Ch.42: War of the Witches! Earth and Hell Collide Pt.2!
Isidore swung through the forest, firing spells into the slime monster as it relentlessly chased her down. Nothing from fireballs or orbs of darkness could slow the monster's nonviolent rampage. It passed through trees and shrugged off Isidore's spells. No destruction from its actions, designed only to incapacitate and destroy its target.
Who knew doctors could be scary when they needed to?
Ambrosine rode atop her creation, still out of breath from utilizing the spell. It took a lot out of her, but the spell's taxing magic cost was made up in the results. A creature functionally identical to a white blood cell created specifically to destroy one type of organism: Isidore. In any other usage, it'd be a cruel last resort, even to the bandits causing trouble in Mysto. It wasn't worth the cost, and Ambrosine still had her morals as a medical magician. She was a healer, not a killer.
Ambrosine considered Isidore the exception to that rule.
The slime monster projected tentacles from all over its nebulous body, firing them at the fleeing Ambipom. Isidore used her staff to slice up the tentacles. Creature of destruction or not, it was still made of a fragile substance. She made extra sure nothing splashed on her fur. The patches of her burned flesh served as a reminder for why.
Isidore landed atop a tree and aimed her staff. "Noitcnitxe Yar!" She fired the dark magic beam into the monster, blowing off its entire upper half.
Ambrosine jumped off, avoiding the explosion, and landed in a bush. She sat up, then threw her scalpels at Isidore. The bladed tools came in at an arc, swerving off the straight path for the twin-tailed monkey and aiming to puncture her in the sides.
Isidore cracked her staff down on her perch and summoned a barrier around herself. The scalpels bounced off and went spinning through the air. Isidore dropped the barrier and fired her beam spell again.
Ambrosine jumped from her bush just before it went up in smoke. She tucked her head inside her arms as the explosion threw her across the ground. She tumbled until she crashed into a tree, pressing against it upside-down.
Isidore aimed her staff and charged up the beam spell, but seized up in pain as an acidic tendril grabbed her ankle and pulled her from the trees. Isidore landed on her tails, then ripped her foot free from the slimy tendril. She glared back at the slime monster as its large mass regenerated, regaining its towering size.
"You're quite the stubborn white blood mass." Isidore fired her beam spell into it, blowing a hole through what she could categorize as the chest area. "But you'll find this virus isn't your common cold."
The monster gurgled in response, then surprised Isidore by fired goo bullets from its body. Isidore raised a barrier and watched as the slime battered against the transparent field like hail. For clumps of goo, they hit hard. The hail comparison seemed almost too perfect.
Isidore patted herself down for more flunky charms, but had used up her remaining batch to hunt down the Nightshade's Lament. She didn't like their chances of facing against Gwyn. Destruction was guaranteed. However, if War was in the same area keeping Gwyn busy, there was a chance of making off with at least one berry.
As the goo monster descended on her barrier, Isidore twirled her staff and expanded the barrier, slamming it into the monster. She then struck the ground with her staff, channeling dark cracks through the dirt. "Detpurroc Niarret!"
Skeletal hands rose from the cracking ground and dug their bony fingers into the monster's slimy body. Though the monster slipped through their grips with ease, the hands left something behind. Their fragile limbs broke apart like dust, sinking their fingers inside the monster's body.
The fingers broke apart into streams of dust and worked their way through the body, filling the void with the same crack-like markings in the ground. A weight overcame the monster. Its movements became sluggish, like pulling on a harness tied back with anchors. The monster lost sustainability and crumbled to the ground as the cracks continued spreading. They breached the surface of its body and covered the entire outside until it was a deep shade of purple.
Ambrosine looked on worriedly, then backed away from the encroaching corruption. "This is disturbing."
Isidore raised her hand. "It should." She snapped her non-existent digits.
A blinding flash burst from the goo monster, then a violent explosion ripped through the air. The shockwave slammed into Ambrosine and blasted her against a tree. She landed so hard that she had the wind knocked out of her.
Rings of sparkling purple dust surfed across the ground. Isidore, who dispelled a barrier she casted, approached the fallen medical magician. Each step on the corrupted ground brought out puffs of black smoke. Isidore channeled a spell through the tip of her staff, then aimed it at Ambrosine's downed form.
"That's the problem with you magic types," Isidore said with a sly grin. "Once you use up too much magic, you're too exhausted to defend yourselves. I have a near unlimited pool I can draw on, though." She pressed the glowing end of her staff against Ambrosine's head. "Supremacy over the lesser magician."
Ambrosine lifted her head and growled. "Screw. You."
"Charming last words. A perfect analogy to your tragedy of a life."
Isidore concentrated her spell, then unleashed a blinding blast that caked the ground in an earth-shattering explosion. The trees in front of her were ripped from their roots and toppled to the ground as dark flames stretched over the terrain.
Isidore pulled back her staff, then blew on the smoking end. "And thus, we end that chapter to your—"
A fist cracked across her face and punted her into a tree. Her staff slipped from her hands as she flopped to the ground, seizing up in pain. Isidore touched her stinging cheek, winced, then looked up to see an orange, crystal humanoid hovering above her.
Her eyes shrank. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."
The Guardian reared its fists back, then unloaded a barrage of punches. Isidore was able to grab her staff with her tail and summoned a barrier over herself. She covered her head as the fists drummed against the barrier, hearing the cracks coming through.
Isidore opened one eye and looked past the Guardian, spotting Ambrosine safe and sound with her timely savior, Flint Ravenfield. Isidore growled and reclaimed her staff into her hands. Well Reuben, I'm starting to think your unhealthy obsession with revenge isn't unwarranted.
As Isidore dealt with the Guardian, Flint dusted off Ambrosine with his tail. "You good?"
Ambrosine breathed a relieved sigh. "As I'll ever be. Thanks for the save."
"Don't thank me yet. I screwed up."
Ambrosine raised her brow. "What do you mean?"
Flint glared. "They're after the Nightshade's Lament, and I accidentally gave away that Gwyn has them on her person."
Ambrosine gasped. "Oh no! Is she in danger?"
"I rather not think about it. We need to find her and get those berries as far away from these guys as possible." Flint looked away and narrowed his eyes into the forest. "I sense her aura up ahead. She seems to be fighting someone."
"Let's hurry!"
Flint and Ambrosine bolted into the trees, but stopped as a wall of phantoms cut their path off. They turned back and saw Chantal shuffling out of the bushes. A trail of spectral smoke seeped from her mouth. She glared at the two with her hollow stare.
"YoU'rE nOt GoInG aNyWhErE!" she shrieked in an unholy chorus.
Flint charged up a Mystic Beam, but stopped when he felt his Guardian shatter. He turned just as Isidore thrusted her staff through the humanoid's head and smashed it open like a pumpkin. Flint quickly called it back before Isidore could do more damage.
Isidore massaged her chin and limped over to Chantal. "What took you?"
Chantal merely growled in response.
"Yeah, yeah, don't give me the attitude." Isidore lit the end of her staff on fire, then aimed it at Flint and Ambrosine. "Well, since you're here, how about we carve a few new corpses for the occasion?"
Ambrosine winced. "What is with your witches and the morbid quips?"
"Less bantering, more running!" Flint yelled. He grabbed Ambrosine's hand and used Time Halt to get around the phantom wall and as far away from the witches as they could. They only got a ten second lead before time resumed.
"Get them!" Isidore ordered, firing fireballs at the fleeing pair. Chantal bellowed a ghostly wail and summoned a swarm of ghosts after them.
Flint and Ambrosine jumped and weaved through the attacks, then hastened their escape. Unfortunately, with one weakened and the other with a weak leg, escape was going to be a miracle.
"Indigo, stop!"
The half-faced Sneasel ignored Gwyn's cries as she whipped her heated tendrils at the fleeing Mew. The shadows receded back into War and covered up the scowling Sneasel, returning to the blank face of evil with murderous intent.
Gwyn grew a thick wall of wood as the tendrils bombarded down on her. She cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted, "Indigo, listen to me! It's me, Gwyn Belladonna! You know, the cute Mew who fought you once or twice! I'm friends with your boyfriend, Tony! Actually, were you two ever dating? I never got a clear answer on—"
A tendril pierced through her barrier and shot toward her. Gwyn shrieked and ducked the tendril before running away. War retracted the tendril and chased after Gwyn.
Gwyn's will to fight rapidly drained the more her mind went back to all those innocuous, seemingly insignificant hints that something was wrong ever since she learned witchcraft. That feeling in the back of her mind there was somebody lurking nearby, someone she knew but felt off. She played with the idea that it was some past monster or bandit she and the others crossed.
Both were technically correct.
Gwyn looked back as War extended her tendrils and whipped them at her. Gwyn pulled off every evasive action that came to her naturally, from slipping through bushes to propelling herself forward on vines like grappling wire. The fiery tendrils sliced through every tree and bush in War's way, spreading more of her destructive flames that were soon absorbed.
Gwyn quickly pulled out a handful of spores and threw them into the air. "Accelerated Growth!" She pressed her hands into the ground and summoned a wall of mushrooms around War. "Explode!"
The mushroom caps exploded open, releasing a green spore cloud all around War. The shadow warrior swiped at the spores, trying to burn them with her claws. When that didn't immediately work, she covered her face, knowing of Gwyn's tendency for poisons and ailments.
With a moment of reprieve, Gwyn shouted, "Indigo, listen to me! I know you're still in there! You have so much to live for!" Gwyn wasn't sure how effective that line would work, but it was pretty much the only thing she could do without hurting the possessed Sneasel. "You have to fight it!"
War enlarged her claws, shaping them into fans, and swiped the spore clouds away. "I am conflict. I am bloodshed. I am the embodiment of fighting and onslaught. I am War!"
"No, you're not!" Gwyn cried. "You're Indigo! You're a pirate, not a cold-hearted monster that pillages homes and steals from—okay, bad example, but you get my point. Just…Indigo, wake up!"
"Silence!" War thrusted her claws out like a spear.
The claws struck Gwyn in the chest and shoved her through the ground. Flame erupted from the tip, burning through Gwyn's clothes. She grabbed the spear, screaming as the flames seared through her aura, and pushed the weight off her chest before redirecting the spear around her. It shot through the ground while Gwyn tumbled and rolled back to her feet with a rough landing.
She had barely a second to recuperate before War came at her with blinding speed and clotheslined Gwyn's neck. Gwyn grabbed War by the armor and tumbled backwards, kicking her in the stomach and tossing her in the air. Gwyn clapped her hands and summoned giant tree roots from the ground, binding War up tightly with only the head exposed.
"Indigo, please, I'm begging you!" Gwyn yelled, tears running down her face. "I don't want to hurt you! What's it going to take for you to wake up?"
War turned and sneered at the green Mew. "I've heard enough of your pitiful whining. Though my orders are to take you in alive, I will be sure your soul never leaves that carcass of a body by the time I'm done with you."
Gwyn gritted her teeth worriedly. She's too deep into the abyss. What…What did they do to her? If Tony saw this, he would—oh no, if Ambrosine sees this…
Gwyn clenched her fists, drawing out magic from the ground. The last time she punched War, half of her face peeled back and showed Indigo. Maybe if Gwyn could replicate that same trick and strip away all the darkness in one blast, Indigo will be freed. She wasn't sure if she could do something like that. If she knew storm magic, then she could just mix it and increase the area of effect. That would be the easy solution, however.
Gwyn huffed through her nose, then channeled the land's magic through her fists. Formless orbs of cyan magic mixed with her own. She formed her grass swords and transferred the magic through them.
"I'll free you, Indigo! Just you wait!"
A ring of magic appeared under Gwyn, then propelled her up with a gust of wind. Gwyn torqued her body and flew toward War like a buzz saw with a ring of magic trailing off the blades. War was burning through the wooden restraints, but Gwyn had a free shot that should shred the darkness of her acquaintance.
"Take this—"
Before Gwyn could land the decisive blow, something tackled her from above and threw her off course. Gwyn crashed face first into the ground, dropping her grass swords. Right as she rolled to her feet, something else tackled her and pinned her arms behind her back.
"W-What the?!" Gwyn looked up, ignoring the blood dripping from her nose, and gasped at the stone goblin monkeys hovering over her, howling with deranged laughter. "F-Flunkies?"
They patted around Gwyn's person, searching through her clothes and her bags. With a snap of her fingers, vines grabbed their necks, yanked them off, and smashed them into the trees. Just as Gwyn picked herself up, War freed herself from the roots and dove straight down on Gwyn's back.
"GAH!" Gwyn wheezed. She tried to use a spell, but War drove her tendrils through Gwyn's arms, pinning them to the ground as blood sprayed out.
Gwyn let out a bloodcurdling scream as the tendrils burned through her arms. She concentrated her defensive aura into her arms to stave off further injuries. She could feel the heat cooking her muscle and scorching her bones. She nearly passed out from the pain, which steadily grew in intensity. The ground beneath her arms melted into molten puddles that cooked the outside of her arms, too.
The flunkies picked themselves up, then scampered over. They clapped and howled with celebration seeing the despair in Gwyn's face. They would've gone on longer, but War whipped them across the face with an extra pair of tendrils, leaving white hot scars across their stony faces.
"Cease your useless cheering and get the berry," War said with a growl.
The two flunkies shied away from her hostile glare before crawling to Gwyn. They dug through her pockets and belongings for any sign of the poisonous berries.
Gwyn, with hot tears streaming down her face, tilted her head back and looked into War's cruel eyes. "Indigo, please," she whispered in a pleading tone, her voice cracking in pain and distress. "Do you really want to be some puppet for the shadows? Please, you have to listen to me. You have to crawl out of the abyss—"
War stomped her foot down on Gwyn's neck. Gwyn gargled an unintelligible sound before her head went limp onto the ground, her eyes glazed over. War dug her foot down on Gwyn's neck, then knelt down close to her ears.
"I serve the darkness. There is no Indigo. I am no puppet. I am destruction. I am conflict. I am the scourge of the Pokémon condition. I am War, and you will tremble before my presence."
No response came from Gwyn.
One of the flunkies hooted with delight, reeling out a bundle of Nightshade's Lament. It clapped its feet together, then presented the berries to War. She gave only a passing glance at the bundle before waving the stone goblins off.
"Return them to the witches. I have no need for them."
The flunkies nodded, then scampered off to the trees. War pulled her right claw out of Gwyn's arm, then morphed it into a sword. She pressed the tip against Gwyn's back, burning a small hole into the jacket.
War's eyes illuminated brightly. "Now, how shall I go about immobilizing you? Perhaps we'll start with—"
"How…dare you?"
War raised her brow. She saw twitching in Gwyn's fingers. "What?"
"How…dare you?" The tone was sharper. Edgier. Crueler? Something unnatural from the Mew. A voice no living soul had ever heard, or should ever hear.
War tried to steel herself and ram the sword through Gwyn's back, but paused as a neon glow wrapped over the Mew's body. War looked around as the trees started rustling in an ominous matter. A windless breeze swayed the branches and twirling leaves through the air, with War and Gwyn in the eye of the storm.
"Those…Those witches." War flinched as Gwyn dug her fingers into the dirt and clenched her fist. A soft, cyan glow seeped from the ground like smoke. "Why…Why is it that every time something horrible happens, there's always you damn witches around? Why, why, why?"
War, unbeknownst to herself, stepped off of Gwyn and backed away. She sensed a turmoil brewing inside the Mew. A conflict of emotions stirring. A living war concocting through her magic. Something unrestrained. Something tainted. Something—
Mad.
War froze as two horrified shrieks sounded behind her. Craning her neck around, she spotted the two flunkies caught in a web of vines, flailing and biting at the vegetation to get free.
"I…hate you." War turned back to Gwyn, who rose to her feet. The neon green aura emitted a strong pressure that made the ground quiver and stress in her presence. Gwyn's face was hidden behind her green locks, but War could see her most striking feature: two dim, dark red eyes. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate, hate, hate, hate…"
Shadows weren't supposed to feel fear. They weren't supposed to register death. They were grudges that will always come back no matter how much they're hacked and slashed. The suppressed side of War, however, sensed danger. She couldn't explain it, but she felt a tremendous, vile nature spewing out from the normally chipper and kind-hearted Mew.
War wasn't staring at a crying Mew. She was staring at an irate goddess.
"Where are they?"
War morphed her claws into blades and crossed them together. "Don't move, Belladonna, or I'll—"
War didn't even finish blinking before a vine shot from the ground and pierced her shoulder. She gazed cautiously at the vine and its twisted appearance. It looked like razor wire coated in thorns. She felt it digging and drilling through her skin.
"Where…are they?" Gwyn repeated, her tone darker and angrier. "Where are those damn witches?"
War narrowed her eyes. "W…Why?"
"Why?"
War's eyes widened as a long shadow casted over her. Something large, brewing with intense magic, rose up from behind the mad goddess. Something of stone and nature with a face matching the fury in Gwyn's eyes.
"Because I'm going to massacre them."
Barrett made his first move with the cursed dagger, bearing the blood symbol for the Curse of Disease. He wildly slashed at the blind Serperior, laughing like a loon, while Medusa deftly slithered away from his strikes with minor movements. She spun her staff around her tail and whacked Barrett in the head.
"Your form is sloppy," Medusa scolded, dodging a counterattack. She contorted her body and dodged a handful of knives, which were caught by roots rising from the ground. "When you throw knives, don't do it so wastefully. Just because you're throwing whole clusters at me doesn't guarantee victory."
Barrett flicked out another dozen knives from his sleeves. "I just need to hit you with one, you old coot!" He flailed his arms like ribbons and scattered dozens upon dozens of knives through the air.
Medusa effortlessly weaved through the downpour of blades, then struck the ground with her staff. An earth pillar shot out in front of Barrett and struck his kneecap.
"Agh!" Barret dropped his knives and clutched his aching knee.
"Never let your guard down!" Medusa swooped it and whacked him on the head again.
"Ow!" Barrett clutched his aching head, then gasped as Medusa jabbed him in the gut.
"You're a slow learner. Stop leaving so many openings." She slithered back from a retaliatory dagger strike, then fired more earth pillars at Barrett.
Barrett jumped backwards, avoiding the pillars, then threw more knives into the sky, arching on a downward path toward Medusa. She coiled her body with her upper half touching the ground, then spun her staff with her tail. She battered away the knives without a single one embedding into the staff and rotting it away. She even slapped a few knives back toward Barrett.
Barrett sidestepped the knives and watched them rot a tree away. He smirked as Medusa straightened herself up. "Are you going to fight or tutor me? What happened to putting me in a grave?"
Medusa leaned her staff against her body, relaxing her posture. "I always find when my students feel like they have one foot in the grave, they learn faster. Very effective for the problem children."
Barrett snickered. "I already told you, you stupid bitch. I sold my soul. If the threat of having my soul erased doesn't frighten me, what could you possibly do to me? Go ahead, kill me! It won't make a difference. I've long accepted my fate, thus I am ready to enter complete oblivion while you peons continue to suffer."
Medusa narrowed her closed eyes, focusing on Venus and Andre who sat off to the side. Venus cradled Andre's head in her arms while the ailing Thievul shivered and groaned from the stress overcoming his body. The black vein markings continued to spread over his fur, digging in like gangly claws. Medusa could sense his suffering through the land.
"Some of my best handiwork." Medusa turned back to Barrett, who juggled his cursed dagger in one hand. "I love the Curse of Disease so much. It's so fascinating how you idiots insist on suffering through that pain instead of taking a noose around the neck and jumping off the highest elevation from the ground. Why would anyone waste their time suffering when they can just enjoy the sweet embrace of death? I offer them that release not only to remove them from their mortal coils, but to relish the despair in their faces as I hand them the means to their self-inflicted execution. What a grand old time, don't you agree?"
The vile, venomous taste returned to Medusa. She scowled at the Lombre witch, cracking her staff down so hard that the ground spewed sparks of magic.
"So, I'm not threatening enough for you, boy?" Medusa asked.
Barrett laughed. "As if I'd ever be afraid of some withered old coot, especially one who insists on these archaic practices. This is the new world, lady. Witchcraft is all about the corruption. It's much more rewarding in the end."
Medusa tensed her wrinkling face, then flashed a subdued smirk. "Oh? Is that so?" She shook her head and sighed. "Tsk, tsk, and I had such high hopes for the next generation. I never realized there were young men your age who are so…noisome."
Barrett caught his dagger and glared at Medusa. "Excuse me?"
"Oh, my apologies. Should I use smaller words for you, child? I'm aware that your given lifestyle has regressed you far beyond basic comprehension. Kids your age are so foolish and spiteful, pretending to be the pinnacle of cool with their edgy nihilism. Congrats, you figured out the system. You get an oatmeal raisin cookie from dear ol' Granny Medusa."
Barrett pointed his dagger at her. "Petty insults won't rouse me, crone."
"Ooh, harsh." Medusa snickered. "Young man, let me teach you a little something about true witchcraft that that bastardized version you use failed to mention. Do you want to know why the demons love snacking on our souls? It's much more than just flavor and power."
Medusa planted her staff into the ground, then coiled her body. A pulsating sound rang from the tip of her staff, channeling the cyan magic from the land. Root-like appendages extended from the bottom of the staff, digging into the ground.
Venus looked up from Andre and looked at her grandmother in concern. "Granny?"
Andre tried to lift his head, growling as the pain flared up. "W-What's going on?"
A web of roots stretched out into an intricate circle with Medusa in the center. The cyan magic started to flow through Medusa, surrounding her in a magic aura that made her cloak flutter.
"You see, young man," Medusa continued, "demons fear Pokémon. They fear what we're capable, thus they feed on our power to hope they have a fraction of our greatness. But do you want to know why that is?"
Barrett bared his teeth. "Where are you going with this?"
"Young man, much like how shadows are the manifestation of a Pokémon's grudge, demons…" Medusa's smirk grew in a crazed smile. "Demons are a Pokémon's capacity for evil."
Barrett raised his dagger, but suddenly doubled over something bashed him in the stomach. He looked down at the snake-like, cyan construct slithering out of the ground. In fact, it almost resembled a Serperior. Strong flashes of cyan came from the face, shaped to look like eyes. The construct coiled around Barrett, opened its gaping maw, and sank its fangs into his shoulder.
"GYAH!" Barrett cried. Blood sprayed from his shoulder as the snake construct chomped deeper through his flesh. He bared his teeth, then asked, "Is this all you got?"
Medusa chuckled. "Oh, I'm so happy you asked." She flicked her staff and ordered the snake to throw Barrett into the air.
Barrett reoriented himself and grabbed his shoulder. As he tried to think of a landing strategy, his injury flared up with magic spewing out. His eyes widened when the magic shaped itself into a cluster of mini snakes. They lunged for all vulnerable spots and chomped on the Lombre's flesh.
"What the hell?!" Barrett swung his dagger and sliced the cluster from his wound. "You damn crone!" He whipped his arm and threw knives at Medusa.
Medusa remained still as her giant construct battered away the knives, scattering them across the field. The knives impaled the ground before melting themselves in molten slag that burned through the dirt.
Barrett aimed for the trees and landed in the leaves. They softened his fall, allowing him to jump off a branch and dive at Medusa. Medusa glared at the flying Lombre and dodged his first attack. He rebounded off the ground and thrusted his dagger a second time, to which Medusa dodged again.
She flicked her staff and caused the ground to split open, revealing a pit with walls lined in serrated teeth. Barrett's heel clipped the edge, sending him plummeting down the pit. Medusa tapped the ground, causing the pit to contract.
Barrett saw the walls closing in, along with the teeth. He couldn't use his dagger to catch the walls, otherwise he'll be ripped to shreds by the teeth. He didn't like his chances of surviving impact with the bottom, either. Even if he could suspend himself in the air, the closing walls will do him in.
He growled through clenched teeth before pulling out another dagger from his robe, marked with a different blood rune. "You forced my hand, crone." He took the dagger in both hands and plunged it through his own chest.
Blood red cracks spread from the dagger and traveled over his body. His skin turned three shades darker, and his clenched teeth sharpened to a point. He opened his eyes as they shaped into slit pupils.
Up top, Medusa sensed the dark magic erupting down below. She bit her lip in frustration. "You didn't…" She opened one eye and saw a blinding red light traveling all the way up the pit. Medusa closed her eye, then jumped back from the pit.
Just as it closed up, the ground exploded open with a dark red typhoon of red shooting out. A figure masked inside the typhoon rose up, spreading their bat like wings.
"What did I tell you, you old crone?"
Medusa squinted her cursed eyes open and glared at the typhoon as it parted. Barrett hovered above, transformed into something grotesque. Leathery bat wings flapping from his back. Slit pupils. An elongated forked tongue. A crown of fire spewing from his lily pad top. His clothes were burned off, save for a pair of pants, and his previous injuries from Andre were all gone, save for the twisted scar in the center of his chest.
Barrett showed off his sharpened fangs through his wild grin. "The old ways are dead. You wanted to fight an edgy nihilist? Well, here I am."
Flint and Ambrosine kept a reasonable distance from the pursuing witches for as long as they could. Ambrosine had to slow down to help Flint along, but they couldn't coordinate their feet for stable run. Ambrosine was more dragging Flint than helping him run.
Isidore and Chantal kept up the chase, with Isidore firing off fire spells from her staff. Flint would lightly tackle against Ambrosine to move them out of the way, then fire an uncharged Mystic Beam over his shoulder. Both witches avoided it effortlessly and continued the chase.
Ambrosine, who was breathing hard, shouted, "They're…persistent!"
"They want me dead more than anything," Flint said. "We need to find Gwyn, or at least get to the grove where Andre and Venus are hiding out."
"I'm…not sure I can get us that far," Ambrosine said through a wheeze. "Oh Arceus, my lungs are on fire!" Her face twisted as she clutched her chest. "Same with my h-heart!"
"Nomed Noisivid!" Flint and Ambrosine tripped over themselves as the ground quaked. A surge of dark magic channeled through the ground, sliding past them, and erected a giant wall of obsidian and spikes.
Flint and Ambrosine stopped themselves from running into it, then turned around as Isidore and Chantal approached. Isidore lit up the end of her staff while Chantal called upon a horde of spirits by her side.
Isidore chuckled through an irritated grin. "I've about had it with you two. So, want to name your own execution, or shall I choose for you?"
Ambrosine reached for her scalpels. "Flint, can you summon your Guardian?"
"I need more time for it to recharge," Flint said. "The head's a vital part of the body."
"Gee, who would've guessed?" Ambrosine grumbled.
"Enough talk!" Chantal barked. "Isidore, turn them into a smear across that wall. We cannot let a single trace of Ravenfield survive. Boss' orders."
Isidore rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah." The flame on her staff intensified. "Say goodnight, losers!"
Flint and Ambrosine braced themselves for a fight, eyes glowing with magic, until something zapped through their senses. Their eyes instantly widened in horror, their magic fading. The witches, without letting their guard down, looked on at the pair in confusion as they looked off to the side.
"What's with them?" Isidore asked. Chantal just shrugged.
Ambrosine, with quivering knees, was the first to ask, "F-Flint, is that…is that her aura?"
Flint gulped. "Oh crap."
Isidore glared. "Her aura? Whose aura? Who are you two talking about?"
Flint looked back at the witches. Strangely, to Isidore, it almost looked like he was giving her a pitiful look on top of his own horror. "You can't sense magic like we can. You're not sensing what we're sensing."
Ambrosine gritted her teeth. "Why does it feel so twisted?"
Isidore snarled and intensified her fire spell more. "Quit the cryptic talk and tell me what the hell you're—"
Something came flying out of the trees, smashing through several upon arrival, and crashed into Isidore and Chantal. They dug through the dirt until their heads collided with the base of a tree. Isidore's staff flew out of her hands, and the spirits Chantal called upon faded instantly.
They rubbed their aching heads, then gasped at the figure laying on top of them. "War?!"
War sat up and shook her head. She glared back into the forest. "You two need to get out of here."
"W-Why?!" Isidore asked.
Flint and Ambrosine backed away, eyes trained on the forest with fear in their faces. Flint said, "My friends told me about this from a long time ago, back in Ghost Cove. I think this is the first time I'm seeing this."
"Seeing…this? Ghost Cove?" Isidore's eyes widened as the pieces fell into place. She whipped her head toward the forest to confirm her suspicions, spotting a strong neon green glow permeating through the thick foliage. "Oh…shit."
Out from the trees, with each step trembling the ground, Gwyn stepped out into the open wrapped in a sharp, pressurized funnel of aura spewing from her body. Her short hair fluttered with the pressure. Her eyes were darkened and void of empathy.
She dragged a body with her fingers digging through its face. A flunky that flailed and screeched, trying to remove itself from her shockingly strong grip.
Ambrosine raised her hands and muttered, "Th-That's Gwyn? What the hell happened to her?"
Flint felt a bead of sweat slide down his face. "Gwyn's mother was born with some internal madness, and Gwyn inherited it. I haven't seen her eyes like that in ages."
Gwyn ignored her friends and locked onto the cowering witches. Her emotionless stare fell into a sinister, furious glare. "You." She raised the flunky as it continued to kick and scream.
Magic flowed from the ground, passing through her body, and flooded into the flunky. Its screamed intensified as cracks popped up over its body with cyan light spilling out. So much poured out that it looked like an oversized floodlight or a disco ball reflecting the sun's rays. Nothing of the stone goblin's features were visible. Even its screams were drowned in the light.
Everyone covered their heads as the poor flunky exploded with a thunderous bang that assaulted their ears. Burning fragments of the flunky scattered over the open area, some hitting Flint, Chantal, and War.
Isidore shot to her feet and backed against the tree, hands raised. "Did she just detonate my flunky?!"
"She flooded it with so much magic that it ripped the flunky apart from the inside," Chantal explained with fear written over her face.
"She…can't do that to living creatures, right?" Isidore squeaked. "She wouldn't do that to us, right?"
The witches flinched from the booming sound of Gwyn's stomps. Her face twisted with an enraged scowl. "You did this to her. You jerks…did this to her. Caused so much pain. So much pain. I'll kill you. I'll kill all of you!"
Flint and Ambrosine were appalled by the violence in Gwyn's voice. "S-Sweetie?" Flint whimpered.
Gwyn plunged her hands into the ground. The ground twisted and shifted like water, rumbling with earthquakes that knocked present company to the over. "Give her back. Give her back RIGHT NOW!"
Explosions went off from underground as stone erected high up. Plant matter shot out and twisted around the rising earth. Everyone felt the ground gravitated towards Gwyn, feeding into her creation as it grew taller, reaching above the trees themselves. A shape came through as arms extended and a head formed. Its very size, mixed with the overwhelming magic Gwyn was pumping into it, gave off a powerful pressure that blasted the leaves off trees and ripped the trees themselves into the air.
The witches, Flint, and Ambrosine all gawked in horror at the monstrosity looming above them. Ambrosine grabbed Flint's paw for comfort, then asked, "Did…you know she could do that?" Flint wordlessly shook his head.
Isidore and Chantal hugged each other, sweat pouring from their faces, while War stood protectively in front of them, armed with her infernal blades. The witches, deep down in their black hearts, agreed on one thing.
We're going to die!
"GAH!" Reuben shot up from the ground and clutched his chest. "What day is it?!"
He blinked his organic eye twice, then looked around the burnt grove as he tried to collect his bearings. His perception was slowed down so drastically that he couldn't tell how long he was out of it for. He wasn't on the brink of starvation, and he hadn't pissed himself in his catatonic state. There was still daylight, so the invasion hadn't started. Unless it's been months and they lost.
Reuben was confident only ten minutes or so passed. Probably.
He slapped his cheeks, then stood up. "I'm going to kill Flint when I get my hands on him. Where is he, anyway?"
Reuben tensed up to a bloodcurdling roar coming from the distance. He looked over the trees, then paled at the giant wooden effigy of twisted, primal-looking Mew stomping through the forest.
"…What the HELL did I miss?!" Reuben shuffled his feet, then sprint towards the giant wooden Mew. "Something tells me I should go over there." He breathed a sigh through his nose. "Please be wrong, please be wrong, please be wrong…"
Everyone stared up, jaws hanging open in horror, at the monstrous wooden Mew looming over them. Body composed of wood and stone, coated in leaves and wrapped in moss, with the hideous expression of a monster staring them down like a hungry predator. At the foot of the wooden effigy, Gwyn manipulated its movements through her own. Whenever she clenched her fists, the effigy copied. If Gwyn whipped her tail, the giant bundle of vines serving as a tail mirrored.
Gwyn balled her fist and raised it high. "Give Indigo back!" She swung her fist down, commanding the effigy to swing its own gigantic fist down at the witches.
"AAAAHHH!" the witches screamed. They and War split off in separate directions as the fist struck the ground. The warp ground split open with a booming shockwave that sent everyone flying through the air, even Gwyn's own friends.
"Gwyn!" Flint and Ambrosine cried. They caught themselves on a branch and hung from it. The tree tilted over in the crumbling ground, but the roots kept it from toppling completely over, leaving the pair dangling.
"Has she lost her mind?!" Ambrosine screamed.
Flint looked off to the side unsurely. "I rather not answer that for my own safety."
The witches scrambled to their feet and tried to book it, but a wall of thorns cut off their path, even smashing through the stone wall Isidore summoned. They turned their heads up and saw the giant wooden Mew glaring down at them. It raised its fists and extended jagged, wooden blades from the knuckles.
Isidore gulped. "Th-This can't be the same green Mew, right?"
"I know Callista said Gwyn had absurd power, but I didn't think it was this bad," Chantal said with a quiver in her tone.
Gwyn screamed a roaring battle cry and commanded the effigy to swing its fist down on the witch pair. Isidore raised her staff to summon a barrier while Chantal crouched behind her. Isidore didn't like her chances of a barrier stopping the fist, but they didn't have time for a getaway portal.
Before Isidore could summon the barrier, War soared toward the careening fist. She molded her claws into a giant pair of executioner-style blades, then drove them through the wrist, rending it with a fiery tear chewing apart the stone and wood.
Once the hand was severed, War transformed her blades into tendrils and lacerated the lone fist in ash and splinters that rained down on the witch pair.
Isidore and Chantal collapsed onto their rears right as War landed in front of them. "Th-Thanks," Isidore said, trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
"Don't thank her!" The witches nearly fainted when Gwyn ripped through her own thorn wall and came at them with blazing grass blades. "Give her back!"
War stepped in front of Gwyn and stopped her blades. The magical pressure exuding from Gwyn nearly dug War into the ground. Her feet sank through the dirt like it was mud, nearly burying her up to her waist. War made stoic facing Gwyn's animalistic fury. The same could not be said for Isidore or Chantal, who were clutching each other for dear life.
Gwyn pulled back on one of her swords and snapped her fingers. The hulking effigy raised its uncut arm and fired a barrage of thorns from the palm. Each thorn pierce the ground like a nail through wood.
Isidore immediately casted a barrier and stopped the thorns. The barrier did hold up against the downpour, but not enough to stop them from piercing through and getting imbedded through the transparent field. Isidore had to double—no, quadruple the barrier layers just to keep the thorns from digging in deeper.
Gwyn bashed her fist across War's face, knocking her aside, then lunged at the witches. Chantal called upon a swarm of spirits and bombarded Gwyn with them. Gwyn snarled and drove a spike of magic from her hand into the swarm, skewering the ghosts to pieces. She leapt through the tattered spectral matter and tackled Chantal to the ground, clutching around her throat.
"AH!" Chantal cried. "Isidore!"
Isidore reared her staff back. "Get off her!" She swung it at Gwyn's head.
Gwyn caught the staff and ripped it from Isidore's hands. Vines shot from Gwyn's arm and ensnared Isidore, slamming her up against the nearby tree. Gwyn turned her attention back onto Chantal and started pulling magic from the ground.
Flint and Ambrosine pulled themselves up higher in the trees and looked over the thorn wall. Flint gasped. "Oh no, Gwyn's going to rip her to pieces!"
"Is that a…bad thing?" Ambrosine asked.
"Gwyn can't think straight when she's like this!" Flint jumped out of the tree and raced to the thorn wall. Ambrosine hesitated, but ended up caving in and following after Flint.
Chantal screamed and flailed her feet as she felt magic pouring through Gwyn's arm and into her body. She felt a growing pressure building up in her organs and bones, like something was inflating and waiting to burst everything to pieces. All of this while an angered goddess and her wooden giant loomed over her.
"Let her go!" Isidore cried as she struggled in her vine ensnarement.
War picked herself up, then fired her tendrils at Gwyn's back. Gwyn flashed a furious glare over her shoulder before raising a thick wooden wall behind herself. The tendrils nailed themselves into the surface, then extended spikes toward the shadow warrior.
War jumped over the spikes and ran across them. She dislodged her tendrils, leapt over the wall, and speared her claws down on Gwyn. Cyan magic burst from the ground and caught War in a giant hand construct, squeezing her in its iron grip.
A hole sliced open inside the thorn wall and toppled over. Flint and Ambrosine rushed in and raced towards Gwyn. "Gwyn, don't!" Flint yelled. "Look, I know they're awful people, but this seems a tad excessive!"
Gwyn ignored him and continued pumping magic through Chantal.
Ambrosine grabbed Gwyn's shoulders and tried to pull her off of the screaming Heliolisk. "Gwyn, seriously, cut it out! What's gotten into—AAAHHH!" Gwyn's magic intensified and blasted Ambrosine off with a pressure burst.
Flint dropped to his haunches and caught Ambrosine in his forelegs, knocking them both to the ground. They pulled themselves back up and gasped as light started pouring out of Chantal's eyes and mouth.
Isidore had tears falling from her eyes as she kicked and screamed. "Please, stop! Don't kill her!"
Gwyn pressed her fingers deeper into Chantal's neck, waiting for the magic to overload through her system.
Something came flying over the thorn wall and landed on Gwyn's back, covering her eyes.
"Huh?!" Gwyn tried to reach around herself, but the creature scrambled around her grabs. "Get off!" She let go of Chantal and patted herself trying to remove the squirrelly invader.
With Gwyn's concentration lost, the hand construct holding War dissolved and dropped her. War whipped one of her tendrils at Isidore and cut her restraints. Isidore immediately raced to Chantal's side and picked her up.
"Chantal? Chantal!" Isidore cried, tears flooding from her eyes.
The magic buildup was steadily flowing out of Chantal's body, but the Heliolisk wasn't responding. Isidore placed her ear to Chantal's chest and listened for a heartbeat. She got a faint sign of one, along with slow breathing. Isidore sighed in relief, then grabbed her staff in her tails.
Flint and Ambrosine ignored them and turned to Gwyn as she fended off against a one-armed flunky that scratched and bit at her. It scratched at her clothes, whipped its tail, and seemed to be searching her person. Flint and Ambrosine gasped in realization and raced over to help Gwyn.
"Gwyn, hold still!" Flint yelled. A Guardian arm appeared over him and thrusted at the flunky, seizing it by the neck.
Ambrosine sliced the one arm off, freeing it from Gwyn. The Mew stumbled back in a daze, caressing her head with a twisted expression of pain.
"Uh, Ambrosine?" She turned to Flint, who was having trouble keeping the flunky under control. Even though armless, it put up a remarkable fight.
"Just crush it," Ambrosine said.
Before Flint could act on that, the flunky tossed something with its foot. On instinct, Isidore raised her hand and got the flying object. She turned it over in her hand and revealed a black berry with a purple sheen.
Isidore stared between it and Team Ravenfield in her own daze, then glared at them. "We're leaving." She pocketed the berry and stood up with Chantal in her arms. "War, let's find Barrett and get out of here."
"What about—" War started, but Isidore covered her mouth.
"I'm not dealing with that mad goddess any longer. Move!" Isidore's voice was harsher, choked up with anger that War could sense. An inner turmoil and fury that could rend whole villages with the sound of her voice alone. War didn't put up much resistance and obeyed.
"W…What?" Gwyn started to come to and rubbed her eyes. "W-Wait, what just happened? Everything's so…hazy."
"Gwyn, they have the Nightshade," Flint explained as he summoned his Guardian.
"Wait, what?!" Gwyn patted herself down and found her bag partially open. "Oh no, Medusa's going to kill me!"
"They're weak," Ambrosine said with scalpels in her hands. "This'll be over in ten seconds."
A red beam grazed the ground in front of their feet, then detonated in a wall of fire that threw them backwards. Isidore and War turned to the woods and saw Reuben stumbling out from the trees, panting heavily.
"Thanks…for waiting for me!" he yelled before pointing at the frozen wooden statue still looming above them. "And what the hell is that?!"
Isidore shook her head and grabbed Reuben with her other tail. "Forget it, we need to find Barrett. I can track him." She pulled Reuben along with War sprinting right behind them.
Flint, Gwyn, and Ambrosine picked themselves up and shook off the ash. Gwyn winced and clutched her head again. "I have one heck of a headache—AH!" Gwyn pointed up at the giant Mew statue. "Where did that come from?!"
"I think we'll all have a lot to talk about later!" Ambrosine grabbed Flint and Gwyn by the wrists and pulled them to their feet. "Right now, we need to get that berry back!"
Despite her age, Medusa zipped around the grove, dodging Barrett's swooping strikes. His newly formed claws tore through the ground like a shovel to soft dirt. The wings on his back flapped with powerful gusts that propelled him after the fleeing Serperior witch. Whenever Medusa dodged, she would find Barrett right up in her face with murder in his eyes. He was matching her speed, and steadily surpassing it.
"You're pretty spry for an old bat! HA!" Barrett slashed at Medusa, who barely dodged. A cut opened up across her cheek. "Too bad you crumble like old pudding."
Medusa snarled. "Vile creature. Your tongue wouldn't even be worthy of mixing with one of my potions. Probably spoil the whole batch." She slammed her staff down and sent out energy snakes at Barrett.
Barrett slipped through their snapping bites and decapitated the heads. He beat his wings and darted at Medusa with his claws ready to decapitate her, too. Medusa bent her body back and narrowly avoided having her neck severed. With Barrett flying over her head, Medusa whipped her tail over herself and caught Barrett's ankle.
"What did I tell you about demons, boy? They're nothing compared to my evil!" Medusa tapped the ground again and coiled Barrett in roots, anchoring him to the ground. "And I'm not above slaughter."
With a tap of her staff, stone spikes shot from the ground and impaled through Barrett's body. Chest, arms, shoulders, legs, and neck with the spikes tipped in acidic blood. Barrett laughed through the pain and ripped himself from the floor of spikes. Smoke seeped from his wounds as they sealed themselves. He rocketed at Medusa and tackled her off the ground.
Medusa gasped and slammed into a tree, sending her staff flying across the grove. Barrett pressed his hands into her neck. "I'm not above slaughter either, crone," Barrett growled.
"Granny!" Venus cried.
Andre seethed with pain as he tried to stand up. "Leave her…alone—" Andre collapsed over his forelegs and faceplanted with the dirt.
"No, don't move," Venus said worriedly, rolling Andre onto his back. "You might make the curse worse."
"If it means driving another nail into that arrogant punk's face, then so be it," Andre snarled as he tried to stand up again.
Barrett glanced over his shoulder and snickered when Andre fell over again. "Such pointless struggling. I wonder how long his bravado will last until the will to live leaves him?"
Medusa twisted her face into a hideous scowl. "A mind as weak as yours doesn't deserve sympathy of any sort. You polluted my ancestors' beliefs with your ways, turning it into something ugly that ostracizes all of us."
Barrett faced Medusa and smirked. "You mad, witchy?" He pressed his claws against her neck. "Face it. No matter how many spells you throw at me, I'll always come out on top. I'm stronger, faster, and cooler. There's no point in continuing this farce of a battle."
Medusa's brow creased. "You sacrificed your pokemanity all for the sake of this ugly form? Pitiful. You truly have no soul."
"Took you long enough to notice."
"And I do not care for soulless whelps like you."
"What are you going to do about it? Tell me how great things were back in ye old days?" Barrett threw his head back and laughed.
However, when Barrett faced Medusa again, he found her smirking. "You're a Curse Weaver, aren't you?"
Barrett glared. "Yeah. So?"
"Blood symbols? What a joke. Curses drawn in blood. How unnecessarily morbid. A true curse is a burden a witch must bear, something far greater than giving up a soul. You are a joke of a witch."
Barrett scoffed. "Big talk coming from a withered old bitch." He pressed his claws harder into Medusa's neck, drawing droplets of blood. "I've already sentenced that fox to death. Maybe I'll keep you alive longer so you can watch me carve your precious granddaughter to pieces. Won't that be fun?"
Medusa's smirk widened. "Oh, I couldn't."
"Scared?"
"Oh, I'm not scared of you. But you really should've watched your wording. Whenever I watch someone…they tend to scream."
Medusa flashed her eyes open. Barrett's eyes widened as he stared into Medusa's teal sclera and glittery emerald eyes. Sensing something amiss, Barrett immediately kicked off the snake witch and put distance between themselves while shielding his eyes.
"What the hell was that, crone?" Barrett growled.
Medusa straightened up and flicked the blood from her neck. "Don't bother closing your eyes. The effects are instantaneous."
"Effects? What effects—" Barrett staggered and spat blood onto the ground. A sharp pain struck the back of his neck. He grabbed the item impaling him, recognizing the texture as a tree root. "Really? Is this the best you got?" He tried pulling it out, but it stayed stuck inside his skin. "Hey, what's the big idea—"
Barrett stumbled again as more roots stabbed into his limbs, back, and chest. He fell to his knees and gasped a breath. He lifted his arm and saw something squirming beneath the skin. Something that looked like tiny roots encroaching throughout his muscles.
"You and your demonic friends aren't the only ones who can perform curses." Barrett looked up as Medusa slithered over to her staff and picked it up. "Rather than blood, however, we burden ourselves with the curse to remember our place in this world. It keeps us grounded and connected to the magic we borrow from. For the burden, immeasurable curses that can end a fight with even a simple glance."
Barrett snarled. He flapped his wings and launched himself at Medusa. "You rotten bitch!"
"Stop."
Barrett's wings were instantly paralyzed, sending the Lombre to the ground. Barrett tried to move, but his arms and legs refused to respond. He felt the roots squirming up to his face. He felt, even saw them swimming around his eyes.
Medusa stamped her staff down on Barrett's head and shoved his face into the dirt. "I could've ended this fight at any moment. These eyes are a weapon I don't use for selfish purposes. It is a burden that I may never look upon anyone with my own eyes, but a burden I bare to protect good people from rotten scoundrels like you."
Barrett tried to fight the paralysis in his body. "What are you…talking about?"
"I've been alive for a really long time, boy. Things were a lot rougher back in my day. We didn't have this little thing called morality." Medusa pointed her staff. "Just ask my previous victims."
Barrett followed her staff, but all he saw were trees. Dozens upon dozens of…trees.
Barrett's face twisted with horror and understanding.
"You said you don't fear death, right? You sold your soul? Well, you made things much worse for yourself. Imagine having your consciousness absorbed into the great aether that imbues this world with its many strange properties, scattered across Mysto for kilometers. A single thought, a single atom of awareness, separated into the vast sea of magic in our world. You are not just food for Mysto."
Barrett looked at his hand and shuddered as the skin petrified and changed. A wooden texture and color spread down his arms with leaves sprouting from his fingers and elbow.
"You are but a raindrop in the torrential ocean."
The roots pulled on Barrett and threw his body into a tree, where his petrified limbs instantly fused with the bark. Barrett started freaking out and struggling from his bindings. His legs and arms turned completely into wood and started spreading over his body.
"You…You sick woman!" Barrett screamed. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
Medusa closed her eyes, then snickered. "Just because my witchcraft isn't born of demons and hellfire, that doesn't mean everything about Mysto is kind and wonderful. Hell isn't scary, kid. Try spending a day with nature and it'll change your tune."
"You…You…"
Medusa's smirk turned into a furious grin. "You won't die. You will continue to live on in Mysto's magic, drowned by the overwhelming number of voices that speak out across the land. Your voice will lose meaning. You will be silenced by your eternal screaming."
The petrification reached up to Barrett's neck. "No. NO!"
Venus turned away from the petrification, unable to watch. Andre watched on in horror, briefly forgetting the agony he was in. He had never seen Medusa so cruel and callous, not even when she was bossing him and Flint around with work. It was quite chilling to witness.
"Barrett!"
Medusa turned her head and glared as three figures burst from the bushes. An Alolan Sandshrew, an Ambipom cradling an injured Heliolisk, and an armored figured covered in shadow.
Isidore looked around for her Lombre coven member. "Barrett, where the hell are—" She nearly dropped Chantal in horror when she spotted Barrett fusing to a tree. "Barrett?!"
Barrett could only scrunch his face as the petrification covered his neck. "Get…out of here!"
Flint, Gwyn, and Ambrosine stumbled onto the grove and fell over themselves. "Medusa, be careful, there are—" Flint started to say until he spotted the main event of the hour. "What the?!" Gwyn and Ambrosine gasped.
Barrett couldn't move anymore. He casted a furious glare at the stoic snake witch and screamed, "Damn you to Hell, you rotten crone! Dame you to—"
Silence overcame the grove. The petrification was complete.
All present company stared at the wooden Lombre fused into a tree with leaves sprouting from its surface. The permanent look of fury and disgust stared vacantly at the uncaring snake witch, offering it nothing more than a glare.
Isidore and Reuben felt their legs retreating backwards, stopped by running into their equally disturbed foes.
Medusa huffed a sigh through her nose, then glared at the two conscious witches. "Now then, would you two like to do this the easy way or my way?"
Reuben gritted his teeth. "You psychotic woman."
"You're a Puppet Master, aren't you? Disgracing the dead? Turning live Pokémon into puppets to act as slaves and toys for degenerates of the world? Hah. You're cute, boy."
Reuben's eye lit up, ready to fire. "I've survived death before."
"Let me relay the speech I gave your friend moments ago."
Flint and the girls stepped away from the witches and focused their attention on the petrified statue of Barrett. "Dang. Granny's hardcore," Ambrosine muttered.
"Medusa!" Gwyn shouted. "They have one of the Nightshade berries!"
Medusa narrowed her closed eyes. "Well, that certainly changes things." She aimed her staff at the villainous trio.
Reuben and War prepared to fight back, but Isidore stepped forward, causing them to stop. The Ambipom scowled at the ground, eyes burning with corrupted magic. Her tails grasped her staff with a death grip, contrasting the gentle hold of her fallen comrade in her arms.
"I'm done with you people. You can all just die!" She spun her staff, then slammed it hard into the ground, bellowing with a burst of corrupted magic. "Sseldne Ytivarg!"
A ring of smoke rushed around the grove, enclosing the area. Before anyone could act and stop her, a sudden force slammed down on everyone sans Reuben and War, shoving them into the ground. The trees and bushes caught in the gravitational field groaned under the strain.
Flint growled in pain from the pressure exuding on his bad leg. "C-Can't move."
"Me…either," Ambrosine groaned.
Gwyn tried push herself against the gravity field, barely managing a weak pushup before slamming back into the dirt. "Feels like my organs are being squished…"
Venus cried out, unaccustomed to the pain pressing down on her. Andre moved his paw toward her and held her hand, the only sentiment he could offer in his state.
Medusa couldn't fight back with the gravity, her frail body crumbling under the immense strain. She couldn't even open her eyelids to curse the trio. "You…witches!"
Isidore spun her staff, then aimed the glowing end at Medusa. "I could just let the gravity flatten you all, but I'm not waiting for one of you to pull a surprise escape. I'll make sure none of you ever rise again."
Everyone struggled to do something. Flint tried to summon his Guardian. Gwyn tried to draw out the magic in the ground or summon a plant. Ambrosine tried to think of something in her weaken state aside from chucking scalpels. None of them could rise against the increased gravity, too weak and battered to even attempt to fight it off. They weren't strong in the physical department regardless.
Isidore channeled her spell, staring at Medusa with searing hatred. "Perish into oblivion, witch! Yar Noitcnitxe!" A powerful purple beam fired from her staff.
Medusa clenched her eyes and braced herself as the light grew brighter through her eyelids. Just as she felt the magic ready to splatter her atoms across the aether, she felt a motionless heat. She sensed the beam in front of her face, but it was still. Frozen in suspension, inches from incinerating her face.
Isidore gasped. "What?!"
"That's enough out of you." Isidore, Reuben, and War looked up and gawked at the Gothitelle levitating above them, unfazed by the gravitational well. She wore a dark blue robe with the hood up. She glared emotionlessly at the witches and shadow warrior. "I'm putting a stop to this."
The Ravenfield trio forced their heads up and stared in awe at their surprise savior. "Holy shit, is that—" Ambrosine started.
"It's Cicely!" Gwyn gasped.
"She came back early," Flint added, his tone dripping with relief.
Cicely floated down and landed beside the frozen magic beam. She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. "Dispel." An energy wave exploded from her body, causing the gravity field to fizzle out.
Flint, Gwyn, and Ambrosine sprung to their feet and gasped for air. Venus picked herself up, panting with tears in her eyes, then collapsed against Andre's side.
Medusa picked herself up and cracked her neck, offering Cicely a smirk. "For a time mage, you have pretty shitty timing. You couldn't have arrived sooner."
"I was busy," Cicely said. "Had I known about this, I'd have arrived sooner." She snapped her fingers and dispelled the frozen magic beam. "I see you have a minor infestation."
Reuben backed away behind Isidore. "Uh, we may need a portal out of here."
"She has time magic," Isidore growled through clenched teeth. "I don't think I have the time to make one."
Cicely floated over to the trio. "There are one of two ways we can go about this. The peaceful route where I have you all apprehended, or the route where you'll experience the end of the universe in ten seconds. Choose wisely."
Isidore and Reuben kept shuffling back on their feet, sweat dripping down their faces. Reuben's bravado was all gone, while Isidore's fury tempered into nervous irritation. She clutched her staff tightly, ready to summon a portal at any minute, but feared the repercussions of dealing with the Time Mage. She could freeze time and knock them all out without a second passing. Isidore rather not deal with that again from an expert.
"Isidore," Reuben growled.
"I need a second to summon a portal," Isidore whispered. "We don't have that luxury, unfortunately."
Cicely floated closer to them, raising a hand wrapped in dark blue aura. "What will it be?"
Before the witches could decide on a plan, War suddenly drove her claws into the ground. Cicely pressed her fingers together, ready to freeze time, when she heard a bloodcurdling scream right behind her. Cicely whipped her head around and saw Medusa fall backwards with a shadow tendril impaling her through the chest.
"Medusa!" Cicely cried.
Just one second.
Isidore spun her staff and summoned a portal. "Get in, now!" She grabbed Reuben and War with her tails and pulled them through with herself.
Cicely turned back around and tried to stop them, but their bodies completely passed through the portal. She tried snapping her fingers, but the portal wouldn't suspend like the beam spell. "Spatial magic," she growled.
"Indigo!" Gwyn slammed the ground and sent a horde of vines at the portal, but it closed up before they could pass through. Gwyn stared in horror at the bare space in the air, then fell to her knees. "No…"
Ambrosine furrowed her brow in confusion. "Wait…Indigo? What are you—"
"ANDRE!" The girls gasped as Flint bolted over to his fallen friend, only now registering the extent of his injuries. Flint collapsed over Andre with tears pouring out from his eyes. "No…no, no, NO! Andre, no!"
Ambrosine blinked at the distraught Flareon, then turned her eyes to Medusa as she lay on the ground trying to control her bleeding. Venus ran to her with tears in her eyes, while Cicely hovered over to her fallen friend with a solemn look.
Ambrosine looked between everyone and the despair in their faces. Dazed, she fell back onto her rear and held her head. The lack of energy and stress of the events had her on the edge of passing out. Unable to process everything, only one phrase could sum up her feelings.
"This…is the second worst day of my life."