Her song of negative feelings
[ACMI: Into Darkness]
They had started a group call so that Joule could keep in contact with them as they arrived.
Over the link, Joule could hear the sound of jet planes.
"The security around here is focused on the sky." Tsuchimikado noted "It's not like there are many places a person could hide."
"Joule, where is Oriana now?"
A quick relay with Lumen and Joule reported "She's already inside."
"Then we need a plan." Stiyl noted "We don't have a lot of time."
The three of them worked out that they could sneak in while the security changes it's flight paths.
When they had a plan set up, they began to run. Joule could hear them breathing hard over the call.
[ACMI: Omen]
"Does she have the cross on her?" Stiyl asked as they ran.
Joule shook her head, though he couldn't see that "She doesn't."
"She hasn't recovered it yet?" Tsuchimikado asked warily "But it's so close to the deadline. What could she be planning?"
"Maybe she's hidden it nearby and wants us out of the way first?" Touma suggested.
"Hold on, Tsuchimikado!" Touma called suddenly.
The man in question began to respond before Joule heard him give a grunt of pain.
"His phone's been damaged." Uiharu reported "What was that?"
"One of Oriana's slips of paper was attached to the fence. Touma's getting rid of it now." Stiyl reported.
Lumen could see them now. Oriana had spotted them behind the fence and she was getting ready to use a card.
Right then.
"Your phone!" Joule reminded them as they climbed the fence. As Stiyl hit the ground he reached up to his ear to grab his phone before turning the volume up.
Joule stood up to head into the closet (to not distract Uiharu with her singing) and saw through Lumen's eyes as Oriana launched her spell. It was something that ripped up the earth and caused powerful winds. Of course, Touma broke through it with a punch. Wait- no!
It didn't stop, of course not. He wasn't hitting the core of the spell so his hand could only hold it off.
Stiyl cursed, dropped the phone to the floor and pulled out a card.
"In my hand, I hold the fire. It's form is that of a sword and it's purpose is conviction!"
He shot a blast of fire forward, it brushed past Touma without doing much damage before hitting the other spell and disrupting them both in an explosion.
Stiyl ran forward towards Oriana. He'd lost his phone though so that was one less way Joule could sing. Touma still had his though!
"It doesn't look like you have a saint with you. Poor things facing me alone, I almost feel sorry for you."
...She really was evil. Joule thought. No one good ever said "I almost feel sorry for you."
She activated another spell and the phones went dead. Joule needed Lumen to tell her what went on. Even's Lumen's voice sounded odd though, as if it was quieter than normal.
"Some sort of spell, Stiyl said it was made to cut off communication."
"I knew I should have gone there in person." Joule groaned. There was only one option left and it was the tiring one.
Lumen could still give a performance but... she'd never used that power for anyone except GV before. It required a strong connection with the target and she hated Oriana. Would that hate be enough?
Could she sing for the sake of someone she hated?
She'd have to try!
Lumen couldn't seem to form a link to Touma or Stiyl so Joule couldn't warn them. Regardless, she took a breath. Lumen would sing with her but she had the actual song ready.
This was meant to happen the other way round. Joule knew the song and would perform it while Lumen did the tricky details. Now Lumen would sing while Joule had to handle the detail work. Could she do it? At this range?
She took a breath.
[ASG2: Tabura Rasa]
"Serenity and fury… Now…
The conflicting azure and crimson"
Oriana reacted suddenly.
"What?"
Joule focused as she hummed the song. Lumen's song echoed within her head as she strengthened the connection with the mage.
The two who were there had been fighting her in hand to hand. It turns out that Lumen had actually interupted a speech from Touma. Oops.
"You hear the song?" Touma asked. Partially a question and partially to make a point "You hurt our friends and we aren't going to let that go. We will stop you from doing any more damage."
"Damage?" Oriana asked "We're going to use the cross to remove the wall between magic and science. Doing that will allow us to lead the people of the world to true happiness."
"Happiness huh?" Touma asked "Sounds nice, I can almost understand why you'd believe that you've come here to do a good thing. But not quite."
Touma keeping her busy with words was quite helpful for Joule as it allowed her to track down Oriana's short term memories.
"See you just have one problem." Touma spoke calmly "Whatever your intentions, I won't let you use the cross in this city. Not when doing so means ruining the Daihase festival. So many people treasure this event, it's a symbol of our unity. I don't care how noble you want to pretend this plan of yours is, it's clearly the wrong thing to do if it means ruining something so precious to us!"
"Your argument is all emotion and no logic." Oriana responded as Joule tracked down her memories of her card order "Do you really think that it will sway-" She cut off suddenly, she'd been going for her flipbook of paper and froze as she suddenly realised.
"You can't remember their order anymore, can you?" Touma asked "That's the song. Instead of trying to hurt you, the girl who's closest friend you hurt chose to lock your power. If you're the sort of person to put the needs of the many over the needs of the few, listen to the response of the few that you've hurt. You and your employers may believe you can take control of this city but that's only an illusion and I will destroy it!"
End of chapter.
Was no one going to tell me that IX 2 is out? Because it is. It may affect the sidestory but I doubt it will affect this one at all.
After playing through normal mode I can say; It's a good game but while the story has a few interesting notes near the end it was probably the weakest story in the series. I'm not a game reviewer though, so meh.