Welcome to Hellious (Mission 2.0)

[Zaria DeGantz]

Zaria was able to regain composure fairly quickly, and went around inspecting the troops to see if everyone was alright. It seemed so for the most part and she was relieved to see this was the case.

She had a container of water on hand, as she had the feeling there'd be a shortage of it in Hellious. Still, she didnt want to use it unless necessary. As she watched the demon approach the party, she placed a hand on the sword that she'd always kept with her in case of a water shortage. It was long, but sturdy, and in the right hands could cause significant damage.

She kept her distance for now and simply watched the exchange between Mark, Shanira and the demons. Her duty was to Benjamin, and to her homeland Unda. Duo was threatening the wellbeing of her people, and due to this fact- she was more than willing to help Mark defeat him to save her homeland.

She drew her sword, waiting for the right moment.

[Mark Angelus Fri]

The demons were quickly finished, Mark looked back at his crew and gave them an emotionless stare. It was clear they were shaken and even disgusted...

"Hey!" Mark yelled, his voice strong enough to grab the Devil's attention himself, "Need I remind you why we are here? Must I enforce that the ONLY hope for saving your homes is being locked in a cage? I warned every one of you that there would be blood, I gave you many chances to back out!"

He looked between everyone, meeting eye contact with everyone there, "Right now there are angels being killed for YOUR people, Heaven gains nothing from this other than a massive death tole. It may not mean much to you but those are MY brothers and sisters fighting right now."

His words were heavy and immersed in emotion. He raised his hand and pointed over to his crew, hissing out a last couple of words:

"So suck it up and prepare to fight. We have a damn world to save."

[shanira]

Shanira looked from the fallen dozen demons to Mark and the others, even the others that apparently never bothered to get into the fight with them. It was no big deal to Shanira, she was convinced she could have taken the whole lot of demons on herself.

And somehow hearing Mark's words (and noting how powerful his voice was!) struck something odd in her, something she'd only really known to happen when Alexander was deeply upset by something. It was compassion, really, and to an extent empathy if it weren't for Shanira having cut her ties with just about all of the other guardians she'd known and technically was related to in Heaven.

She looked at her sword and then back to Mark. She was here to aid Zeke, and to aid Zeke meant to help the leader here, who was Mark.

"I will slay every thing I can if it means preventing another death in your family, Commander," she spoke to him, her tone for the first time in this trip slightly softer than it had ever been earlier. She was genuine in her words, though.
But again, she too to an extent could understand what something like this meant to him. His brothers and sisters died here helping the mortals. And when it came to her direct family, her own predecessor was missing, assumed to be...dead? She wasn't sure, and she hadn't bothered to check.

[Yeligar Maelstrom]

Yeligar nodded at Mark as he held out his lance. Yeligar knew Mark wouldn't use them for some sort of afterlife feud, so he was willing to fight the demons. The winds around the area started to picked up violently, and started to surround his lance until it looked drill bit. Yeligar then jump extremely high up, and then came crashing down inside the demon legion, sending most of them either blown away, or made them fall backward bringing their defense down.
"WIND WIRES!" The tip of the lance fired a bunch of wire out of winds, and when he swung the lance around, it cut the demons around him.

[Zeke Omoihake]

As the first contingent of demons were mopped up by the team and the onslaught of angelic might, Zeke couldn't tell if it was the screaming or the imagery that stirred fear within him so powerfully, but to see and hear such things hit him far worse than the worst description of Hellious ever could. Even as the initial attack was underway Zeke wondered if the Earth's understanding of Hell had come from this place, and once more the line of fiction and reality blurred in his mind.

What chance do I stand in here? Does this place have 9 levels that we're going to have to fight through? What if all the bad guys we beat are waiting here? What if we have to fight Satan? Or a Pitfiend? Man, I really hope we don't, there's no way I'm anywhere close to level 20. His thoughts went a million more places from a million more sources before Mark's words roused in him the courage to get moving. He was right, scary as this place was it was what he was asked to do. Zeke looked to his pouch where the orb was kept and gave himself a self assured push forward.

Yet as he moved to get off the gigantic Undanian warship the familiar face of Ingway was moving the other way, away from the ensuing battle and past him. Unsure of what had transpired on land Zeke could only gather that the man was troubled by something. "Hey man, what's wrong?" Unperturbed by his words though Ingway continued to the lower decks, leaving Zeke no choice in his mind but to get his ally back out there. Heck, with Hell itself after them they'd need every hand they could get.

"Come on Ingway, we need you out there. It's us versus evil incarnate out there. If you're scared I totally understand, so what say you watch my back and I'll watch yours out there? A friend can make a world of difference when stuff like this is facing you down." Zeke carried on in a sympathetic tone, his words reaching out at straws in hopes that he would get the mysterious man to open up or change his mind.

[Brea Cao-Wei]

Brea's red blade was resting lightly against the neck of a demon that he'd subdued. He almost went to ask it a question before it lunged forwards towards him. The Itan-Sha swordsman wasted no time in pressing his arm forwards and twisting his body to the side, his blade slicing cleanly through the creatures neck, the head lolling to the floor whilst he held both of his blades forwards, his arms outstretched and the swords crossing over one another in an 'x' shape. His eyes were narrowed and his mind was solely focused on survival.

"What do you think happens when you die, Brea?" A slightly younger Brea Cao-Wei looked across at Alta Frei. They were riding back towards the battlefield where they would clash with Duo, and the question suddenly sprung from his friend confused him... It wasn't like Alta to dwell on negative things such as death.

"Nothing. I reckon that once you're done..? You're done." He smiled warmly. "That isn't necessarily the case though, that's just my opinion. Why do you ask?" Alta frowned deeply, biting at her bottom lip.

"Well... I'm just sort of hoping there is something, you know? I don't want to die at the hand of one of Duo's lackeys and then have that be that!" She pressed out her bottom lip and stuck her chin up to the air stubbornly, which earned her a laugh on Brea's part. He reigned his horse in a little bit closer to hers and placed a reassuring hand on her knee, with a soft smile.

"Well... Even if there is something else, I don't think we've earned places as Archangels, do you?" She smiled and blushed slightly, shaking her head.

"Alright! So make a deal with me!" She said, looking across at Brea with emerald green eyes and a wide smile. "Even if we go all the way to the bottom of Hellious, we have to do it together! Even if only one of us goes... The other has to promise to find them." Brea nodded and they both shook hands on it.

Brea was curious... Would he find Alta here..? He couldn't decide. Part of him wanted to find her here, wanted to drag her back to the land of the living with him. If they were planning on doing so with Kain, why not with Alta?! But then the other part remembered where he was. He had no idea what state she'd be in. He had her sword, so who was to say she'd be in a condition to even walk..? Would she even want to leave..? He pushed the thoughts from his mind, this wasn't the time for them.

It seems Hellious was affecting everyone in their own way.

[Mark Angelus Fri]

"My thanks, Lady Shanira," Mark nodded to her before looking back at the fighting. The Demons were now arranging their movements to strike back at the invading Angels, so this was their moment to get moving!

"We need to find our path to the prison, but this place is like a giant maze... thankfully I have somewhat of an idea where we're going!" There were many 'pipes' leading in all different directions, "I'M JUST GOING TO PICK ONE AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIVE DOWN IT. LET'S GO!"

Mark began to rush over to one of the pipes, taking a cautionary glance down it before shrugged, "Down into the rabbit hole..." Mark shrugged before leaping into it.

[shanira]

To anyone who actually gave it any kind of thought, it would probably seem like a horribly stupid idea for someone to follow orders that were basically 'I don't know what I'm doing, BUT DO THIS ANYWAY', even if it was from their commanding officer.

But Shanira didn't think, at least not that far. Her egotistical thoughts were along the lines of "I can kill anything that I come across!"

And the man ordering it was not only super cute an archangel, but an archangel that she would probably never get over exploding a demon's head because that was the awesomest thing she'd ever seen in her existence.

That and the pipe ride also looked kinda fun, despite it being in Hellious.

And without a single question to be had, Shanira let out a 'wheeeeeeeeeeeeee~', cartwheeling and doing a highly unnecessary forward flip and down the pipe after Mark headfirst.

[Kodoku Itami]

Itami had remained relatively quiet throughout the journey, offering help only when he really had to and giving his own opinions when everyone else refused to. Thankfully, those opportunities had been slim. During this first wave of fighting, he'd been doing what he did past, slipping behind the enemy and killing them before they even knew that he was there... But now they were jumping down pipes without the slightest idea where they were going.

To say Itami felt uncomfortable was an understatement.

Either way, you've got to do what you've got to do. His eyes burnt up with a bright red glow as he followed downwards, if anything was going to surprise them down here, he wanted to see it first before it did.

[Ramirez De Zoro]

"Mark, the percentage of picking the right one is below .01 percent!" Ramirez said right before Mark jumped down one of the pipe. "Well, my odds surviving without him is 0 percent, so time to follow." Ramirez grabbed his books and put them in his satchel as he threw some alchemic bombs to some demons as he jumped down the pipe with Mark.

[Mark Angelus Fri]

The fall through the 'pipe' felt like an eternity but when they finally did see the end coming up there was a distinct sound of someone humming. The pipe exit was a long fall but what shocked Mark was not the height of the fall... but what was below it.

What could best be described as a meadow of flowers was below, complete with bushy trees and a bright blue sky one would almost think they took a pipeline straight into Heaven.

Finally Mark snapped himself out of shock and summoned a large barrier to catch everyone before they hit the ground. On contact with the barrier it acted as a net, catching you before sending you up a little more until you finally laid flat on it.

Mark slid off the 'net' and examined the area, "What realm of Hellious are we in...?"

The ground felt real, the air smelled fresh and the sounds of nature were present making it way more believable than it should be.

[shanira]

The whole ride down the pipe thing Shanira spiraled about, flipping and twirling like some kind of dancer in the air and for the time being just enjoying the ride. She followed Mark into the net, though upon landing in it she threw herself purposely into it and tried using it as a trampoline to project herself back up into the air where she did another fantastic set of flips before landing in the middle of a bunch of pink-coloured flowers.

"Oooooooooh~~" the same warrior who only minutes before beheaded a demon with supreme might now picked away happily at a couple of flowers, despite how strange they were to be growing in Hellious. She twisted one into her hair near her ponytail before examining the rest of the area, eyes wide and curious.

"This seems odd. Full of tricks!" she concluded, fists balled and almost ready for a fire-breathing snake or something to come leaping out of a tree at them, "at least now I can fight their treachery and look good at the same time!"

[Zaria DeGantz]

"So that's our plan, huh?" Zaria seemed a little unsure about jumping down a pipe. It seemed questionable, but that's where the team was going so she decided to follow. She put her sword back as though not to injure anyone on the way down, then uneasily slid down.

Unlike the trip into Hellious, Zaria landed less than gracefully, and would have fallen on her face if not for the barrier. She picked herself up then dusted herself off and looked around. For now all she saw was Shanira placing flowers in her hair, to which she couldn't help rolling her eyes. Zaria wasn't familiar with celestial beings at all and according to her- Something was off about that girl. It also didn't help that Zaria couldn't understand a word Shanira spoke.

"I wasn't aware Hellious still had life...or is it all an illusion?" She thought outloud.

(OOC: And then a fat red Plummer jumped down the pipe with them yelling "MAMMA MIA! ITSSA ME, MARIO!")

[Eli Ventus]

Eli noted the oncoming demons and grabbed Juno's hand, leaping down the tunnel as well. After a brief moment of darkness they rejoined the others and popped out in the field, both of them had different reactions.

"It might be a tra-" Eli began only for Juno to squeal.

"OOOH LOOK AT ALL THE FLOWERS ELI!" she ran over and joined Shanira in picking the flowers, Eli felt like face-palming but resisted it. He walked to Zaria and put his hand to his chin.

"There's a huge legend that goes with this you know, a long time ago Hellious used to be a country - and by that I mean before Guasto and such, once Hellious was a thriving country that steadily grew more advanced year after year. Now, the story goes that the All-God didn't like the way Hellious was going, they were evolving unnaturally fast and even took to the habit of desecrating the shrines that were left behind for the people to remember the gods and such. So the All-God didn't destroy the country, he cursed it, and used his powers to create a whole new land mass over it. That land mass became the lands we know today and as for Hellious? The curse was to change their appearance to match what they have become, demons."

He paused and looked among this field, "Its a scary thought...if its true I mean."

[Mark Angelus Fri]

Mark didn't speak at first, he was too focused in attempting to find a flaw that would explain where they were. "This is no longer a land of the living, Eli. And that's why this can't be possible, this shouldn't even be here-"

He stopped, spotting something in the distance. A young boy walking the field with a older man, the young boy seemed to be doing his best to walk the steps the older man was...

"Shit..." Mark cringed as he watched the two walk. They seemed so close, yet so out of reach at the same time. "I know what realm we are in..."

Suddenly the older man disappeared, leaving the young boy to sit all alone in the field of flowers. And as the young boy wept alone in the field, the flowers began to wilt as his cries became louder and more haunting.

"We're in the realm that haunts everything and everyone... we're in the realm of nightmares."

As the flowers began to wilt the sky seemed to join it, loosing its strong blue color and being replaced by a dull grey surrounding. At that point Mark had seen enough.

"We need to find our way out of here right away," Mark said while looking around the area to spot another pipe. He managed to see one in the distance, "This way-"

Suddenly the flowers they were stepping through began to vine out in all direction, attempting to grab everyone around them. To make things worse, Demons began to climb out of the pipe they had fallen through.

"THERE'S THE ARCHANGEL!" one of them roared, "KILL THEM ALL!"

"Not good..." Mark hissed to himself as he struggled to get the vines off him, "Prepare for a fight guys!"