Phantasmal Sea

The Phantasmal Sea is the local metaphysical sea connecting Earth, Fantasy, Echo, Heaven, and Hell. Few know how to sail its mythic waters, save for the higher powers of Hell and Heaven with any certainty. Its qualities vary greatly based on proximity to one of the Planes.
== To Sail Tides of Despair ==
Rene and Magnolin appear on a rocky outcrop amidst a violent, turbulent sea of plasma like matter, swirling with every color imaginable. Above them and to the far horizons, great spheres dance - Earth and swirling clouds of stars and the moon, an unfamiliar plane dancing with it akin to a mysterious twin, far above swells a shimmering archipelago of landmasses full of magic and mystery, a great star like sphere crowning the sky, and broiling deep below them, a crack in the sea floor erupting fire and destruction.
Magnolin looks about the celestial scene with wonder beneath her mask. "...I've read of this place in books amid Adola's collection... but it really exists, the Phantasmal Sea..."
A great chorus of song comes to their ears from a tattered ship, not looking even somewhat sea-worthy, starts flying towards them at great speed.
Rene chuckles. "You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until you meet Eric's crew. They're certainly... interesting..."
The ship abruptly skids before the rocks, throwing hooks on thick ropes that grab both of them and pull them aboard an ancient vessel of wood and steel - having a high mast, tattered sails, and a crew of what look to be zombified pirates. The "captain" has his foot upon the railing beside the large wheel.
"Rene! Who would've thought you'd ever get desperate enough to come back here..."
Magnolin gazes about the planar wonders for a moment longer before silently eying the crew and the captain.
"Necromancy...?" She mutters under her breath in thought.
Eric jumps, sliding down the railing and walking towards Rene. AS he passes Magnolin he leans in and give a quick slide of his finger around her jawline, pointing her head to face him. "Sayin' just that wouldn't even begin the expl'nation, hun," a rum-strained breath flirts.
He walks past her and stops before Rene. "Why 'ave ya brought me a demon? We 'ave 'ad no quarrel with them yet, Sorcerer, and this one will start quite a quarrel."
"Then you know who's after her?" Rene calmly asks, not mentioning the glance he gave Magnolin.
"Yes, I 'ave known and will know and always 'ave known Rene."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"'as not yer time to know."
"Time to know?"
The pirate sighs, putting his eyes in his hand as if in pain. "Yer still as green as ev'r, aren't'cha kid? Boys! Rum 'nd a table - hurry! I don't want them on this ship 'ny longer than necessary!"
"Aye Aye, Cap'n!" the walking corpses respond, rushing off to their duties.
Magnolin tilts her head to one side. "Not to be rude, but you would be wise to keep your hands to yourself," She comments as the tips of the captain's hair starts budding into flowers.
"Huh, one of the minor ones. Cute." She swishes her finger and the enchantment is broken. "Dryad curses borne of jealousy are petty things."
The crew hoists a table that makes the ship's deck groan as they place it down and hands three bottles of rum to the captain before walking away.
"We 'ave much to discuss, an' li'le time to discuss it." He swigs an entire bottle into his throat, gulping loudly the entire time. "She's prob'ly already found where ya are from the pet ye brought on my damned boat." Another bottle is gulped down. "Give a brat a fightin' chance an' 'e brings the fight right to ya..." The last bottle is thrown down his throat.
He inscribes a few runes into the table and begins chanting, pulling a severed hand out of his belt pouch. "Great Mother Of The Seas, please grant us silence..." 
Rene sits on the railing of the deck, waiting for the preparations of the spell to be complete.
Magnolin folds her arms and silently eyes the captain beneath her mask.
A whispering breath shushes the air around them, and a deep fog encroaches on the boat, obscuring anything further than three arms-lengths.
Eric relaxes a bit as the hand starts to crawl, scraping something into the wood with it's index finger. "Good. Now ev'n the great Lords of Hell 'an't hear us. Now why're ya 'ere?"
"Her mother currently has control of her body through that band on her neck." Rene looks towards Magnolin with sadness in his eyes. "It's a blood-related issue. Thought you might have a way around it."
"Aye. I do. But what might I get fer it?"
"Gratitude"
"Nah. Not 'nough."
"You know all that I hold. Have any one of them"
"Not interestin' 'nough, nor is any o' that useful to me 'nd me needs 'ere."
"You defy the demons."
"Demons pay me 'ore fer yer heads, ye know? Ye know who she is, right? She's worth more 'han anythin' ye 'ave to offer right now." Eric glances at her, eyeing the band around her throat. "I need somethin' more from ye's"
"Value others by blood all you like, the Czar and the Aristocrats thought that was important too. They died in a hole in the ground." She intones and takes a step forward, looking at Rene.
"I'm beginning to question your choice of allies these days."
"If he saw them as better allies than me, he'd have already called them." Rene looks at her, giving her a bit of a smirk. "Instead, he shrouded us in a veil of silence so your mother and her cronies couldn't see or hear us." He reaches into his cloak, pulling out an ornate bottle that looks as though it were from the ancient days of Norway. 
"He just enjoys haggling," he finishes, walking over to Eric.
"'s this... Ya didn't mate..." Eric looks at the bottle as if he was staring into a void filled with gold. "I thought t'was lost!" The crew begins to gather around, all looking excitedly at the bottle.
Rene smiles. "The Bottomless Bottle."
"AHOY MATEYS! Get the sails ready! We've ourselves a journey ta make!" the captain shouts, all hands getting excitedly into their positions.
The cloud of mist begins to disperse as Eric points the boat straight upwards - toward Hell itself.
Magnolin sighs. "I'm exhausted and we've barely begun."
The sorcerer sits on the edge of a hole in the middle of the deck and motions for the half-demon to do the same. "We really only have a couple options here. I don't know what Eric has planned, but whatever it is it's at least not the worst idea on the table. Your mother gave us three days to get her a name I can't remember. The coven can't help. There's an overpowered demon in a prison cell that's obsessed with you. And I genuinely have run out of ideas."
An exhausted breath escapes his lips. "Eric's not good, but he's not bad either. He only does what he wants when he wants to, and pretty much despises anyone who does any differently - so he tends to dislike the hierarchy of demons that coincidently wants to use you as a living plaything. He's a good ally right now, and one on a very quickly shortening list."
She sits down next to him quietly, and after a moment, leans into him, a hand clutching his arm tightly.
"She's going to strip me of my everything, just like that... ...Rene, why not leave me behind altogether? If you're right, if Mother really is tied to your plight, aren't I just... going to cause you pain?"
He looks out over the great Phantasmal Sea, thinking for a second. "Hadn't considered leaving you behind. Not going to now. Not worth the time of day."
She quietly looks toward him, and is silent for a moment, after a few minutes pass he feels a small light nip on the cheek.
"You're an idiot." She says softly. "...But sometimes that's not so bad."
"Oy ya land-lubbers! We'll make firefall in Hell soon enough, ye should get some sleep while ye can!" comes a shout from the wheel. "And ye best pay me when I get what we're goin' fer."
"Yeah, you know I will." Rene sighs, taking in the beauty of the moment for a minute, and enjoying the sky. "If we ever get out of this - I'd like to be out here. This is where I want to live out my days."
”Hmm.” Magnolin starts to close her eyes, but she jolts back awake as something impacts the front of the ship, nearly pushing the front into the sea. What stands there as the ship rocks up and down is a veritable mountain of a man with a massive muscular frame, long blonde wavy hair, and four imposing horns, his wings span a large area of the deck.
His deep set ruby red eyes furrow as he looks at Rene and Magnolin.
”I was right on the money,” His voice rumbles deeply. “Ah, and the apple of her eye is here no less. How fortunate that I should find you first.”
"Oi ya damned oaf! Why 're ya DAMAGIN' ME SHIP?!" Eric yells from the wheel as the boat comes to a halt.
Rene stands, readying himself for a fight. Ignoring Eric, he speaks to the invader. "Why are you here, Vulture?" His hands pull needles and thread out of his pouch, weaving something behind him.
The demon boredly observes this and points behind him as a titanic serpent of brimstone and scales clad in hellish iron rises from the depths.
”I’m here to watch, and to keep him from devouring Lil Cupcake beside you. As I was told by Mother, I will have a new sister soon and she reeks of the boundless potential Mother described. Can’t very well have Ol Leviathan using your ship as a toothpick now can we, Little Man?”
"Mary Mo'her O' Th' Seas! All hands, men, we got us a strong 'un!" The ship speeds up, directly at Hell's backside - directly at what appears to be a cliff 10 knots ahead. "Canons t' rear! Canons t' rear!"
Rene's stitching completes, making his cloak and mask fly on as his spellbook flies into his gauntlet. He leaps over Eric and throws green flaming circles out behind the boat, hovering right in front of the Rutter, Stern, and backsides. The crew begins loading the rear canons below deck.
A colossal mass ejects from the sea, as Leviathan charges them, broad as a mountain and seemingly endless in length. It's very movement causes the tranquil sea to become a frothing tsunami battered battlefield, towering waves barrel towards the ship even as Leviathan's armored carapace opens wide to reveal a molten core that lights up, jettisoning a massive blob of molten material that impacts just ahead of the ship, forming a jagged obsidian tower island.
The newcomer demon rolls his neck, and cracks his knuckles.
"Been a while since I wrestled with the ol' fart." He leaps up into the air, a blazing aura surrounding him as he spreads his arms out to greet Leviathan's incoming charge.
"Oi, anyone with actual firepower - wait until I throw him - the bastard needs to be pushed as far as possible if you want to get away from him, and ya do, since the fucker is invincible!" He barks at Rene and Magnolin, the latter beginning to channel an orb of blistering ice and fire that slowly shrinks to the size of a baseball.
Rene finishes stitching together what he had originally intended for Magnolin's stalker, and throws it into the air. What looks akin to a crochet frisbee splits into seven rings of blackened fire and feathers, all floating towards the backside of the ship. "Draw him towards the rings," Rene speaks loudly, "they'll keep him from reaching the ship."
Eric's laughter is the heard over every other sound on the sea. "Aye, mateys, we've ourselves a White Whale 'ere, don't we?!" He continues laughing as the canons ready their shots and he loads his pistols.
Leviathan whips his massive head through the water, creating a monstrous tsunami that races towards the ship, and the demon readies, as though somehow going to weather the storm and catch the still incoming monster's head through sheer force. As the tsunami reaches him, he growls as his flaming aura becomes a towering flaming wall and the water crashes and parts around it, just in time to catch the titanic demon's head, grunting as he then adjusts his grip and pushes back against it. After a back and forth between the two adversaries, the stranger demon manages to hurl Leviathan back, and Magnolin lets loose her spells, which explode against its head as a small explosion, dropping to her knees as the creature is budged a bit further away, panting.
Eric leaps excitedly to the back rail of the ship. "FIRE 'WAY BOYS!" he yells, shooting his two pistols. The bolts and balls look as if made of pure white light, shooting with extraordinary speed.
As Leviathan continues to hurtle backward, the demon narrows his eyes at the spots, then looks at the ship and lands back down. "You dipsticks better haul ass, and haul it real nice and fast. Leviathan is invulnerable, but he sure as hell doesn't take kindly to being stuck with Holy anything, so you better get some distance fast. This is when it's just it's normal flavor of grouchy. You don't wanna be around to see it mad."
"HOLD YE HATS LADS AN LASSIES!" the captain of the damned yells as the boat leaps out of the water and twists to fourty-five degrees - throwing the crew onto the railing or into the sea to perish for eternity. As they get closer to the wall, the boat twists, as if changing direction to go diagonally through it. 
The boat and it's passengers pass through it without major problem, but the winged demon is thrown from the ship - hitting the rocks as if they were entirely solid and being left to fend for himself against the Leviathan.
As they pass through the rocks, they enter a water filled tunnel that curves up into a large pool filled cave, with a large circular shoreline inside and a few dozen side chambers. Treasure abound can be seen, and the grey-black sands are mixed in with iridescent pearl like objects. They don't have long to view this spectacle, for from the depths below them come several massive dark grey tentacles that quickly grasp the ship tightly, and soon, their owner rises from the depths, a woman with flowing white hair, golden amber eyes and horns jutting from her head, and a silver-grey complexion.
Her eyes glow brightly, illuminating the ship's deck like spotlights. Rene gets the immediate impression that she is a Demoness, and judging by the reactions of some of the crew, a Succubus. 
"No ship may come to harbor in my cave..." She intones ominously, Rene getting an odd chill as her eyes narrow.
"If you wish to linger and be spared from harm, you will sing to me, of lands far away!" She commands.
Magnolin gives Rene a look of 'What The Fuck?!'
"Kari, ye sweet summer berry! How be the cave? I be seein that ya still trappin travellers fer they songs..." Eric speaks as he walks down the stairs to the main deck, checking for new damage. 
Rene, clearly having no idea what's going on, decides to just follow Eric's lead. He looks at Magnolin and shrugs.
’Kari’ appears to puff her cheeks and then abruptly catches Eric in her hand and stuffs him in her mouth, then folds her arms imposingly as she speaks telepathically.
”You. You will sing or join the pirate. I am the Great Seawitch, Albedo. These are my terms.”
Rene thinks for a moment, then in a hushed, cracking voice, make a half-attempt at singing. "Uhm, there was this treeeee... And it was pretyyyyyy... Something something treeeeee..."
Albedo makes a put out expression and slowly her eyes drift towards Magnolin, who flushes, and then shakily begins attempting to recite a song about nighttime during a cold Russian winter, accidentally breaking out into a Russian accent in the process. Once she finishes, Albedo points at the crew members who are new to the crew, and only then relaxes, and abruptly spits out Eric.
When Eric gets up, his clothes, hair, and skin are super clean looking and without the slightest blemish, along with a… lemon-citrus scent wafting all over him, Rene could swear he’s at least a tiny bit more sober than usual.
Eric turns to the pair, his skin gaught against his skeleton and his face full of depression and dread. "rum..." he weakly croaks.
Rene throws him the Bottomless Bottle and Eric begins chugging it.
The Sorcerer turns to the Oceanic Witch. "So, I suppose both of you come here often..." he says somewhat sarcastically, waiting for Eric to regain his vigor.
Albedo is covered in a swirl of inky blackness for a moment and then appears on the deck, smaller, but still considerable in size compared to the average person. She blinks slowly at him.
”We have a pact. Of which he has yet to renew for this visit.” She says simply.
She slithers up to Rene, her face getting close to his.
”You are strange. Most unnatural. …Do you have…” She trails off, staring at his chest as though she was looking inside its contents. She then looks at Magnolin and slithers over to her.
”Commanded, and recently exerted too much demonic power. This one needs to sleep. Sailsmen, take her to the quarters to rest.” She instructs the crew before staring intently at Rene.
The crew does so, guiding her below deck as Rene watches her go. After the alcohol begins taking effect, a slightly rejuvenated Eric bounces out from behind Rene and throws his arm around the solemn man's shoulders.
"Ye man 'ere's a sorcerer, love. One dat's seen th' other side o' this wall more th'n me ever wishes to." Much to Rene's chagrin, Eric pinches his cheek. "An' th' lovely lass has need o' som'th'n I left 'ere round fi'ty years back."
Albedo slowly slithers up to Eric and regards him sullenly.
"Not without payment. We have a pact. Or have your eyes wandered to the Demi Succubus for your aid and succor?" Her eyes slowly get slits. "I could always give you another deep clean."
"With havin' a lassie as beautiful as ye in the sea, how could ya ev'r accuse me o' wanderin'?" He gives a look of pained offense, releasing Rene. "Ye'll get'ch'r pay, miss, I just need th' barrel 'fore 'er family comes t' us 'n' looks fer our 'eads."
”Then why let her aboard…” Despite the displeasure on her face, she departs off the side of the ship into the waters below. Rene cannot help but feel bewildered by the fact that the pirate captain was not lacerated or otherwise forcibly charmed to fulfill the pact first.
Below deck, Magnolin begins to sweat on her cot, face burning red as she tosses and turns, shaking as she is overwhelmed by a tide of power surging within, as though the mere proximity to Hell was calling her demonic blood to awaken. She seizes up and her back arcs backwards in pain as her body begins to respond to the call of her agitated blood.
Soon her diminutive horns enlargen and elongate, splitting open her forehead’s skin with blood trickling down her face from the open wounds. Her face covering and mask become dislodged in the squirming, and as a crewman notices and comes closer, another sees him arc back as if struck, clutching his head.
”Feels so… gooood…” They groan.
Eric looks toward the stairs leading below deck. "Oi, mate, 's she..."
"I do believe you'll need a new crew..." Rene sighs, rubbing his forehead.
It doesn't take very long for the sounds of shouting and scuffles breaking out to be heard, seemingly a brawl taking place between the sailors still sane and those struck by the presence of a rapidly intensifying demonic aura which Rene almost instantly can identify as Magnolin's, although far more intense and primal in its potency than he is used to. Having experienced one too many a Succubus' aura, the aura he feels emanating from downstairs is that of an Elder Demon in stature. Eric meanwhile feels as though a hot iron blade had begun stabbing into his skull from the sudden onslaught of the aura's intensity.
Eric groans from the pain, reaching for a pair of pouches on his belt as he staggers. 
Rene walks towards the stairs, unsheathing his rapier and equipping his mask.
As Rene begins walking down the stairs, the weight of Magnolin's aura grows thicker and thicker until it is akin to wading through thick syrup. He feels his protective charms begin to flare and heat up, becoming strained by the intense aura.
Meanwhile, Magnolin clutches her head even as the closest crewmen tear at each other as they attempt to grasp her for themselves, her body aching as she grows larger in form and stature, her tail growing larger and thicker, whipping a sailor in the face upon attempting to grasp and pin her, shattering his jaw clean off his head.
A pink aura surrounds her and licks about her form like flames, growing more intense by the moment. Her hair has elongated to drape over most of her body, curling and brightening into a brilliant gold blonde, her skin turning an almost chocolate color.
As Rene is about to reach the room, a large black shadow erupts in front of him, blocking his way.
"How long are you going to run around blind to your own folly?" Rene hears a dark voice echo from the black shadow now consuming his surroundings.
The sorcerer looks around him, searching for any traces of magic through the eyes of his mask. He knows his options are limited, as he hadn't prepared for so many obstacles on what was supposed to be an easy journey.
Meanwhile, Eric can hear the cocking of pistols while a taunting laugh echoes through the darkening world.
Eric makes a groan as he struggles to stand, leaning backwards and pulling a shrunken head from the pouch he'd been reaching for. "Whate'er er whoe'er ya ar, this be mah crew an mah ship, an ye be breakin some rules on both them fronts matey..." he gasps out, fighting his more primal urges as the head dissolves into a white smoke that burns into the shadows around him.
The darkness deepens, and swallows them both, and while Rene isn't able to discern a specific form of magic, he detects a fundamental shift in his surroundings. He feels as though everything is far away, leaving him in the darkness, alone. He doesn't even sense Eric anymore, who likewise cannot locate Rene.
== Chains of Rebis ==
Alone, at a glance. Yet at the edges of Rene's awareness, he feels a 'presence', faint, barely registerable, haunting his perception.
"You went into the depths of Hell without a plan, unprepared for what it might unleash upon you. Upon those around you. To save a Succubus from her own mother. They can't deny their nature, you know this. You know that even after many long years, those half beings will inevitably succumb to their base instincts and become the monsters you so detest."
The presence lurks closer, until finally Rene can see them loom in front of him, yet he feels... nothing. No hint of power, no hint of soul, just an ominous emptiness. The figure is clad in black, much like Rene, possessing what appears to be a black, rounded helm with no visible features or manner in which they could see. Rene's face can be faintly seen reflecting off its obsidian surface. The darkness is thickest where they stand, coiling, hugging, if not emanating from them.
"So why persist in this folly? She is but another half creature, and you almost certainly will walk right into your doom if you persist in this headlong farce."
Eric, alone in the darkness, hears a sigh, as a necromantic bullet flies right past his ear.
"Don't ye love breaking rules?" A voice responds, toneless and vague in their sound, as a black shadow coils into being in front of him. "Breakin' hearts too, from da looks of 'hings."
Oddly, despite seeing the shadow in front of him, he only senses... himself.
Rene calmly pulls his legs upward, crossing them as he places his hands on his knees. In order for his mask to not be showing in this creature's helm, it most likely appears to him that this might be a mental manipulation. He decides to close his eyes and focus - focus on all he's fought for - focus on those who have fought with him - - Focus On Magnolin. He didn't come here for some half-breed. He came here for the woman he'd fallen for. If this was my last conversation with her, I'd wish I had told her how much she meant to me... he says to himself, his face drawing a wistful expression across his taught, boney skin.
It doesn't take long for Rene to feel the sharp pain of a fist striking his face and sending him sprawling to the ground.
"How clever you are, always taking note of small things, but so focused in on your singular end goal, you've missed the big picture entirely. I'll admit, the power of a Succubus is potent, but in my hands rather lackluster. After all, if I don't have to use her powers, I prefer not to. This meeting however was important enough that I'd disturb her slumber. Get up."
When Rene looks at the figure, the scenery has changed into a hellscape of twisted metal buildings in ruins, fire and ash rain from the skies, and fountains of lava erupt into lakes of molten rock. Effigies of people preserved in brimstone, trapped in their final moments of torment and anguish lay scattered about the nightmarescape. 
"We may be connected only by her dreamscape... but the sights you see are real enough. As am I. ...As are we." A figure stands before Rene, their body a twisted amalgam of a woman and man's flesh, stitched together by the shadows that surrounded them before. The male side scowls at Rene, annoyed, while the female rests in a fitful slumber, Rene notices she appears to be a demon, while the male is something resembling a human.
"Take a good look. This place... and we... these things are what await you at the road's end. At the end of your folly."
Rene stands, immediately more interested in the monstrosity in front of him than anything else. "What ill-fated idiot thought creating you was a good idea, my poor friend..."
The sorcerer looks at the stitching of shadows pulling the beings together. "Creature, you were created to join two plains of existence, weren't you? Are you of the past, the present, or the future?"
The male’s face tightens. “Creature are we? Nay. You are the more piteous thing, inviting your ruin and hers through your blind desperation. Running straight into their arms to become Perfect Rebis. You don’t need answers. You both must be destroyed. But come, see if you are worthy of answers and not judgment.”
The female’s eyes open and a circle of hellfire blazes under Rene’s feet. 
“Don’t resist. It will bring both of you more pain.” She speaks softly as the male draws onyx blades.
Unaware of what is happening to Rene, Eric faces his own peril.
Bullets fly through the ship as the captain faces the shadowy imposter on the top deck. Eric takes a long swig of the Bottomless Bottle while jumping behind cover to start reloading.
"Ye sack o' scally-waggin' wana-bee buffoonery! Ye wish ya was as much of'a heart-breaka as I, eh lad? 's dat da rub?" he asks, using the line to shove another set of musket cartridges down three pistols at once. "I can start meh a class if dat's da case den. Get meh a pile of dem students, yah?"
He feels a pistol press against the back of his head. “Yer of’ ye game, ye know full well da that yar smarta than dat.”
He turns to confront the shadow and sees a black shadow heavily resembling himself, leering with a disfigured, abominable face with grotesquely large teeth and bearing a disgusting grin. 
“Na yer class I can get ‘hind. We can use da’ broad, ah, but ye give da pet da name Kari, doncha? She’ll be good for demonstrat’n.”
Eric pulls out a broken pocketwatch and yanks the chain off, causing a blinding flash of light and shrill piercing sound to echo throughout the cave. When the shadow blinks, Eric is on the railing of the crows nest, pulling himself in.
"Ye'd beh hard-pressed tah convance her tah do dat, me'd rehckon," he yells down at the shadow, shooting a few shots at him. "Though meh gots tah ask lad, why ya be fightin me when ye could just ask fer a godsdamned drink like a godsdamned pirate!"
The shade shoots back, each bullet canceling out Eric’s own.
”Naw matey. It’d be easy. For us, she’d easy as da butter ye slice’n spread on a bitta toast. But ye ‘new dat already didn’ ya? Da broad’ll do anythin’ we damned want, all we gots do is a bitta flirt’n n’ she’ll fold like ye toilet papah. ‘Ho cares about how she thinks any’ho? If ye cared ye wouda helped ‘er long ‘fore now. Naw why’d dat be ye reckon?”
The twisted shade of Eric guffaws as it lobs a metallic device that explodes just below him against the mast.
Eric's face turns dark as he rides the falling mast. He vanishes in a puff of glowing water, and a looming voice echoes out of the creaking wood of the ship.
"That there be a spoken-for ship boy." He appears behind the shade, grabbing it's shoulder with darkened spaces for eyes. "Ye not touch her again."
With a downward shove, the shade is shoved into the very boards that make up the ship, the wood absorbing the energy that made the shadow and begining to repair itself. "Oi, Kari, ye about done grabbin' da barrel bah now?" The captain dusts off his tattered coat. "Could use ya help 'fore da witch steals more'a me crewmen."
The shade slowly rises behind Eric and just before it can stab him with his blade, Eric is suddenly whacked on the head with a barrel and wakes up in the coils of a disgruntled Albedo who has puffed up cheeks.
”You have some nerve to yell at me when you’ve been asleep yelling and jesting to yourself for the past ten minutes.”
She folds her arms disapprovingly. “I highly doubt that I could stop her entirely. She’s on the cusp of not only demonhood, but becoming a Demonlord in full. Slow her down perhaps, but unless she wins the battle within, there’s no stopping that monster inside from being born. A demon worthy of being -her- heir. I warned you and him when Sister told him of that Matron that it would only bring more trouble to have that knowledge.”
Inside Magnolin’s mind, a darkened version of her voice coos and taunts her:
”Admit it… you squirmed with pleasure when Orphan seduced you. When he bid us become his Lust you wanted it from the depths of your soul. And you threw it away for a boy in a husk for a body that will never reciprocate your heart.
How long has it been? How long are you going to pretend that you’re in control? Let go. This is your birthright, to dominate and pleasure yourself with abandon. To subjugate the mortals and fill the world with your progeny.
You want to protect him right? Just accept your true self, and utterly consume him until he is completely devoted to you, body and soul. That is your only path to happiness. All other roads lead to a long, pointless struggle where in the end you die and are damned anyway or lose this same battle anyway later.
Admit it; your only happiness is a delusion, that he’ll acknowledge you, your feelings, accept you. You’re useful to him, and his damned mission. Once that’s not the case he’ll kill you or lock you away in a cage.”
The dark voice whispers in her ear. “You should dominate them all. Dominate everything. You know who you truly are…”
Magnolin cries out in torment, gouging her body with her claws to drown out the voice and temptation with pain, but the storm of power and lust only builds.
”Surrender to your true self. Accept your true name. Accept it.”
'Kupalnitsa Nerasi Osenya' The voice of a memory burns into her mind, and she hisses in pain as she recognizes the sound of her mother's voice. She gnashes her teeth as they elongate painfully.
"Queen of Night..." Her voice comes out warped as she recalls the Title imposed upon her by her mother. A pink glow begins to consume her irises as her sclera blacken.
As Rene narrowly avoids another blast of Hellfire, he suddenly feels heavier, and he suddenly realizes he can feel Magnolin's presence again. Or rather... a presence resembling it, but warped and deformed into something close to a true Demon's. As the Rebis goes to impale Rene with a blade, a whip like tail strikes from behind Rene and flings it to one side. When Rene turns, a pink and violet energy taking the form of a heavily demonified Magnolin festers like flames, before taking a more solid form.
Her gaze is devoid of the life and vibrancy of her normal eyes, orbs of cruel pink with the pupils of a predator. She appears to wear no actual clothing, but instead a white tattered cloth swirls around her, shifting in the breeze and with her movements. Broad curved horns and long draping golden blonde hair frames her face, the curling curtains would reach the ground if she merely stood. Instead, she appears to levitate just an inch off the ground. She glares at the Rebis with contempt.
"You're not the only one that can Dreamwalk, and unfortunately, your party is over." With a wave of her hand, the Rebis is banished from Rene's mind, but he sees it mouth: I will return.
She looks back at Rene, and the scene changes to a derelict Russian town in the wilds, a harsh winter set in. 'Magnolin' sits across from him on a old wood chair. She gestures for him to sit as a wooden barrel hovers over to him.
"Her memories don't contain many pleasant places to sit, and I don't control where her mind chooses to wander." She intones. "I didn't think I would get this chance to speak with you in person. I suppose your foolish stunt in bringing her to Hell is something I should be thankful for."