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If she hadn't been so terrified deep down, and if she hadn't been focusing on the battle, Bobbi would have fist-pumped and cheered when the combined attacks effectively neutralized Penemuel. However, due to her last experience fighting Louis, she nocked another arrow and began charging it with her Piercing Icicle spell. She wouldn't be satisfied that the creature had been fully rendered harmless until it was dead and gone.

I won't believe she's dead until I burn the body myself and sow the ashes with salt, echoed a memory in the back of her mind. An oft-used phrase in some of her favorite books—particularly apt as the speaker was always referring to someone who reincarnated in some way, shape, or form.

When the two songs clashed and the world seemed to flicker and shift, Bobbi paused and looked up. Dangerous as Penemuel certainly was, she was also dumb and blind. Bobbi trusted to Joe and Kyla to keep the construct occupied for the brief second she planned to take to see what was going on with Kyle and the trio of Louis shards. She didn't notice Penemuel falling to the ground.

She stared in amazement as Kyla's Louis shard did… something. Bobbi didn't understand the magic at all, and the fight between the two was brief. As she felt her muscles—both physical and mystical—strengthen, she also felt a twinge in her heart. Her spell-arrow dissipated as she clenched a fist over her chest, hunching in on herself a little. Blue-gray eyes widened in knowing horror as she heard that hateful voice again.


"No they're NOT!"

As Joe attacked, Bobbi re-summoned her arrow, once again cloaking it in the Piercing Icicle spell to break through any shields Louis may have had up, and if none cause him Pain—but that wasn't all. Taking advantage of her Frenzied Fire ability, two more arrows were in the air, following on the fletchings of the first: a Flurry Bolt aimed to disable, utilizing her Precision Shot ability, and a Maelstrom Bolt aimed with Crippling Shot, Precision Shot's sister move. If the Piercing Icicle made it through, the others should as well, Blinding Louis and preventing him from casting magic inside the Maelstrom. Should either of the last two miss, one of them would—hopefully—prevent Louis from casting any more magic.

Only let them hit…

Kyla, who stood back from the fighting and kept her eye on her surroundings, watched as Penemuel was launched skyward and continuously battered by her flight of blades. Shifting her attention to her shard of Louis, she could feel the tug on her heart as his determined glance met her own. The evil Louis standing atop Shiva fired a blast from his hands and as her shard blasted into the air kicking up a rage of winds that whipped around the girl, she was already working.

With quill in hand, pressing ink to paper, she instinctively swiped at the page inscribing the image she'd burned into her memory. In the seconds it took for the missile to careen across the empty space to the angelic Louis floating in the sky above, she finished and ripped her pen away from the page. Light spilling forth, like a blooming lotus from her book, the light shot like lightning to the angel and struck him spiraling around him, pen strokes swerving and spreading into the shape of a budding flower encasing the boy within.

The sphere of darkness impacted the shell of light. Expanding and engulfing all of its target within. Kyla could feel her mana draining away with each passing second, rapidly expelling whatever her heart could offer to feed the lotus shield, emphasized by the glow from her book shining like the sun. After the excruciating seconds that dragged on like ages, the orb of black cracked and broke away like the shell of an egg, her lotus shield shattering simultaneously, while the angel floated miraculously unharmed at the center as the mix of swirling shadow and glittering light fell around him.



Meanwhile, Kyle had reappeared and Ultima with him. They freed the unguarded Shiva, and Bobbi could once more feel her presence as her bod fell and dispersed into mana, flowing back to her master. The angelic Louis nodded to Kyle and then glanced to Kyla's shard, who nodded in an unspoken understanding. The beast leaped back and landed a few feet in front of Kyla, throwing his arms out and erecting a dome of faint light. He opened his mouth and he too began to sing.

[[BGM: Arrival of the Guards ~Zophiel~ from Drakengard 3]]

Without a word, Kyle's shard turned into a pure, golden light then shot off like a fireball into the sky that returned straight down into his host, "Ready!"



Louis, could do little else but cough up a clump of blood that showed through his fangs as he grinned at Joe. The boy did nothing to resist. His body thrown and smashed against the ground with a resounding crack and snap. Intercepted mid-flight by Bobbi's series of arrows, Louis was ripped from the air, thrown several yards and pinned to the ground with the stake of ice propping him up like a voodoo rag doll, to be pierced immediately after by several more arrows.

Somehow, the boy still lived. With labored breaths he pulled himself from the largest of the icicles, limbs barely functional, still he gripped and pulled himself forward till he reached the tip and his weight snapped him free. He fell to the floor with a thud.

"They're... not?" he sputtered, gripping one of the shafts piercing his arm, pulling it free and spilling black from his veins, "are... we no longer friends?"

The boy attempted to stand, but collapsed as his legs had no more strength, "But... I promised..." he coughed, more black mixed with red, his entire torso stained by the rain and the puddles, "I promised I'd protect you."

Louis reached out feebly, his eyes locked on Penemuel who had fallen to the floor on the opposite end of the platform. She was motionless and burning as her darkness dispersed slowly. He dragged himself once with his free arm, "Does this mean... the games are over?"

"Is... it finally over?" their opponent spoke once more, the bags under his eyes pronounced even against the pitch black nature of his eyes. His breaths were weaker now as he pulled himself once more across the floor, the sloshing and slick sound of his worthless legs dragged behind echoing louder than his soft voice, "Bobbi-nee, everything... it's so bright. So very bright... it hurts... will... you make it stop?"

Penemuel's body floated up and broke apart, darkness flowing up into the sky.

"No... not like this... it.. can't end like this," Louis collapsed, one arm still outstretched to Penemuel as he lay face down on the floor, "I promised..." his voice lingered, "I...promi-"

Then there was silence. The boy no longer spoke, the voice from beyond the void no longer sung. Even Kyla's shard had gone silent, though his instinct told him to keep his shield up around Kyla and himself anyway.

Bobbi, could feel the stab in her chest once more, it wasn't over. She knew this, she'd experienced it before.



The voice returned, only this time, singing a very different, sad song. Louis' body decayed. Black flames burning off of him as flesh and muscle peeled away from bone leaving only a skeleton covered in oily darkness in its place.

From the vortex closest to Joe, a skeletal claw reached out and gripped the surface of the sphere. With labored tugs, a face, a demonic horned and fanged skull emerged with a hiss and screech.

"Kyle!" his shard shouted, "Whatever it is you've got planned, do it now!"

((OOC: Couple things I wanted to note. First, for curiosity's sake, Kyla's shard's song is subtitled Zophiel, also known as the angel of Art and Beauty. Second, I realize there's a lot in this post, there was a lot to address, some of it is backtracking to things that happened and I sincerely apologize for its lengthiness. Third, also for curiosity's sake, the song started at the end of the post, is the same song who's lyrics were used at the beginning of the ATE. Lastly, Kyla was GMed as it has been 2 weeks since her last post.))

Relief flooded through her as Kyle succeeded in freeing Shiva from her chains. Still, Bobbi kept her eyes trained on Louis as he spoke, expecting his injuries to be a ruse. His words to her were like punches to the gut, not because she felt guilt at them, but because they were reminders of the person she had thought Louis was.

"We were never friends, Louis," she said softly. "Only allies."

But we could have been. Maybe we still can be. But not like this.

If you truly wanted to protect me, none of this would have happened.

Part of her wanted to cry. She'd never wanted to hurt anyone—in fact, she'd promised Louis that she would protect him. She honestly didn't remember the promise going both ways. Part of her felt like she'd broken that promise, but she had other, larger promises to keep as well. All of those promises required her to remain whole, unbroken, strong. She couldn't allow herself to be overtaken by the pale shade of a boy she'd barely met, or her heart to be overshadowed by the darkness he'd inadvertently brought with him.

And then she felt the stab in her heart.

Bobbi gasped, eyes widening as she looked around. She saw the skeletal being emerging near Joe—too close, too close.

"No!"

She flung out one hand, erecting a Mirror Wall between the emerging demon and Joe, just as the latter rocketed off to attack the skeleton Louis had left behind. This creature had been the last thing she'd seen before Shiva had thrown her out last time. She had no idea what it was capable of, what it would do, anything.

s**t s**t shitshitshit s**t!!!

[ATE .:. The Bright Side .:. 40]

{Kyla .:. Bobbi's Heart .:. Station of Awakening}

The battles over arcing symphony , was incredible, even in its most horrifying acts-

Kyla felt something inside her tremble, and as she watched the piece of Louis lay on the floor in a pile of burning dissipating bone and flesh and blood, she knew it couldn’t possibly be over. Proved correct as a skeletal claw reached out and hissed by Joe. Kyla tensed and Kyle’s shard cried out- NOW was the time, it HAD to come to end now-

“Back OFF!” she too launched a Birn Strike, lvl 2 at the skeleton, it streaked in a large wide arc- coming back around to join Joe’s staff to land a blow- there was no way Kyla would let any lingering surprises remain either. Whatever Kyle had planned couldn’t be interrupted!

After That Ultima had it in her own personal choke hold-

“I’m losing my Senses again.” She heard Kyle say-

“Good luck.”
She said like a reflex, and decided to be more safe than sorry. She scribbled more, this time a large spiraling pattern of shapes which manifested out of the air like circling lights of her own, they swirled like a gathering blizzard but then took shape into tiny bird sized forms of her birn strike- a large flock, a flurry storm of them which she sent away from her to encircle around Kyle as a last protective barrier incase anything else decided to pop out anywhere else. If the Skeleton did move though, she could direct the flock at a new target. Now they had to wait- however long…

The skeleton on the floor crumbled effortlessly beneath Joe's merciless attack, though the strike against the skull protruding from the vortex did little but ricochet off and cause it to hiss indiscriminately. Even as Kyla blasted it with her own spell, the demonic face only rolled back into the slick, oily surface and re-emerge. Ultima finally swooped in on her own and drove her blade through the skull. The demon's face did nothing, though its eye sockets filled in with more black, oily darkness... to the brim before bubbling up and forming two onyx spheres... spheres that split down the middle and parted with a scarlet glow... two snake like slits dotted in the very middle by a tiny green ring filled with a yellow core.

The demon was pulled and thrown from the vortex to the ground well behind Kyle. The skeleton, covered in strange, sharp spines and thorns couldn't move, it simply hissed there for a moment as the blood on the floor seemed to vibrate and ripple. The platform was shaking. The skies, red lightning and blood rain ceased but were replaced by a thunderous rumble.

Kyle, deeply engrossed in his own work and unable to perceive the world outside his clarity, saw a very different picture play out. As the demon was pulled free of the vortex and what could only be described as a waterfall of blood followed in its wake, spilling onto the ground a few feet in from of the dragoon, Kyle saw what could best be described as a flower blooming. The dark, tumor-esk mass before him, ripped asunder, petals parting and splitting over and over revealing layer upon layer of more darkness outlined in various shades of purples, blues, greens, and reds like a bruise.

As each petal reached the edge and fell all around the young man. As the pedals cleared away, soon, nothing remained but a singly, stone-esk ring that spun slowly in the air, easily the size of a fully grown man. His spells and tendrils of light coiled around the ring and seemed to burn away the remaining tumorous material clinging to the edges and widen its opening. The ring sank down to Kyle's level and floated before him, only a foot or two away, just within arms reach. As his light toiled away at trying to pierce the invisible barrier, he could see something inside, the tiniest glimmer in the darkness... it was hard to tell, but it could have been several yards in... but for some reason his light couldn't pierce the border of the ring to reach it.

To those outside Kyle's vision, the demonic skeleton lay lifeless, and Kyle worked without interruption. The vortex, shifted and moved. It sank down to Kyle as though pulled to him by the extensions of light. Despite its menacing form and eyes that shifted about discordantly and separately of one another, it seemed helpless to move without the tendons and muscle required to move.

"Kyle," the boy's shard spoke up mentally to his host, "I... think I hear something. It's like... someone's crying. It's coming from inside this thing."

"Make it stop..." a feeble whisper returned that only Kyle could hear. The light grew slightly within, but was still far away. He could see something... vaguely through the smoke and shadows. Something... not abstract. Something real. A fire? An open door. A room within. There was more inside... something on the other side of the darkness. The tiny light, a flickering flame dimly shedding its warmth on this place... but what was it? Where was it? The sphere, the vortex, no way it had this much space within... a shard? The core? The source? That's what it was, right? It was simple as that, right?

His magic searched and searched, but nothing seemed to work. The magic couldn't pierce the invisible wall, instead holding open the looking glass as Kyle continued to search for answers.

{ATE .:. The Bright Side .:. 45}
[[???/Narration : Bobbi's Heart : Station of Awakening]]

"Make it stop..." it repeated again and again, farther away, quieter voices said the same thing. A chorus of requests whispered in shouts. So far away. So quiet. Screaming in protest. A hand, ghostly, pale, and semi-transparent pressed against the glass surface from the inside. It couldn't leave, merely waited on its side.

"Kyle... there's something else there," Kyle's shard tensed up, "I don't know what it is... but, I can feel something on the other side. It feels familiar but... not... and so many."

The image grew clearer behind the disembodied hand. A dark, wood frame opened to a small, stone room. A fireplace glowed warmly beside a dark red armchair. Crimson, satin curtains adorned the windows while regal tapestries, scrolls, and paintings lined the only visible wall. Someone sat in the chair facing away from the door, someone else was there as well. Long, raven black hair flowed over a feminine figure dressed in an elegant, lavish, navy blue and black dress.

The image so so clear now, the shadows only danced around the door, no longer impeding Kyle's sight. So clear, so real. Right there every fluttering shadow from the fire revealed new details so close and vivid. He could almost hear the crackling of burning wood, the ticking of an unseen clock. So very real. It felt almost as though Kyle could step forward and walk right in. The door was open.