Keri
He was preparing for whatever was to come his way, through laboured breaths, at that moment he wished he had been a bit smarter and turned the fuck around, but it was too late now.
Shivers began to run down his spine as AAZKUE began to manifest his weapon, even someone to who magic eschewed such as Cumhall the power that filled the air in that very moment was palpable, the air was thick, like a viscous gas filled the air and threatened to clog up his air filters.
And then all at once it was gone, the pressure on his chest released, he only realised that he had been holding his breath when he finally exhaled.
```diff
- "Y-Yeah, we're not fuckin' barbarians"-
```
His body relaxed but his mind was still on edge, he took a moment to get his breathing in order, hed almost begun to think his air filters *Were* Blocked.
```diff
- "We're not here kill you guys.. Despite what it looks like" -
```
He glanced over his shoulder at the carnage from the previous battles.
Then he motioned to the bandit.
```diff
- "Well i don't speak for him but if he WAS here to kill you guys i think i'd have noticed" -
```
He chuckled.
Beverly
The air, forced into a state of stillness and purity by the sheer dominating presence that was the crimson manifestation of the `Sun of Purity` in the wake of Aazkue's presence, harbored such an atmosphere so to magnify both the almost divine presence of the Solar Guardian and the suspense that came with his pause in pondering. His eyes of a genuine, sharp crimson-red held close to their figures, and so the crippled Guardian stared, his mouth held slightly open as he took in their words. A long pause, a close of his eyes, and a most confused expression upon his face, Aazkue lifted his slightly-charred right hand to his brow, clasping the bridge of his nose.

 ```diff
- "𝐵𝓎 𝐸𝒾𝓀𝑜𝓀𝓊𝑒'𝓈 𝓇𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓃𝒶𝓂𝑒..."```

Aazkue spoke with sigh, his weakly opened eyes peering at the road before him. He pressed firmly his left palm against the ground, shifting his posture that lacked strength in his legs so to bring himself into a slightly-more-upright position, and raised his briefly bowed head again to see the two... *Guests,* For lack of the perhaps more accurate word *Intruder.* 

There was truly much to take in here. Far, far too many things for him to mentally digest within a comfortable moment. He hadn't the slightest explanation for their — or, heavens, even *His* Presence here, at the foot of the Ascent — and neither their nature nor their origins within the *Ark.* Though the quantity and diversity of peoples upon the day of its boarding was tremendous, Aazkue had mostly familiarized himself with the majority of its inhabitants... These sort of folk he had never once met before. And yet, they spoke the language of its distinct culture; an irreplicable tongue the likes of which no intruder could so easily learn. Still further, they spoke of individuals named in his local tongue — so-called residents of the First Floor he was distinguished with the honor of guarding — which he had never even *Heard of* Before.
_ _

*`...How is this, any of this, possible...?`*

```diff
- "𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉, 𝓅𝓇𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓁, 𝒹𝑜 𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹𝓈 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃, 𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓂𝑒...?"```

He lifted his right hand up and along his face, his fingers sifting strands of his long, black hair to the sides, his brow furrowed slightly as he questioned. His nature was most imposing but not threatening — formidable, to be sure, yet not quite as frightening as that of raw aggression — as he glared, concerned, and quite honestly almost lacking in belief of the two's words.

```diff
- "𝒜 𝒷𝓇𝒶𝓃𝒹..."
- "...𝒶 𝒸𝓊𝓇𝑒..."
- "...𝓂𝓎 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔,"

- "𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝑜𝓌𝓃... 𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓉 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒾𝓃 𝓇𝑒𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓇?"
- "𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒶𝓀 𝓈𝑜... 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓁𝓎, 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝐹𝒾𝓇𝓈𝓉 𝐹𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓇. 𝒲𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒹𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝒾𝓁 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂...? 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒹𝑜𝒸𝓉𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒶𝓀 𝑜𝒻?"
- "𝒜𝓃𝒹... 𝒯𝓋𝑜𝓀𝓉𝑒𝒾'𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝒸𝑒𝓈, 𝓃𝑜... 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓇𝑒𝒸𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓁𝓎..."





- "...𝒥𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒶 𝓂𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉, 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓈𝑜𝓁𝒶𝓇 𝒸𝓎𝒸𝓁𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓌𝑒 𝑜𝓃, 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃?"```

Ah, that was right.
There was one thing that would make many, many things make sense.
It was something that Aazkue, himself, would never want to believe, but...
...Had he been... Severed, in some way, from consciousness?
*For how long?*
*No, more worrisome...*

***What had happened to the First Floor in the time of his absence?***
_ _

Panic began to set into the visage of the recently-awoken Guardian of the First Floor, his brilliant eyes of crimson red opening wide with the expression of shock and horror. He stared down at his unfurled palm before him, blinking, slowly, in disbelief, before staring up toward the fake sky hued green above, his teeth clenched tight as he mentally prepared himself for the worst. His damaged lower body practically creaked as he forced what muscular structure he had left to *Move,* Shifting his herculean body ever-so-slightly upwards, as he struggled to again make use of his legs. Aazkue was, if nothing else, stubborn and determined to a fault; even if it was *Physically impossible* For any other man to, in this condition, walk, he would *Make it possible.*


...Even still, he can only manage a clumsy stumble upwards, his towering height of four-meters-tall briefly revealed, as he began to slowly fall forwards, hardly managing to catch himself before taking two sluggish steps that continued forwards.

```diff
- "𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒪𝓇𝒹𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒦𝓃𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒮𝑜𝓁 — 𝐼 𝓂𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒶 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝓋𝑒𝓇𝑔𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝒽𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑒...!"```

He pressed his hand close to his chest and heart, his pain incapable of being hidden by his exterior show of fortified strength and courage. Nobility and honor flowed through his veins as did blood and water, yet he was, still, a weak being construed of no more than flesh and bones. Aazkue's injuries were paramount, and he could not ignore them for long.

The Guardian again collapses to his knees, his hands colliding first with the stone, and then his chest. He lifted his head forward, to see the two intruders before him, and he squinted his sightlines, as if in both deep despair and incredulity toward the two. Furling his right hand into a fist, he bore his teeth, and yelled out:
_ _

```diff
- "𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝔀𝓸...!"
- "𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒾𝓈𝒽 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒶𝓀, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒹𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝓎 𝒷𝑜𝒹𝓎?!"
- "𝒜𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊, 𝓉𝑜𝑜, 𝑒𝓂𝒾𝓈𝓈𝒶𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒯𝓋𝑜𝓀𝓉𝑒𝒾'𝓈 𝓁𝑒𝑔𝒾𝑜𝓃? 𝐼𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓅𝓁𝑜𝓉?!"

- "𝓐𝓷𝓼𝔀𝓮𝓻 𝓶𝓮!"```
Robin
Kuouo, finally able to settle down from the battle, takes a sharp breath of the purified air, dragging his left knee slightly upward and leaning forward forward with a relaxed posture. Kuo slid the flask given to him by his accomplace out of his inventory, taking another swig of the alcohol. He did so with caution, seeking to further numb the pain in his fractured leg, but not inhibit his senses. The bandit forced it down his throat, hanging his head down for a moment before peering up to see Aazkue process the information around him. The cues on the guardian's face whispered his inner-thoughts, although Aazkue stayed silent at this moment, the bandit could see the cues of disbelief and confusion in the Root-Crown's weakly held eyes before he spoke once more.

```diff
- "𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉, 𝓅𝓇𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓁, 𝒹𝑜 𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹𝓈 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃, 𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓂𝑒...?"```

The guardian, now taking a more direct approach to gathering the answers clouding his mind, shot a myriad of questions towards the two intruders with a stern quality built within his aura. The bandit scratched his head, his explanation earlier left Aazkue with more questions than answers. Perhaps it was best to start from the top.

```fix
"We'll all get t' that inna sec. First off, my name's Kuouo and this is, well, I don't really know this dude's name but, in any case, I'm the guy who gave ya a shot in the le- Hey! Are ya listeni—"```

The bandit stopped his words short, watching panic click in real-time as it rushed through Aazkue's mind. Kuo clenched his teeth, a gut feeling that the guardian was about to do something hasty. Indeed, his caprine ears could hear the sickening struggle of Aazkue's lower-half *Cricking* And further mangling his injury. The bandit stared in awe, suspended in disbelief as the Root-Crown pulled himself off the ground. He couldn't even fathom diverting any of his body weight to his right leg, much less as a four-meter being with a frightening body weight. Instinct pounded through Kuo's body, the bandit scrambling to crawl backwards as the injured guardian managed to barely advance himself two steps forward before falling to his knees. With his current condition, it's safe to say that Kuouo felt a pang of dread, sweat and shallow breaths quietly peered out of the bandit before Aazkue began another onslaught of questions, this time with a more demanding tone.

Fuck it, formatting embed fail.