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Filters

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


Korrie listened attentively while Aya explained the situation with Dylath-Leen. So that was the danger… An entire major city being taken over by an elder god who hates mortals… It felt like something that would’ve been the talk of the town, though it’s not like any of them have been paying much attention to public gossip, and it may have happened a while back so it’s not news anymore to locals. Either way, it’s bad news, and it meant they’ll have to keep a low profile when they go to Dylath-Leen. Though, keeping low profile isn’t exactly the group’s forte… Kuroi was well-behaved enough, but something could easily set Shiroi off if the area’s so hostile, and Fey… Korrie glanced at the phoenix. Well, Fey is Fey. The wyvern told herself that things will work out when they get there though.

With the briefing over, Korrie tried to cheer herself up a bit of the day and nodded to her task, ready to lead the way to the dragon convent, only to be intercepted by Flint. “Light the forge up? Sure, that shouldn’t take long.” The wyvern girl accepted with a smile. She would’ve helped with something like that even without the promise of payment, but she wasn’t going to turn that down.

Korrie felt a little sympathy looking at the dwarves and their broken stuff, and turned to examine the forge. Normally she’d had to hurt herself or otherwise make her own irritation flare up to make her flames actually hot in the traditional sense, but with the phoenix nearby she’s sure it won’t be much of a problem. “Korrie’ll provide the flames, but you’ll have to make them stronger, Fey.” She noted out loud before taking a deep breath and blowing a steady stream of fire into the forge. The phoenix should have no problem adjusting the fire’s composition and making it forge-worthy.

Not really knowing what to say to Fey’s remark about using fire for utilities so much, Korrie just kept quiet while she examined her bag of coins and awkwardly tried to return Flint’s hug. “Thanks for the pocket money, uncle~ Take care!” She waved happily before going back on her way out, not thinking to ask about the money’s value. She never had much of a head for budgeting.

“No princesses and hoards there, sorry to disappoint.” Korrie chuckled a little while she led the way, though a part of her worried that the actual dragons might be ticked off by the whole ‘kidnapping plunderer’ stereotype if Fey was to start asking about it there. “Also Korrie’s pretty sure the moonbeasts aren’t werewolves… Though they might still have a weakness to silver.” She mused herself. Who knows, maybe the legend of werewolves partially comes from moonbeasts? Maybe she should ask Aya about it later, the topic of eldritch fauna always interested her.

Still remembering the way to the convent, barring any unexpected disruptions, Korrie would be able to lead the two of them to their destination smoothly.

---

In the meantime, the twins quickly followed Maeve out, only pausing slightly to look upstairs when they heard some kind of scream. Screams tended to be cause for concern, but Maeve didn’t seem to care and it’s not like the scream was particularly quiet, it probably wasn’t anything they need to worry about.

Themselves anxiously excited to face the Mask, there was no dilly-dallying while the two girls followed to the arena, filing into the small room and examining its occupants. A really nervous official, a pair of cats who were probably contestants, a pair of veteran adventurer-looking types who were definitely contestants, and… well, who else could be the Mask? The catgirl shivered a little, while Shiroi was both nervous and mildly disappointed. When thinking of a masked being representing a fun-loving persona of an eldritch god, her expectation had been something more along the lines of a clown or otherwise colorful performer, like an Aeldari Harlequin or Solitaire, not… some necromancer-looking guy. He certainly looked dangerous though, she’ll concede that much.

Taking a seat, the two listened to the briefing, though it was about what Maeve had already told them. The orb was taken out, the team names were shuffled fancily, and the result… Kuroi gulped, and Shiroi narrowed her eyes slightly. The team names were obvious, as was their opponent. Though a climactic showdown with the Mask in the finals would’ve been preferable for the albino, assuring they’ll actually get to fight the Mask without being at risk of one of the other two teams taking them out first was also rather comforting. She’s already steeled herself for the encounter, it’d be super embarrassing for herself if it didn’t end up happening at all.

Both twins met the shadowy figure’s unseen gaze before they too left, meeting up with Maeve and returning to the prep room. “History, huh? Then we’d better make sure to make it more exciting than ‘Mask curbstomps some idiots’ then.” Shiroi smirked, her sister giggling nervously. Once they were alone in the prep room, the two girls allowed themselves some time to steel their nerves and prepare for whatever’s coming. Shiroi found herself feeling a little lonely without Aila around, and wondered where the golem girl was.

“…Think we can devise a plan against the Mask?” Kuroi asked first.

“Other than ‘Survive’? Maybe, if we can figure out what kind of powers he’s gonna use. The obvious assumption would be shadow-based attacks, which I might be able to counter with my own powers, most likely shapeshifting and something to do with that crow, but if a Mask is really as powerful as everyone’s making them out to be then anything’s possible.”

“Then we stay on the defensive and adapt to what he does?”

“Sounds about right. I’ll try to draw his attention, you see if you can make something to counter whatever he’s doing, but either way, don’t go near him, nothing good can come of it.”

Soon the time came to take the field, and after a brief walk with the official, the Monochrome Sisters stepped out into the repaired arena to a surprising amount of cheering. Though blushing heavily and finding herself stressed from all the attention, the ravenette tried her best to smile and wave along with her sister, who was taking the cheering better.

“I-I’m surprised we’re getting this much attention…”

“We did put on a pretty good show yesterday in both matches, and we’re one of the few bold and dumb enough to go up against a Mask. Looks like expectations are pretty high though, let’s not disappoint!”

“I’ll try not to…”

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the presence of their opponent made it easy to tune out the crowds, as the two stepped up to the starting position, both running through their opening routine in their heads, until the Mask actually started talking. Any plan the two girls had in mind temporarily went out the window as both were completely dumbstruck.

“…I don’t know if I’m less or more scared now.” Shiroi whispered to her sister, who could do little more than nod.

“Maybe the raven’s the actual Mask…? This doesn’t make them less dangerous though, remember that.” Kuroi whispered back. At least they confirmed that the guy’s power really is darkness-based.

The two barely had time to actually address their opponent before the starting signal rang. “So you’re from Earth, huh? So are we! Let’s put on a good show together then!” Shiroi put on a confident smirk and responded, before slamming her palms into the ground and erecting an energy barrier between them, while generating a few flat surfaces behind herself for Kuroi to draw on. As a precaution, she also lit up the floor underneath them with the same energy in an attempt to minimize the amount of shadows nearby, while numerous spikes speared up from the ground in front to ward off ‘Trevor’. She kept her offensive restrained though, not wanting to expend too much energy, and wary of him pulling off something like the guy with the magic-nullifying sword.

In the meantime, Kuroi quickly started drawing, creating a stock square shield for defense as well as a small knife in a few seconds, but this time she also tried to make something a little different. Crude and simple as it was, the resulting object looked like a crossbow, and she started making a satchel of bolts for it as well.
 
Flint looked at Fey for a moment, before heading over to a box and rummaged through it for a moment then coming out a short while later with a small leather sash made out of some kind of crimson scaly leather "Salamande's Sash, 100% fire proof and even confers that fireproofness to anything attached to it, should be perfect fer ya" he gave a jovial grin and headed over to another box and rummaged through it as well, before coming out with a small earring that he unceremoniously gave to Korrie "Not as fancy as a Salamander's Sash, but can prove useful in the future, an Earring of Babel, lets the wearer understand languages once they have heard enough of them, takes a wee bit ta kick in though" the earring itself would prove to be an interesting thing as when Flint clasped it to Korrie's ear it would attach to it without any form of pain even if she didn't have pierced ears already, though Korrie would also find it impossible to remove, which probably meant that the reason Flint hadn't sold it was because a mishap also had jinxed the thing to be hard, if not impossible to remove, though that could be a good thing as well since it couldn't be stolen or lost in that case, flint gave Korrie and Fey a jovia grin and gently pushed them out of the forge, before he closed the door behind them refusing an and all attempts at returning the items in the process.

As Fey and Korrie left Uldar looked over a his brother "Bro, whats a Werewolf?" to which the other dwarf just shrugged, clearly having no clue, both dwarves looked over at Flint, who seemed just as much at a loss as the other two at the question "Better ask Aya about it if yer curious, fer now let's get that durned hammer fixed" he calmly walked over to the forge and started working, putting the entire thing out of his mind, with the two younger dwarves following suit shortly after.

Fey and Korrie would find the streets of the city surprisingly busy, despite how early it was in the morning, though it was mostly people busy setting up their stalls and attractions for the 2nd day of the festival, the two pets would quickly realize just how early in the morning it was as the sun were barely peeking over the horizon reflecting brilliantly from the morning dew and wisps of morning mist would still cling to the street here and there, with the morning air being cool, crisp and refreshing for the two pets as they walked on, the trip itself would go mostly uneventful, as most people were busy with their own work to prepare for the 2nd day of the festival, the only thing that would catch both Korrie and Fey's notice was that there were a pair of guards standing outside the conclave, the two guards were wearing strange breastplates that seemed to be made from some sort of volcanic rock, given the fiery glow the veins in the plate and smoke they were giving off, their eyes were glowing orange as well and were holding spears made in the same materials whose spear tipes were so red-hot they were glowing brightly orange, despite their ominous appearance the guards did not acknowledge the presence of fey and Korrie and they could enter the portal without any issues.

What met the two pets inside were a completely different matter as they could hear angry voices from the reception desk, where the same old dragon from the day before were busy arguing, if the tone of voice were any indication, with the figure leaning over the desk itself, the only thing they could see of the figure was the red cloak it was wearing, as well as two dainty feet in expensive looking shoes, though Fey would notice something else, her pendant were heating up and it would get warmer the closer they got to the two arguing "I told you before I can't just-" "I don't care for your excuses, if you won't help I will just look for myse-" Korrie would not be able to understand a word of what was being said, as it sounded like burning fire, Fey, on the other hand would be able to understand just fine, not that she would have much time to process it as the figure whirled around, revealing a rather interesting sight, a woman with long blistering flames for hair, eyes that were a solid glowing orange and when she opened here mouth a white-hot glow escaped from her lips, she was also wearing the same volcanic armor as the guards outside, though much more form-fitting, revealing the woman's curves with ease, giving her ashen looking skin an even stranger pall "Well now, what have we here, hmm..." the fiery woman looked at the pets for a moment, with an expression not too unlike that of a shark eyeing a delicious morsel "Well, I guess you'll do" the old dragon sprang up from behind the desk and towards teh woman, but too late as the woman gestured towards both pets and flames would engulf them both cutting of their ability to see and hear, though luckily for Korrie the flames would not burn at all.

When the flames died down the two pets would find themselves somewhere else, in a small room created from some kind of dark rock, in fact most of the things in the room were made from the same black stone, onyx or obsidian most likely the floor were covered in a thick and warm carpet that was clearly heated from underneath given the pleasant warmth both would feel from it, the room itself were lit by several orange crystals that Fey would find quite familiar and indeed attempting to use any form of fire would see it absorbed by the crystals, the room itself were also luxuriously furnished with a bed big enough for at least 4 people to sleep comfortably, several comfortable looking chairs and a desk with a chair in front of, the chairs were all outfitted with cushioned satin seats and the bed were covered in crimson silk sheets and big fluffy pillows, while the wall itself were surprisingly bare, with only a single crystalline picture of a woman in pale blue that seemed to be dancing, there were also a window though it was currently covered by thick curtains preventing the two from looking outside, opposite the window there was a door made out of the same stony material as the rest of the walls, there was a slight rumbling as well as a light shaking of the floor suddenly but it was a minor thing, it dind't even more the books that were placed on the desk itself though that was the least of the two pets' worries seeing as they had just been kidnapped.

_________

As the twins started their opening moves Trevor and Pax remained remarkably calm, with Trevor even putting up a gesture of being impressed "Nice moves, gals, now time ta show ya my opener" with that he took one step forward then dissolved into a shadowy mass that reformed into a giant skull that burst forward phasing straight through the spikes and force field as if they weren't even there before slamming into Kuroi, knocking the wind out of her and sending her flying backwards, though the were lucky as the skull had tried to grab her in it's mouth to give her a nasty bite as it impacted, but the angle had been off and considering the skull were bigger than a grown man, that were saying something to the sheer damage such a move would have done, Trevor kept sailing for a bit, before reforming again into his normal form, facing the two once more "Yer barriers are nice for stopping physical attacks, but ma shadows aren't Physical unless I say they are so such barriers ain't gonna stop me" Trevor gave a chuckle at his explanation just as Shiroi were attacked from behind by several bolts of shadowy material as Pax had simply flown over the barrier and unleashed several of them at her, with one grazing her cheek so closely she could feel the friction of it, Trevor then looked left and right as if to be certain that he wouldn't be overheard "Say lasses, have ya heard the rumors, about this semi-final I mean, they say a Mask has joined up, now aint that scary, Pax nearly fainted when he heard, you don't go mess with Masks apparently" There was an indignant caw from Pax "I will have you know, whipper-snapper that I didn't faint, I just found the news so boring i decided to take a nap!" to which Trevor couldn't help but laugh, seemingly distracted by Pax' reaction.... seemingly.

((Shorter for the twins since combat))
 

Korrie's assesment was correct. Fey is indeed Fey. Which she proved by giving an enthusiastic thumbs up to the Wyvern. "I can fire anything up. I'm going to adjust it to about what I've seen the twins fires be at, maybe a tad more." She nodded, pointing two fingers out like in a metal-concert, before placing gun-fingers from her other hand in between. "I've been trying out this restraint thing a bit but it is pretty dull."

One way or another, after fiering things up, Fey waved to Flint, accepting her little pouch with a grin and skip-bounce-walked along with Korrie with curious phoenix-eyes examining her surroundings. She was admittedly kind of tempted into testing if her equipment was truly one hundred percent fire proof.. after all, what if she faced someone in a suit made from that stuff!
"So Korrie! Siee Vou ples francais? Oui?" Fey attempted, now curious about the little translator-gem she'd been gifted with. "Oure voui Feyline Feyling, Ahaha, Croissant!" She continued in ... almost french.. She was pretty indifferent about mornings (she usually slept way longer, but she'd 'gone to bed' earlier this time).

"Oooh.. do you see these guys armors? Haaardcooore!" Fey admired the smoking sets of armor, clearly approving of them. Fey mused, bouncing along in uncaring about the situation still. well, up to the point where her pendant heated up. She was pretty sure it was not supposed to do that. Well.. It was literally that, but considering Fey's nature by now, it shouldn't bother her...
"Humnn..."
"Hey there Sexy! I'm Fey, and this is my pet-dragon." She introduced, before remembering where she was. ".. companion dragon. Wouldn't keep a dragon as a pet, ha ha.. I'm funny." She coughed, carefully sideglancing.
"Huh?" She made, when snatched by the flames. "Is this some sorta greeting?" She asked, well, if she was still able to question, that was.

"Oh hey, nope. It was a teleporter-flame.. though flames aren't really good at teleporting, hohumn..." She looked about, ponderously. "Oh hey, are we on another boat?" She mused, peeking over to the crystals. "Well this is quite confusing, really." She noted, looking about.. and deciding to hop onto the bed and lean back a little, her flame-cloak had been absorbed away within a few seconds anyway, leaving her pretty much naked as she looked about curiously. "Really curious how this fire-moving trick worked. If I could learn that we could save us lotsa travel time. Perhaps. Sooo is that some sorta super cool fire-dragon? I didn't really expect the dragons to be this fiery, positively suprised... almost to the point where I think she was more of a fire elemental or somesuch?" Fey mused, tipping her chin. "Perhaps even a fire-lord something something? Hmnnnn.." She pondered. "I should be able to replicate any flames I've seen, problem is, I kind of didn't see all of what she did.. gotta see it at least one more time." She nodded to herself.
 
Surprised by the additional gifts, Korrie was nonetheless grateful for receiving one, examining the small but beautiful earring. For a second she wondered how she’s supposed to put this on considering she never got her ears pierced, but then she remembered she’s in a land of magic. She did gingerly try to take it off just to see how sturdy the enchantment keeping it in place was… the answer was a little too sturdy, though it’s not like it got in the way of anything, it being super secure is a good thing. “Thank you very much, Uncle Flint~” The wyvern girl thanked with a smile before being ushered out. Somehow she got the feeling she’s going to get some use out of these earrings pretty soon.

Like almost immediately after, when Fey started speaking… what was that, French? Yeah it’s French. “Korrie thinks it’ll take a little more than that for the earrings to adapt.” She chuckled softly, half tempted to respond with a certain reference involving cheese omlettes.

The journey to the dragon convent was relatively uneventful, barring the surprising amount of early morning traffic. Korrie of course felt nothing about walking through the bustling streets nude, collared, and with her self-imposed marks of enthrallment, though that sort of thing seems to be a normal sight by the realm’s standards anyway; rather she was more concerned with whether they had set off so early the convent’s not even open for guests yet.

It was only once they reached the portal that Korrie blinked in surprise, examining the additional security outside. Part of her guiltily wondered if it was because of the mishap she had in the museum yesterday… The guards ignored them though, so there was nothing to it, and the wyvern girl led her sister pet through into the convent’s lobby proper.

She soon regretted arriving at that particular time when she saw the feud currently occurring. The pet wyvern had no idea what was going on, other than that there was an argument, and whatever the cloaked stranger was saying she couldn’t understand a word of. In fact, she was a little uncertain whether the stranger was speaking at all, all she could hear was the crackling of flames, though it felt pronounced, like there was meaning behind it. The phoenix beside her clued her in that this was probably the language of a fire elemental.

Still, she felt like now wasn’t a good time to interrupt, so she simply stood there awkwardly until the stranger turned around. One look and she could tell that the guards outside had less to do with the convent itself and more to do with the fiery stranger. The fact she was in the presence of an irritated someone who’s important enough to have personal guards was unnerving enough for the wyvern girl, but that peaked into an outright sense of danger when she saw the way the woman was looking at them. She didn’t need to understand words when there’s such expressive intent.

While the receptionist sprang up to stop the dangerous woman, Korrie had already grabbed Fey by the arm and was a second away from yanking them both back out of the portal, but it was still too late. Flames surrounded them and blocked their vision, Korrie flinched and tried to ward herself with her scaly wings, but the fire didn’t burn. Instead, they faded, and Korrie looked around to find themselves some place entirely different.

“…Korrie thinks we’ve just been kidnapped…” She muttered fearfully. That fear drove her mental cogs into action as well however. Their kidnappers’ intentions were likely carnal in nature, considering the lavish bedroom they were deposited in, the question was if the fire elemental (likely even a Fire Lord, as Fey suggested) had just wanted some fire-aspected people for a quick lay or if she had more permanent plans. Escape was of course paramount, but they could be in a different world altogether right now for all she knows. Could they find a portal somewhere in the building?

“Fey, can you help look around for something we can use to escape? Or maybe just a sign where we are. Does it feel like we’re in a different dimension? Like… a more fiery plane of existence?” She asked, while she herself immediately tried the door to see if it was locked. Though she’s glad her sister pet’s not freaking out like she is, she did notice how the crystals seemed to suck up Fey’s fire-clothes, which meant they’d probably absorb both of their flames if they were to use them. They’re practically powerless right now…

---

Of course, a Mask would not be so easily deterred. Shiroi grimaced as Trevor turned into a skull of shadowy smoke and simply went through her barricade, going over her before she could react and slamming into an unprepared Kuroi. The ravenette had nonetheless attempted to dodge, and that effort managed to mitigate much of the damage as she was simply knocked back rather than chomped down on. It still hurt though, the catgirl grunting in pain from the impact before scrambling back to her feet, her shield and crossbow in hand, though she couldn’t finish drawing the ammo in time. Her knife hung at her waist.

“SIS!” Shiroi called out in alarm, and immediately pooled more energy into her hands for retaliation when several shadow bolts shot past from behind, one so close it grazed her cheek, reminding her that there was a second opponent. Reflexively she shot several spears back at the bird, but it was doubtful they’d do anything, and the pale girl quickly repositioned to join her sister once more, trying to pull some distance.

Trevor’s next words gave both of them pause though.

“…Huh? I thought you were the Mask…” Shiroi blurted out, shocked by this turn of events. Kuroi, though equally surprised, suddenly noticed the lull in combat and immediately took advantage of it, directly drawing on her sibling’s back to make some ammo for her crossbow; bolts with a piece of fabric attached to the shaft on which she could write her enchantments. That action, while making Shiroi squirm and giggle a little from the ticklish feeling, also reminded her of what they’re doing, and she got her head back in the game.

The next time Trevor attacked, wings of eldritch energy would erupt from Shiroi’s back as the girl aims her palms at the encroaching shadows and unleashes a surge of pure energy, rather like blue-green flames. If solid constructs don’t work, she’ll just have to try something equally formless. A few lances fly out of her wings and up into the sky as well, exploding violently at the apex of their arcs, just as a means of harassing Pax and making it harder for the raven to aim while she keeps her focus on Trevor himself.

Kuroi, still taking cover behind Shiroi, would have produced two bolts and was already writing an experimental prompt on the first: ‘Freezes shadows’.
 
Korrie would find that the door was unlocked and quite easy to open, though if Fey tried it it would become apparent the only reason Korrie could do it was because of her now completely ridiculous strength from her flight training earlier Korrie would find that the corridor outside, which left of to both the left and right were quite alike to the room they had just been in, although the light source out here were some strange spherical blobs that seemed to be filled with lava, either the one who kidnapped them had not thought it possible for the duo to escape, or the crystals had simply been there to remove the teleporting fire as they arrived and not to deprive the duo of their powers, the left hallway only continued a short way before it rounded a corner and left out of sight, while the right hallway soon turned into a spiral staircase heading upwards, the hallway was otherwise empty and devoid of life.

Fey would find the bed absolutely divine to lie upon, with the perfect mix of softness and firmness to make one wish to just curl up and take a nap why she could practically hear a small voice in her head whispering, ever so softly that she should "sleep..." that it would be so nice to "relax..." surely with such a nice and comfy bed there were "no reason to worry..." so why should she leave, it would be far better to just "stay in bed..." and wait for whomever had sent them here to come and inform them on what to do, maybe she should "take a nap..." and let her mind "drift away...", the attempt at compelling Fey was not exactly subtle to anyone watching, given that the bed were, to any onlookers, giving off a soft glow by now that would be plainly visible to anyone watching though anyone affected by it would probably not notice given their own position, that being said Fey were Fey and even compulsions sometimes had issues with her rather unusual mind-set so how well they would affect her was anyone's guess, more over the phoenix was unaffected and not all to happy about the glowing bed that were trying to make Fey take a nap on it rather than try to get the hell out and it gave an angry hoot that would likely draw Korrie's attention seeing as it was otherwise eerily quiet.


_______________________

The bolts going after Pax hit the mark as the bird didn't even attempt to dodge, it didn't need to, as it turned out to be just as insubstantial as it's master was, the attacks passing through it without doing any harm "Young miss, while I do appreciate your enthusiasm it should have been obvious that I am no regular raven given how long i have served Trevors family as a familiar" Pax flapped it's wings and several small magical diagrams appeared in the air before they shot more of those stinging bolts down on both the twins in an attempt to interfere with Kuroi's writing, and while Pax bolts clearly wasn't very accurate if any of them actually hit it would become obvious that there was a reason why the old raven was so keen on shooting them as the area they hit would grow cold and numb, luckily for the twins they would shortly after get some information on what was going on as the announcer, who had been a bit too shocked to talk much during the twins earlier bouts, for obvious reasons, now took to give running commentary on the action "And there is Pax the Shadowraven's Dark Quill attack once again folks, sorry for being late to the action but we were having some technical difficulties, let's see if the Monochrome Sisters can avoid getting hit and suffer it's Shadow Paralysis effect as that alone spelled the doom for more than one contestant here in the arena over the years".

Clearly the Shadowraven had been fighting here before, either with Trevor or his parents. Trevor for his part didn't just stand idly by either, but this time dissolved into two smaller tendrils of dark energy that burst forward, though Shiroi's's fire had Trevor stop in his attack and take a step back, apparently the heat was more effective on him "Clever move kid, and I wish I were a mask, all that power, whoopee that'd be something, naah just human, well part human" Trevor started to speak in a strange tongue that would have goosebumps form on the twins arms as pools of shadow appeared next to Trevor, then he plunged his arms inside and pulled out the contents,
TwilightsDreadweapon.jpg TwilightsMantlearmor.jpg TwilightsRegaliashield.jpg
that seemed strangely fitting with the strange cloak he was wearing, as if thy belonged together, the moment they finished materializing the entire air around Trevor would suddenly change, as the hair on the backs of both twins would stand on edge from the sense of dread he was now giving off, likely an effect of one of Trevor's new and dreadful equipment, he chuckled a bit once more and spoke again, his voice now strangely distorted from before "My other part..." he paused for dramatic effect as he lowered the strange spear and pointed it towards the twins, the eyes of the thing suddenly flaring with dark energies as it shot out a torrent of the stuff straight at them, far more concentrated than what Trevor had turned into and likely far more devastating "Is the reason i can wield this safely as in me flows the blood of the long dead Shadow Giants, whose bloodline protects me from the downsides of using this gear" Trevor moved in behind his attack swinging his spear at the twins while using his shield to block any attack from his left as he waded in, clearly no amateur in teh art of combat despite his, up until now, jovial and carefree disposition.
 
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Fey shook her fiery sparkles a bit, staring at the crystals disapprovingly. She was now as nude as Korrie, and slightly more self conscious about it, which of course still wasn't that much, but still!
"Kidnapped? Petnapped? Really? Aww they seemed so nice." Fey pondered to Korrie's explanation.

"Could be a fiery plane, I can't tell with those close." She pointed her fingers to the diamonds. "With a few of those on you, you effectively nullify all fire magic. They can dry out but that's boring wait-time.. look around for something to get out.. hrmn.. but I dun wanna!" She mused lazily, laying back on the bed, pulling a coin from her pouch and twirling it between her fingers. The bed was comfy, suprisingly so. Infact, Fey, lazy as she was, wiggled and yawned extensively, putting her coin away again, whilest peering over to Korrie.

When, however, the door was opened, she chuckled ever so slightly. "Well this is suprisingly easy. Not sure what's going on." She mused, whilest peeking out, watching one of the lava-blobs with curious fascination.

"Not even guards. Hrmnn... perhaps you're over-worrying about things Korrie, place seems nice and fiery. I'ma wait for an explanation hrmnn right here.." She suggested, murring and hogging up a pillow. ... it seems lazy-controlling attempts on her were quite effective, whilest she wiggled deeper into the blanket. She was pepared to toss a pillow at any dissenting opinions not letting her nap! Sure, she did kind of mind not having her flames, but the bed was nice and comfortable. Plus they had no certainty this was a pet-napping incident, now, did they? The teleport was odd, but the crystals -could- have been a safety measure.
Naturally, Fey would fight any attempt to take her from her mistress, but right now the nude redhead was just being comfy on the bed. She'd been worried quite a bit, lately, why not relax.. as weird as sleeping in a dream still was as a concept.
 
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“What do you mean you don’t wanna, we’ve been kidnapped! We need to get out of here!” Korrie argued as she tried the door, expecting it to be locked. Instead, it opened with a little bit of tugging, the strength coming to her so naturally that she didn’t even realize how heavy the door actually was. “…Huh.” The wyvern girl muttered in dull surprise before she peeked out into the hallway. She allowed herself a moment to examine the lava orbs out of curiosity before considering what to do next. The path went two ways and she wasn’t sure which to go, and considering their kidnapper had brought guards with her, she didn’t doubt there were more patrolling this place. It’s strange that the door just wasn’t even locked though. An oversight, or did the fire woman not care?

Turning back around when she heard the pet phoenix’s phoenix hooting, Korrie quickly saw that the bed was glowing. “Fey, get off the bed! It’s all glowy and probably enchanted!” She pointed out, only to get beaned in the face with a pillow as she was about to approach. “Come on, if she was nice she wouldn’t have teleported us here without an explanation! We have to go!” The wyvern girl stubbornly approached the bed and tried to pull Fey off of it (with her boosted strength, still barely aware she has that), careful not to touch the bed herself. In her mind there was definitely nothing good that could come of waiting for their captor to return.

---
Shiroi grimaced as she noticed the shadow raven still flying unimpeded. She had hoped the concussive force of the explosions would’ve at least knocked it about, but no such luck. Quickly shifting a wing into a barrier, the barrage of dark bolts were deflected, and Shiroi muttered a somewhat amused thanks to the announcer. Of course, not getting hit by bolts of darkness was a thing they were supposed to be doing regardless whether the bolts could paralyse or not, but she supposed now they have extra motivation to dodge.

On the plus side, her raw energy flames seemed significantly more effective against Trevor; now she knew how to deal damage, and as they say, if it bleeds, it can die. Or be defeated, as the case may be. She didn’t have much time to celebrate though, as her opponent seems to be entering phase 2…

“Psst, sister…” She then heard her sibling whisper, the catgirl stealthily passing one of her crossbow bolts to her. This was the one she had finished enchanting with the ‘Freezes shadows’ script. “Hide this with more energy bolts and try to shoot the bird with it.” She requested before working on enchanting her shield with a ‘Deflects darkness’ script. She didn’t trust her own aim, and if she tried to shoot, Pax might suspect something. If Shiroi does it though…

The albino nodded and shrouded the bolt in her own energy, starting to form a bow around it. Before she could attack though, Trevor finished summoning his bony weapons, and a sudden wave of fear caused both girls to shudder. “Fear magic, steady yourself!” Shiroi immediately recognized it for what it is, and as soon as the spear pointed at them, she predicted a ranged shot and pulled her sister with her as she flung herself aside. She was not going to try to block that.

“I-I’ll hold Trevor off, get Pax!” Kuroi tried to resist the feeling of unnatural terror as she got back up, her cat ears pressed against her head while she narrowly blocked the spear swing with her now enchanted shield. It’d only deflect anymore darkness attacks though, the battle of strength was up to her. While she focused entirely on defense, she did try to point her unloaded crossbow at the descendant(?) of the Shadow Giants, hoping it’d at least feint him out and distract him a little.

Shiroi, meanwhile, had to put her trust in her sibling to survive as she ducked away, fully forming the energy bow in her hands. The enchanted bolt was hidden within the light of an energy arrow that she then pointed up into the sky at Pax before letting go, sending the arrow and, more importantly, the hidden bolt, at the familiar, and manually guiding it like a homing missile. She could only hope Pax isn’t used to actually having to dodge things, and that the bolt actually works, because controlling that arrow for long’s going to take focus, and that means opening up her defenses…
 
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"Meeh but I dun wannaaa.." Fey articulated her disdain for movement.
"Is it? Perhaps it's one of them watery beds? Hrmnn.. nope." She mused, after poking the bed. "I mean.. Aya's been dragging us about without explaining anything -anything I understood, anyway- and she's nice, so I dun see the problem.. I dun think fire-people can be bad." She insinuated and yawned. That said, Korrie had little issue pulling Fey forwards, slightly to that one's suprise... and a response of her slapping Korrie with a pillow in protest. If that was not enough to dissuade her, Fey was however dragged out of the bed, with the same enthusiasm one would drag a cat.

"Geesh, I'm coming.. when did you work out?" She complained, flexing her arm. However, before actually coming, she'd wander to snatch up a fire-absorbing crystal, looking over to Korrie. "They used fire magic. Ift hey's meanies, these crystals make it so they can't. I'm still pretty durable and I .. am not sure if I can still use my exothermic abilities, was about to try with a coin, but I mean, not like they locked the door."

Fey would then saunter out, however, if Korrie had hoped for any help finding the right way she'd be sorely disappointed.. as the phoenix eyed a lava-ball curiously and then poked it.
 
The moment the pillow hit Korrie the same voice that had his Fey would also wash through her mind with the same compulsion, though briefer and less powerful, it would make her feel somewhat tired even if she managed to resist the lure of the bed itself though, the bed suddenly seeming much more inviting to her in her newly exhausted state, as for Fey she would be able to shake off the feeling of fatigue once she was off of the bed due to her abnormal recovery rate and as she touched the crystal the feeling would just disappear all together, but at a price as Fey would find that touching the crystal physically would make her feel cold, even in this place where every surface was giving comfortable level of warmth, just holding the crystal would make the room feel decidedly more chilly, to the point of being very uncomfortable after just a short while, though this would be alleviated briefly when she decided to poke the blob of lava, as whatever magic was keeping the sphere whole was sucked up by the crystal when she touched it causing Fey to be bathed in lava that was quickly starting to cool of and harden as the crystal greedily stole it's warmth, making movements difficult and awkward until she could be broken loose from the resulting basalt and obsidian that was now covering large portions of Fey's upper body.

(as mentioned in the PM not too too much for me to do here until the group moves out or succumbs to the tantalizing call of the comfy and "not-at-all-cursed" bed)

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Kuroi would immediately find that she would have no time to pull her crossbow on Trevor as he decidedly knew what he was doing as his follow-up was to use his own shield in a brutal and absolutely merciless shield bash aimed for Kuroi's exposed side then he followed up with a quick stab from his spear, if Kuroi paid attention to the skull she would be able to see one of it's nostrils suddenly start to leak shadow-stuff like some kind of black fore and that the 2nd was starting to fill as well, probably as a way to indicate how long were left before the spear could fire another one of it's magical missiles, Trevor wouldn't let up though and started to work his spear and shield in unison to keep Shiroi pinned down and unable to do anything but defend as he worked out a way to get past her defenses, if or when he did he would immediately push Kuroi's shield out of the way then either use the spear's bolt or transform into that shadow skull again for an attack at the defenseless girl at point blank range giving her little if any time to get out of the way.

If Kuroi somehow managed to extract herself and fire she would find something strange happening as the shield would, for just a split second give of a shimmer of utter darkness and Trevor would be pulled inside the shield itself JUST long enough for her fired bolt to pass by harmlessly before Trevor would reform, and just give a shrug as he looked at her, given the expression Kuroi would in that case get the feeling he was smiling in a mix of smugness and amusement.

Meanwhile Shiroi would get the rundown of how her sister was doing thanks to the announcer who had worked himself into a frenzy at this point, though her quarry would not prove any easier than Kuroi's, the "arrow" she fired worked surprisingly well as Pax didn't even bother to try and dodge but took it head on, and immediately froze in place, then fell like a stone, however upon impacting with the ground the reason Pax was called Shadow raven became apparent as instead of crashing with the sound of cracking bones he behaved more like a puddle of water and splashed all over the floor before reforming as a mere shadow on the ground, a shadow that were rushing at Shiroi at full speed, before Pax materialized again, emerging from the ground like a plane taking off, claws first aiming for the winged girl and it's sharp beak poised to give her a nasty peck for good measure.

That was only the start of it though, because hit or miss Pax would then start cawing directly at Shiroi, whom would immediately would feel a familiar and VERY unwelcome feeling wash over her, as she suddenly saw Kuroi as her worst enemy and Pax and Trevor as her best friends, the Ravens cawing clearly causing her to be stuck with confusion, the effect wasn't overly strong to begin with but with every caw the effect would grow more potent and she would have to act fast to shit the raven up or risk turning on her own sister as the effect would linger.
 
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Not expecting any enchantments to extend to the pillows as well, Korrie found the comfiness of the pillow lingering after it hit her in the face, but she shrugged it off, attempting to pull Fey off the bed. “We belong to Aya, or rather Mistress Christine so Aya by extension, that’s different than being teleported by a stranger!” She tried to argue, which again earned her a pillow to the face. A very soft, comfy pillow. The pet wyvern was starting to feel a bit drowsy now, and she definitely felt the urge to give one of the pillows a hug, but she still persevered on her previously set task and managed to gradually yank the pet phoenix off the bed.

“Work out?” Korrie blinked, somewhat confused for a second before she remembered. “Ah, that. Korrie got some flight training yesterday with the dragons, she can fly really good now!” Grinning, the wyvern girl showed off the Flightmaster’s Bracelet on her tail, and the small dragon wing mark on the back of her left hand, “Korrie got rewards from it and everything! Anyway, that also meant training her muscles, so Korrie’s pretty strong now! It’s so natural she forgets sometimes though.”

Done showing off and with Fey off the bed, Korrie was about to follow her out when she noticed the pillow on the ground, left over from when Fey threw it at her in protest. Remembering how soft and comfy it felt, Korrie couldn’t help herself before she picked it up and snuggled it. Hnngg, it’s so good… Korrie didn’t even realize she was getting hit with subliminals as drowsiness began to overtake her, just taking it as a side effect of the pillow’s comfiness. Before she knew it, she had flopped onto the bed and she was the one lazing on it now, snuggling her pillow and rolling onto the blankets, eyes beginning to close…

---

Kuroi had low expectations for herself when she decided to engage Trevor in melee combat. It was an act of desperation, and she was only supposed to buy time for her sister to act. Still, this was working out even worse than she had thought. Her ploy to flinch her opponent had backfired as a shield bash made her cry out and knocked the crossbow right out of her hands. There was little she could do but backpedal while turtling behind the shield, noticing the smoky nostrils on her enemy’s shield but not making the connection in her franticity.

Just as she was about to get overpowered, Kuroi threw herself backwards and, in an act of desperation, threw the knife she still had left with a cry of “Process!”. Of course, the knife still wasn’t enchanted and had no script to process, Kuroi could only hope Trevor didn’t know that and would dodge on the safe side, which would at least give her time to recover. Even if it was enchanted it wouldn’t have done a thing, as Kuroi would realize if she was to witness the shield temporarily absorb Trevor while evading the knife.

Shiroi, meanwhile, grinned when her arrow struck true and stuck the bolt into Pax. The enchantment worked like a charm, and the familiar froze, falling out of the sky… The girl’s elation was quickly lost however when instead of just staying frozen, the raven literally went splat on the ground, which resulted in the bolt dislodging. The now freed shadow creature quickly reformed and rushed her, Shiroi furling an energy wing in front of herself to defend and try to slap Pax away.

That was, evidently, the least of her worries, as despite being able to ward off the familiar’s initial advance, a loud caw made her stagger and shook her very mind. She remembered this sensation from somewhere, and when she noticed she was questioning why she was attacking Pax and not Kuroi for a second, she remembered the Gibbering Mouther, only this confusion effect was more guided.

The possibility of being turned against her sibling triggered something.

Shiroi’s wings suddenly flared up with renewed intensity, and a wild look came over her eyes. To those who were present, she would resemble when she was about to execute the Artificer in her first fight, though not quite as intense. Raising both palms at Pax, she would unleash a sustained gout of pure energy fire at Pax, while lifting the enchanted bolt that still had her energy lingering within. Not bothering with subtlety beyond what her flamethrowing might cover, she once more aimed to direct the bolt into the crow to freeze it once more. She had, of course, learned this time.

As soon as the bolt struck home, Shiroi slammed her palm into the ground, eyes tracking the raven’s trajectory. A glowing line of cracks raced along the ground from her palm to meet with the bird, and an instant before he hit the ground, a massive plume of cosmic fire erupted right beneath him.

Shiroi had no idea if it would work at all, or if she might’ve even gone too far. In that moment, all she knew was that the fire worked, and there’s a threat that needed to be silenced.
 
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"Well, of course we do.." Fey nodded.. lazily, bopping Korrie with the pillow, mieeping and flailing in complaining, but tired motions whiles dragged off, half of her flopping out onto the ground with Korrie's efforts, sulking a bit with her lazy bedrest disturbed.. and no way to retaliate with a lack of flame-magic. "Bleeeeh.. Well it was really comfy.. so.. what do we do?"
She wondered, and gasped at the crystal.. these things were disgusting.. and she was weak to cold magic anyway.. she decided to put it back.. perhaps this was not a nice place after all.

She mieeped a bit when bathed in Magma, which was no problem for her.. but it cooling off was, which just made it a partial covering of hardened rock that, well, Korrie's dragon-strength could fix. "Hey Korrie, I need a workout like yours, also a peeling .. wait.. huh?" She noticed the dragon now napping on the bed and stepped over. "Hoi! Gimme a hand here you lazy dragon. Hrmnn..." She sighed out.. before pulling out a singular coin.

"These crystals are starting to annoy me, but the fact that they're not freezing the place over must mean things around are quite hot. Hrmnn.. " Fey wasn't stupid, she realized that with Korrie's strength, she'd be unable to pull her out of the bed as she'd been pulled. But they could indeed not waste time here, sleeping in a dream was stupid when mistress was amiss. She pondered and stared at the crystals annoyedly. "Stupid dream-crystals stupid dream world." She complained and then shrugged... She could not have her fires defeated by some silly crystals like that. Whilest Korrie napped, Fey sat down, cross, leggedly, and focused on conjuring her flames, in spite of the crystals. Their power could not be unlimited.
 
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Fey:

Probably much to Feys delight, as she would recover from the explosion was that the crystals apparently were highly susceptible to sudden changes in pressure as several of them had lost all color, going dull and grey and, more importantly Fey would also notice that her flame clothes were now back, in fact every crystal inside the bedroom had been cracked in one way or another, several of them visibly growing dimmer than they had been before, that was where her luck ran out, however as the explosion had also done something else, with next to no warning the floor underneath her cracked and fell apart, depositing Fey onto the hallway bellow, which luckily were completely free of crystals, however this had also effectively separated her from the sleeping Korrie and once she managed to stand up she would notice she was not alone, a young woman wearing a rather ragged skirt and halter top, both were old and in severe disrepair, with holes and loose bits all over the place, she had grey hair and grey-blue eye, she had some kind of mark on her left shoulder, partially hidden by the top, she was dirty and had more than a few bruises here and there, some clearly quite old, further more around her neck were a thin, gilded metal ring with strange runes etched into it with no clear beginning or end, she was sitting just beside the cave-in looking at Fey with a shocked expression, clearly having just barely managed to avoid getting the slabs of stone from the floor above in her head as they fall, her tanned skin were covered in some kind of reddish liquid and there was a wooden tray with a cup beside her, probably some wine of some kind by the looks of things.

The girl blinked a few times before realizing she had spilled the contents of the cup she had been carrying and with a near panicked expression started to scramble for the tray and cup before she rose up and looked at Fey for a moment, now with a puzzled expression, clearly uncertain of what to make of her she as she started to move down the hall at a rapid pace for a bit, before slowing down and looking at Fey again, then looked around as if to check if anyone else had noticed, then quickly waved for Fey to follow her as she looked around again, then waited a bit before continuing, stopping every few paces to ensure that Fey were still following, any questions that Fey might have would only be met with a sad smile and a shake on the head, as well as a gesturing towards the collar, it would take a few minutes before Fey and the girl got to their destination, a small store room filled with barrels and bottles, a wine cellar though one so heavily warded Fey would find it impossible to touch anything but the floor the room was also lit with more crystals, taking away her magic again, probably a wise choice given alcohol would do more harm than good should a fire break out, once inside the girl would relax a bit and offer a slight smile at Fey, before she hurried over to a barrel and tap and refilled the cup, before moving out again, again motioning for Fey to follow as she hurried back down the way they had originally gone, stopping at a door and entering briefly only to emerge a moment later without the cup and a relieved expression, before she once again waved for Fey to follow this time leading her further down the hallway and into another room, this one small and with no luxury at all, she motioned for Fey to sit down on the only stool in the room, a small 3 legged thing with a round seat that clearly had seen better day, while the girl plopped down on the bedroll lying on the floor, clearly this was the girls own room.

The girl smiled up at her in a friendly, if ever so slightly sad, manner as she offered fey a cup of water to drink, whether Fey accepted or not the girl would, after either relinquishing the cup to Fey or putting it back on the floor beside the bedroll, take up a quill and some parchment and write down on it a short message that she handed to Fey "Hello my name is Phyre, whats yours?" the writing was skillful and stylish, the girl clearly having been taught to write by a skilled teacher as it was not only clearly readable but, probably to Fey's surprise, if she thought about it, also written in perfect English, the girl would smile expectantly to Fey clearly hoping to strike up a conversation, in response to any questions that Fey would undoubtedly have the Phyre would again gesture for her parchment, obviously she could not speak for whatever reason, though given the strange runes on the collar, it would be a pretty good guess that her collar were somehow involved.

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Korrie:

Korrie would be sleeping soundly by the time Fay detonated the coin, she would sleep like a stone through the cave-in Fey caused, she would also sleep when Fey was lead away she would sleep once they passed by once more and sleep as the woman who had sent them there appeared in the room shortly after Fey was lead into Phyria's chamber, the woman would look around for a bit clearly looking for Fey, spotting the open door she would give an annoyed growl, before she turned back to Korrie, she opened her palm and took out a gilded metal ring similar to the one worn by Phyria, and approached the sleeping Korrie and pressed it towards the wyverngirls neck, the circlet would slide around Korries neck without any issues at all, and would form a tight circle around her neck, without any apparent way to get it off, the sleeping Korrie could, in her sleeping mind see the same woman now, she was smiling, petting her after she had obediently done as ordered, a wave of happiness would flow through Korrie's head, the dream would shift and she could now see Fey, without a collar and sending fire projectiles toward the woman, no, Mistress, a sense of anger and hostility would wash through Korrie at the sight of this injustice, and the fact that Fey were not being obedient like she was, the scene changed again and Fey were now collared, standing beside Korrie like before, this time a sense of happiness would fill Korrie at the sight, she was obedient just like her, as this scene melted away Korrie would awaken and see Mistress standing at the end of the bed.

"Slave, find the woman you were transported here with, and put this on her, by force if you have too, she escaped the room while you were so kind as to fall victim to the cursed bed, just like I wanted, go now and do not disappoint me, or you are in for a beating" she handed Korrie another one of the rings and didn't offer Korrie another glance, as if the wyverngirl was beneath her notice, though Korrie would only be filled with a sense of happiness at being given a task by Mistress, of purpose and an eagerness to obey, yet at the same time some part of her, a large part would also recognize that this was all VERY wrong, even as the need to obey grew ever larger and more and more dominating in her mind, emanating from some kind of warm part around her neck, a part that, for some reason, Korrie could not touch no matter how hard she tried, her arms would lock up and refuse contact when she tried even as the need to obey would start to become overpowering, through this entire ordeal Korrie would quickly notice that no matter what she did, she remained silent, not a single sound would escape her mouth, no matter what she tried, whatever was happening to her it had also sealed her ability to speak, she would also quickly realize that it was impossible to think of the woman in the room, now sitting at the desk reading a book, waiting for Korrie to complete her task, as anything but Mistress, even though Korrie knew, deep down, that Christine was her Mistress, not Mistress.

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Kuroi would indeed get to see Trevor disappear for the split-second it would take the knife to fly harmlessly past, the cloaked man didn't advance, however "Come now mate, ya can do better than that can't ya?" Trevor stood there, waiting patiently allowing Kuroi to recover and even draw herself a new weapon before he made another move against her, the skull on his spear now having shadowy energy pouring out of both nostrils and eye sockets as he pointed it at the catgirl "I strongly recommend ya dodge this, mate" he said jovially even as the skull opened it's mouth and a gout of fiery black energy burst out in a continuous stream forcing Kuroi back, further away from her sister, the energy seemed to liquefy and hit the ground as it reached the end of it's range turning into black fire that burned on the ground in a cold and lightness mockery of true fire, in fact the area close to the flames seemed dimmer than the rest of the stadium as if the fire absorbed all the light around them, rather than casting light like regular fire, Trevor advanced through the flames as if they weren't even there, but it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that it was either because the flames didn't affect him or he was otherwise protected from any nasty side effects they might have.

Shiroi's gambit met with limited success as the initial gout of fire forced Pas up and backwards, allowing her to fire and aim the crossbow, she even managed to clip Pax in the wing, freezing the shadow for a 2nd time, however her gambit of fire from bellow turned out to be far more costly for her than letting Pax hit the ground once more, as the fires burned both the raven and the arrow, with the cloth easily catching fire and burning up, removing the enchantment from the arrow itself, immediately Shiroi would be hit with another sense of dread, but this time coming from Pax as even engulfed as the raven was in cosmic fire she could see that something was not right at all, as the flames suddenly lurched wavered and went out, smothered by dark shadowy liquid, Pax dark blue eyes was the only recognizable feature on the shadowraven as the rest of it had melted into what appeared to be a mass of darkness, an expanding mass of darkness, Pax looked ad Shiroi its eyes slowly turning from the dark clue they had initially been to a blood-red crimson that were leaving a trail behind them as Pax' form shifted and grew "I WiLl AdMit I UndeReStImaTeD yOu, ChILd, nO MoRE!" Pax voice had undergone as radical a change as the shadowraven itself, now barely understandable as it was more like the snarl of some kind of beast, though Shiroi would not have time to ponder the change as Pax burst forth once more, gone were it's raven features as it sped towards Shiroi at an unnatural speed.

Shiroi had barely enough time to make out some tiger like qualities to this new form her opponent had taken before she were smashed aside as Pax clipped her into her and continued past, before coming to a dead stop in an instant, clearly no longer subject to the normal laws of physics, this new feline form clearly far more dangerous to Shiroi's physical health than the Raven had ever bin, it's bloodred eyes boring into Shiroi's own, so intense so all consuming it would take her a moment to notice she was just standing there looking into them as they robbed her of her will to fight and replaced it with despair and hopelessness, though given Shiroi's strong will it was likely she would be able to be able to break herself loose from Pax' Gaze of Despair.
 
The last thing Korrie saw was Fey messing with the literal lava lamps outside before the overwhelming comfiness smothered her consciousness. For a while she slumbered dreamlessly, oblivious to the world around here, until visions started entering her mind. The pet wyvern snuggled her pillow in her sleep as a wave of happiness flowed through her, seeing herself being petted for her obedience; a soft growl escaped her lips when she saw an uncollared and disobedient Fey attacking… Mistress? And then happiness again when the problem was corrected. Though she had no context to work on, being oblivious to everything that’s happened since she fell asleep, the visions still imprinted themselves on her mind, until something finally roused her from her enchanted slumber.

Blinking blearily, the wyvern girl sat up and stared at her Mistress. Immediately she was assaulted with a sense of dissonance and confusion, then fear when she tried to interrupt only to find she couldn’t make a single sound, not so much as a grunt. At the same time something also forced her to focus on her Mistress’ orders, and a sense of happiness and fulfilment from being commanded flowed through her as well, resulting in a storm of conflicting emotions that left her anxious and locked in place for a moment. She couldn’t even ask Mistress what had happened, her numerous questions trapped in her panicking mind, even while a part of her still knew this wasn’t supposed to be her Mistress at all. Mistress would never threaten to beat her up, for one!

Nonetheless, the compulsion to obey eventually pushed her into action in order to sate the growing antsiness that was compounding on her problems, and, with the other collar in hand, Korrie gave her Mistress one more anxious look before she carefully dropped down the new hole that had been opened up in the room.

Her mind still in chaos, Korrie only briefly checked the hallway, overlooking even obvious details before she chose a random direction and started wandering aimlessly. Though she’s organized her thoughts enough to understand what had occurred, now a good helping of self loathing has entered the mix of her torrent of emotions. She even knew it was enchanted, she got Fey off of it and everything, and then she herself ends up falling asleep? Really she deserves to get a beating! Now what’s she gonna do?

…She should find Fey, of course, she needs to collar her get help. That’s what a part of her told her, but another part wanted to steer clear of Fey lest she attack her. Either way, having been lost in her storm of thoughts while she wandered, she had no idea where she was going anymore, and it’d take quite the stroke of luck for her to have retread the phoenix’s steps.

---

Kuroi felt even more dread seeing yet another evasive ability her opponent wielded, and now she has nothing on her but a single unenchanted crossbow bolt and her shield. To her surprise though, Trevor didn’t press the advantage. The act of pity made the catgirl miffed, but she certainly needed it and took advantage of it, wordlessly getting down on one knee and using the back of her shield as a canvas, as well as a cover to hide the ‘cuts through bones’ enchantment she put on her new sword, and a new, unactivated enchantment on her shield. She did pause briefly to look over at her sister and the pillar of fire that just erupted in their direction though. She had hoped it was a sign of good news, but her hopes were soon dashed against the dark beast that emerged from the flames.

It was at this moment that she decided their current match-up was going nowhere. Versatile as her powers were, she simply wasn’t good at direct combat. Meanwhile, Shiroi had far more firepower, but for now there weren’t that many different things she could do with it, and it certainly wasn’t enough to hurt Pax. Perhaps if they could switch opponents things might change, but how-

…Kuroi had an epiphany.

Quickly scribbling something on her arm, Kuroi finished her preparations, and as soon as she got back up the battle resumed. The catgirl was forced onto the defensive again, having to quickly backpedal away from the surge of dark flames. She was well aware that Trevor was trying to keep her away from Shiroi, and she was prepared…

Meanwhile, Shiroi wasn’t faring much better. Her ruthless retaliation born of anger had silenced the bird alright, but not for long. She had forgotten that the bolt was still vulnerable to damage and accidentally destroyed it with her flames, and to make matters worse, Pax was a lot less vulnerable to the fire than she thought. Darkness smothered the flames, and Shiroi couldn’t help backing away as the familiar took on a much more terrifying form.

A hasty barrier deflected the brunt of the damage, but Pax’s initial strike was still enough to shatter through it and smack her aside. Shiroi was able to notice the physics-defying deadstop the shadow tiger just performed before the blood red gaze of her enemy made her freeze up. Never one to give up, she fought against the overbearing fear that was crushing down on her resolve, but that still didn’t change the fact that her opponent was evidently immune to what she could throw out. How is she supposed to win if she can’t even deal damage?

Then Kuroi activated her little trap.

With a muttered “Process!”, the catgirl suddenly disappeared from sight, reappearing behind her sibling. The ‘teleport to Shiroi’ command faded away, leaving one line of unactivated script on her arm. “Shiroi!”

“Wha- Sis? How did you-“

“No time, take the sword and use it on Trevor’s gear, I’ll take Pax!” She muttered quickly, before the ravenette bumrushed the shadow tiger with her shield up. The ‘Deflects darkness’ script had already been replaced though, and the shield, with the glowing script ‘Absorbs darkness’ on the back, slams towards the beast of darkness.

The presence of her sibling helped put Shiroi’s head back into the game as well, and the albino spread her wings and took flight with the enchanted sword in hand. A long, prehensile chain of light now connected to the hilt, Shiroi unleashed a barrage of spears from her wings at Trevor before swinging her chain-sword at him, aiming for the shield that she hoped he’d bring up to defend himself with.
 
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"Hah! Oh yeah! Take this! Super-Fey Crystal slam!" She declared and grinned.. before flailing and meeping at her unwanted descend, just as her flame-outfit had regenerated.
"Owie .. oww.. well that's some weak floor." She declared, shaking herself off of debris with a pouty phoenix-face.
"Pfewww.. well, if that didn't wake up Korrie I dunno' what would..."
She mused to herself, reaching up to dust herself off a little.
".. oh hey there, I'm Fey. I come in peace!" She cheered at the ragged girl. ".. wanna point me in some directions, perhaps I can help getting you some new clothes." She suggested, tilting her head.

.. Fey hmnn'ed as the girl scrambled off, shrugging and wandering, following along with a slight flexing of her shoulder.. yep, all healed up again after a brief moments wait.
"Oh wait, it's a silencing collar? Meh. Yeah problem with that, I can't blow it up. Well.. I can, buuut.." She shrugged, following the girl, peeking at the alcohol.. and glaring at the crystals, whilest nabbing herself a small bottle. "Really not sure how I should feel about this place, you know, I want to be optimistic buuut.. anyway, kinda hard talking with you, I know a game..." She mused, scuttling along with the girl and tilting her head, before shrugging and nodding. "Sooo.. You live here. I was afraid you'd be." She mused, reading Phyre's message.

"Guess I'll have to go a little wild with the place." She mused, a dangerous fire burning in her eyes as she twirled a coin between her fingers. The one big issue was that Korrie too was within the place, as was this girl, meaning she couldn't just blow up the place... Well, not all of it, anyway.
"Chop chop, write faster, gonna blow things up soon, not in a good mood anymore... You should tell everyone to run.

Errr.. huh." She sighed and crossed her arms. "Y'know, you being there makes this all a bunch harder. Then again, perfect chance to test my flame control..." Fey chuckled and nodded to herself. "Take me to the one that did that to you, I'ma fire them."
She decided.
 
Fey:

At the mention of bringing Fey to the one who had collared her the Phyre shook her head over and over while quickly scribbling down a note "Too risky, Mistress would just use the Compulsion Collar to make me restrain you and trust me I could, provided Mistress hadn't ordered me to be unable to use my powers without her say-so, it's also why I can't speak, the collar prevents the wearer from speaking without permission, its rather annoying that way" she sighed a moment, before she walked over to Fey and hugged her before she scribbled down another note, "I do appreciate the gesture though" she smiled gently, before she suddenly looked thoughtful, then hopeful as she quickly got back to writing "Wait, you can use fire can't you, then maybe we have chance, though not here, we need to get to the forge, follow me!" she grabbed Fey by the hand and dragged her out of the room and down the hallway, though she suddenly stopped as the two came to a crossroad.

Korrie:

Korrie would actually walk past Phyre's room and the only thing stopping her from even noticing the two was because Phyre and Fey were currently in the wine cellar , as she came to a T crossing, the collar would force her to take a right, any attempt at going another way would have her body refuse to obey her will as it marched her down the road, and Korrie would not feel a compulsion to start actually search the rooms as she went, though most of them turned out to be store rooms and all of them were for the most part empty, save for a few with other people silently working with organizing the different items, all without uttering a word and with a very familiar collar around their necks, the workers would not react to Korrie at all as they continued with their assigned tasks, this continued until Korrie reached the end of the hallway, which lead into a massive and completely abandoned, but clearly not unused, forge. The heat from the room was insane as there were giant containers filled to the brim of molten metal moving about on chains whose rings were more than trice the size of Korrie herself, each container the size of a small swimming pool, if Fey were here it was obvious that Korrie would have a hard time getting to her as the heat alone was painful to bear before she even entered and if she stayed in there for too long in there she would undoubtedly suffer a heatstroke. With such a clear limitation to her ability to actually search the massive forge, the Collar compelled her back towards the T intersection again, hough she did hear something that sounded like a door opening ahead the collar forced her to ignore it and continue straight ahead, apparently whatever was in the rooms she had ignored before were, as far as the collar were concerned not something that she should care about.

Fey:

As the two neared they would be able to her footsteps coming down the hallway, and a clacking, and a sound akin to claws scraping against rock, Phyre didn't hesitate as she dragged Fey into a small and thankfully empty bedroom close to the intersection and also slammed her hand onto Fey's mouth, as Fey would undoubtedly try to raise her objectiosn to being treated like that she would, howver find that complaining was impossible, as a sense of safeness and warmth would momentarily wash over her, reminding her of "Fire Grandpa" and effectively distracting her from complaining until Phyre let go and checked the door once the sound of the one walking past had died off, she scribbled once more on her notepad, which seemed to have a never ending supply of paper in it "Sorry about that, but we can't risk being seen, if that was a supervisor it could have simply ordered me to stop and I would not be able to move at all, or worse I could have been ordered to restrain you, which, as you might have just noticed, is something i could do easily enough", she looked at Fey with an expression that was apologetic and slightly regretful, before she carefully peeked outside, seeing it was clear she motioned for Fey to follow once more as she took the way down the path the steps had come from, towards the forge, hurrying along without even glancing in the direction that the steps had disappeared to, if Fey did look in that direction, however, she would be able to see Korrie disappearing into a room further up the corridor, within easy shouting distance.

Korrie:

Provided Fey didn't call out to Korrie she would find herself entering not a room but a grand hall or maybe even ballroom from a small side door, a hall bearing sign of a tremendous struggle, as most of the stuff inside were scorched and melted beyond recognition, even more worrisome was that part of the walls themselves as well as even some kind of statues made of what was undoubtedly Cobalt were melted into slag while causing part of the room to have an oval instead of a square form from whatever had super-heated it, even more troubling was that the other side were literally frozen, but not from ice, but from what appeared as literal flames frozen in place as if made from crystal, touching these crystals would give Korrie a strange feeling of both cold and heat at the same time, whatever had happened here it would probably be bad news bears for whomever got in the way, in more ways than one, if the frozen imp-like creature stuck inside the crystalline flames were any indication, at this point the Collar felt semi-dormant, letting Korrie decide whether she wanted to return to the hallway or continue to look around to see of Fey were hiding behind the semi-transparent crystal flames or melted columns running along the room itself.

If Fey did call out Korrie would feel an overwhelming compulsion to turn and follow Fey, though she would still be unable to speak she would be able to see Phyre drag Fey along, holding her in a vice-grip that would not relent as she hurried along to the forge as quickly as possible, and with Korrie no longer having any option but to follow even as she got a cursory look at the devastation that had happened inside the hall behind her as she was forced down the corridor after Fey and Phyre back towards the forge itself.


______________________

As Kuroi disappeared Trevor stopped his advance "Well now, that's a clever trick" she mumbled tom himself as he looked around to where his adversary had disappeared to, only to notice the twins had reunited again, with a shrug he started to walk back through the darkfire once more, creating quite the ominous figure as Shiroi stepped up to meet him "Oh, you up for a second go eh, well hope ye got something better up yah sleeves this time, mate" Trevor stalked forwards another few steps, before he swing the spear at Shiroi, provided she parried in an attempt to sever the spear she would find out two things in rapid succession, one, the spear was indeed made of bone, and two, that bone was far more durable than it seemed and capable of repairing itself, as her sword could halfway through the spear itself before coming to a dead stop, then slowly was pushed back the way it came as the spear shaft started to slowly mend itself, Trevor didn't show any expression of course, though he did give an impressed whistle as the sword cut in "Blood hell, mate, that's a scary sword yer sister gave ya, though good thing ancient shadow artifacts are not something that are so easily broken, good fer all of us actually, as I dun wanna think about the size of the explosion that would have made, would probably make the Hellion from last night seem like a nice lil breeze" he gave a mirthful chuckle as he finished speaking, that being said Shiroi had a little thing going for her that Kuroi had not, one she had managed to lock weapons with Trevor, and because of the enchantment constantly biting into the bone in an attempt to sever it she was not sliding up the shaft and into shield bash range and two it would seem her counterattack had allowed her to get enough leverage to keep trevor from simply overpowering her due to the distance between them forcing her opponent to spend more strength to produce equal pressure, though it would be up to Shiroi to find a way to break the deadlock before Trevor came up with a counter, given that she had no idea whether Trevor were tired, or even capable of feeling tired, given his penchant for becoming a shadow.

Kuroi would find herself impacting with the shadow with surprising ease, as Pax had not even bothered trying to dodge, though she did hear the beasts surprised reaction to the shields effect as the darkness that was enveloping her started to pour into the shield en mass, until Kuroi found herself in light once more as she was still moving forwards, as she did she would feel her foot impacting on something, and a sphere of some kind would bounce away from her as she had accidentally kicked it, it would stop and hover for a second, before darkness poured out of it like some kind of black water and submerged it then slowly reformed into the shadowy feline form that Pax had taken "ThaT wAs UnpLeaSanT, noT ofTen I haVe HaD mY ProteCtIve WarDs StripPed aWAy So EaSilY, oNly Once BeFoRe, iNfaCT, ImPreSsIve, liTTlE WiTCh" Pax seemed to be, in pain, Kuroi had clearly done damage to Pax somehow, though physically the tiger seemed unharmed, maybe there was more to this than it first appeared, however she would quickly have other things to focus on, as the shield was starting to behave in a terrifyingly familiar way as it's surface was starting to distort and warp, though this time the shield din't explode, it imploded, one moment Kuroi was holding it, the next it was just a little pinprick of blackness that dissipated a moment later, she sheer amount of darkness it has absorbed consuming it utterly without any trace of the shield ever being there, which seemed to support her earlier lesson, shields were not meant to hold and contain hostile energies for long, she would either need to figure out how to safely contain that energy inside her creations or find a way to release the energies safely without destroying the shield in the process.

((hope you both enjoy the post, I would go further with Korrie and Fey, but I felt like it was stretching out over too long a time for proper responses as it was))
 
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"No speaking? Annoying collar. I mean, I could stop you from restraining me, but it would not be pleasant." Fey crossed her arms, seeming more annoyed. "Can I use fire? No one can use fire. I just encourage it. pff.. Forge? Alright alright..." Fey, still seeming annoyed at the lack of a chance of well.. fiering up the place reasonably, nodded and prepared to follow the unwilling slavegirl.

Only to be pulled into a hiding spot, and suprised by a sudden sense of calmth. "Hmn. Interesting ability. But you..." Fey then shrugged. Perhaps, for a change, she should -not- boast about her resilience.

"This whole collar thing seems mightily impractical if you can counteract your owner this much." She mused, whilest still following along. She lacked the attentionspan to look about and notice Korrie in the best of moods, and right now she was more.. fiery than normal anyway. Neither was she quiet, however.

"Neat-o" She remarked, once stepping into the forge. "'Though I'm better with pure flames, molten metal is still.. heavy, for lack of a better word, finally a place with some proper temperature. Anyway. I'm bored following along, I can do that already all day with my other group." She noted, folding her hands together, focusing briefly before extending them, her eyes burning with an inner fire "I'm really tired of people telling me what I can and can't do. Including you. Fire listens to no one!"
She proclaimed, restoring her flame-dress, this time making sure to include a fiery-hot choker for anti-collaring purposes. "I don't care if you're fire-grandpa's niece or whatever, screw you, screw these stupid fire-eating gems, screw this factory and especially screw your boss." She declared, positively drawing some of the heat to herself, her fires changing color as they heated up.
"Try and control this!" She declared, drawing more and more heat to herself, whilest grinning dangerously. "I'm so burning tired of everyone telling me what I can and can't do and of all those nonsense names whatamajig we need to watch out for, well, I'm tired of it. Watch out for ME!" She declared, flicking her finger and created a white-hot fireball right infront of the girl that had brought her here, before she lifted her hand, outstretched to indicate the girl.

"Trust me, I can come up with flames so hot I can melt whatever. So how about you scribble down something I actually like to read?" She demanded, the fireball flowing over to surround the slavegirl, her flames brightening up into a blue-white, whilest Fey curled her hand. "Or try to restrain me if you think you can, oh so easily... you know what, fuck this." She declared, raising her hands, accompanied by a splashing eruption from the nearest containers, Fey twirling her hand to pull her threatening fireball around herself, shrinking it like a white-hot scarf.

"Give me a few minutes, this whole place should be ready to blow." She said, slowly twirling one hand in the air towards the factory equipment. "Come on, stop me! I dare you!" She growled and grinned up at the flames and heat greeting her. The things that truly understood her, slowly raising the already cumbersome heat in the forge further, calling out to the flames themselfs to burn. "Ignis Praepotentia!"
"Hey, if I give my attacks latin nicknames they sound way cooler. Hmnn.."
She mused, raising her hands, and the fires along with it, declaring: "Ignis Imperia!" Grinning through the heat. "Wait, was fire a feminine declination. Need to look that up later, gonna go to a library anyway.." She mused.
 
With herself ruminating on her current situation and heavily blaming herself for falling for such an obvious trap that she already called out herself, Korrie barely showed a hint of defiance as she was led down the corridors by her collar, her body simply obeying the compulsions pulling her along. It was almost calming, having one less thing to decide for herself while her mind was already troubled.

Eventually she found herself reaching the end of the hallway, and as soon as she opened the door, the blast of heat was enough to shock her out of her brooding. It was like she just stepped into the forge of Hephaestus himself, with literal pools of molten metal slag everywhere, and it was huge too. Within seconds the enslaved wyvern was starting to sweat and pant, and soon she started to feel dizzy too. Was she supposed to search this place?! She’s not gonna last another minute before passing out! And though her first thought was that she wouldn’t be able to cause trouble for Fey if she faints here, she immediately remembered that passing out in this melting heat won’t end well for her.

Thankfully, as if understanding that the new slave wasn’t built to survive such temperatures, the collar swiftly pulled her back out of the forge, an ‘order’ that Korrie was only too happy to obey for once. She could faintly hear a door closing ahead, but as she hadn’t been ordered to search any of the other rooms before, she simply chose to ignore it. As far as she’s concerned, without any idea where she was going herself or whether she even wanted to encounter her sister pet in her current state, Korrie was content to just let the collar pull her where it wanted her to go. Hopefully it won’t take her anywhere else that’d cook her alive. …And now she’s covered in sweat too, great…

Distracted and unmotivated as she was, the pet wyvern completely missed her target walking away behind her, and was guided into a new place, a place that was stunning for a different reason. Some sort of epic struggle had clearly happened in this hall, though Korrie had no idea who had been responsible. One might be Mistress- well, new Mistress, but who could she have been fighting? Korrie walked up to the bizzare frozen flames as well, tentatively placing a hand on the beautiful structure. It felt weird and self-contradictory, just as it looked, and upon further inspection, Korrie was surprised to find some kind of imp trapped inside the crystals like a bug in amber. That poor thing couldn’t have been responsible for this mess, could it? It was more likely to be some kind of familiar that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The wyvern girl wondered for a bit if it was still alive in there.

Noticing that she had stopped being pulled along by her invisible ‘leash’, Korrie decided the collar must have led her here for a reason and started to inspect the rest of the hall, both for signs of Fey and just for anything interesting that’d tell her more about what happened here. A hall as large as this probably has other paths leading out of it too.

---

The twins switched opponents once more, and Shiroi faced the ominous Trevor and his dark fires with enchanted blade in hand. The shadowmancer showed no hesitation in attacking, but being stronger and with better reflexes than her sibling, Shiroi deftly took her opportunity to aim at the spear first, bringing down her sword upon the weapon and hoping that Kuroi’s script would do the trick.

What it did was enough to put the two at a stalemate for the first time, the blade eating into the spear but unable to cut through it, as the two fighters kept the pressure on in a battle of strength. “Well lucky us then…” The girl remarked with a strained smirk and a sweatdrop. Note to self, destroying artifacts of immense power may have explosive consequences. Well, she won’t have to worry about that here, it seems.

For the moment, the two were locked in a contest of strength, and Shiroi was once again extremely glad for the boost in strength and vitality that she had gotten before. To think her sickly self would end up being able to do this… It’s no time to think on the past though. She has to make the first move before Trevor does, and she knew just the thing to do. Granted, it was just the same thing as she’s been doing, as it was the one thing that she had used so far that seemed to do something to her opponents.

Cracks of light extended along the ground from her feet towards the shadowmancer before another pillar of flame erupted to envelop the man. Assuming Trevor once again hides inside his shield to avoid the attack, though it would take Shiroi by surprise as Kuroi didn’t have time to warn her about this, with the sustained fountain of fire keeping him trapped in the shield, the spear would be left with no wielder, and with nothing to push back against her, Shiroi would end up finishing her sword swing, sending the spear clattering away from both the swing and its own regeneration pushing back against the blade. Thinking quickly on her feet, Shiroi would once again employ the simplest solution that comes to mind, moving the flames slightly to cover the shield entirely before wreathing the tip of her blade in the same cosmic fires and stabbing it into the boney artifact, hoping it might somehow force Trevor back out or damage him from within.

In the meantime, Kuroi’s blind shield charge had worked, and for the first time she could hear the shadow familiar actually sound surprised as her enchantment went to work. What was even more surprising though was the feeling that she had just kicked something, and with the darkness being vacuumed into her shield, the catgirl dared to look at what it was. Since when was there a sphere-

It’s the core. It’s Pax’s core. She knew that much immediately even before the darkness flowed out of it once more. She should’ve guessed there would be one, amorphous beings usually had some kind of focus to hold them together, she just never thought about it with the familiar’s once small size. In fact, Pax must’ve had to enlarge or even create that core in order to sustain its larger form, there was no way it’d fit inside that bird.

As the tiger of shadows reformed, Kuroi noted that he sounded strained, meaning she had managed to do some damage at long last. Was it from sucking up the darkness, or was it because she kicked the core? However, all the ravenette could reply with was a hesitant “Thanks…” to his compliment before her shield caught her attention. Something horrible, and familiar, was happening to it, and the next thing she knew the shield just… poofed. Imploded. Once again, the raw magic had destroyed her construct, just as it had when she tried to suck the energy out of Aila, only with less spectacular results.

Kuroi was now extremely glad she hadn’t resorted to the spare ‘Absorb darkness’ script she had put on herself in her hasty planning. This however did not change the fact she needed a new plan, she can’t keep repeating the same trick, Pax wasn’t some stupid AI in a video game. However, stripping the darkness from him and attacking the core was the only way she could think of to defeat him. She had originally considered using a ‘Destroy darkness’ script, but she didn’t want to risk genuinely hurting or even killing the familiar neither. Absorbing the darkness was the only thing she could think of, and holding it for long was not a possibility…

…What if she didn’t have to hold it though?

Suddenly, her two recent strokes of genius came together and a plan was formed. Wasting no time, Kuroi added to the inactive script on her arm, quietly activated it, then immediately produced another shield while backpedaling away. She wanted to present an illusion of vulnerability and bait Pax into attacking again instead of trying to switch targets and go after Shiroi. Of course, she also expected the familiar to be far more wary of her constructs now, and she had no doubt if the shadow tiger really tried, he could easily out-maneuver her defenses.

That’s why she was counting on the script on herself. ‘Absorb darkness and warp it 20m upwards’. She dared not set the number higher as she could tell from the teleport earlier that the greater the distance the more draining it’d be on her magic, but if it goes as she’s praying it would, rather than containing the darkness, she would act as a wormhole funneling the darkness elsewhere before it… did nasty things to her.

Assuming Pax attacks her physically and her script works as planned, this time Kuroi would immediately seek out and grab the sphere before smacking it into the ground.
 
Phyre waited passively until Fey were about to fire her attack seemingly more amused at Feys outburst than anything, then just as Fey were about to release her fire, it stopped, as if frozen in place, leaving Fey effectively trapped by her own fire as even her fire clothes had taken on the same frozen effect as the rest of her conjured flames "That sounded like a dare, you know" Phyre gave a soundless chuckle as she held her note in front of Fey's trapped form "I can't really let you destroy this place, I were hoping to use the tools here to free myself, unfortunately I am under orders not too, so I need your help" She tilted her head and looked at Fey for a few moments, before the frozen flames suddenly started to move again, though the power of the conjured fire had dissipated and aside from the fires Fey used as "clothes" the flames simply faded into nothing, most likely causing Fey to stumble by the sudden release.

Phyre calmly waited for the expected outburst from Fey and probably more than a bit of sulking as well, given her flashy attack had been interrupted, she seemed ever so slightly nostalgic about Fey's behavior as she started to look over the tools hanging on the racks, lifting her hand to grab one, only to stop short as she looked over at Fey expectantly, as she clearly were unable to even touch the cutters she had been reaching for, though whether Fey would actually help were up to her as Phyre was clearly not inclined to force her against her will.


Korrie's search of the hall would raise some interesting views as the part of the room further from devastation still had some tattered banners showing a teal flame on a fiery orange background, aside from the crystalline flames the intense heat released had warped much of the rest of the area with the pillars twisting left and right as the heat had warped them, but furthest back the heat had dissipated enough to not destroy everything, there were also clutter here and there though mostly just broken stone and shattered flames, though there would be something that would catch Korrie's attention, namely a small object lying half-buried in a corner, glowing faintly, upon closer inspection it would be a triangular thing emanating a soft warmth that would feel strangely comforting the closer she got, and would be slightly warm to the touch, as if it had been heated up by something recently, just what could it be?


If Korrie decided to pick it up she would find that she would feel better, not just physically but the warmth would actually comfort her mentally as well, bolstering her courage and determination while seeming to fight the influense of the collar even as it was starting to attempt to urge Korrie to drop whatever it was back on the groundthough the object managed to fight back on that influence enough that it was basically up to Korrie wether she wanted to or not at that point, either way it would be clear that Fey was not in the room and the collar and strangely enough the object, if she decided to keep it, would urge Korrie to leave the room as she did she would feel the Collar drag her down the hall away from the forge, while if she had kept the object it wanted her to go back towards the forge and again the two items fought each other to a standstill, leaving the choice to Korrie.
___


Trevor tanked the fire pillar head on, unsurprisingly the cloak refused to catch fire as the fire enveloped him, however something about her cosmic fire seemed, off, dark, as if, as if it wasn't actually hitting Trevor, but rather were held back by the same dark flames that had been at Trevor's feet, the darkfire battling the cosmic fire and keeping them from touching their creator "So you seem to really like fire don't ya, how about a taste of some fer yourself" the spear opened it's bony mouth and darkfire started to pour out, behaving more like a liquid as it ran down the spear shaft towards the sword, the bone itself seemed unharmed by this, but it was a good guess that if it touched the sword it would likely not end well for it in the same effect, given it were able to fight the cosmic well enough to protect Trevor from harm.

Pax paced slowly around Kuroi, keeping at a distance, though it was obvious the Shadow was planning something, suddenly Kuroi would notice something out of the corner of her eye, down at her feet, her own shadow was darkening, as if exposed to much brighter light than the rest of the area and not just darkening, but expanding, becoming a pool of absolute darkness that was spreading from beneath her feet "TiMe to eNd ThIS, BLACKOUT!" the dark pool suddenly exploded out in tendrils grabbing onto Kuroi, this did trigger her enchantment though causing the darkness to be ejected off of her, more and more darkness poured from her own shadow into her and up into the air, before raining down again, hittingthe pool and immediately moving to latch on once more "OH, wElL thaT is amUSinG, SeeMs yOur TraP BaCkfiReD oN yOu, caN yoU eVen BeaK thAt LoOp?" Pas approached slowly, warily, though seemed more intrigued than anything as it watched the strange outcome of his spell, which ad essentially turned Kuroi into the focal point of a fountain of darkness.
 
The search of the hall proved somewhat interesting, as Korrie found several parts that were relatively undamaged, though lacking the knowledge, she had no idea what to make of the sigils on the banners. She decided to commit them to memory anyway though, the teal flame in orange, in case she could do some research on it later.

As she wandered, she couldn’t help but find her attention drawn towards an item lying among the rubble. There was a feeling to it that it wasn’t just trash or shattered fire crystals, and the wyvern girl walked over to retrieve it, inspecting it and sensing the comforting magic flowing through her. The anxiety and panic that had plagued her since her current predicament began to fade, and she found it easier to think, to resist. Indeed, she could feel the collar demanding her to drop the object, but the urge to obey was no longer crippling, as if the will of the object combatted it.

Anything that was helping her fight off the influence of the collar was good in her book, and despite the little part of her that was actually excited being collared, muted, and treated as a real slave, Korrie mustered her own will against the collar and held on to the item. Oddly, she found an unanimous urge guiding her back out of the room, so she obeyed it, and that was when she was genuinely confused.

She could distinctly feel that the collar was trying to lead her away from the forge, while the trinket was guiding her towards it. Why would the trinket want her back in the forge? She was just there a moment ago, and the heat was unbearable! Has something changed? Did she miss something the first time she checked? Would the trinket protect her from the heat? Either way, she was still inclined to trust the trinket more than she trusted the collar, and so despite her doubts, Korrie began to return to the forge.

---

As her turquoise flames enveloped Trevor, Shiroi immediately noticed that something was off. The color wasn’t right, and as her eyes looked downwards, she could tell what had happened. The dark flames surrounding him had either managed to mix with her flames or shroud Trevor in time, protecting him. She’ll have to get him away from that stuff.

“Well, it’s the only thing that’s worked so far…” The girl admitted, before dark fire started spewing from the spear’s jaw. Directed away from her, she wasn’t too afraid of it targeting her, but the flames crawling back up the spear shaft took her by surprise, and before it could reach her sword, Shiroi quickly disengaged, letting the regenerative force of the weapon push her blade back out and let her jump back.

This battle was proving a LOT harder than what she was expecting, simply because nothing she was doing seemed to be working on her foes. More than raw power, she needed to be smart about this, figure her way past Trevor’s defenses, but how? The darkfire was shrouding him from her flames, and if she threw more solid attacks at him he’d just turn into smoke again, wouldn’t he?

…Hmm.

Without any more time to think on it, Shiroi prepared her next move. Several balls of energy flew out of her wings, but they did not attack, only spreading out to surround Trevor. Much more dangerous looking spears emerged and did the same, before glowing lines of energy travelled along the ground towards the shadowmancer again, this time resolving in solid javelins spearing out of the ground at him from all directions. The spears homed in as well, attempting to get past his shield by sheer numbers. None of them were expected to do any damage, their only aim to try and overwhelm his defenses enough to force him back into smoke form.

Assuming it works, that would be when the energy balls strike, suddenly flattening out and connecting together into a large hollow sphere that’d try to catch as much of the smoke as possible, before rapidly compressing, decreasing its surface area and increasing energy density, trapping the smoke in a tighter ball. Then, pointing a palm at the sphere, Shiroi did something she was relatively unpracticed in, generating energy away from herself, in order to create a spark of condensed power inside of the orb prison… and detonate it, flooding the insides with searing fire.

In the meantime, Kuroi was getting increasingly anxious at Pax’s passive pacing. ‘Come on, I’m preparing my scripts! I’m vulnerable right now! Come get me already!’ She thought to herself, worrying that the shadow familiar still had some trick she hadn’t seen coming. It was barely perceptible, but the ravenette’s eyes twitched downward as it detected a change, and the girl paused. ‘Oh no.’

That was all the warning she got before tendrils lashed out from her own shadow and tried to wrap around her, only to start getting absorbed into her body as her enchantment went to work. Kuroi had little time to ponder how weird it felt before she looked up and saw the darkness, instead of dissipating like gas, raining back down like liquids and immediately trying to latch on again, turning it into a loop and resulting in a no doubt interesting sight for anyone outside of her selfmade fountain of darkness.

Kuroi had no time to be fascinated though. She could feel her magic reserves getting drained with every second, yet she couldn’t dispel the enchantment without immediately getting bound by her own shadow. For better or worse, her little stunt had saved her from an immediate defeat, and she needed to keep it going. The problem was, Pax no longer needed to come to her, but with her trick revealed and the darkness still slowing her down, her enemy would have no trouble kiting her until she runs out of juice. She needs to get to Pax, fast.

Frantic and running out of options, Kuroi’s mind fell back on a recent trick and wrote another script on her arm. She had no idea if there’s going to be some bad side effects considering she was currently acting as some kind of portal with stuff constantly going in and out, but she’ll just have to hope it’s not too nasty.

With a muttered command, Kuroi teleported right up to Pax and reached out towards the familiar of darkness, seeking the core.
 
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"What the? Fuck you! The heck is this.. you're doing fire all wrong!" Fey complained at the freezing-effect, stumbling indeed when the flames were released, but not without flipping off the slave-girl, gritting her teeth, her fists shaking. All her life, she'd been the best at using flames, and these stupid crystals, and this stupid bitch just denied her?
"Screw you, here's another dare, try that one again, we'll see what happens." She narrowed her eyes.. then she stared at the instruments.
"So what, you want me to pick it up? How about -you- tell me what this is for first. I don't know shit about you besides you being a slave and things blowing up earlier. Perhaps you deserve it." Fey hesitated, realizing that telling her might take a while, in written form, she reached out to pick up the pliers, twirling them in her hand.
"You know what. I don't care." Fey shook her head, eyeing the pliers "You're just another super powerful thing that can do whatever she pleases, aren't you?" She exhaled, her fires dying down, as she wandered to the nearest wall, leaning against it, before sitting down lazily. "What are you another Mask or Cthulhu or fucking Shoggoth or whatever?" She asked mockingly, flipping off rather than reading the girls next message.
"Yeah, yeah, you're the amazing Firelord so and so, bla bla bla. I don't give a shit. If my fires can be so easily defeated by some abused little slave, clearly I suck big time. You know, once upon a time, in Dynasty city, I was feared and respected." She exhaled, cupping her face in her hand.

"I know I'm not .. well, I am smart, but I can't keep track of things good.. my mind is always burning." Fey exhaled. "I'm not strong or fast or a great tactician, I am fire." She clenched her hand into a fist, before slowly struggling up.
"Y'know, I always got lost in emotions when I call forth my flames. I call out attack names cause it's fun. I pose dramatically, because that's whats fun to me. To be adored and feared. Is that a bit of a bad character I have there? To want others to think I'm awesome? This Fey gal, you better don't mess with her flames, she's really good at it..." She lifted one hand, palm outstreched, aimed at the slave.

"And you will learn to fear me, Phyra." She declared, gripping her right arm with her left, sparks flaring from her fingers, flames being drawn into her palm, but not fromout it, as Fey gritted her teeth. "Fire is something majestic and beautiful. Any who dare not respect it, I shall teach it. True fire.. can not be contained." She declared, her hand shaking as she continued to draw flames into it. "No matter what power you have. No matter what stupid crystals you throw at me, I just have to make a flame you cannot contain!" She shouted out, sweat forming on her forehead. "Graaaaaaah!" She added, now sounding almost anguished, tears forming in the corner of her eyes, as she dropped to one knee, clearly straining. "I can do it... I know I can! From the burning flames within the earth to the atomic fusion that warms us all and gives us live, from every chemical burning to even the unnatural fires, there's no fire I cannot call upon." She declared as, actually, a chill went through the forge, well, respectively perhaps, with Fey drawing more and more heat and fire into herself, the air infront of her hand distorted, but still no flame burst forth, as the fire-phoenix closed her eyes, her shaking hand growing steady, a nose-bleed from pure exertion going unnoticed, as she collapsed where she stood. Her right hand now reddened and smoking ever so slightly, as if burned.. which should be impossible, considering her necklace from the elemental plane of fire supposedly granting her absolute immunity.

This, of course, was bad news for any escape attempt, Fey had just exerted herself and would likely be out for-

Her eyes flipped open. "Wha? Did I do an awesome or did I imagine that? Ow, crap..." She rubbed her slowly healing hand. ".. are you still here? Ugh, fine, just because your mistress seems fucked up, don't wanna see you again after this.. What am I gonna do with the stupid pliers." She said. Well.. it seemed she was through pouting, for now.
 
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