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The Hammer; [P] Kagiso
Topic Started: Tue May 27, 2014 11:40 am (1,471 Views)
Ari
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Melati's eyes widened. "Now? I'll get this side of the portal set up as soon as I can."

That was Ari's cue to stand. "I'll do it. Just tell me what you need." After a few minutes of frantic instructions and the proper distributing of portal stones, they were both off. Melati gestured harshly for Ari to get a move on to the main room, saying that she'd be right after her.

While the guards at the barricade were still reeling from the surprise of Kagiso's departure, Ari appeared and put on her best commanding voice. "Listen up! Melati's orders: we need to push forward and secure the courtyard. Our escape from this hellhole begins now." The Royal Butcher herself hobbled up to the ground-level entrance barricade halfway through the operation. Warriors, including Ari herself, had poured out of the massive double-doors of the Great Temple of Mandira, crashing head-first into nearby patrols of General Jaito. Instead of using Agorst, the Painted Mantis brought her glaive out and began weaving a deadly array of strikes in front and to either side of her. She had never received formal polearms training -- in this life, at least.

They were so close to securing the whole thing. Jaito's men were fleeing.

Ari realized that they were only regrouping. Joining up with larger blocks of warriors that stormed the streets from every direction leading into the courtyard. Quickly overrun, the incarnation switched to fighting with Agorst. Bodies pressed all around her, separating her from her allies.

A golem the size of a large dog slammed into her. While its carapace was made of some metal hammered thin, it wore traditional Nalaian lamellar plates. Spikes burst from mounts on its shoulders and cleanly restrained her to the street.

"Please refrain from unnecessary movement or molting into your true form," the voice from inside the golem pleaded in a slightly archaic dialect of Shokanalai. "I do not wish to electrocute you, but if pressed I will." It turned its head to the sea of moving bodies and loud noises around them. "The Painted Mantis is restrained! A carrier is required!"
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Kagiso
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Airships began veering towards Kagiso, but what could they do against such a small target? And they couldn't fire at her because the risk of munitions striking the city was too great. This was, at least, until Kagiso spotted a Brott Armaments Immobilizer at the fore of one of the ships. They had military-grade equipment? A flash of blue light transformed into a perfect cone of light blue shimmering in the air.

It darted towards Kagiso, illuminating stark black clouds of smoke. Kagiso fired her directionals and skimmed over the top of the immobilizer's beam. Then she stopped. Her body pressed forward without motion and she disabled her jets. She tried to look to see which ship had nabbed her, but the immobilizer prevented even that tiniest of movements. A net snapped out into the air, encompassing Kagiso. She swung down and was caught in the steel fibers, incapable of finding any leverage to tear the net apart before the airship descended.

She was grabbed by soldiers at ground level and quickly manacled tight before being drawn down the road. Patience, Kagiso. Her wings folded in and she closed her jets. But their hands, their grabbing hands, forcing her down the road like a sack of potatoes and not the sentient entity that she was. Anger boiled.

The trip took an eternity or simply a few minutes but she couldn't tell. She was roughly deposited in a courtyard surrounded by elite katana-wielding troops with Jaito's banners. She looked up as a man, simply dressed, walked across the field. To her right was Ari. They were close but not touching.

The man stopped. "I, am General Jaito." He said. His face was behind a laquer mask, dark red with white lines across it. "The Great General. And you two are conspiring with the Butcher, a woman who has confounded us to no end. Tell me, why should I let you live? Kamon, you have brought the blade upon your own neck for what you did to me after the war." He shifted and looked close at Kagiso. His eyes bore down on her, and then a flash of remembrance.

"Captain Anrin, a thousand blades wait for your command." Jaito said.

"Then you may leave the rest of the army aside. I only need a thousand to win this day." Kagiso answered reflexively. Her eyes hung low.

"Did the butcher, that miserable songbird not say who you are? Who you were? Did she go so far as to deceive the Hammer of the Vanguard, preventing my greatest warrior from joining me?" Jaito roared. Kagiso flinched.
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Ari
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"I don't even have the energy for a grudge in this life, much less one from 150 years ago," Ari responded weakly when addressed as Kamon. So far she hadn't met a single person who actually liked Kamon, despite him being known as the most famous and heroic Painted Mantis. "So why do you? And for that matter, why or how are you even alive? You're no incarnation. Ultimately this era is for the people of Nalai, not for settling old scores in history. It's not even for the incarnations. We just carry memories for the present day. Right?" Still on the ground, she turned her head to see Kagiso as well as she could. "Is there any way you can talk sense into these Nalaians?"
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Kagiso
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Jaito laughed.

"That is why I am here. I have awoken again, durin an era of strife to bring Nalai together to defeat the Demon Kings and make humans the absolute rulers of these isles. The last three times we tried we worked together. This time, I think, we have decided to see which of us is strong enough to fight them, with a united Nalai at their back." Jaito explained. He shrugged. "Now, if you need one to blame, blame Etana. It was her plan, to end the cycle, that brought us back once more. Do you wish to die, Mantis, the one who is most immortal of all? Is our end cause, to free the humans of the demon kings, to save the incarnations, not just?"

Jaito turned to Kagiso. "You saw what I could do alone. I crushed the armies of Istan with a united Nalai. We, together, could be strong enough to defeat the other generals, Etana, Melati, and then I could crown you King!" Jaito tempted. Kagiso stared blankly.

"I don't want to be King."

"Why wouldn't you want to be King?"

"I don't like people."

"...Captain Anrin did say much the same to me, several times. Did you know she was of royal blood? Little known, actually. I was hoping that'd rekindle something in you." Jaito continued. He didn't seem so bad. Other than the spears ringing them from behind. "Is there nothing I can do to tempt you, Hammer of the Vanguard? You know the value of a strong ruler, and the power of war. I can see it in you. It is a shock that none realized you are Captain Anrin. Except for the height. And the chest, and hips." Kagiso glowered at the general as he took heed of her. And for once Kagiso was painfully aware of the folly in not wearing clothes. She was a golem, but still female formed. And still in a form that matched hers own body.

"So, will it be the dungeons in a mage-suppressing cell, or will you join with me? I will forget Kamon's...deeds if you swear your loyalty. Why fight for the Butcher? She has no goals beyond survival. This is not a time for a survival, but victory!"
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Ari
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Ari had no answer for Jaito. It was true that the three demon kings had been entities many incarnations struggled against throughout their existence. The Painted Mantis had been in debt to the sky demon king for many ages. However, Ari herself estimated that her debt would be paid off in full by her next lifetime, if not this one.

The demon kings created Nalai. For many people, they were gods. Fallible ones, sure, but gods nonetheless.

She recalled a conversation she once had with Melati. Ari had asked about where incarnations came from. Why Nalai's myths reincarnated as different people, dragging the country's history alongside the country itself. "That, my friend, is the great mystery." Ari almost suspected that the demon kings had something to do with it.

"If you're even capable of killing three gods, do you have a single idea what consequences that would have? It's not worth it. The demon kings barely interfere in this day and age, so why bear such a grudge against them?"

Jaito, being the shrewd general he was, even extended an offer for Ari -- not just Kagiso -- to join his ranks, past offenses forgiven. For some reason this request made red-hot anger boil up in her chest. She considered it in her normal way for a few seconds, but suddenly there was this swelling and she burst into laughter. "You don't know anything about the Painted Mantis, do you? I don't swear my loyalty to anyone. The Great Generals and Etana and all these people in this war are fighting for changes that are absolutely insane. Melati is just fighting to bring Nalai back together in a way that won't ruin everything, all while protecting anyone caught in the middle. That's the same reason I want to fight, so I'll fight by her side.

I have some advice for you. If you want to start acting like a real incarnation, stop living in the past and adapt. Me and Melati? In the past we've hated each other, fought each other, loved each other and never even met, but what matters now is that we're allies. This isn't the Nalai-Istani Wars, so the Hammer of the Vanguard is in no way required to fight under you.

Nalai doesn't want nor need you to change anything."
Edited by Ari, Sat Aug 23, 2014 2:09 pm.
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Kagiso
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Jaito looked rebuffed. Furious, even. It looked like another speech was coming, at least until Kagiso looked skyward. Up there, a bird soared, beams of light chasing it as it flew. The Unchained Star. Jaito began his newest speech, leading out with a promise that they would be executed shortly, while Kagiso simply stared upwards. The star's wings collapsed together and it fell. A shriek emanated from it that resounded off the city, against the walls and armor.

Now the soldiers were looking up, and even Jaito turned to look. Archers fired upwards. Ballista fire rose from the city, spells hurtled from the streets. The airships drew closer. Kagiso looked to Ari.

"Brace." Kagiso managed to say, before the golem snapped its wings open, coming to a sudden stop and enveloping the world in a cloud of dust. It landed, and bursts of light rose from the cloud. Men screamed. Heat vented from Kagiso as runic circuitry on her skin burst to life. She tore her manacles apart like they were wet paper, and then planted her hands close together on Ari's. "The Unchained Star is here to protect me." With a quick vertical separation of her hands the manacles sheared neatly. She repeated the same process on Ari's leg manacles.

"Unchained Star! Vima! Protect the followers of Melati until they can escape this city. And help this woman, Ari, find her weapons and escape back into Melati's forces." Kagiso called out. The dust settled, allowing them to see the golem for the first time. It was stark white, with accents of copper and black steel. It combined the beauty of a service golem but had the power of a combat golem, its form rippling with weapons. Light burst from her confines, striking near but not directly at soldiers as their weapons harmlessly bounced from her armor.

"Kagiso, I accept this. Your sister will not be pleased, but I have secured your escape." The golem responded, in unearthly tones. Its turrets adjusted and began intercepting ballista bolts from circling airships. Kagiso looked to Ari.

"I will have the job done shortly." Kagiso said. Her own wings unfolded, small and angular before she burst into the sky, driven by fire. The airships were too distracted by the Unchained Star to even target the tiny figure, and she passed through their blockade. The golem looked down to Ari.

"I have no intentions to kill any while I am here. I will impede them as best I can. I was instructed not to join the war, even though Kagiso Cha'ne has made that task difficult." Vima said. The great bird kept a wing near Ari.
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Ari
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Ari, watching the scene unfold with a mixture of horror and awe, decided at this point that she strongly disliked golems. Magical technology was going to alter this civil war in ways that her ancestral memories could not prepare her for in any way. As Kagiso screamed into the sky with the portal stones, the Unchained Star shielded Ari with one of its massive wings. The warrior squinted at it. "You're a Celestial, aren't you?"

She made her way through the chaos toward the exit, looking for any side-corridor that might lead her to her weapons. Unexpectedly Ari bumped into the back of someone's shoulder. Their arms had been folded behind them. She realized that a katana's sheathe had been passed into her hands. Unsheathing it revealed the distinctive scarred, matte blade of Agorst the Bastard. "Hey--" The figure, wearing a traveler's cloak over Jaito-colored armor, glanced over their shoulder a moment before disappearing into one of the side-corridors.

"Unchained Star, we need to get back to the courtyard in front of the Great Temple. Melati's forces might still be under attack."

The courtyard was in absolute shambles. In fact, it could better be described as a graveyard now. The streets around the open area were a field of crimson spikes, impaling Jaito soldiers up to seven feet in the air. These thorns, which appeared to be made of crystallized blood, grew not only from the ground but from nearby buildings, trees, light-posts and anything else, creating a seemingly endless field of artificial brambles. Ari dropped from Vima into the open area where half the Melati soldiers were busy piling corpses and tinder. The other half worked on constructing the intricate symbol of portal stones. Melati watched, leaning heavily on her cane. Her troubled eyes met Ari's and softened a bit.

"The mission is not compromised," Ari breathed, assuming that was the information the faction leader wanted above all else.

"What happened?" Ari told the story in brief: how the two of them were targeted, captured, and brought before Great General Jaito. How Jaito discussed his plans to fight Etana, the other Great Generals and any other faction leaders for absolute control over Nalai. Having torn apart Nalai and fitted it back together into a new, stronger form, the whole country would wage war upon Nalai's three demon kings. Finally, she introduced the Unchained Star and explained how it was going to help them. Melati was silent for several moments, and was interrupted twice by soldiers asking for orders on one thing or another. "This is worse than I thought. I'll need to adjust my strategy. But for now, we need to focus on survival first and foremost. Too many of my men died in that last attack, and it's taking almost all my strength to keep these barriers up."

"Lady Melati! The portal stone pattern has been completed!"

"Good. Thank you. Clear the area around the portal. It will connect to Aketal'a the moment Kagiso finishes the pattern on her end. Protect the courtyard until then!"

Salutes and confirmations followed. Warriors spread out with practiced precision.
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Kagiso
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The Unchained Star gave a slight twitch of its great bird skull head. "I am." She followed Ari, climbing over the building to do it as Ari went through the building. She hopped down on the other side, pavement cracking beneath her four sets of talons. She lowered herself so that Ari could ride her. "I know where that is." Vima responded. The golem walked through the streets unmolested. Soldiers fled where it strode. When they reached the courtyard, Vima clambered over the buildings once more, and then allowed Ari an easy exit and daintily placed herself down as well.

"I will only protect your people until they are in Aketal'a." The turrets pointed skyward once more and began firing in rapid succession sending brilliant beams of light skyward. They passed perilously close to airships, and struck incoming projectiles, leaving only a puff of smoke behind.




Kagiso flew. Her hair reformed into a narrow, pointed helmet from which she could barely see except for forward. The land rushed by beneath her, a blur of grey, green and darker green. The land disappeared after a strip of white flashed by, replaced by blue. Faster. She brought herself closer to the water. Exhaustion had already settled in but she increased her speed again. Heat built up across her body.

Faster.
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Ari
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The delay for the portal stones gave Ari and the others some well-deserved downtime. Melati eased herself onto the simple folding-stool that one of the guardsmen provided, hips cocked to one side and one leg straight out. Ari just squatted next to her, elbows propped over knees. They didn't speak for quite some time.

"I was surprised, to be honest."

"About what?" Ari glanced over at Melati. The small woman with the hooked nose wasn't looking at her. Instead, she was dead set on the portal. As if taking her eyes off it for one moment would make her miss the critical moment.

"The Hammer of the Vanguard didn't join Jaito."

Ari exhaled slowly, thinking. "Incarnations are still people. Just living in this world is enough to change the way you think."

"Is it?" Melati frowned almost imperceptibly. "Watch her. Kill her the moment she slips. I have no other choice; she's too dangerous to be fighting for madmen. And she trusts you, doesn't she?"

She remembered what happened just the night before. Whether that was a show of trust or petty curiosity was still up in the air. Hell, maybe they'd just been using each other. "I guess."

Cracks shot through the street between portal stones. The ground shook. Colored light burst from the freshly split rock, then cut straight into the air. Multiple slashes in the fabric of existence melted together, leaving behind a gate tall and wide enough to fit a siege tower with space left over. Ari, having rushed to her feet, looked up at the looming monstrosity of a stable portal. A thin film of flashing Nalaian characters, ancient, covered the space separating Mandira's Great Temple courtyard from a sprawling vista of rolling Aketal'an hills. The pressure of the magic in the air muffled all the sounds made near the portal.

"Stretchers first!" the Royal Butcher shouted, rising from her chair with the aid of her cane. The injured and the people who tended them passed through. Melati patrolled the outer edges of the gathering like a wolf, watching for any sign of trouble. "First group! Second group!" Her faction followed a previously agreed-upon plan with great care. Civilians and priests were guarded by soldiers. They brought as many horses, wagons and supplies as they had been able to muster. Melati had even managed to get her hands on a three catapults and one old mana cannon marked with a Coastal Guard emblem. Soon enough, the two of them were alone there in the courtyard. Melati approached the Unchained Star and bowed deeply. "Thank you. You have saved many lives by helping us."

"You're free to go away now," Ari added, not bothering with the pleasantries. Golems were not her favorite entities in the world. She turned to Melati. "How will we close it behind us?"

"We won't. This is a one-way trip." With that simple answer, she pushed Ari into the portal and followed behind.

A couple steps later, they were in Aketal'a, the southernmost major island of Nalai. Melati urged Ari to leave the area where the stones were, giving her enough space to start knocking them out of alignment with her cane. Such a stable portal, yet easily disrupted if left undefended. The magic folded in on itself multiple times, then blew up, spitting raw physical force everywhere. Ari stumbled from the shockwave, but didn't fall. Everything settled.

They were on an open field near the coast. On one side, the calf-high grasses gave way to an eroded cliff and an angry ocean. On the other side, little villages, forts and forests were nestled in the rolling hills. The people that had passed through the portal were spread around the local area, watching Melati. The Royal Butcher put her stick in front of her and leaned heavily on it with both hands. Any murmurs in the crowd quickly stopped once the little woman's big voice took over the air. "Welcome to the southern edge of Aketal'a. Standing here, you and I are as far away from the fighting as we can be. I'm not going to lie to any of you. We have no army and few supplies. Many of you are civilians who just happened to be swept under my wings. Any of you are free to go and try to lead some kind of peaceful life in the middle of this madness. I won't fault you for it.

But for those of you who want to help me, keep listening. The Great Generals of past eras, some long-dead, have incarnated in this generation. The pacifist Stone Knight is King in a time of war. Virtually overnight Nalai can no longer be called a country. I can't tolerate any of this. We have to find out the full scope of what's going on, and then put a stop to it. We're just going to need to take it one step at a time. The first step is to survive, and to do that we need to build a camp. Right here."
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Kagiso
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The Unchained Star watched as the last few soldiers disappeared through the portal, and then hurtled skywards. It flew higher than an airship could track, above the clouds, and then took the long route to Flock Island. None could follow it at the speed and altitude it moved.




Kagiso set the final few portal stones in place as her body gave out, due to a combination of heat and exhaustion. The troops began walking through, but Kagiso stayed motionless. She was quite comfortable, and still too hot to move. She would need an arcanotechnician to check on her soon as well, she'd worn on her drives and motivators heavily in the recent days. More boots stomped onwards, until the portal was hastily closed and Melati gave a speech. Kagiso sat up, folding her short, angular wings into her back. After the speech she rose and went to Ari.

"I've never fought a war. But few have." She sat down near Ari, hot air still billowing from her vents. "What an unpleasant thing."
Edited by Kagiso, Fri Sep 5, 2014 9:56 pm.
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Ari
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Ari gave Kagiso a respectful nod when she arrived and sat next to her on the hill. Looking her over, it was clear that the construct had been badly injured by the exertion and fighting. She could still feel the radiant heat billowing off her metallic body. "Aye. Seems almost unreal. These past two days feel like two weeks." The warrior stopped staring straight forward and turned her head to Kagiso. "What you did back there was very brave. And now that you pulled it off, I'm very curious to see how this unfolds."

"It was more than just brave." Melati hobbled over to the place where Ari and Kagiso were sitting. She looked down her hooked nose at Kagiso, slight smile tugging at tired eyes. "None of our enemies realize it yet, but our escape will go down in history as the first turning point in the war. I know it." The incarnation offered her hand toward Kagiso to shake, bending down just enough to incline her head as a gesture of respect.

"What's next, our fearless leader?" Ari stayed seated, not wanting to make Kagiso feel like she had to move or get up. A hint of a grin pulled on her lips, giving away her otherwise deadpan delivery of the question.

Melati glanced over her shoulder at the elders gathering in the clearing nearby. "It's just as I said in my speech. Take a quick break, and then help us pitch camp. We need everyone's help, even incarnations."

Ari's eyes followed the petite incarnation as she left, but didn't speak again until they were alone at the fringes of the crowd. Her voice was even quieter than usual. "Hey. Are you alright? You look... like you might need some rest." She smiled sheepishly at the Hammer of the Vanguard. "We might be helping her, but she doesn't own us. And you've done a lot for her today. So if there's anything I can do for you, or get for you, to make you feel better, I'd be willing."
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