Kaiga Agniyastra

---

"Devil slayer?" Kaiga said puzzled before pulling his sword out the puppet. "I think you've got the wrong idea my flames are just stronger than normal." All thanks to Azuria of course, he wouldn't be half as strong if she hadn't taught him. That wasn't important right now however, he still had to save the kids from these bad guys. Kaiga was prepared to attack again but a dragon(?) appeared out of nowhere. Kaiga was surprised but gritted his teeth and prepared to face Yaorin again.

Only to be quickly beaten back by Yaorin's angel force and as she left Kaiga could only grit his teeth harder in anger at his failure. "Always like this," Kaiga sadly muttered to no one but himself. "Never able to accomplish anything.", Kaiga gripped his sword before he prepared to face his next opponent; only for his thoughts to be interjected by the voice.

"Hey Kaiga...do you think the sister spirit she was talking about was me?", Kaiga furrowed his face up in confusion as the voice kept speaking. "I'm the only spirit inside you unless...I CAN'T BELIEVE IT YOU HAVE SOMEONE ELSE." Kaiga could only meekly mutter out a what before blocking the voice from speaking again. Perhaps it was their attempt at cheering him up...yeah no he lived only to see Kaiga suffer.

However, Kaiga's distraction would prove to be a horrible mistake as he failed to notice his shifting surroundings in time. Kaiga quickly looked around before noticing the kid by his side again. "Unforgivable," Kaiga said simmering with rage. "Bringing a kid into this do you have not shame. Kid stay behind me I'll protect you."

Kaiga decided that instead of just screaming into space about the injustice of this he would make up for his failures by taking down this jester. Tossing his sword aside Kaiga breathe in before clasping his hand together, "do it as Azuria taught you." As Kaiga took his hands apart a flaming arrow appeared and he quickly hurled it at the clown before hurriedly shaping a fir arrow into a spear and rushing at the clown and swinging down his spear.

As the colossal battle between Jericho & Yaorin commence and when all hope seemed lost upon another chokehold, Kaiga set himself ablaze by sheer heroic will and determination with his power of feelings, Brandon saw a splitting image of Natsu's Fairy Tail in Kaiga.

"What the Devil -"

Brandon was surprised by the sheer spikes of magic power that Kaiga released as the floor beneath him not only appeared to be molten but the atmospheric heat of his aura, seemed to be melting the icy walls of the castle.

That quick rush sent Brandon flocking back to his shadow portal realm, flocking to his dimension safe, having nothing but agonizing scream of immolation, not even his dark magic could heal him as it cannot keep up with Kaiga's fire magic, burning him constantly, even after he escaped.

Such humiliating defeat, caught the attention of Lady Setsuka, who wiped the blood stains, dripping from her lips, she initially thought that it was from the people she drained earlier and her cup was full, not even a sip, Setsuka realized that it was her nose bleeding from the sheer heat of Kaiga's flames.

She stood up from her throne for the first time.
@The Jest@Iamme



Such nuisance
Setsuka thought.

"Are you testing my patience, Human?"

The room temperature significantly drops, encasing it in ice and snow.

Lucas Gutenberg

_{Fylkirlén Forest}

---

Lucas looked at the flames with a little pride as left Gwen to choose their destination, he initially thought that he would struggle casting flames in a forest encased in the ice but it appears that he is worried for nothing. As long as uses his own mana, his glyphs will operate normally.

Now time for the next step, adjusting the glyph to use the ambient mana instead of his. That way the flames will not just consume his mana but also allow him to make a torch for them to carry. With the amount of ice mana surrounding him, it will prove to be quite challenge that will need a minute.

A minute that he simply won't have as he felt a chill behind him, forcing him to turn around and prepare a glyph for a potential battle.

Finally her prey in sight, with a rush of energy Liv chilled the group of Gwen, Ayuna, Ceri and Lucas, slowing down their movements and reactions, dashing around the trees to hide her position still.

”Høhø, you Phoenixes can either surrender or face the might of Setsuka-sama and her best forces!”

In a millisecond glance Liv already identified the main threats of this group, a Glyph Mage with likely a large reservoir of spells, but can he maintain his campfire and fight back at the same time?

He could see it in the corner of his eyes, shadows moving and sneaking around the tree. He cannot say for certain but he had a weird feeling about this one.

He took a glance at his group, aside from Gwen the flame he made is a lifeline. He had a choice of fighting back or keeping flames lit.

Well there is another option.

"Forces imply numbers." he spoke as he kept tracking of the moving shadows. He doesn't expect banter but he needs every second he could to modify spell a bit.

"And if you are the best..."

The cold will not bother these flames.

"...it speaks on the quality of your organization." he spoke as he threw the modified flames to the trees allowing it to slowly spread around the snow.

It will remain ever burning as long as coldness lingers.

"I hope you mind the landscaping and arson, it's getting too cold here." he spoke as flames of arrow began pursuing Liv.

In hindsight, this may not have been the best idea.

This was a castle manned by some crazy child-napping, devil-worshipping cult. Of course it was going to be laden with insane traps alongside a bunch of strong guards! While the Mist he made from his flames and his gourd of water may have helped with the latter, it wasn't going to be that effective with the former.

Plenty of times, the boy evaded traps that nearly grabbed him by the tail in quick succession. Just when he thought he got through the worst of it and had a moment to catch his breath... The ground beneath his feet liquified like quicksand, dragging him in.

"Oh, Come o-" Before he could finish his yell of annoyance, he was gone without a trace.

---

Falling into darkness for a second before he could see light beneath himself, the ceiling spat him out and dropped him right onto the floor.

...Of the throne room he left.

Though not quite as he left it. Apparently a lot happened while he was away; he noticed what was happening outside... A giant white monster that looked like an angel, taking on a dark starry dragon of some kind. While both of these were pretty terrifying, something in his gut was telling him the angelic one was the enemy here. Yet for as scary as it looked, there was something about it that gave him...comfort? ...Confidence? As if he felt like he could win when it seems and feels impossible. He never seen an angel before, but heard about them from Tai: the mentors of Devil Slayers and envoys of the most high. Maybe this was some kind of effect they have on people?

Wait, that's besides the point! He shook his head and focused what really matters right now: He was right back where he started. He got to his feet and looked around, wondering how the bloody hell that happened. He was pretty sure he didn't make it to the second floor; if anything he thought he was descending down to the basement when he sank. It seems this entire castle's layout was completely under someone's control, and as he immediately noticed that damn jester looking at them all smug, an Anti-Magic barrier now around the two and the kids still just standing there!

...In fact that, in itself, was strange. Taking a moment to look closer, he could tell they didn't seem to be reacting to any of this...in fact they weren't reacting at all.

...So that's it. This castle, these kids, they're under that clown's control! Kotaro had no idea what kind of magic was being used, but it seems that clown had everything under control from the beginning. Honestly, thinking back on it, he should have saw it coming. He figured the presence of Brandon, his comrades, and his mistress was what kept them in line, and that ring of fire was what kept the kids from escaping. But in that case they should have at least noticed him breaking out and hopping through the fire, and should have at least tried to follow suit, or yell at him to come back, or something. It also made sense why no one bothered to stop him from escaping: he didn't have any hope of going anywhere Brandon didn't want him to go.

But it seems the clown had one oversight. Even though they were surrounded by Anti-magic particles, he was still in Kitsune form, and could still feel that inner fire without hinderance. By the looks of it, it seems like it didn't hinder the other flame guy one bit either. Since running off clearly isn't an option, their only option was to fight!

That said, however, it seems Kaiga was quicker to handle things than him. First by having Kotaro get behind him to protect him, which honestly felt somewhat insulting. But before he could protest, Kaiga got grabbed by the jester's darkness sucking him in. Only for him to flare up in fires the likes of which Kotaro hasn't truly ever seen before, and firing at Brandon with an arrow, the heat from this move being enough to nearly overwhelm him as well.

As soon as Brandon tried to escape into his shadow portal to retreat, from out of the same portal popped out a blade Kotaro immediately recognized. It seems the sword was never in the armory like Kotaro deduced, but was kept by Brandon himself this whole time! As if on instinct, Kotaro quickly jumped into the air and grabbed his katana, putting it back into the no-longer-empty sheathe by his side.

Now that his trusty partner was at his side, and the Jester was gone in a way he admittingly almost felt sorry for him going through - "almost" - things were starting to look up... Is what he would have said had he not felt a sudden frigid chill coming from the throne. Kotaro looked and saw Setsuka finally standing up, and the area around her succumbing to sudden frost, the sound of the room being frozen over like the cracking of glass. Almost immediately, Kotaro himself froze up, the fiery tail standing on end and the fires dimming.

"...Oh crud..." He whispered in fear.



From the start, Kotaro knew there was something about this woman that was bothering him, something about her was bad, bad news, especially when considering the others were taking orders from her. But at the time, he figured it was just because she was a very powerful wizard, or maybe even some sort of demon.

It was only after she unveiled herself by freezing the throne room that he realized she was something far, far worse.



"What's a Yuki-Onna doing here!?" he thought, his whole body shivering either from the cold... or was it from the fear?

In Hizuru, Tai taught him about this special kind of monster known as the Snow Lady. Supposedly a kind of yokai like Kitsunes, though Tai never called them anything more than monsters. Either way, they were viewed as incredibly powerful beings of cold and ice, and for Kitsunes like Tai, were something of a rival or perhaps even nemesis race to them. Most - save the most powerful among the kitsune - would avoid or run from one, and this was especially so for someone like Kotaro, who wasn't even truly a Kitsune himself.

Now, what is considered a bogeywoman among yokai stands before him: powerful, cold-hearted, and pissed off! Even as a Snow-lady, she seems especially powerful, given how she had all those guys serving under her.

This is a land of ice, so it's not entirely unthinkable that a yuki-onna would show up here, but he assumed they only existed in Hizuru.

Every single fiber of his being was making him want to take his mentor's advice and run like hell away from this woman. Brandon's gone now, so the spell keeping this castle under control should be as well; there shouldn't be anything preventing him from escaping out the door or one of the windows that she hasn't frozen over yet... If only it was so easy. Brandon's spell probably broke on the kids by now. Even if it didn't, he can't just leave them here with this ice witch, and he can't just leave the fire guy after what he just did; Tai wouldn't do that. But at the same time, he's not Tai; he's not strong enough to take down a Yuki-Onna even with his sword.

His heart raced in his ears; as if he was already frozen by her powers, he couldn't move his legs as he gasped for air.

...What should he do?

...WHAT SHOULD HE DO!?



...No, deep down he knew what he had to do, but he was too scared to commit to it.

Even so...



Kotaro took a couple of deep breaths to calm his beating heart and return to his senses. His kitsune features dispersed like an extinguished flame as he unsheathes his katana once more, the blade suddenly whirling with rings of wind magic.

"Taigetsu" was a quality form of Spirit art that Tai taught him, but it was ever going to be a back up plan until he was old enough to adapt to it properly. His true calling, a majority of his strength, lies in the wind spirit arts he harnessed through his blade.

"In this situation, even if he was outmatched, Master Tai would never abandon these kids. So I won't back down and abandon them either! There's only ever one reason to fight a losing battle..." He thought. He then turned to the fire guy.

"Grab the other kids and run for it, I'll cover you!" He said to Kaiga, gripping his sword with both hands as he took position to fight Setsuka, the winds around his blade roaring and pushing against the cold air she emitted.

Was he still terrified? Of course he was! The cold eyes of Death were staring him in the face, and simply feeling the air she emits was making him shiver even still. He doesn't stand a chance against this woman and he knows it! But...





@Danyel @Iamme

Jaina Dalton

All right, she was mad at the interruption, but also excited at having a worthy opponent at last!

Back-flipping herself down onto the ground, landing on her feet, she began gathering her Memory God Slaying Magic around her hands once more, before shouting, "I am Jaina Dalton, Princess of Snaervold, Wizardess of Fenix Tear and Daugther of the Sea! Flee now or be drowned in it!"

Ignorant folk have always feared the sea, due to generations of dread that formed a collective memory filled with monsters, drowning, and a vast blue expanse of nothing at all for miles around. Jaina tapped into this collective memory to amplify the dread those who heard her felt, her contempt for those who gave themselves over to their fear of saltwater flicking out like a whip when it would otherwise be held back by courtesy, etiquette and respect - None of whom this brigade had earned.

Seawater began to seep up from the floor, rising upward to shin-length, the salt smell permeating the area and mixing with the coppery tang of blood as Jaina continued her outraged speech.

"You who fear the source of your bounty, you who live beside the source of a fear you do not wish to overcome, clinging to your cowardice to the point where you fear Vampires less than she who has granted you the fruits of food, commerce, and the salt used for both - And all because of what? You cling like babies to your mothers when faced with storms and sea monsters?"

The seawater stirred beneath them, awakening the primal memory of the sea, carried by harsh winds that brought the salt to their noses, even as Jaina's words reverbrated with even more outrage.

"I do not detest cowards. I do not even detest willful cowards. But who I do detest are those who would deny their cowardice in the face of the source of their own rewards!"

The seawater rose up into tendrils, even as Jaina opened up a Memory Manipulation Vortex, not to erase or even extract memories, but to enhance them, to ensure that they would not forget their fear of the sea, and to make it clear that their contempt for it was echoed so many times over that it was irrelevant.

"Memory God Slayer Magic - Memory Manipulation Vortex! Seawater Magic, Grasping Tidal Horror!"

The tendrils of water would hold the foe in place if the saltwater seeping into their gear had not already done that (Jaina was immune and she also made any nearby books immune; knowledge was sacred). The Memory Manipulation Vortex would remind them of their fear, amplifying it to extreme levels. And if they did not overcome this fear, the tendrils of saltwater would drag them down into the rising seawater... And they will drown.

@Aku the Samurai, @Danyel, @BlackMaiden, @Sho Minazuki

Kaiga Agniyastra

---

Kaiga watched as Brandon skulked away and was freed from the darkness; there was only one thing he could say he felt: happiness. This was something not even the voice could take away from him, he had finally managed to accomplish something of note other than being a punching bag for bad guys. That happiness was short-lived as the woman got off her chair.

Kaiga quickly moved to grab his dropped sword as the woman got off her throne, he was quick to check on the kid and was surprised to see him holding his sword. Perhaps he was more capable than he thought, but before he could instruct the kid to run away he was the one told to run. That struck a blow to Kaiga that left him momentarily stunned. He should run away?

Either that kid was suicidal or confident in his abilities but Kaiga couldn't let a kid deal with his fight. "No way," Kaiga responded firmly "I can't just leave you to deal with her." After saying that Kaiga took a look at the lady and took his time to take her appearance in resulting in him biting his lip. "Great of course, it had to be a yuki-onna."

Even more reason to not run away, Kaiga quickly moved to the cells holding the kids and cut them down with his swords. "ALL OF YOU LEAVE, WE'LL COVER YOU." He couldn't just leave these kids here while he fought the yuki-onna. but what they did or what they didn't do shocked him even more. They didn't even react to him they just stayed sit.

mind controlling

He knew these guys were horrible but to think they'd go to this length was even worse. He grinded his teeth in fury before forcing himself to calm down. He needed to keep a cool head to deal with this monster. Kaiga switched out his sword for his gauntlets and walked up to the sword-holding kid. Giving one last glare to the yuki before clasping his hands together Kaiga would shoot a javelin right at the Yuki before rushing her.

He never intended for the sword kid to fight with him, but he knew he would never accept to being told to go away. Kaiga turned to the kid and smiled. "Sorry but you're going to help those kids get out of here." As soon as Kaiga said that he put more energy into his feet to appear to go faster and crashed the yuki-onna through the castle walls.

Forcing her outside as they both fell, with the voice scolding him all the while.

---

_{Location: Fortuna}

Shinra spiralled in the air for scarcely a second before immediately righting himself, landing in a slight crouch beside Jaina. His eyes narrowed at the priest warily, his entire body buzzing with restless energy. He could already tell that a good fight was about to go down.

Surprisingly, though, Shinra wasn’t the first one to act. Before he could even start moving, his scholarly guildmate made the first move.

“Yeah, you tell him, Jaina!”

To be honest, Shinra wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about, but she seemed really into it so he cheered her on anyway. His fist clenched, the power of gravity surging through his body as he watched Jaina restrain the priest with seawater?! Where did that come from?! Shinra shook his head to snap himself out of amazement, setting a determined glare on the enemy priest. He could gush about how cool his guildmates were later! There was no way he was going to let himself fall behind here!

Taking a light step to launch himself into the air and at the priest, Shinra accelerated his speed several times over, shooting himself like a cannonball.

“Magi-Mech Attack: Gravity Cannon!”

GM post