Never Surrender

"Hm. My experience in this situation is lacking. Soul consumption is a drastically separate matter from soul and heart sharing." Encroaching the idea was unforeseen and very foreign to him, though he understood the situation's severity. They need to recover the heart as soon as possible. "What can you tell me of these other two? I may further assist with knowledge of whom we seek."

"It's not actaully heart sharing, the heart is a gem that is engored with the orginal powers of my race, it is so anceint that it can cause complete destruction of this world... but my body is turning it into life force and it's also why I have a seal" she said and rustled her hair thinking "Nickodemus the demon, a general in the demon army foudn out about it and Michel from the Angels also a general." she said seeing fi had had any more knowledge on this matter.

Grave sighed a little. "Nickodemus; an acquaintance. Did not care for his presence, but found no reason to end him." He recalled both men clearly. "Michel... Similar situation and circumstance. Hatred spawned for no other reason than my blood." Considering their current location, he thought of their options. "The Nation of Angels is closer. Are we to begin with Michel?"

"Which ever is good, but the angel nation sounds better also these are neutral lands... lucky for me they have strange rules" she said "unfortunatly I have no idea where to start looking the pair of them move around so much that it is ridculous" she said giviing a heavy sigh before they made their way to the angel nation she stoppe don the boarder and searched a little "Hmm how odd" she said ableto pick up a weak pressence of the heart but it certainly wasn't the whole half"I think they have split it....possibly between two maybe three people" she said

"'Split?' It can withstand such a thing without being destroyed..." Grave thought aloud. This could present a few problems. If haste was of importance, this matter had become far more delicate. "I am aware of the locations of the two offenders in question. You will have to lead the way to the individual pieces, however. Can you reassemble the heart when its pieces are found?"

"Yep, I'm alive on half of it so I can put the peices back together, however, problem is it's not exactly a dead jewel either, and you can tell which it is because it beats like a heart" she said to him "Also I should be able to pick up where it is when it's close enough" she said rustling her hair and giving a yawn. "and that shouldn't be too much of a problem, thsoe two have ti out for me since years back" she laughed "Well this will certaintly be fun"

The slightest of smirks crossed Grave's face. At the very least, she was in high spirits. "Very well. Let us proceed." There were a few cities relatively nearby, any of which could be radiating the location of a heart piece. "If you do not mind my asking, what is it you did to aggravate those men? An offense enough to warrant stealing your very heart..."

"Let's see what was it again?" she said thinking a little "I settled my score with them, my family was dead long before the war even starts, those two killed them all well all apart from the queen who was my older sister, I killed her myself when she became corrupt" she said "Well basically I settled my score and killed their wives only I left the children since they are the innocents, their wives had helped and when I tried to kill those to being about a century younger than I am now well I ended up with a few scars" she said "So they want my heart, to gain the power, also their kings are now dead adn with that amount of raw anceint power.. well they would have no competition... even angels can be engulfed by greed" she said

"Understood. Power lust yet again... I wonder if there is truly no hope for such a world." At times, it felt as if the world's turn could not be affected by the world itself; their fates predetermined and doomed to a spiral of hatred, greed, blood and corruption. As they neared the first city, Grave's recognition of the area surfaced. This was one of the locations settled in slave trade. 'Was' is a befitting term. He was sure no slavers would return to a city rumored to have suffered a massacre of their career choice. "Do you sense any pieces?"

She looked to him "It appears there is none is this forsaken world, but who knows maybe there will beone day... we have our whole lives to watch and find out" she chuckled before she nodded "yes but only a third of the missing peice of the heart, I'm guessing they split it three ways" she said sighing "just means we have to go look in the human world alst, best to get these two over and done with." she said nodding a little as she landed before tehy got to close adn searched around.

As they landed, Grave extended his sense to the city. It felt as if there were an abundance of inhabitants, far too many for a town with its previous history. "Take heed. There are quite a few visitors this night. This is quite obviously a valuable item to them. Avoiding detection could be troublesome..." The guard was heavy, thankfully they had the dead of night at their disposal. Grave masked his presence and advanced through side streets and alleys. The protection grew heavier within the city's walls. "They appear to be patrolling. Perhaps they expect our intrusion...? Which way?"

Seclusion masked herself as well and very soon her breath completely stopped hiding herself very well before she looked to him "Left, thee is a weakness there and it's closer to what we are aiming for" she said softly keeping her voice low before she kept to the shadows and tried to edge them closer careful not get too close to guards at all. She heard their voice and raised her head whispering softly "That's them..." she said hearingthe voices of guards "This'll be harder than I thought."

"It would be best to either isolate the holder or wait until they are alone. Killing any of them would cause an uproar; extraction without injury would be difficult." Grave whispered. He felt around the area to map an escape route. Nearly all sides were guard. They would easily hear the fall of a comrade. "We could verily escape the ensuing fight if we strike now, but fleetness is key. Which one possesses the piece?"

"that one, to the left of the guy witht he weird hat" she said to him quietly 2he has it with hima s well so best to wait until he is alone" she said nodding a little knowing they'd have to be patient. When the target was eventually alone she wiated a bit before she pulled herself up into the room adn looekd to him "You ahve something that belongs to me" she said bluntly and looked to the angel who paniced seeing her again and she snarled.

Grave nodded in agreement and waited silently. The guards began to leave him one by one. The soul demon continuously checked their escape route and vicinity. They were in the clear so long as they kept their cover. As she entered the room to confront her foe, he slipped in as well and stood behind him. He noticed his panicked demeanor and acted swiftly. Soul spikes suddenly surrounded the angel, all millimeters away from his skin but not yet stabbing him. They were a warning, and a means to keep him from making a break for it. "I would not consider running. Cooperation would be wise..."

She smirked and looked to Graves breifly "Well how about you give it back and don't give me the I should be dead line either, give it back" she said angrily her hues burning like flames. The angel hesitated a little and looked to his necklace. she snarled angrily it was all there but its shape had been changed she snatched the necklace off him "Thank you very much" she said smirking. "But who did you give the the third peice to?" he shook his head "I'm not going to tell you" he said "As long as you don't have that peice of your heart your pretty much dead..."
"Actaully, I'm very alive I have been and I'll find it myself then, I'm going to guess its with the humans" at that he froze.

Grave listened quietly without retracting the spikes. The first shard was easy enough to procure, and it would appear that her supposition of the human's possessing the third was spot on. There were two pressing issues at the moment. They needed to leave without detection which could possibly prove difficult. The second problem sat with this angel's fate. Killing him would silence the possibility of him notifying the other guards. However, this was not particularly his call. "That is the only info we may procure for now. What say you?" He asked Ashes. Killing the angel would coincide with his first rule but, again, this was not particularly his choice.

"Just leave him,apart from stealing a sixth of my heart he had nothing more. Anyway we need to get out of here" she said to him nodding a . Once Graves had moved she jumped the angel and knocked him out "There he shouldn't call any alarms, and his only knocked out not dead" she said to him. "Wellwe could fly out" she said to him "or what was your escape plan, you seemed to have one earlier" she asked him waiting for his reply to that.

Grave retract withdrew his spikes, satisfied with leaving him alive. More so with knocking the angel out. Indeed he had been formulating an escape route; it involved flying on their part for speed. "The patrols wane in certain areas. We fly through every breach to avoid detection. Flying too high will only alert the guard, so we remain low until reaching the city's edge." He stepped outside and spread his wings. With his presence masked, he silently glided forward. He weaved through out the streets maintaining his elevation at roof level. The closest guards along their path saw nothing and only felt a small gust in their passing aftermath. After exiting the city, he hovered adrift and turned to Ashes.

"One down. To the Angelic Nation, I presume?"

"Hmm sounds good to me I'll follow your lead" she said softly and waited a little before she jumped out taking flight after him and keeping herself level with him as well. "No demonic, this is the angelic nation" she said to him. When they reached the city wall she let her altitude highten to get over the walls without injury and checked on Grave as well. "Anyway we might need to rest a little, best not to fly too much and strain our wings" she said to him nodding a little, "Where abouts are we, if I know I cna figure out fi there is a shelter nearby" they really did have a few abandonded shelters that were just left alone really so they were perfect places to hide out.

Grave settled in at their newest hideout. He felt a strange weariness take him. It was not so much strange as it was unforeseen. As of late, he had neglected consuming many souls. If the opportunity presented itself soon, he would be remiss to pass it by. A full night's rest would certainly help. "This heart we seek, is it not possible for you to merge your own with it?" He asked out of curiosity. That was likely an impossibility as she had not done so already. The question was more geared toward gathering better info on the situation and her plans for the heart after its liberation and reconstruction.

Seclusion was feeling quite hungry herself "I'm going hunting for a bit" she said and took Deadly with her, she came back a few hours later and tossed him a soul to eat before she settled down and ate her own share of the mela with deadly bringing back a corspe to eat quite happily. Only then did she answer his questions from earlier "I can, but its not the right tiem to do that yet, its a delicate thing, if it gets damaged too much it'll affect me and if I loose the half I have then I'm oretty much dead as is the rest of my race" she said softly.

"My thanks." Grave accepted the soul and savored its absorption. Her answer reaffirmed his strategy of moving carefully whilst in search of the heart. False or hasty movements would only prove fatal for her. "Is there a specific timing or ritual for doing so? I speak of combining the hearts, of course. Since you have yet to do so, even whilst it was whole, I assume there was some debilitating factor." Perhaps she could not, or simply didn't want to. She claimed the other half belonged to another, technically.

"Well truthfully I can't absorb them yet, I need to wait until the eclispe of this year in order to absorb the rest of it sicne the other half is practically keeping me alive at this very moment. Also by that time my seal will wear off so naturally i'll go search for the other half of it's self so best to get it back before then. I other words we have... one week from today" she said "and I have to get back to the ruins by the eclispe since it's the safest place in this world at the moment" she said

One week. This was their time limit for success. Speedy travel was indeed a must. He sincerely hoped the last two pieces were not expertly hidden. He was confident in their abilities. "Is it the seal that keeps your life intact? I have noticed that you deliberately obscure its existence in the presence of others."