[sorry Nakuzumi, but I'm going to have to have Kalek split off. If you want, they can interact some other time.]

Masato Ryu - Chapter 2

Masato thought about Camillia's words and turned to her. "I'm not sure," he responded to her question, "but it wouldn't surprise me. This harbinger we battled seemed to be fully trained to battle me. If it hadn't been for you..." With this, he turned away. He felt ashamed that he wasn't strong enough to fight him alone. "If it hadn't been for you, I probably wouldn't be here now."

"At any rate," he continued, "if they trained one, they could train others. No telling how long the harbingers had been studying us. If this has indeed come to pass, then we need a major plan of attack. Otherwise, we're all dead." He decided to check his equipment, making sure it was all there. Finally, he checked his weapons. He knew they'd never dull or break, but it was just force of habit.

Finishing that, he turned to his host and bowed to her in respect. "I do thank you for your hospitality and company. However, I need to go home and rest. I hope we get to work together again," he said as he walked to her door, but stopped suddenly and turned to her. "If you wish to talk to someone, just come find me. I'll be more than happy to." With that said, he left her house and walked to his own place.

Masato didn't hesitate to go straight to his bed and layed down, staring at the ceiling for a few moments before he closed his eyes to sleep for a few moments.


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Chapter Three

This chapter is slightly different to the previous ones for two reasons. Firstly, it is broken into two parts and secondly it doesn't occur the next day – but after a week has passed.

Part A

1. Everyone: A meeting has been called by Betsalel, a grim reaper who is heavily involved in anything to do with Earth and the harbingers. It is an open meeting but it is only directed at those who have come into conflict with harbingers, especially on multiple occasions. It is a method of sharing intel and preparing for future confrontations. I will post as Betsalel at the beginning of the chapter.

Part B

1. Spencer and Luka: A multi-national terrorist cell has succeeded in developing a device known as a "seismic bomb". It is not a true bomb but a large device that is dropped into an active volcano where it emits seismic waves thus triggering an eruption. The scientists responsible for the creation of the device and the upper echelons of the organisation will all be present at the crater of Mount Dama Ali in Ethiopia. Humans cannot be allowed to have this kind of control over such a dangerous and fundamental force of nature, everyone at the site must die (even any innocents as they will know that such a device is possible to create) and the device must be destroyed before it enters the volcano. If the device does enter the volcano there should be around thirty minutes before the eruption occurs.

2. Adrian and Masato: Three lost souls have simultaneously appeared in Beijing China. One belongs to that of a serial killer who was recently killed by law enforcement whilst fleeing the scene of a double homicide; the other two are the souls of the two young women who were his victims. Avoiding causing distress to the public and avoiding detection capture the souls and escort them to the appropriate afterlife.

3. Destiny, Camellia, Bernhard and Kalek: A horde of unknown demons have been summoned in a tribal ritual (a surprisingly common occurrence) in the Amazon rainforest. The first priority of this mission is to discover the identity of these demons, collect information on them and eliminate them. It is believed there is a fairly high number of them.

The tribe responsible for the materialisation of these demons has been the source of two other similar incidents and, as a result of this, the grim reapers have decided they pose a significant threat to the balance of the world. As such, the second (most-likely less pleasant) priority of this mission is to eliminate the tribe.

Betsalel (NPC)

Betsalel walked across the arid landscape of dry dirt and simple stone buildings that was the city he called home with two are reapers at his side. Unlike him though, they were not grims. He had once been a human reaper, just like the two who walked slightly behind him, but had - thousands of years ago - been the first human being to make the shift from ordinary reaper to grim. He had sacrificed his skin and most of his individuality for the skeletal form of a grim reaper but he had enjoyed the pay-off over his years. There was little to distinguish Betsalel from other grims, most of them wore the same black cloak as he did and many looked to be clones of each other. But somehow, one could almost always tell who was who. The two reapers following the grim, who worked exclusively for Betsalel, were very different though. Aries, was a large and heavily muscled man with a shaved head and a thick brown beard. He wore simple black pants and a a long red coat open over his bare chest. A large axe hung from his back. Mortis, the other of Betsalel's lackeys was in stark contrast; he wore a cloak similar to that of his master open over more black clothes and had long grey hair and no beard. Unlike the colossal weapon his partner carried he was more skilled with spells, although he did have a thin sword within his cloak.

Soon enough the trio of reapers had arrived at the amphitheatre they planned to use, a room that was full of several other human reapers - many anxiously awaiting the speech of the grim. Betsalel, like all grims had no tongue and so communicated telepathically, but each still had a distinct and unique voice - Betsalel's was a smooth yet thick voice which sounded vaguely European, despite him actually being Atlantean (well before Destiny's time) in his human life.
"I'm going to make this relatively short." he spoke to the crowd "the purpose of this meeting is to share intelligence on any known harbingers, what there goals are, where they are hiding and anything else that may be of use to us. Currently next to nothing is known about these reckless threats to the balance we so diligently protect. We know that they share the same powers and limitations that reapers do and we know that as of this point in time the organisation is only operating on Earth. They are yet to even attack other locations in the realm of Geos. we can assume then that they cannot dimension hop and that they are probably created through a similar process to reapers, but that is all we know. Now is the time to share anything you know or even any theories, anyone who lies or hides the truth shall be punished accordingly. Who of you shall stand and be the first to speak?"

Masato Ryu - Chapter 3 - Reaper Meeting

Masato was listening to the grim named Betsalel speaking to them about the past missions. The grims, of course, knew about the Harbingers, but maybe even they failed to see how much of a threat they were to the balance. Betsalel then asked if anyone had any information or theories to share about their antagonists. Thats when one stood up.

Introducing himself as Sokolov, he explained about the missions that he had that involved harbinger interference. He reported that they may be amassing a large army of creatures, including vampires, that they could control. That was a scary thought, indeed. He went on to say that he even knew two harbingers by name! How weird was that? After all, the one he fought earlier didn't say his name at all. Sokolov sat down again as an unsettling silence filled the room.

Masato decided the time was right. He stepped forward, clearing his throat before speaking. "I am Masato Ryu," he began, mostly for the other reapers that may not know him, "I do not know much of these harbingers. In fact, my last mission was the first time I seemed to encounter one in the field. I know not his name, but he would be very easy to find. He was an older man, looked like he was in his mid-to-late 40s due to some silver in his hair, and a lean build. He had a pair of claws that he wielded easily and he had the ability to make clones of himself that operated independently of the originator. However, they seemed to make him weaker than would be apparent, leading me to believe that his clones tie into his strength. Also, if you should hurt the original enough, he'll lose his focus and cause the clones to vanish."

Masato looked around at the other reapers in attendance before looking back to Betsalel. "I do have a theory, though" he continued, "This harbinger seemed to be trained specifically to fight me. He was matching me move for move, and even got the best of me with his clones. However, when Camillia came in and fought him, he was surprised by her. My belief is that it was because he didn't know how she fought. If one harbinger can be specially trained like this, then many more can be trained the same way. Maybe their intentions are, like Sokolov was alluding to earlier, to pick us off one by one. Or at least, to interfere with our missions to cause the balance to shift more in their direction."

With that being said, Masato stepped back and leaned against the wall, hoping that his description and ideas would be taken seriously. He would wait and see exactly what the others thought of this theory.


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Adrian Frode

Adrian walked through the arid air that was to be expected all over the nameless planet the reapers called home, passed numerous marble buildings. Adrian had taken a lot of damage on his mission the previous week and had only been cleared by a healer, a man named Krieg he hadn't met before, a few days earlier - the same day that he received word of the meeting. For a renowned grim, such as Betsalel, to be leaving the inner sanctum of one of the reapers' cities and chairing an open meeting it meant that the with the harbingers had become quite dire and it was likely that they had lost a lot of Reapers to the enemy.

Upon arriving at the large amphitheatre where the meeting was held Adrian took a seat next to a young woman (well she looked like a young woman) with straight blonde hair and almost directly behind Luka, who was a row in front and two chairs to his right. Adrian looked around the room noticing a few familiar faces, Luka included. He recognised several reapers he regularly worked with as well as many who were simply well known for their age and/or abilities... such as Aries and Mortis who worked for Betsalel. Both were well known for being exceptionally powerful reapers, not on the level of a grim of course, but easily more powerful than Adrian. Aries was a master of physical combat with incredible strength, but a bad temper whilst Mortis was skilled with spells and stealth, not too mention strategy, and was very cool and level headed. Still, Adrian wasn't overly fond of either of Betsalel's lackeys.

After the grim gave a short, but clear and well-spoken, opening speech he opened the meeting to the other reapers gathered in the room. Interestingly enough, it was Luka who was first to speak. He gave information on two harbingers specifically as well as pointed out a focus on building the strength of the organisation in numbers. A few other reapers spoke before another one really caught Adrian's attention. A man, who identified himself as Masato Ryu, also gave information on a harbinger who sounded unusually skilled before suggesting that the man had not just been chosen, but trained, specifically to counter him and that other reapers would soon face the same problem. Adrian found himself thinking of Calder, the only person in recent history to have displayed greater speed and agility.
But how could they possibly...?

Adrian stood up
"I'd like to add to that.My name is Adrian Frode, on my last mission, another reaper and I were paired to take out an unknown demon. We arrived and assessed that the demon was no match for us but before we even got a chance to combat it we were intercepted by a pair of harbingers. I have fought a few harbingers before but I feel confident in saying that not only were these two on a far higher level than any other I have faced they seemed perfectly catered to fighting my opponent and I. My own opponent, an albino man of similar height and build to myself named Calder, used a similar fighting style to me, was one of the few opponents I have met faster than me and even carried a similar weapon to me. The only difference was he was also a very skilled marksman, a skill which he used to tire and manipulate me before using his (somehow) superior speed to defeat me. My partner's opponent, a young woman, also seemed to be trained in a manor similar to him.

What we have heard so far today suggests a couple of things. Firstly, there are harbingers far more powerful than the footsoldiers we are used to coming into contact with. Secondly, there is a push for the organisation to build in ranks - they are even resorting to using demons as soldiers by the looks of things. Thirdly, it seems that there is some sort of hierarchy within the organisation as suggested by Luka Sokolov. The fourth and, if I may add, most disturbing thing we seem to have gleaned is that these more powerful harbingers have been specifically trained to counter the different fighting styles commonly observed amongst us. There is even a slim chance that they have been trained specifically for facing certain reapers.

A couple of things don't seem to add up here though. First of all, amassing an army doesn't make any sense. We know full-well we haven't made much of a dent in their numbers and their is know way for them to actively engage us in warfare since we reside in an immortal realm. even if they could dimension-hop to our location a battle within Limbo would be pointless because nobody could die. The other thing that doesn't add up is how they know where to find us and what skills we possess. Where are they getting their information from?

At this time I can only assume that somehow they have infiltrated our ranks which leads me to believe that there may well be harbingers with dimension-hopping abilties on top of the advanced harbingers some of us have come into contact with."

At the end of his contribution Adrian returned to his seat. He could already hear mutterings amongst the other reapers present.
"Is he suggesting one of us is a traitor?"
"Infiltration? Impossible. A reaper city has never been infiltrated and a harbinger has never been observed to have any dimension hopping abilities."
"But what about that Attano guy that Sokolov mentioned?"
"He was referring to instantaneous teleporting, not moving between realms!"

Adrian sighed, at least people had been paying attention. He was concerned though, a powerful and unknown foe that he probably couldn't beat was threatening his precious Earth... and it didn't look like anyone else knew what to do any more than he did.

BERNARD "DEMON" WESTERLY

Bernard took his time going to the meeting. There was no way that he would miss anything important. He layed about in his quarters, sharpening his various weapons and polishing his massive suit of armor. That was all he did when he wasn't out on a mission, hacking demons and slaying Harbingers. "Nasty little buggers..." He scoffed, setting down his massive broadsword, Hell Slayer. Demon hated Harbingers more than anything out there. There was a reason that they called him Demon, and it wasn't because he was a demon. He picked up his helmet and gave it a good waxing, and decided to leave for the meeting.

He stepped outside of the building and looked around. It was mildly warm out...like usual. Bernard let out a yawn and stretched his massive arms. They ached a lot more that they used to. Damn I'm getting old. If seven hundred years of fighting is wearing me down, then there's something wrong. He began to saunter towards the ampitheatre where the meeting was being held. Surely not. He took massive strides, wasting no time to get there. When he arrived, a Reaper named Destiny was talking about the Harbingers. It seemed like these guys were pretty serious. After all, a Grim like Betsalel doesn't leave the inner sanctum for nothing.

He waited until everything had quieted down enough for him to make statement. He walked between a couple of pillars and shouted, "LISTEN HERE! THOSE HARBINGERS MAY BE TOUGH! THEY HAVE SOME PRETTY CRAZY ABILITIES!" His heavy English accent was evident in his speech. "BUT WE'VE KILLED ENOUGH OF THEM TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE BEATABLE! ALL IT TAKES IS A STRONG TEAM!" He looked around to see several disapproving glares. They don't think a well-swung sword can fix things? So be it. He had a few ideas for these particular Harbingers. He had heard the crowd talking about how one could teleport and what-not. "IT'S NOT LIKE WE HAVEN'T FOUGHT STRONGER!" With that, Bernard took a seat in the back row. He hoped that his advice would sink in.

Telepathy
Thoughts

Camillia crossed her arms as she sat in a chair near the back of the room listening to the others talk. They all have good points...plus, that poison should have paralyzed that Harbinger within a minute...and it didn't. she thought with a frown as she ran a hand through her red-orange hair. After a reaper with a heavy English accent shouted out about how it would take a strong team to defeat them she stood up brushing off the skirt of her dress. Part of her wondered how the others would react to her way of talking, for only Masato and the Grim Reapers knew about it.

I think all of you have good points. she started making her presence known as a frown formed on her face. I'm Camillia Abbott, I was called in as back-up for Masato yesterday, and he was right, the Harbinger seemed genuinely surprised when I jumped into the fight. she paused looking around the room. If they are being trained to fight each of us specifically, why not change the way you fight at times...I for one never use the same poison on my blade in battles that take place one after the other. I always wait for awhile before I repeat poisons. If they are being trained in how we fight...why not just mix up how you battle.

Adrian Frode

Adrian leaned back in the, admittedly uncomfortable, chair he had taken wishing he had chosen to occupy the standing room the amphitheatre offered instead. After his own explanation many other reapers had chimed in and added their own opinions on the matter. Destiny described her own unusual encounter and suggested that perhaps rather than a physical spy being present a powerful harbinger was watching them from Earth somehow. Adrian, was more concerned about the alliance between the Atlantean and the Harbingers though.
An Atlantean? Just what we needed they were already too powerful before any were made into immortals, that's why Atlantis was destroyed, and now at least one is allied with the Harbingers. Wonderful

Another reaper, a behemoth of a man with a thick English accent that Adrian did not recognise, appeared out of nowhere before launching into a brief, but loud, tirade suggesting that they should just handle them like any other enemy. Well that's what Adrian thought he meant, he didn't seem overly intelligent. Not long after another Reaper that Adrian was unfamiliar with spoke... well kind of. Adrian had to do a double-take when he heard a second telepathic voice thinking another grim was in the room. It turned out though to be a female reaper with red-orange hair.
Well that's odd

The woman suggested that if harbingers were being trained for the sole purpose of taking out specific reapers that they should simply alter their fighting styles. Adrian again stood up, he felt that he needed to respond to these people who were overlooking the seriousness of the matter.
"Firstly I'm going to address the man that was shouting earlier. I don't know you, so I can't judge with complete accuracy, but you seem to have lost your mind. These harbingers are like nothing you have faced before, and clearly you have yet to face one, they have all the same abilities we do and this latest group of them has been able to not just equal us but outmatch us, at what we're best at" he emphasised the last words hoping to get his point across "and now on top of that threat you need to include that they are some how keeping tabs on that and are allied with an extremely powerful Atlantean. Atlantis was destroyed by the reapers thousands of years ago because as a race of humans they were too powerful to be left alone. This man is supposedly the most powerful of them and is aiding them, we need to be more vigilant... for example I'd like to know why we didn't know such a powerful force has been walking around sooner. He alone throws the balance way out."

Adrian took a breath and licked his lips slightly, the dry air on their planet occasionally had that affect on you if you engaged in long and heated discussions like this. He then addressed the telepathic, Camillia
"as for changing our fighting styles, many of us have used the same styles for hundreds or thousands of years. we can adapt but that takes time. As for your own method, all you are doing is changing weapon, you are not changing your tactics which makes you just as vulnerable. Furthermore if we do change our style, and if they are keeping an eye on us, they'll just send someone else to counter us. The only way we can truly deal with this threat is to take out the head and then work our way down the leftovers".

Adrian returned to his seat again, he had a feeling this was going to be a long meeting. Betsalel was standing with Aries and Mortis staring into the amphitheatre. Adrian suspected he was saying something to his lackeys regarding the meeting and the information, at least it seemd that they were taking what the lesser reapers said on board.

BERNARD "DEMON" WESTERLY

Bernard scoffed at the tongue lashing he recieved from the pair of Reapers. Then a telepathic voice appeared in all of their heads, suggesting they change their fighting style. "There is no way in Hell that we can change our fighting style that quickly! Trust me! I've BEEN there!" He glared at the female Reaper who questioned him. "Believe me, I've faced some pretty powerful **** before!" Demon may not have been the smartest Reaper there, but he knew enough. He got up out of his seat yet again, drawing up to his full height, a whopping 6'10. He stepped in front of the crowd. "The gods be damned if I let a 'doppleganger' defeat me!" He cracked his knuckles for an added effect. "I'd like to see them try to kill me." Demon knew that he was making a fool of himself, but now that he had started, he couldn't stop. "Besides, we can cover for each other. Trust me. I know what I'm doing." He proceeded to crack every bone in his body. "There ain't no bloody way that they can beat us." He looked over the gathered masses. "We're the Reapers. We were chosen to keep the balance for a reason." He glanced over to the other Reaper. "We're the best of the best."

Masato Ryu - Chapter 3 - Meeting

"This bickering between us has to stop," Masato finally said, looking between the heavily-armored man and the Atlantean woman, "If we're going to be a team, we need to act like one. If this force against us is as big as we believe it is, it'll take all of us to stop it. Otherwise, we're all finished." He then looked to Adrian, whose main idea was to strike right at the head of the organization. "Your idea sounds good to me, but don't you think that the harbingers would anticipate such a rash maneuver and stop us at the gates like they did to us in each of our missions? Maybe if we find our own weaknesses first, we can exploit them on our trained foes. Or at least find ways to cover our weaknesses to make them harder to exploit."

Masato started to feel that this was getting them nowhere. He resigned himself to leaning against a pillar, his head hung low, thinking about what proper strategy to use at this point. "Camillia's point made sense, but if we can't change our fighting style, can't we change the enemy we face? If Camillia were to face my harbinger instead of me, she'd probably have an easier time than me since he was trained to fight me and not her, which brings us back to my theory."


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Betsalel

Betsalel had stood back from the front of the platform on which he stood, closer to Aries and Mortis, and had listened intently to the information that the lesser reapers had put forward calmly. His calmness had faded after a short while and been replaced with irritation though as much of the productive information the group was putting forward became repetitive and infighting between the various reapers arose. A large reaper with a voice to match had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and, ignorantly, stated that the reapers could easily defeat the harbingers if they tried hard enough - a statement that even Betsalel had to admit annoyed him to know end - and was soon met by harsh criticisms from Destiny Saviouer, a reaper well known to Betsalel as she too was an Atlantean... although she was from the end of the nations era, and a dark haired reaper wearing sunglasses (for no reason), a nobody named Adrian Frode. Not too long after the two factions began arguing a fourth reaper, a Russian man named Luka Sokolov had come to the defence of the burly, not overly smart, reaper pointing out some merits in his view.

Betsalel was already becoming irritated with the group assembled before him, something both Aries and Mortis had picked up on and moved further back, when another of the lesser reapers spoke up. With a shout even louder than the oaf before him he drew attention to himself and criticised the argument that was unfolding, something Betsalel was relatively happy about since it may have shut everyone up and got them back to business. But the grim's satisfaction with the new speaker soon shifted to disdain as Spencer, for that was what he identified himself as, began to put blame on the grims.
"I don't trust much that the grim reapers are up to." he said, directly to Betsalel, "You expect us to believe this is the first you've heard of these new-found Harbingers and then you send us off as if to follow commands without regards to their purpose. If anything, you need to tell us any information you can provide besides telling us that you know nothing. I don't mean to come off rude but..."

Betsalel was livid, a mere soldier - a being far below a grim - was questioning not just his own authority and motives but that of the other grims?
What gives such a worm the right? he thought to himself. Then, as the far younger reaper trailed off Betsalel launched into a telepathic tirade
"What right does a low-level reaper such as yourself have a right to question I, or any other grim reaper? You who could not even defeat a single harbinger! My motives and those of any other grim are far beyond your concerned just as we are far above you. You exist because we allow you to and you exist for the sole purpose of following our orders for the sake of not just the Earth but every other planet, in every other galaxy in every other realm! Do not think you have the right to quesion us jsut because you are an immortal. You are what we made you! Unless you are seeking punishment do not question me again. I assure each and every one of you that we share with you any knowledge that you need to know and that if we had known about this threat sooner, you too would have known. Please continue." Betsalel, feeling slightly calmer once again stepped back.

Adrian Frode

Adrian watched from his seat as Spencer, for reasons best known to himself, challenged the grim reapers and interrogated Betsalel. Not surprisingly, the grim reacted with fury as his telepathic voice raged loudly not just in the head of Spencer, but of every other reaper in the room. He had clearly decided to make out of his brave, yet foolish, subordinate.

Adrian had to admit that many of the same questions had crossed his mind, and he decided that he should probably talk to Spencer about his views later. But for the time being he was smart enough not to go against Betsalel. It was never wise to cross a grim, and Betsalel especially was legendary for his ferocious verbal assaults against those who dared oppose him, but everybody in the room (at least that's how Adrian felt) had not just been thinking the same as Spencer but were in complete agreement with him.
At least he didn't get set on fire or something...
Adrian stood to speak again
"Grievances aside, there are some things we must consider. We need to take these suggestions in and do what we can to defend the balance - which means we need to complete our missions even if harbingers interfere. This means that right now the best suggestion we have is to increase the size of our mission teams so that we can split-up without hesitation should such an interference occur.

I also recommend that we discuss the idea of a response team and task force especially designated for dealing with harbingers. We have done so before to counter demon epidemics, perhaps we should treat this similarly. I also feel that we need to use this team to locate hotspots where there has been a lot of harbinger activity. I would suggest Russia would be a good place to start after the warehouse mission I was on revealed that the harbingers were building a vampire army."

Adrian sighed, he was likely to cop it from the others for his next suggestion
"The final suggestion I have for the moment, is for us to consider having reapers from other planets and realms become involved in this conflict - something that the harbingers won't expect. I know there is an unspoken rule that generally we don't allow reapers of other planets to interfere on our own, simply because they cannot blend in, but that might be the best plan of attack." Adrian could already here whispered comment amongst the gathered reapers
"ridiculous!"
"what kind of a suggestion is that!"
"human reapers should be responsible for human enemies!"

Sometimes I hate these meetings...

BERNARD "DEMON" WESTERLY

Bernard kept a face as still as stone, looking over everyone and evaluating what they were saying. When a Russian-looking Reaper stepped in to defend him, he almost smiled and gave a friendly nod to him, showing that the back-up was appreciated. Demon rolled his eyes whenever the female talked, showing as much contempt as possible. Jesus christ. How much of a ***** can you be? This reaper was really pissing him off. "God dammit...just shut up." He whispered under his breath. She obviously did not like him; The feeling was mutual.

He was about to sit back down when another Reaper stood up and screamed at the Grim, who gave him an earful that would make the strongest of grown men quake in there boots. Damn. That guy has guts. When things calmed down and proceeded to even more bickering, he approached the Reaper and whispered, "You got guts. That's something we're lacking." He gestured to the Reapers who questioned him, then walked back to his former position. The male Reaper was going on about a strike team. Not bad. He nodded in agreement, barely noticable, but noticable. He couldn't find anything that he didn't like about him. He had to respect him. That girl, however...