At Kiara's near-instant recognition of Mary as 'evil', Jason's entire body seemed to freeze in place. He was by no means talented in any way, but even seeing what she had in her hands was enough to tell him that she was not the same person he had remembered; after all, her own talent with things like that was nowhere near good enough to create something like that without extended preparation—doubly so in a hospital bed.
Before he could recover, though, the Saber with them had moved and, in an instant, cut down the dozens of hands, ephemeral yet apparently made of flesh and blood, that burst forth from under her bed. While that was terrifying enough on its own, Jason himself was not prepared for what came after. 'Mary', after recognizing that Saber's own talent, seemed to 'shed' her disguise. Despite the intense fear running through his body, though, Jason's feet seemed glued in place. With no other choice than to stand his ground, the young man forced himself to stare straight at Kiara—the
other Kiara—and speak.
"Wh-what did you do with Mary?" he asked unsteadily, trying his hardest to not buckle under the pressure of the one in front of him.
"Hm...? Oh, do you mean
this?" the other Kiara asked, licking her lips as she stared at Jason before picking up the skin that she had just shed. "She was a
wonderful treat after I arrived. You see, I had no time to make her
mine, so I simply had to make do with listening to her pleas for salvation as I wore her mind into dust. After that, it was a simply measure of assuming her guise and acting in her place. You were a
wonderfully naive puppet, by the way; not suspecting a single thing and giving me enough time to work as I pleased in the shadows? I couldn't have asked for anything better~!"
At this, Jason's face paled as he knees failed him. Falling to his knees, the young man simply stared at the ground, a hollow look in his eyes.
The Kiara that was sitting on the bed until now, though, simply turned her attention towards the other three, ignoring Jason as if he was no more than an ant to her.
"But... Ah... To think I'd see you again. Kishinami Hakuno. I see you've found yourself a new partner in the meantime," she said, slowly getting out of the bed that she had been lying in as she took a single step closer. "But... Hm... This city truly is
wonderful. If only you hadn't caught on so quickly..."
With a sigh, Kiara shook her head in disappointment before forming a few hand signs. In an instant, a magic circle appeared beneath her feet; an instant later, what seemed to be a giant mass of shadows formed in front of the group before disappearing into the floor.
"Ah... Right. Let me repay your visit with an old friend. You should remember him well," she stated, holding her right palm out in front of her.
This time, the shadows cast in front of her seemed to bubble before an arm seemed to reach out of it. With the arm came a head, then a body, and the rest of the figure made itself apparent.
"Go, Hijikata. Let me see how useful you can be as nothing more than a mindless shell, hm~?"
@RolePlayerRoxas@VitaVitaARAfter slamming the Shadow Servant into the ground, Meltryllis sighed and slowly stood up from the crater, taking a short leap to get herself out before turning towards the restaurant that Nanako was in. Despite everything, that idiot Master of hers seemed to be prioritizing the safety of civilians over her own. Shaking her head in mild annoyance, the Alter Ego pushed her way through the door and simply stared at Nanako.
"What are you doing?" she asked, hands on her hips as she spoke. "If anyone needs to get out of here, it's you. Do you think I can fight at my full potential if I have to keep protecting you?"
As much as he had expected to be caught in the crossfire, Moriarty had, by some odd happenstance, left him without injury. It had only been the wyverns that he had goaded into moving as they had that were now lying about on the floor, slowly bleeding out from the wounds on their body. The detective had not expected such creatures in the first place, of course, and had by now begun to examine the corpses of those that had already passed.
"Hm... Odd..." he said, picking up the head of one and turning it from side to side. "Despite living in a cavern system barely connected to the outside world, these creatures have what appear to be functional eyes; furthermore, the presence of wings in a closed underground system—"
Before he could continue his externalized observations, though, the sound of clattering bones caused Holmes to rise from his kneeling position and stand at attention. The light pointed at the source soon revealed what appeared to be a battalion of skeletons, each wielding a weapon of some variety.
All of them, of course, were pointed at the four near the wyverns.
"I suppose that there is no rest for the wicked," Holmes quipped, throwing a sidelong glance at his rival before stepping forward. The moment he had taken a single step, the skeleton soldiers with melee weapons rushed forth.
Compared to the wyverns from moments earlier, though, Holmes had considerably less trouble in simply destroying their bodies with a bout of baritsu, with the occasional whack of his cane weaved in every so often to parry a wayward arrow aimed for any in the rear.
@KoL@DocRockThe Arena
With the two of them sizing one another up, Fionn couldn't help but understand, if only a little, as to why Diarmuid had found himself so troubled while facing Arturia as an opponent. The next strike that the Saber had made was not wholly unexpected, of course, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with. Deciding that moving along with the strike was easier than dealing with it head-on, the Lancer promptly moved in tandem with the blade and, with a spinning motion, redirected Excalibur ever so slightly off to the side before taking that small gap in the clash to pull back once more.
Before Fionn could respond with another offensive, though, screams from the stands—not of awe, but of fear—caught his immediate attention. Turning towards Arturia, Fionn simply nodded before turning towards Chiron, who had already drawn his bow and was aiming towards the stadium itself.
Out of the nooks and crannies of the stands above, spirits that seemed to be cloaked in a shadowy mist were rapidly forming and striking out at those who were viewing the match. Those unfortunate enough to not be close enough to a Servant to protect them were quickly struck down, the shadows engulfing their corpses and leaving no trace of them behind. After that, of course, there seemed to be a brief pause before they formed identical copies, only to repeat the cycle once more.
"Postpone the matches!" Chiron shouted, letting loose a volley of arrows as he struck down one of the shadows that had come bearing down upon a couple on the other side of the arena. "The barrier into and out of the battlefield has been disabled, so I request that you help strike these things down! The restriction on Anti-Army Noble Phantasms has been lifted!"
Needless to say, the entire arena had, in an instant, turned into a battlefield.
@Rune_Alchemist@GhastlyInc@Raineh Daze@1Charak2
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