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

[Jeimuzu Kuro]

{James : The Drop}

James quickly followed suit with the rest of the group as they descended. He couldn’t help but wonder just how much more they had to do to finish their enemy off. They had utterly obliterated it’s form and apparently that was still not enough. The corsair banked hard left to avoid the massive beam of energy. The Heartless were a bit more annoying. In order to deal with them he raised his hexagun and unleashed two Lunar Barrages hoping to take out as many of them as he could that came his way. Everything else he just carefully dodged the other oncoming as best he could, that was pretty much all he could do given the chaos.  

[ArcanaFate]

[Nicholas <> The Drop <> Mood: Angsty as Heck]

The Bard dove first, not even waiting for the others, knowing what the weird combination of Ajora and the other voice. He knew exactly what to expect. Nuts to the seed and nuts to the rest of the Earthlings. Nicholas couldn't help but feel responsible; he had let Louis go unchecked for far, far too long. Only way he could think to solve this was going to be violence.

Lots and lots of violence.

With a simple hummed melody, he cast Haste on himself and only himself, trying to boost himself down faster anyway he could. As the beams and blasts shot all around him, Nicholas had his shields ready to block what needed to be blocked and anything that got directly in his way?

They were getting a beat down worthy of song and legend.  

[fractalJester]

[ Kyle ; Noelle : Louis' Heart : Core Dive ]

Frankly, between the Darkness possessing Louis, this dive, and Ajora's possession, Kyle was more than a little concerned. But he didn't exactly have a lot of time to contemplate any of it.

When no one else cast Haste, he cast Hastega on himself, more to give him greater flexibility than speed. He wasn't about to go rushing off again, not in a scene like this. So when Nicholas, already slightly ahead, began to grow more distant (not by much, the poor thing (poor thing)), his eyes narrowed.

Ah, right. The boy had a hard-on guilt complex for giving his life to help Louis. Fantastic.

Briefly scowling, he noticed Noelle hot on the bard's tail—so he gave her Hastega, too, and shared a quick flicker of thought.

Can you stop him if I give you a chance?

He showed her a picture of his half of the idea.

With pleasure, she shot back, the vine whip reappearing in her left hand.

With a grin—quickly dashed as he struggled to weave a bit further right than he'd expected—he threw out his hand, creating a large glyph of Stopped air inches in front of Nicholas' face, leaving no time to react except to tense before the crash.

Noelle snickered as she watched Kyle put up the glyph, acting moments after. Her vine whip lashed out at Nick, not with the intent of striking him, but moving to wrap around his upper right arm and yank him back to at least her progression point. “YOINK!”

“Teamwork, bozo!” Kyle called out, lashing out at a wave of Bit Snipers with a couple waves of radiant white fire. “You can't face it alone, so stop—yes everyone laugh later at the hypocrite—stop trying to be a stupid martyr when we can do this super easily all together!”

Noelle snorted, “Yeah, listen to that a*****e and don't be like him. One Kyle is enough.”  

[Pie Thrower]

[John .: Louis' Heart :. Core Dive]

John fell as gracefully as a sarcophagus plunging through the air at a high speed. Grace was not his forte as he plummeted through occasional laser and bat taking minor damage as he attempted to repel the bats and dodge the lasers. He was mindful to catch up to the rest of the group, but not to pass them as Kyle yelled a solid piece of advice.

John focused his electric energy to surge through his body, strengthening his muscles and pushing them past their capacity.

[John uses Hypercharge giving him ASt +2]  

[Pie Thrower]

[Saint .: Swan Pond :. Elleon Manor]

Saint stepped through his portal and appeared at the bank of a large pond. He inhaled greatly as he was met with a scene of serenity. The moon reflected off the water like a brilliant light, illuminating the rows of trees around him. The water itself was a black sheet of glass, flat and undisturbed. The night sky was dimly luminescent, a sign of the world the conquer. Oddly, not even a cricket could be heard. All was silent. All was serene. In the distance, an opulent manor dominated the horizon, its towers piercing the night sky. A twisting path jutted from the front and twisted through a mighty row of trees. Down the path from the manor he could see movement, as his entrance had triggered a disturbance in the security of the manor.

Everyone’s always a little too sensitive…

He sat down on the bank, and picked up a small flat rock. Saint tossed into the air a bit, and chucked it across the pond. The rock skipped once and plunged into the water with a loud kerplunk. Noise began to muster around him as he quietly sat on the shore, fishing for another flat rock.
 

[Je suis a toi]

[Delia ~ Paris ~ Beauvais Manor: Garden Ponds]

A little girl, couldn't have been more than 8 years old, made her way from the front entrance to the garden ponds. At the distance he was at, Saint wouldn't have been able to make out the scowl on her face, merely the Renaissance period attire she was in. Light blue as always. But as she drew closer to the man, he would realize that the cute bounce in her curls wasn't so much cute as menacing. He'd hear her grumbling grow louder the closer she got.

"God ******** middle of the night who does this what kind of uncultured swine Good siiiiiiir! How wonderful it is for you to have joined us! And the hour! Perfect timing I say!" Delia suddenly dropped the gracious charade, "But really, next time like, call before you drop in? Hati woulda had the whole tea room set up for you, that b***h is a slut for tea."  

[Enji_Chou]

Cue Guilty Crown Piano
[Kyla: Louis Heart> the Drop]

The beings words were not lost on her, even as she panted from releasing her spell, the strain gone, she stood straight, looking up into the manifestation of her childish and adult fears. As everyone took the final blows to tear asunder, she listened as it ‘died’-
Their battle wasn’t over-

Of COURSE it fking wasn't!

Axel had only just hooted a holler of victory when he vanished before them, arm outstretched as if in protest- to have words fall silent as the column of light continued to burn.

That was fine; bring it on-she had more things to dish out.
Enter Ajora again, like some despised relative you had no choice but to have visit from time to time. She didn’t know if she liked the awoken voice of light coming from a likeness that used her like its own personal punching bag more than once. The juxtaposition could turn ones stomach.
Her feet jumped instinctively, drifting into the air as the platform broke, and collapsed in its downward spiral no doubt to the ROOT of the evil this ‘being’ was charging them to defeat.

Only they could free them huh?

Her eyes flickered to the fragments she remembered from before, the pieces that drifted in the abyss and her thoughts went to her own fragment. The action made her pensive on the very validity of her audacity to use possessive affiliation to the fragment. He was her friend- what was left of him, to some extent.

As she looked into the plummet, her body moved of its volition. Like jumping off a bridge, only to fly, still downwards into the dark, with only fragments of a semblance of a broken hearts warmth to give comfort. The fall wasn’t boring at least.


As inertia made her heart speed up, she too banked every which way to avoid collisions till eventually she simply let herself free fall head first. ‘Course from this angle she saw the incoming enemies and swatted at heartless with her Meta-Slash at enemies that got too close- before recasting Warding Lotus on herself. For the rest of the ‘flight’ she used practical pictomancy to manifest obstacles to take the brunt of beam attacks, watching them explode into unraveled magic on impact-

She fall like Sora did in that sequence, hair drifting about like she was sinking into water- only the fragments lighting her way- them- and the figures of her comrades. Joes bubbled, Bobbi’s maelstrom of ice- Dawn wind…it was…pretty. To see them. The image of this rag-tag group of people burned itself into her mind as she seemingly- limply drifted into the air across from them, with them.

Despite the conviction of what they must do, Kyla couldn’t help but feel that typical nagging sense of dread. It was like being led down one arduous procession before a great execution. Her heart was already tired, even when charged with all the light and goodness the woken Light had to offer- it ached with the anxiety of the repeated abuse.

Having to constantly pull the metaphorical trigger to supposedly put Louis out of his misery was taking its toll. How many times was this mission, this event, this sequence of fights and victories and death going to hammer it in?

Was fate satisfied yet? She got it already for f-k's sake!!!! Enough, go--damnit ENOUGH!

'Set them free huh?'How quaint of a way to say it. It wasn't reassuring at all. Wasn’t it just another flowery way of saying they had to kill again-? Once they did this root then.. what next? The seed? The off-shoot root? Some other metaphorical layer, or manifestation? She wasn’t one to enjoy the PC way people back home substituted words as if they somehow made it different or better. Destroy. Free. Erase. Release. Obliterate. Remove. Cleanse. Was there any distinction between these in this situation? Like putting down a rabid dog? Even if they were saving the person in question, no matter how much the artist was filled to the brim with light or whatever metaphysical influence- she felt it the pain, the dread, and the sadness of this task set before her.

For the duration of their decent, the mage would glide as gracefully as possible as one could in a free fall with evasive maneuvers put in.

She fought, fell, and continued to think.

'Oddly though, maybe that was...ok?'
If she really thought about it- no one would in their right mind should expect her to like it, to be ok with it, be complacent in it, or smile during. Not if she was honest.
Maybe this was ok, embracing the fact she didn't feel ok at all. But she was going anyway. To the end. To the root. She'd hate it, every step of the way, but Kyla would see this through to the end with everyone else.
No one here- she thought- would in all honesty rub this in, slap their vindication of the outcome in her face, would they? No, again, these people were different. One here struck her as that petty...surely the weight of this task was as heavy on them too.

Her face was unreadable as her eyes caught Kyle, James, Noelle, Nick, John- she focused on them. Each person here, in their own way, would feel it, a pain, a secret burden of some kind. She couldn't be alone in this feeling- even if it's form was unique. If they didn't care about what they were doing, then... they wouldn't have been chosen would they? Could it be, because this would hurt, somewhere, somehow for each of them?
Kyla couldn't be sure. As she veered away from another collision, she let the split concentration from her contemplation comfort her with it's distraction. An enemy here- slash- gone, oh- there was Bobbi again, cool… oh- another enemy-slash!

She looked again at each and every one of them that she could see, wondering what the aftermath would be for them. Noelle's arrival indicated a few things. How much time was relative to the things they experienced. How much would they remember? This whole experience was messing with their perception. What if they remembered nothing?
Guess she'd just have to wait and see.
She couldn't agree with those lyrics at all. Regardless of explanations- she feared the future, even as she rose (for fell in this case!) to meet it.
".....I think that's probably..." she trailed off.

'- all the light would ask of me.'

' Here we come -root of this evil-' she thought whilst taking her book, holding it close to herself like some talismen, a reminder of how she could even be here- imbued with the power of the cornerstones light.
' Ready or not, it's over for you.'
 

[Pie Thrower]

[Saint .: Paris :. Beauvais Manor: Ponds’ Garden]

As he expected, Saint was met with the grounds defenses. However, what he did not expect was an 8 year old demon child. Her vulgar language pinned her for exactly what she was. Saint looked upon her stoically and gave one subtle nod.

“My apologies,” He began sympathetically, “but us latecomers were never given a phone…”

Saint’s had no ill intention here. He understood very clearly that if any hostility were shown, there would be blood, and most of it would be his. He slowly got up from his comfortable position and cracked his neck.

He continued looking Delia over, “…and what sort of thing are you then?”  

[Je suis a toi]

[Delia ~ Paris ~ Beauvais Manor: Garden Ponds --> Manor]

Delia scrunched her nose and furrowed her brows, "What sort of thing am I? I'm a human, ya dickbag. You know, little human child gifted with power and knowledge beyond your wildest dreams? All that fancy bullshit. Now you wanna see the hot babe I work for or continue to shoot the s**t all night?"

She turned on her heel and began walking back for the manor, not checking to see if her guest was even following. What did she care if he didn't? He was obviously here for something, so to make the effort and then not follow through didn't seem like something any sort of Replica would do. 'Cept for maybe that Kai b***h. She showed up with all these airs and got ******** nothing done. Hati said she was testing the waters, but what she was REALLY doing was pussyfooting around and wasting our time. Didn't even really ask for anything concrete. This chump better not be the same.

About half way from the ponds to Hati's study where she'd be meeting with Saint, Delia looked over her shoulder and asked, "So what are you here for, anyway? Tell me or don't, I'll hear it anyway when you meet with Hati, but if I could give her a briefing once we get in there she'll be in a much better mood--she hates waiting."  

[Pie Thrower]

[Saint .: Paris :. Beauvais Manor: Garden Ponds --> Manor]

Saint followed Delia briskly as they walked down the dark winding path up to the manor. Beams of moonlight shown through the trees as he passed from darkness to light and back again. Delia's curls bounced up and down, pristine in execution, almost as if enhanced by the magic she wielded. From her initial comment, he knew she especially was not one to mess with.

As they approached midway up the path, Delia's head turned back toward him and she spoke. The child had little to no manners, but it wasn't surprising seeing that she worked for a woman who was birthed in darkness.

"I'm here to make alliances... wherever they may be..." he said trailing off at the end.

His eyes were heavy with thought, as he knew his work was cut out for him. In the past 24 hours he began to realize that the other replicas were just a little too lazy or selfish or other trait that deemed them useless. Half of them were off gallivanting somewhere doing god knows what, and the rest seemed to just be petty villains that would have their plans fall through like a goddamn cartoon.  

[LevDa]

[Dani :~: The Drop]

Dani just started laughing as she flew through the air listening to the darkness. She could tell that it was on its last legs. She watched everyone go before her and start attacking before desummoning her chakram for a second. She put her hands together and a familiar ball of water started to appear in her palm. She spent the time while the others attacking charging the ball with certain magical properties. The ball grew two sizes bigger than normal and had more power. After her charges were complete she focused on the flying heartless flying towards them and flinging it right at them with the intent to blow up as many of them as she could.

show spoilerhide spoiler

Authors note:
Water flare: 2 charges used to increase AOE and 1 charge used to increase magic damage

Meanwhile...

[Ashley :: ??? :: ???]

A dark corridor within a small room opened as Ashley stepped outside of the corridor. She smirked as she realized that the corridor had led her to her destination: a computer . The instant that she started walking to the computer though, shadows started to appear at her feet as dozens of heartless appeared near her. Some were just regular shadows but there were several soldiers there as well. She paid them no mind as their eyes just followed as she walked to the computer. “There you are,” she smirked as she cracked her fingers. She turned on the screen and noticed there was a password . “Hmm… Ashley thought putting a finger to the side of her face. “I wonder what the password was. Let’s just start with this one.”

Ashley entered in the first password that came to mind but was immediately denied access. She continued on a few more times before just giving up in frustration. “Curse my other half for not knowing what the password is!” Ashley shouted as more heartless started to fill the room. They were not attacking at this point. They just watched. “I don’t suppose any of you know the password huh?” Ashley sighed as she summoned her chakrams to her hand. The blades themselves turning a neon blue. “No? Well then I guess I am going to have to get rid of you guys. You are in my way and I am going to be tossing this place over anyway.”

With that Ashley started her one person assault on the heartless in the room. This soon set off a chain reaction of heartless, realizing that this person was no longer a friend but a foe. Using all of her magic and assassin knowledge, she started to the best of her ability kill off every heartless that she saw as she started to move all over the castle in order to find what she was looking for.  

[fractalJester]

[ Amy, Jenny, Sayrike, Matthew, Joe : Louis' Heart : Core Dive ]

Twisting and spiraling around her allies, Amy cared little for the bantering back and forth. All that mattered to her was getting this done so they could finally, finally get out of here.

Though, it felt nice to vent her frustrations.

Like the constant fire of a machine gun, the white mage was loosing a barrage of bullets via Trigger Happy, which she repeated over and over again. The Bit Snipers were tiny, pathetic things--each taking no more than a couple weakened shot before evaporating. So with every moment she attacked, she was decimating wave after wave. And she liked that just fine.

The flutist, meanwhile, was channeling Siren's raw magic into a large glyph that trailed behind her, glowing brilliant violet. As she began to play sharp notes, the Transcendence began to unleash small barrages of ricocheting projectiles, striking enemies and bouncing off walls to find others. She was a bullethell all her own, so long as she continued to weave and play as she had been.

Sayrike, still fueled by brilliant power, once more shattered all three of her mirrors, creating a rending cyclone of shards that rushed about like a serpent of fractured glass, soaring one way or another and destroying or intercepting whatever might be coming their way, Heartless and blast alike.

Matthew, rather than unleashing storms of magic like he could, took instead to blurring through the descent at sharp, linear angles, both evading and obliterating enemies with a steady, repeating Sonic Blade

Joe began to charge his blade with the deep hues of cosmic energy, merging offense and defense as he contorted and deflected blasts and lasers alike. Finally, he began to swing the sword in wide, round arcs, unleashing starlit waves of crescent graviton energy via Spiral Arm, bisecting heartless and refracting dark magic with every dexterous motion.

[[ It's posts like these you realize just how many people like to use colors along the lower blue-purple spectrum... ]]  

[ArcanaFate]

[Nicholas <> Louis' Heart <> The Drop]

He couldn't react fast enough.

The glyph made Nicholas tense in response, and he put one of his shields up to defend himself from the attack. Before he could figure out where the attack had come from, he had been pulled back...

By a vine?

Oh, hell no. They didn't. He glanced between Kyle and Noelle, his eyes narrowing as Kyle called him a martyr and Noelle told him to not act like Kyle. He breathed deeply, trying to remain calm. He shouldn't be angry, but this was, in his opinion, extremely disrespectful. Of course he's leading, he knows how to rip the seed out. He wasn't sure if anyone else knew how the fight with the seed would go, but telling him he was being a martyr? That's bullshit. Correct, technically, since he was planning on sacrificing himself to kill both Mateus and Chaos, but still bullshit.

But he could play along.

He hummed again, his Haste spell now spreading to all of the party, granting them the much needed speed boost to move towards their goal.  

[fractalJester]

{ Judgment }
{ You Will Know Our Names }

Such was their determination that nothing could stop them.

Joseph's typhoon of bubbles mixed with Bobbi's twin-born hailstorms, and James' violet barrage of lunar energy rang out alongside Amy's endless wave of bullets. Dani let loose a grand explosion of water amidst Jenny's swarm of æther, and between John and Mathy, little more of the Heartless remained. What survived, even as their numbers were slowly replenished, were culled by the rampaging mirror shards controlled by Sayrike, the cyclone of crescent destruction thrown about by Joe, and the twisting, accurate slashes of pictomagic.

All the while, they flew downward, dodging beam and barrage alike in a constant state of fluid motion, driven by reflex, dexterity, and instinct. They pierced the onyx tides, and soon enough—

—they were met with a soul-shaking scream of unbridled wrath.

Their flights slowed, more by feeling than command, as they approached the shadow-plunged depths of the core. Throughout their drop, the shards of memory had grown scarcer, even now appearing only here and there like the dull night sky above a bustling city.

Protruding out of black ground, lit only by strange indigo flames licking at its torso, was what appeared to be a gargantuan Dark Thorn Heartless; such was its size that, even though its lower body was entrenched in the solid, dark abyss of the ground, it was nearly as large as a Behemoth. Briars as thick as their legs ensnared its chest and arms, spreading outward along the ground like a growing infestation, while strange, broken chains remained attached to pearl shackles around its wrists. Its crimson mane, more solid manifestation than 'hair', spread out like a half-formed blossom from its neck, with great red horns standing out from its head. And, just as other large Purebloods, it held a great, heart-shaped hole in its chest.

As they slowly fell into place, surrounding it while still flying, the great abomination thrashed.

"YOU LOST, BROKEN THINGS! YOU ARE NOTHING, YOU WILL ALWAYS BE NOTHING, NOTHING!!!"

And so, regardless of their actions, it began to lash and swing, its grand claws rapidly swiping through the air, threatening to skewer anyone foolish enough to stay in their path. Even as it did so, the countless portals continued to converge on them, loosing homing columns of black and indigo and spiraling storms of projectiles that, now, would explode even if they neared a target.

Their auras burned bright. They could practically smell the desperation on the horror. And something, at the depths of their chests, seemed to tingle—not in pain or discomfort, necessarily. They could not quite identify it...

... until it grew into a spark, a spark that fanned the flames of light and power within them, ready to burst.


[[ Aura has been triggered in everyone! ]]

[[ Valor+ has been triggered in everyone! Double Strength for the next round! ]]

[[ Devotion+ has been triggered in everyone! Double Magic for the next round! ]]  

[fractalJester]

[ Amy, Jenny, Sayrike, Matthew : Louis' Heart : At The Root ]

It began with one somber note—a low G that echoed through the chasm, heard above their thrashing foe. And then, with rapid acuity, it began to build into the flurry of song, spiraling through chords and melodies, all in the major key.

Jenny wove her song and spell in one, and a pulse of temporal magic burst outward, momentarily causing the beast and all its summoned magic to move in slow motion. Then, with every note, so swiftly produced, small violet glyphs of magic began to appear in the vast emptiness surrounding them all, glittering like stars. Just second after that haunting first note, there were already dozens, filling the sky and making this dark void appear like the night sky over some sort of Elysian Field.


In the midst of this song, Amy dispelled her guns—for perhaps the first time, willingly, in hours—and began to call upon the deeper wells of her white magic, slowly lifting her arms skyward.

High above them, whence they came, there was still a lingering light that had not yet pierced this chasm, and they would know it to be the bursting light pillar that had granted them power. However, much closer, perhaps only fifty feet up, another speck of light began to appear. That speck grew into a flicker, a singularity, and then an iridescent orb not unlike a great Pearl radiating light as if it were a newborn star. That orb grew in size over the course of moments, even as Jenny continued to play.


As the two women summoned vast magics, Sayrike merely willed her mirrors to reform in front of her, and with a haunting golden aura slowly surrounding her, she floated forward—into her largest mirror, vanishing entirely.

As she disappeared, the three mirrors all quickly surrounded the great monstrosity, forming a triangle, each facing the beast. And as the third mirror stopped in place, they burst with golden magic: Sayrike, wielding two of Asura's ornate swords, rushed out of one as little more than a piercing stream of light. She flew forward, unleashed an eviscerating series of attacks, and flew into another mirror, all in a matter of one second—and then she did it again, from another—and again, and again, and again, unyielding in her assault.


Matthew, on the other hand, took the route of the nuker; holding his scimitar in front of him, he began to charge it with immense, non-elemental power, coalescing the great variety of his Blue Magic into one cataclysmic spell. Finally, with a shout that trembled with magic, he lifted his blade and swung it downward.

A gash in reality was left in the steel's wake, soaring forward like a bullet and growing with every inch into a triangular rip, the Grand Delta, flat and two-dimensional as if made through planar sundering. It passed straight into the center of the Dark Thorn, growing and tearing at the beast as it exploded outward in size—before finally it imploded in a blink, creating a roaring vortex of non-elemental energy the seared at the beast's very core.


As if on cue, Amy shouted and yanked her arms downward, and the great Pearl—now easily over twenty feet in diameter—exploded in a descending pillar of positive, iridescent energy that burned down through the horror and into its very essence.


Jenny, though, continued to play her grand dirge, the tension knotting up in her shoulders as she channeled more and more power outward. The glittering runic circles numbered well beyond a hundred now, and their numbers simply rose every second, but more importantly, she was doing what she could to slow the beast's terrified assault.