final investigation

[arsholes]

[It's been almost a week since Orthrus' lucky escape. Almost a week, of all calls to Heisenberg going (metaphorically) to voicemail. Almost a week, to rest and recover from the harrowing losses of the previous Friday.

It's been almost a week. And the storms are getting worse.

You know the locked door on the first floor? The one that goes into the center of the tower, right across from the great entry hall doors?

Today, there's a heavy iron key sticking out of the lock. With a familiar crest on the head.

The key is sticky with wet yellow paint, and wetter blood.]

Comments

[arsholes]

[The serpent tilts its head.

And then simply takes a disengage action lowers itself down to slither past Katsuya and toward the stairs.

The swords skewer the angel through the back, breaking its concentration on Nuadha and causing it to cry out in pain. However, this doesn't seem to kill it, and in retaliation its chest begins to glow blackish purple, as it coughs up a roiling ball of pure dark flames in Patchouli's direction.

Meanwhile, behind the emerald, there's a slowly brightening glow.]

[replacementshield]

[ ...He takes notice of the cold spot, but isn't sure what to make of it at the moment.

But, this is a good time as any to strike, as far as he's concerned.

Felix has definitely heard Nuadha, but he thinks it'll be wise to leave the protective spell on those two in particular for awhile. Especially when the monster seems engaged with Patchouli, attention distracted from both Nuadha and himself.

He darts forward, moving quickly, and leaps before coming down with his blade in an attempt to pierce it straight into creature's back. ]

[rikonstructed]

Then leave this one to me and Felix!

[Nuadha is still blinking away the sensation of the blindness when the snake slithers on past. He half lunges for it before changing his mind; they really can't split their numbers further, and Baldr and the others should be able to handle just the one if it comes to that. Instead he charges for the angel's side again, trying not to meet its eyes this time as he slashes towards it to try to keep it distracted.]

[arsholes]

[The angel catches Felix's sword with its bare, clawed hand, and holds him up, opening his jaws wide as its gullet begins to glow black and purple again, a ball of flame that would hit Felix at point blank range.

Until Nuadha's sword catches it firmly in the side, and Felix is ragdolled again as the fireball shoots inches over his head, smashing into (and through) the back wall of the cell next to it.

The glow from behind the emerald is getting too bright to continue to ignore.]

[spitessier]

Hold the line, Helios!

[Oh, that glow is indeed getting too strong. The scratching that was coming from it couldn't be good news either. Katsuya considers approaching while his Persona handles the enemies, but with how intense that glow got...]

Everyone, step back from that wall!

[Better safe than sorry. Katsuya doesn't dispel his Persona; he sure is ready to drag to relative safety anyone too close to the emerald wall]

[sunshade]

[ Patchouli puts her back to Felix and Nuadha, putting her trust in them to keep the angel occupied.

Ah, the pillars are about to break. It's fine, she's charged this spell up enough. ]

Katsuya. Keep behind me.

[ She shifts back into a casting stance, red glow forming in in the palm of her hand.

Steady.

Steady.

The second the emerald pillars break, she shoots. ]

Fire & Sun Sign "Brigid of the Heliosphere"!

[ It's an entirely new spell she's been working on in the weeks she's been stuck here. She hasn't had time to take it out of the prototype phase, but there's no time like the present to test it out.

A scorching, blindingly bright deluge of fire and sun tunnels into the cell, Patchouli intent on burning the wolf to cinders in one hit. ]

cw: disembowelment, cw: gross

[arsholes]

[A little fun fact about demons is that they're weak to holy magic.

A little fun fact about living creatures is that they're pretty weak against fucking nukes.

The emerald pillars shatter to pieces in the light of the enormous laser beam that comes from the cannon on the wolf's back. But Patchy's attack does exactly what she intends it to. There is nothing left of the wolf, when the blinding flash of light fades.

The angel, too, is lying on the floor, its feathered wings burning and its skin deeply, horribly burnt. It makes a wounded, miserable sound, and tries to crawl forward, but the fire and sun magic burnt its lower body to the floor, and so as it does so, the top half rips off and leaves a trail of entrails for a few feet, crawling toward the stairs, before it finally dies.

V-victory music?]

[spitessier]

[Oh, there's a hole indeed. After what Patchouli did, Katsuya is glad he has sunglasses, that's for sure]

Is everyone okay?

[He asks that, beginning to make his way towards the broken wall to take a look and see if there are more monsters about to come and attack. Doesn't even glance at the remains of the angel.

Let's go, everyone, to the other room!]

[rikonstructed]

[Nuadha's eyes are still smarting, and he's checking on Felix first, but he's come through fights a lot worse.]

Be careful. It wouldn't surprise me if there's more of them.

[sunshade]

[ Oh God she's gonna be riding this adrenaline high for like an hour. Patchouli looks slightly insane at the moment, wide-eyed and heaving in deep breaths. ]

I've never been better.

[ Can she keep the pendant? She wants to keep it. Holy shit, this is what it feels like to not be sick all the fucking time.

She slowly trails after them. ]

[arsholes]

[The next room over is similarly made of stone. The dust from the explosion is still thick in the air at first, and the only sound as they enter is the unique sound of a metal bowl spinning on stone.]

[replacementshield]

[ ...Okay, that was a lot.

Felix blinks, looking at everyone, and then back at Nuadha, who is coming over to check on him. But he's standing, just re-adjusting to what happened, and was admittedly a little stunned. Literally and metaphorically (by the light show and attack.)

Whatever he has to say, well, there is little only to give the other a nod to ensure he's fine, and then head into the next room. Can they get closer to this sound to see where the metal bowl is? ]

[arsholes]

[Yes! It isn't hard to find. It's an ornate silver bowl that seems to have been knocked out of place by the blast.

Weren't you looking for one of these?]

[spitessier]

[More ornate elements, huh. Katsuya is pretty sure the decorations will be more runes, like the knife's: very magical]

What do we have here...

[Katsuya picks it up carefully, like he doesn't want to leave his fingerprints on it. Old habits die hard]

[rikonstructed]

[Maybe belatedly remembering Katsuya missed the seance:]

It's one of the items we needed. That should be almost all of them.

[arsholes]

[As the dust settles, there is one (technically, two) more thing in the room. On the far wall, there's a pile of raspberry-red crystals jutting out of the ground. And there seems to be something trapped inside them.]

[replacementshield]

[ Okay, well. What is going on with this thing?

Anyway to see what is trapped inside up front? ]

...Where did that other monster go, anyway?

cw: mummified remains

[arsholes]

[Hooray it's Felix's turn to find a dead person!

What Felix finds entombed in crystal is a headless corpse with paper-thin skin stretched like rotted leather over a skeleton. The skull, with traces of whitened hair still clinging to the skin, is a couple feet away.

It looks like the crystals grew into and through it, almost.

By the looks of things, this body has been here at least a few hundred years.]

[replacementshield]

[ Felix tenses in surprise. But that's about it. ]

...Disgusting.

[ Well...is there anything else about this corpse he'd notice if he'd like, nudge it with his foot or something?? Or anything else worth noting now that he's up close and taking in these...wonderful things about it? ]

cw: mummified remains continues

[arsholes]

[As mentioned before, these remains are very old. What remains of their clothes are decayed nearly beyond recognition except for an antique-looking hourglass necklace hanging from the neck. It's also notable that, despite the age of everything, there is a fresh hole torn in the material clinging to the chest- right over where the heart would be.

There's also the purple-red crystals and the chalk circle covered in runes underneath the body but Felix might need someone more magically-inclined to get more info on these.

The room is also freezing cold compared to the hall he just came from, to the point he can see his breath fogging in front of him.]

[replacementshield]

[ What even. ]

Ugh. Someone who can read runes better get over here.

[ Technically he can read magic things too and has a hidden talent in Reason and such, but...these are likely beyond him. Also, he is not very patient when it comes to trying to decipher magical things. Which explains why despite having a talent in such things that he only has two offensive Reason spells.

Anyway, it's a good time to be grateful for the fact Felix dresses very warm! Is there like a source of something that this freezing cold is coming from? There was that cold spot from earlier, so... ]

[arsholes]

[It does feel like the cold spot he felt earlier, just covering an entire room instead of just one spot. The chamber itself looks pretty empty except for the ceremonial bowl and your new raspberry rock candy-based companion so no, no visible cause of the cold.]

[replacementshield]

[ Maybe if he concentrates...he just ends up getting annoyed. He's in too much of a horrid mood. Because fuck this. ]

Nuadha or Patchouli, would you just get over here already?

[sunshade]

Hmm? What is it?

[replacementshield]

There are runes. Take a look at them.

[ He points at where the runes are... in the vicinity of the mummified body. ]