Hakon gasped the hot, foul air as the grubby hands were released from her throat, quickly wrapping her arms around Aven- she had never felt so exposed in her entire life… Screwing her eyes tightly shut, she trembled. Never had she felt so utterly unprotected. Her armor was nothing to these- she should have known she would face such an adversary at some point. It was nonetheless rather shocking. Shaking her head, she simply hugged him tightly as the souls returned to their torture- slowly the landscape began to be swallowed up by an all consuming blackness. Soon, the blackness swallowed them up… Leaving them in the next plane.

Ghosts shifted through the pitch blackness, glowing silver-blue and hacking one another apart, some still held flesh suspended in their ghostly flesh- bones protruding from centuries of blowing one apart with strike after strike. Yet still they tore at one another again and again- endlessly tearing one another apart as Banshees glided about the darkness, watching, observing, revelling in all the emotions they thieved from the unfortunate souls here.

Aven stroked Hakon's head softly, whispering his love. "It's okay, Haki, they're gone. You're safe." He glanced aroudn as the scenery changed, bringing them to another dark plane. If it was in order, this would be the Circle of Anger, and right he would be. The skeletons, even without skin to show it, radiated anger, and he could sense unholy magic being cast from around them. The banshees were using a type of draining spell on the skeletons, stealing away emotion from their very souls. "Look around, Haki. This is what becomes of those who partake in the fruits of rage."

He wondered, were the banshees the guardians? They didn't seem very strong, he decided to test that. He extended his hand, and one of his tendrils shot out, constricting the nearest Banshee. Unfortunately, it passed straight through the ghostly figure. Aven gritted his teeth: he wouldn't be any help against those foes, not without a type of attack magic, which would take time to set up, time he likely wouldn't have before they collapsed on Hakon. "Haki, this is your show: use those holy skills you picked up, I can't touch them with my normal attacks."

Hakon paused as she looked around… She suddenly had a feeling she would be returning to this circle someday. Nonetheless, at his words she slowly nodded- the Banshees turning their attention to the young couple- with high pitched screams they suddenly leapt forward, leaving the souls to tear one another part. Yet Hakon murmured a quick mantra under her breath, her sword slowly being entwined with golden-white energy as she moves forward," I don't want you to get hurt- hide in my armor," she murmurs. She knew in this place, if he could touch the Banshees, he would be more powerful then ever with that pitch blackness that swallowed them whole here. Yet… It gave her some relief, she finally felt as if she could do her duty without having to wait for her lover, as sweet as he was, to do it first.

She raised her shield, allowing the Banshees to bang upon it as she hacked and slashed away, allowing herself to fall into that numbing, relieving pattern of simply destroying anything in her way.

Aven nodded quickly, and without a word, slipped into the shadows and entered her armor, hugging the outer walls of the metal and reinforcing them with Dark matter. He may not be any help in the current situation, but he supposed that wasn't a terrible thing. No being could be perfectly suited for every task, especially in the higher echelons of power: often, in exchange for vast power, one gains prominent weaknesses to other forces, it was simply how the universe worked. His voice echoes within the armor. "Get them, Haki!"

She couldn't help but giggle, it was rather fun having him squishing up inside her armor, if only in the future they had armor that could speak to you, through magic and technolgy. Truly incredible. Her visions of a grand and quite distant future were interrupted as a Banshee's sharp nails bounce of her armor, bringing her back to the preseng with a start. She quickly rips her sword to and fro, elegantly following the passages of air and blood she had followed for her entire life before feeling an odd draining sensation. Anger began to well up inside her.

Soon it began to turn into blind rage, she was angry she had gone so far in another world only to be squashed under beaurocrats, she was angry she had fought for a people, a country she loved and been torn from a future there, she was angry she had been given everything but not enough, she was angry she was expected to bare children and relinquish her freedom to them, she was angry…That… She had responsibility.

Alas, she began to lose herself in this fury, her strikes becoming more and more savage, brute- no longer caluclated but merely animalistic.

Aven was impressed at the sheer rate she began to cut down the specters, it was almost as through she were born to battle such as this. however, soon his admiration turn to worry, as he realized she was being reckless: not only that, but she was becoming more and more like the ghostly soldier they saw fighting, without any emotion but anger. She must have been draining her that whole time! Aven thought quickly, trying to devise a plan to break her from her rampage… but he could think of nothing else, except…

The last Banshee was sent into the twisting nether by her holy blade, but as she turned to find another target for her rage, she'd feel a massaging sensation along the more choice parts of her chest, as well as… other… areas.

Hakon stopped almost completely dead in her slaughter, a gasp erupting from her lips as her eyes fly wide and a heavy blush immediately starts to form across her skin. She stumbles slightly but quickly right herself, instinctively she grasps at her chest, blushing heavily as she snaps from the rage in almost seconds- trying to push away at nothing as he was quite safe inside her armor," Av-Aven, what are you-!? I-I'm busy-" she squeaks defiantly,  forcing herself to impale another Banshee upon her sword, before stumbling again, biting her lip," Wh-why couldn't you have just- ah-!"

Aven's jovial laugh echoes through her armor. "Now, now, don't have too much fun without me! I was just beginning to feel left out, is all. We've passed the test, I'd say it's about time to move to the next Circle, don't you think?" Another decisive squeeze to her chest. "Or, perhaps I could do a bit more work on you… I wonder if you could get your armor off before I got you to a boiling point? Care to find out?" His voice is teasing, but it also carries genuine concern for her. He didn't like seeing her angry or sad, only her smile could bring light to his world. In fact, because of his form, it was the only light that he could love.

Hakon pauses as the last visible Banshee falls to her consecrated blade before shaking her head gently and fro, staggering slightly," D-dammit Aven-" she sighs, turning her face to kiss the cheek plate of her helm, wondering if he lurked within that particular second of shadow," Save it for…. For when we're not in Hell, got it?" she chuckles raspily before lowering her sword as the scenery before them rippled,"…" As the glowing gold blade pressed gently to the ground, she sighs softly," Thank you-"

" So much, my love."

Alas, the Sixth circle opens up before them- red desert, flames and ruined houses all… Wandering the plane, madmen whispered their lies for anything to one another and the ghosts of their past. Alas, a cloaked individual, heavily laden in rags made of ruined parchment wandered slowly toward them. The parchment seemed to be letters, decrees. Letters of men at war promising their eternal love to their pregnant wives as they laid with foreign whores, decrees promising children with no one to care for them to be loved by the authority powers only to abandoned despite the signatures of those in power scrawled plainly to see… Lies, and yet as the stranger approached-they pulled down their cloak to reveal Aven's worst enemy..

Aven laughed as she kissed his cheek, and as the new Circle opened, he snaked out of her armor and rose from the shadows, observing the area around them. His eye caught a figure approaching, clothed in rags and bearing random letters, scrawled with haste and carelessness. The figure pulled down their cloak, to reveal a middle aged man with crimson eyes, and matching hair. The man tossed the papers into the wind, making the most solid of eye contact with Aven, a cocky, unscrupulous grin on his face. "Well, well, well… Fancy seeing you here, my foolish successor. I don't suppose you've reconsidered my offer?" Aven's eyes flew wide. No… no, no, no, NO! He couldn't be alive, it was a trick of the Circle, it had to be a mimic. What else could it be? Dark Matter beings don't have souls, they couldn't go to hell! As if reading Aven's thoughts, the crimson man chortled. "I know exactly what you're thinking, but you couldn't be more wrong. Perhaps we do not go here, but there will always be a place beyond for those like us, Val'chaen." As he spoke, the earth around the crimson man became pitch black, rising and rocketing towards Aven and Hakon.

Any God within the realm of the Inferno will feel a vastly disturbing presence, recognizable by some as a source of Void Energy.

Aven's tendrils rise in the blinks of an eye, deflecting the projectiles, his brow furrowed as far as it could, pure anger within Aven's normally gentle eyes. "How dare you show your face here, Rashir, I KILLED you!" Aven's eyes turn black, the tips of his hair beginning to do the same, and the earth Rashir had thrown rise into the air, catapulting back at him.

Rashir makes a few quick gestures with his hands, and the rocks disintegrate. "Well now, someone is getting angry, though I see you haven't lost your touch." He glances at Hakon, causing Aven to move defensively in front of her. "I'm not here to start a second realm-warping battle to the death with you, I'm simply here to pay my homage to the new force of nature." His eyes fall to Hakon's stomach.