”If you can keep up, be my guest” Midna called back to Pit’s offer of aid, before her wolfos leapt over Belif’s initial lash of its whip like limb, before darting behind it and opening a portal.
”but you best be quick because this thing is about to-” she added as out of which her darknut rose at titanic size, blade held aloft and ready to ”-fall!”
The titanic blade came crashing down, only for Belief to demonstrate exactly how it had managed to get the drop on the group of angels it had been tearing apart, as rather than stand there and take it like the lumbering brute it looked like, it instead dodged by bursting forward towards Pit just as the angel had let lose his arrow.
With all the speed and mass of a literal freight train, leaving Pit’s arrow chasing after it as both it and its target came racing towards him.
There wasn't any time to dodge, and the collision looked imminent. Then arcs of electricity both violet and violent burst out from the space Pit had just occupied, while the angel himself skated to a safe point nearby at the speed of lightning. It was another trick he'd picked up thanks to one of the spirits he'd fused with last week, one too useful not to have gotten the hang of quickly.
"That quick enough for you?" Pit said cheekily, partly at Midna and partly at their foe. That burst of speed from the false angel had surprised him, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.
Belief completed its charge, using its tentacle to wrap around a nearby support pillar and swing itself to a stop while facing its opponents. Having passed through the electricity, small jolts of purple static still clung to it. The monstrosity let out a disturbing noise somewhere between a roar and a baby's babbling before it raised its arm up and whipped it at Pit. With a flick of his hand Pit's bow became two swords - he raised them in an X-shape, catching the tentacle between them. It was a powerful blow, but Pit stood firm even if his knees threatened to buckle. It lashed out at him a few times, just as fast with its arm as it was with its legs, putting the boy's block and deflecting skill to the test.
"Fast and heavy? That's just cheating!" He punctuated his comment with a parry that threw the gilded limb to the side, letting him deliver a flurry of slashes against it.
Belief whined and jumped back, putting space between them. Unfortunately for it, Pit could just switch his weapon back to bow form. It didn't hesitate to put a few more light arrows into the air, all aimed at the monster's porcelain face. Its tentacle arm sprawled up into the air again, though this time it didn't come straight down. It curled around one of the Affinities still alive, dragging it forward in order to block Pit's arrows. Then it drew back and chucked the lesser false angel at Pit before repeating the process even faster, sending a few flailing enemies Midna's way, leaving her swinging like she was in a batting cage, slapping angels out of the air with her shadow hand. With Palutena's angelic troops keeping their distance so that their commanders could fight freely, the Affinities were all it had access to - until it ran out of those and began ripping up the citadel itself.
"Hey!" Pit dashed toward Belief lest it bring the floors above down on top of them, firing a dash shot as he went. The false angel put its legs to work once more, evading the arrow and sprinting back towards Midna with a chunk of stone in its grip coming at her like a massive sledgehammer.
Rather than stay there and take this, she counter charged. She didn’t do this on the back of her regular wolfos, but instead the one that had had a pile of cyborgs shoved into it.
A process that had turned it into a living motorcycle.
”How’s this for speed!” she called out as she blazed towards Belief, the rocket boosters and maw of her semi-mechanical steed roaring as she re-entered the fray. As she and Belief closed, it drew back its concrete sledge hammer, to deliver a sweeping smash, only for Midna to flow motion leap off of her bike at the last moment. The bike-beast went down into a portal to avoid the swing, while Midna rose above and then crescent moon slashed the dead end express out of her realm and down on top of Belief.
Whirling blades of the titanic mace dug into it, spinning in forward gear so that it more or less dragged Midna over the top of Belief, causing her to be flung forwards, momentum added to the charge. That could have made for quite the messy landing, had the princess not pulled herself in, onto the back of the weapon as it switched modes.
A moment later she crashed down behind Belief, now riding the dead end express itself as a motorcycle. This was, it had to be said, a bit more of an unwieldy ride given that this one was all machine with no animal instincts to course correct her driving, but she still managed to skid to a halt nearby Pit, making a right mess of the stone floor in the process.
”Care for a ride?” she asked, as her bike beast exited a portal next to her to offer exactly that. Just in time for Belief to hurl its chunk of stone back at them as an opening for another charge. A quick summon of the Guardian Orbitars saw the projectile reflected back at Belief, though it bulldozed right through it. This came after Pit's enthusiastic response to Midna of "Definitely!" as he took the offer and climbed onto the back of her cyborg canine.
Belief barreled towards them with a mighty whip lash that split the duo up and further shattered the floor that Midna had roughed up. Unused to riding mounts (but unwilling to pass up such a cool ride), Pit more or less relied on his borrowed beast bike to outmaneuver Belief, at least for the moment. As the false angel attacked in a furor with its arm cutting through the air in an effort to slice its opponents to ribbons, the altered wolfos ducked and dodged with its charge on its back. Pit ducked with it, but for the most part he opened fire. Light arrows in three colors buzzed around Belief, striking at multiple angles to probe for any weak spots.
Midna for her part used her minions to fight while she focused on evasive driving, having her flygon do an overhead dragonbreath flyby, and otherwise sticking close enough that her intangible beast legion could slash and claw at Belief at its leisure.
She managed to evade the strikes for the most part, but Belief ended its rapid strikes with a wide 360 spin with the blades on its tentacle poised to shear anything it hit, it managed to clip Midna’s transforming bike. It toppled sending the princess skidding across the floor at high speed, bouncing once, fortunately on her chest armor, and then using her magical hands and metal feet, and general lack of friction to avoid having her flesh shredded as she skidded across the floor like it was ice.
At least until she lost enough momentum to dig her dragon claws into the ground to bring her to a halt.
The dead end express meanwhile slammed into a wall somewhere, taking out a few Affinity that had been trying and failing to blast the two bikers with their musical implements of war. Knocked off of her’s however, the princess became a more tempting target to those that remained, the princess having to roll out of the way of a laserbeam fired from a sousaphone, only to then see Belief charging straight at her.
With little else at hand but the war fan she’d been charging in her free hands while driving, the princess hurled the diminutive weapon towards her foe with a cry of ”Get lost!” before trying to scramble to her feet. The fan, electricity crackling within, and wind swirling around it, clipped Belief as it flew, causing lightning to arch down upon it, but this hardly upset its charge.
The way the wind element interacted with the purple static Pit had inflicted didn’t slow it either, but the resulting Swirl reaction of chain lightning lashing out from Belief did at least blast the remaining Affinities as it jumped between them.
This did also free up the other angels, who had been fighting around the edge of the arena against both Affinities and other false reflections of themselves, and as thanks they provided just what was needed: a flurry of delaying shots to give Minda the time to dodge. As well as give Pit the ability to catch up.
Midna's wolfos carried the angelic captain swiftly back into the fray, chasing after the charging monstrosity. His arrows were dealing damage, that much was clear from the hairline fractures in Belief's gilded body that began to form in the places they struck, but they didn't have the stopping power needed to really turn things in the heroes' favor. Pit bid the beast to get them into melee range where he could deal some real damage, and it obliged. After Midna had gotten out of its way, Belief stomped one of its feet to come to a stop. Even slowed it turned to follow after her with its tentacle-like arm thrashing until it came under attack by Pit's twin swords.
Deciding to do a little slowing of its own, Belief opened its 'mouth' and ejected a sticky mucus. A lucky shot got Pit's borrowed mount, sticking it in place on the ground. Belief whipped its arm around then, lashing out multiple times in every direction - at Midna, the flying pest that was her Flygon, any Feathers that dared to try getting closer to assist, and at Pit and the trapped wolfos.
On one side of the thrashing beast, Minda was stuck focusing entirely on evasion, claws digging into the torn up ground as she leapt to and fro, having only time to catch her war throne as it boomeranged back to her. Her beast legion, however, once again simply ignored their foes' strikes, claws swiping at it, yet unable to deliver impactful enough blows to throw off the stalwart speedster.
”Stay clear!” she commanded the Feathers, but they didn’t have to get close to help, as the staffs offered radiant healing from afar for the fighters' wounds.
On the other side of the monster, rather than abandon the wolfos as it went about freeing itself, Pit put himself between it and the false angel. His blades flashed as he deflected the striking limb, intending to hold out until its stamina ran out. The moment came when its attacks decelerated, and Pit darted forward to take advantage of what looked like an opening. Belief only changed tactics, and it twisted its arm around to snatch Pit off of his feet.
Pit let out a squawk, both surprised and pained. Its grip was crushing, and on top of that it felt like it was siphoning his energy. Worse still, rather than give its captive an easy time breaking out, Belief slammed Pit against the stone floor.
He didn't stay dazed for long, especially when worried cries of "captain!" came from around the edges of the room. As Belief raised its arm up for another go, Pit mustered his strength and pushed against the hold, loosening the tentacle enough to slip out. He spread his wings, jumping up off of Belief's arm and over its head. Pit raised his own arm, his bow disappearing as the Upperdash Arm encased it. It whirred to life, the disc on the front spinning wildly.
"That all you got?!" he jeered, slamming the weapon down hard into one side of the monster’s face. The impact sent large cracks running throughout its armor, making the same greenish slime it had spit up earlier start to leak out. Belief teetered backward, knocked off of its feet and landing heavily on its back.
”Let’s not find out” Midna called out in suggestion she and her legion raced past Pit and then round opposite sides of the toppled titan, wrapping the astral chain connecting them together around their foe, briefly binding and keeping it from rising.
”Now stay down!” she commanded it, as her cybernetic wolfos dashed in, leapt up onto Belief, a glow in its neck growing as it did so. Before it could unleash its point blank shot the cherub-like face on Belief suddenly shifted to the side, sending it stumbling off of it, and revealing its fleshy toothy maw. Out of this its tongue lashed up and out, striking the mecha-wolfos and causing it to misfire skywards, before swirling it around like it was licking its chops.
These things are always so gross once their armor comes off! Pit thought. He'd landed with his swords back in his hands, wasting no time in dashing forward to press the attack while Midna had Belief pinned. He slashed at its tongue, drawing blood and making the monster whine as it pulled its tongue back into its mouth, struggling in its hold.
"Keep it locked down 'til it's dead!" Pit requested of the Twilight Princess, slicing into the gaps in Belief's exoskeleton. The angels that had formed a ring around the arena took it open themselves to follow his words as though they were an order, and open fired with their arrows and ranged abilities to pile on the damage and keep the monster debuffed. They were joined in this by the mecha-wolfos, who howled at the sky and caused a rain of 6 lighting bolts to hammer down and around the grounded false angel.
Belief heaved against the astral chain, shooting its thorned tongue out once more. With a diagonal cut Pit parried its latest whip, and using his own momentum he spun, putting the bladed bow back together and using both hands to slash the appendage in two with a strong swing of his sword.
”Trying. But. it's. going to.” Mdina strained, two hands clutching the chain, the other two the beast the other end was held onto as Belief thrashed, rocking back and forth till it managed to stab its tail like whip into the ground and proceeded to throw itself to the side with the leverage. Princess and beast legion were hurled alongside it, both going skidding across the floor as Belief flipped to its feet: outer facade cracked and oozing, but still with fight left in it.
Pit circled around, bow with reversed blades in hand. His eyes flicked between Midna, the angels around them, and Belief. It was tough, and persistent to boot, but it had to be on its last legs. And just like Lady Palutena said, the sooner they got through the citadel the better. He tightened his grip on the bow's hilt.
"Let's go, Midna!" he called to her, intent on finishing the faker off. He dashed forward, ducking low under the swipe of its arm and stabbed the tip of his weapon into exposed flesh. He sliced up as Belief turned to face him, then darted off to the side.
”Give me just a seconds” the princess called back as she picked herself up, leaving her mecha-wolfos to deliver the next blow, the beast darting in, wolf pack tactics style, while the foe was focused on Pit. Electricity crackled, and then thunder roared as it, this time, got to pull off its point blank shot, driving a blinding bolt into one of Belief’s knees, causing it to stumble.
Just in time for Midna to find her own footing. As Belief flailed at the mecha-wolfos Midna rushed in, cleaving her volcano fragment out of a portal, igniting the foe, only to use her astral chain to pull herself back to her beast legion that had taken longer to get all 4 legs in order, avoiding a regrown spiny tongue lash in the process.
At that point Pit had blitzed back in close, his blades flashing as he cut up the false angel's blind side. It lurched, swinging its arm down from overhead in an attempt to swat the pest away from it. Slowed and weakened as it was, he didn’t have an issue evading while drawing a sharp cut over its torso. Belief jerked, torn in which direction to face, eventually raising a leg to try a stomp.
”Mistake” Minda declared this as she slammed her shadow hand forwards in a slap, followed a heartbeat later by her scaled up darknut shield bashing out of a portal, both blows unsteadying the one foot standing angel. It flailed, roared, and managed to keep its balance by slamming the tip of its tentacle into the floor - but without that, it left itself wide open in all the places its tongue couldn't reach.
That turned out to be its next mistake, as Pit jumped right back in to finish it off. "Here!" he shouted, twin swords cracking through the last of its armor and shearing the muscle underneath. He then felt the phantom force of Midna’s beast legion leaping straight through him in-order to attack, claws slashing and rending, practically digging its way through the rest of the warped flesh within, exposing its beating, throbbing, core. He went right for it, each gold lined blade plunging into the false angel's heart. "Done and dusted!"
The speedy hulk's body collapsed in on itself, pieces flaking off and crumbling away into ash. Its spirit floated down as Pit snapped the two halves of his bow back together.
Palutena's troops were too disciplined to loudly cheer over their commanders' victory, but Pit and Midna could still feel the palpable relief from the onlookers once Belief was gone. The peace only lasted a moment, as the next Pit had cast his hand towards the further reaches of the citadel and gave them their next orders. "Make sure the rest of the area is secure!"
His group and those they'd picked up during the chaos so far saluted and took flight. Pit spread his own wings, going to join them momentarily. First he glanced at Midna, giving her a grin and a peace sign with his fingers. "Nice work!"
”You weren't half bad yourself” Midna replied, before gesturing at the fallen false angel and asking ”Want to do the deed? I have some things to pick up anyway” which was something of an understatement, with how many weapons the Princess tended to have to re-collect after a fight. Including, of course, the dead end express which had managed to grind through a wall of the room.
Pit blinked and looked at the spirit, catching it in his palm before it touched the ground. Knowing how she liked to hoard things, he was a little surprised at the offer. Still, someone ought to do it, and if she was offering... Pit closed his fist around the mote of light, crushing it in his hand. When it reformed into an item, Pit found himself holding onto a golden handle embedded with clear aquamarines.
"Should have guessed it would turn into something like this," he said, unfurling the coiled whip.
”Could be worse, there's a vault of cursed artifacts in Eden that I ended up with from doing that with all the fodder. That one looks clean though” Midna called back as she picked up her fan, before jogging over to the hole the dead end express had sawed through.
Before promptly ducking into cover as a number of bolts and arrows came out of it.
”Might need your help with this one!” she called back.
As to why, well, a glance through the opening revealed a long corridor sporting many doors on either side, and a grand gateway at the far end that the dead end express was currently trying to saw through. Oh, and, of course, piles of corruption and furniture forming layers of walls and barricades sporting innumerous corrupted and false angel troops.
”You clear the left side’s rooms, I’ll clear the right?” she asked Pit once he’d taken a look.
He'd jogged over to her and stowed the whip, bringing his bow up in preparation for the combat that was to come. "Sounds good. Let's go!"
