Hope raised up his arms in a defensive stance as Yu's Shadow turned to him. His maniacal laughter stopped. "Yu? Buddy? You okay?"
The Shadow tilted his head at the Fool. "No. No I'm not." It gave a quick laugh. "Or should I say he's not?"
"Are you hurting him?"
"No."
"Why are you here?"
"He's hurting." Hope furrowed his eyebrows. "It seems you don't understand. Let me try to fill you in. I am not his Shadow. I am him."
"I don't get it." The Shadow frowned.
"I'll try again. I am an aspect of his Shadow, possessing him. I am not his full Shadow however."
"It's still confusing." Hope shook his head, "Why are you possessing him?" Yu's Shadow laughed.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm an aspect of his Shadow! The Aspect of Anger! You heard him earlier, right?"
"It was kinda hard to not hear him…" Hope answered.
The Shadow deadpanned, "It was a rhetorical question. Either way, that Shadow Type was the one that killed Naoto. He got angry, which is understandable. But his anger overcame him. I am here to prevent him from getting harmed. I'm looking out for his best interests! With our self dead, we die as well!" The Fool's eyes widened.
"Oh! So you are here to make sure he doesn't get hurt. Well, we should get going then. The sooner we get this done with, the sooner we won't get killed." This seemed to through the Shadow for a loop.
"You… your accepting me? Trusting me? Just like that?"
The Velvet Fool just smiled. "Why wouldn't I? You're him, aren't you?" And with that, the Fool and the Shadow went to the 10th floor, which was vastly different than the rest of the dungeon. Instead of a sauna, the two were now in a large crystallized area. There seemed to be places that weren't covered in crystal, but those places, instead of the wooden floor of the bathhouse, were steel. Up above them instead of more crystal, was what seemed to be empty space. "This place seems… familiar."
"Do you remember it from somewhere?" came from the Shadow. The Fool simply nodded his head before he began walking through the empty space around them. The two walked for what seemed to be a long while, the floor being much larger than the previous ones. They eventually came to what seemed to be … a train car? Why is this so familiar? I feel like this place is very important.
There was a screech sounding throughout the area, and Hope's eyes widened as he cried out to the Shadow. "Move back!" Within seconds of moving back, a very large spherical object impacted where they were standing. Noticing the distinct lack of dead people beneath it, the sphere morphed into a large battered mechanical scorpion. I've seen this before. But why is it here? And how can I beat it? Hope dodged a sudden swipe from its massive tail. The Shadow jumped high into the air and fired a shot from Blazefire Saber, only for the shot to do next to nothing in terms of damage.
"What!?" Shadow Yu's Eye twitched. "You piece of trash! Time for you to get SCRAPPED!" It switched the Blazefire Saber to Sword mode and charged the bulky machine. "RAIKOUZAN!" The blade was instantly covered in electricity, and cut through the already battered machine like butter. As soon as the blade was out of the mechanical scorpion, Hope remembered. The Manasvin Warmech, weak to electricity and water.
"Yu! I got a plan, fall back for a second!" With a glare sent the Fool's way, the Shadow jumped off of the Warmech and landed next to Hope.
"Plan!?"
"Bravery!" Hope answered as he pushed the orb into the Shadow. He turned his hand on himself and cried out "Faith!" The Velvet Amnesiac then pointed at the Manasvin that was getting closer to them. "That's a Manasvin Warmech. It is weak to water and electricity. Wait for my signal, then use that same move again, okay? This is gonna take a lot outta me, so try to distract it for a moment." With a nod, the Shadow ran and jumped over the Mech.
"Hey, Ugly! I think it's nice how you took after your mom in the looks category!" Under normal circumstances, a machine being heckled like that would completely ignore it. But for some reason, unknown to Hope, the childish taunt worked. He quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts, and focused inward on himself. The Velvet Fool closed his eyes, and after a few seconds, he felt it. His Magic. It was coiling inside him, wanting to be let free. His Magic now connected to his mind, started to flow inside of him, gently moving about his entity. It swirled around him, encompassing him. Water. Soothing and calm movements. He needed more. The pool of water turned into a sea, the soothing and calm movements now interrupted by waves. Watera. He needed more. That's where the faith spell came into play, swirling around in the now ocean of magic. The Typhoon of Water magic kept getting bigger and bigger until it was ready to burst. Hope opened his eyes, now glowing with magic, and rose his arms in the air.
"WATERGA!"
"Hey, oversized-paperweight! You suck!" Nice one, he's gonna feel that in the morning. The machine slammed it's giant tail into the Shadow. Or at least, tried to. The Shadow was now standing on it's tail.
"Hope called you a Warmech, but all I see is a Snore-mech!" HA, got'em! The Shadow was sure that if this machine could have an expression, it would be fuming. It turned the Blazefire Saber and shoved in deep into the tail of the mechanical beast.
"Hurts like a bitch, don't it?" it said as it twisted the blade. "You know what else hurts like a bitch?" Here, a cold glare stared into where it's assumed eyes were, and all mirth and joking fled from the Shadow. "Having all your friends die in front of you." In a flash, the sword changed to it's gun mode, and a few shots were fired, shooting through the tail and leaving a gaping hole. Shadow Yu placed its hand in the hole and with an eerie smile laughed aloud. "Zionga!" A large bolt of lightning flew from its hand into the innards of the Warmech. A large shudder from the machine knocked off the Shadow, who flipped in the air and shouted, "ZIONGA!" The bolt narrowly missed the open hole, only slightly damaging the machine. "Fuckin' shit. Hope! You almost ready!?" The manifestation of Yu's rage looked over to the Velvet Fool, only to grin wildly.
"NOW THAT IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!"
"WATERGA!" and with that cry, a torrent of water shot out of both of his hands, circling around each other as they climbed towards the strange city-like landscape above them. Damn…
"Eat this!" And with that, he threw his hands down, slamming the water torrent into the Manasvin. The force and the pressure of the magical water ripped off the damage tail, and soaked the now barely standing Warmech. Hope toppled over to the ground, exhausted from his sudden lack of magic flowing through him. Shadow Yu took that as its signal. It switched the Blazefire Saber back into the sword mode, and charged the mechanical scorpion. At the last moment, it jumped and dive-bombed, sword pointing towards the beast.
"RAIMEIZAN!" Just before the blade connected with the Warmech, it doubled in length and was covered in Zionga magic. The Shadow went completely through the Mech unscathed, and slowly walked towards Hope, not paying attention to the exploding Mech behind him. The Fool hung his head, nearly succumbing to his exhaustion.
"Need to… not do that for a while." With that and a smirk on his face, he looked up at the Shadow, only for the smirk to fall. Instead of a hand to help him up, in front of his face was the barrel of the gun mode of the Blazefire Saber.
"W-what are yo-"
BANG
TheFallenAlphaAngel