Chougokin du Hanasen

[Mu-chan]

Ai Rin pouted to herself.

"... ~sigh~ I have no idea what he's doing..." she thought.

She thought about the guardian as she watched it focused on Fen.

"...The last guardian we fought was a regenerative summon field. It's real form was the darkness around us, so we had to trace it's pattern, binding it in place, and preventing more wolves from manifesting... then we dispelled the darkness while destroying all the wolves since any of them left over would act as the new source... just a standard nightmare-class spell... purely magical-based... this feels similar, but... it's only attacking Fen... I only sense it around Fen..." Ai Rin silently thought. She didn't take out any of her reference books since she wouldn't know where to look anyway.

"It's only attacking Fen... I doubt that's only because of the spells it's using... then again, it's not like I can get at the actual seal while that guardian is present... probably... maybe it doesn't like this light I'm carrying..." She tried shining the light on the guardian as she thought to herself. It, whatever it was, didn't noticeably react to this.

"Nightmare-class summon spell... ... I guess I could try what I did before..."

She stabbed her magical weapon's blade into the ground below and created a personal magic circle around herself.

She closed her eyes.

"... I can't sense it... it's not the same... that coldness... where is it coming from...? It only appears to be directed towards Fen... I can't even sense anything from that 'robe'... as if it isn't even there..."

Ai Rin stopped her spell and sighed.

"I need more information..." she quietly said in disappointment. There was little Ai Rin could do right now to help him.

Ai Rin looked at Fen who was defending himself from the guardian's attack. He looked in great trouble.
"Fen... fight it!" she suddenly called out. "Whatever it's trying to do, whatever it's trying to make you think, don't let it win. Fight it, with your own ego."

Ai Rin didn't know what to do, but Fen looked in trouble.
Fen said it was a psyche spell... This was quite meaningless to Ai Rin. She knew virtually nothing about such spells. All she knew was it was pressing its aura, its influence, towards Fen's ego. Whether this was psyche magic or not she didn't know... but she knew he needed to fight it. He couldn't let it beat him.

[Maruno]

muchan said:

"Whatever it's trying to do, whatever it's trying to make you think, don't let it win. Fight it, with your own ego."

That shout did something. Fen opened his eyes and glared at the ground. He rose to one knee again, from being hunched over on the ground, and clenched his fist.

"Illumo!" he shouted, and his burden was suddenly lightened again. He stood up and glared at the robe. Writhing in the light that was already fading away, it looked somehow more real than before when Ai Rin was looking at it. More... alive.

"Fire Burst!" A gust of wind tinged with slivers of fire shot towards the robe and engulfed it. The robe squirmed maniacally in the air, burning, before falling to the ground. It didn't fall flat, though; it was as though there was some invisible body inside it.

Fen spun around and pointed at Ai Rin, his face dirty and streamed with sweat and a few tears. His eyes flashed with determination. "Break it," he ordered, his voice colder than usual, more serious. "It's a Summon."

It was a Summon indeed, one unique amongst all Summon spells and extremely rare. Its Summon command was probably written down in one book, if at all. When used, it summoned the creature in the robe. The creature then attacked the nearest and most likely target, by drifting into that person's mind and amplifying feelings of despair and anxiety until it overwhelmed them. While it did this, only the robe of the creature remained, floating silently in the air, as the essence of the creature within plagued the victim's mind. This Summon creature was highly skilled in Psyche magic.

And Fen's mind contained much despair and sorrow already.

[Mu-chan]

"Break it?!" Ai Rin exclaimed, not sure what Fen meant exactly.

Ai Rin created a magic circle around the fallen summon and uttered something quietly to herself.

The summon slowly vanished in the shimmering circle. The robe and whatever was inside had turned into a glistening dust and disappeared into the night.

Ai Rin took a sigh of relief, or maybe of sadness, as she released her spell.

"I think that's it. Now all that's left is to try and break the seal here," she spoke.

Ai Rin began another spell.

"Hear my voice and appear. My servant, Lu Meria."

Once again, Ai Rin's small summon appeared before her. It looked at Ai Rin, knew what Ai Rin wanted of it without any words spoken, and quickly disappeared deep into the shrine.

This time, there wasn't such a long wait. The ground beneath the shrine began a faint glow. It wasn't the glow of the actual seal being broken, but of Lu Meria attacking the weakened seal.

"So, the seal was actually underground... the shrine must have been a marker, or placed there simply because of the ground's sacredness. I still wonder what the inscriptions say though, as they might be related to the seals, or to the guardians of the seals," Ai Rin thought to herself, waiting patiently.

The glowing light disappeared and Lu Meria returned carrying something.

"What's this?" Ai Rin asked as she took a small indigo sphere from Lu Meria. It fit comfortably in Ai Rin's palm. Silently, Lu Meria smiled at Ai Rin and disappeared.

Ai Rin had a blank look on her face before she composed herself and turned to face Fen. Hopefully he would have recovered slightly after that last ordeal.

"Well, we're done here. Seems actually breaking these seals is more brute-force than anything else, so now we know what to do the other shrines shouldn't take as long to break. I asked Lu Meria to break the seal for me, as she could get at it while we couldn't. This seal is now separated from the overall seal.

"She also found this," Ai Rin spoke as she held the sphere towards Fen. "It was within the seal. I don't know what it is, though. I would only be guessing, but it might be important..."

Ai Rin paused before she spoke. Her eyes still glowing, yet so naturally now, almost like she'd forgotten she was doing it. As if it was normal for her.

"Shall we move on to the next seal? We'll have to hurry if we want to get this done before the sun rises. There is only one seal we can go to right now and I know roughly where it is... shall we continue?" Ai Rin asked.

[Maruno]

Fen breathed slowly and deeply, attempting to regain his composure. He wiped his face on his sleeve, and noticed how dirty it was. He had been a consistent mess for at least a day now. Upon thinking this, Fen chuckled a little. It was a welcome reprieve from the experience he had just faced.

He shook his head vigorously, and yawned. Quite an ordeal indeed.

He then noticed Ai Rin as she took the indigo sphere from Lu Meria. He recognised the object, even in such a dark place, and he took it when it was offered to him. Until recently, something similar had resided atop his staff.

"It's a focus," Fen said absently, turning it around in his hands. It was glowing very slightly. From what Fen could tell, the interior of the gem was flawless, but the surroundings were so dim he couldn't see any kind of detail. Most gems, even ones of fairly low technique, would look a lot better in darkness. He'd take another look at it once it became bright.

He put the gem in his pocket and looked at Ai Rin. He hadn't paid attention to her mentioning the next seal.

"Your eyes are glowing," he said. "Why is that?" They were really noticeable here.

[Mu-chan]

Ai Rin was a little taken-back by the sudden question and paused before she answered.

"I have a very small amount of demon blood in me. What that means is I can make pacts with summons and share my mana with them. My eyes also glow when I use magic. But right now, they're glowing just because I want them to. My eyes have been able to do this ever since I was a child. My sister is the same as me. My mother as well. It doesn't do much when I'm not casting spells, but it makes my aura appear slightly... 'different', which is enough for now to avoid the seals' spell... It's also good for scaring people." She tilted her head and smiled slightly as she spoke, narrowing her eyes and looking away from Fen.

"... I almost forgot they were glowing until you mentioned it... I get so used to it, I don't even need to try and make them glow after a while... but it's a little hard to explain all this," she said uncomfortably.

"Anyway," she became more focused again. "Shall we go to the next seal or not? We still have a quite long time before the sun rises. If we act swiftly, we should be able to break the remaining seals before the sun rises, but the remaining guardians will probably only get more difficult to defeat... and it would be bad if after we put all this effort into breaking the seals, someone else gets to the centre seal before us...

"What do you think we should do?" she asked.

[Maruno]

Perhaps this demon blood ran in the females of Ai Rin's family, for whatever reason.

Demons were rare in the world, although most people knew they existed. They were believed to be creatures that developed strangely and rapidly due to the effects of the magic flowing through the world. Most known demons had been tamed in the past and been linked to a Summon spell, so that magicians could use their magical powers at a future time. Even so, Summons weren't only of demons; many Summons were of normal creatures or other powerful enchantments (such as an animated skeleton or weapons).

Since demons were quite rare, it was even more surprising to hear of a family that contained demon blood. Perhaps Ai Rin's mother had developed just slightly due to the world's magic, and passed that change on to her children. Or it could be one of a thousand other explanations.

The next seal... Fen's body suddenly became quite stiff and sore at this prospect. "You run me ragged," he said with a slight groan. "You should fight the next guardian. I'll watch."

[Mu-chan]

"..." Ai Rin didn't respond immediately, clearly not liking the statement.

She glared at him for a while with her glistening purple eyes...
Fen appeared quite worn out from the battle...

Tilting her head away from him she replied, "Don't forget, you need me to locate and break the seals, unless you think you're up to it... it's no good if I use up all my mana fighting...

"... ... If I can... I'll give it ago... but don't think you can just sit back and not do anything." She seemed to be quite insulted by his statement. Almost as if he had accused her of not doing anything to help so far.

~sigh~ "Either way, let's hurry. We're taking too long already... if you can run, try to keep up."

Ai Rin starting moving quickly in the direction they came from, following the aura she could sense to the next seal.

[Maruno]

"I'm sure you'll be fine with your mana," Fen replied as he moved off after her, keeping up with her pace. "In that last fight, I did, what? Five or six spells? And none of them were that pressing. The experie-...

"If you get into trouble, I'll save you," he said. "You seemed rather confident of yourself against Jathe, and he was stronger than the Depression Phantom back there." It was just a name he'd made up. "I shouldn't imagine you'll need help."

Although, if she ended up facing a creature with such a specialised mode of attack as the Depression Phantom, she could be in trouble. But in that case, Fen would help out.

Fen was quite intrigued by Ai Rin's desire to break this seal as quickly as possible. Fen may have been much more cautious about doing so, biding his time and finding out more about what was going on. But then, Fen had no real experience with seals, so his progress would have been slow simply because of that.

[Mu-chan]

About twenty more minutes had passed since they started moving to the next seal. It was now quite deep into the night.
That last battle had been shorter than it felt. Most of the time was spent finding the seal.
They managed to find the site of the next seal much faster than the last since they had a better idea of what they were looking for. This time, there were fewer trees, and the dim light of the moon and stars shone down on the partial clearing. There was also no sign of a shrine or a stone.

Ai Rin tried to calm her nerves at what would inevitably follow... Ai Rin stepped away from Fen to give herself room to cast her spells.

"Hear my voice and appear--"

A powerful darkness began surrounding them before Ai Rin could finish her spell.

"I-I haven't done anything yet..." Ai Rin thought to herself.

The air grew cold quickly. Instead of a cold penetrating feeling from within as with the last seal, this felt more physical, like ice.

A glass mask materialised before the two, floating between where they stood. The air around it warped, almost giving the illusion of a body. This summon seemed far less concerned about concealing its presence than the last. But why had it appeared?

The mask, not focused on either of them in particular, suddenly emitted a wave of frozen air, deforming its body appearance, rapidly freezing everything it touched.

Given the chance, Ai Rin would normally try to find some alternative way to defeat a summon instead of taking it on directly, but she did not have such a luxury this time, and she had already agreed to Fen to take this summon on. If they were to break the remaining seals before sunrise, Fen needed to keep up his strength. Ai Rin had convinced herself of this.

"Barrier!" Ai Rin, who was already posed to cast a spell did so to try and block the attack.
Her attack did little except maybe slow the ice down a little, as it passed through the barrier, as if it was just a single pane of glass.

Ai Rin panicked and cast another spell. The air around Ai Rin retracted as she forcibly stole the mana from around her. In her panic, she created a wall around the frozen air using a spell she was very familiar with... but it was a wall of ice. Such a barrier, even though one of Ai Rin's specialities, probably should have had little effect on the guardian's attack, yet the attack stopped, contained tightly within Ai Rin's spell.

The mask held within the icy prison, turned to face Ai Rin directly; its hollow eyes almost staring into Ai Rin's soul. Was it intrigued by her attack? Had the ice barrier been effective? Or was the summon simply taunting her incompetence?

Ai Rin and the guardian stared at each other, not moving from their positions. The mask was encased in ice from its own attack and from Ai Rin's attack.

[Maruno]

Ice now, hmm?

"Looks like a stalemate," Fen said, observing the battle from the side, carefully out of reach of it. "Ice cancels out Ice." In fact Ice tended to feed off itself, if it was strong enough. "A bit of Earth or Sound would be good here, if you know any."

This Summon creature had spawned quickly, much quicker than the Depression Phantom. Then again, the Dark Wolf Clan has also attacked through little or no provocation as well. But perhaps it had been recently disturbed, probably by the Rola. If this was the case, then someone was nearby...

Fen kept his guard up, and slunk back towards a tree in an effort to be less conspicuous.

[Mu-chan]

"... Why isn't it attacking?" Ai Rin thought to herself cautiously.

It was quiet. Only the sound of trees rustling in the wind could be heard. Ai Rin was at a loss at what to do. Perhaps she should try another spell, but would she have time to cast anything powerful enough? If she makes a sudden movement, it might begin to attack again, but she couldn't stand there all night. She would take a chance. The enemy attacks seem wide spreading. A narrow attack might not be effective and might leave Fen vulnerable. Summoning would be her last resort. She needed to conserve her strength. Even at a time like this she was still holding back.

"Diamond Dust."
A low-strength ice spell. Ai Rin crystalised ice in the air above her and the summon and fired them downwards at the ground before the ice prison.
With the force of the impact of the ice shards, the soft ground was thrown into the air. With something between her and the ice, it should take longer for the enemy's ice to reach her. Only a few seconds was what she needed. That was her plan.

The mask didn't react to the attack at all. Ai Rin absorbed the mana from around her as fast as she could to get the minumum requirements for her spell.

The mask still didn't react. Ai Rin used this opportunity to charge up her spell. Her last attack accomplishing nothing as the earth fell back to the ground and the dust settled. She took her time gathering mana as the enemy was not making its move.

"Dark Eternal."
A darkness-based force spell. By focusing her mana at four locations around her foe, her spell took the form of a pyramid of darkness. A field-size spell designed to isolate the enemy, surrounding the ice prison, applying pressure on and draining the strength from the target. Quite formidable if used correctly. With the enemy not moving, encased in ice, it was a perfect target for such a spell, so Ai Rin thought. But once the spell started materialising around the opponent, it began its offense again. Ignoring the attack, the ice prison expanded outside the pyramid. The enemy's spell absorbing Ai Rin's ice wall, freezing everything along its path.

Ai Rin reacted sharply and as quick as she could, created an ice wall before her and the enemy. The ice stopped close to Ai Rin, her pendant glowing brightly. Ai Rin's legs felt weak and she supported herself with her weapon. The glass mask constantly watching her, no longer attacking. She hadn't expected it to attack like that during a spell of that strength.

"... I don't get it... why is it..." Ai Rin couldn't make sense of this. She looked at the glass mask. Its expression understandably still the same.

"It only attacks when I don't use ice... or is it it only attacks when I attack it? No. It was the one that attacked us first... wasn't it? ... why is it..." Ai Rin's thoughts became muddled.

[Maruno]

Fen took an involuntary step back as he saw Ai Rin perform her Dark Eternal spell. A Shadow/Force spell. Shadow magic was considered underhanded by everyone Fen knew (except the Rola). As a result, it wasn't often seen, and its teaching strictly regulated. Where, then, had Ai Rin learnt it?

Fen turned quickly towards a slight rustling of leaves. Perhaps it was paranoia, but that kind of rustling sounded different to the trees swaying in the wind. He narrowed his eyes, squinting to see more.

[Mu-chan]

Ai Rin lunged her naginata into the wall of ice. The ice-magic-infused attack did little damage. She made some distance between her and the ice, back-stepping. The weight of her bag weighed her down greatly. Until then, she had forgotten she was still carrying it.

The ice creeped towards Ai Rin, the mask becoming increasingly harder to reach with any attacks as its distance increased.

Ai Rin began casting another spell. The ice approached Ai Rin, but to complete her spell she couldn't move from where she stood. Her pendant shone brightly as it defended its possessor from the magical offence. A personal barrier, extended as far as her magic circle. It wouldn't last forever, and its usage took some toll on Ai Rin, only lessening the damage.

Ai Rin had made up her mind with what to do. Summoning was the only sensible option she could see remaining as she lacked the power for an attack with her mana alone.
Lu Meria would not be effective, not being able to reach the opponent within the ice. A fire deity would be risky to use. Ai Rin couldn't be sure if she could control it well in this situation, and it would be bad if the forest caught on fire. Therefore...

"Hear my voice and appear. My servant, Yi Taran."
A cloaked, ghost-like figure stood behind Ai Rin. It had a tall, thin stature.
The summon spread out its arms, its long fingers pointing outwards. From the shadows behind it, long branches lunged at the ice.

The branches and the ice collided. The ice began encasing the branches.
Ai Rin spread her arms out, her naginata stayed in place at the centre of the magic circle surrounding Ai Rin. She touched the branches with her hands. Where her bare fingers touched the branches, crystalic ice spread out, covering the branches with a layer of her own magical ice.

The ice from the enemy calmed down at the sight of Ai Rin's ice. This slight weakness in offensive power was enough.
Yi Taran's branches pierced deep into the ice, and by the time the guardian realised its error it was too late, unable to stop Yi Taran's attack. The branches reached the mask and grabbed it fiercely. Cracks started appearing on its human-like face.

"Don't kill it." Ai Rin commanded Yi Taran.
Yi Taran didn't obey and strengthened its grasp.

"I said don't kill it!" she turned around to face the summon. Her eyes glowing brighter than before. The summon restrained itself at the sight of Ai Rin's glare and held the guardian at bay. The guardian's magical ice slowly disintegrating from the branches outwards.

Ai Rin released her magic circle and took her weapon back into her hands.
Yi Taran remained, holding the guardian within its icy branches.

Ai Rin spoke to the guardian as she slowly approached it. She looked weakened and her steps were a bit uneasy.
"Yi Taran... a nature and shadow-based summon with the ability to communicate with plants. Guardian, I don't know what the fascination you have with my ice magic is about, but that was your undoing. Letting your guard down enabled my attack to pierce your ice. Your ice spell is now part of my ice spell. You've lost..."

Ai Rin stood looking up at the guardian. Yi Taran forced the mask lower down so Ai Rin could look at it easier. She stared at it with her narrowed glowing eyes.

"Why? You feel like a magic-based summon. You shouldn't even have a will of your own." The mask remained silent at her comments. Ai Rin was still unsure of the situation. This summon, felt strange.

"... Do you want me to spare you? You don't want to be sealed up do you? Alone, in this forest... Then give your life to me... and I'll let you become one with my ice... but first I'll need to break that pact of your's..."

Ai Rin took a deep breath then cast a further spell.

"Here my voice and appear. My servant... Lu Meria..." With that Lu Meria appeared and Yi Taran disappeared, as did its branches. With the shadow looming over the area fading, the dimly-lit trees from behind where Ai Rin previously stood were visible. They appeared lifeless... dead. That must have been what Ai Rin meant by Yi Taran being a shadow-type summon. It had persuaded the trees to give their lives to protect its master.
Ai Rin felt a bit sorry for the trees that gave their lives for her, but she didn't have time to worry about such things now. Yi Taran's speciality is of rebirth. They would be reborn, one day... new sprouts from their dead husks.
She glared at the ice guardian. It didn't persist attacking. Perhaps it had admitted defeat.

"Lu Meria. Please?" She gave a sincere look towards Lu Meria, keeping the guardian in the corner of her eyes.
Lu Meria looked around and eventually disappeared into the ground directly below the ice mask.
Moments later, the glow from Lu Meria's attack was visible through the earth below, followed shortly by the feeling of the seal being severed from the overall seal.
Lu Meria reappeared by Ai Rin's side.

The mask remained looking at Ai Rin, almost admiring her glowing eyes.
Ai Rin was still unsure about the summon. If it really was magic-based, it should have disappeared when the seal was released... or so she believed.

"... Spirit... Remember my voice. The voice of my soul. Your mana will become part of my mana. Your life will belong only to me. For I will be your keeper, until my life leaves this body and returns to the heavens. My servant... ... Shii Shii."

A small smile appeared on the face of the mask. It was quite disturbing and made Ai Rin flinch. The summon then disappeared, presumably to within Ai Rin's mana.

Ai Rin then fell onto one knee, exhausted. She was breathing deeply, tightly grasping her weapon. Sweat dripped down the sides of her face. Her long hair quite messed up. She gave a slight relieved smile with her eyes shut in the direction she believed Fen was in, too tired to move or look up properly.

"... What's wrong... Lu Meria?"

Lu Meria remained by Ai Rin's side.




<< OOC: Do you want Lu Meria to find something at this seal like with the last or not? If so, I'll just change that line where Lu Meria returns to Ai Rin so that she is now carrying something and hands it to Ai Rin after she makes the pact with the summon. >>

[Maruno]

<< OOC: No, no item is necessary. I have my focus, and I'll arrange something else. >>


Another Shadow-related thing, this time a Shadow/Nature creature, a most paradoxical combination. That particular combination was sometimes called Chaos or Genesis, due to the conflicting characteristics of the life-bringing Nature and the destructive Shadow.

Just where had Ai Rin been learning all this?

Fen dropped his barrier, which he had instinctively raised the moment he realised what the creature was. It wouldn't have done anything anyway, since his Air Barrier blocked substantial attacks and had no effect on moves like draining, and also because Yi Taran only affected plants. Nonetheless, he had raised it, although he hadn't felt anything bad happen to him.

Fen hurried over to the exhausted Ai Rin and knelt down beside her. "Are you okay?" he asked, putting an arm around her shoulders. "You look like you've just run a sent." A sent is a measure of distance, roughly 50 Earthan miles. "You could've asked for my help, you know."

He then looked towards Lu Meria. He didn't know much about Summons, so he didn't know what the little sprite should be doing, if anything. He also didn't know why the Glassia (another impromptu name; but now called Shii Shii in any case) was different to any other Summon.



<< OOC: I've had a vision of you pulling a Vizard here, with the mask to summon whenever you want, pulling it over Ai Rin's face to gain great Ice-based powers >>

[Mu-chan]

Ai Rin didn't say anything in reply.

Lu Meria remained where she was.
Whatever had caught her senses seemed to have vanished into the darkness of the forest. Lu Meria moved closer to Ai Rin's side, possibly fearing for her safety with the current situation.

"... There's something I don't like about all this..." Ai Rin quietly spoke to Fen. "For now... let's get out of this forest..."

Ai Rin's desire to break the seal as quickly as possible had lessened, at least for the moment. That last guardian was not as she expected. She began to doubt her feelings of what was sealed within this forest and her conclusions from studying the seal's structure and magic. The situation needed more investigation. Her immaturity and enthusiasm to break the seal without looking into things more closely could be costly. That's what she now thought.

Ai Rin stood up again, gently brushing away Fen's arm.
Lu Meria remained by Ai Rin's side while keeping distance from Fen.

"If we could find some place to shelter, that would be good..." Ai Rin spoke to herself, possibly hoping Fen would have an idea of where to go, not wanting to rest outside... again.