Welcome to Gaia! ::

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


"Thanks, duly noted," Kyle replied, his tone tense but not negative or hostile. Of course, then things took another a turn again (again [again]).

The amazonian-like sorceress ahead of them stopped suddenly as the events took place, and in a blink, the daggers were replaced by her staff, and she kicked backward--a line of flames left in her wake as the magic pushed her back so that she was close to the group, just a few meters ahead.

Sora watched through his narrowed gaze as the flying Heartless--which had only just appeared--were pretty much immediately destroyed by a massive eruption that came from the ramparts of the castle ahead. Fantastic. They had magic like that, and they weren't using it on them?

So whoever was in control wanted them in there.

The rest of the events unfolded around him, and with every new piece of flair, he tightened his grip, knowing full well what was coming. The singing, the towers, the monstrosity that devoured darkness to make itself grow ever-greater in size--there was no running. There was finally a battle.

If only the first stage, anyway.

Riku slid to a stop and already had his blade back and stance ready as the events took place. He noted, with some concern, the weaving patterns of blue and white--they reminded him quite clearly of the lines that had appeared on Kyle's flesh down in Atlantis.

The others all slid to a halt, trying to figure out what best to do; the sudden lack of buffs was concerning, to be sure, and some were already readying their moves again.

It was only now that the sorceress was so close, hearing their voices, that she realized they were even there--and so, the small giantess turned around in surprise, her ember-colored eyes gleaming in the night. "Who in the blazes are you?"

Of course, the sudden roar of the beast to the bridge shook her away from her distractions, turning her gaze forward once again. She shook her head, chuckling. "You know what? Doesn't matter. More people to spread my legend!"

And so, staff in hand, she lifted her free hand above her and began to slowly spin it around, as if weaving flames out of the air. Her very presence was warm--but as it was, no spell had been cast. Yet.

Of particular note, Jenny felt a heavy weight when the mists drew over them, dispelling their buffs. She didn't stop playing--so her Haste was reapplied--but with every enchanting note, it was as if her magic was being constantly severed. The weaves found their targets, but moments, mere moments later, they unraveled.

She shared a thought with Dawn, and found the Dancer was suffering the same pressures. In order to cope with the constant nullification, the two were forced to focus on one wide-spread buff each--any attempt at other assistance would immediately cut their spells. And so, she shared that information with Joseph (the leader) before the two applied what little assistance they could: Haste from Jenny and Bubble from Dawn, speeding everyone up again while also doubling their health.

Meanwhile, Matthew and Sayrike both attempted to Scan their opponent new opponent, twice each, hoping for some helpful information--hoping that, on the chance that they each only received limited information each Scan, they might both receive different pieces of the puzzle.

Anthony gave out another Battle Cry in order to boost their physical abilities--and yet those around who were affected by it would have felt the magic dissolve as soon as they felt invigorated.

That's when space-Joe announced the revelation, confirming the issues Jenny and Dawn had had. So in dismay and frustration, Anthony charged ahead, shortly behind Nanaki, his giant gauntlets ready to pound the monster into dust. John followed behind, maul at the ready, though even with Haste he was particularly slow.

Kyle had slid to a halt as the events took place, cursing under his breath. While everyone else was acting, he specifically made sure not to act yet--instead, his first moments were spent charging magic.

"Why does every villain act like a ******** DRAMA QUEEN?!" he shouted in frustration, his expression particularly angry as the scene unfolded. The news about the enchantment issues made things particularly annoying--one of his biggest strengths at this point was buffing. But he wasn't charging magic for a buff to begin with, so that was a plus, at least.

Ahead of him, Sora let loose three back-to-back Fira bolts at the new abomination. A short distance away, Riku charged fiery energy into his Keyblade before raising it up, summoning a large sphere of concentrated flaming magic that soon loose a small barrage of Fire bolts, each homing in on the creature.

The dragoon had focused for an extended period of time on the magical weave, and was now ready, throwing out one hand, palm facing the target. A small, brilliant glyph of energy appeared in the air just in front of his palm, with the spinning hands of a clock beginning to slow down. Simultaneously, white light bloomed from the monster's feet as an identical glyph, spinning clock hands and all, appeared beneath it, only much larger--enough to cover the ground upon which it walked. A heavy ticking noise could barely heard through the music, but it was distinctly low, slowing down as the light rose and washed over the creature--an attempt at a twice-charged Slowga.

[Kyla: Narnia: Bridge Beginning]

Originally planning to form another dome to protect her comrads form the areal assault inbound were dashed as the bow wielding woman launched what could only be described as an ‘end-game’ level of magic, and obliterated the hordes blocking the sky above their heads.

She didn’t know if that made her feel any better- the hordes of heartless were destroyed, but seeing, knowing that much fire power was that the enemy’s disposal wasn’t comforting.
And then that voice-

As the mist billowed out from the structure before them, flowing over them like waves of dry ice, Kyla made to cast her buffs on the group- but as soon as she tried, it was gone!
Not good!

Frustration bite at her, an internal voice whined – it wasn’t fair!- but she did not voice it. No, she felt too tired to even moan her displeasure. But- wait, not Merlin said that spell should have kept her fatigue at bay for a while.
It had to be the mist.

Her limbs felt a bit sluggish, and she shook it off.

~Kyla! down- get down !!!~

Carbuncles warning came too late as Kyla realized with her inability to cast buffs, her current ones dissolved as well!
The artist dropped out of the air like a stone and landed non too softly on the hard bridge surface. She did her best to roll into the fall, using her book to receive the brunt. It didn’t help much. She was going to geta nasty bruise, but for ocne luck seemed to smile on her, she didn't think broke anything.

Hissing through her teeth she pushed herself up onto her feet as the voice continued to speak, and Kyla couldn’t help but repeat some of the words, like she was trying to understand them-
“-sins and virtues…?”
She flinches as the bridge creaked and groaned under her feet. Kyla was deciding which spell to use if her buffs were useless now as a new being appeared on the battle field. This dragonkin creature was a sight to behold, and the developments didn’t stop there.
The artist couldn’t help but notice the familiarity in the grid like pattern that splintered across the field.
She craned her neck up at the towers as they sprouting from the grid like a bunch of angry brisling thorns.

Music. She heard music again. It felt familiar. Like the kinds she heard before back in the dive. She wasn’t unpleasant, but it was foreboding. She wondered if it belonged to a songstress magic user of some kind resonating from within the castle.

Kyla hobbled over to one side of the bridge looking down as the bodies of solders began to rise and fuse together in a macabre-like horror to form their new enemy. She turned around to Joe as he stated what the mist was obviously doing.

“Do you think it’s only status effects magic? Or everything?” Kyla kept thinking back to what the voice said-

A trial? What trial?
It talked as if it was expecting them, specifically them. Not entirely surprising, but that could only mean so far everything was going according to their enemies plan. Definitely not good.

As they began their assault Kyla tried to think of someway to protect her team without it actually being a classification of buff magic.
“..nothing that alters our nature seems to work.” She bit her lip as Kyle, James and Leon began attacking.

“I think I got something- it’s not much but-…” any insurance was better than none. Testing how the mist affects her constructs she created Flight of Blades, and sent them to protect the front runners going after the demon. The phantasmal blades were imbued with her weaker elemental inspiration to have fire-
She just prayed that would work. She theorized it being more an offensive magic, that simply attached itself to a target before triggering, it could be spared. If not- she’d just have get even more creative.
In the meantime she also launched a birn strike level 2 at the demon. The spell, about 3 times the size of the largest bird of prey known went soaring over their heads making a beeline for Belphegor.

[Amy : Narnia : Bridge]

Amy fell to a knee as the bridge shook, and put both hands on the icy bridge to avoid being knocked over entirely. The entire atmosphere grew even more ominous, with strange red and blue lines appearing from the castle gate, along the bridge (and under her hands), and on to the lake. Twelve towers grew from the tumultuous waters, much higher than the bridge but not as high as the wall of the castle. What purpose did they serve?

"Good to know," Amy said in response to Joseph. She was glad she had held off on casting Reflega on him; it would have been wasted. She had suspected that the mist was the cause of the dispel of their buffs. A moment later, she felt Jenny's Haste and Dawn's Bubble, but she imagined that couldn't be easy to keep going. They'd probably have to focus on just that.

Most of the group immediately began attacking. Amy had hesitated to do so, waiting on a game plan from Joe. She thought they might coordinate their attacks, or do some distance fighting while the lady in red "spread her legend", or everyone who had their limit breaks ready could unleash them, or people could Drive, or whatever. Everyone just attacking worked, too, she supposed... and most of their attacks were distance attacks anyway. She felt very uneasy about Yuffie, Nanaki, John, Anthony, Leon, and Joe charging ahead. But hey, that was a lot of people, so maybe her fears were unfounded.

Kyla's question, though, needed to be answered. She brought up a good point. Was the mist affecting only status effects magic, or everything? Would their attacks even work? Would all these fire spells that were cast just disappear, too? They'd find out soon enough.

Amy attempted to Scan the lady in red. She seemed crazy familiar. In the books, Jadis was half Giant and half Jinn, and she had a sister at one point. That sister was supposed to be dead, killed by Jadis along with every living being on their world over a thousand years ago. Not much was written about her, but it was suggested she was just as cruel as Jadis. It was maybe a stupid suspicion, but Amy had a feeling this lady in red was the sister.

She had time for more. Healing would most likely be needed very soon, so she saved her mana, and shot as many times as she could at Belphegor, copying Bobbi and aiming for its eye.

"Team," she said, over the charms, despite her dislike for that form of communication, "These towers gotta have some purpose. Don't forget they are there, okay? And maybe let this strange lady in red stay the closest for now." If, of course, that was still possible. People had already charged full speed ahead, and the lady in red had appeared only a few meters in front of the group.

[Nicholas <> Narnia? <> Castle Gates?]

The Earthling group had vanished. The Heartless? Gone. Ice Soldiers? Nada. Nicholas looked around, trying to find any sort of life. There was nothing around. A voice rang out behind him. He turned, only to find nothing but snow. Then more voices swirled around him, and the swordsman could only turn this way and that, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever was speaking to him. After a few spins, the sounds of boots against stone caught his ear, and he finally gazed towards the front gate.

"Why thank you, Louis. Although, I must say, I'm offended that I didn't get an invite to your little shindig. But that doesn't matter. You know that they're here to stop you, and frankly, you're gonna do some stupid s**t that'll kill them and you." Nicholas gripped Garland's sword, and pointed the tip of the blade towards Louis.

"Mateus needs to go. I've already bound Chaos. He no longer influences me. You've got one of two choices. Submit or be slain."

[Dani :: Narnia :: Bridge]
Once again Dani was hanging back trying to assess the situation. She noticed the light being fired into the sky and when the bridge shook. She did stumble a bit and had to even out her footing as to not fall over. Her main concern was the various problems that were stacking up against them. ‘Okay so casting a buff right now on my chakrams won’t work it seems.’ Dani thought as she watched her comrades run after the giant dragon that was formed. Another problem she noticed was the singing that she could hear. ‘Guys we need to stop the singing as well!’ Dani said over the charms. ‘Something is singing inside of the castle and if we don’t stop it we might be in some more trouble then we are already in.’ ‘I need a plan, and fast,’ Dani thought only to herself.

It then hit her with a ton of bricks thanks to Amy. ‘No one is going after the pillars!’ Dani mentally slapped herself as she started to walk to the middle from her perspective all the pillars were. ‘If I had help then maybe the pillars would go down quickly… but at this point let’s see how much I can do.’

Dani dissipated her chakrams for a second and put her hands together as some of her water magic began to flow into her hands. She quickly formed the water into a giant ball before launching it into the sky. ‘Time to see if this works!’ Dani thought as she poured all of her concentration and magic into that ball in the sky, compressing it beyond the normal amount she would. When she finally saw how much she had compressed it she looked to the others and smiled.

“This is all I got so make use of it!” Dani shouted as she released the ball and all of its pressure. What came after was an explosion in the air that hit 2 pillars. All that she could hope for now was that she did enough damage to destroy the pillars or that her friends could take out the rest of them.

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


That their attacks seemed to do nothing was only the first concern.

They watched as the monster reeled its head upward, and though their attacks created steam that concealed its features, the unleashed beam of tainted frost magic was hard to miss as it erupted, first at the sky, and then curving down and across the bridge. That was the second--and honestly, more immediate--concern.

The two assaulters had very little time to react, as Haste did little for their instincts. Anthony was able to pull up a Polarity Wall, which lessened the effect, though not by much at all considering his low magic; John activated his Thick Skin and was left bracing himself.

Those in the back had more time (if only a split-second's worth). Some of the defenders rushed to the fore: Matthew and Riku side-stepped in front of Prote and Dawn, respectively, each casting Dark Shield to block the attack; Sayrike similarly jumped in front of Jenny, using Mirror's Reflection (though, being a grazing beam attack, the 'reflection' was immediately negated), and Sora--realizing the sorceress in front of them had no protection--leapt forward and activated Reflera, the dome encompassing the two of them as the beam passed them over.

Kyle was ready to simply leap over the beam--it wouldn't have been much of a chore--but he noticed Noelle's sluggishness to his side. It was a split second decision, but--

"Watch out!"

--he slid forward and moved a hand in front of him, holding his palm open as a large Stop Glyph appeared in front of him--large enough to act as a full-body shield for the two of them, though some measure of the frost effect still came through, chilling Kyle to the bone.

"F-f-f-fark th-that's-s c-c-cold," he stuttered, turning back as the over-powering vocals seemed to falter and lower in volume. Amy and Dani's previous messages suddenly clicked in his head, even now as he watched Sora's Reflect erupt in multiple blasts of Light, each heading toward the nearest spires.

"D-Dani and Amy are r-right, some of-f us ne-eed to focus th-the pillars!" Kyle shouted, mentally cursing the effect the cold was having on him.

The dome fallen, Sora turned to the sorceress, looking up a lot more than he was used to and trying to give her a reassuring smile--before he noticed the fiery red of her eyes. "You alright?"

"Perfect," she said, and as her eyes flared brighter, she brought her staff-arm up to her other hand, grasped the staff with both hands, and then slammed the bottom into the ground.

A small burst of heated energy seemed to escape from her, but that was not the spell. There was a rumbling above, and there, low in the sky but directly above the monster, was a growing cloud formation that looked more like smoke than nimbus; from this opaque space, great molten fireballs, each the size of a large boulder, began to rain down upon the beast and the area around it, slowly but with constant, immense impact. This meteor storm would last at least a short while.

At the sight of the meteor shower, Dawn and Jenny shared their thoughts, and sent the request to Joe--and with his confirmation, included her in the Haste and Bubble casting.

"Oh-ho! By Raven, that's useful," she said, immediately feeling the magic wash over her. Then, once again, she was confidently smirking. "So, the spires, then?"

Riku, meanwhile, was running ahead, not directly at the monster, but toward the others who were frozen over, both to check on them and to get closer to the towers on the far end. In fact, even as he approached the middle, he launched a Fira and threw his Keyblade toward the farthest spire on his right side, hoping to at least start the process from both ends.

Matthew and Sayrike both shared their Scan results, first with each other, then with the group--nothing useful except those particular words. "They mean 'Black Song'," Sayrike clarified after Matthew broke the news. "Maybe with the singing gone, we might get something more useful."

John was still recuperating. Anthony, on the other hand, had gotten the message about the towers, and in one deft motion he launched his gauntlets off on their chains, which he held in his hands. They rose directly above, very briefly, before he forcefully spun them, twisting his body until he was able to slam them into the nearest pillar on his left, generating enough raw force to cause an audible rumble down the bridge.

Kyle took the hint, and muttered a word under his breath--forming a fourth Stone Living Hunter. With no more than a thought, they split into two pairs and flew far down the bridge, intending to assault the farthest pillars and, once their stock of ammo was gone, crash directly into them.

Sora stepped away as the woman began casting her magic once more, and he turned his attention back to the issue at hand. But rather than charge blindly ahead, he metaphorically followed Riku and turned around to the others--"Call out if you or someone else needs healing!"

Matthew quickly followed up the beginning assault by summoning two sets of Flight of Blades and sending them at pillars toward the lower end, intending them to automate for their duration so they would attack whatever nearby pillar wasn't yet destroyed. Sayrike, though, kept to herself, saving her magic and her focus on the off chance that another attack would require her defensive abilities.

The sorceress, now hastened and still brimming with fiery energy, swung her staff into the air above her, unleashing a large fireball not unlike those beginning to crash on the monster. This fireball hovered high in the air, remaining stationary.

Then, pulling the staff down and twisting her body around three-hundred and sixty degrees, the immense heat that radiated from her disappeared as purple static energy suddenly, momentarily filled the air. Using the twisting momentum as he came to the end of her rotation, she swung the staff twice more into the air--unleashing two powerful bolts of of lightning, each striking the fireball.

Stopping herself mid-spin, she threw her hand into the air, palm open, as if holding the energies in place, and they began to release a distinct hum. They started to combine, violet and orange crackling with magic, and the bolts of lightning spiraled within the fireball. They grew faster, larger, more frequent, and the fireball shrank, assimilating into the now iridescent bolts of electricity--and with a final shout (that sounded more like a single, proud laugh), she closed her hand into a fist, and the united spells launched forth--destructive, fiery Chain Lightning. They split, one to each side, and struck the closest pillar on their respective side before bouncing on to the next, not once but twice, hitting a total of three pillars each.

Joe : Narnia : Bridge

Joe had been making his way to the front with the rest of the melee fighters when he got the news about the towers. He had missed those things earlier. Any thoughts about what he could do to help with them however were quickly cut off by the blast of frost magic he took dead on, stopping him dead in his tracks.

It surprisingly hurt less then it should have, considering it was dragon breath. It still burned, oh hell did it burn, but he felt like he was taking it better then some of the others who were caught in it.

Joe quickly cut his thoughts off. He could worry about the 'whys' of his resistance later. Pillars needed crushing, dragons needed slaying.

'The others are taking care of the pillars' he thought, assessing the field 'Fearless leader could some help though. Maybe this thing has a mana pool of it's own.'

Joe began moving again, mist swirling around him as he ran towards the front line. Flourishing his blade, he jumped, and the mist began to take shape above him, forming a large, wraith-like figure of anti-magical energy.

Like a captain directing an artillery barrage, Joe pointed his sword in front of him, directing the Raspara phantom to charge the beast and scathe it of mana on contact.