Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"It won't, that's nothing too severe. Even with my beginner-level skill, something like that is easy. Just give me a second here..." the older knight gave his word before moving on with the process, his white-glowing hand staying over Nina's nose for a bit, soon taking away the bleeding and most of the ache as well. "Right, there we are." he said as the magic completed it's work. With that being done, Iliana pried away the blind girl's sword from the other lizardman's neck before they could move on.

After a further trek down in the mausoleum's turning and twisting corridors, the group found Iris at a massive door. The girl was feverishly pulling and pushing against it, trying to get inside and completely ignoring the group as they came. She had manifested a second wing during the time of their separation, the feathery appendage having torn away the back of her clothes. Over the sound of Iris' struggles with the door, a faint sound could be heard. Steady, slow-paced. At first, Nina thought it to be someone beating a drum, but after a while she realized what it actually was. A heartbeat...

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Iris... Look at her back! She's grown a second wing! The spirit inside her must really want to get inside... but whatever's making that heartbeat behind the door... it must be big."

Nina was afraid that if she approached Iris in her current state, the spirit inside her might lash out at her, but she couldn't ignore her friend.

"Iris, it's me, Nina. We're here to help you. I'm sure we can open this door together, you just have to calm down. With Sensei Yura here, I'm sure that we'll be able to face whatever's behind that door."

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Nina's approach went unnoticed by Iris, who continued to fight the door regardless of her small stature. Even Iliana's approach and words didn't break her away from the task, so the group decided to move into the next step, opening the door. Despite her preference with the usual feminine form, Yura decided to briefly take away the seals on her arms to allow for greatly increased strenght. But even with that, it took a few minutes of hard work for all of them to push the door open in such a way that going through didn't require any squeezing. As soon as she could get through, Iris ran off from the group once again, rushing into the room.

Beyond, there was a spherical hall that was as big as one would expect from the giant doors, several hundred feet from wall to wall. The place was mostly empty, but in the centre, there was a web or criss-crossing chains that glowed with a soft golden glow. This was what Iris seemed to be going for, the rest of them following after her. Along the way, the heartbeat increased in volume each time it sounded as they got closer. Traversing through the featureless room and the chains, they came to the center of the glow.

Among the swathe of tightly-strung magical chains, the blind girl was tugging away at a particular one. It was connected to some other chains on the other end, but the other went around a woman, held aloft in the chains so she was a foot or so off from the ground. Her arms were crossed over her chest and strung into a package, legs bound from a few spots against each other, making any sort of movement impossible. A leather blindfold, similar to Iris', was strapped over her eyes and a small wooden bar in her mouth, taking away her senses for the most part. Her figure was plentiful, made even more alluring by the fancy two-part dress she wore. On top of a normal white under-dress, there was a jacket-like black top part that was fastened onto her upper with a web of long cloth strips that went down the middle. On contrast to those, a bundle of white straps were wrapped around the sleeves of the jacket. Most curious of all was this woman's hair, a long wavy deal that was pure black on the the top but gradually began to shift into lighter colors along the way, reaching a golden yellow near the tips.

It was clear that the source of the heartbeat was this woman, and Iris seemed intent on getting her free. The sound was the only confirmation that there was any life in her, for no signs of struggle or other movement came, even with them there and pulling at the chains.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"I've no idea who this is... but Iris -- or whatever's inside Iris seems to really want it out. Can those chains be broken? Hmmm... I wonder if Karin knows something about this. Hey Karin, are you around? Do you have a spare moment? We could use your help I think."

Nina called out to the spiritual ferry girl, thinking that she or some one she knew would be able to shed some light on the mystery.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

While Iris still remained at her pulling antics, Nina saw it fit to mentally contact Karin and ask the girl if she had something to enlighten their situation. "Wait... I'll be right there..." came the reply, and after half a minute the ferry-girl was there with them, giving a slight surprise to both Yura and Galeon. The maid-knight had skipped telling either of them about her, so they were caught completely unawares.

Tilting her head at the sight of the chained woman, Karin admitted her inability to shed light on the situation. "I'm much better with the dead people really... the living are a little less in my sphere of influence... but I do know someone who could help... unfortunately... he won't manifest here... not enough books or scrolls here to suit his taste..." she soon spoke up, eyeing the swathes of chains. "But these... are feeble... they look like there was a potent enchantment upon them once... which has detoriated over the years... give me your powers a bit... Tengen..." the ethereal girl carried on with her speech, gesturing the group to move aside as she finished.

Moving away from the forest of chains, Karin took up position, raising her hand. A gargantuan, armored limb appeared a feet or so to her side, moving in perfect unison with her. In this phantom limb's hand was a sword the size of a train car, which was brought down on the chains as the spirit girl lowered her own arm. With their enchantment weakened, the chains couldn't hold against the massive force and snapped away, leaving the woman dangling by a few now non-magical pieces of chain which Yura could probably break. "When you get back to the temple... call me again at the art room... we'll see if the Sage is willing to meet you there..." Karin finished, vanishing in a poof of red flowers.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Thank you Karin for your help!" Nina bowed to the girl before she poofed away in a sprinkling of red flower petals, of whose significance Nina hadn't the foggiest idea. She didn't let that worry her though, as she moved towards the unconscious, bound woman who was now handing merely by so mundane chains.

"These should be much easier to break, right Sensei Yura? Sensei?" Nina turned to see Yura staring at her with many questions in her eyes. "Oh, ah... just a helpful friend I made. I tell you about her later."

Nina would approach the bound lady and do what she could to free her, but would most likely need to rely on Yura to bend and snap the bonds, since the group didn't have any keys to the chains.

"We should bring her back to the temple and get her cleaned up. Poor woman, whoever she is, she's been trapped down here in this awful place for such a long time..." Nina looked over at Iris.

"Um, Iris, try to calm down. We'll get her free, don't worry."

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Sure, I'm not in a terrible hurry to hear it. But, that giant arm... I've seen a familiar technique used before. Old man Rao did a similar thing when we sealed away the Big Bad. He called it something like... Enlightment of the Celestial King or something similar. His was not as large though, and it lacked the blade. Such curious coincidences..." the weapon master pondered aloud, looking at the now lightly imprisoned woman.

Telling the others to hold onto her bound form, Yura began to take swings at the remaining chains with her axes, soon getting bored with it as results were not too good. Taking up Galeon's halberd instead, she soon got the lady free, who dropped onto the waiting arms of the other group members. Still not free from her obsession, Iris clinged onto the released female like a loving child to their mother. There was a brief rumble from the surroundings as the last bit of binding equipment was removed from the woman's body, her eyes and mouth too released from their bondage. Still, the unconsciousness persisted, but she was very much alive. The heartbeat sound had vanished along with the release for some reason, but that was likely nothing they had to care about.

Seeing it as a properly gentleman thing to do, Galeon took the woman into his care, carrying her in his embrace. All the while, Iris remained in the vicinity, constantly "looking" at her to make sure she was alright and treated nicely.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Walking along side Iliana, Nina shared her guesses with the mistress as they backtracked there way out of the mausoleum.

"Perhaps this girl and the spirit inhabiting our Iris is related? With all that Lord Rao seemed to know of Iris' difficulties, perhaps he would know more about who this woman is as well. We'll ask this Sage spirit that Karin talked about of course, but it really looks as though Iris will be obsessed with this women until we find out the connection."

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"That seems likely, with all the doting that's going on." Iliana shared her mind as they went, the grey corridors still looking as cold as they did during the entry.

"But I think we might have stumbled into the genuine article here." the mistress spoke up further as they came back up to the giant graveyard. All the previously hostile-looking ghosts had now lowered themselves to the ground, the entire host on their knees as the veteran knight came to sight with the woman on his arms. "I mean, look at them. The sorceress who became the spiritual conduit for the Desolation Maiden was a uniter of species. This looks like that more than nothing else. The location might not be correct, but old tales tend to become distorted over the years, especially when not kept in books or scrolls to prevent the altering of information. I mean, Hell on Earth? If that kind of place exists, then I'm a hairy man." the woman tossed the last lines in there as a sort of joke. Once the group had passed, the ghosts began to return into the dirt in their wake. For what reason, none could tell. Maybe their guard shift had finally ended, after an unearthly amount of time.

Making their way back through all the places previously explored, there was no further resistance to the group's movement around the gloomy place. They eventually got out, the evening already in progress when the outside world was reached. Back at the temple, things hadn't changed in any way, despite all of them being away from the area for several hours. The desolate location worked with some things.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Though Iliana's joke about Hell on Earth being just a fabrication of the human imagination, Nina involuntarily shuddered as an image of the Dark Master beneath the temple stage resurfaced in her consciousness. If being in that place with that thing was not literally Hell on Earth, it was figuratively close enough to not matter. This mountain seemed to hold many secrets beneath its rocky surface.

"So this might be the sorceress... A spiritual conduit." Nina mused quietly to herself.

When they reached the outside air and looked upon the sky once again, Nina breathed a sigh of relief. Things would go smoother hopefully, and she would be able to get back to the temple and consult with Karen and her Sage. Quite an adventure today! Now she only hoped that the unpredictable Iris could be brought back to her usual wonderful self.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Back at the temple now, the group took a brief moment to settle down from the adventure, Iliana leaving her bow at the room and just carrying her usual dagger around. Yura did the same, leaving her axe pair and the large mace to some open spots in the entrance hall weapon pile. Without too many other things to do, they went to the art room/library combination with the woman still in Galeon's arms. After Nina's mental communique, Karin soon responded. "I'll summon him now... bear this in mind... unlike myself or Tree-Father... the Withered Sage can be difficult to deal with... he is pretty rude and abusive with his language if you fail to show him respect... which he is not entirely unworthy of... being Hell's head librarian and book-keeper..." the ferrygirl replied, her voice trailing away as silence reigned on the room once more.

But it would not last for long. The light-stone at the roof-mounted lantern suddenly went out, leaving everyone in absolute darkness for a few seconds, which eventually gave way to light brought in by a dozen of candles that had appeared into the room and now hovered ominously in the air above them. The single bookcase in the room then proceeded to make a thump noise, all the books in there dropping away and starting to whirl like a tornado in one spot, opening up and starting to spew out pages. The paper began to form into a man's shape, the inked pages warping and forming different colors of the entity they were about to meet. After the completed process, the books retreated back into their spot, now arranged alphabetically in the correct order. The spirit himself was not all that impressive, the age showing in his slightly lean-forward posture. The sage wore a triple-layer of robes, going from black to purple and then white, with a cloth sash keeping the two underrobes in line. Oddly enough, there was also a short blade tucked into the sash, hanging rather suggestively over his crotch via a hook in the sheath. A head-dress that somewhat resembled an Egyptian pharaoh's gear covered up most of his head, leaving pretty much nothing besides his black-and-white painted face exposed. Upon realizing the situation that was now going on, he moved aside the robe that had been covering his body till now, revealing a woman of slim build and innocent looks crouching under there. It was not difficult for one to imagine what she was attempting to do beneath the man's robes, but she too assumed a more official look once the sage had pushed her away. The woman was most likely some sort assistant, a rather personal one at that. Assuming her position behind the master's back, the woman looked on with a reserved yet caring look. She was dressed in a thin eastern-style kimono, which was an undecorated black one, the skirt portion reduced to mini lenght. It was something worn for looks rather than comfort or practicality, with the reduced amount of fabric and the tightness that showed off the wearer's nice figure in quite straightforward ways.

Taking a look around him, the sage scratched his chin with the one long fingernail he had before speaking up with a slightly distorted voice. "Now what is this all about?" were the words that came out, the spirit's attention focused on Galeon for some reason. "Speak up now, gorilla. I might have been summoned by that boat brat, but that doesn't stop me taking my leave." he kept addressing the knight, not paying the women any heed.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Nina stepped forward, next to Galeon so that she was in the Sage's field of vision.

"Illustrious Sage, thank you for answering our summons. We require knowledge about a particular individual that we discovered under unusual circumstances. The ferry girl told us that you are the pinnacle of all Hell's sages. We humbly ask you for your aide in identification."

Nina could already sense the patriarchal nature of this man, and the fact that he was in Hell for a reason was not lost on her. Karin's warning about him didn't set her at ease at all, and the fact that he had shown up with a girl spirit kneeling underneath his robes... well... it reminded her a little of the way she and Iliana used to interact back home in the desert estate.

"Also, it was I who asked for your summons. Though if you wish to speak to someone of highest rank, may I suggest the Lady Einzbern or perhaps the Master Yura." She said, indicating each lady with a gesture as she named them.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Galeon knew better than getting angry at mere verbal taunts, and let Nina do her thing. Once spoken to, the Sage's attention turned to the maid-knight, looking almost infuriated at first. The black eyes look at her through the entirety of her adress, an almost unnaturally wide, gold-toothed smile spreading across his painted face at the words. "Good, you know your superiors when you see them. They still manage to train the women right in some places, it seems. There might be some fine assistant material in you..." the spirit went off in a tangent at first, sliding his one extremely long fingernail across Nina's cheek while getting increasingly close to her. He remained almost skin to skin for a while, almost giving out the aura of a terrible rapist as he measured the girl's determination. But the inspection was to end there, and he soon turned away.

With a flamboyant twirl, the Sage brought in a ring of bookcases, the summoned literature going all over the room. After taking a brief look, he gestured for the assistant girl. "Nana. You have ten seconds to find her records. I expect you to manage this much by now." he announced rather bluntly to her, digging out a golden pocketwatch. "Even my brilliant mind can't keep all this information in, you know. With all the people that Hell keeps tabs on, it gets pretty overpowering. A few hundred thousand individuals I can easily remember everything about, but this one is old enough that I have forgotten the details..." the talking carried on as the woman went to a certain spot in a bookcase and took out one of the books. Turning back to the sage, she slammed the book into his already outstretched hand, the page opened right into the spot with the unconscious woman's notes. Casting a look into the watch, the male spirit dropped it back into his robe pocket as the wide grin vanished, then used the same hand to strike Nana in the stomach as hard as he possibly could. "Eleven seconds, you disgusting whore. You need to learn more still, it looks like." he mercilessly insulted the doubled-over assistant, holding out the book to Nina. "Take a look, I need to teach my worthless assistant to do things when I tell her to." the sage briefly looked over to the green-haired girl, reaching out to the girl on the ground and pulling her up by the hair. A few brief protests came from Nana, but she was soon silenced by the Sage's member, the apparent slight being taken care of with a brutal throat-fuck. The pair proceeded with the punishment fellatio in plain sight while the group could take a look at the notes.

In the meticulously handwritten notes, there was a brief but still very wide array of things about the sorceress. The picture even showed her with the very same dress that was on her now. It was now completely impossible that the woman could be anyone else but the sorceress of legend, Isane.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Nina did her best to retain a somewhat pleasant smile as the hell sage leered at her. She strained at the corners of her mouth, holding them up like heavy barbells. At last the sage turned away and signaled for his assistant to start her rapid search. Nina instantly dropped her smile and let out a long breath, glancing once over to Iliana worriedly, hoping for some kind of bolstering support.

Nina's eyes went wide in shock and she nearly jumped back in fright as the sage suddenly struck Nana in the gut so viciously for such a minor error. The stunned maid-knight can only look dumbly at the book that's shoved into her hands, its page opened to that of Isane, the sorceress.

Her eyes, starting to water with the injustice of what was being done to Nana right in front of them, could not look away from the rough treatment the sage was forcing upon the girl.

Her throat constricted tightly and she suddenly turned her back upon them both, showing her distressed nature to her friends. Trembling she showed them the book. Hopefully one of them would be better at concentrating on the information that they needed. She didn't want to simply identify the woman, she wanted to know how they could wake her up from her bound state -- and what the ramifications of doing so might be. She mumbled as much to anyone close enough to hear her listen, but she didn't know if she had the will to face the sage again while he was doing those things to the girl.

She had to remind herself that whoever Nana was, she was likely in hell for a reason with that man...

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

No matter how much they looked, there was no real indication to the effects of releasing Isane. The four pages of notes were more in the personal record field of information. Any of the others couldn't really say either, the whole imprisonment and magic things stretching back to hundreds of years in the past.

But there was someone who piped in, despite Nina's careful volume control. "Imprisonment magic? Should have asked me about that." the Sage spoke up, having actually picked up what the green-haired girl said. The punishment was got to the finish, the entirety of the man's cock sinking into Nana's abused mouth, staying in there for the time it took for him to deposit his release down her throat. Having had his fill with raping the assistant, the male spirit pulled himself out and tossed the victim down to the floor where she proceeded to hack and cough violently after almost choking. "Binding spells can leave the victim powerless and weak for some time after being released. The one they used on her was most likely one of thesen kinds of enchantments. There shouldn't be other effects from the magic alone. As for her spirits, I seriously doubt she can consciously control those kinds of vengeance ghosts. As for a personal estimate, I think she will attempt to carry on with the quest that she so selflessly imposed on herself. All these goodie-goodie types..." the sage answered what he know and thought about the situation, tucking his robes on properly once more.

Despite having just been mistreated quite harshly, the girl got up and assumed her position once more, trying to make herself as presentable as possible despite the current ruffled look she had. It was a thing that was most likely well beaten and abused into her behaviour by now, to be the faithful, beautiful shadow of her master.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"So the magic the bound her will leave her weak for some time afterwards, but will eventually fade without us needing to do anything? Is there any way to know how long it would be for someone to typically recover their strength? And is there any method to speed up the process?"

Nina's voice seemed to get stronger as the girl Nana seemed to recover from her ordeal. Right now Nina just wanted to ask the necessary questions so that the Sage could be dismissed as promptly as possible.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Somehow, Nina's question seemed to baffle the Sage, who scratched at his chin once again using that superlong fingernail. "Get a competent healer or similar. Nothing too hard, one would imagine. I'd give an estimate of about a month or so until full power is achieved by her, she should wake up within the first 24 hours after being released, so you need not fear her remaining unconcious for too long. Unless there has been something that I missed in my observations of the magic scene in the past." he came out with an instant answer, proceeding to idly crack his neck with careful twists. As if summoned by the sound, Nana stepped forward and layed hands onto the master's shoulders, starting to massage him carefully in the neck and shoulder area.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"I... I see. Thank you for your expertise, honored Sage." Nina said. "I don't think we need any other questions answered. You've truly shown yourself to be the expert on knowledge. I'm sure if we need to know something, you are the best source to approach."

Nina hoped that flattery would help to encourage the spirit to take his leave of them with as little fuss as possible. She wanted to desperately forget that such a spirit existed and to turn her attentions purely onto the sorceress and seeing her rested and well. With her awake, perhaps the solution to Iris' possession was within reach.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Huh, already? For such a tiny bit, you had to summon me?" the Sage asked from her, looking at Nina with a questioning look. But after a brief staring contest, he understood that it was indeed so. "Bah, fine. We'll be going then." the man eventually replied, doing a circular motion with his finger, which the bookcases obediently followed and vanished back to where they had come from. Following this, the candles that had been the only source of illumination for them arranged themselves into a line in front of him. The sage then reached for the handle of his sword, turning it slightly so the flat side faced the candles. Starting a slow draw, he pulled out half of the blade from it's sheath, the short sword's lower blade forming into a leery, obese demon head. The terible face eyed the surroundings for a while, then blowed out the candles, leaving the group in complete darkness. Once the magical darkness vanished and the normal light from the ceiling stone returned, the sage and his assistant were gone, only some of the cum that Nana had coughed out remaining on the floor as a nasty memory.

Once the sage was gone, Iliana shook her head at the whole scene. "I... have to say that I didn't expect that from a bookish type. Hell seems to collect the worst brilliant people there are..." Yura was quick to agree. "That was pretty fucked up, have to agree. But the info is in your hands now, and that is the main thing here, I believe."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Hell truly is a place I would never wish to visit. I feel sorry for that assistant of his, but I have to believe that she ended up in hell for a reason also. Still, it seems unfair..."

Nina returned her thoughts to more pleasant mysteries. "We could send for a healer from Lord Rao. Or bring her back to Elise if she is willing once she wakes up. It seems we just have to look after her for tonight and she'll be well on her own."

She looked towards Iris, to see if the girl was acknowledging any of this.