Kingdom Hearts : Heartfelt Adventure {Day 8 ; Invite Only}

[RhikoDemson]

[[Narration - Still Alive]]

As Nick laid his opponent to rest, burring his body under the snow, he couldn't help but notice that blood spread from the pure white snow and stain the bridge red, running through the cracks and spreading the scarlet veil over a great portion of the bridge current visible to Nick during the sudden white out everywhere beyond his small several meter radius of vision. Shadows danced upon the pure white canvas from the boy's still calming heart, the weight of his sins and forbidden desires weighing heavily against him as he knelt there. When he stood and turned, he felt the foreboding sinking from a scenario gone wrong... and something was indeed, very, very wrong.

There was a crunch of footfall in snow accompanied by the sound of giggling.

Upon turning to look, Nick was greeted by not one, but well over twenty shadowy figures of Louis sneering and laughing at him. Even from the grave, his opponent hadn't let him go, even if as a corpse, the Avatar of the Corrupt would drag the Avatar of Chaos to the grave with him by the ankle.

From the shadows, several dozen stakes of ice shaped like arrows zipped towards Nick, attempting to skewer him where he stood.  

[RhikoDemson]

[[Narration : Still Still Alive]]

As the earthlings gathered themselves to heal and collect their broken hearts from the shock of yet another loss, they were informed by the Instrumentalist and Dancer, that they were in fact not out of danger yet. No time to think, no time to weep, no time to mourn, pushed further and further, how long until they'd break under the pressure? Could they truly hold out against this onslaught of pain that stabbed at their flesh and souls alike?

Regardless of that answer, whatever continued to devour their magic was still present and active. As Matthew turned his gaze to the inner workings of spells at large, he was at first blinded. Magic all around him made it seem that there was no source, but rather a cyclone surrounding them, but after several seconds of deliberating, he noticed the upwards flow of motion in the magic... and looked up.

"Heads up! Incoming!"

The blue mage gave ample warning, before a body of ice came crashing in from the sky in a violent dive bomb. Snow and mist flowed around in a cloud in front of the gates before it dispersed with the forceful expansion of a pair of wings. The great and valiant guardian, Belphagor, in his original 10 foot tall demonic form stood in their way, wings aglow with an infernal black and blue hue. From the outspread wings came a spray of glacial spears aimed at no one yet everyone at once, firing off like an machine gun spraying aimlessly.  

[Psalm Grasshopper]

[Amy : Narnia : Bridge]

Kyla accepted Amy's help, and together they made their way to the healing rain. Amy hadn't realized she was wounded before, and it was mostly superficial, but as the rain washed over them she felt immediate relief from the bumps and bruises. Kyla looked better, too, but she had a longer way to go.

Mathy's warning drew Amy's gaze to the gates. Of course it wasn't over yet- they hadn't even made it into the castle- but she had thought that this fight, at least, was over. Guess not.

She summoned a Diamond Barrier along the width of the bridge, hopefully stopping the glacial spears, assuming she had summoned the wall fast enough. Some of the spears might have gotten past, and her barrier, although sparkly shiny awesome diamondiness, might shatter from the impact of the attack.  

[RhikoDemson]

[[Belphagor : Narnia : Castle Bridge]]

Belphagor, in all his glory and might, was not one to be trifled with. The wall of magical crystal from Amy was indeed an effort worth noting... but even this shimmering wall, void of flaws, could not stand before the righteous judgment this infernal beast passed down. After a mere second withstanding the onslaught, the diamond wall shattered into hundreds of pieces and the wave of arrows passed through the barrier so that the shards of ice resumed flying into, around, and between the trespassers.  

[AldrickZearse]

[Joe: Narnia: Castle Bridge]

The monk sighed as the rain washed over him, letting Noelle lean on him as they finally had some form of respite from the battles that had been pounding against them. Not that it lasted long.

Mathy's warning had Joe's staff in his hands once again, carefully moving so Noelle was protected behind his person. Another damn enemy. And they still weren't even in the castle yet. Joe's teeth were gritted, slowly grinding as he prepped himself to move and strike. Not that he got the chance, considering the spray of ice.

Amy's defensive wall went up, but that didn't last long, and Joe's staff went up, spinning in his hands, making a propeller shield in front of him and Noelle to destroy, deflect, and guard against the ice flying at him from his front.

"Someone blast this thing so we can actually get somewhere!" He was fast, but the pattern was too random to safely evade everything, and with Noelle drunk...he was pinned to the spot, in his own defensive mode.  

[LevDa]

[Dani :: Narnia :: Castle Bridge]

Dani was happy to see the pillars finally going down but it was still not enough. As the monster fired his beam Dani was not able to prepare herself for the blast. “Water should pro-“ Dani thought as the full brunt of the attack hit her. Due to the severity of the attack Dani fell over shivering as her vision went black. For a few minutes she could not see anything and could barely make out that others were starting to make it to each other in order to heal. She had tried to call out to them with her voice but only tiny whimpers would come out. “H-H-“ Dani tried to call out to them through the charms as well but she couldn’t get her thoughts across properly.

‘Come on!’ Dani shouted to herself, ‘MOVE!’. Dani felt her fingers twitch a little bit but otherwise nothing felt like working. Slowly her vision was coming back as she saw the dive bomb happen on the bridge. She knew that she could not defend herself but heard Joe’s shout for a blast at whatever had come onto the bridge. Using the last of her mana, she made a water ball float a little above her and then fired a water pressure blast in the direction that she had seen the dive bomb hit.  

[Jeimuzu Kuro]

{James ; Leon : Narnia : Castle Bridge}

The healing rain felt good, warm on his chilled to the core skin. Slowly James rose back to his feet, looking skywards at the rainfall. It was a pleasant moment of respite, that of course could not last.

{{Cue: Crisis/Peril}}

Mathy's warning drew the corsair out of his brief reverie as the sky darkened with the dive bombing return of Belphagor, who immediately unleashed a torrent of ice spears like a Gatling gun. A barrier was called forth and then quickly destroyed by the unrelenting force, leaving them all to defend for themselves. Which put the corsair in a pretty big bind, he had no real way to defend against them. Joe's order came out pretty clear, hit the dragon with something.

'Let's hope this has a bit more of an effect than last time, The corsair thought as he pulled out his fire card, holding it across his chest to guard his vital points somewhat as he focused the elemental energy into his hexagun. When he had charged up as much energy as he felt he could he pulled the trigger as the large Fire Grenado flew towards the demon. He hoped that the fiery that followed would deal good damage.

However, taking the offensive meant that the corsair would and did get hit by any of the projectiles that flew his way. Most of them grazed him as they flew by. However, one in particular hit and sunk deep into his left arm causing the corsair to hiss in pain, that turned into a loud growl as he removed it.

Leon had remained by Nanaki's side when the warning brought his focus back to the fight as the demon crashed down in front of the gate followed immediately by a barrage of icy spears flying at them. Leon blocked and dodged what projectiles he could. However, he took a few grazing hits as well as he charged and unleashed a Fira spell at the demon.  

[fractalJester]

[ Sora ; Riku ; Earthlings ; ??? : Narnia : Bridge ]

[ Cue Shift : Face It! ]

"Head's up! Incoming!"

Matthew's response jolted Sora out of his stare, watching as the original monster reappeared and began its attack. A couple ideas ran through his head, but as Amy's quickly-summoned barrier fell, he jumped at the opportunity.

"Riku!"

The other keyblader turned to look at Sora, catching the brunette's determined gaze and nodding. In a blur of motion, he was once again to the front, summoning a Dark Shield, though this time he was protecting Sora, who was charging a spell of his own.

"Magnera!"

Pointing his Keyblade skyward, yellow light flashed from the tip as a brilliant array of golden symbols appeared above the group, spinning round and round. The immense pull, much like a Gravity spell, was intended to draw the frozen spears up and over them. Their momentum would likely send them careening out of the spell's area of effect after the fact, but it wouldn't matter by that point.

Sora held his focus, keeping the spell up, while Riku's Shield was only a momentary blockade. If the Magnera worked, Sora wouldn't be hit by spears and thus would be able to maintain it for as long as necessary. If the Magnera didn't work, then there was no point in holding the spell anyway, so being hit meant little.

John quickly realized what was going on, and with a holler, pointed his hammer toward Sora's spell, adding his own Magnera to the spell, aiming to double it's potency.

Sayrike, having been near Jenny, quickly went in front of her and resummoned her biggest mirror, planting it down in front of the two of them and doing what she could to hold it, both mentally and physically.

Anthony followed suit, using Cover to instantly appear in front of Dawn, bracing himself with his arms crossed in front of him to take as much of what came her way as possible.

Matthew, rather than focus on defense, braced himself enough to quickly summon two Flame Pillars--a fitting and signature move of Axel's. They appeared under each of the demon's feet, rising well over Belphagor's head with infernal fury, roughly 15 feet tall and 5 feet wide each.

The sorceress, meanwhile, struggled to maintain her focus under the onslaught. Because she had to keep the magic flowing steadily just to keep the healing rain up, the occasional glacial spear would break her concentration, stopping the rain and forcing her to focus again. If the Magneras helped, she would maintain the rainfall and heal anyone nearby--the raincloud spanned just over roughly 15 feet in all directions.

Kyle remained on one knee, though his breathing was growing less ragged. Even as the icicles rushed past him, grazing his sides or breaking against his shoulders, he couldn't quite stand. He lifted his head, staring at Belphagor, something flickering in the depths of his gaze. The pain was starting to subside.  

[ArcanaFate]

[Nicholas <> Narnia <> Castle Gates?]

Nicholas eyed the blood against the snow, and could still feel a sense of dread emanating from all around. Louis was dead, why was this feeling still there? What had he missed? What was this cloud looming over him? His memory flashed back to Louis' final words, and a chill ran up his spine. The words Louis formed were so simple and clear, but it didn't really click until that very moment.

"There is no escape."

A giggle behind him made him turn, and the figures of his slain opponent stared on with soulless eyes and devilish grins, and Nicholas could only look on wide eyed. Dozens of ice arrows flew towards him and there was very little time to retaliate. The swordsman raised his arms to block his face, and an Aero Shield appeared, deflecting a good percentage of the arrows. However, some still passed, and the various cuts as well as the one embedded in his left shoulder proved the attack was still effective.

He slowly rose to his feet, his left arm limp and his right clenched into a tight fist. "Well, ******** you too, sir." Nicholas spat angrily, reaching towards the ice arrow and ripping it out with a sickening squelch sound. He dropped the blood covered ice into the snow, and held both arms out slightly. The left arm shook as he held it, but his right remained steadfast.

"You're probably the only one who has seen my 'heartbound' weapon, Louis. And in the taste of cliche tropes, you've yet to see it in action." Nicholas blinked, and a flash of energy appeared on each arm. His left arm remained open palmed after the flash of Darkness, one of Chaos' four swords casually floating in the air. In his right after a flash of a very dull light, rest a four foot blade, edged in an obsidian like metal and a bright silver center.

As quick as he could go, Nicholas used a pulse of wind magic to propel himself towards one side of the group as Chaos' sword went to the other side. Chaos' blade flew through the air much more quickly than the swordsman, attempting to impale at least two or three of the Louis clones together. Meanwhile, as Nicholas moved closer towards the other part of the clones, his blade separated into its' whip form, and the swordsman spun himself around as tightly as he could to get full momentum for cutting though as many as the clones as the blade flew towards them.  

[RhikoDemson]

[[Narration : Okaerinasai(Welcome Home)]]

As arrows dashed about and were pulled skyward by the powerful group effort between John and Sora. The magnera redirected the arrows skyward, saving all but the very front line from the assault of ice. As the demon was assaulted by several waves of fire elemental spells and its attack was nullified, drawn off course by the keyblader and the hammer wielding earthling, it writhed in frustration and pain. The poor creature, bound to its duty and forced to endure such hardships because this group of hateful beings and their lust for blood continued to press forward to intrude upon this frozen paradise. It seemed hopeless, with their magic and sheer number, the forces of the castle stood little chance at this rate. Without reinforcements, without allies, this would be decided swiftly.

-----------------------------------

[[Cue: Kuroi Uta by Emi Evans from Drakengard 3]]

Belphagor knelt to one knee, his strength leaving him, fire burning away at his crystalline body and causing him searing pain. He could see himself losing soon, and this group of light bearers walking through the gate behind him which still hung wide open. Were the guards manning the gate dead? At least, if the gate were shut he might have died knowing at least they would still be thwarted by the physical barrier, but instead he stood as the last remaining vanguard between these intruders and his lord's sanctuary. He couldn't lose here, he mustn't, but what could he do? He was out numbered and outmatched, the support his master had granted him from the castle had been torn away, his armor stripped of him exposing him to the pain and agony their gluttonous flames produced.

At that time, he could feel the embrace of someone behind him, a pair of arms wrapped around him and cradled his waist and press against his back. He could hear the song of the castle reach his ears, ever so slightly, his heart at ease for a moment, his pain numbed lightly.

"Well done," the figure said softly, "Your efforts... were not in vain. Just hold on... it won't be long now."

------------------------------------------------

Joe protected Noelle and the others followed his orders lighting up their enemy in a blaze, it seemed as though there was nothing left standing in the way of their victory. Suddenly pain in his right arm following a swift blur. He hadn't seen what it was, it was so fast and he'd bee watching the demon in front on him, where did the wound come from? What was that blur?
"Well, ******** you too, sir."
Noelle, midst her drunken stupor had been able to see the object in question and its trajectory. It zipped about faster than she could speak, striking Bobbi in the side and finally Jenny in the leg. It had come from behind, there were no enemies behind them, right? Their enemy was before them, the demonic dragonkin, Belphagor. Then, why?
"You're probably the only one who has seen my 'heartbound' weapon, Louis. And in the taste of cliche tropes, you've yet to see it in action."
Upon looking behind, there was little chance to react. A chain... a whip... or was it a sword... cleaved at the rear-most of the fighters, sweeping across them in an attempt to maim, shred, and disembowel all it its path with its serrated edge.

And there, in the middle of it all, was Nick. Darkness flowing off of him in massive amounts with a black ghostly figure, a specter of sorts, floating behind him, one arm wrapped around his chest under his arms, the other around a shoulder with the hand up over his eyes. The phantom's gaze, deep red, and glowing watched over the boy's shoulder and stared unblinking with a smile like an excited sneer at the group.

Kyle, Bobbi, & Kyla, could recognize it instantly. That accursed figure of nightmare preying on them at their most desperate moments... and now, it was preying on Nick.

"Die, Die, Die, Die! DIE!!!"
"Hehe, Ehehehe, AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

((OOC Edit: For clarification, this post requires a bit of back reading into Nick's last post. There are two separate attacks. One, is the "chaos sword" that was sent flying about autonomously that attempted to skewer 3 people(Bobbi, Joe, and Jenny), the 2nd attack is a cleave attack on the rear-half of the fighters... so mostly support classes, mages, and ranged characters would be in this category.))  

[Kaegoe]

[Dawn : Narnia : Castle Bridge]

"Anthony," Dawn hissed as the man took the portion of the ice that was aimed for her, however, a couple of shards was able to pass him and cut her right cheek and one of her calves,"Damn it."

She was worried for him and everyone else, but she continued to maintain the bubble on everyone. They had to keep moving. As she turned to continue to dance she got hit from behind by the cleave from... someone or something. Dawn stumbled forward in pain into Anthony's back. She clinched her hand briefly on Anthony's shirt, trying to stand up and look behind them to see what appeared to be Nick.

"Why do I get a feeling that things are not going as planned up there..." she mumbled loudly, before cursing, "Damn it Louis.  

[phoenixianCrystallist]

{Bobbi, Yuffie, Zell, Demyx, Red XIII .:. Narnia .:. Bridge}

Bobbi continued to stare in stunned disbelief at Nanaki's statue. She refused to think of it as his corpse—surely, surely they'd win and they could thaw him and he'd be alright and everything would be alright and why was everything blurry? Something warm and wet trickled down her cheek, clearing her vision as her tears fell, and she realized she was crying. It didn't make any sense; she'd barely responded when Axel kamikaze'd their way clear, or listening to the death screams of the Chocobos. Why was it that Nanaki affected her like this? Maybe it was that she'd seen it happen, or immediately after the fact. It was just like finding Rosie as she lay dying, only infinitely worse. Rosie-pie had been expected for a long time, the poor old girl. Nanaki's was sudden, unexpected, violent. She was sure that when the realities of the others' deaths hit her she'd cry for them too. Like she had at her beloved grandma's funeral… No tears at all until then, because the funeral and seeing the casket had made it real. Maybe that was it.

It was Matt's warning shout that snapped her out of her horror-trance. She jumped back out of the way as Belphegor landed, and watched the creature shatter Amy's crystalline shield. Thankfully she was within the Magnera's area of effect and the ice projectiles from the damn thing were diverted. For a terrifying moment Bobbi couldn't think of what she could do to follow Joe's command. Fortunately the others were on it, and that gave her time to think. She brought Tualmaril to hand and began concentrating on dampening her innate Ice element when she felt a pain in her side, like a blade had passed through. She cried out, covering the wound instinctively, and stared in disbelief at the spray of blood she'd left on the bridge. She looked around for the source of the attack—it had come from behind and didn't feel like something Belphegor had thrown at them before. As she looked, she coated the wound in her Frost Balm, though that mostly served to numb the pain. Fortunately, she was just on the edge of the sorceress's healing rain spell, and the slash began to knit closed. It was deep, though, and wasn't healing anywhere near fast enough to make the Archer happy.

What was—

Her thoughts halted when she spotted Nick in the back—and worse, the spectre he carried with him.

. razz lease tell me I'm delusional and that is not a Louis shade molesting Nick,:. she sent over the charms to Kyle and Kyla.

"Aw, come on, we just beat you," Yuffie whined when Belphegor dropped in uninvited. "Ruuuuude!" She took the leader-guy's orders to heart and charged in, shuriken whirling. She pulled up alongside the beast and threw her weapon at him, though she continued running. She intended to get behind, maybe climb it's back and find a weak spot if she could.

Zell was already charging in when Joe gave the order to attack. He wasn't thinking about himself anymore—he'd just seen a good friend die, and he wanted equal parts retribution and to prevent another disaster from happening. He punched a couple of the ice arrows away, but a few still got through, piercing him in one shoulder and the opposite thigh. He snapped the arrows off, still running, and when close enough leapt into the air and punched Belphegor as hard as he could.

Suddenly, the back was a very bad place to be, and Demyx scrambled to evade Nick as he waded in amongst the group.

"Whoa! the Melodious Nocturne cried, bringing his sitar to bear. He played a chord on the sitar, summoning a high-pressured geyser right below Nick's feet.

Nanaki continued to be a frozen statue, adding a macabre decoration to the battle and the bridge.

(OOC: Yes I refuse to let him go shut up *weeps forever*)  

[Enji_Chou]

[Kyla: Narnia: Bridge]


No response. Still no response.

More than grateful to Amy for helping her move over under the healing rain. With each passing second she could feel her control of her extremities returning. Amy had reacted to something, and Kyla just began to turn her head as the healer summoned her Diamond barrier. Damnit- would this never quit! And they did have to get into the tower?!

The barrier shattered into glittering fragments- while the initial assault was thwarted, Kyla could barely block anything- her book held up in a feeble attempt- she was too stiff to cast anything just yet. But after the initial assault she could feel her fingers and arms again, a shuddering still rain through her- but at least she could move again.

As the battle field around her back into focus again she saw Nick materialize in front of them where they stood close to the middle back of the group.

“Oh shhhh**-!!” there was no way she could not recognize that thing now. So he had a piece as well-

“ Nick?!”

. razz lease tell me I'm delusional and that is not a Louis shade molesting Nick,:. Bobbi’s query was right on the money and Kyla responded in kind.



< Unfortunately… I think you’re right Bobbi. And he is Not in his right mind now…Atlantis all over again anyone?>
At this rate he was going to take advantage of the hurt and healing before anything had any positive outcome for their side.

she couldn’t allow Nick to devastate them during the onslaught. Kyla opened her book and hitting the ground as he assaulted them, she charged her Lotus shield.

A translucent shield erupted round Nick, the flower petals sealing shut like a capsule with the insane earthling and his parasitic attachment inside.
Kyla charged her sole focus of mana to the shield to keep it constant.

“I- I can’t do anything else!” she warned, meaning she was open.
 

[Gentleman Knives]

Joe : Narnia : Bridge

"Oh for ******** sake." Joe groaned as the demon emerged and landed, barely was able to pick himself back up before he got sheered by some of the ice spears. They weren't enough to kill or severely injure him,but they had drawn a fair amount of blood.

Grimacing, he looked over at the bat winged demon and decided that he was done with the whole 'conserve energy for later' strategy. Time to unleash hell.

Charging himself and pointing his blade at the beast, Joe willed stellar energy to fold in front of him, collecting it into a large sphere of pure cosmic force. The meteor stayed in place for a moment, pulsing with energies of the beyond, before Joe fired it off with yell, sending it hurling towards the demon.

Joe was so fixated on the beast, he barely even noticed the goings on behind him. If anyone had wanted to attack him from behind, now would be a good time.  

[fractalJester]

[ Kyle ; Sora ; Riku ; Earthlings ; ??? : Narnia : Bridge ]

[ Still Cue : Face It! ]

Jenny flinched—not once, but twice—as Nicholas attacked them from behind, possessed. As a result, everyone would have felt the Haste buff fade momentarily, but she immediately went back to playing her flute; the healing rains certainly helped, her wounds washing away almost immediately.

Anthony found himself inadvertently speeding around behind Dawn after the glacial spears were diverted; his Cover skill was still active, so it had instantly brought him to defend against Nicholas for her. Of course, since Nicholas had initially attacked during the wave of spears, Anthony couldn't defend her from those, but now he stood between the two.

Before he could act, though, Kyla had her Lotus Shield up, restraining the quasi-ally. All the same, Anthony readied his gauntlets' chains, just waiting to ensnare the sword-wielder in case he broke through.

Sayrike found herself caught, staring back toward Nicholas as he assaulted Jenny. Telling Matthew, she used Scan not on Nicholas, but on the spectre currently latching onto him; of course, if that didn't work, she would then try Scanning the possessed himself.

Matthew took a moment to think, and rather than using Clarity on the specter, kept his focus on Belphagor, unleashing another Fire Pillar, this one directly underneath his main form.

Confident now that Sora's plan was a success, Riku turned his gaze to Belphagor—only to be brought back to Nicholas behind them. Due to the lack of physical fighters, he decided to rush back and stand at the ready near Kyla in case something happened.

The sorceress, now protected due to Sora and John's Magnera combination, went back to focusing on the healing rains, charging more mana into the spell in order to spread its distance somewhat; now, all who hadn't gone forward toward Belphagor were in its range, slowly being healed for a considerable amount in the warm wash.

Finally, the tightness in his chest passed, though the spark in his pupils had only solidified, as if into manifest spirit. His eyes narrowed at the opposing demon, the obstacle, and it was if the threads of time surrounding the two of them were unraveling.

We are both.

That which had clung so tightly to his heart began to flow through his veins, his circuits, and in that instant, there was only he and that which blocked him. No one was watching Kyle, so no one saw the distortion of his appearance, the briefest moment in which—

Then he was gone. He hadn't moved, there was no sound or flash of light, he was simply gone, ripped from time.

We are both.

In that same instant, that same fraction of a second he appeared before the obstacle. The pillars beneath the demon's two feets were subsiding now, but they provided enough dying light that even in the shadow of night he could be clearly seen. It was only as they faded entirely, and shortly before the third erupted, that his form was hidden in shadow, no, that was just a distortion of color, of shadow and———gone, gone again, absent from temporality as the flame burst from the stone.

The fiery pillar was brilliant in the night, lighting up the entire half of the bridge even as it burned away the obstacle's flesh. Maybe if someone followed the line of fire, they might have seen him in the sky, strangely dark against the castle and sky, lit red by the fire—surely the fire, despite its distance——
You are both.
He made no sound nor roar of fury as he blurred downward, his descent like the crashing of a missile or the swooping of a dragon. He angled the more visceral tip of his spear directly into the back of the it's skull, hoping to spear it through or at least lodge it in deep enough, and as he did, he twisted down and held onto the spear, rushing down and forward to wrap his legs tightly around the neck and under the jaw. The fires of the pillar surrounded him as it passed over, but did no damage. It was from this vantage that he would start twisting and gouging the spear and—if it was a living, breathing thing—attempting to suffocate it with his legs.