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They collect Fengal, who is young again and a farmer (but still perverted), and Selayn, who is more inventor than priestess. Rayzekia is in mourning for Icarus, who died when a sandbag fell on him in a ballet production, and she doesn't come.
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They get a vague clue in that Fengal thinks he saw the symbol somewhere, so they go from town to town, and there are... people after them. Theyt run into a lot of bandits, all of whom are disposed of by Jericho's awesome sorcerous might in no time at all.. however, 6 assassins are hired, and they give them a tough time -
- The string brothers, Yada and Yim. they have gloves with strings attached to the end of the fingers, and the strings are attached at their ends to the corrseponding finger on the corresponding glove on the other brother. They vibrate their hands so fast that the strings cut through metal and they're invisible. Jericho beats them using his grease rainstorm to stain the strings enough that he can see them. They escape.
- Raiden, a lightning elemental who only exists within lightning, attacks Jericho several times. Jericho beats him by holding a lake above his head so perfectly still that it's see-through. Raiden charges into the lake and gets stuck, and Jericho hits the lake with a fireball, splattering pieces of raiden everywhere. Raiden takes awhile, but he gets back together.
- Gaern, a meager sorcerer, has mastered dimensional manipulation, and has a small portal into another dimension constantly floating around him. It eats through anything by absorbing it into the alternate dimension. Jericho wrests him for control of it, then has it destroy itself. Gaern runs.
- Victor Vandleer, a fabulously wealthy merchant, uses bizarre magical items against Jericho, the most powerful of which is an eyeglass that emits lasers. It runs outta juice, because it was solar powered. Jericho beats him up, he runs.
- Insynh, a deadly man who is so good at flame elemental magic that some people hail him as a fire god and his arms are constantly on fire, attacks Jericho. He is so destructive that he wrecks an entire city and nearly destroys Jericho when his curse kicks in - after half an hour of flame usage, he reverts to his alternate personality, Esh Arias, who is deathly afraid of fire and very wussy. Esh bolts.
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Going through a town, their last lead turns into a dead end, and in frustration, Jericho smashes his fist into a wall then walks off. He knew what he was doing - he punched in a graffiti drawing of the symbol.
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They find a minor gang through gossip, and storm in and torch the place. The drunken leader had no idea what he was doing, setting loose the wraith near the Demon Killer Jericho's house. He easily blubbered out he was doing it for a superior whose face he had never seen, in an ancient temple not far from the town.
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They go to the temple, and Selayn, being the daughter of the great priestess of the age, knew every temple to every god, and where they were.... this one was new. As they walk in, they find rooms they've already been in... the whole temple is an amalgamate of everywhere they've fought. Harold the Dork Knight's castle, LadyV's Palace, even the final battlefield with Kangrado.
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They step into the antechamber, which has huge sections devoted to each of the members, even the late Icarus. Huge paintings of them, memorabelia beyond anyone's imagination, and a man in a demonic helmet and green cape standing in the middle of the room, right behind an altar, on which is the baby. He turns his head, and from the side, it looks dead like Kangrado's head.
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The man says, "I have followed your adventures with much interest. I'm quite a fan. What a JOY to meet them in real life!" Jericho yells, "You sicko! Give me back my baby!". The man says, "Sorry, I cannot do that. You see, this child is very powerful. And I need him. He's very vital to my future plans." Jericho blasts the man with a VERY large spell. The man shrugs it off. "So you attack me? Perhaps you aren't what I thought you were. Well, we'll see." Then they all are teleported away to a small dungeon chamber with a very familiar silver sphere there, hovering.
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Kangrado's sphere changes it's glow from blue to red the instant it sees Jericho. It cracks.. it vibrates.. and then it breaks. A large black energy jumps out and engulfs Jericho. You hear, "You cannot imagine my torment, mage. Taste the exquisite pain of what I was born through!" When it lets Jericho go, Jericho isn't there. The black mist hovers in air, striking lightning at the rest of the three, which Selayn is only barely countering, and can't keep up for much longer. Then Lily begins to talk - "Kangrado!?"
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The mist stops. It says, "Indeed. The one you thought dead so long ago, what an ironic death for you... to die at the one you killed's hands. I don't care if RenGhul takes all my energy now, my life is complete." Then it unleashes the lightning again, and Lily yells, "Wait! RenGhul is the guy in the demon helmet, right? That guy has some SERIOUS plans for this place.. I'm choking back tears.. my baby, now my husband taken from me. RenGhul is using you, can't you see that!? He'll sacrifice you just like my baby!" "It will be worth it to see you humans die." "Forget us humans! RenGhul is usurping YOU! The mighty Kangrado! You're just going to let him do that!?" "Yes." "*sigh*... I suppose then I'll have to let you kill us as the last expression of a person who could have been truly great. Your potential will have been wasted on bitter revenge. Instead of going down in legend, you'll be remembered as a footnote." She steps outside Selayn's protection sphere. "So take me too, and end your legacy. I have nothing to live for."
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Kangrado stops. It buzzes and hums for a second, then says, "I care not for you, nor for your entire race. Make that clear. But I will NOT allow one of my own race to do what I was meant to with my own life. You will help me." At that, the mist turns into a warrior with torn clothing and cape, but no face - just eyes in the blackness inside the hood. Kangrado has a black orb constantly floating around her. The orb can change into a shield or her sword or both. "Your race?" "Yes.. let me explain...."
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Kangrado goes to tell them how in her dimension, nobody had material forms. All was energy. Whenever anybody wanted to breed, two or more people got together, and combined into one energy form, before splitting into different ones, depending on however many children they wanted. The children were born adults, and never had any childhood. Everyone had differing levels of energy, and there were constant wars going on between houses of their race. Kangrado's house wanted to win their war now. So, leaving one person behind, they all combined together to create one ultra-powerful being - Kangrado. The last surviving member of the house educated Kangrado on how she was a weapon, and that's how she grew up. RenGhul was the same, except of a different house, and less powerful than Kangrado. RenGhul's neural patterns, as everyone elses', were randomly made when he was born. He came out a bit odd.. halfway sensible, but certifiably insane. RenGhul and Kangrado didn't like each other much, and Kangrado showed indifference to everyone, due to her upbringing.
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Once, there was a freak accident in their dimension. Some nobody house had two people breed, but something went wrong. Whereas the parents were both of low energy, the offspring was enormously powerful - more than Kangrado herself - and it was stark-raving psychotic. RenGhul and Kangrado teamed up to defeat it, and the entire time, RenGhul talked to her about his view on things.. and odd they were. After that, Kangrado, due to her impressive courage, and awesome might, became ruler of that dimension.
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She goes and tells them how her entire dimension was stopped one day by a blinding light. An angel had come to say that they were to test another dimension's strength. The entire race instantly hated the angel, but RenGhul was crazy. RenGhul took it as a wonderful idea, but knew if he was sucked out that portal into the human world, he would die. He was less powerful than Kangrado, but not by much. So he made some powerful allies in the Gods, and promised that if he wasn't dragged out, he would create some more powerful havoc. So he was the only one of her dimension that wasn't. Once they came out, they were attacked by Alchorn's magic, which they percieved to be fellow energy-beings. They all died except for Kangrado, who hid and learned their ways, and RenGhul, who had not come out. After she had been 'killed' by Jericho, he came out. He spent the last 10 years getting used to this plane of existance. And scheming. He got what she was contained in, the sphere, and usurped her power. Now Kangrado was hardly larger than Jericho. And RenGhul was more powerful than Kangrado ever was. He kidnapped the baby so that he could sacrifice it to bring back the dead of her dimension, the ones who were killed in the initial assault by Alchorn. And now he was practically unstoppable.
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They make a bold escape through RenGhul's fortress, with Kangrado heading it. They are unable to save the baby, and RenGhul sacrifices it, and demons (LOTS of demons - satyrs, banshees, spectres of every kind) start dropping out of nowhere. They run with Kangrado guarding their backs and escape the temple. The land around has turned dead and gray.. black and burnt. They are teleported back to the guru's by Kangrado, and they see that the dark land is spreading over Earth like a disease...
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The guru tells them that RenGhul is horrifically powerful and what they need to do is have one or two of them try to stop the spreading of the corruption, and the rest gather compatriots, because they can't stop RenGhul, especially not without Jericho.
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Selayn stays with the guru to find a way to stop the corruption. The rest go out and try to find compatriots.
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A lot of sideplots follow in which we find that magic can only be accomplished by complete faith in one thing, which most people don't have. Fighters would be useless against RenGhul, because they'd need magic weapons, and there isn't enough time to find those. During these sideplots, they get 5 recruits - Toby, an eight-year old necromancer with plots to take over the world, Maria, a priestess of the water god Junsief, who honors him by fighting with fish, Den, a very powerful druid who happens to be a mouse, Rachel, a woman who has a demon inhabiting her shadow-puppet duck, and Bruno, a huge man who is so dumb he names his spells "Bob", "Fred", and "Sue". Still, the guru decides, it isn't enough. Most of the people and Kangrado stay with Selayn and the guru to hold back the demons that are now constantly assailing the guru's, and halt the corruption.
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They go to Rayzekia, whose eyes are dead. She reluctantly tells them the way to Hell so that they can accomplish the mission that the guru told them in private - bring back Jericho. The people on the team are Fengal, Lily, and Rayzekia. They get down to the lord of the dead and find that he wasn;t there, and that the keeper of the Soul Records was Rayzekia's father. Lots of bitterness there, but they go back up and to the guru.
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During this time, Kangrado is off gaining energy her own way, (and during this time, she gains some renown for her reputation) leaving the new recruits with the guru, who trains them. The 5 assassins attack again, this time charged up. Yada and Yim's string is unbreakable, Raiden hurts more, Victor's lense doesn't run out of juice, Esh has been separated from Insynh, and Gaern has complete control over his orb. With small help from the guru, they repel the attack. |
They yell at Kangrado as to where Jericho is, and she tells them that she didn't tell them because they would need Jericho hardened more. She sent him to her dimension, the empty darkness. If he could have survived one second there, he could survive forever. He wouldn't be hardened far beyond his former ability by now.
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They go on some big hairy quest and finally find the portal around Alchorn's ruins where the demon dimension portal was. They open it up, and a HUGE blast of energy which knocks even Kangrado to the ground surges forth, as a VERY large demon flies out. Lily notices Jericho's amulet around it's neck. Kangrado stays to search the dimension for Jericho's corpse, while the others support broken-hearted Lily and get her back to the guru's.
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They learn from the guru, who was watching the skies, that the demon flew STRAIGHT at RenGhul's. They understand that the demons don't obey Kangrado because on this dimension, they sense energy only, and RenGhul has more of Kangrado's energy than Kangrado does. They barely survive another demon attack, and Kangrado comes back with a startling report : Jericho's corpse was nowhere to be found. And the hidden treasure of that dimension, that made it eternally dark, was gone. Whatever that thing was, it was the only thing in the dimension, and it destroyed Jericho and the treasure beyond a trace.
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They decide that there is no more time. They need to destroy RenGhul now, because they can't hold the corruption any longer, but they're stopped by the five assassins again. Kangrado handles them ALL by herself. She absorbs raiden completely, energy and all, she catches the string of Yada and Yim in one hands, then electrifies them, absorbs Gaern's dimension, eats Victor's laser-lense, and completely takes all the flame energy from Insynh. They've been held down because of this awhile, though, suring which time the guru sensed a HUGE power surge that hasn't gone down in power yet at RenGhul's. They hypothesize that the demon melded with RenGhul, and that it was his astral form, sent to kill Jericho.
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They go to RenGhul's place, which is blacker than night, has constant night all around it, and is surrounded by thorny bushes. But there are no more demons. None whatsoever. They enter the palace.
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They rush to the antechamber, where RenGhul is locked in struggle with the demon atop a LOT of demon corpses. Kangrado pulls down her mask and absorbs all the deads' souls into herself, surging with energy for a second. Lily comes around the bend (she was lacking behind) and sees the demon. Instantly she throws a prismic dagger at it, which is one of the most powerful weapons on the planet, and she had been saving from the necromancer's tower since the first LotGC. It backs the monster off, and in that instant, RenGhul slaps an entrapment spell on the demon and teleports all the party (which is EVERYONE at this point, save Rayzekia) to a magic resistant cell, with the demon in the neighboring cell. He thanks Lily for giving him the brief respite, and that he might have died. He wants to see a last battle to see which is stronger - humans or demons, with Kangrado and the demon vs. the rest of the party. They have one night to rest. He will FORCE Kangrado to fight.
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In the night, Lily hears a scraping at the magic bars and sees the demon. She runs to the other side of the cell, but the demon pronounces very gutterally "Jericho... loves... Lily..." and holds its' hand out with Jericho's amulet in it. Through dirt scratchings and gutteral speech, Lily learns that the demon IS Jericho. It attacked RenGhul because it was the only thing it knew to do. They are drenched in tears, and far asleep with their hands locked together through the bars. Kangrado looks on, blank expression.
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The arena battle comes, and the demon refuses to fight. RenGhul hits it with several lightning bolts, but it doesn't move. Finally RenGhul teleports down to shock it, and it starts fighting RenGhul. RenGhul is winning, he had usurped some of the demon's power during the night, but it was still an all out brawl. They took to the air, and were mindlessly smashing each other, so on the ground, the others got ready.
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Lily, Selayn, and Fengal drew up a huge magic circle on the arena floor, and Kangrado stood in the middle of it. Each of the sorcerors save Kangrado made magic circles one after another in midair, all pointing in one direction, like telescope lenses. However, there was one point left with no sorceror in it. Fengal steps forward, knowing full well that this would kill him, but he had lived a long life. In the end, he realized he loves Selayn, who cries as he stands there, and Kangrado looks on with her red-slitted eyes. Kangrado's face started bubbling over with energy... the magic circle lit up, Kangrado started emitting noises that were a mix of all the demon's noises... in an instant, one instant - when Jericho was to deal his last blow and Renghul was dead in Kangrado's sight, Kangrado let herself go. She rocketed out of the mask into Fengal, who convlused with all the energy, and as a last remark, said, "I love you.. Selayn." Kangrado's clothes fall to the grouns, with nobody in them. Fengal's head points up, energy seething from the eye sockets and mouth, and lets loose Kangrado's essence, which flies at the magic circles. It flies through each of them, gaining power from each circle, and hits RenGhul at the same time Jericho does. The energy lasts on RenGhul for awhile, during which time the sorcerors laid it on with all they had. Lily threw a last prismic dagger at RenGhul's seething body, and the explosion destroyed the entire temple and surrounding lands. RenGhul's demon helmet fell on the ground, and Kangrado, back in her human form, stepped on it and crushed it.
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Jericho isn't healed, however. In fact, the death of renghul, who had part of Jericho's essence within him, drove him mad... with his awesome demon might (which is greater than Kangrado's) he starts corrupting the world further as a consequence of this.. and he's more powerful than all of the party combined. They run to the guru and he tells them to stop the corruption, they need to find the dwarven silver - Mithril. It is now extraordinarily rare, and the only he knew where is now is on Jericho's amulet.
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After trying to get the amulet and failing, they wander around until they find Jericho and Lily's old house, split in half by an earthquake. Underneath is some Mithril that Jericho apparently built the house for, so he could tap it. They gather some and go back to the guru, who has a dwarf there.
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The dwarf measures the amount and tells them they have 3 choices - a talisman to heal the world's corruption, a weapon to kill Jericho, or a pendant to try and heal Jericho. They sleep on it.
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They wake up and find the dwarf already made the pendant for Jericho's healing. They yell at him and he tells them that Lily woke up early and said that's what they wanted. They fan out to find her, and Selayn finally does, at the inn where Jericho and Lily first met. She sobs and breaks down, saying how she had no choice, and that she was sorry. They go back to the guru's.
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Most everyone is accounted for, so they go after Jericho. After a fierce battle, Lily jumps on his back and slips the pendant on him. She kisses him and she gets swatted away... dead.
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Jericho reverts to human form by the shock of his killing Lily and out of grief starts destroying the planet, still with his demonic powers. They all rush back to heal at the guru's.
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Rayzekia, who was spending time in Hell with Icarus, is back at the guru's. With Lily. She found Lily as one of the new arrivals, and listened to her story. She did some dirty tricks, and got Lily out of Hell for one day.
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They all go back to Renghul's castle's crater. Lily and Jericho meet again, and in tears, they embrace each other in midair. As they kiss, Jericho realizes the horror he's done, and they both fade out due to Jericho's magic - dead. Jericho's pendant falls to the ground and they use that to cure the world.
The end
