Nice little stroll...?

Naturally the first thing Cecil would be attracted to is a Graveyard; his darker personality practically demanded it. His monocle gleamed somewhat in the moonlight, as he trudged along through the slew of tombstones, most of which were too weathered away to even be legible. Perhaps if this plane held places such as this, he would enjoy himself here. Sitting on some sort of memorial stone bench, he began losing himself in whatever thoughts a male witch has when in a graveyard...

A skeletal figure was seen in the darkness of a large tombstone smack in the middle of the light of the moon. Ratting was heard going on through the head as it shook its head a few times, staring at this person who had entered the graveyard.

The rattling noises woke Cecil from his daze almost instantly, as he looked back at the hollow-headed skull. Adjusting his monocle, he rose, free hand resting on a shortsword-sized rod on hos belt. The spook factor the thing probably intended was minimal, having been around several instances of undead in his previous travels...

The skeleton rose from its position, still rattling its head "What brings you here, heart beater? Do you plan on disturbing us? My brethren? Or are you here for the ritual..." The skeleton continued to shake its head a bit, the rattling getting louder.

He immediately lowered his habd from the rod at his waist, and gave a relieved sigh. He wasn't used to the undead talking to him, especially a skeleton, given the whole lack of skin or tongues or anything, but he went with it.

"Oho, so you're and intelligent undead. Mm, indeed... Though, might I inquire as to the 'Ritual' you speak of?"

The skeleton's head ceased for a moment, then began to rattle once again "The ritual... The summoning of the undead.. the spirits... the supernatural.. For a harvest of souls. We almost have enough to bring back the Undead King..." The Skeleton's head stopped rattling for a moment once again, then began again "Would you care to help us with our ritual, flesh monster...?"

What a curious skeleton this was. Ceasing and picking up again like some sort of animatronic. Fascinating to Cecil really. But he spoke of an Undead King, which would likely bring nothing but trouble in Village affairs..

"Well I don't mean to be rude, but perhaps you can surely find someone else to assist you with this ritual. It seems most troublesome to me.. Well then, goodday!"

He began to wander off somewhere else in the graveyard, but at a slow enough pace that the skeleton could give a rebuttle or even an offenseive response. Cecil slightly smirked to himself of that notion as he adjusted his monocle once again...

The Skeleton's head ceased in all movements as Cecil finished speaking, not a bone moving. A small wind passed by and the bones fell apart onto the ground., however, at the exact same moment, more bones popped up near Cecil and formed into another Skeleton, however with the same rattling head as the first.. "I implore you... To stay... No... I force you... To stay..." It was the same skeleton, it seemed. The skeleton gave one good shake of its head and with that, several ghouls and undead creatures began to awaken from the graveyard. Ghosts, Zombies, Bats, Skeletons... The whole 9 yards. There were about 20 of them in total of all of these kinds; 5 Ghosts, 5 Zombies, 4 large bats and 5 Skeletons.... And one other figure in the back near a tree. The gates locked with a creak and the Skeleton swiped at Cecil witha bone-like sword protruding from its hand.

In one motion, Cecil whipped out the gold, metal rod from his belt, blocked the sword quite gracefully and lightly, and leapt back several feet with purple, swrling magic already flowing through the rod-weilding hand.

"Angel Spear.."

He made a stabbing motion with the rod as he spoke the name of the spell, as a large purple spear of swirling, piercing wind magic jutted out directly in front of him, no doubt impaling at least a few of the ghastly undead creatures in front of him. Prepared as always, he pulled out with his left hand a silver pocket watch with wings on either side. As it popped open, a white intake of wind sucked any and all released souls from his last attack.

A Skeleton and a Zombie were penetrated by this attack, being destroyed and leaving only their souls. From behind Cecil, however, was a ghost that manifested itself behind him while he was attacking. The hand of the ghost lashed at Cecil in an attempt to rip his soul straight from his body. 3 Zombies in front of Cecil would raise their arms up, and from them, a large cannon-like blast of magic and rotting flesh shot at Cecil, which would most likely begin to decay his body and wrap him in the rotting flesh as well. The Skeletons and the other Zombie stood back and watched Cecil as some more ghosts took to the skies and hovered above the area to map out when to strike. The bats were motionless, hidden in the darkness.

Nimbly bending completely backwards, Cecil ornately and swiftly carved an elaborate symbol on the ghoul's torso, using several reverences to stars. It was the pictoral incantation for his spell Break, which would normally counter an energy source headed towards him. Coming straight from the ghoul's body, the spell's only source was alchemic; its body turned into the spell's catalyst instead of normal magic.

As its soul was left idle and sucked into the open pocketwatch on the ground, Cecil brought the completed spell back over just in time to counter that cannon-like blast, utterly backfiring in many different directions towards various other undead.. things.

The Zombies immediately leapt to take the blasts, since they were immune to them, however 2 of them had their legs fall off. And one of them lost an arm. Damn zombie body. In the end, the large blasts missed just about everything. The 4 ghosts in the sky dove down ward at a high speed near Cecil's location, slashing at him and his chest in an attempt to rip out his soul, just as the first had done. The 2 Zombies that lost their legs would have to use long range attacks... So their mouths opened up and from them, another swifter, more condensed blast of decay, flesh, and this time vomit, shot up at Cecil's direction. The other zombie that lost the arm used the blast as a cover and outstretched the arm it had a great distance in an attempt at a punch at Cecil. One of the remaining 3 Skeletons stepped forward from the sidelines of the battle and began to shoot out sharp bone needles from its hands while the other 2 still stared at Cecil, as well as the other zombie. They rattled their heads a bit and the bats' eyes opened, gleaming bright red in the darkness.

He smirked, now energized enough to pull off something he hadn't done in a while. Leaping upwards and slightly to the right so as to avoid decay-vomit-stuff, he landed on top of a medium-tall stone pillar. Both arms fully energized, and enough room to chant now, he straightned up and concentrated, rod in the center of his body.

"Darkened storm cloud, loose thy blade and run mine enemies through. Arise, resound, and become the gale of destruction! Typhoon Gale!"

What followed was a large, bright purple crescent of pure dark wind, wnveloping Cecil completely to avoid damage and, as the incantation suggested, run his enemies clean through. Spinning like a corkscrew to hit as many enemies as possible, Cecil and his crescent wind charged straight through the air and at the horde of zombies and just about anything he could see, including a few bat's eyes. He ended up at the far end of the graveyard from where he began.

The zombies and ghosts quickly shredded, their souls being the only things left. There were now only Skeletons and bats, 3 skeletons and 4 bats to be exact. To avoid damage, the skeletons' bones collapsed, and as for the large bats, they dispersed into thousands of bats once they were hit, reforming into the skies back into their original form, seeming to be unaffected much. Some were a bit smaller because some bats did indeed get caught in the winds and got destroyed, however since the bats were not destroyed completely, the mini bats left no souls. After the magic passed, some bones took shape in front of Cecil, the 3 Skeletons that had more bone swords in their hands, slashing at Cecil as well as shooting out spiky bone needles. The bats, now in the sky, screeched as they made their way to that portion of the graveyard, one shooting eye beams that would pierce through most substances and another screeching intensely, sending a rupturing wave of sound at Cecil. The other 2 bats spread back into the thousands of miniature bats and tried to swarm around Cecil, and if he got caught inthe maelstrom of bats, they would begin to drain his magic and his life away.

Well, he was surrounded, to say he least. However, he had a few more demonstrations before giving up all hope and running for it. He calmly drew his rod again and spoke two more incantations.

"Cease, so that I may continue.. Bind."

A small dome appeared over Cecil, looking quite fragile and would indeed break within the next 5 seconds, yet that was just enough time. Taking a stance and filling himself with more magic, he spoke with a more commanding voice than before.

"Spirits who dance upon the wind, grace us with your piercing flash! Lightning Sphere!"

The skies opened up to send down a torrent of lightning bolts within a 50 foot radius of Cecil. it was concentrated and powerful enough to incinerate the very bone, and hopefully prevent the further scatter of in the area. Regardless, Cecil was protected by the amplified Bind dome in response to more of the same Magical element. Ground now smoldering, he observed the destruction...

The Skeletons were all incinerated, their souls were the only things remaining, and the 2 bats that had spread about and surrounded Cecil were indeed incinerated, every single tiny bat, and therefore the last bat of the two released the souls of them both. The other 2 bats, however were still in the skies, seeming not to have been affected by the lightning due to their distance. They were quite a ways away, a little outside of the 50 foot radius, however still that was enough of an attacking range. The being in the back finally spoke "Enough." It stepped into the moonlight, being quite... quite large, about 20 feet tall, made completely of stone with some engravements in its body... R.I.P. It was a living tombstone with huge maggots of stone for arms, yet they pulsated as if they were not stone. "I am R.I.P. One of the commandeers of these... rituals to revive our master... Your soul seems to be quite delectable... Perfect for this sort of revival.." R.I.P. stared upward at the two bats and they swiftly flew down and landed on its shoulders, turning to stone as they did, still flapping their wings. Their eyes pierced with red energy as R.I.P. spoke again "I do not plan on letting you leave... It was I who spoke through that skeleton before... And allow me to keep my word..." The maggots it had for arms screeched as did the bats, the mouthless creature stamping the ground and squinting its glowing eyes, releasing a deep and thunderous roar.

He sighed as he turned to see the gigantic tombstone, making a waving motion with his rod while backing at a safe pace.

"You're really quite the persistent one.. I'd imagine it gets awfully lonely in this graveyard afterall. Oh, poor you.."

He also gathered magic in his other hand, drawing other symbols in the air different from those being made with his rod. Magister's skill to be ambidextrous afterall. As they both finished, Cecil's eyes glowed dark purple as he released the two spells simultaneously, eventually fusing with one another for a double-effect.

"Divert thy path, as your presence is unwanted... Break."

That would counter the magic driving its movement temporarily, as clearly stones aren't supposed to normally move.

"Return to the earth as you were, renewing the cycle of ashes. Wither."

That would turn his stone back into sheer soil, and the maggots themselved would either scamper away or be crushed under Cecil's feet. If they dared crawl on him at all they'd be met with a still resident crackle of dark wind magic on his body..

R.I.P. began to laugh a bit at what was going on "Boy... I am a monstrosity... You cannot expect me to be considered the normal means... " Magic did not drive the movement of R.I.P., a soul did. The Break spell would have no effect on him, however te other spell might have done something. The maggots, which were quite large, being from about 10 to 15 feet long and about 6 feet in width with horrificly large teeth extending from their faces stretched into the ground and began draining it as the spell began to take its effects. As R.I.P. began to turn back into soil, he quickly regenerated by turning the earth that he was eating back into more of his tombstone body. He laughed again "Is there anything else you have left, boy, or is it time for me to harvest your soul?" He took a maggot from the ground, his right arm, then it lashed at Cecil, trying to devour him as well as shred up his body. The R.I.P. on R.I.P.'s torso began to glow as he continued to suck up the earth, incidentally, growing larger since he was just adding more to his body. The bats, also becoming larger on his shoulder, shot out more eye beams that were larger than the first.

Feeling somewhat sheepish for having both of his spells rendered ineffective, Cecil again leapt, countered with his rod and backed away in one motion. He had to think... The R.I.P. symbol seemed to be his best bat, if he could just time it right.... He was falling, but everything seemed to slow down as he formulated a plan..

"Halt!"

Purple waves shot out from his body as his falling was completely suspended, as was the atmosphere around him. A temporary cease of every movement, save his lips. He figured repeating a spell twice in one go wouldn't hurt, and he was running out of ideas anyway...

"Darkened storm cloud, loose thy blade and run mine enemies through. Arise, resound, and become the gale of destruction! Typhoon Gale!"

The blitz of Cecil charged straight towards the R.I.P. symbol, headed for its dead center. Good thing he'd timed that Halt command in time...

R.I.P. snickered slightly, the wings of the bats extending and flapping, moving him out of the way just enough for him to use the attack he was waiting for a moment to use "I say sincerely to thee, thou shalt Rest In Peace..." There was a glimmer in the engravements on his body, they shot out a large beam of energy, however it became flimsy and without form, suddenly bursting with a face at the tip. It would focus on the soul of Cecil, trying to devour it swiftly and easily and hopefully without fail. The maggots on his arms then aimed at Cecil as well, shooting out blasts of normal sized maggots that would attempt to suck out his magic by latching onto him, somewhat like a leech. The bats, again, shot large beams of energy from their eyes at Cecil at the same time. It seems as though R.I.P. was going all out. He wanted this soul and he wanted it now.

Resolving to his own footwork now, Cecil scoured at the maggots, dodging and avoiding them so. He was almost out of magic, so he had to do this physical work perfectly. As he charged forward on his legs towards the gigantic tombstone, a few maggots hit his cloak and tore pieces of it to shreds. He reached on his belt got a large loop full of silver keys. Seemingly with ease he pulled one right off as it grew to about 3 times its size, and he lunged straight forward with said key, glowing purple..

Should it hit the Tombstone perfectly in its center, it would lock up its very soul, preventing it from doing any sort of energy - chakra, magic or other - and then take in the soul itself. A risky move because of the closeness one had to be in to do it, but hopefully this one would work...

R.I.P. was immobilized by his own attack, being unable to move due to the fact that this powerful beam of soul stealing energy was quite draining. It was very good for him that Cecil got close to him, and so the beam of energy turned around to snatch his soul from behind... However before R.I.P. knew it, the beam had dissipated. The key stuck R.I.P. in his engravement before he could attack Cecil, and therefore his soul was locked. "Gah... You... We will have your soul... We can be remade... But you cannot... Rest In Peace, for I know I shall..." the tombstone collapsed into nothing but rubble, the maggots on his arms dispersing into several tiny ones and digging away into the ground. All that was left was a soul...

"Oh, do give it up.. Ridiculous pile of granite."

Lighting a pipe, he returned the key to the wide-looped chain on his belt, picking up the pocket-watch on the ground which had seemed to stop it absorption for some reason. He picked it up and held it above his head, pressing the button to begin taking in lost souls in the area. He idly counted in his head the amount of souls being picked up..

((you post the amount?))