Chapter XVIII - Clerebold Icarus Imbertus
"Pathetic fools!" boomed Shadow Clerebold, his distorted voice shaking the tower to its foundations. "If there is no reasoning with your like, then by force it shall be!"
The enlarged warden threw his head back and roared, the chains embedded within his shoulders rattling with the action. The discordant sound of metal on metal echoed in Wymare's ears, and as he winced, several sections of the ceiling suddenly caved in. As rubble rained down on their heads, the three Persona-users looked up to see four serpent-like constructs slithering from the holes in the ceiling, with seemingly endless bodies of chain links and heads reminiscent of fanged handcuffs. The summoned creatures fixed their eyeless gazes upon the three humans below, and Merliad's keen vision caught a slight quiver traveling up their bodies as they tensed up.
"Scatter!"
Merliad's warning had scarcely been given before the chain beasts lunged. Their mouths of metal snapped down on where the Persona-users had been gathered, only just missing their mark as Wymare, Yselt, and Merliad leaped out of the way. Agitated, the chain devils rattled and gnashed their teeth, slowly turning to face their quarry as they prepared themselves for another attack. Wymare and Merliad were faced with one metal monster apiece, whereas the other two turned their attention to Yselt, who looked from one to the other with something akin to disdain.
"Gawain!"
"Let's go, Nikanj!"
"Estraven, come forth!"
The three Personas flashed into being at their users' beckoning, and the tower office came alive with the sound of battle. Wymare lashed out at the chain devil facing him alongside Gawain, but their bladed weapons only left scratches on its tough metal body. Unimpressed, the chain devil swung its head at Gawain, knocking the armored Persona aside before its jaw snapped open and flashed toward Wymare. The boy sidestepped the bite attack, twisting his upper body to smack the iron fiend in the mouth with the handle of his axe.
"Persona Change: Koropokguru!"
After recovering from being swatted aside, Gawain extended an open hand in the chain devil's direction. The moisture in the air coalesced between the monster's jaws, and it recoiled as a jagged clump of ice formed around its teeth, freezing its mouth in place. The chain devil recoiled and strained as it pried against the frigid seal, attempting to raise its head into the air to keep its attackers at a distance.
The evasive movement was in vain, however. Wymare brought his axe behind him and stepped back before flinging the weapon straight up, using concentrated winds to hasten the throw. The axe's edge caught the chain devil below its chin, leaving a slight dent in the metal, and the beast recoiled as though it had been struck with an uppercut. Following up on its user's throw, Gawain flew over the dazed construct's head and slashed at it in an overhead cleave, sending it tumbling toward the floor from whence it had fled.
Keeping his eye on the falling chain devil, Wymare recalled his axe, the weapon disappearing from the air and returning to his hands. He waited for the chain devil's head to fall to his level, swinging with all the force he could muster and sending the head of his axe crashing into the foe's teeth. There was a terrible screeching of metal rending metal, and by the time the chain devil slid to a stop from the force behind Wymare's strike, any onlooker could see that one of its fangs had been split and crumpled.
Furious, the chain devil picked itself up and bit down on the ice between its teeth. The block of frozen water shattered, weakened by Wymare's offensive, and the injured construct rattled its body as it rushed forward with renewed vigor. Wymare held the neck of his axe with one hand and the end knob of it with the other. He held it in front of him to guard against the charge, his feet sliding a bit before he caught himself as the chain devil pressed itself against the verdant wood.
A sudden and heavy impact to his back caught Wymare by surprise, sending both him and the chain devil pressed up against him flying across the office. He bounced off the floor like a stone on a lake before catching himself, looking up once he came to a halt to assess his attacker. Shadow Clerebold was lowering his leg after punting Wymare like a ball, and he saw his nose twitch a few times before a sadistic sneer spread across his face.
"How fitting for you, Thiebaut," the Shadow gloated. "I suppose I'd be the third man in your life to kick you to the streets, wouldn't I? Right after that orphanage director from Colkirk. And, of course..."
Wymare's axe soared through the air with blinding speed, glancing off the hardened wax that coated most of Shadow Clerebold's head. The warden flinched, his expression having soured despite the lack of pain inflicted by the attack, and Wymare opened his hand to call the axe back to him, a look of cold fury crossing his features.
"Save your breath," he hissed. "I'll hear you speak when you're at our mercy."
The chain devil Wymare had been entangled with had picked itself up in the time since the warden's kick, retraining its focus on the axe-wielding boy. It lunged once more, mouth opened wide for a savage bite of its target.
"Garu!"
Gawain apparated at Wymare's side and channeled a gust of wind from above the chain devil, the force slamming its mouth shut and forcing its chin into the floor. Undaunted, the construct picked itself up and closed the distance to its prey, and Wymare also ran ahead to meet it, his axe at the ready and his Persona at his back.
Meanwhile, Merliad found themselves faced with a troublesome predicament. Estraven's hook was having similar difficulties in cutting through the chain devils' metal hides, and with their ice skills serving as little more than roadblocks against the construct's rampage, they were forced to rely on their magic to fight. They used their Persona to keep the chain devil at bay, peppering it with balls of flame from their staff all the while.
Growing irate from the constant stream of fire magic pelting it, the chain devil ducked underneath a swing of Estraven's fishhook and quickly wrapped its body around the Persona's frame. Its chains looped around its legs and torso, and it then pulled its body taught, squeezing the life out of Estraven as a snake would its prey. A dull pain began to grow in severity within Merliad's head, and with the warmly-dressed entity bound and restrained, the chain devil faced the caster and lashed out toward them, mouth agape to snap them up.
Acting fast to protect its user, Estraven pried its arms free of the chains wrapped around it. It swung its fishhook polearm down with great force, the tip of the hook slipping through a link in the chain devil's long body and into the floor below. The chain devil's forward charge was abruptly halted as it found itself unable to move any further, and Merliad, having tensed up in anticipation of the hit, looked up to see the construct flailing about and snapping uselessly in their direction.
Merliad, a bit shaken, took a breath to steady themselves before formulating a plan. Yellow rune circles began to form around the head of their staff, and they stared down the raging handcuffs with a look of cold determination.
"Mabufu," they said softly. At the command, Estraven's fishhook began to crackle and shimmer with frigid energy as ice chunks formed on its metal surface. From there, the ice spread up the chain devil's form, rendering more and more of its body immobile until it moved up to its head. Merliad watched as their Persona's ice crackled into the inside of its metallic maw, failing to envelop the entire head but locking up the joints enough to render it frozen in place, motionless. As they watched frost crawl across the exposed metal of the frozen construct, Merliad lowered the head of their staff, focused their magic into the runes, and fired.
A loud roll of thunder shook the office as Merliad let loose a lightning spell, the bolt slamming into the frozen chain devil's open mouth. With the ice rendering the metal brittle and the heat and force of the lightning crashing into it, the head of the handcuff monster blew apart, its upper and lower jaws smoldering as they clanged to the floor. Its chain body went slack as the life left it, and Estraven pulled itself free without issue.
Just as it moved to return to its user's side, however, a chunk of molten wax struck it from the side, knocking the Persona to the floor under a heap of burning beeswax. Merliad cried out as a searing pain flared up within them, and Estraven's shape flickered beneath the wax that was now hardening around it, suffering under the intense heat.
While Merliad was reeling from the surprise attack, the now-headless chain seemed to pick itself up, straining against the ice that coated it before breaking free. Across the room, Shadow Clerebold had turned his focus on the caster, and he chuckled as he manipulated the chain like a puppeteer, sniffing the air to pinpoint the origin of Merliad's scent before bashing them over the head with it.
Merliad was sent sprawling, a large bruise already swelling on their forehead as their staff tumbled out of their hands. Shadow Clerebold laughed again, whipping the caster's chest a few more times with the chain before wrapping it around their waist and lifting them into the air.
"Poor, pitiful Stézan pig," gloated Shadow Clerebold. "Don't worry. I'll put you out of your misery!"
The chain holding Merliad aloft reared back before hurling them through the air toward Shadow Clerebold. The warden grinned and raised a fist, prepared to punch the helpless caster out of the air, but before he could land the blow a long streak of black moved between him and his target to intercept. Nikanj's elongated leg caught Merliad out of the air with its many tendrils on one side, while the tendrils facing Shadow Clerebold stuck out and sharpened into needle-pointed spikes.
Shadow Clerebold bellowed with pain as he jerked his hand back, the chains in his back rattling as he nursed the numerous puncture wounds in his knuckles. While he was occupied, Nikanj's leg pulled away and returned to its normal size, depositing the limp Merliad in Yselt's arms while the otherworldly Persona held the two chain devils pursuing her at bay with its remaining appendages.
"Are you okay?" asked Yselt, casting Dia on Merliad to patch up their injuries. "Can you stand?"
"I think... I may need a minute," Merliad wheezed, followed by a bout of rough, pained coughing. Yselt ran a hand down the caster's chest, feeling at least two ribs that were broken and needed more intensive healing.
"Wretched rebels..." growled the warden, his attention now fixed on Yselt. "Your bindings cannot be broken so easily! The years I spent earning my status are proof of that fact!"
Shadow Clerebold raised his uninjured hand and snapped his fingers. The remaining handcuff monsters bristled as an aura of red flashed around their bodies, instilling them with a surge of additional strength. They shook off Nikanj's restraining tendrils and snapped toward the Persona, their metal fangs grazing its body but failing to find purchase.
Yselt winced, sharing in the pain of her Persona's injuries. Her brother's Shadow had amplified their power considerably, for despite Nikanj's innate resistance to physical attacks, the chain devils were now strong enough to make up the difference. She could see Wymare fending off his own chain devil out of the corner of her eye, struggling to hold it back even with his strength and Gawain's fighting against the construct's forceful bite.
Taking care to not exacerbate her ally's wounds, Yselt laid Merliad face-up on the floor before rising to her feet, flail in hand. As she rose, Nikanj wrapped its legs on opposing sides of the handcuff monsters' heads before slamming them together, dazing the constructs and buying Yselt time to step up next to it. The girl's hair fluttered as she began spinning her flail, preparing to fight at her Persona's side.
"Be... careful," Merliad managed to whisper, holding an arm up and raising their hand in Yselt's direction. The caster used their remaining dregs of energy to cast Sukukaja on their ally, and Yselt felt her pulse quicken as green energy swirled around her for a moment.
The constructs lunged toward Yselt, and she batted one to the side with a swing of her flail while Nikanj grappled the other. The Persona's floral stem opened and launched a spray of nuclear blasts into the chain devil's fangs, melting them slightly as the energy of the small bursts expressed itself through extreme heat. Yselt continued to swat away the chain devil pursuing her, her bolstered reaction speeds allowing her to deftly knock its jaws aside with every bite attempt.
Emboldened by feral desperation, the chain devil grappled by Nikanj pushed forward with its increased strength and sank its molten fangs into one of the Persona's legs. Yselt gasped as she felt a burning sensation in her own leg, but she pushed through it, channeling the adrenaline pumping through her as her flail's head rushed toward the other chain devil. Blue nuclear power sparked from its synthetic surface, and upon colliding with the underside of the chain devil's lower jaw, the resulting explosion of energy cratered its metallic frame.
Despite its misshapen jaw, the chain devil persisted, rattling its lengthy body in anger. It feinted toward Yselt, but it slithered to her right when she attacked again with her flail, swiftly snaking its way around her. Yselt swiveled her gaze to follow its movement, only for a cold hand to grasp her heart when she saw its open maw rapidly approaching Merliad's prone form. The caster's eyes were wide with fear as they gazed into the open jaws closing in on them, and Yselt's feet moved before her mind had a chance to keep pace.
The chain devil's fangs clamped down on Yselt's right forearm only a few feet away from Merliad, easily puncturing her skin and tearing into the muscle and bone beneath. An agonized scream tore its way past Yselt's lips as she summoned all of her strength to keep the ravenous construct from pushing past her. A spell of dizziness threatened to overtake her as her blood began trickling down her arm and pooling on the floor, but she recalled her purpose in being there and fought through it.
Shadow Clerebold sniffed the air at the sound of his sister's pain. "You would bleed for such an ingrate, sister?" he asked, scowling through the wax that covered his face. "They are less than worthless! Such minutia would hardly be an afterthought were we restored to our rightful caste! Why do you shield them from my retribution!?"
Yselt refused to reply. She channeled her strength and rage into inching the chain devil away from Merliad, fighting against its relentless strength despite the numbness that filled her injured arm. She looked past Nikanj, the Persona still restraining the other chain devil, to see Wymare struggling to get an opening on the construct he and Gawain were engaged with. His eyes met hers with a horrified stare, but she did not hold his gaze for long, instead shifting her attention to the chain devil fighting him. With her ears pounding and her breaths labored, she raised her free hand, flail gripped between her fingers, and pointed.
"...Pulinpa."
Bright lights flashed from Nikanj's tendrils and apparated around the chain devil in front of Wymare. The spheres burst with a blinding flash, and the construct suddenly toppled over on the ground, rolling over and writhing about in a fit of confusion. Finally free from the creature's onslaught, Wymare looked to Yselt once more, seeing her burning determination through the signs of pain expressed in her body language. Grateful for the assistance, he nodded, proceeding to flourish his axe in a grand sweeping gesture.
"Change: Gurr! Dekaja!"
Grey energy poured over the three remaining chain devils, sapping away Shadow Clerebold's power boost and rendering their strength normalized. As their bite force lessened, Yselt let out a furious yell, directing one of Nikanj's legs to reach over and pry the chain devil's teeth free from her bloody, mangled arm. Doing the same with the chain devil embedded in its leg, Nikanj proceeded to wrap its tendrils around the base of the constructs' heads, gripping the point where their chains met the back of their mouths before pulling them taut. The constructs bit the air around Nikanj, unable to turn far enough to find the Persona's body.
"Mafrei!"
At Yselt's shout, Nikanj channeled nuclear energy and released it in a forward wave, aiming high so as to strike the chains of both constructs at once. The attack succeeded, and as the extreme heat of the nuclear energy took effect, the chain devils snapped in twain halfway along their bodies, the molten links pulled apart by Nikanj's thick appendages.
Shadow Clerebold growled and spread his arms apart, the chains embedded in his back rattling as their wax coating shifted and coagulated. Blasts of burning wax flew forth at the warden's command, shooting straight toward Yselt, who was attempting to staunch the flow of blood from her mangled arm. Despite her injured state, she found the energy to swing her flail with her remaining arm, splattering the molten projectiles into smaller flecks that sprayed across the warden's scattered parchments on the floor.
Angered by her persistence, Shadow Clerebold roared and unleashed a continued volley of wax, only for Nikanj to step in with the severed heads of the two chain devils gripped in its tendrils. It used the chain-tethered constructs like flails of its own, swinging the lifeless heads back and forth to parry the projectiles away from its user. Gradually, its speed with its makeshift flails not only matched Shadow Clerebold's rate of fire, but surpassed it, allowing it to stretch its legs out and slam the chain devil bodies into the warden between his wax bullets.
Shadow Clerebold grunted in pain as the chain devils slammed into his chest and waist. Enraged, he smelled the room to triangulate Nikanj's position before swinging his leg toward it, knocking the chain devils out of its grasp with an upward kick. He then brought his foot back down for a heavy stomp, and with no way to dodge without risking Yselt's safety, Nikanj was forced to catch the stomp head-on. Shadow Clerebold growled as he shifted all of his weight into his leg to press down on Nikanj, the floor beneath the Persona cracking under the intense pressure.
Yselt's vision blurred as her waning stamina ebbed away further. She had been running purely on adrenaline since she'd suffered the bite to her arm, and now that she was having to uphold Nikanj's presence under the weight of her brother's heel, the toll of the battle was catching up to her. A trickle of blood began seeping from her nose, and her Persona's form flickered and became somewhat translucent, threatening to shatter and disappear.
"Yselt! Fall back!"
A green blur whizzed through the air over Yselt as a familiar voice called her name. Wymare's axe lodged itself inside one of the links in Shadow Clerebold's restraints, and with the forceful wind propelling it, the warden was pulled back as the axe's blade lodged the weapon in the wall. Shadow Clerebold roared angrily, and with his whole body being pulled back, Nikanj was freed from being crushed underfoot. The alien Persona vanished as Yselt let out a gasp of relief, and she looked over her shoulder to see Wymare looking at her, Gawain fending off the last chain devil at his back.
"Get yourself and Merliad stabilized," he ordered. "I'll take care of this. Now go!"
Too spent to protest, Yselt nodded and rushed to Merliad's side as fast as she could manage. However, just as she was kneeling next to them, the tower they were in shuddered and rumbled, throwing Yselt to the floor as she lost her balance. Across the chamber, Shadow Clerebold had extended an arm out in front of him, palm facing upward as he channeled his strength. Alarmed, Wymare swiveled his gaze to look upon the warden just in time to see the giant Shadow raise his arm over his head.
With a cacophonous splitting of rock and wood, the office atop the tower shook before lurching skyward. Wymare was dragged to the floor as it moved beneath him, and he saw the expanse of Rìo Ghaile visible beyond the prison camp's walls receding below the tower's balcony, the clouds in the sickly green sky seeming to grow closer with each passing second.
"No quarter for those rebels who would dare rise against me... Nor anywhere to run," declared Shadow Clerebold, his distorted voice rising above the rushing winds that filled the room.
"As if we would run now," Wymare replied, pushing himself to his feet as the office continued to rise higher into the sky. The chain devil facing him tried to rush forward and sink its fangs into him, but Gawain dashed in to block its path. Before the construct could move to skirt around the armored Persona, Gawain drove the tip of its longsword into its open mouth with a downward thrust. The blade passed behind its lower jaw and into the floor, allowing Gawain to use its crosspiece to wedge the monster's mouth open while keeping it locked in place.
"Change: Morgan!"
A new power surged through Gawain's form as Wymare changed Personas, and it planted one of its hands on the upper jaw of the restrained chain devil. A sparkling mist trailed out of the back of the construct's open maw, and it continued to billow forth while being drawn into Gawain's torso. Before long, the chain devil's furious struggling became weaker, and after several seconds of Gawain drawing the enemy's strength into itself, it relinquished its grip and extracted its sword, the chain devil falling lifelessly at its feet.
As the life drained from the chain devil imbued him with a second wind, Wymare turned to face Shadow Clerebold, recalling his axe to his hand in a flash of fire. No longer pinned against the wall, Shadow Clerebold stood at full height, glowering down in Wymare's direction.
"All alone, little mouse? How sad," spat the warden. "I'll bet you've been waiting for a chance like this, haven't you?"
Wymare didn't dignify the insult with a response. Instead, he leaped forward while channeling wind beneath his feet, flying toward Shadow Clerebold with his axe raised to strike. He swung with a shout of effort, but his foe simply raised an arm and blocked the incoming stroke with the shackle around his wrist, sparks flying as the metal blade scraped against the rusted silver cuff.
"Well... so have I."
Clerebold's distorted self pushed the boy away, shooting chunks of burning wax from his wing-like chains as Wymare rebounded in midair. Concentrating on keeping himself afloat with a perpetual wind current, Wymare observed the incoming projectiles with a stern eye, sizing up their number and how quickly each would reach him.
"Persona!"
Gawain's blade went out in a blur of green and silver, chopping up the wax bullets as they came with unfailing accuracy. The wind that formed its cape rushed to Wymare's back, propelling him forth and guiding him between the continued volley of molten wax that flew his way. As he drew close to Shadow Clerebold, the warden raised his cuff-locked wrist to block his attack once more, a move that Wymare was anticipating as he lifted his axe.
"Change: Raijuu!"
Just before making contact with the iron shackle, Wymare feinted, diving toward the floor while Gawain flew in and attacked in his place. The moment the Persona's sword made contact, it let loose a jolt of electricity that arced from the rusted cuff and across all of the warden's chains. A choked cry escaped the warden's lips as his body convulsed for a moment, during which time Wymare flew down and past his foe's legs, slashing into his calves with his axe.
"Nisroc!"
As Wymare looped up behind Shadow Clerebold after soaring through his legs, Gawain disappeared from in front of him and reappeared next to its user, unleashing a fireball that exploded against the warden's back. Shadow Clerebold retaliated by thrusting his elbow back, trying to smash the Persona-user against the wall, but Wymare easily veered out of harm's way, slicing into the meat of his exposed bicep. Moving before the warden could try to attack again, Wymare flew up and past his neck. He snuck in a rolling slash at his shoulder before whirling around in midair to face Shadow Clerebold directly, an open palm extended toward him.
"Mad Hatter!"
Gawain emerged from a flourish of blue flame and drilled an armored fist into Shadow Clerebold's nose. The strike seemed to lack impact at first glance, but a red boxing glove emerged from the Persona's hand and pushed into the warden's face with deceptive force. Shadow Clerebold stumbled back, dizzied by the blow, before gnashing his uneven teeth and lunging forward with a raised fist. The speed of his retaliation caught Wymare by surprise, and despite raising his axe to guard against the incoming punch, the sheer size of his opponent broke through his defense, knocking him across the chamber in the blink of an eye.
Wymare bounced off the wall opposite Shadow Clerebold at high speed, falling to the floor as his concentration on the wind around him was broken. Rattled but not beaten, he shook himself off and took off toward the warden on foot. Scoffing at the approach, Shadow Clerebold raised a hand once again, and the lifeless chains dangling from the ceiling shivered before striking toward his foe. Wymare weaved between the rushing chains with all the agility he could muster, trying to close the distance between him and Clerebold's Shadow without expending too much of his stamina.
One chain stabbed toward Wymare, digging into the floor as he sidestepped the attack. Another attempted to clothesline him by sweeping at half his height, only for him to duck down, block it with the handle of his axe, and push it up so he could run beneath it, the chain's momentum carrying it well past him. A third stuck itself out near his legs in an effort to trip him, and he hopped onto it before leaping into the air. However, it seemed this was Clerebold's intention, as the chains were already moving to intercept him mid-jump. They were too fast for Gawain to interrupt, and so he braced himself for the heavy, painful impact that was coming.
"Estraven!"
A loud clanging and rattling from just ahead of him prompted Wymare to look up. All of the chains that had been about to assail him were being held back by the familiar form of Estraven, the Persona's hook stuck through the chains' links and pulling them so tight that Shadow Clerebold was unable to move them. Shocked, Wymare looked toward Merliad, who was now on one knee with a hand outstretched to summon their Persona. They still looked worse for wear - as did Yselt, who was focused on healing her bloodied arm - but they had recovered enough of their energy to help, in some capacity.
"What; something on my face?" Merliad quipped through heavy breaths. "Hurry on!"
Snapping back into focus, Wymare nodded and broke into a full sprint toward Shadow Clerebold, who growled with irritation at the caster's meddling. The wax-laden chains in his back swelled and simmered, congregating a large amount of boiling wax before he launched it at Wymare like a semisolid cannonball.
"Change: Koropokguru! Bufu!"
Gawain swung its sword in the direction of the incoming wax ball, a shard of ice flying from the blade's tip. The shard impacted with the ball of wax in midair, and a loud hissing could be heard as the ice brought down the projectile's temperature. As the ice melted into mist, the wax hardened into what amounted to a spherical candle, and Wymare leaped out of the way as it bounced off the floor.
"Now, Gawain! Magaru!"
Hovering in the wax ball's path, Gawain thrust its sword skyward as it stirred up a wide gale in its vicinity. The heavy ball of hardened wax was swept up in the small twister, and it rose in the air as Gawain did, swirling around the armorer Persona like a celestial body before Gawain conducted the winds forward. The wax ball sailed across the office before smashing into Shadow Clerebold's chest, taking the warden's breath away as his own attack broke into chunks upon impact.
With Shadow Clerebold's guard down, Wymare capitalized on the opportunity by throwing his axe as hard as he could. The weapon spun thrice before lodging its bladed edge in the warden's gut, extracting a deep, nauseous groan from its target. His hands went down to claw at the axe lodged in his stomach, but it vanished before he could grab it, reappearing in Wymare's hand as he burst upward on a forceful wind.
Spinning like a tornado on his way up, Wymare readied his axe, holding it horizontally as he prepared to move in for a critical, but not fatal, strike to Clerebold's Shadow. His foe, doubled over as he clutched his wounded gut, didn't move to intercept him. However, Wymare noticed something that made his confidence waver.
Shadow Clerebold was still smiling.
Across the room, where Estraven was still putting its full strength into restraining the chains, the one closest to the edge of its hook managed to slip free. Without skipping a beat, it whipped around the warmly-dressed Persona and smashed into the snowglobe affixed to its back, shattering the glass and scattering the planets contained within. Estraven folded and broke instantly, its presence already strenuous due to its user's fragile state, and Merliad let out a choked cry as they slumped to the floor, conscious, but exhausted and in extreme pain.
Freed from the Persona's hook, the chains raced around the office toward Wymare and Shadow Clerebold, swinging in a semicircle from their hole in the ceiling. The combined weight of the four chains whipped Wymare on the side of his head, sending him crashing into the floor before he'd even known they were coming.
Shadow Clerebold's sinister laughter rumbled forth as Wymare reeled from the surprise attack. He relished in the sight of the Scadarah boy struggling to pick himself up, adding to his pleasure by using the chains to whip him incessantly. Prone and defenseless under the warden's cruel offensive, Wymare could do nothing as links of heavy metal bashed into his back, sides, and head over and over. The resonant cackling became more and more muffled as his ears began to ring, and his grip on his axe grew weaker with every strike.
After what seemed like an eternity of punishment, the chains pulled away from the bruised and bloodied body of Wymare. Shadow Clerebold remained deeply amused by the boy's pain, using his foot to flip him onto his back. As he did so, he used two of the chains to drag over Merliad and Yselt, the former largely limp and the latter struggling despite her lingering injuries.
"Well, well! Quite the splendid performance you've managed to put on!" said the warden, his shackles rattling as he clapped his hands together in mock applause. "However, I believe it's time you took your final bow. I do hope this was everything you wanted it to be."
"Why...?" Yselt asked, her eyes brimming with tears of frustration. "Why are you doing this to us, brother? To me?"
"What a foolish thing to ask," replied Clerebold's distorted self. "This is the natural consequence for those who stand against the warden. I am a guardian of Brilan's way of life, and this position shall elevate me to the level of power I require to restore our family's honor."
"You can't get that back on your own!" Yselt challenged. "Don't you see it? This course will only lead to your own destruction! I do this to HELP you, brother!"
"What would you know!? I protected you as much as I could when we lost everything, and I do the same even now!" Shadow Clerebold gestured toward Wymare and Merliad as he continued his shouting. "It is you who chooses to remain a nobody! You confer with these vile specimens who wouldn't be worth their weight in dirt, fancying yourselves knights in shining armor."
As Shadow Clerebold spoke, the Persona-users at his feet saw melted wax beginning to leak from the corners of his mouth. The trails trickled down his face and across his body, snaking toward his various injuries before pooling within them. The wax hardened once within the slashes and stab wounds, and within moments the hardened wax transformed into healthy flesh and skin, healing the warden until all of the party's efforts had been undone.
"It is not too late, however," Clerebold's Shadow continued, the corners of his mouth creeping up to form a demented grin. "My wealth of intelligence has revealed to me that these cretins have poisoned you against me. I shall rid us of them, sister, and then keep you close. If I rid you of these rebellious influences, I shall be able to preserve you until my goal has been achieved. You shall have the life you desire once again. WE shall have the life we DESERVE once again!"
Yselt was silent for a moment as she digested her brother's fervent rambling. She felt Wymare and Merliad's eyes on her, and her brother's Shadow was breathing heavily, the desperate passion in his voice when he spoke of his plans for her leaving him breathless. She wiped her tears away before slowly shaking her head, her resolve unbroken despite the grim circumstances.
"...Your delusions cloud your mind, brother," she replied at last. "You've locked yourself in the past, unable to accept the truth. So I will never accept this version of you."
"...No. No, no, no, NO," denied Shadow Clerebold, furiously shaking his head. "Yours is the clouded mind - clouded by the rhetoric of these ingrates!" He raised his foot over Wymare and Merliad, preparing to stomp them like common bugs. "Be not afraid, Yselt. You may be repulsed by my ambition, but nevertheless, I shall do what is best for you. It shall be done, in the name of our-"
"HEADS UP, YA SCUM-SUCKER!"
The sound of a woman's voice broke through Shadow Clerebold's hideous rant, catching the warden and the Persona-users at his feet unawares. Wymare heard a series of fast footfalls running toward him before they suddenly stopped, and he looked up to see a humanoid figure leaping over his head, features obscured by a fluttering brown cloak, with one arm brought back and the other outstretched toward Shadow Clerebold's head.
The stranger drilled a wicked blow into the warden's face, her fist catching him squarely between his blindfolded eyes. Despite her comparatively diminutive size, the punch extracted a cry of shock and pain from Shadow Clerebold as he staggered back, caught by the chains in his back before he could fully collapse. The new arrival landed on the warden's chest before springing off and deftly landing between the downed Persona-users and the dazed giant.
"What's the matter?" asked the same female voice, loud and direct in its tone. "Don't tell me you lot are planning on dying already!"
Wymare, Yselt, and Merliad all raised their gazes as they realized the voice was speaking to them. Standing before them, her back turned as she maintained a ready stance, was a woman dressed in a metal breastplate and ripped black shorts, her blood-smeared brown cloak falling loosely around her muscular frame. Her hair was a bright sky blue, and she stared at the humans on the floor behind her with a mixture of excitement and annoyance twinkling in her yellow-pink eyes.
"And after I went to the trouble of lending you my Goho-M, too... It's rude to get a girl's hopes up, you know. But then, I guess I shouldn't expect a bunch of human amateurs to defeat a Shadow like this all on their own."
The three Persona-users said nothing, their mouths agape with confusion. This stranger spoke with a sense of familiarity that struck them as downright baffling, considering she was a perfect stranger speaking without hesitation about things no stranger should have known about. For his part, Wymare was attempting to gauge whether she was a friend or a foe. She'd addressed them as humans as though there was something about her that differentiated her from the label, leading him to assume she was some manner of Shadow. However, between her abrupt assault on Shadow Clerebold and her lively demeanor, she seemed to defy that assumption as well.
Recovering from being sucker punched in the midst of his triumph, Shadow Clerebold growled and pushed himself back onto his feet, shaking his head before focusing his enraged gaze on the unfamiliar trespasser. "Who are you!?" he demanded. "You, who dares raise a hand to the ruler of this prison!?"
Despite the venomous fury in Shadow Clerebold's voice, the new girl simply rolled her eyes and scoffed, as though something was amusing about his words. "Oi! Redhead!" she shouted, addressing Wymare as she rolled her neck from side to side. "I'll help you out this once, but I expect some proper gratitude after we've cleaned up here!"
Wymare thought for a moment that he ought to protest; to point out that she was a lone intruder facing a massively powerful Shadow with total control over the battlefield. However, as she smirked a fanged smirk and waved her arms out at her sides, his objections disappeared as he saw that, from the elbow down, her scar-covered skin faded into row after row of green scales. His eyes widened in shock, and he also noted that her fingers were tipped with large ivory claws, each sharpened down to a fine point.
The girl slid her feet apart to strengthen her stance, and as Wymare's eyes shifted to follow the action, he noticed that her lower legs were of a similar nature to her arms, all scales from the knees down and with claws protruding from her toes and the backs of her heels. As if those features weren't enough, something moved at the bottom of her cloak, and Wymare, Yselt, and Merliad were all equally in awe of the thick green tail that parted the torn strips that hung around her back, lifting into the air as she sized up the seething warden.
"Alright, big guy... LET'S GO!"
A burst of blue fire flared to life at the reptilian brawler's feet, trailing between her claws and swirling around her in a display that was all too familiar. A long, slender form began to take shape from the flames, and before long, a mighty beast appeared, wrapping itself protectively around the new intruder.
Encircling the girl was a Persona in the shape of a serpentine dragon, the bright red scars carved into its body marking the drake as the sole survivor of many grisly encounters. Its scaly hide was of a similar shade to its user's own scales, and its barbed tail flicked from side to side as it, too, sized up Shadow Clerebold with its unblinking orange eyes. The dragon's jaw quivered as though it were imagining sinking its fangs into the warden's flesh, and the frills along its spine bristled with anticipation.
Shadow Clerebold's nose twitched as he picked up the scent of the intruder's other self. "Hmm. That smell... So, you're just another of those filthy rebels," he said, his agitation fading slightly to make room for annoyance. "In that case, I suppose I've no choice but to subjugate you as well. For the crime of interfering with the warden's duties, yours shall be a long, miserable sentence!"
With his judgment announced, Shadow Clerebold stepped forward and pulled forward with all his might, straining against his chains until the walls they were attached to began to crack. The warden howled with inhuman fury as he pulled his restraints free, and the chains in his back sagged as their opposite ends, tethered to massive iron spheres, tumbled from the broken wall and fell to the floor. His muscles rippled and flexed as he glowered down at his enemies, his frame casting a long shadow in the chamber's torchlight.
Wymare stared up at the Shadow of Yselt's brother, horrified that he seemed unshaken by the battle thus far. He, Yselt, and Merliad could scarcely stand, and yet their foe towered over them with a fury that had only intensified. He looked again to the scaly girl standing between him and the warden, momentarily questioning her sanity as he saw that her smirk had widened into a full-on grin.
"Heh," she chuckled, her eyes wide and dilated with feral excitement. "This oughta be fun."
The draconic Persona coiled around her roared to answer Shadow Clerebold's aggression, its muscular body rippling with tension as it prepared to engage. The cloaked girl raked the claws of her right hand over her left, hunching over like a predator about to pounce, and she drew in a breath to speak.
"Tear him apart, Lindwurm!"