Deathfire, Hope, and the Storm's Blade

[greyerrant]

Who: Garviel, Signum, and any snoopy watchers
What: The Holy Grail war continues
Where: Mount Death, otherwise known as Mount Deathfire in Ancient Belka
Warnings: ULTRAVIOLENCE. EXPLOSIONS. EXCESSIVE GAR. LONG SPEECHES.

The foot of Mount Death is an immensely complex series of lava tunnels and gate-like natural formations, entirely made from obsidian and other igneous materials. Loken's armor, freshly repainted and repaired by the Roman artificers marks him out as a white blot, dwarfed by the great gates behind him. Above them is mounted a huge skull, a draconic one from the times of the great Fire-drakes. A relic of the time when all of this land was Belkan, much as he was.

A breeze is the only thing that stirs the valley, vitrified lava floes halted forever in their motion. A dead place, where once the Circle of Fire burned in the breasts of the men who worked here, who fought the drakes, and who called Deathfire their great tribal home. Now, only ghosts remain, and bones. Empty vaults and quiet lava tubes, no more forges ringing, no more drakes roaring and clambering through fissures in the earth to hunt humans, fae, and in the lean times, even each other.

There is only the wind, which idly stirs the oaths of moment which have been freshly written onto parchments which are attached to Garviel's armored chest, stuck in place by wax seals. He waits for something, his face masked by his pugnacious-looking helm. He could be the last avatar of death in this place, a god of war that has burnt itself out, leaving only a single ivory playing piece to stride the battlefield.

He wonders if this was the right place to choose. So rich in the past stories of Belka, of the connection he shares with Archer. No.... he knows her name now, but he will not speak it, or even think it. Not yet. Not until she appears before him. So instead... he simply stands his silent vigil in the darkness. Hoping he can reach her, and find a way to end this war, once and for all. Perhaps he is doing this for too personal a reason, but he can no longer abide the thought of destroying one of the last remnants of Belka. It ends tonight. One way or another.

Comments

[greyerrant]

Garviel waits for her, and as she moves in, he waits, making sure they both have a clear view of each other before he engages with a desultory burst of bolter rounds, aiming not for Signum but rather at the pillars around her, smashing off jagged, sharp rock fragments to create a razored storm of obsidian, trying to distract her for long enough to shoulder-rush her to the floor. He doesn't detect the card, and as such, may be about to get more than he bargained for by drawing her into the close quarters.

[nightskysword]

The knight spins and ducks away from the Bolter shots now that she's been blooded by them, but takes a vital second to realize what her opponent is doing. Once she does, she continues her dodging motion further into the gallery, armor and face scratched with minor, annoying obsidian cuts as she keeps the remains of pillars between them, trying to make him lose sight of her.

Once she's got some cover - and a few more cuts than she would have liked - Archer lashes out with Laevatein in fiery whip form again, trying to goad Garviel into pursuing her further into the volcano. He'd obviously prepared the battleground and lured her in, so her only option was to rush him.

She grips her card. To rush him, and to get him into point blank on her own terms.

[greyerrant]

The whip tears his helm clean off, burning his face badly as it scours across his pale flesh. He hisses in pain, and closes the distance. speaking as he does so. "I've only ever fought someone before like this once." He whirls his chainsword in a two-handed swing, bolter now maglocked at his side once more, having followed her into another gallery, this one framed by the huge, carved figures of Astartes warriors, bare-headed and in attitudes of eternal watchfulness, ebony images of Loken himself, the same powerful, bulky builds, but there is a more tribal aspect to their armor, these men were drake-hunters. Still, it matters little, as the last remnants of Belka duel ever closer to the inactive core of the volcano.

[nightskysword]

"Get used to it, if you're like me," Archer responds, continuing to back through the gallery. She considers another major attack, but no...she feels a source of power behind her. Berserker had chosen the battlefield, but he chose one that would benefit both of them. Instead of using her mana now, she mimics Garviel's previous tactic in a different dimension, whipping her chain along the ceiling of the carved cavern to drop rocks on the Astarte's head.

"This is the afterlife we were given, Garviel - one where there's only war," she continues, trying to, if not unnerve the warrior, then at least get him to face facts. Signum knows in her (imaginary, mana-constructed) heart that only despair lies this way, except for the people who can successfully seize the Grail's power.

She backpedals into the next chamber.

[greyerrant]

"You misunderstand me. You match me as Captain Nathaniel Garro once did. I think I shall end the fight as I did with him." He smiles to himself, since he knows she won't understand the reference, or his intent with it. The only one who knows is Levin, and he's not going to say anything.

Loken sees the rocks fall, raising his armored forearm to cover his head as the huge hunks hurtle towards the floor, pulling back somewhat to the doorway to a side gallery, his own armor and face scored by the stone shrapnel. "Nhhh."

He thumbs his chainsword to life once more, stepping back towards Signum for another close range exchange, and says, "I have always acknowledged there is only war. The question is our purpose."

He smiles, as he closes, his pale face wearing a mask of blood, making his stern, craggy features even more stark. "This is not my afterlife, Signum. I chose to become a part of this while still alive. This -is- my life. I chose to join my fate to the Grail so that I would be here when the world needed champions for humanity once more."

He steps in, thrusting with the chainsword. "It isn't in this battle that our purpose is served, Signum. Against Avshar, fighting those demons for the good of all the people in this world. THAT is our reason for existence, beyond service to our masters. We fight for them because we are similar to them, because we love them, but our purpose as Heroes is more than just a petty brawl between Magi."

[nightskysword]

"You're a fool who doesn't know what he's gotten himself into!" Archer shouts, shoving his thrust to the side with both blade and scabbard and smashing her head towards his face in an attempt to stagger him. Kicking his chest with her foot - or rather, pushing herself off of him due to sheer difference in mass - she moves back into the next room, a huge hollow cavern hollowed out around the volcano's extinct main shaft.

"You speak of some noble purpose to the Grail? As if there's a noble cause in this world?" she asks, engaging flight again and moving back out of his reach, eyes on his Bolter in case he tries to shoot mid-speech. "Maybe I've found a Master I love this time, Garviel, but every time before - every time - I have been called forth by a Master as blackhearted and destructive as I've ever met. Do you know why?"

Signum holds her sword far out to her right, loading another cartridge. In her left hand, she holds her scabbard and an obviously glowing Tarot Card. "Because I am a part of the Grail. I am not just 'an' Archer, Garviel Loken. I am 'the' Archer! The original template. I never even lived, but was built, with a solitary purpose.

She reattaches the sheath to her belt, holding up the card clearly. It's The Magician. "To kill, and to be killed. That is our only purpose."

"Now prove me wrong, or die!"

The card shatters into blue specks, and the effect is immediate. Here, at a nexus of metaphysical leylines and physical geology, The Magician wrenches a huge tidal wave of mana from the earth and stone, and the ancient mountain groans as life unexpectedly surges through it once more. Archer, the creature of magic and fire, feels the huge surge of power as the volcanic energy pours into her. Her aura immediately whirls with flame as her magic is enhanced with perfectly sympathetic mana, and Laevatein lights up with flame.

"Laevatein! KARYU ISSEN!" she shouts with all her strength, fire blazing in her eyes and along her sword as it hurls an enormous column of flame at Garviel.

[greyerrant]

Loken sees the glowing Tarot card, and then his eyes widen further once he sees the Magician. He's seen the results of this card before and so... he's got to call in his own dangerous ante. He calls into his crystal, "Nero, 2 second burst, now!"
He feels the mana surge from his Master rush over him, as the chains of Madness and chaos from Mad enhancement entrap his tactical mind. The shadow behind him seems to swell, and his muscles straing within his armor, standing very straight as the deadly column of flame unleashed by Laevatein comes directly towards him. It washes over the Astartes as he raises his hand in a futile attempt to shield his face. His armor is instantly charred black, outer layers of ceramite peeling back, the scarred parts of his armor rending apart from both the heat and the blast overpressure. But he stands, somehow, in an effort that can only be attributed to the added strength of his Berserker nature, and takes a step forward. A heartbeat. His face is burned as badly as his body, now, the flesh cracking and bleeding in certain areas. Another step. Another heartbeat, as he pushes forward. One last step, Loken is still so far away from Archer, but this is now a willing show of defiance and endurance. He's proving her wrong simply -by- living.

He halts, after the inferno gutters out, even as Deathfire ignites all around them both once again, magma gurgling below them both as he stands near the edge of the main volcano shaft. The physical toughness of the Berserker class overlaid by the template of a Legiones Astartes has saved him, but barely. His armor crackles with heat, and even as some of his external burns heal, it is obvious that the unflinching warrior was crippled by the attack. He takes a third step, and halts, the mana link cut off, and his abilities reverting to that of an Astartes alone once again, Mad enhancement sealed off.

"I... don't need prove you wrong." His chest, a morass of shattered and burnt armor plate, leaking blood and ash, heaves with each painful word. "You said it yourself. Hayate. You love her, Signum." His grey eyes, normally hard and showing very little seem almost placid at the end, as his mind slides back to another time, another place where he lay in agony from the destructive bombardment of Lupercal's battlebarge, in the ruined Cathedral at the center of Istvaan. That was where Garviel Loken died, and Cerberus was born. Today, with an act of bravery and endurance, he is putting Ceberus to rest, as he appeals to what is good and honorable in Signum, as Nathaniel Garro once reached out to him.

He throws his chainsword and bolter away, smoke wreathing them both, half-melted and utterly useless. "Your purpose is to live for her, and protect her. That's why you were built. I was made to fight for humanity, and so I shall, and, with good fortune...." He trails off, somewhere between a retch and a cough as he almost falls, turning his head to the side and spitting out a gobbet of blackened blood and other darkened material. "With good fortune I'll fight again. There are noble causes, Archer. I promise you that." He reaches out an open hand, palm upward, towards the floating Signum. "I cannot best you, Signum. So I offer no defense. Only a choice. If you kill me, you murder one that would be a brother in arms, and that single act would see you turn your back on the chance to change this cycle, to change your fate. You and Hayate are the key to the mysteries of the Grail War, both the noble promise and the darkness that it spreads. The Archer born for war, and the Master that should not be. You are the irregularities, much as I am. Take my hand, and in that act, not through anything that I can do or so, you will confirm that there is more to this war than to kill or be killed."

He hisses in agony, knees shaking with the effort of keeping his own bulk standing, but he holds her eyes, unable to speak anymore in his pain.

[nightskysword]

Signum can only stare back for a moment, meeting Garviel's gaze with a shocked expression, even as small explosions of heating gases spray rock and fire into the chamber. Using a destiny-altering relic in the middle of this much natural energy was probably a mistake, but the feeling of the chamber gradually heating up is a distraction from the sheer contradiction in front of her.

"Garviel Loken," she begins, raising her sword.

"You are completely...and utterly...insane," she says, swinging Laevatein around to replace it in her scabbard.

"Must be getting soft in my old age..." she adds with a sigh, reaching out to take his hand in accord as the first plumes of magma start shooting up toward where the two Servants are standing.

[greyerrant]

He doesn't say anything, he just nods, and will hold her hand for a moment, before turning towards the chamber entrance. He'll nod, then start slowly limping towards the entrance, pausing to retrieve his cast aside weapons, barely capable of walking, now, his armor shattered and his flesh scalded, broken on the anvil of war and yet... in the fight of philosophies and words, the victor, at least for the moment. He looks over at Signum, his battered face far too demolished to really have a recognizeable expression under his scars and burns.

"Of course I'm insane, Signum." He laughs, or coughs, or something of both, as the toxic gases of the reawakened mountain begin to spew forth, making his eyes tear up and his lunge ache. "I'm a Berserker." He tries to form a smile, showing his teeth, stark white against his darkened skin, lips cracking and bleeding. "We'll... we'll walk out of here together."

[nightskysword]

She shakes her head. "You're not walking out of her fast enough for the volcano not to finish you off."

Moving to support the much larger man as best she can, she looks a few feet to her left, directly at where Shamal has been remote-sensing the battle with Klarwind.

Conduct both of us out of here, please, she says to her fellow knight mentally. You should be able to do that with the extra power from the Tarot card.

All of us need to talk.

[nightskywind]

A gentle green glow engulfs both Archer and Berserker before moving them outside the volcano to a safe distance.