Opening his eyes, Eld would find a disquieting and familiar image. The earth was kicked up and in the air, dust and debris strewn about and crumbling. The world around him was still shaking, and would perhaps continue for some time. A dust cloud all around them shrouded the area, but Eld would only have to look to his side once to see land unearthed where he and Etsu once stood. More than likely, everything in his body would hurt even more, as he'd effectively been tossed to the wayside like a ragdoll ...

As his ears cleared of the horrid ringing, he'd hear something else. Someone else. This one was familiar, a small and feminine coughing. Judging by the silhouette nearby, buckled over and coughing into its hand, it would be fairly easy to figure out who it was. She didn't look hurt, though. She was standing and not grasping any part of her in pain, at least.

But they were not entirely alone, though. Eld would merely have to move any further to recognize the all too familiar weight and anxiety he once felt during an arranged meeting at the hill overlooking Hillcrest.

What just happened? The fall was apparently not entirely to blame for his disorientation; everything was shaking. An earthquake? But while they weren't unheard of, it was very rare for Hillcrest to get earthquakes, and they were never this bad.

Turning his head, he saw a familiar figure stand up. At least Etsu's alright, he thought with relief. It wouldn't last long, though.

He really didn't want to move right now, but he ignored the pain and tried to get up again. It was only then that he noticed it, a pressure that made his entire body seem even heavier. He'd only felt it once before.

No! Not here, dammit! Not now! Clinging to a nearby tree, he desperately tried to pull himself to his feet.

Etsu seemed to notice it, too, from the looks of things. It took her only second before she ripped the scythe away from the sheath on her back and threw it away as hard as she could--tossed it into the forest with all the strength she could muster. That was what the masked man was looking for, not them. If he found them with it, they would most certainly be killed, and worse still would happen if he found the scythe itself. Getting rid of it was the only option. They could go back and look for it later. Until then ...

Etsu practically through herself into Eld, grabbed at his arm and pulled it around her shoulders. Without a word, she pulled him away from the tree and began what was effectively a half speed run from the dust cloud ... and the village. They couldn't go there. They weren't strong enough now to fight that man.

Amidst all the rush and panic, though, Eld would likely see that Etsu was bleeding from the head. There was an open wound on her forehead and the right side of her clothes looked tattered and torn. Some were even dyed red in spots. Chances were, she took the brunt of the explosion ...

Eld was about to object when he saw Etsu toss Kageko in the woods; it took him a second to realize this was a sensible move. Above all else, they couldn't let Illorex have the scythe...in theory he had no reason to bother them if they didn't have it.

Except that this morning he seemed more concerned with attacking me than getting it. It was funny; he could clearly remember waking up and being confronted by Illorex with Etsu dragging him, but between then and now was a bit of a blur.

Shortly after that Etsu grabbed him and they were running--or rather, hobbling through back the way they came. "You're bleeding..." Not that they could do much about it now, and he was certainly still in worse condition, but if nothing else at least the cold ensured he hadn't bled much while fighting. Though there was no doubt plenty of his blood frozen to his skin in various places...

"Hnn?" Etsu noised as quietly as she could and gave him a quizzical look.

Until she realized he was right, of course. She was, in fact, bleeding, and from her head no less. Actually, from a number of places. The whole side of her body was in pain and she had no idea how badly she was hurt, but for the sake of maintaining her calm and getting the hell out of there with Eld, she adopted the best course of action available: she ignored her injuries. Had she acknowledged them, she'd have unconsciously slowed down . . . and that was the very last thing she wanted to do.

". . . so I am," she replied, again as quietly as possible.

The goal was stealth. Or at least an attempt at stealth. They needed to get out of there while noise pollution was still high; it drowned out the sound of their running away. Etsu lacked spiritual powers, but she still knew how things worked. She was still a trained warrior.

. . . The only problem, of course, was that she wasn't dealing with a conflict that a human being could resolve. She and anyone else in Hillcrest, perhaps even 90% of the world at large, would have been ripped to shreds in a single thought by this half-masked man, as well as anyone remotely close to his power. Suffice to say, she shouldn't have felt surprised that the half-masked man blocked her path the very moment she and Eld left the dust cloud, yet she was still visibly horrified--as perhaps any sane person would have been . . .

Eld, too, was shocked; it was impossible that he was in front of them again. Was he simply that fast? Or was this just another application of whatever allowed some Memories to seemingly vanish at will?

But he supposed it hardly mattered. If they couldn't escape Illorex, they were dead. It was that simple. He'd have been hard pressed to match him even if he were feeling fine, let alone injured, sick, and exhausted.

He closed his eyes for a moment. He had no Qi, no Kageko, and he could barely move--Etsu was bleeding and was also without Qi, though she was otherwise mobile. Illorex was after one of two things: the scythe, or his life. Even if it was the former he doubted he'd just let them go because they didn't have it on them. And if it was the later...

There was only one decision he could make. He opened his eyes. "Etsu...run. He's not after you."

Staring this man down was ... terrifying, actually. It felt like standing in the presence of Death, a pale rider that could decide your ultimate fate in the blink of an eye, and there was nothing you could do to stop it. Etsu was a strong girl, in body, mind, and soul, and even she felt an inescapable fear when standing before the half masked man ...

Under any other circumstances, with anyone else, she might have run away, took Eld up on his command and left him there. But this was not just any other person she was trying to protect.

"I wour-rd sooner die," she replied stubbornly.

Illorex faced then in the center of the road, blocking their route. There was no choice in the matter. If they turned and went the other way, he'd just block their path again. Etsu pushed Eld away, shoved him against a tree in a forceful way. No doubt, he would not want to hide, but God Damnit she was going to make sure he was out of the way, and perhaps in a position where he could sneak away, too. Force him against a tree, make him go behind it, throw him in the brush, whatever it took to get him out of sight.

Under normal circumstances Eld would have been gladdened to hear that kind of sentiment from the girl he loved, but right now with the possibility of her dying very real it mostly just filled him with dread. "You can't! You-"

At which he let out a yelp of alarm as he was shoved away, glancing off a tree and falling into the brush to the side of the "path," which wasn't really a path so much as a narrow strip of destroyed vegetation made during his fight Toushikyo as he pushed him towards the lake.

He hit the ground with a grunt, his tired body too stunned from the impact to move.

Etsu was not defenseless. Normal as everyone else in Hillcrest, perhaps, but not defenseless. As Eld hit the ground and came to a stop, out of both hers and Illorex's view, she reached back, right above her back pockets, and searched over the edge of her pants. Without a moments hesitation, she withdrew a knife about the length of her hand. It was easily a combat knife, or perhaps even a hunting knife, but either were equally deadly in Etsu's capable hands. Holding it underhanded, she edged away from the tree line, put as much distance between she and Eld as she could, and started the circle Illorex in the same breath ...

What ensued was a struggle Eld could only overhear.

Illorex watched Etsu move and seemingly refrained from acting immediately, with or without the opportunity. Etsu, too, refrained. She kept her wits about her, did everything in her power to keep check on Illorex, his moves and what he may be planning. She lacked the upper hand of power, but if she had ingenuity over him ...

But then it happened. She felt the weight of the world intensify around her, and she guessed what was to happen. Etsu threw herself out of the way, far to the left, and nearly choked on dust when she shaky landed, the force of a earth tearing itself away next to her throwing her off balance. She felt more debris against her and knew very well that a few more wounds were made upon her.

That was something Etsu knew she couldn't keep up. She came out coughing and riddled with new pains, and Illorex was staring her down again. Etsu cursed under her breath. She couldn't get out of the way fast enough. She could maybe anticipate two more attacks, but that was all.

"Return the dusk remnant," she heard Illorex say, "Now."

Instead of reply, she readied her knife. A moment passed and she again felt the heaviness of the world. This time, Etsu was going to make it count. She threw herself away from it again, but forward this time--at Illorex, and knife first at that. Pain in her back preempted a ring in her ear, and Etsu was this time unable to stop from crying out in pain. But it didn't matter to her. There was pain and she could not hide this, but she'd resigned herself to a painful tactic. She had to get close and she had to surprise ...

What surprised Etsu the most wasn't the feeling of her body stopping before it reached a target, but the feeling of her knife sliding through flesh. When Etsu struggled to open her eyes, she saw her knife embedded within the half-masked man's chest, but too far up. Too close to his shoulder. She'd been trying to aim for his heart, but ...

He didn't look harmed, even in the slightest. The injury didn't at all change the way he looked at her. The way he seemed to look straight through her. In that instant, she felt something horrible, and she instinctively tried to pull away, rip herself from Illorex's person, and get far, far away. She felt dread. Horrible, horrible dread. She wanted to run for her life. But as soon as she tried to pull back, wrench the knife from the man's shoulder, and get away, she found herself stuck. She was locked in place. Nothing could move. Not her arms, not her legs, not even her head.

Etsu felt his hand upon hers and she again felt a horrible sense of dread. Illorex held onto the hand holding the blade, only to move it back to the blade itself. His eye-- or eyes, perhaps? --trailed down her arm and at the blade, then back up to her face. With much time spent without action, he finally moved his other hand up, set it to Etsu's forehead, despite her attempts of pulling away from him ...

And Etsu Hikane felt a weightlessness she'd never experienced before. A sudden rush of everything, memories, emotions, people, places-- every experience she'd ever been gifted or cursed with in her life all at once, everything that could ever be deemed a qualifier for what made her her, every last detail that defined the existence of Etsu Hikane, raced through her veins all at once, a split second recourse before her grip upon the blade loosened, her eyes fell heavy, and she collapsed into a heap at Illorex's feet.

The sounds were the only thing Eld had to go by, and it didn't help much; neither of the two fighting were prone to talking much, and other than the telltale explosion of Illorex's power it was difficult to tell what was happening just by hearing it. That the one explosion he heard was followed by other sounds relieved him, as it meant Etsu hadn't been killed by it.

But shortly following that, there was a brief scuffle, then silence, and then the sound of someone hitting the ground. Dammit! Etsu...please be okay. Once more he tried to lift himself back to his feet, but his body simply refused to move that much. There must be something I can do!

He focused internally next, but there was nothing--he was completely drained of Qi, and he was too tired to draw any from Purgatory. He doubted he could so much as shift into the world to escape if he needed to.

Finally he tried to shout, to call for Etsu, to make sure she was alright, but all that came out were gasps. "Etsu..." he finally managed at last, but too quiet to be heard.

The more he struggled against it, the more his body continued to shut down. He was at his limit--his body needed rest, and it was evidently going to get it whether he liked it or not.

And time passed ...

Eld would no doubt hear the slow walking of another person, methodical rummaging and searching. All slow. All hesitant. It went on for nearly half an hour. Sometimes it got close to Eld, sometimes it went further away from him. Like it or not, he was hidden somewhere in the brush, cast aside into the mud and the brush, and with the sounds of duzt and debris settling all around him, it was impossible to hear his gasps. He was concealed, accidentally, as well as his scythe was.

And once the dust and debris had settled, there was silence. Nothing but unnerving, dead silence.

Someone was looking for him, and that fact did not help in figuring out what happened. It could have been either Etsu or Illorex, to save him or kill him, and even if he wanted to risk drawing attention to himself he couldn't. He was conscious, barely, but other than that he couldn't move, or even speak.

He wasn't sure how long passed before he noticed that there was total silence; whoever was looking for him had given up, and he prayed it was Etsu and she'd gone back to get help.

All he could do was wait, until someone came or he fell asleep (or simply passed out) against his will. He wouldn't be able to move until he got some rest.

More time passed for Eld ... more silence. More horrible, horrible silence. It would perhaps feel like hours, possibly even enough time for Eld to start nodding off, before talking interrupted it all. Panicked, fast talking ...

"Oh my God!" It was Emma.

"Blue-- Etsu!" ... Sarah.

Rushing feet stopped at a certain point, followed by the sound of fumbling.

"Is she ... ?"

"Sarah, move."

"Is she goddamn okay?!"

"I can't tell with you guarding her! Move!"

He'd long since closed his eyes, the silence causing him to drift somewhere between being conscious and not. It was fortunate that he didn't succumb to sleep entirely, because otherwise he might not have heard the voices.

Hnnn...huh? Emma, Sarah? Someone, they'd found him, and it sounded like Etsu too it sounded like. He needed to see how she was doing...he still didn't know the result of the fight.

When he tried to speak, he couldn't, but fortunately what came out instead would suffice. Eld entered a fit of coughing that wasn't likely to go unheard by his friends.

"Hn?! Hello?" Sarah exclaimed.

She sounded like a veritable wreck, stressed and panicked and jumpy, about ready to punch out thr next surprise that came her way. Fortunately for Eld, he sounded weak, too weak to be a threat.

"Who's there?!" Sarah shouted again.

"I'll look Etsu over," Emma whispered, "you find ... that."

Eld would find the plan come to fruition as brush at the tree line started moving. He'd soon see Sarah, cautiously edging her way in through the brush, clad in a yellow raincoat and hat ... and she'd see him shortly thereafter, as well.

"Eld! Eld, what the-- oh God, what the fuck happened here?!" And with no further hesitation, she raced into the mud and the brush to start pulling her friend back to the road.