Nexus Campus Town

[Kotomine_Rin]

Shinji

"Yeah, I'm definitely not normal. I'm actually a pretty messed up guy. That ain't what I'm talking about. And 'sides, this hurts plenty." God, that bastard sure loved to talk. It almost made his throat hurt, having to try to keep up with such a blabbermouth kid. He just kept walking slowly up to him. As he did that, his skin around his body started growing back, till he started looking like an actual person.

"My nose's too old for dog tricks, but I don't need to get closer to you to smell it. That thing clinging on you, it's got the same stench that I've been stuck with all my life. You're cursed, a wretched soul thrown away and forgotten." He spat on the ground, put his axe down. "I'd feel bad, but I'm afraid I don't have the heart to cry. The only tears we're shedding tonight..."

In a flash, he vanished with a gust of wind! The next moment, he was above the boy, right up the ceiling! His body was upside down, two pistols crossed to stare down at the bastard.

"A r e   y o u r    t e a r s     o f     b l o o d."

And bullets rained down on the boy, while he spun down like a dancer.

[YOLF]

Yusho

His mind didn't make sense of all of Shinji's words. Yusho's good eye like bright ice, jovial even in the midst of fighting and bleeding, dimmed over like thunderclouds had covered the Autumn sky, and turned it to a distant Winter.

Shinji was faster than he could follow out of nowhere, so full of injuries, but the dragon-blooded was already moving when his mouth was moving, thrusting with his spear. The crackling length came out of the back of the youth through where a lung and the heart would have been, and made a sound like a punishment gong. That sound burned from the inside.

He hastily pulled it when the curtain of fury descended on that vulnerable form, like a precipitation of flechettes invisible to the eye. Yusho would have marveled at such a thing first of all, but his grip was numb around his weapon. He barked harshly at Shinji.

"Quit it!"

The tone was barbed, like he was angry that the other undying one was the one tearing his enemy to pieces. It grated like food being dangled before a caged lion, that he could so easily do it, and Yusho would likely not be able to stop him. Wasn't that what his martial strength was for? He struck himself and emerald essence rippled through his body like a surge, closing many of the injuries that now dotted it with the same brutality as a flood broke dam after dam. The exalt inhaled, but he didn't breathe.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Shinji

His glare narrowed at the monk's roaring command. Quit it? That wasn't even funny as a joke.

His body flipped down and landed gracefully on his feet, eyes glowing red and an arm already pointed at the boy sideways, as if it was holding something that wasn't there. In an instant, a shotgun flew at monstrous speeds towards his open hand. The moment he grabbed it he pulled the finger. Then again, and again and again in just a moment, pulping the boy to the wall with a curtain of more bullets. Once five shells were down, without pausing or stopping his quick movements, he dropped his gun, reached for his pocket and pulled out-

A napalm grenade, which he was just about to bite the safety off to hurl into the mess of mince meat on the wall.

[YOLF]

Yusho

This wasn't a joke. That thought made the cold in his tone spread through his veins.

The floor cracked under Yusho forcing his feet to hold, as the new weapon shredded the boy even more violently, with a blast there was no getting in the way of. But as soon as Shinji reached for the next thing, with the beginning of a motion that seemed like a throw, he somersaulted towards him like a cutting gale, throwing himself into a kick to send the item flying.

"He's not worth it," he exhaled.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Shinji

Despite his healing body, despite his immortality, Shinji was not invincible. The damage he took downstairs and earlier in the day had used up a lot of his energy. He might act like he was fine and dandy, but his healing had fixed the superficial first. Just moving or thinking straight made his shell of a body scream in pain. Such a pain dulls the senses, and narrows his concentration. He cannot afford to focus on anything else, therefore he fails to notice. When he does, shock and incredulity fill his heart for a moment, and he hesitates.

That hesitation, that pain, it slows one down. Therefore, the hit connects. The hit honed through years of training, sharpened by willpower rushes to meet the weapon before he can realize it. Therefore, the hit impacts.

His shock turns into a deathly glare, pointed at the man. The grenade bursts behind the two, coating the shelves and the books around them in a carpet of fire.

And the earth shakes a little. Barely enough to notice.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

Ripped and torn to shreds, blasted all over the walls and floor. It hurt. It really hurt. Even as bones regrew, even as muscle and sinew grew over it, he was rotting away bit by bit every time. It always hurt. But still, Joseph laughed a bit at it all. "I haven't been been hurt so bad in years. You two really are something, but when you're as old as me you learn to cut your losses sometimes." He held his hand out into the air, and a vial was pushed out from his shadow into his palm.

Then he gave it a single shake before it started to glow bright red. "I hate being hurt, you know. I usually don't hold grudges, but I'm a little upset now. When the timer is up on this vial, this whole castle will go up in smoke. Have fun, children." He tossed it into the air, and as he did so his shadow rose up to swallow him as he began to sink into it.

[YOLF]

Yusho

They fire they started finally triggered something above their heads. Metal sprinklers clicked into action, and flooded the shelves and ravaged reading hall with with a dry, white cloud. The chemical rain supressed the fire into vapor, and covered up the youth's disappearing form like a rising stream of curtains.

Between the shock of the fire, the extinguishers, and the occultist's recovery, Yusho sprung into action a second too late, cursing incomprehensible words. "Stop!"

Despite the vial, his feet blazed towards the responsible for all of this, and not his threatening gift. He could sense him even through the smoke, and lunged blindly to grab him.

[Kotomine_Rin]

Shinji

For a moment, his decaying form staggered. His eyes narrowed at the boy's threat, staring right into the red vial furiously. His arm immediately whipped forward, aiming for the alchemist's arm before he could throw the vial. That is, until a chilling spark ran through his spine.

Perhaps it had been because he was standing back. Perhaps it had been because of his unnaturally quick body. Or perhaps simply instinct, honed by millennia.

The ground was trembling. These tremors were getting closer.

His anger turned to horror in an instant. Shinji suddenly burst into motion, gritting his teeth against the screaming pain. "YUSHO, GET BACK!" He dashed with all he had and crossed the distance between the two, just in time to punch him straight in the face, enough to send him away from the kid and his shadow...

And the floor beneath them obliterated.

A gargantuan black beast made of curses and corrupted body parts, with the form of a fox half flesh and half arcane leapt from the ground, swallowing the white haired  boy with its massive maw while biting half of Shinji's body up, splitting him in half. The vial was sent hurling even higher. The beast lowered its form, revealing dozens of purple glowing eyes staring the monk down with mockery and hate.

The boy was somewhere in the depths of his stomach. However, he was not being digested. To begin with, this creature was not a living being, but a construct. Inside, he found himself in what looked like the halls of a castle, filled with cursed engravings from the void. An odd shape for a beast's intestines.

[YOLF]

Library Island

In the midst of the chaos, a closet door at the very end of the hall slammed open, and a woman stumbled out. Her blonde hair was disheveled and falling in strands from her hood, and sweat dripped from her face, a sliver of panic barely contained in a burning gaze forward. She had finally made it over - not that the new intruder had made it easy for her to fail to notice.

"I have it!" She yelled, throwing her outstretched hand up. The suspicious vial, about to stop ascending, instead halted in midair. Then the cloaked woman whipped her arm diagonally, and it flew out with a loud whistle, accelerating up, towards the nearest window!

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

Well, that was convenient. It was a chaotic transition that left Joseph with a rather sore behind as he fell right onto the ground. But he picked himself back up soon enough. He walked forwards without too much concern, taking in the strange surroundings. All of this strange script... it was making him rather dizzy. "Hello? Is anyone here home? This place is rather nice."

[YOLF]

Yusho

Yusho hit the unstable floor with an instinctive roll, a number of sounds ringing indistinctly through his skull. Shaking himself out of a daze, he propped himself to his feet on the butt of the lightning-shaped spear.

The exalt was only vaguely aware of the dangerous vial flying higher through the air - only suddenly had he realized the implication of the youth's threat - and an uneven half of Shinji's body falling away gruesomely, his entire field of vision occupied by the cursed, ridden shape of a fox-like fiend.

His ingrained skills made a split-second call, and purifying gold surged around him. "JUSTICE!!"

Yusho and his weapon leapt as one at the thing, stabbing with the force of an exorcizing hammer and testing it with twirling slashes.


The cloaked woman's eyes wrinkled, but she maintained her gesture, and on schedule, a window unnaturally swung open so the vial could fly out of the library. It zoomed into the sky, still accelerating, and she swung her other hand towards the newly arrived beast.

Shelves and bricks began to tremble like a taut bow, animated with violent intent towards it.

[Kotomine_Rin]

La Creatura

A shrill cry came from the beast, which swiped a clawed hand at the foe with violent intent. Its hand clashed with the golden light, throwing Yusho back into a wall, though unharmed. Its eyes trembled with a glimmer for a second, and he closed his hand...

And slammed it on the ceiling, shattering the foundations above and causing the roof to collapse along with everything above them, as vile flames spewed all around him. They weren't aimed at the two, but they surrounded the beast, and they quivered with power. If he unleashed them here, against the liquid splashed on the wall-

He'd kill everyone in this room. Even himself.

White golden cracks ran on its fingers, which began to crumble as the golden energy burst out of his wound. It raised its hand to its eyes and observed it before turning his head 180 degrees upside down, twisting his neck with a pleased smile at the warrior. He turned one of its many purple gem-like eyes to the woman and purred. "T h e    p e o p l e   o f    t h i s    c i t y . . .   a r e     n o t    m y     e n e m y .    P l e a s e ,  d o   n o t   i n t e r f e re."

[YOLF]

Library Island

The crash thrummed through his back, but Yusho jumped back to his feet in an instant, wiping a line of blood from his torn lip. Wilting petals flew around the sparks and wind that surrounded him. As the beast smashed a claw through the roof of the hall, breaking a supporting pillar, he started to flip away from the imploding ceiling.

Only for it to stop. Silence ringing in the air, crumbling wood and steel and stone righted themselves forcefully between the flames, refusing to falter to violence and clattering back into shape. The cloaked woman's other hand was outstretched, pulling it back together, while the vial was high in the sky now, secured by her magic far from where it could be dangerous.

Yusho breathed in, and sneered at the creature's unsettling grin. "Shove your -"

"If so", the woman interrupted him, glaring at it. "Then leave. But first spit out the one you swallowed. He's attacked and injured our people, and it's our place to persecute him."

[Kotomine_Rin]

La   creatura

" H o w   p r e c i o u s . . .  " He purred as flames flickered in its eyes, stretching while his surroundings crumbled. And what a terrible laughter escaped its lips, like a rusty blade gnashing against a wall.

" Y e s s s . . . Y o u r   p e o p l e   a r e    n o t   m y   e n e m y .  B u t  . . .  n e i t h e r    i s    h e . B u t   y o u . . . h o w    s t r a n g e .    H a v e    y o u    f o r g o t t e n ?  T u t ,   t u t .   A r e    t h e    a n c i e n t    t e x t s    h e r e    n  o     m o r e     t h a n    g r a v e s    f o r    y o u r    k i n ?    F o r   y o u ?"

Appropriately, a claw ground against the stone, making a stomach churning sound, before he raised three. Three fingers were raised, casually as any man would, an utter antithesis to its own beastly appearance.

"T h r e e     d a y s .   T h r e e    d a y s    t o    m a k e   y o u r   p e a c e .  U n t i l    t h e n ,    I   w i l l    l e a v e   y o u    b e . . . D o   n o t    l e t     y o u r    p e o p l e     b e     y o u r    s h i e l d .   S o m e t i m e s    d y i n g    a l o n e  . . .   i s   m o r e   p l e a s a n t ."

And with that, its massive legs  crashed on the ground, destabilizing the floor even further while their surroundings fell apart, limbs ready to take off.

Joseph

Well, that was convenient. It was a chaotic transition that left Joseph with a rather sore behind as he fell right onto the ground. But he picked himself back up soon enough. He walked forwards without too much concern, taking in the strange surroundings. All of this strange script... it was making him rather dizzy. "Hello? Is anyone here home? This place is rather nice."

But there was nothing, aside a hot wind blowing in the air. Purple flames lit on every candle in the halls, yet it was utterly quiet.

Too quiet.

Until the castle began to shake.

[Umbra of Chaos]

Joseph

"Oh dear." He stumbled over himself, nearly falling onto the ground as his shadow spat forth a ruinous hound for him to lean on. Joseph was curious, but he also hated being buried. Crushed, and broken, and gasping for air were there was none under a mountain of rubble was an unpleasant fate, even if he could slip out of those binds.

But he was curious.

So on the back of the plant-wolf hybrid he charged down the halls, the beast barking constantly as they moved.