Twisted Path

The ground rolled and buckled, dropping beneath Nikita’s feet while she, furiously, back pedaled, nearly tripping and falling upon her ass. As the demon spoke to her – spoke of sacrificing her - she had to swallow bile that climbed up her throat. Nikita was dimly aware that her entire body was shaking as fear clouded her mind, her breath starting to slip from between her pale lips in soft pants. The demon made her so afraid, and images of being sacrificed – of how he’d peel her skin from her bones, drain her of her power – nearly incapacitated her.

Seal of the Nine..

The spell shocked Nikita out of her fear, and she could think again. Pale eyes narrowed at the demon, her lips curling back from her teeth so that she could bare them at the hideous monster. She was sure it was pathetic to such a creature – that this five foot four, hundred and ten pound humanoid would dare to stand up to it. She waved a hand in front of her, quick to gather magic in her palm, allowing the magic to glow a light blue.

“We have to bind it! If you can distract it I may be able to make a new circle and trap it inside!”

There was little that could be done to distract the creature from its target; still rending the earth to ease its passage into their realm, it had no real 'legs' to speak of. In fact, it did not seem to be wholly corporeal at all. As it rose from the earth and began to move closer to the Summoner, it glanced skyward in time to see the immense beam of energy thundering towards it.

By comparison, the blast of heat and slag from the side was paltry. Neither, however, would trouble it long; the Demon's concern was the girl, and this sky-fire threatened to destroy her before it had a chance.

A shadowy fog began to form over Nikita. Centered on her and expanding to eventually encompass the Demon, it did not absorb or block the energy; no, to do such a thing would be too taxing. It simply displaced it, sent it into another realm. Suffice to say that anyone or anything attempting to pass through the veil of shadows would end up in a most unpleasant place.

But it was not large, and could be bypassed; and certainly it would not extend to the man with the gun, or any of the others in the area.

By the time the Demon had gotten under the expanding cloud, the damage could be seen; a chunk of molten gore, bone and muscle, contracting and oozing, both present and at the same time scarcely visible, from its side. The effects of the Guardsman's weapon, no doubt.

Its wings were similarly in a sorry state, practically incapable of movement anymore. Its back was charred, but still mostly intact. Somehow it had survived both attacks with little more than cosmetic damage, its shadowy form flickering and licking at the air around it, reforming even. Its laughter began to bubble up once again, resounding in the heads of all those near.

"Your paltry attempts will not keep me from my prize," it bellowed. It did not care for the airborne; they would have to pass its barrier and engage closely. It similarly did not care for the men, or the as yet unseen beasts; all of them were beneath its gaze, and would likely be wiped out by the energies of the man above.

No, its focus was almost solely on the girl. "Kind of you, Little Thing, to speak of your intent," it mocks. "But it shall avail you nothing. Submit to my law," it demanded. Its words affected the mind; any nearby could be influenced by it, and those who succumbed would feel an intense urge to allow this thing to command them further.

But it did not rely on that alone. One of its immense hands began to reach for Nikita, the shadowy appendage difficult to see, even though it would consume her sight. It did not grab to crush; but to control.

"You summoned a fething Daemon!"

Crimson heard the blinky man call out. So that's what I call this thing, he thought, carefully examining behind the safety of the trees and shadows.

Suddenly, they were on the offensive. A bold move, Crimson decided. He heard the cry of the man as he pulled out his weapon and fired a mighty blast on Daemon. In an instant, Crimson knew that the blast was heading in his direction. As of natural instinct, he leaped to the right, branch over branch. He felt the heat of the blast behind him. Then he felt the wind. It almost threw his timing off, causing him to miscalculate the jump and begin to plummet. He held his hand out and caught a lower branch, swinging himself on to it. He turned back to the battle, catching a glimpse of the newly created clearing behind him.

The metal man with a cross used what appeared to be "Armor" and spawned more metal on his body. Dang, how does he even take that weight? Crimson wondered as the man lunged forward to attack Daemon. It would actually be another voice, this one from up high, who would make the next attack. This attack came at a downward diagonal angle, was very wide and very powerful.

“We have to bind it! If you can distract it I may be able to make a new circle and trap it inside!”

The voice of the Necromancer could be heard. They had an objective. All they needed to do was enact upon it.

However, it looked like it wasn't going to be easy. Daemon summoned a cloud vortex, causing the two attacks to dissipate mid-stream. They did some damage though. It took a chunk out of the Daemon's side and also rendered his wings unusable. That mean he was less mobile and slowness was always an easy exploit for Crimson.

"Your paltry attempts will not keep me from my prize," Daemon spoke. His words were earthquakes, slightly shaking the ground around them.

"Kind of you, Little Thing, to speak of your intent. But it shall avail you nothing. Submit to my law,"

Crimson felt the familiar tug of mind control and pulled against it easily. One of the advantages of being human once was that it evolved his mind. He was more resistant to simple tricks. He wasn't invulnerable, but he did have an easier time managing through them, recovering quicker and having less impact from them. It was why status effects weren't as bad on him as they were on other Pokemon. It was why he was able to fight this with ease.

Crimson's mind began to race. He probably couldn't damage the beast until he a) reached his ultimate form and b) eliminated the cloud vortex. He could use Psychic Transmission to get himself within the cloud barrier with no incident, but how was he going to become his ultimate form? It required a massive boost of energy, either by physical means or by his own emotional adrenaline. And he'd prefer to not have to rely on the latter.

Advantages: Daemon wasn't slow, but slower. Plus, it seemed Daemon was single-minded, leaving him distracted on one single goal and thus open for a majority of attacks. What's more, he was big and Crimson was probably agile enough to maneuver and dodge around him without being hit.

Disadvantges: Daemon had immense power and resistance. He could probably take a few more of those massive blasts from the other two before he fell. He also would not be distracted easily, meaning it would take a lot of effort for Daemon to even flinch.

Could Crimson paralyze him? Not without being within the barrier, since ranged Paralysis would only go where the other beams went. He had to distract him.

Then suddenly, he got it. He would use Flatter. Since he was in Dark-form, he could use it in his current state. Also, it involved no projectiles or bodily contact meaning it would pass through the cloud vortex. So long as he was visible to Daemon, the effect would confuse him, causing him to potentially mistake the Necromancer for someone else and then shift his attention to someone else, mistaking them as the Necromancer. It wouldn't last long, but it would give the Necromancer the chance she needed to create the binding thing to trap Daemon.

So Crimson leaped out of the trees rolling on the ground and charging to Daemon and the Necromancer. He used what limited electric abilities he had in Dark-form to boost his speed, making himself a blur. When he was at the outer limits of the clouds, he used Flatter on Daemon, then quickly bounded back into the trees. If everything worked right, all they would see is a black figure moving to and away from the group, possibly getting a glimpse of his figure, but no clear look. He still didn't trust any of them.

Once more in the safety of the darkness, he strafed to the right just in case someone decided to take aim at him, turned around and looked back on what he accomplished.

Sarik pulled the Power Scope out once more just in time to see the black blur move towards the big beast.

"Crimson's doing something!" he called out.

Before anyone had the chance to respond, Sarik saw what Crimson did and turned back to everyone. "He used Flatter. He's confusing the thing."

"But why though?" Tag wondered.

"Did it work?" Pert pressed.

Sarik looked back on the scene.

"Emperor preserve us," Grapple intoned. His first blast was overshadowed by an immense orbital-grade bombardment; and even that failed to kill the creature, despite almost taking Grapple's arms off.

He staggered back away from the blast while it lasted, and then watched in horror as the Daemon continued to march forward, intent on its prize. As much as he hated to admit it, their survival may have hinged on the woman not being sacrificed for Daemon's power.

Once the initial blast from above ended, Grapple made a decision he would probably not survive to regret; but if they couldn't kill this thing, the liklihood of it hunting down the rest of the regiment seemed rather high.

"For the Emperor," he muttered, charging forward across the scorched earth. "For the Emperor," he then shouted, with much more conviction. He stopped short just inside the fog- he would not walk further under that if he could help it- and unleashed another blast from his Melta. This time, he aimed for the arm of the beast, most specifically the one out-stretched to grab the woman.

With luck and the Emperor's guidance, it would shear the limb off cleanly.


Tiger watched the events proceed from his point of cover. For a brief moment, his vision shadowed over; the words of the Daemon infected his mind, veiled the true threat. But then he returned to full clarity. He would not be so easily swayed.

It was still a matter of concern that the new arrival, flying as it was, had little care for the others' survival. If he hadn't seen Grapple charging back into the fray- like a bloody mad-man- he would have thought him dead, by the burst of energy.

As such Tiger decided that keeping his sights on this new arrival was prudent.

Mereks mind clouded momentarily at the words before he shook it off. He was a semi holy being after all it would be in bad taste for him to be taken over by a demon. Then in an instant Aeson popped into existence beside him.

"You do seem to find trouble quite a bit these days, Merek." Aeson's tone was rather stoic as he talked even in the rapidly developing situation.

"I'd like to think of it as winning the lottery. It makes the possibility of death seem less certain." Merek chimed in after Aeson.

Aeson chose not to respond as his hand raked through the open air and a ball of white fire headed towards the demonic beast. Mereks own attack was simply to dive in head first sword at the ready as it took on a red blaze of it's own. Merek was coming in slightly above the ball of white fire Aeson threw aiming to strike the beast and spread his own flames onto the hide of the creature.

a strangely dressed woman passes through completely ignoring the rumbling with eyes locked ahead of her she spares a disintrested glance at the people here and the twisting trees a glowing blue orb in a spherical hinged cage hangs by a small chain at her waist occasionally bobbing into view from beneath her cloak and a old weathered looking leather-bound book secured to her belt with a pair of criss crossing leather straps can be seen on her other side for anyone who looks she continues down the path towards wing city her cloak swishing gently in her light tailwind

Along the woods of the twisting path, the weather warped and whispered as a bit of a frost came into play. But this was no natural frost, but rather frost created by one person in specific.

"Ixa, you should try to stay on the path this time. Otherwise, you will get lost".

"Relax, relax! Its fine! Its not like we are going to anyplace in specific".

"My bad...we are already lost".

Wearing a blue and white sweatshirt that had a tail on the back, and wearing white shorts which really don't make sense to wear a long sleeve upper body with if you wear shorts, as well as white and blue sneakers was Ixa Snowfall Rixy. His red eyes bright with joy as his snow white hair swirled around his head as he spun around.

He also had no idea where he was, and neither did his Spirit Guardian Snowflake. Snowflake was not visible however, and remained inside Ixa hidden for the moment.

As Ixa spun around just for the fun of it, small snow particles could be seen showing the area due to his power, Lord of the Frost, which gave him a large amount of ice and snow related powers.

"Isn't this just a great day?"

"You say that every day..."

”Is this even part of the city”?

The Shinigami Komachi was flying through the outskirts of the city, or at least Komachi hoped so. By word, she decided to look for a sort of inn or location to stay, though the only inns she saw were the homes for the animals. Even if it wasn’t her priority, she still took some time to admire the various life in the area, ironic in a way. No flowers though, but she didn’t mind that much, Komachi still had a little distaste for them after the flower incident.

While she was looking at the trees, she felt a slight aura of decay around her. The flower’s didn’t wither or anything; perhaps it had to do with feeling a little out of place. Speaking of out of place, she was. Komachi was bitter at Yukari after the revelation she had. Not something she wanted to think about now.

There were various types of trees, caked in the now risen sun. Last time she had went inside, the moon was out. Now, the sun was up. So she felt a little more alien, due to this being the first time she’s seen this worlds sun. It seemed she couldn’t stop thinking about the subject, despite trying to take her mind off it. So Komachi tried focusing more on the green. ”Just green, green, white, whi- Wait..?” She thought in her head.

She looked to the source of the frosted grass, turning to see a hooded figure.
”Oh.” She said. It wasn’t that surprising, as practically everyone had an ability back home, and magic isn’t a foreign concept here.

”Must be native here.” She thought. Perhaps she could ask for directions.

Ixa was spinning around as he walked along the path, or at least what he was sure was the path, as snow particles danced around to his whim.

"Ixa..."

"Relax relax, I won't change the weather...too much, anyways!"

"Ixa!"

As Snowflake continued to shout Ixa's name, Ixa himself was just enjoying himself. It couldn't really be helped, we was hopelessly optimistic. Sure, he had no idea where he was. Sure, he had no idea where he would sleep tonight. He had no home, no job, the only money he could get was what he took from others. If he didn't do that, he would starve. If he entered the system, the bad people chasing them would find them and capture them. If he made too much of a public display, they would track him down and capture him. Pickpocket or suffer, or die or get experimented on. Those were essentially the options open to most of them at least.

But despite all this, Ixa was free. Free in the world to do what he wished and what he pleased. To be what he wanted, to go where he wished, interact with what he pleased. His entire life he had only known the torture, the experiments, the pain, the commands. The clothes he had on were actually the ones he had worn for the first time in his life, though he was sure to try and stay clean. But now, he was free of that. Most would still be locked in pessimism and despair, or paranoia. But Ixa was just purely optimistic and happy, to a point that if people knew his past they would question how he was even sane right now.

It was Snowflake and the Spirit Guardians for the other Rixys that helped teach them about the world, but there was a difference between hearing about it while in a cell, and experiencing it yourself.

"IXA!"

"What!?"

Suddenly, Snowflake's internal shouting inside Ixa's mind caused him to stumble and fall over. But instead of being upset or annoyed, Ixa just laughed it off. While laughing, he got around to asking Snowflake.

"Hey. What was the shout for Snowflake?"

"There is another person here watching you!"

"Haha...really?"

Ixa, even though he had enhanced senses beyond a normal human, had been enjoying himself so much he had not noticed the person approach.

"Hi there! Nice to meet you! Nice day for a walk, right?"

”Ehh, it ain’t exactly a nice day if you’re making it snow y’know...”

Komachi was still slightly stunned from the trip that Ixa had suddenly had.
But if she or he was fine, Komachi didn’t have to help her. Not her problem.
Speaking of which, she couldn’t tell if Ixa happened to be a boy or a girl. She had thought girl initially but she remembered that it wasn’t Gensokyo. See floated down to try to get a better look, but it wasn’t any more helpful.

She couldn’t really tell the person’s gender, but she can tell something else.

”Also, I’m guessing you’re half-phantom?” Komachi said.
She had the ability to manipulate any sort of ghosts or spirits and consequently, could sense them. Such an ability is probably expected for her. The so called “phantom” Komachi was referring to happened to be Snowflake.

"Ehhh? Why is that? Snow is light, fluffy, loads of fun. You can make snowmen, snowballs, snowforts, snow slides, snow monsters, snow friends, snow everything! It can even make things sparkle with wonder!"

Ixa's clearly excessive positivity radiated from him in a way that if one stood too close, they would get the impression they were standing next to a sun and the positivity was sun.

As the person did float down and approach, Ixa who was still unaware of her confusion simply smiled at her.

"What do you mean half phantom? I like you by the way, your pretty. Especially...oof!"

Suddenly, a giant white wolf appeared and knocked her paw into Ixa. Snowflake normally was incapable of harming her master, but an exception seemed to exist if her master was doing something unbelievably stupid.

"I think she means me, Ixa. I apologize for the lack of brain power from my master. I try to teach him about the normal world as best as I can but, he was raised in quite an...unreasonable setting. And the child is so overly optimistic its to the point that I am not sure if negativity exists in his dictionary".

Komachi took one step back, reflexively putting her right hand on the scythe sashed on her back; only to loosen the grip after. She took a moment to eye the wolf, though she might have thought she was looking at a lion due to his size. Snowflake looked intimidating and earnest, which she couldn’t say the same for Ix. Her appearance said the opposite. Komachi wasn’t going to take any compliments about her looks from someone who looked like that. Aside from looks and personality, there’s also background.

”Hmm... Oh, an asylum kid?” Komachi guessed. She could just tell from her personality, but Snowflake did help with the description. She had to ferry a few mental hospital patients back at Higan, and they were annoying to deal with. Komachi guessed they had tragically died either directly or indirectly because of their illness, though Ixa didn’t seem to be that extreme. It would be an exaggeration to just call her ill, more like... Childish or playful.

Ixa simply smiled as Komachi looked at him. He was clearly someone who was not only positive, but relatively carefree. No one would expect he might just be one of the greatest pickpockets of this generation, especially since he was not acting but truly and genuinely this positive and happy.

"Azlium?"

"Asylum, Ixa. It is a place for crazy people".

"But...I am not crazy..."

"...sometimes, I think it would be better if you were..."

Ixa then made a pouting face.

"So mean!"

Ixa did not seem overly serious when he said that though, so one could guess he was just having fun with it...or maybe, he just was not someone who got hurt by words much?

Well, he was opened up, operated on, and repeatedly tortured even while conscious, so it was not a big leap to say that he had resistances to getting hurt.

Komachi looked at the short back and forth between him and Snowflake, turning her head left and right. She felt the area slightly grow colder, sending chills down her arms and legs. She obviously wasn’t dressed for the winter, she lives in what’s probably it’s polar opposite.

Komachi unsheathed her scythe from her back, giving it a few spins before implanting it on her side, her right hand gripped on the handle, the blade cutting the snow. She loosened her hand and leaned on the stick, relaxing.

Komachi was already used to the sound of arguments, sorta. She got into those with Eiki all the time, though they were pretty much one sided.

”Well anyways, where are ya heading?” Komachi asked.

Ixa turned towards Komachi as she asked where they were going.

"Hmmm...I don't really remember! But that makes it more fun! Its like an adventure! If we don't know where we are going, we can discover new things, new places, new people!"

Ixa went on and on about the fun of adventuring and travel.

"And then, also..."

But before he could continue a loud growl could be heard, that could be mistaken for a monster. But Ixa just smiled and shrugged.

"Well, I guess we are headed to lunch now! Do you know the closest foody type place that serves food?"

Ixa asked that, which might indicate he had no idea where he was at the moment.

"Don't ask me. I'm the one wandering aimlessly." Komachi said shrugging.

She took a look at the distance, eyeing the city she was in.
"But I do have some lunch here." She said, pulling out a sashed plastic bag.

It was food from the Gambit's bar that she decided to take with her. The bag made small crinkling sounds from swinging around in her hand due to slight breezes in the wind. It reminded her that she was speaking to someone who has a cloud above their head.

As Komachi answered that she was just aimlessly wandering as well, Ixa just shrugged it off with an innocent smile. "Well that's okay. So were we, because its more fun that...ow ow ow ow! Snowflake!"

"I knew it! You really did have no idea where we were going!"

"Okay oka...." Ixa started to plead when he noticed that she indicated she brought lunch with her. Almost immediately, Ixa approached her until he was really close up, his eyes similar to that of a pleading, adorable, wantful puppy and his mouth wavering.

"Ixa. Ask nicely".

"Oh...right! May I please have some?"

Notably, as if on queue, the weather anomalies seemed to subside at the thought of food...it seemed that somewhere, it was unconsciously shut off because he really wanted to eat something. And as for the reason why he didn't realize he had to nicely ask before, that was because he was raised in a lab that never bothered to teach him manners.

Tento Flare has arrived, coming from Dark Woods.

Tento Flare has left the area, heading north into Wing City Main Entrance.

Apan Sudrosi has arrived, coming from Dark Woods.

Apan Sudrosi has left the area, heading north into Wing City Main Entrance.

Catherine Dumitrescu has arrived, coming from Oakwood Landing.

Catherine Dumitrescu has left the area, heading north into Wing City Main Entrance.

Catherine Dumitrescu has arrived, coming from Wing City Main Entrance.

Catherine Dumitrescu has left the area, heading south into Dark Woods.