Bloody Royals [Marigold, PM to Join]

[Ophelia]

Dwarf Woodlands, a world primarily made up of thick forest. A world Ophelia had rarely traveled to but knew of it's great resources for almost anything. There was rumor of a mine full with gems laying somewhere in these lands but the witch had never been there herself. Only in the dark, deep woods would anyone find the Heartless Queen roaming for ingredients for new spell ideas. Her attire strange but still casual for her with black bandages wrapped around her body from her upper torso down to her thighs, a short black tribal dress hung over top of the bandages and her feet were wrapped in black bandages that made up her sandals. Her mask sat eerily on her face as always, her true identity remaining hidden as she wished it to. Her human shape and form gave the identity of a young female adult however the way she walked and dressed portrayed her truly as something else. A stride that suggested royalty and power would be enough to scare away almost anyone she came across, not that there were many people in these woods.

The heartless found herself walk into a clearing of these woods, trees circled around her as the wind blew through the grass. It took a keen eye for Ophelia to notice between the splits in the long blades there were mushrooms, many of them at that. A smirk formed behind her mask as she stepped forward, crouching down to pick them up. She wasn't sure what she'd use them for yet, but she knew they made great ingredients for potions and spells. As her hands became full of different sorts of this fungi she stood up, a portal of darkness opened up next to her. She threw them in there as the portal would open up in her home and spit them out. From there her apprentice Jett should have picked them up and place them in her enchantment chamber. Today was becoming rather successful despite no hearts being collected, but Ophelia knew it would only be some time before someone approached her.

And that time came sooner than expected. A man and what she assumed to be his wife exited the forest in what seemed to be a state of fear. The two of them held hands and stared only for a moment at the Heartless Queen, their hearts pounding as their eyes continued to dart around for a place to go. Ophelia's eyes stared straight back at them, their clothes were ripped and her dress had been ripped to be short to allow for running. As soon as that moment of looking at each other was over the man yelled out at Ophelia. "Quickly! You have to get out of here! They're coming!" His voice trembled as he yelled, his wife clutching his arm ever so strongly as she spoke. "We can't save her honey! We need to GO!" That's when the small, nimble heartless witch laughed. Cold and youth in her voice was enough to make the couple shiver. A large, graceful scythe summoned into her hand as petals fell from it's form. "I'm not going anywhere." The witch paused, one moment she was on the other side of the clearing and within a flash she was behind the couple. "And neither are you."

With that the blade of her scythe pierced through the woman's chest from behind so the blade extended out the other side. At this same moment vines grew from below the man rapidly, ensnaring him in place to watch as Ophelia would toy around with his wife. Casually she stepped away from the man, lifting his wife on the end of her scythe easily to bring her to a place where he could watch. She wasn't dead yet and not too much blood was spilling, from the cut at least, from her mouth was a bit different seeing as her lungs were pierced. The heartless had made sure to keep her heart alive for this very moment however. One moment she was there, hanging off the end of this pink scythe, blood cluttering her mouth too much for her to spit the last three words she wanted to say to her husband. Just then all signs of life would stop and her body seemed to disappear leaving only a small amount of blood behind on the scythe. Her heart raised up and the heartless casually stepped up to it, holding her scythe down to her side she touched it with her free hand and absorbed it, capturing it to create another heartless.

As for the man trapped in vines, he was screaming and crying in emotional pain. The vines unwrapped themselves from him as he fell to the ground, paralyzed from his lost as he laid on the ground sobbing. The Heartless Queen stepped over to him, standing over his body proudly like a hunter that had finally caught it's prey. "It's okay darling, shes not anymore dead than you will be soon. Lets just say you'll find each other again in your next life form.. While serving me or something huh?" Ophelia laughed as she kicked the man on to his back. His face showed absolute submission, sadness had filled his mind too much for him to care. "Please, just get it over with.." With that he closed his eyes, ready for whatever pain Ophelia would inflict upon him. She crouched down, observing his heavily breathing chest closely, his heart rising as his body begun to disappear. The heartless reached out to claim it, however there was a distraction. A rustle in the woods would suggest whatever it was would enter the clearing soon, would this be the thing they were running from or something else? Either way they'd walk in on a moment that most would rather miss. Finally the heartless would continue to grab the man's heart. His body would disappear as he'd form into a heartless in the Realm of Darkness. Once he was gone the heartless would stand up straight, her head turning to stare at whatever would enter the clearing. Her head tilted as blood would drip from her scythe.

[Marigold Darkson]

The Lancelot touched down onto the planet which housed the Dwarf Woodlands. The interior of the ship held its usual crew; Marigold, Ysl'Dae and Schwartz sat in their chairs, Marigold held a serious gaze after the ship landed. The woman hadn't put in any coordinates to send the Lancelot to the area and not just that, it seemed to be totally beyond her control. Her ship's doors opened and it seemed as though they were led there by some other force. Marigold wasn't imagining it either. This universe and dimension were completely different. Marigold's powers were completely stunted and she felt it deep down. She wasn't at her 100% and because of that, some odd entity gripped her ship and brought it to that new world. Mari's eyes were narrowed, but she licked her lips hungrily when she tasted the darkness in the air.

"Schwartz, Ysl'Dae, you're coming with me. There's something amiss and I'm pretty damn sure we're going to find it in these woods." Marigold instructed, getting up from her chair and putting on her black, white-furred coat. Ysl'Dae and Schwartz promptly stood up at her command and joined her at their respective sides. Ysl'Dae at the right, Schwartz at the left. They exited from the ship and from its steps, descended into the thick of the forest.

While inside the forest, Marigold and crew surveyed the surrounding area. This land was definitely foreign and there wasn't much any of them could do in terms of finding information, while being stuck in the damn area. The place was rather dark too. Quaint, but dark. Marigold enjoyed the atmosphere of the place and gave a light smile. However, with the three of them grouped up like that, they would cover less ground. Mari turned towards Schwartz, who looked up at her queen as if on cue. Mari nodded and the young girl radiated an energy of pure excitement.

"Hunting time, Schwartz. Don't play with your prey too much." Marigold instructed.

"I shall survey the land and return with any goodies, Mistress. I will not be long!" Schwartz sang and with that, the young assassin had taken off into the trees.

Schwartz enjoyed hunting very much. The order was pretty much Marigold giving the young girl the okay to cut loose and cut loose some heads. Something of which she was very good at. While she bolted through the forest, Schwartz sniffed the air. Due to how fresh and forested the place was, it'd be easy to make out the scent of prey and she did. Her prey took the form of a young couple, who seemed to be enjoying themselves within the dark forest. Schwartz smiled beneath her scarf and laded on a thick branch, purposely disrupting the peaceful quiet of the area. That attracted the attention from the couple, who at first attributed the noise to being from a squirrel.

"Honey, what was that?" Asked the woman.

"Probably just a squirrel, don't be such a scaredy cat." He joked and embraced her. She huffed at her man, but the two continued to walk and hold hands regardless.

"I'm no squirrel, you worthless sacks of shit!" Schwartz yelled out and lunged from the tree. She tackled the husband down to the ground, twirled her blades around on her fingers, grabbed them by their hilts, then began to slash away at the man. Schwartz gave him light cuts and only wanted to put fear into him. For the woman, when she tried to run away, Schwartz quickly rolled off the man and performed a sweeping kick, to knock the woman off of her feet and flat onto her back. The assassin went over to the open and slashed up her dress from the waist down. This made the dress shorter and also cut her knees up a bit. Schwartz then disappeared back into the tress, her sadistic snickers echoed through the forest. "Start running!" She commanded.

And run they did. The couple had ran through the forest and little did they know, but Schwartz had followed behind them the entire time. Her mind was mapping out the route they took, as she hopped from tree to tree, tracking her prey. Schwartz eventually tracked them to a clearing, but something sinister interrupted her chase. She hung back quickly, letting the two sheep get away. Schwartz swore under her breathe, but there wasn't much she could do until Marigold and Ysl'Dae showed up. However from her perch, Schwartz had the perfect view of what was going to go down.

The scared and tattered couple came into conflict with a oddly dressed, masked young girl, who looked no taller than Schwartz herself. Schwartz stayed back, because if the mask wasn't a dead give away, then that horrid aura of darkness that matched Marigold's own dark aura was a sign for her to just observe. She relayed her current situation back to Mari and Ysl, who would more than likely be hurrying their way through the path. While Schwartz waited, she watched as her prey was butchered and their bodies disintegrated and turned into odd, floating hearts. Not only that, a weird, black creature was helping the scythe wielding girl kill these people.

"Oh lord... I might have found our queen's new best friend... Or bitter enemy..." Schwartz said to herself once the carnage was over. The scythe wielding girl stayed there, her mask continued to creep Schwartz the hell out. When Ysl'Dae and Marigold finally showed up, Schwartz dropped down to reveal herself in front of the masked girl. Her weapons remained drawn, just in case conflict occurred.

"Schwartz, we have arrived. You are not harmed, yes?" Ysl'Dae asked as she came through the forest and into the clearing. Marigold sat upon the shoulder of her Right Hand, leg folded over the other, lipstick applied beautifully and a lit cigarette casually in-between her lips.

"Nah, I'm good. But my prey was stolen by that masked child over there." Schwartz explained, as she pointed a dagger towards the oddly dressed girl. The three looked upon the masked child and the creature that stood by her side. There'd be a silence as Marigold stared into the dark eyes of the mask. Her gaze never faltered and the two of them, just based off of their power and regal air that they carried, would be able to feel that they were indeed two powerful beings that stood in the same point in time.

"Ysl'Dae, Schwartz, let me handle the conversation. No questions asked." Marigold said briskly, before she gracefully let herself off of Ysl's shoulder and walked farther out into the clearing. Just like the observation Schwartz made, both the masked girl and Marigold stood as the same side on the same coin. Never once did Mari's eyes leave the black holes made on the mask of the girl. They both wore outfits that were more or less different from the style of those around them, they both held jet-black auras, both held the intent to kill without a second thoughts and if Marigold didn't know any better, this girl before her wasn't a girl. No, the air around her was too thick with death and darkness to be attributed to a young girl... This was a queen who bathed in as much blood and death as Marigold did. Marigold smiled at this girl and reached into her coat pocket. She pulled out her pack of cigarettes and offered one to the young girl. "Looks like you're the one who might have called out to the Lancelot. Whether you did so consciously or not is not of my concern. This was not a chance meeting either... May I ask the name of the woman of who I am currently speaking with?" Her tone was as cold and professional as ever, yet that cold betrayed the true excitement she felt. Somebody like her would either be a good adversary, a powerful ally, or both.

[Ophelia]

As three women entered the clearing around the same time Ophelia stood still, her eyes moving only the slightest to investigate each of the trio. They all seemed mostly human but were different in other aspects. One was a bit shorter and a lot more nimble looking, she had dark skin and clothing similar to Ophelia only a bit less traditional, her whole entity seemed to remind the Heartless Queen of the people from her home world when she was human. The other was a lot taller and had a stature build, her eyes resembled that of a snake and her demeanor was a lot more serious than the shorter one, considering she asked about safety where as the other called Ophelia a child. The one sitting upon her friend's shoulder was the one that perked Ophelia's interest the most however. The mere fact she was sitting on someone's shoulder rather than walking on her own suggested she was the leader of the three. Her appearance gave off the full feminine strength that a human could gain with lean but curvy build, red lipstick and clothing fit only for a queen. The only strange or 'off' thing about her was her snow white hair and the fact she had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. Even in this instance it fit well, telling the Heartless that she wasn't much of the do-good-kill-heartless type. She was interesting, interesting enough for Ophelia's picky taste in humans she spoke to.

As the woman approached her the Heartless Queen turned to her apprentice and nodded at him, with that a portal of darkness opened up, he went through it and was gone. Jett was always annoying and overly talkative when it came to situations like this.. In fact he was just an ignorant asshole in general, something Ophelia wouldn't stand for around an impressive feminine trio of warriors. The witch would only continue to analyze the leader further as she came closer. Her heart was strong that was for sure and where it stood, nearly completely dissolved in darkness to the point it was surprising she wasn't a heartless already. It was at the point where Ophelia was offered a cigarette that her scythe disappeared, petals falling from where it once was held. The Heartless Queen was only certain that this woman before her would become a heartless one day without the help of Ophelia, however she'd need to grow stronger first and more importantly.. The Heartless Queen wanted to know more about her.

With a swift and speedy hand movement the heartless placed her fingers on the cigarette that was offered and pulled it out at a normal speed to bring it upwards, suggesting that the woman should light it. It was only a display for the witch that she'd show this woman that she was most likely stronger and faster than her, a large part that played in the world of this queen was domination after so many had threatened and tried to take her power away. As she spoke Ophelia's eyes stayed locked with hers, though the mask would block that intimate gaze the witch often had as she listened. Lancelot was what the heartless could only assume was some sort of ship used to travel between worlds, how she had brought here was a different story but it may have been possible, or perhaps there was something else for the trio here in this forest. However it seemed that these people were destined to meet.

"Ophelia." She replied, her voice sharp and deep but with a tint of endless youth that the witch seemed to have. "And what do they call you? Your followers too, it's interesting to see what that couple was running from." Words sailed smoothly from her mouth, exerting a friendly tone with seriousness and charisma. It was a strong philosophy with Ophelia that actions spoke louder than words and the force she liked to display was nearly always with action. She'd continue conversation with this woman, hoping to gain information and ideals from her as it was largely possible that for once, the Heartless Queen would be making a friend rather than an enemy. "It's not everyday I'd meet humans like you."

[Marigold Darkson]

Marigold watched as the creature that was with the small disappear into a portal of darkness. Now that was cool. Marigold wanted something like that, but still liked the idea of using her Lancelot for the mere fact that if you saw it, you knew the queen had arrived. Then again, creating a big, black portal, that could spew out her army was also another way she thought about making her entrance. All of those thoughts were brushed aside, though, for the simple fact that the young woman accepted the offered cigarette from Marigold. That action alone, plus the speed and ability she performed the action with, showed Mari that she was a lot more than meets the eye. Either that, or she just loved to show off. The young girl raised the cigarette up and Marigold, without breaking eye contact with the holes in her mask, snapped her fingers.

Ysl'Dae quickly ran up to the right side of Marigold and showed her index finger towards the masked girl. A green flame sparked on the tip of her index finger and she lit the girl's cigarette. Ysl'Dae then bowed deeply before the both of them, then returned to Schwartz. Marigold smiled afterwards and took a long drag from her own cigarette. She let out the smoke from her lips in an almost seductive and sultry way, but was mindful and didn't blow the smoke into the face of her company. Her company actually revealed herself to be a young woman named Ophelia. A name that would fit well within her own family, Marigold thought. The queen decided to humble herself in front of this dark woman, as she introduced herself and her two followers to the young woman. She took the cigarette from out her mouth and held it in-between her fingers

"Marigold Sanguinis de Darkson." She said with a cool tone, as she introduced herself first. "To my right is, Ysl'Dae Emeraldis and to my left is, Schwartz, the one who that couple was running from. Pleasure to meet you, Ophelia." Her tone remained and she found herself feeling jittery. However, she calmed herself down and offered Ophelia a handshake, as an official and business-like way to seal their acquaintance. Marigold laughed a soft, lady-like laugh when Ophelia labeled them as human. "I'll get the unnecessary secrecy out the way. Only one of us in the group is 'human' and it's Schwartz, but after all we've done together, I doubt there's much humanity left in her. Ysl'Dae is a Snakekin and is pretty much a human-snake hybrid. As for me... Well, let's say I always called a monster, but was never told what sort of monster I was." Marigold shrugged at the thought. She had many ideas of what she could be, but didn't care much for ideas, but for results. She looked the young girl up and down, admiring her attire, especially the white tribal dress that was over her black bandages. Ophelia's mask was another nice touch that Marigold enjoyed in terms of aesthetics. "We normally don't get to meet humans like you either, so forgive us if we seem rather eager to know another hunter." She said with a small smile.

[Ophelia]

Ophelia moved her cigarette into the flame that Ysl'Dae had produced then placed it on her lips, her gaze escaping Marigold's only for a moment as she'd nod lightly at Ysl'Dae in appreciation for the light.. and the bow. It seemed that unlike most other people, these three hadn't judged Ophelia completely by her small appearance, they probably saw what she had just done to that couple. A smile formed behind the mask as she placed the cigarette through the small slit in her mask and between her lips, she took an ungodly drag on her cigarette and exhaled. Smoke forced its way out of the mouth part of her mask and to the side as to not blow it in Marigold's face, at the same time immense amounts of smoke spilled out around the mask. The thing about Ophelia indulging in such a thing as smoking was she didn't have lungs, nor blood, in fact there was just a black void that the smoke would fill before it was exhaled in large amounts. A display that would make the word human look like a massive mistake for Ophelia's race.

Listening to the introductions and explanations of her group Ophelia continued to smoke her cigarette in the weird fashion she had done before. She took note of the characteristics of each of them, only one was human, one was of an intriguing breed and Marigold seemed to fit her description of a monster. Something the witch could relate to, ever since she was young and even as a human people called her either a witch or a monster. When it came down to it the heartless was always an outcast and loner - by choice that was, people were often too weak for her to bother with. Exhaling smoke once again Ophelia's hand extended out to shake Marigold's hand as she'd reply. "It's a pleasure to meet you too Marigold. You and your followers." Her hand retracted after the shake, pulling the cigarette away from her mouth she'd continue to speak. "Monster, witch, murderer and hunter are all names they call me, but human.. I'm hardly called that anymore. I got rid of that label a long time ago." She paused, looking around for the small traces of blood she had left behind after capturing the couple's hearts. "I suppose it's possible you haven't crossed my kind yet. That's okay, you can have a proper introduction now."

At the end of her sentence globs of darkness surrounded the clearing creating a large circle of dark portals, out of them crawled quite a few heartless; shadows; neo-shadows; and invisibles surrounded the four. The deep yellow eyes of the heartless stared straight at Marigold and her followers, their movements twitchy and eager to get at them, however they showed restraint. Ophelia took another smooth long drag on her cigarette and exhaled again before explaining what they-she was. "They call us heartless and as our name describes, we're the entities of darkness that remains once a heart has been taken. Sometimes we come out as weaker heartless like the ones surrounding us or.." Ophelia paused, the portals opened again and all the heartless returned to where they came from, portals closing behind them. "There's heartless like me. Transcended from a human to a heartless with the power of the darkness to ultimately, become their queen."

[Marigold Darkson]

Marigold raised an eyebrow at the extremely long drag Ophelia took and was amazed that a woman like her could do such a thing. Mari had a lot talents when it came to doing things like that, but never could she hold that much amount of anything in her lungs and exhale it out just as easily. Now that was even more interesting. Not only that, but Ophelia was respectable and very much like her. Marigold honestly wouldn't think she'd meet anyone else, who matched up to the criteria most people placed her under. Her and Ophelia were alike in many ways and something about that made Marigold's body tingle. She was excited to see someone with such a refined air among her own darkness and knew she was strong. The queen wanted to test herself, but knew that now was still formalities.

"You and I both, Ophelia. Of course, the label 'human' is laughable at the least. Good riddance to it I say. Better to embrace our monstrous nature, than pretend we're saints working towards a better cause." Marigold spoke, revealing a bit of her philosophy on ethics and morals. A sweet scent tickled Mari's nose as she spoke and it was when she was done speaking her part about humanity towards Ophelia, did she notice the blood stains on the ground behind the small, masked woman. The tip of Marigold's tongue slowly traced her crimson lips as she spotted it, but she gently shook her head free of the scent and focused on Ophelia's words. Apparently, the masked girl had followers of her own that she wanted to introduce.

"Hey, Ysl, isn't it sort of creepy how similar these two are? I mean, look at them, they pretty much speak and act the same way. Not only that, they feel similar!" Schwartz whispered in a low, hushed voice. Her scarf added to the dampening of her voice. Ysl'Dae's response to her ally's comment, was a sharp jab to her side.

"Don't be rude, Schwartz. Think about how happy our queen is. I haven't seen her smile constantly, since we started and ended the wars." Ysl'Dae answered back just as quiet and continued to watch the two speak with each other. A small smile formed on her lips, as she saw how ecstatic Marigold was becoming.

Marigold herself took a puff from her stick, when the Heartless appeared and surrounded them. They were curious creatures that eyed them with deadly seriousness. The woman returned curious glances toward them, not at all phased by their appearance. Rather, she wanted to do a bit of experimenting on them, or something more... Either case, Mari listened as Ophelia explained the basics of what a heartless was and was actually amazed at the fact that those creatures were once human. The real shock and twist hit Marigold's face, when she found out that Ophelia was not only a heartless, but was able to transcend into a being of pure darkness, who retained her form and not only that, was also their queen. A toothy grin showed on Marigold's face, revealing she had a row of fangs. There was only a few things that could bring out the excitement from Mari and those things were either long, bloody battles, or knowing about an opponent or person in general, who was on her social class and power.

"Their Queen, you say...? Hm, my assumption wasn't off at all. By the way you speak and carry yourself, I knew there was something about you that just screamed power. You're a queen, just like myself. I guess a proper title for me would be, Queen Darkson, and for you, Queen Ophelia." She stated and did so several more times using Ophelia's name. She liked the way it rolled off the tongue. Marigold took the final drag on her cigarette to burn it out completely. Her excitement caused her to blow the smoke out of her nose, as she focused on bringing her smile down just a bit. When she was finished, she dropped the butt on the ground and stepped on it with her boot to put it out. "I want to know more about your reign as queen. Shall we take a walk, or get a little bit more intimate while we talk?" She asked, her tone becoming deadly, but in a friendly way (between these two, friendly and deadly in the same sentence mixes). When she asked adding intimacy, she obviously meant a fight. Fighting, to Marigold, was the most exciting thing to do. Nothing boiled her blood or tingled her body, than cutting into somebody or getting cut into herself. Something in Marigold told her she was going to lose, but it was going to be worth it. She had to see how she stacked up against another queen and if she did decent despite her loss, well that just meant she had something more to shoot for.

[Ophelia]

Ophelia nodded her head lightly as Mari explained her philosophies, agreeing completely. The Heartless Queen could only form a smile behind her mask over the strong similarities they had however the witch did find herself curious as to how powerful she was. Marigold indeed acted, talked and held her self of the same level of Ophelia but actions often spoke louder than words and it only made sense as she hinted at the action of battle. In the times that the witch had grown up in, fighting was a strong way of getting to know someone whether friend or foe. The witch looked down to her hands and back at Marigold, staring into her chest to analyze her heart in order to analyze her true strength. Ophelia often found herself overpowering many and she wouldn't stop with just Marigold despite her powerful demeanor. After a small moment of silence the witch spoke.

"I'll go with the latter, this way things can get interesting." She paused, a short sword appeared from the darkness in her hand, her other hand placed itself on the handle and she pulled it apart, duplicating the sword into two. "Since I respect you, I wont go easy on you. Now, when you're ready."

With that the heartless took a step back, took the cigarette from her mouth to drop to the ground. The cold aura that she had released could be seen and felt by the way the cigarette lost its burn before hitting the ground. The power of ice, darkness and storm were very prominent in Ophelia's style and anyone would see that when she fought. Though the weather wasn't cold, in the moment she was preparing for battle hail began to fall, pelting down through the trees and all across the land of this world as if to show the scale of Ophelia's power. Her head turned once more to Marigold's followers, to gauge a reaction from them if it would happen, reactions seemed to fuel the heartless queen's ego when it came to meeting new people.

Turnning back to Mari the heartless' stance changed. One of her feet slid back so she had stability and access to momentum as one sword was held across her body and the other resting over her shoulder ready to swing. Her swords weren't exactly long, but the allowed her room to move and easy access to the use of magic which was her true primary weapon. Once again the masked woman stared straight at Marigold, awaiting a single movement or moment of speech before the Heartless Queen would move.

[Marigold Darkson]

Marigold felt something odd when it came to the atmosphere of Ophelia in the moment of silence. However, she dismissed such a feeling altogether and waited for the young woman's response. She agreed to a fight and Marigold couldn't be any happier. Almost as if they had synchronized movement, Marigold step back at the same time Ophelia did and dropped her cigarette to the ground. She put it out with her boot and proceeded to brandish her two sickles. Schwartz and Ysl'Dae calmly walked to their Queen's side, their weapons at the ready. None of the spoke a word to one another, not now at least.

The hail pelted the group, but their bodies were more than prepared to withstand the frozen pieces of ice. Marigold put the handles of her two sickles together and twisted them onto each other, interlocking it and extending the handle into a long pole. The combined sickles looked like a double-sided scythe, but suddenly, two other blade shot out from the shaft of the handle and created a four-bladed scythe. Marigold got into a firmer stance and held her weapon to the side, ready to fight. Scwhartz swung her blades around and got into a hunched ready stance. Ysl'Dae stood proudly with her sword and shield at the ready.

Marigold stared into the mask of Ophelia and her expression hardened. The woman took off in a sprint towards Ophelia, Schwartz and Ysl'Dae following a couple feel behind. Marigold twirled her scythe quickly between her fingers. She was able to gauge the strength of her opponent quite easily and knew that she was way out of her league. However, the woman continued onward with her charge and since they would be fighting close range, she popped her Bloody Domination. Almost immediately, a sickening aura filled the air 30 feet within the presence of the woman. Marigold jumped forward, her weapon still twirling, but suddenly stopping, as she came down upon Ophelia with a heavy cleaving strike towards her left shoulder and cleanly cut through her body with the slash ending at her right leg.

Ysl'Dae, though not within striking range of Ophelia, still lent her strength to her Queen by slamming her own blade down to the ground. This caused a huge tremor in the area around Ophelia and attempted to throw her balance, while the ground cracked and broke apart to release large amounts of dust in the air to reduce the opponent's visibility. The woman picked her large blade up and hoped her distraction did at least something for her Queen.

Schwartz used the electricity in her body to boost her overall movement speed. The already light and speedy girl seemed to move even faster and started to run around Ophelia to get to her backside. She quickly turned on her heel and touched the ground with her hand to plant a seedling into the ground. After she did, she put her blades up at the ready and with her speedy body attempted to flank Heartless Queen. Schwartz went into a low crouch, as she brought one blade in horizontally to cut at both tendons in the woman's feet, with the other blade coming up and over Ophelia's right shoulder, to cut down and across her back, to hopefully severe her vertebrae.

[Ophelia]

As Marigold's party joined her in combat Ophelia smiled. They hadn't said a word and it seemed as though they'd be perfectly in sync with the way they'd fight. It was easy enough to tell just by each of their stances, Ys'l Dae with a much more stature approach, Schwartze was clearly a fighter of speed and Marigold, she seemed to be spread out among all these areas, however remaining the force that would pull this all together. Her weapon choice grew more and more interesting by the moment as she'd put the two sickles together to create a scythe.. which then had an extra two blades. It was heavily unique and the witch hadn't seen it before. As all were lined up and Marigold began her sprint forward thus beginning the battle.

With the three of them coming at Ophelia, each at different paces the witch used her passive skills to keep track of them. Their body heat contrasting against the cold air giving her a perfect sense of where they were. The first part of this all was first and fore most, Queen Darkson heading at her from straight on, twirling her weapon in her fingers as she came towards Ophelia with a downward slash. A shake in the ground made itself known, throwing the heartless queen off balance, however she still managed to swiftly step out of the way- for the most part. There Marigold would find her blade slowly digging its way through Ophelia's skin, the sheer defense it held on it's own to let the blade only sink a few mileometers in, where blood would normally draw only came a seeping black smoke which resembled her complete dark entity. The Heartless Queen matched the holes in her mask with Marigold's once again, a menacing silence revealing how much pain and damage she could take.

The stare wouldn't hold for long though, the presence of the ninja-like woman was directly behind Ophelia and striking at that very moment. She was rather nifty and fast, but it was nothing the heartless couldn't keep up with. Marigold's blade would fall through the space that Ophelia should be occupying as the witch disappeared with a flash of lightning. In that same flash she'd appear behind Schwartze, standing over the woman who would be slashing at the very place Ophelia was standing once before. With no time to waste the heartless stabbed downwards at the woman's body, aiming at the left side of her torso to strike through the entire side of her body that was crouched down. If it hit her, it would definitely do some serious harm, but not enough to kill her.. hopefully. Ophelia had a tendency in her fights to go for the kill, restraining would be difficult.

Where Marigold would land from her jump there formed a blob that resembled the portal her companion had used earlier to travel. What came out of it wasn't a person but a large, dark purple spike that aimed to impale the woman. From Ophelia a layer of ice formed, creating a platform for Ophelia to easily move around on and manipulate, all while creating a difficult surface for others to move on. She skated around the area that Schwartze occupied in a round motion, speedily circling around her to head towards the last of the three, Ysl'Dae. She would see the heartless coming at her, but as before, lightning would flash before her eyes and the Heartless Queen would be right in front of her, stabbing one of her swords at her shoulder which would be attached to the arm that held her weapon. Killing was in Ophelia's nature, but disabling opponents from their weapons or even limbs for use in battle was a way she often went about it. With these few attacks beginning the battle, Ophelia was starting to warm up. Preparing herself and her opponents for the force and speed of her physical and magic attacks.

[Marigold Darkson]

Marigold didn't show any form of reaction when her blade managed to pierce the tough skin of the Heartless Queen. She watched as black smoke seeped from the wound created and was able to gauge that she'd need to put an even greater amount of strength when slicing into the woman. Ophelia disappeared in that moment and Marigold's blade was up in the air. The Queen forced her scythe into the ground quickly, then pushed herself up onto the handle with her hands. She moved around on the other side of her blade and watched as Ophelia appeared behind Schwartz. Mari predicted this and the moving around to the side, gave her the momentum needed for her to come in with a kick to the side of Ophelia's head and knock her away. when she attempted to stab Schwartz with the blade. This shift of movement also allowed Marigold to avoid impalement when the large, spike of darkness attempted to do so.

Scwhartz performed an aerial (pretty much a cartwheel without the use of hands) to strafe around Ophelia and reset her position of being behind her. The petite assassin, still speed boosted, would sprint in on the hopefully dazed Ophelia, if she were hit by Marigold's kick. Schwartz flipped her blades reverse handle and came in with one blade attempting to stab through Ophelia's jugular vein and into her neck, while another one aimed to stab at the vertebrae right below her waist in order to paralyze her.from the waist down. Ophelia may have been restraining herself, but if these three had any hope of winning, they had to go for the kill.

Ysl'Dae watched as the two continued to battle the Heartless Queen and placed her shield in front of her. She began to chant and soon enough, finished a spell that granted all three of them a reflective barrier that would protect them from spells. Ysl'Dae later stood back at the ready and observed the fight. She was much too slow compared to the three of them and would only get in the way with all four of them bunched up like that.

[Ophelia]

As Marigold and Schwartze simultaneously moved about, one throwing a kick at her head and the other cartwheeling to the former position of being behind Ophelia the witch dismissed one of her swords and with an immensely quick and solid hand movement grabbed Marigold's ankle in it's path towards her head. With speed far beyond what the trio could move at the witch swung their leader and her body around to collide with Schwartze as Ophelia became face to face with her. A slight bend in her neck was fluid and quick enough to dodge the woman's blade as her sword clashed downwards with the other which was now aiming for her stomach. However the edge of Schwartze's blade slightly scraped the skin of Ophelia before she would be sent tumbling over with her leader.

The thing here was for humans, a cut like this in that certain spot on the neck that held the jugular vein would send blood spurting out, leaving them to die in a matter of minutes. The heartless stood calmly and quietly as only a small amount of dark smoke would seep from the small cut, revealing another true strength of the heartless. They did not bleed, they had no organs and because of this, they could fight forever even after the event of death - so long that it wasn't done by a keyblade. Before the two would get up and attack again, the witch would speak. "As I said before, I'm not human. As an entity of darkness, you'll see that I don't bleed or die as quickly as my appearances would suggest." Skating backwards on the ice in a mesmerizing movement of her legs twirling around each other the witch summoned her spear The Untamed which appeared in a flash of lightning. The convenience of long range and short range combat in each hand.

She came to a halt once again as she became an equal distance from each of them. "Now, come again and we'll see what you can do." With that said the witch planted the bottom of her spear into the ice, shaking the ground as it cracked through the ice, causing three shards of ice to fly into the air. With hail pelting down and cold in the air the ice grew in a matter of split seconds from a few inches big to at least a foot. At that size, they each went flying towards each of the trio's body at a devastating speed, its natural properties making it a non-magic skill, immune to the magic barriers put up by Ysl'Dae. Whether they hit or not was a different story, but for the most part the Heartless Queen wanted to keep them all moving despite the difficult icy surface.

[Marigold Darkson]

Marigold immediately cursed herself when she felt the strong grip of the young woman wrap around her angle. Her body was whipped around and collided into Schwartz, but not before the assassin was able to score a hit in what they hoped was a vital win area. The two crashed, tumbling over and sliding across the frozen floor to Ysl'Dae's side. Marigold was on top of Scwhartz, who struggled beneath her, trying to get the tall woman off of her small frame. Mari simply sighed and picked herself up, along with Schwartz. She wasn't hurt all too bad from the counterattack, but knew that was far from over. The queen watched with intrigue as Ophelia's wound was only minor and no blood escaped from the cut, once more proving her point.

Ophelia confirmed that she didn't bleed and when Marigold remembered the smoking break from before, she realized the small woman had taken in a drag far too large for most people with lungs could handle. Marigold assumed that with the lack of breathing and the evidence from before, that Ophelia didn't have a circulatory system nor a respiratory system. She relayed this to her guardians, who swore under their breaths as they stared down the masked girl. She was definitely one who earned her status as queen.

They didn't have much time to gawk, however, as the girl raised three shards of ice into the hail. Marigold and the two watched as they seemingly grew larger and eventually took flight to them. Mari wasn't at all phased by this, as she knew they had an appropriate defense for this. Ysl'Dae quickly stabbed her blade into the ground and it erected a large dome of rock. The three took cover within the dome, but as soon as they were pierced by the large ice shards sent out by Ophelia, the dome violently exploded in a giant mass of molten lava, that spread outwards of 30 feet. The force and lava from the dome would be able to destroy and melt the shards if they still had the power to keep going, while also melting away any surrounding ice on the ground.

While in the dome, Scwhartz charged her fingers with lightning and waited for her opportunity. This appeared in the form of the dome exploding soon after and sending out a gushing torrent of lava. The assassin used the cover of the lava, to send out two quick and dangerous bolts of lightning towards Ophelia. Both bolts aimed to strike the woman in her head with the attempt to fry her brain, while also attempting to knock away her mask.

Marigold herself decided to stand at the ready, twin scythe in hand. She twirled it around in her fingers and decided to have a quick thought. There was one thing that she could use that she knew for sure would probably help make this one sided battle a bit more bearable. For the moment though, Mari decided to see how the Heartless Queen reacted to the exploding dome and whatever happened from there would decided Marigold's next course of action.

[Ophelia]

As the dome of earth shot up and protected the three the ice pierced into it only for a moment before it would explode in lava, ultimately melting the ice immediately surround the four before setting to stone. As for Ophelia a series of large spikes of darkness would shoot up from the ground in front of her, blocking her from any lava that came her way before it would set around her. Immediately after the wall of spikes split up into six and raised high into the air as she was once again revealed to the trio. In which two bolts of lightning were sent straight at her, dead set on hitting her where aimed to. However, inches before they touched the witch the bolts struck up into the sky to be absorbed by the hailstorm Ophelia had summoned. A skill the assassin would have despised, all lightning attacks to be sent into the sky. A smirk formed behind the mask, soon they would see how much of a mistake that trick was.

None the less, the witch wouldn't stop there and she wasn't going to move if she didn't have to. With the magic prowess and skill to do so there was no point wasting energy or time. The spikes above her swiveled around each other while parallel to each other, the bottom facing the ground. Before the blink of an eye they flew away like an explosion burst right in the middle of them. With a devastating speed three of the spikes flew towards each of the trio in a missile like action. Swerving from side to side to seek them out for impalement to their chest's. As for the other three they shot straight out, flying to the point above each of the trio with the sharp tips facing down. In their places the spikes above them would drop down in an instant before the swerving spikes would. This would force them to move from their places while also dodging seeking spikes that would come right after them.

With that sent on its way the witch raised a dark pillar from the ground beneath her, bringing her to be standing above four feet in the air so they'd still be able to reach her if they came at her. All the while, she stared down at the three tauntingly twirling her short sword around. Her sarcastic and cheeky side revealing itself as she'd taunt Mari with her words. "Come on, I thought you wanted to get intimate?" She paused, the sword stopped twirling in an instant as she gripped her sword to point it at Ysl'Dae and then Schwartze. "Now you two, Hurt." With that the two Ophelia had pointed at would feel an excruciating pain take over their bodies though having no real harm done to them, the illusion would however take it's toll on their movement and thought process at least.

______________________

Skills/spells used:

[Marigold Darkson]

Schwartz swore under her breath when she saw that her lightning attack didn't work. She held back the last two bolts and felt like she wasted a skill. Either way, the assassin didn't have much time to gawk, as she was being targeted by pieces of darkness once more. She moved forward to dodge the ones that attempted to fall on her and noted that her speed boost had ran out some time ago. Nonetheless, she continued running forward and timed a jump into a front-flip a couple feet in the air to clear the spear that attempted to ram itself into her chest. The minute she landed, she watched as Ophelia raised herself onto a pillar several feet into the air. Figuring that was her chance, the petite assassin pointed towards the Heartless Queen and focused her temporal magic, to slow all time down around Ophelia in a 30 foot radius. That was her ability Slow Field and should the Heartless Queen become trapped inside of it, she would have her speed halved and feel as if she herself were moving in slow-motion (I will also assume that if this hits, then she would be slowed to the point of where she more than likely didn't cast Hurt on both Ysl and Schwartz fast enough). The field also grants any stolen speed from the opponent, to any of her allies that pass within it.

Marigold grimaced at the sight of Schwartz's attack not hitting its mark and absolutely dreaded the fact that their long range skills were useless on such a fast opponent. She didn't show this displeasure, however, and kept her concentration upon Ophelia. The Heartless Queen made her next move, which involved sending three shards towards them, while three hovered above them. The three above them fell down instantly and of course, prompted them to move. Marigold ran forward to the spears of darkness and when they grew close, she timed a jump several feet into the air, to clear their range. After landing, the woman activated her support ability, Evil Incarnate. Around this time, Schwartz should have activated her Slow Field around Ophelia and granted that they weren't standing too far away to begin with, Marigold was within Schwartz Slow Field range and was able to gain its support effect. Mari was on equal speed with Ophelia at this point and had bolstered her strength with Evil Incarnate. She jumped towards Ophelia who was hopefully slowed and came down upon the girl with a quick, cleaving strike that was aimed for her left shoulder and if she were strong enough, to cut down from her shoulder to her abdomen.

Ysl'Dae wasn't surprised that Schwartz's attack didn't work and stood on guard. She had to move quickly if she wanted to avoid the falling spear of darkness that attempted to impale her. However, she wasn't light enough to attempt a jump over the spear of darkness and did the next best thing. Ysl'Dae crouched low and watched as the spear sought her. With enough timing, Ysl held her shield at an angle, then rose up with force and momentum, so that the spear clashed with her tower shield, but because of the force and movement associated with her block, she'd hopefully send the spear of darkness flying away. In the event that it did pierce through, with the angle Ysl held her shield, the spear would more than likely gash her left arm. Nonetheless, she continued running forward, eventually running into Schwartz's Slow Field as well and hopefully gaining the speed boost from a hopefully captured Ophelia. For her assault on the Heartless Queen, Ysl'Dae jumped high into the air, several feet above the pillar that Ophelia stood on. When she was directly over the woman, Ysl'Dae would coordinate with Marigold's cleave and attempted to come down upon the woman with a vertical slash right down the middle of her body.

[Ophelia]

As the witch cast hurt, she watched as each of them started moving to dodge the shards heading towards them. The more speedy and agile ones moved forwards and jumped over them where as Ysl'Dae went with her well-fitted stature defense pose, however with the brute force and speed of the shard it pierced through, leaving a gash in the woman's arm. All the while, as Ophelia pointed at Schwartze, she was pointing right back at her. An eyebrow raised as the woman triggered her spell, feeling the magic around her and observing small debris of earth, ice and fire slowing right down. "Interesting." The heartless said before jumping high into the air in unison with Marigold, to be above her as she'd come slashing down to the point where Ophelia once stood. Her much higher prowess in magic and general resistance making the spell have nearly no effect on the Heartless Queen herself, should she have been weaker, she'd be in immense danger. However, this wasn't the case, in fact things were now the opposite way around.

The witch found herself in the air above her opponent(s), her body quickly flipping around so her face would point to the ground. In the small and quick moment where her body felt gravity pull her to the ground a flash of lightning struck downwards. The witch returned to her full form once again just above her foes, her spear held strongly in her arm as it would aim to pierce into Ysl'Dae (or the air depending on how Hurt effects her) and her sword slashing down at Marigold's upper body from above. With the speed of lightning powering Ophelia's movements she didn't think for a second that she'd get away with landing a hit easily at all. Even as she struck at her opponents it was easy to see electricity revolving around her signalling her literal bolt movements. Keeping up with it and seeing her position after the movements were the difficult part.

Though the heartless' fought ever so quickly she wondered how Marigold and her followers weren't stronger. They sure looked it, had the brains and abilities to be strong but there was something lacking. They even showed a strong amount of experience in battle despite being weaker, it just didn't quite add up.

[Marigold Darkson]

Ysl'Dae was more than impressed with their opponent. She truly lived up to her name of being the Heartless Queen and her strength was nothing to scoff at. The snake-woman knew that she and her partners were biting off more than they could chew, but it allowed them to gauge their stunted strength in the new universe. Ysl'Dae felt it in her very bones, she felt the different laws of the world flowing through her and limiting her greatly. This was apparent when Schwartz's spell failed, Ysl receiving the gash despite her actual strength and ability to mitigate it and the fact her own attack whiffed. A sharp pain soon rose through Ysl and she let out a small cry, but she powered through it nonetheless. That was when she was able to see the attacks aimed to her and her queen.

"No, my Queen!" Ysl'Dae thought to herself and quickly threw her shield with a great amount of speed and force. The shield aimed to stop Ophelia's sword from striking at her dear friend, at the reduction of her own safety. She raised up her sword hand to block/deflect Ophelia's spear from piercing through her body. However, the woman's strength was far too much and just from that jab alone, Ysl'Dae found herself feeling a sharper pain running through her wrist and arm, before she was sent falling towards the ground with a crash. Ysl let out another cry of pain and squirmed slightly on the ground, picking herself back up, but leaning on her blade.

"Well shit... Gotta hand it to her, she's pretty damn good." Marigold admitted her actual opinion of the Heartless Queen. Both she and Ysl'Dae didn't gain the speed boost from the resistance Ophelia to Schwartz's spell speed and were in more danger than they could handle. Marigold looked upwards from her empty strike and smirked calmly as she knew what was going to happen next. Hopefully quick enough, Marigold threw up the shaft of her double-blade scythe, to hopefully knock away her sword. However, the woman didn't expect the interference of Ysl'Dae to come in, when the woman threw her own shield to protect Marigold. This placed Marigold on the raised platform and with Ysl's shield flying back to where Schwartz was standing.

Schwartz smiled briefly, only to see that her spell had minimal effect. Not only that, but a sharp coursed through her entire body. Her eyes widened beneath her hair, as she tried to figure out what just happened. The woman let out a cry of pain and the grip around her daggers lessened momentarily. Her knees buckled, but she sucked in her teeth and powered through the pain. Schwartz went forward, seeing her friends endangered and ran with all of her might. Constant spikes of pain came through, but she worked through it and jumped into the air, forming a series of hand signs. After she did so, a multitude of daggers (50 in count) showed themselves all around Ophelia. Schwartz, without skipping a single beat, snapped her fingers and released all the knives towards Ophelia. She aimed to skewer the woman completely even at the cost of her own life.

[Ophelia]

As the Heartless came down on the pair she felt the slight resistance of her spear piercing through Ysl'Dae, as for her sword however it clashed against a shield in mid-air, blocking Marigold from the attack. It wasn't much to worry about however as the witch had expected such loyalty from the woman's followers, doing all they could to protect her. If only heartless had the same kind of nature, rather than being ordered to protect instead of insinuate chaos. Ophelia could only smile as her eyes widened, feeling Marigold make contact with the darkness created by her. Ever so slyly and hasty swirls of darkness raised from the platform up Marigold's legs, the solidity of the darkness changed in an instant to that of a slimy glob, attempting to snare the opponent and pull them down.

However it wasn't over yet, while in mid-air the witch felt the presence of Schwartze leap into the air, her momentum ferocious as ever. It was only a moment and Ophelia noticed a bunch of knives surrounding her after hand signals were made. With a quick but rigid movement the heartless turned to face Schwartze, looking her dead in the eye as her knives were sent into the heartless. One, two, three.... eight, nine, ten and so forth slashed at the heartless, darkness seeping furiously from the cuts like smoke before the petite woman's body would be covered from head to to toe in a thick layer of ice, armor. The remaining knives clashed with the armor heavily as the ice turned from blue to a dark purple, Ophelia's wounds healing inside the embodiment of ice. This all happened in a matter of moments and it would only be predicted that the Heartless Queen would move again.

And she did, another flash of lightning and the witch was on the ground, quite a few meters behind Schwartze. She stood up straight and strong as before covered in an embodiment of ice, still, yet attacks were still coming for them. Two disc-like rings formed next to Ophelia, spinning immensely fast, the vibrating noise of chaos would hum in the air as they were sent straight forward, one at Schwartze and one at Marigold, whether she was snared in darkness or not. As soon as each of the rings would slice through the skin of Ophelia's opponent's they would explode with a strong burst of storm-za energy, if they dodged the rings then they'd feel the shock of thunder and water run through their bodies, possibly leaving static behind. Calmly the Heartless Queen watched as chaos would unfold once more, seeing how Schwartze would react to this attack with pain already coursing through her body. Ysl'Dae seemed to be out of the game for the moment the witched noticed by her leaning on her blade so heavily while squirming, though time had passed, Ysl'Dae would feel the effects of Hurt come to a complete stop, the only pain possibly felt would be that of her wound.

---

Chaos Rings - 50MP
540MP left

Seeker of Chaos
Ophelia is able to add explosions of her primal elements and heart element up to the level of element-za (ie. thundaza) to any of her spells or skills so long as they are offensive. The explosion can happen anytime at her will.
Cooldown: 6 posts.

[Marigold Darkson]

Marigold was ready to go and help out Schwartz after her Izayoi attack, however, Mari felt something grip at her limbs. Tendrils of darkness were coming up from the platform she stood on and attempted to ensnare the woman where she stood. Remaining calm, the Queen twirled her blade with her non-bound hand and began to rapidly cut through the tendrils. Once she was sure she was relatively free, the woman jumped off of the platform right before the chaos ring came in attempting to slice into her and landed on the ground below. The burst from the sudden attack did what it was intended to do and sent a powerful shock through her body. Mari grimaced and the woman felt herself get soggy from all the water too.

Marigold knew it was her time to go on the offensive. She quickly raised her palm to the stormy sky and shot out four feathers into the air. Schwartz attack had put in a bit of work on the small woman, but it was quickly halted when Ophelia encased herself in ice. The woman was completely healed, which made Mari growl softly. Nonetheless, the woman decided that she would need to buy enough time in order for her attack to come through. The woman jumped over Schwartz, thinking that Ophelia was more than likely busy attempting to attack her. She brought up her weapon and quickly came down upon Ophelia with a vertical strike, that aimed to vivisect the Heartless Queen.

Schwartz smirked and watched as her attacks started to pierce the girl. However, her heart was gripped with fear suddenly, when the Heartless Queen turned to face her and merely stood there, taking her attacks. Schwartz hissed and got into a defensive stance when she saw the girl encase herself in ice. Then suddenly, as if she were lightning itself, the Queen appeared behind Schwartz, her wounds fully healed. The assassin glanced behind her and widened her eyes as the woman merely stood there. That was when Schwartz felt the shocking course pain run through her again. The assassin cried out again and her knees buckled. When it happened, she was much too weak to and distracted to try and dodge the chaos ring. She thought that the Reflect cast on her from earlier would stop the attack, but it didn't. Schwartz was sliced into and she cried out once more. However, her cries were suddenly silenced by a powerful explosion of lightning energy.

The woman was sent flying from the explosion and hurtled onto the ground. Her clothing had become tattered and dirty, her body injured greatly. She was unconscious on the ground, obviously taken out of the fight. Schwartz's daggers were thrown several feet away from her and her body covered in static.

"S-Schwartz!" Ysl'Dae yelled out and attempted to stand once again. The snake-woman did so, no longer feeling the excruciating from earlier, though, her wound received from blocking the spear pained her greatly. Nonetheless, she wouldn't stay out of the fight and pulled her blade from the ground. Ysl'Dae took a deep breath and sprinted off towards Ophelia. There wasn't much any of them could do to this girl. She was far out of their league, but they'd go down fighting. Ysl'Dae was willing to give her life for her queen and jumped into the air. Using her skill My Life for The Queen, the woman was coming in to join Marigold at her side. Something told Ysl'Dae that Mari's attack was going to miss, so in order to plan for the worse, Ysl slammed down onto the ground with her blade, by her Queen's side. This would create a shockwave that intended to send the Heartless Queen flying back, if she were within the 30 foot radius of the shockwave's release.

[Ophelia]

A smirk formed behind Ophelia's mask as she could see from the corner of her eye Schwartze hurled away from the explosion to be left unconscious on the ground, static pulsing around her body as she'd lay there. The blast seemed to hit Marigold too, but it looked as though she had handled it better and with that, she was on the offensive again. Ysl'Dae, released from Ophelia's illusion was back into the field alongside Marigold too, however where it seemed the heartless had the utmost advantage of speed, it was best against the snake-kin. Only moving the slightest the witch prepared herself for the attack Marigold brought down upon her. The swift movement of her wrist would cause Marigold's blade to clash with the Heartless Queen's blade. With that, a bolt of lightning struck down at Ysl'Dae in an instant as the woman struck her weapon to the ground to create a shock wave.

Unexpectedly Ophelia felt her body begin to give way to being pushed back`by the force Ysl'Dae had created. Quickly reacting the witch grounded her feet again, her ice encased body sliding across the ground from the force as she remained calm and strongly in her standing position. However that wasn't all, as Marigold and her followers would have learned by now, as soon as they got close it gave opportunity for the witch to bend her elements to attack and that's exactly what she would do. As she slid across the ground dark spikes would form from her trail that was left behind, shooting out at Marigold to impale her as before but as they moved, their colour and energy changed into that of light, false in it's entity but holding its true strength against darkness, warm and bright so much so that it would be felt as it neared Marigold.

___

Sorry about the average post ._.

[Marigold Darkson]

Truly, one of Ysl'Dae's weaknesses was her slow speed, due to the weight of her sword and shield. She didn't have the shield, so naturally she was a lot faster, but she was merely a distraction at the end of the day. The snake-woman knew that it was too late the minute she landed and closed her eyes when she felt the bolt of lightning strike her. A power coursed through her body all too much and it pained the woman to the point of where she began to scream out. Eventually, the pain subsided when the snake-kin lost consciousness from everything. What she had hoped deep down, was that even though she and the rest of her party would be taken out easily, that her queen at least get a decent shot on the opposing queen. A thud signified that Ysl'Dae was out of the game, her body lying next to the sword she planted in the ground.

Marigold easily felt her blade being blocked by the Heartless Queen, but merely smirked. Her comrade did her duty and knocked the ice-claimed Ophelia off-balance, but also caused her to fly back. Using this opportunity, Marigold hit the ground running and with everything she had left, she took off in a vicious sprint. Her darkness continued to augment her strength, but she wasn't about to go toe-to-toe with all of the light-filled spikes. Not at all. Marigold dodged from side to side as best she could, taking burning wounds from the spikes, as they grazed her face, shoulder, arms, legs and body. She didn't relent, however, and when she closed the distance between her and Ophelia, Mari went on the assault.

She twisted the shaft of her blade and turned them into sickles once more. After doing so, she jumped and performed a horizontal twirl in the air to just barely clear the magic imbued spike, as it grazed against her body. The queen wound her arms back and when the ice-clad Ophelia was in range, she came down upon the woman's head and neck with the sickles. One sickle aimed to stab right where the woman's temple would be, while the other aimed for the jugular vein. This may have likely been Marigold's last attack, but she would be damned if she made it anymore easier for Ophelia to wipe the floor with the three of them.

[Ophelia]

The smile on Ophelia's face grew wider with the fall of Ysl'Dae, while it wasn't too much of a feat to the world eater to knock someone so much weaker than her out, it still gave her satisfaction. Shifting her eyes swiftly to Marigold who aggressively moved forward, dodging spikes here and there but going through the pain just to make another assault on the heartless. As the woman jumped into the air once she finally neared the heartless, Ophelia bent her knees, preparing to get on the offensive again herself. With the protection of Ophelia's ice armor, there wasn't much her opponent could do. The witch pointed her spear upward at Marigold and pulled her sword back to prepare for a slash.

Simultaneously with Marigold's attack Ophelia pushed off the ground, crushing the ground below her with the sheer force of this movement. Marigold's sickles made contact with the ice, their shape and material being the perfect weapon to strike the Heartless Queen with. Ice cracked and the woman would feel her blades begin to sink in to the tough skin of Ophelia's, however not in the spot she had first intended. Due to the jump Ophelia made, one sickle sunk itself past the ice and into the skin just below her collar bone, as the other one pierced into her neck, both of them breaking through the ice but only sinking so far into the witch's skin. However, it would come with a price.

As Ophelia jumped into the mid-air, mid-strike Marigold she pointed her spear up, pointing into the area of her opponents upper torso and pushing with her arm to make sure she stabbed at the woman with strength and the immense speed Ophelia moved at. As for her sword it gained an instant coat of ice while moving in mid-air, making it thicker and more durable, but that wasn't the main purpose. While she jabbed at the woman Ophelia swung her sword up at the woman's waist, aiming to make a descent slice in Marigold's armor and skin. As soon as the ice would make contact however it would leave the sword, to crawl up the woman's body like an army of locusts, moving swiftly and softly until it reached Marigold's neck. There it would wrap around her neck like a collar, getting smaller and smaller to choke the woman. Ophelia wouldn't end her move their however, whether Marigold was stabbed into, slashed into, choked or not a basketball sized ball would form in front of Ophelia's stomach and was launched into Marigold's chest to send her flying away from the Heartless Queen while winding her if it hit.

[Marigold Darkson]

Marigold saw the end game way before the match even started, but that was good. She went in and fought possibly the strongest person in that universe, or at least she thought. A smile formed on the woman's lips, as she at least made contact into the Heartless Queen's skin and broke through that ice armor. Whether or not she held back didn't matter to Mari, because it was a done deal from the start. She closed her eyes and waited for the game to set and match.

The stab of the spear pierced the upper torso of Marigold. Her eyes opened wide and she moaned out in what felt like pleasure for her. She was masochistic and loved pain, loved it greatly. This was no exception. The spear caused her to bleed from her mouth a bit, but she suddenly felt Ophelia's sword cut against her waist. A blush formed on the woman's feature's as she started to bleed slightly from the wound and felt the ice creep over her. Marigold, during all of this, labeled Ophelia as a sadistic tease. A person who loved to play with their food, before ultimately eating it in the most painful way ever. Her breathing hitched as she began to choke and before she knew it, she was slammed by a wicked ball of energy that sent her flying. She flew into the air and watched as the distance between she, Ophelia and her comrades grew. The queen hit the ground hard and rolled several times in the dirt, before she eventually stopped some distance away and left on the ground. She was defeated.

Her eyes looked as though they were filled with ecstasy, but she found it extremely hard to breathe under those conditions. She thought herself dead at that point and it would be something she welcomed. However, the demon inside had other plans. Ophelia, who more than likely took some time to revel in her victory, would suddenly be able to feel a surge a power come forth from Marigold's limp body. A strong, evil, demonic power cracked at the frozen upper body of the queen and started to break her out. A shadowy figure loomed over Mari's body and looked towards Ophelia with large, blood-red eyes. The figure couldn't be seen in terms of features besides the eyes, but was humanoid in appearance. There was black smoke that covered the mysterious figure and red lightning creaked. Large, black, bat-like wings formed from the creature, as it slowly covered Marigold's body with its own.

The snow-white haired woman gasped for breath and began to cough up blood. Her inner demon, that she kept locked and tucked away in the dark corners of her heart, stabilized her body and intervened for this one time. This time around, Ophelia would be able to see that Mari now had one crimson-red eye and one yellow-eye, as opposed to having all yellow. Marigold tasted the blood on her mouth and seductively licked up the rest on the corners of her lips. Fangs slipped out and she looked towards the Heartless Queen with a hunger and lust for blood. The petite Ophelia had awakened something deep within Mari.

"Hunger..." She managed a choke hiss of a word. She hungered for blood. Luckily for Marigold, her body was too defeated and fatigued to even attempt another try at Ophelia. How would the two handle this new situation?

[Ophelia]

The moment Ophelia's darkness ball made contact with Marigold the witch pulled her spear back in a quick snap, making the initial pain of piercing feel like a small tickle in comparison to the blade being pulled out, the wide end of the blade tearing through her flesh more than before. It only made sense that the Heartless Queen would find pleasure in causing pain to others, even if they were potential friends. With her weapons firmly in hand and her opponent sent flying, the witch began falling back down to land one foot after the other in an overly calm manner. The thud of Marigold hitting the ground followed right behind, a wicked smile forming behind the heartless' mask. Marigold herself seemed to share a similar expression, a smile of joy to show the true signs of a masochist, indulging in the pain that could bring her to the brink of death. The ice around her neck melted into water to avoid such a tragedy, the cold water trickling down her skin to eventually fall to the ground.

Ophelia was only given a small amount of time to revel in her victory, her hair flew back for a moment as some source of energy pulsed from Marigold's body. The Heartless Queen's expression changed in an instant. "A second wind of sorts?" She thought out loud to no one in particular. However it would seem that wasn't it. A shadowy figure appeared over Marigold, not completely whole nor completely there apart from red eyes that stared straight at Ophelia. The witch raised and eye brow as the figure spread its wings before covering the woman before it completely with it's body, looking like it was about to become whole. With her interest peaking more and more by the moment Ophelia began walking over to the body, her weapons dismissed from her hands and ice armor falling to the ground as she made her way over.

Nearing Marigold she'd watch as she'd cough up blood only to lick it up again. One of her eyes was red and the other yellow, the force that covered her body and herself now sharing the same body. Was this something that Marigold was holding back all along? It would seem so as she'd hiss with hunger. Ophelia remembered waking up once, spitting the exact same word and need, hunger. But this wasn't the same, the heartless could see Marigold still had her heart and that was it. What Ophelia had come across was something she hadn't seen in years. Fangs, red eyes and a demonic demeanor even in such a defeated state. It was clear what she needed, the exact red that dripped down her body from the wounds of battle. The Heartless Queen brought herself to be standing right in front of the monster, bent over so the eyes of her mask would match Marigold's in an observant matter.

"Interesting, I haven't seen something like this in a long time." She exclaimed, snapping her fingers right after. At that moment a group of ten Green Requiem's would appear, hovering above the four to constantly cast cure. Their wounds and damage healing at a fastened rate. "We'll have to get you something to eat before you get to your friends, right?" Ophelia's voice was teasing and cruel, revealing her true nature as a seeker of chaos but she wouldn't act on such words, not at this moment at least. The witch stood up straight again as a portal opened up behind her, tendrils of darkness warping out to grab at whatever it could, wrapping around Ophelia ever so invitingly. "It wont come to that though Ms. Darkson, there's a village in this world we can go to once you're ready. I'd like to see what you can do now, after all."

[Marigold Darkson]

Marigold was fighting a battle on the inside, even after her physical body lost its own. Inside Mari's mind was the queen and her inner demon. Both had their weapons locked with one another and had stared down each other intensely. They both breathed deeply, but were smiling nonetheless. Despite how much these two were disgusted with each other, despite how much they wanted the other to die a horrendous death, they agreed on one thing. They enjoyed conflict, fighting and watching things burned. Most of all, however, they enjoyed the thought of fighting for Marigold's body. Daredevils to say the least, but here they were, staring each other down for dominance. They broke the clash and stood at the ready. The two nodded towards each other and understood that in any state, they couldn't do anything to Ophelia. Marigold wouldn't let anything happen to her friend in either case, but in the event that the demon tried anything, she'd be put down easier than Mari and company were.

Back in the physical realm, Marigold's eyes looked into the eyes of Ophelia's mask. The petite woman definitely had the condescending look and attitude. For the queen, it had been a real long time since she's met somebody as powerful and like herself. What she found in Ophelia, was a true evil. A true chaotic creature that enjoyed death and spreading chaos wherever she went. They vibe well with one another. Marigold had her own little tendencies that she tried to keep curbed, due to the fact that unnecessary chaos created unnecessary attention. However, she wasn't above creating it and that was where she and the Heartless Queen got a long. When her body started to heal up, Mari let out a gasp and started to cough some more. No blood came from her mouth due to her body being repaired, but she felt drained. A smile touched her lips.

"You know what I am then...?" Marigold asked, pushing herself up back onto her feet. The queen's body ached and protested, but she shut it all out with just will alone. When she was eventually healed completely, she didn't have to beat away the feeling of bodily protest. The woman smiled and rotated her neck ever so gently, cracking it. Mari chuckled at Opehlia's words and looked her in the eye holes. "With how I'm feeling, it's best not to let these fangs get to them. Wouldn't want to hurt them." She said softly and watched as the portal of darkness started to wrap around her friends and even her. The darkness calling her to travel within. "I'm ready now. No need to keep you waiting, if I am to be showing off what more I can do, right?" The queen let out a very blood thirsty giggle and the Heartless Queen would be able to feel that same blood lust coming from Marigold as if it were tangible. She was ready to go.

[Ophelia]

"I've come across people like you, I can't say you're completely the same apart from the intense lust for blood in your eyes..." The heartless explained to Marigold. Though appearance showed Ophelia to be a young woman, she was truly a lot older than she looked. She had transcended to her level of being at only the age of seventeen, having lived another sixteen years past that traveling and gaining power across the worlds. She had a decent amount of knowledge within the worlds, but she could learn more and she knew it but as for now, there was only one goal for the Heartless Queen: chaos. And so she'd contribute to a bloody mess once again, tendrils wrapped around her friends pulling them into the darkness. "Of course, I can't wait to see." Her voice was calm and deep with a tinge of excitement like a proud mother. Ophelia turned around and walked into the portal, Mari and her friends wouldn't be far behind, whether they walked or were pulled in unconscious.

Just for a moment the trio would experience the means of which heartless traveled. Behind them the portal would close and they would be surrounded in darkness, so much so they wouldn't be able to see their own bodies as they moved through the Realm of Darkness. Glowing yellow eyes popped up here and there, the heartless twitching to pounce at Ophelia's friends however restraining. Only a few seconds after walking an opening would be made, light from the world outside beaming in through the portal. It opened to another clearing in the forest, there laid a river next to a small village made up of only a few houses and livestock running around. Though there wasn't much, there was definitely life for them to take. Out of the portal stepped Ophelia, once in the open the witch turned around, gazing into the portal to see it through that her friends made it through. "There isn't much here, but it should do."

The Heartless Queen turned again to look at her surroundings. It would seem the portal opened in the most inconvenient of places - the middle of the village. Women and men going about their activities stopped in their tracks to see the small woman step out of a blob made of colours black, purple, red and blue. Her attire obviously contrasting enough to theirs and a demeanor that only meant danger. It wasn't long before people started scurrying along in a fast walk, trying to play it calm and cool before the storm would hit. It had already done so however, the entirety of Dwarf Woodlands was covered with a hail storm caused by Ophelia. Once Marigold stepped out she'd speak. "Lets see what you can do now. I'll join in if it looks like fun." A smile formed behind the mask. Petals fell from around her hands, summoning forth her immaculate scythe known as Graceful Dahlia. Not long after the scurrying, came running, followed by yells and screams to escape.

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