Dinah closes her eyes and mutters something before answering. "Devout is not. Dimitri is not. Dora is not. Darcy is in the laboratory, unconscious. And, I'm bound to you." A girl bursts through the entrance to the suite. Felicia recognizes her as the woman who was with Adam when he was here a short while ago. "Felicia, Yumi, Michio, everyone else is ready to leave. They should be at the front door waiting. Please follow me." She notices Carley is mobile, visibly disappointed. "I was hoping you died, Carley." The woman directs her attention back to Felicia. "She's yours, right?"
"I think so. I imagine all the rest will be making their way out soon." Julia began to make her exit with the rest, though making a note she might still want to revisit this place later and see what's left behind more properly when she has time to properly study things.
"Damn." Felicia lets out a sigh, realizing they might not be done dealing with this cult yet. "Then I guess we should-" She's interrupted as the door suddenly gets pushed open, revealing the nun who seems to be Adam's new servant. "Yes, we're ready to leave... and yes, she's mine." Felicia replied, seeing the disappointment in the nun's eyes. Damn... if Michio and I lost, would be have been forced to join these nun's ranks? She thinks to herself, before shaking her head. No, that's if I lost. I didn't. She thinks confidently before nodding, "Alright, we should probably go now." Felicia said with a smile, though she wondered what they'll be doing with their servants... I doubt the school will just let us keep them. Or even believe that we own them now since they lost in a magical duel.
@Tjf Both groups meet up at the main entrance. Julia, Adam, Charlie, Dahlia, Angelica, and Demeter see Felicia, Michio, Yumi, Dinah, Destiny, and Carley. And vice versa. Julia seems tired but otherwise fine. Adam is whole. Charlie is smiling widely. Dahlia is pointedly keeping her distance from Demeter, who has a red curtain binding her arms behind her back. Angelica has tears streaming down her face, staring down at the floor. Felicia is exhausted and singed, but she seems mostly intact. Michio is even more tired and hurt, although she seems to have a newfound sense of strength. Dinah is burned and bears some cuts and bruises, her white dress charred and in tatters. Destiny has a few minor wounds, but the ugly patch of skin bared by the hole in her dress has held. Carley is burned and her sides are badly bruised, but she limps along with the rest. [For those who haven't seen all the accompanying NPCs yet, here's the pictures again.] Spoiler: Charlie Spoiler: Angelica Spoiler: Dahlia Spoiler: Demeter Spoiler: Dinah Spoiler: Destiny Spoiler: Carley
Meeting up with the other group, Felicia's eyes widen as she spots Angelica. "You!" She growled, but as they approached, and she saw the nun was crying. "What? Why is she?" Though she was angry, she was also exhausted, leaving her to wonder why Angelica was crying.
Julia was glad to see the rest were looking mostly intact, though she could spot the cultists trailing along behind them, but they were looking oddly docile enough that she had to assume whatever threat they posed had vanished. As Angelica approached the group who were understandably, not happy to see her, Julia decided she should probably step in to cover it. "She surrendered willingly. I expelled the Makayshi spirit from her body. I also may have started a interdimensional war in the process...but, let's worry about that another night. The yokai has been forced back into the spirit world. There's no way to be sure for how long, but for now, it's just Angelica." Julia had to speculate on that. Whatever being had expelled the spirit was able to do it effortlessly. It was unlikely Dakki could return under it's own power or at least wouldn't be coming back. for a very long time, but with how big the spirit realm is, there was still the risk it might find someone who can. Though....a being of that kind of power probably wouldn't take too much interest in contesting a ruling from a being like that for such a significantly weak servant without a lot of incentive...but there was the risk. If she had to guess, the spirit making it's return eventually wasn't impossible, but it would still take a lot of time. Possibly even generations. Maybe sooner....but if it did, it wouldn't be as in a position of power.
"O...kay?" Felicia replied, unsure what Julia was going on about with the interdimensional war. But as the professor mentioned about banishing Angelica's spirit. "Huh? Isn't that... bad?" The red-head asked, tilting her head a bit to look at Julia, then to Carley. "I mean, isn't a duel spirit attached to your own soul?" She asked, trying to piece together what she's learned from her shadow duels. "Wouldn't that mean you basically ripped her soul in half?"
@Arachna @Tjf "That's right." Carley nods, turning to Julia. "You're more heartless than I thought, Valkyrie. Killing my poor Kitsune's soul like that. All I did was enslave her. Fucking with someone's soul...I wish I had thought of it." She gives Michio, and then Felicia, a pointed stare. Spoiler: Felicia Soul Binding Roll 64=64 success The difference Felicia feels between Dinah's bonds and Carley's becomes apparent. Dinah is practically enslaved to her will. Carley, as a "broodmother" rather than an explicit servitor, has retained more of her own will.
Hearing Carley's response which agreed with Felicia's guess. Her eyes go wide, "D-damn... I uh... guess that's punishment enough." She said in a surprised tone, looking to Michio to see if the eye-patched girl still had some beef with Angelica. However, as Felicia felt the odd difference with Dinah, and Carley's binding, she wondered if the lead nun could try anything to betray her.
"You're not someone I want to hear from about their amazing morals. Besides, that spirit was far from a mutual bond. It was more like a parasite eating away at her good side. I'll work on a solution to the rest later. It doesn't change the fact that the yokai was something that needed to be destroyed." Julia didn't feel like her decision was wrong, and especially not interested in hearing a lecture from the cultist who didn't really seem to show any interest in cleaning her act up in anyway. Looking at Felicia, she looked a little questioning. "I wasn't sure what to do with her. I didn't really want to bind her to my will, and from the looks of it, even doing that, didn't really make this one turn over a new leaf. They're just as rotten as ever. If you ask me, she's getting off way too easy when she still has zero concern for anything she's done." Julia didn't mask the fact she was heavily against keeping Dinah around in any capacity. At least, while maybe brutal, Angelica actually seemed to want to try. She couldn't really view the ringleader and cause of all this as equally deserving.
The swordswoman's eye narrows at Felicia. "I'll think about it." She crosses her arms. Felicia gets the sense that Carley won't directly disobey, but the redhead will probably need to handle the former cult leader carefully.
"A parasitic bond?" Felicia asked, looking back at Angelica who hasn't stopped crying. "It doesn't seem that way?" She replied in a questioning tone, wondering if anyone would keep on crying in sorrow if a parasite was removed from them. But as Julia got to the part about the nuns being rotten, "I mean, Dinah is... she did say she was devoted to the cult, even without Carley controlling them. So I don't deny that." The red-head recalls Dinah stating her own name when she asked for the identity of the loyal members of this cult. "Anyway, we'll need to think of a way to deal with them. I don't think the academy will allow us to keep people whose souls we enslaved..." Felicia sighs, realizing just how deep in trouble they could get.
Adam watches the display quietly, taking some time to analyse Destiny and make sure she's not as free spirited as Carley, disguising his interest as ogling. "What exactly was your game, anyway? What did you people worship?" He asks Carley.
[I think you mean Carley, not Dinah? I know, it's a lot of characters.] The former cult leader smiles at Julia. "Why should I be concerned? I am the goddess of energy and entropy, after all." She looks to Felicia, smile turning to a grin. "You should be happy, dear wife. You're a deity through marriage!"
"About that last concern..." Yumi's even voice begins. "Adam, Felicia, and Michio all lack roommates, correct? It will not be difficult for me to allow your new...friends covert access while we sort through all of this."
Spoiler: Adam Spirit Binding Roll 42+10(Echoes)=52 weak success Destiny doesn't seem to be as free as Carley. Instead, Adam's servant truly appears to be bound to his commands. [That last question is answered in the reply to Julia]
"Is that right?" Julia obviously was not impressed by this, as she mostly settled on talking to Felicia. "You can do better." But she gave a nod. "Most of them probably aren't a problem to just let go, but it's true at least some of them, especially that one, were acting almost entirely on their own. So, now that their party's crashed they get to just pack up and go home like nothing happened?" Julia looked actually angry. "It doesn't work that way." Julia looked at Angelica wondering if she had did the wrong thing even though it seemed to be the right idea at the time. But...no. There was something, she might be able to do. There's no way to know for sure it would work but.... "A duel spirit represents someone's heart, but if the heart changes....then maybe new strings and bonds can be forged if the old one is broken?" Julia was only speculating and had no real reason to be sure if this could actually work but...she thought about Takashi's ties to Zera. He wasn't limited to the specific monster itself, but what it represents. So...in theory... "The rivals of the Makyashi. Did you find the Shinarui cards? They're both zombies and spirits, but if the Shinarui represent the good half of their conflict and true dedication to doing the right thing, maybe..." Julia let Felicia fill in the blanks of what she was thinking.
"M-marriage?" Felicia gasped, "Wait, what do you mean you're a goddess? Is that what happens when you bond with your spirit too much?" She asked in a concerned tone, mostly about the part about being married. But she tries to ignore that... for now, moving on to her concern with Carley taking the place of a monster in their earlier duel. Then as Julia spoke, "Yeah, we managed to retrieve Michio's cards. What do you plan on doing with them?" She asked in a curious tone, wondering why Julia went on about the Mayakashi, and Shiranui. But as Yumi comes in to solve their problems, "That's... great? I suppose Dinah will be staying with Michio?" Felicia asked, looking at the eye-patched woman. "It did seem like Dinah was ready to protect you earlier."
"I just have a theory I want to test. Shinarui Sword Shade. That's the one to give her, if Mihcio is willing to part with it. It might not happen just yet, but in theory it might be possible to forge a ne duel spirit if the old one is gone and no longer reflects your true self. Maybe." Julia was doing mostly guess work at this point, but she believed it was worth trying. Spoiler Though hearing Yumi's input, Julia didn't actually look all that pleased with the idea. "I'm strongly against letting that one just go back to her regular life even in a limited capacity. She's bound to Felicia, but that doesn't make her less of a threat to other students. She'll never repent." Julia didn't try to hide her objections against what seemed like such a light punishment for someone who as far as she was concerned, probably should have been the one banished into the spirit realm in the first place, had things played out any different.
