The acolyte stumbled out into the open, and immediately started running towards Syber. As the Acolyte ran he waved in an panicked gesture and started talking really quickly in a panicked voice when he got close enough.

"Commander! Something has gone wrong, the others are attacking, I don't know what to do, the others attacked me and I defended myself I don't-"

Suddenly the acolyte drew a Carbine and unleashed a volley of bullets in Syber's direction, continuing his babble of speech as if nothing happened.

"-know what I'm going to do now!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The old trick is quite a good one, and can catch many off guard while they wait for the speaker to complete their sentence. However Syber was already suspicious and swung his shield around, intercepting the shots from hitting home. Syber returned fire with a volley from his peacemaker, then a rapid switch to his own Carbine, another volley, and then he paused.

In an attempt to evade the successive volleys, the Acolyte brought out its sword to try and block the incoming shots. To an extent, he succeeded, as the obsidian edge deflected most of the elemental bullets. The last few slipped past and crippled the Traitor, one slicing through a knee and the other through the sword arm.

Nothing could save the Acolyte from the volley of Carbine shots. A small cry escaped the traitors lips before the salvo of Carbine bullets slammed into him, knocking him backwards onto the polished ground.

Syber reloaded his pistols and turned back to Pippin, he didn't miss the move with the cleaver, "I think I'll take you up on that offer, butterfingers, I have nothing to do with these traitors."

With the last word he gestured to the cleaver visible amongst the rubble of the pillar, all the while scanning the hallways and radar.

Pippin:
Pippin watched in half-paralysis as the mercenary unloaded two full clips on a would-be assassin. The poor traitor would have needed the pillar to have even a chance of success, and Pippin had accidentally blown his cover.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer, butterfingers, I have nothing to do with these traitors."

Pippin blushed a bit after being called "butterfingers". If there was anything that a chef didn't like to be called, it was that. But she'd have to let it slide -- she was prideful, but she wasn't an idiot. Anyone could tell she hadn't thrown her cleaver on purpose. Resolving herself to accept the nickname that one time without lashing out, Pippin made her way over to the cracked pillar and pulled the cleaver out what must have been several kg of rubble with as she activated her Grip-mods properly to allow full use of her arm-strength without worrying about the slick surface of the ground beneath her.

"It's "Pippin" or "Pip", not "butterfingers". Also..." Pippin looked over to the knight clad in Apocrean Armor as she shifted her cleaver onto her shoulder; with her other hand, she pointed right at the Mercenary.

"Accidental or not, my "butterfingers" just saved you (and possibly me) a couple of sword-wounds." After bringing back her hand to her hip, and looking back and forth between the walls of the hallways, she added an afterthought; in consideration for the fact that the gunman had handled himself much better than she had expected.

"Well... That's if the assassin got close enough... Anyways, where shall we go, Apoc-merc?"

Creos was annoyed. Scorpio had proven slightly more powerful than he thought. He would have to regenerate the leg another time. Oh well, at least he got a Snarbolax soul in return. Creos opened his face, just to feel an annoying jab right next to where his eyes would have been. Ouch. Oh well. The Snarbolax is gone, in its place is a deep purple Snarbolax.

Sorry for the delay! I know how important these next couple of parts will be, so I've been thinking of how to make the best out of the situation... While I don't think that I'll ever be able to achieve absolute perfection, I'll try my best!

===

Pippin:

Pippin gazed at the map with a bit of wonder as it showed the locations of possible encounters and their escape route.

"Ohhh... So you guys had something like that installed, huh. I figured an Apocrean Castle would have its subjects and hired hands just carry around some sort of Obsidian map or something..."

After the man closed the map and told her his name, she walked briskly behind him -- this was one of the moments where she wished she had longer legs.

"So. How long 'till we get out, do you think?"

===

Strom on the Outside:

After Gwen had disappeared into dust in his hands, Strom was aghast. For a moment, he simply stared into the space she had been.

Where had she gone? Had she died? Was that the level of his corruption? Had he destroyed the only spark of hope remaining for his consciousness, which now ached in the back of his head more than if it had been singed with a flame? His eyes once again broke through the surface of the void black smoke filling his helm, assisting him in his search of the dust which remained in front of him.

But after a moment, he felt... Something. As if she was nearby. Quickly, Strom glanced to the sides of the room, desperately looking for her... And then, his body seized up against his will once again, and his eyes retreated into the darkness.

~~~

Strom on the Inside:

Darkness.

Within Strom's mind there was hardly any light to be seen. What had once been a cornucopia of dreams and light was now a dark, gloomy, and dead place. It was as if a sudden plague had swept across the land and struck everything in the land -- dead or living. The dirt was cracked, the trees, dead, and what must have been houses conjured by the mind, or perhaps a memory of the past, were broken with shards floating within the air. Unable to fall. Too delicate to fall. Too delicate to move. Despite their loss of movement, however, they showed no life.

Gwen had appeared on a platform within this darkness, this nightmare. The only illumination to be found was in the distance... A pillar of light. Small but visible, and casting enough light to still embrace the dead stones which lay under her feet.Part of the light, however... Was not the same white as the light pouring forward.

Just a speck in the distance, dwarfed by the light but still visible, was a small dot of deep magenta. For a moment, it was just as motionless as the rest of the grounds... But the next, it turned, and its presence, like a wall of cold, flowing steel spikes forced itself forward. Then, a booming voice disturbed the motionless buildings, and shook them from within.

"ȿØ ɏØư FøƯnĐ ɏØưɌ wȺɏ Ɨn..."
"sO yOu FoUnD yOuR wAy In..."

The pressure slowly diminished until silence fell over the world within Strom once again. The only proof that anything had happened lay within the ground, which had several more cracks about it than before. With no intention of approaching Gwen, the pink dot in the distance moved slightly, far more interested in the light than the Core Spirit itself.

===

Min:

Min watched as the whole situation took place. It wasn't the first time it'd seen someone get turned into dust... But it didn't make the situation any less odd, if not disturbing. Still, it had no intention of revealing itself to the being which could have been the cause of said dust-ification in the first place. Instead, it simply honed its senses.

The Core Spirit wasn't gone... Her essence was still around. For a moment, Min considered the possibility of her binding her mind to the corrupted knight... But such a thing would be extremely taxing.

The woman probably would have done it despite this... But Min couldn't help but worry for her state within, if she did.

Or it was just over-thinking it and the Core Spirit had simply destroyed its vessel to move in elsewhere.

===

@Thinslayer
The surroundings can be anything you'd expect from someone born during the time Vanaduke became corrupted. Time within the realm works differently, so despite the long distance to the pillar, Gwen can reach it in minutes if she tries. It could also take a dreadfully long time to get there... Your choice.
I've also sent you a PM in-game.

"Somewhere around half an hour to an hour, depending on how much trouble we get from the Acolytes." Syber replied,

The fact that they hadn't attacked immediately worried Syber, they were planning something. He tried to think of the unorthodox weapons they might be up against. Sheogorath wielded a large obsidian edge, one of the others he remembered carried a minigun-esque weapon. There was also something else.

Movement caught Syber's eye, and he whirled to see three Acolytes aiming what looked like a missile launchers at them. If they looked the other way, they'd see two more acolytes appear, with heavy looking shields. Ready to cut off the two while they get devastated by rockets.

"I'll take care of the rockets, Pippin, you clear the shieldmen! Watch out for backup."

As soon as he finished the sentence, he whipped out his peacemaker and fired a volley towards the rocket launchers, detonating the incoming rockets in mid-flight, not close enough to anyone to do any damage. Syber abandoned the idea of using his shield to block a rocket, and slung it on his back. With pistols in both hands, he approached the rocketeers, aiming to stop the rockets before they did some serious damage.

((Shieldmen have obsidian shields, powerful, but a well placed cleaver swing can crack one, but it would leave the user open to attacks front the sides. Behind the shieldmen, three acolytes with standard obsidian edges wait to jump out at anyone who wants to get close.))

Jisston woke up, startled. How long had he been sleeping for? The blue mist that surrounded him confirmed his suspicions, quickly and clumsily, he lept far back away from the advancing mist, it's tendrils pulling everything around them into an eternal sleep.

(oh god, i left this RP way back... im sorry. i wanna rejoin, but holy shit it got so far ahead i kinda cant at this point)

As Armerio's shots flew towards Lyn's? eyes. Something strange happened. Lyn seemingly dissapeared, body and all. Dodging Armerio's slash. She appeared behind armerio and stomped her foot, seemingly unnafected by what was happening in the atmosphere around her. The strange red substance from Vengeance was creating air to keep it's host alie. As it is not corporeal, the pressure increase doesn't stop it. As Lyn? goes to slam her giant foot into the ground aimed for the Deadnaughts and Hoping to crack the source. She begins to swing downwards towards Armerio, screaming out a war cry.

Your move Ares... I'm back