The soft grass of the plains brushed lazily against her thighs as she looked out across the rolling green. A few campfires in the distance could be seen; their smoke threading towards the sky in a gentle tapestry. Everything here was peaceful, which was probably why she visited so often. True that she had a job to get to, but she’d purposefully taken the scenic route to get there rather than travelling via portal or some other much too fast way. When your years stretched on and on, you weren’t exactly in any hurry to speed things along.

Hiromi pushed a lock of pink hair behind her ear, while her other arm wrapped tighter around her knees in a gentle hug against her chest. The sun was high, but not unpleasant as it washed over her. She always counted herself lucky that despite being sired, she could still enjoy the sun’s touch. No food was bad enough, but to never feel the warmth of daylight? She shuddered whenever she thought of the poor souls that were tethered to Kurayo. Sure, they seemed happy enough, but it was more like they’d made the best of their cage.

She sighed and flopped back in the grass, letting it tickle against her sides and arms as she stretched them out to feel more. Her cheeks puffed up in light annoyance; she’d have to start back on the road again soon and was being uncharacteristically whiney about it. Even if it was all internal. And then it happened. So suddenly, without warning and without regret: the sky turned black. Not the deep blue of midnight, no, a harsh black as if even the stars themselves were blocked out by storm clouds.

She jerked up, breathing in sharply as she looked around her little spot as fast as she could. Something was wrong, even the air felt thicker. Well, I needed to leave anyways, she thought, trying to hold back the building tension. As she stood, she realized that the campfires were gone. True that their smoke would be hard to see in such total darkness, but there wasn’t even a hint of orange to indicate their flames or encampments.

What was going on? What could cause an affect so strong so suddenly? And then she heard the first scream, piercing through the air like a sword pulling from its sheath. The cries grew louder, rushing towards her as if by invisible feet, and she took an instinctive step back. There was a tap at her shoulder and she spun quickly, her emerald eyes flashing to crimson and glowing brightly along with the elongation and baring of her fangs. What she saw she could barely comprehend: Raïe, standing naked and unabashed before her.

Her daemon, her twin, bound to the same body she had, looking exactly like her yet barely anything like she did. Where Hiromi’s hair was pink, Raïe’s was white; Hiromi’s eyes -though they changed hue depending on her aura- were naturally green, Raïe’s were pitch black and silver rimmed; the natural tan of Hiromi’s skin was alabaster pale for Raïe. How was she out? How did she have her own body? How was this possible?!

She didn’t have long to think about it before Raïe’s leg shot out: her foot connecting harshly with Hiromi’s solar plexus and sending her back a good ten feet. The blow sent her onto her back with a harsh ‘oof’. She couldn’t help it, of all the things she thought weren’t possible, her daemon somehow having a body of her own and not being trapped within their shared body, was at the top of the list. And she didn’t know what to do.

It had been another anonymous tip that had lead Rhenakos to the Bohar Plains for his next hunt.  While he still had no real lead on the one demon he was looking for, there had been an overwhelming amount of evidence that there was something here for him.  His crimson hair danced with the wind, his right eye following where the trail would take him.  It's not much father now, he thought to himself.  He couldn't help but smile.  Every demon slain was a step closer to his goal.

The breeze shifted, and suddenly things started to feel….off.  Rhenakos paused, looking around.  This feeling.  It's not unlike…  He drew the blade on his back, his eye wide with a mix of fury and excitement.  "I know you're here….I can practically feel you…"  This feeling, though, was not what he thought it was.  At once, the world around him was enveloped in a darkness.  Darkness, though, was an inaccurate statement.  The hunter could handle darkness.  No, this black was something akin to the void, a true absence of light that not even the most powerful of magicks could break.

This made Rhenakos' heart flutter.  "Oh…so very, very close," he said aloud.  "I haven't felt like this since the day…."  His guard dropped, ever so briefly, as he let the blade hit the ground, his hand running across the scar over where his left eye should have been.  He could feel the demon's presence, haunting him.  The burning grip touch his face so delicately, caressing him as if he were its child.  The feeling of its claws digging…

Rhenakos let out a choked laugh.  "You're nothing.  I've spent all this time….all of this time learning about how to kill you and your kind."  He looked up to see it; the flaming mass walking towards him, formless. 

The hunter felt the hairs on his arms raise, and he tensed.  Strange.  All of his bravado was gone.  Face to face with the formless demon that he had hunted for so long…  "Finally…"  Despite feeling nothing, he raised his blade.  "I found you…"  Feeling was coming back, his fury mixed with a sadism that could only be described as blood lust.  "Heh…."  He grinned like a madman, and rushed forward, cutting the formless demon, banishing it back into the dark.

"Is that all!?" Rhenakos screamed in the dark.  "Is tha-"  Suddenly, there was a flaming hand in his face, covering  his mouth.  It picked him up off the ground, holding him several inches in the air.  Laughter filled the air, cackling as madly as Rhenakos had been moments earlier. 

You're an insect….  The demon threw Rhenakos to the ground, and was immediately on top of him.  I gave you everything necessary to come to me, and yet you've floundered.  More laughter as the flaming hand caressed his face once more, a finger mere inches from his right eye.  A cold feeling shot through Rhenakos, something he hadn't felt in years.

Fear. 

I've come for my prize….

Years of instinct, though, kicked in, and he lashed out with a kick, tossing the demon off of him.  In a blind panic, he scrambled up, and started to run.  Anywhere, anything would be better than this nightmare.  "Anything…" he said to himself, running farther into the spiraling, endless night. 

“Get up, her other half said to her much too calmly. Raïe slowly walked towards her, and all Hiromi could do was scramble back until she was a safe enough distance away to stand. Was this it? Was this the fight? The one she’d been waiting on for years? The one that would decide who kept the body and who perished? That would definitely explain the change around them, and yet she could barely process that the day had finally come.

“That’s because it hasn’t,” came the same voice from within her mind. She yelped and spoke out loud, “W-What?!” She hadn’t heard Raïe in her mind for years. How was it possible that she heard her there but was looking at her across the grass?

“Because that isn’t me,” she responded with a sigh, knowing Hiromi’s thoughts better than anyone since she lived among them. “Something else is going on, I’d run if I were you,” it was the only advice Raïe had given her that she actually wanted to take. And run she did.

Hiromi sprinted across the dark fields, trying not to trip over her own feet as the doppelgänger ran after her, unleashing a banshee cry. This was a nightmare, a living nightmare, but how was it possible?! Ahead of her she saw another person, probably trying to escape some realized horrific figment come to life like she was. It was a man, and a ways back from him was a being comprised entirely of flames.

If she could see his pursuer, did that mean that everyone’s terrors were coming to life? What in the world?! “You there!” she called out to him, not stopping in her own sprint as she did so, “Run in the opposite direction of people!” After all, if these were peoples’ personal hells then it was best to stay away from others or else there’d be a swarm of enemies popping up around them.

As Rhenakos scrambled away from his own nightmare, his mind started to try and piece things together.  Unfortunately, it wasn't all coming together too quickly, as his mind was in a blind panic.  Still, when he looked towards where he was running, he noticed someone running towards him.  There are others?  He noticed that they, too, were running from something.  A nightmare.  Like mine?  He dared not look back, but knew that the flaming presence behind him was still hot on his trail.

As he neared the figure, they called out to avoid other people.  A woman.  And she's saying to run opposite of people.  It made sense.  Now that his blind panic was subsiding, he realized that if everyone trapped her held a nightmare, that other nightmares might band together.  But, that gave him an idea.  These are our greatest fears…  He smirked.  

"Woman!  Run past me and slay my nightmare!" he called out.  "I'll deal with yours!"  It wasn't that they didn't have the strength to fight.  No, it was because they feared the fight.  But whatever was chasing the woman was bound to be something personal.  Rhenakos gave little care to what others feared.  The same was likely to be with the woman.  Perhaps she did care of what others feared, but it would not be her own fear.  

As he ran by her, he noticed what was chasing her.  Alabaster skin, eyes of the dark, and silver hair.  Rhenakos skid to a halt, and started to laugh.  This woman's greatest fear…is a demon?  He glanced back, just briefly, to look at the woman he had passed.  Ah.  So that's how it is…it looks like her.  He would have to consider both of them a threat.  At least, for now, though, he would use her to banish his nightmare.  

He laughed more, turning his gaze back to the demon before him.  "Ah…something I can handle," he said, grinning madly.  "I'll destroy you…let the woman kill my demons…and then, I'll kill her as well.  Anything that associates itself with your kind should perish…"  His right eye shimmered with madness as he started forward.

Her eyes widened, somehow finding it in her to smile and even laugh with his suggestion. Brilliant! She nodded quickly and changed her course, running past him to instead go towards the flaming foe that was chasing him, “Brilliant!” she called to him as she flew past. This monster seemed simple enough since she had no personal emotion towards it. And after all, it was a nightmare, it wasn’t like it was the real thing. Sure, that was easy to think about now, but in the face of her own troubles? It was not so simple.

She began her fight with the fiend as her own figment fought against the man. Meanwhile, Raïe, always watching, always listening, picked up on what he had said. From the depths of Hiromi’s mind she whispered to her, “I’m certainly glad that you’re enjoying yourself, killing this annoying monster for him.” Hiromi rolled her eyes as she dodged another heavy blow; the heat of it coming so close that her hair was nearly singed. It may have been years since she’d interacted with Raïe, and it was disturbing to know that she was speaking to Hiromi as if there had never been a block on her at all, but she still knew better than to trust her. Much less listen to her. For all she knew, she was just trying to distract her.

“I’m busy,” she muttered, teleporting around the beast and slashing at him as a gentle wind picked up around her: the build up of her energy. “Yes I can see that,” Raïe replied drily, “But so you know, he’s planning on killing you once he’s finished with your little nightmare. I’m flattered by the way,” she said, her smile easy to hear. Of course, Raïe would brag about being Hiromi’s greatest fear. It was more than just Raïe though, it was what she represented: loss of their shared body to her. To simply cease existing once and for all, trapped in the after life without ever having had full domain over their body.

Her arm shot out, and the full brunt of her build up went with it: sending dozens of ethereal daggers at the flaming monster. They ran through it, sharp as needles, fast as wind, and without fear to feed on she saw its power beginning to dwindle. “You’re not listening to me,” Raïe said, growing more irritated.

“Quiet. He can’t kill us anyways,” she said back, her own annoyance getting worse. They were twins after all. Technically. “Yes,” Raïe said with a verbal eye roll, “But I still don’t want him damaging my body.”

“Our body,” Hiromi retorted before quickly correcting herself, “My body.” With that she dealt the killing blow and watched as the nightmare went up in smoke, leaving only a smoldering stain against the grass. Her chest rose and fell heavily as she tried to catch her breath, but she looked out in search of him, wondering how he was faring.

Rhenakos was faring about as well as one would expect a half crazed human with barely any magical potential would against a demon.  Not well.  The fight had started off as usual for Rhenakos, which entailed him rushing 'Raie' with, well, his bare fists.  He had foolishly left his sword Gods knew where, but that didn't mean he couldn't rip a demon apart with his hands alone.  Or, at least try….

Thew demon saw his haphazard assault, and merely caught Rhenakos' hand before it reached her, throwing him over her shoulder by using his weight against him.  Landing hard, Rhenakos coughed and gasped as the wind left his lungs.  Right…  He reacted fast, though, turning his disadvantage around, and spinning himself around and lashing out with a kick to her knee.  This, to anyone's surprise, actually managed to connect, knocking the demon to her knees.

Now, face to face with the demon, he lashed out, his right hand latching on to her face.  On his finger, a special ring with a lost soul flared to life, and he quickly spouted off a slur of hastily memorized words.  The ring reacted, channeling the soul into mana, and a powerful burst of light magic erupted from his hand, destroying the demon instantly.  Rhenakos stumbled up, and looked around for the woman.  

"Oi, you still breathing?" he called out.  That wasn't an ordinary demon.  A blast like that wouldn't have killed one so easily.  Whatever this is, this…nightmare, it must be affecting the strength of things.  Maybe it draws on fear?  Or is it because I used a holy spell, and its a dark aspect.  He narrowed his eye.  Probably wise to leave her alive for now.  If that demon is a part of her, I can always come back later.  For now, it's better to keep alive and escape this place…

Her eyes widened and her lips parted, slowly spreading to a grin as she watched the man fight; ending it with a killing blast from his ring. This couldn’t actually kill the real Raïe of course, but it was still satisfying to watch her vaporize out of existence. For once since the fight started, her daemon was silent in her head. She knew better than to think that it’d be so simple to keep her quiet though, and would have to return home soon to put up another block.

She waved over at him as she jogged to where he was, stopping with her hands on her hips and an impressed smirk, “Good job. Cake, right?” Her arms fell at her sides and she half slumped, letting go of some of her bravado for now. They’d need more of it if they were going to survive all of this, and really she wasn’t sure if the plains were the only part of Revaliir suffering.

“So,” she said, offering a hand to him in introduction, “It might be smart to stick together, at least until some of this blows over. I’m Hiromi, what should I call you?” she asked, as if he’d automatically agree to her suggestion. Either way she kept her hand held out expectantly. Her eyes glowed brighter and her smile returned as she nodded to his hand,

“That’s an impressive piece of jewelry you have,” she pointed out, speaking of course of the ring he’d used in his fight, “Any advice on how I could get my hands on something like that?” When it came to magickal items she was vastly underequipped. True that she had powerful abilities on her own, but they were so draining. Really, she needed to start looking into enchantments more, but having innate abilities had grown to be a crutch.

“What do you think is causing all of this?” For something so grand in scale, she was surprised that Angela or even Dalanesca weren’t flying around doing something about it. There was more than enough death for Dalanesca to get her fill, and Angela was simply a force to be reckoned with. Not that she particularly liked being in the middle of deity affairs, but in times like this even she had to admit that they at least came in handy. If nothing else. Of course, there was one of them in particular she was most shocked not to see buzzing around. She tried not to focus on his absence too much, before it got the better of her.

As Hiromi jogged up to him, he eyed her with caution. The ring on his finger was still burning with magical energy. After all, she was associated with a demon. A part of him wanted to cut her down and deal with the consequences later, but he decided against it. Despite his bloodlust, he knew they were in a dire situation.

Her carefree attitude made Rhenakos’ only eye twitch slightly. Having just almost died from a nightmare, he felt that, if anything, she was faking her confidence. Though, to be fair, he might have been doing the same had his bloodlust not kicked in. Still, the fact that he ran meant that he was not ready to face the demon he so longed to find, and that, more than anything, infuriated him beyond all logical reason.

“Cake…right,” Rhenakos said finally. He stared at her for a moment as she recommended that they stick together. As much as he hated the thought, he nodded in agreement. “Just for now, then,” he said quickly. She introduced herself, and held out a hand expectantly, looking to his own for a mutual comradery.

“Rhenakos,” he said, staring at her hand. “I don’t do handshakes,” he said, looking away from her. He was surprised that he was holding back as much. Normally, he would have thrown a few insults in the mix, but perhaps the situation had affected him more than he had initially thought. …whatever. I’ll deal with the emotions later. A tried and true method. Bottle it up and move on.

She started talking about the ring he had used, “This? I took it off the hand of a dead demon. It helps with magic, but at a cost. Haven’t entirely figured out what powers it though.” That was only partially true. He knew very well where the strength of the ring came from, but he wasn’t about to go telling the world what he did. Besides, he only took the souls of whatever demon he killed. Most of the time. “Good luck finding one….I don’t have any advice.”

At this point, he realized that she probably wasn’t a threat, and elt the power on the ring dissipate He genuinely hoped there would be no magical backlash from using the ring, though. Not that he couldn’t endure the pain anyway.

“The cause?” Rhenakos repeated. “Knowing my luck, it’s probably related to the Gods and their stupid, petty rivalries. If anything, it makes sense. Nothing else is this powerful,” he stated. “As to which ones? I don’t have a clue. Couldn’t care less.” Rhenakos growled. Another roadblock in his quest for vengeance. He took a deep breath. Just think of it as another step forward. You’ll get there eventually…

“Look. Let’s drop the questions for now,” Rhenakos said finally. “The best thing we can do it find a way out. I don’t have a an idea of which way to go, but staying here is just a worthless plan. So we start walking. Just pick a direction, and go. I’ll follow behind.” There were two reasons for this. Despite his own strength, Rhenakos had a sneaking suspicion that Hiromi was better suited at combat at the moment that he was. If they ran into anything, she could expend her strength to fight it. The second reason was that he held no trust for the woman, as she may very well have been related to a demon.

“Sound good?” he asked. Without waiting for a response, he nodded. “Good. Get going…”