Melody of the Abyss

Fresh air! How he’d missed it. ‘I’ll never take it for granted again,’ Zelos thought as he breathed in deeply, and exhaled loudly. He scanned the landscape. Choral Castle must’ve been beautiful in its prime. Too bad it wasn’t very intact anymore. He sighed. If the place were still standing properly, it would’ve made things easier! He could’ve entered with out the fear of it possibly collapsing on him.

Zelos smoothly walked up to the entrance and opened the door in one swift motion. He bowed, “Ladies first.” Smooth.

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Raven rubbed his chin with his hand, contemplating their next move. The shipwreck he and Estelle were involved in wasn't the greates thing he ever experienced, and the water was freezing. Luckily, they ended up in Kaitzur, but that's when he and Van had to have a little "talk"... a talk involving the events which have transpired over at Choral Castle. Not fun; Raven didn't particularly like Van, but he had to admit he also was interested in what Dist was up to at Choral Castle.

"Estelle, sweetie, you all right?" He looked over his shoulder, watching the little pink-haired lady try to catch up. He knew she wasn't used to trekking about on foot, but she seemed remarkably chipper especially after Judas was not part of the excitement anymore. He then motioned to the grand castle in front of them. "There is is... a faerie tale castle. It might even be haunted <3" he chuckled.

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Estelle was lost in her own thoughts as she continued along behind Raven on their journey. So much had happened recently ... it all seemed to surreal. She was finally out of her castle. Away from the arguments, disagreements ... it was amazing. And yet, the so-called 'Princess' of the family couldn't seem to keep her mind off of how her Parents were doing without her.

She was broken from her reverie by her traveling companion, and she blinked, averting green eyes upward, putting on a bright smile, and answering his first question cheerily.

"I'm just fine, Raven!" She chirped, quickening her pace into a light jog so that she could walk beside him. She looked to where he pointed, and almost instantly felt a chill up her spine.

"Fairy tale ... castle. Haunted .." She gasped, "Is this Choral Castle?!" Her eyes now tinted with a hint of fear, she looked to Raven, one hand grasping his sleeve.

"I've heard things about this place!" She went on to explain, and then, while keeping that 'scared' expression, she continued.

"My parents were talking about something that happened here, once. This used to be the vacation home of the Royal Family of Kimlasca! This is also the place where the kidnapped son of the Duke had been found, and when he was, he had no memory of anything! I even heard he had to learn routine habits all over again! Raven, what if he was cursed?! What is this place is cursed? Oh, we must stay away from here, as far away as possible!"

And once more, Estelle's imagination had gotten the best of her. Oh, Estelle.

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Philia's giant lens of doom weren't there for show; she immediately noticed the mismatched pair of travelers. A old raggedy man and a noble who wore bright colors? You didn't see those two types of people conversing with each other. Or... perhaps they were away on a secret rendezvous?! Philia's imagination also began running wild, but she quickly comported herself in a manner worthy of a priestess of Daath. Turning to Zelos, she motioned to the couple she noticed. "Sir Wilder, it seems that two civilians have also encountered this area... shall we go over and confront them? After all, this area may become rather dangerous, wouldn't you say?"

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Zelos had noticed the pair also; he just decided to brush them off. Now that Philia had noticed them too though, they had to go and check the new comers out. It was a good idea though. Zelos didn’t know how powerful these ‘Sword Dancers’ were. The more people handy the better.

“Yeah, sure. We can go check….” He paused, and studied the pair further. Pink hair? Female? Hell yeah.

Zelos began walking towards the pair, Philia following closely behind him. He jogged ahead as he neared them. “Why, hello there my sweet little cherry blossom,” he said seductively as he took the pink haired noble's hand and lightly kissed it, “and what would your name be?”

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Raven quickly stood between this audacious young man and his travel companion, and gave him a rather cold glare. "Hey, kiddo, this little lady's off limits. You be touching her and people will certainly start ta cause a ruckus, y'hear?" Turning to Estelle, Raven whispered. "Don't trust his kind, sugar; all flash and no substance."

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Estelle, who was still just a bit flustered from the effects of being flirted with in such a forward fashion for the first time in her life, had the kissed hand held in the other, her cheeks flushed ever the slightest and in a slight daze. She blinked, looking to Raven as he spoke to her, and nodding, indicating that she understood.

Even so, that didn't mean she wasn't going to be completely sweet to this man! Of course she would be! She's Estelle.

So despite the warning she'd gotten from her friend, she smiled at the redheaded man in front of her and stepped to Raven's side once more, laughing a little in her own nervousness of what had just transpired.

"I'm sorry, sir. My name is Estellise, and this is my friend Raven," She motioned to Raven, despite the fact that he was the only other person there, aside from the man she was speaking to, and .. were her eyes deceiving her, or did he have a traveling companion, too?

She then resumed talking, her expression becoming that of interest. She didn't expect to see anyone else here ... after all, hadn't Choral Castle been abandoned for several years?

"Um, pardon us, but .. what are you doing here?"

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Gasping a little for breath while trying to catch up to Zelos, Philia made her entrance. "Sir Wilder, you certainly do live up to your name..." She laughed a little at he rown joke, but quickly stood up once again. "My apologies for my companion's... behavior. I am Cantor Philia Felice, an emissary from Daath, and he is Sir Zelos Wilder." She bowed to both Raven and Estelle. "We could ask you two of the same thing; we are currently on a mission from the Order of Lorelei, and we believe we may find a clue to our goal at Choral Castle." She politely explained.

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Zelos grunted. Why did that old man stop him? He was getting somewhere with that! He ran his hand through his hair and chuckled. What Raven had whispered to her clearly had little effect.

‘I could definitely see myself getting along with this one’.

“Estellise, what a beautiful name,” he shifted his view to the slightly shorter man and put his hand out, “Sorry I uhh…moved in on your turf, bud. No hard feelings?”

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Ignoring Zelos for a moment, Raven straightened up. "This here's Estelle. My name's Raven. Nice t'meetcha." Raven recognized Philia, though he was sure she wouldn't recognize him. Sweet thing; no wonder Estelle seemed a bit familiar to work with, since the personality similarities between the two, one would think that they were cousins or something. "The two of us sorta... ended up here. I'd love to go in and explore a bit, though."

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Estelle blushed again, smiling at Zelos. "Thank you, Sir."

She turned to Philia, blinking in confusion and tilting her head to the side a little.

"Goal? What is this goal?" She then caught herself, and looked away, a slight flush on her cheeks once more.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. My curiosity gets the best of me at times .."

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"Aa, I suppose..." Philia wringed her hands together. "It's fine. There's a fonon frequency discrepancy in the general vicinity, and anything there may be important... or dangerous. It's our objective to investigate this phenomenon." Philia wasn't lying, but it wasn't the entire truth either. "I... have heard things... about Choral Castle, and I must admit that I would feel a lot safer if we happened to travel together in a group." Philia's fear of ghosts wasn't readily apparent yet, but she thought she could swallow her pride and at least ask for some assistance. After all, Zelos might be more terrifying than any ghost... but it never paid too little to be careful enough.

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Zelos withdrew his hand, and ran it through his hair again. He looked at Philia with a hurt expression on his face. “But Philia! My cute little priestess, have no fear! The Great Zelos Wilder is here with you. You’re safe.”

He then remembered his task. Sure he was brave, but he wasn’t that brave. He quickly cleared his throat and looked down at his feet in defeat. He turned to Raven and laughed nervously. “Your help would be great, though.”

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Scratching the back of his neck, Raven ruminated on the situation. He wouldn't want those two getting in his way, nor would he want them messing with any evidence Dist and the others might have left behind. Even though the redhead was grating on his nerves, it would prove to be better to travel together. After all, he was quicker than them, and could get ahead of them if anything caught his eye.

"I don't mind tagging along." He turned to Estelle. "Do you, sweetheart?"

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Estelle clasped her hands together, then looked out among the small crowd. She was frightened, certainly ... it was only natural for someone to be frightened of what could very well be a haunted mansion. Even so .. they needed help. The help of Raven, and herself.

This had truly become mandatory. Well, in her mind. So she put on a smile and nodded.

"I wouldn't mind helping out either!" She said, just as cheerfully as she could, despite her nerves making her tone just a tad bit uncertain.

She looked toward the mansion, then. "So .. we're going in now, aren't we?"

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"R-right." Philia stammered. Oh, sweet Lorelei, she was terrified of the prospects of a haunted mansion. But... she was on a mission. And ghosts? Sure, there were monsters which resembled ghosts, btu ghosts weren't real... or, at least, that was what Philia kept on telling herself.

The group moved in toward Choral Castle, and despite it being in the middle of the day with bright sunlight, Philia felt a cold chill run down her spine. Gulping a bit, she made sure to stay behind Zelos and Raven. Inside, a stained glass window illuminated a few choice tiles on the ground... rather than saying anything, Philia had to constantly survey the area to make sure she wasn't being followed by a ghastly creature.

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Zelos was a little nervous, too. He kept his hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword as he walked slowly behind Raven, and just in front of the girls. Philia looked a little jumpy, he noted as he turned around to see if she was doing alright.

Wow. Thanks for trusting me.

He realized after they made it up the stairs that they were following Raven. Where the hell was he going? He made a mental note to not trust Raven, the guy looked shady. Before they wandered too far into the “haunted” mansion, he decided to ask. “Okayyy. We’re all still alive, good start,” Zelos chuckled, “So, where do we look first?”

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Raven paused for a moment as he observe the surroundings... I smell blood. His eyes scanned the floor, and sure enough there was a pool of dried up blood... and a dead liger as well. One of Arietta's ligers, no doubt... thing's pretty torn up. He turned to his companions. "Careful, kids, a not-so-pretty sight is here." No wonder there were no monsters around; they must've been killed off yesterday when all of the excitement happened.

Crossing his arms, Raven tried to figure out where the basement could be. "Perhaps we should head downstairs again." He mentioned, a bit serious. A lot of the battling took place on the rooftop, so perhaps there was something else going on... piecing together this sort of thing was a pain in the neck, really.

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Estelle, had been walking next to Philia, one hand absentmindedly clutching the sleeve of Philia's robe. Pay her no mind, Philia, she doesn't even realize she's doing it.

And unfortunately, her sight had just barely caught the dead liger. She gasped, eyes widening. She turned her head to the side, trying to avoid looking at it again.

She completely agreed with Raven's suggestion.

"Y-Yes, that ... might be best," She stammered out.

She couldn't shake the feeling of sorrow for the Liger to have to die like that ... her first instinct was to give it a proper burial, but .. in a place like this? It wasn't proper. And she didn't exactly enjoy looking at it, either.

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Philia herself was more or less preoccupied with the thought of avoiding ghosts, so she didn't really mind Estelle's behaviors. The liger carcass was a surprise, yes, and as gruesome as it was... for Philia, she could view it as a dissection project rather than something as scary as a ghost. With that in mind, color returned to her face and her glasses fogged over.

However, given the company, her mad scientist mode wasn't the best persona suited for this sort of situation.

Philia nodded in agreement. "It will be all right, Miss Estellise." She turned to the other feminine presence in the group. "Dead things can't attack you." Unless they were undead, of course... But Philia didn't bother to mention that. With that, Raven passed her as he lead the group back down the stairs, and into a they passed on the way.

"The door's already been open..." Philia took note, thinking aloud. Things were thrown about in a haphazard manner, and the room gave signs of recently being disturbed. Philia read enough detective mysteries to pick up on certain things, after all.

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Okay. Dead liger. Check. Trashed room. Check. Someone or something had definitely been there before them. Zelos flopped down ungracefully onto one of the nearby love seats. He put his feet up and exhaled loudly as he watched his companions investigate the room.

He leaned his head on his hand and picked up a fallen picture frame off the side table. He studied it closely. It was faded and rather difficult to make out the faces in the photo. He managed to though, as his eyes went wide with surprise.

So, this was their famous vacation home.

The name did sound familiar, but he hadn’t paid much attention to it. He slipped the photo out the back of the frame quietly, slipped it into his pocket, and put the frame back on the table. He stretched his arms and leaned forward. “Looks like we’ve arrived late to the party, hu?”

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"Perhaps." Raven chuckled. He had noticed the picture frame's missing photo, but didn't think much of it other than making a mental note of it. He didn't know Zelos' background and that wasn't a priority right now. Still, there were no real clues here... but the door to the basement was wide open. Dist wasn't the type to carelessly leave things lying about, especially important documents, but Raven didn't feel like leaving that sort of thing to chance.

"I'm going to head into the basement; ladies, if you don't want to come along, you can stay behind with Zelos here." He winked. The fact that Philia didn't seem particularly fond of Zelos meant that Estelle would be somewhat safe as well, but he didn't think they'd go for that idea. He had to check the basement, and he'd prefer to do it alone.

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Estelle seemed confused for a moment, then her eyes widened, and she clung even more to Philia. She looked to Raven, fear once again surfacing in those green eyes of hers.

"B-But, Raven! What if the curse affects you down there?!" And then, a gasp. "What if the curse has already affected us and we don't know it yet?!" And now she's totally convinced that there's a curse here.

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"A c-curse?!" Philia took a step back. However... they had a mission to fulfill. The rest of the castle didn't seem to have anything to do with the Skull Dancer, so the basement was the only thing left. Resolved, she stood her ground and faced Estelle. "Miss Estellise, I... I doubt there's really such a curse. I mean, after all, it's obvious something happened here yesterday. Considering we found no dead bodies, I can assume that there is no curse. Besides, I've done my research on this plac beforehand; this place was simply abandoned due to the war conditions, not because of any curse."

Taking a step forward, she showed her resolve with her face. "Sir Wilder, Miss Estellise... we will accompany Sir Raven. After all, if it is dangerous down there, we should be able to group together to defend ourselves."

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Zelos smirked and put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Don’t worry, I won’t let any harm come to my hunnies,” he finished off with a wink. He walked towards where Raven was standing and motioned for the girls to follow. “Just stay close,” he demanded to all three of them as he gave Raven the O.K to start walking down the stairs. He had no idea what was down there. Hopefully it was one of the Dancers.

It was a little nerve racking as they descended the stairwell into the dimly lit basement. He put on a smile and acted overly confident, despite his fear, to comfort the girls. Maybe if they witnessed his manliness and charm, they would calm down a bit.

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The group found themselves at the machine Dist used to open up Luke's fonslots, though none of them were aware of what it was or what it was used for. Raven ruminated on the details... the machine had all of its data wiped clean, and not much was there. Well, there was a strand of long red hair, which he assumed was Luke's... and upon further observation he noticed a piece of metal lying on the ground. It was a shall shard, but it was the same color as Sync's mask.

The puzzle grows ever clearer.

The presence of fontech indicates Dist was here. The presence of a red strand of hair indicates Luke. Sync was here, and the liger carcass was a dead giveaway for Arietta.

... one more thing...

"Guys, we got company." Raven drew out his bow as well as a fistful of arrows form his quiver.

A roar with the stench of rotting flesh echoed throughout the basement, as a Sword Dancer appeared behind them.

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Estelle's eyes widened at the sight (and smell) of the sword dancer, and she couldn't help herself; she let out a short shriek, clutching even more to Philia's robe and completely forgetting for the moment that she was armed with a sword and shield ... oh, and the ability to heal and use minor light artes. That too.

That thing was so scary, though ... and it was easy to say that while on the journey with Raven, Estelle had most definitely had some minor battle experience, those monsters seemed to be nothing compared to the sight before her.

"I-I knew this place was cursed," she cried out as she felt herself begin to tremble. Oh no. Noooo nonono. Estelle, darling, you can't do this now. No cowering. You have to fight as a group.

( ooc: I know I've got other logs to tag to, but I'll have to get to them later. @_@ It's 3am, I spent the last couple of hours frustrated over homework before finally finishing it, and I have to wake up at 5:30 to play mommy because mom's working. o/ )

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Philia as well was severely frightened, but she had to deal with it in a different way than Estellise. "Philia Bomb!" She shrieked, tossing her hand-made bombs hidden in her robes left and right toward the Sword Dancer. "Die die die die die die die!" With tears in her eyes, Philia obviously was not thinking in a calm manner; half of her bombs did make contact, however, and she took a step back with Estelle still clutching her robe.

... better watch out for friendly fire there, Zelos.

Quickly folding her hands together and chanting, Philia let loose one more fonic arte before continuing her Philia Bomb barrage: "Ray!" A flurry of sixth fonons congregated and formed spears which pierced the Sword Dancer.

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Zelos cringed when he witnessed the undead disaster that was the Sword Dancer. He cringed even more when he witnessed the onslaught of bombs being thrown in its direction. Holy hell, did Philia pack a punch. He noticed the tears in her eyes. It made him feel bad about putting her in a situation like that. He decided to apologize about it later, but protecting her and her newly acquired human attachment came first.

The hideous creature roared loudly and stumbled backwards, a futile attempt to avoid Philia’s bombs and her fonic arte. It looked stunned. Sixth fonons seemed to do the trick.

“Raven! Back me up. I’m going in!”

He unsheathed his sword and ran towards it. He slashed at it several times and ended off his combo with a loud battle cry and a “Light spear cannon!” The beast fell onto its back with a loud, ear piercing shriek. Please don’t get up, please don’t get up…

He hoped it wouldn’t, but he knew it probably would. Creatures like that usually don’t stay down very long.

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((OoC: Feel free to also NPC Estelle as needed; with her mun on hiatus; I'd be playing three of the four characters in this log XD Usually the battle would last longer, but considering I'm playing so many characters we'll cut it short))

Noticing an opening and a Field of Fonons for the Sixth Fonons, he knew what was coming. Too bad the Sword Dancer didn't know. Stepping into the FoF, Raven could feel the fonons swirling around his being; he could only grin at this surge of power. "Here it comes!" Drawing back his bow, he allowed the fonons to center in on the head of the arrow. "Rainsong!" An explosion occurred on the Sword Dancer; with that, it disintegrated as dust, leaving a small jewel in its wake.

"What... is this...?" Philia walked over to the dusted monster, and looked at Zelos. "That was definitely a Sword Dancer, Sir Zelos... did we pass the first trial?"

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hateindignashun.livejournal.com

((ooc: No, this isn't Dhaos sneaking into this scene, just using his journal for NPCing, for future reference, will use the icon here whenever NPCing for this))

In front of the whole group a presence could be felt, a large presence of Fifth Fonons. They came together to make a visible shape of something that looked like a strange creature of some sort. A rather odd looking creature, since it was completely red like fire and looked somewhat human besides the red tone to its skin. The creature was covered in flames that didn't appear to bother it in the least bit.

"Good work defeating this creature, chosen one. I am here to relay a message from my master. To finish your trial, you must survive the hottest of flames to receive the first key."

A red jewel appeared in front of Zelos. "This will serve as a key to enter the place."

And then as quickly as the creature appeared, it then disappeared and all sign of the Fifth Fonons vanished. It definitely wasn't going to be answering any questions they might have.

((ooc: To give further clarification since my description skills can suck, basically what they saw was a smaller version of Eternia's Efreet. (http://gallery.dot-3.com/displayimage.php?album=16&pos=4)))

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Zelos sheathed his sword and quickly snatched the floating jewel and held up for further inspection. “The hottest of flames….well that can’t be good for my hair…” he said, more to himself than the others. Well, at least that Sword Dancer was dead. Celebrate one victory at a time.

He walked next to Philia, and handed her the jewel. She was a researcher, and probably would’ve liked the opportunity to examine the small artifact. He quickly scanned her over, looking for injuries. She seemed fine, a little shaken up but fine. Everyone was alright, that would be victory number two.

He made his way over to Raven and held his hand out. A formal handshake, his way of showing his appreciation. Raven had landed the killing blow, Zelos owed him that much. “I appreciate the help, bud. We probably couldn’t have done it without you.”

Would Raven ask any questions? He probably would, anyone who witnessed that would. Hopefully Zelos wouldn’t have to explain himself; we all know how much he hates doing that. …Is it too hard to ask for victory number three?

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