Sarah stepped into the mage's room with Foce close behind her, and found Ray pouring his energy into a crystal ball, the deep red glow that filled the orb beat like a heart as it shrunk into the magical ball.
"Focusing...take whatever you need..." Ray muttered, his concentration slipped with every word, and the red glow expanded slowly.
"Very well, we just need to make something." Sarah assured.
Ray let out a deep breath and turned to her. She wordlessly held out the party Synchronicity Crystal, and pointed at Foce, "I see...very well." he replied, his voice slow as he trained his mind on the ball in front of him.
Sarah opened a book with instructions and laid it out next to the necessary materials, and had Foce take over. The white haired girl opened the vial of gold grains that sat in a small vial rack on the desk, pulled out a pipette to collect some water from a bottle, and added a few drops to the vial, afterwards she crushed and added some herbs and two drops of the red and blue potions of health and magic, then dipped the tiny stirrer into the vial to mix the ingredients, and set the light blue party crystal over the top so it dipped into the violet solution.
She constantly glanced back at the instructions, and saw it ended with her pouring magical energy into the vial to turn the gold stuff into a small gem, so she held her hands over the vial with the solution and party crystal on top, and let her magic energy flow over them, watching as a dark aura formed around the items.
Suddenly an explosion shook the airship, and the mage leapt out of his chair as Sarah darted out of the room, "Stay here and finish this, we'll hold off whatever it is!"
"A-alright!" Foce turned her attention completely onto the crystal forming inside the vial and closed her eyes. She remembered doing something like this, maybe there was a time before she was a vampire that she was starting to remember?
Sarah couldn't believe her eyes, but between Romeo and Juliet surely stood the cause of the explosion, she could see the invader between and ahead of the young couple as clear as day, but she looked just like the girl who she left in Ray's room, it was rather unnerving.
She could tell from Ray's gasp that her thought the same, "Hey, what's the big idea?!"
Foce merely looked up at Sarah and pointed behind her, "It wasn't me, it was a demon, it followed us here...look, it's behind you now!"
Sarah felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and slowly turned as Foce darted forward, her hands off to the side together, eyes focused on the sky above the airship. It was too convincing to ignore, maybe Foce leapt through one of Ray's bedroom's windows and flew out to warn them?
She turned around as Foce's expression grew more intense, and dropped into a ready stance as she waited for a demon to drop out of the sky. Instead, Foce darted between her and Ray, and faced them as she landed inside the cabin's entrance.
"Dark Impulse!" she cried, sending Ray and Sarah careening into the equally wearisome archer and dark knight.
"Trickster!" Ray snarled, charging a blast of fire, "She's going after Jessie, I just know it!"
Sarah wordlessly agreed as the quartet pursued the vampire, "I can't help but feel--" she knew they all felt it in that moment, the ruthless chill that fell over her with Jessie's panicked cries. She heard Ray mutter under his breath, a single, anxious "Jessie."
When they ran into the room, they hadn't expected to find purple eyed girls staring the other down, or a pale but unharmed hero watching in horror from her bed. The two immediately flew after the other. The adversaries spun through the air and their scythes scraped over the other's, knocking them both back before they had a chance to land. The only difference between them was the hat, but both of those had hit the floor by now.
"Finally you guys are here!" one yelled, turning to see the four heroes had arrived, "Now run around and stab her in the back before she tries to kill Jessie again!"
"Right, let's believe one of the Foce's without even knowing which is our enemy!" Sarah scoffed, "Not happening!"
"Why don't we just stab both and figure it out later?" Ray hissed, glaring at the dueling vampires.
"Fine, do that!" the other purple eyed possible vampire lord shouted, "Just get Jessie outta here first, that way you can blast us both to cinders!"
"Well, there goes any chance of quizzing them." Ray muttered, "One of them knew Jessie's name right off the bat, and the other knows what my attacks are."
"I also know that you guys have silver arrows!" the one with her back facing them yelled, "And that you guys use other skills-"
The other's purple eyes widened as she realized what her enemy was trying to do, "I know about Strategic Table of Attributes Tallied Under the System, and how the Celestial System of Measurement is-"
"Guys, c'mon, it's a trick, she somehow knows everything I know! Jessie, tell them!"
Jessie stared at the twin adversaries and felt a heavy weight in the pit of her stomach, "I can't, I...Foce!"
Only one of them looked at her, the one who had to turn to see her, a hint of fear in her eyes as she was slowly overpowered, "Jessie...I swear, I will protect you!"
"Foce?!" she was sure the amethyst eyes glow just before the vampire lord was knocked back. Foce danced backwards, avoiding the scythe blade as it swung at her, and leapt onto Jessie's bed. She extracted a small, blue crystal from her pocket and glared at her double, "Well, imposter, do you have one of these?! Now come clean, who are you?!"
The other gave her a small smile and tilted her head, "You had me revived, remember? I'm just s-so hurt you'd call me an imposter, I just wanted to be like you, my brave twin sister."
Foce was so stunned by the tears and shaky voice, that she felt physically incapable of hurting her former opponent, "I'm...sorry." she whispered, staring at the identical girl before her, "Please...forgive me...I've forgotten everything."
She was already struggling with her memory, trying to find something she recalled about the woman who claimed to be her twin, the cruel glare she received next left her stunned.
She couldn't understand why the white haired woman was rushing at her, but as she closed in, she arched her scythe down and hooked the blade of her scythe with the blade of the other's, and slung the disarmed weapon out of her grasp, then turned her back to the vampire and struck her head with the pole of her weapon.
"Ow...why are you so mean to-"
"Stop it! Stop making me feel guilty, I don't remember you, but you're not making a very good impression on me! I'm sorry if you resent me for bringing you back, but if I loved you at all, I'm sure I was too grief-ridden to resist using my powers or resources, or whatever I used to bring you back! I...I'm so--ah!" Foce screamed as the woman grabbed her arms and flung her aside, and held out her hand, "Stop! Just...stop! You will fall before touching my friends, I'll oppose you with all of my body and soul! Phantom Protection!"
The assailant had only just leapt onto the bed and lounged onto Jessie, fangs bare. She pinned the weak hero down and swiftly leaned down to bite her neck. She noticed a bright purple light fill the room, but ignored it and the vampire lord as her teeth clamped down around Jessie's neck. The was no scream, only silence, the hero's heavy breathing, and some magic barrier between the vampire's fangs and the human's skin. As soon as she realized this, an angry roar filled her ears, she turned to see a pale spirit soaring after her and yelped as it knocked her into the wall.
"F-Foce..." Jessie turned to see the vampire lord on her knees, a faint smile on her lips as she stared at the phantom and vampire with empty eyes. She looked up at the others and found them looking around, confused by the purple light around them. Glancing down, she realized she was engulfed in the same light, she was confused until she noticed the light shining in her right hand, the same glow in the hand of the phantom that was busily slamming the vampire into the ceiling and walls.
The hero stumbled to the sheathed sword at the foot of her bed, and slowly drew it, "Foce, release the vampire, I'll finish this."
The phantom turned around to meet Jessie's gaze, eyes flashing purple for a brief moment before soaring up and slamming the vampire into the wall, then vanishing, leaving Foce's double to hit the floor.
"Dark one, fall with sacred light!" she turned her sword around and stabbed through the vampire's back, light suddenly poured from the blade, but it was useless, the vampire turned her head to see Jessie through the corner of her eye, a wide grin on her lips.
"My name's not 'dark one', girl." she suddenly leaned up and reached for Jessie's throat, instead one hand flew out to catch hers and a second one clutched her arm, Foce's hands move swiftly to wrench arm and hand in two different directions, resulting in a pained cry from her opponent.728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtTqzlE057l
"If we can't kill you, then this will have to suffice!" she yelled as she dragged the stunned demon through the air and slammed her into the window pane. Her large, feathery wings emerged and she knocked her enemy through the window.728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX3kaN7KKce
Foce rushed higher into the sky, crushing the other's shoulders mercilessly, "Tell me who you are, monster!"728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQi2TBP3NCN
"I'm you, Foce, created from you the moment the Sage struck you with Duplicity. Oh, don't tell me you're surprised, you saw was that spell was doing, you had to have known it would clone you!" she gave Foce a wicked grin, "The richest part is that it had reached charge level four, so I'm just the first one; you'll have no way to stop me when I create more! No...when we create more."728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN8Hi5N9nY0
"Why? Why would you want that?!"728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhGhsxZhH2f
"It's what we were born to do, we stepped from the darkness, children of death, a thirst for blood, you know it's true," she taunted, not even trying to struggle, "it's only a matter of time before you wake up one day to find your precious friends on the floor, completely drained of blood, and when you touch your lips and look at them, it'll confirm your deepest desire...and apparently your worst nightmare, too!"728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGXsnLBDenD
"Not if I end you here..." Foce growled, her fingers going up to her clone's throat.728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG6VruN6cUL
"Heh...sure, that's a great idea, I doubt you could handle all eight of us! Aw, but then, what's more important, finding Sage, or finding a way to kill me? Because I can go ahead and tell you now, you don't have the means to kill me."728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkXty0pdxP3
"That makes two of us...but I can take you back to where we came from." Foce gave a fleeting glance to the distant airship trailing behind her, "Aw, gonna cry now?"728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxvoAYr9ugl
"Yes...you mind?" Foce hissed before she threw her clone into the nearest mountain. She summoned her scythe and twirled toward the mountain and sliced through the rock from which a darkness now bled. She dragged her worn down copy into the void and flew down to search for a way to bury her curse before it got out of hand.728Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnfPK9qi9YD
