The snipers screeched as they were vaporized. Behind R.D. and back out in the garden, everyone else could feel the shudder resulting from the attack. "What the hell is he doing, burning down the house?" Matt snapped.

"Fall in!" Hugo barked, and he leapt into the hallway as well, intending to use R.D. as a shield.

R.D. kept firing until all of the sniper had been eradicated, and then he began purposefully striding forward towards Persephone. As he moved, the blade of his weapon flipped over and locked into place over the barrel of the blaster.

"I warned you," he growled as he walked. "Warned you that we don't play nice."

"I...I..." Her brow furrowing, Persephone pointed at R.D.. "You're stupid."

This remark was punctuated by another portal opening behind the demon maid. Before R.D. could react, Persephone had bounded through, teleporting away as the portal closed.

R.D. halted his advanced, looking irritated, though no one could see through the visor. After a moment, he swung the blade of his weapon back into its blaster mode, and the faceplate of his helmet retracted.

"She's going to continue harassing us throughout this entire castle, isn't she?" he asked of his friends.

"Probably," Alasea said. "Get out of the armor now. We need to finish healing that wound of yours."

With a sigh, R.D. dismissed the Dragon King Armor so Matt or Alasea could do their work.

"Ah, this ain't so bad," Matt remarked, running his glowing green hands over R.D.'s shoulder. "What was this, a bullet wound? You didn't leave it in there, did you?"

R.D. merely pointed past Matt with his good arm, pointing at the splatter of blood surrounding a bullet hole in the stone. "Clean wound," he said conversationally.

Alasea didn't quite like how R.D. was so casual when it came to death and pain. But with the loss of most of his memories, it was pretty much all he really knew.

"Ileyna, see if there's been any change."

"Right."

The girl closed her eyes, and soon enough her hair flashed blue once before she opened again. "They've moved. They're even higher up than before," she said.

"Probably moved when they knew we were coming," Alasea said. "Essence or not, they must know that we pose a major threat to them."

"And that's just going to make it harder on us," R.D. said. "Cornered animals, and the like."

"Then we'd better get moving," Soma said. He slid a hand into his jacket, producing a tattered, yellowed parchment rolled into a tube. Some stereotypical map. Did he have to blow the dust off of it like in the movies?

But Matt figured it was special. He was right, naturally - as Soma unfurled the map, light of various colors forged themselves into the paper, outlying a crude map of the castle. "Persephone mentioned that the candidates were in the clock tower," Soma said. He poked the outline of the castle's back tower. "This is the other tower she was talking about. To get there, we'll have to go through the chapel."

"Sound like you've been there before," R.D. said as he swiped the repair gem over the holes in his shirts. "Any nasty surprises we should worry about?"

"When aren't there?" Alasea muttered to herself. Maybe she was too used to how much of a crapsack her own world had become in the few short months between NightShade's brutal takeover and now.

"The chapel isn't going to be a problem," Soma said. "The other tower is. I fought a giant demon at the top that crashed all the way down to the bottom. We're not climbing it unless we can jump over all the pits it made."

"Most of us can fly," R.D. pointed out. "Whether short distances or indefinitely, its possible. Climbing it won't be too much of a problem, unless its become occupied again after you left it."

Soma took the end of the map between fingers and rolled it back up, real tight and compact. "It has. Demons don't take time off."

"I guess when you deal with the devil, the devil will deal with you," Matt said. Just a little pithy phrase he came up with that deserved to be in a book of quotations someday.

"I guess," Soma said.

"Let's get moving then," R.D. said. "The faster we get to the Essence, the better."

They carefully walked through the garden. Matt kept his eye on the looming plants with leaves the size of curtains. After that fight with the venus flytrap, he wasn't going to get fucked over by surprise visits from any other demonic trees. Good thing the garden didn't spread out that far. The only real trouble, he noticed, was thinking that there would be trouble. Not a bad thing to think, mind you, especially in this place, but still.

Soma pointed out the exit well after Matt had seen it, leading into a short, gray hallway ending with another closed door. On the other side was the chapel, and Matt found himself making sure his feet met each step as they walked up the short flight of stairs towards the chapel proper. A long column of polished gray rock flanked the group, and closer to the chapel doors, they found the moonlight sifting in from stained glass windows.

"Wow," Ileyna said in amazement when they entered the chapel, and immediately clapped her hands over her mouth in embarrassment as her voice echoed off the walls and ceiling of the massive chamber.

"This place is huge," Alasea said in a quiet tone, so as not to echo her voice everywhere like Ileyna had done.

"Don't do what I think you're gonna do, Matt," R.D. warned, giving the other boy a sidelong glance.

Doing anything besides walking clean-through hadn't occured to Matt. "What am I gonna do?"

"Make echoes or some crap like that," R.D. said. "I wouldn't put it past you at times."

"Don't start, you two," Alasea said tiredly. They were the best of friends, but that never stopped them from taking swipes at one another from time to time. "I really don't want to listen to it tonight."

Edited by RisingDragon on May 27, 2010 at 15:39:39.

"I wasn't going to make an echo," Matt said. "Mainly because what I wanted to say can't be said in front of children."

Hugo glared at Matt. "You've used every profanity you know with her around. It's not like you cared before."

Oh, here we go. Had to defuse the situation again. "Look, considering the line of work we're in right now, it's a bit reasonable."

"'Reasonable' was thrown out the window the moment that Gateway spat us out of an oven," R.D. muttered. "I think its safe to assume that at this point, Colleen's going to kill us no matter what."

"Let's just drop it," Helena said. "We have to hurry."

That they did. Matt rolled with it, pushed open the double doors leading into the chapel proper. He wasn't expecting a house of God or anything like that, but the room that unfolded before them did look like a classic church you'd see on TV. Wooden pews in neat rows, cut into two columns with empty space leading up to the altar. It wasn't even decked with satanic imagery or gothic architecture of any kind.

Still, with more of those windows and the darkness just outside, Matt couldn't help but feel spooked. At least a little bit.

"I don't think I've ever seen a chapel this big," Alasea commented, looking about. "I didn't think the castle would be big enough to accommodate something like this."

"I thought this cult worshipped Dracula," R.D. said. "I'd have expected something a little more... profane. What gives?"

"Just because it looks normal doesn't mean it's not evil," Soma said.

Helena's nails clacked against the tile with a slow rhythm as she walked past the pews, running her claw up and over each bench. "Yeah. I mean, we thought Persephone was a nice demon, but look what happened."

"I'm still going to punch her in the face next time I see her," Matt said.

The weredragon looked back at him with a grim dash for a mouth. "You'll have to get in line first."

"What happens if we have end up fighting cultists?" R.D. asked. "We haven't seen any but I wouldn't rule them out. I haven't got a problem taking them down, but I can't speak for the rest of us. Humans are harder to kill than demons."

"Tie up their legs," Hugo said. "Or break them. Whatever gets the job done."

Soma turned around to make sure no one had crept up behind them. Matt knew this because he was doing the same thing. "I haven't seen a single human in this castle besides me and the others. It's probably safe to assume everything else is a demon."

"Except the candidates," Matt pointed out.

"Well, yeah."

"Good to hear," R.D. said, nodding to himself. "Because tying up their legs or breaking them is entirely unfeasible even for us."

"I see an exit," Ileyna said, pointing across the room.

"Get some jackets or cloaks out, then," R.D. said. "It'll be freezing out there."

The exit lead to a back corridor, also laid in grey brick. Stepping through that corridor's doorway led back outside where the chill wind slapped them. A stone walkway led to the double doors of the second tower, the pinnacle reaching so high that it could punch the moon in the face if it felt like it. A framework of sharp stairs, set in dull stone and metal, rose above them to provide access to the other floors of the tower.

"Let's go as high as we can first," Soma said. "Matt, can you still fly?"

"Yeah."

"Good. It's your job to catch anyone if they slip."

"I wonder if we'll get something to collapse this tower as well," R.D. wondered aloud. "We've gotten pretty good at that."

"What're you talking about?" Alasea asked curiously.

"Well, you were there when Greedy collapsed his castle," R.D. said. "Geese imploded his skyscraper trying to kill us after we left our world."

"... try to break this one after we're out of it, then," Alasea said, giving both him and Matt sidelong looks.

"Relax," R.D. told the girl, stepping past her as he moved forward along the bridge. "We've got nothing to worry about."

He'd later regret the statement.

"Contrary to your expectations!" a familiar voice roared out over the crashing waves at the castle's edge. R.D. spun about in shock, peering off to his left. Moonlight gleamed off of something white as it soared towards them on black wings.

"Oh, shit!"

That voice. That FUCKER. Matt swung around to face the incoming demon, and, prepping a spear of lightning, let it fly through the night. "Re-Tuul!"

The demon pulled up wide, flaring out his wings as he swept up to their level--the spear sailed harmlessly below him. As he moved, they caught a glimpse of the cylindrical remote weapons he'd used before attached to his back. "You look happy to see me!" he cackled in delight.

A hook-shaped blade slid down the length of the Khaglessi's right arm until he had its hilt in his hand, and he swung it up to point its tip at them. "Now, how 'bout we start this!? Our little war anew!"

With a flap of his wings, Re-Tuul moved back. "Go, Meteor Fangs!" he yelled, and the cylindrical weapons detached from his back and darted for them.

Alasea wasted no time as she drew her sword and aimed it at the incoming Fangs, firing her trademark flame rays at them. Nimbly, the weapons avoided the attack and the tiny barbed hooks at their front peeled back--and erupted with brilliant orange fire. Beams of energy tore through the air as the Fangs swarmed about them.

With a shout, Matt threw out his hands, casting the group in a shimmering shield that fought off Re-Tuul's attack.

"Who IS that?" Soma shouted, readying Claimh Solais.

"A gigantic prick!" Matt said. "When I drop the shield, I want you to fuck him up!"

The weapons continued their furious onslaught, and in moments, two of the Fangs darted up over the shield, causing R.D. look up. "Shit!"

They fired before he could even move, and a chunk of the floor was torn away in the resulting explosion.

"R.D.!" Alasea screamed as he went flying away off the platform.

"That's not good enough, kids!" Re-Tuul snarled as he charged forward, sword at the ready. Whipping around, Alasea shoved off the platform, using her magic to fly. She flew in to meet Re-Tuul head-on, and their swords clashed against one another--as the Daughter's power clashed against that which was granted by Ziatoch, the air between the weapons crackled like sheet lightning, sputtering sparks in every which direction.

"You bastard!" Alasea screamed in fury at the eyeless monster. "You had the gall to show your disgusting face here!?"

"I sure did!" the demon replied, grinning maniacally. "You see, because of you bastards, half my body was burnt to ashes! Merely taking your lives isn't enough for me!"

The demon forced his monstrous strength into his weapon, and metal screamed as his blade slid down Alasea's Megami Tsurugi. With a final push, he shoved the flying girl back and swung down.

She parried the blow--barely. The force of the attack sent her plummeting back down to the platform with the others. She landed hard, but managed to keep her footing.

"You bastard!" she screamed at him as she looked up at him.

Re-Tuul called back his Meteor Fangs, and they swept in to reattach to his back. He licked his lips once and gave them that insane grin. "Pay up for the regeneration treatment!" he yelled, charging forward at them all. "With your lives, of course!"

Edited by RisingDragon on May 29, 2010 at 19:07:18.