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Brilliant swords of ice rained down across the form of the terrible beast, striking it across its full form. With a massive roar, the serpent shook off the attack, whipping its body around in fury. The young woman's face contorted in fear as she took a few steps back, not expecting the beast to survive the hit. Her hands grasped the silvery staff in her hands more tightly. All of a sudden, she felt more exposed than ever, and it scared her.

The massive serpent let out a whining roar and whipped its tail towards the young woman, who jumped into the air and to the side to avoid it, but it was too little too late. Even as the beast's tail slammed into the ground, its mouth opened and fired a powerful blast of energy toward the woman. Her blue eyes opened wide and she screamed, her energy pulsing around her as she did, brilliant crystalline swords made of blue ice springing up to deflect most of the attack, but she was still cast backwards, striking rock, hard. As pain rang through the woman's body, a voice laughed at her out loud, ringing in her head.

Ha ha ha ha haa~ You're pathetic... Still so weak... Its no wonder you couldn't protect Mother and Father.
No! Please, not now... I can do this... Me alone... I just...
Just what!? You're too weak!! You're a little degenerate coward!! Too weak then, too weak now... No killer instinct, no drive, no passion, no emotions other than feeling sorry for yourself. You disgust me...

The woman pulled herself up, wincing from the pain of the impact even as the beast's mouth opened again and it fired another blast of energy that shot ahead and exploded right where the woman had been standing as she rolled and bounced across the ground from the blast, finally catching herself and standing on her feet.

You had all the time in the world to avoid that. You obviously can't do this, so let me show you how its done...

Energy began to swirl around the woman as she dropped her staff and gripped her head, tears streaming down her face as she shouted out loud.

No!! Please don't! I don't want to! Not again, no, please!!

As the woman writhed and pleased with her tormentor, the massive serpent showed no such distraction, and bore down upon her, another mighty blast of energy building in its mouth. But as it did, a change came over the woman, the energy swirling around her growing a darker shade of blue, dark ice crystals swirling around her form. The ball of energy grew bright as in neared full capacity, but there was now another sound coming over the battlefield. Laughter.

Ha ha ha ha ha~ How cute... You think you're so big and bad picking on her like that don't you? Well... She's a nothing, a weak little piece of trash... But me... I'm your worst nightmare!!

Red lenses had replaced the sweet blue of before, and instead of sweet innocent features, the woman's face now had a dangerous grin as she held out her hand, energy flowing from it and pulling her staff into her grip, the power from it surging into the top and suddenly extending into a blade, the blade of a scythe.

With a terrible roar, the beast unleashed the ball of energy that surged towards the body of the now smirking woman, but suddenly, something caught its eyes. The blast slammed into the ground, but instead of an explosion, a blue glow shone through the ball of energy. This had never happened before...

That's a pretty strong attack, but I'm done playing with you. Take it back!!

With tremendous force, a massive blue sword of crystalline ice swung to the side with a movement of the woman's hand, casting the blast directly back towards the massive serpent. Caught by surprise, the blast exploded, slamming into the beast with terrible power. It let out a cry, its form smoking and recovering, but this time IT was too slow.

As the smoke cleared from its eyes, a much larger hail of swords suddenly shot towards it, slicing through its thick hide like knives through butter before exploding in a shower of razor sharp shards for even more damage. Bright red blood dripped to the ground as the creature roared and struck back with its tail. But once again the woman was too fast, the beast's tail missing as she zipped to the side.



The ground under the massive beast cracked and broke away as a titanic geyser of water shot up from below and cast the beast into the air as the woman jumped, following it up with a massive slash from the glowing tip of her scythe-like staff.

Blood gushed forth as the creature was nearly bisected from top to bottom, but despite all its injuries, it still stood heavily wounded, and began to ready another attack, the ground quaking as far more power was drawn to its mouth than before. The woman simply laughed in reply.



The woman spread her legs and planted her feet as she spun the staff around, stabbing the end of the weapon into the dirt below her feet as a massive rune of blue light erupted below her feet and the ground shook. Something big was underway... The massive serpent beast suddenly stopped its charging of the attack and looked around, as if sensing something was amiss. As it spied the massive rune of energy under the woman's feet, her aura growing more and more powerful, clouds gathering above and the ground shaking, it suddenly turned to flee.



As the beast turned to flee back to its lair, the rune erupted with water and energy into the sky, moving around the woman and suddenly turned towards the beast, taking the shape of a mighty sea dragon before spreading out into a ferocious wave of water.



The wave of water slammed into the beast and carried it into the rocks of it's lair, crushing its body against the sides with terrible force. The might of the impact caused the side of the sea cliff to shatter and fall down upon the serpent, burying it under the weight of its own home.

The beast was dead, and as it died, the woman's red eyes faded to the soft blue that she had started with. The energy evaporated from around her, and her staff reverted to its unaltered state. As her soft blue eyes caught sight of the red blood of the creature seeping from between the rocks and into the ocean, staining it red, tears welled once more in her eyes.

Lady Saiya, one of the most beautiful women in Lemuria, wept. She had saved the small seaside settlement from the creature, but she had lost control again. She'd become "that" side of herself once more, and just like before, all that it brought was pain and suffering. The sea serpent had not needed to die, it was in retreat, it would not have hunted near the town again, but She had killed it, killed it in cold blood because it got in her way.

Later, as the people of the small village came to see what had happened, crying out in cheers of celebration, Lady Saiya could only somberly accept their thanks. She'd come here to the Lemurian Continent learn about Mercury Psynergy, to increase her knowledge of her craft, and while she'd gotten stronger, that side of her had started to surface again. In many cases she could suppress it, prevent Her from coming to be, but this time she had failed.

She'd have to become stronger if she ever hoped to control the wildness of her other side. And as she headed back towards the main city of Lemuria to continue her studies, she swore that she would try her best to do just that...

((Would any brave adventurers like to enter the library and initiate a conversation with Gan?))

((Is there a book Ryugi would be looking for at the library that it would be feasible for Gan to be reading? Perhaps a conversation could be started by this.))

((Ryugi is focused only on learning more about the lighthouses right now. He isn't looking for other adepts, or looking to speak with them. If Gan came up to him and started talking to him for some reason, that might be different, but Ryugi won't initiate a conversation with anyone, really. That could change eventually, but for the moment, he isn't "looking for group." I didn't mean it offensively.))

((Indeed! See? Gan gets it. Ryugi won't openly join a party or team because he isn't looking for one. But if something forces him into one, he won't have much of a choice.))

After a long trek through Lemuria's city streets, Ryugi found himself at the city's main library. Within its walls it contained knowledge on the lighthouses themselves, and ultimately, the very knowledge that Ryugi would need to accomplish his goal of darkening the lit towers.

He climbed the stairs of the massive building and soon found his way inside. Inside things were quiet and hushed, not like the hustle and bustle of the city's streets. After nodding in greeting to the attendant, Ryugi went looking through the vast bookshelves to find what he was looking for. In such a vast collection of knowledge as this, finding exactly the information you wanted would surely prove difficult.

And it did. After an hour or so of searching, and after pestering several attendants and book keepers, he finally found the section he was looking for, and after moving a large set of stairs into position, he climbed the shelves to retrieve the book.

After retreating to what appeared to be the quietest and most secluded part of the reading section, Ryugi set the book down and glanced at it. it was old and worn, obviously kept in the best condition possible. The first lighthouse, he knew, had been built and completed nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, so the book itself had to be somewhere around that age, and it certainly looked it.

After admiring the book's condition, Ryugi opened to the first few pages. Inside it were sketches and diagrams of the inner workings of the lighthouses, descriptions of various traps to keep interlopers from messing with the internal components, and effectively the motivation for creating the lighthouses themselves. It was a vast resource of information, and Ryugi knew he'd never remember it all.

After scanning a bit more, he learned why the lighthouses shone with such brilliance, and seemed to strengthen the psynergy of those around them. The Elemental Stars, stones that were imbued with the very essence of the elements themselves, were found. The Lemurians, deeming the stones too powerful to be held by any one person, began construction of the lighthouses to spread the Stars' power to all of Weyard.

Ryugi continued to read on, gleaming everything he possibly could from the book's pages. The lighthouses both amplified and dispersed the Stars' energy through a complicated means of building design and elemental knowledge. It seemed that in the heart of each lighthouse was a chamber built to hold the Elemental Star after it was cast into it, and that chamber could be accessed somehow through the inner workings of the lighthouse.

This portion was easily the most interesting and important to Ryugi, but try as he might, the book did not discuss how to remove the Elemental Star from the holding chamber once the lighthouse was lit. However, Ryugi imagined that it would likely take an adept of the proper element to withstand the intense elemental energy and retrieve the star, or to seal its power long enough for it to be retrieved.

He grumbled. As much as this gave him insight into what to do next, the book raised far more questions than answers. How could he proceed to the chamber that held the Elemental Star? Where was it, or where could it be located? he let out a sigh, and began to search the book more fully. There had to be an explanation somewhere, and this book had to have the answer within its ancient pages.

Ryugi continued to read the book, trying to learn more about the inner workings of the lighthouses. The chambers that held the stars were deep in the catacombs under the massive buildings, and the book spoke of powerful and dangerous defenses that were set in motion to guard the inner sanctum of each lighthouse.

Just then, a voice spoke up from behind Ryugi. He frowned, closed the book, and turned to face the young man that had apparently snuck up behind him, and had been reading over his shoulder. With a glare that could have toasted a water adept, he spoke.

Hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to read over someone's shoulder?