Through the Crystal Expanse [Chapter I]

[Miracle]

Miracle could hear the cries of the refugees falling behind her and felt their pain as they breathed their last in this world. Many has already fallen to the blast chasing them from behind and now even more were falling no thanks to the arrival of this ice creature. The High Priestess followed Alexander lead on how to evade the ice shards and Yahweh kept her warm underneath the ice breath. After that the ground shook further as ice spikes came shooting out of the ground. Miracle stopped in her tracks leading the others where to step with her staff.

At first she thought it was the ice beast but instead it was actually one of the new allies that had joined them on this day. Her eyes narrowed over the monster that has been avoiding death so far. Anger, real absolute anger could be felt steaming off of the child while she aimed the staff upward to the position of the beast. It was time to end this once and for all. Nobody else was going to die today.

"And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them!"

There was no warning while her voice boomed like thunder in the surrounding area. As the ice beast's attention was entirely on Shiro after pushing him in the way of hellfire lighting, which possessed heat five times hotter than the sun's surface, struck the back of it's head from behind. The great beast that wanted her dead so badly was about to erupt into a great ball of fire in the sky and then be reduced to nothingness.

Utter nothingness.

[Sparda]

All of a sudden, the seemingly unquenchable torrent of hellfire stopped short before it could overwhelm the enraged ice dragon that Shiro had become. In its path a large disc of swirling black and purple cloud had materialised in mere moments, and the roaring flames seemed to disappear into it...

An identical cloud had whirled into life directly beneath the Ice Guardian, even as Miracle's conjuration of lightning devastated it, and the beam of hellfire roared uninterrupted from within the darkness, consuming the shattered monster in a raging pillar of unholy flames.

[Clash]

Clash stopped, watching the fireball reach its limit and begin to collapse upon itself. Sparda directed what was left of the fireball into a killsteal using portals. "That's the hard part taken care of!" He looked at the expanse, the fireball had created a massive blasted land behind the refugees, any trace of Aircano was gone and a wasteland was left. A wasteland that turned into a mud puddle, a large amount of the ice from the Crystal Expanse had melted and created a swampy patch, and a strong breeze created when the air was burned away carried rolling clouds over the blast site.

Shit looked like a heavy metal concert had rolled through.

"All that's left now is to get the people to safety I guess.. We can't stop here, this here's bat country!" Clash looked around at the refugees, at his friends from Devil May Cry, and at Miracle, the holy child. He didn't look at the Other Clash though, that one had moved far ahead, quickly heading to Hallowton on his own. He was different, but Clash knew he could never coexist with such a being. They were not done, this was not the end with both of them. Clash moved up next to Miracle and blinked. "Hai."

He looked around, taking in the situation. Things finally seemed calm and safe, the ice beasts had been driven off or driven six feet under, the wall of fire created by the laundry pile had poofed out, and the other side of the Crystal Expanse was visible, though far away. "I'm Clash! Who is you?" He figured introductions were in order, he WAS pooped out of a dimensional rift a few hours ago at the most.

[Silver Eyes]

Instead of going full force against the creature, which she should have been doing in the first place, Other decided to not do much. Everyone else seemed to have it well taken care of so why bother? It was a waste of her valuable time.

There were bigger fish to fry and her charcoal eyes were dead set on Miracle.

Why was Amoura so desperate to protect that child? That urge to continue ensuring no harm came to her remained and she hated it. Other's canines bit down into her lip and blood welled into her mouth; why keep complying when she could get rid of a pest? All eyes were on the ice monster so this could be the perfect opportunity.

Other glanced down to her right hand and carefully folded her fingers to lay against her palm to conceal her nails, which had begun to elongate and sharpen. No one was watching still. The vampire moved away from the monster and allowed the blood that she held in her mouth to spill out--it looked like she had an injury so she'd be unable to continue. To further emphasize this, she looked shocked and knelt down while grasping her abdomen. No one else really knows what it's like to phase through solid objects so it's possible to make them think she did something wrong.

"I'm fine! Just kill that damned thing!"

Now she had to figure out how to get to Miracle without those guards getting in the way...

[Solomon]

Solomon watched as the arrows were frozen and crashed to the ground but hope was not yet lost. Through the combined onslaught of Sparda, Shiro and Miracle the creature was unable to survive as it was the High Priestess who delivered the final blow to the beast and what remained was devoured through the power of Sparda. Solomon turned around to see the bitter wasteland that was once upon a time the holy city of Aircano and their home. They had failed to defend the walls but they were able to save the refugees, as many as they could. Solomon accepted a long time ago that you could not save them all so the ones that they were able to save was nothing short of a small victory for the group.

"Is everyone accounted for?" Solomoon looked around to everyone in the core group before his eyes fell upon his own guards. "Hallowton is not far from here. Lead the remaining refugees to safety and prepare the inn for our arrival!" His men responded with a salute and then marched through the remaining distance to their destination of Hallowton. Solomon walked over to Miracle who were now approached by Clash and looked down towards her. "Are you all right, milady?"

[Ayen]

Just when the creature thought it had Miracle right where it wanted her the ice beast would be faced with the bitter taste of defeat as the lighting struck the back of its head. The ice creature could felt itself burning apart at the overbearing heat from the bolt of lighting as it came crashing down for the ground. Mere seconds felt like hours as the beast’s life flashed before its eyes; being born in the frozen wasteland that was the Crystal Expanse, trained in the ways of the Zuruu people by its tribe, hunting for food with friends and making it tribe proud by defeating the strongest monster in all the Crystal Expanse. All of that felt moot now as it could not and would not succeed in the one task it always wanted to do. To take down the big fish of Aircano.

The Zuruu’s body wouldn’t even have the honor of landing on the ground as Sparda used his special abilities to rid the world of what remained of the Zuruu after Miracle got in the decisive blow in the battle. As it life was but long lost its death was already being felt by the Zuruu people as wails of sorrow could be heard all around them. It may not happen now, it may not happen tomorrow but as the Zuruu’s body was lost and it demon’s soul crossed the threshold into the afterlife one thing was sure; the Zuruu people would take vengeance against those who has inflicted this agony upon them.

[Miracle]

The anger that has swelled up within Miracle was finally starting to subside. Before this moment in the Crystal Expanse the High Priestess never thought she was capable of so much anger. It just didn't feel right to her soul. When she heard the wailing all around them it made the child second guess herself. Has she really done the right thing? Miracle shook that thought away as soon as she thought it. Of course she did the right thing what else could she have done? That monster wanted to kill her and it already succeeded in killing a couple of innocent people. And yet for some reason she was feeling the same level of hypocrisy she felt back at Aircano with the Arashi.

Why?

Miracle looked over to see Clash looking up at her from the ground. She blinked. The High Priestess has seen a lot of strange things before but this took the cake really but it was not her place to judge. He didn't look like a threat and it seems like he has been busy helping as many refugees away from the previous supernova as best he could. As best they all could. And he was cute.

"Hello there. I'm Miracle it's a pleasure to meet you."

Miracle looked up to see Solomon coming her way. She was glad that it was finally over. The Arashi now burned in the sky as a second sun and the beast that was trying to make their situation even worse was finally taken care of. But she couldn't help but feel like this was only the beginning of something more. Much more. Miracle nodded in response to Solomon's question and then saw Amoura over in the distance looking hurt. Worry crept up in the girl's body as she ran over to her but halfway to Amoura's position something deep inside her gut was telling her to stay away. Thinking it nonsense Miracle ignored that feeling and ran over to the woman, kneeling down beside her.

"Are you ok? Do you need me to heal you?"

[Silver Eyes]

"No, I need you to die."

Other grabbed the child's shoulder and plunged her nails into Miracle's body. The lances of her claws dripped red onto the snow and it spread across the surface of her white robes. If she wanted to, Other could just rip her apart but a slow death sounded so much better.

"Tell me, my dear. How does the blood of a god in flesh wash something 'white as snow'? You sure everyone's just blind to the red?"

Her nails withdrew from Miracle and she pushed her into the snow to, hopefully start slipping away from this life. Other couldn't judge what vitals she could have gone for due to the nature of her act and how quickly it had to be executed.

[Clash]

Clash smiled and waved a fin and smiled at Miracle, she was a nice kid and so polite. Clash remained quiet and observing as Miracle talked with Solomon then walked to Amoura. Clash followed in tow and wanting to catch up with his friend. No, I need you to die. WELL THEN! That and the sudden assault on Miracle ruined Clash's day. He stared in absolute terror as Amoura stabbed the child with her fingernails, spoke some silly prose, then dropped the poor girl in the snow.

"WHAT THE FRENCH TOAST!?"

Clash screamed in terror then suddenly leaped from the ground, putting a huge amount of momentum and weight directly towards Amoura and intent on nailing her with a flying body press. He wanted to pwn his friend, not kill her, after all. Clash's body was completely airborne, and that metal clad sharky form was baring down intent on crushing Amoura for her crimes against some kid Clash had just met!

[Miracle]

Miracle let out a cry of pain when she felt Other's nails dig into her flesh. Was this what her gut had tried to warn her of while she was drawing near to her? Oh why, why didn't she listen? Now it was too late she could already smell the blood that was leaving her body. Right then did the holy energy that burnt off half of Maricul's face erupted from the High Priestess' body. If it didn't tear the hybrid apart with it's power then it would force her back and right into the in-coming attack of Clash.

"Yahweh!"

Miracle spoke the name of her Lord weakly as she rolled onto her belly and crawled against the snow trying to get to the others. She needed time to heal her wounds and hoped that the distraction now caused by her holy energy and the shark would be enough to give her that time as she inched closer to the group not too far away from her position on the ground.

[Silver Eyes]

Other hissed at Miracle; damn that child! Smoke rose from her attire from where her flesh had literally been scorched from the holy energies that assaulted her body. Amoura wouldn't have been harmed by this so why her?!

Then came Clash.

The vampire sank down into the snow only split seconds before the shark could attack her. No, nothing will stop her from killing that abomination! But the burns ached! The chill that surrounded her only further spurred on the irritation.

Other leaped out of the snow and crouched down. The blood drenched hand searched through Amoura's pockets, frantically searching for a vial of blood or anything to stop this awful pain. Other had never felt anything like this before.

Much to her luck there was a large vial in a pouch and she promptly drank it down. The wounds healed over but some of the pain from earlier remained. Was this Yahweh that persistent? How annoying.

"Well, I guess the curtains have closed on my act." Blue scales washed over her skin to help further eliminate the discomfort--it was still there. Her hair, whitened from the Devil Trigger, turned red but the blackened eyes remained.

"Scene Two, then?"

[Sparda]

It was if he hadn't moved at all. Sparda just seemed to appear between the crawling Miracle and her attacker, eyes fixed on Amoura, Thanatos disappearing from sight in a burst of red flame. No weapon replaced the Devil Arm; in fact, the demon took his gloves off instead and neatly stowed them in the breast pocket of his waistcoat.

"Now, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess your presence is something to do with Amoura's last encounter with Tajna Rasha," he snarled, fixing this intruder in the Night Angel's body with a cold stare. "But you don't belong in that body. Now, I'll only ask you this once. Relinquish control, or I'll make beating you out of Amoura's body as painful for you as I can. Your choice."

Just for emphasis, the Dark Knight pulled off his coat and cracked his bare knuckles, daring this entity hijacking Amoura's body to attack him - or anyone else, for that matter.

[Silver Eyes]

"Oh, it's more than that."

Other mimicked what Amoura did the day Sparda found her sulking at the abandoned Devil May Cry.

"I was trapped there for twenty-five hellish years, Sparda. Twenty. Five. Years. You know what the irritating part of all of this is?!" Other curled her fingers into a fist and started rapping herself on the head. Instead of repeating her facial features, she grinned at the Dark Knight and slowed her speech to make sure that this got through to him: "Other. Is. In. Here. Every. Single. Damned. Day. Taunting. Me."

Other spread her arms out, slid a leg back and bowed to him in a mocking manner, "Other, at your service! Though, I often prefer my actual name, which is either Elizabeth or even Amoura! Hell, I am her." The snow around the demon began to melt and steam rose into the air around her blue body.

"Going to fist fight me? Oh, I suppose I'll entertain you."

[Sparda]

At this Other's attempt at a taunt, the Dark Knight raised his head and sneered down his nose at her.

"Other? Fitting that Amoura doesn't consider you worthy of so much as a proper name. If I know her, she'll have some way to subjugate you, or at least shut you up."

He strode towards her, setting a slow gait that allowed him time to stretch mockingly - as if beating the Amoura he knew back into consciousness would take any real effort at all. "Well, I believe the others have all had their fill with just the main course. Think I'll take dessert for myself."

With that, he simply vanished. Almost in the same moment, he had reappeared in the air above the possessed Amoura, right leg reeled back. With a grunt of exertion, he unleashed a straight punt at Other's face from more or less right in front of her.

[Silver Eyes]

"Just make sure I get the cherry on top."

Sparda made his attack and Other was quick to respond in turn. The kick began to make its way towards her face but instead of landing a hit, he only struck air--she only had to turn her body to the side and move her head back to avoid it.

Then her clawed digits grasped his ankle firmly after the kick's energy had been spent.

Other had more strength than Amoura, especially while in demon form, and broke into a spin. After gaining enough speed, she threw Sparda towards the group to hopefully stop anyone else that may be coming her way.

"Classic and predictable."

How disappointing. She was expecting something better from him or anyone else who wanted to attack her.

"Things turning white yet for you, Miracle?! Maybe it needs more red!"