Something was wrong in Suisho no Kyuden. From the depths of the Crystal Garden he heard an unfamiliar sound: terrified screaming. He was instantly on his feet and teleported mid sprint into the high ceilinged common room of his temple. People were rushing in through the entrance, trying hard to barricade the door with their body weight alone. Clergy rushed forward as did his two elementals to put a protective seal around the door, but The Northern Light only walked towards it slowly; eyes narrowed in confusion as the scene played as if in slow motion before him.

This couldn’t happen, not here, people weren’t supposed to be scared here. But as he got closer, his eyes caught sight of a grisly face in one of the many crystal windows. It stopped him in his tracks for he knew it well, recognized the decomposing flesh and tattered cloth. He instantly summoned Torinasu to his side along with a few other weapons that strapped themselves to his ankles, arms, wrists, chest, all hidden under a very old set of clothing that replaced his usual temple garments. All of it happened in the blink of an eye as if the deity had simply flickered into completely different clothing and hidden weaponry: it was the well fitted yet light apparel he’d worn while still a vampire hunter before his ascension.

The soft white, silver, and gold robing of his godhood were replaced to leave him in blacks and earthy browns, easier to be concealed in nature and darkness, but in a place like this he looked completely young and out of place. The white markings that ran along his body glowed so brightly they shone through his clothing and he instantly flickered outside in a flash of silent light, his blade slicing the undead from shoulder to hip; sending it into a disintegrating heap in the snow. If that one had been it then he would have chalked it up to bad luck, but as he looked at the main portal that led people to his temple, he saw at least ten more come through.

All of them were shambled and rotting, dripping in sand, and his eyebrows furrowed. Even as he flickered between them all, leaving them to crumple defeated at the edge of his blade, he knew that this wouldn’t be the end. And even if he could continue to fight their horde off as they passed through the temple’s main portal, he knew he shouldn’t. Something was happening, something grand, and he cautiously walked towards the shimmering pool of light, waiting for the next to come through so that he could see where they were all coming from.

It didn’t take long, and he sliced its head off upon entry just in time to see the recognizable quartz sands of Harena…with a pyramid just barely seen in the distance. His lips parted, and confusion grew to gut wrenching concern for not just his temple but the rest of Revaliir. This wasn’t a planned attack on his land or followers, this was something far worse. And it left him having to make a decision he never thought would be necessary. He quickly knelt down, both hands resting on the ring of black tourmaline that lined the great pool. His eyes closed, hesitating for only a second, but as another started to come through, he instantly closed the connection: cutting off every single entry way in Revaliir that he’d set up to let others easily pass through to his temple.

When his eyes opened he looked at nothing more than a ring of tourmaline in the snow; no magick, no power, everything had been shut off so to speak. However, as one more had been passing through, it was cut off at the middle when the connection was broken, and he quickly dug Torinasu into the top of its head to silence and still it. His home would be safe, getting here was difficult enough on foot, but more than that hardly anyone with evil intent could even pass through its doors without suffering some great pain.

However, Naota was not the type to stay hidden, and the very fact that his home was safe only urged him to leave it more since he knew it would be well protected. Kōsen and Kagayaki could protect it without him temporarily, alongside the other clergy and his wife, as Echo was just as much a formidable monster fighter than anyone else here.

As he slowly stood back up, he arched his hand, opening a gate before him that he promptly walked through. The cold and ice of his mountain top home was quickly replaced by the dry heat of the desert, and his skin and clothing were now wet from the fast melting snow. The gate closed behind him promptly, and he gazed up the pyramid in the distance, glaring at the otherwise marvelous structure as if it was all its fault.

There wasn’t too much time to accusingly stare though, as a horde just like the ones that had run through to his temple had taken notice of him and were approaching one by one; their sand torn weapons raised. Anger still lingered in his mouth and he spit in an attempt to get it out, and when that didn’t work he quickly ran towards them, summoning a wave of holy light to release as he slashed Torinasu in a wide arc. The light was near blinding and cut through about ten of them even from this distance.

Under normal circumstances he would had smirked, but right now he was preoccupied with the fact that whatever was causing this ended up making him close off his temple to the lands of Revaliir, something he never would have believed he’d be forced to do. Even before his ascension his life had been dedicated to slaying the undead, and now that he held the highest control over holy power, those skills along with his acquired status would come in handy today. That wasn’t to say it would be easy, but he was very thankful to have such an advantage.

Amidst the swirling sands of Harena, another portal appeared.  The portal was at least somewhat similar to that of Naota's, though this particular one carried a glow of crimson, channeling the colors of the depths of Inferos.  From this portal emerged another deity, Dalanesca - the Reaper of Souls and Harbinger of Darkness.  On most occasions, the desert would have simply been off her radar, somewhere she would never bother venturing to without good reason; however, something had shaken Porta Inferni to the point of worrying her.  

Something, in the depths of the Harena desert, was stealing her souls.  Of course, she had immediately gone on the hunt to find out more information about what was happening and just who - or what - was stealing her souls.  It had led her to Harena, and to the Aestas Outpost, and finally to Aysut, the City of the Dead.  She had made her way to the edges of the city, a place teeming with undead, before venturing back to her realm to plan her next move carefully. 

Of course, the undead was not what posed a problem for her.  Though these were not her undead to command, they did not attack her as they did with many others.  They had swarmed her a bit, mostly being a hindrance to her movement, but they had not attempted to harm her.  She found it interesting, and it had only furthered her curiosity as to who was commanding them.

Upon her arrival, Dalanesca was able to sense her fellow deity's presence almost immediately.  She and Naota were something of opposites of one another, so it made it rather easy for her to discern which deity it was that shared the landscape with her.  She began to trek in the direction she could sense him in, having reached only a short distance away from him as he cast his weapon, a blinding light causing her to shield even her own divine eyes.  She took pause and had to admit to herself that it was rather an impressive display.  Normally, she would have been rather upset at the fact that he was killing a vast horde of creatures that she normally held control over - but this time, they were not under her control and she was perfectly fine with it.

As she approached him from behind, she clapped her hands together, as if to applaud the display he had put on.  "Not half bad… didn't think you had that kind of destruction in you," she said, a slight snide tone to her remark.  She internally chastised herself - she and Naota had not ended their last meeting on the best of terms, and she was bound and determined to remedy that at one point or another.  She knew the importance behind all deities getting along with one another and knew that at one point she would need to swallow her pride and admit that she had been in the wrong in the past.

Circling towards the deity's front, she held up her hands in defense.  "I'm not here to attack you, not here to fight… I'm here for the same reason you are.  Whatever is happening here needs to be stopped.  Granted, there are probably different reasons to my motivation than yours… but what do you say?  Think we can put the past behind us for the time being?" She paused, and lowered her hands.  "You look well, Naota.  I have heard whisperings of the things you have accomplished since your ascension and I must say, it is impressive," she said.  "I'd think the two of us entering that pyramid together and looking for this damnable lich priest would be close to unstoppable, wouldn't you?" she asked.  "The undead won't bother us in the same way with me here - they seem to not want to cause me harm… Though they get rather annoying.  But that little light trick of yours might come in handy…" She trailed off as she awaited some sort of reply from her fellow god.

He slowed to a stop, his chest rising and falling deeply as he caught his breath, taking this momentary pause to size of the situation from what he could see. The amount of undead here were aplenty, and the closer he went in the direction of the pyramid the worse it seemed to become. For one reason or another though, no more of them were swarming him. Now, when it came to holy power and light there were none here that could surpass him, but he was not so egotistical as to think that one attack was enough to slow them. So, what…?

And then he heard the clapping behind him followed by a familiar voice, albeit one he hadn’t heard in quite some time since a particular quarrel between goddesses. Without turning he knew it was Dalanesca, and his eyes slowly closed. That explained it then, at least somewhat. While he didn’t let his guard down, he did lower his blade, ever ready to lift it should he need to though. The only change in his expression was a quirk of one eyebrow arching up in response to her words. It was a sort of compliment, even if it was backhanded in its delivery.

His eyes opened when he heard her shift around and was only a little surprised to see her hands lifted in defense: she meant him no harm. No matter what their last meeting had been, even he didn’t think she would take advantage of an event such as this to bring him harm…Though he was glad that she took the effort to say that nonverbally and the gesture did not go unnoticed. His eyebrow went back down.

She spoke, he listened, but in her pause his eyes lifted from her to the great structure beyond. Yes, he would be able to put their own discourse in the past for the sake of Revaliir, he wasn’t that hardheaded luckily. “You look well, Naota.” His eyes moved back down to her when she said that, searching her expression incredulously. Even though he wanted to believe her, he couldn’t help but think that there was a trick to some of this. And even with suspecting that, he knew he’d still work with her.

In truth, he wanted to be able to get along with her, even on that horrid day he’d wanted to, whether they were both deities or not. Of course, he’d be lying to say that wasn’t a great part of why he wanted them to be able to get along…even now there was only one member of the conclave he doubted he’d ever get on with.

Lich priest? His expression shifted; lips parting, eyes widening slightly, all around softer and filled with both youthful wonder, fear, and resolve as he looked to the pyramid once more. Until now he’d never gone against a being of the undead that was so powerful; there was curiosity there and the familiarity of wanting to hunt. A challenge, he wasn’t used to a challenge so great and so specific to what he’d been trained in for practically his entire life.

For now, he looked back to her, letting silence hang between them for an uncomfortably long few seconds before finally speaking, “Yes.” His shoulders dipped in relief as he slowly exhaled, all the while never taking his eyes off of her face as he repeated himself, “Yes, I agree that oddly enough the two of us would be quite a force to reckon with in this particular scenario. And yes,” his eyes narrowed on her in thought for just a moment before going back to normal, “I would like to work with you.”

He spun his blade so that it was held under his arm, a sign of ease and trust. His other hand outstretched towards hers in offering of a shake, “We can talk about the past another time. For now, tell me all that you know so far, because right now I’m just coming from my own temple. A few of them came in through my main portal there, and that’s what led me here.” He nodded his head forward, “Walk and talk, let’s be quick.”

Dalanesca shifted slightly on her feet as silence stood between her and Naota.  She found herself internally questioning her motives in approaching him in the manner that he did - perhaps it was because everyone seemed to have the wrong idea about Death.  It was not as if she could blame them - after all, the turmoil she had caused after her emotional trauma had not exactly been easy on anyone.  Between the confusion and sadness that Marth, her then-present husband, disappearing had on her, and the death of her child, Katja, in birth, she had been distraught and not thinking clearly - so much so that the Voice made the decision to change her spheres of power.  

A decent amount of time had passed and she had since calmed, adjusting rather well to her new seat of power.  Death and Darkness - sure, it sounded like a gloomy way to spend one's life, but Dalanesca had certainly found ways around that.  Her demeanor had become rather laid back as of late, and unless someone enraged her there was no wrath to be seen.  She was a bit cockier than she had been when she held the title of Justiciar, but that was par for the course.  Her sense of humor had remained, though it had darkened somewhat substantially.  All in all, she was still the same Dalanesca - just different.

Dalanesca locked her gaze with Naota's as he eventually spoke to her, and she could see the relief he felt reflected in his posture.  She nodded, giving her fellow god a genuinely warm smile.  She allowed her arms to drop to her sides slowly, though she kept her hands in plain view for Naota's benefit - she had no intention of attacking him or threatening him in any manner, but she wanted him to be well aware of that.  "Warms my heart to hear that," she said, and the tone of her voice gave way to the fact that she was nothing but serious as she spoke to him.  "I would imagine that, if anyone at all were able to defeat that lich priest… it would be us," she said, her smile becoming something more sinister as she thought about the prospect of destroying that abomination that was snatching souls from every corner of Revaliir.

She allowed herself to relax a bit more when Naota had placed his weapon into a less defensive situation, and she extended her hand, grasping his own firmly when he offered it to her.  "Agreed - but we must make some time when this madness has ended - I have many amends to make," she said, giving Naota an apologetic glance.  She furrowed her brow slightly as she thought best how to explain what information she had on what was happening deep within the pyramid.

"I don't know how much I actually know," she said, thinking it best to be straightforward and honest with Naota.  "One moment, I'm sitting in a tavern, hunting down the soul of a murderer who escaped from one of the circles, when I find out from one of my messorem that he's not the only soul missing from Inferos - and they aren't escaping, they're being pulled out!"  She let out an exasperated sigh.  "So I do a little research, do a little digging - come to find out, it's this bastard in the desert, stealing from me," she said.  "I mean, I'm not the only one - the souls are being taken from everywhere - I've yet to talk to Angela, but I'm guessing her end of the soul stream is seeing a bit of action too."  She sighed again, placing her hands on her hips.  Her next words sounded rather exasperated.  "I'm at the point where that's about all I know - there have been whisperings that the lich has some chaos gem in that pyramid, sucking all its power in from the souls it's been stealing," she said.

"So I guess that's where I'm at.  What do you say?  Think we can make our way in there and smash the gem to pieces and knock that bastard on his ass?" she asked, hoping that Naota would not be offended by her crass language.  "Powers of Darkness and Light combined together, et cetera et cetera… What do you think?"

He gripped her hand firmly when she took it to shake, and walked slowly but with purpose as she spoke to him. It was easy to see how that could be such an affront to her, what with her being the ruler of the dead and some menace taking control of them. In a way, this whole ordeal stretched to each member of the conclave almost as if it were something personal. “I think you’re absolutely right in that we’d make a disastrous pair against this…individual.” That was the only way he was able to address him politely, but even his seemingly unending patience was wearing thin with the primordial.

“I imagine we could make quick work of clearing a path straight into the pyramid, the question is whether the power is within its bowels or not.” While they walked he kept Torinasu in its inoffensive position under his arm and only waved his fingers if an undead got too close. It was as if there were an unseen sphere of protection around him, only made visible when an attack was made at which time a burst of holy sigils would flicker into sight for half a second. While Dalanesca had no need for such things, he still kept her in mind should she need it.

His eyes moved over to her, checking her every now and then and trying his best not to think of the last time the two of them had been face to face. His wife and children were alive and healthy despite the quarrel that had happened between Dal and Angela, and even though there was no reason to feel guilt -which he didn’t- he still felt sympathy towards the goddess. She had lost not only her lover, but her child…Nothing could replace that, and he wouldn’t be the one to bring it up.

“When we are able to make time,” he paused in his stride and rose up one hand, fingers slowly curling in as his eyes went completely white and the markings on his body shone brilliantly. With a flex of his fingers a blast of holy light shot out towards the entrance, sending a crater of power amongst the throng of would be attackers. The sands and pyramid itself were left unharmed even as the undead lay in pieces where they’d formerly stood, “I’d like it to be on my grounds. Since you said you’d kill me if I stepped foot on yours again.”

The smallest of smiles graced his lips, and his whited-out eyes turned to her, letting the smile spread to show that for now, in his own way, he was already forgiving her and moving passed their old transgressions. He wasn’t one to hold grudges these days, when your children and wife were mortals you learned to focus only on what was important. Happiness would always outweigh spite.