Soul Merger

The rubble and locks up at the top had yielded to Ibaraki's might, revealing a staircase down. Alissa and Ibaraki led the group to the basement area. They'd doubled back a few times, and now they were in front of two double doors. These helpfully had windows in them letting the group see into the room. It was a mess of walkways and pipes, with a blue glowing pool at the side. Smudged and used up runes were scribbled all over the surfaces as well.

"Think this is the place," Ibaraki said.

"If you'd do the honors Alissa?" Rosalina asked.

Alissa nodded and did a run over for traps. The doors had an overlap to prevent someone from just slipping a blade between, but a quick rake undid the locks rather quickly. She pushed the door open and slipped inside.

The mass of shadows and strange places people could hide meant everyone else was through the doors before she could confirm they were alone, but since no horrors lept out to eat them, it was probably fine. "Keep your eyes open for other traps or minions. This is supposedly the man's last resort, so he probably has some security."

"I think the queen bitch and the demon parade up top counted as a lot of security," Ibaraki pointed out. "He's gotta keep some cards to play at the front door. Otherwise he'd just get his face stomped in."

"Just be careful," Alissa retorted.

Kotori nodded. "I'll stay in the back until you need me."

"Same," Clara said, holding up her axe. Fili and Rosalina looked like they were paying close attention as well. It made sense. Magical duels usually went to the fastest.

They started down the rows. Alissa led them to the path further away from the strange blue glow, under the assumption it probably wouldn't help them.

A rattling sound like a chain or gate opening caused them all to freeze. It came from above, the pipes and walkways shielding the specific area, but if it had heralded someone's approach there were only a few areas they could go. Alissa pointed the place out to her friends, eyes straining to see movement along the upper paths. Footfalls on steel had Rosalina and Fili pointing their weapons, waiting for their target to appear.

Then the lights went out and the air roared with fire and thunder.

Ibaraki stumbled backwards, right before pain exploded in Alissa's side. She crumpled down and back, her cloak falling off her shoulders. Her hand dropped to squeeze away the pain, and she felt blood pouring out. She heard Fili choke out a scream before Clara appeared at her side holding the small mage. The large woman grabbed her as well and dragged them all behind a large machine.

She wanted to stand up and help Fili but she couldn't seem to get herself moving. The pain in her side was immense, and she was starting to feel light headed. At least the thunderous noise had stopped.

Alissa hissed in agony as Ibaraki and Rosalina appeared over her and roughly pushed her on her unhurt side. The dragon priestess hissed out "True Heal" as she held her hands over Alissa's.

Warmth trickled into the area, slowly clearing out the pain. Alissa's mind slowly cleared as well, enough that she was able to look down. Whatever she'd been hit with had passed right through, ripping open her body. Rosalina was healing some important organs. Which was not a good sign.

Still it looked like she wasn't in danger of dying immediately. And the pain was clearing out. "Help Fili," she said to the priestess.

"Fili's already stopped her bleeding," Rosalina snapped back. "And she was only hit in the shoulder. Now shut up and let me fix your liver." Alissa didn't feel that much better at the information, but she decided to let the cleric do her job.

After a minute she realized Rosalina was almost certainly right. Because her mind had cleared up a great deal. She managed to look over and see Fili was mostly bandaged up already, the woman having used slime to seal her wound. Ibaraki meanwhile was covered with welts, like she'd run afoul of a group of wasps. If wasps could also punch holes through armor, since her chestplate was a wreck.

"The hell was that?" she managed to mutter.

"Pre-Fall weapon," Fili replied quietly. "And he's got some kind of camouflage spell up, so we can't target him at this range. We're lucky Alissa's outfit opened up so he was stunned. Otherwise he might have kept hitting us."

Ibaraki sighed. "He also botched whatever ritual he used to summon the thing, because guns should be able to hurt me these days, now that they're all mythical ancient tech. He won't make that mistake again. Gonna give you back Akari so she can do the thinking." The catgirl's expression shifted and she hissed in pain. "Thanks Ibaraki. Anyway what can we do?"

"From here not much," Fili said. "If we could see it Rosalina could destroy the weapon with a lightning spell, but since he's hidden...."

"Uh, can we break the stuff he wants to take with him and just leave?" Kotori asked.

"Maybe?" Clara replied. "Suppose we gotta ask, how badly do we want to kill this guy?"

Rosalina finished her spell and leaned back against their cover. "I'd really like him dead. Extra dead if possible."

"He is responsible for Raiel's death. Kinda," Kotori muttered.

Alissa closed her eyes and considered it. "I'm tired of loose ends. And I think I know how to kill him."

"How?" Fili asked. "Maybe area attack spells? It'll be dangerous breaking cover though."

"That'll be plan B," Alissa said, rummaging through her bag. At the bottom she found her eyedrops and carefully grabbed the one that worked for low light. Two drops made the blue glow from the pool as bright as the lighting from before. "Plan A is I go back to my roots, and hunt him down like a proper rogue."

Fili looked worried, but she didn't protest. "What can we do to help?"

"Get him talking," Alissa said.

Rosalina smirked. "Oh that shouldn't be hard. Still I'm going to heal Fili, so Akari, you'll have to start off."

The foreign priestess shook her head in mock annoyance. "Giving me the hard part. Well I suppose I have one card to play." She took a deep breath before calling out. "You know if you just want to die permanently we have a wide array of options! Some don't even hurt!"

After a moment the demon's voice rang out. "Thank you, but I'm more of a 'do it myself' kind of person. It's the only way to make sure it's done right."

Alissa reset her cloak over her shoulders then slipped out back the way they came, using the shadows of some barrels to hide her movement. Once she was away from the place the others were hiding from she moved to a bundle of pipes. They were tied together at five foot intervals, which would help her a little.

"You know, for someone who says they like doing things themselves you seem to work with minions a lot," Clara said. "We just got through a whole bunch of losers out back. And I bet the poor kids storming the front had to fight even more."

Alissa touched the pipes gingerly to make sure they weren't hot, then carefully hugged the bundle. She began slowly climbing, making sure to keep as quiet as possible.

"Yes, and look how that turned out." The demon priest sighed. "They've all failed me. It's quite obvious I'm the only person that can be trusted to get things done."

It was slow going. The iron binding rings only giving her small places to relax here and there. She had to admit without her merge strength this would likely be impossible.

"Maybe if everyone on your side is stupid and evil, you're doing something bad!" Kotori pointed out.

Her newly healed side decided that it was done with today and started complaining. Alissa forced herself to ignore it. She was getting closer to her goal and this wasn't going to stop her.

"More that 'good' people lack my perspective. You're all so eager to die stupidly for some reason. You can't see how pathetic this endless cycle is. Only by learning the way to break it can our souls become free."

Her foot slipped and she hung onto the pipes for dear life. Every moment trying to regain her footing was agonizing, but she couldn't just blindly flail around. She had to stay quiet!

"Cycles are the way the universe works," Akari stated. "Your refusal to accept them or abandon them is the cause of your personal suffering. Don't drag the rest of us into it."

Finally Alissa got a foothold and ended her own personal suffering. Or at least reduced it. Now that her arms weren't complaining as much her side was whining again. Something to pay him back for.

The demon priest sighed again. "It's quite pathetic how willing you are to just give in to 'how the world works.' Humanity's only redeeming feature is their desire to fix this pathetic reality. It's just in this case fixing it requires a bit of destruction."

Alissa reached the upper walkway and pulled herself onto it. She took a moment to rest. The hardest part was done.

"Well yes, destroying you will fix things," Rosalina replied. "The problem is we're not interested in your petty little insistence that everyone needs to join your little snit fit."

Alissa readied herself and waited. This would make some noise so best to do it when the talking started again.

"I will admit I have a certain petulant desire to slap this 'reality' you love so much across the face for its terrible design," the man said. "But it's also important for people to realize what I've done. To take my vision into the future. One city blasted out of the river of souls won't fix the universe. But it'll show others what needs to be done!"

Alissa jumped onto the railing then pushed off to leap again. Her jumps took her to the top of the pipes above the walkways. From here she'd be able to sneak up on the man. Especially if he kept looking down.

"No she's right. Your study is incredibly unscientific," Fili said. "You aren't even making a real apocalypse bomb! Just putting together a magical copy using half baked spells."

She continued down the pipe. Moving faster but still making sure she wasn't going too quickly. Her friends might be able to see her, but if they kept the demon looking down at them, he wouldn't notice.

"My designs are at least four fifths baked thank you! Though I did notice the mistake I made creating this weapon. Definitely going to need to fix that. Especially if I run into any other creatures that need to be shot with conceptual attacks."

Alissa felt something shift beneath her and she froze as a loose bolt popped off the pipes. She tried to think of something she could do, but it was already too late. Gravity was taking it down to clatter off the machinery below and give the whole game away! She closed her eyes and flattened herself against her hiding spot.

Instead of the clatter of metal a crackle of ice and then the roar of the pre-Fall weapon filled the air. This was a shorter burst, but it left her ears ringing.

A moment later she realized what had happened. Fili must have fired a spell to conceal the falling object's sound!

"That was quite rude," the demon complained.

To her relief Fili called back, "Sorry, not sorry."

Alissa shakily continued forwards. There was no time to spare.

"So do you have a plan other than wait me out? Or is this going to end the boring way?" the demon called out. Alissa could tell about where the voice was now. And it was close to the pipes she was using to advance. She got into position above the walkway.

"By boring do you mean 'wait for our friends to corner you'? Because that's a solid plan," Clara said.

Alissa peered at the walkway. After a moment she saw it. The blur of a sustained cloaking spell. She carefully drew her knife.

"Well I-" as the man spoke, Alissa threw her blade. It zipped through the air and slapped into the demon. His response turned into a scream as pain flowed through him.

And then the dagger bounced and clattered to the walkway. It had only been a glancing shot! He'd been back in action in a moment, but Fili needed something more than just a scream to target him!

Alissa cursed, then grabbed her cloak. With a twisting motion that nearly flung her off the pipes she threw it at the blurry area where the demon priest was. The heavy cloak slapped into his hands and wrapped around his body, showing his position to everyone.

"Disintegrate," Fili incanted, and a line of white light flew out and smashed into the figure. He screamed again as his cloaking spell broke. And then his body seemed to turn into yellow red light before disappearing like campfire sparks, leaving only silence behind.

Alissa gave a deep sigh as she finally relaxed. Then she hopped down to the walkway. It was finally over.

After a moment her eyes widened and she cursed. There was one huge problem.

Her cloak had disintegrated too!