eiahmon | Refrain of Darkness Chapter 5

Title: Castlevania: Refrain of Darkness

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine, don't own.
Summary: Aqua receives a mission to investigate a new world that's appeared on the council's radar due to a Heartless invasion, and finds that everything is different here. Now she must team up with Juste Belmont and track down the source of the Heartless in a world where souls have all the power and hearts don't belong.

Juste stepped out of the sanctuary and onto the landing, and he looked up and saw that there was a hatch at the top of the staircase. "I'm going to check out that hatch," he said as he pointed up to it, "as well as the double doors just above us."

"Okay, want me to stay here?" she asked, looking for direction. This place was his forte, after all.

"That will be fine; I'll be back in just a second." He went up the crumbling stone steps to the doorway just above the sanctuary, and as soon as he neared it, he could feel the magic flickering across its surface. The door was sealed by magic, which made impossible to open, but he could see a small indent where the two halves of the double doors met, in the shape of a shield. Obviously a key of some sort was meant to go there.

He then went the rest of the way up to the top to the hatch, and found that, although it wasn't sealed, it was tightly closed, and he could not budge it. They were going to have to find a lever or switch somewhere to open it. He grumbled to himself about backtracking as he went down to meet Aqua.

"The door above us is sealed with magic, and we need a key to open it." he told her. "The hatch is also closed, so we're going to have to find a switch for it."

"Lovely, dungeon puzzles," she commented with a trace amount of sarcasm. "Where would you guess we'll find them?"

Juste shook his head. "There is no telling; this castle is massive, and the placement of objects doesn't always make sense." He sighed. "At any rate, the only way to go is down, into the waterway."

"Fantastic," she answered, raising a brow. "Won't this be fun." Aqua eyed the gap nearby and remembered when they passed by it earlier, she could hear water trickling below and she knew that was where they needed to go next. Well aware that Juste would probably not be pleased with her for doing this, she failed to warn him as to what she was doing before she simply dropped off the edge near the staircase. She simply had no patience for tromping down several sets of stairs. Her way was much faster. She cast Aero while she fell, as it reduces physical damage including things such as walls and floors, and just as she came to the bottom of the drop, she also cast Glide, allowing her to land without injury. She looked back up at the distant ledge above where she'd left Juste. If need be, she knew she could always get back up by taking the stairs should he want to go a different route, but she hoped he would simply put up with her decision to proceed this way quickly.

Her attention was diverted by the water running fast beside her. The candelabras along the rock walls lit the area just well enough to see, but the movement of the water in the river-like channel caused the reflections of the tiny flames to flicker and jump unpredictably. This was not helped by the fact that not two feet away lay the edge of the ledge she'd dropped onto which resulted in a waterfall for the channel. She was glad that her control over the gliding spell allowed her to float in place instead of forcing her one direction or another, because if she'd fallen into the water, the depth of which she could not tell, she would likely have been swept along with the current, ending up who knows where.

Suddenly she felt a strong zap on her ankle, prompting a surprised, "Ow!" from her and she jumped to the side on the ledge to see a small plant wriggling in the space she had just been standing. She could have sworn it wasn't there when she landed, but her ankle was certainly complaining about it now. Is this killable? she wondered, and summoned her keyblade, smacking it once. It instantly appeared to die and vanished in a tuft of flame. "Ooookay..."

Juste didn't bat an eye when she jumped; so she could do that too. He cocked his head, and his slightly enhanced hearing allowed him to hear her touch down below, and it also gave him an approximate location. He silently cast a small spell to slow and cushion his fall to prevent injury, and then he too jumped.

The remains of the staircase that they had been standing on vanished as he fell below the castle, leaving him in just an empty shaft, and after a few short but intense seconds, he landed on a ledge just aside a swift flowing current and only a few feet away from a waterfall. Aqua was standing there as well, and she looked at him in surprise.

"I'll be honest; I sort of expected you to be annoyed at my simply jumping down here like that." She glanced back up at the staircase again, noting that it ended abruptly before reaching the ground. So it looked like they would have had to jump anyway.

"It would be rude of me to get angry at you for jumping when I was intending to do the same thing." he said with a small smirk. "Magic and vampiric ancestry have their perks, including allowing me to hear your little yelp. Was something waiting on you down here?"

"Not initially, from what I could tell, but then a little plant of some sort appeared and stung me? I killed it with my keyblade, but it was weird, with tentacles waving around."

"Ah, that was an Une. They stay mostly hidden until you're close, though you can spot their little green buds in the ground if your eyes are sharp. I expect to see them everywhere down here."

"I see. I'll keep an eye out for them now." She rubbed her ankle, then smiled and asked teasingly, "Well, where from here, oh great leader?"

Juste struck a pose and stuck his nose up in the air for a second, but he couldn't keep the serious expression, and he laughed. "Lydie would kill me." he said as he looked around. "We can go three directions. We can go behind us, or we can go over the gap to that ledge over there," He pointed to a barely visible ledge across from them. "or we could jump down the waterfall. That one I don't recommend just yet, but I have a feeling we'll have to go there anyway."

"We'll skip the waterfall for now then. We may as well stay on this side for now, so let's go back that way then," she nodded, approving the first action.

"Let us be away then." Juste said with a flourish and set off in that direction. "Most of the enemies here are ice or water elemental, such as that one up there." He pointed to a floating, blue human like being several feet in front of him. "We call those Frozen Shades. They look like human women, but they are wraiths – evil vengeful spirits that prey on the living. They attack by spraying ice crystals at you, or they can summon four large ice spears and hurl them at you, so be careful."

"Is everything in this place susceptible to fire?" she asked. "Then again, water is stronger than fire even if ice is not, so I suppose I answered my own question."

"Basically," Juste said as they approached the Frozen Shade that was hovering a few feet above the waterfall. The wraith began to summon her ice spears, so he simply raised his hand and blasted her with a large fireball, and then, while she was stunned, he attacked her with his whip. She arched her back and screamed, and vanished with a quiet tinkling sound. "Fire is a purifier, so it is very harmful to anything of a corrupted nature. Almost everything here is weak to holy or light elemental attacks as well."

"I see. Well, I've got fire magic aplenty, but I'm rather limited on light magic. I've got a knockback spell of sorts, but other than that I have only the light of my heart to assist me. Which to be honest isn't all that useful in battle," she added cynically. She summoned her blade just to have it ready, though she had no immediate use for it at the moment.

"Fire magic is sometimes all you need. Save the bigger attacks for Dracula and his Elite." He kicked a small croaking frog out of the path. "Also keep an eye out for the frogs. It may be hard to believe, but they can nearly nibble you to death if given a chance."

Aqua snorted in amusement at the frog comment while politely dodging the critters littering their path. One snapped at her with its sticky tongue, and she was surprised at the pain of it even though it only grazed her. The next time one went after her, she promptly stomped on its tongue as it flew at her, causing its owner to spaz out until she let it go. "I begin to see your point."

Juste smiled as he watched her stomp on the frog's tongue; he preferred kicking them, but whatever worked.

They walked down the path as it continued along its flat plane, but after a few minutes it began to run downhill, and the river seemed to vanish, being replaced by pools and small ponds of water. The path also ended there, which forced them to climb in and walk through it.

"I always hate this part." he grumbled "It feels fine in here until you get wet, but once you've gotten your clothes soaked, you'll feel like you're outside in the dead of winter. Hopefully we don't have much longer to go."

Juste smiled as he watched her stomp on the frog's tongue; he preferred kicking them, but whatever worked.

They walked down the path as it continued along its flat plane, and they encountered a few other monsters along the way, including a beautiful woman in a long blue robe that fired ice crystals in a similar manner to the Frozen Shades. Thankfully, it also was weak to fire and died quickly, vanishing with a scream.

"I've never seen one of those before." Juste commented as they continued. "I wonder why its voice sounded like a man's."

Aqua shrugged. "Maybe it's transgender," she suggested offhandedly. "Or likes to dress like a woman."

"Trans what?"

Aqua paused, and reevaluated her intended answer. "Never mind." This man was from a 18th century world. Transgender would be so far from his ability to grasp as to be straight-up impossible to work with. Especially given how religious he was.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time I've encountered a man that liked to dress up like a woman. They appear quite often in European nobility, it seems." he added as they path they were on began to run downhill, and the river suddenly seemed to vanish, being replaced by pools and small ponds of water. The path also ended there, which forced them to climb in and walk through it.

As she joined him in the water, she said, "Maybe, but fire and wind spells can at least help by drying much of it if you're willing to pause for a minute. Then again, my clothes are also made from rather water resistant material, so they don't really absorb water that much as it is. Makes them a pain to wash, of course, but at least it makes field work that much easier."

"I wish I could get my hands on some of that material then." he said as they carefully walked along the splashing river. He noted an Une's bud up ahead and readied a small fire spell to deal with it. "All we really have is wool, linen, and occasionally silk. Silk is not practical, and wool can be... unpleasant when it gets wet."

He stepped up to the Une, magic at the ready, as the small bud became a mass of writhing tentacle like vines. Before he could cast though, the vines abruptly leapt upward, showing that they were only a part of something larger. Juste had just enough time to see a yellow body with short, stubby limbs, before the thing opened its mouth impossibly wide and screamed.

Aqua reflexively covered her ears to muffle the ear-splitting screech, and had just enough time to notice a bright white light shine out in front of Juste before he slammed into her due to some sort of shockwave, and his kinetic energy shifted into her, flinging her back into the water while he stayed safely upright. She hit the shallow pool with a loud splash, and came up sputtering, and exclaiming, "What is that thing?"

Juste could barely hear her over the ringing in his ears, and through the spots in his vision, he saw the creature explode into little yellow blobs before vanishing entirely. "I don't know. I've never seen that before. Whatever it was, I think it just killed itself though." He rubbed at his eyes and turned to face her. "Are you all right?" he asked as he offered a hand to help her climb out.

She accepted his hand, levering back onto her feet as the cold air chilled her skin but the water droplets rolled right off her clothes. She opened her mouth to answer him, but at that moment a wave of darkness swept across them both and Heartless popped into being around them. She jumped back, summoning her blade in the same motion. Her eyes quickly glanced across the group, standard Shadows and Blue Nocturnes with two towering plants she'd never encountered personally but knew by their appearance were Ice Plants, and one that looked oddly like a...rose bush? With legs? "Watch out for the big Ice Plants," she warned Juste, "they shoot chunks of ice at you that hit much harder than the Nocturnes."

"Wonderful." he replied as he uncoiled the whip. "Hopefully they're easier to hit." He launched a fireball at the large rose with eyes, and he had just enough time to see it recoil from the blow, before he was forced to dodge to the side to avoid ice shards fired at him by the Nocturnes.

Aqua, alternatively, focused on the Nocturnes in particular, leaping from the water to slash them in the air simply to get them out of the way sooner, as the Ice Plants couldn't move from their location like these speedy demons. She cut down the nearest two and sent fire at two further away.

The rose tossed its head forward, almost as though it was trying to headbutt someone, but he stayed well out of range and launched more fir at it. A sharp scratch to his right ankle distracted him, and he looked down to see a Shadow clawing at his leg. A swift kick sent it flying across to the other bank, but before he could turn back to the rose, something large, sharp, and very, very cold hit the back of his neck. His neck and upper back muscles locked up from the sudden shock, but he was still able to step aside and turn to face one of the Nocturnes as it flitted away. He swung Sara out towards it, and he smiled when he scored a direct it. The Nocturne exploded into black wisps, freeing him to turn back to the rose.

Not to be outdone, the Ice Plant nearest to Juste targeted him and started shooting much larger, and faster, chunks of ice at him instead.

Aqua dodged the attack of the second Ice Plant as she swept her keyblade towards the ground to slash at an attacking Shadow, which dissipated, and finished off the last Nocturne with a targeted fire spell. She then headed to replace Juste with the rose bush while he fended off the Ice Plants.

He backdashed to avoid the larger chunks of ice and sent the whip flying over to crack one of the Ice Plants directly in the center of its... head? The creature shrank back as if in pain, and he gave it no time to recover. He unleashed a barrage of fire magic at it, followed by a whip strike that saw it explode as the Heartless before it had done.

Aqua closed in on the rose bush and moved to strike it when she suddenly had to block an ice pellet from the living Ice Plant from smacking her head on, and so she was quite unprepared when the rose reared its head back, closed its petals up tight, then plunged forward straight into Aqua's stomach. It flared its petals just after striking to propel her backwards. That they were petals was an unfair assumption, because they packed a major punch, and sent her flying back (splash-landing hard into the water again), as well as completely knocking the air from her lungs.

Juste heard the splash behind him as he turned his attention to the second Ice Plant. It reacted to the death of the other by firing off a rapd succession of ice shards at him, which forced him to dodge them before he could try and get a hit in. He then launched a Salamander spell at it, and twin columns of flame rose up around it, blocking it from view.

A whip strike destroyed a scuttling Shadow as the Salamander spell came to an end, leaving the large Heartless looking wilted and singed, but still alive.

Aqua scrambled out of the water as soon as possible, breathing carefully to get her lungs working again, glaring the rose bush as though she could will it to burst into flames from that alone. Alas, she was not pyrokinetic, and so she had to be a bit more hands on. She was a little angrier than strictly necessary, however, so she sent a high-powered Firaga at the rose Heartless, obliterating it completely, leaving its heart to float unsteadily towards the ceiling of the waterway from a pile of ash.

A magic missile spell finished the Ice Plant off, and Juste turned around to look for the remaining Nocturne just in time to see the rose die under Aqua's fire magic. The tinkling of tiny bells drew his attention to where the bell shaped Heartless was hovering around Aqua's head.

She was on a roll now, however, and spun to chop at the Nocturne before Juste could so much as speak. "Shadow at your heels!" Aqua warned him as she now faced his direction.

He quickly turned and jumped back a few steps to get some room, before a single fireball finished the last Heartless off. The cavern then fell silent save for the running water, and their heavy breathing.

"Twice!" Aqua burst out suddenly. "That's twice I was thrown back into the very cold water. That is ridiculous."

Juste laughed. "Maybe it has something to do with your name, Miss Aqua."

"Okay, my name might mean water, and I might really like water, but that does not mean I deserve to be thrown into it repeatedly."

Juste laughed again, and he leaned against the cavern wall behind him for a moment. "I have to say," he said once he'd brought the laughter under control, "I'm rather surprised to see Heartless in here."

She mock-glared at him for laughing at her, but there was no heat to it. "I don't see why not; if they were out in the woods and around the town, why wouldn't they be here too?"

"The castle calls to souls, which I assume your Heartless don't have. If they have no souls, then what is calling them here? The only explanation I can think of is that whatever brought the Heartless here in the first place is indeed in this castle somewhere, though what this has to do with Dracula, I'm still unsure about."

"It's always possible that I could be drawing them with my keyblade. I've mentioned before it's like a beacon for them. But that wouldn't explain why they politely chose to be ones precisely suited to this part of the castle, with the primarily Blizzard theme. More often than not, there are Heartless that have adapted to certain worlds that you see more often on each world, but they do appear in completely random areas of those given worlds. They don't seem to send the cold ones to solely cold areas, or the fire ones to only hot areas. They can appear together or opposite or not at all. You would usually only see them forming in specific places if someone wanted them there."

"I am really beginning to believe that there has to be some sort of intelligence behind all of this. Creatures that appear in this castle do appear in areas most suited to them. The ice elementals always being down here is an example, so that makes me wonder just what is controlling things here."

"Well, we won't find out down here. Shall we move on?"

"Let's. I think you'd like to get some place warmer at least."

"I would appreciate that."

They continued on their way, following the river as it cut a course through the rock. The small , barely ankle deep pond they had been wading through deepened, until Juste could no longer touch the bottom, and he had to swim. Behind him, he heard Aqua grumbling, and he ignored it as he looked ahead of them. At least, he thought, he could see the other side, and the ground there was sloping uphill again. He was also beginning to feel a breeze on his face, which told him an exit to the area had to be nearby.

He staggered out of the water on the other side, and waited until Aqua had joined him. "I think now would be a good time to try that magic you mentioned, Miss Aqua, if you don't mind."

"Agreed," she managed to say between shivers, and immediately cast a fire spell between them, sustaining it with magic alone. The dampness of the cavern put more strain on maintaining the fire, but it was still not a problem for her. As that continued, she cast an altered, or perhaps customized, version of Aero that looped around the fire, Juste, and Aqua, distributing the heat of the flames between them. After a few minutes, their clothes started to become noticeably drier. She maintained the spells for a few minutes more until the cloth of Juste's coat was dry enough that she was sure his other layers were no longer too damp to be comfortable. Her own clothes had dried far more quickly due to its special material. Even the half-skirt she wore for a more feminine touch was completely free of water.

"Mmmm, nice work, Miss Aqua. Perhaps once this is all done, you can show me how to do that." He smiled at her. "Now let us move on. I smell fresh air, so perhaps we are near to the end of this place?"

"That would be nice, the lighting is starting to get to me," she commented, referring to the flickering along the water as it refracted the candle light dozens of times over yet illuminated no more.

"As strange as it may sound, you will get used to it by the time we leave the castle." he replied as they began to walk up the uphill slow. A small stream burbled and splashed beside them, forming little pools in depressions in the rock as it went. Thankfully they were able to walk beside it to avoid getting wet again.

The slope leveled out in a vertical shaft roughly carved from the rock, and small stone ledges jutted out from the walls, close enough for them to move upward by hopping from ledge to ledge. "Shall we?"

"Of course," she agreed, and wasted no time in jumping between the ledges. Such a feat was no difficulty for someone with her acrobatic skills, and she quickly reached the upper level.

Juste followed her, and upon reaching the top, a quick look around confirmed what area of the castle they were in.

"Great," he grumbled to himself, "The Castle Chapel."

Aqua overheard his mumbling and grimaced. "I take it this isn't a fun area."

In response to her question, he gestured to the massive area they were standing in, filled with ledges, hallways, stairs, and countless numbers of various monsters. "Dracula took something sacred and turned it into a place of misery for many. I'm not sure who he hates worse at this point: humanity or God." He shook his head sadly. "Anyway, what makes this place so difficult is the layout of the halls and stairs, which require a great deal of jumping around, and the large amount of difficult and annoying enemies."

He heard the sound of small wings beating the air behind him and turned just as an Imp swooped down where he had been standing. He raised his hand and zapped it with lightning from his fingers, which caused it to tumble down and vanish in a puff of smoke. "Those, for example, are Imps. They swoop down at you, like you just saw, and they like sticking the very tip of their little spear in your craw. Once they've done that, you'll do whatever they want until they either get bored or you shake them off. God help you if several get you at once."

"Ugh. Well, I suppose we might as well get on with it, since we've got to get through it sometime." Her expression shifted from annoyance to mild determination coupled with a sense of long-suffering.

"Well first, let's go see if we can get into that area that was sealed off earlier. I'm sure there is a path to it here, somewhere."

"Oh, will somewhere in here lead us there? What a disorganized place this is," she commented with a shake of her head. "Lead the way, you understand this castle better than I do."

Juste laughed, though there was no humor in it. "Most areas of the castle are connected in some way. Once we find a warp room, things will get easier." He sighed. "Let's get going then." He looked around to get his bearings. To their left was a long staircase, and he could see the Hill Guards standing in various places. It looked like a good place to start.

"Watch out for the ones wearing the blue armor and carrying the swords." he cautioned. "They can slide down the stairs while pointing their sword at you with amazing speed. The best way to deal with them is to get close enough for them to lunge at you and then back away quickly just before they move and strike when their guard is down." He looked at her as she nodded in understanding, and then he started up the stairs.

They made it to the top quickly – having two people certainly helped – and they were faced with a short corridor, filled with Ghost Dancers.

"Sometimes I wonder," Juste said as he struck one whirling couple with the Vampire Killer, causing it to dissolve into mist with a soft pained cry, "where Dracula collects all these poor souls. Did he summon them here? Did they die here? No one knows, nor does anyone know if they're set free when the castle crumbles."

"Do these actually do anything? They're rather difficult to see, but they don't seem to be attacking," Aqua stated as she stared out hard at the landing before them. She barely noticed what Juste hit with his whip before it was already gone.

He gave her a surprised look. "I see them very clearly. They are slightly transparent, but still solid enough to see. You cannot see them very well?"

"No, I can barely see them. If I didn't already know something was there, I could almost walk right past them. If they're really ghosts like they seem to be, they won't have hearts. Maybe that's the difference. Like how I can see your alignment, more or less, but you're much harder to read than the Heartless, or my friends back home. If these ghosts don't have evil intent, then there's nothing for me to really see," she postulated.

"Interesting. Perhaps when we next find a sanctuary, we can discuss this further, but for the moment, I'll just answer your previous question. No, they really don't do anything. They just waltz endlessly. If you touch one, their severe cold will burn you, so be careful. Stay behind me and let me handle them, since I can see them, and if I dodge or duck, you do the same immediately."

"Sounds good to me," she confirmed, and paid close attention to him as he systematically took down each pair. She followed his orders and moved when he did, trying to keep an eye out in case he missed any.

They reached the doors without any trouble – thankfully Ghost Dancers went down with one hit – and to Juste's happy surprise, the door at the end of the hallway leading to the previous area, the one they had been unable to reach before, was unlocked. The two of them looked at each other for a second, nodded, and then he opened the door and led her in. They walked through a short featureless hallway that he remembered seeing before in his previous visit, and they emerged onto a high wall surrounding a courtyard.

Or at least, he thought it was a courtyard. A thick cloud of darkness rose up to hide the area below, and it took him a second to realize that the area was completely silent. There was nothing there, not even any monsters, just the two of them and...

Wait.

His breath puffed out in front of him as they temperature began to drop.

"We're not alone here." he whispered. "Whatever you do, don't attack our visitor unless he attacks first."

"O-okay," she stuttered slightly, confused at Juste's comment as well as the odd nature of the courtyard and its absence of...anything, really. She kept her eyes moving, trying to find the danger Juste sensed. It felt strange that he would notice something dangerous before she did, but a lot about this place had been surprising.

Juste ignored Aqua's stutter and kept his gaze fixed on the spot that his senses were warning him about. Sure enough, after a few seconds, a long handled scythe with a massive blade appeared in midair, spun in a circle for a moment, and with a laugh, its owner appeared.

"Death," Juste said evenly.

Aqua automatically backed up a step as this new creature appeared out of nowhere. "What...what is that?" she murmured in a low voice. A floating skeleton and tattered cloak, wielding an overly large scythe...was this supposed to be a grim reaper or something? She felt like things in this world should stop surprising her, but it seemed the shocks were determined to never end.

"This is Death, Miss Aqua." Juste said calmly as he kept his gaze fixed on Dracula's servant. "He works for Dracula, and if the rumors are true," He nodded in Death's direction, "he's Dracula's close friend and confidant." He then tuned out her presence in favor of getting some answers. "Where is Dracula, Lord Death? Is he here?"

"As in the personification of death? How does that even exist? And here I was starting to think I was adjusting to this place..." Aqua muttered, watching the creature before them warily.

Juste ignored Aqua's muttering and kept his attention focused on Death, but he realized quickly that Death was not looking at him. Instead his eyeless sockets were focused on Aqua. What did he find so interesting about her?

"I have not seen one such as you before." the being said, and his voice echoed slightly, even though they were in the open air. Juste spared a glance at Aqua as she and Death looked at each other, and she was staring back at him with a pale face.

"And I suppose you know everything in the world?" she replied, keeping her sarcasm out of her tone. She could tell it was probably best not to antagonize an unknown element like this one. She knew nothing about Death, however, so really it was a legitimate question.

"I know much, magician from another world, and your kind is rare here. What brings you to my domain?"

Well, pointless trying to pretend she came from a different part of this world then. It clearly knew she was an outsider here. "The darkness grows, and it is my duty to destroy it. Are you going to block my path?"

"My master is not the origin of this darkness, traveler." Death's gaze swung to look at Juste. "I sense my master here, but the castle has not answered his call. It is here at the will of an intruder. I am unable to enter where the intruder has hidden himself."
Juste followed Death's gaze as it moved over to the darkness covering the courtyard. "Down there?" He looked back to Death to see that he had vanished suddenly, and he turned to face Aqua.

"He wants us to help him."

"There's no way he's trustworthy." she argued. "Why would someone like that show us where to go?"

"You're right, he's not, but he wants the same thing as us – the intruder gone from the castle. I guarantee you though, he's planning something. His ultimate goal is Dracula's revival, and no matter what we do, we'll be playing into his hands."

"I suppose. Either way, we do need to get to the root so I guess we don't have much choice."

"Sadly true." He looked down at the courtyard, at the darkness covering it. "The intruder is down there, I'm certain, just as I'm certain that locked and barred door we saw above the sanctuary earlier is the way down there."

"If only it were safe to jump into a dark pit. Sadly that's a foolish thing to do. Around we go, I suppose."

"Indeed." Juste looked around and spotted a hatch at the other end of the courtyard wall, with the lever for opening it right beside it. "There is the hatch we saw earlier, and it looks as though we can open it from this side. We should do so, so at least we'll be able to shortcut around this are in the future if need be."

She followed his gaze to the lever. "Yeah, that's fine. Want me to run and grab it quick?"

"If you like. Once it's open, we can either return to the sanctuary for another quick rest, or we can go back the way we came and try to find the key to that door."

She jogged over to the lever and activated it, then rejoined Juste. "I don't think it makes much difference. We didn't do all that much since we last left it, so we might as well just move on."

"Agreed. Let us return to the chapel then. We can go from there. Just remember to stay behind me and let me handle the dancers. They'll have reappeared since we left the area."

"I know how that works at least. No matter how many Heartless you destroy, even with the keyblade, there always seems to be more that pop up in the areas you just left." Aqua sighed as they doubled back and she once again followed his orders fluidly as he got rid of the dancers. Once a pair got so close to her she actually felt the cold before Juste's whip forced them to evaporate. "They really are cold. I must have been really close to that one to have felt it without getting burned," she commented, flexing her chilled hand.

"Yes, they are nasty, but no one really knows if they are here of their own free will and if they're really evil or not." They walked out of the corridor onto the top of the staircase that they had ascended just a few minutes earlier, and they were able to walk right up behind the top most Corner Guard and destroy it from behind before it even knew they were there. As soon as that was done, however, Heartless popped from the air to further prolong their passage. Five Soldiers, two Lance Warriors, and a Creeper Plant behind him all stood in their way.

Aqua rolled her eyes and the travellers quickly brought the group of enemies to heel. Aqua took particular pleasure in using her barrier to bounce the seeds from the plant back into the Heartless' face.

Once that was done, Juste waved his hand to encompass what they could see before them."Where to, milady? This place is a maze, so no matter where we go, we're bound to run into dead ends, hidden areas, and various other things. We'll probably find bell towers, naves with pews and Holy Tables, maybe even a confessional, though they have no place in the religion that Dracula once followed. One of Dracula's Elite is bound to be in here too, lurking, and no doubt close by we'll find a sanctuary."

"Just start wandering, I guess. We'll get there at some point," she replied, looking out at the messy state of the area with a look of resignation on her face.

There was a good reason he hated the chapel area, Juste thought as he knocked yet another Imp away. They had been wandering for quite some time, and there was no end in sight yet. The Imps had already gotten them once for each of them, (and it had been very hilarious to see Aqua running around in circles as the Imp directed her with little puffs of smoke rising from its spear.) and those damned fallen angels with the bows made him want to scream. They had found their path to the upper areas of the castle blocked by a large chasm that they couldn't cross, so they had been forced to backtrack. Currently they were in the lower levels of the chapel, and he was surprised to see no sign of any crypts, though he supposed they could be in a different area of the castle.

He was greatly relieved to see the glowing blue doors of a sanctuary. "Let's rest, Miss Aqua. My magic is low, as is yours, and we've been wandering for hours. We need to be rested to deal with the Elite that is no doubt close by."

"I'm totally up for that," she agreed irritably, as frustrated with the place as he was. They entered the sanctuary to find another beautiful indoor garden and softly glowing statue.

Juste touched the statue, and then he fished in his pockets for something to eat. He pulled out two meals, already cooked, sealed in wrapping, and shrunk down to small size under preservation spells. He unshrunk them, removed the spells, and handed one to Aqua. He then opened his own pack to find venison steak and potatoes. He sat down on the grass, leaned against the now dim statue, and began to eat.

Aqua followed suit and found a similar meal in the pack Juste handed to her. "Not bad. That's certainly a spell we don't have. It keeps the food from going bad? How long does it last?" she questioned as they ate.

"I've never fully tested its limits." he replied, "but I know that it lasts for several days at least. It's another one of my inventions. My wife did the cooking, and I did the spellwork."

"Wow, nice work. I never really thought about trying to make a spell for that because I usually finish my missions quick enough that I don't need much food to begin with, and what I bring with me is mostly nonperishable or long lasting sorts of things. Canned food, apples, and crackers, for example," she said, pulling out a couple apples from her supply pocket and tossing one to Juste.

He caught it easily. "Thank you." he said with a smile. He set his food down on the grass for a moment, reached into a pocket, and pulled out a glass bottle, which he then unshrunk and tossed to Aqua. "Bottled water. It was created with magic, so it will tingle a little going down, but drinking the water around here can be dangerous. I save it for the castle and drink ale and wine on the road." He then picked up his food and took a bite out of the apple.

"Thanks. No reason to waste my magic if you've already got something stored," she responded as she obtained the bottle, referring back to her ice water in the woods. "So, any new ideas about what we'll find now that we know Death is around?"

Juste pulled another bottle out, removed the shrinking spell, popped the cork, and took a drink. "Nothing different really." he said as he wiped at his mouth. "Death can order the monsters in the castle about to some degree, but it is Dracula they ultimately work for. However, the intruder seems to have usurped control of the castle, so there is little that Death can do but try and find a way to revive his master – or wait for us to do it for him somehow."

"Hm...I've been trying to think of anyone from my worlds that could be the cause of things here, but I haven't been having much luck. The main threat is definitely gone for good, and most of the others who've caused trouble in the past are either locked up where they can't escape or have no more desire to use the darkness anymore."

Juste crumpled up the empty paper his meal had been wrapped in, shrunk it, and stuffed in into a pocket. He then leaned back against the statue, and finished off the apple, core and all. He then took a drink from his water.

"Dracula is a master manipulator," he said, "and he was very charismatic as a human from Leon's accounts, so he has no problem finding those to do his bidding. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this, even the intruder, is his doing somehow, and Death was just left out of the loop for the moment."

"Well clearly something is off, given the presence of Heartless in this world. As far as I can tell, you've never had Heartless here before due to the distinct lack of hearts that they go for. That would imply that someone from my world is here, drawing them in. Maybe Dracula is involved here somehow too, but I can't help thinking that the 'intruder', as you say, has to be connected to my worlds in some way."

"It's entirely possible too that we're both right. Someone from your worlds came here, and something within them was dark enough to attract Dracula's attention. He hones in on those that are angry, hurting, and vengeful, because they are easy to manipulate. He manipulated Leon Belmont like a puppet on a string, and Leon never knew he was being directed until Mathias wanted him to."

"In that case, it certainly could be as you say. Those are the type of people that draw Heartless as well, so I can imagine that is what's going on. If I knew who we may be dealing with, I'd be able to formulate some kind of approach, but we're pretty much flying blind here." Aqua stared up at the glass windows as possibilities flitted through her mind. She didn't have any information on who could be awaiting them, though, so there was little she could do to plan. "Well, we'll find out soon enough, I imagine."

"Oh, we will." Juste stowed the empty bottle in his pocket. "Of that I have no doubt. Dracula was genius tactician in life, and sometimes we see hints of that. This is one of those times, I have a feeling. I don't know how I know, but it seems right."

"You have quite a long family history, don't you?" she asked half-rhetorically as she stored away her own trash. "I barely even remember my own parents. I moved away to board with my master when I was young, so I was never very close to them, and I definitely never knew any of my other relatives, let alone my family tree. Master Eraqus was the only parent I really needed, and Terra and Ven have always been like my brothers. That's the only family I know," she revealed with a small smile.

Juste smiled back at her. "The Belmonts have been hunting vampires for nearly 700 years. Before Leon, who was the first hunter, we know almost nothing of our history. We know that Leon was raised in nobility, that his parents died when he was very young, and that he was fostered by Mathias' family. Until Mathias betrayed Leon after his defeat of Walter Bernhard, they were brothers in all but blood.

"We have to keep careful track of everything since for a very good reason. The Vampire Killer has power of its own, but it forges a connection with its wielder, and that connection allows power to flow back and forth between the Belmont and the whip easily. That causes the whip's power, and even its appearance, to change depending on who's using it. The ritual that created it blood-bound it to Leon and his descendants, so only a Belmont of the main line can use it at full power. Go too far from the main line, and the connection between whip and wielder will not form fully, which has disastrous consequences."

"Your weapon is very different, I'll say that much. I've come across a lot of unique weapons in my life, but I don't believe I've met anyone that fights with a whip."

Juste rolled his eyes. "That's because Leon was an idiot. The man was a skilled swordsman and a brave leader, but he could be stupid. Sara Trantoul, his betrothed, was kidnapped by Walter, but the church refused to grant him permission to go search for her, since he was needed in the Crusades that were going on in the east. To get them to leave him be, he renounced his knighthood and his title of Baron, and decided that since his sword belonged to his company, he couldn't take it with him. He left his weapon, a weapon he was very skilled with, behind and ran to Walter's castle unarmed. There he met an old man that lived on the grounds with Walter's permission, and the old man, Rinaldo Gandolfi, gave him a magical whip that had been created using alchemy.

"Later when Leon found Sara, she had already been bitten by Walter and was turning into a vampire. The only way to stop it was to kill Walter so his power would stop causing the transformation, but the whip could not hurt him due to the Ebony Stone. Sara, knowing that she was doomed, and hoping to spare others her fate, sacrificed herself to create the Vampire Killer, which allowed Leon to defeat Walter."

"Wait, hold on. Not only did he go to the castle of a vampire unarmed, but his love sacrificed herself to become a magic weapon?" Aqua pressed a hand to her temple, not entirely sure how she felt about this. "Why? How can stupidity even account for such a horrendous decision. And why do you still use a weapon that was created in such circumstances? Surely there are other options that could be found that aren't the result of a blood sacrifice."

"Leon wised up after that, quit being so naïve and trusting," Juste sighed. "But in some ways he reacted to the loss of his love much the same way that Mathias did. He didn't blame God or anything – he reserved his anger for Mathias, whom he would never see again, but he was very angry after that, and he took that anger out on every vampire he met." He looked at Aqua, who was fuming at Leon's actions. She was not going to like how the whip was truly created; he could already see that.

"It wasn't a blood sacrifice, Miss Aqua."

"And how is it not? It cost her her life to give Leon the power to destroy the one who hurt them. That sounds like a blood sacrifice to me." She ran a hand through her hair in an action of agitation, and she shook her head as if to deny the facts. "Unbelievable. Keyblades are a manifestation of one's heart. The ability to wield them can be passed on or discovered spontaneously, but the blade itself is always a match to one's heart. It doesn't require anyone to die to make a Keyblade work, which the exception of the X-blade, but that's an aberration and it doesn't count," she muttered huffily.

Juste glared at her, but she didn't see it. "It was not a blood sacrifice because she did not sacrifice any. She sacrificed her very soul." He held the whip out so she could see it. "Sara's tainted soul resides in this whip, and it is her anger, her desire for vengeance, that powers it. A tainted soul cannot pass on to the afterlife, Miss Aqua. Sara would have been forever trapped in limbo upon her death, -if- she died at all. A vampire is much harder to kill, and once she turned, Walter could have controlled her at will. She knew that, so instead of choosing either one of those, she chose the only option available to her; helping Leon to ensure that Walter could never do such a thing to another innocent.

"As to why we still use it? It is simple. This whip is the most effective weapon against vampires and other creatures of the night. This whip -destroyed- the Ebony Stone, something that no other weapon had succeeded in doing before. Yes, other weapons can be used against vampires, werewolves, and other monsters, but they will be nowhere near as effective as the Vampire Killer. That warg that I killed back in the entrance? The one that was destroyed in one hit and burned in a purifying fire? A regular weapon would have had to destroy the heart, or cut the head off, to destroy the beast. And finally, even though she committed a willing sacrifice, Sara's soul is -still- tainted. Even if I were to destroy the whip right now and set her free, she would have nowhere to go."

Aqua just stared at him for a while after that revelation, struck utterly speechless. "She's -still there-? She didn't just power the weapon, but she IS the weapon, and has been for seven centuries by now? That, that's just...Ugh!" She temporarily lost the capability to form coherent sentences in her anger, and just released an explosive sound to reflect her rage at this blatant example of cruelty. How horrible must that be, to be trapped forever in a weapon created to kill dark creatures, and even if you were to be released from that, you would still never be able to find rest, all because of something you had absolutely no control over?

She jumped up and started pacing to try to dispel some of the negative energy filling her mind. "This world is insane! You people with souls are so impossibly complicated! The one thing to look forward to about death is the promise of rest and release from the pain and suffering that is part of living. And that can get taken away from you even though you had no choice in the matter? A vampire bites you so you're damned to never find rest when that is absolutely no fault of yours? I can't believe this! I have never been so grateful to be made the way I am, because at least when I die, no matter how it happens, I'll be free! How can having a soul like you do in this world be worth it if this is something that can happen?"

Her speed had picked up as she ranted furiously, until she took one step too close to Juste and suddenly found herself blasted back for no apparent reason. She crashed against the stone statue, which thankfully was too solid to be damaged by her impact. She cracked her head against the angel and felt bruises forming all along her back. Aqua rolled off to the side as she regained the ability to think. "Ow...what the hell just happened?"

Juste ignored her at first, as the agitated soul of the whip crackled in his hand. "Easy, Sara," he soothed. "Miss Aqua's just upset at what happened to you. She didn't mean any threat." The whip settled down, Sara's rage subsided, and Juste stood up to walk over to Aqua, hanging the whip from his belt as he went.

He uncapped a potion vial and handed it to her, and once she had drank it, he helped her to her feet. "That, Miss Aqua, was Sara being less than happy with your behavior, specifically you acting very angry and enraged while too close to me. Sara is protective of us, the descendants of the man she loved, and she lashes out like that when needed to keep threats away from us. If I had been standing and ready for an attack, she would not have responded, but since my guard was down, she reached out to shield me from any potential threat you might have posed."

The potion helped, soothing her pain and healing up any damage her body sustained. "I take it she's not completely aware of what's happening then, or else she'd know I had no intention of hurting you," she commented, carefully feeling the back of her head to make sure everything healed fully. The spot where she'd hit the rock was a bit sore, but otherwise seemed fine. Well, at least the shock of being blown into the angel statue caused her anger to subside considerably.

"Not completely no. She runs off the emotions of those near her more than anything, that and the light of their own soul. You soul is small and dim, so you likely had her wary from the start, but then you became angry and approached me..." He shrugged and looked at her seriously.

"Miss Aqua," he said in a gentle tone. "God does not hate Sara, nor would He bar her from His side, but vampires, demons, and other such creatures are the work of Satan, and nothing of Satan's can enter God's Heaven. Her willing sacrifice normally would have guaranteed her a place, but the taint of her soul prevents her from entering. It was Walter, not God, that prevented her from finding peace.

"It is possible to purify one's soul before death, and many choose to do so, but Sara never had that choice. The only way to cleanse the taint from her would have been to defeat Walter before she turned, but without her soul to power the whip, Walter could not be defeated. Leon did try, but it was futile, so Sara made the best choice she could, and accepting it broke Leon so thoroughly that he was never the same again. He married eventually, and he fathered children, but he never loved anyone like he loved Sara, and he died a heartbroken shell of the man he once was."

Aqua couldn't quite prevent an incredulous snort from escaping. Normally she was not dismissive of religion, rather she found it fascinating, but in this situation where it seemed clear that his religion truly did play a role in how this world operated, she couldn't help herself. I'm sorry, she thought, but if your heaven doesn't accept a soul that was tainted against her will, there's a fundamental problem, and that is something your God should have the power and mercy to rectify, or else the very tenets you place your faith upon are faulty.

"This entire story plays out as a series of unfortunate events, doesn't it?" she commented, folding her arms as a sad expression crossed her face. "Regardless how I may feel about any of this, it just seems like very little has gone right in this history."

"Sadly, you are correct, and I hope that someday, we'll be able to free Sara, cleanse her soul, and send her on to join Leon, but who knows when that will happen. As selfish as it sounds, as long as Dracula lives, Sara's soul is needed to power the strongest weapon against him. Perhaps one day we can destroy the Crimson Stone and stop his resurrections from occurring, but for now we do not know how."

He pulled out his pocket watch to checked the time, put it away, and then looked at Aqua. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah. We should get moving," she agreed. She'd already picked up everything she was responsible for and her health was stable, so it was certainly time to move on so they could finish this.

Juste did a quick check of his pockets, and then he led the way out of the sanctuary. They turned left once out in the corridor, and he was grateful that corridors with Sanctuaries were normally empty of Dracula's servants. They walked down the hallway, and as they neared the door at the end, a flare of rage from the whip gave him pause.

"There is an Elite on the other side of this door." he said as Aqua came to a stop beside him. "A powerful one, if Sara's reaction is anything to go by."

"Okay, so is this similar to the giant skeleton from before? Was that an elite?"

"That was an Elite, yes, but this one is much, much more powerful. Sara did not warn me about the giant skeleton, but she is warning me about this, and I can feel something on the other side, something, large, evil, and dangerous. Can you feel it as well?"

She concentrated briefly. "I sense darkness but it's...strange somehow. I don't really know how to describe it. Scattered, maybe? Like there's a definite center to the darkness but it's sort of diluted as it gets farther out, sort of in a spherical manner. It's just odd. Heartless signatures are easy for me to see, simple to understand, but this is something else."

Juste looked at her sharply. "Spherical, you said?"

"Yes," she confirmed, giving him a confused look in return. "That's what it feels like. You know what's in there? Something you've fought before?" she guessed.

He closed his eyes. "Legion." he growled. He opened his eyes and looked at her. "You are correct; I've fought Legion twice before, and it is very dangerous. Legion is the one who is many, and it consists of a core, with many tentacles that can shoot beams of burning light at you. It surrounds itself with a shell of bodies, some living, some dead, and you must destroy that shell before you can attack the core. Until the shell starts breaking away, it is mostly harmless. Touching either it or the bodies will hurt you, but it doesn't attack other than dropping corpses, either directly on your head or nearby. Dropped corpses will try to run and hit you. Once the shell starts coming apart, any exposed tentacle will attack. If the entire shell is destroyed, it gets very nasty, with all tentacles attacking at once."

"Guess I'll be abusing Aero to keep those corpses off me then," she muttered as he described the enemy in the next room. "I don't suppose there's any way to just go around it and not fight it?" she asked, knowing the answer would be no.

"Not this time. Our other path is closed off, remember? That's why we came this way to begin with."

She sighed. "Thought I'd ask anyway. Any particular weaknesses or specific ways to attack that are more effective than others?"

"No real weak spots. Anything and everything works against Legion, though as I said in the sanctuary, the Vampire Killer, and your weapon as well, will probably do more damage than most."

"All right then. Something tells me this is going to be quite the pain, but it's not just going to go away. The darkness seems to be mostly in the floor right now, so watch for that."

"Agreed, Legion likes to rise from the floor when threatened. It'll then hover about head level above it." He took a deep breath. "Shall we?"

"No time like the present, I suppose. Let's get on with it." She summoned her blade in preparation and they pushed open the door.

Juste took a deep breath and called his magic to the surface and rested his hand on the Vampire Killer as they walked in. His first step on the other side of the door make a loud crunch! and he looked down to see the floor littered with human bones. He then looked up and scanned the large brick walled room with its grotesque stained glass window of demons feasting on the innocent, and saw that the entire floor was covered in bones. He grimaced at the thought of all those that had to have died to create the covering on the floor, but thought was stricken from his mind when the room began to shake.

Aqua also glanced down at the sound of the bone cracking and frowned. That was going to make footing rough. She'd have to keep it in mind as she moved lest she stumble on them.

"Remember," Juste said to Aqua over the loud growling that filled the room, "do not destroy the shell. We only have to expose the core." He took a step backwards as a fountain of bones erupted from the center of the floor.

She nodded in response to Juste's reminder and watched in morbid fascination as a giant mass of bodies rose from the ground to hover in the air above the bone-covered floor.

Juste flung out twin daggers in front of him as a line of corpses dropped to the floor and began to shamble towards him, and he forced himself to not look into their eyes. These poor souls were past all point of saving; the only thing to do for them was to end their misery so their souls could move on.

With the pathway clear, he stepped closer to Legion and lashed out with the Vampire Killer, attacking the lowermost part of the shell, and tried to ignore the screaming that came from it. He knew he could use some magic to make it go faster, but he had to be careful on which spells. Destroying the entire shell would be disastrous.

Aqua followed not far behind as Juste cleared the way, and her brow furrowed as he whipped the shell and some bodies screamed. 'These are alive? Ugh...' She repressed a shudder and leapt toward the monster. While it was important to attack near the area Juste did to avoid breaking more of the shell than necessary, she also needed to be far enough to keep out of his weapon's way. She chose a spot and slashed, her blade slicing through whatever magic held the creature together and a couple of the bodies fell to the bones below.

Juste sent two more daggers flying to clear more dropping bodies, but a warning growl from Legion made him jump back several steps.

"Aqua, get back!"

She jumped back, Legion made a sound that was somewhere between a snarl and a growl, and then dozens of screaming bodies began to tumble to the floor and shamble towards them.

She stared at them for a moment before rolling her eyes briefly and casting Aero on herself. 'What an annoyance.' She then dashed at the enemies, Aero protecting her from their touch, quickly ripping her Keyblade through them. After a short time, with Juste's whip assisting, they tore through the ranks and the path towards Legion was once again cleared.

Aqua returned to the base of the monster, casting Fire Spin as she rammed her blade up. The fire added extra damage, judging by the screech she heard shortly afterward, and jumped back in case of retribution. A good instinct, as it happened, as a tentacle shot out through the hole she'd made in the shell. Had she not moved, it would've struck her dead on.

Juste saw the first section of the shell, the piece directly underneath the core, collapse, and he cheered inwardly. They only needed to get the other sections around it, and then their attack of the core would be relatively easy.

He ran forward again and attacked the next section, a large area on the side of the shell, above the area that Aqua destroyed. The single tentacle that had appeared shot a beam of light uselessly at the floor, and he called forth his magic and cast Magic Missile. Small bursts of ice erupted from his hands and honed in on the shell in front of him. The part of the shell crumbled, and he jumped to the left to avoid the beam that came shooting out of the now exposed tentacle. A second later though, Legion growled again, and he jumped back as the floor was covered in screaming corpses once again.

Aqua gave the new corpses a flat look. She had been holding back on her magic because she hadn't wanted to accidentally do more damage than expected, but it was starting to grate on her. Magic was her specialty, not melee like Terra. And now there was a new wave of corpses, and she had no intention of running through them again. She cast Firaga with the intent on it plowing through the line of bodies, as her magic was strong enough that it wouldn't stop after hitting something as feeble as a walking corpse or two.

Juste eyed her fire spell, and then he looked at the new corpses that were constantly dropping from Legion's shell. Yes, the rest of the shell would survive something a little stronger. He called for Aqua to back away, and once she had done so, he cast Heal Spiral, and the spiraling flame that appeared whirled around in widening arcs, damaging the shell without destroying it, but most importantly, it destroyed the falling corpses before they could hit the floor.

He stepped forward to continue his melee attacks, and he noticed his spell just as it crossed paths with Aqua's medium sized fireball. The two touched, there was a loud hissing, and then Juste found himself thrown backwards as a bright light filled his vision. A loud explosion rocked the room as he slammed into the wall and slumped down to the floor in a daze.

Aqua watched the corpses burn, and just as she jumped forward to recommence her attack on Legion's mass, she was blasted back in a blaze of light and sound. She too crashed into a wall, her body rolling like a ragdoll across the bones following the impact. Her ears ringing and senses dulled, she forced herself up and immediately looked around for Juste. Upon seeing him dazed but alive, she turned her sluggish attention to the flesh-covered monster. Only...that wasn't quite the case anymore. That explosion, whatever it was, had clearly done a ton of damage to the creature, but had also destroyed its entire shell, and now Legion was a smaller ball of rage and furiously flailing tentacles.

"Damn," she muttered, barely able to hear herself as the ringing refused to fade. "This won't be good."

Juste heard the sound of beams being fired over the ringing in his ears, and he raised unfocused eyes to see what he had so wanted to avoid.

The shell was completely gone, and Legion's core and every single one of its tentacles was free of its confines. He blearily reached into a pocket and grabbed a healing potion, and he quickly drank it down. Almost immediately, he felt his headache fade, his vision cleared, and the ringing in his ears stopped, and he dragged himself to his feet and looked around for Aqua. He spotted her standing on the opposite side of the room, looking at Legion in horrified fascination. He shook his head to clear the last of the cobwebs from it and called out to her:

"Look out for the beams! They will seriously hurt you!"

No sooner had he said that than the single tentacle seemed to aim at him, and he dodged to the side as the fleshy cover at the end opened, and beam fired right where he had been standing.

Aqua cast a Cura just in time to hear Juste's warning. She was unsure if her magic shield would block them, but she really hoped it would. Timing was everything with magic, and if she got hit in the process of casting a longer spell, her magic shield might be the only defense she'd have at the time.

This was hardly the time to hold back; it was important to just deal as much damage as quickly as possible now to take Legion down before it killed them instead. She dodged one of the lasers ('Lasers? Seriously?') and paused, throwing her shield up in the event that it worked and began to summon a meteor again as she had outside the castle. Just as her shield dropped and she cast the magic, a tentacle spraying something undoubtedly horrible glanced off her, catching her arm in its path. Aqua screamed in pain and she jumped back further to give her enough space to see what happened and fix it. She quickly turned her tearing eyes to her arm. Whatever the stuff was had eaten straight through her left sleeve and looked like it was dissolving her skin as well. 'Acid?!' she cursed mentally, and immediately cast an ice spell on her arm to slow and hopefully neutralize the acid so she could have time to heal the damage.

Juste saw her magic attack strike the core, and he cast Hydro Storm again, since there was no worry about destroying the shell anymore. No sooner had his spell ended however when he heard Aqua scream. The sound made him whip around to see her jump back away from Legion as a single tentacle sprayed out a foul smelling fluid all over the floor where she had been standing.

Aqua leapt aside from another beam and pulled out a Potion, dumping the contents over the burns as her ice melted. Thankfully that appeared to stop the acidic properties. She could hardly think through the pain from the gouges in her arm, her nerves screeching at her, but she forced the sense away as she dodged a new beam. Finally, she was able to cast Curaga, and Aqua nearly wept as the magic soothed her burns and knitted new flesh together.

"Miss Aqua!" Juste ran over towards her. "Are you all right? What happened?" His eyes widened when he saw the damage to her arm, the missing sleeve and the severe burn; Legion had never done that before! She dodged another beam from a second tentacle and cast her healing spell, and his eyes widened a second time when he saw her arm heal itself as though she had never been injured.

She then looked up at something behind him, and he turned around to see every other tentacle opening, something that he had never seen before, and those began to spray that foul liquid about the room as the core rotated in place.

"God save us." he whispered, and then he began sidestepping to the right as the nearest spray closed in on him. He didn't have time to see if Aqua was avoiding it as well, he had to worry about getting out of the way without getting splattered. Legion paused, and then it resumed rotating, though it was in the opposite direction this time, and Juste skipped across the uneven floor, trying to remain within a small area of safety between the tentacles, but he stumbled on some long dead soul's skull, and a small amount of the liquid splashed onto his leg.

He howled as it ate through his trouser leg before his very eyes, and he hastily summoned a water spell to wash it away before it did to him what it did to Aqua. Still, once the burning had stopped and the water spell had ended, he clearly saw the reddened skin and the large blisters that the acid had left behind. He kept stumbling to his left as Legion kept moving, and he fished a healing potion out of his pocket and poured it directly on the burn. He tossed the vial aside and pulled out a second one, which he then drank. The blisters shrank, and the redness vanished, and Legion finally came to a stop.

Once it became clear that Legion was going to continue spewing the acidic liquid all over for an indeterminable amount of time, Aqua jumped into the air and Glided, keeping her shoes off of the bones as they hissed and melted. She occasionally dropped the Glide briefly to avoid a tentacle before resuming the Glide. As she slowly circled the room in the air, she dropped again to avoid another stream, only for it to shift direction-right into her path. Completely by instinct derived from years of fighting, she threw her shield up...and it worked. The spray splattered against the shield but didn't go through. Marvelling at the gloriously welcome but unexpected fortune, she returned to the ground as the acid dissipated and Legion ceased its rotating.

"Update, magic shields can repel the acid!" she called to Juste. But she fully agreed with his own statement: it was time for Legion to die. Again, as it were.

"We have to end this," he said, "now." What if that spray had hit one of them in the chest? Or the face? They had to destroy this thing, quickly.

Aqua fully agreed with his statement: it was time for Legion to die. Again, as it were.

Calling up his fire magic, Juste summoned a phoenix, a bird of light and fire that no abomination would be able to handle, and it rained fire down on the room. Legion screeched in pain, and Juste dodged a beam and backed away.

"All right, we should attack it at the same time, it might overwhelm it and do more damage that way," she suggested, cartwheeling away from another beam and towards Juste, fortunately not slipping on the bones. Receiving an affirmative nod from him, she readied her blade and cast Triple Blizzaga.

Realizing that this was not the time to worry about conserving his magic, Juste cast the most powerful spell he could. A hail of meteors began to rain down, and Juste felt his heart stop when once again he saw his magic combine with Aqua's. Hopefully this wouldn't kill them as well as the Elite... The magic met, combined, there was a flash, and when it cleared Juste saw large meteors of ice raining down on the core. Legion growled, and the tentacles opened once again, but then a single meteor landed directly on top. The large stone shattered into pieces, and for a moment, Juste feared that it had done no good, but then, he saw the tentacles on Legion's top slow and still as a blue-white crust began creeping up them.

More icy stones rained down as Juste poured more power into the spell to keep it going. He saw Aqua doing the same, and more of them crashed down on Legion. The crust spread with a loud crackling sound across the surface of the core and down the tentacles, and Juste grinned, despite the fact that he was beginning to shake from magical exhaustion as the creature went still and began to sink down towards the floor.

Finally, one final, large ice meteor slammed into the frozen monster and it shattered into thousands of pieces. Aqua immediately slid in front of Juste and cast her barrier around them to shield them from the sharp slivers. The air filled with frost dust, and as it settled, Aqua couldn't help releasing a victorious cheer as she saw the creature was no more, but rather scattered across the room in tiny chunks. A bit morbid, but still satisfying after the trouble it caused them.

She noted Juste's exhaustion and immediately reached for his arm to support him. From their previous conversations and her own experience with it, she knew it was magic exhaustion. "Would you like one of my ethers if we don't find a sanctuary nearby? I have plenty."

He thought about refusing; there was a sanctuary not too far away after all, but his stomach clenched angrily as his head swam, so he swallowed the urge to be sick and nodded. He took the uncapped vial that she offered him and drank it down, and he had to swallow several times to prevent it from coming right back up. Still, after a minute, he felt his dizziness fade a little, and he didn't think he was going to faint, but his magic levels were still very low.

"Let's return to the sanctuary we were at earlier." he said as he wiped sweat from his forehead and shivered at his own hand touching his skin. "I need to rest for a while to let my magic recover."

She nodded and supported him across the icy bones on the ground, ignoring any possible protests he might make. He was not well, and she was not about to risk him slipping on the ice in this state; she didn't want to have to heal a cracked skull. She retraced their path to the sanctuary. Thankfully it wasn't far. She opened the door and the soothing air of the refuge greeted them. The angel statue had regained its properties in the time since they were there, and she released Juste when they were near enough to touch it as she knew it would help him recover more quickly. She also touched it and felt the magic she herself had depleted begin to rapidly replenish. She flopped onto the grass as the magic relaxed her muscles and skin. She closed her eyes unconsciously.

Juste raised a shaking arm and felt his magic levels rise as the statue's glow faded and vanished. His shaking decreased, but he was still very tired and in no shape to do any fighting. He shrugged his coat off, tossed it to the grass at the statue's feet, tugged off his breastplate, and sat it on the ground next to his coat. He then laid down on his coat, rested his head on his arms, and closed his eyes.

"I'll be fine after I sleep for a few hours." he mumbled sleepily. "Wake me, will you?" He fell asleep before she could answer.

"Sure," she responded, not noticing he was already long gone. She fully intended to as well, but then a wave of weariness swept over her. Her body had gone through a massive regeneration due to healing the acid burn earlier, after all, and now that she was out of danger (indeed, far from it here), it demanded she pay the price. She too fell into a deep sleep to recuperate.

Chapter 4 -- Chapter 6
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