Maybe I should apologize for my dreadful gaps in writing, but NAAAAAA not today. Today's scheme is to distract you. So...
Who's ready to go and see the new Deadpool movie!? I am! Hell to the yeah! I've been waiting for that sucker ever since I heard they were plotting it. Wooo!
Alright. Distraction over.
Devour
A shiver surged through Umbrianna's body as she took a step towards the Emerald Ivy Inn. It caused her entire form to shiver, and she couldn't resist the cruel smirk slipping up the side of her face.
"I didn't think heavenly beings could get cold," the robed male beside her scoffed.
"We don't. Our angel just arrived."
"Something's wrong!" Catori yelped out as soon as Isaac's body convulsed on the bed. When his wild thrashing undid one of the bonds around his wrist, she leaped forward to hold him in place.
Another wrist slung loose, and Millianna yipped, "Oh, really! You think?"
"What's happening?" Kagura barked out. Her grip tightened on Archenemy. Stepping forward, she eyed Isaac carefully. She was waiting for him to jump like he did last time.
Isaac's flailing arm went loose and promptly slammed into Catori's eye. Hissing, she snarled, "Hell if I know. Just hold him down! Winry's still in there. If he does something to himself, it'll happen to her, too."
Webbing shot out to reinforce Isaac's forearms, calves, and thighs. It wasn't enough. Each girl grabbed onto his thrashing arms and legs while Isaac screamed. A blow to the chest nearly threw Risley against the wall, but she held firm. Changing forms, she tightened her grip.
Isaac's roared only grew more fervent, his thrashing more violent. It wasn't until the masquerade mask over his eye flung loose that Catori hissed, "Oh, fuckity."
Black magic poured from his body. The girls were thrown back when a circle of dark magic slammed them into the room's walls. As soon as it hit their bodies, colors poured from their skin. The red color of Catori's soul began to leak out of her eyes and nose. The very color of their magic began to bleed from pores and any opening the soul could find.
Araña's hands flew to the greenish substance leaking from her skin. "Wh-what is this stuff?"
"Your soul," a new voice snickered.
All eyes jerked in the direction of a white haired and winged being in the room. Her eyes were two different colors, and as soon as Catori looked into them, she hissed, "Umbrianna."
"Astounding. Blasphemers know the names of angels," she purred. With a shifting of her fingers, Isaac suddenly began to lift up from the bed. His writhing body was held by bands of light that glowed against his skin. When the girls attempted to rise against her, she made just the barest of motions. They were thrown flush to the walls, bands of light wrapping around their own wrists and ankles.
"The hell are you doing with him!" Kagura screamed out. Her voice was more of a roar than a question.
Quirking up her plump lips, Umbrianna stated, "My job as Keeper of the Gate." Isaac's body was spun in the air until Umbrianna laid her dainty hands on either side of Isaac's face. She leaned in close to Isaac's wildly thrashing body.
Her hold was light, more of the embrace of a lover than that of a fallen angel. Her lips were right beside his ear when she asked, "Tell me, children. What god do you worship?"
"G-God?" Beth stammered from her spot against the wall.
"Yes. Because you'd better start praying now." She turned away from Isaac. "Hawthorne. The dagger."
"Lemme go you cynical bitch!" Catori screamed when a robed man entered the room from the bedroom door. She couldn't see his face, but she wouldn't need to. There was no one else who'd resort to Apocalypse Magic for revenge other than Gatlin Hawthorne.
"Oh shut the fuck up," he hissed from beneath his dark robes. "Not like squirming is going to save you now." His foot kicked out to smash against Catori's face. The steel toe cut skin, but when blood started leaking earthwards, Catori bared her teeth.
"Do anything to my sister, and I swear you and your angel hooker are gonna get gutted."
"Big talk from a chained bitch." He reached within the confines of his clothing before withdrawing a dagger. It didn't look like much, but given the wicked gleam in Umbrianna's eyes, there was more to it than a blade and hilt.
She took it in those manicured paws. There was no long villain's speech as she drew the dagger upwards. There was no dramatic pause or even a wicked laugh. As Umbrianna thrust the dagger down at Isaac's typically covered eye, the only sounds that filled the air were Mermaid Heel's screaming, Catori's cursing, and Hawthorne's gasp of awe.
The blade sunk down, yet no blood sprayed. Instead, Umbrianna called out, "By the pure one's blood, I release you, Angel of Light!"
Isaac's entire body convulsed. Black Magic shot skyward from Isaac's gouged eye. It rushed upwards to release a dark wind like a satanic whirlwind, and the magic pouring from everyone's bodies flowed faster, getting swept up in the black wind.
Kagura's eyes gazed in horror when Beth's magic was sucked completely out of her. A faint orange glow became her form, and Kagura got the quickest glimpse of Beth's screaming face before she was eaten by the black vortex in the room.
Beth wasn't the only one to go. Quickly, Araña and Risley followed. Their screams howled like ghostly whispers on the wind as Millianna, Kagura, and Catori attempted to free themselves.
"I don't give a damn about these sluts. You know who I came for. You know what I wanted," Gatlin snarled over the three women's cries.
A shadow seemed to roll over Umbrianna's body. It covered her over, soaking everything from her white wings, dress, and hair. When she turned back towards the others in the room, even her lips had lost their innocent tone.
Her skin was so pale blue veins pressed against it. She curled pitch black lips before purring, "Take it up with my boss." Thrusting her thumb behind her, all eyes were directed to the masculine silhouette behind her.
A hand was clenched tight around Winry's throat as she struggled against the claw tipped hold. Her legs were lifted high above the ground, and her feet kicked futilely in hopes that she'd land a hit on the body holding her.
It wasn't working, and the more that she squirmed, the tighter the grip on her neck became.
"So they thought to exorcise me, eh?" the beast holding her wondered. It was nothing but a dark silhouette, yet as the Astral Plane surrounding them shivered, bits of its body was being revealed.
Those dark appendages behind it? Large, white wings. The shadowed appendage gripping her throat, a muscular arm. The darkness from where two yellow eyes glowed? Likely the most handsome face any male could have been blessed with.
Gasping for breath, Winry's question was little more than a whimper. "Where's… Where's Isaac?"
Cocking his handsome head off to the side, the beast studied her with those sun colored eyes. "The boy? I'm holding you by the throat, and you're worried about the boy." His upper lip pulled in a wicked grin, and he moved Winry's body around like a rag doll to show her the world collapsing around them. "With the shit going on around you, you should be more concerned about what's happening right now."
Winry sunk her black painted nails into the skin holding her. He wasn't wrong.
Isaac's memories were flashing around her at breakneck speeds. The foundation of his mind was quaking, shivering as the bonds of the beast in front of her were breaking. Those chains shook and writhed. They rusted as the souls of the girls in the room were being absorbed.
Winry gaped out the viewing glass where Isaac's vision played back inside his mind. Catori, Kagura, and Millianna were the only ones left now. Their magic was still being drained, but they were somehow holding out.
In the middle of the room, Umbrianna stood. Her black dress flowed around her pale body, and her otherworldly chanting cried out over the screams of the other girls.
There was only one way to get out of this mess now, and Winry hoped that Isaac would figure out how to do it.
Sucking in a deep breath, Winry prepared her lungs to scream.
Everything was shaking. Even though there was no sense of ground or sky in this plane, Isaac knew it by looking at the memories crashing around him, at the shivering image where he could see the world through his body's eyes.
Bracing the legs his brain imagined for him in this form, Isaac stood amongst the falling thoughts. He saw the first time he'd met his cousin, Adamine, slam against the ground where his memory of kissing Hisui had shattered.
Shards of fragmented thoughts crashed beside him, and instinctively, he jerked his arm up. The memories went right through him, their broken forms looking like pieces of colored glass.
More of them fell, and Isaac gaped at his mind falling apart. He tried to move out of the way, to dodge the fragments, but it didn't feel like he was going anywhere. It was like running through knee high water.
His legs were slow, his movements stretched out.
It wasn't until a shrill shriek filled the air that Isaac got an idea of where to go. Even worse? He knew that voice. It was Winry Polterom.
"Shit," Isaac cursed. He spun around. It was like his feet finally knew what to do with themselves. As he followed Winry's fading cry, his legs picked up the pace. Energy that had been sucked out since he'd been trapped here came back.
Her scream came with waves of crimson energy. It pulsed outwards before wrapping around him. Each strand of red energy locked itself around him. It wrapped around his legs, his torso, and his arms. When Isaac drew in a breath, the light flowed into his mouth, and once the last bit of light was absorbed into his body, Winry's scream stopped.
The words Catori had told Kagura ran through Isaac's head. If he does something to himself, it'll happen to her. The meaning of that hit Isaac like a bat to the skull. If Isaac did in here, Winry would, too.
"Screw that." Clenching his jaws tight, Isaac leaped directly into a memory before it crashed. An orchard of apple trees flew right by him before he jumped into another thought. The members of the Royal Guard were tossing grins around as they hung out at one of the local pubs. They didn't even notice Isaac when he jumped into yet another memory.
It was like his body knew exactly where to go. Was it the red light guiding him? Was this Winry's last resort?
No. He shook his head as he charged onwards. No. It wouldn't be her last resort. Isaac was going to get her out of here. He was going to get that thing out of here.
When he leaped out of one last memory and felt something like ground beneath his feet, Isaac wasn't surprised to find the beast Umbrianna had sealed inside of him so long ago. Winry's spiritual form was laid out in a red heap on the black ground plane, and a bare foot was on top of her shoulder.
"So you finally made it."
There was no pain quite like the pain of having your soul sucked out.
As Kagura ground her teeth together, she tried to think of a way to get out of the binds chaining her to the wall. She twisted. She writhed. She slammed her body against the wall in hopes of getting it to collapse. Nothing was working.
The situation was made even worse by the incessant chanting of the black winged woman in the room. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, and her arms were raised like she was welcoming heavenly beings.
Nothing was going to be welcome if the darkness sucking the magic out of everyone in the room wasn't stopped. There would be no one to contain Umbrianna and whatever it was that she'd stabbed out of Isaac if everyone's magic was absorbed.
Kagura moved to use her magic. Her body was sealed, but the magic wasn't. Already, she could feel how low she was. The symbols in her magic circle were being pulled into the vortex, and the sweat running down her body was the color of her powers. She'd have just enough to use her gravity magic but…
A short glance at Catori showed the girl slowly shaking her head. Her usually blue eyes were leaking red. It would be no time before Catori was out of magic.
Kagura chanced a glance at Millianna. The feline girl's head was hung. Her lips were parted, and with how shallow her breaths were becoming, Kagura knew illness was setting in. Mages couldn't survive without their magical power.
She was so frustrated that she could have screamed. Interestingly enough, the robed man in the room did it for her. A faint red glow shined from Catori's eyes, and Kagura followed a line of spiritual possession that connected Catori's soul to the man named Hawthorne.
Thanks to the wind rushing in the air and the chanting coming from a possessed looking Umbrianna, only Kagura could hear the man's protests.
"No. Damn it. No! Let go of me, bitch!" Hawthorne shrieked. His foot shot out to nail Catori in the stomach, but her eyes never shut. Those twin, red lights shimmered in her gaze as she commanded Gatlin's body to move.
His hands tried to come down over his eyes, but Catori didn't let it happen. How she had enough magical energy to control the bastard, Kagura would never know, but when she made the man pick up a piece of broken glass on the floor, Kagura knew she was damned thankful.
Forcing Gatlin's hand to shoot out, Kagura watched the glass fly through the air and get wedged in the chanting bitch's throat. Immediately, the bonds tying the both of them down released, but only Kagura was able to gather enough energy to stand.
"Take the rest of my… magic…" Catori panted over the gurgling of Umbrianna.
"How do I do that?" Damn. Just breathing was difficult. How much energy had she lost from that… that thing in the room?
Catori didn't respond. Making direct eye contact with Kagura, she gaped when Catori's body slumped lifeless to the ground. Right before it hit the hardwood, something slammed into Kagura. A shiver of power went through her body, giving her the strength she needed to draw her sword.
From inside of her, Catori's voice explained, "I can… hold the… effects off of you… until I get taken. So finish. Quickly."
Not. A. Problem.
Tightening her grip of Archenemy, Kagura charged Umbrianna. The woman had pulled the broken glass out of her throat and was snarling in Kagura's direction. When she raised her sheathed blade for attack, a wing swept out.
They were tipped in talons so dark they matched the feathers. Kagura barely caught the sun's reflection off of them before switching to a defensive posture. The angel wing slammed against her sword, and when it extended back out, Kagura was flung through an open window.
That was when she saw it, and the sight of it made her heart skip a beat. Not only was the hotel room swathed in darkness. So was everything else. The sky was growing darker by the second. Streetlights had been shattered, darkness sucking away the light.
Black skies were heading straight for the sun, looking ready to devour it as quickly as it was eating away the blue sky. The only color was what was being drawn towards the gaping hole in Isaac's face, and the color was pouring from all over.
Mages writhed on the streets. Citizens dropped to their knees and screamed. All the colors of the rainbow were dripping from mouths and eyes. When a mighty roar tore through the air followed by a cold chill and crack of lightning, Kagura breathed, "Urian." Isaac's brother was in danger, too.
"Looking the wrong way!" a voice screamed out before Kagura was thrown beneath black talons. Umbrianna was perched over the top of her, each knee stradling Kagura on either side. "Isn't it beautiful?" she purred over Kagura. "How much power one boy has? How much power I gave him."
With a hiss, Kagura's leg came up of its own accord. Catori was controlling Kagura's body, and she threw Umbrianna over the top of her by ramming Kagura's knee against the back of the other woman's leg. "Real fucking pretty," came out of Kagura's mouth. Catori used her possession to snarl, "About as pretty as making him drink blood to live or sealing a demon inside of him! Isaac is my king, and you're not going to fuck with him ever again!"
Raising Kagura's hands overhead, Catori's soul formed a ball of red magic. At point blank she fired the spiritual manifestation into Umbrianna's face. Red light crackled as much as it was being drawn away by the vortex. A blast that could have killed fizzled out to leave a smirking angel as a residue on the pavement.
"Magic won't work with Isaac's seal released." Umbrianna flashed a grin. "Face it. You're just prolonging your own death."
Flaring her wings, Umbrianna grabbed Kagura by the throat to haul her skyward. She flew higher and higher until the coldness of the atmosphere touched Kagura's senses. With a twist of her hand, Umbrianna slammed Kagura's body back towards the earth.
There were at least ten stories between Kagura and the ground, but as she fell she couldn't tell if the ground was coming closer or if she was coming closer to it.
Catori's soul breathed, "Adamine!"
A flash of gemstone flew by Kagura, and she turned herself to see Umbrianna shielding herself against a flurry of diamond spearheads. When a flash of wind went by, Kagura heard the Princess of Lancet command, "I'll take this bitch. Go back to Isaac, and pull the dagger out of him!"
Pull the dagger… Would that stop the vortex from taking everyone's power?
A wisp of mist surrounded Kagura before a silver haired and silver eyed man caught her body in strong arms. She got just a glimpse of him before he dematerialized, turning them to mist with him. His name was Colin, a member of the Royal Guard who protected Isaac. If Kagura remembered correctly, he was the country's gatekeeper, master of trade and weapon design. He'd helped in creating the communication lacrima many mages kept on them.
When Colin turned solid, he dropped Kagura down on the floor of the hotel room. Behind them, she could hear Adamine fighting against Umbrianna. The princess's battle shrieks filled the air, only adding to the tension of the situation.
When Gatlin Hawthorne spat out a curse and lunged towards the newly materialized Kagura and Colin, the mist mage thrust her out of the way. He turned part of himself misty before reaching out to grab Hawthorne by the throat.
"Fuckin' bastard. King shoulda killed you," Colin ground out. His eyes glanced behind Gatlin's shoulder to where Isaac's body was levitating above the fallen members of Mermaid Heel. His voice was little more than a command. "Get our man back."
Offering him a nod, Kagura leaped towards Isaac. Gatlin tried to stop her, but Colin threw him out the window. Kagura and Colin exchanged a quick glance before the mist mage leaped out after his victim.
When he was gone, it was only Kagura, Isaac, and the vortex. Winds caused her hair to blow in her face and over her head. Her clothing flapped in the shadowy winds pulling from him, and the closer she got to him, the worse two things became.
The wind got stronger, and her magic was drained faster.
With skin turning pale as Magic Deficiency Disease settled in, Kagura forced her quivering legs to keep moving. Her teeth gritted as she braced herself against the wind. It threatened to push her back, causing her white boots to slide against the wooden floors.
Bits and pieces of furniture was being torn apart, and she had to latch onto one of the bedposts to keep from being swept up in the evil gusts pouring from where the knife had stabbed into Isaac.
The blade was there. It was just within her reach.
Stretching out her paling hand, Kagura got just a whisper of a touch on the hilt before the gusts grew stronger. She could see magical power being sucked in through the center of the tornado shaped wind tunnel. Her molars were being ground to dust as she fought close.
Her own magic was swept out of her panting mouth. It flowed from her and into him. Just like her blood had. Isaac lived a leech's existence, and it wasn't by choice. It was forced on him.
With her heart reaching out to him, Kagura forced her body to join it. Her soul felt like it was being stretched thin until she grabbed the hilt. There! Now all she had to do was—
The entire building shook, and Kagura braced herself by gripping Isaac's shoulder. A mistake. The vortex twisted with the shivering building, and Kagura gaped when it grabbed onto her hand.
Without warning, Kagura's hand was latched onto. Her feet lost all contact with the floor before she was sucked into the whirlwind. With a gasp of breath, Kagura was devoured.
Also, I didn't edit this bad boy. Glitter Spires, you know what to do.