Matt leaned forward, readjusting his elbow on the armrest. "What do you mean?"

"He's got a weakness," Alasea said, looking over at him. "When he attacked me yesterday, only one of my attacks seemed to do any real damage to him. And when Riul attacked him, all of her attacks threw him all over the place."

"So what attacks?" R.D. pressed.

"Light."

Matt just smacked his forehead. "Why didn't I think of that in the first place?"

"I don't expect you to think that far ahead," Hugo said.

"Shut up, Hugo."

"Riul's light-based attacks nearly tore him apart," Alasea said, looking over to the analysts. "Just a few strong ones was enough to make him retreat."

"So we'll need to devise some more light-based attacks if we face him," R.D. said, leaning to the side at his place at the table. "You guys got any weapons that use light?"

"There are some that we just recently completed," one older officer said. "We'll be happy to test them out on this Malvettix creature."

"Good luck with that," Hugo said. "He's a tough bastard."

"That much is certain," said another officer. "We'll be sure to take precautions when dealing with him."

"I hope so," R.D. said. "Nothing good comes with fighting Malvettix."

They progressed on to talking about the current threat: Ziatoch. Though they hadn't fought against Ziatoch's forces as often as they had against NightShade's, what they did know was extremely valuable. Ziatoch's forces had always been that much worse than NightShade's, barring the one botched fight against Bruno, and attacks from NightShade and the Seven Beasts themselves.

"I think we fought the Devil at one point," R.D. said as the discussion went on, concerning the sheer strength of the opponents they faced.

"The Devil?" one officer questioned.

"Yeah. Called himself Diablo, turned into a gigantic red demon," R.D. said, recounting. "Separated Helena from me, Matt, and Hugo, and tore the place apart. He was the strongest opponent we'd faced thus far. It wouldn't surprise me if Ziatoch had plucked him straight out of Hell."

"But don't worry, we already took care of him." Matt drew his fingers past his forehead to the top of his ear, brushing aside some hair. "He was hard, but we did it."

"How did you kill the Devil?" Helena asked.

"Long story."

"So, it seems our opponent is known to recruit His generals from other dimensions," Patrick commented, his hands clasped in front of him as they rested on the table.

"Pretty much. There's probably worse things he hasn't thrown at us," R.D. said. "All of the monsters we've fought and killed were pretty unconcerned about the Seven Beasts. Like they had something that posed a bigger threat."

"And this Omega Essence business doesn't help, either," Matt said. "I wonder if Ziatoch cares enough about it to come after us."

"I don't think we csn rule that out," Helena said. "If He's as powerful as you say He is, then we need to be ready."

"Yeah, you're right."

"From what I can tell with my own powers, they seem to have a link to something," Alasea spoke up, thinking. "Like... some vast source of divine energy."

"Divine energy?" R.D. asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked sideways at the girl. That which can stop the power of the divine...

"Yeah. The kind of energy you find in divine entities, like gods. Remember Vagabond?"

"Vaguely," R.D. said. "We haven't heard from him ever since one of those monsters broke the jewel."

"Well, Vagabond had loads of divine energy," Alasea said matter-of-factly. "That's probably how he was able to do all those incredible things. Its practically the same for Ziatoch's generals. Its different, but the core of it is identical."

"What are you trying to get at?" one of the officers asked.

"... I see," R.D. suddenly said, slapping a hand to his head just like Matt had about Malvettix's weakness. "If they have a link to divine energy, then the Crystalis can weaken them!"

"The what?" Matt asked. "I don't think I remember you telling me about that."

"Its this... substance, energy, not sure what... that Tamaran can produce through the Ao-Gem," R.D. explained. "What Crystalis does is weaken and negate divine power."

He quickly explained how the voice of Bahamut spoke to him, telling that the "power of the unreal" was the only thing capable of stopping the power of the divine. He went on, telling how using the Crystalis infused into his attacks, he was able to weaken Sheena's powers into something that was little more than a nuisance, while his own attacks became dangerous to her.

"And, well, you know how Lumiya works," R.D. said. "I've been exposed to the Crystalis, so I can produce it on my own now."

"Perfect," Hugo said with satisfaction. "That'll keep us on even ground."

"I'm only one person, though," R.D. reminded the Mettaur. "And Lumiya is still damaged. I can't make an obscene amount to use yet."

"Perhaps you can show the scientists how to draw the Crystalis out of the Ao-Gems," Patrick said.

"Ao-Gems?" R.D. said, emphasizing the amount. "You have more than one?"

The General nodded. "One of the first things we attempted to do with the Omega Essence is replicate it. The result was the production of an Ao-Gem. While different from what we had hoped, it was still infinitely useful to us."

Ileyna nodded slowly at that, remembering what the Principality had said. Ao-Gems were artificial Omega Essence.

"So, you have the means to use the Crystalis against them," R.D. said. "You just didn't know how. Alright then, I think I can help you with that."

The General merely nodded in gratitude, while the other technicians continued to input the information into the database.

"Hopefully it's enough," Matt said. "Other than that, I don't know what else we can do."

The group didn't have much to add after that. They mentioned what they could of Ziatoch's tactics, including how He could rebuild His generals using cybernetics (Xazax was fresh in R.D.'s mind; though Xazax was easily destroyed, it would no longer be the case for anyone else).

"Thank you," General Dagenais said with a nod as they finished telling them what they knew. "This information will be invaluable in the coming days."

"For now," another older officer said, "We'll have R.D. meet with one of our mechanoid teams. The rest of you will be dismiss. Quarters have been prepared for your group for the duration of your stay here."

"Yeah, um, can you show Matt and the others where the Omega Essence is?" R.D. asked.

"Whatever for?" the officer replied, looking over at him.

"Well, since we're here to protect the Essence, it'd be best if they knew where exactly its being held at."

"Hmm, yes, that'd be wise. Very well, we'll have someone escort you there."

Patrick pressed a button on an intercom. "Colonel Patterson, report to the main briefing room immediately."

===Innerpeace===

If Seril was bothered by the sudden appearance of the new robot, she gave no sign of it. Instead, she greeted Proto Man coolly. "My name is Seril," she introduced. "I am a member of the Dragon Tribes."

Riul's brow furrowed at the notion of fighting Awai herself. Emotions flooded her system at once. What if she couldn't even get close? Would he reject her? What if somehow she hurt him? What if she couldn't impress him? Closing her eyes, she slowly forced these thoughts out of her mind as she built up energy inside of her core. Focus and peace was what she needed if she was to succeed at this.

Riul waited patiently, knowing that Awai would not take the move, until about ten seconds after he had stepped back Riul opened her eyes, now glazed with light. She would just have to do her best and not worry about Awai on this matter. Her feet sprung from the ground and her arms flailed around her, spinning herself into a circle.

Immediately four mirrors appeared around Awai, placing him in the diagonal cross between the reflectors, and light shot from Riul's hands as they spun, a beam to each mirror. Travelling at an intense speed, the beams struck the mirrors and reflected straight toward Awai. The moment her attacks had been launched, Riul pushed herself away from Awai, placing distance between the two of them while she gathered light into her palms for her next attack.

Edited by Ribitta on April 29, 2009 at 17:01:09.

This was going to be hectic. He'd never been to war before, like he said. You always hear the tales of war, granted, but he was a believer of living the ride for yourself.

Not that he or Hugo couldn't handle it, having fought off hundreds of opponents during their journeys. But could Helena take it straight on and not break down? Matt hoped so. It was bad enough that she was in this situation. He just hoped she wouldn't hate him for it.

OOC: Sorry =P

Riul gritted her teeth as she watched Awai's snappy reflection of her technique and his approval of her method. Maybe I can do this after all, she thought with a fleeting sense of triumph. She had to be quicker and smarter if he could simply deflect her attacks. If I can at least touch him with something, that will be a start, she thought as she released her next attack.

Twin threads of light shot from her hands, breaking off and separating into several different beams that twisted in the air and aimed in Awai's direction. These were not aimed for him, however, and as they collided into the ground near him a sudden explosion errupted from their points of entry into the earth.

Hoping to catch him in a jump away from these explosions, Riul leapt into the air and hurled another beam of light, this one much wider, above where he had last been. Another thought permeated her consciousness, If I could properly do the construction... I'm sure I could catch him off guard!

OOC: So is he floating? o.O Because his dialogue indicates it but the rest of your post does not.

Riul spun around and leapt back. He can teleport? How is that fair? Maybe it's not meant to be. I guess I'll have to stay one step ahead of him. Taking a couple of steps away from Awai, Riul summoned four prisms around the two of them as she had done before with the mirrors. These prisms would absorb all light that entered into it and reflect it outwards in random patterns at five times the initial amount making the area almost like a living disco hell.

Four colossal beams of light shot down from the heavens, smashing into the prisms and immediately being reflected and split outwards. Thousands of beams of light were issued at incredible speeds toward everything: scenery, the ground, Awai, and even Riul. The beams that came to Riul were suddenly caught by an invisible field Riul had created, and the light began swirling around her even faster than before.

Inside her cocoon Riul focused, shaping the light around her as fast as she could. She'd never touched the art of construction in this manner before, but as the adrenaline made the blood pound in her ears, she did not doubt herself. Moments later the beams from the heavens ceased their fury and Riul sprung backward, landing on top of her creation.

With a wingspan of over forty feet, and a head to tail length of at least twenty, the dragon under Riul's control roared viciously. The golden scales that made up the surface of the dragon were translucent, but just as solid and touch as any other dragon's hide. The wings beat the ground fiercely, shooting up dust and grass burnt from her most recent light show.

The wings beat furiously, pushing both Riul and her mount at an intense speed toward Awai. With another roar, the dragon issued a stream of Holy Fire, singeing the air as it sped toward Awai at an even quicker speed. Come on...

The grin that lit Riul's face as she finally landed a blow on Awai. Her happiness was short lived though as she realized he would be retaliating with an attack of his own this time. While she knew his power at its fullest would be more than enough to wipe her off the world, she knew he would take control of whatever he threw at her. Nevertheless the attack headed her way was more than intimidating, and Riul immediately willed the dragon to pull away from the windstorm that pushed onward.

The creature beneath her panicked, and while she had brought it into existence it was still not entirely beneath her ability to control. It willed itself to push in a direction that would surely bring them right into the attack. Fusion's my only hope left, she thought desperately, I'll just have to do my best. The light from the dragon faded as she dismissed it, and the shimmer that it left floated upward into Riul.

Light enveloped her quickly, lighting up the entire area even more brightly than before. As the light faded, giant draconic wings beat the air holding up Riul's body, which was no covered with translucent golden scales. Her instincts would now be half human, half beast, and with a thrust of her wings Riul shot straight into the attack, spinning in the air while sending out waves energy to bat off the violent winds. As her spin increased, her body became something like a human drill, heading straight toward Awai at inhuman speeds, light waves still pulsating every quarter of a second all around her.

Patterson arrived only a moment later. The doors slid open before him as he entered, his back straight from discipline. He was wearing a suit with the military's color. On his chest were ten medals, all given during his time extracting some certain scientist in a certain lab. Boy what a hell that was. Both the Timmons brothers were lost. Good men. His men. Swallowing hard, Colonel Patterson walked further into the room. He stopped a few feet before the General. He clicked his heels together and saluted.

"General Sir, Colonel Patterson reporting, sir." Patterson said dutifully.

~California~

After landing in San Fransisco, the Hartnetts had begun their search for this volcano for any clues of the remaining pieces of the chronoscepter. They were alone now and Veronica felt this the most. No more divine powers to get them out of a trouble if it were to arise. This troubled not only her but her husband and Brandon. Hardly anyone could sleep at night and when they did it was no more than a couple of hours.

"We'll be entering Nevada, right through Vegas. Looks like thing thing is in Wyoming. We'll go through Nevada then to Utah and into Wyoming. It'll probably take only a couple of hours at this rate." Bryant said as he looked at the map. Something slammed against the top of Warmachine. They looked up. It slammed again, this time a dent forming on the top of the tank.

"Look out!" Veronica screamed as a swarm of giant bat like creatures covered the tank with their bodies. It was as if the sun had suddenly died. Brandon made a sharp turn, knocking most of the bats off. Quickly manning the over head gun, Bryant began clearing the bats off the tank, their green blood staining the ceiling.

"Drive!" Bryant commanded as Brandon put the pedal to the metal and they drove off north, fending off the bats. Bryant thought something dimly, grimly as he shot at the incoming swarm that only seemed to grow with the body count.

Welcome to Hell

The General returned Patterson's salute, then motioned towards Matt and the others. "These are the children we found earlier today, when we were investigating the resonance on the artifact," he explained. "I need you to take them down to the research station harboring the artifact."

===Innerpeace===

Seril entered as Gatz motioned for her, and she looked back at the other Ancients. "You know, fire shouldn't be much of a problem, if you need to get into Area K."

Edited by RisingDragon on April 30, 2009 at 17:28:33.

"Hey," Matt said with a curt wave, and Hugo tipped his pickaxe off of his helmet in greeting.