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Joe : Narnia : Bridge

"No. It wouldn't kill him." Joe responded to the white mage. "It would just rip open a portal to the void around him that would shock his body into unconsciousness. Probably hurts like hell though."

Hearing the others talk, Joe was about to charge a spell when the conversation took a turn for the interesting

-----
"Of course it doesn't--it's a spell, not a living thing," the amazonian witch said, chuckling to herself. "What you need is something that dispels magic, or to flood that little prison with anti-magical energy. I could probably conjure up something with a little arcane force, but it might take a few moments. Does anyone else have something like that?"

John spoke up, raising a hand first. "I think new Joe guy said he was geared toward taking out mages, does that count?"

-----

"Thor's right. Anti-magic's kind-of my thing." Joe said channeling a small amount of mist out of his left hand to show his point. "If I can flood him with a charged dispel or another one of my phantoms, it might break the illusion entirely."

He wouldn't say it publicly, but he gave precisely zero damns about whether or not Nick got through the process with any mana at all. From what Joe remembered from the rundown, the man was an unstable wild card before Louis started playing thrash metal with his fragile psychosis. The Grey Knight was more interested in neutralizing him as a threat then healing him as an ally

Turning his head to Kyla and Noelle, he continued. "Plus, Kyle and his new friend could be back at any time. We need to get this done now."

Joe had begun charging up a dispel while waiting for the others to respond. He figured this one was for the best: if it worked, great. If not? At least Nick was down a few buffs and vulnerable.

"Alright, one dispelled Chaos avatar coming up," Joe said "Keep an eye on both him and the specter."

Joe began to focus on where Nick was, reaching his mist covered hand out and grasping onto what he could only describe as the Chaos avatar's "aura", the magical energies that extended out from his magic circuits. Once he felt like he had a grip, Joe began to squeeze as the mist spiraled and crackled with energy, sending anti-magical energy surging through Nick.

[Amy : Narnia : Bridge]

Amy focused on the specter while Joseph cast his dispel. She kept the scan up to focus on the specter. Was it gone, dispelled by Joseph?

[[Belphagor : Narnia : Castle Bridge]]

[[Still Cue: Kuroi Uta]]

As Nick continued to struggle against Louis' trap that encased him in the shell of ice, and began to conclude that he was under some sort of illusion, he could hear a sweet voice tickling the back of his mind, "I'm here."

It came accompanied with the voice of Noelle, fizzling through like a radio on just-barely the wrong frequency. "Hey," she shouted before closing up with white noise, there wasn't anything else for a moment, then more came through, "-destroy... douche-"

"I can help."

Her reply grew louder and clearer as the world around him seemed to... crack. Pieces that fell away from space and shatter onto the stone floor left blank space of white and black static that spread to the ground with each new impact.

"I can break you out... help set you free."

"Stop. Fighting!" her voice rang clear that time, and the world broke away entirely from Nick's vision after a sudden and violent flash of Louis' gaze dangerously close to his own with deep purple irises crazed and maddened boring a hole into Nick's own accompanied by a smile lined with fangs. His throat felt tight, like it was suddenly hard to breathe as sweat built up on his forehead instantly. Nick was left seated in an empty expanse of TV static, no conceivable way out while the world dimmed bit by bit.

"Let me in and I can save you."




In the sky high above the bridge, Blephagor grappled with Kyle, twisting and jostling its body with sudden erratic beats of its wings, but it seemed nothing would dislodge the dragoon. Belphagor glowed as it resigned its attempts and instead stopped its ascent suddenly. It floated there, a moment of weightlessness overcoming Kyle and the dragonkin-demon. Kyle, also engulfed in the glow, felt odd, as though the light were erasing the weight of his limbs. Before it could even be avoided, he and Belphagor both were engulfed by the phantasmal blue light and compressed into a blue, fiery ball. The ball, then just as rapidly as its accent, began a decent towards the bridge.



Nick swallowed against the force around his neck and replied, "I refuse. Access denied." After all, he'd gone down that road already once before and with a bird displayed on each hand he gave the middle finger to the fractured abyss. There was only a gleeful giggle in response that faded with the static. At last, Nick stared at a wall of stone that surrounded him and could hear the shouts and clamoring of those outside.



The star in the sky fell, Belphagor and Kyle together as a ball of baleful black and blue light crashed into the bridge far back next to the shore, and passed through. A blink later and they returned from under the bridge through a new hole, then vanished beneath once more. This repeated like a sewing needle drawing threw through cloth leaving a faint trail in its wake up and down, side to side, diagonally through the bridge over and over down its entire length, miraculously missing everyone as it zipped past them, some mere inches from their faces. Nanaki, the pitiful statue, was also as lucky.

At last the ball of cursed glowing magic crashed in from of the gate and the ball of light dispersed, Kyle and Belphagor reformed in the same form they'd been, only this time, Balphagor, was no more. His body, reduced to a statue of ice, a peaceful, soft expression of sleep adorning its face.

Rest in peace, Belphagor.

And with his death, a calm drew about the bridge and its occupants, and magic like they'd known it before the Dam of Asphodel had been opened by the Guardian of the Gate, Belphagor, returned to them.



((TLDR: Nick's free of the illusion, Kyle and Balphagor attacked the group as a large sphere of blue-light-comet thing. But no one was hit. Everyone's magic is back to normal. The battle on the big bridge is over.))

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

Aw hell--

Before anyone could really react to Amy's claim that the specter had vanished, the pseudo-assault by the azure orb commenced, and most instinctively brought their hands up to shield themselves. However, when all was said and done, it seemed to have passed over them harmlessly, and they traced the trail of ruin back to the gate, where Belphagor stood, solid and frozen, with Kyle still latched around his head and neck.

With the return of magic into the air around them, Noelle breathed a sigh of relief--both mental and physical, as the growing hangover was replaced with clear sobriety--and made a small motion with her arm. As a result, the stone barrier surrounding Nicholas opened up and sank back into the bridge, leaving only Kyla's Lotus between him and actual freedom.

Kyle had held his breath--or felt as if he'd been holding his breath--for the duration of his blue-flame flight. So, slowly and a bit unsteadily, he recomposed himself, wild eyes taking in the ruined bridge, the party on the other side, Amy making her way toward him.

He looked toward his spear, where it remained lodged in the ice sculpture that had once been his opponent. Part of him, a deep but powerful part of him, wanted to forcefully shove the spear at an angle such that the demon's head would break off and shatter--a last, bitter blow to a defeated enemy. It took him a moment longer than he was comfortable admitting to just dismiss his weapon and carefully jump down.

"I'm fine, thanks," he said, waving to Amy and giving a thankful nod as he began to walk toward the group again. He passed Nanaki but didn't so much as spare him a glance. He sent the next message over charms. "What's the situation with Nicholas?"

"The specter's gone, so either Joe destroyed it with his anti-magic, or he accepted it into his heart."

"Don't let him out until we know which.," he said--though it almost came off as a bark, a knee-jerk reaction, and Amy would see that his expression had soured a bit at the mention.

Meanwhile, Anthony seemed to relax with a small groan, dismissing his gauntlets and bringing one hand to his back, pushing it in as he arched it backward. "Augh, getting to old for this."

John quietly dispelled his hammer and dropped down to a crouch, resting his legs and catching a breather. Dawn's Regen was doing wonders. Jenny remained quiet off to the side, watching Nicholas inside the barrier. With her magic back, she was prepared to Stop him if necessary.

Sayrike chimed in, both aloud and in a charm message to Kyle, "I haven't noticed anything different in him since the specter disappeared, but I don't know if that would have done anything anyway."

"Man, what is it with bad guys and trying to get inside people," Sora grumbled, crossing his arms. "It's like, they all seem to try it. All of them. Sexually repressed or something, I swear..."

"The dragons do love to corrupt rather than destroy," the sorceress said, rolling her eyes as she turned half-way to look at the castle.

"Dragons?" Sora asked, tilting his head.

"Yeah. You know," she said, turning back and raising a brow. "Dragons. Like Jormag in there."

"You think Louis has a dragon?" Sora replied, eyes widening as he expression took on a bit of apprehension.

"Who's Louis?"

"Are we all ignoring that Sora just mentioned sexual repression," Matthew said, looking around at everyone else.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Riku finally asked the sorceress, narrowing his eyes at the giant of a woman now that they finally had a moment to breath. They'd had enough interlopers joining disguised as allies.

"Oh! I'm Melisandre Wyrmsbane," she said, smiling and puffing her chest as she did. "Magister in the Durmand Priory, though I'll probably get promoted to Archon after this. Are you lot my reinforcements from the Vigil? I expected more Charr."

{James ; Leon : Narnia : Bridge}

Kyle had given no reply, not that it was really needed either though. The corsair was silent, focused. He heard what everyone was saying, but wasn't sure how to reply, especially in regards to Kyla's exposition regarding the spirit. If Joe's dispel hadn't worked, and Nick had indeed accepted it into his heart, they had no time to purge it, definitely not at that moment, the corsair was unsure what to say in response to her inquiry regarding her Louis fragment either, he figured the only ones would have any input on that matter would be the other members of their group who had one as well.

"Ajora had Triton's Trident when he did that to you, and just as he injected darkness into my heart, I wouldn't be surprised if he could have removed the specter from you, even without the trident. Probably would have taken more effort though..," The corsair replied to the pictomancer "Even if we could possibly remove it, we definitely don't have time for anything like a dive right now... HEADS UP!"

The corsair's train of thought was pretty quickly cut off as Belphagor and Kyle returned to the scene as an erratic blue and black ball of energy that punched a hole clean through the bridge and came back up, repeating all the way down the bridge until it came to a stop as it crashed before the gate. The dragon-demon a frozen statue. Miraculously, the ball had managed not to hit anyone in it's rampage. Amy quickly ran to make sure Kyle was alright, and he seemed to be fine, physically at least.

The telepathic order came from Kyle not to release Nicholas until they knew for sure whether or not he had accepted the specter. Afterwards they would move out, their mission at this castle, was far from over and already they had lost several of their allies.

"Then let's find out and get a move on," James stated with a hint of frustration. The situation was starting to wear on his nerves and the only way thing that would keep him from breaking down was action. Grief, anger, despair they were already starting to bear down on the corsair and he couldn't afford to fall to them right now. With a sigh the gunner made his way over to the trapped Avatar of Chaos.

"Nick, we need to know. If you are really on our side in this fight then give us an honest answer. Did you accept that specter into your heart? If you did you are going to have a very hard time getting rid of it," James stated plain and simple. He didn't want to mention the fact that they wouldn't release him if he had.

Leon made his way over towards the group after Belphagor and Kyle had taken off, trying very hard not to look at the frozen statue that was Nanaki. The statue that was his friend was not the only ally they had lost thus far. Leon scanned the bridge, listening to the conversations around him, but not really having anything to add to them.

That was when the ball of black and blue energy crashed through the bridge, running a path of destruction all up and down the bridge until it finally stopped by the gate. When it was over, Belphagor stood a frozen statue, and Kyle was unharmed. With the dragon-demon defeated they could now proceed, as soon as Nich was taken care of. The gunblade wielder remained silent as they waited for an answer from the Avatar of Chaos. He wanted to keep moving, to not think about their lost allies.

'I seriously hope that we don't lose anyone else on this mission.'

{Bobbi, Yuffie, Zell, Demyx, Red XIII .:. Narnia .:. Bridge}

Bobbi twitched pretty much any time her name was mentioned, but only responded when she was being addressed directly. Well, except when Amy asked about the Louis shards—Kyla beat her to it. But when Kyla asked if she felt any different, Bobbi shook her head, but didn't say anything. She wanted to say something, but couldn't think of how to put it into words, so she just kept silent and decided to be a halfway decent team player and paid attention to what everyone else was doing. When she saw that new!Joe was getting ready to do something to Nick, and the sorceress lady to do something to the Louis specter, Bobbi took a few steps to get a little removed from the group, and put Nick's containment unit directly in her line of sight. She set one of her Crippling Shot arrows to Taulmaril's string, shrouded it in a Flurry Bolt, aimed to about where she figured Nick would be if he was directly in the middle of the shields, focused—and then Kyle made impact on his new mount. Several impacts, actually.

"What the actual flying mother of ********> the Archer yelped as they passed right by her.

"Whoa!" Yuffie shouted as the black and blue star darted in and out amongst pretty much everybody. "Hey, watch where you're going!" Yuffie stomped petulantly and shook an angry fist at the ball of light, then stared in awe as it landed and turned back into Kyle, accompanied by an ice-statue of the dragon demon thing he'd been riding.

"Cooooool."

Despite the commotion of the returning Dragoon, Zell decided to keep his attention on Nick. Or rather, Nick's prison, though after the light show was done Noelle took her shield down. Being able to see the opponent didn't ease Zell's worries any, but he saw Bobbi out of the corner of his eye, grumbling to herself as she moved to get a clearer shot. He was completely unsurprised to see her choke on a laugh when Sora spoke, but she managed to regain her composure and her aim didn't waver once. And then she opened her mouth to respond to leader!Joe.

"Well, it's possible this Jormag is yet another mini-boss on the way to kicking Louis in the face," she said. "I don't think we were expecting dragon-breath back there—" Bobbi indicated Belphegor with a nod of her head, "God only knows what else that a*****e has planned for us."

"Man, I am not looking forward to another fight," Demyx whined, taking the brief respite to sit on the bridge and fiddle with his Sitar.

"It's not like you did anything to help!" Yuffie retorted, which sent the two off bickering at each other. Fortunately, they were easy enough to ignore.

"Hey Nick," Bobbi shouted from her position after Dawn pointed out the obvious, "flip us one bird if you're going to be an a*****e, two for raging douchebag, and three for actually helpful."

As the blue and black ball of light passed by, refracted rainbows danced across the bridge around Nanaki's corpse for a brief moment as the light reflected off of his frozen hide. As the battle closed and the living went about their way, Nanaki remained frozen, now joined by Belphegor in this icy death.