Standard Mission: Terror from the Skies

- Cleo -

"You're rather demanding for a cheap suit of armor." Cleo quipped, assuming a casual pose as he twirled the vial of black powder between his fingers. Behind him, Nekomata continued to keep the imps at bay with her flameflicks, but at the rate she was going, her maga wouldn't last forever. Not being able to harm the imps was proving to be an unfortunate handicap.

As Dantes turned his attention to Cleo, the young man grinned. "I honestly don't know that you'd even fetch fair price at the market, and that would be a fraction of what these vials are worth. So, how about you kindly go back to polishing your brass somewhere else."

With a flourish, Cleo tossed the dark vial in the air, clearly intent on catching it. As it came down, he made a gesture with his other hand, and his and Dantes' perspectives changed as they swapped positions. A moment later, the vial shattered on the demon's shoulder, and tendrils of darkness wrapped around it in a manner eerily similar to the way Shoggoth had wrapped around her victims earlier, binding Dantes in place, with his arms pressed to his sides.

From his position atop the wagon, Cleo pulled his zanbato over his shoulder and leapt down towards the demon, swinging the blade at full extension. Armor or not, with that kind of force behind the blade, it would make one heck of a dent if it connected.

Scarlet - Caravan

Scarlet and Warg arrived at the caravan as the imps began their song. Gasping at Aesop taking the hit from the horse, she jumped off Warg intending to help him, but caught Vayu's gesture at the singing imps. Taking note of how the horses were all seemingly asleep, it was reasonable to assume that they were the source of the circumstances. She quickly began loosing arrows at one of the singing imps.

"Warg! Stop those imps quickly!" Warg roared and bounded forwards. Using the terrain and carts to get higher, it leapt towards the other imp, unleashing its Frosty Breath at it.

Slane Ruins - Utter Chaos

Scarlet's arrow soared at one of the singing large imps the imp catching the arrow out of the corner of its eyes.  The imps eyes widened in terror with its pointing its claws towards a horse as it began to glow an eerie color again.  A horse near the imp quickly rose off the ground as it ran to intercept the arrow only to be pulled back by the reins attaching it to the train. The imp let out a startled gasp, as the arrow slamming into the imps neck.  The imp let off a terrified scream, as it slammed into the ground, while clutching the arrow until it eventually went limp.

The other large imp loudly gasped as Amira purged the red mark from it, as it felt the brand fade from its body leaving a gruesome and aggravated scar on its chest.  The imp let out a large overjoyed smile as it stopped in mid air feeling the mark, its body flinching a bit as it repeatedly kept touching the burned wound.

"I'm finally..... Wha!?"  The imp yelled in utter shock a black ferocious wolf bounced from the caravan above the imp as it unleashed a torrent of frost from its mouth that slammed into the imp froze it to its core.  While the imp blocked most of the cold breath, some of the cold seeped by and began rushing towards Amira.

"Don't hurt Amira!  You evil wolf!"  Fane yelled, as she pulled herself onto of the train that Warg had recently jumped off of as she tossed a green vial at it that erupted into a torrent of wind that launched Warg towards the back of the train.

---

"Brass?!  Cheap?!  You little!"  Dantes yelled at Cleo raising its arms and clutching it into a fist as it seemed like smoke began to emit from the armor.  A fire tendril from earlier began to slowly inch out of his gauntlet when a black wolf suddenly went flying past him as the armor jumped from the shock until... the wolf wasn't there anymore and he was standing on the ground instead of the train because of Cleo's switch spell.

"What?!" Dantes said in an absolutely bewildered tone, as the black vial broke off his head and tendrils wrapped around him.  The armor began to try and struggle out of its grasp until Cleo brought his blade down on the armor's arm from behind, the arm came clean off as Cleo see a strange black fog there its place that the sword slid through with both the arm and mace slamming into the ground.

Dantes roared in rage as he tore through the tendrils the black remains flying everywhere. his eyes  as he quickly slammed his fist into Cleo's stomach causing the vanguard to fly and slam into the caravan behind him.

"How dare you!  Do you know how hard it was to steal this thing from Icarus... AND YOU RUINED IT!" the armor roared, as he lunged its arm forward a fiery tendril coming out of the black fog of his old arm like a limb as flew towards Cleo in an attempt to latch onto him.

---


5 imps were consumed by Shoggoth's attack as they were all pretty terrified until they heard the bit about their brand being healed and all their faces were suddenly covered in smiles even with the pain of the poison inflicting them; they didn't seem to care, at all.

"ME FIRST.  DO ME NOW"  One of the imps yelled eagerly, as he began struggling to wave his arms up and down, and continued to yell as another imp swam over and smacked him with his wings sluggishly.

"NO ME, I'm stronger I can kill 10 imps!"  The other imp yelled, as they all began to bicker with each other not realizing their brand had already faded, as they continued to bicker with each other incessantly.

Zhen's wind spell sliced up the imps further, as the imps screamed out in even more pain when the spell left various cuts on their body the imps begin to cry out and beg from all the pain they were feeling. Vayu was able to cleanly and easily decapitated each of the burning imps, as the burning mark on them faded with their death as their eyes almost filled with a look of relief when they met their end.  Vayu began moving onto other imps when they noted something among the chaos, there appeared to be about 25 imps flying around with about 9 of them holding vials.  However, the 9 who were holding vials were now in formation with the three large imps floating behind them, their eyes focused on Cleo.

"You heard the boss' command!  Kill that vanguard, even if it means blowing up the caravan!"  The large imp yelled, as the 9 imps threw a variety of colors in the direction of the caravan a few straying off course and flying towards Vayu, Shoggoth, and Nihility.

Amira

Amira's spell worked, which was good, maybe now she could barter with the imp and get it to help her... but things would not go her way. Warg would jump off kill the imp with ice breath, ice that also reached her. Haita stepped forward and blocked the remaining ice. Half of it's body freezing.

"Haita!"

Luckily Haita was able to avoid most of the damage by immediately running inside Amira. The ice that had attached to Haita falling on the ground.

Goddamit! She can't do anything without it failing immediately! Teamwork, why? Amira does not want to work as a team. It's so difficult to do that, she can work by herself and that way any mistake she does will fall on her, she can't blame on others if she works alone... That was because increasingly difficult to do when everybody's attacks were crossfire and she nearly got hit by one.

She didn't even do anything special, she literally only used a spell on an imp and somehow that got her in range of collateral!

ANGER. USELESS. WORTHLESS.

Whispers began to gather around her as a golden light began to manifest from her...

"I see... There's no point in holding back is there? What's the worst that can happen? I die? As if that matters..."

Amira's crunches on the ground her eyes aiming towards Dantes. She wasn't looking at him though, she was looking above him.

"Acceleration!"

*BOOM* A large explosion of dust and debris

The ground cracked beneath her as she leaped forward. Her body rising to the sky and blinding speed. Her legs broken, no, it would be more accurate to say that her legs were pulverized by the sudden burst of speed.

As Amira's body reached the sky above Dantes. Haita appeared out of Amira, Haita's legs gone and destroyed while Amira's legs were healed again. Haita's body was above Amira, as she flips and lands her new legs on Haita's torso.

"Acceleration!"

*BOOM* Once more another explosion, this time from the sky.

Using Haita's body as a platform. Amira leaped downwards at a maddening velocity. Her legs were broken but not as damaged as before. This was because the one who took most of the damage was Haita, who's torso looked brittle, almost as if it would fall to pieces at any moment.

Amira's sword was out, the target was Dantes. Even if she missed the target by a margin, the impact would be enough to knock him to the ground for a good while.

~~~~
~~~~~~~
Nihility|Shoggoth
~~~~~~~
~~~~


Nihility bent forward grabbing onto her belt and was ready to rip it apart when Cleo was thrown back by Dantès's tendril strike. From the corner of her eye she saw something zip past into the air. Following the image, Nihility eyes widened even more than they normally are. One of the female vanguard was about to bring the sword down into their Armoured enemy. The act wasn't what worried her, it was the height from which the dare-devil was going to plunge down her wrath from.

"Shoggoth!!"

Nihility screamed through the mental link with her demon partner. It was enough to send the message through.


Blocking the quibbling among the imps, time flew by for Shoggoth as it focussed on converting the demonic brand into usable Maga for healing and succeeded just in the nick of time too when Nihility's message bombarded through their shared mind paths.


Nihility thrust her arms in front shouting "Spellception!!" releasing the previously absorbed spell from Shoggoth.

Multiple tendrils ripped through time-space from a tear that cracked open from an angle facing Dantès from near his armoured legs. The purple tendrils latched onto his body, spiralling around his legs and torso and creeping up his body, binding and holding him to the spot.


In the same seconds, Shoggoth would have abandoned her Goo-Terain form by sucking up all her mass into a smaller scale. The Purple demon would fling herself up into the air, the imps that were once shielded would then be exposed to their surroundings. Shoggoth's humanoid upper body would take her previously revealed form, and upon raising her arms towards the airborne assassin she would complete Gluttony.

The sky-diving devil would have just broken through the speed barrier or probably it were only her bones; when unseen energy that was once swirling inside the Purple Demon would suddenly jump from her body and appear to envelop and seep into Amira and begin healing her wounds.


With the Imps now out in the open, Nihility gave them a command that she didn't know if they would follow it or not, but was still worth a shot.

"As promised, you all proved worthy and are free. But I am sorry to put this on you, right as you got out too, but please aid my teammate by disrupting those imps who are still under Dantès's spell."

Slane Ruins
- Vayu -

When Vayu looked up from slaughtering the Imps, the saw Dantes shouting at Cleo after slamming him into a nearby caravan.

It looked like Amira took another shot at attacking Dantes with support from Nihilty and her very versatile and very creepy demon. The arrival of another group of Imps, carrying several vials drew his attention.

“Zhen,” he shouted and pointed towards the vials flying towards the caravan and Cleo. “Use Wing Buffet on the vials to send them away!”

The Zhen quickly followed his command, using its attack to scatter the vials away from the caravan and Cleo. Unfortunately, not all the of them stayed intact. Vayu gritted his teeth. If the Zhen was hit with any substantial damage, it would probably run out of maga.

“Arcane Barrier,” he cast around himself and Nihility to protect them from the effects of the stray vials.

“And next: Confusion Wave!” This was cast towards the Imps throwing the vials and moving in to attack them. It wouldn’t incapacitate them, but it would certainly slow them down and confuse them.

Scarlet - Caravan

Scarlet let out a sigh of relief as her arrow struck true. That relief quickly turned to panic as she realised Warg's attack would catch Amira! She began to shout, but was interrupted by a voice.

"Don't hurt Amira! You evil wolf!" Scarlet saw the figure of Fane on top of one of the caravans, making a throwing gesture. This was followed by Warg being thrown out of sight, behind the line of caravans, though she could clearly hear Warg's howl of surprise at the sudden change in momentum. She winced - she wasn't used to working with this many allies, and they were paying the price.

Scarlet ran up to the young girl, shouting at her to stop. "Wait! He's with me! I didn't mean for him to do that!" She skidded to a stop at the bottom of the caravan. She was interrupted by movement in the corner of her eye. Turning towards it, Scarlet's eyes widened at the fresh wave of imps flying in, clearly targeting Cleo.

Her Gauntlet glowed as she dismissed Warg - it was clear that it was not suited for this kind of fight. She then channelled Maga into the next arrow she drew. "Arcane Tether!" she cried, sending the arrow flying towards an imp on the far side of the group, intending to tether it, and then pulling on the tether to bring the unfortunate imp into a collision course with the others in the group.

- Cleo -

Cleo managed to intercept the armored fist with his zanbato, which prevented it from reaching his stomach instead. Unfortunately, that didn't do anything to reduce the power behind the strike. His weapon fell from his hands, driving into the ground halfway between Dantes and the wagon, which Cleo crashed into before sliding to the ground. "That'll definitely leave a bruise." He wheezed as he struggled to push himself back to his feet. The impact had been more than he'd expected, and both of his arms were numb from the elbows down.

A clawed hand suddenly dug into his shoulder, throwing Cleo aside. As he stumbled, Dantes' flame tendril wrapped around Nekomata, who yowled before beginning to fade. "I was out of maga anyway. Try not to get yourself killed." The flames closed in on nothingness as she returned to the gauntlet, but the pained look on her face was still stuck in Cleo's mind.

A loud boom resounded from the sky, and he could only watch as the blur of what could only be Amira descended upon the suit of armor. Gritting his teeth, Cleo rested a still tingling hand on his sword, but he couldn't force his fingers to stay closed.

Behind him, a rustling noise drew his attention, and he watched as several vials were carried away from him by the wind, exploding into a cloud of magical chaos in the process. Just below that, several of the Toufei rested atop one of the other wagons. Despite the chaos, Dantes' words had not been lost on Cleo. "For all his promises, your master isn't here to help at all, is he?" Cleo basically spat the words as he flexed his fingers, still trying to regain any strength in them. "He's only here to clean up his own mess."

"Well, where I come from, a promise means something." He continued as the tingling finally began to recede down his arms. "That makes you less trustworthy than this lesser being. How does your justice feel about that?"

Slane Ruins

"What?"  The armor gasped in surprise when Nekomata shoved Cleo out of the way of his tendril attack.  But, his shock soon faded, as the tendril latched around the demon who began to howl in pain.  As he soon began to loudly laugh at the vanguard, as he withdrew the tendril back into his armor when it faded.

"Can't even protect your own demon..."  The armor laughed loudly before spotted the same vanguard girl from earlier flying towards him, as his eyes began to lite up again as he turned his gaze towards his shield.  He began to quickly wind up his shield to intercept his blade again, when tendril's from Shoggoth began to wrap around him, the armor's gaze quickly shifting to the tendril's now latching around him, holding him back.

"You!"  The armor yelled as fire began to erupt from his helmet.  The fire tendril began to quickly wrap around him like some kind of protective coating when it ignited into a deadly heap of flames as the tendrils burnt to a crisp in an instant even the armor beginning to look softer from the heat and intensity of the fire.  But it was too late, Amira was right in front of him, as he desperately swung the shield in front of her sword again.  A loud clang could be heard from the two weapons colliding, as Amira knocked his arm back behind his head as the loud sound of metal screaming could be heard.  His arm had grotesquely twisted backwards, as Dantes slammed into the ground.  His eyes grew insanely bright for a second before fading from the helmet.

"The horses are awake!"  Allison yelled out to the other vanguard, as she was pouring a healing powder on Aesop's head, as he slowly rose off the ground still clutching his head.  He slowly stood back onto his feet still holding his head, as he gestured Allison and Fane to get inside before commanding the horses to run off without him.

"I don't like it.... but someone has to keep an eye on our stock.  Stay safe."  Allison stated, as she yelled out the last part for the vanguards to hear.  Fane apologetically nodded at Scarlet as she waved at the rest of the vanguards particularly looking at Amira before wagons rode off into the distance.

"Impressive... Icarus is our employer not master, vanguard.  We follow our own code."  The Toufei retorted, as they flew up in the air and unleashed an ear piercing scream at the group at the vials that weren't knocked off course from the wind to preemptive crack and explode before landing on Cleo that erupted in a haze of fire and electric power that slammed against Vayu's arcane barrier who was under the explosion, as the various imps Nihility freed barely avoided the explosion flying next to Nihility the imps glancing at each other.

"We can't remove marks.... Though if big boss' spirit is purged then they would fade."  one of the imps muttered to Nihility, as they pointed at the armor that Dante's was in frantically like something was about to happen.

The imps that threw the vials that weren't caught up in the explosion froze, as Vayu's confusion wave hit them further adding to the panic as they began to scramble in various direction.  Not noticing Scarlet's attack that slammed into one of the imps as was launched into the other ones causing them to all hit the ground.

A black twisted spirit floated out from the helm of the armor, as it hovered above the looking around at the various vanguards with a twisted smile.  

Spoiler:

"Kill yourselves"  The spirit stated his smile growing larger, as all the imps with marks on them began to glow bright red as they all erupted into flames.  The armor began to glow, as the spirit turned to the rest of the vanguards, "If you purge me now, all this energy will go haywire.  I hope you realize what would happen then... right?  So provide me with a weaker vessel that's no threat to you.... someone important... like him?"

Aesop's eyes widened for a moment, as he opened his mouth like he was about to say something.

"To be excepted of filth....."  Icarus interrupted as he slowly landed next to the rest of the vanguards, covered in bruises and marks as he placed a similar looking piece of armor next to him that was covered in holes and scorch marks, as he glanced up at the spirit.  The various Toufei all landed around him besides the two who helped Cleo out that hovered above the Cleo now pulling the vanguard back onto his feet.

"I don't need you anymore... Baptism."  Icarus solemnity stated with a smile castingt he baptism spell. A well of light appeared next to him as the spirit recoiled from the light.  Icarus then dipped his sword into the well and pulled his sword back like a javelin to toss it at Dantes.

Amira

WHAT ARE YOU CHASING? DESIST! GIVE UP! DIE! DIE! DIE!

The voices continued as they invaded Amira's mind. A headache was forming and there was little she could do... Where was Haita?

Amira's sword impacted with the demon's shield. *snap*

Her sword broke from the impact. But it wasn't the only thing. More than half her bones broke on impact. Her vision went black as she fell unconscious.

At least the voices stopped.

~~~~
~~~~~~~
Nihility|Shoggoth
~~~~~~~
~~~~


As expected, just Nihility using her basic level spell to hold down the armoured Dantès wasn't strong enough, but at the least, Shoggoth's Gluttony saved the suicide dive from any long-lasting harm. Alas, it was still too early to call it safe.

Nihility rushed to the side to crouch down for taking cover behind what was left of the exploded caravan and aimed her arms at the Spirit which was floating in the sky and sneering at them all.

"Shoggoth, I am going to transfer Maga over to you. Make sure to fully heal that young girl. Take all you can from the armour, that well of energy which is absorbing Maga from the burning imps."

Sending the mental suggestion over to her Demon Partner, Nihility flicked her right wrist, opening up a small discreet dimensional portal that floated behind the spirit in his blind spot. A single tendril slid out of the crack in space and snaked itself around Dantès neck like some kind of choker or horse shoe. A barrage of miniscule arms with tiny hands wiggled their way out from the inner rim of the tendril with open palms. Slits opened up from the centre of each palm revealing a hollow space lined with cylindrical suction cups. On the other side, with a flick of her left wrist, a similar portal opens up behind Shoggoth from which a thicker tendril jacks into her humanoid neck like a huge leech. Nihility then clenched her hands into fists, sending the command to initiate the Maga Transfer. As this was still a basic level spell, Dantès would not feel any form of binding effect around his neck area as his Maga would be silently syphoned off. The mobile nature of the dimensional portal would make it smoothly slide around space-time along with the Spirit's motion, thus even further risking detection.


Shoggoth didn't wait for Nihility to set up the Maga Transfer, but had already positioned herself near the bomb that could blow up anytime yet keeping enough distance required as to not let the flames reach her. Lifting her arms up to the skies, the Gluttonous demon began absorbing the energy pouring into the shield with the demonic brand and channelled the converted energy into healing the knocked out girl vanguard from earlier. Focussing all her attention on speeding up the recovery as much as possible.


Tapping the Gauntlet on her left arm with her right fist, Nihility alerted the fellow Vanguards in the vicinity.

"Guys, my Partner and I are focussing on healing Amira so please stall Icarus from taking out Dantès till your friend wakes up and is ready for action."

Slane Ruins
- Vayu -

It worked. The wind spell from the Zhen dispersed the flying vials away from Cleo and the caravan, but at the same time the Zhen was caught in the explosion. Using the last of its maga, it managed to avoid most of it. Their eyes met for a split second as it faded and returned to the gauntlet.

Taking a deep breath, Vayu turned around to survey the scene before him.

The caravan train managed to escape. Good. His brows narrowed when he realized Aesop was still here. Not so good. Especially since Dantes’ attention turned to him. Why hadn’t he gone with the caravan?

After her attack, Amira was unmoving on the ground. Hopefully just unconscious and not dead.

Cleo was standing up, looking roughed up, but seemingly okay.

Scarlet had approached, ready to fight.

Nihility and Shoggoth were focused on healing Amira. Vayu nodded to signal that he heard her. She looked focused. Too focused to notice anything else around her. He needed to remember that if there was another attack.

Dantes had separated himself from the armour and threatened to blow all of them up. Vayu could see the marks on the Imps starting to glow, some erupting into flames.

Suddenly Icarus appeared, drawing the attention of Dantes. To his surprise, Icarus seemed ready to kill Dantes instantly.

Vayu sprung into action.

There was a crackle of thunder when he summoned Catequil.

“Catequil, start killing those flaming demons!” he commanded. “We can’t allow them to fuel the armour for an explosion!”

With a loud roar, the demon rushed over to the group of confused Imps, tightly wielding his spear as he started to decimate the Imps still under the influence of Dantes’ mark.

“As for you,” Vayu growled and jumped in front of Icarus. “This is your idea of help?!”

“Killing him to blow us all up?” He’d drawn his ninjato and used it to block Icarus’ throwing motion.

I must be crazy, he thought when their blades collided. The caravan train was safe. He should've just walked away and let these two fools kill each other.

Scarlet - Caravan

Maintaining the tether keeping the group of imps down, Scarlet glanced over the battlefield. Amira was down, but it appeared that their new friend was attending to her. Vayu was intercepting Icarus' strike while his demon began tearing into the imps.

Holding onto the tether with her left hand, Scarlet dropped her bow, raising her right arm and forcing more Maga through the Gauntlet. She gasped as the Maga fed her summon, draining her dwindling stores as Nekomata materialised once more.

"Neko... take out those imps!" she shouted, indicating the group held down. "I'm running out of Maga, so make it quick!" Anyone looking at Scarlet would clearly see she was tiring.

"With pleasure!" Nekomata purred, running towards the imps while casting Flame Lick at them, following up the attack by clawing at the imps.

- Cleo -

"Thank you." Cleo responded to the Toufei as they helped stabilize him. "And I'm glad to see you're aware of the difference. A person must always remain true to themselves." He flexed his fingers, which now hurt, but at least they weren't numb.

Before him, the situation was playing out differently than anticipated. Icarus had finally chosen to join the fight, but at the most inopportune moment. Given their brief interaction, Cleo had little trouble believing that. What was more surprising to him was that the armor they'd been fighting apparently wasn't Dantes. No, from what he gathered, Dantes was some kind of shadow demon that had possessed the armor. Armor that he was now threatening to detonate amidst them.

Cleo frowned at Vayu's solution, but his hand moved to his sword anyway. As he'd just stated, one must remain true to himself, and Cleo had no intention of dying here. It was unfortunate for the imps that this was the best answer, but sometimes, the world was a cruel place.

Drawing his katana, Cleo raised an open hand towards the screaming imps. "Subjugate." Three of them suddenly fell from the air, writhing on the ground at Cleo's feet. With a swift twist of his blade, he ended their misery and raised his hand again. "Subjugate." Three more plummeted, but this time, he ended them before they struck the ground.

Slane Ruins

Icarus' face contorted with an expression of raw fury when his blade collided with Vayu's ninjato, as his one wing opened and puffed up like some sort of animal trying to look big in intimidating.  He moved his face closer to the vanguard, his eyes unflinchingly looking into theirs.

Aesop on the other hand quickly ran over to the armor as he placed his hands on it, and nodded to Nihilty, as a black-red dust that sparkled began to fall from the armor and pile up around his legs, along with the tendrils connected to the armor by Shoggoth, the energy from it began to grow weaker and weaker by the second.

"Step. Aside."  Icarus growled, as he forcefully shoved Vayu out of the way.  The shove felt rather weak though, as the angel grimaced in pain, some blood flowing out of some of the deeper cuts on his body.

The spirit now seeing Icarus wounded began to calm down, as it hovered around Vayu in particular but its eyes on Icarus with a more sadistic smile on its face.

"Now do you see vanguards?  I may be violent but at least I at least you take can me at face value... siding with this angel will only leave you with a knife in your back for the 'greater good' later..." Dantes' stated with his face now turning into a frown.  His gaze slowly shifted over to the imps, as he watched the battle unfold.

Each of the imps screamed in terror as they fell from the sky and were sliced up by Cleo's blade, the fire was amplified by Nekomata's flame flick, or they were stabbed in the back by Catequil in the blink of the eye.  

The imps who had been freed from the mark cowered behind Nihility as they stared at each of the vanguards with horror in their eyes, a few bawling their eyes out and screaming in terror.  Though the energy began to fade from the armor with the remnants of the energy rocketing out of the body through Shoggoth's tendrils and into Amira's body almost like it was attracted by force.

The sound of an aggravated grunt could be heard, as the spirit slowly floated down to the ground its face looking down at the dirt with a shame-filled and defeated expression.

"Well done... Vanguards.  Though, I honestly don't know what would of happened if I died, for all I know it might of just fizzled out."  The spirit muttered with a shrug, as its black energy dispersed and rushed in various directions seemingly hitting each of the vanguards as they felt a wave of nausea hit them before the feeling faded.

"He's hiding among one of you!"  Icarus muttered, as he slowly pushed himself off the ground and pointed to the well of holy water he had conjured from earlier, "Just drink it, it will purify the demon from your bodies... if you don't do it then...."

Icarus began to hesitantly pulling up his sword, as he glanced at each of the vanguards, Toufei, and imps.  As they all began to stare at each other with a dead and eerie silence.

"ENOUGH!" Aesop yelled, as he walked over to Icarus with a few horses in tow.  He gave the angel a cold gaze as he turned to the rest of the vanguards, "As far as I'm concerned, this mission is over.  I'm not getting involved with your mess any longer or do all angels value their word so little?  Grab a horse vanguards... or one of your demons.... and let's go!"
-----

A) Drink the holy water
B) Ignore Icarus

~~~~
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Nihility|Shoggoth
~~~~~~~
~~~~


With all the energy spent from the object, Shoggoth stopped the Healing process from her end, and with Dantès dispersing himself, giving up his physical manifestation, Nihility had to shut down her portals.

She felt something pass through her but it didn't linger long enough and didn't feel like an attack that she might have needed to defend herself from.

"That's good enough Shoggoth, you may return and recover in the Gauntlet." Now that the fight was over, the Vanguard requested her demon partner to take some well-earned rest.

"Tyrian, love, carry me home, would you." Nihility cooed into her gauntlet to summon her second demon.

Fighting off the mental and physical exhaustion, Nihility slid onto her Bicorn that had materialized next to her feet. The demon beast effortlessly pushed onto its hooves and rose up. Nihility coiled her arms around the Bicorn's long strong neck and rested her head onto her side.

The demon trotted off to stop next to the horses that Aesop had brought back with him.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but Aesop is right, the threat is over, and we should get back to catch up with the forward caravan." Nihility spoke with her eyes closed and head still resting on the demon's body. "We can deal with the possession matter on the way back or at Chaldea itself."

Slane Ruins
- Vayu -

[B: Ignore Icarus? Or at least don’t drink the holy water.]

Vayu stared back at Icarus, refusing to be intimidated. However, he let himself be pushed back by Icarus when it was clear the angel would back off and not go on a killing rampage.

Dantes voice caught his attention and he turned around.

“I’m not through with you!” he said. “You started this mess and I’m still considering killing you myself.”

Before he could take any action, the spirit dissipated. For a moment he felt nauseous but shook it off.

“Catequil, you can stop now,” he ordered his demon. The armour had stopped glowing and with Dantes no longer in sight, there would be no explosion. Hence no more reason to slaughter the Imps.

His demon had already caught on and made his way over to Vayu. “Looks like I missed all the fun,” Catequil complained. Vayu rolled his eyes.

“And what other side effects does your holy water have?” he asked Icarus.

Vayu let out a long exhale when Aesop rushed over, yelling, trying to rush them. He was in no mood to be pushed right now. He still had Icarus words in the back of his mind. Could that really have happened? That the spirit had possessed one of them so quietly they didn’t notice?

“Whatever, Aesop,” he replied. “Go back to the caravan.” He watched Nihility pull out her second demon and start the return trip. “We’ll be right behind you. I just don’t want to leave anyone behind.” Without saying another word, he took a horse from Aesop and made his way over to Amira.

“Cleo? Scarlet?” he asked. “You good?”

Scarlet - Caravan

B) Ignore Icarus

Scarlet dispelled her Arcane Tether as a wave of nausea hit her. Already feeling the strain of Maga use, she stumbled to her knees. Nekomata was quickly at her side.

"Oh Scar... you shouldn't push yourself," admonished Nekomata. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah... just tired," Scarlet replied, giving Nekomata a small smile. "I'm sorry, but I'm going have to release the Maga I'm feeding you..."

"Of course, my dear. Don't push yourself while I'm gone," the demon replied, winking as she dissipated.

Getting back on her feet, she nodded at Vayu. "Yeah, I'm... just tired from Maga use..." She looked towards the well offered by Icarus, listening to the arguments of her fellow Vanguards.

"What if we took back some of this water for Chaldea to examine? I'm sure if there's something wrong with it, they'll find it," Scarlet suggested, taking out her canteen and filling it with some of the water from the well. As the convoy prepared to return to Chaldea, she found an empty spot in one of the caravans and sat down to rest.

B) Ignore Icarus

- Cleo -

Cleo sheathed his katana as the shadow dissipated. A half-second later, he raised a hand to impede the darkness streaking towards him, and it exploded outward, disappering entirely. Frowning, Cleo glanced at the others in the group. If he'd reacted more quickly, maybe he could have stopped the spell entirely, but the demon hadn't made its intentions known until the last moment.

With a sigh, Cleo made his way to his zanbato and retrieved it from the ground, where it had fallen after he was struck by the armor. Not far away lay Amira, and Cleo frowned as he gently lifted her from the ground. "Sweet Amira, you have to stop pushing yourself so hard."

Cleo turned to find Vayu already approaching with a horse, and he nodded to the man. "I'll live, but getting out of bed in the morning won't be any fun." Cleo responded as he hoisted Amira up and onto the back of the horse, then pulled himself up into the saddle, leaning her sleeping form back against his chest.

"Let's get out of here before anything else decides that it wants to eat us or steal more of the caravan's cargo."

On the Way Back!

Icarus observed each of the vanguards make their choice, as his face grew more and more irritated as each one refused or ignored him. His feathers began to puff out, as he pulled out a clear pristine vial and began pouring the liquid inside of it over his wings and washing his hands on it muttering a few curses under his breath. However, at the mention of something being wrong with the holy water....

"How dare you! To say that the water blessed by the god has 'side effects'. You blasphemous....!" Icarus roared with all his fury, as he turned to Aesop his face turning a very dark red with him declaring, "I'll honor my agreement.... but remember, Any damage Dantes' causes will be YOUR FAULT!"

"Why don't any of you trust me?! After all I did!" Icarus angrily uttered, as he flew up in the air as various Toufei latched onto the two armors that once belonged to the corrupted sentinels. There appeared to be more Toufei now with about 5 holding up each armor and two holding up Icarus.

"But! For whatever reason my superior wants to recruit you, so if you ever want to actually save this world and not blindly perform insignificant tasks then come find us." Icarus preached raising his head like he had just given a beautiful speech before flying off into the distance.

Aesop cracked a smile, as Icarus flew off when he released a soft laugh when the angel was out of earshot. He quickly covered his mouth for a few seconds before moving his hand back to his side, his face now stern and serious.

"So the question is what to do with these demons.... It's your choice vanguards... consider it a bonus." Aesop stated slowly turned his gaze towards the tired vanguards.

"In the meantime, keep an eye out for rouge demons. With you all scouting the skies, we should be able to make it back to Chaldea." Aesop commanded out loud to the various demons, as his body began to loosening up before he snapped the horse's reins causing the horse to dash off towards the caravan.

----

A) invite the demons the Chaldea
B) Make the demons stay with the caravan
C) Tell the demons to be free

On the way back... to the caravan train... and hopefully Chaldea
- Vayu -

[A: Invite the demons to Chaldea (under certain conditions)]

“Agreed, let’s get out of here,” Vayu replied to Cleo and watched him lift Amira gently off the ground. Some things would never change.

“I like your thinking,” he said to Scarlet as she filled some of the holy water into a canteen. Yes, even if one of them was possessed, they could deal with it in Chaldea. “Good idea.”

Icarus was still raging around, now mad that they had refused his holy water. Vayu sighed. Finally, though, Icarus decided to take his leave after making a grand statement.

Vayu grabbed another horse and swung himself in the saddle. Catequil came up to his side, their eyes now at the same height.

“You’re keeping me around?” the demon asked. Vayu nodded. He had no intention of leaving them unprotected by de-summoning his demon, especially since Aesop seemed to decide to take some demons back to the caravan.

“I’m not stupid,” he said. “There might be other dangers lurking.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Catequil said amused, baring his sharp and canine teeth in a grin. Vayu shook his head. How was ever supposed to take that demon serious?

He turned his horse around to face the various demons that were still around.

“I wouldn’t be opposed, if one of you wanted to come back with me to Chaldea,” he stated. He probably could’ve made it more appealing, but in all honesty, his life and the success of the mission didn’t depend on him bringing back a demon. “For the rest, I don’t care if you leave or stay with the caravan train, but be warned: If you cause trouble again, I won’t hesitate to eliminate you.”

[OOC: And by that I mean, please let me recruit a Toufei.]

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Nihility|Shoggoth|Tyrian
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Now that the Half-Breed Angel had finally taken off to the skies and departed, the resting Vanguard let out sigh of relief. This could be signalling an uneventful yet peaceful return to Chaldea and the savoury Sheppard's pie waiting for her. Nihility began slightly drooling over the Bicorn's mane to which he had to shake his neck, forcing his rider to quickly recover herself.

"Ah! Sorry about that Tyrian, I was just thinking about what I was going to eat, once we get back to the city. It feels like a long time since I ate the Sheppard's Pie.

The Wilder Demon twisted his neck to the side to help Nihility hear him better. "As long as you don't mince meat me for the dish, I would like some too."

Nihility patted the demon's head lovingly in response. "Hey, I won't ever do you in like that. She reassured him. "But, yes, I'll share some of it with you. Firstly though, We need to get back to the city in one piece."


As they made their way to the City or the Caravan train, both the Demon and her Partner eyed their surroundings, both for different reasons. The Bicorn scanned the area for any hostile forces making their way to them and Nihility was looking around for ingredients. The current option around was for Chicken or Beef.

Suddenly Nihility shook her head to remove the lustful thoughts. "No, No, No. I shouldn't be thinking of consuming these poor demons or feeding them to mine, especially since they helped us in the battles."

The hungry woman once again looked at the few flying creatures around them and then resigned to slumping back onto the Bicorn's back in defeat.


"Sigh!" Nihility gave out a loud sigh before addressing the demons. "You all seemed to be doing just fine working with each other. So, my suggestion would be for those of you willing to stay, continue doing that. All of you could benefit working with the caravan group."

"Yes, yes. If they are protected by the caravan people, I will be less inclined to eating them."

"Those of you who wish to return to Chaldea with the Vanguards as your guardians or partners, that is fine too." Nihility concluded after straightening up and looking straight towards the Horizon.

B) Make the demons stay with the caravan

- Cleo -

Cleo gestured to the caravan with one hand while continuing to hold the reins with the other. "The lot of you should stick together with the caravan. It's less likely that some other demon will force you into its service that way, and I'm sure that Aesop would be willing to compensate you for helping deal with any trivial matters that the caravan encounters."

He moved his arm back to a position that held Amira in place, keeping his eyes on the Toufei that had aided him in the battle. "I'm incredibly grateful for the help you gave me before. If one of you would like to throw your lot in with me, I'd gladly accept, but I feel obligated to tell you that it would be your last assignment. It just wouldn't be honorable to let you believe otherwise."

[OOC: taking a Toufei]

Scarlet - Caravan

C - Tell the demons to be free

Scarlet wordlessly listened to Icarus as he flew into a rage, before leaving the caravan. She returned a tired smile at Vayu's praise for her idea. Exhausted from the battle, she looked for a horse to ride, settling for sharing a horse with one of the civilians.

She considered Aesop's words regarding the imps. It would be helpful to have some flying scouts for the remainder of the journey. But if the imps were unwilling to help, would they have to use force to get them to help? No, Scarlet thought. Ultimately, the decision was up to the imps themselves if they wanted to help, as long as they were no longer hostile.

"I think... you should accompany us," she addressed the imps. "However, the choice is up to you, in my opinion. As long as you have no hostile intentions to us or the caravan, I have no problem with what you choose."

On the way back to Chaldea

"I like that one vanguard, he showed a lot of spunk!" One of the Toufei cheerily stated with a gleeful nod. He quickly rose one of his wings towards Vayu, as he eyed Catequil with interest as some of his feathers began to puff out a bit in excitement.

"You're drawn to its lightning property aren't you? So Primal, we may not be working for Icarus anymore but at least show some grace." The other Toufei scoffed in a familiar sounded feminine voice. She slowly turned to glance at Cleo, staring after he made the comment about 'last assignment' comment.

"Surely you aren't going to join him! He'll turn you into one of those swords! Work with anyone else, like the unconscious woman that took out Dantes!" The Toufei demanded, as the other Toufei simply turned her back to him causing his words to fall on deaf ears. She slowly walked over to Cleo and lightly bowed to him with a sly smile.

"A pleasure to see you again. But, we demons view our lives rather differently than you humans, vanguard. I don't mind being forged, I only ask you treat me right." The Toufei commented with a suggestive wink, as she continued to say "Well, go ahead and imprison me before anyone gets jealous."

The other Toufei simply let out a loud and irritated grunt, as he furiously launched himself into the air and soared over to Vayu quickly landing on his shoulders.

"I'll work for you. Do whatever! Just make sure you protect your allies, especially that one. The Toufei demanded in Vayu's ears. His furious glaze shifted over at Cleo from his perch, as it waited for the vanguard to accept, as he continued to say in a softer tone "And, if he ever gets rid of weapon he forgers from her.... Can you at least give it to the demon you fuse me with."

"Caravan is in sight!" One of the imps yelled to Aesop, as Fane and Allison could be seen peeking out of the rear Caravan waving to the group Fane having a gleeful smile on their face as she waved to the vanguards as an imp on her shoulder flew out to greet the rest of the group.

"You'll be helping out these merchants from now on boys! We'll get paid all the vials to play our pranks in payment, in return for protecting them." Most of the imps seemed to agree with the idea, while some of the others flew off once they met up with the train.

A more timid imp floated over to Nihility, eyeing the vanguard with curious eyes, as it landed on the Tyrian and held out its hand that appeared to be shaking in fear.

"I-I want to become stronger. Even if it means I become fused with one of your demons, I don't want to see my friends murdered again... and you... you saved me from the mark... so. My life is yours, even if I'm eaten." The imp muttered, as it held it hands together nervously, now looking at Nihility with hopeful eyes.

Allison who was riding a horse ran up to the group. She sternly looked at the vanguards and Aesop before riding next to them, holding a steady pace with the group.

"We're on the main road now, not many demons traverse these parts.... I would be annoyed about the lost caravan and supplies but with these imps I think we actually came out on top... so I'll give a good word for you all." Allison professionally stated before nodding at Aesop with a light smile.

---

Arrival to Chaldea (Scarlet)

Scarlet felt a burning and sickening pain in her chest for a while now that began to sear inside of her chest more painful than ever now. An imp holding a sack full of something walked up to the vanguard looking at her with a crooked smile on his face.

"That diluted holy water alone won't purge him at this point.... It's lost its effect from staying out of the well for too long...." The imp stated holding out a mysterious vial containing a black powder that Aesop had created from repressing the armors power, "I can suppress him for a while with this, and then maybe we can use that power.... You want to protect others from the other sentinels right? And, I don't trust Icarus to get the job done."

The imp held out his hand watching Scarlet curiously to see if she would accept the deal before muttered in a final comment, "Don't worry we imps hated that bastard Dantes.... the last thing I would want to do is let him resurface."

A) Accept
B) Refuse

----

Arrival to Chaldea (Amira)

"Hey Amira, you awake? Thankfully, we had a lot of healing vials to stabilize your condition and supply maga." Fane stated in concern, as she was appealing a healing vial to the vanguard in the infirmary. She looked around eyeing her surroundings with a curious eyes as she seemed to be awe struck from being in the Vanguards headquarters.

Her face seemed rather flushed as she seemed to be wanting to ask a question, her muttering a few words every now and then.

"I was really inspired on how you took out Dantes... I want to become a vanguard but my family is pretty adamant about staying with them..." Fane stated in a near mumble, as she continued to say "Do you think I should?"


---

Allison and Aesop Epilogue

"So, do you think she's going to become a vanguard?" Aesop muttered, as he drank a bottle of beer at the one bar turning to Allison with a long and torn expression.

Allison simply scoffed as she downed a shot of honey-licorice whiskey before her face twisted with agony and slammed the shot on the bar. Aesop let out a light laugh as she shot daggers right back at him her face now turning slightly red from the alcohol.

"We both paved our way to create this business. She should of stayed with us to avoid going through the hardship herself... I told her this!" Allison uttered in irritation holding her head, as Aesop reached out his hand and placed it on her left hand softly giving her a warm smile.

"Maybe that's why she wants to do it... Let her carve her own path." Aesop muttered with a smile before Allison abruptly pulled her hand away from his and held at away knocking over one of her drinks in the process.

"Ugh! Sorry Nena, another shot please. We just finished a run so we're generous tonight!" Allison called out raising a glass in the air, as Aesop's eyes widened in surprise.