2023-02-26 - The Book And Its Boy 5
| The Book And Its Boy 5 | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Conflagria challenges Yumi to a final confrontation over the book and the safety of her friend. Yumi brings Raiko, and a heretofore untapped strength within her heart... | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Tomoeda Theme Park (#522) | |
| OOC - IC Date: 2/26/2023 - 02/20/2016 | |
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Tomoeda Theme Park +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
Tokyo's largest and most beloved theme park, Tomoeda's broad fairy-tale
gates open into a world of rampant color and giggle-like music. Fried
delights season the air with their stomach-gurgling seduction, distant
shouts of joy punctuate a roller coaster's drop, and costumed mascots amble
and wave. Though Tomoeda is the name that stuck, marketers prefer to call
this place Dream Land, and it does its best to give a suitable impression.
The largest roller coaster has a metal track, known for its speed and
smoothness, and snakelike yellow cars with red bellies. Past its twisting
coils is the iconic Candy House, pink and sprinkled, whose spires are waffle
cones and sugar dumplings, where light-hearted performances are held for the
benefit of the younger audiences. Other attractions include the swinging
Flying Pirate, spinning tea cups, a dizzying mirror maze, and, of course, a
romantic Ferris wheel.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
EARLIER
Takahiro is more or less back to his normal self; so when he catches Yumi by her locker after school, it's refreshingly ordinary -- he isn't weird and withdrawn anymore, and they are friends again. It's his eyes that are the problem: there's a familiar dullness to them. Not as total as before, when he was under the influence of a greater ensorcelment. But... the light that makes him him is distinctly... shadowed.
"This is for you," he announces, vaguely and from a great distance, with a lot of fog billowing between his brain and his mouth. He dutifully presses a folded up bit of heavy red paper into her hand.
Then he blinks, and his eyes return to their ordinary luminousness. He looks around at the hallway; at Yumi; and finally at his wristwatch.
"Gakk," he exclaims, much more normally. "I'm late for club!"
Away he goes...
His delivery is warm in Yumi's hand. No: it's hot. It bursts into flame a moment later, and not the cutsey sort of flame that is merely visual, like the drawing of flame; this is true fire, and it will burn if she's not very quick.
The message hangs in the air, rippling, shimmering, for just nine heartbeats' time.
THREE AM
TOMOEDA THEME PARK
BRING THE BOOK
The 'or else' is implicit; as implicit as the means of delivery. The signature, of course, is implicit in the medium of conflagration.
Whether she was burned or no, Yumi's hands are black with ash, after; the only trace remaining of the paper, except for the faint, nose-wrinkling aroma of burnt bone.
---
NOW
<SoundTracker> Wicked Heart - Inuyasha OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhNDVT2eqVo
The witching hour.
Tokyo is never at a standstill, and its late nights are always magical. Even at three in the morning, especially on a Saturday night, there are certainly people out and about. Just one more bar. Just one more drink. Just one more pass. It isn't even necessarily seedy nightlife; there are genuinely enthusiastic people out there, living life to the fullest, embracing a certain joie de vivre that only Tokyo can provide.
But some places do close, and Tokyo's largest and most beloved theme park is one.
Tomoeda is no fairy-tale at times like these.
It is very dark; it is very quiet. A late night breeze occasionally wends its way through a deadened ride with a creak -- a Ferris wheel car that dangles, rotating ever so slightly, on its axis. A teacup that tips subtly towards its native spin, without ever quite overcoming that coefficient of static friction.
Up past the Candy House; further up, and deeper in, past the swan ride; still beyond the silent roller coaster; there!
Twin torches burn, flanking the entrance to the Mirror Maze. Only there are no torches, of course. The fire bobs like will-o-the-wisp, neither attached to nor consuming anything at all.
Like magic.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Yumi is glad to see Takahiro his normal self; she's been glad to have him back, as a friend, since all of that. However... There's something strange in his eyes, this day. That shadow--
"Uh?" Yumi says, and takes it. "Wait--"
"OW!"
Yumi is not that quick. Her hand burns, though only briefly. The pain is secondary, though. Secondary to the message that hangs there, of a sudden, and Yumi stares into that fire as if she could divine its very soul.
'Or else'.
"..."
Yumi won't have a good excuse for Nurse Nakahara about how she burned her hand. Michiko will worry about that.
---
The witching hour, all right. Tokyo may not be quiet, but Yumi Ohzora is. The bandages on her hand are invisible in her transformation, though the palm and fingers are still sore even as she closes them about the Staff of Lost Ivy. The Witch of Lost Ivy is here, in black and carrying the white Staff with its green crystal. And she pauses, as she looks to the park.
She had asked others for support. Like Levin, to whom she had much to say. Not now, though. Now, she glances back at her friend, and then towards the Mirror Maze. The fire burns...
The Book is in her left hand. She has read it thoroughly, now. She understands much that she did not before.
And here and now...
"If you see her," Ivy says, "Let me make the first move."
She passed the Candy House in silence; she looked to the swan ride with a small melancholy. The silent roller coaster she never rode is past. and here--
"...Let's go." Yumi starts into the maze. "I'll count on you to trace our steps."
<Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
There was no small amount of panic on Raiko's part when Yumi told her about the message in flame. The portrait of Conglaria at the art show was... concerning, but it could have been a coincidence: an expression of the ensorcelled mind through the medium with which it was most familiar. Raiko wasn't an expert in such magic--there were things even her curiosity dared not touch--but it could been just a coincidence.
She couldn't figure out how this was possible, and that bothered her.
But there would be time to figure that out later. First, there was a message to respond to.
---
3 AM. It was an hour that she was not completely unfamiliar with. Not for partying or a social life, but there had been plenty of nights spent staying up late, working on her research, indulging in whatever obsession had claimed her at the moment. It was a habit she was trying to break herself of. Normally she would be tired, yawning and contemplating bed right about now.
Tonight, though, she is tense and alert.
Levin is also dressed all in black, though in a different style, with a cloak and a frilly skirt. The hat is similar, though. Her staff, blackened wood with etched silver patterns, is clasped in her hand as she surveils the park.
"I don't like this, Ivy," says Levin, for not the first time this evening. "This is definitely a trap."
The park, this late at night, is deathly silent. Her heartbeat pounding in her ears is not.
"Got it," confirms Levin. "I'll follow your lead."
She doesn't look at the other rides as they pass through the park--her attention is only on the flames.
"Okay," says Levin as they're about to enter the maze. "Just don't rush ahead. We should stay within arm's reach of each other so we don't get separated." And as they enter, she starts making a mental map.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
As Ivy and Levin cross the threshhold, the twin flames go out.
The faint smell of smoke trickles in behind them, joining them in the first room of the Mirror Maze.
It is very dark.
There are many paths, and many mirrors, though it is too dim to be reflected in any of them.
And there is Conflagria.
The woman in Takahiro's painting; and in the stadium, at the flea market. She wears fine garments of red, and her eyes are crimson also; her hair is black, and noble, and secured, at the twin forelocks, in clips the shape of flames.
She is not smiling, but she is beautiful anyway.
"So, you came... 'inheritor.'"
Her sneer is audible, but it also twists her face and makes it ugly. Her eyes glitter as she looks over Ivy and Levin -- but mostly Ivy.
On her lips, 'inheritor' is a foul-smelling word indeed.
"I thought you would," the sorceress continues, her voice high with airy disdain. "You've never failed to accept any gift you have been given."
She spreads her hands -- her index and middle fingers joined together, a mystic gesture -- and a wall of fire bursts into life behind the girls. There will be no going back the way they came. This also brings light to the shadowy chamber. Not a lot, but some; flickering with heat, adding a shimmer of mirage to what was already a bewildering array of mirror images.
There are tall Ivys and short Ivys and big Levins and small Levins and stranger, more warped versions of both.
But there is only one Conflagria, directly across the room, in the central spoke of the wheel of hallways leading away from the entrance.
There is something of the fairy tale after all; she looks ready to bestow the sort of gift that a princess would rather give back. There is a wickedness in her too great to be contained. And a resentment, also.
"Even the gift of an invitation... to hell."
The flames at the witches' backs advances an inch. Then another. Then another.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into Conflagria!
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Yumi's dress drapes; she is tall, and it is rather a lot of fabric. But Levin--
"It's definitely a trap," Ivy agrees with her friend. "There's no way it's not a trap. But the bait's too good; I don't have a choice."
And for her, she doesn't. She won't let him suffer for her if she can help it. But what can she do? To simply hand it back would only endanger more people. But Conflagria is...
"Right. No running off on my own," she says, and has the grace to look almost wry about it for a moment. "...Come on."
The flames go out. There is smoke. And it is dark. Yumi narrows her eyes, her nose twitching at the harsh scent of smoke. She remembers her well. She is beautiful. She is terrible.
Yumi thinks she hates her.
She has a retort ready--but it drops when the sorceress makes her crack about 'gifts'. "What?" Yumi starts. It's uneasy as a statement--it implies more knowledge than it doesn't. And it's a harsh statement, indeed. It doesn't immediately get to her, but it puts her off-balance...
The wall of fire erupts, and Yumi jumpsa step. "What--"
Ah. Of course.
She can finally see those images. She can see them, and they drift, as the Coflagria remains right there. That resentment--it feels more personal, somehow, than just a foe's.
"Levin," she says. "Let's get ready."
The fire is getting closer moment by moment, and there is nothing else for it. "So you knew I wasn't going to hand it over," she says. "...Because I won't. I won't let you use it for your dark plans."
"...And I'll fight for him, so you can't use him anymore."
The Staff's crystal begins to glow at its tip, soft at first, and then brilliant. Time seems to slow, for Yumi; she looks to the Staff, to the faint green glow enveloping her. And she understands something.
"...Staff of Lost Ivy," Yumi intones, though she should not have to. She lifts the Staff before herself in both hands, and the glow begins to intensify.
"IN MY HAND--" Yumi's voice rises, and the light around her becomes blinding. "REMEMBERED BE!"
The green light grows, and shoots of ivy begin to grow out from the floor all around her, twining up her form. Her boots, her skirt, her torso; she is completely enwrapped, and then--
And then there is a flowering, at her heart, a pink light that shimmers all the brighter for its difference.
Light blossoms forth, and Yumi's black dress pops back into being despite the fading vines, midnight dark. Her gloves and boots shine green, and then pink, solidifying into green leather with pink laces and accents. Her hair remains braided, behind her head, long and silver, and her hat gains a pink loop about its broad cone's base.
Slamming the staff back down, Yumi stands changed. From the base of the staff explodes a ring of light, in all directions.
"I won't let you take him! I won't let you have the book! And I won't let you stop us here!"
"On my name I swear it!"
COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora transforms into Inheritor Lost Ivy! COMBAT: Yumi Ohzora has used Brilliance on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Levin's grip on her staff tightens when she sees Conflagria. Her staff's crystal alights with lightning as she draws up power, and more lightning hums at her fingertips in a half-formed attack, but she holds both in place without releasing them. Ivy asked to let her take the first move, and she'll honor that request, but she's under no illusions about what's about to transpire tonight.
And while Conflagria may be paying most of her attention to Ivy, Levin's narrowed gaze is trained solely on her opponent, with a steely resolve setting her jaw.
There is no love lost for the forces of The Hungry Queen.
She wants to tell Conflagria not to speak the name Inheritor like that, that she doesn't deserve to befoul her legacy like that, but... she holds her tongue. Ivy asked for the first move, and the right of the first retort is hers as well, as far as Levin is concerned.
But she does offer a very quiet and firm--and reassuring, perhaps, in an odd way--statement of "Don't let her get in your head." as Ivy reacts to Conflagria's taunt.
Ivy tells her to get ready, and the crackling power she's summoned intensifies. "Right," she says firmly.
The wall of flame at her back earns a glance and a few steps forward to keep ahead of it, but quickly she turns her attention back to her foe--they did know this was a trap, after all.
Ivy's intonation of her staff's name does draw a puzzled look, however, and when she recites her incantation again, Levin is startled, almost dropping her guard as she watches Ivy's transformation, as her power, well, blossoms into something new.
"Ivy..." says Levin quietly, in amazement. She can feel it--it's been there, just under the surface, ever since she took up her own staff, and now...
There is a very brief but excited smile for her friend as Ivy finishes her transformation. But as Ivy makes her declaration and unleashes her brilliance, her expression turns serious again.
"That's right!" she adds, finally unleashes her pent up power. The lightning at her fingertips coalesces, and with a gesture she flings a bolt of lightning at her foe.
COMBAT: Raiko Takashima transforms into Witch Levin! COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used Seeking Bolt on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick counters 2 Fatigue damage from Yumi Ohzora's Brilliance, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! Diversion applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Mirror Mirror, partially gets through, doing 10 Fatigue damage to Yumi Ohzora! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 7 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Seeking Bolt, taking 3 Fatigue damage! Witch of Wise Levin is Psyched! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Lost Ivy's ring leaps out and hits every mirror. And for a moment, she is lost no longer; she is found in all of them. Reflections of the finer details of her enhanced transformation -- the pink laces on her boots -- the loop on her hat -- the shoots on the staff itself -- appear, zoomed-in, in individual panes of glass.
That includes the one where Conflagria had been seen. It must have been a mirror after all, not a path. And the light bounces back at Ivy harshly, straight into her eyes; motes everywhere, and not the good kind. The dozen other Ivys seem even more fey and strange than they ought to, in that moment; and when Levin lights up the room with a bolt of lightning, half of them resolve into her instead, which is not less confusing.
Conflagria resolves in front of -- or in? -- another mirror. There is a small mark on her red glove where she caught the bolt -- caught it! -- and crushed it beneath her fingernails. She pretends to examine said nails (impossible, since they're in said glove, this is purely a rude gesture), then looks up with her hot and angry eyes at the two girls, and laughs.
What a smouldering, smoky sound it is.
"On your name... hahaha. A name that is more than you deserve. But yes, good. That book doesn't belong to you. You besmirch your name by acting the thief in the night. In a way, I'm helping you restore your family's honor... now you're fighting to keep it, fair and square..."
The flame wall behind them separates, splitting into many smaller flames -- more like bars than vines, though there is something of the vine to them, too, more in mockery than in praise of Ivy's magic. Conflagria really is incredible with fire, to be able to achieve such an effect.
The cage of fire closes in around both girls. They wind up back to back, surrounded by fire and by mirrors and by cruel, strange laughter.
"Not that two on one is fair," her voice says, coming from everywhere at once. "Really. I'm insulted. You should have brought at least ten."
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fire Cage on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fire Cage on Witch of Wise Levin. COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy dodges 9 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fire Cage, taking 14 Fatigue damage! Witch of Lost Ivy is Quipped! Trap applied to Witch of Lost Ivy! COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin fails to dodge Pink Moon Stick's Fire Cage, taking 25 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Witch of Wise Levin is Quipped!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
"Right, Levin!"
Yumi finds herself in each; she looks to the first mirror, though, not the ones in which she stands. The light bounces backa gainst her, and Yumi flinches at its return, and is spared seeing the strange effects in the mirror mostly by being unable to see for a moment. Not until Conflagria is back. Her anger--
"What do you know about my name!?" Ivy demands of Conflagria, staritng to lose more of her composure. But what she says... It suits her more to fight for it?
"Even if you think it's the right idea," Ivy says, "I'm still fighting for it."
The cage closes in, and Yumi winces at the sheer heat of it. She can't get out of the way of heat itself, and she's trapped for now.
"I can insult you a lot more," Yumi grumbles, a poor retort that doesn't do her much good in the moment. But she can't be done yet; even if it looks bad, even with her new transformation...
No. She won't think that way.
Instead, Yumi lifts up her Staff and carves a rune into the air with her other hand. "I'm not done yet!" She aims for the mirror Conflagria's in, and taps the rune, firing a green beam of energy for the enchantress!
"So tell me! What do you know!?"
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Dark Beam on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Light--first Ivy's, then Levin's, flares in the first room of the maze, causing light to cascade throughout the room, but unfortunately--
Levin scowls as Conflagria actually catches her bolt--she's a fire mage, that much is obvious, from the name down to the cutesy hair clips, she shouldn't be able to do that--then again, she's skilled enough to appear in mirrors, so who knows what else she's capable of.
"She's toying with us, Ivy," mutters Levin under her breath. The umpteenth 'I don't like this' is left unsaid this time.
Flames come for them, and Levin is momentarily too distracted--trying to keep track of Conflagria, trying to block out the strange effects of the mirrors, trying to think of retorts, trying to think ahead to thwart Conflagria's schemes--that she doesn't move until it's too late. She throws herself aside but ends up going right throw a lick f flame. "Gah!"
Her half-formed retort about honor dies on her lips as she stumbles and deflates. She escaped being trapped, but left behind some of her confidence.
But like Ivy she's not out yet, and she brings up a hand, summoning forth an angry, tumultuous ball of sparking energy. "Ivy!" is all the warning she gives--though really, all of her attacks generate light, so they're all dangerous in this environment, but she feels the need to give her teammate the courtesy all the same. With a gesture she launches a spray of sparks at the mirror Conflagira is in.
"Catch this!"
COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used Sparkshower on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly dodges 27 Fatigue damage from Witch of Lost Ivy's Dark Beam, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Dodge! Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick perfectly counters 22 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Sparkshower, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Counter! Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Mirror Mirror, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Witch of Wise Levin!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
The green beam, and the sparks, surge together into the mirror reflecting Conflagria. It explodes into shards; a smoke cloud of debris rises, all glitter and darkness.
She was never there.
And the sparks jump -- as lightning is ought to do -- chaining to the next mirror, and the next, and the next --
SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH
All the mirrors in this room are broken.
And Conflagria is NOWHERE to be found.
It's darker without them. More smoke. And where there's smoke...
"Hahaha," she laughs, from deeper inside the Mirror Maze. There are several paths forward, all of them, of course, mirror-lined. Her voice is coming from down the central path. "I know that today is the first day in your life you've ever had to work to earn something that you want." She's so scornful. Something about her, too, is hair-raisingly... personal. Which doesn't make much sense. Other than simply being Witch Ivy, what did she ever do to this member of the Hollow Four? Maybe that's enough...?
Her voice bounces out of the left-most path next.
"That's the difference between you and me. Everything I've ever wanted, you've been freely given..."
The mirrors lining the right-most path begin to shine. It's just a spark that reflects out of them, and directly into Ivy and Levin's eyes, but it's a spark containing all of Conflagria's hate.
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Spark of Hate on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Spark of Hate on Witch of Wise Levin. COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy braces 12 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Spark of Hate, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Witch of Lost Ivy's Block and Parry abilities activate! Blind, Stagger, and Tangle applied to Witch of Lost Ivy! COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin cleanly braces 6 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Spark of Hate, taking 1 Fatigue damage! Witch of Wise Levin's Block and Parry abilities activate! Stagger and Tangle applied to Witch of Wise Levin!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Light. So much light.
"Then why?" Ivy asks of Levin. "She's strong enough that she doesn't have to. There's something more going on here."
THe mirrors shatter. There's nothing about honor there; Raiko is still giving warning, but Ivy tries to stay free anyway. Conflagria is nowhere. But there is finre--
Her voice comes from the central path...
"That's not true!" Yumi shouts back immediately, Ivy turning her staff towards each path, as if she can get a guess as to which itmust be. What did she do?
"...Oh. So it's like that, is it?"
Yumi feels calmer in some respects, but colder too. This witch knows more than her being Witch Ivy. That much she's sure of. She knows...
That spark reflects into her eyes, and Yumi throws up a barrier to shield herself from the worst of it this time; it's still enough to sear through her eyes and force her to shift back. "Gah--"
She can barely move. But--
"Fine," she says. "You want me to 'earn' it? Then I won't ask stupid questions."
Yumi lifts her hand again, and begins to intone, "If your hunger is so unfulfilled, then remember it! Hollow Curse!"
She shoots the curse down the center path, a blast of dark energy crashing in that direction.
"Can you find her, Levin!?"
But that's not the real question on her mind. The real question is--
"So you know me," she says, starting to try to go down the path after her curse. "...Then why do you hate me so much? What did I ever DO to you?"
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Hollow Curse on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Smash, smash, smash, smash... Levin, once she realizes Conflagria is not presently there, has the decency to look a little bit sheepish. She was, honestly, thinking about breaking the mirrors to cut off avenues of attack for Conflagria... but there's a difference between doing that intentionally and doing it as collateral damage.
"She hates you," is the simple answer to Ivy's question of 'why'. "Maybe she's like the ogress-you've tangled in a previous life? But she appears to be human..." But with the amount of magic and mastery of illusions, who knows how true that is.
But Ivy exchanges words with Conflagria, and Levin is--despite the 'obvious' tell of a voice from the central path, trying to gather her thoughts to extend her awareness out further, to find their enemy in the maze.
She doesn't get very far before that spark comes. She draws back, raises a hand to create a shimmering field of electricity to block the worst of it--almost all of the damage is blocked but the iming is such that she's still blinded by the blast as it hits her shield. She winces and throws her hand over her eyes, stepping back. "Dangit!"
"I'm trying," she says in answer to Ivy, "But her magic is everywhere, I can't isolate..." She's about to try and extend her focus again, but Ivy takes off for the central hallway and she stops once more. "Ivy!" she hisses through clenched teeth. "Stay within arm's reach, remember?"
Ivy takes off after Ivy, hand crackling as she summons another bolt and flings it down the hallway ahead of her friend. Hopefully it can guide itself true, once it leaves her sight.
COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used Seeking Bolt on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick cleanly braces 6 Fatigue damage from Witch of Lost Ivy's Hollow Curse, taking 1 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate! Stagger and Stun applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick counters 5 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Seeking Bolt, taking 5 Fatigue damage! Witch of Wise Levin is Psyched! Pink Moon Stick's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick's counterattack, Castigation, partially gets through, doing 18 Fatigue damage to Witch of Wise Levin! Exhausted applied to Witch of Wise Levin!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Her magic really is everywhere.
Why did Conflagria pick this as her battleground? Why not -- given that the open mouth of Mount Doom is not easily available -- Keiyo, with its smokestacks and industrial incinerators? Even the beach might have had more bonfires (if not, necessarily, in February), and its saltwater is most hostile to the verdant living of earthy Ivy.
But then... the mirror and the flame have long been connected in witchcraft. From each of their separate studies, Yumi and Raiko have both encountered that connection. Conflagria can probably burn hotter and more fiercely than most magical arsonists. But it seems that it's her preference to burn smarter. To burn subtler.
Or maybe just to burn more of them.
The Hollow Curse flows down the center corridor, and Ivy senses that it does find... something. Or maybe it's just in Conflagria's voice. A new and greater hunger.
"Nothing," she says, and there is so much exhaustion and so much ambition packed into that single, simple word.
Lost Ivys -- and, behind her in each reflection -- Wise Levins -- follow the real ones on either side as they hurry down the dark corridor. The mirrors briefly light up with the second of Levin's Seeking Bolts... but like the first one, it is confused. In this case, it strikes EVERY mirror -- this time, not hard enough to shatter all that glass, which in this confined space is probably just as well -- and the chain seems to gather towards the end of the hallway, to merge into a much larger blast, which ZOTS straight back at her with terrible power.
Nothing, she told Ivy. She did nothing.
They get to the end of the corridor -- a dead end.
There's a single mirror at the end of it, and something about the way it works, an awfully advanced optical illusion... it makes those reflected in it look... older.
Lost Ivy stares into it, but the woman in the reflection looks much less like Yumi Ohzora and much more like her mother. Said differently, one supposes, Yumi must look so terribly much like her mother did, when she was young.
"That's the whole point," Conflagria says, sounding so close that she might be whispering into Ivy's ear.
"You did NOTHING!"
The entire hallway bursts into flame.
Yet, strangely -- there is no fire in that mirror.
Kimie Ohzora is not burned.
Maybe... it isn't a dead end? Maybe the mirror is... a path...
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fire Lash on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Fire Lash on Witch of Wise Levin. COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy perfectly counters 25 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fire Lash, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Counter! Witch of Lost Ivy's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate! COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy's counterattack, Witch's Mirror, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin counters 12 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Fire Lash, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Witch of Wise Levin is Quipped! Witch of Wise Levin's Tactician ability activates! Stun applied to Witch of Wise Levin! COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin's counterattack, Storm Guard, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Pink Moon Stick!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
She hates you. It's a simple answer, but one thtat resonates in Yumi's heart. To be hated this much... It's a feeling she can't describe. It's a feeling she can barely identify. Anger, defensiveness--fear, resentment--...confusion. She understands, but she doesn't understand why, even now.
"Then it's fine!" Yumi says, as she starts to charge off. She's going toward that central hallway where she heard her voice, and she forgot in the moment to wait for Levin. "Oh--" But by the time she remembers to slow down, Levin has caught up, and the hallway is there, and there's an answer--
"Nothing?"
There are so many reflections again. But that blast--"Levin!"
They reach the end of the corridor to a single mirror... and Yumi blinks.
"...Mother?" she asks softly, in wonder. Just before the voice echoes in her ear, so quiet, so close. Yumi jumps.
The hallway bursts into flame, and with a shriek Yumi throws out her hand, tracing a rune of defense, and a barrier ERUPTS around her in all directions, pushing the flames back from her. She cannot do so well for Levin, unfortunately.
"Levin," she says. "The mirror--it's--the mirror's the way to go!"
Yumi leaps towards it, fully prepared to slam herself straight into it if she's wrong. But she doesn't think she is.
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Into the Mirror on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick accepts Witch of Lost Ivy's Into the Mirror, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Levin is almost wishing for a more straightforward adversary at the moment--almost. One willing to cause lots of collateral damage would arguably be worse in many ways... but perhaps not as frustrating.
"Dangit, I wonder if she accounted for this..." mutters Levin as her bolt ends up striking every single mirror in sight in the hallway. Her eyes widen as the power surges, and far too late to get a defense up, just enough to throw her arms in front of her as it strikes, sending her stumbling back. "Ow!"
All of these reverses is getting tiring.
Conflagria taunts Ivy some more--it sounds personal, somehow. Far too personal for her to understand, from what she knows of Yumi and Lost Ivy. Then again, they're foes, so maybe that's enough. But the image... She thinks that Yumi is pretty tall, like her mother; must be something that runs in the family, perhaps.
When the flames erupt she's quicker with a defense, pulling deep from the staff to wrap herself in a cloak of clouds that are far more dense than clouds really ought to be--but she's not fast enough to block all of them, gritting her teeth as some flames lick in and around her cover.
The strange mirror is there, almost inviting, and Raiko immediately switches to analysis mode. "Maybe we can learn something if we look at--" But Ivy has her own, very distressing way of testing out the effects of unknown magic. "Wha-- No, wait--"
The Mirror Maze was a trap. A portal through a mirror is doubly a trap.
She can only watch as Yumi leaps through, and then is hot on her heels. "This isn't arm's length, Ivy!" she complains to the air as she tries to follow her teammate.
COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used And What The Witches Found There on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick accepts Witch of Wise Levin's And What The Witches Found There, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> The Painful Way - Hades - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PUzjebdsXw
'Mother?' asks the twin in the mirror in unison, as reflections must. But it is not a true reply.
The mirror spins on an axis when Lost Ivy hits it -- it is a physical secret door, not some kind of magical path, it seems. Which, all things considered, is probably just as well. Levin was not wrong to be concerned.
She and Levin wind up on the other side after a confusing turntable moment, but not before Ivy seems to leap straight into her mother -- and Levin, too, briefly witnesses an older version of herself, on her way out of the hall.
The room on the other side possesses a kaleidoscope of walls. These mirrors are differently colored -- there are red ones, blue ones, green ones. And they're set directly across from one another, a set of eight in total, creating infinite copies of the two of them no matter which way they look.
Abruptly, the bottom meter or so of each mirror is filled with flames. One, then three, then, swiftly, all eight. They are surrounded again. A true ring of fire.
"You did nothing, nothing at all, to deserve any of it," Conflagria says again, disgusted. "And... all you have to do in the future, to get what I want more than anything else in the world, is nothing, too."
She spins into existence in the middle of the room, flame spiraling, licking at her until she is fully present; now the Conflagrias greatly outnumber the reflected Levins and Ivys. But it must be her, the real her, shimmering and staring and shaking her head.
"But you won't even do that much. And that is why I despise you... Lost Ivy."
It is distinctly not a comma, that ellipsis. When Conflagria says Lost Ivy, it is almost as its own sentence. Not a name at all. 'Lost Ivy,' she all but sighed.
Somewhere in all that anger exists a core of... sadness?
Not that that makes her less furious, nor less envious, nor her flames, as they press inwards, contracting the ring, forcing them closer to her -- less frightening.
"So, then," Conflagria challenges, her stance ready for them to do their worst. "Show me your worth."
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Ring of Fire on Witch of Wise Levin. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick has used Ring of Fire on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy neatly dodges 20 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Ring of Fire, taking 5 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin dodges 14 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Ring of Fire, taking 9 Fatigue damage!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
Surely she accounted for this, and more, but Yumi is not one to hold back for that. The transformation into Lost Ivy gives her a supernal endurance, lets her push her limits so, so much farther than she can as an ordinary girl. And so she does.
Levin, in her wisdom, suggests they stop to look. Ivy doesn't. It's distressing, but she does it. "But we have to GO!" Ivy protests back, and then she slams into the mirror and through the spinning puzzle. It was not a true reply. But this is.
There are so many walls. So many colors. There are eight, and there are so many colors, but... there are flames. Again.
"What are you...?" What is she talking about? Ivy can't parse it. It starts to make her angry. She feels that, within her, an answer to this woman's hatred of her.
The fmaes spiral around her, and here she is.
"...Fine," Ivy answers Conflagria, and steps to the side, so that she can stand beside Wise Levin. Lost Ivy sees that sadness, but it doesn't make a difference. The flames press inwards, and Lost Ivy twirls within them, keeping to only the outskirts of the fire that can be handled by her barriers.
"Fine, Conflagria. If that's how you want it." She feels bolder, in this anger. It feels like understanding, in another way. And then--and then the Staff gleams, a pink pulse emitted fromt he crystal.
"...It's not the same as understanding," Yumi murmurs. "...But it's still what I have. I'll show you my 'worth'! I'll show you my anger, too!"
Yumi floats from the ground a foot as she starts to hover the Staff before her, both hands on it as she draws up her focus. "Wrath of forgotten spirits," she intones, and green light begins to shine all around her. "Show me your hearts' light!"
Yumi points the staff forward, and spheres of green energy start to form all around her.
"DARK RADIANCE!"
But it is different from how she's ever cast it before; where once it was a curse, launched forth to lay waste to Yumi's enemies, now there is something purer in its expression. It is anger, but the wrath of a wasteland that once was verdant, the hope for justice from spirits that have long been denied it.
Within each green beam, edged in black, is a vibrant pink core, and they strike with all the fury of the earth.
COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy has used Dark Radiance on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
"It's a trap, that's what she wants! Augh!" Her words are too late to stop Ivy, of course.
Levin does notice the magicked image of her older self, but she doesn't have anyone to compare it too, the way Ivy does. And her thoughts are more for Ivy in the moment, who is rushing headlong into danger again. But who is also being personally attacked and challenged, and will surely, even with her new power, still need all the assistance she can offer.
She's caught off guard when the mirror just turns, instead of being a magical portal, which only serves to add onto her exasperation. Even with all of Conflagria's magic flooding the place, surely she could have figured that out if she'd just had a chance to examine it.
But that frustration and exasperation is set aside for the moment when she sees Conflagria again--hopefully the real one, this time. More words... And when Levin speaks again, it is not the exasperation of a girl worried for her friend's safety, or the put-upon airs of what she imagines a proper witch to be, but the steely words of someone who has her own reasons to hate The Hungry Queen and those who work for her.
"There's nothing someone like you would want that Ivy would desire."
More flames, and she dodges them as best as she can, but it's getting harder and harder to move quickly. The night's battle is taking a toll, the longer it goes on, and if it goes too much longer...
Well, if Conflagria wants them to show her their worth--okay, it's pretty clear she really only cares about Ivy, but Levin's going to do her best, too. She holds up her staff, lightning sparking furiously from the crystal embedded in the top. A bright, flickering ball forms, surging bigger and brighter as the power builds. With a sharp motion she swings the tip of the staff downward, releasing a thick beam of crackling lightning right for her enemy.
If only she hadn't wasted that 'Catch this' retort earlier.
COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used Smite on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick partially dodges 18 Fatigue damage from Witch of Lost Ivy's Dark Radiance, taking 72 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Pink Moon Stick's Fade and Flash abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick cleanly braces 45 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Smite, taking 8 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
If Lost Ivy's beam had hit Conflagria dead on, the fight might already be over. Because though she got partially out of the way -- it hit one of her arms dead on.
And that arm is no longer red.
It is white. And not a happy, pure, pretty white. A dead white. She looks down at it, at her bleached clothing, and experimentally tries to make a fist. No response.
It is an ugly thing what happens next, and it speaks to her training, or perhaps simply to who she is as a person:
She allows the arm, no longer any use to her, to be her shield against Wise Levin's lightning. And white is transformed to black with crackling and sinuous power. Her veins, beneath the fabric, appear first; then the black seems to connect itself between the branches, painting itself in.
When smoke rises from her, afterwards, it is not HER smoke, for once.
Pain is writ large across her face; cold sweat is at her temples.
"Ah," she pants, and a ring of smoke escapes her mouth with the exhalation. Perhaps that beam, that lightning, burnt her from the inside, too. "Yes. That is her anger, all right."
She said that more to herself than to the girls, presumably; if it had been in direct response, she would have said 'that is YOUR anger', no? And, despite the agonies of her arm, she said it with the smallest, the subtlest, the slightest twisted smile.
Swinging herself fully upright, she uncrouches from around the arm, lets it hang back, dangling uselessly behind her almost like a sash.
And she continues, her crimson eyes flicking over the two of them:
"But it's not enough. I'm still standing. And now it's my turn."
A rune of phenomenal power pulses underneath all three of them. It's drawn in flame, of course. And Conflagria thrusts her arm to the ceiling.
The eight mirrors do not endure; they explode, filling the space with broken glass, like teeth in the open Hellmouth she has conjured. The whole room is flame -- not an explosion, but a sustained, continuous blaze.
The flames howl, but Conflagria's howl is louder.
"It will take more than ANGER to defeat me, 'Lost Ivy' and 'Wise Levin'! Show me you have what it takes to secure your friend's safety, your prize tome, your pride!"
Her good hand, above her head, clenches into a fist, and the fire's intensity doubles, the blue cores spreading throughout the reds and oranges.
"Show me your HUNGER!"
<SoundTracker> In The Blood - Hades - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojx8dyes__8
COMBAT: FINISHER! Pink Moon Stick has used Blazing End on Witch of Lost Ivy. COMBAT: FINISHER! Pink Moon Stick has used Blazing End on Witch of Wise Levin. COMBAT: Witch of Lost Ivy braces 35 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Finisher, Blazing End, taking 29 Fatigue damage! Witch of Lost Ivy's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin dodges 45 Fatigue damage from Pink Moon Stick's Finisher, Blazing End, taking 30 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Levin watches as Ivy's attack nearly does the job, as Conflagria uses the dead arm to block her own attack, turning her arm twisted and black.
It is, to be perfectly frank, a little upsetting to watch her magic cause that kind of harm to another person, but Levin will put that feeling aside for Raiko to deal with later. Right now, however, Conflagria still stands, and that demands her continued focus.
Conflagria addresses her by name for the first time that night--was that what it took to earn some acknowledgement from their enemy, to render a useless arm down to blackened flesh? Something else for Raiko to deal with later.
The rune she creates with her magic is worrying, and as the flames lick at them. It is an overwhelming amount of flame, and though she does her best to avoid as much of it as she can, desparation and adrenaline can only do so much after the night she's had, and when she finds the chance to stop moving... well, she's dodged more than not, but she's clearly on her last legs by the end of it. Panting softly, leaning against her staff for support, and more than ready to crawl into bed and forget this night ever happened.
But she's still standing, and the stare she levels on Conflagria is still defiant.
There is anger inside of her, deep down. When her grandfather was merely missing, it wasn't there, but when she found out there was a likely cause, that he may have been done in by an enemy that was hers, not just now, but from many generations past past, it started to smoulder within her.
But it is also the Staff of Wise Levin's enemy, as well, and the staff has been at this for far longer than this witch in particular has. They are connected--and through that connection it reaches out to help guide her thoughts, to offer encouragement, and most of all, guidance. There is plenty of anger, yes, but it can fuel so many things....
"Anger?" asks out Levin, still leaning on her staff. "For one who would ensnare the minds of mortals, tempt them with with forbidden secrets, endanger the lives of innocents, and to steal from them that which is most precious and rightfully theirs?" As she speaks, she stands, her breathing becoming steadier and more even.
She slams her staff down, and her own runes appear in the air, traced, naturally enough, in the lightning that is her namesake. They're all pointed at Conflagria, and energy begins to gather within them. Levin's voice echos with shared power as she continues. "I deny what you ask for in spite, and instead, I offer simply this: Retribution."
With a gesture, all of the runes unleash their energy at once with a thunderous roar, the fury of a storm unleashed in quarters much too close for it.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Witch of Wise Levin has used Levin's Retribution on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Witch of Lost Ivy [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.
It is a trap. But the bait is too good. Yumi can't--won't--resist it. The alternative is to let Conflagria have her way. The book? The book is important. But Takahiro...
She won't allow it.
So she thinks. But her beam hits, and Ivy flinches at the sight of what she sees. Deathly white. Conflagria's hand does not so much as twitch after she looks down at it, and there is something even more awful in it, she thinks. It is smoke, and that pain on her face...
Is she talking to herself, Yumi wonders?
"Levin," Ivy cautions. But it's silly, in its way; Levin is the one who is cautious. Yumi is the one who charges forward. Nevertheless, Yumi worries. But the power pulses there. Drawn in flame...
The mirrors explode, and the mirror's explosions dig in like teeth would; Yumi's leather takes the brunt. The flames she can start to shield from below, but even then they batter through that magical barrier, and Yumi is nearly consumed by the flames as they intensify. "Aaah!"
But the flames die down for a moment, and Yumi hits a knee, panting for breath. It hurts.
"My pride..." Ivy hesitates. "My hunger..." For what does she hunger? There is a pang in her stomach, as she feels some of it right then. She doesn't have the answer. She just knows...
"...My pride," she says, "...Doesn't want you to win." Yumi puts her staff's butt to the ground, and begins to pull herself up.
Raiko is able to draw on spite. But Yumi can't; she still feels wounded by that hatred, a hatred she doesn't yet understand. ...And she has a different feeling to share. "Levin," she says. "...You're right. She's done all those things. But..."
She spoke of pride. Now, "The tome... I can't let you use it to hurt more people. I won't let it back into your hands."
"And my friend..." Yumi rises to her significant full height, and puts her shoulders back.
"You can't have him!"
Yumi takes a breath. She feels it--she feels a strangeness inside her that feels right to part of her. It tells her that what she wants is to destroy this woman who has hurt her and hers. ...But Yumi feels the Staff's gentle pulse, remembers why she came here in the first place. It wasn't to destroy. For a moment she is paralyzed. But only for a moment. She reaches for her Staff, and tightens her grip on it. "...No. I won't fight you with hunger. I'll fight you with something else."
Yumi's eyes set. Pink shimmers at her irises.
"Sleeping power..."
There is suddenly the fury of the storm. But among that fury there begins another magic. Motes of light begin to rise from the floor--no, through the floor, from the very earth itself. From the space that was once greenery, long buried beneath concrete and asphalt and tile. Those motes rise, and rise, until the floor is covered in lights like viridian fireflies. Even as the thunder and lightning crash forward, they quietly shine.
Yumi raises her Staff in one hand and nothing in the other--no, not nothing. Her outstretched palm shines with a radiant light. Where once this spell called for deepest darkness, now it is something different. She traces runes in the air, ancient runes of power that she knows without ever having learned. They hang there, edged in white and green, hovering before her hand.
All around her they glow, and the Staff's head begins to burn in radiance. Those 'fireflies' on the ground begin to rise higher, floating towards the Staff's crystal. At first it is slow, and then much faster, and then brilliantly quick.
"Be bound by my will!"
Yumi changes her stance, stepping to the side such that her staff is behind and her palm faces forward.
"VERDANT FLARE!"
A beam of pink--only edged in green, mostly pink--energy crashes forward, and at first it is small. As soon as it touches its target, though, it will GROW, forcing Yumi back as it cascades to as big as Yumi herself, and where it blasts forth there will be green flames to bring life where once was only death.
COMBAT: FINISHER! Witch of Lost Ivy has used Verdant Flare on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 63 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Finisher, Levin's Retribution, taking 94 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 123 Fatigue damage from Witch of Lost Ivy's Finisher, Verdant Flare, taking 82 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Pink Moon Stick is unable to keep fighting! Pink Moon Stick's Block and Parry abilities activate!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Wise Levin's runes surround Conflagria, and all explode at once. Torrents and torrents of lightning rain down on her, and she is nearly lost to sight.
Nearly, but not wholly.
Not until Lost Ivy's power, the power of the earth, rises around her. Her runes, traced in profound luminescence, ignite into a sparkling pink beam; and that beam brings life -- life, life, so much greenery that even the lightning of her ally cannot crisp it fast enough to keep it from growing.
Afterwards, Conflagria resembles nothing so much as a lightning-struck tree. Wisps of smoke pour off of her wood-bound limbs, her vine-wrapped trunk. Her good arm she spread wide, almost in welcoming, while the dead arm remained limp at her side.
There is a small crackling sound. Then another. A soft chunk, follows.
It smells pleasant. Like a campfire.
And when the girls go to look, they see a Conflagria-shaped hole, which burned out the heart of the tree from within.
Her voice puffs the hair around Wise Levin's ear.
"Child," the whisper entreats, weary but unapologetic, "What is retribution, but a hunger for revenge?"
And a warm wind swirls at Lost Ivy's dress.
"And what is life, if not hunger?" she adds, with a strange, almost nostalgic sigh. "Life hungers to live." It's such a banal thing to say that it's almost silly. But is it truly wrong? "And your hunger has won... peace for your friend, and that tome for your library."
With a final flare in the middle of the room, her presence vanishes.
"CongratuLAtions, Lost Ivy," she says by way of farewell. "My... how you've grown..."
The nascent, burned-out tree crumbles to ash, and then to nothing at all. Which is probably just as well, considering that this is a beloved theme park attraction.
