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Dissonant Hearts (Degusaurusrex x AndrewS)

"She would have wanted you to be here for this." Tyrath dismissed Ignas' thanks simply enough, not wishing to continue the awkwardness of it all and instead focused on moving the conversation onward. Isen's sudden intrusion into the conversation drew all of their attention and they focused on him, both Tyrath and Adelaide giving him a curious look and waiting patiently before curiosity gave way to confusion and apprehension.

"Of course he's used the Calling in a bid for the throne. Why would he not summon an army to protect the kingdom he wishes to rule?" Tyrath clearly didn't like where this conversation was going, and Adelaide was looking rather put off by the mention of the Calling as well, but she at least had remained silent and allowed Isen to continue with his train of thought.

"That's more or less it, yeah." Adelaide snorted with a bit of laughter at what seemed to be Ignas attempting to use a human phrase, something she was entirely unaccustomed to and altogether too tired to be shocked about. "Make sense, though." It did make sense that Malakai saw all of them as threats in one way or another, for him to continue with his plan with them still alive to try and thwart it didn't make sense. One couldn't make an attempt to rule damn near an entire world when their strongest enemies were still in the picture, and while Malakai was clearly dangerous and egotistical, he didn't seem entirely stupid either, which made him an even more formidable foe.

"WHAT?!" Adelaide sputtered and looked at Isen as if he had suddenly lost his mind, her eyes wide before she shook her head in disbelief.

"What's going on?"

"We are not doing a Calling! Are you insane? Aren't there enough demons running around wildly. Tyrath already has an army of his own, according to him, and you want to bring more demons we know nothing about in?"

"I have no interest in doing a Calling of my own," Tyrath's lips curled back in disgust and his tail whipped behind his back irritably. "I have no interest in forcing my people to do my bidding when I have those who follow willingly and with loyalty."

"For once, I agree with Tyrath, but I would be willing to do it to get Malakai away from achieving his goal."

"You'd do anything to weasel your way to the top. Shut it, Danica." Adelaide rubbed at her temples and turned her attention back to Isen. "You can't be serious. Even if, if something like that worked, what kind of guarantee do we have that they wouldn't try and kill us the second it wore off?"
 
"I'm not saying that we do it to take control of them." Isen corrected, shaking his head. "I'm saying we do it to take away his army. Think about it, all of those demons there are under his control right now. Everyone in Cresthaven is in danger, but it also means they're all going to do whatever they can to protect Malakai and prevent us from getting to him. If we can perform our own, we can get them out of the city, order them to go far away. We would have the numbers advantage."

"...and with Malaki being as powerful as he is, numbers may be the only thing we have to even the playing field."

"Exactly. We're not summoning more demons, we're taking the ones already in the city out of the picture."

Isen looked back and forth across the Adelaide and Tyrath, as well as Isabella, hoping that they would see his reasoning. He wasn't looking to make Ignas some sort of ruler, and it seemed very obvious that he had no interest in that either, he saw it as a means of giving them an actual shot at winning this, and preventing anybody else in Cresthaven from getting hurt in the process as any collateral damage.

"...and if we're worried about what will happen when it wears off, I wouldn't be. From what we've learned, it seemed like most of the demons actually wanted Ignas in control anyways."

"Isen...if we decide that this is what we must do, I will play my part, but I still have no interest in leading any of them. I will order them out of the city and nothing more."

Isen nodded his head. "That's all we need."
 
Taking away his army made sense. She hadn't thought about it quite like that but taking away his strength in numbers would certainly give them an advantage when it came to waging actual war. Use the army Tyrath claimed that he had, and steal away Malakai's army, even if it was only to send them far away and leave them out of the fight entirely. All they needed were the demons that wanted to fight with Tyrath and Ignas, after all, they didn't need a bunch of randoms that were going to fight against them the moment a Calling wore off and left them absolutely fucked every which way.

"That makes a little more sense.. Especially if you're right and they wouldn't just turn against us when it wore off. That would be my main concern," Adelaide admitted, "That they'd come back and attack us or rejoin Malakai and then attack us. It's not exactly like I have a history with demons like you do."

"Well, I don't have a huge one with them either, I just know they're not to be trusted," Isabella looked apologetically at Tyrath and shrugged, "No offense meant, but you know how your people are, so it's not an inaccurate statement." Tyrath inclined his head in agreement and gave the vampire a slightly amused look before turning back to Isen.

"Fine." Adelaide relented in the meantime. "We try this, and then Nicholai and the others can keep us up to date on if it's worked thoroughly enough for this to move forward. Then we'll be able to move in with whatever demons Tyrath's gotten together, but first..." She trailed off and shifted uncomfortably. "First we need to bury Clara. Tyrath, you said you knew a place. How long will it take you to get her and bring her there where we can set up something proper?"

"Not long at all. Someone will need to dig up the Earth in the spot that looks best, so I'll leave that up to Ignas," He glanced in Isen's direction and nodded, "But I can show you where it's at and then be on my way to bring her back." Once the general plan was settled and everyone knew what they were doing, Tyrath fetched a shovel, then opened another of his odd portals and gestured for them to step through where they were greeted by the not-so-distant scent of water and flowers he had previously mentioned.

"Find the spot that speaks most to you, and I shall return with your beloved."
 
Isen was glad they were finally starting to see the purpose of his plan, transcending from thinking he was crazy and understanding the decimation they could cause to Malakai's ranks. One incredibly powerful demon was easier to contend with than an incredibly powerful demon backed by an army, after all. "They wanted him as their leader. He should be able to keep them in line, if that were to happen." He explained, further, though he wasn't thinking along the lines that this would backfire, anyways. They just needed to order all of the demons to flee as far from Cresthaven as they could, by the time they were out of the spell, they'd be long gone, and with no recollection of why they were there or where they had even been before.

There was a noticeable difference in what he was feeling when the topic of Clara's funeral came up, influenced by Ignas' powerful emotion of grief. "Isen, may we...?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"Thank you."

Isen nodded his head, retrieving the shovel from Tyrath to help Ignas with the arduous task of putting his love to a final rest. Ignas directed him to a spot that he liked, beneath the only tree that seemed to be blooming, a sign, he thought, and Isen sat upon digging the hole. He couldn't help but think of Samara, the last person they had done this for, and how much that had hurt...and then, there was Meribell too, the first grave he had ever dug. And now, it had happened again...

They couldn't afford to fail again. They just couldn't.

"Some king I would've turned out to be."

"Hm?"

"Burying my loved ones...forcing my allies to do the same. Letting the entire world go to shit."

"You're acting like this is all your fault. It's not. The state of our world is because of Malakai, and the DSTF."

"But none of that would exist this way if not for me. I see now the damage done by years of hatred, and killing, and pretending like I didn't care about anything else."

"Clara believed in you. She loved you for a reason. If you were the monster you believe yourself to be, you wouldn't have been here to begin with, and you wouldn't have held her through her final breath. We've both done things we aren't proud of, but we have a chance to make up for that. It won't bring back anyone that we've lost, but we can make sure that we never bury anybody else again."

"...Isen...?"

"Yeah?"

"...keep digging."

And so, he did.

"We're done." Isen said, out loud, but he was speaking to Ignas more than anything else.

"Is it deep enough? Maybe we shou-"

"Ignas.." Isen sighed, drawing slight pause.. "It's done."

"Yeah...I know."

Isen could feel the demon's pain. He wanted to put her to rest, but he was trying to drag this out as long as possible. The more they dug, the longer they would stall before having to fill that hole because filling it meant she was gone, truly, unequivocally gone, for good
 
It was surreal to see a demon carrying the body of someone that hadn't been killed by them.

But was it any stranger than watching the demon possessing Isen's body digging into the earth like an ordinary human to create a grave for their deceased beloved? Reality and oddity were melting into an odd pot of random and unbelievable situations over the course of their growing friendships and grieving of deaths, and if the sun imploded and destroyed the world tomorrow Adelaide didn't think she'd have been terribly surprised.

Adelaide had stayed back out of the way with Isabella, watching the digging and listening to Ignas and Isen interact with a conversation the vampire wasn't privy to hear, one she was grateful was kept private between only the demons and herself now that she'd been granted access to hearing all of those involved. Danica was suspiciously quiet during the entire ordeal and even as Tyrath reappeared through a portal with Clara cradled gently in his arms, rapidly capturing the attention of all those waiting for the peace of putting the witch's body to rest and moving on with their plan for defeating Malakai and his army of demons he'd acquired through sheer force.

Adelaide had to admit that listening to Ignas lament over the past and how the world had come to be as it was now made her feel a growing amount of sympathy for the demon. Just weeks ago she had been ready to rip his heart out the moment he was removed from Isen's body and let him watch it seize and stop beating before his eyes for everything he'd done, but as she grew to understand more about demons, how they worked and how he was so similar and yet so different from those of his kind, the more she'd grown to pity him and her resentment had begun to melt away. Meeting Tyrath had only shown her more how demons could hold human traits even if they were held in contempt by the rest of their kind for doing so, how they could care and love, grieve and seek revenge for more than just the blood they would spill and the thrones they would take.

"You've dug far enough, Ignas." Tyrath spoke only when Isen ceased to, standing there cradling Clara gently and giving the demon an extra moment before he finally moved to approach the hole they'd dug in his absence. Adelaide moved to step forward and join at Isen's side but found herself halted by the vampire stretching an arm in front of her and shaking her head. There was a moment of confusion before Adelaide relented and steeled herself for the possibility that Ignas might freak out when they actually went to put Clara in the grave and bring an end to this portion of the day.

Could Isen actually fend him off if he went completely insane and fought to take control of his host in a quest for vengeance? Did she trust Ignas to reign in his grief and anger long enough to get the proper revenge by killing everyone that contributed to his beloved's death over the years? To her hiding, her overuse of power and the way it had drained the life from her as she sought to care for others more than she had ever bothered to care for herself?

"You should have the honor of putting her in the earth that she defended for so much of her life." Tyrath stopped just inches from Isen and waited until he was securely out of the hole and had cast the shovel aside before he carefully transferred Clara from his arms and to the ones that Ignas could feel through, allowing the demon to hold his witch one last time as they lowered her into the ground and prepared her final resting place.
 
Seeing Clara's dead body, and coming to the realization that this was really it, seemed to spark a reaction in Ignas. He had tried to drag this out as long as possible, just keep digging to prolong the inevitable, but time had caught up to them and now, his love was to be laid to rest. Isen bore the weight of Clara's lifeless body, holding her aloft for Ignas' sake, feeling the regret and the pain that the demon tethered to him was feeling in that moment. "Ignas...do you w-"

"Yes."

Isen nodded his head and then, without hesitation, relinquished control.

It had been a foolish, if not noble sentiment, to allow Ignas to take control of his body once more to share one final moment with his beloved. As what was now a passenger once more, he was even more suspectable to the range of emotions Ignas was feeling, but was surprised to find that none of them were anger. There was sadness, regret, grief and...fear, but no anger. The strongest emotion of all, above the rest, was one of love; it was one Isen now knew all too well. Upon feeling that, he had no concerns of Ignas lashing out at anybody else here, this was a moment of quiet acceptance of something that he could not change, and the bearing of a self-inflicted pain the demon would never be able to heal.

As Ignas lowered Clara down into the grave they had dug, Isen remembered too doing the same to Meribell. He remembered how he felt when he had to bury a loved one whom he had inadvertently brought death towards. He and Ignas were too much alike for Isen's own comfort. They had different ways of dealing with their emotions and their pain, but it was no wonder Ignas had been drawn to Isen the way that he had been. As a vessel, as a companion, or as whatever it was they had become, it was fascinating to see how in sync they had become when the hatred had subsided.

"Goodbye..., my star."

Ignas gave control back to Isen so that he could fill in the grave. That was one burden he couldn't bare on his own.

Dirt cascaded and filled in the opening until the earth had been mended and the soil hid the spot where the hole had been dug, and silence had fallen across everybody in attendance. It was as though the entire forest that surrounded them had gone quiet too, no sound of anything in the distance to disrupt the solemn moment.

A wooden cross protruded from the ground, marking the place where she had been laid to rest. A ribbon hung from it, pinned in place, flowing in the breeze, and with it, the ember to spark a change.


"Kill them all." Ignas pronounced, confidently, in Isen's head, as they gathered around the table inside to prepare what came next. "Every last one of them. Make them pay for everything they have done, and what they have taken."

"We only need to take out Malakai and Maximilian. There are people with the DSTF who are just doing their jobs..." Isen reasoned, remembering their last siege in Cresthaven, and having seen the innocent people who were being just trying to make ends meet, chained to an organization that was manipulating them into doing terrible things.

"...we will show them mercy?"

"If they are innocent. As for your demon and his puppet..." Isen looked towards Adelaide. He knew the only way she'd be free, truly free, was if this was over, but it wasn't just for her, either. This was for everyone who had been hurt, everyone who had been repressed, or who had died. "...I think it's time we finally put this plan into motion. Tyrath, your friends...?"
 
It was clear when Isen relinquished control to the demon inside him, and for a brief moment Adelaide thought that she could feel a pang of jealousy from the demoness trapped inside of her ring, but that couldn't possibly be right. What reason would Danica have to be jealous of Ignas? That he'd cared for someone and been loved in return unlike most of the demons that cared only for themselves? Ignas and Tyrath were seeming to be the sole remaining exception to the rules of demons and their ilk, although there had been the demon fighting against Isen in order to try and save his sister before he'd been slaughtered... Was there more to demonkind than any of them were aware of, or had they simply seen the rare exceptions firsthand due to their place in this war?

"You'd better behave yourself, Danica." Adelaide muttered under her breath to the demon and noted Isabella glancing over at her before looking away, and even Tyrath's ear seemed to twitch a bit at the sound of her voice despite his silence in the moment of respect. There was a snort of distaste inside her mind as the only response from the demoness, and Adelaide breathed a sigh of relief at the realization that despite the conflicting emotions she was feeling from the she-devil, it seemed Danica had no interest in interrupting the moment and creating more drama.

Goodbye, my star.

The overlay of Ignas' voice coming through Isen's body rather than from the sword drew Adelaide back to reality abruptly, and she watched the shift from demon to man as Isen took back over and began to fill in the hole as Ignas retreated to watch from the sidelines once more. Could she really blame him for the hasty retreat, the desire to skip the feeling of the heavy earth covering his beloved once and for all? No, not really, and even though she knew he could feel the process through the shared link with his host it wasn't the same as doing it himself. To bury a loved one was... Painful, at best.

"I hope you're at peace now." Adelaide had waited for the others to filter off back toward the house before she crouched in front of the wooden cross that marked the grave, her head bowed as she sighed and reached out to touch the ribbon lightly. Heat ignited at the touch and spread down her fingers and up her arm, enveloping her entire body in a shroud of warmth and hushed whispers that bled into her mind and overwhelmed her senses.

Free him. Do what I should have done long ago.

"...You have got to be kidding me." She jerked her arm back and stared at the ribbon with a bewildered expression before her head whipped toward the retreating backs of the others, and she jolted to her feet as Danica sputtered and protested inside her head despite the mage's silence as she absorbed the information that had been transmitted during the exchange. That was not the place she had expected to find what she was seeking, and the irony didn't escape her as she joined the others inside the house and settled in to discuss their next move.

It wasn't escaping their notice how silent she was as they began to discuss, and it wasn't until she was directly addressed some time later that Adelaide raised her head and looked at them blankly. The voice wasn't familiar to her but seemed to be to Danica, the demoness huffing inside the ring as Adelaide spotted a demon poking their head into the room and giving a small nod to Tyrath before another head popped up behind him.

"Hello, little mage. I've heard quite a bit about you and your friends." Adelaide nodded her acknowledgement as she took in the sight of the horned men stepping into the room, catching sight of several others trailing behind and filtering into the room slowly to take up stances against the walls. None of them made any attempt to directly approach the table even as they greeted Tyrath with nods and murmurs in their own tongue, and she noted some minor looks of disgust as they discussed among themselves how they could feel Danica's presence there.

"Aye, she's stuck in the mageling's ring."

"For now, anyway. The problem now is figuring out how to keep her and Ignas from killing each other when I separate them from their catalysts... Because I figured out how to do it from Clara."
 
Isen could tell that something was off about Adelaide when she entered the room, but with so many people already gathered, he couldn't really bring it up until they were in private again. For now, he attributed it to the funeral they had just gone through, noting that he himself had been quiet too, and that Ignas had gone radio silent since he had said his goodbyes. Isabella and Takami joined them around the table, the latter leaning against the former for support, his Catalyst having all but lost it's magic and it's shine. Isen speculated they didn't have much time left with him either if they couldn't act soon to find a way to restore his vitality. He couldn't help but feel guilty, yet again, for remaining bound to the one thing that could have saved his ally's life without delay.

He sensed the approach of several demons before they had even entered the house. His fingers curled around the hilt of Onigoshi, the arrival finally stirring Ignas from his quiet to pose a comment as well.

"We have company."

Tyrath's friends, all demon as advertised, had begun to filter into ethe room. Isen counted six, maybe seven, all winding around the table but never quite approaching them. They spoke different languages, but the occasionally word of English made it's way into the conversation, particularly around Danica and the ring she was trapped within. Isen was on guard, instinctively, from the demonic presence, wanting to be sure that Adelaide herself was safe, but none of the demons seemed particularly hostile just yet. If they were, he had to hope that Tyrath could keep them on their leashes.

"Because I figured out how to do it from Clara."

Adelaide casually made the announcement, catching the surprise of everybody in the room, Isen and Ignas included.

"You did what?"

"Adelaide...is this true?"

"My Clara is gone. How could she have taught you anything of the sort?"

And why did she know how to do it?

Isen's gaze moved between Adelaide and down to the sword at his waist, loosening his grip on it's handle. Was this nightmare really going to be able to come to an end? Isen felt hopeful, for the first time in a long time, but it wasn't without it's own set of problems. When he was dead set on breaking free from Ignas, it was long before they had come to the understanding that they now had. Separating both Danica and Ignas from their Catalyst prisons posed a threat, regardless, and now, Isen wasn't entirely sure Ignas was somebody he wanted to be apart from.

"Isen, we need to talk about this."

"Yeah, I know. And we will. But first..." He paused, searching for more clarification, his quesiton directed towards Adelaide as though she were the only other person present in the room. "...have you really figured out how to do it?"
 
This was already off to a rocky start.

She already hadn't been in a hurry to talk after the initial reaction from everyone there, now Isen and Ignas were tag-teaming and preventing her from speaking even if she had wanted to. This was a clusterfuck if she'd ever been in one. Those who couldn't hear Ignas' voice looked perplexed by what was going on, but the newest additions in the form of Tyrath's demons were watching the exchange with growing interest.

"Because of Samara's spell. When I touched Clara's ribbon at her grave." Adelaide shrugged tiredly. "She was the one to seal you in the sword, it makes sense she would also know the spell to undo it... And even if she hadn't, I've been taught enough how to reverse engineer things that it would have only been a matter of time before I eventually figured it out. As much as Danica is enjoying sucking up the power in this damn thing, I'm sure she's itching to get her body back so she can properly annoy the entirety of humanity."

Danica's response was an amused snort that had the others exchanging a mixture of worried, annoyed, or slightly amused themselves before the demons began to murmur to each other. Adelaide could only pick out bits and pieces as they slipped between languages effortlessly, although Danica did do her the courtesy of translating little tidbits that amused her before the mage spoke again.

"It's not as simple as snapping my fingers and reciting a spell," She exhaled slowly and pursed her lips. "But with proper preparation I can do it, although I think it would be easier if I had something of Clara's to work off of. We don't need to disturb her ribbon," She dismissed the notion before it came up in conversation and looked toward Tyrath. "But you can get me something else of hers. Something she either used often or that held significance to her. Anything that would have her magic all over it, really. I need something with an attachment to the original spell to anchor me, and I'm going to need time."

"That won't be a problem." Tyrath nodded at her and then turned as one of the newly arrived demons whispered something in his ear, causing the large demon to snort and swat at the whispering one with his tail. "We'll get the others together once we've established more of a solid plan. If the troublesome demoness and our former tribute for the throne are about to be among us again.. Well, that changes things drastically. All of you," Tyrath turned and surveyed a handful of the demons sternly.

"Will be behaving yourself. There will be plenty of time for fighting and bloodshed later once we've gotten the advantage over Malakai."
 
"Am I left without a say in this?"

Now, that things had quieted down from the initial bombshell of what Adelaide had learned, the demons were mingling with each other while Tyrath spoke to Adelaide to help hatch out more details of their plan. Takami had come towards Isen, instead, leaning against Isabella for support.

"What do you want to say?"

"Isen, Tyrath was right. This changes things, a lot of things. If I can be freed from the sword..."

"It would free me from you, and your hold on me, but it would also allow us to remain together."

The fact that was even something Isen would remotely consider had been proof of how much things had really changed, between the two of them and in the world around them.

"...but we wouldn't be able to use Onigoshi to cure Takami..."

And there was the other side effect. Of course, nothing could ever be simple. The extra variable, one that was deteriorating rather quickly, was Takami's condition and the deal the two of them had made in the past about what would happen to Onigoshi once Ignas and Isen had been severed from one another. Isen's eyes met Isabella's, guiltily, and he couldn't even bring himself to look at the weakened warrior on her arm.

"Hope may not be lost. My ability to bring you back from the dead is an extension of the abilities I had as a living, breathing demon. I do not know if I can guarantee that I can be any help, but I may still yet be able to cure his ailment...but there's a lot of work to be done first, and he would need to last long enough for us to even get there."

"And if you can't, and she pulls you from the sword, we won't have any chance at all." Was that something they could risk?

"Isen..." Takami spoke up, his voice tired, like speaking strained him. He seemed weary, and in pain, it was heartbreaking to see. "I have lived a warrior's life, I will receive a warrior's death. This is greater than me, and greater than a single life. You must do what is right, do not concern yourself about me."

"Absolutely not. I said we aren't losing anybody else, and I meant it." Isen looked towards Isabella gain, but this time, it was for support, as if he knew she was the only one he would listen to.

"I am just telling you not to worry about me when the greater good justifies the sacrifice. My life has been...much better since I began traveling with you. I was so bitter, desperate...for purpose...and I have lived the last couple of weeks having found one." He, too, nudged his gaze into the direction of the vampire at his side, then back to Isen. "Death is an ending, but i-"

"But it is not the end." Isen recited, remembering what Takami had told him before. "Yeah, I remember..."

Takami nodded. "Good. Then we are in agreement. You will do what must be done."

"I haven't agreed with anything." Isen said, immediately afterwards. "But we will take what you've said into consideration when the time comes to decide."

Isen sighed to himself as he separated from the pair, finding himself wandering naturally back towards Adelaide's side, interrupting the conversation she was having with Tyrath. "You'll be happy to know that we haven't argued or fought with any demons yet." He said, trying to stay positive and lighten the mood a little bit. "What do you need from us to make this unsealing happen? Freeing them both might be our only option to pull this off."
 
"Of course you have a say," Adelaide didn't quite have the energy to be apologetic for her approach on the subject, but she did defer to Ignas and allow him to speak his piece before she tried to say anything else. He was one of the people directly affected by this, after all, although she couldn't imagine he had anything to say that would go against freeing him, not when it would offer him a chance to fight Malakai directly and enact revenge for Clara.

"Don't look at me, Reaper." Isabella's voice was laced with exhaustion as she shook her head at Isen. "I try and try, but his mind is set for the most part. I'll do everything I can to keep him alive but I can't force him to live, shy of..." She trailed off and shook her head, but Adelaide could see there was something brewing inside the vampire's brain, especially when she heard Danica snorting with disdain inside her head as if she understood the unspoken words.

"Tell them what I'm saying, if there's any of them that can't understand English." Adelaide was multitasking, talking to Tyrath as he translated between her and the demons for those that couldn't keep up with the multiple conversations despite a basic understanding of the human language. "There's just so many factors. Isen had his deal with Takami, and then I have to keep Ignas and Danica from killing each other, although you and yours would be a great help with that considering I won't have nearly as much strength when I get this she-devil out of the ring... I have no idea how much she's sapped from it considering I didn't know fuck all about it when it got stuck on my finger to begin with." She was rambling and quickly became aware of it when Isen reappeared at her side, halting abruptly and turning her attention to him immediately.

"Even if I free them both and they manage to work together until we've gotten through the major part of the battle, we have a bigger issue at hand, Isen." Adelaide gnawed on her lip and looked between him and the behemoth of the demon she'd been talking to, seeing Tyrath give her what she assumed was meant to be a reassuring gesture before she turned back to Isen and took a deep breath.

"Once Ignas is freed from Onigoshi, your immortality and your protection is forfeit. You'd be fighting with whatever weapons you have but no ability to bring yourself back from death like before, or at least we don't know if there's any way for Ignas to do that once the pact is broken. You'd have to fight your natural instinct of ignoring wounds, because there's a good chance that they could kill you this time. But if I leave you two bound until after Maximilian and Malakai are gone... Well, that just begs the question of do I leave Danica sealed too or let her out and hope she listens to Tyrath enough to get through this without stabbing us all in the back? It's a big decision to make, and once it's done I can't just... Undo it."
 
"I can't just.... Undo it."

Was a world without Malakai, and the DSTF, better off if that world then inherited the problems of Danica and Ignas instead? How were they to make that call with a clear conscience? Isen understood it in full detail, even if he wasn't to be the one pulling the trigger on removing either of the two demons from their Catalyst prisons. Were they saving their world, or damning it to something worse?

And were they the right ones to make it?

It didn't seem like anybody else was standing up to pass judgement on right or wrong.

He couldn't control the aftermath, but he could, at least, ease her mind about his involvement.

"Then I will not fight. I will stay at your side and allow Ignas to get the revenge he has been searching for. If it's my safety that concerns you, I will leave you no reason for concern."

"And I will end what has began."

Isen nodded his head, feeling the demon's conviction within him. "Right now, humans are living in fear of something they don't understand, and are being led to believe that the DSTF is protecting them from it. There is no peace with the DSTF, we have to bring them down. Your family, your past...Samara, Clara, everybody we've lost...we both know this has to end with us destroying the entire organization, but that doesn't happen if we don't free the both of them."

Isen's hand reached for hers, squeezing it. "What happens after will happen after. I don't know how I became somebody in charge with making a decision this monumental, but my choice is to free Danica and Ignas and use every tool we have at our disposal to stop this...even if it means I am no longer one of those tools once Ignas has been freed."

"Then perhaps we should take a vote? Put your mind at ease, witch." Ignas said, bringing back an old favorite, though the way he said it was much kinder than before, almost like it had become an actual nickname now instead of a term of disrespect. "Danica will have no power over me, or the other demons. I wanted nothing to do with the throne, but I see now that it was my poor decision making that caused all of this...I believe it goes without saying, but I vote to be released. There was a time when I would have done everything in my power to keep Isen bound to me, but that was before I knew a life outside of the sword was possible. I took an innocent man and ripped him from his life to become a demon like me, I will assure that when this is over, he is returned to the life that was stolen from him...a life, I believe, would be much better lived by your side rather than at mine."
 
"What?" Her brows creased together in confusion as he abruptly acquiesced. There was no argument, no attempt to compromise in some way or another, he simply... Gave in and offered the solution of removing himself from harm's way without argument. Could Isen truly place himself out of harm's way and fight as a human would, relying on her to protect him rather than following in the footsteps he'd taken for so many years? What happened if he slipped, if he ran to old habits and slipped away from her side in the middle of the fight? What happened if she couldn't protect him, if she failed and the fight was won with the greatest casualty?

"Fine." Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. They didn't have time for her to be getting emotional over the possibility of losing Isen. There was the possibility even if she allowed him and Ignas to remain bound as they were. If Malakai killed him too many times, too quickly for Ignas to heal him... Well, it was a horror she didn't want to witness again but there was no avoiding the fact that there was the chance they could all die before this was over, all to save a world that had varying opinions on them and the Dissonants.

"I know." That didn't make her any less nervous about freeing two demons, one of which she knew was a trickster and rather vindictive streak. "I know we need both of them." In the end though, whatever havoc was wrought by her choice to free the both of them would come back and reflect on her as the person to do the actual spell and release two insanely powerful demons into an already chaotic world. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, apparently, that was the only way to put any semblance of trust into Danica when she'd made it abundantly clear that she would do whatever necessary to survive and thrive in her own ambitions.

The sudden warmth of Isen's hand over her own startled her out of her own muddled thoughts and brought her properly back to reality in a sense she hadn't realized she needed. He was right about it all, there was no telling what was happening after it all but he was a driving force in the decision to free the demons, considering that one of them shared his body and used him as a host...

"Get me something of hers, Tyrath, and we can do this today." Adelaide's voice was weary as she caught sight of Ember sauntering between legs before coming to her mistress, snaking her way up the mage's leg and perching on her shoulder with a rumble of a purr. It seemed even her familiar was giving a vote of approval to free the demons, although that shouldn't have surprised her with the closeness Ember and Ignas seemed to have despite protests against such a notion.

"I think I'm going to need more caffeine for this, though." She laughed and made her way back towards the coffeepot at Tyrath's gesture, watching the demon confer with some of the others before he nodded and disappeared from the room, likely to portal himself off somewhere to fetch one of Clara's belongings for the ritual. She didn't need anything of the demon's to free them from their catalysts, and considering one of them was quite literally bound to her... Well, it was going to be an interesting experience to be abruptly parted from an extra source of power.

"There's a good chance we're both going to feel faint or even possibly pass out when this happens." She spoke without turning away from the process of starting coffee, but it was clear her words were directed to Isen as the demons continued to talk amongst themselves. "Tyrath can catch your big ass if you go down and Isabella can get mine, but hopefully neither of us end up kissing the floor."

"I'm more worried about the two of them wrecking this place if they can't handle the chance to have their claws on each other." Isabella grumbled to herself, clearly discontent with everything going on in such a short time. Adelaide knew her main concern was Takami and his rapidly declining health, her worry and pain coming out in the form of constant irritation even as she faithfully remained at their side for the upcoming battle.

"I've got a brush." Tyrath reappeared holding an ornately decorated, old style brush in his large hand, extending it to Adelaide before he took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Did I miss anything important?"

"No, just catch Isen if he faints." The demon's brows raised in a mix of amusement and confusion before he nodded. "Alright, let's get this show on the road, I guess..."
 
Isen redirected himself to stand near Adelaide, but angled in such a way that he was closed enough to Tyrath that he could be caught if he did indeed require it. Normally, he'd have been more resistant to the idea of having to rely on Tyrath at all, but he wasn't trying to rock the boat any more than he already had. At this point, they were finally all on the same page, and ready to proceed with the release of both Danica and Ignas, and he had already heard the concerns for his well-being that Adelaide had shared, so he swallowed his own pride and concern to make sure she had no other reason to lose focus or have her attention divided elsewhere on his behalf.

"Hey, Ignas?" Isen kept their conversation private, a final one-on-one between the two before potential separation. "It was very noble of you to say what you did earlier. I..."

"There's no need to thank me, Isen. I am simply giving back to you that which I have taken. I only ask that you heed the witch's warnings; you will not be immortal. You will lose your strength, your speed, everything that I had given to you. I am not saying this to change your mind but rather, to make sure you are aware that you cannot live recklessly once we have been separated. I meant what I said; I want you to have back the life you lost, and I wish for you to live it with her, but I refuse to watch you sully my decision by getting yourself killed."

And there it was again. He felt that genuine concern, another sign that Ignas now was not the same demon that has stolen him from his home and forced his blade into a loved one. That care and worry seemed to surround him on all sides; whether it was Ignas within him, or Adelaide at his side, and that was without even considering Isabella and Takami, and even the care that Samara had shown him in the past.

A couple of weeks ago, he was a Reaper, alone and fleeing his past. Now, he felt accepted, loved even, and it gave him all the more desire within him to fight. But fighting wasn't going to be something he could do anymore, and he had already promised Adelaide that he wouldn't.

"I understand." Isen confirmed, a slight sight falling part his lips, not unnoticed by the demon who was preparing to be freed. "I guess this is it, isn't it?"

"Yes, I believe so."

He should have been happier. Really, truly, he should have; and in a way, he was. Isen was looking forward to his future happiness, the future they were fighting for, but there was still a long road to travel, and he would be less capable to protect Adelaide as they faced it.

"Do not despair. I am pleased to have spent this time with you, Isen Hiyori, for more reasons than one."

"...are you ready?" He asked, inwardly, one final time, his question aimed towards his passenger.

"I am. Are you?"

"...yeah. I'm ready."

Isen gave a nod of affirmation to Adelaide, letting her know that both he and Ignas were prepared for what came next.
 
"Alright, I guess this is it." She wasn't ready for this. It was everything they'd wanted since the beginning, everything they'd yearned for since they'd began to admit their feelings for each other, and now that the time was here she wasn't ready. To separate the demon and his host after so many years together, to leave her partner vulnerable to attack and even death once his demon was freed... It was such a risk that it made her heart ache at the possibility of what the future held.

"Please don't make me regret this by doing something stupid the second I let you two out to play." She needed Danica out of the ring first, because trying to free Ignas while Danica messed with her magic was just a disaster waiting to happen, and they couldn't afford to let the demoness mess it up because she wanted to play her silly little games. The consequences could be devastating, which meant she needed to get that pink skinned little bitch back to her normal self before she turned her attention to separating Ignas and her lover at long last.

Channeling from something of Clara's was vastly different than when she'd been learning spells from Samara. Not only had Samara been, well, alive while she had been learning the spells, but her type of magic was so all over the place and bursting out of every crevice, whereas pulling from Clara's faintly magic-dusted brush and memories just felt... Almost sad? Danica's disgust at the sudden emotion was clear even as Adelaide pushed back at the demon's feelings, brushing them out of the way and working at the tendrils of magic that were woven together to bind the demon to its catalyst.

To undo what was done so firmly in a spell long abandoned by the rest of the magical world...

Free me, little mortal. Free me so that we may fight and tear the enemy asunder.

"Shut up, Danica, I'm working on it." As if trying to concentrate with everyone waiting for her to succeed wasn't intimidating and distracting enough, now she had the annoyance of Danica's whine in her head to top it off, and Tyrath's snort of what she assumed was amusement in the background. "The magic isn't weak, that's for sure." No wonder Ignas and Isen had been so tightly bound for all of these years, even she was having trouble unwinding the spell from inside. Had Clara had this much trouble when she'd cast the initial spell to bind Ignas to Onigoshi, or had it been second nature to her when she'd locked her lover away like that? Hell, all of these questions were distracting her from the initial task, something Danica reminded her of with the constant nagging as another thread slipped through and unwound itself, a step closer to freeing the demoness from the ring.

"There we go." The words were a whisper of relief as she felt the magic waning and leaking out of the ring, a huge weight lifted as she felt her body relieved of the presence of the being she'd been sharing it with. As relieving as it was to rid herself of the burden of the pink-skinned demoness, seeing her standing in the middle of them all wasn't exactly the most exciting sight in the world.

"I'm back, bitches. That's what you mortals say, isn't it?"
 
Isen watched Adelaide carefully, intent on keeping an eye on her while also eager to see if the spell she was weaving would actually work. He had already said his goodbyes to Ignas, and to the bond they had shared, but first, it was her and Danica who would be separated. The ring leaked it's magic until everything that had been locked inside had been freed, forming the pink-hued body of the demon who had been trapped inside. There was something eerily off putting about finally seeing her in the flesh, standing at the center of the room, released from her binds for the first time in a very long time.

Isen was, at the very least, pleased that she hadn't come out swinging.

"It worked." He spoke, out loud, though mostly to Ignas and himself. He felt a sense of pride for Adelaide, proud of the fact that she had completed such a monumental spell without a hitch. It was a testament to how much she had grown during their time together, and how powerful she had become. But it also made him feel everything he had felt before once again; the double-edged sword that was being freed from the curse of his own demon passenger.

"Do you need a rest before trying again?" He asked, concern in his voice.

"Isen..."

Isen expected Ignas to regurgitate their goodbyes, and he wasn't ready to face that again, but there was an urgency in the way the demon spoke that he couldn't ignore. Had he picked up on something about Adelaide, or Danica, that they hadn't realized?

"Isen...to your left."

Isen's eyes peered to the side, trying not to be obvious about it. At first, he couldn't quite see what Ignas was trying to draw his attention to, but after focusing a little more, he realized that two of the demons, who had been gathered here by Tyrath, had begun whispering to themselves. Now that he had been made aware, he was able to focus his hearing to pick up what sounded like chanting in a different language; one that he couldn't understand. The more he listened, the more voices he could pick up. There were at least three others, whispering the same nonsense, but he couldn't pinpoint them through the crowd just yet.

"Adelaide...something's off."

By the time he had warned her, it was too late.

As if from nowhere, chains began to raise from the floor in all directions, shackling onto everybody they could reach. They bound arms and legs, holding stationary everybody present, including Isen and Danica...everybody but Adelaide. The pressure forced them down, into a kneeling position, while five demons remained standing, closing in on Adelaide. Isen pulled at the arcane chains, trying to break himself free, but even his strength couldn't break it.

"Consider us pleasantly surprised, mageling."

"We didn't think you'd actually be able to pull it off."

"We've got another job for you. Come along, there's no need for anybody here to get hurt."
 
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It was even more grating to hear her speaking in her physical body, she could hardly imagine how it had to be for the other demons to be hearing Danica, especially considering the looks they were exchanging with one another. Tyrath seemed to be the only of the demons that was wholly unbothered by Danica's manifestation, but she had a feeling he was more than used to dealing with the demoness' antics.

"Just need a second." They couldn't afford to take an extended break, the time for such pleasantries had passed long ago, and she took a deep breath and exhaled in preparation for the second spell. "What, Isen?" They didn't have time for things to be "off" or to feel unpleasant, but the urgency in both his tone and Ignas' was concerning enough for her to turn her attention to him just in time for unexpected chaos to burst forth.

Why did something always have to go wrong when they finally dared to relax a fraction? As if it hadn't been bad enough to be hunted as her people were forced to near extinction before she'd met Isen, now they had traitors in their midst when she had dared to put trust in Tyrath. Not that he seemed to have any prior knowledge or involvement, but none of that negated the situation they were now in.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." It had all happened so fast she could hardly keep up with it, and none of it had allowed her the time to think through a proper spell to repel or cancel out the demons' nefarious scheme.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Tyrath sounded only mildly surprised despite the severity of the situation, tilting his head as he watched the five that were approaching Adelaide with growing curiosity. His tail thumped along the floor where it was free of the metal that shackled his other limbs, and Adelaide glanced his way momentarily before her attention was drawn swiftly to Danica's tantrum amongst her chains.

"I'll slaughter you and every kin of yours! I'll rip your tongues from your mouths so you don't even hold the ability to beg for mercy and then I'll pull you limb from limb before I pull the heart from your chest and shove it down your bloody throat so you can choke on them!"

Well, if nothing else in the grand scheme of things, Danica's incessant howling and shrieking was a welcome distraction while she circled through the different things to escape the situation. This wasn't a spell she'd encountered before and she wasn't in range to touch any of the demons that had cast it, but she was in range of a physical aspect of it, and that came in the form of the chains Danica was spewing vile threats over.

"Sorry Ignas," Adelaide gritted her teeth as she gripped tightly onto the chains holding Isen captive, feeling the flow of the magic that was keeping them in the physical plane and reading the ebb and flow of it to try and find the point of weakness in the spell. She didn't have enough of a reserve of power left to destroy it in its entirety so soon after pulling off a feat like separating Danica from her catalyst, but if she could just free one of them to start, then the spell would dissolve with the death of the demons that had cast it, right? Either that, or she could get to work on freeing the others once Ignas went on a much anticipated murder spree. "You have to wait a little bit longer to get your body back. For now, I want you to kill them all. No mercy." Mercy was a thing of the past, it seemed, even as she worked at the coils of magic and found a point of weakness in the chains holding Isen, combatting it with her own magic until the metal gave way with an eerie creak before it began to dissipate and fall to the floor in broken hunks.

"Kill them all, Ignas."

"Little witch, you'd better free me now so I can start ripping them limb from--"

"Danica, shut the fuck up and let me work."
 
Isen pulled harder, struggling against the binds that held him in place. He could see the others in the room doing the same with similar, disappointing results. The magic within the chains was powerful and dark, but in a way that neither he, nor Ignas, had experienced before. It felt as though the chains were drawing magic directly from his body, from the demon housed within Onigoshi, sustaining itself with the energy syphoned from their captives. A clever ploy that would assure that whomever had been trapped would be unable to break them; though, clearly, the splinter cell that had snuck into their gathering either underestimated Adelaide by leaving her unchained, or overestimated their own strength.

For a brief moment, Isen feared for her safety. He recalled previous times when she was in danger and how he'd fight, tooth and nail, screaming at whoever it was not to hurt her with a vengeful hatred, but when that moment faded, he was left with something else. There was a calm. He trusted her. He knew she'd figure a way out of this, he didn't need to defend her. It was a sobering realization that, under normal circumstance, would have put his mind at ease with regards to losing the physical advantages given to him by his tether to Ignas. In this situation, however, it seemed their separation would be prolonged just a little longer, and the timing couldn't have been better.

Had they waited until the separation had been completed, perhaps the demons could have had their way. Yet another mistake and over sight.

The chains broke with a clatter against the floor before disappearing as quickly as they had been formed. The three demons who had taken the lead, as well as the other three standing in waiting, turned slowly towards the now-freed Isen and, suddenly, their bravado seemed less profound.

"Wait! Don't kill us..." One of them pleaded as Isen unsheathed his weapon, it's blade glistening with purple magic, wrapping around it's sharp edge.

"This is just the beginning! He won't stop until he has what he wants!"

"He'll just send more!"

"Let him." Isen said, calmly, brandishing his weapon. "Ready, Ignas?"

"She said no mercy." Ignas responded in turn, echoing Adelaide's request. "Are you going to disappoint your beloved?"

The first demon fell within an instant, sliced through the stomach and severed into two pieces. It's magic tried to sew itself together, but Isen placed the pointed edge of Onigoshi between both halves, severing the connection and preventing it from reassembling. Recognizing the mismatch, two of the demons jumped straight for Adelaide, grabbing at her arms to try and hold her as a shield, foolishly believing that would stop either of them from meeting an equally swift end.

"The chains are manifestations of their captive's magic." Isen explained to Adelaide, giving her the information she needed to find a power source to draw on to defend herself. Once more showing his trust in her, Isen went for the other demons instead, preventing them from fleeing Tyrath's home.
 
"Sniveling brats." Danica was sneering in her head as some of the demons realized they'd gotten in over their heads, pleading with the now freed Isen as if it would somehow spare their miserable lives. "I hope he rips your limbs off one at a time so you feel each loss regardless of how much you beg and plead for your pathetic lives." Adelaide didn't have the energy to argue with the demoness now, not when she needed to focus on freeing the others while simultaneously keeping herself safe. It looked like there were at least six of them, which shouldn't taken Isen and Ignas too long to cut through if she was lucky, but none of that was going to matter if she didn't free any of the others.

"Isabella." The vampire's head snapped her way with a startled expression, causing the familiar near her side to look at Adelaide as well, as if questioning her mistress in her own actions. "No, you stay with her, Ember, I want you to keep them safe after I free them." If she could get Isabella and Takami free, then the vampire could take her not-boyfriend and get out of there, keeping him safe in case things went south. Out of anyone in the house right now, Takami was the one with the biggest chance of losing his life, and they'd already had enough death too close to them.

"As soon as you're free, take Takami and get him out of here, okay?" She didn't bother to address Takami himself knowing he would argue and want to fight, focusing her words solely on the vampire before she slunk through the chained demons to approach Isabella. If getting closer to her would lessen the strain of dismantling the spell woven with the vampire's own magic, then she was ready to risk getting in the way of sword and claw alike to get this done.

Everything happened so fast, her intent to reach the vampire interrupted by two of the demons as their first kin fell by Isen's sword. Adelaide swore profusely, kicking out at them and twisting her body any way she could to just get a glimpse of Isabella and her confines. She'd been so close, so close and had wasted her time talking expecting that the demons would all have attacked Isen at first. How stupid of her. Ember was snarling as she witnessed the two demons trying to bring her mistress to a halt, claws raking against the floor as Adelaide whipped her attention to the cat before a grin nearly split her face in half.

"Ember, remember the day I threw the cab?"

"You want me to use them as chew toys?" Her familiar looked quizzically at her as Adelaide nodded, gathering up all of the frustration she was feeling at the situation and those they had lost in this never-ending fight. She took every ounce of that frustration and channeled it into her familiar, watching the tiny feline stretch and grow in size until she matched the demons and lunged at the one on her mistress' left side. The resounding screech of the demon bounced around before fading behind the sound of sword and screams from the others, Ember's wicked claws sinking into the bastard's chest as she took him to the floor and allowed Adelaide to drive her elbow into the other demon holding her captive. Each following blow was amplified with that frustration as she freed herself and slipped away, glancing over her shoulder to see her familiar tearing through the throat of the first demon she'd attacked before leaping at the second.

"Isabella, get ready!" Now that she was free from having to wriggle away and fight demons simultaneously, she was able to reach the vampire's side and concentrate on the particular spell holding her there, working at the shimmering ball and unweaving the distorted knot of magic before the chains clattered and then disappeared entirely. "Go!" Isabella wasted no time in making sure she was at Takami's side, ready to take him and run as fast as she could as Adelaide worked furiously to free the swordsman from his binds while Isen cleared the other demons.

"Mage, free me this instant! Fuck the dying idiot and get over here!" Danica's screeching was distracting her as she worked at the spell, uttering curses under her breath and trying to tune out the demoness as she worked at the very last bit of it and--- Finally.

"Gogogogogo!"
 
When in perfect sync with each other, Isen and Ignas moved with a strange sort of grace. There was a savagery in the way their blade carved through demonic flesh, but it was not without a flow that would have made it dizzying to watch in other circumstance. This wasn't the pure rage they had shown during previous attempts at fighting together, it was as if the two of them had found a peace with each other that was all but new to them after the events with Clara, and everything they had been through over the last couple of days. Ignas said no mercy, and they were far from sparing any, but it was a sad realization that it was only now that they had truly found unity that they were to be separated.

Still, it took very little effort for the other two demons to meet their end at the end of Onigoshi's blade, it's body spiraling with purple energy that inhibited the repair of their injured bodies, preventing regeneration from making the fight endless. Over his shoulder, Isen watched the chains shatter around the vampire and then, over the opposite side, he witnessed Ember's gigantic form tearing through the demons that had accosted Adelaide. The second demon performed a short range teleport, getting out from underneath the landing zone of Ember's leap. Reappearing at her side, it dug it's claws into the side of her back.

"Isen...." Ignas told him, within his head, hurried with an urgency that had been missing during their initial fight. Concern for a feline friend?

"On it."

Within an instant, Onigoshi pierced the demon's ribcage and they lifted him into the air, as if holding him on a pike, waiting for Ember to claim her kill on the one that had injured her. Meanwhile, on the other end of the room, Isabella had been helping a deathly ill Takami away from the action and towards the exit.

"N-no...we fight..." He tried to reason, his voice grave and barely audible, attempting to pull from her clutches but unable to muster the strength to create separation.

"Is that all of them?" Isen asked as he began to walk back towards Adelaide, checking to make certain she hadn't been hurt. "Ignas?"

"No.." The demon responded, trailing off for a brief moment as he realized that their fight was far from over. "Isen, the door...the vampire and the Ora..."

This time, Isen wasn't fast enough to respond to what they were set to witness; a hand, piercing through the stomach of Takami from behind. It's claws unfurled, growing in size as it pulled back, ripping and tearing at the warrior's flesh, causing his blood to trickle down off of his body and onto Isabella's hands as she attempted to hold him up. The unseen assailant pushed Takami's body to the floor and took a swing at Isabella before pulling itself through the door. It's body was larger than any demon they had seen, ducking to fit through the frame of the door. It held a hulking presence that seemed invigorated by the blood it had spilt. It lifted it's long talon towards it's mouth, tasting it, looking straight into the terrified eyes of Isabella before Isen dashed towards it. He attempted to tackle the beast of a demon back outside but he practically rebounded off of it's massive body and down to the floor where Takami now laid, barely breathing, at his side.

Between it's legs, Isen could see down the stairs towards the front of the building where a small army of demons were congregating, following up. They were told that more would be sent, and that was exactly what had happened.
 
"Damn it!" Ember's attempt to make mincemeat out of the second demon was thwarted as it teleported away from her, only to meet the beginning of its end on Onigoshi, held aloft as if it were an offering for the giant feline. It was enough to turn Adelaide's curse into a sigh of relief as she watched her familiar clamp her jaws around the demon and pull it off the blade as it shrieked in agony, but even that sounded faded as it was absorbed by the gurgling of a dying creature with its throat removed.

"They have it covered, and you can't fight so just shut up and stop making this more difficult than it needs to be!" Isabella's frustrated voice carried across the room as she tried to drag Takami toward the door despite his feeble attempts to return to the fight. "You can't afford to waste what magic is left in your sword, just let me help you, dammit!" It was tempting to simply knock the resistant swordsman unconscious so she could drag him out of there with less resistance, but any internal debate the vampire had had about that possibility was stripped away by the intruding claws piercing her companion's gut.

"Something is coming." Tyrath spoke up from his point of restraint, still kneeling on the floor and looking wearily as Adelaide and Isen both turned toward the door where Isabella and Takami's struggle had been interrupted. "Little mageling, you best move fast."

"Free me from these confines so I may slaughter the beasts coming, mage!" Danica's tangent was restarting itself as she fought against the chains, seething and nearly foaming at the mouth as she shouted obscenities both in the common tongue and her mother tongue. "You don't stand a chance against what's coming without me there to help you!"

"Ember!" How was it they were going to lose another before the night was over? The amount of blood pouring from Takami's wounds as the demon retracted its large claws and ducked through the entryway put him at death's door with almost no chance of return, but Adelaide could see Isabella trying to keep a hold on him even as the creature came for her with those wicked talons. "Get Takami out of the way, now!" Isabella wasn't going to move without the swordsman by her side, that much was certain, which meant that Adelaide needed to get him moved away from the imminent threat and to the far side of the room nearest the hall in hopes that vampire would follow.

"Yes, Mistress." Her familiar was already leaping across the room, weaving between captive demons and bounding straight for the fallen man lying in a puddle of his own blood, but even at her larger size she was slower than Isen as he lunged and attempted to push back the beastly demon, succeeding only in stumbling back and landing beside the man bleeding out on Tyrath's floor.

"Isen, how many of them are coming?!" Adelaide could feel the sheer amount of magic and power emanating from outside of the house, her skin prickling with the sheer overwhelming amount of it all as she struggled to process it. Even if she could pull magic from any or all of them as they appeared and came to lay blows, the chances of doing it all without running herself ragged were almost none. "Isen, please tell me we have a chance!" Her main focus of the moment was getting to Isabella, the terrified vampire frozen in place as Ember reached Takami, nudging her head underneath his body and struggling to find a balance before abruptly giving up and maneuvering him into her large mouth instead.

"Isabella, we need to move. Snap the fuck out of it!" Adelaide reached the vampire and yanked her back by an arm, ignoring the protesting grind and snap of bone as she quite possibly dislocated the woman's shoulder in her haste to pull her back. "Ember has Takami, I need you back here to try and put pressure on the wound, keep him away from the doorway! Isabella, NOW!" The last word came in a scream that seemed to snap the vampire out of it as she jolted back to reality, allowing Adelaide to teleport them from one end of the room to the other where she unceremoniously dropped Isabella on the floor just inside the hallway where Ember was placing Takami down gently. "Get him in one of the rooms and do what you can while Isen and I try to hold these bastards back."

"Mageling! Get your ass out here and free me before your boyfriend dies because of your negligence!"
 
From where he found himself, Isen could barely count how many demons were slowly closing in on the building. They seemed to be moving at a leisurely pace, as though they already knew they had them exactly where they wanted. Teleportation would be near impossible if they wanted to save everybody, but it would be enough to get Adelaide to safety...

"She'll never listen." Ignas warned Isen about the obvious. "There's too many to count." Ignas answered Adelaide's plead, before speaking again, this time strictly within Isen's head. "Stand and fight."

He did as he was told, thankfully feeling no pain or ill effects from his sudden collision. The large demon peered down at him, a smirk drawing across it's contorted features.

"I've heard about you." His voice spoke, taking on a deep inflection. It's massive body lurched over the swordsman, an imposing figure unlike anything they had seen before.

Isen was alert to everything that was happening around him. He heard the yelling of Danica and Adelaide, the panic in Isabella's voice, and the rumbling of the chain demons who were forced to watch while struggling against their bindings.

"Then you know what you're up against."

"Not you. Him." The demon answered, instead, referring to Ignas. "Let him come out to play. I've always wondered what it would be like to taste the blood of a king."

"Another one of your adoring fans, Ignas." Isen grumbled, realizing that time was running out, and they didn't have time to exchange pleasantries. Relieved that Ember had managed to pull Takami away from danger, Isen figured they had maybe two, or three minutes at most, to deal with the threat in front of them before they were completely surrounded. Onigoshi swung forward, but it's target neither moved, nor flinched. The sword dug into it's thick skin, but even the sharpness of it's edge wasn't enough to penetrate through the sheer muscle the demon possessed. It's healing factor kicked in before the sword could even be removed, trapping it between it's lacerated flesh.

Isen heard it laugh as it pulled it's arm back, showing it's abundant strength, ripping the sword from Isen's hands while it remained still lodged within the middle of it's left arm. "That's new..." Isen mentioned, in his head to his passenger, grumbling as he leapt forward, using the demon's body as a foot hold to try and yank their weapon free.

Meanwhile, Ember had managed to pull Takami into one of the back rooms of the home while a panicked Isabella followed behind, trying to figure out what to do to help. She did as Adelaide suggested, trying to put pressure on the injured man's wounds, finding the irony in the fact that her hands were covered in blood and that she, as a vampire, had not the slightest hint of an appetite from the worry that was brimming inside of her.

"Isa-be..." Takami tried to speak, but he could barely get his words out. Blood was pooling in his chest, causing him to nearly choke on what remained inside of his body. "It's okay." He tried to reassure her, with what little energy he had left, even though he knew she'd be stubborn and refuse to leave him. "I'm sorry you had this version of me...weak....but, y-you gave me something I never thought I could have...I...I'll be okay." He repeated, a second time, trying to lift his hand towards her face. His catalyst, still sheathed at his hip, pulsed with magic, though faint and barely there. What once had given him life had been drained so thoroughly in fighting his condition that it could no longer sustain him. The strain on his body, from natural causes and from the wound that was bleeding him dry, seeped the last bit of it's magic, causing the blade to go dull one last time, never to come alight again. "Death is n-not the end..."

Isen fell back against the floor, Onigoshi clutched in his right hand once more. The demon's claws swiped forward, recoiling off of the blade with enough force that it physically pushed him backwards, despite him steadying himself in a defensive stance. This brute could over power Ignas, so Isen decided he needed to use speed. To his surprise, however, the demon proved just as agile as he was strong, moving against the massive disposition and catching him by the throat as he tried to duck around towards his back side. He lifted Isen up and tried to plunge it's claws through his chest the way he had with Takami, but even in his suspended state, Isen was able to parry a couple of the attempts away before finally, the demon met it's mark.

The monstrous, clawed hand pierced through his chest and out through his back, drawing back inwards with a ripping noise as he tossed Isen aside without a care. He fell, flat, in front of a group of restrained demons, not far from where Danica had been. Onigoshi trickled across the floor, a couple of feet away, purple magic lighting up from it's body and swirling through the cavity in Isen's body. The demon lifted it's claw, tasting Isen's blood this time, and as it did, lines of red energy seemed to pulsate through it's body as if it was gaining more power from every drop it consumed.

"Isen...he's still getting stronger. Did he do this from Takami's blood as well?"

"Fuck." Isen groaned, pulling himself back up and grabbing his sword, taking a fighting stance in front of the bound demons, and Danica as well. "Adelaide, you need to get out of here. Teleport to safety, take as many with you as you can. We're..."

A window shattered as an axe broke through it's glass, narrowly hitting another one of Tyrath's demon friends. The approaching demons had gotten close enough now that they could toy with them, making noises on the walls of the house, chanting about the mage they were coming to capture. The smell of burning wood began to move through the air as a corner of the cabin began to come alight, caught aflame by one of the unseen assailants on the outside. Soon, the entire building would be engulfed, turning what had once been Tyrath's home into a furnace with them trapped at it's center.

"...outnumbered."
 
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That didn't bode well for them, and if Isen couldn't defeat the demon that had ducked and contorted itself just to fit through the doorway, how were they going to defeat the army of demons following in the wake of its disaster? Adelaide listened to the clanging of the sword and the resounding blows thumping around in the other room, hearing various bits of cursing in multiple languages from the different demons chains and on their knees. Tyrath was the only calm voice she heard as he tried to calm his brethren, but he made no attempt to quell the ever growing rage that was Danica in her chains. She shrieked, clattering the chains against the floor as she seethed and cursed every demon in existence to a painful death if they didn't release her, but still she remained bound as Adelaide looked between a dying Takami and the room where her own beloved was fighting for his life.

"Isabella, I have to--I can't--" The vampire waved her away, her eyes fixated on the swordsman trying to choke out words through his own blood as his body fought against the last of his strength. Adelaide cast a lingering glance toward the two of them as the vampire held Takami tenderly, sending a message to Ember through her link to remain at their side while she returned to Isen's to see how she could help.

"You're not weak. You were never weak, Takami. You had more strength than most Dissonants I knew, and more heart. Never think that you're weak." She took his hand and cradled it gently in her own, lacing her fingers through his and squeezing gently as she shushed him and urged him to save his strength. Her initial attempt to put pressure on the wounds had done little more than coat her hands in the blood she normally would have sustained herself on, pressing against the shredded flesh and damaging the holes left behind by wicked demon claws. "I'll kill them all, I swear it. You just rest, and when we fight again we'll do it side by..." Isabella trailed off as Ember nudged her and gestured to the catalyst with a whine, both sets of eyes focused on the way that its dull glimmer faded away to nothingness as Takami's voice trailed off and fell into terrible silence.

"No. Nonononono, you don't get to die on me here, not now! God dammit, no!" Ember rubbed her face against Isabella's shoulder in an attempt to console the mournful vampire as she keened, letting out a surprised growl when she felt herself being pushed off as Isabella muttered under her breath and tried to resituate how she held the silenced mortal in her arms. "No more arguing. I don't care if you hate me for this later, but you are not going to die here!" Ember whined again in the back as she tried to intercept Isabella's movements towards Takami's neck, and for a brief moment the vampire looked at the large familiar and saw the unspoken declaration in the feline's eyes.

He's gone.

"No, no I won't believe it. I can't give up, not now!" She tore her gaze away from the whining animal and nuzzled her way against Takami's neck, trying to separate all of the different sounds and smells surrounding them as the battle raged in the other room, desperate to listen for any semblance of a heartbeat that may be lurking beneath the surface, any chance that he was still alive and she wasn't just holding onto false hope. Hell, at that point she would take any hope even if she was wasting her breath, any chance that the teeth sinking into his neck would be his salvation. Their salvation.

"Isen!" Adelaide cursed as she skidded back into the room in time to see the same wicked claws that had ended Takami piercing through Isen, severing flesh and muscle and rendering his body bloody and torn as he thudded to the ground. For a moment she thought to free Danica if only for the power she knew the demoness held, but the fact was that Danica was unpredictable, and she could just as easily do more harm than good in order to save her own skin. She could flee to save herself, leaving Adelaide more exhausted from expending energy and with nothing to show for it.

"Tyrath. Will you fight if I free you?" Danica began to howl obscenities again at the notion that Adelaide would dare to free him before her, would dare to trust a demon she had just met even as he watched the fight with weary eyes. "I'm not leaving, Isen!" She didn't bother to turn as she reached Tyrath's side and felt along the link of chains, feeling for the magic before her concentration was broken by the sudden shatter of glass before an axe made contact with the floor some feet away. "Fuck!" She could smell the wood burning before she saw any of it, her gaze desperate as her head snapped to Isen and then back to the demon she'd begun trying to free.

"Separate them, little mageling. Do not worry about me."

"But if I do that then Isen is vulnerable."

"Right now, we are all vulnerable and there's more time wasted every time Ignas has to heal his body."

"Ignas! Could you kill that bastard on your own?!"
 
This time, Isen's sword barely even broke skin. It was like the demon's body hard somehow hardened with the blood that had passed through, tightening the muscles to the point where they were so bulged and compact that even a weapon as sharp as Onigoshi couldn't sever through the tissue. The demon had barely moved it's hand, and yet, the force it exerted sent Isen hurtling across the room. He rolled onto his back just in time to see the fire spreading up along the wall of the building, causing some of it's structure to burn away. As part of the wall gave way, Isen rolled aside, letting the rubble connect to the floor, scattering pieces of wood and concrete, showering the nearby demons bound still by the chain spell that had been cast.

"Shouldn't the chains be gone by now?" Isen asked Ignas, knowing they had already killed the demon who had started the spell.

"They're self sustaining. They won't go away until broken, or the host has been killed."

"Can we break them?"

"It has to be Adelaide, you know that."

"Yeah..." Isen mumbled, pulling himself back up again. By now, the hulking demon had turned it's attention towards it's real target, stalking across the floor towards Adelaide. "And she isn't going to leave." He added, confirming what Ignas had said before, and what he already knew.

Isen ran and leapt back onto the demon again, from behind this time, jamming the point of Onigoshi into it's back. With the force, and the angle, it managed to push through, but less than halfway between it's massive chest and the side that was facing Adelaide. He shrugged them off, and Isen fell, but maintain his grip on the handle of his sword, practically dangling by that, and that alone, as the demon shook again, trying to create enough force to jar them free.

"It might be time to let me take over, Isen."

Before Isen could contemplate that, however, his grip finally broke, and he tumbled back down to the floor. He rolled back to a knee, staring up at the demon as it turned back around to face them instead. "Is the demon bowing as well?" The demon asked, noticing Isen's position. "Some king." He laughed, his heavy voice echoing through the burning room.

"On my own?" He asked, answering Adelaide's question before Isen could speak up. "Possibly. Isen, give me control."

"That's not what she means." Isen interjected, picking up on what was meant by that question.

"Now? You want to do that right now?" Ignas bickered. "In a burning building surrounded by demons. That's where you want to leave him, mortal and extremely killable?"

Isen started moving again, while Ignas argued with Adelaide, attempting to wrestle Onigoshi out from the shoulder plex of the demon. Using every bit of strength he could muster, he pushed the demon back against the flames that were moving around the perimeter of the walls now. As the chanting outside got louder, so too did the sound of burning flesh. The demon's healing factor surged to fend off the burns and push Isen away, but in doing so, it's attention was divided enough for him to pull Onigoshi back out and cut a slice along it's back. Again, it barely went deep enough to cause any major damage that couldn't be out healed, but it reunited them with their weapon once again to give them a fighting chance.

"If you can kill this thing on your own, and get everybody to safety, then we have to."

"You're both insane. This is a terrible idea." He argued, still, half expecting Danica to add her two cents into the matter.

The demon turned back towards them, it's face angered by the pain it had experienced. It swung it's claws towards one of the bound demons, slicing through it's neck, lacing it's talons with their blood. Isen lunged forward, attempting to stop it from placing the talon towards it's mouth, but struggled against it's strength. With perfect timing, Ember had returned to help, leaving the room Takami and Isabella had been in. Digging her own claws and fangs into the demon's back, Isen was able to wrestle control and in doing so, he scraped it's talon against the side of it's face and over it's eye, causing it to stagger back into the flames again, blinded.

"We need some way to keep it down. It's not just going to let you do the separation..." Isen called out to Adelaide, looking up above them. The ceiling was burning, coming apart. Some parts of the roof had already fallen, it wouldn't be long before the entire structure had crumbled apart. "Can you do something with that?" He asked, pointing out the damage above the demon. If she could pull it down, maybe they could pin it, or take it out of commission for a little while.

One of the demons from outside began to push through the doorway, and Ember attempted to buy them more time, but not before Ignas shared with her a warning. "Be careful."

Pouncing through the frame, she easily dispatched the first demon, landing on top of it and ripping at it's neck with her jaw. The problem, however, lay with what she saw afterwards; the rest of the demons, alerted to the sudden appearance of the massive feline. Their chanting stopped, their attention focused on their new target, leaving Ignas to watch through Isen's eyes as she too became surrounded. "Do it." Ignas told them both. "Just do it. I'll kill every last one of these bastards. Make it quick...she's in danger."
 
"I don't want to do it, you idiot, but Tyrath has a point!" As much as she hated to admit it, and as much of a risk as it would be to separate the two and leave Isen vulnerable... What choice did they have? Once Isen was vulnerable at least she could protect him, even if that meant teleporting him out of here and going back for him later. That still left him very human and more importantly, very alive.

"If you're not going to free me, then bring out the idiot and let's see if he's as strong as he once was, or if he's just going to get us all killed and put us out of this misery already!" If this was Danica's way of showing a vote of confidence in Ignas, then she had a really, really strange way of showing it. Nonetheless, Adelaide ignored it as she watched the fighting before her, hovering near Tyrath as she tried to decipher how best to handle the situation. She couldn't do it in the middle of them exchanging blows, that was far too risky and chanced Isen passing from one simple blow landing on his very human body.

"I suggest you figure out something soon, Adelaide." Tyrath's calm tone had hitched up a notch as he watched the large creature lay wound to one of his chained brethren, his brow creasing in concern as he watched the wound struggle to close itself and repair the demon before it was attacked again. "What good will freeing him be if there is no one left to fight at his side?"

"Don't you think I know that?! I am thinking, just.. Just give me a bloody second!"

"We don't have a second, witch!" Oh, now she was a witch again. Danica couldn't make up her mind which nickname she wanted to use as an insult to her, and Adelaide was sick and tired of listening to the demoness bicker with everyone and everything when she didn't get her way. A flash of black and a snarl caught her attention as Ember defied her instruction to remain with the vampire and leapt into the room, digging into the demon and aiding Isen in sending it stumbling back with a freshly wounded face. It wasn't nearly enough to take it down permanently or incapacitate it, but it was enough of a start that she began to look around for something big or heavy enough to injure it further.

"I'll try. Don't let my familiar die in the meantime, we've already lost one tonight." Isabella's mournful scream from the other room hadn't gone unnoticed and Adelaide winced, knowing that it was now or never if they had any chance of winning this fight and getting out alive. She needed to bring the roof down and try to pin the humongous demon that was currently threatening them, separate a demon from its catalyst, and then there was the matter of all the other demons infiltrating with the hopes of capturing her and decimating everyone and everything else even as Ember worked her way outside and at the mass of demons.

For a long moment she stood there frozen, feeling the heavy weight of doubt and anxiety bearing down on her like an invisible boulder, cementing her in place as she fought against the waves of self-doubt and fear that she could never get it right, that all of her friends new and old were going to die because of her, because she wasn't strong enough to do what was necessary to keep them all alive. That they were all going to burn, screaming in agony, her sight set on her enlarged familiar that had pounced onto the demon again to push it further into the flames, then danced back in order to look at its mistress with a questioning gaze.

"Not today." If they were going to fight dirty and use magic to hold everyone down and try to kill them, then she was going to use the gift she had been born with, and take the magic from them in order to bring them down. Even if that meant moving closer to the encroaching fire until she felt the flames dancing at her skin, even if it left her within range of the monstrosity shrouded by flames, there wasn't a chance she wasn't going to use its own magic against it, drawing from the growling beast and directing the raw power straight into the ceiling above it until the wood gave way with a sickening snap of a beam and came crashing down on the demon.

"Sloppier than I would have done, but that will work." Danica's commentary went unanswered as Adelaide jolted back from a scatter of embers from the burning pieces of the house, turning her attention to where Isen stood still holding Onigoshi and making her way to him as swiftly as she could.

"Stay with me when this is done. You can't do what you normally do as much as your instinct will tell you to." One hand rested against his chest just over his heart, her fingers spanned out across his clothing as her other hand went to the hilt of Onigoshi. "Don't stop until they're all dead, Ignas. Every last one of them. I'll free who I can, but I don't know how much energy I'll have left." A quick glance over her shoulder showed the behemoth of a demon still pinned under the burning roof even as it screeched and tried to free itself, her hand tightening around Onigoshi as she concentrated on the spell to separate Ignas from the catalyst he had lived in for so many years. The bond of the magic felt so natural after time spent together, her own magic pulling and plucking its way to the center of the spell until she found the nexus and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Liber."
 
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