The Castle (IC) [M] {04}

[Boog]

There was a slight murmur from the organ, a tune that rose and fell in pitch as people got closer to it. One of those stuffed toys flopped off the crate it was stacked on and landed on the ground with a mildly squishy sound, although whether this was of its own volition or merely a delayed avalanche wasn't apparent. The umbrella twitched. The phone rang softly, as if testing the audience's reaction.
And there was Jeremiah, blending in with the junk and leaning on a wall and looking very tired. He felt it too, too tired to look up at In standing right over Mel in the doorway. Too tired to it to really register as the personae lashed out, once, at a spot on the floor before vanishing. And too panicked when lucidity overtook him again to notice the structrual damage to the floor.
"Mel? Oh thank gods it's just you Mel!" Trying very hard not to think about the fact that he was alone in hell with someone he'd assaulted only yesterday he darted forward, "Yeesh, I'm glad to see you."
...
"So... I tripped. If we don't make it out of this be a doll and let them know who to mail the Darwin award to. Any idea where we go now?"

[Mel Dragonkitty]

"Jeremiah. Are you okay? I figured you had broken your neck after that fall." The dragon gave the frog a quick once over. He looked remarkably in one piece for the tumble he had taken. Fools luck she supposed. "We should head back up the stairs and see if we can rejoin Aisha and Gareeku."  She glared suspiciously at the vaguely animate inanimate objects and decided she definitely preferred the chapel.

[Stygian]

Incredibly, the spider saw it fit to answer Ketefe's question, even as she tumbled back through the air, hands stringing web and magic at the same time. 'Because I'm saving you idiots!' she screamed, right before she flung her arms out. Thin, flat membranes of web shot out from four sets of hands, and flared out in the wind, breaking the spider's fall for just a few seconds but swiftly and hard enough that she could avert the bolt's blast for the most part. That which did not hit her was deflected by something, leaving only a bit of that web singed, before she let it go, now significantly higher up than both Cog and the feline.
   The impossible chasm surrounding them all seemed to go on endlessly as if flew by at the highest velocity. Yet something, perhaps the growing heat and perhaps the jagged, tooth-like crevasses and cliffs, told them that they would not fall forever. They were racing toward something definite, something terrible. Against a darkness that would not merely devour them, but crush them into nothingness. And judging from the increasing amount of sounds, of scrapings and hisses and fiery flickers surrounding them, they might not even come that far before facing some other grim fate.
   It was high time to find a way to stop.

- -

There was no sign of them. The darkness before Keaton's eyes was nigh impenetrable, allowing her only the merest view of the cavern, catching some dim lights perhaps a hundred yards or so down at most. She thought she saw a flicker of a light down there somewhere that might or might not have been the result of a battle between the three who were falling, but anything more than that...
   And then she was not alone. She didn't know how she could tell. Not immediately. All she had was a sudden spine-rattling chilling sensation to go on. And then she noticed that the surroundings had turned a shade darker, as if some shadow had been cast over her. She didn't have the time to turn around before a seething, scraping sound, low and hard to detect yet still as effective at raising her fur as nails on a chalkboard, came from behind her. And then, with a sweeping sound, a cold breeze hit her, effectively causing those hackles to rise even further.
   'Why...' came a dark voice from behind her, slightly sinuous with some frightening twist of corruption to it, 'did you lose them?'
   Keaton could feel Stygian's stare almost boring into her neck from behind her.

[Sunblink]

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck..."

Keaton remained up on the ledge, her eyes wide and dazed and her feet firmly planted against the ground, as though she was afraid she would somehow go tumbling down into the chasm as well. Staring down into the miasmal abyss became almost overwhelming and disorienting, as after a few moments of frantically searching for her comrades amidst the darkness, Keaton started to feel extraordinarily ill. She assumed it was her nerves kicking in. At times, Keaton had a habit of becoming so worked up that she started to lose control of her stomach. It felt like the floor was spiraling around underneath her heels, as though it was threatening to throw her into the pit as well.

Keaton saw the flash at the bottom of the yawning pit and assumed the worst. Before she could truly panic, however, the bone-chilling sensation started to crawl up her body, like thousands of ice-encrusted spiders had been released all over her back and allowed to wander over her form. Keaton felt her hackles raise and unconsciously bared her teeth, feeling cold sweat break out in beads on her forehead. She didn't turn around; for some reason she was petrified into inaction by her terror. Not long after she made this resolution, she heard someone speak and screamed, whirling around to face Stygian instantaneously.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

The darkness that wreathed around the bat seemed to have intensified even further since before. Like wings it spread out, framing his pale, almost glowing off-white figure. He looked at Keaton unblinkingly, black eyes in a mask-like face.
   'Why?' he echoed again, nearing her, almost as if gliding forth, those 'wings' sweeping out and all but around the hapless Cubi.

[Sunblink]

One look at Stygian and Keaton paled instantly, her pupils shrinking down to pinpricks and her ears drooping. She looked in pure horror at the bat, cringing away from his wings as they encircled her. Keaton squeezed her eyes shut, gripping Catastrophe close to her and drawing her body in, as though she wanted to shrivel up and disappear. "I didn't mean to," she squeaked subaudibly. "I - I can't f-"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Boog]

Was that plush toy closer than the last time he looked? Nobody moved, but the organ rose in volume. Neither was so ominous as the quiet little pre-rumble beneath the frog and the dragon's feet.
"Damn near did, honestly." Jeremiah turned his face to reveal the nastily dripping bruise along his jaw, "Not fun. Nor is the inability to move my shoulder too much. Don't suppose you have any spells for that?"
A single brick fell out of the floor, down into infinate blackness below. Despite his interest in medical aide, this single motion held Jeremiah's attention with almost physical force.
"Wow, do I hope that didn't just happen."

[Cogidubnus]

 Twisting in midair, using her webs to stop her momentum and change direction, Sal manged to avoid Cog's ball of lightning, and soon had attached herself to the rock wall. The wolf considered reversing the direction of the guided spell and trying to fry the spider while she was looking away - but then, he noticed the smoke beginning to wreathe around his form. The Pit seemed to be going somewhere quite fiery.
It was hell, after all.

Cog fought down panic, and let go of the lightning spell, turning to face down into the pit. A dull red throbbed up at him, and the wolf realized he had the rest of his life to learn how to fly. He racked his brain for an idea - he simply didn't know any spells for levitation, which left something indirect to try, and lightning wasn't known for allowing a mage to fly.
Lightning, bolt of lightning, thunderous chain, Mephistis's Charged Gesture, natural manipulation, summon storm...

Storm.

There was something the wolf could do, although it would require stretching a spell far beyond what it was ever meant to do - and more power than he had in his entire body. His glasses glinted in the dull ruby light, and the wolf removed them quickly. His lips mouthed the words to the spell, modifying them and changing the cadence on the fly. He could feel the heat billowing up from the chasm below.
He broke the glasses in two, twisting the bridge until it snapped, and then crushed the lenses into his hands until they cracked and  drew blood. He finished the cadence of his spell, and with eldritch energy sparking and snapping from the remains of the magical artifact, threw the pieces of glass in front of him, a wave of force carrying them forward despite his great speed.

Each one shattered into dust, and almost instantly a storm more massive than than the one that had been haunting the castle proper for days billowed into existence, in the much smaller space of the tunnel - a tornado formed, and then another - and soon, the wolf felt himself begin to slow, and then move in the opposite direction. Nearly choked by soot and ash, the Wolf began to pick up speed, and attempted to find a way to attach himself to the walls, or if that was impossible, hope he would be blown back out the top.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel was looking at the swelling and contusions on Jeremiah's face when the particular scratching sound of brick sliding against brick gathered her attention. The silence of the brick not hitting a floor below seemed even louder. "Run," was her answer to the frog's questioning of the reality of the situation.

[Stygian]

Cog's spell took effect both spectacularly and quickly. But if he had expected that it would do much good, he had been fooling himself. Because while a tornado may act as a funnel under good circumstances, pulling objects upward, the effect was quite diminished by the already dry and heated updraft. Meaning that the sudden stormy winds did more to speed the wolf up horizontally than slow him down vertically. And not just him. In the ashy streaks beginning to swirl around in the air, both Sal and Ketefe, tangled together by some misplaced web, began spinning. Hurled out and up and back in, small rocks pelting them and ash stinging their faces, the three figures spun wildly. Cog went a few laps, before his leg scraped against the rockface, and he felt a hard, snapping sensation. And then very little else. Except a horrible searing pain not far above his ankle.
   The storm couldn't keep up forever, mostly because of the overwhelming heat of the dark pit. But before either Cog or Ketefe had any chance of starting to fall again, there was something that snagged them. Thrown against another wall of the dark passage, illuminated and almost gleaming with a fiery orange light, they were swung into it and hung scraping against the coarse, bitter surface.
   Ketefe felt as she bounced up and down a little, as if she were hanging from a just stretched out bungee cord, before she heard a grunt from above. Looking up, she caught sight of a pulsating, bulbous and heavily scraped and bleeding something, hanging from behind a pair of blackish, clawed legs, next to which was an equally clawed arm, from which a trail of web hung down, clinging to her back. Sal was grasping a crack in the cavern wall with two hands, a pained expression on her face.
   'Hold... hold still...! I think I've twisted something...' the spider groaned.

- -

'You can't what?' the bat-like apparition said, moving closer yet. Eyes narrowing, Stygian looked at the jackal hard until she almost felt herself shrinking, crumpling together as much physically as mentally. The bat... thing... looked as if he was about to say something again, when suddenly, with an echoing roar, a fearsome gust of wind rushed up against them from down below. Stygian stopped, walked over to the ledge, looked down, and then turned his gaze back to the jackal.
   'Where... did they go?' he said, sounding quite as if he knew the answer already.

[Sunblink]

Again, Keaton practically withered under Stygian's glowering gaze, her body shuddering palpably, fearfully, as though she was almost convinced she was going to face some terrible ramifications for her perceived failures. Gripping Catastrophe in one hand and Cogidubnus's charm in the other, Keaton pressed her hands to her scalp, squeezing her eyes shut and lowering her head. "I can't fly," she managed to croak with a comparatively superior amount of clarity to her voice than previously. "I can't go after them, I ca -"

In a sudden upswell of wind, Keaton felt her hair thrash about as, behind her, the tornado brewed up by Cogidubnus spun to a crescendo. Momentarily forgetting her devastation, Keaton turned her head around and stared listlessly at the vestigial traces of wind, watching the imperceptibly thin wisps of wind distort and twist the air. Stygian approached the ledge and looked at her. "T-They went down there..." Keaton answered without thinking, "That -" Keaton started to become irrationally angry again as she remembered, "That spider twat came, and she took Ketefe. Cog went after her down there! I don't know what he was thinking -"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Angel]

Ketefe was let go, moving quickly out of the bolt's path and snarling at Sal. She was still entangled with the spider, due to one of the webs she'd shot to evade Cog's bolt, but Sal was now far ahead of them And as they fell, things were getting hotter... and more threatening. They were falling into Hell itself...

She was about to try searching for a foothold when Cog created a tornado beneath them. Rather than blowing them back up, though, they flew around the chasm. Trapped in a whirlwind of ash, small rocks scraping her face and arms, and thinking nothing for once, Ketefe could only wait for them to stop so she could find a wall to grab.

The winds stopped at last, and then, realizing that now they had no choice but to descend into the hellfire, the feline missed the tornado. But neither she nor Cog went very far before stopping and swinging to meet a far, seemingly glowing wall of the pit. Helplessly dangling, Ketefe realized that whatever had broken her fall was stretched taut, and bouncing a little. Something or someone above her grunted with effort, and the cat turned her head to see...Sal. The arachnid-woman had saved their lives, clinging to the wall and catching them with webs. But that wasn't nearly enough to make Ketefe forget the smirk she'd given before tackling her, or how her leg still dripped blood from being forced into the path of Cog's sword.

Ketefe narrowed her eyes and growled softly. "Ordinarily, I'd thank someone who'd just saved me from plummeting into an inferno, but I can't help but wonder... First you say you won't hurt us, then you shove me off a cliff and leave the others with no guide. Then you use me as a fucking shield - " - her words gained a bit of a furious hiss at that part - " - while telling me that you're trying to help us. And now, you save us from a fire you basically forced us into in the first place. So before I thank you, I just want to know exactly how almost getting us killed is related to helping us at all." The girl's eyes were gleaming with rage, but her reason hadn't quite left her.

[Cogidubnus]

 His spell hadn't worked nearly as well as he had hoped, and as Cogidubnus brushed the unyielding rock face of the wall, his legs dragged across it with the power of a massive tornado behind them, he screamed. He felt something snap above his ankle, like a dry twig, and then nauseating, agonizing pain shoot up from the appendage. Half-blind and nearly choking, pelted with rocks, the wolf spun was slammed into the walls until finally getting caught on Sal's webs.
He could barely think, for the pain. He heard Ketefe speaking....something, up at the spider, and Cog looked down.

Where his foot should have been, only ragged black, bloody cloth flapped.

The wolf's eyes widened in horror, and he bared his teeth before he seemed to simply slump. He watched his lifeblood pour from the wound and drop into the fiery inferno below him, his blood dripping straight into hell. He felt lightheaded already. It hit the wolf, suddenly.

He was dead already. Hemorrhaging blood, at the bottom of a chasm deep in the heart of hell, there was no time to staunch the bleeding, no way to raise the leg and stop the flow. He'd be dead in five minutes. He blinked, oddly slowly.
His career as a swordsman was over too. You couldn't balance on a single foot.

Somehow calm, the wolf looked up at the spider without blinking, and contemplated striking her down with a bolt of lightning before he died. He reminded himself of Ketefe...and shook his head. Another thought occurred to him, wondering if the spider could pull up two other beings up a sheer rock face while injured. His eyes, normally bright, seemed somehow clear as crystal at that moment.
"I'm sorry." he said to the cat, his voice somehow thick. "Lot of help I was. Tell the others...it was an honor. Tell Sebastian he's a bastard."

With that, he reached into his remaining boot, and pulling out the enchanted knife secreted there sliced the silk holding him up, and began to fall into darkness.

[Gareeku]

"We cannot think like that. We must not." Gareeku replied after listening to what she had said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "If we do that, then we might as well give up right now."

Looking at her for a moment before turning away, the wolf looked up at the gothic architecture all around them.
"All we can do for now is hold out here and guard the fort." Gareeku continued. "But if we lose hope, then our enemies win."

Turning back to Aisha, the wolf smiled gently. "Besides, what would Mistress Rynkura say?"

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha's gaze had been drawn to the floor after she spoke, thinking and even believing for the moment that it was a good place to be...her heart and mind seemed drained of everything.  But upon hearing Gareeku's voice and feeling his hand on her shoulder, she couldn't help but glance up and smile slightly, his reassurance giving her a little more energy again.

She followed his glance up to the ceiling and the ruined stones and statues surrounding the two, with darkness in their every niche.  Perhaps it was merely the somber atmosphere causing her to think that way.  All of a sudden she felt like kicking herself for being so weak...hope was indeed the greatest weapon they had right then.

Listening to the wolf finish, she shook her head and emitted a quiet laugh as her good hand rested on his arm.  "Hm, Mistress Rynkura would knock me right off my feet with that staff of hers and talk quite a bit of sense into me...which I quite richly deserve."

She smiled back, looking up into his soft blue eyes.  "But I think you've done that better right now...my apologies.  You're right...at least we're alive to face what may come next.  That's something they haven't taken from us either."  Her tone of voice briefly turned into a determined one.  "And they won't."

[Angel]

Before Ketefe could get the answer she was waiting for, Cog spoke up. The feline looked over - and finally saw the blood gouting from where his foot had been. "Oh God..." she breathed, looking wide-eyed at the wolf. He had an odd look in his eyes... In her shock, what he was saying didn't quite register. Around his last sentence, it finally clicked. He was going to... Ketefe's heart began to pound. He'd dove down a chasm to save her, his holy charm was still looped around her neck, he'd helped her kill a Mockery who'd made her feel too guilty to fight properly... Her voice grew frantic as she spoke. "Cog, don't d-"

And then there was a flash of silver as the wolf's knife cut through Sal's thread and he plummeted.

Ketefe's scream echoed throughout the chasm as she grabbed desperately at the severed thread, her endless, pained cry ringing the walls of Hell.

[Stygian]

Surprisingly, as Cog cut his lifeline, Ketefe thought she heard a little cry from the spider from up above as well. The latter didn't move, but simply stared as the wolf fell, and then snarled, uttering words that Ketefe could neither pick up clearly nor understand. A minute or so later perhaps, the feline at last felt herself being dragged against the cliff, while the spider panted and cursed above her.
   'What was he thinking?! Bloody... stupid... bastard...!'
   Sal crawled onto the ledge with a bit of an effort, and took a few seconds to brace and to catch her breath, before gripping the threads connecting her and Ketefe tight, and starting to pull. The cat was dragged onto the offshot of a cliff, bruised and scratched, until she was safely on solid ground, at which point the spider simply gave in and slumped.
   'Fucking melodramatic...! I can't believe...'

- -

'He did the right thing', Stygian said, and Keaton felt herself being pushed forward. Not by something solid. It was more as if the cavern wall had closed in, or the floor shrunk away beneath her. She did not know how, but suddenly, she was at the ledge. 'Let's follow suit.'
   Haplessly, the jackal was lifted into the air, hung by something very strongly gripping around her shoulders and neck. Looking to the side, she caught Stygian's off-white arm holding her straight out, right off the edge.

[Sunblink]

All Keaton could do was stare.

She watched, gazing over the edge of the cliff, as Cogidubnus drew his blade and severed the thread keeping him suspended, allowing him to drop into the miasmal, yawning pit beneath him, utterly helpless and utterly dumbstruck by the cataclysmic events that unfolded. She felt every drop of acid smoldering in her stomach simmer, then evaporate simultaneously into her throat, letting the petrified, shriveled remains drop to the bottom of her body like a heavy stone. Drop, just like Cog, who would undoubtedly be dead after this experience. Keeping herself from imagining his body crumpled like a soda can at the rocky bottom of the pit was becoming a hideously difficult task.

That spider. It was all her fucking fault. All she did was hurt people. All she did was - !

In the next moment, Keaton found herself being lifted by a strong, capable hand, starting to level her into an appropriate position. Ears perking and the tears clearing from her eyes, Keaton glanced up at the one responsible, looking quite befuddled.

Any and all traces of confusion vanished from her features after Stygian dangled Keaton from over the ledge. After that, Keaton screamed, thrashing a little in Stygian's grip, but not moving too drastically, as she was too afraid she would accidentally make him drop her. "S-STYG! What - what are you doing!?" Keaton exclaimed, trying to keep herself from staring down, into the abyss. "STOP! ARE YOU FUCKING - "

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Angel]

Ketefe's scream died at last, replacing itself with wide-eyed, dizzy, panting shock. She searched the dark cavern hopelessly, as if trying to convince herself this was all some cruel joke and she hadn't just watched a trusted ally fall to his far-too-probable death.

She gave a little start when she felt herself being dragged up the side of the cliff, the web somehow holding her as she was scratched and bruised by the rocks. Sal grunted with effort, uttering little grievances about Cog's reckless decision. Ketefe said nothing in protest. Truth be told, the words didn't really register at all. It wasn't the first time she'd seen someone die; no, she'd seen that the first time she took the life of a criminal. But the thought that she could've saved him, if only she'd been a little quicker...

She allowed herself to be hoisted up to a small crag of the cliff, immediately turning and looking once again over the edge for any sign of life. When none came, she turned, shaking just the slightest bit, to Sal. "Why... did you push me?" she said, her voice quiet and a little raw-sounding.

[Stygian]

The spider just laid there for a few seconds, looking at Ketefe with what seemed like incredulity. Then she slowly sat herself up, and hissed, clutching at one of her shoulders, obviously in pain. She returned the feline's accusatory look with harsh coldness.
   'Because you were the one leading them down there', she said, not minding the slightest if the cat felt some sort of guilt for the situation. 'Because it would have stopped you from going down. Because it would have been better if you stayed out of here!' she snarled.
   In the bitter silence that followed, the low mumblings of rage and madness of the voices in her head seemed a cacophony to Ketefe, making the act of gathering her thoughts that much harder.

- -

An expression of anger on his face, Stygian neared the edge of the cliff path with another step.
   'Screw this', he said. 'No more games.' For a second Keaton was raised up, and then she felt the the terrible change to weightlessness. In a moment the air was rushing past her ears. And then, tumbling through the air, she caught a black silhouette with something white at its heart, diving down after her.

- -

He was already dead, so why didn't he stop feeling? It was enough that he was as good as useless and bleeding to death. But it was the foreground to Hell, after all. Perhaps that was why he wasn't allowed to stop suffering right away.
   The fall had been too long, and he had been out of it for the most part. So he did not know for just how long or how far it had been. He had stopped roughly, painfully of course. And then he had felt... something near him. Something that had examined him, and then manhandled him further, no surprise, lifting him and throwing him aside like a piece of trash to be discarded. From there, he didn't remember much. For some strange reason though, he felt as if things were getting better. The pain in his... where his foot should have been was gone. And he didn't feel quite as crushed as he had before. As he should have.
   Barely at half the capability of his wits and senses, Cog was only vaguely aware of the angelic figure kneeled over him, attending to his wounds. Her voice and face were both familiar though, and he was too glad to be rid of the pain to care much.

[Sunblink]

A look of pure horror clearly embedded itself into Keaton's features at the sight of Stygian's anger-suffused face, the jackal renewing her thrashing and struggling with increased vigor. No matter how hard she struggled, however, nothing seemed to jostle his grip - not in a way which would positively affect her chances of survival. In fact, all she seemed to do was incense the bat further, much to Keaton's abject horror and slight betrayal. Seemed the jackal hadn't quite comprehended Stygian's purpose behind his actions, or was interpreting it as some sort of indirect punishment for her inadequacies and failures.

"STYG?! NO!" Keaton cried out, trying to pummel his wrist as he extended her over the ledge. "NO! S-STOP, PL-"

Keaton felt Stygian relinquish her, and the air came rushing up into her face as she fell. She plummeted like a stone, flightless and hopeless, her eyes wide and owlish as she stared in suspended shock up at the rapidly-disappearing heavens. She felt water swell in her vision briefly, then let out a horrified screech, long-delayed but containing all the terror in her body.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Aisha deCabre]

Back down in Hell's depths, Rynkura found that she could do nothing but let her weariness take over and give her some rest, but with senses still alert.  The old demon was still there, for the entire atmosphere had his presence and every so often a pulse of light magic would bring back a shifting hole in the darkness.  But there had been no replies to her small bouts of talk.  She expected that.

What she didn't expect was a peculiar sound like something being tossed over the rocks...a resounding thump that came to an end when a body was thrown on the dark stone that she was on.  And, thankfully, it had missed the pools of lava that made up the final span of the world beneath.

As she looked up with curiosity, her eyes widened.  It was the heaped, crumpled body of a familiar silver wolf, with a rapidly-bleeding stump where one foot should have been.  "Sir Mithlome!"

Rynkura had forgotten the chains that Asmodai had bound her with when she tried to jump up, her mind racing with questions and concerns, and nearly tripped.  But when she did, she felt the repressive metal loosen and suddenly draw back.  "Wh..." the white tigress murmured as she watched, slightly confused as to why she was let go.  But, she'd have time to ponder over it later...help was needed.

Shaking her sore limbs, she rushed to look him over.  He looked barely conscious...expected from such a fall.  The first thing she did was remove the sash on her robe for a tourniquet to quell the bleeding.  She was thankful that she still had a good reserve of healing magic, which she immediately used to seal his wounds, internal and external, while blocking the pain from his mind.  "Just hold on," she said, doubtful if he could hear the Healer, but hopefully it would have done him good to have a rather familiar presence near.  "This would go much faster if I had my staff, damn it all...but you are alive."  I wish I could see to say enough for the others.  I guess I will wait for those answers.

Though she was too busy to feel it, there was an air of dark satisfaction in the underground.  Doubtless, the demonic bat found it well in his favor to have two live hostages.

[Cogidubnus]

 Numb and sticky with blood, nearly and yet somehow not dead, Cog looked at the figure above him with curiosity, as though trying to place her. His mouth moved, and the wolf spoke with a rasp.

"I'm...not dead, am I?" he said, staring at the white tiger blankly.

[Gareeku]

Listening to Aisha give her account of what Rynkura would say if she had heard of them losing hope or belief, Gareeku laugh softly, smiling at the pantheress as she apologise.
"There is no need to apologise. It is quite understandable how one can lose belief in a place like this." The wolf replied, glancing up at the dark surroundings again for a brief moment. "And no, they will not. For wherever there is hope, there is strength and courage."

As he finished speaking, everything went quiet again. The only sound even vaguely audible was the slight draft that blew softly from the mouth of the gate which Jeremiah had fallen into and Mel had entered. Thinking of how they were doing, Gareeku sighed softly.
"Well I hope Mel and Jeremiah are alright. Especially Jeremiah after that fall." the wolf commented, looking back at the entrance to the catacombs below with a concerned expression on his face. One would imagine a dragon such as Mel would be alright, but then again, this is hell we are dealing with."

Only a few moments after Gareeku had finished speaking had his ears begun twitching. There had been a sound nearby. Fait and muffled, but there had definitely been one. Whirling round to face the direction in which the quiet sound had originated from, the wolf stared into the darkness with his eyes narrowed, his hand gripping the hilt of his sheathed blade as his posture become one of almost combat readiness, even more so as more shuffling sounds were heard. "Maybe it's just me. But we may have company..."

[Aisha deCabre]

Rynkura was well into her healing, taking attention to the major injuries and leaving the bruises, before she realized that the wolf had spoken.  Her eyes had stopped their fierce emerald glow, but would Cogidubnus soon notice, he was still surrounded by a faint and comforting azure aura.

"Oh," she sighed with relief.  "Good, you are conscious...and yes, you are alive," the angel, wings hidden, said as glanced back with a reassuring smile before she continued her mending.  Soon all he would feel was just mental exhaustion, but it looked that he was slowly coming out of it.  "Though I just hope that you will stay that way."

And that you wait to realize that we are in the copy of the ninth circle of Hell...

*     *     *

Aisha couldn't get rid of her smile as she heard Gareeku speaking, and of everything she agreed with.  They still had their lives and their hope, and they would not be getting rid of it anytime soon.  Her resolve was once again strengthened, helped along by her comrade, with whom she once again felt grateful that he had chosen to stay with her.  Surely, they hadn't seen the end yet.

The quiet that followed however still felt disconcerting.  Her gaze moved briefly to view the gate at the altar in the hopes that Mel and Jeremiah were making their way around just fine.  Surely it couldn't be too far, all they had to do was turn around...

"Hell's got a lot of tricks to pull, sí...but I doubt they could fool Mel or Jeremiah; I seem to remember they're both pretty good at tricks themselves," she grinned, briefly in her humor actually imagining the pit freezing over if the dragon were to be angered enough.

The lightheartedness wasn't long-lived, however.  She tilted her head when she saw the wolf become more alert, his ears turning to listen to a sound.  Incidentally it too caught her sensitive hearing, muffled and faint though it was.  Aisha slowly glanced around for anything that could sneak up on them from their position.

As Gareeku went for his weapon, she slowly went for her Dragonblade, adopting a grimace on her face.  The shuffling continued, and her tail ring could be seen blinking steadily.  "You're not alone..." she muttered in reply.  "I hear it too."

How predictable is this place...you let your guard down for just a few seconds...

As they watched the darkness and waited for something to emerge, it was as if a sudden chill ran through the chapel and started to catch the two adventurers in its grip, with a shudder sent up the spine as they became more alert.  It was supposed to be near dawn, but the shadows felt like they were lengthening, making the place sink deeper into night, as their patience wore thin.  Finally there was a tingle at the back of their heads...one that would make them feel as if something was definitely not right.  The instinctive thoughts that could come up when one's thoughts are read...or if there were a mind-spider trying to control them...they felt a foreboding, like from their own nightmares...

The shuffling grew louder.  There was a blur at the edge of both of their visions.  "Gah, show yourself!" Aisha yelled, for she hated that kind of deadly suspense.  The huntress drew her sword and held it up, trying not to let her fist quiver, and she could sense Gareeku tensing up next to her as well.

"Oh, how amusing.  They're scared," a voice came up suddenly from the shadows...a voice that was both eerily familiar and not familiar at the same time.

"The little whelps," came another one.  "They call themselves adventurers?  Cowards."

"Cowards..."

Then, two of the shadows seemed to come up and materialize, each into a shape that the other recognized, shredding around them black droplets of mist like hellish ghosts.  One grinned at Gareeku, a very familiar demon, with blood staining its claws and carrying in its fist what looked like a bloody white pelt, and its face twisting into what seemed a sickly triumph. 

The other, Aisha saw as her heart caught in her throat, and her eyes widened.  "Oh, no way, no...no, you're supposed to be dead..." she stuttered.

The ghostly version of Asal, as obscured and dark as he had been the first time, just grinned and held something up in his palm.  "I have your father's heart...come and get it..."

"I got him...you can't save him, whelp..."  The other mocked towards Gareeku, as the monsters came closer, and looking so very real although they knew they were dead...and all around, more blurs moved swiftly at the edge of their vision.

[Angel]

Ketefe winced a little at the spider's anger, although she did feel the slightest touch of indignation. I only came here to help, she thought, not that I'm very good at that either. She stared at the ground in front of her for a long time, torn over arguing with Sal or working with her, and still feeling a little guilty. On the one hand, she had apparently caused a lot of trouble with the others even before this - but on the other hand, she had just saved the feline's life.

The voices in her head were too noisy for her to think straight; grumblings against Sal mingled with the usual insane switch-personality rants. Be quiet for a second, you stupid bastards! she thought, a little forcefully but more out of tired exasperation than anything. They had to get out of here, and Sal probably wasn't safe to climb right now. Reluctantly, but without very much animosity, she turned to the spider. "How can we get your shoulder fix-"

At that moment, the echo of a scream hit her ears. That voice... oh Gods dammit!

"Keaton!" she shouted, standing immediately in spite of the protesting scratches on her legs and searching the darkness above them for the jackal. No way am I letting another one die!

[Cogidubnus]

"Ah." the wolf said wetly, and coughed once. A bit of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "A fall that far, onto solid rock..."

He laughed, and then coughed again, his eyes closing.

[Gareeku]

Staying on his guard, Gareeku's eyebrows raised slightly when he heard the voices. They sounded...familiar...yet not at the same time, like he had heard the voices before somewhere. Just what the hell was going on?

Then, he saw the silouettes gradually appear from the darkness. Initially blurry as they were on the edge of the two adventurers' vision, they gradually became more defined in their shape, until they started to reveal what they really were, causing Gareeku's eyes to widen in shock and horror at what he saw.

Approaching the two warriors were two very familiar figures. One of which was Asal, the demon who they had defeated some time ago in this very house, now appearing well and truely alive, holding something in his clawed hand...a heart...Aisha's Father's heart, as the demon himself gloated about possessing. But the other figure...

"I got him...you can't save him, whelp..."

"No...you're dead..." Gareeku managed to utter, shaking his head softly as he stared at the demon now in front of him. "I killed you myself, Tilun. You're dead."
"Yet you see me standing here." the lizard demon in front of him replied, a sneer on his face as he spoke, still clutching what looked like a bloody white pelt. "You did not kill me, runt...You are too weak to kill me...You will NEVER kill me..."

Laughing, Tilun held the pelt in his hand higher up, causing Gareeku to look on in horror. There, dangling from the demon's grip, was his father's body. Bloodied and battered, its dead eyes gazed into space as it hung from the Tilun's claws. "As I said, you can't save him. You never could. You're too weak!"

"What's the matter, girl? Don't you want this lovely little momento?" Asal sneered as he held the object in his palm, before holding it up to his face, sickeningly licking it with that smug arrogant smirk on his face. "Mmmm...tastes delicious...you should try some...

[Aisha deCabre]

Just as Gareeku surely couldn't take his eyes from the Creature in front of him, a beast from his nightmares that looked so fearfully alive, Aisha faced her own demon with a look of such horrendous disgust...her pupils had been swallowed within the red of her eyes to the point of pinpricks.  At the sight of the heart, dripping blood through Asal's fingers and disappearing in wisps of shadow on the floor, her stomach felt like heaving.

"What's the matter, girl?"  He had said, his voice seething and unnatural, an echo in the air.  "Don't you want this lovely little memento?"  And then he had proceeded to run his tongue over it...gloating more and more.

Something had snapped in Aisha.  Taunting, she could handle.  Insults, she could handle.

But against this thing again, the thing that took her arm, her father's life, and nearly her own...she was more than glad to send him back to the grave if she had to.

"Bastard!" The panthress growled in a very feral voice as she suddenly leaped forward.  "I KILLED you!  You should be DEAD!"  Her sword swung in a deadly arc, to cut off the hand holding the heart...

And it missed.  The sword had cut through nothing but air and black fog...Asal had disappeared from in front of her, and reappeared behind.  She barely caught a flash of a familiar dagger before it almost caught her in the back...Aisha quickly rolled the other way so that it drove itself into the floor instead.

Facing the apparition, it sneered at her.  "How about this...I give you the heart...and I take your other arm..."

"You're just an illusion!" she roared and surged forward again.  "You all HAVE to be an illusion from hell!  How else can't I touch you?!"  She looked toward the wolf, and the reptilian that he was faced with.  "Gareeku, it's not...AH!" she interrupted herself as she dodged away.

Tilun meanwhile was laughing in that same kind of echoing, ethereal tone, still sneering at the wolf before him as he held the dead body of his father up like he was a trophy from the hunt.  "I'm immortal, little fool.  Look at what happened to him when he challenged me.  And now..."  He unceremoniously tossed the body aside and started towards Gareeku.  "Now it's YOUR turn."

The apparitions were fast...too fast for the eyes to catch up with.  But as the air and the chapel itself looked to be turning into a blurry outline, the same thought had to be going through both of their minds.  It's not real...

*     *     *

Rynkura looked up from her healing to glance at Cogidubnus when he answered.  His cough, and the trickle of blood that resulted, told her that he certainly took a more nasty fall than she thought.  Most of his internal injuries weren't sealed yet.

She just kept to her work, hoping that she could seal them fast enough.

[Gareeku]

As the demon before him gloated, Gareeku continued staring, that same look of horror on his face, not being able to take his eyes off of the lifeless body that Tilun held in his grasp...the body of his own father...

"I'm immortal, little fool.  Look at what happened to him when he challenged me.  And now..." Tilun continued, throwing his father's body off to the side as he began to advance. "Now it's YOUR turn."

"Shut up..." Gareeku muttered, his voice shaking not with fear, but with rage. Both his fists were clenched tight and shaking, his teeth bared in snarl as he glared at the demon before him with pure hatred, yet still the demon continued to gloat. "I SAID SHUT UP!!"

With a roar, the wolf charged forward, unsheathing his katana as he ran forward, before leaping at his foe and bringing his sword down in a powerful two-handed slash. However, he hit nothing but air. His foe had seemingly vanished into a cloud of black fog...

"Boo..." a voice said suddenly said to the side of him. Before Gareeku knew what was happening, Tilun had grabbed the scruff of his neck, with his razor sharp claws digging through his skin, and flung him away with such force that Gareeku bounced off of the floor and then off of the side of a nearby stone column like a rag doll, with the force of the blows causing a large crack to appear in the stone column.

"Like I said...too weak..." Tilun sneered as he walked slowly towards Gareeku, like stalking prey. The wolf meanwhile was trying to get to his feet, winded from the blow as he coughed up a slight amound of blood.
"You...bastard...you're not real..." the wolf managed to utter as he got to his feet, before spying his sword lying a little distance. "You're not real..."

Sneering evilly, Tilun looked at Gareeku, seemingly knowing what he wanted to do, and before the white took one step toward his sword, his demonic foe was upon him, throwing him into the side of the stone column with his clawed hand around his neck, choking the lupine warrior and smiling evilly.

"Oh, I can assure you, Manoko..." The demon whispered into Gareeku's ear. "I'm as real as you can get..."


At Aisha tried to fight him, Asal laughed manically as he sweared and dodged her attacks like they were nothing.
"The reason why you can't touch me..." the demon roared as the two of them fought. "Is because you are too weak!!"

Then, before Aisha knew what was happening, she found herself being swatted away like she was an insect, before landing hard on the floor and skidding for a couple of meters, her weapon luckily landing next to her.

"Absolutely pathetic..." Asal sneered, laughing cruelly as he approached her. "You couldn't beat me with two arms, so what makes you think have a chance with just one?"