Tearing Chasm(Temple of the Seal)

[prythian]

(No posting here until after Gathering Hope is complete! Only for Temple of the Seal participants.)

A large crack sounded in the air, and the remains of the Temple were tossed in the air, turning into sand the moment they landed on the ground, blending in with the dunes.

A large trail of sand was flung into the air behind the passage of the creature underneath the sands. It suddenly burst out of the sands, rearing up. A large worm, of all things, roared, a large circular mouth full of sharp teeth closing as it twisted back down and entered the sands again, as if it was water. It hadn't appeared to have any method of seeing anything at all.

The Heartworm was alive once more.

[nascent]

"Oh you have GOT to be KIDDING ME!!"

He had stopped to rest in the shadow of a dune perhaps half a mile from the ruined Temple, and had apparently stayed put for a bit too long. Having scrambled up the side of the dune upon hearing a sound like churning sand, Kassom Sercha had been the only person to witness the giant worm's eruption from beneath the sands. It was at this point that he realized just what a bad idea it had been to check out the Temple solo. Now... now the ONLY thing standing between that MASSIVE BEAST and wiping out Agrabah... was him.

And Kassom REALLY didn't feel like playing hero at the moment. Fortunately for him, help wasn't far behind.

About five minutes later a familiar dark rift tore open the skies high overhead, and from the darkness sailed 'The Red Corsair'.

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"AVAST YE!!" Cordell shouted, putting the helm on autopilot. Drawing out her cutlass for dramatic effect, she marched boldly out onto the main deck, declaring her orders as she went. "ALL HANDS T' BATTLE STATIONS! ROLL OUT TH' GUNS, LADS! WE'LL BE MAKIN' SPORT O' TH' BEASTIE TH' MOMENT WE GET OUR DEADLIGHTS ON IT!"

Her Heartless minions went into a flurry of activity all over the ship. Solar sails were tied up, the anchor was made ready at a moment's notice, and the port, starboard, and aft cannons were deployed and powered up. Hades and the rest of his team quickly made their way out onto the deck at the sound of all the activity.

"Whoa, babe, quite an operation you've got goin' here!" The lord of the dead commented, coming up alongside the captain.

"Aye, that it is!" Cordell beamed, proud of her ship and crew. She walked over to the edge and peered down, looking back and forth. "Problem is, though... th' blasted Temple o' th' Seal's supposed t' be right around 'ere accordin' to me charts... but I dun' see a bloody thing!"

Indeed, the Temple was utterly and completely gone from sight. Neither was there any sign of the ancient Heartless. This could get tricky...

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Far below, Kassom was waving frantically to signal 'The Red Corsair', but no one seemed to have noticed him! They had no idea that there was a massive worm burrowing through the desert... if Cordell decided to land before he could warn them, then everyone on board was as good as worm food!!

[Akito]

In the room just some time ago had been occupied by the enigmatic and air headed sorcerer, Alexis, there sat a crystalline glass ball that held within it a silver mask. It was that mask after all, the one Alexis had been charged to protect.

However, now he was gone. The sorcerer was wise, so surely it was of some merit to leave the mask here. Perhaps he had decided he could not afford to risk losing it? Nevertheless, splitting up was a rather reckless and foolish move on his part. Had he good reason for it?

If one knew Alexis, it was probably a whim. Probably. Surely. Right? He was never serious...was he?

So it was that an enchantment encased the mask of flames, a crystal ball that would protect it from harm until a person who truly needed it came. Not mere want or greed, but truly dire need; such a thing, Alexis left in his cabin room on Cordell's ship.

[Rocket!]

[ Forgot. Sorry! xD ]

Today was not a good day.

It could've been.

But it wasn't.

Having been given no task yet-- due in no small part from Mora's fervent hiding from the captain-- Mora peered surreptitiously down at the world they were on now.

Save for the sudden heatwave, it kinda looked like that Olympus world. Huh.

Mora Vadnais, rookie member of Res Nullis, scowled at the sight. Rather boring, if you ask her...

...hm? Someone waving.

Maybe Captain'd been here before?

Smiling, Mora waved back to whoever-it-is. Nice to know Cordell wasn't infamous only or pirating!

Not that it was a bad thing, when all's been said and done, right?, Mora mused with a private grin.

Turning away from the railing, Mora decided she'd spent enough time up on deck (a few scarce minutes) to warrant a breather down in the hull. No need to be getting in the way when the Heartless... crew... knew what it was doing, after all...

[prythian]

(Skipping Dante... trust me; it's only bad for you guys if this gets TOO far behind)

First, the air grew still and oppressive. Silence spread over the desert, everything seeming to stop and wait for one moment.

Second, the very sands seemed to grow completely still. Something impossible in a desert; there was always some wind blowing or creatures moving to cause shifting.

Finally, there was a peculiar sound in the air, one that didn't manage to even come close to a sound that anyone on the ship or below it had heard before.

The ground began to rumble and the giant worm, its body thicker around than the entire ship, rose out of the ground. It gave out a loud roar, its mouth opening to reveal the many teeth inside of it. It curved and sank back into the ground, a large plume of sand rising into the air, accompanied by a strong wind. The sand flew through the air towards Kassom and the ship rapidly; it would be on them within seconds.

[nascent]

"Great Gatsby!! Vates exclaimed in disbelief, rearing back at the sight of the titanic monstrosity. Unfortunately he reeled back right into Hades who, in mild annoyance, pushed the shaggy professor back towards the railing. In all this jostle the small bag tied at his waist opened up some, causing half a dozen enchanted marbles to spill out over the ship's edge unnoticed, plummeting to the sands below.

Right about then... everyone noticed the impending wave of sand and turbulence.

"BATTEN DOWN TH' HATCHES!!" Cordell yelled at the top of her voice. Her Heartless lackeys flew into their desperate activities frantically, though they'd hardly have time to secure much of anything before the shockwave hit. The most they could hope for was to mitigate some of the damage. The young pirate captain immediately turned to her passengers. "Below deck, quick!"

Hades hardly needed to be told; he was already halfway to the door. Cordell, Vates, and Iris weren't far behind him.

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"That's it." Kassom muttered to himself, seeing the worm breach the sand and rise up over a hundred feet. "After today, I'm swearing off heroics."

<<If only life were that generous.>> A cold, metallic voice in his head reminded him grimly.

As the beast dived it generated some kind of miniature -- in the loose sense of the word -- sandstorm. It was moving fast, fast enough to overtake 'The Red Corsair' and Kassom within moments. A spiteful, determined look came over the young lynx as he saw the sand-tossed shockwave heading right for him.

"Let's kick some ***."

With that declaration liquid metal began racing up to cover the furry rogue's body; not having time to wait for it to finish, Kassom -- rapidly becoming Ilaelis -- suddenly jumped forward like a diver entering a pool. The sandstorm tore across the spot where he'd stood barely a second after he had entered the sea of sand via Deep Dive. The metal overskin would continue to form as the endless wash of tiny grains carried him along, though he'd be shaking sand grains out of his clothes and fur for a week regardless.

Now it was the worm's move. Kassom knew he'd have to stay alert. Metal skin or not, one wrong move and he'd get to find out just how sharp those rows of teeth were...

[prythian]

The marbles that Vates had accidentally dropped were quickly swept up in the wave of sand, and they exploded upon contact with the roughness of the sandy winds. At once, all the explosions began to suck in the sand around them, something forming from it...

Fortunately, the winds only knocked the ship... hard. No real damage was formed from it, but the entire ship shuddered from the collision. When the sands cleared, the ship's crew and passengers would quickly spy six floating rocks, large enough for two people to stand on if they so chose. The rocks flew up and gathered around the ship.

Suddenly, a cloud of black smoke shot down in a stream from the sky, spiraling down into the sands and going underground. It hit the worm, which began to turn black as the smoke was absorbed into it. The black faded, and the worm's rings thickened and turned to stone, leaving the only soft spots remaining where the rings connected.

That concluded, the worm turned its attention towards the creature which had invaded its sand. Short, tiny hairs twitched on its body as it felt the shifting of the sands revealing the exact location of the digger. It opened its mouth wide underground and several of its teeth shot outwards, cutting through the sand rapidly, glowing red hot and aimed at Kassom.

[Rocket!]

Today was not a good day.

Shouting out in fear, pain, and surprise as the ship shuddered under the buffeting sand, Mora reached out and grabbed the nearest handhold and held on for dear life.

"So--" Mora shouted over the sandstorm-- "what do we do?!"

[nascent]

"I'll tell ya what we do!" Hades declared, also shouting to be heard over the onrush of fierce winds and sand. "We KICK it's wormy BUTT!"

As the buffeting winds died down all became still again... even so, sitting around doing nothing was now very obviously a bad idea against this kind of enemy. Hades, taking the initiative, jumped out onto one of the floating stone platforms and began lobbing fireballs down at the sand where he'd last seen the Heartworm. A shot in the dark, true... but what option had they but to try? Cordell, taking his cue, began once again shouting orders to her crew.

"ALRIGHT YE SCURVY BILGE RATS!" She marched up to the helm and took hold of the wheel. "READY PORT SIDE CANNONS FOR SCATTER SHOT! FIRE AT WILL!"

The left-side guns of 'The Red Corsair' let fly a volley of dark energy canon shots, each one erupting into a sandy plume of an explosion on contact with the desert below. These were each aimed at different spots, reworking their angles with each shot fired. It was a bit of a stretch to hope that any of these would actually hit the ancient Heartless, of course, but anything was better than nothing.

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The muted sound of explosive impacts rippled through the sands... but it wasn't the only thing there. There was a different sound that Ilaelis gradually became aware of -- you might say, something he'd been expecting -- the sound of something else moving through the sands. It was strange, though... he'd expected a massive beast like that would've been a bit louder... and what was that hissing sizzle all about? As it got closer, however, the feral scout suddenly realized that the faint shifting and searing wasn't coming from one sound source... but rather several.

'****!'
<<**** it!>>

He wasn't sure what was behind him... but if it was burning the very sand enough to make it sound like steaks on a barbecue then it just couldn't be good. This was no time to be pussyfooting around. A crimson glow surrounded Kassom's metal-coated arms as he angled upwards, twisting his body around so that his back was facing skywards, and at less than a foot below the surface he fired the Pulse Aura straight downwards. In a rush of crimson energies Ilaelis shot straight up out of the sands like a bullet, rocketing high into the air.

Fortunately for him, he wasn't terribly far from where 'The Red Corsair' was floating. A little quick thinking enabled him to throw a thin line of metal wire directly at the highest point of the ship's mast; as he began to fall the line went taut and, like a proper pirate (which he wasn't), the Kinzoku swung himself aboard.

"No time to chat!" He exclaimed, pulling out the Fargloves and tossing them to Vates. "Hold onto these, old man." He turned to Cordell. "Next time that freak comes up for air, hit it with everything we've got!"

"Oi! I'm th' captain 'ere, fuzzy!" The woman pirate protested from behind the wheel. "An' where th' 'ell were ye?!"

[prythian]

Around Mora began to swirl shreds of purple, coalescing into a purple sphere around her. It quickly swallowed her up and randomly teleported her away from the rest of the group, across many worlds. She would not be able to return in time to aid in any part of the fight against Oryth and the five Heartless.

[Dante]

Dante had been out of the action for quite some time now. Well, a lot of time, but that's beside the point. The fact is, he was taking a nap. This whole mess was confusing enough and it was exhausting. The long ride from Olympus to Agrabah didn't help much either, so he decided to recharge. Well, the ride really wasn't long at all, but the burned-out fighter didn't care. He just needed to close his eyes and rest. Dante witnessed a dream during his "out" time... an odd one at that.

Eyes opened... Dante was awake. Sleepiness still lingered around the warrior, his eyesight horrible. Minutes passed and the scene was revealed. A giant chessboard of what seemed to be polished onyx and ivory were all that could be seen, along with the pieces around Dante and the ones in front of him. His side was filled with the onyx pieces, each one of them facing their enemies, the ivory pieces. Where was he and what had just happened?

He was in the ship one minute and here, on a chessboard, the next. A quick glance at his position depicted him as a pawn, the easiest piece to check. The first move was made by the ivory knight, a simple white horse with a terrifying facial expression. Dante didn't move, but instead let his fellow pawn move two spaces. The teen never really did like chess, but he knew a few things. The game would last a while, so Dante would have to maneuver himself to be safe among his "team".

Pieces were checked and kept getting checked until only Dante and the king were left. Dante was in a pickle. He was surrounded by a knight, a rook and a queen, cornered and helpless. He looked around him and noticed that he was alone and that there was no one to help him, not even another pawn. Worst of all, it was the ivory pieces' turn and the queen was ready to check him out of the game. Blinding light surrounded him from all sides, and then... a human-shaped onyx piece could be seen.

It was turned with its back to Dante. Right before it turned around, the dream ended and the ship he was on rattled around.

"What the...! Something's happening and it can't be good." Either that, or it's Cordell and her elite driving skills. With a quick movement, Dante jolted up and staggered to return up to the main deck. In a matter of minutes Dante had arrived on the deck, dizzy from sleep, but ready to help all the same. Sand. It was what he saw and it was all he saw. It was at this moment that he noticed a few people on deck.

Hopefully they didn't have any questions to ask him. The warrior raced towards Cordell's position and, when he arrived, he clung onto whatever he could find. "Cordell! What's happening?"

[OOC: It's a sort of cliché post, but I thought it was a nice touch to add the whole chess bit. Also, where else could Dante have been? We may CONTINUE!]

[nascent]

"Cordell! What's happening?"

Cordell gave the young man a 'you should know better than to ask that' glare right before she shouted "We're bloody ****in' under attack!!" As if by way of explanation she pointed down at the desert below. "Ye got anythin' as can hit a giant worm that be hidin' underground? If so, ye can make me th' happiest pirate ye've e'er met right now by BLASTIN' IT'S BLOODY BRAINS OUT a'fore it wrecks me ship s'more!"

As Cordell vented her frustrations at Dante the random bombardment of the sandy sea continued. The shock of dark-energy canon fire echoed across the deck in a steady rhythm. Hades' fireballs continued to make splotches of glass on the rolling desert dunes as they struck. Kassom -- Ilaelis, rather -- had quickly made his way over to the ship's railing and was using his keen eyesight to search for any clue as to the beast's position. Iris, meanwhile, was pacing nervously back and forth, hating the sense of helplessness and impending dread that was creeping up on her.

And Vates... was investigating the fascinating little treasure Kassom had given him. Such curious energy, such fascinating patterns... he decided, on a whim, to slip them on and figure out just what they were for.

[Vates has just equipped the Fargloves. His profile has been modified to reflect this.]

[prythian]

((Guys, please note that Vates's marbles ended up forming several platforms for you to stand on, possibly. THIS IS A GIFT TO MAKE THIS FIGHT EASIER, IN A WAY. XD))

The worm, sensing the vibrations of the ground as the attacks hit it, stayed deep below where it couldn't be reached. The bombardment was keeping the worm deep underground, and because of all the motion, it couldn't be certain of the location of the creatures that were attacking it.

However, it could easily figure out an area that they HAD to be in, by sensing the rhythm of the shifting sands...

It burrowed deep, turning its mouth upwards. More of the teeth detached themselves, flying upwards. They surfaced, firing high into the sky, and exploded in a fury of flame and wind. Fortunately for the crew of the Red Corsair, it was far away enough that it missed completely.

[prythian]

((Just to knock Nascent's characters out of the fight... no one is killed! I think Dante is the only one left in this thread, though...))

Suddenly the worm reared out of the sands, outright ignoring attacks from the cannons and smashing into the pirate ship. It spiraled out of control, and was obviously going to fall to the ground soon. The worm dug back into the ground, hidden once more.

((If I'm wrong and there is someone else, well, making this evident: JUMP ON THE FLOATING ROCK PLATFORMS.))