"The odds aren't terribly high," Seril said in a flat tone. "But the odds don't matter. This is something that needs to be done. Our odds will improve should we succeed, as the story that someone successfully infiltrated NightShade's palace and rescued a prisoner from it will spread."

Well, that outburst from R.D. was a bit surprising...but considering the circumstances, might as well get caught in the moment.

"Take him down!" Matt shouted.

Jotaro burst into action, launching right at Re-Tuul. Star Platinum rose from his body and assailed the demon with a high-speed barrage of fists.

Hugo stomped the ground, flaring up the G-Stone. "Grapple Option!" Launching his claw, he grabbed a large piece of rubble and flung it at Re-Tuul's back.

Re-Tuul snarled as Jotaro flew in, and lifted up his claw. It was immediately pummeled into something resembling paste as it was flattened and crushed underneath Star Platinum's onslaught, with the rest of his arm splitting into bloody ribbons. His wings flapped hard, sending him into the air, and particles of white and black flew out of nowhere, alighting on his arm and restoring it in an instant. Black and gray particles followed, forming into Re-Tuul's massive, double-bladed sword.

Hugo's projectile immediately smashed into his back as the Khaglessi grabbed the sword, and he spun about with a snarl, flinging an arm upward and sending an orange disk of energy cutting through the air at the Mettaur.

R.D. struggled to rise, succeeding only when Ileyna tugged on his arm in an effort to help. He ignored her as she backed away, seeing the wild, feral look in his eyes as he returned his gaze to Re-Tuul, who was pushing forward and attacking Matt, swinging his gargantuan weapon down at him. R.D. roared once more, the Annihilating Second Bullet beginning to disintegrate from his back, and he smashed his fist into the ground, shooting him forward at the Khaglessi Patriarch.

"Helena, help me get these two out of the way," Alasea shouted, slipping Holly's arm over her shoulder to lift her up. "Then we can take that bastard down!"

===Bahamut's Weyr===

Seril nodded. "Please, do not wander far. I get the feeling we will be leaving shortly."

With that, the blue dragon turned and left, striding out of the chamber. She needed to gather she'll need to take care of her role in NightShade's palace.

Helena flared out her arms, transforming them. "Right!" She grabbed Joseph and easily picked him up, draping the man over her shoulder.

Matt flipped to the side in a jarring no-hand cartwheel, avoiding Re-Tuul's heavy blade. He drew his own and countered with a backhanded slash. Meanwhile, Hugo rolled to avoid the energy disc, sending out his Laser Options to flitter around and pelt Re-Tuul with their beams.

Alasea dragged Holly out of the fray, placing her off to the side before she put down some wards around her, then did the same for Joseph once he was put down. "Let's go!" she said to Helena, drawing the Megami Tsurugi from her waist.

Re-Tuul twisted his wrist around, parrying Matt's slash with his weapon. He slammed its lower blade into the dirt and used it to vault upwards, kicking his feet forward to knock Matt back before taking to the air again.

Immediately, R.D. was upon him, another green jet of flame issuing from his back and sending the Shell Bullet forward. The red and orange fist smashed through the crossguard of the demon's sword, breaking it in half, and continued until it smashed Re-Tuul in the middle of his forearm, breaking the limb off. With a cry of rage, the demon slammed his left elbow into R.D.'s back, knocking down to the ground once more. The greatsword disappeared into black particles again, which reformed around his ruined arm.

What appeared was a forearm ending in a stump a large, shining blade replacing his hand. His left hand came up, palm open, and showered the battlefield with orange rays of energy. Ileyna threw up a shield in front of her, deflecting the blasts away from her.

Edited by RisingDragon on October 23, 2009 at 21:25:45.

Hugo defended himself from the blasts by ducking under his helmet. Matt wasn't so lucky-he was thrown aside by the resulting explosions.

But, before a blast could hit Jotaro, he suddenly vanished from view. In an instant he was behind Re-Tuul, and his Stand unloaded a massively powerful punch into the demon's backside.

"What--!?" Re-Tuul snapped, sensing Jotaro appearing behind him in an instant. Pain suddenly blossomed from his side, as the fist smashed into bone, the force of which shredding into organs and muscle before the fist cut a bloody channel through the demon's side. Blackish ichor and shrapnel of bone exploded outward in a bloody spray, but despite the brutal attack, Re-Tuul spun, slashing out with his wrist blade at Jotaro's chest.

"I don't know how you did that," he snarled as the wound regenerated, "But its going to be one of the last things you ever did!"

Jotaro leapt back, and just in time - the blade sliced across his body, but not deeply enough to cause any lasting damage. He just swooped back in with another unseeable attack, cuffing Re-Tuul across the head. This gave Helena ample room for a follow-up blast of fire, to knock the demon towards the Kujo's tool shed.

The two attacks worked, knocking Re-Tuul's face aside before the beam struck, sending him high over the shed. However, his movement halted in an instant, and the flames began to spread out, as if striking against a barrier. Re-Tuul had recovered from his attack and formed up a shield to ward off the weredragon's flames.

"Not bad!" he crowed, spreading out his wings. Lines of orange energy flowed out along the black feathers, forming four designs--two on each wing--that looked suspiciously like eyes. More energy gathered in the "pupils" before flaring, launching out four thick beams of energy that cut through the air at Helena and Alasea.

The Daughter of Dawn ducked out the way, rolling to the side and coming up with her blade pointed. Rays of fire lanced out from it, tearing through the air alongside rays of blue light fired from Ileyna's hand. Re-Tuul ducked and weaved around the attacks while his left arm burst apart, more particles forming within it to turn it into a weapon.

Something leapt up and seized Re-Tuul in the middle of a high dodge. "Surprise, motherfucker!" Matt whooped, and brought the demon down with him to the ground in a tremendous piledriver.

Helena scrambled out of the way of the beam and landed flat on her stomach. A visual cue from Hugo made her rise back up quickly.

"Keep it long-range!" Hugo shouted at her. "Re-Tuul's way too dangerous!"

"Okay!" Helena called back, and began bending fire for a more creative attack.

Re-Tuul was driven into the ground by Matt's surprise attack, raising a large cloud of dust from the impact. Immediately, Re-Tuul was seen soaring out, firing back with energy rays, but then the cloud blasted apart as R.D. barreled through it, propelled by the Exterminating Last Bullet.

The particles gathering at Re-Tuul's left arm finished forming, becoming a multi-segmented drill covered in small spikes. The segments began spinning in opposing directions, and Re-Tuul thrust it out to meet R.D.'s fist. The two struck with a crashing noise, and a high-pitched whine cut through the air as the drill began tearing down the top of the armor. R.D.'s eyes widened in shock and anger as the attack flung him away.

===Holy Darkness===

Aram grunted as the light struck his eyes, causing him to lift up his shield arm to ward it off while they adjusted.

"Are we where the Love Elemental is?" he questioned, looking over at the Shade Lord.

"Jotaro!" Matt shouted, lunging back up. "Knock him this way!" Jotaro agreed by having Star Platinum pick up another massive chunk of wall and throw it at Re-Tuul, hard and fast.

Edited by The Helldragon on October 23, 2009 at 22:40:17.

As the wall flew at Re-Tuul, the demon turned and slashed downwards with his wrist blade. In an instant, the wall parted down the middle, split by the weapon, and flew past the unharmed Khaglessi.

As it did, the remaining particles of his weapon began to gather at Re-Tuul's back, solidifying into six segmented conical tubes that hooked into his back. Re-Tuul pushed off the ground with his foot, taking to the air, and the tubes detached, igniting in the back end. The weapons darted through the ait at random trajectories, blades of energy forming at their tips, as they zeroed in on Jotaro.

Once again, Jotaro vanished from sight. The next moment, a massive tree trunk crashed into Re-Tuul's head, torn off and swung by a very active Star Platinum.

Re-Tuul snarled as he was sent sprawling into the ground by the surprise attack. How is he doing that!? the demon wondered angrily.

His thoughts went unanswered, for at that moment, R.D. was airborne, careening down at Re-Tuul with his fist drawn back. Re-Tuul rolled out of the way as the Shell Bullet impacted against the ground, causing a shockwave, but the demon wasted no time in counterattacking. Re-Tuul spun his body about, twisting his back against the dirt as his legs whipped around and slammed into R.D.'s side. With a cry, R.D. was sent flying as Re-Tuul hopped up on his feet and grinned.

He twisted around, easily slapping Alasea's sword aside with his wrist blade before kicking the girl away from him. Alasea hit the ground hard with a grunt, her sword skittering from her grasp. She looked up quickly, just in time to see Ileyna's beams strike hard against Re-Tuul's back. The demon spun about at the hit, and sneered at the girl.

With a flap of his wings, Re-Tuul soared across the ground at Ileyna, who seemed to freeze up in shock.

"Ileyna!" Alasea shouted, getting up to grab her sword.

"Say goodnight, little girl!" Re-Tuul cackled, thrusting his drill at the girl. His grin, however, disappeared as something grabbed his arm and wrenched him to the side, slamming him into the ground. Ileyna immediately took to the air as her Stand defended her.

X suddenly felt queasy. The light was... unbalancing. He felt his outer self grow stronger, enhanced by the ambient energies. His inner self, however, felt sapped and weakened. Imprisoned.

As X collapsed and began to dry heave, it quietly occurred to him how strange it was to feel, let alone be affected, by the state of his other.

"X? X!"

Aram dropped to X's side, placing one gauntleted hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

What did it mean for X to be affected by eX's strength? Surely they weren't reconnecting...?

X wiped the side of his mouth and a gave a weak laugh that betrayed his inner conflict.

"It's OK... I'm just not used to teleporting like that," he lied.

Helena threw out her claws with a shout, releazing dozens of tiny, potent fireballs into the air. They swirled above, surrounding Re-Tuul, and as Helena clapped her hands together, they all zoomed in and burst into a cluster of explosive force.

Re-Tuul's head snapped about as the flames shot about around him before converging, swallowing him up within a blooming fire flower. The explosion was deafening, releasing a small shockwave that pushed those closest to it back.

And then suddenly, from within the flames, six conical, bladed projectiles flew out at random directions, streaking towards Helena at high speeds.

"Look out!" Ileyna shouted, spotting the projectiles and narrowly evading one before it could skewer her. Beneath her, Re-Tuul exploded out of the flames, white flesh charred by the explosion but otherwise unharmed. His wings fanned out and he swung one arm out, the claw on it restored and holding a peculiar weapon, a long club with a large, curving blade arcing down its length from the tip.

"Playtime's over, kiddies!" he cackled. "Time to die now!"

The conical weapon bits suddenly moved faster, and R.D. looked up, surprised, as they converged on him from random angles. He flung himself about every which way, and blood arced through the air repeatedly as each one's blade slashed open through his arms, legs, and sides, causing him to scream out as they struck. It had been all he could do to prevent each one from landing fatal blows.

Re-Tuul was on him in an instant, bringing that strange sword down at his head. R.D. threw himself to the side, causing the swing to miss as he drew out on his Phase Blades. There was suddenly a crashing noise as Re-Tuul whipped around, striking again--R.D. had barely managed to get his own sword up in time to defend against the blow. As it were, the demon's foot came up and kicked him hard in the chest, sending the amnesiac careening into Holly's tool shed and shattering its wall upon impact.

The earth underneath Re-Tuul shot up and down list a piston, propelling him into the air. Matt was waiting above, and with an overhead swing of his leg, he knocked the demon back down with a tremendous smash.

Re-Tuul furled his wings around him a bit as he was propelled into the air, and spun his grip on his hook-bladed sword until the flat club end faced forward. With remarkable speed, he twisted his body about in the air and blocked Matt's strike with his shin.

Re-Tuul twisted his body about again, attacking with a side-swipe of his club-sword at Matt's head. The weapon pods from earlier quickly soared up to aid their controller, each one looking to impale itself on Matt.

"Matt, look out!" Alasea screamed, readying weaves to strike Re-Tuul from afar.

"Damn it!" Matt quickly swerved to catch the blade and twist his body away from the pods, drawing grazing wounds along his arms and side. He cocked back his armored fist and fired a quick, powerful jab at Re-Tuul's face.

Spittle and blood flew from Re-Tuul's mouth as Matt landed his punch, but the demon kept coming, ignoring the pain and the purplish bruise that was beginning to form. His left arm slapped Matt's Genesis Arm away before he followed up by a quick punch at the boy's gut, then lifted up his weapon to smash him back down to Earth.

A searing white beam of energy cut through the air and into the demon's wing and shoulder, splitting through muscles and tendons with ease. Alasea readied another Aura Strafe, charging up a sphere of white in her hand as Re-Tuul spun about, making a sweeping gesture with a claw while he snarled. Several orange disks of energy cut through the air, and as Alasea made to dodge, the ground beneath her was rent apart in a series of explosions. She screamed as she was thrown back; two of the disks missed her entirely while the third bit deep into her thigh. Her next scream was louder and far worse than the earlier one.

"Alasea!" Helena shouted, grasping onto a wounded arm.

Hugo's Force Option swerved in, blowing away Re-Tuul with powerful repelling energy. Just then, Star Platinum lifted up the remains of the earlier tree trunk and threw them towards Re-Tuul.

Matt took the moment to swoop back down, landing next to Helena. "All right, time for the big guns!" he said. "Follow my instructions to the letter!"

Re-Tuul sneered as the Force Option knocked him back, but when Star Platinum threw the remains of the tree at him, the weapon pods cut through the air and tore it to shreds, leaving only harmless fragments that flew past Re-Tuul, some bouncing off of him harmlessly.

Crying, Alasea pushed herself up, grabbing a hold of the wound in her leg and crying out in pain as she touched it. "Oh god," she gasped, trying to get healing weaves to form so she could staunch the blood flow.

Ahead of them, the tool shed suddenly exploded as R.D. lashed out with Lumiya's power, having heard Alasea's scream. As the rubble was sent flying, particles of light flew onto R.D.'s form until the Dragon King Armor covered him. The visor slammed shut around his face, and his eyes flashed yellow behind them. The scattered tools disappeared as the matter converter activated, taking the material and reforming it into the various cannons mounted on R.D.'s body, and the Nova Reactor mounted in the back of the armor.

Re-Tuul began to laugh and held one claw up into the sky.

Edited by RisingDragon on October 25, 2009 at 22:42:22.

Jotaro leapt up at Re-Tuul in an attempt to grab him and bring him back down to earth. Meanwhile, Hugo ran towards Alasea. "Stay still," he commanded. His helmet sprung up and ejected a small box of medical supplies, which he seized with the grapple. "Let me bind that up."