Description: A witch on a beach! What brings her there? Trinkets! Or perhaps her interest in the dark arts! Whatever interest that Ninon may have, it's interrupted by something that doesn't interest her at all! Zappa! While perhaps normally outmatched, the witch and her new found power stand toe to toe with Zappa! Can this witch survive whatever Zappa is!?
Fate is a curious thing sometimes.
This thought drifts through the mind of the young woman as she set about her work. Basked in the otherworldly light of the twisted skies above, Ninon appears to fit in rather well with this world's macabre and dark over tones. Her soft porcelain skin glows with a faint red hue from the burnt light coming from and reflecting from the crimson tides that lap at the once golden shores of the beach. Even the stark black silk of her fine gothic dress appears more sinister and imposing. She is no longer a pretty doll, delicate and harmless, but a demon with eyes that seem to glow in perfect harmony with the magic that permeates the air around her.
Before her stands a large apparatus. It is spherical in shape, a massive patchwork orb of polished metal and rubber. Bronze plates form an outer shell to the object in layers, held suspended apart from each other by some invisible force as they drift in patterns that criss and cross amongst each other. To the layman, such activity would appear bizarre and pointless, but even before she extended her power into the object she could sense the arcane wards being projected around the device by this ritualistic motion. Whoever, or whatever she supposes, created this thing, they were quite skilled in the art of magic.
Her thoughts drift back to the previous few days as she intones words of power, weaving together her own magics to break the enchanted seals preventing her access to the row of small vials that line what appears to be a dispensor unit. Within the protective armor of the magical plates a vast crystal globe sits at the center of the apparatus, filled nearly to the brim with bubbling yellow fluid. She hasn't the slightest idea what that fluid might be but someone went to a great deal of trouble to create and protect it. Had her sister not ruined her prior expedition into this world of demons, destroying an entire day's worth of work gathering alchemical components with her uncanny ability to seek out and deliver misfortune to the young witch, Ninon may never have happened across such a wonderful discovery as this. Ofcourse, she will never tell Mignon that. It might give her ideas that she's actually helpful in some way.
It takes the better part of an hour to breach the arcane lock allowing her access to the small row of vials on the tray. She has not even yet tried to attempt getting past the real wards to inspect the machine itself. While she has no doubt that, given enough time, she could bring down its barriers and gain access to its secrets, she has no way in which to transport the device. More importantly, she has no desire to enter a conflict with its owner should they return. Angering demons within their own realm is not high on her list of priorities this day.
Reasonbly sure that her attempts were successful, Ninon carefully reaches for one of the small slender tubes, shivering slightly as her hand passes through the lingering magic of the disabled security field. Withdrawing both her hand and the object intact, she exhales the breath she didn't realize she was holding. Success.
Dear Diary,
I would have never imagined it if it didn't happen! One moment I was on a bridge, being forced to fight... but it seemed like that was only a nightmare! I woke up with a terrible headache and a pain in the side like someone struck me there, quite heavily, but it wasn't terrible... however it was the nurse that was taking care of me in my bed that truly was the dream! Why, she took such good care of me... I think I might have been in love! Yet, something seemed off about her - she seemed larger about the waist - could that be what America is truly known for? Oh, mother, I dare say this could truly be the land of plenty...!
Staying far away from the river, above or /on/ it, Zappa had decided this time would be the best to walk along-side the river - by the beach! Why, what a splendid idea! A beach that would draw all kinds of women - who likely wouldn't mind the odd colored water and the odd colored skies. Why, that just happens to be how America is, isn't it? From all the time he had been to this city, it had always been like this! Even if the natives did now and again ask what had happened, it was rhetorical, was it not?
Yet as he strode across the beach, he began to grow more and more faint. Something about some sort of energy - but it is not as if Zappa knew of any sort of energy! No, why, anything but! Still, his hopes and dreams that he would find nothing about the beach are genuinely answered when he spots a ... witch? Why, it was not the oddest thing he had seen that day, after all! A witch who had been taking care of this and that - some sort of science experiment, perhaps?
Why would a young girl be doing a science experiment on the beach?
"Ah, excuse me, miss? What kind... What kind of science experiment are you attempting here of all places?" He asks, giving a half-hearted wave and peering at the odd orb and the odd vials - and the odd everything, actually. "It seems like there's quite a bit of equipment here as well..." Oh! Perhaps this witch had a mother! "Ah, I know, let me help you with it... it does look a bit dangerous, after all." He intones, peering at it closely.
It smells /quite/ bad, as well.
Ninon's head comes up as she senses someone approach. The sands of the beach do much to muffle the sounds of footsteps and the all-permeating stench of decay would make even the sharpest tracker all but blind. However, she has other methods of detection at her disposal and it would have been foolish indeed not to set up proximity wards while attempting to pilfer powerful alchemical components from an unknown demon.
Twin violet eyes aglow with the fel light of the twisted sky focus in on Zappa, narrowing slightly as they take in his strange appearance and overly friendly demeanor. The girl's expression remainsly mostly blank, her face a dead pan mask devoid of any signs that might indicate her mood or initial reaction to his presence. She stares at him for a long moment, appraising him with a look that has all the warmth of a snake.
Wonderful. Just what she needs, another fool to interrupt her at a critical juncture. After her last encounter with an unknown individual in this strange realm, Ninon has very little patience left for such interference. Not when she is so close to finding something potentially very valuable.
The vial disappears into folds of her corset, the witch tucking it away in the only place available. Big frilly Victorian era dresses aren't known for their pocket space. Behind her the machine continues to spin and churn as before, bubbling away like a coffee maker percolating its foul brew.
Ninon watches in silence until the odd man attempts to draw closer, offering aid that is neither required nor wanted. She lifts a hand into the air between them, holding her palm out towards Zappa in the universal sign of 'stop'. The simple gesture manages to come across as incredibly imperious and dramatic, as if she is capable of repelling him physically with little more than a wave of her hand.
"Take one step further," she says, her voice a strange mixture of soft, bored, and commanding, all blended together into an overbearingly haughty tone that demands obedience. "And I shall burn you down to a withered husk and feed your charred corpse to the river."
Step after step, Zappa brings himself closer to Ninon - interested, honestly, in what she is doing. She seems reasonable enough, even if she has the unfamiliar aura that many of the people about the current city bring. He does not seem too bothered, however, even with the violet eyes glowing as they turn to face him. Zappa is anything if not friendly - willing to be quite friendly in almost any situation, actually! As long as they aren't too frightening or too monstrous or violent!
Still, she doesn't seem to hear him.
Only staring at him! That wouldn't do. Zappa takes another step closer, waving once more. "Ah, hello - I know it might be odd for a friendly stranger in these parts, but I am quite the part!" He happily intones, cheerfully even, as it just begins to get awkwards. Frilly dress hiding something, bubbling beakers, and then... a STOP gesture.
"...Ah?" He asks the air as the woman immediately leaps to violence. Zappa immediatelly backs up. "Ah.. Ahhhh no I wouldn't like that... I'll just.... I'll .... just..." The man begins to convulse, "Jujujujujujujujujuju!" He exclaims as he falls to his back, back twisting and turning in ways that would be sure to break any normal human's, arms flailing wildly as if he is losing control, falling. Falling.
"KILL YOU!" Comes a sudden gnashing voice from the man, the twisted body heaving up from the ground, swaying in place as his mouth, hanging open, stays that way. His body stands impossibly on just the front of his two feet, swaying back and forth, empty eyes staring a hole through Ninon, hands extending outwards.
"WORTHLESS BRAT!" Comes the friendly intones yet again, a sudden spike of energy filling the air as S-ko points, invisibily, towards Ninon.
COMBATSYS: Ninon has started a fight here.
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Ninon 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Zappa has joined the fight here.
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Ninon 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Zappa
COMBATSYS: Ninon uncorks the vial, showering her with motes of light!
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Ninon [E] 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Zappa
Zappa's sudden disturbing transformation provokes little more than a slight rise in the witch's eyebrows, her expression remaining placid and disinterested. She watches his body twist and contort in unatural ways as if the display were no more upsetting or unusual than discovering a spider on the wall.
It is only when the malevolent spirit within shouts at her that Ninon frowns, the corners of her lips twisting ever so slightly in displeasure. "A possession? What a useless fool, allowing someone else to command your body." While others might be fooled into thinking that this dramatic shift in personality was a result of some bi-polar disorder combined with a great deal of odd flexibility, her experience with the supernatural marks the man for what he is quite clearly. A host, little more than a body for this parasitic creature to use. Disgusting.
Still, such entities were not without their dangers. The raw seething hate that spills out into the air around her like a palpable force does not bode well. Only spirits of great power can affect the world in such a fashion. While she has a great deal of confidence in her magical aptitude, dealing with ghosts and apparitions isn't really her forte. This could be bothersome.
"Hear me, o spirit of the dead," Ninon intones, her hand remaining aloft as if to hold the creature at bay. "You have no place in this world. Be gone from my sight or I shall send you to the land of the damned where you belong."
Even as she speaks the words of warning, Ninon draws magic into her body, shaping the arcane energies of the world around her into a crackling sphere of electricity that swiftly grows to the size of a basketball in her outstretched hand. Scintilating blue light spiderwebs between her fingers as she feeds power to the spell, preparing to unleash it upon the damned man before her, when something strange happens. The vial within her corset suddenly begins to pulse in time with the flows of her magic, spreading a warm numbing light into her body. She hesistates for a moment, caught off guard, but before she can react to this new development the rubber stopper explodes from its seals of its own accord.
Brilliant golden sparkles erupt from the slender tube, swirling up around the startled witch in a tornado of tiny motes. The girl is too stunned to do much of anything, her concentration tied up with channeling the magic in her hands to keep it from going out of control. The storm of sparkles slowly begins to seep into her body, infusing her already pale flesh with a subtle luminescent glow.
It feels... wonderful. Ninon takes a deep breath as raw power infuses her with fresh vitality and spirit. It's almost like the equivalent of a spiritual energy drink, an arcane pick-me-up. Smirking at this unexpected development, the witch returns her focus to the enraged spirit, casting the orb of lightning at Zappa with a mental command.
"I banish you!"
COMBATSYS: Ninon successfully hits Zappa with Rites of the Demiurge.
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Ninon [E] 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Zappa
Yes. Just a possession. It's true. How /hopeless/ and /pathetic/ Zappa may have been. It's not even something that can be debated - truly, he is better off dead. Is that not the purpose of his placement there? Yet with Ninon currently before the thing that is Zappa, there's only one real path forwards.
After the energy washes over Ninon, perhaps there's only one in the end - yet it likely had changed hands so easily.
With what may as well be a howl, Zappa leaps forwards, the form attempting to simply launch over the massive ball of energy, the lightning orb crackling through the air - catching Zappa as it swells up.
The smirk, and everything else about Ninon, is absolutely obnoxious, S-ko may think. Despite the sudden swell of 'pain' that the form of Zappa intones above her as the puppet is thrown about. Crashing backwards, Zappa is thrown against the sand, rolling in it, face down in the blood water.
Clearly... it is over as quickly as it had begun.
"NO."
The words are half-drowned, half bubbling from the blood as the form of Zappa simply is picked up and /thrown/ towards Ninon, "I'LLDROWNYOUINYOUROWNWORDS!" Comes the decree, no breath given as no breath is needed. As Zappa grows closer, energy swells about the form, legs twisting forwards, arms and body all rolling at once to smash into, pull, and toss Ninon into the ground forwards with a rather singular impact, Zappa's body coming to a stop in a heap.
Clearly worse for wear in general.
COMBATSYS: Ninon dodges Zappa's Charged Combo.
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Ninon [E] 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Zappa
Ninon casually brushes a lock of her elegant plantinum hair from her face as the writhing body of the possessed fool goes flying across the beach to get a face-full of the foul ichor that laps at its polluted sands only to throw itself at her once again in a furious rage. There is no subtlety or tactics at work here, only blind aggression. She does not fool herself about the power that likely lies behind those flailing limbs, however.
As Zappa draws near, reaching out to touch her perfect skin with his filthy hands, the girl simply vanishes in a wink of light. Magic spills from her lips and becomes power, shifting her svelte form some half dozen or so feet behind the attacker in the blink of an eye.
The witch turns, still facing the direction in which she was looking at the time, and lashes out with her dainty fists, striking at the walking corpse from the flank. Her punches are not terribly destructive, hardly more than harsh reprimands in comparison to her mighty magic, but they are swift and accurate as she flows into a series of almost lazy strikes aimed at weak points along his chi lines, tiny disruptions in the spiritual flow through his body that will eventually add up.
COMBATSYS: Zappa interrupts Medium Punch from Ninon with Ochitoite Kudasai.
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Ninon [E] 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Zappa
She vanishes. A witch for certain, S-ko manages, though her distaste for her does not lessen - not even the slightest. With limbs flying every-which way, intent on impacting against the witch, S-ko waits. She would re-appear. It is /quite/ likely. This much she is certain of. Yet it is a surprise when Ninon appears simply /behind/ them.
The body, coming to a stop in a raggedy position, head buried half into the sand, body twisted as if to cry towards the sky, doesn't seem to be moving anywhere. "WHERE AAAAARE YOUUUUUUU? ? ?" The voice asks, pushing the head into the sand even more-so, as if the 'fool' was even more of a fool than Ninon may have taken them for.
S-ko of course is leaning against Zappa's body, hands traveling down the side of it, and then up the other side, wounds vanishing in time as she directs it to dance for her still. Even with Ninon trying to change that - the brat that she was. Simply /threatening/ another so quickly.
They don't deserve ANYTHING better than she had!
As the witch lashes out, the head bursts from the sand besides Ninon, staring up - but his head is... wait it's ... not nearby that! "FOUND YOUUUUUuuuuuuu!" It cries, the third punch connecting just as a razor like blade bursts from the ground underneath Ninon, a tide of red energy mixing with the blood river that had seeped into the sand. S-ko had pulled it out herself, but it is only with Zappa's 'energy', the very same that she draws from, that it blinks into existance, suddenly vanishing after spiralling upwards - and seeming to never stop.
Letting go, Zappa and S-ko tumble back down, though only Zappa may be visible, twitching as he lands back first to the ground, limbs seeming to just vanish from one side to appear on the other as he 'stands' tall again.
It is Ninon's turn to be taken off-guard in this messy brawl. Her fists deliver ringing blows against the surface of the possessed man's ribs but they hardly seem to register. Ghosts don't care about pain, after all. The blade explodes from the sands underneath her feet, an ethereal weapon given form ever so briefly. It rakes at her flesh, tearing into her body and her spirit with equal unpleasantness.
The witch gasps a surprised cry of pain as she is thrown backwards by the blow, landing in a disgraceful heap on her back in the sands. A hand clutches at the invisible wound beneath her dress and she instinctively begins to mutter the words to a healing spell, cleansing the traces of lingering energy left by the vengeful ghost.
Pushing back to her feet, Ninon's frown turns into a scowl, at last showing some measure of emotion on her pretty face. "Bothersome creature."
Taking a deep breath, Ninon prepares to unleash another slew of magic. Once more she winks out of existence, as if simply erasing herself from the universe, and appears behind Zappa anew. Her hand lifts towards the sky and she speaks with a deep reverberation that magnifies her wispy voice into a beacon that commands the elements themselvse to obey.
"Uriel on my left!"
Power explodes into violent life around the young mage, a maelstrom of neon reddish light rising up around her in a short-lived but deadly tornado. The mystical winds cut and shear at host and spirit alike, lifting anything caught in the gale up into the air to be flung away like so much refuse.
COMBATSYS: Ninon successfully hits Zappa with Pining Arcadia.
- Power hit! -
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Ninon [E] 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Zappa
It is without any effort, or thought, that Zappa moves - simply direction. With Ninon unleashes a slew of magic once more, it is with the suffering of that 'bothersome creature' that Ninon manages to cause a maelstrom of neon reddish light to rise up, not simply picking up Zappa but instead sending the form of the man thrashing and flailing wildly about.
Limbs and body crash towards the ground in an unsurprising mess, a terrible clattering of flesh and bone and ground, though the last does not become a part of Zappa - rather instead is simply impacted upon him over and over again.
This does not, of course, please S-ko.
With the broken and beaten, and unsurprisngly bloody form of Zappa crawling once more upwards, there is a subtle difference in it's movements compared to the movements of it before. Instead of the wild, somewhat unrestricted flailing - there is a more direct and simple brutality to it all. The form of Zappa simply bleeds off energy, S-ko so much as striking Zappa's form to get it to rise still, and to lunge towards Ninon as if there was little else to be done.
The form of Zappa lunges face first, but slams into the ground before Ninon - three ghosts appearing, "Bonjour!" "Hello!" "GOODBYE!"
And then detonating all at once.
COMBATSYS: Zappa successfully hits Ninon with Fierce Punch.
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Ninon [E] 1/----===/=======|======-\-------\0 Zappa
Ninon poses with arm upraised for a few seconds after her spell has expended itself the last of the arcane energies bleeding away into the air. The spirit's berserker-like rage had been its own enemy in this case, its wild motions only making the eventual impact with the ground that much worse.
"I warn you again. Leave this place, spirit, or face my wrath."
Well, she had to try atleast. Every minute spent fighting this pointless battle was one that might attract further undue attention. She is still riding high on the unexpected power boost from the golden vial but its activation had robbed her of the chance to study it. She will need another sample and that will take yet more time. Time she may not have should the owner of the machine return.
Zappa rushes her once more and the witch falls into a martial stance, preparing to fend off the assault with a skillful display of grace and agility. Unfortunately, she wasn't expecting exploding ghosts. There is no time to utter the teleportation spell upon realizing her error. The blast washes over her in a searing wave of spiritual force and it is only a matter of luck that she manages to raise a barrier to ward off the worst of it but the effort drains her considerably.
Ninon winces slightly as she brings her other hand up to join the first, white hot lava washing through her veins as she draws in fresh magic to replace what she has expended. Magic words appear in her mind and begin to spill from her in a dark incantation without further thought, the mere act of drawing upon the spell bringing them forth from her lips.
"Iyo Iyo Zabati Rakiraki!"
Even as she speaks the first word, tiny spheres of flame begin to erupt from her conjoined palms. Tiny arrows of eldritch flame dart through the air, pummeling Zappa with a rapid-fire stream of projectiles for several seconds.
COMBATSYS: Zappa interrupts Salamander's Embrace from Ninon with Raou.
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Ninon [E] 1/--=====/=======|=======\-------\0 Zappa
Leave this place or feel her wrath.
Why, that's just /cheeky/ now, isn't it? The worthless blob of flesh and bone that may be Zappa is kicked once more by S-ko, causing him to go deeper into the ground, though the sudden arrival, and dissappearance, of the ghosts and their exploding... no, vanishing act is particularly well timed.
"YOU THINK YOU'RE SOSOSOOSOSOSOS GOOD." Zappa mouths, groans, gargles and chokes out all at once. It's not particularly pleasant and possibly irritating to listen to. S-ko may know this fact all too well. With Zappa's head out of the sand, the eyes stare at ... nothing. Mouth filled with sand, blood water and a /devil crab/ which has his tongue. It is amazing words may even come out.
Until his head grows huge and suddenly chomps the devil-crab in half.
It returns to hanging nearby, afterwards. Blood, his and the water, bleeds out - energy washing off him as well in countless waves, spiritual energy burning off him as he simply teeters back and forth in place on the tips of his toes, like a marionette. "YOU KEEP SAYING SPIRIT." He/it/they announce. "YOU'RE OUTNUMBERED."
The correction is clear as Ninon brings forth multiple tiny spheres of flame, burning forwards, erupting and darting through the air to pummel Zappa into submission. The spheres bee-line towards Zappa, intending to scorch the 'corpse' to after-death - as it grasps the ground underneath it.
There's a crack of thunder, a bolt of lightning, and a sudden eruption of energy surrounding Zappa, the form of am even greater spirit than the previous ones pulling free. The sheer energy burns away the fire-balls Ninon had launched towards Zappa, the form surrounding him. "I hath been summoned!" He decrees, massive gauntlets made of lightning, much like the rest of Raou. "You, witch, of heresey and black majiks shall be smitten!"
Both gauntlets rise, pulling free from the sky a lightning bolt - that transforms into a sword of pure energy, crashing down towards Ninon and the beach, sending both witch and sand, likely, sprawling outwards as the sword impacts the ground, dispersing after the initial strike.
The massive electricity spirit that is Raou... does not.
A mistake has been made here. A grievous error. Ninon has been laboring under the impression that the man before her was simply possessed. Perhaps some priest who failed an exorcism or a cultist who willingly gave himself over to darker powers. Such things were not exactly common but hardly unheard of in the circles she runs in. But Zappa is something completely different. What exactly happened that might allow a man to be possessed by not one but many wandering ghosts isn't something that she can explain. However, her miscalculation does have an outcome that she can predict.
The witch can do little but watch as the terrible spirit rises up from within Zappa, locked into place as the arcane power surges through her body. The blade of thunder comes crashing down upon her like a hammer driving her into the anvil of the sands below. She collapses under the blow like a lifeless doll, her slender form crumpling to lie prone on the beach for several seconds.
When she finally does rise, Ninon's mask of calm remains intact, as if she is completely incapable of showing more than the occasional hint of emotion. Sand clings to her expensive dress and hair in thick patches, marring the dark silk and pale locks with gritty red smears. That, much more so than the pain, is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
"I don't care how many of you are hiding in that useless lump of flesh," she says, narrowing her eyes upon Zappa and the shimmering spirit that hovers around his contorted form. "I am going to send you back where you belong."
A new surge of magic bursts to life around Ninon, far greater than anything she has summoned up before. Blue ethereal light shimmers into being around her body as the energies intensify bathing her in an aura of visible power as she rises off the ground to hover a few inches in the air. Holding her arms apart, the witch begins another dark incantation as she closes her eyes and the already twisted sky begins to darken with supernatural distortion.
"Zazas Zazas Nasatanada Zazas!"
At her call a massive fiery meteor tears through the sky, a star falling from the heavens to pierce the veil of even this demonic realm. It streaks down at an angle from behind her, tearing across the beach to drive into capering spirit host with a terrible explosion.
And then nine more follow it.
COMBATSYS: Zappa fails to slow Ebony Moon of Hecate EX from Ninon with Bellows Malice.
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Ninon [E] 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Zappa can no longer fight.
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Ninon [E] 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Ninon has ended the fight here.
With the form of Ninon collapsing before 'them', the many spirits of Zappa rattle together in unison to congratulate themselves. The sword of course is silent, but the full 'spectre'um of the group may take a moment to appear before Ninon. The three ghosts gather together around Raou, inch-worming around him as if somehow /they/ were the cause for the victory. There is a little shadow-puppy that barks happily - like some kind of fluffy 'hype dog' that may exist in a parallel universe. It barks quite happily. Three 'centipedes' writhe about the ground below, explaining how Zappa's head could appear where it didn't belong to begin with. Additionally, S-ko stands beside them all, though she is more intent on seeing the small witch /stay/ down.
She waits. She counts. However long she counts is pointless - time had ceased being meaningful to her. Ceased to /matter/. What purpose does time bring to someone, something that has endless time?
She rises. The witch doesn't seem to /care/. S-ko points - and yet Raou is flexing. The ghosts are leaping up and down, arms bound together in spectral chains. The dog is leaping about. The razor sits still. She points again. Only when Ninon talks do the spirits respond, Zappa, spinning in place, stops - muscles, well defined, seizing up.
There is a collective spectral sigh.
"YOU CAN'T. YOU STARTED THIS. I"LL FINISH IT FINISH YOU FINISH FINISH DONE!"
Yet the new surge of magical life about Ninon is an expensive one, as expensive as the oldest finest wine. S-ko had not expected such a girl to be able to provide /such/ energy... a common mistake that has been happening again and again this fight. Truly, she was a witch. Unlike the last witch she had seen. Raou's blade forms again. "No matter your majiks, witch, I SHALL SLAY THEE!" Raou proclaims about Zappa, the sky darkens - yet thunder cracks. A massive fiery meteor tears across the sky, the star falling from the heavens to streak into the spirit host. The massive blade of Raou cleaves the first meteor apart - shearing it from the sky, a thunder crack crashing across the sky, dispersing it. Another heavy swing bisects a second, energy arcing off each swing.
There are /simply too many/.
"Master... I will... not fail you!" He proclaims. Raou continues to swing, the massive form of energy fighting with every inch of its spectral strength, Zappa... just slowly rocking back and forth underneath, as if unconcerned. The fourth is chipped, the fifth dented, but the next five are simply too much. Raou is impacted by the sixth, massive arms fighting against the energy, energy against energy meeting as the seventh crashes down.
Zappa's head looks up, eyeless, to face this, head tilting as if ... this had never happened before. Though it is not /his/ vision that sees it. "YOU ARE NOT LIKE THE OTHER WITCH." 'Zappa' S-ko complains, and proclaims, "STILL A B-" The eight through tenth collide, silencing any cries, creating craters in the sand as the form of Zappa, already rag-doll like, experiences rag-doll physics. His body is thrown forwards, slamming hard, before crashing face first like a shovel in the sand, and unearthed by the next, flying head over heels over body to land back first in the blood river.
Yet he does not sink. He is still in one piece - and perhaps most surprisingly, he begins to travel down the river, away from Ninon and potentially any finishing blows. "Stroke." "Stroke!" "He had a stroke!?" The three ghosts begin to push/carry Zappa through the river, away from Ninon, tails and faces being used to keep him safe - as for S-ko, there is a reason why Zappa stayed in one piece. Each and every meteor that got through, the sullen 'woman' took them herself, the impacts always growing /close/ to Zappa, but simply not close enough for mortal damage. Though his flesh was singest, his body damaged, it is far less than what could have been.
It is also why S-ko no longer is awake - enough to banish the spirit into Zappa for only so long.
At most, a temporary fix. What dwells inside of Zappa is anything but a normal posession.
As the last meteor falls upon the cursed body of the unfortunate man, Ninon inhales sharply. The shimmering aura of sapphire light around her moves to gather around her head before vanishing inwards as if the witch had simply sucked all of the excess magic around her into her mouth. The loss of the powerful enchantment causes her to slowly drift back down towards the ground, spinning like a porcellain balerina in a glass case until her elegant shoes alight upon the bloody sands.
Her eyes slide shut for several seconds, Ninon becoming almost motionless save for the gentle rise and fall of her chest and the flutter of her lacy dress in the foul winds. Using that kind of magic had taken a great deal of effort, far more than she intended to expend. She is alone out here in this demonic realm and such a display of power would surely draw attention that she did not want. Further confrontation would be unwise.
Eventually a hand lifts to brush at her hair once again and she turns her attention towards the motionless body of her foe as he is paddled down the grotesque river like a canoe. At the sight, the hint of a smile cracks her stony mask. Upon realizing this, she sighs loudly as if to convince the world around her that it had never happened and turns away. "Idiot."
With the distraction dealt with and her position likely compromised, Ninon hurriedly prepares to withdraw. Not before taking two more of the vials from the small dispenser who's wards she had already broken, however. Whatever this substance might be it seems to react to magic. She'll have to be careful not to trigger them without need. The two slender tubes disappear into her corset.
For a moment, the witch considers attempting to destroy the machine. Her tampering would most certainly be noticed by whoever created the apparatus and they might take exception to her removal of samples of its contents. No, that would be foolish. Whatever price a demon might exact from her for a few potions would pale in comparison to what they could demand if such an artifact's destruction were somehow traced back to her in the mortal realm. She would have to deal with their kind far too often to hope that word would not spread. It is just a risk she'll have to take.
With her prize tucked safely away, the young girl turns and calmly begins to make her way back towards the center of the metropolis that has been spirited away. Powerful as she may be, that portal is still her lifeline back to her own realm. Fortunately, as it turns out, there are more than enough distractions to keep the way clear.
Log created on 20:24:16 04/24/2015 by Zappa, and last modified on 22:21:03 04/27/2015.