[Rina]

"Soul Expulsion and Transference..."

Lemres quietly muttered to himself, taking mental notes on what he needs to further his search.

It was barely daybreak in the the ruins of Madou Village, deary as it was left. Half-broken, decrepit houses, yellowed books of lost magics, but was eerily silent. Perchance the monsters have taken to slumber, or have kept to the underground caves, averse to what little light could break through to a lonely land. It was silent. Stagnant even. Nothing was there to cause trouble.

The prime time for a Comet Warlock to sneak out to do his own search, without troubling others in trying to find a friend.

You weren't expected to follow him to Madou Village, but here you are, squarely in front of the local Magic School. It's possible he could be looking around to peruse the magical texts, as, according to the unknown benefactor that left you this lead, Lemres was trying to find him 'before they do', and the incident was arcane in nature. Though considering how expansive this old place is, actually getting to him might be a challenge in itself...

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

Gorgon would arrive at Madou Village, her blindfolded gaze looking around the area through the eyes of her snakes, the only thing that would be of curiosity to her was the surprising lack of puyos to pop.

"He should be here... Somewhere." Gorgon would say as she waited for her partner to help her out with the job, as she couldn't do this alone.

---

Gorgon
HP: 160/160
Shield: 55/55
Status: prepared and waiting
Buffs:
Debuffs:
Cooldowns:

[earthboundfan1337]

Ms. Pac arrives in Madou, wondering what this is all about.

"I could go for some fruit right now..." she mutters as she finishes the last of her dot juice. She asks Lemres, "What is it you need us for, dear?"

---

Ms. Pac-Man
HP: 170/170
Shield: 60/60
Status: prepared and waiting
Buffs:
Debuffs:
Cooldowns:

[Rina]

"!?"

The sudden appearance of his allies was certainly unprecedented, having certainly attempted to cover his trails from outside help. Or any help at all considering the framework of this dilemma. Granted the green coat over the grays and browns of the old library stood out, and there wasn't anyone to memory that had his choice of clothing. He turned around alert, seeking whomever spoke to him.

"Who's there? How did you find me here?"

[earthboundfan1337]

"I'm just trying to protect ya, sugar. I treat anyone like my children, I'm in full support of everyone's dreams!"

The Pac-Lady finishes her pie slice that she baked last night. "Mmmph. Good pie. Sorry, I eat a lot. It's what my family does."

She looks for the latest Pokélander novel (that's my mom's favorite series smashified). Unsurprisingly, this was not an average library, and all the fiction it had was at least 200 years old. "Hmmph. I'll settle for Luigi Carroll."

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

{sorry for the late post}
The two didn't even notice that Gorgon was here, even though she was confused as all heck as to why... Nah, probably not an easy thing to realize without being caught off guard.

"Let's see if... We can complete the... Task at hand... Please." Gorgon said timidly, having closed the door to the library behind her, her snakes nodding in complete agreement with Gorgon's carefully chosen words.

---

Gorgon
HP: 160/160
Shield: 55/55
Status: being polite.
Buffs:
Debuffs:
Cooldowns:

[Rina]

Lemres was taken aback at Ms. Pac-Man's kindness, having not felt something familial in a long time. It gave him pause for a moment, then a smile cracked through his seriousness.

"I appreciate your kindness and concern. Thank you. It's a complicated story why I'm out here, but if you have time, I could give the short of it."

He held his wand at the ready to create some some tea and biscuits to talk over, while he eyed a book that appeared to be related to what he's looking for. "On the Properties of Soul Craft". The outer cover appears to be more of a bound notebook, only delicately held together. He might need to handle it with care.

"I'm certain you two heard about the incident in Rainbow Square. It happened shortly after Absolution was brought to a grinding halt, the Sphere recouping the resources poured into the ship. There's a faction that still sided with Op. Absolution and rose up, refusing to accept Sonic's disappearance and blaming Arle, his replacement. Whoever took action on the incident is unfounded, but their intention was to send a warning to Arle.

"By shooting one of her closest allies, Schezo. He still lives, but strangely enough, his soul is absent from his body, as if someone ejected it. I'm out here searching to return his soul, though admittedly, it's territory that's beyond my scope of knowledge."

[earthboundfan1337]

Ms. Pac-Man shudders. “You don’t know what you’re messing with, my child. Death magic is treacherous stuff, and I’ve seen it wielded for good... and evil.”

With slight hesitation, the pac-woman reaches into the deepest depths of her Subspace Purse, and pulls out a gooey tome. “This was the Ghost Witch’s grimoire. It contains countless death magic spells, most of which I do not dare to comprehend. It also contains the origins of my frenemies, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, Clyde, and Sue. Oh, Sue. I’ll miss you.” She sobs. “However, there is one spell I found relatively harmless. It allows for corpses to twitch. Nothing major. If you wanna release hell...be my guest.”

[Arle Nadja]

The splitting image of Arle herself floats on over on her belly in a graceful fashion, coming to a stop mid-explanation and planting her feet on the ground so as to not be lounging in the air during a serious explanation. Once Lemres was finished, she addressed him first. “...I hope you don't mind if I join you. I've got experience with ... souls.” she explained in a soft tone, oddly distant in tone for a moment there. She then shifted her gaze to address Miss Pac-Man. “...Arle. A friend of Schezo's.” she greeted, prepared to set off at a moments notice.

Shin!Arle 180/180 60/60

[earthboundfan1337]

“Aw yeah! Aren’t you kind of popular here?” Ms. Pac-Man asks.
She then reaches into her purse and pulls out some strawberries and swallows them whole. “Sorry. I’m relatively new here, and I think I overheard talk of you.”

[Rina]

"Wait- Arle? What are you doing here? Aren't you-... Never mind, could you tell me what you know?"

A look of puzzlement drew on his face, as he forgot Arle has a double. The closest he recalled meeting this one was deep in the Azure Sanctuary, and even then, his fall caused a haze in those events. Asking why she's here is a question he'd like an answer to, but a question that needs to be put on the backburner for now. Bringing Schezo back was of utmost urgency, and he needed to cut to the chase.

[Arle Nadja]

Shin!Arle looked around for a good moment, just kinda off-handedly checking to see if their target just so happened to be within eyesight. “Judging by our circumstances, only about as much as you do. I managed to chase rumors of a white-haired man in a blue cowl and tunic heading out this way, and... that's about it. I heard that Schezo was in need, and... It sounds like he needs someone to watch over him.” Arle replied, deliberately leaving her reasons somewhat vague. Even though this wasn't the Schezo she knew from back in her day, the memory of his past incarnation made the thought of losing even a replica of him rather uncomfortable. “I'd like to help.” Arle added rather simply.

Shin!Arle 180/180 60/60

--Companions/Status--

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

Surprisingly enough, Gorgon would be back, but she wasn't alone in this, as she was sitting piggyback on Mia, her Lamia companion, she still had that blindfold on over her eyes primarily because she didn't want to turn anyone to stone.

"Let's see if we can get this done..." Gorgon said, though she was clearly not in a talking mood, which Lemres would have to bear in mind. "Don't mind her, she's just being a little grumpy today." Mia would tell Lemres, as she looked at all the books that Gorgon could read in silence.

---

Gorgon
HP: 160/160
Shield: 55/55
Status: grumpy
Mia the Lamia
HP: 170/170
Shield: 60/60
Status: Looking around...

[Rina]

Lemres cracked a faint smile for Shin!Arle. Though he technically doesn't know this Arle, he can sense how similar she is to the one he does know.

"And for that, I thank you."

That said...where did Gorgon go? He could have sworn she was on board, but he wasn't sure where she wandered off to. Cold feet, maybe? He couldn't help but look around for the unaccounted member. He attempted to look for her, but thankfully she made her timely reappearance. And with a friend!

"Oh, that's where you wandered off to. Glad to have you and your friend on board."

With that matter settled, Lemres reverted back to his more serious visage to further discuss the plan. He thankfully did enough cursory research to get the basis of his plan down, but there's still variables he needed to iron out.

"As for what I researched so far, if we're going to be transporting a soul back home, he needs some thing to hideaway in. Since it's the very essence of why we're here, if that thing gets damaged, then...you can imagine the consequences."

Lemres takes out a crystal, rather rough-hewn in appearance. It's a plain crystal, not with the power contained in Madou-grown Magic Crystals, but its pure magic can still be felt. He had to make do with what he had, okay???

"With this, at least it's in its purest, unaspected form, should suffice, at least. There's been methods to seal the souls of beings, but to safely store one to freely transport and release is a delicate matter. Souls are a multifaceted essence that carries so many mysteries, but unfortunately time isn't on our side to discuss this in extensive detail."

Lemres looked out the window of the library to catch a glimpse of the tower. It's awfully dark for some reason...

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

"I see... Soul searching and retrieval." Gorgon would say, puzzled about what the procedure to do something like that, also looking out to that tower.

"Probably involves someone being used as a temporary soul jar or something..." Mia would tell Gorgon in a polite tone, making a mental note to protect her mistress if at all possible.