Macy Moretti
Princess of Heart, Dumb of Ass
Continued from here.
Chapter Three
"Symphony"
As the group moved to the next location by Guts, a small village that he later said he'd heard rumors of a movement of evil there, in search of a possible great evil, they split up in order to learn more about the ins and outs of the place.
Constantine and a number of others traversed into the tavern in order to gauge the word of the locals within the village (Constantine moreso just needing a drink). From there, the group learns about mass plagues and madness sweeping the village, as well as rumors of the presence of evil in the shape of demons and dark sorcerers terrorizing the village. However, these demonstrations of evil influence did not create the malevolence seen in the village, as it had always been present, as seen when the group later intervenes upon seeing a customer at the tavern harass a barmaid, only to realize that their actions had done more harm than good when the barmaid explains that the man will go on to refocus all his anger on his own daughter, the barmaid's friend, a situation that she had deliberately been trying to avoid.
Guts, Isidro, Puck, and Casca made their way to the brothel in the meantime, along with a handful of others who follows along, reuniting with an old friend from before named Luca, who had since moved to this new village since the last time they had met for a temporary amount of time. Guts requests that Isidro, Puck, and Casca be put under Luca's care while he plans to temporarily move on with the rest of the group, believing this to be a dangerous detour that leads him no closer to his true goal, but a path he must follow regardless. Luca accepts, and in return, the group tends to the girls in the brothel, who are all stricken with the aforementioned mystery plague. Luca also elaborates on the happenings around the village, explaining the situation with the rumors of demons and sorcerers just like at the tavern. All the while, the Hollow Knight interacts with Casca, realizing her infantile mannerisms as "incomplete" of a person, and later on, Libra appears and uses his healing spells to cure the girls of their afflicted plague. Luca laments on how, while she is glad that the girls are healed, this means that they must return to the disheartening work of being an escort of a brothel, an occupation she believes no girl should ever be employed in.
All the while, most of the rest of the group ventures into the inn in order to acquire rooms, where they witness a number of guests hastily leaving the village, as well as the innkeeper himself, who is all but ready to close up shop, believing that it was only a matter of time before this barren village is abandoned. However, through Virginia's coaxing and the claims that the group are "demon hunters" who will save the village from its pestilence, the innkeeper relents and allows them all rooms to rest in. Things take a sharp turn around though as some of them check out their rooms. Virginia initially has trouble entering her own room, prompting Ben and Sebastian to help open the door. Inside, the room is covered in bloody words painted all over, citing nursery rhymes, and a corpse hanging from the ceiling that suddenly reanimates and looks back at them, before Guts, having finished his business at the brothel earlier, appears before them, and it is revealed that they had witnessed a strange shared hallucination.
Paired with that and Kokichi finding a curious necklace with a red "jewel" on it, which Guts recognizes as a Behelit (albeit, a fake) and a symbol of his cursed past, he theorizes that the enemy (Faust and whoever he serves) have been alerted to the group's presence in the village and are likely on their way to attack now, prompting everyone to come together and talk about the best course of action.
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"If you lot are really set on this though, be sure to--" Constantine began to say as the group began to formulate a solid plan to prepare against the possible oncoming onslaught, but before he could say much, everyone's train of thought was interrupted by a shrill scream out of nowhere.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!"
It was none other than the innkeeper, who had mostly been spending all his time nervously looking out the window and focusing more on minding his own business, not listening in on the conversation, but now, here he was, convulsing in agony as his body began vibrating suddenly. His wrists twisted in ways no human limb should ever twist naturally, as though invisible arms forced them to dislocate. The same happened to his neck, before he fell to the ground, his limbs continuing to contort in grotesque ways, before he suddenly shot up to his feet just as abruptly.
Standing before them, eyes suddenly glowing red, it was clear, at least to Constantine, what had just happened.
"Bloody hell, he's been possessed!" He said, drawing his lighter as though it were a gun, even pointing it at the possessed innkeeper dramatically, "Sorry 'bout this, laddie. But it's either me or you!"
FWOOSH!
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Using his own personal magic, Constantine manipulated the fire in the lighter as he opened it up, the heat shooting out in a great burst and burning the man with a force great enough that he was sent flying into the wall, clothes and skin badly burned, but it seemed like he wasn't necessarily dead.
Without stopping to even feel bad about what he'd did to the poor man, let alone check to make sure he was alright, Constantine looked back to the group with a grave expression, eyes narrowed in a serious manner.
"Looks like it's already started. We need to--"
And then it started.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"W-What was that?!"
"Good question," Guts gruffly said, before clenching his fists and walking over to the front door and opening it. And from there, it was quite clear to everyone.
"The welcoming party's already here."
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A literal rain of fire poured down upon the village, hitting the roof almost like burning hail, even if the individual pieces weren't that much at a given time, making them easy enough to avoid.
Still, that was perhaps the last thing on people's minds, as once everyone got a look at what the outside looked like, it was nothing good. Red sky littered the clouds, as if to mirror the bloodied scene before them. Monstrous demons ran amok, slaughtering the innocent, terrorized villagers, either with their razor sharp claws or their crocodile-like teeth. To call it horrific would have been an understatement; it was death and chaos as far as the eye could see.
Blood soaked everywhere, staining the ground, the well, the walls, and so forth, as civilians were slaughtered before everyone's eyes, despite their best efforts to run for their lives. And at the center of it all, there was no doubt that the demons were here for them.
"Waah! Is this a fireworks show?! Mii-kun, Kurumi-chan, Rii-san, we have to get a better look at them!" Yuki exclaimed, gesturing for her friends to follow, jumping into the fray and running deeper into the village, continuing as though everything was still fine obliviously.
"Yuki-senpai, wait!" Miki yelled out, running after her, forced to catch up to her once again, but now with far greater stakes compared to the last time.
Simultaneously, among the chaotic scene, screams could be distinctly heard from the brothel. Eye widening in alarm, Guts wordlessly took off toward the small building, running at a brisk pace, especially for someone with at least four hundred pounds worth of metal weighing him down.
Thus, the group had two places to choose from as to where to go:
Head deeper into the village, whether in hopes of taking on the demons and monsters head on and / or following Yuki and Miki to save them from harm.
Head to the brothel, where screams could be heard, just almost drowned out by what sounded like laughter as well. Guts was certainly eager to go there, at least.
Cast List
@Minerva as Astolfo (Type-Moon)
@Crow as Ben Tennyson (Ben 10)
@Raptor Jesus as Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaelis (Black Butler)
@Jeremi as Fall-From-Grace and Mortimer Rictusgrin (Planescape)
@Sen as Genya Arikado (Castlevania)
@CrunchyCHEEZIT as Hollow Knight (Hollow Knight)
@dark as Jak (Jak & Daxter)
@Gummi Bunnies as Kaine and Emil (NieR)
@Alex Azure as Kokichi Oma (Danganronpa)
@Krieg as Kurumi Ebisuzawa (School-Live!)
@Yun Lee as Libra and Sumia (Fire Emblem)
@Takumi as Lindel (The Ancient Magus Bride)
@York as Lucatiel of Mirrah (Dark Souls II)
@Lucky as Mike Munroe and Joshua Washington (Until Dawn)
@Kaykay as Sera Mizuki (Soushuu Senshinkan Gakuen)
@Otto as Siegward of Catarina (Dark Souls III)
@Tutski19 as Soraka (League of Legends)
@Khan of the Mardu as Virginia Maxwell (Wild Arms)
@Josh as Yuuri Wakasa (School-Live!)
@Archmage Jeremiah as Zoe (League of Legends)

"Oh, wow. That's a bit more than I expected. A little extra, don't you think?"

"Hey, Libra, I think it would be wise to let you go ahead of me. I'm sure your Naga or whatever can keep you safe from all these demons."
Fire. Chaos. Destruction. Slaughter.
These were all warnings given by a select few who travelled from a dark future to save the past before Grima could destroy them. They had succeeded, the world was at peace, never to know of the horrors of a nightmarish future.
Until now.
Libra and Sumia watched as innocent people, who they'd hoped to protect, were massacred before their eyes. This was far worse than anything they could have hoped. Having fought in the Ylissian army, both were used to slaughter and injustice...but never to this degree. And now, it seemed everyone they wanted to protect was in danger.
"GIRLS!!!" Sumia raced deeper into the village after Miki and Yuki, desperate to save them before anything happened to them. Libra, meanwhile, hurried to the brothel, determined to protect everyone there.
@Ver @CrunchyCHEEZIT @Raptor Jesus