Lies in Deceptive Shadows

[Amara<3]

Sora felt the energy and her eyes widened. Both her and Kaminari followed suit and dove away from the pentacles. The sun's rays slowly seeped out of the forested area and from the right, a fire blast the size of a beach ball flew at Barbatos and another at the Behemoth. Sora used her wind powers to blow the fire at Barbatos faster than it was already going, which was rather quick.

Kaminari threw lightning around the fire and it became electrically charged and seemed to grow in size from the energy Kaminari put into it. Sora watched for more of the pentacles, and was watching under not only herself, but Kaminari as well. She seemed preoccupied with making sure the attack hit, rather than her own protection.

[skyacezero]

"How many times have I seen that trick?" Barbatos said and slammed the bottom of his staff on the ground. Two more pentacles appeared in front of him and a black orb floated out of each of them and drew in both elements from the charged fireballs. "Whatever elemnt you throw at me, I can absorb...." the orbs started rotating. "And throw it back more powerful than before!" he waved his staff forward and the the orbs shot and combined the fire and lighting into a beam that was strafing the forest.

[Amara<3]

"Can all of you do that?" Sora asked innocently, though it was a less than innocent question.

"And I've seen that countless times before," Kaminari said and smiled. She took the lightning energy and grabbed it as though it was just a beach ball and threw more energy into it, then shot it back. "How much can you handle?" The fire hadn't been stopped, but the forest was almost all green and very little fire damage had been caused. The fire disappeared somewhere.

"We've played this game before," Akui said from behind them.

The last six, plus Kaori were standing in a group around her as if they were making a protection circle. "You know, if you hadn't messed with Keera, this entire fight could have been prevented. It was just a matter of bad choosing and in a bad era." Owari said and shook her head.

"Spread out," Michi whispered and the rest of the girls fanned out, though Michi, the Keera look-a-like stayed beside Kaori. "We'll get her back," she whispered to Kaori. "One way or another."

[skyacezero]

"Is that right?" Barbatos said. "Then in that case...." The orb once again absorbed the lighting. "I'll just have to finish this a quickly as possible," Barbatos finished. The orb this time shot the lighting at the behemoth, only the lightning seemed to be drawn to it's horns. The lightning started to turn red. The behemoth lowered it head and the lightning fanned out at5 everyone in the group.

[Amara<3]

Kaminari stepped up closer, determined to gain back as much of the lightning as she could. In her mind she could absorb a ridiculous amount of it and be unphased, though preferred not to send it back. It didn't seem to be working. She was infront of most of them, and closest to Barbatos, and started attracting it all to her. There was a few parts that evaded her power, and she knew that it was already too much for her to simply absorb without getting rid of it in some way. She absorbed as much as she could, until it hurt, and practically screamed as she let most of it out and shot it into the atmosphere. She kept enough of it energize her again after that, and turned to Barbatos with a slight smile. "Is that it?"

A sharp sound was heard, like someone drawing their sword. Izuki appeared behind Barbatos and swung a double edged sword at his neck with an unstoppable force. She had gone undetected by everyone and managed to get behind Barbatos, and made no battle cry like most people usually would before killing the bad person.

[skyacezero]

"Look out!" Darryl pushed Izuki away just as the Behemoth's foot made contact with the ground where she once stood. "Commendable effort, but you never go into battle unprepared," Barbatos said. "What do you hope to accomplish here? Why is Keera so impirtant?" Darryl demanded.

[Amara<3]

"You mean aside from the fact that she's our Queen?" Michi spoke and stepped up.

"If elements don't work," Kaminari said with pursed lips. "Then we fall back on Michi."

Kaori shook her head. "Get rid of the Behemoth first," she whispered and Sora seemed to hum for a moment. She looked to Kaori in a 'how?' expression and Kaori shrugged. "Do you think I've ever seen something like this before, let alone fight one?"

"First, Keera's died too many times to just simply give in and start destroying entire nations again. She'll keep that Lamia person out of control for centuries if she's got to, to keep away from hurting people. You've got respect someone like that," Owari told Darryl.

"She killed her own mother, for second. I know that seems normal for back then, but she did it for revenge purposes." Izuki said and kept one eye on the Behemoth. "For third, she's one of the strongest people known to Japan back then, and probably a legend here."

"Does it matter?" Akui said and rolled her eyes. "We're trying to help you get rid of these buffoons, why are you complaining?"

[skyacezero]

"Sorry I wasn't talking to you," Darryl said apologetically. "Yet your bluntness just confirmed our suspicions," Barbatos said. "Have you ever heard of the Gate to Oblivion? Behind it lies the power to reshape history and the world itself," Barbatos said. "However, only a Demon of Royalty can open it, and that's the part that Keera will play," Barbatos said.

((Happy Birthday, Keera!))

[Amara<3]

"She won't do it willingly!" Kaori yelled at him and Michi moved out of the way as a blue energy ball shot past her, straight at Barbatos. "She won't be your weapon!" Her eyes were glowing blue, energy the same colour as the ball she'd sent went flying at Barbatos swirled around her and parts of it focused in her hands.

"Kaori is royal too." Akui said as she drifted in and out of the dark in a circle around them. She never disappeared, but she made the illusion of it. "You had Kaori, why didn't you keep her instead?"

"Oh, my bad," Izuki said and bit her lip at Darryl's words. "We're sort of defensive about her. We've always been."

((Thank you! Sorry I was away so long. Boyfriend was over all weekend and we played games on the Wii... and beat Avatar, book two, the earth one... I forget the name but it was pretty good. Had a little trouble working out the third one though lol. I didn't even both with it. =P))

[skyacezero]

((Haha, that's okay. I was away for a while, too.))

The blue energy ball was stopped by a pentacle that appeared in front of Barbatos. "I beg to differ, little Kaori," he said. "Once Lamia replaces Keera's conciousness, she'll be more than willing to," Barbatos said. "As to why we didn't use Kaori....it's because she lacked the calibur of power needed to open it," he finished. "And you won't live to see it!" Barbatos looked in the direction of whoever spoke, only to be tackled a good thirty feet by Necrolon. Barbatos dropped his staff and the pentacles disappeared. "You again..." Barbatos growled. His staff appeared in his hands and a large pentacle cover the ground beneath Kaori's group and the behemoth, sealing them inside it's boundaries. "You and I will settle this now!" Barbatos growled at NEcrolon.

[Amara<3]

"He's right," Kaori whispered. "Keera is so much stronger than me."

"Don't listen to him, Kaori. You are just as strong as she is." Michi said as the pentacles appeared under them. The group moved in together, around Kaori. Some of them got ready for what ever might happen, others looked around a little confused. Kaori's expression never changed from it's angered state.

"Good luck getting Keera to give in to Lamia. Don't you think that Lamia would have taken over by now if it could? It's not strong enough. Keera may be my sister, but she's only half, and only her and I know the other half that she is. You'd be surprised, because she's not from this world, not even this dimension."


Keera had an itching in her stomach, and she couldn't help but leave the office route and go find Kaori and Darryl, and the rest of the group. She needed to see them. Putting her hand in her pocket, not forgetting the charm, she walked herself in the direction of the portal.

[skyacezero]

"Oh, Lamia isn't stong enough, yet," Barbatos said. "But soon, she will be," Barbatos finished and the behemoth charged at the group while Barbatos fought Necrolon.

[Amara<3]

"Out of the way," Kaminari said as the behemoth charged them. Everyone but herself, Akui and Michi moved out of the way of the oncoming beast. "Now," Kaminari whispered and she raised a type of electrical barrier, shooting bits of lightning at the Behemoth. Michi stood her ground as well, using her power to seemingly push out and stretch Kaminari's barrier with her own weird lavender and violet magic. Akui stood just there, not looking like she was doing anything.

If there had been any wind in the forest at all, it had disappeared as if it was sucked backwards toward the city. In it's place a chilled blast shot at the Behemoth stong enough to at least knock it over. Kaori gasped and made to step out of her line of protection, but Owari stopped her. "No Kaori, remember what's happening to her. She may not be gone yet, but the only reason she's here is you. If something happens to you, whatever they're trying to make happen is going to happen a lot faster."

"She's my sister," Kaori said defensively and Izuki shook her head, stepping infront of Kaori so she couldn't run past them. "I need to see her."

"No one, not even you Barbatos, will be able to hurt my sister. You have me, but the gods will not let you have her for any reason. She has their protection." Keera said from behind them. From the angles that everyone was at, Kaminari's group were at the Behemoth's front, Kaori'a group was at it's side, and Keera was walking up behind it.

[skyacezero]

"And...why....would we....hurt.....her?!" Barbatos said struggling to get his staff out of a deadlock with Necrolon. "Just give it up! Whetever your planning this time around, I'll just stop you again!" Necrolon managed to wrench the staff out of Barbatos' hands and snapped it on his leg.

[Amara<3]

"That's the-" she stopped for a moment. Maybe he hadn't caught on to Lamia's idea. Who would, given that Lamia was the only one of them that held the true reason to why Keera was still... Keera. "Go back Barbatos, if you know what's good for you and take this creature with you, or die." Her words were true, and she looked at Kaori with a small smile and nod. Kaori swallowed and nodded back, with the same smile.

Kaori thrust her hands forward, and water sprayed from her hands all over the ground underneath the behemoth and all over it's legs. Keera pushed something imaginary and the water froze solid.

"What do we do now?" Sora asked Keera, and everyone looked to her, but kept up their guard incase Barbatos did some fancy trick; they didn't want to miss it for the world.

"Nothing," Keera said and watched the creature. "Right now. We may not be able to kill it anyway. It is said that no one can kill it, except the who created it, but we aren't just anyone. That was something written by humans." Keera turned her attention back to Barbatos. Half the girls did the same, the other half watched the Behemoth.