A study in the eldritch (Lunaraia;Pervy;MortalitasBorealis)

[MortalitasBorealis]

Though Korrie was just a bit surprised that her sister pet, who she knew hated the cold, was able to conjure up Phyre’s icy fire already, it wasn’t anything too stunning. The phoenix girl had the perfect tutor afterall, and for all she knew, learning to use ice fire might not even be that hard, perhaps mostly requiring the right state of mind that an egomaniac like Chai would never be able to achieve. Besides, now wasn’t the time to be distracted by her own ally.

There was a twinge of disappointment that the green fire that flew past just crystallized and fell inert, but it didn’t really change the fact she should do everything in her power to avoid the strange flames, and she found out the personal way what the things did anyway. Her wings, while normally a boon, did give her a larger frame than the usual humanoid, and amidst her frantic flurry of strikes in an effort to ‘stunlock’ her foe from attacking, a counterattack was bound to graze her. It was just a brush against her wing’s membranes, but it was enough to make her stumble with a look of wide-eyed confusion; What was she doing? Why was she attacking her mistress- Wait, that’s not her mistress! It didn’t take the wyvern girl more than a few seconds to figure out what was going on and lunge again with renewed ferocity to stop Chai from taking advantage of the opening, assisted by a blast of cold coming from Fey’s direction, which was strong enough even Korrie could feel it through her protective enchantments. The frost was bound to affect the usurper of fire far more than the wyvern girl though.

Swiping and slashing and kicking, Korrie pursued Chai relentlessly, not giving her a chance to take aim, but this also kept her within the danger zone of anything Fey would try, and the wyvern girl didn’t have time to look back and see when her comrade was about to attack. That was when the phoenix girl came up with a brilliant solution.

The familiar command from a familiar voice made her body react immediately, though it came so out of left field while she was off balance that Korrie ended up staggering backwards and falling over while instinctively trying to obey, yelping in surprise while she tried to understand what happened. This put her just outside of the attack zone, the barrage of fiery blue spears making her scramble backwards further before Fey even called out again. Her heart still pounding from both fear and a tinge of arousal from the canine command, Korrie decided now may be a good time to back off and let Fey do her thing.

---

While Kuroi made sure to keep her distance from the Gug in case she accidentally touched it, Shiroi was free to take a closer look, and as she expected, the abomination’s defenses seemed impregnable. It’d take a thousand cuts to get through a leather hide that tough, and the bandages were clearly enchanted and not just for aesthetics. An attack from the outside isn’t going to work. But…

“Any eldritch epiphanies, sis?” The white-haired sorceress turned to her sibling, who was deep in focus, trying to draw forth some sort of insight about their foe… and succeeding.

“…Yes, actually. There’s a crystal core in its chest cavity, if we can destroy that we can destroy the Gug. The problem of course lies in getting to it.” The catgirl explained, and watched as a sly grin spread on her sister’s face.

“Perfect. Anything else?”

“Hmm…” Kuroi focused again, trying to glean some other pieces of knowledge, only for a strange, growing itch to distract her. Not looking, the girl reached a hand over to scratch it, then flinched when her hand found something unexpected. Even Shiroi was dumbstruck for a second; one second there was nothing there, the next there was a dagger, appearing literally within the blink of an eye. The two carefully inspected the wicked blade, danger practically radiating from the weapon. “…This will be able to pierce its skin.” Kuroi stated, simply knowing it to be fact, “But once I hit it, it’ll break free from the time freeze.”

“Hmm, then we’ll just have to make that one hit count then. But first…” Shiroi turned to face the giant monstrosity again, walking a short distance away from her sister and closer to the Gug’s mouth; the girl then proceeded to gather energy between her palms, creating a sphere of light that grew larger and brighter with each passing second.

“Sister, what is that?” “Replacement lunch for our rotting friend.” The albino replied, taking her time charging up the energy bomb until it hurt to look at it before levitating it up into the Gug’s wide open maw. “I figured if we can’t hurt it from the outside, then we can just blow it up from the inside where it’s soft and fleshy. Combined with your new knife, even if we don’t outright kill it we should do some pretty serious damage to it.”

“Right.” The ravenette nodded, looking up determinedly at the monstrosity’s chest, her target. “We’ll deal as much damage as we can in one hit, then retreat into the air. I don’t think it can fly, so we may have time to think of another solution if this fails then. Are you ready?”

“Yep! Let’s finish this!”

Spreading her energy wings once more, Shiroi took to the skies and generated a few more weaker bombs as backup while Kuroi boarded her hoverboard once more, placing herself level with the Gug’s chest. The masked catgirl took a deep breath, steadied herself and her blade, confirmed her position, then sped forward, digging the Ribtickler as deep as it could go into the monster’s flesh and cutting a massive gash across its chest, hoping that somewhere along the line she would successfully slash into the crystal core. Without looking back, Kuroi immediately sped up and away from the Gug, and a second later, Shiroi detonated the payload, the bomb erupting into a torrent of eldritch flame with enough force to rip an entire house apart.

With both girls safely out of the monster’s reach high above, they looked down upon the creature to see the results of their handiwork.

 

[Lunaraia]

As Fey shot her newest attack the effect would quickly become obvious as Chā'i staggered backwards, her skin lined with patches of rime that were giving off an angry pale blue glow that were decidedly not agreeing with her, as green flames started to smoulder along the frozen edges, slowly burning away the cold that Fey's sudden attack had left behind, however if she had hoped for fear, or panic or anything along those lines Fey would be sorely disappointed as the room that had so far had gotten uncomfortably chilly suddenly started to rapidly heat again close to Chā'i's location.

The flames burning away the frost started to flicker for a moment before Chā'i's entire form burst into flame, Chā'i didn't even seem to notice pain of discomfort any more as she, with a primal scream, sent a literal tidal wave of sickly green flame towards Fey and Korrie, forcing the two of them to take cover behind the nearby pillars else be engulfed completely by the attack.

Should either of them fail to get into cover in time they would find their thoughts overwhelmed utterly by the need to worship and obey Chā'i the idea of not obeying her every whim, not grovel at her feet and beg for forgiveness for attempting to harm her, let alone displease her to much for them to handle and would leave even the usually ultra positive Fey utterly unable to find any positive about the situation.

Either way the wave would crash into the wall of flame that Phyre had left behind and crystallize into a fine dust that would settle over the floor, before slowly fading away to nothing, though the attack itself would clearly have cost Chā'i a great deal of energy as she was barely able to stand though she still had a wild look about her, as she looked to see whether her attack had succeeded in striking down either of the two.

________

The moment Kuroi's dagger struck home the world suddenly exploded in color and sound as the whirling sandstorm resumed it's wailing gale and the black-and-white of the world suddenly came into crystal clear colors, Ribtickler ripped apart the Gugs chest as if it were a hot knife through butter, leaving behind a lime-green liquid that gave of an acrid sent as it did, though Kuroi would find that the dagger had not hit it's mark, as the gem was in the middle of the hollow cavity, even so she could see a violet pall glowing within it's chest, and she had a clear shot at it.

The next thing the twins would know was the ear splitting sound of the explosion as Shiroi's bomb went off, followed closely by the sound of flesh being torn asunder, violently, The Gug wailed it's arms swinging them wildly as it staggered backwards, completely off balance from the explosion that had gone off in it's mouth, the beasts flailing barely missing Kuroi as they retreated back to the sky, the damage was obvious, as the Gugs mouth had been utterly destroyed and it was smoking in several places, even so the beast was not dead, even more disturbing, even though it now lacked eyes to perceive the twins with, it still seemed able to know where they were and it were NOT happy in the slightest.

With an unearthly sound that would send waves of unnatural fear through the twins the Gug slammed it's arms into the dirt and pulled out a chunk of it, and then unceremoniously lobbed it at the twins, who had only a few moments to react unless they wanted to take the hit dead on, even if they used magic to shield themselves the force of the blow would push the twins back and threaten to unbalance Shiroi and knock Kuroi clean of her hoverboard as the Gug started to rip out another chunk to hurl at them.

The Masks simply whispered It's berserk, be careful... before going dead silent once more, though given the obvious chest wound that even through the buffeting sands were plainly visible, due to the strong glow of the crystal within, they now had a place to aim their attacks, if they ever got the space to do so, as the Gug finished tearing out the second chunk and lobbed it their way.

 

[Pervy]

"Oh.. I think that's her final form, Korrie.."
Fey mused, mildly disappointed when the evil tea lady didn't stay ablaze in green fire, before watching the wave of nasty green.

"Sidenote, when I use this much power I can't keep it up for long... infact I'd have propably passed out already in the past..."
Fey mused, before mieeping at the wave of fire crashing upon her, throwing up her arms in defense. No one had really taught her how to dodge, after all, but she could always throw her own fire against the green-stuff, even if that refused to be controlled by her, with her clapping her hands together infront of her, fingers pointing ahead, creating an edged, fiery force-field, turning first orange-red, then blue and icey, a wedge for the green flames to break against, after all, she knew how fire magic such as this would work.
"Hraaaah!"
She declared. Fascinating, she noted. If that nasty green fire had been properly focused it'd have been hard to dodge, but as was, Fey felt only a tingling of sparks with whispers of obediance.. and her earlier brain-washing by her mistress was enough to quickly smother those embers.

"Science fact for the day: Green flames in chemical tests indicate the presence of copper ions. That said, I wonder if I can combine the red of normal flames and ice-flames to get something fancy-purple.. thought for later."
She tipped her chin, lowering her hands, the flames around her going from blue to orange-red and then dissipating again.

"It's getting easier to do the icey flames. Now I wonder..."
She glanced at Chai, lifting her hands to keep a hollow space inside.. raising a finger..
"Just a second.."
She noted, directing a flame of hers to pick up some of the dust that had hit Pyre's barrier, watching the dust float in her hands.
"They seem different from the torches at the masters place, wonder if I can still do them though they felt even more iffy than the cold flames.."
She nodded, flexing her fingers, little whisps of fire breaking out between her palms, as she tried to copy that green fire next.

"Today has been a learning experience. I like fire.. even wrong fire.. all kinds of fire are beautiful and new.. let's try your green now.."
She nodded, focusing on the wrong feeling from earlier, in between the tips of her hands.. Now that would make for something fun to throw at this opponent, if she could!

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

Fey’s attack of icy fire seemed super effective at first glance, and Korrie could feel hope rising in her chest. Still, she remained wary long as the usurper remained standing, and as green flames started to burn away the frost, the wyvern girl’s honed danger sense told her that Chai’s health bar was not nearly at zero.

Now was not the time to lie about, now was the time to run the fuck away!

While the phoenix was ready to defend herself with her own fire, Korrie’s only recourse was to make a hasty retreat to cover, scrambling to duck behind one of the pillars in the room. The primal shriek struck fear into her heart, and the wyvern girl just barely made it to safety in time. Well, almost. Though most of her escaped the mind-melting inferno, her inhuman anatomy betrayed her again, the tip of her tail getting scathed in green flame before she could pull it into cover as well.

With a breathy moan, the pet wyvern fell to her knees, her thoughts hazy. The tip of her tail touched by flame felt really sensitive all of a sudden, and it took most of her willpower to force back the crushing desire to kneel before the usurper and worship her new goddess. Fortunately she wasn’t touched enough by the fire to be overwhelmed and her loyalty to her pre-existing mistress won out, but the thoughts of submission stubbornly lingered, even if not directed towards Chai.

“G-Go get ‘er, Fey…” Korrie meekly cheered her sister pet on, having vaguely heard enough to know what the phoenix was trying to conjure next. It’d be sweet irony if it works. And might be their only hope, the pet wyvern was too hampered by the desire to be pet and intimately played with by an owner to be of much use in battle now.

---

The transition from stasis back to free-flowing time was jarring for the both of them, but with their course of action already planned in advance, the disorientation didn’t stop Kuroi from retreating skywards after her attack, narrowly avoiding the beast’s flailing as Shiroi’s bomb exploded, ripping even the enchanted monstrosity apart.

Despite everything though, the Gug still stood, Kuroi’s attack unfortunately missing its mark, even if it did reveal it, violet light marking the exposed core. The explosion also dealt some gruesome damage, throwing it off temporarily and enabling the catgirl’s escape, but ultimately did little more than piss it off even more.

“Even after all that? Tanky lil’ bugger inn’it?” Shiroi said in a mock British accent, making a niche reference only her sister got (being the only one around to get it). The time for jokes quickly passed, as an unearthly shriek made the girls’ hearts pound, and the beast started to retaliate by ripping up the ground and chucking it at them. Primitive but no less dangerous, the two siblings narrowly evaded the first projectile, steadying their nerves with each other’s presence and the purple glow of impending victory.

“We’ve almost got it! I’ll clear the way, you go in for the kill!” The albino ordered, gathering the extra bombs back up and forming the energy into a large spear, the two swerving out of the way of a second chunk of flying earth.

“A-Alright! On your signal!” The ravenette responded, steeling her nerves to engage the monstrosity up close one final time. The shimmer of an energy barrier courtesy of her sister helped soothe her worries; it won’t survive a direct hit from the monster, but if Shiroi is planning what she thinks she’s planning, it’ll suffice.

As the beast picked up the third chunk of earth to throw at the flying nuisances, Shiroi wound back her throwing arm, javelin at the ready. “NOW!” She yelled the moment the Gug threw its missile, Shiroi launching her own at the same time. Regardless of the force at which the dirt was thrown, it was still regular dirt; the javelin met it mid-air and exploded, breaking the projectile apart, and through the dust cloud and debris flew Kuroi, speeding straight towards her target through the shortest route while the Gug’s arms hadn’t recovered from its throw.

The barrier dissipated, and with a battle cry of will and desperation, Kuroi leapt off her hoverboard towards the purple light at the last second, Ribtickler raised high as both weapon and wielder plunged towards the Gug’s core.

 

[Lunaraia]

The first thing Fey would notice as she tried to copy the green fire was that it was remarkably easy, it was also immediately obvious that her green fire was just as mundane as her regular orange as there was no sense of wrongness coming from it, whatever Chā'i did to her flames to give them their corruptive properties it was clearly not as simple as just conjuring flames of green, subsequent attempts would make this even more evident as the flames Fey would make would be green in colour, but not the same deep emerald green that Chā'i's flames had been no matter how hard Fey tried.

On a further attempt, using the powder created from her blue flame shield as a catalyst Fey would find that she would replicate the flame for a split-second, but the moment she ignited it there would be an absolutely horrible sensation as some kind of inhuman voice screamed in her mind using a language she could not even begin to comprehend, the only thing she could get from it was that the flame itself was alive, that the flame had a malignant will of its own and given how handling just a small flame that had gutted out in mere seconds had literally overwhelmed all thoughts in her head with it's incoherent screaming, what would it be like for Chā'i, who were literally ablaze with the stuff and were standing there, wobbling after her latest attack still trying to recover.

Korrie for her part would find the effect of her burned tail slowly dissipating, though it would still leave her a right mess as even the lightest touch of her singed tail would send echoes of submissive thoughts as well as more than a bit of lust through her system for a while after, luckily for her and Fey it seemed the attack she had just used had deprived Chā'i or most of her energy as she seemed to be wobbling back and forth gasping and struggling to remain standing.

Suddenly Chā'i let out a heart wrenching scream, the kind made from utter despair or loss, before she collapsed on the floor in a heap, twitching a bit, through she didn't remain immobile for long as her body twitched a bit before she rose once more, Chā'i didn't look well at all though, her eyes were alight by the emerald flame and she didn't seem all there any more, before suddenly her mouth twisted into a strange exceedingly wide grin.

”Finally, it took so long but finally she broke, you would think all my careful work would have born fruit sooner, but even as she acted upon my whispers she were still deep down resisting doubting, and rightfully so, after all, she never were a true Lord of Fire, but a simple tool for my rebirth, I really should thank you two for finally pushing her beyond her limit” the voice that rose from her throat were inhuman, as if it was made from several badly tuned violins all meshed together to somehow form words, it was discordant and off kilter and left the same sense of “Wrongness” that the flames had been giving off.

”Time to dispense of this cheap imitation of my true power though” the fire that had been burning all over Chā'i suddenly sputtered out and disappeared, and instead a strange purple vapour rose to take its place, though there were intermitted spurts of regular flames in there as well, noticing this whatever had just taken over Chā'i's body gave a rather annoyed grimace ”This is why I hate fire elementals, always impossible to suppress them completely, they always need their individuality or freedom in one way or another, can't just become quite and obedient little puppets no matter how much you corrupt or possess them” the thing possessing Chā'i turned back to Fey and Korrie.

”No matter, I can finish crushing her mind after I am done with the two of you” a new attack shot out, missing Fey by inches, and collided with the flame wall behind her which caused a huge and violent explosion as the blue fire reacted extremely violently to the strange vaporous attack consuming it utterly before spreading along the small gas clouds left behind as if seeking to devour it utterly before the left behind gas dissipated leaving the fire without a fuel source.

______

The impact wit the Gug would be unpleasant as the thing was still a solid brick of enchanted bandages, leathery skin and bone even so Kuroi could count herself lucky as the managed to collide with the torso rather than the flailing arms as she descended, the wicked dagger easily slipping into the gouge she had torn before and impacting with the crystal inside, at the moment of impact, a mere scratch really the Gug would suddenly flinch and let out a different exceedingly high pitched and near deafening wail, as the purple light suddenly turned a sickly green for a few moments before it winked out and the Gug suddenly collapsed forward taking Kuroi with it as she dangled from Ribtickler, just before impact with the ground, however the Gug turned beige and dissolved into sand, as it did the sandstorm finally abated as well, leaving the two sisters the only ones in the arena.

Kuroi would clearly feel that Ribtickler had barely scratched the surface of the crystal and yet the poison on the wicked dagger had somehow interfered with the magic animating the undead Gug, clearly she would need to make sure none of her friends touched the blade given the effect it had on something that was fuelled by magic, the horrors it could inflict on something more mundane... boggled the mind, a weapon fit for an entity with little to no love for mortals though, given such a blade would hardly be a danger to it.

The arena itself were deathly silent after the sands dissipated, probably because the officials were either too shocked that the twins beat a literal deity, somehow, or they were not sure if Kuroi were the deity, given her new fancy mask, either way the silence persisted for a while before, wit ha shaky voice the announcer finally resumed, ”S-so sorry about the lack of conclusive commentary folks, the amount of magic fuelling the sandstorm just now interfered with our ability to get a clear view, but the results are now in, the arena only have 2 individuals in it, their magic readings are conclusive, please give a warm applause for our new champions THE MONOCHROME TWINS” there was a slow build up of applause that slowly rose and rose and rose until the entire arena was one deafening roar of cheering and applause as officials came out and guided the twins out of the arena for post battle check-ups.

The two wouldn't get too far into the hallway however, before they met Maeve, who were marching towards the 4 of them with a grim expression on her face, her eyes locked on Kuroi, ”Mavere what are you-” maeve pushed past the the confused officials with such force one of them were sent tumbling into the wall and the other just fell flat on his behind, before twins would be able to react Maeve had Kuroi up against the wall by her throat while restraining Shiroi with some kind of spell that left her utterly incapable of even considering anything violent, everything was just so warm and fuzzy, Maeve simply ignored Shiroi and put her hand on Kurois head before she sent some form of magic into her, a few moments later she released the twins and stepped back with a visibly relieved expression on her face.

”Sorry about that, I had to be certain it really was you in there, just so you know girl, expect an even more rough reaction from Aya when we get back, I would ask you to tell me everything that happened, but Aya will demand answers to that at any rate, by force if need be, I will be there to ensure she won't get too out of hand, as Aya does... not like the particular Mask you have so obviously made friends with, just a heads up, oh and do not try to resist Ayas manhandling, she is FAR less gentle than I if you resist” The officials looked closer at Kuroi as if they had no idea what Maeve was talking about, but didn't say anything, perhaps they could not see the Mask on her face?

Maeve apologized to the officials, who now looked more a mix of relieved and worried as they shot Kuroi a few glances, but led the two on down the hall and into a small room with two medical beds and a VERY eager medical official in it, so eager the twins weren't even able to open their mouths before they were literally drowned in healing magics of all kinds, clearly the official in question could not believe the two of them ere practically unscathed by it all, given what they had been up against.

”There will be a short break here, please take the time to rest up before the award ceremony” with that the two officials led the, now highly complaining medical cat gently, but firmly out of the room while assuring her that the twins were fine and that if she kept casting she would endanger herself in their place, clearly the cat was quite dedicated to her job, or maybe she just liked the pretty colors the healing magic created, hard to tell.

 

[Pervy]

"Weird.. just what are these green flames.."
Fey mused.. there was -no- fire she couldn't master, that was her conviction, yet these wrong flames eluded her. Just what was that?

Then, she -tried- to re-copy the flame the evil tea lady had used.. only to stumble backwards from.. whatever this stuff was. It had always been her conviction that fire couldn't be evil, that flames couldn't really be wrong but she was open to changing her mind now..
"Ow ow ow ow FUCK!"

How the fuck could Chai use this much of the stuff? That didn't seem right.

"Think I've seen this in a movie..."
Fey noted, although, even the usual chipper phoenix-girl hesitated with a worried expression, seeming.. uncertain what to do for a moment, listening to.. whatever this was?

"Alright this is.. yieeep!" Fey ducked from the purple gas. The emerald-flames had been bad enough, she was used to letting things hit her and fiering on, but no reason to overdo this... and then, there was an explosion from behind her, it seemed the cold and the purple flames did not at all mix.... "Alright, that's it, the power of Jesus compels you."
She declared, creating a literal orange cross of fire infront of purple-vapor thing. She doubted it'd work, but it'd give her time to think.
Well, think for Fey anyway.

Spoiler: In Fey's Head

"Hmnn... Hey Korrie!" Fey gave a wink to the dragon-girl. "If this kills me, tell mistress I died super awesomely. I want a statue. With ruby eyes. Rubies are cool." .. before her expression grew serious, reaching out for the wall behind her.
Fey could endure fire and the heat. But that didn't work on the evil purple gas that had taken a fire-elemental as host, only those weird flames worked. Problem with that was, ice wasn't exactly Fey's forte either. Still!

"If our handler was here she'd prolly tell a long story about what you are, but really, you're just an asshole. Sorry, Pyre, I'm gonna need your wall."
She decided, grabbing at the wall.. and pulling the flames of it towards herself, gathering it in her hand, with her teeth chittering. "Cold flames are stupid."
She nodded. "But it's fire.. So I can make more of it."
She could perhaps protect herself with a core of 'normal' fire.. but that wasn't how fire worked. You couldn't protect yourself from it, you had to let it burn.. well if you properly wanted to deal with a weird purple asshole, that was.
"AAAh cold! Better than this purple stuff still.. for the record, this is my second most favourite arm, if I lose it I'm gonna be super tiffed."
She flexed her arm, testing if she could still move it, after absorbing all of this cold fire to herself.. she was going to boom boom up this weird thing because she didn't like it, and if the cold fires burned her away.. then so be it.
"Give me strength, Fire Grandpa. Hey Korrie, can you be a bit more distracting for me? Thanks!"

She exhaled, before raising her hand, blue fire growing upon her palm, large as her head.. larger, almost as large as her, a massive ball of blue flames.
"So bloody cold..but don't worry, we aren't done yet."
She nodded, squeezing her fingers together, the large fireball beginning to shrink again, its centre becoming smaller, white-hot... cold? With Fey lifting it infront of her, at the same time charging it up and using it as a shield, holding up a deceptively harmless and tiny looking ember of pure blue-white.. with obvious effort on her part, although she did try to play it off, a drop of sweat falling from her forehead and evaporating into nothingness before even getting close to her hand.

"I don't like cold fire. I instinctively disliked Pyre... Then again.. universe is a big place, isn't it. I guess among millions of millions of suns, perhaps there's one too, that burns cold, not hot. Who am I to judge the fires.. I just know that your err.. stuff is wrong. So errr.. be cleansed in frozen fire, or something?"
She nodded, her one arm gripping and lifting up the other to properly take aim.

"Before you get any silly ideas of attacking faster, taking my cute sister here as hostage, or dodging, I've compressed the flames up to detonation concentration, whilest continually increasing the exothermal process, so this flame, if it doesn't tear me apart first will be shooting forth under Chapman-Jouguet conditions."
Fey realized this were really dumb last words. Oh well.. She thrust her hand forward. Five pronged flame-spears, because she had five fingers to thrust through the ball of ice-fire. This would be like her ice-fire spears from earlier, in the same way a bucket of water and a dip in the ocean could both get you wet. Five bolts of blue, liquid fire, impacting Chai's shoulders, abdomen and legs with determined precision.

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

Staying hunkered behind the pillar, Korrie quickly learned to leave her tail alone as her first attempt to examine her singed tail had left her nearly insensate with lust as echoes of the flame’s effects flared up at the slightest touch, and it took a significant amount of willpower for the horny pet wyvern not to start fellating her own tail and instead focus back on the fight. It was lucky that the wave of green flame had left Chai completely spent for a moment, though on the other side of things, it didn’t look like Fey was having any luck conjuring the green flames herself, which was weird considering the phoenix’s usual affinity for the element. If she could learn to control friggin’ ice-fire so quickly, what made the green fire so different?

That line of thought was interrupted as the usurper let out a truly gut-wrenching shriek that dispelled a good bit of even the overwhelming arousal Korrie was laden with, the wyvern flinching and looking at their enemy in shock as the usurper fell. That kind of anguish was unexpected and kinda made her feel bad about this, even knowing the kind of things Chai had done… though it became quickly apparent that there were other forces at work here.

The being’s ‘voice’ all but purged the remaining lust from Korrie with just how awful it sounded, the wyvern girl covering her ears and wincing. Things had just gone from bad to worse, and she didn’t know what to do. Still not in much of a state to fight and extremely hesitant to engage as she’s unsure what new powers the possessed Chai has gotten now, Korrie simply watched from behind cover as the purple vapor was shot out and smashed into the frozen ice-fire. The result, however, was very interesting, and got the gears in Korrie’s head turning. She didn’t know and frankly didn’t want to know what that purple vapor would do to someone, but the ice-fire had lashed out to devour it, as if it was flammable gas. That meant the ice-fire might be their best bet against their new foe, both as a defense and as an offense.
“Fey! Use the-” Korrie began, though she was interrupted by the phoenix herself with a rather ominous statement (even if said cheerfully). “Wha- What are you talking about?! Don’t do anything stupid!” The wyvern girl protested, unsure what her sister pet had in mind that she would be declaring her last wishes, but it soon became clear that the phoenix already had the same idea as she did.

“M-Me?” She blinked in surprise when Fey asked for help distracting their foe. She sure wasn’t rushing at Chai again… Well, maybe there was something else she could do?

Without any time to really think it through, Korrie took a deep breath, stuck her upper body out from behind the pillar, spat a fireball in Chai’s general direction (it missed by a wide margin of course but it’d get her attention), then proceeded to flip Chai off. “HEY, BITCH! YEAH, YOU WITH THE PURPLE FART CLOUDS! CAN YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP? YOUR VOICE SOUNDS WORSE THAN A STRANGLED DONKEY! NOBODY EVEN WANTS YOU HERE! GO SUCK A DICK AND CHOKE ON IT! ALSO YOUR MOTHER’S A HOBGOBLIN!” The wyvern girl yelled, then would promptly duck back behind the pillar at the first sign of danger.

Those insults really were just the first things that came to mind, and she had no idea how effective they’d be, but she figured the act of insulting whatever was possessing Chai, whatever those insults actually were, would be enough to draw its ire. She could only hope now that Fey’s plan works, because otherwise she might’ve just pissed off some kind of demonic horror she has no chance of fighting against.

---

It was a daring stunt, but it paid off well enough, as Kuroi managed to land on her target and stab at the crystal core. To her surprise and initial dismay, the attack hadn’t shattered the crystal and in fact barely seemed to have chipped at it, but as it turned out, that was all she needed. The ravenette resisted the urge to cover her ears (Shiroi was free to cover hers) as the Gug let out a piercing death wail before the crystal’s light blinked out and the creature began to topple.

It was at this point that Kuroi realized she hadn’t quite thought out what’d happen after she killed the Gug, and the catgirl screamed as she fell with the beast, expecting to get crushed beneath its weight. Thankfully the Gug disintegrated before it could do so, and the ravenette only ended up getting buried in sand which she could easily dig her way out of, spitting out disintegrated abomination remains. The howl of the sandstorm faded, and Shiroi gingerly landed back on the ground, surveying their work.

“Well that worked out. One hit to the right place and the thing just crumbles, feels kinda weird after everything else it survived.” The albino remarked.

“Y-yeah…” Kuroi responded distractedly, looking nervously at the weapon in her hand. She got the feeling it should’ve taken more than a little scratch on the core to kill the Gug so thoroughly… This thing has ‘death curse’ written all over it. Just the thought of accidentally touching anyone with this made her heart sink, and the catgirl tried to ‘sheathe’ it, carefully making the motion to put it out of sight and hopefully back to wherever hammerspace she had drawn it out of in the first place.

Then their victory was officially announced, and the applause grew to a thunderous roar. It was honestly a bit overwhelming, even for the more photogenic Shiroi, though the albino made the most of it and let the celebratory atmosphere wash over her, pumping a fist up into the air and spreading wide her energy wings to look more imposing, while her sister just shyly waved, feeling both giddy and incredibly self-conscious. It was almost a relief when the staff came to lead them back out, though that relief didn’t last long.

Soon after they left the public eye, feeling the adrenaline start to seep away, the twins saw Maeve incoming, their initial impulsion to greet her interrupted when they saw the look on her face. “Maeve? Is something wro-”

Before they knew what was happening, Kuroi found herself slammed against a wall while Shiroi staggered, dazed and sleepy as a wave of warm fuzzy comfort rolled over her. The masked catgirl didn’t even know how to respond as she felt herself getting magically probed before she was thankfully let go, taking a deep breath of relief.

“I… see. Thanks for the heads-up, Maeve.” Kuroi remarked awkwardly after being given an explanation, her sibling trying to shake herself from the strange stupor she fell into but still focused enough to listen. The catgirl for one, did notice the staff looking at her funny, as if they didn’t understand what Maeve was talking about despite the really obvious mask on her face. …Unless they couldn’t see it? Either way, it looks like their homecoming won’t be as triumphant as they were hoping for, but that is a problem they’ll just have to deal with later.

The two were then finally allowed to continue to the medical bay, where a very eager cat medic practically rained healing magics on them, washing away every scratch or bruise that lingered and making them feel as if they hadn’t fought so much as a mouse, they were so refreshed and energized.

“Alright, thanks.” Kuroi nodded as the officials left with their over-zealous medic, and the ravenette sighed as she sat on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. There was a moment of silence.
“...So we’re still alive, right? This isn’t a dream that the Masks trapped our souls in after murderizing us?”
“Technically we are in a dream, but I know what you mean, and yeah, I think we’re still alive.” Kuroi answered, softly pinching herself.
Shiroi nodded. “Well then. That means we just fought a god and came out stronger, huh?”
“In a way.”
“...I feel like I should be more excited than this. Instead I just feel kinda relieved. Maybe it’s that spell Maeve cast on me.” Shiroi remarked idly, lying down and staring at the ceiling before examining her sibling from the corner of her eyes. Kuroi wasn’t very gleeful neither, reaching up a hand to gingerly touch the mask on her face and tried to mentally will it away, take it off until the next time she needs to call on its powers. Even if regular people can’t see it, it’d still be a problem if she ends up with an irremovable mask on at all times.

Though, even if she can take the mask off, she got the feeling there’ll be repercussions for this that she won’t be able to get rid of so easily. You don’t just absorb a fragment of a god without a catch, not when the god isn’t a friend.

 

[Lunaraia]

As Fey drained the wall it could be seen diminishing, though there were so much fire that even when Fey had finished charging her attack there were still quite a bit left, not that the two pets really had the time to actually admire the wall given the current situation as the thing possessing Chā'i were not standing idly by as Korrie threw insults at it, but sneered and launched another attack her way, the blast causing the pillar Korrie were hiding behind to visibly shudder under the strain of the sheer pressure of it all.

Clearly whatever it was were incapable of taking insults for what they were as it kept blasting at the pillar, having almost forgotten about Fey, until it noticed the fireball, it froze for a moment, then started laughing “Do you honestly think you can handle that amount cold little fire elemental? I think not after all there is no way you ca-” the rest would get drowned out as Feys attack burst out in a thin teal colored stream of light and fire that impacted on Chā'iis stomach, the next moment it was like seeing the birth of a miniature star out of nowhere, one moment there were nothing, the next there was an explosion of blinding teal flame that bathed the room in a light not akin to that of a midwinters full moon, the temperature in the room dropped so rapidly both Korrie and Fey were seeing frost vapour from their breath not to mention rime and frost were forming across the room, followed by an angry groan as the sudden temperature shit caused the stone to crack here an there as it contracted from the cold.

As the explosion died down the pets could see Chā'i standing there, bluish smoke rising from her frost covered body and frosty breath rising from her mouth, she took a halting step forward, then another then collapsed on the floor face first, of the entity possessing her there were no sign at all, most likely the fires had consumed it utterly, though considering Chā'i seemed to be unconscious it was impossible to tell right at that moment.

Phyre's wall dissipated a few moments later and Phyre herself walked up to Korrie and Phey, and noticing the state of Fey's arms, both f which had turned a rather unnerving shade of blue from the seer amount of cold they had been exposed too and Fey herself would find her arms numb and exceedingly unresponsive, as if they had fallen completely asleep on her, but without the stinging that usually came with it, Phyre however carefully placed her hands on the blue parts and slowly extracted a blue energy from Fey as she did so Fey would find her arms slowly regain their normal colouration and also feeling ”That was foolish of you, channelling that amount of Cryo-flames are dangerous for a fire elemental, let alone a half-Elemental such as yourself, now can you please explain what happened that caused you to take such an insane risk?”

Phyre finished extracting the energy from Fey's arms, whose nails still now sported a teal colouration and would continue to do so for quite a while, and went over to check on Korrie, a quick once over and a friendly nod to her she walked back to Fey to get the story from both of them, a wise choice given Fey's penchant for go off on tangents that had little to do with the topic at hand or over generalize it.

_____________________

Kuroi would find that dismissing the mask was remarkably simple, as the moment she thought about it it simply dissolved into smoke and disappeared, though she could sense it could just as easily be balled back should she need it, though even with it gone she could still sense a hint of the masks power lingering, filling her with a simmering power, further more Rib Tickler was still around though now it had a sheath for it strapped to her hip, the belt it hung from so light and form fitting she probably wouldn't have noticed it if the voices hadn't pointed it out to her, even with the wicked dagger inside it hardly held any weight at all.

The twins didn't have to wait long before they were once more ushered out of the room, this time into a smaller chamber, where they were instructed to stand upon a podium, once they did the podium would start to ascend like some kind of elevator before it slowly but surely rose up into a shaft of some kind allowing the twins to emerge into the arena from bellow, which was strange as the twins would not be able to remember going down any stairs at all, then again there were probably magic involved the podium itself would raise the twins several feet into the air up to a floating dais where the announcer, a rather old and dignified Tabby-cat with a fancy black and purple cloak were waiting together with a trio of Elves all of which with long flowing silver hair, the left one, who had a mole under her cheek, were holding flowers as well as a wrapped up bundle, no doubt the first place prize, the middle one, who were holding the trophy had a scar running over her face, and the third, who had her eyes closed and were completely expressionless held a pair of gold medals.

”Champions of the Arena, the greatest of the great, you who, despite the odds are now standing before us here today, you have fought long and hard to reach the top and we now stand ready to celebrate you as you rightly deserve, please receive your due CELEBRATION!” The entire arena exploded in noise from the speech the middle elf delivered, as up until then the spectators had been deathly quiet, but now they exploded into wild chairs and applause the sound of which were nearly deafening from where the twins stood in the middle of it all.

As the noise died down the elves walked over, the right one said something in a language that the twins could not understand as she placed the medals onto the twins necks, though it was probably a congratulations of some kind given her slight smile, she never ones opened her eyes as she gave them their medals though, the left one then gave each of them a bouquet of flowers and the bundle, which was surprisingly heavy, while congratulating the twins on their victory the middle elf then handed the twins their trophy congratulated them and with a slight whisper told the twins to raise the cup above their head and turn around to show it off to the crowd properly while waving their free hand.

As they did the podium and dais slowly started to move around the arena allowing all the spectators to get a good look at the twins, and allowed the twins to look out over the arena as well, as they hovered over the crowd there would be one thing that would probably put a dampener on the twins joy over winning, Aya were standing at the back of the crowd We will talk when you get back, don't even TRY to delay it Ayas voice echoed inside the twins mind as she turned aroudn and left the arena, leaving the twins to enjoy the adorations of the crowd in peace, undoubtedly Maeve had told Aya somehow which was why she was in the stands like that, even so at least the twins now knew they wouldn't get charged the moment they opened the door to the inn, which was something.

 

[Pervy]

"Great distractions!" Fey gave a slightly woozy-seeming thumbs up to Korrie's aggro drawing skills. Although she was quickly gritting her teeth at the sheer concentrated cold, revealing that at least a part of her dramatic posing was likely necessary for her fire-control, considering how she kept her hand drammatically outstretched, even under the pressure of cold. Well, or perhaps it was.

"Huh. That went better than expected, still conscious. My arms don't even hurt or feel cold actually, is that normal?"
She asked, exhaling a cloud of vapor, before shivering a little, watching Phyre extract the cold, seeming to tap her foot impatiently. "Weird.. I usually fall unconscious after going this all out.

Huh.. oh that's better.. I can wiggle my fingersies again.. I need those for stuff.. also neat, check out my new naildo, Korrie! oh.. oh there's the cold.. ooh crap.. brrrrr.... "
She wiggled her nails playfully, before sighing, growing uncharacteristically serious, passingly at least.

"Yeah, was pretty dangerous. I don't know if my Super Awesome Phoenix Regeneration™ even works against cold. That said, no other flame would'a worked and the evil tea lady was posessed by an evil purple flame thing. Actually, it was more purple evaporation than actual flames. Some sort of fire nature posessing parasite. I believe the reason it captured you was that you had like it's only weakness with these cold flames. Some negative emotion entity? It was easily provoked, but not because it was dumb. I suspected at the time it was wearing tea-lady like a badly fitting glove and she was still fighting against the control, but losing quickly. Either way, seen enough eldritch bozos to know it was like a 9.5 on the bad scale, whatever it was, it had to be destroyed now, before it got a firmer hold on being.. y'know real and if it had taken all of us with it and ..... oh my joghurt peppers, using the cryo-flames makes me bloody boring! How do you people bear being this serious and non-on-fire all the time. Bleh!"

Fey stopped, huffing before scuttling outside, waving her hand to call some more -normal- flames to herself, warming herself up for a moment before continuing.
"Evil purple smoke thing, smoked it out. I do what I want with my flames! Was pretty awesome, gotta admit.. for cold flames, anyway... Plus purple and mean ate up a full blast of blue earlier like it was nothing, had to get creative."
She nodded, rolling her arms.

"Wait, crap, now the chai-tea is out of it, can't watch her teleport about and try to copy those fires to get back to the others.. oh well.."
She raised a finger, forming a miniature fireball of normal orange flames.
"Welp, time to turn her into ash, just to make sure. Last we need is smokey purple trying to hop over to the next best host, which'd be me eh?"
She decided, not wanting to deal with creepy purple-smoke, whatever it was, even if the woman had become posessed.
"World Health organization informs: Smoking kills!"
She declared, aiming her finger like a gun.

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

The wyvern girl squeaked as she huddled behind the pillar and felt her cover shudder from the force of the retaliation. At this rate, even if the gas doesn’t start to fill the area, the pillar might just collapse on her…

Thankfully Fey caught not-Chai’s attention again before either of that happened, the phoenix launching a devastating attack at the gloating demon. Even from behind cover Korrie had to shut her eyes tight as the blinding light filled the room, huddling into a ball from the sheer cold that overtook the room, chilling her even with her protective enchantments. For a moment she feared that the whole room might end up collapsing on them, and the wyvern girl dared to peek out of cover to see what happened.

The ceiling was not falling down in pieces, and Chai was down. Well, that turned out better than expected.

As Phyre’s wall dissipated and the ice-fire elemental rejoined them, so too did Korrie, cautiously leaving cover little worse for wear other than a hyper-sensitive tail tip that she could ignore for now. “That was… impressive. H-Hey, are your arms okay?” The wyvern girl noticed Fey’s icy blue arms that don’t look very healthy, but Phyre took care of them.

At first glance the wyvern girl seemed completely fine, and for the most part she was; in fact Phyre probably wouldn’t notice anything wrong with Korrie unless she touched her tail tip, which’d make the pet wyvern flinch with a cute moan and make her shy away with an embarrassed blush.

With no disrespect to her sister pet, Korrie was fully prepared to give an actually comprehensible explanation of what had occurred, or at least as far as she understood it, but to her surprise Fey actually summarized it decently well, causing the wyvern girl to give her a silent look of concern. Was that what cryo-flames do to fire elementals? In a way it makes sense that it ‘chills them out’, but still. “That… about sums it up. Chai was possessed by some sort of demon, had been for a while, knowingly, Korrie thinks. It finally took over after we weakened her, but your ice fire seemed to consume the purple gas stuff the demon attacked with, so Fey chucked a lot of ice fire at it. And here we are.” She explained anyway, part of her just wanting to feel relevant.

“W-Wait, Fey!” The wyvern girl’s eyes widened and tried to tug Fey backwards to interrupt her attempt at finishing the job, “We don’t know what the demon is yet, maybe Phyre can do something about it? Like, without just incinerating the body. Besides, Korrie thinks Phyre deserves the final say on Chai, she’s the one that suffered here longest afterall.”

-----

To Kuroi’s relief, the mask vanished with but a thought, fading away into smoke until the next time it’s called upon. The Ribtickler wasn’t so easily dismissed, but at least she had a sheathe for it, attached to a perfectly form-fitting belt that came from… somewhere. She’ll just have to be careful with it.

Sufficiently rested, the two soon found themselves ushered back out to a smaller chamber with a podium, where as expected they were lifted back up into the open air, a passing feeling of dissonance with the structure’s architecture, but they didn’t really bother to think on it. Afterall, why worry about discrepancies in elevation when the award stage was just floating in mid-air?

Having not been to many public ceremonies, much less participated in the center of one, the sisters were equally lost and nervous as to what to do, mostly waiting for the officials to take the lead. They didn’t even notice how quiet it was before until the crowd suddenly erupted into cheering. Still, it wasn’t hard to maintain a smile, the two accepting their medals, their bouquets, and then the trophy, lifting it up together as instructed and waving to the crowds.

The victory lap was automated, the platform moving around the arena on its own, and all the twins had to do was smile and wave, taking in the ecstatic crowds in the most triumphant moment of their lives to date. Coincidentally, both twins flinched as they noticed a certain someone in the crowd at the same time, a promise that they would not just be allowed to rest on their laurels tonight. The twins shared a glance with each other; oh well, all the more reason to enjoy their victory now while they can.

 

[Lunaraia]

Probably much to Korrie's surprise Phyre did not really try to stop Fey from charging her fire attack, she seemed instead to be mulling over what the two had told her and seemed lost in thought, so much so that she accidentally stepped on Korrie's sensitive tail tip as she started to pace aimlessly clearly trying to decide what to do with this new piece of information. Once Fey fired the attack she would be gravely disappointed by the after effects, sure the resulting explosion returned the room to it's regular sweltering heat, and also thaw out Chā'i, but otherwise there would be no effect on her, Phyre didn't really seem surprised at all once the explosion of fire had knocked her out of her contemplations ”Fire elementals and burning isn't really a thing, being exposed to regular fire will actually heal a fire elemental, so you probably just saved her life given how gold she was and considering you two need her to get home I would be a bit less eager to for her to pass on.”

Phyre would then turn her attention to Korrie, more precisely Korrie's hypersensitive tail tip, ”Alright don't bother hiding it, show me where Chā'i hit you” she would calmly keep pressing Korrie until she handed over the tail tip at which point Phyre would engulf it in Cryo-Flames, it would momentarily sting, but afterwards the sensitivity would die down and leave a feeling of numbness in it's place. Having tended to Korrie Phyre would walk over to Chā'i and look down on her with a thoughtful expression, ”Now what am I to do with you, wayward flame... What am I to do with you...” she sighed and turned back to Korrie and Fey, ”Normally Chā'i would be executed for high treason, but from what you tell me it is clear that she was not acting under her own volition, at least, not wholly her own volition, now suffice to say I owe you one and she is your only ticket back to where you came from, given this rather unique set of circumstances I cannot render a verdict on Chā'i until your issue have been dealt with, that being said, you did get involved in this because of Chā'i and as such I feel you should have some say in what will happen to her, so please, both of you, give it some thought and speak your minds”

As she finished speaking the doors opened and a fire elemental looked in and said something in the elementals fiery tongue, before quickly bowing and backing out once more ”Once I had knocked some sense into the guards they snapped out of whatever state it was that Chā'i put them in and eagerly left to free the remaining people and guards from Chai's influence in my stead, which is why I returned here, I figured you could use some help, but it looks like I were mistaken, the two of you did well indeed and you have my word I will do my best to see you returned to whence you came, but for now, follow me and enjoy a well earned meal and some refreshing beverages or maybe a proper rest, you two have earned it” Phyre motioned to the two to follow her, just as a duo of guards walked in and walked up to the unconscious Chā'i and promptly chained her up and unceremoniously carried her out of the room even as Phyre walked over to a small side door and made a gesture for the two pets to follow.

The side room were well lit, with the sources of light being strange fiery lizards that were walking along the walls and roof or lazing about in the three fireplaces that were burning merrily, giving the room a nice comfy warmth that seemed to hug you gently, rather than the oppressive heat one would usually get, the main feature of the room were a table that were currently overflowing with all kinds of food, both exotic and mundane, from meat that seemed to be on fire, to a strange purple coloured apple with golden fruit meat and a sweet citrusy scent, there were also more mundane things like some kind of chicken like bird, that if either of the pets tasted they would find tasted not like chicken, but turkey, though undoubtedly to Fey's delight she would find a small bowl filled with a very familiar pepper. Korrie would also find that there were less troublesome foods like sausages and scrambled eggs and the like all which would taste more akin to what she was used too, though the exotic foods would undoubtedly also delight her as well as none of it were insanely spicy, with exception of the peppers, most likely because they were not fire elementals, or maybe it was just how they ate, Phyre for her part took a seat and after smiling and nodding to the pets started to eat without any reservation or waiting for them to sit down, eagerly biting into a bit of everything and letting the two pets decide for their own what they wanted to eat and drink.

______

The pedestal slowly finished it's full circuit of the arena and lowered back down bellow, once they landed Maeve were waiting for them ”Let's get back home, Aya will likely want an explanation as fast as possible, I know I do” Maeve smiled at the twins, and gave them both a reassuring pat on the shoulders ”For what it's worth, you two did great so far” With that she lead them out of the arena and back home.

The trip back was uneventful though upon returning the twins would find themselves dragged off into a private room by Aya in a gentle, but unrelenting manner, followed closely by Maeve and a rather curious looking Trio consisting of the dwarves, once there Aya motioned for the two to sit down on a pair of stools and simply waited, clearly wanting the twins to explain themselves without any input from her or anyone else, which became abundantly clear when Dulgar opened his mouth and Aya shot him a glare that had the dwarf visibly pale and shut up immediately.

 

[Pervy]

In the end, 2 out of 3 people were in favour of fiering the evil tea up, so that's what Fey.. tried to do.
"Too late, getting fired up.. and huh? You can burn anything, you just gotta try hard enough!

Eh. Even if she was controlled, she invited it to a point.. also.. lil' flame? That's what fire grandpa called me."
Fey mused, still a bit tired seeming from mixing her magic about earlier, watching the cool tail-treatment with a slight chuckling.
"Eitherwhoo, guess she's your problem, your cool flames work on purple stuff so..."
She shrugged about the verdict, watching the firelord getting chained up and stretching.. she was already asleep so proper resting was pointless, but a bit of food sounded neat...

"Oooh..." Fey made, quickly making a detour to try and catch one of the fire-lizards, quickly being distracted by them and pursuing them with big eyes, although giving up if the lizards proved too swift and cunning, to focus on the table.. "Oooh that meat is on fire.. ooooh joghurt peppers. Yay! Yummy feasting time."
She enthused, bouncing over, still holding a halpess lizard if she had managed to catch one. "Used up lots of strengths, gotta nom lotsa foods!"
She enthused, energetically, trying .. mostly a little bit of everything that looked.. well.. fiery enough, but also keeping her eyes on the peppers, just to make sure Korrie or Phyre wouldn't try to snatch away the unnaturally hot treats. Anyone keeping a close eye on her would notice she had smuggled two of the peppers into her little fire-proof pouch already..

"Anywhoo, are you sure we need evil tea to get me back? If she can do fire-teleport stuff I can too.. just need to figure out how." She mused, with questionable table manners. "Also we are still dream traveling, no? Right? Why can't I just dream of the others and plop over there? Hrmnnn.."
Fey mused, before observing a particularly fat fire lizard with mischievous intent.

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

The wyvern girl was indeed somewhat surprised that Phyre didn’t seem bothered at all that Fey might be about to execute the usurper, but it was Phyre’s decision to make, and so Korrie backed off from the phoenix to let her do her thing. Still, being the kind-hearted sort, the pet wyvern wasn’t very pleased with the decision, looking away with her tail hanging low… which unfortunately got her tail tip within trampling height. The poor wyvern girl yelped and literally jumped from the sudden spike of pleasure and pain, a wave of embarrassment hitting her when she realized she had a mini-orgasm from getting stepped on just now. Blushing heavily, the wyvern girl could only grab her tail and try to soothe the abused tip, blowing on it and lightly stroking it while it continued to radiate both pleasure and pain, though her attention to it only succeeded in pushing the sensory bar further towards the former, leaving her panting and aroused.

She only remembered what was happening from the blast of heat that erupted from Fey’s attack, reflexively looking and being promptly reminded that Chai was a fire elemental, and fire elementals tended to be pretty hard to kill with fire. That got the wyvern girl to breathe a sigh of relief; now she understood why Phyre was so nonplussed about the whole thing.

Though she blushed bashfully, Korrie didn’t hesitate to hand her tail over to the local expert, wincing from the cryo-flame treatment, but more than glad when she touched her tail tip again afterwards and found that the hypersensitivity had faded. Though now that she thinks about it, Mistress might have fun teasing her with a weakspot like that… Oh well, Mistress doesn’t need something like that to turn her into a puddle of mindless lust…~

The wyvern girl blinked in surprise, being put on the spot regarding the usurper’s final fate. “Really? Um… Korrie’ll think on it.” She nodded, wondering what she should say when the time comes. It looks like Fey’s not really interested in what happens to Chai, so the decision falls on her…

Now was not yet the time for deciding fates though, as Korrie perked up at the mention of a celebratory feast, suddenly becoming acutely aware of how tired she was after the day’s adventure. Following Phyre to the side room, the wyvern girl looked around in awe at the grand dining hall, nothing the odd choice of lighting as well as the wide selection of exotic foods. “Whoah… You prepared all this for us? Thank you so much Miss Phyre!” The pet wyvern grinned as she found a seat and let her gaze sweep over the available choices. While otherworldly foodstuffs always made her nervous, she felt like it’d be a huge waste to just stick to the mundane at a time like this, so Korrie took her pick of the stranger dishes, taking cautious nibbles first to test the flavor and always finding it surprisingly palatable. She steered clear of the peppers though, recognizing exactly what those were…

“If it was that easy to get around we would’ve just teleported to the library…” Korrie reminded the phoenix, though she wasn’t as knowledgeable on whether Fey could learn the same teleport trick or how it would work. “Though speaking of Chai… Korrie thinks she has an idea. It’d be poetic to make her suffer the same thing she did to you, right? Put one of those collars on her, seal her voice and powers and make her live as a lowly maid for the rest of her life. It’s only fair… though if you can do anything extra to make sure she won’t try to overthrow you again, Korrie recommends you do that too.” The wyvern girl suggested. It was a cruel fate, true, but what comes around goes around, and it’s better than just getting executed, right?

-----

Amidst the cheering crowds, the twins didn’t even notice they had finished circling the arena until the platform began lowering once more, (relative) quiet returning as they found Maeve already waiting for them. “Yeah, let’s go home, I’m completely spent.” “Agreed…” The two girls nodded, following the elf away. The excitement had faded by then, they had their share of triumph amongst their new adoring fans, and the emotional exhaustion of all they had gone through in the past few hours was catching up to them; that didn’t stop the sense of pride that welled up within being congratulated by the previous multi-time champion of the tourney.

They had joined for fun and ended up coming out on top, their names etched into history in this fantastical realm. The future was looking bright…

…but not Aya, who was waiting for them back at the inn. Going from champions to feeling like naughty children caught in the act, the twins awkwardly followed their handler and sat down, averting their gazes in guilt even though they didn’t really do anything wrong.

“...I’ll explain.” Kuroi said first this time, a rarity, but she was the one that ‘contracted’ with the Mask afterall. “We were going to fight the Masks, but they trapped us in a sandstorm, then opened a portal that summoned a Gug, I think that’s what it’s called. Shiroi tried to fight it, but… it didn’t go well,” The ravenette began to describe, skipping the detail of how her sibling had been seconds away from being torn apart by the monster’s teeth, “and I tried to shut the portal, but the Mask ambushed me instead. He, well, they, they were two but they were also one, it’s kind of confusing… Anyway, they dragged me into frozen time and offered me the power to save Shiroi. Not that I really had a choice in the matter. They were being hunted by another Mask, the… Haunter? And they needed a place to hide, so they were going to use me whether I liked it or not.”

Once again omitting the part where she was extremely close to having been overwritten by the eldritch entity, Kuroi took a deep breath and continued. “It wasn’t pleasant, but I managed to get through the process thanks to Lady Pale Moon’s and the Mist’s blessings, so now the Mask is dormant inside me, as they put it, and I have access to some of their powers, which I used to rescue Shiroi before we took down the Gug together. Once it went down, since the Mask wasn’t there anymore, we were declared the winners. And that was that.” The catgirl looked around nervously, sharing a glance with her sibling, with whom she had already shared most of what she just said earlier. “So, umm… There wouldn’t happen to be any nasty side effects from being possessed by a Mask… would there?”

 

[Lunaraia]

The Lizards would prove to be somewhat elusive as they ran around the wall, quickly scattering when approached, though in the end Fey would be able to capture one that seemed dimmer and more sluggish than the others, a sign of old age perhaps, either way in it seemed quite content letting itself be picked up and manhandled, though Fey would find it snatching bits of her food if she wasn't vigilant as she ate.

In response to Fey's mentioning of how they were transported there Phyre simply shook her head ”I fear that it is not so simple Fey, while I am quite positive you could manage to replicate the fire itself what bothers me is that whatever Chā'i did, it let her send you across planar barriers with an incredible accuracy, no easy feat even for skilled magic users, with failure being more than a bit... unpleasant, as for your dream travelling idea, I honestly cannot say how that will pan out as I lack the knowledge in that area” she trailed off and continued eating for a bit while listening to Korrie's idea.

She slowly nodded as she listened, ”That is indeed an option I suppose, and I will take it into consideration, though I would not render such a punishment permanent, removing someone's freedoms in such a manner, it goes against everything that fire stands for[, no fire elemental, me included like the idea of being.. contained and being so restrained...” she shuddered visibly, her expression souring, she shook her head ”A temporary punishment of that sort might work though it would have to wait until we can figure out how to send you back, it would be heard to learn what Chā'i have to say about it if she is mute, after all” The conversation trailed off as Phyre resumed eating, once more, both Korrie and Fey would notice that Phyre was able to eat the Yoggoth peppers without even breaking a sweat from them, using them as a light garnish on her food.

The lizard they Fey were eyeing lazily eyed her back, it's fiery orange eye observing her as it slowly made it's way along the wall, it would seem it, at least had noticed her attention and it was clearly ready to move at the slightest attempt at reaching it by the fiery woman, though being much more corpulent it was easier for fey to attempt to catch or otherwise interact with it should she try, though the attempt would be pretty obvious to everyone else in the room.

Around this time a servant would enter the room and whisper something to Phyre, before quickly bowing and stepping back outside, Phyre nodded and mumbled something back, though it would be impossible for Fey and Korrie to understand as it sounded like a mix of cracking ice and rapidly freezing liquid, though given the relieved expression on Phyre's face it was clear that it wasn't bad news.

______________________

Aya listened in complete silence as the twins explained their story, her expression darkening by the minute as the explanation bore on, though she did not interrupt nor attempt to derail it with questions, but it was clear it was not sitting well with her what she was learning, at the end though she started to massage the bridge of her nose before she replied to Kuroi's question Aya: ”Oh there will be side effects as your body adjusts to the power that now sleeps within you, though I have no idea what might happen, you absorbed a shard of The Creeping Chaos, a title held by Nyarlathothep for a reason, as he is or was, chaos and madness incarnate, as such there is no telling what might happen or when as your body adapts to housing the shard, think the sickness your sister endured only in a more concentrated and immediate form as one of the worse effects, to put it more into perspective, you made a pact with the damn shard, which essentially makes you a warlock now, as such, the more you make use of that mask of yours the more powerful you will become, but be under no illusion that that power comes at a cost and it will likely not be a cost you will enjoy paying even at the best of times, given the masks are just as attuned to madness chaos and the stars as their original whole”

Maeve put her hand on Kuroi's shoulder her expression serious ”On the upside, the Mask has accepted you as it's bearer, so it won't be able to rebel against your will, at least not directly, even so, don't trust it, the Masks have their own agenda and from what I gathered of your story, that particular Mask holds no care for mortals and would not hesitate to put everyone here in harms way to save itself if it has to, as such do not come to rely on it too much, lest you become dependant on it's power and you go from wearer to worn” Even as Maeve spoke there was a ticking in the back of Kuroi's head, a small whisper... do not listen, you do not need their advice, you have us now... though only time would tell if anyone, even Kuroi herself, would notice

 

[Pervy]

"This Lizard is adorable!"
Fey pointed, before realizing her pepper count had reduced itself... "Hoi! Give back! HSSSSSSSSSS!"
The Phoenix hissed angrily at the Lizard, staring it into shame!

"Good idea actually, Korrie.. we should teleport to the library.. oh wait.. so you're saying she could only teleport that way because she was high on sniffing evil purple fumes. Harumnn.."
Fey pondered. This was a problem. They couldn't walk all the way back to sleep, now, could they? For starters they'd need pillows for that, right? Fey huffed a bit with disappointment.

"Yeah containment sucks! It's less about burning everything, more about being able to burn anything!"
Fey chimed in. "Like this lizard! Hoi! Pay attention to me, I see you looking at my peppers! Don't make me try some different flavours of fire on you. HSSSSSS!"

Fey was too busy arguing with the thieving lizard to complain about Phyre's impressive Garnishing. Or perhaps she didn't want to know the secret of that, after all, she liked the burning sensation of the spice!
Plus she had by now accepted that, cold and weird as she was, Phyre was propably in the same class as that awesome fire-Grandpa she'd dreamt off.. although definitly not as amazing of course!!
Fey shivered a bit at Phyres ice-speech and shrugged, trying to both keep an eye on the lizard and look over to Phyre. "Right, so. Let's get going."
She liked the plane of fire, but the present company just was a little.. odd. Yes she could use the ice-flame, perhaps even reasonably healthy, if she didn't overdo it, but that didn't mean that the idea of cold fire made her instinctually uneasy. "..somehow. I mean, why can't we just go to the nearest vulcano people are playing in?"
She suggested.
"The place where we teleportered from had a festival, and part of it was for fire elementals. It had a vulcano slide and everything. We just need to find the vulcano they rent for this from here, climb over the safety barricades and hop in, no problem.. I mean.. as long as no little fire-elemtal slides on your head, but we just gotta be quick...

oh wait, Korrie, I forgot you were or were not ok with bathing in molten Lava?"
She asked, looking over to Korrie.. before hissing at her lizard again.. going by her dining-manners, Fey had been an only child and never contested for food with her siblings..

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

“They are adorable…” Korrie agreed, gently reaching out to pet the lizard Fey caught with a finger, giggling as it started stealing the phoenix’s food. She’s always liked all manner of critters, mostly fluffy ones but many reptiles as well. Just not bugs. Never bugs. UGH.

The wyvern girl simply nodded to Phyre’s response of her suggestion, it was merely a suggestion afterall, though it pleasantly surprised her to see that the ice-fire queen was above subjecting even the traitor to the same treatment she herself had suffered, at least beyond a temporary sentence. Now it was just a matter of finding a way home… and honestly, without a way to directly control Chai’s actions, the wyvern girl wasn’t a fan of trusting any portals the would-be usurper might create.

That was when Fey presented an interesting bit of information. “Hmm? You’re saying they phased in a volcano from this realm for the festival? Which would imply this world and the dream world is currently intersecting somewhere, right…? Though there’s no telling where this point might be or how far it is… and no, Korrie can’t survive bathing in lava…” Korrie mused, while continuing her meal, pondering the idea but not seeing how it’d work without a huge coincidence. Assuming the dimensional magics involved in the volcano-borrowing even worked like she thought they did.

“Do portals leave any magical residual that can be tracked back to their other end? Korrie’s not sure how that stuff works, but otherwise we might have to rely on Chai to send us back… and Korrie doesn’t really trust her with sending us through dimensions, to be honest.” She continued, too lacking in knowledge in the arcane to really figure out any creative ways home. She picked up a scrap of meat and brought it over to Fey’s captive lizard, seeing if she could occupy it so it’d stop trying to yoink Fey’s own meal.

------

The two siblings listened gravely to Aya’s advice, the true weight of what had occurred to Kuroi dawning on them now that the elation of victory had passed. Shiroi could only look at her sister with worry as the catgirl flinched, the possibility brought up that she may suffer the same crippling sickness the albino had. It made sense, didn’t it? Shiroi had been poisoned from a continuous overload of eldritch power that gradually wore away at her body, and now Kuroi had a sentient fragment of an elder god inside her, it was a similar principle. In fact, that kind of poisoning might actually be a less awful outcome. One was the Mist, that humored mortals so it could watch as their own hubris and ambition delivers their ruin; the other was the Creeping Chaos. The damage to the host’s body may be less worrying than that on her mind.

The catgirl nodded hesitantly, looking overwhelmed by the information, which she was. “I… I understand. I’ll try to minimize-” She began to assure, but paused, as she found herself feeling… doubt, a tingling in the back of her mind. Of course she trusted Aya and Maeve when they said the Mask’s power was exceedingly dangerous, and using it won’t come without cost, but… “…I would say I’d avoid using it entirely, but I got this power to keep my sister safe, and in extension, all of you. At some point along this journey, my ability to wield this power or not could be the difference between life and death… and when that time comes, I’ll need to know how to use it, and that will need practice. So I can’t just seal this power away and pretend it doesn’t exist, even if it’s risky.

“That’s why I’d like to ask you to train me in using it.” Kuroi continued, looking Aya in the eye with determination. “If anyone can help me learn how to use the Mask’s power without letting it take over me it’d be you, right?” The ravenette asked. A part of her was unsure about this request, she had seen how much their handler disliked her even having this power, and she knew the succubus could be overly protective at times, but Aya was still undoubtedly the most knowledgeable among them on arcane affairs. She wanted to at least try to earn Aya’s trust and tutelage on the matter.

“If you’re gonna start doing magic lessons then count me in.” Shiroi chimed in as well, “I feel like I need to start diversifying my arsenal. Apparently overwhelming my enemies with sheer volume of projectiles and explosions isn’t really enough around here.” She chuckled self-deprecatingly. If not for a small miracle, the very first round would’ve ended in complete disaster, afterall. That can’t happen again. And besides, if Kuroi’s going to be using her cursed power more, she wants to be close by to keep an eye out. If anything starts going awry with her sister’s sanity, she’d like to think she’d be the first to notice.

 

[Lunaraia]

Phyre was silent for a while, clearly mulling something over in her head, before she took a deep breath and locked eyes with Fey ”Are you absolutely sure you went through a portal to a small pocket of the Elemental Plane of fire?” once Fey confirmed it Phyre would look like she was lost deep in thought once more while slowly shaking her head ”I will have to look into the matter some more it would seem” she paused as Korrie mentioned residual magical energies and nodded ”Possible, possible, it would be easier to pinpoint your place of origin if that was the case...” Phyre rang a small bell next to her and a few rapid words to the servant that arrived had it rush out, likely to have someone investigate Korrie's idea, though the servant hard hardly left when another rushed in and whispered something to Phyre and looked over at Korrie and Fey and looked... afraid as he did.

Phyre looked over to both Korrie and Fey then at the servant then back ”And you are ABSOLUTELY certain that is what she said?” the servant nodded then turned around and hurried out as Phyre dismissed him with a wave, shaking her head and mumbling to herself ”It would seem... things are more complicated than I thought possible, you see, I had one of the servants try and use divination to find out where your place of origin and do you know what he found?”.

Phyre paused and looked at the two expectantly, clearly hoping that either of the two could answer her question, after both Korrie and Fey had taken a turn giving their answer Phyre would just massage the bridge of her nose and say ”This can't be happening...” shaking her head slowly before she addressed Korrie and Fey ”Well that was... an interesting tidbit of information that just came to light, and it might be more relevant than I would like to admit, and cause all manner of issues as well” she just shook her head and mumbled to herself ”Sister, what in the world have you got us mixed up with here...” as she rose and walked towards the door ”You two just wait here for a bit I... need to check something, it won't take long, if you need anything, more to drink or a refill of any of the dishes or spices just ring the bell, the servants will happily oblige” she hurried out of the room, leaving the two alone.

___________

Aya eyed the twins with an unreadable expression as she listened too the request from Kuroi and Shiroi, before she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. ”Teaching the two of you magic would be difficult, as my own magic is mostly an instinctive thing, with me being what I am, it wouldn't be impossible, mind you, but it would be a slow thing, the one who would be best qualified to be your teacher would be Mistress Christine, seeing as she is a warlock just like yourselves, and yes, that is what you are, as your magic stems from pacts and/or deals with eldritch entities, the type of magic you wield are of course wildly different, with your basic abilities being that of a Battle-Mage and/or Spell-Blade for you Shiroi, while your basic magic are a variant of Runic Magic, Kuroi, as for that Mask, who knows what it can do at this point, seeing as you were able to undo a time stop as well as grab a long lost artefact out of nowhere and used it to kill an Undead Gug” she shook her head once more, before taking a deep breath.

Maeve stepped forward, ever so slightly and put a hand on the shoulders of both twins ”I understand that you want to learn, but this is a difficult and dangerous thing you are asking, if your powers go out of control, Aya has nothing she can do to actually forcibly stop your rampage as she cannot call upon more power from an equally powerful entity to stop such a rampage” she eyed Aya for a moment before Aya opened her own eyes ”A rampage is the least of our worries, we don't even know how “friendly” that mask is, or whether it chose Shiroi for it's own convenience, either because she was the first compatible creature there, seeing as the Mist is a close relative to the Creeping Chaos, or if it chose Shiroi because it believed it could manipulate and/or possess her later on if it grew tired of being at her disposal, in other words I have no way of telling whether it is even safe for her to use the Masks power or not”

She went quiet again, before she motioned for the twins to wait and left the room for a moment, before returning a few moments later ”This entire debacle is a god damn pain, probably shouldn't have let you anywhere NEAR that Mask, as it is I am somewhat responsible for your current position, I have talked to someone who can be a better teacher than myself and they have agreed to teach you, but not until we are on the boat and out of Ulthar, out of concern for the safety of the locals, a sentiment I agree too given she sheer amount of power involved” the words carried a finality with them that offered no room for debate.

 

[Pervy]

"Huuh... right.. what about some magma-bathing?.. not it either? Hrmnn.."
Fey pondered at that, watching the wyvern-girl. That complicated things!

She tilted her head at Phyre getting all thoughtful before shrugging. What was the big problem, how many vulcanoes could the elemental plane of fire ha.. oh.. oooooh.

"Oh yes!" Fey intersected, being told about divination. "So I was born in this little country home in italy, actually. Arrividerci! Nah, just kidding. I grew up in england, moved to Dynasty City after a few.. things happened. Anyway, yeah I come from Lucca italy."
She enthused.

.. before watching Phyre head out, grumbling slightly at Korrie. "What's she have against italy?

Anyway, I'm not sitting around boringly... especially not with this one!"
She pointed at a lizard!
"Eating my food.. Wanna go find a Vulcano? Process of elimination, we are looking for little fire elementals sliding down it.. wait, no considering the time by now, teenage fire elementals, drunk on fire-liquor sliding....
ooh should have saved my fire protection necklace thingie.. hrmnnn.. "
She shrugged, quick to disobey, get up, and wander the hallways to try look for an exit!

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

Korrie felt a bit of pride as her idea turned out to hold merit, but she knew she shouldn’t get too excited just yet. Her enthusiasm was further curbed when another servant rushed in to have words with Phyre, seeming… afraid of the two guests for some reason. Whatever the source of his fear, it turned out to not be unfounded.

The wyvern girl tilted her head in confusion at Phyre’s question, letting Fay answer first. “…Well, to be perfectly technical, we originate from Earth, but used a ritual to sort of astral-project ourselves into the Realm of Dreams, or whatever it’s called, before Chai teleported us here. Is… that a big deal?” She asked hesitantly. At no point did it seem to be an unusual thing to do in arcane society, entering the dream world from Earth like that. Was it actually not normal at all? Or was it something else? Maybe the divination was just wrong, but Phyre probably gave such weight to that servant’s words for a good reason.

There was little Korrie could do but sit around uncomfortably as Phyre had her cryptic panic attack and left to try sort it out. It was then that, once again, Fey had one of her ideas again. “Oh you can spare a little, it’s just hungry…” The wyvern smirked and fed the lizard some more scraps, petting it. “And we really shouldn’t be wandering around, whatever Phyre’s doing it sounded important, maybe we should hear her out before we go home, even if we can go home without her. Plus, Korrie can’t go in lava, remember? Hey, are you even listening?” She tried to dissuade the phoenix, but odds were Fey was already on her way out of the dining hall anyway.

Frantically looking around for a way to relay a message to Phyre when she gets back, she looked for any servants she could talk to or something she could write on so their host would know what happened to them, and if Fey had ditched the food-stealing lizard she’d gently place it back on the wall where it belonged before hurrying after the phoenix. It was better than leaving her to her own devices…

---

Despite their earnest conviction to learn, it would appear that it wasn’t as simple as winning Aya’s trust. The succubus knew much about the lay of the land as well as many forms of magic, sure, but tutoring someone in the use of their own special brand of magic was another thing entirely. That was something they had forgotten, having relied on Aya as a guide so far and assuming they could go to her for any problem. And, both of them had to agree, the powers of the Mask wasn’t something they could afford to experiment with willy-nilly, not without insurance that they don’t have. Kuroi was particularly dejected, looking away uncomfortably as Aya and Maeve discussed how much of a hazard she was, and though Shiroi didn’t like seeing her sister like this, she knew there was nothing she could argue there. A fragment of an elder god, a malicious one at that, was not something anyone could reasonably just trust someone to overcome with willpower alone.

And so there was little Shiroi could do but comfort her sibling with some gentle petting while Aya took her leave for a moment, until the succubus returned with surprising news. The catgirl’s ears perked up with her attention, seeing hope that she might get to learn her new powers afterall. “Really? That’s great! Who is this person you found?” She asked, her gloom dispelled. Though she wholeheartedly agreed with not being anywhere near civilization before she tapped into that power again, a part of her did wonder if training while they’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean was a good idea. That was a concern she didn’t voice though, lest it make Aya change her mind. Something in her subconscious assured her that things will be fine…

 

[Lunaraia]

The two wouldn't get far at all, because they would find that Phyre was in the audience chamber and asking some pretty pointed questions of a chained up Chā'i, with the two only catching the tail end of the answer ”-me, that's what that spell is supposed to do, though I have not been able to te-” she paused as she noticed the two enter the room itself then looked back at Phyre ”Look, I might be able to get them back, heck I don't even need to chant so you can use one of those collars to ensure I behave if that's what you are worried about so I don't see what he big iss-” Phyre interrupted her before she could continue ”The thing I am worried about, Chā'i, is that if you fail their minds, not their bodies, but their minds, will be lost in the void between realities for all eternity, or until they are consumed by a passing Outsider, had it been their physical bodies we could just summon them back, but their minds are another thing entire- oh, you're here, didn't want to wait I take it?” Phyre had now noticed the two, though she didn't seem surprised to see them at all.

”My dear sister have volunteered in trying to get you back to where you came from, even going as far as saying she would willingly don a collar to ensure no double cross on her end, though as you might have heard the procedure is a bit less... safe, than you'd expect in case of a failure, that being said, given the... circumstances of how you were sent here, I am afraid there isn't much in the way of a choice in the matter” She huffed a bit, but her gloomy expression softened as she looked at Chā'i, though only slightly ”I am not angry at you sis, given the circumstances of your betrayal being not entirely of your own volition, I will view it as a compelled assault and as such give you the minimum punishment possible, that is the best I can do, given the options open to me here and now, for what it's worth, I am glad your ok” Chā'i looked at Phyre for a moment, took a deep breath and nodded solemnly only to be interrupted as Phyre gave her a quick hug ”What a fine mess this has become...” she waved to the guards, who removed the manacles from Chā'i's arms and legs, though Phyre quickly replaced it with a collar similarly to the one she herself had worn ”It will only be temporarily, enough to satisfy the punishment” she did seem genuinely upset about having to put in on Chā'i.

With the deed done she turned back to Korrie and Fey her expression dour ”I guess you are curious as to what this entire exchange just now was all about, however I cannot tell it to you now, just trust me when I tell you that you will learn in time” Phyre gave the two a sad smile ”That being said we now have a way for you to return home, should you so desire, or we can look for alternative means, though I fear that might take some time” as Phyre talked she pulled out the necklace that Fey had given her before ”Are you sure you really want me to return this?” she held up the necklace, clearly offering to return it to her should Fey so desire.

Meanwhile Chā'i walked over to Korrie and silently bowed her head, clearly trying to convey she was sorry about what had happened, fidgeting in place and looking a bit uncomfortable seeing how she was now unable to utter a single sound as a way to apologize.

______________________

Aya looked at the twins for a bit, clearly considering how to respond to Kuroi's question, which was, odd, before se simply answered ”You will see when the time comes, there are reasons for this secrecy that will likely become clear in due time, especially when your little friend there realizes who is gonna tutor you in the use of it's power, I suspect there will be some... resistance and that teacher is the best one to deal with it given our current circumstances” she looked somewhat annoyed and then over at the watch ”Hmm, almost time for lunch” with that she gave the twins a pointed look that ”Until your teacher says you can use the Mask you are NOT to use the damnable thing unless your life bloody depends on it, have I made myself clear?” as she looked at Kuroi she could see a flicker of emotion in Ayas eyes... worry.

As Aya turned and left, with Maeve quickly following there would be a brief moment where, out of nowhere Kuroi would suddenly experience this pang of annoyance and borderline anger at Aya's words, despite the fact that they clearly were for her benefit, though if disappeared as quickly and suddenly as it had appeared, that being said it had been sudden enough and strong enough that there was no way Kuroi would mistake that as natural, even more so when it had been so overpowering her expression would probably have revealed this sudden emotional outburst to her twin.