The temple was silent as it always is despite the war beginning….

In the dark deeps of the silent structure is a room the size of a city hidden underground, in the middle of this room stands the mage keeper for the next war. His job is to view everyone in the war and determines if they break one of the rules, he has the power to sentence those who break the rules and undo the contract an artifact makes with its master. This man stood silently waiting for something in the middle of this dark room. The man shifted slightly to get a view of a different section of the room but still saw nothing. Then it started… an hourglass with the top half filled with sand appeared floating next to the man, this is the first of thousands of score keepers. The man looked at this hourglass as more appeared all with slight differences in color and the metal framing but all being the same size and all having the top half filled with sand. The man knew what these were, whenever a master defeated another master in battle a grain of sand would fall to the bottom and when all the grains had fallen the war would have a winner. Then as the man watched two hourglasses fused into one larger one and the man nodded, this showed a team was formed.

----

Cyan let out a weary sigh before pulling his tie off his neck and pulling at his collar, Cyan hated dressing formal but being part of a high ranking Magi family he was forced to wear suits and such to his disgust. Cyan let out another sigh as he took the black top off and undid the top three buttons of his shirt and the button two after he untucked his shirt. Cyan then relaxed a bit more as he undid the buttons on the cuffs of his sleeves. At least that’s our of the way Cyan thought as he pressed one of the buttons on the panel of his seat causing the black curtain to move aside revealing the back of the drivers head. Cyan was in his families black stretched limo to his disliking and the driving always went to slow for Cyan’s liking.

“Driver how much longer till we get home?” Cyan asked with a fair amount of command in his voice, the drivers response was a swift stiffening before a verbal response.

“We should be back within the next two minutes young Master”, the driver said back in a calm dull voice that bored Cyan. Cyan pressed the button again to close the curtains before picking up a plastic drink bottle off the ground and taking a long drink of water out of it and sighing again as he looked at the sword propped up against the seat next to him. This was Cyan’s artifact, Durandal the sword of Fallen Arms. Cyan liked his artifact as it was shaped like the swords he trained to use and it increase his traits in just the way he liked to fight making fighting effortless for Cyan. Although Cyan hadn’t yet fought another Master, he was more than capable of it. Cyan then noticed the car stopping and was glad to be home again as he hated not being able to relax and act like himself. Cyan stayed at the Shador home just outside London, it was a massive two story structure built like a olden day French mansion despite it being only ten years old. Cyan liked this place as it was private and his parents disliked it and so never stayed here meaning he didn’t have to see them. As the car stopped fully Cyan got up and opened the door and walked out onto the gravel with Durandal in one hand and a drink bottle in the other. Cyan walked straight up the concrete steps to the cream colored building and opened the doors and entered, Cyan never liked waiting for the driver to open the door and so he was left standing next to the door Cyan burst out of. The entry was a large white hall with marble floors and walls; there were oak doors to Cyans left and right and a pair of double doors in front of him. Cyan was tiered so he turned right leading to a another hall with dinning tables before opening a hidden panel in one of the walls with a elevator in it and riding this to the second floor and exiting. Cyan was now in a long hall with several doors in it all of which lead to bedrooms and such. Cyan walked down the hall and opened the second to last one of the right and opened it as he heard a door open behind him.

“Your finally home then Cyan”, Rens calm pure voice sounded from behind Cyan making him turn round to see the beautiful girl standing there looking like she just woke up and judging by here pure white night gown she probably did. Cyan smiled at her which got a yawn as a response.

“Yeah I just got back, I’m sorry for waking you up but I’m going to bed now”, Cyan explained before Ren smiled.

“That’s ok, just get a good sleep as we’ll only train in the afternoon tomorrow”, Ren said sleepily as she turned around and walked back into her room and closed the door. Cyan managed a weak smile before he himself walked into his room and went to bed.

Cyan woke up with a start before letting out a long yawn, Cyan looked to his right and saw Durandal sitting next to his bed were he left it. After a few seconds Cyan thought about waking up but looked at the clock and rolled his eyes. It was only 9am meaning Cyan could sleep for another 3 hours or so without Ren getting annoyed at him despite the fact she probably would wake up around the same time as well. Cyan smiled at this before he lay back down and his door opened. Ren was standing there sleepily and she looked exhausted despite a good sleep. Cyan knew why and he knew what was happening, Ren was walking in her sleep and she simply walked up and dropped onto Cyans bed next to him and curled up like a little girl sleeping with her parents. Cyan smiled at this before he himself fell asleep again after thinking about all the Magi families he knew that could make allies or enemies. The war had began and Cyan hadn't decided to fight alone or in a team yet.

OOC: Im not too inspired at the moment, but ill try. Also im pretty sure its spelled "artifacts".

IC: Gabriel sat at the edge of a cliff, looking at the stars and thinking. There was no telling of what he was actually thinking of. Being in deep thought, he didn't sense that someone is near him, but he realized quite soon that his mother was there, also carrying her spear Arc Wind, for no apparent reason.
"...and why are you carrying the Arc Wind with you?" said Gabriel.
His mother replied, "There is no telling where and when the enemy will attack you."
"Yeah, right."
Gabriel rose and unsheathed the Serpent Flare, which began glowing sky-blue.
"You know you must work on your avoidance skill. Even with your etherialism and your weapon you can still be hit easily and you know that.", his mother said.
They began sparring - Gabriel avoided many of the Arc Wind's blows using the S. Flare. Made from orihalcon alloy, the dagger could block piercing weapons easily - when a spear hits the dagger's blade, the physical force of the blow is reduced to zero and the dagger stays motionless. Combined with the magical power of Artifacts, the dagger becomes an impenetrable shield.
His mother replies to his skills.
"I am still amazed of the traits of the Serpent Flare. Shouldn't we go home?"
"Why should we go home? It's not that late. It's-"
"-two AM."
"Then I'll hang around more over here and I'll go home later."
Before his mother leaves, Gabriel also replies:
"And they're my skills and my traits! Not my Artifact's! "

Cyan rolled over again to find the clock displaying 11:49 which meant it was about time to get up. Cyan rolled back over to find Ren still sleeping next to him but he was use to this as she did this almost every morning when he was home. Cyan got up out of bed and had a quick shower before getting changed into his casual clothing he normally wore which was a white sleeveless shirt with a long sleeved white black and red top over it along with plain white pants with a silver belt. As Cyan left the room and Ren alone and walked downstairs to check on a couple of things before going into a large training room and drawing Durandal which he brought with him.

OOC: i think it can be spelt either way


Claes had wrapped herself comfortably around what she thought was her pillow, drapping her leg over it and snuggling her face against it. Uah~ So soft... Hm...i never thought you were like that, Claes... The coy and mysterious voice shocked her awake as Claes pulled her head back from what she now saw was her cousin's chest. Ah, sorry Shigure. I keep forgetting i'm sharing beds with someone. It's better than when i first came, where you ripped my clothes off in the middle of the night. WHAT! I did? And you did this and that.... Shigure turned away, her face reddening. Uah! I'm so sorry. Ju~~~st kidding, about the this and that part anyways. Before Claes could throw her pillow at her cousin, she had already flipped out of the bed and sat on the beams that crisscrossed her attic roof. Well, i'll meet you downstairs in a few minutes then. I'll help make breakfast. Like a ninja, Shigure disappeared in a swirl and Claes was left alone in her room once again. It was big, running from one end of the house to the other. Basically, the whole area under the roof was hers. Unfortunately, her obsession with weapons and such had her fill the room up mostly with swords, bows, mace staff, armour etc. Only an area of 4x6 metres were free for her bed, draw, closet and the other normal things in a room. Sighing deeply, Claes slipped into her clothes (picture in profile) and put on a hoody over the top before making her way down to the 1st floor.

The house of her foster parents was nice. It laid just outside of Metropolis london, where they had a large plot of land with a pool, tennis court and such. It reminded her of her old home, only smaller. Not that it mattered. She loved her foster parents and that was that. In order to not become dependant, she got a job, despite all that she inherited and acted like a normal girl...as normal as she could get while going through her cousin's hellish training. After eating her sausages and egg and cleaning up, Claes gave a another sigh and took out Ascendant Justice and Auralises' Deliverance (or AJ and AD for short). Outside, Claes walked towards the woods near the pond. From her pocket, Claes pulled out a scrunched piece of paper. Come to the giant oak after you have finished your duties. From where she stood, there was an arrow carved into the tree, pointing at the space between the giant oak and the maple. Ah, nuts. God only knows what Shigure has planned. Slipping the swords besides her right hip, one horizontal and the other slanted, Claes ran into the thicket.

Cyan swung his sword in the trained starting exercises he knew before following through with some high speed combos that Ren taught him. After this Cyan decided to try his Fantasy and train with it as Ren had taught him to, the gate opened up behind Cyan and about twenty weapon handles appeared on the gates surface. Cyan turned around and pulled a pole arm from the gate and trained at using it with one hand before putting it back in the gate and drawing a dagger. Cyan repeated this with about thirty weapons using each for around ten minutes. Afterward s Cyan was tired and hungry so he simply sheathed Durandal and closed the gate before heading to the kitchen to find Ren sitting at a stool with ice cream while still in her night gown while the houses chief looked at her smiling as she was enjoying it.

"Hey Batoray", Cyan said to the big Itlain man who was the chief, the man was taller than Cyan and was rather fat but he was a joly nice person who enjoyed seeing people enjoy food he made. Cyan always liked him as he loved to make ice cream not matter the time of the day, and Ren liked this fact about him to.

"Oh young master, would you like to make you some ice cream as well?" Bartoray asked with a smile in his deep cheery voice.

"I'm alright for now, I can just do with a good snadwhich", Cyan said as he sat down next to Ren.

"One good sandwhich coming up young master", Bartoray added before he pulled some fresh bed out of the oven and cut it up and prepared a large sandwhich. "How is your training doing young master?" Bartoray asked as he passed the massive sandwhich to Cyan.

"Thank you for this and my trainings going well, I can use around nineteen different weapons as my side arm now which is useful", Cyan finished as he attacked the sandwhich.

Eldon walked the streets of London... He smiled as he passes innocent people, his smiles weren't of kindness although they may have appeared that way... Instead he smiled at the idea of him winning battle after battle, killing those who stepped in his way, and most of all he smiled at the thought of the pain and suffering that these people he smiled at would have to endure for years to come.

Eldon didn't have much of an agenda planned for the day however... He deed need to find some people who could join up with him in his quest for domination. Its not really that he thought he needed people to help him make his dream come true, he simply just wanted a little help... He felt a little slugish and so why should he do all the work when he could have others do the work for him... Yes it was a bright idea to get some helpers, but who would want to work for some kid?

Regardless Eldon searched the city for those who could be of use to him...

Claes pounded through the forest, weaving between the thck bodies of the old trees. The age of the trees meant that the trunks were wide, covering a large portion of her vision as she slalomed on. Claes caught a really soft thck noise and instinctively dove to the floor in a combat roll. Just centimetres above her head, a volley of arrows shot out from the dark and peppered the Pine next to her. In a fluid motion, Claes continued the roll and got back onto her feet. Here it comes... Seconds after the first trap was set off, every tree seem to have some sort of trap, spewing kunais, shuriken, senbon needles, pit traps, flying spiked walls all seem to come out of the middle of nowhere. It took her everything just to avoid the traps, her eyes darting all over the place. Just as she avoided a rather nasty arrow/ spike combination, Claes turned for a split second to look at it when Shigure dropped down from up high.

Her Setsumaru came down in a supersonic iai draw from it's sheath. Claes could feel the sword cut her eyelashes as it passed her head. Not being able to stop her forward momentum, Claes tumbled forward and attempted a cross X slash with AJ and AD. The strike was easily stopped when Shigure slipped a twig in the cutting point. The moment Claes realised what had happened, Shigure had disappeared from sight and reappeared behind her, with her kodachi's drawn. There was no moment of hesitation nor mercy. With the grace, flowing movement of a snake, Shigure rained down on Claes with strikes, most which she just managed to parry. Side swipe, overhead, mid body, hip strike... Claes eyes shot around like a pinball, trying to focus on her cousin's sword strikes. They were unbelieveable. They were so fast that she could just barely see her hands moving. Even then, they were just slight twitches from her sides. Then suddenly, Claes' eye caught something, her cousin's lower abdominal area was open. Lunging at the opening, the girl sure it was victory when Shigure bent backwards and watched Claes' sword sail over. With a whip of a wrist, her kodachi's shot upwards, catching both AJ and AD in a vice and sending them skittering upwards before embedding itself into an overhanging Mahogany. Still in one movement, Shigure straightened and went for a strike. Claes brought her hands up as some sort of bare handed defense, but was quickly shattered by a bare slap to the inside wrist by her left kodachi, knocking them to the side, before locking both blades in an X at her neck and toppling Claes over into the ground. You lose. In real life fights, your head would be still flying after you have touched the ground. Sheathing her kodachi, Shigure used a whip to recover Claes' sword from the Mahogany.