Traversing Twilight Territory

[Arin]

Arin took a deep breath and lifted one hand, a glowing white aura surrounding his entire forearm before he willed it to dissipate "I'll be able to keep most of them at bay, and I have some healing abilities if I shift my mana balance to light. Best case, I'll be able to form a dome around us that nothing can break into."

Celeste had been focusing up on the upper deck, using Tempest's ability to fly farther and faster than the rest of her manifests to scout the entire island while they were sailing closer "Listen up guys! I'm linked up with Tempest and I'm counting two major bodies of water! One is in the city, but the other is in the heart of the neighboring forest. What's your call, Arin?"

Arin processed this for a while, before thinking a little too hard on the options "...Aria told me she's searched everywhere but the lake of spirits. If that means she's searched the entire kingdom, then the Lake of Spirits is most likely in the forest...How long can you keep that manifest active while using other spells?" At best? Maybe twenty minutes? It's not too difficult to hold one manifest active, but if you make me use more than one, it greatly reduces the time it can stay out."

Arin crossed his arms and turned to face the others "...I have an idea how best to handle this. Lance, Luna, and Akatosh? I want to know if this sits well with you guys as well. We'll use Celeste's manifest as a focal point to reach the lake, teleport as often as possible without draining Celeste's strength. Once we reach the lake, we'll all spread out and search for anything that might be man-made and try to find secret passageways. Once we find the catacombs, we'll split up like we agreed before, so we can prepare in case we can't make it off the island before sundown. The knowledge we can gather from the tomes in this place might help us figure out exactly what's going on around here, and what it might take to resolve it. Does that sound good to you guys?"

Scarlet had her eyes closed while she listened to Arin's plan, it seemed pretty straightforward and logical enough to work "Focusing our entire group toward reaching the main goal, and then branching out to prepare for any setbacks...Sounds like it should work, and there's enough power between us all that we'll have zero casualties if we spread the power between us all." "Better to have the brains helping find secret passageways instead of the brawn, I'm game!"

[Lance]

Lance nodded in agreement with Arin's plan. "That's a good plan, and Celeste, once we're inside, have Tempest be our eye in the sky. If any critters, bandits or those fucking shadow beasts show up, we'll need to know where they're coming from so they don't box us in."

[Tetsuya]

Luna had a thought as the plan was laid out as the ship began sailing towards the island once more, the sailors having finished preparations to sail again. "What if we're attacked on the way to the lake? If the entrance is protected, we're not only going to see whatever that shadow beast was, but more than likely physical manifestations of spectres along the way. We might be interrupted to prevent us from teleporting again."

[Arin]

Arin thought about Luna's words, rubbing his chin. Then, he remembered something "We're sailing closer to the island. Which means we're within danger zone levels of those shadows attacking now. If they were going to attack, then they would have attacked by now, the creature -whatever it was- has already seen us."

Scarlet took a deep breath and crossed her arms "It would be best if we simply stayed on guard until we knew exactly what we're dealing with...So far we're only dealing with rumors about this phenomenon, we still don't know its source, so we cannot assume we know what will happen when we touch ground..." "she's right. What if this isn't a person or creature doing this...What if it's actually environmental?"

[Lance]

Lance crossed his fingers, "Well, if it's linked to the kingdom, maybe the heir can control it once we get that relic. Maybe it's a guardian of sorts, keeping people from finding the Catacombs and swiping the relic, ya know?"

[Tetsuya]

"Arin, you know as well as I do that I have more experience dealing with ambushes. We are literally going to be walking into terrain with hostiles that know it better than we. We need to formulate a solid plan for dealing with that sort of thing," Luna argued.

[Arin]

Arin pinched the bridge of his nose as Luna argued about him about still needing a defense strategy. As much as he could feel that the shadow creature danger wasn't present, she still had a valid point about them entering foreign territory "I know...Alright, I'm open for suggestions here. I know the main objective, does anyone have a plan for staying safe until we can depart again?"

[Tetsuya]

Dune looked ready to say something, but was promptly quieted by Winter smacking the back of his head. He glared at the ice wizard for the sudden smack, to which Winter replied, "You were going to suggest we go all out, and smash the faces of whoever attacked us on our trip. That's not clever, that's stupid." "Oh come on, their going to be made of either shadows or flesh and bone! It makes perfect sense to hit them fire or light elements! Both can disperse shadows since fire gives off light!"

[Arin]

Arin rolled his eyes when Dune was going to suggest going all out, someone that hard-headed would suggest something like that "Okay...But going back to what Celeste mentioned before, what if the creatures aren't spawned from intelligent life? If these creatures are being spawned from the environment itself, it could be safe to assume that they'll never stop coming. We need a way to fortify ourselves until sunrise, if we get stuck on the island. Shadow wards, protective barriers for groups, anything?! We can't just rely on Celeste's manifest, and my light magic for protection here!"

Suddenly, a large gust of wind could be felt overhead, as a familiarly massive black creature flapped its wings and gave the ship a sudden burst of speed towards the shoreline. Despite the shadowy wisps coming from the main body, it was clear that the creature was reptilian in nature. Arin caught a glimpse of the beast and his eyes were wide with shock "Akatosh...You've said once that dragons are typically wielders of fire or ice...Is it possible that they can be born with different elements?"

[Lance]

Akatosh noticed the creature's reptilian appearance as well, his eyes widening as he thought about Arin's question. "...Such a thing is...not unheard of. But I have not personally seen a dragon of darkness or light, no. I've seen earth, wind, fire and ice."

Lance smiled, "Cool, maybe you could talk to him or her and ask if he or she will help!" Akatosh shook his head, "No, that...would not be wise, some dragons take umbrage with the very idea of a Dragonborn. A mortal wielding their power is sen as a perversion of the natural order. If this were such a dragon, it would doubtlessly try to obliterate this ship as a matter of species' pride."

[Tetsuya]

Luna and Dune took a ready stance in case the massive creature came back to attack them, only for Dune to get a good sniff, and discover the scent was indeed that of a dragon. "Heh, I'm looking forward to clobbering that dragon," he spoke, a devilish smirk appearing on his face, "I hope I get a chance to fight him."

"...I'd feel unease if didn't know you better." Luna commented on Dune's current behavior.

[Arin]

Arin watched the dragon as it continued to fly toward the island, suddenly gliding in a circle and descending before vanishing into the scenery. Akatosh's words stuck with him, and he thought of every possible scenario that could happen, both good and bad "...Our best option would be to tread carefully, and keep watch over anything suspicious. Loud noises, dense mana signatures, anything!"

In his mind, he started to wonder what this dragon's deal was *Strange...Aria told me that dragons are often territorial of their homes, yet It flies over us twice, assuming last night was that dragon as well...And it doesn't even try to attack to us for being near its den...Is this dragon like Alduin, or is it a hostile?* He sighed, trying not to overthink things "...In any case, its little fly-by was at just the right angle to propel us faster towards shore. With any luck, it shaved a good half hour off of our journey."

========Later========

Whether or not the gust of wind was helpful was a moot point to the group, as the ship weighed anchor in the deep part of shore. The group was given a harsh warning, if they weren't back an hour before sundown, the ship would turn around and head back to a safe distance from the island, and would check back daily for two days for signs of their safe return, before returning back to the fire kingdom's harbor.

With that warning in mind, the group took a pair of dinghies and sailed to shore, thanks to Lance and Celeste's wind magic to speed things along. Once on shore, the boats were quickly anchored to shore, and the group finally set out for their journey. Celeste had Tempest overhead, guiding them as quickly as they could to the lake of spirits, but it wasn't without its dangers.

Dune almost fell into a pit made by drow long ago, when they still traveled beneath ground in this kingdom, Arin and Winter were both bowled over by a rampart minotaur, that was easily dispatched by a disappointed Scarlet, and Lance found himself ensnared by the web of an Arachne, who seemed quite smitten with the rebellious, and fiery tempered soldier. A swift fireball later and Lance was freed, and the group quickly teleported to speed things along, as well as to avoid an irate spider-woman beast.

Things were finally seeming to calm down, and they were starting to joke about their encounters during their journey, and the amusing moments that followed. "...I still can't believe you two couldn't handle a rampaging minotaur...For a future king and a member of our mage guild, you two need more training." Arin rolled his eyes and pocketed his hands, not really taking Scarlet's scolding too well "Says the woman with superhuman strength and abilities. The beast just came barreling at all of us, we didn't have time for quick defenses..."

[Lance]

Lance, for his part, wasn't too perturbed by the Arachne snaring him. "She didn't seem too menacing...maybe we could've used her help. After all, she lives around here, she'd be a good source of info." Akatosh shook his head. "Arachne are rather...possessive. If she were to join us, she'd be more worried about securing you as her mate than helping us." At that, Lance frowned. "Sera was a lamia, just as possessive if what I've read on the way here is true. Don't judge people by appearances, after all...we thought you were an old man Mr. Dovakin."

[Tetsuya]

"I'm just glad it wasn't me she targeted," Luna muttered under her breath. It was impossible to see the bare shiver across her skin. Instead of focusing on unpleasant thoughts, Luna marched up next to Scarlet since the woman was proving quite the capable protector so far. "I hope this lake isn't too much further. We've had too many close calls that I'm uncomfortable with."

Dune had been taking everything in stride, despite almost falling into a pit with who knew what was at the bottom of it, there was a huge smile on his face. "Exploration wouldn't be much fun if there aren't any traps, or a fearsome creature looking for a snack blocking the way. I'd actually like to fight that dragon we saw though. He looked like he could be a good fight," he said a little too loudly. "Sometimes I think you have a death wish, Dune. Why would even go looking for a fight with a dragon?" Winter asked. "Duh, to test my strength. I may have magic meant to slay dragons, but that doesn't mean I can do anything meaningful to one. I've never fought a dragon before, and I don't know if I'm up to the task if one attacks the Fire Kingdom." While Winter wanted to denounce such a thing would ever happen, he couldn't really shoot down the shaky logic Dune had given him. "...I still think you have a death wish."

[Arin]

Arin smirked at Dune's confidence, but had other thoughts in mind "Let's not jump to conclusions, okay? What if it's a friendly dragon? I mean, it passed over us twice, and didn't attack once to sink our ship...our only way of surviving...Maybe it doesn't mean harm?" Celeste shuddered at the mention of the dragon, still rattled by it, and the giant dragon that appeared over the fire castle over a week ago "...Or it could be luring us into a false sense of security, have you thought about that?! Dragons terrify me, and I could do without encountering one without an army behind me, thank you..." Arin rolled his eyes, trying not to dismiss Celeste's paranoia, but she had some strong points behind her fear, Akatosh did say some of them were hostile, after all.

Scarlet overheard Lance trying to counter Akatosh's argument that Arachne were possessive, using Sera as a reason for debate "Akatosh is correct, Lance. Arachne, unlike their more civilized cousins, the Jurogumo, are instinct driven, purely living like their arachnid counterparts. They rarely communicate with others, and focus solely on satisfying their basic needs for survival. It's exceedingly rare to find one outside of its web, if only to hunt when their snares are ineffective."

When Luna expressed her concern for the amount of close calls that they've had so far, Scarlet looked up to judge the distance that Tempest was hovering overhead. "...this should be far enough. Celeste, open up another gateway. It's another two miles in that direction." She pointed towards the direction they were heading, and Celeste took a slow, deep breath "...alright, but I'm gonna need some rest after this one..." Thrusting her hand forward, a window opened up, showing a clear blue lake, surrounded by many tall trees and a couple of waterfalls cascading into the large body of water "Single file, I can only transport one at a time before straining!"

Once everyone was through the gate, Celeste followed through and closed the gateway, walking over to a tree and leaning against it "Okay...I'm gonna sit here and get some rest...It's been four hours so far, and I'm exhausted from using my gateways..." Tempest dispelled up in the air, leaving the group without any eyes in the skies, but Celeste was already napping, her brows furrowing at odd sounds in the area.

Arin, upon setting foot in the lake's shoreline felt his head starting to hurt, a multitude of voices echoing in his mind. Men, women, children, elderly, they were all a myriad of unintelligible words of peaceful times and depressed times, all wrapped into one chorus. He grimaced and clutched his head, the voices starting to cause a migraine. Scarlet, noticing this, walked over and checked on his well-being "Arin, what ails you?"

Arin groaned and scrunched his eyes shut, both hands clutching his head in pain "...Voices...So many voices...Can't you feel them?" Scarlet scanned the area, sword drawn, but noticed that there wasn't anything out of the ordinary "...there's nothing here but the lake..."

"...That's not necessarily true..."

Out of the shadows of the trees, a strange figure appeared. A skeleton of a man, with an oddly disfigured skull, and lacking any real skeletal features that would resembled an actual skull. The odd creature was clad in what appeared to be a cloak made of shadow mass, with bony hands that had hollow circles bored out of the center. The entity was leaning on a slender cane, and its cloak was moving around, as if alive.

Ironically enough, Celeste was resting near the trees that this odd being manifested in. When she heard its disturbingly grated male voice, she opened her eyes and shakily turned to see the creature, letting out a scream of fear and rushing over to the others, hiding behind Dune "Wh-Wh-What is that?!?!"

The creature showed no reaction to Celeste's fear, having grown used to mortals reacting to his presence in such a way "...I go by many names...But one I am most known by would be...Death..."