The Witch of Grace; Beneva[END]

[Fate III]

Black clouds fluttered across the bleak skies of Erosia after the calamitous rite the dark sorceress unleashed, the ground scarred by green flames as the people wept in despair. So many of their loved ones were lost, fodder that fed her profane ritual, the land screaming in agony as a giant hole laid where the rite concluded within it a swirling gateway of necro fire, the essence of the Nether, pooled at its center. Before it, Sophia and her demon take in proudly their dastardly deed.

A mere meter away, another portal of shadow tore open space-time before Sophia; it spat out Shabuto and his wayward party. The wails of terror filled the air as the smog of her demonic essence swirled around her.

[Shabuto Venkage]

As they were thrown out of the void that captured them, the young venkage fell face-first into the dirt. After struggling to get up, still exhausted from his earlier display, he looked at the hell before them.

"No..."

He weakly cried out, his words defended beneath the voices of the panicked residents. The city had gone up in a blaze. His eyes finally met a woman brimming with a potent and ominous aura. Beside her, a black warrior of some kind possessed incredible power. Only then, after laying eyes on the demon, Shabuto's living scar began to burn in agony, producing a haunting green glow matching that ebbing from the landscape.

"How? Why here? WHY NOW?!"

The person who placed this scar upon him was a method of control, dominance, and superiority. A seal that allowed the one who cursed him to keep tabs on him at all times; since he first arrived on Rdural, he found that its science interfered with the scrying magic embedded within him. He thought himself free, finally, but this pain, this familiar agony, and overwhelming despair. There could be no mistaking it...Grixas had found him.

"Gri...Grixas?!"

This wasn't possible. His lord...former lord was a human. At least he appeared to be, so who or what was this monster in front of him? Mara and Zan laid unicorns in the dirt behind him; he feared for their safety even more so than his own; he couldn't make heads to tails of what the fuck was going on right now. What happened while they were away...Where was that witch? She had to know something.

"Where is Beneva?"

He said, his eyes filled with rage, demanding an answer.

[Sophia Van Gongorei]

Sophia's eyes twinkled with satisfaction as her wisp returned with their precious cargo. She just loved it when a good plan came together. Despite a few shiny bumps in the road, all had gone according to her design. As would all things under the starry sparkle of vescrutia's binary gaze. Her arms folded beneath her bust as she shifted her stance, her brow arched in intrigue. She had known her...parasite for an eon and had just now learned its name. How, then, could a little feeling recognize the demon"Aren't the name of demons, let alone Arch class, supposed to be...secret?" Grixas's eyes became like blades before they appeared before Shabuto grabbed and lifted him by his throat. He struggled fruitlessly, prompting Grixas to squeeze a little higher. "They are...tell me. How do you know it?" The demon loosened its grip just slightly, allowing him the ability to speak.

"Where is Beneva?"

He said, his eyes filled with rage, demanding an answer.

His voice was raspy with a vengeance hoarse from his air pipes nearly being crushed. "Tsk tsk, Darling, we're asking the questions. She said, noticing the parade of fools with him, particularly the boy and his bird; with her essence returned, she remembered his Ilk, the stench of his dirty feet that thump on the earth that brazen flame churning within him. A Gafren...the thought slithered into her head before she willed the nether to create a series of chains formed from the backfire. Slowly, it would drain the life force unless he got on with it. They could attempt to break free, but whatever visor they expended would be devoured by the binds they sought to part with."Would be such a shame to have done all this work, only for them all to die here..." Shabuto's eyes widened as he realized...this woman, this darkness, he felt it when he first neared the witches hut. Grixas flexed its hand on the boy a final time."Speak". However, before giving the boy time to respond, Grixa became consumed by the menacing allure of SHabuto's artifact. "The Staff of the Abyssal one...I knew I recognized its aura. That scar, a living curse, a super traced with Deadflame...which could only mean. The One who's sent you...was my other fragment. Mhmhm." The DMeon laughed, and Sophia found herself taken back a bit. She had never known the demon to express anything but contempt, yet here it was, laughing.

She stepped forward, keeping her leashed dogs in check." This ancient weapon was said to have been fashioned from the spine of a great demon. Don't mean to rush such a charming ruin; take what you desire, let's kill these fools, and let us be off!" She said she had about as much of this place as she could tolerate. She could be filled in on the details later, preferably in a bath with a lovely Cabernet. The demon's laughter stopped before it began reaching for the staff. "Time to regain that which was stolen from me..."

[Shabuto Venkage]

The monster's strength was more than he could bear. Even if he had his full stretch, he knew he would be powerless before it, a newborn baby in the hold of its parent, entirely at its mercy and whim. As the demon's eyes slanted, burning with the same force that seared the land, Shabuto could feel an irresistible pull drawing him in, a vat of unending despair. Was this chaos, this destruction, all because they tried to leave? Was this place under some curse that drew misfortune to them, or was it his simply being that brought this about? All the struggling, the week of planning...was this the price of their freedom? The closer the demon's hand got to him, the faster his heart raced, his eyes shifting between the witch, the monster, and his friends. The sight of their suffering washed him in agony. The staff? That's what this was about; he knew the damn thing was no good the moment he laid eye on it but found it impossible to leave without it; no matter how many times he tried to be rid of it, it would just find it's way back to him, like a phantom haunting him. A nightmare that never ended.

"No...please....we just..."

The demon's hand just barely reached his nose as he cried out.
.
"WE JUST WANTED TO GO HOME!"

In that instance, his cries joined the raucous song of Erosia. His desperate plea, the lamentation of his soul, the crushing of his spirit, the essence of its demonic counterpart so near, caused the demon item to blossom a fearsome crimson flare. A horrendous cascade of dark energy repulsed the demon from Shabuto, freeing him of its grasp.

" An Oath burned in blood and bone, The Wind within you, it's light...give it to me as your offering...In return, I shall make you the wrath of the skies, Incarnate."

The weapon unfurled before him, and the many bandages stitched with selling wards meant nothing as if they were powerless crises. Shabuto watched in a stupor as his eyes reflected the smoldering staff of power. A font of demonic energy unlike anything he had ever witnessed before. The voice...the one from his nightmare. He was hesitant, but as he watched the life drain from his friends, he grew resolute. Caution be damned; the conquest didn't matter. If he could save his people, win his freedom, and put this unfortunate realm behind him, he would give anything...whatever he has left.

" Fine. I accept I don't care; save my friends!"

"And so, it was once and shall be again..."

A series of sharp, needle-like appendages sprung from the staff, like a row of spectral teeth manifesting and digging into Shabuto's flesh. The spines did the same, burrowing into his body and aligning alining on his consuming and replacing it. This heinous act would see Shabuto's body undergo a terrifying metamorphosis as his body became imbued with the demon's twisting malice. His bones crack, his body contorted in pain as wind naten, sapphire, and glittering as crystal swarmed around him like a violent twister, becoming corrupted by the demon's magic to become a pitch-black gale. As the gales faded, a being emitting a sinister presence emerged Hair that roared like a mane of flame stained with soot. With ivory bone protruding over his left arm, ebbing with a mystical countenance, Mistral, in the palm of a demon.

"Centuries upon centuries trapped within the stone with naught but the raging winds of the Archipelago to accompany me, yet now the winds of freedom embrace me once more. Ah, Blue, so nice to see you again."

The young appearing demon eyes carried a steady madness, an aware insanity.

"Alas, so swift this reunion must be. For unlike you."

The Gateway roared and thundered, extending his left arm as the dark winds tinkered with the bones in it. He stretched it behind him.

"I keep my promises, cao."

A single ava and a maelstrom of demonic ash encaptured them all: Shabuto, his guildmates, Haylin, and Cass were devoured by a fleet of soot, its glass so fierce that even the flares of the dead flame that empowered Sophia's binds found it nearly impossible to sustain itself. Behind his other hand, a gateway like a door would manifest, bursting open and allowing the darkness to pass through, leaving the island. Their destination was unknown to even him, scattered to the minds like a passing memory.

[Sophia Van Gongorei]

Sophia watched with a cold indifference as the event unfolded. It seems there were still many things concerning her...partner that she did not understand. Until now she was more than content with simply having access to the demon's seemingly bottomless well of occult knowledge. But with a surprise visit like this from...whatever this new demon was, she could no longer afford to be strung along in the darkness, at least, not shadows not of her creation. The fact that her captives had escaped was of truly little consequence to her. Her rite had succeeded, and both of them were executed with a single delay. The harvest moon, Bako, served her aim, and with it the revitalization of her dark spirit, her body mind, and soul now fully escaped from Lo' Kaleer. The Black Hand, however, seemed to be facing quite a bit of fury behind its casual gaze. "Mind telling me what that was about...Blue?". She snickered watching the demon become incensed by her casual demeanor. Rather than indulge her however the black one turned from her back towards the gate, it was starting to close. "Were you not in a hurry to leave? Let's go, save your questions". Sophia whimsically ran her hands through her long silky hair with a smirk that the demon found infuriating. "Sure...whatever you say, Blue." A smoldering dead flame engulfed the Black Hand as it became notably infuriated by her taunting. The Archdemon harnessed the power of the gateway to produce a portal of black of its own. Promptly it entered leaving Sophia alone with her snickering.

As she neared the portal herself for a moment she was ravaged by an intense pain in her head her mind racked with a vision.

► Show Spoiler

This one was set under an odd lunar occurrence different from the Scarlet Night he had come to fear. The moons seemed to encircle each other as if lazily dancing through the cosmos. Under this gleaming performance were three figures. One was a man with hair as long as a river, a gorgeous cobalt hue that even the azure moon Kirin would be envious of. Next to him, a woman whose hair is like a stream of silver, as if each strand was a thread of moonlight itself. The radiance of her being cast a veil of blessings over those near her. Beside them...the third figure was more challenging to make out, but as he focused on the visage, its blur began to fade, revealing a sight that shook him to his bones...the face revealed to be his own, standing side by side with these figures...as if, they were connected... friends even. The blue-eyed man touched the woman's face softly and uttered.

"Sophia..."

Yet it was Inari's lips that spoke it, and with them, the visions faded, leaving him motionless upon the cold earth. The invocation of that name felt like a dagger being dug into his heart.

In it, she witnessed a man bearing a scarlet mane with green feline eyes. A wing spanned greater than even her demon humming an ancient power that nearly beckoned her. She could not recall where she had ever met such a being before nor why she was being shown such a confusing image. But who or whatever this creature was, it called her name, a mystical conflux that inspired more than just confusion, there was a note of concern. Or she had been imprisoned within the Nether far longer than the memory of most mortal kind to recall her. Though considering she had been summoned by a man-beast, her legend persisted. But this, this was not mere happenstance, there was a deeper, darker pull to this man whispering of her name one that caused an aching sense of loss to rise within her. "....This...." The only words able to escape her lips as the vision faded returning her functions to her. It seems that after returning to her former power her memories were beginning to resurface. Whoever this man was, he must have had some meaning to her. She scoffed at the very idea, a man having any relevance to her was nearly laughable. For now...she needed to get the fuck out of this place and return to her daughters."In due time...all will receive the due penitence...of that, this world can be certain." With that the Black Sorceress entered the portal and the gate closed. The land of Erosia was left with a twisted lifeless hallow of land, an infernal consecration of the darkness that once walked here...