come the bright red is layed on. Trixis continued to push herself and she felt a tingle in her fingers as she felt the need to distruct something. Trixis automatically stopped herself when she remembered what Eckart said, the she needed to stop if it was about to go too far. It was about to go too far and Trixis flashed her eyes open and looked around hoping no one had seen, more less sensed, her feeling the need to take things too far.

OOC - I hope this was good enough, I kind of didn't know what to post about because I didn't know what you wanted done, so I just kind of posted something that sounded as if it would have went with yours.

Also, sorry for some of my spelling errors. . . I was typing way too fast. .

 

A voice rang through Aeron's head, too hazy to understand. It became louder and clearer, and echoed through his mind. Eckart, ordering to charge their auras. Aeron focused on his own aura and expanded it, as if about to attack. There was a slight shift in one of the Rogue Souls auras, but Aeron couldn't make out whose it was. He was occupied supressing the urge to lash out and release his power, his chest tightening and his palms feeling slightly hotter.

He told himself that the aura was only a part of him. He could control it if he wanted, and he did want to. The tension in his chest eased slightly as he got used to his own energy and as it settled within him.

Trixis' and Eckart's auras charged as Aeron's did, amplifying each other. When Sylvia charged hers, the power would probably be enough to fill the room so that any normal human could see them, Aeron thought.

 

Sylvia's aura had charged as well, after hearing Eckart's voice in her head. She charged her dark red aura, as it grew, and grew, and grew. She felt wonderful with this energy, it felt good. She shivered, it was like the feel of a nice warm bed to her.

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"So should we go outside to train?" Zac asked the others. He was wanting to get going soon, and very quickly.