Boreas just glared at Take when he said my lord before speaking up. "I'm not a lord, much less yours. And really you were asking whether I am royalty which I am not." Boreas said still quite angry with Take. "Fine, I'll give you that, but now you've made it personal, I warned you, I only warn once." He wasn't gonna let that slide though, especially when Boreas had warned him about it. He wasn't sure whether Take had seen him after the fight with that Chaser but Boreas was more than capable of backing up his words with force. Boreas hit the activator on his armour to make it disappear, the realization of what he had just caused wasn't lost on Take and the kid seemed to regret his choice of words. Boreas restrained himself from outright punching teeth out of Take's mouth instead, put his cutlery down and got up. "You. Me. Outside. Now." Boreas said, in a tone that left no negotiation. He only ever warned once, and it took a lot of restraint for him not to outright punch the kid. Boreas walked away from his half-eaten breakfast, it could wait and went outside, waiting for Take to come out. Boreas prepared himself for the fight, taking off his tunic, no use in getting that damaged even if it was fighting without magic or weapons. With the sun up it was warming up nicely, not that it mattered in a fight if they got going then they'd warm up soon enough.
Boreas listened to Take answer his questions, while such a system had it's merit it also caused compromise as they all had to agree on the course of action. "While it'd be nice to have such a system in peace time, it seems to me that it could lead to significant problems during crisis times if the people in charge can't get a consensus." Boreas said, he eased up a little when Take mentioned he didn't mean any disrespect, but his temper flared right back up again when Take continue with the but. "They are more than capable of backing up their claims." Boreas said as Torrin added the note of the King being one of the most skilled wielders of the keyblade alive. Not to mention their loyal cadre of soldiers and noblemen that helped enforcing the law. Take was goading him into a response and Boreas wasn't gonna let this slide as he slammed his fist on the table. "I am not royalty, nobility at best and if you are implying that I lack the ability or the power to back up my words you are clearly mistaken. I advise you not to try me." Boreas added angrily, he knew deep down that Take was prodding him and he knew it wasn't helping his case to act like this but he wasn't going to let a personal attack slide.
Boreas looked at the coin that Take had taken on another world. "Yeah that does look like the gil we use. And not that easy, they are shiny after all and you keep them safe in pouches like this. Larger amounts are stored in chests." Boreas explained gesturing to the pouch he had produced the gil from. "Who's that Silver guy obsessed with that other treasure anyway?" Take understood now why Torrin and himself didn't think of the things left by the heartless as a sort of money. Take's next comment however rubbed him the wrong way and his features darkened a little bit. "It is from them that our wealth comes. Theirs are the decisions that set the course for our people. We follow them and together we forge our fate in this world. They lead us, is it that hard to understand that we mark our money with their family sigil? I know you do not understand these matters simply from the lack of knowledge and therefore do not know better, but most royalty won't suffer such disrespect, I can think of one who'd already be figuring out what the most severe punishment is that can be dealt...." Boreas said with some anger in his voice. Boreas breathed calmly for a moment to stop the irritation. "There's still stags abound in dragon territory? You'd say they wouldn't want to stick around out there." Boreas said. "And since you are unfamiliar with the way we do things, how are decisions made back home? Who leads your people?" Boreas asked. He took the coin back and put it back in his pouch. "You are welcome." Boreas said. He looked to Torrin who hadn't really said anything about Take's remarks, only placing a sarcastic remark as to who would do that and shook his head for a moment. Boreas didn't waste too much time before grabbing himself a plate with scrambled eggs and toast, it all looked and smelled fine so Torrin had most likely done a good enough job at preparing the food and Boreas started eating his breakfast.
Everette too was exhausted, had he been the only one to snatch some rest on the train? Sure they couldn't all do it lest they miss their stop, but it surprised him a little bit. It didn't mean he was in as great a state as he held himself the mission had been exhausting, even without his body fighting off the poison for a couple of hours. "Sure thing, Everette, I'll mention it if I see her. Sleep well." Conrad said with a friendly smile. He'd probably go find her a bit later, if she was around at all. When Lakoda gave him a side hug he wrapped his arms around her in response. "It went... well all things considered." Conrad said hesitating a moment to find the right word, they had helped the village and resolved the problem but there had been some significant challenges thrown their way. "The two of them have been up a long time on the mission and used a lot of their magic especially Samuel in helping victims and devising an antidote. Everette fought hard against the serpent that was poisoning the villagers through their water. I too fought the serpent alongside Everette, but because I was exposed to the poison I had some time to rest up after the fight while the antidote was made..." Conrad explained. "I'm fine now though... thanks to Samuel and his antidote, maybe a bit tired from the journey, but I'm fine." He didn't want to worry his dear friend too much altough she knew that with Samuel with them he had been in capable hands. "How did your mission go?" Conrad asked before taking a bite out of his meal.
"Morning Torrin." Boreas greeted his friend, who then proceeded with making breakfast for everyone starting with eggs. "Make mine scrambled if you would." Boreas said as he took a seat in the kitchen. Take mentioned he had slept well enough and Boreas only nodded, before a grin appeared on his face when Take started to tease Torrin a little bit about cooking eggs. "Yeah, if you can't do eggs, you might as well stop. It's even a decent way to find the recruits that absolutely shouldn't cook." Boreas said jokingly, he didn't really take note of his recruits' cooking skills unless they had a talent for it. Chrono and Tinarah took their leave for a little bit Boreas simply watched them go and then turned his attention to Torrin and Take again. It was then that Torrin mentioned something rather curious. "Wait, you mean to say those pieces of junk that remain are money?" Boreas asked raising his eyebrow, he had thought it simply useless rubbish dropped by the heartless around here but it actually passed for money? That was something he hadn't expected at all, if the money came from the Heartless Torrin and him could make a fortune around these parts. "I don't play any instrument but I have picked up on some singing... Great thing when singing with a lot of people at the same time is that you don't have to be good at all, not that it matters too much whether we sound any good at all, it's not stopping us from doing it either..." Boreas said, before turning his attention to Take and laughing at what he said. "If you saw a Gil you'd understand why we wouldn't see munny as money... I might have a couple still..." Boreas said grabbing a small pouch from his belt and putting it on the table in front of him before untying the string that kept it closed. From the small pouch he produced a small golden coin with royal symbols on them. On one side it had the crest of the royal family on it and on the other side was the likeness of a raven, he only had a couple of the coins on him, he handed one to Take so he could take a closer look at it. "This is a gil, on this side you have the crest of the Royal family and on the opposite side a raven, we used to revere them as protectors of the realm, something that is merely regarded as superstition nowadays." Boreas elaborated on the design of the coin.
Boreas slept rather peacefully and woke just before first light. He splashed some water in his face and while the skin on his arm was still hurting from Dentro's darkness he didn't let it stop him from doing his routine as he dressed himself, put on the armour with the green cloak of his costume and quietly left his room. Take and Chrono seemed to be up already but Boreas didn't say anything as he quietly walked out the door again just like the day before Boreas went for his morning jog, doing his exercises around the halfway point when he reached a small park. It was nice and cool still perfect for his exercises in the dewy grass, not too busy either with no one disturbing him as he went about it. Shortly after he looped around back towards Edna's mansion the sun already being up. As he wandered back inside, a bit sweaty from the exercise he joined the others in the living room. "Good morning, did you all get some good rest?" Boreas asked, after a day like yesterday they all could have used it. They were probably going to regroup now that this world had been saved which meant that it may not be such a bad day today but he was going to wait and see how today turned out, if they didn't get much of a break today he'd once more give it his all as he was trained to do, able to fight for consecutive days resting as much as possible in between. Take might be able to hold his own in the same way as a soldier, but whether Chrono and Tinarah could was up for debate.
"We'll stay safe Renza." Conrad assured her before they left. "Glad we could help, Chief Yolvun, good luck with the recovery of the village." As they left it was good to see more people going about their days in the village, the only hint of the dark period this village had gone through were the buildings that had sufferd damage from the storm but there were already people working to make repairs on them. The journey home was rather quiet and went off without a hitch and Conrad having rested a little in the village didn't necessarily need the energy potion that Samuel had offered him, but took it anyway just to help him restore some energy. When they got back to the Guild Hall Conrad was feeling relatively alright still and could probably make it until the evening before needing rest. He had taken a nap on the train as well. "Yeah, it's nice to be back. Sleep well, Samuel." Conrad said before making his way to the main hall, he saw Lakoda with Shawn and Yukyo. Conrad waved at them with a friendly smile, before getting himself a plate and grabbing some food before sitting down at an empty table next to one of the windows looking out at the Rose Garden, it was among his favourite spots, the other was the table close to the piano, he had grown quite fond of this spot over the years. Conrad made an inviting gesture to Lakoda, Shawn and Yukyo to come join him.
Judging from the lack of answer that Chrono was giving him Boreas was assuming nothing was mentioned during the battle. He was a little surprised when Tinarah offered him her food, he eyed her for a moment before saying. "While the gesture is appreciated, I'll pass." Boreas said, he wasn't going to eat her portion of food, if she didn't think of it that was fine by him, he'd make himself something simple. She probably hadn't expected him to stick around after getting back to the mansion, much less talk to her brother about what happened. Boreas got up and headed for the kitchen, found himself a bowl and made himself some oatmeal porridge and ate in peace in the kitchen. When he was done he cleaned out the bowl and passed through the living room. "I'm going to turn in for the night, good night." Boreas said as he headed for his room. Boreas deactivated his armour and headed for the bathroom, the supersuit beneath the armour was still in relatively good state, but it had served it's purpose, Boreas washed himself, wincing when his arm gave a burning sensation as he washed the skin that had been affected by the darkness. It didn't take long for Boreas to finish up and lay in his bed drifting off into a light sleep.
Conrad smiled when Renza hugged him, he wrapped his arms around the girl and hugged her back. He saw the Chief in the doorway and smiled at the man for a moment. "You are needed here Renza, it's like Everette said, they need a cheerful soul like you to help them rebuild and forget this dark time. And we're needed elsewhere so we can help people in need just like we helped you out." Conrad explained simply, before turning to Samuel. "I like that idea, we'll come back to visit when we have some time. I'll miss you too Renza, but because of this..." He showed the duck feather. "I'll always remember you and I promise I'll come visit you if I have the chance." Conrad then realized he had the empty vial that her dose of antidote had been in and held it out to her. "Let this be your reminder of that promise. Just like I promised I would come and bring you this, I promise to come back." Conrad said in a kind tone, it wasn't much to remember them by but it was a symbol of his promise, when he came back he'd bring her something better but there wasn't really much he had with him for that purpose..
Torrin gave him a very short summary of what had happened out there with Aria, well it wasn't even a summary but Torrin told him they were going to continue this conversation later, his choice of words was curious to say the least. Chrono and Tinarah answered his question that they could have been doing better and Chrono elaborated why. The mentioning of the clown made him remember something, the bowler hat guy mentioned something about a clown talking to the robed woman that gave the plans for the magitek devices, they took out the lynchpin in this world. "Good work, after all Kefka seemed to have been a central figure in the events that happened while we were on this world. He didn't mention anything about that robed woman the Bowlerhat guy mentioned by any chance?" Boreas asked, it was a long shot but there was a chance however small that something was mentioned. "Good night Torrin" Boreas said as the man excused himself. Boreas figured he'd stick around a little bit longer to talk. Chrono had a bit of an epiphany and asked about the foe that Torrin and himself fought. "Yeah that very Dentro, well not quite exactly him, he had changed, been granted dark powers and fought without a keyblade. He was a tough one to take down, but in a battle of attrition we ground him down and overcame his newfound powers. The powers and darkness seemed to cloud his mind and reason." Boreas explained to Chrono. "That should be the last we see of him." Boreas said as he sat down on a chair in the living room as hewas reminded of his injuries, he'd make sure to clean the burns before resting up, but that could wait a little while longer.
Boreas was glad to hear that they had taken care of the darkness and saved the world, if they could take care of this maybe they had a chance of solving the schism back home too even if it was a greater magnitude. "Thanks, I'll keep it contained..."Boreas said. He saw Edna coming to them and before she was close enough Torrin asked him whether he still had that communicator. "Yeah, I do, sure thing, but didn't you have one yourself? Also I forgot to ask and you don't have to answer right now, but what happened out there the other day?" Boreas asked in a low voice, he had been curious about it and if Torrin didn't want to talk about it that'd be fine, but there had been some inconsistencies there and he wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about in front of the others. Boreas reached in his pocket and discreetly handed the communicator to Torrin before following Edna who was complaining about the dreadful outfits, his emerald cloak was dusty, had cuts in it and it's edges were singed but still Boreas wore it with pride, especially since the rest of his costume was hidden beneath his armour. He joined Chrono, Take and Tinarah. "You guys alright? If our fight was anything to go by, I'm hazarding a guess you had a tough nut to crack too huh?" He asked them.
Keyblade transformation: Pernach Spell: Reflect Spell upgrade: Blizzara -> Blizzaga Fira -> Firaga 2 AP boosts 1 HP boost
Boreas stopped when he felt that hand on his shoulder and looked to Torrin who stopped him. He sighed, he had let himself go again, not as badly as last time but this wasn't the way a knight should be behaving. He hung his head and got to his feet, remaining quiet as Dentro and Torrin spoke. He had been right in his assesment that Dentro had been deluded, destroying all darkness wasn't the solution to the problem, they had tried to do so before and it had only lead to more problems that cost a lot of lives on both sides of the divide and nearly destroyed them all, but Dentro didn't know the story at least Boreas doubted he did. Dentro mentioning not having any family left but seeing the other students of the Light Chaser as his family, in a way Boreas could sympathise with the man as he slowly faded away, he didn't allow himself to feel too much sympathy for the man as he was still the enemy. Boreas turned away from Dentro after Torrin mentioned the possibility of souls persisting and being reborn, he didn't want to think of it as Torrin opened the portal and he quietly glanced one last time at the place Dentro had been laying down. The arrived on the hill close to the manor, Tinarah, Take and Chrono had made it on their part and he turned to Torrin. "It's done then? This world is safe now?" Boreas asked, if that was everything to be done in this world perhaps they could regroup. "I shouldn't have lost my cool there... do you think he understood what I meant? No nevermind it doesn't matter we beat him, avenged Adalric restored a semblance of balance to the conflict and I did what I had to to make it happen..." Boreas said, going over it he talked his own doubts down. Back to relative safety he went over his injuries mentally his arm hurt most out of everything, the kick to the chest left him with a dull pain but he was fine, he could still walk and if necessary still fight.
Boreas kept Dentro on his toes while Torrin recovered he was quite agile but Boreas wasn't going to let that stop him from wiping that grin off his face, the grin that was still there after he had headbutted him square on the nose. His blow was once again denied and the kick to the chest sent Boreas backwards, landing on his back the wind knocked from his lungs. Boreas took a moment to catch his breath laying on his back, Dentro's words swirling around his mind. You can't beat me.... you can't beat me... you can't beat me... another voice joined in until they merged and spoke as one. Boreas rage flared as he scrambled up to his feet. He didn't even hear Torrin's question whether he wanted to finish Dentro off, he ran towards him rage coursing through his veins as he tackled Dentro to the ground and started to relentlessly punch him. "You may have been granted those gifts but you lack spirit! The dogged refusal to die to drag out another day! You're just prancing around with your fancy mending powers, pretending to be far greater than the little boy you actually are, the little boy that was deceived ! I told you you should not have shown your face here!" Boreas shouted as he brought down his gauntleted fists on his face again and again. Boreas summoned his blade, got up and slashed several times at Dentro.
Boreas had done his part of the plan and while Dentro retaliated and the cold darkness washed over his armoured arm, he could feel the skin beneath the armour being affected by the darkness, it hurt significantly but Boreas wasn't going to give up. Torrin doing his part dealt a heavy blow to Dentro but even still he seemed to recover but not as easily as he made it seem, with Torrin's follow-up attack Dentro still seemed unharmed but with the short deep breaths it clearly showed he wasn't as invulnerable as he let on, he couldn't keep this up forever, neither could they but it proved that Dentro wasn't as invincible as he claimed he was, recovering from that clearly was taking it's toll on him. "Do not relent Torrin!" Boreas barked. With that Boreas transformed his keyblade back into the Glaive-guisarme, with his arm hurting he wasn't going to be as good with his weapon but Boreas refused to give up. He started with diagonal slash turning the weapon and on the backswing go directly for Dentro's face with the staff followed by a horizontal swipe at the neck, shifting his blade back to the normal keyblade, holding it in a reverse grip going for another slash at the neck, followed with an elbow to the face on the backswing, followed with ramming the pommel of his keyblade into the side of Dentro's head. Boreas had been drawing the attention again to buy Torrin some time to regain his composure and grab his weapon again. Boreas then let his blade go for a moment to grab Dentro by his ears and giving a headbutt onto his nose, picking up his blade and going for the same overhead slam that he was denied in his duel with Chrysanteum.
The ease with which Dentro seemed to dodge his attacks frustrated him, even more so when Dentro actually stood on top of his blade. Boreas was prepared to pay the price for his mistake there and then, not even flinching he stared right back at Dentro as he fully intended to push the weapon over, tilting it far enough to throw Dentro off but Torrin was already there to take Dentro who was sitting there as pretty much a sitting duck gloating at his foe instead of dealing the blow. With Boreas' weapon freed again and Dentro away from them and the wound started to close again as Dentro taunted them. "As a Captain I won't say no to tactics, he may have gotten tougher and faster but it matters very little we'll still take him out or we'll die trying. No retreat, no surrender." Boreas said keeping his voice low, despite Dentro's warning he could still hear them. "You may be tough recovering from grievous injuries, but if you think we are just going to give up because of that you may be too used to the weaklings of the Realm of Light, our lives are defined by our struggles, we won't surrender just because we face a tough enemy!" Boreas spat back shifting his keyblade back to the standard form, if they were going to combine their attacks then he had an idea. Dentro had never seen what he had done to Chrysanteum in their duel, Torrin had caught the tail end of it and he looked at his friend for a moment making sure they understood each other and then he went in across the right towards Dentro, slashing agressively a few times using his free hand to throw punches at Dentro's face as well and elbows to his ribcage while he used his blade to hook down his leg and pushing him off balance onto the ground to open up for Torrin.
Torrin remarked on the fact that Dentro now sported the mark of the Heartless, Boreas had missed it but it only gave him more reason to destroy him. Boreas already wished to destroy Dentro for what he had done, now that he was a Heartless. Boreas wasn't going to back down from the challenge that Dentro had given him and Torrin. With Dentro charging them as his aura grew Boreas utilized the closed distance in an attempt to stab Dentro but the explosion of Darkness robbed him of the opportunity blasting him back Boreas landed in a low crouch, skidding to a halt, glaive-guisarme in a guarding position close. "Oh it's a great little game that I have been playing for the past five years. Didn't know you enjoyed playing it too!" Boreas said shouting the last part as he shifted his keyblade to the repeating crossbow and unleashed a volley of magical bolts at the heartless before charging him again with the Glaive-guisarme going for a quick jab followed by a low slash aimed at the ankles.
When their counter attack came Dubhán had been prepared parrying the first blow of the one attacking him but falling for a feint and a slash that caught him wrong, slashing at his arms. Dubhán retaliated with a whirlwind of blows turning around and around as the blows rained on the white-fang members' guard, then stopped and instead of a slash going for a stab straight through the defensive guard taking him out of commision. As he took a moment to catch his breath he was attacked from behind and was reminded of what his father told him. 'This is a battlefield, be aware of your surroundings Dubhán, you may take out one opponent but there is always the next.' And he silently berated himself for the mistake. He retaliated by using one of his blades to occupy his opponents weapon while the other went for the opened up guard taking another White Fang member out of commision. There was one that was fighting Arian and Dubhán decided to give him a hand giving a slash across the back of the distracted White fang member. White Fang Defeated: 2 White Fang Remaining: 3 White Fang Injured 1/3 BP BP: 0/7 Bullets: 3
Boreas nodded in agreement as Torrin said gone not forgotten. He was curious how Torrin would resolve the war as both sides had lost many people and there was quite a bit of bad blood there, it wouldn't be easy to do so, especially not while simultaneously making sure the deaths wouldn't be in vain. He wasn't sure a compromise could be made but he trusted Torrin to try everything in his power to find a solution. Their talk was rather rudely disturbed when a dark fireball aimed at Torrin sailed past, Boreas instinctively wheeled around into the direction it had come from. That voice, Boreas anger flared upon seeing who had been the one to launch that fireball. "I guess it's our lucky day Torrin, even if I didn't know Adalric very well, let's avenge him and rid ourselves of this deluded fanatic." Boreas said with a grin on his face and a fire in his eyes before turning his attention to Dentro. "You should not have showed your face here... you will pay for what you did to Adalric." Boreas proclaimed with his glaive-guisarme in a low guard, bladed tip pointing towards Dentro. Without another word Boreas charged, cape fluttering behind him as he did, then thrusting forward and whirling his glaive around above his head into a sideways slash spinning into an overhead slam. His heart started ramping up its beat to the familiar rhythm of fighting for Boreas, they would exact their revenge.
Boreas looked back at his friend with a rather expressionless look on his face and shook his head when Torrin asked him rhethorically if he was serious at all or not. "It's okay... there's no way you could have known, not all the way out here..." Boreas said not having Torrin there on that day was tough, but he had his two lieutenants to confide in and talk to the two of them supported him throughout the time, he couldn't break down when around his mother, stay strong for her but with his soldiers they were there for him just like he was there in return. His mother didn't like that he still went into the field as her only son she had left their family had given more than enough in her eyes, but he had his duty and couldn't go around that. His mother didn't even know he was out here trying to find Torrin, just like he hadn't told her he had avenged Lysandros' death. "The ones responsible are gone though, they paid the price for it..." Boreas said his words ringing hollow in the darkness. "Look, what's done is done, this wasn't your fault, we're at war. People die in wars..." Boreas added and looked away. "Thanks Torrin, I am glad that from here on out I have my friend with me again..." Perhaps now Torrin could at least understand why he wasn't angry with him anymore, between loss and loyalty he was just glad that his oldest friend was still alive, even if he had abandoned him.
