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does whatever he wants.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Atop a hill of words.
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Ahem, Double Post. Sorry, AS really didn't like the length of my post 
The ZENITH Project
~Act One, Scene One~
Spoiler for ...And the Second Part:
A green sigil insinuated itself into the ground, as a green mist floating around, hugging the ground as it spiraled around its caster.
“Miasma Lance!”
Cecile Arkham, Lt, 2nd Class, hefted the extra weapon as needles attached themselves to the fast-sprouting conglomerate of a spear, preparing to launch it at her opponent.
Or more accurately, her personal tactical combat instructor and respected senior, Ashcroft Ravenholm, who seemed to be enjoying his old job of being her sparring opponent.
And a most frustrating role play it had turned out to be. Despite being 2 ranks above him, and told she was “pretty damn young for an Lt”, she had completely failed to get so much as a graze on him; on the contrary, she had already been given much more than she was giving.
Her instructor, looking pretty youthful himself at a strapping 23 years of age, was pretty much all over his advantage, grinning like a Cheshire cat and standing in a rather casual position, teasing her in a friendly sort of way. Not that he could be underestimated, though, Cecile had learned over their time together that under that veneer of mild and lazy mannerisms lay a monster in the realm of tactical intelligence: content simply to hold her off, waiting for his moment to strike a fatal blow.
On one hand, she was ruing the fact that she had literally begged for this chance to take him on again, and that she had dared, foolishly, to entertain the mere fantasy that he would go slightly easier on her after her departure to another unit in the SI. Not to mention that she had somehow failed to notice his barely disguised glee at another opportunity to wipe the floor with her in the training centre. Again.
‘But on the other this is a good chance to prove the Investigator known as the “Wraith Serpent” wrong for once. He only needs one hit to win, as always…but I’m not going to let sempai have that chance. Not this time.’
“Hyaaah!” She threw the lance, and immediately ignited a Flash Move, blazing after her lance and gathering three basic magic projectiles around her free wrist. “We’ll see how you take this!”
“Just like anything else in life, of course.” Ashcroft smirked. “Just roll with the punches.”
Surprisingly, he did not flinch in the face of the heavily lethal spear. Instead, he raised his left hand, and simply caught the weapon in mid air as it sloughed armor off his gloves like dead skin. He let his left leg slide almost ninety degrees to negate its impact, before flicking himself over her head in a well timed jump, just when she had swung her Armed Device, Lesale at him, effectively dodging both spears simultaneously.
[Haemos Viper. Priority, Low.] She spun around, bringing Lesale along with her in a backhand swing, arming it with a watered-down Haemos Viper mid-swing, but ended up waving her blade in empty air as Ashcroft hunkered down, before swinging a single magically enforced combat boot at her torso, forcing her to perform an awkward block with her free left hand to stop herself from being pulverized by the impact of his strike and her momentum combined.
Rising to his feet once more, Ashcroft stood at ease a double-layered sigil inscribed itself into the ground, signaling his acknowledgement of the second round of their bout, which his student had initiated with her assault.
His limbs moved in unison, as one body, sliding slowly into a combat pose, all four limbs glowing eerily with purplish-grey tendrils of energy: the defining trait of his personal non-incanted spell, the Gauntlet Dream. The sigil dissipated into mere wisps as the glow waxed, and then steadied.
“I would advise you to get serious already, because at this rate, I’ll have you pinned on the ground in another 5 minutes, my little Cecile.”
‘“this’ll only take me 5 minutes” he says…damn it, he’s always so confident!’
“You haven’t changed at all, sempai…”
Ashcroft didn’t move at all, or even react to the usage of the term which would usually have his hair standing on end in annoyance. “Unlike you, naturally. I see you have, and for the worse. I see the mean tactical skill of the TSAB has been dropping in general.”
Almost imperceptibly, Ashcroft’s lips began to move in the words of a tongue unknown to Cecile.
“αρχαίο σιδηρουργείο της ιερής φλόγας, Σας, καλώ!…”
‘He’s incanting something?...That’s not common for him at all. Still-’ She snapped her own train of thought in favor of action, as Ashcroft began the next round with a side-ward strafe in mid-air.
“I’m not gonna let you do that!!!” Dashing towards him from the left, she released a pair of Miasma Needles to the right, sending the two homing darts flitting towards Ashcroft, who seemed content just to continue chanting will dodging her shots.
“γίνετε το σφυρί μου και το αμόνι μου…” raising a hand in the air as the words seemed to flow from his mouth like flowing water, Ashcroft punched both needles aside with blinding speed, pulverizing them into sparkling shards before turning around to face Cecile as she came crashing into view.
“Enshroud!” [Asphyxiate!] A sick green smog of poison blasted outwards around her. Cecile gritted her teeth, and braked on the spot, before kicking out at him with a catridge purge, sending the deadly cloud rolling towards him.
Ashcroft’s eyes widened, his first surprised look of the whole fight so far. “What’s this-”
‘If you can’t see me, you don’t know where to cast your illusions even if you can use them…’ Another pair of cartridges clanked onto the ground, spitting forth hissing exhaust as she launched a wave of Needles, bursting forth from their shooting circle like raven feathers, arcing towards him from above, just as he burst the cloud with his own purge, very much unharmed, save for a green tint to his normally hoar-frost-white blazer.
Ruffled, but not shaken yet, his voice persisted in brazen, self-assured defiance of her efforts. “Ο εσείς ουρανοί και η γη…”
Drawing two crystal blades from his twin device, he dropped to the ground, and flicked himself into mid air with a left-slant, slashing 3 needles, and kicking 2 aside, before dodging the last one with a shimmy, racing with his student for the initiative of the next engagement.
Sweat beaded down Cecile’s face as she considered the situation briefly. ‘I still haven’t prevented him from incanting, I’m simply slowing him down. For now I’m still detecting his illusions okay with Abyssal Mist with a few exceptions, but if he gets close enough to use his Nightmares rather than just Chaos or Order, then I’m in for it.’
The Investigator’s eyes narrowed, energy crackling around the blades and down his forearm, and with a swift swash from both arms, he hurled the 3 foot swords like pikes at her. [Ghost Runner.]
Cecile braced herself for the combined attack. This was often the point of time when Ashcroft would get rough, and usually knock her down in a short time. But that was in the past. “Not this time.”
Spinning Lesale in front of her person like a barrier, she parried both blades, even as she noticed a pair of Ashcrofts emerging from behind the original one, and ran at her as he arrived earlier, swinging his fist at her right fist, which was pivotal in her usage of her device.
Shifting her footing, she pierced the onrushing foe with her spear, as a magic knife materialized in his hand, and drove home into her arm even as he dissipated into nothingness. Pain lanced through her arm as crimson blood spurted from the raw, livid wound, and she jerked back on reflex, even as the rest of the foes closed in on her. Nothing was certain anymore at these close-to point blank ranges, where Ashcroft’s Nightmares could be used.
‘No, wait…that is an illusion…I’ve – not – given – up – YET!!!!’ She screamed at herself in the recesses of her mind, quelling the spark of panic in her guts, and recalling her years of training, she coolly sidestepped the second illusion and cutting him to pieces with a flick of her wrists, as needles tore through the once-corporeal phantasm. Spinning around, she formed another greenish-sigil about herself, and sprang forward, closing the distance between them in a fraction of a second, bringing her immolated spear to bear on the last Ashcroft.
[Corruption Wave.]
Ashcroft did not blanch, and instead went down on one bent knee, blocking the full blooded blow with a two-handed catch. Cecile groaned. This is gonna suck…
Shifting all of the Gauntlet Dream into his 4 limbs, he caught the pole-arm in a death grip and threw Cecile into the ground, before escaping the dust cloud of his own making, uttering the final stanza to the ominous sounding canticle. “Στα χέρια μου θα είστε ως Θεός, Λόρδος των θαυμάτων, της πυρκαγιάς και του ξίφους!”
So he finished it. Nothing she could do about it now.
[Pandemic Wave, Stack on previous.] Her whole body blazing with cankered purple and green flames, she fired 2 lines of venomous flames after her opponent, spitting the ground with ravaging, poisonous burns as it came.
Ashcroft was duly impressed by her reactions, and it showed.
“Very good, indeed. I take back my words; perhaps time away from me has raised the bar a little more than I thought-” Ashcroft ground to a halt, and seemed to become one with the back wall of the sparring room, as his Twilight Cowl rendered her spear and its pathogenic wave of toxins useless against him.
Coming out of that almost hazardously magic-hungry ethereal form as he continued his movement, he dodged a torso-level backhanded sweep with a sliding tackle, before catching the spear with his right hand, stopping it short. “-But, I can still match 2 spells of mine against 3 of yours, so you’ve got a ways to go in terms of tactical skill, and utility in using your deck of cards. After all, we aren’t playing no-trump down here...”
Cecile growled at the sardonic undertones of his comment about her infamously reckless, and in his not-very honest view tactless style, and forced both her hands into action, wresting her spear from her opponent’s grasp, before bringing it to torso level, parrying an otherwise deadly kick from him. Falling back several meters, she noted with some displeasure that they were back to square one again.
‘I’m definitely going to get more earfuls from him about reading the battle again at this rate. He probably isn’t at his limit of thought yet…’
It wasn’t altogether wrong. Despite what she had previously (and now evidently erroneously) thought to be a major improvement in her knowledge of battle tactics, Ashcroft still seemed to be reading her every move like a book, while he was a sealed book with the keys locked up inside the book: completely unreadable and unpredictable.
Now as they squared off again, she took a closer look at her former teacher. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry to start another round of the brawl, despite the fact that the sands of time were rapidly sinking around his self-given 5 minute deadline for victory. Instead, he simply seemed to be content with recharging and regulating the flow of the Gauntlet Dream, the glassy verdant glow of its energy waves playing havoc with her view of his limbs.
“Hallo, what have we here, sleeping beauty? Short attention span acting up again, I see.” Ashcroft’s voice rang out clearly behind her, sending her whole body on alert as she spun around to face the oncoming-
-nothing?
‘There’s no one…Wait-?!’ A familiar feeling of dread crept up her spine. Too little, too late though, as a thin gauntlet shot out in a nerve-strike, crippling her left forearm. She closed her eyes, and did a back flip from a standing position, feeling her pole-axe meet resistance for a moment, and then swing free with an ominous cracking sound. Opening her eyes once more, she was just in time to see Ashcroft standing just a stone’s throw away from her, supporting his smoking right gauntlet with his left, which was brutally nicked with a jagged scar, evidence of her wild, but nevertheless accurate strike.
“Well done, you minimized the damage well. Ready for another go at experimenting with your reflex speeds?”
She ignored that one.
[Black Immolation.] Lesale was suddenly wrapped in a veil of spinning black flames, the fiery tendrils licking upwards all the way to cover her entire right shoulder like burning chains, a brimstone shield. 4 cartridges, discharged in wildly rapid succession, hit the dirt. “Wanna-” She rose up into the air in mid-flight, preparing a direct assault, “-Bet on it?”
“Definitely. I suppose this will be the last round of attacks? Just as well.” He pointed to the crystal on the left of him. “Engima-”
Right in front of her eyes, his figure wavered, like a mirage, and disappeared completely into nothingness. Cecile’s eyes narrowed as she attempted to decipher the implications of the sudden maneuver. ‘Complete disappearance of body as well as magical signature…This really kicks surety to the curb. Ash has improved his own abilities a lot too.’
The floor below her suddenly gave way as Ashcroft burst out amid the shattered debris, revealing a tunnel he had dug underground. In his balled fist he held a bauble of stabilized energy, its dancing swords of light juxtaposed against the folds of what counted as his battle armor, and spinning his torso to the right, prepared for a strike at the airborne mage.
‘Impossible, I heard nothing and saw nothing. Still, no chances taken.’ She leveled Lesale in his path, preparing to shoot him at point blank. The needle round fired, sending 5 pikes of energy straight at the onrushing figure.
But for a reason beyond comprehension, Ashcroft still streamed in towards her, towards the three energy spears that would spell instant defeat for him, and-
-he dodged them with a flick of his head, the 3 shots screaming behind him.
‘No matter! This is my win!’
“Envelop!” lifting the spear in the air, she launched the spear, its deadly point aiming straight for his heart, and mentally commanded the shots back in a phalanx-esque formation to draw a bead on him; a magical pincer maneuver. There was nowhere to run now, and no ordinary barrier could block that.
She shielded her eyes against the huge explosion and the consequent blaze that consumed the area, retreating from the sheer heat of the conflagration, before dropping onto one knee, panting heavily as sweat glistened all over her, recovering gradually from the debilitating effects of the spell’s magical and physical drain.
[Phantom Ripper.]
A burst of energy blasted the flames away, revealing to a mortified Cecile the silhouette of Ashcroft, still standing, and relatively unharmed save for some burns on his coat, where the enhanced fabric had been seared away in charred shreds. He held up a smoking right glove, source of the latest spell, and also a Belkan Shield, held up against the 2 crystals that made up his device.
Within them, its edge half entrapped within those cracked but unbroken surfaces which it had pierced in its cankered fury, was Lesale. Forgetting the situation, Cecile found her mouth almost agape with shock. “You used your Devices as shields?”
Ashcroft nodded matter-of-factly.
“Indeed. It’s called victory by partial loss. I tank the hit, and by extension deprive you of your ability to use magic, and-” He snapped his fingers, and crystal blades burst forth from the still pristine facets of his twin Device, criss-crossing themselves around Lesale, rendering it unmovable. “-most critically, your main weapon.”
“GEH!!!” She got up and attempted to retrieve her weapon, but it was futile: She had used up too much energy. She crashed to the ground.
Ashcroft looked torn between a lecture and a laugh, but in the end he did neither: he sighed and shook his head. “Ah, well, hotheads will be hotheads. Still, I will have you know that I have won this round.”
“Enigma, Colossus, Delay Spell, activate.”
[Euoe.]
“And…THIS, by the way, is what the incantation earlier was for.”
‘What on earth is that-’
The earth turned into a yawning maw under her as oily black ripples seemed to metamorphose what was once the surface she was standing on into a deadly whirlpool sigils of the arcane woven into its tapestry of death, binding her with tendrils of viscous liquid, caressing her within its dark bosom.
Ashcroft’s trump card: Acheron, Chains of the Nightmare.
Victorious through strategy once again, he landed lightly in front of Cecile, and gave her his hand, amid the now dissipating, retreating extensions of his spell, a sea of binds parting before their master. Weakly, grudgingly, she took his hand, the defeated taking the magnanimous hand offered; or more accurately now, a teacher picking his student up from the ground after a lesson learnt.
“This match ends here. I’m not changing our current head-to-head combat result status, on the basis of our pre-agreed mercy rule.” Cecile rolled her eyes sardonically, already anticipating his next line. “I reckon seven to nada in my favor is already quite enough…”
“…Although…”
“Although what?” A sudden flash of thought disturbed her. ‘Don’t tell me its…’
A cheeky smile crossed his lips as he savored the other thing that as the victor of the match
“…The debrief starts now.”
‘Oh damn, I knew it-’ Cecile groaned in despair. “Not those again, you go on for ages and ages EVERY OTHER TIME…Can’t I have a break this time?!”
But Ashcroft would have none of it, and simply floated a finger in front of her face rather imperiously, with the air of a strict schoolmaster, or an angered disciplinarian. “Now, I have 3 good reasons why you should just sit down and listen up good to whatever I have to say. Firstly, you lost, so it’s my right to give you a lecture, even not considering that I was your teacher and in many ways still remain as such, since our relationship was never officially dissolved by mutual agreement or otherwise. Secondly, although I will have to concede that you have improved tremendously over our time apart, this improvement, like all improvements brings with it its own new strengths, possibilities and also errors, and all the more I should be helping you to analyze them, since your test is next week.”
He took in a deep breath after the torrent of words, and brought forth his last, and most forcefully forwarded point. “Thirdly, and lastly, I purposely limited myself to a 5 minute battle so that I would have time to do this, eat lunch and then rush off for my next appointment, which although may not happen at all, could possibly take up the rest of my damn day, not counting the time taken to complete the task itself, so this is a concession from me. You should be appreciative.”
“Any more questions?”
Cecile threw up her hands. If there was ever a time to capitulate, it was now.
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“What say you about this little bout we have on our hands?”
Acous turned to look briefly at the young lady sitting across him from the table as they watched the sparring battle with interest. The combat training in question was raging back and forth, with both parties gaining the upper hand on several occasions. The SI’s Spec Ops division was famed the TSAB over for its reputation of producing some of the finest tactical minds in the whole Bureau. Acous was among the best, and now they watching two more.
The lady nodded, indicating some sort of an approval. “So that’s Ashcroft Ravenholm? He seems to be taking the mock-up rather seriously.”
Acous laughed almost flippantly. “But of course. That girl whom he’s fighting is his prize student of 3 years, Cecile Arkham. She previously left on one of those long term assignments, and now that she’s back, she’s itching to have another go at her old battle master again.” He seemed to know them quite well, which was natural, since it was their private little joke that he had pretty much single-handedly orchestrated both their inductions into the Investigators.
“What are her chances of winning?” Reinforce, unable to control her curiosity, which had thus far proven true, popped her head over the table together with a question.
Acous shook his head with a rather resigned smile as he leaned back into his chair a little. “Not very high, I’m afraid, a careless mistake on Ash’s part notwithstanding…He’s pretty good, and he has some other trumps up his hand other than those we are currently seeing, not to mention more live combat experience. He’s only very well known inside of the SI itself, but there we call him the “Serpent”, because he’s a nightmare at close-combat.”
He paused for a moment, wearing a rather awkward look on his face.
Noticing it, Hayate made a face, imitating that of the Inspector’s. Acous chuckled knowingly, acknowledging the cajole and giving himself up rather willingly. “Oh, well…I just didn’t want to say that in addition to all that, their head-to-head win loss ratio is seven to zero. In his favour, and it’s like that because of a Mercy Rule.”
So it was a lot worse in reality…
“Sorry I asked.”
“No, it’s alright.”
“Better than you, maybe?” Rein floated over the table and onto her own personal perch made from the natural incline of her meister’s shoulder, her silver hair moving softly as she hovered in mid-air.
Acous shrugged lazily, although there was a vaguely evasive look on his face. “Perhaps, though I myself have never attempted to tango with him. I could, however, rate him as being on a similar level with the Wolkenritter in terms of close-combat skill. In terms of magic though…that’s a completely different topic, but I digress.”
Turning back to the ranking officer who had dragged him here for a chat, he drew the conversation back on topic. “The more important question is: what do you think, Hayate?”
Hayate chuckled to herself as her Unison Device, though she herself was unaware of it, stuck Acous in a spot so easily, although it was to Acous’ credit that he was able to avoid having to open what she was certain was a can of worms concerning the character in question. Avoiding the issue is always smart, after all…but I won’t let him get away with it so easily.
“Mmm…” The younger mage mused to herself as she leafed through the related documents. “Ashcroft Ravenholm, estimated age 28, birth date not known, self-given birth date 19th of August. Occupation, Special Investigations Tactical Analyst. Home planet, Seretoia…that Seretoia?” Her look was slightly more serious as she glanced up from the file at the senior Investigator.
“Well, that is true, although Ashcroft is little trouble until you get on the wrong end of him, or on the opposite end in battle.” Seretoia had always been a problem world for the TSAB, and while it had been tamer in recent days, one never knew when the more militant than healthy populace would start itching for some mayhem again. And while the file stated expressly that the person in question was of redoubtable and not doubtable character, neither of them believed that a slight inquiry would be of detriment. “And as to his home planet…”
Hayate leaned forward, indicating a piqued interest in the matter. “What does he say?”
Acous sighed, as though digging up some slightly disturbing scenes from his memory. “He was honestly quite blunt, to the point of being brutally blunt. His view of his home planet is that if they refuse to accept the fact that times have changed, they can go ahead and self-destruct if they want to.”
“That’s quite a rough of him…” Rein muttered a little loudly. “Not a very kind thing to say, is it?”
“That’s very true, even though he’s right about that, Seretoia is just being obstinate for very nonsensical reasons right now, rather than any noble cause of sorts.” Acous admitted rather freely. “That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to omit that from my introduction, because that’s one of the things that he actually has a more subjective viewpoint on. He normally keeps his two cents worth to himself, and even when he has to say something, he does keep his views more balanced to the point of being too politically correct…until his tongue starts to slip, which happens only because he feels like it, or if he’s feeling at home around you.”
So, this is one of the more hardcore characters, huh? The rest of his data seems to be in perfect order, though…
Hayate gave Acous a strange look, and closed the file with a soft snap.
It was hard to tell by now which of them had shoveled the other out of the office, and away from a hot steaming coffee to this rather dreary job of man-hunting. Both looked equally tired at having to do this at such an early time in the morning. Still, it was a good thing, at least to Hayate, that Acous had a wide range of contacts: it meant that less time was spent finding people. Like right now. When one needed to find a special man for a job, one went to the Special Investigations. Acous knew all about it, and he was the best man for the special job of finding another special person to do some extra work.
Also, Hayate was confident that Acous had committed himself fully to this job. After all, if successful, it would lead on to something that would be of interest to him.
“While this means more serious work, it means more of a challenge” was what I said, if I remember. If all goes well, we can hopefully not only secure the success of this mission, but we may also be able to…
“Is Meister occupied with something?” Rein popped herself in front of Hayate’s face, bursting her train of thought like a bubble. Behind her, Acous was casting a rather amused look at the rather distracted mage, as though taking some cryptic pleasure in watching the show in front of him. Immediately, her face flushed slightly in embarrassment at her blatant lapse in concentration, and she apologized rather sheepishly. “Sorry Acous, my bad.”
The Investigator waved his hand dismissively. “Nah, it’s nothing, go on reading. I can understand that life’s really tiring. Happens to everyone, you know.”
“Um…okay…Main talents lie in tactical analysis and tactics-oriented operations, as well as reconnaissance and espionage/counter-espionage.” She put the file down. “In short, he is an all-rounded tactical special ops mage, except for his relatively low rank. He is currently at rank B+ is he not?”
“You are right,” Acous interjected, “except on two points.”
“And what are they?”
“First and foremost, I would somehow hesitate to tag him with a “mage” label; on the contrary, the term “soldier” would suit him better. To put it in more familiar terms, he is a magic user who leans more towards the “knight” class. He fits into that mold much better in my opinion, whatever his codex says about it. Secondly, his rank is no obstacle to his job in the least. I would also like to mention that the only reason why he’s not any higher than B+ is because of his own choice, and not because his aptitude for magic is too low.”
“Hmm… I am actually quite impressed by his abilities; to say the least, he’s actually quite a genius on the field…and he uses illusions in battle, even if as a mainstay rather than a supplement. It reminds me of someone else.”
Rein grinned widely, and Acous’ eyes shone knowingly as Hayate’s eyes seem to drift a little. “Ah yes, him. There is some similarity, I suppose. Still, you seem concerned, or should I say, hesitant on a certain matter. What might that be?”
“In my mind, he’s more or less in, but do you think he will agree to this? You know him better, so-”
“Yeah, I get it.” Acous hesitated for a few moments, placing one hand on his temple, in deep thought. “I was worried about it before, but I think he’ll be alright with it. He doesn’t have any close ties with anyone save a few people, and then again knowing him those relationships won’t compromise mission-related things either. It’s only his views and some…quirks that I worry about, and with some diplomacy those can be fixed.” Although the Senior Investigator did say before that Ashcroft would understand that the mission was important enough to be non-optional, but Hayate could already gather that from what other things she had been told about him that even if he did, there was still no surety of success.
“So you’ll speak to him?” Hayate stood up, and Acous did likewise. The short discussion was over, and the real action would soon begin.
“Definitely.”
Hayate tossed her head playfully at him. “If he disagrees, you’ll just have to use that tactic on him, and see if he bites, no?”
“He’ll bite alright, though I hope it won’t come to that. Just pray that everything goes smoothly once he does, would you? He can be a very big problem even when he’s on your line.” Just as the green-haired man turned to go, Hayate stopped him for a moment. Her face wore a more cheeky look. “You hesitated earlier when you were answering Rein-chan’s question. You have had a prior experience with him before, haven’t you?”
Acous pursed his lips, but knew when he was beaten. “Well, it’s true, I have. A lot, actually…I used to mentor him when he first came in. We’ve grown a little distant recently though, he’s gotten a bit too cynical for my taste.”
Wonder why he never mentioned it.
Rein looked just a tad annoyed, but was more curious than to sound that way. “Then why didn’t you want to answer the question properly?”
“I have my own reasons for that…But if you must know, I have had a single experience of being on the wrong side of him: It was in a game of chess. And the result was that I was completely defeated by him, even though I was going quite serious on him. Anyway, I’ll go catch him once he’s done settling the aftermath of his fight, eh?”
“Alright then, thanks a lot!” And with that, the two parted ways, for the time being.
Turning to the viewing screen on the left, she noted that the battle had already ended.
Slowly clearing up the leaves of pages that made up Ashcroft Ravenholm’s profile, she reflected on his last words. They seemed of little significance, other than reinforcing what the two of them had agreed on all along. Chess…hmm? He seems all the more like the tactical buff now, doesn’t he?
Then it hit her, the truth, like a crack of thunder.
Wait a minute…
He defeated you…in…Chess?
She turned a strangely enlightened, but at the same time intrigued, and significantly widened pair of eyes to the departing Investigator’s figure.
But Acous…
You don’t play chess!
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FULL TEXT FOR INVOKE ALPHA:
Original Greek:
“O αρχαίο σιδηρουργείο της ιερής φλόγας
Σας, καλώ!
γίνετε το σφυρί μου και το αμόνι μου
Ο εσείς ουρανοί και η γη
Στα χέρια μου θα είστε ως Θεός
Λόρδος των θαυμάτων, της πυρκαγιάς και του ξίφους!”
Roughly Translated As:
“O ancient forge of the sacred flame,
Hearken to me as I call!
Become my hammer and my anvil,
O you heavens and the earth,
And in my hands you shall be as a God,
A lord of marvels, fire and sword!”
I'm gonna wait till someone else posts before posting my major(-ly delayed) backlog breaker, just to avoid a triple post.
*hangs his head for FA to smack it*
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