xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 11:14 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Anatoli screamed as he kept flailing his arms as he struggled to channel his Wind Magic as he stood next to Camilla and Baurs.
"Calm down already Anatoli!" Camilla complained as she continued to put up barriers with her magic as the wax covered husks of former humans turned into gray sculptures approached them. "His freaking out is not helping right now!" She thought as she stepped backwards with Anatoli and Baurs from the oncoming zombified creatures.
"Ms. Camilla, why are you not trying to destroy them?" Baurs asked as she looked around at the various creatures poking and prodding against the walls of Camillas barriers.
"I don't think it's a good idea..." Camilla said with a serious expression as Anatoli continued to flail his arms in an attempt to generate energy in the air.
"Why not?!" Anatoli complained as he continued to shake his arms around.
"Dead bodies or not, I'm not comfortable with crushing these things if there's dead corpses inside them!" Camilla said as she turned her head towards Anatoli. "And will you stop fooling around and just use your magic!" She said as she got close to Anatoli.
"I'm trying! It's not easy without my ball!" Anatoli replied angrily.
"Don't give me that bull! You can perform magic without it!" Camilla screamed in response.
"Stop yelling at me! It's not helping!" Anatoli shouted.
"What you're doing right now isn't helpful either!" Camilla said in frustration.
"Enough!" Baurs exclaimed loudly as she jumped up to stand on her hind legs, looming over Camilla and Anatoli to catch their attention before landing back on all fours. "Mr. Anatoli, sit on my head." She suggested as Anatoli looked at her confused.
"Why the hell would I do that?" Anatoli replied in confusion.
"Please, just do it." Baurs said with a serious tone as Camilla turned around and noticed something bad was occurring.
As the sculpture zombies continued to press and crowd around the barriers protecting the trio, the walls to Camillas shielding were beginning to crack as they continued to squish their mangled malformed bodies against the barriers. As she noticed, Camilla made a grim expression as her eyes widened.
"Oh no, I built those barriers with a low amount of power to converse my energy and their starting to push through quicker than I thought!" Camilla thought nervously as she turned back towards Anatoli. "Sit on the giant lizard." Camilla said.
"What do you-" Anatoli said with surprise.
"Just sit on the damn lizard thing!" Camilla shouted as Anatoli jumped back in surprise. After hearing her shouting, Anatoli quickly moved over to where Baurs was as she bent forward to give him room to jump onto her head as he shifted and sat cross-legged on top of Baurs head.
Rolling her body forward and grabbing her tail between her legs, Baurs turned herself into a round shape to simulate the experience of a ball-like structure to assist Anatoli as he sat on her newly circular shape.
"Pretend I am the ball and use me to channel a bit of your energy." Baurs said as she stood completely still in a rolled up form as Anatoli sat on her like he normally would his ball as Camilla turned back as she noticed the sculpture zombies were beginning to slam their arms against the barrier, causing them to crack further and further until they were just about to shatter.
"Come on Anatoli!" Camilla said as she put her hands up with her fists in barrier spheres.
As he meditated on the ball, blades of wind begun to spun around his body as he concentrated his Wind Magic.
"...Form gusts, form a tornado, form something!" Anatoli thought to himself as he struggled to maintain his winds as he sat on Baurs, trying to mentally maintain the idea of using her as a substitute for his ball.
Suddenly, a shattering noise was heard as the zombies begun to storm them the group as Camilla placed her hands up to prepare to be swarmed.
"Camilla, get down!" Anatoli exclaimed as Camilla, turned around and ducked out of the way as a tornado formed around Anatoli. Stretching out his arms, the tornado around his body spread outward and slammed into the zombies, sending them flying into the walls.
Upon impact with various ends of the room, the zombified sculptures begun to break into various small pieces along the floor.
"Hey!... I... Did it..." Anatoli said between breathes as he sighed with tiredness from his struggle to use his magic as Camilla started to stand back up.
"About time too..." Camilla said as she looked around at the remains of the sculptures.
"Were there any bodies inside?" Baurs inquired as Anatoli got off her head and unfurled herself.
"...Let me see..." Camilla said with an anxious tone as she moved towards a sculpture torso with a hole where the head would be. Bending over it to the look inside, Camilla looked around and noticed a lack of organs, bones or flesh within. "Okay... Good... Thought I was gonna puke..." She said with a tone of relief as she backed away from the broken sculptures.
"Nothing?" Anatoli asked.
"Nothing. And a good thing too." Camilla said as she lightly kicked a sculpture zombie head as it rolled to the side.
"Why do you suppose that is?" Baurs questioned.
"...Oh I got one!" Anatoli asked.
"...And here comes a dumb comment..." Camilla thought as she rolled her eyes.
"They must have removed the bodies from the inside of the sculptures so that way the sculptures wouldn't have a corpse stench!" Anatoli said with a smile as he gave his thoughts as Baurs and Camilla made surprised expressions toward him.
"That... Actually makes a modicum of sense..." Camilla said with surprise.
"I agree. Good work, Mr. Anatoli." Baurs said casually, giving Anatoli a compliment.
"Oh yeah! Saved the girls and getting the questions right, I am on a roll today!" Anatoli said with his arms up in an expression of glee.
"Also says the guy who was completely useless without his ball for most of the situation. Hehe." Camilla joked as Anatoli slumped his head in defeat.
"Whatever! Lets just get out of here and find my ball!" Anatoli said as he stomped away angrily towards the exit to the room.
"Yeah, hopefully the others are alright too." Camilla said as she and Baurs followed behind Anatoli.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 11:19 a.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Standing between the racks of clothes was Pietro, his bulging muscle form active and dressed in his singlet, waiting patiently for the siblings to reappear. Standing out of the field of clothes was Corvus and Vulp, trying to be on the lookout for Tazo and Tiza.
"We still don't see them!" Corvus said loudly.
"Don't worry about finding them, just leave it to me." Pietro said as he waited for them to appear.
Suddenly, out from the racks was Tiza, dressed in another bright and colorful outfit as she jumped up and dropkicked Pietro in the back of the skull, causing him to fall forward onto his knees.
"Guh!" Pietro grunted as he fell to his knees. Quickly turning around, Pietro attempted to cock back his arm for a punch until he noticed Tiza ran back into the clothing racks and disappearing once more. "Damn it..." He said as he noticed he lost his opportunity for a strike.
"It's wrong to try and hit a girl, old man!" Said the voice of Tazo as he emerged from the clothing racks, once again in an altered outfit, while holding a knife as he swung at Pietros backside, the buff strongman turning around in the nick of time to catch Tazos swing and pivot out of the way.
Continuing to swing at Pietro, Tazo wildly laughed with a mad smile as the big man attempted to dodge but only managed to duck out of the way of a few swings as a few cuts were made into Pietros arms, chest and legs from the swipes Tazo made at him.
"Grrr…" Pietro grumbled as he held at the areas of where he was sliced up. Behind him, Tiza jumped out of the clothing with a glove that had blades on the finger tips and had scratched at Pietros backside. "Ahhh!" He exclaimed in pain.
"Bahahaha!" Tazo laughed maniacally. "Talk about a fun time, isn't it sister?!" He said with a crazed tone as he spun around.
"Indeed brother! Bad fashion sense or not!" Tiza said with a joyous tone, enjoying the damage she and her brother were causing.
"Damn it! We can't just sit around here this whole time as the old baldy just gets his butt kicked!" Corvus exclaimed in frustration as Vulp looked at the crow Celestial Spirit. "We have to do something!" The crow exclaimed angrily as he flapped his wings up to enter the fray.
Suddenly, however, a pair of furry blue and gray hands emerged to stop Corvus in the air before he could assist Pietro. Looking back to see where they came from, Corvus saw Vulp with a serious expression in his eyes as he wanted the crow to not enter.
"The hell is your problem?!" Corvus exclaimed angrily as he looked at Vulp as the fox proceeded to turn his head back to watch Pietro, still struggling to fight back against the siblings. As Pietro managed to block a brass knuckle padded fist strike from Tazo with his massive muscles defending himself, Tiza proceeded to stab him in the calf area of his left leg with a knife.
"Gurh!" Pietro exclaimed as he took a knee once again as the cuts on his body leaked out droplets of blood onto the ground. "Times like this... I wish I was fifteen years younger..." He thought as he looked up at the pair, standing over him, dressed in matching frilly green and purple outfits. "Your... Magic...?"
"The old man wants to know our magic sister? Shall we oblige? Hehehe." Tazo laughed in a posh tone.
"May as well, given his final moments for his long life are about to end! Listen up baldy, our magic is called "Fashionista Magic!" Tiza said as she bent to look in Pietros eyes.
"Our magic allows us to teleport in and out of clothing and slip into it like it was our own!" Tazo said as he danced around as he got behind Pietro.
"And some of the clothes in this room have different weapons hidden in each pocket for us to play around with!" Tiza said as she flashed her knife in front of Pietros face.
"Magic so simple and used so effectively..." Pietro thought while he heavily breathed from his wounds.
Reaching down with his knife behind him to stab Pietro and end his life, Tazo looked down and noticed the buttons of Pietros wrestling belt. Forming a smirk, the fashionably dressed maniac made a deliciously evil thought in his head as he reached downward towards the belts buttons and removed it from the strongman.
"What the?" Pietro exclaimed as his muscles proceeded to shrink and his normally round shape returned. Looking behind, he noticed Tazo had picked up his belt and proceeded to spin around, dancing with it. "What are you doing!?" Pietro exclaimed in anger as Tiza grabbed his face with her hand and proceeded to point her dagger in the large man's face.
"Eyes on me, old timer. Hehehe." Tiza said with a smirk as Pietro felt part of the knife on his face.
"Such a lovely belt despite the clown face on it! Perhaps a change of color and some alterations to the crests on the side of it and it will shine as the most beautiful belt in the world!" Tazo said jokingly.
"Don't let him put on the belt..." Pietro said with a serious tone as he stared at the young woman.
"Oh be quiet." Tiza said with a smirk as she looked behind him to watch her brother fool around.
"Oooohh I must see how well this fits!" Tazo said as he proceeded to button Pietros belt and placed it around his waist.
"It looks perfect on you brother! Maybe just adjust the- Ahhh!" Tiza said until she screamed in sudden shock as she dropped her knife in fearful surprise.
"I told you..." Pietro said tiredly as he turned around to look at what Tiza fearfully exclaimed at.
Tazo's body started to grow exponentially in size. Much like Pietro, his bodies muscles were beginning to morph and increase to a massive size as the muscles in his neck, arms, legs, chest and back started to cause him to become malformed as his clothes ripped and his veins begun to pop.
"Whoa!?" Corvus said as he and Vulp watched the male fashion wizard become more and more of a disgusting mass of muscles.
"Brother!" Tiza said as she quickly rushed to her brothers side as she tried to stop his muscles and body from continually expanding to the point that it looked like he was going to explode. Standing up from his pained state, Pietro walked over to the duo and then went behind the massive pile of muscles. Reaching into the area where Tazos back would be, Pietro pulled out his belt from the giant writhing pile of flesh.
"Gaaahh!" Tazo screamed with tears in his eyes as he felt like he could finally breathe from his body returning to normal. Struggling to breath, Tazo fell to the floor and he and his sister held eachother in worry over one another.
"Oh thank goodness!" Tiza said as she embraced her brother.
"That was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me!" Tazo screamed with a frightened tone.
"Are you sure about that?" Pietro said as he put his belt back on, his body returning to his maximum muscle state as the siblings looked over. "Max Muscle Strike!" The strongman shouted as he cocked back his arms and proceeded to double strike the siblings in their faces, sending them flying into the clothing racks as the clothing fell over the place onto the two as their eyes swirled in their knocked out states on the ground.
"Damn..." Corvus said with wide eyes as he and Vulp moved to where Pietro was as he removed his belt from his waist and laid it on his shoulder, sighing in an exhausted tone.
"Sometimes I wish I wasn't so old..." Pietro said as he looked over at the Celestial Spirits.
"Wha-what happened there? When the guy put your belt on?" Corvus asked as he perched on a clothing rack that was still upright.
"...Max Muscle Magic is a simple magic frankly... It allows the user to be able to have their muscles and body mass expand in a way different than Titan Magic. It can be a great and powerful magic to those who fight hand to hand like me... But there is one thing about the magic that makes it incredibly dangerous as well." Pietro explained as he looked at his belt.
"What's that?" Corvus questioned.
"It only works on those with full and complete control of their muscles already." Pietro said as he looked at the spirits. "Despite my age, there was a time I was considered one of the most athletically fit men in Fiore, before I joined Psycho Circus and before I became a wizard. I learned how to increase my physical strength to the best I could and learned how to master this magic that's contained in this belt." Pietro said as he showed them the belt.
"So this belt will continue to make peoples bodies expand from it increasing their muscles unless the person wearing it is in tip top form?" Corvus said with a raised eyebrow.
"In a sense, yes. If I were to put this on one of the kids, they would probably expand to the point they would pop like a balloon. If I didn't intervene like I just did on the trendy boy, he would have become an "art piece of blood, guts and bones" all over the walls here." Pietro said.
"Happy that didn't happen..." Corvus said with a disturbed shrug as he and Vulp looked over at the doorway out of the room. "What should we do about them?" The crow said as he pointed his wing towards the unconscious Tiza and Tazo.
"Leave 'em for now. They won't be able to do anything in their current state." Pietro said as he walked over to the door and opened it. Leaving the room with Corvus and Vulp behind him, Pietro walked into a barren dust ridden hallway, turning his head to look around for any more Pazuzu's Easel members. "Coast looks clear." He said.
"Good to hear. Any idea what floor we are at?" Corvus wondered as he flapped around with Corvus sniffing around for Bernards scent.
"Not sure. But if we follow the fox, we might just have luck with finding the others." Pietro said as he started to follow Vulp with Corvus following behind the strongman.
"Here's a question... When you were first starting out, did you ever turn into a mass of muscles like that?" Corvus asked.
"A few times... Each more painful than the last until I finally learned it." Pietro said as he followed Vulp as they reached a stairwell. "Up or down?" He asked towards Vulp as the fox Celestial Spirit pointed his paw upwards.
"Looks like it's up. Hold on, let me check and see if there's anything ahead." Corvus said as he flew up the center of the stairwell. "Really hope there isn't anything ahead..." The crow thought as he continued higher and higher by several floors until suddenly, the crow bounced his face against a pair of soft mounds. "Whoahoho!?" Corvus said as he felt something soft against both of his cheeks.
Marlene, looking down at Corvus between her breasts with surprise, made a face of surprise as Bernard looked over, holding Anatolis ball, as Vulp and Pietro went up the stairs and made eye contact with the pair.
"Humina humina… Hehehe." Corvus said as he made a lustful expression as he was between Marlenes boobs.
"Normally, I'd probably hit you for this... But I'm glad to see you too." Marlene said with a soft expression.
"Lucky crow, aren't cha?" Bernard said jokingly as he looked over at Corvus as Marlene hugged the crow against her chest. Noticing Bernard, Vulp immediately rushed to his side as he jumped up into Bernards arms, making him drop Anatolis ball and started to lick him continuously as a sign of affection. "Hey! Hey! Calm down already!" He complained with a smile as Vulp happily reunited with him.
"Some are back together, now just a few more remain." Pietro said as he walked up the stairs, Bernard and Marlene looking over at him and noticing his wounds.
"What happened to you?" Bernard said as he looked over at the dozens of cuts all over Pietro.
"I dealt with the overly dressed siblings. How about you?" Pietro said.
"Tattoo guy. Took some hits too." Bernard said as he lifted his shirt up slightly to reveal some of the bruises he got on his chest, hidden under some bandaging.
"Whoa, you alright?" Corvus said as he looked over from Marlenes arms.
"Yeah, I should be. Marlene, can you tend to Pietros cuts?" Bernard asked as Marlene nodded as Corvus got out of her hands as she walked over to check on Pietros cuts, grabbing a healing balm from her utility belt.
"Now all we have to do is find Camilla, Anatoli and Baurs." Bernard said as he looked at the group.
"Way ahead of you." A male voice said as the group looked down the stairs as Anatoli, Camilla and Baurs started to approach them from below.
"Glad to see the band back together." Camilla said as she and Anatoli got upstairs.
"My ball!" Anatoli exclaimed gleefully as he rushed over to his ball and jumped onto it.
"Someone's happy." Baurs said as she looked over at Anatoli as Bernard walked over to pet the giant Elemental.
"How you doing?" Bernard asked.
"Your concern for me is appreciated but I'm more concerned for your own." Baurs stated casually as she looked at him.
"I probably got more exercise today than I have had in a good while." Bernard said as he scratched his head as Camilla walked over and embraced Bernard from behind.
"Nothing wrong with that. Hehehe." Camilla said as she pressed against Bernards back. "How'd things go?" She asked as Bernard looked over at Marlene who made a calming expression as she nodded towards him.
"Things were fine." Marlene said with a smile.
"Yeah, I'd say so." Bernard said with a calming smile as he looked at Camilla, who made a surprised look.
"Don't normally see that look from him... Something happen?" Camilla thought with a raised eyebrow.
"Look enough of the semantics, we gotta get back to the reality and look for the child." Bernard said as he got out of Camillas embrace.
'"Right!"' The group said as they all proceeded to head up the stairs towards the next few floors.
"Corvus, Vulp, Baurs. Return to my body, I don't want us to separate like what happened earlier." Bernard said as the creatures nodded in agreeance as the Celestial Spirits turned into light particles and entered Bernards Lacrima pacemaker and Baurs turned into her small rock bracelet form and attached to Bernards right wrist.
Meanwhile, within a dimly lit room of the base, Claudia paced around the room as she would casually glanced down at the sleeping baby, Merilo, inside a small makeshift crib made out of clay. As she continued to shift back and forth, Claudia would become lost in thought as she pondered ideas of what to do with the child.
"Stay asleep, little one. Because by the time you wake up, you're going to become more beautiful than mother nature intended for you. And it will all be because of my hands... Hehehe..." Claudia thought with a devilish grin as she continued walking around. "But what to make of you I wonder?" She said aloud to herself before she walked over to a nearby table covered in art supplies as she tapped on a crystal ball-shaped Lacrima.
Following her touching the crystal ball, the Lacrima begun to glow as an astral projection of a screen appeared above the crystal. On the screen, moving in motion up the stairs, was Bernard, Camilla and the rest of the Psycho Circus team as Claudia looked at surveillance footage of the group traversing her base.
"How the- Damn those morons! I trained them in artistic magics and they still couldn't succeed when I needed them!" Claudia thought as she grit her teeth as she watched the Psycho Circus wizards continue up the stairs, getting closer to her location. "I have one trick up my sleeve left though..." She thought as she softened her angered face until she caught sight of Bernard amongst the group. "...Ugly..." Claudia said aloud to herself.
Reaching an upper floor to the dilapidated building, the group came upon a large door at the end of a large hallway with a red carpet rolled out in front of it. Above the doorway, in big bright letters with lights flashing in a sequence to display the grandiose nature of the room behind it, the room was listed as "Claudia Vandeerheem's Grand Gallery of Art!"'
"Someone's humble..." Anatoli said sarcastically as he looked at the sign.
"And I'm guessing somewhere in there is the Balsamicos kid." Camilla said with a serious look in her eyes.
"Hopefully not covered in hot wax..." Marlene said with a worried expression.
"Lil' Bern." Pietro said as he looked over and caught Bernard attention. "Strategy?" He asked.
"She attacked me with a giant scorpion sculpture with a time stopping camera for a head, It'd be stupid not to think she wouldn't have some kind of trap ready..." Bernard said with a serious look.
"In that case, I'll go ahead." Camilla said as she clapped her hands together and a layer of energy formed over her body, covering her body in a shield.
"I'll follow behind." Pietro said as he followed behind Camilla with his belt on his shoulder.
"You two get behind me." Anatoli said on his ball as he stood in front of Bernard and Marlene.
As they got closer to the door, Bernard looked down at the carpet that was on the way towards the entrance to Claudias gallery. Becoming suspicious, he shuffled his feet off the carpet to the edges of the rug to where he wasn't stepping on it anymore as he looked at Camilla put her hand on the door to the gallery.
Touching the door, Camilla noticed a magic circle suddenly formed in front of the door with her raising her arms in a defensive stance to protect herself and the others until she noticed that nothing happened.
"Nothing happened... Well, that's anticlimactic..." Anatoli said as he raised his eyebrow in confusion.
"Maybe she knows she is outmatched in numbers, she's giving up..." Marlene said as she scratched her head.
Glancing down at the floor, Bernard noticed that the carpet had changed from its red color to a black and white circular shape, similar to the void paintings that separated the group previously.
"Guys!" Bernard said as everyone looked down at the floor and noticed the floor was different. As they looked down, everyone stepping on the carpet was beginning to melt and transform into paint, much like before.
"Bernard!" Camilla exclaimed as she, Pietro, Marlene and Anatoli had disappeared as Bernard clung to the wall to avoid disappearing once again.
"...God damn it..." Bernard said to himself as he fell down to the floor against the wall of the hallway. "Calm down, calm down, calm down! Think, think, think!" He thought with nervousness as he slapped his face in an effort to get his head on straight. "Okay, okay... They have to be alive, the portals the first time spat me out in another location in this place so they have to be alive. Camilla and Pietro can take care of things... And me..." Bernard said aloud to himself before standing up and looking over at the doorway to the gallery.
Swallowing spit, Bernard turned his attention away from the door back to the carpet as it returned back to a red color of normalcy once again. Growing nervous, he reached behind himself to a back pocket and taken out a clear flask he had that was filled with a red, black and blue liquid sloshing around inside before putting it back behind him.
"...If this doesn't go according to the way I think it will, I'm so screwed..." Bernard said to himself as he looked at the entrance the gallery as he walked over to it.
No more zombies, no more clothing and no more help unfortunately. Anatoli managed to defeat the zombified sculptures with some assistance from Baurs, Pietros magic belt had proved to be too much for the fashion obsessed Tazo and Tiza and the group reunited for a bit until Claudia had one last trick to separate the group while she "works" on her artistic desires for the child but she missed one person: Bernard. Where are the other Psycho Circus wizards? How will Bernard and his pets fare on their own in defeating the increasingly crafty dark wizard artisan that is Claudia Vanderheem? Find out next time on Menagerie!
Authors Note: (I actually made it to forty chapters... Never thought this would happen to be completely honest.)