Welcome to Gaia! ::

[ATE: The Bright Side: 19]
[Joe: Bobbi's Heart: Station of Awakening]

Joe blinked as the dispel hit him, surprised that it had come from Kyle. Before he could even ask why, Kyle explained through charms, and Joe let out a small sigh.

Right. Well, I'm glad you did it then. He also added in a quick Sorry Everyone... to everyone.

Of course, now he was standing there with his staff in his hands. What could he even do now? Magic was all around him, and he was not the most magical person. And rushing forward in this 'web' didn't seem like it'd be easy. Or smart.

...What could he do now? He...wasn't quite sure. Though...he did have a couple ideas. This time, though, he waited for Bobbi's cue.

[ATE: The Bright Side: 21]
{Kyla: Bobbi's Heart: Station of Awakening}

‘You tried Joe, its ok.’She replied quickly over the charms.
But they still had the problem; they needed to be defended from the lights-
Bobbi seemed to have an idea, and it didn’t hurt to try- ..Then again… she looked at her hand again.
'I don't see shame in trying to think of a plan Bobbi.- on that note-'

‘- if all else fails, I could try using my shields, but I don’t quite understand what these things are made of so I’m not sure what I’d have to create as a construct- they could be completely useless if not imbued properly. Kyle- what can you glean from them?’

‘-if only we could combine our powers- think maybe one spell could be cast to imbue another? well...-whatever the case,what that do you think, I’m up for trying anything.’

Kyla felt her hand ease off, looking down she could see the damage was repaired and sighed with relief that it wasn’t made worse thanks to Kyle. Wait-Why did she suddenly feel like a lab rat?

Kyla couldn’t’ help but listen to the changing music around them, the change in tempo seemed like a precursor to something bigger about to start up around them.

"You mean... you can't see her?" Louis responded, obviously baffled tough his eyes dimmed and his expression became deadpan, slowly getting darker with his tone, "Are you so blinded by light, that you've completely lost the ability to see in the dark?" As he spoke, everyone who had sight, experienced what could only be described as a glitch of the eye, a flicker of sight. A frightening red splashed into their eyes.

Kyle's view of the world didn't quite change as he increased his magical output. In fact, the waves that blurred his vision grew more defined, but as his range increased, he gained a new perspective. Far behind Louis, there was a single line drawn to the young man. It extended from a black pit, a hole leading somewhere beyond his sight's comprehension. The entrance to the hole was distorted, ripples extending out. The same ripples. The ripples weren't distortions, they were magic too!

"Shiva-neesan didn't want to play anymore. She said the games were over," another flicker, suddenly screaming filled their ears, a terrifying shriek, their vision of Louis overlapped with a monstrous black demon, the same man dressed in a mix of cloth and armor, most notably one armored claw from his left shoulder down, eyes black as the surrounding abyss from lid to lid, and a pair of horns extending from his temples up and back. A blink and they returned, "The game was not over."

[[BGM: Thirteenth Chapter ~Closing~ from Drakengard ]]

The voice stopped. Instead a haunting sound rang off every surface, the sound of bells, bells ringing in an unnatural and unpleasant rhythm.

A strike of lightning, and the world round them changed in an instant.

Red. The air was red, blood, raining down like droplets of water spattering across the platform in isolated, sticky, slimy puddles the wreaked of a coppery stench one could taste with each breath. Lightning flashed through the clouds of darkness surrounding the platform, the false electricity casting momentary shades of dark green and purple. Louis, sat on his throne, which had tripled in size now appeared like something out of a grotesque, organic horror novel. Pulsing black veins ran along the, what was once a dark wood, now an obsidian crystal material, from a rose that half bloomed off center on the top right corner, each petal easily measuring the width of a man's shoulders.

Staring at the flower brought on flash backs, flickers and screeching accompanied by images and memories containing incomprehensible fragments of pain and suffering.

The veins ran from the chair and continued out, spreading along the floor of the platform and over the edges in every direction. The auroras from before were still present, but no longer held the inviting glow that had drawn the eye before, now, held an insidious shade that only scraped further at the nerves when lightning struck and changed it into sickening blends of colors similar to bruises and infected wounds.

Above Louis, was a black spherical storm. Raging clouds forming a ball with what appeared to be eight chains entering from several symmetrical angles. Far behind him, a black sphere, smooth as polished marble floated about 20 feet off the ground and had a visible spiral of darkness flowing into it.

Conversely, next to Kyle and Kyla stood both of their phantom Louis, visible to everyone and both sharing a similar expression, a scowl with bared fangs on one and a glare that could maim. Kyle's stood next to him, one wing outstretched forward, while the other curved in slightly, covering Kyle's shoulders. Kyla's, stood before her in a fighting stance that appeared feral in nature, growling audibly. The rain splattered off their clothes and hair like everyone else, odd for beings that were just inconsequential images before.

"So... are you still blinded or has the veiled of your ignorance been lifted, free to see the truth in the darkness," Louis sneered, "You idiots never did understand. The light isn't always as benevolent as wonderful as you think."

"Kyle," the angelic boy spoke directly to him, "I think we need you out here with the rest of us... now!"

Meanwhile, the bestial man turned only spoke verbally without taking his glare off of Louis, "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise to protect you, he was using something to suppress me. Are you alright?"

"Shiva didn't want to play anymore, but that's okay, I taught her a new way to play," Louis reverted to his sillier, yet still disturbing persona, "She was so adamant, 'this isn't a game', 'stop this at once', 'The others will stop you', but eventually she stopped." His voice matched Shiva's perfectly as he mimicked her, but the voice he used sounded pained and exhausted.

His eyes looked up at the cloud of darkness overhead and the chains that extended into at at various angles. He giggled, "It's time."

The darkness that had gathered overhead, dispersed. Splitting into multiple tendrils that re-gathered at his left. However, more strikingly was what still hung where the sphere of clouds once was. An emaciated Shiva hung in the air, held elevated by the large chains attached to visceral spines of rusty metal best described as a perverted of meat hook. One through each forearm, One in each shoulder. One through each kidney. The last two through each leg.

Shiva stared painfully at Bobbi, life still there deep in her eyes, despite her gruesome state.

"Hehe... Hehehehehehe," Louis looked back to the group, ignoring the mass of darkness next to him that was molding and warping into something, "Ne ne, you won't stop playing, will you? You all look strong. We can all have fun forever."

[[BGM: Out Come the Crawlers ~Phanuel~ from Drakengard 3]]

The voice returned, only far more distorted and vile yet still beautiful, as Louis stood and the black mass molded together and quickly formed a body next to him, a demonic creature, skin as obsidian crystal, a pair of twisting horns, with female anatomy. ((Concept from Dragon Age))

With a wave of it's arm, the demon gathered a portion of Acheron, River of Pain, to her. The auroric lights danced about her like a swirling shell as Louis summoned two black spheres to his open palms, the one in his clawed gauntlet igniting into an even larger set of claws while the other stayed hovering.

[ATE: The Bright Side: 25]
[Joe: Bobbi's Heart: Station]

Well, that all turned to s**t real quick.

Joe tightened his grip on his staff as the blood rained and everything shifted to a darker tone. It all creeped him out, but didn't really...scare him. It probably helped that he had something he had to think about doing, he just didn't know if he'd get all of them if it did work.

Of course, Kyle seemed to get himself covered(literally in holy fire), so Joe decided to say screw it and flung out three wind barriers. One went onto himself, the other two onto Kyla and Bobbi. That should give them some free range of movement without worrying too much about the web of magic. Though mainly it was for him more than the girls, considering their long range tactics they usually used.

.:Well, damn, there went that idea,:. Bobbi sent when Kyle confirmed the auroras wouldn't affect Louis at all. .:Joint casting, though, that might be worth looking into. If we can merge our spells, I bet—:.


"What?"


The flash of red was disorienting, and Bobbi could almost hear the white noise that usually accompanied similar visual effects in movies.


Bobbi winced as the shrieking started, but she didn't cover her ears. She'd learned that didn't actually work. When it started raining blood, she shuddered, but at first was more annoyed than creeped out. Blood was an unfortunate necessity in her life, and though "shark week," as she called it, had never really been so bad she'd describe it as "raining blood," the stink, stains, and slimy feeling were things she was used to. First time since she cracked her head open on a coffee table that the stuff was in her hair, though. Not a sensation she could say she enjoyed. Although when it started pooling, well, that started to be too much for her, but if that had been all she had to deal with, she would have been fine.

The sight of Louis on his throne—now back to the grotesque form it had held when she'd left—accompanied by the horrific flashbacks caused Bobbi to step back a pace, huddle in on herself, and let out one low, pathetic whine. Louis was still talking, but she barely heard the words. She was too busy fighting down the waves of absolute terror that assaulted her. The veins, the throne, the atavistic reaction to the blood as it grew to be more than even she could handle, the purely mental shrieks of pain and terror… none of it was mixing pleasantly, and it was a struggle for Bobbi to keep herself from collapsing in a heap of helpless, terrified sobs right then and there.

Really only the knowledge that her friends were there, and needed her to make it through this was the only thing that kept her on her feet, and stopped her from bolting back to the safety of reality in the Cornerstone room. No, they had to get this done, and they needed her as sane as she could get to do it.

What would Shiva do? …Oh s**t. Oh god. Oh my god no. No. No no nonono…

She blessed Joe and Kyla as they cast their shielding spells, but the blessing was mostly overridden by the sheer horror of what Louis had done to Shiva. Bobbi stood transfixed, staring up at her Esper, tears streaming unheeded down her cheeks, her mind whirling in ever tightening circles trying to figure out how to get her down. She only looked away when the demonic apparition formed, and even though she was terrified into near paralysis, Bobbi brought Taulmaril to hand. As if from far away, she heard Kyle say to keep Louis busy.

She could manage that.

A weight left her chest and shoulders as Kyle leapt to Shiva's aid, and suddenly she could breathe again. Her fear ebbed at the reminder that her friends were here to help her—she didn't have to do this alone, and though she had understood that intellectually until now, finally, finally it hit her emotionally, too. Joe had already cast his shield, Kyla added to it with her Warding Lotus, and Kyle was on top of things as usual.

.:Thank all the good gods for each of you,:. Bobbi sent feelingly over the charms, not even aware she had said anything. Setting a Maelstrom Bolt to Taulmaril's string, she took aim and fired.

Kyle had just reached his hands out, grabbing out for the frozen aeon, when the heel of a boot became acquainted with his face a little too intimately. And, much as he willed his body to contort, the specter was faster. And then he was faster, flying backward into the ground--but then the ground became his shard's arms.

So much for distracting him. No, no, didn't give them enough time, watch your tone.

Wait.

Kyle's eyes stared at his shard, and realized--too late--that he wasn't just visible, he was there.

I tried to tell you, but you were hyperfocused, didn't even hear me.

Kyle didn't spare a second thought, and his shard became enveloped in the same golden flame, keeping the web from eating away at him, or worse. Still... Plan A was out, which was frustrating. He growled, barely recognizing that his shard had even spoken, but noting the change in his voice.

"Help them. Use my abilities, you have access," he said, staring between 'Penemuel', Shiva and the specter, and the source. Plan B was forming, fueled more than just a little by his annoyance. "But until I say so, the top priority is your safety. I'm going to need you for the last act."

Kyle didn't wait for a response before moving--backward. Without hesitation, he leapt off the edge of the Station, disappearing into the abyss.

Somehow Bobbi wasn't surprised the demon-thing dodged her arrow. No, things couldn't be easy at all, could they? As the creature blinked away, Bobbi looked around and caught movement out of the corner of her eye that wasn't supposed to be where it was. She started to nock another arrow when Penemuel shot the lights at them. Dropping to one knee, Bobbi flung up a Mirror Wall in front of herself and her friends. The Walls were thin, thanks to being split into four, but should hold enough for the people behind them to dodge.

She hadn't reckoned on Joe dodging the attack, and was surprised to see him kicking at the creature's head when she rolled out from behind her wall. The four ice walls dissolved quickly, and Bobbi cloaked another arrow with one of her spells—Flurry Bolt this time, intending to Blind the creature if the arrow struck true. She took a second to Read the Wind, taking Joe's magic into account to improve her aim before she loosed her arrow.

Penemuel danced in the middle of their little group, spinning waves of light spinning around her as she moved in sways and smooth motions. The light sent out at her opponents crashed against the walls of ice and spilled over them like rushing water, missing the earthlings and flowing to the other side, where it then spun creating a ring or short wall around them.

This was... until Joe's magic took effect. The wall of light lost shape and spread out passively, caught up in their barriers of wind and torn apart. The monster's dance came to a shrieking halt, as she was both slowed to a crawl then bashed over the head resounding in a loud, painful sounding crack.

Bobbi's arrow sped in, colliding with the still reeling demon like a flash in her eyes, frost coating her irises while she screamed in frustration, only for nothing to leave her throat but empty air.

At last, Kyla released her spell, flight of blades careening into the air, blades of light zipping around and darting into the fray. Penemuel was helpless to defend, blades slicing her over and over as she attempted to move away and stumble back, too slow to run, unable to see the attacks, incapable to calling upon Acheron to shield her, impossible to even list a finger in retaliation, in the matter of a second, the would be threatening demon became the pin cushion of their attacks and little more than a glorified punching bag.

Louis frowned.

Kyle's shard stood and nodded to Kyle, "Thanks, I'll do my best." He lifted his head and spread his wings. Without a beat or single further motion, he floated into the air and glided up. Several stories he flew before finally stopping in the blackened stormy sky. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "Ultima, please lend me your strength."

With that, he opened his mouth, and began to sing.

[[BGM(Kyle's Shard): Song of the Ancients ~ Recycled Vessel from Drakengard 3]]


Though his mouth moved, the voice did not sound natural or his own. Still, it didn't seem to matter, as suddenly the air on the battlefield seemed to shift and flicker. The shards voice seemed to mix in and meld with the voice echoing from the abyss while the music crashed into each other like waves on the open ocean. Even Louis, who stood on Shiva's back, split for a moment as though his image was overlain with another, separated, then snapped back together.

Louis growled.

Until this point, Penemuel, despite her helpless state, seemed to take very little actual damage from her attackers. While knocked around and sliced at many angles, her body seemed to show no sustained damage. Until now. Suddenly, wounds split open from Kyla's blades, bruises formed, and blood trickled down from her head. Darkness drifted off of her bit by bit and sank into the floor, back into the platform.

Kyla's shard glowed brightly suddenly as it looked to Louis standing on the Bobbi's summon and glared. The two matched the other's sentiment for but a second before their opponent lifted his eyes to the singing angel and whipped his palm out in front of him. The black sphere shivered for a moment, then blasted off like a bullet from his hand, careening right towards the singing shard.

In the second it left his palm, Kyla's shard looked over to Kyla then back at Louis... then punched the air in the demon man's direction. There was a shimmer, a tiny string of light that extended all the way from the bestial boy to the manic arcanist. As he drew back his first, the string expanded, forming a glowing cylinder that repelled the falling blood rain. Louis could only blink once, "Eh?"

A vacuum formed in the space between the shard and Louis, jerking both into the tube violently. Louis met mid way down with a fur covered fist colliding with his face. The arcanist reversed direction, spinning out of control as Kyla's shard pulled his extended arm back again. Louis collided with an invisible wall, ricocheted off it, back into the advancing boy's leg to his jaw, then once more into the descending palm of the boy thrust into his gut that crashed him through the outer wall of the cylinder and sent him careening all the way down before crashing into and through the throne, bouncing and rolling across the floor before skidding to a stop in front of the large black vortex at the back of the platform... all followed by the explosive sound of a gunshot as Kyla's shard floated in the air, standing on seemingly nothing. From him, even though his mouth didn't move, one staring at the shining, golden-hued fur could hear another song that roared with an infectious intensity that harmonized with the voice of the angel above. Everyone could feel themselves grow stronger in its presence.[[Physical Strength +4/Magic Strength +4]]

Bobbi, could feel a slight sting in her chest, a familiar feeling she'd felt before.

"Our Hearts Are Connected"