Titans of Ages Current

Part 5: Lost in Paradise, and Paradise Lost

"Well.... This is new." My eyelids had parted, allowing light to flutter into my retinas. Awakening from what felt like eternal slumber, I was granted the blessing of sight one again. Sounds and touch soon followed. Taste and smell were never a important aspect of living, but they were present once more.
My eyes were pointed at the ceiling. It appears to be a ceiling structure, with a constitution of wood. In its center hangs a lantern which now has no flame. The light is coming from the walls.
Making my way down the line of vision,i take note of the similarly constructed walls. The room is now clearly round in build, with a line taken out across it as a window.
Closer examination backs the probability that the building I reside in is a hut of sorts. The view from the window revealed more duplicates of the building in equivalent structure as this one. Beyond the abodes, water..... Miles and miles of water.
Sigh
If would appear I'm not alone in my immediate perimeter. I attempt to lean up from my laying position. Only to find my strength is either not there or that someone binds me.. Or someone..
I call upon the strength of Satan to bestow power into my body.. I feel it! More power than I ever felt before!
All my strength goes into a mighty heave. I turn over, breaking the binds that tie me. My body escapes from the.... Bed?
Thud
I hit the floor face first. The entire structure as I know see is wood.
"A shabby design for imprisonment if you ask me."
I figure quickly dons it's head over the bed side to my position, "imprisonment? We saved you and your friends!"
My shock causes me to flip position and slide to the wall where I call upon my power to draw a weapon from fire.
My power? I cannot conjure the hellflame, the fire that I construct my weapons from! "What curses have you blighted my with fiend!?"
Observation reveals something I failed to take into account. My 'captor' was nothing more than a slender-bodied pale girl. She wore a gown bearing many different markings upon it. Upon in depth analysis, my bindings were most likely this girls arms on me.
"Why had my strength left me? What had happened to me?"
The girl gives to me a playful look through her black hair as she says, "well no one gets it all back they first wake up. Well not everything." She bites her lip playfully as she points down to my groin.
What? Oh no... I wear no clothes! Humiliation over takes me!
I dart for the exit, failing to connect with the doors entry handle. Instead I smashed through the door and saulted from the building towards to ground.... Except their was none. Just water.... Forsaken, blue, deathly water. My body hits with a splash as I begin to flail back to the top. My body cannot support this activity. I feel myself sinking.
... Etrius.... I failed you...
I let go of all hope as I sink to the depths of the sea.

"Hit me," the tension was at the highest it had been.. The others had already been taken out. I won't last much longer. I almost have the upper hand. I just need a little luck to get me by with the next hit. Here it comes! I close my eyes and brace for impact.
"7! That makes 21 again! I think this newbie trap just became a hustlers riot! Haha! Give the man a round of applause!"
I walk over with the black stone, it's markings shined bright white showing my wealth. Ah my partner in crime.
"Jazz, old chump! How was your haul?"
Jazz was holding his fabled fedora in the palm of his hand. Within it, lied 6 fully lit stones!
Jazz parts his still mangled lips,"we still have a long way to go. "
He's right, it takes twelve stones before they let you into the temple. The stones themselves see to be carrier runes: chambers that the shini use to carry powerful souls that the oni council wants to deal with personally. They act as a wallet for these ragtag soul hunters. Bounties get posted everyday for powerful people. Trading one of their souls in these stones fills it up. Twelve stones will allow you to buy your way into the temple of Kituno, where the Death Cult Council resides. Otherwise you have to deal with the barrier. Unless you like fire, you pay your way in.
We currently have collected eleven total. Means we need one more to get in. Then there is Vlad... We haven't seen him in hours.
The doors of the oceanic hut doors swing open. A striking girl carries an unconscious Vlad into the center of the building and talks to a shini operating the desk.
"This man washed up at my house just recently, I was wondering if it was okay if I take responsibility for him until we is well."
The older shini looks down at the young lady. "Koto, you know we don't take outsiders, especially not strange looking v ones with foreign runes etched on them. Who knows who he works for."
'Um..... This is bad Jazz'
You don't say. They think we are shinis, and we got our first stones from murdering the guys out back.. We just need to play it cool until he wakes up... Surely they won't figure is out so easily.
A weaselly looking shini grins intently as he points to the board, "that's Vlad Zher! He's one of the Titans! Etrius's soldier! He's worth 6 stones dead!"
Fuck
'Fuck indeed.
On the bright side he is unconscious, and they will probably kill him before he wakes up... And it's not like they are curious of us.. I used Alrach's ink to change our appearances. '
Jack, you want to know something about ink... It comes off in water....
'Shit! He's right, when we tossed the bodies the water must have splashed all over us. If they get a bead on us.'
No bueno.
No! The girl is reviving Vlad! What is she doing. She is arguing with the other shini.
"Aren't you even curious why this man is wanted by the council? Just because he works with Etrius means nothing."
"No, but a written assassination attempt is more than enough to raise the council's concern."
"Written attempt?" Here brow heightens over her eye. "That seems a little armature for an assassination attempt. Besides, does this guy look dangerous? He can't even swim in the shallows."
Jazz and I exchanged devilish grins. We were trying to resist total hysteria. We knew Vlad had an Achilles heel: he was terrified of water.
His eyes cut open as he chucks up water. He raises in alarm again screaming and gasping as we all laugh in his despair.
Koto cuts in "stop it you guys! Poor thing, you must be so confused right now."
As if he lacked the very essence of universal intelligence, Vlad calls out to the shinis. "We are here to kill the Death Cult Council and liberate you so you may fight by our sides in an epic battle!" He is clearly delirious.
We're fucked
'No kidding Jazz'
At least they don't know-
Vlad stands to his feet still heaving water. His eyes are red.. From sea salt or tear salt I may never no...
"And Jazz and Jack are here to! Any who stand against us will be pummeled!"
The longest silence of my life had just begun.
The shinis all burst out at once in blistering hysteria. Vlad looked genuinely hurt. "What's going on? Did we already win guys?"
He's looking at us...
'Okay, let's go out hot... This is about to get ugly.'
The shinis in the back of the room, really big ones, decided to cover check it all out.
The most intimidating of them all stood before me. He was at least eight feet tall, long black hair, with black tattoos the seemed to slither and move. "So, you're here to kill the council and free us huh?"
Do I really want to pick a fight with b these guys, right now I bet gogoris look pretty nice right about now.
"Yeah, names Jack, you wanna remember it for when your thanking me later?"
I feel a hand grab my face, it's coming from his arm, but both his hands are visibly idle. It's the tattos! They branch of his arm in an unreal fashion. Shifting and morphing to do his will...
"Well then, let's take our guest to the gate."
They grab Vlad in his weak state, and they surround Jazz.
'Jazz, we can take them I feel it.'
No Jack, we need them as alies. Otherwise, Levy and Bell may not make it out of the IAC building alive.
I hate it when he's right.
They drag us out to the stairs leading to the floating temple. The stairs quickly turn into a winding road, lined with homes and kiosk stands.
My captor looks back at my as he is pulling me along.
"We never asked for this. This is Kituno village. It is a refugee camp for shinigami who's villages were destroyed, their council collapsed, or they just defected in the squall. We came here, these oni promised us bounty inside the walls.. But what they didn't tell us is the risk involved. There are two barriers: a double sided one around the temple, and a one-way barrier 25 kilometers in any direction from here. Anything can get in. Nothing gets out without the council approving it. You know, once you get in, it's remarkable. But getting in of almost impossible, we have to wait on ships or just victims to get a stone filled... Your trapped here just like us. So you got two options: kick back and waste away with us.. "
He throws me into the barrier... Immediately I feel flames hotter than hell's singe my flesh. I hit the ground withing in pain. Vlad and Jazz soon follow.
"Or you can do this every ten seconds until you go back to option one. I know I did. And by the way" he turns from us as he draws his tattoo to his arm, "the name is Cu-sith. I'm not a shini by nature. Just by choice. You guys might as well just call it a day and drink your losses. Thet aren't letting anyone I'm these days. You might as well drink your losses."
And with that the setting sun calls down unto night.