<strong>Meanwhile, in Helena's upstairs laboratory....</strong><br/><br/>It was surprising to see that most of the contestants had formed into groups save for Giselle who was charging ahead with quite startling speed until her time ran out on her magical spell she had cast to deal with the Gemini Twins.  Until today, the blond had not believed in the impossible, having chalked up the things she had seen with her team of scientists through the probes as smoke and mirrors at best, and outright forgeries at worst.  Now she wasn't so sure as they had a strange bird like thing that seemed to be under the Summoner's control that had appeared out of thin air, a half Drow/light elf that had upped her speed and gave her blades an acid edge to deal with the Twins in the forest, and so many other things going on at once that she didn't know what to believe anymore.  It...also didn't help any that she had other problems to deal with in the form of a hooded....thing that stood by the glass windows of the lab.  Just being near the 'man', if even she could call it that, was sickening since it gave off an unmistakable aura of darkness and general evil.  How he was able to teleport in and out of her home at will also bothered her considerably.  Thank god she had invited so many strong warriors to this year's DOA, especially Ryu since he had a vast amount of experience when it came to the supernatural and the downright dangerous.  This wasn't her area of expertise as the hooded...man turned and Helena fought back a wave of revulsion as 'he' gave off a laugh, finding her discomfort amusing.  "It is so sad that such a fine specimen as yourself is dying of such a mortal disease as brain cancer.  Such a waste really of such otherwise fine material."<br/><br/>Helena growled and clenched her fists, her team monitoring the events outside through dozens of cameras all over the island ignoring the conversation as best as they could.  That wasn't easy since they too felt sick when that thing was around.  Helena had tried to have it blown away once already, and he had just laughed as he rose from the dead by all appearances, the wounds healing almost immediately, the few there had been anyway.  "What I wouldn't give to have you utterly destroyed you creature of shadow.  I only brought you here out of a moment of weakness and pure desperation."  That got anouther laugh from the hooded creature as he recalled another foolish animal much like Helena was now to his dark eyes.<br/><br/>"You remind me of a Japanese warlord by the name of Nobunaga Oda.  He made a pact with my kind to be given absolute power in exchange for his services to us.  I resurrected him when he was shot in the throat while he was still completely and utterly mortal, an animal like yourself, and I made him far stronger in the process eve before we made arrangements to make him a god among my kind.  Our plans might have failed numerous times due to certain annoying individuals like those you brought to this island, but that was in the past.  Now, now we are poised to rise again Helena, and you agreed to help us when we first met.  Should you meet an unfortunate end first however, I plan to dissect your remains and use what I learn to help further my ultimate goals as well as our dark God's goals as well."  Helena knew he wasn't bluffing, having seen the creature's evil work first hand in a secret lab that thing and its friends had dug out underneath her home, miles underground in a trap infested dungeon.  She could still smell the fresh corpses and spilled blood as if it had been yesterday.  Thankfully she was spared anymore torment as the thing disappeared in a black portal of its own design, and she was allowed to collapse in a chair by the computer banks.  Hopefully this nightmare would end, but until then she couldn't reveal what was truly going on....or the deal she had made that would most likely end with her cut up into little pieces and spread out for that thing's kind to devour after that mad 'scientist' was done with her.