She stood there, facing the still fireplace in her gown. Slowly motion and color filled the world that until then had been amber, like some aged paper or an old photograph.
She was completely absorbed in the memory, she could feel the warmth from the hearth contrast with the cool evening air and immediately accepted the memory as reality, "Lux, what are you doing here?"
Lux turned around, just like she remembered when she was falling, "I'm here waiting for you, Foce! I know you've been coming here late at night, so I wanted to spend time with you if you can't sleep."
"You know you didn't have to...I guess you don't look tired." Foce stared at her friend until she found herself on the receiving end of a playful shove.
"I'm not tired, at all! Besides, now's the perfect time for me to give you a present before you have to go away!" Lux grabbed Foce's hand and led her to the stairs in an old, seemingly forgotten corner of the room, where dust settled on the furniture and cobwebs gathered in a corner.
At the end was a most certainly forgotten hallway, it was rather eerie, given the dim lighting and late hour, but Foce swallowed her fear as Lux pulled her along, silently trusting her friend not to scare her. It had only been half a month since they met, but already she placed absolute trust in the fun-hunting girl guiding her deeper into the darkness.
Foce felt her courage waver as the wind outside picked up, and she slowly turned around, afraid she might see a ghost behind them, "Foce, we can return when the sun's out, if you want."
"I'll survive." she assured, trembling as she picked up the pace, wrist sliding from Lux's grasp to join hands, "So which room is it in? I'd rather run in there and get this over with..."
"Haha, I can't blame you, it's not too welcoming, huh? I hope the surprise is worth it for you." Lux squeezed Foce's hand and pointed with her free hand at the only door that wasn't completely shut, "That's the one."
Foce's mind was gradually distancing from the memory, and soon she was pulled away altogether.
"Looks like you're back," Banshee remarked, as the vampire glanced around the room, "I'll have Feyerous bring your clone back in."
"Wait...that was..." Foce let out a heavy sigh and slumped against the wall, "I...I felt like I was somewhere else...this is so disorienting."
"If you want to retire to your room for the night, it's still where you left it." Banshee pointed out a set of stairs in the back, and Foce gratefully nodded as she jogged to it.
After the airship landed, Jessie took Ray and Sarah out to search the town, the remaining three waited behind, boosting the search party's strength.
"There don't seem to be many demons out here." Sarah observed, glancing warily at the large buildings lining the streets, "This place is kinda creepy, it's like they moved a whole city down here."
"I was gonna say it's oddly familiar." Jessie muttered, eyes flitting through the darkness for any signs of Foce or demons.
Ray pointed at a sign ahead of them, "That's probably because this place was somehow moved here by demons, that sign claims that the Frost Crystal Palace is behind us, but that location is in our world!"
"That's all manner of disturbing." Sarah suddenly turned upon a sudden realization, "If they took a whole city, what happened to the humans?"
"That's what I want to know...I think we're about to find someone who can give us an answer." Jessie darted ahead and stalked around a building, Sarah and Ray followed close behind as she sprinted past a couple of decrepit houses. She glared at a large red and black demon, Foce stood prisoner in front of him, "Okay, I'll keep running around back, and sneak up behind him, then you guys can ambush him."
"Wait...what is that Feyerous doing with Foce?" Ray whispered.
Sarah nodded, "Doesn't make sense, she's on par with your strength, Feyerous should've been an easy take down for her."
"Well, she said she was stronger in the demon realm, so he he would be stronger, too. Um...and she's so disassociated from darkness, that here his strength surpasses hers?" Jessie theorized, looking inquisitively at her brother.
"No, his stats are far lower than Fellnyx's, he shouldn't be able to defeat her." Ray shrunk back as the door behind Feyerous opened, revealing a tall, blue demon with ghostly hair.
"Unless she's in charge!" Jessie hissed, "I'll go in and extract Foce, you two, cover us!"
"Right!" Ray started charging a spell while Sarah took to the roof.
The hero held her blade to the side, glad that she was wielding it left handed, as Feyerous was on the left, and he was already the natural target. She darted forward and readied an orange spell in her right hand, released it at the blue demon just as she was noticed, "Dust Storm!" the demon cried out and covered her eyes with her hand as she stumbled back, and swung her blade at the alarmed, "Light Strike!"
"Jessie, I was so scared, no one knew where I was going, how did you know?!" Foce stammered as the hero sheathed her blade and scooped the vampire up.
"Our party crystal's linked to yours, it helped us find you." Jessie explained, heart pounding as she fled from the demons behind her. She glanced back to see two figures highlighted by an explosion, one archer and a mage, "Sarah, cut her bindings!"
Sarah nodded and pulled out a dagger, "Vines? I guess you're not the only one with vine magic?"
"No, I'm not...my clone put those there, she's got to be dealt with...it has to be now, I know how to kill her and prevent more duplicates!" Foce smiled as her hands were freed, and turned to the hero, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask for more blood, it's the only way I can overpower Sage Vindicatus Skotadi's puppet and destroy the curse!"
"Right, it's time to end this!" the hero bent forward despite her brother's cry of protest and Sarah's suggestion that she didn't bother completing when Jessie winced from the stab of Foce's fangs, "H-hey, I think that's enough? I'm feeling a little lightheaded now."
"Sorry...I just...seem to have trouble cutting myself off." Foce turned to the building they had come from, the blue demon had recovered and had summoned icy golems to act as a barrier. She brought Feyerous' unconscious body into the fight, had him shoot fire from his eyes while she sang up and icy, deathly gale, "She's a ruthless murderer, won't even let the big demon rest and recover...she'll be such a time waste, I'll run past her, but she can't be allowed to follow me!"
"Consider her frozen in place." Sarah replied as she climbed up the small house beside them, movements sluggish from the chilly wind hitting her, "Alright, charge her, Foce! Paralysis Arrow!" she strung an arrow and closed her eyes, she let out a deep breath as Foce kicked through the three rows of golems, "Mana Eye."a blue mist ran from her to the icy demon, and as she felt the link take hold, she released her arrow, though something about what she sensed from the demon made her question her choice.
It was too late for second guesses when she opened her eyes and saw the blue demon stare up at her; even from the distance, she saw something like fear in the demon's eyes, "It's a trick...it's gotta be a trick! But...what is this doubt I feel...Foce overpowered in the demon realm by her double, after flying her into every wall of Jessie's room? The double should be weak, or at least not strong enough to break the vines and then call on her own...even with this demon's ice songs to slow Foce down, the real vampire lord had two scythes--ah, that's it, that's what's been bothering me!"
"Jessie, no scythes!" she cried out, "Fire Arrow: Mana Impact, HP Exchange, block friendly fire! Mana Eye!"
Ray held his hands together and closed his eyes, "Volcanic Bomb, follow the arrow!"
Jessie was relieved that Sarah was exchanging her own HP with Foce's since the vampire would no doubt be caught in the blast, especially with her blood thirsty duplicate powered up in the same room, but considering how weak she was now, there was likely no way for them to stop the demon here, they'd need help.
She reached into her pocket and extracted her party crystal, "Jacob, we need you to fly the airship over her now, it's an emergency, we'll be a few houses down from a burning building, just have our rope ladder out and follow the light. Juliet, I need you to fire HP impacts onto us, we'll need them, Sarah's on the roof, hit her first. Romeo...I hope you're ready to fight Foce's duplicate, she may or may not retrieve her scythe."
Jessie grimaced when she heard an explosion, and looked up to see Foce fleeing the burning building, her duplicate flew after her, burning with a scythe in hand. The vampire's double quickly caught up with Foce, and slammed her through a window, emerging with a crack on the other side of the building.
The hero darted towards the pair, planning to kick the duplicate off Foce, instead she was greeted with a pounce and pinned into a wall from a neighboring building.
Foce sluggishly rose to her feet and growled when she saw her double trying to drain the hero of the rest of her blood. She took stumbling steps, her heart racing. She knew she wouldn't get there in time at the pace she was going, but she heard a faint cry that seemed to spring from the back of her mind, it seemed to soar out from her memory with every beat of her heart. The vampire suddenly fell to her knees again cried out as her eyes glowed electric purple.
"Lux...no..." Foce glared ahead at her enemy, let her scythe slip from her grasp and held out her arms, "Lightning Thorns!" Foce held her hands out and summoned amethyst thorns that made the duplicate cry out in pain as lavender sparks struck her wrists, torso and abdomen. The sudden attack sent her staggering backward until she fell on her back, and five thorns rose from the ground, wound around her wrists, ankles, and throat, then glowed purple, five synchronized blasts of purple followed.
Jessie slowly stepped out of her daze, and stumbled forward. Holding a hand over one eye, she stared at the vampire duplicate on the ground, the thorns of five deep purple tendrils piercing her skin.
The hero offered her hands to Foce, and assisted her with finding her footing, "She was so powerful, how did you manage to beat her?"
Foce shrugged and fell into Jessie's arms, "She's not beaten, she's stunned, we need to get out of here before she breaks free."
"We can help with that." the blue demon offered, "Assuming your friends aren't still trying to kill us?"
"Banshee...you had a scuffle with Jessie?" Foce glanced between the two, and Jessie offered a sheepish smile.
"We thought that you had somehow been taken prisoner, and went in to free you...that's what we thought we were doing, anyways." Jessie explained, looking up at the large demon she spoke of, "Apparently we're on the same side now?"
"The only reason we ever invaded," the large demon followed the group to leave the area as he began to share the unknown history of the demon realm, "was because the priestesses destabilized our world by pulling the Infinity Crystal from our side of the boundary, leaving us unrepresented by the crystal of light and darkness."
"B-but we know them, they wouldn't!" Jessie asserted, leaning on her brother while Sarah carried Foce.
"But they did!" Banshee roared, shaking with barely bridled fury, "I suppose we haven't considered the life span of humanity, but we did expect them to know what they stole from us, their greatest sin may be in glorifying their misdeeds, covering their crimes as righteous crusades, providing an excuse for them to steal all that they covet, all that they pillage and horde, and then gladly pass the lie they are presented with into history, the hero they celebrate is nothing more than a lie, but we remember the truth all too well."
"What was life like before they stole the crystal?" Ray inquired. He stared at Banshee expectantly as they continued distancing themselves from Foce's temporarily bound duplicate. Their airship was on the approach, and Jessie filled in the others on their recent recruitment, and that the airship had to land since the ladder would be too time consuming.
"That's quite a tale...and you may not want to accept it as the truth." Banshee replied, though the insistent and curious gazes the humans gaze finally convinced her that she should tell them everything, "Very well...I'll tell you all exactly what happened when we're in the presence of your allies."
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