Stage 4 – Ellie's dream, Heavenly Hell
The girls find themselves in Hell. Something isn't right, though, they swiftly notice: There are screams of sheer delight and pleasure coming from all around them, the screaming all sounds like it's coming from the same person, the punishments are all well put together and in working order, and the entire place is completely devoid of life, save for the person being punished.
Marisa inclined her head at the curious sight. "Reimu? Why is someone dreaming about the torments of Hell?"
Reimu lifted her shoulders with an unsure sound. "I've heard that some people actually enjoy being hurt. It's usually pain inflicted by another person though… Judging by the screams, she must really be into this kind of thing. …How disturbing!" She shuddered with pure revulsion.
Marisa took a step forward, her eyes on the curious figure. "Eh, I ain't one ta judge. Let's just wake this lady up and forget about it."
The girls make their way through the endless torments. Each one is punishing the same person. She appears to be some kind of ghost, with her deathly pale, almost white skin that was covered in bleeding wounds. She wore a pitch-black leathery gothic Lolita and Victorian style dress with several light gray lacy ribbons on it. The bottom and middle of her dress was made out of spiked chains that end in daggers and giant needles or whips, some of which are longer than others, making her look somewhat like a Portuguese man o' war. She wore spiked manacles and a spiked collar with more chains on every spike that ended in hooks or harpoons. Just below the collar was a gold necklace with a square golden plate with two rings in the middle and a diamond on each corner. Her eyes were black and her black hair was long, straight and slicked back. Her forehead was unusually large and she wore a large hooded cloak and had two black leather boots on her feet. She was very beautiful, even with her pale skin and grievous, bleeding wounds that disturbingly enough looked self-inflicted. Reimu and Marisa both recognized her.
This was Ellie Laymantayton, the leader of a now-defunct cult that had all killed themselves off a couple years ago. She had asked them to join her about a week before the mass slaughter, but they had said "No way!" and she had left without a single complaint, never asking them again. The girls had trouble finding the real Ellie, with each one being tortured in a different way.
Reimu threw up her hands in a frustrated grunt. "ARGH! I don't get it! Which one of them is real?! They can't all be the dreamer."
Marisa pointed to one of a countless copies of Ellie. "I think it's that one. That's the girl getting the most brutal torment, ze."
Reimu joins the pointing, but hers is an accusatory and firm thrust. "Finally. Hey, you! Get over here; we need to speak with you! Uh, whoever you are."
Ellie gets up and frees herself, chains sliding free of her easily. She didn't seem to care about the pain. If anything, she seemed relaxed and at ease. "Ah… Some girls are here to join in on the fun. I am Ellie Laymantayton, and I'm so happy to have visitors! Come, come, there's plenty of pain and pleasure to go around." She gestures at the very device she just stepped free of.
Ellie floated over to them and started to circle them, her calm smile took a maniacal turn. As she did that, she started to gleefully and manically mutilate herself with cuts and stabs and equally manic laughter that grew in intensity by the moment.
Reimu took a step back with her hands up in a warding pose. "Uh… We'll pass."
Marisa joined in the expression, staying at Reimu's side. "Yeah, what she said. We just want ya to wake up, so we can free our friend."
Ellie stopped circling them and frowns. She plunged a hook into her lower jaw, and ripped it clean off. The jaw hovered for a brief moment before rushing back to where it belonged, immediately reattaching itself.
Ellie taps her fingers together, eyes alight with recognition. "Ah yes… That's right. You're the two who are ruining our plans. Not only did you refuse to join my cult, you never once tried to help me get back into Hell. …And now, you're giving poor Jacinta, who's got an incredibly high pain tolerance, so much trouble!"
Reimu shrugs with a noise of confusion. "Huh? Back into Hell? …Oh, I get it." She snapped her fingers with a smile of understanding. "You're a wraith."
Marisa looked over at Reimu. "…A what?"
Reimu rolled a hand as she went on explaining, "A soul that's been kicked out of the afterlife it's been sent to. It's only temporary so they usually don't cause trouble. From what we've seen, for her it must've been because she enjoyed Hell so much she was forced to leave."
Ellie punched one fist into the opposing hand. "Indeed! But I'll get back sooner or later! And when my dream comes true, it will be very, very soon. I'll show Hecatia… I'll show EVERYONE who's in charge of Hell! But, enough talk. It's time for me to put an end to your meddling. Get ready… I assure you, this will hurt so good!"
Reimu took on a battle stance, moving protectively. "Get ready, Marisa! Here she comes! Be careful, wraiths have strange powers!"
Ellie laughed with joy and malice. "That's right! This will be very painful for you. Yet, at the same time, full of pleasure. Ooh… I LOVE IT!"
Not wanting to give this clearly unhinged ghost a chance to fight back, they immediately started blasting away at her, flying in close to hit her with physical attacks with both of them ending combo with some of their moderately powerful Spell Cards. Ellie took every hit, but much to their shock, she just seemed… Bored! She even yawned!
"Ho-hum… Is that really how you plan on hurting me…?" She suddenly grinned like a madwoman and screamed out loud, "HAHAHA! LET ME SHOW YOU HOW IT'S DONE!" Her many chains sprung to life and seemed to stretch out endlessly in every direction. They were barely able to avoid them all, but then she vanished, forcing the girl to look around frantically in an attempt to find her. Sensing someone suddenly appearing behind them they turned around to see her lash out with her chains again.
They were able to dodge it, but Reimu and Marisa couldn't help but think the same thing as they shot a knowing glance at each other. How are we going to beat someone who reacts to getting hit like that?
Marisa said out loud as if it was obvious, "Never mind if she likes it or not, ze! We have to inflict maximum damage! There's gotta be a limit to even her pain tolerance, right? Besides, she's still taken' damage! I can tell it!"
"You're right, Marisa!" Acknowledged Reimu, "Maybe if we can get her pinned on one of the torture devices in this place?"
They hit her even harder, and this time she stopped moving and seemed to think what had just happened over, as if it was no big deal to her, "Hmm… That's a little better… Oh, but it's still not ENOUGH!" Her voice gained an extremely deep echoing register, "Let me show you how it's done…" She then vanished again, only for her to appear behind them again, but this time after she lashed at them with her chains, she followed it up with a Spell Card!
This Spell Card was Cenobite Sign "Empty Flush". Holding both hands out in front of her, she began to rotate in place while charging black and white energy in a large sphere in front of her. This sphere immediately fired off a giant sweeping blast of pain and suffering that takes the form of a huge black and white spinning laser. While she was doing her spinning, she quickly began to chase them down, making avoiding the blast even harder. Even so, they were able to avoid both Ellie and her laser while blasting her with stronger Spell Cards.
Ellie took the hit, vanished and appeared directly behind them with a creepy smirk. Her next attack was actually puzzling as Ellie started to raise her arms up and down as if she was trying to fly and out from under her dress came what looked like clouds of jet black smoke. "What is this?" uttered Reimu "A smoke screen?" They were so startled by the fast attack that they were hit by it.
The waves of black clouds hit the girls with a horrific sensation. It felt like the worst pain they had ever felt in their lives followed instantly by a wave of pure euphoria. It nearly knocked them out and knocked them backwards, very similar to being hit by a big wave at the beach. Their sight was even temporarily lost. The sensation was that overwhelming!
"OH, GODS!" Screamed Reimu in horror, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Getting hit with normal Danmaku and Spell Cards were meant to hurt, but that was just on a whole other level!
"I dunno, Reimu!" Cried Marisa, who clearly felt the same way, "But I think we should really, really avoid getting hit by her attacks! I NEVER WANNA FEEL THAT EVER AGAIN, ZE!"
"Oh, but that was the fun part…" Said Ellie, who attacked them again, this time by scattering countless shards of razor sharp rusty metal in all directions, "I'm sorry you two have such a low tolerance for such things," She gave yet another crazy grin as she vanished just in time to avoid an attack from Reimu, OH WELL! HAHAHA! HAVE FUN, GIRLS!"
The next attack by Ellie came really quickly. Holding out her hands without warning, she gave them a big blast of black lightning that spread out as it went farther away from her. Not wanting to experience whatever the hell that sensation was when they got hit with those black clouds, the two girls dropped down below the lightning bolts and the lightning passed overhead, nasty and threatening but missed them by millimeters. "Phew!" said Reimu as they blasted at her from the ground. "That was a close one!"
Ellie saw what just happened and seemed genuinely disappointed that her attack missed. Another attack with her chains made Reimu and Marisa fly up to avoid it and Ellie appeared a short distance away from them. "Did you really have to dodge that attack…? IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITES! HAHAHA!" She then used her next Spell Card, this one being Cenobite Sign "Doom Wreath".
She started to spin while chasing them down again, but this time she emitted waves of blackness in every direction. This Card reminded them all too much like the smaller black clouds she hit them with earlier so they stopped attacking her and just tried to flee and dodge the black waves. Fortunately the waves didn't seem to cover too big an area and soon just fizzled out harmlessly.
When Ellie saw this, she seemed to get frustrated but just shrugged and gave a slightly more sinister facial expression. "Do ya have ta be so creepy!? Quit looken' at us like that, it's weirden' me out, ze!" screamed Marisa. Ellie seemed to comply as her facial expression became much more pleasant.
"Ah… My apologies, ladies," moaned Ellie, and she seemed to really mean it, "I really do want everyone to have a fun time here. ALTHOUGH I GUESS OUR IDEAS OF FUN MIGHT NOT MIX! HAHAHAHA!"
The microsecond of hesitation was exactly what the girls needed. They immediately blasted her with their strongest Spell Cards. The combined attack swept her off her feet, sending her crashing into a swinging pendulum which sliced her completely in half, with the two halves each landing in nearby rolling spiked pillars that slowly ground her up. The girls winced and averted their eyes and covered their ears, but Ellie reappeared behind them, perfectly intact and lashed out with her chain again. Reimu and Marisa thought that would make her mad, but she actually seemed genuinely grateful such a terrible thing happened to her!
"OH, YES!" She gave a deep moan of pure pleasure and excitement, "YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT FIRST!" Then, she pouted, "But I suppose you won't be doing anything like that anytime soon… Oh well…"
Reimu could only shake her head in exasperation. No wonder Hell banished her if THAT was her experience to all of that… Then again, Hell's torments were always pretty shoddy. She thought to herself.
"Still," Ellie said with a slightly sinister smile, "I do believe that I should thank you. HERE!" She then started conjuring up her next Spell Card, Cenobite Sign "Painful Oblivion"! Pointing at them, she summoned a forest of spiked hooked chains out of swirling black portals that tried to grab them and drag into the dark void they sprouted from.
They were able to void the grasp of every chain, but Ellie was on them with yet another Spell Card, this one being Cenobite Sign "Hellfire Wyrm"! She vanished, appeared in front of them and held out her hand. A swirling dark purple vortex appeared in front of them and out from it came 300 giant screaming burning skeletal dragons lunges out of them. Each dragon came at them with great speed and ferocity, but in the end every one of them missed. The dragons just crashed into the ground and exploded, but the girls were able to dodge the explosions as well.
Seeing how fast the girls are, Ellie stopped attacking and began to mull the situation over in her head. Reimu and Marisa obviously took this opportunity to attack her without any fear of being hit, but she just ignored them. These girls are very fast… Much faster than I expected. Oh well. I suppose I should respond in kind… Hee hee hee… …HAHAHA!
Ellie gave an exceptionally creepy smile and snapped her fingers. Two iron maidens appeared in front of the girls and tried to trap them within them. They flew out of them, but just when they thought they were safe two more iron maiden appeared and tried to trap the girls again. They were able to avoid these two as well, but the iron maidens just kept on coming. After fleeing about 16 iron maidens, they suddenly stopped, and Reimu and Marisa breathed out sighs of relief.
Unfortunately when the girls looked over at Ellie, they saw that she had only stopped attacking because she was about to use her second strongest Spell Card, Cenobite Sign "Flaying Scream", on them. She began to spin once more, but this time the spinning was so rapid that the two girls were starting to get dizzy just looking at her. As she spun faster and faster, she created a gigantic hurricane of sharp objects that sucked everything in and tore it to shreds.
The girls flew as fast and as far from the spiraling metallic mass as they could, but the pull was so strong they felt as if they might get sucked in and get ripped apart at any second. Fortunately Reimu, who had noticed that the hurricane actually also left Ellie wide open, she decided to use Divine Art "Demon Binding Ring", one of her strongest Spell Cards of all on her. Countless spiritually charged-talismans and yellow and red Danmaku shots flew at Ellie, hitting her hard and knocking her right into the hurricane.
But she actually smiled and let out a sigh of pure bliss as she was reduced to a cloud of pink mist.
The girls spent the next few seconds watching as the mist slowly reformed back into Ellie who gave them a huge grin.
"HAHAHAHA… AHAHAHAHA! I LOVED that! Oh yes… OH, YES! I have to repay you in kind… I MUST DO IT! I'll give it to you… My greatest gift of all! MY LAST WORD!" When next she spoke, all emotion had left her voice, "I'll tear your soul apart…" She then proceeded to use said Last Word on them.
This Card was Cenobite Sign "Soul Shredder". Ellie stopped moving and curled up into a fetal position before opening herself back up with blinding speed. This made her explode into a great sphere of swirling shadowy opaque energy that was full of glaring eyes and sharp teeth that completely consumed her. It nearly consumed them as well, but banking on what had happened with the last Spell Card she used on them, Marisa decided to counter with one of her own Last Word Spell Cards: Comet "Blazing Star".
Marisa began to zip around the rapidly growing mass randomly and erratically, and every time she did, she blasted Ellie with humongous lasers and her larger red and blue star bits as well as the star bits that were left in the laser's wake. Sure enough, this was enough to push back the shadowy energy sphere all the way back to where it first started, where it promptly went up in a cloud of greasy black smoke.
When the smoke cleared, Ellie was already almost completely regenerated. She was just sighing sadly.
"Ah… Now I'm all out of Cards… I guess I did it again…"
Reimu, who had been shooting at Ellie even as she continued to regenerate herself, lowered her gohei.
"Does this mean you're going to call it quits?" Asked Reimu with complete sincerity. She felt very uncomfortable fighting this woman and just being in her dream period. She really wanted to just move on to the next dream; she was positive whatever dream was next would make her feel more at peace.
But Ellie just smiled and vanished one more time. "OF COURSE NOT! AHAHAHAHA!" She said from behind them, swinging her arms in frantic arcs that sent small black waves at them. Thinking quickly, Marisa spun around and cast a hastily put together but still powerful reflector spell that sent every wave right back at her.
Every single wave hit Ellie, causing her to stop and groan with delight. The small interlude of ecstasy enjoyed by Ellie gave Marisa just enough time to bring up another one of her strongest Spell Cards, this one being Black Magic "Event Horizon".
Moving in as close to Ellie as she dared, Marisa surrounded herself with magic circles that fired off Danmaku of every color of the rainbow while expanding and contracting from her own body. Every shot hit, and because she was still reeling with pleasure from the black waves, the sudden propeller-like movement caught Ellie by surprise and she was sent hurtling downward towards a long, thin sharp spike sticking up from the ground!
Ellie had clearly lost the Battle, as she didn't even try to fly out of the way or do another vanishing act and was swiftly impaled on the spike and slid down onto a bed of red hot spikes, letting out a groan of pure pleasure as that happened. Reimu and Marisa wince at this, and the dream started to end.
Ellie laughed, barely a lone noise, weakened in her waking state. "It doesn't hurt enough. You need to try harder," She sighed, turning inward for a moment. "Jacinta's not going to like this… But, I think I've gotten enough Nightmare Energy for now."
Reimu leaned in, ignoring the macabre nature of Ellie's defeat. "Ellie, could you do us a favor and tell Jacinta not to trust Frederica? Doremy said she's really bad news, and I kind of believe her."
Ellie hums softly, trying to move an arm, but it was pinned by the many things impaling her. "I did see a great amount of darkness about that woman. I'll try, but I'm afraid you underestimate the power of my dear friend's determination. Farewell…"
Ellie fades away as the dream ends. The girls find themselves back outside and another chain and lock crumbles away. The purple orb is almost gone now.
Marisa shudders with a sigh. "That Ellie was really weird, ze. I can see why she became a wraith. Are they all like that?"
Reimu shrugged. "I haven't met that many wraiths, but yes. But never mind that, look! We're almost finished!" She whirled in place, looking at what was left.
Marisa perked up with a giggle. "I know, right? Let's go for the doll next."
Reimu started towards it, teeth clenched. "Right. Ugh… I can't wait to be free of these stupid nightmares."