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A Guidepost to Certain Death; In which Kyo finds a thing. You know. That thing. [Kyo, Kakeru, Naoya - Closed]
Topic Started: Oct 28 2013, 08:36 PM (1,242 Views)
The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo, who had been totally prepared to just charge right on the fuck in, looked back at Naoya's warning, and then yelped a bit when Krishna prepared his fire spell. She scrambled to the side, flattening herself against the wall, but couldn't help cringing and squinting when the wave of fire passed. The Maragion spell blanketed the almost funnel-like wide back-end of the passage, and the Brutal Magician simply began to skitter back toward its enemies. Having lured it where it wanted them to be, there was no longer any need for restraint. The flames licked at it pointlessly, leaving no sign of damage and provoking no reaction at all from the Magician, pained or otherwise. Kyo, squinting in the enemies' direction, clicked her tongue in irritation. So that thing was immune to two of the elements they had to work with, huh...?

The fire whipped around the three floating masks, causing the haze around them to shrink a bit, but all three of them simply slowed in their movement until it passed, at which point, they resumed their floating advance. The fires left mean scorch marks on the surface of the Sponge, but it remained inert, immobile...

Until, in the moment after the flames vanished, water began to gather, gather out of the air in front of it. The Brutal Magician's blade-holding arms extended; there was a flash around it as it cast Tarukaja to augment itself, but in the next moment, rather than attacking, it skittered to one side, climbing up the wall, and across the ceiling. Getting out of the way, Kyo realized--

"Shit--water spell, incoming!"

Kyo, rather than remaining pressed against the wall, rushed forward, closing distance, placing her mask over her face and summoning Nevan, crouching to slip underneath the Magician so she could attack those other Shadows more directly. That was when the Murderous Haze made its move.

One of them, red one, turned its floating blue mask squarely in Kyo's direction. The mist around it began to solidify, taking a vaguely humanoid shape with the mask where the head would be... and then the details filled out, the colors filled in, and Kyo found herself staring at a perfect replica of Nishiyo Sadako. She skidded to a halt, for a moment, flabbergasted--more stupid doppelganger Shadows?! Really?! Were there really not enough of those in her average day?! But even the eyes were the correct color this time. And--

--shit, she didn't have time to be distracted. Nevan gathered a charge of lightning. That arm-monster-thing might be immune, but these other four Shadows might not be. And so she let loose with Mazio, bolts of lightning striking at all four.

The Sponge was struck by this spell a the same time as the others. The three Haze shadows seemed to withdraw inward; the Nishiyo illusion flickered and lost substance for a few moments before re-forming. Then when three things happened all at the same time:

The Primal Sponge, twitching and pulsating inside the doorway, let loose its Malaques spell, flooding the hallway with a rush of water. Before this could occur, though, the other two Hazes targeted the other two Persona-users: the pink, Passionate Haze began to take a shape based on what it saw in Naoya's heart, and the other, the black Cowardly Mist, wasted no time on illusions--instead, it cast Bewilder directly at Kakeru, a focused wave of sound distortion that struck just before the water rushed down the hall...

Kyo, for her part, allowed Nevan to fade away, threw her arms up over her face...

...and found the water magic was far to strong to merely brace herself against. The sheer pressure of it flung her off her feet and into the wall, where he air was blasted from her lungs and the back of her head smacked painfully into the solid surface. The water rushed in at chest-level, however; it seemed aimed so as not to accidentally strike at the ceiling-clinging Magician.
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Prince Arjuna
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-insert something witty here-

When the Bewilder hit him, Kakeru bit his tongue. Thanks to the pain from biting his tongue, he managed to barely avoid getting himself affected by the ailment spell and he braced himself as the water spell came to hit them. The power of the water spell was enough to propel him backward, but he managed to steady himself.

When he saw that some of those Shadows started to take the forms of other people, the former child assassin clicked his tongue in annoyance. Now they had to deal with some Shadows that could turn into people they knew again, huh?

"You two alright?" he asked the others to see the effect of the water spell on them.
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
Naoya grimaced when he saw that the the fire spell didn't have much effect. The only thing that seemed effected was that big immobile shadow, which was probably some kind of battlefield controller. It might be directing or empowering the floating masks, which meant that they needed to attack it and probably the hand-ball shadow.

As Naoya was attempting to come up with a tactic, he heard a series of words that filled him with terror: water spell, incoming.

He shifted out of support mode and tried to think of an appropriate reaction...should he try to block it with another fire spell? No, that would just create a wall of super-heated steam and might kill all of them. Maybe he should --

It was then that he noticed the Passionate Haze take on the shape of Chika Nakadachi.

She looked just as she had when they had gone into the ruins -- jacket, women's pants and plain shirt, kizuna hanging at her side -- and he paused. He knew that it was a copy, and not the real thing, but he felt a definite sense of foreboding. Why had the shadow taken on her form? Did it think that he would pull his punches? Was it meant to --

Shit. Wall of water.

Naoya channeled a physical skill into his foot, striking the ground with a Mighty Swing. He tumbled upward through the air far too quickly, and reached out, grabbing a light fixture and hanging there. The rush of water passing through the hallway beneath him. It got too close, and he swung his legs up, wrapping them around the hanging light, which groaned from the added weight.

The Lightning Bug still hovered by his head, obediently waiting instructions.

"Go! Get th'...th'...fuck, that thing!" he said, pointing at the Primal Sponge. It obediently zipped toward the Sponge, crackling lightning dancing around the stinger. After striking, it would return to him unless he gestured otherwise, and he wasn't about to. He was going to jab with it, not risk getting the automaton washed away.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The water spell had washed over all of the targets below, including the three Haze creatures, although if it had any effect on these there was no visible sign of it. It didn't look like the Brutal Magician was about to let Naoya just hang from the ceiling unpunished, unfortunately. Already empowered by a Tarukaja spell, it began to climb along the ceiling toward the boy, its free hands reaching for lights, pipes, broken ceiling tiles, anything it could get a grip on, getting nearer, nearer, like some kind of malformed spider, its sword-length knives waving menacingly in the air below.

And then, it flicked out one of its free hands, tossing an Agilao spell at the boy without breaking stride in its advance.

Kyo, for her part, slumped to the floor the moment the water's pressure was gone and it began to spread out pointlessly along the floor of the ruins. Groaning, she clutched her head, feeling a dull throb at the back of her head and not just that, but also where the original injury had been.

Dammit.

One eye shut tight against reflexive tears, she peeked open the other eye and saw something puzzling: not just the Nishiyo clone, but beside it, a Chika clone. But while the Nishiyo clone--wearing that same stupid catsuit-and-katana combo Kyo'd seen her in the day she nearly... murdered that murdering bitch... was staring directly at Kyo, with that vile, happy grin on her face that made Kyo just want to rip her lungs out... the Chika copy was looking further down the hall, and when Kyo followed its eyes, she found it was looking at Naoya. That had been the uh, the pink haze-thing, right?

Pink...

Kyo shook herself back to the present and zeroed her gaze in on the Sponge thing. Naoya was stuck on the ceiling with that arm-monster and if that thing in the door kept flooding the hallway--

The BeeZector swooped in at that moment and delivered a swift shock to the Sponge, and it twitched again. Kyo grinned, and squinted her eyes, trying to focus. This thing didn't like electricity, eh? What a coincidence, her specialty. Once that thing was dead they could focus on--

...o-on...

Kyo's thoughts were cut off by a surge of hate, welling up from deep, deep within her very being. Her eyes snapped to Nishiyo Sadako. Nishiyo Sadako, who was the reason the had to deal with her love's brain-blasted corpse imprinted on the backs of her eyes, the reason Chika didn't have a brother anymore--

For a fleeting instant Kyo realized what it was, rage magic, and she tried to fight, she did, but even that knowledge was overpowered by a desire to kill.

Kyo let out a howling scream, jumping to her feet, ignoring the pounding in her head in favor of the pounding in her ears. As she ran, she drew both of her kodachi and slashed at the fake Nishiyo in a scissor-like motion aimed at the neck... but the blades just passed through as if Nishiyo were made of air. Kyo screamed again and tried to go for the arms next--same result.

Chika, or rather the illusion of her, walked nearer to Naoya, looking up from some distance behind the advancing Magician. Her face, initially impassive, shifted expression. A tentative, appreciative smile.

...Along with a Marin Karin spell.

The still-floating Cowardly Haze moved forward, frustrated by its failure to take Kakeru under its enchantment. Figuring it was time to increase its chances, it opted to play the same trick its fellows had--this time attempting to take the shape of a still-living person that Kakeru either mistrusted or feared...

The Primal Sponge remained inert for the time being. Either the BeeZector's attack had stymied it, or it was waiting to see whether its spawn would succeed in enthralling victims before attacking again.
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Prince Arjuna
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-insert something witty here-

Seeing that both his teammates might be in danger of being mentally-influenced by the enemies, Kakeru prepared to cast Amrita on them, but was stopped when he saw the Shadow turning into someone he was quite familiar with. Well, let's just say he didn't expect this at all.

The Shadow turned into a copy of Hanako Ito, his classmate and a fellow Persona-user.

"Okay, I didn't expect that..." Kakeru muttered, looking at the copy of Hanako. Well, if there's someone he's afraid of, it had to be her. He still couldn't overcome the trauma that was caused from their first meeting. Well, it was already a thing in the past, but Kakeru still couldn't help but to be a little nervous when he's around her.

"Ah, screw it. Amrita," he grunted as he cast Amrita on his teammates. He hoped that his day couldn't be weirder than this.
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
Naoya didn't even notice the agilao, considering that he was completely fireproof and had treated his clothing with boric acid for fireproofing. So he simply jerked back from the physical impact, as if someone had shoved him backwards. There was charring, but the flame didn't take. His attention was completely focused elsewhere.

He dropped down to the ground, and looked the doppelganger in the eye. That smile. It was radiant, it filled his world. He could feel it in his viscera: his immunity to fire and his weakness to ice had made it so that he only really felt cold or not-cold, but for once he felt genuinely warm. He felt like nothing was wrong with him.

If he could, he would capture this moment and hold it motionless, dwell in it forever.

This was accompanied by a newfound awareness, something pressed into the now-malleable surface of his mind: Kyo and Kakeru were dangerous. They would drag him from this place under the auspices of safety. They would tear away this warmth because that was simply what they would do. That was what always happened.

He gathered power. Kakeru would be a problem, but Kyo burned easily enough. He would drive them away.

Something appeared in front of his eyes, interposing between him and them, him and Chika. The lightning bug danced in place, angrily jittering back and forth. He tried to swat it away, but it jerked from before him and then returned. He wound up with his left arm, intending to bash the tiny nuisance with the narrow edge of the shield. He jabbed, and it jumped up above the blow. Overextending, he tripped and stumbled.

It was at this moment that the Amrita took effect, and he realized just how perilous the situation he was in was: he was directly beneath the Brutal Magician, unable to easily dodge. The shadow that had cast a haze over his mind, adopted the form of a girl he had a very inadvisable crush for in front of at least one person who would strongly disapprove of said feelings, was looming right over him. A larger, more dangerous shadow was positioned at the end of the hallway, most likely prepared to launch a powerful water spell.

When he spoke, his voice was pressured, coming out as a distressed yelp: "Er...K...Kagami-san! Cast M...Megi...shit. Do something!"
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The Brutal Magician paused for several seconds, doing absolutely nothing when the Agilao spell produced no damage. It seemed comically disbelieving that its most powerful spell had been so easily shrugged off, and for a few seconds, it was unable to process why.

During this very short (yet oh so very long) span of time, Kyo and Naoya both struggled with their respective head-messer-upper magics, and then Amrita happened. Kyo's head cleared instantly, mid-swing, and she paused in the follow-through, blinking at the copy of Nishiyo Sadako in front of her, which was still smiling that sickening smile...

Movement caught Kyo's eye and her attention was pulled toward the Primal Sponge, at exactly the moment that the Murderous Haze cast Provoke again. The wave of panic overpowered the anger this time, and Kyo rushed past the insubstantial mist-illusion (would that thing even actively try to hurt her? It didn't seem like it even could!), and summoned her Persona. Water was building, gathering out of nothingness in front of the sponge again, but no, not this time!

Nevan swooped in, and a full blast of Zionga hit the Sponge dead-center. It writhed against the doorway it was fixed in, and the water magic it had gathered just stopped, and then splashed to the floor, the Malaques spell interrupted. The Chika copy turned toward Kyo, then, her smile vanishing, and dissolved into pink mist again... only to solidify in a different shape, this time that of Hiroko Tachibana. Kyo caught its eye, and then caught sight of the Hanako illusion, and it was at that moment that she understood.

These things used illusions to enhance their mind magic, eh...?

The Brutal Magician released its hold on the ceiling fixtures and came to a squishy landing mere feet from Naoya. There was a moment where the full mass of its many arms compressed downward with the impact, and then it pushed itself up, the six blades extending upward, and then two of them slashed down toward Naoya, one aimed at his left arm, the other at his right: an Arm Chopper skill, entertainingly enough.

The Cowardly Haze, in the shape of Hanako, stared. Stared at Kakeru. Stared very, very hard at Kakeru.

The intensity.

And at some point a Pulinpa spell happened.
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Prince Arjuna
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-insert something witty here-

The stare from Hanako's clone almost made Kakeru feel uncomfortable, and when the Pulinpa almost affected him, Kakeru cast another Amrita in order to remove the effect. Right after casting the second Amrita, he clicked his tongue before he decided that enough was enough.

And so, he unleashed Megidola. "Duck!" he ordered his teammates to go down so they wouldn't get hit by the Almighty spell. The bright spell started to fill the area, causing an explosion that shook the area slightly. And thanks to his Mind Charge that he cast on himself earlier, the strength of the Megidola was increased significantly.
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
Naoya had begun to scramble up and brought his arms in, catching the physical attacks on the shield and the metal band around his right forearm. There was a loud ringing sound, and he felt a vibration pass up through both arms and into his viscera. Just as he had felt warm a moment ago, he now felt a chill carried in that vibration. Unbidden, he dropped down to one knee, unable to hold himself upright.

He was going to die here. He was too weak, they were in too deep, they were just stupid kids who didn't appreciate just how dangerous this place was. Their bones would be picked clean and no one would know what had happened to them, and would anyone cry if he never made it home? Did his existence even really matter in the grand scheme of things? Or was he --

Another Amrita washed over him.

"Goddammit!" he shouted. "Quit screwin' with m' brain!"

He wound up, intending to deliver a Mighty Swing-infused punch, and then heard the command to "duck!" He scooped the lightning bug up and spun around, falling onto his side with his right hand raised up to cushion his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the attack to pass.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo had once had to dodge out of the way of a Megidola spell--that had been on her very first ruins trip with Kakeru, in fact, the same day that she'd found out about his "little sparkly problem." She hadn't had any warning on that occasion, this time she did, but there was another problem that nearly ended in a very messy way and that was the Hiroko illusion!

The Passionate Haze cast Marin Karin directly at Kyo just as the command to Duck! reached her ears. Hiroko was looking at her, smiling in a way that was one part bedroom eyes, two parts trusting, three parts humor. Kyo reacted instinctively to the "Duck" command, mostly because the way things were going, she'd been expecting Kakeru to fall back on Almighty magic sometime.

But Hiroko--no no no, the fake Hiroko--was just so distracting. And for a heartbeat, as the illusion tried with all its might to convince her brain's primitive impulses that it wasn't fake, it was the real Hiroko, she felt pure terror. Hiroko, her Hiroko, Hiroko was going to be erased before her very eyes and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

She made a short jerking motion as if to slam-tackle the illusion to the ground--

--and the next moment she shook it off, threw herself to the floor, and put her hands over her head. The wave of Almighty magic rushed through the hall, toward the Brutal Magician, toward the three Haze Shadows, toward the Primal Sponge still spread over the open doorway.

All three Haze creatures vanished in a blink, they were simply gone when Kyo looked up in the aftermath. The Primal Sponge now hung like a flap from one side of the doorway, and the Brutal Magician, when the wave had hit it, had been blasted into the wall. It seemed to be significantly smaller when it righted itself, and it was: all that remained were three arms for walking, one to hold the mask, and a single, solitary sword-arm.

These limbs contracted into each other, and then snapped outward, sending a wave of Mazio magic toward all three Persona-users. Kyo scrambled to dodge, but too late--a bolt struck her calf, and then she felt herself momentarily seize up with the shock.

But what once had been a weakness to her no longer was. Kyo managed to stand up even so, and as she did, a pink haze of mist leaked out of the Sponge's still-living remains. A mask with the roman numeral of the Lovers Arcana solidified within that haze, and it drifted away from the thing that had birthed it.

"Tch..."

Kyo clicked her tongue, and thrust out a hand. A bolt of Zionga burst out and struck what remained of the Sponge, and it melted into goop. As for the Passionate Haze, this time it targeted Kakeru. Kyo watched it form into another illusion, but she thought she had an inkling of these creature's limitations now. They didn't seem capable of casting spells at the same time as changing shape. Kakeru would probably have plenty of time to kill it before it could attempt another mind-altering spell.

She focused instead on the Brutal Magician, the only one of the remaining Shadows that had demonstrated any capacity for actual offense.
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