final trial

[arsholes]

[After a harrowing couple of hours, some illuminating discoveries, a couple of new allies, and a couple of new injuries, eventually Garfield's warning comes to mind. Shit's popping off. And now that you've got all of the ritual components (minus the hammer which, well, you have its owner), it might be time to return to the trial room and see if you can do something about it.

Reconvene in the Great Hall and make your way upstairs.]

Comments

cw: wheezing

[unfinishedwork]

[He's already pinned by Felix's sword, when Nuadha lunges for him and plunges both swords deep into him.

This only makes him laugh harder. Blood trails out of the corner of his mouth, and when he opens his eyes and looks into Nuadha's, they flash with blinding aqua and purple and blood red. He reaches out and grabs one of Nuadha's hands, pulling the sword deeper into himself and letting out a wheezing laugh.]

Better get it in there deep, boy! Better make sure that you kill me!

[His voice is fully insane, taking on a more gravelly tone as he continues to laugh.]

cw: wheezing

[reresurrected]

[... something is absolutely not right here.]

Nuadha-sama, Felix-san, stop! You're doing what he wants--

[twibeast]

...Blood.

He needs more blood doesn't he? Even if it's his own?!

[reresurrected]

Yes, I think so...! Now that he's been deprived of his other sources...

[twibeast]

I wonder... if it needs to go onto the circle itself or...

[ He's frantically trying to think of some solution to this with the skillset he has...

...

He starts quietly chanting: ]

I am the pillar, upon my strength I call
I am the sun, my light I give to all--

[replacementshield]

[ He looks absolutely furious over here. But luckily Baldr's voice reaches him just as he is about to plummet off a precipice that leads into absolute fury. ]

What the hell do you mean?!

[reresurrected]

I think that he wants us to kill him! Or if not kill him, then at least spill enough blood for him to make use of it...!

[replacementshield]

What?!

[ That definitely keeps him from indulging the man any further by accident. ]

...That disgusting bastard—!

[ ...whatever else he has to say stops as whatever is happening ... is happening. So going to see how that (unfortunately) pans out. ]

[rikonstructed]

[Nuadha, uncharacteristically, curses softly. He tries to jerk his hand back but failing that... He'll lift his left hand, the one with the dagger and his mirrage strapped to the back--]

I see that!

[--and try to focus to extract Saint Germain's soul from the vessel.

This really isn't a combat arte and he can't perform it quickly, but he profoundly hopes it's at least unpleasant.]

[reresurrected]

[Hey, so remember how they tried this last time and got a whole lot of fragments for their trouble? Well, Baldr made a special order with Garfield, so he'll just be holding up one (1) empty heart core if Nuadha would like to make use of that!]

[1/2] cw: rapid decay, dissolving flesh, half-decapitation

[unfinishedwork]

You think you can contain me? I am fucking eternal, you little shit!

[Saint Germain staggers back, pulling himself off of the blades. His hand clutches at the worst of the wounds, as blood pours out of him and onto the floor. Trying to extract the soul from the vessel proves to be a much larger task than a normal human soul.

The blood that pours from the wounds in his side and in his stomach slowly begins to turn to dust. His skin begins to pale and shrink, as his juicy tissues all turn to dust, but all the while he keeps laughing, until he falls to the floor, a hundreds-year-old skeleton wrapped in leathery, mummified skin, laughing until the top half of his skull rolls backward off his shoulders, and his lower jaw falls into his lap.]

[2/2] Spoilers for Netflixvania Season 4

[unfinishedwork]

[But the laughter continues, even after the skeleton has no more jaw to laugh with. It begins echoing around the trial chamber, as a strong wind picks up around the body, pushing Felix and Nuadha back toward the ritual circle. Everyone within the ritual circle begins to feel a heavy weight in their limbs, as if their energy, nay their life, is being sapped from them.

At the same time, six pillars of death magic, that same red glowing barrier now glowing with skulls and not runes, goes up around the six artifacts for the ritual.

At first, it seems as though the wind is growing so high that the tower itself is groaning, but then the roof begins to lift off of the tower, revealing an immense, looming skeleton, crowned in spikes of bone and holding a humongous scythe with skulls at the base of the blade.]

UGH! Finally, I'm free of that cowardly magician's body.

[Yeah, his voice is completely different now.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

[Mei grabs her sword tightly with one hand, undoing it from her side with the other.]

Who are you? What do you want?

[unfinishedwork]

[The giant skull leans in slightly.]

I'm Death, little girl.

And since you all did me such a big favor setting me free, I'll let you in on a secret.

The real Saint Germain was in the theater. I saw how much you liked him, and I thought, since I'm trapped in this fucker's body, I can use that to toy around with your little seance.

Humans are so easy to trick.

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

What? So when you came in that day...

[Mei doesn't move, though it's hard to say if it's courage, the spell draining her, or her habit of freezing up at everything.]

Because you knew I'd believe him? And because I haven't been able to actually see or talk with the ghosts since I got here?

[sunshade]

I can't say I expected that.

[ whelp ]

What are you, some sort of agent of death?

[unfinishedwork]

I am Death. I am a spirit, a function of the world.

[With big vampire chompers]

And I've been trapped for five hundred and fifty fucking years inside the rotting corpse of the real Saint Germain!

[ninehundredlives]

Wow. Even worse digs than the old lady.

[twibeast]

[ Orthrus feels the heavy weight, and at the same time can feel his core heating up to try and replenish what energy is being sapped away. Despite the difficulty though, he continues to chant, his hands beginning to glow-- ]

Mana of life see fit to bless my hands
So that I may protect these friends--

[replacementshield]

[ Felix stabs into the ground as hard as he can with a certain greatsword he has just brought forth, and reaching out to try to grab a hold of Nuadha.

Then he'll also focus on trying to cast the faith magic shield. One over Mei, who is liable to have a lower amount of ... well, resistance. Then next he'll choose Susan.

He is sure that his boyfriends will understand why he would choose those two in particular, because regardless as fighters they can all withstand more than some. But hopefully it'll act as a buffer.

Also, is there a way up to where the skeleton is? And where do the six artifacts go? ]

[ninehundredlives]

Yeah, this feels like dying.

[Susan might not have any particular magical resistance, but she's still keeping her feet well enough. It turns out, you really can get used to almost anything.]

[rikonstructed]

[Nuadha doesn't resist that hold, grateful for the stability for the moment, still a little staggered from the disorienting effort of what he felt touching that soul even without the weight pressing down on them.]

We need to find a way to break this.

[spitessier]

[Oh, this isn't going great!

Katsuya looks upwards. It's incredible what kind of thing you get used to. This feels so strangely familiar. Not because he had ever seen Death, but because it feels like the same kind of situation he has been at since he got his Persona. The same ethereal, 'this enemy shouldn't even exist' he has been feeling so, so many times since then. Maybe this kind of foe is what he was about to face, before he got brought here to this tower and its murderous ritual.

Struggling to keep his limbs up, he straightens up]

So what now? We all die here and you go do who knows what somewhere else?

[unfinishedwork]

That's the plan.

You wanted an end to this, didn't you? Well, welcome to the fucking end!

[...Wow, playing a cackling villain is fun!]

[sunshade]

[ Patchouli puts her hands to the floor and sends an ice spell along the floorboards, intent on having it crawl its way up him--not to freeze him in place, but to seal his wounds with a layer of ice.

If he's using his own blood, she can try to remove his access to it. Maybe. ]