[hr][center][h3][b][u][Depths of Ink][/u][/b][/h3][/center][hr]

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JchFTkB3kQE&ab_channel=KeiichiOkabe-Topic]Dark.[/url] How long had she been holding her breath? A minute? An hour? In the black as the cold pressure mounted and the discordant whispers grew louder. Too much. Had she gone too far? Her limbs refused to listen to her commands to move, or do [i]anything[/i]. ID was locked in a deadly battle of the [Mind] that she wasn't winning. She wasn't experienced enough with the [Mind] aspect to fight back on even ground. Clearly she was on this thing's territory but... it wasn't [i]there[/i]... 

A mental assault powerful enough to subdue her... through an [Astral Proxy] via remote viewing?

That was some next level shit she wasn't sure she could compete with... she needed something she could [See]. If she could re-contextualize the battle, though... flip it. If she could just [See] where it was... [See] it... It can [See] her, influence, [Touch] her... would this even be a fight if it were in the room?

[center][color=92278f][i]It's okay to stop. You've been fighting for so long. It's time to rest now... just go to sleep.[/i][/color][/center]

Honestly, probably not. Her nickname within the organization was "Miss Ashlands." Mother had spared no expense importing tutors and instructors, particularly when it came to martial casting and combat. Her defense arrays were nearly impenetrable, she was an expert in counter-casting and had near absolute-control over the mana inside her Domain.

[center][color=92278f][i]It's time to put the sword down and rest...[/i][/color][/center]

She was over complicating the problem... or rather, the problem was over-complicated for the answer she wanted. 

[center][i][color=#db60b0]Smaller questions.[/color][/i][/center]

What's [i]actually[/i] happening right now? [color=92278f][i]Used, betrayed, left to die.[/i][/color]

Under psychic attack. She might not [i]actually[/i] be sinking into an endless depth of ink, on the verge of drowning, but if she tried to breathe it may as well have the same result: it'd allow the caster's influence deeper into her body and her assailant could arrest her vital functions and effectively drown her. The only thing preventing that right now was the Domain barrier she had wrapped closely to her skin.

What [i]exactly[/i] was she dealing with? [i][color=92278f][...][/color][/i]

Muriel was a [i]Paracausal[/i] research facility. ID understood that to mean that they delved into Astral and soul science... spirit stuff. Spirits... Spirits, even incredibly powerful ones that manifest physically into our world were fundamentally [i]Astral[/i] beings, to be combated with Astral weapons and means.

[center][color=92278f][i]Are you so disillusioned that you can no longer recognize the truth? That you were tricked? Bamboozled? You are surrounded by narcissists and charlatans.[/i][/color][/center]

Non-ritual magic, for the most part, had to be practiced on a target that could be [Seen]. How did it [See] her?

Remote viewing. 

[right][color=db60b0][i]OK, duh. More specific.[/i][/color][/right]

Specifically? [Astral Proxy]. It's a specific type of Projection that uses an Astralform like a router extension or a signal repeater to send data back and forth to the caster.

ID flinched, forcing her racing mind to go silent lest the creature hear one of her stray thoughts. It [i]was[/i] there... after a fashion. It was a small finger hold in this avalanche. Might be enough to flip this fight on its head... if she could just break through.

Restraint... always restraint. Take care to watch your emotions, might hurt someone you care about. Limit your output. Don't be a danger to yourself, or others. This world is fragile. You are a an open flame in a world made of polystyrene. Right now, she was focused on staying alive, and that hesitation to exceed certain thresholds was going to get her killed.

[center][i][color=#db60b0]Apologize later.[/color][/i][/center]

ID dug deep, pushing past barriers on limiters on restrictions and reaching for that burning globe of [color=f7941d][Light-Creation-Shines From Heaven][/color] she constantly felt distantly muted through the miles of rock and steel. She felt the [color=92278f]INK[/color] claw at her flesh, trying to pull her under farther, deeper into the crushing depths. Her fingers grazed the [color=f7941d][Sun][/color]. For a moment it seemed frustratingly out of reach... It leaned into her hand, and she closed her fist around it.

[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxaAqNhjZok&ab_channel=KeigoHoashi-Topic][i]And cue the Boss music.[/i][/url][/center]

ID's eyes snapped open, and she wriggled against the talons of ink that immediately clawed at them. She was clutching something in her hand, struggling to muster the power to move as she pulled currents of mana from around the room and layered [Fortification] in a lattice throughout her flesh. She ripped free, pulling [i]Ildsjel[/i] from its enchanted scabbard. Less a sword, more a braided leather hilt with just enough space for a firm one handed grip, a sun relief on the pommel, and a snarling dragon's head clutching a large, lucent crystal in its jaws.

A [color=f7941d][Flare][/color] of heat violently lacerated the chamber, burning away the ink and turning every surface incandescent as form and cohesion rapidly began to lose meaning. She whipped the weapon across the room like a dagger. The transpari-steel barrier peeled away, rapidly melting like snow in a glass furnace as the weapon embedded into the creature's ghastly four-pointed eye. Gouts of flame and smoke erupted from her mask as her breath returned in fits and she staggered to maintain her balance, weaving a quick [Shadowsnap] to pin the creature's proxy in place. For just a moment she breathed, drinking in the rays of incandescence from [i]Ildsjel's[/i] [color=f7941d][Sun][/color] crystal.

Rivers of molten rock and metal began to poor from the ceiling and walls as ID pressed the attack, violently seizing the thread of mana tracing back to A-9's real self.  A place opened up in her vision. It clutched the crater wall, pressing itself up part-way into the plate super-structure through a gap left by neglected maintenance somewhere.  Finally... a target. She might only have one shot. Make it count.

A-9's salted marble surface cracked and splintered as it thrashed against her [Shadowsnap], and the crushing pressure of her Domain reflected its screams back in on itself. ID's Astral self coiled around her arm as she rushed forward, skipping across pools of vigorously boiling steel to slam her palm into [i]Ildsjel's[/i] hilt.

For a moment, the facility was engulfed in a flash. A massive *CRACK* reverberated through the cliffside as super-heated plasma struck the glaciers of ice MG had left behind to shield herself. Metal and rock groaned, and insane heat blasted out of the facility's main entrance, striking the Absolute Zero of the elevator landing and condensing into voluminous stormy clouds that filled the Abyss. The enormous winged serpent of ID's Astralform raced along the road back to A-9's true body, devouring the distance in the blink of an eye. Incalculable heat erupted from its maw, both Astral and Material, as they collided. For a long minute, molten rock and steel rained from the plate ceiling.