The Castle (IC) [M] {04}

[lucas marcone]

Ian was more annoied than scared. "Anotherone?!" he shouted. "I'm getting sick of these things!"

[Stygian]

For a brief instant the stream of lightning seemed to bounce off the creature's skin, impacting and spraying light throughout the corridor like a high-pressure water jet hitting concrete. Then, with a ripping, sizzling sound the electricity shredded the fiend's tissue, and flames engulfed the horrid thing. Its death cry was unlike anything Cog had ever heard. The bolt tore its shoulder open, parting its body in two, and passed on through the thing that was trying to scramble over it from behind, reducing its head and neck to little but ashes. Residual sparks and arcs of electricity lasted among the cindery remains of the beasts as they disintegrated.
   The last monster was still alive though, and while twitching with the residue of Cog's attack, it was largely unharmed. And with Sal's web reduced to charred pieces of string, it had already broken its bonds. Chewing foam, it stormed for Cog and Sal.

- -

Stygian reeled back as he took another hit, the darkness that formed his wings morphing into a shield and covering him as well as he could manage while his fur singed at the edges. 'Then do something or get lost, asswipe!' he shouted back at Ian between the fiery blasts and the floor shaking as the abyssal thing drew closer. The corridor wasn't broad enough for him and Mel to fight the thing at once.
   A sudden shudder rocked Stygian's foothold, and then the bat was slammed against the wall as a huge, dragonlike maw snapped around his guard and ripped the skin off his arm. Growling, he pushed back, forming stabbing blades of his wings to pin the thing, shooting through its neck, but another head twisted forth from under the other and breathed more flames on him, burning the shadow and finding its way around his guard, setting fire to his fur. The bat howled in pain.
   'Mel! I've got it!' he finally managed to scream through the fire. The horrid thing was scrabbling all over the place, spined heads squirming about and claws raking the walls, but it was still held in place by the spikes through its one neck, though the other was arcing even as it tried closing its huge, charcoal fangs on Stygian's legs.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel let out a very undignified squeak of fear when the fiery goo splashed across the floor, sticking wherever it touched. But Stygian's call for ice focused her attention to action rather than panic. Unfortunately she couldn't see where the ice was needed; Stygian was filling the hall with his shadowy wings. Then the building shook and a very toothy snout snapped onto the bat's arm, tossing him to the other side of the hall. A second head tried to slither past in the relatively narrow hall. She sent a hail of sharp ice daggers directly at the second head, followed closely by a thick coating of freezing rain. If Stygian hadn't been so close she might have tried lacing the hail with light.

[Sunblink]

Now that she had safely skidded up beside Cogidubnus, Keaton let her body fall relatively slack, shoulders slumping and chest heaving with unrestrained gasps. Normally her breath wouldn't come so quickly, but when she was running beside those hideous beasts, barely caged beneath thick, entangled nets of syrupy webbing, grabbing at her with gnashing teeth and gyrating jaws and groping claws, it was hard not to be unnerved, or even ungrateful to be alive. One would have to be ridiculously suicidal to not be either one of those two, and taking past circumstances into consideration, Keaton certainly was not.

Crackling bolts lanced outward from Cog's sword, twined and laced with silvery streaks of blinding blue, wispy trails of repugnant smoke twisting like somersaulting, misty bullets off of the racing, electrical body of composed lightning. Arcing through the air, it hit its mark--fluctuating for a wretched moment, where it seemed that its catastrophic collision had affected nothing--seething and eating away at the monstrosities' scabrous skins. Keaton vaguely heard one of them shrilly shriek before its life petered agonizingly away, its second brethren dilapidating into festering chunks of steaming ash. Palpitating waves resonated off of each vestigial spark, turning the atmosphere surrounding the disintegrated bodies into the interior of a storm cloud.

Yet despite that, the third one was still alive, much to Keaton's horror, and had been freed. As it dashed at the lycanthrope Keaton reacted instinctually, whipping around Catastrophe like a staff and whirling it in spinning, sweeping circles, its heavy head barely grazing the floor as she effortlessly wielded it. Legs worked like uncoiling springs as she launched herself into the air, bringing Catastrophe back--

--and swung it back forward as she plummeted, blackened flame blistering in pealing waves off of the spiked globe, aiming straight for the creature's monstrous head.

There was a crepitating crunch, something similar to thousands of stones being pulverized all at the same time. Its thick skull had shielded its barbaric brain just enough, but the flame searing at the spikes of Catastrophe exacerbated the swing, swirling through the elongated barbs and swiftly sweeping to the rest of the skin as, inch by inch, the spikes penetrated its skull, sinking in deeper, and deeper, and deeper--

--until with a final, sweeping pillar of flame bursting upward from Catastrophe's head, the creature toppled over, its cranium smashing the ground with a rattling pound first, then the rest falling after it, vile ichor dribbling from the smoldering lacerations marked by Catastrophe. Keaton twisted the handle, then, setting the heel of her boot against an undamaged part of its head, pulled the mace loose, caustic, lavalike blood rushing in a torrential flow out from the mutilated mass. The beast's body twitched, spasmed, convulsed, then, as though a sudden burst of fire had been ignited in its body, its entire form dissolved into a smoking pile of ashes and chunks of roasted flesh. Keaton let out a triumphant, but exhausted sigh, wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Holy shit..."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Angel]

Hell-beasts were impressive foes, from what Ketefe had seen. The firewyrm was amazingly silent for a creature its size, and had only made its presence known to her when everyone else went so uncomfortably quiet. It was lightning-quick; it had missed Aisha by about a millisecond. And the burning strength of the monster was almost too much for even Stygian to handle.

If only she was powerful or stupid enough to fight it, she'd have been a little more excited about the monster showing up. As it was, she felt only dull fear and frustration.

She hated being useless, but trying to attack a creature of Satan with no magic and a demon influencing her was the best way to commit suicide she'd ever thought up. She danced back from the searing fluids on the ground, her shock evident when Stygian got slammed against the wall by the firewyrm. She took refuge about two feet from Jeremiah. Her eyes glinted from the shadows that hid her as she watched Stygian subdue the creature, in spite of the creature's jaws closing on his leg.

"Now is really not the time to say it, but ... this is kinda cool to watch," she muttered as Mel fired ice magic at the firewyrm. It was still frightening to watch, but Ketefe suspected she was getting a little used to the countless monsters attacking them.

[lucas marcone]

Ian slightly even more annoied by the bat's snide comment rushed headlong down the hall at the third worm. He was careful not to step where the firey gunk was.

When he finnally reached the worm he threw himself onto it's back and was rideing it like a wild horse that needed to be broken. The worm thrashed about slamming Ian periodicly into walls and the ceiling. "Kill it!" he yelled "Don't worry I'll be all right!" he added as though it would make them act any faster. He knew the bat wouldn't be all that concerned.

[Aisha deCabre]

As soon as Aisha suddenly felt herself pushed in one direction, things couldn't have gone any faster.  She saw out of the corner of one eye the lashing black whip coming toward her with lightning speed.  For a moment the panther stood stunned as the thing was sliced, spilling a burning and acrid mix on the floor...soon after, having a whirling blast of heat cast at them as the creature called the firewyrm made its appearance almost on Stygian's mention of it.

Due to all of this, the panthress only made a grunt as she was shoved; no other scene of annoyance, but rather a quick nod of gratitude.  As the bat's shadowed wings spread like a barrier against the blazing heat, reminiscent to the fires of the wyrm that had guarded the chapel,'s undercroft, Aisha could only stay back and keep in front of the others who could not even get so close...except of course for a very stubborn Ian.  True to Ketefe's words, the battle was somewhat interesting to watch, clearly a reminder of how formidable Stygian himself was as well as with Mel's help.

But interesting or not, she too was getting tired of all these distractions.  She was more than ready to just run, and to catch up with the others...

*     *     *

Rynkura, meanwhile, had her own time on the sidelines for the moment.  She almost went after Sal as she took Cogidubnus on the other side of the captured demons.  But the healer kept her feet there...best that they surround the creatures rather than the other way around.  Keaton's choice was to join the other three...that left her, still amidst the lightning that already lanced through the halls and the flesh of the beasts, courtesy of the wolf...and efficiently caused them to burst in flame.

Quite impressive, that one, Rynkura thought, discharging the spell that she had conjured so that none of the lightning bits flowing across the wall would be attracted to her as well, instead bringing up her light barrier and those still cast around the others to protect them.  And in a blaze of fury, the remaining creature found itself face-to-face with the end of the jackal's impressive morning star with an admittedly satisfying, bone-trembling sound.

As soon as things seemed to settle, the tigress carefully stepped up with a chuckle.  "Well.  After so many years away from adventuring, I can honestly say that I still haven't gotten used to things like that."

[Stygian]

One of the thing's massive forefeet now on his chest, Stygian dug his claws in and pressed forward, folding his legs up and pushing off the wall. Swinging his arm out, he roared and manifested an additional wing of shadow, which turned into a series of blades that scythed asunder the arm pushing against him. At the same time, Mel's jagged icicles stabbed into the thing's hide, though the scales seemed too thick as the ones that didn't lodge themselves superficially splintered and fell to the floor. The icy hail hit the head gripping Stygian in the eyes and caused it to let go, screeching in pain, but the sizzling and fizzing sound and the mist that came from the thing showed that it hadn't hurt the thing more than annoy it.
   'Oh, for Hell's sake!' Stygian snarled, and then struck out again. A wet sound of ripping muscle and something dry and hard, and then there was a crash as one of the thing's heads toppled to the floor. Corrosive, fiery blood spattered everywhere. The bestial thing tossed and thrashed like a crazed alligator, and for a moment, amid all the charcoal black and burning, spattering red, there was no sight of Stygian. Then dark spikes dug into and cracked the walls, and he came into view, straddling the neck of the remaining head, gripping its upper jaw and bending it backward even as it spewed more fire. The bottom of its gullet looked like the heart of a furnace.
   'Kill it! Kill the bloody thing!' Stygian screamed, his face half scorched black.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Her previous efforts too little Mel prepared a spell she had never actually tried before, believing it beyond her. She just hoped it wasn't. A ray of pure cold, supposedly strong enough to kill a fire dragon. As she called upon the spell the temperature around her dropped, drastically. The little moisture left in the air turned to frozen rain, falling to the ground and turning the marble slick. The ray prepared Mel wished that for once she could have a bit of success and fired it at a spot just below the point where the two heads joined the body.

The ray passed quickly through the chest wall and into the internal organs, freezing flesh to the point of brittleness. The action of the final pump of the heart, the final gasp of the lungs were enough movement to shatter the now friable tissue. Scales hit the floor with the sound of glass bells breaking as the skin underneath dessicated until the monster collapsed, it's body disintegrating.

[Cogidubnus]

 The unholy screams of the beast's dying breaths fresh in his ear, Cog panted heavily as he leaned against the wall and watched Keaton leap at the last remaining demon. He shivered, an aftereffect of the noise and lightheadedness, and managed to keep the Jackal in focus long enough to see her finish off the final demon.
The Jackal's attack was spectacular and big, in her usual fashion. Her mace Catastrophe fairly drove the beast's head into the ground, its body following shortly as the demon's skull crunched sickeningly into the marble floor, a gout of black flame sprouting from the mace's head. Despite the dizziness, Cog's eyes widened.
Keaton was a -lot- stronger than she looked.

Already, the thing was dissolving into a nauseating mix of ash and smoke. Cog pushed himself off the wall, the silver cross dangling in one hand, and his sword held in the other. Too tired to sluice the blood off, he wiped the blade on his pants before returning it to his sheath. One hand rested on the hilt as he walked towards Keaton and Rynkura, stopped halfway between them and Sal.
"That could have gone worse, I guess." Cog said, leaning back onto a wall. He sighed, nodding to Keaton, and let the cooling energies of the charm course through him a moment longer before pushing himself off the wall again. "That's some kinda mace you have there, Keats." he grinned, and turned back to the side-hall, his eyes brushing past the spider.
"You too." he said, making a weak bow, and without further comment began walking down the adjoining hallway, making for the rendezvous point with the rest of the party.

[Stygian]

In spite of her former behavior, Sal only stood, looking a bit shellshocked and stunned at the last of the beasts as it died. 'Yeah. Uh...' she began, almost on the verge of praising Cog's attack. She shook her head and shut her mouth before she did though, and turned, pacing after the wolf as the party set out for the meeting point.

- -

Rolling off the creature's neck as it died under him, Stygian morphed his wings back and walked over to the side, absentmindedly steadying himself a bit against the wall with a hand, while his other felt his burned face. 'Took you long enough,' he said, black claws examining the melted fur and scorched skin. The damage extended down his neck a bit, and his right leg was rather shredded. But it looked far worse than it actually was, at least for someone like him. 'Thanks anyway. Better than what I could have done,' he added after a couple of seconds when he saw Mel's expression.
   They still had to move. 'The stairwell should be just up ahead,' Stygian said, looking up. Even as he did, the wound on his face and neck slowly began healing itself, the black flesh re-knitting and smoothing out before their very eyes. 'Is everyone...?' A sweep of his gaze over them all answered his question, so he just bit his lip and turned, the edges of his wound beginning to grow skin and fur. Something made a ripping sound, and he looked down.
   Through the leathery front of his boot, two long, curved black claws were sticking out, and the rest of the footwear didn't look too good either. Stygian snarled something unintelligible. He then bent down and ripped out the strings and quickly discarded the boot, along with his other one, placing his large, wrapped feet on the floor. His claws made audible clicks, and he tensed to draw them in as far as he could.
   'Bloody stupid things...' he said at something which might have been either the claws or his boots, before walking on ahead.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel almost didn't catch Stygian's critique of her performance; she was standing in almost slack-jawed amazement that the one of the most powerful spells she knew had worked both correctly and powerfully. The comment brought her back to reality with a thud. No chance of getting an artificially inflated self-worth around here. One fluke with a powerful spell did not make the caster  powerful. She quietly followed past the remains of the wyrm to the staircase, preparing both light and ice spells for whatever would come next.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Bambi hurrys the girls, Gina and Ketefe pass the spreading goo from the dead worm on the floor.

 "Stay to the right side, Jeremiah" says the Fae as the group quickly goes to the foot of the stairwell.  As Mel and Stygain reach the stairs, Bam thinks she can smell something else behind them.  Something else besides the sulfur and ash.    Is Something is sneak up behind them? wonders Bam but she only sees the dark Or is there nothing there?

PBH  

[Sunblink]

While initially revolted by the copious dollops and puddles of steaming blood snaking through the grooves and cracks in the ancient and abused floor, Keaton managed to neglect this revulsion enough to throw her head back, tossing some dirty blonde locks from her eyes and off to the side of her head. Triumphantly, she hefted Catastrophe and rested it on her shoulder, unaffected by its bulk--after all, it was charmed to alleviate its once unbearable weight upon being grasped by its appropriate wielder. Craning her head around, she flashed Cogidubnus a toothy, malicious smirk, teeth gleaming in the acrid light reflected by her eye-stone.

"Ain't he?" she asked proudly, giving Catastrophe a congratulatory pat on its handle, almost as though she were treating it like a well-behaved dog rather than a dangerous weapon. Even after spending hundreds of years with it as her irreplaceable tool it was nearly flawless, not a single mark tarnishing its ebony-alabaster form. Ah, magic. It could be used in so many ways. She wanted to treat her mother's weapon with the utmost dignity, even if it housed the most despicable soul she had ever encountered.

Tilting it just right, she allowed the blood marring its black-ivory spikes to slide off, the surface of the weapon rippling and seeming to devour the blood as it vanished beneath its seemingly liquefied skin, almost as though it were assimilated with it. Still keeping Catastrophe hefted, she whirled around on her heels, turning her back to the smoldering mound of blistering ashes culminated on the bloodied floor.

"Anyway," she said, gladly following Cog. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[lucas marcone]

Ian followed behind Mel without a word except for the sounds he made as his bruised muscles went about thir normal functions. He had a very slight limp and his pants were torn a bit. He did his best to hide exactly how much he was hurting.

[Stygian]

Following directions, the quartet made their way to the huge, round stairwell at the heart of the castle. There was a flickering, amber light from down below, and the air that drifted upward throughout the room itched their noses with its sulphurous scent and dry, heated quality. Fortunately, they did not have to get closer to whatever it was that burned and scraped down there, as they passed down another hallway in search for the largest room.
   If it had been the second or third room that was the largest, then it wasn't very large for the castle. Rather, it seemed to be a small gallery of some sort, perhaps twenty steps long and ten across, with glass cabinets with all manner of trinkets in them and various items standing around, hung on the walls between the murky pictures or stacked against racks. Most were of obviously high quality, though it varied. And they came in all sizes, from small things like rings up to the ornate armor shining both silvery and golden in one corner of the room. Some were just remarkable, like the strange silvered chains with jeweled shackles rolled up on a satin pillow on a chair, or the gold and black, ornate hoop-like barbed ring resting against a wall under a portrait of a dark-eyed angelic woman. Cog was the only one who saw more than felt the one common quality of all the objects though. Every single one of them was a glowing outline on the inside of his glasses.

- -

When the group reached the stairs, they found the smooth floor cracked in places, a frightening sort of fiery light drifting up through the narrow crevices somehow formed, smaller lines spiderwebbing out under their feet. Contrasting the darkness of the tall windows high, high above, the bottom of the stairwell bathed in the dim, reflected light of flames and candles, glinting off the flawless marble and carefully smoothed and sculpted walls and arches. The dark corridors emanating out into the castle seemed like the hollow eyesockets of skulls, openings that threatened to spill out more of the abominations that the place had seen at any moment. Distant, almost silent whispers and moans filled the air.
   Not wanting to waste a second, Stygian paced quickly across the floor on his large, bare feet, his head swiveling and the dark points of his eyes seeking out the shadows around. 'Keep silent,' he whispered back over his shoulders. 'If we make any noise here it will echo throughout half the castle.' Reaching the foot of the stairway at the far side of the room, he began climbing.

[Sunblink]

Footsteps were soft and silent, no more than mute whispers against the floor each time Keaton's heels grazed its fire-licked surface, not a single sound betraying the approach of the group to the ears of any lurking hellbeasts that could've been nesting in the shadows. Fortunately their journey was met without resistance or interference from one of those demonic barbarians, although Keaton still felt ridiculously tense after they defeated the triad of monsters before, almost as though every nerve resting in her body had been electrified.

She managed to keep herself silent by shielding her nose from the sulfurous stench wafting into the air. The entire Castle was polluted with this foul presence, apparently. No matter where they went, there was simply no sanctuary from the swarms of monsters or demons. There was no other choice but to hunt down the source and eliminate it.

Keaton gazed around the gallery, absorbing every ostentatious detail. Opulent ornaments and jewelry were nestled under ancient glass cases or used to bedeck the aging walls, such as an interesting specimen hanging beneath a portrait depicting an angelic woman. Fascinated, Keaton walked apprehensively over to the immense ring, studying it from afar, as though she were concerned that entering a certain radius would trigger a trap door which would drop her into the Castle torture chamber. Eventually she determined that it was safe enough, and strode in closer to fully admire the hoop.

What was it, some sort of weapon? It certainly appeared sharp enough around its frilled, gold-black barbs to be used as such, though how it could be conventionally wielded was beyond her. The inner surface of the ring was smooth enough to be properly gripped, but Keaton couldn't imagine an appropriate battle stance which would prevent the user from being scratched by its lethal edges. She finally concluded with a slight amount of disappointment that it was probably some strange decorative item, or maybe a failed experiment at designing a new weapon. But if it was a failure, then why was it hung here, among such esoteric masterpieces?

Keaton sighed, then hefted Catastrophe again, staring over her shoulder at the others. They weren't reaching Mel any time soon. Had they been given the wrong directions? Or had she misinterpreted them? Oh god, that was unfathomable. No more incidents would be her fault. She wasn't a detriment, she wasn't.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha had watched Mel dispose of the creature in its finality with an impressed gaze, however the sudden cold snap in the room tried to be a distraction.  Drawing her cloak about herself and the parts of her shirt that were still in two, the panthress along with the others seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief when the serpentine fire breather fell to a stronger element.

"Close," she muttered with a shiver as things calmed down and one more distraction had gone out of their way.  She glanced toward the others to make sure they were well enough.  Ketefe looked a little sullen with her recent event; the capable warrior though she was, it was easy to feel sorry for the fact that she was nearly out of commission there.  Jeremiah kept wisely to the back, Bam hovered along, and Ian was trying to stand, however easily it could be seen that he was injured.

Aisha chuckled, turning her head while following the others as she commented.  "It'll be good for everyone to be healed up once this is all over, ser claro."  Silently, her mind added, If everyone lives.

So thus they continued on through the stairwell, hopefully on a path toward the others.  But still the atmosphere was less than anything that they could very well ignore.  Unearthly cries and groans pierced the air, and apparitions still haunted the corners of their eyes, even as they managed to find the stairs.  It was a good walk upward, and with those...things at their backs, it was hard to see what could possibly come next.  She only heeded Stygian's warning with a nod, keeping the raven on her shoulder as calm as possible with a few strokes on its wing, and silently followed.

Aisha just hoped this, with monsters jumping out of corners and mind-gripping terrors making the walls shudder, was as eventful as things would get.

*     *     *

"The both of you were impressive," Rynkura commented among the compliments given between the wolf and jackal, while brushing some of the ashes of the battle's remains away with the tip of her staff as she walked.  The tigress kept a careful eye especially on Sal, who had decided to be rather quiet after their endeavor.

Nevertheless, her head was as much in turmoil as the feeling of the castle around them.  She could not stop thinking of the presence of the newcomers within the very walls, one of them out for Aisha's head.  It frustrated Rynkura so, as her caretaker, to know this and be nowhere near the panther.  However skilled an adventurer she turned out to be...how would it be handled?

But eventually her attention was turned for the moment to where they were headed.  Following Keaton's directions from the other group, they came across the room that it was thought to have been their destination.  The gallery caught her eye as impressive, with a collection of artifacts and treasures that her treasure-hunter student would have much loved to lay her eyes on, or for herself to have for her own collection...were it only an abandoned place, truly.

She watched as Keaton expressed an interest in one weapon in particular, beneath a portrait that actually went very well with the hellish atmosphere about the castle...despite it being of an angel.  Her eyes wandered about the gallery once or twice, and then with a tilt of her head, she wondered.  She had expected the room to be quite a bit bigger.  "Have we gone the right way?"

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog walked through the room slowly, his steps strangely loud in the gallery-esque room. Marvelous weapons and strange artifacts, ranging from the seemingly mundane cups and jeweled chains that decorated the interior of the padded glass cases, to strangely pristine weaponry and armor, also dotted the room. Portraits hung above some of the cases, perhaps indicating former owners of the said items.
The castle had been occupied right up until it's haunting. These were artifacts, every one, protected throughout the years from grave robbers and fellow adventurers by the dangers dwelling in the castle.

Each one glowed a eldritch blue to Cog's eyes, from the most mundane to the most amazing item lining the gallery. He took a moment to pause and admire a gleaming suit of armor when he saw Keats standing beneath the portrait of an Angel-woman with black eyes. She was looking at some sort of ring, set carefully beneath the painted woman's watchful, gleaming eyes.

Cog walked up next to Keaton, looking at the ring appraisingly. Weapons fascinated him. Always had. This one too glowed with an azure light, although it looked almost foolhardy to even think of taking into battle. Still...craftsmanship and care was evident in the design. Either someone had the money to waste on good smiths, metal, and enchantment, or there was some sort of method to its madness...

He looked to the side as Ms. Rynkura spoke, raising an eyebrow and returning his gaze to the ring in front of them. "This is the way they said to go..." Cog murmured, still staring at the gold and obsidian hoop of metal.
His eyes narrowed, and he looked back up at the portrait above him, wondering what the possible creator of this weapon had been thinking...

Cog shook his head and turned, walking amongst the lines of items again, pausing every now and again to admire a particularly nice piece. He turned his head to Keats. "Right, Keats?"

[Stygian]

Carefully ascending as quickly as they could, the troupe from below was led by Stygian into a hallway on the third floor. From the broad stairs they came into an even broader corridor, and two doors ahead the bat stopped, placing his hand on the handle of the third. Opening it carefully, he looked in, gun at the ready, and then slid in through the crack.
   The hall, with ornate windows from floor to ceiling before tables, sofas and armchairs at the far end, fine carpets of enormous size on the floor, a large and long table with matching chairs at the center and the largest grandfather clock that anyone in the group had probably ever seen against the close wall, was about half the size of the ballroom down below. And no one was there.
   'I... think there's been a mistake,' Stygian said lamely. 'I'm not about to suggest we split up to search though.' He looked back to Mel, frowning. 'Where are they? Was I unclear?'

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel shook her head. "The directions seemed clear, but the bale magic is clouding our connection. I will try to see where they are." She reached out to the cubi but the evil atmosphere had grown since the last time. At first all she could hear was a crackle, like fire popping. Finally she caught hold of something that seemed to be the jackal. "Keaton. Have you run into trouble? We are in the upper social hall. How close are you?"

[lucas marcone]

Ian walked over and sat in a very comfy sofa. "Oh wow! Is it too late to change my room?" He joked.

[Angel]

Ketefe nodded at Mel when the battle finished, impressed by the dragon's power. She cast her eyes over the others once to make sure they were all okay. She smiled at Aisha when she saw the panthress doing the same. Once the azure feline was satisfied that everyone was all right (except for Stygian, but apparently he could heal himself), she followed the others, glancing with concern at Ian's injuries. The darkness in the castle still seemed alive, but now she knew why, at least. Her demon was being quiet, for the moment. She still heard a few whispers every now and again, and the mild pain was still present, but she was getting used to it now.

When they got to the stairwell, Ketefe breathed quietly and made each step as calculating and silent as possible. Once they reached the room, she sighed in relief and sank into one of the sofas near Ian. "You gonna be okay?" she asked him, a little drained from recent events.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Bam looks worried around the social hall..  She makes a one person to person message butterfly and modifies it, for it travel by normal hallways and doors.  Her butterflies could not going through these hellish walls. 

"Cog, where are you?  Please follow the green butterfly." whispers Bambi to her spell and send it off to Cog.

The Fae hopes it gets to the wolf...
PBH

[lucas marcone]

"I'm fine. I've lived through worse." He laughed, but it made him doubble over slightly and wimper lightly. "Alright maybe i am a little beat up." Ian looked around then went back to talking to her. "You think they'll let me take the test late, or do you think going through hell isn't a good enough excuse?"

[Gareeku]

Near to where Aisha was stood was one particular door, where muffled sounds could be heard coming from the other side. The sounds were difficult to make out at first, but slowly they began to become clearer. They were the sounds of some sort of battle. Every so often, the wet sound of a blade slicing through flesh could be heard, followed the shrieking cry of pain that could only have come from a hellbeast.

It was then that suddenly, with a loud crash, something smashed through the door, tearing the wood to pieces thanks to the sheer force that the object was travelling. A split second later, there was a sickening splat sound as the object hit the nearby wall, before slumping on the floor below in a bloody heap; it was the headless corpse of a hellbeast.

If one were to look through the door, they would be able to see a familiar white furred wolf, albeit now splattered in a mixture of hellbeast slime and his own blood, engaged in battle with another hellbeast, dodging the creatures strikes as he looked for a way in to make an attack. Eventually he found one, ducking under one of the hellbeast's strikes before bringing his sword in at the waist, cutting the creature clean in half, before bringing the sword back in again and beheading the shrieking creature.

[lucas marcone]

"....Isn't there ANYTHING normal about this place?!" Ian said shifting to a laying position.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha's footfalls were probably one of the more quiet as the group had finally made their way up into their destination.  Through a couple of floors and high up from the illusory flames that covered the walls in a dim glow below them, the area hadn't looked better than the others, but it was as good as any.  Few sounds seemed to emanate from around the corridor, which was quite large and imposing.

She also took a few cautionary glances before entering the room, eyes wandering about the space with some awe.  It looked like a comfortable place of pause, for the adventurers to catch their breath.  But hearing Stygian, she also had some worry.  Didn't the others have the right message?  Were they perhaps nearby?

While Mel tried to make contact once more, and Ketefe and Ian took a rest and spoke, the panthress decided to take a quiet look around for herself.  Out of the windows there still lingered the darkness of night and the storm's unrelenting path...making it too dark even to tell what hour it was.  The immense clock caught her eye as well.

However, before her attention could be lost to admiring the scenery or resting, there came some hideous sounds from a side doorway.  Her ears perked while she remained standing.  They became louder.  The sound of familiar bestial growls thundered on the other side of the door, as well as that of a distinctive flashing blade.  Her eyebrows quirked and her hand gripped the holy sword's handle.  Is that one of the others...?

She got her answer as, suddenly, the door splintered and made her quickly jump out of the path of a flying corpse...the Hellbeast looked much like it belonged to another canine-like creature they had fought earlier, or something similar.  She stared at the thing as it landed for a moment, incredulous, and then turned to peek through the doorway.  There to her surprise was a familiar white wolf locked in combat with another one, covered in entrails.  However, he easily dispatched of that one in a few quick swipes.

Would he turn to the door, he would find Aisha with quite the relieved look on her face.  That was one more comrade that could be counted with them.  "Dios mio, Gareeku, I thought you were lost!"  She exclaimed, tilting her head as she walked up to him, her nose wrinkling just slightly as she stepped around the fallen beast.  She was cautious, however...she had her sword drawn, just in case there were more, and it was hard to tell just how many spiders were left in the castle.

"Thank goodness...you aren't hurt, are you?  Stygian, Mel, and a few of the others are back here."

[Sunblink]

Drawing her piqued attention away from the fascinating, ornamented ring to face Cogidubnus, Keaton's hands wrung away at Catastrophe's pommel, channeling as much of her dormant frustration and nervousness as she possibly could. Upon hearing Cog's question it only exacerbated, her hands clenching to the point she felt the knuckles go numb beneath her skin. Not even bothering to preserve a positive facade, Keaton looked at Cog, fighting vainly to keep her guilt and anxiety out of her expression.

"Y-Yeah, I followed Mel's directions..." she murmured. "Exactly, actually. I-I mean, it was kind of garbled, but..."

Maybe she wasn't the one at fault, here? Perhaps the instructions had been inaccurate. Either way, she couldn't bear another mistake which she was associated with. Just as that thought materialized, once more, Mel's distorted voice generated in the back of her head, eerily garbled. This time it was even worse than before; she could barely hear Mel's voice over the screeching of the static, only furthering her worries. Grappling this back, Keaton listened attentively, attempting to decipher as much as she could while at the same time trying to send back a message.

Mel? It's me... I... we didn't run into any trouble. There were three monsters, but we took care of them really quickly... we followed the directions you gave us, but we're in this gallery and I don't think we're really close to you...

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

His leg was giving him a rather bad time, contrary to the wounds on his face. The caustic nature of the demons' blood was at odds even with his own, and his fur was burning now that the blood had started dissolving as well. Stygian cursed as he reached down and raked and scraped his leg with his claws, trying to get as much of the substance out as he could, and hissed as the scrape tore a bit of his pants along with it, the fabric already ruined. 'Fuck. And I liked these...' the bat muttered before looking up. 'Are we making pro... where's Aisha?'
   Before anyone could say anything, crashing noise answered Stygian's question. Gritting his teeth and growling, the bat stood up and walked hard and fast over toward the doorway.
   Ketefe thought she heard a laugh inside her head.

- -

They were really silent for their size, the monsters. Each one as large as a good-sized horse and looking something like a crossing between a man and a huge black hyena, they trailed him closely as if following their pack leader as he walked calmly down the hallway. He had his sights set. The old man was concerned with his own safety, and well that he should be, considering the state of things. But Asal really didn't care. The old man himself was an asset, if for nothing else than his sheer age and power, but for his house the young demon had nothing but pity and scorn. And he had something far more important to tend to. A matter of his own pride.
   Had it not been for that one promise, he might never have come here. Clearly the old geezer had overestimated his grandson's power if they had not seen any sort of retribution or danger yet. Even if he was weakened, in a situation like this he should have been like a trapped beast, trying as hard as he could to kill them. Or maybe he was just a coward. Either thought amused the panther, though it wasn't what was on his mind. What was, was the thought of finally getting to finish off what they had started so many years ago, to erase the last smudge on his honor and to finally kill the last of his brother's legacy. To get his hands on her throat and squeeze the life out of it, literally.
   'I feel them! They are just ahead.' The words brought Asal's gaze to the other creature, pacing just beside him almost as if on a leash. Had she had one for the spiked collar she wore, he might actually have considered holding it. Comely and grim at the same time, muscled yet shapely and with dark fur that matched the spiky wings on her back, the thing that the old man had let through had a style he liked very much. The panther didn't know whether if she was a succubus or a demon, but it mattered not. She had proven most useful.
   He gave the woman-thing his best smile with just a slight condescending tinge to it. 'Then let's go to them. What's left of their souls are for you,' he said, his voice as pleasant and charming as ever, and the succubus grinned at him. 'But do not touch the girl. She is mine.'