XELVAK THE FIRST HERALD OF NIGHT

[thewatchers]

XELVAK, THE FIRST HERALD OF NIGHT

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The Herald’s coming was marked by the solar eclipse. Tensions rose noticeably in the sweltering heat as the moon slowly but surely moved to block the sun from sight. And at its apex, the world went dark. But light never returned. And in the center opened a multitude of eyes. The Herald had come.

Claxons blared in the control room as the call for attack was made. Off-shore, a barrage of missiles erupted from the waiting fleet - cruise missiles hurtling toward their target with grim, unerring accuracy. Explosions lit the darkened sky, one after another completely covering the lone figure in a blast of shrapnel and heat.

Those with eyes that see magic, however, saw differently. Undetected by the earthly computers, barriers of green energy arose around the lich, with each missile exploding harmlessly upon it. With nary a crack, the Herald tilted his head in faint amusement.

“Target is still standing!”

“Launch the second wave!”

The sound of engines blasted as aircraft scrambled from the airstrip and the waiting carrier. Streaking through the sky, their jets leaving faint trails of fire amidst the darkness, they flew in tight formation before breaking apart and encircling the target, launching a salvo of missiles from all directions before moving to reform and break away. On the ground, a battery of tanks poured forth from the base, launching heavy rounds at the lich while artillery sang a deadly song, the crackle of explosions obliterating all sound as they overtook the lich.

“Damn thing’s gonna waste a lot of ammunition,” one of the generals muttered. “But looks like you boys and girls can just go back to your school and leave the fighting to the big kids.”

Almost before he could finish his sentence, however, a voice echoed through the minds of every person assembled.

How quaint.

It was an overpowering sound that cut through even the sound of explosions. And in their wake, the lich was still untouched.

And then came the screaming.

Screams of horror, screams of agony, screams of death, before, finally, guttural screams of undeath. Rage. Bloodlust. To those with magical sight, the world seemed to come alive with a fetid green mist. All around them, tanks and planes began to stop, some crashing. But in another instant, those that remained moved again, firing on each other with reckless abandon. And over all of the comms, the sound of cackling, maddened laughter wrenched from a throat that was once human but now was not echoed throughout.

The generals grew pale, silent. Some sunk to their knees in horror. But, like points in the darkness, a few voices remained.

“This is Echo-5! All units seem hostile! Requesting extraction!”

“This is Bravo-7! It’s a madhouse down here! Disengaging!”

Daybreak’s presence did not necessarily change what was to come. But it did, to an extent, mitigate it. For in having brought their runecraft to the base, they caught the eye of several soldiers. Some curious, some thinking it couldn’t hurt, and some, perhaps, even true believers. Whatever the reason, they accepted Daybreak’s support. And for that reason, they seemed spared from the mists of undeath conjured forth by the lich. And as they fled, some, at least, whispered a faint prayer of thanks to the students and faculty who had given them the most precious gift of all - the gift of life, and of living.

As the generals conversed in horror, another voice cut through the screams.

“This is Jules Flammel, Flame Commander. Daybreak forces, deploy at once and complete your mission.”

The sound of jets blasted through the air as Runewings took flight. Aboard them, the forces of Daybreak, students, faculty, alumni, and affiliates, all with one mission - to stop the lich where he stood.

“Your radiance shall protect you. Go forth, brave Candles, and become the raging inferno to purify this land! Cut through his defenses and rend his body apart!”

Foolishness.

The Lich raised his arms. The shattered, twisted scrap and mangled corpses of the combined military forces began to shudder, and tremble, before rushing forward to meet the Runewings - a mass of twisted flesh, bone and metal like a wave of death crashing upon the shore. The Runewings broke apart as the wave spread to chase them.

“You are free to deploy!”

And with that, the bays opened and the forces of Daybreak emerged in freefall, descending upon the lich and his twisted wave with naught but their weapons, their powers, and, perhaps a featherfall necklace for those students that needed it. The battle against the first Herald had begun.

And, from within the Outland, a calm voice spoke to those assembled.

“It is time.”

The forces of Daybreak who had been held in reserve turned as one to face the castle. Their mission: destroy the lich’s phylactery so that he would rise no more.

[OOC: The groups are as follows:

Combat
Group 1:
Faculty - Bai Lin
Students - Serena, Vivi, Seiji, Akechi
Group 2:
Faculty - Ky Kiske
Students - Kokoro, Yuya, Gunvolt, Nana
Group 3:
Faculty - Valvatorez
Students - Desco, James, Gon, Anastasia Rose
Group 4:
Faculty - Bowser
Students - Ruby, Grimm, Kohaku, Akko, Weiss, Aiko

Extras - Snow

Infiltration
Group 1:
Faculty - Ziggy
Students - Sarona, Keith, Doreen, Sherlock
Group 2:
Faculty - Jailbreak
Students - Puella, Minako, Ren, Ekkehardt, Reira
Group 3:
Faculty - Nekane
Students - Adelaide, Lie Ren, Xanatos, Héctor, Imelda

Mission Control
Hieke, Christo, Wen-li Yang, Count D, Android 18

Any characters who did not sign up may tag freely into the Control Room, or, if desired, they may contact a faculty member leading a group and request to join. Please prioritize joining groups with less characters. No group may exceed 6 characters.

There will be open group mingle posts up where characters can discuss the events leading up to the mission or the immediate aftermath. We will post the full log threads for each group in 24 hours, at which time we will PM the Faculty members with details on their mission]

code bases by tricklet

Comments

[arcadianvampire]

Valvatorez morphs in the blink of an eye into a formless swarm of bats and rushed toward Xelvak, splitting apart to avoid a blast of energy heading his way. The bats passed by the beam with inches to spare, and convalesced back into a swarm after it cleared away, quickly forming back into the vampire as he drew close to melee range, bringing his sword down toward Xelvak. The lich raised a barrier to block his attack, the blade fighting against it in a splash of sparks of both dark and arcane power.

One of the lich's eyes turned toward James as he barely pushed himself to his feet, and his voice took a sinister, smug edge. Satisfied, he turned his main eyes back to Valvatorez, though the eyes on his cape were well aware of the incoming bear carrying a daemon sword in its mouth.

"Fragile. Such is the curse of life and mortality. Do not worry, it will not hurt for-"

Of course, hubris... tends to have a price. For all his boasting and self-aggrandizing, Xelvak was too interested in the vampire in front of him to pay attention to the fact that everyone in this team was a legitimate threat. Something he quickly realized when one of James' energy blasts passed through his weakened barrier, catching him in the side. Xelvak whirled around to face James again, only to catch another blast squarely in the chest. To a mortal foe, the shot would've likely been lethal. To him, the hole it punched into his torso was a mild inconvenience. Or so it seemed.

In that moment, the undead in the nearby area immediately halted... and began crumpling to the ground. In the distance, one of the UN jet fighters suddenly spiraled into a nose dive, crashed, and exploded into the earth. The rumble of moving tires and treads and the weapons fire from combat vehicles nearby halted, replaced only with the sound of idling engines.

Xelvak's voice, such as it was, roared in anger, fury in their heads. And the first one he was going to try to kill was that bastard Candle who did that. He raised two of his appendages up, pointed at James.

"DIE!"

"Ana! James! Run! NOW!"

A particularly potent Necrotic Blast was charging up, and while Valvatorez attempted to push through to interrupt it, the Lich's barrier proved to be strong enough that he couldn't breach it yet. Valvatorez shouted out in effort, daemonic energy surging through him, a black, flaming aura around him leaping to life. He was going to break through, but... it wouldn't be fast enough. Just as the beam was about to fire off... Enter the bear. Gon's charging stab with Desco managed to punch through one of the passive shields thanks to the daemon sword's innate cosmic power. The charging stab managed to land on Xelvak, tearing his cloak of eyes and causing him to recoil, sending the potent blast just off course enough that both James and Ana would survive the attack... although perhaps, not all together unscathed. But as far as Xelvak was concerned, that was probably enough. They weren't dead yet, but they would be soon enough. Now to deal with the bear and the vampire.

"Two down... and how long do you think the three of you will last?"

The lich lashed out at Valvatorez, oddly, with a melee attack, with one of his black tipped appendages. The vampire pulled his sword from the now shattering barrier, and evaded to the side. Xelvak's attack clipped the back of his cape... and it quickly began decaying and disintegrating. Valvatorez tore off his cape and coat and threw it behind him with an oddly dramatic flourish, the garment rapidly dissolving into nothing in midair, leaving him in his white dress shirt.

"Long enough," Valvatorez replied. "There will be a special place for your rotten soul in Hades when I'm done with you. Atonement will be long... and painful. I look forward to hearing the stories of how they break your pathetic spirit."

Valvatorez swung again at the creature, his magical barrier shattering, and Xelvak barely avoiding a cleave that would've split him in two. The vampire pressed the attack viciously, Xelvak attempting to flail his pointed arms around to counter, and to keep Gon and Desco at bay. It was like he was panicking... and panic meant there'd be an opening eventually.

"Gon! Desco! Let's finish this!"