There's a Fine Line Between Good and Evil (Mindy)

Once the shadow trail wrapped tightly around Yofie's leg, an undertow began to warp Yofie towards the violent tendrils of a malevolent tree. Gaining enough footing to stand her ground with some vigilance, Yofie put her blade first as she tore through the branches and ate through the bark of the tree. One of the foxes broke forth through the undercutting shrubbery and bounced into a tree. Yofie moved to her gut instinct of cutting the tree down where it stood, until a change of direction wrapped around her blade and pulled her down.

"This is no place for angels. Even for ones as colorful as you." Sure of her victory and shaded with the cover of her attendants, Misaki pulled on the shadow wire she used to take Yofie to the ground.

"You are responsible for desecrating this land! Stand and meet..."

"I'm already standing. You're the one needing some assistance in that field." Delivering a taste of her own medicine, Misaki unleashed a blast of fire to put the angel off her feet and towards the endless pit. "Looks like I'll need another assistant."

Picking herself off the ground, Yofie bore witness to Mindy beginning to plummet from the ceiling. How much a small girl could take from falling remained to be answered to Yofie, but the angel decided she would intercede. Yofie's wings spread to cover herself from a second blast of Misaki's hateful fire. The heat felt less pure in this sense, but did not manage to burn away her resolve. Flames burst from Yofie's wings and the angel shot herself up to intercept Mindy in her horrible fall. When Yofie took off, Mindy still maintained the visage of a non horrific demon, but once Yofie grabbed hold of the girl, a sharp pain ran through her mind, calling to her deep within.

Fallen from grace, Yofie merely managed to keep Mindy from the maws of madness beneath her before spinning in a circle to throw the girl towards a tree. A sense of betrayal sparked in Yofie's hands and illuminated the tree behind Mindy to give her a rather unwelcome return to the ground. "Foul beast! You have deceived me just as your pawn in black has! I will burn this realm to the ground to destroy all of you in your infernal battle for lust and greed.!" Never short of her word, Yofie broke her flight to begin setting fire to the majority of the room.

Sneaking as quietly as a fox, Misaki would attempt to keep Sebastian from helping Mindy in anyway by turning the ground around him into an oil slick, hoping to divert him to falling into the gap of madness, but if nothing else, wrapping him up in shadow to eliminate him as a threat. "Be a good butler leave me with your lady. It will only take a moment before I return for you." Sharp claws broke out of Misaki's otherwise gentle hand. The fox summoned up a cloud of darkness to overtake the room within a matter of seconds. With silence and darkness with her, she would hope to implant one of her claws deep in Mindy's back.

Sebastian felt his heart drop and his blood turn to ice; Mindy taking on Nox's magic at this time was literally the worst thing he could think of.  Between Yofie, the oversensitive darkness radar, Mindy's unstable demeanor and the wispy fox lady's whatever it was she doing this all for, the word restraint was probably out of their collective vocabulary. He needed to grab Mindy and get out of here.

The black tendrils came flying at him, looking to incapacitate him. Letting go of the the desire or introspect some more, Sebastian activated his "flight" magic. The line of celestial beings that Sebastian couldn't actually fly, they could only stand in the air at whatever level they were at, making it more about kicking off of the position they were at and jumping to the another position and propelling them where they needed to go. He bobbed and weaved dodging shadow and fire as he tried to make his way to the fighting girls.

Sebastian couldn't help but think, "Why couldn't we have just gone to that disneyland place?"

---
As Mindy fell, she let go of whatever she was thinking about and let the only thing stay on her mind be her desire to keep one of the foxes. The thought stirred something else deep inside he heart, a void that lashed out and consumed all of the other emotions she had. She felt the magic from her body spill out and become shadow given form. The shadows cloaked her and formed deep purple clothes and a black mask that covered her face.

Just as she was ready open her new cape and glide down to the near by ground, Mindy was caught by Yofie, the trigger-happy demon hunter, and was chucked at a tree shortly after. Without raising her hand or uttering a word, the shadow shifted to slow her down and put her down on her new azure stillettos. They wove around her and batted away the fire that spewed forth from the angel. With every aching moment, Mindy felt her self become more and more impatient, the feelings ready to burst out and consume whatever they could.

It didn't take long for her to notice the Foxy lady rushing towards her; Misaki wasn't making much of a noticible sound but Mindy could feel her shifting through the darkness or even more obviously the darkness that was seeping from her body. Turning her head slightly to face both the angel and vixen woman, Mindy said with one word that carried itself throughout the chamber they were in, "Darkness." The shadows that surrounded Mindy gushed out hundreds of raven apparitions that flew out to fly at the two other girls nearby as well  try and cover everything near where they all were. The ravens sought to attack and blind their targets as well as try and limit their movement.

Lifting her hand up as if holding a handle, Mindy formed a giant hammer out of shadow the size of a minivan and swung it down to try and slam the angel down, probably in the direction of the swirling riptide of dark magic.  Letting go of the hammer and lifting her other hand and slashed it horizontally and diagonally a couple times in the direction of Misaki as razor-like blades the length of an olympic javalin of dark energy flew out in an attempt to cleave the fox lady, and Mindy's true target into pieces.

Even before waiting to see if anything had hit their mark, Mindy began to sit down into a small throne of shadow. She felt the magic inside of her wanting to come out, but she waited. Her desire to acquire a new would not let her take any risks. The spirit foxes were simply too adorbs.

These antics grew tiresome. And noisy. Between the little witch taking control of the shadows and the angel delving away secrets with her blade, Misaki knew she needed to isolate a few problems in her plan. Luckily, the little witch had just that plan in order.

Yofie dove towards Mindy with the other side of the room set ablaze. A justified burst of flame ignited her armor and blade, spinning the resolve she wished to deliver to the girl encased in darkness. "I shall deliver you the light you so desperately need!" Before Yofie could deliver justice, a mallet swung from the darkness, pushing the celestial to the coldness of the ground. "You would do harm to me as I try to help you repent? Thrall, assist me in saving this girl's soul!" Ravens surrounded Yofie, dogging her as she she tried to move in no certain direction.

"Fool." Misaki covered the area surrounding her with the sounds of foxes, crows, and wolves. As a spear grew closer to Misaki, she could only smile as the blunt force of the blow bounced off of her dress. A glare in her eyes showed playful hate. While the unnatural ravens would begin to make their stead towards Misaki, the spirit who fended off hunters for hundreds of years merely smiled before taking to invisibility. Under the cover of the aggressive sounds of the forest, Misaki began to stalk the throne of shadows Mindy made for herself. No doubt it would draw the attention of one of the more aggressive people in the room.

"If you sought to draw my attention and wroth with your throne, it has worked!" As Yofie immolated her wings, Misaki smiled. Wild swings tore through the shadowy flocks besieging her until Yofie could bring herself within striking distance of Mindy. Her metallic boots sank into an oil dripping through the area. A trap set by Misaki now attached to Yofie. "Your evil will break upon my..."

"No one cares dear." Flames shot out from Misaki's hands to ignite the oil spreading around Yofie and Mindy. Once the spark spread far enough Misaki would put herself into a position to deliver her perfume, Misaki would send out shadows the grab Mindy and Yofie's ankles to keep them within the immolation setting forth around them. "So, will I have one sacrifice or two? Maybe you can help me little witch."

From the front row seat, Mindy saw the peanut gallery unfold without much reaction. As the fire and the fox lady's magic approached, without shifting her position , Mindy  began to raise the throne higher into the air, almost colliding with her overly distraught butler. Yofie and Misaki had been talking, but Mindy had barely noticed; all she wanted to do was share her despair, to let it encompass everything.

"We need to go, now! It is not safe, Milady. Sebastian knew that she was more willing to listen to him when he acted more like a butler and he was hoping it would work more then it ever had."

“We are not done Sebastian. Turn into the Royal Scepter, posthaste.” She couldn't let go now, not yet. The feelings that the desire to claim the fox had stirred deeper emotions in her, ones that threatened to consume her.

“But-”

“Now Sebastian.” He wanted to fight back but the contract of the rings pierced white hot pain in the back of his head. Sebastian began to hope that she would pass out from exhaustion sooner rather then later

Their exchange had lasted only a moment and in span of a single blink and a half, there sat Mindy, with a dark purple staff with a crown wrapped around with angelic wings on the top. It looked like a queens scepter that had been extended to the size of a staff. Pushing her magic through her new magic medium, the shadows and ravens that she had released earlier began to shift and morph into an army of winged wolves. At the spear tip of that army stood a colossal wolf the size of a minivan.

Mindy snapped her fingers and their eyes began to glow red as they began eagle diving at Misaki.

“You will listen to my command!” She said with a commanding tone that echoed throughout the cavern they were in.

"Your evil is truly an abomination upon the light. Stand back and prepare to be burned!" No lift came from her Yofie's legs under a swift burst of winged motion. "What devilish incantations have you unleashed? I do not know which one of you is responsible for this. Thrall, you must..." Smoke began swelling around Yofie's  head, blurring her vision, but giving her a good enough vision of her one non corrupt ally turning himself into some form of regalia for Mindy. "You turncloak! I should have destroyed you when I had the chance. Once I secure my release, I will destroy you both. And the fox demon. And possibly the interlopers above. I will be busy today, but the path of the righteous is not without its trepidations."

During the speech in the peripheral of the a burning inferno, Misaki got an idea. As long as the little witch continued her descent to darkness, the angel would focus her energy to destroying her. Without a good idea of priority in her pretty, little head, Yofie would blindly attack whatever lay before her. The winged wolves circling in the air looked like something from a child's imagination. The larger one demanded more attention. A lone wolf was either a survivor or a bully. Misaki deal with enough wolves in her times to know the creatures only wanted one thing.

With her plan realized, Misaki would let Yofie's legs loose. After letting loose the engine of destruction, Misaki would slip back into the shadows, sending fer spirit foxes towards the oil slicks along the ground, setting them ablaze. No intimidating beasts, just pure flames.If the battle looked to go against her with Mindy overwhelming the angel, Misaki would need to merely retreat today and fight tomorrow. If the angel prevailed, Misaki could easily destroy the shortsighted avenger.

With her feet freed from the shadowy grips, Yofie took to the air to deal with Mindy directly. "I do not know how long the memory span of evil is, but a few moments ago, I told you I would destroy you and end your evil..." Yofie continued to fight through the waves of wolves with fiery resolve and a flaming sword. "It is now that time in which I will deliver a righteous destruction of your face. For your face is offensive to all glory and purity in this world!" Pointing her blade towards the throne, Yofie plunged forward with her flaming sword to deliver a deathblow to Mindy. Several winged wolves interjected with her judgment, knocking Yofie off point and moving her towards the side of the throne with all of Yofie's flaming might.

The burning angel came flying at the rookie witch and her faithful butler staff. Mindy passively moved her hand, queing a small of shadow wolves to dive into the angelic comet. It was enough to knock her off course but not enough get rid of it. The dark magic inside of Mindy kept screaming inside her, demanding to come out. Whether she wanted it to come out or not was a different question, her body was beginning to reject the flow of mana that was flowing out of her; If she kept using magic willy-nilly the effects were going to go out get worse. That didn't stop Mindy from using magic all the same.

Lifting up her flamboyant purple staff she began to weave black magic bolts into each other over and over again forming a single fork-pronged spear 4 times as thick as a lance. Maybe this will be enough to put that overzealous Justicar down. Sebastian the staff chimed in through their neural link. "Shes not all THAT bad. A tad bit chatty but tune her out and she becomes much more pleasant."

"She is in my way, and quite clearly aims to slay us. Mercy would be foolish"

"You seem awfully more pragmatic then usual, Milady" Mindy didn't respond to that. The sarcasm wasn't lost on her and his words hurt her on a deeper level, though all the pain did was make her more stubborn about what she was doing.

""Spear of the Heavens, Slayer of Gods and Men, Guided by the One Eye of the All-Father, Fly True, Gungnir!" The Spear of conentrated Dark energy flew towards the angel, locked on to the celestial essence identified from when then angel had passed by. Half of the wolves also began falcon diving towards the recently misdirected angel.

"This land of Heaven you speak of reeks with deception and morbid obsession with the demise of those dedicated to living within the light." Seeing her blade impaled through the back of the throne further enraged Yofie. A final push, planted firmly with two feet against the side of the chair, broke her blade free, sending Yofie backwards with a back flip. Fuming with a flaming brand, her resolve found itself flushed away from the heights by a winged wolf breaking against her back. Fueling the downfall with flames and reckless slices from her blade eventually severed her ties to the canines devouring her wings, but left her much less inclined to dodge the spear darting towards her.

The most harsh point of the spear plunged through Yofie's blade, jettisoning the arm through a tree. Yofie found herself unable to detach herself from one of the oddly dark trees within the catacomb she tried to ignite. A sharp pain in her side became more realized as she pined down to see the spear pinning her in place to the tree. A large gash in her side disappeared into the prolonged shadow strike materialized as a solid blade, and Yofie felt no emotion other than rage fill her as the wolves descended.

Embracing her full extent of flame, Yofie extended her wings towards the branches of the tree and sparked an immolation to take her. Flames coursed through her and spread throughout the tree, giving no welcome or mercy to the creatures descending to attack her. Even with the flames offering her a shield, she still struggled against the spear lodged through her. Without tearing half of her side out, Yofie would find no way to remove the weapon from impaling her and retrieving her sword. "You there, demon child of the most vile arts. I wish for you to return me my blade that I may purge your soul of infidelities. Should you fail to comply, your soul shall merely become more darkened by every passing moment in this place."

The fiery storm of malice that had been raging inside of Mindy drained from her in an instant. Despite the angelic wings, sharp tongue, and plentiful bosom, this had suddenly started to feel like bullying a little kid. Well more a kin to bullying a kid with a rocket launcher, but it still took the fun out of it. Mindy sighed, as far as she could tell, the cute little foxes she sought were no where to be seen, just random balls of fire.

"Why didn't you tell me she was idiot?"
"She's not an idiot, Mindy. Shes just...over zealous? Head strong? Like really Head Strong."
"You sure you haven't got a thing for her?"
"I barely know her, though it may be the celestial thing. Maybe angels are like the super models of the heavens?" Sebastian's mental shrug permeated through their mental link

Mindy raised her voice so that the angel could hear her. "We are done here. Tend to your wounds and leave us be. With a flick of her hand and tendril of shadow went to pluck up Yofie's sword.

That's when it hit Sebastian. "Wait Mindy, Dont do that!" But it was too late. The tendril tossed the sword back towards the angel, with that a single speck of light, no bigger then a grain of sand glowed from Mindy's chest. suddenly the speck of light began to expand and lightning of pure light ripped throughout her body. Light shone from her mouth and her eyes, as the shadows that she had been manipulating began to dissipate. She began to fall.

Sebastian turned back to his humanoid form and caught Mindy, now wearing her Magical girl outfit she had been wearing before.. He swore. Despite the power it gave her, the catch was the worst possible for her fickle heart. This was bad.

Embers stoked down from Yofie's graceful wings as the angel lifted her arm to catch her blade in hand. "I thank you for your willingness to consent to your own demise."Each sentence from the magic girl filled Yofie with more tension to fill the girl with knowledge of the ailment Yofie saw in her and with fire which Yofie would fill her with. "I take these words you say as nothing more than idle demon blabber and will not respond with any statement other than- JUSTICE!" Stroke after stroke flew from Yofie's blade towards Mindy. Normally a typhoon of flame would cover the area in front of her, but in the absence of shadow, the light would not come.

Light broke out of Mindy's heart, removing the darkness Yofie sought to destroy. It did not however destroy Yofie's memory of the shadow, and for that Yofie sought answers. "You there, Thrall. I must ask to depart from this young girl. You are clearly responsible for her ailment." The soft hiss of steel sang through the sheathed blade. Yofie would try to take the girl from Sebastian's arms. "Thrall, I only speak to you as a courtesy so you may one day repent your wickedness and take remove the darkness of your stained soul from existence by means you deem necessary." The grasp of the young woman would turn into a tug of war between the two companions over Mindy's body. "I will take the girl to extinguish this possession you have extracted from her. You are free to return to the pit of which you were spawned and continue your worship of darkness.. I however must continue to live a life worth living, something one day you will lament not having."

Yofie would continue her eternal struggle for the girl. And it might very well be eternal.

The pit filled with darkness would begin stirring.

This was not good, not good at all. Bad day, bad day, bad day. Sebastian was so flustered he couldn't even think of a proper way to describe his currently worsening  situation. Fatigue wasn't an issue, since being a focus hadn't require magic from him, but fighting while carrying Mindy would be a great handicap. The comatose-like girl would most likely be knocked out for a while, which meant she was going to be dead weight. Running away seemed like a perfectly valid option, but with Mindy weighing him down and Charlie's fire-breathing angel behind him, it was risky. Not to mention that the hairs on the back of Sebastian's neck were sticking up. Something was moving in the shadows, most likely that fox lady.

In moments like these, Sebastian wondered why the only gods in his life were either in the hands of a delusional young woman or were trying to kill him. What had he done to deserve this, he pondered. Was he an asshole in a past life and some how the leftover karma was deposited in his account? Taking what Sebastian knew from talking to some of his past selves, that possibility started becoming more and more likely.

He slid one of his feet in across the ground ahead of him to get into a stance, ready to respond to however the situation chose to unfold itself.  The angel was coming closer and closer, still nagging him for some reason. The angelic strength of her lungs was definitely sublime; before he knew it, he was wondering how long she could hold her breath.

If fighting was unfavorable, the overwhelmed butler needed to use his brain to get out of this one.  The angel was almost upon the two of them when a desperate thought struck him. "Wait! Should you... You.." With a sudden sense of absurdity, Sebastian realized that he couldn't remember if the angel had given her name. With a quick mental note that filtered listening was something he needed to work on he continued. "You, a True Warrior of Light, not be celebrating!? Within this girl resides an ancient Guardian of Light that has liberated her soul and broken its shadowy hold on me!" Sebastian waved to somewhere behind him. "The evil sorceress tried to seal a greater demon inside of her, but this sorceress knew not that this was a child of holy light.   At this part, He let bright blue light shine from his eyes. It was one of his more useless powers granted by being a celestial, but he had to do his best to sell the part. "The Demon used its foul magic to transform me into a tool of treachery but that was its folly! now touching my beloved master, I could awaken the great guardian of Light, Aether and from the inside we fought the monster for what seemed like weeks and monthes, till we finally destroyed the..." Working on his improvisational skills was going on his list of things he needed to work on. "Ifreetabalagor, Demon of the hell of darkness!" ok Make that really work on those improvisational skills.

"The battle has put a great strain on my master, we must get her to safety!" Sebastian kept begging the heavens that would work, but he kept his muscles tense in case he needed to jump away or kick something.

"Evil spirits? Demons of Darkness? Master?" Yofie stood firm. "You have spoken many words, but few have more importance than the utterance of blame you shed upon the vile witch of this haunted crypt. I am skeptical of your claims of light, seeing as though you have already confessed to being used as a cudgel of evil, but I will give you a chance to prove you are in fact just a pawn to be used as seen fit, no more a man than this weapon of mine, though the weapon is only to be seen as fit as the one who wields it." The fire within Yofie kindled down. "Very well thrall, you may carry her to safety, but I will take her as my warden. Seeing as my status within this world will certainly elevate me among the ranks, I will raise her within a large home, probably with a massive underdwelling to serve some utility purpose. Within time, she may learn to bring the light to the darkness. My only restraint, besides the forfeiture of life should she embrace darkness, will be she not identify herself as any kind of nocturnal rodent. The ones that fly are of utmost blasphemy to me."

Darkness made a lot of noise. "Thrall, take the girl to the surface and wait for me. Should you embrace the background you claim to not be apart of you, it shall compromise your honor and I shall destroy you. Other than that, you are free to do as you please until my return." The spark of righteousness returned to Yofie as she turned to look upon the mass of shadow rising from the open pit. A bulbous eye circled the mass which could pass as a torso. Flames from her wings showered down upon her sword, ablaze with a dignity that would soon send shadows into nothingness.

Even amoungst the half-insults, Sebastian felt a weight off his shoulders. He nodded to the angel and began making his way towards the staircase they had come from. He needed to get them away from this place and away from the chaos it came with. There was no way he could let Mindy stay with the angel, whatever her name was. Mindy would barely last a week if not just a day before she used shadow magic.

Was this the world that Mindy wanted to be a part of? This was the first time they fought people of this level, and she had managed to get drugged, almost thrown into a giant shadow pit, and stopped mid fight because she forgot the rules of her powers. This was just the beginning; there will be much stronger opponents in the future, ones that wont just let them go with their lives. They needed to get stronger, or else they were going to die.

Then again, He could just go back to being watcher of the rings if Mindy died. Sebastian began to wonder when he had started caring about whether or not she died. Well whatever, time to get their stuff back, hopefully no one jacked it.