TITAL 2: Why did It Take Me So Long To Do This?

"I don't really see how a coin could help." With a shrug, Athez flips the coin into the air.

Junior facepalmed but ran after the coin anyways, "Alright, Mimi, don't let me down!" His demon retreated as he became his normal Reaper self again, "Devil's Dance!" He cried.

Fire ripped through the ground igniting the guards as it drew a pentagram. In the center, a column of fire erupted a red-skinned girl beckoned the two into it.

"Don't worry, the fire won't burn you! Now's our chance!" Junior yelled running towards the demon as the fire held off any approaching enemies.

"If you say so!" Athez answers as he leaps forward into the pentagram.

The two appeared in a purple landscape. The only thing for miles was a single swingset. A lone red figure was sitting on the swings, swinging back and forth, a cage with purple fire hung from the swingset.

Junior gave a gentle smile and put a finger to his lips in a shushing motion to Athez, "Mimi?"

The red-skinned girl looked up smiling gently.

Junior smiled, "Thanks for bailing us out back there. Where's Uncle Jack?"

The young girl pointed behind her, where the skeleton was leaned up against the swing, a bandage wrapped around his head.

"Don't worry, Junior. I already told her how to take care of him. He's just resting." The fire spoke up. Upon closer inspection, it was in fact a soul inside the cage not just formless fire.

Junior nodded then pointed to Athez, "Mimi, this is Athez. He won't hurt you or Jeff, he's a friend."

On the battlefield, an armored figure, radiating a blue glow, flew all over, raining electricity and fire upon the enemies. Apparently, Rexial had summoned his Persona to speed things up a little bit. As it whooshed past where Minato and Yukari were, it stopped and did a double-take... rather, that was what it looked like. It can be hard to tell when you have a metal face and no visible eyes or expression. Either way, he was obviously alarmed at Yukari's presence.

Regardless, Yogosha continued his massacre, tearing through the soldiers. Rexial, hacking his own way through, decided that the music no longer fit the mood. "What was Minato thinking? Gangnam Style? This fight isn't nearly upbeat enough for that. My "s***'s goin' down" sense is tingling. We need a change of BGM..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPgTCL18K3I&NR=1&feature=endscreen

"That should do it! ...Maybe it would fit better in a battle against Shadows, or perhaps in Tatarus, but it works well enough here. Awright, now I feel motivated to kick ass and take names!" With a renewed vigor, the swordsman cut a bloody swathe through his enemies. He glanced up for a half of a second, feeling something. A strange, nagging sensation. What he saw was even more curious: His Persona, Yogosha, had stopped for a moment.

What had it seen? Perhaps Rexial already knew, in that corner of his heart, but he could not consciously read that information. All he knew was that he shouldn't leave that area uninvestigated, and that he sensed Minato's presense there. Also, Gangnam Style was still playing from that boom box he was carrying, which was kind of a dead giveaway. It didn't take a psychic to know where he was.

If I rush over too quickly, I could get caught in one of Minato's attacks, that that wouldn't be pretty. I'll make sure he has time to realize that I'm approaching.

Athez looked at Mim, tilted his head to the side as if in confusion, and asked, "Why is that light bulb in the cage talking?"

In a flash of movement, Mimi drew a weapon and hit Athez in the face with it. It was an iron with the letters STFU emblazoned on the side.

Junior facepalmed, "Sorry, that's Jeff. He's her guardian. At least, he used to be until HIM decided to end that arrangement." He ducked underneath another swing of the heavy iron, "Sorry, he had to know, otherwise, he'd keep asking stupid questions."

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Minato threw the boombox aside as he drew closer.

Yukari instead of responding to his movement drew a long saw toothed sword, "Nightmare!" She cried angrily.

The blade became a chainsaw that revved to life as she slashed at Minato.

"What the hell?" Minato was barely able to bring up Dues Xiphos in time to stop the blow.

Getting up from the ground and dusting himself off, Athez turns back to Mimi. "That is a pretty strong arm you got there. I apologize if I insulted either you or Jeff, Mimi. I'm prone to saying stupid things."

As Rexial continued to push closer, one enemy, witnessing the carnage brought about by this swordsman, began to stalk his prey, hoping to end him and avenge his brethren. One good blow to the neck or head would do it... right? This monstrous shadow-devil could not be older than fourteen, and he was fairly skinny to boot. Yes, one good hit, and the beastly child would be gone, and they might be able to overwhelm that unusally charismatic blue-hair high school student and the strangely-dressed boy with the key-shaped sword.

It was a shame that he was wrong about absolutely everything. Even without Rexial, Sora and Minato would have no trouble achieving victory. A single hit would not kill Rexial, though it would certainly hurt like hell. He was skinny, but tough, and he was a bit older than fourteen, and certainly no devil. His death would not avenge the ones he had felled. And finally, he wasn't stalking Rexial. He was being stalked, himself.

A slim figure rose from the ground behind the soldier, delivering a single, swift chop to the neck, rendering him unconscious. The feminine combatant retreated to the ground, becoming a shadow and slipping back to Rexial unimpeded by the combatants.

Mimi nodded and went back to swinging on her swingset.

Junior turned to Athez, "Well, welcome to Limbo. We'll be here for a while seeing as how we have to wait for Uncle Jack to recover... Want to help me gather some firewood? There's a small grove of trees just over the horizon... It's really not that far of a walk. It's just an illusion."

Athez nodded and smiled cheerfully, "Sure, many hands make light work or some such nonsense, right?"

Junior nodded, "Yeah, Mimi, we'll be right back, okay? We're going to go get some firewood." With that the two headed for the woods.

The young devil girl nodded her complexion starting to fade back to a pale white instead of its demonic red.

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Minato pushed Yukari back defending himself from the demonic sword she was carrying, the blade roaring with an astonishing anger. Then, he heard a voice.

Shame on you, hero...

Minato looked on in surprise as he readied himself for another attack but instead Yukari fell to her knees clutching her head, "N-no!"

Picking on a poor helpless little girl...

"You're not suppossed to be here!" The illusion faded, the girl became fully cloaked in a red cape and a short blue skirt and cardigan, her hair grew as a demonic energy seeped from her shadow. It took on a lupine form as it grabbed a hold of her shoulders, pulling her close to its ethereal form.

But I am... I will always be with you,child.

Blue fire burned from the demon, tearing at the girl's cloak and making her skirt dangerously short before extinguishing itself. The demon roared as bright red eyes sprung from the darkness of its form like headlights with a large disturbing maw of long, sharp teeth. It regarded Minato as it's new prey as the girl rose from her knees once again drawing the chainsword.

"N-nightmare." She stammered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Nc4iR7rGA&feature=fvwrel

"So this is Limbo? Like, the place souls wait for judgement Limbo?"

Rexial immediately stopped in place, feeling his very form tremble. "Ugh... what the hell!? I can feel something really twisted and evil up ahead...! Whoever it is, their presense is messing with my stability... if I get much closer, I won't be able to stay solid, and I can't fight if my weapon isn't able to hit. Even if I tried to draw the Fragrach against it, I wouldn't be able to hold it..."

He snapped his fingers, an idea coming to him. "...I'll just have to assert my dominance in the standing of denizens of the darkness!" The young man pushed his way back, so that he was fully stable, then pushed the enemy soldiers crowding him away with a burst of darkness, raising walls of purple fire to hold them back while he contacted Sukiru...

Junior nodded, "This is the only place that I can keep Mimi safe from my mom... The Limbo you're talking about is the other side of the world we're on now. WAY more crowded." He laughed as he drew his scyth as they got to the clearing.

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Minato stood his ground as the demon roared in his face.

The girl kept muttering the word nightmare over and over. Her body shuddering in fear.

Minato glared at the demon, "What the hell ARE you?"

"So, Mimi must be an old friend of your's, if you trust her with your uncle," Athez stated as he looked around the clearing.

Back to Xavier...

Aleri tapped his foot impatiently as he continued to cast the spell on the fighter's wound. "...Ugh, this is really starting to get to me. I want to speed this up, but if I just pour in a bunch of magic, it won't do any good, and may even harm you. Gah, I hate being so impatient..."

He looked up at Yukari, something in his eyes registering at the sight of her. The information didn't seem all that unusual to him, she had been there the whole time, helping with the recovery process. But, perhaps, somebody else needed to know that Yukari was in the room with them...




Above the battlefield, Rexial stood on an invisible platform, looking down at Minato's situation. "That girl can't be Yukari, can she? ...Hold the ****ing phone!" He exclaimed, despite the fact that he was out of the earshot of anybody who would bother listening. There was a flicker in his eyes, as if he recognized something, saw something that was not there. "If... then... she.... GAAAAAH! Goddamn this stupid I'm-half-of-Aleri bulls***, it's confusing the hell out of me!"

The man of darkness stopped for a moment to gather his thoughts. "...If Yukari is with Aleri and Xavier, she can't be here. So, who's the girl...? The look I saw on Minato's face a while ago suggests that he may not actually know that it's not Yukari... But I need to wait for my ticket in to the fight before going down." Rexial gazed into the sky above, searching.

It didn't take long. Only a few seconds later, a black dot appeared, and began to descend at an alarming rate. The shape came closer, moving too fast to identify. In the instant it passed, Rexial hopped onto it, about to drop directly into the clearing below...

<DAMN IT! Why does the sh*t ALWAYS seem to hit the fan when I'm not around?! What the actual f*ck?! >

Sora noticed something off in the distance. "Is that...?" Sora stopped to watch, the still functioning Aero spell bouncing away any attackers. But then, as Minato and Yukari began to seemingly panic, he decided, "Alright...that can't be good. I better go help." With that, he threw his Keyblade to one side, and it began spinning and revolving around Sora, performing a Circle Raid, knocking away any guards that would have otherwise gotten near enough for Aero to take the hits.

The guards remaining near Sora seemed to take that as a sign that they couldn't win, and backed away, clearing a path for Sora to run through. He did so, and arrived as Minato was asking the demon what it was. "Well," he suggested, "It looks kinda like something we need to destroy." He entered his battle stance and readied his Keyblade. "And I'm with you, all the way."

Minato nodded, bringing his sword up to bear, "We'll have to go into the belly of the beast. Whatever it is, it's emanating from her... Sora, think you could generate enough light to make me a path through it?"

The beast was slowly growing consuming the surrounding area in a fire-like fashion.

-THTNW-
Alexei chuckled and looked to Fia, "We had better go then, just to make sure we are prepared and ready to go." He looked at her then headed for the door.

Sora nodded. "Of course, no problem!" He spun his Keyblade and thrust it into the air. "Spark!" he yelled, casting the light spell. A concentrated beam of light shot from the tip of his Keyblade and straight at the beast.

<Yes, I know, that's not what Spark does. Can you name another spell Sora would know with a closer effect to what I'm describing?>

<I think that the actual effect of Spark would have worked for the situation.>

<I'm waiting for the right moment to crash in, and if they need light to break through, Rex ain't the guy for the job. He cuts things, and that's only helpful when there's something visible to cut.>

<Meh, I wouldn't really consider it bright, seeing as how it dims the screen. The light isn't even all that bright, it's just neon-colored.

Meh, no worries, interpret it as you will>

Minato smirked, "Alright, big bad wolf! Bring it on!" He charged forward and the darkness collapsed around him.

-------------------

In the darkness of the beast, Minato found himself standing next to the girl that had first attack him, "Hey, you don't want to be controlled by this thing do you?"

"Ni-nightmare!" She cried pitifully as the wolf emerged from the inky blackness.

Don't worry, child. I will extinguish this young man's hatred of you. I will protect you.

The creature leapt from the girl attempting to tackle Minato but the Wild Card sidestepped punishing the demon with a stroke of his blade.

You dare strike at me? Submit to the wonderful lull of madness and sorrow. Bath in despair, puny hero!

The darkness began to consume Minato, he supressed it through the use of his personas but ultimately it was starting to win the battle.

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Meanwhile, the wolf-like demon grew in size attempting to swallow Sora in its massive jaws.

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Fia nodded, "It'd be smarter to portal. I can use fire to make us one." She admitted.

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Junior nodded hefting his scythe to slice apart a tree at the edge of the grove, his demon took over and he used its many appendages to lift a majority of the timber, "Think you can mange the rest, Athez?" He asked.

"Hold it!"

A mass of blackness crashed down next to Minato, the force repelling the darkness around him. <I hope.>

The mass was revealed to be a throne made of the darkness itself, and sitting in it was none other than Rexial. "I hope I'm not late. I needed my invitation to join the party. Don't worry about the guys outside..."



Columns of pitch blackness rained from the sky, tearing through the enemy ranks.




"...Merry Su has it covered."