The [Supposed] Entrance to Aesir

[Cain Ellatar]

At the strange man's exclamation, he took an almost threatening step closer towards Cain. Instinctively, Cain also took a swift step back, hand straying to his sword hilt. although this man had done nothing towards him as of yet, Cain was filled with a sense of unease about this person, though he knew not why. "You will hold your ground; that we may speak as gentlemen, or we will not speak at all." he said coldly, his attention fully turned from the battle.

"No," he agreed "I am not a father, thus your actions seem illogical to me. you yearn to know where she is and hunt her near and far yet at the same time preaching her need of freedom. Perhaps if she does indeed feel anger towards you she seeks to be parted with you forever, in which case by hunting her you deny her this freedom you think is important."

"Of course," Cain said offhandedly, "The wilderness is harsh and unforgiving. Although someone might make a living within it, if that someone was used to city life, they would more likely than not seek the confines of 'civilized' culture." As he spoke, he closely examined Noctis' face with utmost scrutiny, watching for whatever reactions his words might incur. "As such, there is a possibility I would know where she stays. A place that, once she has entered, she would be unable to leave."

[Noctis Sepulcral]

Noctis raised both brows, folding his arms, while the king was so easily taken aback, enough to touch his blade. A sickening smirk was on Noctis' mouth, one that might only reflect amusement with a king reacting as he did. His blackened eyes glanced at the king's hand at the hilt, his head shook slowly. His left hand raised, his fingers pushing back the long strands of hair away from his gaunt face.

"Dearest King,...what will lead you to be drawn away, just because of the matter of me being closer? I am a citizen of your city, I am well aged, if I wanted your head off your shoulders, or your body messily dissected, I would have tried. You are safe, as heartless to a father as you may speak." He said, his words spoken slow, stern, somehow nearly threatening, followed by a slight tilt of his head to the right, and the refold of his arms.

Violently, Noctis snared his upper lip at the assumptions next made. As to be so pretentious, he rolled his eyes, throwing his head back. A long groan came past his mouth, a grit of his teeth as he once again faced the king.

"A ruler you may be, the crown you may have. A father you are not, the concern and love for a daughter, you do not have. You may rule the people, yet that will never give you the insight to dare assume my concerns, and my love, and what I will do for a human being I have created with my own flesh, and watched become a woman. "

Another daring step Noctis took toward the king, letting that man watch the disgust and rage in his face. A more fierce inferno than the flames of Hell burned behind the black in his eyes. One with intuition may feel it for themselves, see it, wittiness it. Noctis felt the king would look better without skin on his face, perhaps without anything but bone...Maybe without eyes...Oh, without a tongue would be a most bitter, yet gratifying look for him. It was more than a shame that this man was the king, if he were anyone else, he would have no face, no tongue, no eyes.

"My daughter loves me. She would bring her hand to my face, tell me she would not return. I hunt her life, to be sure that it exists, you fool...Would you like it, King, if you had a young lady for a daughter, who may be dead, or dying? I am sure you would not like that. All I want is the knowledge that she is in good health, and she is safe. What happens to be left of my heart can not bear the thought of her freedom leading to her demise. I cannot begin to think of what her fearful and crying eyes may look like, or her mangled body."

A deep, pausing breath was taken, a short silence. He were about to continue lashing words, though rethought what the king had said. Had he said he would or may find Insidia? Noctis' fierce expression appeared to calm in a light way.

"What did you say? Can you find my daughter? And what of this battle? Make sense..." He spoke, his breaths quick.Nearly, Noctis had begin to beg. Anything for his dear daughter, Insidia.

Such a struggle to leave this man untouched, and unharmed...

[Cain Ellatar]

"You say you are a citizen of my city," Cain restated coldly. He had found within himself a great dislike of this person, "Yet I know nothing of you, thus you are of no great importance. As such, I must demand to know what makes you think you can speak to your king thus, with such disregard for my authority. I am done playing games with you."

He had previously played along with this individual, yet now the person was pushing his boundaries, most likely conscious of his actions. The fact angered Cain yet he knew he still held information over this man's head so he most likely wouldn't end up doing anything too terribly drastic.

"You tell me to make sense yet I will demand that you explain yourself properly. Stop pattering on about your daughter and tell me what it is you need my help with." he demanded, his voice carrying an icy tinge to it, "Yet you are not in the position to be demanding services, should it be help you wish in locating your daughter. If you wish for me to grant you the favor of my aid, you will show proper respect for your king and beg that I grant this favor for you. Even such, I would expect something in return, for nothing in this world comes without a price."

[Noctis Sepulcral]

Noctis simply laughed at the king, a briefe shake of his head following. He muttered such meaningless things, threats perhaps. Noctis had always a pretentious immagination, it had been acting up at this moment; he felt the king was afraid of him, and jealous without a child. There were no doubts in his mind, regardless of proof or reason. An old childhoof habbit it was, disrespecting authority.

"Respect..." Noctis said and shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe your crown means something to others, but to me...you are still a human being, one that can bleed, and one that can die. Do you want respect as a king, or as a man? To damnation with it all, King. So, if you are so stubborn not to recognize by now, so it will be told. My daughter is my only concern, you had mentioned something about the battle below, would you like more bodies of dead men lying around?"

Noctis again rain his hand through his long hair, resting his fingers at his chin once done. A sadistic appearing grin, another laugh followed, however this laugh differed. This one was in sheer amusment and anxiousness.

"Or would you prefer those bodies walk once more?"

[Cain Ellatar]

Cain shook his head slowly as the man continued to speak. It was clear to him that this man was far too arrogant for his own good, in his rather blatant refusal to show proper respect to his own king, yet to make an example of him here and now would serve no purpose, other than to satisfy Cain's own amusement. Still, he had to give this man at least a few more tries to get it right, as he might ultimately prove useful should he be properly cowed.

"So it would seem you care nothing for my crown, that's perfectly fine; I'll not force you to care about the authority of others." he said softly, calmly, "Just means, plain and simple, that I will also not deign to care anything about your daughter or her whereabouts."

"Of course," he said, as if making a side note of little importance, "It seems you are not as willing to do anything to find her, as I thought you might be, so I guess your own misplaced pride and arrogance come easily before her in your mind."

[Noctis Sepulcral]

"You already have no care for her, Crowned One." Noctis responded, his eyes drifting to the distance behind the king. "The accusations you make of my love for my daughter are false. I have no need to address you as other than a man, you have not shown me worth of more than any next one. Why should I bow to someone that only common word says should be respected? You have done nothing for me or my family in your rule. You would con me, I am sure, just like all the other kings in pasts we have all heard, they will promise, and it will never be so."

Stepping foreword, stopping shoulder to shoulder, Noctis turned his face one again to the king, looking at his youthful face. He was sure the king had less years alive than he, and only a guise of wisdom. With truth, he believed the king was full of lies, that he would never aid hands to find Insidia.

"I asked you if you wanted to see more dead bodies, or if you wanted to see the dead rise again. You did not answer. You have arrogance beyond that of expected, too, King." His words seemed to spit venom, his eyes staring like a serpent at its prey.

Noctis placed his hand on the king's shoulder, holding it there for only a mere three seconds. The king would look better and be of more aid dead. Noctis brought his index finger to his lips, hushing anything the king could have wanted to say, indicating he had not spoken his last before leaving.

"I will find her myself, as I wished to before. You can stand here, looking at men die without care, letting innocent people die and suffer, and call yourself worthy of the crown. I will be doing something of worth and admiration." He whispered slowly, an omnipotent tone seeping within the phrases.

He would stand there now, only for a moment, a short one. He wondered if the king would even think about what he had spoken, it was likely he would not. His precious daughter would not wait more than a moment longer, this king was hopeless for aid with the kindness of his heart.

[Vidar]

"You may be willing to fight the entire army of Avaren, yet the army of Avaren knows your time is come and will not waste valuable manpower upon you." Cullen said simply, spurring his horse as David grasped the hilts of his swords. Cullen was the only warrior left near David now, the rest having either left to deal with the slivers or formed up around their commander. Even now as David struck out at him he was already moving away, a few strides from his horse taking him out of David's reach and easily outpacing the warrior on foot.

Meanwhile, not bothering to pay attention to the area where Muryllis had been, as the area where he had stood had been completely peppered with arrows and without another blast of energy so foretell the mage had deflected them again, Morland turned back to listen to the words of his scouts. From what he gathered, there was nothing of any sort that vaguely resembled a portal to this "mystical heretic hideaway"; that they must have been led on a wild goose chase.

In addition, the repots continued, the small band of freakishly mutated creatures, yet unidentified as to their species, continually harassed one of their flanks, inflicting several casualties in the process, yet not causing any cause for alarm, as their numbers were still many times lesser than that of the Avaren troops.

"We leave now, spare us the few casualties that might still be inflicted," he commanded, the cry being passed down the lines swiftly. Almost immediately the troops began breaking away, retreating back the way they came, back towards Avaren to report that their mission had been all for naught and that their informant had been clearly in league with the heretics all along.

Now the defenders were making a fighting retreat from the slivers, easily possible through sheer superior numbers and military discipline, filing back towards the main column as it moved slowly away, leaving David to be soon completely alone and the only thing between the slivers and the departing army.

[David Augustine]

A miss and barely one at that. He kneeled back onto the ground as the one warrior left. Soon he witnessed with his eyes what they were doing the warriors were fleeing the scene. So it seemed hopeless for David to even make it out of here. Such a shame than those so called warriors were fleeing from a fight. Though knowing when to retreat was always something that was to be taken into consideration.

Now the battle field was sparce. Only the creatures and a few straggling men were remaining. The posion was flowing through David's body and he could feel the hand of death coming upon him. Unsure if he was going to live or not, it was of great fortune and luck what had happened next. A straggling warrior was running pass him and close enough for David to strike. Doing so David lashed out with both of his swords killing the other warrior and giving him access to the magical properties that his sword granted him.

Making practically a full recovery from the magics that the swords had allowed him to use and the fact that one of them healed him. He stood up to his full height looking around seeing that the creatures were in fact, pursuing the warriors that were trying to get away from them. Seeing as the warriors were more focused on fleeing and defending their own lives instead of saving the others they fell one by one as the creatures continued their pursuit.

However, David didn't want to be one of the ones to have to stay and fight such creatures. He moved away towards one of the many structures of the area. He hid amongst it by sitting down on the ground and making sure that he wouldn't be at least seen by the creatures. He peered overhead to see if they were heading towards him, unsure of their true actions.

[Reno]

Ah, but David wasn't alone. There was another person there who used the shadowy area as an aide to be hidden. Reno slid down the rope and turned to face the unsuspecting David, smiling. "Hello there, stranger. Are you friend or foe?" Reno, who couldn't fully see David, had a shuriken at the ready. "I don't think the slivers know about this area, as they all are over on the other side of the field, still chasing those idiots that call themselves warriors." Reno shook his head. "but I'm glad that Alezand's ruse worked. I heard that the conditions in those prisons were terrible. Apparently, the walls are so thick that even Chao would have trouble entering..." he sighed. I wonder who this man is... he is obviously decorated... and those swords of his... they look magical...

[Slivers]

The slivers continuing their attack while their numbers and strength steadily grew from each injured and fallen warrior. They didn't stop their relentless attacks and if time would allow them, they would have eventually destroyed the whole force. However, that wasn't the case. Instead, the warriors of Avaren started to flee from the fight.

This course of action though exposed themselves and made them more vunerable. While a few warriors bravely stood up to help hold the creatures back, they were easily overran by the shear number and force of the creatures. Taking down those only to have more spawned and the already existing ones become more powerful. Then the chase was engaged as they followed the warriors as they left.

Taking down the stragglers with ease as they caught up to them and then some of the others that decided to try and stray away from the main force as if taking a supposedly quicker course. Either way, it didn't help them in the least. Though with time the slivers slowly backed down from their pursuit seeing that the warriors had gotten to a certain point in which the creatures were not so willing to charge after them.

Instead, the creatures returned to the area of the battlefield. Their they found those that were killed by them and any others that were slayed in the overall fray. They began to simply gather them for they would be used as the food for their hive and to satsify all of their needs for the time being until eventually the time would arise to hunt once more.

[David Augustine]

David almost had jumped from the shock of this other individual. His words started out with a question and all David could think of was a way to rest for a bit. However, the man did need answers even in this area though, he was going to stay as quiet as possible. "If I was a foe, would I have already struck you down or would I even be weilding weapons such as these?" he stated figuring that the man had already seen the swords. "Though I am no friend of the creatures that are nearby and not necessarily with Avaren as of now. I had managed to gain some information about Alezand's ruse...I thought it might've been a way for me to get in touch with Aesir's king." David had stated it. His main reason of why he had came here in the first place. He gave a small sigh as he looked down at the ground. Even though he was healed and recovered, he felt exhausted as if the swords had drained energy out of him forcibly. Well, that wouldn't have been very surprising in one aspect. "But I cannot go back to Avaren for they will most likely attempt to capture me. I'll need to head towards Repaer."

[Cain Ellatar]

"Yes, I do believe we have already established my feelings towards your daughter, so I suppose repetition will somehow change said feelings, or so your logic might lead me to believe," Cain replied sarcastically, "I think you can save yourself a few breaths in the future by not bothering to resort to this same redundancy in our conversation."

"You will not take my terms, untrusting as you are. For that you play the part of the fool. I wonder, perhaps, if you would have me prove my trustworthiness to you, yet I shall dismiss this somewhat outlandish notion, assuming that not even you have an ego swollen enough to demand a king prove himself to you." he continued, not allowing his tone give Noctis any mistake for the scornful view he now held him in.

"You speak of my arrogance, yet yours is much greater for you happen to be the only one, out of all those gathered in this small spot," he said, gesturing to the clearing that only held the both of them, "Who has no true seat of power, thus no claim to any sort of pride, except a runaway daughter whom you will not trust on her own."

"Find her on your own then, if it is as you wish," Cain said with a tone of finality, pivoting on his heels to turn from Noctis, "You have rejected my one simple term so I will debate this no more."

With a curt gesture, the air around himself rippled, as would be seen when one might throw a pebble into the still surface of a pond and, just as how when the ripples in a pond have cleared, the pebble that caused them is gone from view, so to was Cain gone, transported by magic back to his city. After all, there was nothing left for him here; Muryllis had failed to annihilate the Avaren army and the slivers had killed only a few warriors before the army made its organized retreat, ending this confrontation almost entirely intact.

[Noctis Sepulcral]

"We are...alike then." Noctis whispered as the king passed with leave,all knowing that the king would not hear his words. "Pride, and passions, all enough to make us stubborn and uncaring of others."

Bowing his head, His lifted his palms upward with bent elbows, breathing in nature's air, the cool sensation coating his throat. With eyes close, his daughter he envisioned, her young face staring back at him, just before she exited their home. Infinite places she may be, underneath any sky, or roof, upon any hilltop or below any abyss.

"I will find you, Insidia. I'll bend time itself if there is a way, make it a thousand years a day. May it be a journey to the stars..." He spoke softly to himself, and to her, and still, all knowing who he spoke to could not hear those words. For one somber and illusion filled moment, he felt she could feel his need for her to be within his sights.