As he felt himself tiring out, Lelan started to pass glances up at the rooftops. They weren't too terribly tall, between one and three stories usually, but the structures were close together, leaving Eld quite the opportunity to start in at a dash from the edge of one flat roof to the next slanted roof, where he'd need to maintain his footing briefly before segueing into a leap for a much higher, but fortunately flatter, structure, and despite his dexterity, there would be a certain degree of stumbling and using at least one hand to catch himself after long leaps--all whilst holding a lengthy chain and tactically picking placed to jump and pausing at times to keep an eye on the thief, perhaps to stand at one corner of a rooftop and peer down into the city from the highest point available--

All in all, despite everything that happened, Lelan couldn't deny it when the thought crossed his mind that, really, that looked awesome.

Lelan encountered a problem, though, as he had passed a glance up at Eld at one point, which distracted him at the exact wrong time. He had just turned down the next corner, only to find a hook barreling at him like a cannonball. Immediately, he stopped running to jump to the left, hitting the ground shoulder first and rolling to a stop. Dirt on the ground kicked up around him as he sat on one knee, his own blood at last seeping into his already stained jacket, coming directly from a large rip on his right arm.

The chain had barreled into a residence, breaking through the initial wall and lacking onto the next, barely missing a father, frozen in time, who was just on his way to tuck his children in.

So far, there was one soul to be sent once this field was dropped. As far as Lelan was concerned, there only needed to be one. He glanced back for a moment, eyes narrowed. He, at least, made sure to avoid risking other people when he used Sarrevous's power. The thief was just throwing it out with wild abandon, not paying a damn attention to the quaint little residences around them.

Lelan scoffed for only a moment before he looked down the street again. The thief had taken to an alley. Two long chains, one that wrapped halfway around an entire block and the other which was taught from across the street, funneled into a thin alleyway. It was the only way to follow for him, and without checking with Eld first, he broke into a run for it. The alley was on the next block over for Eld, and difficult to see into from where he was, or anywhere at all . . .

After several long minutes of hopping from building to building--not always an easy task, especially since he was holding onto the chain with one hand--he finally managed to get within an appreciable distance of the thief, but unfortunately it was just as he ducked into a narrow alley. From the angle he was at he couldn't see into it, but he saw Lelan catching up as well, clearly intent on following the thief into it.

Alright, now's our chance. He quickly ran to the end of the building he was on that was on the same side as the street the thief would have to exit on to. He was almost certain he would--the only other option was to confront Lelan, as the alley was far too small for him to hide in.

He reached into himself and called upon the one power that couldn't be dampened by Lelan's field, because it came from inside him--from what he was. His legs kicked off with tremendous force, far more than any normal human could ever muster, causing several shingles to upend behind him.

A brief moment of god-like strength...but with the right application, it could be used for speed, which was how Eld managed to cross the distance to the alleyway exit in mere seconds.

He landed, but as his movement was mostly horizontal he skidded as he did so, sliding right past the alley...but that was just as he planned it. He pulled the chain, still trailing behind him, so that the section he was holding would be taut across the alley, at around waist level (though slightly diagonal), hopefully just in time to trip up the thief as he tried to exit it.

Lelan entered his side of the alley before Eld started his leap. He disappeared within, with no sounds to suggest conflict--the sounds of shouting or fighting, running or screaming, nothing of the sort. As soon as Lelan entered the alleyway, he had gone off the radar. It was unlikely for Eld to notice this until he was close to the exit, though. It would be eerie, being that close to it. Certainly, everything within the field was devoid of sound, but there were supposed to be people moving within that alleyway, contrary to the people frozen in time in the homes all around the city.

After a moment of Eld holding the chain across the other side of the alleyway, it would become evident that something was wrong. No one was exiting on this side, and it seemed impossible to see across to the other side, now that he was close enough to examine it.

The thief wasn't leaving the alleyway.

And to make it worse,

When nothing hit the chain, or even dodged it and came rushing into the street, Eld began to worry. No sound reached his ears, either. Not the sound of the thief and Lelan in a scuffle, not the sound shuffling feet that would indicate them exiting the other end...not even the sound of Lelan cursing that would have meant he got away.

He backed up, and cautiously peered inside, keeping the chain loose, holding it like he might his kusari-gama (which he hadn't summoned while on the search, not wanting to stand out, and now in Lelan's field he couldn't). He did not like what he saw.

There was...blackness. A void. A dark so deep that even the orange hue that tainted everything was missing from it. Uneasily, he realized that it was all too familiar...but, that wasn't what possible, not from what he knew about Gaiasouls.

He hesitated. On one hand, walking into it was not a good move. On the other...Lelan was in there, and while Eld was used to that darkness he wasn't. He didn't stand a chance without him.

"Here goes," he mumbled, carefully stepping into the alley.

It was like stepping into another world.

A thin world, a world confined to the length and width of a long but tight space between two properties, with walls at both sides that were devoured by inky blackness, just as the ground and the sky and any feasible entrance or exit or way out up, behind, forward, above, left, right, any and all--everything absorbed into a fray of darkness.

But sound. There was sound again.

And there was one source of light, one familiar source of luminescence that resembled the one Eld most often experienced in the mental world of his familiar. It was a single dim light that was exuded within the center of the dark mass. Stilll, it didn't show the outlines of walls or the ground, but it showed figures. It was, however, dim. Much less lit than Eld's recent experiences. It seemed the more Kageko cared for him, the stronger the light in her world was. Eld . . . made it a bright, pleasant place to be . . .

And the thief made it dark again.

The thief stood in the center, with Lelan before him, arms out, one slightly over his face, the other behind him, ready to defend himself or attack on a whim. The space here did not allow for much movement, however. Moving forward or backward seemed to be the only possibilities, and jumping up would feel like an impossible task--as if there was something above them, stopping them from gaining any altitude whatsoever. The alleyway was extremely long, though. There wasn't any room to jump or move from side to side, but there was more than enough room to move forward or backward.

"You're cornered now, buddy," Lelan declared with a grin, upon seeing the silhouette of Eld behind the thief, "Just drop the Gaiasouls now, and we'll make this easy on you."

This is...Kageko's...? The darkness, illuminated only by a dim glow...it was exactly like her world. Except that he was certain he was still in his physical body. Which meant, at least, that the thief couldn't jerk people around like he could there.

He was glad to see Lelan was alright, though. When he saw the darkness, he'd feared the worst--that he'd already been incapacitated or even killed--but apparently he was fine.

Going easy on the thief...that wasn't something he was so sure about it. Now that he could see the thief again, he felt some of his anger begin to return--this was the bastard that had been torturing Kageko for the last day or so, after all.

Fortunately, he'd had enough time to cool off so that he didn't outright ignore it. "Surrender. You won't get a second chance," he intoned. He still didn't know what he'd do, but if the thief insisted on fighting, Eld couldn't promise he'd listen if he tried to give up later.

He was still holding the chain like a kusari-gama, but loosely--he knew that he was holding of the chains from the gauntlet, and that the thief might try something with it if he wasn't paying attention.

"Think about it. You got nowhere left to run to, now." Lelan's rhetoric could be used tactically, too. He couldn't be trusted worth a damn, but those that didn't know that could be talked down to no longer stand as a threat, before Lelan plowed his fist into their gut.

Whether or not Eld's declaration was a good negotiation tool was left unexplored by Lelan. He was too preoccupied with focusing upon the thief's left arm, now that Lelan could see it. The bright red gauntlet had torn through the sleeve of the thief's shirt and ran from the bottom of the wrist up close to the elbow, just as Lelan remembered it. Now that he had seen the item again and saw Sarrevous in action once more, Lelan couldn't help but want the weapon back a lot more than he did before. Before, he seemed a little sullen and depressed about it, but treated it like something he could get over. Now, though . . .

He really wanted that gauntlet back.

"i'M NoT RuNNinG fROM YUo," the thief declared with a grin slowly spreading across his lips.

Which was the approximate time that Lelan realized the point of this black space. The thief wasn't trying to cover his escape, he was trapping his pursuers.

Lelan was about to shout this realization at Eld, but it was too late. Eld wouldn't even have the time to drop the chain, nor did Lelan have the time to get another word out. The chain would wrap itself around Eld's arm like a coiling snake, moving in defiance of its boundaries, moving as if it really had a mind and body of its own. To make matters worse, though: it was a Gaiasoul. They were, by definition, nigh unbreakable. They could be dulled, but never lost matter. That was what most treasure hunters and explorers knew about them--weapons of mysterious origin that couldn't lose matter in any way, shape, or form. They always remained consistent.

It was an unbreakable force that would suddenly tighten up and dig its hook into Eld's shoulder, if he couldn't fight with it to keep the hook at bay--but in the end, it would still pull him backwards, not far enough to pull him out of the darkness, but far enough that he wasn't a threat to the thief.

Lelan's issue to deal with was a chain barreling into him, new from the gauntlet. It was the third chain to be extended. He caught it at the hook, but the velocity, like a cannonball, knocked him back to the ground. Lelan let out a shout of pain and a hiss of aggravation after his back cracked on the tough ground, but he was, unfortunately, in a tight spot. The chain began to wrap about his arm, despite how many times he pulled his hands away individually, as he tried to keep the hook at a distance from his gut. If he let it go, it would disembowel him indefinitely.

While he wasn't entirely surprised that the thief was trying to trap them--indeed, it would be odd for him to let himself get cornered like that--the way the chain coiled around his arm and formed a hook at the end caught him off guard. He didn't think he'd be able to control the movements of the chain so well...

How is he able to do that in so little time? he wondered as he grabbed the hook with his free hand, keeping it from digging into his shoulder. He would have shouted the observation to Lelan--that the thief could use Gaiasouls far better than he should be able to--but if he'd figured it out, so had he.

Which means hitting him is going to be difficult...but with two of us, we still have a chance. Kageko's abilities were a lot better suited to fighting a single opponent--but was the thief still just limited t one? He had to hope so...if he wasn't, this could be bordering on impossible.

It was taking all of his normal strength to restrain the hook and keep himself from being dragged farther back than he already had, and he'd just used a burst of strength. And with his Qi still suppressed...

Right. We don't need it anymore. "Lelan, he's making it so no one can see or hear us from outside anyway, so drop your ability!" Eld shouted. As it was, the only thing it was accomplishing was making it so he couldn't use Seele Ubertritt, putting him at a severe disadvantage. It didn't seem to be affecting the thief at all, anyway.

Whether or not Lelan did as Eld suggested, he'd fire off a burst of Qi at the thief. In this regard, the tight corridor worked to his advantage: he could easily create a blast big enough to cover the entire corridor with no place to dodge. The blast would only throw the thief off balance...unless Lelan did as Eld suggested, in which case it would be strong enough to easily knock him off his feet.

And just in case, he'd make sure the blast wouldn't reach Lelan.l

"F--" Lelan struggled to talk, straining to keep the hook away from his stomach, "Fuck that! I'm not dragging anyone else into this!"

It was, for all intents and purposes, half of the reason Lelan even used this ability for any reason at all. What if the father in that house down the road were to investigate the hook, and the thief were to retract it suddenly? He'd be killed instantly. What if the thief jammed hooks into more homes like that? If everyone stayed in one place, they were hard to hit without looking at them. If they were moving around, the chances of striking them enhanced dramatically.

It would allow Eld to use Seele Ubertritt again, yes, but it was all and all a bad idea. The only reason Lelan would be able to justify dropping his ability would be if they were somewhere else--some place where no one else could be threatened. Unfortunately, they couldn't do that. Eld literally wasn't allowed to drag the thief into Purgatory, and there was no chance of them fighting this man across the city and outside of it, where they could fight uninterrupted.

The thief let out a slight grunt as he stumbled forward, though. Eld hadn't knocked him off of his feet, but he had pushed him forward a little bit, knocked him off balance. The chains loosened a bit, but not where they wrapped around limbs.

"Tch!" Eld had forgotten that, though their fighting was contained to the darkness here, the chains were still spread across a few blocks. He was used to doing most of his fighting in Purgatory, where it was fairly easy to limit collateral damage.

This is going to be a lot tougher, then. If he could use his Qi, he was certain he could flatten the thief in an instant. Fortunately, even his weaker blast was enough to knock him off balance. Feeling the chain pulling him back loosen (though it maintained a firm grip around his arm), he rushed forward, attempting to wrap the part of the chain he was still holding around the thief's neck.

If he could at least put him in a position where he couldn't tighten the chain without risking hurting himself, he'd have a lot more freedom to fight.

Loosening the tension on Lelan's side allowed the young Collector to toss the hook to the side and pull himself up. It wasn't going to be a problem just yet, but if he was close to it, it might turn out just like Eld's issue.

There was, however, no wind in this place. It wasn't hard to deduce that something--or someone--had caused it.

The thief shifted his glazed glare back to Eld as the Reaper approached him from behind. In a show of agility, the thief spun around, bringing his left arm around for left hook aimed for the Reaper's face. It was close range combat, and for the moment, the only option. Coincidentally, the thief actually had a bit of power in his punch, and with Eld having no room to dodge, he'd soon feel it. Either he'd block and abandon his goal to get the chain around the thief's neck, or he'd continued to try for it--only to experience a left hook to the jaw, which was, despite all the battles Eld had experienced so far, still a painful experience.

It seemed that his burst caught the thief off guard, but also made him turn to face Eld now. He saw the punch coming enough in advance to act, at least, and while the corridor was narrow, it wasn't so much that dodging wasn't an option at all.

He dropped down into a sliding kick instead, aiming at the thief's shins, and ducking under the punch. He doubted it would hit, though--not if he was using Kageko's powers. So he also prepared another small Qi blast; while it wasn't enough to knock an opponent off their feet right now, said opponent would be forced to at least lift a leg in order to dodge Eld's kick, if he didn't try and jump over it entirely.

When he did, he'd release the blast, hopefully knocking the thief off his feet and back--where Lelan, who was recovering from being knocked down, could continue the assault.

As soon as Eld dodged, the thief acted. His primary goal was for Eld to block or get hit--it kept the thief from panicking, and when he panicked, he used Sarrevous. Eld wouldn't get very far, not far enough to land the kick, before he'd be pulled arm first with tremendous speeds back down the alleyway. Drawn back in such an awkward position, it would likely send Eld to the ground, only to drag him some more, stopping before he could be pulled out of the alleyway. From there, it might take Eld a moment to get up and get his bearing back, especially if he was unfortunate enough to be dragged face first. The thief didn't take any damage from the kick, but . . .

The blast of Qi succeeded in knocking him back again.

And indeed, it was useful. Just as the thief stumbled back again, Lelan had jumped onto the thief's back, surprising the man instantly. Lelan's right forearm wrapped about the thief's neck, holding him back in a headlock, while his left hand quickly reached down for the gauntlet.

"Give--that--BACK!" Lelan shouted as he went for the latch.

The thief shoved his arm out and Lelan instantly strained to grab it. The thief was taller than he was and had much longer arms, but Lelan was holding him back, and little by little, his fingers were coming closer to the top latch of Sarrevous . . .

Eld let out a cry of alarm as his arm was yanked painfully, his kick being aborted as he was dragged backwards. He still managed to shoot a blast of Qi, which seemed to do the job of distracting him while Lelan jumped him.

Not that it did Eld much good as he was dragged on his back for several yards by his arm, though not far enough to eject him from the darkness. Whether it was because the thief didn't want him escaping or he was too distracted by Lelan to continue the effort, he didn't know.

Sitting up, the grab for the gauntlet caused him to realize something he felt incredibly stupid for not noticing earlier: the thief wasn't carrying Kageko anymore. But where was she? Given that he was using her powers--the darkness around couldn't be coming from anywhere else--she had to be nearby. If he could find her...

Climbing back to his feet, he realized it could be hiding in plain sight--with the darkness all round, the scythe could be hidden in the shadows. It was still limited by gravity, though.

It left him with a decision, though--rush the thief again to help Lelan, or search for her? No, the answer was obvious, he realized--if they managed to incapacitate the thief, he'd get her back assuredly anyway, and he couldn't leave Lelan to just fend for himself.

Pulling the chain again, making a mental note not to let himself give up his own footing again, he made his way back to the fight, intent on trying to grab the thief's free arm so that Lelan could get his gauntlet back.

As he did so, though, an idea struck him...if the thief wasn't in direct contact with her, maybe he could...

Kageko? Can you hear me?

As Eld pulled himself up and fought with himself in thought, Lelan grappled with their thief. The thief himself strained to keep his arm away from Lelan, who was now just trying to rear the man's elbow back to give him a better shot at the latches on the gauntlet. If he could get them off, the thief wouldn't be able to keep Sarrevous equipped, and it would fall to the ground--then, Lelan could snag it, and the fight would suddenly become easy as pie.

All they needed was one weapon over him, it seemed. That was all. Currently, it was Lelan's goal. The gauntlet was the first goal. The scythe couldn't be seen, after all.

"yOU WAnT iT so BAD?" roared the thief.

He drew his arm back at last, and while it surprised Lelan, he wasn't about to kick a gift horse in the mouth. Instantly, he reached for it, undoing the first latch in a flash of a second--the first of five. He started towards the second, but soon found himself in a tight situation.

A chain expelled from a stud in the gauntlet and shot back over Lelan's head. It was trouble since the beginning. Lelan tried to knock out the second latch, but he couldn't. Just as Eld had regained his composure and tactics, Lelan let out a shout of pain, followed shortly by an enraged growl. Just under his shoulderblade, a hook dug under the skin and muscle. It had embedded itself under the bone itself. The pain was enough to weaken Lelan's grip, and after another chain snagged his arm and dug its hook into his shoulder, he was at the thief's mercy.

Eld was running at them, though, so the thief improvised: both chains on Lelan retracted in an instant, flipping the boy off of the thief's back and straight forward through the air, to potentially land shoulder first into Eld and knock the both of them to the ground. Lelan trailed blood in the air, splotching his own blood down upon the ground; if they could see the dirt, they'd see the way it soaked in.

M-Ma-- Master . . . A familiar voice, a weak voice . . . but the only time he'd hear her in the near future: . . . r-run . . . . run away . . .