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[[Louis : Narnia : Castle Gates?]]

Swords flew through the air, careening towards the vulnerable chest of their target, but stopped mid air before Louis as he smiled with a whisper, "-Mateus the Corrupt."



The air contorted and twisted as space warped like tree branches under severe stress. Starting at the grips of their fingers a pair of massive gauntlets appeared wrapped around the massive swords, or rather large knives in comparison to the size of the hands holding them. A scream broke the silence of the world and the image of the castle behind Louis shattered like glass, the full body of Mateus making its appearance with its massive arms wrapping around Louis in a possessive embrace.

The boy flinched, eyebrow twitching as he gritted his teeth in a crazed smile. His hands rose up to his neck and he began clawing at hands gripping his throat that weren't there, sweat beading on his forehead. Kokytos flickered and in a burst of ice it had changed shape to a trident, Mateus' trident. The scion threw aside the blades and gripped the trident before swimming around its avatar and facing the Avatar of Chaos directly. The summon pulled the trident around, sweeping it back and forth causing iridescent waves through the air as though caressing the surface of water. The colors spread around from the summon as it performed this strange dance, seemingly disinterested in its summoner struggling to stay on his feet rather than collapse to his knees.

{James ; Leon : Narnia : Bridge}

Joe was saved by a combination by Noelle and Sayrike, which meant the corsair's attack was for naught, seemingly not even making the demon-dragon. That feeling sucked. However, James didn't have time to think about that, any of it as Belphagor's powerful attack was unleashed. It was all the corsair could do to cross his arms over his chest and turn his back into the blast as it hit him. Darkness and Ice combined in a sinister, freezing attack that even though it only lasted for a second was enough to take almost all of the life out of the corsair. The corsair fell to his knees, curling into himself for what little warmth he could possibly hope for despite his entire body being chilled to the core. He had experienced cold before, had nearly had frost-bite on his chest once, that was nothing compared to this. His whole body shook in fierce shivers, if his mouth had been slightly open his teeth would surely have been chattering together he was so cold.

"Th- that... h-hurt..." the corsair stuttered out.

{{Cue: Great Warrior}}

The corsair couldn't move, his limbs felt like they were frozen stiff, he could still hear though. The eerie music had ceased the battle was over. That much he could tell, but at what cost? Through the celebration and the inquiries he could hear Mizu call out for Nanaki. The great warrior was behind him, so he couldn't see, but he had a feeling that he was gone. Another lost ally to add to the the numbers.

"I-I... ca-can't m-move...s-so... c-cold. I-it h-hurts...," The corsair called out as loudly as he could from his crouched position. It was taking all of will he had to not just let his hunched over body fall face-first onto the bridge.

Leon had landed after his Rough Divide right as Belphagor's attack started going airborne and then ended. The dragon dead as he fell to pieces. As the fog cleared Leon made his way towards his companions and stopped as he stood before the statue that was now Nanaki. They had lost another one on this mission. That brought the count up to five lost allies. Their assault on the castle was just beginning and they had already lost so many fighters.

"This doesn't bode well for what is to come," The gunblader stated with a heavy sigh as he looked away from his frozen friend, avoiding eye contact with the rest of the group.

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


Kyle barely braced himself as the blast rushed over his body, but then again, with the pain in his chest, the searing frost now scouring his flesh simply seemed to balance out the total pain. He grunted, shivered, and remained huddled on the ground, on one knee, for a bit, still clutching his chest, keeping his eyes shut tight as he tried to recuperate.

The flashes weren't helping.

The sorceress grunted--though it sounded more like a growl, really--as the attack washed over and past her. Whatever the temperatures might have done, though, was made irrelevant by the warmth still radiating from her. The damage was done--her clothes were covered in blackened frost--but she would recover.

As Zell called out for wounded, she chimed up, her conversational tone still as deep and confident as her battle speech. "Gather your injured and bring them near. A little cleansing rain ought to do the trick."

Leaving the greatsword stuck in the bridge, she called back her staff and raised it skyward, summoning a large raincloud above her. The water was warm, even in this frozen clime, and those touched by the drops would find themselves recovering health.

Except the rain cloud quickly dissipated, much like the meteor storm had.

"Our magic is still being stopped," Dawn said--those who had looked around or listened might have realized the dancer and Jenny, the songstress, hadn't actually stopped. And they were looking a bit ragged for it. "It wasn't the voice."

The sorceress grumbled under her breath and held her staff aloft, summoning the raincloud once again, but this time keeping her attention on it, continuously channeling energy into it to keep the healing rains flowing. It was fairly large, covering most of the party that had remained distant, and they would feel the warm waters wash away their pain, mending wounds and healing internal damage.

"Matthew--" Riku started, turning to the blue mage.

"On it," Matt interrupted, turning his gaze toward down the bridge and toward the castle, activating Clarity. However, even before he had a chance to decipher the information, he recoiled slightly, bringing one hand to his head. "Oof, lot of magic around here in general, gimme a sec."

Sora kept his attention on the people farther down the bridge--Anthony, John, and others walking back toward the group and the healing rain. In particular, he stared at the frozen statue that had once been Nanaki.

His grip on the Keyblade tightened considerably.

[Amy : Narnia : Bridge]

The multiple attacks to the dragon's leg did nothing to shake it off Joe. Noelle was able to create an opening under Joe, causing him to fall through the bridge, and then Sayrike caught him on the other side with one of her mirrors. Meanwhile, the combined efforts of the group brought the pillars down.

Belphagor was defeated, but he left a path of destruction in his wake; eight of the group were caught in the blast. Amy wasn't far, having run up closer to help Joe. She felt extremely lucky to have been missed. Nanaki was the least fortunate: he was frozen solid in an uncannily similar position as his father was in the game.

Kyla looked like she needed the most help. She was outside of the Sorceresses rain of healing magic. Amy went over to help, casting a simple Cure on her. "Here you go, Kyla," she said. It wasn't a serious surge of healing, but it would help her move toward that healing rain. She would help her stand up, if she needed it and would accept. "Let's get you under that lady's healing spell. You can lean on me if you need to."

[Joe, Noelle: Narnia: Bridge]

Joe turned his head when he heard Noelle yell at Prote. He frowned a little, mainly because Prote was a geist, but he was more focused on Noelle and how she was cold. So he walked over and stood over her. He reached down, pulling her up into a gentle embrace, and then activating his fire skill all over his body, lighting himself on fire.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt her, just heat her up as he gave off a lot of heat like this.

Noelle pouted at Joe when he came over, relieved to see she would be helped out of her miserable position. The fire, however, she wasn't expecting. She jumped and flailed suddenly, making a distressed sound.

"GODDAMNIT JOE I WASN'T SERIOUS."

The flailing surprised him somewhat, a small fist nailing him in the nose, causing him to immediately let go, the fire going out as he gently rubbed his nose.

"Sunnuvabitch that hurt..."

Noelle stumbled a bit, pinwheeling her arms to try and catch her balance. Once she finally did she panted and looked up at Joe, still shivering slightly.

"And that'ssss . . . why you dun ******** wit me, brah." She slurred slightly, pointing a finger at him before softening and going to gently paw his nose with her fingers, "I'm sowwy I make it better."

Joe just kinda stood there, letting her...caress his nose or something. It was kinda weird. But he was also slowly realizing that the girl was not all there. She was drunk. Like...wow drunk, he thought.

"Hey, come on. Let's go get you into that healing rain, it might help you warm up, too." And he took her gently by the hand, leading her to the rain, concern on his face. She was still competent, but...drunk in this kind of situation worried him.

Noelle nodded and followed closely, afraid she might fall back into the snow drift. They made it to where the others were standing beneath the healing rain without further incident, and Noelle leaned against Joe as she let it warm her and ease away her aches.

As the grip on Louis' neck increased in pressure threatening to collapse his airways, Mateus' dance continued, spinning the trident about before him, stirring up more of the multicolored mist that spread around the scion. Louis released a small noise, a forced, high-pitch gasp for air, as blood vessels burst in his neck and bled into web-like bruises upon his skin. His expression shown to Nick as Mateus' body swayed back and forth in front of him, drew less and less distraught with each passing of the pendulum between them... but rather grew ever more pleased to the point where tears of joy seemed to cling to the corners of his eyelashes.

"Ahh-" he began voice cracking and inconsistent, "-eh... hehe... HAhAHaha-" he cut off again as the constriction cut off his voice once more and he let out a violent cough.

[[Louis : Narnia : Castle Gates?]]

[[Aria of Light from God Eater 2]]

"A-... Aaaaa-" guttural spurts were all the boy could mutter as his throat tightened more and more. As Mateus' tail swung back and forth, Louis could swear he could hear the sound of a ticking clock, slowly but surly growing deeper and deeper and slowing as the world blurred around him, until it was as the pounding of a drum throbbing in his ears.

Louis felt the blood flush to his cheeks and his as he continued to smile at Nick. For a moment, his smile faltered as his eyes flickered and he fell to his knees. His chest constricted, his stomach churned, his whole body convulsed within with pain. He lurched over, opened his mouth to the fullest his jaw would allow and gulped at air feebly hoping he might give his aching lungs relief, what little air he achieved was not nearly enough and instead he simply sat there drooling into the snow as tears ran down his face while his body continued to fail him bit by bit. Fingers went numb, toes and went cold, and his eyes burned. Yet, he raised his head and locked his eyes with his friends... the friend who's iron grip forced shut his throat and made him feel weaker by the second as his heartbeat- yes, that's what it was, his heartbeat marked each torturous second with a furious tone drowning out the rest as a harsh ring-like white noise that cut him off from reality.

He opened his mouth, unable to speak but moving his lips to form the words clearly as he reached out to Nick covered his darkness flowing off of him like ink spilling from a jar onto the pure white canvas of Narnia.

Nick, felt a sharp pain in his skull as images, flashes of days gone past flowed through him. He saw himself, walking on the walls of this castle smiling and seemingly having idle conversation, he saw images of holding a Naginata sparring with himself, then holding a hand out to help him off the ground, he saw himself and Louis as friends. But, these memories were foreign, he couldn't remember any of this. He couldn't recall them having ever happened. His relationship with Louis had always been mostly antagonistic. These memories, these glimmering jewels of days that never were told a very different story that simply could never be. Yet these memories weren't his at all, they were Louis' of peaceful days that were never granted the two avatars. A friendship that perhaps could have been under different circumstances, but were stolen from them by fate. And as fast as they'd arrived, they left the Avatar of Chaos-

Mateus finished preparing and all the mist gathered into its trident. After reeling back for a second it launched the weapon skyward where it arced and returned to the world, freezing the skies as it plummeted creating what might be described as a frosted lightning storm spreading out from one horizon to the next and flowing downward. The earth and bridge shook violently, the lake below spouted skyward forming towering mountainous landscapes of ice as the froze and in a matter of seconds every inch of the world was colored like the skies above the arctics. Then just as the cascading flow of ice was about to reach Nick, it stopped.

-then without further warning, Louis' arms fell at his sides, and there was a dull snap as his trachea collapsed. There was a split second where the boy simply stared at Nick with a slowly softening, terrified face, then his eye contact broke as his neck went limp and his body slowly slumped forward then collapsed to the side into the snow with a soft crunch. At that time, the snow resumed as Mateus faded into nothingness and the spell overhead broke away into snowflakes whiting out the world beyond the small section of bridge Nick stood upon as the now sole living occupant.

Joe : Narnia : Bridge

The beast's claws may have missed him, but the force of the blow had still managed to knock him back into the walkway, the wind knocked out of him. By the time he was able to pick himself back up, the fight had been won.

'Great job, jackass.' he thought 'You had a chance to help out with this thing, and you screw it up.'

Pulling himself up and looking behind him, he saw the healing rain going on behind him, everyone recovering and grouping up, and...

...Nanaki's frozen corpse.

"...s**t..." He cursed beginning to move towards the 'body' "Shitshitshitshitshitshits**t."

This was a goddamned disaster and they weren't even inside the castle yet. Axel was dead, Nanaki was dead, a bunch of others were likely dead as well. And he had managed nothing against the damned dragon. If he had been a bit better, or if his spells had worked...

He was only a few steps away now, but he couldn't do it. Couldn't take another step towards a body that was so recent, that had just been there. He paced over to one of the bridges and leaned against it, feeling sick to his stomach and shaking with barely contained anger.

Joe liked the cold. He found it invigorating and compelling in it's harshness.

He could do with less harshness in his life right now.