Private Finished The Dreams Within Our Hearts

"Oh, I have not yet tasted a beverage such as this. How is it created?" He took a sip of it and immediately spit it out. At the very least, he was courteous enough to do it on the ground instead of all over Tara or Nakata (the former being much more likely). "HOT!" He shouted dramatically, breathing in and out quickly to move cool air over his tongue. Only a few moments of his dramatic over-exaggeration would pass before he sat in his seat as if nothing had happened. In fact, he began sipping his cappuccino immediately, paying no heed at all to the temperature. "This is, in fact, incredibly good. Caffeinated, I presume?" Perhaps the earlier drama over the heat of the beverage was an illusion. More likely, Alistair was a weirdo.

"Ooh." He received the phone with wide eyes, like a child opening a present on Christmas day. A cell phone? Yes, he had heard of these. But he had never operated one. His cappuccino was long finished already, and he had begun fiddling around with the new toy. "I have already received such a kind gift from you, Master Nakata. I cannot so easily accept another. I must ask how it is you can so easily give me such fine objects." A slight pause, before he looked over to Tara for a brief moment and then back to Nakata. "I do not mean to undermine your kind thoughts, Master Nakata. But perhaps Tara here would benefit from this gift more than I." He honestly didn't even know what '16 grand' was. Not that it made any bit of difference to him. Money was actually something that was near-worthless to him. And it was only 'near-worthless' because he actually needed it to eat and live. But he had his miraculous card for that.

Oh, right.

"Ah! I forgot, we have to find that card!" He stood up in a sudden, dramatic panic (likely catching the eye of everyone seated around them... again) and, leaving the gift Nakata had so generously given him upon the table, he immediately ran off towards the beach.

But he only took about a dozen steps before he suddenly collapsed to his knees, holding his chest with both hands, as if in pain.

Help me...

What was that? Who was there?

It hurts... please make it stop...

God? Are you there..? Please....

The pain...

Alistair cried out in pain before puking blood all over the ground in front of him (and possibly Naka). It was then his eyes suddenly opened to reveal a strong golden glow upon them, just as if he had been invoking a Mantra. He had no regular signs of cardiac arrest, but his heartbeat was faster than any normal human would've been able to handle. Something was seriously wrong.

This wasn't because his body was overstressed. The stress was caused by something else.

His soul was in pain. His body could not handle the pain, and it began shutting down in an extremely violent manner.

But despite that he stood up. If Nakata or anyone else tried to stop him, he would literally push them out of the way as if his own life, or the life of another, depended on it. His golden eyes appeared fixated on a specific location out in the distance, but it was unclear what exactly he was looking at.

Help me...

They wouldn't be able to hear it. But it was clear to him now. The issues he had with his body the past few days would be due to Negative energy. An angel received its sustenance by feeding on Positive life energy — energy created through positive emotions (love, hope, etc). When Negative energy is consumed, it is either purposely (which typically creates Fallen/Demons) or because the world is filled with it. In this case, it was the later.

His soul was restless because of it, but his dulled senses in his human form made it difficult to tell until now. But it had gotten to the point that he had found the cause. Human souls. At least one of them, crying out in pain. He had no idea what would cause such a thing — humans typically did not have the ability to harm souls in such a way. But he - being an angel - would be innately able to listen to the voices of disembodied souls from behind the Veil of Time.

Something was seriously wrong. He had only known of demons to cause such suffering. But somehow, a demon being involved didn't seem right.

He would suddenly run off in the direction he was looking at, ignoring any request to stop, physical or otherwise, by whatever means necessary. Even if it involved shoving one of his friends out of his way.

—

Fantastic. Such power.

He looked at the ring upon his right hand. He had only had it for about an hour now, but the difference was tremendous. He had spent the last half hour speeding around the city at lightning speed, not even coming close to tired. Not like before. He was too slow before. That stupid idiot and his funky haired friend took him out as if he was nothing.

But now they would be nothing.

Just as he had hoped, the idiot arrived. And he turned to look at him.

"Good morning, Alistair Fordren."

Alistair's golden eyes continued their stare. He knew this guy. His name was Max.

But his eyes focused on the ring on his finger.


Please, help me...

Alistair didn't even react to Nakata arriving. Max, however, seemed delighted that he had. "Oh look," He started. "Japanese samurai guy came too! Wonderful. I can show you both what happens when you make a fool out of -"

"Give me that ring." Alistair said, his eyes returning to normal.

"What? This thing?" He held up his right hand and laughed. "Make me."

Alistair went for his sword, clearly intending to do combat if required. This was surely odd for him - normally he attempted talking more. Whatever that ring was clearly was something he wanted. Perhaps he wanted to give it to Tara? But as soon as the sword came out from its sheath, Max had already vanished. Lightning shot up from the ground where he stood and into the sky - and he disappeared from view. But his absence would last not even a full second. A large bolt of lightning descended with the intent to obliterate Alistair where he stood. His reflexes allowed him to react but his body was simply not fast enough to get out of the way. The lightning surrounded his body and with an incredibly loud roar it consumed him. Alistair went flying towards the trees and collided with a large pine tree.

However, it would become clear that this happened not just because he was hit by a bolt of lightning. The electricity that had descended from the sky had followed him as he went flying, and if one's eyes were fast enough they would see a humanoid form within the electricity. It was as if Max himself had become the lightning. His fists collided over and over with Alistair's body, which despite its Divine properties could do little to mitigate the damage. The tree he had collided into exploded in a display of burning wood as the electric form repeatedly assaulted him. At one point the Eternal had somehow managed to get a swing of his sword off - but despite an apparent connect it didn't seem to have any sort of affect. Alistair collapsed to the ground, but before his body even touched the dirt the humanoid-shaped bolt of electricity had already begun speeding towards Nakata.

Nakata would find that any mundane sort of attack did nothing - the blade of a sword would cut through him as if he were made of air. His spells would surely have an affect, but it would be difficult to time them correctly and actually unleash them. Max would continue a barrage of melee-esque attacks with his electric form, repeatedly moving around Nakata at what seemed to be lightspeed. It would not be uncommon for him to simply "leap" over Nakata's form to get behind him, and if at any one point it seemed like Nakata would be able to get off one of his spells, Max would simply ascend into the sky once more before unleashing a barrage of lightning bolts down upon the land.

It hurts... please... help me...

Alistair's beaten body twitched. Unlike last time, he had been seriously injured. If he had been a normal human, he would not have survived.

Max seemed to greatly enjoy the pain he was causing Naka. It was as if he was kicking butt in some video game. Any time some noise was made due to pain it enhanced his bloodlust that much more. He noticed some young girl run over to that fool Alistair, but didn't care too much at that moment. She hadn't humiliated like funky-hair here did.

He had to admit though, that the guy put up a pretty good fight. He had some sort of weird magic that involved wind that could cut — if it wasn't for his electrical form he probably wouldn't have been able to withstand it. Still, the wind harmed him more than mundane physical attacks did, and he had to make sure he could avoid it. Physically this was easy for him, mentally not so much. Despite his power, he was still obviously inexperienced, and it seemed difficult for him to grasp the concept of reacting to things other than just the guy in front of him. Plus, he apparently expected Nakata to go down just as fast as Alistair did.

He had no choice but to take damage at the end — he hadn't fully grasped the power of his ability yet and wasn't sure if he would be able to squeeze between the scythes of wind. However, he would manage to avoid most of them by simply "running" through a few, leaving the rest to collide into nothing in his wake. it hurt, but his electrical form seemed capable of greatly reducing the damage. He would need to be careful; but Nakata seemed pretty badly beaten by now anyways, clearly more than he was. His form landed next to the downed Alistair and Tara, he looked down at both of them before turning back to face Nakata.

"I'm not sure why my master wants this fool dead, he certainly didn't put up as much of a fight as you. But hey, a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do. My sister's life is at stake here, and I sure as hell ain't gonna let her die to save a couple of people I never even met." His form was physical again, but only for a brief moment. He didn't even look as if he was tired, despite the recent actions. He held out his right hand and electricity surrounded it.

"I'm pretty sure I can do some nifty long-range artillery blasts with this though, so you're gonna be my plaything here. See if you can get to your buddy and his little friend here before I decide to kill them both." He laughed.

—

The eyes of Judgement. That was their official name, anyways. All angels had golden eyes, particularly the higher ranking ones. Aspects of Eternity, however, were different. Their eyes defined them. It was said that no being could look into the eyes of Judgement - to do so was maddening, even to other immortal beings.

—

Tara's voice reached through to him, and he snapped out of unconsciousness. It took a moment for his vision to adjust, but he saw the young girl leaning over him. "Miria...?" He spoke, before realizing it was Tara. Immediately he realized what had happened and his face returned to anger.

The electricity in Max's arm grew immensely in strength, and clearly he intended to begin hurling it like cannonballs at Nakata. He had never been able to manifest his lightning at long-range before, but this ring Vardas had given him seemed to grant him power beyond his dreams.

It hurts.... please, make it stop....please...

Alistair's face relished in fury, and immediately he forced himself to stand, grabbing his sword from the ground in front of him as he did. Max noticed movement behind him but it would be too late, in a panic he instead took on his electrical state. All he saw were those eyes.

Golden eyes.



KNOCK IT OFF!!!!!!!!!

That voice echoed out through the area. It was as if time stood still, all bowing down in respect to this person. His blade, enveloped in golden divine energy, held high in the air as if he had just swung it high. Despite Max's speed, despite his electrical form, he was nothing. Nothing against that power. His arm was cut clean off, and all he felt were those eyes staring into his soul. That voice echoed through him... one would swear that Alistair's mouth didn't even move when he spoke. In fact, it was almost assured that he hadn't said anything, instead it was as if his thoughts echoed out through the area, reverberating within everyone's mind. The voice was deeper, stronger. Spoken as if a higher authority had uttered its Judgement — and all nearby would obey.

But he wasn't done yet. As if enveloped in a rage Alistair brought his shining blade down again as if intending to cut Max clean in half. Max brought his wits about him in just enough time to use his powers to propel himself away, moving as fast as lightning back towards the treeline to avoid him.

Only to see that sword spinning through the air, aimed right at his head. It was as if Alistair knew exactly where Max would end up. Max would duck just in time for the sword to imbed itself in the tree behind him. It would be just now that he would realize his arm had been severed. Out of fear and confusion he would retreat, zooming off into the treeline behind him to not be seen again.

It would be less than a second but feel like several minutes that Alistair would stand there with an authoritative stance, his eyes glowing and his hand still out in front of him from when he threw his sword.

Then the glow in his eyes would vanish and he would fall to his knees, the world around them now moving on as if nothing had happened. He scrambled over to the severed hand and forcefully removed the ring from the still-warm finger. He clutched it tightly to his chest as tears rolled down his face.

"You are safe now." He whispered. "You will not be harmed again... I promise." It was then he would completely collapse onto his side, unconscious. The ring, however, would remain embraced within his palm, clutched as if his own life depended on it.