Gate of Memoirs/Breaching the Nebula P1

To begin the conquest of the reshaped world, the Raug have resurrected their servants Luina & Zael to destroy the Imperial City.
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Lone Strength"	Music: "Lone Strength"
 	
*It really *is* you.
*Horrible creature! Monster! You-
*What have you done? Are you truly so ignorant of the consequences you have wrought?
*You have doomed us all! Torn from us our enjoyment of our divine games!
*We should have never have let yo-
*No! Stop! Cease your interference! Have you not done enough damage?!
*STO-
*(Earlier...)
 	
*Gabriela: It really *is* you.
*Gabriela: Well, under the circumstances, I suppose I would be amazed as well.
*Gabriela: We have some time, I suppose. You should start your story at the beginning.
 	
*Kielazar: Very well. But we should get moving in the meantime.
 	
*Faelan: Eh. White stick man better not lie!
 	
*Kielazar: I have no plans to.
 	
*Gabriela: I am not surprised that the Council would not offer to help. Humans are little more than cattle in their eyes.
 	
*Eerikki: The demon's advances though...that is quite troubling.
 	
*Kielazar: From what we've been able to uncover, it seems that the Raug have been laying the foundations for this for a long time.
*Kielazar: Ever since the fall of Rehdoon, their efforts to corrupt the leaders of the land have increased tenfold.
 	
*Kielazar: To say nothing of what they've done to the land...
 	
*Adriesta: Like what?
 	
*Kielazar: They've subtly corrupted the soil, the air, and the rivers...even the smallest bite or breath will eventually bring you under their control once you've been corrupted enough.
 	
*Kielazar: But it doesn't show any signs to the naked eye. Not even the strongest exorcisms or blessings purge their evil...
 	
*Faelan: The Isengrim would know! Demons can't hide from us!
 	
*Kielazar: I would suppose so. But the Isengrim have been under siege by the Raug for a while now.
 	
*Kielazar: News has been particularly thin in that regard, I'm afraid. And nothing good.
 	
*Faelan: What does the white stick man mean?!
 	
*Adriesta: It means that matters are not going well for the warriors in the North, Faelan.
 	
*Faelan: Hmph! Stick man needs better birds!
 	
*Kielazar: I...suppose so?
 	
*Kielazar: We've been stretched thin, especially as of late. And Astrid's magic has...been failing more often.
 	
*Gabriela: Failing? How so?
 	
*Kielazar: Spirits refuse to answer, for the most part. Or cannot. When they do respond, their power is quite diminished.
*Kielazar: Practitioners of magic are few and far between. The Raug have either killed or corrupted each and every one.
*Kielazar: Nimune's necromancy, as distasteful as it is, is our only edge in that regard.
 	
*Adriesta: I see. Matters must truly be dire.
 	
*Kielazar: They are, which is why your arrival is most fortuitous for us and the resistance.
 	
*Gabriela: Perhaps...Kielazar, you mentioned that Ilm had found you?
 	
*Faelan: Strange water thing? It's here?!
 	
*Kielazar: Yes, but...that is another tale.
 	
*Adriesta: How is your mount doing, Eerikki?
 	
*Eerikki: He's quite well! All things considered, haha!
 	
*Adriesta: Well, at least one of us has some levity left.
 	
*Eerikki: Indeed...
 	
*Adriesta: Mmm?
 	
*Eerikki: I think having some laughter is about as much as I can do right now.
 	
*Adriesta: Don't talk like that, Eerikki!
 	
*Eerikki: But what use do I have now? The demoness is dead, yet I have nowhere to go next...
 	
*Gabriela: Oh, do be quiet. Pity doesn't fit you.
 	
*Adriesta: Gabriela!
 	
*Eerikki: No, she's right...now is not the time for that sort of thing.
*Eerikki: Thank you, Gabriela.
 	
*Gabriela: Help Kielazar and try to see if you spot our missing friends.
 	
*Eerikki: Got it!
 	
*Adriesta: Thank you.
 	
*Gabriela: I wish we had the luxury of pity, Adriesta. I truly do. But these are uncertain times.
 	
*Adriesta: I understand. With what Kielazar has said about this world...
 	
*Gabriela: Don't put too much stock in what he has said. Remember that this...shouldn't exist.
*Gabriela: But it does. We must be careful of where our loyalties lie.
 	
*Adriesta: You don't trust Kielazar?
 	
*Gabriela: I don't trust this world. It would be foolish to do so otherwise.
*Gabriela: Our arrival, and Kielazar's tale of Ilm finding him, are too convenient to be coincidence.
 	
*Adriesta: You think that the Raug are behind this?
 	
*Gabriela: Hardly. I doubt that the Raug would have the patience to do such a thing.
*Gabriela: They would have killed us by now, after an unbearably long speech about their masterful plan or something.
 	
*Adriesta: Ugh. Now that you mention it, it does make an odd sort of sense.
 	
*Adriesta: I still can't believe it. Zelion, a force of good...
 	
*Gabriela: I'll believe it when I see it, Adriesta.
 	
*Zelion: It's looking clear for now...I think we lost the demons that were chasing us...
 	
*Zelion: Just our luck that we stumbled on stragglers, I guess.
 	
*Nimune: You're right - we've been really lucky so far...
 	
*Nimune: <I didn't know that there were any demons that were left here myself...>
*Nimune: <What a stroke of luck! With the creatures separating us from the others, Zelion is mine to enchant!>
 	
*Zelion: Tell me again what we're looking for! We've been lost here for hours on end!
 	
*Nimune: Shhh, Zelion. Trust me: you should conserve your strength.
 	
*Zelion: Wh-what were you saying?
 	
*Nimune: I said, trust me. You shouldn't be pushing yourself so hard.
 	
*Zelion: We have to find the others! Who knows what could have happened to them?!
 	
*Nimune: They're fine, I'm sure. We shouldn't be moving so much.
*Nimune: We've been lucky so far, but I don't know how long our luck will last.
 	
*Nimune: Come, stay with me for a while. We can rest here.
 	
*Zelion: Mnh...that...sounds like a plan, now that you mention it.
 	
*Nimune: You're hurt! Why didn't you tell me?
 	
*Zelion: Kind of...crept up on me, I guess. Ngh...
 	
*Nimune: These wounds were the ones that Astrid had treated last week...but they've reopened...
 	
*Nimune: You should have let me look at these!
 	
*Zelion: I didn't want to...ugh...impose on you. You're already exhausted with all the healing you're doing...
 	
*Nimune: Not for you. Here, let me look at that...
 	
*Zelion: Thanks...I'll just rest a bit...
 	
*Nimune: Go on. Sleep.
 	
*Zelion: Zzzz...
 	
*Nimune: And let me heal the body that my husband will wear...
*Nimune: Soon, beloved, we will be together again. Soon...
 	
*Gabriela: Ilm! You're...alright?
 	
*Adriesta: Ilm!
 	
*Faelan: Strange wa...ter...
 	
*Faelan: You're not strange water thing! You smell different!
 	
*Ilm al-akqat: Friends! My good friends! Faelan, Adriesta, Gabriela, Eerikki!
*Ilm al-akqat: I am so happy to see you again! It has been so long!
 	
*Eerikki: You look...different. I mean, it's a good look!
 	
*Adriesta: What happened?
 	
*Ilm al-akqat: When my old self saw you last, it had to sacrifice itself to save you and give you the power to defeat the Zelion you knew.
*Ilm al-akqat: But it did not want to leave you unguarded, so it managed to create a smaller version of itself in the new world that you had emerged in...
*Ilm al-akqat: Although it was not without some...concessions.
 	
*Adriesta: Well, we can see tha-
 	
*Gabriela: Ilm, what has changed? You seem...emotional.
 	
*Ilm al-akqat: Yes! Yes...emotions...they are so strange!
*Ilm al-akqat: I mean, yes. I know I sound strange to you...please understand. To make my presence possible, I have given up breadth of power for focus...
*Ilm al-akqat: And in the process, I've embraced emotion in all its forms!
 	
*Gabriela: That's...terrible. It's like cutting off your own arms...your own face...
 	
*Gabriela: A creature of infinity embracing a limited existence...
 	
*Faelan: Water...no...fire thing, why? Why do this?
 	
*Ilm al-akqat: Because I didn't want to leave you without some form of help - not in this foul land. I could not leave my friends behind!
 	
*Faelan: Hmph! Strange fire thing likes to talk a lot!
 	
*Faelan: But...we're happy too! Fire-water-strange thing is safe!
 	
*Adriesta: Yes! We're happy that you're here, even if you have a different form. Thank you, Ilm.
 	
*Ilm al-akqat: I am not just Ilm, but Ilm al-akqat now. It is a necessary change.
 	
*Gabriela: The knowledge of desperate hope. How...fitting.
 	
*Ilm al-akqat: Indeed. But we are pressed for time, and I cannot sense the others at all. I am intolerably blind!
 	
*Eerikki: Your outbursts of emotion will take some getting used to, haha!
 	
*Ilm al-akqat: I....yes, it will.
 	
*Nimune: The world but feels the present's spell, the poet feels the past as well...
 	
*Raug: ...
 	
*Nimune: Whatever men have done, might do...whatever thought, might think it too...
 	
*Raug: You are taking too long, servant!
 	
*Zael: Shall I crush her, great lords? Her bones will snap quite nicely!
 	
*Nimune: Great lords, please! Just a little more time!
 	
*Raug: Do not test our patience!
 	
*Ilm al-akqat: I've found them!
 	
*Kielazar: Where, Ilm?
 	
*Ilm al-akqat: In trouble.