3wingedangel | Various PSLs

As the fire rises, Cloud can feel the force of it pulling him in. He tries to plant his feet, but the magic's too powerful - he finds himself sliding closer despite his best efforts. Gritting his teeth, he lifts his sword in a defensive position, but he can't see any way to avoid the flames short of getting above them somehow. But leaping now would just send him hurtling into them faster.

He has to do something. He refuses to accept defeat at the hands of his own Heartless.

The pillars' force only gets stronger the closer Cloud's dragged toward them, and eventually it knocks him off his feet. It's an instinct rather than a conscious thought when he reaches out with one hand in a desperate, last-ditch effort to shield himself...

...and the ground seems to fall out from under him as he drops down through a portal of dark energy with a surprised sound, simply vanishing. The darkness itself, though, does not vanish. It exerts a fell gravity of its own, and it spreads.

Sephiroth grunts in surprise as the portal opens and he falls in as well. "What have you done, Cloud?" he demands. "You're tapping into the darkness again? You always fall back on it in tight situations. Strange that you want to give me what you think I want!"

He spreads his wings as he falls. Where are they going to end up? And what's going to happen back in Hollow Bastion? He had seen the darkness spreading. They need to get back somehow. But first they have to get out of this....

At the other end of the portal, a monster growls and then roars. They're falling right into its domain.

"A lecture about the darkness? From you? Don't make me laugh." Cloud's disdain at the hypocrisy is real, but it's also covering a bit for how unsettled he is. He didn't even know he was capable of opening portals.

He has no idea what new mind game Sephiroth is playing with him now, but he can figure that out later. Right now, there are more pressing issues.

Like whatever is roaring at the end of this descent.

Cloud flips his sword around in his hands and shifts so that if whatever's down there happens to be standing just beneath the churning inkblot that is this portal, it's likely to get a very large and unpleasant sword-shaped wake-up call.

Sephiroth grunts. The majority of what he usually tells Cloud are things Cloud doesn't want to face, but he always tends to get blamed for whatever Cloud is doing, like falling into the darkness and making deals with underworld gods. Still, this is hardly the time to be arguing about it.

He is also preparing for a fight. Cloud's idea is a good one, for once, and he readies the Masamune likewise.

As the end of the portal nears, the monster is nearby but not directly under it. It roars at the portal and at them coming out of it. Then it blasts at them.

Sephiroth blocks the blast and retaliates with his energy orbs. He lands on the ground but soon is in the air again, slashing at the monster as it snaps at him. When it sees Cloud, it blasts at him too.

Cloud lands before the attack comes his way, so he rolls under it to get closer to the beast. Much as he'd like to take Sephiroth on while he's distracted by this thing, the monster won't discriminate. So: take it down first, then deal with the other monster here.

He strikes hard and fast, relentless, and the beast roars but seems hardly the worse for wear despite taking every hit. "What is this thing?" he says, pausing to sheath his blade in crackling lightning.

Edited 2024-09-24 22:45 (UTC)

"Some type of dragon or wyvern, it seems," Sephiroth says. "We must have fallen into its treasure horde."

Even his Heartless Angel attack isn't slowing it down. Now he's growing honestly concerned.

"We don't stand a chance. I'll just make a portal and we'll go out the way we came in."

But as he's starting to try to do that, the thing lunges again. He has no chance to concentrate. He blasts it back with his energy orbs and flies back over to Cloud. "Come on! We'll go in the sky and I'll make a portal where it hopefully can't reach in time." He reaches to grab for Cloud's arm.

((OOC: Maybe Cloud won't agree and Sephiroth is hurt/killed trying to save him when the monster attacks again during the argument?))

Various PSLs

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sorry for delay, work gets super crazy sometimes!

Totally understandable!