The Grand Crossover RP - Pathway to Origin [IC/PG-13/Moved to NCM for Finale]

[Dad]

As Yachiru flew at high speeds and twirled in the air, she cried out a world breaking quote.  "I'm blasting off agaaaaaaaaaaain!" as she vanished into a twinkling star (where she would land no one knew).

 

---

 

1F, CASTLE OF NECROPHADES

 

"Cinnabun?  What'd he sa-- GAH!" Bane's question was silenced as hundreds of cherry blossoms sliced him in rapid succession.  Byakuya calmly walked away from the rubble he was once under and slowly approached Bane.

"Perhaps you did not understand me, Bane.  You are, as an ally would call you, a meathead," he said thinking of Yachiru.  "Your brain capacity cannot possibly comprehend my strength.  And the simple fact that you believed landing a punch against me would bring you any marvel of hope, is proof of such.  It is the wicked, the ignorant, and the forsaken like you who cause--"  Bane interrupted Byakuya with an open palmed hand.  "I ain't no meathead," he declared proudly.  "I went to college."  "Did you graduate?"  ". . . No!" Bane charged again at full speed.  But before he could even come close to Byakuya, his throat was slit through his thick suit by the hundreds of cherry blossoms Byakuya commanded.  Bane slid to his knees all the way to Byakuya, his head hanging low.  "Hmph." Byakuya scoffed as Bane slid, and upon drawing close to Byakuya, was based to the ground by a backhand from the Shinigami.

 

He turned his attention now to the eyes that still floated in the room.  "Now then.  Shall we begin?" Byakuya said calmly, measuring his new opponent.

[Reinforce]

Darcy

"Aww, that's not nice. I may have to punish you for that." Darcy replied while flying up into the air to avoid the water that washed away her clones. Then, they were disrupted yet again by some teenager with wings, flying up to the roof. "If this is supposed to be some kind of convention, count me out, though little miss bunny girl down there would fit right in, along with that perverted old man." Looking at the situation below her, Darcy summoned some of her magic, gathering it up into a sphere of dark energy, and threw it at the ground underneath Eria's feet. When it did hit something, this particular spell would form a portal to the dark realms of her home world, if it worked as it was supposed to anyway, and summon out a dark creature with a small body and several tentacles, to take care of the bunny girl. Then, she turned her attention to the winged guy in front of her, waiting to see what he would do.

[The Warden]

The fist struck him dead one, and he fell backwards with a happy grin on his face. As he lay prone on the ground, his hand rose slowly, until it was bolt upright, and then... and then... and then... he put his thumb up. "HELL YEAH!" he cried.

 

---

 

Big Boing had ended her assault, and after that, she had just sat down on the cliff with her arms wrapped round her legs. This war was really somehing else, with some truly fantastic people with powers far beyond her own. She was really starting to feel out of place witht he fact that some of these people could cause small explosions and supernovas. For the first time ever, she really felt, out of place.

[Kingdom Xathers]

---

Sayer (TD)/Castle Necrophades F1, B5/Confronting Byakuya

---

"... well, I certainly picked the wrong Bane to team up with," Sayer uttered with a genuinely disappointed sigh.  "Glad I didn't place any bets.  Well then, Mr. Ikutsuki," he added, his voice returning to its usual tone, "I will say that Bane hasn't been a complete waste of space; I've had my eye...s on you for quite a bit, and I believe I've gotten a good idea of how best to dispose of you."  With a snap of his finger, Sayer called forth twenty more eyes within his vicinity.  "Shall we start anew?"  Without waiting for reply, Sayer commanded half of his R.O.D.s to tackle Byakuya, while the remaining half began firing red-colored laser beams from afar, hovering around in order to better strike Byakuya at any exposed angles.

[Yosuke-kun]

Jin Akatsuki

 

Katekyo Hitman REBORN! - Jump!

 

The witch had said her piece, clearly having no love for the scene below the two of them. Jin couldn't exactly blame her either. Now wasn't exactly the time for cosplay- not that he minded the bunny outfit at all. In fact, he found it a rather attractive set on the blue haired water sorceress, and the glasses only seemed to add to that. Well, those were thoughts for another time and person, as Jin had a job to do, and the witch had just fired a blast of, to Jin's delight, darkness at the bunny sorceress' feet.

 

Not bothering to answer the witches taunts, Jin zipped away landing back to back with the bunny as she knocked out what Jin could only assume to be a pedophile and bathed his blades in the black anti-aura flames. Of course, he could just drain the darkness, but something in Jin's gut told him that was a bad idea. "X" Jin's arms crossed before his face, and the flames coating his blades became even more violent. "INFERNO!" He sung the blades across each other, and sent a fiery blaze of shadows in the shape of an X flying towards the witches spell. The flames collided with the magic, and Jin thought they'd cancel it out, but as the two attacks met, the witches spell began to take shape.

 

A small creature fell to the ground before Jin, and seeing it only changed his early anger and determination to flat out irritation. "I am so. Freaking done. With these goddamned TENTACLES!!" As he shouted his anger, he released another wave of ebony flames, this time aimed at the small tentacle beast that had been intended to turn the blue bunny chick into some perverse target of fanservice. Well Jin would have none of that. The black fire he'd unleashed had quickly burned away at the tentacles, turning them to nothing more than a mere pile of ash. 

 

"Seriously, you'd think this place was designed by a bunch of hentai obsessed otaku's living in their mom's basement with all the friggin' tentacles around." he said aiming his sword at the witch, then changing it to the SMG and barraging her with a quick stream of Inferno enhanced bullets, before switching to his scythe and releasing an Infernity Roar. Now he looked behind him to the bunny chick, realizing that he still had no clue as to her name and had been referring to her as bunny this whole time. "Quick introduction. I'm Jin Akatsuki of the Counter Corps. Pleasure to meet you rabbit." He then turned his attention back to the witch, and said "Before this continue's, let me say one thing. You can't beat me. Not because you aren't stronger, but because you simply lack the ability to do so. I don't WANT to kill you, but if you continue attacking me, or my friend like this then I won't hesitate to do so." He knew that wouldn't be enough to make the witch retreat, but at least now when Jin defeated her he'd at least be able to say he warned her.

[Dad]

Byakuya did not reply immediately, until after he rotated his shoulder and stretched.  Senbonzakura covered Byakuya completely, ignoring the meaningless lasers and assault of 'eyes'.  Slowly he started towards where he assumed Sayer was standing, the foot of the staircase.
 

Byakuya v.s. Zommari  (for reference)

 

"I've faced an opponent like you once before," Byakuya said dryly.  "He wielded more than 50 'eyes' of his own, and was able to control any part of his target that he willed.  The difference in his power and your own," he said as he drew closer with a whirling barrier of cherry blossoms all around him.  "Is more than a century of training."  He vanished from 'sight' and stood in the middle of the staircase now.  He opened a palm in front of him and began an incantation.  "Bones of sleeping Hollows burn to ash, claws of the beast tear the soul, impale my enemies with the spear of justice.  Piercing Flesh."  A large spear made of white spiritual energy formed in Byakuya's hand, and he began rotating it rapidly in his and until it slowly floated.  It was as long as it was wide, about ten feet by ten, and it cackled with electricity.  He let the spear fly freely and whip about the first floor, but he would soon regret that decision.

 

The spear stopped suddenly and was pulled into stillness by a large muscular hand.  "I've got a few tricks up my sleeve too, ya bastard."

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

At the Inch of Will:

Suddenly, as Sarah started threatening Xeta, Itsu got an awful, awful idea. A absolutely horrendous plan that would make her look like a total monster in the eyes of her new comrades, but would greatly speed up this whole conflict. Besides, their new prisoner wasn't going to be of any use anyways. Might as well make him serve some purpose. "Sarah, bring him on board the Inch of Will. Brad, start pre-flight checks and warm up the engines." She pulled up Foster on the comms. "Foster, get inside of there and look for any structural weakpoints, or an area that is open to the sky."

With Sora and Kiotso:

Not very pleased, Judaihime left in a huff, disengaging her spells and hopping onto Yubel, who looks rather pleased that her Mistress didn't just attack Sora in cold blood. They started to soar through the skies, when some of the native monsters began attacking them, and Judaihime began lighting up the skies above the castle with blasts of divine light, briefly creating a new sun.

Fighting Tyson:

The psychopathic, silver-haired Egyptian grinned, jumping off of the Void Dragon and drawing a strange golden scepter with two axe-like decorations on the sides and a mystical eye in the center. "You don't want a hug then? Allow me to make you RECONSIDER!!!" A powerful violet burst of energy fired from the scepter's eye, targeted at the gunslinger. At the same time, Melvin ordered his enslaved dragon to flank their foe.

 

Castle Necrophades, Floor 1, Sector E3:

Foster was rather displeased with these orders, but would probably have to go up to the top of the castle to find what Itsu wanted him to. Still invisible thanks to the thermoptic camouflage, Foster proceeded into the belly of the beast once he crossed the bridge and avoided any of the fighting, and emerged into an expanse filled with black mist, at which point he created a filtering mouth mask and a scanning visor, which started to use both infrared and a form of radar to map out the area. The quadrotor drones joined Foster, silently gliding into the room and adding to his ability to see. Now, he had three sets of eyes to help him. He continued forth, a ghost in this vile castle.

[Kingdom Xathers]

[spoiler=Alexander Abernathy (CC) and Alister Azimuth (TD)/Approaching the Safe House in the Shadow Realm Outskirts]
"How are you guys able to withstand the Shadow Realm's infuence?" Alexander asked of Wildheart, Hermos and Russell.
 
"A protective ward that I created," Hermos replied, his voice having a tone of accomplishment. "It allows us to travel outside our safe house, but only for about an hour or so. Sure, it's not perfect, but I have been improving on it bit by bit."
 
"It's not completely foolproof, either," Russell added. "Sometimes, a small bit of the Malice does manage to seep through. It may not be much, but it can distract you long enough for an enemy to take advantage."
 
"You don't seem to be like the others, Russell, if I may say so," Alister spoke. "You just have a different... "feel", I guess you could call it."
 
"And you'd be right," Russell replied with a bit of a sigh. "I was actually completely human before coming here. Believe me, though, if it weren't for Hermos here, I'd be a... well, I wouldn't be myself, worst case scenario. Anyways," Russell added, changing the subject as they approached what looked like a ruined cabin, "here we are, our "Home Sweet Home"."
 
Hermos walked up to the front door (which, compared to the rest of the cabin, appeared to be relatively brand new) and gave it a series of knocks: two pairs of light, quick taps, followed by two loud pounds with his fist before slapping his open palm onto it.
 
"Password...?" a gruff voice uttered from the other side of the door.
 
"To Find the Hope Which Long Since Fled," Hermos replied by in a hushed tone. A brief silence, then a series of clicks, clanks and clattering as the locks on the inside of the door were being undone.
 
"'K, c'mon in," the gruff voice finally responded.
 
The lombaxes were surprised to find that the inside of the supposed cabin was actually a lot more elaborate than what one would have expected, appearing more like the interior of a temple than a backwoods residence. The group was greeted by what appeared to be a half-orc, his bizarre mohawk-ponytail hairstyle and asymmetrical armor/clothing style suggesting a rebellious, anarchistic personality. "'Bout time you guys got back," said the half-orc to his three returning comrades. "We were almost considering sending a search party after ya." He then turned his attention to the two lombaxes. "... these two aren't our dinner, I hope?"
 
"HELL NO!!" exclaimed Alister and Alex in unison, throwing their hands up.
 
The half-orc gave a boisterous laugh at the spectacle. "Nah, man, I'm just *EFF*-in' with ya!"
 
"Alexander, Alister," said Russell, "this guy here is Marzell--"
 
"Cresthill?" Alexander spoke up, shocking the half-orc. "Huh... don't know how I know that myself, I don't recall meeting you before."
 
"Uh-I, uhh...," Marzell stammered, "well, I don't often mention my real last name to anybody, so I'm just surprised that you know it, Alex."
 
"Don't worry about it," Alex replied with a grin, "I get that kind of reaction all the time, Marzipan--" Upon saying that last word, Alexander's nose was suddenly met with a solid half-orc fist, although the lombax was not thrown back by the sheer force of the blow. In fact, he barely flinched.
 
"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAFTA TELL YA?! DON'T CALL ME THAT, ALEX!!!" Marzell howled, fuming. Just as suddenly as his aggression arose, the half-orc's expression soon became that of confusion. "... huh, guess we did meet up, sometime."
 
"Yeah, maybe so," Alexander sputtered as he tended to his now bleeding nostrils. "I gotta remember from when and where, though."
 
"You always were the type to find trouble... well, it's more like trouble always has a way of finding you."
 
Alexander's heart instantly skipped a beat.  It was a voice he was all too familiar with, one he never imagined he would ever hear again.  Turning to the source of the voice, Alexander eyes began to water as he caught sight of his dearest friend.  "... Umbris...?"
 
The feline Neo-Spacian, in his advanced, human-shaped form, was leaning again a wall, arms folded.  "I guess I have whatever trouble it was that found you to thank for bringing you here, huh?"  The panther was speaking in a rather calm, cool manner, his face not betraying any emotion he may have been feeling.  Then again, he had his face turned away from Alexander, as if trying to avoid eye contact.  He could, however, still sense Alexander slowly approach him.  "... Dammit," he sighed out, still trying to avoid looking directly at the lombax.  "How do you expect me to act, Alex?  You want me to just... act like you were always here? ... like you never left?"  At this point, Umbris' voice was starting to crack along with his facade, as a couple of tears fell down along his cheek.  "Dammit, Alex, don't look at me like that, I know you're giving me that look, I just...."
 
"I'm sorry... Umbris," Alexander uttered as calmly as he could, despite being close to sobbing.
 
"... you're sorry...?" Umbris repeated, his left hand now tightly clenched into a fist, shaking his anger.  "You're SORRY?!!"  Umbris reared his arm back before launching his fist forward, intent on smashing it right into the face of the lombax, make him feel all of his anger and resentment in each strike... ... ... but the hit never came.  Umbris' fist was mere centimeters away from Alexander's face when it suddenly stopped.  "... dammit, Alex," Umbris murmured, his own blue eyes finally having met with Alex's green.  "Dammit... dammit...."  He couldn't bring his body to do anymore than cry as Alex wrapped his arms around the Neo-Spacian....

 

---

Sayer (TD)/Castle Necrophades, F1, B5/Confronting Byakuya

---

Sayer could not help but to give a calm chuckle to Byakuya.  ""More than a century", you say?" he asked rhetorically.  "I'm sorry, but could you perhaps tell me how long this individual you speak of had been alive?  I suppose I'll have you know that I myself have existed since before the fall of the Legendary City of Atlantis.  You do know what that means, I hope?"  Sayer's mouth was now formed into a crooked grin.  "It means, little boy, that I've been around doing this gig for over ten-thousand years.  True, I haven't had my powers for that long, but I can assure you, dearest Byakuya, that I've far more power than that "had-been" you faced before."  Sayer then disappeared from the spot he had been standing in, reappearing before the Soul Reaper faster than Byakuya could keep up.  "The only reason I haven't done away with you by now," Sayer continued, he bandaged face mere inches from Byakuya's, voice practically dripping with toxin, "is because I enjoy a bit of sport, because I find that toying with my enemies is greatly--nay, infinitely more satisfying than just outright eviscerating them on the spot."

 

He then switched back to his normal, calm voice again, saying, "But then again, you seem to be the type who's "all-work-and-no-play", am I right?  I'll admit, it's rather boring; in fact, I may go as far as to say that Sephiroth may have a bit more personality than you, and that guy is a whole mess of complexes that I can't even begin to list.  Speaking of entertaining," Sayer added, giving some acknowledgement of Bane, "this one here is just full of surprises, truly he is."

[Phantom Roxas]

Eria cried out as the tentacles moved towards her, but the boy burned them to ash, standing beside Eria and introducing himself as Jin. "My name is 'Eria', not 'Rabbit'~pyon." While Jin at least warned the witch, Eria was not willing to give her a chance, continuing her assault. After all, it was Eria who started the fight with her, so it was only appropriate for Eria to finish it. Holding up her leg and bending her knee, Eria fired an ice barrage at the witch. "Pyon Pyon Ice Blast, go!" Deep down, a part of Eria was asking herself just what the hell she just said, but the rabbit ears were telling her that everything was happening exactly as it should. She was thinking less and less about Gagagigo, and more about stopping this witch.

 

---

Once the woman left, Sora wasted no time charging at the man. His Keyblade ablaze, Sora swung his weapon down, but made special care to make sure that he was a fair enough distance from the bad that the Keyblade couldn't be grabbed again. The flames on the Keyblade were enough, burning away at the man's ice skin. "Why do you want this?" Sora asked. "You shouldn't rewrite your world! Let your people live the way they wanted to." Sora took a glimpse at the castle, considering whether or not it would be for the best to take the fight inside. This man seemed much better in close range, which meant he could have the advantage in a more enclosed space. However, they had to find Isamy's soul and destroy it, and Sora had to make sure that they could do that as soon as possible.

 

"Follow me," Sora said. He ran to the castle's entrance, but there he found a man in a golden robe staring off with a blonde man, and although the blonde was much younger than the man in the robe, he looked slightly older than Sora. He saw the faint glint of the ring on the robed man's finger, and approached, but kept his Keyblade up in case the man he was fighting came closer.

 

Arthur sighed, putting his Digivice in his pocket. "Great, just what I needed, more of the Counter Corps. And you're on fire to boot. Just my luck."

[Reinforce]

Darcy

"Why, because you can just nullify my spells like that. Such a skill does not win a battle alone. This is starting to get inconvenient though, I can't exactly destroy this bunny girl with you in my way." Descending to the ground, Darcy blocked the hail of ice shards that flew at her, before throwing a few more spheres at the ground around the winged warrior and the bunny girl, Eria her name was. "I'll be off then, but I will come after you first, bunny girl, should we meet in battle again." With that, and her spells taking effect, she cast one more at herself, a transport spell to teleport her into the next floor down in the castle. On the roof, the three spells she had thrown just before leaving would have hit the ground, each one calling out a different dark creature from her own realm's underworld. The first was another of the tentacle creatures, landing right near the winged man and the bunny girl, the second was further away, but called forth a hellhound, which should be harder to kill for the winged man than the tentacle creature would be. Her final sphere called forth a Banshee, a creature only damageable by magic, and with a scream that could potentially incapacitate her opponents. As the teleport spell ended she noticed that, instead of returning to the fourth floor as she had tried to, she was instead on the second floor and standing next to a wall of four cells.

[Yosuke-kun]

Jin Akatsuki

 

Three more monsters spawned, and witch fled. I suppose it's better than killing her. Jin though as he sighed in irritation. "Pretty sure I said I was sick of these friggin' tentacles." Jin said as he severed a group of tentacles aiming themselves at Eria. "Rabbi- Sorry, Eria was it? Mind taking the banshee? I got the other two." The tentacle... thing, now turned it's attention to Jin, who began severing tentacles at an accelerated speed, before switching to Form 3 and grabbing one of the tentacles and pulling the tentacle monster towards him. By now, the hellhound was on him too, so rather than his original plan of switch to his scythe, Jin slammed the body of the monster into the hellhound before releasing his flames to incinerate the tentacles.

 

The hellhound slid to the side, and as it did, Jin summoned both Form 2 and Form 4, using the whip from Form 4 to drag the crying hellhound towards him while firing bullet after bullet into the monsters chest, gut and head. Of course, Jin had hellhound in his universe too, so he knew more or less how to handle them. Assuming that this breed was the same as in his realm. As the beast got closer, Jin whipped his hook back, dragging the creature into the air. He then shifted to Form 1 and followed the creature into the sky, slicing it into multiple pieces as he reached it, and then blasting the pieces off of the castle with plain darkness aura. 

 

Once there fighting had concluded, Jin lowered himself back down to the rooftop once Eria had defeated the banshee. "Well if she didn't take off, she would hae known that I use darkness as well, and on top of that can drain magic based attacks. So even if she used the darkness around here, it wouldn't help her one bit." Then he smiled at Eria a little awkwardly, taking note of how she looked in the bunny outfit. "When did you start cosplaying like that anyways?" he said with a small laugh.

 

Well, he supposed that was kind of rude. He gave another wince as he Dehanced and the large wings shrank back into his shoulders and his tail slid up back to his spine. "Anyways, didn't you have a team with you? What happened? No, never mind that. I'm sure they're aright. I think the best thing we can do is to just hurry up and find Isamy's soul." With his Chaos Sight still active, Jin scanned the roof for a trapdoor or a hall of some kind leading to the lower floor. As he should have guessed, the stairs were in one of the lookout towers nearby. 

 

Before heading downstairs however, Jin looked at the old scientist with a small amount of pity on his face. "What should we do with him? I mean, I'd feel bad if we just left him to be eaten by the Void Creatures. That aside, he may know where Isamy's keeping her soul." 

[Hälō]

Sephiroth, Above the castle 

 

As the two monstrous forces continued to clash, the very realm itself seemed to tremble from their raw power. Parrying another brutish slash from his opponent, Sephiroth quickly flung his hand over his shoulder. “DeBarrier” Bending to the might of his magic, the barrier that was meant to contain their duel opened wide, allowing Sephiroth to land on one of the castle’s arches. Pointing the tip of his blade at his enemy, Sephiroth then took on an amused tone. “Your sword, it tells me that you know the burden of the mighty.” As Sephiroth spoke, the remaining “mines” from his last spell began slowly  rising to meet his opponent. “Yet you carry that child along… knowing that you’ll be the death of her.”

 

With the dark flares nearing their target, Sephiroth willed one to detonate,which would then trigger a series of massive explosions. "Your kind of power, can't protect."

 

Jecht, Mountain overlooking the castle

 

Still recovering from being under Sin’s influence, Jecht could do nothing to defend against his opponent’s sudden increase in speed. Now flying towards a void creature, the champion had little choice but to take this fight to the night level. “I have had much bigger things try and make me a snack, buddy!” Regaining his composure, Jecht then summoned his sword, before shrouding himself in a cloak of flame.

 

As the void dragon opened to mouth to swallow the man, he shot forward at fighting speed. leaving the voice that emanated from within the creature, as the only indicator that he was still alive. 

 

“Come on, come on, come on, come on! One more!” 

 

The creature's body went into spasm, as the man began curving his way through it's insides.Reaching the creature inner most core, Jecht slashed in a broad arc, destroying what appeared where the dragon stored its stolen energy.  Panicking, the beast had no other option but to descend, smashing into one of the castles's guard towers, with a grotesques shriek.     

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

 

Meanwhile, just over the river, Riley managed to see that Sarah was starting to untie Xeta. Well, it was now or never; Riley immediately returned his rocket launcher to his side, jumped off the tree and began the long run across the river and to the Inch of Will, his pack of Deathclaws in tow as he ran.

 

As he ran, Riley knew he'd probably have to capture a Counter Corps just for the sake of revenge. The question was... who should he pick?

 

...

 

"Ugh, sure why not?" Sarah sighed before saying this, adamant Itsu had ruined her fun right there and then. True, Sarah was unaware of the bastardly plan that Itsu had crocked up, but knowing that wouldn't have made matters any better. Still, Sarah only just starting to unbind Xeta's wrists and feet when all of a sudden...

 

"Think fast," was all she heard before she got a boot to the face, which sent her sprawling to the ground. After delivering said kick, Riley then slashed the remaining rope off from Xeta with the Shishkebabs before either of the two women could actually do anything, although he may or may not have unintentionally scratched Xeta in the process; Riley certainly would be more concerned about getting rid of that stupid bow than that Xeta would be OK from the resulting cuts.

 

"You're safe now; get going," Riley told Xeta, "Unless ya wanna take your revenge; I don't care either way,"

 

...

 

As Izamy swung her scythe, the victim simply raised her arm to intercept, as if she thought it was made of solid rock or steel, or she had psychic powers to deflect the swing. Of course, neither of such outcomes came to pass, but despite all the bone and sinew that the scythe tore through, the victim never made a sound in response, or even so much as moved a muscle. All she did was give Izamy a cold blank stare, that soon began developing an arrogant looking smile.

 

 

"Do what you will to this insignificant vessel; it makes next to no difference," the victim said. Although it would be more correct to say that Lerna was doing the speaking; after all, it wouldn't make any sense for the victim to refer to herself as any kind of vessel. Still, Lerna continued to make her speech.

 

"And besides, you are already too late," she said in the same dreary monotone as before, "You see, while you were searching for the Key of Origin, I have begun replanting the seeds of despair. They will always be here, and once they blossom, they will pursue you to no end, like the lost little lamb you are. So paltry and pathetic and helpless. You have yet to fathom the peril in which you have brought yourself..."

[Phantom Roxas]

The witch fled, much to Eria's displeasure, and in her place, she summoned another tentacle monster, as well as a hellhound and a banshee. Jin started to address Eria as "Rabbit" again, but he corrected himself after Eria shot a glare at him. The banshee let out a piercing scream, and Eria's hypersensitive bunny ears picked up on it, bringing the Water Charmer to her knees. Mustering up a little strength, Eria shot a small splash of water at the banshee, hitting it in the face. The banshee stopped its scream for a moment to look at what had just happened, and Eria took the opportunity to summon more water. The banshee screamed once more, but Eria kept splashing it in bits, until finally the water struck the beast in its large mouth. The banshee gagged on the water, and Eria kept summoning more water into the banshee's throat, but it kept screaming through the water. While it was not as effective on Eria's ears, it still hurt a lot, and the sonic screams kept blasting the water away, but Eria kept sending it back into the beast's mouth until it finally couldn't take much more and started to drown. After enough water had filled the beast's lungs, it fell down to the ground, dead.

 

Eria held her ears, turning to Jin, who was laughing about something. Eria couldn't tell what he was saying, because the screams of the banshee had made her deaf, at least for the moment. The boy kept talking, obviously not picking up on the fact that Eria couldn't hear any of it, so she loudly said "I CAN'T HEAR YOU~PYON!". Jin pointed to the scientist that hard transformed Eria, and Eria's first thought was to kick him off the roof, but instead, Eria just summoned a water arm to grab him by the legs, dragging him across the ground as she headed into the door that led inside the castle. Eria gestured with her hand for Jin to follow, and Eria just nonchalantly dragged the scientist down a flight of stairs, his head hitting against the steps, although Eria suspected he was probably going to be fine because of "moe".

 

Current location: Floor 4 A1.

 

---

As Jecht was launched into a creature that he began to tear apart from the inside out, MachGaogamon took his chance to fly back across the river, landing at the front of the castle. There, he found three people confronting Arthur, although he vaguely recognized one of them as a part of the Divine. The other two seem prepared to take down Arthur.

 

Arthur looked up at MachGaogamon and sighed. "You're going to fight me too?"

 

MachGaogamon shook his head. "No, Arthur. We're on opposing sides now, but I will still protect you until my last breath. More importantly, that sudden burst of strength I felt; that was the Digivice wasn't it?"

 

Arthur showed the Digivice to MachGaogamon. "Yeah. There is a scientist in there who fixed it, and I knew I had to help you out. Don't you see, though? With this, now I can finally help you reach the Mega level once again. It's been a long time coming, after all."

 

MachGaogamon laughed. "Is that all you want? For me to Digivolve?"

 

"What? No, I… I just want things to be like the way they used to be."

 

"Whatever I become, it's going to be different from when we fought the Demon Lords."

 

"I know that. It's just that you're my best friend, and I'd do anything to help you if it means I won't have to lose you again."

 

MachGaogamon shook his head once more, his disappointment rising. "And you thought I was the one who didn't know what he wanted."

 

Arthur stepped back at MachGaogamon's words. Grabbing his crossbow, he made his way to the door, but MachGaogamon was always going to be faster, and the Digimon broke down the door by punching it. Rubble fell to the ground, and MachGaogamon stood in front of Arthur again. Arthur looked behind him, seeing the monk and the guy with the Keyblade. Like MachGaogamon, Arthur recognized the third man as a part of the Divine, but still considered him a threat. Arthur held his head down, staring at his feet. "Just go. All of you."

 

Sora looked at the monk, curious what he would do. The falling out between Arthur and MachGaogamon was depressing to watch, and though Arthur was on the Divine, Sora had hope that he could be saved. "It's not worth it to kill him," Sora told the monk.

 

Arthur looked back at Sora and scoffed at his comment. "Well, I guess I can count on you, fire boy."

 

Sora could feel the Firestorm power slipping from him, so he dismissed his Keyblade and approached Arthur. The Void Fox stood between Arthur and Sora, but stopped when Arthur raised his hand. Sora moved closer, holding his hand out to Arthur. "Arthur, right? My name's Sora."

 

Arthur looked back at the boy's hand and batted it away. "Thanks, but no thanks." Looking back at the monk and the pale man, Arthur had to wonder, "Which one of you is going to kill me first?"

[Ren✧]

Quaranir of the Psijic Order: The Divine (Outside the castle)

Quaranir continuously moved himself about as more arrivals began to show up. He recognized the one with the key shaped blade to be a member of the Counter Corps, and after he introduced himself as Sora he made a note to remember the name. The large wolf beast and the human he had been fighting seemed to be allies, and yet rivals or something of the like. There was definitely something that Quaranir was missing, but he didn't have to dwell on it. The fact of the matter was that he now had the key-bladed warrior on his side, but they were also fighting a large, wolf man now. "It's not worth it to kill him."

 

Quaranir more or less agreed with the statement. He had never planned on killing the boy, otherwise he would have used a more destructive spell to start the combat. However, he could exactly go any further without getting passed him. And that wolf-man seemed determine to protect him. "I don't think that he will be the problem." Quaranir said to Sora. It was obvious the more immediate danger was the boy's companion. "Just let us inside." 

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

At the Inch of Will:

"Defensive perimeter breached. Enacting countermeasures." Bradbury announced as Riley and his entourage approached, the pulse cannons turning from aiming at Xeta to aiming at the pack and started firing off blue bursts of energy at a rapid pace, hopefully to thin the pack. Itsu heard her ship's autocannons going off and ran outside just in time to see some sort of ghoul talking to her prisoner, and sent out a burst of superheated air from her hand, enough to hopefully set the ghoul on fire. "You're not going anywhere."

 

Castle Necrophades, Floor 1, Sector E3:

Foster could faintly hear fighting coming from one of the directions of the castle, so he headed the opposite direction, going to the right of where he entered to discover some way to the top, and hoping he didn't run into anyone else. His drones proceeded in front of him and looked behind him, so he could send one of them around a corner and see what might be ahead, as well as alert him to any activity from the rear.

[Dad]

CURRENTLY OUTSIDE THE CASTLE OF NECROPHADES, MID-AIR

 

Kenpachi stopped at Sephiroth's words, ignoring his explosions only being grazed by the high volume flames which lightly scarred him and burned the ends of his robes.  His excitement died suddenly, and he slowly rose to where Sephiroth stood.  He silently perched himself to Sephiroth's left, his head hanging low and his sword over his right shoulder.  He turned to face his assailant, a dark look in his only visible eyes.  "It's not honorable to bring a man's family into his battle, whether it be verbally, mentally, or physically.  What I do for those I care about is none of your concern.  So when you want me to take you seriously," Kenpachi turned his back to Sephiroth now and looked off into the distance.  "You'll find a more honorable means.  I won't fight a coward."  Kenpachi kept his back turned and leaped high into the air before vanishing from sight.

 

---

 

JUST OVER THE CASTLE OF NECROPHADES

 

Yachiru spotted a mess of familiar hair and grinned as it drew closer.  She went from falling to diving towards her new found target.  "Kenny!" she exclaimed.  She landed promptly on his back as they began to fall to the ground together.

"Yari, yari.  Where were you?" he said chuckling.

"I was petting bunnies, eating lollipops and licking icicles.  What were you doing Kenny?  Did you beat the strong man?"

"No.  I walked away.  His mind was elsewhere and he didn't even give me a real fight.  He kept pecking at me with explosions.  Not to say his swordsmanship wasn't impressive, but he was holding back.  I got bored when he--" Kenpachi caught himself.  He wouldn't dare bring Yachiru into this.  "When he started to ramble."  Yachiru muzzled his hair as they landed back at the front door of the Castle.  There was a fight going on inside and Kenpachi could make out Byakuya's voice.  "Sounds like Kuchiki has his own fight goin' on.  Wanna watch?"  Yachiru nodded with excitement and they literally kicked in the door, knocking it clear off it's hinges.  Byakuya was on the staircase as a man whose mouth dripped with acid spat at him.  Meanwhile, another hulking beast (human or not) was wielding a kidou spell.  "What the hell?  Kuchiki!" Kenpachi called.

"You better not lose.  Or I'll kill ya!" he taunted.

---

 

CASTLE OF NECROPHADES, 1F

 

Fytch ft.Carmen Forbes - Raindrops

 

Byakuya continued to ignore Bane who he wasn't surprised to see.  Only the brute's throat was slit, he could've been saved from anywhere.  He gave Sayer his full attention when he mentioned his bold "10,000 years".

 

"Do you measure in your world's time, or mine?  You see, every one year inside the Seireitei is equivalent to one thousand years outside of it.  Or maybe it is you who does not understand."  Bane spat at Byakuya's feet as Kenpachi taunted Byakuya.  

"You better not lose.  Or I'll kill ya!"

 

Bane raged.  "Don't you ignore me ya prissy bastard!  All your high and mighty talk is for sheet!" he said whipping around the electrified spirit spear.  Bane lunged the spear past Sayer and at Byakuya's heart.  Byakuya was upset at last, catching the spear with the palm of his hand, uninjured.  "You jeopardize the peace of my world.  You attack my comrades.  But more importantly," he said drawing Senbonzakura back into it's blade form.  "You have attacked my pride."  His eyes shown white.  "I gave you the needed time to leave this place alive, Bane.  Now I will fulfill my promise to you."  Byakuya pulled the spirit spear away from Bane and kicked him to the bottom of the stairs, where he tumbled into Sayer but hurried to his feet.  The already thin and freezing air grew colder as the ground beneath all those on the first floor turned black but rippled like water.  "In the next five seconds, I will remove you from this plain for all of eternity."

 

Bane wouldn't have that.  He punched himself in the chest and pressed in a seal that increased the volume of his toxin that he was receiving, amplifying his own strength by ten fold.  But it was all for naught as he charged at Byakuya once more.  But without warning Bane fell to his knees as the air around Byakuya waved violently and turned hot.  "What-- what are you?" Bane said gasping for air.  Byakuya turned his blade upside down and pointed it at the blackened floor below him.  "The difference between our powers Bane, is like the distance between the Heavens and Earth.  Unbridgeable.  You should be honored to die at my hands.  Bankai," Byakuya said calmly.  Those words sent a chill down Yachiru's spine across the 'room' which she and Kenpachi ended up being absorbed into.  Byakuya dropped his blade into the floor and watched it ripple into the ground and vanish, only to be replaced by hundreds of more blades staggering twelve feet tall, rising from the floor all around Bane, himself, Kenpachi, Yachiru, and Sayer.  "Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."

 

Bane struggled to his feet but found the strength to fight back Byakuya's spiritual pressure.  He forced himself forward, pumping more toxin into his body again, once more increasing his strength in an attempt to knock Byakuya out in one blow.  Bane yelled in rage cocking back a right arm prepared to bring down a fist from hell itself into Byakuya's skull.  Five seconds.

 

5.

 

Byakuya dodged the incoming blow from Bane before Bane could register that Byakuy was gone.  He sliced Bane's tendons in his feet.

 

4.

 

Bane fell to the ground yelling in pain as he caught himself with a bulging fist.  Byakuya held out his hands with open palms as a blade formed in his right and the spirit spear formed back in his left.

 

3.

 

Byakuya placed a foot on Bane's back, knocking him all the way to the ground, breaking his arm and shattering his fist and destroying it completely.

 

2.

 

Byakuya took the spirit spear in his left hand and stabbed Bane in his one remaining good arm (his left).  He held out his now free left hand as a second blade from Senbonzakura formed in it.

 

1.

 

Byakuya placed both blades under Bane's neck in a crossed fashion, raising Bane's head.  Bane took one last blink at the dark world of Senbonzakura blades before him.  "Sengonzakura Jikkō (execution)."  Bane's head flew high into the air before landing at Kenpachi's feet.  "Pathetic." Byakuya said softly.

[PikMan]

Xeta maintained his trademark smirk as he took note of his current predicament. "Hey, did I mention I can teleport?" He immediately dematerialized and appeared directly behind Itsu, dodging the fire blast. Drawing his sword in a split second, Xeta supercharged it with electricity. "Now let's make this quick; My magnification lens just showed me that there's a party going on at Castle Necrophades, and I really don't want to miss it." He dashed towards Itsu, preparing to cut her in half and electrify her at the same time, but still planning on teleporting behind her again.

 

--MEANWHILE--

 

Autumn dropped off at the front of Castle Necrophades along with Adriel, who, despite having carried Autumn a fair distance, didn't seem any worse for wear.

 

"Looks like there's some guys already in there," she observed. "Well, better late then never." Letting Adriel go ahead of her and lead the way, she quietly brought back to her mind a few of the incantations for healing spells. That was her role in the party, after all; She was the white mage. Even though she was pretty good with a sword, the healer was her primary role. "I sure hope I can put my skills to good use here."

[Love of Ghibli]

Castle Floor 1 E5

 

Thanks to his earlier tactic Dorian was key to all the fights that were going on inside the castle. He may not have know who was actually fighting but he could tell through the position of the dots that there was fighting going on. What unnerved him though was that he could clearly see a set of dots just running uninterrupted. This did not bode well for the Divine. There was enough funny business going on at the roof but there was someone already capable of being able to stall them. Once Dorian noticed the dots of the group that were crawling through the first floor he knew he had to act fast. He was already heading down to a lower floor to hopefully finish off one of the injured good guys, this was just an additional bonus. He figured that the only way that someone would go so far uninterrupted is if they could somehow be stealthy and if they were stealthy then that means there is a good chance that they aren't strong enough for direct confrontation. 

Once he and Butler turned down the hall Dorian looked down to his surprise and noticed nothing. He looked back at the screen and then the dots were still their. At that moment Butler quickly unleashed his fully loaded Desert Eagles and started to make disturbingly accurate shots at the Drones Foster had surrounded himself with. Dorian had to squint to notice that Butler could see the drones moving through his master's dust ploy. Dorian snickered as he admired the person's resourcefulness and technological prowess. That's some impressive cloaking you got there. I advise you to show yourself before it gets messy. Dorian stood behind Butler and waited to make his move.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Castle Necrophades, Floor 1, Sector E5:

 

Foster winced and hid behind a column as his hovering friends were fired upon with incredible accuracy. Foster saw that the way he was going was a terrible idea, as it was filled with people already fighting. The thermoptic camouflage briefly failing for a split-second around the points they were shot, until one takes a bullet to its primary sensors, and spins out of control until it crashes into a wall, the thermoptic camouflage system of the wrecked robot finally revealing the drone to be a larger, military-grade version of the remote-controlled quadrotor toys some kids had. Foster, however, was rather worried, since these two seemed to be able to pinpoint him. Instead of responding, Foster created a digitalization disk and a portable bubble shield and threw them both on the ground, the bubble shield activating and creating an impenetrable domed force field while something hastily constructed itself out of a wireframe of energy. When the dome dropped, a strange combination of a squirt gun and a machine gun turret began sending out jets of a cocktail of Dimethyl Sulfoxide and several powerful nerve agents designed to affect various species, as well as holy water mixed with trace amounts of silver nitrate that would not be enough to harm humans, but be deadly to vampires and werewolves. The Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) would serve to let this wonderful blend of drugs seep directly through the skin of whoever it came into contact with, meaning needles were a thing of the past. In the meantime, Foster dashed across the way towards the other fight in progress, looking to lose his pursuers in the current melee, as he was invisible, and no one else was, but his drone would serve as a sacrifice, holding a searching pattern back at his previous location to make his foes think he hadn't left. Hopefully, the ruse would work.

 

Onboard the Inch of Will:

Itsu decided to have none of this. She whipped around faster than any human could and grabbed the electrified blade with her bare hand, her skin below her elbow turning into a silvery metal upon touching it. She then grunted, and intense heat emitting from her hands caused the sword to bend before breaking the melted end off, and turning to face him with a stalwart glare in her eyes. "You have no idea who you're f**king with. I am the sun goddess of a planet of half a billion souls. Their faith powers me, and their faith is unbreakable. Now, I will let your friend go. But you stay here. And you will follow my orders. Or I will make sure you regret it."

[PikMan]

Xeta just stood there dumbfounded. "I, uh... I can honestly say I did not see this coming," he said, his gaze transfixed on his melted sword. He could probably still use it for its electrical purposes, but that wouldn't be much use now. "I guess I don't have much of a choice. The only other option would just be to teleport again and get behind you, then teleport again and end up below the ship and use my still uninjured wings to glide down to the surface." His expression didn't change. "Actually, I'm just going to do that thing I just said. SCREW YOU GUYS, I'M OUTTA HERE!"

 

Without wasting another second, he teleported behind Itsu, and a second later teleported again, this time off the ship, in the air. He unfolded his wings to glide down safely- Then he noticed something. When Riley cut the rope off him, it cut into his wings. It was only a flesh wound, but it made it impossible for him to use his wings. "Well, crap."

[Admiral_Stalfos19]

Riley stepped to the side of the supercharged heat wave, before Xeta had chosen to confront Itsu. This was fine by Riley, he could use the heat off his back. However, his priorities now turned to the Inch of Will's cannons, which were firing at his Deathclaws. Those cannons had to be taken care of if either Xeta or Riley were to make it out of there alive, and to get to the control panel, he'd probably have to make a dash for the bridge. This was a tall order, but he had to take a stab at it.

 

The first thing that Riley noticed was that Xeta was bound nearby two windows, both of which were closed. That was good; all Riley needed to do was break the glass, which he did by punching it, and he was already in the main hallway, just one long run away from the bridge. As he ran almost knowing that the bridge would be locked down before he could get there, he counted the number of Deathclaws that managed to follow. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Considering there were too many cannons and they fired too quickly for all the Deathclaws to survive, only suffering 2 losses wasn't bad at all.

 

Now they just needed to be strong enough to hold back Itsu, while Riley would handle the hacking into the system...

[Final Fantasy Revolution]

Kiotso Senju

 

Kiotso merely jumped back from Sora's attack, he felt the heat emitting from his blade but it wasn't doing much in the ways of damage. Sora then asked Kiotso why he wanted to rewrite his world but before he could answer, Sora had left. Kiotso didn't follow Sora, he merely began to sink back into the snow so that he could travel the Shadow Realm undetected. He arose at the river, which was quite thawed now thanks to the fire attacks from the battle closer to its edges. Kiotso took a handful of small ice shards and tossed them into the water. With a plume of smoke you might see surrounding dry ice, creatures made of solid ice started emerging from the water. The three ice dragons flew from the water and into the sky, the biggest one turned back and flew low so Kiotso could jump to its back.

[Premier Alexander Romanov]

Near the Inch of Will:

 

Xeta plummets, his body rocketing towards the ground, where he will brace himself for impact...36 inches later. In all of a second, he lands on the ground, as the ship has not yet taken off. Itsu blinks, and in a loud BOOM!!!, Itsu is now standing next to him, holding onto where his wings used to be. "Have fun trying to teleport away now." Meanwhile, the cockpit section sealed itself off from the rest of the ship before Riley could get in there, and Bradbury announced in the luxurious passenger compartment as the elevator to the cargo bay and the two portions of the skylight Riley blew out locked down with metal doors. "Intruder detected. Access to bridge prevented. Multiple attackers on exterior hull. Initiating countermeasures." Much against Itsu's will, the ship suddenly started to rise rapidly to take off, the cargo bay doors closing as three things happened simultaneously. The first was that Bradbury engaged the gravitic stabilizers, meaning Riley could stay at level with the ship, no matter what it did. The second was that Bradbury started to vent the atmosphere from the compartments, quickly creating a vacuum and drastically lowering the temperatures in the ship, causing ice to form around Riley. And finally, the ship began a series of complicated maneuvers in the air, looping and aileron rolling and divebombing to shake off the attackers. With any luck, Riley would be frozen solid inside of the ship once it landed back down again.

[Kingdom Xathers]

---

Alexander (CC) and Alister (TD)/Safe House at the Shadow Realm Outskirts/Currently conversing with the refugees

---

For the next few moments, Alexander and Alister conversed with the other residents of the safe house, hearing each of their stories of how they ended up in the Shadow Realm to begin with:

 

Russell Oxford mentioned coming here with Hermos and a few others after the comet Faust had crashed in Detroit, which not only destroyed the city and the resurrected Atlantis, but the Great Leviathan within the comet itself. This had the effect of releasing the souls stolen by the Seal of Orichalcos but, without any body to return to, the souls ended up dispersed before being dragged into the Shadow Realm.

 

Marzell, the half-orc, stated that he ended up in the Shadow Realm after making a "leap of faith" into a dimensional rift, along with a genetically altered "wolf-man" named Samuel Hainz and Hainz' wife and child, when monsters summoned by a brainwashed Samuel began to rampage out of control, destroying the Neo Domino City of that continuity.

 

... and finally, a grief-stricken Wildheart described, in detail, how the powers of the Sun Queen and Moon King were somehow absorbed into the body of Luisa DeLane, Wildheart's Duelist partner. The resulting unity of the two powers were two great for the poor girl to handle, and she subsequently destroyed the barrier between the Human World and the Duel Spirit Realm, along with all who were closeby when the incident occurred.

 

"... but wait, I don't remember that happening," Alexander said as he racked his brain for any memory of that last event.

 

"Well, there's a reason for that," Umbris stated matter-of-factly; "When Forsaken Wulf confronted you, he had the bright idea to actually banish you back to your home dimension. Of course, you--and most of the rest of us--remember that event differently, with you and Wulf having a Duel instead."

 

"And he succeeded?!"

 

"Indeed. Used his blade to cut a rift in the dimensions, he did," replied Farkas the Moonsworn Archer, a white humanoid wolf wearing an eyepatch. "He ended up separating you from the rest of the group, and must have somehow disabled your ability to Dimension Hop back."

 

"Which may explain why you still have your Signer Mark," Umbris added, pointing at Alexander's right forearm. "Or it could just be for another reason entirely, I dunno."

 

All of this merely left Alexander with more questions than answers, along with a deep sadness for what happened to each of these worlds. Alister, too, felt rueful for these events, for it reminded him of what had happened to Fastoon those many years ago....

 

 

"So, what brings you two here, anyways?" Umbris asked the two lombaxes moments later.

 

"Uhh...." The two lombaxes looked at each other briefly, feeling slightly embarrassed. "A bit of a... misunderstanding?" Alister replied, scratching the back of his head. "I practically chased Alexander halfway through the Shadow Realm, thinking he was an enemy impersonating a lombax, and we ended up around here."

 

"Right," Umbris said slowly, one eyebrow raised. "But what I really meant was, how did the two of you end up in the Shadow Realm to begin with?"

 

"We're here to search through Castle Necrophades for--" both Alexander and Alister began to say in unison before stopping themselves. They turned to each other and, again in unison, asked each other, "Wait a sec--what exactly are you here for? Wait, you're not saying you're...." A few seconds of tense silence was shared between them as the two lombaxes stared at each other. "... could you excuse us, please?" the two said as politely as possible to the refugees before getting up from the table they were seated at and exiting the safe house together.

 

"... what was that about?" Marzell asked the others as soon as the lombaxes had left.

---

---

Alexander closed the door behind him as Alister walked a few paces away. "... so, you've come to the same conclusion as I?" Alexander asked, his back to the General.

 

"I have," replied Alister, he, too, with his back to his fellow lombax. "You are with the Counter Corps."

 

"And you, the Divine."

 

The two lombaxes turned to face each other, Alister having armed himself with his double-ended OmniWrench, while Alexander had his own replica of the same OmniWrench. The two stared each other down for a good minute or so, waiting to see who between them would make the first move, yet neither one wanting to do so, if only out of respect for each other.

 

Alexander, however, was the first to speak. "... we don't really have to fight, do we?" he asked the General.

 

"Does it matter?" Alister calmly replied. "You are with the enemy, Alexander. I may not like having to do so, but I will fight you if I must."

 

"Wha--? Alister, that's ridiculous!" Alexander plead with the General. "Just because we're on opposite sides shouldn't mean we're automatically enemies."

 

"I know," Alister calmly said, proceeding to retract his OmniWrench. "That's why I'm saying, "only if we must". Right now is not the time for a fight between you and I."

 

Alex didn't bother to hide his relief as he sighed. "Good."

 

"That said," Alister continued, "we shall assist each other until we've reached the castle, at which point you and I will be enemies."

 

"Sounds fair," Alexander said nodding, happy that he and Alister can be civil with each other in the meantime.

 

"Hey, everything okay out here, you two?" Umbris asked as he emerged from the safe house to check up on them.

 

"No worries, Umbris, we're good," Alexander replied, giving the Neo-Spacian a grin and a thumb's-up

 

"Good," Umbris said with a nod. "Hey, if you two still have time, you can come in and have lunch before you set out again--" The Neo-Spacian stopped in his tracks as a sight in the distance caught his attention. "Dear Gods, is that... Wulf?!"

 

"Wulf?" Alex repeated, turning to look in the same direction. Off in the distance, he could make out a white-furred, humanoid wolf, clad in shattered black armor and a tattered red-and-black cape. The werewolf's gait was unsteady, almost zombie-like. Although barely audible, Alexander could just barely hear Wulf uttering something in his delirium. "... is he... reciting the Lord's Prayer?"

---

Sayer (TD)/Castle Necrophades/Interacting with Byakuya

---

Sayer "looked" down at the corpse of Bane lying at his feet. "Yep, certainly picked the wrong Bane," he uttered in disappointment, bending down to pick up Bane's severed head. "Alas, poor Bane. I knew him barely. Ah, well," he said as he returned his attention to Byakuya. "I suppose I can fold my hand this round and make my leave, Sir Kuchiki. As much as I enjoyed your little show, I'm afraid I've just grown bored now that this Bane is no more. I'm just going to find something else to do, now. Adieu." With that, Sayer vanished from Byakuya's sight, along with Bane's corpse.

---

Jeanne (CC)/Castle Necrophades Interior, Floor 2/Approaching the Cell Cages

---

"I swear, how hard can it be to find a Horcrux?" Jeanne uttered to herself, bringing up a term she once read in a story about a Wizarding School. He heels clicked as she made her way down a corridor, her handguns at the ready in case of any unexpected attackers. Making a left at the intersection, Jeanne took note of a few holding cells at the end of this new hall, along with a blond haired woman in a purple suit. She could sense a strong magical ability emanating from this individual, concluding that she was in possession of some powerful spell-casting. Jeanne couldn't help but smirk at this, anticipating the challenge that could come from facing this witch.

 

"Well, what do we have here?" Jeanne spoke, cocking her guns as she approached this woman. Not waiting for a response, Jeanne called forth one of Madama Styx's limbs to strike at this witch.