1380/The Primal Beast of Earth

The Primal Beast of Earth
Date of Scene:	20 January 2015
Location:	Earth-1111
Synopsis:	With Shanghai liberated from the control of either Paradiso or Inferno, it becomes a choice target for swift, destructive harvesting.
Cast of Characters:	Crys Gattz, 238, 255, 367, 522, 578, 636

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Beli Klum (238) has posed:
    The city of Shanghai stands in a stark contrast to the rest of Earth-1111. Where every other city is blanketed in clouds of bloody red or celestial blue, their landscapes respectively shrouded in shadow or glistening with holy light, Shanghai looks almost...normal. The sky is as dark as one would expect at night, and the only lights and shadows come from those produced by the waning moon and the city lights. As normal as it may be, however, it's far from peaceful tonight, as the stampede of terrified citizens and the billowing clouds of smoke and exhaust from within the city foretell.

    (http://goo.gl/8ogucR)

    The source of this horror is nowhere near subtle as it crashes through the city streets. The hideous amalgamation of flesh and metal holds a vaguely elephantine form, but with too many alterations to be exactly that. Its serpentine neck is far longer, for one, and the flesh is wasted away enough to expose bleached bones and several strange tubes of metal winding down its throat. The head it supports is worn down to the bone, but braced with patches of rusting metal, particularly along the massive, curving tusks, where the metal forms vicious spikes caked with old blood. In the place of a trunk, it instead has two thick, long worms colored a fleshy pink emerging from its nasal cavity, pulsing and squirming in search of humans they harvest with ropes of barbed wire from their hinge-jawed, rotten-fanged mouths.

    And where do those people go? Down the beast's gullet, to be dropped into its stomach: a transparent, but solid vat of molten gold that replaces its belly, framed by metal ribs that descend from its fleshy, rotten back to firmly surround the tank. This is where they are forced to suffer in endless immolation, their burned flesh healed over only to be melted away again. The whole creature is made mobile by lizardlike legs that primarily seem to be made of flesh, but which creak and groan like rusted metal with each motion it makes, and whose trio of claws are little more than ragged blades of iron. Behind it drags a thick tail that tears up what ground is not crushed beneath its feet, and jagged smokestacks line its spine to halfway down its tail, belching smog into the air as it passes.

    The gigantic demon, easily large enough for its shoulders to crash against the roofs of the taller buildings in the city, is piloted by a single figure. Seemingly around nine feet tall, but dwarfed by the monstrosity on whose head he's perched, he is a human figure whose flowing robes seem to be made of liquid gold encrusted with precious gems. While a skeletal form seems apparent beneath those 'clothes', his face is hidden behind a solid steel mask of a vacant, bearded man grafted onto his skull, and a sharp, elaborate crown of gold emerges from the top of his head as if it were breaking through the bone. He grasps in his bony hands chains that extend to the side of the creature's head, embedded in its own skull so that he can tug and pull to direct its movement.

Beli Klum (238) has posed:
    "March onward, Behemoth!" His cackling voice echoes with scraping metal backing every syllable, a further contribution to the cacophony of the beast he directs and the screaming of the citizens it harvests into its gullet. "Gather these souls for your lord Mammon, and for Inferno's victory!"

    And where is Beli? The rephaite has taken to the air in a streak of radiant blue from her wings and the flames in her halos. She already holds Fairness in both hands: a pair of silver longswords, each one with a blade of pure cyan magic. Her expression hardened into a glare of determined ferocity, she dives toward Behemoth with swords ready to cleave into /some/ part of it...but the primal demon is prepared. Mammon's chains yank its head up, and its mouth opens with a bellow halfway between a foghorn and a trumpet before it belches a gout of blood-red hellfire at her. Beli's quick banking dive spares her from being immolated, though the creature's sinuous neck allows it to chase after her, melting through the buildings she passes with the incredible heat of its fire. Mammon only laughs, cruel and scraping, though at least it draws the worm-trunks away from harvesting the fleeing citizens filling the streets.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryu has never seen something like this before. When he heard Beli, he flipped on the relevant news outlet and saw the sight of the broadcast being cut off. He went to grab up his weapons, but thought better of it... instead he shifted from human to dragon form and set out toward that world, to that city, moving as fast as his legs could take him. The dragon was very fast, but not faster than those who had some better form of transportation. Still...

    When the dragon arrives, he's bouncing from building to street lamp to telephone pole. He may not be able to fly, but he has titanic strength and he's using that quite well. When he spots the creature already engaged with Beli, he takes advantage of Mammon and Behemoth's distraction. He leaps through the air and extends his draconic claws to prepare for what he's about to do.

    The dragon tries to bodily land on one of the worms, grabbing onto it by sticking his claws into it. And then it's just a matter of violently gouging into the creature... with hands glowing with Light energy, the holy glow harmonizing with his crystalline dragon cry. He saw the worm-like appendages grabbing people, so his first priority is trying to remove one or both and make protecting the citizens easier.

    Of course, this makes him kind of a sitting duck, since he's entirely at the mercy of the sheer mass of the tremendous demon beast while hanging off of it like that.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Her presence precedes her, long before her arrival. It's impossible not to notice, especially for beings like the angels and demons of Beli's world. And yet she comes, at all haste, letting her divinity scream out her arrival as a warning. She doubts it will frighten the perpetrator, but she can at least let the responsible party wonder.

    But the first sign of Setsuko's physical presence in the city comes not in the form of her typical hoverbike high over the city, nor in a challenging yell. The first hint that she has arrived comes in the form of Zanjintou itself, banking through the air in the shape of a tremendous boomerang blade, cutting right across the Behemoth's line of fire in a bid to slash its face and disrupt its attack on Beli.

    Only its return to her hand calls attention to Setsuko's location, floating above and to one side, taking her sword in one hand and staring down. "You were a fool to come here. You know who we are. You know what we've done. Had you only caused destruction, I might consider offering you a chance to escape. You wouldn't take it. But I would offer anyway. However..."

    She draws her weapon up into a ready stance, and it snaps open, deploying the full-sized blade. "That offer isn't even on the table anymore. There will be no escape. You die tonight."

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya is familar with gaint mosters, and one showing up in a friends city? No way she going to let it rampage around! She human size starts walking up towards it.

"No way I"m letting you get away with this!", and in flash she shifts up to her max size, 300 feet. She hopes the monster will focus on her so that people can get away..

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Upon hearing and seeing that report from Beli's world, Nasa had quickly gathered up her strongest poisons, quickly filling the reservoir of her twin Kukri with an icy plant-based poison, along with grabbing the Light of Hope dagger, sliding it into a sheathe at her back. She ran and flew as fast as she could, passing through warp gates where she could. And soon...

     Nasa was at the location, tattered wings keeping the fae aloft in the air. She shifts her gaze rapidly towards the massive form of the demon, her eyes glowing with rapidly buildling fury as she took in what was happening before her. Torture. Heinous torture from a demon. Her fingers twitching on the hilt of one of her kukri, and the hilt of the holy dagger gifted to her. Hanging from her belt was several potions and poisons. Nasa fluttered there, twitching her fingers as poison began to spread over the blade of her kukri. Plit. Plit. Plit.

     "Torture, theft of souls... you are to being unforgivable." Nasa says, her voice holding a quiet fury, but the blaze in her eyes more than countered that. As Beli moved in to attack, and the monster chased her... Nasa began to dart in close, attempting to dart in at an angle to avoid the flame that was chasing Beli, intent on distracting it from her with a swift slash to the side of it with her holy dagger. Likely a relatively shallow cut, but hopefully the holy nature of the blade would more than make up with that. Meanwhile, Nasa flashes an aggressive smile up towards the elephant and its rider alike. "Hopes does to naut mind if we do to tear you apart~." Truly, a paragon of hope and goodness. Really.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys had been involved in the liberation of Shanghai from this insanity of the war in heaven. She understood often such battles were waged but here? S0omething didn't strike her as right it reminded her of something from long ago on a twisted world that she and a handfull of others had faced down. As she arrives to the source of the distubance she holds the arm ring that's she's worn for most of her life and mutters a brief prayer to the profound light before getting ready to move in. The Newman weapons are freed from the photon trap a pistol in her off han a huge hulking mechanical claw on the other which mechaism go all the way up to her shoulder as she now moves heading she sees the creature and what it's soing as she moves in.

"The Behmonth..."

crys is not entirely ingorant legends and myths of the various earths the one that stuck in her mind was a creature so powerful only God could kill it. Either way she was about to find out as she looked at the horrible thing.

"Come Demons you want some of this I faced down greater than you and lived to tell the tale. I seen a single soul resist the darkness even a her flesh was taken by it. You will meet your end today."

Crys isn't known for many battle speeches as she starts to focys on a tech sending a burst of ice at it to get it's attention. The Newman is very unhappy today.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Gaius Van Baelsar was out and about, exploring at that, when he saw the news broadcast come up on a TV near by a store. A massive beast eating civilians. Though he was no 'hero' in perhaps the eyes of many, he still had a soul. He was still human and he did give a damn about lives that were defenseless against larger creatures.

This meant the man was not going to simply stand around when hell was breaking loose--- perhaps literally at a location.

Now how does Gaius get here in his cogneto form of looking like an average civilian himself? Simple. Warp Gates. Yep, he takes one and when he arrives, he comes to a quick halt with his boots tapping the ground from his run as he stares far up at the large demonic beast.

Those gold eyes narrow sharply under the brim of his hat, as he then goes to draw out his blade. As soon has one of the tendrils go for a person on the street, the Legatus hidden as a normal man, rushes forward and actually attempts to cut the tendril in half while yelling, "RUN!"

Beli Klum (238) has posed:
    Despite Ryu's size in relation to Behemoth's, his efforts are certainly effective. It's a giant creature, but not one immune to pain; surely it must be wracked by it, but when his holy energy blasts through Ryu's claws, the demonic worm screeches a metallic cry of pain, squirming and writhing in the agony of holy power. Its flesh seems to sear and smoke under Ryu's claws, but the second worm is more than prepared to counteract Ryu's efforts. It rears up and opens its fetid maw, lashing out ropes of barbed wire to tangle around Ryu, dig into his flesh, and drag him down its gullet.

    Or at least that's the intention. Nasa's sudden arrival slashes along the worm's hide, boring deep into fragile flesh and seeping poison into the wound. The second worm howls its pain, rearing back and no longer quite as focused on consuming Ryu. It would probably still hurt if the wires manage to catch him, but it would at least be easier to break free thanks to Nasa's intervention. At the same time, Gaius's blade manages to cleave right through the metal wire forming the first worm's tendril as it searches, catching it off-guard and preventing it from binding up even more people.

    The Behemoth already nearly takes up the entire six-lane street, so while Beli flees, its ability to turn and chase her is limited. Even before it can reach those limits, Setsuko's blade suddenly cleaves along the metal plates over its skull, carving through them enough to leave only a clean, still-glowing split that leads partially into the bone itself. The Behemoth gives its trumpeting foghorn cry and jerks back in pain, stumbling a few steps backward that smash cars into scrap under its metal feet. At the same time, Freya's presence draws its attention, and Crys's shard of ice smashed into the wound carved by Setsuko.

    Mammon gives an abrupt yank of those chains, however, jerking its head back to face Setsuko, Freya, and Crys so he can laugh directly at them, screeching and painful to hear. "Hah! Those you killed before were foolish and weak, simpletons compared to my glory! Cycle after cycle of our rule has passed, wretched servants of the aberration, and still we persist! What makes you think /you/ and your filthy ally will change anything?" Another yank of the chains: Behemoth's head jerks aside, digging its armored tusk into a nearby building and hurling massive chunks of debris at Setsuko, Freya, and Crys all at once. No doubt the citizens fleeing from the site will be in great danger, too, for the building crumbles into ruins that smash across the entire street.

    Beli, spared from the assault of Behemoth's hellfire, is free to swoop around through the smoke belching out of the creature and sweep low over its rotten spine. Mammon, however, is too prepared to be so easily caught: he hurls a hand back, casting out over a dozen gold coins. When they land, each one immediately rises up into a lanky, abstract figure of black with curling horns and broad wings. Beli's moving too quickly to adjust, and when she crashes into one, it abruptly bursts into molten gold, forcing out a pained shout from her as it burns her skin, clothes, and wings. She's forced to land uncomfortably on Behemoth's back and stagger away to get her bearings, but the black creatures relentlessly start striding toward her.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    "Because we are nothing like anything from this world," Setsuko replies calmly. "And if you're too arrogant to see that, it's a wonder you survived this long."

    There's no way Setsuko can reach the rubble in time. So instead she turns her attention to what she can do - dealing with the chunk of building that's been hurled at her. She could cleave it in twain, and protect herself easily. She could cut more rapidly, and perhaps divide it enough to minimize whatever damage it would do upon landing. But neither option is satisfactory. Not in this moment. So instead, the demigod sheathes her sword.

    And begins floating backward, arms outstretched, matching her momentum to the huge piece of masonry.

    It hits her like a small semi. She visibly recoils in the air. But then she stops. Floats. Holds the tremendous, massive hunk of rubble in both arms.

    And the next thing she does is go sailing down towards the Behemoth at top speed and /SLAM/ the piece of building, full-strength, into the black creatures stalking towards Beli on Behemoth's back. By the time the dust of the impact clears, she's already standing on the creature's back between Beli and whatever remains of the demons, her hand on Zanjintou's grip.

Freya (578) has posed:
A collapsing building isn't good at all! She rushes forward trying to block and catch as much as the rubble as she can consdering her current massive size that proably a fair amount. The buidling rubble peice that do hit her sting a bit but nothing she has to worry about.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryu realizes he's cutting into a demon with his light magic and it is working quite well. His confidence bolstered by how effective this is, he lets out a cry of surprise and agony as barbed wire raked across his scales and gouges red blood out of him in running droplets. It doesn't dig very deep before Nasa is distracting the second worm. As the beast slams into the nearby buildings, Ryu has to hold on just to keep from being thrown well clear of the monster.

    He doesn't wait. He moves. He turns during a moment where he can coil against the momentum of the thrashing worm tendril, and leaps down to street level while the rubble starts to crash down. His mouth cracks open and particles of light collect in his mouth seemingly from the air itself, his chest expanding and the cracks in his scales emitting a soft blue hue like an intense flame is building in his chest...

    He emits a huge inferno of white fire... white fire that has absolutely no heat to speak of. Instead, it's like an explosive blast of Light magic. It has the force to obliterate or drive back anything he hits with it, and he is aiming to sweep the fire over a wide range of debris, covering the gaps in Freya's efforts so that no stray innocents are hit in the fray.

    It makes a cacophonous crystalline scream that competes quite well with the sound of collapsing buildings and combat.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Not entirely what Nasa had planned, helping Ryu was quite convenient though! Not that Nasa was planning much at present, Mammon's actions were beginning to push her deeper and deeper into anger, especially with the way he was capturing souls. Demons capturing souls usually enslaved or devoured them. She took a deep breath, an angered hiss escaping her breath. As Nasa began to make her way up the worm's length towards the Behemoth's central body, the poison would likely begin to take effect.

     Icy and frigid, the magical poison would begin to war with the worm's own heat to fight to freeze it slowly from the inside-out. While the single dose probably wouldn't get very far in doing such, the poison would likely be incredibly unpleasant for the behemoth as it worked at forcing itself through the beast's body. Nasa, however, was now working at a much more important task, in her mind.

     As Nasa moved, she rapidly approached that tank in the Behemoth's gut, sheathing the Light of Hope in favor of drawing the second blade of her Viper's Fangs, the magical enchantment on them beginning to glow brightly as she brought the blades towards that vat, attempting to bring her blades HARD through the metal of that vat. First one slice... then two... then three... working as quickly as she could to attempt to slice open that vat full of molten gold. Regardless of if they actually were screaming, Nasa could hear screams from within the vat. She had to get them out. She had to get them out. Each moment she 'heard' those screams, she began to care less for herself and more for their freedom and the death of the one attempting to capture and enslave/devour them.

Crys Gattz has posed:
SO the Behemont and it's master is not very happy at this pint or is it hungry she can't tell she looks at them for a moment.

"So you think? It amuses me to hear your arrogance, all I have left to say you die to today."

That's it there's say the hice slams into the oen wound and she's now looking at them and she gets on the move she does not want to sit still as the thing comes at her she's forc e to use her claw in n attempt to blast the incomming chunks trying to buy time for the local civilians to run but that means she's not attacking the beast for the moment.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Gaius watches as the people run away and then he watches as the others try to take charge against the large creature. He can't get to that height without his armor, so the ground he must remain, for now. Though he does slap in some ceruleum shells and starts to fire away at the chunks of building starting to come down.

Using the high powered explosive bullets to either redirect the material with a black explosive flash or break it up further so people have time. Its all he can do for now is collateral damage. At least until he can find a means to get up there higher up.

Beli Klum (238) has posed:
    Mammon seems absolutely perplexed by Setsuko's course of action. First there's the matter that she was actually able to resist the massive chunk of debris, but aside from that, she flies over Mammon, rises through the cloud of smog billowing from Behemoth's back, and /slams/ the debris into the creature's spine. Bones crack, metal groans, and, most importantly, the creatures Mammon summoned are splattered into a spray of molten gold that burns into Behemoth's remaining flesh. Beli is forced to lift her arm and stagger back, but she's spared the backsplash: once she's certain of her safety, she gives Setsuko a quick nod of thanks, then grips her swords all the more tightly in her hands.

    Mammon's mask doesn't change, but his metallic, grating voice clearly shows his rage. His beast of destruction is attempting to recover itself, but rather than continue to guide it, he instead drops the chains to the Behemoth's neck and turns to face Setsuko and Beli. "There is no questioning the might of Mammon! The might of our Lord Samael! If you /doubt/, vile scum, then allow me to demonstrate for you!"

    In a single sweep of his bony, metal-robed arm, Mammon sweeps at Beli and Setsuko in a twofold attack. Both those golden coins and a gout of hellfire spew at them, but Beli is prepared to act. Her right hand thrusts out, and a shield of golden light surrounds both herself and Setsuko, allowing the hellfire to flow harmlessly around them and forcing the coins to bounce off. Cracks begin to show in the shield's surface, however: it won't hold for very long. "He is only a projection," Beli hisses to Setsuko, straining to maintain the barrier as much as she can. "He is not as strong as he could be. We can defeat him...!"

    Meanwhile, between the efforts of Ryu, Freya, Crys, and Gaius, the massive piles of rubble cascading from the ruined building are blasted and hefted away, sparing the wave of people fleeing the scene. The entire ordeal is still a terrifying one for them, however: they scramble over one another, struggling in their panic to escape the massive beast lumbering after their souls. Souls to be used to increase its own power and form into demons, later on. Nasa's efforts begin to show fruit, too: the transparent tank begins to steadily crack against her repeated stabbing, first a bit, then a bit more, then a bit more, until at last a stream of the molten gold spews out in a steady flow. It's not much, but it's a start. A start that might be prevented from growing into anything more, as one of those worms curls under Behemoth's body and lashes out at her with tendril after tendril of barbed wire. If she's trying so hard to get in there, why not help her out? Those people inside are indeed screaming in agony, at least where they're not drowned by the liquid metal sloshing around with Behemoth's every movement.

    Even without Mammon's direct command, Behemoth's instincts come to the forefront against the aid protecting the citizens of Shanghai. The worm not trying to devour Nasa lifts up and vomits forth a shower of coins, easily dozens of them spewing out to the street to form into more of those strange, black minions of burning gold that will charge after the people and pile on any person foolish enough to stand in their way. Behemoth itself charges into action, too, and quite literally: head lowered enough for its spike-lined tusks to carve into the street, it charges forward with remarkable speed for its size to plow into Freya and possibly trample Ryu, Crys, and Gaius as well, as if they weren't in enough danger from the golden minions. Setsuko and Beli are going to have some trouble with their footing, as well.

Freya (578) has posed:
"Does he ever stop talking??", Freya wonders. Uh-oh Behemoth is shooting out coins? or are they demons? Freya not sure and she doesn't have time to worry about that as it charges! She not going to let it trample over the people. She moves to intercept it and blocks it with her massive size trying her best to keep it from coming any closer and if she lucky pushing it back.

"YOU. SHALL. NOT. PASS!!"

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Slash, stab, slash stab! The molten gold was beginning to spew out! Nasa felt rather victorious in that case, lifting her blades to begin to slash wildly at it again, even as barbed wire began to wrap around her. She didn't seem to care at first, but one of them slashed her particularly viciously... and that was it. Pain mixed with being faced with a 'slaver' got Nasa's gaze turning on that worm with fierce rage, and her teeth were suddenly bared. Magic bursts along Nasa's body as her hands are consumed with the light of the Hand of Transference. "I will /devour/ you." She hisses towards the worm.

     Nasa immediately leapt towards the worm, moving through the slashing and lashing barbed wire. Her wings fluttered to lift her up, attempting to land on TOP of the worm, lifting her blades up to begin to attempt to stab repeatedly into the top of the worm's 'head'. However... the slashes would do... nothing? If the worm had focused on that Nasa, it would possibly find itself focused on... nothing?

     And then the sound of blades on the tank might be audible again, as the Glamour that Nasa was using faded, broken by the fact that Nasa turned her focus on flying after that now-moving tank to begin to slash at it once more, magical energies bursting through her blades, channeling ice magic through them to attempt to freeze and make the tank more brittle with every slash.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Setsuko drops low, prepared to leap, when a shield shimmers into place between her and Mammon. Her gaze, calm and cold, meets his eyes through the barrage, unflinching in the face of that power. "I do not doubt your might, nor that of your master. The problem is that you doubt mine." She looks over her shoulder at Beli briefly. "And hers. She, who has gone further than any of you dared, who has done more than any of you dreamed. If you are blind enough to write us off as weaklings, vile scum, then allow me to demonstrate for you."

    And the silver-haired demigod vaults, soaring up over the barrier and drawing Zanjintou in one smooth movement. By the time she starts coming back down, a SNAP of the blade has brought it to its full size, and her landing is followed by an immediate whirl. With all her might, she swings the colossal sword around, cleaving apart any demon unfortunate enough to be within reach, including Mammon himself; even he can easily sense that this blade carries the power to slay him. It is not a blade which hides its nature.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Gaius took notice as the minions came down from the coins. Shifting into demons. His quickly swapped the clips and went to more standard rounds. Taking aim at some of the minions to bring them down. His aim was ever accurate as it was even in his suit.

Though he was grateful he practiced without the need of a HUD, cause in times like these in cam in useful.

However as he fired, he shot one that came in close, having to leap away as it exploded into molten gold. Nearly getting touched by the heat and tsking at the intensity of how close it was. As he landed back, his foot tripped under him.

Gaius had to quickly rotate his body around, swinging his heel in order to get into a knelt position and then try to take aim again. That little screw up-- may just costed him precious time.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryu is winded from the effort of dealing with so much debris at once, having to take a few big breaths and work off the dizzy feeling of expending so much energy at once like that. This makes him a prime target when a handful of molten gold demons fall down on him, and he reacts entirely on reflex-- cleaving through them in a spray of flesh-searing metal. But something is a little odd about the gold that melts over his scales. It glows and sputters with white fire, as if the metal was reacting with his element.

    Not daring to get in melee range with more of them, he sweeps his hands in a wide arc, a pulse of light sending the excess metal off of his durable scales, leaving patches of gold plating here and there, including half of his face. With his head tilted to peer through his uncovered eye, he points one claw forward to provide a focus for his spell.

    Points of light generate in the air around him, and begin blasting energy down at the remaining Coin Demons. This allows Ryu to see Behemoth's approach, and react with a quick leap to the side, guarding his face from the rubble blown up by the massive creature's charge. He growls with each movement, his burnt scales hurting quite a lot. He's only even alive thanks to his draconic scales, and all that gold is weighing him down, making him look halfway to being a statue already.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz is trying to spare as may people as they could. She sees that Nasa has the right idea, she's very much in line witht he idea. She knows she's got to do something and she's going to need some bigger and more heard hitting but the thing is she's got to get at them Crys will start making use of her own ice baed powers to try and freeze either hte minions and or the taited demonic gold as she goes however if she can break off she got very much somerhing that might help crack this horror open!

Beli Klum (238) has posed:
    Fortunately for everyone behind her, Freya's strength is enough to hold back Behemoth's charge, though it no doubt pushes her back some with how incredibly heavy and forceful it is. Its neck arches and buckles under the strain of its body still moving behind it until it's forced to a standstill, at which point it lurches and thrusts to get Freya off balance and continue its ceaseless charge.

    Nasa's efforts manage to fool the strange worm, as well. It reflexively lashes up at her, trying to consume her from where she stabs down on its head...but there aren't any stabs. Or Nasa, for that matter, for the fey has used the distraction to cleave even deeper into the creature's damaged gut. The crack widens into a hole: molten gold spews out in a torrent, as well as one or two people fortunate enough to be near the bottom of the tank. The worm, of course, is not happy: the moment Freya stops the Behemoth's charge, that worm lurches out again to try and devour Nasa more directly. Not with wires, not with tangling, just opening its massive maw and swallowing her whole into its bristling gullet.

    "SHE," Mammon snaps, growling in frustration as his free, bony hand points right for Beli, "is nothing more than an /abomination/. A fiend, a wretch, a squirming, filthy worm masquerading as-"

    Whatever other verbose insults Mammon was about to throw are suddenly cut off by Setsuko's massive bound. A few summoned minions managed to be formed from the coins that fell on Behemoth's back, but Setsuko's blade cleaves through them like a scythe through wheat, shattering them into gouts of molten gold. Mammon is not spared from her great reach, either, for it cuts right across his torso and sends him stumbling back, clutching at his stomach as darkness seeps out of it like ethereal blood. Only when Setsuko leaps does Beli feel safe enough to dispel that barrier, as well, and when she does, she rushes out to pair Setsuko's cleave with two of her own. Her blades seem to pass through the demon harmlessly, but the burst of angelic magic that explodes through him at their touch is enough to send out another cry of pain from him.

    Meanwhile, on the ground, the defenders are more than effective against the coin-formed minions that charge after them like animated zombies. Gaius shoots through many of them, popping them like balloons of agonizing heat. Ryu absorbs their gold into himself and shatters those he doesn't, while Crys's ice freezes the creatures over and leaves them easy targets to be harmlessly shattered. But there are still so many...

Beli Klum (238) has posed:
    (http://goo.gl/HZqTp1)

    Streams of holy light suddenly blast down from the sky, crashing into Mammon and his beast with searing force and blasting right through several of the remaining minions on the ground. Mammon cries out in agony and collapses back onto Behemoth's neck, his form shot straight through from the many strikes and already wounded by Setsuko and Beli, and Behemoth is weakened by the holy retribution in its struggle with Freya, allowing her to push it back skidding across the street and tearing into concrete with its metal claws.

    The source comes from none other than the angels of Paradiso: specifically, the Powers, angels representing the grace of Charity. Their bodies are formed by many hovering, opalescent crystals arranged into a vaguely humanoid shape, but without any piece completely attaching to another. The only piece that remains completely static is a single radiant orb in their heart that sends a constant glimmer through their crystalline bodies, lighting up the night with a glorious radiance. Two 'wings' spread from their backs, stretching out with crystals hovering along their lengths like feathers. The halos that hover above their featureless heads are decorated by dangling crystals like an assortment of wind chimes, and in place of legs they have similar arrangements of crystals that trail down beneath them. Their hands are formed into weapons: swords, pikes, whips, spears, all prepared to drive into the forces of Inferno and purge them with holy might. Dozens of them fill the air like stars in the night sky, each as unusual as they are beautiful.

    And their leader comes with them, as well: Gabriel, the Archangel of Charity, formed of the same crystals as his followers, but far taller and more slender, with an even more striking radiance from his heart. Four wings extend from his back, each crystal feather trailing off a band of light, and his feet taper into sharp points. In his hands is a long, solid polearm, and at its head is an orb surrounded by orbiting crystals of many sizes and shapes. As he plummets down like a comet from Heaven itself, the blade of the polearm forms into that of a sharp glaive aimed right for Behemoth's skull. With a powerful gleam of harp-song, he crashes down into the wound formed and weakened earlier by both Setsuko and Crys, while the Powers start hurling streams of light to blast into the mechanical beast's body and send it howling and stumbling back even further.

Freya (578) has posed:
"About time!", Freya says looking up seeing the angel descened from the sky. She just holds her postion with the Behemoth making sure it stay still, so that other people can finish off this monstosity.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Good, the stomach was breached, the gut burst open, spewing out the molten gold -- Nasa immediately darted out of the way. Right into the worm's waiting maw as it attempted to devour her. Unfortunately for the worm, Nasa was not particularly a pleasant thing to devour. "Is time to make it so that Nasa did to naut lie..." She murmurs softly, before her Hand of Transference bursts into existence, channeling through her blades. And Nasa began to slash wildly at the insides of the worm's mouth.

     With each slash, the Hand of Transference drew energy from the worm with one blade, while the other one discharged it as a burst of damaging energy right back out into the beast, making cumulatively stronger and stronger slashes as the Drowess began to pour her own energy into it. A flurry of raging blades inside of the worm's mouth, attempting to make it unable to ever eat anything again. This ends with one final pair of stabs, attempting to drain as much energy from the beast.

     This is channeled into a spell as Nasa curls up in the beast's mouth, holy energy ringing around Nasa and then turning into a porcupine-like ball of holy spears spiking out from Nasa, with simple intent to destroy the worm and deal as much damage to the behemoth above her(And consequently its tank) as she possibly could.

     Of course, unfortunately for Nasa, being devoured by the worm was likely not pleasant, and had taken very little measures to protect herself, so success or not, after that sudden burst of holy energy, Nasa would be left weakened and tired, especially since holy was not one of her specialties. "...Appreciates the meal~." Also, being inside of a worm, well. Nasa was largely unaware of the angels, until the radio began to speak of much.

Ryu (636) has posed:
    The gold covering Ryu remains shining and warm enough to send awful aches and jolts through his burned scales. But it's not enough to cripple his movements... the supernaturally tough creature judges his leap targets more carefully when he crouches and launches himself, up and up... First a tilted lamp post, and then the cracked side of a building, and then he leaps to find a place he judges to be a good spot. There, he begins to build up mana and his dragon fire in his mouth, preparing for a spell that is heavily inspired from what he's seen of Bahamut.

    He aims for the crack in the vat holding those poor souls within its gut, and lets loose a torret of fire surrounding a solid beam of light, trying to cut a huge hole in Behemoth's belly, in the vague hopes of freeing the poor souls trapped within. If not helping those people, at the very least he's trying to make it very hard for Behemoth to hold any more of them!

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    As if to punctuate the point, Setsuko's voice cuts across Mammon's in the instant her feet touch the ground.

    "/Shut up/."

    Coming out of her spin, the swordswoman stands straight, titanic sword held low and to one side. "And heed my words. My name is Setsuko... Setsuko Kaminagi! Sword of the Forgotten War God!" The demigod whips her blade into a vertical stance, towering high above her as she speaks. Her eyes lock with Mammon's, unflinching condemnation for the demon in them, and her words come as if delivering a formal judgement. "And if she is an abomination, then let my sword cut as your shame, for there is more justice in her rule than in yours /or/ that of your foes!"

    Her titanic weapon whips around her once, and then Setsuko is off at a full-speed run, crossing Behemoth's back as surefooted as a cat the very instant Beli's attack ceases. "HaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA...!" No skyward leap, no flare of divine light to carry her aloft; the demigod simply pours every ounce of her strength into a hard, inhumanly fast charge. And at the very last second, she plants a foot, turns herself, spins in a full 360-degree turn to add one last burst of strength to her sword, and-

    "ZANJINTOU: ICHIMONJI GIRI!"

    -lunges straight through in a single, fierce horizontal cut that leaves her spinning twice more on the other side before her feet plant and she stops, back to her foe.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Gaius starts to open fire from his knelt position. The older man then quickly shoves off and to get some distance, and goes to fire again. Only to hear the empty 'click'. He furrows his brows, "..bad.. timing.." he rumbles to himself.

Though perhaps good timing as about then the heavens open and suddenly-- angels. Though the Legatus himself has never seen such creatures of light, so has to stare at them in somewhat amazement. Yet his attention is snapped back as the angels start to reign terror upon the demons and he watches one get blasted with brilliant light before his eyes.

This causing Gaius to wince in pain from the bright light suddenly and almost stagger over. Once his vision comes too again, he quickly slaps another clip into his revolver-looking hand gun and watches what the angels now do.

Fascinated by them really.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Uhoh the Angels have shown up but she's not sure what their plans are today but she's clined to not well pick a fight and turnt his into a three way brawl however. She won't be firing the first shot, she's forced back a bit as she starts to banish her existing gear and summons a new weapon a massive sword that's two meters long and it's entire blade is like a chainsaw. The weapon known as a chainsawed roars to life not as the teeth start whirling about andf she runs for the Bahemonth she's intending to try to crack the thing open with ehr blade and put an end to it's madness there's not a woird said as she leaves the fallen minions behind she's striking vicously and without mercy. All the while hte teeth of her weapon almost seem to hunger for something to cut through.

Beli Klum (238) has posed:
    Behemoth regrets devouring Nasa almost as soon as the worm manages to do so. Nasa cleaves in every direction, slicing through barbed wire and flesh alike, casting out thick, black blood from every wound that fills the worm's mouth more and more with each slash. Nasa's likely going to come out of this coated in black, tar-like demon blood, especially when the worm is finally reduced to little more than useless strips of flesh and ruined pieces of wire, at which point it finally falls away to drape uselessly over the ground, still spewing that vile blood onto the streets.

    Ryu's powerful blast continues what Nasa started, while she's occupied with eviscerating the worm from inside. The sheer power behind that torrent of light takes a bit to effectively burn through the transparent, solid tank, but what passes through that hole alone is enough to blast through the softer hide on Behemoth's back in a narrow stream. That only gets wider and wider the longer Ryu maintains it, gradually melting away both the metal on one side and the flesh and bone on the other. Behemoth trumpets and blasts its foghorn of a voice; molten gold flows from its tank of a belly like a waterfall, taking with it the horribly burned but healing humans inside. The molten gold isn't becoming any less hot as it pours into the street, but at least the humans that were caught in it are in a position to be retrieved. Behemoth stumbles; its strength is waning. Still Gabriel shoves his spear deeper into the creature's skull, and his weapon starts to glow with an even brighter holy light. Crys leaps into the offensive, too: with the screech of teeth against metal, she cleaves into its legs, cutting through the rusted iron beneath its flesh, forcing it to buckle further to its knees. Black blood spews from the wound like oil from a well.

    Beli falls back only slightly when Mammon falls, but Setsuko is immediately on the offensive. The demigod's words surprise her, in fact, a feeling that briefly crosses over her hardened expression moments before Setsuko blasts forward. Mammon takes too long to recover, and in those moments, he is helpless. "No-!" His hand thrusts out, but that's all he manages before Setsuko's gigantic blade cleaves through him and the reinforced, rotting neck of Behemoth itself. At the same time, Gabriel's spear blasts forth a gout of holy light, and just as Behemoth's head begins to fall to the ground, it shatters from within with a brilliant flash of pure white that lasts for only a second in its resplendent glory.

    Mammon's body, cut clean in half, melts into liquid gold that steams out of existence. Behemoth's body is steadily consumed in shadow, too, before it also dissolves into nothing, leaving behind hundreds and hundreds of the soft, white souls that were used to make it. Each one rushes into Beli, seemingly absorbed into her; she winces as she uses her wings to steady her descent, but she keeps composed enough to avoid simply plummeting to the street. Only once she's safely landed does she allow herself to fall to one knee, breathing heavily from the pain still caused by the burns along her form. Molten gold still pools on the street, but fortunately there are a few piles of rubble that serve as safe footing.

Beli Klum (238) has posed:
    (http://goo.gl/Ee53nQ)

    Gabriel hovers above the ground, glaive in hand and four wings beating with the gentle chime of crystal. The Powers descend to float beside him, too, but they don't dismiss their weapons. They're not willing to give a truce just yet.

    Indeed, Gabriel points his blade straight at Beli. When his voice comes through, the beautiful harp song that contrasts with the harsh words he speaks. "This is all your doing. /None/ of this would have happened if you and your /outsiders/ had not destroyed our ability to control this city. We care not what your intentions were, for the results of them are clear." His menacing point shifts to Setsuko next. "And no matter what you say, you could not possibly fathom how wrong you are. /Nothing/ good has come from this...this manifestation of /chaos/, and nothing ever will. And all of you," he continues, turning to the others, "would be wise to leave this place. We will give you the benefit of a safe retreat, but if you show your faces here again, the judgement of Paradiso will not be so merciful again. We will ensure that those who survived that vicious attack will recover."

    Beli just glares at Gabriel from where she kneels. It's clearly difficult enough for her to stand right now, but she manages to push herself into an uncertain footing. Her swords vanish in flashes of white light. "...let us go," she mutters, as weary as she is still angry. "I do not want to deal with him anymore. At least Mammon is dispelled."

Freya (578) has posed:
"..and your welcome too!", Freya says before shrinking down to human size. Oh well, they saved lives and that what matters. She going to head home have a nice hot bath and drink some sake..

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     The worm was torn to shreds, and Nasa was freed from it. That's good, because slowly Nasa began to talk, her eyes slowly opening, which causes a wince from the difference in light between the worm's innards and the light outside, not to mention the various bright shiny attacks going on and the /angels/. On the up side, in her blurred and sore vision, she could see that the people were freed from the tank, and she unceremoniously began to hover around, extracting people from the gold without a word, pulling them out of the gold and into a less scalding area.

     As her vision slowly clears and it becomes less painful to be able to see, her eyes trail around some, slowly looking up towards Gabriel as he points the blade at Beli. She paused in the middle of her efforts to remove people, just in time to be a sudden streak of black, the muck-covered Nasa placing herself squarely between Beli and Gabriel with a protective gaze, her lips spread wide in a threatening and protective growl, revealing her mouthful of sharp teeth. "Yes. Results were to being clear, we did to tear apart giant monster and to saving as much of the people both captured and uncaptured from being tortured for who knows how long in that /thing's/ stomach." Nasa says, her eyes flaring brighter as she looks up at Gabriel, her voice coming out almost as much a hiss as it was words.

     She ALMOST looked about ready to fly towards Gabriel as well. But then Beli said that we should go, and she didn't want to deal with him anymore. She tilts her gaze towards Beli, the glow of her eyes dimming. "...Understands." She murmurs, fluttering down towards Beli to attempt to help stabilize her and help make sure she was standing, barely paying attention to her own wounds. They were fairly deep, ignoring barbed wire lashes does that to you, and her wings looked slightly more tattered than usual, but she was ridiculously self-sacrificing that way at times.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    At last, Setsuko's feet hit the ground, Behemoth and Mammon disintegrating and leaving their power to Beli behind her. There is a snap as her blade returns to its katana form, and her blue eyes turn straight up to meet Gabriel's gaze steadily. "No. I don't think it's me that doesn't understand the depths of their mistake. If you cannot comprehend just how much freedom and choice mean to these people, then you truly have no right to preside over them."

    Setsuko's sword goes back to its sheath, her eyes still on the angel above. "I have a challenge for you, Gabriel. Live as a human. Disguise yourself. Set aside your powers for a while, or restrict yourself from using them. I don't care how. But I challenge you to live in this city as a human. See what they see. Feel as they feel. See their triumphs and hardships. See how they are, without a yoke of darkness or light steering their very souls. Become familiar with them not as subjects, but individuals. Share in their struggle."

    The swordswoman turns her back and begins to simply walk, towards the nearest warpgate, but she does stop to add, "If you truly care for them, make me belive it. For I once was one of them, in another world."

Ryu (636) has posed:
    Ryu had cleaved through the demon with his dragonbreath, doing a great deal more for this fight than any he had done before. He felt awful and aching and agonized, and other negative words that possibly start with A. When the fight dies down soon after, he is picking gold off of himself, and growling at how difficult it is and how it only makes it feel WORSE. Not wanting to risk ripping his own scales off, he turns his one open eye up toward Gabriel, expecting some sort of gratitude or greeting. Nope. Ryu gets exposed to the attitude of a very hostile holy being that seems to think the party here is at fault.

    "The /results/ were that we came here and dealt with someone who came here to take people like it was a soul buffet," he growls, probably not loud enough to hear. He leers up at Gabriel in a way all too appropriate for dragons from his world, immediately seeing Gabriel as an enemy after the reaction he had to their valor and their effort.

    He moves to make his retreat, not wanting to continue a fight with another faction. He does it at a brisk jog, which still gets him to the nearest warp gate at a decent speed.

Crys Gattz has posed:
Crys Gattz watches as thing settle now and she's busy uysing barta castings to cool the gold, it's horrible stuff but it can be sold on the extraversal market to help fun repairs and care for the victems of the attack, maybe even a way to help the local police department get some counter measure to help them evne with smaller fry demons. Either way she's now busy and can't help but grin at the challenge issued to the leader of the angels.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Nasa also totally quickly flits over to Ryu's side and simply gives him a small vial of carefully-cleaned-off liquid. It tasted like drinking a /really/ strong tea and would rather quickly numb his pain, and also aid his healing in the long term.

Gaius Van Baelsar (522) has posed:
Gaius watches as things unfold and slowly the nightmare ends. He slowly lowers his weapon and inhales deeply. Hearing the call over global and then to the local frequency. He closes his eyes for that moment just to listen to the sounds on the wind.

The hidden Legatus then holsters his weapon once more, before he goes to turn away and head for the portal once more. His job was done here and he probably should head back to the Dreadnought before something else happens that snags his attention.

Beli Klum (238) has posed:
    Gabriel, as expected, is confronted with people who aren't too pleased with his assessment of the situation. Nasa's spite, Setsuko's challenge, Ryu's anger: all are met with his faceless gaze, and he retorts to each one in turn. "And would Mammon have chosen to seige the city if our control over it had not been broken? If we were still able to cast legions of our holy number to cast him out? No, we think not, outsiders," he chimes to Nasa and Ryu.

    He doesn't respond to Setsuko immediately, however. His glaive lowers, though, and for a few lingering moments, he keeps his faceless stare on the demigod. His voice isn't quite so sharp when he speaks again. "Perhaps we understand what they need better than they do," he retorts, though that's all he says. Is he contemplating the suggestion, maybe?

    Beli manages a soft smile for Nasa, but she holds out a hand to stop the fey from pushing herself any further. "Thank you, Nasa, but please see to yourself first. I can manage."

    Once she's sure everyone else is safely able to leave, Beli turns and starts moving away herself. Her right hand is lifted, and from it she washes over herself with a flame of cool, flowing blue, steadily healing her own violent burns and injuries. She'll be able to fly off soon enough.

    The angels disperse the weapons from their hands, and Gabriel's staff settles into an orbiting pattern again. The humans are immediately tended to, healed with their own seraphic flames and spared from the worst of the damage. Others move to ensure that those who fled are safe and able to return to wherever they came.

    And Gabriel thinks, pondering over the events of the evening.