xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pazuzu's Easel Base, 12:20 p.m. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Amidst the chaos inside the home of the dark guild, Pazuzu's Easel, the continued rampage out in the front that was distracting the lesser members of the faction of evil wizard painters waged on as Formosa, the slime demon, continued to thrash about in front of the derelict building.
"Gaahh!" A red cloaked member of Pazuzu's Easel exclaimed as Formosa slammed its giant liquid hands against the ground, sending the member flying into the woods.
"Damn it! Keep creating things with the Picto Magic! We have to defeat this thing before Claudia becomes angry with us for taking too long!" Another member of the dark guild said as a multitude of members started to draw on pads with Light Pens in an effort to fight the giant slime.
"You know how impatient she gets!" Another member exclaimed in worry as they continued to draw.
'"Unison Picto: Wyvern!"' The large group of Pazuzu's Easel artists exclaimed in unison.
A large magic circle formed from the groups drawings as a large drawing of a green winged lizard-like creature with razor sharp teeth had formed to combat Formosa. Ramming into Formosa, the Wyvern drawing attempted to knock over the slime demon as Formosa proceeded to hold its ground as the Wyvern attempted to swat at it with its wings.
"Yes! Do it!" A member of the dark guild cheered as the drawing the group had created in combination of all their magic was making an effort to defeat the slime demon that was destroying parts of their guild home.
"Hey! Look!" One of the dark guild members muttered as they noticed a window of the guild hall had shifted into a different shape, similar to a black portal painting that they were familiar with that belonged to their leader. "That's one of Master Claudias portal paintings!" He continued.
"But why is it spawning here!?" Another member exclaimed in confusion.
Suddenly, ejecting from the portal like trash out of a garbage chute, was the members of Psycho Circus, one by one. Out came Anatoli followed by Pietro, landing on the smaller monkey-like man as Camilla and Marlene both landed on Pietro and bounced onto the ground off his large body. Emerging after them was Anatolis ball that bounced over to one of the dark guild members who picked it up, confused as to what he was looking at.
"Ge-get off!" Anatoli complained as he clutched at his back in pain from Pietro landing on him.
"Sorry." Pietro said calmly as he stood back up and looked over at the girls. "You two alright?" He asked.
"Just my pride being damaged..." Marlene complained as she and Camilla tried to stand up.
"Yeah, mine too..." Camilla said in annoyance as she glanced over at the myriad of cloaked dark guild members. "And it doesn't look like we are alone either..." She said as the others looked over at the group of grunts.
"Hey!" Anatoli exclaimed in anger as he pointed at the one wizard holding his ball in his arms. "That's mine, you jerk!" He continued to holler.
"Who are you guys?!" One of the Pazuzu's Easel members questioned as he and the rest of the members looked at the Psycho Circus wizards with rage in their eyes.
"They don't know we snuck in..." Camilla thought with a serious look as Pietro, Anatoli and Marlene looked on with similar seriousness. Glancing in the direction of Formosa battling the Wyvern drawing, she turned back towards the Pazuzu's Easel wizards. "Guys... Notice the lack of a certain someone..." She said as she started to glow from her magic.
"Huh?" Anatoli said in response as he looked around. "Oh! Bernie isn't here!" He said with a positive tone until he realized what he just said. "Oh crap... Bernie isn't here..." Anatoli said as Marlene and Pietro looked back up at the derelict building.
"I'm assuming he wasn't standing on the carpet to Claudia Vanderheems gallery room." Pietro said as he looked over at the other dark wizards, beginning to draw on their notepads with their Light Pens.
"Which means he is going to have to face her on his own..." Marlene said with a bothered tone as she reached for another vial of toxins on her belt.
"Make this fast guys... Gotta make sure we can find Bernard after this is over." Camilla said as she formed a battle pose. "Please be okay Bernard..." She thought with a hint of worry over her boyfriends wellbeing.
Meanwhile, back inside the building, Bernard paced around outside the entrance to Claudias gallery area. Hastily moving from wall to wall in the hallway, the beanie-sporting young man was sweating while trying to form ideas of what to do next.
"Keep thinking! Keep thinking!" Bernard thought wildly as he tried to form ideas as to what is behind the door, what he is dealing with and how he is going to rescue the baby from the clutches of Claudia on his own. "Okay... No backup, just me and the creatures in me... This is gonna suck..." He thought as he looked over at the door.
Approaching the entrance, Bernard swallowed spit in nervousness as he grabbed the knob. Closing his eyes, he expected something to happen like a few minutes ago when he allies disappeared but nothing had occurred as he opened his eyes and he sighed in relief.
"Must be on a magical timer of some kind..." Bernard thought as he opened the door and entered into the gallery.
Within a large and well lit room, Bernard looked around and saw a series of disconnected walls with random assortments of paintings hung up for display and presentation. Various sculptures of humans and creatures stood around the room in different areas and murals of images with vastly different colors stained the room in a gaudy vibe that made Bernard grow uneasy as he stood in the room.
"...This place is nasty..." Bernard thought with a disturbed look in his eyes as he looked at all the paintings depicting disturbing scenes of violence and cruelty. "...I'm not an artist but I can definitely tell if this was held up in an actual art gallery, people would riot..." He said quietly to himself as he eyed up and down a painting.
"You wouldn't believe how angry this makes me..." Said a female voice as Bernard looked over as he heard footsteps. Emerging from the darkness, Claudia Vanderheem appeared with a disgusted look on her face as she stood several feet away from Bernard. "I would have loved for any of your little friends to come in here and witness my art in its splendid glory but no... It had to be the ugly and disgusting one with a rock in his heart." She said with a shaking head.
"Where are they? That little portal trick you did out there supposed to be your "last resort" or something?" Bernard said with a serious tone as he looked down and noticed Claudia was holding a suitcase in her hand. "That suitcase... She had a living sculpture thing in there back at the Balsamicos…" He thought with a contemplative look as he turned his attention back to Claudia.
"That "little portal trick" was a little trap I had set up for my followers to avoid them sneaking peeks at my work until I felt they were ready to see their beauty." Claudia said with an evil smirk. "I prefer to show my beautiful pieces of art to those when they are ready to be enlightened by my visionary wonders." She said with a grandiose tone of self-aggrandizing.
'"Enlightened?"' Bernard said with a criticizing tone, prompting Claudia to look at Bernard with a disturbed look. '"Visionary? Beautiful?" What are you on about?" He continued to speak.
"Are your brains more mushy than I thought they were. You heard me loud and clear." Claudia said with a face that started to show signs of anger.
"Please..." Bernard said with an unimpressed look in his face as he looked at some of the paintings. "Maybe if I can keep this conversation going, I can muster up a bit more time to get my strategy all planned out..." He thought nervously as he looked back over at Claudia.
"As if you know anything about art..." Claudia said with a tone of annoyance as she put down her suitcase.
"I don't but I know a thing or two about entertaining others... You spend years as a child in front of a circus for so long, you learn how to keep people on the edge of their seats. And these little decorative room hangings and knickknacks you have are not worth watching for longer than a few seconds before someone laughs it off." Bernard said in a critical tone.
"Like your little sideshow routines are even worth anybody's time!" Claudia exclaimed in a tone of rage as she dropped her suitcase on the ground with clenched fists as Bernard looked at the suitcase.
"Okay... She dropped the suitcase... Step in the right direction..." Bernard thought as he continued to stare at Claudia in the midst of a tirade.
"This is what I get, this is what I get for dealing with uncouth douchebags who don't understand true art!" Claudia said aloud as she begun to rant to herself as Bernard looked on.
"...Why do people keep calling me that?" Bernard said to himself as he noted Claudias description of himself as a "douchebag."
"Ugh!" Claudia grunted in annoyance as she continued to pace around.
"Oh knock it off!" Bernard said, finally catching her attention. "You know why I'm here, so talk!" He said as he pointed at Claudia as she took a deep breath to calm her nerves.
"Well, guess I should apologize for that fit of behavior but the "sorry" would be wasted on someone like you." Claudia said as she returned to her haughty attitude. "Let me guess; you aren't here to acknowledge my wonders?" She said with folded arms and her dark grin returning.
"How astute..." Bernard said with a twitch in his eye. "Where's Merilo Balsamico?" He continued.
"My art model is currently in the next room." Claudia said as she casually pointed towards a doorway in the room. "Still sleeping her little head off. Blissfully unaware of everything and everyone." She said as she locked eyes with Bernard.
"Still asleep? Jeez, kid is one heavy sleeper." Bernard thought with surprise as he wondered about the babies ability to hibernate. "Guess me asking you to let her go isn't going to convince you to just stop, is it?" He said as he looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"And lose my golden opportunity?" Claudia said with a serious expression towards Bernard. "Do you know how difficult it is to capture "pure innocence" in the physical spectrum?" She asked towards Bernard. "The mere idea is borderline impossible but I can finally accomplish just that with that little baby. Encased in molding clay."
"...So that's what you want to do? Cover her in some soil and then just have her on display in this room for your own enjoyment?" Bernard said as he tried to comprehend her logic.
"It will be a glorious day. It took me so much time and I still need more time to come up with what I want to do with the child once she is encased. Such a process... Always needing to figure out how much paint and clay to use..." Claudia said as she begun to ramble to herself once again.
"Is your head so far up your own butt, you can see your colon!?" Bernard exclaimed in agitation.
"First, gross. Second, do not interrupt a genius when they are forming ideas." Claudia said in a tone of superiority as she put her hand up.
"I swear if you keep talking to me like that, I will sick my fox friend on you and have him tear off your arms..." Bernard said with an angered tone.
"Oh? So I'm guessing my little trick out there didn't split up you and your beast friends? Shame." Claudia said with her usual haughtiness.
"Yeah, didn't get rid of them this time." Bernard said as he pointed at his heart Lacrima.
"Hmmm, so that's where you store them." Claudia said with an unimpressed tone.
"What? You criticizing this now too?" Bernard said with an angry tone as he pointed once again at his pacemaker.
"Just the idea of having a Lacrima inside you like that makes me nearly vomit for some reason... Maybe it's a sign of your lack of elegance and beauty." Claudia said as she looked at Bernards torso.
"...I want to headbutt this bitch into a paste..." Bernard thought with a twitch in his eye once again. "Let me guess? You're the type that feels like they are going to be sick just looking at someone in a wheelchair or missing an arm?" He asked with disdain.
"Ugh! Don't start talking about stuff like that, it's going to make me sick..." Claudia said with a disgusted tone as she jokingly bent forward like she was faking illness as Bernard became more and more annoyed by the nonchalant attitude of the insane artist in front of him.
Holding his wrist threateningly with the bracelet form of Baurs around it, Bernard put his fingers on the bracelet in a way that caught Claudias attention. Stopping her fake attitude of disgust for the physically different, Claudia stared at Bernard with a combative glare.
"You open your filthy mouth one more time and I'm going to bring out one of my friends to rip out your tongue..." Bernard said with angered tone as Claudia rolled her eyes, unimpressed.
"Oh please... Are you expecting me to just give up my model with no fight?" Claudia said as she reached for her belt where her ornate curved knife was.
"Considering the last resort you used to isolate the two of us was that lame carpet trick, I think my odds are pretty high..." Bernard said as he continued to hold Baurs bracelet, ready to summon her.
"Pfff!" Claudia spat out in a laugh. "Seriously! Do you seriously believe that my little "do not disturb" teleportation spell is my last line of defense?" She said with a smirk as Bernard suddenly noticed that the room started to feel like it shook.
Looking around with concern, Bernard scanned the room with his eyes as he noticed the large gallery felt like it was being hit by an earthquake of some kind. Glancing at Claudia, an evil smirk forming on her face, she pointed upward as Bernard slowly shifted his eyes upward and noticed something hanging from the ceiling.
Releasing from the ceiling, a figure had dropped from the top of the room and appeared in-between Bernard and Claudia. Standing upright, the creature was white and gray, as if it was made of clay and iron casted into a hybrid of a human and a crab with four crustacean-like legs and a pair of pincers where the hands would be. The human-like body attached the legs and arms was tall and sported a flat head with large razor-like teeth that Bernard recognized as the former photographer from the party the night prior: Loumo.
"The-the photographer? What the hell did you do to him?" Bernard said hesitantly as he looked at the monstrous crab/human sculpture that used to be the nervous acting large associate of Claudia. "Was wondering what happened to this guy..." He thought.
"I was really unimpressed by the camera work he did yesterday so I gave him a little "beautification" process to teach him a lesson... Little bit of clay and some cast iron molding and now, he has worth... Hehehe." Claudia evilly explained as Bernard looked at the formerly human creature.
"I'll show you "worth."' Bernard thought with rage as he couldn't take listening to Claudia anymore. "Guys!" He exclaimed as light particles emerged from his Lacrima and he pressed on the bracelet to summon out Baurs with Bernards beastly allies appearing in front of him.
"Whoa!?" Corvus exclaimed as he flapped his wings next to Bernard as he looked at the Loumo monster. "The hell is this thing?!" The crow said with confusion.
"Appears to be that cameraman that Mr. Bernard mentioned..." Baurs said plainly as she and Vulp stood in front of Bernard to keep him from getting too close.
"Didn't expect him to be so ugly- Wait a minute... Where's the others?" Corvus asked towards Bernard.
"Long story..." Bernard said as he motioned for Corvus to face forward towards Claudia.
Looking behind Baurs to notice Claudia walking over to her suitcase, Bernard swallowed spit as she picked up the suitcase and looked with a gaze of combative excitement in her eyes.
"...Really wish the others were here right now..." Bernard thought with worry as he looked slightly behind him at his back pocket as he stared at the clear flask filled with unusual fluid once more.
"What's up?" Corvus said with concern as he noticed Bernard.
"Precautionary tactics... Just make sure to follow my commands..." Bernard said as he locked eyes with Claudia once more as he put his hand up and transferred his magical energy to the Celestial Spirits and Earth Elemental.
"Got it." Corvus said as he sparked up his colorful electricity as Vulp nodded as his fur begun to move on its own.
"As you wish." Baurs said as she readied herself.
"Loumo! Get to work!" Claudia screamed as she pointed her curved knife at Bernard and his team. In response, the white crab sculpture version of Loumo had opened his sharp mouth and howled a monstrous growl.
Time for round two between Bernard and Claudia and this time, it doesn't look like Bernard is gonna drop the ball to preserve his and others safety like before. With Camilla and the other wizards of Psycho Circus disposed outside to contend with the grunts outside of the building, Bernard confronts Claudia in an effort to find the child, once and for all. After a back and forth of insults and the reveal of Loumo being converted into an iron and clay monster, Bernard and his beastly friends are prepared to do battle with her and finally rescue the, somehow still, sleeping Merilo. How will the battle progress? Will Bernard succeed in bringing down the dark guilds leader? And still, what the hell is up with that flask? For the conclusion and answers to these questions, see you next time on Menagerie!
Authors Note: (Sorry this took so long, I have been very busy with life crap and I couldn't get around to working on this chapter as quickly as I usually am able to. This is also surprisingly my shortest chapter since the earliest ones I made for the story. Felt like bringing that up. BTW, I have been working on figuring out more creatures for Bernards internal zoo... Some might surprise you what I have came up with. Hehehe.)