They had entered the next level red dirt, buring bushes, and broken cobblestone decorated this place. Those that inhabbited this place had theie moiths sewn shut and like all other circles seemed to be tormented by this among other things. Upon arrival Ceseic had collapsed. She looked at him with worry, what were they to so now? As she questioned this another man appeared. A tall man for a human, about a foot taller than herself asking to join their little party. She nodded as Elenoir said yes. It qould be welcome to have someone who knew how to fight the guardians of hell. "You're welcome to join us. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Lily, the unconscious one is Cedric, and this is… um…. oh we never dis get your name my dear." She said with a slight frown. She was usually much better at introductions but seemed to have forgotten when it came to the young woman who had basically saved them with her hauntingly beautiful music. 

She turned her attention to Cedric as Elenoir cradled him in her arms. She placed a hand on him and wearily assessed his situation. She couldn't do much for him other than make sure he had nothing wrong with him. The connection that had allowed her to give him her magic had broken. The time limit really was short but it had done it's job. She was left with almost nothing in the way of magical energies but that wasn't much of a concern at the moment. Her spells were still in place that placed a last resort protection upon both Cedric and Elenoir, but their new companion… She didn't know if she had the energy to protect him in the same way. She looked at Elenoir with a tired smile and said, "He should be fine soon, my magic is contained within him and it had some natural healing abilities so he shouldn't be out for long." She did her best to comfort the young woman before turning her attention to the newcomer. "I apologise about the sorry state you find us in. I am more of a support player in a fight but a bit low on energy at the moment. I'll try and place the same protection upon you as I have the others just in case but I'm not sure how effective it'll be." She said and struggled for a moment before sighing and saying, "alas it seems I don't have the energy to put the spell for emergencies up, but I think I still have enough for minor support."

It was after those words that a figure started approaching. It was the guardian of this level Zelus. She had heard about him from the other adventurers who had made it through the circles of hell. She immediately got into a defensive stance. "Be careful, he transforms into the one you hate most, the one you've lied to most, and has every bit of information as to why you hate them most." She said, fully expecting to see him transform into a man named Leo when it came to her. To her surprise when the dark being looked at her he transformed into… herself. She looked startled and said, "Well that's surprising. I suppose we each have to face our most hated enemy and I guess I'm first. Unless one of you hates me more than anyone you've met?" She walked forward to face the dark being. It started speaking to her in a different language and Lily looked shocked at it's words. She spoke back in the same language and for a while it was a back and forth, the dark creature then seemed to get an almost demonic aura about it and looked at her with murder in its eyes. For a moment Lily just smirked and her aura seemed to change to a similar almost demonic one, but with a glance back at her companions the aura faded and she spoke to the dark being once more. It looked surprised and it's aura disappeared as well. She went on to speak in length in this unknown language before the dark being laughed and said in her voice, "It's been a long time since I've been defeated without violence. I hope your choice doesn't have it's own consequences." The look on the dark being in a guise as herself seems to say the opposite before it turned it's attention to the others, it's form shimmering as it transformed for one of them.

Hyde looked in amusement as the being transformed into Lily, he looked at Cedric, then at Elenoir. "Hum, what's this?" He asked in curiosity.
"Ah! He's trying to pit us against each other! He's merely making a fool of us!" He cried, as he drew his sword.

Hyde readied to strike, until it became his friend. He remembered his battle with the general, he lied to him in order to lead him into a trap and he had gotten a couple of Eagle Eye Rangers to murder the general as he cannot do it himself, for his best friend, an orc, would surely avenge his master for his honor. And he would have to kill him too, so he lied. He lied to his friend that the rangers murdered him, and that he did not have anything to do with it.

Hyde, snapping back to the present, decided that it was time to face the truth, he would have to face his lies, once and for all, and this "friend" is merely a being that is masquerading as his friend.

While, in the background, Cedric is heard spitting out water that came out of nowhere.

Cedric woke up in deep waters, he tried his best to swim up to the surface, but it was no use, the surface was nowhere to be seen, as if he was in only water. He started to run out of air, he tried harder to swim up, as that was happening, a large underwater creature appeared beneath him and ate him whole.

Cedric rolled out of Elenoir's gentle hold and fell down, face first, as he knelt down and vomited water. When it stopped, he perked right back up in a comical manner and said to Hyde "Oh, hi, how are you?" Cedric stood up and saw Hyde square off against an orc. Electric crystals then start to grow on his hands. "Wait, what the hell?" Cedric said, looking at the crystals that tore apart his leather glove, he tried to throw it off, instead, he cast a bolt of lightning down. In the process, the crystals broke off and his veins started to glow a lighter blue, representing electricity.

"That's unexpected" He said, he stood beside Hyde, if the orc were to advance first, he would be ready for it, He shook his fist opened at a spot in the ground, a bolt of electricity from his hands hit the ground and it sprouted electric crystals, zapping anyone who were to cross it. As he was still a bit weak, he only assisted Hyde by placing traps around the perimeter. Shielding them from the battle, shocking both Hyde and the orc if they moved outside the barrier.

"Go Knightman!" Cedric cheered, he wasn't taking this very seriously, as you can see.

(OOC: I did not get to reply quickly as we were on a retreat and we had to stay overnight, but now I'm back! Expect things to go a bit smoother now.)

The whole while, the nameless violinist simply hung back, as the shapes and forms of hateful images appeared before each of her companions, she slowly turned her back to them. Slowly, she took a deep, meditative breath and raised her horse hair bow to draw it across the strings of the violin and yet…. Something stopped her… A low rasping voice seemed to seep into her very soul.

" Poor, woeful child."

She opened her eyes and saw nothing, she hated nothing in her soul and yet…

" What you hate the most- it cannot harm you here. Do not worry, child… You will return to it soon."

The voice simply faded with low, bubbling laughter- the eery presence of the Guardian leaving her be. Elenoir's skin was utterly drenched with cold sweat and her breath barely rasped between her lips, her bow shook upon the wire strings and yet- she squeezed her eyes tightly shut and turned back toward her companions, wrestling with their own demons.

Hyde looked at the orc, he was breathing heavily. It showed no remorse at the sight of Hyde, it was about to charge at any moment.
The orc charged, not seeing the electric trap that Cedric planted and it was being shocked, Hyde charged in and swung his sword at the orc. It was pushed back into one of the other crystals surrounding the area, once it escaped the shocking hold of the traps, it charged Hyde once more, Hyde charged as well and their swords clashed, Their violent struggle seemed to have no end.

Then, the Zelus turned back to Lily, it was about to look as if he hated Lily, he didn't want this, he kicked over the doppleganger and then it turned back into the orc. Hyde then knocked the weapon out of the Zelus' hand and Hyde pinned him down, pointing his sword at his neck, this merciless creature was tormenting him. Hyde couldn't control his anger, and it would seem as if he won, until the Zelus disappeared and reappeared behind the electric crystals, Hyde, unknowingly, charged straight into the trap and got shocked.
His feet was planted onto the surrounding ground. He couldn't hear a thing except his screams of agony, he tried his hardest to jump out of the crystals and once he did, the Zelus disappeared once again, but it appeared behind the arena, facing the others, disguised as him.

Each person's battles raged on, a group on onlookers gawked at the newcomers, each bound in their silence they seemed to almost look blissful at the sound of words being spoken. Lily was too tired to care anymore as she watched what occurred. Zelus seemed to almost be growing more desperate as he was teleporting about now, changing his appearance at will. He had escaped from Cedric's trap but Hyde was still trapped within. He ended up zapping himself and Lily gave a sigh. Cedric had seemed quite out of it himself so she didn't know if he'd be paying attention. She walked up to the electric crystal trap and extended her hand. She could feel her borrowed magic with this trap. She didn't care anymore about how her actions might be seen as offensive to the creator she touched the magic and the electricity flowed over her. She could feel an almost humming like sensation within her chest. The little magic she had left reached out for the electrical trap and started absorbing the electricity there, becoming stronger by the amount she absorbed. Once enough of the electricity was absorbed the spell seemed to collapse on itself and Here's way was now clear. She put a hand on his shoulder and let her magic heal any injuries he had, especially from the trap. She looked wearily at Zelus, who was masquerading as Hyde. "It's obvious who is who. You gave yourself away when you first teleported, unless this isn't meant to be a trick and someone hates the newcomer?"

Cedric looked at the Zelus, he could see a faint red glow in it's eyes, it's very good at shape shifting, but not very good at covering its tracks. Cedric snapped his finger as a flash of light appeared, followed by a distant roar of thunder for a quick distraction and he quickly threw down black spherical object and then it morphed into Cedric's pet crow! The crow swooped and dashed at the Zelus, giving Cedric time to run in and kick it over to the trap, shocking it. It tried to turn into a rubbery object, but it was being shocked, it couldn't do anything.

"Knight, NOW!" Cedric signaled to Hyde to stab the Zelus. Cedric jumped off the Zelus in order to avoid getting shocked, he quickly called upon his crow, when it was close to his hand, it turned into the spherical object once again, tucked away in Cedric's sleeve.

Cedric looked to the blonde woman, her eyes tightly shut.
He walked over to her and wanted to ask what was wrong, but when he looked at the woman's shaking hands and closed eyes, he decided against it and he ran back to his mates.

Hyde saw the opportunity to run in and stab the Zelus, he sprinted towards the creature and he stabs it, leaving his sword in the trap.
Hyde went out via the open space Lily provided and he tried to grab his sword back, but is shocked in the process, he looks to his back, a portal opened!

They needed to get out of there, before the Zelus resurrects and the portal closes! Hyde kicked the trap and pulled his sword out and he signaled for the others to follow, he was excited to get out of there.

Hyde stood at the front of the portal, though the winds pushed him in, hopefully the others saw him and jumped down after him. Who knows? Fate does.

The portal was open. Elenoir seemed to be a bit put of it so Lily put her arm around her and led her to the portal. She called out to Cedric and pointed at the portal, hoping he would get the message. She went through the portal and once through it was like being hit will a wall of heat. It made her dizzy just how hot it was. She looked around and her eyes went wide at the rivers of lava shooting fireballs into the sky.  People were hung from trees and being slowly eaten by the harpies that guarded this place. "This is unbearable." She said with exhaustion. The heat was stripping away any energy she seemed to have left. She co tinued to look around until her eyes fell upon what seemed to be another group of people adventuring through the circles. They jumped into o e of the rivers of lava. Lily let out a cry but there were no bodies slowly burning… a hidden portal? She looked to Hyde and pointed at the last of the group before them disappearing. Should they try that or was each portal specific to each group? She didn't know but whay she dis know was that she wanted to get out of this place before those harpies decided to string them up and lunch on them as well.

Cedric looked at the portal, he quickly jumped through it, the scorching heat was almost hot enough to roast them alive. Cedric landed on the gravelly ground, he saw what Lily was pointing at, he threw the spherical object once again, and it turned into his crow, Cedric whistled a specific tune, it went down the "portal", it came back, snapped strings.

"That's probably a trap, we need to find the real exit, I have a good feeling about that one." Cedric said as he was grazing his crow, he whistled the tune, the crow quickly sped off into the volcanic portal. The crow came back, "caw, caw, caw…. caw!" the crow choked, it was the way. Cedric signaled others to follow him, when he was close to the portal, his nose started to bleed, staining his red bandana with a darker red hue. 

Cedric quickly tried to wipe it off before anyone could see, his father taught him a spell that, when they were close, each other's noses would bleed. When they are really close, the son will get a feeling of dizziness and distortion that doesn't stop until he finds his father.

He jumped down the portal, the crow following behind, they appeared in a nice village, though he knew this was a trap, and he frantically looked for an exit.