[IC] World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Smash Bros Crossover)

[Zoey Boey]

Dredge II

Edward, Therion, Juri, Snake
Word Count:1887 +3

Juri’s shouting drew the attention of Therion, his ears flicking towards the noise. It sounded like she couldn't be too far off. He'd found a generator of his own fairly fast, but once he was in front of it the thief's hands hovered above the various wires and plugs. There were lights indicating what was working and what wasn't, and some kind of plunger with a knob jutting out of the side of the machine. Rather than slap around at it with limited success, he abandoned it to race in Juri's direction.

Through a mess of tangled growths he spotted her, and the monster after her. That she'd taken such a bad wound already perturbed the thief, though he kept his caution. At least until it looked like the Dredge was about to catch up to her, at which point he couldn't wait and observe any longer.

Therion burst from the brush and went in with a vicious dagger strike designed to tear through magical barriers, on the off chance that this thing had some kind of invisible shield. But that wasn't the case - and the weapon didn't so much as scratch the hideous creature. It lurched and swung its hooked arm out wide, narrowly missing the thief as he ducked and backpedaled away from it.

Juri took the opportunity to put a lot of distance between her and the Dredge. Not that she would, but shouting ‘thank you’ would undermine the distraction anyway. Juri rounded a couple corners and peered around to make sure it wasn’t following her. Then she put her back against a wall and slid down, clutching her wound. ”Grr…what the hell?!” She groaned through clenched teeth.

”Ugly bastard is playing his own rules…gotta get those generators running and get outta here. Bet that’s it’s weakness. Since when do I talk to myself? Since I gotta frickin’ two inch gash in me, that’s when!” Juri ran a hand down her face. There was a massive meathook on a stick in front of her, causing Juri to frown. She had a feeling Mr. Hooky Hands had nasty intentions for whoever it caught. She spotted a nearby crate and started to rummage around in it. Inside was unfortunately not a medkit, but instead a toolbox. That’d make fixing the generators a lot faster, though one of the fantasy bozos could probably make better use of it than she could. Juri put her hand on a nearby wall and peeked over it, making sure the coast was clear. In the mist she spotted a light, and decided to move over to it, staying low and slow.

Back in the small clearing she'd hurried to leave behind, Therion was having a hell of a time losing the monster now that its attention was on him. He had avoided any hits so far by running and ducking behind the weird trees, but how long he could manage that for he didn't know - it almost seemed like the thing was getting faster the longer it gave chase for.

A glint of something metallic caught his eye and the thief made a sharp turn, barely avoiding the Dredge's hook as it slammed it down overhead in the space he'd just been. Therion sprinted toward what turned out to be one of the copper golems, grabbed its shoulder and threw it behind him as he vaulted over it. The golem collided with the Dredge, and though it didn't hold the creature up for very long it was enough time for Therion to assume his beast form. Faster and better suited to a crazy alien jungle hollow like this as a large white cat, he escaped the terror's radius for the moment.

Elsewhere Edward sprinted through the undergrowth, flames licking around him singing the plants that he didn't hack out of his way with a machete, till he suddenly burst out of the foliage and into a clearing housing a large futaristic structure of some kind. While he would have loved to investigate the building itself, atop it he saw the flickering lights perched atop a pole that his golems had seen before, specifically perched atop the generator Juri had found.

Speaking of those, the golems had lost sight of the creature, and were now scattered throughout the forest, trying to find it once more. Still, while ”Concerning” it was also ”all the more reason to prioritize the generator”, something he did by hurrying up the stairs, and then using the banister and a singular large flap of his wings to reach the roof, avoiding the distractions found within.

There was plenty of one found up top, namely the generator in question, which the man crouched down to inspect, and immediately became engrossed in attempting to understand the workings off, very much overanalyzing the entire device rather than getting to the root of the problem.

This, combined with his slash and burned trail, ment that down beneath his feet, within the base a locker popped open, and the horror slipped free, scent upon him. Moment’s later it ascended to the roof the proper way, and approached the man tinkering with the generator. He was not so blind as to be caught entirely unaware however, as as the hook came down Edward spun and raised his buckler to meet it, only for his arm to be effortlessly forced down and the Dredge’s grotesque weapon to be driven into his shoulder.

”Blast it” the man cursed, stumbling back towards the edge of the room, and then dropping off it, wings unfurling as he dropped, preventing the fall from breaking his ankles upon landing. He still stumbled to his knees, hand gripping his bleeding wound, but he had a single life line for that, his feather staff striker appearing beside him to deliver a burst of healing.

At that moment, several things happened in quick succession.

The Dredge appeared, looming at the precipice he’d just dropped down from and then, as the healing touched him, held up its unarmed hand which glowed with a pestilent aura that just as suddenly surrounded him instead. Yet rather than take effect, a barrier flashed around Edward as the Mirror Weakness passive skill he’d gained from a feather shield reflected the debuff back at the Dredge instead.

Initially this seemed to have had no effect, the Dredge hurling itself off of the roof and coming at him, but as the man rolled to the side to avoid it, the monstrosity charged on, blind to his presence as he pulled himself to his feet.

It then began to swing its weapon around wildly, only for a summoned set of copper golems to arrive just in the nick of time to distract it. Spears were banged together, prompting the Dredge to lunge towards and start tearing the golems apart while Edward used his wings to leap back up the way he’d come and perform a quick rather than clever repair job of the generator. Wires where put where they made sense, jams were cleared, and just in the nick of the time, as the now able to see again Dredge emerged back to the roof, having had to take the circuitous root back up, the engine purred to life.

Job done, the Dreadnaught did not dain to stick around, leaping off the roof and taking flight one more time. He didn’t go too far however, and instead made for a nearby tree that could support his weight, landing within it. Then, when the Dredge came and started to rip that tree down, he took wing for another, doing his best to look unwinded while hanging from his new perch.

He did a little too well at that act perhaps, as rather than continue to hunt him, the monstrosity departed into the foliage.

”Looking for easier prey, or worried about the generators, I wonder?” the Dreadnought asked the creature’s back, though naturally it did not answer. With the generator repaired, and the monstrosity gone after the others, Edward stuck around only a little longer, specifically to catch his breath and to investigate the Base interior for anything of value, finding two chests containing a medkit and a near dead flashlight for his efforts.

Through the window he would catch a glimpse of Juri and her toolbox as she was ducked down at an angle to obscure herself from the Dredge.

Noting her wounds, the man waited for the Dredge to leave the area, and only then approached, not trusting himself to not give her away by mistake, or wanting to find out what the blighting curse he’d reflected would do to a living person.

He offered her the freshly discovered medical kit without a word rather than deal with any predicted stubbornness that offering to help treat her might cause, and instead simply enquired quietly ”How are we faring?” with regards to their progress.

Juri snatched up the medkit and eagerly applied it to her wounds, stemming the bleeding. SHe concentrated on that, gritting her teeth as she wrapped the gauze around her side. Then she set the toolbox in front of Edward. ”This toolbox’ll stop your medieval ass from zapping yourself on a generator.” She said.

”Appreciated” Edward replied with more than a hint of sardonicism in his tone at the barely veiled insult, but he took the kit anyway and took a moment to pursue its contents regardless.

”I managed to get one. Somehow the ugly bastard snuck up on me. I think it can teleport somehow. Maybe through doors?” She theorized, thinking of the open locker behind it.

”It did seem to enter that structure without going through the main entrance” Edward replied, adding to the data point, before thinking back and, with Juri’s theory in mind, coming to a conclusion ”Hmm, and one of the metal cupboards where open within … which explains the otherwise pointless seeming external latches they sport …. As if to seal it inside?”

”It also attempted to inflict some sort of curse when I healed myself nearby, one that left it blind when I reflected the effect back at it” he added, only now after Juri’s self medication had proven that it couldn’t simply do so from anywhere in the arena, and that proximity matter.

Juri looked down at her bandages and then at Edward. ”Eh? Healing curse?” She got back into a crouching position and went to grab his head and squeeze. ”Bastard! Usin’ me as a damn guinea pig, huh?!” She said in a harsh whisper.

”Preferable to find out what it does now rather than when it is on top of us” he replied calmly from within the squeeze, even as he prodded her gut with his (unloaded) flintlock, before suggesting ”now let’s not have it go to waste. You can chew me out to your heart's content after we are no longer in danger”

Juri pushed his head to the side and lightly smacked the gun in the same direction. ”Like I’m afraid of some 1700’s peashooter. Whatever, gramps. I’ll kick your ass later.” She got back into a crouch and leaned around the side.

”Coast is clear. Try to keep up.” She crawled forward and away at a rapid pace.

After a moment the man sighed, holstered the empty threat, crouched down and followed after her.

[MULTI_MEDIA_MAN]

Return of None II

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (126/140), Midna, Edelgard, Lvl 4 Captain Falcon
Word Count: 2800 (+3)

”Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy” Midna sighed through teeth clenched with pain before glancing behind her across the bar to check on Emily. In doing so, however she spotted, in one of the small glass cupboards (read, mini fridges), a bottle that shimmered with power in her mindseye.

Restorative power.

With her shadow hand she reached across the bar and helped herself to the bottle while saying ”Not stealing if the barkeeps a creep” and then reading out loud that what she’d just retrieved was called ”Jim Roger Bread Soda”

With a sarcastic declaration of ”Well, that sounds lovely” she pulled up her helmet and got to drinking down the restorative meal in a bottle while the battle continued to rage behind her.

“Hey, whoa.” A familiar, tired voice reached Midna from beneath the bar, sounding mildly hurt. When she looked, she found the scruffy-haired, pink-wearing stranger from earlier, hunkered down almost out of sight. Unlike Emily, who only crouched down so she could see the action from her hidey-hole, he was sitting on the floor, carefully pouring a bright blue liquid into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. When she spotted him, he nodded his head over his shoulder, as if to say that she should focus on the task at hand.

Midna’s eyes widened, and then she gave a snort of a laugh at the true nature of his disappearing act that she just barely prevented from causing the bread drink coming out her nose. Still, despise this surprise reveal, she did indeed focus on the task at hand, downing the rest of her beverage, slamming the bottle down on the counter and correcting herself slightly to him being a ”sneak then” before turning back to see the state of the battle and get ready to get stuck back in, the bizarre beverage having miraculously washed away all her wounds.

By then, Nadia had rejoined the fray. Though the murderous aura given off by the memory zone meme once its shadows enshrouded the area made her hackles rise, the feral wasn’t about to sit back and do nothing–especially when it struck down the third person to attack it last time. She took off at a run, then boosted herself into the air with pressurized blood. With Charge she put her best foot forward in a lightning-fast divekick, then performed a high voltage Battery by flip-kicking back off the ground, detaching her head, and swinging it down in an energetic headbutt. Sparks flew as her noggin beaned Something Unto Death in the eye, but the next moment its pulse pushed her back, much to her chagrin. When she slid to a stop and popped her head back on, though, Nadia noticed a red peeper floating above her. “’Eye’ don’t like the looks of this…”

”Nor do I, but until we learn its true nature, we must continue to fight.” Edelgard simply replied, stepping forward to put herself at the forefront of the fight yet again, Aymr slashing out at the monster before her. As it retaliated with a Funeral kiss, Edelgard hefted her shield, the claw slamming into the steel barrier and letting off a terrible screech as its talons grated on the metal. Grunting at the impact, the Flame Emperor sighed. Even through her guard, that was quite a hit.

”Fire and Wind are apparently our best bets.” Falcon noted aloud in case any of the others hadn’t picked up on the boss’s elemental weaknesses. ”Good thing I’ve got plenty of the former to spare!”

Before he could act, however, the bounty hunter found himself paralyzed once more. Edelgard’s attack had earned her an eye sigil above her head just like Nadia’s, and a moment after it appeared, Something Unto Death faded away into the shadowy backdrop. Countless red eyes opened within the darkness before the meme itself descended from above the two women. Its feather-blade slid across their necks, cutting off Nadia’s scream with terrifying suddenness, and the next moment the monster was gone. When it reappeared, it was joined by two Sombrous Sepulchers containing the captive souls, and flanked by those eerie tombstones it now faced a team reduced by half.

”Not good!” Falcon finally said when the paralysis wore off. Now there were two team members trapped and in need of an assist. They couldn’t afford for the Captain to go ahead with his planned attack on Something Unto Death. So he turned and redirected his focus, sprinting toward the Sombrous Sepulchers. He recalled Nadia shouting something earlier about attacking the tombstones. So that’s what the bounty hunter would do. ”Not today!” Falcon cried as he began unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks against Edelgard’s tombstone. Even his usual showmanship was briefly set aside for the sake of rescuing a teammate. Sadly, the meme’s pulse shunted him backward all too soon, so the Sepulcher wasn’t down just yet. ”Midna, can you get the other one?””

”On it!” Midna called out as she slipped into the shadow of the bar, and then out of something Something Unto Death’s own inorder to cross the distance.

Once there, she declared ”Here, I’ve come up with something just for you!” before reaching her shadow hand back behind her, forming a sword grip, and then crescent moon blading the dead end express out of the twilight realm. The giant train-chainsaw mace wired and revved, bladed teeth spinning as it was slammed upwards.

Fighting gravity, it was something of a weakened strike, but the impact still unleashed a shockwave of wind that far outstripped what it should have created via momentum alone.

Midna level up

Minda: Skill: Wind Element Attunement (herself/Clone of Akira Howard/Ariel): Midna's strikes create wind based aftershocks in the same shape of her strikes that do 20% of the damage of the initial hit in an aoe that increases the stronger the hit is. These after shocks come in either a drill, blade, or expanding inverted cone depending if the strike was piercing, slashing, or blunt damage. Blunt hits also do significantly more knockback as a result of these secondary gusts.

On top of this, her minions gain access to wind attacks, allowing them to run in circles in order to build and then unleash tornados. The more (and bigger) the minions involved, the more violent and tumultuous the resulting vortex is.
For context the beast legion has a 'beast tornado' skill that does that, and hyrule warriors Midna can also have her minions do a run around in a circle to build a tornado

The massive weapon and its vacuum effect scored both a meaty wallop on Something Unto Death and some damage against the Sepulchers on either side, lowering both to just two feathers. Before Midna could push forward with the massive weapon for another assault, however, a wave of raw force sent her skidding away. Whatever this power was, it seemed that nobody could linger in the memory zone meme’s vicinity for long.

As Midna attacked, her minions appeared to strike at the main body to try and keep it off guard. Her darknut and cybernetic wolf-cycle appeared briefly to deliver a colossal overhead sword strike and point blank maw cannon lighting blast respectively, before her wolfos and beast legion leapt onto the foe, leaping up to nipping at its heels (literally) to pile on the pleasure. Their wind-aspected punishment quickly added up, but just as quickly they were sent packing like their master, leaving Something Unto Death alone with its prizes once more.

At that point, though, the fight took an unexpected turn. Emily vaulted over the bar, her saber at the ready, and ran up to stand alongside Falcon and Midna. “I appreciate you wanting to keep me safe,” she declared, turning to face the specter with a soldier’s solemnity. “But I can fight, too. I won’t stand by and let anyone die on my account!” After donning a ferocious mask, she used her saber to draw her own blood and set it alight. “If it’s fire you need, it’s fire you’ll get!”

Before she could put it to use, however, the meme struck again. It launched another Sunken Rain that assailed the Seekers with dark spikes, which forced Emily to block, then lunged toward Falcon with Funeral Kiss. The bounty hunter had temporarily stop his attacks to put up his defenses, but when he did it manifested a reddish bubble around him that absorbed the attack, causing the bubble to shrink a bit as a result. But since it was charging at him, he was able to retaliate with a ”Ryuugeki Ken!” and hitting the Meme with a close range burst of flame before the pushback kicked in.

As the Meme rushed towards the captain, Midna and her pack rushed past it and towards the tombstones holding their other allies. The wolves naturally outpaced her, but the princess merely needed to yank on her astral chain once they got close inorder to catch up, pulling herself to the beast legion, and then spring boarding off of it with the power of flowmotion. With most of her blades scattered to the four corners of the room she instead bore her dragon claws, delivering a quartet of wind power backed swipes to Nadia’s tome. With talons piercing the surface and letting her cling to it for just a moment, she raised up her shadow hand and then sent it crashing down atop of it trying to ”Crack you like an egg!” Strangely, however, the whole assault only seemed to count for one feather, meaning one remained by the time Midna got repelled once again.

As she did this, the wolves of astral and twilight darted under Edelgard’s and, chasing each other’s tails, whipped up a tornado beneath it, buffeting and rocking it before they leapt into their creation and used it to launch themselves up to bite at the Sombrous Sepulcher. Their efforts shaved off only one of the tombstone’s feathers, however, so that Sepulcher remained standing, too.

Given the speed at which Midna, her summons, and the Captain operated, Emily was only able to make good on her proud declaration just then. She swung her saber, coated in her own blazing blood, in a wide arc to launch an ember that carved its own roundabout path. It looped through one tombstone, Something Unto Death, and then the other before firing off behind her. Though her Ember Reversal didn’t inflict much injury to her adversary, it still burned away the Sepulchers’ final feathers and left them unprotected. Having observed throughout the fight’s first phase, Emily made sure to communicate. “One more should do it!”

The memory zone meme would not let the totems go down without a fight, though. It wheeled around in the shadows, hurling down another dozen flechettes with Sunken Rain, then warped to the opposite side to nail the Seekers from behind with a second. Emily, who’d managed to dodge through the first deadly deluge, had charged forward to try and destroy the undefended totems, only to receive two lances, one into the meat of her calf and the other across the ribs. “Agh!” She stumbled, teeth gritted, and fell short of the prize. Meanwhile Falcon had fared slightly better. His closeness to the memory zone meme at the time kept him from dodging the first volley before taking a glancing blow from one of the lances, but he did manage to avoid the second volley since they came from a longer ways away after the meme had teleported.

Midna sent her wolfos home and hunkered down under her shadow hand to resist the first barrage, and sent her flygon forth to strike the totems while she kept track of the meme. In doing so she was well prepared to block the second barrage as well, and to mentally inform her minion of it as well, the shadow dragon barrel rolling in the air to avoid the spines.

Rather than get to one or the other, it landed between them and vibrated its wings in such way as to produce a horrendous bug buzz that pulsed out and struck both targets at once, while Midna focused on Emily, calling out in question ”are you alright?” while mentally charting an exit route for her. Seeing this, the Captain figured he was alright to refocus his efforts on targeting Something Unto Death.

“I’ll live!” the soldier growled, ripping off strips of cloth with which to staunch the bleeding. She was more concerned about Edelgard and Nadia, but as the flygon dealt both Sepulchers their final blow, the tombstones shattered and returned the fallen to the world of the living.

Nadia gasped as she sat bolt upright, her hair and tail fluffed up in terror. She found it difficult to tell exactly what happened, but it reminded her of suddenly waking from dreamless sleep. It was easy enough to tell what lay before her, though, and with the battle against the many-eyed specter still ongoing, the feral rose to her feet.

Edelgard, similarly, forced herself up as she recovered from what was now her second ordeal trapped within the Sepulcher, and she was not pleased. Her face tightened in anger, and rather than Aymr, Absolution appeared in her hand.

Grazed by Sunken Rain but undeterred, Captain Falcon charged back into the fray. He sprinted into a leap that carried him toward Something Unto Death. ”Falcon Kick!” He shouted as his fiery boot made an impact against the meme. Naturally the pushback effect shunted the Captain back a few feet, but he’d anticipated this. ”Ryuugeki Sen!” He threw a series of 4 chi-empowered punches that hurled flaming disc projectiles at Something Unto Death as a follow up to the Falcon Kick opener.

Demonstrating a superhuman ability to push through the injury and pain, Emily rose to follow him into battle. Her bloodied sword burned bright as she lashed out with Crimson Moon, a sweeping crescent slash that kept Something Unto Death scorched. With each blow, more fiery cracks spread across its tenebrous frame, so it must be close to breaking.

Nadia lacked the elements necessary to bust the meme open, but she could still do her part. A crimson blast from her legs hurled her toward her target, and the feral dropped with all ten claws extended for a curtain shredder slash. “It’s curtains!” One on the ground, she stood on one leg, then began to rotate on that thigh scar. Using jets of blood from her arms she quickly picked up speed, spinning with her tail, upper body, and other leg extended like the rotors of a propeller. “Round and round we mow!” After only a second or two the monster’s aura began to push her away, but as she tumbled back Nadia executed one final spin to launch both arms at Something Unto Death like flying drills.

Midna didn’t exactly have the matching element to her allies fury stacks, but she had charged up plenty of wind power beating on the totems which she promptly put to good use: riding her beast legion into the frey and then leaping off of it to deliver a cyclone kick to the meme, creating a stunning shockwave of wind when her foot made impact with one of its many eyeballs.

A fireball crashed against the meme as Midna attacked it, followed shortly by a series of vicious attacks from Absalom’s axe, wielded by the Flame Emperor and literally blazing with her fury. ”ENOUGH! FALL, DEMON, BEFORE THE FLAMES OF AN EMPIRE!”

New Ability for Edelgard

Solar Prominence - A toggleable Ability that adds 25% of Edelgard's attack damage as fire damage to each of her attacks, with a low (1/5) chance to cause the Burning condition as well, causing damage over time.

Her blazing might smashed through the last of the meme’s defense, its invisible shell bursting into fiery shards that went up in smoke as Something Unto Death dropped to the ground. Though Edelgard would still be repelled a short distance after her assault, that feeble attempt only served to delay the inevitable, since now everyone could see that their opponent was wide open. With the monster’s weakness broken, it was up to the Seekers to make sure that Something Unto Death stayed down for the count.

[DracoLunaris]

Lilith’s Encroaching Shadow II

Lvl 7 Sandalphon (54/70), Bowser Junior, Rika, Roland
Word Count: 1414

Eager to pay the Seekers -and especially Sandalphon- back for the archangel’s shapeshifting stunt, Lilith kickstarted the action with a powerful -and familiar- hex. For the second time, a great many vortexes manifested along opposite sides of the Qliphoth hollow, facing one another as they gathered energy. As a nice change of pace from Carmelized Sweets, the demon’s challengers didn’t need to worry about any patterns or gimmicks, just survival. Given how fresh in everyone’s mind this attack was, Sandalphon hardly felt it necessary to demonstrate her new strategy by marking spots for the others to run to. They just needed to defy their instincts and approach one of the walls of dark magic, so as to not get blasted from both sides at once.

Unfortunately, given the team’s vitals according to Sandalphon’s scans, this was still a big problem. With Lilith’s wings still intact, these lasers would be unavoidable, and once the smoke cleared her team would be in dire straits. Every few seconds that passed made the Creeping Corrosion in the Seekers’ bodies more lethal, and without any more emergency healing, the archangel needed to charge her skills through damage against Lilith. While the weakness she gained from Azure had seemed manageable at first, the nature of this fight could very well render it fatal. Left with no choice but to press on, however, Sandalphon steeled herself, her eyes squeezed shut. A second later the giant lasers let loose, and an unholy violet luster filled the arena.

Fortunately, while he’d been focused on driving, Jr hadn’t been casting much magic, and so once they were gathered up at the slightly less deadly section of lasers (the prince having painted a trail of ink for him and Rika to sail over there on) the boy started putting it to use

First came two casts of ”Medica!” one before and one after the undodgeable attacks which at least made things a touch more manageable.

”You said something about breaking her wings to stop that?” Rika recalled after recovering from the microwaving, regarding a comment Sandalphon had made near the start of the battle.

”Then let’s break them already!” jr declared, before using ”Presence of Mind!” to boost his casting speed, and using that speed to generate a storm of small metal shanks that he used to ”Sick 'Em”, sending groups of the blades homing in to shank the wings specifically.

Rika joined in on the impalement, deploying her Red Baron Drones and sending the sword sized machines arching towards the foe in a pair of claw swipe like gestures, three blades for each wing.

These lasers that Lilith were firing had an unintended side effect when it came to Roland. With them more or less being canceled out or overpowering his clashes due to their special properties, Roland’s Magical Girls finally had its condition fulfilled and he became immune to all of Lilith’s status effect debuffs, had a massive increase in his own defense, and now whenever Lilith attacked him, a corrosive acidic shadow clinged to her making her take 10% more damage cutting through her defense even more. Still, if the Creeping Corrosion he’d purged claimed his healer and allies, he’d be pushing up daisies nonetheless.

Although this buff came with a downside as all the constant damage had been taking a toll on Roland’s fortitude and with the last laser giving him Magical girls did give him his ability, it also Staggered him. A really bad time to get staggered too as Lilith was still in her super form. The extra defense from Magical Girls would help offset the massive defense drop he got while staggered, but he was stunned for a bit while he recovered.

For the moment, at least, the Koopa Kids were doing their best to keep Lilith busy. Their combined power was nothing to sneeze at, and with the extra attention paid to the demon’s wings, more cracks were starting to show. Even Sandalphon managed to get a few shots in, once she set up a new blue tile to stand on. For now her Eye of Sol remained slung across her back, its extra stopping power useless when she needed a casting catalyst on hand at all times. Instead she plugged her enemy’s wings with one ether bolt after another, as in the zone as the archangel could get.

Sadly, the opportunity lasted only a few seconds, and Lilith clapped back with something new. ”You’ve earned this one…see ya, suckers!” She cast Sugary Surge and immediately disappeared, with seven copies of her winged staff appearing around the arena: one in the middle and six more surrounding it. A red arrow appeared from each, pointing in a random directly. Sandalphon paused, but only for a moment as she scanned the arrangement. Now, more than any point in the fight so far, knowledge was power. “There!” She used her powers to ping one staff with a holographic screen, then jogged toward it. “The one without an arrow pointing to it.” With a moment to spare she reached the staff she’d indicated, where the archangel knew that she would be safe. That said, there was another problem on the horizon: unaccustomed to this much shouting, she found herself beginning to grow hoarse. It wouldn’t be much longer before her pings would be her only means of communication.

Between them, Jr and Rika had the strength to grab and haul Roland to the spot as well. Jr had plenty of experience hauling peach around while running from plumbers, and with Rika’s very large helping hands doing the same with the larger man was no problem either.

With their burden they reached safety with only a split second to spare. Each staff fired off an immense, conical blast of deadly dark magic in the direction of its arrow, blanketing the whole arena in stygian purple save for the spot where the Seekers now stood or slumped. By the time the demon reappeared, Sandalphon had produced yet another blue tile, so an ether bolt straight to the braincase beaned Lilith the second she popped back in. ”Tch!” she spat as she dusted herself off, displeased to see that her challengers had survived. ”Where’s the blood? Where’s the carnage!?”

”Coming right up” Jr taunted, as he formed and magically launched more blades from his metal tattooed arm, while Rika’s gauntlet hangers upended up and unleashed swarms of electrical fireflies that buzzed over to deliver static shocks to the demon. Both attacks were delivered without the kids having to lift a finger, which was good because said fingers where still holding on to Roland.

Roland shook himself out of his stagger, noticing he was being carried around by the two kids. ”Thanks kids. Remind me to give you something later. ” Roland said, getting himself free and ready for more fighting. Annoyed himself, Roland decided to throw an EGO at Lilith, this one being In the Name of Love and Hate, Roland wearing a strange humanoid winged serpent outfit and holding a magic wand in his hand. Behind him appeared a giant heart shaped portal which fired a giant laser at Lilith as the arena temporarily changed into a pink mist filled cityscape.

“AAAGH!” Roland’s spectacular laser soon dissipated, but it left Lilith seared and smoking, her fangs bared in pained anger. “Damn you! Lasers are MY thing!” With a sneer she conjured two more opposing laser arrays, but this time the vortexes seemed different. They were still violent swirls of elemental darkness, but instead of deep dark purple, they appeared to be a less vibrant red, and Sandalphon could tell why. “Her wings are broken,” the archangel calmly informed the others as she moved to one side. “These lasers can now be avoided.”

Caught unawares in her blind rage, Lilith could only whip around and stare at the shreds affixed to her staff. ”What!? FUCK!”

“Language!” As the lasers went off all around, Sandalphon cast her newly-recharged Angelic Praise. It not only restored the bulk of her allies’ health, but allowed her to power through the beam barrage. “Do not succumb to her corruption, children,” she called out to the Koopas Kids as she readied herself to open fire. “We must silence this devil for good.”

[Double]

Return of None III

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (129/140), Midna, Edelgard, Lvl 4 Captain Falcon
Word Count: 2360 (+3)

Captain Falcon’s barrage of attacks against the Sepulchers earlier had pushed him over the edge of building up a single stock of his Power Gauge. And now that the memory zone meme was dropped again, it was time to capitalize. ”Falcon…” He said as he began winding up his fist. ”PUUUUNCH!” His voice rang with the impact of his explosive fist against Something Unto Death. Then he jumped back a step and spent his Power Gauge stock, chi building in his arms before thrusting his palms forward. ”And one more with FEELING! Haoh Shoukou KEN!” And with that the explosive ball of flame lurched forward from his hands at the downed meme.

Stalking forward menacingly, Edelgard hefted Absolution with a dark look on her face. Not bothering with fireballs or Nosferatu, she returned to close quarters with her memetic tormentor and began carving away at its flesh with the burning axe, her fury only serving to strengthen each blow she hammered on the foe.

With her target downed, Nadia didn’t need any high-flying stunts or fancy footwork this time. Instead she collected her arms, then charged in alongside Emily to join Edelgard’s beatdown. When their slashes raked across the specter’s salamander skin, they realized that no invisible force welled up to push them back. “Finally! Shreddy or not, here I come!” Nadia cancelled straight into Cat Scratch Fever, her repeated slashes accelerated to a dizzying pace. “Fur-serker purr-age!” Still wounded, but resolved to finish the fight, Emily poured her energy into a splendid Crimson Moon to follow up.

Minda summoned her wolves while she raised up her shadow hand, projecting a dark energy zone across the fallen foe, orange lighting wrapping around it like a cage. Once it had engulfed the meme entirely, she snapped the fingers of the shadow hand, and unleashed the beasts with a command of ”sic em”, the field guiding them to pounce and maul each and every eye upon the meme in quick succession at a truly ferocious speed. Her twilight blitz turned out to be the clincher as the cracked eyes burst open like stained glass, and with a hollow cry Something Unto Death fell apart, motes of violet energy wafting upward as ashes poured to the ground.

A moment after the fight’s climactic finale, the victors were once again presented with a selection of random rewards.

For Midna

Moon Water - using your hex restores 15% health, up to 3 times per rest
Starward Demonhunt - after landing an attack, reduce the damage of the next hit against you by 12%, stacking up to 2 times
Shock Wire - electrify the Astral Chain, making it somewhat visible to others but shocking everyone it touches. If used to bind a target, the target is electrocuted while bound

For Captain Falcon

Stamp Rush - every ten seconds, your next dash/sprint will cause a fiery ground blast when it ends
Vesicle - when expending the Power Gauge, restore 10% health
Revenge Explosion - gain 20% explosive resist, and trigger a small blast any time damage is taken

For Edelgard

Curse of Vengeance - when taking damage, inflict Doom on all nearby foes, causing a crimson blade to drop on them after a delay
No Mercy - attacking a non-boss enemy under 15% health will execute it
Inferno Cannon - starting to sprint will burst you forward with a scorching lunge. Hitting an enemy or solid surface during this burst will create a fiery blast with high knockback

For Ms Fortune

Blood Line - your blockbusters fire off damaging rifts both in front of and behind you, but take 15% extra tension
Clockwork Apple - after launching a follow-up attack, your speed is boosted by 16% for 10 seconds. Repeated attacks refresh the duration
Open Wounds - each melee attack inflict Bleed for 1.5 seconds

At first blush, Nadia wasn’t all that impressed. Blood Line would make her blockbusters harder to do and throw off her internal timing, while Open Wounds sounded like a trap. What if she wanted to tussle with someone non-lethally? Initially she didn’t think much of a paltry sixteen percent speed boost either, but when she thought about it more, the feral became more receptive. It would accelerate her combos, and her mix-ups right after a combo, making it easier to rush opponents down and reset them. With no other good choice, she chose Clockwork Apple with a tap of her finger, a little hesitant since she’d accidentally skipped this part last time. This time, though, something appeared in the darkness before her, for just a split second. It looked to her like a collection of random objects, including playing cards, coins, toys, and masks beneath multicolored spotlights, but a chill ran down her spine as her eyes refocused on the dark, barely-visible figure behind them. Then the vision was gone, and the sounds of tittering laughter faded away.

”Ah, right.” Captain Falcon said when time stopped and three cards floated, ”We’re doing this again, I see.” All three of these sounded pretty nifty in their own ways. But Stamp Rush and Revenge Explosion also sounded like they could be rather inconvenient at times, too. That left Vesicle as the real pragmatic choice. The problem? The entity depicted by the card looked, well, totally evil. A big black space insect sounded like a recipe for disaster. ”Well, here’s hoping I don’t regret this later.” Cap said as he touched a gloved finger to the card. What he heard next almost immediately made him start having doubts. A loud buzzing, like countless insects all beating their wings in unison. At least the previous card he picked actually gave him understandable words. There was no telling what these insects were trying to tell him, if anything at all.

Midna blinked once in the void, and then commented ”Gods really don’t like this place do they? Can’t blame then one bit its like every nightmare’s been crammed into it” as she took in her options. The weaponization of the astral chain seemed useful but, ”I just know I’ll trip someone up with that at some point”, while 15% healing and only in situations that weren't vs a single great enemy seemed quite limited. Up to 24% damage mitigation however, now that was worth taking.

She was no monotheist either, so getting in touch with a second divine was not something she had any issue with. As it turned out however, this one was much more distant. Literally even, as she touched the boon, and bore witness not even to the god of the hunt, but merely one of its arrows. It was like a comet flashing across the heavens at unfathomable speed and with awe inspiring might compressed behind it, and it brought the princess to her knees before it.

Edelgard looked the cards over carefully. While adding more fire to her repertoire sounded good, the ability to punish any foe that harmed her without lifting a finger was promising. Touching the first of the three cards, Edelgard flinched as the god of war himself appeared before her, though his smile was calm. “You've got quite the fighting spirit in you there, I have to say. Most intriguing, and yet no surprise for someone who slayed the nearest thing she had to a god. I’m sure you’ll make good use of this.” Ugh. How patronizing. Edelgard thought.

When time resumed, Nadia’s fatigue caught up to her all at once, and she let out a heavy sigh. “Aaagh, what a pain in the ass.” She leaned over for a moment, hands on her knees, then wiped sweat from her brow. “My specialty is fightin’ people, not giant monsters I can’t pressure right. And that fur-reak wouldn’t even let me combo it!” Given the bizarre nature of Something Unto Death, she was at a loss for puns at the moment. When she looked around for material, she instead found Emily, her makeshift bandages stained with vital fluid. Instantly a sharp pang of guilt struck her, and she rushed over. “Oh, crap, Emily! You okay? You bloody well better be!” She began to rummage through her pouches for her Ripened Heart, hoping it would help the soldier regenerate like it did her.

“I’ll manage,” the young woman told her, her face a brave attempt to mask her pain. Her sword lay on the ground, smoking. Falcon, however, didn't look entirely convinced.

”Can you walk?” The Captain asked, extending a gloved hand and offering to help her stand and walk if she needed it. He even reached for her sword and offered that back to her as well. She nodded, then grimaced as she tried to demonstrate.

The unmistakable pop and hiss of a can being opened reached Nadia’s ears. She looked over at to see that Gallagher character from before behind the bar, with five glasses arranged in front of him, each with ice cubes immersed in two layers of red and green liquid. “How about this?” As Nadia watched, the poured out the can into the glasses one at a time, creating a fizzy yellow layer on top. When he put the can down, Nadia read ‘Lemon SoulGlad’. “Five orders of ‘Death Before Noon’,” Gallagher declared, presenting the Seekers with his drinks.

Nadia glanced over at Emily, then approached the bar. After leaning on it with her elbow, she scraped her claw across the wood. “You already left us with that monster. Maybe even sicced it on us. These things gonna kill us, too?”

“The opposite, actually.” Gallagher did not look particularly bothered or threatened, just tired. “But hey, suit yourself.”

”Hmm, well, I’m not normally one for alcoholic beverages.” Falcon commented. ”But after everything we’ve been through today? Maybe it’s time to make an exception.”

”Sure, I’ll take you up on that” Midna agreed, but not before sending her wolfos off to ”Fetch” her assorted dropped weapons, prompting it to scamper off, grip a weapon by the lilt it it’s maw, before dropping down into a portal to bring it back to the twilight realm.

As the beast did its work, she pulled off her helmet, carefully set it on the bar, and picked up the glass to inspect its contents. She’d never had light-worlder alcohol before, Telma wouldn’t exactly have served her in imp form even if she’d introduced herself and asked, so she took a tentative sip of the stuff, doing her best to disguise her trepidation beneath regal refinement.

”Sort of… spicy-minty? Not bad” she said after a moment of reflection.

Edelgard also partook of the beverage, swishing it around in her mouth like the Emperor she was. Despite her attitude towards much of the nobility of her world, she still tasted booze like a true snob. ”A combination of soothing cool, spice, and…hmm…what seems to be citrus? Enjoyable.” She commented as she sipped the drink slowly.

For all her initial distrust, Nadia would be lying if she said that a stiff drink didn’t sound good right about now. Though her attitude remained relatively sunny amidst all the bad weather, it had been an intense morning so far, even if her visit to Carcass Isle still took the cake. Emily made her way over, eager to partake of the cocktail’s implied healing properties, so the feral followed suit. She took a long sip, intrigued by the mixture of minty refreshment, powerful cinnamon, and bubbly sweet lemon. “Whew! Got a little kick to it.” The carbonation made her eyes water as she went back for another mouthful. She felt pretty great, and a glance at Emily confirmed that her wounds had all but disappeared. Nadia raised her brows at Gallagher, and gave him a begrudging nod. “Looks like she’s in mint condition, eh? Not bad.”

”That’s a spicy whiskey, alright.” Captain Falcon said after having a sip of his own. ”But I’ve always been a man who can appreciate spice. So it gets my approval.”

“Glad you like it.” Was it Nadia’s imagination, or was the mysterious barman suppressing a smile? “Now, you folks better get a move on before that thing shows up again. Or something worse. It’s not safe here.”

Emily furrowed her brow. “It isn’t? There isn’t any sign of infestation.”

After a moment, Nadia shook her head. “That monster’s gone, but that dreamy, surreal feeling’s still here. We shouldn’t get comfortable.” She crossed her arms as she looked at Gallagher. “Aren’t you coming with us?”

“I’ll find my own way out,” he told her. “Don’t worry, this old dog’s still got a few tricks up his sleeve, heh.” He looked over his shoulder toward the left of the bar. As if on cue, a door creaked open. On the other side was Qliphoth matter, with a bloodstream vein nestled among the reddish meat. “We grown-ups all have jobs to do. Off you go, make the best of it.”

”No rest for heroes hmmm” Midna mused after she finished working her way through the cocktail, before lightly setting the glass down and drawing her nightsky ripper inorder to cut her way into the vein.

”Ha, if only.” quipped the Captain as he finished the last of his own drink and set the glass down. ”But not in my experience, I’m afraid.” He added as he followed the Twilight Princess into the vein she’d cut open. Nadia took Emily’s hand once more, then followed.

Finishing her drink, Edelgard sighed. ”Just another day in this endless war.” Not far behind Nadia and Emily, she entered the vein and was brought upward.

[Lugubrious]

The Qliphoth - Scarlet Swamp

Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (130/140)
Midna’s @DracoLunaris Edelgard’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Captain Falcon’s @Double
Word Count: 595

Bloodstream travel sure wasn’t pleasant, but by the third time Nadia was finally starting to get used to it, with the help of her rather potent drink from Gallagher of course. Though the firefight against Emily in her monstrous feline form had been a flashy, high-octane brawl, and the full team’s heroic stand against the floodfested horde had been exciting, her quartet’s intense back-and-forth with Something Unto Death left a much stronger impression. It had been very different from her typical fare, even if most of those differences seemed tailor-made to counter her, and combined with the strange battlefield plus the mysterious barman, that encounter would probably stick with her for a while. For now, though, she could only wait until her ride through the Qliphoth vein came to an end, and hope that her arrival wouldn’t precipitate another brawl. The feral had a lot of fight left in her, but she could definitely use a break.

After a little less than a minute -her longest ascent yet- Nadia bubbled up in what could only be described as a blood swamp. Once she bobbed to the surface, she beheld a large, broad hollow full of large pools of crimson ichor separated by small islands of aged, almost fossilized Qliphoth flesh. Some of the demon tree’s internal outcrops resembled more ordinary trees themselves, though most of the flora in here looked far stranger, almost fungal in nature. Though she spotted a few large, pulsating Flood tumors scattered among the chamber’s recesses, the overall infestation rate seemed mercifully low. On one side the floor rose in a series of stony terraces over which blood flowed like water, and the wall there was so badly damaged that a large, frayed opening gave Nadia a view of the cloudy sky beyond. She could only assume that this hollow was very high up in the tree, and that the guardian couldn’t possibly be much higher.

Bubbling springs in the xylem pools betrayed spots where a number of other veins opened into the swamp from below, indicating that this hollow was some sort of convergence point. Hopefully that meant that all of Nadia’s scattered allies would eventually wind up here, provided that they survived whatever ordeals the Qliphoth sent their way. Given what she’d faced so far, Nadia felt pretty confident that the others had run into trouble as well, but pretty much all of her fellow Seekers were more than capable of handling themselves. “Guess we’ll wait and see who shows up,” she declared cheerfully.

She and Emily helped one another along as they waded through the pool to the nearest island, where they seated themselves around a mote of golden light beneath the watchful gaze of a lion-headed statue. There was enough room for Captain Falcon, Edelgard, and Midna if they wanted to rest, but given the size of this hollow, any itch for exploration could uncover all sorts of nooks, crannies, hidden items, or veiled threats. For her part, though, Nadia just stretched herself and tried to relax. Though the Qliphoth was stiflingly warm, a cool breeze blew in through the opening. “Ahh. Pretty flowers, scenic view.” Nadia folded her arms behind her head as she stared at the ceiling. It was not a pleasant sight. “If this place had a shower, I’d be all set. Wait…”

In a fit of inspiration, she forgot all about her attempt to relax and jumped up to try something new: using Hydro Mimics from her Oceanid striker to try and wash off all the blood, sweat, and grime, with decidedly mixed results.

[Yankee]

Diabolical Incantation II

Lvl 3 Grimm (31/30) Zenkichi, Primrose, Lvl 9 Roxas
Word Count: 2383 (+3)

Once its spine-chilling shriek concluded, the giant, deformed hatchling thundered forward toward the grouped-up Seekers, its head lowered like a bull’s as it charged. As the Grimmchild flew clear, Grimm himself threw open his cape, and firebats fluttered forth to meet the horror’s brutish charge. Not even direct hits to its engorged cranium slowed it down, though, and with clawed footfalls heavy enough to crush bones the demonic bird crashed into the middle of the group. Roxas had only enough time to renew Tailwind on himself before Malphas suddenly crashed into them and began her tantrum-like attack. Even with the speed boost from Tailwind, the Nobody still had a hard time avoiding all the attack impacts and one of them did manage to briefly knock him down.

Grimm teleported mid-barrage, appearing just out of range to fire off the final firebat, but the Troupe Master harbored no delusions about being safe here. Heedless of the heroes’ projectiles, the monster hopped up and down in two enormous stomps, like a colossal child throwing a temper tantrum, with the full weight of its body behind each slam. Even though it didn’t land on Grimm, its tremors almost floored him, and with only a split second to spare he noticed that the bird had reoriented itself with each stomp–toward him. It burst toward him, closed the distance so fast that it clipped Grimm and knocked him down. As it hopped up again he scuttled sideways without rising, at least four legs on full display. Unfortunately, while he managed to avoid the killer stomps, he’d dodged back toward one of his allies, and after two stomps the hatchling charged that way. The Troupe Master took a hefty blow from one of its legs in passing and burst into bugbats that buzzed to safety.

As Grimm was evading and escaping Malphas, Zenkichi was making preparations. ”Primrose, now! Spread this one out!” he called as Valjean appeared behind him. ”Rakukaja!” With Sealticge’s Seduction to spread the defense buff to the whole party, Zenkichi hoped that meant they’d all get a healing burst from Restoration Protocol as well.

"I'd be happy to perform for you anytime, but perhaps with a little more warning in the future," Primrose called as she swiftly moved into her dance steps. It wasn't as easy or quick as casting a spell, after all. As she was performing the final movements the bird's rampage continued until it had reached her too. The show must go on, she thought with a grimace as she stayed put and completed her dance. It took effect on Zenkichi, and thus his Rakukaja took effect on everyone else, just before the demon slammed into Primrose. It sent the dancer to the ground where she tumbled away with a burst of lashing thorny vines, while at the same time the bird rounded on her dance partner.

As Malphas reached the Phantom Thief, Zenkichi hefted Ragnell and braced for impact, grunting as she landed from her first leap, and being knocked back from the second. Still, between Rakukaja and the healing he’d gotten, he was hardly on the verge of defeat. ”Sorry!” He sheepishly replied to Primrose, still needing to get used to some timings with his new allies.

Roxas was quickly back on his feet and - without much time to deliberate - cast Tailwind again on Primrose and Zenkichi. Unfortunately, Grimm proved too difficult to target for the time being due to his initial teleport. And then he also dodged back toward Roxas himself before he could finish casting, effectively interrupting him. This resulted in the Keybearer getting knocked away by another of Malphas’ attacks. And once again, the Troupe Master had moved away in a manner that kept Roxas from renewing his Tailwind buff.

”My Turn!” Roxas said, vanishing on the spot and reappearing in order to slash at Malphas from behind with his StepSword. Like usual he followed that with a sort flurry of Keyblade strikes.

Not far off, Primrose picked herself up and pushed a few loose strands of hair out of her face. The demon's lower body was causing too much havoc it seemed, but as for how to stop it... only a few ideas came to mind. Once back on her feet the dancer took in a deep breath and burned up two of her BP. As the glowing aura surrounded her, Primrose conjured a boulder which grew larger and larger thanks to her Boosts. If she could pin it down or cripple it, then maybe the Seekers could start a real counterattack.

"Give me an opening," she said, though whether it was a request of her allies or a demand of Malphas, it was hard to say. The demon itself had stopped its targeted charges in favor of violently flailing around, its merciless beak and talons ready to do even more damage.

”Well, gun attacks worked before, so let’s give this a shot.” Zenkichi called out, drawing his dual revolvers and unloading both cylinders at the demon, before resummoning Ragnell and launching a series of energy blasts.

Observant and calculating even in the midst of this chaos, Malphas was wise to the dancer’s plans, but whether or not she could get her lower half to cooperate was another story. “Her! Attack her, you fool!” she screeched, but the hatchling would not listen. Instead it went after Zenkichi, driven into a savage fury by his barrage of projectiles. It rushed him down and lashed out with a stone-shattering beak slam, and while that could be dodged without too much trouble, the same couldn’t be said of the sweeping wing strikes that followed. In the midst of its assault on Zenkichi, Grimm warped in, having coalesced from a swarm of bugbats back into his regular self. After a split second spent hanging in the air, he dove down in a corkscrew kick into the side of the demon bird’s head, then kicked away as it went to stomp him. Though simpler to deal with in theory without Malphas’ magic to back it up, this freak of nature was strong and unpredictable, so the sooner this came to an end, the better. As Grimm slid to a stop just out of harm’s way, he could only hope that his and Zenkichi’s efforts had given Primrose her opening.

The massive boulder flew when the opportunity presented itself, the dancer herself willing it to smash down onto the demonic bird with a wave of her arms. It hurtled over the heads of her allies and came down as a single rock slide, solid and heavy.

Zenkichi dodged out of the way of the beak slam, but as Grimm reappeared he would see Zenkichi being smacked about by the demon body’s wings, grunting but standing his ground in the wake of the assault. As the Troupe Master hopped back from his own attack, Zenkichi did the same, just in time for Primrose to launch her boulder.

And then there was Roxas, who Malphas had seemingly forgotten about since his initial opening strikes. That suited him fine, since it finally gave him a chance to cast a new Tailwind buff on Grimm. Then as usual, he used the instant movement from his StepSword to position himself above the hatchling in order to attack Malphas directly from behind. ”Did you forget something?” The Nobody taunted while letting loose a second flurry of Keyblade strikes. This time he decided to punish the demon for ignoring him by extending the combo into a Cross Slash that would serve as the finisher. And then he followed that by summoning Poltergeist and letting the bedsheet ghost apply her buffs to him, including Stealth. If he could stay on the move and keep harassing the demon woman, she wouldn’t be as effective at observing his allies’ attacks and ordering her hatchling monster around.

Of course, the demon bird had been completely out of control for a while now, and things weren’t getting any better for Malphas. Courtesy of the dancer’s magic, chunks of solid stone rained down from above. The demon’s torsos unleashed their magic to surround themselves with dark spikes, shielded like some manner of nightmarish hedgehog against rock and Nobody alike, but her lower half wasn’t so lucky. It took the full force of the rock slide, bursting the ulcerated growths on its head and cracking its bones. After letting out a horrible shriek, the hatchling hit the ground with a slam, but on impact a dark pool spread out beneath it, into which the malformed carcass began to sink. A second later and Malphas was gone, vanished without a trace.

Primrose's boost wore off, but she didn't relax. She would be a fool to consider the demoness finished with just that.

Zenkichi watched as the demon's body sank into the ground, and Malphas with it, though the latter gave him much less relief than the former.

Roxas reappeared as the buff from Poltergeist wore off. [color=gold]”Now where’s she’d go?”[/olor]

Then, in the heavy silence that followed, the whole hollow began to darken. Grimm peered around through the gathering gloom until he identified a solitary, inexplicable light cone in the arena’s center. The next moment, the three voices of Malphas echoed through the hollow in a shrill cry. “Resurrect! Rise with my power!”

Then Malphas’ torsos emerged beneath the spotlight, ringed by crystal spikes as the three bodies loomed over their magic cauldron. Dark magic emanated from their crucible at an alarming rate, radiating throughout the whole room. Waves of spikes washed outward from the middle, and dark orbs rose up from the bubbling brew once or twice a second. Around them the oil shale floor began to melt and roil like a stormy sea, and unseen daemon voices swelled in nightmarish chorus, building in intensity alongside the sorcerer’s magic. Whatever was coming, it couldn’t be good.

”Yeah, of course it wouldn’t be that easy!” Zenkichi cried, rushing forward. A huge charge-up move like that spelled bad news for everybody involved. With Rakukaja still active, Zenkichi could use Heat Riser to buff himself, but with the Guardian coming up soon, he wasn’t sure putting that much energy investment into this fight was the best strategy. Besides, he had something that’d do some pretty serious damage even without the buff at the ready. ”Valjean, no hold barred! Agneyastra!!!” As he cried out the attack name, Valjean struck, a trio of powerful meteors hurtling directly at the stationary Malphas. His focus on offense meant that even as his meteors slammed down, though, Zenkichi received a geyser of spikes the next moment.

As before, Primrose chose to stay back. In her place she sent her striker Bianca to advance with the others. The noble succubus charged in with her heavy sword raised in ochs stance, aiming a powerful thrust at the demoness. The tip of her blade drove forward into Malphas, and she pulled the weapon back to prepare to impale the triplet once more.

Her summoner rose slightly into the air to avoid the fresh wave of spikes. She had been casting so much and so quickly since entering the Qliphoth that even her naturally high mana recovery was struggling to keep up. But she couldn't exactly afford to take a break, especially not now with the massive amount of energy Malphas was gathering, spelling nothing good for the Seekers. Primrose thrust her hand out as she gathered her own mana, silvery light forming around the demon in the form of another round of Luna that would explode from beneath her.

Roxas had paused, albeit only for a moment. With so much in the way of projectiles and blasts from his teammates, it had become increasingly difficult for him to keep the pressure on Malphas without the risk of taking friendly fire. But at the same time he had to do something. The Nobody vanished once more, again using his StepSword to get in an instant slash at the demon’s back. While his normal instinct was to follow that up with some Keyblade strikes, he could see the spells coming from his teammates and so instead he backed off to avoid getting caught by them. But not before generating another cluster of virtual blocks on top of Malphas and the hatchlings so they could get in some constant touch damage before the spells from Zenkichi and Primrose inevitably came crashing in.

While the others -including the Grimmchild- unleashed projectiles or warped in, Grimm rushed forward over the open ground. He leaped over wave after wave of spikes and scuttled to avoid the demon’s dark lances, and right after Luna exploded beneath Malphas in silvery radiance, Grimm made his move. The Troupe Master charged up the oily swell to deliver a trio of claw slashes that ended with an uppercut that carried into the air. He teleported in a blast of scarlet flame that rained down large fireballs, and after reappearing a short distance away he sank his coattails into the disturbed ground to pierce Malphas with sharp spikes of his own.

By then, though, the demon had risen almost two stories, and the mound of pitch-black bone slurry beneath her was huge. Her challengers had hurt her in strong bursts, but they’d either fallen afoul of her defenses or held back to not harm one another, so their overall damage per second had not been high enough. With a wordless cry Malphas cast her spell, and the mound beneath her exploded in an omnidirectional blast of dark magic that revealed the reborn hatchling before her, wings spread as it crowed in victory. Grimm and his allies were thrown to the ground, agonized by internal damage, but not without hope. Their efforts had ensured that Malphas’ ritual had been incomplete, and her lower half was only partially restored. Grimm rose to his feet and accepted the wounded Grimmchild under his wing, his eyes on Malphas as black droplets rained down. This would be the final stretch.

“A futile attempt!” Malphas jeered at them. While two of her torsos remained forward, the highest one had twisted around to pre-empt any more backstabs from Roxas. That one began to cast dark orbs, while others sent forth more spikes and a portal for the bird to kick Primrose through, respectively. “Now die!”