Welcome to Hellious (Mission 2.0)

[Brea Cao-Wei]

"Aww man..." Brea mumbled as he wrapped his fingers around one of his swords and took a defensive stance. "Always on about the archangel! Never show any interest in his loyal fighters do they? Man... It's such a confidence killer knowing that you're a nobody in Hellious." He smirked. "Waa." His eyes narrowed as he focused on the vines reaching out towards him and the demons surrounding him.

"Ichiken..." He exhaled "Iaido!"

He suddenly unsheathed his sword and swung it out to the side.

Silence.

Stillness.

A sudden slicing hiss...

Golden/yellow lines suddenly erupted all around Brea, crossing over each vine that was wrapped around a limb, or a demon that was getting too close. The swordsman slid his sword up it's respective sheath, before sliding it back in with a resounding hiss, before it clicked into place. The vines were sliced into pieces, the demons dropped down dead. Brea pointed towards the pipes and the demons crawling out of them.

"You've got more than Archangels to worry about."

[Zaria DeGantz]

"I wasn't aware of that..." Zaria found the story Eli was telling to be very interesting. "It seems I haven't been paying attention during my history lessons." She smirked slightly. She stopped short, and looked in Mark's direction. "So my suspicions about this being an illusion were somewhat correct then..."

It wasn't until Mark had mentioned it, that the vibe changed from Mysterious and intriguing to dark and uneasy. Zaria didn't really have time to think before the vines grabbed her. She struggled for her sword, and slashed around her constraints. The vines grew back nearly as quickly as she sliced them, and it was difficult to move forward.

Despite it all, she couldn't help but smirk at Brea's comment. "It's nice to know one of us can still maintain a light spirit in such dark times."

[Brea Cao-Wei]

"Like I said, I always thought I'd end up here... What have I got to lose?" He smiled grimly as his free hand wrapped around the hilt of his red sword and unsheathed both with the notable hiss of steel.

"Niken..." He muttered as he crossed his swords against his chest, focusing his breathing down to a slow draw. "Odaru!"

He suddenly moved forwards with unparalleled grace, almost sliding in between demons and the vines that were binding everyone. With a simple flick of the wrist, the demon was on the floor dead, the vine was sliced. His movements were fluid and almost dance-like, until one of the vines managed to slyly wrap around his ankle, sending him sprawling to the ground with an 'Oof'.

[Yeligar Maelstrom]

Yeligar was trapped among the vines, and as the demons were gathering around them Yeligar twisted his lance.
"Torando Trap!" Yeligar said, as the wind surrounded him cutting the vines, and left him in hover as the demons got closer to him. One jumped towards him, but when it touched the barrier, it was sliced into bits. The ball turned from dark gray to a brown color.
"DUST BLAST!" Yeligar shouted, and the wind exploded from him, cutting the demons around him with the sand in the wind.

[shanira]

Shanira's earlier conclusion appeared to have been half right. It was Hellious afterall, so it didn't surprise her in the least that this fancy, lovely meadow was some awful trap.
Though, that 'lovely' flower in her hair she thought would make her look awesomely attractive as she fought all evil also turned out to be an enemy, one that sprawled out over her head and caused her to let out a highly frustrated hiss as she slashed madly at it and others that grabbed at her.

"Avi aert vita privaei!" she shouted, another seemingly generic declaration of something proud on her part. She sliced down at the vines quicker and quicker until she had enough space to move before they could grab her again, the moment that when it was open she spent hopping in quick spurts around the area to avoid the vines.

[Mark Angelus Fri]

"RHAAAAA!" Mark roared as his body began to glow with a bright light before burning all vines that had grabbed onto him. "The demons aren't real! Nothing in this realm is real!"

Sure enough, all the Demons that had been killed started to get back up. Somehow Mark doubted the pipe he was looking at was even real and that the probability that there was some nasty trap was very high.

"There is a demon that makes all these nightmares, if we can find him we can end this!" Mark looked around, trying to find anything in the demon's work that could be considered a 'flaw'.

And that's when he remembered something from his 'file' that he read when he was preparing for the mission in heaven, "HEY, Itami, you're something of an illusionist, eh!? Find the flaw in his work if you can!"

Meanwhile Mark did what he could to aid the group, by pressing one finger to the ground he ignited all the flowers into a heaping pile of flames - it wasn't hot enough to hurt any of his allies, but it was effective enough to spread from flower to flower.

[Eli Ventus]

When the flowers suddenly became demons Eli's eyes widened, remembering Juno was grabbing some flowers he turned around.

"Juno!"

Sure enough, Juno's eyes widened as the flowers spurt vines at her, she dropped them and the vines shot for her.

"Ahnodon'ttouchmeanddon'ttakemyvirginity!!" she screamed at high speed, using some of her magic to blast some to bits. But they kept coming for her-

-until that is Eli came in, swinging his blade down and slicing them up before they got close to her.

"Got em!" he said, then blinked. "Wait...what did you say earlier?"

"Tentacles are the most vile creatures in the world..." Juno said, shaking, "They prey on young women everywhere and steal something precious from them...SOMETHING THAT CAN NEVER BE RECLAIMED!"

Eli blinked, "Like what....jewelry?"

"No...worse..." Juno shuddered, when she saw Mark begin to burn the flowers she let out maniacal laughter, "Hahahahahah! Burn them! Burn those women hunting tentacle bastards! HAHAHAHA!"

Eli felt sweat grow, but not because of the flames, "I am beginning to wonder who the Lunar Knight here is..."

As Juno laughed in seemly triumph...until that is the demons who were on fire leaped out of the ground to try and kill them before they burned up, Juno's laughter turned to a scream of fear - and Eli moved - charging forward and with a single swing of his sword (combined with Lunar Knight power) sent a blast that sent them all staggering in the air. Then he leaped, from creature to creature in the air, stabbing them as he passed, for the last one he sliced apart and dived back for the ground. Landing on his feet he stood in front of Juno.

"Stay back Juno!" he warned, but Juno was kind of in la-la land again, viewing Eli again as her knight in shining armor and muttering.

"He's gonna defend my honor for me..."

[shanira]

As the vines burned Shanira looked down at them, briefly so before she slashed at another demon.

"Not real? One of these demons makes this happen?"

She looked around at all the demons she could see, head whipping every direction and she got into position as though she were about to do an olympic run.

"Then we must kill them all!"

Shanira broke into a high-speed sprint, whipping around the area with sword out and cutting down demons like weak plants--the real one had to be in here somewhere, right?! Maybe it was a good thing she wasn't easily tired...

[Kodoku Itami]

Itami was stood at the back of the group. The vines were halted in a circle around him, held back by the black flames of Amaterasu. His left eye was weeping blood, but it was worth it for the security of not having to worry about being attacked whilst he scanned the area. His eyes narrowed as he looked around the plane. The air behind him shimmered, taking the appearance of an outline of a large demonic-appearing figure.

"Are you ready?" Itami asked.

Silence. Itami nodded, closing his eyes.

"Mangekyo Sharingan." He opened both of his eyes, which instantly started to weep blood. The scent of demonic magic instantly became somehow even stronger as Itami indulged himself on his dark energy. The world around him became a number of vibrant colours through which he could pick out the individual 'scent' of everyone there. He was trying to find one that stood out... A deep red... He sniffed. And found it.

Itami raised a hand and pointed a finger at a single figure, slightly masked by magic, rendering it invisible.

"Chidori Senbon."

With a wave of his hand, a thin needle of electricity flew forth and struck the demon in it's shoulder, rendering it's invisibility magic useless.

[Mark Angelus Fri]

The entire vision suddenly started to fade, like someone unzipping a metaphorical zipper that is the nightmare to find yourself looking at the truth. And to be honest, the truth was damn ugly: the room was like a giant box lit with small grey lights, casting a dark overtone over the entire realm that had great white ropes that hung from the top of the room.

The one thing with color was a creature that could best be described as a cockroach with a human head, with all of those great white ropes attaching straight into it. The creature seemed to be using one of it's many 'hands' to knit together new nightmares and didn't seem to notice that its illusion was broken through.

"Hey!" Mark called up to it, the creature stopping in its 'work' to look down at the group, "Yeah you, you ugly sack of shit!"

The demon couldn't help but look at the group as if 'do you actually see me?'. Until finally realizing that they DID in fact see the creature did it begin to go into panic mode.

"HOW!?" It asked, "How did you find me!?"

It's eyes managed to settle on the person responsible for breaking his nightmare, and it wasn't too happy at all. "I'LL TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!"

Suddenly the ground began to break up with streams of lava below it, the group was stuck on small floating rocks. Was this another nightmare? Mark sure didn't want to figure out.

"We're not going to be able to leave this realm until that creature dies!"

[Kodoku Itami]

"Consider it done."

Itami threw his cloak to the small patch of earth on which he still stood and simply waited for a moment. He pointed one arm across at the demon who was causing the illusion and narrowed his red eyes, dried blood around them cracking as he did so. His slightly open palm glowed with a blue energy, the sound of birds chirping filled the air before reaching a crescendo. A ball of lightning was enclosed in Itami's open palm, pointing towards the cockroach like a beacon, he wanted this putrid things attention before he ended its worthless life.

"The swordsman had it right. The Archangels aren't the only ones to fear here."

He disappeared from sight, the blue glow slowly fading into nothing and the chirping dying down also. Then suddenly, the floor around the demon lot up blue as Itami reappeared above him, his lightning encrusted fist poised back to thrust. He descended on the beast.

"You have demons to worry about as well!"

He thrust his fist forwards.

"Chidori!"

[Ingway Desmodius]

I paused in my introspection of events, caught slightly by surprise by the voice of a young man and his sympathetic plea. I recognized the young man as Zeke, a guy I'd seen amongst the heroes before, and that Seigmand had informed me further about. I had heard tales of his struggle against Onyx during the time of the war between Ignis and Crepusculum, and I had to admit that boy seemed rather quite and reserved for a person who not only participated in a war, but lived through it.

I was really in no position to deny the young man, especially with his heartfelt plea, and was glad that he felt it more important to engage me then go off with the others, as it felt like a listening ear might've help cut some of the internal tension that was running rampant in my head.

Shifting my gaze to Zeke, a gave a rather paltry attempt at my usual coy grin, all to sure that he'd easily see past. Giving a hefty sigh, I pondered exactly how to respond to the young hero, giving way to a slightly awkward pause before finally giving Zeke a response.

"Can we really call the demons out there "evil?" I simply looked at Zeke for a second before continuing my thought. "I mean, think about it, those demons spoke, mind you I didn't understand a word, but they spoke, and that means we are killing sentient creatures for our own personal gain, and not only that, but we not only invaded, but struck the first. What makes us any better then Duo if we do that?"

I could feel the usual bonds that held my personal thought and feeling come undone as I started, and could feel my heart rate rise as a result, feeling slightly empowered by the sensation. I couldn't just stop there, everything I felt regarding the situation needed to come out, and even if Zeke didn't agree, at least it felt like he'd listen, and I suppose that was really all I could ask for right now.

"And not just that, but the whole Heaven trying to help us; what a crock of shit that is. I mean, how many of Allorums problems have come from Heaven? Trucido, Duo, and god knows what else, literally! I mean, they knew about these guys, if not even stopped them before, but not before nigh genocide or destruction of the world, and I'm supposed to believe that they care, when instead they're probably up there tossing coins on a table betting whether they'll have to save the world at the last moment again, or if they can just relax and let us win."

I had always had a decent measure of disdain for the gods and their fickle nature, one that only grew as I did more and more research into the past, and it was only now that I got a true feeling of how they operate. They, just like me, were opportunists, always looking out for themselves, but at least any harm I did was of little consequence on a small personal level, as opposed to letting mass murder and chaos ensue when in possess of the power to stop it.

"Malevolent terror mongers, revelling in our suffering, and I'm supposed to be sorry for their losses; I'd laugh if the comment wasn't so callous," I muttered loud enough so that Zeke might hear, hoping that the young man might have some personal thoughts on the matter.

[Mark Angelus Fri]

The demon was hit hard by the Chidori, so hard in fact that he swung back so far it almost hit the wall. If it wasn't for all the white ropes that attached straight into the demon it would have splatted against the wall like a bug.

"You little traitor!" the demon roared at Itami as the ropes began to glow with dark energy. It appeared that it was channeling nightmare energy from the ropes it was attached to into its body, which was healing the giant gash it had in its head, "I will wear your skin as a trophy to my power once I DESTROY YOU!"

It opened its mouth and the dark energy began to pour out, unleashing it all in the directions of the group. This dark energy was like a mist, attempting to cover the group and if it managed to do so, the group would fall into a similar nightmare as before.

[Brea Cao-Wei]

"My turn to step up!"

Brea suddenly leaped in front of Itami, much to the younger mans chagrin. He sheathed his steel sword, and concentrated his grip solely on the red blade. He smirked darkly, as he exhaled a breath. He remembered back to the day when they'd fought Duo, the noxious cloud launched forth by Grey, how he'd managed to save himself and most of his allies with a simple strike from his sword. He closed his eyes. He hoped he could replicate that today.

His eyes flickered open.

His arms wound back.

He slashed towards the dark mist floating towards them.

[shanira]

Having the nightmare-composing demon revealed got Shanira's undivided attention, excited she had a new target. The men attacked the demon and the black mist that it spewed out at the group, and shanira wanted in with it.

and what better way was there than for her to wind up her own arms, sword in hand and glowing brightly with light magic, and with a spin launching her powered up sword with supernatural speed straight at the demon.