Herutenshi

Part One

Part Two

Roleplay from Aethelmaer

Aethelmaer and Kurohyou stood in the town square, they gathered a small amount of supplies for their journey to find and destroy Herutenshi. From the information they gathered, they were to journey south, into the dangerous lands of RedSpan, and maybe into Abbington.

"Are you ready for this Kuro?"

"Only as ready as I'll ever be. Kyoku is all set also."

"Alright then. Our journey shall start now."

Aethelmaer, Kurohyou, and Kyoku began on their way south to fight the massive Herutenshi.

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Roleplay from Kurohyou

Aethelmaer, Kurohyou, and Kyoku had begun their way south to fight against the demonic Herutenshi. As they start down into the forest, Kurohyou began to notice that the forest seemed somewhat different, as if a demonic aura had recently passed through it. He stops to see if he could identify the presence.

"What is it, Kurohyou? Is it Herutenshi?"

"No, it couldn't be. The aura is too weak, although it seems as if its more than one being. I suggest that we arm ourselves and prepare for the worst."

And before they took another step, Kurohyou wielded out his new 10 foot blade, and Aethelmaer drew his bow and his whistle, not knowing if it could be of any use.

They then foward on deeper into the forest, prepared for this group of demons that would soon be arriving...

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Roleplay from Aethelmaer

Aethelmaer looked beyond, down the path they were following, seeing Kurohyou do the same out of the corner of his eye. He held out Blitz, with a loosely strung arrow. He felt a dark aura ahead of him, wanting to turn back, but his feet kept him moving forward. Part of his mind was thanking his feet. Then he remembered his whistle. Pictures in his mind flashed and he saw the words HimmelnKonig pass by his closed eyes. Putting his bow on his back, he pulled the whistle from his pocket.

"Here goes nothing, Kuro."

He gave the whistle a blow, and with a beautiful sounding pitch that at the same time, hurt his ears like the scream of a banshee, yet comforted him like the sound of a babbling brook. Reaching a small clearing, Aethelmaer looked up and saw the winds were picking up, bending the trees in awkward ways. He stood there paused for a moment, when he saw a huge shadow glide through the skies. It circled around and as it did so, decended until the sun revealed a huge falcon, that came down and perched upon Aethelmaer's shoulder. He was surprised this is what came from the whistle as he now understood the meaning of King of the Skies. The majestic falcon spread his wings, and screeched, and Aethelmaer could sense that he as well as Kuro, Kyoku, and the falcon, that the dark aura seemed to thicken, as some dark creatures started to reveal themselves from the shadows of the trees.

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Roleplay from Kurohyou

"I must say Aethelmaer, that is one fine bird you have."

"Why thank you, Kurohyou. But I think that we need to worry about the evil presence about us."

Kurohyou agreed. They both had their weapons drawn and were prepared to fight. Then figures started to appear from the woods. Kuro and Aethelmaer couldn't figure out what these creatures were, but they knew that either way, they must fight them to continue on.

Closer the creatures came. Kuro, Kyoku, Aethelmaer, and the King of the Skies were waiting. Then, one of the creatures leaped out towards Kurohyou, but was quickly taken down by Kuro. The swiftness of the giant blade was amazing to everyone. And then they quickly examined the decapitated corpse to realize that the creature appeared to be that of a serpentine, a giant snake.

"Alright, Aethelmaer, hopefully thats all we have to go up against because it seems that the battle has begun!"

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Roleplay from Aethelmaer

Aethelmaer stood in awe at the serpentine lying on the ground with its head cleaved off. Hopefully, that was the last of those they would be seeing. But then, Aethelmaer heard a hissing in the trees, just off to their right, and another two serpents came out of the woods. Aethelmaer quickly shot one in the head with Blitz, but the other was already on top of him. It quickly wound around Aethelmaer, until he couldn't breathe. Before it squeezed the last bit of life out of him, the King of the Skies flew out from the nearby tree, and dug its claws into the skull of the serpent, drawing blood, then with a yank, and a crushing of bone, the falcon tore its brain from it's head. This slumped the giant snake to the ground allowing Aethelmaer to free himself. After Kuro helped him up, he decided to name the falcon, as King of the Skies was a little long to be rolling off the tongue every time it was called. After much thought and consideration, he named his new companion Scar. After taking a long look at him, he had realized a black mark that seemed to cross his right eye. Aethelmaer called out to him, and he returned to his shoulder. Then the group decided to continue on into the woods.

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Roleplay from Kurohyou

As Kurohyou and Aethelmaer inspect the dead corpses of serpentines. They had made sure that there was no sign that Herutenshi had not been manipulating them. However that question was answered shortly. Kuro, Aethelmaer, and Kyoku heard a laugh from behind them. They turned around and saw Herutenshi himself, standing towards them...laughing.

"I must commend you on taking out my minions, young warriors! Well done, but that shall not be as difficult as the rest of your journey will."

Kurohyou gets into his attack stance "Oh, yes and this is what I say to that my friend...don't you think of leaving your guard down for we Taran knights will make sure to take you down the moment you do!"

Kuro went charging towards Herutenshi, with his sword towards his side. Herutenshi then jumped into the air and shot something out of his mouth. Kuro stepped back and saw that it was acid...

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Roleplay from Aethelmaer

"Be careful Kuro. We have read that he can spit out acid. This will make it that much harder of a fight."

Aethelmaer unsheathed his sword and started running towards Herutenshi, zig zagging around Herutenshi's globs of acid. When he got close enough, he took a wild and blind swing, closing his eyes thinking it would give him that little bit more strength, but with a loud clang, his sword met Herutenshi's claws. While the two were interlocked, Kurohyou jumped in from behind and tried to slash at his head. This was met by both Aethelmaer and Kurohyou to be thrown back in a mighty thrash of limbs. Aethelmaer was thrown with such force, that he came inches from hitting a tree. Before he hit the tree, a sudden feeling of floating came upon him. He looked up and opened his eyes to find Scar carrying him in his talons. With that he flew over to Kuro, and he was being helped up by Kyoku.

"Herutenshi seems to strong for us at this point. We need to regroup and form a plan. One that will fool Herutenshi. For now we shall retreat."

The group proceeded into the nearby brush, all with one thought on their minds. Will Herutenshi follow them.

Herutenshi's voice boomed through the forest behind them: "You are lucky you have lived so long, for now I shall let you live as you are worthy adversaries. Next time you won't get away alive."

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Roleplay from Kurohyou

As Kurohyou, Aethelmaer, and Kyoku were running away from Herutenshi, Kuro was beginning to wonder why he didn't finish the three of them off.

(Honestly, it says that he can cause worlds to collapse, but why is it that he hasn't taken us out?)

But before he was able to continue pondering on the thought, Kuro collapsed to the ground...hard. Aethelmaer and Kyoku turn around and see that their comrad and owner has fallen down. And when they were fowarding towards Kuro, Aethelmaer noticed that Kuro was grabbing onto his chest, particularly above his heart.

"I think that we should take shelter here, my friend."

---

Its downpouring outside, and luckily Aethelmaer was able to make a tent for the three of them, with the help of Kyoku no doubt. With the fire going, Kuro was unconscious, still holding onto his chest. Aethelmaer finally decided that he needed to know why this was hurting Kuro so much. So he crept over to Kuro's side and slowly unwrapped Kuro's shirt. Then, all of a sudden, Aethelmaer saw...

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Roleplay from Aethelmaer

Thoughts of Kuro collapsing to the ground ran through his mind, as he pitched the tent. Kyoku was lying next to Kuro as he was unconcious on the ground, mysteriously holding his chest. Sounds of thunder were growing louder and Aethelmaer quickened his pace, hopefully he'd finish before the rains began to fall. About an hour later, Aethelmaer had everyone in the tent, and with Scar perched on his shoulder, he still wondered why Kuro was holding his chest. So, he decided to look what might be the problem. He bent over Kuro, and began to shift his arm off of his chest, but as soon as it was let go of, it mysteriously lifted back towards his chest. Complicating things, this time he held it down under his knee, while he opened up his shirt and saw a strange marking on his chest. It was circular with many ancient markings placed symmetrically on two sides with a distinct line dividing the halves. Aethelmaer plunged into his memories. He remembered while reading a book on Herutenshi, on one of the pages was a strange symbol that he discovered was a seal placed on that of the person who had once housed Herutenshi's soul. This seal was placed on that person in hopes that Herutenshi would never take over his host again, but the book told of doubts and predicted that Herutenshi might once reign over this person's life again forever.

With that Aethelmaer returned Kuro to his previous state, and walked outside the tent. The rain had receded to a mere drizzle, as Aethelmaer pondered the next step. He couldn't decide whether to just wait until Kuro woke up, or if he should take him to the nearest town to get a doctor to do something. A barely audible sound came from inside the tent. Aethelmaer looked back and noticed Kuro was standing. He took a single step outside the tent, then fell backwards passing out again. This strengthened Aethelmaer's decision as he chose the latter of the two, and began to pack up the tent as Kyoku took Kuro to a nearby tree to keep him dry. Moments later, Aethelmaer was trying to figure out which way to the nearest town, as he had no idea of where their travels had taken them.

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Roleplay from Kurohyou

Aethelmaer is navigating to the next town, in search of a doctor for Kuorhyou. While he and Kyoku are bringing Kuro to their next location, Kuro begins to fall into a deep sleep...

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"Kurohyou, get over here!"

"Yes master, can I help you?"

"Why is it that you burned down the school? You know that you almost had quite a few people injured with that stunt."

Kuro gives an expression as if he has not the slightest clue as to what his master was talking about. His master then gave him a quick lecture and let him go run around.

"Honestly, there has to more to that boy than there is being shown.” The master whispered to himself.

And while the master was walking away, Kurohyou had been playing in the meadow. He decided to just lay down right on the grass. The sun was out, illuminating everything that gotten within its sight.

However, after a few moments, Kurohyou had fell into a trance and a voice in his head said to him, “Kuro…I would like for you to go and set a plague on the Earth for me…” At first, Kurohyou had thought it would be nice to do that…but about ten feet away from where he started walking from, he said that it wouldn’t be nice to do. With that, the voice had said, “Kuro, I am telling you that it won’t be a problem…so do it!”

Kuro then turned around and started to walk away, but the voice came back and said, “Fine…if you don’t want to cooperate, then I’ll do it for you!”

Then Kuro began to black out as the voice had taken over.

---

He had then awoken with the pain in his chest occurring once again…

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Roleplay from Aethelmaer

Aethelmaer had just finished tending to Kurohyou's recent awakening, when no sooner, he had fallen asleep again. Aethelmaer tried to keep him propped up on Kyoku who had been reluctant to carry his master for a part of the way. Aethelmaer decided to set up a small temporary camp, so that he could scout out the area alone and much quicker, as it seemed to be taking forever to find an actual doctor. Aethelmaer quickly dashed into the woods, and sent Scar above to seek out farther. After a few minutes, Aethelmaer learned that a small village was actually very close to their position. Packing up the camp, and putting out the fire, the group continued on to the village. Along the way, a pack of wild boars spotted the group, but with slow movements Aethelmaer was able to hide himself and the others for the boars to lose their smell. With that, they walked into the village and Aethelmaer hurried into the nearest healer's center. Maybe some of the questions will be answered.

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Roleplay from Aethelmaer

Aethelmaer was dozing in a small room, when a nurse came in and woke him up. She had informed him that Kurohyou was waking again. Aethelmaer went to go see him, and he looked much better than before. Given a few minutes and he was back on his feet, and the two were ready to go. No sooner were they ready to leave, the doctor gave Aethelmaer a book.

"Take a look at this before you leave. Maybe it'll clear some things up about the seal on Kurohyou's chest."

Aethelmaer opened up the rather old looking tome, and inside showed a scaled down version of the seal. The book told them of ancient times when a being by the name of Kurohyou had been deemed a demon from the Netherworld. The gods had taken him to a temple where they extracted the spirit of Herutenshi out of him, and sending him to Earth, put a seal on his chest to prevent their reunification. Aethelmaer felt an uneasiness come over him, as he returned the book to the doctor. The two readied themselves again, and finding their companions outside the healing center, they continued on their journey south, hopefully to find Herutenshi's hiding place.

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Roleplay from Kurohyou

Could this be me that the book is talking about... ...Kurohyou was considered to be the beholder of a demon, Herutenshi... ...And Herutenshi is wanting to reunify with Kurohyou... ...Why would he want to do that?...

Aethlmaer, Kurohyou, and Kyoku are travelling down south, in further search of Herutenshi. Kuro could tell that ever since they left that hospital tent, Aethelmaer had an expression of uneasiness on his face.

Kuro had a feeling that this might have been a mistake to do in the beginning, but he talks himself out of saying that.

The three are on their way towards the next town, with the most peculiar weather occurring. Fast blowing winds, and dark clouds...a mixture for disaster...

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Roleplay from Aethelmaer

Aethelmaer felt the winds growing, as he glanced up and noticed Scar was having trouble flying straight. He flew down and perched on his shoulder to prevent anything from happening.

"I wonder what is causing all of this awkward weather?"

"Who knows, maybe this will be the next setting for a battle with Herutenshi. I fear he might be too strong for us to fight, and this weather sure is sending out a bad omen."

"We'll just have to continue on, Aethelmaer, that's the only thing we can do."

The group continued to walk on, when Kyoku started to run off into the woods, Scar wanted to fly away with him, but with the wind, knew best not to. Aethelmaer and Kurohyou ran off after Kyoku only to discover a clearing. It was a rather large clearing, and off to the other side, their was a fire going, with a few hunters gathered around cooking a deer. The group approached the hunters.

"Hello, fellow travellers! We have been walking for quite some time through these woods, and seem to be having trouble finding the way to the nearest city. Would you be so kind as to point us in the right direction."

"Welcome to our tent. The closest city from here is Wayburg, just to the south of here. Yet, you won't be able to get there today, or the next day... or the next. In fact, you probably won't get in at all."

"Oh, well, thanks for the advice, we should be continuing along now. I am sorry we have disturbed you, our dog dislikes unfamiliar smells in the air."

"Well... Since you have no city to go to for right now, I could let you join with us for a couple of days, and maybe, just maybe I could sneak you in to Wayburg. The only problem is, I don't have a spare tent."

"That, we have taken care of. The only thing we don't have is food and are actually quite hungry as of late."

"Well then, come on over, I'm sure the guys would be glad to meet you. I suggest though that you leave your weapons over here, as so that my friends don't feel uncomfortable with you here."

"Thank you kind sir. We are in your debt."

"It's the least I can do. Anyways, my name is Jack, and my friends names are George, and Fredrick."

"Hello everyone. I'm Aethelmaer, this is Kurohyou, and this is Kyoku, Kuro's dog. Perched on my shoulder here is my falcon, Scar, he may look big and scary, but he follows orders, and won't be of any harm to you."

"Excellent, let's all have a drink and roast us up some deer now!"

The group felt right at home with the hunters, and they had a merry good time, as they drank, sang, told stories, and ate to the sounds of the forest.

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Roleplay from Aethelmaer

Aethelmaer and Kurohyou were sitting by the campfire of the two trusting commoners. Suddenly, Aethelmaer turned to look at Scar, but he was nowhere to be found. Kyoku was also nowhere to be found. He stood up, and started looking through the woods in the distance, and heard some rustling. He jumped through the bushes to find that Scar and Kyoku were fighting these wierd shadow creatures. They kind of looked like sharks with wings, and were chasing Scar and Kyoku around with mouths wide open. Aethelmaer warned Kuro, and they both took out their weapons. Aethelmaer took out Blitz, and he could feel the lighting pulse through his body. He strung an arrow, and let fly to hit one of these strange creatures in the left eye. It fell to the ground and immediately dissolved into the ground. Kuro ran in to help Kyoku as he looked as if to be grappled by the incoming group of monsters. Aethelmaer kept trying to down some of them, but they kept dodging his arrows, so he decided to run in and attack with his sword. They began the fight, and the two commoners ran in to see what was the matter. Aethelmaer screamed at them to get back to the nearest city, so they didn't get killed. They fought for a few more minutes, when all of a sudden...

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Roleplay from Kurohyou

Aethelmaer and Kuro heard this evil laughter above the trees. They looked up and saw that it was Herutenshi. He then came down and landed right behind the two commoners. Aethelmaer had yelled for them to come towards where they were, but ended up being useless. The commoners were cut down by Herutenshi upon his descent.

"You fools don't get it. I will get what I came for, and my dreams will be accomplished. Whats the point in prolonging the inevitable? Death will come to all that you two encounter."

Kuro motioned for his sword. He had figured that Herutenshi was right.

"Why should we do this, Aethelmaer? He is right, we are a danger to all those around us. We are better off dead than where we are now. I leave you with this, Live on. Don't worry about me."

Kuro had started to feel wierd. He had felt as if a new sense of power had began to take over him. He tried to fight it, but ended in vein.

~Don't worry my friend, we shall see that you shan't fall to Herutenshi's grasp.~ "Who are you?" ~That you shall learn soon enough, but now let us aid you in the battle against Him.~

Kuro understood, and had decided to lead Herutenshi somewhere else. Aethelmaer had tried to stop Kuro, but Kuro motioned him to stay.

"My friend, at the moment, finish this battle and take care of Kyoku. I will see you later."

Then Kuro and Herutenshi had disappeared into the darkness. With the wind afterwards, it seemed as if they had run with god-like speed...

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Roleplay from Aethelmaer

Aethelmaer could not believe that Kurohyou would just leave like that. Especially to go after Herutenshi. He even left his trustful companion Kyoku behind, and that was extremely rare. Aethelmaer stood there for a couple more seconds until he was tackled by one of the creatures. Bringing him back, he wrestled himself free, and found his sword. He looked over at Scar and Kyoku, and they seemed to be doing fine fighting together taking down monster after monster. Aethelmaer drew out Blitz again, and with it's electrifying touch, dropped another beast, but yet again, as soon as one was dropped the others became impossible to hit from afar. So, he just ran in and dropped a couple of the strange sharks from point blank, hitting them so hard that they spasmed as they fell to the ground. After a couple more disappeared, the rest just seemed to fade away into the trees. They just swam into them, and the trees seemed to just swallow them. Aethelmaer was alone, besides Scar, now perched on his shoulder, and Kyoku sitting by his side.

"What should I do, Scar? Should I just live on like Kuro said? That would be too easy."

Scar gave a loud screech.

"I know, I probably shouldn't interfere with the Gods' wills. Yet, something tells me he's not as powerful as he once was. I mean he was a powerful demon, but that was when Herutenshi was locked up inside him. Now, he's just a man, placed in a mortal's playground."

Scar tilted his head to the side, and Kyoku gave out a small whimper, probably signifying his worry for his master.

"That settles it, I'm going to help in whatever way I can. I can't just live on, thats way too easy, and its not my style to win easy battles. Let's continue on and rid the world of Herutenshi, once and for all, no matter what it takes!"

Kyoku gave a loud howl, grateful for my choice, and began to run in the direction his master ran off to with Herutenshi, followed closely by Aethelmaer, wondering whether their good friend was still alive.

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Roleplay from Kurohyou

Their speed was incredible! Any normal human wouldn't have been capable of achieving such intensity, but Kuro was proving that to be a false assumption. He had been leading Herutenshi to an open field outside of the forests. He knew that with an open battleground, the duel would be equal.

"Ha ha ha! Finally, Kuro you have finally accepted your destiny. I shall make sure that this duel will be considered the greatest of them all!!!"

~You think thats going to be the case, but I won't step aside that easy.~

In the meantime, Kuro had been wondering how Aethelmaer, Kyoku, and Scar were doing. Leaving him in the middle of a battle like that, it wasn't like him. He hopes that he'll end this battle and then return to his friends in one piece.

...

Kuro and Herutenshi had finally gotten to the destination that Kuro was hoping for. Herutenshi had taken a look around, and then gave a little laugh.

"Hehe...Interesting Kurohyou! You thought that this would make the battle somewhat fair. Well, either way you shall be mine again."

With all this talking going on, Kuro had been taking off his armor plates and left only a sleeveless shirt, infiltrator pants, from a friend of his; and Ashigaru braces on his shins and forearms.

"Herutenshi, today is the day I shall cast you back to the pits of the Netherworld you had come from."

"Ha! I think not Kurohyou, you shall be mine, and I shall have my revenge on those that had put me there."

They both took defensive positions, Kuro having his Masamune by his side, and Heru with his claws. The battle was going to commence...