Strange Trails [Invite/Artifact Material Hunt]

It had barely been a day or two since Dio had parted ways with those he almost made the imp had considered family, and after all that time he could feel...a strange sense of ease in his mind for the first time a long way. Had they parted ways in the most healthy way possible? He had enough self awareness to realize the answer to that was probably a resounding no but...frankly he couldn't care much right now. He had a world to see and a lot of strenght to earn back, it was hardly the time to let sentimentality rule his mind yet again!

But what let him here of all places? One of the most infamously dangerous regions in the entire digital world? Well, not even he was entirely sure. A mixture of curiosity, boredom and the offchance he might find something to fill in the power void that being away from both his twin and tamer inevitably brought. Regardless of what his reasoning was, after making sure he wasn't being followed or stalkded by anything he made his way into the so called Tyrant's Labyrinth, unsure of what he was to find there.

After a good long while of wandering the dimly lit tunnels with nothing but the echo of his own steps for company, he began whistling a merry tune, his finger sliding along the walls next to him as he walked in an almost lackadaisical manner. On the one hand, making this much noise carried a slight risk of unwanted attention, but on the other he really couldn't care less. Whatever came his way would surely not be a match for the terrifying and unfathomable powers of the Dark Lord...or at least that's what he kept telling himself.

He continued his way like this for what seemed like hours, though probably couldn't be longer than twenty minutes, when he suddenly stopped on his tracks, not making a single sound. He could hear the distinct sound of voices coming from somewhere down this one tunnel. They sounded echo-y, distant, so it was hard to gauge just how close they truly were but...was he willing to risk finding out? Well it was either that or going back the way he came, and he most certainly didn't want to keep on whistling for much longer, as he was starting to get tired of his own tune.

Throwing caution to the wind he continued forward, this time more slowly and carefully than before, shifting his entire weight back every time he took a step, trying to make as little sound possible. The voices sure enough grew louder with each step taken, and it was only a matter of time till he found out who or what was making them. But once he did so...what?

Before he could decide on a course of action he came to a dead end...or at least what initially looked like one: after who knew how many miles of a semi straight road, the tunnel suddenly took a sharp turn to the right, for once obscuring what laid ahead. Which was quite problematic, seeing how the voices seemed to be just around the corner. He pressed his back against the wall, and slowly leaned closer to the edge, his head carefully poking out for a quick peak.

What he saw made him feel...admitedly quite silly for taking so much care to be stealthy. A very familiar looking young man and battle scarred veemon were just on the other side.

"Oh, it's you two." He couldn't help himself but say out loud, a mixture of relief and...slight dissapointment in his tone. Though it was certainly a friendly tone all things considered. "You should be more careful, you could get charged with regicide for scaring the Dark Lord to death." He added, walking from around the corner and standing next to the two, giving them a small wave of his hand.

Hm, dissapointing. Dio was hoping for a bit more of a reaction from the other two, had they perhaps heard him coming? Ah well, there would be other days where he'd get to dazzle them, no doubt. As for now he had to deal with answering the obvious questions. He expected them to ask those at some point sure, but that didn't mean he felt ready to answer. He still did his best though, figuring these two deserved that much.

"Well I can actually go a bit higher than that, if only for short bursts. The other two are fine but it's...complicated." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as his face contorted into an annoyed grimace, unsure how to put into as few words as he could what had happened. Not because it were that complicated but rather he simply didn't want to dwell on it. "We were feeling a bit...smothered by eachother I guess you could say, so we decided to part ways for the immediate future."

The imp shook his head, as if still annoyed over something he couldn't get over it. Which he most certainly was.

"I don't expect you to respect it, but I hope you can at least understand it. But enough pity parties!" He said, immediatelly switching gears and putting on a cocky smirk as he approached the two. "As why I'm here? Well I figured I'd look around. See the world. Maybe get stronger, and what better place to start than here? Now the question is why are you two here?"

He tilted his head at the man's words, an eyebrow ever so slightly raised in incredulity. Elemental jammer? That sounded sketchy, but intriguing. If it wasn't a completely bogus excuse that is.

"I hope you're not just trying to find excuses to keep me away." He chuckled, snapping his fingers. He kept quiet for a moment before looking at his hand and snapping his fingers again. And again. And again. Each time looking more and more annoyed. No matter how hard he tried, none of his snapping seemed to bring forth...anything! Not a single ember, nor even small ice droplet. Perhaps there was something to the duo's claims about a jammer. But besides the initial reaction he didn't seem too concerned about it.

"...ok, that's pretty annoying. But it'll take more than that to keep the Dark Lord away. Besides now I'm curious who or what would such a jammer and why." He shrugged, before leaning his back into a wall, looking as smugly carefree as usual. "So I suppose I'll hang around for now, I wouldn't be able to just leave you two alone to fend for yourselves. The Dark Lord is not that cold hearted."

Yeah somehow Valt's answer was and at the same time wasn't what he expected. He smiled, as if holding back a chuckle, but the dull light of his eyes betrayed just how much Valt's words stung. Of course, Dio didn't expect either of them to agree with their choice but for some reason he couldn't help but feel the veemon was judging him on some deeper level, something besides the obvious that was.

"Always straight and to the point, aren't you." He sighed, shaking his head a bit with a forced smirk. "Can't say I blame you, even I'm not stupid enough to act like this is...normal. If nothing else I value your honesty." Knowing there was simply nothing else that could be said while keeping an even tone of voice, he decided to drop the subject altogether, lest his big mouth accidentally burned yet another bridge. At the very least there was one thing they could agree with,

"If I find that "answer", I'll let you know. Yggdrasil knows I rather this spiritual retirement as it were to not be in vain."

Oh but of course, Valt was not done berating, but at the very least he could understand the worry behind his tone a bit more this time. Was it too late to admit he partially wandered into this place because it was quicker for him to make a beeline through the Labyrinth than try to find a way around? Probably it wasn't a good idea to bring it up period, it wasn't like he was in a rush to get anywhere...hell did Dio even have a set destination in mind?

"Well excuuuse me, obviously I picked the place with a freaking power limiter out of a self imposed challenge and no random chance. Silly me, I should have known better!" He replied, eyes rolling back so much he could have seen his own digicore if he had kept going a bit longer. Yet despite his seemingly annoyed tone, there was something soothing about having a back and forth like this with Valt once again. Try as he might, he still enjoyed the old mon's company.

As they finally got back in track Ryouta finally adressed him, bringing up an interesting question. Or at least interesting for Dio, for some reason the chances to talk with others besides Gio about his Demon Lord inheritance were few and far between. Perhaps in no small part due to their bad press, yet Ryouta didn't seem to be too bothered by it, a shockingly refreshing reaction coming from...anyone that wasn't an older digimon, really!

"Oh, absolutely. It has a...let's call it a very specific smell that's ingrained into the back of your mind. You can't miss it." He explained, tapping his own nose slightly. "And even if didn't have some of that residual data in me...well I did spend a good chunk of my lovely existence in the Dark Area. That sorta energy permeates everything down there so it's kinda hard to ignore, let alone forget, kinda like how the sea smells differently than the city. Hell, if you were carrying so much as a bit of Dark Area dirt on your pocket I could probably tell." He added, sounding rather too matter of fact to possibly be bragging, before giving him a questioning look.

"Why the question? Just curiosity or do you think something like that could be at play here?"

"With all due respect Valt, you hold back your words about as much as you hold back your punches, at least when it comes to me." The imp chuckled, mostly just content Valt would drop the subject than anything else.

His smile faded quickly however as the veemon explained the real dangers of him being separated and on his own. Truth be told that explained a couple of things, he had caught himself lacking in strenght in some aspects he wouldn't even had thought about. They were small, like feeling slightly winded as he reached the top of a hill, or struggling slightly more as he tried vault over a fallen tree trunk, but the more he thought the more those examples started to mount. Simple, barely conscious movements that he never even thought about were suddenly ever so slightly harder for him.

But the knowledge he was practically back to square one and that he was most certainly the weakest member of this improptu team was...unpleasant. He didn't took it well.

"25? Preposterous! I might not be at my best without those two oafs but I sure as hell am not dead weight." He said, his voice now somewhat raised in indignation for but a moment, before he brought it back down. "I survived long enough on my own before, I think I can do it again. But your concern is noted and appreciated."

As for Ryouta's worries about there being something worse than a dark spire like construct ahead? "For what is worth I don't...think I feel anything that dark here for now. At least not Demon Lord dark. Hopefully it's not because this weakened state is also dulling my senses." He said, trying to seem reassuring. He had never dealt with any control spires before so for all he knew this was merely an offshoot of that.

Though he did have some small first hand knowledge on power limiters himself. "As a matter of fact I have. I..." He paused for a moment, considering his words before continuing with a defeated sigh, "...or I guess you could say me and Gio have a similar power in one of our forms, excepts it just stops ranged techniques altogether. Something about momentarily disrupting the data flow of the target or something. Nothing elemental though."

The real question for him though was less the who and why, but rather the what...as in what would they do about it?
"So if we find something, what's the plan? Do we just destroy it and call it a day or were you hoping to retrieve it in one piece?"

"If that's you holding back I almost dread seeing you go all out." He shook his head, amused. "But...thanks. Hopefully it won't get to that though." Again there was something oddly reassuring about Valt being the first one to find out about this. Even if he wasn't completely on board he was being considerably more supportive than what Dio initially gave him credit for.

But even with said support, he was painfully aware of his own limitations, despite what his boastful claims and ego would seem to indicate. If a fight were to break out there and then...well if they faced anything stronger than a champion he would be more of a liability than anything, even if Ryouta had cards to spare on him.
"I hope so..." He sighed, before clearing his throat and quickly adding in a much more loud tone, "I-I mean of course! Such small limitations won't hold me back."

Low oxygen training seemed like a really good analogy for this situation really, even if the self proclaimed Dark Lord found the general idea of such a thing fairly pointless. How many times would he be forced to fight in such conditions, after all? Never again if he could help it, even a tactical retreat seemed like a better call, but there's no way his ego would let him even contemplate such a possibility for longer than a second.
"Well considering this here limiter is locking around eighty percent of my repertoire it's not like I have many options to waste energy with." He quipped, trying to downplay this somewhat crippling situation.

"Charming. I'm sure Carlos would have appreciated that analogy." He then said, rolling his eyes a bit, not as disgusted as Valt but certainly about as amused with the man's comparison and talk of bodily fluids. How anyone found such a natural and frankly disgusting part of one's biology always eluded him, which was saying a lot coming from someone as easily amused as Dio.

As for their endgame once they found the source? Dio couldn't help but smile and nod in approval. Destroying such devices, no matter how wicked and volatile always seemed like a waste to him, so it was nice seeing an alternate solution.

"A pragmatic solution. I like it, no point in letting that sorta tech go to waste if you can use it for something better." He pondered over it for a moment before asking, "What kind of artifact would you even get out of this? Some sort of field inhibitor to stop megas from ruining Ys maybe? Or something more small scale?" Frankly tech talk eluded him, yet he couldn't help but be intrigued and fascinated by it. Perhaps he should ask Ryouta to teach him a thing or two later, considering all the free time he now had.

Time that he started to feel was being wasted by all this endless walking. For such a strong device it sure seemed to be hidden so far it was unfair. How were they supposed to find it without getting tired, or worse, bored?

"Say, got any idea if we're getting any closer? These halls are starting to blend together..."

"Eh, I'll manage somehow." He shrugged, somewhat annoyed at his predicament but not against following Valt's orders. Well, mostly, being bossed around was always a reality check for him but at least he was used to Valt doing so during training.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, am I right?" Dio smirked, knowing how true that saying rang, or at least how well it applied to him. He winked at Valt with smug confidence as he added, "Oh I'm sure you wouldn't let me kick the bucket, as they say. Can't imagine how dreadfully bored you'd be without your favorite pupil around."

The thought of Valt having a silencing sword of his own on top of everything else was as aggravating as it was tantalizing. Sure, the imp couldn't help but feel the green tinted tug of jealousy at the idea of his teacher growing his already absurdly broad arsenal even more, but it did spark an idea in him.

"Say Ryouta, how much would it cost me to get an artifact of my own?" He questioned the young man, his head tilting as his mind began to wander with the possibilities. A sword of his own, a pair of daggers, a fancy mace...the more his mind flashed with different iterations of possible artifacts the more the impmon smiled. Sure, raw power was nice and all, but such an artifact would surely come in handy if he ever ran into a situation similar this one, depowered and alone. "And do I get to pick how it looks?"

Regardless of the answer he might have gotten, their talk was eventually cut short by the distinct sound of voices in the distance, followed by Ryouta motioning them to be quiet. Dio followed their lead, his back leaning against the wall as he tried to make out whatever it was the voices talked about, to no avail.

One thing was almost guaranteed though, whoever was around the corner was most likely responsible to some extent about the power limiter set in place. The question was how to approach this. Had it been any other situation (or at least, had he been alone) Dio would probably had tried to get the jump on them, but now? He turned to face the other two, expecting whatever order that was to come. As much as he disliked that, the situation called for him to swallow his pride and go with the flow.