/Inferno: Jun Li: Looks like the boss is down, standby on the first level.
/Inferno: Sharl: We'll clean up the loose ends down here.
Nix followed Ducky, who seed to be able to sense the cloud's movents through walls. They ca to a final set of steps that went upward into a dark attic.
/Alpha Team: Ducky: Up the stairs, lots of puppets up here.
Nix held Wrath out in front of him, the white fire from the blade lit up the stairs as it creaked under their feet. The room was quite large, perhaps 20 ters across. Human puppets lay fully dressed in perfect rows.
/Alpha Team: Tess: This is high on the creepy scale. Things always this in Alpha?
/Alpha Team: Semmi: Pretty much.
/Alpha Team: Pon: At least it isn't a demon with his junk swinging around.
/Alpha Team: Wind: Looks like a morgue.
/Alpha Team: Nix: We'll burn them when we're done.
"Here, Nix." Ducky was standing next to an object that could only be described as an altar. It looked much like the one in the Gemini Temple, only this one was encased in glass. Two figures lay side-by-side on the altar.
Nix stared at the pair beneath the glass, they were male and female and their hands were joined together. "The cloud went in there?"
Ducky nodded and pointed to a crystal that was mounted on the end of the wooden staff that the man held.
/Alpha Team: Semmi: Man and Wife maybe?
/Alpha Team: Tess: The man is dead.
/Alpha Team: Ducky: The woman is a puppet.
Nix studied the woman for a mont, there was sothing familiar about her. "She's not human. That's an air elental puppet."
Tess moved beside him and bent closer. "How can you tell?"
Nix pointed to an object touching her shoulder. "She's laying on her wings."
/Inferno: Semmi: Aren't their wings black?"
/Inferno: Nix: No, that's just Rhy. They can be a couple of different colors.
Nix cautiously placed a hand on the glass, it shone brightly for a mont before disappearing, writing hovered in the air in large, bright letters.
This is the final resting place of the Puppetmaster Kellix Warden and a puppet made in the image of Arch-Nesis Bria Chelonia. When the real Bria died suddenly, Kellix labored night and day to recreate a perfect image of her. A Demon nad Jester promised Kellix that it would restore Bria's soul to his creation; if Kellix consented to create human puppets. After making several puppets, Kellix discovered that Jester was cheating him. The Puppetmaster used ancient magic to capture the demon and imprison him in a Chaos crystal. He then placed this crystal into one of the human puppets he had created. Unknown to Kellix, Jester's chaos magic transferred to the puppet also.
There are many options in front of you. You may choose what you wish.
/Alpha Team: Semmi: Hmm... That Jester demon is in the crystal?
Nix carefully extracted the crystal staff from the dead puppetmaster's hand.
Chaos Crystal
Description: Jester's
prison.
Type of Soul: Demon, Inherently Neutral/Evil
Primary Path: Chaos Magic.
Additional description: Will permanently fuse
with any puppet. It is bound to its master's will.
[Whisper Nix to Hyai] Could you tell Una to find at once.
[Whisper Hyai to Una] She's on her way.
/Alpha Team: Jun Li: What are we going to do?
/Alpha Team: Nix: We'll put the puppet master with his human puppets and cremate everything.
/Alpha Team: Semmi: And the crystal?
/Alpha Team: Nix: We will destroy it.
/Alpha Team: Jun Li: What's an Arch-Nesis Nix?
/Alpha Team: Nix: It ans she reached the Nesis level in two separate elents.
***********
A half-hour later, all the human puppets were stacked in a large pile in one of the crumbling fountains. Kellix had been carefully wrapped in cloth and placed on top of his creations.
Pon and Nix were standing off to one side, the old man frowning at all the bodies. "You and Nix?"
Nix nodded. "Do it."
[Tides of Fla]
Pon targeted the fountain.
[Hades Field]
A multitude of flas swept over the puppet master and his creations, within a few monts, nothing was left but ashes.
"Hey old man, the hell was that 'Final Strike' spell? I never heard of that one."
Pon's old face creased in a grimace. "Used my trump card, can only be cast after you receive a mortal wound."
"It's kinda badass."
/Inferno: Pon: Hey Sharl, did you guys ever catch that damn Vintner?
/Inferno: Sharl: Nope. Slippery bastard for sure.
The two fire mages walked over to the old blacksmith shop where the rest of Inferno were waiting. Sharl was standing next to an anvil with a large hamr in her hands. "Now Nix?"
"So impatient." Nix sat the crystal on the anvil and stepped away. "Wait until I deal with the last puppet before you do it, Jester may get desperate and try to animate one of them."
Sharl hefted the hamr in one hand. "Give the word and I'll crush this thing."
When Una arrived at the Keep, Nix escorted her to the attic where the Elental puppet still lay undisturbed. "This puppet is better than anything I can make, I can't risk using enhancents other than the Dire Wolf you inhabit."
Una examined it carefully with her wolf senses. "She's an Air Elental."
Nix nodded. "That was your Dragon Path also, she has another elent but I can't discern it."
"You'll let have this Nix?" Una's yellow wolf eyes stared at him.
"Yep."
Una turned back toward the Arch Nesis puppet. "With this wolf puppet be destroyed in the process?"
"Yep."
Una bowed her wolf head. "I accept your generosity with the agreent that I'm in your debt."
Nix moved closer to the puppet and opened up his Taxidermy interface. Nix placed the Arch Nesis puppet in the queue and used the Dire Wolf that Una inhabited as the enhancent.
[Closing Taxidermy interface, Opening Animator Interface.]
"Animator Interface?" Nix studied the options, the base and enhancent slots had many more options. He placed the puppet in the Receptor slot and the Dire Wolf in the Enhancent slot.
[Animate Arch Nesis Bria Chelonia using Spirit Infused Dire Wolf?]
"Yes."
The Dire Wolf vanished as if it had never existed, an instant later the Elental's chest rose, and she took her first breath.
[An Elental Arch-Nesis has been born.]
Nix whistled softly under his breath. Bria Chelonia was no longer a puppet. Nix lent her a hand as she swung her feet over the edge of the altar.
"It worked perfectly, Nix."
Nix nodded in agreent. "It was good work. Still going by Una?"
Una nodded, "I shall take the last na of Chelonia."
"What are you going to do now Una?"
"I'm going to travel sowhere a bit easier to survive until I master this form. Then perhaps I'll take the planar trials and live in one of the sky cities again."
"Do you need to secure travel to Oasis?"
Una shook her head. "Brace yourself Nix."
Nix raised an eyebrow. "What for?"
Una smiled suddenly. "The second Elent is Lightning." She placed a hand on Nix's shoulder causing him to grit his teeth as the current flowed into him.
Nix dropped to the floor, his body convulsing painfully for several monts before it subsided. He rolled onto his hands and knees, looking up just as an air tunnel opened up. "Air' Voilla?"
Una nodded. "Thank you Nix, I still owe you one." She entered the tunnel without speaking further and disappeared from sight.
You have received the Blessings of Lightning.
New Ability learned: Storm Rider
New Ability learned: Daisy Chains
New Ability learned: Thunderfist
Ability Upgraded: Chained Lightning II
New Title Earned: Arch Elental
/Inferno: Nix: Destroy the Chaos Crystal, Sharl.
/Inferno: Sharl: Okay.
Even from the attic, Nix heard the booming sound of an explosion followed by the enraged scream of anger, it went on for a few monts and then faded into nothing.
/Inferno: Nix: Everything okay?
/Inferno: Sharl: Yep, a bit of a dust-up is all.
/Inferno: Nix: I'll be right there.
Nix opened his hud and checked out the new abilities while he headed down the stairs.
Storm Rider: Self Only
A lightning strike that
transports you anywhere
within your line of sight.
Daisy Chains: Area Effect
Disable up to five people
with a single lightning strike.
Duration: 20 secs. Cooldown 1 minute.
Thunderfist: Single Target
An unard strike that stuns
your target without doing damage.
Duration 10 seconds. Cooldown 1 minute.
Chained Lightning II
Your upgraded Chained Lightning
enables you to disperse two charges
consecutively.
[Arch Elental: Four Elents]
Fire: Nesis
Ice: Lord
Air: Spirit
Lightning: Spirit
Arch Elental
All Elental abilities and resistances are increased by .4 (.2 .1 .05 .05)
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