Faye sat a good few meters away from Snowflake, leisurely observing the hooded figure she had made acquaintance with just a couple of days ago. Ever since their initial encounter, Faye’s thoughts were almost always filled with the woman. Her icy coldness and aloofness was such a curiosity for the young puppeteer. It affected her well enough that on the very day they met, Faye had already started working on the puppet in her image; a very pale puppet with silver hair and blue eyes. She made a special effort in making the pair of jewels more lifelike as the usual empty eyes of a doll seemed so ill fitting on this person. Even on the train, despite the hoodie and attempt at being inconspicuous, Faye had to note that Snowflake stood out with an incredible aura that Faye found fascinating. At least, those were her thoughts.

When the train jerked and gravity came crashing down on her, Faye felt herself lunge forward along with the numerous other passengers. She heard the warning sirens going off in her ears but before she could figure something was extremely wrong for the train to be stopped so suddenly and violently, was thrown off again. On gaining a grip, her eyes darted towards the silver haired woman at the other side and found her trying to get on her feet. Faye too was having a very hard time controlling her body with all the push and pull. Panic stricken citizens trying to save their lives with little regards to others were not helping much either. The train jerked again and she once more flew backwards into something cold; Faye couldn’t even feel her feet on the train floor. She did, however, see the current person of her interest having her own hard time with the rough movement of the train.

The suddenness of it had left Faye very clueless as to what exactly was going on but her years of experience as a mage sensed the danger enough to swiftly retrieve Hana off her hands and tuck her deep inside her coat. She held her there, making sure the puppet was safe as she got a hold of one of the train poles. The last thing she heard was a bloody scream before one of the train seats flew into her direction, Faye turning just in time for it to collide with her back and push her far into a corner. Then everything went still.

The train lights were off and nothing moved; it had either completely stopped or derailed off and crashed into something. Faye couldn’t think straight for a good while until an airy whisper of help landed on her ears. All the games played with gravity had landed Faye quite close to the silver mage and once her vision settled, she could see Snowflake a few feet away. An incredible pain on her chest made her cough a little blood out but she was still able to move. Thankfully, the seat that flew at her had collided with another mangled seat and Faye was luckily under an interlock of both. She ignored the searing pain of her back and quickly got on her hands and quickly scanned the location, frowning at the littler of injured bodies all around. Some were lucky like her, some were heavily injured, and some were evidently dead. The smell of blood had already spread.

“Ugh,” She groaned, crawling towards the familiar silver hair her eyes caught sight of. She fumbled around with the broken pile of metal and iron, pulling whatever she could off the still alive woman. Her fingers were a bloody mess but Faye almost felt no pain as they worked ceaselessly in getting some of the ruble off; It was likely that adrenaline was running high in her veins.

“Hey, are you alright?” Her chest heaved with pain through every word she spoke. Between the dire situation, she didn’t even notice she had used her own voice either; the soft, clear voice that chimed like the bells. “Hey! Pull yourself together and try to push the heavy stuff off of you,” She tried to instruct, still fumbling with the lighter part of the mess. She was halfway done lifting one of the poles off Snowflake when a loud monstrous sound echoed in another compartment.

It made her pause for a moment while rolls of images passed inside her head. What in the world could make a noise like that? Whatever it was, it wasn’t human, which meant that something really bad is happening inside the train. If the painful screams weren’t proving it, Faye didn’t know what could. It only took her a momentary glance at the silhouette of a monstrous figure until she was forcing herself on her feet, urgently working on the things on top of Snowflake.

“Shit shit shit shit! Get up!”

Her steps faltered a little as she forced herself up, joining Snowflake who was finally on her feet. There was no way to tell in all the haze whether it was the impending signs of danger or the cold sweat over her forehead that made her go numb. Faye’s experience with fights were nothing to brag about. In fact, she naturally stood away from them unless things proved to be fatal. However, none of that so far had been against something that sounded so monstrous, something that –judging by the shadow alone that crept over between the small opening under the compartment door- looked like it could just place on claw on her and snap her in two. Faye was in no way ready to deal with it. Besides, she knew, even if she wasn’t feeling it yet in the urgency of the moment but her body was aching all over. She may have not gotten crushed by the flying seat but it had still made an impact on her back; it would be of no surprise if she was bleeding somewhere other than her hands.

Yet, when Snowflake asked if she was ready, she threw a glance at the other mage and went quiet. Any and all complaints just bubbling in her lips vanished. Yes, she was having a hard time, but the one next to her had it even worse. Faye was one of the few lucky ones to have gotten away with some light injuries while there were people like Snowflake who had the ceiling come down on them. Not all of them had the strength to survive it like the white haired mage either. Standing in the middle of a spread of dead bodies, Faye suddenly realized the real gravity of the situations. All of a sudden, it wasn’t just a simple fight against demons anymore. This was a fight for survival with many people behind her and Snowflake putting their lives on the shoulder of both Blue Pegasus mages.


“This won’t end too well,” Faye finally spoke. She realized how awfully quiet she has gotten in between. “We need to get the remaining passengers over to the next compartment or the other. I sense the demons’ presence in front of us. I don’t think there are any behind us. We can’t fight with all of them here. If the demons break in, hold them back for me,” She told Snowflake and turned to face the very few people still battling death crowding near the back.

She told them to get over to the compartment at the far end, to be vigilant in case something popped up along the way. Faye broke the door’s lock with one of the poles, opening up the door for them to leave. “Help others if you see them along the way,” she instructed before placing the broken door back on the frame. Of course, it would come off again with one push but that was alright. Having it blocked could be worse if Snowflake and her needed to flee.

“Alright! We are set. Hopefully, there isn’t that many of these creatures”.

Faye wasn’t paying much attention to the strength she used either. Every time Snow urged someone to her direction, she pushed them to the other compartment, telling them to keep moving till the end. Once the last one was out, she quickly placed the door back and made sure it was properly placed before turning back in wait of the evils to come. Her eyes darted towards the cold weapon, shimmering under the dainty light streaming through the windows, and sighed. She hated to do or even admit this but Snowflake was going to have to carry the whole thing forward with her strength. Indeed, Faye was a mage. However, she was a mage that cared nothing for fights or magic in general. The only reason she even decided to join a guild was because she had barely enough money to live, and the expenses covering her hobby was in no way little. In the end, she had placed very little time in developing her magic or spells and made do with the very basics she knew.

When the resounding steps finally appeared visually in front of them, Faye couldn’t help but draw in a cold breath and shudder at the sheer weight of their presence. However, looking around, she could quickly tell that the majority of this daunting presence came from the bigger humanoid looking ones while the smaller beastly ones were probably something she could fend off with her strength and magic. Knowing it wouldn’t be well to stand right in front of the door, Faye moved a few steps forward but left enough space for a battle between Snow and herself. She didn’t want to bother the other mage as she fought and looking at the length of her weapon alone. Faye was pretty sure she needed that much space.

Instead, hoping that Snow could deal with the humanoid demons, Faye quickly attracted the lesser ones towards her. It didn’t take that much of effort either since these creatures, unlike their obviously superior companions, were not even half as smart. All it took was a little bit of taunting, involving nothing more than a smirk and a middle finger, and they came running towards her. She got in position to fight so that the situation right now was that Snow was fighting near the front of the roomy compartment while Faye was around the end. Apart from some scattered seats and broken poles and ceiling, it wasn’t that difficult to move around either. However, Faye could tell not to get cornered into something and decided raw strength was the way to go.

She picked up a metal plate, some broken part of the ruined train, and waved directly towards the first demon that lunged at her. As mindless as it was, it definitely knew how to fight because despite getting hit over the head with it, the demon extended a few clawed fingers and scratched at the top of Faye’s wrist, effectively making her let go of the plate while it fell back.

She hissed and almost even cursed in rainbows. The chance was sadly lost when another one jumped on her with its claws wide open. This time, Faye ducked to the left and ignoring the light grace of a sharp claw on her arm, grabbed the hairy hand with her right and gave a hard punch with the other. It threw the thing back into a wall as the other ones started coming after her. “Shit! This was not the way I planned today”.

Faye pulled back a step or two when the attack started to get aggressive. She soon realized; either the demons were beginning to figure she wasn’t easy to deal with or the events up to that point was starting to weaken her. Considering she had good endurance and trained well –even if she says so herself- it was probably the former. Besides, all signals inside her head were in blinding, crimson red. The closer she got to realizing the danger they were in, the deeper her concentration levels rose, to the point she was starting to listen to each sound and observe every movement of the other creatures. She took an offensive stance in front of an inverted, broken train seat, and took a deep breath, waiting for one of the monsters to make the first move.

Just as the breath left her completely, one of them came flying towards her left rib area, sharp claws extending from its deformed hand. Faye reacted in time to make a sharp turn of her body so that while the demon got carried by the momentum in a single direction, Faye stood facing its side. Ignoring the demon’s attempt to bring its claws towards her, Faye swiftly grabbed hold of the back of its head and used its own movement speed to slam its face on to the hard back surface of the overturned seat. As a strangled cry rang under her palm, Faye was able to reflexively feel the presence of another demon at her back. Using the same hand pressing the demon down in for support, Faye shifted weight over to her right foot and made a turning motion by letting her elbow whip out from her upper left to lower right, diagonally, hitting another demon square on its nose with her sharp elbow bone. As that movement played out, she simultaneously dragged the other demon’s head towards the left, emitting another painful cry from it.

Having its head, neck, and face crushed in such a way had taken the said demon off the fight while the other one she had hit on the nose hit a side of the metallic wall and fell down. It wasn’t unconscious, but it had gotten considerably slower in its pace. Her earlier form of savage combat seems to have taken the other demons by surprise as well. They were now more mindful of her strength and kept a safe distance while circling her, a movement Faye followed as she didn’t want to get surrounded by them. They screeched, growled, bared their fangs and claws all in an attempt to throw Faye off. However, the young puppeteer was more into the fight now than she ever was. She had finally gotten hold of her fighting instincts and the adrenaline pumping inside her blood was pushing her alertness and energy at its peak. She was starting to ignore the small ache in her body.

Making a swift movement to push her hair out the way, Faye once again got ready to fight when she saw one of the demons put a foot forward in preparation for another attack. This time, Faye countered the movement with a swipe of her hand, from her right to left, and a blue magic circle appeared in front of her. A stream of water followed her earlier movement and gushed out in an incredible speed at the group of demons within which a couple of them reacted quickly and moved out the way while others crashed into it, creating small cuts and wounds on its body. The ones that got hit joined the other injured demon in a corner, panting and breathing heavily in an attempt to regain some energy for another fight. Faye, on the other hand, was now on full alert at the other two demons.

2492/3600

Mana: 905/910 | 20% off from Int Attribute

Spell Used:

Faye’s eyes narrowed dangerously at the remaining demons. She wasn’t sure how long they have been fighting for, but the faint streams of light they had were starting to dwindle and a flickering shadow was starting to curtain the rest of the fight. Faye placed one foot back and brought her hands up in a fighting stance. This time, instead of coming at her one at a time, they were attacking her together. Their pointy ears darting up and down in a meticulous analysis of how they should fight this earthling. Within the span of a second, decidedly, they were leaping towards the taller puppeteer.

Cold, unfeeling, pitiless; the young mage's eyes, at this movement, shifted to the color of a raging ocean reflecting light off a blue magic circle illuminating her steady profile. Not less than half a second later, a lucid stream of shimmering blue blanketed the two demons, pushing them violently away from Faye who, at once, was on the attack. As they got knocked back, Faye jetted forward to grab the both of them over their necks, savagely gripping it tighter and tighter as she brought them violently down upon the cold floor of the wrecked train. They groaned, cried, screeched, and waved their claws haphazardly at Faye.

Her force over their neck only increased when warm blood started trickling down her arm from the claw wounds. Faye quickly bit her bottom lip in a rush to stop a loud hiss from escaping her cherry lips. There was just enough to deal with with all the lesser demons; she didn’t want to attract the attention of one of those huge monsters Snowflake was dealing with. She had already thrown them one inquisitive glance before the fight and had to try so very hard to stop herself from shuddering at their strength and demonic presence.

When the pain proved too difficult to ignore, Faye let go of the half whimpering, half growling demons and thought no further on letting a foot come strongly down on one of their head, hoping to crush it to its last breath. The other one, on noticing her movement, was starting to bring down its teeth over her ankle when she kicked her heel sharply to his side, hitting its chin and throwing it off a few feet away.

From there, it took not so much time for Faye to go after the other alive ones. They were half beaten up but still had enough fight in them to drive Faye into a corner of the large train. She had to battle vigorously without rest for a long time, a long time where Faye kept thanking herself for not being a big enough bum to not train her physical specs up. It had helped her more than her half forgotten magic.

The fight went on for another hour until she was finally facing the very last one of them. There was a rancid smell from all the blood -her own mixed with the disgusting black of the demons’- pooling under the lifeless, monstrous bodies. It ghosted over the entire area, weighing over the sound of panting breath and creaking metal floor. Faye took steps towards the small demon on its last fight, swaying slightly from the sorely aching muscles all over her body. After spending such long hours fighting, the belligerent spirit in her was starting to wane and exhaustion was slowly dawning on her.

A last swing of her arm collecting all her remaining strength connected with the bony nose of the demon and that drew the curtain over her struggle. At the end of it, Faye was sitting in the middle of all the bloody mess looking over to Snowflake as she fought.  One of the passengers they hurried out the door had mentioned something about a large special rift somewhere ahead of them. Faye guessed it was where the monsters streamed in from and wanted to take a look at it to see if they can close it. However, observing Snowflake, she couldn’t help but feel ashamed of her own powerlessness. She had rejected training her magic believing she would never get into fights –she loathed them, after all- yet, when a situation asked for her life and many others’, Faye was powerless to help.

3204/3600

Mana: 900/910
Spell Used

Spoiler:

Faye found it nearly impossible to keep her head up. Sitting there in the middle of an increasingly cold night, watching the brutal fight fought before her eyes, Faye felt her gaze linger on Snowflake’s pained yet determined countenance, and she fell into a daze of sorts. Everything around her blurred, her focus shifted from the snowy mage towards the pale ray of light, and then it was like she was back there. Back in the dark room, back in that terrible room smelling of sweat and rotting flesh. Her soul stood amidst the burning fire, over the ash of fabric, wood, and thread, below a chilling whisper under the spell of a bony hand on her head.

“Faye, don’t forget.”

Crash

Faye jolted awake from her reverie, quickly climbing to her feet and looking around for the source of that noise. Noticing Snowflake over the lifeless body of a demon, Faye released a breath in relief. There was no doubt that this woman was as strong as she was beautiful. Right there in the middle of a mortal carnage, she looked no less majestic than the stars and the illuminant blue moon behind her. It was a praise worthy sight, one Faye felt an urge to look like.

But as it seemed they were done taking care of all the demons for the time being, Faye started moving. “We have to go check the rift all those people were talking about. It appears that’s where all the demons were coming from and we can’t risk it being left open as such,” Faye spoke as she retrieved Hana from between the interlock of two mangled seats, just holding on to the little puppet instead of using her to communicate. There was no point in it when Faye was already speaking for herself. Besides, her muscles ached so badly that she didn’t feel confident in letting her fingers or mouth work for the ventriloquist.

Giving Snowflake a pat of good job on her shoulder, Faye walked past her into the compartment at the front but stopped right on her track with a hand over her mouth feeling the bile rising in her throat. The bloody sight made her almost retch but she held on to the walls and let the moment pass. There was no hope for life between all those corpses. They have died a very painful death.

Swallowing back any words, Faye waded past the bodies of red and black, almost running towards the other door until they were at the very front of the train. It was a total wreck inside. She threw a piece of broken metal strip across the floor and kicked a door leading outside open, and jumped out of the derailed train. It seemed that the vehicle had stopped half outside a tunnel and right in front of her was a strange rift, a diagonal opening that reminded her of a claw mark. “That is definitely where the demons are from”.

3701/3600

Faye just kept her eyes on it for a long time, almost in a daze at the starry ripples rolling off the rift’s surface. It loomed over the two mage menacing yet strangely fascinating. For the young puppeteer especially, the bright lucid light falling over her felt like soft whispers of a forbidden voice egging her closer to it. She felt so strange. She felt as if she should be at the other end of the rift. What a curious yet terrifying thought that was. Yet, such an idea felt so natural that Faye would not realize how peculiar such a thought was until she would be safe under the covers on her bed back at the inn.

At the moment, she took a couple of steps closer as if to inspect it and quizzically raised a hand to the v of her chin. “I am afraid I am not sure. The rift opened up a portal to our world for a swarm of demons –the demons we have already killed- and I’m guessing that it should close by itself soon enough as long as no other demons come pouring out of it,” Faye answered with a lift of her lips, wryly smiling at the very thing that spelled doom to people of Earthland. Lost to her own thoughts, there was a sense of disappointment in herself when Faye smoothened over the thin white shirt over her hips. When fingering a gaping tear at the side of the soft fabric - leaving her smooth, fair skin and the curve of her waist on display- Faye lost her focus for a short moment. She had had so much trouble dealing with just a few lesser ranked demons and she called herself a mage everyday while taking money from others for completing simple, hardly inconvenient tasks. Faye couldn’t believe how foolish she had been.

Then let me help

Faye jumped at the sonorous voice. Reflex willed her to look around for its source until she stumbled startlingly onto the realization that there was no one except herself and Snow in the scene. Even the other passengers have started evacuating one after the other with the help of other mages and services which arrived once the demons were clarified to no longer be a threat. And if heaven wills it, they really will not have to see another demon again as long as the rift closed soon enough.

“Am I the only one who heard it?” Faye would whisper to herself, not intending for anyone to hear it but also hoping for someone to tell her she is wrong. She was so confused and committed to her train of thoughts, the young Blue Pegasus mage will inevitably miss the strange light inside of Hana’s doll eyes.

4,164/3600

The member 'Snowflake' has done the following action : Spin

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'Dice 100' : 19