Legend of Ransera

The wave barreled toward the group that was growing deafening on its approach. Soon, a shadow overcame the group, allowing Talon's divine form to shine even more brightly. Rickter's magic went to work, and as it was boosted by the greater connection to the Aetherium via Talon. The wall he built grew taller, wider, and more dense. The barrier dome he built grew stronger as well, and all of it was becoming blinding. Talon's own magic attacked at the wave, looking to change its very essence. Florian's attempt to siphon the water failed to succeed, for Rickter had already seized control of the water around them and Florian simply wasn't strong enough. And the guitar was safely clutched in Euripedes' arms, and the being that she called out to would not hear her.

But it was a lot of water.

The base of the wave crashed into the icy wall with a deafening thud. This was followed by a loud crack that shot through the wall. But much of the water was deflected out and around the wall, which held. But the wave stood taller than the wall, and it was coming down to crash upon the dome over the group, aided by gravity and the sheer amount of water it carried.

And then Talon's magic set off a chain reaction, turning the entire tidal wave from liquid into a gas. Clouds of mist crashed down around the dome, and not one bit of water penetrated it, as the steam began to quickly spread about the bay. But with it came a side effect. For while the magical water was coaxed to take on a gaseous form, it did not stop the side effects for such an action. The water was turned to steam and as a result, the temperature of the area began to rise quickly and heavily.

Water and ice could not penetrate the barrier, but temperature did. Each second that ticked by, the temperature rose by a full degree of magnitude. It would've scorched them to the bone instantly had it not been for Florian tasking the shield to keep aether out. And as the temperature rose, breathing within the dome would become more difficult by the second. Talon and Rickter would feel a deep drain on their resources but they were not emptied. Rickter, though, would feel a lot more of the pained burden and effects for he had been the current for more of it and his body was simply that of a mortal.

As the waves of the tsunami crested overhead, the mountain of water shadowed their position in mere moments. Talon's divinity shone ever brightly around them in that instance, before the rest of the water came barreling down to crash onto them. Having felt the aether his Bondmate channeled through him, Rickter's muscles felt on fire as he poured every bit he had into the constructs he created. Was it enough? He did not know, he only knew that like the mountain, he had to refrain from bowing to anything that assailed it. The water surrounding the shield felt easy to coax with his aether when he generated the walls of ice, the layers that solidified thickening in a manner he never anticipated before.

The wolf was always poor with grasping his own limitations, ascertaining them based only what his actual knowledge of magic was. Yet, as the burning throughout his figure heightened, the air within his aura thickened into a chilled veil of white and snow... if only for a moment. The loud crunch of ice giving way to the overwhelming force of the water was almost sickening, the wolf's stomach nearly turned over completely as a result of anticipation for what came next; and sure enough, it came hard. The deafening sound of water roaring over them drowned how own voice immediately, nearly his thoughts too as he held onto the idea of preservation. The power of Negation was based on how reinforced the state of the barrier's interior could be, and there was a time or two where he'd managed to achieve that in just the nick of time.

Thus the water and steam that Talon created assailed his barrier, the aetherial fabric that weaved the dome over them budging but not yet buckling from the weight. Rickter, for what it was worth, kept pushing himself even after giving it all he had. He would not let his comrades suffer at the peril of something so great as a damn tidal wave, not when he himself had such strong elemental affinity for water. No. He wouldn't bow. Even as the shield around them sizzled and cracked throughout the weave, even as the very surface of his skin felt ignited from all the aether he channeled.

He felt Talon draw close and take ahold of him, before the rest of the waves crashing over them quickly turned into a misty vapor all around. Soon there wasn't water or ice to contend with, but a rising pressure akin to a heatwave that soon flooded through his initial shield. SHIT! He felt the aether from another one of his anchors respond then, Florian tasking it to block aether specifically in just the nick of time, as the ward banished the rising temperature that assailed them as soon as the mist came surging in. Feeling his Skyforge Raiment respond the same as Talon's was, the wolf focused on simple regulation of his own body temperature, to avoid letting his own enchantments into overdrive also.

Yet as the heat left the interior of his barrier as quickly as it came, the wolf still felt as though a different fire coursed through his body. Emanating from his skin were still the traces of aether he'd channeled, the aura surrounding him fainter in comparison to moments prior, where pure aether radiated from his figure in a vivid cerulean hue. Feeling the coat of sweat that covered his body, the wolf soon found that his footing was much more shakey than it had been before. With the tidal wave no longer a threat, the barrier left in it's wake began to diminish. The glowing cracks within the dome leaked the residual traces of aether left behind, some of it returning to the wolf while the rest just swirled like northern lights within the misty clouds.

At the commendation he received from his Bondmate, Rickter was the one who then came to buckle instead, his shields having served their purpose up until that final moment to say the least. Feeling severely strained he couldn't help but fall to his knees, with a few deep breaths taken to regulate the pace of air intake needed. He had felt many blows and even injuries in his time, but that had by far exercised the most strain on his magic, far more than anything else had in his time as a Negation mage. As the final traces of aether diminished and his shield faded out, the wolf nodded toward Talon's remark on catching his breath. It was well needed after the amount of effort he put into that, and even though he no longer channeled aether, the witchmarks on his skin had yet to fade away either.

Still, the wolf was ultimately relieved to have pulled through. Having no time to prepare for the change in the temperature, he was glad Florian had thought to use that spare anchor provided to him earlier. It allowed the backup anchor the wolf had made for this dome to remain, therefore, allow the wolf some small recuperation from the overstepping he likely did with that one act. He never anticipated such a strong impact either, his shields being severely tested by the weight of the water that came crashing down earlier. Now that Talon was able to part the mist though, they would hopefully be able to get a move on soon, and see what remained of the devastation left behind in the tsunami's wake.

Thus did the wolf wearily get back onto his feet, a few groans exerted as he still felt his legs wobble beneath him. "...Where do we go from here?..." He inquired still a little wearily, his eyes lifted from the sand around them to the clearing mist above.

"Common" "Synskrit"
"Rickter"

The wave had broken and the heat had dissipated. And Florian was proven correct as the water of the bay did, in fact, have to go somewhere. But instead of flowing back into the bay violently, it was coming in slow, yet steadily. Similar to the tide at a beach. Still a cause for concern though if one were standing at a point that was typically dozens of feet underwater. From their distance, they could see that the panicked movements of the people had calmed, many moving to the edges of the docks now.

It seemed that the group had succeeded in this moment and that the immediate danger of any sort was gone.

There was a delightful pop noise in the air near them, and a small man with with a bit of a nasally, whiny voice appeared there, floating a few feet off the mud, staring at the ragtag group. "Well I never! This Lapse has been here for so long, I figured the Keepers had forgotten about it! And then they send in some first timers and they did what no other could!"

The man was of odd, small, and chubby proportions. For those that were familiar, he was a gnome. He wore a dark emerald, tailored suit, bore a bright red, braided beard and a matching mohawk. "It's a shame we can't use this variation of the Lapse."

Then he chuckled, "But let us play it out, see how it might've changed things."

A glowing bubble formed around each member of the group, and raised them all up to his level. Then he began to move them all toward the town. As he did, time seemed to fast forward in the world outside of the bubbles. The bay refilled with water, ships raced by, speeding lines, far faster than was possible by any known measure of physics. The sky overhead was flickering as the sun rose and set in an instant over and over as they neared.

Then it stopped, and the bobbles popped in a sort of glassy, tinkling sound, and the group was left at the end of one dock. The town looked different now. It had grown bigger. The docks were built of stone now, instead of wood. All of the buildings that had been at the water's edge had been torn down and now were built further inland. The docks were bustling with people, but they wore dirty and torn rags, tired looks upon their faces. The only exceptions to this were people that were in sharply dressed uniforms, carrying weapons on their hips, eyes flitting around suspiciously. A large building in the center of the moved town bore the words, 'Jacinco Trading Company.'

And in the middle of the docks, a statue had been erected. A stature of four figures, one man with mighty wings, another arm outstretched towards the ocean, a man with horns also in an exasperated pose of strain, and a woman playing her instrument serenely. At the base of the statue, a name plate. 'The Unknown Heroes of Jacinco. Gone but not forgotten.'

And with another plopping noise, the gnome man was gone.

The ragtag group that survived the waves had but a moment to observe their surroundings, Rickter himself tensing up when he heard a rather unexpected pop. Immediately he flinched to look at the source, Rickter's weariness edged by protective instinct when he lingered closer to Talon. A rather annoying-sounded small fry appeared, one tinier than the musician woman that had accompanied them here. A Gnome from the looks of it and yet, Rickter could not trace a single smell on the guy as well. "No scent?" The observation was uttered lowly, perhaps too low for Talon to even hear in proximity, but the confusion was plain and evident across their Bond together.

First-timers? What the fuck was a lapse? Rickter already had so many questions cropping in his mind, yet as he looked to Talon to see he too had a similar reaction, the immediate tension in the wolf's shoulders loosened before something else took place. They were encased on a bubble that much felt like Rickter's own shields, a barrier that magically lifted them as they were whisked toward town by the small plump man. What caught the wolf's eyes though was the sudden speed-up of the world around them, and how they were still slowly adrift in comparison to the world rushing ahead through time. Was that was this place was? Rickter gave some consideration to the name lapse earlier now. To feel adrift in a place where time beheld its own meaning, created a sense of uneasiness within the wolf as they floated on.

He felt Talon's melancholy a bit and looked to the Synnekar, with a deep curiosity in his eyes as the wolf comforted him with warm nuzzling thoughts. When they arrived and their transportation through time popped away, the wolf felt his feet hit solid ground alongside his other companions moments after. They had arrived within a port as far as Rickter could tell, the smell of salt and fish heavy within the air now that they walked into town. Talon thought to try and inquire of the Gnome, but the bastard up and popped out of the scene before any questions could be asked. "I don't like this place already..." The wolf sighed as the name of the town came to be uttered, the sight of the statues erected to honor their heroes not entirely lost on Rickter either.

It was clear who the four busts were a representation of, and though he might've felt humbled by the sight, the experience alone left Rickter on a greater level of edge than he ever felt. Something about this place felt wrong to him now. Perhaps because he no longer questioned where they had all wound up, but when exactly they had arrived and just how long they'd been lost in here. "I'm alright," Rickter quickly affirmed to his soulmate before peeking at the other two, "just a bit tuckered out still. You both alright?" He followed with the inquiry as the intent to look after them welled in his core, his thoughts no longer spent on protecting them now that they're out of immediate danger. Well... far as he could tell at least.

"Aye, honestly... could use a drink about now anyway." If anyone here knew the wolf best, then the need for a drink would've been rather obvious. Yet while Rickter would've loved the idea of possibly eating food soon, his gut felt too heavy from the ball of anxiety resting within it. Still he agreed to the idea of checking in the tavern, not because of the food obviously, but because there ought to be at least somebody worth talking to for information. From the way the locals were dressed it seemed that the port had two noticeable differences, the citizens who were run ragged by the officials in poshed-up uniforms and weapons.

He didn't vocalize it but it became clear within Rickter's thoughts that he did not feel comfortable here. At all.

"Common" "Synskrit"
"Rickter"