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((...I was trying to finish. Like I said, I have five characters frying my brain. D: Guess I'll just transfer it here...))

Colette had to keep focused on the battle, but she did as much as nodding in reply to Lyra and saying, "Okay, gotcha." As she returned her attention at Devian, she saw her chakrams return to her, repelled by the fire, and caught them in time. Kratos had jumped back after trying to push through for a time.

Eloysio bore a snarling expression, frustrated that the coward of a man kept nullifying whatever was thrown at him. But during the time Devian gave rise to that fire pillar, he could hear Cinkel's scream from his mindspace. "He...the b*****d's hurting his soul!" he shouted to the others, "Like it or not...I guess we'll have to hit a lot harder!!!"

"Aaaahh!" Colette sort of yelped in frustration, both from what Eloysio said and the pillar of fire that erupted. "...But what can we do...?!"

Sheena paled as Chiaro's Flash Destruction wave completely overpowered Uriel's Air Blade and continued rushing toward him. She thought hard, having to act fast---and then an idea came. But she needed someone who could surely cancel out Chiaro's force. "K-Kratos! A little help here!" His attention caught by the ninja chief's call, the seraph sprinted to her side. From the seals Sheena had fanned out in one hand, she picked one and showed it to him. "Power Seal."

Kratos understood, remembering how she and Lloyd would perform this technique together in battles. He nodded and moved into position in front of Sheena, charging power of no elemental alignment into his blade. As she raised the card, it gleamed and a glyph appeared in front of Kratos. His blade also gleamed, and he lunged through the glyph performing a Super Sonic Thrust. It turned into the compound attack called "Power Thrust!" in which Kratos shot forth into the path of Chiaro's attack, shielded in waves and rings of bluish energy. Upon collision, the massive wave of light energy dissipated.

Chiaro's expression became angrier, both at seeing Uriel survive her onslaught and some of her allies seeming to actually help him.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?! I THOUGHT YOU DIDN'T WANT TO SEE AZRIEL DEAD!!!"

Sheena retorted, "Of course we don't! But hear me out Chiaro!!! Don't kill him! You do, and...you'll be just as bad as he is!"

"Hmph..." Chiaro grunted, narrowing her eyes at the ninja. "If you say so. However...I just want to make clear...THAT HE'S NOT TAKING AZRIEL AWAY FROM US!!!" In one hand, she pointed her massive axe toward Uriel.

"We want to make that clear too! But you know there's a matter just as important at hand!!!"

At this moment, Chiaro picked up on Cinkel's screaming through Eloysio. Azriel and Oscuro could hear it as well. Her eyes went wide in realization.

"Chiaro...we've got to help him!!!" Azriel pleaded from the mindspace.

Sheena couldn't tell what was going on in her mind, but had a feeling she got through to the light being. "...Go ahead. We'll keep holding Uriel off! Count on it!"

The glow from Chiaro's eyes died down, signifying that she had calmed down considerably. Silent, she nodded at Sheena and ran off in the direction of Devian. Kratos went alongside her. The ninja chief then went on to stand in the path Chiaro just took off in, as if blocking Uriel's way. "Do you expect me to really believe your stance on Half-Elves when you're trying to kill Azriel?!" she scolded, standing firm in a defensive position and scowling.

Upon sight of the pillar of flame, Chiaro growled in annoyment. "Urgh...we are in need of a water caster, but if I end my manifestation here, Azriel will pass out and Uriel would---"

"Pay attention. Sheena imbued our weapons with the power of water. Perhaps we can do something with that."

The light being looked at her weapon, only noticing now how it was glowing blue, and mentally facepalmed. She looked back at the pillar of fire and tried to formulate a plan in her head.

Eloysio felt more hopeful when he saw Chiaro run over to their side of the battle. But knowing his size and the distance he wanted to go, he just settled for sending out a mental broadcast to Chiaro, Colette, Rhone, Zelos, Kratos, Sheena, Raine, Lyra, Oro, and Schwarz's minds. With his will, he made sure it was secure enough so that no other people than his chosen targets could hear his mental voice. All the while, he made his way back toward Raine.

Chiaro...good to see you come back to your senses, m'dear. Sheena, Raine, Lyra...this doesn't involve you much, but I'm including you in the communication line because I think you at least need to be in the know. I've got a plan. Raine, I'm going to retreat near you to begin an enchantment to amplify the seal of water Sheena put on everyone's weapons. But I'll have to keep my concentration up for a long time. Kratos, Rhone, Zelos, Colette, continue an assault on the flame pillar. Oro, Schwarz...if at all possible, try getting on with your "Mind's Eye" thing already. Chiaro...do try to get through and use your skills at your own discretion.

Kratos, Chiaro, and Colette eyed Eloysio and nodded back in compliance. By now Eloysio was taking cover behind Raine, murmuring his incantations again. The symbols of his tongue began to flow out in all directions from behind Raine, drifting their way to his targets' weapons and wrapping around them. The blue auras they were glowing with now began to flare with vigor. Keeping her distance, Colette started throwing her chakrams, continuing each time they were repelled back to her. Kratos approached from the side and began slashing at the flames. Chiaro approached from the front, doing the same.

((I think we should try not to have things go on too far, because we've got to wait for Lee to post his input.))

((I am truly sorry, Lately my mind seem to lessening with writing juice. I need a creative mind bomb.))

Schwarz was quick to answer Eloysio,"What do you think I've been trying to do! oh poor Cinkel." crying Schwarz mind kept turning away from the spell, half afraid if he missed, "If I miss I'm gonna be bouncing around like a ball, oh my poor mind." crying

"What do you mean by that?" Raine asked.

"We'll explain later...sad to say this but," Oro looked down at his weapon, "I wish the pervy dragon was here." He dropped his Swallow and with a flash of light, disappeared. He reappeared behind within the flame pillar, He was covered in fire, as he put his arm around Cinkel's body and held him in a full-nelson, "I was practically burned into ash while training with master Marv. So bring on the heat, ya dam body snatcher!"

"Che, Reckless for once," Schwarz sped chanted his incantation, "Mind's Eye!" A ball of energy left Schwarz body and entered the flames. It entered Cinkel's body.
leaving Schwarz's 'Shell' to fall to the ground near Raine.

Within Cinkel's mind Schwarz began to form.

Sheena's glare at Uriel became even fiercer as she maintained her hard defensive stance. She wouldn't attack unless attacked. "It was more a test...where you just proved how DISGUSTING you are! When benefits are at hand...you just go ahead and discard your ideals! You merely view another life as just another prize...you ignore how clearly we value her as a friend...you shut out anything more you could learn, just so you won't be bothered to feel any guilt...you're just looking for the easy way up by stepping on someone else... To me, that's just pathetic! As a former assassin...I know I could be accused of the same...but I've seen my errors and have long since sworn off those ways!"

Now done with his incantations to amplify Sheena's water seal, Eloysio (still positioned behind Raine's head) quickly rubbed his finger around the frame of his monocle. The lens began to glow, and through it, he could see the view through Chiaro's eyes. Forgive the intrusion...but you understand, right?

"Of course, Master Eloysio!" Azriel and Oscuro replied back. They knew he was doing this to get a better view of what was going on, seeing as his own field of view was facing away from the battle.

Being the closest to Cinkel's body, the bolts hit Kratos and Chiaro. The former, however, could edge it off with the quickness of his Guardian shield. The blow pushed him back about a few feet.

The latter just took the attack, looking mostly unaffected. However, she stood frozen, her eyes tightly shut as she shivered while the charges lingered a bit longer, flickering across her body. There were burns on parts of her clothing. Fortunately, she was able to recover in a moment. Shaking her head, she jumped back to create more distance and held up her axe in both hands, horizontally at chest level. "Catena Luce." By her will, it glowed and morphed into two bundles of chains made of light that wrapped around her forearms. She drew her arms back then thrust her palms in the direction of Cinkel's body, making those chains shoot forth toward him in an attempt to make them wrap around.

While that was happening, Eloysio had begun a new incantation, seeing where those bolts were headed. But this time it wasn't spoken---or rather, he was speaking the words in his mind. There were no signs of him performing any magic, not even some faint symbols and glyphs floating about.

Colette paled a bit at the sight of the bolt of lightning that was about to crash upon her, cowering over and putting her forearms over the top of her head in an X as if to shield. "D-Damage Guard!" she cried out, putting up her own force field and waiting for the impact...but strangely, it felt like nothing followed. Confused, she lowered her arms and looked up to see what had happened. Her concentration broken, her own shield vanished.

Sheena was unaware the entire time, keeping her focus on Uriel.

It looked like the lightning bolts were about to collide with the rest of Devian's targets head on and then...they appeared to be deflected off an invisible shield over all their heads. Furthermore, they arced upward and collided high into the sky...combining and turning into a serpentine dragon made of the lightning. It soared from that point in the air and descended before Schwarz's body, standing defensive and looking ready to take orders. At this point, he had removed his shared vision from Chiaro and transferred it to this lightning dragon's.

While Eloysio's manipulation of the lightning occurred, Kratos was readying a spell that he was now ready to unleash. "Grave." Stony spikes arose in a circle around Cinkel's body, jutting toward him.

((*pokes Vance* He has to get a word in too. >w<;; ))

It seemed this section of the battle came down to criticisms and threats. Uriel crossed his arms loosely, making sure he would still be able to use his weapon if they rushed on him. He replied to his aggressors, "An assassin and a man who tells me he's lost his honor and threatens to kill more than just me if I cross him. I've got to say, you two seem less than anybody else here to have the right to judge my actions." Uriel was well aware he wasn't powerful enough to take any a group of these enemies, and Devian seemed more than capable to handle things himself. Maybe if he stalled things for long enough, Lyra would be able to move on and Azriel would be taken down. Therefore, he had two fights to keep an eye on. His own and his mysterious ally's.

Uriel sincerely wished the tensity of the situation would relax soon. He was unused to battles like this. The bounties he usually collected were of criminals who were easily brought to justice and missing persons who were reunited with their loved ones. He wondered what kind of person would hold such a grudge against Azriel as to want her possibly executed. But it didn't matter. If this society believed she was a demon, then he would slay her and become a hero. Hopefully fame and recognition would fill that difficult void he felt. Hopefully....

Rhone chuckles lightly before resting his weapon over his shoulder.
"Judgement? Who said a damn thing about judgement? Simply put, you're pissing me off and messing with my buddies. I'm not a big fan of killing, but you matter less to me than the dirt I wouldn't bother burying you in. Don't you try anything stupid."

Devian dodged to the side of the chains, pushing off of them to make an attempt to dodge Kratos's spell. One of the spikes caught him in the leg and he barrel-rolled over and landed on one knee. Hmm, this body's getting tired. It won't be long before they destroy it. Devian sat on the ground cross-legged, placing his hands on his knees. Then he closed his eyes and he was once again engulfed in flames. This time, black lightning blasted from the fires and the wind began to blow rather strong. Let's see if I can finish this up.

Back in the mindspace, Cinkel erupted into flames. Not only that, but lightning seemed to strike him from nowhere and blades of wind ripped at his skin. Malphas also walked towards him, forming a blade in his hand, and stabbing Cinkel in his chest. He grunted at the pain, too tired to even yell.

Uriel turned around to face the half-elf. "Lyra," Uriel started as he watched Sheena step away, "I can't do that. This Devian guy is my only chance to...." He wanted to pick his words carefully. He didn't want to push away the one person that might understand him. He slid her right hand off her left arm so she didn't have to nervously rub it. His issue was that he didn't know what to say. He didn't even know what to say to himself. Why do I need to kill Azriel? He took a few slow steps forward, walking maybe a foot past Lyra. His facial expression was confused and he bit down on his lip with his back-right teeth.