Meanwhile, at the Art Institute... [Open]

[Flashback]

No... here? In Chicago? A tome with that much strength? I must have it!

Victor could hardly believe his eyes. This tome would be on display at the Art Institute in Chicago. Victor's own home. It was part of an ancient art exhibit, one that Victor had been keeping an eye on. It was focused on occult art and phenomena. There were realistic paintings from France and England depicting demonic half-men half-dog beasts doing a variety of actions, painted with a surreal realism that normally comes with the assistance of a life model. There was vases and urns from ancient Greece and Rome depicting similar beings of darkness.

Amidst the art exhibit there were old books taken from libraries and private collections that had many dark arts in them. Doubtless the head of the art exhibit was involved with the Occult to have the knowledge of these things to accumulate them in such grand fashion. But to put them on display was foolish. Particularly this book. Victor felt beyond certain that the book's newest owner had no clue what he owned. Sure, he had some small idea, but to truly know? He would never have put it on display.

And now Victor would have it. The art in the book, the ancient words... few would understand them. Fewer still would have the means to make use of them. It held the secrets of the mind in that book, and that was a particularly powerful thing to control. With it, Victor could master a particularly dangerous set of skills... skills that might let him change his place in the world, and let him use his powers more openly, without hiding in the shadows.

First, though... he had to get his hands on that book...

[Flashback end]

It was the grand opening of the display in Chicago. Victor was there, bound as usual in his wheelchair, with a single eye patch over his one eye. He needed to be there in person, so he could keep track of the goings-on in the area as his plan unfolded. As the entrance opened, Victor went about as usual. He followed the tour, saw the displays, the layout of the building, everything. Eventually, he found where the book was. It was a side piece, indicative that the owners did not understand what they had.

Victor himself would do nothing. It was his alter-ego that would do the work. Zou, the wire demon. A demon in many lore books as a lesser being of substantial but restricted power. He could control wires, but nothing else. Victor had stolen that demon's power when he killed it. Fortunately, Victor was not restrained to that as his final abilities. He meant to increase his strength now. And so, off in the distance, in a small trunk to a small car, a large supply of wire spools sprung to life. They formed a man, a wireframe man, with a single working eye to see out of. Victor controlled him, mentally, and was in charge of the attack.

While physically, Victor was sitting in his wheelchair confined to do nothing, his wireframe man burst to life, surging from the trunk of the car and towards the art exhibit. It would be quite the show, with the police and guards shooting at an opponent that was, by itself, completely devoid of life. It just a puppet, and Victor was the puppeteer. Soon, guards would find the springs in their guns no longer compressed correctly, and their tasers no longer worked. There were no weapons they had that could touch this wire being.

It would take another super-powered individual to stop Zou from taking that book forcefully from the display. Likely, the group would defend the centerpieces of the art display. Why would anyone suspect the wire man was going towards the sideshow book? Victor would play to that initially. The wireframe man would reach the centerpiece before the book anyhow. May as well let the defenders bulk up their defenses around the wrong item, rather than get in Victor's way truly...

Ailill Hale had been at the art institute to discuss the exact nature of the entrants in their new exhibit. These supposed rumors of these various items actually being of supernatural origin rather than just depicting such things. It was usually the latter's case where people witnessed something supernatural, or what they perceived as such simply because it was beyond their understanding and recorded it through whatever methods they had available. The numerous advances in technology and extensive undergoing in knowledge had managed to deduce the true meaning of many events that had back in the day been believed to be of such origin. Determining what actually was of this origin was a job left up to the real experts. That's why he was here.

He had gone to the institute to meet with the curator to discuss this new exhibit. He was of the understanding that any possible item of magical or similar nature should be examined first before displaying to the public. That had not been the case in this situation. The institute had gone up ahead and started showing off all this stuff without even consulting the local experts on the field. He had called ahead that morning to arrange this meeting so the curator was expecting him. Ailill met with one of the workers at the front door and was brought to the curator's office.

"Aah, greetings. You must be this Mr. Hale that called earlier." The curator greeted him and offered him a seat with sort of a false enthusiasm. He did not seem to inclined to having his new exhibit examined by someone who might insist on having all or at least parts of it removed for safety purposes.

"Yes that would be me. I think you will find my reasons for this visit to be valid." he said as he took the invitation to sit down. "If any of these artifacts and other parts of this new exhibit do indeed contain some sort of energy within them then they could present a threat to people. All I'm asking for is the chance to examine them all before actually placing on them on display. I assure you it would only take a few days." Ailill expressed his opinion on the matter. Protecting the public from such things was a part of the Hale family's lifestyle.

The curator displeasure with what Ailill was asking for clearly showed on his face. "Well Mr. Hale, the problem we have here is that I have already put them all on display. I simply can not take them down so soon. They are set to be displayed to the public for the first time this afternoon. It is out of the question to reconsider this."

Ailill was disappointed by this bit of news. This man was risking people's safety in the pursuit of financial gain. "Well fella, if any of these thing you brought in are actually dangerous then this place could be in danger. If anything were to be activated then you would no way of containing whatever was released. I do so hope you don't have to call on my family because of any of them." he got up and walked out the door seeing that this man would not even consider the dangers that might be. As he left the building he took a moment to examine the exhibit. He could detect magical energies being radiated from one of the objects. Ailill furrowed his brow as he looked at them all to determine which one was emitting this energy. The guards came by and told him he would have to leave. Ailill was definitely not interested in getting himself in trouble with the local law enforcers. He had to do his part to maintain his family's positive reputation. He complied with them and started to leave without any trouble.

As he was leaving there was a disturbance outside. Looking out one of the windows he saw some strange abomination approaching the place. Well then, it seems he wasn't the only one not taking kindly to this exhibit. Was the energy emitting from one of those objects responsible for this thing? If so perhaps this thing could lead him right to it. At least now he had a valid reason for his earlier claims.

So far, there was no interference, which was wonderful. Well, no interference that Victor needed to worry about. Looking through one eye, and seeing through another implanted in the wireframe man's head, Victor had two good vantage points. And from where he was sitting, he could see things developing wonderfully from two very different perspectives. Or at least, that's how it worked until the crowd gathered to look at the monstrosity terrorizing the guards. As guards tazed and opened fire on the wireframe man, he just kept coming. The guards had no way to know he was not human, or sentient at all for that matter. And they would never know the difference.

What they would know is that, after several people tazed the wireframe man, that they could not touch the very conductive surface of the wire without getting tazed themselves. Nearly every guard near the entrance was soon twitching on the floor, and the wireframe man was heading quickly down hallways towards his goal - that ancient text with ancient spells that worked so very powerfully in modern day times.

Victor himself could not see, so he focused his mind away from his physical body and more towards his wire one. He could see through the eye in the wireman's head, but he couldn't hear or feel anything, which was a hindrance. At the very least, Victor himself could still hear, and he picked up on several guards shouting, people calling the police, and all manner of things that were quickly spiraling this crime out of control. Victor found safety in the fact that there was technically nothing he was doing wrong. It was all this wireframe man.

And the wireframe man was barreling ever closer to his target. But he stopped for a moment. He was at the centerpiece. It was, admittedly, an enticing target, but for entirely different reasons. An ancient heiroglyph displaying, among other things, the enchantment process used by ancient Egyptians to bring back dead mummies as undead slaves. The heiroglyph went on to describe the use of these slaves in several things such as building pyramids and guarding important people. A powerful relic in the right hands, but utterly uninteresting to Victor, and thus, it would serve well as his red herring.

The wireframe man attacked, lunging at the heiroglyph. If he got close enough, he would start to wrap the large stone piece in wires, as though he intended to steal it. Meanwhile, Victor was busy summoning a much smaller batch of wires from the surrounding area. It would take a few minutes for them all to arrive, but since these were not forming into anything but acting separately as individual wires, they were unlikely to be noticed. Until they got to the Art Institute, however.

Ailill stood by the window in the institute watching this strangely formed being steadily approach the front door. It had little to no trouble dealing away with the security guards. It was free to proceed into the building with nothing to intervene any further. Whatever it was that this thing had come to this place in order to get was most likely going to be stolen. It was the perfect opportunity for Ailill to find out what parts of the exhibit were actually legit. For now he was allowing these present events to unfold and await what consequences come of these circumstances.

Ailill studied the thing as much as he could to attempt to determine its true nature. Its movements and actions were making it seem less otherworldy and more of an energy construct of sorts. It was made of wires that spun about to form into a humanoid shape and fight off the guards. He was a bit disappointed by this discovery. How unfortunate to see that this thing was merely an energy construct. He had been hoping it was of an origin much more suitable to his standards. Hopefully it was still here for that source of energy he had detected. Otherwise he would be really disappointed by the events of this day. Here was to hoping.

He stood away from the doors as the wire being finally entered the building. The visitors panicked as it came in. This thing terrified then but for whatever reason its appearance just amused Ailill. He just found it ridiculous looking. People scattered about in its wake. Some delved deeper into the institute in search of possible hiding places while others tried to get around it and head for the doorway to get out of here. Those were the smarter ones in his opinion. This thing clearly was not after any of them. He watched it from afar as it approach the newly installed exhibit steadily walking closer to keep a good watch over its activities. His left hand was grasping his pouch in preparation. The right time was soon approaching.

The wireframed one stopped at the hieroglyphs. It seems to have arrived at its destination. Perhaps these were what it was after this whole time. The wires shot out and started to wrap around the hieroglyphic portrait. Ailill was more than close enough to examine this. That thing was not the source of the energy he had detected earlier. How disappointing. Still, he simply could not let this thing steal it. Ailill pulled out his shuriken and tossed them towards it. They thrust forward and sliced through most of the wires causing the thing to lose its hold on the hieroglyphs.

Zou watched as his wirey arms got chopped off. That was frustrating, but it did serve its purpose. The being wanted to find any interlopers, and now it had. One of the civilians seemed oddly unphased by him. So Zou turned to face this new interloper. And Victor, lost in the crowd, could see nothing of what was going on from his vantage point. So he simply followed the rest outside, fitting the role of a terrified civilian.

A single wire edged slowly towards Ailill, as the wire man stood calmly. It didn't seem to have the same aggressive tendencies towards this man as it did towards the guards. Perhaps it wanted to talk? That was the case here, though whether Ailill would allow the wire to touch him was another thing altogether. If he did, however, the man would find that the wireframe body had a mind, and that mind would communicate telepathically through contact with the wires.

"Why do you interfere? What interest is this place to you?"

A simple message, without anger or emotion. The voice used would come through Ailill's head as raspy but clear, should the message actually make it. Of course, if Ailill wanted a fight... well, he would get that as well. For now, Zou was buying time for the rest to arrive.

And they were getting closer. The second swarm of wires was now crawling up the sides of the Institute, to the roof, and down the air conditioning. In the panic, the people might notice the other wires, they might not. But that was unimportant. Victor had everyone's attention focused on his wireframe distraction, while he was the puppetmaster pulling the strings. And now that he was outside, he could control the wires through the vents much easier. He wheeled his chair away from the building, off to the side with the rest of the crowd, and closed his remaining eye. And now he could see with the remaining wires as well, as a second eye formed at the head of the long snaking swarm of metallic strings in the vents...

Ailill had stopped the wireframe one's attempt at stealing the hieroglyphs. The creature did not seem to take too kindly to what he had just done. Ailill brought his shuriken back to his right hand as he looked upon this strange one with bemused interest. Was it even its own entity or just something somebody else made of wires? Soon he would find out if all goes as planned. He would also seek to figure out why this thing was here. Oh, how he must know. The unquenchable thirst for knowledge was making itself known for the still mostly young sorcerer. How he hoped this would turn out as well as it could potentially do so with these present circumstances in place.

Ailill steadied himself as he prepared to attack the thing's main body this time. Perhaps examining it after it was dead was the best way to proceed with things. It would sure make the situation less dangerous for him. He opened his pouch once again and started to reach into it subtly with his left hand when a loud booming voice spoke to him through his very mind. It demanded of him to tell it Ailill's reasons for being here to intrude on its attempts to rob this place. Ailill smiled disparagingly as he responded to these ridiculous questions. "Now why do you even ask such questions? You're the one who should be providing me with answers. Are you really here for that thing? Why do you even want those hieroglyphs? Do you think the mummies are your relatives simply because they're wrapped up like you?" he asked of the wireframed one mockingly. The fact that it was not after the real source of the energy disappointed him. He was finding this thing less and less interesting by the second despite its unusual nature and ability to communicate with him on such a level.

"Not exactly."

Zou responded through his telepathic connection to Ailill, a name which was exceedingly difficult to spell from memory. The man was at least willing to talk, albeit from a very standoffish stance. It was to be expected, of course, that any interloper would be against Zou's attempts, but this one was different. He wasn't afraid of Zou at all. Instead, this man seemed genuinely interested in the creature. Zou could work with that.

"My name is Zou. A demon, bound for ages in a prison realm until I was released. Do you know of me?"

The demon wasn't exactly common knowledge, even among the educated in the occult, but just the mention of demons tended to bring out a more curious and less openly hostile attitude in people. Besides, he was robbing a museum filled with magical and seemingly magical pieces of art, so the more truth there was to his story, the better.

And the truth was, this indeed WAS Zou, in a different manner. Victor had captured him, killed him, and taken ownership of his power. The demon had power over wires, which explained the form robbing the museum right now. On the off chance this man had heard of the demon Zou, a vague name mentioned in passing in few manuscripts, having enough of the truth buried in the story would help with credibility.

Victor intended to keep himself well hidden from the scene, though. While the crowd was bustling around, Victor had wheeled himself away from the bulk of it. It was painful, but he could open one eye, and thus be seeing from three eyes at once. A difficult task, but he could do it. Once Victor had steered himself to a private place, he pulled out a notepad from his wheelchair's strapped on basket.

And then he made himself focus hard. There was a book down there that he wanted to steal, yes, but more than just stealing, he wanted the information inside. And with this newcomer interfering, he might not get the chance to steal it once and for all. Besides, Victor didn't care to make enemies just yet. He would content himself in acquiring knowledge.

He used his spell to make the wireframe eye in the air vents invisible, and lowered it above the spellbook. And he began copying the information for the one spell he was interested in from the book. He had found it fairly quickly, but he needed to buy enough time to copy perfectly the old language in the book for his own detailed translation later...

...so it fell to Zou to buy time. Which meant it was up to Victor to use his knowledge of the demon he had caught and killed to spin an intricate tale, and hopefully gain the man's attention long enough to get out with the spell he wanted.

Arthur, or the Aristocrat as his new moniker was, stood at over a case in the Hall of Jewels section of the Exhibit. Inside this area were pieces of jewellery and set pieces like staffs and swords that were fabled to have mystic properties. The other pieces were of interest to the Aristocrat, but the 2 rings before him were of particular interest. They were called the “黑色和白色的环”or “The Rings of Black and White”. Forged from gems recovered from the voyages by Zheng He during the Ming Dynasty, the gems were said to create physical constructs made of “black and white light” through sorcery and were based on the ancient Chinese philosophy of the interconnected forces of Yin and Yang. All of this was of little concern to Aristocrat, mere background research. Aristocrat had decided to take them as they were the smallest pieces but supposedly, very powerful. He was more concerned with the powers of the jewels and his plans to get them. “People rarely know the treasures you’ll find in art.”

Suddenly, there were screams through the halls and people rushing past him for the exits. Aristocrat scoffed “Oh come now, the art here isn’t that bad.” Suddenly the alarms bells were going off and yet the guards were nowhere to be seen. Something more than horrible art pieces was going on her. The patrons all seemed to running from the Ancient Egyptian displays. “Hmmmm, a day out and some playtime? Today’s my lucky day.” Aristocrat took his cane in hand, tapped the case with the tip and proceeded jogged towards the commotion. Upon entering the display area, what he found was a strange sight. A one armed wire-mesh monster seemed to be battling a younger gentleman dressed similarly to him, wielding surikens. Aristocrat yanked his scarf around his face, the magical material clinging to his face, masking it and pulled his favoured weapon from its sheath, the sword gleaming in the light as it left the enchanted wooden cane. Aristocrat decided it was time to announce himself. “Now now boys, I’m sure there are plenty of priceless artefacts for us to share between us.”

The wireframe creature seemed displeased by the questions that Ailill had asked of it. By his feelings of ridicule he was showing towards it as well. Not even this telepathic link established between the two could make him possess any respect for this thing. This was the first time that Ailill had been a part of a telepathic connection that he had not initiated. It was a strange feeling being the one to have such a feeling be placed upon him rather than doing it to others. He laughed a bit at this thought as he listened to the answers to his questions that this thing presented to him. He was given a name. Zou. He searched the vast confines of his mind for any semblance of information that could relate to this given name. A trace of a memory made itself known to him. This name did hold some meaning to him but nothing of significance.

"That's good to hear I must say. Now, tell me. Why do you want those hieroglyphs anyways? For what purpose do some pictures serve an ethereal abomination such as what now claim to be?" he asked the thing forcefully. He was getting impatient already. He wanted to go see what truly was the source of the energy he had sensed earlier, not spending time talking to this thing. He scratched his head in displeasure as he looked past this thing in hopes of seeing something a bit more interesting. He did notice something. More wires maneuvering towards another piece of the exhibit. A book in a glass display. This was very interesting. Those wires did not look to be connected to this Zou character either. They could still be though. Ailill knew not the extent of this thing's powers. He prepared to do a little something about this action. If that book was what it was really after then it will not like what Ailill was about to do.

His fingers grasped the handle of a weapon within his pouch ready to pull it out and use it when a strange fellow came around the corner. He walked over to them talking about how they should share the artifacts of this place. Ailill scoffed a bit at this remark. "Look here fella, if I wanted any of these things I'd just take them. However, I'm not a petty thief like yourself, or this supposed demon here apparently." he stated boldly as he pulled his fire rod out of the pouch and unleashed a torrent of raging flames that coursed through the air directly towards the wires that were going for the book

As Victor watched this Ailill character burn away his second set of wires. That irritated him beyond description. To the point of anger, even. And that was not a place Victor found himself often. But this fledgling mage was interfering with his work, and Victor found that beyond unacceptable. He needed that book. He would have it, before the end. But first he had to deal with this interloper.

Since Ailill had already allowed a wire to touch his skin to initiate the telepathic link, he was already in a very dangerous position. Victor activated his Wire Saw spell, changing the surface of that wire to the equivalent of a magical chainsaw hacking into anything it was in contact with. And then in the same instant Victor shot that wire into Ailill's body, with a single telepathic exclamation -

"Enough!

Ailill had magic, true enough. But he was also clearly human, and Zou was... well, less so. Humans had a reaction time, and right now, Zou was sending his chainsaw wire directly down into Ailill's torso as fast as possible. He could struggle to escape... but the fact remained that unless he dodged in less than a split second, Zou would have his wires inside Ailill's body. And once Zou was inside you, he was next to impossible to get out. Victor was not some master of combat, but he understood the significance of a surprise attack, and the importance of ending things before they truly began. That was his goal now, as this Ailill character seemed dangerous and worthy of being removed quickly.


As for the second interloper, this man with a funny looking magicky sword thing, Victor had enough to deal with where Ailill was concerned. He didn't need this guy interfering with his efforts. So more wires would start to appear, taken from the building this time, from lights and computers and outlets, all around him. The Aristocrat didn't have that telepathic connection with Zou, but the message was pretty clear - stay out of Zou's way, or get shredded into chunks.

Aristocrat raised an eyebrow at the gentleman before him. “Petty? Moi? I can assure you that any thief would go for the most valuable pieces. Me? I plan on having the most powerful ones, but I doubt you even know what I mean by…..” At that point, the fellow pulled a rod of fire from a pouch on his belt and unleashed a wave of searing hot flames to a second bunch of wires that were hovering over a book. A book that Aristocrat recognised but couldn’t quite place….

Regardless, the man was now a more potent threat. Aristocrat would have preferred to be stealthier in his acquisition but now, circumstances called for a change in tactics. It was obvious the wire-mesh monster was out to steal something of value from the exhibit and the sorcerer was protecting these items, which now that he knew why Aristocrat was here…….

Worse still, the wire beast turned its single “eye” towards Aristocrat and “looked” him over. His warning sense was going haywire (he kept the pun to himself) and readied his weapon. He could only watch as a wire shot out at the sorcerer, who did not look like the hands-on, combat-ready type. Aristocrat, on the other hand, was exactly that type and he figured that killing this monster might mean the vigilante would leave him be with his trinkets. Aristocrat was a psychopath, of course, but he knew when he had to put on his business face, and right now that face was staring at a monster that was likely to tear him to shreds.

“I do love a good day trip to the gallery.”

Ailill burned away the wires that were going for that book. It was favorable for him to now know what this thing was really after. This was something he could use to his advantage. Perhaps try and get that book for himself. "That must be the source of that energy I felt earlier." He thought as he called the remaining flames back to him. He would simply have to deal with the wireframed abomination known as Zou and possibly this other fellow first. Should not be too difficult for someone such as himself.

"Tell me why you want that book. Answer quickly enough and I won't burn through any more of your wires." he boldly stated to the thing. That's when it came to him. That wire from earlier was in his vicinity. It was a present danger to him. Ailill quickly took action to try and get it away from him just as it started to attack him. It struck as his armor was activated. The armor was able to withhold and keep him safe long enough for him to destroy it with more flames. "Clever trick you just did. Here's some more of mine." he said as he released even more fire the flew towards Zou itself.

Aggravated that his wires could not cut through Ailill, Victor steadied himself. He was back down to two wire eyes, one on each opponent. The third had been burned away. And there were still all his wires in the vents that had not been used at this point. Ailill was the immediate threat. Zou would keep in a holding pattern against the newcomer until he made the first move - there was no reason to start a fight on two fronts.

When the wires couldn't cut through Ailill's armor, Victor moved quickly. He had a few standard moves that he liked to use. When something couldn't be killed, capture it. Thus the next move. His first effort would be to take the wires which were now sawing away at Ailill's armor, and immediately begin wrapping them around him. They would move blindingly fast, as they reacted to Victor's will almost before he had completed the thought. If Ailill continued with his fire attack, he'd have to burn himself as well. Within a second, the wires would be wrapped around Ailill's arms and legs, and then only moments after that, Ailill would be encased in a wire shell meant to hold him entirely still.

Meanwhile, in the vents, Victor's other wires were spreading out to cover both ends of the hallway. Once the logical escape routes were cut off, he'd be able to control the battlefield. But then, nothing was truly certain when it came to superpowered individuals fighting.

Out on the sidewalk, Victor needed to take more care. He couldn't summon too many wires without causing problems - too much power gone, too much ruckus, and people might notice things amiss. He had a limited supply, then, and that supply was fading. Victor had the basics of that one spell recorded in the few moments he had to record his notes, and it might be enough. But he would have that book... and teach this interloper magician a lesson. It wasn't quite in Victor's style to fight out in the open, but then... Ailill had started it by interfering. Victor had done a good job at not killing anyone. And he was unlikely to start now unless his hand was continually forced.

Things were getting interesting now. Aristocrat’s danger spell was causing his temples to throb, his body tense and prepared, the wires in the building all around him slithering like serpents through the wall and vents. The mesh monsters wire frame slithered apart and burst out, flying at the sorcerer. The wire bounced harmlessly off the younger man, a film of shimmering mana energy surrounded him, protecting him from the attack. It glinted in the artificial light of the rooms displays. It seemed that Aristocrat had underestimated the abilities of both of these characters, especially the sorcerer. Aristocrat was certain he had more magic tricks up his sleeve. He could feel the magic flowing through the opposite’s veins. This made him question something else.

Aristocrat could feel something was different. The man was using mana, it was alive inside of him, flowing. The wire creature, on the other hand, felt different. It felt to Aristocrat like the energy of any enchanted object. Magic in a living thing and magic in inanimate objects always felt different, and right now, the creature felt like no different than the objects around him. But it was clearly showing intelligence and emotion, particularly anger. Which meant one thing….

“Where is your master, creature?” Aristocrat hollered, “I’d like to introduce myself to him.” He slid the blade of his cane from its sheath, twirling it softly in hand, like it was part of his body, watching the eyes of the puppet turn on him. Aristocrat blew him a little kiss along the blade “In the most intimate way I can think of.”

Burn't to cinder and discarded away was the wire that had established a telepathic connection between the wireframe demon and the sorcerer. Ailill had been left no choice but to get rid of it since Zou had attacked him with it. Left torn asunder when he had seen the real theft occurring. No, Ailill would not allow this abomination to escape with any part of this exhibit. Not after that little attempt of trickery. He would destroy this thing if need be. Not even the fact that pieces of this exhibit would make the curator realize the full depth of his mistake in letting these things be put on display without properly examining them first just so he could save some money was enough for him to let them actually be stolen.

The one known as Zou was not the only present annoyance in this institute. There was also the thief. But what should he even do about him? It seems Ailill was having to play protector of this exhibit. This is not what he expected to happen on this day. Hopefully something good will come out of this for him. Otherwise he's really going to feel upset in a bit.

Ailill was going to have to deal with another of those damn wires again. It came at him and was attempted to ensnare him. The wire quickly coiled around and attempted its grasp upon him. Ailill activated his barrier spell and let loose another torrent of flames to incinerate this wire and proceed along. The flames split in two as they moved through the air. One formed a ring that surrounded the thief to keep him in place for the time being. The other flew straight at Zou in order to raze the wireframed one to ashes.