Scene #7916: A Call For Help, A Cry If You Would

Owner	Pose
Vergil	The biting winds of Tibet carve its way into the skins of those making their way along the mountain trail. Warpgates only get you so far, the rest of the journey has to be on-foot. Along for the ride is Amii (who is flying alongside the path to conserve space), and Gepp, the newcomer recently revived from a Devil Arm (who is hanging very far back). Around a bend, and the monestary comes into view. It's very crude, the exterior wall made of stone that, rather than stacked and stuck together, looks more like it was superheated to melt into a single continuous smooth lump. An archway cuts through the wall at the end of the path, permitting entrance. Smoke rises from beyond it, snatched away by howling winds. "I don't like it!" Gepp calls from behind. "Sounds like the fighting's died down, which means either they killed the attacker, or the attacker killed them. 'Them' being a sizeable host of demons. You really wanna tangle with someone like that?" "Either way, they will need aid. Be it justice, or treatment of injury," Amii replies. With a great flap of his wings, he flies over the wall. The courtyard within is riddled with bullet holes. Barrels and tarps burn to cinders, and blood of different hues is splattered everywhere. Several demons lay face down, dead. Hanging from windows, being pecked by chickens kept for food. But one is still alive, laying in the middle. Hunched and shuddering, breathing laboured, but alive. Their simple robed soaked in dark blood. Amii lands beside them and checks them other. "Be at ease. The demons of Pandaemonium and their allies have arrived." The demon monk gasps, and shakes their head. "Nay, flee brothers and sisters... they are still here." Hair stands up upon one's neck. From a window above the archway, sights glint. A bullet for the back of everyone as a gun fires in rapid succession.
Cantio	"Be careful on your way in. We don't know if..." Cantio starts to speak and slows down, looking a little distracted as she peers at the monastery walls from a distance. She looks like... Perhaps not absolute shit, but she's definitely seen better days. Her head is wrapped up in scarves that barely hide the bandages underneath, the bits of her usual outfit that peek out from beneath her puffier winter jacket are frayed rather badly, and there's a faint stench of raw meat following her around. The only saving grace to any of this is the fact that the wind might help keep any proper smell tests off her trail for a while along with the stench of gunpowder and fresh blood. "... If they're still there and waiting for us, no. We'll have to be prepared just in case they still are." She warns, although her movements are far less cautious than her words. She's just heading right inside, sword resting against her shoulder and peeking around corners without so much as sending a drone out as a scout. It's not until she sees that person in the middle that Cantio finally acts with some semblance of caution. She fishes a drone out of her pocket and tosses it up into the air, ordering it to head into the room with Amii before following them once the coast seems to be clear of land mines or toxins or whatever. "How did this...?" The fallen demon monk answers that question before Cantio can finish it, and she tilts her sword over her back to try and parry the bullets without looking to minimize reaction time while maximizing visible confidence. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite block the bullet so much as it just deflects it off course a little, letting the shot punch into her arm rather than her back. Whirling around, Cantio flings her sword in the direction of whoever shot her (and has to catch herself on the floor with her hands afterwards), but not to actually hit them with the sword. Instead, the sword erupts in a deluge of noise and sonic blasts, echoing all of it off the walls to try and bombard the assailant long enough that her companions here can capitalize on it.
Sleek Shimmer	The call for help has been noticed by someone who doesn't give a darn if the one asking is supposedly some sort of 'demon.' Shimmer knows labels don't mean anything until she sees for herself what's going on. THe Multiverse is kinda crazy, and so are the people who put words to things. When she reached the gathering group, she did so with the seeming of a young woman with four fox tails and a few other animistic features. Might be considered a 'demon' too, by some standards. The journey isn't hard to her. The mountainous trail doesn't slow her down much at all, as she nimbly navigates the path without so much as a stumble... all the way to the monestary. "This place is so out of the way... why would anyone attack?! What could they want...?" All her senses are on high alert as the group approaches the place and she begins to snoop around. Sniffing, spying, and sprinting about. "There's nobody to rescue... everyone's dead..." She finally concludes with a sad shake of her head, shoulders and tails drooping. ... Until. Until her senses scream at her. There's a presence nearby. And that... that is JUST enough warning for Shimmer to gather strength in her legs and VAULT SIDEWAYS at nearly the same instant the trigger's pulled. The bullet manages a shallow strike against her arm, clearly missing any sort of vitals. Her body ripples and flickers as she skids across the bloodied grounds and then-- shooooooshf! She's gone, ripple-vanishing... And she reappears to the left of the shooter. "Scum! Utter scum!" She... is none too pleased with the cold-blooded ambush, it seems, and she makes it known by moving to try and swiftly SPINKICK the sniper through the open window and into the monastery's interior.
Lilian Rook	Unfortunately, Lilian's equipment has not been fully repaired after how thoroughly it was trashed by the London Terminarch and Blueberry princess, and it's not the kind of thing where she can just take another one off the rack. Furthermore, her old model backup suit doesn't seem to want to engage properly (and doesn't fit quite as well, oddly). She's still wearing the slick charcoal and black with its insignia intact, but none of the conduits are running and the only gear she can attach is done manually, stripping her down considerably. There's also the fact that, despite Tamamo's ample talents at healing, she appears to be, just barely, favouring one leg. Her footsteps sound uneven, even on the trail, alternating heavy-soft-heavy-soft. It's not exactly the ideal condition to be responding to a distress call in, but principle cannot be denied. That, and she needs something, anything, to stop thinking about what she'd left where she can't just casually go and look at it. Wherever the trail would appear far too obnoxious, Lilian of course obligingly carries Tamamo, having no difficulty simply moongliding over the treacherous bits. Given how cold it is, Lilian has already stuck one of her talismans under her collar, but even then, she lokos uncomfortable. "Nobody here likes it." Lilian replies to Gepp. "Or at least they shouldn't. It's blatantly obvious we're too late. And no, I don't particularly feel like tangling with an even half-competent enemy so soon. But it's too much even for me to just pretend I didn't hear it." Outwardly, Lilian doesn't seem to react at all to the carnage. A minute later, if one really cared to think about it, they might notice she's been holding her breath since seeing the blood. "We have a survivor!" she calls out about thirty seconds before anyone actually lays eyes on one, how she obtained the knowledge unknown. "Tamamo! He needs medical attention!" Running to the monk herself, Lilian starts asking "Still here? How many? How are they armed? Do you know where?" Her questions are aborted a split second before the gunshot. Lilian is the first to turn to face the window. It's difficult (well, impossible) to follow what she did, but it looks like she'd deflected the bullet into its current hole next to her feet with her open palm, stanced up out of habit now. Lilian slides in front of Tamamo in the blink of an eye, unholstering her sidearm and extending her arm parallel to the sniper's line, aiming just lower than the scope glint she saw a moment ago. A pulsing flicker of blue fire and twenty punchy crack-whine thumps follow like a burst of rain, rapidly pulverizing the arch with a cone of tracer streaks that spray dust and spalling fragments inwards, a few shots aimed at where a sniper's lower body should be braced. "Hey, demon hunter! You understand me, right?! If you can realize you just made a mistake, call out and we'll stop this fight right now! You're looking for demons, right?! That's why you left bait! So drop the gun, call out your friends, and let's talk!"
Tamamo	"Either way, they will need aid. Be it justice, or treatment of injury," Amii replies. "Let us hope that is the case, and that aid may be rendered, still. There are few physicians as can restore those whose spirit has fled their body." Tamamo doesn't sound particularly hopeful about that, not counting herself among those who can return the dead to life ('raising' them is a bit easier), after Gepp's comment. This does sound like a 'leave no survivors' sort of motive. "There's nobody to rescue... everyone's dead..." She finally concludes with a sad shake of her head, shoulders and tails drooping. "Ah, no, that one is still alive, and speaking...?" Tamamo gives Shimmer a puzzled look, while getting down and approaching the demon monk. Hardly a moment later, and something crashes into the defensive enchantments surrounding Tamamo, all at once making the intricate circles appear, glow a brighter gold, and shatter. Startled, but effectively unhurt, that one-time magic taking her place in deflecting the gunshot, Tamamo looks toward Lilian even before she can orient on the direction of attack. "Lilian, are you--" But of course she'd be alright, due her relieving reliability. Without seeing the opponent, and loathe to fire her magic blindly, Tamamo instead scatters her talismans to surround herself, the survivor, and anyone who chooses to stand close enough to them. "Demons though they may be, I bear no malice, and the heavens follow this will. Let protections be bestowed, healing be granted, and fortune find us." From her, it's not an empty, unheard prayer.
Vergil	"As ever, I appreciate the assistance Miss Rook. Even when it's clear that some of you are still recovering from something." A sympathetic nod from Amii to her and the meat-funk Cantio. "As ever, I shall do my best to support you." The shots ring out, and the Elites spring into action. Sleek is immediately behind the shooter, launching a kick. The woman in the window pivots immediately, honed senses and battle instinct clear and apparent. She picks up a long tube of metal at her side and uses it as a shield, denying the impact on her form, but unable to prevent herself being launched through the rock and out the window. She pivots in the air, minimizing her profile to the cluster of magical blasts fired by Lilian, and her foot kicks out to land on the blade of Cantio's thrown sword. Yes it bites through her food, and yes her ears start bleeding from the sonic assault, but it gives her a foothold to leap again and come down on the group. She bears that metal tube, now evident to be a ridiculously overcustomized rocket launcher bearing a large bayonet at the front. She brings it down ina mighty thrust, only to crash against Tamamo's barrier and flung clear. Skidding to a halt, she produces a handgun and levies it at the group. Now that the action has stopped, they can all get a good look at her. Her hair is black and short, like she's hacked it down with a knife. Her right eye is blue and her left is red. A faded scar goes across her nose. She's clad in a white top, tiny shorts, and combat boots. The fact that she's not freezing to death up here speaks to something about her. Her lower half is adorned in an organized mess of pouches, straps, and holsters. "No mistake here," she hisses. "If you're talking this clearly, you're not these demons' thralls. I don't know what they promised you, but this is your only chance to walk away. They won't give anything to you." Amii has put himself between her and the injured monk. Gepp is lurking by the entrance, looking to make a run for it. "They are here because they believe in my cause. Peace between our people," Amii says gravely. "You have attacked a peaceful monastery. Why?" "They're demons!" the woman spits. "I don't need a why. But I do happen to have one. I know for a fact that they tended to another human here. A man. I want him." The wounded monk coughs. "We told you... he recovered and left..." "LIAR!" the woman shouts. "There's no way he recovered that fast! You're hiding him!" She sweeps her free hand, and a cluster of grenades leap out, scattering across the courtyard and at the feet of the gathered. With that momentary distraction, that rocket launcher is raised and aimed, a cluster of missiles firing out and tracking all targets, even Sleek up in the window. And then the grenades detonate.
Sleek Shimmer	It's chaos down there where Shimmer kicked the woman into, but she leaps down nonetheless... only for a ROCKET to come straight at her. She is, however, ready for this, and reaches out with a hand. A hand that begins to glow faintly with an eerie colorless radiance. As the grenade explodes, unleashing a fury of shrapnel, heat, and light, it's all caught into a crushing vortex that gobbles it up into a single point of light flowing into the foxgirl's body. In this way, she descends through the explosion without harm and lands about ten feet from the woman. "The only ones here are within sight. I sensed you about to attack. I sense nobody else." Which, well, if one assumes she's telling the truth, means that either he did indeed leave, or he died maybe? "Ugh. What did these demons do? Why hate them so?" This foe... there's a chance she could be talked down, maybe. And so, Shimmer stretches that hand out again... Dust and light gathers towards it, glowing and heating up and forming into an accretion disk until blazing starfire ignites in her grasp. And, as her hair begins to shift to a dark red and a dark grey aura ripples along her flesh, she exclaims, "Persephone Secret Arts: STAR-FLAME MIND-SWORD!" With a radiant LASER NOISE (you know the one), the gathered starfire erupts into a lancing beam emerging from Shimmer's arm, swept towards the woman! Strangely, although it can make a mess of whatever inanimate matter it strikes and the heat's noticeable, it can't actually HURT the woman - or anyone else - that it touches. Instead it pummels and crushes the will to fight. Might also knock her down.
Cantio	The shooter has been identified as... Cantio has no idea who she is, but whoever she is is definitely no pushover when it comes to armament quality. Her acrobatics even have Cantio watching and studying her for a moment until that rocket launcher becomes more apparent and forces Cantio back on the defensive. "Not thralls, and they're telling the truth. We're partners in trying to broker peace between the humans and the demons." She reaffirms what Amii says while stancing up beside the larger demon even without her weapon. "I don't know what happened between you and whoever left or not, but..." She doesn't actually have anything else in mind to say just yet. When those grenades come out, though, Cantio yells out a warning to everyone. "Scatter!" That's all she gets to shout in warning before pulling a drone out of her pocket and expanding it just in time to eat the brunt of the blast. Cantio still gets thrown backwards by the force, however, one hand digging into the ground to keep her from toppling over backwards. "If you know we're not slaves or warmongers, why are you still attacking us? We might be able to help you find... Er. Whoever it is!" Cantio stays right where she is, focusing less on trying to get close and more on casting magic to try and throw the shooter off. Lights start to sparkle into existence around her before homing in on the shooter, exploding nearby with yet more bursts of sound that don't quite match up with the explosions themselves. It's like Cantio's trying to trick her into evading at the wrong time!
Lilian Rook	<J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "We're probably dealing with someone paid by the head. There might have even been a bounty put out." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Either that or a religious zealot, or hardcore xenophobe." "Fanatical xenophobe it is." Lilian mutters to herself. It is entirely half a minute too early to be saying so. "Not that I don't understand the position. It's not hard. But nobody shoots at Tamamo." The demon hunter comes flying through the window. Lilian's eyes track her vector automatically, arm moving along by reflex, but widen incrementally as she leaps right from the sword and dodges an extra bullet. Then a little more at her outfit. Lilian exchanges the weapon when the demon hunter jumps free of Tamamo, flicking four feet of reflective black blade from a burst of inky black smoke like an extending baton. It's a silent admission of having to take this seriously. "Oh, I can speak far more eloquently than this." Lilian replies, unnecessarily airy and cool about the current situation. Her lips quirk and her tone purrs a little. "Nice scar." she says. There seems to be no reason beyond its loose similarity to her own. "However, there appears to have been a misunderstanding." Lilian adds. Her mercurial tone plummets straight into an icy throat-growl. "Nobody shoots at me or Tamamo and then tells me to walk away. Don't get ahead of yourself. I'm offering you, from one human to another, an out of this. An opportunity to at least lie to my face and pretend this was all a big mistake. Won't you take it?" She glances down at the webbing around her waist. §What in a pain in the ass. She looks sloppy, but if you pay attention, that's actually a very professional setup. People don't carry like that unless they have specific preferences about where to find everything by muscle memory. People don't dress like that unless they broadly expect to end things before getting hit, and judging by everything else, she's not a delusional greenhorn who's never been clapped back by one of her targets either. That weapon is clearly a custom job. God knows what it does. Her using explosives actually makes this easier on me, though.§ "Come now. Is it really that implausible that magical creatures from other worlds can heal a single man? You're surprisingly skeptical for someone with that much experience." Lilian says. Unfortunately, the demon hunter is clearly not having it, and reacts with both volume and violence to the monk. Lilian springs into action.
Lilian Rook	-----[stop]----- Lilian flips Night Mist to a reverse grip and runs up to the pair of grenades flung at her and Tamamo. She eyeballs their orientatio, and looks for the hunter. -----[start]----- She flashes ahead faster than blinking, without a sound. Sword folded up by her wrist behind her back, a pivot high kick catches one of the grenades in the crook of her foot and flings it right back towards its sender. The sword flashes out as she spins and slices right through the grenade. -----[stop]----- Lilian completes the followthrough and then stops to examine the grenade halves frozen at arm's length, split apart like a sliced fruit. There's still some explosive in the bisected portion that contains the fuse. She cuts the primer free just to be sure. Then she palms the much larger half, aims, and hurls it at tremendous speed towards one of the oncoming missiles. It halts a foot from her fingers. A second look. She takes just a moment to correct it. She runs towards the other missile. -----[start]----- The severed grenade bounces like a pool ball from the edge of her sword(?) and crashes straight into the missile pointed at her, striking the warhead and detonating it immediately. Lilian has already blinked all the way over to the other missile; a single smooth flash of her sword upwards through the fuselage completely separates the rocket from the warhead. The latter-- -----[stop]----- Lilian boldly grabs the primed explosive, electing to suspend causality in just such a way it won't react at all, and then throws it away at top speed. -----[start]----- --piece spinning wildly away and exploding in the vicinity of the demon hunter again, whilst the rocket simply crashes into the mountainside without its sensor. They're aimed barely closely enough that Lilian appears to have just implicitly trusted neither detonation is going to tear the demon hunter limb from limb, as should be a realistic risk with a seemingly unpowered human and military explosives. Which is unusually unlike her.
Tamamo	"Tamamo! He needs medical attention!" With her barrier set up, it's a simple matter for Tamamo to feed rejuvenating energy to the inside of it. At the least, it will prevent any injuries from getting worse. Whether the wounded monk will be standing up again soon depends on just how bad those injuries were. In a confined area, there's plenty Tamamo can do power up this defensive field beyond any easy means of dealing with it. Concerted, focused efforts are another matter, and there's little but temporary safety to be expected on a battlefield. On the other hand, to focus on her would mean not focusing on Lilian, and that might prove to be a different sort of mistake. "There, now, care shall be taken of you, do not worry," she says to the injured, with explosions going off behind her. Little of even the wind reaches her, nothing being allowed through that could be called 'concussive.' "Would you not give peace a chance? Not so long as you find this path easier, perhaps. That is rather regrettable, but know that you shall be treated with mercy, should you cease." A different sort of talisman is drawn from Tamamo's sleeves, the design of calligraphy understandable as little but 'clouds.' "You are right in one matter, in that I expect to receive little from this venture. I support the notion of peace, and have been given no reason to doubt it. Is that not enough? For myself, it is so. For your own part, what might be enough to convince you?" She shakes her head. "Ah, but you have killed many, though you believed yourself right in doing so. It would hardly be becoming of me to promise you cooperation, when those you have wronged stand here. Under these circumstances, to leave the matter in their hands would be the greatest justice. What say you, then, Amii? To one who has killed your people, would you grant them life, should they surrender? Would you let them go free?" She's definitely interested in hearing the answer. She doesn't appear interested in the talisman she tosses behind her, but that's feigned. There's plenty of magic stored up in it, to be released as a series of seeking lightning bolts, drawn from the sky, against her chosen target. Though it looks somewhat close to a natural phenomenon, to those who can distinguish such things, it's a curse, carrying the danger of aftershocks that interfere with a victim's freedom of movement.
Vergil	Amii is queried by Tamamo. He did say earlier that he wishes to grant these monks treatment or justice. Tamamo has already provided the former. "I admit," he growls. "A part of me wishes to repay death with death. But..." He looks to the fallen monk, who is now getting up. They are sluglike think with slick bulbous skin and a small head. "Peace brother. Violence only begets violence. The wheel must be broken, least it turn forevermore." "Listen lady," Gepp says, having taken cover behind a burning cart. "I'd like nothing more than to not-fight. I've seen what dying is like, it ain't great. The guy ain't here. Be a pal and go." For a moment, she does seem to be considering it. Seeing demons not willing to fight has her on the back foot. And then further questions seem to irk her. "What do you mean 'what did they do?''" she retorts to Sleek. "They're demons, they've assuredly done /something/ that merits this. And I'm not taking any of your words that the place is clear! How stupid do you think I am?" In response to Cantio's offer to help, the woman barks, "NO! It's a family matter!" Looking intently at Lilian, and then to Tamamo, she snorts. "And I'm supposed to take your word that you're human? Look at your girlfriend there. She has tails. Maybe you're just hiding your own 'special features.'" It is in this opening that Sleek strikes, their pacifying lance finding its home. The woman slumps, clensed of violent intent for the moment. But something in her, something deep, pushes her on. It rekindles her will back into a wildfire like gasoline applied to a spark, and she's moving again. Dodging through Cantio's scattered blasts of light, she brings up that rocket launcher like a baseball bat and swings at the warhead deflected by Lilian, hitting a homer and sending it flying skyward. As Tamamo's homing bolts soar at her, she hits another button on that launcher, and the bayonet suddenly extends on a wire, catching the lightning and conducting it into the weapon as she drops it. Amazingly, the ammo inside does not cook, and the moment it grounds, she picks it back up. "Look at you all! Humans can't do what you do. This was some kind of trick, wasn't it? You've shapeshifted somehow. People can't shoot magic," She points at Cantio and Sleek, "Blur all over," she points at Lilian, "Or have tails!" One final point at Tamamo. "And they definitely wouldn't come to help demons!" She plants that rocket launcher bayonet-first into the ground. On the tail end of it is a series of pods that abruptly flip open, and release a swarm of micro-missiles that aim to land at the feets of her opponents. And she's ready to catch any attempts to escape. Those who jump will find that bayonet sweeping at them from the end of that long wire as the demon hunter twirls with it like a bo. And those who leap back will see her rise it like a witch's broom, using exhaust from a stored rocket to fly forward, before skidding to a stop and firing a shotgun loaded with a hellish combo of fire and flechette buckshot at point blank!
Sleek Shimmer	A bestial growl escapes Shimmer's throat as the woman's attitude becomes clear and she refuses the offered cool-the-heck-off attempt with what can only be spectacular hatred. But, unfortunately for Shimmer, she does indeed think that the best move to do is to jump over the missiles, absorbing about half of the nearby explosive power like before... but, this jump exposes her to a nasty slash from the sweeping blade. The blade catches her in the side and sends her crashing to the ground again where she's exposed to a nasty pelting of flechettes that shred into her flesh. "Til now, fought to subdue. Why, when we give you a path to peace, do you choose the gate to hell?!" Now angry, Shimmer simply explodes into green and earthy-brown light as her flesh glows and begins to heal rapidly, expelling the shrapenl. She moves like a gale, swooping in and aiming to deliver a furious flurry of punches and spinning kicks, juggle the woman in the air and leap up to leg-grab her and fling her at a wall with prodigious force!
Cantio	"Family? Then... That's more reason why you shouldn't be so darn stubborn!" Cantio Actually sounds offended by that revelation, and that outburst has her clutching her gut after a moment with a slight grimace. She's still nursing her wounds from a recent fight, and she's pouring more energy into neutralizing the older wound than she normally would with a visible hand glow that coincides with the lady calling her out for not being fully human. "That's... You have a really limited view of what humans can do, then, even if you're right about some of that." Cantio replies, breathing in a little more easily once she's had a moment to breathe. That moment doesn't do her much good, however, as she's holding her breath again at seeing all those rocket launcher-based stunts on display here. She actually looks kind of amazed despite those micro-missiles starting to explode at her feet. Instead of taking to the sky or falling back, Cantio just holds her ground as smoke and dust are kicked up from so many explosions and shotgun blasts while she gets worn down by the barrage of projectiles. It doesn't take long, then, before a bright light starts to come from the behind all of that, and it culminates in a brighter flash from a pillar of light along with a small drone hurtling out of the smoke to wedge itself against a wall and observe/record the battle. Cantio, meanwhile, reappears sans winter jacket and instead donning that white plasticky leotard with all the tech-y floating bits around her and attached to it. "I'm not a human, no. My name is Cantio, Drive Core Candidate of Cadenza!" She announces with a flourish of the oversized sword that's appeared in her hand, then shoulders it while continuing with a briefer explanation of the proper nouns she just spouted out. "Goddess, home city." With that explanation out of the way, Cantio brandishes her weapon once more, but she doesn't get to swinging the sword. Instead, she continues standing/floating right where she is, aiming the tip of it at the assailant. She fires a small beam from her sword's tip that quickly scatters into a dozen lasers, each one growing in size to try and pummel her with more waves of light and disorienting noises.
Tamamo	"The wheel must be broken, lest it turn forevermore." "Your magnanimity is to your credit. The slain would not return, even if avenged, and if their spirits have already found rest, there is little that must be done, regarding their killer. This being the case..." "And I'm not taking any of your words that the place is clear! How stupid do you think I am?" "Could not search without attacking? Have you not already done so? If you are allowed..." Though it is most likely, Tamamo thinks, that she would have already done so, before laying 'bait' to find more info. How to prove that someone isn't there... "There is no way but to find that person somewhere else, is there?" Tamamo moves herself away from the wounded monk, to draw the fire, though this means moving out of her strengthened defensive field, which may or may not have stood up against the micro-missiles. She does leap back, able to move as she pleases while not having a blessed field on which to stay, but doesn't plan adequately for the quick rush on rocket exhaust followed by shotgun fire. She's blown back, wounded this time, some flechettes having found their way through the crackling magic shields that the first shot overloaded. For just a moment, it looks like she'll hit the ground back-first, but she twists, strikes it with her palms, and flips back onto her feet. There's some smoldering in her outfit, but the wounds beneath that are already disappearing, at the same time as her healing talismans burn away. She taps the ground with one geta, taking a lower stance. "I am, were you to ask, not 'a human,' but 'a divine spirit.' Are 'demons and humans' the only sorts of beings you believed to exist?" Another talisman, this one seemingly carelessly tossed to the side, actually flies around from another angle to find its target, releasing a hurricane blast of wind that twists through a chaotic route. It's less inherently dangerous than lightning, but a wholly different, and more temporary, danger of inability to act in critical moments, particularly for one who's trying to not get hit at all.
Lilian Rook	"Beg pardon?" is all Lilian can think to reply with on the demon hunter's hasty rationale. It's better than dwelling on just how the woman had avoided being blown to bits. §I foresaw it wouldn't be effective, but still, I just wanted to gauge her movements. What the hell was that?§ "So let me get this straight. You're certain we're demons, but we don't look like demons, thus demons must be able to shapeshift? Isn't that more than a little bit backwards? Wouldn't it make vastly more sense to assume that demons wouldn't come here shapeshifted, even if they could, and thus we aren't demons? As far as I'm aware, humans 'can't do' any of that action movie bollocks you're doing you know." Her jaw clenches at the accusation. "What a convenient definition." And when it comes her way, right after the demon hunter had accepted who she was-- 'You've lied to everyone about who you are. Even Tamamo.' Lilian can act instantly, but not retroactively. Just standing there, still and breathless with Blueberry Princess' words ringing around inside her head and the residual bile of that whole encounter bubbling right back up to the surface, wastes time that she can't actually get back. A second later, she's being showered with dozens of mini-missiles already on their way down. §If I cut them all then they'll just turn into carpet bombs and there'll be nowhere to stand. If I relocate they'll probably pivot and chase. Still, that'll keep them occupied. I'll move opposite to Tamamo, then--§ Lilian disappears out from under the barrage, a flash of magical fire exploding in her direction from thin air. Rather than jumping into the demon hunter's trap by leaping back, she goes the opposite way, the fire aimed only to draw the attention of heat seeking sensors. Once they've properly curved in on her, Lilian blasts them all at once with the edges of a single lance of crackling black-gold; and then she realizes her mistake. "Ta--! We're done here! Don't blame me for what I have to do to stop you; I gave you a chance!" §Despite the blade, that thing looks unwieldy in close combat. She can't leave explosives with herself in the blast radius. Most of her firepower is long-ranged. So . . .§ Lilian doesn't really give the hunter a chance to contest that claim. She simply decides to be right behind her, because she wants to and a rapidfire sequence of a low sweeping heel kick, pivot, back tackle, wrist grab, twist, and attempted mount, fire off already midway through, aimed to knock her down and overpower her up close before she can react, and restrict whatever weapons the hunter can still use. Ideally hurt her a little too.
Vergil	"Because hell is where I'm going to hand-deliver that bastard!" the demon hunter retorts to Sleek. As they move in to begin their assault, the woman fights back, using a pair of handguns to try and intercept each strike, both as shields, and just to try and shoot the offending limb. But she's not quite as good as Sleek, and she's forced to sacrifice the guns entirely to soften the impact of her final hit, and use the still-burning exhaust to slow her flight, making the impact with the wall merely bruising instead of bone-breaking. And now, finally, she lets that charging missile fly right at Sleek. It screams like a projectile made of hate, and explodes loud enough to trigger and avalanche some distance away. "I don't give a damn who you are! If you are some kind of god, then why would you help demons get along with humans, huh?!" As Cantio undergoes her meguca transformation behind the smoke left by the missiles, the demon hunter braces for whatever next. The resulting outfit, even more ill-suited for the cold than her own, comes with scattering rays of light. She dashes through them, even as they pierce her skin and incite more bleeding from her ears, to get into Cantio's face. A shotgun is in her arms. It fires, spraying more flame and flechette and buckshot, but what follows is a secondary shot from the underslung grendae launcher, the shockwave of which the demon hunter rides out. "They're all I've ever seen. If gods like you exist... why don't you stop it? The demons, the killings, the deals for power...!" Rather than cooling her down, the revelation that gods are real seems to have made her even angrier. The talisman resolves into gale winds that sweep her up and launch her. Over the courtyard, over the wall. For a moment, it seems like she might dash against some rocky cliff-face far below. But again, that bayonet lashes out, snagging a tower of the monastery and allowing her to avoid that grisly fate. She swings about, coming back in with incredible speed and plunging towards Tamamo. The bayonet retracts, locking into place, and she plunges it down towards the goddess upon ground-shaking impact. It is at that moment that Lilian is upon her. A shaky landing means she's wide-open for that sweep, and the whole combo that follows, even as she attempts to roll away. But eventually, she is pinned. "Get the hell off me!" she snarls, pupils dilated with frustration and hate. She gets a leg free, and a knife extends from the heel of her boot as she tries to wrap it around Lilian and bury it in her back. While this is happening, Amii and Gepp are leading the demon monk from the area. "Don't you dare!" the demon hunter barks. "I still have questions for him!"
Sleek Shimmer	A missile let loose at such close range?! Shimmer reacts in a panic, extending her arms and projecting that strange transparent glowing vortex from her palms. The missile slams into her field and detonates, but about two thirds of its fury, shrapnel, and flame gets sucked up and absorbed before the rest breaks through and knocks her tumbling backwards. She rolls with it and back up to her feet though. "All my life, have been treated like like a toy, like a thing, owned by humans. Watched them torture other shifters. Step all over us. For stupid reasons! Reasons I still don't understand!" She howls, practically -shrieks-, at the woman. "Your heart is twisted just like theirs. Belongs in garbage pile." With a growl, she teleports straight behind the huntress... and harshly demands, "Tell me why I shouldn't rip it out and throw it down the mountain." Of course, she doesn't try for such a thing. Instead, she somehow manages to execute a hop-front-flip that brings a HEELDROP for the woman's knife arm's shoulder as she's going for Lilian, with intent to dislocate that arm - or, at the least, savage the joint some.
Cantio	The hunter reveals her reasons for looking for the mystery man, and things start becoming a little clearer. "Revenge, then..." Cantio makes a bit of a logic jump there, but her tone actually sounds more sympathetic than it did before. "But that still doesn't explain why you're going after everyone here. If they really knew where he was, they would've told you already!" With the shotgun coming towards Cantio, she has only moments to react. Her sword comes up in an underhanded grip, letting her brace the blade with her forearm as it absorbs the brunt of that initial blast. The grenade from beneath it catches her off guard, though, and the ensuing explosion sends Cantio careening back again along with breaking that sword cleanly in two straight from the tip. Half remains attached to the hilt, and the other half snaps off with enough force to land further past the demon hunter. "Gh... Why wouldn't I? Just like not every human's a good person, not every demon's a bad one! And those under Amii's banner have protected humans before. Lived beside them, even!" She explains, flipping her sword around a few times to distract fromt he fact that her healing magic still needs time to stop the bleeding at her side that's started again. If nobody pays too close attention, maybe it'll just look like part of the design. "And gods aren't all-powerful. If I was, I'd...!" That, though, has Cantio stopping herself. What does she really know about this person? About what she's talking about, about what she's seen of demons already, or what the people here have already experienced before this work? "... I'm sorry. I'm not one of your gods, and I haven't done enough to fix things even with as long as I've been here." Cantio finally answers, taking another deep breath to steady her healing until she's ready to start moving again. "I can't imagine how awful things must have been or still are, so I won't blame you for feeling that way. Still..." With her halved sword in hand, Cantio raises it to her shoulder before letting the tip drop to face the demon hunter directly. "I can't let you hurt the people under my protection, either. We can figure out what's going on with that person you're looking for and maybe even track him down, but we can't do that unless you trust us!" The half still connected to the hilt bends until it's straight upwards, and Cantio adjusts her hold on the strangely-bent sword so she's holding the hilt not unlike a cannon or rocket launcher. There's a brief pulse, and then both halves of the sword (the one on the hilt and the one behind her) unleash a burst of earth-shattering noise at the demon hunter. Although it's only a brief noise, it has enough force behind it to blast apart stone and rattle the grounds all around them.
Tamamo	"I don't give a damn who you are! If you are some kind of god, then why would you help demons get along with humans, huh?!" "If gods like you exist... why don't you stop it? The demons, the killings, the deals for power...!" "Is that not--" Tamamo's words are interrupted by the bayonet plunge. In her readied stance, she is just barely capable of turning that impact to the side, summoning her mirror to deflect what would have impaled her through the belly to merely graze her thigh in exceedingly painful fashion, before the ground shatters, and the impact knocks her away. Hissing, she pulls out a shaky handful of healing talismans, slapping these over her leg rather than burning them up to expend their power at once. That better numbs the pain, and lets her regain her feet. "Ah, is -- that not what I am doing, here? A monastery, under attack. Killings. Should I not see that cease? You wish it to stop... and yet, you do not see, why we would wish them to 'get along' with humans. Why is that?" She's reaching the limits of what her healing can handle in short enough timeframe to matter for the pace of combat, but if it's only this much, Tamamo can keep going, at least for a little while longer. "Don't you dare!" the demon hunter barks. "I still have questions for him!" "Have you not done enough? Had you not enough time to hurt him? Will you get another answer, by asking again, to find the one you seek?" Tamamo steadies herself, and focuses. "Why not ask a diviner?" Her mirror stands in the air at her side, slowly spinning, reflecting bright skies of other lands.
Lilian Rook	'If gods like you exist... why don't you stop it?' "What happened to what you said earlier you lunatic?!" Lilian can't help but yell. The woman under her is obnoxiously strong, given the size and weight of that weapon, and her suit isn't cycling properly, but ramping up her magically enhanced strength continues to maintain leverage. "Didn't we just tell you what we're here for?! Why should a god help you when this is your reaction?! Why are you entitled anyone helping you if blame and denial and violence is the first thing you go to?! God dammit I'm so sick of you people!" "You're entitled to help, not a specific kind of help you want! Isn't coexistence mutually opposed to killing in the first place?! Is that not good enough for you?! Because right now, it seems like shooting whoever pisses you off is a higher priority!" Lilian screams, "As long as I'm around, people like you don't get to stop people who are doing everything they can! I won't tolerate this 'no, you side with me my way, not any other way, or you're not really on my side! BULLSHIT!" Lilian isn't letting go. Not even to dodge the boot dagger. It isn't clear whether she just had faith that Shimmer would get it, foresaw the outcome, was willing to take it, or was too focused on being angry to care --perhaps even all of those things are true-- but Lilian-- -----[stop]----- Brings herself to an upright straddle, shifts her grip to a favourable hold that the demon hunter would never let her get away with, and-- -----[start]----- --invests all her motion in pinning the hunter for the followup magic from her allies, then kick away the rocket launcher with a full extension of her leg, flip the woman over, and pressuring her to kneel on her legs and bar her arms, even using her flight, pointed downwards, to increase the pressure of the hold. At the same time, a flashing slew of violent images, all senses engaged from first person, assail the woman's mind. A goat demon in a room drenched with blood. A demon with a body of oil and tubes chasing down a motorcycle. A silver horse demon burning with blue flame, surrounded with human bodies caught at the moment of death in cruel time loops. Vergil. "And don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about! I know perfectly well! But right now I don't give a shit about your anger! After what you just did, you don't get to be angry until you prove to me that you aren't just like the rest of them!" Lilian takes a few seconds just to catch her breath, throat raw and voice hoarse. Lowering her volume so that nobody beyond arm's reach will hear, Lilian speaks one more sentence. "This doesn't need to happen. As much of a mess as you are, I know you can be better than this, Mary."
Vergil	As the demon hunter fights to control the grapple, Lilian guides her into the attacks from others with pinpoint accuracy. Once again, she's not trained for this. Sleek's kick earns the dull crack of bone muffled by meat, causing her to scream. Cantio's sonic blast finally gets a full rupturing of the ears. This, unfortunately, means she can't quite hear what is being said anymore. Tamamo's mirror lulls her into a calmer state, and she stops struggling so. But as Lilian lean in and whispers, one word penetrates the blood and broken eardrums. Her use of the woman's real name. "How do you know that? You... You know him, don't you?!" The maelstrom in her mind whirls up once more, but Lilian has dove deep enough that she's in the eye, and she sees the source. The silhouette of a man stands over the body of her mother, blood and flame issuing from her form. The man is hunched over, clutching his face, before flashing and pulsing with purple light. His form changes, bells springing from his head and jingling merrily. He notices the girl, and walks over. "What's the matter Mary? I admit, our divorce proceedings got a little messy. But don't you worry, Daddy's here~!" The scream within the mind echoes the scream without, as the demon hunter begins thrashing madly, breath short and hitched. She's clearly having a panic attack. Amii's hand comes down to pull Lilian off of her. "Let her go! That's enough!" She runs for her rocket launcher the first chance she gets and flees, leaping from the mountain and deploying the bayonet to rapidly descent, ignoring her injuries.
Tamamo	"Tell me why I shouldn't rip it out and throw it down the mountain." "Because that decision belongs to the ones most hurt, and they have chosen otherwise." Tamamo says this to Shimmer, but can only be less certain when she considers Lilian. For her own part, she has been hurt, though it will heal without any issue. She could be perfectly fine as soon as the next sunrise. However, that doesn't change the fact that she, and they, were hurt. She has to take a few moments to make sure she's 'fine.' She doesn't want to limp. She doesn't want to so much as reveal that she's favoring her leg, even if it still stings when she moves it. That's the kind of thing that makes people worry. Tamamo walks to Lilian, after Mary's run off. "Did you know her?" There's something unusual about the way she says it, as if a different kind of 'knowing.' She thinks about it, a few moments, herself. Only then does Tamamo ask, "Were you injured? Come, let me see." There may be some favoritism involved in focusing on the least injured combatant here.
Cantio	As the fight draws to a close, Cantio has some more time to (mentally) chew on what she's heard. She's not just trying to understand the demon hunter's anger, but also the reactions to her anger. The shouting. The screaming. Lilian's forceful denouncement of her exacting demands. Tamamo's point-by-point attack against her own logic. Sleek Shimmer's own recollections as a comparison point. Cantio's own anger has since faded, and now she's let to mull over her own thoughts for what could be too long of a time. How long can it really take until she reaches the solution that pleases everyone? Does it even exist, or would there be more people like the demon hunter using the same one-sided demands pointed out by Lilian? Has the opportunity already slipped by with Cantio being so slow to act? As troubling as that all is in her mind, there's still work to be done. Cantio reverts that transformation with a light stagger as all the pain starts catching up to her again now that the adrenaline's wearing off. Grasping her side for a few more moments, she eventually heads out slightly to check on the demon monk. She's not too worried knowing that Tamamo had already taken care of him earlier, but it doesn't hurt to check again once she does spot him. "Are you good to move? This place..." Cantio pauses. "... Do you know who she might be looking for? She might come back here, so you should probably head somewhere else if it's not too hard to go. Maybe even somewhere like...?" She trails off, glancing towards Amii and Gepp, almost as if she's trying to angle towards one of them taking advantage of the chance to get the demon monk to join their ranks.
Lilian Rook	Lilian barely has a few moments to resume catching her breath, before the reciprocal spillover hits her. She soft-freezes up for a second, tense and overcome with wide-eyed revulsion. "What the fuck?" Lilian is a little too dazed from that to fight Amii in the one whole second it takes to lift her up while she isn't focusing, and then the demon hunter bolts faster than Lilian can even think to shout after her. As if it would matter if she did. "What? No I-- No, Tamamo, I'm fine! Let me look at you first!" Lilian fusses on autopilot while her brain reboots. "No. No I . . . only as much as you can learn about someone in such a short time." She holds her head. "She's looking for her father. I think? It's . . . bad. I'm not really sure the demon thing was the primary motivator here." Lilian sighs. "There's not much that we can really do here. Please, let's just see to the survivor and ask about who exactly they took in."