Plot: Crimson Investigates

[Malice]

So it had been about three weeks since he had met up with Ruien in Midgar, even though he had seen M in the meantime and completed his mission in Alexandria there was something that was eating at him about taking on this new job on. It was Ruien job his request in order for them to look into the Dorian incident. And whilst it had been a bit of a coincidence about Infinity running into the group that Ruien had mentioned. Well he didn’t want to leave it with her.

He had more experience in these kinds of things. Mostly because Infinity was a warrior, a soldier. She wasn’t much of an operative. Didn’t really have what you’d call the troubleshooting mind that was required in the world of black ops. She could swing a sword but didn’t have what it took really to undertake the kind of darker missions that Crimson was involved in. Chances are if something happened that she saw. For example the whole thing in Alexandria. She wouldn’t be able to uninvolved herself and watch like he had. She would need to join in on it. Which was why M considered her one of his own tools as far as the whole world changing aspect went. There was potential for controlled change within her. So they just had to take care of the rest of the bunch now.

So here he was in a place where he didn’t really expect to be tracking this group the Septum. But he’d received a tip off about this place being related to them somewhat. It was the empire of the south. The place where one of the “heroes” of the previous union had come from. Kefka. The original for Adrianna. He had came from this place. A fucked up man from an assumably fucked up empire. Though things looked oddly normal around here. Kind of reminded him of a more backwards Midgar. Chances are if given enough time the places technology might be able to catch up by comparison. But for now the thing remained as it was. Stuck in the past. This place was on high alert guard for some reason. That’s one of the things about empires. You could never really tell when one was on red alert. For whatever reason they were always covered from head to toe in guards who looked like they[d bash your head in for stepping out of line just the once.

Regardless of whether this was normal or not thought Crimson was getting a weird feeling about this join. It was as if there was more tension in the air that was normal. And considering his lead at the moment that was making sense. There had been rumors of a man wearing a white mask jumping around this place. That and for some reason a cult attributed to a dragon had popped up. Now normally Crimson wouldn’t be one to attribute these two things together. TO the normal onlooker theyd seem like a relatively random set of events. That is until you examined Infinity’s little interview a bit more and discovered she reported a man speaking some kind of weird language. Further examination of one of the words she had remembered had turned up a result in. You guessed it. The tongue of dragons. It was an old ass language. And wasn’t easy to find. Really he hadn’t even got a translation on it. Just that the text showed up in some things that had been related to the scaley creatures of the skies

As for the ma with the white mask.How did that fit into all this? Well, there were similar things had popped up in other continents. Trace of dragon language. Spotting’s of this dude. Although the latest reports were in this area. So Crimson had come down here looking to find out just what was going on here with this Septum. And as to whether or not they were linked with the worshipping of dragons. There was one thing that came into his mind when dragon and worship was mentioned. Especially since this had all come from the mouth of Ruien. Nemesis. The Godly Dragon. From what he had heard, she was a badass monster. That was another one of his leads. If it was true that things on this world in some way or another mirrored the old world. Did Nemesis exist here as well? He removed a folder from his coat as he hailed a tram. Inside were old photos. Old because they came from the Remnants. Of course they weren’t photos take by the Remnants. But rather by his old organization. The Hive. They’d kept an eye on a lot of things much like M-Labs did now. The Lucifers Mantra, the Brotherhood. The Tsviets. Everything all had its place in those archives.

During the old World exodus they’d taken refuge in a few old Hive bases. In reality only a few of these old world files existed. They were like god damned relics. He looked over the ones concerning the mantra and the goldy dragon, no mention of a man in a white mask. Cept when it came to Zero. He raised an eyebrow at that one. Taking a look at the old photo of the High Summoner. This was slightly after his corruption by the arcana The Malice. When he’d started suffering physical effects of that corruption. He’d for a brief time wore an eye cover. Which then progressed to a half mask. A half white mask. According to files Zero had also been the one who had fought Kain in the last battle. He tapped his chin.

The High Summoner and his bitch of a bride had both ruled over the last remnants of spira in the end. After the outbreak of the blight nothing had been heard about them. Assuambbly Manifest ZERO was the evil power of the Dark Summoner. But then….hmm….a lot of questions to ask when it came to this. He looked up as the tram came to its first stop.

” I wonder”

[Armand]

A state of alert, that much was clear to us as we looked down at the “Empire” which lies before us. Not that it took much to identify that; the air stunk of their unease, of their fear. And that was solely because we had allowed them all but a sparing glimpse of our darling pet, Teki. Or as the wondrous fleshlings called her “The Godly Dragon: Nemesis”, it was amusing to us that such a title existed, if she so desired she could rule at least a large part of the globe, she was beyond “Godly” and it was for that reason we had chosen to twist her grief to suit us.

“HMhmHmHMHm.”
We could only chuckle as the stench of fear intensified, yes; this would be the perfect warm-up ground for us, and for her. The fleshlings couldn’t touch us, and they couldn’t even begin to think about harming Teki, she who was capable of sustaining attacks from The Gods themselves and laughing them off... We raised a hand to our mask, the fleshlings unworthy of seeing the splendour of our true face.

Well, they were unworthy of seeing Teki in all her glory, but sacrifices had to be made. We had allies to awaken, we had certain... Obligations to fulfil, our dear fleshing friend had made us see sense, and with the scope of our abilities alone, we had this world on a platter... With the rest of our allies and Null by our side, we would be unstoppable.

We stood in silence, looking down at the Empire of fleshlings. Spinning the fifth Key of Awakening between our claws, we would give these fleshlings another showing of Teki soon enough, we had to get them nice and scared before we started harvesting what we needed from them... They didn’t need to be scared for the inevitable harvest, we just enjoyed seeing it.

“TeKI. OuR LovE. gIVe thEm ANoTHeR shOW.”
We heard her roar of acceptance and took a deep breath as the stench of fear intensified, and then allowed ourselves to laugh freely as the stench further intensified as she flew low enough to the ground to attack, but did nothing more before vanishing from sight. The stench of fear ever held its allure, the fleshlings couldn’t figure out what was happening, if only they knew, they would be fleeing for their lives. The upcoming harvest, it was truly a fate worse than death. One that we enjoyed condemning these fleshlings to, they were pitiful mockeries of life, they all deserved every misfortune that befell them, we would laugh with glee as we took what we needed from this harvest.

It was then we noticed a new scent through the stench of fear, calm and collected, well trained. We drew in a further breath, taking in as much information from the scent alone as we could. A fleshling, clearly a threat to its own kind, but to us, little more than an insect, and all insects would be crushed; their relevance in the world meant nothing to us.

“eVEn iF it HaS a STING, aN INSECT is stIlL An InSEcT.”
---

The Empire of Figaro was clearly in a state of alert, everyone was tense, and the guards were constantly looking to the sky with their weapons at the ready, almost as if they were expecting an attack at any time. With such odds it seemed as though many of the locals were completely oblivious to Crimson as he went about his investigation.

Clearly they had greater concerns at this moment in time.

Other than the signs of alertness, however, there were very few other signs of anything out-of-the-ordinary... Clearly the investigation was not going to be simple, but then again, what was when attempting to investigate secretive cults?

But still, it was clear that there was something wrong here, it would just be a case of knowing where to look.

[Malice]

So it would seem that nothing was going to be as simple as a sign somewhere conveniently placed saying “ secretive cult/organization based here”. But then it rarely ever was, cept of course if you counted M-Labs, which in the Lost Continent at least had labeled the entrance to their old facility quite clearly.

Of course that was back in the day, that lab was now shut down and there was nothing really out of the ordinary going on in that place anymore. They’d moved underground since then. As for this place though it seemed that some deeper investigation was going to be required and that meant going to a place were information was the real commodity. So that left him with two of the generalized options as far as gaining intel on an area went. He could either go for the adventurers favorite.

The local tavern. Or he could check out the guard barracks in this place. See if anyone was open to a bit of “ under the desk bonus”. Though from what he had heard about Figaro, the guards were rather loyal to the king, and likely any under handed gestures would land him in prison. Which would ultimately result in him having to kill someone, and well if bodies were left behind then it would require clean up. Clean up was messy. And he didn’t like messy…unless of course it was PIE rounds causing it. In which case he took GREAT pride in making a mess.

So it was off to the old adventurers favorite. The tavern. Despite being rather…stereotypical. The local watering hole was always a good place to find information brokers. Tavern owners were much like taxi men and barbers in that their customers tended to talk a lot around them. Only in taverns it was worse, mostly because the drunk thing tended to loosen lips as well as social inhibitions. He walked in and immediately the smell of stale booze permeated the air like a raw egg fart that was just hanging around. It was quite disgusting, though it seemed at this time there weren’t many patrons, just a few old drunks. Probably the best time to start gathering info. People who are drunk are never admissible witnesses. If he had to cause trouble, then he’d at least be covered on that front.

Crimson approached the bar and raised a finger, indicating of course to any kean eyed bar staff he would like a single lick of malt whiskey. Which was poured for him.

” Town seems changed since I last came out here…people are a bit on alert…anything I should be worried about?”

If his story was further asked into, he would simply play the role of a travelling merchant. After all, Ruien had bought the idea he was a merchant, so he was a pretty good actor on that front. And still had the trading license that he’d stolen from this Gaia’s version of him. Still found that funny, this Gaia’s him as a shop keep.

It was almost as funny as taking Sly Tribal seriously.

[Armand]

The barman raised an eyebrow as you asked your question, giving a look that almost seem to say “really?” by itself. However, he cast a cautious glance around the generally empty bar and then leaned on the counter, beginning to speak in an undertone.

“Been sightings of a huge black dragon today, I mean colossal, no-one knows if we’re under attack or if it’s simply some kind of bad sign. So far it’s flown low to the Empire twice, and then off again, not done anything else. Majority of the guards say they’ve seen it circling The Empire from high. Since then it’s vanished from sight completely. A few people have fled, but most are staying here, normally I’d join those running, but, The Guards have stopped most of us from fleeing... I can only guess they think it’s not enough to risk running away if the dragon hasn’t attacked yet.”
He paused for a moment.

“Personally, I think we should all be getting the hell out of here, if it’s come down that close to use twice God only knows what it’s up to.”

“Aye”
A strongly accented voice rang out across the bar, the sound of footfalls and then, a short distance away from you, across the bar a man with a large spear resting over his shoulder leaned against bar himself, his hair an odd shade of blue, matching the surreal colour of his eyes.

“They dinnae wan’ people tae panic, but they ain’t got a clue what they’re gonnae be up against if they stay here.”
His form was obscured by a long black coat; the hood lowered revealing his face... He couldn’t have been a follower of The Mantra; here they had been wiped out. However, he managed to catch your eye and shake his head gently as if to say “not here”.

“I got the next one fer yae.”
He placed several coins on the bar, requesting a shot of something at the other end of the bar, as the barkeep moved away to get his request you suddenly found the man stood next to you.

“I know why yae here Crimson, an’ I got a lead. There’s a Inn nearby, I suggest yae meet me there if yae wannae get Ruien’s Request done.”
He finished speaking just before the barkeep returned with his drink, which he downed in one gulp, he gave the barkeep a small nod.

“If worst, comes tae worst pal, hide in yae underground storage room.”
And with that the man turned and strode from the bar... How did he know your name? And more importantly, how did he know you were here at the request of Ruien?

[Malice]

Crimson raised his glass and drunk as the barman told his story. " That so?....I reckon then that a lot of the merchants in town will have been steering clear...more trade for those willin to risk it I suppose...". Again seeling the merchant act. That was right up till the point someone nearly blew his cover. But thankfully the man apparantly paid for his drink as a distraction. The accent was familar and apparantly the individual was familiar with him.

And apparantly knew what he was doing here. THough he questioned the validity of that point. He had mostly been acting secret. Ever since getting into this land he had ben using the merchant cover of his current world self. Then again M-Labs would have seen through it. But was this person as well connected as his employers?

The mantra coat was the most interesting part of everything. The mantra on this world were wiped out, so did that mean that this person was a survivor from the old world? Entirely possible. Unlikely. But entirely possible. And how else would he know his name? " Not sure I know what you mean friend, I'm just a travelling merchant".

He would keep that guise up right until the man mentioned beingg here at Ruiens request, and to meet him at an inn. Well that certainly made things a little bit clearer. If the man was working along side ruien that meant there was a high possibility that this one ha been told about his arrival by the Remnant himself. Of course it also meant that Ruien had allowed him to walkin blind without all the info on what to expect here. But then again Crimson had left Ruien in worse situations. Mutliple times.

With a last slug of a drink, Crimson determined that he was going to go ahead and break cover on this one to see if he could dicern the true nature of everything that was going on after all. So he headed off towards the designated meeting point, didn't take him too long to get there. Though what was on his mind were the last words that the man had spoke. If all went tits up he was to hide underground. But why?

"....Gotta say something is off about this whole thing.."

[Armand]

Arriving at the Inn would reveal something strange... It was completely empty, well, save for the man wearing The Mantra coat that is. Apparently the barkeep hadn’t been kidding when he had said people had tried to evacuate, by the looks of things the occupants of this Inn were some of the people that had successfully managed to escape. Which was great for keeping a classified conversation secret, didn’t do much the help the atmosphere though.

“Ah, yae made it.”
He didn’t sound surprised, but then again, he had asked you to meet him here.

“Well, first things first I guess. Yae have obviously noticed that I am a former Mantra follower. Name’s Kaime, from the ‘Old World’. Here after our Ruien found out about the gateways.”
He stated simply.

“Dinnae how he found out, the guy was oddly clued in. But, it ain’t mae place tae ask how he found out about the gateways. Been here for a few years now, dinnae if you heard about mine and Azithe’s death back in the Old World, let’s jus’ say stories of our demise were slightly exaggerated.”
He said with a smile.

“Regardless, The Septem. Yae here lookin’ for leads on ‘em ain’t you.”
It was a statement of fact, not a question.

“I have Mantra knowledge of ‘em, it ain’t much, but it’s better than whatever yae got now.”
Again a statement of fact, had he even heard of M-Labs? Then again, The Mantra had been a huge threat back on The Old World for a long while and there was clearly a reason for that.

“Despite their name there are eight of ‘em total, seven members and one leader-type figure holdin’ ‘em together. Dun’ get mae wrong, they DID exist back on The Old World. But, The Mantra were able to wipe ‘em out before they became a threat... An’ even then, that weren’t an easy fight, lemme’ tell yae.”
He paused for a moment.

“Fifteen of us were sent tae fight one member, only five of us survived tae the end. On this World The Mantra were exterminated before they could kill that first member... Jus’ remember for a moment how powerful The Mantra were, if ten out of fifteen of us died in that fight, what chance do any budding ‘union’ have against ‘em.”
So, they were undoubtedly powerful, especially if The Mantra lost that many people fighting only one member of The Septem. Kaime snapped his fingers, a file appearing in his hand from a flash of light... One of the old Mantra tricks, useful, and one they didn’t seem to like teaching to others.

“That file contains everythin’ that I and Azithe knew about ‘em. It ain’t perfect information, but it’s a start, eh?”
He raised his hood and covered his face in shadow.

“The one here right now, has somehow managed tae get The Godly Dragon on his side. I suggest yae get out of here pal. As skilled as yae are, yae ain’t a match... Hell, I’m gonnae struggle with this and I’ll only be able to slow him down.”
He hoisted his spear over his shoulder.

“Stick with yae cover if yae wanna leave through the front-door. For some reason they’re only stoppin’ citizens from leavin’. Dinnae what tae make of that.”
He said simply.

“Get that information tae Ruien; I’m sure we’ll meet again at some point.”
And in a flash of light he was gone, well, you had your objective, perhaps it was a good idea to follow Kaime’s advice and get the Hell out of Figaro.

[Malice]

So Crimson listened to what the Mantra member had to say and took the file when he gave it. Hhell looked like this place was going to get fucked up pretty soon. There was one thing that he remembered about the mantra from the old days and that was their complete lack of subtlty. M-Labs ruled in the shadow and whilst the time had come for them and the Remnants to take a more direct role in things. It seemed that the war with the mantra and this septem was about to become just as obvious.

There was just the mildest of temptations to cap Kaime in the knee with his paradox rounds. But well that wasn't going to work out too well. The man however did let slip a lovely piece of information though. This worlds Septem were from this world. Which meant his paradoxes were going to be having an effect if he came to battle one.

Thank god for whiskey and small favours eh?

With that Agent XXVI didn't really have much to do other than get the fuck out of here. He took the door suggested by the black robed dude with the wird accent and began to make his way out of town. He was right though that a merchant could make a killing in this place if he was determined enough. And brave enough to try and survive the godly dragons attack. Which was probably going to be absolutely unlikely. But he had to get this information back. Tempted as he was to just find a nice comfortable frock and sit watch the fight maybe with some popcorn. That was his type of thing after all. Just watching things occur and then reporting them back He pressed his hand to his ear with the comm device and claled it in. Within a few moments a jeep would be arriving on the outskirts of the town to take him out of there and towards the nearest dock to get off this continent.

And just in time too.

"....Well lets see what the big fuss is about".

[Armand]

-[Admin Post]-

Looking in the folder would only confirm what Kaime had told you, there was very little information contained within, most of it imperfect, however, as he had stated some information was better than none at all...
---

The Septem are a small group of individuals each possessing incredible power, they seemingly have no origin in this world, but are gathered from a wide variety of worlds. Their purpose is unknown to even the most educated; however, it is clear that their presence bodes ill for everyone. There are seven members, and one leader.

Each of them exists outside of known reality; they have no known weaknesses and appear to have ascended past mortal needs.

Ø] Null
¬ There is not much that can be said about Null, other than he is male. All that we have been able to gather about this mysterious individual is that he does exist. We, however, have never seen him.

I] The Fallen King
¬ The Fallen King was once a highly regarded monarch in his own world. Now, is the resident mage behind The Septem, his magic is close to unmatched in force and power, and to top that off the speed at which he is able to cast his spells with is inhuman.

II] The Temptress
¬ Nothing is known about her personal history, nor about the full scope of her abilities. The most information that we’ve been able to gather is that she is in fact a Succubus, and she isn’t picky about the sex of her “lovers”. She is capable of charming people and turning allies against each other. Do not face alone.

III] The Alchemist
¬ This one isn’t quite as primitive as he sounds, apparently the selection process is lax when it comes to picking an “Alchemist” to fill this role. This man is a scientist from a reality in which nothing is known about, so it’s impossible to tell whether or not he’s more advanced in the field of science than this world is. What is known however, is that he is super human, capable at moving fast enough to give the appearance of teleportation and strong enough to punch holes through thick metal walls. Once we find the source of his abilities, it shouldn’t be too hard to eliminate him.

IV] The Torn
¬ We have not been able to gain much information on this one, all we’ve seen is that ITS abilities are like nothing we’ve ever encountered before.

V] The Scorned
¬ This one is interesting, exceptionally powerful, but interesting. While much like the rest of The Septem, information about him is limited he fights using glyphs and runes. These things produce their own magical energy and are capable of self sustaining indefinitely until he believes they’ve served their purpose. Be warned, magic of this form does not follow the same rules as standard magic, this man should not be faced without a plan.

VI] The Nameless Maiden
¬ No information could be gathered, but she seems to rely on the strength of a guardian and doesn’t seem to be a fighter herself.

VII] The Survivor
¬ The one is effectively the most dangerous unit of the lot, he is capable of summoning powerful creatures to his side effortlessly, and is capable of further increasing their power. However, the most striking ability of this man is that he is a true immortal. He cannot die, at all. Do not face this man, no matter what.

What we have managed to gather about them so far, is that for the time being all but one of them are placed into a state similar to that of stasis and require seven keys to be awoken once more. However, despite our best efforts we have been unable to locate these keys, or the location they sleep in.

The currently active member of The Septem is “The Torn”, if it is eliminated before it can awaken its comrades then the threat will end with it... Be forewarned, however, it has managed to acquire the aid of The Godly Dragon, fighting in tandem with her will make them impossible to defeat. Separate them somehow to achieve victory.

The Septem must never return to their full numbers.

Thread Over

[Malice]

Plot thread closed. Update pending