Match of the Millennium

Description: In a letter to Morrigan: "Lady Aensland, I too understand the curse of boredom. It is my hope that the entertainment available at my Springtide Rosalia can help dull the pain of monotony the world normally has to offer. To that end, might I direct your attention to the necropolis beneath the castle. You will find a representative of the Yata clan wandering lost from where I left her. It would be helpful if you could persuade her to reveal what she knows of the pending shadow during your dance. -Rachel Alucard"

[CHIZURU]
Candlelight is all there is to struggle against the darkness within the chthonic depths below Castle Alucard. In Many places, the wan flame gives way to stygian might and the shadows grow heavy. But among the catacombs and caverns is a particular undercroft of note. A work of art and ages past rests. A sepulcher for countless figures of holy renown who, through some manner of another, have found this place for their aged bones and reliquaries to molder and rot until they eventually give themselves to crushing tides of time.

A great place in size as well as importance, the stone walls rise and rise, built into a hollow column that stretches farther and farther than the eye can see. An impossible trick of light? An even more impossible trick of geometry? Hard to to tell, but all the same there are great chains stretch from the unseen ceiling that hold censer and brazier alike. The heavy scent of camphor masks the must and rot and bathes the damp and mossy stone floor with a carpet of blinding smoke. Who it is that fills the oil and turns the coals is unknown but nevertheless it happens.

It is at the base of the dominant structure of this seeming oubliette, a great stone mausoleum covered in countless reliefs of holy figures old and obscured to time and apocrypha, that walks a lone woman. Her robes match the rolling censer smoke and their long flowing sleeves lend her a presence as ghostly pale as the grave that surrounds her. The woman herself is calm and serene as a final rest. She walks with steady, soft step, and she observes.

She had arrived some time before, an invitation that was more forceful and expected than she would have liked. However, the figure of the hostess was polite enough in her own distant way. Further, this woman knows she has purpose here. She knows she has been here to see things she otherwise would not. And on this night she has. She has seen great and terrible things. Things that coil within her. Beings that wait and bide their time. Monsters and demons and the very things monsters and demons should fear. This woman has seen them.

And it does not break her, but fill her resolve so that she may know. And so that she may impart.

But she needs to find a way out first, lest she join the faces of holy people past among the stone alcoves of the Chamber of Deacons.

[MORRIGAN]
Within these depths, this hall where dwells both profane and divine there is another, darker creatures. One who, in her own way, bears a similar juxtaposition. Shadows ooze along the floor, creeping like the wax from the candleabras.

Lady Morrigan Aensland rises from the inky ichor, first as two silhouettes, then one as the two merge like someone laid a transparency across a piece of parchment. Her swings sprout from her her sea-green hair and the small of her back, spreading like vile threads that weave themselves into solid, leathery shapes.

"Oh, good evening~" Morrigan coos. "Why so dour? Please don't tell me that rabbit paired me with some sour-faced priestess again."

[CHIZURU]
Is this what it shall be, then? The woman in white wonders to herself when the shadows build upon themselves to create the woman of darkness. To one attuned to the flow of energy, she can feel the selfish and the wanton nature of a being as extraplanar as this one with the sea-green hair.

However, with the ability of foresight, this woman appears a shadow before the abyss. "Am I so dour?" she asks, "Or is it our surroundings?" She does not laugh so much make a small vocal note of amusement as she looks at the being. Seeing, but moreso feeling the flow of chi in this dead and desolate place.

"If I seem so, then forgive me, it is that the surroundings are so dark in this place."

The distance, where the edges of the curved walls sit, there is movement that Chizuru sees. Stones, great bricks of the wall begin to slide and slip and grind almost imperceptibly. But more and more, the square stones slick with damp and dew seem to shimmer more like scales. Surrounding coils of a serpent, the bricked alcoves forming banded patterns of a sealed snake.

Chizuru Kagura looks at this dark woman in front of the darkness ahead. "You are a minion of the Host?"

[MORRIGAN]
"Oh, they do have a certain ..." Morrigan sweeps her hand, uncurling slender fingers. "...aesthetic." She fans away an waft of incense and miasma, flapping her wings lightly like the beating of a bat's.

"A minion? Please," Morrigan makes a face as if she swallowed something sour. "I would consider myself more of a guest who has seeking something---anything---to get away from the mediocrity of the mortal world as of late."

The chittering of bats and the beating of countless swings fills the hallway before they gather beneath Morrigan, who sits down upon them like a chair. She crosses her legs, purple fabric of her leggings pulled tightly---more so than they normally fit.

"And you," the succubus says, "you lack a certain je ne sais quoi. Are you one of her little projects from the mortal world?"

[CHIZURU]
The woman in white listens with polite distance as this creature of darkness comments on her position among the host's retinue. Moreover, there is the matter of her chiropteran chair. Something concerning to some, and Chizuru certainly finds it odd, but there are larger fathoms of phenomena to plumb.

"You do not avoid the world to get away from boredom, do you," Chizuru says, looking past green haired woman, looking to something beyond. "You avoid it because you are frightened of the things it holds."

A little word, maybe a coy little secret, but there is still something to the darkness of the creature that is not the same as the monstrous depths that rolls beneath. She has seen the twists to come, and in one reflection, this gemini of a woman may yet prove to be an enemy of an enemy.

[MORRIGAN]
Morrigan continues to sit, suspended in the air by a steady beating of bat wings, cycling around each other in a mysterious orbit. How they maintain enough strength and density to keep her suspended comfortably remains a mystery. Presumably she is. Morrigan does not seem the type to not enjoy herself.

"Please," Morrigan's mouth curls slightly in a sneer. "Surely you don't mean that one who's stirring as of late? I find its ends so...dreadfully unexcited. Humanity is what makes earth at least passably interesting."

[CHIZURU]
The woman in white, the sea-haired woman in black, together they stand in the firelit sepulcher. The faces in stone stare, their judgement the weight of the age of time can be felt in this timeless place. But their judgement is also impotent in the face of the coils of the subterranean serpent that coils about, threatening to choke the land and the people within it.

Chizuru continues to look past Morrigan, she sees the far away far closer than it needs to. She knows what is to come. The prescience of the succubus is appreciated, it would at least cut things to the quick. "If you know of what's coming, then you know it cannot be allowed to rise," she tells Morrigan. "The flow of chi on the earth will shake, it will rise, it will destroy everything. It must be kept down. It must be sealed."

Chizuru manages a small coy smile, "If allowed to rise, then as you said, the world will be awfully boring."

[MORRIGAN]
Green like the sea, black like the night sky. The two women seemed to be almost destined to meet, almost, even if this tomb was hardly welcome to any visitors, regardless of origin. Morrigan leaned back on her seat, kicking one leg high into the air before crossing it over the other. She leaned forward, digging her elbow into her thigh so that she could rest her chin on her palm with vague curiosity.

"So you intend to seal it then." The succubus spoke instead of asking. "Quite the task, hmm? Are you certain you're up to it? Maybe you can..." Morrigan rocked in her seat slightly, swinging her leg to and fro.

"Test yourself and alleviate some of this dreadful boredom of mine...?"

[CHIZURU]
meters

Chizuru inclines her head. She thinks for only a moment before she gives this woman of darkness a nod. She knows this meeting was fated. That this woman would be a test, one of character and skill for the coming danger. She would serve as an opening against the coming tide of the Orochi's return. The world's leylines were contorting. The chi flowed in strange rivers back on Earth. It was only a matter of time before the seals weakened, and the serpent would rise again.

But Chizuru Kagura was steadfast in her determination to play her role as keeper of sacred treasure and to seal the Orochi.

The first step was here in this dark and fetid crypt. Where she stands amid the myriad fallen holy figures of pasts untold. She knows why the she meets the succubus here. She knows if she falls or falters, she too may be added to the fallen, naught more than a stoic stone face and faded memory of failure behind. A permanent reminder of the fleeting power she wields.

But she cannot stay within the realm of fear. Chizuru runs her hands along her hair and shakes out her sleeves. She slides back, stepping gracefully into her fluid posture. "I will, but not for your boredom, for the people of Earth."

COMBATSYS: Chizuru has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Chizuru          0/-------/-------|

[MORRIGAN]
Morrigan threads her fingertips through her sea-green hair, flipping it back behind her and shaking it through. She leans forward and her throne moves in sync, dumping her onto her feet with a one-two click-clack of her heels against the ancient stone. She laces her fingers together as she stands, stretching out as she bends at the waist and then rises up to bring her arms over her head.

"Oh, call it what you want," she says, "just don't make it boring."

The bats flutter away, moving like a wave back into Morrigan's shadow, diving into it as though it were a cave in itself. The succubus puts one foot forward, holding her palms open and her fingers skyward in an unorthodox stance. She curls her digits in a beckoning motion as she gazes at Chizuru like the cat watching the canary.

COMBATSYS: Morrigan has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Chizuru          0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
% Don't make it boring? The thought never crosses Chizuru's mind. An enigmatic smile crosses her face as she begins her movement. A cross forward step. A turn of her upper body. A flowing wave of her large sleeves. A fluttering as butterflies while glowing, ethereal orbs of chi begin to coalesce and form into an orbit about the woman.

Her graceful steps are silent over the damp ground of the deacon's repose. The lights of her spheres glow faint, foxfire in the mire. Her cross step is low, but it rises to an exit that bursts forward with a brilliant splash of color in a place of greys. She glides, easily, almost floating over toward the Succubus. The eerie light of her chi bursting forward with the suddenness of her slip-kick.

If Morrigan wished for excitement, Chizuru certainly intended on bringing it.

COMBATSYS: Morrigan blocks Chizuru's Cong Cong.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////////  ]
Chizuru          0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[MORRIGAN]
Morrigan's eyes seem to flash as she watches Chizuru's dance-like movements. They narrow to slits with concentration, for a moment, as the energy flashes like a will o' the wisp, but then there is movement. A burst. Morrigan responds in turn to this new dance.

One of her wings snakes around like a living creature, splaying out like someone unfurling a banner. It beats once, flipping into the path, then shimmers like black metal, suddenly as dense as the walls of the catacomb. The chi impacts it and scatters like raindrops on pavement, but even as it does it continues to burn--leaving patches of where the flames have eaten through.

Morrigan beats her wings once again, drawing them back as she kicks off into a low lunge, accelerating toward Chizuru.

But then her wings shatter into a cloud of bats as Morrigan rakes her fingers through the air. The creatures (?) curve at her command, beating themselves toward the maiden like a hundred tiny daggers before whipping back around and disappearing once more in the flicker of candlelit halls.

COMBATSYS: Chizuru fails to reflect Bat Thrust from Morrigan with Tamayura No Shitsune.
~~ Alluring Hit! ~~

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Chizuru          0/-------/-----==|=====--\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
A first test. A swift flurry of tiny strikes made from the umbral surroundings. These bats were not entirely, as far as Chizuru could tell, of this world. Not controlled or compelled living things. Though here in this place, Chizuru did not know exactly what was living, dead, or ethereal.

She pulls deep among her reserves and flares her sleeve outward. She tries to slap aside the the bats, return the creatures back to their creator. She intends on sending them aside.

What she intends does not come to pass. The little bats surge against Chizuru, blasting her back, crying out in pain, suffering, torn by the power put forth. She stumbles back, shaken by the failure, but she recovers herself in the flickering light of the deep yellows and oranges of the many many candles among the sepulcher.

[MORRIGAN]
Morrigan rises up out of her charge with a dramatic bend, briefly going airborne before landing solidly with a bounce. She flips her hair back again, sending the sea-green splaying behind her like a wave crashing against stone. She smiles smugly to herself. The candlelight dances across the pale of her skin.

The succubus clutches a fist, surging with power a faint gold glow. She raises it in front of her, extended, and braces her forearm with her other hand. As she does, she takes aim, closing one eye, and fires forth a flash of gold-orange energy that twists and molds into the shape of a bat.

COMBATSYS: Chizuru blocks Morrigan's Soul Fist.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////    ]
Chizuru          0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
Weaknesses exposed. Chizuru stands open before the succubus. She very quickly turns forward and brings herself to confront the creature of darkness head on. A clash in that moment, a stinging pain surging through her body, Chizuru holds her ground.

She begins to circle, moving quickly, and pulling the limited energy around her up through her to bring a feeling of peace and stability to her fraught initial gambits. "I will not let you unbalance me so easily," she claims, looking at the woman who melds with creatures of the night and the darkness itself. "I see what you are. I know what part you play in the future. You too will know with time that what happens on Earth is not beneath your interest."

COMBATSYS: Chizuru enters a meditative state.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////    ]
Chizuru          0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0         Morrigan

[MORRIGAN]
"Oh, good," Morrigan says, "it's no fun if there's a not a bit of work getting to the tipping point, you know." The succubus runs a hand across her thigh as she leans on one hip. "Do you know? What would you say I am? I mean," her other hand sweeps through the air. "There are plenty of unpleasant things that women have said about me before."

Kicking off into the air, Morrigan floats through the air, kicks from a wall, then lunges at Chizuru. She attempts to grapple with her, her aura extending as she transitions into an overhead throw boosted by mysterious power.

COMBATSYS: Morrigan successfully hits Chizuru with Quick Throw.

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Chizuru          0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
Centered or not, Chizuru is simply caught off guard by the grapple. She's spun to the ground. She hits the damp stones, wet with muck of ages mingles with a thin, greasy layer of melted tallow. She picks herself up off the ground, staggered in a moment. Thrown off by the shadows and the lights.

"I do know," she says, "I can see what comes yet, and the threat that it brings is far more than even you will be able to ignore." Chizuru lifts her head and makes a sudden rushing dart for the Morrigan. She glides up through the air, surging for the succubus. Her arms wheeling high up with the fluidness of a dance that crashes down with a heavy fist for the lady's head. All while the real Chizuru darts to assume a preferred position on the battlefield.

COMBATSYS: Morrigan dodges Chizuru's Choumon No Isshin.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Chizuru          0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0         Morrigan

[MORRIGAN]
For a moment, Morrigan lingers on top of the heiress of Kagura. Her breath is heavy and hot, the pressure like a lead weight before the succubus whimsically plants her hand and almost weightlessly pushes off again to land upright. Even as she does, Chizuru closes the gap again.

Strands of green hair flutter away from Morrigan as she bobs to the side, leaning deepl away from the heavy fist as it cuts through the air. "So cryptic. Are you all this somber?" Morrigan blinks as there are suddenly two Chizurus. "What would you have me do about the coming storm, then?"

Morrigan crouches down, muscles tense before she springs upward. Her wings unravel like fabric, weaving themselves back together as a sharp, scythe-like blade along the back of her air as she surges into an uppercut.

COMBATSYS: Chizuru reflects Shadow Blade from Morrigan with Tenjin No Kotowari.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Chizuru          0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
The echo of the Heiress slides past Morrigan and fades into darkness. The real Chizuru stands in wait, calm and reflective as a pool of water. And perhaps smiling with just enough enigmatic vaguery to possibly be mocking the moment. "I would only have you act in the way you know you must to continue your enjoyment of the world," she retorts in a stern tone.

She steps back, twirling and lowering herself, her voluminous sleeves flutter in the air. And as Morrigan and her great scything blade of energy comes down, a spectral form of Chizuru apparates and sweeps up through Morrigan with a graceful, but energy shattering uppercut. All while the real one stands some distance away with a bowing head and a coy grin. "You may be dark in nature, but even your selfishness understands that without a world, you will be without entertainment."

[MORRIGAN]
"Trying to worry me into doing what you want? You're a bit craftier than I gave you credit--" Morrigan is speaking when she's startled by the shattering Chizuru, the true one smashing into her with a burst of power that sends darkstalker down the hallway to tumble onto her back, roll down the hallway on her back, then back onto her feet once again.

"Oh, you are craftier than I gave credit," the Scot says through partially gritted teeth. "But you have a good point---there wouldn't be much left to play with, would there?"

She sweets her arm in an upward chop and a chain of illusory doubles erupt down the hallway, each imitating her uppercut from before. Perhaps if one was not enough---

COMBATSYS: Chizuru reflects Shadow Servant from Morrigan with Cang Cang.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Chizuru          0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

COMBATSYS: Morrigan dodges Chizuru's Reflected Shadow Servant.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Chizuru          0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
The flow of energy is predictable. It is comfortable. Like a river, fate flows in a given path unless altered by the actions of those great enough to change the course. "I speak only the truth," Chizuru protests. "And what, pray tell, happens to a land of dreams and nightmares when the sleepers are consumed by an angry void?"

She looks at what comes at her, and she laughs inwardly. "Duplicates? Attempting my own technique?" she questions, and hops up, a second version of her superimposed upon the first, and they both kick hard the last of the chain. A bend in the flow of energy turns the shadow servants back upon the original, folding them in on themselves to careen back to the prime Morrigan.

"Our worlds, and our energies, are inexorably linked. The rising of Orochi does neither of us any good."

[MORRIGAN]
"Fine, fine," Morrigan says. "If there's one thing I like less than boredom, it's nagging, but you made your case. What would you have me do? Prey on the agents of that awful snake so that he keeps sleeping?"

"Oh, darling, I thought I'd show you my own! I've been doing it since before you were crawling in whatever manor house you came from!"

But despite her bravado, the images are reflected back at Morrigan, forcing her on the defensive. She turns, shifts, twists, briefly distorting with reality, it seems, becoming a mix of shadow and subtance. The servants pass by without harming her.

But then she shifts, dropping through her own shadow and emerging from Chizuru's before sweeping around with an extended leg, sheathed in a gold aura.

"Oh, you remind me a bit of someone else I know." She crinkles her nose.

COMBATSYS: Chizuru blocks Morrigan's Medium Kick.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Chizuru          0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
A smart smile, satisfied with herself in the moment. Chizuru turns in to take on Morrigan hand to leg. A step in block, a jarring moment, and a dancing step past. Locking in close and making her plan, Chizuru see what she must do. "If you've been doing this so long, you should be far better than I," she tells Morrigan, "What have you been doing in your old age?"

Chizuru is picking up her pace, even as the tiring speed of the fight nags at her, and the darkness of the Deacon's Repose stifles and chokes the light of her inheritance. She must bear on and she does so. Each moment the fight continues, something pushes the Kagura heir even further and ever faster. Even in the dark, there is the flow of energy that connects all living peoples.

There's a flutter of cloth when Chizuru splits off in two differing directions. She rolls on heel, both of her, and wheels around as a pincer to strike for Morrigan with all her effort expending to pin down the elusive succubus.

COMBATSYS: Chizuru successfully hits Morrigan with Aggressive Strike.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Chizuru          0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0         Morrigan

[MORRIGAN]
Morrigan curls into the kick, winding like a spring as she compresses onto her foot that's stopped by Chizuru's guard. She frowns. "Rude," she says, "I have other hobbies, you know."

As the two separate in their dance in the dark, Chizuru takes lead. Morrigan turns to see herself surrounded, twisting herself unnaturally as the two Kagura close in. Her midsection compresses but the impact is still fierce, staggering her backward into a slide along the dilapidated stone. She grits her teeth, her wings splaying then unraveling again. One hand is thrust forward in a stabbing blow, long slender fingers extended as her wings weave themselves down along the length of her arm. A hundred steely threads of black weave together into a single piercing needle aimed at punching through Chizuru's guard. Energy pulsing, a give and take. Yin and yang as it flows out, then in.

"Let's see what you have to offer me, hmmmm?" The succubus's voice is sing-song, almost. Melodic in an alien way.

COMBATSYS: Chizuru reflects Cryptic Needle from Morrigan with Reigetsu.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Chizuru          0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
"What I can offer?" the heiress of Kagura questions.

"So be it."

One of the twins dissipates into glittering nothingness, falling into the dark. But as one fades, the original lightens with her motions. She dances, flowing like water around the stone. A light mirror to the succubus' darkness. They whirl, their respective energy bursting to brilliant existence!

Chizuru turns forward, her hand comes to check the stabbing, sharp needle. She slaps against it, and Chizuru's plan shows itself. Another her, almost entirely superimposed over the first, a spiritual force that turns against the needle, thrusts it aside. The chi created duplicate turns downward and swings a hammering blow to Morrigan's knees.

While the true shape remains standing and reaches to claim Morrigan's needling wing/arm and, with the assistance of herself, the duo of one flips Morrigan down to the wet stone floor.

[MORRIGAN]
Morrigan puts as the needle is deflected, punching into the aged stone like a chisel that scatters pieces about. In the next instant, the Kagura clan member closes the gap and tosses the succubus.

Morrigan twists and turns, redirecting herself to and planting her fingers on the ground to bend impossibly and redirect herself into a flip before landing upright with a tap-tap of her feet.

"But of course," Morrigan says, "First impressions are everything, you know." She moves in a blur, closing the gap again. A fist surges forward, wings winding around it like a corkscrew, power exploding outward in a burst as she launches a straight.

"Surely you know a bit about offerings. Aren't you some sort of priestess?"

COMBATSYS: Chizuru blocks Morrigan's Medium Punch.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Chizuru          0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
"But of course. I hope this is impressing upon you the need to help against the beast that comes," Chizuru speaks with more conviction than she had at the outset. She holds her ground when Morrigan closes. Explosive wingbeats push a fist forward and that meets a clashing forearm block that bursts with enough oppositional energy to waver and flicker the impossibly tall wall of candles that fill the repose.

The energy of the place ripples.

"You are strong, but you are not so strong as you can ignore what is coming. For your own greed and interest, I implore you to do good for this one time," the Kagura heiress speaks firmly, locking eyes with the Scottish Succubus at the end of her arm.

She turns in to her opponent. Her leg lifting, two limbs shifting together. Both kicking though one comes a half a tick of the clock after the first. Which is which is hard to tell, both image and after image seem real, and with the pain of the chi, both may as well be.

The kick is slow, sweeping, and shoving, not the most well aimed, but the kind of blow meant to put Chizuru back and buy her a moment and room to breath.

COMBATSYS: Morrigan dodges Chizuru's Medium Kick.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Chizuru          0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[MORRIGAN]
"Oh? Worried you didn't make a good enough case?" Morrigan flutters right before the two fields impact one another with a ripple. Her smiles creeps up as the two separate again; there's a certain spring in her step as she bounds away once more.

Sweeping her slender fingers through her hair, the Scottish succubus throws it back behind her, her wings beating once. "Oh, I don't intend to. Trust me."

The succubus steps forward, rolling her neck. As she does, Chizuru closes in, striking with a slower, distancing strike to try and buy herself a breather. In the initial meeting, it seems that Morrigan is hit, but it, like many aspects of Morrigan, is misleading.

Shifting and distorting, Morrigan seems to fall out of sync with the catacomb. She splits like a bad television picture, one becoming two as they fall out rhythm with one another and divide around Chizuru. In the next moment, they reconvene behind her, the succubus reaching to try and put her arms around the heiress of Kagura then rest her chin on the dark-haired woman's shoulder.

"Dohma...Maximoff. Illyria." Morrigan's breath is hot and heavy. Intimate, but a feeling like having wandered into the viper's den. "All these things are so trifling." Her chest presses close, squishing against Chizuru's back in that moment, unless the other woman breaks away. "The sooner we tend take care of it, the sooner I can get back to more enjoyable things. How about you and I go slay some of those monsters together, mmm?"

The Darkstalker suddenly bends at her back, trying to belly-to-back suplex Chizuru down the corridor.

"After our match, of course. And perhaps after we see what that rabbit is up to."

COMBATSYS: Chizuru dodges Morrigan's Sexual Embrace.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////                ]
Chizuru          0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
Sweet whispers of poison. Spoken into the ear of a close victim. The touch, the weight, a hold. Cloying embrace of honey and arsenic. Precious words that play at promises. Will the dark woman do good? Will she step to the light? Will she drift from her path of selfishness and evil?

Or is it all a deception?

A swing, and Morrigan finds herself turning far more easily than she should as the duplicate shape of Chizuru fades from existence mid toss to the ground. "While shadow hides, the light may blind," says the Kagura heiress, making her presence known against with a flitting and fluttering of her sleeves. She zips forward, and she makes for a quick, timed low kick to Morrigan's ankles when the succubus has had time to recover from her mistake. A simple, and potent sweeping strike.

COMBATSYS: Morrigan blocks Chizuru's Light Kick.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Chizuru          0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[MORRIGAN]
Morrigan steps forward into the strike, clashing against it, leg briefly reinforced with a burst of unexpected power as the two collide. "Poetic," she says, "and clever. I think I'm starting to like you. You're hard to get." Morrigan shakes her leg slightly to free it of soreness (do succubi even feel such things?) before spreading her wings again.

"I like hard to get. But, mm." Morrigan crosses her arms whimsically, resting her chin on her palm as she places her elbow upon her opposite forearm. "Surely you didn't come all this way just to recruit allies for you little war, did you? -- were you planning to ask the rabbit for help?"

COMBATSYS: Morrigan takes no action.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Chizuru          0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[CHIZURU]
Chizuru parts from Morrigan, sliding back on the wet stones, shoes clicking with each quick and light step. She sets her hand at her chin, and she looks pleased with herself for what has transpired so far. The fight against fear, the looming threat of beyond, where a world is shattered and sundered by the might of Orochi; that future is looking more shadowed and faint. But it still is ever present, and the prediction may yet prove more accurate.

"I have seen your skill," she says, "And I know your needs." A look to the damp, dire surroundings. A look to where shadows of alcoves make scales that crawl just beyond where the eyes can make detail. Where the fog makes phantasms. Chizuru Kagura looks into that darkness and she laughs at Morrigan's question. "I think," she states, "That beyond any spoken words I may get directly from the lady of the house that with what has transpired here is her answer."

She makes a vague, unconcerned gesture to Morrigan. "Do you not agree?"

COMBATSYS: Chizuru takes no action.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Chizuru          0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0         Morrigan

[MORRIGAN]
Morrigan's heels do not tap against the ancient stone as walks without walking, hovering slightly above the floor. Stepping, but not really.

"Do you?" Morrigan asks, slowly rolling her hair along her index finger. Her eyes follow Chizuru's taking in the surroundings. The flickering candle light dances reflectively off her eyes as she stares into the distance.

"That does seem like her," Morrigan frowns. "It seems maybe she and I need to have a conversation of tea. But." The succubus extends her hands, palms open, and shrugs. "I suppose you got what you were looking for in any case.

A bat flies out of Morrigan's shadow, circling around her twice before beating its wings and crossing down the hall. It circles around Chizuru, idly.

"Take that with you," Morrigan says. "I'm no one's retainer, but if you'll make it interesting, I'll lend a hand with your snake problem."

[CHIZURU]
"I'd like to think I have," Chizuru declares, looking overhead as the bat flits toward her. Could it be an attack? Another deception? A feint of allegiance? Such tactics would not be unexpected coming from a Darkstalker. However, this is not what Chizuru sees in the moment. Perhaps, in some ways, the attitudes of nobility transcend the nature of the mortal realm. So far, it would seem that that is the case.

Chizuru offers a short bow to her opponent. Gracious for the unspoken and unparticular assurances of assistance. Respectful of her fellow opponent. As the stone faces look down upon them, Chizuru can look back and know that she will not join them this eve. This will not be some eternal rest for her, a failure in the tests put forth by her destiny.

It brings her peace.

"Oh you may trust me, demoness," Chizuru says as she speaks more to the cavernous chambers about, "That what is coming will be of great interest."

[MORRIGAN]
The bat circles a few more times before landing harmlessly on Chizuru's shoulder. It is a strange thing with oversized eyes and not much else. Alien, but cute in its way. It blinks at the woman several times in a gesture akin to an owl.

Morrigan stretches out her back, bending forward and lacing her fingers together as she extends her arms up over her head.

"I certainly hope so. Though I suppose later I may seek a downpayment of some sort...perhaps ..."

"Salmon roe and a good sake perhaps? In any case...call if you need me. I'm going to seek out that little rabbit."

Morrigan begins to dissolve into bats, scattering into the stale air of the castle once more.

COMBATSYS: Chizuru has left the fight here.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Morrigan         0/-------/-----==|

COMBATSYS: Morrigan has ended the fight here.

Log created on 22:47:51 06/07/2021 by Chizuru, and last modified on 11:37:25 07/01/2021.