With their destination known, the group had little time to enjoy their time together. They moved together alongside the allies they had gained along the way toward the vault holding the Tesseract. They expected it to at least be locked, but for some reason, the vault stood open. Perhaps it was a trap, but it would have to be one they faced head-on.
It was strange to finally reach the fabled vault.
After all this time of traveling and fighting, the group had finally done it. Riesbyfe almost felt a sense of accomplishment come over her, but she knew better than to prematurely celebrate, keeping her guard up. As the group continued moving, miraculously united once more for the most part, they found themselves in a wide, brightly lit hall, littered with gray stone walls and ground. It was a tense situation; the Holy Knight could easily feel and hear her own heart beat from her chest, but she kept it to a minimum, not wanting chills to overtake her in this crucial moment.
At the end of the hall that they eventually reached was a metal door which automatically slid open as they drew close. Within laid a large, mostly empty room, dimly lit in comparison to the hallway. In the center of the large vault sat a strange machine, and in the center of the contraption, there it was. A small cube that glowed a distinctive blue.
"Is that...?" Riesbyfe could only utter.
"... Looks like," Leon responded, pursing his lips. A wave of silence hit the group for a moment, as though to register the sight with.
It was the Tesseract.
Riesbyfe, keeping her guard up, scanned the room warily upon recovering from her initial shock. She knew better than to immediately move and take the object for herself. Considering how valuable this object must be to Umbrella, it would be foolhardy to believe that it wouldn't be guarded heavily, which was... strange, now that she thought about it. There had been no opposition in the vault. No guards, monsters, or even that blonde man in black nearby. She could almost suspect that a trap was waiting for them, but alas, she could not detect any. And she would not pass up the only feasible chance to obtain the Tesseract now that it was this close.
Milton stared at it for just a moment before finding himself drawn toward the cube. "I have yet to see it up close like this," he mumbled slowly, stepping so close to the Tesseract that he could touch it.
Gulping briefly, Riesbyfe decided to act. If she had time to doubt herself, after all this time, after all, that she and the rest of the group had gone through to get to this point, then she had time to reach out and take the fruits of her labors. She stepped up next to Milton and reached out her arm to take it, but then--
"Where do you think you are taking that?"
A strange voice assaulted not only Riesbyfe's senses but also everyone present, the Holy Knight freezing in her tracks as a hideous sounding voice, like from a satanic demon, made itself known to everyone. No, more than a demon...
... More like the devil himself.
"Who... Who's there?! Show yourself!" Riesbyfe exclaimed, looking around as she unknowingly pulled her arm away from the Tesseract, more closely scanning the area again and more alarmed now. Just as she scanned the area, everyone else who would look around would not be able to find any hint of where the voice came from. No other presence could be detected in the area, and there were no intercoms around to suggest it was simply someone else in another room.
No, the voice shook at least Riesbyfe to her very core.
Suddenly, the lights in the room, already dim, began to flicker, and then gradually darken. And then, over the span of a few seconds... Before anyone knew it, it felt as though everyone's vision had been taken away, assuming the lights in the room didn't simply die away abruptly, though it would be a hard case to make since even the Tesseract's shine was nowhere to be seen.
Several feet up, a demonic looking face appeared before everyone. Through the dark, everyone could practically feel the presence of this sinister being looming over everyone like a giant shadow, towering and imposing, as he looked down upon the group.
"You would dare to demand me? Very well then. For your bravado... I will grant your request. Here I stand, human. I, Diablo."
Riesbyfe could only gasp lightly, stepping back as her legs threatened to give way, looking up at the towering figure before them. She recalled the name being dropped somewhere by one of the others... "Diablo." But she had hardly allowed herself much time to ponder on what this creature had to do with Umbrella, whether or not he was the true mastermind orchestrating the events, before something would happen.
"Milton!" Philip, the one-eyed man, yelled as he ran toward his friend.
"AaaAAAAAGH!"
An anguished scream pierced the air as Milton suddenly burst into flames. Philip too was consumed just before he reached Milton, and the pair fell to the floor, their unmoving forms laying prone as they were as easily killed off by the mysterious entity like a human would a fly, to the horror of the silver-haired woman.
Wanda cried out then, trying to speak, but her words were unintelligible to the ear. She collapsed to her knees, just as Leon, Claire, and Lex were thrown backward and against the rear wall of the vault.
Riesbyfe felt a familiar aura from the entity before them. He was demonic. Not in the sense that one would use to describe a morally bankrupt man. This entity was no man. In the purest, most unadulterated sense, this being was demonic. It was infernal.
In other words, it was pure evil.
"Diablo...! I know not who you are... but what you are... I can only believe you to be a being of evil and nothing else. Are you the one who--?!"
"Determined that this chain of events were to transpire? Perhaps so. Manipulating causality through humans is but something idly done," the demonic entity known as Diablo interrupted, "I need not explain myself to mere insects like you. You have all nearly outlived your usefulness... though perhaps there is something that can be salvaged. You all have strong wills... for humans, that is. All the more gratifying to crush when I overtake it all... Your fear is delectable."
"You... You will do no such thing!" Riesbyfe exclaimed, clenching her fist, "I promised to myself that I would return home, and I will not let any wicked creature stand in my way, be it man or devil! I've felled many monsters before you, and you will not be the last!"
"... Hah."
Diablo let out a humorless laugh, caring little for the Holy Knight's words. As though preparing for a confrontation, he raised his arms, beckoning for the group.
"If you desire my head, then here I am. Come. I will show you terrors beyond your deepest nightmares, the likes of which you never could imagine. I will make you yearn for death as your minds are slowly eaten away at forever. The Tesseract is mine and only mine. To even dream of taking it from me... I will have to make an example out of you indeed."
And with that, he stood, awaiting the group.
Here it was.
The end of the road. The end of the line.
As the curtain began to close, the ties that bound this tale to the heritage of the future tightening, Riesbyfe readied her mighty shield and prepared herself for the battle that, unbeknownst to everyone, even to Diablo himself, would shape the multiverse forever, as it cried out like a bittersweet chorus.
oshitfukwaithango--
Before she could dodge- or do anything of the sort -Setsuna found herself swatted with intensity, sending her tumbling to the ground off to the side with a variety of grunts and sounds of fabric being torn. "A-ahh..." she hissed with pain as she staggered back to her feet, wincing briefly before shaking the pain off to the best of her abilities. Fight first. She could worry about her fate later. So when she noted the shockwave coming, her eyes went wide as she called out. "Shirou!" Damn it, avoiding the debris would be easy enough, but the lightning was another story. And she could only figure the same would be true for everyone else around... Shirou included.
Which was why she raced to place herself between him and the onslaught, dodging to the best of her ability what she could without it leading to him being harmed and tanking the rest, by nature assuming this would be better than shoving him out of the way because, well, her master that had taught her everything she knew was kind of a dick and would rather she hurt herself than push him. You know.
Regardless, she held up, skidding slightly on impact from one particular bolt of electricity and crumbling with a small cry. Electrical burns ravaged her body, leading to her teeth gritting in pain, yet she still fruitlessly, heavily shaking, attempted to get back up. And promptly fell back down with another cry.
RIP.
@Verite @Kaykay @Josh M @Hana @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @york @thatguyinthestore @Takumi @Gands @penguin055 @Everyboday
"Oh god... battle protocol 01!"
Even as Blake had turned his sword into a hardlight shield form, all this did was soften up the blow that he took from rushing head-on towards Diablo in such a reckless manner, skidding on the ground before coming to a halt. When it came to realizing that the ground was being electrocuted, he knew that it was going to hurt like hell.
"Battle protocol 04!"
Calling out voice commands, his PWM cube changed the shield into a set of wings to allow Blake the altitude to avoid most of the electricity's wrath, and not even hesitating, he also swooped over to grab Senna out of the electricity's range. Looking at the status HUD on his glasses for the PWM cube, Blake was a bit worried as to why there was no time duration on his weaponry now. It was usually five minutes, and surely the electricity from Diablo's attack should've short-circurted the device. So something else was up. Either way... a bit more time was going to be useful if he were going to be in this fight. Looking over at Senna, he felt relieved to see that she was holding up well enough, but he figured that a bit of cooperation could work out.
"Say... Senna, I think I got an idea going on. Can you give me a little boost? Well... not straight-on, but I need to gather momentum for this. Maybe just cycle me around in some tornado and launch me at the guy? That combined with my wing's boosters should be a big amount of momentum... hoping that my math and physics knowledge isn't failing me here."
Blake would bring an idea up to her, it was worth a shot.
@Midnight Maiden @Josh M @penguin055 @Jeremi @Verite @Sen @Yun Lee @Bomb @Kaykay @thatguyinthestore @Mason Moretti @york @Takumi @Gands @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @Hana @Otto @Crow @Everyone
oshitfukwaithango--
Before she could dodge- or do anything of the sort -Setsuna found herself swatted with intensity, sending her tumbling to the ground off to the side with a variety of grunts and sounds of fabric being torn. "A-ahh..." she hissed with pain as she staggered back to her feet, wincing briefly before shaking the pain off to the best of her abilities. Fight first. She could worry about her fate later. So when she noted the shockwave coming, her eyes went wide as she called out. "Shirou!" Damn it, avoiding the debris would be easy enough, but the lightning was another story. And she could only figure the same would be true for everyone else around... Shirou included.
Which was why she raced to place herself between him and the onslaught, dodging to the best of her ability what she could without it leading to him being harmed and tanking the rest, by nature assuming this would be better than shoving him out of the way because, well, her master that had taught her everything she knew was kind of a dick and would rather she hurt herself than push him. You know.
Regardless, she held up, skidding slightly on impact from one particular bolt of electricity and crumbling with a small cry. Electrical burns ravaged her body, leading to her teeth gritting in pain, yet she still fruitlessly, heavily shaking, attempted to get back up. And promptly fell back down with another cry.
RIP.
@Verite @Kaykay @Josh M @Hana @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @york @thatguyinthestore @Takumi @Gands @penguin055 @Everyboday
"Oh god... battle protocol 01!"
Even as Blake had turned his sword into a hardlight shield form, all this did was soften up the blow that he took from rushing head-on towards Diablo in such a reckless manner, skidding on the ground before coming to a halt. When it came to realizing that the ground was being electrocuted, he knew that it was going to hurt like hell.
"Battle protocol 04!"
Calling out voice commands, his PWM cube changed the shield into a set of wings to allow Blake the altitude to avoid most of the electricity's wrath, and not even hesitating, he also swooped over to grab Senna out of the electricity's range. Looking at the status HUD on his glasses for the PWM cube, Blake was a bit worried as to why there was no time duration on his weaponry now. It was usually five minutes, and surely the electricity from Diablo's attack should've short-circurted the device. So something else was up. Either way... a bit more time was going to be useful if he were going to be in this fight. Looking over at Senna, he felt relieved to see that she was holding up well enough, but he figured that a bit of cooperation could work out.
"Say... Senna, I think I got an idea going on. Can you give me a little boost? Well... not straight-on, but I need to gather momentum for this. Maybe just cycle me around in some tornado and launch me at the guy? That combined with my wing's boosters should be a big amount of momentum... hoping that my math and physics knowledge isn't failing me here."
Blake would bring an idea up to her, it was worth a shot.
@Midnight Maiden @Josh M @penguin055 @Jeremi @Verite @Sen @Yun Lee @Bomb @Kaykay @thatguyinthestore @Mason Moretti @york @Takumi @Gands @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @Hana @Otto @Crow @Everyone
Panting heavily after having attacked, Senna dropped to the ground for a moment to recover from all of the energy she spent. She watched as the massive tornado she had created with Hakuei did little more than blow Diablo's smokescreen away. The girl tightened her hands around her weapon, a look of frustration on her face.
"Y-You have got to be kidding me." Huff huff. "I put almost everything..." Huff huff. "...I had into that attack!"
Observing the battlefield for a moment, Senna winced when when she would see Setsuna in particular get ravaged by a bolt of electricity. "We have to do something before someone gets killed. There has got to be a way to hurt this guy."
Glancing Blake's way when he would call out to her with another idea, the soul reaper nodded. "Sure, anything is worth a try at this point. I'll give you a little boost, but be careful."
Steeling herself, Senna tapped into her spiritual pressure yet again, this time creating a tornado she would use to give Blake a boost. Taking great caution, she aimed her tornado at Diablo and manipulated her winds to fire Blake in his direction.
@Midnight Maiden @Josh M @penguin055 @Jeremi @Verite @Sen @Yun Lee @Bomb @Kaykay @thatguyinthestore @Mason Moretti @york @Takumi @Gands @Atomyk @Hana @Otto @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @Everyone
Panting heavily after having attacked, Senna dropped to the ground for a moment to recover from all of the energy she spent. She watched as the massive tornado she had created with Hakuei did little more than blow Diablo's smokescreen away. The girl tightened her hands around her weapon, a look of frustration on her face.
"Y-You have got to be kidding me." Huff huff. "I put almost everything..." Huff huff. "...I had into that attack!"
Observing the battlefield for a moment, Senna winced when when she would see Setsuna in particular get ravaged by a bolt of electricity. "We have to do something before someone gets killed. There has got to be a way to hurt this guy."
Glancing Blake's way when he would call out to her with another idea, the soul reaper nodded. "Sure, anything is worth a try at this point. I'll give you a little boost, but be careful."
Steeling herself, Senna tapped into her spiritual pressure yet again, this time creating a tornado she would use to give Blake a boost. Taking great caution, she aimed her tornado at Diablo and manipulated her winds to fire Blake in his direction.
@Midnight Maiden @Josh M @penguin055 @Jeremi @Verite @Sen @Yun Lee @Bomb @Kaykay @thatguyinthestore @Mason Moretti @york @Takumi @Gands @Atomyk @Hana @Otto @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @Everyone
oshitfukwaithango--
Before she could dodge- or do anything of the sort -Setsuna found herself swatted with intensity, sending her tumbling to the ground off to the side with a variety of grunts and sounds of fabric being torn. "A-ahh..." she hissed with pain as she staggered back to her feet, wincing briefly before shaking the pain off to the best of her abilities. Fight first. She could worry about her fate later. So when she noted the shockwave coming, her eyes went wide as she called out. "Shirou!" Damn it, avoiding the debris would be easy enough, but the lightning was another story. And she could only figure the same would be true for everyone else around... Shirou included.
Which was why she raced to place herself between him and the onslaught, dodging to the best of her ability what she could without it leading to him being harmed and tanking the rest, by nature assuming this would be better than shoving him out of the way because, well, her master that had taught her everything she knew was kind of a dick and would rather she hurt herself than push him. You know.
Regardless, she held up, skidding slightly on impact from one particular bolt of electricity and crumbling with a small cry. Electrical burns ravaged her body, leading to her teeth gritting in pain, yet she still fruitlessly, heavily shaking, attempted to get back up. And promptly fell back down with another cry.
RIP.
@Verite @Kaykay @Josh M @Hana @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @york @thatguyinthestore @Takumi @Gands @penguin055 @Everyboday
Panting heavily after having attacked, Senna dropped to the ground for a moment to recover from all of the energy she spent. She watched as the massive tornado she had created with Hakuei did little more than blow Diablo's smokescreen away. The girl tightened her hands around her weapon, a look of frustration on her face.
"Y-You have got to be kidding me." Huff huff. "I put almost everything..." Huff huff. "...I had into that attack!"
Observing the battlefield for a moment, Senna winced when when she would see Setsuna in particular get ravaged by a bolt of electricity. "We have to do something before someone gets killed. There has got to be a way to hurt this guy."
Glancing Blake's way when he would call out to her with another idea, the soul reaper nodded. "Sure, anything is worth a try at this point. I'll give you a little boost, but be careful."
Steeling herself, Senna tapped into her spiritual pressure yet again, this time creating a tornado she would use to give Blake a boost. Taking great caution, she aimed her tornado at Diablo and manipulated her winds to fire Blake in his direction.
@Midnight Maiden @Josh M @penguin055 @Jeremi @Verite @Sen @Yun Lee @Bomb @Kaykay @thatguyinthestore @Mason Moretti @york @Takumi @Gands @Atomyk @Hana @Otto @Crow @Gummi Bunnies @Everyone
"He evaded... my attack?" Cagliostro was in shock. "Huh, if I can't make him weaker, I'll just have to make us stronger."
Cagliostro hops onto Ouroboros to begin flying on it, evading the electrical surges.
"Hey, losers! Get on!" Cagliostro laughs, urging others, especially those incapable of levitation to get on Ouroboros' back.
"One is never, ever enough," Cagliostro says, "learn from the cutest~!"
Cagliostro deals Reinforce upon all allies. This healed them.
Cagliostro analyzes the fight for a bit. It looks like she had to do it now. If anything, the fight will last long enough for her to do it again.
"Now, let's see how you deal with this. Phantasmagoria!" Cagliostro exclaimed as a surge of energy flowed through every ally.
Phantasmagoria was dealt upon all allies. It removed one debuff from them, presumably a stun or paralysis from Diablo's attack, and boosts their defenses greatly, and their attack even more. The attack boosts in particular seemed monstrous, potentially adding to it before doubling and tripling it."
"Swipe this away, Diablo!" Cagliostro cackled as Ouroboros split into two once again. Cagliostro casted her alchemy, shattering the ground beneath Diablo, engulfing and crushing him between boulders. With Phantasmagoria's attack buff, this was going to hurt a lot.
"You're strong and well-capable of surviving that, that I can definitely say," Cagliostro comments.
@Midnight Maiden @Josh M @penguin055 @Jeremi @Verite @Sen @Yun Lee @Bomb @Kaykay @thatguyinthestore @Mason Moretti @york @Takumi @Gands @Atomyk @Hana @Otto @Crow @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @Gummi Bunnies @Everyone
"I... Don't have enough magoi left to make another attack like that-"
The princess was panting for breath after the massive tornado swept away the cloud of fog, revealing a pointedly missing Diablo. She tightened her grip on her spear, a look of frustration and helplessness momentarily crossing Hakuei's normally positive appearance. Having used up a lot of her magoi just to fuel that Extreme Magic was taxing on her; it hadn't been long since she had just mastered her djinn equip. Her reserves weren't quite up to the task of keeping up with powerful attack after powerful attack.
Drifting to the ground, Hakuei nearly dropped to her knees. A tight grip on the spear kept her from falling over as she bowed over slightly, catching her breath.
When the waves of electricity traveled from the ground, shockwaves racing towards the group, Hakuei startled out of her brief respite, but not nearly fast enough to avoid all of the strikes. She bit back a cry as the shocks painfully tingled up and down her body, on impulse taking to the air again before it got the better of her. Parts of her felt singed, but the princess managed to avoid the worst of it.
"Augh... Bastard. Don't underestimate us!"
Gritting her teeth and fighting against the dizziness, Hakuei noticed the others' efforts and mustered two smaller tornadoes to attack and trail Diablo.
@Verite @Takumi @Sen @Crow @Azuremoon @Midnight Maiden @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @Gummi Bunnies @Gands @LuckycoolHawk9 @BossBattle
"He evaded... my attack?" Cagliostro was in shock. "Huh, if I can't make him weaker, I'll just have to make us stronger."
Cagliostro hops onto Ouroboros to begin flying on it, evading the electrical surges.
"Hey, losers! Get on!" Cagliostro laughs, urging others, especially those incapable of levitation to get on Ouroboros' back.
"One is never, ever enough," Cagliostro says, "learn from the cutest~!"
Cagliostro deals Reinforce upon all allies. This healed them.
Cagliostro analyzes the fight for a bit. It looks like she had to do it now. If anything, the fight will last long enough for her to do it again.
"For your information, Diablo, I'm anything but shy. Now, let's see how you deal with this. Phantasmagoria!" Cagliostro exclaimed as a surge of energy flowed through every ally.
Phantasmagoria was dealt upon all allies. It removed one debuff from them, presumably a stun or paralysis from Diablo's attack, and boosts their defenses greatly, and their attack even more. The attack boosts in particular seemed monstrous, potentially adding to it before doubling and tripling it."
"Swipe this away, Diablo!" Cagliostro cackled as Ouroboros split into two once again. Cagliostro casted her alchemy, shattering the ground beneath Diablo, engulfing and crushing him between boulders. With Phantasmagoria's attack buff, this was going to hurt a lot.
"You're strong and well-capable of surviving that, that I can definitely say," Cagliostro comments.
@Midnight Maiden @Josh M @penguin055 @Jeremi @Verite @Sen @Yun Lee @Bomb @Kaykay @thatguyinthestore @Mason Moretti @york @Takumi @Gands @Atomyk @Hana @Otto @Crow @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @Gummi Bunnies @Everyone
