Ursali

There he was running off again! Ugh... Solly to 20-16, heal Bladen.

Based on her sister's reaction to even herself, Thessy really was too far gone for her to do anything but try to protect her through her rage. Though, with her slaying the last of the enemies where would that rage be directed...? Thankfully that wasn't an answer that she'd be finding out today, Seilan had made sure of that. It was somewhat... commendable that he approached her raging sister, but she wasn't going to utter any compliments, even if she already owed him for healing her wings. "Hess dammit Thessy, stop introducing yourself by swinging that damn spear at me! Once was more than enough, you know!?" Xalrei huffed as she walked off, eager to get tback to the fight now that her sister was safe. Xalrei to 20,10

Thessy was back to herself thanks to Seilan, if a bit worse for wear from the fighting she'd let herself get consumed by. She'd tend to her wounds in a moment, the Fallen rushing back into the fort still injured was a higher priority, much as her heart told her otherwise. Solly to 21-12, heal Bladen

"Get away from my sister, you bastard!" Xalrei roared seeing Thesephine in mortal peril, charging the mage casting light magic with nary a thought about how secret her identity should be. The human was already injured, a single stab should've been enough, or so her fury told her. What had meant to be a fatal stabbing in the man's abdomen had instead left her open to attack, unable to interfere with or otherwise dodge the shine spell cast in her face. Snarling as she reeled from searing pain of the magic on her skin, her grip tightened on Requiem as she tore it back only to drive it into the mage's heart. "Are you okay, Thessy!?" Xalrei: 19, 6 Requiem to Holy Guard 5 Sollowy wanted nothing more than to rush to Thesephine side and tend to her injuries, but the menace the draco knights provided was enough to momentarily capture her attention. Flying forth, spell on her fingers, the Gathlain didn't hesitate to unleash the taboo magic against the drake and it's rider. Had they chosen more wisely in life, she wouldn't have been forced to use the spell against them. Sollowy: 22, 9 Seraphim on Draco Rider 4

Sollowy to 20, 12

Xalrei to 20,9.

Xalrei to 21, 11 Sollowy to 20, 13

Xalrei to 21,16. "It'd be a seed about the size of your fist, but I appreciate your help nonetheless," Sollowy corrected as Nessraya replenished her magic, thankful that there didn't seem to be any hard feelings between the two of them. During battle at least.

Sollowy to 19,17, Seraphim the knight attacking her sister-in-law.

"I'm no stranger to getting hurt. I've probably already taken worse than whatever these jackasses can throw at me." Xalrei huffed and brushed off Seilan's concern as she worked her way up to the front, leveling a javelin at the approaching armored men. "Come on, give me your best shot, traitors!" Xalrei moves to 19-18, equips her javelin.

The counter-attack had gone well. Though a fair few had acted individually, the group as a whole had managed to recover from the enemy's charge. All that was left was to clean up before this area was secured, assuming there weren't more undead coming... Sollowy lightnings Merc #10

There, an opening! Sollowy swiftly flew in as she saw space open up, ready to try out the spell she'd mastered! Sollowy 20,15, Seraphim Wight 1

Xalrei growled as every enemy made to pile onto Bladen, shouting out a angry "Pick on someone your own size you overgrown carcasses!" which was quickly regretted once they aimed their magic at her. The entrance was too packed to avoid them both, fire searing her scales for the umpteenth this misadventure. A thump over in Bladen's direction made her think he'd actually got one, but instead it was him on the ground! Without really thinking, she snarled and lobbed her javelins at the closest enemy, everyone was to tightly packed for her to break through and use Requiem. Xalrei throws her javelins at Zombie Mage #1.

Sollowy to 21,12

Xalrei moves to 20-14, knocks Zombie 2 out with her fists.

"Wh--" Xalrei nearly tripped on her feet, head snapping back to look at Coteon's princess. "Why am I included in that group!?" She shouted back, huffing quietly to herself as she got out of range of anymore callouts. "One conversation and she thinks she can just say whatever she wants..." "Sh-Shut up!" Xalrei turned bright red for a moment from the cat's teasing, ironically putting both Marina and Agni in between her as she hurried along. Xalrei to 19,10 "Be careful Thessy! Come back safe!" Sollowy shouted after Thesephine as the Demon King flew off. A strong part of her had wanted to speak up and offer to tag along with her, but she knew that, as she was now, she'd just be a burden on her lover in a fight. The battle with the Oni had told her as much, even if they'd sparred a little on their journey to Tepel. She sighed then shook her head, an usually resolute look on her face. I have to get stronger, so I can stand side by side with her when the time comes. Resolved, the fairy floated forward into battle. Sollowy to 21,8

Fight Club

Xalrei and, her name's Sollowy right? flanked Thesephine as soon as she'd set down the table, the dragon on her left and the fairy on her right. She wondered, to herself, if it was okay to be taking such an important looking spot, but, Thesephine hadn't let go of her at all as they'd been exiting the fort. Odds were more than a few people had already seen that; additionally, Laselia wasn't stopping this, so it was probably fine. Xalrei turned to look at the voice that had come from behind, claw reaching for Requiem once she saw just who it was. Why was the fake Hero up already, why was that mage helping her along? Even as she collapsed against the table and said her piece to Ayane, Xalrei opened her mouth to snarl at her, but was cut off by Thesephine speaking up. She wouldn't defy her sister in front of everyone, at least not until the fake Hero told them what they wanted to hear... Sollowy sighed as this Ariana pushed herself to even be here, surely fighting through incredible pain just to offer her life for that Oni to take. Sollowy still wasn't sure what to make of the fact that there were actually two Oni already in the group; after her and Thesephine's fight against Oni the Great Tree she had assumed all of them were loyal to this 'Ouka'. Asami hadn't made it sound like they should be trusted that much, either... Watching as Thessy unfurled the map on the table, she waited for everyone else to gather, shooting Tundyssa a reassuring smile. The girl seemed on edge, almost unsure of if it was okay for her to be by Thesephine's side. Hopefully she'd grow accustomed to being there, Thessy was rather clingy...

As Nessraya went about with fixing --if you could call something so destructive and suffering inducing as such-- the fake Hero, Xalrei's attention had been captured by a particular line out of Coteon's princess' mouth. Magic that could repair limbs, fix serious injuries... Magic that could heal Nala. Perhaps the humans from Coteon weren't absolutely useless. Xalrei made a mental note to interrogate Tenebria later. The trick would be getting passed Agni and Marina to 'talk' to her alone, but, if Thesephine was serious about putting her to work Xalrei figured there'd be enough time to corner the princess at her convenience. Though, the plans she'd started to form were quickly put on hold as Thesephine began to talk about her... Their father. Xalrei's ears perked up as she pushed off the wall to stand straight up and watch her sister. She didn't really understand the talk about chimeras until it was dumbed down a bit at the request of Amera, but, given how her sister was talking about them and their father's research, Xalrei realized she would have preferred to remain oblivious to this particular bit of information. She didn't know much about her biological father, but she would have preferred for her mental image of him to remain untarnished. As Thesephine began to leave Xalrei followed after her, making sure to keep pace with the agitated medusa. Looking down at her, the dragon was hit with a sudden bundle of nerves, awkwardly walking along with the Demon King and the fairy accompanying her without saying anything. "I, er, Demon King..." finally, she managed to say. "No, Thesephine, I... Can I talk with you alone? It, it's important." Though trying to keep calm and keep her expressions in check, the was no mistaking the pleading look in her eyes. So that was why... The previous king had delved into places he shouldn't have all in an effort to keep his country and family safe. Or, at least, Sollowy hoped that had been Thesephine's father's intentions; from what the medusa had shared with Sollowy about her parents, her father had sounded like an upstanding man. A small part of her wondered that if his research had seen completion if it would've been enough to turn the tide, enough to keep him and Thessy's mother alive and with their daughter... She shook her head, such thoughts shouldn't be entertained. There was no fixing the past, no fixing the pain that Thessy had been forced to live though. Coteon would've probably used it as an excuse to further attack Vaia, Goddess knew they were experts at making excuses like that already. Who do they think they are, occupying Hwein...? Sollowy was shaken from her thoughts as Thessy started to drag her away, clearly agitated. "S, Sorry for making you explain all that, Thessy. I know that's probably not something you would've wanted made public." As she was dragged out of the room, Sollowy was immediately aware of the dragon following along side them. She had been silent near the entire time, why was she suddenly walking with them? She hadn't missed her attention being focused on Thessy almost all the time, but she'd been willing to let it slide if nothing came of it. But now here she was, asking to be left alone with her... What was her endgame? "If you need to talk to her that bad, it shouldn't matter if I'm with her." She said with a huff, her hand not being held by Thesephine placed on her hip.

Sollowy knew this needed to be done. This girl wouldn't ever be free from the Church's grasp otherwise, but... Is this really all that can be done? As Nessraya began the procedure, Sollowy tried to watch, to bear witness to this girl's pain. She couldn't handle it, turning her attention to Thesephine instead. The Demon King's pained expression was of small comfort as Sollowy tried to block out the noises coming from the cell; Thesephine may have ordered it done, but she was taking no joy in the act being committed. No one here was. Sollowy took the medusa's claw in her hand, entwining their fingers. She just, needed something to hold onto, right now. Once it was finally over Sollowy allowed herself to face the cell again, Ariana's near broken form lying in the cell. It hurt to see it. To be able to do nothing about it. As confident as she was in her healing, magic of that sort would have no effect. Maybe it didn't feel as bad for the others, Ariana had been an enemy to them not an hour ago, but as someone who hadn't directly been one of her targets all she felt was pity for the girl. At least someone seemed to care, the Hero, of all people, coming over and caring for the girl. "Are you doing okay, Thessy?" Sollowy could only hope what had transpired wouldn't linger with her girlfriend. Though, with how much she seemed to know about all this, maybe it was too late for that. "And, um, how do you know so much about this? I haven't heard of chimeras existing until today, but you aren't surprised at all. You sound almost like an expert."

"Guh!?" Xalrei had been holding Tenna loosely, certain the girl had worn herself out from her panic and tears. Apparently not. She stumbled back and dropped the girl at her unexpected assault, needing to flap her wings once or twice to keep herself from falling on her rear. Well, that ruined that opportunity to get under the humans' skin. Some other time then... Xalrei, for her role in capturing Tenebria, had been dragged along with the group dealing with their other captured human. It was nice to know that the group had handled Ariana without her, even if the young dragon had been looking forward to wiping the smug smirk off the fake Hero's face herself. At least she was dealt with. More importantly, Thesephine, the Demon King, her sister, was here. How or why she didn't know, just that some advance notice from anyone would have been appreciated. Somehow, she had to get her alone without revealing to everyone present who she was. Seeing as she was currently a nobody to her, Xalrei wasn't quite sure how that was going to work out. Even as the situation with Ariana progressed Xalrei's attention was almost entirely on her long lost sibling, breaking only to start moving to intercept the fake Hero, then glare at her when her very short-lived escape plan failed. She didn't really get the talk about her leylines being messed up; she herself wasn't suited to more external uses of magic and she, admittedly, hadn't paid much attention during her magic lessons. All she really got out of it was that there was yet another reason to be pissed at the Church if Nessraya's reaction was anything to go off. A small huff escaped her, Xalrei crossing her arms as a scowl settled onto her face. "Damn Coteon... They sure know how to take things too far, even when it's another 'human' they're doing it to." Today was turning into a whole mess of surprises. First being teleported into the tail-end of a battle, then dealing with Nessraya, and now there was some artificial half- human half-monster with her leylines completely violated by, presumably, Coteon's Church... Right, Coteon's princess was somehow here too. Sollowy cast a pitying look towards the captive in the cell. "The lengths Coteon will go to for their goals is terrifying... Do they just not care?" Though she was no expert like Nessraya, Sollowy had enough of an understanding of leylines to be just as appalled by the reveal. A glance towards Tenebria betrayed the question on her mind. Does she know anything? Could she be complicit in creating this Ariana? Is the fear because she knows she's done wrong? However, Sollowy held her tongue. The princess was even more tightlipped than the knight. As much as Sollowy didn't like their roundabout way of relying on the Hero to coax answers out of Tenebria, they really didn't have any other choice. Of small comfort in this mess was how she didn't feel entirely out of place surrounded by Vaia's leadership. These problems were hers just as much as they were Thessy's and, as much of a headache this was, it felt good to be invested.

It didn't take an expert to see the tension between both of the other women, nor one to tell how upset Nessraya was as she turned to leave. Catching Thesephine as she slumped against her, Sollowy began to tenderly pet the medusa's hair. "I can't say I know how your relationship was before I came into the picture, Thessy, but..." The gathlain sighed, pulling Thesephine into a hug proper. "Don't be so quick to give up on her, okay? I'd hate for you burn such a longstanding bridge for my sake. Sit down and talk with her, when there's proper time for the both of you to say what you need to say. Okay?"

Were it not for the fact that they were mid flight Xalrei would've growled out more accusations at Tenna for her attempts to defend her country's soldiers. Instead she loosened her grip just enough to give the girl the sensation that she falling for the briefest of seconds. It didn't take them long to reach the fort at all, flight proving to be much faster than they could've possibly traveled on foot. Touching down near the fort, Xalrei looked around for someone to hand off their captured princess to. There seemed to be a group near the fort, Nessraya and-- Xalrei nearly dropped Tenna straight on the ground when she saw who Nessraya was with. Why was her sister suddenly here!? Was now a good time to talk to her? It's not like she'd know who she was... It was, probably for the best to not meet her sister right now. Not before she could off load Tenna, the dragon concluded. It wasn't hard to find the group that had formed around Marina: Agni, of course, was there as well, as well as someone she didn't remember meeting. Looked like another human... Whatever, Tenna was supposed to be the human's problem, so Xalrei was going to make sure she was! Approaching Agni, Xalrei was tempted to just dump Tenna onto the young nobleman and see how fast he could react to catch his princess. In light of not actually damaging the terrified girl, Xalrei elected to not actually go through with that. "I got something that belongs to you, Agni." Still, though, she couldn't resist being the slightest bit antagonistic towards him, angling Tenna down in her arms so he could clearly see her face. "How much is she worth to you?"

"As long as you're sure you'll be okay..." Xalrei didn't necessarily like the thought of Bladen pushing himself when he was already injured; though, if he comfortable enough to make jokes about it, he'd probably be fine. "Let's try it then. If you go down I'm sure the Princess here would love to heal you, since she apparently can't ignore that." Xalrei blew some air up at her hair, not sure how much she believed of what Tenna said. They'd find out soon enough if Bladen couldn't stay in the air... "Yeah," Xalrei started, chiming in after Bladen, "as far as most of our group is concerned, you humans are the real monsters. I'm sure you saw it on you way in, what your soldier did to whatever was in their way..." Xalrei was already growling again, her claws gripping tight on the poor girls side and thighs. She stopped herself before saying anymore, or anything about Marina for that matter, that forced calm returning. "C'mon Bladen, let's get going already." Saying that she leapt into the air, wings flapping in overdrive to keep her airborne with all the extra weight she was carrying. Sollowy quickly picked up on Thesephine's distress, looking over to spot the incoming succubus. They'd ended on neutral terms back in the forest but Sollowy got the impression this encounter wouldn't end amicably; in Nessraya's eyes she would likely be seen as a thief who'd slipped in and stolen her bride-to-be. "I'll try my best to not start one, but if she goes too far I won't make any promises..." It was one thing to say something, another to hold to it with something happening right in front of her eyes. The hug and hair petting was fine, simple affection like that wouldn't get under Sollowy's skin. As Nessraya touched upon the medusa's wing Sollowy did however feel a slight spike of possessiveness, but Thessy was quick to push her off so there was no need to act on it. A soft blush spread across her face from Thesephine's introduction, Sollowy herself surprised by how happy those words made her feel. She wanted to take her girlfriends hand it give it a squeeze after that, but that felt like it would only serve to aggravate Nessraya when that wasn't her intention. Instead she settled on floating directly adjacent to the tiny Demon King. "Yes, somehow there was enough time for our feelings to blossom. I, It's not as though either of us meant you any ill will it's..." a glance over at Thesephine, Sollowy unable to contain her fond smile, "just, how things happened." She wasn't about to tell Nessraya to not be upset or hurt; words like that from herself would likely only make her feel worse.

"It's not about what I said to her." Xalrei huffed as she closed the distance between her and Bladen, giving her friend a chance to see just who she was carrying. "You'd have to ask her. Why Coteon's Princess is here is beyond me, too, but at least she's so scared she can't even properly fight back. If she could, I'd still be back in that house..." A low growl escaped her as she made a point to glare down at Tenna a little, even as the captured girl started to cry. She might've felt worse about it if Tenna hadn't been the one to open with violence, even if the attempt itself had failed, but that wasn't how things had gone down. "C'mon, let's get back to the fort before someone comes to pick her up. You're pretty hurt, too. She healed me earlier for some reason, but I don't think she'd extend the same courtesy to you even if she could. Can you fly? I see you flare your wings out all the time, but never for sustained flight. If not, we can just hurry back on foot." Xalrei readjusted her claws on Tenna, making sure she had a solid grip on the girl. If they were going to fly, she needed to make sure she wasn't going to drop her passenger.