Song is, "Battle 1" from Final Fantasy IX.

https/youtu.be/fPoOtOcuRqw

Chapter 7: Fuschia

After being given a sawed off shotgun, a white blessed staff with tree roots for the design on the top, a satchel and a few other things, like sanitizing all their attire, O'Callaghan made her way through the dark corridor with her husband, her father and her friend. She had her staff strapped to her back and her gun was on her hip.

"How did you know it was me on the stage?" O'Callaghan asked.

"I saw our twin flame line," Arthur said while pointing at his left eye. "Compliments of Darrach's acorn eye."

O'Callaghan gaped at him. "You let him give you a new eye?!"

"He gave one to your dad and Lugh, too."

"Wow. What else do they do?"

"They can see things that you normally couldn't with a regular eye and it's a camera so Darrach and the others can watch what's going on."

O'Callaghan cocked her head. "Everyone?"

"Yeah. Most of the gang, some of the staff...not the kids, though. They're way too young to see this."

O'Callaghan stopped in her steps and so did the others. She gave Arthur a perplexed face. "Uh...our kids?"

"Yeah."

"...How long have I been trapped down here?" she asked with dread in her voice.

"Six months."

Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. "N-No...that's...that's impossible."

"What do ya mean, lassie?" Sir Jack asked with a worried tone.

O'Callaghan started counting silently with her fingers and Arthur tilted his head as he watched. The two other men studied the scene in silence. "Why is she counting?" Arthur heard people ask over the intercom.

Once O'Callaghan had seemingly stopped counting, she swallowed hard before looking at Arthur, Lugh and Jack with an alarmed expression. "I was tortured with seventy two songs."

Arthur scrunched up his face. "He tortured you with songs?"

"It's a tactic of torment. You play the same song over and over again to break someone down mentally. This...Cursekeeper fellow decided to get creative and add physical torture, puppets and a personal warden, who Arthur killed, by the way, so thanks for killing Jorōgumo." O'Callaghan groaned before rubbing her face. "Each song lasted a really long time."

"Heh, didna really seem tah work on ya, did it?" Lugh asked. "How long did each song play?"

O'Callaghan frowned at Lugh. "One year."

The men gawked at O'Callaghan in shock. Arthur was trying to process what his wife just said and he was having a really hard time with it. He didn't have the words to express his grief and anger over this new information. He turned around and walked down a ways before pausing and grasping his gun belt. His wife was tortured for 72 years.

With music.

"One of her favorite things is music, and for that bastard to torment her with it..." he thought to himself.

"Arthur, I will get over the trauma eventually. I have a tendency to do that, so please...don't go down that rabbit hole right now," O'Callaghan said, walking up to him slowly and placing a hand on his forearm. "We have a job to do, husband. Focus on the job."

Arthur nodded before looking at O'Callaghan. "Yes, ma'am." They rejoined the group and headed forward. "Do you think it's been that long for Rose and Lilly?"

"Maybe, I don't know. We didn't speak much when I gave Rose my seer eye."

"Uh..." the men stopped and looked at her. "Huh?"

O'Callaghan urged them onwards and they obeyed. "We can't keep stopping every time we say something life altering. Rose escaped her prison cell a long time ago and told me Lilly was in danger and she needed the seer eye to help save her. So I gave it to her, she left, and I haven't seen her since."

"So why are we going tah her door?" Sir Jack asked.

"She might have left a clue."

Once they'd gotten to the door in question, which was on the left side of the corridor, Arthur saw a black door with a rose etched into it. "Yep, this is her door. A black door with a rose on it," he said.

"Uh..." Lugh sighed. "Arthur, I know that's what ya see and I believe ya, but that's not what I see."

"What do you see?"

"A wooden door...that got in a fight with someone and lost."

The door creaked open and shut repeatedly and they all gazed in at a dimly lit platform stage. There were three metal poles sticking out of the stage and into the ceiling. They all walked in slowly with wide eyes. It was a black themed room and there was a bar that looked like it'd been ransacked. Scotty beeped and went flying around the area, eventually going to one of the poles and poking it with a needle and making a loud tapping noise.

"Scotty found something," Darrach said.

The rest came over quickly, knocking over random chairs as they did. They crowded around Scotty who had opened up a small opening in the pole, a small black acorn falling out. Arthur picked it up and looked at it, then he squeezed it. A floating image appeared above it, and Arthur saw Rose's face.

"If yer seein' this message, well, obviously I ain't there. I figured I'd make savin' me easy and not be locked up, as fun as this place was," Rose said with a grin. "And dunna worry, I hacked Mallacht's surveillance over the joint so he ain't gonna know yer seein' this. I ain't got much time, but I assume ya managed tah get O'Callaghan out since ya passed her door on the way in. I'll be leavin' more clues similar tah this in Lilly's prison, but boys and girls," she hung her head. "It's been rough. Somethin' really bad happened tah Lilly and-" Something clattered behind her and she looked back, gasping before looking at the camera. "Shit, I'm outta time," she said before the imagery clicked off.

"Dammit!" Arthur growled.

O'Callaghan frowned and kissed Arthur's cheek. "At least she seemed put together," she said.

Arthur sighed and shook his head. "I know what she might be talkin' about, with Lilly."

"What do you mean?"

"Apparently she managed to send me prayers, and..." he looked at everyone. "I didn't want to alarm any of you before, but...Lilly's deaf, blind and mute."

"Oh dear," someone mentioned on the ear com.

"I saw her prayer, then I saw her...actin' strange and she had no eyes, her ears were bleedin' and her...her vocal chords were danglin' from her neck," he said, lowering his head. "I think she might even been in her wolf form because she was actin' like a...like a dog."

"But ya saw her as a human?" Sir Jack asked.

"Yes. Then the threat came through."

"Threat?" O'Callaghan asked.

Arthur shut his eyes and pulled O'Callaghan in. "I received...a vision of sorts, I guess. Mallacht ain't the only one we gotta worry about in Lilly's Hell. There's a woman, too. A really scary, dangerous demon woman. And...they've been takin' some of our people."

She gaped at Arthur suddenly. "How? And who?"

"Tilly, Hosea, Lenny..." he took a deep breath, "Sean, Brian and James," Arthur said quickly. They took their souls...and I assume they're locked in Lilly's prison. We scouted ahead with Scotty and only saw three doors."

O'Callaghan shut her eyes while taking a big breath. "Those jerks!" she shrieked before walking back to the door. "C'mon, we have no time to waste! Who knows if they've been stuck down here for as long as I have!"

The others quickly followed and they went through the door. They made their way down the corridor and when they eventually got to the last one, it was at the end of the hallway. Arthur saw it was red with a lily engraved on it.

"That's her prison cell," Arthur said. "Look around for a key."

"A key?" O'Callaghan asked as they searched.

"Yers had a key and it was just left abandoned in the hallway," Lugh said.

"Maybe Rose left it there for you to find," O'Callaghan said.

"Maybe."

Arthur searched and searched but he found nothing. The others came up empty handed and Arthur sighed before walking up to the door. He put a palm on the lily and closed his eyes. "How do we get in?" he asked.

"Maybe it's unlocked already?" O'Callaghan chimed in.

The door suddenly went ajar and Arthur backed up, aiming his gun at the door. The others pulled out their weapons. "Hello?" a high pitched, cheery sounding American southern woman's voice said on the other side. "Is there someone there?"

"Who are you?!" Arthur bellowed.

"Oh my, why so cranky, sugar?" the voice said with a giggle. "My name is Fuschia. Who are you?"

Before Arthur could answer, O'Callaghan covered his mouth. "Fuschia? The Fuschia?" O'Callaghan asked.

"The one and only."

O'Callaghan pulled the door open and grinned when a young, beautiful dragon lady with pampered fuschia colored hair and eyes came walking through, garbed in a knotted red and white plaid button shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots. She had a cutter styled dark brown hat and a stalk of hay was in between her teeth. She had six little black horns on her forehead.

"Well well, if it ain't the infamous White Wolf," Fuschia laughed. "I can't believe you heard of me."

O'Callaghan smiled. "The monsters in my cell talked a lot about you and your gaming simulations. I've always wanted to try them out from the way they talked about it."

Fuschia arched a brow. "Really?"

"Oh yeah! Such a rave you were for their New Years parties!"

The men looked at each and mouthed the word, "rave" with quizzical expressions.

Fuschia giggled. "Huh. I had no idea." She shrugged and opened the door more. "I really shouldn't let you, what with you bein' Dad's prisoner and all...and I really should kill these fellers who let you out."

"I sense a "but" coming," O'Callaghan said with a smirk.

"Correct," Fuschia said, grabbing her hay and pulling it from her mouth. "I should kill ya, but...it's been a while since anyone new wanted to play." She pointed at the men. "Who are these fine lookin' gentlemen and robot thing?"

"Oh!" O'Callaghan said excitedly. "These are, uh," she cleared her throat. "Uh...Theo, Harry, Doug and Scotty," she blurted out.

Fuschia chuckled when the men looked at O'Callaghan funny. "Uh...yeah," Arthur said with a nod before looking at Fuschia. "Pleasure to meet you, miss."

Fuschia crossed her arms and pivoted her hip before tipping her head back, gazing up and down at Arthur. "Pleasure's all mine, cowboy," she purred.

Arthur blinked. Was she actually flirting with him? "Uh, ahem...so you was sayin' about playin' your...game simulation?"

Fuschia nodded. "Yeah. I got monsters in here that you can battle and each time you kill a monster, you gain somethin' called, "experience points". And it's not an upfront battle, each of ya take turns attackin'."

Sir Jack hummed and ran a finger under his nose while stroking his chin. "Interesting concept. And this goes on until?"

"You or the monster dies." Lugh's eyes widened and Fuschia chuckled. "Well, you don't actually "die", per say. You just go back to your last save point."

"Save point?" Lugh asked.

"Mmhmm. Wanna give it a shot?"

The group looked at each other. "What if we say no?"

Fuschia smirked evily. "Then I'll just kill you."

Arthur cleared his throat. "Can we talk it over?"

Fuschia shrugged. "By all means, sir."

The group walked away from the door and cluttered amongst themselves. "What do we do here?" Arthur whispered.

"I dunna know," Jack said softly.

"I wanna do it," O'Callaghan spoke quietly. "It sounds like so much fun."

"But we ain't got time to be messin' around," Arthur hissed.

"I should probably mention that the monster battles extend to all over the entire map of Hell, and the monsters get more powerful the further you go in," Fuschia said out loud.

"And that matters because?" Arthur asked.

"The battle system is level based. The experience points you gain from each battle levels you up, so for instance, if you're a level 9 gunslinger and you're up against a level 40 harbinger, you're totally fucked," she explained.

Arthur sighed and bowed his head. "Don't seem like we got much choice," he said. "What do you think, fellas?"

"I say we do it," Lugh said with an excited gleam in his eye. "Ya never know if it'll come in handy being a high level fighter."

"I say yes," Jack responded. "I mean...how big is this Hell?"

"About fifty miles from here to Saint Denis and 'bout seventy to Tumbleweed," Fuschia interrupted. "And did I mention you also get gold every time you win a battle? You're gonna need that, too."

Arthur rolled his eyes at the woman. "Would you mind not listenin' in to our conversation, please?"

Fuschia held up her palm. "Alright."

"I think it will be fine," Darrach said. "I'm very interested to see what this Mallacht character has created in this world. I think I'll have Scotty come with so he can collect samples for me."

Arthur nodded. "Alright. Are we all in agreement, then?" he asked.

"Yes," the others said.

They made their way back to Fuschia. "Alright, we'll do it," Arthur said.

Fuschia gave him a cheshire grin. "Excellent. Come on in!" she exclaimed while holding the door open.

"Ladies first," Sir Jack said.

"Oooh, a chivalrous Irishman. I like that," she giggled with a wink before walking through the door. The group followed and Scotty lit the way. They found themselves inside a dark, large cavern with a single tunnel leading out. "Let's go. Sometimes you gotta walk a while until a monster spawns."

"Spawns?" O'Callaghan asked curiously as they all followed Fuschia.

"Yeah. Spawns. Comes out at ya."

"Oh. Why is it so cold in here?"

"We're in the northern territory of Ambarino." A breeze drifted by and Fuschia smirked, holding her palm out. "Wait," she said.

The party stopped. "What is it?"

"Monster's comin'," she said. Some rocks fell in the distance and the group held their weapons at the ready. A low growling echoed in the darkness and Fuschia went off to the side. "Don't mind me, I'll just be your tutorial guide."

Two large white tusks poked through in the darkness, then a set of red eyes and a mouth full of teeth emerged. Arthur, Lugh, Jack and O'Callaghan all took a step back. "What the hell is that?" Arthur asked in amazement.

"A wyerd," Fuschia replied.

The creature took another step forward, its white claws clapping on the ground. It's body was covered in green, wooly fur and it seemed to have no neck or head, just a face and a four legged body. "My gods," Lugh exclaimed. "This is the beginner's round?!"

"Yep. Good luck, folks!" Fuschia laughed.

The wyerd roared loudly and then everything went dark.

Play music here

Arthur blinked before widening his eyes, music unlike anything he'd heard playing around him. He stared up at the dimly lit cave they were in and then in front of him. O'Callaghan and Sir Jack appeared at his left while Lugh appeared at his right, then the wyerd monster appeared a ways in front of them all with a mighty roar. They all had their weapons at the ready but their bodies were making strange and repetitive movements.

"What in the hell is goin' on?!" Arthur shouted in awe, looking at himself standing at the ready. "Why can't I move around?"

"It's your battle stance," Fuschia explained as she popped up in front of Arthur in the form of a sort of colored drawing. "You can customize it later, if you want."

Arthur looked at a book that appeared in front of him. "What's this?"

"It's your options menu. You can choose attack, magic, steal or items."

The book opened and fluttered before Arthur's face at a reasonable distance. "Uh, hmm...attack?"

"Good choice!" The book disappeared and Arthur took his gun from his holster before cocking it back and shooting the wyerd. It roared in pain and the number 25 in white appeared above the creature before blinking out of existence. "Nice shot!"

Arthur holstered his gun. "Thank you, Miss Fuschia," he said.

"You're welcome, Mr. Theo," she giggled. "Harry, you're up!"

Lugh, holding his spear, chose "attack" from his book and ran forward, stabbing the beast in the face before jumping back to his spot. 27 popped above the beast's head. "What's with the numbers?" Lugh asked.

"Those are the damage points you give with your attacks, lowering the monster's HP, also known as health points. Doug, it's your turn."

Jack picked attack as well and charged the monster with his sword, slicing the beasts face with a slash before running back to his place. 30 was his attack reward. O'Callaghan looked in her book but cocked her head. "Um...what's summon?"

"Oh my, you got the summoner's perk!" she giggled. "Go on and try it!"

O'Callaghan shrugged before speaking the word. Suddenly she was engulfed in a white tornado and in her stead, her white wolf form appeared. She took a step forward and howled loudly, a whirlwind appearing from her mouth and extending towards the beast. The wyerd roared as it got sucked into it, twirling as it got smaller and was sucked into O'Callaghan's mouth. She chomped on the monster before spitting out its bones. She turned around and kicked the bones away with her back paws as they scratched the ground, kicking up dust and dirt. She then took her human form again with a shocked expression.

"Oh my," she said as the number 9999 appeared over the bones.

The music stopped suddenly and was followed by a victorious fanfare of trumpets. Everything went dark again and Arthur found himself in the cave once again, Fuschia looking normal and leaning against the wall. "Well I'll be damned," Fuschia laughed. "You overkilled that bitch!"

O'Callaghan cackled as she threw her head back. "That was great! I loved it!"

"Shite, that was actually fun!" Lugh said.

Jack shrugged. "It was. What did you think, Theo?" he giggled softly.

Arthur wasn't sure what to think of the bizarre event that just took place. "Well, I guess it's not a bad way to keep things interestin', I reckon."

"Oh, I love me a stoic cowboy," Fuschia giggled childishly before motioning to them to follow. "I'll explain more to you as we keep going. Keep up, y'all."