Meanwhile, the lightning demi-elementals press their attack. The one nearest Enre attempts to grapple the metal-clad warrior, clearly tiring of being shredded by his sword, and seeing him charge in to shred his brethren.
As the lightning elemental in front of Enre tries maneuvering him into a hold, the one that had been engaged with Ryleh comes up behind the warrior and takes advantage of his distracted state to hammer away at him, suprised by the small mortal's resiliency.
Nasima jerks sideways to avoid Ephebe's shot, but Khoda's control is partial at best and she is far too slow. She is struck, and powerless to resist the spell.
She falls back down on her side, where Jim is easily able to hold her down as her body twitches and shakes in response to whatever is happening in the plane of storms...
@Fei: You are calmly reassured by the ease with which you are able to submit yourself to the depredations of navigating the disgusting physical form of the shadow-thing. It is terrible, rank, base, vile, low, and damn stinky, but you are Centered, and all this simply passes by you.
You and Chen Daiyu enter a second level of astral travel, following the spirit of this creature as it thinks it is swimming through the shadow, through realms that not even a Paragon could enter and leave with his mind intact, down further into the crevasse, far past the very beginning of creation itself, into the nega-realm within and without.
There, you see the door; it is made of bits of shadow, soul, and flesh. There is metal, wood, and pieces of brick. The handle is the spine of some proto-god from a time before time existed. The door itself is as large as a small sun.
Sifu Daiyu lets the shadow thing go, and its dream of itself wriggles off into the blackness.
::it will return to its body long after we are done here. if we fail, it will not matter where our own bodies are. if we succeed, we will be reunited with our physical vessels very soon.::
Taking a shard from the shadow-thing's spine, Chen Daiyu jams that shard into the door and heaves on the handle. You join in, and the portal slowly opens.
Inside is a slightly lighter space, and in it are a half-dozen more of the same shadow creatures you just fought, but these are slightly bigger, and are engaged in feeding scraps of the very fabric of the shadow realm itself into a gem of some sort, mounted on a dais roughly 100 meters away. Through the gem you see your friends -- poor Vai, wrapped in tendrils of cloud, Ryleh, fighting off the same kind of tendrils, Enre surrounded by lightning giants...
The creatures from the shadow-abyss turn and snarl, flexing the poisoned spines on their tentacles.
::ignore them, fei. shatter the crystal. i will hold them off. we must succeed, and quickly. the more shadow they feed the watch-gem, the stronger khoda gets. hurry::
Krays watches the creature attacking him, hoping to time a port to get to Khoda...
All five Jiminies decide to work together to get rid of foes after seeing how unproductive working alone is. All five concentrate their breath weapon on a single elemental.
@Fei: ...the portal slowly opens.
Inside is a slightly lighter space, and in it are a half-dozen more of the same shadow creatures you just fought, but these are slightly bigger, and are engaged in feeding scraps of the very fabric of the shadow realm itself into a gem of some sort, mounted on a dais roughly 100 meters away. Through the gem you see your friends -- poor Vai, wrapped in tendrils of cloud, Ryleh, fighting off the same kind of tendrils, Enre surrounded by lightning giants...
The creatures from the shadow-abyss turn and snarl, flexing the poisoned spines on their tentacles.
::ignore them, fei. shatter the crystal. i will hold them off. we must succeed, and quickly. the more shadow they feed the watch-gem, the stronger khoda gets. hurry::
Fei's vision focuses on the gem. If the young monk had any doubt of the mission he and Sifu Daiyu were on, it is erased in that instant of seeing and knowing the doom both Vai and Nasima and the others will be consumed by if he does not act.
As she moves to intercept the shadow creatures, Fei breaks off in the opposite direction at a speed that almost defies belief. As he dodges and weaves around the creatures, the massive kinetic energies of his accelerated movement build up in his body, and his cuffs blaze like emerald fire against the gloom when he finally stops at the top of the dais in front of the huge watch-gem.
Fei pulls deeper from himself than he ever remembers doing before (yet somewhere in the back of his mind, it feels almost...familiar). He unleashes a thunderous hail of piercing blows on the gem, striking as if he were a master jeweler cleaving unwanted detritus from a diamond still in the rough, seeking every fault line in the stone...
Keme cast a quickened true strike as he teleported to Khoda and attempted to sink the crystal knife directly into the skull.
As the knife sinks into Khoda the life drain on Vai reverses and energy flows from him to her.
::VAI! Capture some of that energy for the princess now!::
Fieri screamed again, letting loose a wave of sonic energy as she circled around the elemental.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
Nasima's slender body vibrates and shudders horribly. The stone in her forehead starts to split, and blood pours out of the wound as the sharp shards lacerate her pale flesh. The aschen has regained its feet and looks at the stone in awe.
"...is good break!" it says appraisingly.
In a place that is not a place, in a when before time existed, Fei of the Sun Soul smashes a large stone of unknown origin. As rubbery chthonic monstrosities are thrown and pummeled by his sifu on one end of the room, there is a sudden loss of all sound and air and light and being.
Then the explosion comes.
A sphere half gleaming black and half iridescent white expands outward in an eyeblink, completely devouring all beings in the room before they can move, or breathe, or speak. Just before the leading edge hits Fei, he notices something high up in the rafters of the room -- something chitinous and ravaged and dark. Something vengeful.
Then the light hits him and he is unliving, unbeing.
In the plane of storms, everyone is shocked for a moment as Khoda's left eye, whatever it's made of, explodes outward in a brilliant shock of ruby red power and gem fragments. His entire mantle lists horribly to port and he screams. It is quite loud.
@Fei: You open your eyes with a small, quick inhalation. You are again seated on the ledge in Sifu Daiyu's classroom. Plum blossoms blow gently, delightfully, along the rock and flutter out into the gaping distance beyond. Across from is the sifu herself, seated exactly as she was when the two of you "departed". A very small smile plays on her lips, as that of a teacher pleased with a student who has mastered a new form under her tutelage.
It is very peaceful here.
"Fei. Would you care for a cup of tea?"
Due to the various effects she is under, Nasima currently cannot scream, and that's perhaps for the best as her left eye suddenly ruptures, spewing a viscous stream of vitrea up to splat against Jim's metal hull. All around the eye blood and fluids well up and mix, and start pouring down her cheek. She writhes and twitches violently. The broken stone in her head pulses many terrible colors, despite its deteriorating state.
@Fei: You open your eyes with a small, quick inhalation. You are again seated on the ledge in Sifu Daiyu's classroom. Plum blossoms blow gently, delightfully, along the rock and flutter out into the gaping distance beyond. Across from is the sifu herself, seated exactly as she was when the two of you "departed". A very small smile plays on her lips, as that of a teacher pleased with a student who has mastered a new form under her tutelage.
It is very peaceful here.
"Fei. Would you care for a cup of tea?"
[Blink, Blink]
Fei lets out that first breath after unconsciously holding it for a few seconds as his Sifu's voice registers in his ears. He bows respectfully when he notes her approving smile.
"Should....we see if the others need our help first, Sifu?" the young monk asks politely, though his voice is still tinged with concern over the images they saw within the gem before it was destroyed.
That's unfortunate, but we've got to continue. I'm not entirely sure if that's from this is from our side, or the plane of Storms. Jim also telepathically calls to his packmate to stop whatever it's doing and come to the lab. He sends one of his workers to the door, ready to open for the packmate.
Ryleh is grappled, but she uses one half of her schism to manifest slip the bonds allowing her to break free easily, while the other half manifests matter manipulation again on a second stone. She attacks the first nearly broken stone again.
"How do we get this thing on her?" Aananda asks, since they hadn't really had time to go over how the equipment works beforehand.
"I thought you said we'd find him fast!"
"This place is big! We never tried looking so far!"
"Why didn't you say that before?"
"It looked really small on the map!"
Meanwhile, still in the library, the boy has gone back to reading the book. Having found a nice chair in a corner of the building to sit in, he searches the book for any clue as to which 'treasure' has already been uncovered. The way the story was written does not make it any easier, because it almost seems like it's talking about something else entirely. Why would someone right a book and hide what it was about? It was so silly!
"Hey, little guy, the library's going to be closing soon." One of the many librarians says, startling him. He hadn't heard the man at all! "Do you want to check that book out?"
"Thank you, but it's a gift. I'll go now." How long had he been here? He'd better go back home. Luca would ask where he was all day, and she probably wouldn't be happy he'd been 'looking at pictures' all day. He'd better hurry before curfew or he'd have to be escorted by the city guards again, and then she'd be really mad! He had just stepped off of the library steps when he heard the bell. The bell that signaled that everyone should stay inside. The bell that meant an Inheritor had been discovered and that the Shockers would be hunting it down.
"Gareth Myrddin? You need to come with me." A Shocker says as he steps out of an alley. "Please try to run. Or fight! That's even better fun!"
Gareth ran.
It's quite simple, he says as he orders the Homunculi to show her how it's done. They can't do any lifting, but they show her exactly where to put the device, to maneuver it within mere inches of her head. As it's placed above the crown of her head, something akin to an incorporeal claw comes out, gripping her head. It's nothing like anything you've seen, however, as instead of a ghostly quality, it seems to be partially made of electricity.
Once you've got the apparatus applied, he speaks again, saying, Now, all we can do is wait. The process itself is automated. It's going to transfer the connection to itself, hopefully, and then we shut down the machine thereby ending this particular connection to this world. Even as he speaks, small tendrils appear from the electro-metaphysical claw, worming their way seemingly into the gem.
Panic and fear fills Vai's mind. She struggles against the clouds wrapping around her, sucking the life out of her. Crushing her. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't move. She started to cry, but then Keme's voice breaks through her panic. She had to act now. A claw goes to the necklace that Lumos gave her. Suddenly there is a bright light and Khoda can feel Vai pulling energy away from him.
The packmate, in the middle of disinfecting a small wound, writes a small note to the nurses, and runs off to the lab.
The note reads:
Gotta help creator. Super-important. Be back soon.
Its short, stubby legs carry it surprisingly quickly down the halls. Before long, unless interrupted, of course, it arrives at the lab, at which point it knocks on the door, and Jim tells the other homunculus to open it, the two of them unable to truly communicate with eachother.
Ryleh's strike smashes into the already-broken stone , sending huge cracks running up the already split stone. Khoda grunts with pain. Meanwhile, coruscating lines of absorptive energy crash and tear through the mantle of the lightning god, shredding cloud and wind and smashing into the skull with brute force, siphoning off life energy from the hideous divinity.
Khoda screams and begins to fall, still barely clutching Vai and with Ryleh riding his skull.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhrk-" The still-unconscious Nasima had begun to scream, but that scream is suddenly cut off as blue-white energy resembling pure lightning begins surrounding her body, rippling through her skin and bones, occasionally arcing off and frying some piece of equipment or other. Jim is struck several times, but his grounding precautions save him from taking damage.
The stone in the sylph princess' head splits more, damaging her further. Phaezeriel is able to mitigate much of the damage, but the really serious stuff will have to be dealt with separately. The frontal trepanation, for example, will require direct attention.
Sifu Daiyu shakes her head softly. "The others can complete this action, Fei. We must rest. Our bodies are not yet completely solid." She jumps up at him, then, impossibly swift and accurate, swifter even than he, though he is able to get a block up... Their arms pass right through each other.
"Our physical forms are still coalescing. We are here, and can act, but our spirit selves have suffered tremendous trauma, and must rest the remainder of this day."
"So. Tea?"
As damaged as he is, Khoda takes a couple swipes at Ryleh, trying to dislodge her.
"HRRRRRNNNGH! OLD DRAGON! OLD WOMAN! HRRRRRRNGH! I...I WILL...I...CRUSH!"
The flying things now are within range, and trying to avoid the nets. Terrible shrieks of pain reach your ears as the creatures -- which you can now see are Sky Rays -- get singed and burned by the magical, flaming nets.
Two of them vanish from sight -- teleported.
Like hands clutching a prize, the nets wrapped around the Sky Rays caught, squeezing and branding a pattern into their hide.
Just as the thing is about to strike, Krays ports to where Ryleh and Vai are battling Khoda. He can sense that the flow of life force has changed direction, and changes tactic. He stays out of Khoda's reach, and casts a spell...and changes into a huge amalgamation of a dragon and death itself. His scythe has grown with him, and he eyes the stones floating around Khoda's head...
313/432 HP
Enre growls as he tries to force himself out of the elementals grip