R.D. shook his head in disgust, already feeling the effects of Bahamut's soul bleeding into his own consciousness. As a guardian spirit of nature, such a thing would've been appalling to the King of Dragons. "I guess I'll have to do something about that while I'm there," he muttered, and started for the portal. "No use in delaying it. Let's go."

Briefly, the gauntlet on Meta's hand resonated incredibly strongly, before suddenly dying down to something more akin to a soft hum. It distracted her enough to keep her from her assault, but she renewed it quickly. She was born for the offensive, and luckily she had come to be able to last a while in fights because of her long training, fights both mental, physical and magical. She attempted to penetrate Lament's mind from all sides, attempting quick reads, before turning around to defend her own mind from mind-reading attempts, so that she wouldn't get distracted again and weakened. To make it, her assault would need to be as flawless as possible. She'd investigate the deal with the Hand of Chaos after they were done.

R.D. was already headed for the portal, not even blinking as he was about to step into its threshold--he'd been in plenty already, there was nothing this portal could do to really surprise him--but he halted as Lumiya pulsed once more, its strongest resonance yet.

He froze mid-step, then backed up, looking behind him. "Okay. I have got to find out what the hell is causing that before I go further," he stated, looking around.

Strongest weapon in all of the Multiverse and the bloody thing was resonating for unknown reasons. Magical. Hadn't the thing finished repairing itself yet?

Edited by RisingDragon on May 19, 2013 at 22:56:54

= Nexus Library =

Meta should've seen this coming. Defending against it herself would be easy enough, but she had something that Lament didn't have. She shot a command at the Hallow Arm encasing her hand to seize control over the flames and send them at Lament instead, and to do the same with any follow-up attacks he might make. In the meantime, she herself focused on invading his mind to take control in similar manner, while she didn't need to worry about defending against it at all, and at the same time being aided by the Hallow Arm in her attack in the physical realm.

The Hallow Arm complied, but it began to shake and buzz as if in panic, wanting to hurry things up as if something was driving it to haste. As if something it wanted that it had always thought close was suddenly leaving and it had to chase after it. It was slightly discomforting, but it only strengthened Meta's resolve, as if she felt like the Hallow Arm backed her up.

Heh, you too, huh?

In her attack on Lament she raced over her list of options. She wanted to use light, as it was his weakest area, but neither of them could use it. As the Hallow Arm already was controlling the flames that shot at Lament, Meta quickly chose a complimenting option and tried to do the same thing Lament just did to her, but with the element of lightning. She poured all of herself into the attack. The time for the exam was nearly up.

Rah!

Meta was abruptly expelled from Lament's mind and then felt a great, yet familiar discomfort wash over her. Darnit, Lament, you...! The flash of lightning crashed in front of her, and when she moved to go on, she saw that Lament had relaxed, but not like he had done so often before. She panted slightly, then sharply held her breath and controlled it. She smirked. It felt good knowing that she had progressed enough like this.

"Well then, when I beat him," she replied to Lament, "I'll come back for you, my darling teacher." The comment about her eyes felt weird to her, made her unsure what he meant, but it wouldn't matter. Whoever he meant, she planned on beating many, and undoubtedly he was amongst them.

The Hallow Arm sent her its message once again, as if to spur her on. Fine, fine. She grumbled mentally. "I'm sorry, Lament, but now that I am done, I have to be off right away. This hand of mine seems eager to go, as if to pull me somewhere, or to something or someone."

It's close. So close.

Did... did the Hallow Arm just speak to her? Or was it her interpretation of its vibrations? Within it, she could feel it screaming.

LUMIYA!