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"Ugh!"

Xander found himself in a heap against a wall, just outside of the range of the Lich spell. Rubbing his head, he whinced slightly; he had not quite taken in the situation. When he finally did realize what had happened, however, he knew that his life had taken a second major twist in just as many days.

His father was lying there in the darkness. In his feeble state, his body could hardly take the unholy energy for more than a matter of seconds before succumbing. And yet, something was different about him. For the last several years, his habit had grown so bad that he was hardly aware of his own surroundings at any given moment. Now, however, his eyes were wide open, and they were fixed on his son. His only surviving son, a son that he had neglected to hide from his own pain. The son whose life he had saved now in exchange for his own.

These eyes stayed focused on Xander for what seemed a lifetime before they finally went dull.

"No..."

((ooc: Ghosty, did you forget about my post with Lich? Or are you choosing to ignore me?))

((Heheh... this just keeps getting better and better. Not only did Xander's pop sacrifice himself for his son, but he sacrificed himself for something that wouldn't do any serious permanent damage! Bwahaha! xd ))

By the time Du'Galle had arrived on the scene, Xander was desperately trying to drag the body that had once belonged to his father clear of the lich spell. Xander wasn't a particularly strong boy to begin with, but the combination of shock and unholy magic was making his task even more difficult than it should have been.

"Dad! Hang in there!" Changing his grip and pulling back with all of his strength, he managed to hear a 'pop' as the older man's bad shoulder was dislocated. "Dad! Dad!"

Falling to his knees, he huddled over his deceased father. He could feel his chest constricting, as if something was squeezing his heart. His skin felt strangely cold, partly from the spell and partly from his own inner turmoil.

Twice now had Xander been faced with Death, and both times, Death had beaten him mercilessly.

((ooc: I think I've given everyone enough time to respond...Kairos, if this post contridicts any post you may have been making to respond to my previous post, I'll delete it, edit it, and put it after yours. If not, less work for me. 3nodding

Also, unless you were abserving the spell as it was being cast, you wouldn't know where the center was, or even have any sense of direction inside of it. Only Death Magic Users are immune to Lich's power, as well as the undead. (it actually powers them up I believe) Well, enough said. Onto the post!))

DeMarkcus stared at the woman who had somehow found her way near him. She could not see him, but he could see her clearly. "Good attempt, but you can't hide from me, Lilthisia." DeMarkcus had assumed this was one of the newer recruits scoping out the area. Minmin was on her mission, and Kairu and Ryuu were also on a mission. "You learn quickly."

DeMarkcus was truely having fun. He could already sense the first Death, the one of an old man. "This is great...Death already. The feeling it gives is supreme. Don't you agree, Lilthisia?"

DeMarkcus had no time to listen for a response. Someone else has found their way into my Lich...no matter. They will die soon, as have all the others... All the children were already dead. The senior citizens too. All dead. My pleasure is soon to end though...I'm running low on energy, and the BTPD is here. Looks like I'm going to have to kill them too...

"Lilithisia," DeMarkcus motioned, "are you experienced at killing? Because the Barton Town Police Department just happens to have positioned themselves in our way, so it seems we might have to...dispose of them."

DeMarkcus had an escape route that went underground and out of Barton located at the back of the alley. But what fun would that be?

(Darkfyre, as the 7-8 unholy is for level one characters, Kuja can use a lot more than that. However, with the combination of the unholys Kuja did, I'm thinking he'll only be able to do this for about a minute and a half.)

Du'Galle was feeling the continuous strain of the magic on him, feeling tiny claws of darkness crawl up his skin and scratch him. He had his hand on a longsword that rested on his waist, ready to unsheath and use it at any time. Figuring that the attacker would probably be in some alleyway, as it would have been stupid to do this in the open- although with the amount of power this mage had, maybe it didn't matter- he began checking the alleyways. He thought he saw a girl in one of them and flattened himself to the wall outside, straining to hear what was going on in the alley.

((OOC: He's actually dispelling the spell now. He's a Level Three, so he can use about triple that ammount. I think. I used about 15 or 16 Unholys, so that leaves a little bit of energy left for Lich. It's only been going on for about a minute or so, considering most of the posts took place at the same time.

Fineness about the center thing...just telling you.))

DeMarkcus could hear Meric's footsteps. The fool...he's walking right into Death... He could feel the suffering Meric was feeling. It joyed him. It gave him strength.

But regardless of what gave him strength, his Magical Energy was running out. He had to cut the spell.

Slowly but surely, the dome of darkness was disappearing, leaving bodies in its wake. Children of all ages. Young men and woman. The elderly. Their must have been atleast twenty bodies.

DeMarkcus looked over to Selikia after she had gone on the wall. He heard what she had said. He was definatly pissed, but being a man of his position, DeMarkcus could not let this on to Selikia. "Watch your mouth, Selikia! Remember your position in this Clan!" She obviously hasn't been trained yet in the ways of Death...obviously hasn't seen it and felt it enough to enjoy it...her lose.

DeMarkcus now clearly saw Selikia and the BTPD. He and Selikia were still hidden in shadows, unable to be seen clearly. DeMarkcus took out his staff. In the blink of an eye, his staff turned into a sword. Smooth, sharp edges, and perfect point. The perfect sword. "Ready, Selikia? Weither you are or not..."

DeMarkcus charged forward. He narrowly dodged Maric, who was still walking, searching down the alley. He headed straight for the Leader of the BTPD. Take out the leader, confused them, take them out...simple enough.

((ooc: Apologies for taking so long and the poor quality of the post. Guess this... personality thing is harder than I thought. sweatdrop ))

The black Lich spell disapparated, leaving a void of Life in its wake. Lilith, quite frankly, was shocked. She was mean, yes, but not THIS mean. Sure, the elderly and children were annoying at best, but she wasn't going to kill them for that. Heckle them, perhaps, but she wasn't going to dirty her hands with such task as murdering easy targets.

It was then she finally remembered the large kiteflyer beside her, along with Decira and the other man, all obviously waiting for her to say something. She had meant to - before the orb came down - but had been too absorbed in her own thoughts. Pondering whether or not to help. But now that the spell was down, her mind was made up.

"Machina," she said, her voice holding no emotion as she motioned in the direction of the fallen, "go down there and see who you can... aid with your skills." Normally, she'd just leave them there to suffer, but the Sky leader was in a good mood. And perhaps some of those old people might donate to her clan. Word got around fast, and Inoue knew that theirs wasn't exactly the best of reputations.

The silver-haired lady frowned a bit, noting that her other minor healer wasn't there at the moment. Of course, she had the power as well, but.... why should she waste her power? Besides. There was a fight to be held, and she wanted to be part of it.

"The rest of you," - yes, all two of them - "are free to choose between helping out Machina or going after this Death member of ours." Logically, it had to be a member of Death - someone with a high rank too, for she knew that was no level one spell. "As this is not an official mission or anything directly related to our clan, you may choose. Choose well."

So saying that, Lilith thrust her bag of bought goods into Paddy's hands and stormed off in the direction of the streets of Barton. The Death Clan member HAD to be near there. There wasn't anywhere to hide out here, and what better place to cast a cowardly spell on old people than somewhere you can't be seen? It annoyed her to no end that someone else had the nerve to do that. It was almost like a direct insult - and there was no way she was going to let the caster get away scotch free. Of course, she could pull a few strings around Gambino....

But that wasn't as much fun, was it?

((Feisty. *Bows.*))

Xander's fists were clenched as he climbed to his feet. Looking around, he was immediately overwhelmed by death's... stench? No, the bodies had not yet found time to begin to rot. It was the outstanding presence of death, death's very aura. He had to find the culprit, bring him to justice...

Nope, pointless. A cursory glance revealed the dead, the injured, and some officers... anyone else had already escaped, or else was hiding. Xander could do nothing to avenge his father.

But he could do something else. Seizing his deceased father's bag, he ruffled through it until he found what he was looking for: several pouches of herbs. A few had viable healing abilities, but for the most part they were pain-killers and hallucinagens. That would at least do something, he hoped.

Skills from his childhood, skills that he had thought were rusted and gone were coming back to him. Shakily at first, he went to those who were worst off, distributing his most potent medicines to those in most need. His pace picked up- now he was giving the less serious cases mild pain killers. Chewing a little bit himself to ignore his own wounds, Xander now found himself in a role that had long ago been his dream in life: an herbal healer, just like his father.