[IC] Eden: Garden of Stone

[Millennium]

The land is cold. It laughs no more.

The raging force of the Wall of Grey has ravaged the planet nearly dry of it's life. What was once vivid green and lush with life is now more barren and dead than a graveyard. It's hollow nature now testifies the aftermath of the Grand Balance gone irrevocobly wrong. Even now, the Core of Eden saps away the lifeforce of all things living that were caught in the unnatural phenomenon. Villages full of people, forests of fauna and animal alike, seas that once held all that swim, all have given up their ghost involutarily to a maelstrom buried deep beneath their feet. All who survived, the handful of people on Eden's Gate and the multitude of those left on the Moons of Eden, were never given the reasons why this happened or why this had to happen. All are in the dark, except a small boy who is the sole listener of a tale from history. Archaic relics, or Elements as they are called, that hold the power to restore.... or to destroy. What will he do with this knowledge? What will the survivors do next? What of the Protector? What of the Gods? What of the Queens? And now on top of it all, the Law of Equivalent Exchange has been silently declared. It's purpose is shrouded, but the effects could drive those with it to madness. Yes, most everything is uncertain. But what is certain is this...

The land is cold. It laughs no more.




And now, the adventure of Eden continues...

[Ellysand]

Zamael's brow furrowed in thought.
"I have sway over both light and dark now, Ellysand," he said giving his still planted swords a gentle pressure. "I can find a way with or without your help." He hoped it was true. He hadn't tested out his light powers much but they seemed to be similar to his dark powers.
It was in the back of his mind that Millenium said they needed Ellysand to save the planet, but he was steadily ignoring that. Besides, he couldn't forget that this was a defensive maneuver. Ellysand had ambushed him. He wouldn't be responsible if it ended in his death.

It went off like a gong in his brain. A deathknell that he was waiting for...

"About bloody time."

He turned his attention back to Zamael and Exu with a renewed timber to his voice....

"You both should have finished me when you had the chance. Now it's my turn."

His eyes flashed quickly as he said...

"I sacrifice all my dark powers for Total Healing."

In a burst of light that came froth from his torso and washed him completely, all the damage that they did to him was overturned. This would go down as the first act of The New Law. Thanks to it, Ellysand was now completely healed. Brandishing a stronger light sword now, he smiled brand new as he told them both...

"Papa's got a brand new bag. Payback time. Who wants to go first."

[Zamael]

Zamael jumped back as Ellysand healed, the swords he'd been holding somehow forcing themselves from Ellysand's body.
"What have you done?" he asked flatly, though both anger and surprise were showing on his face. He readied the swords in his hands, hoping to block anything that might be coming after this unexpected turn of events.

[Ellysand]

"What have I done, the dimwit asks. This is just too good...

What I have done is play my part to a tee. Waiting patiently for my right moment. See, while everyone has been focusing on the smoke screen, I've been part of a plan that goes deeper than what you see and goes beyond your wildest nightmares. The tables have now turned to my favor. Now I have limitless power."

[Exu]

"Limitless power. Whatever. You still talk too much."

Exu launches himself and his blade toward Ellysand, hoping to lob off his head once and for all.

[Ellysand]

Ellysand sees Exu coming for him and simply whispers...

"I sacrifice my Light powers for Speed."

As he light sword disappears, his body starts vibrating wildly in a blur as he effortlessly catches Exu by the throat in mid-air in one motion. Crushing his windpipes with one hand, Ellysand pulls Exu in close as he tells him...

"Now, YOU die.

I sacrifice Speed for Soul-Eater."

In that shift, he stops vibrating and in turn turns greenish blue. Exu starts screaming as if he's seen the worst horror in his life, but it doesn't last long. Ellysand yanks Exu's soul with his other hand while the original hand now holds nothing but a stone shell of what used to be the dark prince. Ellysand brings Exu's soul to his lips and drinks it into himself like a cool beverage, while the stone shell crumbles to dust slowly. When the last bit of Exu's soul is gone, the body blows away on a gentle breeze. Ellysand barely registers that the body is gone but instead just rolls his eyes in the back of his head and gleefully remarks like he just had a refreshing drink...

"Ahhhhhhh."

[Jason Sanborn]

(())

[Zamael]

Zamael pales, his skin practically giving off whiteness. And something in Zamael goes... "snap!".
The black bleeds to the edges of his eyes and Zamael finds an echo of his earlier torment as the eggs' voices Exu had been holding for him come roaring back to him.
"You... miserable little man..."
Twin swords appear in his hands and he lunges at him and if anything, he looks... strangely amused.
Zamael is tired. It's been a long day. Why not just let the eggs win?... He feels contracts around the world dieing, each one going out like a tiny light as they stayed on the planet for the coming of the gray wall, but most of the contracts he feels are still there, still lurking in the shadows. Shadow creatures are nothing if not resilient and only the unwary ones were destroyed. He feels his light creatures far away and safe, untouched by the gray, he feels the hallway tilting toward him as the reality shifts and he feels the probability that his enemies will all die.
And friends, too, probably...
And this time... he doesn't care. He only cares about feeling the power course through him. Even killing Ellysand is secondary now. He must use power. The eggs are screaming for it.

[Ellysand]

As Zamael came after him, Ellysand smiled and whispered again...

"I sacrifice SoulEater for Shapeshifting."

Once that transaction was made, Ellysand exploded himself into a puff of gray smoke that was thick and unnatural. But as the smoke soon cleared, a new sight was before Zamael. Ellysand was now holding what appeared to be a beaten and bloodied Queen Asver in a chokehold with one arm around her neck. His other hand had a small dagger in it as he was holding the sharp point dangerously close up to her right eye...

"What will you do now, I wonder. I have your long lost Asver right here in my arms. What are you gonna do, Loverboy?"

He licks the side of her face and then says...

"She tastes like peaches."

[Zamael]

The was a moment of hesitation in Zamael's eyes as he recognized the figure, but the shadow egg searched for the shadow it knew so well, the tiny lingering bit of shadows it had left in the queen and Zamael simply said, "Not real," and continued his forward lunge. Had the eggs not been in overtime, he might have paused. Had he been his normal self he might very well have even stopped, but he did not.
Still... His mind had many probabilities to attend to and one's mind could not always stay on subject for long. There was the tiniest niggling doubt that the sham of a creature in Ellysand's arms could be the Queen he had failed and as Zamael was no longer controlling the eggs but allowing them to control things... there was no telling what probability the egg would run with.
The reality egg made him able to see the shadow soul of Exu still trapped within Ellysand and even as he had the mere thought of extracting it the shadow and light eggs began to pull shadows and light behind him, pooling them, waiting to form a vessel to house Exu's soul should Zamael reclaim it.