(2000 word long post anyone? Hahaha... sorry ._. I was wondering if Rue should go first but then was like, y'know what? We're separated anyway and people are already inside.)
Dorothy couldn't help but feel guilty at Daisy worrying for her. Every other Demon Hunter she knew was fully devoted to the cause and ready to throw away everything for the sake of duty. They wouldn't understand her lack of eagerness, surely. She shoved these thoughts aside in paranoia that Daisy would read them and tried to get herself excited at the prospect of bloodshed like everyone else, but it was hard.
It's OK, she lied to Daisy as she walked,
I'm OK. I stayed up late last night. It was stupid of me. She smiled at Bassy telling her that she'd have a happy day, although she knew it probably wasn't going to happen.
"I believe you."When they reached the building, the first thing she noticed was the fearful aura. She could tell it was from the inside as it felt as though it was being sifted through a sieve, much like the Demon Hunters' emotions which she had to focus on to sense. She knew that it was going to be stronger once they entered. She spotted Rue looking over everyone impatiently and quickly averted her eyes. Scanning everyone else, she felt disappointed to not see... um, a particular other with them. Danny had apparently already rushed in like the idiot he could be sometimes and by the looks of things, Bassy was also planning on taking it alone.
"We shouldn't do this alone," she urged, looking straight at him. It seemed that nobody else could feel the fear being emitted from this tower. Of course they couldn't. Not yet, anyway.
"This place is trying to scare me, I don't think we should act rashly -" Lance dashed out of nowhere and went to drop kick the door.
"Lance, wait!" He was already gone and was soon followed by Zero. She jolted and ran after him.
"If Razakar was expecting us to go in together, whatever lying behind thisdooristoomuchforthemtodefeatalone!" She hurriedly yelped out a reasonable excuse so fast that her words fused together.
Level 1: Inner Demon ReflectionAs soon as Dorothy touched the handles to follow, she was teleported inside the building.
"Zero? Lance? Where did you both go -" Her eyes widened as she realised nobody else was there with her. She twisted around to look at her other companions, but they hadn't appeared. She waited a dozen seconds for them to follow, but they didn't. She was alone.
"What? No..." she protested weakly, running back to the giant doors and tugging at the handles. She pulled with all her might then knocked her fists against the wood, desperate to be let back out.
"Excuse me, where did you go? I'm trapped in here without you! Bassy?" She tried her hardest to project her pleads to Daisy by thought, but something told her that she couldn't hear her.
"She can't hear you," Siem, the something, told her bluntly. Dorothy cowered by the door, resting her forehead against it and trying to swallow her anxiety. Her entire surroundings held the stench of fear, just as she knew they would. Something was heaving behind her, something large and beastly that she was afraid to look at. Slowly, with her heart beating dangerously, she turned around and gulped.
It was a giant with a grey, skeletal figure that seemed to be decaying. Its head was covered by the skull of an animal, but through its black eye sockets she saw furious stars. In one hand it held a massive blade while in the other it held a ball of flames. It must have been at least 30 Dorothys tall and it was staring straight down at her, panting like a dog anticipating a kill.
"What is that thing...?" She whispered beneath her breath without thinking. Siem coughed.
"That thing is... a cheap imitation. A reflection.""What do mean an imitation?" Dorothy asked in full earnest,
"Whatever it's imitating is horrific.""To a simple human, perhaps."The monster didn't seem to be doing anything, just staring like it was waiting for her to move. She slowly raised her hands and undid a few buttons of her dress to expose a red gem on her chest. She knocked on it twice, not removing her gaze from the demon.
"Come out, Toto."Hundreds of thin red and black ribbons burst from her chest, wrapping her up like a mummy. They eventually stopped whipping around her when the only bit of her body exposed was her eyes, which she opened to stare at the demon.
"If you're not going to move, I will..." she murmured and ribbons shot from her.
"Wait doll, don't -"The ribbons pierced through the demon's chest and hissing steam escaped through the tiny wounds. Dorothy wound her hands around her weapons and dashed to the right before jumping up and letting them pull her into the air as she swung around. She shot a few more ribbons at its back and was yanked in for a landing. Scrambling up its spine and over its shoulder, the ribbons around her right hand unraveled. Another one of her projectiles shot up to loop around the horn of the demon and she flew into the air before throwing herself to land on its face. She stared into its eye socket, her hand glowing with a purple aura.
"Nightmare Demon... what makes you scream?" She uttered before shoving her arm into the socket like a spear. She winced at the jelly that enveloped her hand and prepared herself for the memories... which didn't come.
"What?" Come to think of it, the demon hadn't even moved at all while she was scuttling over him like an annoying jumping spider. It didn't even make a noise when she pierced its eye with her hand. Something was very wrong here...
"You made a bad move, doll..."The demon made a sound like it was laughing. Its jaw creaked open slowly and Dorothy realised that she was in a very bad position as air was sucked into the gaping mouth of the beast, reminding her of the tide before a tsunami. Then it roared. Dorothy held on to whatever she could grip, her ears popping, but the demon was shaking too much. She flew off the skull and her ribbons drew back to her, but there was nothing she could do fast enough to stop her from slamming into the opposite wall. Small cracks formed on impact and she peeled away, dropping to the floor with an "oof".
"You complete... and utter... dunce..." Siem grunted through gritted teeth,
"You tried to see its weakness through its memories, didn't you?""I know that I'm small and weak for a Demon Hunter. I thought that if I had its weakness, I could -" Dorothy managed as she tried to get up and wipe eye goop on the floor, but Siem cut her off.
"No, no, no. What did I tell you? It's a reflection. It's not a demon, it's a demon spell. A separate entity created from Razakar's powers. It's hardly alive, not to mention it only came into existence a minute ago! What traumatic memory could you take from that?""I'm so sorry..." Dorothy winced, bowing her head. Siem sighed from within her.
"Ugh... Just get u-""Don't do it, doll. That's a bad idea."Dorothy's head lifted to the sound of Siem's voice, not inside of her head, but from the outside. It had echoed around the room, almost as though it come from the...
"Use this empty head of yours and think.""Siem..." she said slowly like a student afraid to ask their teacher a question,
"... Why does the reflection have your voice...? It's saying things that you already...""Because the reflection is of me, obviously." Siem explained darkly.
"It's a crude recreation of my demonic body. What an insult, that such a low life should make an attempt at molding my glorious true form to control with his dirty hands. I will take great pleasure in tearing this faker apart.""I like your other body better.""Now, this is merely a reflection," Siem continued, ignoring her comment,
"Keep in mind that it copies everything I have. When you shoved your hand into its eyeball like the grotty child you are, it had no memories to give to you, but you had memories to pass to it. As you can see, its sorting through your most recent memories. The only thing keeping it from going deeper into your more traumatic experiences is that we naturally have a resistance against mind magic, being that we specialize in it. However the more we fight it, the more powerful it will become, so we must destroy this quickly and not let it touch us again."Dorothy felt sick upon hearing this.
"Not all of these memories are mine..." she realised. If she allowed this reflection to touch her, it would see not only her memories, but the memories of her fellow Demon Hunters she had accidentally collected over the years. She couldn't hand those over to a
Nightmare Demon!
"They're not mine to give away!"She looked up just in time to see it swing its massive blade down at her. Dorothy's ribbons pulled her to the side at alarming speed and she shot more out at the monster, slicing through the nape of its neck. She tried to pull herself into his blind spot while being chopped at when it threw a fireball in her direction. Her ribbons acted fast, building a cocoon around her to protect her from the blast but then it just dropped to the ground, smoking.
"Abandonment, loneliness, the fear of maturity, losing hope and control... oh, and what's this? Fear of your duty..." Dorothy heard from within her shell. She squeaked as she felt herself be picked up, thrown up and caught again.
"... You are one terrified little girl, almost no reason for me to be torturing you. I have you dancing in the palm of my hand... but there is more in that head of yours. What are you not showing me?"Dorothy remained shivering, her mind blanking out. She could feel its hand cupping around her, trapping her.
"The others.. you know what makes them cry in the night, though they are not all aware of it... Give away their suffering, it will make you feel better.""I will never!" Dorothy's small heart pounded so hard it hurt. What could she do, what could she do, what could she do?! It was eventually going to crush her protective cocoon. It would flatten her unless she could just hear herself think!
"I don't know why you want to. You're not even friends."Dorothy's shield exploded - the ribbons shot out, piercing through the reflection's hand. At her will, they sliced right through - all of the hundreds of lethal blades, cutting it like it was paper. The chunks of grey meat flopped onto the ground and the reflection screeched. Dorothy's ribbons wrapped around her legs to create columns for her to balance upon so she was able to look the reflection right into its one eye.
"That's what I hate about demons," she said coldly, glaring at it with dead eyes. Her ribbons slivered around her like menacing tendrils and she continued to glare as it raised its blade to strike. The corner of her mouth tugged up into a small, sadistic smile.
"You're all liars."