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Effloresca turns to Dante after watching Bahamut enter the secluded cave. "I trust him." She speaks of Bahamut. "I trust you."

She meant Dante. "Don't betray it." She warns, or perhaps pleads. She had been hurt one too many times before, by friends and loved ones. Slowly walks over to him, looking at the guitar case. Then to Fōa. She had bent over for both, standing straight to stare at Dante in the eyes. Before turning aggressively towards Ifrit. Slowly she leans back as if to sit.

Ifrit lifts his hand, supporting her weight with his arm. Forming a fairly comfortable 'chair'. Watching as she crossed her legs over one of his large claws. He brings her up to his shoulder, where he gently deposits her. She crosses her arms and looks to where Bahamut, and possibly the twins, disappeared to.

Fōa felt intimidated by Effloresca. Now looking up at her, he felt like a child. Looking to Dante he smiles and nods "Yeah, no fatal blows or low-blows. So when do we start?"

He liked Dante aswell, he was like an older brother to him. Or the father he never had. He trusted him and Bahamut. Bahamut was an embodiment of power or strength to him. "It's weird but, you guys are the closest I've ever had to family."

Ifrit smiles, and Effloresca quirks an eyebrow at the comment.

A Thousand Years of Memories, Chp. 2: Child's Play

Ridel Stared up at the massive structure in the sand. It looked like an immense gate of some sort. She could feel a strange, but immense energy coming from it. Ridel wasn’t sure how long she stared at the gate but the sun was in her eyes by the time she snapped back to reality. Ridel Pushed on the gate to no avail, it felt kind of obvious the thing was a thousand times bigger than she was and made out of solid rock. Ridel body shifted roughly 20 feet back from the gate, addicted to the new power already, and looked around for some sort of entrance to it. She noted an alcove and did her body shift over to it doing a few unnecessary moves for fun Ridel was really starting to have fun with whatever this was. And she started jumping around helter skelter, completely forgetting about the niche in the rock she was on her way to investigate. Ridel was having fun for the first time she could remember… which wasn’t that long of a time, she had woke up not a year ago in that cell with no memory of the time before that. She didn’t even know her name; she had taken it from a book they’d given her to read. Ridel looked up at the gate again and wondered what it looked like at the top. She climbed a nearby dune that actually pooled around the side of the gate and Ran about halfway down before she body shifted directly into a jump at the gate wall. Ridel thudded into the wall and ran up a few feet and tried to use the fun new thing she’d figured out she could do to run up the wall.
Ridel was lucky she was in the dessert and that the twenty foot drop was cushioned by sand otherwise she’d have seen in trouble. Ridel rolled down the dune stunned at the slap reality had just bequeathed upon her person in the form of the ground rushing to meet her. Ridel sobbed a little unhappy that she couldn’t make it up, but gave herself a small touch on the shoulder to remind her to stop being such a baby. Now that Ridel thought about it running up the wall was a bit foolish… but it would have been awesome. Ridel stretched taking off the cloak she had been wearing to keep the sand and dust off, the soul reapers had issued them to the outcasts when they dropped them in the desert… one last kind gesture as they sent them to their deaths sort of like asking someone their last wishes before their hung or beheaded or being given a skin of water before being set out into the desert. Ridel stood and set her mind to jumping to the top Ridel ran and jumped She got about a foot off the ground and she flailed and tried to jump again suddenly beneath her feet she felt solid ground and jumped again she got about another 2 feet when she started to feel herself stop she looked toward the ground and freaked and tried to jump again she felt the same solidity beneath her feet. But she was far from the ground Ridel tapped her feet on the screen of reishi. And jump and she felt the small pull as the screen formed around her feet Ridel smiled and started body shifting and using this new thing in unison form screens as she shifted. It wasn’t long before she reached the top of the gate and looked out over the vast desert. It stretched out as far as the eye could see Before she could take in much the gate suddenly started rumbling and she saw them opening.

Dante grinned at them both, ready to have some fun. He took his large black claymore blade and returned it to the guitar case. He then moved his red overcoat aside from his hips to remove his twin pistols from his side and place them atop the black case. He them moved the package and weapons off to the side, atop a low, flat rock. He then turned about to walk towards the other two, pulling his leather gloves tighter down on his hands as he came closer.

"Alright, let's get this show started, huh?" Dante stop about ten to fifteen feet away from them each for fair starting space. He simply stood there wearing his usual smirk and thought to let one of them go first. A three way fight would be a lot trickier to handle with stronger participants, though that's not saying that this will be a walk in the park either.

Dante smirked as they readied themselves. He figured that Fōa would be going down first and that it would end up really being a fight between him and Efflorecsa. He took a rather relaxed looking stance and he turned to look at Fōa. "You can go first."

Dante stopped looking at Fōa and noticed Effloresca trying to rush him and catch him off guard unsuccessfully. He simply smirked at her attempted punch and sidestepped her attack. He then turned about gracefully in his place to the side of her punch range and let his outside leg swing around and over to connect with her back, his hands never leaving his overcoat pockets.

Dante smirked but felt a little bad that he had knocked Effloresca out so hard. He should've held back more on that kick. He figured she would be ok though as Ifrit had taken to tending her for him. He turned his gaze then to poor Fōa who was trying to keep his distance from Dante. That was never a good idea really. He suddenly vanished in an instant, using Body Flicker, and appeared right behind Fōa. He then made a low down sweep kick, to throw Fōa up in the air slightly and used the momentum to spin once before his other leg came up with him to get him in the chest area. He held back though to avoid seriously injuring the boy.

Dante watched Fōa spin and fall rather bluntly. He really should learn better self control. He walked over to help lift up Fōa from his place in the dirt. He brushed the dizzied boy before looking over to Effloresca. He was glad she was alright and he nodded to Iftrit's words. "She was definitely strong alright. If I wasn't faster than her, she might have really hurt me just now." He grinned and went to retrieve his dual pistols, returning them to their place at his sides. He then bent over to sling his guitar case over his back. "I suppose we should wait for the twins and Bahamut for now." He simply walked over to the flat rock his case was on and dropped onto it, fingers laced together behind his head as he began to relax. He would take a short nap for now, waiting for Fōa and Effloresca to recover and for the boys to get back from their time with Bahamut.

A Thousand Years of Memories, Chp. 13: Bloody Sunday

Ridel woke with a start… it was that dream again, falling forever. It scared her so much because she never saw the bottom which made the thought of the end and her smashing into the ground all the more terrifying because she never knew when it would happen to her. Worst whenever Ridel looked at herself in the dream she looked like she’d been run through, her clothes stained with her crimson blood and a cut in her dress. Ridel shook her head as she cast the thought from her mind this wasn’t going to help her get up and go. Ridel stood and looked around, she had been huddled in a barn for the night, she wasn’t exactly sure as to where she was but she noticed a building up the hill she jumped out of the loft and moon stepped her way to the safety of the road below. The building looked a lot like the barn in that it was long but it looked nicer and was a dull white color, but what piqued Ridel’s infamous curiosity was what was on top. A crucifix adorned the building, and it was certainly interesting to her to see just what happened in this building because from what she knew the Crucifix was an instrument of death and torture. One usually didn’t find one randomly on top of a building. Maybe it was a workshop of some kind. Ridel got to the two large doors and looked at her dress. It was terribly dusty and tattered from the long days on the road. Ridel wasn’t sure what had happened she passed through that gate and then she woke up on the ground covered in someone’s blood, Ridel had done her best to wash it out but there was still a bit of discoloration there and a tear in the fabric. Ridel dusted herself off and tried to look presentable before she reached out toward the door and pushed them open. As they creaked open Ridel walked inside and looked around. “Oh wow…” She heard herself say as she looked into the dusty room. There were benches filling the room, and a gap in between the benches that led to a podium of sorts and behind the podium was beautiful colored glass. Ridel didn’t know but the place was a church, as she wandered around in it Ridel saw a broom sitting up against the wall and grabbed and started sweeping the place, it was awfully dusty so she figured she may as well give it a little cleaning. Ridel Started out normally at first tentative sweeps as she removed the layer of dust then she decided to have a bit of fun with it as she started Body Shifting to and fro dragging the broom alongside her as she swept with what she liked to call vigorous inspiration and desire. Soon the room was filled with the dust and she was just running around in it laughing and giggling her head off, as she enjoyed the day. Unknown to Ridel her antics hadn’t gone unnoticed by Hollows stalking the area. As she moon stepped and Body shifted her spiritual energy away. Suddenly there was a crash and Ridel stopped dead in her tracks as an instinctual reaction. She looked around trying to figure out what it was but the dust was a bit too much for Ridel to see through in the abandoned place of worship. Ridel tried to find the door but was unsuccessful. Then she heard a shriek that chilled her to the marrow inside her bones. Ridel’s mind flashed back to the night in the desert and the white monsters that killed everybody around her. The dust finally started to settle and Ridel could see the thing clearly now, it was a hulking monster, it looked a lot like a cat of some sort with massive fangs and whiskers that seemed to float about on their own accord defying gravity with their own whimsy. Now that it was done shrieking Ridel could hear the low hum of its growling throughout the building as if the dust had made an invisible wall that separated Ridel and her assailant from where it came crashing in through the color glass and where Ridel stood in the mouth of the room in the corridor made in between the long rows of pews. It didn’t take the cougar like hollow long to spot Ridel as she stood there awestruck at this beast that had shattered her cone of false protection. It stalked her for a few seconds crushing Pews beneath its paws and its tail sweeping the wreckage away like infinitesimal dust. As it stalked toward Ridel the hollow growled at her and pounced suddenly luckily Ridel’s survival instincts kicked in as she body shifted out of the way as the gargantuan wild cat smashed into the lower roofed part of the church causing the front part of the building to collapse as it unwittingly sealed off Ridel’s most secure escape route all she had now was where the hollow itself entered. Ridel eyed the monster waiting for it to pounce again and for her chance to escape. The cougar hollow dislodged itself and the collapse increased in size as chunks of the roof spilled into the doorway. The hollow stalked Ridel a bit realizing it had one escape and it placed itself between Ridel and the exit. And it slowly walked forward hemming her into a corner in some sort of fatalistic cat and mouse game. Cougar pounced thinking it had Ridel cornered and Ridel dodged and Moon stepped and body shifted roughly five feet toward the window before the hollow’s tail lashed out throwing her into the wall and crashing onto the floor winded by the blow. As Cougar moved in for the kill, Dante’s Rebellion stopped it dead, quite literally, in its tracks. “A hundred years and you’re still getting into trouble…” Ridel heard as the hollow fell dead.