Darkness Incarnate - Lost Light

Starring:

Maikeru, Sachiko

Date: October 2, 2012

Summary:

Maikeru goes into the cave once again, this time with a plan, though things don't quite go according to that plan.

Poster's note: Foul language filtered in obvious places.


"Darkness Incarnate - Lost Light"

Desert Island

The morning after the third bout against the Crawler's minions, Maikeru stands outside his room with his arms folded over his chest. For his sight being pretty dim still, he did well getting fully dressed this morning. He waits outside for Sachiko to join him, no expression on his face. This mission is still not looking good, but they're just keeping up appearances until the seal is fixed. Once that is done, the monks are going to pay for attempting to use him as a sacrifice.
'Almost ready?' the mental message goes out. Seems he's ready to get this whole mess over with. What he'd thought would be a rather simple mission has turned out to be quite a challenge, especially considering he was blinded by the creatures he is fighting. Were he not hours from killing all these people, he might demand higher pay for this mission.

'You're pretty pushy, y'know that?' Sachiko straightens out her blouse and slips on her shoes. Stepping out of the room, she reaches up to set an eyeball on his shoulder. 'What are you going to do? I mean… more in regards to the fact you've hardly gotten a chance to even touch the seal at this point… Are you actually going to be able to fix it if you don't have anyone to hold back the attacks for you?' She forms replacement sentries for the ones she lost over the course of the night while waiting for his response.

'It was just a question,' Maikeru replies through the mental connection, lifting an eyebrow. A blurry glance is cast toward the eyeball set on his shoulder before he reaches over to place a hand on her shoulder so she can lead him to the cave. 'I have a plan for that. I should at least be able to get some of the new stones set today.' He drops the other hand to his side, checking a pouch and then giving a nod. 'Shall we see what this candle has to say today then?'

'Not to be a lamp here, but… I have to ask how it feels being blind. I've always been blind. I'm curious how it would feel to suddenly become blind. If I randomly lost the ability to form these extra eyes… I'm not sure how I'd react,' she explains. Sachiko starts to walk, leading him along. 'I'm sure he has something enlightening to say for once.' Sarcasm aside, she reaches up to pat his hand lightly. 'Just try not to let whatever it says get to you. Easier said than done, I'm sure, but… seriously.'

'It glows,' Maikeru replies simply as he follows behind Sachiko. A light smirk crosses his face as the hand pats his, the Jounin giving a nod. 'I'll try.' Once they reach the cave, he releases her shoulder and steps up to it. Seems he can recognize the purple glow enough to know where to go. "Let's do this," he says to the monks, leaning his head side to side to crack his neck a bit. A moment later, a hole opens in the barrier in front of him, and he flickers to land about ten feet in front of the seal.

'That's very discriptive,' she responds sarcastically, 'Thank you.' Sachiko gazes toward the cave entrance as he goes in and then sighs. Rather than finding something to sit on this time, she simply sits herself right on the ground near the cave mouth. She sits facing it, her arms crossed as she just waits. Already, she's struggling a bit to push worried thoughts back. Not that it's doing her much good. There's plenty to worry about, even if she weren't directly worrying about the Jounin…

Looking around inside the cave, Maikeru reaches into his pouch and grabs several sets of wire-connected seals. Each is tossed out at varying distances, creating quite a few traps for the creatures to charge through when they surface. He then walks over to where he stacked the rocks, beginning to walk back and forth to the seal with them. When he completes each trip, he places a rock in the hole, beginning to fill it up in preparation to close the hole up permanently.
"You can never escape darkness. It flocks to you always."

Sachiko simply watches, keeping an eye out around him just to be sure. When she hears the Crawler in the background, she rolls her eyes. At least he stayed away for a bit… The quiet was appreciated while it lasted. He's not very original, either. Repeating himself all the time must feel like it works better. Hypnotists do that… so maybe this 'Crawler' thing has a decent idea with all that babbling. Whatever the case, she tries not to bother Maikeru with her own mental babbling…

As the creatures begin to come out of the darkness, traps begin to go off, and Maikeru begins to move a bit quicker in his work. Several rounds of explosions go off while he places the rocks, the Jounin working as quickly as possible, though not quite able to use his full speed since he's not able to fully see. He has to feel around a bit to be sure each rock is placed properly.
"Are you thinking of your loved ones now? How you will never see them again?"

Sachiko watches the traps going off, her eyeball focused on the monsters. After a few moments, it turns back to what he's doing. 'Careful. You're going to squash your finger,' she claims. As if it would really hurt him much to pinch his finger between two rather small stones… Most likely she was just getting antsy and needed to say /something/ and that was the first thing to come to mind. Regardless, she shuts up immediately after and hums thoughtfully.

Several more rounds of explosions ring out as Maikeru continues to rebuild the wall with the small stones. However, after a few minutes, the explosion come to a stop, and the dark creatures begin to approach unhindered. "Guess that means my time is up," he says with a smirk as he looks around at the approaching creatures, hearing the rattling armor and massive footsteps of the possessed statues approaching. Seems the creatures aren't wasting any time puling out the big guns this time.

The eye moves to gaze back at the monsters when the explosions stop. Snickering lightly at his comment, Sachiko shifts to get more comfortable. 'Don't be too rash,' she comments, more sarcastic than anything. There's even a clear bit of laughing amongst her thoughts. Her actual form is quiet, however, as she doesn't want to attract any attention if at all possible. That being said, she decides to take a moment to check on her sentries.

As the creatures start to come toward him, Maikeru reaches back and draws his sword and creates an enormous form of his right hand. As they come at him, he begins to strike. Moving back and forth between sides of the creatures hurriedly, he seems to handle taking them on from all sides pretty well os far, though they do slowly begin to close the gap between themselves to begin to swarm him.
"We are coming. We will devour your world."

Despite having some help and doing quite well, the creatures eventually begin to swarm and leap on him. The armored creatures begin to strike at him, driving their claws at him again and again in attempts to break the chakra-formed armor over his skin. Though he continues to strike at them for a while, they finally manage to restrain him and hold him down for the moment.

When he gets trapped, Sachiko grits her teeth. 'Mai… Are you alright?' It's fairly obvious he's not… really, but all she can actually do is ask him. The eyeball is also trapped with him, so she can't really do anything to help him. So she searches for more information throughout the village. What else can she do…?

The creatures continue to fight against Maikeru, holding him down. Several of the statues lift their scepters and slam them on the ground, sending streams of dark chakra along the ground to explode upward against him. A few others, however, move toward the seal and begin to strike against the stones with their scepters, undoing his work and beginning to make the gap even larger.
"Darkness will swallow you whole."

Sachiko groans weakly, reaching up to rub her head. This is going terribly. If they're going to do anything about this… infestation, they need more people. Some to cover Maikeru while he works on the seal. However, right now there's no chance of that. She certainly can't do it… and obviously all the monks are too useless to actually /fight/ anything. She isn't sure how to help him at this point… and since he didn't answer if he's okay, she's even less sure what to do.

The creatures continue to fight against Maikeru, holding him down. Several of the statues lift their scepters and slam them on the ground, sending streams of dark chakra along the ground to explode upward against him. A few others, however, move toward the seal and begin to strike against the stones with their scepters, undoing his work and beginning to make the gap even larger.
"Darkness will swallow you whole."

Sachiko groans weakly, reaching up to rub her head. This is going terribly. If they're going to do anything about this… infestation, they need more people. Some to cover Maikeru while he works on the seal. However, right now there's no chance of that. She certainly can't do it… and obviously all the monks are too useless to actually /fight/ anything. She isn't sure how to help him at this point… and since he didn't answer if he's okay, she's even less sure what to do.

Maikeru continues to struggle against the creatures, finally sending a huge surge of chakra out from himself to blow some of them off of him. He then points his hand at a group of them, forming an orb in his hand and sending it forward to explode and knock many of them back. As he turns around to see what's going on, the darkness leaking out of the hole seems to grow by quite a bit. The statues that were breaking the seal turn toward him, sending streams of dark chakra his way and blasting him backward.

The eye watches as the dark chakra comes forth and hits Maikeru. With the force shoving him back, it's unable to stay attached and falls to the cave floor. It turns to look at him, just to make sure he's not too hurt, before looking around to make sure it, well… doesn't get stepped on by giant statues. It starts trying to make its way back to him of course, but it's a little difficult in the circumstances. 'Didn't get too damaged, did you?'

With a flicker, Maikeru kicks one of the nearby giant statues over on some of the smaller minions. He then begins to strike at the dark creatures again, attempting to fight them off so he can get back to work. However, at this rate, it looks like things are only going to fall behind worse. 'I'm fine.' He leaps over toward the seal and reaches forward with a giant form of his hand to grab one of the statues and attempt to pull it away from the seal.
"The abyss calls for you!"

With a flicker, Maikeru kicks one of the nearby giant statues over on some of the smaller minions. He then begins to strike at the dark creatures again, attempting to fight them off so he can get back to work. However, at this rate, it looks like things are only going to fall behind worse. 'I'm fine.' He leaps over toward the seal and reaches forward with a giant form of his hand to grab one of the statues and attempt to pull it away from the seal.
"The abyss calls for you!"

The eye watches from the cavern floor and Sachiko just takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. It really is starting to look like she's another monk. Well… except for her rather eccentric clothing choices. How she wishes that thing would just shut the hell up… but there's nothing she can do, of course… and probably nothing Maikeru can do about it, either. But she doesn't want to pester him with her messages, so she waits… watching and listening as best she can.

As Maikeru tosses one statue back, another strikes him with its scepter. He turns to strike at it, only for a blast of dark chakra to slam into him and send him stumbling toward the seal. As he starts to get up, the creatures begin to close in on him again. He glances between them, pondering a strategy. With his focus on the creatures around him and his sight still rather dim, it gives an enormous hand with talon-like fingers to reach through the enlarged gorge in the seal and grab him to pull him through it. 'What the-' The line of communication would seem to be cut short as the Jounin is actually pulled into another plane of existence, into the Crawler's world. With this done, the dark creatures seem to fade back into the darkness, disappearing from the cave to re-enter their world that Maikeru has just been drug into.
"Ahahaha! He's ours now. He belongs to darkness."

Sachiko's eyes widen as she watches this take place. Shifting to put herself closer to the barrier, she almost touches it… Then she remembers it will probably hurt her and just sets both her hands on the ground, leaning by the cave mouth on her knees. Shit… No way. This can't be happening. Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, she focuses her attention on the eye and starts to move it around.
It hesitantly approaches the opening near the seal, looking it and the seal itself over carefully. What is she supposed to do? There's really nothing she /can/ do… Even if she tried to put the eyeball through the opening, it almost definitely wouldn't continue to project what it saw to her…
Great… just great.

For the first time on this trip, it seems the monks are fully paying attention to what's going on. A few moments after the creatures have disappeared from the cave, dozens of monks are standing in front of the mouth of the cave as the barrier in front of it fades. Whether Sachiko moves out of their way or not, they quickly move into the cave and begin picking up the repair of the seal where Maikeru left off. It seems they have little sense of sentiment, at least not over getting that hole sealed back up so the Crawler can't escape its realm.

The Iga doesn't move. Not even an inch at first. After a moment, though, she moves to stand and actually walks into the cave herself. Walking over, she leans down to grab the eyeball and then stands upright, pointing it toward the monks' current work. "You guys are lite-brites," she announces, certainly not shy about it. "Why don't you sacrifice each other? It's /your/ duty to protect the world or whatever, isn't it? Illuminating morons…" Sachiko shakes her head and turns to start walking back out of the cave, gritting her teeth.

The monks seem to all but ignore Sachiko. It seems her presence is rather insignificant to them now. Their first priority is to be sure the seal is fully repaired. At this point, nothing else matters.
Beyond the door, Maikeru lays on the ground with a black ooze holding his body to the ground. He stares up, his dim vision enough to show him that the gorge leading back to the cave is closing up. His breaths are heavy as he looks around at what seems to be an endless darkness besides the hole that is closing up more and more to seal him on this side with the Crawler.
"Darkness will devour your soul."

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