Re-Tuul sneered as he saw Jotaro's approach, and spoke. "Go, Meteor Fangs!"

Three of the weapon pods changed direction and flew out at Jotaro at high speeds to cut him off. Up above, a sphere of energy formed above Re-Tuul's hand. Particles of gold light gathered and were absorbed into it, causing it to grow in size.

Alasea fell back, gritting her teeth as she fought the pain while Hugo wrapped it. "God, it hurts..."

Star Platinum's fists tore the air in front of Jotaro, knocking away the pods.

"Nuke 'im!" Matt cried out. "Power GEYSER!" He punched the ground and expelled a mighty explosive tongue of flame underneath Re-Tuul. "Now, Helena!"

She cried out and threw her claws up, and a massive, spiralling coil of flame burst from her gathered power. The front of the coil assumed the jaws and mantle of a great serpent, and it rolled at Re-Tuul, sweeping back and forth with swooping charge attacks.

The grin on Re-Tuul's face died as the flames transformed before his vision. His hand flashed down, and the sphere above him exploded into hundreds of energy bolts that soared up into the sky, curved, and then rained back down on the team.

"Look out!" R.D. shouted, bringing up the shield mounted on his left arm as he leaped over to Alasea and Hugo. Explosions littered the ground, rending it and the house apart, even as the sweeping flame snake overtook the Khaglessi.

Matt threw his hand up and created a massive wall of stone. Yanking Helena by the hand, he pulled her in front of him and faced his back against the wall, tightly wrapped around the girl. The lasers bore through the wall and tore it to large chunks of rubble, and all the while, Matt swore.

Hugo ducked behind R.D. as he took the brunt, and Jotaro dove behind a tree. One of the lasers hit the branches, and the brush burst into flames, spreading across the other treetops.

Alasea immediately curled herself up into a fetal position, ignoring the screaming pain that ripped through her injured leg as she did so. Every other sound was drowned out by the explosions that shredded through the homestead, combined with the raging fire that Matt and Helena had conjured up. Above it all, Ileyna looked on in horror at the blanket of fire. The serpent of flame exploded, spreading fire everywhere and revealing the charred Khaglessi Patriarch as his wounds began to regenerate once more.

After several moments, the hellish period ended, leaving only Ileyna and Re-Tuul in the air. The demon's shoulders shook with mirth, and after a second, he threw his head back and roared with obscene laughter. The Meteor Fangs flew towards him, their blades deactivated, and sank their hooked points into the flesh of his back.

R.D. dropped to one knee within the smoke, holding himself up with one arm, the shattered remains of his shield littered around him. His armor trembled as he heaved, pain wracking his body from the overchanneling. Behind him, Hugo and Alasea were luckily unharmed by the blasts.

As Re-Tuul's laughter slowly died out, the demon looked down to survey his handiwork. His red joker lips split into that awful grin once more, and like a serpent, he struck again, throwing several orange disks of energy through the air at Matt and Helena.

Edited by RisingDragon on October 25, 2009 at 17:13:05.

"Shit shit SHIT!" Matt yelled. He ran, tripped, fell on his knees, and pushed himself back up, running again. Had to bolt towards the road, regroup, then maybe he could turn around and-

Another scream pierced the air, causing Matt to freeze. He shot a glance behind him to see Helena flat on the grass, singed by dirt and battle. She curled her fingers, clawing at the ground. One of her legs was drawn up, knee to the side of her chest.

The other was a few feet away, truncated from below her knee in a splatter of blood.

"...oh, that's it."

Matt turned around and threw out his hands. The left hand glowed with golden energy, the right hand with red.

"You're fuckin' dead," he spat.

"Helena!" the voices of two girls screamed, horror-stricken. Alasea snatched Hugo's medical supplies and pushed herself up, ignoring the blood soaking into her skirt and stocking as she lurched forward. She stumbled once and was forced to bite back a scream, but continued anyway, staggering over to her friend while she gripped her wounded leg. She collapsed in front of her, fighting back sobs of horror as she saw Helena's wound.

"Oh god, Helena, hold on, hold on," she sputtered quickly, snatching up a tourniquet to staunch the blood loss. "Don't die on me, Helena, don't you dare die on me!"

Re-Tuul watched with curiosity and glee as Helena writhed on the ground, wounded by his earlier attack. "Oh dear," he murmured. "Well, it'd only be humane to put the little beast girl out of her misery, wouldn't it? Yes, yes it would! Go, Meteor Fangs!"

The Meteor Fangs detached and soared through the air, spearing down at Helena and Alasea, brandishing their energy blades.

"Mass Effect!" Ileyna screamed, pointing at the weapon pods as they shot down. Her Stand darted forward, thrusting its shielded arm at the weapons and unleashing its power on them. Across the sea of burning trees, R.D. blasted up into the air, locking on. All five of his cannons swung into place and fired. Twin beams of azure and red plasma, twin rays of gold, and a single thick bolt of green laserfire streaked through the air and cut through the weakened Meteor Fangs, obliterating them in an instant.

"What!?" Re-Tuul snarled, spinning about and looking at first Ileyna, then R.D..

Dragon Drive FINAL's gauntlets materialized amid green, crackling lighting coursing between Matt's fingers. "Gemu giru gan go gufo..." He brought his hands together and unleashed the electromagnetic tornado at Re-Tuul.

Re-Tuul twisted about with a bit of difficulty as the electromagnetic storm caged him within the spiraling green tunnel.

"Oh, now this is interesting," he sneered, raising up a claw and igniting a field of white antimatter around it. With a flap of his wings, Re-Tuul propelled himself down the tunnel, his claw leading the way.

Matt flew up through the tunnel, charging ahead with his combined claws. "VITAAAAAAS!"

Re-Tuul's antimatter claw smashed hard against Dragon Drive FINAL's gauntlets, and with a thunderous crash, the electromagnetic storm blew apart with the force, green lighting spreading out everywhere.

Re-Tuul's grin was twisted with surprise as the initial wave of antimatter crashed against the combined energies of Hell and Heaven, only to find the attack's power was far greater than his own. The glow disappeared from his wrist, and Matt plowed on through, crushing Re-Tuul's arm before Hell and Heaven struck his chest. Re-Tuul screeched as his torso collapsed under the blow, almost tearing him in half as he was slammed through the air and into the blazing forest.

Alasea slipped a thick bar of wrapped wood between Helena's teeth before wiping sweat and tears out of her eyes. "Sorry, Helena!" she cried as she slipped the tourniquet around her severed leg. "This is gonna hurt!"

With a powerful wrench, she squeezed the tourniquet painfully tight around Helena's leg.

Helena screamed in pain, biting down on the board with her fangs and choking away sobs.

Hugo turned away from the scene and looked on as Matt landed on the ground, still burning with the powers of Hell and Heaven. "Wait a minute!" Matt snapped. "I ain't DONE with you yet!" With a roar, he pulled apart his hands and clenched them into fists, each one glowing with its individual power of Hell and Heaven.

"R.D.!" Hugo said. "Help him kill that bastard fast, I don't want him to freak out like he did last time!"

R.D. was already flying after Re-Tuul, shooting out over the forest and locking on with his cannons. They swung into place to fire, only for regenerated Meteor Fangs to shoot out of the forest from different directions. Caught by surprise, they shredded through his cannons and caused them to explode from the charged energy within them, sending R.D. careening back down into the dirt.

Re-Tuul erupted from the forest, regenerated fully. Energy gathered through lines in his wings, and the "eyes" opened up again, firing powerful beams of energy across the homestead at Matt. Between the four beams, a sphere of energy formed in front of the Khaglessi's hands, then exploded in a series of arcing energy blasts that homed in on Matt.

Matt just held up his gauntlets and the lasers bounced off, spreading out and striking the ground around him. Then he began walking towards Re-Tuul, which quickly broke into a run.

Jotaro looked back at the girls and shouted, "I'll be back! Stay put!" He also bolted towards Re-Tuul.

The pounding in X's head grew stronger and louder, louder and louder still, until it felt as though it would rip him into pieces.

And then it stopped. As quickly as it started, it was over. Everything was silent. The Queen's commanding voice was quieted, eX's taunting had ceased, even Sylvontis's sage wisdom was mysteriously absent. Even the Queen's runes were missing from his arm.

All of the impurities within X, all of his darkness (plus Sylvontis), were gone. Could it be that the Love Elemental was surpressing all of them?

Re-Tuul, however, only smiled at the sudden turn of events. He lifted his arms up and snapped them forward, and within an instant, they had grown impossibly long, crossing the distance to Matt and Jotaro in an instant. The claws latched onto their shirts, and Re-Tuul made to fling them up high and send them hurtling back into the dirt.

===Holy Darkness===

"Ah... it does," Aram said, having turned at the sound of the Love Elemental's voice.

Idly, he wondered if whatever evil left behind in him by Diablo would give him enough of an edge to combat the Love Elemental. "Tell me, Sin... what do I need to do to stop him?"

This didn't work very well. Jotaro vanished again, and reappeared with one of Re-Tuul's arms in the grip of Star Platinum. With a loud "ORA!", the Stand yanked over the demon with a colossal pull. Meanwhile, Matt twisted about in midair and fell downwards with fists first, intending to smash into Re-Tuul head on.

Re-Tuul's arms returned to their normal length within an instant, tearing itself out of Star Platinum's grip, and with shocking speed, the demon had folded his wings back in and twisted his body around to block both incoming attacks--hexagonal orange barriers hovered in front of his hands, holding both of them at bay.

"I thought something was strange about that instantaneous movement," Re-Tuul said, smirking as he turned his head in Jotaro's direction. "So, that's what you've been doing? Stopping time? Real cute."

The smirk suddenly disappeared from Re-Tuul's eel-like face.

"But I'm done playing around."

Waves of force suddenly buffeted his two opponents, tearing the ground apart beneath them as Re-Tuul countered their attacks. Energy sprang up from his palms, then blasted out at them to shove them back further and giving him his chance to escape.

The ground shook as the blasts were fired, causing Alasea to glance up from her work on Helena's severed leg. Her eyes widened in an instant as Re-Tuul swung his weapon, the flat club-side of the weapon aimed at her head. The weapon smashed her hard across the face, knocking her away into the ground as she shrieked in pain. Re-Tuul sneered as the Meteor Fangs broke apart into particles, and they all returned to his weapon, recreating its original double-bladed greatsword form.

He took the weapon in both hands and planted his foot hard on Helena's stomach, shoving her into the ground. "No hard feelings, girl," he growled as he hefted the weapon up to bring it back down through her chest.

"Helena!" R.D.'s voice roared.

Re-Tuul was suddenly smashed to the ground as R.D. tackled the demon, saving Helena from a grisly fate. R.D. brought up the Phase Scythe and activated it, swinging its large crystalline blade down at the Khaglessi, who parried it with his weapon. Re-Tuul's wings opened up and he took to the air; R.D. quickly chasing after him with his Nova Reactor.

Edited by RisingDragon on October 26, 2009 at 12:19:01.

X glanced at Aram. "Yeah," he said, "We're a bit familiar with the concept."

Aram nodded. "Do it."

X jumped through the rip. Landing in the Elemental's mind scape he suddenly felt lighter. Like...

Oh shit.
~~~~~~

eX landed with a thud. He slowly pulled himself up and looked around. Looking in the distance, he picked a direction and started to stagger.

"This guy's starting to really piss me off," Matt spat. He glanced at Jotaro. "Pin him down."

Jotaro nodded. With that, Matt looked back up to the aerial battle. "Dragon Drive." The aura burst into fierce form, and he rocketed into the sky, firing a coursing energy beam at Re-Tuul.

Meanwhile, Helena rolled over with a grunt, nudging Alasea in the shoulder. "Alasea! Alasea, are you okay?"

(OOC: THD, yr making this too difficult to set up. D:)

Re-Tuul banked gracefully, swooping around the blasts from Matt, angling around and firing a series of much-too-accurate countershots. Each beam lanced through the air, quickly bending in sharp angles to fire one last time when they fell short of Matt's Dragon Drive.

R.D. took the chance and swept in, leaving a trail of blue-green particles behind him as he flew, and made a vicious slash at Re-Tuul with his Phase Scythe. The weapon clashed against the demon's greatsword, causing sparks to fly as the blades grated against each other. Re-Tuul's strength began to overcome R.D., slowly pushing him back.

"Oh come on!" the demon laughed. "This is too easy!"

With a snarl, R.D. twisted the Phase Scythe around and separated it, forcing Re-Tuul to pull back before the two Phase Blades could bisect him as the enraged amnesiac made a violent horizontal slash with them both. As Re-Tuul settled, R.D. brought both weapons up to bare. The light was turning orange, as the sun began to set, casting an eerie glow on the two combatants as they stared off against one another.

"You're only delaying the inevitable," Re-Tuul sneered, hefting his blade up. "Its far too late to save the little beast girl, she's as good as dead!"

The demon launched forward, swinging with his greatsword.

"No!" R.D. snarled, his right-hand sword slashing down, parrying it. Re-Tuul's sword swept around, striking the left-hand blade from R.D.'s grasp.

"I won't let you kill anyone else!" R.D. roared, taking his sword in both hands to attack.

With a laugh, Re-Tuul darted forward, striking again. This time, R.D.'s remaining blade flew from his hand, spinning through the air before striking down in the ground some ways away from Helena as she tried to wake up the unconscious Alasea.

Now behind R.D., Re-Tuul smiled in triumph. "This is the end for you!" he sang, whipping around while bringing his sword in a sweeping arc at R.D.'s unprotected backside.

Light broke in R.D.'s reeling mind as he consumed all the power of Lumiya that he possibly could. The Nova Reactor within his armor spun more quickly, generating a higher output of power. Red lines flew across the Dragon King Armor's plating, and a white light blazed out from the central ruby in the breastplate, and as the blade swept through the air, R.D. was gone.

"What!?" Re-Tuul spat, looking around. "Where'd he go!?"

Something swooped behind him at high speeds, shooting up high into the air, and the demon shot around, firing a beam. It streaked past something red, but hit nothing. The red blur streaked past him from behind, and the demon spun around, firing again. It sailed through the air harmlessly.

"How'd he get so fast...!?" the demon wondered, growing frustrated. He felt the air move around him, and he spun around, firing again. "There you are!"

R.D. sweeped around the shot, and around the ones that followed, getting closer and closer to the demon. He arced around the demon and smashed his foot into his back, knocking Re-Tuul a ways through the air and causing the monster to look over his shoulder in shock. "He's behind me!?"

The demon spun about, swinging with his sword, only for an energy blade of red light to rip open the side of his face all the way to the back of his neck. The force of the blow sent him hurtling through the air, smashing hard into the ashes of the wrecked house and sending debris through the air as he went skidding backwards.

"What in the world...?" Ileyna whispered, looking on in shock. R.D. hovered in the air, a torrent of green-white particles scattering from his back. His armor was blazing with reddish-white light, leaving a hum of energy in the air as R.D. looked down at Re-Tuul, staring with absolute fury.

===Love Elemental's Mindscape===

Aram landed hard next to eX, staggering until he gained his footing. "X?" he called, looking up and seeing eX instead. He didn't like this; he felt pale, insubstantial. Best to get this done as quickly as possible.

Edited by RisingDragon on October 26, 2009 at 18:51:20.

OOC: Well, I thought we were setting up another certain point, what are YOU trying to do? :V

Edited by The Helldragon on October 26, 2009 at 21:53:43.

(OOC: Just keep Matt out of the way a bit and you'll see.)

OOC: You might as well go ahead and post again since there's now a space between your last one.

Light flashed on the ground, signaling that Re-Tuul was now teleporting to fight. The demon flew up, lifting his sword high over his head, as he attacked R.D. from behind. "Die, you little bastard!" he snarled as he slashed downward at the boy's head.

R.D. flashed to the side, causing Re-Tuul's weapon to cut through the afterimages left behind by the sudden movement. Even as the blade halted its swing, R.D. had struck again, flashing up from behind and laying open the demon's back with an energy blade. Three more times he struck, coming in from random angles; the third one sending R.D. high up into the air. He shot back down, smashing his foot against Re-Tuul's heavily lacerated shoulder, sending the demon spinning high into the air.

R.D. flew around as Re-Tuul looked about dazedly, shocked by the sudden turn of events. The boy was attacking far too quickly for him to regenerate or retaliate. He pulled himself out of the daze as he spotted R.D. coming in, roared in anger. His sword came up to block, and R.D.'s blade flashed out, cutting it and Re-Tuul's arm into pieces.

Re-Tuul cut his losses. He knew when a battle couldn't be won. Abandoning his sword, he regenerated his arm as he swept past R.D.. Don't think this is over, brat! he snarled in his mind.

R.D. swooped low, snatching up his Phase Blades from the ground. He wasn't done. Not by a long shot.